DIY Archives - as Jules is going

DIY Address Plaque {Thoughtful Thursday}

May 10, 2012 by Jules 4 Comments

Today is thoughtful Thursday so feel free to share ANY helpful hint! Have a fun recipe? A tool you love? Please share by linking up below {linky messed up so add them in the comment section} and then posting the “Thoughtful Thursday” button to your post so other ladies can get lots of thoughtful helps! I know I've been sharing a lot of recipes lately but ANYthing thoughtful is welcome! Consider visiting the link above yours and encouraging them through comments!

I wanna show you how I made my new address plaque for my house {2 years of living here with no number on the house was prolly long enough}! When we started fixing up our house to sell it I remembered I still didn't put up our house number anywhere on our house. Good thing we don't order a lot of pizza to be delivered. This is my front door...

See, very symmetrical. I wasn't quite sure where to put the number. I decided I'd but it above the door, spelled out since our house number is 5. Yep, just 5. "Number 5". Confuses a lot of people. Sounds like an apartment. We tell friends our address and they wait patiently for the letter to follow the 5. Ya know, 5B, 5D. I digress.
DIY Plaque:

I found this solid wood plaque at Wally World for ~$6.oo

I broke out my acrylic paint. I chose black and white.After I finished the painting, I PRINTED the word five off a word document in some fancy cursive font. Make sure to let the ink dry thoroughly.
I cut the word out leaving as little of the white as possible.
Then I used Modge Podged it glue down the paper. Mine ended up being a lil off centered...measure:!
After I glued the bottom and top of the word down {gently so you don't tear the moist paper or smear the ink} I sprayed the entire plaque with a spray clear paint for a sealant since it will be out in the weather.
Lastly, I had my hubs climb on a ladder, center the plaque and use 2 large screws to hold the plaque in place.

What are some creative ways you display your house number?

Filed Under: Homemaker, Projects, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home, Thoughtful Thursdays Tagged With: address plaque, DIY

DIY Organic Bloom Frames

February 12, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

I love changing up my home decor often, so I can't bring myself to spend big-bucks on a single piece; so in-turn, I'm kind of a cheapskate. Most of my decor in my home is some how a DIY version of something I saw and loved so...Yep! I have a DIY version of The Organic Bloom frames! I'd love to share with you today how to get a similar look over at the Homemaker's Challenge!

Another place I found CHEAP frames to paint up yourself if the Goodwill has a low stalk: http://www.poppyseedprojects.com/kits/Frames! Check out their blog as a great resource as well!

Poppy Seed Project GIVEAWAY coming Soon! Stay tuned.
I'm thinking the RED and HEARTS might be a good hint ;o)

Filed Under: Homemaker, Projects, The Ones about Homemaker's Challenge Tagged With: cheap decor, cheap frames, collage frames, DIY, DYI, giveaway, home decor, how to, how to make collage frames, inexpensive decor, organic bloom frames, picture frames, the organic bloom frames, the poppy seed project, valentines day

Knight and Shining Armor 1st Birthday Party {FOOD}

February 11, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

The Table:

I had a yellow table cloth left from our oldest daughters party and the blue table cloth I though I bought to layer on top ended up being goodie bags so I used this picnic table cloth I also already had. It worked. The flag streamers are made from scrapbook paper, hot glue, and ribbon.

The feast was an attempt at “Mid-evil Carnival food/ Knight-ish food”.

We made {frozen and cooked according to the package} Corn Dogs!
The holder is a round cardboard cake thing that I covered in tin foil and poked holes through with scissors.

Cotton candy on Popsicle sticks {and my hubs thought I’d never find enough uses for that giant box of 1000 sticks…}. I took tubs of $1.00 cotton candy from Wal-Mart and unrolled it. Then I rerolled sections of it back onto sticks. The only way it would have been cooler is if it were blue…but the pink kinda looks like it goes with the red ;o)

We went with a kid-friendly, less waist version of caramel apple!

Cake balls {affectionately named cannonballs} made from the left over parts of the cake that were cut off to make the castle and smash cake!

Pretzel rods dipped in almond bark with added theme colored sprinkles, aka Pretzel Swards!

This bucket is one we had around the house for Benjamin that I’d found for $1.00 at the Goodwill! Chunked out cutlery in it- voila!

Ice cream, pre-scooped into punch cups and placed back into the freezer right before the party to save time and make for easy serving!

This is the wooden highchair we’ve used for all of children. We just took the cushion off so it wouldn’t get stained by the chocolate, left the plastic tray on for protection, and added part of the flag streamer I made.

Yep! I put on an apron and took his diapered-self straight to the kitchen sink for a quick scrub down before getting redressed for the pinata and presents!

Filed Under: Baking and Cooking, Parties, The ones about the Rothacher Home Tagged With: cake balls, corn dog stand, corn dogs, cotton candy, DIY, party food, pretzel rods, swords

Knight in Shining Armor 1st Birthday Party {CAKE}

February 8, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

Hosting a Knight in Shining Armor 1^st Birthday Party

My husband and I have decided that we won’t be doing huge parties every year for our children. But we will do bigger parties for milestone birthdays. For our oldest daughter’s 1^st birthday we did a “Princess Party over the 4^th of July holiday so all our parents could be in attendance. For our younger daughter we did a “Snow Princess Party” in the middle of January. Since I’m a bit on the OCD side of things when it comes to things like name, photo sessions within the 1^st year, and birthday party consistency among my children I thought it would be only appropriate to do a “Prince Party” for my son’s 1^st birthday. My hubs wasn’t a huge fan of the sissy options out there. We chatted for a while and landed on a “Knight Party”! Sticks with the royalty theme but a bit more masculine!

I’m going to do a series of post since walking you through all the DYI party details got pretty lengthy. Today I’ll tell you about the

CAKE

I love how this cake turned out! I discovered a new thing called ‘sugar sheets’ at Wal-Mart. Since I haven’t’ perfected my cake decorating skills to this kind of level it was a GREAT option! It was about $3-4 a sheet. It only took one sheet to make this cake. I made a simple box of devil’s food chocolate cake in a 11x14 rectangle pan. I had my husband sketch this castle {found on Google images line drawings} with a black edible marker, then I cut out the castle.

After the cake was baked but before frosting I laid this on top and cut the outer shape of the castle out. I also cut out the door. Then I placed plastic wrap under the edges of the cake as to not get frosting on the cake stand/carrier and frosted the sides and top of the cake with chocolate frosting. I let that try and then added a second coat. I took the backing off the sugar sheet and placed it on top of the moist frosting so it would adhere well. I found the dragon on picnic.com, made it red and printed {this same dragon was used several places throughout the party}. I cut triangles and taped them to tooth picks for the flags.

See how it became glossy and looks more like real frosting after adhering!