Easy DIY Herb Garden

18 Comments May 12, 2016 Alyssa

It is spring time! If you are in Northeast Ohio it may not seem like spring yet but its coming. Time to fix up the garden and plant those flowers outside! Or if you are like me and you know nothing about gardening, its time to pretend like you know all about it. If so this is the perfect fake it until you make it herb garden!

When Eric and I were doing the typical last minute gift search, we were walking through Michaels and I saw this box. When I saw it, I just knew that I should turn it into a herb garden! I am officially obsessed with chalk boards too. I may be a few years late to the game but everything I do I want to be a chalkboard!

This herb garden is so easy to make and it looks so cute. Perfect for your outdoor table’s center piece while growing your fresh herbs. The herbs in this garden are parsley, basil and cilantro. I don’t know if you use those regularly but I am sure you can find a recipe just for your fresh herbs!

So without further ado, here is how to make your own herb garden!

Supplies

Box of your choice
Drill
Your favorite herbs
Dirt

Instructions

Drill a hole or two in the bottom of your box. The holes are so the water can drain out if it rains.
Put a layer of dirt on the bottom
Place herbs in the box
Fill in around the herbs and fill up the remainder of the box with herbs.
Water your brand new herb garden!

Wrap Up

We gave this adorable herb garden to my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day. I just hope it doesn’t turn out that she has a brown thumb because I hope to have dinner at her house made with these herbs! I think it was a pretty successfully gift if I do say so myself.

Eric, Eric’s Mom and I on Mother’s Day

What did you do for Mother’s Day and how did you celebrate your mother?

Happy Gardening,

Taco Pie

11 Comments May 5, 2016 Alyssa

This recipe is something I got from my mother in law. When Eric and I got married, he missed his mom’s cooking and I don’t blame him because I missed my mother’s cooking. This was one of his favorite recipes that she made. I will be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan as a picky eater but it has grown on me and it is a nice change from the normal chicken, rice and vegetables that I usually make.

Its nice to have tacos without having them in a tortilla sometimes too. This is a great alternative to the normal taco recipe! I believe this recipe is really old that she has had for awhile. But to be honest I lost the recipe myself. Yes, I have made it that many times that I have it memorized! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

See the receipe below for details.

I hope you enjoy!

Taco Pie

Recipe by Levicky Landing

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes
Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

Pillsbury crescent rolls
1 lb ground beef
Taco seasoning
Fritos
4 oz sour cream
Cheddar cheese
Taco sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°
Brown ground beef
Follow taco seasoning directions to flavor beef
Spread crescent rolls over the bottom of a pie pan to create a pie crust.
Crush 1 cup of fritos and then layer on the bottom of the pie
Spread ground beef
Spread sour cream
Sprinkle cheese to cover the sour cream
Crush 1 cup of fritos and then spread

Happy Cooking,

Suit Card

3 Comments October 21, 2013 Alyssa

Hi Everyone!

You know all of those Pinterest pins that you pin and say “Oh I have to do this one day, I can’t forget!” but you really do until it is too late. Well this time, I didn’t forget!

I would attach the pin but honestly I had never clicked on it before and it was just a picture! After the disappointment warred off and I realized I would have to do it myself, I decided not to share the “link”.

Before I get to the main event, I have to share something. I hate buying cards. Is there a stronger word for hate? Detest, despise, loath. I think they are over priced and never have enough personalization in them.

Don’t worry, my husband hates them too! So we made a deal with each other that we would never buy each other a card again. Yes I know I will regret this one day when I forget to make a card (I almost forgot on his birthday but shhhh).

For the wedding I had to make a card for him to read the day of and I wanted to personalize it just for him and but a little more effort in than drawing a picture like a 2 year old on the front.

So without further ado, here is the card I made him, a suit card!

I really liked how the card turned out because those are the colors and what he would be wearing. It was something super easy to make but also looked great!

Supplies

Here are the supplies you need:

White blank card
Black and red paper
Double sided tape
Scissors
Paper cutter (recommended)

Directions

I suggest starting with the tie and the suit coat. Simply lay the two pieces on the card to get the right size. Tape the pieces down with the tie under the suit (makes sense right).

Now for the pocket. I think it ties the entire card together, especially with the cute pocket squares!

You can use your best judgement for the size of the square but the rest is based on that square. After you cute the square, cut a rectangular shaped piece that is 1/5 of the square. Doing this gives the suit more dimension.

Cut two triangles that overlap and are a little longer than the square and have them overlap a little.

Tape each of the pocket pieces together and trim the sides of the triangles.

Last but not least, tape the pocket onto the card and write your personal message inside.

If you want, you can always finish the suit on the other side of the card, but I didn’t think that was necessary, nor would the hubby really care about it.

It is a great card to make for the groomsmen, fathers or any male in your life!

I hope you enjoy this simple card because I know I did!

Oh wait before you stop reading, aren’t you at all curious about what Eric made for my card? Don’t worry, I will share.

He did such a great job too didn’t he?! When we got back from the honeymoon he handed me all of his supplies and told me he had no idea what to do with them. I think that is his last craft for a very long time!

Did you and your spouse do anything special or personal on the wedding day?

Happy Crafting!

Teapot Centerpieces

1 Comment June 18, 2013 Alyssa

Hi Everyone, I am back!

It feels like it has been months since I last blogged even though it has only been a few weeks. I have been so busy lately with the bridal shower that I haven’t had time to blog. Now that it has past, I have been writing thank yous. I am still not done yet but it has been so long and I have missed blogging!

I really want to do a Bridal Shower round up but before I can do that I want to share a few more things we have made!

You have already seen my Tea Cup Candles that were our favors, but I haven’t shared our Teapot Centerpieces!!

While my mother and I were thrift store shopping, we were looking for teapots too. I must say, these are extremely hard to find! But we found 11 and that was perfect because we had 9 tables!

We set our Tea Cup Candles around the teapots so they both ended up being part of our centerpieces!

These were really easy to make too!

We went to Lowe’s 3 weeks before the shower to buy the flowers. We bought ones that were just budding or had just bloomed. That way they would be just blooming and not dying by the day of the bridal shower.

We happened to buy a few that were already in bloom and we actually couldn’t use them . Mom planted them in her flower bed though so it was okay.

Some of the smaller flowers were for the teapots!

The week before the shower, we planted them in the teapots to let them adapt to their new pot.

We have a lot of deer and we didn’t want them to eat our plants so we did pull them inside every night. We weren’t taking that risk! We also watered them at least twice a day. These plants were NOT dying on our watch!

I ended up giving them away to the oldest person at each table; everyone was so chatty after that! I heard comments like “Oh now we have to tell each other our age *giggle giggle*” and “Yes! That’s me!”.

So everyone loved it! Best part was we left the tags in them so people knew what they were and they could plant them in their garden! We also gave them the lids so not only did they have cute flowers but if they washed the teapot, they had a cute teapot too that wasn’t going to die.

There was only one left and it was my favorite pot with my favorite flower, what a wonderful coincidence I gladly kept it for myself!

Next week I am going to share are our Thank You cards Mother and I made, make sure you check back next week!

Happy Crafting,

Customizable Wedding Budget

1 Comment May 14, 2013 Alyssa

Hi Everyone!

I was thinking about it and I realized I haven’t shared any of my wedding stuff yet! Crazy right. Such a big part of my life right now and I haven’t showed you anything.

The only thing I have really shared is my bridal shower favors, Tea Cup Candles. They are awesome, don’t get me wrong but its time to share some of the actual wedding stuff!

Today I am going to omizable Wedding Budget Excel Sheet!

You can download the spreadsheet here!

So why is this budget awesome you may ask. It is because I spent way too much time making it perfect!

Okay but really, this budget is awesome because it is automatically adjusted based on what your set budget amount is.

When I made it I researched the percent that you should spend on each part of the day. Based on your budget, the amount designated is determined. All you have to do is put in how much you spend in each category and it will tell you how much you are over or under.

Amazing!

This is perfect for me because it is so easy to see where I am at and what I have spent without having to crunch the numbers every time!

If I missed a category, all you have to do is insert a row and add the percent of budget and the rest is calculated for you!

I LOVE my budget! I hope you do too!

Happy Planning,

Grandma’s Dish Cloths

16 Comments April 16, 2013 Alyssa

Hi Everyone!

Today I want to share with you something my MiMi (grandma) taught me how to make! In our house, we don’t buy dish cloths but instead MiMi would make them for us.

When I was in high school she showed me how to make them and now I have probably made around 20 wash cloths.

For christmas, I gave Eric a bunch for when he moves into our house and I want to share them with you! Mom has already requested a bunch the next time I make them too!

They are in high demand in our family!

To prove to you how easy it is to make these dishcloths, I took a picture of the instructions, it isn’t even a full page!

Supplies

Worsted Weight Cotton
Size 10 or 10.5 knitting needles

I love using Susan Bates needles so I highly suggest them! I really enjoy having the metal feel and the tapping sound because it makes me feel like a real knitter. I know, I am a geek.

Here is the label of the yarn I use in case you want to use the same. I haven’t run out since I started yet so I think it is totally worth it!

Steps

Cast On 1 row
Knit 1 row
Continually Knit 2, yarn over, knit for the rest of the row until there are 50 stitches on your needle
Continually Knit 1, Knit 2 stitches together, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit for the rest of the row until there are 4 stitches left on the needle
Knit 1 row
Bind off

Super easy right?! It doesn’t even need a pattern that is how easy it is to do! I am not an amazing knitter so this takes me about 2.5 hours for each one but I definitely think this is even a great beginner project!

Adjustments to the pattern are for the size of the washcloths. My mother prefers when I knit until there are 60 stitches on the needle because they are significantly bigger. These are extremely easy to adjust because the size is based on how many stitches are on the needle before you start decreasing.

When you make it through the third step, note that you have just made half of the washcloth (diagonally cut) so you can easily keep going if you want it bigger!

I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does!

Happy Crafting,