Crafty McCrafterson

Happy Beltane! With May here I thought a nice way to celebrate would be with a watermelon salad.

Here's what you need...

• mini-watermelon(s)
• balsamic vinegar
• honey
• mint (I got mine from my garden)
• Feta cheese

Here's what you do...

Halve the melons.

Ball the melons. (keep the rinds for bowls!)

Boil the vinegar and honey together in a saucepan for a while (until it gets syrupy).  You can use as much or as little vinegar and honey as you'd like.  Experiment with more honey on days when you want something really sweet!  Let the syrupy mixture cool while you finish making the salad.'

Add Feta cheese and cut up mint and mix together.  Then add the cooled syrup and mix together.  Spoon into the rinds and there you have a refreshing watermelon salad.  Add pomegranate seeds for some extra flavor and vary your mints for a different taste too.

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I really wanted a bunch of herbs, but I don't think I can handle it.  So, I'm starting with some in containers...on the deck!

I think I'm most excited about the mint!  There are so many different kinds!

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I changed my mind about the front yard.  I decided to put some rosemary and lavender in instead.

I love the smell of lavendar.  It's my favorite herb.

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I really want a nice garden and yard this year.  I went out and took "before" pictures today of all the places I want to put plants and stuff...

I want to take out this rose and just have mulch in this place.  The containers will go in the back yard with lavender and some sort of herbs.

This is the southeastern most point in my garden so I'd like to plant tomatoes here.  Again, the strawberries in the containers will go in the back yard.

Here I just want to plant some cute annuals.  Some are already coming up and wintered surprisingly well.  It's under the apple tree so we'll probably put mulch with the new flowers.

It's President's Day weekend!  That means it's time to cut back the roses.  Phil's cutting back the roses today!  It's a beautiful day for pruning!  It's hard to tell where the roses are, but there is a row right along the driveway.

The back yard needs a lot of work.  Here's where I want to do some cucumbers.

Here's where the mint and strawberries will battle it out.  Last year I planted mint and strawberries here.  I guess they grow like weeds and are pretty invasive so either I can try to get rid of them and plant them in containers or I can give in to them.  It's a tough call.  If I don't just tend to the weeds, and I decide to pull the mint and strawberries, here's where some pretty  flowers will go.

Here's where my spiral herb garden is going to go.  Wow, there's a lot of work that we need to do in the yard.

I'm going to plant rosemary, calendula, lavender, and many more edibles!  The great thing about a spiral herb garden is that you can have a variety of herbs that perfer different types of soil and shade/sun.

The last thing I want to do is a blueberry garden...

I have my work cut out for me this Spring.  I'll begin with soil prep of the cucumber garden...

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My friend, Amanda came over today and taught me how to make super cute clips or headbands.

Here's what you need to make your own:

Fabric (cut into different size circles)
hot glue gun
needle and thread
button
felt
scissors
clip or headband

Start with the circles of different sizes and layer them.

Stitch them together  and rub it all together to make it look worn.

Stitch the button on.

Cut a circle of felt and affix onto underside of clip with hot glue.

Add the clip and then put some felt over the part that is hooked to the felt.

Wait for hot glue to dry and put in your hair!  Also makes a great gift!

If you want to put onto a headband put another piece of felt on the inside of the headband...

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I made this in about 1/2 hour!  The hardest part was filling it with the rice.  Here's what I did...

Here's what you need-

Fabric
Sewing machine
rice

Cut fabric in a long rectangle 39" X 7"

Sew inside out leaving one end open.

Turn right side in and fill with rice or dried beans

It's too hard to take a picture of while doing it...

Then fold the end in and sew and there you have it! Super easy.  In Lotta Jansdotter's book, "Simple Sewing" there is instructions on how to make a patchwork snake that isn't for the holidays.  Well, I'm sure it could be, but it's not really...

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This is a quick and easy way to freshen drawers or give as gifts.  I got this idea from The Mountain Rose Blog and they smell divine!

What you need.

Muslin Fabric
stamps with ink
herbs that smell good
scissors
sewing machine

Start by cutting the muslin into squares.  You can make them as big or little as you'd like.  Then stamp one of two squares with whatever you'd like to stamp.

Turn inside out and sew three sides of the square together leaving the top open.

Turn right side in and prep the herbs.

You could use all kinds of herbs that smell good.  Earlier I made one with rose hips, hyssop, lavendar, and cloves.  Today, I made the snowflake ones with lavendar, rose hips and hyssop.  After you grind up the herbs spoon them into the open sachet.

Then fold in and sew the top.  Super easy!

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I joined Houseparty.com recently and was chosen to host a Jolee's Jewels party!  We made bracelets and hotfixed our cell phones!  The bracelets are so pretty and we had fun with a ladies brunch!

Here's part of the package I got in the mail!

We made bracelets and had some jewels to make some earrings and a couple people made more!

I love the hotfix tool and jewels!  I have been accenting my totes, but those are for another post!  Here are Mariah's sunglasses!

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I love wine!  I hate getting my glass mixed up with someone else's!  This is avoidable  with wine charms.  They're so cute.

What you need:

• hoop earring findings
• beads
• 4 different charms

Step One:

String some beads and the charm on the hoop earring finding. A child can help with this!

Step two:

Bend the end to make the end stay.

Step Three:

Repeat three more times.

Here's another set!

I got the jewels and charms at Michael's craft store.  They have a lot of selection so you can make them for pretty expensive or pretty cheap!

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I've been knitting like a mad woman lately!

However, I got some fleece and thought that it would make a great scarf!

What you need:

A bunch of fleece
scissors
sewing machine

Step One:

cut out the fleece

Step two:

Sew inside out.  Don't sew the whole way down.  Leave about 1-2 inches on both ends.  Back stitch at both ends.

Step Three:

Turn right side in and cut the ends into strips.

Step Four:

Tie the strips together and viola! you have a scarf.  Now, who to give this to?

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