peach

Egg Shaped Feather Craft Fail

March 18, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 8 Comments

It started out as a good idea. I mean, an egg-shaped feather wreath sounds great for Easter, right? I made up a quick one to see if it as, indeed, cute. I showed my mom. She looked at me like I was crazy. So I blame her for the tutorial not working out. I thought it was cute enough to share with you so I decided to do the full tutorial the next day.

So I forgot how I did the first one. And the more I tried to figure it out the dumber it got. I had wire everywhere. It started scratching my table. I was bummed. On a side note, feathers are the pits. If you’ve ever bought them from the craft store you know that when you open up the bag, little tiny feather pieces float through the air. Straight up in to your nose. They litter your counter and as you go to wipe them up they just float away again.

But I kept going. Because in my head I knew it would end up cute. I had pictures of it all styled up in an Easter setting and just knew people would pin the crap out of it. But the feathers wouldn’t stay and the gold thread I used to tie the feather to the wire shape kept coming undone. What the!?!

This is the first one I made. Kinda cute, right? It’s ok, I can take it. It could be improved on.

So I failed this craft. One that I made up. I’m starting to learn that my crafts turn out a lot like my cooking. It can go very wrong, very quickly. So, if you like this idea, feel free to use it and make it even better. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go eat a jumbo sized box of Nerds. As an appetizer to dinner. Which may or may not include ice cream.

Filed Under: Craft Ideas, Holidays, Party Inspiration, Tutorials Tagged With: decor, egg shaped, feather, peach, wreath

Easy Sequin Tassel Tutorial

February 27, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 3 Comments

Yo. What’s up. Today I wanted to share the easiest tassel tutorial ever. I give you: Easy Sequin Tassels. I made these for my balloon Valentine’s but they could be used in so many other ways. I would love to get a gift with one of these cuties. Or hung on a Christmas tree!

I like how these sequin tassels are a little bit looser than a normal tassel. And that they don’t require you to wrap things tight around your hand so it gets stuck and you feel like a nerd trying to get it loose. Or maybe i’m just doing it wrong…They way I did this tutorial, you make two at a time.

The main supply that you might need to order for this craft is the sequin trim. I picked this up at Paper Mart (hey Orange County – their warehouse is in Orange and you can will call your orders. HUGE! Your welcome.) Then you just need yarn or string to tie them off and scissors. Nothing complicated about this.

There are no measurements for this. Wing it. You will need to cut of a length of the trim. Loop it about 4-5 times. Pull the yarn through the sequin loops on one side and tie a knot.

Do the same thing on the other end. Or don’t. If you want to do just one long tassel, you would cut the loops and then trim up the ends so they are even.

If you do want two, cut them apart in the middle. One side will be a little bit more full due to it having an extra loop.

Super easy. Super sparkly. Super fun.

How would you use these sequin tassels?

You can even make them in to a garland. This one is totally whack but sometimes that is just how my crafts go. I was too lazy to dig around my garage for the perfect thing to hang them from. But you can see the potential and if you are so inclined, make it better. I also like things messy so I like the pop of color from the yarn ends. Feel free to trim it off if it offends you. This couldn’t be any easier, right?

Filed Under: Craft Ideas, Oh you fancy huh, Orange County Resources, Party Inspiration, Party Planning, Tutorials Tagged With: craft, gold, mint, peach, sequin, tassel, tutorial

Candy Popcorn Recipe for Valentine’s Day

February 11, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 7 Comments

Candy Popcorn Recipe Tutorial For someone who doesn’t post a lot of holiday stuff I got totally wrapped up in Valentine’s Day this year. And most of it was last minute but I really wanted to share it. One thing that was planned out was this candy popcorn recipe that I collaborated on with Kristin of Meringue Bake Shop. Many people know her from her cupcakes and PushCakes. But she is SO much more. Twice she has made this delicious candy popcorn for parties for me and it is always a hit. And it can’t be more perfect for Valentine’s Day.

ingredients for candy popcorn This candy popcorn recipe is totally easy. I’m afraid to use a candy thermometer so that is why I wanted Kristin involved. I thought this would be too hard for me to make considering I am not a great baker. Or cook. Or dishwasher…But color me surprised when I found out all you need is popped popcorn, sugar, light corn syrup and flavored Jello! I will be making this. A lot. And then buying bigger pants.

add flavored Jello for candy flavor You make an easy syrup mixture on the store and add the Jello for flavoring.

Simply pour the syrup over popped popcorn and stir to coat. Whenever I made caramel corn I buy a disposable roasting pan from the store. It makes stirring easy especially when you’ve got hot sugar your dealing with which is just waiting to coat your finger and leave you an unpleasant burn. Not that it has happened…This also makes clean up a cinch since you just throw the pan away when done instead of having to clean of that hard candy coating. But this is also wasteful. So I should really just buy a legit roasting pan. But then I would have no where to store it. And that, my friends, is my inner dialogue.

And this is my husband. I think he was feeling left out because our kids are always in posts. He wouldn’t leave until I took a picture. But he’s pretty cute so I decided to leave him in. But if your husband isn’t as cute, just skip this part.

Then you spread out the coated popcorn on a baking sheet to finish off in the oven. This steps makes it crispy instead of gooey. Gooey is fine too, but a good crunch never hurt anything. You can sort of make out some little gold hearts here. Remember when I added stars to champagne? Well I also had the edible hearts. And they just make sense to use on a Valentine’s Day snack. We added them to the popcorn before baking so they would stick to it.

And there you have it. Super easy candy popcorn for Valentine’s Day. Or any day. Kid’s love this, in case you had any doubts. And those hearts make it super romantic.

Just add some heart candies and homemade vanilla bean marshmallows (see I told you Kristin is awesome) and you’ve got the perfectly adorable Valentine’s spread.

Recipe from Jello Rainbow Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients:

8 cups popped popcorn (I have a microwavable bowl that I use with kernals but you can also use plain microwavable bags if you have to)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine – can also use butter but my food allergic son can eat it if I use his margarine = happy kid

3 TBSP light corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1 package (4 serving size) any flavor Jello – not the sugar free kind. Gross. We used cherry. Amazeballs.

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray foil with a small bit of cooking spray so it won’t stick. Set aside.

Place margarine and corn syrup in small saucepan on medium heat and stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello. Stir to combine and until Jello is completely dissolved.

Bring to a boil on medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix popped popcorn and syrup until well coated. Spread on to prepared sheet pan and spread out evenly. Bake 10 minutes. Cool. Remove from pan and break in to small pieces. Or grab huge chunks and shove them in your face.

Kristin made this peach version of candy popcorn for Lauren’s bridal shower. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thanks for doing this post with my Kristin! Get excited. Kristin is starting a blog where she is going to share a bunch more of her tutorials. And not just on sweet treats. She is a talented lady and has lots to share!

Image of peach popcorn by Dez and Tam

Filed Under: Blogger Meet Ups, Family Life, Food, Food Allergies, Holidays, Orange County Resources, Party Inspiration, Recipes, Tutorials Tagged With: cherry, peach, popcorn, snacks, valentine's day

Easy Hanging Balloon Valentine’s

February 9, 2013 by Sharon Garofalow 3 Comments

hanging balloon valentines Hi there. I don’t usually post on weekends but I decided to share with you all the Easy Hanging Balloon craft I’m hosting at Craft with the Bloggers today! I think balloons are awesome and are totally underused. They are cheap, they are easy to keep on hand and you can do so much with them.

Easy valentine's idea All you have to do to make a hanging balloon Valentine is grab a balloon and find something pretty to hang it from…Another favorite material of mine is yarn. It comes in EVERY color and is cheap. Hmmm, it sounds like I am a cheap skate. Totally not. My husband would vouch for that. I just hate when you buy something and then you don’t want to use it because it was so expensive.

peach and gold hanging balloon valentine

Add whatever embellishments you would like.

feather and ballon valentine with mint peach and gold

Who knew they made peach feathers! And it is hard to see from this picture, but this clear balloon is filled with sequins.

fill balloon with sequins

All you have to do to get sequins in a balloon is to insert a funnel. With the help of a skewer you can get them through the hole and in to the balloon. Another idea would be to write a small love note, roll it up and put it inside the balloon so your honey has to pop it to get it out. hanging the balloon valentine

My idea for the hanging balloon Valentine’s is to hang out them outside a closed door so it is the first thing they see when they get up in the morning. I think that would be a delightful surprise.

peach feather mint green and gold balloon valentine

These can also be made for birthdays or other special days. Just remember, if these balloons pop it’s going to rain sequins…For some that is a dream, but to people like me who are mess averse it could be tear inducing.

Thanks to Lauren for helping me shoot this! It is so much easier to shoot with two people!