Decorative Faux "Chocolate" Bunnies from Recyclables

If you've got aluminum foil, plastic bags, a shoebox, and some brown paint, then you can make these adorable faux chocolate bunnies, which are perfect for decorating your mantel or your Easter buffet table. Super-sized, these guys would also make cute, affordable store window displays for a shop. In this post, I'll explain how to make both the "wrapped" and the "unwrapped" versions, as well as the foil-wrapped "chocolate eggs".
Using carbon paper or by tracing, transfer 3 bunny outlines onto 3 pieces of shoebox paperboard--or other sturdy cardboard / tag board. You can find my PDF "chocolate bunny" template here. (I based my bunny design on a photo of an (edible) chocolate bunny that I found on the Internet--with a few tweaks--so I hope that sharing my template with you here falls within the realm of "fair use".) My bunnies are around 10 inches tall. I made three--two face to the left and one faces to the right. Be aware of "bunny directionality" as you trace your bunnies.Burnt Umber (dark brown) acrylic paint gave the "unwrapped" chocolate bunnies their color. I enlisted the help of my three year old for the painting portion of the project. Our paint was thick and left visible brush strokes, which I thought made it look more like chocolate. Note our "palette": a lid from a large oatmeal canister.  Oatmeal lids make fantastic palettes for painting, finger painting, and hand prints (they are the perfect size to fit a little hand). If you have a toddler or preschooler, I recommend the long-sleeved Crayola art smock as well; you can find these on Amazon for around $5. As you can tell, ours has seen heavy use.Our bunnies curled a bit as the paint was drying, but they flattened out once the paint was dry.
Once the paint is dry, use duct tape or hot glue to attach a "stand" to the back. I used part of the edge of the shoe box lid. You can leave these "chocolate" guys plain or adorn them with flowers--silk or paper--or ribbons.To make the foil-wrapped "chocolate" bunny, start with the same cardboard bunny shape. Use hot glue or duct tape to affix the cardboard "stand" (see stand photo above) to the front of the bunny, and make sure that it is close to the same width as the base of the bunny. Use masking tape or painter's tape to attach and mold rolled / "smooshed" small plastic bags onto the cardboard bunny shape, starting from the base (plastic newspaper bags are perfect). Crumpled newspapers or tissue paper might work for this too. When you finish this step, you will have this poor guy, who I think looks like a hapless kidnapping victim from a bunny horror film:Here's what the back will look like; there is no stand on this side, as you already have the stand in front:
Next, wrap the front with aluminum foil. Mine has the less-shiny side facing out. Tape the back to hold the foil in place. This may take a little trial and error. If you need to remove your foil and start over, just smooth out your foil and try again. Add a bow at the neck.

While you have the aluminum foil out, why not use it to cover a few plastic eggs to make them look like big chocolate eggs? Use a piece of foil large enough to wrap all the way around the egg with a good-sized "tail" left over. With the egg standing "upright", wrap the foil (non-shiny side out) tightly across the front and gather the excess foil at the back of the egg. Snip excess at the back with scissors. These eggs can be painted (we will be adding some polka dots to ours soon) or kept plain. I imagine that a colored Sharpie marker could be a fun way to decorate these too:
Add a little Easter grass and a chalkboard, and you've got an easy Easter mantel. I made my chalkboard from a piece of thrift store artwork; I painted the gold frame white and then painted the chalkboard paint directly onto the "canvas" art. If you've never painted with chalkboard paint, I invite you to check out this post about my chalkboard table and this post about my chalkboard tray for DIY info.I think that these bunnies look good enough to eat, and even though they aren't edible, they would probably taste better than the real chocolate ones, which always tasted like foil to me!

Happy Easter!

Twenty Cent Finds at Michael's Crafts

As I waited in line at Michael's Crafts yesterday, I noticed a display rack of items near the register.  The shelves were labeled with tags that read "Select Impulse Items-- 20 Cents".

My first thought was that it was funny that they would blatantly label the items as IMPULSE BUYS instead of using a euphemism.  Why would they want to make impulse shoppers self-aware about the nature of their purchases? Who wants to feel like a sucker?  Why not call the impulse items "Last Chance Treasures" or something?

My second thought was that there couldn't possibly be anything "good" on the twenty cent shelves.  I mean, what can you buy for twenty cents?  I'm not a regular gum chewer, but isn't a pack of gum still around 25 cents these days?

As I was having these judgmental thoughts, I found myself browsing the "Select Impulse" shelves, casually at first--just as an interested sociologist, mind you-- and then with a bit more enthusiasm.

First, I found these.  They are intended to be ornaments (Christmas?  Valentine's Day?), but I'm going to snip off the hanging ribbons and add pin backs.  Wouldn't these make cute gifts for little girls to pin on their winter coats or school backpacks?  My daughter has already claimed the pink one (not pictured here) for herself.

Next, I found these rubber stamps.  I love to make handmade greeting cards, so these will definitely come in handy.  The medallion one might make an interesting repeat pattern on a pillowcase border (use a Sharpie marker, instead of a regular stamp pad, to make the design permanent).

  

When I found this pack of three little baking stencils, I laughed to myself, wondering where I might find an alternate universe in which my baked goods would come out attractive enough to merit a stenciled design.  Then I tried thinking like a Martian and realized that a stencil is a stencil, and that my daughter could use these for fine point marker art projects.  She has already made several cards with these, and like a good little creative Martian, she has pressed the center of  the flower stencil into lumps of play dough to make "sunshine cookies".

 

Finally, I found pencil cases and a journal.  I thought the pencil cases could be recast as purse organizers.  The journal...was just cute.

 

So, they got me! They say a sucker is born every minute.  But "Last Chance Treasure Hunters" are harder to come by, as they are only born every 1.5 minutes.

Evolution of Our Front Door Garden

Today, I'll explain how (and why) I designed and created a DIY flagstone and pebble "mini patio" to make my front door garden prettier, tidier, and--most importantly--easier to maintain.  I've mentioned in other garden-related posts that I love gardening, but I tend to be a lazy gardener--or more accurately, an intermittent gardener.  This little garden area has evolved slowly over time--the photos in this post were taken over a seven year time period--and I'm still fine-tuning this space.  An alternate title for this post could be, "Sometimes Being Lazy Takes a Lot of Work."

When we bought our house in 2005, the front door was flanked by Nandina bushes.  For awhile, I barely noticed the Nandinas enough to have an opinion about them.  Then one day, my husband and I decided that they had to go!  Immediately!  I posted a Craig's List ad with the title: "Free Nandina Bushes--You Dig 'Em".  Two hours later, the bushes were gone.  It was a win-win.  Actually, if we consider the Nandinas' perspective, it was a win-win-win.

Since there were already some iris rhizomes and daffodil bulbs in the planting area on the right, I left them there and spent a few years trying to figure out the best way to maintain the area.  The photo below is from March of 2007.  Not very impressive, right? 

A year later, I sat down and listed challenges in this garden area.  These included: weed control (summer), fallen-leaf management (fall), unattractive "spent" daffodil leaves in spring  (which could not be cut back without compromising the next year's bloom),  and plant height, spacing, and grouping challenges.  I also added "snakes" to the list, as they are my go-to excuse for garden neglect.

It occurred to me that I could redesign this area to include two "zones": a low-maintenance in-ground planting area at the back and a container garden area in front on a foundation of flagstones and pebbles.  The latter would allow me to rotate pots seasonally.  Rocks, I reasoned, would deter weeds (and handle fallen leaves) better than mulch.  And if I played my cards right, maintenance would be heavily weighted toward the pots rather than the in-ground planting area, which translated to fewer snake encounters.  (In case you think that my snake aversion is excessive, I'll share that one of our dogs was bitten by a venomous snake in our backyard.  Thankfully, she was OK, though her little muzzle swelled up like a toucan bill for a few days.)
  

Back to the garden.  Step one was to dig up the existing bed.  Here's what that process looked like.  Yes, I am a messy gardener (also a messy cook).  This picture was taken in October of 2009:

Did I make this the weekend project that it should have been, zipping through the required steps to the "after" picture? Nope. My nap-resistant baby girl was one year old at the time, so I ended up placing flagstones directly on the soil and living with that "temporary" look for...awhile.  I don't remember exactly how long, but the picture below is from June of 2010.  See the flagstones and soil in the background? Busted!

Incidentally, this photo is interesting because the miniature roses were originally a small potted Valentine gift from a grocery store.  Transplanted, they have lived and bloomed in the garden for years.

There are no photos for these next steps, but here they are in order:

1. Use a shovel and rake to level the dirt (a real gardener would have called the dirt "soil").  Be sure to dig down deep enough so that there will be some kind of border (in my case, the cement path and driveway edge) to contain the pebbles.

2. Cover the dirt with landscape tarp and pin it down tightly.

3. Top the tarp with leveling sand.

4. Lay out the flagstones in a loosey-goosey jigsaw pattern on the sand.  Scoot sand around as needed until the tops of all of the flagstones are relatively level.

5. Between the flagstones, add pebbles (purchased in bags-not-too-heavy-for-you-to-carry from Lowe's).  

Now that I write these steps, I'm wondering whether there is a better way to do it.  In my garden area, weeds root directly in the sand at times, and the sand gets mixed with the pebbles.  I wonder if there might be a way to place the leveling sand on top of the soil and then add the tarp and then add flagstones and pebbles directly on the tarp?  Hmm.  The challenge would be accommodating the uneven thicknesses of the flagstones.  I'm thinking hard about this, and it hurts, so I'm moving on.  Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section if you have tried something like this (the gardening I mean, not the thinking).

I used small shards of flagstone, placed on end (two deep at places), to create a border/wall to contain the mulch that would be in the in-ground planting area.

Here is a close-up of the flagstone and pebbles today.  Note that there are a few weeds (also little twigs, seeds, mulch, etc.), but there are fewer than there might otherwise be.

 

When I was planning this space, I had a hard time finding online pictures of patios that combined flagstones and pebbles.  Now that I own this combination, I know that there was probably a good reason: when the pebbles get shifted on top of the flagstones, they are like little slippery ball bearings; it's basically an "I Love Lucy" episode waiting to happen.  That hasn't been much of an issue for us, as this space doesn't see much foot traffic.

Here's a shot that was taken at the end of March, 2011.   The irises hadn't bloomed yet--they usually open in April, though this year they bloomed early.

And here's a picture that I took yesterday.  The back portion of the garden is primarily irises and daylilies.  The front pots change.  Right now, the pots are a scraggly mix of pansies and grape hyacinths.  I "should" have staged this picture with better/fresher annuals in the pots, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to snap a picture when the irises were in bloom.  In the summer, there will be miniature roses, some wildflowers, and lots of marigolds in the pots.  As I mentioned in a previous post, marigolds will grow beautifully from last year's saved seeds.

Is my execution of this idea perfect?  Nope.  There should be more flagstones and fewer pebbles (I used flagstones left over from another project and didn't want to order more).  Also, at some point, I'll "upgrade" to larger, better-coordinated pots with saucers underneath them, for goodness' sake, so that the soil doesn't drain out through the bottom of the pots and provide cheap housing for weeds.  I'm sharing my warts-and-all gardening effort here in the hopes that it will give you ideas for your own garden, which I'm sure has no weeds.  Or snakes.

This post has been linked to great before and after posts for Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.

DIY Repurposed Pen Cap Vase

This post really belongs on my other blog, but I couldn't resist sharing it here. Why? Because it's green, it's upcycled, it's easy, it's kid-friendly, it's seasonally-appropriate, and it ties in nicely with a post that I wrote last March in which I sang the praises of little vases.

Readers, I give you the pen cap vase (which is, technically, more of a vase cluster). It's the perfect size for displaying the microscopic weed-flowers favored by the preschool set. Materials are simple: you'll need a bunch of colorful caps from dried-out markers, a wider, shallower lid (think: Gatorade), and some hot glue. If you don't have any dried-out markers in your house, then this blog, which is aimed at mere mortals, may not be for you.

Instructions are simple: fill the wide, shallow lid with hot glue, arrange the pen caps in it, and allow the glue to dry. Think "class photo" when you're arranging the pen caps in the lid: tall kids in back; scrawny kids in front. It might look something like this when you're finished (if this were my kindergarten class photo, I'd be the turquoise cap):
To fill the vases with water, you can run the whole thing under the sink (use low water pressure) or for some great fine-motor skill practice, have a preschooler use an eye dropper or plastic syringe to fill it. The final step is to grab your favorite preschooler and go on a weed-flower hunt. If you don't have any weed-flowers in your yard, then you are definitely not a mere mortal, and it's very likely that this blog is not for you.

Happy weed-flower picking!

This post has been linked to other great DIY projects at Tatertots and Jello and Blue Cricket Design.

Remodeling? Buy This Toilet!

When I decided to write this post, I wondered, "Am I really going to write about a toilet? Who writes about a toilet? And who reads about a toilet?" A poem came to mind--one that I read as an undergraduate. It was a poem about a toilet sliding, snail-like, into a living room, seeking love...and not finding any. Because really, who loves toilets? Even the word "toilet" sounds kind of ridiculous if you think about it long enough. Toilet,toilet,toilet. See what I mean?

And yet, if you buy and install the Kohler Cimarron High Efficiency WaterSense Elongated Toilet in your home, you may find yourself--as my husband and I did--discussing the merits of your new toilet over dinner.

"I really like the new toilet. Don't you?" your husband will comment, passing the dish of roasted green beans.

"Gosh yes!" You'll gush, "It's the best! Shall we replace both of the upstairs toilets too?" At this point, part of your brain will cringe, because your conversation sounds like the script from a failed "Saturday Night Live" skit, but the other half of your brain will still be sighing, "That is one fine toilet."

I don't care how many etiquette classes you have taken or how many Emily Post books you've read and memorized. If you buy this toilet, you will more than likely find yourself inadvertently discussing it over dinner. It's just that good.
What is there to love about this toilet?

First of all, it's a HET--High Efficiency Toilet. It only uses 1.28 GPF. GPF stands for Gallons Per Flush--not to be confused with GPS, which would be a really unnecessary toilet feature unless the toilet happened to be in a mobile home. The Cimarron is one of the "new breed" of HETs; unlike the old "flush 30 times and maybe the paper will eventually go down" kind of water-saving / low flow toilets, this one does the job in one quiet, powerful flush every time.

Second, it's nice and tall--the same height as a standard chair-- so it's more comfortable and ergonomic for most folks to use (older folks in particular). Its similarity to a dining room chair may in part explain why we felt so comfortable discussing it over dinner, come to think of it.

Third, it's easy to install, which makes it a great choice for do-it-yourselfers.

Fourth, both the toilet seat and the toilet lid are designed to "quiet close". In other words, when you close them, they don't slam closed, awakening sleeping babies for miles around. Instead, they close in slow motion--imagine the toilet seat version of "The Matrix". So if you are awakened at 3am, it will not be due to Great Uncle Ernie slamming the toilet seat down in the guest bathroom. Instead, you will be awakened at 3am by Great Uncle Ernie bleating "Happy Days Are Here Again" with gusto on his trumpet because he has never before in his 96 years on earth encountered a toilet quite so swell.

Fifth, everyone loves it. Just read the reviews. It received 5 stars on the Lowe's website. We are not the only weirdos discussing this toilet over dinner, thank you very much.

Sixth, if your existing toilet is a water guzzler, your town or city may even pay you to replace your existing toilet with a HET. If you'd like to see if your local municipality has a HET rebate program, toiletrebate.com may be a good place to start (though I noticed that our town's program was not listed there). For my local readers, I will share that the Town of Cary, NC has a HET rebate program which offers a $100 rebate for each water-guzzling toilet replaced (up to 2 per residential home). Raleigh and Durham offer similar programs.

Seventh, if you ever tire of discussing politics, religion, or great literature over dinner, the Kohler Cimarron will always be there for you, happy to bask in the glow of your adoring discourse.
Curious about the toilet poem that I referenced earlier? You can find the poem in its entirety here.

Finally, for the record, I have not been compensated in any way to endorse this toilet. Though being sponsored by a toilet would really send a message to the world that I "have arrived", don't you think?

DIY "Outfit Hangers" For Closet Organizing

In my three year old daughter's closet, I use plastic rings to connect two hangers to make an "outfit hanger". These "outfit hangers" keep matching tops and bottoms together. When my daughter picks out her clothes in the morning all by herSELF, (yes, she is a preschooler) she can select a whole "outfit" from the closet (she also helps assemble the outfits when we're putting away her clean laundry). Parenting books call this strategy offering a child "limited choices". I call it dramatically increasing the odds that my kid will leave the house wearing something other than her Curious George footie pajamas.

I got the idea from the hangers that clothing manufacturers use for their toddler outfits, in which the pants/skirt hanger is topped by a large ring which slides over the shirt hanger. One day I was wishing that I had more of those hangers to organize my daughter's closet, and it occurred to me that I could just create my own. The plastic rings that I used are called "split rings", and they are actually drapery hardware designed for use on the back of balloon shades. I pulled mine off of some cotton shades that were slated for conversion to tablecloths. (You'll recall from my earlier posts that fabric items in my house rarely serve the same function for long!) I think that regular plastic roman shade rings without a split (found in fabric stores in multi-packs) would work even better, assuming that the diameter was large enough to accommodate two hangers. Of course, I also save hangers from new kids' clothes, such as the Carter's hangers, for the same purpose.

Happy Organizing!

One Organizing Category That You Need--Now!

Sometime within the next week or so, most folks will start un-hanging the stockings by the chimney with care, un-trimming the tree, and un-stringing all of those wonderful, twinkling lights. Yes, it's time for Christmas un-decorating. But this post is not about color-coordinated Rubbermaid ornament storage boxes, air-cushioned wreath storage bags, or 50 creative places to store your hoarded rolls of Rudolph wrapping paper. This post is not even about Christmas un-decorating. This post is about Christmas Stragglers and what to do with them.
What are Christmas Stragglers? They are stealth Santas, rogue reindeer, and scalawag snowmen. They appear after all of the Christmas boxes and totes have been hauled up to the attic via the rickety drop-down ladder or dragged down three dark flights of steps to the basement. They appear after you thought that you had collected and stored every last Christmas decoration and ornament.
Christmas Stragglers can appear one day later--that snowman tea towel that you forgot was in the dryer--or weeks or months later when you move the sofa cushions to vacuum and you find one of the Three Wise Men wedged there, still solemnly offering his frankincense.

Christmas Stragglers can also be Christmas items acquired at non-Christmas times of year--those cute sand dollar ornaments that you pick up at the gift shop on your summer vacation, for example, or a classic Christmas picture book snagged for a nickel at a rummage sale in spring. Or how about toddler boots, outgrown in February, which can become next year's adorable Christmas decor?The problem with Christmas Stragglers is that--due to the difficulty of putting them away with all of the other Christmas things in their hard-to-access storage spot--the Stragglers tend to become "homeless"; they loiter in piles where they become Holly Jolly Clutter...year round. And as sweet and generous as old Santa may be, no one wants to see him in June.

The solution? Create a Christmas Stragglers storage box as a designated year-round "home" for the Stragglers, and store the box in an easy-to-access location. Add to the box throughout the year as you find or acquire Christmas items. When Christmas time rolls around again, pull out the Stragglers box along with your other Christmas items, and start decorating and making merry!To make a Stragglers storage box, purchase a cardboard banker's box at an office supply store. (I prefer the simple, inexpensive white economy weight boxes from Staples, as discussed in this post.) Print the jpeg image above (or create your own on your computer), and affix it to the front of the box. Done! In my house, we keep most of the Christmas stuff in the hard-to-access "big attic", but the Christmas Stragglers box lives in the "little attic", a smaller storage area off of our master bedroom which is easier to access.

What are your experiences with Christmas Stragglers? Any funny stories to share?

Halloween Mantel and DIY Candle Holders

This will be a "Frankenstein" post: a few different fall ideas from my home cobbled together just in time for Halloween!

The photo above features last year's Halloween mantel. I was pleased with how it turned out--a nice balance of heights, shapes, and colors. At $6, the large (real) pumpkin was by far the most expensive item. The spider web bowl was more interesting propped on a plate stand than it would have been lying on a table. I didn't replicate this vignette this year because our pumpkin is roughly the size and shape of a beanbag chair!

Here's the other half of last year's mantel. I framed a collage that my daughter made and flanked it with framed scrapbook cutouts. As you may recall from this post and this post, I'll frame just about anything and pass it off as "art"!

One of my favorite tricks is to use nested jars to create a "customizable"candle holder. This idea can be adapted to almost any season, theme, or occasion. To create a striking fall candle holder, use leaves as filler. Start with two jars of equal height, one narrow enough to fit completely inside the other. Place one jar inside the other, and then slide some fall leaves into the space between the two nested jars. Add a tea light candle inside the central jar. Light it. Voila!

Here's an "aerial view" of the nested jars and candle. Probably overkill for instructional purposes, but I loved the contrast of the rough stem and smooth glass:

Pages from an old book are a great alternative "filler" (yes, this is a page from the book that I used to make this old book photo frame). For impact, imagine grouping a bunch of these guys of different heights. To make this more "Halloweeny", add a silhouette of a black cat, hat...or bat!

If you don't have long matches or a wand style lighter to light the candle in the jar, you can use an uncooked spaghetti noodle. Light the end of the noodle with a match, and then use the noodle to light the candle. The noodle may be slow to light, but this is a good thing if you value your eyebrows!

Happy Halloween!

This post has been linked to Primp Your Pumpkin at Fox Hollow Cottage, Fall Festival Friday at The DIY Showoff and Halloween Show and Share Day at Just a Girl.