Dried Wedding Flower Ornament

Posted in diy, Holiday by peppermintsandhoneybees

Happy Holidays everyone! I have a really easy but special DIY for this Season. And of course they don’t have to be from a wedding bouquet but these are from my wedding which was last June.

I wanted to preserve a bit of my flowers but I don’t want them in a shadow box because I had hydrangeas and things with tiny parts that would just fall apart anyway.

I don’t know how many years they will keep but they should last at least a few years.

All you need is some clear glass ornaments and dried petals and leaves. Be careful when placing everything in the ornaments because they are very thin glass and you don’t want it to break and cut you. It’s that easy! If you don’t celebrate Christmas and/or have a tree they would look great handing from ribbon in a window or from a shelf also.

I added some of my wedding pictures also, since I realized I never shared them on here last summer.

Have an amazing holiday season!

22Oct2015

Terrarium Lamp

Posted in diy, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’ve been eyeing this old lamp at a local used furniture store for over a year now, and after it was still there the last visit I decided to make what I had planned for it. Also I got it for $1 and full of rocks!!! I already had the moss and driftwood. I bought fake succulents from Hobby Lobby; 1 because how would I water them and 2 even if I could um…I don’t want to electrocute myself. I spray painted a couple brass parts that had lost their shine with Rust-o-leum Metallic in gold.

It was a little difficult to fill because it opens from the bottom and the bottom doesn’t detach completely since it’s attached to the wiring. I had to fill and kind of shake and roll it around to get things where I wanted but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. The lamp shade is from Target. Show me what all you have made terrariums out of!

27Aug2015

Carrot Cookies

Posted in Food by peppermintsandhoneybees

I actually found this recipe in the little booklet that came with my ninja blender. It looked good (and easy) so I thought I’d give it a try. It looked good and has carrots so its sorta healthy right?

It was super easy and fast to make since I just added all the ingredients and blended them. You definitely don’t need a blender to make these though.

The ingredients are:

3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs of flax eggs
2 cups flour
1 cup grated carrots
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. coconut oil

The last two ingredients I added to the recipe. Just combine everything and drop teaspoon sized amounts onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 minutes and that’s it! It was supposed to make 36 but I got about 28. (I made some a little bigger)
These are nice because they aren’t too sweet, although I think they would be good with honey drizzled on them. I was going to take some to work but Ben likes them so much he didn’t what me to! I’ll have to make more. 😉 Anyway, enjoy!

25Jun2015

Mounted Wall Vase

Posted in diy, Gardening by peppermintsandhoneybees

I made this wall base for my uncle for Father’s Day and I thought I’d share it. All you need is a slab of a log. They sell them at most craft stores or you can get your own if you’re into that sort of thing! I used and old glass jar and bought a hose clamp from the hardware store for cheap. I nailed the clamp to the wood, but the jar in, tightened it, and added a picture hanger to the back. It was that easy! You could also fill it with dirt and grow plants in it.

Also Ben had to hold it for me on the brick. 😉

20Jun2015

My Patio Garden

Posted in Gardening, My Life by peppermintsandhoneybees

I thought I would share some of my garden pictures so far from my little container garden on my patios. Some of my plants are just starting to come up this year like my flowers, but I’m proud of my self because my marigolds, lily and pansies are all things I bought last year and were able to bring back from seed. (or bulb in the lily’s case) I don’t always have a green thumb but in the Summer plants just seem so much happier and I’m getting more confident in my growing abilities. After last Summer I know how much to water my outdoor plants (a lot!) and even though I can’t have a garden yet it’s exciting to be able to eat something you grew! I’m trying out some tomatoes from Home Depot this year. This breed is made to be grown in containers, they are named patio tomatoes so we’ll see! It already have about 10 green tomatoes on in so I think pretty soon we’ll be trying to eat all the tomatoes before they go bad, which in my opinion is a good problem to have. 😉

I’ll do an update later in the Summer to see how my progress is going! what are you’re favorite plants in the Summer?

Coleus

Spearmint

Basil, the start of a lily, and a little succulent called Kalanchoe that I got from Trader Joe’s. It was starting to die inside but seems to be recovering now that it’s out. Summer really is the best for my plants!

Geraniums plus my new bee house!

Tomatoes, strawberries, and more geraniums. Of course the Snomingos are out to party as well!

Pansies

27May2015

Flowers You Can See Grow

Posted in Gardening, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’ve seen this idea before on Pinterest so I thought I’d give it a try this Spring. I used this hurricane vase I already had and bought some clear glass pieces from the dollar store. I was also able to find a pack of these rain lily bulbs at Dollar Tree also since it’s spring. I put the glass gems in the vase and filled it up to the top of the gems with water. Next I placed the bulbs in standing up and put it in a sunny spot. this is the results so far…

After two weeks I got this flower but now the other two are starting to grow.

6May2015

Homeade Butter and Honey Butter

Posted in Food by peppermintsandhoneybees

I had a super busy weekend and was able to get lots of work done, and still made this butter! It’s super simple and I can’t believe it has taken me this long to realize how easy butter is to make. It’s just one ingredient, heavy whipping cream and you can either shake it in a jar for a long time or use a food processor.

I used the later and it took about 5 minutes on high. I also added some salt to mine for taste. You will be able to tell when it’s done because there will be no more liquid and you can use a rubber spatula to scrape it out. I put it in a bowl and folded in some honey to make honey butter because, well honey butter! I also want to try to make some mulberry butter this summer after my mulberry trees have berries. The possibilities are endless, enjoy! Let me know how it turns out.

15Apr2015

Avacado Egg Salad

Posted in Food by peppermintsandhoneybees

This has been one of my go to recipes for a few years now. Even if you don’t like egg salad, don’t knock this one until you try it. The avocados and spices give it a whole new flavor, and it’s much healthier than regular egg salad. I got the original recipe from a blog on pinterest called {Never} Homemaker, but as I tend to do I changed some thinks around to my liking and to make it my own. So you can read the original and mine and possibly even tweak it some more if you’d like! Ingredients:

4 hard boiled eggs, sliced
1 diced avacado
1 teaspoon minced garlic
handful of chopped green onions
3 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt
1 pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon curry powder

Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir everything up. I like to eat mine on a tortilla with some fresh kale, but Ben likes his on bread. Try it however you like, I’ve also just ate it before. 😉

25Mar2015

Concrete Easter Eggs

Posted in diy, Holiday by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hey everyone, it’s Wednesday, woohoo! We’re half way to the weekend and even though we just got about 4″ of snow here on Monday, (not cool Mother Nature) I’m excited for Spring and Easter. My family never did a whole lot to celebrate Easter other than Easter egg hunts and and getting together to eat too much food, but its always been one of my favorite holidays to decorate for. I think its because I love rabbits and animals in general along with anything Spring/Summer related. I found this diy on Pinterest by Camille Styles for making concrete eggs with real egg shells. I’ve actually been working on this for a while because I needed to get enough egg shells to fill. When I would use an egg to cook with I would just break out the bottom with a knife of my finger. You want to take the bottom out so that you can fill it from there and then when the concrete is dry they can stand up. Below are the supplies I used; the cup and knife were for the concrete mix and make sure to have paper towels handy. You can usually find concrete mix at any craft or hardware store, it’s pretty fun to work with! If you’ve never mixed concrete, plaster, or anything similar, I use the mound method which is where you fill the cup up with about 1/3 water and slowly add the mix until there is a little mountain on top that doesn’t sink down immediately into the water. Stir it up until there are no clumps or bubbles. it should be about the consistency of pancake mix. I have to admit I got some of mine a little too thick and some didn’t quite turn out perfect but I like some imperfections in mine.

I got a little messy and broke one, whoops! 😉

After your eggs are filled let them dry outside for at least 24 hours. Use an exact-o knife to help peel the shell of and that’s all! If you’d like you can paint or stamp you eggs or anything else you can think of. I might do something with mine but I’m not sure what yet. If I do change them I’ll give an update.

My Easter Table

P.S. the adorable basket and grass cloth are from my good friends at Glory Days Mercantile, check them out they have tons of cute Easter decor!

13Mar2015

Cat Tepee

Posted in craft, Sewing by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hey Peeps! I have a super cool project that I actually made a few years ago, but it’s still a good one so I thought I’d share it. All you need is a yard of fabric for the panels and a 20″x20″ piece for the bottom piece, a sewing machine, and 8 dowel rods that are 1/4″ wide. I got the original idea from a book titled “One-Yard Wonders” by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins.

After you cut your panels out you need to sew the sides of each three side panels together, leaving 1″ of space between the seam and the edge of the fabric. Then sew the ends of the insides of the panels leaving a pocket to push 4 of the dowel rods thought. Don’t put the rods in till everything is sewn though. Next sew the seams on the tops and bottoms, leaving the dowel rod openings.

Next for the Base cut a square that is 20×20″ wide and cut a square notch on each corner that is 2″. You will fold the sides in 1″ and sew the seam like in the picture, only I made all sides the same. Don’t forget to leave an opening for your last 4 dowel rods. These will have to be cut smaller to fit. Leave a few inches sticking out on each side.

After the bottom is sewn, attach it to the rest of the tepee by sewing the top of the bottom section onto the inside of the tepee. and then insert your dowel rods. I also tied a piece of fabric around the top to secure the dowel rods.

As you can see Gatsby claimed this one and still uses it! Lucy will sit in it occasionally but if your cat likes hiding in things (like most cats), then they will love a tepee!