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. 😉

16Jun2015

Side Tie Shirt

Posted in clothing by peppermintsandhoneybees

This is actually a shirt I made long ago in high school but I made it with non stretchy vintage fabric from Goodwill, and I wasn’t (and still aren’t) that great of a sewer. So anyway it never really fit that great. I was fine everywhere but the bust. I kept it all this time because I love the fabric and I recently got an Idea on how to fix it.

The before

I took out the side seams and bought some white stretchy fabric. I cut the fabric in to strips about 2″ wide and folded and sewed it into a loop. Then I cut the strips about 8″ long. I made the bows by tying a knot in the strips and pinned them to the sides of the shirt. After I knew how many I needed and had them spaced evenly I could sew them in. The shirt is nice and loose now and has some stretch in it!

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.

29Apr2015

Solar Jar Lights

Posted in diy by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hello all, Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA, I’ve been busy with work and other things but I have a super easy and cool looking diy on the blog today! I made these Solar Jar lights as presents for Mother’s Day. I got the idea on Pinterest from a blog named Dreamalittlebigger.com.

It was a very simple project that was relatively inexpensive and only took bout 30 minutes to make. I bought the solar lights and glass gems from Dollar Tree and had the green and blue mason jars already. For my version I used the kind of mason jars with the canning lids that come in two pieces. The solar lights were easy to remove from the stakes and plastic clear part. I pushed the round top containing the solar panel and light up though the rim lid and it fit snugly so I chose to not glue it in. (As pictured below) If you don’t want to use a solar light you could also use a tea light.

Next I used a hot glue gun to glue the glass gems onto the jars. I used one bag per jar in case you are wondering how many to get. This went quick and I was able to do it while watching TV. 😉 The next step is to put them outside or around your house somewhere where they can get sun in the day time and enjoy!

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!

This is the picture of how to cut the three side panels and two shorter front panels out of the yard of fabric. Lay the piece out in a single layer

Here are my crazy homemade patterns for the side and front panels since I made more than one

They don’t like to share!

So Happy!!!

21Feb2015

Make a Camera Strap Cover

Posted in diy, Sewing by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’ve been wanting to make a cover for the strap of my camera so I don’t look like a tourist with the factory strap. I had some time since we got all that snow so I sat down and made one, which didn’t take much time at all! If you make one you’ll have to measure out your strap. Mine is a Nikon and it was 20 1/2″ long and 1 1/2 ” wide. I cut the fabric out 22″ long so I could fold it over twice on each side and sew a 1/4″ hem. I made it 4″ wide so I could fold in in half and sew the seam. For whatever reason my machine would only sew a zigzag seam so yeah…, oh well if that’s the worst that happened! After everything is sewn use a safety pin to turn it right side out by pining an end and running it through to the other side. I also used a safety pin on the end of my camera strap to feed it through the cover. I made mine fit snug on the ends so that it wont ride up when I’m using it, but you can make yours however you want!

I had some fabric left from my kimono that I liked so I used that and then made another one out of some peppermint fabric that a friend had given me. I was saving it for the perfect project but I tend to do this with things and then they never get used! I had originally planed to make a pocket for my lens cap, but my cap is quite a bit wider than the strap so it would have to really stick out. Maybe I’ll add one later, we’ll see, but again up to you!

4Feb2015

DIY Kimono

Posted in clothing, diy by peppermintsandhoneybees

If you are somewhere where theses lots of snow like Chicago I hope you’re staying warm and safe! As seen in the pictures I made this the day before the snow hit and it has me dreaming of warmer weather to wear it out in.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my eye on the kimonos I see in stores, not so much for winter but as the perfect breezy coverup for summer. I am a lizard woman and even in the Summer I’m always cold, especially in air conditioning! I love kimonos but am not a fan of the prices I see So I found this handy tutorial by By Hand London which after searching seemed to be about the easiest to follow , but of course made a few changes to mine. Everyone’s will be different depending on your size or how big you want it but for mine I bought 5 feet of fabric. Now I wanted to use something with a little stretch or something light and breezy but I couldn’t find any I liked so for my first kimono I just used regular cotton cloth.

Start by folding your fabric in half with the back showing. I cut mine down a few inches so the sleeves wouldn’t be quite as long but of course it just depends on what you want. From there I took chalk and marked where to cut the sleeves. When I was ready I folded the fabric again to cut both sleeves at the same time.

Sorry about the bad pictures but my craft room is pretty dark and I tend to do most of my stuff at night, which in the Winter starts about noon. So these are the measurements I used for mine. After you pin the sides and bottom of sleeves, sew them up and zigzag the ends so they don’t fray. Roll the ends of the sleeves twice so they are about 1 cm. and sew.

Measure the middle and mark 8 cm on each side for the neck hole. find the middle at the bottom and mark up to the neck marks at the top. remember to only cut the top layer for this cut. Sew just like the sleeves and there ya go! I added pom pom ribbon to the bottom of mine but this is optional. Fringe would also look awesome! It’s a little too cold for it now but I have a feeling I’ll be wearing it a lot this Spring and Summer! I’ll probably be making more. 😉

28Jan2015

My New Cross Stitch Phone Case

Posted in craft, diy by peppermintsandhoneybees

So I’m kinda bad at finishing things I started sometimes, or things I haven’t started in this case! I bought this phone case from Rue 21 about a year ago because I knew I could do a cool DIY with it, also it was only about $1 on sale. It came with some patterns but I made up my own and really like the way it came out! I was able to find some of these cross stitch template cases on Amazon made by Coats and Clark if you are interested. I was only able to find some for 5 and 4 and no other brand of phone but you might be able to find some if you search. If you make one send me a picture so I can see!

19Jan2015

Valentine’s Day Garland

Posted in craft, diy, Holiday, home by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hola peeps! I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging, not really on purpose but more because I was too busy to start/work on new projects and before I knew it January was half over! I am totally scared by the way time works and wish things would slow down just a bit. Now its that time of year that I just want to bypass to warmer days but I’m trying to enjoy the here and now and find the good, even in this frozen wasteland, because one day I’ll look back and miss these times!

I’ve never really decorated too much for Valentines day but since I have a craft blog now I figured I’d see what I could come up with, and love the results. I’m really starting to get in that heart everything spirit now and even though I don’t do frilly decorations (unless they’re vintage of course!) I made some simple nature inspired pieces. The arrows are inspired by similar ones I found on Pinterest. I used sticks for mine though and used paint and marker for the feathers. the heart tips are cardstock. I also made some of the feathers into earrings for my Etsy shop Peppermint Emporium. The garland is straight from my noggin and is just sticks, coffee filters dyed with watered down craft paint and twine. grab your glue gun and there ya go! Ben buys the unbleached coffee filters so I was a little disappointed that they weren’t white, but afterward I decided I liked the brown color better, it lends itself to the natural rustic vibe I was going for.