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!

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.

14May2014

DIY Hummingbird Feeder

Posted in diy by peppermintsandhoneybees

I’m so excited for warm weather finally and cannot wait to decorate my patio since this is the first summer we have had one in about 4 years. I want it as nature friendly as possible. (partly because I like to watch my cats freak out at birds and other animals!) I made this hummingbird feeder very easily with just a red bottle, copper colored wire and a special hummingbird feeder that I bought off of amazon. The color of the bottle doesn’t have to be red but I know they are attracted to red so I figured it wouldn’t hurt. I bought my bottle from Pier One. I just wrapped the wire around the bottle, making sure it was secure and made a loop at the top to hang it from.

I also have a recipe to make your own nectar as well.

1 cup sugar

4 cups water

boil water and sugar until melted. Cool and fill the feeder. You can store the rest in an empty container.

I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet but I think it’s a little early in the year for them to migrate north yet. I can’t wait to see them!

Jenna ♥

23Apr2014

Easter Weekend

Posted in Uncategorized by peppermintsandhoneybees

I hope everyone had a great weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not! The weather here was perfect and I was sooo happy to be outside after a long cold winter. Saturday we drove back to Indiana to see my family and took a walk to the old rail road trestle by my mom’s house.

My uncle and my sister being a goon!

On Sunday we went to Ben’s family’s Easter dinner and watched his nephew hunt for eggs for the first time. I also took some pictures of his dad’s old gremlin. I ate way too much candy this weekend, but hey that’s what Easter is for!

Oh and I got this adorable peeps skewer thingy from my friend Kelly. Everyone that knows me knows I have an unhealthy obsession with peeps. Thankfully they aren’t available all year long or I’d be in trouble!

Have a great week and Happy Spring!

Jenna 😉

Working on beautifying my kitchen

Ombre Dyed Curtains

As I mentioned earlier I am all about dyeing so when I saw some thing similar to this on pinterest from a blog called http://www.vitaminihandmade.com/. I thought I would give it a try to add some color to my boring white living room. I went with sunshine orange in the Rit dye and bought some inexpensive white curtains at IKEA. I didn’t want to spend a lot in case it didn’t work out.

I got the curtains wet in my double kitchen sink and filled one side up with hot water and the dye. I kept both curtains together at the top to make sure the dye pattern was the same on both. I wanted the top to have a little color so i dipped the whole curtains in for a few seconds and then removed all but about a foot, leaving the rest in the empty sink. I soaked it for about five minutes and gradually kept putting more and more in for about half way up.

After I had what looked to be good I rinsed the curtains in cold water and washed and dried them in my washer and dryer. They were a little lighter than I had hoped they would turn out so I bought one more box of Rit, just to do the bottoms. After this time I liked the way it looked. I guess it just depends on the look you are going for and the color, so you may or may not need two boxes of dye. I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out!

17Feb2014

Welcome to my blog!

Posted in Uncategorized by peppermintsandhoneybees

Hello my name is Jenna and I have just entered the world of blogging. Maybe a little late to the party but I love making things and saving money and want to share my thoughts and experiments in diy with other people who are thrifty and have a need to create.

First of all let me tell you a little about myself. I live outside of Chicago with my boyfriend Ben and our two cats, Lucy and Gatsby. I’m originally from Fort Wayne, IN but moved a few years ago for my boyfriends job. I went to school for art and photography and have an etsy shop called Peppermint Emporium with my handmade jewelry and vintage finds at https://www.etsy.co/shop/PeppermintEmporium?ref=si_shop.

I love animals, especially cats, art, nature, history, antiques and vintage and making things. I draw paint, sew, embroider, make jewelry, and find joy in decorating my home. Unfortunately I live in a very expensive area and live in a small apartment but I try and make the most of the situation and have found ways to decorate for even the smallest apartments on small budgets. I love making things and try to save money whenever I can, and whenever I can do both is an added bonus!

I want to share my diy’s and beautiful finds with you and hopefully you will like my blog! I am a pinterest addict and get many diys off of pinterest so of course I will try and give credit where credit is due, and others are things that I have come up with, either out of necessity, my cheapness, or just dreamed up.

Oh and did I mention I love cats?