Notes from A Cottage Industry

Weekly words to live by...

A FREE Printable Itty-bitty-red American flag banner, just in time for Independence Day 2013.

I have a friend that is a media buyer in the company I work for. The other day, I cruised downstairs to say hello, and couldn't help but ooh and ahh over her adorable little teeny tiny American flag banner.

Me: Oh! Where did you find that?!

Her: Oh, gosh. I don't know. I've had for years....hmmmm...Maybe at World Market...I'm not sure.

Me: I love it! I want one! Wait...I think I can make one! Thanks for the fabulous idea!

......

And I went home, and shamelessly copied it.

And now, it's nice little patriotic prezzie from me to you.

Mmmm hmmm.

First, I designed the little printable American flags....

 

Then I printed the page and cut them out (See? You can print as many as you like to make your banner as long as you wish for it to be.)

 

 

Once the flags were all cut out, I simply folded each them in half...

 

 

 

.....and used a glue stick on the inside as I folded the flags over a length of twine. You could use ribbon or string...whatever you fancy, girlfriend.

 

Ta-da!

(Pretty cute, right?)

So, think of this as a little prezzie for Independence Day...from me...to you.

(Get yours right here: Download God bless america flag banner e-kit )

 

Happy alomost-4th-of-July!

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

...brightly, in my craft room.

I wanted to share a pretty sweet little Before and After. (Anyway, I think so.)

You know, lighting can make or break a room. It adds a little sumthin'sumthin' when it's the right fixture, and when it's not...well, it can have the complete opposite result.

Kinda like how shoes can make (or break) your outfit.

Anyway.

We moved the dining room to the used-to-be-family room, and that left the original dining room as an open canvas, just waiting to be transformed.

Oh, how I love a project!

The space is now my office...er...craft room...or whatever you'd like to call it. I'll share pictures of the entire room shortly, but for today, I'd like to share the detail that brought the roomout of 1983.

 

 

I found it for $40.

I thought that was a steal.

 

I had to use the top piece from the original "chandelier" in the room,as my new-vintage one was missing that part. I painted the base to match...it came out perfectly.

 

I was very, very happy with the outcome.

 

You see, this was the original chandelier (I actually hesitate to call it that...maybe I should have said "light fixture" because when I think of  a chandelier, I think of something rather curvy, and chic, but hey, that's just me.)

 

Now, it is a functional light, I will give you that much. (Yes, it was missing a rectangular wedge of amber glass, and I never asked the story behind that) I have to say, that once we took the amber colored glass rectangles off the little metal frame, my mind actually began to whirl at the possibilites for that frame.....

....vintage spoons hanging from it, like I have seen here..

 ....or who knows what else.

Now all I have to do is start collecting vinatge spoons....

New cookies in town.

There's a new cookie (or two) in town, and they're dee-lish.

Oh.

 

My.

 

Can you say yummy-yummy-got-some-love-in-my-tummy?

Let me start at the beginning here.

Sometimes I get offers from vendors, or companies, to write a review, or a post about a product. Most times I don’t participate, as I really don’t want my blog to be all about ads, and I certainly do not ever want to post about a product I am not 100% behind.

 

This being said, the folks at Newtons asked if I would like to try out and share my two cents on a new line of delicious, oh-so-tasty cookies. I am a huge Nabisco fan, and so I said sure. I am so glad I did.

 

First off, let me share a little “Newtons”-side-story here. For as long as I can remember, one of my Mom’s favorite lines when anyone was having a bad day was, “You just need a nap and a Fig Newton.” As if to imply that a little rest and a sweet little treat of a Newtons cookie would make all well in anyone’s world.

 

 

 

 

I am not sure if this was a line off of a Fig Newtons commercial, or just something my Mom thought up, but regardless, to this day, the mere thought of a Fig Newton brings a warm and fuzzy feeling to me.

 

Back to the new Newtons cookies.

 

These little gems are made with real fruit and dark fudge and boast 8g of whole grains per 31g serving. (That's pretty healthy!)

 

 

Oh, and they are pretty too.

 

My hands down favorite were the Fruit Thins Coconut Drizzled with Dark Fudge, closely followed on its heels by the Fruit Thins Banana Drizzled with Dark Fudge. The Fruit Thins Coconut Drizzled with Dark Fudge are very, very tasty, and the Fruit Thins Banana Drizzled with Dark Fudge are a great competitor to anyone's homemade banana bread. Please visit newtonscookies.com to take a look at all their new Fruit Flavors and also get access to great tips there too!!!

 

 

Seriously, these days, my free time is at a premium, and when I opened the package, I was impressed with the cuteness of the cookies, along with the heavenly smell that came from them.

 

Perfect for keeping a supply of them on hand for serving up to guests that might stop by, as well as a nice little before bedtime snack for me. I can just keep them tucked away in my pantry. (Now, that’s a nice little plus for a busy gal like me…as long as I don’t eat them all up before guests happen to stop by.)

 

 

Be sure to check out the Newtons brand page on BlogHer.com to read other bloggers’ posts.

Weekly Words To Live by.

Talking about our problems is our greatest addiction. Break the habit. Talk about our joys.

                              Rita Schiano

Wax build up.

I don't know about you, but for me, having my home smell inviting has always been just as important as making it look inviting.The smell of fresh baked muffins; cinnamon, and spices, or fresh peaches or apples. Oh yes, it sends me.

Always.

I used to be a total and complete simmering potpourri gal back in the 90's (am I dating myself here?) and more than once I turned on my stove to simmer my applejack and peel simmering stuff, only to forget about it until the smoke alarm would go off and I'd inevitably come racing downstairs to a house full of smoke and stench of burned-to-a-crisp potpourri.

Oh, true story here- I remember a friend putting her simmering potpourri in a crock pot, and her elderly father lived with her. Well, she had the yummy smell of applejack going (it was our favorite) and left the house while he had a couple of friends over. (Can you guess where I am going with this?) Mmmm hmmm. He served it up to his pals, thinking it was cider she had made for him to share.

Lousy tasting cider.

She ended up calling the hospital to make sure they would all be okay. True story, as I said.

Anyway.

After the millennium, I got into candles. Yankee candles and Yankee candle-wanna-be's. Apple cider in autumn, pine and berries at Christmas, and peach for spring and summer. The trouble with candles as scent-makers is that you need them all over the house and I always would forget to blow out one or fourteen of them when leaving the house and was always then half worried I was gonna burn the house down. (Obviously not too worried, as I am pretty sure I alone kept Yankee Candle in business until about 2009)

Fast forward to about 2011, when I discovered the wax burning electric simmer pots...you know, Scentsy. (And WalMart's Scentsy-Poser brands that aren't half bad either.)

Sweet home Alabama.

Finally a safe way to scent my home, and no side effects or potential 911 calls to speak of.

Other than what to do with the wax after I burned and melted all the fragrance out of it, I mean. I felt bad tossing the little saucer shaped wax wedges into the trash.

So, I didn't.

I used a big zip-lock bag to save them in.

And so it was. Me burning my scents daily, and collecting an ungodly amout of wax wedges in...well, lets just say several zip-lock bags and leave it at that...

Finally, after saving these wedges in the laundryroom cupboard for a few months, I took myself to GoodWill and scored a super cheap aluminum cooking pot.

I plopped the wax wedges in my thrifted pot...

 

...and heated the stove top up on medium. It didn't take long at all. I whipped out an old cupcake pan (as you might imagine, I have no shortage of cupcake pans...if you need one, run yourself down to a thrift store and grab one.)

I plopped cupcake papers and shredded cedar (You get it in the pet section of the grocery store, and you get a lifetime supply for under three bucks here.) into the cupcake pan...

 

...and poured a moderate amount of melted wax into each.

 

 

Just enough to hold the shred all in and make little "cupcakes".

(Yes, I know they look like incredible little spice muffins..)

 

These are the most amazing fire starters anyone has ever used. Place just one in your fireplace, wood burning stove, or fire pit on your patio, and then pile on your kindling and wood.

Light it, and it will get your entire fire going. You see, the wax makes the cedar cupcake burn for a good long while, which helps to catch all of the wood in your fireplace on fire, and youa re in business.

It makes me feel extra good, knowing that these fragrant wax melts are doing double duty.

Oh, happy day!

I've added a new e-banner kit to my etsy shop. It's designed with dark grey letters and the sweetest little birds on big key rings for the ends (or printed alone as a solo piece of art.) It's an e-kit, which means you simply download it after purchasing, and then you can print it out as often as you like, and create a different look each time, depending on your paper choice!(Click here to see the kit on etsy.)

Here, I printed the banner on some darling yellow chevron stripe scrapbook paper...

....and it also came out great when I printed it a third time, on old book pages.

Oh, the possibilities are endless!

Weekly words to live by.

Stop holding yourself back.

A tale of two cities.

I know.

You thought I told you that I lived in Camas, Washington.

Well, you are right. In the most literal sense, I do.

But, there's another place I live a fairly good portion of the time. It's a fabulous place, where I feel euphorically happy 24/7 and life is always good.

It's a little slice of heaven called Traceyville.

Let me tell you how I get there:

Whenever I get a really great new idea, it is nearly always followed by a brain-flood of other ideas that come blasting into my mind, like a domino effect, and I find myself in Traceyville lick-etty-split, where I can visualize just how they can look if when I get to them all. (In Traceyville, I always get to them all...because there are an extra four hours in every day there, and I invariably seem to stay on task!) I can imagine 500 crafty or entertaining ideas in five minutes, and see them all...completed perfectly in record time (and without ever leaving a mess!)...in Traceyville.

Likewise, when I am having a bad day in Washington, I might end up catching the train to Traceyville, where I only find close parking spaces, never run out of Pepsi Maxx, and the biggest serious life issue at hand is figuring out which cute pair of shoes to wear. In Traceyville, there are no pity parties.

Ever.

You see, in Traceyville, everyday is a good hair day. People from all over America live solely to see what the next incredible tablescape I come up with looks like, and I can eat homemade coconut ice cream non-stop without ever thinking about it finding a home on my hips.

Or my patootie.

Or my where-ever.

In Traceyville, I am constantly a stunning example of cutting edge fashion, whether I am mowing the yard, or going to work. Folks cannot believe I am old enough to have six grandchildren. I never, ever find a stray eyebrow on my chin.

Ralph absolutely hangs on my every word in the sweet town of  Traceyville, and he is gob-smacked at my never-ending ability to make cuter-than-the-last-time place cards for our little dinner table. My lip gloss never needs refreshing.

I have a fabulous supply of overstock custom banners and papercrafts neatly tucked away, waiting to go on the shelves in my case at Camas Antiques, and Michelle Obama's secretary just emailed me about possibly doing invitations for one of the girl's birthday parties.

Oh yes.

Traceyville.

Do you have a place like Traceyville that you go to on occasion? If so, what do you do (or not do!) there?

Hmmm?

Cutie-patootie french fry holders.

 

Oh yeah, we love us some homemade french fries at our house.

Mmmm hmmm. Our barbecue sports a deep fryer on one end of it (A killer deal on craigslist a couple of summers ago!) and when we make burgers, we make fries...of course.

Well, I came up with a vintage-y fun way to serve up our fries, and I wanted to share it with you all today!

They're simple vintage mattress springs. I found mine here. (Gotta love etsy!) They arrived within days of my purchase, and I couldn't wait to break them in!

I used simple parchment paper, sold in rolls at the grocery store o(next to the aluminum foil) cut in a triangle (tear off a square and then cut it diagonally to form two triangles)and then shaped into a cone, and placed in the center of each spring.

I placed the freshly cooked french fries in the cones, and placed the cones by everyone's place settings.

Ridiculous cute.

And functional, holding a good sized serving of fries for each of us.

Do you love it?

Coconut limeade smoothies.

We've been enjoying some pretty fabulous weather here in the Pacific Northwest, and warm weather makes me think of ice cream. Ice cream makes me think of coconut, and when I spotted a recipe for coconut limeade smoothies the other day on Pinterest, I knew we had to make up a batch.

Oh. My.

So yummy.

All coconut-y smoothness with a hint of citrus-y lime.

Ice-cream-headache-worthy goodness.

These babies are filling, so one smoothie is pretty much all I could imagine drinking, but...oh! Such a treat.

Weekly words to live by...

Weekly words to live by.

Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.