DIY, Recipes and Crafts!
Does anyone else walk around the house singing songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas, or is it just me? I do not know what it is, but I just LOVE Halloween! I love Halloween Crafting, and I especially love coming up with fun Halloween Recipes that range from fun to gory! Today, I opted to stay kind of neutral can make these easy DIY Bloody Apples. They are super easy to make, especially if you do not want to make traditional candy apples.
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If you know me, you know that I have a passion for all things Harry Potter. Even though it is just August, I already have Christmas on the mind. I like to do a lot of handmade gifts, so in order to get my shopping done on time, I start early. So, today I am sharing some of my favorite Harry Potter Gift Ideas!
If you are a Wizard, Muggle, or Mud Blood, there is something for everyone on this list of Harry Potter Gift Ideas!
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This post is sponsored by Acorn Influence, but all options are my own.
If you have been around for a while, you will know that we have been slowly, very slowly, remodeling our home. Last year we completely remodeled the first floor, from raising the floors to scrapping popcorn off of the ceilings. The kids rooms are on the first floor, but we ran out of steam and while the rooms were completed, they were not really decorated.
We decided to start with the girls room. She picked out her paint color and bedding, and being 13 we wanted her to have a room she could grow into. She loves bright colors and is big into video games, so that is what we went with as her theme. The first thing we did was trash her old mattress. It was a few years old and it was time for an upgrade. Since we wanted to maker her room both functional and fun, it only made sense that we started with the most used piece of furniture, her bed and mattress.
We opted to get her the Mainstays Twin mattress from Walmart. I love that the mattress was shipped right to my door in a box, so I did not have to try to lug it home some how. You also have the option of picking them up with In-Store pickup if you would prefer to head to the store yourself.
When you remove it from the box, it is vacuumed sealed to compress it for shipping.
All I had to do was unwrap it and let it decompress for 48 hours.
While that was happening Eclipse, the cat, claimed the box as his new kingdom…
The Dorel Home Products Mattresses are CertiPur, which means that they contain certified flexible polyurethane foam. According to The Girl, the mattress is very comfortable and she loves it.
I have been shopping around for memory foam mattresses for a while, and so far I am very happy with the decision to go with the Mainstays Twin mattress. Now, I just have to get a second one for The Boy when we start working on his room in the next few weeks.
I have been a little MIA this past month, but for good reason. The day the kiddos were released for summer break, I started back to school again. I know, perfect timing right? Between school, work, and launching my new Etsy shop, things have been a little crazy around here. But, between all of the madness, I finally got around to making this DIY Backlit Sign. It cost less than $10 to make, and I love how it turned out.
The Boy has a very large closet, so big, it is actually the size of a standard room. Instead of doing built in closet storage, we have opted to turn it into what he likes to call his “Lego Office”. The closet has a large window, but I wanted to add some extra lighting for when he is in there playing in the evening. This DIY Backlit sign does the perfect job. I especially love that the LED lights can rotate through all of the colors.
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Making soap has always been a passion of mine. I love making cold process soaps because they are easy to work with, but hot process has its advantages as well. With hot process soaps, you do not have to wait for the soap to cure for a few weeks; you can use it as soon as it is hard. I also love how rustic hot process soap looks. Since this is the first real, hand made, soap I am sharing here, I decided we should start off easy with a simple Homemade Castile Soap Recipe.
Homemade Castile soap is great for a number of reasons. While it does not give off a rich, thick lather, it has a high level of glycerin. Glycerin is great for moisturizing the skin, and is gentle on the skin. Because it is a gentle soap, it is great for children and pets. You can melt it down to make liquid hand soap, body wash, face wash and laundry soap.
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The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.
I love my KitchenAid mixer, it is probably one of my most used tools in the kitchen. I have owned the original full sized model for over 10 years and it is still going strong. There was only one small, well big, problem. When we moved into our current home I had to store it in my pantry, and if you own a KitchenAid mixer, you will know that they can be heavy to lug from room to room.
When Best Buy sent me a notification that there was now a new KitchenAid mixer on the market, I knew that I had to have one. The new KitchenAid Artisan Mini packs the punch of the full size mixer but is 20% smaller and 25% lighter!
You can see in the photo above, the Artisan mini is in front of my larger, original mixer. It may not look like much of a difference, but since I use my mixer in my kitchen, as well as in my office when shooting videos, it makes a big difference.
I dreaded having to lug my larger mixer across the house into my office, but now it is no longer a chore. Which means, that I will be posting a lot more yummy recipes!
The best part is that I do not have to worry about buying new attachments either. The Artisan Mini is compatible with all hub-based stand mixer attachments. They also come in a large assortment of colors as well. I am in love with the red!
Even with the smaller size, you can still mix up to 5 dozen cookies in the in 3.5 quart stainless steel bowl. It also features 10 mixing speeds and comes with the dough hook, 6-wire whip, and coated flat beater.
If you have been debating on getting a KitchenAid mixer because you were afraid it would take up space, there is no excuse now. The KitchenAid Artisan Mini is compact, but it still packs the power you need to whip up something yummy!
The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.
Lets face it, laundry is a chore that no one really wants to do. In my home, laundry seems to double in the summer. With wet towels, grass stains, and other random food smeared all over, my kids could keep me doing laundry forever. Plus, with all of the extra washing, clothes wear out so much faster.
Last year we renovated our laundry/pantry area, and it quickly became one of my favorite rooms in the house. The only downside is that our renovation budget did not allow for a new washer and dryer. Thankfully though, we are finally in the market to purchase one and thanks to Best Buy, I think we found the perfect washer. The LG Front Load Washer is SideKick compatible, which means that you have the ability to wash two loads at once.
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I took a few weeks off to prepare for summer, and get my new Etsy shop up and running. I have to say though, I have missed doing DIY projects. To kick off the summer months, I found a bunch of white shirts on clearance and decided to give them an upgrade. This DIY Vintage Shirt is so easy to make, and you probably already have everything you need on hand!
You can customize these DIY Vintage shirts with any design you want! I had to go with a classic Captain American shirt, but you can do any design you want!
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A few weeks ago I shared a fun Edible Unicorn Horn Recipe, and it was pretty popular. I wanted to do a popcorn recipe for a while, so I figured why not a Unicorn Popcorn Recipe? The recipe is pretty easy, and you can make as many, or as few colors as you like! 
You can also make this Unicorn Popcorn recipe is so many fun flavors! I used French Vanilla Coffee Creamer and it turned out so yummy! The popcorn coating is not hard like a caramel popcorn, but if that is what you are looking for, you can follow my Zombie Bait Recipe to get a hard crunchy layer on the outside of the popcorn. …
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day is right around the corner! One of my favorite things to do with the kiddos is make hand made gifts to give to their Grandparents. This DIY Faux Stain Glass Art is simple enough that the kids can make them, but can also be customized!
I decided to make a Spider Man Faux Stain Glass, but like I said, you can do what ever you want. If you have to buy everything, it cost you under $5 to make! I already had everything on hand, so it cost me absolutely nothing!
To see exactly how easy this DIY Faux Stain Glass Art Project is, check out the video below!
The only down side to this project is waiting for everything to dry. You can always speed up this process by using a blow dryer on low heat to dry everything. If you have a steady hand and an eye for drawing, you can free hand your image. Since I have neither, I just did a quick Google Search for coloring pages and found one that I liked.
This project turned out great, and it was so much fun to make! If you love Nerdy Crafts, be sure to check out our Nerds Only section. We also put out new DIY videos on our YouTube Channel every week, so be sure to subscribe!
