Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

This salad is so good it should be called yummy salad x 2. It's a variation of a salad my Mom used to make, I just added a few different ingredients and subtracted some ingredients I don't care for. I invite you to do the same, add and subtract to create your own yummy-ful masterpiece!

Ingredients:

• 1 bag Rotini pasta
• 1/2 a bottle to a whole bottle of Kraft Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette (depending on how much you like salad dressing ).
• 1 can black Olives, left whole or chopped.
• 1 small plastic carton of Cherry Tomatoes, left whole or chopped in half.
  
• 1/2 an Onion diced.
• 1 Cucumber diced.
• Salt
• Pepper

How to prepare:

1. Fill a large pot with water, salt the water. Bring the water to a boil and add pasta. Cook the pasta until Al Dente. Put a large Colander in the sink and dump pasta into it to drain the water. Run cold water over the pasta while it is still in the Colander. Make sure to drain all the water from the pasta then pour it into a large mixing bowl. Salt and pepper it to your liking and toss it to mix.
   
2. Wash all the vegetables and dice them. Drain the black Olives and chop them. Add vegetables and Olives to the pasta, toss together well.
3. Add the Sun-Dried Tomato dressing to the mixture and toss well again. Taste a noodle to make sure you put the right amount of salad dressing on. Start off putting very little in, after all you can always add more, but you can't take it back out!
4. Enjoy your salad, make sure to keep it refrigerated and it should stay good for about a week.
   

Domo-kun Marshmallows

I just found this website recently called Anna The Red's Bento factory. If you don't know what Bento is I advise you go take a look at her blog, you'll be just as fascinated as I was when I first saw it! When I saw this tutorial for Domo-kun Marshmallows on her site I almost wet my pants with excitement...I mean who doens't love Domo-kun ?

I have been working on some Domo-kun cookies and hope to post the how-to for those someday soon. I seem to have a back up of projects, and even though it's been a couple of months I'm still getting the hang of this blogging thing...who knows, someday I might even have an audience! ;P

Happy Earth Day!

Craft supplies

I can remember when I was in grade school and first found out about Earth Day, I was the only one I knew of who celebrated it. It is so refreshing now days to see so many people celebrating and participating in Earth Day festivities! I have decided to challenge myself over the next couple of weeks to use nothing but "junk" for my craft projects, as seen above! I hope you too challenge yourself to start thinking twice before you throw things out!


I also thought I'd share some great upcycling projects I've found on the web. I in the mean time am still working on upcycling my Grandpa's bowling ball. I've been so darn busy lately my crafting has fallen behind.

Light bulb Vase

This awesome upcycling project is from the Cut Out + Keep craft forum. Using an old light bulb and turning it into a cute little vase!

Very Stealthy Hide-a-Key

This creative project comes from Zakka Life, a great blog I check regularly for nifty ideas. This hide-a-key is a unique way to use all those old pill bottles or vitamin bottles instead of just throwing them into the land fills.

Happy Earth Day everyone!

Fuzzy Cupcake!

Cupcake and kitties

I came up with the idea for this cute little fuzzy cupcake one day while rummaging through my large collection of pom-poms. For some reason I have a strange fascination with cute little furry things...this of course includes craft pom-poms, so I've acquired quite a few. Another thing I have a slight obsession with is cupcakes, so naturally bringing the two loves together you get a tiny, fuzzy cupcake!

Oh, and excuse my wrinkly sheet for the backdrop. Since I don't have the most sophisticated photography equipment I've been trying new things to enhance my pictures and I've found that a white background definitely helps...you should just make sure you IRON that white background first! :)

The"Ingredients"

You'll Need-

• A large pom-pom, for the cupcake
  
• A small red pom-pom, for the cherry
  
• A mini-cupcake baking cup (found with the regular baking cups at most stores)
  
• Craft glue (I use Aleene's)'

Steps:

1. Put a dollop of glue at the bottom of the mini-cupcake baking cup.

2. Put the large pom-pom ( I picked a pink one) into the baking cup pressing it down into the glue. Let dry for a few minutes.

3. Using the craft glue again, glue the little red pom-pom (the cherry!) onto the top of the cupcake pom-pom, you might want to press it down for a few seconds until it holds on it's own. Let dry overnight.

4. Display your little cupcake or make a few to give away to friends or for party favors.

Pearly Easter Eggs

A Basket of Pretty!

These simple to make yet elegant Easter egg decorations are my Mom's crafty genius. She was flattered to be featured on my blog, apparently she doesn't know much about my blog or the fact that it's sadly lacking an audience...Anyway! I'm not really sure if I will ever reach my Mom's level of creative ingenuity but I'm working on it.



You'll Need-

• Styrofoam eggs
• Small plastic pearls by the yard (spool) in different colors
• Craft glue (I used Aleene's )
  
• Scissors
  
• Patience!

Steps:
As you can probably tell in the pictures the process is pretty easy, but patience is key with this project!

1. Using your finger (or a sponge) spread a generous amount of craft glue on the top half of the Styrofoam
egg.

2. With the plastic pearls still on their spool unwind just enough to start the top half. Keeping the pearls on the spool makes it easier to wind the pearls around the egg. Starting at the very tip top of the egg begin coiling the pearls around and holding them to the egg to ensure they stick to the glue.

3. After you have the top half done cut the pearl strand and glue the end down to the egg. I recommend letting that half dry for a while before staring the bottom half. Then grab your other color of pearls and begin applying glue and pearls as in the last two steps. When you get to the bottom of the egg cut the strand from the spool and glue the end down.

4. Let these eggs dry at least overnight before displaying

Happy Easter everyone!