Well Dressed Servants

Everyone was born to do something well.

Some find their calling, others never do.

Thankfully I learned mine early on.

I am called 

to be good

to servants.

It's a job I take very seriously.  
A well maintained staff is a happy staff.

Kirby - she takes care of my floors.

The WP twins who take care of our laundry.

Teriffic Trane - he keeps my house cool in summer.
Vivacious Viking - she seams our curtains, clothing.

Beautiful Betty Bosch - she mixes our bread dough.
Com Ed - who is leased monthly. He oversees all the others.

And Plain Jane, my Kitchen Aid mixer.  

I purchased her at a garage sale for $50 

9 years ago.

She has been a well behaved, dependable servant.
Never giving me any lip 
when I ask her 
to whip up tree-bark-and-gravel 
(whole wheat)
 muffins one day
and clog-ya-heart-right-up
buttercream frosting the next.

She had been getting 
a little blue (wink) 

after seeing this custom outfit

 worn by one of her cousins over at 
The Pioneer Woman.

Now I do hate to see such a fine servant 

pining for something pretty to wear;

so I contacted Sweet Sarah over at Olive Tree Works

and told her the sad, sad story of Plain Jane.

I explained that 

Plain Jane was born a cookie cutter 

"There are a million just like me"

but is a actually a one-of-a-kind-hippy-girl at heart.

Sweet Sarah understood perfectly and 

designed something just for her!

Left Side

Right Side

Now Pulchritudinous Jaynne 
(the artist formerly known as Plain Jane)
feels like she has finally
earned her stripes.


You know how it is though, 
if you get something for one
the others start looking wistful.


I think I may be calling 
Sweet Sarah again soon.
Wouldn't the fridge look lovely 
in some pearls and lace?

  

LIM vs MIM DIY liquid soap

There are two kinds of people in the world

LIMS 

(less is more)

and 

MIMS

 (more is more) 

LIMS 

(poor deluded souls they) 

 skimp by with one pat of butter on their toast.

You often hear them saying (terrible) things like

"No, I think I'll skip the whip cream on top"

and 

(worse still) 

"Skim milk please".

 MIMS 

(happy souls are we)

realize that we are going to be dead 

a LONG time

and that one can never 

TRULY 

be too rich 

(as in flavor)

or have too much volume 

in ones hair.

I have friends, LIMS, 

who I am certain are good people.

They make life sooo much easier for me

since when we shop/eat together 

(due to their restraint)

there is 

always

more for me.

Rarely do MIMS and LIMS agree

but here

today

they can!

Can't you just feel the 

spirit of brotherly love filling the room?

"How?"

you ask

So glad you did.

Observe:

2 bars soap - 8 oz total

(4 bars for $3 at the health food store)

grated

added to one gallon of boiling water

plus 

2 TBSP liquid glycerin (drug store or grocery store)

Stir together into a soapy soupy mixture.

Let it sit about 10 hours.

It will look goopy and slimy

 so stir, stir, stir.

I used my immersion handheld blender 

to mooch it up.

I also added in 20 drops of 

peppermint oil,

after it had cooled,

for a clean yummy smell.

Pour into your gallon jug 

Fill the liquid dispensers in your house 

and do the happy dance every time you wash

 Mr. Nasty Germ and his buddies off your hands.

HAPPY HAPPY DAY

the MIMS are happy

more soap is better right?

The LIMS are happy

less hard earned dollars

 spent on liquid soap

is better right?

TADA!  

You have just saved yourself a 

whollop of moola.  

More is more people rejoice.

Less is more people rejoice!

MIMS and LIMS 

for 

once

agree.

I might even get some kind of peace prize for this.

Next up,

world peace.

********

Give credit where credit is due:

I learned this handy dandy little diddy of a recipe

here;

she has lovely photos of the whole process.

Doodle Bug Boots

I have been drooling over cowboy boots lately.  

Not the stomp-in-the-pasture-through-the-muck cowboy boots, 

no thank you, 

I am drooling over the girly-girl kind.  

Like these

Ahhhh, yes.

These lovely Lucchese boots (zappos.com) can be mine for the bargain price of $499.

No, I did not forget to put the decimal point in the right place.  

Four. Hundred. And. Ninety. Nine. 

DOLLARS.

I guess they were made from the hide of a sacred cow

tanned with the gums of identical twin toothless infants

and stitched with threads made from 

albino unicorn hide.

Why else the price?

  Or these little darlings

Yes indeedie, 

these Old Gringo babies can be purchased for for a mere $514.50

You just gotta love that they added in that 50 cents on the end.  

Every penny counts right?

I've been scouring the thrift stores and Goodwill

hoping that some cowgirl wanna-be purchased a pair

to impress some guy

then lost interest

and is shucking the boots 

along with Mr. Uh-uhhh.

So far, 

no such shucking 

going on 'round here.

I did, however, find these.

$3 at the thrift store.

What a deal.

Remembering my 

Coldwater Creek leather jacket experiment

I grabbed my trusty-rusty black sharpie marker 

and set to work.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that 

all that doodling

won't pay off.

It just might.

 I thought it needed a liiiiiittle bit more.

After all,

more is better.

Always.

And a few whiles later

taaa-daaaaaa

So if you have been a'hankering 

(that is red-neck for smitten with desire)

Grab your little self a sharpie

and get to work.

OR....

if you have some lovely, unwanted cowboy boots

give me a holler and I'll

take those puppies off your hands.

Mr. Uh-uhhhh

you'll have to shuck yourself.

Mama Rachel's Fat & Sassy Velvety Vanilla Liquid Love Hot Chocolate Mix

Mama Rachel's 

Fat & Sassy Velvety Vanilla 

Hot Chocolate Mix

aka

Liquid Love

WARNING ~ you may get fat just reading this recipe.

If you stumbled here looking for a healthy, 

slim, or otherwise lite version, 

you are in the WRONG place.

There are things that you should/can skimp calories on.  

Hot chocolate is not one of them.  

Living where it is bone freezing cold many days of the year, 

hot chocolate, 

 is one of our winter necessities.

My version of an old favorite recipe

(or Liquid Love as I like to call it)

is guaranteed to slap a smile on the most

winter weary of faces,

warm up the most frozen of fingers

and ease cranky children into bed 

with a gentle nudge.

I'm not one for doing things fifty-million times, 

so big batches are better, 

for me.

I have experimented with this recipe, 

and YES I do realize it calls for 

waaaaay more goodies

than it absolutely has to have

but then again, 

when it comes to cream, flavor and all around yumminess,

more

 is

 better.

Ok, so enough of my yammering.  

Here is the how-to.

~~~~

A Jar

Mason Jars, Spaghetti Sauce jars, 

Miracle whip jars,

any 'ol jar/container with a lid will do.

If you decide to share

simply 

wrap your jar with a ribbon

and spread the love.

Warning, this is as addictive as liquid crack

and sharing is SURE to have someone 

knocking on your door in the middle of the night

wanting more.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

~~~~~

The Goodies

Dry milk (25 oz)

1.5 cups powdered sugar

1.5 cups Vanilla powdered coffee creamer

2 cups powdered coffee creamer (unflavored)

2 boxes chocolate pudding mix

1 box vanilla pudding mix

1.5 cups coco powder 

~~~~~

The Mess

It is going to be messy.

You WILL have powdered sugar and coco

in your nose.

Sift your sugar and coco.

Otherwise there will be lumps

OR

pour it all together and then run it 

2 cups at a time through the 

blender. 

It should look like this when it is properly

unlumped.

~~~~~~

Nestle in a spoon and

VIOLA

you are ready for some

Liquid Love

To Make

We warm our milk (whole please) in the microwave 

until piping hot

add a generous, 

piled up as high as you can get it, 

running over

honking big scoop full.

Stir.

Sip.

Moan with delight.

Repeat tomorrow.

Add in's

*

I add a pinch of cayenne pepper to mine

it warms you right up

inside and out.

*

At Thanksgiving I add in a tablespoon of 

pureed pumpkin per cup and a dash of McCormick pumpkin pie seasoning.

*

At Christmas time I add a teaspoon of crushed up peppermints per cup.

*

Honey Pie likes his w a spoon of Vanilla.

*

Lincoln Log likes his with floating clouds,

you may know them as

marshmallows. 

*

On special days

we make it 

(I can't even type this with a straight face) 

with 

half & half.

And when reeeeeally skinny people

come over

they get  

theirs made with

heavy 

cream.

~~~~

Last but not least

here is a snapshot of 

Liquid Love

and

her sister

Oatmeal Bliss.

Think liquid oatmeal cookies in a bowl

for breakfast.

Or a before bed snack.

Yum!

Boutique Cake Domes

As previously mentioned, I suffer from HE.

 Heirloom Envy.

You know... 

the longing for old fashioned things

lovingly used and passed on.

***

I soothe my inner ache for handed downs 

by making my own

both to use 

and to pass down 

to 

Baby Girl 

and 

my 3 

someday daughters.

***

Since there are going to be 

4 girls 

to pass on goodies to, 

I have AMPLE reason to 

make a lot of them!

Who will may love them too.

***

Here is the newest one in our collection.

One Goodwill Cake Dome with flat top

$1.99

Possible tops from the button collection,

cut from vintage clothing from Garage Sales.

The Winner

Several generous dollops of waterproof glue

(E-6000)

Wait 24 hours 

and 

TA-DAAA

instant heirloom

See my tutorial to make the cake stands here

Miniskirt Madness

I looooove the Anthropologie/Boutique/ art-to-wear-style.

 Excuse me, 

I have to pause to wipe the drool off my keyboard 

as I type those words....

wipe wipe wipe.

I can't explain why, but it just speaks to me.

Like this top, 

which I'm guessing was stitched together 

with solid gold thread and a bone needle, 

handcarved from the skeleton of some extinct animal.

 No doubt it's fabric is spun by the lilly white hands of a

100 year old temple priestess of some tribe 

sequestered high on a mountain, 

reachable only once a year.

By donkey. 

 That is the ONLY reason I can imagine it 

being worth the $428 price tag.

However, since I am NOT a world wide best selling author,

 my clothing budget behooves me to keep my 

greedy little paws OFF these type of little jewels.  

It's a touch-with-your-eyes-not-your-hands kind of relationship 

I have going on with Anthropologie & art-to-wear.

Thankfully, there IS a store that provides me with these type of goodies.  

Think Horchow meets Ikea.  

You know, faaaaaaabulous things + some assembly required.  

My personal favorite is St. Vincent DePaul on Farnsworth Ave. 

On .89 days 

I might near hurt myself 

so delirious with delight am I. 

Awhile back I lost some weight, 

no wait, 

lost 

is hardly the term to describe it. 

 I with great determination and intentional food choices 

rid my body of over 30 lbs of lumpy lard. 

Yuck, I know, but painfully true. 

I have plenty to go yet, but one bite at a time, I'll get there.  

So I have a CLOSET FULL of too big's.  

Yippie.  

What to do with them?  

Artiste my self right into happyland of course.

***

Here is my first project.  

One too big shirt

(from the closet)

Plus 

one miniskirt (from the thrift store) 

which I'm SURE had some employee eyeballs a'rollin

EQUALS

Stripes Gone Wild

or 

Rachel's miniskirt madness.

***

Here is how

***

Place a shirt that fits well on top of a shirt that is too big

***

 Lay a shirt that fits on top and chalk mark the new seams.

***

Cut along your chalk lines and trim.

***

Fold shirt in half to make sure the sides are even. Trim if needed.

***

Lay the shirt out and pin your ruffles, new fabric, miniskirt etc on top and sew.

I opened one of the side seams on the miniskirt and trimmed off part of the top.  

Since I did not want ruffles around the back, and it was a child sized miniskirt,

 I used the whole thing on the front.  I tapered its sides into the side seams of the shirt.

***

For the sleeve addition I cut strips of black tshirt from a black scrap one and zigzagged the sleeves to give it a ruffled edge and sewed to the sleeve hem.

***

I also sliced up the back of the shirt 

and inserted a triangle of black tshirt fabric to give it some flair. 

 I forgot to photograph that process though.  

Will do a tutorial on that another time.

***

Fare thee well, I hope this gives you some ideas for 

upcycling some lifeless garments in your closet.

Flower Power Wedding Shower

Marvelous Mel 

is getting married.  

Her 

Flower Power Wedding Shower 

was as bright and cheery 

as she is. 

  

Tissue Paper Flowers

We used large pointy ones on the fireplace/gift station. 

And small round edged ones on the food table.

Directions  at Martha Stewarts tutorial
or watch a video tutorial here

The big ones are about $1 each to make, the small ones .40

Or if you are not the make it yourself type 

you can order them from BHLDN here

~Felt Flower~

Mel's corsage is a felted wool flower

I'll make a tutorial for it... someday soon.

Decorations

Black tablecloths with scrunched hot pink muslin

1950's white glass vases w yellow/pink/orange flowers and glitter butterflies

~ Favors ~

scented pillow sachets with ribbon hangers

Food

 Cakes

The flower cakes (pink & orange) are sooo easy to make.  

If you can make a circle, you can do this cake!!  Tutorial here

The orange one was the same circles, just a different piping tip.

Serving Plates

The tall serving pieces (cakes, cheese ball, crackers) 

were made from flower shaped 

vintage plates & candlesticks. 

BHLDN sells similar ones see them here at $78 each

You can make them for less than $3 tutorial here

 Party Pictures

Oops...

thankfully it was down to the last layer 

before it tumbled