It's what happens when I'm bored and it's 100 degrees outside....

I CRAFT!

I was inspired the other day, as I always am, by a post Valerie from Frugal Family Fun Blog. I have not crafted in minute and recently had been contemplating another textured art painting. It wasn't until I saw Valerie's donut post, that I knew I had to make my own!

So here it is in all it's Fake Yummy, real looking glory.

MY FELTED DONUTS AND BREAKFAST FOOD!

Okay, so don't they totally look real? I think so! 1 Maple Bar, I chocolate old fashion and you can't forget the sprinkled pink donut!

These were super simple to make and super cheap too. The felt was just $.29 cents per color square. I made them Saturday evening while the guys watched UFC.

I was so impressed with my felt donut making skills that I just wanted to make more food.

SO I DID!

A true breakfast is not completed without 2 pieces of bacon, 2 fried eggs and yes that sad looking cigar/poop thing, it's a sausage! I made a pancake Sunday morning, however it didn't come out too well.

I want to make hamburgers, as I think they'd be fun. We will see. I gave all my felt food to my nephew "Papa" since he has a play kitchen to which he uses. I'm just glad someone can benefit from my crafting skills.

BREAKFAST ANYONE?

Grow your own BOOBS!!

Literally! Yeah no I'm totally serious. You can grow your own BOOBS, and by that I don't mean you need to stuff your face and gain a lot of weight or take to the knife.

Do you remember those capsules as a kid that you place in a cup of water and after a few days a sponge looking dinosaur or what have you appears?

Well, these days, it's all about growing your own Boobs.



So the other day I was walking around the office and spotted a large metal bowl sitting on a desk. Naturally, being the curious, nosey person that I am, peaked in. At first glance I was like, "What the!!" So I turned and asked my co-worker, "What is that?" He laughed and said, "Well what does it look like?"



"BOOBS!"


So this morning when I came into work, the BOOBS were gone! For a minute I was like, "Well where did they go?" You see in the past two day's I had grown fond of the Boobs, I was missing them already and they weren't even mine to begin with.

Then as I turned around, I spotted them. For how could have missed them. In plain sight for all to see.


Yes that's a drummer statue that sits on a file cabinet in our office. Such creative co-workers! Yeah, that's a box of Jello under the drum stick. Ummm, I don't get it either.

I'm a tad bit disappointed, as they looked a lot bigger in the bowl of water. Still, NICE RACK!!

OMG TP NANNY REPLIED!!

Maybe they are not so bad! I mean shoot, at least they replied to my email unlike Reebok. Here's what TP Nanny had to say, if you have no clue what I'm talking about, then read my post from yesterday. I don't have time to explain, shoot I have to get to work.



Lisa,

I am glad we made you laugh!

We appreciate you placing our product on your blog. The TV test just finished up and we are starting to gain some momentum. The product looks a little "industrial" because those were prototype shots. The actual models will have a nice grain just like your bathroom hardware. Thank you for the comments, we value all feedback.

On the design front we have some great creative ideas that will be coming out later in the year to make the product more fun.

I love seeing people's inventions. I think you have a great idea and we wish you the best of luck should decide to pursue it further.

If you have any questions let me know. Maybe a free TP Nanny is in your future.

Sincerely,

Jason Light
Partner - Retail Sales and Marketing
TP Nanny

SO I REPLIED BACK!

Jason,

I'm surprised I received a response, it shows dedication on the company's part in regards to customer service. Kudos!! My readers have started to chime in about the product and all agree that the Industrial looking part of the product is a detour ant in them purchasing the item. One also commented on the commercial and how the editing of it needs to be cleaned up a little.

I can't wait to see how you all spice it up a bit to make it more fun. I truly believe you need to make it in some fun colors and patterns. Most of my 200+ followers are single, stay at home Mom's. What I would imagine to be your primary marketing targets. I'm sure If I did a giveaway you'd have over 200 hits to your website and possible purchases. I'm just saying, it's hard to resist that $9.99 price tag!

I wish the company all the best of luck and believe that great minds think a like. I don't have time to pursue the design and making of my product, nor the attention span. I'm off to create and craft my next newest idea, whatever that maybe!!

Sincerely, Lisa Anne
http://smellthecoffeelisa.blogspot.com

It's alright because you, ain't got Sh*t on ME!!

TPNanny VS T-POW

So back in March 2010 I posted a blog about a great invention I had created called the T-POW! If you don't remember just click on the hyper-link above. Isn't it so cool?

100% custom, handmade!

You choose the fabric to match your bathroom decor, perfectly!

Um, duh, if you can't figure out what it is, then let me explain. It's a decorative toilet paper protector so that your toilet paper doesn't end up looking like this:

You don't need to have cat's in your house to need a T-pow. How many of you have found their young child in the bathroom pulling the TP out of the bathroom and down the hall? What if you had neither and just wanted to SPICE up your bathroom decor. If you don't need it, I bet you want it!

With TWO young kittens in the house, I needed to think outside the box and thus the T-POW was born.

THEN IT HAPPENED!!!!

Last night I received a text from my sister to check out the website http://www.tpnanny.com/. It was then that I almost fell off my rocker (if i was sitting on one, I was at the gym leaving my Zumba class.) I didn't know if I should have laughed or cried.

All I thought was, OH DARN, I should have placed a patent on my design. OH WELL, what can I do now?

Check out how UGLY they are! How industrial looking and made of PLASTIC (not very GREEN). The downside, they only come in 3 colors. With the T-POW you have it any color, design or pattern you want.

I have to admit they appear to be a lot easier to use when you have to take a tinkle.

I don't know! WHICH WOULD YOU PREFER? I'll be posting a poll on the right side bar.

Please vote!

SO IF YOU KNOW ME, and I know most of you only know the Bloggy me, I WENT AHEAD AND EMAILED THE COMPANY.

Oh yeah, I wonder if they will respond and maybe send me a TPnanny to try out and or giveaway.

Enclosed below is the exact email.

TP Nanny Vs the T-POW‏
From: Lisa Pappas (smellthecoffeelisa@live.com)
Sent: Wed 6/09/10 10:37 AM
To: info@tpnanny.com

When my sister sent me the link to your website, we both almost died laughing. I thought I was the first to invent this. I have to toot my own horn and say that mine looks a lot cuter, not so industrial. Yours, however appears to be simpler to take off and on the roll. You should look into making the design look better.

Anyway, here is my version on the TPNanny, before I knew he TPNanny even existed.

http://smellthecoffeelisa.blogspot.com/2010/03/introducing-t-pow-patent-pending.html

Sincerely,

Lisa Anne
http://smellthecoffeelisa.blogspot.com

Building a Mission, Literally

My son had to build a Mission this year in his 4th grade class. His Mission was Santa Clara. I have to admit he picked a really boring mission.

It burnt down they re-built. It flooded they re-built. It burnt down they re-built. It was destroyed in an earthquake, they re-built. Not much more going on besides it being destroyed and re-built.

The interesting thing is the Mission became Santa Clara University and since we live about 30 minutes away from it, he is able to actually go to the site of the Mission. I think that's pretty cool!

So here is his Mission. His Dad and him built it (paper Mached) and painted it. Do you like the little farm animals I picked out? There were a lot of farm animals on the Mission as well.

Enjoy!

I POPPED my Podginity!!!!

Finally after months and months of talking about Modge Podge, I actually created a craft to where I needed to use. I love the stuff and am addicted to it like a Dope Feign is to crack. I want to Modge Podge EVERYTHING. This is the coolest stuff EVER!!

We are still in the process of painting The Boy's bathroom. It has been primed and the first coat has been put on the walls. I really couldn't find any art to which I liked to place in his bathroom, so I decided to get a little creative, with the help of JESSICA OVER AT OH SO HAPPY TOGETHER and her textured wall art. Yes you've probably seen the link at the top of my blog.

While I was pulling out my paints, I found some wooden plaques to which I was saving to make chalkboards. I instantly was inspired by a painting in my house and thought hmmmm, I can make that.

It's funny how with a few items such as those shown above, and a really cheap budget, $1.20 for the wood board, the paint was $.38 cents each and the tape we had left over from painting. You can create such divine art such as:


Um YES I MADE THOSE! All three of them. My favorite is the squares. The BF's favorite is the lines. I like the circles, I just think it's missing something. These were super easy to paint. I Modge Podged them once they were fully dry. They were very dull looking and looked unfinished before the Modge Podge. I'm telling you this stuff is amazing.



Oh YEAH! A perfect match.

After I had made the three paintings above I just wanted to make more. So I went to Michaels and bought 3 canvas's for $5.99 and some modeling paste. I was ready to re-create Jessica's Textured art.

Once you have the modeling paste spread out all over your canvas (I used a steak knife) you want to let it dry completely. I love this stuff as much as I love the Modge Podge. This was super easy and I'm going to make another one for the downstairs bathroom we've already re-modeled.

Once it is dry, I just squirted the paint colors (Same exact ones I used in the paintings) all over the board. I then used a paintbrush to spread the paint around.

Isn't it beautiful? I love it!! Once the paint was completely dry, I Modge Podged this as well. It now has a beautiful glossy shine!

Here are all 4 pieces patiently awaiting to be hung in The Boy's bathroom. I will be using those new command strips to hang them on the walls. No more nails!!

Ahh Modge Podge.

Let me tell you a few things about it, that I wish I had known so long ago.

1) This stuff simple ROCKS.

2) Do NOT use a foam brush to apply this. The foam came off the brush and little black spots started to dry on my paintings. Apply with a paint brush.

3) This looks like glue, is sticky like glue and comes out white like glue. I thought I ruined my paintings.

4) Have no fear, it drys CLEAR!

This is a must have for any painting project. It's really cheap at Michael's, $5.99 and I had a 40% off coupon.

Future Hall of Famer?? I Don't think So!

We can pretend though. We all know that The BF is a die hard Dallas Cowboys fan. If you didn't know that well, yeah....

He named our bird (Who sadly past away last week after 4 yrs) Romo. After Tony Romo of course.

He named our newest Kitten Emmitt. After Emmitt Smith, who's now in the Hall of Fame. It was like, The BF's tribute to Emmitt Smith.

Being the Cowboys fan that he is, me I'm a Seahawks fan. It only seem appropriate that Emmitt have his own Cowboys Pillow.

So being the creative crafter that I am, I decided to make Emmitt the pillow he so deserves. This literally took me maybe 5 minutes to make. It was my first pillow. Can someone tell me how to cleanly sew the pillow closed after you stuff it. I ran it through the sewing machine as best I could, and yeah up close it doesn't look so pretty.

The results, a super happy Emmitt, who loves his new pillow and a super jealous Chloe who needs one of her own. Not a Cowboys one, but something pink and furry, because she is a princess.

I know the pillow is ginormous. He's a really long kitten so it's actually going to be perfect once he gets bigger.

He loves it so much. He was laying in front of the fireplace on it for hours last night. My cute little purring boy!

Introducing the T-POW!!! Patent Pending

I know I have been in a crafting funk. I've also been really busy and have not had the time to craft even if I wanted to.

Until I saw THIS! Again for the 100th time.

IF YOU HAVE A SMALL CHILD OR A KITTEN, THEN YOU WILL NEED THIS!

IF YOU HAVE A BATHROOM WITH A TOILET, THEN YOU WILL WANT THIS!

Introducing the T-POW!

A custom designed decorative toilet paper protector. Do you see those decorative buttons? Oh yeah that's so the T-POW fits around the TP as the roll gets smaller and smaller. I kept these buttons plain because I didn't want to take aways from the fabric. The buttons could be a great way to "fancy" it up!


YOU KNOW YOU WANT ONE TOO! It looks so good in the new bathroom. I hope to make curtains with the same fabric. I LOVE the fabric. It matches perfectly!!


My neighbor Dori assisted me with the design. I almost used Velcro instead of making this pretty loop to go over the buttons.


I'm even going to make one for The Boy's bathroom. His buttons are green. Fancy! This picture hardly does the fabric or the buttons justice. It's the perfect color green.


The T-POW is super easy to make and doesn't take a lot of time. I'm making a Dallas Cowboy's one for my Co-Worker. I've already got orders placed. Would you use the T-POW?

HELP, I'm in dire need of some INSPIRATION

I have not crafted in what seems like FOREVER! I feel as if I've lost my MOJO, my inspiration. I need your help in finding me some super easy, really fun and cool craft blogs for me to follow.


I wish I was creative enough to think up crafty crafts on my own, however I'm just not that cool.



Come on, Inspire me. I triple dog dare you!

Root Beer, YUM!

The Boy received a really cool Root beer making kit from our neighbor's D and A for Christmas. Saturday after bowling and before penguin making, we decided to make the yummy Root Beer.

Items needed to make your Root Beer.

My brown sugar was hard as a rock. I hope I got enough out to where it will taste right. If not, it's okay because the kit allows you to make 8 bottles. We made four!

It smelled so good! As Rachel Ray always exclaims we need smell-o-vision, I'm declaring we need smellblogs.

Now we wait 3 days to 2 weeks for the flat Root Beer to naturally carbonate, before we can refrigerate and drink.





I know, the 4th bottle was not completely filled, we had some spillage. Opps.

She's Pregnant

Will it be a Boy or a girl? Hmmm.................

He's just going crazy wondering.

Congrats to the happy couple.

Penguins created by Maddie and her Mom Judy. Nothing like a Saturday spent crafting.

Brrrrr It's Cold In Here!

It's been a few months since the "crafty" side of me has come out. I've been on craft overload since Halloween.

However, it's just YOUR luck, because I'm back in the saddle and off to an intense start thanks to one of my FAVORITE blogs, FRUGAL FAMILY FUN BLOG!

Last week, Valerie and her daughter made this really cool penguin play set out of old stockings! Now in my household, penguins are our best friends. I mean hello, the background on my Mytouch is a bunch of rolly polley penguins. PO, our pet penguin also lives between the rails of our staircase (pictures can be found in other craft posts). So you can imagine when I saw her post, I couldn't wait to make one. Thanks Valerie for the inspiration.

If you are crafty and not following her blog, you should start now! Valerie also hosts "sewing in baby steps," for those of us who have sewing machines, and have no idea how to use them. I've taken 2 of her courses and have really enjoyed everything I've made (The Halloween Trick or Treat bags idea, came from her class.)

INTRODUCING, PENELOPE PENGUIN


Okay, so isn't she just ADORABLE? She even has a tail! She's made out of a "RIBBED" Nylon, knee sock. She was so cute and adorable, I decided she needed a mate.

And so, PAUL was born.



Supplies:

1) Nylon Socks - 5 pairs for $5 dollars at Walmart. One sock makes one penguin.
2) Felt - $.37 a piece at Walmart. Black, White, Orange, Yellow, Red and Blue.
3) Thread - $.97 Walmart. Black and Blue. Don't forget to buy your needles if you don't have any. These are all sewn by hand.
4) Velcro - $1.27 at Walmart. I purchased the small self adhesive circles. This is what you use to attach the fish to the hands and beak.
5) Poly-Fil - $2.27 for that large bag at Walmart. You barely use any of this, so grab the smallest bag you can find. With this bag, I have a life-time supply.

STEP 1:



Measure approximately 7 inches from the toe of the sock down towards the heal and then cut. The toe will soon become the penguins head. Since Paul is a boy, I used a smooth knee sock as opposed to the ribbed one.

Step 2:



Stuff the sock with the Poly-Fil and pin the bottom closed. Sew the bottom closed.

Step 3:



Use a round object to draw out the penguins belly and 1/2 teaspoon to draw and cut out the eyes.

Then free cut the feet (two orange triangles), the beak (One yellow, One Black and One Red triangle. The black and yellow should be the same size and the red one slightly smaller.)

Finally, cut out the tail and small black eyeballs.

Step 4:

Pin all the parts onto the stuffed black sock and then sew each piece in place with a Whip Stitch. Once you have sewn on all the parts, then sew a Gather (Google it) stitch around the neck of the penguin to give it shape.



Don't forget the tail. I did, twice.

Step 5:



Free cut your flippers. For the male, I used four pieces of black felt and two pieces of white. Just to give him personality. Sew two black pieces together to give the flippers some "thickness." Then sew the smaller identical white piece to the front of the flipper with the Whip stitch.

So PAUL was born!



SOON THEY WILL HAVE BABIES!

If Chloe doesn't get to them first. Isn't she getting so big?

BTW: Feel free to cut out fish using the blue felt. Whip stitch two pieces of blue felt together part way then stuff with the poly-fil. Whip stitch it closed. Place a small piece of Velcro on the fish and on the penguins hand and inside of the black part of the beak.