Wet Bags

This project was SUCH a success! My brother and sister-in-law are having a baby in October and are planning to cloth diaper. As soon as I heard about that, I tried learning as much as I could about cloth diapering (through pinterest of course!) and I found that wet bags are essential for dirty diapers on the go.

I found a tutorial for a wet bag here and it's wonderful! I was able to follow it (somehow) even though I DO NOT sew. My mom knows how, so she guided me along, but I am proud to say I made these all on my own.

The wet bags on my brother and sister-in-law's registry cost around $15-$20 each, and the dimensions are much smaller than these. I bought the fabric for both wet bags and had extra, as well as the thread and the zippers for a little over $20 at JoAnn Fabrics. They took me about an hour in total to make and turned out beautifully.

My copycat

Truck design for my brother
 (he wouldn't appreciate having to carry
around a bag with flowers on it)

Flowers for my sister-in-law

Different angle

The original version from The Mary Frances Project

Bird Feeder

Because of a lack of interest in my bird bath, I decided to make a bird feeder to put next to it to entice the birdies closer. It worked! I think this bird bath turned out looking great, but the functionality of it is a bit iffy. I used the instructions from the garden roof coop with minor adjustments to the size of the wire and of the saucers.

I decided to continue with my bright colors outside and paint it a bright pink to match the teal bird bath. I bought saucers a little bigger than described in the blog because we have a bunch of parrots who come to our bird feeders and I wanted a bigger perch for them. The project was extremely simple to do. With the help of my dad (thank goodness for him!), I drilled a hole in the center of each saucer to fit the wire rope through. He also helped me close the ferrule and stop set which was much more difficult than anticipated (we ended up having to hammer it shut).

Once we had it threaded, it was a matter of hanging it up and putting the seed inside. That was where it started going downhill. We hung the bird feeder on a hook we had already hanging outside with another bird feeder on the other side of it and lifted the top saucer to pour the seed in. Bad idea! Without holding the feeder steady, it goes off balance and tips over to the side, which means no easy refills. All that means is that we have to take the feeder off the hook and set it on the ground to refill it.



Bird Feeder with Bird Bath

My Copycat

The original inspiration

Beer Cake

 

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this project. On the one hand, it was not even half as good as the pinterest inspiration. On the other hand, with the limited skills and tools that I possess in regard to cake decorating, and with the amazing reaction I received, I'd say it was a success. I know my brother liked it, and as it was his birthday cake, I think that's all that matters.

I tried the cake as a kid friendly version last week (it was a coke zero cake) and it was kind of a flop. (I'll try to find a picture of that one, I know somebody took one) I didn't have any cake pans the right size so I fit aluminum foil inside of a pot to make a mold and baked the cakes from there. This made the four layers very different sizes which made it really hard to stack them. After realizing what a mistake that was, I went to Michael's and bought 6in cake pans to use. This made them much more uniform, but if I were to do it over I would probably buy even smaller cake pans.

The second mistake I made on the coke zero cake was that I thought the foam on top would work best with whipped cream. I didn't think I could do it with frosting. The whipped cream  melted in the first minute in our lovely south Florida weather and ended up looking like a disaster. Not to mention the fact that I was serving this cake to the only children in the world who happen not to like whipped cream. For my beer cake I braved using frosting, and it turned out not only holding up better, but looking much better as well!

Without any further ado..... My Beer Cake!!!

My copycat

My brother and I at his party at World Of Beer (fitting cake, right?)

The original inspiration

 

 

Saw Blade Clock

Another victory!! I absolutely love the way this project turned out. I had planned to make it for my dad for Father's Day, but I didn't get my act together soon enough. It was an extremely simple project to make and took less than an hour to put together. I bought a clock kit from Michael's (a more difficult task than you'd think... there are so many choices!) and the saw blade from Home Depot. All together it probably cost a little over $20, but it could have been much cheaper had I had the patience to use an old saw blade and take the time to clean it up and make it presentable.



My copycat in its temporary home (We need to clear out some space in the garage)

 

The original inspiration

 

Bird Bath Planter

Huge success! I absolutely love the way this bird bath turned out. I have yet to see any birds bathing in it, but it looks adorable all the same! It only took a few days to make (and only because of the drying time for the paint). It ended up costing around $40 to make, which is comparable to other bird baths I've seen online (which are not nearly as pretty).

My Copycat



The original inspiration
(Sorry for the horrible photo, I'm still learning how to do this)

Click to see the original instructions. They're pretty straightforward, but they don't explain what to do with the bowl at the top. I ended up enlisting my dad's help to secure the top pot (so that it stays up straight) and attach the bowl. He drilled a piece of wood and attached it to the inside of the top pot to make sure the rebar held it upright and then we used a silicone glue to glue the bowl to the top. So far so good! We'll see how it holds up when our crazy Miami weather takes it for a spin.

Adventures of a Pinoholic

Pinterest has proven to be a very dangerous site for me. I think it's fair to say I'm a little obsessed. People are sick of hearing me say "I found it on pinterest!" but what can I say? I love finding crafts and recipes that I can do myself. Sometimes my projects turn out amazing (which of course is what inspired me to start this blog to chronicle my attempts) but sometimes they turn out to be total flops. Either way, I decided I wanted some sort of record of all of my pinterest attempts, so here goes nothing!