30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 2

Day 2

What I Wore Today

I'm adorkable ... but I LOVE that polka doted shirt.

Here is Day 1 if you missed it.

30 Day Photography Challenge: Day 1

Day 1: Self Portrait

My friend Abby (who is utterly fantastic!) organized a 30 Day Photo Challenge for us and I wanted a way to hang onto the pictures once I take them. Keeping them here seems like the best plan :)

Here is our plan

Here is my Day 1 Portrait

My little friend is a bug finger puppet I made during Camp Creativity prep today ... you can read all about that next week on Mini-Lizz!

Rusty Cheese Graters

So, repurposing is my favorite hobby right now. It is so much fun to give something a new life. Take this rusted cheese grater for example. No one would have ever used it for food again (unless they like taking their lives in their hands), but it still have some years left in it :) That is where I came in ... well, myself and a can of spray paint!!

I started with a $0.25 cheese grater that had seen better days. 

My only other supplies were some spray paint and sandpaper left over from my chair project.

Yard Sales!

This morning was sorta a dud when it came to yard sales. There weren't that many, the ones that were there were SO disorganized. I don't like it when thing aren't priced or everything is so squished together that people can't get through to look. Maybe it was just me, but today wasn't a prime yard sale experience. Never-the-less, I still found some fun things.

Here are the spoils

Vintage, Linen Table Cloth with a cute floral pattern   $2.00

Shelf for tiny objects   $2.00

Rusted Cheese Grater   $0.25

Grand Total   $4.25

At first the lady wanted $0.50 for this, although I knew it was for a project and I wouldn't be using it, I was looking at the rusted piece of kitchenware wondering if it was worth it when she came back with $0.25. That was a bargain for me. Sold!

The tablecloth is in near perfect condition and doesn't need any work. I hand washed it when I got home and it came clean and beautiful. Such a great piece for a bargain price.

The little shelf with either stay the way it is or be painted later. I haven't decided yet. My mom has one of these (hers was really an old drawer at some point, mine is merely a replica) and it is so cute. I know I have lots of funky things to put in it, I just have to decide if paint is the way to go or if I want to keep it original.

Stay tuned for what I'm collecting rusty cheese graters for!

Rediscovery of a Chair

Well, yesterday I bought this sad fiberglass chair for a steal at a yard sale. Today I decided to not put off revamping it. 

We started with a sad yellow chair. 

Yard Sales!

The only thing that gets me out of bed on a Saturday morning is the idea of finding treasures at Yard Sales. The night before I make my "plan" which involves the newspaper, Craig's List, and Google Maps. I make sure I am loaded up on change and off I go! 

$20.00 is my limit, unless I find something spectacular (can you say a bargain piano, because I'd totally buy one at a yard sale) and it is so much fun to go!!

Today I found great "treasures" ... some require a little TLC, but others are fantastic! What do you like to buy at Yard Sales?

Reading Time Chocolate Mug Cake

I was in the mood for something sweet while I relaxed and read on my day off (Sunday is my only day off, so I tried to make the most of it!). 

Luckily My Happy Place had this delicious recipe that I adapted and it was FANTASTIC!!

Chocolate Mug Cake

1 tbsp + 2 tsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt (I just put a little in my hand to be honest)

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 - 4 tsp oil (depending on how moist you want it, I used a little over 3 and it was perfect)

3 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

... then it rained!

I didn't mention what we did for dinner yesterday: We BBQed. But it wasn't very traditional, because it rained. Now, any other 4th of July I would have dreaded the rain, but since Colorado is quickly resembling Satan's summer home, the rain is quite welcome here! We picnicked inside, went to the movies, and watched fireworks on TV. But Cupcake seemed to have a great time!

Indoor 4th of July BBQ

Rainy Day View from my Desk (not the paperbacks I'm going to do a project with!)

It's Cupcake (her hair was dyed for the occasion!)

Lizz Made Slutty Brownies

Beware, these just may change your life!

This is a serious sweet, delicious, magical treat that should come out on special occasions. However, nothing in made from scratch (I was hesitant, usually scratch is better), but these were unbelievably good!

Thank-you The Londoner for the brilliant recipe. If you don't follow her already, head over, her Anti-Diet recipes will change your life!

All you need is a bag of chocolate chip cookie mix, a box brownie, a package of Oreos (she says two packages, but things are different in Britten and you only need one here in the USA) and misc things like oil, eggs, and butter.

GO READ IT NOW!

Let me know how you liked them :)

Lizz's Vintage Punch

Having a party? Need a good, non-alcoholic, vintage-esk, but totally fabulous party punch?

Look no further.

I made it for my Grad party a few weeks ago and again today for the 4th because it is that fantastic!

Lizz's Vintage Punch

Lizz's Vintage Punch

These ingredients filled both these pitchers, with a little left over and was CHEEP!

1 Quart Raspberry Sherbet

2 Liters of Sprite

1/2 Gallon of the Wal-Mart Brand Fruit Punch

Pour equal-ish parts of sprite and fruit punch into a large bowl and mix. Add the sherbet in scoops. The more the sherbet is melted the better because it tastes FANTASTIC when all mixed together. Be prepared that people are going to love it, so it'll go fast.

I've also tossed in frozen fruit to keep it cold, and then when it melts it is a delicious treat in the punch.

If it is too sweet, mix 2/3 Sprite and 1/3 Fruit Punch to even it out a little more.

It's Delicious! 

Grad Party Details

At my party we worked on dying everything! It was easy and such cute little touches!

The first things I dyed was fruit for the punch. I dyed it and then froze it to keep everything nice and cold. it worked great!

Dying Fruit for Punch

Dyed Oranges, Lemons, and Limes

Graduation Party!

Since I just graduated with my MLIS I needed a bit of a celebration to really kick off life without school. My friend said this party was Librarians Gone Wild, but it as so much fun!!

Lizz's Graduation Party

Step one, I grabbed an old Reader's Digest Condensed Version that would have been thrown away and it started my whole theme. I made the flags for decoration inside and out by cutting triangles and then stapling them together. It was seriously easy, I made a million, and they looked SO cute!

Step Two - I pulled a bunch of pages (didn't even trim the uneven edges) and laid them out on all food surfaces. They made everything look so put together and it only took me a second.

Step Three - Food decorations! I made those little flags out of scrapbooking paper and skewers I had in the drawer. I used colored staples to hold them to the skewer (after wrapping the paper tightly around) and then cut some of the edges while leaving others plain. 

Graduation Party Desserts

Step Four - FOOD! Boy, did we make A LOT of food! All I managed to grab pictures of was the dessert table. But we had meatballs, little weenies, hot bean dip, veggies, make your own chicken salad sandwiches, and spinach dip. 

For dessert we had Chocolate and Mint Cupcakes, Lemonade Cupcakes, "Good Cookies", Rice Crispy Cookies (classic and with Fruity Pebbles), and chocolate dipped marshmallows. In addition there were little mason jars of skittles, peanut mnms, pretzel mnms, and orange slices all over for people to snack on.

To drink we made Lizz's Vintage Punch and coffee punch (both recipes can be found here) as well as LOTS of water bottles that we took the labels off of and wrapped with duck tape (it is the little things that make such a difference)!

Graduation Party Decor

Did you know a fan can help ward off mosquitos? We didn't have any problems with bugs at this party! You can see some of the flags in the background here!

Check out that mason jar on the fence! It is a simple jar, with some blue play sand, and an electronic candle (the whole state of Colorado is on fire, we couldn't have lit candles). It was so easy and looked great for the whole party.

Lawn Jenga

This is Lawn Jenga (and the reason my friend commented about Librarians Gone Wild). SOOO easy to make (find some tips here). Might be safer to play it on the ground next time, because when it falls, it falls HARD!

I love a PARTY!!

I love a great party, don't you? After being told by nearly every guest at my last celebration that I needed to be a party planner I thought I'd share some of my tips and tricks for a successful soiree!

I hope you enjoy the blog, it will be a collection of my ideas and things I borrow from all other the internet. I'll also repost great ideas I find for everyone to enjoy!!