A Brilliant Easter Egg Tip!

A wire whisk...

+ eggs and dye...

= a BRILLIANT idea for dying Easter eggs!

Curious?

My step-mom shared with me this tip from the recent issue of Family Fun Magazine.

"This month's issue had a great idea in it to help little ones color their Easter eggs without having to use a spoon or those little wire dipping tools that comes with the kit. Use a wire whisk instead! Just slip the egg between the wires, and your egg is nestled in a safe basket of wires! Less chance of breaking the egg as you dip it into your cup!"

Definitely an "a-ha moment" for me! :)

What do you think? Any other tips for a good Easter egg decorating experience?

A Little Bit of THIS & A Little Bit of THAT :)

Here's the this...

...my latest project available at SWAKembroidery.com!

And then a little bit of that...

...a BRAND-NEW webisode on theDIYdish.com! Learn fun ways to decorate for that Easter family gathering! We show sweet placecards and unique burlap napkin rings! Go check it out and enter to win the embroidered burlap tablerunner below PLUS fresh flowers sent directly to your door!

And later this week, learn how to make THESE!

Don't you just love this time of year? :)

EASY Easter Craft for the Kids!

Have you made your "mock decoupage" Easter eggs yet? So easy, and best of all...

NO MESS!

Kim and I show how to do this in our 2-minute craft count-down on theDIYdish!

All you need is masking tape, plastic Easter eggs and some paint. Be sure to check it out! It's really a lot of fun!

Make Decorative Straight Pins from Felt

Have you had a chance to check out our 2nd webisode over at theDIYdish.com? We used shrinky dinks to create some fun little pinheads. And don't forget, but if you are looking to purchase shrinky dinks online, be sure to use this code: DIY4FREE. By using this at check-out, they will include a FREE gift with any purchase. Pretty cool!

In our 2nd helping, we showed another way of making decorative straight pins. It's VERY easy to do and so cute, too. If you've got some scraps of felt, you're already half-way there. :)

How fun! Here are some step-by-step directions we put together on how to do this...

Easy, right? You can do these in less than 2 minutes! SWEET!

And don't forget to head over there to make comments, share pictures on the flickr group, watch the webisodes AND enter for the Janome giveaway as well as the Heather Bailey giveaway!

Have a great weekend everyone!

The DIY Dish: Episode 2 is Now Live!

Phew! We made it a 2nd week! :)

Learn how to make decorative and personalized straight pins! Why? Because you CAN! :) (Also, learn how I am getting my teenage daughter into sewing some more! hee, hee).

And don't forget we still have the Janome AND Heather Bailey giveaways going on right now! You can find our latest webisode at www.theDIYdish.com!

How Many Sewing Machines Can You Fit Into 1 Room?

"Never enough!" is my answer. :)

One of my favorite things to do is to quilt. What's even better? Quilting with friends. And it seems like these days, it sometimes gets more difficult to find the time to do just that.

Fortunately, I have some wonderful friends who MAKE the time to get together once a month to enjoy this creative time together. I am so blessed to have friends of all different ages in which sharing our passion of quilts really ties us together in a common thread. (No pun intended.)

Here are a few pictures of our most recent get-together. As you will be able to tell in these pictures, these women are so supportive, helpful, happy, and just downright wonderful. I love them all so much!

And just for fun, I'm going to share a few of my favorite quilting quotes in this post. :)

Friends are like fabric...you can never have enough!

In the crazy quilt of life, I'm glad you're in my block of friends.

I love quilting and have plenty of material witnesses. :)

May your sorrows be patched and your joys quilted.

What I make with my hands, I give of my heart.

If I stitch fast enough, does it count as aerobic exercise? :)

And what about you? Who do you love to spend time with in pursuing your hobbies? Or do you have a favorite quote about quilting? I'd love to hear! :)

Happy Monday everyone!

Episode 1 of The DIY Dish is now LIVE!

We're finally moving full steam ahead!

I can't believe it's finally here! On this week's episode, we're talking pincushions! And we also have a fabulous give-away from Heather Bailey!

I hope you'll come on over to www.theDIYdish.com and take a look! Thanks everyone for your amazing support!

Make a St. Patrick's Day Centerpiece!

Ready for another festive project to make for your St. Patrick's Day celebrations? How about this fun and easy centerpiece! If you've been with me for awhile now, you may remember me showing you how to make a Valentine centerpiece that is very similar to this. So I decided to take a "twist" on the Valentine version and here is what I came up with!

Here's how to put this EASY centerpiece together!

Fill a glass sundae dish up with green M&M candies. (I purchased the sundae dish at our local Dollar store!) I think this would also be cute being filled up with rainbow-colored Skittles candy as well!

Set the sundae dish aside and now it's time to use your favorite popcorn ball recipe! (I use 1 cup light karo syrup, 1 cup sugar, and 1 small box of blue jello. Blue jello makes for sweet, fluffy, blue clouds!)

While popcorn is still warm, gently shape with your hands into a ball. Using wax paper on this step will help keep avoid the mess on your hands! Place on top of sundae.

Top with gold-wrapped candy.

Now I'm ready to introduce you to my "secret weapon" of the entire project...XTREME sour strips! ;) When I was trying to think of what would make a good "rainbow" on top of this centerpiece, my mind immediately went to this candy that is put out by the makers of Airheads. Perfecto!

To secure the rainbow strips on top of the popcorn, simply press some more warm popcorn around the ends to hold in tight.

And now you're done! Who will be the lucky one to receive this yummy piece?

It's Time to Film the DIY Dish!

Oh wow. Yesterday, Kim and I taped the 1st show of the DIY Dish. It will go live, along with our brand-new, redesigned website next week!

I was so completely nervous. But our awesome crew from Advent Creative were absolutely fantastic to work with. Professionalism at 110%. Thank you Clay and Marlin for being so patient with a few too many takes! :)

Here are some pics from the day that I thought you might enjoy...