stuff I've been working on

Lately I've been doing some applique work and wanted to share with you a few of my projects.  The first two are shirts I've had sitting around to do for Jillian since May.  She is so happy with them and loves showing them off!

One of my friends from high school asked me to make some shirts for her daughter and soon to be born son.

We are leaving soon for our annual family beach trip and I decided to make beach towels for Jillian, my neices Mackenzie and Ensley and my nephew Russ. I hope they all like them as much as I do!

Homemade Playdough

I got the idea to make homemade playdough with Jillian from Pintrest but all the recipes I would find called for either Cream of Tarter or Koolaid and we had neither in the house so I had to come up with my own recipe.  I looked online to see if there were any good substitutes for Cream of Tarter and several things said substitute lemon juice so that's what we did!

Jillian's Homemade Playdough

4 Cups All Purpose Flour
4 Cups water
8 teaspoons of Lemon Juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons salt
food coloring (I prefer gel color)

Mix all ingredients except the food coloring in a pan on the stove.  Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently until the mixture dries up to the consistency of playdough. Our playdough was on the stove for about 15 minutes. 

Remove the dough from the pan and sit it on the counter to cool.  Once cooled divide the dough into sections for coloring, we colored our playdough four different colors. You might want to wear gloves when mixing the color in because it's easiest to do it by hand, I didn't have any gloves so my hands are currently multicolored!

You can easily cut the recipe in half or make an even bigger batch.  Our finish playdough almost fills up a gallon ziplock bag. 

Now it's time to play!  Jillian enjoyed using different kitchen gadgets to make me playdough food!

Pampered Chef & a GIVEAWAY!!!!

Do you like Pampered Chef products???

I do!!! Pampered Chef has so many neat Kitchen gadgets that whenever I go to a party I have a hard time deciding what to buy!

I am currently hosting a Pampered Chef Catalog party and would really appreciate if you order something from the party! My party will be closing out this weekend so I want to offer something extra special to my blog readers if you order from the party!

If you order $40 or more (and have it shipped directly to you) I will put you in a drawing to win a custom shirt from me! I will work with the winner to come up with an applique shirt of your choice (I have HUNDREDS of design options). To order go to my Pampered Chef Consultant's site and you will enter my name as the hostess (Jamie Hardiman). Please make sure you select the shipping option as ship to you directly (unless you are one of my local friends).

Want to see some of my favorite products???

This red Deep Covered Baker is on my list of products to get from this party!  My consultant cooks full meals in the microwave with this baker!!!  If you purchase this she will send you a PDF cookbook FULL of recipes you can use the baker for!

 If you check out my recipes very often you know that I do most of my baking on my Stoneware from Pampered Chef.  I LOVE my large bar pan and muffin pans!

I went to a party a few weeks ago and I order this Salad Chopper and I am IN LOVE with it!  I have used it for salads and my favorite use is to cut up hot chicken!  I boiled some chicken the other day and didn't want to wait for it to cool to cut it up so I used this and it was AWESOME!  I was able to cut up a pound of chicken breast into bite size pieces in less than a minute!

From the party I also ordered this measuring cup and it is SOOOOO cool!!!! Measure liquids and solids up to 2 cups. A unique adjustable plunger design cleanly ejects solid ingredients. Includes standard and metric measures.

Now head on over and place your orders, I would REALLY appreciate it! 



Kiss Pies

I got this idea from Pintrest when one of my friends re-pinned it. These Kiss Pies are so easy to make, they only take two ingredients, Hersey Kisses and refrigerated Pie Crust! I tried them with caramel filled hersey kisses and the caramel melted out of the sides a bit.  If I made this again I would probably use a different type of hersey kiss. Head over to Picky Palate for the full recipe and tutorial!

Rainbow Popsicle Dessert

I have no clue where I got this idea, I'm sure it was on another blog somewhere. 

Last week Jillian and I took two bags of the frozen popsicles in the little plastic sleeves (the kind you buy unfrozen) and divided them up by color.  We took one color at a time, opened them, dumped the popsicles in a bowl, mixed and smashed them up and then layered each section to make this yummy rainbow dessert. 

Jillian took it to daycare to share with all her friends.  That evening when I picked her up she said "Mommy, all my fwiends loved my dirt", for all of you out there that don't know 3 year old talk that says "Mommy, all my friends loved my dessert!" 

I suggest letting the finished dessert sit out for an bit before serving it, the kids ate it when it was about the texture of a sno-cone.

At Home Gel Nails

I've been seeing stuff online about the new Shellac Nails and had been wanting to try it out.  I love to have my nails polished but I hate that after a day or two they are always chipped and looking bad so I thought that Shellac might be the solution!

Back in May I took my mom and Jillian to get nail salon to get pedicures and my mom treated me to a Shellac manicure.  I LOVED the results but I just couldn't justify spending $30 every 2-3 weeks to get my nails done.  Gelish polish applies on your nails like a regular nail polish but stays on your nails like traditional gel nails do.  The gelish nails do not damage your natural nails and soak off easily with acetone. 

I set out to research the different products to see if gel nail polish was something I could do at home.  I first thought I wanted to buy CND's Shellac system but after doing research I found that Hand & Nail Harmony makes a Gellish system that is a little more affordable, has much more color choices and other at home DIYers liked the Harmony Gelish polish better.  Once I decided which polish system I wanted to try I needed to find the best place to buy it all! 
The most expensive item that you have to purchase is the UV light.  A lot of sites suggest you buy one off ebay but I was really leery because most came from China and I was afraid if I had a problem with it I would have issues returning with a buyer that was out of the country.  I decided to spend a few more dollars and purchase from Amazon.  In my research I found that you need to purchase a UV light with at least 36 watts and one that has bulbs on top and on the sides. I ended up buying this light, it has a timer on the back for both 2 minutes and 3 minutes.

To do your nails you will need to purchase these Nail Harmony Products, I have purchased some from Amazon and some from Ebay. 

Cleanse is used to clean your nails before the base coat.

Base coat.

Top Coat

and the best part, polish!  I have the following 5 colors Gossip Girl, It's a Lily, Passion, Good Gossip and Tutti Frutti (the color I am using in this tutorial).

The first step is to prep your nails with the cleanser, it is used to clean the nail as a prep to ensure the nail is free from oil and disinfected.

Once you have used the cleanser it's time for the base coat.  The smaller brush ensures the right amount of product is applied to the nail. It is clear and remains clear after curing under UV lamp.  I cure my base coat for 2 minutes in the light.

After the base coat cures it's time for the polish.  I like to use two coats of polish and after each coat I cure it in the UV light for 2 minutes.

Once you are finished curing the last coat of polish it's time for the top it off sealer!  I cure my sealer for 3 minutes under the UV light. Once this last step is finished I use regular Isopropyl Alcohol to remove any residue.  If you don't remove the residue your nails will be sticky/tacky.  I like to finish my manicure off with some cuticle oil.

I have been VERY happy with everything and my manicures last almost 2 weeks (if I can resist changing colors before then)!  There is a small initial investment but it has already paid for itself! 

Let me know if you decide to try gel nails at home or if you have any questions at all!

 

Bath Robe

Last week while browsing some of my favorite blogs I came across a new tutorial and pattern for a bath robe over at Made and I KNEW I had to make one for Jillian! The pattern was so easy to follow and I LOVE how it turned out.  The whole thing was made from a large beach towel and three packages of purple bias tape!  Jillian LOVES the robe because it is her favorite color, purple!