March Recap

March was a great month here at The Cellar Door Stories!  I thought I'd recap some of the great things that have happened here on my blog in the past month....

I reached 100 followers (and have even surpassed it)!  Thanks so much to everyone who has followed or left comments ~ each new comment or follower truly does bring a smile to my face :)  Reaching 100 followers was a goal on my 101 in 1001 list, and it's been great to see some progress happening!  Seriously, you have no idea how excited I am about this!!!

I've also had the honor of being featured a few times this month ~ totally exciting and also helped me reach a goal on my list!!  My Elmo Cupcakes were featured by The Frugal Girls,

the Cloche Spring Makeover by Someday Crafts,

and the Light Saber Pretzel Rods by Rosy Red Buttons, Bubbly Nature Creations and Thrifty Decorating! 

Another super fun thing was winning a giveaway!!  Jenna over at SAS Interiors hosted a giveaway for $25 credit to the Mable Mae Etsy Shop, and I won!  I chose a set of Numbered Push Pins,

the same set in magnets (I'll post another picture because they are just too cute),

and a set of Bunting Joy magnets (and these are big ~ 2.25 inches in diameter!)

I was seriously amazed at how fast my order arrived, and it all came wrapped so cute...even with an extra little gift!  Everything at Mable Mae would make a great little hostess or thank you gift, and the prices are great.  Thanks again to Jenna and Lenesha!

March was such a great month here in blogland ~ and in our family too ~ we celebrated our son's 5th birthday and hosted a Japanese exchange student for 2 1/2 weeks ~ can't wait to see what April brings!



PS ~ Notice any changes around here?  Please pardon the dust for the next few days as I'm trying out some new looks for the blog!!

Spring Wreath

This wreath has been in the works for awhile now.  Since I decided not to put my changeable burlap wreath on the front door, my empty door was really needing some kind of springy fun.  I again started with a straw wreath, left the wrapper on so I wouldn't have a huge mess on my hands, and used the hot glue gun.  This time I used twine instead of burlap, and only hot glued a dot here and there where I needed it.  I wrapped the whole thing, then went back and covered up the bare spots.  

I bought the little nest at Michaels for about $1.50, and had eggs left over from my earlier spring decorating here and here.  I was planning on just using the nest, but it blended too much with the twine and really needed some extra color.  Thanks to a girls night out to Hobby Lobby, I picked up some of these fun yellow flowers for the perfect touch.  Here's a few pics of the finished product.....taken in different areas of the house ~ it's amazing how different levels of light can affect how it looks! 

And finally on it's rightful place on the front door.....

Now all we need is some warm weather!!!

For a list of parties I may have linked to, please click here!




PS ~ have you chimed in with your best decorating ideas??

It is such an honor to be featured ~ THANK YOU!!

Best Decorating Tip EVER

How's that for a title to draw you in?  I'm not kidding, though.  It's probably one of the best decorating/house/painting tips I've ever gotten, and it's from my dear friend ~ who has a gorgeous house and definitely knows what she's talking about!  Ready for it?

Carry the paint swatches from your house in your wallet.

So simple!

Those in the above picture are mine, although I do have a few rooms missing that haven't been redone yet.  And yep, that's my wallet.  It's old and so fat I have to use a rubber band to keep it closed.

Anyway, back to the tip ~ keeping your paint swatches with you will save you so many headaches!  If you are debating whether an item will look good in your house, all you have to do is whip out that swatch and you'll know!  (It doesn't have to be all matchy-matchy, but at least make sure it doesn't clash!)  If you are at the paint store, searching for the perfect paint for your next room to be redone....whip out those swatches and make sure they all blend well! 

What are your best decorating tips??  Leave them in the comments and I'll pick some of my favorites!

Thrifted Apothecary Jar Re-do

One day a few months ago, I ran into our local Goodwill just to browse and saw this little lady.  When I saw the price tag, I scooped her up quick.

Yep, $1.97!

 

Then I had to wait and wait for weather warm enough to spray paint.  I had several projects lined up to complete that I had collected over the winter months.  Finally it came one day in February - some of the other things I spraypainted that day can be found here and here.  I got out my Rustoleum Heirloom White and went to town.  Unfortunately, my first time spraypainting did not go as planned for this particular item.  The curves made it a little difficult, and apparently, people are serious when they say you have to let the paint dry in-between coats.  The result was a not so great paint job with lots of bumps and drips.  And then the weather turned cold again, so there was no fixing it.  Finally, one day recently it was warm enough to try again.  I sanded all the bumpies and was left with this...

 

For attempt number two, I was determined to take my time.  It took several more coats, but finally I had this....

 

and I love it!  Here is is lid-less, bringing a touch of spring to my dining room table...

Thrifted Apothecary Jar:  $1.97
Can of Spraypaint:  $2.99 (and I only used a partial can, so less!)
Total:  less than $5!

Click here to get some great inspiration from some of the parties I may have linked to!

Light Saber Pretzel Rods

When I started looking around online for ideas for Jackson's Star Wars party, I saw pretzel rod light sabers listed several places, including here.  I wasn't able to find a picture or a tutorial, so I thought I'd write one up.  They were a little time consuming, but super easy, and turned out great!

Step 1:  Gather your ingredients....pretzel rods and various colored candy melts.  (These are Wilton brand vanilla flavored and you can find them at craft stores like Michaels or Joann's if they aren't at your grocery store). 

Step 2:  Get ready to melt!  You can probably do this in the microwave, but I seem to always have bad luck with that, so I prefer a double boiler.  I use a homemade version - big pot on bottom with a little water, and small pot on top.

Step 3:  Dump wafers into small pot - these were looking a little "old" and starting to get that white coating, but once they started melting they were fine.

 

Step 4:  As water in bottom pot boils, steam will heat the top pot, causing the wafers to melt.  Stir until smooth.

Step 5:  Once melted, coat the pretzel about 3/4 of the way down.  I spooned the melted wafers on, and then shook the pretzel rod to remove the excess.

 

Step 6:  Stand upright to dry - turn an egg carton upside down, cut X's in it, and stick the rods in - thanks, random lady at Joann's for the tip!!  Repeat steps 1-5 with other colors.

 

Step 6:  Making the light saber handle - (make sure your light sabers have completely dried before doing this!) you will want to cover the bottom 1/4 of the pretzel rod with aluminum foil.  Cut the foil and fold down the top and bottom edges - be careful, foil can cut your fingers!  (Step 6B - wash your poor finger and get a bandaid!)

 

Step 7:  Wrap bottom of each pretzel rod with foil.

 

Step 8:  (Optional for a slightly more finished look) Get out your trusted Sharpies.  Using black, draw a line near the bottom of the foil and another one near the top.  Using red, make a dot under the top line.

 

Step 9:  To display, you could just leave sitting out like the above picture.  I chose to stand them upright in a tin bucket, mostly so they would take up less room on the food table!

Step 10:  Enjoy!!

Click here for a list of parties I may have linked to!


This project has been featured!  Thank you SO much!!

Half a Decade

I can't believe my Baby Boy is 5 years old this week!  We are so thankful for our Jackson and the joy he brings into our lives and our family.

Sweet, serious baby boy.

1st Birthday and the "must have" shot of eating cake!

2nd Birthday ~ he had 5ths disease at the time ~ some of that red on his cheeks was not icing!  (The mangled mess on his plate are the Elmo cupcakes I posted about recently here).

3rd birthday, modeling his new roller skates.

4th Birthday ~ waiting patiently for dessert :)



Dressed in his Padawan costume before his 5th birthday party!



I'm a smidge biased, but I think we have one of the sweetest boys ever!  He is so kind, compassionate, and considerate.  He sincerely wants to do what is right and is the ultimate doting big brother.  Happy 5th Birthday, Jack ~ you are so loved!! 

Star Wars Birthday Party

Our sweet boy is turning five tomorrow and right now Star Wars is all the rage.  His family party was over the weekend and I wasn't really planning to do much of a theme, but once I started looking around online, my creativity got the best of me!  My main inspirations came from here, here, and here. 

Once I had the menu planned out, one of the first things I did was make labels for all the food.  I downloaded a special Star Wars font here and copied pictures from J's various Star Wars books.

I think every website and blog I looked at for ideas had one thing in common:  Yoda Soda.  The thing that varied was how to make it.  I chose to go my own way and used pineapple soda (very yellow) with a few drops of blue food coloring to make it Yoda - colored.  We also served Jedi Juice (kool-aid).

 

The rest of the menu included:  "Hutt" dogs with Kenobi Ketchup and Maul Mustard, Fett Fruit Salad (sorry, no pictures of those), Yoda Ears (dill pickle spears),

 

Vader's Veggie Pizza (and the Vader spatula from Williams-Sonoma worked perfectly as a server!),

 

Snips' Chips with Chewbacca's Cheese Dip,

 

Millenium Falcon Mac & Cheese,

Star Wars Fruit Snacks and Candy Coated Light Saber Pretzel Rods (my tutorial is here)..



Carbonite Jello - yep, there's a real Han Solo in there, and nope, he's not in the right outfit, but that's ok (I found this hilarious idea here),

Here's the birthday boy and his best buddy/cousin making sure Han gets out of the carbonite....



Because I am in no way a cake decorator, I always take the easy way out and make cupcakes for parties.  I saw the idea to line the cupcakes up to look like a light saber here, and at my husband's prompting, decided to do the General Grievous (double-sided) version.

Since this was a family party, with only 4 out of the 24 guests being kids, I didn't feel the need to come up with games, but you can click the links above for some great ideas.  (One of my favorites is the Death Star Pinata found here).  Even though there were no games, of course Darth Vader had to make an appearance!

And one last picture...sorry for the blurriness, but had to post this cute smile with one of his favorite new presents!

Click here for a list of parties I may have linked to!