Made for Monday ~ A Fall Topiary!

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day weekend. Mine has been pretty good. We were able to go the local flea market this morning, but unfortunately I didn't find any treasures to bring home with me. Well, I did find some but it seemed like they were asking for an arm and a leg for everything. So I came home and decided to do some crafting! I have been seeing fall topiaries all over blogland and decided I wanted to try to make one myself. I had all the supplies I needed except for the flowers, the styrofoam ball, and the foam for the vase. All the other stuff I already had in my craft stash. I am very pleased with the way it turned out!



Here is how I did it:

First I gathered all my supplies together. I used a small terra cota vase that had been whitewashed, some floral foam, a 4 inch styrofoam ball, 2 bushes each of 3 different colored flowers, some moss, 4 small dowel rods, twine, and some scrap ribbon.



Next, I cut some of the floral foam and inserted it firmly into my vase. You could hot glue this down, I suppose, but I didn't.



Then I took my 4 dowel rods, gathered them together in a bunch and ran a bead of hot glue down between each dowel.



Then I took my twine and wrapped it around the rods, leaving about an inch or so exposed at the top and bottom.



The next step was to insert one end of the dowels into the foam in my vase and attach the foam ball into the top end.




Then I started attaching my flowers. All I did was cut each flower stem a bit below the leaf, leaving enough stem to push the flower into the styrofoam ball. I worked my way around the ball, alternating my flowers randomly until I covered the entire ball. I filled in any gaps with some moss and I also covered the foam in my vase with some moss as well.



Lastly, I tied on a pretty fall colored ribbon and, voila, a simple, inexpensive fall topiary that sits on my sewing machine just inside my front door. What a pretty, colorful welcome greeting!



The supplies for this one cost me under $10 (not counting what I already had on hand). I will definitely be making some more of these. It was easy and came together very quickly.

I also bought myself a beta fish this weekend and made a flower arrangement with the beta swimming in the bottom of the vase. I added some gingham ribbon to the vase to make it look a bit more country. I didn't take a picture but I will try to get one on soon.

I also started on some fall and halloween salt dough bowl fillers. I will share those with y'all on Wednesday. Hopefully I will have them finished by then!

I have to go back to work tomorrow. Bummer! I am thankful I have a job, but I REALLY enjoy these three day weekends!

Until next time. . .

Some Swap Goodies!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend! Mine is going pretty good. I have done something to my right foot and it is killing me so I haven't been able to do much shopping or go to any of the awesome yard sales that are prevalent around here on this holiday weekend. Oh well, at least I haven't been able to overspend, right?? See, there's good in everything if we only will look to find it!

I did an Autumn Swap with my friends over at Prim Pals Forum. Holli from Where the Rooster Crows was my partner for this swap and she spoiled me rotten!! She sent me some awesome grungy pumpkins, crow, and rooster along with a wheelbarrow, some gorgeous kitchen towels, a primitive dammit doll (which I've already used!), a travel mug and matching purse notepad with my initial on it, four cute little hot pads/pot holders with roosters on them, a cute little figurine of a turkey sitting on top of a pumpkin, a rooster plaque that says "I'm still a hot chick, it just comes in flashes now", a magnet that says "Lead me not into temptation, I can find the way myself", a beautiful fall themed hand embroidered towel, and as a joke, she also sent me a pair of unmentionables with the word "diva" stitched on them! It's a running joke with those girls over there that I am the diva of the forum! So it was a funny and cute little joke. Thanks for everything Holli, I love it all!








I have been pretty productive this weekend. Since I'm not able to do much on my feet, I've been busy crafting. I have finished up another rag garland, made some rag balls, I've done some more faux caramel apples which I will be doing a tutorial on on Tuesday since some of you have asked for one. I'm also planning on making some fall dough fillers and I'm going to be working some more on an fall afghan I'm crocheting. The weather has been a bit cooler this weekend and I think that helps me get more in the mood to craft. Fall is my favorite season and I am excited to pull out the sweaters and warm socks!

Until next time. . .

Fabulous Football Food Friday!

Good Friday morning to all! I am so thankful that this is a three day weekend for me, I need it!!! Our local high school football season has just gotten underway so I thought I'd share a quick and easy recipe that would be great for tailgating parties or as a quick snack before heading out to the game. I call these Pepperoni Bites and I found the recipe while surfing on line a while back. I've tweaked it a bit to suit my family's tastes.



Pepperoni Bites

1 can biscuits (not the flaky kind)
sliced pepperoni
shredded Italian or mozzarella cheese
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder
Melted butter
Parmesan cheese

Cut each biscuit in half. Place two slices of pepperoni on each half, top pepperoni with a bit of shredded cheese and roll up. Pinch the edges of the biscuit together to seal and place seam side down on baking sheet. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and garlic powder to taste. Make sure none of the bites are touching each other as they will stick together during baking. Bake according to directions on biscuit can. When they come out of the oven, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

These are so yummy and quick to make up. You can also heat up some spaghetti sauce or marinara sauce to use for dipping. We like to take melted butter and add some garlic powder to it and use this for dipping. Sometimes I'll even make a big batch of these and serve them for dinner with a salad. A quick and easy meal under 30 minutes! Works for me! I am linking this up to Colleen's Recipe Swap over at And Baby Makes Five. Click here to check out all the great recipes on her blog.

So, what's on tap for this final unofficial last long weekend of summer? We haven't made any plans here. There's a huge flea market about an hour from us in a small town that is held every year during Labor Day weekend. We've thought about heading up for that, but it's usually so crowded and that makes it hard to look at things so I'm not sure I feel like doing that. I have some craft things to finish up for Char's Autumn Swap that I am participating in so I need to do that. Then there's always the household chores that are never ending!

Well, gotta run for now and finish getting ready for work. Don't forget about my Fall/Halloween giveaway. If you haven't signed up, scroll down to my last post and do it! I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend!

Until next time. . .