Fabulous Peanut Butter Fudge

I'm so excited about this silly little plate of fudge that I am linking it to "Making Monday Marvelous" over at C.R.A.F.T. Click through for loads of wonderful recipes and crafty projects! 

Quick, easy, amazing... those are the three key ingredients that inspire me to try a recipe. I was digging through the box of clipped recipes that I got from my dear mother-in-law, and came upon this little gem from the "Quick Cooking Collector's Edition. The clipped recipe was submitted by Mrs. Kenneth Rummel of Linglestown, PA. I decided to try this and it is simply outstanding, so felt I had to share. The photo shown here is my own.

Peanut Butter Fudge
2 cups sugar 1/2 cup milk 1-1/3 cups peanut butter, creamy or chunky 1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow creme Butter the bottom and sides of an 8-inch square pan; set aside. In a saucepan, bring sugar and milk to a boil; boil for 3 minutes. Add peanut butter and marshmallow creme; mix well, blending thoroughly. Quickly pour into the 8-inch buttered pan; chill until set, about 2 hours. Cut into squares. 

HERE is a printable 3.5 x 5 recipe card for this fabulous fudge! 

Son of Zipper Pouch

We've been on two cruises in our lifetime, and both times we took the exact same boat and the exact same itinerary. We've been to the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota twice, and both times we took the same route and the same scenic rides. So it's not too surprising that when I needed to make a second zippered pouch, I used the same fabrics, with the same details, that I used the first time around. 

The first pouch I made using Kate's super-simple tutorial at See Kate Sew turned out so cute... my daughter loved it as much as I did, and she used it as her pencil pouch at school until the day her car was broken into and her backpack stolen. The little pouch disappeared that day too, along with her camera, some personal letters, and a couple of textbooks. 
Now that she's headed off to college, she asked me if I'd make her another pouch so of course I couldn't say no. I used all materials on-hand, so the trim is a little different - and I'm still working without a zipper foot so I had to work carefully around the zipper pull. But overall this "second draft" turned out just as cute as the first one, and again I just have to say how easy the tutorial was for this project. 

 

I may need to make a few more of these! 

Faux cased glass - painting vases

I'm linking this post to Allison's fabulous Hookin' Up with Hepworths party over at House of Hepworths. Click through to see a TON of other great projects and recipes! 

I recently came across a project on Pinterest showing painted vases. Here's the pin - these vases were done by Tsuki at Little Gray Fox and I just loved the colors! 

Unfortunately, when I went to Tsuki's blog (which is adorable, by the way!), the link she had posted for the tutorial on these wasn't working. So back to Pinterest, where I did a search for "painted vases" and came up with this great little tut over on DIY Theory.  This project is a great way to use those sort of "generic" vases that are so abundant in thrift stores. The urn style vase I used was one I had on hand from a floral delivery, but it was quite a bit larger than the bud vases shown in Tsuki's photo. 

You can use acrylic craft paint for this project; I do some decorative painting, so I have a lot of it on hand - including several colors in an enamel suitable for painting on glass. I'm not sure if it will be waterproof, even though it's acrylic enamel - but I do know that the regular acrylic craft paint is not waterproof. So, faux flowers only in these vases.  I used an entire 2 oz. bottle of paint because this vase is pretty large - and I watered it down just a dab because most of my paint is a couple years old and too thick to flow smoothly. I emptied the paint into the vase and just slowly swirled it around. It seemed like there were a lot of air bubbles, but the more I swirled the more they just worked themselves out. 

Under regular lighting I think they look great! The only flaw is that it is somewhat of an uneven coat, which you can really only see if you are looking at the vase with a light source behind it: 

Once it's filled with flowers, and assuming it won't be sitting in front of a sunny window, I think it will really be beautiful. I love the depth that comes from having the color on the inside - it reminds me of the beautiful cased glass of my Fenton ruffled vase. 

After a few days of drying time, it looks great with my 90's-vintage silk peonies. I will be doing more of these! 

Pin of the week - repurposed tv cabinet

I was cruising Pinterest this week looking for inspiration for a new TV cabinet for our flat-screen. Something that would contain all the clutter and look vintage, since right now all we have is a small open shelf with all the electronics, DVDs, cables, etc. on open display (and... ahem... a bit dusty). I quickly came upon this photo, and although I no longer have children small enough to play in this delightful little "house," I thought it was an extremely clever use of an old wooden TV console. Kudos to Sugar Tot Designs for this inventive idea! So I'm choosing this for my favorite pin of the week, and I'm sharing it at the Friday's Favorite Pin party over at Decor to Adore. Cute!! 

"Bar Hounds" - a favorite picture!

Chances are if you are over the age of, say, 40... you've seen this picture. It's called "Bar Hounds," and it's an illustration done by Constance Depler Coleman circa 1950.

Constance had (has) a knack for drawing dogs with amusing human characteristics, and when I was growing up the very print you see here hung on the wall above our "gossip bench" (another vintage thingie!). I used to spend a lot of time studying the individual characters here - the dachsund on the far right and the shawl-wearing gal on the far left were always my two favorites. I set this picture aside when going through my dad's things after he passed away, even though my own family was in "house-limbo" at the time, and now it hangs above the mantle in our basement rec room. (Which explains the poor quality of the photo - it's kind of dark down there and I did not want to use my flash.) This print measures about 16 inches high and about 36 inches long - it's still in the frame I remember from my childhood home.
I did just a little Googling prior to writing this post, and quickly found that Coleman's daughter has a website devoted to selling prints and products bearing the "Bar Hounds" image and several others. I may need to do a little shopping! 
I am happily sharing my "Bar Hounds" picture over at Suzanne's Vintage Thingie Thursday party! Hope you will pop in over there to see more vintage goodies!  

Joyful junking - more wonderful thrifty finds!

I am linking up with Rhoda, newest BlogHer conference sensation, for her Thrifty Treasures party at Southern Hospitality! Pretty please, click through to Rhoda's beautiful blog to see many more awesome second-hand finds. (Seriously - sock stretchers, LOVE it!!) 
Okay first up, today (Sunday 8/5) was an absolutely picture-perfect day - 80 degrees, bright blue sky, and no humidity. I spent most of the day outside just sitting on my patio doing absolutely nothing, and loved every moment of it! I did get to do some junking, though, on Saturday morning, and came away a very happy gal. In addition to scoring a working Oster waffle iron for just $2.99, I found these wonderful goodies: 

A pretty amateur painting of an old rambling house, $1.99. I actually have a collection of paintings similar to this, though most of them depict floral arrangements or barns. (You can see the collection in this Facebook album.) I love this house - but not the frame it comes in, which quite honestly isn't rustic enough for the picture. I will be doing something about that very soon! 

Two of these boldy-patterned bread & butter plates, 59 cents each. I do not own anything else in this pattern, but since I love to mix and match my dishes anyway, they will fit right in - in fact, I used one for butter just this morning when I made breakfast with my new-to-me waffle iron!

And this fabulously shabby cushion cover, just $5 - look at those beautiful faded roses!! There are two large panels and then the box-sides here - the whole thing measures about two feet wide, four feet long, and would cover a 6-inch thick piece of foam. I am thinking of making a fringed sofa pillow, and... well who knows what else. 
I hope you found something really wonderful this past weekend, or at least got to enjoy the weekend just the way you wanted to. 
More soon!

Pretty Creamers survive the decades

I am participating in Vintage Thingie Thursday at ColoradoLady's lovely blog! Be sure to click through to see many more treasures!  Today I'm sharing two very special Depression Glass creamers. Special because, not only have they survived many, many decades of use and display, but they've been handed down through my own and my husband's families - so they've not just survived, they've remained in the same family hands all this time. 

The first creamer is a Fenton piece in the Orange Tree pattern. This pattern was introduced in 1911 and was one of Fenton's most popular over the many years it was produced. It features an iridescent finish in the marigold color. Apparently, many footed Fenton pieces of this era suffered damage to the feet, even just coming out of the mold during production. I'm amazed that this piece, which was passed down through the paternal side of my husband's family, has no damage whatsoever - to the feet, the scallops, or anywhere. 

The second piece was made by Indiana Glass Company in the Bird & Strawberry pattern, which was introduced around 1916. My grandmother passed this piece to me when I first professed an interest in Depression Glass as a young adult. She told me it had been purchased new by my great-grandmother. Since Great-Grandma had married in 1905, and had children in 1906, 1908 and 1910, I imagined her purchasing this for her young family's breakfast table. It, too, has survived the decades with virtually no damage - a tiny nick in the spout is the only imperfection. Both of these little creamers have long been retired from daily service and today sit in the built-in hutch in my dining room alongside several other pieces. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to share them!