Monday, October 29, 2012

Make Something Monday - Sparkleballs

I recently discovered that the Christmas light ball that my aunt made me many years ago actually has a name!  Even better, it has a pretty awesome name.  They are called sparkleballs, and are pretty simple to make.  I was really bummed that mine finally wore out, but am excited now that I know how to make as many as I want.  The one my aunt made me lasted over ten years, so I am hoping that mine last as long.

I scoured the internet for instructions, and I found several different methods, including using a hot glue gun and a stapler.  However, I opted to use the method that looked closest to my aunt's, which can be found on YouTube here.

Don't forget to work outside to avoid the fumes!

Start with 50 nine-ounce plastic tumblers.  Heat up the soldering iron and melt holes in the bottom of all 50 cups.  On my first try, I made the holes too large.  Making them as close to the size of the light base as possible will make them more secure when you insert them later.



Not-so-great first attempt:



 Much better second attempt:


Next, make a circle of 12 of the cups, and temporarily secure them with clothespins.  Use the soldering iron to melt through the cups and hold them together.  I found it best to squeeze the bottoms of the cups together and melt my holes at the base.  I figured this out on my second try.  The first time, I tried melting them together on the sides and that did not work as well.



Once you have the first ring built, remove the clothespins and then start building the top rings.  Build the first half using this method, and then repeat to build the second half.


Now it is time to add the lights.  Working in a zigzag pattern, place one light in each hole.  I used LED lights, and almost all strands come in 60 count.  My first try, I made two holes in ten of the cups so that I would use up all the lights.  However, this made it difficult when it came time to put the two halves of the ball together because I did not have any extra length to work with.  So on my second attempt, I left the extra lights loose in the middle and gave myself a little extra breathing room when adhering the halves together.


A side note... The first ball used a set of mini twinkling lights that I had on hand.  Although the end product was fine, the mini lights are not quite long enough to stay securely in the holes, so I have a few empty cups.  The longer, regular size lights work better.

Once you have all the lights securely in the holes, put the two halves of the ball together.  I secured them with  the clothespins until I could melt them together.  And that's all there is to it.  It's really simple and the end result is really pretty.







Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tasty Thursday - Olive Garden Breadsticks

We were having friends over for dinner this weekend, and I was trying to decide what to  make to go with the lasagna I was cooking.  Deputy D requested that I try and make breadsticks.  I knew that I had pinned several recipes for breadsticks, and I decided to try the Olive Garden Breadsticks by the County Cook.  I made the scratch yeast version, but she also has a quick version using canned breadsticks.

First, mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar and let it sit until it gets foamy.  It actually overflowed my measuring cup, which doesn't usually happen.



Mix the flour and salt together.  I used the paddle attachment for this, and then realized that I needed to switch to the dough hook.  I added the yeast mixture and butter to the flour, and let it mix until the dough looked smooth and elastic as the recipe directed.  I didn't time this, but probably should have.



Spray cookie sheets with non-stick cooking spray, and then pull off bits of dough and roll them into strips.  Next time I make these, I will probably try to divide the dough up more evenly as I had several different sizes of breadsticks when it was all said and done.


I covered the breadsticks and let them rise until they were double in size.  This took about an hour, which worked out perfectly because the lasagna took an hour to cook.  I left them on top of the stove the whole time, which provided just enough warmth for them to rise.  Normally, I turn the oven on "Keep Warm" for a few minutes and then turn it off and let dough rise inside because we keep our house pretty chilly.




While the breadsticks were in the oven, I mixed together melted butter, garlic powder, and kosher salt.  I doubled this part of the recipe because I like butter and salt on my bread, and the amount turned out to be just perfect.

I brushed the butter mixture on once in the middle of the cooking time, and then again once I took them out of the oven.



Although I don't personally think they taste exactly like Olive Garden breadsticks, I really liked them and the overall consensus seemed to be that they were really good.  And luckily, our friends did not mind being guinea pigs for one of my cooking experiments!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Truthful Tuesday - Semantics... The Difference Between Men and Women


Deputy D was out of town a while back.  Before he left, I admonished him to be good, to stay out of trouble, and to please stay away from motorcycle dealerships.  Those of you who know us know that the months following the great motorcycle fiasco were really rough, and I definitely did not want a repeat performance.

Back to semantics.  When Deputy D promised me that he would not go to any motorcycle dealerships, I was under the impression that he and I were on the same page about all the possible scenarios this promise covered.  It seemed pretty simple to me.  Don't go anywhere near any motorcycle dealerships.  Period.  For any reason.  Don't even think about motorcycles, upgrading motorcycles, or test-driving motorcycles.  Motorcycles and dealerships are off limits.

To him, the guidelines were not so crystal clear.

One evening, his friends decided that they wanted to go peruse the offerings of the closest dealership when they had some down time and, Deputy D being the stand-up guy that he is, offered to drive them there and keep them out of any trouble.  Apparently, it never occurred to him that this would be breaking the promise he made me in any way.

I was livid when I found out.  After all, he had made me a promise and had broken that promise.  Black and white, right?

Wrong.  His argument to me was that he had not TECHNICALLY broken the promise because he had not actually gone onto the showroom floor.  He did not test-drive a motorcycle and did not even talk to a salesman.  He stayed outside in the accessories area and waited there while his friends went in to the showroom floor and shopped.

We argued and fought and discussed.  And it all boils down to semantics.  He knew what I meant when I asked him to make the promise, and he decided to test the boundaries of that promise to the fullest extent possible.  He did not actually come home with a new motorcycle, which I am thankful for, but I am having a hard time getting the picture of him test-driving a bike out of my head.  Even though he says he stayed in the accessories area.

He has a perfectly good motorcycle at home.  It is fairly new, and still runs well most of the time.  Why would he want to look at or window shop for a different machine?  After all, he picked out the model that he currently has and, for the most part, I thought he was pretty happy with it.

Things are almost always black and white to women, but it seems to me that men like to live in the gray areas.  They like to push things as far as they can go, without actually breaking the rules.  At least, that has been my experience.  I wonder why that is, and why men and women are so different in that regards.  Even Little Man, who is the king of being literal and things being black and white, likes to see exactly how far he can push a situation without actually breaking the rules or getting into trouble.

It probably boils down somehow to women being fueled by their emotions, and men sticking to the logic involved in a situation.  To stay out of the doghouse though, it seems to me that men would learn to just accept the things that drive their wives crazy and love them in spite of it.  And for goodness sake... Don't make a promise (knowing exactly what the promise means) if you don't intend on keeping it!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Make Something Monday - Something Old, Something New

Our patio chairs have been looking pretty rough for a while now.  We use the chairs all year long, so we can't put them up after summer is over to protect them.  We will probably replace them at some point with chairs that don't have cushions, but we have more important things to purchase right now, so the cushions have been on the back burner.

Still, I am pretty embarrassed when we have company over and they see the state of our patio furniture.  The blistering heat + all the rain we have had + a dog who likes to dig =


Pretty sad, isn't it?

I had seen a post on Pinterest where someone had re-covered her patio furniture with shower curtains to make them waterproof.  I though that was a brilliant idea, but all of the shower curtains that I found and liked were fabric and needed a liner because they were not waterproof.  Plus they were pricey.  One day when I was looking at fabric in Wal-Mart, I came across some material that was vinyl on one side and cotton on the other.  I don't know what it is technically called, but it reminds me of the cheap tablecloths that they sell during holidays.  Plus I really liked the pattern and the material was fairly cheap.

I pondered the project for a few weeks, but decided to give it a try when Deputy D was going to have a friend over and I knew they would be out in the backyard.  Plus, I haven't had a project for Make Something Monday in a while, and this seemed like a good one.

My first step was to call my mom and tell her what I was going to try and make sure that the material would sew on my sewing machine.  She seemed to think it would work.  However, when I went to purchase the material, a lady was shopping on the same aisle and was watching me wrestle down the very tall bolt of material.  She asked what I was planning on doing with the material, and I told her.  She eyed me very skeptically.  "Are you sure that's the best material to use for that project?"  I explained to her that I had discussed it with my mom, and we were pretty sure it would go through my machine and that I was confident that it would work fine.  She just said, "Hmmm... Well good luck with that," and then walked off shaking her head.

My confidence was shaken a bit, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

I took the old cushion and then measured the material to fit around it.


 Then, pinned it down alone the edges and sewed it down.  I had a couple of areas where the machine was a bit finicky, but overall it sewed down just like regular material.


Once I sewed down the long edge and one short edge, I stuffed the old cushion in.


Now, this is probably now the best way to do this, but I just took the whole thing back to the machine and stitched down the last short edge all the way across and trimmed off the excess.  I planned on covering it with ribbon or bias tape, but I was not unhappy with the way it turned out, so I just left it alone.  Yes, you can see the seam on one edge, but I don't think it looks terrible.



Finally, I added a length of ribbon to each corner of the cushion to tie to down to the chairs.  I only had enough material to cover two of the existing cushions, but I am so pleased with the results that I can't wait to get more material to cover the rest!