The Sweet Shop

Out with the old. In with the new.

Spring Cleaning!

New Year, New Me!

New Blog!

However we want to say it..things are a changin'. My life is a bit different than it was for my last post (which was an unacceptable 4+ months ago). I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately, trying to figure out what's important in my life and what I should spend my energy on. I feel like this is an opportunity for me to have yet another fresh start. We're all allowed to have one every once in a while, right??

As I think about where I want to be in the next 5-10 years there is always one goal that I can't shake. For years now i've wanted to own my own business. I probably drive my parents crazy talking about all my crazy ideas and projects i'm working on to get myself ready to do this. During these brainstorming sessions I think about the steps to get to where I want to be:

ultimate goal: own my own shop (whether it be brick & mortar or online)

immediate goal: BLOG MORE

short term goal: build blog & business online while holding down a full time job

Ladies and Gents...immediate goal complete. OK, not really, but i'm BACK! I hope this is the start of something great. I have the time, motivation, and lack of excuses to finally devote more time to my blog, my projects (crafting or baking), and building an inventory of homemade goods to sell (on Etsy, of course and at local craft fairs). 

Here's another list, because i'm oh so good at them:

1. new name for blog

drum roll please.....welcome to Homespun!

2. new blog banner

coming soon (until then it will still read The Sweet Shop)

3. create Etsy shop

setting this up as we speak! Homespun Market (link to come)

4. create, create, create

starts THIS WEEK

5. blog, pin, post items for sale

 

Time to get cracking. See you around real soon.

 

And here are some inspiring quotes that have been getting me through the days..because blog posts with no pictures bore me.

 

Christmas Treat OVERLOAD!!

The past 3 Christmases have been all about making homemade treats to give away as gifts. My Mom and I get together and bake and bake and bake some more. In the end we have enough cookies/chocolate treats to give away to all of our friends and family.

This has been a yearly tradition for as long as I can remember. Every year I look forward to some quality baking time with my Mom. It started out with just cookies then slowly morphed into something HUGE. At first we just tried a few new cookie recipes each year, then one year I added chocolate covered pretzels and oreos. Last year I added truffles and this year we've combined it ALL!

Check out some of my favorite pics of this year and years past. If time permits (obviously I should have blogged Christmas related baking weeks ago but what can I say..it's the Holidays and i'm freakin busy, ok? lol) i'm going to spend time posting about how to make a lot of these items. Stay tuned!

TRUFFLES!! (Clockwise: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Red Velvet, Peanut Butter, Oreo)
Chocolate Tree Cover Pretzels
First attempt at Chocolate Covered Oreos..and homemade tags
Buckeye Bark!! Every year we make Buckeye Balls..this year we tried something new
New chocolate Oreo molds
Truffle packaging 
Mom's famous Sugar Cookies
S'mores Truffles (first time making them)

A few versions of Peanut Butter Hershey Kiss CookiesWhat my Mom's kitchen table looks like every Christmas! Time for cookie gift packaging...

Owl Jack O Lantern

This Halloween season one of my favorite blogs (ok probably my favorite) decided to do a Pumpkin Carving Contest -I was instantly excited to get involved! Though you don't have to do much to convince me to carve a pumpkin or do anything related to Halloween.

A Beautiful Mess is one of the first blogs I ever started reading and they are a big reason behind why I started blogging. Sisters Elsie & Emma continue to inspire me to chase my dreams of some day starting my own business. They post daily about fashion, DIY, photography, thrifting and my favorite - tips on blogging, time management and running your own business. So yea...get over there and check them out!

 

OK back to my Owl Jack O Lantern story: I found some pictures on the Halloween section of the Martha Stewart website of an Owl made out of a big pumpkin and some jack be littles. There are a few tools required but as long as you have everything this is a quick & easy project.

 

Tools I Needed: 1 large pumpkin, at least 3 jack be littles (any color/size), a power drill with a 5/8 & 3/8 drill bits, white string lights, carving knives, scooper, toothpicks, spoon, and a pen. I covered my working area with a garbage bag..it made clean up super easy.

Cut off the top of the pumpkins and scoop out the insides of the large pumpkin and jack be littles. You'll actually be flipping the large pumpkin so that the hole will be on the bottom..this provides for a smooth/flat top to make it look more like an owl.

Time to drill out holes for the eyes. These will eventually have string lights sticking out to illuminate the eyes. I used a 5/8 drill bit for this opening, it fits 3 lights perfectly.

Next I drilled holes through the bottom of 2 of the jack be littles. Make sure to drill on top of something - a box/piece of wood. This will make sure you drill a clean hole without breaking off chunks (I learned this the hard way).

Time to carve the plumage, I used a spoon to create the crescent shape. I used a tiny carving knife to cut out above the crescent..this allows the light to shine through.

Time to illuminate! Bunch the string lights up into bundles of three, secure with a rubberband. Slide the lights out of the eye holes through the center of the pumpkin. Make sure they're snug.

Get some toothpicks ready to attach the rest of the facial features. I ended up using 2 sections of a white jack be little for the beak, three sections of a regular jack be little for each foot, and two sections of a jack be little for each ear. I found it easier to create pilot holes for the toothpicks, I used a poking tool that came with my pumpkin carving kit. Be prepared, you will probably break a lot of toothpicks during this process.

 

Ta Dah! Pumpkin Owl is ALLLIIIVVVEE
Let's get this owl outdoors:

Happy (early) Halloween!!

 

 

p.s. i wish i had taken these pictures a week or two ago, look how amazing the trees were!

Halloween Spiderweb Cupcakes

Halloween is right around the corner and I must say i'm a huge fan of themed baking & candy making! A week or so ago I had to bake cupcakes for a party at work so I decided to make them Halloween themed. I saw posts online about how easy it is to make spiderweb cupcakes, and boy were they right, these bad boys are easy to make and super cute.

I used a cake box mix to make the cupcakes (fudge marble, my second favorite behind funfetti) and frosting in a can - one chocolate and one vanilla. Oh, and adorable 'spooky' cupcake liners my Mom got me.

Swirl them up nice and ice them with the vanilla icing. Next up, the webs - draw 3 circles with the chocolate icing (to create the circles I used a plastic bag with the corner cut off) the trick to making the spiderwebs is to drag a toothpick through the three circles to create the web effect.

I added some Halloween sprinkles (ghosts, bats, gravestones, etc) and I was done!

I bought some fake spider rings to stick in the cupcakes next time I make them, this may become a Halloween baking staple. 

Fall Fun in Philly

October has to be one of my favorite months of the year: The leaves change, I get to step on the first crunchy leaf of the year, the air is crisp, it's the beginning of sweater season, plenty of fall activites and treats, and of course Halloween.
A few Saturday's ago I ventured out to Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA to do a little apple picking and cider drinking. The selection of pumpkins and baked goods are out of this world. I would also say they have the best apple cider and apple cider donuts in the Philadelphia area! 

This season's drink of choice has been any beer with the words 'pumpkin' or 'octoberfest' on the label. Paired with a cupcake Fall can't get much better than this.

P.S. check back soon for my spiderweb cupcake post! you won't believe how easy it is.

DIY Vintage Knob Jewelry & Accessories Display Board

I found an amazing DIY hanging jewelry & accessories display online one day (Pinterest? Etsy? Can't quite remember where I saw it)...it's the perfect piece to organize and display your favorite necklaces, bracelets, scarves, you name it. The ones below are made up of wooden molding boards, glass/ceramic/metal knobs in various shapes and sizes, two screws and some bolts and washers. A short list of materials..but it requires a wide array of tools, which is why I enlisted my Dad who i'm pretty sure owns every tool ever made!

We created a few different pieces: two long boards - one with small mismatched knobs and one with slightly larger mismatched knobs. a short board with extended knobs to hang towels in the kitchen. two blocks used to string up sunglasses. 

My Mom ordered a ton of drawer knobs off Ebay, she found some great groups of 2-4 knobs in multiple colors. The knobs she found were amazing! I loved that we had so many to choose from.

The molding boards were purchased from Lowes, where they were willing to cut them into the sizes we needed. We had one more cut to make at home so we used a Mitre box with a saw to cut the molding. 

The prep work involved deciding the array of knobs for each board as well as the spacing between them. I spaced the knobs about 2" apart to allow space for fluffy scarves. 

After deciding on placement & spacing I punched a guiding hole where the knobs would eventually be placed. We then used a drill to create holes all the way through the board so that the screws on the knobs could pass freely through the opening. Don't forget to drills a hole on the end of each side of the board, this hole will be for the screw to mount the board on the wall.

We then had to countersink the back of the board so that the washer and bolt would lay flat against the back of the board. This is needed so that the board lays flat on the wall.

There was a lot of trial and error during this part of the project. Since the knobs are all mismatched sometimes the countersink needed to be adjusted, sometime the size of the knob screwed were inconsistent and the drilled holes needed to be adjusted. 

We inserted the knob screws through the board while placing a washer and bolt on each side of the board to keep it in place. 

Note: if you want to hang larger items on your board you can use the washer & bolt to create the length of the screw on the front side of the board. I kept my knobs flush on the jewelry & accessories display board but for the kitchen board, on which I wanted to hang towels, I kept the knob about 1 1/2" from the front side of the board.

The next step is to tighten the bolt, make sure it's flush with the back, in most cases the screw will need to cut down. My Dad used a saw to cut it down then sanded down the metal until it was smooth. You don't need an electric sander for this,  but it sure does help.

Ta Da!

I was able to use square wooden rossettes (that I painted white) to create my make-shift sunglasses/eyewear display. Any type of thread/yarn/rope can be used to create the strand that the sunglasses will hang on. Just mount the two rosettes level with each other about a foot apart then tie the string the thread/yarn/rope to hang from each knob.

To mount the boards onto the wall we used two long screwed that were painted white to match the molding board. The real trick while mounting is to use a level so that board isn't crooked on the wall, I know that would drive me crazzzy everytime I looked at it.
And voila, here you have an entire accessories display area. I added in my jewelry bulletin board (see my past post) and an IKEA mirror & cubical storage shelf and the area was able to hold most of my accessories.

Thanks to my Dad for my help with this. Shortly after we made this project (yes, it took me months to post this) he had his surgery. I can't wait for him to be fully recovered so we can get back to making more projects together. <3

 

 

Hooray! Fall Is Here

My favorite time of year is upon us...Fall is finally here! I'm still settling into my new place, there is soo much to do..side note: there are lots of pictures to come. I finally settled on a date for my belated Housewarming Party! I have big, big plans..in about 2 months I want to get the following projects accomplished:

hang all artwork/pictures/decoration

get a new rug, curtains, corner bookcase

stencil 1 wall

finish reupholstering my chair

finish organizing my accessories & my desk/paperwork

find a DIY headboard & make it!

(sneak peek: unfinished chair & that left wall to be stenciled) 

 

I digress..when i'm not thinking about home projects my current interests have included a new fall wardrobe and finding the perfect scary Halloween attraction. OH! and pumpkin picking & my costume.

• Possible DIY Headboard Idea?

 

• Found these boots in a Lucky Magazine ad. I WANT! Timberland Womens Boots

 

 

 

Life in Instagram

Life has been CRAZY lately. In the past month I moved, my Dad had unexpected surgery (don't worry he's OK and recovering!), it was my 26th birthday, and on top of that i've been working 40+ hours a week, trying to paint/organize/decorate my new place and STILL trying to get my washing machine fixed. Siiiigghh. I need a break from it all!!

 

Thought I would come back for a quick post and show how my life is playing out via Instagram (I can't get enough of this app):

 

typical breakfast
new street!
balloon for Papa Bear
happy birthday to me
wannabe hiker: Hawk Mountain, PA
newly organized closet, so proud of this!
my desk: before & after
the birds found the feeder :)
first weekend visitor in my new place
work, work, work <3 Philly

 

Check back soon for new posts! Hoping they will include the following:

DIY

Baking 

Home Decorating 

HALLOWEEEEEN

finally...The Big Move!

This past weekend finally concluded my move into my new condo. Here's a quick recap of the move & a sneak peek at the new place. :)

Breakfast at the Flap Jack House with my Mom (who, along with my Dad, have been tremendously helpful during this whole transition)!
So the weekend started out a bit rough, the movers truck broke down and they ended up coming 2 hours late. After that it was a project just to get my sectional sofa bed out of the apartment and into the truck. It took 3 men, 2 doors taken off the hinges, and a lot of manipulation to get it out..not to mention some rips in the fabric, oh well.
Surprisingly they were able to get all of my stuff in one truck..it was an amazing feat considering I'm a bit of an organized hoarder. I still can't believe all that stuff fit in my tiny one bedroom apartment (I took pics of my old place before I started packing, planning to post them eventually to compare to the new place).
The next day the unpacking began..and let me tell you it's not easy with a nosy cat constatly in your way!

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Well that summed up my move. My Mom and I were so excited to have a washer/dryer in the condo to get caught up on all the wash...towels, blankets, sheets, etc. Well on our 4th or 5th load the washer BROKE! It spewed water all over the floor and guess what, it trickled down into my poor downstairs neighbors unit. Let me tell you, not the first impression I wanted to make.

We're currently waiting on the service guy to come out to either fix or replace it (thank god my parents made me get a Home Warranty for the first year!) and trying to settle up with the Insurance companies for the damages. The one shining moment in this was realizing that my downstairs neighbors are awesome! So understanding and nice..they're just excited to have some fellow youngsters in the complex as there seems to be a large population of retired folks (which I don't mind at all).

Here are a few snapshots of the new place, I would say it's coming along nicely. Still some painting, wall hanging, and organizing to do but we got a LOT done this weekend.

Check out my new vintage telephone chair! I've been dying to get this out of storage and on display. It's a great place to throw my bag down and take off my shoes when I get home from work and of course use my candlestick rotary phone, which is currently operational, woo.
The beginnings of my guest room/office. The couch folds out into a full size sleeper and my new bookcase/desk from IKEA look great together. Can't wait to fully unpack this room and decorate!
And of course, the ACCESSORIES WALL! I'm dying to post my DIY vintage knob boards project on here, just need some downtime to get all the pictures uploaded and get all the instructions down. It was a blast putting it all together with my Dad and I absolutely love the outcome.
My Dad is the man...he took my birdcage lamp from my old apartment and made it into a full functional hallway lamp. I LOVE what it does for the hallway, it really makes the place feel like my own (disregard the unfinished walls)!

Can't wait to post more pics of the before & after, DIY projects, and the trials and tribulations of being a homeowner. My favorite quote from this weekend was from my Dad right after the washer broke: "Welcome to Homeownership!"

Oh, and now that I have a kitchen with actual storage space and a large work area I can start posting my baking projects as well. Can't wait.

this quote seems so fitting :)