Heading Home

Heading home for Thanksgiving Break, and it feels so good. Got my shorts packed, my bathing suit packed, I am ready to hit the sky ways and make my way back to Jacksonville.

Get ready for some yummy DIY Thanksgiving Blogs!

A Piece of Cake... Stand.

Because of Pinterest, I decided I was going to make homemade gifts this year for birthdays and such. However, I am by no means an expert at crafting... yet. This post is about a cake stand I made for my friend Marisa. Her birthday was August 31st. She received her gift on MY birthday, October 28th. It takes me a while...

My dear friend Marisa is an amazing baker. I was lucky enough to live with her my freshman year of college, and I do believe she was responsible for 13 of my freshman 15 pounds that I gained. So when Pinterest told me I could make her a cake stand from terracotta pots, I was so down! Here is how I did it:

Step one was actually finding the terracotta pot and saucer, which seems like a simple task, however, it was not. Did you know planting was a season activity? With the cold weather slowly rolling in, planting supplies were hard to come by. I lucked out with the actual small pot, which I found at Michael's. However, finding the right size saucer had me running ALL over Westchester county. I did finally find one, at a Home Depot, in I-can't-even-tell-you-whereville. But I found it. I found the real cool turquoise paint, and decided that would be a perfect back drop for one of Marisa's pretty cakes.

After the turquoise paint had tried, I began personalizing it a bit, with a funky design on the stand, and of course, her monogram, because no proper lady has belongings without her monogram being displayed proudly all over it! (My sweet Marisa Rose Meade!)

The finished product looks a little something like this!

Be on the look out for another gift that I am continuously working on, for my best friend, whose birthday was three days before mine (October 25th...). Hopefully she will receive her gift on Thanksgiving...

This has nothing to do with Doing It Yourself, but it is my mission to spread this video. These girls are amazing! I think I just want to take them.

Do It Yourself Profile: Pinterest

The inspiration for a Do It Yourself blog came from my discovery of Pinterest a few weeks before the semester began.

Pinterest seems to be one of those sites people are hesitant to sign up with, because they just don’t understand what it is. But once they sign up... they are hooked! I was one of those people. Friends of mine would tell me about their Pinterest finds, and I just didn’t get it. Let me tell you... now, I get it!

Pinterest is a place online where you collect things online you like. You can organize your “things” into different categories, or “boards.” Some of my boards include Fashion, Recipes, Holiday decor (just to name a few). For me Pinterest has provided inspiration, as well as making my covet many wonderful finds.

Like I said, the reason I chose to do a Do It Yourself blog is because Pinterest users LOVE to craft! And they love to Pin their crafts. Which, in turn, inspires others to craft. Creating a blog about creating things on your own gave me an excuse to try some of these projects out!

As far as Pinterest being used as an online marketing tool, it is the best! When you Pin a photo, and a user clicks on the photo, it takes that person to the original source... driving traffic to that website. So if you are pushing something, a product, brand, band, anything, take photos and pin them. If what you have is up someone’s alley, they will find it on Pinterest and be directed right to your site!

For more info on Pinterest, stay tuned for an in depth research project dedicated SOLELY to Pinterest, conducted by Camille, Danielle, Trevor, and myself!

Cookies N' Cream Brownies

My did not intend to make this a recipe blog, however, I have a soft spot for food, and a particular weakness for sweet... and if chocolate is on the recipe list, I WILL be making it. This recipe was no exception! Cookies N' Cream Oreo Brownies. What's not to love?

Ingredients

1 Box Brownie Mix

Eggs and Oil (as called for by the brownie mix)

1 HEAPING half cup of Cookie n' Cream Ice Cream

1/4 Cup Hot Fudge Topping

Oreos (of course!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. At this point, the recipe calls for you to grease an 8x8 pan, however, I took a chef liberty, and greased cupcake cups instead!

Combine brownie mix, eggs, and oil as directed on the back of the brownie mix box. However, you will not be adding water. Add ice cream and fudge topping, and mix.

Fill up your pan (or in my case, my cupcake cups) halfway.

Place Oreos on top of the first layer of batter. Then fill the pan (or cups) the rest of the way up with batter.

Bake for 40-50 minutes (check brownie mix directions!) And then...

The finished product. And they are absolutely divine!

This is How Paula Does It...

My first "DIY" post was recreating a Paula Deen biscuit recipe. Well, if you want to see how it is REALLY done, watch the biscuit master at work!

Jump On It!

This post isn't about a yummy meal or great dessert I made. Or a cool project that I completed. No, this post is about a DIY situation I was forced into.

Last week, it was a grey, hazey day, and I turned my headlights on as I drove to school. I was in a bit of a rush, so gathered my belonging, hurried out of my car, and rushed to class.

After class was out, I walked to the parking lot, to find I had left my headlights on. When I got in my car, I knew what was coming, but I put the keys in the ignition anyway... but to no avail. My battery was dead.

I made a phone call to my friend Molly. She frequently parks in the same parking lot as I do, so I was hoping this would be the case today. It was not, but the second I asked where she was parked, she knew exactly what I needed, and offered to drive over and help me (good friend!).

I didn't have jumper cables in my car, and she assured me that she did. When she arrived, I was so happy to see her because it was raining and beginning to get dark.

When she arrived, we couldn't find her jumper cables. After a quick brainstorm, Molly remember she had AAA, so we called. They got all my information, and assured us they could get to us within 30 minutes. So Molly and I hopped in her car, chatted, listened to some music, and watched some YouTube videos.

After the 30 minutes were up, AAA called and said that wouldn't be there for another hour. Frusterated, Molly decided to look once more for her jumper cables. After a much much more extensive search, we found them under the floor of her trunk.

This is where the DIY (with a friend begins). Luckily, Molly was familiar with how to jump a car. Me, on the other hand, not so much. However, I was very good and figuring out how to open the hoods of both cars, and find MY battery (I drive a Volkswagen, so everything under the hood of my car is backwards and hidden). The Molly walked up though setting the cables up. We got them attached, turned our cars on... and after a 45 minute excursion, two girls who have never had to work under the hood of a car, got a car started, in the rain, after dark.

This may seem like a small accomplishment for some, but for me, this is a major "big girl" milestone!