the DIY: JEWELED BRACELET WITH MARTHA STEWART JEWELRY

We received so many things from Martha Stewart Jewelry to create some pieces of our own. There were so many options but I really loved all the rhinestones so I decided to make something using those. Everything was so easy to use and so cute! I'm looking forward to playing around with the rhinestones more.

To make this bracelet you will need:

-Jewelry Glue

-Rhinestones

-Rhinestone Settings

-Round-nose pliers

-Flat-nose pliers

Glue your rhinestones into the rhinestone settings.

I'm using the settings that have loops on both sides.

Connect all the settings with jump rings.

Now there is a chain of 4 rhinestones.

Measure around your wrist and subtract the length of the rhinestones. Whatever is left is how long you should cut the chain. Cut three strips of chain. You will connect them all with a jump ring to the strand of rhinestones.

From left to right there should be a jump ring, then the rhinestone strand, then another jump ring, the three strands of chain, another jump ring connected to a lobster claw.

And you are done!

The chain hangs down a little bit on the back side of your wrist.

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the DIY: MARQUEE LETTERS/ NUMBERS

So glad I finally got around to making these letters/ numbers. We've had the supplies forever! We can't afford the beautiful metal marquee letters that shops and restaurants have so I made a budget friendly version. Here's what you will need to make your own:
- Poster board, I used about 3 sheets
- Foam board, I used 2 of these
- Pencil
- Scissors
- X-acto knife & cutting board
- Hot glue
- Spray Paint
- Strand of Christmas lights

Start off by drawing your letters or numbers on your foam board. I just hand drew our numbers but you could print out a stencil from your computer if you'd like.

Cut out the numbers with the X-acto knife.

Here are ours all cut out.

Draw lines on your poster board with 4 inches in between each line.

Cut out the strips.

Hot glue the middle of the strips to the sides of the foam board shapes.

Here's a better picture of how the poster board strips have 2 inches on both sides of the foam board.

Here is the "8" finished. This part takes patience.

Spray paint the number and mark with a Sharpie where you want the lights to be. Our bulbs are smaller so we want to have a good amount of lights in each number.

Use the X-acto knife to poke a hole where the Sharpie marks are and twist the knife to make the holes big enough for a light to push through.

Push the light bulb through the hole from the back.

It should look something like this, a.k.a. kind of messy.

Here's what it looks like in the front...

And all lit up!

You could leave your letters all white if you'd like but these are going in our kitchen. Our kitchen is extremely colorful so it only seemed right for these to be colored.

See what I mean? hah.

eat THIS: RANCH BUTTER

So we were in a group of people the other day and we found out that there were many people who didn't know about Hidden Valley's Ranch Dip Mix and it's amazing-ness. I mean, you mix the packet with some sour cream and you've got the best dip ever! People don't/ didn't know this? Needless to say, those certain people's lives were changed when they finally tasted the lovely dip. This topic of conversation brought us to talk about all the different things you could do with the dip mix- things good and bad. Let me tell you what, this ranch butter idea... one of the better ones. Just mix a 16 oz. tub of butter or spread with a packet of ranch dip mix and spread that stuff on everything. Put it on your bread, put it on your corn, put it in your noodles, put it on your potato. It adds such a deliciousness to anything you would usually use butter on. Well, maybe just the savory things. Also, this isn't meant to be a dip in butter form... can you imagine how rich that'd be? It's basically just well seasoned butter.

Anyways, we are almost completely unpacked, we can see the end in sight. This means that our blog will resume back to normal within the next week, yay! And, let us know if you try the ranch butter!