Mossy Monogram Tutorial + Fall Festivities

Hi everyone!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend! I had a good one - Mr. G and I went to a corn maze with his sister and her fiance and we all carved pumpkins afterward. :) Unfortunately, much like the glue gun incident, pumpkin carving proved to be more dangerous than expected... I ended up carving my finger more than the pumpkin, so I needed help finishing. Whoops. At least the pumpkin turned out well! Here are our masterpieces (guess who made the monogram):

Mine is the G (of course), and Mr. G's is MN Gopher hockey themed. :)

In other news, as an update on our bedroom furniture, we've pretty much decided on a set, but it's actually none of the ones I previously posted haha. As it turns out, Ashley furniture got REALLY bad reviews on quality and customer service, so we eliminated those two options. I wanted to look around some more, so we went to the furniture capitol of the world (Edina, MN) and ended up finding our perfect bedroom set at Crate & Barrel. I fell in love with the canopy bed and the modern design of the pieces. Plus, I like that there are no handles... It means I can add some later if I want without having to take anything off. :) Here's the collection (click the link below to see the rest):

Pavillion Canopy Bed

We also decided to wait a little longer to start buying the furniture since they're more expensive and we have other purchases that take precedence (such as an iPad...). Speaking of which, I upgraded my iPhone to the 4S! We decided to go for it because Mr. G was due an upgrade anyway and we were able to sell my iPhone 4 on Craig's List for more than we paid for it lol. So, we made money and I got a new phone! Not a bad deal... And yes, Siri is awesome. And yes, I got it the day after it came out and I felt pretty cool.

Another purchase we made this weekend was an IKEA picture I've had my eye on since we moved here 6 months ago. It's a HUGE canvas picture that fills a lot of our expansive wall space (thank you, vaulted ceilings), and it was well worth the wait. :) I had a bit of a scare, though, because IKEA took it down from their website this week! I literally saw it on there last weekend, so naturally I freaked out, but thankfully our store still had plenty in stock. Otherwise, I probably would have thrown a fit... Seriously. Here it is (sorry no link):

Please ignore the ugly, off-center light fixture. 

And last but not least, here is my (finally!) finished mossy monogram:

Here's how I did it (get ready for all these steps):

1. Supplies needed: cardboard letter (I got my big one from Michael's), hot glue gun + LOTS of extra glue sticks, moss sheets (mine took 2-3), craft scissors, and ribbon for hanging (I used burlap ribbon from JoAnn and LOVE it)
2. Cut out strips of moss and hot glue them to the letter. I recommend cutting strips for the top and then each of the sides. Don't bother with the back unless it will show. Use spare moss chunks to fill in bald spots.
3. Hang with the ribbon (if using nails, go just below the bow). That's it. You're done! It's not hard, but if you're not skilled with a glue gun (like me) you'll probably burn yourself a lot since moss isn't very thick. So be careful! But all the burns were worth it, because it's definitely my favorite part of my living room now. :) Well, that and my IKEA picture.

Coming soon: lots of recipes! Banana cake, apple pie, apple crisp... Good stuff. :)

I also have more upcoming craft projects... Namely, another pumpkin project (no knives) and a homemade cake stand. So stay tuned!

<3 Mrs. G

Southwestern Corn Chowder & Mossy Monogram Project

Hi everyone!

I finally have a recipe to share! As promised, I cooked a warm fall soup this weekend: southwestern corn chowder. I got the recipe from my Betty Crocker app, and be forewarned - it's pretty spicy. Here's the recipe... FYI: I tripled mine and it was enough for about 4-6.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups chicken broth (I used chicken bouillon cubes, but you can do either)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground red pepper (I didn't have cayenne so I just used flakes)
• 1/2 cup half-and-half cream
• 1 can (11 oz) Green Giant southwestern style corn (I only found Mexican, which seemed close enough)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh chives
• Additional chives for garnish, if desired

Directions:

• In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.
• Add onion and cook 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender.
• Stir in flour until well blended. Gradually stir in broth.
• Stir in salt, black pepper and red pepper - heat to boiling.
• Reduce heat and cook, stirring frequently, until thickened.
• Stir in half-and-half, corn and chives. Cook until thoroughly heated.
• Serve hot and enjoy!

This was the perfect fall meal, and Mr. G made a delicious broccoli side to go with it (fresh broccoli + butter + water + chicken bouillon + garlic salt + red pepper flakes). I want to make chili soon, too, as well as some pies and fall-inspired cupcakes. I was also hoping to make hot cider this weekend. I even bought apple cider at the store, but I ran out of time. :( Hopefully I'll get a chance to make it sometime this week or next weekend. Nothing makes me think of fall more than hot apple cider. :) Good news is, I have leftover corn chowder to bring to work tomorrow! Much better than a Lean Cuisine.

In other news, I also finally got started on one of my craft projects! Remember the mossy monogram I mentioned way back in April? (if not, here's the link to my post on it). Well, I bought the supplies for it forever ago, but tonight I finally got to work on it. Maybe the fall weather inspired me? Anyway, I'm actually almost done with it. I would have finished it, but I ran out of hot glue.. Didn't expect to use the whole bag! It's not terribly hard to make, but it is pretty frustrating because the moss keeps falling off and the hot glue gun and I are NOT friends. I burned my pointer finger countless times and then actually gave myself a second degree burn on my knee, of all places... I had my pants rolled up and some glue oozed out of the gun onto my knee as I was replacing the stick. I screamed bloody murder and scared poor Mr. G and Molly. I'll have a nice scab there now, and I might walk a little funny for a couple days because it's on an awkward part of my knee... My coworkers will get a kick out of this injury. Not to mention this was my second burn of the day - my first was this morning with the curling iron. Who knew hair styling and crafting would be so dangerous?! But hey, after icing my knee, I kept on crafting like a champ. ;)

I'll post pics and a tutorial for the moss letter after I finish it. I have two other letters to go after this one, and I'm still deciding whether or not to go through with them... They're smaller at least, and I have a great place to put them. So I probably will. But I may wait a few more months...

Do you have any funny crafting horror stories? If so, please share! I hope I'm not the only one with a glue gun handicap...

<3 Mrs. G