Feature Friday: Blog Swap with Sumo and a Feature

For Feature Friday today, our “f” word is Friend, as in new bloggy friend. Hope you enjoy today’s blog swap with Sumo! So head on over here to see our post for today!

Hello Crafty Clanners!

I'm Summer, or Sumo as my husband lovingly calls me. (And now consequently has all of my family calling me. Doesn't Aunt Sumo have a nice ring to it?)

I'm the blogger from Sumo's Sweet Stuff!

I use my blog to share my projects, tutorials, recipes, host giveaways, and shamelessly promote my etsy shop!

I AM:

- married to my best friend

- mother to the most beautiful baby girl (and a babe on the way!)

- daughter and sister to the best family ever

- friend to some of the greatest people out there I LOVE TO:

- play piano

- sing

- read

- craft

- go on walks

- spend time with my family

- drink Diet Coke

- bake/cook

- exercise (well, sometimes)

- crochet

SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS:

- Diet Coke

- popcorn

- chips and salsa

- anything that involves peanut butter and chocolate

- public library

- fall

- craft stores

- black and green

- Christmas

- historical fiction

- cats

I love crafting and creating.

Here are some of the tutorials you can find on my blog.

Seasonal Wood Board

Decorative Pumpkin Trick or Treat Bag (idea courtesy of Sisters Stuff) I also really love to bake! Here are a few of my favorite goodies to make. White Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes S'mores Cupcakes I have an etsy shop where I sell all things baby girl! You can purchase hair bows.... flower clips.... piggies.... crocheted flower leggings.... bracelets.... a set with a little bit of everything.... or even a tutu! I have blog schedule, so you can find something different being posted every day of the week! Right now I am hosting a giveaway over at Pink Nothings! Be sure to go check it out to win a few things from my etsy shop! I'll be featuring some fun Christmas tutorials coming up, so come take a peek to get some great Christmas ideas! Come on over to Sumo's Sweet Stuff and let's be blogging friends!

Thanks for swapping with me today ladies! You are amazing!

Thanks for swapping with us today Sumo, it has been so much fun!!! Congratulations on the babe on the way, that’s so exciting (especially to us since we are both Labor and Delivery nurses). Isn’t her stuff darling? And those goodies, almost had to lick the screen (highly discouraged though).

Now for the feature (THANKS STEPHANIE!!!):

Hey Everyone!

I am Stephanie, the creative mind from Somewhat Simple. Each Friday is Feature Friday on my blog and today I am featuring my personal favorite creation from this site. Feature Friday is a great way to view awesome ideas from some amazing bloggers! Stop by and take a look- you just might get inspired! Have a good one!~ Steph

Guest Day Thursday: Halloween Wreath

I told you last week that my darling friend Anna would be back this week, and so today’s the day. A couple of weeks ago Anna and I were blogstalking and we stumbled onto this darling Halloween wreath. We knew we HAD to make our own. In this post Anna describes how she made hers, and shows you the finished project.

This was a fun Halloween project, so easy and inexpensive!

I got 2 yards of black tulle and one of purple and green each. If you are fortunate enough to live in a place that sells orange tulle nearby, I think that’s be fun to add, too – since the main colors of Halloween are orange and black!

I bought a 50 cent grapevine wreath from DI. It was spray panted bright gold. It was 50 cents… so whatever.

I used my hot glue gun and about 2 ½ sticks.

With my roller cutter, board and ruler, I cut all the tulle into about 4x4 squares.

As I started gluing the tulle on, I realized that the gold was peeking through. I didn’t want that so I used several 2 inch strips of scrap black fabric to wrap around the wreath.

By gathering a square of tulle into a point from the middle (imagine how you would put your pointer finger into a tissue so you could dab at your eyes…

This is not the greatest photography, but you get the idea of what I’m describing).

…And adding a dollop of hot glue to it, stick the point to the wreath. Hold for several seconds. Repeat. Many many times.

Till your finished product looks like THIS

Or something close to it, or even cuter! I’m still in the process of looking for the perfect embellishments to add, like some small pumpkins or bats. That’s the beauty in doing your own projects – the sky is literally the limit!

…And if you have a friend like Teri, your wreath can look as fun and frightening.

Her hand painted spooky eyeballs and dark gothic chain are the perfect accessories for my favorite Halloween decoration!

Happy Halloween all!

Isn’t she so cute!!! When she originally sent me this post she had mentioned that she wanted some embellishments and I was at Pier 1 and saw these and knew they would be perfect! I however wasn’t going to pay $5 a piece for them, so I made them of course! They are just Christmas ornaments that are spray painted black with eye balls painted on! I found the chain on clearance at Lowes and spray painted it black too. I love the way the masculinity of the chain contrasts with the femininity of the tulle. I used the technique of tying rather than gluing my tulle and ribbon on, like was mentioned in the inspiration piece. Here is how mine turned out. It’s fun how each can be so different when based on the same idea!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

We are participating in :

and Frugalicious Friday on Finding Fabulous

What's Cookin Wednesday in Micki's Kitchen

This is one of my favorite recipes. Not lowfat by any means. But delicious!!


Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:
1 pint heavy cream
1 stick butter
1/2 container each of grated and shredded parmesean cheese
garlic salt (to taste)

In medium sauce pan melt cube of butter. Then gradually add heavy cream. Bring to a boil and slowly stir in both kinds of parmesean cheese and garlic salt. Stir continuously or cheese will burn. Simmer until cheese is melted and serve immediatly.

Tadpole Tuesday: Teri’s Halloween Trees

Remember these ghosts that we made with the kids?

They are hanging outside our house with some decoupage Halloween ornaments on our Halloween Trees (aka dead sticks we “planted” in the ground).

We made these as a family and they were fun and not too difficult. To find out how to make them, visit Blue Cricket Designs.

We also coated them with glow in the dark Mod Podge and sprayed them with polyurethane. Then we tied monofilament to the loops to hang them. Voile!

Close ups of some of my favorites:

There is one there from each of us….perfect in their imperfection (I’ll let you guess who’s is whose).

This is about the extent of our outside decor, except for my favorite jack-o-lantern riding a spider which was pictured here.

We are joining Kimba @ A Soft Place to Land, click the button below and feast your eyes on all kinds of greatness!!!

We will probably join more parties as the week goes on, so we will add links here :)
and Halloween Suprise Party @ The DIY Show Off

Mystery Monday: Teri’s Grocery Savings Tip

In these challenging economic times who doesn’t want to save a little dough? I do! I used to coupon, but it would take me so much time, that I quit…..for a while. I have recently started couponing again, and with the tutoring of a good friend (THANKS SUNNIE!!!), I have become more efficient. It also helps that I have a couple good friends who coupon as well, and so we share info on deals with each other. Here are a couple of couponing tips for you:

1 – Use the internet to learn what is a good deal and what isn’t. I primarily use a site called Pinching Your Pennies, from their main page you can link to forums for your state, and even for the military commissary. They use a 5 star system and tell you what is a good deal in the weekly ads. There are other great websites out there, but a lot of them you have to pay a monthly fee, and I just couldn’t justify that.

2- Subscribe to multiple papers so you can get multiple coupons. I subscribe to my local paper and I get 3 copies every Sunday (they also made me subscribe to the weekday paper). I more than recoup this expense every month. A lot of paper companies will let you get up to 5 or 6 copies, but this was too many for me to use.

3- Ask the advice of a seasoned pro. They may have a system that works really well for them, or at least some ideas you can use.

4- Don’t expect to be a pro overnight. I learn more every week. Also, expect to invest some time, especially at first. But it’s so worth it when you can get things for pennies or even free (and don’t say to yourself, I’m not going to do this, because we don’t eat processed food…..you use toilet paper and toothpaste don’t you?).

Look for more of my tips for what works for me to come up in future posts.

Now for the mystery part (that’s the part where we get to ask you a question):

What are your tips for saving money on groceries???

We are linked to Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous