Glittered Easter Eggs

Happy Easter MIHM readers! This week the Girls Team was feeling festive and went back to our roots to create a unique Easter centerpiece for my kitchen table. We grabbed our favorite craft supply, decoupage, and were on our way tackling Martha Stewart's Glittered Eggs.

I'll let Martha  Stewart give you the strict directions if you are choosing to follow along at home. Her Glittered Egg How-To was very easy to follow (unlike some of her craft instructions!). All we needed for this project were some fresh eggs, decoupage, glitter and a foam brush.

Once we had gathered all of our supplies, it was time for the hard part - blowing out the eggs. Because my Girls Team partner thinks eggs are the most disgusting food on the planet, my dad helped me with this part. (In her defense, this step in the process was really gross, and I love eggs!)

First we used a nail to poke a small hole in both ends of the egg. This was challenging because too much pressure on the nail would cause the egg to crack or break. After doing this, we opened up a paper clip to poke around inside the egg, breaking up the yolk. This makes it easier to blow the yolk out of the egg (apparently).

 

Once both of the holes are made, we used a small straw to blow into one hole. If you're doing this correctly, the yolk will come out of the hole at the bottom of the egg and the egg will be totally empty inside. This part was so hard! It wasn't as quick and easy as Martha made it sound, and if you applied too much pressure the egg would crack or slip out of your hands and break. 

 

We planned to clean out six eggs, but by the second one I was feeling light headed. My dad helped me so I could take a few minutes to breathe between each egg. (Who knew MIHM was hazardous to your health?!) With his help, it took about 30 minutes to finish this step.

 

 

When the yolk was cleaned out, the egg shell was fully intact but sticky and gross. We ran our egg shells under warm water, and let the water run through both holes to clean out the inside.

 

 

After rinsing, we baked our eggs at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Baking them will dry them out and is the final step before applying and glue or craft product onto the shells. Martha doesn't mention this; my mom found this tip online.

 

After the eggs were baked and ready,

we applied a coat of decoupage.

 

 

Using coffee filters, we set our glitter out on the table. Covering the eggs completely took some time and a few layers of the decoupage/glitter step. We rolled our eggs in glitter, dumped glitter over them and even tried shaking them with glitter in ziploc bags.

 

 

Once our eggs were sufficiently sparkly,

we let them dry overnight for 24 hours.

 

 

The next night once the eggs were dry, I carefully placed them in a glass vase my mom bought for them and added it to my kitchen table. Don't they look great?! I'm actually surprised at how much I love these eggs. I'm not a huge glitter or sequins person, but I think these are so fun. Flashy, but classy. :)

 

 

Even though Martha's website has a long list of decorating options for blown out eggs, the Girls Team won't be trying this craft technique again. It was kind of disgusting. But, this project turned out great and was really fun once we started decorating. Also, these egg shells won't go bad, so I can use them for years to come.

 

We also dyed hard boiled eggs on Monday night and I can't wait to eat them. Happy Easter everyone! See you next week. :)

Baked Potato Throw Down!

Guys! Remember last year when my brother came home for Spring Break and the Boys Team joined us for a super fun and tasty Grilled Cheese Throw Down?! Well, he’s back again for break and we’ve invited the Boys Team to another MIHM Throw Down. This time, with some St. Patrick's Day spirit and Irish luck, we’re throwin’ down some baked potatoes!

The rules to this Throw Down are simple: provide your own creative toppings for a baked potato and make enough to share. Although some of us were trying to keep our ideas a secret, by the time everyone was running around the kitchen preparing their potatoes, we all knew what our taste buds were in store for. Everyone did such a great job creating unique topping ideas so let’s get right to it.

First up, and talking a big game, we have my dad. You might remember that he added salmon to his grilled cheese sandwich last year, which was unexpected but surprisingly delicious. This time around, he brought back his signature fish. My dad hollowed out his baked potato and filled it it with barbequed salmon, tomatoes, lettuce, and a lemon dressing. His potato was pretty tasty, and he didn’t stop reminding us that it was the best one on the table. :)

 

Next, my mom presented her baked potato. She made a baked sweet potato, topped with homemade black bean chili, sour cream, cheese and cilantro. You can’t go wrong with chili and cheese. We really liked the variety of the sweet potato (since the rest of us used normal potatoes) and she gets bonus points for making her chili topping from scratch!

 

 

My brother is always thinking outside of the box! His potato was a one-of-a-kind take on another favorite food of his – the cheeseburger. After grilling mini turkey burgers, he added tomato, lettuce, cheese, ketchup and the turkey burger to the potato. To eat his creation, we had to assemble the potato like a burger, with the baked potato replacing the bun. The whole family loved his burger because it was delicious, fun to eat and like eating a burger and fries at the same time!  

 

And lastly, I served up a baked potato with butter and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. The carb overload was well worth it as this potato was savory and scrumptious. I didn’t exert the extra effort to make the macaroni and cheese from scratch, but I think the Kraft version added a bit of nostalgia since we gobbled that up as kids.

 

We’re sure baked potatoes have come a long way since our Irish relatives made their way to America, as was reflected on our kitchen table last night! We had quiet the variety to choose from:

 

Because this was a friendly Throw Down, no winner was crowned. We are all winners in our own right for being so different and creative with our toppings! It was a lot of fun to take the simple meal of a baked potato and jazz them up.

 

With the help of the boys team, we enjoyed a great potato feast, some Irish beer and our favorite Irish Coffees for dessert. Happy St. Patrick’s Day from MIHM!

MIHM Memo Board

After seeing a magnetic memo board on Pinterest, my mom and I decided to try to make one ourselves. The materials we needed were a frame, a sheet of metal cut to the frame's size and fabric. Since the memo board will live at my mom's, she choose a very pretty blue and white print.

We tried to match up the lines of the fabric with the metal sheet so the print would be straight. Then we used hot glue to attach the fabric to the back of the metal sheet. Once the fabric was secure, we removed the glass from the frame and replaced it with the metal sheet.

It took about 30 minutes to finish the magnetic memo board. Overall the project was easy and turned out exactly as we envisioned. However, the pattern is crooked towards one side, so my mom plans to adjust that in the next few days. If any of our loyal readers are trying this at home, we recommend not using a symmetrical patterned fabric. It would make the project much easier not having to worry about lining the fabric up straight. 

 

 

MIHM  UPDATE! With help from my dad, my mom was able to straighten out her fabric in the frame. After hanging it on the wall, she also made cute button magnets for her board. Consider this project finished, and the Girls Team happy!

Sunday Funday

Spring is quickly approaching, and even though it hasn’t felt like we really had much of a winter, my plants sure look like winter got the best of them. Remember these cute flower pots the Girls Team planted back in August? Well, this is what they look like now:

 Yikes.

 

The newest addition to the patio is a lemon tree my parents gave me for birthday, back in September. It is awesome and I immediately got 4 lemons from it! But, it was still living in the plastic pot from the store and was looking kind of sad. We’d been meaning to plant it in the cute barrel I was gifted with it, but had yet to get around to that job.

Between the dead flowers and the plastic potted tree, my patio was looking pretty rough. So this weekend, the Girls Team joined forces for “Make It Happen Sunday – Gardening Edition” to spruce up my patio, just in time for spring!

First we tackled the lemon tree. Since we were just transferring this from the plastic pot to a cute barrel pot, this took about 15 minutes.

I filled the barrel half way with dirt.

 

Then we transferred the tree.

We filled the barrel with soil.

 

Once the tree was potted, we made sure it wasn't crooked and watered it a bit. We didn't need to add much water after this because apparently I’ve been overwatering the tree to begin with. Whoops.

Happy in its new home!

Once the lemon tree was settled, we moved on to planting new flowers in the terracotta pots. Some new soil and a trip to Green Acres for flowers were all that was needed for this update. (If you haven’t seen our original post on how to create the pots, click on the link at the top of this for directions.)

 

Fresh flowers, finally!

We rearranged the pots on the rebar, and like before, ended up with one extra pot. We decided to take the larger pot off the tower and plant the leftover flowers in that. I added the remaining flowers and an American flag I saved from 4^th of July, and then put it by the front door to add some color out front. I also scored major points with my roomie who loves a prominently displayed American flag. :)

Bad lighting, but you get the idea.

 

After everything was planted and cleaned up, the Girls Team was really impressed with the new and improved patio. The lemon tree looks fresh and happy, and the flowers are a bright and cheerful touch to the already beautiful view.

My favorite part of the apartment - the natural view!

Oh, and this spaz we call our pet came along to help. The new smells and interesting bushes provided enough entertainment for her while we were gardening, but she ended up guilt-tripping us into walking her through the trails when all the planting was done. Tough life, right? :) Even though it wasn’t as sunny as we had hoped it would be, this week’s Make It Happen project turned into a nice day spent outside with my mom and adorable dog.

 

Honorary Girls Team member. :)