SPRING FLING TOP 3

Spring Fling was all about the flowers and pastels. I really loved all of the pins. Here are three of my really pretty favorites.

pinned by Laura Messer from Lil' Luna

 Cutest spring party colors ever! I love all the paper medallions. I can't ever get them to look that good.

pinned by Shauna Dieter from Skinny laMinx

 If I had this spring table cloth every day would start with a big smile on this face.

pinned by Breana Bakker from Ruffled

The table setting at this Bridal shower is so beautiful. I can only imagine how fabulous it was in person.

Thanks to everyone that added to the board this month. I'm not sure May is going to get away from all the lovely flowers.

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LEI IT ON ME: CARNATIONS

A lei is to Hawaii as kangaroos are to Austrailia. Okay, I don't know if that analagy works, but who doesn't think of a flower lei when you think of Hawaii. If there is ever a reason to celebrate, congratulate, or even console someone a lei will be there.

I have to admit, this is the first real flower lei that I have made since living on the 'Mainland.' The same flowers are not as readily available here, but I figured out a way to turn this frown upside down.

Carantions are inexpensive, colorful, and easily available from groccery stores and florists.

What you need to make a carantion lei:
Dental floss
Clothes pin
Lei needle, or 5" long doll needle
Caranations - I made five leis with three garden bunches from Costco.
Scissors

1. Cut about a three foot peice of dental floss. If you want your lei shorter or longer, adjust accordingly.

2. Thread one end of the floss through your needle and clamp the other end with your clothes pin. This will prevent your flowers from slipping off the end.

3. Use you scissors to cut the stems off your carnations. 

I like to cut my flowers just barely from the base of the flower. You can peel off the extra leaves, just be careful with your flowers. The red flower fell apart because there wasn't much at the base.

Don't fret if you flowers are only partially opended up.  You can help the petals by gently pressing the bloom open.

4. Take your needle and pierce the bottom of the flower pushing the needle through the center of the petals.

Continue to string your flowers until you get the length of lei you want. The flowers can be placed in a pattern or at random. Both will look and smell pretty.

The fuller the carnations, the less green stem you will see. If you are squishing your flowers really close be sure to have more flowers on hand.

5. Tie the two ends of your dental floss into a square knot. Add a ribbon of you like and enjoy!

I had the happiest feeling as I was stringing these leis. It reminded me of High School graduation. Getting together with my friends and walking down the street with groccery bags full of plumerias. Free plumerias I might add, just picked from all the trees in the neighborhood.

Don't forget to give your leis away with a hug and a kiss. Can you tell which one is my sister?

FEATURED: HGTV

Thanks to HGTV for featuring my magazine rail project.  Head over to HGTV and see all the great ways to use old stuff.

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FAMILY TIME

Hello Monday! Hello friends! Can you believe we are into the last half of April?

The days are getting sunnier and warmer here. More and more time being spent outside and at the park. The kids and I are loving it. Last Thursday Tess taught herself how to ride a bike. It was so exciting.

Last Friday my baby sister graduated from BYU. Cherie, we are so proud of you.

On Saturday I went for my first ride on my road bike. I didn't crash, but I did fall over the day before practicing clipping my feet in and out of the pedals. If it's been a long time since your last scraped your knee, let me tell you it hurts. No, I didn't cry.

Grandma and Grandpa have been in town, and Collin has fallen in love. He got to spend an entire day with them all by himself. I'm sure the Jay Dog they bought him helped to seal the deal. Collin ate an entire dog by himself sans the bun.

If I am sporadic here it's because I am enjoying my family and the spring air. You can see what we are up to on Twitter or on Instagram (@saltypineapple).

Talk to ya soon!

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FRAMED PHOTOS

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a pin and tracked down the original source. The picture I liked was from the Palihouse Holloway urban lodge. (If you click on the link, the picture is the second down on the right. I couldn't find my pin!) The photo was of a extra large frame holding hundreds of polaroid pictures. I love how it was organized.

When I can't stop thinking about something, I know I have to do something about it. So, I set out to make something of my own inspired by that photo of the photos.

This is the start of my finished project. Severl more pictures need to be taken, but I am already loving the way it looks.

Down in the craft room I have a little wall collage going on. Everything is sticky taked to the wall. It's great, but a little on my messy side. My frame idea solves the messy problem.

Here is my how to...

Gather up your polaroids, or in my case mini instax pictures. 

Buy the biggest picture frame you can find, or afford. This frame was $19. at Ikea. It is roughly 40 x 28 inches.

Flip the paper insert over and tack down a line of double stick tape across the width of the paper.

 Start laying your pictures down in a straight line. Repeat line by line until you run out of space or pictures. I chose to add my pictures at random. Once I buy more film, I will take a bunch of pictures and them add them in another batch.

Collin is taking my picture with an Oreo cookie.The kids think it's great. Now they can get right up close to them and touch them through the glass. 

    Go grab your Instax camera and start your own big frame of photos!

Don't have a Instax camera? Make a life size Instax photo frame and take pictures with your phone.

OUT WITH THE OLD & IN WITH THE NEW

Have you ever bought a new wallet or purse? After you switch your things to the new wallet, doesn't the old one look so tattered and gross?

Last week I treated myself to the little floral wallet as kind of a Easter present. I just love the colors!
My old wallet was great. I loved how non fussy and compact that it was. Alas, my cards were started to slip out.

Isn't the new one a beauty though! Yes, we are still talking about wallets. Once everything was switched over to the new wallet, my yellow one looked sickly. I might hold on to it for a while because I'm kind of sentimental like that.

Did you notice my pineapple zipper pouch in the background?  Yeah, I made it forever ago and forgot to share it with you.

I'm some what of a professional pineapple into potato carver. Can you see all my skill and detail in the above picture?

Potato stamping is so fun. I could have stamped all day. It's like this...
1. Carve potato into desired shape.
2. Dip into paint. I used fabric paint, but regular arcrylic is great.
3. Stamp on fabric. Be sure to put something under your fabric incase of bleeding. The paint, not you.

Check out this fun potato stamping project from Oh Happy Day.

Have a great weekend friends! And Happy Birthday to my sister Bre!!!
Target Wallet (similar)

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PRETTY DARN FUNNY

I wanted to tell all of you about my friend's sister's webisode project.

Wait, let's try that again.

My friend's webisode project. Lisa, you are totally my friend too. I've talked to you in public on several occasions. Let's just be friends, okay?

Watch the trailer, then hop on over to Pretty Darn Funny to watch the first two episodes. The third episode comes out April 16. I can't wait.

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SWEET FLAG

At the very last second I made these little dessert flags for our Easter lunch. This idea isn't anything amazing, but just a little bit of pizazz to a simple dessert.

1. Cut your bamboo skewer down to the length you need.
2. Cut a strip of adhesive paper into a .5 x 4 inch strip.
3. Cut a piece of string or yarn 3 inches long.
4. Wrap the paper around the top of skewer and tie your string right below it.

The dessert stick was an intergral part in keep the dessert standing tall. I cut three circles of angel food cake for each shortcake tower. A small glass made the perfect size circle.

Cake circle + sugared strawberry slices + cake circle + sugared strawberry slices + cake circle + a pile of whipped cream + a fun little dessert flag = Easiest dessert ever!

SPRING PLACE CARDS

How was your Easter weekend? Ours was nice and springy! 

Sunday afternoon our little family enjoyed a nice lunch together before the family egg hunt at Grandma's house. Today I'm sharing a simple place card that is quick, easy, and will cost you pennies. You may have everything on hand like I did.

Start with this idea from Melissa, and get some cork placemats.

The first part of the name card is actually just a decorated thumb tack.

Supplies:
Hot glue
Thumb tacks
Various buttons

1. Snip off any loops on the back of you buttons (if they are not flat).
2. Hot glue your thumb tack to the back of you button.

Done. Seriously simple, right? But way cuter too!!!

Now on to the actual card...

Supplies:
Glass of water
Inexpensice water color set
Paper (I used water color paper because I had it, but you can use what ever you have on hand.)

Once the water color paint was dry, I cut my paper into 2 by 3 inch cards. Grab a nice pen and practice your penmenship a few times. When you are confident write out your names.

I love that this was easy, and a fun way to add color to our table.

Why not let the kids paint the water colors? Oh, and the thumb tack possibilities are endless. I toyed with making mini yo-yos to match my garland, or tiny pom poms to look like bunny tails. In the end the button was the quickest.

Check back tomorrow of the quickest way to add pizazz to your dessert!

EEEEEASTER

Lots of families have the tradition of taking a nice family photo in their new Easter clothes. In years past our pictures would be more likely labeled snapshots. I thought it wasn't good to break tradition this year.

Our best three snapshots for Easter 2012.

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SPRING BREAK

Our kids are on spring break this week. Time is being spent at the park, playing with friends, watching movies, and a whole lot more.

Yesterday we got together with friends for a play date and some Easter crafting. I attempted to make these paper-mache eggs. I don't know if it was my homemade liquid starch, or a lack of ability, but more than half of my eggs didn't turn out. So sad, right?

Oh well, it was fun to get my hands dirty anyway. Talk to you later!

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APRIL PIN BOARD

April's pin board is all about...

image taken by Philip Wilson

Spring!


The Details:
Theme - Spring Fling   Don't take the theme too literally.
Proper Source - Please make sure your pin leads back to the original source! Let's give credit.
Keep it Clean - I run a family friendly site here.
Description - Leave a description of your pin. It's doesn't have to be long, just no // or ...
Round Up - At the end of the month I will do a round up of my favorite pins from the board.

If you are interested in playing along, email me: saltypineapple at gmail dot com. I will send you and invite to the board and we can get started!

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