Twinkie Mummys - FAIL = PERFECT

I saw these adorable twinkie mummies in Women's Day and thought "Oh that will be so fun to make with Monkey!"  I even have things on hand so don't have to spend any money.  I'm really trying to come home from work and do things with her instead of cooking and cleaning all the time.  Besides, making messes means I'm making memories! 

So I gathered my items.

A Box of Twinkies that may or may not have had 10 twinkies to begin with but somehow I only had 5 to work with. 

Popsicle Sticks

Melting/Baking Chocolate

Butter Cream Icing (or store bought)

Candy for eyes

At this point I'm thinking, oh this will be easy, fun, and yummy!  Now the Women's Day recipe doesn't call for this step and I don't know why I have to try and be ambitious and change it up thinking I'll make it better cause history has proven I won't, I'll just mess it up but who learns from history these days?  Sure as heck not me.  So I insert the sticks and freeze the twinkies to make dipping them in chocolate a little easier and this is where FAIL begins to rear it's ugly little head. 

Maximus our "precious" Pomearanian is demanding to be let outside, Monkey is needing a diaper change, Poppa is studying, and I'm still trying to get supper in the oven ALL while I'm attempting to melt the chocolate.  So of course I end up burning the chocolate.  So I start a new batch take care of everyone's potty issues and forget to turn the oven down and am now burning potatoes.  AWESOME!

Open the door to let the smoke out, now Monkey wants to go outside instead of making  mess memories with Momma and the dog is running in and out in and out in and out in and out OMG can I get a glass of wine please! 

Ok wine in hand, much better, all is right with the world, now what was I doing? Oh yeah, burning supper and making something with twinkies.  Who the hell dresses up twinkies anyway, they are already a glob of goodness in your mouth, why mess with a good thing?!  Whatever, dipped the bastards twinkies and put in the freezer to set up quicker.

 

Go to pull out my ButterCream that I always have on hand and I don't have enough to cover 3 let alone 5 and I sure as heck don't have time or energy to make any so my Mummies ended up looking like they had Egyptian Mummy Wrappers (yeah I made that up, I don't know the official wrapping term) who got really lazy and said the hell with it and half wrapped their mummy booty's and threw them in their tomb and said SEE YA SUCKERS! 

Oh and the candy I had were Gobstoppers which were way too big to be considered "eyes" so now it looks like my mummies got squeazed to death prior to being mummified.  AWESOME!  (BTW word of the day today is AWESOME).

 

 

So I'm trying to take pictures of these horrible looking creatures and all the time Monkey is having a blast, loving it, talking to her mummies, and thanking me. So right then I realized I took a fun thing and made it stressful because it didn't look like the picture on a professional decorating website and was just ashamed of myself. I almost let myself steal the joy of spending time with Monkey. So I looked around, saw the huge mess, smoke still coming out of the oven, chocolate covered Monkey face, and soaked it all in. I was making memories.

I took her outside and gave her the little mummy she had been eye balling the whole time and captured shots of her holding her "precious."

So next time you're stressing out over the mess or the project that didn't come out "perfect" or "blog worthy" remember that to your child it is perfect and that's what is important!

She just kept starring at it and smiling!

I kept trying to get her to take a bit and she just would talk to it.

She Loves Him

Finally she takes a bite.

Enjoying her Mummy with her Poppa

She looks like her Poppa but in this picture she really looks like him!

Happy Friday Ya'll

Before & After China Cabinet

My grandparents had this beautiful China Hutch and Buffet set that my Papa bought my Nana for their 25th wedding anniversary.  It was big and heavy and solid wood.  When I think of family gatherings, parties, holiday meal in their dinning room growing up that piece of furniture is in every memory.  So when my Nana and Papa had to move to a smaller apartment because they were getting too old to take care of a big house they no longer had room for it.  I jumped at the opportunity to have it passed down to me, the only granddaughter.  Yep I played that card to get it.  But come to find out the buffet part was down in Houston at some cousins house for some still unknown reason to me and when we called to request MY GRANDPARENTS piece of furniture back, we were impolitely told no.  So I had this enormous hutch but no buffet/table to set it on.  So it just sat against the wall not looking right at all.

I spent nearly 3 years looking for a buffet that was in my budget and had the right dimensions to fit as well as it needed to be a solid piece of wood.  Then a few weeks ago I did a search on CL with just the dimensions and a dresser came up.  HMMM never thought about using a dresser for the buffet.  That day I found the piece I was looking for in the form of a dresser, Poppa went and picked it up and Momma got to work on putting it all together.

Now I learned a lot from working on this DIY project.  I opted out of sanding and went with 2 coats of primer instead.  Normally I'd sand but this saved me a lot of time and the primer covered well.  However next time I think I'll go with a spray primer as using a paint brush just took forever and made my arm very sore.  That's probably due more to the fact that I'm out of shape though. One thing good though about using a brush to paint is your little monkey can help. Boy we both are looking rough here!

Here she was so proud because she painted the letter C. 

I used a brush nickle spray paint to turn that brass into some sass! 

Black was the color of choice.  I've been collecting white dishes and serving platters for a few years and thought the black with the white would just pop.  Plus our walls are white in our rental home so need something to add contrast to it.  We took the doors off and once they were off we decided we liked the look of it and kept them off. (and please don't mind the red and turquoise squares still up from the Cat In The Hat Party, don't worry they are down now. )

I just love the way it turned out.  Sometimes I get home and just go and stand in front of it and stare it, I've even been caught hugging it. 
So once again here is the Before

And here is the After

My Papa died 2 years ago, 3 weeks after Monkey was born and so this piece has even more of a value to me.  I hope to pass it on to my grandchildren one day.  Until then though I will be showing it all my love! 


What do you think?  I was thinking of distressing it a bit and or glazing it but just haven't made up my mind.
I have a few more DIY projects I need to finish and get posted but they seem to keep getting put on the back burner.  You know cause a glass of wine or taking a nap always seems more fun. :)

Happy Friday Ya'll.

Thursday's Tutuorial - Bird Bath from Dream Book

This Thursday is a double whammy for not only am I sharing Thursday's Tutorial but it comes from a project I featured on Dream Book - Mother's Day Edition thus resulting in a Dream Book Experiment.  I'm thinking I may need to change my blog name from Texas Monkey to Monkey See Monkey Do since basically I just see amazing ideas you come up with and go and try them out myself, see, Monkey See Monkey Do. 
For Mother's Day I decided to make my Nana a bird bath that I saw over at The Darling Diva.  Once I saw this I knew I wanted to do something similar for my very special Nana.  My Nana has many bird houses, humming bird feeders, and a very large and HEAVY cement bird bath.  So I thought a handmade one made by her very favorite granddaughter (it's OK to say that I'm her only granddaughter) to add to her collection. 

This is very cost effective and so easy to do.  First grab your supplies:

• 
  
  Spray Paint
• 
  
  Glue (Gorilla Glue or E6000 will work great)
• 
  
  Bowl (size to your liking)
• 
  
  Platter (size to your liking)
• 
  
  1/2 inch threaded cast iron pipe (I used 4 ft long one)
• 
  
  1/2 inch cast iron flange
• 
  
  Water
• 
  
  Bird Seed
• 
  
  Rock

1st:
Apply your glue to your flange and adhere it to the bottom of the platter.  Make sure you center it.

Now place something heavy on top of it while it dries.

2nd:
Spray paint your pipe (and plate and bowl if desired)

3rd:
Adhere your bowl to your plate with your glue of choice and let dry.

4th:
Hammer your pipe into the ground using a rubber mallet and small piece of wood then screw on your bird bath.

5th:
Add water, rocks so the birds have a place to perch into the bowl and birdseed onto the plate.  If you're ghetto like me and don't have any birdseed but need to take a picture for your awesome readers then simply use crushed up crackers!  Yep, that's how I roll, anything for my readers. :)

Enjoy watching your little bird friends enjoy a bath and good meal. 
Cost:
Rod = $8
Flange - $4
Plate = $1
Bowl = $2
Glue and spray paint I had on hand
Total = $15.  Not bad considering I've seen bird bath's for $100's and my Nana will love that I made it for her and not just bought it. 

Happy Thursday Ya'll.

Thursday's Tutorial - Flowered Collar

Today I want to show you how to make this adorable ruffled flower collar which I added to Monkey's Easter Dress to jazz it up a bit.  I've gotten lots of emails requesting the how to so here you go!  Ask and you shall receive, my lovely readers!

You may have seen this already, I came across a picture of an A line dress with this type of collar and of course now can't find, story of my life.  I also can't find my uber cute sunglasses, my favorite flip flops, and my key card to get in my office after hours.  So please bear with my mommy brain for now.

I started out with a hand made A line dress, it came out cute but I wanted to do more to it.

Other Supplies Needed:
Scissors
Needle
Thread
Thimble
Material: For the material I'm using shot cotton in cream color (you want to use a light weight fabric)

Take your material and cut them in about strips.

Keeping the strips folded, cut half into 3 inch squares (you don't have to be exact with this) and the other half into 2 inch squares

Next trim the edges of your squares so that they are more rounded instead of pointed.

We are going to use a 2 inch square and a 3 inch square to make 1 flower.
So begin by taking your 2 inch square/circle and pinching it together at the bottom to form what looks like a flower.

Hold it in place with one hand and simply gather your 3 inch square around the one in your hand and pinch them together at the bottom and work with it until it forms a nice flower shape.

Stitch the 2 squares together to hold the flower in shape.
Continue this process until you have enough flowers for your project.  For this dress I used 20 flowers.

Now gather your dress or whatever you're attaching the flowers to and using your thread and needle and thimble start stitching them on in the pattern of choice.
Add some cute knickers to the dress and there you go!

Now put it on the nearest monkey and watch her be glamorized, messmorized, and accessorized!

These flowers would be cute added to just about anything, tank top, skirt, wreath, purse, shoes.  So have fun making you or your monkey these flowers to dress up with. 
And as always if you do this send me pics so I can showcase you.

Linking up to these Fun Link Parties

Thursday's Tutorial - Tutu Leggings

Some of you may have seen my Guest Post with Michelle at Someday Crafts.  I enjoyed so much guest blogging there and am so thankful to the new followers I gained from her.  For those whe didn't see it, I wanted to show you how to make these adorable TuTu Leggings, so here you go.

I know we've all seen the Baby Warmer Leggings, and the fun girl Tutus everywhere like my monkey has on here.

But what would be more fun than to have both of these all wrapped up into one adorable accessory, so began my Tutu Leggings.

This project is quite easy and I'd rate it on the beginners level.  You don't need a sewing machine for this so  in my book  that makes it a plus!
First thing is gather your supplies, you will need:
Women's Knee High Socks
Tulle in colors of your choice
Measuring Tape
Elastic (the thinnest you can find)
Scissors
Needle and Thread

Step 1

Cut your socks right above the heel, (for taller girls you may want to use the toe portion that you just cut off to extend the length of the leggings, otherwise, put the toe portion away, we won't be needing it)

Now if you've ever made the baby leg warmers then you probably have had to finish the new ends, this is why this project is so simple, you dont need to finish the ends unless you want to because once you add the tutu the raw edges won't be shown. 

Step 2 Cut your tulle into 6 x 3 inch strips (6 inches long and 3 inches wide)

Step 3 Measure your adorable little monkey's ankle
Step 4 Cut your elastic one inch shorter than what her ankle measurement was.

Step 5 Stitch your elastic together to form a circle
(Read pictures Left to Right)

Step 6 I used a roll of tulle but a glass or candle or anything in cylinder shape will work, place your elastic over the roll of tulle
Step 7 Gather 2 pieces of tulle and enterlock using a chain link
Step 8 Begin tying your tulle around your elastic using a square knot, (make sure that the chain link is on the back of the elastic)
Step 9 Continue this process all the way around until your elastic is covered and full.

Step 10 Once your little tutu is complete cut the tulle to your desired length, I wanted short and poofy so I cut it to about 1 inch in lenth.
Step 11 Place the tutu around the unfinshed end of your legging and hold in place with one hand.

Step 12 Begin hand stitching the tutu to the legging all the way around and tie off the thread.

Repeat all the steps for your other legging and then step back and admire your adorable little monkey tutu legs.

Then put them on the nearest precious monkey you can find and watch her dance around in delight. 

These look great with skirts or even tutus.

Have fun and can't wait to see how you do yours.  That's it, easy peasy and oh so cute!  If you make some, please send me pics so I can showcase you, and if you use this tutorial, please link back to it.  Thanks so much.

This is where I'm linking up and partying.

Party Fun

Shayna