St. Patrick's Day Weekend...

With St. Patty's Day on Monday this year, I'm sure everyone will have a fun filled green weekend:@) I know we have local parades on Saturday, and corned beef and cabbage will be served for Sunday dinner. Thought I'd gather a few things, and share some ideas to add to the fun...

Clover Deviled Eggs

Green and Gold Dyed Popcorn:

Actually, just the gold corn gifted in those little black leprechaun pots they sell at Dollar Tree would really be cute... Kind of like a pot of gold:@)

And a Philly treat...

Irish Potatoes

-Cream Cheese Coconut Candy

Too late for this year, but I'm sure they'll be going on clearance sale soon to tuck away for next year... QVC has some St. Patrick's Day Lock-N-Lock, there are green and gold lids to choose from.

And finally, from all of us at Pig In Mud...

May the sun be warm,

may your beer be cold.

Celebrate this weekend,

you're never too old!

🍀Slainte

And Have a Happy Day:@)

Seeing Green... Barbie's St. Patrick's Day

As we're gearing up for St. Patrick's Day fun: 

Ut oh... What's going on here?

Is Barbie sneaking up on Ken?

Looks like someone forgot to wear green 

for St. Patrick's Day Weekend:@) 

You know the rules...

I'd say the pinch caught him off guard...

And while Ken is a good sport, 

he's off to find his Eagles jersey:@)

Barbie Ribbon Tunic Here.

🍀Don't forget to wear your green!

Enjoy the festivities,

and Have a Happy Day:@)

Nora Fleming Minis for Any Occasion (Literally...)

To cap off Baseball Week I wanted to share a collectible that's new to me... Have you heard of Nora Fleming Minis? The idea is, you pick a base, anything from a serving dish, to a paper towel holder, to a charcuterie board, and then add the mini. Mini's are small figural pieces that commemorate any occasion, every holiday, and just about every day... I scrolled through the Amazon page, and counted roughly 22 bases and 136 minis to chose from. You can go to Amazon or find her web page here. Now, I'm not saying this is an inexpensive gift, but it is certainly one that can be added to over time:@) There is even a scalloped edge square that's blank so you can write whatever message you'd like on it.

How it works:

More examples:

And I'll leave you with...

📌All of my Pinterest Boards here.

Just sharing a fun idea,

Have a Happy Day:@)

Barbie St. Patrick's Day Crafts Round-Up (Ken too...)

I wanted to share some last minute cute ideas for Barbie Crafts for St. Patrick's Day. After all, even Barbie doesn't want to get pinched:@) Most of these crafts come together in no time, and you may even have everything you need already in your craft stash. Click the links for how-to's... St. Pat's is this Sunday folks, I expect a fun, full o' green, weekend of celebration! 

Shawl from wide ribbon.  Braided Hair Headband.  Dress Pattern 6" Square of Fabric.  Mustache Photo Props.  Leggins Over-Skirt.  Wide Felt Tie.

I love re-purposing k-cups,

this silly hat is a great kid's craft...

Oversize Yo-Yo Golf Hat.  Dollar Tree Sticker Mustache.  Recycled K-Cup Hat.

Barbie Size Shamrocks

Everything Barbie & St. Pat's here.

🍀Let's make something just for fun, and

Have a Happy Day:@)

St. Pat's Tiered Tray & Leftover Corned Beef: Soup and Hash

To be honest folks, my St. Patrick's Day Tiered Tray doesn't change too much from year to year... Top Shelf: Little bouquet of mini daffodils from the yard, and acrylic craft bead shamrocks scattered around. My thrift store leprechaun and the Dollar Tree large mushroom fairy garden house he lives in:@) 

Bottom Tray: Flameless candle with holiday wrap, bowl of colorful candy, S&P, food picks, and napkins (my tiered tray has to be functional as well as cute:@). And I've had the large shamrock ornament forever.

Seems like all of the early holidays are ganging up on us this year! St. Pat's and Easter are only two weeks apart, so my ReView for leftovers is a little early, but the ideas are worth tucking away... What makes my Corned Beef Hash a little different? A nice generous sprinkle of fresh rosemary:@) That and a beautiful brown crust takes it right over the top. Talk about a breakfast I look forward to every year, good stuff folks.

And this Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup would be great as an alternative to a big holiday dinner, or a good use of leftovers. Maybe even tuck some meat away for a rainy day in April. It's a nice light meal.

🍀Let's get ready for St. Patrick's Day, and

Have a Happy Weekend:@)

St. Patrick's Day Fabric Wrap for Flameless Candles & Glass Jars

**Disclaimer: Please read the title again... I treated myself to a set of Luminara flameless pillar candles from QVC at the holidays. Purposely chose white so they’d be perfect year-round… Then I saw a candle wrap on clearance and decided to use that as inspiration… Wa-la, here we have a Fabric St. Patrick's Day Candle Wrap that took about 2 minutes to put together and will add a little seasonal fun to my tiered tray on the kitchen table. I also love that it doesn't hurt the candle in any way, will be easy to change out, and the possibilities are endless. The key here: ~Flameless or fully contained in glass candles, Please-No Live Flame~. 

I started with some leftover seasonal print fabric. Then used glue dots to secure the ends together and hold it onto the candle. The light still shines through the fabric brightly and it looks great! Honestly couldn't be easier:@) As the year goes on and holidays continue, I'll show a few more cute ideas using different materials. 

Vintage bubble edge glass coaster from thrift store, love using it as a candle holder.

Luminara, as well as a couple other higher end flameless candles, can occasionally be found at the HomeGoods group of stores. As with everything in life, it all depends on timing:@)

🍀Let's start thinking green...

Have a Happy Day:@)

Oversized Felt Tie Craft for Ken (Barbie) -Any Holiday/Occasion

These Oversized Felt Ties for Barbie, Ken and Action Figure Dolls come together in no time and the real fun is embellishing them for the occasion. The most time consuming part is waiting for the glue gun to heat up... Use up little scraps of felt in your desired color, and add beads, sequins, glitter, pom-poms, etc, for decoration. I love this idea for adding a little seasonal or holiday fun to doll play. And let's face it folks, guys just don't like to dress up much, I think Ken looks great in his easy clown costume for Halloween:@)

Here's my original,

he's ready for the St. Patrick's Day parade:

✂What I did:

• Cut a rectangle of felt 4" long by 1" wide.
• Fold top over about 3/4" and hot glue lower edge down. Be sure to leave a tube (or sleeve) towards the top so you can feed ribbon through the hole. *Suggestion after I made mine: It would be easier to lay a 4" piece of ribbon or thin piece of felt on the tie before you glue the lower edge down.
• Fold the two sides of the back together, glue the tie together where you glued the lower edge in the step above.

• Fold bottom in half towards the back, measure up about 1/2" or so from the bottom and cut a tip into the bottom of the tie.
• *If you didn't lay your ribbon on the felt before gluing in step 2 above, feed it through the hole with a needle or safety pin.
• Hot glue a little velcro to the ribbon to secure the tie on doll. 

And the 4th of July:

Make something just for fun and...

Have a Happy Day:@)

Irish Potatoes Candy & Barbie Dress from Scrunchie & Jello Jelly Beans

We're covering all the bases today at PIM folks, St. Pat's, the Oscars, and Easter... Irish Potatoes Candy has been a part of St. Patrick's Day in Philadelphia ever since I can remember. Year's ago there was a gift store called Spain's and I used to stop in to buy one piece at a time. They'd charge by weight (the candy's, not mine:@) You might ask, only one piece? This candy is made with cream cheese and butter and is very rich folks. So rich I recommend making smaller pieces, and have cut the recipe in half too. 

Bling always catches my eye and I had to stop in my tracks when I saw some satiny scrunchies with a gem embellishment at Dollar Tree. The scrunchie is just wide enough to provide coverage as a Barbie halter top, and a piece of ribbon adds the wrap around waist. This can be a two minute hot glue project ~or~ a little more involved, depending upon how detailed you'd like to make it. I've also given it both the sewing and no-sew labels, you can make it any way you'd like. I used hot glue:@)

✂What I did:

Run a piece of ribbon through the loop behind the gem.

Wrap ribbon around doll's waist, overlap ends, and cut to size.

Add Velcro to each end of ribbon for closure.

Then I glued the scrunchie together over the bling a bit,

wanted to make sure I adequately covered her chest.

Same on the sides,

I stretched the scrunchie wide and glued each side to the waist ribbon.

Again just trying to cover her chest.

The scrunchie I started with:

Now Barbie's ready for any festive occasion😉

How to make a Three Seam Elastic Waist Skirt here.

And switching over to Easter:

My infatuation with Jello continues...

I saw these Jello Jelly Beans at Dollar Tree.

Grab 'em when you see 'em folks,

they're going fast:@)

Have a great weekend:@)

Peanut-ty Rice Krispie Treats

These Nutty Rice Krispie Treats are a creamier sweet version of the classic. What makes them different than original krispie treats is, melted white chocolate holds them together, while the marshmallows get folded in at the end. They also call for peanut butter and peanuts. The peanuts help balance out the sweet a bit, but make no mistake, these are a rich snack folks. My best tip... Make them ~small~. People can always go back for seconds and there will be more to go around:@) 

As written, the recipe seems more like candy to me. 

There's plenty of chocolate to add additional cereal and/or peanuts. 

More cereal would make them a little more like cookies.

Variations of this idea have been around for ages, 

my simple addition, add some holiday sprinkles, or colored M&M's to the top. 

Here we're ready for St. Patrick's Day and Easter:@)

Nutty Rice Krispie Treats-from Taste of Home

10-12 oz bag white chocolate chips

1/4 C peanut butter, either creamy or chunky

1 C miniature marshmallows

1 C salted roasted peanuts

1 C rice krispie cereal

decorations for top if desired

1. Either, melt chips in large bowl in microwave, then stir in peanut butter ~or~ add chips and peanut butter to non-stick skillet on stove and melt over very low heat. I used the skillet.
2. Gently fold in everything else until well mixed.
3. Drop by spoonful onto wax paper or silicone mat.
4. Add sprinkles, colored sugar, candy, coconut, etc. to top if using.
5. Allow to cool and firm up.
6. Store in airtight container.

Enjoy a snack and have a happy day:@)

I'm Joining:

Handmade Monday

Jello Candied Popcorn & Oversized St Pat's Golf Hat & Mustache for Barbie-Free Pattern

St. Patrick's Day is coming up quickly and this green Bit O'Blarney Jello Candied Popcorn is a very tasty treat. And if you're serving a large crowd, why not mix up a second batch with some lemon Jello and make it green and gold. I do recommend this as an adult project though, we are melting sugar, and that gets super ~hot~. But somehow I think the kids will be happy just eating the popcorn:@)

This Over Sized Golf Hat for Barbie, Ken, or action figure dolls starts with a simple fabric yo-yo, add a felt brim, and the finishing touch, a pom-pom on top. Cute:@) This is a 30 minute craft, especially after the first one, so you can make a couple in different fabrics and designs... I used a standard printed cotton fabric, found at Walmart, Dollar Tree, and craft stores. The hats would be cute for any holiday or occasion. 

Perfect for some silly St. Patrick's Day fun...

✂What I did:

1. Start with a 5" circle of fabric. It doesn't need to be exact folks, we're just aiming for a floppy, oversized hat. I traced around a Corelle ice cream bowl.
2. Fold the right side over approximately 1/4" and loosely sew all the way around the circle with double thread. I have a good picture tutorial about how to make a yo-yo here.
3. Gently begin to snug up the thread to create a pouch, ~but~ unlike normal yo-yo's, keep the open center larger. This is what will fit over the doll's head. It's good to have a doll handy for fittings...
4. Once you decide how large you'd like the opening tie a knot in the string.
5. Shape the hat so the opening is in the center, smoosh the fabric creating a bit of a fold around the outer edge. (Picture below).
6. Cut brim from felt, or any stiffer material, color of choice.
7. Hot glue brim onto front of hat at opening of circle. (Same pic below.)
8. Tip: You can add some batting or cotton ball to inside of hat, push towards outer edge to add a little fullness if it seems too flat.
9. Glue pom-pom to top if desired-done!

Pic of underside:

Brim pattern:

From side to side approximately 1 1/4".

Want a bigger, floppier bill?

Simply cut it larger.

These stick-on orange and green mustaches would be fun for St. Pat's doll play. And of course, the kids would have a great time sticking them to their own faces for the parade too:@) Here I've added the orange one straight from the pack to Ken for an oversized mustache, and trimmed the green felt one to show how it might fit a tad better. I only removed a little of the paper from the center so it would stick on the dolls. You get three of each style in a pack.

The stickers I picked up:

Each one is a little over 3" long.

Great for 18" dolls too...

A while ago I showed how to make Barbie size

Photo Prop Mustaches from pipe cleaners here.

One of the St. Pat's end displays at Dollar Tree:

Those necklaces would make great suspenders.

1990's striped shirt thrift store rescue...

No Ken's will be pinched on my blog!!!😉

Now Ken is ready for the parade😎

Happy Saturday Everyone-have fun:@)