Tuesday, February 26, 2013

St. Patrick's Day Wreath




Happy Thursday... no... Wednesday... oh... it's only Tuesday?!

Yes, that's how my week is already going. Last night we were told to prepare for a blizzard, school was canceled and we woke up to find... 2 inches of snow and completely clear roads.  

Which was great news considering the fact that my drive to work was easy, and I'm super lucky to have a great snow day babysitter. 

Speaking of Lucky, I wanted to show off the awesome St. Patrick's Day wreath I crafted up this weekend!

On Sunday afternoon I sat down on the couch with these supplies:

Four styrofoam hearts from Hobby Lobby ($2.47 each), green yarn I picked up from Wal-Mart for about $3 or so, and some brown ribbon, scissors, and a hot glue gun.

Also, a sugar free Redbull.. because that's SUPER important.

I used the green yarn and completely wrapped the outsides of the styrofoam hearts in yarn. Since the hearts weren't HUGE I had to unwind yarn, cut it from the rest of the ball and then wrap long pieces of yarn at one time. I started each piece by trying a knot around the heart form, and I used my glue gun to hold the yarn in place every few inches. 

While I worked on this, I watched the entire Daytona 500 and like 3 episodes of Shipping Wars. Yeah, it took quite a while. I did take some breaks to hang out with my hubby when he come home for lunch and to feed the children. But still, this was not a quickie craft. If I was to do it all over again, I would try green ribbon. It would cut the amount of time down dramatically. I still don't mind though. It was a great way to relax after a long week. :)

After I finally finished wrapping the hearts. I found a paint stirring stick and painted it green to match the hearts. 

I hot glued the sides of the hearts together and then hot glued them to the paint stick.  And Ta-Da! I have a shamrock!



I hot glued brown ribbon to the back of the shamrock, but then felt like I was missing something. So, yesterday I ran to Hobby Lobby during lunch and picked up some small unfinished wood letters. I painted them yellow and hot glued the word "Lucky" to the shamrock. 

Even though the weather outside has been horrible, I now have a fun wreath on my front door that just makes me think Spring!

Also, speaking of LUCK. You are going to want to follow my blog if you aren't already and be checking back throughout the month of March! There is something HUGE planned and you are going to want to be part of it! ;)

Also, Like me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DirtRoadDamsel so you can up to date on new posts and just everyday happenings in my world! 


Linked up over at http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/2013/03/craftomaniac-monday-link-party.html

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Miranda Lamberts Mom's meatloaf

OH-MY-LANTA. Last night, I made the most A-freaking-mazing meatloaf ever. This is Miranda Lambert's mom's recipe so I knew it had to be good. I mean, Miranda kind of has amazing taste (Blake Shelton, need I say more?).



I found this recipe via Southern Living and made it as listed. The Southern Living link will take you to the recipe on Myrecipes.

Bev's Famous Meatloaf
2 lbs. ground beef
1 lb ground pork sausage
18 saltine crackers, crushed
1/2 bell pepper, diced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs. Yellow mustard
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, divided
1/2 cup ketchup

Preheat oven to 350. Combine beef, sausage, crackers, bell pepper, onion, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Place mixture in an 11x7 baking dish.

Bake at 350 for one hour. Remove from oven and drain the grease. Mix together 1/2 cup ketchup and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Bake another 15 minutes or until meat temperature is 160 at the thickest portion. Let sit for 20 minutes.

The girls, hubby and I all loved this meatloaf. This will definitely be my new go to meatloaf recipe! Here are my goobers enjoying their dinner. :)