Silk Tie Dye Easter Eggs

For our Easter eggs this year I decided to try silk tie dyeing. I had a big bin of old ties so I thought I was set. Turns out only a few of them were real silk so we didn't have as many patterns to choose from.

They looked really cool boiling.

They eggs turned out a little lighter than expected. Many of the instructions said to wrap the eggs tightly with string and I used bits of pantyhose instead. Maybe the silk didn't have close enough contact?

The patterns definitely did transfer though.

The red tones seemed to do best.

It was fun to try and they still turned out pretty cool.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Oscar, Hugo, Stewie and Wyatt! They are not the least bit Irish but they love corned beef and look fantastic in green.

St. Patrick's Day Mantelscape

I got a smidge lazy and swapped the hearts out for shamrocks for the St. Patrick's Day mantelscape.

When you unpack this much milkglass you like to get as much out of it as you can.

I have a new appreciation for sticky sided foam cut out shapes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

All suited up and ready for Thanksgiving dinner production.

We got these aprons for our Thanksgiving cooking team. Gobble gobble.

The QA team was ready to test the turkey to make sure it was okay when it came out of the oven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Really looking forward to Thanksgiving! I'm in full on turkey dinner planning mode.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Nov 16, 2015 at 10:46am PST

Halloween Decorations

It took me awhile to put up my Halloween decorations. I was enjoying fall.

Halloween mantelscape.

Skulls, owls, and glitter.

Kitchen decor.

A lil pumpkin in the window boxes.

And in the planters. I got these light up solar pumpkins at my number one spot... dollar tree!

Vintage Halloween Blow Mold Lawn Ornaments - and a little history

This is taking me dangerously close to having another collection, but when you love holidays and decorating as much as I do, it’s hard to ignore blow mold decorations.

Blow molds are those light up Santas you see in yards at the holidays. And not those fabric ones that require a fan. The old school plastic ones with the hole in the back. They are called blow molds because that is exactly how they are made. Plastic is melted and then blown into a mold using air pressure.

I tried to find information online about the history of blow mold decorations but it was a bit scanty. There is a bit in this blog post and this blog post and this blog post. From what I can tell they have been available since the 1940 but it was the Pink flamingo lawn ornaments in the 1950’s that made them really popular. The famous pink flamingo was designed by a guy named Don Featherstone if you can believe that. AND he passed away recently ON June 22 WHICH just happened to be one day before Pink Flamingo Day! Coincidence? I think not.

Blow mold lawn ornaments still seem to be going strong… as evidenced by this Facebook page and this Facebook page. I like smaller sized ones, that sit on a table rather than the large sized ones. And now, I am really into the Halloween ones. Particularly vintage Halloween ones.

I went to an antique shop with my mom and I was on the look out for them. I wasn’t disappointed as I found two for $7 each. There was one more I didn’t get and now I’m kicking myself.

I’m looking forward to putting them on display for Halloween. (Holding out for October however)

Fourth of July Lobster Boil

We came to my parents' for the Fourth of July to do some house painting. We figured if we were going to work over the holiday weekend we better at least eat well. That means a lobster boil.

Add in some salt potatoes and corn on the cob and we had a meal that kept us painting with smiles on our faces.

Happy Fourth of July

The pugs saw it coming and posed like champs for some Fourth of July pics.

Do we get our treats now?

Wally thinks he is cooler than the pugs.

I make this look good.

Ever hear the saying "Knee high by the Fourth of July"? The corn in PA is taller than me. From what I have read that is a good thing these days.

July Fourth Goodies

I picked up some goodies at the Dollar Tree for the Fourth of July. The pugs are eyeballing them thinking "We are going to have to wear those soon."

I am especially pleased with my $1 July Fourth flip flops.

Star garland for July Fourth

I couldn't find a garland that was just right for my Fourth of July mantelscape, so I decided to make one. Some red, white and blue felt, a star template and string was all I needed.

Simple, but just right!

Fourth of July decorations

Since the Fourth of July comes so early in July, I figured I might as well put the decorations up now to replace the birthday ones for June.

Some patriotic decoratons for the kitchen too.

St. Patty's Day

We had a pretty good St. Patrick's Day. It started off with a top o' the day from these two Paddy O'Puggys.

Even Stewie O'Meowissy got in on the action. Green is a good color on him.

We brought treats into work and I brought deviled egs with wee shamrocks punched out of spinach leaves with a hole punch.

For dinner we cooked up a corned beef with veggies. The pugs were beside themselves with excitement.

Delicious way to end St. Patty's Day!

Lil' bit more green around the house

I got a new door plaque for St. Patrick's Day.

I got this light up shamrock last year at Wegmans on clearance. Now it is glowing in our front window.

Aaron got me St. Patrick's Day flowers too. They look extra cute in a green Ball mason jar.

St. Patrick's Day Decorations

I picked over the house for green items for a St. Patrick's Day mantelscape.

And a bit of green in the kitchen too.

I love me some holiday dish towels too.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Pug Bears

The pug bears would like to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day. There are polar bears, panda bears, grizzly bears and koala bears. These are pug bears.

Eat your heart out, Sugar.

Soak it in, Sweetie.

The temperature was dropping even in more in Rochester so I decided to make the pugs neck warmers. I used roving instead of yarn and crocheted a simple tube to slide over their noggins. Because it's funny to put ears on something that already has ears I watched this YouTube video on how to crochet bear ears and added those too. These were quick and easy to make.

I think it's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Ridiculous.