My Closet is Prettier Than Yours...

You do pintrest right?

Roz and I {she got me started} have been "pinning" for what, a couple months now?  but I just recently found myself getting the "bug" and I am in {love}.

What a concept for an online corkboard, if you will, to post all and anything that you love.  

Just by sticking a pin in it ;)

Aren't these just lovely?!

Well my "point" being is my fascination has lately been turned into an obsession for me.  I've been looking at all these neat and fabulous pictures and I want, no! I need my little casa organized.

Like, NOW!!

I was thinking tho... "it's September, Ash.  Spring cleaning was like so 6 months ago. " 

But apparently my baby nesting is kicking in 9 months too late, so heck with it. 

BUT...

what I thought would make it fun was get you all involved....

So,

I'm dubbing September Organizing Closets Month.  

It's official-look it up.

 er, don't really.  I just wanted to sound cool.

I want to extend to you a contest, nay, a challenge to you {trulie} scrumptious readers.

***BUT***

Only if you think you're up to it.

Do I have your attention yet?

BAAHAHA!

Here is the scoopidy-doo:

*To "enter"  you must write a blog post of your closets "before" and link it up to this post on our blog.  Each week we will have a different kind of closet for you to transform.  3 more weeks left of September, so 3 weeks of closet organizing...fun-ness.

This week being your linen closets.

(you know, where you keep your towel, sheets, and table cloths...ect?)

So to enter myself into this contest:  

Here are my contending linen closets.

Behold the BEFORE:

Bathroom #1

Master Bathroom.  In it: Beach Towels, usually Regular Towels, Sheets, Pillowcases, One tablecloth (the only one I own), Extra Shampoo, Razors, Contacts, Shave Cream, ect. Scale, and Travel Cases.

And bathroom #2

Guest Bathroom:  Consisting of Blankets, Baby Towels/Stuff, Samee "Stuff", Rags, Wash Cloths Humidifier, Air Purifier, Plunger, Heating Pad, and Travel Pillow.

 (Note to self: Must wash some towels for Bathroom #1 :/ {embarrassing})

*You have to use what you already have.  No spending mula. This will allow your creative juices to flow to come up with the neatest, most organized,  and even- the prettiest closet in the land, with what you have on hand.  Gosh!  I'm such a poet, and didn't even know it! :}

And what do you get for participating?

A super dooper Button to display on your blog

and a chance to enter the grand finale give-o-giveaway....

What is it you may ask?

I'm not telling.

Until week two.

But I can tell ya it's pretty stellar... promise!

Saturdays will be the last day to submit your closets for the week. So this Saturday, the 17th is the last day to enter your linen closets. 

At the end of the each week a WINNER (for that category) will be announced the following Monday and be given a month free of {trulie}scrumptious ad space to be featured on our Sponsor wall.

After 3 weeks, all the "before and after" blog links will be entered into our stellar giveaway and a winner will be determined and announced on October 3rd, and the winners' entries will be featured for our Tute Sweet Tuesday on October 4th to show off the Most Prettiest Closet, entitled with full bragging rights and an accompanied button. 

But everyone will have a chance to grab a button for this challenge, because everyone is a winner in my eyes :D

Best of luck to have a Closet Prettier than mine...

Tute Sweet Tuesday

Do you know what I love most about people who have gardens?  Reaping the rewards :) 

Baha! I know, so lazy of me, right?

I have a garden {that I started two months too late :} But it is soooo not even ready to harvest.  But my super Mother-in-Law let me have some of her garden freshy veggies that looked de-VINE! 

Now, my Spunky is a little picky about his veggies which meant I would be eating these on my own, and knowing how well I go through veggies... {even though little E will help with her ice cube baby food } I still might not go through them fast enough.

I saw as I was going through my Betty Crocker Cook Book yesterday afternoon, figuring out the dreaded "What's for dinner?" question and found a page on how to make your own pizza dough and thought...mmm a FRESH! veggie garden pizza.  

Sounds a little {trulie} scrumptious, no?

Here's what I did!

To make the dough you will need:

1/2 cup of warm water (105-115 degrees)

a packet of yeast (2-1/4 tsp)

Dissolve yeast.

Then add about 3/4 of flour 

1 tsp e.v.o.o. (extra virgin olive oil)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 sugar

{Sad I know that from memory... I made two extra doughs that I put in my freezer the next time I'm jonesing for some PiZZA :}

Mix all together and place on a lightly floured surface.  Knead for 10 mins adding about 1/2 cup or so more flour as you go.  You want the dough to be smooth and springy.  Place in a warm area and cover for 20 mins.  After 20 mins punch down the air and place in the fridge-covered for 2 hours, but no more than 48 hours.  

After waiting patiently for your bread to rise, heat oven to 425 and chop up some veggies.  I smoothed my dough with a rolling pin and put it on a round pizza pan, making the sides thicker than the middle.  Lather the dough with a drizzle of e.v.o.o., or use your favorite pizza sauce, cover the bottom with mozzarella or Italian cheese.  Place your veggies perfectly on pizza.  I used tomatoes, yellow and green squash.  Drizzle some more evoo and sprinkle with even more cheese, fresh basil, salt, pepper and oregano.  I dashed a tad of cayanne pepper and it gave it a nice bearable heat to it. 

MMMMMmmmmm.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.  

Pop out of oven and enjoy with a nice garden salad and {Cafe Rio} tomatillo ranch sauce with sunflower seeds.

 Delish, no?!

What delish recipes do you use with your fresh garden veggies?

TST: Lace Earrings

Hi, I'm Ashley from Embrace the Space and I'm so excited to be sharing this easy little {tute} sweet tutorial with you today!

I'd love to show you how I made these lace earrings, inspired by a pair I saw at Anthropologie last weekend. These earrings were so simple to make, and I love the vintage, time-worn feel to them.  I love making jewelry, but you do NOT have to have a lot of jewelry making experience to make these earrings.  The jewelry tools are a good investment, and they are honestly not expensive, especially with a good old 40% or 50% off coupon. :)




Materials:
-a piece of crochet-look lace, maybe 1/4 yard (I got mine at Joann's for $1, regular price)
-chain
-jewelry findings: earrings (ear wires) and metal ring things (jump rings)
-scissors
-jewelry tools
-disappearing ink pen
-not pictured but VERY essential to this project: Fray Check

1. With the disappearing ink pen, trace the part of the lace that you would like to make up the earrings.

2. Cut out the pretty new lace shapes.  I'm a fan of the more "teardrop" style. :)

3. Run a line of Fray Check along the edges of each lace piece, being careful with the lace since it will probably unravel quite easily.  I let the Fray Check dry overnight and put another line along the edges of the lace the next day and let dry.  I wanted to make sure those puppies weren't going to unravel on me!

4. Measure and cut 4 equal pieces of chain.  I started out with them each being 1 1/2" long (but as you'll see shortly, I cut the chains down a but because the earrings were much too long for me... you can always cut the chain, so overestimate!).  Then, using 2 larger jump rings, connect them to the top of the lace, making their spacing even.

5. Attach the chains to the jump rings.  Then, connect the ends of the chains with a small jump ring, and add an earring wire to the small jump ring.  Close the jump ring securely.

6. Pretty.  Try the earring on!

7. If the earring is too long, cut the chains down to make the 1" long and reattach.  Try the earring on again and see if the length is to your liking.  If not, feel free to shorten again, but I ended up stopping here and using the 1" chain length.

8. Repeat steps 4-7 to make the other earring.  Try them on and love your new vintage-look accessories (that cost wayyy less to make than their $32 inspiration earrings)!

I love these earrings!  You could also try tea-dying the lace, dying the lace with different colors (like the Anthro ones) or even crocheting your own (if you have that awesome skill, which I definitely DON'T but hope to someday!) and attaching the earring findings to them.  Enjoy!

Ooooh! How scrumptious are those?!  We are so tickled to feature Ashley, um hello? Can you say talented?! I would have never in a million years thought to make my own lace earrings.. So splendid!  We need to have her stop by again {hint, hint, Ashley :}


If you would like to {tute} your own horn and send us a post to be featured on Tute Sweet Tuesdays, you can email us at truliescrumptious{dot}com.


Happy Tuesday everyone!


P.S. Don't forget about our Goody Goody Giveaway going on.  Enter to win one of Ashley's treats from the Poppy Chain Boutique 

$4 Tute-Sweet Tuesday

How are all you PLANKERS Doing out there?? You better start linking up those Planker photo's of you or ELSE!

k+l Planker

So I've been eye ballin' this paper wreath for a while now and I finally came around to accomplishing it! I mean, who doesn't want some Wall decor Love for only 4 BUCKS! 

Here's what you'll need:
*Foam wreath from the dollar store (I absolutely hated the type I got, so don't ever choose the nasty green one like I did ;)
*An old book you no longer need
*Black craft paint (or any color your little heart desires)
*Glue gun and plenty of Glue sticks!!
*A piece of ribbon
*Pins
*Optional: a Frame large enough to fit around the wreath, I got mine for $3 at DI

Let's get started Shall we??

So now that you have your edges painted...

After you're all done tearing..

OR

and gluing......

and gluing......

and gluing......

and gluing.......

WHEW! Enough with the gluing already right??

well you're almost done!

Wasn't that Fun? Now it's YOUR turn to link up your Latest and Greatest CRAFTS! WE love to see what all your genius masterpieces look like.
AND 
LINK up your Genius PLANKER PHOTOS!!

$1 Tute Sweet Tuesday

If any of you haven't discovered Curbly.com yet, ya should.  It's an awesome site that has everything from Make Over Mondays to their BookWorm book lists.  Oh, so trulie-awesoooome!  So when I first discovered the site, I stumbled up this and thought: "Self, what an awesome idea."  

(Apparently awesome is my word of the day...)

So I gathered some supplies and went to work.  You will need:

*A piece of heavy cardstock.  I used an 8.5X11 piece. 

*Buttons, brads, sticky sparkle things-what have you

*Printer -preferably one that works better than mine.

*Double sided tape.  I used scrapbooking square adhesives.

*Picture frame to fit your cardstock

*Matting (optional)

I think what makes this such a great project is that is so customizable and can really do whatever with it.  This, I made for my little girls' room.  Yes, she is almost eight months and her room is still not complete, I seem to be adding one more item per month. Good thing she doesn't know any better, right?!

So working with the best printer in the whole world, I pretty much had to draw out my letter 'e'.  I was able to print out 'e is for everlie'.  It came out pink when I asked for gray, go figure... 

 (I can't wait for the day when I can take my printer out back and take a bat to it...just sayin.)

Now for the fun part!  The Buttons!

This would be such a fun activity for young kids too, a fun summer project (as long as they don't eat the buttons...).  I myself have always had a thing for buttons.. (cue Rozalynn busting up with laughter).   Not sure why, but as a kid, I loved shiny buttons and would occasionally come home with one in my pocket.  Lesson learned, it is totally mortifying to a five-year-old to admit to stealing buttons and bringing them back to apologize.  It only took me two times to figure that out.  
(ok, I was seven.)

(a-hem.)

ANYWAYS...

The fun part-right.

Arranging the buttons on your letter.  It may take a few times to get them just right, but get them where you want them and stick them onto the cardstock.

Perfection!

I found a $1 frame at the dollar store (imagine that?) and painted it white and hung it up.  I love watching my daughter ooh and aah at it each time she passes it.  Such a simple but meaningful piece of art that only cost one smackeral.  LOVE IT!

*I am currently looking into creating a group Flickr account where all of you can go on to share and tell about = your creations.  If you have pictures of your Tute-Sweets, please email them to truliescrumptious(at)gmail(dot)com and we will post them up.  In the mean time...does anyone have the know-how to teach me the know-how?  Hit me up if you can help! 

(I need lots of it, mostly therapy related, but that's another post...)

Happy Tutes-day!!

(Link up Your Latest Tute)

Tute Sweet Tuesday

You can thank Old Navy for this one, since that is originally where my inspiration came from.  I was walking around their store and saw Fourth of July outfits out and I thought, "um, waaay cuteness.." but I saw some of the dresses and thought, "I could totally make one myself..." So I jumped my car and headed to JoAnn Fabric.  I found a very helpful tutorial from Prudent Baby here. (One of my fav blog-ities BTW) and saw how easy it was, and thought,

"Aaaawe-some".  

So I started out with this cute fabric here...

Made my measurements and started to cut. 

*TIP  Measure whomever you are making the dress for- 

HeCk! You could make one for yourself! {Um, how cute would you be?!}

Measure across the chest, and measure how long, then how "around" you'd like it to be.

-Cut two. (A front and a back-seams are on both sides)

I didn't measure little E on the first dress and I had to adjust her star one because I couldn't get her little arms through... true story.  Granted the pattern they have on there was for 0-3 month, and E is (*sniff*) 7 months now... but she was 6 months when I started this :} 

So I was sure to make this one a little bigger so she can grow into it and wear it as a shirt with little leggins.  {CUTE!!}

 I added an under layer of muslin so that I cut out (two) as well.

 Fold length-wise in half and draw your pits. 

Tear drop like.  

Cut out the pits (tee-hee-hee)

*TIP  It worked better for me to have a little more of a hole to put E's arms through, so I made the arm hole slightly longer and wider.

 All you need to do is sew right sides together and you're almost done!

After sewing the sides, fold and iron 1/4" of the top, then fold about 3/4" and iron.  Pin and sew.  Thread some ribbon through and...

Done!

BUT!

If you are like me and want to add some flair... read on.

 I added...

{ a ruffle. } 

Do you all remember our very first Tute Sweet Tuesday?

If not, refresh your memory here to do the ruffle.

Double your bottom measurement and pin right sides of the dress and the strip together and sew.

 Pssst

{*SECRET*}

I cut the ruffle and sewed the ruffle like you would bias tape and it looked sooo good.  Prudent also has a tute on how to make bias tape.  Awwwesoooome.

 *Remember the floss trick with ruffles.  If you need {another} refresher go here.

Done!

And Done!  

You can't see it well in this picture, but I made her a little rosette with a button to help me know which side was the front.  It probably got matted down from all that lovely drool.. but she's cute anyways :)

A fun little summer dress that only took me about an hour and some change.  You could also make it a little shorter and use as a top.  

With ruffles. 

 Lots of them.  

(Kind of obsessed with ruffles at the moment..)

Really, there's no limit on what you can do.

Happy Sewing! 

And BTW, if you have done a {trulie scrumptious} tute or a project of your own that you would {trulie} LOVE to share with us, we encourage you to TUTE your own horn and email your pics at truliescrumptious@gmail.com.