March 27, 2011

Even though Easter isn't until April 24th this year, it isn't too early to start thinking about which goodies you'll be making for your Easter celebration. Here are a few of our favorite Easter cupcakes, candies and baking ideas that might help get you started. 🙂

Easter Basket Cupcakes

Easter Bird's Nest Candy

Marshmallow White Chocolate Easter Bunnies

White Chocolate Smiley Face Easter Bunnies

Easter Candy Gifts

And you'll find some great Easter Baking Ideas in this roundup that BigSis put together last Easter.

~LilSis

March 26, 2011

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to enter into this giveaway!

This week's lucky winner wins all three of these beautiful Country Living books!

The winner was chosen randomly by random.org.

Congratulations to Patty, who left comment #7 !!

(Patty, I'll contact you via email for shipping instructions!)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~LilSis

March 23, 2011

Last time, I showed you how to make painted glass marble magnets, and I promised to show you how I package them for gifting, so let's get started.  We have a lot of cute stuff to do!

The first component is the paper mache boxes.  Here's what you need:

• Paper mache boxes: I like the smooth paper wrapped ones that you can find at most craft stores.  They usually come in a couple of small sizes, and if you're lucky you might find them packaged in lots of 6 including a heart, circle, oval, square, octagon and rectangle.
• Parchment paper or round labels, and laser printer
• Glue: Any glue suitable for paper, like Sobo or Elmer's

• Stamps: I painted crosses on my marble magnets, so I'm keeping with that theme with my stamp choices.
• Pigment ink pads
• Embossing powders
• Embossing heat tool
• Tongs

Make the scripture circles:

Choose any scripture (or quote) that you like and type it up.  You can do it two ways.  You can buy a sheet of laser-safe Avery round labels and use the formatting template that comes with them in order to line the text up with the labels.

I like to go another way.  I print my scriptures on tan parchment paper to coordinate with the natural color of the paper mache boxes. I think I've seen kraft-colored round labels online, but I've never ordered them.

Use software that will allow you to draw circles; I use an old copy of Adobe PageMaker, but PowerPoint or a drawing program will work. Draw a bunch of circles on your page (check the size of your box lid to determine the circle size), fitting as many as you can on one sheet of paper.  Then type your scriptures into the circles, and print them out.  Carefully cut out the circles just inside the lines with scissors.  I like to use deckle-edge scissors for an uneven shape.

Add a bit of glue to the back of the parchment circle, smear it around evenly, and place it on the inside lid of your box.  Smooth it down so all edges will adhere.  Allow to dry completely.

Decorate the top of your boxes:

Choose a stamp that will fit the size and shape of your box.  I'm in love with this “believe” stamp.  if I ever got a tattoo, it would probably look like this “believe”!

Apply the pigment ink to the stamp and then apply the stamp to the box with even pressure, but don't press down too hard or you'll crush the box.  Try not to rock the stamp back and forth. Lift the stamp carefully off the box.

Sprinkle a generous amount of embossing powder all over your stamped design.  I like to do this over a paper plate to catch the excess.  Use a different plate for each color of embossing powder. When you're finished, just bend the paper plate into a pointy little funnel and pour the powder back into the jar.

I'm crazy about a couple of embossing powders from Stampendous: Pearlized Carnelian (it turns all gold and gorgeous when heated) and Copper Tinsel (it goes all shimmery glittery).  I love how they look on the paper mache.

Holding the box top with tongs, turn on the embossing heat tool. Hold it a few inches away from the stamped image, and move it back and forth until you can see the embossing powder has melted evenly all over the image.  It won't take very long;  maybe 10 seconds, depending on the stamped image.

Some powders – like the Pearlized Carnelian ad Copper Tinsel – will magically change color.  Be aware that some powders are very susceptible to scorching if they are heated too long, especially the glittery ones.  I've done it, so learn from my mistake!

Your paper mache box is finished! The bottom of your box is still blank at this point, so you can write something there (“Love, BigSis”), or glue on another parchment circle with a message on it (“Merry Christmas 2011”).

Now for the origami box you'll snuggle the paper mache box into!

All you'll need for the origami box is cardstock, a paper trimmer, a bone folder, two-sided tape, a ruler and a pencil.  Easy enough, right?  If you're a scrapbooker or a cardmaker, you already have these supplies on hand.

You'll need two pieces of cardstock for each box.  You can use solid colors, coordinate a printed top with a solid bottom, or use two coordinating prints.  With the paper trimmer, cut one 8-1/2″ square for the top, and one 8″ square for the bottom.  This will give you a finished box top that is about 3″ square, and a bottom that is about 2-13/16″ square.  I've seen some stacks of cardstock at the craft store that are already 8-1/2″ square, and that would be perfect for this project.

With a ruler, lightly draw a diagonal line in pencil from corner to corner.  Some tutorials for this box will have you fold the paper corner to corner, but that will leave an “X” shaped crease on the top of your box, and I like for my box to be smooth, smooth, smooth on all 6 sides.

Working on the wrong side of the sheet, take one corner and fold it up to the place where the two pencil lines meet in the middle of the page.  Unfold.  We're going to call that fold you made the “first crease”.  Do the same thing for the other 3 corners, so you'll have a “first crease” for all 4 corners.

Next, take a corner and fold it up past the middle of the page to meet the “first crease” at the pencil line.  Unfold.  Do the same thing for the other 3 corners. Each time you make a fold, crease it down sharply with the bone folder or the edge of a pen.  Doing this will make the shape of your box more crisp.

For your last fold, take a corner, and fold it down to meet the “first crease” that is closest to it.  Unfold.  You're not going across the middle of the page for this fold.  Do the same thing for the other 3 corners.

So, you made 3 folds with all 4 corners:  up to the middle of the sheet, across the sheet to the “first crease”, and then down a tiny bit to it's own “first crease”.  Your page should look like this.  You have a nice grid of even squares, with a bigger square in the middle.  This is your box top or bottom.

Now we'll take this creased piece of paper and turn it into a box. You're going to fold two opposing sides of the page into a little valley shape, as you see in the photo.

Add a tiny bit of double-sided tape to the bottom of the point, so it will stay in place on the bottom of the box.  Do that for both sides. Do you see the box taking shape?

On the ends, you want to have a smooth finish so you need to make a “valley fold”, tucking the end pieces under.  This is hard to describe in words, so please see the photo below.

Attach tape to the bottom of these points on each end, and adhere to the bottom of the box.  It might help to run the bone folder along the top edge of the box, to get a nice sharp edge there.

Voila!  You just made a box out of nothing but paper and a bit of tape!  All you had to invest was about 8 minutes of your time per box!

This is the inside of your box…

one side of your completed box with it's solid orange bottom…

and the other side.

You have all of these cool components; what do you do with them all?

You have painted glass marble magnets…

paper mache boxes…

and origami boxes.

Let's put them together into a beautiful little gift that some lucky person will adore!

Take a paper mache box, add a little paper shred, and choose a marble.

Tuck your paper mache box into a drawstring bag.  Some of the bigger boxes won't fit, but that's ok.

Place the paper mache box into the origami box, adding a little more shred around it if you want to.  Put the top on, and add a tulle bow.

Cut a piece of tulle that coordinates with your box color.  For this 3″ box, I used a piece around 6″ x 30″.  You want plenty of it to get a pretty full effect.

Tie the bow on as you normally would, and then cut the loops. Pull the cut loops and the loose ends straight up, and cut them straight across to be even. Pull each of the 6 ends out to open them up, and arrange into a poofy bow. Ends cut shorter will make a tighter looking “poof”, while longer ends will look fluffier.

There you have it!  Your pretty painted glass marble magnet is nestled in shred inside a box with a message inside a box with a bow!

Before I go, I want to give you some ideas on what you can do with these.  Of course, you could sell them.  I sold several hundred to an organization for their annual meeting a while back. Each participant got their own as a thank you gift for attending. I've also sold them a few at a time for Christmas gifts; they make awesome stocking stuffers and gifts for pet sitters, hairdressers, coworkers, or your kids' friends.  They're also great little non-edible treats to tuck into Easter baskets.

My favorite thing to do with these is to randomly give them away. One year on Valentine's Day, I took a whole bag of  them to the cancer floor in a local hospital, and let the nurses distribute them. I've also given one to the person working the drive-through at a fast food restaurant who seemed to be having a bad day. I've given them out to employees of a drugstore who were having to work on Christmas Eve, and I've also given them to the volunteers on my team at the church preschool.

I don't tell you about these things to boast or to glorify myself; I just want to give you some ideas and start you thinking.  I bet you can come up with many more ideas.  If you keep a few in your purse or in your car, you'll be surprised at the occasions that arise when a little gift of encouragement is needed.  I bet you'll be glad you have them, as I have been!  One little note: when I'm putting them in my purse or car, I just put the paper mache box in a drawstring bag, and skip the rest of the packaging.

I hope you enjoy this little craft project as much as I have enjoyed sharing it with you!  If you make any of these items, please send me a photo!

~BigSis

March 20, 2011

You've probably seen tutorials for making adorable magnets from the flat glass marbles that are used as filler in vases of flowers. Most of the instructions I've seen involve gluing paper of some kind to the back of the marble: scrapbook paper, gift wrap, newsprint, hand-drawn images, whatever.

I think those marble magnets are really cute and easy to make, but I like to do mine in a different way.  I like to paint them!

There are probably lots of ways to do this, and you can absolutely inject your own creativity.  I'll show you the method I came up with, and then you can take off with your own ideas.

Let's start with the supplies you need:

• Flat glass marbles: Available at craft stores, discount stores, pretty much everywhere. I buy the clear ones because I can see my template through them, but you can also find really pretty blue, green and amber colored ones.

• Glass paint: I prefer the air-dry kind that doesn't require baking.  I use FolkArt Enamels, Americana Gloss Enamels, DecoArt Ultra Gloss Metallics (these might be discontinued), and Delta PermEnamel.  My favorites are PermEnamel Shimmers and their Iridescent Glass Paint.  Delta PermEnamel is the glass paint equivalent of MAC eyeshadows: they come in jillions of colors, have great textures, apply well and look beautiful!
• Glass painting kit with tips, adapter caps and plastic bottles.

• Grid paper:  To make your painting template.
• Swarovsky crystals: Find them in the jewelry-making aisle at your craft store.
• Tweezers: To apply the crystals.  Just raid your bathroom drawer, don't buy special jewelry-making ones.

• Magnet “buttons”
• Glue: Strong glue for slick surfaces, like Aleene's Glass & Bead Adhesive, E6000 or Bond 527.
• Magnifying craft light: If your eyes are “mature” like mine.  This is close work, so don't be too proud to use it!

The first step is to create a clean painting surface, and sometimes these marbles are a little dirty.  I give mine a quick rinse in straight white vinegar, but you could also use alcohol.  I use a large plastic container, and fill it with the marbles.  As you remove the marbles from the bag, be very careful.  They're glass, of course, and it isn't unusual to find a broken or badly-chipped marble.

You'll notice that I'm working with a lot of marbles.  It makes sense to me to paint a large batch at one time, since I already have all the stuff out.  Changing paint colors requires washing supplies, so I might as well do several marbles of each color while I'm at it. For this tutorial, I painted 7 dozen marbles.

Add vinegar or alcohol to cover the marbles, and let them sit for a few minutes.  Scoop them out with a slotted spoon, and lay them out on a thick towel in a single layer.

You can blot them a little or just let them naturally dry.  I've never had a problem with spots forming, so air drying is usually fine. You definitely want the marbles to be completely dry before you start painting.  Try not to touch the surface of the marbles from this point on, since the natural oils in your fingers could interfere with the paint adhering.

Once they're dry, remove the marbles from the towel and place them on an old foil-lined cookie sheet or tray.  I also cover another tray or sheet with foil to have a place for the marbles as I finish working on each one.  This 7 dozen is all lined up, ready to get dolled up!

You may be able to freehand your design, but I can't.  Years ago, when I came up with the idea of painting these, I tried freehanding and it wasn't pretty.  I'm crafty, but not artsy, so I need a template.  I like to paint crosses, so it was very easy to draw a cross template on a piece of gridpaper.  Can you tell how well used/loved this template is? 🙂

Once you get your design drawn out, attach it to a piece of cardboard so it's sturdy.  Here's a trick for you.  Cover the design with a few pieces of removable two-sided tape.  This semi-sticky surface will hold onto the marble just enough to keep it stable and in place while you're painting on it.  When the tape eventually gets covered with cat hair (or dog hair or lint) you can easily peel it off and replace it with fresh tape.  It really makes a big difference.

If you need the magnifying light, now is the time to pull it out. Place your template on your work surface, and choose a marble, any marble.  Imperfections are common in these guys, so don't expect a perfect flawless one.  That's part of their appeal.  Discard chipped ones or any that just aren't pretty to you.  Center your marble on top of the sticky template.

Here comes the fun part…painting!  Select the color you want to paint your crosses.  I love metallics: gold, silver and bronze.  I also love the gorgeous shimmery opalescent colors from Delta PermEnamels.  You can customize the color of your marbles for the occasion or the season, or just use the colors you like.

So how do you get the paint on the marbles?  Using a brush is too tricky for non-artist me, so I went looking for an easier solution. What I found are these brilliant metal glass painting tips that look like little ballpoint pen tips.  I've seen a couple of different kits at the craft store, and the tips may vary a smidge, but they always include the tips, small plastic bottles, and the adapter caps that screw onto the paint bottle.

The little metal tips snuggly screw onto the plastic adapter caps. I find that they also fit perfectly on the caps of some paint bottles.  If you're using paint that comes in a chubby jar like the Delta PermEnamel, you'll need to pour a bit of it into a small paint bottle that fits the adapter cap.

Once you have the tip securely on the paint bottle, test it out before you paint.  I keep a paper plate and a paper towel nearby for this purpose. Draw a line of paint on the paper plate to make sure the paint is flowing smoothly, and then wipe off the tip cleanly.

These painting kits also come with a little piece of wire that you can use to dislodge any clogs that might form in the tips, so keep this little jewel on your paper plate too.  Some paints are really bad about clogging, but others don't clog at all.

And a word to the wise, when you change paint colors and switch to a new tip, be sure to drop the used tip and cap into a cup of water.  If you let it sit and dry out, you'll pretty much be up a creek and have to toss those pieces.  You'll never get dried paint out of that skinny little tip.

Now, back to painting.  I start at one end of the marble, and just follow the template, filling in the design.  You don't want to squeeze the paint bottle really, just hold the bottle like you were holding a marker or pen, and guide the paint around the template.  The paint shouldn't be so thick that it will drip or ooze, but you do want good even coverage after two coats.

Don't drive yourself crazy by striving for perfection, especially with this first coat. After the second coat, you'll be happy with what you see, so don't worry.  The main thing is to keep within the lines, and have fun!  If you make a mistake, you can try to clean it up with a toothpick.  If it's a doozie of a boo boo, just toss the marble and move on to the next one!

Tada!  First coat complete!

Let the first coat dry thoroughly; I prefer overnight.  For the second coat, you won't need the template, so just make sure you stash it in a safe place for next time.

Take the same color paint, and add your second coat.  You can smooth out any rough edges and fill in any sparse areas.  Once you're finished, allow the second coat to dry overnight again.

Did you think we were finished?  Oh, heck no.  The fun's just starting!  We're going to add a background color to the BACK of your marble.  You can skip this step if you want to, and sometimes I do, but I think it really adds a lot.  It gives dimension and depth to the marble, adds a contrasting or complementary color, AND hides the magnet you're going to glue on the back. Go a little crazy with your background color, or just let the design color be the star.

For this step, I use a small flat paintbrush.  And…you got it, let it dry overnight.

If you've chosen a sheer color, like my pearly white, you might want to add a second coat after the first sets up, but it isn't necessary.  It's up to you!  If you want to see how a color might look behind your cross, just hold up your marble to the bottom of the paint bottle, like this.

We're coming down the home stretch, so stay with me.  You have two coats of color on your cross, plus a coat or two of background color on the back of the marble.  I like to add a magnet at this point.  If I do it now, I don't have to rest the marble on it's frontside after the delicate little dots are applied, and risk smushing them down a bit.  I like for the decorations to be as dimensional as possible.

To attach the magnet, add a tiny dot of glue to the magnet and to the back of the marble, and allow it to sit for a minute or two (check your particular adhesive for directions).  Any longer and the glue may dry too much.  Attach the magnet, and set aside to dry… overnight.

Now the last steps!  It's time to decorate the front of the marbles.  I do dots because they're easy and I like how they look, but you could do squiggles or lines or anything else your imagination can conceive of.  Choose any color!  I really like adding a dot color that coordinates with the background color, but other times, the dot color just comes out of the blue.

Before I add the decorative dots, I add one teensy tiny dot of paint (you could use glue, but you already have paint in your hand) to the center of the cross and carefully place a swarovsky crystal with the tweezers.  Press it down very gently.  Then just add dots here and there all over the marble, in any pattern you like.

Voila!  Your marble magnet is finished! Do you love it?

I love to give these painted marble magnets as little gifts, so they need to be packaged up cute.  I've seen people put the paper-backed magnets in Altoid tins, and it's kind of cool that they stick in place and don't rattle around.  You'd have to decorate the tin though, and you have to deal with the raised logo on the front of the tin unless you buy flat new ones.

You could also put the marble magnet in a little drawstring bag with a bit of pretty shred.  This is kind of sweet and Eastery-baskety.

What I like to do though is to take this beautiful marble to the next level by customizing a little paper mache box for it, with stamping, embossing and a scripture hidden inside.  Then it goes into the drawstring bag, and then into a handmade origami box. And if that isn't enough, we'll then wrap up the whole thing with a tulle bow.  Overkill?  Nah!  There's no such thing as overkill when it comes to giving gifties!

I'll show you how to do all of that next time, and share some of my favorite ways to give these away!  Til then, here are a few more of my favorite marble magnets from this big batch.  See you soon!

~BigSis

March 19, 2011

First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to enter into the contest! We appreciate you!

The lucky winner of this lovely book; Restore. Recycle. Repurpose.: Create a Beautiful Home (A Country Living Book) chosen by random.org. is Chandel, who left Comment #11.

Chandel, be sure to email me your shipping information so I can get this lovely book on it's way to you!

If you entered last week's contest but didn't happen to be the lucky winner, don't worry, you can enter again this week. And this week's contest is super special because we decided to give away two Country Living books instead of one!  We've chosen these two beautiful books for this week's giveaway!

Country Living The Handmade Home: 75 Projects for Soaps, Candles, Picture Frames, Pillows, Wreaths & Scrapbooks

This book contains 75 crafty projects such as aromatic candles, superb soaps, family keepsake book, wreaths, herbal bath bags and several projects for framing, just to name a few.

A Very Modest Cottage (Country Living)

This is a beautifully illustrated story about how one woman saves a 1920's cabin and moves it across two states to give it a new life. The cottage is now restored as close to it's original condition as possible, and filled with vintage pieces found at thrift stores, yard sales, and even dumpsters. Her story shows that the right attitude and a willingness to roll up your sleeves makes pretty much anything possible.

So, there you have it!! Both of these books could be yours! The details of the contest are the same. You can do any or all of these for a chance to win:

• Leave us a comment, any comment.

• Subscribe to our Feed and leave us a comment letting us know if you already subscribe or if you’re a new subscriber.

• Subscribe via email. (It’s easy to do in our top right sidebar!) Leave a comment if you already subscribe via email or if you’re a new subscriber.

• Like us on Facebook and leave us a comment letting us know that you Like us.

• Follow BigSis on Twitter and LilSis on Twitter and leave another comment.

• Tweet this post and leave us a comment that you tweeted it.

• Stumble this post and leave another comment to let us know it’s stumbled.

Remember; even if you already Like Us on Facebook, Follow Us on Twitter, Subscribe to our Feed, or Subscribe via email, you can still leave us a separate comment for each one of those letting us know that you do! 🙂

This giveaway will officially end at midnight on Friday, March 25th and the winner of these two books will be announced on Saturday, March 26th.

(And, again, if you follow us on Twitter or Like BigSisLilSis on Facebook, we’ll be giving you some bonus chances to enter during these next six days.)

Have a great weekend!

~LilSis

March 16, 2011

First of all, if you've found your way here after reading about our Natural Dyed Colored Easter Egg Project in the April issue of Country Living Magazine, we'd like to extend a HUGE WELCOME to you! We really hope that you enjoy reading BigSisLilSis!

And, just in case anyone missed our announcement this past Saturday, we're giving away a copy of this beautiful Country Living book to one lucky reader! The contest will officially end at midnight this Friday, March 18th and the winner will be announced on Saturday, March 19th.

This book is full of beautiful photos and inspiring ideas on how everyone can create a home that’s as harmonious with the environment as it is beautiful. The book is jam-packed with great, practical advice on ways you can “go green” in each room of your home. BigSis and I have committed to work harder at becoming more earth-friendly in our own homes, and this book tells you how you can do it without spending a fortune.

Want to know how you can enter to win this gorgeous book?

Here are the details!

You can do any or all of these for a chance to win:

• Leave us a comment on the post where we announced the contest. Any comment at all will count as your first entry!

• Subscribe to our feed. It's super easy! Come back to the post and leave us a comment letting us know if you’re a new subscriber, or if you already subscribe.

• Subscribe via email. Would you rather get our feed in your email instead of in a Reader? (Just put your email address right there in the “Subscribe via Email” section in our right sidebar and click on the Subscribe button.) And don't forget to leave us another comment on the post telling us you subscribe via email.

• Like us on Facebook and leave us a comment on the post letting us know that you Like us.

• Follow BigSis on Twitter and LilSis on Twitter and leave another comment on the post to let us know you're a follower.

• Tweet about the contest and leave us a comment on the post that you tweeted it.

• Stumble the post about the contest and leave another comment on the post to let us know it’s stumbled.

You can enter up to seven times! Since the winner will be chosen at random.org; obviously, the more times you enter, the better your odds of winning this beautiful book.

At the same time we announce the winner of this giveaway, we'll be revealing our next book giveaway. Since the Editors at Country Living were so kind to donate four books, we decided to have a book giveaway every week for four weeks.

So, don't miss out on your chances to enter! We've made it really easy to leave comments! 🙂

~LilSis

March 12, 2011

Do the eggs on the Country Living Magazine's April, 2011 cover look familiar?

Do you remember this Natural Dye Colored Easter Egg post that I did for Easter last year?

Now that the April issue of Country Living Magazine is officially on the newsstand, we can finally announce this exciting news!

We were contacted by an Editor from Country Living Magazine back in January to see if I would be interested in recreating this Natural Dye Colored Egg Project for the April issue of their magazine. And, of course, I said yes! 🙂

It's true; the eggs beautifully displayed on this pedestal were made by me, in my kitchen in Southern California, and were carefully packaged and shipped overnight to County Living in New York City for their photo shoot!

The Editor had originally planned on the project being featured in the craft section of the magazine, but we were thrilled when we received the news that the Editors decided to feature the project on the cover. And the project is also featured on their website in the 10 Adorable Easter Craft Projects section.

If you've come to our site after reading about us in Country Living Magazine, we would like to extend a HUGE welcome to you!

If you like this project, we want to encourage you to Subscribe to our Feed and Like us on Facebook. We have plans to share more craft projects here on our site, as well as continue with our recipes, beauty product reviews and tips we discover that help us in our quest to live a fit, healthy and responsible lifestyle that’s still fun!

We don’t claim to be experts in any one thing, but what we do know is what women care about and like to talk about.  That’s what we love to share with you here on BigSisLilSis.

To celebrate this project making the cover of Country Living Magazine and to welcome our new readers, we decided to give away a Country Living book. And since the Editor at Country Living was so kind to donate FOUR books to us, we'll be having a Country Living Book Giveaway each week for the next four weeks.

To kick-start this series of giveaways, the first book we'll be giving away to one lucky reader is this gorgeous book!

Restore. Recycle. Repurpose. Create a Beautiful Home

(A Country Living Book)

And when I say gorgeous, I mean gorgeous! I LOVE this book!

(I really wanted to keep this book for myself, but it's more fun to give than receive, right?) 🙂

This book is full of beautiful photos and inspiring ideas on how everyone can create a home that's as harmonious with the environment as it is beautiful. The book is jam-packed with great, practical advice on ways you can “go green” in each room of your home.

Do you want to know how this lovely book can be yours?

It's easy!

Here are the details!

You can do any or all of these for a chance to win:

• Leave us a comment. Do you have any fun or unique ways to decorate eggs for Easter? Or any fun tips on “going green” in your home?

• Subscribe to our Feed and leave us a comment letting us know if you already subscribe or if you're a new subscriber.

• Subscribe via email. (It's easy to do in our top right sidebar!) Leave a comment if you already subscribe via email or if you're a new subscriber.

• Like us on Facebook and leave us a comment letting us know that you Like us.

• Follow BigSis on Twitter and LilSis on Twitter and leave another comment.

• Tweet this post and leave us a comment that you tweeted it.

• Stumble this post and leave another comment to let us know it's stumbled.

So, there you have it. You can enter up to seven times! Since the winner will be chosen at random.org; obviously, the more times you enter, the better your odds of winning this beautiful book.

This giveaway will officially end at midnight on Friday, March 18th and on Saturday, March 19th, we'll announce the winner and the next book giveaway!

(I’ll let ya in on a little secret. If you follow us on Twitter or Like BigSisLilSis on Facebook, we'll be giving you some bonus chances to enter during these next six days.)

~LilSis

March 9, 2011

Don't look too close! My royal icing didn't turn out too great!

We sisters have a little Irish in our genes, but not much. For some reason, though; maybe because my hubby is half Irish, we always have fun celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We usually have friends over, cook some corned beef and cabbage, listen to some Irish music and possibly have a green beer or two. Last year I made this Glowing Gecko Cocktail for some friends and it was a huge hit.

I love the legend about how every Leprechaun has a hidden pot of gold and how they'd rather turn you into a frog than be captured. Even though these guys don't look like it, they are considered to be faeries and I've always been a bit fascinated by the “faerie world.”

I was in Michael's a few weeks ago looking for something completely unrelated to St. Patrick's Day but when I saw their St. Patty's Day display, I couldn't resist picking up a four leaf clover cookie cutter and some green sprinkles.

To this day, I can't pass a clover patch without stopping to look for a four-leaf clover. 🙂

Even though I've made a few cookie recipes lately, I have to be honest and admit that I really don't like to bake. If you look at my Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies and my Linzer Heart-Shaped Sandwich Cookies, I usually choose a recipe that's more about the decoration, which is the fun part for me.

For these St. Patrick's Day Clover Cookies, I used Alton Brown's Sugar Cookie recipe that I found while browsing Food Network's website. And since I had pretty good luck with the Wilton recipe for the Linzer Heart-shaped Sandwich Cookies, I decided to go with Wilton's royal icing recipe.

I think I may have bitten off more than I could chew with the icing recipe. Who knew that royal icing had to be mixed for 10 to 12 minutes with a hand mixer? (And, yes, I have survived my entire adult life without owning a stand mixer.) I even had to recruit my hubby to help me with the mixing of the cookie dough when my arm got tired.

This sugar cookie recipe was pretty simple and the cookies turned out perfect! I'm not a big sweet eater but if I'm going to eat a cookie, I like a soft cookie and I prefer something like a shortbread so that's probably why I like these so much. They were soft and moist and not overly sugary!

For me, the royal icing was a royal pain in the “you know what” and these sugar cookies are perfect without it!

~LilSis

March 3, 2011

I've been wanting to create an inspiration board for a long time but I've never managed to set aside the time to do it. Thanks to my dear friend, P, who gave me a great IKEA desk, I finally carved out a little corner for myself in our guest room to use as a combination office/craft area. P knew I had wanted to do this for a good while already as I'd been looking around at other desks I could get for myself online using sites similar to https://www.officemonster.co.uk/office-desks-1 and others. Finally getting a desk urged me to create the space I wanted. Having my own space got me really motivated to get my inspiration board made so I could hang it right above my desk.

And since March is National Craft Month, I thought this would be the perfect time for this project. BigSis and I are both crazy about all different sorts of crafts and we recently decided that we want to start sharing more “DIY” crafts with you here on our site.

This bulletin board was Bry's when he was in high school over ten years ago and I've had it stashed in the back of a closet ever since just waiting to be transformed.

This is what it looked like when I pulled it out of the closet.

The first thing I did was clean it up and paint the frame a glossy black.

I found some nice, thick Scrapbook paper at Jo-Ann Fabrics for a great price, so I bought four 12″ x 12″ sheets with a scrolly design for the corners and four more 12″ x 12″ sheets of a pretty cursive handwriting design to fill in the center and cover all the cork.

Once that was done, I just gathered some of my favorite photos and items that inspire me and make me happy. Here's a little something about what some of these mean to me.

I've wanted to go to Italy for many years and BigSis & I hope to some day take a two week dream vacation across Italy.

I've talked before about how badly I want to see the Sistine Chapel. This is at the top of my bucket list.

Maui happens to be one of my most favorite places on Earth. Just the thought of sitting outside on Kaanapali Beach having lunch at Hula Grill or strolling the artsy/fartsy streets of Pa'ia always makes me smile. These are just a few photos from a previous vacation.

I'm inspired by a lot of different things when it comes to my passion for art. Scents, colors, textures, and creative people inspire me. And reminding myself not to worry so much helps keep my mind clear.

I collect greeting cards designed by the amazing artist, Josephine Wall and these are just a couple of my favorites. I've made four sculptures that were actually inspired by her cards and my Mermaid was the first and inspired by this card.

My ‘Shell Queen' sculpture that I created several years ago was my first to ever be exhibited at a gallery show and she was inspired by another one of Josephine Wall's gorgeous creatures, “Shell Child”. I'm now in love with “My Lady Unicorn” and I think she may be my next sculptural inspiration.

And, I also mentioned my love of these bookshelves on our site a couple of years ago. I'd love to have some floor to ceiling bookshelves like these so I think if I keep looking at this photo and visualizing it, maybe I'll have some like this some day!

Yoga is a big stress buster for me and I want to be able to do this version of the pigeon pose one day; I came close a few years ago. This photo just inspires me to continue with my yoga practice.

The ceramic cross hanging in the corner is from a series I sold to an art gallery years ago. I have a goal to get back in my clay studio to start producing some new creations before the end of the year and this helps to inspire me.

This was such a fun, inexpensive project! I bought some ribbon and some small, headless pins in addition to the scrapbook paper, but the cost was still less than $10.00 since everything you put on your board is either an inspiring photo or an item that you already own.

I just finished my board today and I'm so anxious to get it hung so I can look at it every day. Why didn't I make time to do this sooner?

It was probably because I didn't have one single space in my house that I could call my very own. Now, I do. And it makes me very, very happy! 🙂

~LilSis

February 26, 2011

At age 52, I finally got my first Botox. I had needed it for a long time, since my crows feet were pretty bad. I was procrastinating because…well, I don't know why I put it off. I obviously shouldn't have! Just take a look for yourself.

Sagginess…

crepiness…

and wrinkles. Oh, my!

Wow! I skerd myself! In defense of my poor eyes though, I do have to say these “before” photos were taken after I got a makeover from a makeup artist. I had masses of concealer and powder piled up under my eyes which accentuated the wrinkles. They were still my wrinkles – I have to own up to them – but they were looking especially heinous with all that makeup gooped upon them.

Also notice the skimpy eyelashes. My lashes aren't uber-short, but they definitely lacked fullness, and a little extra length would be nice.

I absolutely noticed the wrinkles, sags, bags and crepey skin every time I looked in the mirror, and finally addressed it with a very conservative bit of Botox in early December. I actually wished my doctor had been slightly more aggressive with it, but it's a start and I think it absolutely helped. That's not to say that other women might not have success with some of the Best Face Oils For Anti Aging and other products like it, they do! For me personally, I felt like this was my best option.

If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have waited so long for my first foray into Botoxland. It was relatively inexpensive, and the procedure was a piece of cake.

There were 3 tiny – I mean tiny – little needle pricks around each eye. I'm not freaked out by needles, but even if you are, I still think this process is really non-threatening. Just don't look when the needles come out to play. 😀 It was totally worth it to me, and I'll keep doing it as long as there is no revelation about Botox causing cancer or something equally disturbing.

While I was at the doctor's office, I also talked to a rep for Allergan, the company who makes Latisse. They were offering a $100 rebate on the product, which pretty much paid to fill the first prescription. Insurance doesn't cover Latisse, of course, since it's a cosmetic item.

My first prescription for Latisse cost me about $114, and was supposed to cover 30 days' application of the product. Instead of one drop per eye per night though, the nurse in my doctor's office suggested that one drop shared between both eyes is plenty. That's how I've been using it, and that first round of Latisse is just now almost gone nearly 3 months later. That works out to less than $1 a day.

I'm not a doctor so I can't recommend that you use Latisse as I did, but I can tell you what I did and that the shared drop per night seemed to be adequate for me. I think that using one drop per eye would have been wasteful overkill with dripping excess to wipe away.

I haven't had any side effects from Latisse, but you should consider them before you try it. The most-publicized potential issue is that light brown, green or hazel eyes can permanently change to a darker brown. From what I understand, that is only a rare risk when Latisse is used to treat glaucoma, which involves using the product in the eye, not on the skin around it.

That explains what I did. So how do those scary eyes look now after a little Botox here…

and there…

and some Latisse each night?

These aren't 20 year old eyes, but I'm not 20. These eyes have seen things and been through things, and they're entitled to a few earned war wounds. Maturity isn't an easy road, and getting there can leave a little evidence of the journey, right?

They're still my 52 year old eyes, but they're not quite as scary as before. These “after” photos were taken with no concealer, foundation or powder, so you can still see little imperfections like brown spots, but you don't see the previous horror. Hurray! As the years pass, it seems that it is deemed more acceptable for the average person to undertake such treatments. Trends in cosmetic surgery have evolved with more people improving on what they have. In fact, this source here shows the statistics of cosmetic surgery throughout the world in recent years.

In these photos I had about 8 weeks of Latisse behind me, and the full effect is supposedly reached at 16 weeks. At 4 weeks, I could already see longer lashes, and now they are thicker as well.

If you ask me if Botox reduces wrinkles, I say absolutely ‘yes'. And if you wonder if Latisse really works and grows longer and thicker eyelashes, I say ‘yes' again. I don't foresee ever getting a facelift, but I'll keep doing these little tweaks because they work. To me they're no-brainers. There's no cutting, no downtime, and the expense isn't prohibitive. It feels good to be doing a little something to fend off the ravages of time, but still look like me.

Now I need to tweak those brown spots…

~BigSis