My Favorite Projects: March 2012

April is in full swing already, so it’s high time to take a look back at some of my favorite things from last month.  First, here’s a taste of my DIY fun from March:

I shared an easy way to grow your own green onions indoors so you’ll never have to buy them again:


I used vintage pictures of the Jersey shore to make photo coasters:


I made a nautical map pillow from a cloth placemat:


I enjoyed the pretty flowering trees in my backyard- until I saw a big scary bee:


And here’s some of the projects that inspired me online last month:

A beautiful spray painted vase from Thrifty Decor Chick::


Pretty grass candles from Elegant Nest:


Creative citronella torches from wine bottles by Adventures in Creating::


Great ideas, right?  Leave a comment with any favorite projects you worked on or came across recently!

Pineapple Flowers

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.  Since I’ve already shared my Easter decorations and Easter dessert ideas, I thought I’d update y’all on what I ended up making. 

From my Easter dessert inspirations, I decided to make cupcakes topped with pineapple flowers, as I had seen on Pinterest:

source

It looked really cool so I decided to give it a try.  The site did not have any additional instructions so I had to figure it out some remaining details.  I took a regular pineapple and cut off the top and sides.

Then I sliced the pineapple, sprinkled it with sugar, and placed it on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  The pineapple needed to be sliced thicker than I originally imagined, because they shrink a lot while baking.

I baked the pineapple at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.  Next, I put the pineapple slices in a muffin tin, to create the curved flower shape, and baking for about 15-20 minutes more (I forgot to take a picture of this step).  I had the pineapple in the oven while my cupcakes were baking so luckily I didn’t have to run my oven too much extra.

Once baked, I used the dried pineapple to top the cupcakes I had made.

Too be honest, I’m not crazy with how it looked, so I decided to make them a little more flower like but topping the pineapple with a cherry to act like the center of a flower.

Since I like to be transparent with you guys, I’ll say that I thought the pineapple flowers looked cute, but weren’t cute enough to justify the extra time and half a pineapple they took up.  I was a little disappointed I couldn’t get mine to look as flower-y as the original photo, but I wanted to share how mine turned out since I posted the inspiration photo last week. The actual cupcakes were delicious though, I used Bakerella’s recipe for mini-cheesecakes which is a big favorite of mine.

What do you think of the pineapple flowers? Worth the trouble of trying again?  How was your Easter?  What did you end up making?

Easter Wind Up

I don’t go too crazy seasonally decorating for holidays other than Christmas, but I did put out a couple of little Easter decorations this year.

My hubby has a few wind-up Easter toys from his childhood which I put out in our living room.  Look at this super cute tin bunny on a bike.  It still winds up and drives around in circles.



He also has a windup bunny that walks up and down a little ladder.  I would lie and say these toys are so cool because they are “vintage” but the truth is, who doesn’t love a wind up bunny!



Since I recently learned how to make an animated GIF (thanks to Rhoda and Kate), I thought I’d share this adorable little bunny toy so you can see how it looks when it’s wound up:



Super cute, right?  I’m afraid I might start animating all of my photos now that I know how to do it!

But in much less animated décor, I also hung up this Easter wreath that I made a few years ago.  (You can check out the Easter wreath tutorial here.)



That’s what Easter looks like around here.  Do you decorate for Easter?  Or share my love for wind-up toys?

I hope everyone has a happy Easter!  And for those of you celebrating Passover this week, I hope that’s wonderful too!