Movie Monday-Best Friends

Something to warm your heart on this cool November Monday~

            

Surprise Candy Dish

As you know, I am well into holiday crafting...and now Martha Stewart Crafts is helping me!

Just look at all of the goodies I got in the mail!

To be honest, I didn't know where to start.  Should I decoupage?  Try some glass etching?  Break out the pretty paints???  And then I was inspired by some exotic looking dishes one day and thought "Hey! I could make that!"  So, I did.

Here's what you need to make your own pretty candy dish for the holidays.

Materials:
-cut glass bowl from the thrift store.  (Get one with lots of cuts but isn't super detailed.)
-glass paint in contrasting colours.  (I used Martha Stewart Fine Glitter Paint)
-paint brushes

Steps:
1) Clean and dry your glass bowl then just use your paint to fill in all of those cuts in the glass.  There are two things I love about these Martha Stewart paints...1) the fine tip and 2) the locking cap....brilliant!

2) Leave your paint to dry overnight.  Once you're sure everything is dry go overtop of EVERYTHING with a contrasting colour.  Do as many coats as you need to get a fairly opaque coverage.

Once all of your coats are dry you're done!  That's it!  So easy peasy.  What I love is that from the side it just looks like a normal little bowl.  But a peek inside reveals a whole other story...a SURPRISE!

This paint is dishwasher safe!

You can get the entire Martha Stewart Craft line at Michaels or in Plaid's online store.  With so many choices in craft and glass paint and the new decoupage line your sure to find everything you need for your handmade Christmas needs.

Here are some more projects from other bloggers:
And for even more inspiration, visit Martha Stewart's Pinterest Board!  You can also find more ideas on the Plaid Facebook page or sign up for their newsletter HERE.

*This is a sponsored post written for Blueprint Social for Martha Stewart Crafts.  No compensation was received other than the products shown and all opinions are my own.

Tale a Tale: The Boleyn King

You may recall...I love historical fiction.

Summary (from Goodreads):  The Boleyn King is the first novel in an enthralling new trilogy. Reimagining history in sumptuous detail, Laura Anderssen takes readers back to the deadly intrigue, turbulent affairs, and treacherous passions of Tudor England - and answers the compelling question What if Anne Boleyn had given Henry VIII the son he so desperately wanted?

Just seventeen years old, Henry IX, known as William, is a king bound by the restraints of the regency yet anxious to prove himself. With the French threatening battle and the Catholics sowing the seeds of rebellion at home, William trusts only three people: his older sister Elizabeth; his best friend and loyal counselor, Dominic; and Minuette, a young orphan raised as a royal ward by William's mother, Anne Boleyn.

Against a tide of secrets, betrayal, and murder, William finds himself fighting for the very soul of his kingdom. Then, when he and Dominic both fall in love with Minuette, romantic obsession looms over a new generation of Tudors. One among them will pay the price for a king's desire, as a shocking twist of fate changes England's fortunes forever.

The crown that King William
would've worn had he ever existed.

Review: I originally only downloaded this book because it was the only half interesting book I could find to try out reading online. I thought the premise of a very alive Anne Boleyn raising a son to be king completely far fetched. Of course, only a few pages in, I was completely hooked and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book.

The characters that we are familiar with are all pretty true to what you already know and the new characters add to a fascinating "what if" scenario. What if Anne and her brother George never went to the gallows? What if Henry and Anne gave birth to a strong male heir who took after his father? What would've happened to Mary and Elizabeth!?!? The possibilities of an alternate timeline are never ending, which is why you won't be able to put this book down. (I think it's appealing to the Star Trek side of my brain!)

This book is part of a trilogy and I can't wait to find book two now!

What do you think of books that play with history?  Love 'em or leave 'em?  Leave a comment.

Breaking Tea with Breaking Bad

One of my colleagues at work recently got me hooked on Breaking Bad.  I ended up watching all five seasons in a matter of a few weeks.....until I got to the middle of season 5 and all of a sudden Netflix had suddenly run out of shows!

Ahh!  What to do?  I was in intense anticipation of what was about to happen and I was suddenly cut off from my Breaking Bad supply.  Luckily, for my colleague, he was able to get me the last 4 shows so I could find some relief.  I didn't ask where he got it, I just took the shows and watched them, and two days later was finally able to breathe again.

So, as a thank you to my teetotalling friend, I made him a little gift...Heisenberg Tea.

If you've never watched Breaking Bad this entire post will seem pretty crass, but trust me, I know he's going to love it and will get a real kick at remembering each episode that each great quote comes from with every new cup of tea he makes.

You can find a much more tame version of this project, with full step-by-step instructions, HERE.

If you want the Breaking Bad version, here are all of the quotes I used:

Are you a Breaking Bad fan?  What's your favourite quote?  Leave a comment below (but keep it clean)~

Cafe Press

Have you ever been excited to be asked to write a post about something only to find out that you're not so crazy about as you thought you would be and now you don't know how to say something nice?  That's what I'm struggling with today~

Awhile ago I told you about Cafe Press.  It's a website where you can personalize items online, they print them up, and send them to you.  Sounds simple enough, right?  I thought so too.  Instead I found the entire experience very trying and although 1 of the 3 products I wanted to get actually turned out, that only leaves me 33% satisfied.

I wanted to try out both aspects of the service by designing something myself and also getting something that was already designed.  So I ordered a T-shirt, a blank journal, and I tried to order a 2014 calendar.

The journal came out pretty much as expected.  Here's what my design looked like online:

I'm a big Star Trek fan so I was really looking forward to my new T-Shirt, which was supposed to be a lovely and subdued salmon shade of pink.  Instead I got bright neon raging P-I-N-K.

The quality of the T-Shirt is better than I expected, which was something I was worried about.  It came with a little note saying that once it's washed that the ridge along the outer edge of the design would wash away.  Mine doesn't have a ridge, however the entire front of the T-Shirt has a heavy laminated feeling so I'm hoping this will soften up once it's washed.

I can no longer find the one I ordered listed and I can't pull it up from my order but this is the shade I expected:

The third thing I tried to order but couldn't, was a personalized calendar for next year.  The online design software was incredibly slow to load and gave me nothing but problems.  At one point I thought I had 2014 on it but when the order went through it was 2013 and there were no options to change it.  I'm frustrated that with only 2 months left in the year that you still can't order a calendar for 2014 so in the end, after many, MANY failed attempts, I just gave up.  Luckily I was able to get my order cancelled before it went to print but I was still left pretty frustrated with the whole process.

This was going to be the design for my calendar.
It was going to be a present for my nephew (Owen)
from Mister Whiskers for Christmas~

I think the concept of CafePress is wonderful.  I tried different browsers, different designs, different computers, but I just couldn't find the magic key to make it work seamlessly for me.  However, it must work for a lot of other people because they have loads of people using it, unfortunately, I just won't be one of them.

The person who contacted me from CafePress asking me to do the post requested that the intro post be done first before any items could be ordered.  He indicated that they'd had a lot of problems with 'bad bloggers' who got the product but then didn't write the post.  I have a feeling there might be more to it than 'bad bloggers'.  I think people just don't like to blog about unpleasant experiences.

I will probably never be asked to write another sponsored post again, but I'd rather fulfill my commitment and be honest with all of you, than worry about stuff like that.

Have you ever had to write a less than complimentary post about something?  How did you handle it?  Leave a comment below~

Remembrance Day