NEW SITE!!!

Hello everyone! I'm happy to announce that I've moved Sweet Pea over to WordPress!!! I'm super nervous and excited as I try and figure it all out.

Jump on over to what new and exciting things are happening :)

http://4evermysweetpea.com

Obsession Continues

I'm starting to think that maybe my obsession with thrifting is getting a little out of control. My husband would definitely agree. I've gotten myself down to only going to St. Vincent once a week. Yes, I was going more than once...don't judge.

I don't ever go with an exact plan in mind for things I want to find. I even have tried to not grab a cart when I walk in hoping that will mean I won't find any treasures that day. That only worked one time. I have more than once had to walk to the carts with an armload full and the workers just smile at me. Yup, it's happened.

Here's everything I bought on my last trip. I used to only buy one or two things each time I went, but now it's been more leaning towards more than a basketful.

 

I have a little more investigating to do with this little bowl. I'm not sure what the CP means. If someone knows anything about this symbol please let me know what it is down in the comments!!

 

 

I couldn't help myself...I had to add these adorable poinsettia shakers to my collection. 

 

The design on this china is BEAUTIFUL! I honestly would have bought the whole set if it would have been there.

 

 

I saw this beautiful frame and it immediately went in my cart. My first thought was to use only the frame for a craft project, but the more I looked at it, I loved the pastel colors of the picture and decided I'm going to leave it as is.

 

This soup mug has already been used multiple times as the Mr. loves eating ice cream out of it. The red beads are going to be used for many different things including being laid out on the kitchen table during the holidays. Once again, The Lily Pad Cottage inspired that little thought :)

 

These wooden salt and pepper shakers were brand new in the box!!

 

 

I am always on the lookout for my mom's crystal pattern because they no longer carry it in our local store. Makes me happy when I can find a piece here and there.

 

I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I got these tea cups. I loved the simple style and design, but they don't really hold a lot of liquid. I know that everything is going to make sense once I unpack it all some day :) That's what I keep telling my husband when he asks what we are going to do with all this stuff ;)

 

 

I hope you enjoyed a look at another one of my shopping trips :) There will be many more, I promise. If you have any information on any of the pieces I've found, I'd love to hear it down in the comments!!!

 

 

Until next time.

 

Much love,

Liz

DIY ~ Chalkboard Window

This time of year has me itching to do all kinds of DIY projects to pass the time until spring gets here. Yes...I know...winter has just begun, but I'm already ready for spring and camping.


I have been following The Lily Pad Cottage for quite a while and I absolutely LOVE her style. I honestly read her blog every day and have pinned a ton of decorating ideas for when we get our new house. The other day was no different, I read this post featuring a Christmas Chalkboard. I'm not quite sure if hers is a window, but it looks like it might be. When we renovated our old house, we removed the windows and I saved them all. I now have a large stack of them waiting to be used for something just like this.

I had my husband dig one out of the garage so I could wash it up and get it ready for painting. I choose to do a light coat of white paint as I wanted a clean look. I may age it a little later but for now I'm leaving it as is.

I got out the chalkboard paint and painted along all the edges with a small brush, then I followed up by using a roller brush to cover the majority of the window.

I dried each layer with a fan. I'm not a patient person lol. If you can, let each layer dry for at least 24 hours.

I ended up doing two coats of chalkboard paint and I probably could have done three.

Once everything was dry, I went over the entire board with the only chalk I could find. Yep...it's blue. This process primes the chalkboard so it will be easier to clean off your designs each time. You should only need to do it this once.

Here's the finished product :) Yes, I know, my letting is terrible and not centered. I'm going to work on hand lettering and will do a follow-up post with a much better design soon.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. I'm going to start running out of space for all these things I'm making! Oh well :) What are you working on? I'd love to hear about it down in the comments.

Until next time.

Much love,
Liz

Recipe ~ S'mores Bites

 

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that my husband and I camp quite a bit. One of the great traditions of camping is making s’mores :) I was excited to find a simple recipe to make at home when I started missing camping during this long winter.


Let’s get started :)


You will need the following:

  *  7 whole graham crackers (equals 1 cup), finely crushed (I used graham cracker crumbs because I had them on hand, plus they are less work)

  *  1/4 cup powdered sugar

  *  6 tablespoons butter, melted  (Note: Next time I’ll use less butter, perhaps 4 T. instead)

  *  2 (1.55 oz) milk chocolate candy bars

  *  12 large marshmallows (cut in half)



Instructions:


  1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.

  2.  Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar and melted butter in a small bowl.

  3.  Evenly divide crumb mixture into each lightly greased cup of a 24 cup mini muffin pan. Press crumbs down to form shallow cups.

  4.  Bake 4-5 minutes.

  5.  While that's baking, break the candy bars into the divided rectangle pieces and cut the marshmallows in half.  I used a non-serrated knife.

  6.  Remove the pan from the oven and place one chocolate rectangle into each cup.

  7.  Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, on top of the chocolate.

  8.  Return to oven for 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are just slightly softened. Once you see that they are softened, you can turn the oven to broil if you want the tops “roasted”. DO NOT take your eyes off them. You will only need them on broil for a few seconds. I had mine on the top rack so it went pretty quickly. Once they were cool enough to touch, I pushed lightly down on each marshmallow so it completely covered the graham cracker.

  9.  Cool on a cooling rack. Once completely cool, carefully remove them from the pan.

Hope you enjoy this sweet treat as much as I did! It sure makes me miss camping, though. Are you a s’mores lover? Let me hear your thoughts in the comments!


Until next time.



Much love,

Liz

 

DIY - Sharpie Mug

 

 

 

 

I absolutely love the idea of personalizing. I’m sure most of you have seen this idea on Pinterest and I couldn’t help but go out and find the right Sharpies and a mug. Lucky for me, I happened to find a mug at St. Vincent for $0.50 and the Sharpies were around $7. Make sure you get the oil based paint Sharpies. I’ve read numerous ways to do this, but most of them recommended these for long-lasting results.

Let’s get started!

1.      Wash your mug so you have a clean surface to write on.


2.      Figure out the design you want. I choose to write a motivational phrase and then decorate with gold dots. This is where your creativity can SHINE! There are also many ideas on Pinterest if you are not sure what you want to draw.

 

3.      Let your mug dry overnight before baking it.


4.      Place your mug in a cold oven. Turn the temperature to 350. Bake for 30 minutes. Once the 30 minutes is up, turn the oven off and leave your mug in until the oven is completely cool before taking it out. This will insure you won’t have any cracks.


5.      I haven’t fully tested which washing technique is best but I’m going to stick with hand washing for now. I’m going to do another mug and plan to only wash it in the dishwasher. I’ll edit this post once I find out how well the design holds up :)

Hope you enjoyed this fun little tutorial! If you did, I’d love to hear from you down in the comments and if you make your own creation I’d love to see it! If you're on Instagram, tag your mug @ladyephotos.

Until next time.

Much love,
Liz

Recipe - Mock Turtles

 

 
I made these mock turtles last year and they were so good, that I figured I better make them again and share the recipe with you :) You may have seen these on Pinterest, as that is where I found the idea ( I swear you can find anything and everything you could possibly imagine on there). The part that drew me to these is how EASY they are to make! My husband loves turtles, but they look so complicated to do it the “proper” way that this was a perfect solution.

                                                                           

Let’s get started!

You’ll want to preheat your oven to 350.

1. Put the pretzels on a baking sheet. I lined mine with parchment paper for easier clean up, but you don’t have to. I bought Snaps as they are much easier to work with and help keep the caramel and chocolate from oozing all over the place.

Make sure that you space them evenly so you’ll have room to add the pecans without touching the other pretzels. Don’t want to get burnt from the caramel or melting chocolate!!

2. Place one Rolo candy on each pretzel. A HUGE time saver is to by the rolls at the checkout instead of the bags. Less for you to unwrap :)

3. Put them in the oven at 350 for 3-4 minutes. They will look slightly shiny, but they shouldn’t lose their shape.

4. Take them out of the oven and place a pecan on top of each Rolo candy. I select complete pecan halves, as they look more presentable than broken pieces:) Yes, I may be slightly OCD lol.

Gently push the pecan into the Rolo. You don’t have to push too hard, just enough to flatten the Rolo and not so much that it completely goes through the other side.

 

6. Take your sea salt grinder and add salt over all your finished turtles.

7. Let them cool at room temperature. You can put them in the fridge to cool completely if you're in a rush :) I actually put mine outside because it was cold enough and there wasn't room in the fridge! I'm a little impatient and wanted to take pictures of them...don't judge :) Just make sure that if you put them in the fridge that you take them out an hour before you are ready to eat them so they can soften.

Here are some fun shots with a few more thrift store finds. Enjoy!

  

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this quick little treat :) I'd love to hear what you think down in the comments!!!

 

Until next time.

 

Much love,

Liz

     

Recipe ~ Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I just can't seem to stop myself! Every night I go to bed thinking of what I want to make the next day to photograph. Saturday night I found this Lemon Crinkle Cookie recipe and thought this would be great to make using the lemons I bought to photograph! Yes, I bought lemons with the specific use of photographing them...nothing else, don't judge. You can click on the above link for the recipe, but I also copied it below for quick reference.

I had to make sure I photographed my lemons before I did anything else, of course :) This time I actually set up a little area in the sunroom to give a different background and light source. Don't mind my non-ironed table cloth. It's another one of my vintage linens and I haven't gotten around to pressing it.

 

The table cloth covered up the wicker, but I liked the additional texture it created when I photographed the lemons on their own.

 

 

 

I also took some in the basement so I could see how completely different each location made the photos look. It sure was hard to balance two lemons! So glad I was able to get this shot before the top one rolled off :)

Alright, enough of the lemons lol. On to the recipe. I gathered all the ingredients so I could get a before photo. Notice anything??

Lemon Crinkles

Yield: 2-3 dozen
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Total Time: 30 min

Ingredients:

½ cups Butter, Softened
1 cup Granulated Sugar
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 whole Egg
1 teaspoon Lemon Zest
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
⅛ teaspoons Baking Soda
1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
½ cups Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, *excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.

*The reason the above few words are in red is because I completely MISSED that part and added the powdered sugar with all the other dry ingredients! My mom assured me the cookies would be fine and would just be sweeter than if I had actually followed the recipe.

Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

 

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Mine took about 12 minutes, but that might be because of my inability to read directions...*If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

 

 

Now the fun part!! I am in love with how the cookies and the lemons look against the all white background. I wasn't sure if it was going to be to white on white, but that pop of yellow just makes it!

 

I tried out a few different angles.

 

This one is shot from above. I like how the pattern in the table cloth shows up :)

I hope you are enjoying all the food photos! I promise I'll try not to do too many lol. Next time, I want to stack some cookies on top of each other to add height. It's just so much fun!! This was a little different than normal Tuesday posts, but I didn't think you would mind :)

Am I getting any better?? I still have lots to learn, but would love to hear what you think :)

Until next time.

Much love,
Liz