Tomatillo Pork Stew

Hi guys! Today you can find me over at Kristina's blog, Eccentric Owl, sharing my recipe for Tomatillo Pork Stew. It's super flavorful and really simple to make, so it's a good one to add to your recipe box. Be sure to stop by Eccentric Owl to check out the recipe!

XOXO

Becca

Follow me on:

Bloglovin/Facebook/Instagram

DIY Rudolph Silhouette with Marlene of Jade and Fern!

Hi guys! Today, the lovely Marlene of Jade and Fern is back to share an amazing holiday DIY! Marlene's DIY projects totally blow me away, so I was tickled that she wanted to do another guest post. I hope you enjoy her awesome tutorial, and be sure to stop by Jade and Fern for more DIY goodness!

Thank you, Becca, for having me back on your fabulous blog! 

Ever since the deer/antler silhouette trend exploded, I’ve wanted to make a “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” version. Mostly because I need more excuses to use glitter. And aren’t the holidays the perfect time to add some sparkly glitter to our nests? 

Bonus: I’ll show you how to make a stencil out of contact paper, which you can apply to any painting project! Here we go:

Materials:

• a piece of plywood, size is up to you (mine came from the hobby section of the craft store, in a 12”x12” square)
• contact paper
• red paint and red glitter
• a second paint in the color of your choice
• clear acrylic glaze (such as Mod Podge)
• brushes
• scissors
• pencil

Steps:

Find a reindeer silhouette image that you like, print it on regular computer paper, and cut it out. I ran a Google image search on “deer silhouette” to find the one I used.

Trace the silhouette onto the back of the contact paper. You are creating a stencil, so trace the image flipped opposite of how you want it to look. Since I wanted my reindeer facing to the right, I traced the cut-out facing left. 

With a pencil, give Rudolph a nose job to emphasize that glowing schnoz. If you are anxious about free-handing a circle (I was!), you can trace a round object, like a toothpaste tube cap.

Cut out the reindeer and apply the contact paper to the plywood. The easiest way to do this is to start with the widest part—the neck—and work your way up bit by bit. Smooth the contact paper down and press down the edges firmly. Press the edges down again. And again. Seriously, do not skimp on this step! The contact paper is acting like painters tape, so you need to create a good seal to get clean lines.

Now paint all the exposed plywood. I used minty green craft paint to tie in to the rest of my holiday décor. You’ll probably need several coats to get smooth coverage.

When the last coat of paint has dried, gently peel off the contact paper. 

Paint that nose red and allow to dry.

Finally, mix red glitter with clear glaze and paint the glitter over the red nose. And that’s it!

I hope you enjoyed this little DIY project! Are you ready for the holidays? (Because, they’re next week—yikes!).

DIY Gem Pocket Sweatshirt with Nicole of Writes Like a Girl

Hello everyone! Today, one of my favorite bloggers, Nicole from Writes Like a Girl, is here to get her craft on with a cute DIY project that's perfect to jazz up your wardrobe for the holiday season! Nicole inspires me daily with her honest writing, adorable personal style, and her support of women everywhere. If you like adorable clothes, feminism, and super awesome people, I know you'll love Nicole and her blog as much as I do. Check out her super cute project here, and then be sure to stop by Writes Like a Girl for more!

Hello lovely ladyfaces! I'm not usually a craft-inclined kind of gal, but Becca's blog inspires me so much. I saw this super cute gem pocket sweatshirt on ASOS the other day and thought, "Hey, I think I could make that!" So here we are...let's get started!

And now, you've got a fantastically sparkly sweatshirt. Get on with ya bad self!

DIY Round-up with Whimsy Darling!

Today, Alex and Paige of Whimsy Darling are back to share some of their amazing DIY projects! I hope their pretty projects will bring you some weekend inspiration! As always, be sure to stop by and check out their blog for more amazing Whimsy Darling goodness!

Hello again, Ladyface Blog readers!

We're Alex and Paige of Whimsy Darling and you may remember us from a previous guest post in early November. We're back for another round to share some of our latest DIY projects with all of you!

Thanksgiving Place Settings While American Thanksgiving is right around the corner, us Canadians had ours a while ago now. Around that time we shared this tutorial for a simple last minute thanksgiving place setting. It's always nice to make your guests feel welcome and appreciated but sometimes you don't have enough time to put together an elaborate place setting for every single person. All you need for these ones are some toothpicks, card stock and a miniature pumpkin or gourd. Easy Peasy!

Embroidery Wall Art Being students on a budget, we also like creating a lot of our own wall art! We love the look of embroidery art but have yet to acquire the skill it takes to create a real embroidery piece. We decided to recreate the look with a small canvas and paint and love the way it turned out!

Storage Box Makeover I'm always looking for new ways to find storage in my small apartment but like to do it as cheaply as possible. I found these white storage boxes at Ikea one afternoon and decided to spruce them up a little bit to make them a little more interesting. It was a super easy project that only took one afternoon and it made my craft shelf look very organized and put together. Much better then the mess it previously was!

Wood Slice Wall Art Once again, we love creating our own wall art! This is one of our most common types of projects over at Whimsy Darling because it is normally very simple to make but adds a touch of uniqueness and personality to your home. We found these wood slices at Michael's for a good price and painted some of our favourite quotes on them.

Anthro-Inspired Bedroom Makeover While this project is definitely my favourite thus far, it was also the most tedious. It took a few weeks of sporadical work to complete but I managed to recreate a $500 Anthropologie bedding look for only $50! It was just the update my bedroom was needing.

DIY Umbrella Update Paige bought this umbrella for her Mary Poppins Halloween costume this year and since has decided it needs an update. She painted little white hearts all over the inside of it to give it a little more cheer and personality. It is so cute and such a pleasant surprise whenever she opens it up. 

We hope you have managed to find a little big of inspiration from some of these DIY tutorials to start something new this weekend! Thanks again Becca for hosting us on your blog!

 Alex (& Paige) xo

Clementine Pumpkin Bread with Cardamom

Today I'm super excited to share a guest post from amazing DIY blogger, Marlene from Jade and Fern. Not only does she create gorgeous DIY projects, she also makes delicious treats; and today Marlene is here to share her recipe for Clementine Pumpkin Bread with Cardamom. Yum! Drool over her post here and then be sure to pop over to Jade and Fern to check out Marlene's fantastic DIY projects and skills!

Like so many squash lovers, I crave pumpkin this time of year. Pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin beer. Pumpkin donuts. Grande pumpkin double latte with pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin drizzle. And today— pumpkin bread.

I’m so excited to share this recipe with Ladyface Blog and all you wonderful readers! It’s a simple quick bread that comes together fast for a weeknight treat, yet is elegant enough to serve to your dinner party guests. Flecks of clementine zest add zing, and ground cardamom rounds out the complexity. Can you tell I’m writing this when I’m hungry? Plus—it’s vegan!

Clementine Pumpkin Bread with Cardamom

Ingredients:

1 ½ C. flour

½ tsp. salt

¾ C. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 C. pumpkin puree*

½ C. vegetable or canola oil

½ C. applesauce

¼ C. water

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. allspice

¼ tsp. cloves

2 T. clementine zest (or zest from your favorite orange)

1 ¼ tsp. ground cardamom

*Depending on the moisture content of the pumpkin puree, the bread may turn out super dense, but don’t be alarmed; it will still taste awesome.

Directions:

Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan, and preheat the oven to 350° F.

Sift the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda into a large bowl and set aside.

Add the pumpkin, oil, applesauce, water, spices, and clementine zest into a medium bowl and stir to combine. Use a whisk to beat out larger pumpkin lumps (some small lumps are ok).

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. You should keep mixing until you don’t see any more white flour, then stop— overdoing it will make the bread tough.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and use your spoon to spread the batter evenly into the corners.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean. If it’s not done at 50 minutes, check it every 2 minutes thereafter, as the sides can get brown quickly at this point.

Allow the bread to cool in the pan for no more than 5 minutes, then gently remove and transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy with a schmear of cream cheese or on its own. It’s a perfect snack to keep you energized during the upcoming holiday bustle. If you’re serving it to guests, you’d better make two—this bread never lasts long!

What other pumpkin treats do you enjoy this time of year?

-Marlene at Jade and Fern

DIY Flower Crown with Kristina of Eccentric Owl!

Hi Everyone!

Today I'm thrilled to share a guest post from one of my favorite bloggers, Kristina of Eccentric Owl! Kristina's blog is one of my favorites to read on a daily basis. Her style is amazing, she rocks retro looks like nobody's business, she's sweet as pie, AND she's a fellow Washingtonian! What could be better?

Today Kristina is here to share a tutorial for an amazing DIY Flower Crown, perfect for the fall. Check it out below, and then be sure to go check out her lovely blog, Eccentric Owl!
 
Hello, Ladyface Blog readers! 

I'm Kristina from Eccentric Owl, and the beautiful Becca has asked me to guest post. So, in true crafty Becca fashion (although I'll admit, I'm much, much lazier doing DIY crafts than she is!) I decided to share with you all how to make your very own flower crown... fascinator... thing. Technically, it's probably not supposed to be called a "crown" because it doesn't go all the way around. But whatever! It's fun and easy and pretty. Let's get started!  
You will need flowers, obviously, as well as a hot glue gun (and hopefully you stash your hot glue sticks with your hot glue gun, or you'll spend longer trying to find them than you did making the headband), scissors (maybe), newspaper or cardboard or a paper plate to keep the hot glue from messing up your table, and a headband. Any kind will do, but I prefer this plain metal one, and you'll see why later. The total cost of supplies for what I used to make this headband seriously came out to less than five dollars. (I mean, the flowers alone cost me $3 total, and I could make at least five headbands out of those three bouquets. So, you know.)  
First of all, pull a few heads of the flowers off of their stems, and peel the leaves off of the stiff plastic thingies they're secured to (or, in the case of the darker green ones, cut them off of the middle attachment.) The leaves will be your base for the headband, so be sure to get enough! You can never have too many.  
Glue your leaves onto the headband, making sure that they are securely glued to each other (more important than them being secured to the headband, actually.) Be sure they're positioned in such a way that you've got plenty of space to put flowers on, as this is what they're going to stick to.  
If your flowers have long stems even after being pulled off of their arrangement, cut the stems as closely to the base of the flower as you can, so that they will easily lie whichever way you want them to go.  
Roughly map out the design of your flowers on a flat surface. It's okay if they look wider than your headband, because when you glue them on you'll want to squish them in a bit to make sure there are no empty spaces.  
Glue your flowers on, being sure to hold each one securely to the leaves until they are good and dry, or you'll end up dropping one on your dress and nearly hot-gluing flowers to yourself(you know. That happens. *ahem*). I generally have a main bunch of flowers planned, with a few extras to either side. Once you've gotten the biggest part of the arrangement glued on (usually 3-4 main flowers), take it to a mirror and try it on, and see whether or not you actually want more flowers. Sometimes, less is better.  
Now here's the optional part, but the part I prefer, and this is why you want a metal headband: once the whole thing is dry, peel it all off of the headband. This way, you can pin it to your head whichever way you want, and it will be MUCH more comfortable to wear all day! Or, you can sew ribbons to the ends and tie it around your head. But if you bought a comfy (read: not cheap) headband and like the way it feels, you can skip this step! If you're not sure that all of the leaves are secured to each other, hot glue or sew them in strategic places so that your headband won't fall apart later. And you're done!  
Wear your headband everywhere, feel pretty, and bask in the glory of having made it all by yourself in less than 30 minutes. Also, please ignore my chipped fingernails. 

I hope you all enjoyed this DIY, and have a wonderful day! 

Lots of love, 
Kristina.