Home of The French Marketplace

La joie c'est le partage
{ the joy is in the sharing }

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Chocolate Peanut Butter S'mores

So simple but so delicious!
I have been on a s'mores kick lately...

chocolate graham cracker
layered with
creamy peanut butter
Hershey's chocolate
and
a
marshmallow

Simply delicious!!
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I've linked up with Stone Gable's On the Menu Monday go and check out all of the delicious recipes.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Window Awning Tutorial


I received some requests for a tutorial when I originally posted my awning and I've got one for you!
Here is what you will need:

-2 tension rods wide enough to fit between your cabinets
-a canvas drop cloth or other similar fabric of your choice
- black fabric paint and a paintbrush or black fabric marker
- blue painters tape
- an image that you like (I got mine here) copied in mirror image using a toner based copier
- CitraSolv
- an old paintbrush
- newspaper(to protect your surface)
- an old spoon
- a sewing matching or needle and thread if you prefer to hand stitch

okay, I think that about covers it!

The first step is to measure the width of your cabinet space to determine the width of your awning.  Then you want to decide how long you want the awning to be.  Once you get all of those measurements, add a 1/2 inch all the way around for seam allowance (plus extra for a rod pocket at the top).  Once you've added in your seam allowance to all of your measurements, go ahead and cut your fabric accordingly.

Now it's time to sew.  I just did a simple hem down both sides and along the bottom edge of my fabric to give it a nice, neat edge.  Then I added a rod pocket to the top to accommodate the tension rod.  The width of the pocket will depend  on the size of your tension rod.  That's it.  Now for the fun part!  Time to add your design. 

 As you can see from the photos, I wanted a French cafe feel to mine so a added a grain sack stripe in black as well as a French cafe logo.  You can click here to get the striping tutorial and here for a complete tutorial on how to transfer images using CitraSolv.  The image that I used came from The Graphics Fairy and so did the transfer tutorial.

So, when you're ready, go ahead and add your stripe and your image.  When you're done, it will be time to hang.

Okay, ready to hang your awning?  This is what you do.  Put up the first tension rod.  The placement is going to be different for everyone.  It all depends on where your window is in relation to your cabinets.  For me, it was all the way up to where the back top of my cabinets meet the soffit.  Then I hung the awning from this rod.  You can see this below...


Now you're going to place the second rod toward the front of the cabinets lower than the first rod.  See photo above. 


Now just bring the fabric up and over the second rod until it resembles an awning

Like so.
  You can play around with the placement  of the second tension rod until it looks exactly the way you want it.


And there it is.  You're all done!

Thanks for stopping by and thank you for your interest in the tutorial!

Have a great weekend.
xo and god Bless,
Kathleen

Linking up to Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy

Thursday, August 25, 2011

My French Provincial Makeovers

 Okay, so I'm finally getting a post up for you.  I finished three of the four pieces of furniture and even though the fourth is only partially done, I really needed to post something.  Right?
So here's the story...two of the four pieces, I already had.  They were cream in color with some antiquing glaze on them as well.  While they were pretty as is, I really wanted to incorporate some French grey color into the room.
The other two were recently found treasures that begged to be made over and used in my craft room.
More on those in a bit...

So here is what I did on the first of the three...it's a night stand.
I painted the top of it in Alaskan Husky by Benjamin Moore {I had this color left over from our bedroom makeover so I decided to use it up} Then I painted the sides, front and drawers too. 


I painted the hardware white and left the top edge white as well.

and here you have it, an old nightstand turned end table.  I love the contrast between the grey and the white.
Alright, now on to the other two fabulous pieces of furniture. 

 Here they are (well one of them anyway, they're exactly the same) in my garage waiting to be painted.

Here are the drawers all lined up.  You know that old French Provincial style furniture that is white with those gold accents everywhere?  Well, I'm not a fan of all the gold so I decided to give them a fresh coat of white.  These are being used in my craft room where the walls are painted Light French Grey by Behr so I went with white.
Here they are and they've got all kinds of scrapbooking supplies, tags, note cards and other goodies tucked neatly inside.  I love how they turned out!

I've got one on each side of a bookcase that will soon be painted white as well.

One of these days, I will get the fourth piece of furniture painted and the bookcase too - but that will have to be for another post.
~ ~ ~
On another note, I received requests for a tutorial on the window awning that I did recently.  To answer your requests?  Absolutely!  I would be thrilled to share it with you.  I was actually hoping to have a tutorial post ready for you this week but it's been a hectic week and as you can see, I don't have it yet.  If you'll hang in there with me, I'll get it ready very soon - I promise.
~ ~ ~
Okay, I'm off now...we've got a hurricane to go and prepare for.  Yep you read that right...a hurricane and that's just a follow up to the earthquake we had the day before yesterday.  Uh...yeah...that's a whole other post.  Really, I smile as I write this.  It's been quite the adventurous week but we are blessed :)
~ ~ ~
Have a wonderful day everyone and enjoy your weekend!

xo and God Bless,
Kathleen