Cook your corn on the cob without cleaning!

Photo from foodwhirl.com

I found this idea, and I don't think I will ever boil my corn on the cob again!  You put 3 cobs in the microwave for 6 minutes, squeeze it out of the husks and you get a cooked, clean, ready-to-eat piece of corn!  To see full recipe, go here.  How great is that?!?!

Curtain tiebacks

I was trying to find some tiebacks other than either the ropes with tassels or the metal u-hooks that are commonly used today as neither of those styles really fit our house decor. I had purchased some jute ribbon for another project so thought I'd play with it a bit and see what I could come up with.

This is my final result and I think I'm pretty happy with it!  (Sorry the bay window picture isn't the best - hard to get a picture of the whole window because of the layout of the room)

Our bay window in the dining room

Family Room

I made 3 loops of the jute to make it a little more substantial. Mine in my family room are about 9 1/2" halved and on the bay window are closer to 8 1/2-9". Then I took the ends and tied them in a knot so that the ends would lay nice side to side & trimmed each end to about 1". And DONE! Simple as that I had new tiebacks! (after I did it 6 times for all my windows!)

Side window of bay window

Middle windows of bay window

I had to figure out how to hold the tie-back back, so I bought little bronze hooks from WalMart for about $5 for 2 I think, and they work just great!

Hook used to hold tie's back

Do you have any handy ideas you've used as tie backs? Any suggestions on improving mine?

Here are some ideas I found when I was looking on Pinterest:

• Use an old doorknob to hold the curtains back.  Or you could buy one from here.

• Rope tie backs

• Jeweled tie backs from Laura Ashley.  I think you could also use a chain necklace to get this sort of look without all the glitz.

• Use a branch!

• Use a swiveleye snap hook, key ring, and cord  

Happy Independence Day!

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and weeks ago I started a project to decorate my door.  This is the final outcome:

Of course I had a little 'Pinspiration.'  Here's where I first got the idea.  And here is a tutorial I found AFTER I had completed mine - so you can use whichever you like I guess! :)

I used:

14 inch white styrofoam wreath form

14 pieces of red felt

14 pieces of white felt

10 pieces of blue felt

lots of straight pins!

Also need:

scissors

pencil/marker - to mark stencil onto felt

3 inch circle stencil - I used a tupperware lid

I used a 14 inch white wreath form that is flat on the back.  Stenciled 3 inch circles onto my felt sheets & cut them out.  

I folded the circles in half and in half again and then pinned them onto the wreath form with straight pins at the corner.  I didn't pay a whole lot of attention or make a certain pattern, I just placed them where I thought they needed to be so that the form wouldn't show through the felt.  (This is where I kind of like the other tutorials idea of cutting them into 2x2 squares - you could just fold the felt sheet up and roughly cut and probably cut down on a lot of time!)

 I also didn't use a certain number of circles or make each section a certain size - I eyeballed it.  But you could probably make a certain pattern if you wanted to ensure that they were all equal.  This is what it looked like partly done.  Make sure when you attached your circles that you vary which direction they go so that you have a fuller looking wreath - it will also cut down on the number of circles you need to fill it up I think.  Also I went to the bottom of the wreath form and left the back blank so that it will sit nice and flat on my door (also why I got the white form with the flat back instead of the green form).

And with all of my felt squares attached!  I then attached a piece of ribbon to the back to hang it with.  I just attached it to the wreath form with a bunch of straight pins - 4 on each end - and it seems to be holding up so far.  My front door doesn't get a whole lot of use though.

I thought it needed a little something more so I removed a few of the blue circles and replaced them with white to resemble stars.  These I made more rosette looking to stand out better.  I also think I should have placed one more on the bottom inside of the blue but it hasn't happened yet...I'll try to get to that today.  :)

Hope you enjoy your Fourth of July!  I always feel a little happier once I see my pretty wreath on my door.  Wonder how long I can leave it up...?   ;)