TMP Week #2: Teacup Candles

Apparently, I'm on some sort of candle-kick. Sorry for the candle posts two weeks in a row!

Ok! It's time for TMP (or The Martha Project) Week #2 (I know, I know...I'm a tad late getting this entry posted. Maybe next week I need to make myself a calendar or something so I can remember.... ha!)

Anywho, I decided to try out Martha's Teacup Candles this week. Quite honestly, this was a super easy project and one that I am still amazed at how well it turned out.

Sister and I ran to the local Hob Lob last week while I was up in Lafayette helping her pack (boohoo). The 10lb slab of candle wax is hard to make out in this picture, but there it is. I also opted for two scents: Midnight and Cappuccino. (yum yum) I also purchased some candle wicks and wick holders. Tada!
The next step was to break down this massive slab of wax. I felt a little like I was in a Hitchcock movie with my giant (pink) knife, just hacking away at this wax. But alas, I did it and broke up the wax as best I could.

Ok here's where it got a wee bit tricky. Martha calls for a double boiler to melt your wax. Wellllllll....I do not have a double boiler, nor do I want to spend the money on one. So I improvised. What you see here is water boiling in a pot, with a Pyrex dish just hanging out on top. Oh and I used a slow cooker liner inside the Pyrex dish for easy clean up (thanks Dad for the suggestion...he's so smart!)

The heating went pretty well. It's a slow process. I actually crocheted and watched some NCIS while the wax was a'melting.

After the wax was completely melted (sorry I forgot to take a picture of this part), I squirted in some of the scent and mixed it up.

Then, I *delicately* poured the melted wax into my teacups, empty jars and a Valentine's Day coffee mug (PERFECT for this time of year). I used the paintbrushes to keep the wick from falling into the mass of melted-ness.

After about an hour and a half of cooling (I actually went to the gym during this part), my candles were done and ready to burn!! I LOVE the way they turned out!

The next day, I took my little blonde self over to TJ Maxx on my lunch and found these teacups. They turned out so cute and they are going in my gift closet for when I need a quick little gift! (Unless I burn one of them later!)

Gosh, I love me some Martha Stewart. She is slowly turning my apartment into a haven of awesomeness! :)

Side note--a little bit of melted wax goes a long way. I made 6 candles and probably only used about 2 pounds of the 10 pound slab. Looks like I have more candle making in my future.

Oh and I am making Week #3 tonight--and it's of the food variety. No more candles!! (for now)

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TMP Week #1: Glittered Candles

Alright kids...it's official. The Martha Project (TMP) has officially begun!!!!!!!!!!!!

(is anyone as excited as I am? ok, just checking.)

It's week #1 and I was searching through my daily emails from good ole Martha and I came across this lovely project. Glittered.Candles. Hello??? Is this not perfect for me??

Luckily, I had these plain jane candlesticks hanging out on my little table...just looking like they needed some glitter.
So, I got out my supplies. Now Martha says that you should use spray adhesive, and I'm sure that would probably be easier to work with.

I, however, did not have any at home, so I just used her glitter glue.
I had all of this Martha glitter in my craft stash--and I'm always looking for fun ways to use it. (P.S. I lovelovelove glitter. Just an FYI.)
And here's the final product!!! Don't they look so awesome!!
Seriously, why have plain candles when they can look so freaking fabulous with a little Martha glitter!

And then I decided I needed a candle for my bathroom (which is in a bunch of different colors), so I went with an orange glittered pillar. Love it!

Oh my gosh, I LOVE this Martha Project idea!! Week #1 was so fun! And my house is going to look so fantastic!!!!

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the martha project.

Ok so yes, I love Peacock Feathers, but something else that I lovelovelove is Martha Stewart. Seriously. She's the MacGuyver of crafting. She's amazing. She's fantastic. She's awe-inspiring. She's pure genius. I want to not only shake hands with her one day...but craft with her (at her house of course). Hellllllooooooo, bucket list entry!! :)

Sister and Mom love Martha (almost) as much as I do too. Mom's all about presenting things as Martha would (for example...over the weekend, Mom made a Hicks family staple--7 layer Taco Dip--and served it in margarita glasses. Just like Martha would!) To fester my love for Martha, Santa brought me this book (yeah!)

and a subscription to this!
to go along with my current Martha library of this

and (my favorite) this.

So all of this got me thinking. And yes, I have to give Sister credit here because this was mainly her idea last year...but homegirl got pregnant and well, the idea never took off.

Sooooo, new to 2011, I would LOVE to introduce The Martha Project! This project is my attempt to be more like Martha...and beautify my life with her awesomeness.

What is The Martha Project you ask? (and I'm so glad you did).

The Martha Project is my Julie/Julia.
The Martha Project (or TMP as it will hereby be known as...until I can come up with a better title) is a 52 week long endeavor.
One Martha Stewart project every week for 2011.
Between the books listed above and her daily emails (which, I of course subscribe too), I have plenty of inspiration.

52 new Martha projects for 2011. That's one heck of a New Year's Resolution.

Sister will be joining in on the fun when her schedule/babies/sickness/moving allows it. We will also be doing some of the same projects in the same week to show our different spin on it.

Seriously, we're so excited for this! (And secretly, I hope Martha stumbles across this little bloggity blog...a girl can dream, right??)

Here we go!! Week #1's project will be posted in the next day or so!!!

Happy 2011!!!

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Super-hero Capes for Super-Little Boys (and their Bears)

Since Kelby did a Link Party earlier on little girl stuff she's made, I thought I'd join in on today's Link Party over at 733 ("What are Little Boys Made of?).  I made Big W a super-hero cape back around Valentine's Day.  I based it on a tutorial I found on MarthaStewart.com, and made it from satin, with a big "W" on the back.  Recently, Big W's two best "shriends" (his word) were turning four, and one was having a super-hero-themed birthday party, so I made each boy a cape as well.  THEN, Big W and I decided that his favorite stuffed "shriend," Bear, should have a cape, too.  So I made Bear "super" with leftover satin.  I LOVE these.  I am especially pleased with the two most recent capes because I used felt for the emblems on the back instead of satin, and I think they look so much sharper.  (Also, personal plug, for local readers, I will have some of these for sale at Two Tulips closer to Halloween.  For boys AND girls!)  Have a Super-Thursday!

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I'm back! (and with a great Martha Stewart skirt!)

I know, I know…this blog is called “Hicks Girls.”  This half of Hicks Girls has been absent from the blogosphere.   I don’t have a good excuse.  I have long been wanting to blog about my projects, but then, as I’m working on something, I forget to take pictures, then I never sit down to write, and before I know it, I’ve long forgotten about my intentions!  But, I want to start anew!  I’ve been on a sewing frenzy lately, so I hope to do better at picture-taking and blog-writing.  I get so much out of the other sewing and crafting blogs, that I want to give back to the community, so to speak.  So, here I go with one I actually wrote earlier this summer…

If you know Kelby or me AT ALL, or read this blog or our Facebook posts, you know we are BIG (HUGE) Martha Stewart fans.  I own three of her large books: Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts, and my latest acquisition, Martha Stewart ‘s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.

So, for my first Martha Stewart sewing project, I decided to tackle the A-Line Wrap Skirt on pages 176-177 of the Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts.  As far as articles of clothing are concerned, I have only tried my sewing hand at skirts so far.  I tried a wrap skirt from another book last summer, and had some problems due to some errors in the book, so I was ready to try something new and easy.  The instructions for Martha’s wrap skirt take up only one page with 5 illustrated drawings.  My kind of project!   Here is the finished product: (I wanted to have a photo of my actually wearing the skirt, but I kept forgetting to have Hubby take it when I was wearing it!)

I am thrilled with the end result!  It’s cute, light-weight for summer, and only took me a few hours over two days to complete.  I chose a black and white gingham fabric for the panels because, one, I LOVE gingham, but also, I was inspired by the May issue of INStyle magazine, which had a whole article on how to wear gingham this season.  As for the process of making the skirt, a few observations…the Martha Stewart book comes with a CD of project patterns and templates in PDF format.  While this is awesome, when you have something with big pieces, like this skirt, you have to print everything out on 8 ½ x 11 paper and then piece it together.  Whether it was an error with the CD or my printer, I don’t know, but the sheets did not go together very well.  It took some guess work on my part to make everything fit.  That was a little frustrating.  Also, as far as I can tell so far, the book does not include a size chart.  The pattern has markings for sizes small, medium and large, but nothing to tell you what body measurements are attributed to each size.  So, I decided to go with the large; since it’s a wrap skirt, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

The only other difficulty I had was at the end, sewing the hem.  I knew from the wrap skirt I did last year, that it’s hard to double fold and then stitch a curved edge.  Martha doesn’t give any hints here, so I just made up my own “technique.”  (Let me back up…I had to take FOUR INCHES off of the bottom of the skirt just to bring it up to my knees.  Sigh.  I’m short.)  I clipped the entire hem of the skirt, making ¼” cuts and spacing the clips about every ½”.   (Martha has you do this on the waist edge of the skirt panels, so I thought I would mimic this idea to get the hem to lie flat.)  After clipping, I folded the hem about ½” and pressed the fold.  Then folded another ½” and pressed again.  THEN I edge-stitched the entire hem.  It’s probably not a “real” seamstress-way to do this, but it worked for me.

I’m excited to try more projects from this book!  Let me know if you try it too!

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