Rubee Lane Giveaway

I'm super excited to host a giveaway for my newest sponsor Andra from Rubee Lane!  Rubee Lane is a boutique style site that offers new deals daily for great prices!  Here are a few words from Andra…

Welcome to Rubee Lane!  
Your one stop shop for wonderful boutique items.  
Each day a new item will be featured for 3 days at a discounted price. 
 Each boutique items are hip/chic and unique; a little something for everyone to enjoy!

I have been hosting boutique shows in beautiful model homes for a little over four years.  
As my business began to grow, I decided to extend my business 
and offer wonderful items to shoppers nation wide.  
A portion of all purchases will go toward infertility treatments.  

Opening June 4th, 2012.  
Please go to www.rubeelane.com now and enter your email address 
so you don’t miss a single deal that will be delivered right to your inbox each day.  

Thank you and happy shopping!

Also, if you would like more information on selling your products on Rubee Lane 
please email me at:featureme@rubeelane.com

{sample of some Rubee Lane products}

Rubee Lane will be offering a boutique style basket filled with lots of  fun stuff to one lucky 

Crafty Texas Girls reader. 

  Two chances to win! 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS 

 

PRIZE: A Boutique Style Basket with filled with goodies from Rubee Lane

 

FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:

For one entry--1. Be a follower of Crafty Texas Girls and leave a comment here. 

For a second entry--2. "Like" the Ruby Lee facebook page and leave a comment on her page. Then come back here and leave me another comment telling me that you left her some 'facebook' love!

GIVEAWAY CLOSES:  Tuesday, May 22nd at 8pm CST.
 

FINE PRINT: Winner will be chosen using random.org from the comments left on this post. Participants may enter this contest two times.  Winner will be notified via email and in a new post here on Wednesday, May 23rd. Facebook assumes no responsibility or liability in this contest.

 Thanks to:  http://bloggiveawaydirectory.com/, http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/, http://freestuff.tipjunkie.com/ for listing this giveaway.

**The contest is now open! So pop on over to Rubee Lane's facebook page, come back here and then leave your comments. I can't wait to see who wins-- it could be YOU!

Cowgirl Up #15

Welcome to Week 15 of 

 Cowgirl Up! Link Party . . .

the party with a cowgirl can-do  spirit!

1 Party, 4 Blogs

It's Samantha from Crafty Texas Girls this week! And I am so excited it is my turn to host. As I was looking through the posts this week, I honestly felt it had some of the best projects I have seen at Cowgirl Up. You are a crafty bunch! Here are just a few of my favorite posts from the party this week....
 

 I am trying to figure out where I can add a little ladder in my kitchen, just like this fantastic one built by "Blue Roof Cabin".

 Check out these drop cloth numbered napkins from "Cottage in the Oaks"- wouldn't these be a fantastic wedding gift?!

"A Girl and A Brush" has me thinking I need to add some stripes to my furniture with her painted dresser 'Magellan'.

I love this vintage doll cradle renovation from the "The Red Feedsack". This color scheme would look adorable on a guest room bed.

"Five Brothers One Sister" completely impressed me with this 'entry reveal'- love the creative use of a headboard and all the accessories.

I am dying to try this 2 ingredient Lemon Cake Bar recipe from "Kathe with an E".  

You will never guess how "Live Love DIY" made this pillow--- 

with a Sharpie! Great tutorial so you can make one too.

And I would love to spend an afternoon sipping lemonade on this porch- complete with a vintage glider, over at "A Walk in the Countryside"

Finally, "Daisy Mae Belle" creates an adorable shabby-chic 'relax' sign with spray paint. 

If you were featured here, grab a Featured button.  Be sure to like our Facebook pages, since we also post many other favorites there too. If you got featured on Facebook, then feel free to grab a featured button also.  

Now about the party...

You link up on my blog and your link shows up on four blogs. 

 More exposure, less time. 

We are looking for the latest and greatest projects, tutorials, ideas, crafts, recipes, decor, and inspiring stories.  Anything that you are proud to show off.

Cowgirl Up! is the link party that saves you time and brings you inspiration.  Doesn't get any easier than that!

What blogs will your link appear on?  Check us out below!

Linsey with The Farmhouse Porch

Anita with Cedar Hill Ranch

Amanda with The Ivy Cottage Blog

Samantha with Crafty Texas Girls

The four of us are all Texas bloggers, but you don't have to be Texas, country, western, or own horses to participate in Cowgirl Up!  You just need that "can-do", cowgirl spirit!

Cowgirl Up! Link Party Guidelines:

(Please read the guidelines before participating)

*  When you link with Cowgirl Up!, your link will automatically show on four different blogs.  Awesome!

*  Please follow your host blog before linking up on GFC (and if you have a linkyfollow account, then please follow that way too.)

*  You may link up decor, DIY, crafts, guest post, recipes, giveaways, sewing, inspiring stories, and anything that you feel related to the listed categories.

*  You may link as many links as you want.

*  Be sure to include the Cowgirl Up! Button or text link to Cowgirl Up in your linked post,   (mine can be found on my sidebar.)  Mandatory to be featured!!

*  Be courteous and visit the two links before yours.  Please LIKE your favorite links!  Several projects will be featured each week!

* By linking up you are agreeing that we may use your photos to feature your project in a blog post, on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter with a link back to your blog of course.   

Sweet Ideas for Strawberries

Yesterday we celebrated Mother's Day with pedicures and lots of yummy food. My favorite was the simple strawberry shortcake the girls and I put together. We layered 'store bought' angel food cake with real whipped cream and strawberries. It was delicious!

And since strawberries are especially good right now, I decided to round up some other yummy strawberry recipes to share. Any dessert involving fruit is counted as 'healthy' right???

Cream Filled Strawberries

Source: cs11299.userapi.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Ice cream

Source: eatingoutloud.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Shortcake

Source: weheartit.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Patriotic Strawberries

Source: familyfun.go.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Honey Oatmeal Bars

Source: pastryaffair.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Trifle

Source: goo.gl via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Source: buddingbaketress.blogspot.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Yogurt Covered Strawberries

Source: weheartit.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Pie

Source: thecurvycarrot.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Source: flickr.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Smoothie

Source: flickr.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Cake

Source: piniiving.info via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Cupcakes

Source: Uploaded by user via Samantha on Pinterest

Summer Salad with Strawberries

Source: southernliving.com via Samantha on Pinterest

Strawberry Cheesecake

Source: thecurvycarrot.com via Samantha on Pinterest

What is your favorite way to enjoy strawberries?


 Join me later as I feature your best projects from Cowgirl Up! Party goes live at 9pm every Monday night. Hope to see you here!

Simple DIY Silhouettes

If you have been following my blog for a while, you might remember this project :) But since we are in the final shopping days for  Mom, I thought I would re-post it. The stores are be filled with everything from perfume to jewelry, but in my book, nothing tops a handmade gift. Even if you have to make it yourself!

With that being said, one of the best handmade gifts a mother can recieve this year has got to be a silhouette. Silhouettes are 'soooo in' right now. Surf the web or browse Pinterest, and you will find these vintage images are getting a modern make-over.

But without Photoshop or a degree in graphic design, these projects might look a bit intimidating at first. And yes-  I know people have been making silhouettes forever! But when I googled the process and read how to do it the ‘old fashioned way’, I was a bit perplexed. How do you get a child to hold-still that long?!

 So I decided to tackle the project in the way that made the most sense to me. No complicated editing. Just simple steps that will help you create a timeless piece of art. There are probably more efficient ways. But this worked for us.

 Here is what you will need:
-camera
-computer
-black card stock
-a pencil

 I had my girls sit still for a minute (turn on the tv to help!) and took a photo of their profile. Having a window or light source behind them seemed to help illuminate their little faces.

 Then I inserted the photos into a Word document and made each picture big enough to fill an 8.5 x11 document. I printed out the enlarged photos and then cut out each face.

And then I traced them on black card stock and cut those out.

To show them off, I decided to place them on a newspaper covered background. So I used mod podge to adhere the newsprint to a piece of cardboard. And then I used mod podge again to attach the silhouettes. I was happy with the finished framed project.  But I felt something was missing...

 So I added some hair bows :) Perfect.

Did you craft any special gifts this week? What are your plans for celebrating 'mom'? 

Happy Mother's Day!

You might also like my Crafty Frame and Free Mother's Day Printable! See it here.

Sharing my Silhouettes here: Too Much Time on My Hands, Home Stories A to Z , Tatertots and Jello, The 36th Avenue, Serenity Now, Under the Table and Dreaming,  Be Different, Act Normal , 
It's Overflowing

Bake It: Butterfinger Cookies

In my garage there is a fridge.
And 'hidden' in the vegetable crisper of that fridge, there is a bag.
And in that bag is candy, a lot of candy.
Can you guess where this is going?? :)

 The candy, which was left-over from Halloween, had almost been forgotten.  My girls couldn't 'bear' the pain of me throwing away the candy, so after October, I just moved it out to the garage fridge. I had intended to use it as special treats once in awhile. But the candy had been forgotten. That is until today. I went to grab a bottle of water and the girls spied it. Kids can be soooooo observant. 

For some reason, just giving my girls a handful of mini-candy bars seemed wrong. But baking them into a batch of sugar cookies... well that was just fine with me!

So we mixed up our favorite sugar cookies from Good Housekeeping. Then we crushed a bunch of mini-Butterfingers and threw them in. I ended up adding an extra cup of flour too. Made for a thicker cookie.

Here is the recipe:
2 and 1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A bunch of candy :)
 *Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

The girls loved them. And I ate my share too. After my big run on Sunday, I felt I had earned it!
(In case you were wondering how "Heels and Hills" went--it was hot! No new records were set, but it was a good run.)

 With 'Teacher Appreciation' week upon us, I am sure these cookies would be a great way to thank all of those sweet teachers out there!

Got any candy hidden around your house?


Find more yummy recipes on my Pinterest board, "Bake It: Yummy Eats".