April 2012 Recap

Hi everyone!

I can't believe that it's May already....it just seems like I was celebrating my daughter's 18th birthday on April 5th, and now the whole month is over already?

Here's what I was up to in April, in case you missed anything.

I posted detailed cleaning lists for the bedroom, living room and dining room.

(I still need to post the detailed list for the kitchen, which will be one day this week, so check back)

I shared a little tip on how to hide your dirty dishes.

I showed how I took an old lazy susan and a candle holder and made a 'new' accent piece for my kitchen.

I turned a thrifted spice rack into a cute set of vases.

I updated a bottle of vanilla with a reused bottle and a printed label.

I won the cutest art print in a giveaway.

I made some cute shaped soaps using cookie cutters and bar soap from the dollar store.

I'm hoping to have more to blog about this month, as my husband and I have started our kitchen makeover, and I've been taking lots of photos of the progress.

Have a great week!

Vanilla ~ Rebottled

My husband Ray has a friend that lives in Texas, and when he comes up to Michigan in the summers, he always brings me a huge bottle of La Vencedora Mexican Pure Vanilla. 

This is the BEST vanilla. I never buy it in the grocery store anymore, 1. because this bottle is so big, almost 32 ounces, I never run out..and 2.  because the tiny bottles of real vanilla in the store are so darn expensive. Forget even buying imitation vanilla...it's not going to happen.

But the absolute BEST thing about this vanilla....is the price. I would just always give my husband's friend $10.00, and I thought he was just giving me a good deal. But no. I googled it, and found that it can be purchased HERE and HERE....for not much more than I was paying our friend.

So he brings me these bottles, and I use it for baking...I add a little to pancake batter when I make pancakes, I add some to my coffee sometimes, and at night I will warm up some milk and add a few drops to a mug of milk...mmm.

But the bottle is like a bottomless pit...no matter how much I use, it seems like it never runs dry, haha! Also....it's hard to pour when you just need a drop or two. It's the size of a big fat bottle of wine.

Ok....now to get to the actual reason for this post.

So the other day I decided that I needed to put it into something smaller.

I happened to use the last drop of soy sauce, and I washed out the bottle, soaked the label off and let it dry.

But I didn't just want a plain old bottle of vanilla in my cabinet.

So I went to The Graphics Fairy's blog, knowing that there are a vast array of all different sorts of vintage graphics, labels and whatnot available there.

I did a search for 'vanilla'...and was so excited to find this:

Apothecary Label - Vanilla Extract

Oh my. How perfect.

I printed it out and it fit perfectly on the bottle.

As you can see it's a much smaller, more manageable size bottle...and so much nicer looking.

So much nicer, in fact....that I don't want to hide it away in the cabinet.

I'm going to leave it out on my shelf for all to see. :)

My entry into Craft and Tell @ Cherished Bliss is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines

My entry into Fridays Unfolded sponsored 

by Appliances Online and Bosch Washing Machines

Thanks for stopping by....I hope you all have a wonderful day.

And don't forget to go and visit The Graphics Fairy!

Linking to these parties:

Thursday

{aka} design ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ Bear Rabbit Bear ~ Brambleberry Cottage ~ Delightful Order ~ Embracing Change ~ House of Hepworths ~ Just Winging It ~ live laugh rowe ~ Momnivore's Dilemma ~ My Repurposed Life ~ No Minimalist Here ~ RadCrafter ~ Saved by Suzy ~ School House Scraps ~ Somewhat Simple ~ The 36th Avenue ~ The CSI Project ~ Thrifty 101

Friday

2805 ~ 504 Main ~ Addicted 2 Decorating ~ At The Picket Fence ~ Blissful and Domestic ~ Chic On a Shoestring Decorating ~ Delicate Construction ~ Family Ever After ~ Finding My Way in Texas ~ Fingerprints On The Fridge ~ Five Days 5 Ways ~ French Country Cottage ~ Happy-Go-Lucky ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Here Comes The Sun ~ Just A Girl ~ Kojo Designs ~ little becky homecky ~ love notes by lauryn ~ Momma's Kinds Crafty ~ Nap Time Crafters ~ One Artsy Mama~ Remodelaholic ~ Sassy Sites ~ See Vanessa Craft ~ Serenity Now ~ Stuff and Nonsense ~ The Charm of Home ~ The Creative Paige ~ The Grant Life ~ The Rooster and the Hen ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Thirty Handmade Days ~ Tidy Mom ~ Whipperberry

Saturday

Be Different Act Normal ~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ Lolly Jane Boutique ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~ Positively Splendid ~ Six Sisters' Stuff ~ Young and Crafty

Sunday

Ask Anna ~ DIY Showoff ~ Flamingo Toes ~ Homemaker On A Dime ~ I Heart Nap Time ~ It's Overflowing ~ It's So Very Cheri ~ My 1929 Charmer ~ Nifty Thrifty Things ~ Petite Hermine ~ Randee's Organized Chaos ~ Sew Chatty ~ Sew Many Ways ~ Under The Table and Dreaming

Monday

A Diamond in the Stuff ~ Between Naps on the Porch ~ Boogieboard Cottage ~ Brassy Apple ~ Cherished Handmade Treasures ~ Cottage Instincts ~ C.R.A.F.T. ~ CraftOManiac ~ Dittle Dattle ~ DIY Home Sweet Home ~ Everything Under The Moon ~ Home Savvy A to Z ~ Keeping It Simple ~ Lines Across My Face ~ Making The World Cuter ~ Our Delightful Home ~ Polly Want a Crafter ~ Sarahndipities ~ Serendipity and Spice ~ Sew Can Do ~ Sew Chatty ~ Singing Three Little Birds ~ Skip To My Lou ~ Sumo's Sweet Stuff ~ The Girl Creative ~ The Southern Institute

Tuesday

A Bowl Full of Lemons ~ Adventures of a DIY Mom ~ At Home With K ~ Chef in Training ~ Cherished Bliss ~ Coastal Charm ~ Crafty Confessions ~ Debbie Does Creations ~ DIY By Design ~ Elizabeth & Co. ~ Funky Polkadot Giraffe ~ Home Stories A to Z ~ Homework ~ House of Grace ~ How To Nest For Less ~ Kammy's Korner ~ Mommy By Day Crafter By Night ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ Nothing But Country ~ Sassy Sites! ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Sweet Little Gals ~ The Blackberry Vine ~ The Lettered Cottage ~ The Project Queen ~ The REAL Housewives of Riverton ~ Tip Junkie ~ Today's Creative Blog ~ Vintage Wanna Bee

Wednesday

{Primp} ~ A Little Tipsy ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Cheap Crafty Mama ~ Fabric Bows and More ~ Fireflies and Jellybeans ~ Gingersnap Crafts ~ Handy Man, Crafty Woman ~ Happy Hour Projects ~ Home Happy Home ~ I Gotta Create ~ Ivy and Elephants ~ Lil' Luna ~ My Girlish Whims ~ Night Owl Crafting ~ Oopsey Daisy ~ Polka Dots On Parade ~ Restore Interiors ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ seven thirty three ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Someday Crafts ~ Southern Lovely ~ Sugar and Dots ~ Tea Rose Room ~ The NY Melrose Family ~ The Sasse Life ~ The Trendy Treehouse ~ Vintage Gwen

iPiccy Online Photo Editor

Since I've been taking more photos lately to post on my blog, I was in need of a photo editing site...one where I could resize, crop and tweak my photos.

I've also read on a lot of people's blogs how their beloved Picnik will no longer be available. Having never used Picnik, I can't compare to it, but what I have been using is very simple, has a wide variety of options for photos and doesn't require you to download anything.

I've been using iPiccy online photo editor, and so far I love it. Two things that I liked right away is first, like I said, it is very easy, and second...it doesn't change your original photo. Once you make changes, you name it, decide where to save it, and your original photo stays unchanged in it's original folder.

With iPiccy you can crop, resize, change hue and saturation, change and enhance colors, retouch, add text, and apply many different effects.

Below are some of the photo effects that can be achieved. I chose this photo because it has a lot of bright colors, and you can see what  kind of changes can be made to the human face.

Here is another photo, and I applied the HDR photo effect on it:

I'm still looking around for other photo editors, but for now this one has everything I need. I've also seen that people have been blogging about PicMonkey, but have not yet checked this one out.

Have you found something that you like better, something with more features? Let me know in a comment, I love hearing from you.

Have a great day!

Linking up to:

A bowl full of lemons ~ My Girlish Whims ~ Sassy Sites!