Personalized Easter Pails

I realize that Easter is just a few days away, but this craft is too cute not to share. Plus it might be one of the easiest crafts I have ever done. So there is still time if you hurry.

First you need to find a metal pail. This one came from Hobby Lobby about 2 years ago. I am not sure if they still sell them or not, but it is worth a try if you have a Hobby Lobby near you because they are the prefect size in my opinion. I used a 40% coupon so it only cost about $3 or $4. Hardware stores like Lowe's and Ace sell similar pails. Most are going to be bigger than this one but I know some of my friends that have done this craft liked the bigger ones because they used these pails in their children's room all year long.  They can look really cute sitting at the bottom of your stair case full of items you want your child to carry up to their room.

After you remove any stickers from the metal pail, it is time to spray paint. I used a medium pink spray paint because my vinyl was light pink. But I have organized this craft for some ladies at church and I offered pink, purple, yellow, green, cream and medium blue.  I then offered light pink, light blue, black and white vinyl. But just check out your local Walmart of hardware store and you will see you have plenty of options when if comes to spray paint. I used a satin finish but you could use glossy if you prefer.

I cut the vinyl with a Cricut. If you don't have one, or something similar, just ask around. I am sure one or more of your friends could help you out. I was able to find the vinyl at Hobby Lobby but lots of crafts stores now carry it in sheets or rolls.

Once the paint is dry, add your vinyl letters and any ribbons you want to the handles.

Please forgive that the "e" is missing. 

Now, like I said, I organized this craft for a bunch of ladies at my church and knowing that not all of them had children at home, I wanted to make sure that this craft could still apply to them. So I had this idea as well. Take a larger pail. I really like this oval one and do the same thing only put your family name on it instead.

The cream and black look good in any home. What a great wedding present this would make?

And please forgive the "e" being missing it has fallen off and I need to get a new "e" made. But I still wanted to share it with you so you could see what I was talking about.

It's Showtime! Make Your Own Hand Puppets

It has been a while since my last post. I have been very busy with an extra special project. My daughter turned 4 last week and my husband got the bright idea that we should build her a puppet theater for her birthday. And of course she couldn't have a puppet theater without puppets. So I got to work on the puppets and he started plotting the theater.

Today I am just going to talk about the puppets. I will do another post later about the theater. I turned out really cool and our daughter loves it.

I started with a pattern for the puppets from Just Another Day in Paradise. They have really cute patterns for farm animal puppets but I thought my daughter would enjoy playing with a princess puppet more so I just used the body as an outline. It is a really good size for preschooler sized hands, but I think in the future I will make them a little bigger so it is easier for my husband to play too.


Some of you parents out there might recognize this tiger in the picture. Ever since the show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood started on PBS last year, my daughter has loved it. All she wanted for Christmas was a Daniel Tiger toy. But with the show being brand new, there aren't toys available yet. So when I decided to make puppets I knew I had to make one to look like him.

I just did a Google image search for "Daniel Tiger" and tried to copy what I saw. I knew he would need his signature red hoodie. And I did my best to make his facial features the same. I was so happy when my daughter opened the box of puppets on her birthday and knew that it was Daniel Tiger.










Next I knew I needed to make a princess. My daughter loves everything princess. Cinderella is her favorite and blue is her favorite color so I knew the princess had to wear a blue dress. But as we are playing puppet theater, the princess has been used in plenty of other stories besides Cinderella.

I added the crown after the princess was all stitched together so that it could stick up a little.

Valentine Heart Box

Valentine's Day is almost here and I wanted to get in one more Valentine's Day post before it was here and gone.

Last year a dear friend walked up to me and said "Your crafty. Here, do something with us and make it pretty"

Her daughter's birthday is on Valentine's Day and she wanted to do something special. So my friend was collecting valentines and wanted a pretty box to put them in.

She found this one at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks but it was color of cardboard (seeing as that was what it was made of). You can still find them at Hobby Lobby in their Valentine's section. They are probably on sale this week since it is so close to the holiday.

So now that I had the box. I need to decide how to make it "pretty." I started by painting it a soft pink. Then I got to work on covering the top.







I started with pink card stock, a flower hole punch and those little pearly things you find in the bridal section of craft stores. I punched and punched and punched until I had a ton of little flowers.











Then working with two at a time, I would punch a little hole in the middle of the flowers and threaded a pearly thing into the middle. I then cut the end of it short and hot glued the flower into place on the top of the heart box.

I started by going on around the edge of the top of the box then I worked my way in. It took a lot of time but I just sat and watched my favorite show as I worked.






Now for the inside. I had painted it pink when I painted the outside, but I wanted to add just a little extra to make it special. So i just picked out some pretty scrapbook paper. I used the box to help me trace two hearts then I cut them out and glued them into the inside of the heart box.

I love how the box turned out and so did my friend. It only cost a couple of dollars (probably under $10) but it looks extra special.

Downton Abbey Scones

I have a good friend, Amy, who is super creative and way too talented. Her blog commona-myhouse is a must see. She shares amazing design insight that is sure to help pull any room together for that finished look we all want. And every Monday is shares a little something about that week's episode of Downton Abbey. Here is her post about last night's 2 hour episode. I always look forward to seeing what design elements she noticed while watching and hearing her insights on them. She is really a wealth of knowledge.

Now I am no just singing my friends praise. I do have a point. And here it is:

Amy threw a Downton Abbey themed party. She shares all the fun details on her blog. You will want to check it out because it would be so much for you to recreate with your own circle of friends. I especially loved how she gave all the food cute names that ties them to the show. She lists them on her blog.

But today I am just going to talk about the scones. Dowager Duchess Tart but Smart Scones. I pulled the recipe from Sweet Pea's Kitchen. They are a lemon scone but they paired up well with a sweet jam. I just made them smaller because there was going to be a lot of food at the  luncheon. Small servings help everyone get to enjoy a variety of food which makes it more fun.

If you have a chance, you would just explore Sweet Pea's Kitchen's website. I was amazed at the amount of recipes available there. There were so many scone options. I had a hard time choosing just one.

We have a Winner

I would just like to thank all those that follow this blog as well as those that like it on facebook. I am also grateful to those that shared posts this week.  I have collected all your names and have drawn a winner.

And the winner is . . .

Jen B.

From Cle Elum, Washington

Thank you Jen for liking us on facebook.

Honey Rosemary Sausage Fettuccine

That recipe has turned into one of my favorite. We eat it about once a month if not more. It is pretty simple and tastes delicious.

Here is what you will need:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped rosemary
12 oz package of turkey sausage, cit into 1/2 slices
3-4 tablespoons honey
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to tasted

fettuccine, cooked according to directions on the box, reserve 1/2 cup of water from the pasta.
















Heat a large skillet to medium high, coat bottom of skillet with olive oil. When oil is hot add sausage and rosemary. Saute until lightly browned, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Add honey to skillet and stir constantly until honey bubbles and thickens.

Add pasta and about 1/4 cup of the reserved water to the skillet. Toss together adding the cheese as you go. Add more water if needed to get the cheese to coat all the pasta. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately.

And don't forgot to enter my drawing for this adorable crochet baby hat.  You only have until Friday, February 8th to enter, so go to Crochet Hat Giveaway to see how simple it is to enter.

Crocheted Hat Giveaway

Well it happened. Yesterday thanks to all my readers, I hit 5,000 pageviews. And I want to celebrate so I decided to hold a little giveaway contest. A simple and easy way to say thanks for reading.

I crocheted this hat using a new pattern from The Sitting Tree. According to the pattern it fits 6 to 12 months, but I think mine might have ended up a little bigger than that. The flowers are optional. The winner will get to decide if they want the hat plain or with the flowers attached. 


The contest will run from today, Friday, February 1st until noon central time on Friday, February 8th. Then a winner will be randomly selected from all the entries. There are multiple ways to enter and you can be entered more than once.

Here is how to enter:

• Become a follower of macayatplay.com, all followers will get one entry
• Like macayatplay.com on facebook, everyone who likes us gets one entry
• Sharing a post on facebook or Pinterest during the week of the contest gets you two entries, limited to   one per day. And you have to come back to this page and add a comment letting me know what you shared, or you can email me at macayatplay@gmail.com

It is that simple. Good luck to all. Thanks for visiting macayatplay and please tell your friends.