Garden: House Warming Herbs

 I saw the idea for planting flowers in a strainer in a magazine.  I loved this idea for a housewarming gift.  I couldn't find a vintage colander, but I found this bright colored one at Hobby Lobby for about 8 dollars.  I was going to put several little herbs inside, but 5 stores later, I could only find a ginormous pot of mint.  I decided to leave it in the pot for my pal to decide what she wants to do with it.  Super simple, and cute.

New Home Ornament

 I made this ornament for a friend of mine who just bought a new house to commemorate her and her husband's new house.
I printed off a picture of the house on colored transparency paper.  You could also use frosted paper.

I cut out a circle...

 ...and slipped it down into the ornament.

 I printed off their new address and the year and bought these little key charms to add.

 I added a bunch of ribbon (trying to match some of the outside brick....

To get the picture not to move around, I punched a little hole at the top and pulled a string through the top to hold it up.  

Father's Day BBQ Gift Set

 I'm headed to GMT today to share an idea for Father's Day.  These were all really affordable gifts to put together, and hopefully very useful.
I'll be demoing fire starters for the grill and this little container for matches with a 'striker' for a lid.  I blogged about this on Tuesday. *Make sure you use the strike anywhere matches.  You still can light any match on sand paper with enough heat, but it can take a few tries-matches are made differently these days and are harder to light for 'safety' reasons-so....save yourself trouble and get strike anywhere matches.  

 We will be making a rub for meat.

The recipe is really simple, source.
To make a DRY RUB just blend: 8 T of brown sugar, 3 T of kosher salt, 1 T chili powder, 1/2 t. pepper, 1/2 t. cayenne pepper, 1/2 t. thyme, 1/2 t. onion powder
I'll be making some bbq sauce (attaching a little brush to paint the meat...I don't know the grilling term, but in my world-that looks like a paint brush).

 BBQ Sauce Recipe:  (Makes one cup) 1/2 c. ketchup, 2 T brown sugar, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 1 T. cider vinegar, 1 t. garlic powder, 1/4 t. mustard powder, 1/4 t. salt.   Mix it together, you can simmer all the ingredients together for about 5 minutes to really help the ingredients marry.
I put all the supplies into a disposable foil pan, I thought it was more useful and practical for 'dad'....I found some hickory wood, skewers, serving trays, and dish towels to round out the gift. All the 'accessories' were available at the dollar store (even the wood).  I'll post a link to the show later here.