Back and Better Than Ever

It sure has been a long time since I have posted here on Merritt's Marvels; and a lot has happened since then. 

(But more on that later.)

For now, all I can say is that Merritt's Marvels is coming back bigger and better than before.

I'm Going to Make a Statement

With my jewelry that is!

I had an unbelievably incredible weekend. 

I was in my favorite thrift store and they had this bucket of 'broken' jewelry. 

Of course, I took the broken part as a challenge and asked if they would make me a deal on the whole bucket.

Challenge Accepted.

Three hours later and this is some of what I had 'repaired.'

As with oh so many cell phone pictures, the lighting is atrocious but, you get the idea. These necklace and earring sets retail for $20-$30 dollars. Is that what I am going to sell them at? Uh, no.

You can see these pictures and many more over on my Facebook page. 

You can head that way by clicking the icon in the top right.

Make sure to hit the 'Like' button while you're over there. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Scarves, Scarves, and More Ruffle Scarves!!

Long time no see right? Well, we all know how school is and can take over our lives, right? No surprise, that's me. Sucked in to the black hole of time and work that school creates. 

Thankfully, though bittersweetfully, school is winding down and I have more time to be crafty and blog about it. YAY!!!

So, has anyone else notices those ruffle scarves that have been popping up? Well, thanks to some coupons and YouTube, I have learned how to make them and have been making nothing else ever since.

My fave color combo.

I have pictures of all the scarves I have made and that are for sale on my Facebook page. You can click the Facebook button at the top right to head that way.

Make sure to like me while you're there!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Vial Neckalce

These necklaces seem to have become pretty popular. I saw these on Pinterest.

One of my (somewhat) secrets when it comes to making jewelry is to get my supplies at Claire's. There's an outlet store near me with a coupon for 20% off your purchase. Combine that with their 10 for $10 sales and you have some cheap supplies. 

Last summer, I cleaned them out of their vial earrings there. My intentions were to turn them into necklaces. Not to long ago, I relieved them of their earring hooks. Alas, I was short on necklace chains. I am ALWAYS short on necklace chains. So, that sat for a while.

Last weekend, I finally got some necklace chains and turned them into necklaces.

Do I feel bad it took me this long to make them, yes. Am I glad I finally got them done, yes.

Thanks for looking and have a great day.

Chalkboard Trays

One of the projects I finished during my crafty weekend were some chalkboard trays.

My Mom picked up some silver trays from Goodwill awhile back. We always intended to paint them with Chalkboard paint and turn them into signs for my business. We hadn't painted them yet to do a lack of paint. I think most people know Chalkboard paint is expensive. If you've never looked, let me just go ahead and tell you, it's expensive.

Lucky me, I found some SPRAY Chalkboard paint in the As-Is section at Michael's for 75% off. The lid was damaged but it didn't look used. WooHoo!

After spending 30 minutes taping off the edges of the platters, this is what I had.

And away I went with the spray paint, giving me this.

I gave them another coat and let them dry to gain the final product of this.

Even with all the time spent taping off the edges, there was still some seepage. (No matter the project, I always have problems with seepage.)

I've been able to scrape the seepages off for the most part and I still like the overall way they came out.

I think they'll be good signs at my next Craft Show.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Chalkboard Frames

During my Crafty weekend awhile back, I went crazy with the spray paint. Here is another project where I love the results.

My Mom had the great idea to paint these little frames she got at Michael's and turn them into chalkboard frames.

We first painted them chrome. You can kinda see their original colors below.

She then took some cardboard and cut out pieces to fit the inserts. I proceeded to spray them with the chalkboard paint.

The chrome and and chalkboard together, it's like a chalkboard tray but different and still so cute. 

I simply love them. I figure they would be great as price signs at my next Craft Show.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Pizza Monkey Bread: An Update

Not too long ago, I wrote this post (link) on a Pizza Monkey Bread Recipe. My family recently made it again with a few changes and I thought I'd let ya'll know how it went so you can learn from our, erm, not mistakes, but, you know, instead of your own.

Things We Did Different

The first change we made was the filling. We used hamburger meat, spaghetti sauce, and shredded pizza cheese. We like hamburger pizza so, we thought this would be good.

The second change we made was making half with biscuit dough instead of pizza dough.

The third thing wasn't really a change but, it was different than the first time. We made the garlic butter sauce like the directions said to do it.

The last thing we did differently was sprinkling cheese between the balls of dough.

Things We Learned

Turns out we weren't a big fan of this filling. Just didn't think it had any flavor. After the fact, we wondered why we didn't do chunks of cheese since we had a block but, oh well. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

I think I liked the biscuit dough better but, the rest of the family still liked the dough.

The garlic butter sauce reduced so much there was hardly anything to use and I think our garlic had gone bad because it didn't add any flavor

Adding the cheese between the balls just made it harder to pull apart which goes again everything Monkey Bread stands for. I highly recommend NOT doing this. 

So, that's what we learned. We'll probably stick to doing it the first way for a little while before we think about changing it again.

What do you think? Have you tried it? What kind of changes did you make?

I'd love to hear in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by and have a good day.