St. Patty's Day

You may have noticed that my blog isn't all red and lovey-dovey anymore.  :)  Since this holiday is the day before my birthday, I've always loved St. Patrick's Day.  I have several 4-leaf-clover necklaces, and an awesome 5-leaf shamrock-y mega sunglasses (see header above!), but I had no pinch-proof shirts or decorations beyond that!  Slowly but surely I'm working my way up to a holiday stash of decorations, recipes, and clothing (who DOESN'T love dressing the part?)!
Anywho, remember that plain old small clay pot I told you I was going to do something awesome with?  And forgot to reveal?  :)  Well...

I painted them black, then filled them with gold chocolate coins.  We were going to make these little pots of gold into parts of an leprechaun trap for FHE, but between being sick and a few other things that have come up we haven't had FHE since...well, a while.  So I just broke down and bought some rainbow-colored pipe cleaners and turned them into cute, simple decorations/candy dishes.  (I'm thinking I might glue down that rainbow so our dishes will have permanent handles...) 

I made one for each of us, so that we don't have to worry about someone snatching up all the goodies before we do (which just leads me to gorge myself until I'm sick). 

Also, I found this ADORABLE, simple shamrock tree tutorial HERE, and I made my own with what I had on hand.  (I didn't want to spend any money, and I already had one of those unfinished frames from Walmart from forever ago...)  I always have acrylic paints nearby, so not having buttons the "right" color wasn't a problem at all.  :)  However, my button and ribbon collection are quite limited.  I'll definitely be trying another one next year!  Maybe I'll also use scrabble tiles as the letters.  But mine's still not all bad.

I also bought $5 St. Pat's shirts, and stuff to make corned beef and cabbage AND Irish brown bread.  It's going to be a good birthday eve.  :)

Side note: remember that button bouquet that was missing a container?  I bought a ($0.87) salt/pepper shaker and just painted it white with my acrylics. 

I think it's adorable.