I made such a fun project this week. I transformed corks into toadstools and revamped an ugly Target plastic tree stump into a wintry cake stand. I'll use this little tableau on the buffet during fall and winter to hold an appetizer or cookie plate. The tree log is still at my Target in the dollar section, and while you might first overlook it, take a second look! I'm so happy with the way it turned out. And the toadstools are nothing more than champagne and tequila corks. Let's get crafty!

The before. The pictures don't really show the actual plasticky ickiness it had in real life.

I used spray paint I had on hand, my favorite satin champagne gold from Rustoleum, but I think any brownish or goldy color you have would work. I let it dry and cure for 24 hours. If you didn't have a spray paint color that would work, but did have acrylic paint, you could use that too. If you wanted it to look Halloweeny, you could paint it purple and lime green and use black for the next step.

The next step: Using brown and black craft acrylic paint, paint the entire stump randomly blobbing the brown next to the black, including the top "cut part" of the log which I did after this picture was taken.

While still wet and with a dry paper towel, rub a good portion of the acrylic paint off and make sure plenty of the dark color stays inside the crevices. Mine dried quickly in the sun.

Now, back again to the craft room, paint white glue onto the mossy bits at the lower edge and cover with crumbled dried moss.

Done!

The toadstools are so fun to make and my, they are cute! I think the kiddos would love to make these so maybe save this for a rainy day? First, ask your friendly local bartender to save champagne and Patron Tequila corks. Popular Mexican restaurants will be able to collect the tequila corks pretty quickly, and you'll have good luck with most any restaurant for the champagne corks. I asked the bartender at our club to save them, and every time my husband went to play golf, he came home with a pocketful of corks. The first time it happened, he came home and unloaded his pockets with the question, "And why was I given these?" lol.

With acrylic paint, paint the stems with off-white and the caps with two coats dark red, letting dry in between. With a skewer, dot white spots on the caps. Brush brown paint on the lower half of the stem and then quickly wipe off, you just want them to look a little dirty. Next, paint the caps only with a clear glossy acrylic varnish. You can turn the toadstools into tree ornaments or gift tie-ons by screwing a mini screw ring into the top. A few years ago I bought the screw rings and found that I use them for crafts all the time.

Today is the first day of autumn and I don't know how much longer we'll be able to enjoy garden tomatoes, but this morning I made a nice little haul.

I chopped up a good amount of them and added salt and pepper. We use this on hearty toast for our version of bruschetta. We also pretend it's salsa and scoop it up with tortilla chips. I also pretend it's a sauce or a dressing and add it to a salad or a grilled piece of salmon. I'll miss having this in the fridge. I saved a few nice ones for slicing and the rest went into the freezer. When the freezer container is full, or perhaps when I have two containers, I'll defrost them and make my very last batch of tomato sauce.