Hero to Zero

I had all but forgotten this little ananymous blog of mine. A blog I started because I was a super slob and was trying to motivate myself to get things more under control. And now, here I am again, nearly a DECADE later... needing my mask once more.

I had a dream last night that I started a new blog called “Hero to Zero” and it actually reminded me of my hero caricature here. You see... this blog was my jumping off place. I actually became a successful professional craft blogger. I wrote books. I traveled. I spoke. Made a full time income. The whole shebang. Not here but on my “real” blog. The one without a mask. I was a “hero”. But only on the outside.

On the inside, I was struggling through life in an abusive marriage. My husband was abusive physically, psychologically, verbally, spiritually... pretty much in every way. He was controlling and me... well I was a codependent. I took care of him and the family. I lied. I hid bruises and marks. I made us seem ok to everyone else. I took care of everything. Everything but myself that is...

I have now been officially free of that toxic relationship for 580 days now, and recovery is still a struggle. A struggle that I’ve decided to start writing about.

Fake Mod Podge Furniture Tutorial

I just LOVE unique furniture (and unique anything else in my house for that matter)! I really wanted to mod podge some scrapbooking paper to the inside of my newly facelifted hutch, but I didn't want to commit to it. So I came up with a removable solution :-)

Removable Furniture Decoration

Start with a piece of foam board. Mine came from the Dollar Tree. Cut it to be the same shape and size as the flat surface where you want to create your faux mod podge look. You may have to cut some nooks and crannies...


If you need to piece it together, just do it with some glue and foam board scraps like this.

This is the final shape I ended up needing. Once you have your piece cut to fit your furniture, go ahead and glue on your scrapbooking paper. I just used a glue stick, and I wasn't super particular about lining it up at the edges. Whatever ;-)

This is what you'll have. Now it's time to insert it into your furniture!

Just put it where it goes... and...

Voila! Fake Mod Podged furniture :-)

This is so simple, easy, and cheap that there's no reason not to try it! You could switch them out for the seasons- or whenever you felt like having something new to look at! Best part it- your hubby can't get upset that you did something else "weird" to one of the pieces of furniture because it's totally removable :-D

Furniture Makeover

I found this great hutch thing at the Salvation Army here for $35. It was love at first site!


But barn red really isn't my color. So rather than doing something totally outrageous (like I would have liked to do) I painted it black. Classy. Simple. Sleek. I thought that would be best since I am going to put it in our entry way :-)
Kind of boring for me? Not quite. Check out the little surprise you get when you open the cabinets and drawers!


I love me some purple! The best part? I got the whole gallon of purple paint for $3.95 because it was a 'mistint' or 'oops paint'. If any of you aren't checking the oops paint shelf every time you go into Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or Lowes, you're missing out!

Wait until you guys see all the other projects I've been doing around here. I've been too busy actually doing to stop long enough to blog about it... which lets face it- that's the funnest part! So stay tuned to see my completed entry way makeover :-)

See what I did to this piece of furniture next here!

Idea Addict- Fun in the Snow Ideas!

Yes, it's true. I have an idea addiction. It's not an internet addiction because the ideas can come from anywhere, but the internet is one of my largest suppliers (mostly because online ideas are free and I'm addicted to being cheap as well.) For any readers I have with my same addiction- I'd like to help you facilitate the urge. We can be junkies together :-)

Anywho, given the current crazy weather this winter, I thought I'd share some fun snow links with you guys today!

Check out Ohdeeo's list of 10 ways to have fun
outdoors during winter.

Family Fun has a different variation for a winter treat-

a recipe for snow pudding! Check it out!

I love this winter sun catcher from Family Fun!
Too cute!

Make snow crystals with Mountain Pulse.
Check out how to make snow mosaics over at Family Fun.

Or, stay inside where it's warm and go check out this
snow banner tutorial on Modge Podge Rocks!

Nativity Lunch

Over at Muffin Tin Monday today, the theme is Christmas Stories. I decided to tell the ultimate Christmas story today with our Muffin Tin Meal... The Nativity! :-)


My daughter loved it, and actually completely refused to eat baby Jesus ;-).

In My Tin:

Mary, Jesus, and Joseph- All made from pigs in a blanket with dotted eyes made from colored decorating gel.

3 Kings, symbolized by 3 crowns of cheese toast and an animal cracker camel.

An angel cut from cheese with a cookie cutter.

2 animal cracker sheep to stand for the shepherds.

To make the muffin tin look like a stable, I topped it with 2 pretzel rods and a the star of Bethlehem, cut from another piece of cheese.


I think some of this would be cute food for children Christmas parties. I wish I had had time to make the angel a beautiful sugar cookie, but you can only do what you can do, right? I thought it would have also been cool to have a little candy cane in the shepherd's cup. Can't wait to see everyone else's creations! :-)

Fairy Peg Dolls

Continuing my princess crafts for my daughter's Christmas presents, I made some fairies to go with her princess dolls. :-)


To Make your own, paint the peg doll and seal it like this and have 5 appropriately colored pom pom balls ready. Hot glue them on to make the skirt :-)


Cut the wings from felt and paint anything you desire on them. When they're dry, glue them to your fairy's back.

Voila! Fairy Peg Dolls! :-)

Unmasking For My Sidekicks Only ;-)

Well, how should I celebrate this joyous occasion of having 100 blogger followers? First I'd like to thank all of you who follow. You know how all of us bloggers just thrive on it! I would also ask that any loyal readers I might have out there who have not yet taken the time to follow to go ahead and click that button! And now I think I'll take this time to introduce my new blog to you! :-)

Now I want to be very clear about something here. This new blog is a blog put out by my secret identity. No one from my "real life" knows that I am The Masked Mommy. So please don't say anything about it over there, K?

Alright, here's the new blog:

It's kinda like The Crafty Crow for Catholics. It's a Catholic resource blog that features Catholic craft projects of all kinds so they are easy to find in one place. So if I have any Catholic readers out there, I could really use your support over on the new frontier! And for anyone else, I also have many posts that are generically Christian, so there might be something for you, too! :-)