Washer Necklaces

So after stalking a friend's pinterest boards I found this very intriguing idea. Make your own statement necklaces using washers, scrapbook paper and mod podge.

Any variety of washers can be used. So far I've only made the ones shown above. However I recently went to Lowe's and bought all of the ones shown below which have a variety of sizes, width, and weight. 

 However, if I have two contrasting colors or complementary colors hanging them like this would be great!

 This is what the back of the finished product looks like. It's still unfinished. However, when I've worn the necklace it likes to flip around some so I'm considering covering the front and the back. I also need a better chain/rope to tie it up with.

So you basically find a washer that you like and some scrapbook paper that you like. Although the site above has used other paper items like comics, so you could probably use any paper product. Then you trace and cut out the shape and mod podge them together. I bought the matte mod podge, and in hindsight I would have bought the glossy one. However now I think I'm going to buy some enamel spray or something to make it shiny and more finished looking. 

Christmas Card Wreath

Christmas Card Wreath 

I saw this idea from here. It's pretty easy to make. 

Items:

Clothes pins

Green Spray Paint

Red Pony Beads

Ribbon

Wire Clothes Hangars

Hot glue gun.

To make: 

1. Spray paint the clothes pins green. I did it by laying them out on newspaper, but the other article recommended clipping them to an old box you don't care about. Honestly, it probably would have saved some time, but it wasn't that big of a dea. 

2.Make the clothes hangar a circle. This part is actually easier said than done! Mine isn't perfectly round nor perfectly flat, but such is life. 

3. String the clothes pins and pony beads on the hangar, alternating.

4. Attach the 2 ends of the hangar. The other site recommended just lining them up and gluing the heck out of it. My husband had the great idea of just bending the two ends to make hooks and hooking the two sides together. This alone probably would have been enough to hold it together, but I didn't trust it so I glued the hooks together. It also made it so I could fit another couple clothes pins on since I didn't have to rely solely on the glue.

5. Take the ribbon and tie a string to hold it up. Using another piece of ribbon tie a bow. I used some wire ribbon from the dollar tree. It is red with green wire and green flecks. I really like how that ribbon goes with it.  

 An example holding a card. I actually really got a kick out of this card! It says "It's 80 degrees and sunny somewhere" "Oh yeah, that's here. Merry Christmas there." It's fitting and wonderful and we are sending it from sunny Florida to our friends in wintery Maine.

Hawaiian BBQ Chicken

I found this recipe here from Pinterest. Frankly it is amazingly simple and genius! 4 ingredients and a crockpot and viola, a meal.

1 bottle Target's Archer Farms Hawaiian Style Barbecue Sauce
Frozen chicken breasts. Original recipe called for 4-6. I probably had a few more.
1 20 oz can chunked pineapple, drained
Rice prepared as directed

Throw everything but the rice in the crockpot and cook on high for 3 hours, low for 4-6 hours. Shred chicken and coat in sauce then serve over rice.

Easy peasy! Warning though, this bbq sauce is deceptively spicy! If I make it again I'll probably try and cut the heat with either some of the pineapple sauce or some sugar. However, Target makes several other sauces like this that I'm curious to try now.

PinFail? Washcloth cupcakes

So one of my friends...actually several of my friends...are pregnant! Yay! That means that we are just starting on the deluge of baby showers. I always see some of the cute diaper cakes and cupcakes and other amazing things. So I wanted to try it. However I'm not sure that I was very successful.

Here is a picture of the largest two:

 This is a picture of them on the side. The towels are orange/pink stripped (right) and hearts (left). The 'wrappers' are made from scrapbook paper.

This is the four of them together. The container is actually the end of a 12 pack of soda which I covered in pink paper. It was the perfect size to show them off. 

This was the mini gift for my friend at our work shower. For her main shower gift I got 3 baskets and filled them with different goodies (I forgot to take pictures!!)

Basket 1 Baby Bath time:

• Baby Shampoo
• Baby Body wash
• Fun bath squirt toys
• Washcloths
• A water book
• Rubber ducky that tells the temperature

Basket 2 Get Well Basket:

• Infant acetaminophen
• Infant ibuprofen
• Saline nasal spray
• Baby groomer/first aid kit

Basket 3 Clothing:

• Onsies
• Socks

I may be forgetting stuff, but that's most of it. It was a lot of fun buying all that fun stuff for her!

Cheesy Baked Quinoa

So this recipe was billed as 'Cheesy Quinoa Mac & Cheese' and it had a lot of complaints that it wasn't quite as cheesy or creamy as Mac & Cheese. So a more apt name is Cheesy Baked Quinoa. Regardless of the name, it tastes good and is full of healthy ingredients. I also like that you can add pretty much whatever you want to it.

The ingredients:
1 cup quinoa, cooked according to package directions
Sauteed veggies (optional, we used broccoli)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 large eggs
1 pinch of salt
1 cup milk
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (reserve 1/2 cup for top)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
Panko or regular bread crumbs for topping
Any other ingredients you think would be tasty or need to be used!

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook quinoa according to package directions.
3. Saute any vegetables you would like to use.
4. Mix eggs, milk, garlic, and salt in large bowl. Fold in quinoa and vegetables and any other additives.
5. Place in greased 9" x 13" pan. Top with remaining cheddar cheese and bread crumbs.
6. Cook until top is golden brown and cheese has melted, approximately 30 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

Comments: As I mentioned before we added broccoli. We had about 1 cup of frozen broccoli that we sauteed with some seasoning salt. Next time I would add more. We also added some leftover tricolor couscous. I don't think this affected the taste or texture at all, it was just a way to use up some leftovers. Besides, we only had about a 1/2 cup.
 

Others really liked the 'crunch' of the panko bread crumbs. I may not have put enough on to notice, but I feel the quinoa gives it enough heartiness. Next time I might put more panko crumbs...I only put enough to lightly cover the top of the pan.

Sweet Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin

So I just recently learned about Pinterest Fail blogs and pins...hilarious! Thankfully I have yet to succumb to such a fate. Actually I have been pleasantly surprised with how things have turned out. This next Pinterest copy cat is no different.

You can see I just served it with some salad. It was amazing, better than I had expected. 

*Serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS:
Pork:
2 pounds boneless pork tenderloin
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, finely minced or crushed (I use minced garlic and probably put a tablespoon in, we like garlic)
1/2 cup water

Glaze: 
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce

DIRECTIONS:
In a small bowl, combine the sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub the spices all over the roast. Place the pork roast in the slow cooker and pour in the 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Near the end of the cooking time for the roast, combine the ingredients for the glaze in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce and let the mixture simmer, stirring occasionally, until it thickens.

Remove the pork from the slow cooker, shred and place on a platter or plate. Drizzle the glaze over the pork and serve.

 

I only slightly adapted this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, so please give her the love.

Trip to NOLA

DH an I went to New Orleans several weeks back. We had such a fantastic time that I wanted to tell all about it. We stayed at the International House. It probably isn't my favorite place in New Orleans, but it was close to all the things we wanted to see and do and we got a pretty good deal. I still say it had an unusual odor, it was probably lemongrass which most would find appealing, but I didn't care for it.

We did many of the 'classic' NOLA stuff, breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, wandering around Jackson square and the French Quarter. We also went up to Tulane and the garden district and Audoban park. One of my favorite things though was exploring Magazine street. I loved it! It reminded me a lot of NW 23rd and the Pearl district of Portland. 

We at lunch at this restaurant which had this plaque outside the door. I thought it was very fitting for our family, he's got the bar (beer brewing), she's got the pharmacy (pharmacist.). Something to keep in mind if Don ever gets on that bar of his. I can't remember the name of this restaurant, but it was filled with other work from this artist which had a variety of sayings. The food was pretty good too!

However, one of the more exciting things we saw was at one of our impromptu stops. We were walking down the street, actually heading back to our car to leave Magazine street, and we passed by this bar, the Bulldog. It had the best fountain EVER so we had to stop in for a beer and cider.

This first picture is from the opposite side of the patio so you can see how impressive it is. However it contains about 80 taps all with water running through them to make a fountain.

This one shows the taps a little better. It was fun to see how many of the different beers we had tried and which we had never heard of. If Don ever gets a brewery some day WE WILL DO THIS!! How fun.

Another part of our trip we went to Frenchman Street and heard the guy/band who sings the theme song Treme TV show, John Boutte. That really helped make our trip.

Finally one of the restaurants we ate at was amazing. We were planning to go to the Red Fish Grill, which we really enjoy, however we couldn't get reservations. So instead we ate at Herbsaint. I highly recommend it. Every dish we had was amazing. It was pricey, but worth it.

Til next time NOLA...

God Bless America Tutorial. Another Pinterest Success!

God Bless America Tutorial

Another pinterest copy! I saw the tutorial for this from pinterest and I new it would be a perfect addition to my red,white and blue summer mantle! Here is the finished product, I really like how it turned out. 

To make this I made a run to Jo-Ann Fabrics (Hobby lobby was closed because it was Sunday). It turned out to be great because everything I bought was on sale! The tutorial I was following used 12x12 canvas, but due to the size of the letters I had, I needed a slightly larger canvas.  So I bought an 11x14 canvas, a pack of letters, and the dual star. I already had white spray paint, acrylic paint, and glue. 

 This is what it looked like just laid out on the canvas with a coat of white. I wasn't a huge fan of the font, but it was the best they had and MUCH cheaper than buying the individual letters that I wanted. However, in the end I really liked the font. The "o" had to be altered, for some reason it just looked too much like a "q" so I gave it to DH to alter. He did a great job!

 So then I went to experiment with paint colors and this is what I had. I really like the look of the cerulean blue, but ultimately had to go with the more royal blue, cause it is more traditional.

Here is the final product on my mantel. If I were to do this again, I'd skip the all white step. The person who did the original tutorial was looking for the all white look and added the color as an afterthought. I, on the other hand, knew I was going to paint it, but just kept barreling down that path. Although by doing it the way I did, most of the sides of the letters and star are white, not colored. I'd also probably use spray paint--it is so much faster than paint brushes! 

Here is the whole mantle.

 A close up of the metal star and decoration.  

 Finally, here is are the apothecary jars. One is with the beans and the other filled with baseballs. The furthest one is still empty, only decorated with a bow, but the America heart covers most of it.

St. Patrick's Day

Below is my mantle for St. Patrick's Day. Like all of my mantles it will be a continual work in progress changing and growing every year. First this is the whole mantle. You can see that I have a shamrock "wreath"  hanging in the middle and candles and garlands for decoration.

This is a close-up of the candles.  One is just a plain white candle, the other two are covered in scrapbook paper. The middle one is kelly green with white shamrocks on it. The right one is green sparkly paper with a green glitter shamrock sticker on it. Note the gold ribbon and green and gold garland.

This next photo is a close up of the left hand side of the mantle. On the far left is a glass container filled with a white and green garland, then some white candles, one has a shamrock sticker and another has some gold ribbon around it. Finally, on the far right of the picture is a little pot of gold with some gold coins in it.

The other area that I decorate is on the other side of the living room. We have a small buffet table which houses our wedding photo and usually some decorative flowers. For St. Patrick's day I've got green and white carnations (dollar tree!) with some gold ribbon. 

Valentine's Day Mantle

This is my valentine's mantle. It is looking a little weak, but after the holiday I picked up some stuff so next year it should be MUCH better. 

Here is a close up of the plate, which I got at Target, and some of the candles. I cut out a heart from some construction paper to add a little pizaazz. The other white candle has some ribbon tied to it.

The other side of the mantle shown below has the candles on the candlestick; one white, one hot pink and one red. It also shows that I covered (rather poorly) one of the candles with some scrapbook paper. Actually, it's two pieces of paper, but it's hard to see here. The first one is pink with lots of little hearts. The second is a see through page with pink hearts which you can see. Since this was just a prototype and I didn't actually make the final version it is just held together with a purple rubber band. 

Finally here are a couple of shots of things I am kicking myself for NOT getting. This is really my MO, I take pictures of stuff and then sit on it. Well I sat on these for too long and now they are no where to be seen. Maybe Target will have them next year...

4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I hope you all have a fantastic day celebrating our independence. I am doubly celebrating because I have made my first thing off of pinterest! Remember how DH let me buy some apothecary jars? Well I finally copied some of the things I'd been seeing on pinterest (like this) and filled one of them up with red, white, and blue (ish) beans!

There it is in all it's glory. I filled it up with 4 pounds of great northern beans, 4 pounds of small red beans and 1.5 pounds of black beans. Who would have thought that it would take nearly 10 pounds of beans!  Well after filling it up DH asked me what I was going to do with the other jars. He quickly offered baseballs. I had been thinking of decorative balls similar to what makoodle did (see above). However his baseball idea was perfect and very 'us'. Remind me to tell you the impact baseball has had in our relationship!

Unfortunately we didn't have enough baseballs immediately, but I think we'll get some more. The additional baseballs and some ribbon to tie around the small spot will finish this off very nicely. Now I just need an idea on what to fill the 3rd jar up with!

Enjoy the 4th!

Easter decoration

Since posting my Christmas post went so well I've decided to move on to my Easter decorations. Again, the usual disclaimer. I wasn't anticipating posting these pictures anywhere so they aren't of the same quality or detail as if I were to post them now. So wait for next year's version. :)

This first photo is of the entire Easter mantle. You can see the centerpiece says Easter and is painted in pastel with 3 eggs hanging down. I didn't take a close up of it, but I got it from Hobby Lobby. 

 Next I took a close up of each side so you can see it a little better. I took a glass gar and filled it with some plastic eggs and put some fake grass down on the bottom. There was a purple garland which has its own eggs on it, but as you may or may not be able to tell there are some plastic eggs thrown in there as well. There was a large egg platter that I put up there for decoration, but could quickly double as a serving tray. Some white candles which never quite got around to being covered with scrapbook paper (another favorite trick of mine).  Next you see a pink "vase". It's actually a Carnival Cruise glass filled with Styrofoam flowers that are covered in glitter (Dollar Tree!).

This side of the mantle is pretty boring. It consists of 3 plain candles on my clear candlesticks. I love these candlesticks, but someday I'm going to make the candlesticks out of eggs shown here. There is also a rabbit which I found at Hobby Lobby (Do you sense a trend?!)

Finally I've got another example of my idea to use ornaments as napkin weights. Shown here is my example which was taken in the store before actually purchasing the items (gotta wait for the sale!).The egg says "Happy Easter" and the napkins are decorated eggs with some green background.

Ok Pinterest, here goes! Christmas Decor

Part of my motivation for resurrecting this blog was to post pictures of my stuff on Pinterest. I don't have much, and I have a lot on my phone still, but I found this picture on my computer. It was my centerpiece at our Christmas party last year.

As you can see it is pretty simple, but I really enjoyed it. It consisted of a green place mat, 2 red and white ball  and twine candle decoration, 2 white candles, a napkin holder, red and green Christmas napkins and a silver NOEL Christmas ornament.

I think this is one of the best ideas that has come to me. I love the look of matching napkin holders and napkins for parties. I seriously think I have a cocktail napkin addiction! But rather than spend $15 or more on the Mariposa or other brands of napkin holders...use ornaments! The one here was a silver star that said NOEL. It had a tie on it, and my napkin holder has a spot for a tie, but I didn't even use it. As we go through the other holidays you'll see I've purchased other ornaments to use for this purpose.

As a bonus I've included a picture of our Christmas mantle. Unfortunately it's not a great picture nor is it a very heavily decorated mantle. But I was more recording it for posterity not trying to post it for all to see. It includes a green wreath with red berries, a garland of greens, 6 different stocking holders (Christmas tree, metal moose, blue Christmas ball, gold bell, silver Christmas tree, and snowflake), and 3 stockings, a small cat stocking and a Santa hat.