Pinterest is a slippery slope

I saw a thing on Pinterest where this girl put a glitter top on her desk. I thought it would be a perfect way to liven up this $20 desk I got to use as a sewing table. The immediate fix to the desk was to paint it white but I wanted to do something more to liven it up. The idea of a golden, shimmery work surface was appealing. Plus I love glitter.

I followed all her directions- varnish poured straight on, sprinkle glitter. Let dry and then re-varnish to create a smooth top. I didn't follow them exactly though because my glitter job was very splotchy. So I just did more glitter. 3 layers to be exact but who's counting!?!

2 finishing coats of varnish later and I'm going to need more varnish. At this point my plan is to just keep layering on more varnish until the surface is smooth. Not level, just smooth. Because this is a sewing table and I don't want to snag my fabric. I'm betting 2 more layers at least. If I'm lucky this weekend project will be finished in 7 days. If I'm unlucky then I will just have to scrap it all and rearrange my craft room. I can tell you now though, my table is now $20 plus $10 in glitter plus $18 in varnish. Everyone who sees it will be forced to declare its beauty.

Lesson learned: beware of Pinterest and glitter.

Painted Ornaments

I saw this on Pinterest last year and impulsively decided to try it out when Hobby Lobby had the ornaments and paint on sale at the same time. I'll update this post this weekend with more photos and detailed explanations but here's the gist.

I bought plain glass ornaments (got the wrong shape though) and drizzled craft paint inside (plain old craft paint). I did some experimentation to get as close to my desired effect as possible. Combinations of adding water and shaking it like a Polaroid picture were used. At first I was really happy with them, then they dried and I was much less happy. The paint cracked in spots when it dried and I don't like the way it looks. So I will try again and hopefully be more successful.

*Also, the gold paint dried much flatter than desired. This girl wants everything to sparkle!

Fall Wreath

Halloween is over so my "Merry Bewitching" wreath is down and replaced with a general fall wreath. I know many people start putting up winter and Christmas stuff in November but mine won't go up until the day after Thanksgiving at least.

And despite me best intentions, the only pictures I have to share are from my phone.

This wreath is an oval grapevine wrapped with a fall leaf garland. I have some fall flower sprays tucked in but he best part are the owls. Michaels had these cute little owls on sticks and clips in their fall floral stuff. I'm not a huge owl person but these little guys just seemed season-appropriate. It took all of 15 minutes to put together and I just used floral wire to secure everything. Happy fall y'all!

Italian Meatballs

I made up this recipe based on several different ones found online when searching for a way to add meet to the pasta alla vodka meal.

The one that sounded most appealing was made with ground turkey. I replaced the turkey with a combo of ground beef and Italian sausage. I also doubled the recipe simple because I didn't want to store the leftover beef and sausage. Instead, I froze the unused meatballs and will use them later in life. :)

Here's the root recipe:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb Italian sausage
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper

From the get go I had to make some substitutions simply from lack of ingredients. I didn't have enough plain bread crumbs so I used the rest of the Italian bread crumbs I had on hand. That with the Italian sausage led me to leave the Italian seasoning amount at 1 Tbsp (instead of doubling it to 2). PS- I used my home-made Italian seasoning.

Cast of characters.

After dumping it all into the bowl, I quickly realized only hand mixing would do!

I rolled them out into 1 1/2 inch balls- this was completely random. I just made them about the sized I picture meatballs as being. I baked them in the oven on parchment paper at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, turning them halfway through.

The remainder went onto another lined baking sheet to sit in the freezer just long enough to set up firm. Once I knew they wouldn't mash all together I dumped them into a freezer bag and sealed them up right.

The freezer tray was not nearly as neat and tidy as the baking tray.

 

 

I will admit that my first meatballs could have baked about less 5 minutes less than they did. With the sauce and pasta though, they were delightful! I can't wait to use my frozen ones for some meatball subs. Yum!

PS- this made about 36 meatballs.

Pasta alla Vodka

This post is going to have to happen in pieces.

The root of my desire was some pasta alla vodka that I always order at a local Italian restaurant. They serve their's with cheese tortellini and I decided to try my hand at making my own. I think it needed to have something good and meaty to go with it. The final result was Italian meatballs with cheese tortellini in vodka sauce. Yum!

The sauce recipe I found was from the Pioneer Woman. She's pretty handy in the kitchen so I figured I could trust her. Here's the root recipe:

1 medium diced onion

3 clove garlic, finely diced

3/4 cup vodka

1 can tomato puree

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 tsp salt

pinch red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp butter

pinch black pepper

I sauteed my onion and garlic before adding the vodka to simmer and reduce.

First error here- I'm a teacher and I cook on a shoestring budget. I used cheap vodka. Cheap vodka has stronger flavor and therefore needs to simmer and reduce longer to remove the vodka-ness of the taste. In the future I will honestly just use less vodka. I'm too cheap to shell out money for better stock although that would be the ideal solution.

Next I added the tomato and cream and did the summer and reduce thing some more.

This is much more "red" than the sauce was in reality- my bad flourescent kitchen lighting is not kind to photographs. And no, there isn't a window in my kitchen from which to utilize natural light.

Finally, because Pioneer Woman said so, I added the butter and adjusted the seasonings. A little longer on the simmer and reduce routine finished off the sauce.

I had made my meatballs beforehand and cooked my noodles while making the sauce. I used the pre-made fresh noodles you find packaged in the refrigerator unit at the store. I wasn't a huge fan sadly. I will probably try a couple of different varieties before giving up on convenience tortellini but I have kind of already decided to just use cheese ravioli next time. The sauce though was delicious.

Despite the changes I will make in future editions the meal was still delicious. And pretty!

Halloween Wreath

I finally got a smart phone that's smart enough for me to post from! I recently finished my Halloween wreath for the year. I wanted to keep it fairly neutral with just a little reference to the holiday.

I painted the wooden letters black then added a layer of gold glitter paint. Next I glued them to a ribbon so I could string them across the wreath.

The wreath itself is a 12 inch round grapevine wrapped with an orange and gold swirly-design ribbon and black leaf garland. I added in some glass bead sprays in colors of orange and yellow. The final touch were some black advisory clip on flowers.

All materials were purchased from Michael's. Merry bewitching season!

Dining Room Bistro Set

This isn't a chalk paint post per se. But I did use chalk paint again (at least my way).

I needed a table and chair set for my dining room/craft room. I found a pretty drop leaf for $20 at an antique store and 2 chairs for $40 at another. I chose an ivory and green color combo and decided to focus more on design than on distress.

Table Before:

I chose to do a diamond pattern on the top. First I painted the whole table ivory, then used a 4-ft level to pencil in my lines. I taped off the stripes going one direction, did 2 coats of green, then repeated for the other direction.

It took about 4 hours total to paint the table. I finished up with some tiny green dots along the skirt, and a bit of green on a section of the legs.

Finished Table:

Chairs Before:

I chose to go mostly green on the chairs to balance the white of the table. I spray-painted the seats cream (as best matched to my ivory color as possible) and then taped them off so I could paint the rest. The chairs each took 2 coats to cover and about 5 hours total. All those round surfaces are a pain to paint! I finished up by painted the flower detail on the chair backs ivory. The chairs got minor distressing with some sanding and wood stain- just enough to make painting imperfections look intentional.

Finished Chairs:

The Whole Set:

Everying got a good wax coat and is currently in use in my dining/craft room!

Special note- I used cheap Walmart paint on this project (2 quarts plus the spray paint cost less than $15). While I could make the paint look right by adding the plaster, it still didn't cover as well as the Valspar from Lowe's. Since this furniture set is going to get lots of wear and tear, I didn't worry too much about it. It did make 2 coats an absolute necessity though.

Gringo Dip

For a long time I've been wanting to try my hand at making my own Gringo Dip (normally found at a favorite restaurant, 54th Street). After perusing various recipes, I finally chose the route I would take and made my own attempts. Since I was thinking like a blogger, I actually wrote down amounts as I added them!

First let me say that I didn't use a double boiler. I don't own one. I simply melted my cheese dip with a low temp and lots of patience on the stove. As long as you stir frequently and keep those temps low (my dial was on 4), then you should be OK.

 

Recipe:

4 oz pepper jack cheese, cubed

4 oz monterey jack cheese, cubed

4 oz Velveeta, cubed

1 cup half and half

3/4 cup pico de gallo

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

2 1/2 oz frozen chopped spinach

I put everything in the pot but the spinach and stirred until it was all smoothly melted. Then I added in the spinach and cooked until the spinach was all thawed and mixed in. It makes about 4 cups of cheese dip. We ate half the pot and I filled a 2-cup tupperware with leftovers.

How this compares to other recipes:
I used plain old yellow Velveeta so my cheese is more yellow than the original. You could buy the white Velveeta, but I just used what I had on hand. Also, I used way less spinach than other recipes call for. I don't care for spinach and simple tolerate it in recipes like this. Even still, Sig agreed that any more would have made for a spinach dip instead of a queso dip. This recipe is also much smaller in size than the other copy-cats I've seen.

What I will do different next time:
Sig likes his dips more spicy so I will probably add more pepper jack and take away some monty jack. You can always add more cayenne too (which is the type of heat I prefer). I initially thought I should use less half and half but my teacher brain kicked in to remind me that cheese sauces thicken upon standing. The consistency turned out perfect!

How much it cost:
Like me, you probably have the Velveeta, cayenne, and parmesan on hand. I bought fresh pico from the deli section for $3, monty jack and pepper jack cost me another $4, half and half was $2 and the spinach $1.50. The remaining pico will be used in recipes later this week, the remaining cheese will keep, and I'll make sure to use the half and half before it expires. I measured my spinach still frozen, so that remaining will keep in the freezer too. All in all it probably comes about $6 worth of ingredients.

And because we're piglets, the only photo I have to share is the one of the leftovers. This will probably be my very unhealthy lunch tomorrow!

*Please ignore my dirty stone- we had stuffed peppers for dinner with the dip. I promise it was cleaned appropriately!

Fall Wreath Inspirations

As you know, I love making my own wreaths. Fall and Halloween are definitely my favorites to make and this year I can't wait to get started (I'm forcing myself to wait until after my birthday before declaring summer over). My friend Kari shared with me some she has made and I'm using them as my inspiration for some fall decor. Check hers out!

Sorry for the sideways- forgot to rotate!

 I love how loaded it is with the miniature pumpkins. This one definitely lasts the entire fall season!

Add caption

Her witches broom is simply adorable. She insists the inspiration came from cute polka-dot ribbon she found (it's hard to see in the photo but the dots are glittery). I think she may have had some inner witch guiding her creativity though! ;)

To see the wreath I made for last Halloween, click HERE

Homemade Spice Mixes

I found this idea on Pinterest of course. I made my own taco seasoning, ranch seasoning, onion soup mix and Italian dressing mix. The first three came from Jamie over at Self-Reliance. The last came from a combination of places (I adjusted it to suit my own needs).

Taco seasoning is used for tacos of course (beef or chicken). The ranch seasoning can be used for ranch dressing, but I mostly use it to make ranch dip. The onion soup mix I use for dips and to flavor my pot roasts. The Italian dressing I use exclusively for seasoning buttered bread on any night we have pasta. This is the only time I use the seasoning but it happens at least once a week. Italian dressing is something I only use for marinade so I prefer the zesty version- not made with this seasoning mix.

I added up the amounts I needed and double-checked the quantities I had on hand in my spice cabinet. I ended up spending about $30 on spices, but I bought the large quantity size so I'm ready to make more mixes when I need it. I filled 2 pint jars each and used the little round canning sticker labels you can buy in the store (about $9 spent on the jars and labels). If I were gifting these then I would have made cuter labels with my Cricut. But for my own pantry, a handwritten sticker will do.

Ranch:

5 tablespoons dried minced onions

7 teaspoons parsley flakes

4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

 

Dry Onion Soup Mix:

2/3 cup dried, minced onion

3 teaspoons parsley flakes

2 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon celery salt

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

 

Taco Seasoning:

1/2 cup chili powder
1/4 cup onion powder
1/8 cup ground cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon sea salt

 

Italian Dressing Mix:

I'll tell you when I find the paper I wrote it down on....
3/4 tsp garlic powder
2 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp onion powder
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp gound oregano
1 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp celery salt
 

And ta-da! Healthy and convenient mixes I can simply spoon out at my pleasure. I keep a jar of each in my spice cabinet with the spare jars in the pantry. I'm about half-way through my first jar of the Italian already, and a third way through my taco. The ranch I've used minimally, but I have some potato recipes I'm going to play around with. The onion soup will get used the most heavily this fall when I'm making roasts again. It's simply too hot this summer for such a heavy meal!
Enjoy!

Meet Chalk Paint

So as many of those in the DIY world know- chalk paint is now THE thing. It creates an adorable matte finish, applies without priming, and distresses beautifully. It also costs $30 and up for a quart. Similar to chalk paint is milk paint. Milk paint does basically the exact same thing except it comes in powder form that you then mix with water yourself. The downside to milk paint is that it can be hard to find. With both you are somewhat limited on colors unless you're really comfortable mixing, shading, and tinting the paint yourself. That is not something I'm comfortable with so I did more research. After lots of web browsing, I figured out my own chalk paint solution. I mix plaster of paris with regular paint, voila!

Here's the table at the start. It was an old sewing machine table that had been retro-fitted with an empty cabinet instead. In my home it will be used to hold my fish tank. It's the perfect size for my 10-gallon tank and the cabinet lets me hold all my fish supplies neatly out of sight. I found this table at an antique store in southeast Missouri for about $30.

The details on the table coordinate well with my existing furniture

I chose a teal-blue shade that matches my sofas. The table is sitting across the room from them so it creates a nice balance of color in my living room. For the paint mix, I did a 1/3:2/3 ratio of plaster of paris to paint combo. I filled my cup about 1/3 full with the plaster powder then mixed in water with a fork until I had a smooth but thick liquid. Then I added about twice that amount of paint and stirred again to make sure there were no lumps. The paint goes on very thick and covers nicely with one coat. Since I was working in the hot sun, it also dried very fast.


I purchased a quart of Valspar from Lowe's for about $15. Since I know I'll use the color again, I wasn't worried about spending the money. Ideally I would be using paint I already had on hand so my only cost would be the $6 on plaster.

The next step was adding another color so that it wasn't just the dark wood showing on the distressed parts. I grabbed the sample pot of paint from the kitchen remodel (a pale yellow) and brushed it on the spots I would be sanding. I didn't bother mixing this with the plaster since very little would be seen in the end.

After another coat of the blue paint/plaster mixture, I was ready for sanding. I did very light sanding since my style doesn't lean towards heavy distressing. I simply roughed up the edges and prominent features of the piece. The idea was to highlight and bring attention to the pretty lines and details on the table.

To add an aged look, I rubbed some wood stain on the edges and in corners. This was the scariest part for me but I practiced on the back until I was comfortable with amounts and types of strokes.

Next I repeated the whole process with an end table I had on hand. The end table isn't at noticable in my living room since the color blends into my sofa. This is really what I wanted though because the table it very small next to my couch. Instead of a dark blob in the corner, it is simply an invisible vessal for holding a lamp and some puzzles. Mission accomplished!

The two finished products!