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!