Because It's There || A little DIY art tutorial

$1.29 frame found at the thrift store + 2 Sharpie markers.

Nice art that's left open to interpretation.

"Because it's there." - George Mallory

Inspired by this Society6 print.

For Gracie

Gracie is Lucy's older sister.  She is becoming a independent girl who really wants to explore her world and test her mother's limits.  :)  I have Gracie looking out her window daydreaming about the life ahead of her.  But no matter how much she will want to leave home, she will one day want to return.  Some of the best memories are made in a home with the people we love.  I included on the back one of three furry friends she has at home.   Gracie requested lime, orange, and Carolina blue for her surprise present. 

For Lucy

Lucy is my niece, and I think she will enjoy her new friend, especially since she travels around the world a lot.  This will help give her something to call home and help comfort her when times are tough.  Lucy requested yellow and red for her surprise gift.

Pinterest Food #3

you can see #1 here and #2 here.

you can view my pinterest food board here.

so where do i begin on this one?  i realized something the other day with my pinterest food posts.  i could actually be helping out someone.  someone like me.  someone who forgets to buy an ingredient on the shopping list, even though it was written down on the list.  someone who looks at the ingredient list and automatically assumes how to put it all together without reading the recipe. someone who doesn't read all the way through recipes until you're actually making it.  someone who somehow skips a step in the recipe, even though you were reading it as you were going.

 yeah, that is soooo me.

with this said, sometimes i have to alter recipes, but i'll make note of that below the food item. 
as usual, i am sharing recipes that i liked and will make again, and i don't snap photos of the foods i made.


Peanut Butter Cup Pie from Cinnamon and Spice and Everything Nice.

I didn't find the chocolate cookies she was talking about for the crust, so I used Oreos instead.  Creme and all.  And retarded me didn't buy two packages of cream cheese, so I only used one.  I added a little extra peanut butter to compensate.  I also used a 9 x 13 pan, and I threw the dessert into the freezer.  I didn't serve it frozen, but I let it defrost a bit. 

Snicker Bars from How Sweet It Is.
You MUST make this TONIGHT.  Period.

After each layer, I chucked it into the freezer to speed up cooling times.  I left these refrigerated right until serving.

Naan Bread from Allrecipes.com

Really good.  I used garlic in mine.  I would reduce the heat on the grill to maybe med-high since mine got a little on the burnt side last time.  Matt's been in Afghanistan, and he says naan is really good sprinkled with cinnamon and coarse sugar over the buttered naan.  Of course, skip the garlic. 

Curried Green Lentil Soup from The Little Ferraro Kitchen.

I used only a 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes, added an additional cup of coconut milk, and skipped the salt and pepper.  I didn't add those decorative thingys to the top of my soup either.  I ate Naan bread with it.  Yum!

Crispy Sweet Potato Fries from The Art of Doing Stuff.
It say "gauranteed" in the title, but that really ain't so.  Even many people made comments about that in the comment box.  She says it's all about the ratio of oil and cornstarch, so I guess after the 20th time making them, you'll finally get them crispy.  Other than that, they still tasted good, and I am going to work my way up the 20th time.

Pizza Dough from Annie's Eats.

Let's just say I pinned this 14 weeks ago and I have made at least 20 pizzas.  You do the math.  I half the dough recipe to make one single pie, which feeds 3 people.

Shaved Asparagus Pizza from Annie's Eats.

I tried this with white crust.  Yum! I  also tried this with whole wheat crust.  Yuck!

I didn't have any of that fancy herb cheese, so I made my own using this recipe.  I had to add more spices into the mixture though.  I just thought it wasn't enough.

French Bread Rolls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

I ended up throwing away my old roll recipe, and replaced it with this.

I don't knead it for as long as the recipe says.  Maybe two-three minutes in the KitchenAid.  I always use the window pane test when I make yeast rolls, and I half the recipe and make about 12 large rolls.  I think this recipe is fool-proof, but try not to go proving me wrong.  ;)

later taters,
nancy

Pinterest Food # 2

You can see # 1 here.

I am trying out the foods that are getting pinned on Pinterest because I LOVE variety.  I am not one of those gals who can eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I debated whether or not to share the recipes I disliked.  No one likes hearing their cooking sucks.   I know everyone has different tastes when it comes to food, and that's fine.  I am sure someone hates something I have made.   What would you do?  Inform others of poor recipes?  Keep it to yourself and let others find out on their own that the food tastes like crap?  Don't worry though.  I'm only sharing the recipes I liked and will make again.

As usual, I don't document the food I make, so I use the photos that were pinned. 

First up, the infamous 7up biscuits from Plain Chicken.  I'm sure you have seen this photo before because it's been pinned a bazillion times by now.  And I can see why.  They are freakin' awesome.  So easy to make.  So little ingredients.  So soft like a baby's bum.  I actually goofed the first time I made them.  I poured my melted butter into the Bisquick and had to add extra flour.  But they turned out just fine.  I made them a second time following the recipe, and they turned out great. 

Next I made this Chicken Enchilada Soup from Home is Where the Holmans Are.  The recipe calls for some fancy Mexican cheese (okay, I'm just too lazy to look up what the cheeses are), but I used cheddar and mozzarella instead.  It is a hearty, thick soup.  I enjoyed it.  Matt loved it.  I will be making it again. 

The other week I made BBQ Chicken on the grill, and I used a sauce recipe from Our Best Bites.  Oh my word.  I thought this sauce was delish.  In fact, I was eating it by the spoonfuls before putting it on the chicken.  You would have thought I was pregnant.  Matt liked it, but he wasn't as super impressed as I was.

I love eating Broccoli and Cheese soup.  Especially from Panera Bread.  This photo looked tempting, so I made the soup from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.  I did enjoy it, but I wasn't super thrilled by it.  It was delicious, don't get me wrong.  I guess I will hold every Broccoli and Cheese soup up to PB's standard.  Shame on them!  This recipe also calls for swiss cheese, which really gives it a different flavor to the soup.  Matt suggested ham would be really good in the soup.

From Me-To You made this gorgeous roasted bird.  Take a look at that photo!!  Doesn't this make you want to go out and kill (or buy :) a chicken RIGHT now??  Well, that is what happened to me, though Goldie, Tweedle, Sassy, Baby, and Halley are still alive.  I didn't have any of that fancy herbs de Provence or lavender, so I googled it and made up my own with what I had on hand.  It turned out great!

Zuppa Toscana soup from Mommy For Reals = YUM, and not because I "know" Danny. All I can say about this is I have made it 3 times since pinning it.  I made it once for my two sisters.  One sister made it for two weeks straight until she literally got sick of it. 

Thai Coconut Rice from Cooking for Seven.  This was good, but it was not as sweet as I was expecting, and the coconut flavor is not as pronounced as I would have thought either.  I will make it again though.

Have you made or pinned any of these items listed?

she orbs, she orbs ~ I Pinned, I Made ~ I Failed

okay, to some people this is not considered a fail.   but it is for me since it's not getting used for my original purpose, and the orb went a little lopsided on me.   so it's a fail in the design department.

 the other week i got my orb on.  remember this lovely shot?

this somehow miraculously transformed into this

making the orb was really easy.  you can see Crafty Nest's tutorial here, but this is basically what i did.

1 bouncy ball
1 bottle Aleena's Clear Tacky Glue
1 cereal bowl
1 skein of yarn (i used the yarn from my yarn wreath that i made awhile back.)
1 deflating/inflating needle

make a circle on one end of the ball with marker.  this will allow your hand to go inside of the orb to change the bulb.
i spread out crafting paper on a table, so glue wouldn't get everywhere.  i placed a pea size amount in my fingers and i placed it on the yarn while pressing the yarn between my fingers.  i wrapped the yarn with glue onto my ball, which was resting on a cereal bowl.  that's not necessary, but i found it helpful.  repeat the process over and over and over again.  it will take some time so pop in a movie.  just don't cover the circle you marked on your ball.  let the ball dry for a few days.  she recommends 48 hrs but owen got a hold of my orb and bounced it down the hallway after 24 hours.  it turned out just fine.  but i would say 48 hours is a good time.  place the deflating needle into the ball and squeeze out the air.  the ball will come out of the orb, and the yarn will not stick to the ball.  you will be able to move some strings around to work with your choice of lighting kit, so don't fret about that.

so here are some things i suggest.

1.  she recommends a quarter size amount of glue at a time, which i thought was excessive.  but then again, i was working with yarn, not hemp.  i started out with around a pea size, but then i got impatient, and started squeezing out more.

2. make sure your ball is inflated well.  all the balls at wal-mart were on the verge of dying, so i was lucky to even find what i did. 

3. if you use a hemma cord, stretch it out for a day or two.  if you look at the picture with all the arrows (below), you will notice the cord is not straight.

4. for some reason the hemma cord can make my pendant a little lopsided.  refer to photo with the arrows.   i may just need to rethread the cord in a different hole, which leads me to my next number.

5.  when you make your circle on your ball, i would recommend figuring out where the center of that circle would be on the other side.  i would mark a small circle.  this way when you are making your pendant, you can leave a small opening for the electrical wire to go through.  this will also help your pendant to hang nicely instead of being a little lopsided like mine, but hopefully that is a quick fix.

6. as for the large hole in the bottom, i used a regular cereal bowl to trace.  if i were to do this again, i would use a cup.  i think the hole in the bottom can look "odd" at times, but since it's tucked nicely into a closet that no one other than myself goes into, it's just fine.  you can refer to what i consider "odd" in Crafty Nest's photo at the end of the post.

7. other than those things, Crafty Nest did a good job with the tutorial, so you shouldn't run into any problems.

i used the hemma light kit from ikea to hang it, but the cord wanted to drift off and do its own thing.

i decided a little bit of sticky velcro in the corner would do the trick.  i apologize for these crappy shots (off my old camera), but hopefully you can see where and how i applied velcro.
 1. cut small pieces of velcro (i actually cut in half, but that's not in the photos).  2. place one piece in the corner and the other piece on the cord.  3. stick together.

HOW TO HOLD A CORD IN PLACE

i did a few of these along the corner of the walls, and voila!  no retarded cord.

i'm sitting on the fence with this one.  what is it with me and lights???  as usual, i will let it hang in there for a few weeks to test it out.  it doesn't help either that the rocking chair that goes underneath this light is covered in a sheet.   so if this light doesn't stay in owen's room, i will find a place for it. 
i moved it out of owen's room.  it wasn't quite the look i was going for, and since matt and i have no lighting in our largest closet, i moved it there.  it works WONDERS in there too.  i can now see all of our food storage, and i moved all of my fabric in there too. 

i pinned these hemp pendants by Crafty nest awhile back, which comes with a full tutorial.  i didn't have hemp, so i used yarn.

my pendant is way cuter in person, and it was actually fun making it.  you should make one too!  thank you Craft Nest!

Pinterest Food

If you have a Pinterest account, more than likely you have some sort of food board.

I decided to actually make the food I pinned, and here are a few recipes I tried in the last few weeks.

Maybe you pinned one of these dishes?

Sorry, no pictures of the food I made.

All pics come from my Pin board, and you can find the recipes there.

First up, Pretzel Bites.  (I'm actually eating these as I am typing :)

These are NOT like the pretzel bites you get in the mall.

This is just frozen roll dough you dip in butter and sugar and cinnamon. (that's the version I did)

They taste fine, nothing spectacular.  I'm eating them, so they don't go to waste. :)

I could see little kids loving them, but adults will not be fooled.

I don't plan on making these again, but I am glad I tried it out.

If you do make these, make sure you roll the dough between your palms after the first rise.

If your dough tears apart before going into the boiling water, they will not cook properly in the oven.  I learned that today.

If you make the parmesan kind, let me know how it turned out.

Second recipe is Creamy Tomato and Sausage Pasta.

First off, I used two drained cans of diced tomatoes, a teaspoon of sugar, hot Italian pork sausage, light cream, and dried Italian and basil seasonings. 

This was really good and super easy to make.

It's a very simple dish, and because of that, you think it might not be that great.

I will definitely make this again, especially if I need to serve a larger crowd.

This dish reheats well too.

I made this Mongolian Beef, and I was quite impressed.

I purchased sale beef from my local store, and I knew it was not flank steak.  It turned out just fine.  I used powdered ginger, accidentally added some rice wine vinegar, and used 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes.

I thought it tasted "authentic" (in quotes because I really don't know what authentic is), and the dish made me feel better because I knew I was not consuming MSG or cat. ;)

It tasted like something you would get at Chinese restaurant, and I would make this again.

Last up is this fried chicken dish.

I LOVED this chicken.  I bought chicken breast with the bone in, and they were huge (big mistake).  I should have filet the breast or cut it in half to reduce its size.  I used whole milk plain yogurt (not greek), and I added a few tablespoons of buttermilk powder.  I fried the chicken in canola oil since coconut oil is expensive.  I had to end up baking the chicken at 400 for 20-30 minutes after frying because they were so large.  The crust was crispy and very tasty.  Adding parmesan cheese was a great addition.  I will definitely make this again.  I skipped the sauce, and I served a side salad with the chicken.  Amazing!

(I have a giveaway starting tomorrow, so make sure you come back!)