Thursday, October 21, 2010

Breadsticks (and soup)

The soup part of this post is nonexistent. I made it and planned on sharing and it wasn't great. I'm pretty sure I didn't like the potatoes in it, so maybe I'll try it again without them. Then, if it's any good, I'll share.

The good news is that I made the most amazing, cheap, easy breadsticks EVAH!

You'll need:

1 tube of Buttermilk Biscuits (on sale for $1 - high five)
2-3 Tblspn of Butter
Smidge of Garlic Powder
Smidge of Italian Seasoning
Smidge of Salt

(ya like my precise measuring?)
Mix the last four ingredients together and set aside.

Split biscuits apart and begin to roll each biscuit into a snake. I imagine you could split the biscuits in half and have thinner sticks, but we died for the thick ones even if you only get eight per tube.

After they're in snake form, use a basting brush and lap on the butter concoction to each snake. Bake at 350 for about 10-12 mins. I continually checked mine to make sure they didn't burn and 12 mins. seemed perfect.

I'm not sure why I didn't take an after picture, probably because we gobbled them up so fast, but here's is what they looked like going into the oven.


Maybe someday I'll make a soup that doesn't fail. If any of you lovely readers have a good soup recipe, hook a sista up!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Take Me Up Basket

I caught the crud, but I'm not letting that stop my crafty self. Being sick is one thing, but being sick and bored is quite another. To avoid the inevitable boredom, I grabbed a few things, brought them to bed and snuggled up to make this:



Anyone who has a staircase in their house knows that the bottom and the top steps are usually layover stops for everything. It's not necessarily out of laziness that stuff accumulates there. It's because eventually, you're going to be heading down (or up) those stairs again, so why make an extra trip right now? Right? Right! But --there's always a 'but' -- sometimes [this is all hypothetical of course] someone else heads down those stairs before you and passes by the pile of stuff. And [hypothetically] let's also say this person says "I didn't know if you wanted that to go downstairs, so I just left it." And there the stuff sits, alone and homeless on the stairs.

Well, confusion no more my friends. To avoid the above [hypothetical] situation, I created a 'Take Me Up/Take Me Down' basket. This way, there is absolutely no confusion where the pile of stuff needs to go and anyone (ahem) can take it.

In general, I don't like baskets, but that's what I've got on-hand and utility is outweighing aesthetics for the time being. When I find something else to take it's place I'll just switch out the tag.

You'll need:

A basket (or any container, preferably with a handle)
Card stock or Thick Scrapbook Paper (you can just layer regular paper if that's all ya got)
Ribbon
Letter Stickers (of course you could print, write, cricut, whatevs)
Glue (if I wasn't laid up in bed, I would have used hot glue)
Scissors


I started by choosing four 4x4 pieces of scrapbook paper and glued two sheets to either side of thicker card stock(ish). I wanted it to be strong enough to withstand rides up and down the stairs regularly, so a thin piece of paper just wouldn't do.

Oh yeah, these photos are totally on my lap, in bed. Hardcore crafter right hur.

Then, I put my little letter stickers on the other two coordinating sheets of paper and layered up. Gotta give it a little dimension. Of course, you could change up this step accommodate the supplies you're workin' with.


Finally, I attached the ribbon around the handle and onto the paper. Yeah, yeah, I should have done that when I was pasting the paper together in the beginning, but I'm all hopped up on NyQuil. Gimme a break.


I just realized I forgot to show you the "Take Up" side. Oops. I'll draw you a little mental pciture...it looks just like the "Take Down" except it says "Take Up" in opposite colors. ;-)

So does this work or not?

<3 dani

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Second Life of a Book: Wreath

Book wreaths; I've seen these everywhere lately and there's no denying how gorgeous they are. But who knew they are so simple and CHEAP too?!

As you know, I'm redecorating our master bedroom. I put myself on a strict budget. Ready for this?...$30. Yes, that's right. Thirty smackeroos. Any free (or almost free) project makes me salivate. Especially when the Momma confirmed that the current display above the headboard was...how did she put it...'too much!" Hopefully, the wreath will be a little more subtle in our new master bedroom.

There are tons of tutorials out there and I've read about half of them and this is what I used:

Dollar Store Styrofoam Wreath
Book - roughly 175 pages (I took it off my book shelf. I have no idea how it got there or if it's any good and I never planned to find out. We all have one or two of these in our library, right?)
Hot Glue Gun
Pins
Paint & Brush (or paper towel, whatevs)




I started by lightly dry brushing the edges of the book with paint. You could skip this step or replace it with this step from Rachelle at Fingerprints on the Fridge. I went with white paint, I know, risky! Hey, I live on the edge, what can I say. While I waited for the edges to dry I hauled all of my supplies up to the living room and set up -- there was a football game on. I'll sacrifice using my newly refurbed craft area in order to hang with the Hubs and watch football. So romantic, right?

Start with the bottom layer, a.k.a. the layer that will be touching the wall. I rolled and slightly crimped three or four book pages at a time. I tried to mix up the pattern on my rolls and crimps to avoid making it looke too uniform.I dropped a bead of hot glue down and attached the book pages, over the glue, with pins.


Like so.


The three pages you see in the front aren't attached. That's how I stashed my on-deck pages. Also, I think I should have glued the pages a little tighter together. It would have saved me a lot of filling later. 


Here's the back, completely covered. I flipped it over and grabbed the closest heavy object to flatten it a bit. The wood pile was right next to me, so on goes a log.

Next I started with the middle row. For this row, I folded the rolled paper about 1/4 of the way up and attached it to the wreath at the fold. The point of folding is to keep the book pages semi-even. If you don't fold, I'm sure a little extra scrunching at the end will even them out.



This is when I should have made a second middle row, but instead I moved right to the top and final row. Again, I folded them about 1/4 of the way up. The purpose of this fold was to give a little curve on the inside hole of the wreath.


At this point, I was practically done. The only thing left was to fill in any gaps. I wasn't meticulous about this part. I just filled spots where I could see the wreath (which was basically an entire new middle row). Then I scrunched to open the pages a bit. 

Here's the final product. So George-Us.



mmm...fluff


You have to try this!

<3 dani


*If you can dig it, follow JDitB. There's more where this came from...until I run out of fabulous ideas...which is, at least, another three or four days ;-)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

1974...The Year of the Lamps

Unfortunately, several months ago, my grandmother-in-law had to move from her house to an assisted living facility. As we all know, the rooms at those facilities are smaller than a dorm room, so a lot of her stuff had to go.

My mother-in-law invited me over to see if I could use anything (that's silly, I can 'use' everything - tee hee) and I found these amazing lamps that, with a little love, would go perfect in out living room. I snatched them up. My mother-in-law thought I was crazy for taking them, but I'm sure there are a ton of other things I do that play into that conclusion.

Later on, I learned that these lamps were my father-in-law's from college. Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly 1974, but you get the drift. Awesome nonetheless. So unintentionally retro; I blow my own mind sometimes. Anywho, the lamps worked, but the shade and the metallic finish were definitely begging for help. Screaming, in fact.






Look at those age spots...


A can of Valspar Metallic Silver and two new drum shades (that the Momma snagged for me) and hello new lampies.  So stikin' hot, I could kiss 'em.




No more age spots!

Originally, I wanted a short, drum shade, but finding one that was under $30 and fit properly was a huge waste of time. I also considered tearing apart the original shades and recovering, but my conscience kicked in when I saw this:


Hand tailored!?! No way I'm ruining that man's shade! Maybe one day I'll have enough courage to rip up the beautiful (yet out dated) work of Edward Alden, but until then the inexpensive shades work wonderfully.



<3 dani

LINKIN UP

*If you can dig it, follow JDitB. There's more where this came from...until I run out of fabulous ideas...which is, at least, another three or four days ;-)

Master Bedroom Teaser

Three years ago, when we purchased our house, painting every single room was a huge task to take on.  There was only one room that didn't have a crappy color on the wall and the ugliest color of all was in the living room. Ya know, the room with 20ft ceilings. Of course I started there, which led into the stark white walls of the kitchen and dining room and by the time I was done with those two areas, I lost my ambition.

Now, three years later, our master bedroom is still sportin' the ugly paint color. Not for long! Lowe's had paint on sale and like a hawk in the night, I swooped in and got me some. Luckily, I keep my fave paint chips in my wallet, so I was totally prepared walking up to that paint counter.

Glidden Master Palette (color matched) - Seal Grey - Flat


Sexy color, right? Rawr.

I came directly home and got started. Of course, I cut in first. The brush (<-- click for the info)I have literally does all of the work for me. If you do any painting, buy one of these instead of tape. It is a beautiful thing.


This is when I start to get a little nervous...second guessing my color choice...deciding whether I really want to keep painting (or if I'm getting too bored)...and how the hell am I going to accessorize this place!?


But I can assure you, I finished and it's frickin' awesome! 


More to come!

<3 dani

LINKIN UP


*If you can dig it, follow JDitB. There's more where this came from...until I run out of fabulous ideas...which is, at least, another three or four days ;-)