Box Trio Makeover

Remember those primed boxes I shared with you last week?  

 

Applying coats of yellow paint

I first became acquainted with this set of boxes while aimlessly browsing a thrift store for fun stuff to repurpose.  They were hideous and baby-themed in pastel blue, yellow, and pink.  Absolutely hideous, I tell you (forgive me, I forgot to take an unadulterated “before” photo).  At the time I had no plan for them, but just knew I couldn’t pass them up for under $3.  Hidden storage/organization space such as this is always a valuable commodity, and with a little paint I knew these things could be great someday.  So I purchased them, threw them in the basement with all the other cast-off someday-crafts, and forgot all about them.  Until recently. 

Recently, I decided I wanted some sort of storage in my bathroom for things like q-tips and cotton balls.  Currently, I keep all of these things in a drawer in their original packaging, which looks like crap and isn’t really all that convenient.  I wanted something that I could keep out in the open, perhaps on the back of the toilet.  So, like any good hoarder, I check the basement to see if I have a suitable forgotten someday-craft castaway.  Turns out I did.  Enter the ugly nursery themed box trio.  It’s a perfect size for behind the toilet.  Imagine my joy. 

I decided I would decoupage some fun cardstock to the sides of the tray, and paint the trio to match the paper.  Easy enough.  I head to the craft store, and I find (and purchase) this lovely paper. 

Cute, right?  Obviously, I found this paper so wonderful that I went off track entirely.  You see, my bathroom is not gray and yellow.  My bedroom is.  My bathroom?  That’s sage green and brown.  I’m not sure what I was thinking, but I decided to go with it.  Plans be damned.  I’ll work it into the bedroom somewhere.  Perhaps for jewelry?

Anyway, this paper will go around the outside of the tray, maybe even lining the bottom. I’ll paint the tray and boxes dark gray, and let the stencil design peek through in yellow. 

Currently, the boxes are painted yellow awaiting their stencil application and final coats of gray paint.  

Progress now relies on finding a stencil.  So, sadly, this project is officially on the backburner until I find a stencil.

On to my next project: Painted Vases

Does anyone else have crafting ADD?  I seem to always have multiple projects going on at once.

Going Vertical

So, it’s been an aggravatingly long time since I’ve had time to veg out and craft.  I’ve been maddeningly busy as of late.  I started going back to school during fall of 2011.  I also work a full time job and said full time job has been requiring some overtime for the past few months.  Most people with any semblance of time management skills would be able to manage this without issue.  But me?  No time management skills to speak of.  Literally zero.  So I’ve been deprived of all those sweet hours of interweb browsing, pinning, and crafting that I used to take for granted.  All work and no play has made  Jack Heather a dull boy  girl.  In order to prevent a quarter one life crisis (I could hardly call it mid-life…I’m only 27, after all) I decided to take a break and forgo summer classes.

I think it will be well worth it.  I’m only less than a month into my leisure time and I feel like a new person already.  I have 9+ months’ worth of accumulated ideas sloshing around and incubating in my brain.  I need to get them out. There is an overpopulation of craft ideas and they are starting to overtake my thoughts.  It’s not pretty in there.  I must make the most of every sweet, precious second.

I spent the day Tuesday shopping for supplies.  We have 5 thrift stores , 2 craft stores, and 3 discount stores (Target, Ross, and TJ Maxx).  When I'm seeking out cheap supplies for projects I usually try to get to as many of these stores as possible.  I didn't manage to hit all 10 stores, but I did get to 3 of the thrift stores, Ross, and AC Moore.  I found a lot of really great stuff that I'm really excited to start working on!

My living room already looks like a war zone.  I do not yet have a dedicated craft space (other than the basement, but the lighting is depressing down there), so I am forced to do my crafting throughout the house in areas like the living room and kitchen.  This doesn't bother me one bit, but I think my boyfriend wants to catch my craft supplies on fire.    

 I’ve spent the past few weeks trying to organize my mess of ideas into a cohesive design plan that I can actually work on and put to use within my home.  I realized recently that for as much as I craft and try to decorate my home, I often neglect my walls somehow.  I was sitting on my couch, looking around my house taking stock of what I wanted to accomplish…and I realized that the only walls I’ve decorated are the ones I can see from the couch!!  I literally have neglected to decorate almost every single wall in my home!  My work is cut out for me.  My goal this summer is to get vertical with my projects and get some stuff on these barren walls!

I need to create something for the following areas.  Some areas I have something specific in mind for, others it’s completely uncharted territory.

1. Living room above the couch
2. Office space above my desk
3. Kitchen above table
4. 3 walls of my bedroom (2 walls/br)
5. Entryway (3 projects)

That makes about 15 potential projects, give or take.  Plus, I have a few things I’m working on now which are things that I’ve been planning for a really long time, but have put off for one reason or another.  The fact that these are really old ideas finally coming to life is making me all that much more eager to see them to fruition.  I’ve been so eager to get the ball rolling that I already have 5 projects in motion!  Only one of which is for the walls.  Can you tell I get side tracked easily? 

The things I’m working on right now consist of a lot of painting, which means a lot of drying time, which in turn means a lot of multi-tasking.  Spray painting also means that I’m at Mother Nature’s mercy.  This is the real reason I have 5 projects going at once.  I need reliable indoor projects to fall back on.  That, and I’m basically a crazy person.  Or so I’m told.  Here's a sneak peek at one of my current projects.

More to come on that some day soon.  If you're wondering, I'm using a gigantic box from an amazon order as a paint shield.  Worked fairly well, but I'll line the deck next time with a plastic drop cloth.  I’ll have individual posts for this project, and the other projects as I get them finished…or as they progress, depending on how long I take!  

Beer (and my pooch and some pasta)

It was such a bee-a-yootiful day here today!  It was like 85 degrees.  It was awesome.  I took the day off (well, technically flexed the day off, for those of you more acquainted with my work schedule).  I took my lazy bones dog for a walk.  Here's a picture of my lazy bones poojoo:

Her "real" name is Layla.  But she grew into Poojoo mostly because I'm retarded and I call my animals by stupid nonsense names.

Anyway, after we got back I was in the mood for a nice, cold beer.  I have a case of the Sam Adam's brew master collection right now.  My favorite is the Noble Pils.  I'm always a fan of a good pilsner.  Especially on a hot day so I chose the pilsner to drink with dinner.  We had grilled marinated chicken. Grilled indoor on the grill pan because my boyfriend's a meanie mean pants and won't buy me a grill.  Just kidding.  He didn't actually say he wouldn't.  But I don't have a grill so I'm blaming him ;)

You can check out the recipe for the marinade at Homemade by Holman.  It's bangin'.  I didn't change a thing.  No pics of the chicken.  I was starving.  No time to mess around with a camera and a tripod.  I wanted to drink my beer and stuff my face, damn it.

I made some really simple pasta with the chicken.  It was surprisingly good for how simple it was.  It was really light and perfect for the hot day (if pasta is ever perfect for a hot day). It went something like this:

6.5 oz. of dry angle hair, cooked to al dente
1/2 c. pasta water reserved
2-3 tbsp. evoo
2 tbsp red bell pepper and garlic perfect pinch seasoning (mccormick)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp parsley flakes

Just toss all of that together and you've got yourself a side dish. 

I've gotta say, I'm not usually a huge fan of premixed season blends, but I rather enjoy that red pepper and garlic perfect pinch stuff.  I know it's probably full of disgusting preservatives and strange additives.  For once, I don't care.  This stuff is delicious. 

Anyway, I enjoyed a Boston Lager after the sun went down and that brings me to my photo of the day.

April 11, 2011:

If you view it larger (on flickr perhaps) you can see all of the condensation, which I thought was pretty nifty. 

I hope you all enjoyed this beautiful day as much as I did!

New photos

It's been a while since I posted.  What a busy, busy beaver I've been.  I got some new filters since I last posted.  They are a set of close up "macro" filters.  Four filters come in the set.  1x, 2x, 4x, and 10x. They're pretty cool.  And they came in a nifty little pouch.  The best part?  They were less than $15!!

I was playing with them this weekend.  Here are some of my shots using them:

April 10, 2011:
 

I used the 4x filter on this one.  I was probably less than 6 inches away from the shrub.  I did crop it a little bit to get rid of some of the distracting background.


April 9, 2011:

 I also used the 4x fitlers with this one.  No crop here tho.


April 8, 2011:

 

This was taken with the 10x filter.  No crop here either.  I was probably about 3 inches away from the subject.  

I think these filters are just super.  I mean, for $15 you really can't go wrong but you are still kind of left wondering what kind of quality you could possibly get with a set of filters this cheap.  Especially when you read reviews on Amazon saying exactly that...that they're complete crap and the image quality is poor.  In my opinion, the image quality is no worse than with the bare lens.  I kinda think it's all about the aperture setting.  You're not going to be able to obtain the same DOF at f/4 with the bare lens as you will be able to get at f/4 with a close up filter in place.  You'll have to bump the aperture up to maybe f/8 to get the same DOF depending on the magnification.  Once you play around with them and get to know them (which I'm still doing) they seem to be quite fun.  I can get closer to things and still obtain focus.  That just makes my day because I find that I like to get up close and personal with my subjects.  

Anyway, here are more photos (not taken with the filters)...

April 7, 2011:

A shot of my neighbors car.

April 6, 2011:

I was feeling lazy on Wednesday.  A simple shot but it works. 

If you're interested in EXIF you can find that on flickr.  C&C is always welcome! 

Chicken Linguine with Pesto Cream Sauce

This was a really simple meal that was surprisingly delicious.  It was a crowd pleaser, for sure.  I had this flavor in mind when I was throwing this recipe together and I was totally sure it wasn't going to come close.  I was way wrong.  This recipe hit the nail dead on the head.  I think I just got lucky with the pesto that I bought.  I really had no other option because I can never find anything at walmart (even though I do my grocery shopping there every week) and the Classico brand was the only thing I could find.

I think next time I will double the sauce tho because I'm just a saucy kinda person.  I like everything drowning in copious amounts of sauce.  I made a one substitution and that was to use almond milk (because it's what I had in my fridge) instead of heavy cream.  It turned out just fine.  In fact, I think I prefer the thinner consistency.  Oh, and I also added some veg. 

Once again, this meal is also my photo of the day for April 5, 2011.

Chicken Linguine with Pesto Cream Sauce

adapted from Handle the Heat

2 large chicken breasts, cut thinly in half lengthwise 

(my two weighed exactly 1 lb 11 oz)

Coarse salt and pepper

EVOO or cooking spray

1 box of linguine 

1 (8 oz) jar of basil pesto sauce

1/2 c. milk or heavy cream

1/2 c. reserved pasta water

Frozen veg (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 
2. Season chicken breast with salt and pepper to taste. 
3. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and grease the pan with cooking spray or oil (I used EVOO in a misto). 
4. Bake chicken for about 15 minutes or until cooked through.  When chicken is done cooking, slice thinly across the grain and keep warm.
5. Meanwhile, cook pasta to al dente according to package directions (the shortest cook time listed on the box).  
6. Remember to reserve 1/2 c of pasta water before straining the noodles.
7. Add pesto to the pan and heat until loose. Add milk (or cream).  Stir to combine.  Heat through then remove half of the sauce to another bowl. 
8. If your adding veg, add it now and cover the pan for a few minutes until the veg is warm. 
9. Add the chicken, pasta, and reserved water to the pan once the veg is warm.  Toss to coat evenly.  
10. Serve with some of the reserved sauce drizzled over each serving.   

If you double the sauce this would be good served with some bread to sop it up.  If you don't there won't be enough extra sauce to sop. If doubled, I would then reserve 3/4 of the sauce instead of half or all the extra will get absorbed by the pasta. 


Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

The name says it all.  It's chocolate chip cookie dough baked in a pie shell.  The dough for the filling isn't a traditional CCC dough.  That's to say that I don't think it would make good cookies by itself.  It does make a delicious filling tho because, lets be honest, anything involving chocolate chip cookies is delicious.  (Am I right??)  But next time I think I will forgo the pie shell and maybe just bake a huge, thick cookie.  I kinda think the shell detracted from the deliciousness of the cookie.  But then again your talking to a chocolate chip cookie purist.  I don't like anything messing and interfering with the awesomeness of my CC cookies.

You, however, might think this is the best thing to grace the pie world since coconut cream (wait, you don't like coconut cream?).  Apple then?  I'm not really a huge pie fan which might be where my slight dislike for this recipe is stemming from.  Despite my feelings towards pie I tried this anyway because my inner fat kid just couldn't say no to the cookie.  Thinking of it as a pie (which it is) and not as a cookie (which it technically is not), it's honestly one of the best pies I've ever had.  Right up there with coconut cream and french silk. 

I'm sort of cheating with my photo of the day because the photo for this recipe is my photo for April 4, 2011 (Yes, I know...I'm a day late.  Whatev's.  I took it yesterday, I swear!).

Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

adapted from Bakerella

1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup (6 ounces) mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl on high until foamy.
3. Beat in flour, baking soda, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter.
4. Stir in morsels and spoon into pie shell.
5. Bake for 55-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm with ice cream and syrup of your choice.  Maybe even some whipped cream if your feeling extra crazy.

Enjoy!

Weekend photos

Hello!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I was lazy about posting as usual on the weekends so you'll get all of my weekend photos today.  Oh, and I did my first real edit today!  I was so impressed with myself.  It's not even that what I did was extravagant or difficult...I'm just a photoshop retard. But I just raised my photoshop IQ by a few points.  Check this out...

Before:

 After:

Do you see it?  Look really hard.  It's there.  Down at the bottom...right corner and towards the middle.  Anything?  Yeah, that's right.  I removed some light posts and a tree.  What now bitches?  My life is forever changed.  Just kidding...only this photo is.

Is it just me or is the color a little paler in the second photo?  I think photoshop is a color thief.  What a jerk.  The above after shot is my photo of the day for April 2, 2011.

And here are my remaining photos.

April 3, 2011:

 

These Boots

April 1, 2011:

 Drip

March 31, 2011:

 Morning Dew

Oh and I might just have a recipe for you in the near future.  I had Mongolian Beef for dinner and it was prr-ett-ty tasty.  

As always, constructive criticism is always welcome!  Thanks for stopping by!