Chevron Wall Art :)

 

This week I've been sick as a dog :( but I did manage to get some crafty in yet, Chevron wall art!!!!!

 

 

I had a slightly out of date, boring brown frame hanging in our spare room that I have always felt needed a facelift but never knew what exactly I wanted to do with it. Well, the other night inspiration hit! Here is the before photo of the frame...

 

 

I have been eyeing up all kinds of chevron home décor for a while now, so I decided to try it. I just flipped the picture over that was in the frame before (it was a piece of cardboard with a picture glued to it) and used it as my canvas! I started by giving the cardboard and frame a few coats of white paint. The frame ended up needing about 5 thin coats before it was completely white. Probably because I didn't use any primer, whoops! I figure its hanging on a wall, how scuffed could it possibly get??

 

I made a chevron "stencil" out of the paper backing from the frame using a quilting ruler and then traced the stripes onto my white canvas.

 



 

I painted the stripes using a cheap foam brush from the dollar store and.. wait for it... yup, the beautiful yellow paint that I'm still trying to use up! At some point I know I'll have to move on to another color but for now, yellow makes me happy and that's all that matters!

 

 

I printed a picture of a branch off the internet and cut it out using a utility knife to make a stencil, and then painted over the stencil in gray that I mixed using my acrylic paint set.

 

Two coats of that and I ended up with this...

 

 



I did the same thing with a cute bird (found online as well) and this is the end result! I love how it turned out. I haven't hung it anywhere yet, but it'll most likely end up the master bedroom or the bathroom... probably the bathroom above the toilet.

 



 

I am realizing that there are so many projects I can do at home using stuff I already have on hand. This project cost me...... $0.00!! All the supplies used were already sitting around my house. With a little bit of imagination and some research online, you can come up with endless projects that can perk up your home and give it a more up to date look.

 





Baskets bright and beautiful!

Wow, the last week has been so busy that it just flew by!! Rods sister was here for the weekend and we did a LOT of shopping and even got to go to a concert for free, score!

 

So because of the busyness, I haven't really been crafting, sewing, cooking or really anything creative, but today I caught my breath a little bit and got back into it:) I am trying to figure out ways to pull my house together  using stuff I already have or thrift store purchases.

 

Since I still have almost a whole (small) can of yellow paint leftover from my lamps, I have been trying to figure out where else I can use it. So, completely randomly today  I notice that the basket in my bathroom holding all my hair product was boringly "basket color". Kind of tan, beige, off white, anyway, I figured it would look much better with some style! I was right, it does look better.

Here are some photos of the process...

 

BEFORE...

 

 

le bottom...

 

 

I almost went with a dipped looked, but when I put the blue liner into the basket, it just didn't look right, so....

 

... I decided to paint the whole thing, which turned out pretty good I think!

 

 



 

My bathroom counter is a little bit cluttered, yes....

 

 



 

 

And that's it!! My one lonely little project in a week! I know its pretty pathetic for a self proclaimed "lover of all things creative". But hey, it should pick up soon, because I picked up my sewing machines today!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were both not working well since before Christmas, so I finally got them serviced. Now I can get back to working on my projects that have sat neglected for many months! Hopefully I'll have some good projects to blog about very soon!

 

(By the way, there is another small project peeking into this photo! My lace/photo frame jewelry hanger. I just need to hang it somewhere yet...)

 

Easy Raspberry Jam

People always tell me how much they love homemade jam, but most of those people have never attempted to make it themselves. They've just lucked out somewhere and got the opportunity to taste someone else's. Nobody ever wants to believe me that it's one of the easiest "do-it-yourself" cooking projects you could do. Here is my super easy, very yummy raspberry jam recipe.

 

I have tried the cooked version as well as the no-cook freezer version of this jam and they are both really good and easy, but Rod and I both prefer the freezer version. It keeps more of the bright red color and the flavor is fresher in my opinion.

 

You will need:

 

* large stainless steel bowl or pot

* masher and stirring spoon

* sieve (for seedless jam)

* 6 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

* 2 tbsp. lemon juice (from a bottle or freshly squeezed)

* about 2 - 2 1/2 cups sugar

* pectin (read instructions on box)

 

 

 

Step 1: Mash the raspberries until they turn into a  nice and mushy pulp.

(sorry, I didn't get a picture of it looking nice and mushy before I added the sugar)

 

 

 

 Step 2: (optional) Take some or all (depending on how many seeds you want to get rid of) of the pulp and in layers squish it through the sieve. Make sure you get as much of the juice squeezed out of the pulp as you possibly can. Then discard the pulp and seeds that are left over in the sieve and do another layer, until you have separated as much of the juice from the seeds/pulp as you want. Its ok to leave some of the pulp and seeds in, its really just preference as to how much you remove if any. Rod likes having seeds in his jam, I prefer none. (I didn't remove the seeds this time around so I have no pictures of this step)

 

Step 3: Time for the lemon and sugar! It's really up to you how much you want to add. The lemon juice helps bring out the flavors of the berries and I found that  2 tbsp. was perfect for my taste. You can kind of taste a lemony flavor but it mostly tastes like really good raspberries! I would say taste the raspberry juice before adding any sugar, and then start adding it in 1/4 or 1/2 cup amounts. Most jam recipes will call for more cups of sugar then fruit and that just seems wrong to me. Just keep adding sugar and tasting the jam until you think it's sweet enough. For me that was about  2 cups. Stir the jam until all the sugar is dissolved and the juices start looking clear.

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Follow the directions on the box or paper insert  for the pectin. Once you have prepared the pectin as per directions (pretty much adding it to water and bringing it to a boil), stir it into the jam and keep stirring for 3 min.

 

 

 

 

Your jam should look like this!!

 



 

 

 

Step 5: This jam is stored in the freezer, so you can pour it into plastic containers or even glass jars. I use jars because I have a lot of them! And that's it!! It took me about 20 min from start to finish the other day, and now I have three beautiful jars of yummy, fresh raspberry jam. (somehow on my monitor the color of the jam looks more like pizza sauce, but I promise in real life it's the perfect red color for raspberry jam!)

 

 

 

 

I hope this inspires someone to try making they're own jam! I use this same recipe for strawberry jam with amazing results! (just skip over the seed removal step entirely) Oh, and we store one jar in the fridge to use because it gets pretty thick in the freezer. The more sugar you add the more runny it will stay in the freezer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad day and Good Food!!

Today was one of those days, the kind where I'd rather go crawl into bed and sleep for a few hours then be at work. It snowed a few inches this morning and we're back to cold, windy, dreary winter conditions. Bleh! I am so super duper excited for summer its not even funny. Actually I've been looking forward spring since about... oh umm, maybe the end of August?? I know, its pathetic, I live in a northern climate and winter should just be a normal accepted part of life, but I just can't seem to accept or enjoy it that much.:( Plus, I managed to pop out another coldsore :(, sadly I am one of the many that suffers from this painfull, annoying and completely unflattering virus. Definately not something that makes your day.

Anyway! Enough of that. On to some food related topics! I tried quinoa for the first time today (it might be the second time actually but I can't remember how it tasted the first time so I'll say its the first) and loved it!! I didn't do anything fancy with it,  I just wanted to cook it and be able to taste the real deal.

 I actually ended up eating it plain, so much better then rice! Totally going to start using it as a regular weekly (ish) part of my somewhat irregular and unorganized mealplan. I love meal-planning and when I take the time to actually write it all down and make a grocery list, it works really well. Sometimes I need a good kick in the pants though to do it. (The last couple of weeks have not been very stellar in the planning/organization area.)

I bought a new cookbook the other day called The Loonespoons Collection, its amazing! So many pictures and funny little cartoons all throughout, its really fun to look through. A friend of mine has it and she cooks from it regularly, including an amazing chocolate three layer cake for my birthday last week! I'm pretty sure I gained 10 lbs in this last week alone trying to finish off the last 1/3 of the cake. Which reminds me... I could really use a piece right now:). Heres a pic of the book, from Costco for $19.99.

Food is one of those things that I can't say no to, especially sugary, bad for my love handles, good for my heart (not my physical one mind you!) goodies! I have recently toyed with the idea of giving up sugar, even just for a short time, but I always manage to find some excuse for why I should put it off, like "oh wait, it's my birthday tomorrow", or "I'd rather start at the beginning of the week", or the best one, "but I can't let this go bad, it has to be eaten!" Like I'm doing the food a service or something. Somehow that makes sense to my sugar craving brain.

Who knows, maybe soon I'll find the determination/motivation/desire to attempt a sugar fast, and then again, maybe I'll just start going to the gym instead:)