Taking The Day...

I'm off to enjoy my quiet house (the parents visit got canceled=BOO!) and rest. The downstairs bath is almost finished. I slowed down when I realized no one was coming so that last coat of paint is still needed but it is already looking fabulous. Once I wrap it up I'll have some before and afters for you and let you in on our next big project! I'll give you a hint

here

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

New Dance Shoes

I love me some sparklies! So why not put them on your shoes? Suburbs Mama had me at the Mod Podge with these babies.

Is there nothing Mod Podge can't make even more awesome? I had a pair of shoes sitting around that I never wear so I thought, why the heck not??? If I ruin them, well, I wasn't wearing them anyway (it helped that I had an abundance of Mod Podge and Glitter too so it was a free project in my eyes).

I took my shoes from this

To this

Couldn't you just die???? I love them! 

Since I didn't start with tan shoes I painted mine with some acrylic paint I had laying around from the craft store. It took three coats to get them to this state

Then I mixed my gold glitter (Martha Stewart's Smokey Quartz) that I had left over from some sparkly candles I made last Christmas with my Mod Podge. It is really hard to tell if you are putting enough glitter in. My first mix gave me this

Not enough glitter. It should almost cover completely the first time so I added more and got this

Oh Mod Podge how I love you. I let that dry and added one more coating of the glitter to even out any missed spots and then topped it with a clear coat of Mod Podge to seal it in. Then I just let it dry over night and voila, gold shoes for a whopping $0.00 (way better than some of the $500 ones I've seen around like these). I figure, even if I never wear these shoes again they will at least look smashing on my closet shelves (it wasn't like I was wearing them very often in the first place). 

Do you dare to glitterfy some shoes? Dare, dare! If I had a daughter I'd make her be Dorthy for Halloween just to make a pair of these in red. Hey, I might do that any way. Now please excuse me while I stare at my feet.

Cheers!

Check out some other great ideas over at The Shabby Nest,

For The Love of Cheese!

I've already told you all about my crazy love of cheese (see here) and the wonder that is Wine and Cheese but this Tuesday was special. It's the Wine and Cheese before my birthday!

For years I have wanted a proper cheese cake for my birthday. Like this one

here

or this one

here

but wheels of cheese are EXPENSIVE! A good whole wheel can cost upwards of 300$ not to mention the fact that how on earth could anyone eat that much cheese??? (well, I know how I just don't think my body would appreciate it). Like all things that are out of my reach I lust and then I plan a knockoff. Honestly, I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before. You can make a very cute and modest cheese cake with just a few simple tools. 

1: Round cookie cutters of varying sizes. I love this set Daniel got for me for Christmas. 

2: Cheese. The key to making this work is that your cheese has to be flat and the same thickness all the way through. 

I picked up a nice selection. I also grabbed a few round cheeses to make my life slightly easier. 

I missed getting pictures of this next step because I was having way too much fun (and I had cheese all over my hands) but it is pretty simple. Take a round cookie cutter and punch out a round of cheese. Once you've punched all the rounds you can (remember to do these in different sizes so they stack like a regular cake) stack away. I made two.

"Curse you mighty mountain of cheese!" Who said you can't play with your food? Next simply garnish and enjoy! 

The blue cheese was the most difficult to work with since it was a bit crumbly but you can just reshape it if it falls apart a bit. 

The best part of punching out all the rounds is getting to make fromage forte with all the leftover bits of cheese. Sometimes I hoard cheese ends for weeks just to make this stuff. If you eat as much cheese as we do you will find there always seems to be just a little bit left over. Save these! Do not throw them away! Just keep them around until you have 1/2-1 lb of cheese bits and pieces. Then, using your handy dandy food processor, blend all the bits (grate them first if they are hard cheeses) with 2 cloves of garlic and 1/2 cup of white wine. It should go from this

to this

Just add a little more white wine if you need to until it is the consistency of pie dough. Now you've got a pliable mound of spreadable cheese that can be made into a ball or simply pressed into a serving dish like so

A warning though, this cheese is not for the faint of heart. Fromage Forte means strong cheese and it is. Especially if you've got a good blue in there. You can make it with any cheese you'd like, but I say the stronger the better! 

So get out there and eat some cheese! 

Cheers!

In With the Good, Out With the Bad

Boy was I productive yesterday! I got the downstairs shower re-finished, made two pillows, reupholstered an ottoman, made a bracelet and put the last coat on my jewelry box project. I was a woman on fire!  It's amazing what company coming can do to boost your motivation.

I've seen a few posts on re-finishing a bathtub or shower and everyone seems to have had good luck at it so I thought I'd give it a go. One of the things many people recommended was using a spray on product instead of a roll on for ease of use. Not so much for me. I don't know if I am just spray paint challenged but I had serious issues with getting this to work. It kept clogging and dripping. A mess! If you are well versed in spray paint it probably is easier but I think when I refinish my tub I'll try the roll on. On the plus side though it worked really well (or at least it looks good so far). I'll give you a sneak peak

Before

After

No, it isn't picture perfect but it is better than it was and we don't have the time/money to demo the bath. I think if I had been willing to chip away all the badly placed caulk it might have looked a little cleaner but I was afraid I'd completely ruin the shower. On the plus side I got to get all dressed up for the occasion

I call it post apocalyptic chic.

I did decide on a color scheme though which I am very excited about

Love you BHG

I'm keeping the walls a classic white with some green in the art and coral in the shower curtain. I picked up this one at Target

It is fun and geometric (and clear which is a huge plus in that tiny tiny light-less shower stall). I have a gold frame for some tropical art and was thinking I'd add some gold accents to the place. It should be bright and fun when I finish. Today I paint the walls and then hopefully have something to reveal to you by Friday (which coincidentally is when my parents arrive). 

Cheers!

Let's All Take A Shower!

Good morning! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine was full of visiting friends and shopping (things that I love) and just a little residual yard work. I finally got the yard seeded! Now I just have to sit back and watch it grow. Norman is upset that he can't go back there until it is established but it it shouldn't be too long. I'm trying to wrap up all the little back yard bits because my parents are coming on Friday for a visit. This means I am turning my attention to my very rarely used guest bathroom. It's in sad shape right now but I've got plans for it. These are the colors I'm working with

via Design Seeds

Isn't the wall paper in this bathroom fabulous? Too bad my bathroom is a 1/10 of the size.

via

I love the coral and mustard combo.

via

Flamingo! Coral, cream and blue.

via Art.com

I'm thinking bright and bold (since that is how the guest bed is turned out here). I love coral right now and it fits in to my house color pallet nicely. Maybe add some gold accents. It's a tiny tiny bathroom so it needs something to make it interesting. Today I'm refinishing the shower (more on that later) so we'll see what I end up with tomorrow.

Cheers!

Gettin' Her Done

I've been slowly amassing picture frames from various thrift stores for months with one end in mind, a gallery wall. With the impending house guests looming over my shoulder (and the fact that I've been using the guest bed as a place to store my un-hung art) I finally bit the bullet and got her done. The only decent hallway I have is downstairs so I installed my gallery there. Some before and afters for you.

Looking down the hall:

Before 

After

Looking out from the Library
Before

After

Looking out of the Guest Bedroom

Before

After

 And one last look of the whole wall

As you can see there are still come empty frames and place holders but they are up and out of the way. Hopefully I can get some pictures printed and in them before next weekend but we'll see.

As to process: I took a page out of John and Sherry's book over at Young House Love and used their paper method. It's actually a great way to get a sense of what the wall will look like covered in frames. For each frame cut out a piece of paper to the size of the frame and number. I used post-it notes for numbering the frames. 

This way you can rearrange the "frames" without putting holes in your walls. I was worried that doing the floor to ceiling frames like Sherry and John did would be too overwhelming with my black frames so I stuck with a cluster across the center of the wall. 

Since I acquired most of my frames at thrift stores they weren't all black to begin with. Spray paint made that an easy fix (here they are all different colors).

Once everything was black I started hanging them up on the wall. This is where the numbering and the paper really shines. After checking the back of the frame to see where the hanging element is you can nail directly into the paper. Then you simply remove the paper and hang your frame. 

Here is the wall partially completed. You can see my post-its on the frames helping me remember where each picture goes. Here it is again fully complete. 

I have projects planned for some of the gaps and maybe i'll add some more frames as I go. There are still come spots that seem like they need something but I really like walking into the hall and seeing something interesting there on the wall. 

Cheers!

Good Eats Challenge Week 6: Ice Cream

Ok, so I know I am horribly late on this post but I was hoping I'd have better news for you on how it turned out.

Last Friday we attempted Ice Cream. Key Lime Sorbet to be precise. We followed every direction to the letter, churned away and got... a block of lime flavored ice. **sigh**

I attempted to melt and re-churn (since that was Alton Brown's advice if it didn't turn out) but no luck. It tastes really good just doesn't scoop like ice cream.

Since I didn't want to call it a complete failure I remembered this pin that made me want Popsicles

via Southern Living

and made this

Some dry champagne over the key lime scrapings. YUM! it may have been a failure but we still enjoyed the evening. 

Anyone have tips on ice cream making? I have the Kitchen Aide Ice Cream attachment and have yet to make a good batch of ice cream with it. Here's to hoping! See you next week for Biscuits! 

Cheers!