THE PAINTED COUCH

A few years ago I bought a 2 piece love seat for our back porch. I paid 6 dollars for the set. It was a bargain considering I didn't care what happened to them. They were already a bit dirty. Add Florida weather and dogs and you have what will more than likely end up in a burn pile. And that is almost what happened Saturday. Almost.

I just loved the style of them and the fact they can be a couch, a chaise or 2 chairs made me hold off the burning. I did a little research on pinterest. I read several tutorials and felt confident I had the perfect practice furniture. I had left over paint from the hallway which my boyfriend affectionately calls "tidy bowl" blue. I ran up to Joann's and used my coupon(s)to pick up some fabric medium and I was off to painting.....the couch.
The link I followed was found here. You use indoor house paint mixed with fabric medium. It is that easy.


The pre-loved, dirty, couch piece.

During the process pictures.

I was concerned I would run out of the blue so I switched to lime green for the cushions. It took a while to dry since it was raining off and on all weekend and the HUMIDITY! But here is what the final product looked like in the end. A million bucks, a happy owner and a feeling of accomplishment.

Darbarella: Up-cycled book crafts.

Darbarella: Up-cycled book crafts.

Sunday and Some Spray Paint

I had a few pinterest projects that I wanted to do this weekend. Not labor intensive, mind you, just a couple lazy day projects that gave me a sense of accomplishment.

This is what I did:

PROJECT 1) I have a hard time throwing out jars with lids. I had a small collection of spaghetti sauce jars so I decided to transform them. I found this idea , here.  Well, this may not have been the exact site but this is what I did. I took a few cast off toys and some soon to be trash and now I have awesome containers to hold my coffee stuff!

PROJECT 2) The office next door is closing down and they threw out a bunch of stuff, including a couple of paintings. Not my style but that was going to be fixed. I chose the painting of the beach scene because it had a frame and it was smaller. I got some vinyl stickers and some white spray paint. I followed this tutorial here. I wasn't sure what I was going to put on it and ended up having to use three different size stickers. My boyfriend helped with the placement and suggestions when I realized I ran out of the letter size I wanted. He also spray painted it for me because I was afraid I would muck it up. I love it. He wants to do one now, too!

Birthday Journey

I had a birthday party to attend on Sunday. I also know the girl loves crafts. This is my idea. I love the final product and I didn't break the bank. Hell, I didn't even touch the bank.

 

This is what I did. I went to our local craft recycle store, The Sharing Tree, and picked up  piece of foam board for 75 cents. I then found a Chamber of Commerce Map of Tallahassee (free) and ironed out the creases. I put the map on the ironing board, topped it with a dish towel and on the lowest setting ironed out as many creases as I could.

I then mounted the map onto the foam board with spray adhesive. I had framed the precious quote for my boyfriend a while back. I just hand wrote it on the foam board. If I didn't have time restraints I would have done it on the computer. I then attached push pins into the foam board and asked the party guests to mark on the map where they met the birthday girl and then also sign their name. In our case a lot of us met her at the same restaurant so we just all signed around the one push pin.

Again. I loved it. And I am certain I will make this again.

Pasta, from Scratch

We are paying bills. Paying off loans. In other words, we are broke. However,silver lining, this is when I feel I am the most creative and resourceful. I wish I could remember to do these things when we had money in our account. It would save us more money.

I have made pasta from scratch before but with the help of a pasta machine. I still have the machine but I wanted a challenge( and less dishes). I guess next time I will look for something harder because THIS WAS EASY.

I used The Pioneer Woman's Blog for instructions, which there weren't that many. Our family consists of 2 so I used 1.5 cups flour and 3 eggs for 3 servings . I didn't want to come up short since I wasn't making more.

I didn't take process pictures, my hands were covered in dough.

I followed instructions from the blog and it all came together quite nicely. I rolled it as thin as I could get and just used a pizza slicer to cut it. I didn't do it exact and I loved the homemade look of it all.

Every so often my boyfriend's clients will give him tips in the form of food. We have gotten deer sausage,local honey and other baked goodies. This week he brought home halibut that his clients caught in Alaska.

I butterfly cut the halibut steak and popped it in a baking dish I had sprayed with Pam. I sprayed some more Pam on top and sprinkled with dill. Oven on 400. 10 minutes. I cooked the pasta. IT TAKES 2 MINUTES. 2 MINUTES. I am not used to cooking fresh pasta so I think I cooked it a minute too long. Still, delicious. I had some alfredo sauce from a jar (don't judge) in the fridge. I poured a smidge on the pasta then topped with the baked halibut. Fin.

I was proud  of myself and no one was the wiser that this gourmet meal would have never happened if we didn't have 2 dimes to rub together.

Thrift Find and Chicken Pot Pie

I went thrifting yesterday and found these precious individual casserole dishes. They are not Pyrex however, they mingle right in with my small,real deal collection.
I cleaned them up and had to use them. I used them today for lunch to make Lazy Woman's Pot Pie. It requires little effort. It can be adapted to things you may have on hand. Its cheap. Its good to have on a crisp, spring day.
Lazy Woman's Pot Pie
Use  store bought pie crust if you want a top and a bottom. For my little ones  made in picture, I had canned biscuits so I used that.
In a bowl I mixed 1 can cream of chicken ( I would have used cream of anything, really. Mushroom, celery, broccoli, potato,etc.)
To that I added 1 larger can of chicken.
Mix. Add seasonings. I added oregano, salt, pepper, thyme. Spoon into pie dish.
Top with pie crust or biscuits. I patted 2 biscuits together to make minis.                                                
Bake according to directions on packaging of crust or biscuits.
Enjoy!
*had to put biscuits back in oven for 10 minutes longer. The bottoms were raw. Maybe, next time I will cut into quarters and put on top.

Upcycled Paper Bows and Sailboats

Green Arts Fest is coming up  March 30th at Railroad Square in Tallahassee,FL. It is organized and run by an amazing lady named, Carly. She is the owner of the non profit store ,The Sharing Tree, also located at Railroad Square.
I needed a springy project. I started making these today. I will be participating at The Fest and a portion of my sales will go to The Friends of the Library, so come buy stuff.
I found this wonderful tutorial, here. I have been enjoying all the possibilities and I hope you do too!
Hit up The Friends of the Library Store located in the main branch  library for resources, if you need some one of a kind bows.

March 5, 2013

I worked on these last night, Origami sailboats. I used this tutorial.

And this was the result;)

Breakfast Wreath

I needed a project on a rainy day. I perused pinterest and then came up with this. I adjusted recipe to use what I had on hand.
Ingredients:
1 Crescent Roll Tube
6 eggs
Cheese, umm about 1.5 cups,shredded ( I used cheddar and jack)
Sandwich Ham, right out of package, diced.
salt/pepper
Directions:
Lay out crescent rolls in star shape. (refer to picture)
Scramble eggs, then distribute onto star. Salt, pepper it. Then sprinkle the cheese and ham. (or bacon or sausage or ALL:))
Wrap points around to meet in the middle.
Bake according to directions on crescent roll package.
Enjoy.
Yes, its that easy.
* next time I am drizzling hollandaise over it.

They are turning ONE!!!!

We are bad parents and ended up with a litter of  six boxer/pit bull puppies last year. They started to arrive in the wee morning hours of February 16. It was a lot of work , laundry, etc. We found amazing homes for four of them. I am sure I did not mean to keep two puppies in additon to the parents we already owned, but it happened. I am also not so sure if I  "kept" them or if I just stopped trying to find them homes. Either way, we still have them and they will be one soon and I love them, dearly. We never even re-named them. We kept the handles that we gave them for the vet. My boyfriend gives dogs greek god names, thus the parents are Aries and Eris. So, how we ended up with Pan and Lil Girl is kind of funny to me.

So that's how we ended up with five dogs. Oh, wait, yea I forgot to tell you, I also have a miniature, australian shepherd who affectionately gets called Ole-Round Tooth Bail , Granny or just Bailey. She is camera shy or maybe she just hides under chairs from 70 lb+ dogs.

Aries, aka Daddy Fatz or Fat Boy

Eris, their momma, at our first vet visit. All moms recognize that look of defeat.



 The Pan Man and Lil Girl then ( The only girl in the litter of 6 and the smallest) then and now.



All the puppies, last year. From top left to bottom right: Saddlebags now, Maxus. Fozzy now, Leroy. Pan. Fat Boy now, Buster. Lil' Girl. Amos now Otis Amos Thomas or OAT and fittingly so. He weighs 97 lbs according to his owner. And last but not least,The Momma, Eris aka Bo Bear.

Aries is a fan of mommas home made peanut butter treats.


Dog Treat Recipe HERE

Up-cycled book crafts.

I love the Library! I love the Friends of the Library Store too! It is a little store tucked in the corner of our main branch library where you can buy maps, records, books and other trinkets for a song or a verse;-) We are working on updating our web site but you are welcome to check it out, The Friends of the Library.

Since joining The Board of Directors, I am in the position to go into the basement and cherry pick books to make projects that I then donate to the store for Helga to sell.( Helga is the woman that makes things happen in that store. She is AMAZING!) I also, on occasion, do some craft fairs and donate a portion of my sales to The Friends. Its a good gig!


These are a few of the things I make out of pre-loved books. I understand that some people have a problem destroying books however it takes the guilt away if the library says its o.k. We are crafting people, not burning.

recycled paper. using book pages, old bills and whatever was laying around.

My booth at Railroad Square.



book purse

book purse.



book page magnets

book page ornaments. JOY cut out from cereal box. And christmas trees.

gift tags using recycled card board and book pages.

I love the accordian ornaments. They make a beautiful, unique garland.




book page owl made out of toilet paper roll.

Book page owl in a book page flower wreath!

 

Ain't 40 Sweet?

 

 

 

Ain't 40 Sweet?

 

 

My best friend since the 8th grade is turning 40 this week. My girl LOVES salted caramel, well , salted anything really.  I wanted to do something special without breaking the bank.  I found this recipe on pinterest, salted caramel sauce, and decided to make it. I was originally going to use small jelly jars until I remembered I had some of these old, brown, unused medicine bottles I had bought several years ago.

 

I started by making the labels by just printing them on avery business cards.I tried to incorporate the theme with the medicine bottle through wording. I then used my handy,dandy grommet tool to add some sturdy embellishments. I happen to own a lot of different color bakers twine so I did every bottle in a different color twine. I then printed out the ingredients on avery return address labels. I loved how they turned out.

Right after I added the heavy whipping cream.

It settled into the most beautiful caramel color. Go figure.

The "fun"nel part. In hind sight I should have waited to put the labels on.

Love all the twine!

The ingedients. No, its not really fountain of youth water.

Textured sensory bags

My friends son turned 1 this last week and I had no clue what to get him. I searched the web looking for ideas and came up with this, textured sensory bags.

I used different textured fabric: denim, taffeta, chenille, polished cotton,felt and embroidered cotton.  I used scrap fabric and clothes that were in the donate pile. I didn't really measure much, just cut squares and sewed them together, stuffed with soft filling (from pillow I no longer used). I love how they turned out. The birthday boy seemed to enjoy them, too!