I would love to say the past week of non-blog time was spent on a beach, with small little umbrella'd drinks, and a hot cabana boy bringing me towels constantly, but... sigh... I cannot. My week was filled with me installing a new motherboard, new hard drive, reformatting and moving my 'stuff' and waiting for the local cable company twice, once for internet outage due to rain (and those horrible squirrels) and new dvrs throughout the house, which had to be networked into my normal network.
Yeah, the past week was not one I wish to repeat. Ev-ah.
Yeah, I have other computers in the house I could have used to blog, but my frustration level at doing nothing during those 'off times' was high. But I found it to be a highly project and food productive week, because if you have ever reformatted and moved your 'stuff' then you know there is a whole heck of a lot of hurry up and waiting.
I didn't take a lot of pictures this past week, so you'll just have to close your eyes and imagine the dishes... and the projects are not going to be seen until I clean up the Saint Patrick's Day decor and bring out the Easter.
So sit back and read the foodie posts that are coming your way next. :)
Computer Woes & Other Climactic Events
Hamburger Seasoning Mix
I am currently working on a rather largish project so food around my house has been pretty tame of late.
I tried a recipe for Monday I thought would be a hit, it wasn't. It was too bad, it had all the elements to make something fantastic, but somehow just didn't jive with the taste buds. I fixed homemade sliders Tuesday, a huge hit but as I am allergic to beef I will spend the next two days sniffing and snuffing around!
But they are amazingly good... the secret? The seasoning mix. :) I had thought I had the PERFECT Seasoning mix, which I did... but I adjusted it a bit more, cause that it the kinda thing I do in my life. I thought I would share my final, not to be changed seasoning mix with you. This makes 6 or so tablespoons, which is just enough to fit into my seasoning jar.
**The recipe holder was made by Reed at preschool. His favorite recipe? Octopus Hotdogs. I shall share those with you one day. **
Shelle's Burger Seasoning Mix
*6 teaspoons paprika
*4 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
*3 3/4 teaspoons sea salt
*2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
*1 teaspoon garlic powder
*1 teaspoon onion powder
*3/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Mix all the items together and place in a sealed container.
Peanut Butter No-Bake Bars
Someone looking through my blog asked if I had really made all the things shown and those were the pictures. I told them "yes, but for ever recipe that is perfection and beautiful, I have 3 or more failures that lead to it." When those failures happen, I resort to making something with peanut butter to make my little man happier than when he was trying to swallow something he just didn't like!
Yeah, so here is my new peanut butter recipe to make up for the smoked sausage penne pasta catastrophe.
No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
(adapted from here)
*2 cups creamy peanut butter, divided
*3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
*2 cups powdered sugar, divided
*3 cups graham cracker crumbs
*1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels, divided
Grease 11x7-inch baking pan.
Beat 1 1/4 cups peanut butter and all of the butter in large mixer bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup powdered sugar. With a wooden spoon, work in remaining 1 cup powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Press evenly into prepared baking pan. Smooth top with spatula.
Melt remaining 3/4 cup peanut butter and chocolate morsels in a microwave safe bowl, on half power for 45 seconds. Remove from the microwave, stir and return to the microwave for an additional 20 seconds at half power until the mixture is melted and smooth. Spread over graham cracker crust in pan. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until chocolate is firm. Cut into bars. Store in covered container in refrigerator.
Golf Room, Part II
Here are a few more things I have made for my golf guest room.
I made a french memo board from the same material I used in the rest of the room. I criss-crossed brown grosgrain ribbon and used push pins covered with golf scrapbooking buttons. Now we have a place to put all of our scorecards!! :) I included a few from last year as this year has not been conducive to playing golf!
Here is the golf subway art I made a few weeks ago. My colors shifted a wee bit from the original design, but that is ok as it still feels a part of the room through the chocolate brown frame and neutral matting.
I have to admit this was a lot of fun creating. Trying to find the right words, colors, position of the verbiage, and font just made this little geeky girl's day. I love photoshop and could spend a whole day just sorting thru different means to make your pictures look different and better!
Here is a shelf that had been in Reed's baby room, given to me by a great friend Melissa. I had it stuck away thinking I would use it again, and sure enough it was just what this room was calling for.
It was painted white, and I didn't wish to paint it brown as well, so I used a glaze to give it a nice antique look. I think it turned out ok... It was my first try at antiquing anything, so forgive my faux pas!
I picked up this golf art at Hobby Lobby for a steal. I was so happy when I saw the sale!!
Behind the art I created a moss covered foam core frame to give the area a bit of depth. Reed told me it looked like a golf hole. It was not my intention, but that is rather cool! :)
I am going to divorce my glue gun after this project. You should see the blister I have on my thumb as a result of it 'accidentally' leaking hot glue on me.
To the other side of the shelf is a frame painted the same chocolate brown with a picture saying "Today's Score". I have a black dry erase marker purchased to keep here so we can enter our score for the day.
It also says "A bad day golfing is beter than a good day working." Isn't that the truth?
The small golf ball container is holding our 'golf money'. Each week we put aside some money to play or go to the driving range to hit some balls.
Golf Room, Part I
I had this little room, it was the 3rd bedroom which never got any love from me. I piled it full of junk and closed the door whenever people would come over. It made me crazy walking past it everyday, but had no clue as to what direction to take it in.
Then Reed gave me the inspiration... Golf!
After he gave the inspiration then things just started falling into my hands!
It is such a small room so it was impossible to fit even a full size bed in without it taking the total floor space. So, I began hunting for a twin bed I could love! Goodwill seems to be my answer for just
about anything. I found a solid maple twin bed, including the rails, for $9.50. Yes, at that price it needed lots and lots and lots of love, but look at it now!!
I wood putted the heck out of it, sanded and sanded, then painted it a lovely "Boston Tudor Brown". It looks just like hot chocolate.
I knew I wanted to go with a traditional 'golf' color scheme.. solid paired with a plaid. I loved the navy against the chocolate, but am not a blue fan. But the more I looked around, the navy became the only color I was happy with. So I purchased a navy coverlet and paired it with gold color sheets.
Then came the plaid contrast fabric. I found it at Joann's on sale, then had a coupon, the girl also added a coupon, and I walked out with 8 yard of fabric for $13. :) Yeah, that made me happy. It is a beige background with blue, moss green, rusty red, and gold small plaid. It is perfect as it brings in the colors from the other rooms!
I just noticed I didn't had not taken a picture of the valance nor of the bed skirt. Here is the valance. It is rather plain, but I am eventually going to spruce it up. I kinda ran outta money for decorating. :) The bed skirt is similar. I wanted it this way. I wanted to keep this room rather linear as my golf play is more hooks than anything!
Then came the best part!! All those hats we have collected over the years... The ones which should have gone to Goodwill eons ago, were made into the most perfect edition to any room!
Behold the golf hat pillow! I simply found hats which fit into my color scheme, cut off the front part of the logo of several hats... Most had been given to us through several charity events or thru being a member of the PGA.
It was tricky and time consuming, but at the end of the day, when I stuffed it with the feather pillow insert I was totally pleased with the morning that I was cursing my sewing skills and machine!
This is Milo and Dixie's bed. :) Yep, if you look below that horrible looking comforter they insist on rolling up in each night, you will find a nice crib mattress covered with navy fabric with the contrasting fabric and piping to match the rest of the room! :)
Now if I can talk them out of that pillow and comforter. -sigh- That will be an impossibility, as they are the most stubborn of dogs!
Saint Patrick's Day Printable
Here are a couple of free printables, created by me, for your Saint Patrick's Day house. The Irish Blessing "May the Road Rise Up to Meet You" was placed in a glass canister with some split peas. It looks fantastic.
The other blessing "May Good Luck Be Your Friend" was created for the black frame I keep sitting on my piano all year long. I absolutely love the Celtic shamrocks and border on this piece. Makes me wish I was Irish and could get away with displaying it all year long!
All you need to do is simply click on each of the pictures, which will allow you to view the picture by itself on a page, then right click again to save each to your local hard drive.
I hope you enjoy!! :) And Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!
Cheap Decor ala Shelle (and JoAnn's Fabric)
Two new additions to my house... one made from a pallet and one purchased cheap!!
This is my pallet shelf, taken a bit from this tutorial, but modified to fit what I needed.
I needed someplace to hang those book bags, my big ole purse and jackets that were now cluttering up a bench, but was -sigh- cheap. So I begged on Freecycle and Craig's List for a broken pallet! Took exactly 1 day until I had this lovely piece of wood in my hands.
I cut it apart, wood puttied, sanded, sanded, sanded, oh and sanded, then it was ready for some love. As you can tell, I love red. Its my accent color in my house so when I have something I want to be a nice focal, it gets some red love. I added some pewter hooks, a couple metal containers to hold colored pencils and pens, pencils, and scissors to one side, and a print out of the family rules on the other side. I loved it like that, but then added a couple silk magnolia flowers and ivy to soften it up as it was close to this old ficus tree I cannot seem to find the will to throw away as it was given to me by my grandmother.
This baby is just an ode to bargain shopping. It was $14.99 originally. I do not spend $14.99 for something that is going to gather dust. :) So I watched it fall down into clearance. It made a slow descent, but eventually it fell to $3.97, which is a great price, but I made it even better with a coupon for 20% off anything at Joann's, which the girl also added another 20% off, which brought my new pretty dust catcher for my fridge to $2.55.
:) That is a good discount!
