one man's trash

What a cute little cake display. I found this at a local thrift store for $3. It's in really great condition, with no chips in the glass, and the wood is in good shape. But even being in good shape, it looks horribly 80's and dingy. So I decided to paint the wood to match my bright blue kitchen chairs. You can kind of see a little bit of blue paint on the before picture, because I got ahead of myself and forgot to take pictures before I started painting.



Here's the finished product, with a blue kitchen chair in the background for reference. I just brushed a few coats of acrylic paint to the wood, and added some brown paint to the edges to make it look distressed. After all the paint was dry, I taped off the white base where the food rests and sprayed the whole thing down with a few coats of acrylic sealer. I'm guessing the total cost for this project was around $9, with the can of acrylic sealer being the most expensive item. And even though that was $4, there's still plenty left in the can for other projects, along with a ton of leftover paint.

Oh, thrift stores. My new obsession.

you could build her a cake or something

We had some guests over for dinner tonight and for the desert, I made a gluten-free chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. This piece of delightful confection would blow your effing mind if you were to have a piece.

But you won't*, and there aren't even any pictures to prove that it existed in the first place. You know why?

Because it's IN MAH BELLEH!!!!

Sorry to rub it in. But really, it was so good that I had to make an impromptu post about its glory.


*Excepting local friends. I'm sorry that the rest of you non-locals are leading a cakeless existence. Come to my house and have some.

onesies

Some more freezer paper stencils. These little onesies were made for a dear friend who just had a baby, and were top secret until they arrived in the mail. I drew these freehand, but the ideas come from a few things I have around the house, like a stamp from my friend Shannon and a cute coffee mug that I love.

I still don't know how to use my fancy pants camera and just want a small one that's user friendly. Sometimes my pictures come out looking really nice, or they're super dark, even with good lighting. Blar. I've had my eye on this little Canon . My sister-in-law has one and really loves it. And her pictures always come out looking a thousand times better than mine. Also, it would be really nice to be able to pop a little camera into my purse instead of lugging the mammoth of a camera that I have around in a camera case that's the size of a lunch cooler. Possibly a way to spend some of the refund cashies that we're getting back from The Man (which is essentially an interest-free loan to The Man, but I won't go into that right now).

Non stencil or camera related: I'm obsessed with Big Love. We've just started getting it from Netflix, and I am so glad we did. Right now, we're in the first few episodes of season 2, so don't tell me any details of things to come! Wade and I have been so sucked into this show, except I've noticed that after I watch it at night, I always have really crazy dreams. Like the one where I killed the Prophet, Roman, because he's such a rat bastard. And I keep catching myself saying "biiiiiiiiiiitch!" after everything Nicki does. The sister-wife drama is what really keeps me interested. And the prairie clothing. What's up with that?

happy earth day!

Julian and I picked these gorgeous flowers from our back yard yesterday. I have to stop about a dozen times a day to tell myself, I get to live here!


What are you doing to celebrate Earth Day? I think my overall life is as green as I can get it right now, in things like my pledge not to use chemical cleaners or personal products. The decision to wash my clothes in cold water only. Putting all our green scraps into a compost pile in the back yard. Unplugging things when they're not being used. Walking instead of driving, when possible. Bringing reusable bags instead of using plastic or paper. Buying organic produce and supporting local farmers when I can. Recycling like crazy. These are just things that I've made part of my daily life.

I'd love to know what ways you're staying green. Maybe I could learn something new.

Go hug a tree today. Or if you're Indiana Jones, then whip one. But be gentle, they have feelings too.

cupcakes and vanilla

Last week I made chocolate cupcakes with orange buttercream frosting. The one above is not exactly what I'd call a model cupcake. It's messy and looks as though it's been tossed around a bit. But it was the only one left, so I guess that's a good sign that they were tasty. I'm really happy with the way the big cupcakes turned out. It had been so long since I'd had a really good gluten-free cake that I was starting to think I had to accept the grainy packaged stuff. But these were so tasty! I also made mini cupcakes of the same thing, but I think I may have baked them too long and they weren't as moist.

Just so you know, that's the last time on here that I say that word. It's on my list of gross unspeakable words. From this day forward, it shall be referred to as "the M word". Let's hope that all my cupcakes in the future are nice and M word.



I just bought a mega ton of mason jars so I could start making my own vanilla extract. Right now, I have more beans than booze, so I need to go buy some Smirnoff red label vodka (because it's gluten-free!) and fill up a few more jars so I always have a good stash on hand. Homemade vanilla extract really does taste so much better than store bought, and turns out to be a lot cheaper.

So now I have one mason jar for vanilla, and Julian is using one as a jail for his bad guys. Lots more jars left....maybe more mason jar projects? I've got a good one I'll be posting about soon.

What do you do with mason jars?

the busiest slacker

Happy very very very late Easter! This is a picture of Julian after discovering all the eggs the Easter Bunny left in our yard. I'm not exaggerating when I say that for every egg he found, he audibly gasped. It was so hilarious and cute. And later that night, after a great dinner with friends, we saw a bunny sitting in the grass of our front yard. Julian freaked out and said, "THE EASTER BUNNY!!! Why is he still here?" And then he approached the rabbit and tried to talk to it like it was just any other person. This is one of the reasons why the boy is so cute.

I've been a slacker about posting lately. I'm a bad blog mama. But when I'm a bad blog mama, it means that I'm a busy girl in real life, which is very good. Lots of fun crafty times with Julian. And exploring our yard, looking at bugs and trying (in vain) to approach birds and talk to them. The arugula seeds that Christine sent me have been growing prolificly, while the other seedlings I grew and planted were all killed off in the last frost. Bummer. Someone recently told me not to rush my garden (which I'm totally doing and being over ambitious about) and not to plant anything until May first. Too many rogue frosts that kill seedlings off.



This is another freezer paper project. This time, I let Julian in on the action. I gave him a piece of freezer paper that was cut to fit over a canvas bag, and asked him to draw a picture for me. He of course drew an Indiana Jones scene. Let me describe the picture for you. At the top left is a coiled whip. Then, there's a green tree from which Indy is hanging by his whip. Beneath that are roads, and a bad guy is driving his car on them. More roads at the top right. The swirly blob in the middle is the crystal skull. And right beneath Indy is a snake that sort of looks like a lowercase "b".

This wasn't a difficult picture to cut out, but it took flipping forever because of the coiled whip and all the details of the people's faces. The things I will do for love. How cool did it turn out though? After I ironed the paper on, he even painted it himself. I like how he made the tree green, and chose to do his name in purple.

Now on to very important and non-crafty news: Wade and I are going to see U2 in October with our awesome friends Becca and Zach! eeeeeeeeeeee! I cannot type enough eeeee's to show how very excited I am. I am peeing-my-pants levels of excited. And April through October is a very long time to walk around with pee in my pants. Did you know that Bono is going to pull Becca and I up on stage and serenade us? He is. I can feel it.

freezer paper tutorial

I've finally gotten with the program. The program being the world of freezer paper stenciling. Oh my gosh,this is so fun. And ridiculously easy. I'm planning on doing some freezer paper stencils with Julian today, on this not-so-springy day of spring break. It's rainy outside, and Wade and I both have a disgusting flu, which I previously thought had been severe allergies. Maybe it was both. Either way, we're stuck inside with a very bored 5 year old.

Okay, so here's the deal on freezer paper: One side is shiny, and the other is a matte paper. You have to use freezer paper for this project, NOT wax paper. The matte side is necessary for drawing on and ironing, which comes later.

First, find something that you want to paint on. It could be anything fabric, really. I chose a crappy $3 sweatshirt that I found on a clearance rack.


Next, tear off a piece of freezer paper and draw your design. I drew this tree freehand, but you could trace a design, or print something from your computer. Just make sure you print or draw on the matte paper side, not the waxy side.


Cut our your design using scissors or an X-Acto knife if there are very small details. Cut design on a self-healing mat, or a surface that you don't mind getting all scratched up, like a piece of cardboard.


Position your stencil where you want it on your fabric, and iron it on, waxy side down. I didn't take a picture of this step, but you know how to iron, right? When you iron, you want to make sure that all of the parts of the stencil have adhered to the fabric. Loose stencil bits = paint running under you stencil = yuck.

For the painting part, I just used some fabric paint I found at Michael's, and a small foam brush. Blot the paint on with your foam brush, and that's it. You could also use the negative (or would it be positive?) of the stencil. The same idea applies - iron it on, and blot paint around it.


Wait for the paint to dry, and then carefully peel off the stencil to reveal a previously crappy sweater that now looks like it came from some overpriced store like Urban Outfitters. Wheeee!


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In other news, my sweet friend and former neighbor, Caitlin Crosby just released her first album. She's beautiful, talented, and most importantly, a good person. Check her out - her new album is on iTunes.