Dilemma Solved

Ask and ye shall receive.

A while ago I posted my decorating dilemma: how to hang my gallery wall in our new bedroom. After a few nights of rearranging and some very well-timed Pinterest pins (thanks, Jenny!), we slapped all those suckers on the wall!

No frames were harmed in the process, though our pride might be bruised.

I'm more of a "hang it then fix it later" type of gal, but this drives Mr. E batty. So to compromise I traced all of our frames onto packing paper and taped them to the wall so we could move them around as we pleased. No holes, no spackle, less mess.

The arrangement we decided to go with

Then, when you want to hang, add a little dab of toothpaste to the back of the frame where the nail should go, level and press against the wall. You get a dab of paste right where you need to hammer the nail with no extra holes.

That little blue dot is toothpaste

After a while I got a little toothpaste happy- where I was putting toothpaste willy-nilly on frames that actually had hangers...

But they're all finally up and frames aren't littering the floor anymore, so we're all good. Phew.

It's all about utilizing your space wisely in such a small apartment, so the opposite wall looks a little something like this...

Now if only it wasn't so freaking hot.

Shepherd's Pie (with a twist!)

Hi! We haven't died! Though it kind of came close this week if you count stress-induced heart attacks (which you should).

When I'm not drowning under packing tape or cardboard boxes, I like to find the time to cook with the crazy canned food we don't want to move (can you say heavy?). Project numero uno? Shepherd's Pie. Except the poultry staple was substituted for pork and bacon, obviously, so we'll have to find another idyllic name for my creation. I'm thinking Blacksmith's Pie, because blacksmiths are incredibly manly. And Mr. E said this dinner was incredibly manly too.

Blacksmith's Pie

1 package shredded pork

1/2 package bacon (cooked according to Megan's recipe)

1 cup (more or less) of frozen veggies

5 or 6 small red potatoes

salt and pepper to taste

BBQ sauce to taste

a little bit of flour

pie crust

I have pie crusts in my freezer because I like to whip them out at a moments notice. And by moments notice I actually mean I need to defrost these suckers on the counter all day. Roll out (dear autobots) and place in pie plate. Poke it!

Cook bacon. Please don't eat.

Cook pork in left over bacon grease, because we don't waste things, ya'll. We used a package of pork that had been pre-cooked then flash-frozen, so all we were really doing was browning the edges a little bit.

Mix meats with frozen veggies. Add the rest of the ingredients.

Ideally I wanted to make a soppy, gooey mess that spilled over the crust like LAVA, but the bacon was mysteriously disappearing, so we just stuck it all in the pie crust and cooked for 30 minutes at 425F.

Since this recipe is a little dry we added more BBQ sauce. Delish. I would work on making that gravy or adding a little bit of water and flour and butter to congeal things a bit in the pie.

DIY Jewelry Hanger

Leave it to me to start a project to hang on the wall two months before I move. In my defense it had been bugging me for two years, so the fact that I did something about it trumps the hassle of taking it down again. I think. 

How did I turn the top of a door frame into a jewelry hanger? Well, a little like this. 

I'm a big fan of using what's around the house to get my projects done- especially for decor. Last fall, when I realized we didn't have any Thanksgiving/Halloween decorations, I turned to Goodwill books and recycled glass bottles. No Easter decorations? I cut up paint chips (free) and tied them together with string. As much as I love decorating, I really don't have any budget to do so.

Last year we had to knock out some pieces from a door frame in order to move a couch into the inner room of our rental. This house is sort of circular, centered around a room with access to an outside garden room that has seen better days. We've christened it the "office" and only lately have we really come to love the potential here- we house the computer, the sewing machine, our two comfiest chairs and assorted geeky knick-knacks. For a while we thought the sofa would be perfect, but after we realized that gas smell we were inhaling came from the couch, we banished it outside. Where it is still super comfy.

Case in point: kid approved!

We were left with two pieces of processed wood from the door frame- I guess these were sliding doors at one time, so they hid the unsightly track that used to be there. I had them lying around for the better part of the year, absolutely convinced I could do something with them and I'm glad that I kept them (now).

I measured and marked how long I wanted them, then had my handy Mr. E saw them into pieces. I spent the better part of an evening making my last piece of sandpaper stretch enough to sand the flaking white paint off, round the corners and smooth the sides. Anything to not make another trip to the store.

I painted them white with craft paint (this will be in the bathroom at some point, so I'm not too worried about brush strokes) and measured out holes for all of the hooks- remembering at the last minute that the first and last hole is for the screw in the wall. Nice planning, Brie.

Mr. E charged the drill (an all day affair) and eye-balled how deep he wanted the hole for the hooks. Since the wood was pretty thin we didn't want to split it, or go all the way through. To help, Mr. E taped the drill bit so he knew how far down to drill. Worked like a charm! 

We twisted the hooks in (left over from a Christmas project I didn't get to this year) and screwed those bad boys in the wall!

I really like the way they look! I originally wanted to use a tie-rack, but the one we have is occupied and I didn't want to spend $10/each for three new ones. I think they could have been spaced a little better- leaving my long necklaces to hang- but this DIY Jewelry Hanger is exactly the simple solution I've been looking for. Now I can see (and use) my necklaces/bracelets more often. Right?

DIY Phone Holder

I have sat on this project for a long time. I found it somewhere out there on the internet and I thought, "Well, gee, we go through a lot of lotion bottles. AND I have a tendency to lose my phone if we're traveling. So this is totally do-able!"

Well sure.

It takes one month to hold onto the mostly empty lotion bottle.
It takes another two weeks to cut the lotion bottle with a box-cutter (only because I'm a perfectionist and I like rounded edges).
Let it sit for two months in your craft box.
Take two weeks to choose which scrap of fabric you'll use.
Take two more weeks to sit the fabric and the bottle together in plain sight, hoping that this will encourage you. It doesn't.

I roughly traced the outline of the back of the holder and gave myself a little bit of room so I could fold back any extra fabric. In the same vein I traced the outline of the front part of the bottle, allowing extra to fold around the sides of the bottle and onto the back.
Keeping the fabric in place was really tricky. Of course I chose a really slippery fabric, so trying to stretch the piece so there were no wrinkles was a major pain. My saving grace was the sticky residue left over from when I peeled off the lotion bottle stickers. I could stick and stretch until I was ready to paint with Mod Podge.




















Most of my strokes were horizontal, both because it looked better and also because when I tried stoking vertically the weight of the brush and the tug of the fabric moved the whole gooey mess. 

There may or may not have been some choice words said. But, as always, I persevered  The back doesn't look fantastic, but the front was flat, and that's all that matters.

I did the front in the same way, but instead of gluing the allowance over the side, I folded it so there was a sort of hem around the cut edge of the bottle. Again, the sticky residue came to my rescue and I was able to fold and temporarily stick the hem to the bottle until I was ready to paste it down.

I think the fabric lost some of it's sheen when I glued it, but I didn't mind too much. The print was kind of bright and eclectic so you can't really see any of the imperfections.

Overall I'm not sure that I'll use this very often, but it was another project finished. At least it'll free up counter-space! :) 

Link up! Savvy Southern Style, Penny Pinching Party, Tutorial Tuesday!, Show Me What Ya Got!  

Sweet Potato Cookies

These are the cookies that almost didn't happen. If I had had a worse day- one more sink of dishes, one more load of laundry, one more missed train- these would not have made it into the oven. I follow Blissful and Domestic and she raved about using sweet potato in a loaf of bread and then in chocolate chip cookies, which works perfect because I can never figure out how to keep my sweet potatoes from going bad before using them. Why does this happen? My potatoes are fine, but those big hulking orange tubers ALWAYS go bad and soft and squishy. 


So when I'm having a bad day, I resort to baking. There is nothing that can't be fixed with fresh bread. Or a good batch of chocolate chip cookies. On the flip side, if the cookies turn out wrong then the whole day is ruined and you may as well go back to bed.

I realized that I didn't have any of the flax seed and shtuff like Blissful and I really didn't want to add oatmeal (I was thinking chocolate chip after all, not oatmeal). So I searched the web a little bit and came up with this. Except that in my hope of being pro-active I melted some butter on the stove. Actually melted two sticks of butter into a beautiful yellow fatty pool on the stove. I cleaned it all up (squeezing it out of paper towels) and later realized that this recipe doesn't even call for butter. But that didn't come until later.

Realistically I sort of changed this whole recipe around because I don't like oil cookies. So this is my recipe. And gosh-darnit these are tasty.

Ingredients

2/3 cup baked, mashed sweet potato (pierce skin with fork and bake at 400 for 40 minutes on tin foil-lined baking sheet)
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Allspice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar (smells a little different but tastes great)
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup 'fresh' chocolate chips  AS MANY CHOCOLATE CHIPS AS YOU FREAKING WANT

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheet and set aside.

In large bowl, mix dry ingredients together. Set aside.
In medium bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together.  Add oil and vanilla; whisk again.  Fold in mashed sweet potato.
Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, all at once.  Using a spatula, mix until now flour remains dry.  Fold in chocolate chips.
Scoop cookie dough, by the heaping tablespoonful, onto greased baking sheet, 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool completely.

So what if my pureed sweet potato actually still had the skins on? So what if I miscalculated the direction of my Pam spray and sprayed myself? So what if I used oil the first time around, wasting two eggs and a cup of brown sugar? These cookies are soft and moist and remind me of persimmon cookies like Great Grandma Evelyn's but they have chocolate so they're a million times better.

Link up! House of Hepworths, So You Think You're Crafty, Chic on a Shoestring Budget, Frugal Friday, Craftionary, Foodie Friday, Friday Flair, Pity Party

Covering More Things

I'm am knocking April projects off my list left and right. I feel in control of my home, of my space and of my project list. For once.

I'm sewing for sanity here. Pants into shorts, gifts for friends (more on that later), finishing pillows, organizing thread...The coup de grace? I made a cover for my sewing machine! 

This project has been in the back of my head for a while, especially once I took a close look at the dust my little Singer has been collecting between weekends. A few yards of free fabric, a coordinating discounted remnant from Joann's and we have a cover!I loosely followed this tutorial- mostly just to get an idea of what and how I was doing. Otherwise, it was pretty straightforward. Two coordinating fabrics (I can classify "coordinating" however I like, thankyouverymuch. Plus, when am I EVER going to have the chance to sew something this loud and crazy?) and you've got a pretty quick project. If you're up to the spatial challenge. By 9:30pm I was not.

I measured my machine pretty generously as I would rather trim and hem than have to re-cut because it was too small. My machine ends up being about 21x10x13 inches. So three middle pieces (including the 1/2in seam allowance on all sides) are 8x38 inches . The sides, originally the second fabric color, are 14.5x11 inches. Pin it up, sew some straight lines and zig zag those edges to prevent fraying. If there's a better stitch option, I'm still playing with my machine. 

The sides were a little tricky, as the tutorial says some mush about center lines and whatnot. This made no sense to me, so I sewed where I thought I should- feelin' pretty cocky. And then, you know, life hits you in the face and I realized that I sewed up one side, but didn't leave any room to sew the top. Good job, Brie.

Sewing teaches me humility. I have all of these plans and patterns and ideas so I rush to the machine, eager to zip through it all, only to realize that before you can run you must realize that you have FEET. And then learn to hold your head up. And then crawl...It's a long process, but I seam-rip a lot more than I would like to admit. And I find the time to laugh at myself, and realize that I need to slow down and enjoy what I'm doing. 

I sewed the sides on correctly the second time, and draped it over my machine. It's a little big and a little droopy: partly because of the fabric being so thin and partly because I was not terribly strict on my seam allowances and measurements. Nothing another seam can't fix.I took in the two middle seams a tad, just enough to squeeze the cover closer to the machine. And now for the pocket. This was my first attempt at tucking/folding and I was only slightly impressed with myself. I think I could have done better.

Once everything was on correctly it was time to hem- I turned the cover inside out and folded the bottom up until it was all even around the edges. Nothing fancy, just a little one inch hem. I trimmed the hanging edge (about three inches worth) and stepped back to admire. Unfortunately- because I was running in the rhythm then- I didn't take a picture of it half-done. Once the tutorial finished I realized that my machine is a bit lopsided. I had a lot of room on both ends because the edges of my machine sort of sloped, diagonal-like. 

So I adjusted. I tried, really carefully, to fold some of the fabric in, staying mostly with the natural fold of the cover as it fell in on itself. Two long tucks on the left side of the machine and two smaller tucks on the right side, just for balance. It was sort of nerve-wracking to do this, considering I had to sew over a seam or two. I was trying very hard to not mess up what I had just made. 

I pinned initially on the outside- two pins that crossed each other like an X because just one pin would come undone no matter how carefully I turned it inside out. Once the cover was turned, I grabbed where I had pinned and transferred the pins to the other side, so I could pull them out when I started sewing. Thinking back on it now, it may have just been easier to have the cover on inside-out the whole time and pin the folds out instead of in. Hindsight.

I can't decide if it makes me want to sew more- because it's awesome I just made that- or sew less- because it's so pretty.

Link up! Keeping it Simple, SewChatty, Monday Funday, Homemaker on a Dime, Made by You Monday

Thrifty

I love a good thrift store find- in fact, many of my furniture pieces are from thrift stores! I'm drawn to the originality of the furniture there. Need a king size rattan bed? Check. Giant dresser in shocking purple? Check. There's so much life to these things that a little spray paint, elbow grease and a lot of love will bring out!

Case in point: our entertainment console. Mr. E wheeled that baby off the street. It fit the TV I brought with me from college as well as the gleaming hunk of metal Mr. E drools over. Also known as our new TV. We store our video games here, and display some of the things we've picked up on our travels. It also (semi) works for storage. Ideally I'd like to stain it a little darker, but we've stayed our hand since it might not fit when we move. 

We're also crazy about chairs from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I was drooling over a comfy wingback when Mr. E spied this one. Faded blue, good condition- it had my name written all over it. 

Then we found these hospital chairs. They're not terribly attractive to look at with that awful fabric, but these are SO. COMFY. Someday I'll have enough time/money/skills to make slip-covers. Or re-upholster. But until then, they don't smell and that's good enough for me.

So when my lab partner confesses his love of thrifting, count on me to suggest a little lunch-break trip! I haven't gone too crazy, considering we're moving and April was the month for FINISHING my projects, not attaining new ones. 

But I just couldn't put Abraham Lincoln down. Look at this face! Does that say stern disapproval or what?! This is actually a two-material-ed cologne bottle (with cologne still), but every blog I follow has a bust or two somewhere. Apparently busts are in. So I took him home, cleaned him off and spray painted him a monotonous soft gray! Ugh, those cheek bones. Jealous...

Of course, it's hard to stop there. Especially when you have rows and rows of fabric/pants/skirts/shirts just waiting to be re-fashioned! Since my little pants-to-shorts event, I picked up more pants (for myself and Mr. E). My pants worked out perfect- they're black corduroy (as pants? shudder) with a really cute waistband. Couple hours on those bad boys and they're shorts too!

Mr. E's were not so easy. I grabbed two pair (8 bucks each, thankyouthriftstores) and while the first pair fit fairly well (we've relegated them to "set pants") the second pair had...a lot of room. 

A LOT of room...below the fly.

 So that's how gangsters do it... 

Here I am, thinking I've GOT this: while Mr. E was on set, I set to work. I felt pretty proud of myself too! Nice straight seams, sewed the crotch together again, yadda yadda yadda. And then Mr. E tried them on and I realized I cut almost ALL of the crotch out. 

He looked over at me with such a pained expression and said, "Baby, you've made me an Abercrombie model."

Oh, well.

My most recent thrift find? Hidden among the pottery and porcelain was this gem: We'll call him Georges. And I love him. Because, you know, I don't have enough stuff on my walls...and while downsizing to move it's almost always acceptable to upsize with cute ceramic cows, right? Right??