Turtles and Tails

Pillow Talk

2012-02-22T21:22:00.002-05:00

I became a pillow-making machine on the weekend.

I was at the dollar store on Friday and wandered down the linens aisle and stopped at the placemats. I couldn't believe how many choices there were. I chose a green mat with a slight wavy pattern and two grey on grey mats with a Paris, France print.

The green one was two ply so I tore out the stitches along one side with a stitch-ripper, stuffed the cavity with polyester fiberfill, and sewed the seam closed. Easy-peasy as they say.

The printed placemats were thicker, single-ply, but with a kind of vinyl backing. I was concerned that the sewing machine needle wouldn't go through a double thickness, but it was no problem at all. I matched them up, right sides out, and sewed around 3 edges.

I was going to stuff it with fiberfill but I decided to use an old pillow form instead. It was a dense pillow - feather-filled maybe. It made the pillow weighty and substantial. I shoved the pillow in further than it should go so that I could squeeze the open sides together and sew them up on the machine.

The pillow can't be changed out but I don't think I'm going to want to anyway. I went back on Monday and bought two more placemats to make a matching pillow. (I may even have bought 4 in a slightly different shade - same pattern - for the livingroom.)

I also bought two pillow covers on that first trip. They are already finished with a zipper at the back.

I bought them because the grey silk is a near-perfect match to the curtains in the guest room. At first I stuffed them with fiberfill, but they were too soft so I switched it out for some throw pillows I already had.

So what was the total?

Green placemat - $1.50
Paris placemats - $6 (4x$1.50)
Silk pillow covers - $4 (2x$2)
Stuffing - already had it, but about $2
Pillow forms - already had, prices unknown

Total - $13.50 for 5 pillows, or $2.70 per pillow.

Here is the room with all the pillowy goodness.

I still need to switch out the picture above the bed - the room used to be green & brown and it matched then. I want to put a black and white picture up there - maybe something I've taken myself.

Something like this:

I think I have to stay away from the dollar store for a while. These were so easy that I could go crazy buying placemats and sewing them up.

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I'm linking up here this week!

Updating a Mirror

2012-02-20T13:59:00.002-05:00

I stumbled into a little decorating project by accident this weekend.

I was trying to clean some double-sided tape off of a mirror in anticipation of hanging it up in the newly-painted entranceway (post to come about that, I promise!)

This is the mirror before.

Just an everyday mirror, from Lowe's I think. I'm not sure what the frame is made of; I don't think it's real wood though.

The tape goes all around the outside edge and is a leftover from Christmas decorating (2 years ago). I was just using regular nail polish remover to get rid of the sticky residue.

It was quickly apparent that the tape wasn't coming off but some of the finish on the frame was. I wasn't happy about that at first, but when I rubbed a little harder along the edge and the original frame colour came through I thought it gave the frame a sort of oil rubbed bronze look. So I kept going.

I would wipe some polish remover along the edge, wait a minute, and then rub it again until I got to where I wanted it. The whole thing took about 20 minutes to do. It now has more depth and dimension.

This shot is a good example of the before and after.

Here it is hanging in the hall.

I'm not sure the detail comes through from this far back.

And unfortunately I still need to find something

to remove that darned tape on the outside edges.

What's better than a happy decorating accident? A happy decorating accident that costs you nothing!

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I'm linking up here this week!

Turtles for the Tails

2012-02-15T13:56:00.002-05:00

A couple of months ago I entered a giveaway on Making Lemonade for any item of your choice from Chesapeake Ribbons. Margie from Chesapeake Ribbons makes belts, headbands, dog collars, key fobs, and more.

And I won!

I really liked her turtle belt/key fob pattern

and I was hoping she could make a dog collar with it.

Chesapeake Ribbons

The ribbon has blue, green & pink in it, and since my dogs are such girlie-girls I asked if she could make it with pink webbing behind. Of course she could! I also ordered an extra one because Lord knows the pouty faces there would be if only one dog got a new collar.

In less than two weeks the collars arrived.

And look how cute they are!

The dogs were pretty excited.

Chloe's tail just about flew off, she was wagging so hard.

To her, collar=I'm going outside!

Sasha just wanted to know what was in the package.

Tom laughs because I'm always buying new collars for the dogs - long before they wear out - but he had to admit that these were pretty fantastic.

I like the break-away buckle and how sturdy the construction is.

Not to mention that adorable turtle.

(You've probably noticed that turtles are kind of my thing.)

We had a fashion show right away.

It was an effort getting Sasha to stay still, not to mention

get her face and the collar in the same shot.

Chloe was our usual perfect (yet bored ) model,

"Hurry up and take the picture, I'm falling asleeee....oh is that a cookie?"

And now we have our official Turtles and Tails mascots.

(Get it? Turtles AND Tails.)

Well, if you want to get technical one mascot is more

a Turtle and Stub, but we won't tell her that.

Thank you so much to Margie at Chesapeake Ribbons for the awesome design and for the excellent customer service, and thank you to Carrie for holding the giveaway and connecting me with Margie.

I'm thinking maybe matching leashes next.

Whatta ya say, Margie?

Valentine's-Themed Chocolate Covered Pretzels

2012-02-13T10:23:00.005-05:00

I've got to admit that I've never been a big celebrater of Valentine's Day. I'm all for chocolate, but not the cards and flowers and hearts and pink and whatnot. I'm just not that girlie I guess. Case in point: What I want for Valentine's Day? Private obedience training for the little dog. That's how you win my heart.

However, it's a co-worker's birthday this week (Happy Birthday Sue!) and I thought I'd make her a treat that ties in with Valentine's Day.

You only need three ingredients for this - pretzel rods, candy melts, and nonpareils (or any other topping that suits you). I bought the melts and nonpareils at the bulk store for just a couple of dollars, and the pretzels were about 3 dollars for an entire bag.

You'll start be melting the chocolate in a double-boiler to keep it from burning. The chocolate stays soft for quite a while so you have lots of time to work with it. I had read about melting it in the microwave but all I ended up with was half blackened, half melted pink discs and a house that smelled like burnt marshmallows.

Dip a rod into the melted chocolate - about halfway up - and spin it around to get an even coating. You then should wait a minute or two to let it cool a bit before adding the nonpareils. You can roll it directly into the nonpareils if you want a heavy coating, but I just held the rod over the bowl and sprinkled them by hand until I got the coverage I was looking for.

Here is my tester. Looking good!

You will then need to set them down somewhere to cool. Our solution (thank you Tom) was to hang them over the edge of a dinner plate with a coffee mug sitting on the undipped end to weigh it down.

I ran out of nonpareils with two rods left to go so I improvised with crushed honey-roasted peanuts. Not as pretty but they still taste good. I also tried rice krispies (they looked like mini clubs) and chocolate chips (too heavy, wouldn't stick).

Here are my finished pretzels. Pretty, hunh? And the mix of sweet and salty is always a winner.

I bought some long cellophane gift bags and put two pretzels in each, tied up with some pink and white ribbon.

I'm loving these so much! Considering how easy they are to make I think I might whip some up the next time I need to bring a snack or a dessert to a get-together.

Did you try out any new Valentine's recipes this weekend? Try to burn the microwave up melting chocolate? Was that just me?

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Linking up here this week!

Where have you been?

2012-02-10T09:18:00.001-05:00

Don't you hate when real life gets in the way of your crafting-decorating-blogging? I've got projects and plans piling up all around me. It's month-end close at work and that means staying late - at least a few days a week. Add to that the three-part Photoshop lessons Tom gave me for Christmas, and I haven't been spending much time at home these days.

source

The Photoshop classes were fun (and I learned a lot). I was absolutely terrified to go though. I hate not being good at something in front of other people. Ridiculous, I know. How else am I going to learn? The instructor was great and I was the only one who took all three classes in a row so I'm sure I was his favourite.

The classes were held at Henry's, a Canadian camera store, and I'd recommend them to anyone. We touched on a little bit of everything that Photoshop Elements can do. Can't say I'm an expert now, but armed with my notes, I'm hoping my pictures get better. It helped that I've spent so much time working with Picasa and Picnik.

In my spare minutes I've been painting the baseboards and trim in the living room/dining room. Semi-gloss white straight-out-the-can. One more coat on the second half of the room and it'll be ready to load in. And then maybe I'll have something to show you! Thanks for your patience - we're getting there.

This weekend I'll be making something fun for Valentine's Day. I'll share the pictures (edited using my fancy new skills of course) as soon as it's done. Think sweet, salty, & pink! (And if you're thinking dirty thoughts just stop it.)

Daydreaming

2012-02-02T22:33:00.003-05:00

This week I've been painting the fireplace each night after work. It's taking a long time. So while I wait for each coat to dry, I've been looking at accent colours for the new and improved living room. Just to refresh your memory, here is what I'm working with:

The green really isn't an issue since it's only in the kitchen/dining room. And the tile is only around the fireplace, though it does start at the edge of the living room. So mostly I'm just working with the new wall colour, the little bit of tile, and the tan furniture.

This was my first thought. Ice blue curtains and pillows.

Maybe soft yellow pillows and an ice blue throw.

Or these pillows.

Then there is navy. My favourite colour.

But I wonder if navy by itself would be too harsh.

So I found navy and light blue. Softer, yet a striking contrast to the wall.

Or I could embrace the orange and try something like this.

Bonus points for the burlap lampshade.

The charcoal colours in this room make me giddy. They look so rich.

And this pendant light from Overstock.com has me drooling.

Even Tom likes it and he doesn't like anything.

But after all of this daydreaming I realized that the large artwork we have

is going to influence our colour scheme.

These pictures are b-i-i-i-i-g and end up being the focal point of any wall.

And I'm not sure I'm ready to give them up yet.

Any suggestions?

Map Yourself

2012-01-31T13:21:00.000-05:00

Have time for a little fun?

Katie over at Latte Love has put together an interactive blogger map.

Go on over and add your location - it only takes a minute!

Keep in touch (maybe even arrange a meet-up) with online friends

on your travels around the globe!

Livingroom Revamp - During

2012-01-30T10:23:00.001-05:00

So we spent the entire weekend painting. After a quick detour on Friday night to Big Daddy's for some wings. We went over to the bar area for a drink while we waited for our order. Probably not a good idea. Rum & coke on an empty stomach meant that not much got done when we got home.

If you remember, this was our livingroom before. For more detail of the "before" check it out here. We were tired of the orange (you can say terracotta but I'm gonna call it orange), yellow, and green. Really tired.

Friday night I finished up the sanding, edging the walls with white and generally cleaning up the dust.

Bright and early Saturday morning we started with the taping. Some people are very good at cutting in and rolling without taping, and I've painted quite a bit, but I still like to have the extra insurance of tape. We used 3M's Scotchblue painter's tape with Edge-Lock and I'm not sure they're going to ask me to do a commercial anytime soon. I really didn't see any improvement over the usual green tape. There was still some bleed-through here and there. I think in the future I'll just save my pennies and keep buying the cheaper stuff.

What we were impressed with was the Benjamin Moore paint we purchased. Now I see why the salesclerk gave us a funny look when we said we usually use 1.5 - 2 gallons of paint per room. It took just one can to do the entire livingroom. Two coats. We only needed to open the second can to continue into the diningroom area. This paint went on so smoothly. The two pictures below are after just one coat.

Coverage was amazing, and there was no backspray when rolling. In fact I had barely any paint on my hands when I was finished. I used a sponge roller this time and I am in love with it. Smooth rolling and easy to clean. They dry fast too. We learn a little bit more each time.

So how about some pictures? I only have a few, and it was dark by the time we finished cleaning up, so by no means is the room finished. In fact, the furniture was put down helter skelter, just to have a place to sit.

I want to wait at least a week before we put the outlet covers back on and hang the artwork we have. I also need to paint all of the trim as it's still builder's white and I want it to be bright white. I'm also going to paint the fireplace white.

Then it's on to choosing curtains and curtain rods, and all of the other decorations. And maybe I'll even get around to adding pictures to the gallery wall frames. :-)

Livingroom Revamp - Before

2012-01-26T20:21:00.001-05:00

I've been wanting to paint our livingroom for a long, long time. You've heard (read?) me refer to it many times as the mexican restaurant. This is not how it's usually decorated. I just didn't add anything back after I took down the Christmas decorations.

Gallery wall with less than half the frames filled in. Yeah, someday.

The big problem, besides picking a colour, was figuring out when we'd have enough time to do it. We realized that it was going to have to be spread out over a couple of weekends. The first one to pick out & purchase paint, then make sure we have all of our supplies, the second one to actually paint. With some spackling and sanding during the week between. It's Thursday night and we're not done with the sanding. I'm worried for our schedule.

I've been pinning paint colours onto Pinterest for the last few weeks. All of them are in the neutral, grey-beige-taupe family. Truth be told, they all look kind of the same online. I wanted something not only for the livingroom but that can flow throughout the first floor and perhaps up the stairwell.

Something relaxing and rich. Not too dark because there isn't a lot of light other than in the livingroom, but nothing anemic-looking either. We took my list of paint colours to the nearest Benjamin Moore and I have to say, the saleswoman was fantastic. Her name is Kim and I think I love her. I rattled off my list of paint colours while she zoomed up and down the paint wall grabbing chips. I was expecting to have to find them myself but she had them all within a couple of minutes. I then showed her a sample of our tile, our kitchen cabinet wood, and our furniture fabric, and she quickly began eliminating colours that wouldn't work, explaining why each time. We narrowed it down to a few and finally settled on Ranchwood.

(Side note: a few months ago I had torn a page out of Style at Home magazine of a paint colour that I liked but I forgot to take it to the store with me. Guess what colour it was? Yep, Ranchwood. I think it was meant to be.)

It looks more grey here. Maybe it's just my monitor. The shade is very close to the colour of the furniture, but I think with accent colours - haven't picked them yet - it won't look monochromatic. I was concerned with finding something that would go with the green cabinets in case we stain them dark brown or paint them bright white. Or leave them green because we run out of money. (And yes, we are definitely replacing those white appliances.)

We're also limited by the tile colour. In the kitchen and hallway it's not so bad, but the fireplace is also tiled with the terra-cotta orange. Tom is strongly against me painting them white. How much worse could it be?

We hadn't planned on buying the paint there, just picking out the colour, but Kim's superior customer service won us over. We had expected it to take most of the day but we were home with our paint in less than 2 hours. So we got right to taking the room apart.

The previous owners had installed surround-sound in the livingroom and removing the wire covers meant removing quite a bit of paint (and some drywall).

This is what's slowing down our progress. We've spackled and sanded that wall for days. Tom finally cut down into the drywall to form a shallow trench and then spackled on top of it. There are also dozens of dents and holes in the walls. I don't think they did any prep before they painted the orange.

I love this shot. It looks like we have 16 foot ceilings.

Tonight I'm going to start painting around the ceiling, baseboards and windows with white the same way I did in the bathroom. This takes care of any colour from the previous paint job being visible on the ceiling or trim. I'm hoping to be able to start taping tomorrow night after work and then I might have something more to show off by the end of the weekend.

Wish me luck!

Who You Callin' a Snuggie?

2012-01-24T12:40:00.008-05:00

I have a really good camera bag. It's a sling style and has plenty of pockets. It looks something like this:

source

But I also like to be able to just put my camera in my purse and carry one bag around. Unfortunately that doesn't protect my camera and lenses very well. I came up with the idea of making little drawstring "pouches" for each spare part.

I have a set of fleece sheets that are no longer used - they are soft and cushiony, but not bulky. And I love the grey colour. The pillow case alone provided more than enough material for me to fashion my pouches.

Here's what I did.

I turned the pillow case inside out and laid it out on a flat surface. I took my longer 55-250 zoom lens and put it in the pillow case, sliding it down to the bottom corner. Using a pillow case is nice because two of your seams are already sewn for you.

I used a ruler and a Sharpie to mark where my other side seam should be. It should be snug but not too tight. I measured two inches beyond the edge of the lens on the open end to allow the bag room to close (plus a hem) and marked it.

(radius is one inch - allow an extra inch for hem)

I removed the lens and drew straight lines to join the marks, making a rectangle on the material. While you could draw the lines with the lens inside the pillowcase, I found that they didn't always end up being straight. I cut out the "rectangle" and got to sewing.

You're going to close the top of the pouch with a drawstring, so there are going to be open edges where the string comes out. You'll want a nice finished look there, so take your two raw edges on the open side and fold over the material - right side out - sewing a very small hem on each one, all the way top to bottom.

Take your top open edge and fold it over 1 inch, right side out. Sew all the way across the opening about 3/4" from the edge.

Do you see how you have a nice finished edge at each end? Aren't you happy you sewed those tiny hems?

Turn your pouch inside out and sew the open side together, keeping as close to the first hem as you can. Only sew up as far as the stitching that goes across the top. You don't want to sew your drawstring opening closed.

If the bottom isn't already sewn for you, sew it closed now.

You now need to string a ribbon or cord through the top. I used a navy & white flat ribbon that used to be the handle of a shopping bag. Resourceful, yes? I have found that the easiest way to string the ribbon is to attach a safety pin to one end and feed the pin through the hole.

Slide the ribbon all the way through, tie a knot at each end to keep it from slipping back , turn your pouch right side out and admire your work.

The lens fits perfectly and I'm not so worried that it's being damaged in my purse. I might keep it in the pouch even when it's in the camera bag in case it should fall out (not that that's ever happened - not more than once anyway).

I then went ahead and made a pouch for my smaller lens, my Lightscoop flash redirecter, and my little point and shoot. It's especially good for small cameras as they're always getting tossed in a bag or knapsack (as you can see from the scratches on it already).

(See the difference when the flash isn't bounced?)

my little army

I think I'm going to make one for the camera body, and probably one for the battery recharger because that cord is always all over the place, even when it's in the camera bag.

Yes, I'm out of control. Snuggies for everyone!

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I'm linking up here this week!

Homemade Pizza

2012-01-18T22:26:00.003-05:00

Pizza is a favourite in our household. We have it at least twice a month if not more. But not that greasy delivery stuff. Mine is homemade. Or I guess more accurately, semi-homemade, since I don't make the crust myself. I like food to be ready FAST.

Most of the time I buy flatbread rather than the usual pizza crust. It's pre-baked so it doesn't get soggy in the middle. And the texture is just...better. Less doughy? More chewy? I dunno.

I like to get a bit non-traditional with the sauce. Sometimes I mix sweet chili sauce with ranch dressing. Sometimes it's sweet chili sauce and bbq sauce. And then sometimes it's just sweet chili sauce. Hmmmm, think we like sweet chili sauce? Think I just like saying "sweet chili sauce"?

Vegetables are a must. In fact, often we just have a vegetarian pizza because that's all that's in the fridge. Lots of mushrooms, sweet peppers, onions. This time I added spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower. That's a lot of vegetables. If there's sausage, bacon or hamburger thawed I'll fry that up while I'm chopping the veggies. It really takes no time at all.

Then on to the shredded cheese. I usually buy whatever catches my eye. Tex-mex is pretty good. This one was straight mozzarella. Nice and stringy.

Finally a sprinkling of spices. Cause chili sauce isn't enough. Oh no, there has to be black pepper at the very least. This pizza also received a nice dose of steakhouse pepper seasoning.

The last and most important step is to fold aluminum foil around the edge of your pizza. This keeps the edges from getting dried out and hard. I wish I'd figured this out sooner - every pizza turns out perfectly now. Then into the oven for 20 minutes and it's done.

Check it out. You want some, don't you?

I like that this pizza is light. You decide how much cheese to add. You decide if you want meat or not. There is barely any oil and fat in this pizza and yet the flavour is still all there.

Here are some photos of pizzas past.

The only problem is that there are never any leftovers!

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Linking up to these parties this week!

Main Floor Bathroom Makeover

2012-01-15T22:31:00.004-05:00

We've been in this house for about 3 years. In that time I think we've only changed 3 rooms. I'm not sure why it's taking so long. Well, one reason is that I can never decide what colour I want. But it's only paint, right?

One room that IS nearing completion is the main floor bathroom - the powder room if you will.

This is the only "before" picture I have:

Cool lizard, right? Too bad it belongs to the people who lived here before. As much as I liked each of the colours, I really didn't like the two-tone thing, and especially the wallpaper border between. Most rooms had a border when we moved in. Why, people, why?
I'm not a fan of that little corner shelf. There are some in the basement as well. It's just too small and impractical. Nothing fits on it (except a bottle of something apparently) and it's too high up to be used to store a spare roll of paper. My arms aren't long enough anyway.

The first thing I did was tear down that border and paint the entire room. I started by giving the ceiling a fresh coat of white paint. I had read about continuing your ceiling colour down onto the walls an inch or two to cover up any spillover from the previous paint job. I think that's so brilliant. I also did this around the window and door frame. I've spent way too much time in the past with artist brushes trying to cover up old paint.

There were all kinds of nicks in the wall, especially beside the toilet. My guess is a toy was repeatedly banged against the wall during toilet-training sessions. We took down the old towel rack and toilet paper holder and spackled the holes. Or perhaps "craters" if you go by the size of the hole left by the towel rack.

I'm really happy with the new wall shade. It's very soothing. What's funny is, at the same time I was doing this, Tom was painting the garage walls. He didn't want to buy new paint so he mixed all of our light-coloured leftover paint together and came up with a pretty interesting grey-green colour. I came home from the paint store, held my paint swatch up to his new wall...and it was the exact same colour. Not intentional at all. At least we'll be able to match it if he ever needs to do touch-ups.

We decided that this was also a good time to buy a new toilet. Our town has terribly hard water and the previous owners didn't have a water softener, so all of the toilets have hard water stains in them. And our town also had a $75 rebate program for toilet replacement this year. Nice. Not to mention that we got to get rid of that wooden toilet seat. Taking out the toilet before painting also made it easier to get a smooth,even coat on the wall behind. And I didn't have to practice my yoga moves to get in there.

As mentioned, the window & door frame got a coat of white. As did the baseboards. It was a "builder's white" before - which everyone knows is not white at all. Here is the nice new toilet all installed. It's higher than the last one - the only thing Tom put on the "must have" list. I like the flat top (and the white seat!)

I took down the light fixture and toilet paper holder and spraypainted them oil rubbed bronze. I had looked for replacements but nothing caught my eye or was in my price range. Just a few coats of paint and they look brand-new. Plus I like the contrast with the wall colour. I did buy a new towel rack that had similar lines and spraypainted it as well. Eventually I want to replace the light as I think it's too big for the space, but it'll do for now.

Wow, the wall looks like a different colour in every picture.

I also painted the magazine rack with ORB. Gotta match, right? It was originally an off-white that wasn't doing it for me anyway.

This room isn't finished though. I still want to frame in the mirror. I have the wood - I just need to stain it and get it installed. I'm going to try to give it an aged barnboard look. And the room needs some wall art. Again, I have it, I just haven't gotten around to hanging it. I found some plaques at Hobby Lobby (at 90% off!) that mimic the colours in the room.

I'm also going to paint the sides and front of the cabinet a deep brown to go with the fixtures. The current beige just doesn't fit. I think once it's done, the brown, grey-green, and orange (tile) will be a terrific combination.

Have you been making any colour changes in your house? Planning any big projects for 2012? Trying to cover up the "mexican restaurant" theme like we are?

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I'm linking up here this week!

Stuffed Turtle Toy

2012-01-10T12:05:00.000-05:00

I've had a project pinned on Pinterest for quite a while that I've been looking forward to trying. It's a fabric stuffed turtle and it's cute as can be. I believe it's based on this Pottery Barn Kids toy.

Our dogs are really hard on their stuffed toys so we've taken to either buying toys from the dollar store or from Goodwill because they aren't going to last anyway. And if I could find a way to make something than it would be even cheaper. Plus, if they're cute enough maybe I could sell them.

Well, they aren't cute enough yet, but I'm getting there.

The original tutorial is on make it-love it.com. She also provides a template for the fabric pieces. I used her pattern exactly for the first one and I found the body to be far too large. I cut it down for the second and it was better, but I think I'm still going to tweak it a bit. Maybe an oval instead of a circle.

I followed her steps exactly but I'll walk you through it.

Cut out all of your pieces from whatever fabric you like. I went to Goodwill and bought an old sheet, some pillowcases, and some cloth napkins, trying to find complementary patterns/colours. I used two different patterns for the top of the shell, and then a third one for the head, legs, tail, and bottom.

Take two of your leg pieces, and sew them together with the right sides facing in, remembering to leave the top edge open. Do the same with the rest of the legs, the tail, and the head.

Here is my fancy needle work. Don't be jealous.

Turn each sewn piece right side out using a pencil,

paint brush, or whatever you can find.

Fill each sewn piece with stuffing (I bought a huge bag of polyester fiberfill at Michael's for about $5), using the pencil to push it in firmly.

Sew each piece closed, leaving yourself about a 1/4 inch seam.

Take two of the shell pieces, face the right sides in, and sew from the top of the shell, down ONE side to the bottom. Do this again with your other two pieces.

Open the shell pieces up. Pin the head to one of the sides about 1/2 inch up from the bottom. It should be pinned onto the right side (i.e. the good side) with raw edges facing together. Do the same with the tail on the other end. Sew the two pieces into place. (Note: I sewed the head on upside down on this one. I haven't decided yet which way I like better.)

Take the other shell half, lay it on top of the first one - right sides in - and sew the two pieces together leaving the bottom of the shell open. It should look like this when you're finished. (Or it might look better. There's a pretty good chance.)

Pin each of the feet to the bottom edge of the shell, approximately in the center of each shell piece. Attach each of the feet as you did with the head and tail.

Turn it inside out and place it on top of the circle bottom, right sides facing together. Pin all around the circle attaching the two pieces together. Sew around the circle leaving yourself an opening about 2-3 inches long between two of the side legs.

Turn the turtle right side out and fill with your stuffing. Make sure it is really fluffy but not lumpy. Fold your raw edges in and finish with your choice of stitch. I won't be demonstrating that. Here is a tutorial for a blind stitch.

And there it is! Yeah, kind of awkward. But I love him.

And someone else does too.

Chloe adopted him right away and wasn't about to let go.

For my second turtle I only used two fabrics and made the shell pieces significantly smaller. I'm really digging the bottom fabric. I think I'll use just that one next time.

He's a little more proportioned. But still kind of funky.

I'll keep working on it.

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I'm linking up here this week!

Turtle Soup (Bowl?)

2012-01-06T12:47:00.002-05:00

source

I stumbled across this picture today while reading

a blog I follow, The Tasty Island (Honolulu food blog).

Pomai was on a trip to Las Vegas and San Francisco in the fall

and blogged about the food he experienced.

There is a bakery in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf

called Boudin that specializes in sourdough.

Pomai, as always, did an excellent job of describing all they offer

with many, many interesting pictures.

How about a crab?

source

Or an alligator?

source

Aren't they fun?

But back to the turtle.

How fantastic is that?

You know I want one (or more than one).

So who lives in the area that could mail some to me?

Can you even send bread over the border?

Maybe I'll just have to add San Franscisco to my

list of places to visit one day.

As if it wasn't already there.

Coconut Beef Stew

2012-01-02T17:57:00.001-05:00

Ready for a super-quick, super-easy recipe?

On December 31st I put together a new-to-me stew

that is fantastic. Yeah, that's right, I'm braggin'.

I started with ground beef and chopped mushrooms

(in quarters) dumped into the slow cooker.

I cooked that on high until the beef was cooked through

and then poured off the excess fat.

I then added in diced onions, peppers, and celery.

I sprinkled a heavy dose of peppersteak seasoning on top

and left it to cook again.

Once everything was thoroughly cooked

I added most of a can of coconut milk.

I also added some garlic and some more peppersteak

seasoning 'cause I like it hot.

It really doesn't need to be cooked anymore,

mostly the milk just needs to heat.

And there you have it. Wasn't that simple?

The coconut milk gives it such a subtle sweetness

that is the perfect complement to the heat of the spices.

I might break the ground beef up into smaller chunks

next time, but for a first try they weren't that bad as is.

Before I put the excess away I added another dollop

of coconut milk and a sprinkle of shredded coconut.

You think I'm crazy, right? It was so good though!

Here it is reheated with the additional ingredients.

The coconut milk gives just the right consistency

- not too watery, not too thick.

I asked Tom what I should call it and he said, "Nom!"

I think we have a winner.

~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these parties this week!

75% Off? Don't Mind if I Do.

2011-12-29T17:27:00.000-05:00

I managed to get in a little bit of post-Christmas clearance shopping today and I wasn't even looking. I was at the grocery store and all of the Christmas decorations were 75% off.

How do you say no to that?

Tom says it's easy to say no to that.

Good thing he wasn't there.

First I found these shatterproof ornaments. 12 balls for 94 cents.

Regularly $4 and $5. I scooped up 4 of those.

I love that there are so many different patterns and textures.

Then I found some snowball ornaments. 14 for $1.44.

Ahhhhh, the fluffy! I just want to pet them.

And finally some little glitter ornaments in different shapes

for $1.44 - 24 in a pack.

Look at all that shiny just waiting to spread the love.

And the glitter apparently.

So not bad, right? All this for $6.64.

Can you guess what colour scheme I'm going with next year?

~~~~~~

Christmas Has Gone to the Dogs

2011-12-28T07:01:00.001-05:00

Let's take a little break from crafting.

We let the dogs open their own gifts on Christmas Day. Here are the "kids" waiting to get started. About as close as we got to a family portrait. I'm going to have to start photoshopping myself into these things.

Sasha got right into the gift opening. She had a very efficient system - rip off piece, turn head, spit out piece, rip new piece. It was so methodical. Let's see if I can get a video to embed.

Chloe was much more delicate. She would snuffle it a bit, then if it didn't open by itself, she'd go lay down.

Sasha was more than happy to help her out.

Thanks Santa:

And a shot of Tom with his favourite gift.

Plus the bread he made with it afterwards (cheese & garlic).

Yesterday (Boxing Day) we travelled to Kinmount to spend the day at my aunt & uncle's cottage. Even though it was a small group it was still a noisy get-together. The count was 11 adults and 7 dogs. Yep, seven. Ranging in age from 3 months to 5 years. But I've got to say, it was so much fun.

Here is a little photo retrospective of these gorgeous puppies.

Callie on the left and Desi on the right.

My aunt got a picture of this from the side - not rated PG at all.

Stella doing her best JLo impression.

This is Ziggy. She's just pretending she's happy I'm so close to her.

This little sweetheart is Kasey.

Oh my gosh, am I in love with this puppy! Look at those eyes!

If I could have snuck her out in my purse I would have.

Trying to get all of the dogs together in one shot.

The most we ever managed was three.

Why don't the little 8-pound dogs want to sit beside these guys?

Off to the spa

It turned out to be a long, long day for Kasey.

I think she's happy to be with her new family.

Sweet dreams puppy.

Of Course It's the Elves!

2011-12-23T14:28:00.000-05:00

Today's Conversation:

(Scene: I'm on my hands and knees emptying out the garbage

in my craft room. Tom walks in, freshly showered.)

Tom: Do I smell good?

Me: (without looking up) Yep.

Tom: Do you know why?

Me: Because you showered.

Tom: But do you know why else?

Me: I don't care if you've pooped.

Tom: Look.

And he hands me his stick of deodorant.

It's a new one that he just opened today.

Who comes up with these things?

I hope they have a mountain of awards piled up in the corner

of their livingroom, 'cause this would make me buy it.

No questions asked.

I Want Candy

2011-12-21T12:03:00.000-05:00

I made another gumball-style candy dish this week.

Here is the full tutorial on how to put it together.

It's simply just a clay flower pot with saucer, wooden ball, and round bowl. This time I used a bowl with more detailing on the sides and a plain mouth. The fluted mouth of the other bowl made it difficult to set the top on level.

This time I also added a 1/2 inch wooden disc to the bottom to give it balance. It's kind of like adding fancy baseboard moulding to your room - it's just looks finished. And it isn't as top-heavy as before.

I painted this one with gold acrylic paint as I have somone in mind for it and she likes "spah-kles". She's also a lover of chocolate so I found cookies & cream kisses and mini peanut butter cups to fill it. I used a blue and silver ribbon for the bow to match the candy inside. If she decides to change up the candy it's easy enough to just change the ribbon.

Even the sewing machine in the background matches!

~~~~~~~

Linking up here this week!

Cookies & Brownies & Squares, Oh My!

2011-12-16T14:06:00.001-05:00

I got a little baking done this week. First I whipped up a batch of my "famous" chocolate scotcheroos (recipe here). I swear these are no-fail. And I've never met anyone who didn't like them. If you need a quick crowd pleaser - this is your guy.

I also tried some chocolate-dipped sugar cookies. I'll confess - this is the second batch. They started out as shortbread but I ran out of butter. And since I do all my baking at 10 o'clock at night (don't you?) I wasn't going to run out to the store for more.

I added some cocoa to the batter, and I found that it really cut down on the sweetness of the cookie as a whole. I wasn't expecting that. Not a bad thing considering how sweet the frosting/icing/dip/I-don't-know-what-it's-called is.

I dipped them in melted chocolate - green of course - with a few drops of peppermint extract added. I don't think I'll be opening a bakery any time soon (unless it's a scotcheroos bakery) but I'm kind of proud of my little trees.

Tom also got in on the baking fun. His specialty is brownies. His brownies are also the reason why there wasn't enough butter left. Thanks dude.

They are chocolate-banana-mint brownies with buttercream frosting. That's right, Tom has never met a flavouring he didn't like. If one is good, why not three? But these are pretty fantastic.

Our house is now full of baked goods. Our flour-free, sugar-free, trying-to-be-Paleo house. Not good. Not good at all.

Note to the dogs: When you see me leaving with plate after plate of food, I'm not sneaking off to eat it without you - I'm just taking pictures.

Honest.

~~~~~~~~~~

Linking up to these great baking parties!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

2011-12-14T09:47:00.004-05:00

I haven't been able to get many pictures of our Christmas tree that I'm happy with - other than some bokeh ones that often aren't intentional - so I've been holding off on a tree post. But I gave it another try tonight.

Some of my favourite ornaments:

We've got a "turtle"

and a "tail"

pinecones and burlap

and a little red wagon

This is the star of the show though. You can turn the tree lights on and off just by touching the bell - you don't have to be messing with plugging and unplugging the cord. There are even 4 brightness settings depending on how much light you want. Love.

And a final up-skirt shot.

So that's all well and good, but what I'm really crushing on is our Charlie Brown tree in the basement TV room.

When we were at my father-in-law's property collecting branches for the wreaths and mantel, I found an entire pine tree that had fallen down, and the top of it was a perfect little Christmas tree. So I hacked it off and dragged it home.

The fun part was figuring out how to get it to stay upright without a stand. Top third of a plastic water bottle + small jam jar (for water) + larger vase filled with sand = makeshift tree stand. I'll give Tom credit for coming up with that one.

What do you think of our little guy?

Since there were so few branches available it took mere minutes to decorate. Just some pinecones, toy drums, a string of lights, and a bow on top. Plus a skirt made of burlap. We also added two ornaments that are brand new this year. One is a minature milk jug, and the other is a little tree made of branch slices. Both so cute.

And this was my helper for the day.

Trust me, she begged to wear the hat.

Later she let me try out lighting patterns on her.

So patient. So Zen.

So easy to bribe with a potato chip.

~~~~~~

Linking up to these parties (and check out the Holiday parties to the right)

(More) Homemade Ornaments

2011-12-12T21:22:00.002-05:00

Are you ready for another round of ornament-making? This may be the last one. Though I do still have 5 unused clear ball ornaments so you never know.

By now you're all probably familiar with my pinecone map ornament. If not, you can go here for a tutorial. I made another one except this time I used a smaller styrofoam ball (that last one ended up as a huge ornament!), and birch bark for the leaves.

I used leftover birchbark from my wreaths and mantel and the same leaf pattern as before, but cut it down a bit. Here is the pattern since several of you have asked for it.

As before, I started by inserting the ribbon loop into the top of the ball and gluing a leaf to the bottom so that nothing was left uncovered. Working from the bottom, I hot glued each leaf onto the ball working my way around to keep everything level. Make sure that you glue the leaves right up to the ribbon. I then added a ribbon bow at the top to finish it off.

Pretty cute, right? I might even like this one better than the map ornament.

My next ornament (or pair of ornaments) are ribbon-filled glass balls. I filled one ball with scraps of red and white ribbons - slightly curled with scissors first - and the other ball with olive green and green-silver sparkly ribbon. I'm totally in love with that sparkly stuff. The colour is just fantastic. I added bows to the tops of each ornament (I really like the look).

I can't stop grinning at that green one. Seriously, it's ridiculous.

Finally, I was getting a little tired, so I made a simple twine wrapped ball. This is nothing new, but I like the homemade and rustic look of it. I just started at the top and hotglued the twine on, circling around and around until I was about halfway down the ball.

I saw one on the web that had scraps of sheet music inside. That would look really sweet and it would coordinate with my other sheet music ornament.

So there you have it - three more ornaments that you can add to your collection. They were all inexpensive, and besides the time it took to cut out the birch bark leaves, really quick to put together.

Have you tried making any of these ornaments?

What was your favourite?

~~~~~~~

Linking to these fun parties!

Christmas Mantel

2011-12-10T19:09:00.001-05:00

I think this is the first year I've decorated our mantel for Christmas. I usually hang the stockings and Santa's clothesline and call it done. But this year, since I went all out on the ornaments (here, here, and here) and the wreaths (here), I figured there's no reason to stop now.

We also have a floating shelf in the livingroom. The thing's gotta be at least 6 feet long, so that gave me double the decorating space!

I used more of the branches that we collected from my father-in-law's property. Sorry about the pictures, they were all taken at night.

First the shelf. I layered cedar branches, just randomly, filling in with smaller pieces as needed. I ran a garland of pinecones and berries from Micheal's (50% off!) along the length of the shelf. The garland was intended to drape across the front of the fireplace but it looked so much better here. I then added in some candles from the dollar store, old candlesticks from Goodwill, and flameless candles.

Sidenote: Costco has packages of 24 different-sized candles/tealights with 24 spare batteries for $15. Tom says it's worth it for the batteries alone as he uses them all the time at his work and they're expensive. Should I start a black market battery store on the side?

The display needed some height so I added my apothocary jars filled with bows (don't they look a bit like poinsettia leaves?) I added more pinecones - can't ever have too many pinecones - some red ribbon and bits of birch bark. Oh, there are also some spheres that I bought from the dollar store years ago. Don't know what they're for but I think they fit right in.

The fireplace mantel was a little harder to decorate because it isn't very deep. I started with a candle holder we bought last year and added pine branches around it. I had to use little spots of hot glue to keep them in place because they kept falling forward. But the glue comes right off so no big deal.

I tried out just about every candlestick I own. And I own a lot. I have two faux lanterns that I received as a shower gift but that I've never really liked. I spraypainted the silver bases with oil rubbed bronze to coordinate with the dark wood of the candleholder. I then partially filled them with burgundy gravel and pearl beads, and added more flameless candles.

Wove in some red ribbon and silver beads.

Added more pinecones. (Of course.)

I also a couple of table "vignettes".

There is a set of birch bark trees I loooooove.

And a pretty little vase filled with cedar twigs and pinecones.

I love that ribbon. It's new this year.

I think I might be ready for Christmas!

~~~~~~~~~

Linking to these fun parties this week!

Paleo Spaghetti

2011-12-08T14:14:00.001-05:00

I have to admit that since giving up cereal grains, I haven't really missed pasta. But I do miss the sauce, and it seems weird to dig into a big bowl of spaghetti sauce all by itself.

Enter Paleo spaghetti. I found this recipe on paleodietlifestyle.com and it gets a gold star from me.

I make my sauce in the slowcooker - 'cause I'm lazy. I add ground beef, chopped onions, mushrooms and garlic. I let that cook completely and then add a jar of prepared spaghetti sauce. Sometimes I'll add a can of diced tomatoes if I have it in the house. Then some spices (chinese chili sauce and garlic pepper this time), and a tablespoon of sugar to sweeten it. I also used some coconut milk to cut down on the acidity of the tomato.

Doesn't that look good?

For the "spaghetti" you're going to use a spaghetti squash. I've never liked squash but I'm warming up to it now. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and what-have-you, and season it if you wish (I used southwest pepper flakes).

Feel free to put the sticker from the squash on your dog's head and watch her dance around trying to get it off. Dinner and a show!

Place the two squash halves face down in a baking dish and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. You don't want to overcook it or the squash will become mushy instead of stringy.

Once done, take a fork and "fluff" the squash strings apart. They should come apart easily.

One average squash makes enough for at least 5-6 servings, maybe more. We've made two dinners, two lunches, and a breakfast from it so far and there's still quite a bit left.

What do you think? Something you'd want to try? If you do, let me know how it turned out. Do you have any other pasta alternatives you like to use?

~~~~~~~~

Linking to these great food parties this week!

Jingle Bell Ornament

2011-12-06T14:17:00.001-05:00

I made a simple little sheet music ornament.

I bought a couple of music books from a used book store and one song happened to be "Jingle Bells". Appropriate, right?

To make the ornament, first I inserted a loop of ribbon into the top of a styrofoam ball the same as with my pinecone map ornament. You just make a hole in the ball with scissors, make a ribbon loop and tie the end with a knot, drop some glue into the hole and push the ribbon knot firmly into the hole.

I cut the sheet music up into approximately 2 inches strips and mod podged them onto the ball in a random pattern. Make sure you go right up to the ribbon loop.

After it has dried, spray it with a sealer to make it shine and seal it (duh) from moisture. I tied a bow to the top to finish it off. Next time I think I'll tea-stain the paper before I glue it on to give it a more antique look.

~~~~~~~~~~

Linking up here this week!

Boughs and Bows

2011-12-04T23:06:00.009-05:00

I'm slowly, slo-o-o-o-wly getting the house decorated for Christmas. The tree went up this afternoon - no ornaments yet - but I did make two wreaths.

The first wreath is for the main floor bathroom door.

All of the materials came from the dollar store.

I think I spent $10 total (wreath included). I love that.

I started with a plain wreath, fluffed out all of the branches, and wound red ribbon and silver beads through the greenery. I then spaced out the pinecones and hot glued them around the wreath. Lastly I attached a sparkly red ribbon at the bottom.

Tom now calls the bathroom the "Christmas Pooper".
Always classy isn't he?

We went to my father-in-law's place on Saturday to cut down some evergreen branches. We found some pine, cedar, and a little bit of spruce - mostly from trees that had already fallen. Plus a bag of birch bark and pinecones. Tom laughed when he looked up and saw me coming out of the forest dragging a birch tree that had fallen down. I'm no wuss.

I started the wreath for the front door by removing the leaves and decorations from the fall wreath I made in October. I hot glued another, slightly smaller wreath to the front of it to make it more substantial.

I took small cedar branches and squeezed them between the two wreaths, adding a spot of hot glue to the back of each branch to keep it in place.

I trimmed small pine branches from a larger branch and glued them all around the inside wreath. I then went back and filled in the spaces with more branches, giving it a layered look.

I arranged some pinecones (spruce cones?) around the edge and glued them down. Is hot glue not the best invention ever?

I found an old arrangement from last year, trimmed the berries off in small bunches, and inserted them randomly into the pine branches. Three pinecones were hung together and tied to the bottom of the wreath. Finally I tied a burlap bow and glued it above the pinecones.

I like the rustic look of it, and I love that it cost absolutely nothing. I either found or had all of the materials on hand.

How fantastic is that?

Not so fantastic is my worktable right now:

I also made some new ornaments today and hope to share them later in the week. They're buried in the mess in the picture above. I bet you can't find them.

Update: had to add one more wreath. This one is hanging above the fireplace. I didn't make it, and I don't remember how much it costs, but in keeping with my rustic, country theme this year I wove some burlap through the branches. It was a bit boring looking before (hence the reason I didn't post about it) but I think it looks sweet now.

~~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these great parties this week!

Stuffed Peppers

2011-12-01T13:48:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to make our meals more interesting lately.

I stopped eating grains (rice, flour, pasta, etc.) about 6 weeks ago

and sometimes it's hard to find a new way to cook meat and vegetables.

Last week I tried beef-stuffed peppers.

That's the most inventive name I can come up with.

It's an easy recipe. Pan-fry ground beef with chopped onions,

mushrooms, garlic, or any other vegetables you want.

There might be some cherry tomatoes in there.

Finely chopped carrots would be good as well.

Since ground beef and bell peppers are both on the bland side,

you'll want to spice these babies up.

I added sweet thai chili sauce and southwest pepper flakes to my beef mixture.

Cut the tops off the peppers and discard the seeds and membrane inside.

Keep the tops, you'll need them later.

Fill each pepper with your ground beef mixture and put their "hats" back on.

Place them in an oven-safe dish and bake at 350 degrees

until they are wrinkling and look thoroughly cooked.

Mine got a little toasted on the top but it didn't affect the taste at all.

One Tip: Poke a few small holes in the bottom of each pepper before cooking.

This will let the liquid run out during baking.

Otherwise, the first time you cut into one

there will be a flood on your plate.

A couple of nights ago I tried ground pork instead.

Chopped onions, mushrooms, and garlic again.

Threw in some baby spinach.

Seasoned it with spicy chili sauce.

(Excuse the steam, I couldn't get a shot without it.)

I layered some shredded cheese into the pepper

before and after adding the meat mixture.

They were soooo good!

Heavy on the heat and the garlic - just the way I like it.

I only wish Tom hadn't talked me into eating

a cupcake before dinner (yeah flour, I know).

These peppers are deceivingly filling and I was stuffed!

Ha! Stuffed! (Like the peppers, you know?)

~~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these great food parties this week!

Vacation Ornaments

2011-11-29T14:11:00.001-05:00

I've been on an ornament kick lately.

First there was the pinecone map ornament.

Then I did three more on the weekend.

I bet I could do 30 different posts on ornament ideas I have.

Maybe next year I'll do a "30 days of" series.

Today I'm going to show you the clear glass vacation ornaments I made.

Backstory:

I collect sand from every beach vacation we take.

I know people who collect sand from anywhere,

but I only collect it from places I've been to myself

and that have special meaning to me.

I have a window sill full of labelled jars from each vacation.

I'm going to have to find a better place to display them

though as I've run out of space.

I bought some clear glass ornaments (with a 50% off

coupon of course) when I was at Hobby Lobby this summer.

Going to Hobby Lobby was a huge deal for me as we don't have any in Canada.

Between that and The Christmas Tree Shoppe I felt like I was at Disneyland.

I didn't notice that the balls were iridescent when I bought them.

It makes it hard to show the different colours of sand.

Since Hawaii is our #1 favourite vacation spot, I started with that one.

I used sand from Lanikai Beach on Oahu. I carefully poured

sand into the ornament and then added in some very small shells.

I'm going to be honest here - the shells are from Prince Edward Island.

I don't think I've ever seen shells in Hawaii.

But I couldn't have an ornament with just sand in it.

I did print out a label with the place and date to put inside,

but I couldn't get it to lay properly without covering up the shells.

Something I'll have to work on.

I tried different ribbon combinations

but settled on using hemp twine to make a bow.

I also made one with sand from our trip to Cuba for my cousin's wedding.

The sand was so soft and powdery.

That trip was a lot of fun as there was a huge group of us

and it was Tom's & my first time in Cuba.

Hopefully not our last.

The fourth one is from the sands at Basin Head

(Singing Sands Beach) in Prince Edward Island.

The squeaking noise the sand makes when you walk on it is hilarious.

You can even do it just by running your hand across it.

We had so much fun watching the dogs try to figure out

where the sounds were coming from.

After finishing them I realized there wasn't enough variation

in the sand colours, so I emptied out the one from Hawaii

and used two other Hawaiian sands - from Black Sand beach (Punaluu)

and Green Sand beach (Papakolea) - both on the Big Island.

Ahhh, that iridescence! You can see me in every shot.

~~~~~~~

I'm linking up to these great parties this week!

That's a Wrap

2011-11-28T22:22:00.001-05:00

After this weekend I'm one step closer to having a real craft room.

Tom & I installed my "wrapping paper centre"

on one of the blank walls above the worktables.

I looked at dozens of pictures online and sketched out different layouts,

until eventually deciding I wanted something very simple and streamlined.

Just two vertical pieces of wood with dowels hung horizontally between.

I didn't want something bulky and overpowering in the room.

Plus I'd probably bump into it all the time.

Tom gets so frustrated with me because I have to physically lay things out

to get a sense of the space, I can't just picture it in my head.

I made him wait while I layed rolls of wrapping paper and ribbon on the floor

to figure out the spacing. Then did it again once the wood was cut.

I probably would have checked a third time if he'd let me.

I arrived at 6 dowels for paper, one for ribbon,

and an extra one at the bottom for tissue paper.

The build was really simple.

Two 38" lengths of 1x3 with cup hooks screwed in at even intervals.

We added a "bump-out" for the larger ribbon rolls

with another small piece of 1x3 at the top of each board.

(I'm supposed to mention - Don't do this at home.

Tom is demonstrating very unsafe power tool handling.)

~~A few~~ many coats of plain white semi-gloss paint were needed.

In retrospect, I think it would have been faster to spraypaint them.

Of course, primer wouldn't have hurt either.

It wasn't until I had the hooks back in that I noticed

the holes on the two boards didn't line up.

Tom had attached one of the bump-outs

to the wrong end of the board.

Maybe he should have layed it all out first instead of visualizing it.

Just sayin'.

Rather than remove the piece, sand and repaint,

he redrilled the holes and I puttied and painted over the old ones.

We hung it with anchors and screws

(checking with the level multiple times - I'm a safety girl)

and measured the dowels for cutting.

Eventually I'll get around to puttying and painting

over those anchor screws, but not today.

Check out this cool flukey shot - it looks like the hammer is see-through.

Having it all up there makes me realize that I'm not very adventurous

with my ribbon colour choices. I'm going to have to remedy that.

This wasn't my first choice for how to hang the tissue paper,

but I couldn't figure out anything that didn't stick out too far from the wall.

I considered a pant or tie rack with arms that would fold flat

but couldn't find one anywhere.

I'm very happy with it. Everything is tidy and accessible.

And I don't have to worry anymore about finding a bunch of chewed up ribbon

under the spare bed because Little Dog thought it was a new toy.

Exhibit A:

Oh, I see you Little Dog. I see you.

~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these great parties!

40-Acre Couch

2011-11-27T22:39:00.003-05:00

It was a big day here on Saturday.

We bought a sectional for the basement to replace the one

that just wasn't big enough for two people and two big dogs.

Our old couch is about seven years old.
It was the perfect fit - at the time.

We only had one dog and she didn't always want to be on the couch anyway.

But these two. Bi-i-i-i-ig snugglers.

And they sprawl.

Plus Chloe hates when Sasha is touching her.

It's a whole thing with her.

We've been looking for a new couch for quite a while

but couldn't find exactly what we wanted

- U-shaped, deep cushions, low rounded arms, not leather -

for a price we were willing to pay.

But then, a few weeks ago we wandered into Leon's and the salesman

told us about a 20% off friends and family sale they were having the next week.
If we put a deposit down that day we could have the sale price.

So we jumped. Without looking around.

In our defense, we did spend the following week comparing prices
at other stores but nothing came close.

So it was all good!

Here is the old one. Pretty exciting, right?

Those aren't stains on the cushions, just the way the nap is laying.
And the walls aren't pink, it's just a bad picture.

We moved out the old couch the night before

to measure the space for the new one.

And got a little scared. It was going to take up most of the room.

128 inches wide. 99 inches long.

Wow.

Here's hoping we're wrong.

8:45am Saturday morning. The delivery truck is here!

Excellent delivery guys.

They even moved the old couch out to the garage for us.

And look! The couch fits!

Check out the chaise.

There are going to be fights over that spot.

This is, "Here's what I want to do with the room"
- and, "Please don't take my picture."

I know the walls, carpet, and couch are all

the same colour (that's an area rug in the picture above).

But that's going to change. Soon.

We've been waiting to find a couch before we decided the colour

for the walls and a new area rug. I can hardly wait.

Looks like everyone is pretty happy with the new seating situation.

And someone doesn't want to leave.

Not even if you ask.

Nicely.

Noooooo! I don't wanna go!

How cute is this?

I think we have a winner. :-)

Tray-ding Up

2011-11-23T10:51:00.003-05:00

We had a surprise party in August for Tom's 40th birthday

and my aunt brought a tray of cheese and crackers. It was a dollar store tray

that she was more than happy to leave behind.

I decided that I would break out the mod podge and fancy it up.

First I spray painted it with Tremclad "Anodized Bronze".

I had gone to Goodwill to find some books to take apart and glue

to the tray bottom. But they were so pretty that I just couldn't.

I went through my bookshelves and found an old Alfred Hitchcock collection

that no one was ever going to read and randomly cut out some pages.

My apologies now to the person that does finally decide to read it

and will never know who-done-it.

I cut the pages in half to make them easier to work with,

then tea-stained them and applied them to the tray

with watered-down mod podge.

An excellent tip I read online was to glue them down randomly

- don't work from one side to the other -

otherwise you'll end up with them all on top at one end.

I was pretty darn happy with the effect.

I even added a fall leaf for some colour and texture.

But then we went to the Leonardo da Vinci Workshop exhibition

at the Ontario Science Centre (a must-see if you're in the Toronto area).

I fell in love with the reproductions of his writings and drawings

(also the lion and the self-supporting bridge).

I found some copies online, sepia tinted them,

and printed them out. This was so much more me.

Always been more the science geek than the literature geek.

But. But.

Mod podge on printer paper is not a nice look. You could see right through

the paper to the printed pages below. And it was a bit smeary.

Thank goodness the original mod podge provided a barrier

because I just scraped the new pages right off

without damaging the pages below.

I have no pictures of this fiasco.

Be glad.

I sprayed on some clear coat to protect the paper

and mod podge from moisture and heat.

I stared at it for a while. I just wasn't happy with the tray colour.

The grey was too primer looking for my liking.

Seriously, is this ever going to end?

I carefully taped around the edges of the tray bottom with painters tape

and then taped down a leftover paint roller bag (recycle! reuse!)

to protect the bottom from overspray.

I gave the tray a few coats of ORB (oil rubbed bronze).

I tried Krylon this time instead of my usual Rustoleum.

I think I like the Rustoleum better because it has more shimmer.

But the Krylon is cheaper so it's a toss-up.

When it was dry I pulled off the tape and was much happier with the result.

There was a better contrast between the aged pages and the dark tray.

Plus the paint colour is very close to the printing colour on the paper.

I bought some black silk cord from Walmart and hot glued it around

the seam between the tray and the paper bottom.

It gives it a nice finished look.

The pictures don't really do it justice as the ORB

doesn't seem to reflect the light very much.

Here we are all done up for the holidays

with some decorations from Michaels.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm linking up to these great parties this week!

Not-So-Cold Storage

2011-11-20T22:49:00.003-05:00

We have a cold room in our basement.

It looks more like a bomb shelter.

It's musty, drafty, (and cold obviously) and we've never
really used it for its intended purpose.
We're not really the canning preserves and stockpiling wine types.

We've barely used the room because of how bad

anything that is stored there ends up smelling.

It's been three years, so this fall we finally got around to insulating

and finishing it for regular storage.

This is what it looked like before.

Bare cement walls and exposed beams. And lots of dirt.

Didn't the builders do a fantastic job? Blech.

Oh yeah, we also found one of these guys. Double blech.

The first thing we did was seal the cracks with spray foam.

We pulled down the beams that weren't needed

and put in new support beams with joist brackets.

(You'll notice I say "we" a lot through this, but mine was more of a supervisory role.)

We sprayed the walls down with bleach and then painted

all of the cement with Kilz paint to provide a mildew barrier.

The room was framed in with 2x4s at the ends but we could only use
2x3s across the long walls because the walls were so warped.

We then insulated the two outer walls and the ceiling with fiber insulation.

It's ugly but it has a higher insulation value than the pink stuff.

Since it isn't going to be seen on a day to day

basis, we hung plywood instead of drywall.

And it made it easier to secure shelving to the walls.

We hung it sideways.

I think it just looks better.

We replaced the exposed bulb with two flushmount lights.

They're exterior lights but I liked the industrial feel of them.

We framed in the doorway with 1x6s and

installed the light switch on the other side of the doorway.
I really like the wider wood planks - it gives it a log-cabiny feel.

Wall to wall shelves were installed on the far end

to hold the Christmas decorations.

It's so nice to have a place to put them all now.

Before this we kept them in the furnace room

(so it feels a bit safer having moved the flammables out of danger).

We reinstalled the Ikea shelves that were in there before

and secured them to the wall to keep them stable.

And we carpeted the floor.

We just used an old 5x7 rug that the dog had chewed the edges of.

I can't believe how much the room holds.

And the room smells like fresh wood instead of fresh wouldn't. (See what I did there?)

Dryer Vent Turkey

2011-11-14T11:01:00.000-05:00

While I was putting away the dryer vent pumpkins I made

(tutorial here), I kept looking at how fat they were and thought

one would make a terrific turkey centrepiece.

Here in Canada, even though we eat turkey for Thanskgiving,

it's not really a focus for decorating. More pumpkins, leaves, and corn.

But I was convinced that that pumpkin looked like a turkey.

So I bought some brown, orange, and yellow cardstock

for the feathers and head. I just free-handed a feather pattern

and cut the shapes out in the brown paper.

I then made the template smaller and cut more feathers

out of orange. Repeat for yellow.

They aren't perfect (have you ever seen a turkey with perfect symmetry?)

but if you had a Cricut or Silhouette you could do a much neater job.

I glued the three different feathers to each other and then glued

all six tri-coloured feathers together in a fan shape.

I cut the head shape from orange paper (free-hand of course)

and pinched the neck together a bit at the bottom to make it more 3-D.

The beak is yellow cardstock just glued on.

I drew some eyes (on the back of a paint chip) and glued that on too.

I even added a red snood for authenticity.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures of any of that.

I removed the cinnamon stick and moss from the pumpkin

and hot glued the head and tail to the front and back.

This was a little difficult as the pumpkin has wire ribs

so there isn't much to glue to.

Added some little feet at the end.

And here's my chubby ol' turkey.

The freehand shapes give him a homemade feel.

Or emphasizes that I have the artistic skills of a third grader.

I prefer the former.

I tried him out all over the house

but he seemed happiest laying in the leaves and acorns.

Gobble, gobble!

~~~~~~

I'm linking up to these great parties this week!

Gumball Machine Candy Holder

2011-11-09T22:26:00.003-05:00

Here is another project I stumbled across on Pinterest and had to try.

All you need is a flower pot and saucer, a wooden ball (flat bottomed),

a glass bowl, and paint & ribbon.

I started by glueing the wooden ball in the center of the bottom of the saucer.

I used E6000 glue. This was my first time using it and it's so great!

So many people rave about it and now I know what they're talking about.

It's really strong and dries so much faster than Gorilla Glue.

I painted the saucer and flower pot with two coats

of black acrylic paint from the dollar store.

It looked a bit chalky so when it was dry I sprayed the pieces

with a couple of coats of clear gloss sealer.

You have to be careful here not to spray it on too thick or it will run.

After everything had dried completely

I glued the glass bowl to the bottom of the flower pot.

I then tied a burgundy ribbon around the base and that's it!

But then I ran into a problem. No candy in the house.

Not a bit.

So now what?

Do I fill it with granola bars? Almonds? Dog Biscuits?

I settled on mini marshmallows.

I like the pop of colour against the solid black.

This project was so easy and inexpensive.

And the ribbon (or even the paint colour) can be changed

to give it a completely different look.

One last shot of the marshmallows.

They make me smile.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these great parties this week!

Pinecone Map Ornament

2011-11-08T06:38:00.004-05:00

Some super famous and super awesome blogger ladies had a Pinterest challenge last week. Admit it - we pin photos to our Pinterest boards all the time, but how often do we get around to making anything we pin? See what Sherry, Katie, Ana, and Erin came up with. Such talent.

I was a little slow to get anything ready for the challenge, but there was one Pinterest photo that Sherry posted that caught my eye.

My version:

My "pinsperation":

source

Cute, right?

I'm always on the lookout for interesting Christmas ornaments. And every time we're on vacation I have to pick one up. So why not combine my two loves - ornaments and vacation?

I decided to use maps of Hawaii as it is my absolute favourite place to be. I would go there every year if I could.

I followed along with the tutorial on the source site and it was pretty easy. Cutting out the leaves was the most time consuming. But actually putting it together took less than an hour. Only one episode of True Blood. (I'm only halfway through season 4 so don't tell me anything.) And I didn't have to go out and buy anything so it was essentially free.

You start with a styrofoam ball - you can buy them in multipacks from the dollar store. I think an egg shape would be cute too. Using scissors, poke a hole in the top. Cut a length of ribbon, fold it into a loop, and tie the ends in a knot. Put a blob of glue into the hole and push the knot of ribbon in firmly.

I found a leaf shape online to use as a template and cut out leaves from my "Oahu Revealed" guide book. I cut out dozens of leaves, just randomly choosing areas on the maps that gave a good mix of land and water. I also made sure to include some favourite spots we've visited. Don't worry, I'm not one to cut up important books, I have another copy. As an aside: if you're going to Hawaii for the first time, the "Revealed" series of books are excellent. Plenty of maps, detailed directions, and fun snippets of history.

Glue the first leaf to the bottom of the ball to give complete coverage. Mine didn't lay as flat as in the tutorial but it wasn't that bad and wasn't really going to be seen anyway.

Start gluing the top edge of each leaf onto the ball, starting at the bottom, and making sure that there aren't any gaps. Give each leaf a slight upward curl with the scissors before attaching. Work your way up the ball making sure that the leaves go right to the ribbon.

I glued a row of tiny foam beads around the ribbon to finish it off.

What do you think?

I love it.

And I love that every time I look at it I'm reminded of the most beautiful place on earth.

~~~~~~~~~

I'm joining these great link parties this week!

Chocolate Scotcheroos

2011-11-01T21:34:00.001-04:00

Do you like chocolate?

Do you like peanut butter?

Do you like Rice Krispies?

Here is a recipe for the simplest dessert on the planet.

The original recipe can be found on the Rice Krispies website.

This is the only measuring cup you'll need.

You'll also need a pot and two 8x8 baking dishes or metal pans.

Seriously, it's that simple.

Ingredients

sugar
pancake syrup
peanut butter
Rice Krispies (or other cereal)
chocolate chips
butterscotch chips

Combine one cup of sugar and one cup of syrup in the pot. The original recipe calls for corn syrup, but I've found that pancake syrup gives you softer, chewier squares. Heat to boiling, stirring often, and making sure all of the sugar dissolves. Bringing it to a full boil will also keep the squares chewy instead of hard and kind of crunchy.

Measure out one cup of peanut butter. Now would be an excellent time to give the dogs some peanut butter as a treat while you wait for the sugar mixture to boil. Nothing's more fun than watching them wrap their tongues around their faces trying to get every bit.

Once the sugar is lightly boiling, remove from the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir until smooth (or not so smooth if you used crunchy PB). You can substitute any other nut butter (my fave is almond butter) if there is a peanut allergy.

Measure out 6 cups of Rice Krispies. Oh...I guess I lied to you about only needing one measuring cup. Unless you use it six times. Then I'm not a liar.

Add the Rice Krispies to the pot a little at a time, making sure the cereal is evenly covered. Pour the cereal mixture out into the pans pressing it out and smoothing it as you go. I've found that the back of a buttered spatula works really well. There's no need to rush this as the mixture stays soft for quite a while. (You won't believe how many times I've had to re-write these instructions to remove double-entendres. I think I'm just going to give up and go with it.)

Set the pans to the side. Now go wash that pot because you're going to use it again. Add one cup of chocolate chips and one cup of butterscotch chips to the pot and melt them over low heat, stirring frequently.

Once the chips are melted and blended together, divide it between the two pans ~~and your mouth~~, spreading the chocolate out evenly over the cereal mixture. Again, you don't have to rush as it stays melted for quite a while.

Gratuitous chocolate picture

Once the chocolate is evenly covering the cereal, put the pans in the fridge for an hour or two to cool. Once cooled, take them out and cut up into 1 1/2 - 2 " squares.

I made one into a spider, just for fun.

You will get so many compliments on these.

And no one will know how easy they were.

I won't tell if you won't. :-)

~~~~~~~~~~

I'm linking to these great link parties this week!

Dryer Vent Pumpkins

2011-10-30T19:27:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd give a tutorial on how to make the dryer vent pumpkins

I featured in my front porch decor post.

I got the idea from Courtney at A Diamond in the Stuff.

She's made so many variations on the original - you should go check it out.

I used 6" and 4" plastic dryer vent to make two different sizes of pumpkin. I cut the vent with scissors and wire cutters, curved it around on itself, and hot glued the open ends together.

I then spraypainted them "Cinnamon" by Krylon.

I used a cinnamon stick for the stem.

Some moss and a leaf added some visual interest.

This is a really easy project - the hardest part is waiting for the paint to dry.

I printed out "Boo" signs and glued them to two of them to take to work.

So many people commented on them.

It's nice when such a simple craft has such impact.
And I like that, unlike real pumpkins, they can be used year after year.

I'm linking to these great parties this week!

Fall Decor - Porch & Mantle

2011-10-27T22:39:00.004-04:00

I'm way behind on showing off my front door all decorated for fall. The weatherman is already threatening snow around here. Though to be honest, it's only been 3 weeks since the gorgeous Thanksgiving weekend when I docorated. Not much time at all.

I started with the wreath that I showed you here. Simple burlap and some leaves and mini pumpkins.

I love how the ribbon subtly coordinates with the burlap instead of shouting, "Look at me! I'm holding this whole thing together!"

The problem with waiting until October to decorate was that the stores were moving out the fall and trucking in the Halloween. My local dollar store had about 3 feet of space allocated to fall. And much of that was scarecrows. No thank you. I lucked out at Walmart - they were started to get rid of everything but at least it was on sale.

I used some leaf garland to outline the front door adding in some bunches of berries to give it some colour. I waited until after I was done to tell Tom that I used staples to hang it all up there.

The sides and the top are actually different types of garland, but I think they blend together really well.

I made some dryer vent pumpkins that I saw on A Diamond in the Stuff. Check it out to see all the variations Courtney came up with. I couldn't believe how many you can make from one length of vent. I have 12 of these things. Anyone need a pumpkin?

I used Krylon "Cinnamon" to paint them. I also tried out "Paprika" but it was a little too red for my taste. I glued on some moss and stuck in a cinnamon stick for a stem, added a leaf and called it done.

Note: Do not leave your spraypainted pumpkins in the direct sun to dry.
The heat will melt your glue and they will pop apart.
Experience. I have it.

We were at the Newmarket Farmers Market that weekend and bought
two gigantic mums for $8 each.

I love the colour so much.

The plants were so big I really only needed one for the bucket so I'm still moving the other one around trying to find the perfect place.

I have to get around to painting a monogram on that bucket some day.

So there it is. We have a very small porch so it can't get too extravagant. And it has been so rainy and windy that hay and cornstalks would be gone in a day. I've already had to go hunting a couple of times for those small pumpkins on the chair because they've been blown across the lawn.

~~~~~~~~~~

I got so caught up in the decorating that it made its way inside and I decorated the mantle too.

I hot glued some more leaf garland to the edge (staples wouldn't work - I tried) and sprinkled loose leaves and acorns across the top.

I tied small pieces of burlap around each candle with hemp twine for a rustic, country look.

The orange and yellow pumpkins are from Walmart ($1.50 each!)

I just wandered around the house looking for things to add.

A candle (cinnamon pecan swirl of course) with some raffia and a pinecone.

A vase with some more raffia and some twigs (potpourri in the bottom).

And then I needed one more thing to fill the space beside the vase.

On several sites I've seen seasonal frames. (Can't find a link.)

Just a few minutes playing on Picnik, an old frame that wasn't being used, and I was done. I used a burlap background because burlap is my "jam" as Sherry would say.

We don't have a hearth but I did put a couple of small pumpkins on large candlesticks to finish off the area.

Do you see the mason jar leaf candles sneaking into the background?

And isn't it nice that the walls are suitably autumnal?

I really want to paint them, but for now they work.

I'm linking to these great link parties this week!

Soupfest - the sequel

2011-10-22T21:05:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday was the Holland Marsh Soupfest I wrote about here. In previous years the entrance fee has been $5 and $10 for unlimited (3 oz.) samples. This year the price has gone up to $20 and you were only allowed 10 samples. You were given a card on a lanyard that the soup vendor would punch each time you had a sample. So two dollars per sample. A little steep? I think so. It’s sad that a fun community event has turned into a for-profit enterprise.

The soup vendors were set up in two large tents on the grounds of a local winery. Even with the higher price there was still a great turnout.

I love that I caught the EMS guy eating some soup.

My first soup? Hamburger Vegetable. It had plenty of vegetables, sausage, and ground beef. (Just a note: I don't have man-hands, that's my husband's hand in most pictures - I made him hold my soup cup every time I wanted a picture of it.)

I thought it was pretty good, though the version I made here was better, in my opinion. Then on to the carmelized onion & carrot. Oh my. This was a good soup.

I like how they shredded the carrot rather than having chunks of vegetable. It made the two flavours blend smoothly. I hope the recipe for this one shows up on the website.

There were also local bakeries present selling loaves of bread and fancy desserts. Check out the peasant bread!

It comes from a place in Barrie called Laurie's Sweet Treats. Here are the lovely ladies who were working the table (Laurie is on the left).

Had to buy a loaf of cheese & chive peasant bread and a couple of pumpkin whoopie pies.

Back to the soups. A local mexican restaurant was featuring tortilla soup. Spicy broth, chunks of chicken and avocado, cheese, and strips of tortilla chips.

What's not to like? I also snagged one of their menus so we can visit the restaurant sometime.

My favourite soup was a corn chowder from Hogan's Inn in King City. Best soup in the place, hands down. Maybe the best soup I’ve ever tasted. It featured corn, chorizo sausage, shredded chicken and smoked paprika.

I’ll admit I came back for seconds - or thirds - on that one. I could have stayed at that table all day. But I was already looking like a stalker (right Shannon?) so I moved on.

Other soups that I remember seeing but didn’t try were borscht, purple carrot, lamb vindaloo, vegetable, roasted red pepper, corn chowder with double smoked bacon, and butternut squash. A nice selection, and since most of the meats and all of the vegetables come from local area farms, a great way to celebrate our local farmers.

Between the two tents there was a farmers market with fresh produce, cheese, jams, pies, and meat for sale.

You could even buy peameal on a bun if you were still hungry. I bought some more whoopie pies from a different vendor (chocolate and pumpkin cream cheese this time) and some Halloween cookies for Bella and Alex when they come to visit next weekend.

Our last stop was at a table featuring 220 products made with maple syrup.

I snapped a couple of shots of the caramelized syrup with Bailey’s or whiskey and the jams, but I was most interested in the maple pepper sauce (no picture, sorry). The owner gave me a tiny taste on the end of a fork… and right there my face exploded. It was so hot! Apparently the bottle has 100 scotch bonnet peppers in it. Feel free to look up how hot those little suckers are. She gave me some crackers and cream cheese to help calm the burn, but my eyes were still watering so badly I could barely see. She recommended that the sauce be added to other dishes rather than eaten by itself. Ya think? So I didn’t buy that. Though I will admit, before my head caught on fire, the mix of sweet syrup and hot pepper was nice.

We wandered over to the winery (to get out of the cold) and to sample some wine. I myself don’t like wine but my sister was very fond of a red they were featuring.

We bought a bottle of chardonnay for a friend and headed back out. There was a booth set up at the entrance run by Gibson's Garden Accents, a couple selling handmade iron garden art and bird houses with interesting details. A portion of their profits go to help establish health care facilities for leprosy sufferers in developing countries. I wish I had taken more pictures of the sculptures but here is what I snagged.

I love the use of doorknobs and bathroom taps on the bird houses. And the hummingbird is made from either a curtain rod finial or a baluster basket (I think).

There were some cooking demonstrations and art for sale in the main building. We popped in for a minute so I could grab some pictures. And I really wanted to see the inside because I love that mountain lodge style.

We would have stayed longer but I could see our shuttle rounding the corner of the building so we had to go. That’s right – we had a horse-drawn wagon shuttle us to our car. So much fun. Except that it was slow moving and it started to rain halfway along the trip. I of course was all about protecting my camera, so I didn’t get any pictures of the horses or the wagon.

All together it was a lot of fun and we’ll definitely go back again next year. After all it’s become a family tradition now. Check out my beautiful family.

That’s my husband, my sister and her husband, and my cousin and his wife. They look like they love each other but I think they were just trying to stay warm. J

Wherein I Get All Primal On You

2011-10-17T22:17:00.003-04:00

I really wanted tacos for dinner last night but we didn’t have any shells or tortillas. I’ve been trying to cut flour, grains, and sugar out of my diet, so I wandered over to Mark's Daily Apple for some inspiration. He has a tortilla recipe made with coconut flour – which I did happen to have in the house.

Primal Tex-Mex Tortillas

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

2 eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon lime juice

2 tablespoons coconut flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

On his site Mark has fantastic pictures of the ingredients and the finished product. I tried to duplicate his funky spice swirl but mine is nowhere near as pretty.

How about just a picture of the spice bottles?

Crushed “chillies” makes me laugh.

Like there should be little penguins in there.

Instructions:

· Whisk together water, eggs, olive oil and lime.

· Mix together coconut flour, baking powder, cumin and chili powder.

· Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, whisking as you pour so clumps don’t form.

Do you like how my spatula matches the bowl? That was planned. (No it wasn't.)

· Heat several tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat.

· When the oil is hot, pour 1/4 cup of batter in the pan, tilting pan so the batter spreads thinly.

It starts to cook right away so it's hard to get it round unless you're an expert pancake pourer. Which I am not. Maybe if I'd thinned it down a bit more I would have had more time. I also learned that if you use butter instead of oil the batter just slides around the pan instead of spreading.

· Let the batter sit untouched for one minute then put a lid on the pan and cook one minute more. Flip the tortilla and fry for 2 more minutes.

Looking good!

Here is my stack of tortillas all ready to go. They are more like little pancakes than tortillas. And they are delicate so it’s not easy to fold them. (I just ate mine with a fork.)

These are Mark's suggestions for seasoning 1 lb of meat. We used ground chicken and whatever spices we could find.

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teasoon garlic powder or minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Yep, that's meat.

Now how about the toppings? I chopped up mushrooms, onions, red peppers, grape tomatoes, and baby spinach. Just look at those colours. (And my fancy collage.)

Here is my first taco. I also added some salsa for moisture. Just gorgeous.

I really like spicy food so having a kick to the meat and the tortilla was nice.

I’m sure we’ll have them again. It took quite a while to cook them one at a time but I think it was worth it. I even took the leftovers for lunch today.

What do you think? Would you be willing to try something a little different?

I'm linking up to these great parties this week!