Asparagus

With a title like Asparagus, you may be thinking this is a recipe post…but no. I’m talking paint. We have officially painted the first room in our home and are loving it. Now if I can just convince Lan to either let me paint the paneling or take it down. Neither of us like it… but who knows what can of worms we would uncover, so for now, it stays.

Before: please ignore all the junk in the bottom of this photo

After:

We love how it turned out. It is hard to tell from the pictures, but the walls look clean, crisp, and a little more modern. Now we just need to put something on the walls for that polished look.

Above you can see a closer look of a weird mini column in our room. The wall is actually textured wallpaper that they sponge painted. It was dirty.. and just looked weird. We did discover that those vertical pieces of paneling on the corners of the panel are purely there for “decoration”. Bye bye decoration.

I may not have gotten rid of all of the paneling…. but aaahhhh... doesn’t that look better

Dry Erase To Do List

I am a huge list person. I make lists for everything…and thus waste a lot of paper doing so. This super easy idea (much like how most of my ideas are) came to me the other night while cleaning my craft table and finding a ton of clips frames.

You just use the glass as a template for cutting out some pretty paper. I would suggest not using any paper that is too busy. You could even design something on your computer that is tailored to what you want to use it for. If you like lined paper, print out some and put it in your frame. Then put your frame together. This kind of frame doesn’t have a border which is actually nicer so junk doesn’t get caught in the border when you erase.

Use a dry erase marker. It wipes off cleanly. Super easy to change out.. perhaps with the seasons, or if you are indecisive like me, simply when the fancy strikes you.

Plant Markers

Last weekend I started planting my seeds in starter pots. I used peat moss cups because they can be planted directly into the ground once their roots poke through he bottom of the cups.

In order to keep all of my little plants organized I made plant markers. I have heard of people using popsicle sticks, but they absorb water and can become gross. You can also buy them, but hey… why spend money when you don’t have to.

First I found some plastic that was going to be thrown away.

I cut it so that I had a flat rectangle.

Then I used a straight edge to cut strips

I used a permanent marker to write on them… and done super easy and cost absolutely no money… plus they even work better than many other options.

Blue Cheese Alfredo with Steak

I love pasta, and one of my favorites is the Steak and Gorgonzola Alfredo from Olive Garden. Mmmm soooo good. Lan and I are trying to save money so I tried my hand at making my own version, inspired by the Olive Garden favorite. I had some Blue Cheese Laughing Cow Cheese that I got for a buy one, get one deal, so I decided to use this… result… yum!

1 can chicken broth

1 large Tbs. chopped garlic

3-4 wedges light Blue Cheese Laughing Cow

1/4 c. parmesan, or to taste

1 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. flour

1. In a sauce pan, simmer chicken broth and garlic about 5 min. Take out a little bit of broth, and let it cool.

2. Mix in the flour to form a paste. Add this paste to the broth and mix well. Add the Laughing Cow and smash it in with the back of your spoon mixing well.

3. Add parmesan and let it simmer until thickened. Right before you serve, melt in 1 Tbs. butter.

Serve over pasta and add steak if you like… I do :) We had some left over from another meal. Super fast, easy and yummy. It is the type of meal where you can keep the ingredients on hand since laughing cow keeps a long time.

serves 2 hungry people

Green Tea Challenge: Day 5

In honor of day 5 in the green tea challenge, and in honor of the flower linkup at Craftahololics Anonymous, and also in honor of me being in a silly mood and wanting to do a silly craft, I bring you…. the Green Tea Flower! Don’t worry, only one actual green tea bag was harmed in the making of this craft.

First I took the wrappers from all of those green tea bags that I have been drinking and one actual tea bag.

I put glue in the middle of one of the tea wrappers

and put another one on it angled

I continued with two other tea wrappers

glue a teabag in the middle and…….

you have a green tea flower I do silly things when I am in silly moods. An no… I didn’t wear this one out. It was just for fun

Vintage Rosettes

Craftaholics Anonymous is having a link up for different types of flowers.  They are doing the linkup until February 12.  I got inspired to begin crafting up some original flowers.  So I made this vintage rosette.  Super cute (looks better in person) and I think I will end up putting it on a hair clip.  After having so much fin with this flower, I plan to get more creative on a few others.  Lets see if I actually do it though    

You begin buy bunching and sewing as you go.

Your Rosette will look something like above.  Since it is just bunching and sewing, they will all look a little different.

After that I took some of that elastic that they use on underwear (my grandma and mom made their own underwear back in the day and I inherited some of it.. along with their old fabrics)  and pleated it behind the rosette.

After I was done with that step, I did the same with a one inch lace.

 

All done

Green Tea Challenge: Day 2

So I am sealing a blog post from my dear friend Jessica over at Just About A Girl. The other day when we did the glass cutting, Jessica and I decided to do a little experiment. After crafting, we were looking through some old Good House Keeping magazines that I dug out of the trash in the teacher's lounge. Before you all go ewwwwwww.... it was the recycle bin, so no, I am not desperate enough for magazines that I will riffle through old banana peels and lean Cuisine packages. Anyways, we were looking through them and came across an article on the benefits of green tea. We both love coffee (Jessica like leaps and bounds more than I) and have at least a cup a day (Jessica... a bit more) Well we put ourselves up to a little challenge. We decided to replace our coffee fix with green tea.

I started yesterday and had a successful day. No headache! Success.

I did my day two today! But I also cheated :) oops. So I had my cup of green tea in the morning and then another one when I got to work. Then at break... I gave in... not because I was craving more caffine or coffee... but because I was hungry. I figured having a cup of coffee would be better than say a sugary treat. I was weak. I should have had more tea... or water. But hey at least I should still be getting those health benefits since I am also drinking the green tea (and yes I know I am trying to justify it)

Overall I am feeling good! We will keep you updated :)