ICING FOR THE WALLS

I was sick & tired of looking at my mustard hallway.

Don't get me wrong... mustard happens to be one of my favorite colors.

When we moved into our house each room was painted a different color, it looked
 like a fruit salad.
So, I decided to paint it a more sophisticated color: a bluish grey.

I am pretty happy with the new color, but my wall looks a little boring.
After trolling through Pinterest I decided to install a gallery of art work.
We have SO much art, our own & a lot from our talented friends.
Why not display it?
CJ and I went to the thrift store and bought a ton of frames that would fit
the art.  I then spray painted all of the frames gold ♥ so they would match. I've
seen other salon style walls with different color frames & thought they were
distracting...I kept looking at the frames rather than the art.

After they dried, I fit each drawing to the frame.

My next step was to make a template; I took butchers paper and cut it to the 
size & shape I wanted the pictures to fit within.
Then we arranged the pictures as best we could so all of them would fit
inside the paper template.  It was like trying to put together a puzzle.

Once we figured out the arrangement we liked the best I took a marker & traced

an outline of each frame and labeled the rectangle spaces to know what goes where.

Then I hung the template & hammered nails in the wall for each frame.
Once that was finished I took the paper down and hung the frames.

Slowly but surely...

...they went up.

I'm pretty happy with the final result...what do you think?

BY LAUREN FOR YOUR BEARD

Valentines day has come and gone...and I made beard oil.

My lovely husband has a lovely lush beard & I figured

why not get it to its full potential.

Everyone knows how good essential oils are for the skin and hair

so I decided to DIY some beard oil.

I wish I could try it out...but you'll just have to take CJ's word for it.

Things you'll need:

100 drops of Almond Oil
10 drops of Oakmoss Oil
5 drops of Rosewood Oil
5 drops of Cedarwood Oil
5 drops of Lavender Oil
5 drops of Tea Tree Oil
Dropper
10ml Empty bottles

Before you go and buy these essential oils, let me tell you the
benefits of each oil.

OAKMOSS: antiseptic to prevent infections in open cuts and wounds; it has anti-inflammatory qualities that aid in soothing swollen spots on the body. 

ROSEWOOD: to relieve stress, and to rekindle the spirit and the mind. It is also known to relieve headaches. It is claimed that the oil increases sexual desire...perfect for Valentines day.

CEDARWOOD: cures Seborrhea or Seborrhea Eczema and reduces peeling of the skin.

LAVENDER: common skin conditions, including but not limited to acne, bruising bug bites and burns.

ALMOND: Soothes skin irritation and inflammation, relieves dry and itching skin, nourishes hair and smoothes hair cuticles, makes hair long, strong and thick.

TEA TREE: An antiseptic to be used on cuts, fights acne, oily skin & itchy skin.

Now to begin the easiest DIY project EVER!!!

Start with your carrier oil (base), Almond.

Place 100 drops, in your bottle... the majority of the beard oil should be 

your carrier oil, its used to dilute the essential oils before they are applied to the skin.

Now add all the other oils to the bottle.

Let the oil sit for a couple of days, shaking the bottle every so often.

Add your own label to make it look REAL good.

AND THATS ALL!!!

NOTE FROM CJ:

I don't actually have a lovely lush beard, but I hope to one day.  Today was day one of using it and so far so good.  My beard hasn't taken over my face yet, but i'll keep you updated.

*UPDATE*
CJ must cuddle real hard with our dogs because they smell like beard oil.
Maybe their coats will benefit too?

SWEETS FOR MY SWEET

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY DUM DUMS!!!

I hope that you get lots of chocolates from your sweetie. 

I also hope you bake something awesome in return.

I hope you're not sick of cookies yet...because I told you that I LOVE cookies.

These are some of the best cookies I have EVER made.

Two times in 1 week. 

GULP.

So take it from a cookie enthusiast, these are worth making.

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of room temperature butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/8 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of Reeses peanut butter chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Mix the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until fluffy.

Add the egg & vanilla and mix again.

Now this is the part where you are supposed to add the remaining dry ingredients in a 

separate bowl and then add it to the dough. I didn't feel like making

another bowl dirty so I added the rest of the ingredients directly to the wet ingredients.

Do it my way and save time on cleaning.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

Mix together until you are left with a fluffy chocolate dough.

Now add the peanut butter chips and mix by hand.

I dare you to try to not eat all of the dough.

ITS SOOOOOO GOOOOD.

Make small balls and place them on a covered baking sheet.

Bake for exactly 8 minutes.

Let them cool & enjoy!

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Taste Testers

LAUREN: Everything about these cookies were spot on. They stayed chewy in the middle and crispy on the outside. They are so good and so easy to make. Maybe I'll make a 3rd batch this week.

CJ: Oooooooh man. These were too good for words.  Really.

A MOSTLY FAILED ATTEMPT AT MAKING DINNER

So, I thought I would practice my housewife skills last night.

I luckily had the day off & CJ had to work until 10; I wanted him to

come home to a delicious dinner and fresh baked cookies.

Well I made the cookies first (because I finished the last of the chocolate cake) and 

didn't blog it because I was expecting dinner to be the hero of the night.

The cookies were AMAZING and the dinner mostly sucked.

Im not sure what went wrong...if it was my doing or if it was the recipe.

Here is how I made my crappy dinner.

CHEESY QUINOA CAKES

These were the only 2 that came out properly

Ingredients:

AIOLI:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 head of roasted garlic

1 lemon juiced and zested

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Salt & Pepper 

Directions:

Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mash & smash until smooth.

Add the salt & pepper to season.

Put in the fridge until cakes are done.

(the best part of the meal...roasted garlic ♡)

Now for the cakes

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked quinoa

2/3 cup grated fontina cheese

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 green onions, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons of black pepper

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 egg

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Place all the ingredients, except for the oil, into a bowl and mix together.

Season with the salt & pep.

*Allow the quinoa to cool...I burned my hands

Heat up the oil in a large skillet and place over medium heat.

Now this is the part that was the FAIL.

Form the mixture into patties...my mixture was so liquidy there was no patty making

in my kitchen last night.

What I did was place a spoonful of the mixture directly onto the hot pan.

Cook for 5 minutes on each side and repeat until the mixture is gone.

I kept flipping mine prematurely and they kept falling apart.

After this first batch they all kept either burning or falling apart.

BOOO.

2 out of 5 

✭✭☆☆☆

Taste Testers:

LAUREN: This was really frustrating to make because it should have been super simple.

I guess Ive never had Fontina cheese before but I couldn't really taste the cheese. If it weren't for the Aioli (which was really good) these wouldn't have had much flavor.

CJ: I thought these were pretty good.  Maybe some bread crumbs could have been added to improve texture, but I enjoyed the flavor.  A little greasy too.

SILHOUETTE PONIES

CRAFT POST!!!

I was just comparing my DIY posts to my food posts and woah 

food is the winner. I guess I indulge a lot...what can I say?

I love to eat.

So today I am going to print on a crop top.

My subject of choice...PONIES!!!

Things you will need:
Linoleum blocks (i used 3)
Fabric Ink, speedball (any color)
Soft rubber brayer
linoleum cutter (with changeable tips)
1 blank top

Step 1:

Pick out the subject for your prints.
I found 3 great images of horses online & sized them 
so they would fit on my Speedball linoleum blocks.
You have to transfer the image to your block, by either
hand drawing directly on the block or by using carbon paper to trace the image.
I drew directly on the block.

*Keep in mind that whatever you draw will be printed backwards, so don't forget
to flip your image before drawing it on the block.

Step 2:

Use your linoleum cutter tool to carve the block.
Start by outlining the drawn image and work your way out.
Use the smallest blade to start and once you're finished
with your details you can use a bigger blade for the excess around.

*Be careful not to cut yourself, I did

Step 3:

Now its time to start the printing.
You'll need a flat surface to print on , and a piece of plexi glass (ideally) or cardboard
to use as your ink pad.

Here is a video from Speedball demonstrating how to ink up 
your block and how to print it.

After some trial & errors I found that cleaning each block after each 

print makes the prints much cleaner.
    


Even though Speedball says that you don't need to heat cure the ink,

I ALWAYS do. I have a heat gun, but a hair dryer will work as well.

GIDDY UP!!

If you like my top you can buy it HERE.