love birds painting

<3 birds

I finally got around to tackling this project! Luckily, my boyfriend agreed to help me with it and I think we made a great team. I saw a similar painting a few months ago on the internet and knew I wanted to attempt it. I'd gone to some painting classes, but I wanted to try this without the aide of an instructor. I got the canvas from a garage sale for 50 cents. It had a painting already on it, but I figured if the person was selling it, she wasn't too attached.

I used Acrylic paint from Michael's and a foam brush for most of the painting in order to cover the canvas. I didn't really have a set plan or pattern, I just mixed colors I liked and went to town.

This was my first finished product for the background. My boyfriend {correctly} suggested I make it lighter so that the birds would show more (the light part in the picture above is the flash). I added white and basically hated what it looked like after I was done. Hated it. I actually gave up and went to bed because I thought I ruined it.

So it sat for about a week, lonely and forgotten, until I finally decided to try again. My boyfriend helped and I actually like how it turned out the third time the most!

adding the black line with a thin brush

We added black to the edges and dabbed away some of the paint from the middle with a wet paper towel. Weird, but it worked! We added the black line and the birds for the final product!

Here is a computer edited version of our painting IF we had gone with more blue.

I think both look awesome, but overall, I'm very happy with the painting. Can't wait to do more!

Amazing! Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Eating healthy doesn't have to be boring or bland. I found a recipe yesterday for what seemed like a really simple soup with few ingredients. I like simple. Sadly, I can't locate the original recipe, but once I do, I'll add the link here to that site!

Ingredients

* 1 large onion (chopped)
* 2 sweet potatoes (cubed)
* 1 apple (we used Fuji, cubed)
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* Pinch of Salt
* 2 tsp Curry Powder
* 3-4 cups of broth (we used Better Than Broth Chicken)

That's it! First, you need to heat up the oil in a large pot (nonstick is best). Sauté the onion until lightly browning. Add the sweet potatoes and apple with the salt and curry powder. Cook until you see that some of the sweet potatoes and apple scorch on the bottom of the pot and stir often.

sweet potato love

Don't worry if the pot seems dry, as soon as you see some scorching, add the 3-4 cups of broth and bring to a boil. We used about 3 because I wanted a thicker soup. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. I chopped them into small pieces, so they cooked quickly. Once the potatoes are soft, puree the soup.

hand blender works best

If you don't have a hand blender, you can transfer everything from the pot to a blender. You can puree as much or as little as you want. I like a fairly smooth soup.

time to eat!

I should've waited for my boyfriend before digging in, but I had a taste and WOW. The flavor of this soup is so amazing. I had a bowl right away. And then another. I wanted more, but decided it would be just as good tomorrow. Can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

yummy-goodness

Etsy Shop!

After hearing from various people that I really should open an Etsy shop, I finally did! I made several flower clips today that could be used for headbands, as baby props, on shirts or bags and even flip flops!

just a few that I made today

I made this as requested by a friend for her photo shoots and I hope she likes them! They were fairly easy to make, but quite time consuming because I had to cut out about a million circles in satin, tulle and cotton. I managed to get strings of hot glue EVERYWHERE. Am I the only one that has this issue?

my favorite one

These were a lot of fun to make and I still have a lot of fabric, so hopefully things will pick up at my Etsy Shop! I attached alligator clips to the backs of the flowers so that they can be easily added to almost anything.

alligator clip

These are the only things in my Etsy Shop right now, but I'm hoping to add duvets, pillow cases and jewelry items soon! If you or anyone you know has ideas or things they need, I would love to make it for them. Just let me know!

fun colors!

Your feedback is always welcome! :)

Window Herb Garden. Love.



It's so nice to have herbs in my kitchen!


I, like many of you, have officially become a slave to Pinterest. I try not to, but I end up spending at least an hour every day looking at the amazing DIY projects people are doing, new recipes to try and funny pictures to bring a smile to my face. I have repinned so many DIY projects that it will take me the rest of the year to get around to all of them...except by then, the list will have just grown larger!

A few weeks ago, I came across this beauty:



Greenhouse Window - Martha Stewart



I knew I HAD to do this with my own kitchen window, but traded the glass shelves for easier-to-work-with and far less expensive wood. I embarked on my mission by first buying some window film online so that I could get as much light as possible through the window without worrying that my neighbors (or potential thieves) could see into my townhouse. I decided to go with the Etched Leaf Window Film from Amazon (free shipping!) and I'm glad I did because I love it! It was really easy to apply and it lets so much light in.



My window - before (nice view, eh?)


I picked up some wood from Home Depot and had them cut the pieces to fit my window. I also bought some moulding to serve as the "ledges" to hold up the shelves. I spray painted everything white for a crisp look. After screwing in the ledges to the sides of the window walls, all that was left was to pu the shelves on top. Of course, after the first shelf went in, I noticed that it wasn't quite level, despite my checking the level of the ledges. Turns out my house is lopsided. Something to do with the ground being clay here in Texas, causing foundation issues. Good to know!

I had to reattach the ledges to be level with the window, which seems strange, but it's more pleasing to the eye. I decided to leave them loose rather than attaching them, so that if I needed to remove them to clean the window, it would be easy.



Almost done!


I wanted a little valance at the top of the window for a finished look, so I sewed this one up in just a few minutes with some leftover fabric. Cute, right?

I guess now's a good time to mention that I completely failed at documenting the items needed for this project/cost. I think it was around $75 for everything, including the herbs/planters, which is not bad!

I bought several different pots for the herbs for variety. They were all about $5 each at Marshalls and TJMaxx (LOVE those stores!). The last step was planting the herbs and placing them on the shelves.

Herbs at your fingertips!

I love the way this turned out and I've already gotten a lot of use of the fresh herbs. One DIY project down, about 3 million to go!

DIY * art *




In my new living room!

  I seemed to have fallen off the face of the blogosphere for a while there, but I'm back! I've done quite a few things in the last several months, but sadly most of them were not documented. This is my first attempt at blogging again!

I got this idea from itsdoable and her tutorial is quite detailed (more so than mine), so you should check it out here!

original version

Materials Needed:
Canvas
Paint
Paint brush
Scissors
Scrapbook paper of various designs
Hot glue gun + lots of glue sticks

I wanted to do this because I had an old DIY painting that just didn't cut it anymore and I figured I could upcycle the canvas into a new piece of art. I used some sample wall paint to paint over the previous painting and it covered really well.

it looks black, but the color is a deep blue

Once I had the canvas painted and it had dried overnight, I was ready to start cutting a million little "petals" for the flower. I bought some scrapbook paper at Michael's on sale for .20/sheet and pretty much fell in love with a certain color scheme. Cutting out the petals wasn't so bad, I think it took about 30 minutes and I did it while watching TV. Simply cut out squares or rectangles and then shape them into petals. It's best to have various sizes so that you can fit them in place as needed.

cut out square turned petal

Once you have a good amount of petals, you can begin a dry run of placing the petals on the canvas to determine if you need to cut some down more and to get a general design. Start with the middle circle and make your way out. You can then get your hot glue gun and start gluing the petals down. I managed to burn myself with the glue more than a few times, so try to avoid that. As you go along, you'll find that you don't have enough petals (like me) and go back to cut some more.

my finished product

Make sure you have a few go off the edge, for added effect. I like how mine turned out and it only took about 1-2 hours total. What do you think?

Tiramisu Birthday Cake

My coworker/friend's birthday is this Friday and what better way to celebrate (besides her trip to Las Vegas) than by baking a yummy cake? I know she loves Tiramisu, because that is what she always orders from Olive Garden. Tiramisu doesn't really scream birthday cake, though, so I looked for other options with the same taste. Type "Tiramisu cake" into Google and the first link is the recipe I used.

First things first, put on your adorable apron and take silly pictures for your blog. Check. Next, line up all of your ingredients and take more pictures.

Check. (P.S. I put in that backsplash all by myself. Quite proud of it, actually). Once I stopped playing with the camera on my Mac (and subsequently researching online how to flip pictures since Mac likes to give me mirror images), I got down to business. Despite my cake being unwilling to stay in one piece as I flipped it out of the cake pan, I managed to make it look pretty with hand whipped (couldn't find my electric mixer) frosting and chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better. So does duct tape. Kind of wish they made edible duct tape for the purposes of baking. I digress...here is the final product!

Some things to keep in mind:
1. Make sure you have all your ingredients (including tools such as mixers)
2. Don't eat raw cake batter
3. Buy extra provisions for just in case when you mess up


Although I realize this has NOTHING to do with my healthy eating goals this week, I feel it's ok because it's not like I'm going to eat the whole cake myself. Though I probably would if I didn't have to bring it to work today. It looks yummy, right?


One last thing! The recipe called for three egg whites, so I had three egg yolks staring at me from a sad little bowl. So I boiled some pasta, sauteed some onions and garlic and made a pancetta-less carbonara (very loosely using this term). It was delish. Waste not, want not. ;)


What is your favorite kind of cake? 

8 Weeks to a Better Me: Week Three

I can't believe the second week is already over! Ok here are my results:

1. Go running at Memorial Park at least twice this week

I did actually go twice! Should have been more, but it was an emotionally charged week and I just did not have it in me.

 

2. Go to Yoga and challenge myself

Did not get to do this. At all. Very sad, actually. So I will try to do it this week!

 

3. Drink lots and lots of water

I definitely upped my intake of water, but I feel like I still need more. Going to continue this for the upcoming week...

 

So once again, not a completely successful week, and I won't make any more excuses, just need to get my mind around doing this the right way!

 

Week 3: Healthy Eating!

Well this will be a fun week because I enjoy cooking and have been slacking off in the home cooked meals department lately. What a great motivation to get out of my eating out rut and actually understand what I'm putting in my body. I miss the days of having yummy meals cooked by mom (or grandma...aunt...etc.), because it's never quite the same when you try to make it yourself. But it doesn't hurt to try!

1. Try out two new recipes (healthy ones) and make them from scratch
2. Eat one salad per day (go for dinner salads)
3. Add variety by branching out and trying new veggies/fruits (at least 2 new ones)

Those are the goals, let's hope that this week will be a complete success for me! What are your goals? Yay food!