Hello World,

I went to a wedding this last weekend, and gifts were not expected.  I never show up empty handed to parties or events, so I whipped up a simple sign.

Right near my house, the city is tearing down an old grain silo.  They have three huge bins sitting in front of it which are labeled “free wood.” My boyfriend was so kind as to rummage through the bins to find some nice salvaged wood. He grabbed me about five pieces of wood, and the one I used below seemed the most fitting. It had an old screw in the center, as well as 5 other pre-drilled holes.

The wood was an average color, but I wanted a beachy look, so I whitewashed it myself. I chose to whitewash instead of just paint so that the wood grain would still be visible (similar to a stain). Check out how to do it too, below:

1.  Gather your supplies: a chunk of wood, some water, white acrylic paint (or any other color), and a paintbrush.

2.  Make sure your wood is nice and clean, sand the edges, dust off any remaining sawdust.

3.  Mix 70% water with 30% paint.  I made too much, so I placed it in a covered container to save it for later.  (Helpful hint: If you ever pour too much paint or don’t want to wash your brushes/rollers you can place them in plastic bags and put them in the fridge.  The paint won’t harden. 🙂  )

4.  Mix the water and paint until you are satisfied.

5.  Paint the whitewash mixture onto your board.  Make sure to get the sides of the wood as well, for a finished look.  Let dry between coats. I did 2 coats.

6.  Let dry completely, then personalize it.  I hand-painted their names on it.

I used the painting technique here for the lettering.  I used a scribe brush, but I feel the bristles were too long and at times difficult to control.  Next time I will use a different detail brush, so that my letters are all perfectly consistent in size.

I tied a piece of hemp yarn through each pre-drilled hole, and double-knotted the bows.  Next, I braided three pieces of hemp-yarn together, looped it through the bows, and tied knots at both ends to keep it from coming undone.

Then, I painted one side of each close-pin, and clamped them to the braid-so pictures could be hung.  For the top hanging string, I looped more hemp yarn through the pre-drilled holes and tied them together in the center.

Remember Mark Montano from TLC? Well, now he has some great, easy DIY tutorials on youtube!  I had a friend over and we tore apart a bunch of my magazines to make some party balls.  (I have mine hanging up even without a party. lol)

Check out the video below!

I tried to find magazine pages that were similar in color.

Hot glue every other notch on alternating pages.  I didn’t listen to this at first, and the ball was not a ball at all.

Leftover scraps from cutting out the notches. Save for homemade confetti?

Mine is the orange one, and the blue one is my friend’s. I need to make more of these.

Sorry for the hiatus! I was out of town June 25th-July 4th, and had no way of uploading anything to the blog! (And by out of town I mean, driving from the west coast all the way to the east coast!)

I have been trying to mix up my meal plan, so I’m not always eating tacos and homemade pizza. I tried a tomato-cream sauce via allrecipes.com. I changed my version slightly, because I am a lover of garlic.

Here is the recipe (with my modifications in bold):

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced 
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 tablespoon fresh basil leaves
• 3/4 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar (if you don’t want it too sweet.)

In a saucepan, saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Make sure it doesn’t burn. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar, oregano, salt and pepper into a blender and blend until consistency is slightly chunky. Pour blender mixture into saucepan. Bring to boil and continue to boil 5 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporates. Remove from heat; stir in whipping cream and butter. Reduce heat and simmer 5 more minutes. Add red wine vinegar, to neutralize sweetness if desired.

Pour over or toss with cooked pasta. Grade plenty of parmesan cheese and dress it up with a fresh basil leaf on top.

If you want to try the original instead click: HERE.