Author Archive
Stuffed Mushrooms – A Reprise
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Hello, again, old foe.
As some of you might recall, last week I solicited some advice for improving what I thought was a good recipe for making stuffed mushrooms, but which only turned out to be s0-so.
Because I harassed her, friend and Yay! DIY reader Beth – aka Ladimcbeth – provided some off-the-cuff thoughts for better harmony of the ingredients.
Eager to try, I went home and re-did the recipe according to her instructions and VOILA! - a far superior tasting mushroom. In fact, I was so pleased with the result, I went ahead and ate the whole pan for dinner (because that’s how I live my life sometimes. Please don’t judge.)
After the jump, Beth’s stuffed mushroom improvement advice!
How To: Tissue Paper Hydrangeas
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These are paper!
I love nothing more than fresh flowers greeting me at the door when I come home, but with the current heat wave they’re just not keeping. In fact, they’re dying at an alarming rate.
I’ve been dying (just like my flowers! ha!) to figure out how to make beautiful paper flowers to combat this problem. In fact, we posted a how-to on crepe paper flowers back in June. So, when I found this how-to on Just Something I Made about making paper hydrangea buttons I got excited. A starting point! The good news: expanding them to real-looking flowers looked really easy! The bad news: I had none of the supplies.
So I improvised with what I did have at home and it was a great success, if I don’t say so myself.
Must Try: Olioboard
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Olioboard will help me build a room around this bedspread from Target.
As I work to set up my new apartment (yes, it’s been five months and we’re no where NEAR up and running) it’s been almost impossible for me to figure out the pieces I want, the color scheme I eventually want to achieve, and so on.
A lot of our crafty friends use “mood boards” as a way to find the look they want for a room. But the arranging and configuring is just too much for me. I’m simply too lazy to online shop and then worry about how to arrange the screengrabs in a way that helps me “see” the room. I’ve actually thought to myself, “That’s one too many steps. And now So You Think You Can Dance is on.” And then I give up.
But!
Then I stumbled upon Olioboard, which is a automatic mood board creator. Now, I can just hunt for the pieces I’m interested in and it has all the necessary tools to easily arrange them into a vision. Amazing! Someone has actually invented the very tool that addresses – and fixes – my shortcomings as a design freak.
I recently got this beautiful and ultra comfy comforter from Target, and have a dresser from Ikea to pair it with and now with Olioboard, I can figure out what lamps and other accessories also look good – all from the comfort of my couch! I mean, can you even? I’ll try to post the finished board soon.
DIY Dry Erase Board
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File under: why the heck didn’t I think of this?
Check out this super-simple, uber-pretty how-to on making your own dry erase board.
I’ll say it again – why the heck did I not think of this sooner?
Thanks to How About Orange for the link.
Picture Frame Jewelry Holder
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Picture frames hold jewelry and act as decoration at the same time. Genius!
Browsing around the Internets as I’m prone to do from time to time, I came across this ingenious way to store – and if it’s nice enough – showcase jewerly.
I have several jewelry trees, which either through laziness or my own inability to work them properly, only serve to hold my jewelry out of sight in a tangled knot.
What I love about this is that it’s virtually impossible for your pieces to become entangled in one another AND you add a little extra pizazz to a room.
We’re currently planning to paint one wall of our guest bedroom in black chalkboard paint – couldn’t you just see these slightly distressed white frames and the jewelry give a whole lot of pop to the space? I can. Oh yes…I can.
Yay Weekends! Kelder’s Farm
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The World's Largest Garden Gnome signals your arrival at Kelder's Farm.
If you’re in the tri-state area and still searching for somewhere to take advantage of the long weekend, look no further than Kelder Farms in Kerhonksen, New York. A working farm, a U-Pick farm and even a small petting zoo ensures there is something for everyone…but the best part of the farm for me was the taste-and-play Mini Golf.
Yes, trust me and GC to find the fun and games in the middle of a farm…but I promise, the folks at Kelder’s want you to play as you eat. In between each of the ten holes (my guess is they shortened it knowing how slow it goes when you’re stopping to snack on the vegetation) are planters and patches with edible herbs, spices and even a strawberry patch that was just ripening around Hole 9. (We took a little longer here, as you might imagine.)
After the jump, some photos of the fun and snacks we found at Kelder’s!
DIY Honey Mustard?
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Is simply adding honey to regular mustard as tasty?
The boyf and I were out to dinner with friends the other night when the topic of conversation turned to condiments. I actually harbor a deep and abiding hatred of mustard and ketchup – but was intrigued when our friend Amy mentions she makes the best honey mustard by simply adding honey to her favorite dijon.
Any readers out there care to test this theory on our behalf? Or, have you already figured this out and have the ratios down pat? Though I hate it, I know not everyone does and thought we’d share….
100 Things To-Do Before I Die
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The Great Wall of China in the snow.
When I was younger, I read a lot of Reader’s Digest (why yes, I was a nerd!) and remember coming across an article “100 Things to Do Before You Die.” I immediately ran to my room to create my own list. Sadly, I lost that paper (and what I wouldn’t give to see what eight-year-old Lia needed to accomplish) but have thought intermittently throughout the years about making a new one.
Well, I’m putting pedal to the metal on that after finding this most excellent list on Chookooloonks (which is a pretty inspiring site in and of itself.) I know cage diving with Great Whites is going to be on it, as will snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and visiting the Great Wall of China (and why do all my to-dos involve the world “great?”) – but that leaves 97 more spots open. I’m going to give this some super serious thought and post my list soon. Do you have a list? Whats on it?
Make Your Own Linens
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Image courtesy of CentsationalGirl.com
I’m afraid this goes into the “Only If I Become a Millionaire Who Doesn’t Have to Work” file, bu I absolutely loved this link from Centsational Girl about making your own linens using a hand-carved block technique.
As previously mentioned, I hate buying anything I feel I can make myself – especially when it comes to decor. (Remember this painting post?) And not that I can make anything this gorgeous (I mean, I can’t compete with native, skilled, local artisans), but I’d sure like to try! Perhaps, though, using a less complicated technique like embroidering or using a fabric pen to create something on a simple linen (like a bath towel or a throw pillow).
Anyone else out there make their own textiles? Curious what techniques you might use!
Seafood Bouillabaisse
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Spaghetti with Shrimp and Cockles. Worth the wait.
Erin wasn’t the only one with pasta on the brain this week. After a weekend of running errands, cleaning the house and even going into work on a Sunday, all I wanted was something warm and yummy to prepare for the week ahead.
Walking home from the subway, I passed a fish market and on a whim, purchased a three-fourths pound of shrimp a three-fourths pound of cockles. I’ve never worked with cockles before – essentially they are just small clams – so I turned to the Internet for some inspiration on what the heck to do with them.
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Make, Lather, Rinse and Repeat
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This lather could be yours....
As mentioned previously, we’re kinda cheap over here and it’s come to our attention that making your own shampoo at home is not that hard. (The trouble is sometimes sourcing the ingredients). When I first read this, I jumped for joy. How cool is that?
