Our friends over at 3M had sent me these nifty decorative metal damage-free Command hooks that stick to the wall. Something that stick to the wall and doesn’t require tools means I can complete the project quickly, which is key to me getting ANYTHING done. They also came with detailed instructions on how to remove them (in literally 2 simple steps) so that they don’t leave a mark on the wall. I hung this one, in oil rubbed bronze, so that it matched the rest of the decor.  But they come in other metals as well.  I’ll give the play by play after the jump, of how I hung the wreath, but how does it look?

Pretty cute, right?  The hook just blends right in, which was great, and it took me about 30 seconds total to hang the hook – pretty good on timing.   This particular one holds up to 3 lbs, but they come larger, if you want to hang a very heavy wreath. Like this ice skating wreath!

This wreath is a tab small for the space, too. The next one I hang will definitely be larger.  If you’d like to make this Valentine’s wreath, check out the simple tutorial here. 

For details on how to hang a wreath without hurting it, continue after the jump!

So here’s what I did. First, I hung the hook. I peeled the sticker off one side, as directed, and attached the sticky tape to the hook.

I then removed the back tape and stuck the hook to the wall, as straight as I could get it, because I was too lazy to find a level.

Following the instructions, I then slide the top part of the decorative hook off, and pressed the stick tape and inside of hook firmly to the wall for 30 seconds.  I let it sit 1 hour as directed before hanging my wreath. 

In the meantime, I fastened my bow to my wreath by using a pipe cleaner. Pipe cleaners are pretty much magical. You can use them for EVERYTHING you would ever need. I also always make my bows separate and attached to a wreath with another ribbon or pipe cleaner. I twisted it tight so that the bow would stay put.

Then I cut a ribbon to hang the wreath from the hook.  It was about a foot.  I slipped it under the pipe cleaner in the back of the wreath, so that it was hidden.  And tied it in a very, very tight knot.

I moved the knot to the back of the wreath, again, to hide it. And hung the wreath!  That’s it, you’re done! 

To comply with FTC guidelines, 3M sent us these fancy hooks. But I only wrote about them because I think they’re awesome.

But at $49.50 for a box of 9 of the top, and $68.50 for a box of 24 of the bottom ones, they are just too pricey to purchase for yourself!  So of course, I decided to Google to see if I could find the recipe and recreate their deliciousness at home.

And, you know what, I found it!  It wasn’t perfect – in fact, far from perfect. (Particularly the icing!) But I learned a lot along the way, and I’m going to try to make them again.  Just with a different icing recipe this time.   After the jump I’ll share the recipe, thoughts, tips and what I plan to do next time!

Here’s the recipe I used: http://www.ivillage.com/elenis-sugar-cookies/3-r-65854

We followed it to a T!

Mixing, mixing, mixing.

But when we took it out and attempted to roll the dough, it was so sticky we couldn’t cut the shapes, even on a very well-floured mat.  The recipe said that it wasn’t exact, because Eleni’s makes their cookies in such large quantities.  The recipe called for 5 cups of flour.  We decided to add 1/2 cup more.  We did, and it improved the situation DRAMATICALLY.

As described, we rolled out the dough onto a well floured surface. (the flour is IMPERATIVE to being able to pick up the cookies!) But the first few ones I did were too thin.  It said an 1/8 of an inch, but I definitely rolled it out closer to like, 1/16 of an inch.  When the dough was rolled too thin, the cookies were way too crispy!

Using the cutters!

Another mistake I did was using the dough twice – as in, the scraps around the cookies.  Because they had been rolled out in the flour, when I used them twice, rolling them out in flour YET AGAIN, they were too flour-y.  The result were very bland cookies that didn’t have that delicious sugary cookie taste.

The ones that were thicker were DELICIOUS.  Very, very close to an Eleni’s, in fact!  So next time I made them, I will focus on making them thick enough, and not re-using any dough.

The next issue was the icing.  I found this recipe for Eleni’s Royal icing: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Elenis-Royal-Icing-104142?id=104142

the icing got shiny, as it was supposed to, but it just never hardened right! So I couldn’t draw cute things on the cookies, and I couldn’t package them at all, even the next day!  Well, I did, but they got all messy.  My co-workers ate them, and we decided that the cookie recipe does have merit!  The icing tasted good, but was just not exactly perfect for gifting.  I’m going to try again with a new icing recipe!

I am, by nature, a messy person and so is my boyfriend. When two messy people live together, it is not good. I always spend at least one whole weekend day cleaning, and it sucks because a.) I should be outside! but b.) it’s never anything important. It’s always stupid little stuff, like putting laundry away, straightening up, getting organized, etc. I H-A-T-E it.  And if I get myself into some kind of project?  Forget it. Before you can say craft, I’ve got an Elmer’s glue bottle in the bathroom, my fabric scissors in the kitchen and yarn just everywhere. And it’s not just me. I actually found two pairs of my boyfriends pants in the couch cushions once. Two! The end game of all this messiness is usually me flopped down on the bed with my hands over my eyes moaning that “it’s all just too much.”   Very dramatic, I know. But messy house – messy mind.

Which brings me to my point. Recently, and for the life of me I cannot remember where though it may have been Ramshackle Glam, I saw a tip that says whenever you move from one room of your house to another, bring along one thing that needs to be put away along with you and before you know it, you’ve got a clean house. It seemed so small a thing to do, I didn’t think it could possibly make a difference. But Oh.My.God. I actually now have an apartment that I can look around and say, wow, not bad.  There are no socks hanging over the lamps. (Yes, that has happened.)  My scissors are by the sewing machine, the Elmer’s glue on the desk.  The dishes – oh, the dishes – actually can now be found drying in the rack or when I’m very, very lucky, in the cabinet where they belong.  It has changed my life.

And when I wake up in the morning and just see all that floor space and cleanliness it makes me happy.  It truly is the little things, you know?

I needed to put in a frame to determine the best placement for the border, and while I was at it, I couldn’t resist a quick snapshot of the handiwork so far. Something about these just make me laugh hysterically.

Once I’m done (hopefully this weekend!) I’ll put up the pattern, as well as a list of my favorite online resources for finding the fonts, borders, etc.  Any other favorite rap lyrics you want me to make?!

I started to knit a scarf using this really nice cashmere yarn I’d gotten at Knitty City on the Upper West side last winter. I SWORE I had four skeins left.

I cast on 22 stitches and begin knitting.  I did the whole scarf Garter Stitch – which means I only knitted – 22 stitches each row.  But when I got the end of my second skein, I realized I was wrong, and had to end the scarf early.  It was beautiful and soft.  While shorter than I had initially wanted, it was still just long enough to tuck into a man’s overcoat, without having too much extra hanging out or getting bunched up.  But, it was also just a tad too short to stay close up to your chin when those brutally cold days come.

So I decided to add a button, just like I did to this scarf! But this button I wanted hidden.  I found a big, clear button. I tested where I would want it on the scarf, to keep it closed tight almost up to my chin on a cold day.  I sewed the button on with a big needle and the same yarn I made the scarf from. First I tied the string of yarn tight into the scarf with a simple knot, then used that piece of string to sew on the button.

On the opposite end of the scarf, I sewed on a loop that would fit just around the button. I tested out the scarf, putting it on so that the button faced towards my body – so that it would be hidden when closed. It’s a perfect fit!

So I thought some of you out there might like to see the video I’ve been using to teach myself to crochet (as I mentioned briefly in the living room redo post.)  You can find the link here.  I like this one because the quality is really high and the woman goes nice and slow so you can really see what she is doing.  Plus, this looks like the type of lady who crochets, and I just liked that.

So when we recently resigned our lease for two more years, I was really inspired to take the bull by the horns and actually make our house look like a home. The only problem is, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’m on a very tight budget in 2012. But where there is a will, there is a way.

I have three main areas of focus: the living room, the master bedroom and the kitchen, as these are the areas where we spend the most time.  I showed a brief preview of the bedroom last week, but the living room came together a little faster thanks to some super-helpful tips from a truly wonderful book: SouthernLiving Style. Not only is the book absolutely gorgeous, but it offers really easy tips to update any room in your home.

I’m a big fan of cozy rooms, with mixed-yet-matching patterns that don’t shy away from color but aren’t super bright. For the living room, I wanted to create something calming, that takes advantage of the great natural light we get in the room.  The only problem? Without much money, you have to be clever.  How clever?  Well, the couches I’m working with look like this:

What you see here is a hand-me-down couch that despite being clean and extremely comfortable, looks anything but -covered in make up stains, food spills and other accidents from over the years.  The pillows were a little something I picked up in a bad attempt to make it better.

But with new couches out of the question, I was a bit stuck until I picked up SouthernLiving Style.  Imagine my delight when right there in the front of the book, they give a whole lesson on slip covers as an easy way to transform couches. Say what?!

So, I searched high and low for months to find two slip covers – one for the sofa, one for the equally disgusting love seat – that could bring these babies back to life. Since I loved my new pillows, I used their palette to guide me during my search – looking for anything in dark green or brown.  Finally, I found them at a great home store in my Queens neighborhood – two, dark green, corduroy slip covers from SureFit. The total cost for two?  About $130 – just a fraction of what a new couch would cost. Here is the transformation!

Please excuse that I did a less-than-stellar job at tucking everything in nice and tight before taking this shot and they are a little wrinkly on the bottom. But not bad right?

And that’s not all. To help finish the room, I:

• Painted the walls a nice tan color (Behr’s “Plateau”) to create a nice, neutral wall color
• Decided to use the end table I repainted last week in this room versus the bedroom.

• For more funkiness, I had salvaged these lamps from my apartment’s giveaway pile as their greens, blues and browns matched the pillows.  I put one on the end table, and one on the bookshelf to provide some symmetry.

• Put a comfy throw blanket a few shades lighter than the paint across the loveseat. What you see there yarn-wise is me teaching myself to crochet so I can crochet some cozy afghans to continue this trend!

• Placed my recently recovered lamp in the corner. I love how the lamp fabric and the pillows are getting that that mix-and-matchy feel going.

And though looking considerably better from where we started, the work isn’t done. I’d still like to:

• Paint this stool to serve as a nicer home for gadgetry and other doodads.

• Paint this chair to go with the pillows and recovered lamp. I think it could be REALLY cute when done.

• Find a rug that can fill the floor up a bit.
• Create either a window box or some nice, sweeping curtains for the windows

So stay tuned…more to definitely come on this front.  And find SouthernLiving Style on Amazon.com for just $19.77! It’s worth every penny!

I always use this Paula Deen recipe, but you’ll see, she leaves out some steps in the instructions! I also changed the ingredients just slightly. I also think this dish is just a tad too big.  Next time, I’ll try it in a smaller pan.  I used a store bought crust, because frankly, I was lazy.  I put the crust in pie dish and cooked it on 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  While that was cooking, I made the curd.

1. I separated three eggs with this nifty separator from the Pampered Chef, saving the whites for the meringue:

2. Next I squeezed the juice from 3 lemons, which gave me JUST over the 1/2 cup needed in this recipe. I used all of it, even though it was a bit extra. I added it tot the egg yolk.3. I added the 14 oz. can of condensed milk to mixture, and grated in about half a teaspoon of lemon zest. I mixed it all together and set aside.

4. I took the crust out and let it cool. Once cooled, I poured the curd into the crust and put it back into the oven for 12 minutes on 375. (Next time, I’ll cook for 15 – 12 wasn’t quite enough.)

5. While cooking, I made meringue.  I cheated and added a 4th egg white, because I thought my eggs were small! I added 1/4 cup sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter to the mixture and beat it until my hand wanted to fall off for 10 -15 minutes with the electric hand mixture – until the meringue formed stiff peaks!

6. I poured it onto the curd while it was still warm, formed some cute peaks with the meringue, and put it back in the oven for 12 minutes.  At first, I had it on too high of a shelf – so make sure its near the bottom, so it doesn’t brown too fast!

]]> http://yaydiy.com/2012/01/how-to-make-a-darn-good-lemon-meringue-pie/feed/ 0 http://yaydiy.com/2012/01/comfort-food-for-a-snowy-day/ http://yaydiy.com/2012/01/comfort-food-for-a-snowy-day/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:49:49 +0000 Erin http://yaydiy.com/?p=4462 Continue reading →]]> Baby, it’s cold outside! So I decided to give my new Cuisinart slow cooker a try. I know people rave about slow cookers, but I resisted for years, until this Christmas when my grandmother gave me one as a present.  And, after its first use, I can’t believe I didn’t get on the bandwagon earlier.  I made this beef stew recipe.   It’s from Real Simple.  It was so tasty! There was a bit of legwork at the front end, so I probably wouldn’t make this recipe before work, but its definitely great for a weekend.  Perfect for a cold Saturday night like tonight!  Does anyone have any other favorite slow cooker recipes? I’m looking for ideas!