Yes, Spring is here!!!

OMG I have been waiting for nice weather for soooooooooooo long. Today was 70 degrees here and yes you guessed it, I spent all day out in my garage painting and finishing stuff.
So here is my most recent makeover, I got 2 dressers a while ago on KSL for $20, yes 2 matching awesome dressers.
I was not sure what was I going to do with them so I had them sitting there for a while.
Finally I took the plunge and I splurged on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, yes!!! And I LOVE it.
Yes the stuff is pricey but I was set on a nice look for my dressers, I got a quart of Old White for $38, a can of Clear Wax for $35 and a nice and expensive boar hair brush for $29, ouch!! But it was worth it!
Can we say fast and awesome looking finish??? This paint is amazing, first, no priming , you just slap it on any surface and it sticks. Then it dries in like 2 hours, so I was able to finish my dresser in one day, yep. Also one can goes a long way , I was able to give my dresser 2 coats, which covered nicely, with a small mason jar full of paint.
I was so eager to start my project with this paint, that I forgot to take before pics!!! ughhh!!!! But no worries, I will take pics of the sister dresser so you can see what this one looked like before.

Here it is, after I painted it with 2 coats of Old White, I waxed it with Annie Sloan clear wax and buffed it ( I got some muscles now!!). After that I wanted a tiny bit of gold accents on the distressed parts, so I used Gilder's Paste on German Silver . I love it.

There is the little gilder's paste can , you just wipe on with your finger to give it a nice aged and golden affect. I also sprayed the hardware with Rustoleoum's Hammered Gold, to match the paste.

I'm in love, and I will start the other one tomorrow.

I also got a chance to work on my boys' desk, I painted it and did the crakle effect and it turned out awesome!!!
Here is a little sneak peek. After this I will try and mod podge the map on top. Wish me luck!!!
Cheers!!!

P.S: My oldest daughter went to Prom today!

 

Isn't she a beaut?

25 random things

It's been a while, I have not finished any projects or cooked any new recipes.
Weather has been completely horrible and uncooperative and well since I work swings I spend my only day off cleaning like a mad ...maid.
I was on Facebook today and I saw this 25 random things post from years ago. I thought it needed an update, so here are 25 random things, facts,  about me. Enjoy!

1- People tell me I look mean and unfriendly sometimes, but that has helped me keep certain people at bay and the ones who made through the wall, are usually the ones worth keeping.
2- I always loved school, life and certain circumstances didn't allow me to continue, but I just registered for Fall semester at WSU and I am as giddy as a High School girl.
3- I have discovered I am quite creative, I never cared to develop that side of myself, but I am loving it.
4- As a young person I never knew how much I would love being a mom.
5- I identify with dark characters ( Snape, Loki etc), I think the ones whith a "dark" facade are often the ones who love the strongest, they just don't know how to show it.
6- I have an irrational fear of frogs.
7- I am a nerd. I have read over 1000 books and watched over 3000 movies so far.
8- I am very impatient, and I often make mistakes because I have to find a faster and better way...live and learn.
9- As a child, I always knew I would live in a foreign country and speak a different language.
10- I am an overthinker, but I find that doing tedious tasks, like sanding furniture, keeps my thoughts at bay.
11- I am a research addict, I can spend hours on the computer looking for info about something. I love information!!
12- I believe God always throws you a bone in dark times, you just have to know how to smell it out and hold on to it.
13- I love being alone, I mean I like friends, but I enjoy loneliness to a strange degree lol.
14- I love music, I want to learn how to play piano.
15- I am a great arguer.
16- I am brutally honest and no, I can't control it.
17- I have 8 crowns, no, not on my head...in my mouth.
18- Someday, I will go to India.
19- Life has taught me that food is not one of life's little pleasures...it has many consecuences lol.
20- I was born in Argentina.
21- I am ambidextrous.
22- I love to dance, I miss those awesome church dances in Miami!!
23- I really could care less what people think of me, I am who I am and if you don't like it well, keep walking!
24- I can't take compliments. ( yes I already had therapy for this lol, but I still can't)
25- I am glad this old note thing got restarted, I like to know more about people.


Cheers!

Rain, rain go away...

What a horrible day!!! I swear Spring Break is always like this, it either snows or rains.
Luckily, Sunday was a beautiful day, we were able to do our egg hunt and Dallin won. The kids had fun and we even went to the park with the dogs.
If you look closely you can see the eggs have religious sayings, my mom who has little idea of what things mean or say in English , got these eggs at Walmart, when my teen was helping me hide them, she was like " Mom, these eggs say team Jesus, and they have crosses, who would make Team Jesus' eggs??" LOL we had a good laugh. The important thing is that they were filled with candy, and that is all my kids care about.

Yesterday, the day started gray and rainy, nothing compared to our beautiful Sunday.
It was my day off since they were doing inventory at work, but of course it had to be yucky.
I was hoping I could get my first coat of flat paint on my boys' desk, but Mother Nature is being mean to me again ...
So I worked on my abandoned couch, yes the one I started like a month ago! I do not know why this project is taking me so long but it is done, now my mom needs to help me sew the pillows. Pics to come!
So I was confined to my kitchen looking out my window to a gray sky, and I thought what can I do ? I needed a chore system and I started looking .
I found many ideas but they all required a few items I did not have, so I stuck with the one I thought was easiest. I found this particular project at a blog I follow, you can check it out here Chore Jar .
My kids have always wanted to have paid chores, and I thought, hey why not, I have never been very good at keeping up with allowances so this would make me have a good paying schedule and hopefully a cleaner house.
The original chore jar was color coded ( which I did not do and I am regreting) and it was not a paid chore system. So what I did was come up with the chores and values and I printed my own, the blog I got it from has all the sheets with the color papers and blank ones to print your own chores. So helpful!
After printing all the chores strips, put a movie on and start cutting, yes if you want to have LOTR or Harry Potter marathon this is the right project for it!
What you will need:
Popsicle sticks ( the wide ones)
Mod Podge
Paper and Scissors
Printer
Big glass jar or a can
Number of tin cans or glass jars for kids names ( I got the tin buckets at Walmart for $1 each)

I even added bad behavior sticks with -$.25 and Memorize an Article of Faith for $.50 . You can totally customize this to what you want. Keep the prices low or you will brake the bank at the end of the week, especially if you have lots of kids!
Most of my everyday chores were $.25 or $.50, then I did some weekly ones for $1.00 to $2.00 and the odd ones like yard work, wash the car or clean the blinds for $5. Again you can come up with your own and fill these up however works best for your house and kids.
The original poster had the chores printed if you like to use them but they did not have money value so I just used the blank strips.
Once you are done cutting, just glue the papers to the sticks with Mod Podge and put a coat on top for the nice smooth finish and to give them some protection. And voila! It took quite some time but it was easy. I need to make some more of the " make bed" and "set the table" ones and a few other daily chores since I have 4 kids. So make sure you have plenty.
Here is it!

I must say my boys are totally into it, they are both very motivated by money so they tackled some of the most expensive ones and now I have a clean car, a very organized media cabinet and very clean walls!! Woot! My girls, well they are another story lol, Brenna is my rebel child and she does things when she wants to, and the ones she must. So she still gets paid but just for the stuff she deems necessary. Val does things but since she is much older I told her to not abuse the system and give her siblings a chance, she has been a good sport so far. Now they collect sticks throughout the week and pay day is on Saturday. They all gather up the sticks and add up how much they made.
It has worked very well so far. I'll let you know when they get bored with it.
Have a great week and lets hope this weather gets better! ugh!
Cheers!

And ...Mother Nature decided to behave.

Sooooo it has been a while!! These last few weeks have been busy! Glad spring break is here and I do not work Monday!
Today was a beautiful day, and I took full advantage of it by working on my backed up projects. I was finally able to get done with one desk and started the other one.
Utah weather has been so erratic lately, I had to wait several days between coats of paint to avoid cracking, since today we got up in the 60s, I was able to do it .
Here is the little desk I have been working on for Brenna's room. I got it for $5 a few months ago along with another one I will work on next week.

This one was pretty beat up , had no handles and needed some sanding, I gave it 2 coats of primer and then I used 4 cans of Krylon Watermelon spray paint, finally after a week of waiting I was able to glaze it today and I found some cute handles at Home Depot for $1.79 each. I also gave it 2 coats of Polycrylic on the top for protection. It is a nice heavy desk and I think it turned out super cute! Brenna is so excited to add it to her bedroom, she has been waiting patiently.

So happy to be done with this! Now while this one was drying I started sanding and priming my second desk which was also $5 and I will redo it for my boys' room.
I am going to try a crackle tecnique on this one so stay tunned!
Cheers!

So much to do, so little time.

So for all of you who did not know, I got a job. My projects scream to me everytime I walk in the garage, but I carry on hoping I have some time to finish them soon.
My latest one, is an old desk I picked up for $5 at some Presbiterian Church. I primed it and gave it 2 coats of paint last week, and it is now waiting for its third coat and glazing.
This particular project is for my daughter Brenna's room.

Hopefully I can be done with it by next week.

I finally received my tack strip on the mail for my couch so I hope to get to it before it gets spiderwebs all over it! I am going to have to just do it one day, since I do not have lots of time now.

Then last week was my birthday, yay!. And my mom got me a Ninja processor! I was so stoked! I have wanted one of these forever.
So now I am on a dip kick, today I made 2 for lunch, cilantro hummus and avocado dip. We devoured them. I love my Ninja!

Here is the Hummus recipe

2 cups garbanzo beans or cans
1 tbs tahini or almond butter
2 or 3 small sweet peppers , red or yellow
1/2 cup cilantro leaves washed
3/4 cups lemon or lime juice ( I like mine pretty lemony you can do less if you like)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and garlic powder to taste
Most hummus recipes use raw garlic, I do not eat raw garlic so I use powdered, you can substitute if you like.
Throw all this in yourt Ninja, if you have one, or any other food processor and enjoy!!
I love this!

For the avocado dip I did

4 avocados
3 tbs sour cream
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice
salt

Here is my delicious lunch for today! Did I already say I love my Ninja!
Cheers!

Don't you dare think I've been slacking!

Aha! yes you probably thought I gave up and that I am a slacker, but nope I have been busy.
Yes, yes my couch is still undone, I still need to finish the cushions but I have been taking advantage of this, oh so warm weather we've had!
Last week it was so nice and warm I decided to take up a small project I had laying around for a while.
My mom picked up this bad boy at D.I. for $3, she brought it home and said to me " I don't know what to do with it but hey it was 3 bucks". I was in love with it, but since I am not a big mail saver ( hello online everything) I put it on my pile of furniture to be done in the garage.

Well for those of you who have 4 or more children in school, you know how hard it is to keep track of everyone's homework, OMG the mess of loose papers and "Where is my math paper??" or " I can't find a pencil!!".
So I remembered my little piece of furniture and thought "Hey, that could totally make a cool homework station"
So I dusted it off and primed it about a week ago when it was still too cold to paint, so I did it on my kitchen counter.
The weather did not cooperate the following days so I waited and let the primer dry pretty well.
Besides I was going to spray paint it so I could not do it in the kitchen this time.
Next I went to Walmart and got a can of Cherry Red by Krylon, which was $3.14, best spray paint ever . I followed this girl's advice at All Things Thrifty about what spray paint to use and this brand is one of the best.
Now red, is thin and it takes several coats to make it look nice and even, so I gave it 4 coats which was all the can yielded.
After letting it dry for 24 hours after each coat, I decided to glaze it.
I used Valspar clear mixing glaze and mixed it with black paint, about 5 parts glaze to one part paint.
Then you just paint on the glaze and wipe off with a wet cloth until you get the desired amount of "old" you want. I gave it about 4 coats of glaze and really focused on the crannies.
Then I ordered a decal from a decal site since I have yet to invest on a silhouette cameo.
After the glaze was dry I put the decal on and voila! My homework station was done!
Didn't it turn out super cute!?? I chose red since I have an addiction to chef figurines and they usually have red paint on so this color matched my kitchen. I love it!

I have started another project since the weather has permitted, so stay tunned!


Now for a more culinary project I have going on.
This one has to do with my diet and cooking.
I always wondered why everything ( food) in America is something "free".
Like, "oh fat makes us fat , let's make our food fat free!" Oh wait but they do not tell people most food without it's fat cannot be digested by the body, so oops we are sabotaging our health.
One other that bothers me so, is gluten free. Ok I understand some people are allergic, but there is a solution, first eliminate the gluten of course but instead of going gluten free, try and make bread or any other foods the right way, that is without using yeast, baking powder or baking soda, which are accelerators.
The reason why most people are allergic to gluten is because the gluten does not get broken down properly when we use an accelerator such as yeast. Hence the gluten is hard on our bodies. This is the same as eating beans witout soaking them, they make us extremely gassy.
Here is a good article about this Properly prepare bread to avoid gluten intolerance.
So I decided to make my own starter, mostly known as sourdough starter.
I bought a few books on Sourdough about a month ago and started researching this subject.
After a while I grinded some fresh wheat and let it sit out for about 2 weeks and then I started my experiment. I named her Louise. Yes I do have a weird habit of naming my things with old lady names.
I started Louise, with 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup or white flour and 1/2 cup pineapple juice.
The second day you do nothing, the 3rd day you dump out half of the mixture and add the same as the first day. Do the same on the 4th day and from the 5th to the 14th day you dump half the stuff and add the same amount of flour but switch the juice to filtered water.
Dumping out half of the mixture should encourage good bacteria on the new mix and it starts to "roar" lol.
Now check her out, this is day 6 and she is looking "healthy" I am so excited to try some pancakes when she is ready to go!
And my kids are stoked to try our new "experiment" on a loaf of bread.
More to come!!!
Cheers!

Indian food anyone?

So after a whole week of sickness here I have not been able to get much done, the couch still sits half way done in my living room and I have only done one small painting project this week since it was warm.
On the other hand I have done a lot of reading and as I mentioned on my last post I read my entire Ayurvedic cookbook.
Well after venturing to the Sprouts market for some new spices I did not own, I was set to cook my first Indian meal.
I was curious to use some of these spices I have never even heard of, I mean cumin and turmeric are regulars in my kitchen but fenugreek seeds? Hing? no clue what those were.
I had to relabel some of my old spice containers and I was set, good thing the Sprouts market sells most of these for $.99 an ounce, just in case I did not like some of them.
For the Hing ( white container) and the mustard seeds I had to go to an Indian store. But they were not expensive at all.

So after much reading I decided to make a simple vegetable curry ( tridoshic, meaning ok, for all body types)

Now the recipes call for like 2 teaspoons of each seed for most of these foods, since I was a bit skeptical as to what this would taste like I doubled the veggies and yogurt and kept the same amount of spices, it did turn out pretty mild but still very fragrant .
The recipe .

Vegetable curry

1 cup fresh green peas ( I used frozen)
1 cup carrots diced
1 cup potatoes diced
2 cups string beans or asparagus cut into 1inch pieces
2 tablespoons sunflower oil or ghee ( clarified butter)
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 cup yogurt ( I used whole milk one since I think it's less evil than soy)

Heat oil or ghee in a large skillet. Add mustard and cumin seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop add the turmeric. Then add all veggies and water ( if using frozen peas add at the end, when all the other veggies are almost done). Cook covered until veggies are tender about 15 minutes. Then add yogurt and rest of ingredients, stirring well. Simmer uncovered on low heat for another 15 minutes.
Serve over basmati rice.

Now there were a few procedures that were foreign to me, here. Like I never knew cooking with seeds adds more flavor and fragrance to the foods than using the powdered form, interesting but omg my house smelled wonderful after making the rice and frying the seeds for the curry! I loved it, my kids were like " Mom, what is cooking??" lol . I also did not know that adding the spices before the ingredients makes the flavor even richer and better, eh live and learn. I also would have never mixed 2 starches like potatoes and rice, but they were very good together.
The yogurt adds the cooling effect, especially for Pitta bodies like mine. Interesting.
If you are vegan use soy yogurt , I just do not eat anything soy, so I rather go for a good organic whole milk one or make my own but I did not have the time, so I bought it.
Beware, when the seeds start popping have the next ingredients ready or they pop everywhere and make a mess lol, yeah again, live and learn.

Here are the ingredients I used double the veggies, except the asparagus and I doubled the yogurt and the water, I kept the spices the same but could have used a bit more.

Here is the book if you care to check it out. My skillet turned yellow and even after I washed it, it has a tint to it , so maybe have a designated pan to cook with turmeric and curry since it stains a bit .
The result was very nice, a mild dish and comforting for a cold night.
Anyway let's hope this week is much more productive than the last and that we manage to stay healthy!
Cheers!