Burlap & Twine Letter

Personally, I love using monograms for home decor!

It's a great personal touch that makes your home unique to your family.

I've been looking for something to make to add the "R" to our house, and I thought this would fit in perfectly in our 

living room.

Plus, I could make it myself using materials I already have, so it's cheaper than buying it at the store!

Keep reading if you like it and want to make it for your home!

Materials:

-cardboard letter

-burlap

-twine

-hot glue

marker

Start by tracing the letter onto the burlap. Trace an outline for both sides of the letter.

Carefully cut out the outlines.

Using your hot glue, paste the burlap outlines onto the sides of the letter. Trim any overhanging fabric.

The twine takes up the majority of the project. Just pick a corner and start pasting the twine to the side. Put on a little hot glue in a small line and attach the twine little by little. You only want to go little by little because if the glue dries before you attach the twine, you'll end up with a really bumpy edge.

Repeat this step over and over until the lines of twine cover the whole side.

Here's a close-up of what the twine looks like when it's finished.

Find a place to perch the letter, and enjoy!

After this project, I enjoyed the twine so much that I also added it to a vase and a candle :)

I think it adds a nice touch, don't you?

Chicken Fried Rice

Ever since I was little, whenever my family would order out Chinese, I would always order chicken fried rice.

The other members of my family would order all the interesting things full of shrimp and goodness, but I was happy sticking with my chicken and rice. 

Why? Because I thought it was yummy! It might seem plain for a Chinese dish, but I've always loved it.

Wanna see if you love it too?

Ingredients: 

(This is based on what Seth and I make for two with plenty leftover for lunches)

-3 boneless chicken breasts

-5 tbsp soy sauce

-3 tbsp peanut butter

-1 1/2 tsp honey

-2 tsp sesame oil

-2 tsp red pepper flakes

-1/4 tsp garlic powder

-dash of pepper

-sesame oil for wok/pan

-1 C frozen peas and carrots (I only had peas for the pictures)

-1 small onion, chopped

-2 tsp minced garlic

-2 eggs, slightly beaten

-1/4 C soy sauce

-rice (Seth and I actually made four bags of boil-in-the-bag rice. I'm not sure the exact measurements)

Mix the first 7 ingredients after the chicken. This will be the seasoning for the chicken before you cook it up. 

Cut the chicken into small, bite-sized pieces and toss them in the sauce.

Heat sesame oil in the wok or pan. Make sure it is HOT!

Toss in the chicken and cook.

Take out the chicken and add a little more oil. Throw in the onion and veggies. Saute. Try to brown and caramelize the veggies just to get the extra flavor!

Here comes the hardest part of this recipe (though not too hard). Move the onions and veggies out of the way. Beat the two eggs and immediately add them to the pan.

Don't let the eggs sit too long before you start scrambling them. You want little pieces of egg, not big chunks.

At this point, throw in the rice and soy sauce. Toss until the rice begins to brown from the heat.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, McKenzie!

Today is my beautiful sister's 22nd birthday! She has been my best friend my entire life, and we have so many memories. My life would have been so boring without her, but our relationship would be much easier to show you in pictures :) So, in honor of her birthday:

Right after I got engaged!

Attempting to convince Seth to continue our tradition of 

sleeping together on Christmas Eve

Those darn Christmas tree lights!

Niagara Falls

The three of us have a thousand pictures that look

exactly like this one

Sharing the world's smallest bed

Family love and togetherness

I was the maid of honor for her first wedding ;)

We should have been flappers for real!

On our way to another birthday celebration

My college graduation, January 2010

Emerald Isle, August 2009

New York City!!

Oh how I love her, even if she is a big goof!!

DIY Laundry Detergent/Fabric Softener

A couple weeks ago, I got the idea to make our own laundry detergent from this blog. I have never met the people who are in this blog, but I found them through Pinterest and I find their lives very interesting. Seth would say I stalk them ;) When he found out I wanted to make my own laundry detergent, along with so many other cost-saving ideas, Seth said that he needed to fly to Arizona, meet these people and buy them presents ;) Then, after I decided to make the detergent, I said "why not?" and decided to make fabric softener as well.

Honestly, I don't know why everyone doesn't do this! After buying all the ingredients, I spent pretty much the same amount I would have on the regular large jug of detergent we usually buy. And it makes so much more! And it works so well! Just as good as, if not better than, the regular detergent.

Laundry Detergent

You will need a box of Borax, a box of washing soda (not baking)

and a bar of Fels.naptha laundry soap.

You can get all of these ingredients at Walmart in the laundry section.

I didn't take step by step pictures, but the process is pretty simple. 

Cut a third of the bar of soap off, and grate or cut it up into little pieces. Add the little pieces to a pot of 6 C of water. Put the pot over the heat and leave it there until the soap completely melts. There should be no soap chunks left!

Take the pot off the stove, and add 1/2 C each of the Borax and washing soda. Stir until all of the ingredients are dissolved.

Pour 4 C of hot water into a five-gallon container. Then pour in the soap mixture. Stir until well mixed. Add 1 gallon and 6 cups of water. Stir again.

Cover and let sit for 24 hours. When you open the container, the mixture will be very thick! The blog described it as the consistency of mutilated jellyfish :) Stir the mix until it breaks down and becomes pourable. 

At this point, you can just leave the detergent in the container or put it in cute bottles like I did :) Then, just add 1/4-1/2 C to a load of wash depending on how soiled it is.

Fabric Softener

The fabric softener is even easier to make than the detergent. For this, all you need is 6 C hot water, 3 C white vinegar and 2 C hair conditioner. It really doesn't matter what type of conditioner you use. Seth and I just sniffed random bottles at the store until we found a smell we liked, and that's all that matters in this!

Mix conditioner and hot water until the conditioner dissolves. Once again, make sure there are no chunks!

Add the vinegar and mix well.

We stored the fabric softener in an old milk gallon container, as well as our cute bottles. But, you can store it however you like!

Add 2 tbsp to the wash load in the normal fabric softener spot.

I'm so excited to see how long this batch lasts us :) So far, it's saving us tons of money!

Fish and Chips, the Maryland Way :)

All you frying naysayers out there, avert your eyes! But, to all you people who can appreciate a little fried food, I have yet to find better fried fish than this :)

These recipes are both extremely simple! A little effort for big taste :) The fish is actually a recipe my mother got from my grandfather that I in turn got from her. This is Seth's favorite way to cook tilapia, and every other recipe I have tried paled in comparison for him. Now, if this was real Maryland fish and chips, the "chips" would probably be Thrashers boardwalk fries or something like that. However, the potatoes were a random try from a recipe I found on Pinterest, and they include salt and vinegar just like true boardwalk fries should! They ended up being really good!

Old Bay Tilapia

1/3 C cornmeal

4 tsp Old Bay (wouldn't be Maryland fried fish without it)

3/4 tsp parsley

1/4 tsp garlic salt

4 fish fillets (we normally use tilapia, but I think it should work with most light fish)

1 egg, beaten 

oil for frying

Mix together first four ingredients. You will be dredging the fish through this mix so we usually put it on a plate.

Dip each tilapia fillet in the beaten egg, then cover it with the cornmeal mix. Place the fish in a HOT skillet with HOT oil. There should be enough oil to cover the fish halfway up.

Fry fish until the bottom is a nice golden color and the shell is hard when you poke it. Flip. Cook the other side. Done :) See?! Told you it was simple :)

Smashed Salt & Vinegar Potatoes

2 small red potatoes

olive oil

salt

pepper

rosemary

cider vinegar

I know! I know! Those ingredients are really vague, but it's entirely up to your preference.

Place potatoes in a pot of water and boil until potatoes can be easily skewered with a fork.

Take the potatoes out of the pot and place them on a well oiled pan. We actually used our pizza stone because I thought it might give it a nice crisp, but I suppose a regular cookie sheet would work as well :)

Using whatever you have available (we used a spatula), smash down the potatoes as mush as possible. Brush the top of the smashed potatoes with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper and rosemary. Put them in an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 25 minutes.

Once the potatoes come out of the oven, brush the tops with the vinegar and serve!

On another note, I finished another item on my to-do list! Organize my closet :) And isn't it just the prettiest closet you've ever seen? It makes me happy!

Hopefully doors will be added soon ;)

Our "Baby"

We got a dog!!

She's a six-month old 

German Shepherd/Black Lab mix

This is something I have been eagerly anticipating for so long! I had a family dog when I was at home with my parents, and I always felt like something was missing at our house now. Don't get me wrong! I was perfectly satisfied with just Seth and our little family, but I was growing tired of lonely days and nights at home when Seth had work stuff to do, and I really wanted a companion. Seth definitely understood this, but he just didn't see a dog in our budget. So, I was patient (or tried to be :) ) And we finally got one!!

The story goes like this: Seth and I hadn't brought up the topic of a dog in a while, so I wasn't expecting anything. Then, on Thursday a few weeks ago, Seth called me from work and told me he had received a call from some friends of ours. They recently got a puppy, but decided they couldn't handle training or taking care of it since they also had a baby! So, they wanted to know if we could take it :) I was so excited!! We talked about this for a few days, and when Seth finally told me he thought it could work, I cried :) So, we got her that Friday, named her Riley and bought her a cute dog bed and dog bowls (Seth didn't understand why everything had to be cute :) )

This has been a roller coaster of a few weeks. The first week, it was like we had a newborn! She woke up every couple of hours, barked at us because she didn't understand why we were sleeping and not playing, jumped up on the bed to lay down with us and crawled under the bed only to get stuck. She barks at us during meals (loudly), chews up Seth's flip flops (she must wonder why he's wearing them in the middle of winter!) and jumps up on the kitchen counter to see what we're doing (and where the yummy smells are coming from). 

But, she is such a sweet girl!! My days at home have never been sweeter :) She already has her little quirks that show her personality:

     -Whenever I sit on the floor with her, she sits in my lap like a little kid.

     -She loves to jump up and look out the windows. Her favorite activity is to sit in her chair and watch the buses go by before and after school!

     -She's terrified of the vacuum, but since she's "tough" she follows me around, alternating between barking and pouncing on the monster or running away.

     -She loves people!  So far, everyone she's met has been her best friend.

     -Any amount of snow is a giant playground for her! On walks, we have to stop by every drift so she can run through it and throw it in the air.

     -Thankfully, she loves the car! I like to take her on quick errands, and she just sits, looks around, sticks her head out the window or gives me kisses :)

I am so thankful to Seth for making this sacrifice. I know he frets over how we'll afford her, but I love him for taking on that burden!! 

Home-made Pizza

                                     

Making pizza is one of Seth's and my favorite things to do for dinner. It's a good date night activity, it's somewhat cheap and it's oh so good! However, everyone makes their pizza differently, so this recipe is going to have a lot of interchangeable ingredients :)

Crust

Ingredients:

1 pkg active dry yeast

1 C lukewarm water

1 1/4 C ice-cold water

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

5 1/2 C flour

(The recipe makes three pizzas, which is enough for two nights dinner for us!)

In a bowl, combine the yeast and warm water. Stir with a fork and then give it five minutes to dissolve.

In another bowl, mix the cold water, sugar, salt and olive oil. Stir until it's dissolved.

Add the flour to the bowl of a standing mixer. Pour in both water mixes. Mix on low speed until it forms a coarse ball, about 4 min. Turn it off for 2 min, and then mix on low speed until smooth, about six minutes. It'll look like the picture below.

       

Change the paddle to the dough hook, and knead the dough for a minute or two. It'll look like this picture:

Split the dough into three parts and put into individual bowls. Beware! The dough will be sticky! However, it should only stick to your finger for a few seconds before pulling away. You should not have dough stuck all over your hands! If you do, you need more flour :) 

Refrigerate the dough for 10 hrs or two days. It should have mostly doubled in size by the time it comes out.

Taking each individual dough piece, place it on a well-floured counter. Don't roll out the dough, rather pull and push it into a circle shape until it won't get any bigger. I like to roll the edges to give my finished pizza more of puffed crust, but Seth leaves his flat.

Sauce

Ingredients:

2 6oz can tomato (Seth and I don't like large chunks of tomato in our sauce, so we just use the tomato sauce. However, you can used puree or chunks or whatever)

3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

5-6 cloves minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Add all these things to a saucepan, and heat up on the stove. Once it starts bubbling, turn it on low and keep warm while making your pizzas.

To make our pizzas, we brush the spread-out dough with a little olive oil mixed with garlic, either pieces or powder. Pour on desired amount of sauce. This is where Seth's and my pizzas differ. I put sauce, a layer of caramelized onions, a layer of cheese, one of pepperoni, and a smaller layer of cheese. Seth just has cheese and pepperoni. Two layers :) However, we both sprinkle basil on top! It's very yummy :)