Subway Art Projects

Sorry for the delay in posting a new blog. Before our son came along, I had decided that I would take the whole month of September off from blogging to take care of him and get some bonding time in. Now that we are getting better (and by we, I mean, him) about eating and sleeping without being too terribly fussy, I get the chance to blog again. Please note that I may not have as many blogs and there may be plenty of blogs that do not have pictures attached. Be forgiving with me until we get the hang of all this down, please. J

So I have wanted to decorate a house for a couple of years now. And since we live in a building with all concrete walls, decorating here in Bahrain is not really an option.

So I did the next best thing for the past couple of years. That’s right, I found projects I wanted to do and pinned them to my boards on Pinterest.

We recently found out that we will be moving sometime in the future. If you are affiliated with the military, this may be familiar to you. We do not know exactly when or where we are going, but we do know that we will be leaving this island sometime (and we know it will be sometime within the next 6 months or so)!

Yesterday during my son’s naptime, I decided that it was time for me to get some projects started, done, and blogged about and these two projects were the easiest projects that I could find and could achieve during naptime.

The original link to the bathroom art below is: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/485583_3226356250872_1025501542_3137581_804803733_n.jpg

And the original link to the subway art tutorial below is: http://thewinthropchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/03/baby-stats-subway-art.html

Subway Art Projects:

Instructions:

I don’t really know how to explain these projects as far as instructions go because they really are super easy projects.

The easiest way to complete these projects is to use Microsoft PowerPoint. It is super easy to move text boxes around and rotate them in PowerPoint and these projects really only took me about 20 minutes total and that was including a 5 minute fussing break!

I will break down the fonts that I used in case you are wanting your subway art to look exactly like mine, though. Below you will see a list of the fonts with the text that it was used for in parenthesis.
*Stencil (9.8.12)
*Georgia (Saturday)
*Arial Black (Benjamin Thomas)
*Courier New (20 inches long)
*Papyrus (7)
*Elephants in Cherry Trees (pounds, ounces)
*Harlow Solid Italic (9)
*Aharoni (11:30 am)

For the bathroom art, I used Calibri, which is the standard text for PowerPoint.

1. So to begin the project, I typed all of the different rows of text into their own text boxes. This makes it easy to move the rows around, rotate the rows as needed, and figure out what size the text needs to be.

2. Once you have typed all your text in, the real fun begins. Stretch the text boxes out so you have plenty of room in it and begin to experiment with the size of the text. I had text ranging from 32 points to 260 points so it does take a little experimenting. If you are going to have text running up the side of your project, I suggest doing that text first so that you can make all the other text get as close or as far away from it as you want.

3. Finish all of your text boxes and change the text color to whatever color you would like. I went with different shades of blue, black, and grey for the subway art because it will match the rug that I have already made for our son’s room. I went for white for the bathroom art because I really liked the way it looked in the original picture.

You will notice that these projects are not completely done. I will complete them once we are at our next duty station so that I can put them up on the wall as soon as they are done. The bathroom art will be put in frames and I am still undecided if I will just frame the subway art for our son’s room or if I will follow the steps on the original blog to place it on wood. Once we get in to our new house, though, I will make sure to post a new blog with an update of what I did.

Here is the bathroom art:

 

A Little More Personal..

Ok. So, I know my blog is usually about craft projects, recipes, etc., but I need to get a few things off my chest and let people know what is going on.

 

This will probably be one of the few personal blog posts that I will post because I do not feel like having my life open up to the whole world, but I know other people might go through these same things and I want them to be able to read my story just in case they are.

 

I am going to preface this by saying that I did not expect at all to feel this way. I understand that Post Partum Depression is common and sometimes women can suffer from some of the symptoms of it without having the full blown depression. At this time, I truly feel like I am suffering from Post Partum Depression. I don't know how bad I have it, but I do know that I am getting some well needed support in the form of great friends!

 

Our son was born 2 1/2 weeks ago via c-section. A c-section was not in my original plan for having a child, but since our son decided that he liked to sit with his head in my rib cage, I had no other option. I had a minor breakdown in the Operating Room because (1) I was in a foreign country, (2), the operating room scared me, and (3), I'm a chicken and hate pain. Luckily, I had a great doctor who helped me through the whole process of getting a spinal for my anesthesia and I didn't feel a thing during my whole c-section (well except the chest compressions that they had to do to get my son's head out of my ribs, but those weren't painful, just akward feeling).

 

Going into the hospital, I was dead-set on breastfeeding. In fact, it was the only real thing about my birth plan that I had specified. Everything else I had just gone by what the doctors had recommended. As soon as they got me out of recovery and into my hospital room, I wanted to try to nurse. Well, the only way I was able to try to nurse was on my side, which was extremely painful after the surgery. Ultimately, our son didn't latch on the first time and was left in our room to sleep in the bed with me since that is all he wanted to do anyway.

 

The second day in the hospital, I was able to nurse, but instantly thought something had to be up because it was taking my son at least an hour to nurse on one breast alone. I chalked it up to him being brand new to the world and decided that it would get better. The whole time in the hospital, I continued to nurse even though the feedings seemed to be taking longer and longer. We even had a nursing session that lasted 2 1/2 hours one night. The doctor instantly told me that I needed to limit my son's time on each breast. After consulting with a few friends of mine who breastfed, I decided that wasn't really an option for me because then I would be worried about my son not getting enought to eat. I decided that I would try limiting his time later on down the road, but understood that he was falling asleep because he was a newborn and that is what babies do.

 

When we got home from the hospital, I was still dead set on solely breastfeeding my son. I had even decided at this point that I didn't want to pump unless completely necessary for my husband and I to go to a function or something. Our son continued to nurse (and take forever). One day, it seriously felt like all I was doing was sitting on the couch with my son in my arms feeding him. Needless to say, this all took a toll on me. I had started to pump during the day after feedings to get my supply up and also so that my husband could help out at night since that seemed to be when my incision hurt the most.

 

After about a week and a half of being home, I decided that I was only going to pump and then we would give our son the expressed milk in bottles. I even looked at a million websites that said this was completely possible and actually not that bad of an idea. When we brought it up to our son's doctor at his 2 week check-up, he instantly agreed that it was a good idea since it seemed our son was sucking at the breast more for comfort than food and also since he seems to fall asleep more than eat when he is on the breast, but is completely alert for a bottle.

 

Well that lasted a whole day, which brings us to today. I decided today that formula is going to be the way to go for our son. It is a very hard decision to make and I am still struggling with it and know that I will struggle with it for at least a few weeks. I told my husband earlier that I feel like every time I make a bottle with formula, I am going to cry that I am not giving my son breastmilk. I know this will pass with time, but right now the wounds are still pretty fresh so I might be an emotional wreck.

 

A lot of you may be wondering why I quit so soon with the pumping. There are quite a few reasons and I will list them for you:

1. Pumping really is no fun. And it can be horribly depressing when you are not getting a large output.

2. I felt like I was not getting to spend any time with my son other than the occasional feeding that I wouldn't be pumping through.

3. I felt like I was not getting to spend quality time with my husband. He is on leave right now and I felt like he was having to do all the baby work because I was constantly having to go hook myself up to the pump.

4. Emotions. Something about both breastfeeding and pumping made my emotions go crazy. I could be nursing my son and instantly just want to cry because I didn't feel like I was doing it good enough even though he was latched on.

5. Breastfeeding in public. I am going to be completely honest with this. I am totally ok with people breastfeeding in public, but could never see myself actually doing this. I had bought nursing covers and was going to make a really cool nursing shawl, but honestly the thought of using it in public kind of bothered me. Maybe it is because we are in a country where it is still very taboo since many of the women here do not nurse and have full-time nannies or maybe it is because I am a prude, but either way, I knew I would never be completely comfortable with nursing in public and this caused me to feel like I would never be able to leave the house.

6. Time for myself. I felt like I had none. Now, I know, I had a child and should expect some of my time to go away, and I do, but I literally did not even have 5 seconds to myself half the time between trying to help with diaper changes, feedings, and then going to pump or wash the pump parts for the next pumping session.

 

So how do I feel now that I quit both breastfeeding and pumping?

1. The immediate emotion that I feel when thinking about this idea is guilt. I hate that I am not giving my son breast milk, but ultimately I have to accept the fact that he is still getting fed and is still going to be loved and love me and my husband (at least for a few years).

2. I feel like I can actually leave the house. Leaving the house is a great way to make myself feel better and is a great way to let people see our son. If we never left the house, lots of people would have never had the chance to meet our son.

3. I feel like I will have time to get stuff done, which is great because we are supposed to be leaving this duty station sometime in the near future and my OCD is already acting up of things that I want to do or get done before we leave this country.

 

Ultimately, I know that I will get over the guilt that I am currently feeling in time and will feel like a good mother again. (Yes, I have actually caught myself saying that I am a terrible mother because of this whole breastfeeding/pumping thing and that has to stop). I also feel like I will be in better control of my emotions and time now that I can mix up a bottle for my son whenever he is hungry and I do not have to wait to pump the milk for him (Yes, I had a small stockpile of milk in the fridge so I was not pumping just for a feeding to follow, but it seemd like it was going to get to that point very quickly).

 

I have also realized that I may have wanted to breastfeed for some pretty selfish reasons. My main priority was my son's health, but I had also read online about the ways that breastfeeding or pumping can help a new mom out as well. There is the obvious benefit of weight loss because both breastfeeding and pumping burn so many calories, but there are lots of other selfish reasons too. I think this did not have anything bad to do with the actual process of breastfeeding, but I feel like it is making being happy about formula feeding very hard on me.

 

As I am typing this, I am already going through the pain of engorgement and have been thinking about how I wouldn't be going through this pain if I hadn't quit. The truth is that I would be putting myself through more pain emotionally if I had kept going either down the breastfeeding road or the pumping road and that pain would have lasted a lot longer than the couple days that this current pain will last.

 

I'm going to wrap this up since I feel like I have written a novel and a not very well organized novel at that.

 

I wrote this post so that people can know what is going on with me and so that I can hopefully get support from family and friends. I have some great friends that have really stepped up to make me feel great about any decison that I have made and I am super thankful for all of them!

 

I know there are people out there that believe breastfeeding is the only way to feed your child the healthy way and I don't need to hear comments about that right now. I have to focus on getting myself completely healed up from the surgery and focus on making sure my son is healthy. If you have a problem with any decisions I make, feel free to let me know at a later time. All I ask for now is that you offer words of encouragment or just offer pleasantries so that I can get all healed up. 

Duct Tape Storage Boxes

So, I will be the first person to admit that I am very picky and can tend to be a perfectionist.

We are not having a nursery for our baby boy just yet since we are not sure when we will be moving again(should be in the next couple of months), but we did want to give him his own little area in our house.

I wanted to find linen storage bins that matched the rug I made here:
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/08/jersey-knit-rug-part-2.html
but I was unable to find any that matched the colors exactly how I wanted them to. I then decided that I would just use cardboard boxes to hold books and toys in until I could find something that I actually liked.

One of my friends pinned a tutorial on how to make cardboard boxes look cooler with duct tape and I knew that was my solution to my problem.

While I probably could have saved a couple cents by just buying cheap storage bins and dealing with the colors not matching exactly, I am super satisfied with how this project turned out.

Here are the original links that I used to complete this project:
http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2012/06/duct-tape-fun.html
http://westernwarmth.blogspot.com/2012/05/more-ways-with-diaper-boxes.html

Duct Tape Covered Storage Boxes

Materials Needed:

*Cardboard Box (I used diaper boxes since we have plenty of those around)
*Colored or Patterned Duct Tape (Depending on the size of your box, you may need a lot or a little of this. I used three different colors and for two boxes, did not even go through 2 rolls of each color duct tape.)
*Scissors
*Vinyl Letters to finish off the project (If you wish. These are not necessary though.)

 

Instructions:

1. Cut off the top flaps of the box, if you wish. The tutorial I am basing this on did not cut off the flaps, but I wanted the boxes to be flat on all edges, so I cut the flaps off.

2. Begin to cover the box with the duct tape. I have read some tutorials on line where they tell you to just continuously wrap the duct tape around the box, but I was afraid this would cause too many inconsistencies so I covered each side individually. I began with the bottom of the box, then moved to the inside of the box(which is not necessary to tape if you don’t want to) and then finished up the outside. I knew that I would be covering the corners of the box in the darker blue tape that I was using so I cut the strips so that there was a little bit of overlap around the corners and edges.

 

3. Finish up the box with some vinyl letters, if you wish. My great friend, Ashley offered to send me these and I was so glad that she did because I really feel like it makes the box look so much better than without the letters!

Here are the pictures of both the toy box and the book box now that they are complete!

Jersey Knit Rug (Part 2)

So, a while back, I posted part one of my jersey knit rug blog. If you want to look at the original blog post, here is the link: http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/latch-hook-rug-part-1.html

Well, I actually thought that it would take me a lot longer to finish up the rug than it did. I guess I have gone into nesting mode lately and have wanted to get a bunch of projects done now that we are less than 10 weeks from our baby boy coming into this world.

I finished this project a couple weeks ago and decided it was time to share the part 2 of my project for those of you who may have decided to make this rug yourself.

Jersey Knit Rug (Part 2)

The materials you should have left are:

*Your latch hook canvas filled in with all of the fabric that you are using.
*Rug binding (I am using iron-on binding for this, but there is also binding that you sew on. Depending on what type of binding you are using, you will either need a very thick needle and thread or you will need an iron and ironing board.)
*Scissors

Now let’s start finishing up this rug!

1. Cut the edges of the rug so that it is easier to deal with. I wound up originally cutting the edges of the rug so there was a whole square of latch hook canvas left around the rug, but then decided that it would be easier if I cut the fabric to be even smaller. Here is a picture of my rug when the latch hook canvas was finally cut to the size that I wanted to work with.

NOTE: I found it easy to decide what size I needed to cut the canvas down to by pulling out the rug binding and using it to measure.

2. Fold the extra latch hook canvas material to the back of the rug. I thought this part of the project would be very difficult since the material is so stiff, but found it to be very easy once I got going. I folded the fabric one small square off of the area that I had already placed fabric. I found this was best because it did not cause the jersey knit fabric to fold over to the back of the rug with the rug binding.

3. Take care of the corners of the latch hook canvas that you have folded back. You can either leave the corners overlapping as they will be when you fold the extra hatch hook canvas to the back of the rug or you can cut the corners to help keep the corners from being thicker than the rest of the edges. I decided to cut the corners so that there was only two pieces of fabric overlapping instead of the four pieces that originally were overlapping. 

4. Cut the rug binding so that it is the length that you need it to be. I had originally decided that when I am ironing the rug binding on, I will cut the corners at an angle so that there is not a large overlap of the binding. This is not what happened when I actually started working on it and there is an overlap of my binding, but it does not cause any bulges to the rug.  NOTE: I originally thought the rug binding had a sticky adhesive to the back and that I would be able to place the rug binding on before moving the rug to the ironing board. This is not the case, but the rug binding is very light and pretty easy to place on the rug when it is already on the ironing board (or the floor, which is where I ironed on the binding for my rug.)

5. Attach the rug binding to rug. I do not have instructions for this if you are using the sew-on binding, but I am sure they are easy to find if you use Google. I am also sure that the package of binding will have plenty of directions to help you out as well. As for the iron-on binding, you will use the iron set on the wool setting. Place the binding where you want it ironed and press down with the iron for about 7-10 seconds. You will need to check the tackiness of the binding after holding the iron there for this amount of time and you may need to hold the iron there a little longer. Here is a picture of the back of the rug when the binding has been attached.

Here is a picture of the rug now that it is all done. I am sure our son will love laying here for tummy time and we will get some great pictures of him on this rug when he finally graces us with his presence.

 

Nutella French Toast Sandwiches

I know I posted before that my husband loves macaroni and cheese. He also loves French Toast and lately has been addicted to Nutella.

When I say addicted to Nutella, I mean that when I made Nutella truffles, he was very excited and every time we go to the movies, he gets a Nutella, strawberry, and banana crepe. Yes, we get crepes when we go to the movies here. Definitely something I will miss when we get back to the States.

I found this recipe a while ago and was very excited to make it for my husband.

Here is the link to the original blog post that I used for this: http://www.navywifecook.com/2012/02/nutella-french-toast-with-strawberries.html

I changed a lot for my version of this, so I recommend checking out the original blog as well.

Sorry for no pictures. I promise to get better about that one of these days. :)

Nutella French Toast Sandwiches

Ingredients:
*A loaf of bread (The more stale the bread is, the better your French toast will hold up.)
*4 beaten eggs
*1 cup milk
*2 tablespoons sugar
*2 teaspoons vanilla extract
*2 teaspoons orange liqueur (I use Jose Cuervo Orange Tequila in mine)
*Cinnamon
*Butter
*Nutella

Directions:
1. In a shallow bowl or pie pan, beat together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, orange liqueur and cinnamon.
2. Scoop some butter onto a skillet or a griddle that is heated up so that the butter melts. (I use a griddle because it makes it easier and quicker for me to get breakfast done. If I was using a skillet, I would have to cook the French toast slices one at a time, but with a griddle, I can get six slices done at once.)
3. Dip the slices you have room for on your cooking surface into the egg mixture. Make sure to coat both sides of the bread.
4. Cook the slices of bread until both sides are golden brown and the egg mixture is completely cooked.
5. As soon as you remove the French toast from the skillet or griddle, pair up the pieces of bread. This will help you out when making your sandwiches.
6. Start the rest of your bread on the skillet or griddle, if you still have more bread.
7. Take your pairs of pieces of bread and spread Nutella on one of them. Then, place the other slice of French toast on top to make a sandwich.
8. Enjoy!

What Did I Think of This Recipe:

This is a great recipe that my husband has fallen in love with. I actually don’t know why I never thought of adding Nutella to French toast before finding this, but it is a good thing that I found this.

I used a completely different method as far as this recipe goes than the original blog did. That is mainly because I don’t like to dip sandwiches in the egg mixture. It just never seems to cook well enough for me and this way, you get more of the French toast flavor!

You can garnish this with strawberries or any other kind of fruit if you would like. I was going to do a mixture of strawberries and bananas on the side of this, but all of the produce I have been finding lately has been pretty gross looking so I decided to just make the French toast sandwiches.

This is definitely a recipe that we will be keeping around. My husband is obsessed with Nutella as it is so he was very happy for me to find a way to combine both Nutella and French toast!

Crockpot Beer Chicken

First of all, I apologize for the break in blog posts again. I will be making up for it by posting quite a few blogs of things that I have done in the past couple of weeks.

Second, I apologize for no pictures. I literally keep thinking about taking pictures after we have already ate the meal and I don’t think that looking at an empty plate is going to help you all out too much. J

I was browsing Pinterest one day for crockpot meals and came across this recipe, which I instantly knew I needed to try.

I am going to preface this by saying that I only like certain beers and right now there is no drinking of beer going on for me due to pregnancy. While I was home on vacation, though, my husband went to a beer tasting on base and came home with a different beer that I had never heard of. He has had a couple since then, but there have been two bottles sitting on the counter starting me in the face since I returned and this was one way of getting rid of at least one of those bottles.

Normally, I would make beer biscuits with an extra bottle or can of beer, but since my oven doesn’t bake that just isn’t possible so this recipe became a good solution to that.

Here is the link to the original recipe: http://www.mydailydish.com/2010/01/beer-crockpot-chicken.html

There is not really much to this recipe so feel free to use the other blog post if you must, but most things are exactly the same on this post as well.

Crockpot Beer Chicken

Ingredients:
1 Bottle or Can of any kind of Beer
2 chicken breasts
Garlic Powder
Italian Seasoning
Black Pepper
Salt

You will see that I do not put measurements of spices on my recipes and that is because I don’t measure. Feel free to sprinkle on as much or as a little seasoning as you like.

NOTE: According to the original blog, you can use whatever spices you would like and I have to agree that I thought about using different spices as well.

Directions:
1. Put all ingredients into crockpot.
2. Cover crockpot and cook chicken. (If chicken is frozen, cook on high for 4-5 hours or on low for 8-10 hours. If chicken is fresh, cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 7-8 hours)
3. Enjoy.

What did I think of this recipe?

This is a very easy recipe. Literally, there is nothing to it.

This is also a great way to use up a bottle or a can of beer if you do not have any use for it or if it is starting to go bad. (Yes, beer can go bad if it sits for too long.)

The whole house will smell like beer. I feel like you deserve that as a warning.

The chicken came out tasting like seasoned chicken. I did not get much of the beer taste in the chicken, which I was very glad for. I think that you could use this recipe to cook a whole chicken and have leftovers that you can use for different recipes throughout the week.

I will definitely keep this recipe around although I do not think that I will go out of my way to make this recipe again. My husband and I both really enjoyed the chicken, but this wasn’t one of those recipes that you just know you have to make again.

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

I know, I know, it’s been a couple days since I posted. And the truth is that I made this meal last week. It has been a crazy weekend trying to get everything done so that we can relax before the baby gets here.

Here is the original website for this recipe: http://forkinit.blogspot.com/2010/09/crockpot-barbecue-chicken.html

It is a pretty self-explanatory recipe and the steps are really easy. It turned out great.

Sorry for no pictures, but the original blog website has a couple of pictures if you really need the pictures to know if this is a good recipe or not.

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

*2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, frozen (I only used 2 because there is only 2 of us, but you could use as many as you need.)
*1 bottle BBQ sauce
*1/4 cup vinegar
*Red pepper flakes
*1/4 cup brown sugar
*Garlic powder
*Onion powder

 

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix BBQ sauce with vinegar, red pepper flakes, brown sugar, garlic powder and onion powder. (I don’t measure my spices so I don’t have an exact measurement of how much garlic powder, onion powder, or red pepper flakes I used.)
2. Place chicken in the crock pot.
3. Pour sauce over chicken inside the crock pot.
4. Cover crock pot and turn on low for 4-6 hours.
5. Enjoy!

What did I think about this recipe?

As I said above, this is a really simple recipe. I actually do this same thing with ribs all the time, but had never done it with chicken.

The chicken will fall apart if you put too much pressure on it. My husband and I both cut into the chicken to see if it was done all the way through and wound up cutting our chicken in half.

I really like red pepper so next time I may add a bit more than I did this time. You could pretty much add whatever seasonings you want to this though as it is a pretty foolproof recipe.

I used to make chicken like this all the time in the oven back in San Diego, but with our oven here, that is just not an option so this is a great alternative to that.

This recipe will be added to our frequently made list since as we were eating it, my husband asked me why everything tastes better from a crock pot.

The biggest thing I figured out is that I really need 2 crock pots so that I can cook both my main dish and my side at the same time. I was thinking this would be the perfect side: http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/ok-so-anyone-who-knows-my-husband.html

July Project Recap

So I decided to start off every month with a recap of all the blogs that I did last month. I figure this will be a great way to keep everything in order.

This also gives me a day to recover and find other projects to post up on here since I do not tend to do new projects every day, even though my blog may seem like I do sometimes.

July Recap

Recipes:

*Italian Grilled Cheese (Not one of my favorite recipes, but worth sharing in case you are interested in it.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/italian-grilled-cheese-sandwich.html

*Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese (Definitely a new favorite in my house!)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/ok-so-anyone-who-knows-my-husband.html

*Crock Pot Brunch Casserole (This as good, but I think the next time I make it, I will make some changes.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/crock-pot-breakfast-casserole.html

*Crock Pot Chicken Tacos (Another new favorite in my house. My husband is already asking me to make it again.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/crock-pot-chicken-tacos.html

*Chicken Tortilla Soup (Next time, I need to invite people over to eat with me or plan on freezing a bunch of this.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/chicken-tortilla-soup-with-leftovers.html

Chickpea and Tomato Salad (A great, quick, inexpensive snack to keep around for the afternoons.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/chickpea-and-tomato-salad.html

Craft Projects:

*Jersey Knit Rug Part 1 (The next part of this project will be posted in the next couple of days.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/latch-hook-rug-part-1.html

*Button Tree Canvas (Really cute and simple project!)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/button-tree-canvas.html

*Fleece Tie Blankets (Really cute and simple project that I have been doing for years.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/fleece-tie-baby-blankets.html

Monogrammed Candle Jar (A project that literally cost me next to nothing.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/so-while-back-i-had-posted-blogabout.html

*Contact Paper Stencils (A little mini blog in order to help with monogrammed candle jar project.)
http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/contact-paper-stencils.html

Crock Pot Lasagna

There are so many recipes that used to be my go-to meal recipes when we lived in San Diego. Lasagna was one of them.

When we moved into our flat here in Bahrain, I quickly learned that there were meals that I would not be able to cook in the oven, due to it being a top heating oven only. Lasagna was again one of them.

When I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I instantly knew I had to try it since lasagna was one of my husband’s favorite meals in San Diego.

Here is the link to the original recipe: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/02/slow-cooker-lasagna.html

I tried to stick to the recipe as much as possible since it is my first time attempting lasagna in the crock pot! J

Crock Pot Lasagna:

Ingredients

*1 lb. ground beef
*1 (24 oz) jar spaghetti sauce
*1 cup water
*15 oz container of ricotta cheese
*1 package of Italian Cheese Mix (about 2 cups)
*1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used a Parmesan and Romano mix)
*1 egg
*2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning (I didn’t actually measure this out just sprinkled it in.)
*Lasagna noodles, uncooked.

Directions:

1. Brown meat in large skillet, stir in spaghetti sauce and water. (You can drain the meat mixture if you want, but I never drain the meat mixture so I decided not to start with this recipe.)
2. Mix ricotta, 1 ½ cups of Italian Cheese Mix, 2 tablespoons (or however much you sprinkle in) of Parsley, Parmesan cheese, and egg in a bowl.
3. Spoon 1 cup of meat sauce into the crock pot, top with lasagna noodles, broken to fit; and half of the cheese mixture.
4. Spoon 2 cups of meat sauce into the crock pot, top with more lasagna noodles, broken to fit; and the other half of the cheese mixture. Top with remaining meat sauce.
5. Cover the crock pot with the lid and cook on low for 4-6 hours, or until the liquid is absorbed.
6. Sprinkle with remaining Italian Cheese Mix and let lasagna stand, covered, for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

(Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of the lasagna when it came out of the crock pot. The original recipe page has a picture of their lasagna. You would have a hard time getting a picture too when you are that hungry and the meal smells that good! J)

What did I think of this recipe?

We originally served the lasagna after only letting it sit until the cheese had melted. It was a little too soupy for me. We both had seconds of this meal so when we went back to get our second serving, the lasagna was a bit more like a lasagna that you would bake in an oven.

This was fantastic tasting lasagna. Yes, it dirties up about the same amount of dishes as a normal lasagna would, but when you are working with an oven that only heats from the top, you are a bit limited in what you can put in the oven!

I think that adding a few more, different kinds of cheese would be great for this recipe. I am thinking that the next time that I make this, I will add provolone slices on top of the ricotta cheese mixture.

It can be difficult to spread the ricotta cheese mixture around. When it touches the sauce, it will be completely useless as far as spreading it around goes. What I am trying to say is make sure you have enough noodles in the crock pot so that the sauce is mostly covered up!

Be prepared to make a little bit of a mess. When I was putting the sauce into the crock pot, I got sauce all over the stove. Luckily, I had thought about this problem before hand so I was not upset.

This recipe will definitely be added to our frequently cooked meals.

Chickpea and Tomato Salad

So, I am always hungry in the afternoon and right now I can’t get too terribly many options of food delivered until after sundown. I know, you all feel so sorry for me with my food delivery, right?

Well, I decided that I wanted a quick and easy snack to have around the house so that when hunger strikes, I am not just eating some crackers or cereal.

I had actually had a similar salad to this one last week at my monthly book club meeting and had found it incredibly delicious. I then found this recipe on Pinterest and decided it was worth a shot.

Here is the link to the original recipe (although I followed the recipe pretty closely): http://greenlitebites.com/2011/06/20/chickpea-and-tomato-salad-with-fresh-basil/

Chickpea and Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

*1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
*About 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
*25 large basil leaves, chopped (I used my hands and just tore apart the basil leaves.)
*3 cloves of garlic, minced
*1 tbsp red wine vinegar
*1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
*2 tsp olive oil
*1/2 tbsp honey
*pinch of salt (yes, that is my salt in the Corona bottle!J)

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a bowl with a lid. Shake the bowl so that all of the ingredients are mixed together. Place bowl in the fridge and let it chill for at least 20 minutes. Then enjoy!

What did I think about this recipe?

I would add more tomatoes and would quarter the tomatoes so that they are more evenly distributed. I love tomatoes though, so this may be a completely personal choice.

I would add cheese to this. In fact, I did add cheese to the top of my salad when I had it for lunch, but I think that feta cheese would be a great addition to this salad.

This salad is also very good to eat on top of some Triscuit crackers. I liked to eat the tomatoes especially with the crackers!

Ultimately, this is a great recipe and I will definitely be making this quite frequently since it was inexpensive, easy, and tasty!

Monogrammed Candle Jars

So a while back I had posted a blog about how to remove wax from a candle jar. I originally said in the blog that I would find some project to do with these jars and then would post a blog with instructions to that project.

Well, I just happened to think of a project the other day that I thought would be cute.

We have a table in the entry way of our apartment. It has been decorated in many different ways over the past couple of years including with a paper swan and a vase full of wine corks. Well I decided that I wanted something a little more personal and decided to make these monogrammed candle jars with our last name.

I didn’t have an original blog to base this off of so excuse me if some of the directions are not as clear as they could be. J

Monogrammed Candle Jars:

Materials Needed:

*Candle Jars (wax removed and jars washed)
*Stencils (I did not have actual stencils so I made my own by printing off letters from the computer and then tracing them on contact paper)
*Enamel paint (Yes, you will need Enamel paint so it can stick to the glass)
*Paint brush (I prefer to use the spouncer sponge brush for painting on glass as it gives it a little texture.)
*Some type of filler for the candle jars ( I am using small foam balls, but you could use whatever you want for this.)

Instructions:

1. First of all, make sure your candle jars are completing clean and that all of the wax is removed from the jars. If you need some tips on getting the wax out, here is my tutorial for removing wax from candle jars: http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/06/removing-wax-from-jars.html

NOTE: A great product to help you remove labels and also the wax inside the candle jars is Goo Gone. I use it every time that I am cleaning out a candle jar now.

2. Now you will need to place the stencil on the candle jar. By using the contact paper, I knew that I would be able to get the stencil to stay put on the glass candle jar, but you can also try adhesive stencils (sold at basically every craft store) or some tape to hold the stencil.

NOTE: I chose to use contact paper because I knew that I would not have to worry about the stencil moving once I placed it on the glass jar. If you need directions on how to make contact paper stencils, I have posted a little blog tutorial here: http://danielleoxley.blogspot.com/2012/07/contact-paper-stencils.html

3. Pour some of your paint onto a paper plate or other object that you don’t mind getting paint on. This will help you get the right amount of paint on your brush for the stenciling.

4. Place the paintbrush that you are using in the paint and get as much paint as you would like. Like I said above, I like the spouncer sponge brush because it gives you a little texture. I also like it because it does not leave streaks like a normal paintbrush does. And it is super easy to just daub the paint all over.

5. Remove the stencil and let the paint dry on the candle jar. If you need to do any touch ups, I recommend you do this before you remove the stencil so that you do not get random paint all over the place.

NOTE: You can bake the candle jars to cure the paint or you can leave the jars out for 21 days so that they cure. I wasn’t worried about letting them cure before doing the next step because I did not plan on washing these jars anytime soon.

6. Once the paint has dried, fill the jars with whatever filler you are using. You can now place the jars wherever you would like in your house.

NOTE: I plan on painting the lids of these jars as well with brown paint, but didn’t have any on hand while I was working on this project so that will have to just wait for another day.

Contact Paper Stencils

Contact Paper Stencils

Materials needed:

*Contact paper (I buy this in a roll for less than $3.00)
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Print-out of letter or object that you are going to make a stencil of

 

(Sorry that I didn’t get a picture of the letters before I cut them out. I hadn’t actually planned on making this blog, but when I started typing up the blog post for the candle jars, I thought this might be helpful.)

**Please note that these stencils will most likely only be able to be used once since they will get pretty messy when using them with paint.**

Instructions:

1. Print out whatever letters or objects you want to make a stencil of. In order to do this, I just found a font that I liked in Microsoft Word and typed up what I wanted to have made into a stencil.

2. Cut out the letters or objects that you printed out. Get as close to the edge as you can when you are cutting and try to cut as straight as you can so that your stencils do not wind up all crazy looking.

3. Trace the letters or objects that you want to use on the backing side of the contact paper. You will need to turn these the opposite way in order to have the letters and objects be the way that you printed them out.

4. Cut the letters or objects out of the contact paper. Leave the backing of the contact paper on until you are ready to place this on whatever project you are working on.

This is a great cheap way to make stencils especially if you are using them for painting because you do not have to worry about washing them when you are done. I just use these for one project and then throw them away when I am done.

Ok, I know I should have a picture of the stencils now that they are done, but the truth is, I was too excited to put them on the candle jars and paint the candle jars that I completely forgot to take a picture. If you have any questions, though, comment, and I will try to answer your question as best I can! J