House Poor

The hubby’s new buzzword is house poor.  This is what he refers to our life as….which means…..WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!  Well, technically we're buying a house and close on May 6th, so pending nothing disastrous happens we will be the proud owners in around one week! It is a 1700 square foot three bedroom, two bathroom, 1945 stucco beauty!  It has oodles of charm, good structure, and tons of potential. 

What we love about it is that you can see that the previous owners loved it as much as we are going to and took great care of our new baby!  The house is equipped with a deck, garage big enough for the hubby to carry out my bidding work on projects for the house, and a walkout basement.  It is nestled on a ½ acre lot with tons of grass and trees.  It is near several lakes and parks and has the small town charm and feel of the lake town we grew up in.  An added bonus is it is close enough to the metro area so we can still access all the excitement of the city.  More pictures and details to come!

P.S. this means I get to change my banner to making our HOUSE a HOME! How exciting!

Easter Dessert: A Tale of Two Cheesecakes

The occasion: Easter.  My mission: dessert.  The obvious choice? Cheesecake!  I have never made anything more complicated than Jello brand No-Bake-Cheesecake before, so it was quite an endeavor I was embarking on to actually make not one, but TWO completely from scratch.

I choose to make one chocolate cheesecake and one regular cheesecake for versatility.  For the chocolate cheesecake (recipe found here) I decided to top it with caramel pecan topping and for the plain cheesecake (recipe found here) I choose blueberry topping.  Did I also mention I was making the toppings from scratch too?  I definitely had my work cut out for me!

As they say, hindsight is 20-20 and my number one tip before starting the undertaking of baking cheese cake is read the recipe in its entirety.  Not just scan the ingredients as I did.  Let’s just say that the plain cheesecake from the Barefoot Contesssa baked at a high temperature for 15 minutes, then you turned down the heat and baked for an additional 75 minutes, and THEN you turned the oven off, opened the door, and let it sit for another half hour.  And, don’t you dare put it in the refrigerator after you take it out of the oven, it needs to sit at room temperature for another 2-3 hours.  The chocolate cheesecake from all recipes was a lot easier – just baking at one temperature for 65 minutes.       

 

Both of my tops on my cheesecakes cracked, but I wasn’t too worried because all of the topping goodness would cover up my mistakes.  After some research regarding where I went terribly wrong in my cheesecake process to cause cracking, I found that cracking is pretty common.  It can be caused by the cheesecake becoming too hot, by shrinkage when cooling, or over baking.  I guess I won’t beat myself up too bad over this.

Also, these recipes call for a springform pan, which I do not have. So I just used a pie plate.  That worked fine for me, expect I had a lot of batter left over!  You could always make “mini cheesecakes” from the leftover batter in cupcake tins, or you could just use a springform pan like a normal person! 

In another kitchen across the state I prepared my toppings - which turned out to be pretty easy.  These are versatile toppings you can use for your favorite cheesecake recipe! (or try one from above!)

Caramel Pecan Topping Recipe:

1 5 oz can evaporated milk
1 package of caramels (14 oz)
1 cup chopped pecans

For the caramel pecan topping I just threw everything into a nonstick pot and cooked it over low heat until all the caramels melted and incorporated with the evaporated milk.  I used a nonstick pan because anything sticky, ie caramel, will slide conveniently down the sides and onto your dessert rather than cling to the sides of your pot for dear life.

It took around 10 minutes to fully melt and incorporate.  I had plenty for the cheesecake with some leftover.  This would be great to leave out for people who want more of the good stuff, or to use later for another dessert or over your ice cream. 

Blueberry Topping Recipe:

3 cups fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon cornstarch

 

For the blueberry topping, from Martha Stewart, I again dumped everything into a nonstick pan.  I simmered for several minutes per the instructions. 

The sauce looked kind of thin, so at this point I added more cornstarch.  Bad idea! The cornstarch formed little hard lumps (I am assuming from being sealed by the heat of the blueberry mixture) which I then proceeded to pick out of the topping by hand.  Not fun. 

So, I’ll sum up for you the lessons I learned on this baking endeavor:

1. Read all the instructions fully before deciding to make a dessert – this saves you from a cheesecake with a 2 hour-multi-step bake time.
2. The cheesecake with less baking time turned out just as good as the cheesecake with complex and long baking time.
3. Don’t just go tossing cornstarch wherever you want to whenever you want to.  This could result in weird white lumps in your dessert!
4. Don’t beat yourself up if your tops crack – it happens – just cover it with topping goodness and nobody will notice.

Channel Your Inner Pioneer Woman

I am utterly inspired by Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman.  A more appropriate title may be Super Woman.  She cooks.  She has tips about her home and garden.  She is a photography and Photoshop goddess. Need I say more?  Her blog and tutorials have inspired me to brave the world that is Photoshop.  As of right now I have a standard point and shoot camera and have big dreams of getting an SLR camera. My birthday is also conveniently coming soon (hint hint!).  Anyways…my best shot at creating semi-ok photos is all in the editing baby!  Let me rewind a bit….I know nothing about photography so there is a lot more to creating a semi-ok photos that I have yet to learn.  BUT in the true spirit of working with what you’ve got I decided to forge ahead with my point and click camera to see what I could create in Photoshop.  I figured the photos that I would have the most fun editing my first time out would be my engagement photos.

I had two photography sessions where my future hubby and I coordinated outfits and smiled pretty for the camera.  Our photographers were a combination of my mother, cousin, and sister in law – how budget friendly! AKA free.  These pictures were pretty good to begin with (because I didn't take them) so I felt they would give me a leg up on this editing business.  I used these pictures to create a Kodak photo book that I used as our guestbook, where the guest signed in the blank white spaces all yearbook style!  I didn’t edit them before then because I was pulling my hair out from the stress of re-locating across the state, finishing my thesis, trying to find a job, and planning a wedding.  I think tacking Photoshop at that point would have ended poorly for me.  So, now that I am in my right state of mind here is what I created channeling my Pioneer Woman spirit:

Not perfect, but not too bad either.  I am excited to see where Photoshop takes me and to edit the heck out of everything I print from this point on!

A Quail of a Tale

I went on another antiquing adventure with the pops and I cannot wait to share what I found.  It was a find that was so monumental it was deserving of a “GET OUT” push by Elaine from Seinfeld…..yes that epic!  Let me give you some back story.  Several months ago I stumbled upon Young House Love’s crash of the Bower’s pad.  This ceramic bird shot had me green with envy.  It was a bit like my brass birds that are perched on my coffee table, but I was drawn to the white ceramic-ness of it. 

And guess what….I FOUND IT! I did a happy dance in the store that to an outsider probably looked like I was having a seizure. 

But wait, there’s more……it had a baby!

AND it was only $6.00 for the pair! Probably not as good of a deal as Katie Bower got, but it made me all warm and fuzzy none the less!  My dad informed me that they are quails.  He also told me  that when I’m driving I take turns too sharp….it was an interesting day. 

I also ran across some large antique Ball canning jars with pale blue glass.  As I’m going up to the counter the pops casually says “Ohh I have some of those out back I’ll give to you when I get home”.  Score! So I walked away with these bad boys for free!  With just a little elbow grease I am confident they will shine. I am thinking I need a larger home for my wine corks (from here and here) to live and this seemed like the perfect solution, but only time will tell.   

Chalk it Up to Crafty-ness

For my friend’s upcoming birthday gift I decided it was time to roll up my sleeves and get crafty.  Several birthday’s ago this friend told me I had to stop giving her serving bowls….what can I say? I am addicted to serve ware.  Is it wrong to want to share that love with others? But, at her request I ceased looking in the bake ware isle for gifts and turned my energy to what else but…WINE!

My latest endeavor is a crafty spin of a gift for a wineo enthusiast on a pretty sweet budget.  For this project you will need an empty wine bottle (drink up!), acrylic paint, craft stamps in the design of your choice, a paintbrush, scrap paper, and chalkboard pait.  Yes, chalkboard paint, are you intrigued yet? Optional items include a piece of twine and a stick of chalk. 

Start out by peeling the label off the wine and washing off all the sticky residue.  For me, just plain soaking it in dishwater usually works, but if you are tackling an extra hard label you can use Goo Gone to get the stickiness off. 

After the wine bottle has dried fully spray the chalkboard paint on the wine bottle and let it dry.  With the spray paint, start on the ground and work your way up and down your wine bottle with nice even strokes until it is fully covered.  Never start or end your spray directly on the bottle because it will leave drips and runs.  It took me four coats for the paint to be even and durable enough to withstand chalk markings.  I used RUST-OLEUM brand chalkboard paint because it was the cheapest. 

When the chalkboard paint has dried, get out your painting and stamp supplies!  Make sure the paper you lay down is thick enough to withstand a couple coats of paint.  Start by putting a drop of whatever color acrylic pain you choose on your paper…

and spread it out into a thin layer with a brush. 

This is so when you place the stamp in the paint it is easily coated and doesn’t glop all over the wine bottle you worked so hard to paint.  The stamp I picked out isn’t really meant for acrylic paint, it’s meant for ink stamping.  BUT following the rules is no fun so I went for it!  Ink stamps have so many cool and fun designs I thought it would be the perfect compliment for my chalk wine bottle.  I choose a peacock feather!

I found a towel to lay my bottle on so it was stable when I was ready to attack it with my stamp.

Once I spread my paint out, I rubbed my stamp in the paint and practiced a couple of times on a sheet of paper so I could gauge the correct thickness of the paint to achieve the design I wanted to. 

Notice that I changed my colors from pink to green.  The GREAT thing about acrylic paint is that until it is dry it is wipeable so I tried different placements and colors until I found one that worked.  The designs and placements I didn’t like I just wiped off and since the chalkboard paint is permanent it was like a clean slate!

After I found what worked I came up with a design a little something like this:

I then tied a twine to a piece of chalk and attached it to the neck of the bottle so my friend will always have something to write on her bottle with. I put the chalk in the throat of the wine bottle for a fun little twist!

This is a great project for a gift for a friend, or for you to make as an accessory in your own home!  I would store it by my olive oil bottles from my honeymoon trip, or you could put it in a collection with real wine bottles.  The messages you can write on the bottle make it versatile for a welcome for guests or as part of your centerpiece for an amazing dinner.

So here is the budget breakdown:

Wine Bottle: Free if you save your old wine bottles!

Stamp: $6.00

Chalkboard Pait: $4.99

Paint: $1.00

Grand Total: $11.99

What Do You Get When You Ask For Keys?

No, this is not a trick question or the start to a corny one line joke.  Let me back up the bus and explain.  I have been wanting to switch out shadow box on our floating shelves from our wedding picture to one filled with lovely retro keys.  Maybe locks too...I didn’t know how crazy I wanted to get.  So, I resorted to my best standby solution to any dilemma: ask the family.  They always seem to come up with something, and best of all its usually free. 

So I asked, and this is what my fabulous hubby and father-in-law came up with:

In the mix were some blue and clear glass insulators the hubby found in the back of his parent’s 30 acre lot, a railroad tie, and a key for machinery at Erie Mining Company.  I love that all the pieces have a rich history and make me feel connected to my roots up north. 

You see, northern Minnesota is a big mining area.  They don’t call it the “Iron Range” for nothing ya know!  My hubby’s dad worked at Erie Mining Company (which has since closed) and was generous enough to give me the key to an electrical box he had somehow come into possession of years ago.  And, with mining comes railroads, hence the railroad stake.  I mean we have to haul to iron ore out somehow!  The insulators have great color AND are a collectable entity, going at antique stores for around $5.00 for one insulator. 

So, after all the asking I came up with one key and some lovely other treasures - not too shabby! The best part about them is they were from my hubby’s back yard.  It is all these sentimental factors that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside every time I look at them!  I can’t wait to figure out how I will display them/where I will put them!   

The Squirrel Gets a Makeover

Awhile back I picked up a squirrel at Goodwill that I fondly named Mr. Squirrel.  I had every intention of giving him a makeover that involved white spray paint, and I finally got around to the project.  Here is the side by side shot of his before and after.

It took around 3 light coats to get his color to a crisp white where the icky “before” orange wasn’t showing through.  So the outcome wasn’t too shabby for a $2.00 goodwill find turned sleek and charming nut-eating accessory.  I have been working on accessorizing my long and bare set of dressers and used Mr. Squirrel as a jumping off point.  I sat him on a stack of books that coordinates with the amazing quilt my hubby’s grandmother made us for our wedding.  I love the titles of the vintage books: “Jellybean”, “The Green Coat”, and “The Amateur Photographer’s Handbook”, they make me smile!  I threw in my Ball canning jar of sentimental wine corks from this post, and topped it off with some vintage letter tiles perched on a scrabble tray.  It looked a little something like this:

It’s not perfect yet, but it is a start!      

Diamonds in the Rough: Another Goodwill Success

Yes, they are out there!  The diamonds in the rough of the cluttered goodwill shelves, and I have proof!  On a recent goodwill excursion I picked up some pretty sweet finds, and the price….even sweeter! I have become quite an expert at perusing through shelf upon shelf of other people’s donations to find some real beauties.  Exhibit one: give me some salt n’ peppa!

I found these two shakers for $1.00 and snapped them up! I absolutely adore the raised S and P on the top and the versatility of their shiny white finish.  Also a plus was the band of texture on the bottom.  I can see these on my table for both fancy and casual affairs.

Now in the words of Jay Z it’s on to the next one, or four.  I’m talking plates people! 

I found these wonderful salad plates for 50 cents a pop!  It’s becoming quite the trend to stack your plates for your place setting using mismatched plates.  However, as it always goes, if I can be trendy for $2.00 I am there!  I absolutely love these yellow china plates and there were 8 available.  However, the two I picked out were the only ones with good coloring that hadn’t faded into a weird brown color, boo!  Anyhoo I also picked up two mismatched blue plates and now have made it my personal mission to search for more eclectic blue salad plates.  My dishware is white and many of my serving trays are light blue so I think the dark blue and light yellow will make a nice pop to any tablescape!   

Last but not least is another creature I picked up with all intentions of giving him a fabulous makeover. 

I have named him Mr. Squirrel.  I don’t know why I feel the urge to name all my animal accessories, like Hootie, I guess I am weird like that.  I also name all the fish I catch ice fishing…..it could be an obsession. Mr. Squirrel came with a price tag of $2.00 so he was sold, done and done!  So for a grand total of $5.00 for the whole day I didn’t do half bad if I do say so myself!