chicken on the rocky side

*not the greatest pic...I was hungry!

My mom is the type who will go to a restaurant and order something, look it over and say "I could make this."  Then she would go home and attempt the dish.  One dish that became an instant hit at my house is Rocky Top Chicken.  I love to make this chicken and love even more to eat it!

You will need:
Broiler pan (looks like two cookie sheets that sit on top of each other but one has slits in it, you put water in the bottom pan)
Oven preheated to 350

Ingredients:
boneless, skinless chicken breast (1 for each guest, thaw before cooking)
bar-b-que sauce
salt and pepper
shredded cheese
bacon bits (we like to cut bacon up and fry it to make fresh bacon bits, super delicious!)

Sallt and pepper the chicken breasts on either side.  Place them on the broiler pan and put in oven for 15 minutes.  Turn chicken over and cook for another 15 minutes.  Spoon or brush bar-b-que sauce on one side of the chicken, cook for 5 minutes.  Turn chicken over and spoon of brush bar-b-que sauce on other side and cook for a final 5 minutes.  Once chicken is done, remove from over and put on a platter.  Sprinkle shredded cheese and bacon bits over top.  There you have it...delicious chicken!

In the restaurants they usually put tomato and green onions on the chicken as well, but I'm not a big fan of either.  Also, if you use smaller pieces of chicken you can cut down on the cook time.

a 'crate' idea!

The biggest challenge my husband and I face living in our apartment is a common one...STORAGE!  Not only functional storage, but pretty storage that I can decorate with!  I bought some wooden crates from a craft store quite a few years back.  I had stained them at the time and they pretty much were just lying around in my room.  When I went off to college I took them with me for under the bed storage.  Then when we moved into our apartment, I wasn't sure what to do with them.  Then it hit me! Bookshelf!  My husband had a few books and I had a good few books that we just didn't know what to do with.  I positioned the crates and filled 'em up with our books.  Some I stood up, some I put on their side.  Then, I decorated!  I used the vases left over from our candy buffet at our wedding and filled them with candy (what else?!).  I put flowers in others and displayed one of our monograms we used at the wedding and an album of our engagement pictures as well.  My husband and I are so happy with the outcome.  I would love to buy a few more to stain and build up the shelving...but, I'll wait until they go on sale!
This shelving would go great in a kids room, paint the crates however you want.  Also, these would be ideal for office storage where organization needs are constantly changing (your shelves can change too!).  We love the unique feel it gives to our apartment and I love the fact that I can rearrange it often (to satisfy my decorating ADD!).

p.s our engagement pictures were taken by Lauren Mason of Piccadilly Pictures in Orlando, Florida and Jacob Vorpahl of One Bright Spot Photography in Jacksonville, Florida.  These two are totally worth checking out!

face lift for the floor

You may remember my post about how I painted one of the rugs my husband brought with him from his bachelor days (if not, get acquainted with it here).  Well, rug number two was just beckoning for me to make it so much prettier.  This time, I thought I would try something a little different than what I had done before.  I had a lot of people compliment my rug and I really did appreciate it.  Though, most seemed to see the process as somewhat hard to do.  I was like "oh junk, it's not...it's so simple!"  So, I thought I would do something a little less 'free form' and a little more structured and doable for those a wee bit less crafty than I.
I chose stencils as my weapon of choice.  My husband and I decided on two different small designs we liked and I used some paint from my last rug and bought one more color...for good measure.  (I talked about the paint I used for this projects in my first post, it's just fabric paint)  At first I wasn't quite sure what sort of pattern or design I wanted to do.  I knew I wanted to do a border on the rug, so I taped it off with painters tape.  I used the flap from a shipping box (thanks Mom for sending my craft supplies!) as my guide so that I would have a relatively straight line.  I use a cut off plastic cup to hold my paint, it works well! I then started from the corners, again because I had no real plan.  I suggest having some what of a plan, as it makes it a bit easier!  I decided on a pattern and stenciled it in, alternating the stencils.  I knew that being a textured surface, I would not get exact and perfect designs, so I just went with it.  The brushes I used were stenciling brushes.  You just tap the paint into the stencil, tapping ensures you don't get too much paint under the edges which distorts your design.

Well, there it is!  I just added here and there as my little imagination wheels turned.  I thought about doing a large P in the middle to personalize it.  Though, decided against it as I wanted this rug to be simpler than the last.  Once again, this was SO simple!  It took me maybe an hour total to complete this project and I used such common tools.  I promise you can do it!  Now that your inspired, get creative!

taco night in a whole new light

Taco night has always been one of my favorites.  I don't know what it is but, I can't seem to get enough of it!  I have to admit though, I only eat meat and cheese on my tacos!  Anywhooo...I have a recipe that is sure to quickly become on of your 'need something quick' recipes!  It's a variation on traditional tacos called Taco Ring!

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (or, if you're like my husband ground turkey...or whatever meat you want)
1 pck taco seasoning (with all the taco stuff at the grocery store, I use Old El Paso..yum)
2/3 cup water
1 can crescent rolls
Shredded Cheese
Toppings*
*optional, they will all be added after the taco ring is cooked.

Preheat your oven according to the crescent roll package, mine is 375.

Prepare taco meat as directed on seasoning package.  While Taco meat is browning, open crescent rolls and separate.  Arrange on a baking sheet, the triangles so that the pointy end is sticking out and the flat bottoms are overlapping slightly, making a sunshine.  Once the meat is done spoon it onto your sunshine on the overlapping flat bottoms.  Don't be afraid to pile it on!  Sprinkle the shredded cheese on top of the meat.  Take the pointy rays of the sunshine and fold them over into the center of the sunshine around the meat.  Tuck it in under the center, you will begin to see the ring!  Once you have your finished ring, bake it as directed on the crescent roll package.  Once your taco ring is cooked you can add other toppings if you wish, or enjoy it as is!  This recipe makes 8 slices of taco ring (8 crescent rolls).  For larger families or hungrier folks, double the recipe.  You don't have to make two separate taco rings, simply make an oval shaped taco ring to fit on your cookie sheet instead of a circular one.  Now, enjoy your taco ring!

pillows and baskets, oh my!

My DIY attitude extended well into my wedding planning.  I started looking for ring bearer and flower girl baskets and was absolutely shocked at the outrageous prices I saw.  They were wanting twenty bucks for just a basket...on clearance!  YEAH RIGHT!  So needless to say, I decided to make my own!
First I went to my local Goodwill.  There I bought a small basket and a small pillow for a total of $2.  The basket was dusty and not so attractive, the pillow was some needlepoint teddy bear on a ship or something...I'm not so sure.  I was only using the stuffing from the pillow, so I got one that was very firm.
Next I hit up the Wal Mart fabric department.  I chose a simple fabric in a light orange and some ivory tulle.  I chose a light orange, because my at the time fiance and I liked how it looked better layered with the ivory tulle.  I suggest if you are buying fabric from different stores, or you are combining more than one fabric, try them out together.  Surprises aren't always a good thing one something like this!
I bought a half a yard of both fabrics, because I got them from Wal Mart (not a specialty store) I only paid about $4 for all the fabric.  While there, I picked up a spool of brown ribbon for about $1.
When at home, I unfolded the orange fabric and put the basket on it.  I cut a square out of the fabric big enough to fold up around the base of the basket and still have a decent amount inside the basket.  I used a hot glue gun to glue the fabric in place starting from inside the basket.  I then cut a long rectangular piece of orange fabric to cover the handle with.  I also used the glue gun to keep the fabric in place.  I repeated these steps with the tulle.  I then decorated with the brown ribbon.
I wasn't quite satisfied with the result.  I felt that it needed a little something more.  I decided flowers.  I found some flowers that I liked and weren't too big or too bright or too ugly at A.C. Moore.  The flower I chose had a good few blooms on a stem, so I only needed one.  I got the flowers when the store was having a sale, they cost me about $3.  I removed the blooms from the stem and placed them on the basket in a few different places before I decided on the arrangment I liked best.  Now, the basket was done, onto the pillow. 
This one, I was confident about.  I cut two orange squares of the same size, slightly bigger than the size I wanted the finished pillow to be.  I cut one square of tulle slightly larger than the size of one of the orange squares.  I made small folds in the ivory and pinned it to one of the orange squares so that they seemed to be the same size. (I twisted the tulle from the middle to give it texture, this is why I need the extra material).  I then layered the pieces of fabric with the tulle between the two orange pieces. (Remember, you sew the pillow inside out so that the stitching does not show).  I pinned the pieces together so that it would be easier for me on my sewing machine to keep the layers together.  If you do not have a sewing machine, you can always simply stitch it by hand.  The pillow is only used for a short while and does not necessarily need to stand up to the tests of a washing machine or anything!!
Sew three sides of the pillow completely shut, on the last side leave about three or four inches unsewn (preferably in the middle of the side rather than close to a corner of the pillow).  Turn the pillow right side out and stuff the new pillow with the stuffing from the thrift store pillow.  Stuff it as firm or as soft as you would like.
For my finishing touch, I twisted the tulle from the center of the pillow.  I then used a dab of hot glue to keep the twist in place.  I did a sot of tufting on my pillow by sewing a small button on the back of the pillow, pulling the thread ALL the way through the pillow.  I then used the brown ribbon on the pillow and the rest of the flowers I bought to decorate the pillow.  This project took me about an hour and a half.  I did it over 2 days, though. 
Hope this helps someone out, or at least inspires someone to create something original for their special day!

spray on pretty

I have a secret weapon for decorating...it's called spray paint!  Seriously, this stuff is superbly awesome!  I started using spray paint a lot when I was making things for our wedding.  I got some nasty looking baskets from the trash at work and spray painted them dark brown and BAM they were beautiful!  My husband and I decided we needed an end table/magazine rack.  We originally decided to be on the look out at thrift stores (we go 'thrifting' quite often!).  Though, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law called one day when they were at a yard sale and my husband asked them to be on the lookout.  Low and behold...they found us one!
Once we got the end table, I knew that I wanted to paint it a unique color.  I originally thought a plum or eggplant color then switched to a golden yellow-orange color.  However, when I actually got to the spray paint isle at Wal Mart I went with a color called Jade.  I brought home my less than $3 bottle of paint and got to work.  It probably wouldn't have hurt to sand down my table...but seeing as how it is metal and already painted, I just went with it!  I chose a well ventilated area (our front balcony) and laid out a 'tarp' (old towel) so I wouldn't get it all over the concrete.  Then I sprayed away!  I did as much as I could then let it sit and came back to fill in any missing areas.  Since the table was so detailed I had to wait for one side to dry so that I could flip it over and paint the other side.  My favorite thing about spray paint is that it is so cheap!  If I decide I hate the color in a few months, then for $3 I can change it!  Wonderful!  I chose a place mat (once again from Wal Mart...would have made a great pillow like the others I made) in a contrasting color and put a cute vase with some fake sea grass and a picture of my husband and I (at Morton's The Steakhouse, on our Honeymoon!) to decorate my table with.  I put all my Family Fun magazine, which have some awesome ideas and my Martha Stewart Food magazine, which have some nasty looking food in them in the bottom, and I just love it.  My husband came home from work and loved it too!  Hope this inspires you to get creative!

instant goodness amped up

So, I got a message from a friend who read my blog and was a long time lover of the potato flake chicken recipe I shared.  She had a variation on the recipe, so I thought I would share it with all...it's selfish not to share a great recipe!

"I personally have been making it for YEARS, and I LOVE it....just thought I might pass on some helpful hints....One if you mix the melted butter with italian dressing you can use less butter and amp up the flavor, and two if you buy the season potato flakes (they come in a little pouch) you also add more flavor and I personally like the texture better than the boxed ones for some reason. Anyways that's all. I love the dish, my husband requests it constantly...and its way easy to mix it up with different seasons and such." 

Mmmmm...sounds tasty!  I never even thought about using seasoned flakes to change the flavor!  What a genius!  I encourage you to absolutely try this one out, you're going to love it!

Oh, and  
Happy Halloween!

no one likes naked windows

No, but honestly...no one likes a naked window.  They look so cold, uninviting and bachelor-esque!  Ewwwww!  When my husband and I moved into our apartment I fell in love with the over abundance of windows in our living room space.  I however, did not fall in love with the idea of buying window coverings for all of them.  So once again, my craftability took the reins and the wheels were in motion.
I decided to use standard flat bed sheets.  My husband had some sheets that he bought to use for make shift curtains in his bachelor days.  I can't remember the exact price of the sheets, but I am for certain they were no more than $5 at the very most.  My husband had used standard tension rods to hold up his curtains so we used those.  We also bought some cafe rods (the simple little ones that have a hook on either end of the window and the rod sits in it) because we have some bigger windows.
Once again, I broke out my sewing machine and got to work.  I laid out the sheets and folded them in half longways.  I then cut them in half with ordinary kitchen scissors to make panels.  The best part of using sheets: they are hemmed already, you only have to hem the side you cut!  I then sewed a small hem on the unfinished side.  I used the top part of the sheet, with the folded down looking part as a guide for making the pocket for the rod to slip into.  I folded down the top to the 'folded over edge' and sewed a straight line making the pocket.  My husband so graciously fought with the curtain rods so that I didn't have to.  What a guy!  To make the tension rods look like cafe rods we bought the brackets separately (all of my supplies are from Wal Mart).

It was now time to christen my windows with their economically friendly coverings.   I put the rod through the pocket and hung the rod on the brackets.  For the ones using tension rods I made sure the ends of the rod were covered by the curtain and put it onto the bracket, it was a tight squeeze but it will also ensure the end stays in place.
The window pictured is a small window, much to small for two panels.  All of my other windows have two panels.  The panels are a little long for our windows and puddle (pile up at the bottom) quite a bit.  However, we have furniture in front of most all walls, so no worries for us.  Though, with children you might want to cut and hem it so no one trips! (Trust me, this happens...I have the same treatment in our bedroom and my husband has!)  You might also think about hanging the rods higher and adding a valance to cover the empty wall space.  Doing so will add height to your room!
Don't stop with this simple design, add a button border to the top or some ribbons as tie backs.  Get inspired, create something marvelous!