Taco's and My New Project

Today I started on a multi-day project. I have decided that I'm ready make my first attempt at repurposing! I didn't get to make anything except dinner.

Our tacos were alright. They make me miss California!

So back to my project. We drove 40 minutes in traffic to pick up this craigslist steal!

Let me start off by telling you I only paid $10(incredible) for this. It is solid and sturdy with very minor damage. I did, however, have to drag it down 3 flights of stairs. Though you probably can't tell from the picture, this coffee table was a beast! Our current coffee table is about half the size of it. It was a good thing I brought Billy with me because there was absolutely no way I could have carried it down those stairs by myself. We were barely able to maneuver on the landings in between floors. I figured after 2 hours worth of travel, purchasing and transporting time I didn't have to complete something else today. I am so excited to see if it will be worth all our work.

I plan on sanding, repainting, and distressing our new piece of furniture at some point within the next few weeks. I'm not sure when I'm going to find the time with guests coming in but I am bound and determined to get it done before I go back to home to visit in September.

Until tomorrow,
Meg

Quick Fruit Cobbler

Today's project was simple and easy to think of. Our Sunday was packed with plans so I wanted to make something uncomplicated. We had church in the morning, then a softball game this afternoon (I ended up going home while Billy played because my back has been giving me problems, ugh) and then dinner tonight. We were invited last week to BBQ with some new friends today and I offered to bring a dessert (my favorite thing to make for people is dessert). I quickly thought back to a recipe in my Bisquick cookbook that my Granny gave me at my wedding shower. There was a Quick Fruit Cobbler recipe that I had wanted to try for some time now.

Quick Fruit Cobbler
(Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the supplies)

1 21 oz can of fruit pie filling (I used cherry)
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp sugar ( It only calls for two but I didn't think it tasted sweet enough)
2 tbsp butter or margarine, softened (or in my case Smart Balance)

Spread pie filling on ungreased casserole dish or glass pie pan.
Place in cold oven and let heat to 400° for 10 minutes.
Remove pan from oven.
While filling and oven are heating stir the remaining ingredients until it forms a dough.
Place the dough on top of the warmed filling. I kinda spread mine out a bit and place it on top. The recipe suggest dropping balls of dough on top.
Sprinkle the top with sugar.
Bake 18-20 minutes until the top has started to brown.

It didn't turn out how I expected but it was still good and I got compliments on it. Next time I'm going to try Paula Dean's Lady and Sons Cobbler (Thanks Alicia!). I thought about it earlier but I didn't want to waste what little free time I had going out to pick up self rising flour.

Tonight ended up being a lot of fun. Our new friends were so nice and told us to bring our dog along so lucky Wyatt wasn't stuck at home. This allowed us to really make the most of our day because I wasn't worrying about getting back to him. We ate BBQ and played Apples to Apples, Disney Scene It(Which I am the queen of by the way!), and What's yours like. I also was talked into a round of Lightening Reaction. If you haven't seen this game before you should be warned that if you lose it will literally shock you! I couldn't believe it. Here's the only website I found that REALLY describes it well.

Overall today was a success. Now I have to think of something for Monday...

Until Tomorrow,
Meg

Rosette's

It's day two and my blog is already in quasi-crisis. First of all I am suffering from (sigh) creative block. On any given day there are a bajillion projects on my mind but the second I decide to commit I am stumped. The only thing that came to mind all day was attempting to create baby shower invites for a friend, however she forgot to give me her list before she left last week so that will have to wait to a later date. I could have purchased initial supplies, yes, but given that I live on an island and have extremely limited supply resources there is no guarantee that I'll be able to pick up more if need be. Also, somehow no one ever knows when and if they'll be getting more in ever. That just won't do.

This leads to my second dilemma. I look around my house and realize I have next to no supplies. Money is tight at the moment so I cannot talk myself into going and purchasing such a non-necessity. Not until next week at least. Quickly I skim through a few of my favorite blogs and start to search my home. During my search I realize I gave away the one skirt I thought I could re purpose. Well boo. Luckily I did have some fabric stored in the closet and a sad looking pillow I can add some accents flowers to. I open the closet with my supplies and am quickly reminded that Billy used my sewing stuff to create a bean bag toss game with his buddies. This means all of my things are jumbled up. It's almost 9 already, fabulous, the search begins. I quickly find my fabric but my sewing materials are definitely in disarray. After an unsuccessful "Where's my stuff" conversation and quite a bit of frantic searching I eventually find my things, or at least the ones I need at the moment.

At 11 p.m. I finally completed and attached my rosette's. I'll walk you through what I did.

First of all I scoped out Make It and Love It and found this tutorial.



To make the rosette's I assembled the supplies above.

Matching Fabric
Measuring tape
Matching thread
Needle
Glue gun
Scissors
(Awkward and plain pillow to come later)






Next I measured six inches out of the fabric and folded the fabric over in six inch increments. (To make cutting easier on myself)





I cut my first strip 3 inches wide and the length of the fabric I had
(I made two more rosettes later from a smaller shorter strips)



Then I wrapped, twisted, & lightly glued the rosette as listed in this entry. I didn't even attempt to photograph the darned process. I had enough trouble twisting and getting the thing to stick together the way I wanted it as it was. Which brings me to (cringe) admitting I used glue on the darned thing. I figured:
a) It was a throw pillow that never sees any wear
b) I would use the adhesive as sparingly as possible and
c)It was too late to over complicate it by adding some extra stitching, pinning, etc.





Next bring on the awkward pillow. (A little back story: This was the first thing I made on the sewing machine I received for Christmas. I was still figuring out how to get it to stitch right. I strategically place it in the back of the other pillows on my bed.)





After I completed a few of those babies I hand stitched them onto the pillow. Poor pillow has turned into a complete tester pillow. I suppose I'll let it keep it's spot behind the other pillows with the rosettes peeking out over the top. They did turn out okay after all.

Whew. It's a good thing I already have tomorrow's activity planned out. I guess technically it is tomorrow now being that it's 12:03. 7a.m. is gonna come nice and early...

Until tomorrow,
Meg