Versatile Wall Planter

I knew as soon I saw these planters on Pinterest I wanted to make them. We have a wonderful sun room in our house that makes a perfect home for plants.

To alleviate the anxious scrolling to the end of the page, here is what I made:

You could use this idea in many different spaces. In an office to hold pens, markers etc.. In a bathroom to hold toothbrush, q-tips and cotton balls, makeup brushes, hair ties. In the Kitchen to hold silverware, cooking utensils and spices. In the garage to hold tools, tape and nails. Imagine the possibilities...

Now for some instruction.

Choose your piece of wood. Decorate the wood as you like, I thought about doing black stripes or even just a nice wood stain. The metallic silver that we also used on our bedroom mirror won because I had it on hand.

Evenly place your clamps on the board and simply screw the to the board. Easy right? No. I tried to nail, screw, clip, bend, and break these clamps. It's virtually impossible. (If you have a drill, that may work. I would suggest using a screw to secure clamps if you can)  So this is where I get creative and do whatever it takes to get the job done. Even though it may not be the most structurally sound. Anyone have ideas here, please please please share!

I put 3 nails on either side of the clamp so the nail head would hold the clamp in place. To be on the safe side you may even want to use some heavy duty glue before nailing it on.

To secure mine even further I put a piece of magnet on top and nailed it in place. (This makes me laugh as I write it, something like a piece of wood or metal would work best here)

I planted a few plants in mason jars with some rocks at the bottom to provide some drainage, and tightened the clamps around them. The piece looks really good in the sun room and gives it a nice earthly feel.

I was anxious to get this project completed and after it's all said and done it's holding up quite nicely.

Have you made anything similar? Can you think of any other places this could be used?

Enjoy!

Salmon Tacos

This twist on traditional tacos is surprisingly delicious. So good in fact that I need to share it with the world. The pictures aren't that great, but one look at the ingredients and they will "have you at first glance".

Line a pan or dish with foil and place salmon in dish. Season with salt and pepper. Bake the salmon at 400 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. Lately I like my salmon on the "more cooked" rather than "less cooked" side.  So adjust the cook time to your preference.

While the salmon is cooking, I made homemade tacos shells. So while you can buy some pre-made from the store, this method is highly encouraged. The New Mexican in me really can't resist when it comes to the shells. One taste of a homemade shell and it will be hard to stray.

To cook the shells, fill a small frying pan with canola oil so that it sits about 1/3 inch from the bottom. Make sure it's very hot before you put in your corn tortillas. As a test you can stick a corner of a tortilla in the oil and if it bubbles profusely, then I'd say you're ready. But then, only then, is it ready. If you're getting lame little bubbles here and there, just wait. It is crucial that you get your oil hot enough.

Place the corn tortilla in the HOT oil and use two forks to flash fry on each side, then fold one side up to start the taco formation. When it gets a bit hard, flip and hold the other side up while maintaining taco formation (This should be a synchronized swimming routine name - don't ask me what it might look like). In my opinion is is better to cook longer than not long enough. If you don't cook them long enough they will be chewy. However, if you cook them too long they will break easily. It may take a couple rounds for you to get the hang of it. Try a minute or so on each side and then adjust depending on firmness or softness.

Next is the fabulously fresh topping mix. Combine chopped tomatoes, red
onions, cilantro, salt, pepper and lime.

When your salmon is finished you'll be ready to pile on and enjoy!

For the printable version, click here.

Mustache & Lips = Love

Sunday we celebrated Janine's bridal shower. Naturally, I wanted to make something homemade with the bride and groom in mind. Craig (groom) is into the whole mustache thing, so with a little inspiration from here and here I painted/drew my own mugs. I wanted to use one of those "paint pottery" places but realized I didn't have the time to get it painted and fired before the party. To my pleasant surprise I found about about Pebeo porcelain paint pens. You can find these at any major art store (i.e. Hobby Lobby) I read online to use the Porcelaine 150's because they are more opaque. The white one is a fine tip, the black are normal sized.

You can draw on your already fired and glazed mug ( I got mine from Target) and simply put it in the oven at 300 degrees for 35 minutes and wahla! The product says it's dishwasher safe, but to be on the safe side, I'd recommend hand washing.

The Pebeo pens were interesting to use. Can you see in the mustache how it kind of looks a bit textured? With just one layer of paint the color isn't as rich, so I wanted to do a second. Because I did the second layer before firing the first, the first layer seemed to scratch off a bit as I painted on top. Thus peeling off some of layer 1 and giving it that chunky look. Also, this stuff dries very quick, I ran into this "scratching" issue even on the first layer. I'm not sure how to completely avoid this issue but as I layered I tried to use light and heavy strokes. It worked okay.

One of the "accents" in Janines wedding is a fun Ampersand. You can see her incorporation here. Luckily I found the same font online and duplicated the design on one of the mugs. Not perfect, but it will serve it's purpose.

Here is the entire lineup.

To match the occasion I added little hearts on the handle.

For the gift setting I bought a few kitchen towels from her registry, made some tissue paper flowers, handmade card, and stuck them in a reusable basket.

I made a few others that you can see here. Have any of you ever used Pebeo pens? Did you have the same "scratching" issue I had?
 

Bachelorette Party (Part 2)

Wow. I really felt the bloggy love on that last post, I'm glad you all enjoyed it :) Here are a few more ideas and tips for a bachelorette party.

Decorations & Candy. I got this large plastic cup at Party City and I spruced it up with some jewels and more puff paint. For the font, I printed out what I wanted on the computer and then taped it to the inside so I could trace it. Turned out pretty well don't you think? Can anyone guess the font?

When we got to the condo I filled it with some lime green gumballs, black & silver sixlets, and of course some naughty straws.

Janine's friend Carrie also sent a super great naughty cake. I'll spare you the indecency, but here is what half of it looked like.

One night we dressed the theme. Loren & Janine made us all shirts that said "Bride's Entourage" and of course the bride had a "Bride-to-be" shirt. We also wore cute pink fanny packs in lieu of special story about the couple which you can read here.

We also had things like a "bachelorette" sash, a signature weekend drink (blueberry pomegranate martini's), necklaces, pins and other fun props. Many cities also have Pole Fitness classes that offer private classes. We took one in Savannah and it was great fun, highly recommended for a bachelorette.  Overall, a successful weekend and our bride is now officially ready for her big day! 

Bachelorette Party (Part 1)

This past weekend we visited Savannah, GA to celebrate my friend Janine's bachelorette party. Oh boy, it was a blast! Before we went I was on the hunt for ideas for the party and couldn't really find anything that I loved. So I wanted to share some of the things we did and help spread the - bachelorette party idea -love.

First and foremost I must shout out to the ladies that attended: (From the left: Yours truly, Loren (sister), Kristin (sister), Carrie (bff), Jen (bff) and the beautiful bride Janine)

Party Idea 1: Champagne. You can't go wrong with Champagne for a bachelorette party. I gave the bottles a personal touch by adding things like their wedding date 10.14.11, Mr & Mrs. Willis, Janine & Craig etc... Which can double as a keepsake if the bride so wishes.


First I scrubbed off the label of the wine bottles by soaking them in water and scrubbing with a brillo pad. Once dry, I carefully wrote with puff paint (any color) the words that I wanted. I let the puff paint dry and did another coat on top to make it extra "puffy".

 WARNING!!! DO NOT TAKE OFF THE METAL PROTECTOR. As you can see above, I took it off, which was a bad idea because shortly after this was taken, it exploded. Thus, I ended up like this:

Did I mention 2 of them popped?

After my little mishap, I took them out for a coat of chalkboard paint (I really love this stuff). For those that didn't pop, I wrapped the cork ( and metal protector ) with masking tape to protect it from paint.

After a couple of coats, this is how they turned out:

TIP: After traveling down to Savannah, they got a little scuffed up which was disappointing. If I were to do this again I would sand the glass a bit to scuff up the surface so the paint has something to stick to.

This seemed like a long post so I'm going to break it up in a series. Keep posted for the second part of this series for more Bachelorette Party Ideas!