The Never-ending Battle

I would like you to meet one of my nemesis... don't judge, I'm sure you have a nemesis too:

Yes, my dishwasher is my nemesis (I blurred its face to protect the innocent, and the fact that you can see me taking the picture). I am working on having a thankful heart for my loud, old, craptastic dishwasher... it could be worse, I could be the dishwasher. As hard as I am trying to be thankful for this ancient lovely dishwasher, it's hard when every single thing I pull out of it seems to be cloudy and spotty and well, gross-looking. Since we moved into this house I have tried three different soaps thinking I could remedy the problem, nothing has helped... and then I saw this:

WHAT?? Could Pinterest save the day?? Apparently I wasn't the only one with the cursed hard water issue because over at Simply Designing it appeared a possible miracle cleaner had been found! HAPPY DAY! I was off to Walmart to buy the needed goods.

Here's what I picked up minus the Lemi-Shine, I accidently threw away the container, but it looks like this --

Basically I mixed:
2 C Borax (which ps, appears to be a wonder cleaner if you read the box, who knew??)
2 C Washing Soda
1.5 C Lemi-Shine
1 C Kosher Salt (weird, I know)

I mixed the whole mess up in a big bowl and stirred it every hour or so for about 5 hours (to avoid it becoming a large rock) and then dumped it into this handy jar:

and now......

for the results!

Ta-da!!! 

Clean silverware! Do you see that?? I know you aren't as excited as I was, but you didn't see it before that... wait, I'll show you the difference, then you'll feel the Ta-Da!

See? It's like I have a new spoon. I am a happy girl. 

Now, before you get as giddy as I am, let me tell you some of my thoughts on this Miracle Dishwasher Potion. If you are not a pre-rinser when it comes to the dishwasher, this isn't for you. I personally, hate it, but my wonderful husband puts the dishes in the dishwasher most nights and he is a pre-washer. I could immediately tell which ones he had pre-washed and what I had sort of chucked in there (ask him, he'll tell you, I have no method to loading a dishwasher). Second thing is this, I used about a heaping tablespoon of the Miracle Potion instead of the teaspoon, that was mentioned in the "recipe." A teaspoon did nada, it didn't even clean one fork, so I upped the amount. But regardless of the amount I used, I have clean dishes, without clouds and spots so I am now a fan of the Miracle Dishwasher Potion (that is completely my name for it, by the way and it will soon be scribed on that handy jar).

Happy Cleaning :)

P.S. ~ Try some white vinegar in the rinse aid spot and it will make your dishes even MORE sparkly!

Killer of Plants. Lover of Bread.

I, Miranda, am a killer of plants.  And herbs.  And vegetables.

This is my shame.

My mother in law brought us several planters with basil, parsley, thyme and rosemary - which I was really excited about getting.  We cook a lot, and there is nothing better than cooking with fresh herbs.  (Except maybe new shoes.  New shoes trump pretty much everything.)  I tried to keep them alive, and did pretty well for awhile - but after 99 degree weather, non stop sunshine, a trip to the beach and some forgetful moments I am sad to say that most of my herbs are now brown.  And dead.

This weekend after a visit, my mother in law loaded us up with some more fresh rosemary.  I wanted to put it to good use before it died so I searched Pinterest for a good recipe idea.

Rosemary focaccia bread?  Twist my arm.  I wanted this bread.  Bad.  I wanted it so bad, I planned an entire meal around it.  (Nothing exciting.  Buitoni pasta and salad mix.  Hey, when you make homemade focaccia, you can take the easy way out for the rest of the meal.)

We go crazy for fresh rosemary around here.  No, really we do.  See?

That guy in the corner of the picture is my husband.  He graciously allows me to take a hundred pictures of random things like rosemary and salt for my blog.  He doesn't even call me weird or tell me I'm wasting time.  He just adds to the beauty of my photograph with his lovely mug.  Isn't that sweet?

Anyway, my point is - go get the ingredients for this bread.  Now.  Don't walk.  Run.  Push down small children if you have to.  Trust me, it's worth it...

Rosemary Focaccia Bread by way of Our Best Bites

1 c. warm water

1 Tbsp. yeast

1 Tbsp. white sugar

1 tsp. Kosher salt, plus more for sprinkling

2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

2 Tbsp rosemary (do yourself a favor...use FRESH)
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp garlic powder

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine warm water, yeast, and sugar. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until bubbly. While the yeast is getting bubbly, combine 2 C of the flour, salt, 1 1/2 Tbsp. rosemary, oregano and garlic powder.

(Here's a hint...check the temperature of the water with a thermometer.  Seriously, yeast is picky stuff.  It doesn't like water that's too cold, or too hot.  It should be between 105-115 degrees F. )

Add flour mixture to yeast mixture along with 1 Tbsp. olive oil. Mix well. (I put it in my stand mixer with the dough hook on). Slowly add remaining flour to make a very soft dough–try and resist the urge to add too much flour.  You want a soft, wet dough.  (It will feel sticky,.  Don't freak out, that's ok)

Cover and allow to rise 45 min- 1 hour or until double in size.

Lightly flour your work surface and transfer dough onto this surface. Divide in half. Shape each half into a rounded loaf and place on a greased cookie sheet or pizza stone. Cover and allow to rise another 45 minutes.  The loaves will each be fairly small.  You will wonder how to get away with eating them both, by yourself.  (Perhaps it's time to employ the earlier technique of pushing small children out of the way...)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Use remaining tablespoon of olive oil to brush over tops of loaves, discarding excess if you have any.  Sprinkle with remaining rosemary and some Kosher salt.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until very lightly golden brown.  

The result?

Heck, even Mr. Picky Pants himself ate a slice.  Perfection.

Hit or Miss Monday

Welcome back to Hit or Miss Monday!

I'm letting Jamie go first again this week, since she's in Maryland sans power for the last 24+ hours.  Last I spoke with her, she was sitting in an 85 degree house playing Yahtzee with her husband by candelight...

This first one?  It's pretty self explanatory...

And this one?

#1 - Why?

#2 - Who thinks of this?

#3 - Whoever you are, I'm pulling your Jeep owner card

 - you give the rest of us a bad name.

And now, it's MY turn.  

Confession time: We totally did this as kids.  A LOT.  What can I say, we knew how to make our own fun.  I cannot imagine my 10 year old and his friends sitting around a fan and talking into it for a good time.

Ok, seriously this grosses me out more than I can even explain.  I do NOT want to go to town scraping some chick's face onto my cracker and chomping down.  SICK.

So what are your hits and misses this week?

- and everyone who was/is in the path of Irene - stay safe.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you.  And for my sake, I hope Jamie gets her power back soon.  I need my gchat buddy back.

Office Art... Pass the Mod Podge

I heart Mod Podge. Before you tell me its basically glue, I know, but I still love it. I don't know if its the bright label, the fun name or the childhood art class nightmares memories, but it holds a special place in my heart. It could have been for that reason that my heart skipped a beat when I saw this little project from bluecricketdesign.

Now this is not my first rodeo with covering something in old book pages. You may have noticed in previous posts that my kitchen desk/table/work area/Macie feeding station is covered in an old book. In case you have been ignoring my prior posts, I'l forgive you and show you my favorite part of my desk.

I know the words are a little small, but its a creepy pic of some lady and then underneath it says 

                   "Aunt Charlotte died suddenly, many people believed ________ killed her."  

WHAT?? Who killed Aunt Charlotte?? I hadn't even noticed that I destroyed the sentence with a stylish tear until months later when I was reading my desk to avoid paying bills.  

Okay, enough about Aunt Charlotte's mysterious death and back to the new project at hand. I read over the instructions and gathered my supplies... and then changed pretty much everything that was suggested, but I'm jumping ahead. Let's get to the easy part first.

I used the guts of the book that I had used for my nook cover, and tore them into big chunks and then went to town with my beloved Mod Podge on the canvas. I skipped the dainty brushing and just slathered the whole canvas with MP and then stuck the pages on the canvas and covered it again with MP (this time, be a little dainty).

Now we wait, as it dries.... and wait... oh and do the occasional touch up if any pages lift.... and then wait some more. No, I didn't actually stand there and watch this dry, I do have some other things to do (and its best to leave it overnight).

I know the original post is a pic of some cute birds, but these canvases were going to go in my office and I don't really want cute birds in there, so I changed it. I decided to use a pic of an old typewriter, some books and of course, a mug of coffee. I could never leave coffee out. 

This is where the initial post went awry. I was supposed to just trace the templates with pencil. Big fat fail. I don't know if she had magic pencils, but my pencils would not write on the canvas - trust me, I tried and tried. After my fail with the pencil, I traced everything with a thin sharpie. It gave me a little bit of a heart attack that I wouldn't be able to erase any mistakes, but paint covers a multitude of sins! This leads me to my next change - but first look at my tracing work:

What?? You can't see it in my amazing Where's Waldo picture? Look closer:

Now can you see it? Yeah, I know it's hard to see. 

Back to the paint. The pin I was using said something about coloring in with a marker and I wasn't sure how that would go for me and since I had some black paint (that covers bad tracing so nicely) I went to town with the painting. Have I mentioned that painting is super relaxing? Well it is. Try it. And...

Done!

I had to restrain myself from trying to hang them while they were still wet because I am super impatient, but I did it and hung them up and LOVE them. 

I think they add a little something to the office, which is seriously a work in progress. 

PS - Please imagine this wall in a lovely caramel or light teal color since I can't paint it right now.

Thanks!

Chalk it up!

"What's for dinner?"

Anyone else get tired of this question?  Honestly, in my house I don't REALLY get bombarded with this question, but I do have our menu planned out a week in advance (generally...) and it's nice for me to see it written out and displayed so I can easily remember what's going on this week.

I saw a bunch of chalkboard ideas floating around Pinterest and this one in particular caught my eye first:

I spent a LOT of time trying to find the right size board to make this.  Finally I gave up and repurposed something already hanging in my house.

This has been in our living room for the past year - we accidentally hung it too high so it's really pretty useless.  I can't use it as a mirror because I'm not tall enough and we don't keep our keys in the living room so it has been doing nothing of value.  I knew this would be the perfect thing to put to use for my chalkboard menu.

I decided I wanted to do a distressed wood look for the frame.  This part is fun - it's all about sloppy and haphazard.  I sanded down the original frame lightly so that the paint would stick to it well.  Then I used a really stiff brush to paint a thin coat of blue all over the frame like this:

See how you can still see the original brown wood underneath?  That's ok!

Then I went to town with my chalkboard spray paint - and sprayed several thin layers all over the mirror.  Some of it went on the wood, but who cares!  I'm going to sand it down and paint another layer on it anyway!  

(Here is where I got a TEEEENSY bit nervous that the chalkboard paint wouldn't completely cover the reflective surface of the mirror.  Not to worry though, another coat and it was totally fine!)

Once that was dry, I went over the frame with a thin paint of white - using the same kind of stiff brush.  And then I hacked away at it with sandpaper, making sure to sand down sides and corners and things that might wear away over time naturally on wood.

When I was happy with the frame, I added the spots for my days and menu items, and screwed the little hooks back in the bottom.

What do you think??  I love it!  And I'm excited that it leaves me a big blank spot on my living room wall to decorate with more Pinterest projects!

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The Amazing Grocery Pad

Have you ever gone grocery shopping with a baby? It's not easy, as a matter of fact, its exhausting. It should be an olympic sport - who can get into the store, get everything on the list, pick the best check out line and get into the car BEFORE the baby has a meltdown. I say it should be a sport, but I wouldn't be able to compete - pretty much because I am NEVER successful.... though I was almost successful once, it was a glorious day.

Let me back up slightly, the day before this trip I had been looking over my google reader and was immediately giddy with a new post from the letter 4.

**I need to confess that I have, as Miranda would say, a complete blog crush on this site. It's blog written by four sisters, all with names that start with the letter J. I would ask to be adopted but they already have a Jamie, story of my life! Oh well.**

On this particular post there happened to be a printable for a grocery list. I pinned that sucker ASAP - see??

I thought that this could be the answer to my disorganized grocery prayers. The list breaks everything into categories, so if you need apples, just write that down in the produce box that's already there for you! I love things that organize my scattered brain!

 It also made me think of something else I had seen on Pinterest that I hadn't bothered to pin. I have now learned a valuable lesson, always, always, ALWAYS (did you hear me??) pin something when you see it, even if you may never use it again. You will never, never, NEVER find it again when you want it. That's right boys and girls, I never found it, but I did find this:

It was a similar pin to the one I was searching for, from the letter 4 by way of henryhappened  about making a pad AND it using my beloved grocery pad as the example! So off I went and sort of created a list from this pin and the one that is lost in the depths of Pinterest. 

I won't bore you with every little detail of this because it could get long, but let me tell you a couple hints. 

Go over and print a list from the letter 4 - print a whole stack and take them to an office supply store. I got mine cut for $1.50 and they are perfectly straight and even. I don't think I could say that if I had cut them all myself, but you go ahead and try it if you don't believe me and let me know how it goes. 

 Here is my other tip for you - when I was glueing all the paper to my amazing cereal box backing, I clipped it all together with binder clips that I had laying around. It made everything a little tighter and held the paper together as I was glueing.




I put at least five good swipes of hot glue on the pad for good measure (but I'm sure three would have been just fine). After the pad was all finished, I glued

a magnet to the back of the pad so it can hang on the fridge. Yes, I took a picture of it and no, I am not going to show it to you because I don't want you to see how badly I need to moisturize my hands!

My Amazing Grocery List Pad

Now back to how this made my grocery trip almost a success (I know you are dying to know). It could have been that everything was broken up so nicely on my list, I went whizzing through the store. Or maybe it was the fact that Macie could hold/eat the part of the list I was finished with and I was still able to read the part of the list I needed without her slobber all over it. I'd like to think it was the way the list was broken down though. 

I know, this all sounds successful to you, and it was. If only the list could've helped me pick the right check out line, then it would've been a complete success and not another day with me leaving the store juggling a cart and a crying child. 

Oh well, I can always try again next time. Happy shopping!