Doesn't match your decor? Paint it!

I recently bought these candlesticks at Big Lots and I loved the shape, but they didn't match any of my living room decor. So naturally, I decided to paint them. 

                      BEFORE

                     AFTER

I wanted to go for a mismatched, shabby chic look so I decided to use two of my favorite painting techniques: distressing and dry brushing. 

I made the white candlestick by distressing. First I coated the edges that I wanted to distress with candle wax. Then I spray painted it with two coats of Rust-Oleum Universal Satin Paint & Primer in One in White. 

After the paint was fully dry, I sanded the candlestick with an 80 grit sanding sponge to distress the edges. 

I used a dry-brushing technique to make the yellow candlestick. First I coated it with the same white primer as above. Then I painted it with a sample of Behr Premium Plus interior flat paint in the color Pineapple Soda. Once the yellow paint had dried, I added some dimension by brushing on some of my leftover Benjamin Moore Aura paint in the color White Dove. 

I used this 3/4" stencil brush for the dry brushing. I bought a set of these at the Home Depot in the paint section. 

Dry brushing is exactly what it sounds like. You put a small amount of paint on the brush, dab as much of the paint as you can off on a rag so that it is almost "dry" and then flick the brush back and forth over the surface of the object you're painting. This should give you a sheer coat of paint and should allow you to see the textured brush strokes.

I hope you enjoyed this post and that you'll try out one of these techniques!

From old dresser to TV cabinet

I am so excited to share my first furniture transformation on this blog!

I started with this dresser that I have had for years. It used to be part of my old bedroom set but I no longer have room for such a bulky horizontal piece in the bedroom and it doesn't match my bedroom decor anymore.

I no longer had any need for a dresser, but I was in desperate need of a tv cabinet. And so, the transformation began!

I started with this old dusty brown dresser....

And I created this beautiful grey antique-style tv cabinet. 

Keep reading to find out how I did it....

I refinished this dresser using an awesome all-in-one painting product: Rust-Oleum Furniture Transformations.

This is an all-in one kit that includes all of the products you need in one little box. The kit includes a deglosser and scrub pad, bond coat, optional decorative glaze and cheesecloth for application, and a protective top coat. This is especially great for a beginner because it saves you from having to make the investment to buy all of these products separately.

These kits come in a pretty good range of colors. And you're not just limited by the colors on the top of the box. There is a more extensive selection of colors that they can mix for you at the Home Depot from the Rust-Oleum cabinet transformations collection.
My store had a book of swatches of all of the available colors.





For this project, I wanted a medium grey so I chose the color Castle. I bought just one kit but I would not recommend doing a project any bigger than this with one kit because on the second bond coat I was literally scraping the bottom of the can to try finish the whole piece. I also cut it extremely close with the glaze.

All I had to do to repaint my dresser was to follow the instructions on the kit. Its that simple.
You can find a great instructional video here

My favorite product in this kit was the decorative glaze. Applying the glaze drastically changed the appearance of the painted furniture. After I painted it the flat color it looked ok, but once I applied the glaze over top it looked like a beautiful antique piece. I used the standard brush on and wipe off technique in the above video and I was really happy with the result.

Here's the flat light grey bond coat before I applied the decorative glaze. See the difference between the color here and the finished product?

Using the Rust-Oleum transformation kit definitely simplified this project, but this still was a very time consuming project. To do all of the different steps and wait for the dry times of all the separate coats, this took me about a week. But all of my hard work paid off in the end. I love the way it turned out and now it matches perfectly with my grey and yellow living room decor! 

Faux Chalkboard Label Spice Jars

Since I am always cooking different dishes in my kitchen I need a lot of spices. And I mean A LOT. I am kind of a spice collector.

When I got married last summer, I got a really nice spice rack from our registry with 20 different spices on it. This was the biggest spice rack that I could find, and yet it still had only the really basic cooking spices. Where were my staple mexican and indian spices? Luckily, I had my own stash of spices that I had accumulated from my college cooking days. My only dilemma was how to organize them all?
 

I don't want another spice rack on the countertop because I didn't want to add more clutter to that valuable prep space and I knew I wouldn't be able to find anything to match this one. I had also seen some hanging spice racks and spice shelves to go inside the kitchen cabinet but they all just looked messy to me. I finally decided that I would get a spice tray for the drawer to go under my countertop spice rack since the labels would be easy to read at a glance and they would be easily accessible. No need to peer up into a high cabinet, rotate a carousel to read all the labels, or search behind bottes that are stacked up in front of one another.

I am not a big fan of how the red plastic McCormick bottles look in the drawer and since they were round I know they would be rolling all around. So I decided to decant the spices in pretty square glass jars. I also wanted to mirror the style of my countertop spice rack with the black labels and white writing and since chalkboard labels are in style now, I decided to go with a round chalkboard label.

Here's what I came up with:

Excuse the really crappy beat up cabinets in our rental house.
Aren't the chalkboard labels cute? I love how you can see the beautiful spices on display in the clear glass jars.
Since I couldn't fit all of my extra spices on the rack, I just put my most frequently used spices in the glass jars and put the smaller bottles and less frequented spices on the side. They actually all fit in the drawer perfectly and they are all easy to see and read.

If you want to find out the details on where I bought all of the materials and how to make the spice rack keep reading....

First I bought this plastic tray from The Container Store:

http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/spiceStorage?productId=10024293&N=70879

The spice tray is actually pictured with square glass spice bottles, but they don't sell anything similar on the site so I went to good ol' amazon. I bought 12 to fill up the spice tray.

http://www.amazon.com/RSVP-Square-Glass-Spice-6-Pack/dp/B00BIPW2PW/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&qid=1365540934&sr=8-45&keywords=rsvp+spice+jars

To make the labels, I bought these large chalkboard label stickers since I could not find any small round chalkboard spice labels to fit my bottles.

You can find these in the Martha Stewart Collection at Staples











I then used a circle shape puncher to punch out round labels to fit the front of my jars.

You can find these shape punchers at any craft store. I think I bought this one at Michaels.






Once I had my round sticker label, I adhered it to the front of the glass spice jar and decanted the spices from their plastic McCormick bottles to the glass spice jars.

I had originally planned to use chalk to write the names of the spices on the front of the jars, but not only was it really difficult to write the tiny letters (even with a sharpened piece of chalk), but the labels rubbed off really easily and I was afraid I would accidentally erase the label and not recognize what kind of spice was in the jar.

So instead of using chalk, I decided to use an extra fine point white Sharpie paint pen to write all the names of the spices on the front of the jars. I got this one at Michaels.

This worked liked a charm. This way I got the look of the chalkboard labels without having to worry about the mess. And if I decide to change the label on one of the jars later on the package of sticker I bought was big enough that I can make extra labels.

And voila! That's it!
Easy project for a beautiful, organized spice drawer.

Tenderizing and Flavorful Steak Marinade

Needed to do a quick post on this steak recipe that I made today:

Flank Steak Roll with Spinach and Garlic 

Doesn't this look amazing? I found this recipe on the clean eating website and since spinach is one of the few vegetables that my husband really likes, I couldn't resist trying a steak recipe that I could sneak a little greens into. The best part about this is that its a fancy/pretty steak recipe that doesn't use an expensive cut of meat so this would be a perfect for entertaining without putting a big dent in your wallet.

You can find the full recipe along with a helpful picture slideshow here

Since the recipe uses flank steak which is naturally a tougher and chewier cut, I made a slight but crucial alternation to the recipe by first tenderizing, dry rubbing and then marinating the steak overnight.

Note: I may have ruined the whole concept of a "clean eating" recipe by adding the marinade, but the flavor payoff was soooo worth it.

I first cut then steak in half horizontally like the recipe indicates and then tenderized the meat by pounding it with the sharp side of my heavy duty meat mallet.

I then dry rubbed the meat with Lawry's garlic salt and black pepper. These two ingredients are my mother-in-law's secret weapons for cooking. They make everything taste good. The most important ingredient is the garlic salt. I've tried other brands before but Lawry's has the best flavor.

Last I whipped up this marinade and put it in a large ziploc bag with the steak to soak overnight. The resulting flavor was DIVINE.

Here's the marinade recipe: 

2 tbs soy sauce 

2 tbs worchestchire sauce 

2 tbs olive oil 

juice of 1 meyer lemon 

1 tbs white wine vinegar 

1 tbs honey 

Treat Yourself to a Cup of Heaven...Better than Starbucks Mocha & Cappuccino Recipe

Think good coffee is only for people who can afford those fancy, high-tech, super-expensive espresso machines?  Think again. Here's a recipe for a mocha and cappuccino that my husband says is better than Starbucks (and him and his family are Starbucks worshipers). The best thing about it is that its easy and affordable to make at home. All you need is a stove-top espresso maker and a hand milk frother that probably cost less than most of your standard coffee makers and definitely cost less than that Keurig of yours. I first heard of this espresso maker from my parent's friend from Sicily (and Italian's know what they're talking about when it comes to cappuccino!)

Here comes the detailed picture tutorial.....

Materials needed: 

• Bialetti Moka Cappuccino and Latte Set
  (I originally purchased the set on amazon here  for ~$75 but it looks like the set is out of stock and may have been discontinued) But you can always get the espresso maker here and I found a similar milk frother here 
• Illy Ground Espresso Coffee (recommend by our Italian friend - this stuff is the best. My husband and I love Dark Roast, strong coffee)

Making the Espresso 

Unscrew the top espresso chamber and remove the filter funnel. Then fill the bottom chamber with water to the fill line.

Next replace the filter funnel

Then loosely fill the filter funnel to the top with the espresso.
***Do not pack it down***

 Then tightly screw the top espresso chamber onto the water chamber (don't use the handle for leverage) and heat on the stovetop over medium high heat. I have a gas stovetop so I make sure that the flames don't go past the sides of the container.

What's going to happen is water is going to boil up from the bottom water chamber, through the ground coffee, and the brewed espresso will collect in the top chamber.

Now wait for it to heat up and listen until you can hear the espresso boiling. You should also see steam coming from the spout. This is how you know its done and the espresso has all been collected into the top chamber.

Note: If you want to check under the lid to make sure its done and all of the espresso has been brewed to the top, make sure you remove the espresso maker from the heat first and let it cool down a little or it will gurgle and splatter all over the stove from the center brew spout.

When mine is filled to about 1/2-1/4 in below the outer pouring spout that's when its done and no more espresso is going to boil up to the top.

Nest while you are waiting for the espresso to brew, you want to get your milk ready. I use 1% milk.  These are the cups I use to make the cappuccino and this recipe will make two cappuccinos of this size so I measure out a full cup of the milk (the final mixture will be 1/2 espresso and 1/2 milk)

You can find these cups here

Now pour the milk into your milk frother and heat uncovered on the stove over low heat. It will take a few minutes for your espresso to brew so you don't want to overheat and boil the milk. You want it to be as hot as possible without boiling. 

Note: If you do accidentally boil your milk or heat it to the point that it starts to bubble on the top (like I did today) make sure that you remove the thin layer of film that will accumulate on the surface of your milk. Otherwise you will get gross filmy chunks in your cappuccino.  

Once your espresso is done brewing you're ready to make your drink.

Cappuccino Recipe: 

Add a spoonful of raw sugar to your coffee cup.
Then fill the cup 1/2 full with espresso and stir to dissolve sugar.

Froth your milk by removing the milk canister from the stovetop, placing it on a flat surface, covering with the filter lid, and pumping the handle up and down vigorously for 10 seconds.

*Picture taken on the stove after I had already frothed the milk.
Yum! Frothy milk!

Fill up your cup the rest of the way with the foamed milk.  If you want your coffee a little bit more creamy it works best is you pour some of the liquid milk and scoop the foamy milk on the top.

Then sprinkle with some cinnamon and you're done! Delicious homemade cappuccino.

Mocha Recipe: 

The only difference between the mocha and the cappuccino is the sweetener and the topping. 

Drizzle the sides of your cup with chocolate syrup. Technically you're supposed to use fancy chocolate syrup in a mocha but nesquick is fine for me. Then fill half full with espresso and stir to dissolve the syrup. 

Fill your cup the rest of the way with the foamy milk and sprinkle with unsweetened cocoa powder. 

If you want to be really naughty, you can top it with whipped cream instead of the foamed milk.

And that's it! Simple and delicious! 

ENJOY!

Fitness Plan and Metabolism Boosting Smoothie Recipe

Today I went running for the first time since....probably almost a year. I want to get back into a fitness regimen and I am thinking about training for a 5K later on in the year so I am starting out with one of my favorite running exercises: interval training.
Not only does interval training keep you motivated and engaged in your run its also a quicker and more effective workout than running at the same pace for more mileage.

Here's the workout I did today.....or at least did as much as I could of it. It's my first day so I'll work up to be able to do the whole thing consecutively with full exertion. And that's the beauty of intervals I'll be constantly challenging myself. :-)

Total time: 35 min

Warm up for 5 min 

Now Alternate between speed bursts at the fastest pace you can maintain and an easy recovery pace
Speed burst          Easy Pace Recovery 
4 min                     4 min
3 min                     3 min
2 min                     2 min
1 min                     1 min

Now alternate between short all-out sprints and an easy recovery pace
Sprint                   Easy Pace Recovery  
30 sec                    1 min
30 sec                    1 min
30 sec                    1 min
30 sec                    l min

Cool down for 4 min 

Tip: Since the highest intensity intervals are at the end of the workout, if you run out of energy set a peppy pace or take running strides instead of attempting your max sprint

*workout plan cred: Fitnessmagazine.com

After my workout I tried a new metabolism boosting smoothing recipe.
This website has smoothie recipes for everything:
http://www.superskinnyme.com/smoothie-recipes.html/2

Green Tea Metabolism Boosting Smoothie 
Ok so before I list all of my ingredients first I have to make a disclaimer
*I am ashamed to admit that I used a powdered green tea mix for the base of this drink*
I know that powdered drink mixes are not exactly healthy because they have a lot of extra additives butttttt I bought these flavored green tea packets a little while ago on an impulse so I have to finish them before I go out buying any more tea.
To get the most health benefit from your smoothie I would recommend brewing green tea bags beforehand and then chilling before adding to the smoothie.

So now that I've gotten that out of the way, here's the recipe:

1 cup frozen mango chunks
1/2 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup of iced green tea
1 cup ice (about 6 cubes)

First I mixed up one of these iced tea packets with 16 oz cold filtered water. Then I just measured out 1/2 cup of the green tea mixture to add to the smoothie. You can drink the leftover later or save it for another smoothie.

Originally this recipe called for 1/2 tbs honey but I figured the powered tea was already sweet enough. 

Now just add the frozen mango chunks, vanilla yogurt, and ice to your smoothie cup. Simple. 

Note: if you have never tried frozen mango chunks before you need to go out and get some. These things are delicious even if you just eat them as a snack from the bag and they are actually naturally really sweet so they're great for curbing a sugar craving. Also the texture of frozen mango is DIVINE and they're great for smoothies and even for making homemade sorbet.  

Here's all of the delicious ingredient in my smoothie cup (I made a half recipe). By the way, if you love smoothies you should totally get a Magic Bullet. I bought a Magic Bullet before I went to college because I liked that it was compact and designed for single servings and I have never wanted to go back to a traditional blender. It really does pulverize ice in just a couple of seconds. AND cleaning up is super easy since it blends your smoothie right into a dishwasher-safe cup and the blade twists right off. No more having to take up your whole sink soaking your massive blender container. 

Creamy delicious blended green tea mango smoothie.
ENJOY!

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Don't like mushy oatmeal? Then this recipe is for you.
This was my go-to breakfast when I was in college. It's healthy, the ingredients are basic and easy to find year-round, and it can be whipped together pretty quickly. This is a great breakfast option because its all natural and doesn't contain any processed ingredients or added sugars, unlike many boxed cereals and pre-made microwavable oatmeal packets.

What you need: 
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
~ 1/2 coffee mug low-fat milk
1/2 Apple sliced (I used golden delicious)
Craisins
Golden Raisins
Walnuts
Brown Sugar (optional)
Flaxseeds

The trick here is to NEVER put the oatmeal in the microwave. The last thing you want is mushy oatmeal and apples ick!

Heat your milk in the microwave until boiling. The heating time will vary on different microwaves but mine takes about 2 min.

While your milk is heating, put the dry oatmeal in a bowl with the sliced apple, a dash of craisins, a dash of golden raisins, a few walnuts crumbled, and a dash of brown sugar if desired.
For added nutritional value, I also like to add flaxseeds.

Now add your boiling hot milk to your oatmeal mixture. You should have enough to just cover the oatmeal in the bowl. You don't want to drown it. (Unless that's how you like it of course).
Tip: If you have any milk leftover, I like to use the same mug for my morning coffee. I like my coffee with skim milk and raw sugar and this saves milk and dishes!

Let the mixture sit in the boiling milk for about 2-5 min before eating. This should soften up the oats so they're not quite so tough and dissolve the sugar.

And voila! Ready to eat. I love how the raw apples and the walnuts give this oatmeal a delicious crunchy texture. Its almost like a homemade cereal.