Inspiration in the little things!

Looking for a more original way of displaying your family photos? Or maybe showing off all of your exotic summer adventures? Here's a few simple ideas that will really create interest in your home:

The picture above is simply your childhood square building blocks. I would suggest printing out the pictures on regular printing paper in the size to fit onto the square. You can print out the letter too, or simply find some cool letter stickers from any scrapbooking section in your local Target. Then you simply decoupage the pictures/letters onto the blocks and arrange them however you wish!

Mason Jar Picture Frames??

The answer is: Yes! Why not? Mason/canning jars are a great way to display your photos in a crafty and unique manner. I happened upon a bunch of Ball jars in my grandparents attic, cleaned them up and am actually using them in my bathroom for q-tips and cotton ball storage. However, if you aren't fortunate enough to have happened upon this kind of treasure passed down to you from a family member, do not fret. Brand new Ball jars can be found at Michael's for a reasonable price. If you're into the "aged" look, try garage sales. They're a great place to score some jars with character and you can definitely haggle on the price. Be careful though, some of these older Ball jars can range in price. In antique stores, they can go for $35+. I know, ridiculous right?

Syrup & Honey

Syrup and Honey: nature's sweetest substances. Used in great and complicated recipes or simply to sweeten your tea in the morning. I bring this up to remind you that it is nature's simple things that can make all the difference, in recipes or in life. It's a new year and a time to sweeten up your life!

So shall you start to feel that oh-too-familiar stress... I recommend:

Heat up a good cup of tea, run the bath and turn on "Syrup & Honey" by Duffy. Chill out, relax a little and smile.

I have some great ideas and great new recipes to share... just have find which one's I want to share with you first!

~Jules

A picture is worth a thousand words.

And will only cost you about $40. Above is the version my roommate and I did in our dining room.

This idea I found on http://hiphostess.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html and fell in love with the idea. I added in a few tips to help, but I forward this on to you:

Crib Creation
DIY.

The economy is in the tank and now you are spending a heck of a lot more time at home to save some cash. If you are going to be on a self-imposed house arrest, you might as well spruce up the place a bit. So today, we are going to do a little decorating DIY on a tiny budget.

In design, you can make bold impacts in many different ways - repetition, color, scale, etc. Today we're going to focus on scale. This is a sample of a piece of artwork that I created for my cosmopolitan crib, using a picture that I took of the street sign on our block:

All it takes is a little Microsoft Powerpoint know-how, a printer, and some foam core to make your own version. Here's how it's done:

1. Take a day to wander around your neighborhood or city, snapping detail shots of things that you love. It could be architecture, nature, furniture - whatever inspires you. **Note: most digital cameras have settings that allow you to choose higher resolution images. You will need to shoot the highest quality that you can.

2. Choose your favorite image.

3. Measure the portion of the wall that you want to work with so that you have a range of where you want the overall size to hit.

4. Using Microsoft Powerpoint, open up 2 different presentations.

5. Format the first presentation size so that it is the overall size that you want the picture to be (minus a couple of inches for the gaps between sections). Mine is 36"x36".

6. Insert the image into the large presentation. Resize it so that it fills the entire presentation area, you may have to crop the image a bit to make it fit eactly. (Go to “File” and select “page setup”. There should be a “customize” option where you will input the dimensions of your picture) Save.

7. Now, open the second presentation and format the size so that it equals the module of each section of the overall picture. Keep the module under whatever size sheet of paper you can print on your printer. In my case, I would do 9" x9" sections, because my Kinkos can print on 11x17 sheets of paper at no upcharge. (Follow the same process for the custom size as above)

8. Go to Presentation #1 and copy the image. Go to Presentation # 2 and paste the image. DO NOT RESIZE the image. You may have to adjust the zoom so that you can see the entire screen best.

9. Move the image so that the upper left corner of the image lines up with the upper left corner of the presentation frame. Crop everything that doesn't fit into this box out of the picture. (Right click on the picture and select “picture toolbox” and click on the icon that says “crop” when placing your curser over the icon)

10. Now open a duplicate slide. Shift the image to the left so that the upper right corner of the image lines up with the upper left corner of the frame (I made the frame gray so that you could best see this). Using your crop tool, uncrop the right side of the image by dragging it across to the right side of the frame. You then go back to the left side of the image and use the crop tool to drag it to the left side of the frame. This will leave you with the second horizontal section.

OR you can do your first slide, then click “insert” and “new slide” then repeat the process you did with the first slide, but move the image over x amount of inches, for example, if your doing 9x9 squares, you’d move it over 9 inches to the left.

11. Using this theory, repeat step #10 until you have a Powerpoint presentation that contains 1 slide for each section of your artwork. If you lose track of where you are in the overall picture, you can always refer back to Presentation #1 where you have it cropped and saved.

12. Print Presentation #2 or if you decided to do a larger size than will fit on regular 8 ½ x 11 paper, download the files onto a flash drive and take to Kinko’s or your local copy store and get it printed on glossy photo paper.

13. Mount these pages onto foam core using a glue spray. (Foam core and glue spray can be found at your local Michael’s or arts and craft store. Choose the foam core with about ½ inch in depth)

14. Cut the foam core sections.

15. Hang on your wall leaving between a 3/4" - 2" gap between each section. Keep the gap uniform throughout. You can use heavy duty double stick tape to hang foam core.

16. Voila! Decorating Drama on a Dime.

NOTES:

You can frame each section using record album frames. It isn't necessary if you are trying to keep to a strict budget, but it is an option.

When cutting the foam core, it is extremely important that you use a sharp blade. No need for a fancy cutting tool: just an Exacto knife, a metal straight edge, and a cutting board will suffice. Cut towards you, not away. You will have more control that way. Let the blade do the work for you - don't push down too hard. It should take 3 or 4 passes over a side to cut through. And you might need to change your blade once in between all of the cutting to keep it sufficiently sharp.

So a HUGE thank you to HipHostess for sharing such an easy and talented idea!

Jules

When life gives you apples, make apple pie.

"Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness." ~ Jane Austen

This weekend I was given 14 apples. What could anyone do with 14 apples?! And not just anyone... what was I supposed to do with 14 apples?!? I'm not exactly an "apple-a-day" person. So after thinking it over, I decided upon some apple pies :)

Here's a very simple apple pie recipe that takes about 45 mins prep time and 50 mins to bake.

Slice-of-Heaven Apple Pie

6-8 apples (6 c. thinly sliced)
1 c. sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

Dash of nutmeg

Dash of salt

1 premade frozen pie crust

1. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.

2. Peel apples and thinly slice them into separate bowl.

3. Alternate layers of apples, dry sugar/flour/spice mix, apples, etc. into a third bowl.

4. Thaw frozen pie crust for 10-15 minutes and after thawed, fill pie crust with apple mixture. Add all the mixture. It should be a heaping mound of apples, but don't worry because it will cook down.

5. Place pie on a cookie sheet with at least 1/2 inch edges since the pie will leak.


Crumble Topping

1/3 c. sugar
3/4 c. flour
6 Tbsp. butter

1.Mix sugar and flour.

2. Cut in butter and mix until crumbly and sprinkle over top of pie.

3. Bake pie at 400º F for 50 minutes.


I recommend serving with ice cream, but honestly, the pie is so delicious that it doesn't really need the ice cream.


Bon Appetit!


Jules

Jewelry boxes were so last year.

This project begins with a short story.

I was perusing Urban Outfitters.com, a common past time of mine, when I came across a picture frame with lace instead of a picture inside of it. Weird... but I started reading the description which read that it was "a jewelry hanger for earrings." I absolutely fell in love with the idea of it. until I glanced up at the price. Of course. Leave it to UO to charge $48.00 for a picture frame and lace. Seriously? So, naturally, my second thought was, "Well... it can't be that hard to make, right?" And I was exactly right, so I have outsmarted you UO! Oh yes, and thanks so much for the idea :)

My total spent: $4.50

Not only is it a cool piece of decor, it's also great for simply displaying your earrings. (Obviously, I know, but hear me out) I gaurantee that, if used properly, you will never be late to an event again due to looking for your earrings in that wadded mess of a jewelry box.

Steps:

1. Find a old picture frame. This can either be an old one lying around the house or a goodwill purchase. The size is up to you. Both mine and the UO one were 8'x10's. You will not need the glass or backing. I would not recommend buying a fancy frame or anything of that nature, we're going for cheap and diy here.

2. Pick out a color of paint that you like. I just used some left over paint my mom had from her bedroom. Again, we want cheap! If you don't have any left over paint you like, Lowes carries samples of paint now. You get to pick which ever color you would like and they mix up about an 8 ounce can for about $3.50.

3. Paint the frame. I just painted mine on the coffee table over some newspapers and it took about a half hour to dry. I recommend only putting one thick coat of paint over the whole frame.

4. Distress the frame with sandpaper. Now, some of these steps are completely optional. Maybe you like the frame unpainted, then no need painting it! Just skip down a few steps. Maybe you want the bold color and no distressing, then feel free skipping this step. I love the distressed look, so I grabbed some sandpaper I had lying around (also avaliable to purchase at any Ace Hardware, Home Depot and Lowes) and just gently sand down a few spots around the frame to make it look natural.

5.Collect a piece of lace. You may use some left over around the house, or Jo-Anns has a plethora. I suggest finding lace with larger holes and a lace that feels pretty strong for any of the heavier earrings you may own. I only purchase about a half yard.

6. Cut a piece of lace to fit the inside of the frame (make sure you cut it a little bit bigger than the inside of the frame just to be safe). You will super glue the lace to the inside of the frame on the small shelving that would normally hold the glass in the frame. I would suggest wearing rubber gloves, this way you can press the lace into the glue and spread the glue along the edge of the shelf to ensure that the lace will stay put. Let dry for a good hour.

7. Find a space to put it and add your earrings!

I really love my picture frame earring holder and I hope that you can love yours just as much! If you are confused about any of these instructions, please feel free to leave a comment and ask!

Football Season Mission: Better Burgers.

College football season is in full-swing, but tired of those traditional burgers? Well, even if you're not, I am! Solution: Rachel Ray's "Don't-kiss-me Garlic Burgers."


I actually tested these out when I invited an old friend over for dinner. I hadn't seen him in at least 6 months, so I wanted to impress him with a great dinner while showing off my new apartment. My roommate suggeseted I try these burgers.


They were a success and we literally stopped after each bite to all comment on how amazing they were! So here's the recipe that I hope brings you as much entertainment as it brought me.



Don't-Kiss-Me Garlic Burgers

Servings: 4
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins


4 cloves Garlic
1/3 c. fresh basil leaves
2 Tbsp. pine nuts
3/4 c. plus 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 lb. ground beef chuck
3/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/2 pound brie cheese, sliced
4 fresh Keiser rolls, split


*We used the small jar of already minced garlic, dried basil leaves (1/10 c. instead), extra light olive oil and a sweet onion, but feel free to mess with the recipe any way you would like.


1. Using a food processor (or if you're in college and have a blender, that works just fine too), chop the garlic. Add basil and pine nuts and, with machine on, pour in 1/2 cup olive oil and process until smooth.


2. In a medium skillet, heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally until softened and browned for about 15-20 minutes.


3. Meanwhile, preheat a grill pan or grill to high. In a medium bowl, combine beef, crushed red pepper and 1 tsp. salt. Shape into four patties and brush remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil on patties, then grill for 5 minutes. Flip and grill for another 5 minutes; top with cheese for the last 3 minutes of cooking. Grill the rolls until golden. (If you are using a grill pan on the stove, you can toast Keiser rolls in the oven with the broiler or just use a toaster.)


4. Spread the pesto on the roll bottoms; top each with a beef patty and some onions and cover with a roll top.


And of course, enjoy! If you try this recipe, please let me know how it turned out or if you decided to add anything that made it better!


Jules

Where there's a Will, there's a Way.

I've been wanting to start a blog for about a month now. So, here it is!

It started when I was moving into my first apartment and searching for all these fun, very inexpensive ways to decorate. My roommate and I would text each other randomly all summer about different ideas, cool new places to shop, etc., but I was having a hard time finding anything I really liked. We moved in last month to our new apartment and immediately started the decorating frenzy. (I honestly don't think I've ever had that much fun playing designer haha) But anywho, as we were putting up our wonderful masterpieces, we kept thinking that we should really share these ideas with everyone else. I mean, I get SO excited inviting people over for dinner and telling them all about our arts and craft home projects, why not share it with the people who can't visit? Thus, this blog was born... or created, I guess.

A lot of the ideas really come from more expensive versions (which I refuse to pay for simply because I can come up with a much more inexpensive replica, some that have turned out even better than it's original) and others I have found in various places on the web. I also plan on sharing some of my favorite recipes as well, I mean of course, if you don't mind?

Which really brings me to my title of this first blog, I want people to know that 'where there is a will, there is a way.' These projects and recipes are simple and look and/or taste rather crafty. The best part is there is hardly any work involved! (Some may be a little more tedious and I will let you know before you decide to dive into such a project :] ) If you have the will, I will show you the way!

Sincerely,
Jules