DIY First Dance Lyrics

Like I said before, I loved finding out you can make pretty things using Power Point.

For our anniversary I took our first dance lyrics and made this pretty thing

Our song was “Over the Valley” by Pink Martini, and it’s about looking over the Willamette Valley (which Portland, where we live, is in). We got engaged at Council Crest, which looks out over the valley, so it seemed an appropriate choice.

I searched through google images for vintage Portland photos, and picked out a couple favorites, then made mock ups and sent them to a few people asking their thoughts.

While it does look kinda instagram-y I think it’s pretty, and goes well with our newly painted upstairs.

And it was super easy! Less than an hour, and if I had known what I was doing at the start (I actually did this one before the baptism one) it would’ve been quicker.

Adventures in Paint Color

When we bought our house we were all excited about the paint colors. All neutrals! No weird pink bathrooms or wallpaper or anything to contend with.

Then, we moved in.

It seems the last owners didn’t have the greatest sense of color. They did things like painted what was a blueish house with white trim into a brown house with black trim.

And those “neural” walls?

All. Different. Colors. You can’t see it in this picture, but 10 feet to the left there was a third shade of brown.

There were at least 4 different shades of brown going on upstairs. With different undertones.

I do not understand.

We’ve been here for almost 3 years, and slowly but surely we’ve been getting rid of those ugly walls. First,  I painted the guest room. Then a leak forced me to repaint the downstairs bathroom.

I got brave and did the downstairs living rooms (our house for some mysterious reason is a 3 bed, 2 bath, 3 living room house. Again, I do not understand.)

And the upstairs bathroom got a paint job this winter. (While doing it I discovered that the ceiling is not white in there. If someone can explain that one to me….)

And finally, I bit the bullet and our upstairs went from a million shades of tan to one shade of light yellow

Words cannot describe how happy it makes me.

Just so you can really see, this is what it went from

Here’s hoping someday when we move the next owners aren’t questioning my judgement.

DIY Baptism Gift

Our darling (and fat! oh so fat!) nephew is got baptized this weekend!

Not only that, my husband and I are his Godparents.

(My SIL asked by calling me and saying “so, do you want to be responsible for C’s soul? Like, for the rest of your life?” Love her)

As a baptism gift I made up this framed Our Father for the (not so tiny) tiny man

I learned a while ago (thank you pinterest!) that you can do cool things in Power Point. Weird, but it works.

C’s got light blue walls in his nursery, with some yellow going on, and his name on the wall in navy blue. I debated going green, but figured I should keep the color palate in his room simple, so I did a navy, with white frame and matting to keep it from being harsh.

Frame + matting was $6 at Michael’s (with a coupon) and the print was $1.39. Not to shabby!

Crackers

(alternate title-the easiest way to impress people at parties)

Making quarterly baked goods has earned me a reputation at my husband’s work. Which is nice, because when coworkers meet me they tell me how awesome I am, and I can never hear that enough.

But, I’m really good at cookies. Potlucks on the other hand? I bring a veggie tray. I always feel like I’m super lame. (But seriously, everyone will eat the veggie tray, it’s an important thing!) I don’t have a good dish that I can throw together and have it be my thing.

Until now.

See, usually I do dip (guac or hummus) + veggies + corn chips. Because selfishly that’s what I like to snack on. But somehow this time it dawned on me. Instead of chips, crackers could be good. And I could MAKE crackers.

(I suppose I could make chips too, but I shouldn’t be trusted with a deep fryer).

Turns out making  crackers is stupid simple. You put things into a food processor. You roll out dough. You bake. Easy peasy!

So, I made 3 types. Because I enjoy overkill. The clear winner was slightly adapted from DIY Delicious (which is a really fun cookbook!)

cornmeal parmesan and sesame seed crackers

1 c AP flour

1 c cornmeal

1/2 c finely grated parmesan cheese (I packed this in because cheese is good for you)

3 T butter

3/4 t salt

3/4 c cold water

poppy seeds (or sesame seeds) and salt for topping-the book says fleur de sel but I used sea salt cause it’s what i had

put flour, cornmeal, cheese, butter, salt and water into food processor. Process until it forms a dough. Cover and let sit at room temp for at least 30 min.

Heat oven to 400. Flour work surface, divide dough in half, and roll out. (Thinner is better!) sprinkle seeds and salt over dough, and roll over with the rolling pin to make them stick to the dough. cut into desired shapes (I just did squares, you can do long pretty rectangles, triangles, get all crazy and use a cookie cutter to make circles…). poke some holes w/ a fork (if you forget you’ll end up with bumpier crackers)

Bake 12-15 min (book says 15-18 but mine were browning well before that) until edges brown. Eat!

How were these crackers? I got asked where I bought them by someone, because they wanted a box. They’re that good. Make some for your next get together and be prepared for some awesome bragging rights!

The Best Frosting Ever

My husband’s work has quarterly reports that come out. They’re a bunch of work, involve some long hours, it’s a stressful thing.

I foolishly at one point decided to make cookies to celebrate when it finished, and sent them to work with my husband.

It’s become a thing. (Note: he refused to take the above cookie, even though everyone knows cookies that look like the State of Oregon with a hammer and sickle are probably the coolest cookies ever)

But, after I brought home cupcakes several times from work this summer (I teach summer camps, and get overpaid to do awesome things like make cakes with middle school girls) he said “you know, instead of cookies, I could bring cupcakes”.

And then, as a sign from God that it was a good choice, I saw in the newspaper that my favorite bakery had published their frosting recipe. Raspberry Italian Buttercream! Which they awesomely just call “pink frosting”. Pink is my favorite food group. Clearly, I was supposed to make cupcakes.

As I read through the recipe I realized why the frosting was so delicious. It was a pain to make. I dutifully whisked my egg whites over (but not in!) a pot of simmering water  and shoved my raspberries through a strainer. I tasted the frosting, and it was amazing. Then I dumped in my vanilla and raspberry juice.

Crap. It curdled.

Now, the recipe said it would . But it said that during the butter adding. I added the butter with no issues, and decided I was just too awesome. After shoving the bowl in the fridge, panicking, and IMing a friend to say I’d ruined things I got myself together, took the bowl  back out, and mixed some more.

Then I tasted.

Oh my word.

It came together, and made these gorgeous cupcakes.

If you ever want to impress people and drive yourself slightly crazy, you should make it too.

 

Again, recipe from Vintage Cakes can be found here 

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