It's a Snap!

Another Pinterest find: A decorative slipcover to cover your camera strap. The directions were super easy to follow and it barely took any time to finish it. Find a more detailed tutorial here. 

I first found one patterned and one solid coordinating fabric 

and sewed them together- right sides facing each other on the long side. 

*Make sure you measure the camera strap you will be making this for 

and adjust measurements accordingly*

You then just flip the fabric right side out and press seams and fold in the ends. Sew the short ends together, fold in half, press again, then sew the open long end together and you're done!

Finished product: A fun, stylish way to carry your camera around your neck

Now start snapping pictures!

Quinoa Stuffed Tomatoes and Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad

Yesterday's meals were very delicious. I had found a recipe on pinterest for a homemade strawberry vinaigrette and whipped that up a couple days ago while making strawberry rhubarb crisp. I changed some things again though because I did not want any spiciness to mine so I left the jalapenos out as well as the shallots and poppy seeds (mainly because I didn't have any available at hand :) The sweet and tart flavor combinations are wonderful and it was super easy to just blend all of the ingredients together in a blender.

I went outside and picked some fresh greens that I had planted earlier this spring- spinach, red leaf lettuce, and butter crisp lettuce. Yummy and oh so fresh! I then added slices of tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and then sprinkled on some cheese. Last touch... drizzling the vinaigrette over the top. 

Now for dinner...

Another Pinterest recipe for quinoa, poblano, and corn stuffed tomatoes. This was my first time ever working with quinoa and it reminded me of cous cous. This recipe sort of had a lot of steps and time waiting for the tomatoes to drain but the end result was well worth the work. Even the husband liked this vegetarian dish!

The tomatoes were stuffed, topped with cheese, and then baked for 15 minutes. 

Upcycling: Vanity Dresser Progress

Here is what the vanity looked like after it was all done being sanded.

I then chose a coral/red color to paint the borders and other areas that I wanted to end up showing through my top coat. 

I then painted everything with a sage green. I dry brushed certain areas and did some detail painting to make sure the green didn't go into the recessed design I had painted in coral. 

Final steps of sanding and adding the drawers and mirror are up next!

Before & After: Closet Organization

Our guest bedroom doubles as my craft room as well as storage for other various items such as camping and photography gear. The closet has a weird dropped floor inside and basically everything was thrown on the floor or piled up on the one shelf near the top. Nothing was hanging in the closet so a lot of space was being wasted. I decided to get creative and measured and designed a free standing shelf system to place inside to make more use of the space we had. Caleb then double checked all of my measurements and adjusted to account for the 3/4 in boards we would be using. Being his awesome engineer self he made a blue print on the computer and we were able to determine how much lumber we would need to get from Lowes ahead of time.

We had to account for the brackets from the shelf already in the closet and along the way we decided it was unnecessary to keep to top board with the 2 in cut out and also easier to eliminate that. Below is the before and after and the rest of the pictures show the process and total transformation. 

 It was a mess before! 

Caleb and I cut and screwed everything together in our outbuilding and then applied

two coats of white paint.

We put hooks on both sides of the closet and hung our backpacks

and organized all of our outdoor gear.

Strawberry Mint Fizzer

I love Pinterest! It helped me find this fizzy drink when I needed to make something with left over strawberries. Looks delicious right? Would make a great refreshing drink any time.

Just take plain soda water and add strawberries, fresh mint leaves, lime juice, and sugar to your liking. 

From Start to Finish

The hubby and I bought a table from a local shop that was in pretty good shape. However, we decided to make it look even better by sanding it down and painting it to match the colors for our kitchen theme. Here are the pictures from start to finish. Enjoy!

Clear coated table before

We sanded everything down and then spray painted the legs in a Satin Black

Then we took a sponge and wiped Cut Ruby by Valspar paint over the top of the table. We did this wiping process three times to get the desired deepness of red but still be able to see a wood texture through it.

We also replaced the drawer knobs and applied the same wiping technique to the faces of each drawer.

We then took some chairs and spray painted them with Satin Black. Next I took the Cut Ruby paint and randomly picked places to paint it on the chair to give it a weathered/rustic look. We then spray painted 2 coats of Satin Clear over the whole chair.

The finished look! Now to add curtains to those windows...

Upcycling: Vanity Dresser (Beginning)

We got this old beat up vanity dresser from a local shop and decided to give it some TLC. It was missing one drawer and had the name "Andy" carved into the top of it. We got someone to make a matching drawer and also bought and cut some mirror to add to the vanity attachment.

Caleb took a blow torch to burn off the clear coat and make it easier to sand.

We then started to sand the whole thing and were able to get rid of the name carved into it as well. More pictures to come soon as I will be distress painting this piece soon and it will be put into my craft room!