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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

A Few Changes....


Dear Readers & Committed Followers,

    We want to thank you all so much for your commitment to our blog as well as your support and positive feedback.  This is been so much fun for us and we are so blessed to have a wonderful outlet to share our creativity.  As you know, life gets busy and there are seasons where things need to be shifted a bit.  So, we wanted to let you all know that we are ‘shifting’ the frequency of our blog posting…I bet you thought we were going to say we were quitting!!  Yeah right!  Can’t get rid of us that easily!! 

    As of right now, we have been posting every Monday, Wednesday & Friday and for the next few months, we are going to be posting about once a week.  This is just a ‘season’ so it won’t be too long until we are posting often again.  And just because we aren’t posting as much doesn’t mean we are not creating as much!  There is still a lot of that going on (it’s in our bones!!!), so stay with us as we continue to share our snippets of creations with you all!

    Again, thank you so much for your support and encouragement….keep looking for more great ideas in gifts, home décor and food!!!
 
~ Kerri & Julie Gastineau

Friday, June 6, 2014

Easy Guacamole

Food Frenzy Friday (Creamy Guacamole)

Today I am sharing with you an all time favorite at our house.  If you love guacamole, you will love this.  It is super EASY and super DELICIOUS!  
The recipe calls for 2-3 (I use 3) avocados, red onion (I use about a TBLS.), 1 vine ripe tomato, 1 garlic clove, 1tsp (or more depending on how spicy you want it) jalapeno, 1 TBLS. lime juice, salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:
Mash avocados, stir in the lime juice, and the
      salt, and pepper until it has a creamy consistency.
Mince garlic clove.
Finely chop jalapeno and onion.
Seed and dice the tomato.
Fold together all ingredients. 
Then enjoy with tortilla chips!
~Julie

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

DIY Growth Chart Ruler

I know these Growth Chart Rulers are all the rage right now on Pinterest and Etsy, so I decided to jump on that bandwagon and make one for my son's room.  Our niece moved out a few weeks ago and I have been slowly working on his room ever since.  It has been soooo awesome not having him sleeping in our room and it's an added bonus because I have an empty canvas to decorate!!!  
 
 
I love the idea of tracking the growth of both of my kids on something I can not only use as room décor, but keep it for years to come as room décor!  This Growth Chart Ruler is the perfect thing for that!
 
So let's begin...
 
 
I bought a standard 1 X 8 X 72 pine board from Home Depot and using our miter saw I cut it to 5 feet (60 inches) in length.  Since I was going to hang the ruler just above our 6 inch tall baseboard and I wanted the ruler to be 5 1/2 feet tall, I only needed a 5 foot long piece of wood. Make sense? 

 
After I cut my ruler, I sanded the edges up a bit and it was time to stain it.  I used Minwax Espresso stain and mixed in a little vegetable oil.  Mixing the stain with vegetable oil (or even baby oil) allows for a smoother application.  Instead of the wood soaking up the stain immediately, it allows time to spread the stain evenly, thus avoiding any smudges or streaks.
 

 
Even though I had the help of the vegetable oil, I still applied the stain using vertical strokes in order to go along the grain.  I stained both sides as well as the edges so that the wood didn't bow (disclosure: in my first attempt to make this ruler, I didn't stain the back and my wood bowed.  It was not repairable so I had to start over!!)  I then left the ruler to dry over night.
 
 
The next day I started out by painting my numbers.  I had some Valspar flat white spray paint left over from a previous project, so I used that.  I made sure I coated them really well!
 
 
While the numbers were drying, I brought out the tape measure and began making my measurement marks.  I wanted my ruler to have lines at every foot, 1/2 foot (6") and a 1/4 foot (3"), so I measured accordingly.  I made my marks in pen along the side I was going to put my lines so that my pen marks would be covered up.

 
Next, I grabbed my handy Gorilla Glue and glued the numbers onto the ruler.

 
To make sure the numbers were placed in the correct area, I laid out the tape measure along the opposite side of where I was going to glue the numbers.
 
 
After the numbers were glued on and dry, I brought the ruler into the house to apply the vinyl lines along the foot, half foot and quarter foot marks I had previously made with my pen.  I laid out the tape measure again to make sure I placed the lines on the right measurements, even though I already marked them with pen.  You can never be too careful ;)  I used 3 different lengths of vinyl lines since I was marking 3 different measurements.
 
 
Once all the lines were on the ruler, I attached these sawtooth hangers.
  
 
I attached two of them since they were the smaller size hangers and the wood I used was a heavier wood so 2 hangers allowed for more support.
 
 
Then we hung it to the wall!  Now I need to get to marking their heights!  Still trying to figure out how I want to do that.  Maybe I will share that part with you in my room unveil post!!  Stay tuned!!

 This project was so simple and didn't take much time to do at all.  If this is something you have thought you would like to have in your home or even give as a gift, I encourage you to make one as well.  You will be so happy with how it turns out!!!
 
~ Kerri
 

Monday, June 2, 2014

4th of July Pallet Art

Sorry, I am a little (well a lot) late on my post today! I am still in California and the post I had planned for today didn't turn out, so I am sharing with you one from last summer.
Since the Fourth of July is coming up, I thought it would be something you may want to make!
 
PALLET TUTORIAL:
For my pallet I had to remove one of the back boards to replace a missing one on the front.  After all of that work we realized that mine was a taller pallet (we thought about finding a new one, but I decided I would give it a try to see if I liked it...I ended up liking it).  
Paints and stains we used (between the two of us we had everything we needed).


 Directions:
  • Mark off the 'blue' section of the flag.  Cover the surrounding areas (so they don't get over spray on them).
  • Spray paint the blue (Krylon... Gloss Navy Blue), after it is dry remove the coverings and paint the rest of the flag.
  • Use 'Dark Aging Wax' (or stain) to age the paint.
  • Make baseball hearts (see below pictures).
  • Attach the hearts.
   
When you cut the lace of the baseball, I found that it stayed in (after you separated it) if you cut at an angle.  After you take the ball apart you hold it with both hands and then twist it to make the heart shape.  You have to kind of work with it to get it the shape you want.  Then you put some hot glue to put it together.
After you get all of the baseballs cut and glued into a heart shape you can start attaching them to your pallet.  As the picture below states: we did not measure, we just eye-balled the placement. (Neither of our husbands would approve of this method...they have to measure and level everything)
Tabatha and I both decided it is GREAT to craft with your friend that doesn't take offense to you bossing them around.  We were both very bossy on this project, but we think it turned out for the best...what is your thought?
Have a great day!
~Julie