DIY Knife Holder

I hate stuff on my counters.  It's really hard to keep them cleaned off and organized.  It's too easy to just throw stuff down and let it sit there. 

Today while cleaning off all the stuff I had a moment of brilliance.  No Pinterest inspiration here.  Just straight out of my own head.  I knew there had to be something in my garage that I could use and make for free that would clear off my clunky knife block and give me more space.  Not much more space but at least it would be one less thing to stare at.

I went out to the garage and found a piece of wood that worked perfectly.  So here's how you can make your own knife holder for your drawers.

First, measure the width of your drawer.

Cut down a piece of wood to fit tightly in the drawer so you don't have to use any brackets to hold the wood in place.  Draw a line at the bottom of the wood so you know how far down to make your cuts.  My slots are spaced 1 inch apart.  The last slot on the right is longer for my biggest knife to fit.

Make sure your wood fits in the drawer and looks right.  Then prime and paint if you choose.

After the everything is dry put the wood back in the drawer and place your knives in the drawer. 

It's that simple and it didn't even take that long to make. 

I hope you have a great week!

LUNCH anyone?

Since we built the shelves in the kitchen I haven't been happy with what I had up there.  It just wasn't looking right to me.  So I went to my go-to place for inspiration, Pinterest. 

I found my inspiration picture very quickly.  I was looking for something easy and inexpensive.  Basically I wanted to "shop" my house and use what I already had. 

Source

 

This picture looked simple and elegant and I had pretty much everything I needed except for the artwork.  But remember, I'm doing this on the cheap so I don't want to spend anything.

I also found the picture below while doing the same search for kitchen shelves and I loved the vintage "LUNCH" sign. 

Source 

I remembered a friend gave me a piece of wood that she hadn't used and it was sitting in my garage waiting for me to find a place for it. 

So I got busy.

I sized out my letters in Microsoft Word, printed them out, cut them out, traced them on contact paper and then cut the letters out of that.  The first time I did this I wanted my board to look just like the inspiration picture. 

First, I spray painted my bottom coat black then put the letters on once the paint was dry.  Then I spray painted white on top of the letters so when I peeled off the letters the black would show through.  I got too "sand paper happy" and sanded off too much and it just didn't look right.  So I started over.

I followed the same method here.

I sanded the board back down where there was just a little bit of black left.  I spray painted a layer of white over the black then put down new letters cut out of contact paper.  Then I sprayed green over the white.  I peeled off my letters and started sanding. 

The more I sanded more black came through on the white letters.  When it comes to distressing something I'm always a little nervous to do it.  I'm afraid I'm going to go overboard and mess everything up (like I did the first time) so this go-around I was very cautious not to do that. 

This was a happy accident that turned out lovely.  Now I need to figure out what to do for art on the top shelf in the kitchen.  Sometimes I look at the sign and think it still looks too perfect but quite frankly I was tired of sanding.  So here it is all finished.

Have a great weekend!

Tis the season!

Gosh...I have really been ignoring my blog lately.  I have MANY things to update on and just haven't had the time to do it.  I remember once upon a time I used to be so good at posting projects and family updates.  Having 3 kids really changes your free time...duh!

So here is my first of many updates to come.  We wanted to start a new tradition since this year will really be the first year that Levi understands about Santa/Christmas/Jesus.  So where do I turn for inspiration on Christmas traditions or countdowns?

PINTEREST!!

I found this idea from Design Dazzle and loved it.  So did Matt.  I purchased all of my socks in the $1 spot at Target and Dollar Tree.  The Santa socks on the end were the most expensive ones at $5 from Target.  Design Dazzle has printable ideas for each night that you can use and even has blank tags for your own ideas.  Like them on Facebook and you can download the PDF file.

I'm so excited to see how much fun Levi and Jax are going to have with this.

Merry Christmas!

Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork

I have no clue where I found this recipe so I don't know who to give credit to. This was my first time making this recipe and let me tell you something...it was finger lickin' good!

Want to try this for yourself? Well here's how.

Printable version

2/3 cup worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tomato paste
1 medium white onion, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp yellow mustard
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 boneless pork shoulder or butt

In a 6 quart crock pot mix all ingredients except pork. Once combined add pork, turning to cover. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. Remove pork and shred with two forks. Return pork to crock pot and stir into sauce.

*Use extra sauce for dipping your sandwich into.

Just in case you need a close up. Now go make this!

"The Great Wall" {Molding Makes Everything Pretty}

Finally...finally...finally! I'm done with the big wall project in Levi's and Jaxon's room. I love the way it turned out. It was a lot of hard work and took way longer than I expected it would. Without further adieu I present to you "The Great Wall" of Dallas.

click on picture to see bigger version

So how did I create this wall? I did it as inexpensively as possible. I had the idea to save money that for the panels I would use old fence pickets. Matt drove around a few neighborhoods and found old pickets that people were throwing out. I needed 35-36 pickets for the whole wall.

I sanded each picket down and filled in all holes and gaps in the wood. Let me just say though that the new fence pickets sold at Lowes/Home Depot are thicker than the old pickets we found on the curb. But that's ok.

The pickets are sitting on top of another fence picket that Matt put on top of the baseboards. The longest part was all the sanding and filling in the holes. Because I would get so dusty sanding I could only work on the pickets on Saturday when Matt was home to help with the boys. But alas I finished them all and Matt nailed them up for me. He also cut off the dog eared edges on the pickets so they would be straight.

After all the pickets were nailed up Matt added 4 pieces of wood to divide the wall into 3 boxes. This wood was the most expensive part of the project. The wood is thin pieces of pre cut Aspen wood. For the 4 pieces it was $25.

At this point I filled in all the gaps between the pickets with caulk. Then I primed and painted all the wood that was up on the wall. After I was finished painting Matt added an "x" to each box.

I painted each "x" and caulked all around them. The original plan was to put just another piece of 3 inch wide wood on top to make a ledge. But we had extra crown molding in the garage and so Matt added that to the ledge. It gives the ledge more of a finished look.

After the ledge was complete the wall was finally finished. Take a look again.

Now I have a place in their room to put their art and any other pictures or trophies or just whatever on. I need to finish up the rest of the trim in the room and Levi and Jax will finally have a room that I'm happy with.

What do you think?

General Conference Coffee Cake

I love this time of year for so many reasons. We have the pleasure to watch General Conference this weekend and hear our Prophet Thomas S. Monson speak along with so many others.

A tradition in my husband's family is that every General Conference his mom always made coffee cake. I'm not sure where this recipe comes from but it is heaven sent for sure.

I thought I would share it so if you feel so inclined you may want to enjoy its delishishness (Is that a word?)

General Conference Coffee Cake 
Printable version

 

2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
2 cups brown sugar
⅔ cup butter or shortening
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup sour milk* or buttermilk
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp nutmeg
2 eggs beaten

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix up first four ingredients until it looks crumbly. Set aside ½ cup of crumbs. Add in the rest of the ingredients to get cake batter mixture. Pour batter in 2 8 inch round pans. Sprinkle reserved ½ cup of crumbs on top of batter. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes.

*If you do not have buttermilk on hand you can use sour milk. To make sour milk mix 1 cup of milk with 2 tsp lemon juice. Allow to sit for 10 minutes.

 

Fall Mantel Decorating

Hey there!

It's finally fall here in Texas!! I'm on the couch now with a blanket and the front door is open letting in all the cool air. A few weeks ago I changed out my summer mantel for my fall mantel. Just about everything on this mantel I already had. I only puchased the pumpkins, picture frame and picture. The rest of the stuff I shopped my house for.

So here's how it all came together.

The pumpkins are from the dollar section at Target. I love the shade of red on them. The ugly owls are from the dollar spot as well from last year. I think they are hideous little owls and they would look so much better spray painted a different color. Maybe I'll get around to it...maybe not.

Our friends down the street had some firewood they were getting rid of. I grabbed a log and had Matt cut it down for candlesticks. I think it adds a natural element to the mantel. (That's me trying to sound like I know what I'm doing or talking about)

The picture frame was an awesome Goodwill find a few weeks ago. It had a gold color on it but I sanded it down to the wood. Now it looks more rustic.

I love the red church picture. It's an Episcopal church in Alabama. I found the picture over at The Lettered Cottage. You can visit over there if you would like to download the picture. I had it printed at Walmart for $5.86 for an 11 x 14 print. It brings a bit of warmth to the room too.

All together I think it looks good. I love all the warm colors and the mix of the natural with rustic elements.

It's fall ya'll!