The Best Salad I Ever Made!

Aw man!  I made a GREAT dinner last night!  It was so good that 3 out of the 4 of us were "Mmmm'ing" the whole time!  (what can I say...I have a 7-yr. old that's not wild about his greens...that's okay though! ~ more for the rest of us!)

I made Salad with Roasted Pork topped with Honey Mustard Viniagrette dressing

To make:
1 yellow or red bell pepper, thinly sliced
8oz. mushrooms, sliced
1/2 onion, thinly sliced
8-10 asparagus spears, cut into 2" pieces
salad greens (romaine/spinach/etc...)
Pork loin (with salt & pepper)
1 c. shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese
viniagrette dressing
honey mustard

Cut pork into 1-1/2" thick medallions.  In olive oil, sear pork on all sides.  Place on baking sheet and roast pork medallions at 350degrees for about 20 minutes.  Do check them with a meat thermometer.  I HATE overcooked pork.  I like them at about a 140-150 degree reading. 
Meanwhile, saute veggies in 1-2 T. olive oil over medium heat.  Salt to your liking. 
Cut pork into bite-sized pieces.
Plate your salad greens.  Top with veggies, cheese, and pork. 
Whisk a bit of honey mustard into the viniagrette...I didn't measure...just squirt it. 
Drizzle on top of salads.  I like to let my salad sit for a few minutes to let the dressing drip down through the salad.  This would be fantastic with really good crusty, Panera bread... we didn't have any...just sayin'. 

Bon appetit!!

Cut a what with some what?

I've been looking at different blogs and youtube videos on wine bottle crafts.  I came across "how to cut a wine bottle using household items."  Hm?  How intrigueing! 

I decided to give it a shot, and it worked great!  (~the 3rd time~)

If you follow these simple steps, it SHOULD work!

1.  gather needed supplies: wine bottle, acetone nail polish remover (must be acetone!), 100% cotton string/yarn, lighter/matches, scissors, sink with ice cold water

Remove label from bottle. 

2. wrap string around the bottle, where you want it to be cut. If using thin string like I did, wrap it 10-12 times.  If using yarn, about 6 times will be fine.  (Youtube used yarn.  I used string). Tie in a knot.

3.  Slide the "rings of string" off of the bottle, but keep the shape of the ring of string.  It's easy to do this, don't worry. 

4.  Fill cap with acetone and soak string.  While this is soaking, fill your sink with ice water...with ice.

5. Remove string, again keeping the shape of the "ring of string" and slide this back onto the bottle.  If you did not remove your label, it will bleed....I recommend removing the label.

6.  Light the string on fire.  The flame will stay only on the string.  Again...no worries! 

7.  Rotate the bottle slowly until the flame goes out.  It's actually very pretty to watch the flame rotate around the bottle. **Please note:  This picture is NOT accurate!  You need to hold the bottle the OTHER WAY ~ so the bottom of the bottom is facing down ~ you want to trap the hot air inside the bottle ~ this is why I had to do mine THREE TIMES!!  (third time's a charm, right!) 

8.  After the flame goes out on it's own (about a full minute or so), submerge the bottle into the ice water.  The bottom of the bottle will just "POP" off! 

9.  What you will have, is 2 pieces with very smooth edges.  If they're a bit 'not smooth,' simple sand them gently. 

10.  Add a candle.  Or you can get really fancy and try to hang the bottle with a chain...and add some Christmas lights inside!  How beautiful would that look hanging on your fence in the summer?

For now, I think I'll just sit it on my end table in the living room.  It's a very small table without a ton of surface space, so it'll be perfect!
I hope you have good luck with this project! 

furniture painting tip!

I'm sitting here watching David Bromstad on HGTV (one of my favorites, as far as personality!!  I seriously WANT him to be my friend!) 

                              David?  You hear me? 

Anyway, when painting furniture:
1.  apply oil-based paint for the first coat
2.  thin the oil-based paint with a bit of kerosene for the second coat to avoid any brush strokes and to get a very smooth finish. 

They didn't mention the smell.  I can't IMAGINE it would be anything good...but at least it would look pretty, right??  LOL! 

elbow grease to the rescue!!!

When I first saw these lights at the warehouse, I really thought I was going to have to have them stripped and then repaint them... The rust looked to be a bit too much...I thought they were going to be lumpy and need tons of sanding as well...

Little did I know, it wasn't rust after all!! 

Just dirt!! 

...a little Dawn detergent and a LOT of elbow grease goes a LONG WAY!! 

I could totally be in a Dawn commercial after seeing the results!!  ...and now, to get this thing rewired...

Christmas 2011

We had a fantastic holiday!  So much went on in such a short period of time...we travel this week yet, but I can actually take a few minutes to sit, blog, and relax.  And I can't wait for the "round 2" of craziness!!  (aka...the in-laws...house in the woods in the middle of nowhere...21 people!!!!!)

Our vacation days began with visitors from N. Carolina, who surprised us with an unexpected furry house guest. 

 "Waffles" was the quietest house guest EVER!  She slept all night in a lidded basket.  ~never made a peep~ 

 Christmas Eve started with a bang!  We exchanged our "family gifts" with the kids. We did it early this year. That way, they had something to do, while waiting for the afternoon festivities to begin.  I never in my life saw a kid scream SO LOUD over an $8 video game!!  If I would've known that, that would've been all we bought him!  :)

                                   (check out Elise's face in that one~  She was crackinggggggggg up!!!)


The kids were truly in SHOCK that they BOTH got guitars from mommy and daddy.  Real guitars!!  Let the tuning and lessons begin!

                                                                                                                                                                            

 

    what a natural!!!!                                    

 Then came the party at Gramma's house. Needless to say, it was full of laughs and lotsa, lotsa music!! 

                                (check out Santa, Elfie, and little baby Rudolph!)

                                 

                                           (this picture CRACKS ME UPPPPPPPPP!!)

The prep for Santa was complete....

...and finally Christmas morning

                          the smiles...

                          the shock!...

                          a little crafting...

                         1 of 4 homemade tech deck ramps...

Overall, we had a fantastic Christmas!!  I can't wait 'til tomorrow...another 4 days of hype!! 

Final pictures...

So I went back to Merge today to finish the tree branch.  Everyone at the worship service last week wrote on a tag....
....something that the Lord brings to you.... 
The tags made the wall project a bit more personal ~ not just "basic wall art."  You can read my previous post for more detail on that...
but anyway, I promised a picture of the completed project~ 

I think the most amazing part of the whole thing is that I hung them all straight, even, and equally spaced on the FIRST TRY! 

project of the week...

I've been going to a new worship service Sunday mornings. 2 friends of mine lead it.  It's set up like a bible study with music...a very relaxed environment...a room filled with friends. 

Merge ministries got to be so well attended, that they needed to move locations.  So....they moved into a very large warehouse in town.  With hours of volunteer time, including electrical work, paint, sandblasting, drywalling, etc...the space is absolutely beautiful.  Exposed brick with large windows, hardwood floors, and natural wood pillars just screams to me!! 

Anyway, long story short, Merge asked me to help out with wall art.  ...to come up with ANY idea...  Ya know, it's really, really difficult to do that.  If someone gave me a "theme" or "color idea" that they wanted, it would be a bit more simple.  I think they were thinking they were being nice letting me do "whatever."  Phew!  What pressure!!  When I called to give him (Matt) a list of my ideas, his response was, "Sure sounds great!  They all sound great!  You just be creative!" 

Because the 2 main walls are about ... oh I don't know... 30-40 feet long, I knew whatever I did had to be big!  I recommended painting a large section of the one wall (between pillars) with magnetic chalkboard paint...that way they could list reminders, hang posters, doodle, or whatever on it.  And it wasn't very expensive to do.  (which is KEY!)

The other main wall, I decided to paint three 4-foot canvases. My inspiration came from the symbol for life.  The tree. 

The canvases turned out great.  Everyone was very complimentary.  I'll be taking picture of the space on Thursday, but for now...here are the pics from "the beginning." 

I simply spray painted the edges with black semi-gloss...

 ...then brushed the center in a cross-hatch pattern with copper metallic paint, called "copper penny." 
This color complimented the brick wall and hardwood floors beautifully...and the black tied in nicely with the chalkboard on the opposite side of the room...

 Don't you just love my wonderful workspace?  It's so handy and I love all the room I have (cough, cough)...

Again, Thursday I'll post pictures of the final product, hanging at the warehouse. 

Looking at these...I think I'm a wanna-be artist!!