Floral Painting

Since I'm still fairly new to painting, I still need a lot of inspiration. For that inspiration, I always go to Pinterest. I have a whole painting board where I save everything I'd like to try to paint. There, I found this cute somewhat abstract floral.

Source: thecheerfulspace.com
I followed this step-by-step

Not perfect, but here's how my attempt went:

Recipe # 30: Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

I've been tailgating a lot this year and have been waiting to make different things for each. I've also been embracing fall and thus wanting to make desserts with pumpkin. Roughly 3 weeks ago, I made Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze and this time I decided to try pumpkin AND chocolate!!!

I used Pinterest to find this easy recipe. The upside is that it's low fat! The recipe is essentially a boxed Devil's Food cake mix and a can of pumpkin. No eggs, oil or water.

The cake comes out so moist, but slightly crumbly. My friends liked it and so did I. :)

Recipe #29: Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze

I had a can of pumpkin and wanted to make an easy cake with purchasing as few extra items as possible. I found a great recipe on Pinterest and tweaked it, as always.

Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze
From: Noble Pig Vineyard & Winery

Instructions
1. Empty the contents of the boxed cake mix and pumpkin puree into a large bowl. Using a hand-mixer or stand mixer beat until well incorporated. The batter will be very thick, but will come together nicely.
2. Pour batter into a greased 7 x 11 X 2 pan. This is the small, rectangular-sized pan from your Pyrex set.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.
4. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, then flip onto a platter.
5. Make the glaze while you're waiting.
6. Combine powdered sugar, apple cider and pumpkin pie spice. Glaze should be thick but pourable. Add more sugar or cider if needed. Pour over the cake while still warm. Reserve some to pour over each slice when served.

My Tweaks
So, my cake seemed too dense, so I added an egg.
I also, decided to make it into a poke cake. I used roughly 8 ounces of apple cider and kept it in it's original pan.

My friends really liked it. Next time, I won't add the egg and will add less liquid as the cake was crumbly. I'll probably tone down on the powdered sugar since it was a bit too sweet.

This weekend, I'll be experimenting using a chocolate cake mix and possibly no glaze, we'll see. :)

Halloween Costume: Snow White

I had a Halloween party to go to this year, but needed to come up with a costume. I'm not creative and I hate coming up with costumes. I don't like to buy costumes, because I'm frugal. So, that's when I decided to check out Pinterest. There I found this easy costume: Snow White.

I had a royal blue shirt already, so that made it cheaper. I had to buy a skirt. Since it's fall, finding a yellow skirt was unfortunately out of the question. I settled for a red skirt that I bought at Goodwill for $5.24. Then I also had to buy ribbon. So, the whole costume cost about $8. Here's the finished product and it turned out better than I thought it would.

Throwing a Baby Shower on a Budget

I wanted to throw a surprise baby shower for a friend, but it HAD to be on a shoestring budget.

I started with a secret Pinterest board; gathering game, food, and decoration ideas.

My Inspiration

(You may remember that I made this for my parent's 25th Anniversary party. Anyway, my friends LOVED it!) Click here for the recipe.

Making it Work

Thankfully, my cousin had just hosted a baby shower so I borrowed glass plates with cup holders (which were a lifesaver for my small apartment, streamers, napkins, balloons, stencils, and fabric pens with which to decorate bibs. My parent's have a lifetime supply of streamers from my parties, so that helped.

I was shocked by how much everyone enjoyed decorating bibs! They turned out so well!

I found this website and printed out the month for guests to guess the due date.

I also made sugar cookie sandwiches with frosting on the outside rolled in blue, green, and yellow sprinkles. I also made my own version of cheesecake dip which is terrific (cream cheese, sugar, whip cream, sour cream, and a little vanilla. Served my favorite store bought hummus with carrots and pita chips.

Costs

Frame for birthday date guess; $1 (Dollar Tree)
Baby boy-colored sprinkles: $1.83ish (Walmart)
Bibs: $10ish (Target)
Food: $15
Total (minus gift): under $30!!!

Best Part

My friend was surprised, everyone had fun, and she received much-needed items for baby!

Sephora, Part 2

I couldn't wait for Christmas to get more make up from Sephora. Here were the items on my list:
-I was dreaming of an eye liner in my favorite color and now I wear it all the time.


-I'd wanted the Buxom la-la-lavish eye shadow since my first Sephora experience in August, but they didn't have it at the time. They also call it an iridescent lavender. I love it and use it all the time. It's fun, yet something I can wear to work.
-I'd tried my friend's Tarte Skintuative gloss in August and thought it was super cool, despite being gooey. I ended up getting their tint. While I really think it's neat, it doesn't last long. For those who don't know, the color is unique to each wearer's "natural pH and energy." I like unique things. On me, it's normally a cherry color.
-Buxom's Patent Leather eye shadow stopped me in my tracks. It's super glittery a kind of sparkling blackberry, as they call it. I now kind of hate it; it gets everywhere, especially in the "fallout" zone. Maybe I'll change to mainly use this for evening looks.

I love having new make up to play with!

How to Remove Nail Polish from Carpet. IT WORKS!

Last week, I vacuumed my carpet and moved my 20+ nail polishes in a container to my bed. At 1:30 that morning, I stretched and launched the polish in the air. The result, my black nail polish broke and black polish was all over my tan carpet. This picture does not do the damage justice.

So, I got on Pinterest for how to get it cleaned. I didn't think anything would actually work, but I had to try. So, I tried this suggestion to try rubbing alcohol and a rag.

I tried that and a little nail polish remover. After 90 minutes and lots of work, 99% of the stain is gone. The downside? My apartment smells like rubbing alcohol, but I'll take that opposed to ruined carpet. :) Try it, it works!
After:

How to Kill Fruit Flies

I forgot to use my garbage disposal to get rid of some rotting strawberries and the next day when I opened my trash can, a SWARM of fruit flies emerged. I tried to kill them with a fly swatter, but with that many it wasn't making a dent. So, I checked Pinterest and saw this solution:

I didn't have a mason jar or parchment paper, so I used a juice glass. I also used cling wrap, a pen to make holes, apple cider vinegar, and two drops of Dawn dish soap.
My attempt

My results?
12 hours later: 2 fruit flies
24 hours later: 17 fruit flies
2 days later 40ish fruit flies
3.5 days later 44 fruit flies
Now only a few more icky bugs to go!

This solution definitely worked!!!

Recipe #24: Spinach Chicken Rolls

I'm always looking for new recipes and I love eating/cooking chicken. So, I was excited to find this recipe on Pinterest:
I already had chopped spinach, ricotta cheese, and shredded cheese mixed together from making Spinach Rolls, so I just added garlic cloves, bread crumbs, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. From there, I spread the mixture on the chicken breasts that I'd cut in half width-wise. I rolled the edges under, topped with marinara sauce, cheese and basil then put it in the oven for 25-35 minutes at 350 degrees.

The result was terrific and my super picky dad even liked it! I really enjoyed this recipe and hope you'll try it!

Resolutions

I made my New Year's Resolutions pretty late this year.

1. I'm not dating for at least the first four months of the year, maybe all year (it's up to God). I took myself outta the game and deleted myself from the two dating sites I was on. Some I'd been on for roughly 8 years. I realized that those sites were a continual source of disappointment and reminder that here were 5 new matches today that were also not going to work. I really felt prompted by God to get outta the game. Even if I've said in the past that I wasn't trying, I always was. I decided to stop trying. Yes, I still notice cute guys, but I've decided to not worry about things. I'm feeling MUCH more comfortable with turning 31 this year, than I did turning 30. There was something emotional about 30. Maybe it was because I realized I didn't have many/any of the things I'd hope I'd have at 30 (married, house, kids, etc.) It's actually been pretty freeing to quit trying.

2. I'm also making a conscience effort to cut down my Facebook and Pinterest time. Now this one is definitely a work in progress, but I want to be among the people living life versus living it through social media.

3. I've also trying to be careful about what I see and listen to, as you think about what you spend your time on. So, no 50 Shades of Grey or Magic Mike for me. I want to have a pure mind and heart. Definitely challenging!

What I hope to fill my time with because of these changes is 1) God; 2) actually living life through spending time with friends, traveling more, going to movies and concerts; 3) focusing more on school. When I'm not addicted to catching up on on social media every morning, I read a devotional with scriptures (Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) and have time to pray. This keeps me in a positive frame of mind heading into work. I've been making a conscience effort to not text, but call and catch up with friends; actually share life. I've started this and it's been refreshing and so rewarding.

Any thoughts? I'm feeling inspired! Are you? What are your resolutions?

Recipe #21: The Best Brussel Sprouts

My grandma gave me a bunch of brussel sprouts, last week and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them. The only time I'd experimented cooking them before hadn't turned out very well. So, I gave Pinterest a whirl and found this fabulous recipe for The Best Brussel Sprouts. I love the simplicity of the ingredients: brussel sprouts, bread crumbs, garlic salt, olive oil, and pepper. I appreciate recipes that don't require me to go to the store for lots of ingredients and in general, I love simple. Essentially, you just combine the ingredients in a skillet and cook for 10 minutes. They were so good. When co-workers saw me eating them during a working lunch, today they asked about the recipe.

What's your favorite brussel sprout recipe?

Halloween Costume: Scarecrow

A knew a month and a half ago that I'd be going to a Halloween party. I hadn't dressed up in years. I'm generally not that great at costumes. I'd been trying to figure out that to wear for weeks and got some inspiration from Pinterest. From there, I had to start narrowing them down. I wanted something that would be cheap to put together and easy to pull off. My inspiration:

Decided from this one to put sunflower in my pocket.

I'm pretty horrible at make up, so I was pretty nervous about pulling it off. Here's my progression:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. I borrowed the shirt from a friend and leaves from my mom's decorating supply, so all I had to buy was a small hay bale (nearly impossible to find long pieces of straw) and black eye liner. I gathered the straw in small bundles secured with a hair tie to put in my pockets and shoes. As a result, the landing area outside my door where I gathered it all looked like I was incubating a small farm animal. :) So, overall my costume was definitely budget-friendly ($1 eye liner and $8 for the hay bale).

I ended up having a lot of fun at the two parties I went to.

Dance

I've always loved a good dance. Recently, I realized a friend knew nothing of all the great dance songs, so I thought I'd share them with you too.



(Super easy version)



Copperhead Road Dance:

Ones I want to learn: thriller, hustle, and lastly to twerk (though that one won't be done in public). What else should I learn?

Via Pinterest:

Recipe #20: Crustless Blueberry-Pear Pie

I had some pears that were quite ripe and used them to make this tasty Pinterest recipe.

This is how mine turned out:

CRUSTLESS GINGER BLUEBERRY-PEAR PIE

Serves 8-12

Ingredients:
2 large pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease 9-inch pie plate.
Fan the pears slices out in the pie plate. Top with blueberries.
In a large bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar, eggs, ginger, vanilla, salt and milk. Sift in the flour and whisk until batter is well combined and very smooth, no lumps.
Pour batter over the top of the pears and blueberries.
Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until custard is set and the top is a light golden brown.
Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before serving.
Source: Adapted slightly from Baking Bites.

My revisions to the recipe:
I didn't have ginger, so I used allspice and a dash of cinnamon. The allspice was an nice, unexpected surprise.
I also used frozen blueberries.
I didn't have unsalted butter, so I used regular butter and skipped the salt.
I did not sift my flour.

My friends, parents, and co-workers loved it! It was so easy; I'll definitely make it again!

Nail Polish Remover to Remove Shoe Stains/Scuffs

I was pretty upset that my new workout shoes started looking smudged especially on the toe area. I'd tried cleaning it with soap and water to no avail. Thankfully, I found the following tip on Pinterest, that solved my problem.

pic.twitter.com/rL9elF1eam

— Life Hacks (@LifeHacks) January 31, 2014

Before :
After:

It really helps fade the stains and is a cheap fix. Try it!

Recipe #19: Blueberry Breakfast Grilled Cheese

I'll cut to the chase; these are as wonderful as they sound!

After a rough day, nothing sounded appetizing. Thankfully, I remembered the recipe a co-worker had shared with me for Blueberry Breakfast Grilled Cheese. For once, I actually had all the ingredients.

As always, I tweak recipes based on ingredients I have. I used blueberries covered in greek yogurt from my freezer. I sprinkled sugar on my cream cheese too. I don't have a sandwich press, so I just used a skillet. This was so good!

I was talking about this recipe with a friend while at the grocery store and it must've sounded good to the lady behind us in line, because she asked for details. :) We all started talking about other fruit combinations, like strawberries and/or bananas.

So, I dreamed up a banana and brown sugar mix. I tried it this morning and it was wow! The heat made the banana nice and gooey!

Try it, you know you want to! What other fruit combinations do you think would work well?

Recipes #14 and 15: Healthy Mac & Cheese and Frozen Blueberries in Yogurt

I've been meaning to try out a few new recipes, so check out these:
Creamy Greek Yogurt Mac & Cheese.
It was a really easy recipe.
Ingredients
8 oz. (about 2 cups) elbow pasta
8 oz. (about 2 cups) shredded cheese
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
2 cups fresh spinach
salt & pepper, to taste
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
I didn't have elbow macaroni, so I used rotini. I also didn't have spinach, so I used peas (I love peas!).
Here's how mine turned out; probably needed more cheese. Otherwise, quite tasty.

Next, I tried this recipe for frozen yogurt covered blueberries. They did have a nice fresh sweetness. So, as you'll see mine didn't turn out as pretty; I tried. :)
Both recipes I found on Pinterest. Yes, I'm an addict! ;)

Has anyone tried any of the recipes I shared? I'd love to hear your feedback. Be brave! ;)

Recipes # 12 and 13: Italian Chicken and Chicken Avocado Patties

I read somewhere about marinating chicken with an Italian dressing packet. I marinated two chicken breasts with an Italian dressing packet overnight. I cooked them at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I think, next time I'd add some pats of butter and cook it for 35 minutes. It did have a nice flavor though.


Next, I tried a recipe I recently found on Pinterest; Chicken Avocado Patties. It was a very easy recipe and I really liked it.


The ingredients were ground chicken, an avocado, panko/bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper. It wished the recipe told how much salt to use since you can't sample raw chicken. I had to cook a few test them and add more salt twice. I used more than a pound of chicken. I probably ended up with at least half a teaspoon of salt.

First, I cut the avocado in the skin, added the bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and chicken.

After mixing it, I cooked them on medium heat in a skillet.

Here's the finished project; super yum! It would be really nice paired with some rice and mixed veggies.

Recipe #11: Melt in Your Mouth Chicken

So, I'd been making a lot of dessert recipes lately, but had neglected making "real food." Last night, I made "Melt in Your Mouth Chicken." Odd name, I know, I didn't come up with it. Yes, I was brave and tried another Pinterest recipe. :)

Here's the recipe:

Very simple, as you can tell. It turned out really moist and flavorful. It doesn't say how much chicken to use, but I used two chicken breasts and had enough of the mixture left over for another breast. I hadn't previously cooked with greek yogurt before and was quite pleased with the results. I would say that next time, I'll use a little less pepper. It got a little hot for my taste. Try it, I think you'll like it. Let me know.

Recipe #9: Orange Cream Bars

I made Orange Cream bars for Valentine's Day, but after dinner we were too full to eat them. :( I did try parts of it along the way, as I made them and they were tasty. Most of all they were super easy.

The recipe called for:
frozen orange juice concentrate
graham cracker crumbs
butter
vanilla ice cream
sugar

Here's the recipe and directions:



I smashed my own graham crackers, so my pieces weren't uniform. I think it worked fine that way.

I used vanilla bean ice cream, so next time I'd use regular vanilla ice cream.