Tag Archives: easy

Easy Before and After: Snow Boots

Boots_BeforeI know spring is on the way and I live in the south, but snow boots were a total necessity this year. For a couple of months, it seemed like I needed these boots every weekend. Normally, I don’t need snow boots, so I have a hard time justifying buying a pair of cute, new boots. I’ve actually had these boots since middle school!

I love the recent trend of colored laces, so I decided to do an easy, upgrade on my boots by replacing the old, worn laces with bright, pink neon laces.

boots_afterUpgrade! Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am!

Do you have David Bowie songs stuck in your head yet? Have you completed any SUPER easy DIYs lately?

love,
melanie

 

Easy Glitter Feathers

glitter feathersOne of the few DIY projects I did for our wedding was the table decorations. I didn’t want to pay very much for flowers and I have a black thumb. So, we decorated the tables with dried baby’s breath and feathers. To give the feathers a little pizazz, I painted the ends with silver acrylic paint and dusted them with glitter. (I got the idea here.) I also tied the feathers on twine to create garlands.

glitter feathers2

I am really happy with the way they turned out. Feathers never droop or die, so I’ll be able to have these in my house for years as a reminder of our wedding.

love,
melanie

Rolling Pin Re-do

Rolling Pin

I’ve caught the spring cleaning bug early this year and I couldn’t be happier about it. This weekend I deep cleaned the carpets and sorted through closets to determine what we can sell or donate.

As I was sorting through our kitchen gadgets, I was looking at my sad, plain rolling pin and wishing it was a cute, vintage pin with colorful handles. But instead of throwing my perfectly useful pin away for a new (or old) one, I decided to paint the handles.

Rolling Pin Spray PaintRolling Pin & Spray Paint

This project couldn’t be easier. Grab a spare can of spray paint and paint away! The best tip I have from this project is to cover the parts of the pin that you don’t want to spray in tin foil. Tin foil easily wraps around hard-to-cover-areas without the struggle of paper and tape.

spraying rolling pinI (ok, George) sprayed the handles twice, but the brand of spray paint will determine the amount of times you’ll need to spray to ensure there is no wood showing through the paint.

How do you “upcyle” your old junk?

love,
melanie

Easy Wedding Favors: Printed Brown Bags

Wedding favors on paper lunch bags

During the wedding planning process, DIY projects were not high on my list. I did manage to carve out some time to do a few easy and inexpensive crafts though. And I plan on sharing a few of them with you! I was super pleased with the way my wedding favors turned out. So, I’m sharing the how-to on those first!

For this project all you need is a little photoshop know-how, paper bags and a printer. (I would recommend a top-loading printer. Although it is possible to do with a bottom-loading printer. I have just found the top loading printers work better with the bags.)

wedding favorFirst, we designed our logo in Photoshop. We used the image of George and myself on our wedding invites too. Your design doesn’t have to be anything as elaborate as ours, a monogram would look nice too. If you don’t have Photoshop skills, you could even create your design in Word and then change your printer settings to the size of the bag.

Next, we changed the dimensions of the image in Photoshop to the dimensions of the paper bag and did a couple of test prints. After printing each bag, we added a can of RC Cola and a Moon Pie. In the South, an RC Cola and a Moon Pie is known as a working man’s lunch and both George and I have fond memories of eating Moon Pies and drinking RC Colas as kids.

Finally, we punched two holes in the top of the bag, looped a ribbon through and tied a bow. Quick, easy and cheap! Done!

**A helpful hint is to buy more bags than you need and be patient! If the bag has any kind of small tear or inconsistency, the printer may eat it. Just keep calm and carry on!**

Questions? Leave ’em in the comments!
love,
melanie

Gluten-free, Puffy, Berry Pancake

pancake

After discovering my gluten-intolerance, I haven’t really missed bread, pasta or traditional desserts very much. The one thing I did miss was pancakes. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day– and it’s the most important, right? And nothing, I mean nothing, gets me out of bed faster than a piping hot cup of coffee and a giant pancake.

Gluten-free, Puffy Berry Pancakes (adapted from Primal Blueprint Quick and Easy Meals)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of fresh or frozen berries (I used frozen raspberries and strawberries)
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat butter and berries in a 10-inch oven-proof skillet over medium heat.

As berries heat, separate eggs into two bowls, one for egg whites and one for yolks. Beat the egg whites until peaks form. Then, add the vanilla and cinnamon to the egg yolks and whisk by hand. Fold the egg yolks into the egg whites.

Pour the egg mixture on top of the fruit in the skillet and spread it out evenly. Cook on the stove for 2 minutes on medium heat. Move the pan to the oven and cook for 12 minutes or until the pancake is puffy and brown on the edges.

Remove from the oven and top with butter and powdered sugar or a drizzle maple syrup!

What is your favorite meal of the day?
love,
melanie

How to Make Rice Pudding with Leftover Rice

Rice pudding in a jar. Text overlay reads: how to make rice pudding with leftover rice.

One of my favorite ways to use up leftover rice is by making rice pudding.  My mom used to make this for us when we were kids and it always reminds me of home. What’s nice about rice pudding is you can eat it hot or cold and it’s a super budget-friendly recipe.

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Gluten-free, No Bake, Chocolate Cake Bites

cake bite

My oven has been broken for over a month. I live in a gorgeous building, but when something breaks, there is no hurry to fix it.

Which means my cake cravings are out of control. You know what I mean. You always want something more when it is practically impossible to acquire. So, I searched around the Internet, did what a good librarian does, and found THE BEST, gluten-free, no bake chocolate cake. EVER. I mean it.

You can find the original recipe at 101 Cookbooks. I’ve adapted it just a tad to make cake bites since the cake is so rich.

Supplies

  • cupcake pan
  • cupcake liners
  • plastic wrap
  • whisk
  • double boiler or the bowl- over-pan method described below
  • medium pan

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces of 70% dark chocolate, well chopped
  • 8 ounces of heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 2 teaspoons finely ground espresso
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine grain salt
  • cinnamon, to serve
  • whipped creme, to serve

Step 1. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners. You may want to try spraying the liners with a little nonstick spray. I didn’t try it, but I wish I did since the bites were a bit ugly.

 

improvised double boiler

improvised double boiler

Step 2: Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over gentle heat. If you don’t have double boiler, don’t worry. I don’t have one either. Just put a larger bowl on top of a smaller saucepan and fill with about an inch of water and heat the water to simmering.

Step 3: As the chocolate is melting, in a separate pan, heat the cream over gentle heat. Stir in the allspice and the espresso.

Step 4: When the cream is hot to the touch, remove from heat and stir in the salt.

Step 5: After the chocolate has melted, pour it into the cream slowly and whisk slowly. At this point, you are probably going to think, this isn’t working! But I promise, if you are patient and keep whisking, it will come together.

Step 6: Pour mixture into the cupcake pan.

Step 7:  Cover with plastic wrap.

Step 8: Refrigerate until solid. I let mine refrigerate overnight.

Step 9:  Let the cake bites come up to room temperature.

cake bites

Step 10: Peel off the wrapper and finish them off with a little whipped creme and a dusting of cinnamon.

Hope your day is scrumptious!

love,
melanie