In The Market For Some Inspiration

Went to the Main Street Arts Festival in Fort Worth this weekend. Sooo many cool artists, but scandalously I went to scope out ideas for my next project. (Hey, no judgement please!) Saw a few really cool ideas, but of course I don't want to start from scratch with all new material, that gets WAY too pricey. So I used this weekend's thrift-store hop to search for stuff to "improve" found a cheap faux painting in a frame that's in pretty decent condition considering it was secondhand. Now to just put some ideas together and see what inspires me...Modge Podge and Book Pages and Sharpies, oh my!!

Project For A Rainy Day

 

Got this idea off Pinterest awhile back. So when I stumbled upon a free day I decided this would be my project. Do you want to know the best kind of project? One where you have all the supplies you need leftover from other projects you've done! It was really easy, the end piece isn't perfect, but since this was my first time working with spray Modge Podge I can't be too disappointed. So here it goes:

Step One: Got all supplies ready - Canvas, Spray Paint, Magazines, Modge Podge, Sponge Brush, Spray Modge Podge(Optional)

Step Two: Spray painted canvas black.

Step Three: Cut magazines clippings (all gold/silver colors) into leafy shapes, and one bigger gold circle.
Step Four: Decided best way to arrange the clippings on the DRY canvas.

Step Five: Modge Podge all the clippings down in my design.

 

Step Six: Sprayed a layer of spray Modge Podge over everything. (Didn't have  desired effect, BUT if done in the right way would've looked very cool!)

My Mission: To Perfect Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe To Rival On The Border's

So I am in LOVE with On The Border's soup. My friend and I have had weekly "Taco Tuesdays" for about 3 years now and most the time I'm ordering that. I googled, I Pinterested, I Binged, and I Yahooed but no recipe seemed to be my cup of tea, and no pictures from the creator's attempts seem to satisfy my hungry eye. So I took a few different recipes and combined them into what I was hoping was going to be the perfect intimidater.

I came close.

I have a few tweaks I'll make the next time around, but overall it came out pretty delicious. Here's what happened this time around:


The Not-Quite-On-The-Border Chicken Tortilla Soup

32 oz. Chicken Broth
3 Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts
24 oz. Salsa (I choose mild because I'm a wimp)
15 oz. can Diced Tomatoes (Drained)
1 Red Onion
15 oz. can Whole Kernel Corn (Drained)
1 Squash
1 Zucchini
3/4 cup uncooked Rice
Shredded Mexican Cheese
Avocado

 

Step One: Bring chicken broth to a boil over medium heat in a large pot.



 

Step Two: While waiting on broth to boil, chop your fresh veggies...I was bawling with the onions so good luck, even my SlapChop was no match to the fumes! Set aside the veggies for now. 

 

Step Three: When broth boils, add chicken breasts, lower to Medium-Low heat and let simmer until chicken cooked through.

 

Step Four: Remove cooked chicken from broth and cut into pieces...if you know how to shred have at it!

 

 

Step Five: Add salsa, tomatoes, and onions to broth and simmer for 15 minutes.

 





 

Step Six: Add corn to broth mixture and continue simmering for more 15 minutes.

 

Step Seven: Add sliced(shredded) chicken, squash, zucchini, and rice to broth mixture and simmer all ingredients for 30 minutes, or until veggies and rice are tender.

 

 

Step Eight: Serve in a adorable black zebra bowl (or your choice of dish) and sprinkle cheese on top! Unfortunately Wal-Mart was lacking any ripe avocados so I'll have to wait until my leftovers to enjoy any of that in the soup.

 

It was REALLY good, and made a TON. So I shall be having soup leftovers for a few days:) Good for the diet I suppose. Like I said I am going to tweak the recipe and I'll post whatever changes I make. I know for sure I am going to only use half the squash and half the zucchini next time. There wasn't enough broth to cover it all so it was more time consuming on the final simmer.


And I'm going to add tortilla strips. DIET BE DAMNED!

 

VoluntEaring

My arms are getting stiffer and stiffer as I type this, so I'm going to try and keep it brief. Got a chance to volunteer out in Balch Springs today. ESPN, Disney, and a ton of volunteers gathered at Woodlands Park, which this morning was nothing more than this:

A muddy vacant lot. We definitely had our work cut out for us. And looking around I had my doubts about it being a one day project.We signed up and got our nametags with different stickers on them that later would divide us in our seperate groups. Luckily I had the smarts to match up with Annette's orange sticker. We got into a group together, with our manly team captain Clay...who was OVERLY joyed to have the loudest in the bunch paired with him. We very quickly changed his mind about us (I think) when we jumped right in!





We were in charge of "The Shader"...which we found out translated into "The Hardest Project Onsite That is Missing Pieces and Got Incorrectly Cut Making Any Idea of Flushing the Wood Perfectly Go Out The Window"...but I can see why "The Shader" would role of the tongue a little easier. But at the end of the day it was going to be a horseshoe shaped bench seating area, shaded and surrounded with different wooden planters. Now I'm no sissy girl...but swinging the mallet and nailing in wood for 7 hours wears a girl out. Luckily I had Annette and Erica to make the day fun...and they had a DJ playing everything from Toby Keith to Michael Jackson.



Josh was the guy in charge of the whole shebang, he was with Ka-Boom who made this whole playground happen. We all did an amazing job and the transformation from muddy vacant lot to stellar playground was amazing.



With my sorer by the second arms and the nagging voice in my head reminding me of my homework due in a few short hours, we dragged our dirty butts out. I can't imagine what it will look like once all the last minute things are finished and kids christen it! I'll update y'all on the ending product when I get a chance to go back. I need to volunteer more! With how busy we were today I didn't have a chance to think about anything else! Which was a great change of pace:)

Oh yeah...I have a sunburn that will turn into a very awful tan line from the work gloves...and I thought my high school band-tanned feet were bad! Blah!

A Refreshing Refurbish

Nothing is more refreshing to the sole the a weekend away from the "real world". Whatever your version of the "real world" is. Mine is full time job, part time job, 4 classes, and two very needy pups.

The weather (for those not around northeast Texas) was AMAZING yesterday. A true spring day, and I wanted to suck up every second of its beauty. So what else was there to do than to craft out of doors? However, after over an hour browsing my Pinterest feed and searching through the million pins I had no clue what my little heart was set on doing. Luckily fate (ha) stepped in and dropped a beat up looking stool(?) in my lap...or trunk. So I took this very outdated piece of furniture under my wing and did a very easy makeover on it. Now my mother is the proud owner a dual use outdoor coffee table. Ottoman on one side and a chalkboard/beer holder on the other (or tea if you're into that sorta thing).

Before:

 

 

 Step One: Took off hideous faded fabric, removed about 30 staples from wood and scrubbed it all clean.

 

 

 

Step Two: Figured out which side of the wood was less damaged (I could have sanded it down at this point, but there was only one visible scratch on the side I choose, and the paint filled it in nicely). I used Chalkboard Spray Paint and covered on side completely with two coats (allowing to dry maybe 30 minutes in between).

 

Step Three: Washed down base of stool and got rid of any loose old paint or dog fur. (Again I could have taken the time to sand it). Then covered in a dark brown metallic Spray Paint, I'll update later with the actual name, but I unfortunately left my supplies in Tyler. But it covered up any bumps or bruises the piece had previously.

 

****Sorry I didn't get pictures for steps, I'll include pictures of my supplies later****

 

 Step Four: Stapled cushion(foam piece) directly to wood so it wouldn't slide around. Covered with new adorably cute fabric (on sale at Hancock's). Staple gunned in a few choice areas (not too many though, starts to look tacky.

Step Five: Wait until all paint dries. Piece together table....

 Bust out the sidewalk chalk and ENJOY! Figured you can play tic tac toe or let the little ones just draw on it. We don't have a really good area for sidewalk chalk so this is definitely an idea for a replacement.