Day 3 of changes

I have put way more time into this "project" than I had thought I would. So far I have invested a total of  13 hours, and I'm not done yet. I guess  shouldn't be that surprised, after all, I'm giving a face life to three pieces of furniture!

I finally choked down my nerves and got to the decoupaging step of adding some character to the drawers of a previously boring dresser. After the first drawer was papered, I was hooked! Its going to look better than I had anticipated!!

It took about three hours, but all the drawers are done! (Minus drawer pulls, which I have yet to locate the perfect option.) I finished the drawers off with Mod Podge's Pearlized Finish Spray. They have an amazing shimmer that is perfectly subtle. I had the good sense to take the drawers outside for the spraying step. 

I LOVE the look of all the drawers together in the dresser. I have been fighting with whether or not to leave the green on the entire dresser or to finish it with the crackle medium and cream top coat.

After discussing it with my mother, who has GREAT design sense (her home looks like a feature in a magazine, without the price tag of a feature home) I have decided to complete the dresser as originally planned. Her point, which finalized the decision for me, was that the green is bordering on over-whelming the patterns on the drawers. So, I have my work cut out for me tomorrow.

Also, I have been working on the bed frame and reading chair for the bedroom. (Please forgive the state of the box spring, we have a young Jack Russell who likes renovation projects of her own. I put a picture of her most recent project/statement below.)

This is the base coat for the bed, it will also be undergoing the crackled/weathered effect. Brian had a minor panic attack when he came upstairs and saw the pink... :)

And, as promised, Finlay's DIY project. I swear I thought she was downstairs chewing on a bone while I worked upstairs.

And so it begins.

Okay folks, today is the day. I'm starting my first DIY projects this evening after work. On the agenda: Creating my own wedding photos mounted to canvas. This project I'm not too worried about. I'm going to do this one during drying time for my main project of the day. I'm taking a fairly non-descript dresser, courtesy of my husband, and "upcycling" it to be a bit more unique. I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone that happens to stumble across my little web journal... Pictures to follow!

Wish me luck folks. Or more acurately, patience. I don't have much and I think I'll be needing it to get this done properly! :)

So, it took me a grand total of 2.5 hours to get the supplies that I needed for my projects. So I didn't get started until a little after 7 p.m. and didn't accomplish nearly as much as I would have hoped...

This is what I started with. Pretty boring and used mainly as a TV stand until now. I have decided to doll it up a bit which is why I'm doing this while Brian is out of town... ;)

 

I have been trolling Pinterest for a few months now and have finally taken the plunge after finding a site that described how to paint furniture without sanding first. Any corners that I can cut, I'm all about it. I found a really cool product, Zinsser's Cover Stain. It worked like a charm and was dry in about a half hour. Note, it doesn't wash out of paint brushes, so either use one that you no longer care about or invest in some paint thinner/removal product.

                                                           Step 2 looked like this:

So it's been more than a while...

Ok, so I admit it. I have never been a Creature of Habit. In fact, it is almost habit of mine to completely avoid things that are starting to resemble a habit. Even if it something that I have been thoroughly enjoying. So I knowingly admit to dropping my writings, but if I'm being honest, the cooking thing was an epic disaster. I think I have cooked dinner a total of four-five times since my last post. I am just awful at it and it makes me anxious. Luckily, my husband (yep, a LOT has changed since my last post...) is fully recovered and in no mood to suffer through food poisoning. My time at the stove has ended. I am neither surprised or displeased.

I have however, decided that it is time for me to start writing again. The one habit that I have had in the past, for more than a week, has been writing. So I need something to write about. Food is out. I have managed to go up a pants size since the wedding and no one wants to read about my attempts at diet and exercise. It would be quite whiny and obnoxious.

So, that got me thinking about other things that fill my mind and my downtime. I have been obsessed with Pinterest. And obsessed it putting it lightly. My favorite categories are Home Decor and DIY. There are so many incredible ideas. Being a self-described creative person, I feel like I should be able to tackle some of these projects, with a far superior success rate to my cooking attempts.

That is what I'm going to write about... DIY projects and ways to update my home without paying an arm and a leg. Hopefully, I'll be able to get over any feelings of habit formation and actually make a difference in my home (which still has MAJOR hints of bachelorhood strewn throughout.)

First up - getting art on the walls.

A Break after that last Disaster...

Days 4-7:

This week, as I think I have mentioned before, is/was Brian's Birthday Week.  That being said, I ended up being the one spoiled!  (I have a sneaking suspicion that the Pan Seared Cod might have had something to do with this... ;) )

Wednesday evening saw Brian stepping up to the stove.  He put together one of the first dishes that he ever made for me: Cowboy Beans.  Cowboy Beans, for those of you that have never heard of this (I sure hadn't), consists of ground beef, baked beans of some sort, peppers, onions, and whatever other vegetables he feels like throwing in there.

I wasn't being completely worthless that evening, I was working on a masterpiece of my own: (I apologize for the blurriness of the picture, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a six-month old terrier to stay still when awake?!)



Thursday was the Big Day.  I planned a dinner out with Brian's family.  I'm regretting the fact that I didn't take a picture of the food that night... With all my deficiencies in the kitchen, I think I could have pulled off the same plate.  That's not a good thing.  We went to Logan's, a restaurant that was recommended to me for having steaks on the menu that were inexpensive yet good.  The next morning, Brian and I both thought about calling the rest of the family that had joined us to make sure they were feeling better than we were.

Friday was a fiasco.  I woke up that morning and had to take both dogs into the vet.  Turns out that one dog is a bit OCD and an attention-whore.  The other is so paranoid of strangers that her prescription was "put a sock on it."  But we did end up spending hundreds. So dinner was ham sandwiches and chips. 

Saturday, for non-football fans, was Wildcard Saturday in which the Indianapolis Colts played the NY Jets.  We got a last minute invite to a friends' place for the game and Brian asked me to make a dessert.  I made Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with a Cream Cheese frosting and Marzipan decorations.  That took me 4 hours and dinner became Jimmy John's.  They know my name.  And I'm pretty sure they have my order memorized now, too.

Pan Seared Cilantro Crusted Cod with Horseradish Mashed Potatoes and Caramelized Onions

Day 3:

Ew. Sorry Bobby Flay. That recipe was nasty.  And really hard to make. 

I started with the caramelized onions. Not too bad, Balsamic Vinegar, Thyme, and Onions. Good good.

Potatoes boiling away.

Then came the fish...  (I'm going to take a moment here and apologize for my lack of writing tonight. I spent a good two hours writing up a self-assessment for my employee review today.  I felt like I was back in school cramming in that final essay before a test.)

I'm going to start by admitting that MAYBE I should have researched what it means to "pan sear" and how a white fish covered in green leaves can become golden.  Mine never did. It went from this:

To this:



(Ok, fine. I realize that there were probably a few steps more between the first picture and the plating... But Everything was just too fast to take time to shoot a few.  That and it isn't even a real plate picture. B got to it before I could blink.  He made up for it though!)

In his defense, I wouldn't even try it...

But the night wasn't a total bust! I got to start our favorite cupcakes for B's Birthday on Thursday: Guiness Chocolate Cupcakes with Jameson Ganache filling and Bailey's Buttercream Frosting!!!!! Seriously, the best thing ever.  (Courtesy of The Smitten Kitchen)



Salisbury Steak with Mushrooms

Day 2:

Tonight was Salisbury Steak with Mushrooms, courtesy of Food Network Magazine.  I'm going to be honest and admit that I wasn't a huge fan of this dish.  And the making of it was oddly fitting with the day that I have had.



While mixing the steaks, combining ground beef, eggs, crackers and seasonings, I found the quantities of the seasonings to be a little... lacking.   That's what I could have said if I had actually had fresh sage in my kitchen. Instead I used rubbed sage... Hoping it would be similar enough!  I'm not going to go into it, but this is how my day at work went.



Then the recipe said to brown the patties in a tablespoon of butter on medium-high heat.  The butter burned off faster than the patties could cook.  I kept adding butter to make it look the way it was supposed to.  (This time I'm equating the cooking experience with returning to the gym after quite a long hiatus. And again, lets just say, things weren't going as smoothly as I expected. Or looking the way it was supposed to...)

Fine,  patties are now browned. Now I have to add the mushrooms to yet another tablespoon of butter.  The mushrooms are fatter than I thought they were.  There wasn't enough Worcestershire sauce, and that burned off really quickly.  Then I was supposed to add flour directly to the mushrooms and "liquid." HA. That's funny.  (So, back to my day-of-things-NOT-going-the-way-they-should: I had been putting off getting the oil changed in the truck for about, oh say, 1,500 miles give or take 500 more miles.  The Jiffy Lube is right across the street from the gym. Outwardly seems perfect, right? In the past, it has been.  Today not so much.  I got there and couldn't get a hold of B to verify that I was just getting the basics done. Not too bad.  I was sitting in the waiting room and heard a rather disheartening, ratcheting sound as a beast of a man pulled the hood open.  Ok, I'm a little panicked and still no answer from B.  A fifteen minute oil change turned into just that - plus 45 minutes of four young guys trying to get the hood latch to take!  Now I'm super flustered and STILL can't get B to answer the phone! They zip-tied the hood shut and sent me on my way, mentioning that I should probably not drive at freeway speeds...)

Towards the end of cooking tonight I was hot and flustered and I couldn't taste anything.  But cooking wasn't fun and I kinda didn't care anymore.  The resulting dish was a little unattractive and flavorless.  A bit like it would have been great to not get out of bed today.



New Year, New Resolutions

The Kitchen Chaotic is the brain-child of my mother and myself.  My whole adult life up until last year has been spent living on my own, but within ten minutes of my mother.  Now, I live in Indianapolis, Indiana and she is still in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

I grew up with my mother cooking fabulous, rustic, daily dinners.  I moved out, never having bothered to learn to cook, at age eighteen.  I never bothered to cook after moving out because I made sure to work in restaurants, cafes, or grocery stores.  I never lived anywhere with a kitchen larger than a broom closet. 

Last year I moved away from Milwaukee to live with my boyfriend: an amazing cook.  Needless to say, I continued to be blissfully ignorant of the ways of the kitchen.  Now, my boyfriend is laid up, recovering from ankle surgery, and I have had to have a crash course in cooking.  So far I have been focused mainly on not poisoning anyone... And yes, I have caused upset tummies in some of my earlier attempts...

The Kitchen Chaotic is my New Year's resolution.  I am going to teach myself how to cook, how to be healthy (I ignored my doctor's prognosis of insulin resistance last December due to disbelief and sheer stubbornness), and to stay in touch with those far away.

Day 1:  Not the greatest day to start this.  I woke up with a headache and tummy ache.  So breakfast is just for the boy today.  Eggs (Over Easy) with Bacon and Wheat Toast.  (Yes, I capitalized that as though it was a fancy breakfast option on some menu. Makes it sound more intriguing, in my opinion.)