Friday, October 28, 2011

Repairing Cooler with Loctite

Well, silly me, I bought a cooler that was missing a screw.  Shortly there after, another screw fell out.  The hub inserted 2 new screws and those eventually came out.  It was time to fix it right!


I bought some Loctite:


Squeezed it in the holes and all around and re-inserted the screws:


Let dry, overnight, and the cooler has more life!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Wall (Door) Savers

We bought our house three years ago from a couple that 'flipped it'.  You will notice that we are fixing some of their quick fixes.  One problem was that they installed door stoppers on all the doors.


Well, this is what the door stoppers did to a few of our doors.  


Instead of replacing the door, I stuck a wall saver over the hole.  These can be painted over when we paint and will not be as noticeable.  I don't mind, I won't be buying new doors any time soon!


I also put one up on the wall behind the door knob since I removed the door stopper.



Quilt Square Idea

I have made quilts in the past.  I will post them later if I can find pictures.  I have a few that I will start in the near future...

I desperately need a new one for the bedroom.  I am currently sleeping with a rag.  (When I say rag, I really mean rag, it has more holes in it than swiss cheese.)  
I am making one from Steeler fabric for a throw for the family/Steeler room.
I am making one for the spare bedroom.  
I may even make a Christmas one!

We don't have many fabrics stores around these days.  I had a heck of a time finding fabrics that I liked.  I did find a small fabric store that I did not know existed.  It's a cute little mom and pop place that is run by a cute older couple.  They don't have a large selection but they have a lot of collections which was what I wanted.  I found a great collection that I am using for the spare room.  Lots of different fabrics that I can make accents for the room as well.

For our bedroom:

For the spare room:


Throw for the Family/Steeler Room:


The owners were so cute and nice, the wife gave me this great idea for a pattern!  I know there are tons of patterns out there but I really wanted something quite easy.  My mother used to do all kinds of patterns, I am not too sure how she had that much patience.  She also used to sew all of the piece by hand.  I am using a sewing machine!  I am demonstrating the pattern in the next few photos.

1.  Make a 9 square block, I will be using 5 inch squares to create my block:


2.  Cut along the center lines both horizontally and vertically:


3.  Rearrange like so:


Cannot wait until they are done.  I am almost finished cutting to start the first one.  

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A few more Halloween Decorations

If I can find witches at 50% off, I'm sold!  LOL!



Chicken Paprikash

Baby, It's Cold Outside...

Paprikash Time!



I use my Super Easy Shredded Chicken in this recipe!

I used to make the gravy and spend hours making this.  I have since started using short cuts.  It takes long enough to make the dumplings!  It tastes just as great!

Ingredients
Paprikash Sauce
4 shredded chicken breasts, refer to recipe link above
1 can chicken broth, I used what was left from my shredded chicken (14 3/4 oz size)
2 cans cream of chicken soup (14 3/4 oz. size)
16 oz. sour cream, I usually add a little bit more more like 20 oz.  (love sour cream)
2 tsp Garlic Powder
2 tsp Onion Powder
2 tsp Black Pepper, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
3 Tbsp Sweet Hungarian Paprika

Dumplings
4 1/2 cups flour
6 large eggs
3 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk


To Prepare Sauce:
1.  I start with the Shredded Chicken in the crock pot, I usually make extra so I take out the extra chicken that I don't need, shred and freeze it.  I keep some of the broth that I don't use in my freezer containers.
2.  Add cream of chicken soup, sour cream, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, pepper and salt.  Mix and turn the crock pot back on to heat.


Prepare the dumplings:
1.  Fill pot with water, bring to boil.
2.  While waiting for water to boil, mix flour, eggs, baking powder and milk in a mixing bowl.
3.  Once water in boiling, using 2 spoons (one in each hand) add small spoonfuls to boiling water.  I use the second spoon to portion off the other to have small drops going into water.  They do expand when cooking. I sometimes have to take a large slotted spoon and cut them in half.  I've heard that they are supposed to be done when they float, but this is not the case when I make them.  I fill the pot until there is no more room at the water line and let each batch boil for 5 minutes and use a slotted spoon to spoon them out and put in strainer.
4.  Once all dumplings are made, I put into a separate bowl and mix with a few spoon fulls of sauce , enough to coat all the dumplings.  I do this so they don't stick together.  I keep them separate from the sauce because I eat the paprikash over egg noodles.  I'm not a dumplings fan, although everyone else int he family is!

To Serve:
Serve Sauce over dumplings or egg noodles.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Halloween Wreath

Bought some Halloween ornaments and a black wreath at 50% off!  Of course, they are of the witch-y nature!

I hung the ornaments on the wreath and used the stems of the wreath to wrap on secure them in place.  I accented with a green glitter bow.  The colors look much better than the picture depicts!


Fun Bathroom Decor

I saw this great idea at http://papernstitchblog.com:

I loved it and had a friend make one for me using her Cricut and vinyl sticker sheets.

Tip:  You need to use the Transfer Tape to make sure it stays in line/straight.

Love it!

Other possibilities:
Watch Your Step
Slippery When Wet

Monday, October 24, 2011

Wall Savers for Shower Rod

We have a tension rod in the bathroom for the shower rod.  We have had problems in the past where the rod would take off the paint on the walls.  Well, some serious paint and some dry wall came off the walls when someone fell in the shower and took the shower curtain and rod down with him.

I remedied the situation by using wall savers made for walls behind door knobs.  I painted them with Krylon
Brushed Satin Nickel Metallic Spraypaint, same as I used for my freshly painted Door Knobs:





Use Caulk for Crisp Lines When Painting; Caulking Tips

Nice crisp lines really make your paint job stand out.  Especially when you have a large contrast in color, like we had in our bathroom where we painted the walls brown and the trim white.  I had difficulty keeping the lines straight because...

1.  I lack patience.
2.  There was lots of paint build up around the window.
3.  The tiles in the shower were crooked where the tiles lined up on a corner with the drywall.

An example of a problem area because of paint build up:


My solution is to caulk straight edges.  I taped off the area to caulk, this would ensure that my caulk lines were straight.  (I did not have luck with taping when painting, it did not matter what kind of tape I used, it did not work out well!)



The finished product:




Nice, crisp lines.  Makes the paint job look professional.I am very pleased with the results.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Door Knob Makeover

We redecorated the upstairs bathroom a while back and it was still in need of some finishing touches.  I will be blogging about them over the next few days...

Did I tell you how much I hated painting?  Well, I do.  I have been putting off fixing some painting 'oops' for a while...mostly because I hate painting and secondly because the weather was nice and I refuse to do the winter jobs when I can be outside.

Anywho...

We did not take off the door knobs when we painted the doors.  Paint on door knobs is not appealing.  Lesson learned!  We will be taking them off from now on.  Well, I took them off and sprayed painted them with Krylon Brushed Nickel Metallic spraypaint.  Who like's those cheapy gold colored door knobs anyway?

Yucky Gold Door Knob

+

Spraypaint

=





Saturday, October 22, 2011

My First Stab at Knitting

My Grandmother taught me a few different crochet stitches when I was young (which I need to re-learn) but I have never knitted.  Well, I found this cool rug project that I want to make (more on that later...) and it was knitted.  They I did a few google searches until I came across some step by step knitting guides.  (I will post those later as well...)  I wanted the pictures and instructions, no video.  I had a hard enough time scrolling up and down when I was in the middle of it, who wants to have to pause, rewind, play, pause, rewind, play?

Anywho- After only an hour (or so...lol)...I have this...

So proud!  =)

Friday, October 21, 2011

Classic Simon App

When it says Simon, it means Simon. You know, the flashing lights game...Simon.  Steel likes it, of course!  It was free and it has kept him busy on a couple occasions.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/classic-simon/com.neilneil.android.games.simonclassic


Steel's Kindergarten Picture


I cannot stop laughing!  
This has to be the funniest picture ever!  
It had to be absolute torture to smile!  

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Dog Tag #2

And here we go...the Original that I was talking about yesterday...

A little background:
The hub pretends he doesn't like Puppy.  (We have caught him acting otherwise!!!)  But if Puppy ever ended up 'lost' it would definitely be the hub's fault!

On to Puppy's new dog tag...


Allrecipes App

Allrecipes.com is my fav recipe site.  I love to look for ideas.  I sometimes take a number of recipes and combine them into one delish dish.

Well, of course, it has it's own app as well!  It's a must!  Check it out here...  Allrecipes App


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Dog Tag #1

I found this super cute idea on Etsy from Billets Doux.  She is selling them but I made one.  Mine looks a bit rough, as it has been a while since I stamped but it just adds to the character, right?!  =)

This is for our crazy Licker, Puppy...



Tune in tomorrow for an Original...Can't wait...lol

Starfall.com and App

I found this website http://www.starfall.com/ a few years back.  Steel used to play on it constantly when he was first learning to use the computer.  He had to have been about 2, as he had he own computer since he was 3.  (That was more out of convenience than anything, Steel would be on my laptop and Daddy would be on his and Mommy sat here with nothing.  So, Daddy went and bought Mommy a new laptop!  That was 3 years ago!  Wow!)  Anyhow, I was pleasantly surprised when Steel came home from school one day and asked if I could put that website on his computer 'with the dragon' as he called it.  (There's a story on there with a dragon in it.)  I guess his teacher had it on at school that day.  Well, I thought I would post on it.  There's activities for all levels on there starting with learning letters on up to little readers.

I, also, just noticed that they have a few apps.  The Starfall App is only out for iphone, no android yet!  They do have a Starfall Snowman App and a Starfall Gingerbread App for android (and iphone) but they are $0.99 each.  I'm still sticking to my no pay rule for apps but someone out there may be interested...

Check er out!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Can Stilts

I had a pair of can stilts that my grandmother made for me out of cans when I was younger.  I loved them, so I decided to make a pair for Steel.

I used two left over cans from Steel's party.  I did not have a can opener, the kind that you use to puncture triangles into the top of can lids.  So I went and purchase one for 99 cents.  It seemed like a good idea at the time until it broke on the first hole I made into the cans.  With a little elbow grease, I managed to get 3 more holes and finish my little project.

Materials
2 quart sized paint cans (or larger 28oz. tomato sauce cans would work nicely)
Rope (approximately 36 inches for each can)
Can opener (the kind described above)


The How To
1.  Turn cans upside down so that the bottom of the can is facing upward and the opening is pointing down.  Use can opener to poke triangular holes into the sides of cans at the top edge(Hopefully, you will not break your can opener.)


2.  Cut two pieces of rope, equal in size, one for each can.  This measurement is dependent on the height of the child.  You want to make sure that it is long enough so that the child does not have to bend over to hold on to the rope but short enough that they won't need to pull the ropes over their heads.

3.  Insert ends of rope into each hole of a can and push through.


4.  Tie a knot and tighten.


5.  Pull the rope back through so that the knot is inside the can and the rope (handle) is outside.


6.  Let the fun begin!  Steel was not being cooperative and demonstrate so that I could take a picture so for those of you that have never seen these I will try to explain how to use them.

How They Work:
     1.  Child places foot, preferably with shoes on, on the bottom of can (now the top).
     2.  Child, then, grasps rope with hand of same side as foot.  (Ex.  Right foot, right hand)
     3.  Repeat for other foot and hand.
     4.  Pull up with rope to lift can and foot and move forward alternating sides as walking.

It takes a bit of concentration at first but it's a fun activity!

Chicken and Mushroom Casserole


Ingredients:
2 - 8oz. pkgs of mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. wide egg noodles, cooked and strained
2 sticks of margarine
3 chicken breasts, shredded (see Super Easy Shredded Chicken)
2 cans condensed chicken and mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups sour cream
2 sleeves of ritz crackers (or similar)

To Prepare:
1.  Clean and saute mushroom in sauce pan with 1 stick of margarine.  Once complete, remove from pan with slotted spoon, keeping the remaining margarine in the pan.


2.  Prepare noodles as mushrooms are cooking.

3.  Once mushrooms and noodles are ready, add mushrooms, chicken, soup, noodles and sour cream to oblong baking pan and mix thoroughly. 


4.  Taking remaining margarine from the mushrooms, melt the additional stick of margarine (or butter).  

5.  Crush the 2 sleeves of crackers and add to margarine and coat thoroughly.  

6.  Add mixture to top of baking pan on top of the chicken and noodle mixture.


7.  Bake for 40 minutes at 375°F.  Or until edges of crackers are golden brown.