I Thought This Would Be Easy

Last week at book club my friend, Alena, made some delicious chicken fajitas using homemade tortillas. I got there just as she was rolling out the tortillas and putting them in the fry pan. The woman was walking around the kitchen, talking to me, talking to her daughter, setting the table, and not even acting stressed. Jennifer said she wanted Alena to come over and teach her how to make them. Then we decided that on our next movie night we'd have Alena teach us all how to make them.

This is NOT Alena or any of the other ladies in my book club...

I was talking to Jon later and told him about the tortillas. It was so easy to do, why did I need to wait for Alena to show me how? Yah. So not what happened.

I went ahead and mixed the dough - it was a bit lumpy, but I figured that would work out.

I rolled a couple out and put them in the pan - they were entirely too thick. It was like eating an unlevened fry bread. Too dense, too dry, too uneatable.

Jon suggested getting out my pasta maker and rolling them through that. Great idea - not great results. Although I think that some of the problem was that he was cooking them too long. The directions did say that slow cooking would dry them out.

We ended up with flatbread ham and cheese sandwiches that literally crumbled on the first bite. Jon was taking the boys to a $1 movie so they were in a hurry. They were great sports, but I'm afraid that most of the sandwiches were slipped out the door to the dogs.

See how fluffy and bubbly and round these tortillas are? Mine didn't look like that.

Alena? HELP!

Project-itis or Spiffying Up My Space

I finished these back in September or October, but I haven't posted photos yet. A friend of mine said she saw something similar at Tai-Pan Trading, but I came up with this idea all on my own - no Tai-Pan inspiration...

Jon got our white couches in exchange for finishing a basement our 2nd Christmas in this house. I dreaded those couches and then finally decided to just work with them. They are a pain to keep clean, but everyone does their best.

I decided that my decorating motif for this room would be rustic elegance. I've tried to bring in some strong feminine elements as well as some masculine features - hence the 2x4s, 1x3s and plywood I used to complete these cornices (or are they valances?)

There are 3 of them. One hangs over the 6 ft window on the south side of the living room. The other two go over the 3 ft windows on the west side.

I spray painted the aluminum tiles with a champagney/coppery colored metallic base and then dabbed on the greenish-copper patina.

Then I stained the 2x4s and 1x3s with a mahogany stain.

Jon helped me screw them together. We mounted them on the walls with photo hangers. They are very light (big one probably weighs 15-20 lbs). If I decide to dress them up a bit more, I can put a tension rod inside each box and hang sheers.

Couple of things to finish up this room... I HATE the mantel. I'd like it to be deeper and wider. I also strongly dislike the tile around the fireplace and I'd like a book case on the wall where the ficus tree is. I'm also playing with idea of creating a coffee table out of the steamer trunk that sits on my front porch (came from Switzerland with Jon's Grandma when she was 8). 

Note the green table. That was a $5 DI find that I sanded and painted last spring. 

Sometimes I really do impress myself.

Lookin for Some Summer Magic

So - Friday afternoon.

Jon and Carson are doing a whitewater trip with Jon's brothers and some of the older cousins.

Evan's at a bday party.

Griffin's playing power ranger megablox in the basement.

I'm sitting here at my computer almost chilly with the ac and ceiling fan working so well, listening to the boys across the street - one is mowing the lawn, and the other is steam cleaning a rug on the driveway. Uh-oh must be doing something wrong - Mom just came running out...

As soon as Evan comes home we're going to head to Provo to swim with Grandma Norris. All right - I probably won't swim. I've got a couple magazines that I'm going to peruse poolside.

When Jon leaves town I typically find myself either making large purchases (china cabinets, kitchen faucets, hall book shelves) or undertake a project. This time I opted for the project. Got my supplies from Home Depot last night, everything gathered today, and am going to spray paint metal ceiling tiles this evening. Tomorrow morning I'll faux finish the tiles and stain the wood for the frame. Hopefully tomorrow evening I'll be putting everything together. I've had this particular project in mind for almost 2 years, so it's about time I got it finished. I'm hosting book club in two weeks - that's my motivator.

Anyway - what do you think the chances are that some sort of summer magic will whip through while I'm gone this afternoon, fold and put away laundry, and get everything painted and stained so that all I have to do is assemble? I'm thinking the chances are about as good as me rolling 6 ones in my next game of FARKLE...

Of all the...

You know those handy little single+ use tubes of super glue? Well, I don't think they're so handy.

In one of my less stellar mom moments last week, I accidentally broke the foot on one of Griff's Power Rangers. I promised I could fix it with Super Glue. So into my office we went and pulled out one of those handy tubes.

I fixed the foot - except that now it doesn't turn like it's supposed to. I told him that at least it was on and that sometimes parts of a Power Ranger don't work - just like the rest of us. I put the lid on the tube and put it on my desk.

A few minutes ago I decided to put it away - it's been busy around here with the big candy snagging event and all. Guess what - It was stuck to my desktop. The stupid thing leaked! No wonder the things are single use. You can't save them for next time.

I pried the container up off the table, but it's soft like a tube of toothpaste, and part of the tube decided to stay stuck on the desk. Remember that thumb that had the screwdriver shoved into it last week in a separate stellar mom moment? Well now it's covered with super glue that glopped out of the completely open tube. I don't dare bite off the dried glue (isn't that what you do when you get super glue on your fingers?) because I'm afraid I'm going to open up the wound. Don't even make me think about soaking the thing in nail polish remover because really how much would that hurt?

FANTABULOUS.

Stupid single use marketing ploy. There was too much in that tube to use at once anyway - unless of course I was trying to attach a bumper to a car or something.

Must be a Monday.

Look Wut I Did!

I've been on quite the domesticity kick lately. I'm quite impressed with myself! Honestly - I decided to take President Uchtdorf's talk to heart and get happy. Here's a smackling of what I've been up to...

Apple Sauce
My next door neighbor - Debbie - and I put up ~80 pounds of apples this year! We got ~48 quarts. I kept ~3 doz small macs (because I'll repeatedly tell you that this is the BEST type for applesauce) so that I can make carmel apples in the next couple of weeks. ~~At this point of my tome, if you can't tell that I love tildas, then you are missing something~~ This involves homemade carmel - not the kind you peel off the wrapper and melt. It's been very hard carmel in the past, so I'm anxious to see if I can make it better this year.

This photo is of the 2nd batch. The pink variety was created using apples from the Payson, Utah area (which were picked up by my incredible mom). The tan bottle was created using the last of the macs that my amazing niece, Natasha, picked up for me in the Logan area. Amazing to see the color difference, huh? The pink tint is what prevents some of my other nieces (I won't mention Courtney by name ;) ) from tasting this scrumptious treat.


Scout Shadow Box

Carson recently finished up Cub Scouts, and I had been collecting his miscellaneous scout paraphanalia in ziploc bags around the house. He asked me if I was going to do anything with all of the stuff, and it seemed so wrong to just toss it out. My local Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off sale on frames, so I picked this up for a mere $6.50! I found the cubscout paper at Roberts, and I raced home to put it all together. I'm still missing his compass points, but I think I saw them in the laundry room this morning...

Halloween Costume I'm not going to post a photo of this yet, but it'll show up in a couple of weeks. One of my favorite things to do is shop, so when Halloween costume ideas come up, I'm all about getting out there. I don't want to give too much away right now, but I found a leather jacket for $6 at Savers for Evan, and I sewed a down~right~fabulous cape using no pattern and 12" wide strips of two different types of black fabric for Carson. Griff's costume only requires the addition of ears to a past costume. Thank goodness for that costume box in the basement! Get this - Griff isn't even being the same Star Wars character that Carson used the costume for in the first place. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

Night Stand
Cory and Shannon gave me this night stand a few years ago. I've used the dickens out of it, but it was very unspectacular. Design Sponge has a weekly post of Before & After projects. I got to thinking about that little underappreciated night stand, and I was inspired!

Luckily you can't read the titles of the books in that little travel case. I don't think you need to know what type of smut may find it's way into my to-be-read pile. Actually ~ there isn't any smut there ~ just some of the futuristic sci-fi romance that I decided to try. It wasn't that great...

I forgot to take before photos, but you can see that the after is pretty dang adorable. I took a pillow sham from my new bed ensemble (which sprung my next project ~ pillows and window treatments from coordinating fabric ~ also found at Hobby Lobby) to Home Depot and had them match the paint color to one of the stripes. I also picked out a lovely, simple drawer pull. It took me a full evening to sand the thing down (I was also able to keep Griffin busy that morning by handing him a sanding sponge and telling him to have at it while I did a conference call for work ~ FABULOUS!).

I rolled the entire thing ~ this went against the advice of my professional painting hubby, but I can't paint with a brush for anything. A 4" roller worked just fine, thanks... OK - so I thought I'd done an all right job on the dental trim, but this photo reveals otherwise. Looks like I'm off to find a small paintbrush and do some touchups.

ANYWAY - I'm so in love with this little piece that I picked up an end table at DI for $10 and have started sanding it down. The problem with this one? The drawer pull is a 2-1/2" center instead of the standard 3". Not an easy fix. I'm wondering what two knobs would look like... Never fear, I will find a solution ~ assuming I keep up the energy for more projects.