"Spring" Garden Sign

I consider myself a bit of a crafter, and I am always making silly things to hang around the house. Last year I made a "Happy Harvest" sign for my front porch that Craig loved, so I decided to make a Spring sign for this lovely season =] Below is the tutorial.






Happy Spring!
Let's get started, shall we?!




First, I found a small piece of wood. Craig has a ton of scraps laying around so I just help myself to them =]

I sanded the edges and rounded the corners with a piece of sandpaper because I am a splinter-magnet. Then I chose my bottom color (which will be the color of the letters) and just put one coat on the wood. For this color I chose "appletini" by Behr.

Next, I layed down some vinyl letters to spell out my word. I put them in a stair-step type pattern (which isn't shown in this picture, because I changed it right after!) but you can do it however you want it! I just get my letters at the dollar store, but you can order all sorts off different fonts and what not online, just do a quick Google search!

Then I painted over the vinyl letters with my top coat. I chose "Lavender Romance" by Behr (their samples are only about $4 at any of your local hardware stores!)

 

After that, I outlined the letters with a Tiffany Blue from my crafters paintset I got last year.

Now you can paint your little designs, flowers, vines, whatever on your sign while the outline dries!

When you are done, peel off your vinyl letters!

Now Mod Podge the crapola out of that bad boy so you can display it outside!

Finished product. I still have to go outside and find a stake to nail to it so I can stick it in my wine barrel I use as a planter. You could also use a staple gun and put some wire on the back to hang it outside your door or anywhere else on your house. Super easy! Go have fun =]

7 Days of Pinterest Dinners

Okay, so I have been doing the meal planning thing for about a year now. It's just easier to know exactly what you're going to make and that you have everything you need to make it. Sometimes, however, you will find a recipe that looks AWESOME! Only to find out that it tastes like crap =[

So, I took to Pinterest. Where everybody shares everything with everyone. I clicked on the "Food and Drink" category and the angels descended from heaven with a choir singing hymns of recipe utopia. There were soooo many delicious recipes with pictures I was instantly pinning everything. So I made up a list of seven things that their respective pinners had said "best ever!" "never making a different recipe again!" "Oh my gosh it was soooo delicious!"

So here is my list of seven Pinterest recipes and my reviews =]


MONDAY:

Honey-Glazed Salmon with Brown Butter Lime Sauce

This recipe was linked to Cooking Classy (Click for the recipe).

This salmon was the most AMAZING fish I have ever had. It reminded me of a honey-baked ham at Christmastime and it was perfectly crunchy on the outside, and moist on the inside. Craig loved this recipe, and I even got Jacob to try it....Jacob, who wont eat any meat other than chicken nuggets. All in all it was VERY easy to make, not time consuming at all, little to no mess, and a crowd pleaser =] I will recommend this recipe to everyone, andddd I got my salmon fillets on sale at Wally World for like 4 bucks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY

 

Crock Pot Ribs

 

 

Okay, this recipe was the best ribs I have ever had. I didn't buy enough to satisy all of our hunger though, as all of us wanted seconds and thirds! I highly, highly recommend trying this out...so here is the recipe, it is located at garnishwithlemon.com....just click on the link and it will take you directly to it!

 

 

 

Wednesday

 

Smothered chicken with creamed spinach sauce and mushrooms.

 

What can I say other than "Yum YUM OH MY GOSH YUM!!!" ??

Craig said "I would pay a lot of money to eat this at a nice resturaunt!" It was seriously so perfectly delicious I was eating it super slow just to savor the moment that I had cooked such a fabulous meal! The spinach sauce suprisingly doesn't take very long to make at ALL and it was so moist and lovely =] Here is the recipe, <<----click here and it will take you right to Cooking Recipe Central!

 

Thursday

 

Oven Baked Fajitas

 

So this was supposed to be oven-baked fajita night, but my other (goofier) half decided to use the dinner ingredients to whip him up a first class lunch! I get out of the shower and he asks me if I want a "burrito thingy"...........

"What did you make the 'burrito thingy' out of?"

"Oh just all the crap I found in the fridge and stuff"

*FACEPALM*

 

Long story short, we didn't get to try the fajitas "oven baked" style, but we did get to eat them for lunch AND dinner....

oh and Craig felt really bad, poor guy!

 

 

 

Friday

 

Oven-Baked Tacos

 

Oven-baked tacos ended up being a taco salad tonight! The idea is great, and although the lady who created this recipe says hers didn't fall apart, almost all the comments say their's did, lol. I even let the meat cook all the way down the way she suggested. While putting the shells in the baking dish and filling them with meat, it was a little like playing Jenga....one fell over and the entire stack went ha. They were delicious!! Don't get me wrong.....but next time I am just doing regular tacos ;)

 

Here is the Recipe!! 

 

 

 

 

 Saturday

 

Creamy Chicken and Tomato Soup

 

This was pretty good, but I think if I ever make it again I will change a couple of things.

For one, it calls for coconut milk. I didn't really care for it that much but Craig did.....I think next time I will just use sweetened condensed milk. The next thing is her recipe says one jar of your favorite tomato sauce, so I bought tomato sauce. After reading the comments under her recipe it was unanymous that she probably ment marinara sauce, like the kind you use for spaghetti. Her picture looks more "tomato-ey" than mine did, so I am assuming that it ment marinara. Overall it was a very good soup! I pre-cooked my chicken breasts because I'm weird about meat lol. Anyway, try it!

 

You can find the recipe HERE!

 

 

 

 

Sunday

 

Asparagus and Chicken Noodle Casserole

 

This was a VERY good casserole! I always find myself buying those boxed "Homestyle Bakes" because it's convenient when you are jammed for time, this was like a Homestyle Bake, but like a million trillion times better!! Watch his video that instructs you on the recipe, and you will feel like a chef ;)

 

Recipe is right Hurr!!

 

 

 



 

 

 

So that concludes my seven days of Pinterest challenge! It was really really fun, I suggest you try it....you can never learn too much about cooking, and it's always nice to step outside the boring day to day dinner box.

 

 

Enjoy!