DYI Stained Glass Windows

Sometimes you take on projects without realizing how they will be extremely time consuming. I wanted privacy in my room that I turned into a closet. This room faces the road so if you are getting changed and things you want privacy. I went on the internet and bought a magical product called Gallery Glass. As you can see in the above picture all the work I had to do was totally worth it in the end. I may have had a sore back and tired hands after 3 hours of doing this though.

Things you will need-
Windex
Gallery Glass (1.5 bottles per window)
Paper towel
Scissors
Knife
Putty scraper
Ladder
Tooth pick 
Drop cloth (not shown)

The main reason I wanted to do this project was to get rid of this gross white film we were forced to use. This film does the function of privacy well but it is ugly. From the road it completely whited out my windows. This was problematic because the rest of my windows on the front of my house were clear. Therefore, I had mismatched windows and it drove me crazy for about 2 years.

The first step was removing this white film. It took me a half hour and a lot of strength to remove this film. Make sure you have your drop cloth all set up under you ladder. Once removed you want to work on cleaning the windows and scrapping off any left over glue remaining from the film. I used the knife to start the process of peeling the film and the putty scraper to removed the left over glue. To remove stuck on glue I sprayed the window with Windex and scraped away the glue.

Now you will want to start applying the gallery glass to the windows. It looks and smells like glue. Do not freak out that it applies white and it will dry clear in about 8 hours. I applied it to the windows in a swirl pattern. As I went I would go back through and pop any bubbles that formed. I used the tooth pick to do this. As I was popping bubbles I would also add small circle patterns to the gallery glass using the tooth pick. This left my final product with a ton of awesome texture. If your gallery glass starts to run (as seen in the picture) it is okay. This product is easily removed with a paper towel piece if you get some on the frame of the window. You also should have a drop cloth or something on the floor in case you get some stray drips. In all it was not a messy project. The process of adding the gallery glass took me almost 3 hours with a break for lunch. I did take some tiny breaks because my mom came over to watch me work on this.

This is the finished product!
I have to do 3 more windows in this room. We also bought some really nice sheer window treatments to go over the windows. This way we have our privacy but still have natural light coming though. Overall I am rather happy about the outcome and now my windows will all be one uniform color from the road. Hope to do the rest of the windows soon.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily 

UPDATE: Finished the four windows with my hubby last night. I am so glad to be done with this project. The windows look fantastic but boy was it a ton of work. I would say this project took me 7 hours with 2 hours of help with my husband. Therefore, 9 hours in labor. I owe that man some cookies! 

Zesty Italian Pasta Salad

I am going to let you in on a secret. This is the most requested salad that I make. Hands down it is something my hubby requests the most. They make something similar at the local grocery store that they ask a ton of money for. My mom turned me onto making it myself and we have it all the time now. This salad is awesome because you can add really any veggies you want to it and it turns out fantastic.

Here is what you need:
2 boxes of pasta salad mix- I use an off brand but a good example is simply salad.
4 stalks of celery
1 cup of carrots (about 2 carrots)
1 cup of sweet peppers (about 4 peppers)
1 cup of tomatoes 
4 string cheese pieces
1/4 cup zesty Italian dressing

Optional toppings:
 Black olives, onion, avocado, broccoli or even cauliflower
The options are only as endless as your imagination. In this recipe I omitted the onion because I was making this with my nieces and nephew in mind. I usually always include it.

Start by boiling your two noodle packets. Follow the directions on the pasta salad box otherwise. I usually just cook them till they are done by tasting one or two pieces as they cook. Rinse the pasta in cold water to stop the cooking process. I usually throw them in my giant colander and run cold water over the noodles for a bit.

Time to cut up those peppers, celery, carrots, tomatoes and cheese!
Make sure everything is cut up into bite size pieces.Then add in the pasta to this mix in the
bowl.


We now want to make the salad dressing box dressing. Weew, that seems like a mouth full. There should be two dressing packets. In general they usually call for 3 tablespoons of cold water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil/vegetable oil each. Since you have two packets you want to double that. After mixing it should be a pretty green color. Mix that into your pasta  mix that is already in the bowl. Now here is my top secret trick.......

Zesty Italian dressing. You can buy any brand you wish but mix some in. Maybe about 1/4 a cup. Then right before serving add a little more to loosen up the pasta. It can sometimes dry out and adding a little here or there really helps stop the pasta from getting gummy.

Here is the final product. Is it not the most tasty looking thing? I made this for dinner last night for my family. They seemed to rather enjoy it. Even the little kids. I mean who does not love chunks of cheese in their salad?

I hope you love this salad as much as everyone I know does. I will be eating a huge helping for lunch today that is for sure.

XoXo Emily

Fresh Fruit Salad

 

Dinner tonight is to celebrate my mother in law's birthday that is this weekend. In celebration I will be sharing the side dishes I made in the next couple days here. This is a recipe my husband thought would be fantastic.  It is rather good I ate some (for scientific research of course) before putting it in the fridge last night.

Here is what you need:
3 apples-  I picked three different kinds to add different textures. Fuji, golden delicious and  red delicious. 
3 pears
2 limes
2 peaches- They are out of season right now so I used 2 cans of peaches. 
1/4 cup mint
1/4 cup honey 

Then you can chop up the peaches. This is what one can looks like in my bowl.

At this point you want to add some lime juice 1/2 a lime to the pear/peach mix to stop everything from browning while you work on the rest of the salad.

 This is what it will look like after you add all the pears, apples and peaches. Some thoughts on the apples. I like to cut mine in half, peel them to remove the skin and then chop them up omitting the core as I go.


Now you want to add the rest of the lime juice. You should have 1.5 limes left to go!

Time to add the sweet stuff. Add your 1/4 cup honey. Is my honey bear not the cutest thing ever? Once you add make sure you give the salad a good mix. This would be a good time to add any seasonings you want. I add a dash of salt to mine to bring out the flavors.

Time to chop up that 1/4 cup of mint. You can add or take away as you see fit. I am a mint lover so I tend to add a lot to my salads. This really ramps up the freshness of the salad and pulls it all together. You can really add mint to any fruit salad. In the summer I love the way it pairs with watermelon.



Then you want to mix and make sure that the mint is evenly distributed throughout the salad. 

Here is the finished product. Looks fantastic and ready to be shared by the family tonight.














I hope you can make this salad soon and take advantage of all those fall apples and pears that are in season right now. Remember fruit salad is so versatile you can omit or add all kinds of fruit.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Making the perfect bar cart.

Today we are going to talk about booze. 

Last year my husband (Ryan) and I decided we needed to have our things to make drinks upstairs where we host our parties. We had a full bar in the basement but it did not make sense for people to go into our basement to make a mixed drink and then have to come upstairs again. What is a girl to do to fix this you ask? I have a wonderful family and my mother supplied the cart minus the glass that was in it originally as that had long ago broke. My father in law makes butcher blocks and he made me two custom pieces to fit perfectly in the cart. We then proceeded to stain them in the bathroom since it was winter and I swear I almost died from the fumes. I also hand painted the cart itself and wheels because the cart was chipped/aged from sitting outside on my mom's porch for years. I think the cart itself turned out fantastic. 

But onto the booze!

Now that I had this amazing cart I had to stock it with everything you need to make some excellent drinks. 

 Here is what you need for staples-
Vodka- Smirnoff is a good option that is not crazy expensive. 
Southern Comfort- I use this to make my old fashions and add to hot drinks like cider. 
Gin- You need a good quality gin do not skimp and get the cheap stuff. Tanqueray is my favorite and I can buy a giant jug (seen here) at Sams Club for a decent price.
Whiskey- Our whiskey in this picture is wearing a packer cheese head. Can you tell we live in the land of green and gold? People will drink this on the rocks or with coke a lot of the time. We have a bottle of Kessler's currently. 
Brandy- I have a bottle of honey that I add to punch. 
Rum- This is a staple for people to mix with coke. 
Things not shown that you should think about having-
Tequila- People love this with juice or for shots. I am not a big fan so I do not regularly have it. 
Bourbon- Did you know this goes fantastic on ice cream? 

 Utensils that you will need-
Shot glasses- You may think you can make the perfect drink without it but some people need these to measure. (cough cough) me.
Shaker- My shaker works double time to hold all my mixing spoons when not in use. If you want a solid martini you need a good shaker. I have a great one that allows you to measure based on the drink you are making and has a built in strainer. 
Straws- I found this little gem of a straw holder at an antique show. 
Mixing spoons and stir rods- As you can see I have a bunch that I have accumulated. I know it is October but my snowmen get used year round. 
Ice bucket- To hold ice. I am not a fan of people digging in my freezer to get ice. I have an ice maker but it is in my freezer which is silly I know. I found this bucket in the same place I got the straw holder. What a steal! 
Wine opener- I have a great electric opener I received as a wine gift. I try to hide it in the corner of the cart because it is boring looking.

 This is an image of my bottle opener and an old school shot measure stick (I am not sure if that is the technical term for that item but I will call it that anyway).

 This is a good image of the total cart. Why is there a sugar bowl you ask? That is for the most delicious old fashions of course. Plus it looks cute on the cart. 

Storage is important on a cart and you want to use the space wisely. The bottom of the cart houses the glasses we use the least. The majority of our glasses are in the kitchen. As you can see margarita glasses take up a ton of space.

I hope if you take the time to make your own bar cart or bar in general this will be helpful to you. 

XoXo Emily

Time.

Time is an interesting thing. It trickles by so fast that before you realize it you have had a year pass you by. I need to get back into crafting and blogging.

So.. Let us start with a general life update before we start with my millions of craft updates shall we? 
#1: I am married now to my wonderful supportive husband for two years now. what what!
#2: I went on a life journey and lost 50 pounds. I eat pretty healthy now and am addicted to Zumba.
#3: I got a new car. HELLO Duke. Pictured below.  He is a 2014 MINI Cooper S. I am also slightly addicted to him.

 Crafting/cooking/baking. Get reading for a ton of fun new posts on these topics. I have started having more time since summer settled down to start doing things again. yippy!
XoXo Emily

Happy Birthday America!

Fourth of July nails.

Boy, do I love fireworks and GLITTER!

DYI Cake Stand

 

 

I found the best DYI project yet. I went thrifting today with an amazing friend Katie and we found the best plates for this!

This is what you need:
plates
candlesticks, goblets or wine glasses
E6000 glue

 

Super easy, this is what you do.

 

Step one: Wash your plate and candlestick
Step two: Using a qtip apply a thin layer of glue onto the rim of the candlestick. Make sure it is not a lot of glue. A little goes along way.
Step three: attach the candlestick to the plate. Be mindful that everything is lined up.
Step four: Place something heavy on top of the plate. Let it sit for 24 hours before using your gorgeous creation.

 

Beautiful right!!! Hope this inspires you to do some crafting of your own.

Until next time, happy crafting.

XoXo Emily