Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Meet Jaqueline

...


I know, most people don't name their furniture, but I thought she was so charming she needed a name. She just looks like a Jaqueline to me, with her curved bottom and long thin legs.



When I first saw her she had a terrible paint job but I knew I could make her pretty again. I picked a caribbean blue and removed her charming knobs to spray them black.

I think she looks just lovely now.

Homemade Salsa


I made homemade salsa for the first time and it was actually very easy!

I love my new (old) food scale I won off of ebay for 99 cents. (Not necessary for making salsa, I just wanted to take a picture of it.)

Here is the recipe developed by my neighbor Jennifer:

1 bunch cilantro
6 cups onions
1 gallon tomatoes (16 cups)(boil for 1 min., plunge in ice bath, then peel off skins)
2 cans tomato paste (12 oz)
juice from 3 limes
8 cloves garlic
3 jalepanos
12-15 tomatillos
1/2 C vinegar
1T cumin
3T salt
1T sugar

Chop everything in the food processor. This is delicious fresh or you can process it for jars. Makes 7 quarts.

I would have made this sooner if I'd known how easy it was, and it is sooooo good!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Painted Chandelier Pillow


This is my second freezer paper pillow, which was much more time consuming, but not difficult. I copied the chandelier design onto freezer paper and then very carefully cut out the design. This was the most difficult part, trying not to cut anything off. I ironed the freezer paper right onto my square of white fabric. I used a foam brush to fill in the design with black acrylic paint and carefully peeled off the paper so as not to get paint all over the pillow. I then finished the pillow normally with stuffing and stitched the opening closed. This was a really fun project. I love this freezer paper method, you can transfer just about any image this way and make a unique item for your decor.