DIY Mugs

I read on pinterest (what good convo doesn't start with this nowadays?!) That if you use sharpies on an oven safe mug then bake it in the oven, it will permanently be on there. NO! NOT TRUE. I even put the cup in a cold oven and let it preheat in there too. Still washed off. So I was in search of a good but still affordable ceramic pen so I can start making mugs and selling them or really more like give them as gifts! I used Elmer's Opaque Paint Markers.

So apparently just letting it sit and dry is not the way to do it... this is what it looked like after one wash:

So I decided to try it again and this time put the cups in a cool oven (on a cookie sheet) and preheat the oven to 300º and cook them for 30 min. After that let them cool in the oven as well. This is what they looked like after one wash:

Not bad. Much better but you can still see were some of the paint kinda faded... (look at the M in Mrs.)

Best Roasted Chicken Ever.

When I was younger, my mom always loved buying the roasted chickens from Sam's. They were the cheapest AND the BIGGEST. When I grew up and lived on my own with my child and significant other, my friend gave me a recipe for that because I wanted to save money. This costs the same but you get way more chicken, it's fresh (juicy and not dried out), and easy.

What is important here is that I had to change the cooking time and temp to fit MY GAS STOVE. She had electric and cooked @ 400º for 2 hours. When I did that it was the driest thing ever BUT I DIDN'T GIVE UP! The next time I did it for 1.5 hours @ 350º there we go! I tested to make sure the chicken was cooked all the way by cutting the breast (the thickest part) and making sure the was NO PINK.

1) Preheat to 350º

2) Rinse the chicken and pull out the gizzard and neck. Why we wash chicken, I have no idea but I was always told to.

3) Put the chicken in a pan and mix the seasonings and butter together and spread or mealt the butter for 10 seconds in the microwave and pour slowly on top. Works best if the chicken is still a bit frozen because then its colder and everything sticks better. I also add fresh basil on top for more flavors.

4) Cook for 1.5 hours then test by cutting the breast (because it's the thickest part) and making sure the is NO PINK!
       4a) If there is, stick it back in there for 15-20 minutes until you have no more pink.
       4b) If there is NOT, take out and enjoy. Don't forget that there is lots more meat on the back too!

Yellow Four Poster Bed Make-Over!

There are three things that I decided, as a child, that make a home ever so elegant: wing-back chairs, coat racks, and a four poster beds. I have the wing back chair (thanks to cheap CL). And now I have my bed! (Also thanks to CL) The lady originally wanted $175 for the frame alone so since I had the CL app I just put it in my favs and watched it. After it was there for over a week I decided to email her and to make a long story short she gave me the bed for $50!

It was pretty scratched up otherwise I would have kept it the original cherry color. I had seen that colored furniture was really becoming "in" so I decided to paint it. Yellow it was!

Because it was a dark color and I didn't want to sand it, I made sure I primed it well. There were so many nooks and crannys, so I used spray paint for both the primer and actual paint. Rustoleum Yellow Sun Gloss was my color. Not too orange and not too green. Juuuust right! What do you think??

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Trunk

In a previous post I said that I love to go driving around the neighborhood the weekend before heavy trash because people throw out things they don't want to deal with anymore. Well I'm sure who ever came up with the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure did such a thing. I found a great trunk! For the most part, it was in great shape! But it had gold rusted metal on it... so I decided that I'd paint it.

Materials:

• Rustoleum's Metallic silver
• Regular masking tape
• 2 trash bags
• Valspar (Lowe's) Antiquing Glaze

BEFORE:

I started off with the hardest, monotonous, most time consuming part. Prepping: taping off what I don't want painted. At first I was tearing the masking tape but of course I wasn't getting the shapes I wanted so my husband had a great idea about using a razor blade. I overlapped the tape on the metal then carefully cut away what I didn't need.

 

Then came the easy part: spray painting it. When spray painting anything, you need to make sure you're not too close because then you'll get drippies (that's my scientific word). Less is more! If you need to go back over with a second coat! I did in the very rusty sections. I let it dry over night.

While I still had tape on, I got a damp rag and wiped on the glaze, making sure I got it in every nook and cranny. I then wiped it off as I went along. I let that dry for maybe a couple of hours while I made supper.

Then next step I took I don't know if it was necessary.  I put a coat of clear satin polyurethane and let dry over night.

Last and final was the big reveal... taking off the tape. I'm not exactly happy with the brown and aged silver so I might end up staining the leather so it's darker or I might just paint it a different color. Suggestions?

  

 

After:

 

 

My Outdated Teacher's Desk

I was given an older oak desk many years ago and just couldn't part with it no mater how many times I moved and how heavy it really was because I know how expensive desks are... Just a cheap rinky-dink one was $100!!! SO I kept it. Because of Pinterest I decided to paint it. YAY!

 

I started by sanding it down because it was rough in some places. That took awhile even with an electric sander just because this desk is just so big! During this time I decided that the old wood handles were so lame BUT I ran into a big problem... The original handles were a single hole and the new handles were a double hole. So I filled it in with paintable woodfiller and made new holes. (Please don't say anything about the mess!!! This is actually the only before picture I have!!!)

 

After I sanded it, of course I primed it. My son decided he wanted to help with this process.

 

Then I painted it! Looks much better!

Diy Facewash

So I hate to admit but I'm not far from 30 years old and I still get pimples/acne. Sine I'm really into DIY things AND natural stuff. I looked inti washing my face with an oil/castor oil mix and found that I didn't even know that my face hurt from the dryness untill there was a lackthereof! BUT I didn't see much of a change otherwise.

So I was on Pinterest (surprise surprise! ) and found a recipe of coconut oil and baking soda. I figured I had both so why not?! (I use it to cook and as a diaper rash cream..  but I put it in separate containers!) It works basically the same BUT the baking soda acts as a scrub. It is very fine and works great!

I used a 2 to 1 ratio and after I mixed it, it became fluffy! If you have ever used coconut oil you kniw that when it is room temperature, its solid and when you get it on your skin, it turns to silk... ok no really but geeze it feels like it!