DIY Tuesday: Hot Pots

This is the cheapest and easiest DIY ever. Ever, I say! 

So lots of these pinterest posts about drawing on sharpie and sticking it in the oven have been popping up lately. This is supposed to make it super permanent and food safe.

 I call BS. LIES I SAY! I call BS on a lot of pinterest pins, usually I can look them up to prove my skepticism. This was no exception. I looked it up and this lovely lady did the research for me.

 http://dsmartin.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/sharpies-on-ceramics/

TL;DR: 

She tested a bunch of markers by writing on a tile then baking them. They all sucked, but the silver sharpie and regular sharpie did OK. Took heavy scrubbing to get them off. And I seriously doubt the food safe aspect of any sharpie/food contact. 

I knew that I wanted to make some trivets, and this method would be perfect. They are not going to be submersed in water, scrubbed or abused in any way. They might get wiped off if some food gets spilled on them. No biggie, not enough to take off the baked on marker judging by the above post. 

So I went to Home Depot and grabbed some plain white tiles for 48 cents a pop. Everything else I already owned, so this project cost just under 4 dollars. Winning. (Yep, just Charlie Sheen-d it up in here.)

I knew that I wanted to messy scribble some mid century inspired  patterns on the tiles, so I pinned a bunch of patterns that spoke to me. 

I doodled on some paper so that I could have an idea of how I was going to draw these patterns. I didn't worry about making them perfect, I wanted them to look kinda nuts. I'm nuts, so naturally my trivets need to match that. 

Then I took a deep breath and scribbled on my tiles.

 It was fun, except I'm left handed and I forgot to be careful about smearing a couple of times. You would think that I would have learned that by now. But the sharpie just wipes off or scrapes off easily. 

MOM- It's my hand! (My mom likes seeing my hand on the blog)

Then I put them in a COLD oven, turned it to 350 and left it on for 30 minutes once it was pre-heated. Then I turned it off and let them cool for a long time--overnight since I am lazy bones. 

They look great and the sharpie seems really baked on there. Time will tell.

 I then cut out some felt squares out of some jewel toned felt and hot glued them on the back of the tiles. Done and done! I like how you can see the felt peeking out from underneath, but they look crisp and high contrast from the top. 

I also like the way they look stacked in the cabinet. It's the little things. 

Inspiration Monday: Chairs

I think that I am the most picky chair person ever. I can find tables that I like, sofas, anything that I like--in our price range--except dining chairs. The ones that I have now were a goodwill find that I recovered and painted white. I do like them, but now I need four more for our new table and Thanksgiving. Not easy when they are from goodwill. I have been searching for 8 chairs at an affordable price for a while now, no luck. I do like the mismatched chair look, but I think that 8 different chairs would look much, much better than 4 white matching chairs and 4 random. Here's an example of mismatched chairs done right: 

Mine would not look this great. At. All. And we want a permanent, good looking solution like the one above or all matching chairs, instead of a crazy mishmash. That might be FAR in the future. 

I'm thinking--unless I find a goodwill MIRACLE, that at Thanksgiving we will be sitting in four white chairs, two outside bistro set chairs, one side chair, and a random chair that I will pick up sometime. Deal with it. All buts will have a place and the table will be large enough to hold all of the food. Done. 

Long in the future, here's some inspiration chairs that I would want to consider: 

These Eames inspired chairs are great, and the husband would like that they have arms. 

Ideally, they would be mixed with the arm-less version. Like this: 

Alternatively, there are some lovely wood options out there: 

And even upholstered ones: 

I'm not going to tell you the price of any of these, because this is a DREAM post. A girl can dream, right? 

Adventure Time Friday: Vacation Picture Dump

Here's what we did back in the old C. O. 

Went to the Butterfly Pavilion. I HELD ROSIE!!! (I got a sticker for it)

Got De-lish food at Lucille's in Fort Collins for our anniversary lunch. 

Saw Book of Mormon, which might be the best thing ever. 

Husband at Book of Mormon. 

Got my nails did. 

Got drinks at the Mayor. 

Then did the old town dancing thing with my gals. 

Did jump pictures at the bbq. For a long time. 

Friends just hanging. 

Water gun fight escalated to a water throwing fight. 

Then water gun wrestling. 

We drove up and saw the fire damage at Horsetooth. Not too far from our house, which is crazy to think about. 

It was an amazing trip with amazing people. Now you guys come visit us! 

Booze Thursday: Back to the Classics

It was great to get some Colorado beers that we haven't had for a while. Here's what I ingested while we were in Colorado. Call this the list of Sheridan's favorite Colorado beers: 

Avery's White Rascal



Just like the can says, it's a Belgian style white ale brewed with spices. And it is amazing. (The can doesn't say that...)

Grimm Brother's Snow Drop 



This beer is a honey wheat beer. Grimm works on brewing old/lost beer recipes, and I love everything they do. 

New Belgium Peach Porch Lounger



This beer is the latest in the much loved Lips of Faith series. It is not very peachy, but very refreshing. 



They are all wheat or light tasting beers. This was the last weekend of summer and just like you can't wear white after Labor Day, I can't drink wheats after Labor Day! Just kidding, but I do like to fit my drinking with the seasons. It's going to be time for porters and stouts VERY soon! 

Good Eats Wednesday: Pretzel Caramel Chocolate Salt

The title of this post makes me drool. So does this recipe. It's Pretzel Caramel Chocolate Salt Bark. So good, and so easy. I grabbed this off of Pinterest the other day and I couldn't stop thinking about the salty-sweet combination. So I made it. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. 

Melt 2 sticks of butter in a saucepan (oh yeah, this is serious), then add 1 cup brown sugar. Simmer for about 3 minutes, or until the caramel starts sticking together. Don't overcook it, less time is better than too much time. 

Put a layer of foil on a baking sheet, then arrange a single layer of pretzels in the pan. When the caramel is ready, drizzle evenly over the pretzels. Bake for 5 minutes. 

As soon as it comes out, grab some dark semi-sweet chocolate chips and sprinkle over the caramel. Let melt for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with some salt, not too much, but enough to make an impact! 

Stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes to harden. Then peel off of the foil, breaking into pieces as you go. 

Voila!! It's amazingly sinful. 

DIY Tuesday: Denim, Denim, Denim, Denim, Denim

So I had two pairs of jeans that I like a lot, but they were too light for me. I decided to dye them darker.  The skinny jeans had some weird fading on parts, and the boot cut jeans had some whisker marks on the top area that were unflattering. 

I took the jeans and got them all wet. Make sure that they are soaked. 

Then I set the washer to small load, hot water, and let it fill up. I even poured two electric kettles full of boiling water in. I pulled the knob out to stop the cycle when it stopped filling and started agitating. 

I then added 1 package navy blue RIT dye, and 1 package black dye. I wanted them dark. 

I then threw the pants in the washer and let it sit for an hour. Then I pushed the knob back in and the cycle went on. When it was done, I put them through another wash and then dried them in the sun (because I'm not a big fan of dryer dried jeans) Voila! 

I think this picture makes them look lighter than they are in person. In person they are a dark dark denim. They look much better. 

Inspiration Monday: NW Trips

Since we now live in the beautiful Northwest, we are so ready to take a bunch of fun trips in the area. It's just so close to SO many things. Here's what we have in mind:

1) Seattle.We would love to take a weekend to spend up there, exploring the coast, downtown Seattle, and the surrounding areas. 

2) Vancouver, Canada. I want to do a backpacking trip in the summer, but I would love to do a winter trip to get in our snow cravings that we are sure to have. 

3) Whale Watching. December is the peak whale watching time off the Oregon coast, and there are lots of day tours that help you experience the migration. 

4) Backpacking along the Oregon coast. I really want to go to sleep near the beach after a large campfire and wake up surrounded in mist. 

5) Northern California/Redwoods. My sis lives in the bay area, plus it's not too far of a drive from where we are. 

6) Crater Lake. I hear there's a lot of good backpacking to be had around the beautifully clear lake. 

That's our local travel list for now, I hope this list inspires you to make your own travel goals.