Week in Review

Monday

New Wall Hangings

Tuesday 

Wednesday

Faux Pallet Pumpkin

Thursday

Refinished Mirror Frame

Friday

Clean Out The Frig. Soup

Happy Weekend!

Clean Out The Frig. Soup

I call this "Clean Out the Frig Soup" because I like to make it the day before I go grocery shopping.  They way I use up most of the vegetables from the week and buy fresh ones the next day. The ingredients vary some by what I have in the refrigerator.

But the main ingredients are cabbage, carrots, red pepper, onion, garlic, and celery.  To those vegetables I add any other vegetables that need to be used up.  

Today I added a couple of zucchini and a little soup pasta.

Put these ingredients, except for the cabbage,  in a preheated soup pot with heated olive oil and Saute until tender.

When these are tender add the canned tomatoes, chicken broth and cabbage.

I also like to add a little "Better than Bouillon" soup base at this point, just for a little extra flavor.

Continue cooking until the cabbage is tender. 

 Now add your herbs and seasonings and continue to cook until all the flavors are melded. 

 At this point I added the pasta and continued to cook until the pasta was tender.

pasta

I usually let it simmer on low or put it on my warming burner until I am ready to serve.

Sometimes I will add a little freshly grated Parmesan and a sprig of fresh basil before serving with a crusty French bread.

Great soup on a cold winter's night that doesn't take very long to cook.  We always have enough leftover for the next night, when I am tired from shopping, and the flavors are even better.

Enjoy!

Recipe:

• ½ head of cabbage, chopped
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1 cup white or yellow onion, diced
• 1 cup carrots, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1 teaspoon basil
• ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
• and cayenne pepper
  
  
  Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional: 

Other vegetables

Better than Bouillon soup base

Parmesan cheese

Sprigs of basil

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.

Add celery, onions, bell peppers, garlic and carrots.

Saute until slightly tender.

Add in chicken broth tomatoes and cabbage.  Also add optional soup base, if using.

Bring to a boil and then reduce heating simmer until cabbage is tender. Usually takes under 20 minutes.

Stir in oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, cayenne, black pepper and salt.

Add 1/4 cup soup pasta, if using.  Cook until pasta is tender.

Taste broth and adjust seasoning if needed.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan, sprig of basil and crusty bread.

Happy Cooking!

Refinished Mirror Frame

I have always loved the style of this small mirror.  It is a little over a foot tall and can hang on the wall or be free standing.  But I have had it in storage because the color no longer fit with my decor.

It just looked too Tuscan for my tastes, now.

I gathered my favorite colors of chalk paint and decided to give it a Parisian Gray base coat with soft pastel highlights and finish off with dry brushed white.

Here it is getting the coat of gray.  This took quite some time to get the gray paint into all those nooks and crannies.  I already like it better than before.

Totally gray.  I used a piece of scrap cardboard to slide between the frame and mirror to keep the glass paint free.

Next I highlighted the roses pink and the bows.

Then the greenery got a highlighting of the aqua.

 And the final step was to dry brush the white on the raised areas.

The white helped to tone down the pink and aqua and give the piece a more aged appearance.  It is amazing to me how different a piece can look with updated new colors.

before

I think it will be one of my favorite pieces of decor again.  It has a second life, now.

Happy Crafting!

Faux Pallet Pumpkin

I wanted to make something lightweight to hang on the knob of my china cabinet for Thanksgiving.  I like the looks of a wooden pallet project but I know wood would be too heavy.  Plus I don't really have very many decorations for Thanksgiving.

I came up with the idea to use foam core board and cut it to resemble pallet wood.

To begin this project I roughly drew a fat pumpkin and a stem on the form core.  Next I cut both pieces out with a craft knife.

Once I had my pumpkin cut out I marked it into 5 pieces vertically.  I numbered them 1 through 5.

And cut them apart.

I then cut papers to fit each piece of foam core and 6 small tags to stamp the word "Thanks".

I used Mod Podge to glue the strips of alternating orange papers to the pumpkin, let them dry and lightly sanded the edges with fine grit sandpaper.

Next I distressed the edges of each strip.

Then I cut and hot glued three supporting pieces of foam core to the backside of the pumpkin and also glued a piece of twine at the top for hanging.

Then I cut 5 freehand leaves, folded the leaves where the veins are and sanded the veins and edges.

The next step was to distress the veins and edges.

Then stamp the word " thanks" on the tags.

I strung the tags on a piece of twine and hot glued them to the pumpkin.

I curled the ends and hot glued them in place on both ends.

Then covered the stem in burlap, glued that on and glued the leaves to the pumpkin along with a few pieces of twine swirled and glued in place.

It's the perfect weight.  Looks substantial yet it is very, very light for it's size.

Happy Crafting!

Faux Rose Petal Christmas Tree

We have had a glorious weekend of rain.  Farther north has been hit very hard by the storms, luckily we just received a really nice rainfall.

So, while I watched the raindrops outside my window I worked on a small Christmas Tree.

I began with a  Styrofoam cone.

And a bag of ivory faux rose petals.

I choose 3 small rubber stamps, one with script, one with birds and the Eiffel Tower.

I stamped 3 stacks of petals each with one of the stamps with black ink.

After they were all stamped I aged each petal with distress ink.

I glued the petals to the styrofoam cone with hot glue varying the stamped images.

I also added flat back pearls and white stamens.

The tree is about 10 inches tall.

And here is my little shabby chic Christmas tree.

Happy Crafting!

New Wall Hangings

We got our first rains of the season today.  There hasn't been a drop of rain since last May.  This is such a welcome relief.

So we ventured out in the storm today to attend this month's Vintage Gypsy Fair.  I didn't find very much, but I did find a pretty single gold trimmed vintage salt shaker I will probably make into a tassel  and a pair of miniature cast iron yard tools. 

When I finished my china cabinets a few weeks ago there was only one thing I didn't like.  The sides had holes along the front edge, which at one time must have been for shelves.  I didn't want to fill them in just in case at a later time I wanted to use them again.  But I wanted to disguise them somehow.

Luckily after I used the shelf pins on the inside I had two left over to use on the outside of the cabinet for the wall hangings to hang from.

When I saw these cast iron tools today I was certain they would be perfect to make into wall hangings.

Here are some of the elements I used.  I also used more laces and tiny birds.

I cut 2 pieces of burlap ribbons and clipped them to the two mini metal hangers.

Next I cut wire and wired the tools to the ribbon.

And bent the wire on the back to secure.

Using hot glue I added some pretty lace at the top.

I also used a little bit of hot glue in a few places just to make the tools stable.

Next each hanging received a pale yellow flower.

A crocheted mini doily and a pearl cabochon .

Under the tool I cut to size a small cardboard tube and adhered it to the back of the ribbon with hot glue.

Next I glued a couple of lace flowers to the tube on the front.

Then I glued two pieces of lace under the tube at the bottom of the ribbon.

And two little birds and some paper shred to make a nest for the birds.

And hot glued those onto the top of the tube.

Then I glued some real tree twigs to each side of the tube.

Also another flower at the bottom of the handle of each of the tools.

And they where all done and ready to hang.  So happy how they fit perfectly and cover the little holes at the side of my cabinets.

You could make these using large silver salad fork and spoon instead of the cast iron tools.

Later I could use these in another area if I choose to move my cabinets.

Happy Crafting!