Distressed Wood Signs

dream BIG
Family
Life is Better on the River
be happy
love LIFE

First I put a thin coat of cheap Jo-Ann's acrylic paint as my base coat on 2" wide pieces of wood.
Then I cut out cheap contact paper for stencils on the cricut using the Opposites Attract Cartridge.
The contact paper sticks to the wood (once it's dry)as a stencil and I just the letters in a different color.
I peeld off the contact paper carefully while the paint was still wet. Don't worry if it's not perfect.
Then I sanded with an 80 grit piece of sandpaper focusing on all of the edges and then over the whole piece.
I feel an addiction coming on...It only took a few hours with breaks in between to do the 5 signs.
I HAVE to keep "Life is better on the River" for myself!!!

Family Wall Hook

Uneven old boards held together by wood brackets on the back
Family in black vinyl cut using the cricut (cartridge: opposites attract)
Clothespins hot glued on
Hang small items or pictures with the clothespins

Skinny Latte

I made an espresso this morning and decided I wanted an iced latte (for way less than dunks...)
I filled a glass with ice, poured the espresso over it, added skim milk and a little bit of chocolate.

Delicious!

Avocado, Egg and Cheese Sandwich

omg. i love avocados. and they are sooo delicious with eggs and cheese on an english muffin.

Zebra Cake

This is the cake I made for Alicia's Birthday!

What you need to make a 2 layer 8" cake (and some cupcakes with the leftovers):
1 box of vanilla/french vanilla/white cake
1 box of chocolate/fudge/brown cake
Frosting Dyed hot pink
Toothpick
Sparkly black piping gel

Make both boxes according to instructions keeping in separate bowls.
Grease 8" pan bottom and sides.
Drop 1/4 cup of vanilla mix in the center.
Immediately drop 1/4 cup of chocolate in the center of the vanilla circle.
Continue until the rings go all the way to the edge of the pan and it's about 2/3 full.
Bake according to instructions.
Repeat for 2nd layer.
Cool.
Stack with layer of frosting between each cake layer.
Frost top and sides with hot pink frosting. (I like the gel kind because the colors are richer)
I polka dotted the top with the black then decided I didn't like it so I swirled it with a toothpick...not sure I like that either but hey.
One person said it looked like spiders and one said flowers.

Chicken and Avocado Quesadilla

I really need to get a new memory card for my camera. The cellphone camera just isn't cutting it..

Happy Cinqo de Mayo!

You will need:
Olive oil
Chicken tenders
1/2 an avocado
Mexican cheese - or any shreded cheese will do
Spices - salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder
Optional - guacamole, sour cream, jalepenos, salsa

Cook a few chicken tenders in a skillet on medium with some olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic and any other seasonings you'd like. 3-4 minutes on each side or until cooked. Let them cook a bit and cut into small pieces about the size of a penny.
Cut an avocado into small pieces. I usually cut it in half, take out the pit and slice it while it still has the skin on lengthwise then widthwise then you can pop the pieces out of the skin.

My skillet has the raised lines so you can make paninis...or quesadillas in it!

Brush one flour tortilla with olive oil and place oil side down in the skillet on medium.
Sprinkle the tortilla with chicken, avocado and mexican cheese. Brush another flour tortilla with olive oil and place oil side up. Once the bottom strarts turning a nice golden color, flip with a big spatula until the other side is golden.
Cut with a pizza cutter on a cutting board and serve with guac, sour cream, salsa or jalepenos.

Jellyfish Cake

You will need:
box of funfetti cake mix
coconut snowballs(gas stations usually have them)
frosting - dye most blue but save out a titch for light pink
swedish fish
brown sugar

Bake a box of funfetti cake and follow instructions for a 13x9 pan.
Once cooled cut in half so you have 2 rectangles. Sandwich the two together with frosting.
Dye most of your frosting a pretty water color and frost the whole cake. Dye a few spoonfuls of the frosting pink for your jellyfish...stingers?/tentacles?/legs?/whatever
Use pink coconut snowballs as your jellyfish and gently smush into the frosting.
Put some light pink icing into a plastic bag and cut a small portion of the tip off. Pipe some squiggly...leg things.
Put some brown sugar around the plate as "sand" (this will also cover up any frosting you got on the plate)
Make a swedish fish border all the way around.
So cute!!