Menu Plan Monday & SYTYC Voting is up!

Did y'all miss me last week?! I missed this blog but I was in bed almost all week with a lovely cold... 

On top of that I had to make stuff for SYTYC Competition which by the way is up right now so you should pop on by and vote for your favorite projects. 

In hoping I get to next week I am also in a mad dash to think of something clever for next week... but my brain may still be recovering from being sick as it is not helping on the brainstorm.

Anyways I made a menu plan so let's get to that:

Monday: Beer Brats 

Tuesday: Frozen Dinner- my first jewelry class is tonight :)

Wednesday: Tilapia Salad

Thursday: Chicken Avocado Soup

and this weekend we are dog/house sitting so I don't know what we will cook much since we won't want to clean.. and plus I am going to a baby shower this weekend and my friend will be in town on Friday so we will do out normal all you can eat sushi meal! yay!

I guess a lot happens or I just have a lot to say when I don't blog for a week! I am working on getting some posts together so that new stuff will be up this week.. or so I hope!

 I promise that now that I am not sick I will try to be productive but I did also just buy a kindle and I am obsessed with it!

So maybe scratch that promise... but really I need to share some of my recent projects!

Anyways until then

Stay Crafty

-Jesika

Thrift Store Redo- Side Table Edition

On Mother's Day I got a lovely pedicure and had lunch with my mom. We then walked around and wandered into Goodwill...

I had been searching for some cheap small tables to put next to my bed and one next to a bench I plan to acquire sometime soon or make.. 

I found these bad boys..

and they had no price on them.. The lady wanted $15 each.. I said $10 she came back with both for $19.99... Deal! I win!

So I packed those babies into the car and my mom and I went over to home depot to get some supplies. I grabbed some sand paper, painters tape, primer and navy blue spray paint. 

I did a nice sanding all over them... it was not fun but it had to be done... then I primed those bad dogs and watched the paint dry... not really but kinda sorta.. ok I was pretty impatient but I just turned on food network and went out every other commercial since it was a hot day and it was dry by then. 

Once they were nice and primed I taped off a strip on the top, it indents a bit and I thought a white strip would look awesome.

I then painted them navy blue.. it took several coats but it was worth it..

and they were done and would be fine and dandy like this even with the silver nobs

BUT we happened to clean out our garage that night and we found 2 white nobs... it was meant to be.. and now! they are just amazing!!!!

Or so I think they are... I am still working on adding color to our room since we moved but this was a nice addition since the only other color is an orange pillow for the bed and the lamp shades that are a dark red that I still need to recover... It is on the to do list still and now that I am working on SYTYC crafts so I can try to win I am a bit occupied! But before the end of the summer they will get done... heck maybe even before the official start of summer.

Stay Crafty
-Jesika

DIY Rug- SYTYC Audition Craft

If any of you follow So You Think You're Crafty (SYTYC) you know that I am going to be on Season 16!

And now that the auditions are over I can share my tutorial for my DIY Rugs... yes I made two and omg I saved sooooo much money!

I wanted something like this... but it was $336 and it still was not what I wanted.

I also wanted one like this but I didn't want to spend $199 either... that is just too much for a rug at least to me!

So one day I was walking around JoAnn's and I went to the clearance fabric section and found some great blue, fabric that I could use for my rug! I also found a great heavy tan fabric to use as a backing. The blue fabric was $8/yd and the tan was $9/yd... I got 1.5 yds each.. so I spent $25.50 on the materials for the rug.. I also happened to find this remnant piece so I got another 1yd of the brown fabric and the discount for the remnant is taken up front so $3.50 for the green $9 for the brown so $12.50 for the other rug... score!

But I didn't want plain blue and plain green... that is too boring for me.. so off to my paint stash I went I grabbed my textile medium $3 a bottle and green paint $2 a bottle and I needed 2 and I mixed it together with the medium. 

I then made a stencil out of card stock for the shape that I wanted and I put some tape on the back and stuck it to the fabric and started stenciling. 

I also taped off a chevron on the green fabric and mixed medium with navy blue paint so another $7 dollars.. I painted it onto the fabric.

At the end I had this

and this

Now it was time to add the backing.. I wanted it to wrap around a bit so I cut my fabric the blue and the green to be about 1-2 inches shorter on all sides than the tan fabric.

I used this tutorial from Make it and Love it! I couldn't believe I used to do it any other way. 

I sewed it around all the edges and voila!

Two new rugs... 

And it matches my blanket basket!

So let's do the math:

Fabric Blue Rug: $25.50

Textile Medium: $3

Green Paint: $2 bottles at 2 each total $4

Total: $32.50

Savings: $303.50

Fabric Green Rug: $12.50

Textile Medium: $3

Navy Blue Paint: $4.49

Total: $19.99

Savings: $179.01

I think I did pretty good and with the rug mats under they work perfectly! I love them! 

Stay Crafty

-Jesika

and tune into SYTYC to vote for this new season!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday, why did you come so fast?

At least my grocery shopping is done and I am all planned out... :/

Monday: Taco Quesadillas

Tuesday: Southwestern Tilapia Salad

Wednesday: Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken

Thursday: Garlic and Siracha Shrimp with rice and salad

Weekend is undecided

I had to do some last minute changes since I used the last of my marinara sauce and didn't feel like making any or going to the store... sooo guess I will just skip the meatball subs this week.. there is always next week. 

I am also super busy lately. Open house is coming up for my JoAnn store so I need to make some display items, make giveaway items and bake a cake and make frosting. I also am back in school after my little break so that is back in the mix. In addition tomorrow is my boss's birthday so I am going to come in and destroy decorate the office... payback for April fools is finally here! 

As well as all of that I still have to make my crafts for SYTYC! and I have to finish a project I made last week! I am going to be doing a lot of multitasking but it will get done. 

How does your week look?!

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Menu Plan

Monday was Memorial Day and that is not an easy day in our house. See Nico was deployed with 3/5 to Sangin when a lot of great men did not come back. 

We spent the day after we got back from Vegas just relaxing and reminiscing as we didn't really feel like partying, we felt like remembering.

I wasn't in the mood to write about it so I put it off a couple of days, I also put of menu planning as  I normally grocery shop on Mondays. This last Monday was a holiday that we celebrate so I didn't want to shop and well I had nothing left in my fridge. I have a lot of protein in the freezer but no vegetables to go with that protein.

So Tuesday I planned my menu but I got busy and forgot to post it up. So here I am!

Yesterday: Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers.. you saw it if you follow me on IG

Today: Chicken Enchiladas 

Thursday: Grilled Tequila Lime Shrimp Salad

Friday: Copycat Lucille's BBQ Chicken Salad

And Saturday I have my orientation for JoAnn's and Sunday we have an instructor's meeting to brainstorm for JoAnn's open house!

If you live near Irvine come to the JoAnn's on Barranca near the district the 8th from 10-2 ish to see what we offer with our classes. 

Stay Crafty 

-Jesika

ps.... I made it to the SYTYC Competiton!

Smoothing Buttercream

Lately I have been really unmotivated. 

I don't know why but I wish I did. I think it is just that I want to be set in a career already and not just passing my days with a job that I don't see working out as a career.

I have been trying to make a plan to get to where I want to be but it is stressful and leaves me confused, angry and sad all at the same time. It sucks... 

Now it does not all suck but some of it does, the part that does not suck is that I am going to be teaching the Wilton decorating classes at JoAnn's! 

I am pretty excited for this as it will allow me to be creative as well as teach others which will in turn help me become a better cake decorator. To all of you that means... 1 if you live in OC you should come take my class and 2 if you don't you will see my posts on here and most likely this will be the start of some video tutorials!

The first tutorial I have for y'all is smoothing buttercream to make it look smooth like fondant. I also made a video and it is below but it did some weird green line thing so just ignore that. 

First things first, cover your cake with buttercream. 

After you cake is covered with the butter ream let it sit and "crust" by crust I mean you should be able to lightly press your finger into the buttercream and not see your print or a blemish.

After the cake has had adequate time to crust you will want to take a smoother surface- I prefer Viva papertowels, they have no print and they work great but wax paper or parchment works as well. 

Lay the paper of your choice on the spot you wish to smooth and with flat fingers lightly rub the paper in a back in left to right motion. Once that area is smooth pick up the paper and move to another area and repeat. 

It is a simple concept but it works really well for the times you do not want to use fondant but you want a smooth cake that will imitate the look of fondant. 

This is my preferred method as I am not a huge fan of the taste of fondant, but each person has their own taste preference.

So what do you say are you going to bake a cake?! I might! I gotta start working on all my technical flowers again so I can figure out the best way to make it to be the best teacher I can be!

Until next time!

Stay Crafty

-Jesika