Don't try this at home

Or anywhere else for that matter. Remember the miracle cupcake recipe I shared awhile back? Well, I thought I'd give it a try with brownie mix. The cake mix says add eggs and oil. So does the brownie mix. Sounds like a reasonable idea, right?

Uh, no. It doesn't work. They don't really taste bad, there's just a weird gummy layer in the middle. Ew.

And what a waste of perfectly good brownie mix.

Anywho, head on over to Kimba's to check out DIY Thursday and some projects that turned out a whole lot better than this one.

Stuck.

Of course I rescued him.

But not before I took a picture.

Shower curtain turned pleated table skirt

This is the new look of my vanity table in our bedroom. It was desperate for a makeover.

The whole project took me no more than a half hour (with 2 little monkeys at my feet the whole time) and didn't require any cutting or sewing!

So...from the beginning, this is how it looked before today. It's cute and somewhat functional, but I'm really not in love with it.
I bought this when Target started carrying their Simply Shabby Chic line a few years ago. I raced out to get the vanity table and the matching stool. I love Rachel Ashwell and her style, it fit perfectly between our newly built his and hers closets, and I thought the price was reasonable. (So not-the knobs have fallen off the drawer at least once a week since I bought it and the legs keep coming completely unscrewed. The reviews on Target.com say about the same thing.) Now I probably wouldn't buy the set again-I'd find something at an antique store or flea market and work with it from there. Live and learn...


Anyway, underneath is typically this mess of products and other random junk sitting there looking ugly.
And who doesn't have a pile of maternity clothes? It's not like I've not been pregnant for 7 months or anything.

So anyway, in a recent fit of extreme girliness, I bought this pink toile shower curtain. I didn't have a home for it, but it was just so pretty! (I really could be happy decorating only in gingham and toile for the rest of my life.)

Anyway, I found the perfect girly home for her, repurposed as a skirt for my pathetic, knobless little vanity. Of course, I couldn't bear to cut it, just in case, one day, I may actually hang it in our bathroom.

So here's what I did.

My table is 29ish inches or so high. I folded the shower curtain in half and ironed it.

Then I folded it down the remaining 7-8 inches to get it to be about 30 inches, so it would fall and drape nicely on the floor.

I found the center top and marked it with chalk.
I found the center of the table and put a prickly piece of Velcro on it. The Beanie Baby pig is a must.

I put a fuzzy piece of Velcro on the shower curtain where I marked the center and then attached it to the prickly side on the table.

Now for the pleat. Of course my picture of this step was blurry, and my best explanation is I did &*#&(^% and then I did &!#%$#.

What I did, in words, was put a 2 inch piece of prickly Velcro in the center top, directly on top of the last pieces.

Then, 6 inches to the left and 6 inches to the right of the prickly piece of Velcro, I put a 1 inch piece of fuzzy Velcro.

I took the two pieces of fuzzy Velcro and joined them in the center to the prickly Velcro.

I then put a piece of prickly Velcro on each corner of the table and a fuzzy piece on the back of the shower curtain and wrapped it around the table.

And there you have it.

Now all I need is new seating. Stick around to see how I made over the old one!

Did I miss something?

Is it November? Should I be setting my alarm for 3 am to go to the mall in the morning? Do I need a sleeping bag so I can camp out at Best Buy? Looking through the Sunday sale papers with crazy back-to-school sales is reminding me of the Black Friday ads Thanksgiving week.

Now don't get me wrong--I love fresh school supplies. The smell of pencils right out of the package, the feel of a new eraser, the crispness of a brand new notebook with its unwritten pages. I love it all. I look forward to Target's $1 Crayola markers and 25 cent crayons all year long. Even before I had children I would buy the crayons. It's that good of a deal.

But last I checked, it's still July.

Can't we just enjoy the summer? Do we have to rush? When my boys are old enough for school and summer vacation, we're going to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of it. We still have lots of time to spend at the pool and walking to Dairy Queen. We still have plenty of nights of chasing fireflies. What's the hurry?

Am I the only one that feels this way?

Patience is a virtue.

But it's clearly not one my child possesses.

If you're into things like picking and eating unripe tomatoes too, here's a great recipe for them. (I usually wait until the end of the season in September-October, but there always a few stragglers that come off the vine too soon.) This is enough for a dinner for 2, but of course they always make for a great appetizer as well.

Fried Green Tomatoes

You'll need:

8-10 decent sized green tomatoes
3 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1 3/4 tsp. pepper
5 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups Italian breadcrumbs
1/2 cup cornmeal
4 cups olive oil
1 package shredded mozzerella cheese


Slice tomatoes 1/4-inch thick.

Season tomato slices with a little salt and pepper and set aside.

Whisk together eggs and milk and set aside.

In a second bowl, whisk together flour, 1/2-teaspoon salt, and 1/4-teaspoon pepper. Set aside.

Place breadcrumbs in a bowl along with cornmeal, remaining teaspoon salt, and 1/2-teaspoon pepper; stir to combine and set aside.

One slice at a time, coat the tomatoes with flour mixture, shaking off excess.

Then coat with egg mixture, followed by breadcrumb mixture. Transfer to a wire rack set over a wax paper or parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining tomatoes.

Heat 2 cups oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until it reaches 350 degrees on a deep-fry thermometer.

Place tomatoes into the heated oil in a single layer. Fry until golden, turning once, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Drain on a paper towel-lined baking sheet. After frying half of the tomato slices, dump oil and heat remaining 2 cups oil in skillet. Fry the rest of the tomato slices.

While the tomatoes are still hot, sprinkle cheese on top. If you have any extra spaghetti sauce around, it's yummy poured on top as well.

Glass doorknob love

Cleaning our storage room/pantry part of the basement is my perpetual task. During today's stab at it, I stumbled (quite literally) across my box of glass doorknobs.

Up close.

One from my husband's boyhood home. My mother in law knows me that well.

Don't know where this guy came from, but he sure is gorgeous.

What we have throughout the majority of our home. 1946-ish, and I assume just builder grade for that era. Can you imagine these as standard?! I think I was born at the wrong time.

What we have in the remodeled portions of our home. I really wanted to use the knobs I had in my collection, but doors now come with pre-drilled holes much larger than what fits these sets. Boo.

I did find these replicas (which I think have a little charm of their own) at Van Dyke's Restorers to use instead. Do you get that catalog? You should.

Maybe there's a project waiting for me that can re-purpose these. Until then, I'll just admire them.

A little Ebay love and a postcard project

What would I do without Ebay? (The answer is not waste entire 2 hour naps searching for stuff I don't really need... And not let my competitive side get the best of me and overpay for a pair of J. Crew flip flops... And not get in a bidding war over a Martha By Mail cake stand...)

Anyway, a couple of last week's finds arrived in the mail yesterday.

Shabby chic sconces. $8! Of course, I'll have to attack them with spray paint before I hang them.

These are what I'm most excited about, though. All those pretty vintage postcards? For $3? Swoon!

Postage for a penny? Those were the days.

I always love to wonder about the stories behind them. Who the heck was Miss Pearl Williams? (If she's your grandma or great aunt or something, I, uh, have a piece of her mail.)

I'm going to try making these.

When I saw this project from Country Living, I knew it would be perfect for little gift card holders. Too bad I won't want to give any away!

photo from Country Living

How I spent my evening

Up next on the project list

Etched water glasses. Since we remodeled the kitchen and got one of those fancy shmancy refrigerators with a water dispenser, I've stopped buying bottled water. Clearly that calls for some pretty new glasses.

This project (like many of my Martha wannabes) has the potential to be an epic failure, especially based on what I've read about it in blogland. It could very well be a better idea to just go buy some new glasses. Eh, we'll see. If I never post again, it's possible I died of the fumes. It's been nice knowing you.

Wish me luck and good ventilation.

picture from marthastewart.com

Boys' room art

I've never been a big fan of the cheesy nursery or children's "art" I've found in stores, and I think the things geared toward little boys is especially lame.

Trucks? Bugs? Airplanes? Disney characters? Things labeled "little slugger"? I shudder. To make matters worse, I think these things are quickly outgrown. No self-respecting 8 year old would want to be seen with those.

So when I found these prints from the Norman Rockwell Museum store, I was thrilled. Fun, whimisical, boyish, and best of all, something that fits nicely with my style and blends with the rest of our home. I've always loved Saturday Evening Post covers as art, and no other artist is so all-American and classic as Norman Rockwell.

I have these hung in the hallway leading to the Little Guys' room.

"Sporting Boys"

"Sporting Boys Golf"

"Day in the Life of a Boy"


That iconic signature.

At about $25 a piece, these weren't much more expensive than a lot of the typical things I saw in the store, and I got frames for $5 each at Menard's. All together, this gallery was less than $100, and I'm thrilled there's nothing cheesy about it.

And while we're talking about children's decorating...of course, I'm still trying to decide what to do with these.