Wilton Bake Even Strips

I don't remember where I heard about these first, but I ordered these about 6 months ago and I am in love!! The do exactly what the name states, they help the cake bake evenly and most of all it keeps the cake from getting that "dome" shape on top. This is immensely helpful when you want to stack layers and ice them; there is no need to slice the dome off, loosing yummy cake, and then creating a ton of crumbs that get all in your icing!
All you have to do is soak them in cold water and wrap them around the cake pan, pin them with the pin it comes with, bake the cake and Voila! a perfectly flat cake that is ready and easy to ice. I have no idea how it works, but it does!
There are several sizes for different cake pan sizes but I just have the small set; perfect for 9" cake pans which is what I normally use.
I am currently making my Banana Chocolate cake for a friend so I snapped a few photos of the cakes when I pulled them out of the oven. Proof that it works!

Buy them Here

Repurposed Screen Door

My in-laws were remodeling a lot of their house and getting rid of their doors. When I heard this, I jumped on the chance at getting their screen door. I have seen lots of repurposed screen doors around lately, on Pinterest and at furniture stores, so I thought it would be a blast to make my own!
Well, it sat in my craft room for months because I just could not get in my head what I wanted to do exactly. If I have inspiration for a project, I can get it done fast and I dont have any problems started. However, if I can't find that inspiration or know exactly what I want, it can take me forever to get going!
I finally decided what I wanted to do and got started this weekend. I was able to get a lot done but I needed my husbands help holding things up and screwing the shelf, etc. This was our brief conversation:
after going to the store and getting supplies,
Me: "Can you help me screw the shelf onto the door? I have it marked and ready to go"
Jeff: sitting on the couch playing on his iPad watching some graphic movie, "now??!"
Me: "That would be nice, yes."
Jeff: "you know you dont have to finish a project in 3 hours. You can take your time."

No! I am so impatient! When I want to get something done, I want it done NOW! lol The absolute worst is when something happens during the DIY process, like running out of supplies or something breaks, and I can't do anything until that step is completed but it is either too late to go to the store or it is closed. WORST FEELING EVER!

Anyways, so back to the door. I decided to put a handle back on it. I wanted to put hinges too but I couldnt find any I liked so that didnt happen.

I also added a shelf. I had some scrap wood from our playroom shelves so I had Jeff cut it the length I needed and just stained it and screwed it on from the back.

I then got glass cut to fit the large openings in the door. The top one I used the mirror spray paint I mentioned here and the bottom I added a decal that says "There's no place like home." That decal took 2 tries... oops! The first one I added before putting the glass on the door and then realized I didnt account for the corners so the decal was covered. The second one I cut up and added each word individually. If you think wall decals are hard enough, try getting 6 pieces to line up with each other without being able to mark the material it is going on to! (not to mention 2 toddlers insistent that they need to help).

I then added 2 decorative corner brackets to act as feet to the front. This gives it some stability from falling forward.

Since it is fragile it was a MUST that I attach it to the wall. I can't risk one of the girls bumping it and it falling. That would be BAD!

All in all, it turned out really nice and just like I had pictured (which is really rare! lol)

How to Add A Signature To Your Blog Posts

This took me FOREVER to figure out!!! I was about to pull my hair out trying about a thousand different online tutorials to do this. You would think it would be easy....no! Well, once I found one that actually worked, it was. I thought I would share how I finally got it to work so hopefully someone out there doesn't have to go through that I did!
Here's the steps:
1. Open a tab and go to your settings page. This is what mine looks like:

2. click on Settings on the left column

3. Click on “Add” just to the right of “Post Template” (see above image)
4. A box will pop up and add this code:
<img class="centered" alt="post signature" src=”Image Url”>
5. Now, go to photobucket and upload the image you would like to use as your signature. I used Photoshop. Save it as a png file.
6. Once the image is uploaded into Photobucket, select the image and find this screen.

7. To the right are some options to different types of links for this image. Copy the “Direct Link” one
8. Now, go back to the code you entered in the box in Blogger and replace “image url” with your image link. Mine looks like this:
<img class="centered" alt="post signature" src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc140/jessicagribnau/Signiture-2.png">
9. Click on “Save Settings”
** the signature will not appear until you create a new post
10. Create a new post and title it “test” and type something in the post box just to test it out.
**If the signature appears huge just click on it and options will pop up to choose the size you want. I like “small”
11. If  you have a border around the image of the signature go back to your Blogger Template Designer and choose “advanced”
12. Click on “images” and make sure the background and border colors are transparent. This should fix that problem.
This is the easiest way to add the signature I could find without having to go change the HTML stuff, which I find extremely confusing and dizzying looking at all that computer language. If you erase one little character, your whole layout is messed up! If you are not a computer guru like me, do it this way!!
Good luck! I really hope this helps anyone looking for a way to do this. If you have any questions, just comment and I will do my best to help you out!

**Tip: If you like to blog using Windows Live Writer (which I normally do) the signiture will not show up automatically. The only way I have figured this out is to publish the post when you are done writing.
Go into Blogger and edit that post.
Click on "HTML" on teh top left and add the code above to the bottom of all of the text (the same one you put in the box with your image url).
Click on "compose" and then the image should be there and you can resize it.

Grilled Sea Bass

I am so thankful for a husband that can grill!!! That means I dont have to cook dinner every night! lol When I say he can grill, I don’t just mean burgers and chicken. Over the past several years he has really gotten good at grilling and smoking, and one of our favorite meals that he makes is grilled Sea Bass. We like to splurge and get this for dinner every once in a while and tonight he got scallops to go with it. YUM!! Asparagus is our favorite veggie so we make that every time and I normally make some rice too but I skipped it this time.
All he puts on it is salt and pepper and tarragon with olive oil, and it only takes a total of about 6-8 minutes to cook and it gets a nice crispy layer on the outside, which is the best part! The scallops got oil, salt and pepper. That’s it! So easy, yet so good!
For such a healthy meal, it sure tastes like it is bad :)!

DIY Mirror

Check this stuff out!! I may be late at discovering this but I am working on a project (hopefully revealing soon) in which I need a mirror. Easier said than done. It needs to be a very funky size so the only way I was going to get one to fit would be to buy a larger one than I needed, but they were always in some large pretty frame that I didn’t want to pay for, so I did a little browsing through the craft store and came across this paint:

This is so awesome! All you have to do is spray it one the back of plain glass with several thin layers (the can suggests 5). I would not come as far as to say it looks like a normal mirror, but for a rustic project where you don’t necessarily need perfect reflection, I think this is a great fix. I tested it out on a small piece of glass. Here is me trying to take a picture of the reflectiveness for you.

It’s a bit dark and not a perfect finish but I am hoping it works good enough for the larger piece I need to do.

New Layout

I get really tired of the same layout for my blog so I have to change it up here and there. I am obsessed with green and grey combo right now. Why? I have no idea. Green has always been my favorite color, and I guess since grey is “in” right now, the two just magically came together in my head.
In case you are wondering how I made the header, it was super easy! If it weren't for my stupid PC acting up (I really really want to make the full switch to MAC one day when I have the $$ but that is besides the point) it would have maybe taking about 1 hour to do.
I found a font I really liked on Pinterest and downloaded it from dafont.com. Then, I took one of our family photos I took last summer and, in Photoshop, I cut our bodies out and overlaid a grey color. Put the title and picture together on the same background, added the dotted line and was done!
Adding and adjusting the colors and fonts in Blogger was not so easy. Another reason I want to get a MAC so I can use Wordpress. Blogger is so finicky (sp?) and temperamental so it takes a while to get everything lined up. It still isn't perfect but every time I tried to adjust something, the website would crash so I just left it. Hopefully it’s not too terrible! lol
I really want to figure out how to do some different links for the categories I have a the top but that is going to take a while. Hopefully I can figure it out soon. I also want to add a Pinterest button but that doesn’t seem as easy as I thought, either. Give me some time and I will get it…. just in time for baby #3 to get here and then I will disappear for a while lol.
Enjoy the new layout! Off to work on another project

Computer issues

Sorry! I am working on changing my layout so my blog may look a mess. Bare with me while I work on it and fix some computer issues!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Heirloom Wedding China

I realized that I never posted about this since I hung these during my “hiatus” from blogging.
I have seen collages of plates on walls before and I thought that would look really pretty in our dining room since we have some small square windows high up that are too funky for window treatments. I then thought that it would be awesome if I could call around and collect a piece of wedding china from relatives just hoping to get a few but fully expecting people to tell me they didn’t want to give up a piece. Look at how many I was able to get!! Thanks to my wonderful grandma, who is amazingly organized and remembers everything about everyone and everyone name, birthday, anniversary, etc, she had lots of pieces from relatives I didn’t even know. It was so much fun going through the family trees to find how exactly I am related to some of these people. She even labeled the back of the ones she sent so I can remember. I can bet you that a few of these pieces are at least 100 years old! I was also able to find several from Jeff’s side of the family too. I have mine, my 2 sisters, my mom’s, all 4 grandma’s and then some up there. I love that this is not just a collage of random plates I found at thrift stores or such, but there is a story behind each one! I hope this wall can continue to grow over the years!

Spring is on its way!

We got excited this morning (probably a little unproportionately so) because our bean plant sprouted! This momma does not have much of a green thumb so I was praying her bean would grow. It was so cute, after we planted it, she would stand in the window staring at it waiting for it to pop out of the dirt. Let's just hope it has a long life!!

Breakfast Nook Remodel

I am so mad because I can not find my before pictures ANYWHERE!! I know I took some when I decided to take this project on but the only thing I can imagine is that they are on my old phone which is no where to be found (my kids love playing with our old phones so naturally it is MIA). I was able to find this photo from when I was selling our old table. It at least gives you the idea of how boring this corner was.

No window treatments, a tiny table that only sat 2 people, TV trays used for extra table space (BOO!), a not so pretty chandelier. I at least had something hanging on the wall, which I have not found anything to replace with yet, but overall it needed help.
When this all began I wanted to get a larger table for our growing family but I did not want to spend a fortune (surprise surprise). I knew that this table was going to get a lot of use and damage since Avery was starting to get into crafts. We have a craft room that I can trust her in but I really like to keep my eye on her so this would really be the best place. I started looking on Craigslist and found a table that I liked but needed some immediate TLC. Long story short, the lady fell through on me and sold the table to someone else just hours before I was supposed to meet her! Some people really annoy me! It was all for the best, though, because I kept shopping and was able to find an even better table for less $ and it needs some work but nothing major right away. I found it on the same local site that I found my new office chair. The lady selling it wanted the same amount of money that I had sold the small table for so I broke even!! I was over the moon!!! Here is the table after we got it home.

It’s a little old school but I LOVE the legs on the table and the little details like the knobs on the corners of the table. I also love the little metal piece that covers the screws at the base of the legs. There are 2 leaves that are each another 12” and when you open the table to add them, the gears are awesome! I would love to know where this table originally came from and when it was made. I doubt it is really that old but I think it was well constructed! I was not in love with the chairs but I thought they could be painted and be really cute. Like I have said, wood furniture with good bones can always be refinished!! As you can see, there’s already puzzles and crafts on the table; did not take long! lol

I decided to pain the chairs white to give the set the two tone look that is popular these days. That was a horrible mess!!!! I did a lot of research on painting wood furniture and found that you could get spray primer called “cover stain.”

It was supposed to work great so you didn’t have to strip and sand the furniture first. That was a MESS!! I do not recommend this stuff at all!! it came out chalky and bumpy and did not go on smoothly at all! I ended up having to sand anyways but then I was sanding the primer on top of everything else. I have read and heard a lot about chalk paint by Annie Sloan so I think that will have to be the way I go next time. After about a week of getting the chairs painted, I was basically forced to distress the chairs since the painting was such a disaster. All in all I think it turned out ok to have them distressed. I have lots of other distressed pieces in our house so it wasn’t out of place. Here are the after pictures now that it is all done (about 6 months later!!!)

Here is the new chandelier that I found for only $20!! There is a place in Houston where Habitat for Humanity takes all of their left over items and sells them for dirt cheap. I found this among the pile of light fixtures and thought it would look so cute with the table. I realize it is intended to be an exterior light, but who cares, I like it. It was missing a piece of glass but lucky I have glass cutting tools (what? you don’t? lol) so I just found a piece that matched at Hobby Lobby, used one of the good pieces as a stencil and Voilà! it was fixed. Next was an all day endeavor by my husband to get it hung since he had to rewire the whole thing. I told him we could just scratch the whole idea since it was only $20 but it became a manly pride thing that he knew he could do it! lol After he got it hung I was kind of disappointed. I like the look of it but it only holds 40w light bulbs so it doesn’t light up the space well enough. Jeff put so much effort into getting it hung that I think it is staying lol.

I found some green seat cusions at Pier 1 that I loved but they are about $30 a piece I believe and once again, I knew that they were going to be spilled on and food smashed into them, so spending $120 on seat cushions was not ideal. Luckily I found some at Home Goods that were the exact same color (just not as frilly) for $20 for all 4!!! I think I get a high from a good deal haha.

Here is a close up of the table leg with the little metal piece I talked about. love! You can see some of the wear and tear on it; one day I will refinish it!

These little yellow pots are from this post. This set of plants is the third round of plants. I do not have a green thumb, despite my best efforts

Here are the curtains I made. I found the fabric online and I love the colors. You cant tell in the pictures but it almost has a sheen to it and the green seat cushions go perfectly!

This is my least favorite spot. I had these hanging before and I still don’t love it. The watercolor pear painting is something that I made in college and is one of the only pieces from that art class that I like so I want to keep it hung but I really want to find a large painting or art piece for this wall. I am going to The Woodlands Art Festival in April so I will be keeping my eyes open!