Candles and Corks

So I have a surplus of corks due to my many friends and family who are avid wine drinkers and I'm trying to come up with fun and crafty ways to use them.

Here are my new dining table candles:

They were crazy cheap to make, the large vases were each a dollar at the dollar tree.  The tiny cups were each a dollar at Michaels and I happened to have the candles and corks at home.  Pretty and simple!

Girls Night Cheese Tray

So I just finished spending some time with my girlfriends for our usual girls night gathering and I got to use my cheese tray I made today.

I found this cool magnetic bulletin board from Hobby Lobby and couldn't decide what to do with it.  Today I painted the middle part using chalkboard paint to create a chalkboard.  I ended up with a cool cheese tray where you can now label the cheeses or whatever party snacks you want.  I haven't added handles yet to the sides but I will.

I've also used this idea to paint a board and put it in a picture frame to create a menu board.

I LOVE chalkboard paint!

Delicious Gluten Free Donut Muffins

So Daniel and I usually have a date night every Friday night.  This past Friday we decided to stay in and cook breakfast for dinner, my favorite!  I was in a baking mood and decided that we should have a breakfasty dessert.   As a gluten free eater one of my major weaknesses is donuts so I found a recipe that claimed to taste like old fashion donuts.  I adapted the recipe to be gluten free.  They were amazing! Pretty much a yummy spice muffin with a glaze on them.  Here is the recipe I adapted from sweetpeaskitchen.com.  

Ingredients:

Muffins-

1/4 c. Butter

1/4 c. Vegetable oil

1/2 c. Granulated sugar

1/3 c. Brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 2/3 c. Gluten free flour blend

1 c. Milk

1 tsp. xanthan gum

Glaze-

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 c. Powdered sugar sifted

3/4 tsp. vanilla

2 tablespoons hot water

Makes 12 muffins

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Line muffin pan with liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a bowl (or stand up mixer) beat together butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.

Beat in eggs one at a time.  With the mixer on low, add baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, xanthan gum, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla until just combined.

Alternately stir in the flour and the milk starting and ending with the flour. Mix until combined but don't over mix!

Spoon batter into cups, filling cups and smoothing tops.

Bake until muffin tops are golden, approximately 15 minutes.  Cool muffins for 5 minutes and transfer them to a cooling rack to cool for 10 minutes.

To make the glaze, whisk all ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth.

When muffins are mostly cool, dip them into the glaze.  Once the glaze has hardened you can dip them a second time. (If the muffins aren't cool enough the glaze will just melt off the muffin).

Note: these muffins don't keep very long so plan on eating them right away :-)

Mixed Match Centerpiece

I decided I was bored with just a vase and fresh flowers on my coffee table so I thought a nice visit to the thrift shop would help by find some inexpensive decorative pieces that would inspire my center piece.

My living room is mostly neutrals so I thought gold would be a nice accent.  At the thrift shop I found the vase with a gold rim and my candle holder for a few bucks.  I then found a cheap green candle at Hobby Lobby that matched a green picture frame I found at World Market a while back.  I took the picture frame and put some old book pages inside to create a decorative tray.  Now . . . I mostly keep fresh flowers in the vase, however, I found these cool paper roses from West Elm on sale so I bought a few.  I think they are a nice hint of color and I will later dissect them to figure out how I can make my own :-)

Picture frames make awesome trays! You can always add different scrapbook papers to match or compliment your space.  You can even add handles and paint the glass with chalk board paint to make a cheese plate where you can label your cheeses . . . Just an idea.

Dumpster Diving for Treasure

So, there is often furniture and things sitting around the neighborhood that I am often tempted to take and repurpose.  The other day I saw some old mattresses stacked up near the dumpster at the end of our street and next to it a small wooden ladder, obviously parts of a bunk bed set.  I drove by twice thinking of the ladder and decided if it was still there in the afternoon it would be mine! Luckily on my way home it was still there so I decided to rescue it.  

I cleaned off what I presume are little boy germs with spray cleaner and unscrewed the brackets from the top so they wouldn't scratch my wall.  Now it is a lovely bookcase or shelf for my knick-knacks.  I haven't decided whether or not I will paint it but if I do I will try milk paint which seems very intriguing.

Delicious Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

Yesterday, after a nice healthy lunch I had a major sweet tooth attack.  I wandered into Pete's Coffee to see if they had any gluten free cookies. Unfortunately they didn't.  As I was pondering the next place to go I realized I could probably go home and bake something.  I had the time, probably enough baking ingredients, and I loved to bake anyway.  

Remembering that my France's parents brought us some giant zucchinis from their garden I decided to sit in my car and look up zucchini bread recipes.  The first one that popped up looked simple and I knew I had all the ingredients.  After blasting some dance music and baking while my dog followed me around waiting for me to drop ingredients I made a delicious loaf of gluten free zucchini bread.  Thank you Betty Crocker for your amazing recipes! Here is the recipe :

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/gluten-free-zucchini-bread/dee2700b-e662-40a7-baef-c68943c6779f?p=1

Since I can't eat almonds or peanuts and I'm not a fan of walnuts, I used chopped pecans and I feel like it really made to bread. I highly recommend it!

Travel Memories

So, my fiancé and I love to travel and I have made it a habit to start collecting maps from the places we've traveled to. So I decided to use my maps to decoupage the matting in some frames and then framed my favorite picture from that particular trip. I also make sure to decoupage the name of the city so I can remember where we were when we took the picture.

Check them out:

I have a large world map hanging in my living room (if you can't tell I am a little obsessed with maps) and I am starting to add my photos with my map frames to the outside of the world map as we travel. Hopefully we will fill the whole wall :)