Chicken Salad!

This is one of my husband's favorite lunches. About 5 or so years ago, Jason tried an Arby's chicken salad sandwich for the first time, and he was hooked! Fruit and chicken mixed together for me sounded disgusting. I started making it for him, with chicken, celery, Miracle Whip and grapes. It probably took me two years of making it to actually try it for myself, but it was without Miracle Whip because in my opinion, mayonnaise should not be sweet, my husband begs to differ. Ha Ha. Since trying it I was able to tweak and perfect the recipe, into what is now one of my husband's favorites. 

What you will need:

1 Granny Smith Apple

I package of Craisins

1 stalk of Celery

Roughly 1 cup of Mayonnaise (I used Best Foods or Hellmans)

2 Fully Cooked Chicken Breasts (shredded) 

or (if you're in a hurry)

2 cans of Chicken (or Chicken of the Sea if you want Tuna Salad)

Chop about a half of a stalk of celery, and throw it into a medium sized bowl. Cut up the apple into thin chunks, small enough to eat in a sandwich, but bigger than the celery. Add your fully cooked chicken, or in my case this time I used canned.. I know, I know. But I didn't have much time to make it, and it's actually quite good, if you splurge for a name brand. I start of with a few scoops of mayonnaise, start stirring and use my own judgement on adding more. You want the salad to be coated but not drowning in mayonnaise. And that's all there is to it. I like to use lettuce and a croissant with my salad, or sometimes just lettuce!

Oh, and this recipe serves quite a few people, probably 3 people could have two sandwiches, but it does last a few days covered in the refrigerator.

Cyber Sabbath!

I have been super busy lately. I have been out of town, and of course trying play catch once I got back. Anyway, no new creations yet this week, but an idea that's been floating around in my head for a year or so now. Cyber Sabbath.. I am not proud to admit this but I used to be a Real Housewives of... fan and on one of the shows a housewife mentioned Cyber Sabbath, and I thought it was such a great idea. Just one day a week, no internet. Shut your computer down on Saturday at sundown and turn it back on Sunday at sundown. Yes, this sounds scary to me too, and of course if it's absolutely necessary you can break the rule once or twice. But, I'm sure like many of you, I have 5 or more books that I have bought wanting to read soooo bad, and have never read a single page. I have so many projects I want to work on, places I want to visit (just in my city, let alone the world), photographs I've been meaning to take, and this gives me that opportunity without and distraction. So I have started a facebook page, in hopes that we can all share our experiences together, as we do the things we've been meaning to do! Join us, even if you're not fully committed, it doesn't hurt to try!

facebook.com/CyberSabbath

Our page is brand new, so please be patient as we put all the pieces together.

Light Switch Covers, Redecorated Using Spray Paint.

Let me start off by saying it's a great feeling having internet again! Our provider had some sort of issue, and we we're without internet for 4 days. Which isn't too bad, but it made me realize how much I rely on the internet.

Anyway, I found some light switch covers at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, as I had mentioned in my DIY Comic Coasters post, for only .10 cents. There's so many different crafty things you can do with light switch covers, but I wanted to try my husband's spray paint art. I love how they turned out, and it was really very simple.

Start with a clean light switch plate. Spray on a base coat, for the example I am showing my base coat is black. Probably the easiest way to learn how to paint like this is to refer to our video posted in a previous blog; A Quick Look at Spray Paint Art. After letting the base coat dry, start planning out your planets, if you want them in the corner, in the middle. Plan your colors as well, and also it's important to find household objects to protect the planets as you paint around them. In this one, I used a small soup can, and two spray paint caps. 

Spray paint in a round shape, in the area you would like your planets, take a sheet of newspaper, wax paper, aluminium foil, or magazine page to place on top of the wet starting of the planet. Here's is an example, I used a magazine page. I folded it, pressed it down and peeled it off, when you are satisfied with your planet colors and pattern, place the household item on top of it. Repeat the same, for other planets.

Once you're done with the planets, it should look something like this:

Spray the base coat color on again, around the household items.

Let the paint dry a few minutes, and then take a can of white paint, and spray in on the side of each can, cap or whatever you are using to cover the planet, this creates a white ring effect. Here's an example:

You can leave it like that, or you can spray some paint on your index finger (with rubber gloves on) and flick in onto the light switch to create stars. Slowly remove the the caps, and there you have it! 

Here it is, without the messy background, followed by the other one I made.

Display Photos Using Mason Jars!

This is such a great idea to display photos. I have so many framed photos all over the house, it's so hard to make room for new ones, or decide which photo to replace with a new one. This idea, it's easy to replace the photo at anytime. Just curve the photo and place it in the jar upside down, and there ya go, instant picture "frame"!

I got my jar at a thrift store for only .50 cents! I'm hoping to find more at that price in different sizes to add to this one.

DIY Comic Coasters

I was at the Habitat of Humanity Restore the other day, and found some great tiles for only .10 cents each. They also had light switch covers for .10 cents each as well, and I have a project in mind for those, but that's for a different day. I got two white tiles, and two ocean blue tiles. Let me tell you just a little bit about myself, I am one of those people that do not commit to something unless I'm absolutely sure of it. I do the whole pros and cons list (in my head or written down depending on the scenario) and ask people their opinions. Lets just say I am not a huge risk taker. Anyway, I have not decided what to do with the ocean blue tiles yet, but I knew with the white tiles I wanted to do a Sunday comics theme. I found this comic online, and because my entire family growing up loved Opus, I just knew this one was perfect.

The tiles I have are 4.25 x 4.25 and as you can tell this comic is not a perfect square, so I printed it out at a 3.5 x 4.25. 

After gaging the size of the comic vs. the size of the tile, I determined how closely to cut the border. Once I cut it to the exact size I wanted it I used my Homemade Mod Podge. I painted it onto the surface of the clean tile, and then stuck the comic onto the area I wanted it. Make sure to smooth out any air bubbles and creases at this time. I let it dry, while smoothly out some bubbles that appeared while drying. 

Now that the tile was dry, I painted the Mod Podge on the tile again. Make sure to paint it all in the direction, so that there are no zig zags, or jagged strokes on the tile. I let it dry and did another coat of Mod Podge. 

After letting the second coat dry, I went outside and sprayed a clear coat of spray paint on it, for an added shine, and to protect the comic a little bit more. Here's the finished product, and I will be sure to share my other tiles once I have decided what to decoupage on them!

Rock Mushrooms!

This is a super cute, easy way to liven up your yard or planter. I found two long skinny rocks to use as the bottom, and two round "mushroom top" shaped rocks for the top. You can paint these mushrooms any color, red, green, yellow, purple, really any color would be cute. I used about three coats on the top rock before painting the spots, and two on the bottom. I hot glued the rocks together, and there ya go little mushrooms!

Turn a Album into a Wall Pocket or Sconce!

Yesterday I was itchin' to do some painting. I kept looking at the random polka albums I have and decided I would paint it. I knew from there I wanted to melt it into something, but figured I would decide what to melt it into after painting it. 

To do this I used about 7 different colors, I used one color at a time adding random sized polka dots in various sections of the album. Here's an example:

I then applied my Homemade Mod Podge (which I truly love!) to the top of the record. This painting process took me about an hour. You can apply as many or as little as you want of the polka dots.

 After the homemade mod podge dried, I put in in the oven at 150 degrees. I placed a upside down metal bowl in the oven and then place the record on top of it. I let it melt for about 30 minutes occasionally checking on it. Once it was easily pliable, I took the record out (using oven mits) and folded the edges in the create a tip at the bottom. I then folded the top over just a little bit just to expose more of the polka dots. If the record starts to harden and it's still not what you want, it's no problem just put it back in the oven for a little bit so that it becomes pliable again. You can do this as many times as you want until you're happy with the results.

 Once I was happy with my results, I took a thumb tack and stuck in onto the wall through the hole in the record. I'm going to use mine as a wall pocket, because my husband is always unloading his pockets onto miscellaneous surfaces around our house, so I'm hoping this will work out better for him. 

He also had the idea of buying those small battery powered white lights you buy to put on a wreath, and stick them in there to create a sconce. Either way I'm very happy with the results, and the new addition to our wall.