DIY wooden sign

The finished family sign

Snowed in today, so I figured I would post something I made this past spring before I was married. I LOVE those custom vinyl decal family signs. I just don't love the price ($300 for a wooden sign.. you're kidding me, right?) At the time, we were saving for the wedding, so I decided to make my own.

1. I used a large piece of 1" thick wood sheet bought from Home Depot. I had them cut it to the size I wanted for the sign, and kept the rest for another project.

Untreated wood 

2. I stained the light colored wood with a dark brown stain on the front and back.

After stain: LOVE this look, and could be used for so many things. When I remodeled my husband's man cave, I used this same board staining process, and hung a huge chunk of wood like this onto the wall, then ran LED lights at the bottom, hidden by the TV. The different LED colors onto the dark hardwood give a very masculine look and really help to create ambiance in that small room.

3. Once the stain dried, although I loved the look of the wood, I needed it to be a bit darker. I had some grey paint kicking around from when we painted the bedroom, and decided to rub some of that into the wood to darken it up a bit. I'm not exactly sure what this did, or how it did it, but it helped to give the sign a distressed, darker look. 
4. While all of that was drying and curing, I hopped on the computer in Microsoft Word, and created my sign. I used many fonts from 1001 free fonts  (1001freefonts.com), to customize the look, and give some character to my sign. This was the funnest part by far. I recalled things my husband and I did on our first date, places of significance to us, our nicknames for each other, things we loved, our last name, and our wedding date. This part made step 7 worth it.

Finished computer file image

5. Once I was satisfied, I sent my husband out to Kinko's with my design on a flash drive, and the size I needed it.
6. He returned with a printing the size I needed for the sign, and I set to work taping up the sign for the most tedious thing known to man.
7. I ran large strips of overlapping painters tape along the entire board, then taped the print out on top of it. My theory here, was that I would use an exact-o knife, and cut out each letter of each word. I settled in for a LONG night of cutting, finger cramps, and "why am I doing this again??" I traced over each part of each letter, then removed the white paper and green painters tape to reveal the dark wood underneath.

8. After 2 days of cutting out the lettering, I was ready for paint. I painted over the entire green area with bright white paint, let that dry, and applied 2 more coats. This gave me the raised lettering look I was going for.
9. After being 100% certain the entire thing had dried, I very carefully peeled off the painters tape, careful not to peel any of the lettering away.
10. I then used a very fine sanding block, and sanded areas of the painting to give it more of a distressed look.
11. Finally, I bought a picture hanging bracket kit from Home Depot, that included the nails and brackets to hang my board. I installed that, and slapped that bad boy up on my living room wall. 

Although it was a very tedious project, the entire thing only cost about $10, considering I already had the stain, paint, sanders block, and tape.

And the end result:

Recipe for this snow day: Spatzle

One of my fondest memories growing up was my Grandmother making Spatzle on cold, rainy days.  They are the German version of noodles, and they are doughy, yummy goodness. The funny thing is, as an adult I make these and call them my 'lazy noodles', because all you have to do is mix up the ingredients and drop them into boiling water. This recipe is for basic spatzle, and once cooked can be served with pasta, gravy, butter and fresh herbs, or just thrown straight into a soup. Today, I'm cooking chicken spatzle soup with carrots, cabbage, onion, and the leftover rotisserie chicken we had last night- mixed with some olive oil, butter, Herbs de Provence, and Thyme. Simple, easy, and perfect for a cold winter day.

Spatzle:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 eggs lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup milk 

Sift the flour, salt and nutmeg together. Pour eggs and milk into the flour mixture and mix well for about 2-3 minutes.Add more flour if needed to keep the dough sticky. Bring 4-5 cups of water to a rolling boil. Transfer the dough mixture onto a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut small sections of the dough and allow the dough to drop off the knife into the boiling water. You can use large knife cuttings, or smaller, depending on the size of noodle you want. I generally use long, thin knife cuttings, so the noodles turn out thinner. (You can also push the dough through a colander to obtain a more uniform noodle if you'd like). Once you've repeated this process with your dough, stir the cooking noodles with a slotted wooden spoon and allow to cook for 6-8 minutes.

Transfer noodles into butter, sauce, soup, or however you want to prepare them. They are yummy with butter, fresh Parmesan cheese, and a little fresh herbs (Fresh rosemary or Thyme from the garden when I can), or Herbs de Provence.

Enjoy! 

DIY Anthro/Pottery Barn knockoff ruffled curtains.. coming this weekend!

This week marks the start of the nursery planning. I have about 5 weeks left in my second trimester, and plan on using them to my advantage! I've been scouring Pinterest for the past few months for my ideal nursery, and although I'm seeing absolutely gorgeous designs, I'm not really seeing anything that fits what I see in my head (common problem), or would fit in my budget (Is zero a budget?). I would like to have a Beatrix Potter theme with soft, neutral colors. I know I'm going to have to shell out for a rocking chair/glider, and an area rug, so everything else is going to need to come in as cheap as possible. 

 I started thinking about window coverings for our currently undecorated "guest bedroom" (really, it's just a bed, ironing board, and a chair. I'd call it more of where the dogs decide to pass out if we mistakenly leave the door open, or the room where we iron). Of course, my first response was to go to Anthropologie, Pottery Barn, and Etsy for inspiration. Although there are some GORGEOUS window coverings on all of those sites, I just can't spend $300 on drapes. Even if I could, I still wouldn't. However.. I fell in LOVE with this:

This amazing shower curtain is from Etsy, and can be found here: Etsy Shower curtain Ombre. I love the ruffles, the ombre coloring, just everything about it. So, in true Cassandra fashion, I went rummaging through the fabric I have in my craft closet and came up with: An old white duvet with a stain on it in King Size (we have a queen size bed), a cream set of old sheets, and a linen window panel that I cut the bottom half off of for another project. I have my ombre colors, I have my fabric, I have an IDEA of how to do this, and potentially the sewing skills to scrape by. I think I'm going to pop by Walmart and pick up 2 super cheap cream colored sheets to tack the ruffles onto, and start cutting the strips to sew on this evening.

Nevertheless, this project is happening this weekend. Let the sewing and swearing commence!

Healthy (well, healthiER) version of Orange Julius

My husband and I got a large amount of oranges in our Bountiful Basket (www.bountifulbaskets.org) this week. That, coupled with the three oranges I had from last week and a hankering for an Orange Julius, led me to experiment with a recipe of my own. The result is very similar to the real thing, but made with fresh, natural ingredients. This still has sugar and vanilla in it so it definitely is a treat, but probably a lot healthier than the actual thing  (I believe that is made from frozen orange concentrate and corn syrup). Enjoy!


3 oranges
1 1/2 cups ice
1/2 cup of milk ( I used organic 2%)
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar (or creamed honey)
1 tsp. vanilla (used the vanilla I made at home in the other recipe :)  )
1 tsp of orange zest.

-Peel the oranges and freeze for about 45 minutes until cold, but not entirely frozen over. For best results, pop the oranges into a food processor and puree into a fine pulp blend. This will eliminate any chunks in your smoothie.
-Add oranges, ice, milk, sugar, vanilla, and orange zest into the blender, and blend on high until smooth and creamy. Pour into a fancy glass and enjoy!

*I used my Hamilton Beach personal blender for this smoothie, since my husband wanted a strawberry one instead. This recipe will make enough for one, but could be easily doubled or tripled into a full size blender.

Other options:
: Other fruit: Instead of oranges, use strawberries or bananas. I used about 1 1/2 cups of frozen strawberries (that I washed, cut, and froze last month), for my husbands drink, and he said it was just like the real thing.

:Creamsicle-Martini: (Sounds so yummy during a hot summer day!): Add a shot of "Whipped" vodka for an adult creamsicle, and serve in martini glasses with a wedge of orange.

Healthy Eating Part Two: Freezer Meals

I have to admit, when my friend Mika sent me photos of her pimped out fridge (with enough freezer meals for a MONTH), I cringed a little inside. My immediate reaction to freezer anything, was sodium-laden chemical bombs. Then I got to looking in my own freezer and realized at any given time, I have strawberries and bananas for smoothies, ginger and garlic for cooking, and peppers for when I don't feel like chopping. I was interested in learning more, and following Mika's advice, scoured the internet for different recipes. The result of my trials are the recipes listed below. The whole concept here is that you spend about an hour once every few weeks, assembling easy meals that are then laid flat in your freezer, and thrown into the crockpot when you're ready to eat them. I initially tested five recipes, which I'll post here, and made some pretty big modifications based upon health cheats (used homemade canned tomatoes instead of sodium-bomb store bought diced; added more veggies, used less meat, etc), and still came up with some pretty killer recipes. I can't say every single one is as healthy as a rice cake, as sodium is still going to lurk it's evil head wherever we go, but hey, balance that bad boy out with a salad first :)

For those of you who don't own a crockpot, call your mom, borrow hers, and never, ever give it back. That's what I did, and my own Grandmother has eaten meals out of it, commented on the crockpot, and then told me I could keep it, if I kept cooking her meals. Sweet...  For those of you who do own one, but never use it- hopefully these recipes will inspire you to bust that puppy out and dust it off. Either way, I'll gladly take 1 hour preparing several meals for my husband and I and not have to worry about cooking after a busy, hectic, stressful day on my feet at work. Oh, you mean the crockpot maid cooked dinner for us? She really needs a raise!   -Enjoy!


Teriyaki Chicken Freezer Meal Recipe