Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Kettle Corn

Do you love Kettle Corn?
I recently did a post on how to make my Homemade Kettle Corn.
Yummy!
Kettlecorn.co contacted me and added my recipe to their website.
You really have to check it out.
An entire website devoted to Kettle Corn....WOW!
I know what I am making tonight.

Floating Shelves Tutorial

Do you love the look of floating shelves?
I do!

They are just so darn expensive! Even at IKEA they are more than I am willing to spend.

So I decided to make some myself. I did a bunch of research to find the easiest and cheapest way to do it. I kept coming across one way,
Make them from a Door. Really, a door?!

My parents were in town for Christmas so I decided to use my Dad's help.
He is a cabinet maker after all!

So here we go!

Finished product. I just threw some stuff on it to take the picture.
Next Christmas will be MUCH better!

Empty...Sad ;(

I started with a plain door. I got mine at Home Depot. We decided to go with a 28"inch wide door. It was about $20 bucks. I will be able to get three full length shelves out of one door. Or I can cut them into smaller lengths.
THOUGHT: If you are going to cut smaller shelves you will need to get some decorative molding to cover the open ends of your door. Just glue or tack them on.

Home Depot will not cut doors, we begged but they refused, so we were going to have to do it ourselves. I do not have a table saw so we improvised. We got a 1x4 to use as a straight edge, clamped it down and used the circular saw to make a straight cut. This was a two person job, one to hold the door down and one to make the cut.

Here it is after we cut it. Inside of door and outside of door.
Sorry about the fire extinguisher in the pic. Safety First!

This is my Dad. Love him! We used a chisel to clean up the inside of the door. In these cheap doors the only thing inside is cardboard. It was super easy to break the cardboard out and create a space to slide the brace in. If you don't have a chisel a bread knife would do the same thing.

Here is my Dad pushing the cardboard in to create space. He also scraped away some of the glue that was holding the cardboard in place.

A bit of sanding to clean that cut edge up. Now it is ready for paint. I used a high quality black semi gloss spray paint. I sprayed about three coats to create a glossy finish. Sorry no pics!

These are the braces that the door will slide onto. My Dad cut these on the table saw at his house before he came to Vegas. He made them exactly the same size as the inside of the door, 1 3/16". That way the door slides perfectly onto them. If my Dad had not been able to do it before hand I would have got a 2x2 post and had Home depot cut it down to 1 3/16". Make sense?

This is hard to see but it is showing that we have measured, leveled and pre drilled holes in the walls where we want to attach the brace board. We went into studs only. Better safe than sorry!

Measure, level, draw level line.

We pre sunk our screws, you don't have to. Just make sure your screw is long enough to go through your brace, the dry wall and into the stud. About 2 1/2 or 3" screws. You will need a fully charged drill to do this. It took a lot of strength for my dad to get these screws through so many layers. I suggest you get some man muscle to help you out for this step.

Slide on the shelf. You can add some wood glue if you like. I didn't because we rent and I want to take this shelf with me when we move. Screw some tiny flat head screws to attach the shelf to the bracket.

My shelf is high enough that I am not going to worry so much about covering them.

DONE!

I can't wait to decorate it for the seasons!

Thanks for the help Dad! Love you!


Monday, January 3, 2011

Homemade Laundry Detergent Part 2

Several months ago I made Homemade Laundry Detergent. I have been using it for about 2 1/2 months and I LOVE IT!
I just made my second batch yesterday. It is so easy and it really does work.
No more itchy skin from store detergents. There is no stiffness, smells and it even works on dedicates.
You should try it!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

My Recent Absence...

I am so sorry for my absence!
I have had in-laws and my parents over for the last week and had no time and no motivation to craft or to blog.
But I am back and I have some fun projects in the works, so stay tuned!

FYI: I am going to start building furniture! I know! Crazy!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Mean People at Christmas?!

I got my first mean comment today.
A week before Christmas!
The nerve!
I know that sometimes I have typos and sometimes I use words incorrectly. That is life. I like to try to type like I talk, and sometimes that is not correct.
So I received a comment about how I misspelled a word. It was the "voila". I spelled it "whala".
At the time I knew it was wrong. Spell check couldn't help me and I was lazy and didn't pull up the dictionary. I let it slide.
BIG DEAL!
This person felt that they needed to post a comment about it.
My mother is allowed to tell me those type of things, not some random "Anonymous".
Well, this is what I think...
Whop de do!
Whala!
Bone Apatete!
Saylavee!
Ta Da!
And every other word I can possibly misspell and use incorrectly.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Homemade Kettle Corn

Hi all!
I LOOOOVE Kettle Corn. I only had it for the first time a year ago. Ahhh! I was missing that amazingness this whole time! Sad face :(
Another thing you may not know about me is that I am cheep...very cheep. I learned it from my mother. A SALE shopper to the end. So I will NOT pay good money for popcorn when I know it is so easy to make. Example: As a child we NEVER purchased treats or popcorn at the movies. We brought our own. My mom had a really ugly green pleather bag that we took with us full of pre-popped popcorn, pop cans and candy from the gas station. Saved lots of money and I never knew the difference. So spending $8.00 for a bag of kettle corn at the theater is CRAZY! I will not do it!

Guess what I did. I figured out how to make it myself. GENIUS!
And I want to share it with you.


First you need an ugly pot with a fitted lid - Not to big and not to small. (he, he..Goldilocks) You will not want to use this pot for much else after you make this a few times. The bottom gets pretty scorched. The lid must fit well to avoid oil splatter.

  • Pop Corn - I use the Walmart stuff
  • Oil - vegetable or canola
  • Salt
  • Sugar

I have a gas stove so take that into consideration. An electric may take more time to heat.

In your pot dump:

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup kernels

Mix up with long wood (not metal or plastic) spoon.

Put on lid. With hot pads hold your pot on each side.

Lift and shake side to side and up and down.

Put on burner, Count to 5.

one one thousand, two one thousand...etc.

Lift and shake....blah, blah, blah

Put on burner and count to 5.

Do this over and over till the popping slows and stops for 2 seconds.

This is me in motion.

Turn off heat and dump popcorn into large bowl IMMEDIATELY. The pot is still hot and will continue to burn your corn.
Sprinkle with salt, mix and salt some more.

NOTE: Be careful of unpopped kernels. They stick to the popped kernels and you don't know it till you bite down. I will not be held responsible for broken teeth! Let your kettle corn cool down and then break it apart gently. This should help dislodge those unpopped kernels.

Done.

This is my bowl, get your own!


This Post was featured on KettleCorn.Co!

Monday, December 6, 2010

E-Mail to Santa

You really have to try this with your kids. We have done it a few years now and we love it!
Merry Christmas!


Click here to send *your* Christmas Wish to Santa Claus! A letter to Santa Claus? Yes kids its true! Jolly Saint Nick wants to hear about you! From the North Pole Santa will send his reply... Faster than Rudolph the reindeer can fly! Merry Christmas!