The other day, I played around with a new video program on my computer. Here's a little something that I threw together!

The picture above is the horrible, outdated, tacky floral wallpaper that is in our dinning room/kitchen. You have to understand that I live in a rental home - if this were my home that was purchased, the wall paper would have been removed day 1! In fact, I would have tore out the whole kitchen (you'll see why in just a minute).

I have lived with this wall paper for the past 3 years, and to be completely honest, I often forget that it is there. I know - that is hard to believe. It almost makes you sick to look at it!!

This weekend, I got a wild hair to paint the wall. I know my landlord most likely will be mad that I painted - probably isn't allowed - but could you blame me????!!!

Here is the final result with the furniture put back into place.

I decided to continue into the kitchen which had plain white walls. What a tiny, horrible kitchen! So outdated!


I have to admit - It looks a little bit better with the paint - but still NOT my dream kitchen!

Turkey

I came across this recipe last year and really wanted to try it... but I didn't... and then I forgot all about it. But Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and the recipe came across my computer once again!

Look how easy it is to cook a turkey! (not that I've ever cooked one before, so I don't know how hard it is to cook... but I can only imagine it's hard!) : )

Your ingredients are simple:

• 1 (18 -20 lb) whole turkey
• 2 stalks of celery (roughly chopped)
• 1 carrot (roughly chopped)
• 1 onion (cut into quarters)
• 3 -4 crushed garlic cloves
  
• olive oil

Directions:

Take everything out of the turkey. There will be a giblet bag and some other stuff.

Chop the onion into quarters.

Chop a nice long carrot.

Do the same with a couple stalks of celery

• Put all of the veggies in the turkey.

Add several cloves of garlic that you mash between a kitchen knife and the kitchen counter.

Throw it all inside the turkey.

Then rub the turkey all over with olive oil.

Put the turkey in a roasting pan and cover it with a large brown paper bag.

Staple shut. If you have a huge turkey use two paper bags at each end. It wont stick to the bird because of the olive oil.

Sprinkle the bag all over with water.

Place into pre-heated 375 F oven. ON THE MIDDLE RACK.

The bag wont burn because paper burns at 451 and we're at 375 degrees.

The advantage of the brown paper bag over the Reynolds cooking bag is that the paper breathes so the turkey ROASTS. In the Reynolds bag the turkey STEAMS, giving it a different taste.

Roast for 13-15 minutes per pound.

When you think it's ready, shove a meat thermometer through the bag and into the turkey and give it a minute to register. Make sure it doesn't touch the bone.

The thermometer should register between 163-170 degrees.

Remove from oven, cut away the bag and remove the basting pan.

Here's what you should get when all is done:


How good does this look?!?

Better Late Than Never!

Because the wedding was in October, Halloween did not get as much attention as it should have. I found this really great design earlier in the year and just held on to it until a free weekend!

Martha Stewart has the cutest ideas! Check out the with and cats: http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/witch-and-cat-lawn-ornaments

Here is the stencil for the witch:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf1/1005_witch.pdf

Here is the stencil for the cats:
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf1/1005_cat.pdf

Long story short, we ended up with an extra piece of plywood in the garage that really needed to get used and free up some space. So I decided to tackle the witch and cats this past weekend! (sure, they will sit in the closet until next year, but I'll be ready for Halloween 2011!)

First, you print out the stencil (see above for the link). Tape them together. Each paper has a mark in each corner to line everything up right.


Once the whole witch (or cats) are taped together, cut out the shape.

When you are ready to cut, the website says to use a spray adhesive and stick it on the wood - you would then cut around the stencil. I just traced out the witch and cats, then threw the stencil away.

After you cut the wood, attach a metal pipe on the back (for the witch, have 12 inches hanging over the bottom). When I tried to put her in the ground, the pipe moved up her back instead of down in the dirt - so I hammered the end to create a 'point'. The pole went in the ground much better!


The last step is to paint her black!

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Helga! See ya next year Helga!

New TV Stand

Over the weekend, I made a TV Stand - That's right... I cut out the wood, made my own pocket holes, put it together, and painted it!

I got the idea from This website/plan, but I had to tweak it just a bit. The original design was a little too big for our living room.

I'm very happy with the final product!

Done and Done!

The wedding and honeymoon is over! What a great two weeks - full of family, friends, and good times!

Here are a few pictures of the honeymoon - Royal Carribean's private island - Cococay. Trust me- there are more pictures to come!

Enjoy!