Spinach and Orzo (sort of) Soup

The weather here in New Orleans has been a tad ridiculous recently. Off and on between being in the 40s/upper 30s, to the mid 70s. It's really quite annoying. Yesterday was a chilly one and because it was also a crappy day spent in a doctor's office and then driving around campus for 45 minutes trying to find a parking spot, I really wanted some soup. For me, after my Grandma Ruth's grits, fried egg and toast breakfast, my next favorite comfort food is soup. So yesterday I decided to branch out and make something other than my standard potato-leek or chicken noodle soup and make something else. I saw this while looking through my soup board on Pinterest and thought, "That sounds light and yummy." And Justin even said it looked good. So away we went to the grocery store.

Spinach, tomato orzo soup

I followed the recipe (almost) to the tee and to be honest. It's INCREDIBLY bland. Justin had about half a cup. The only variations I had were that I upped the amount of garlic to 4 cloves (because I LOVE garlic), I added mushrooms (because I've been wanting some for a while),  and because the orzo was pricier. I used a radiatori pasta which was a little bit bigger. I've never been so disappointed with a soup and now I'm stuck with a gallon of it. My only consolation is that I at least bought some leeks and potatoes to go to my favorite standby.

My onion, 4 cloves of garlic, and mushrooms

chicken stock (it was on sale at Whole Foods for cheaper than generic at Rouses), tomatoes, spinach

My seasonings

I didn't get a picture of the final product because I was cooking a few things last night and forgot to. Sorry.

So NO I would NOT recommend making the soup pictured in this pin. While it was easy to put together, it didn't taste like anything spectacular.

Gospel ABCs

I was called to lead the children 12 and under at my church last August. Since then I've been getting a hold of things and trying to switch some things around. The kids 18 months to 3 attend what they call the nursery. There they sing, have a short lesson (5 minutes about), and play. Because we had some new cabinets installed (after asking for them for a year), I feel like sprucing the place up. They have posters of typical kid songs like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, but I wanted to add some things that were more churchy. In comes this pin I saw om Pinterest. It's for a quiet book for little kids, but I wanted to make it bigger and switch up a few things. So what I did was copy their list of A-Z, then rewrite them to fit an entire page (they were filling up at about 1/4 of a page and since the room is pretty big, I wanted it bigger. Plus I wanted a different font). Also, instead of making the type white and the background different colors, I decided to simply do an outline and then color the wording. I like coloring and it gave me an excuse. The next thing I did was raid my gospel art kit which has pictures relating to different scripture stories and such. They would be easier than finding and printing 26 different pictures. And here is the end result..

I came up with outlines for my lettering.

I enjoy coloring so I did a second outline in marker and colored the pages in with colored pencils.

More after the jump!

The Padded Chair

I inherited a piece of history. It's a rolling chair. It's about 25 years old and used to be my dad's. I can remember it since it sat at his desk which was right outside of my bedroom until I was almost 12. It still functions pretty well except for one thing... The padding. To say it is sparse is being polite. I'll just say this- the plastic trim going around it sticks up more than the padding. This poor chaise has seen better days. I've been meaning to recover it but have been putting it off for a while. But recently I also got the spark to redo a desk and hutch that sit in my room and thought this would be perfect- to recover the chair to accompany the desk. The desk combo is not yet finished. It should be done by this weekend, but we'll see. However, this chair redo was quick and pretty easy. I did it while sitting on the ground watching TV with my husband and nephew. All in all, it took about 30 minutes. The biggest obstacle was actually getting material for it. At first I bought a pattern I loved. But realized it was not sturdy enough. Then I went to the home decor fabrics. But forgot the measurements of the chair and didn't get enough. So finally, with measurements in hand, I went to the fabric store and purchased enough of a fabric I loved! It cost me $9 for a yard. And here's the result:

The original chair

Unscrew the pads from the base

Lay your fabric, printed side down and place your foam piece.

Next, place your pad, face down, on top of the foam. For my second part, to support the back, I had to trim the foam about 2".

More after the jump!

30 by 30

Kaycee here:

Well 2012 has arrived. I knew this year would come...the year I turn 30. I know it's just a number, but it has me thinking. I'm going to be 30 in 221 days, no matter what, so why not meet that day with a pocket full of confidence? I don't want to do "Extreme Makeover:  Kaycee Edition", but I do want to accomplish a few things.

The PINSPIRATION:



http://pinterest.com/pin/203365739393038356/



The PRODUCT:

http://kayceerenee.blogspot.com/2012/01/30-by-30.html 

More after the jump!

Fancy wrapping job

I apologize for the barrage of posts- I was sick all last week and feel the need to post a lot to make up for it.


Pretty Handy Girl has to be one of my favorite blogs to follow. That along with Skinny Taste and Jane Austen's World. But Pretty Handy Girl wins hands down. When I saw the following gift wrap she came up with I think my jaw may have honestly dropped onto my keyboard (because the only time I check blogs is while I'm at work). I was inspired. I knew I would be keeping my gift wrapping simple this Christmas because I liked the rustic look of brown paper packages tied up with string. That plus brown wrapping paper is a dollar for a huge roll at the dollar store versus $5 regular wrapping paper. So I started thinking. And this is what I came up with using my cheap paper and some scraps of scrapbook paper I had lying around.

More after the jump!

T-shirt fun

A few months ago I saw this pin

                          

and knew I wanted to try it. But being the person I am (who hates patterns and being too copy-cattish, I wanted to make my own design).



I bought a plain white t-shirt and used a pack of fabric markers I had.

 




A sign leading to New Orleans and GG's house (that's what they call my mom)