Our new school room

Since I haven't made any updates on the blog lately 

I just wanted to share a quick photo of our recent new school room.

Kids love it and so do we.

How to paint a backsplash.

I always wanted to have a baksplash in my kitchen but it seemed a bit costly for us at this time and I was desperate for change. 

One day it hit me! what if I paint the backsplash on? how would that look? 

After some online research I came across this website Sawdust and Embryos they had great ideas and just what I was looking for. Here are some pictures of what I did.

The first 3 pictures are what are kitchen looked like before. 

I did like the green walls but it was time for a change.

Here is what I did and what you will need:

white primer

regular painters tape 

1/4″ painters tape for tile

ruler

acrylic paints of your choice (5-6 colors at best)

1" sponge brushes for each color you choose

protective sealer 

and some yoga stretches for those hard to reach places (LOL)

Total cost for all came out to be about $30 (I used coupons at Michaels for the Acrylics.)

That price was definitely more cost effective for me 

then few hundred dollars for a real backsplash.

First off I I needed to prime the green and waited a full week before taping.

Once it was all dry and ready I started of with a 1/4″ painters tape from Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/PAINTERS-MATE-GREEN-TAPE-Wide/dp/B0006ITPMK

I copied the measurements from Sawdust and Embryos 

the tape was spaced about .875 inches or 22 mm away. 

As you can see I taped it around the ruler for a quick guide.

Then every time I taped the wall I just rested the bottom of the ruler on the small backspalsh and moved the ruler with the tape.

It was hard to tape in places that were hard to reach, especially when the walls met and I had to get under the cabinets to tape. At that time I think I invented some new yoga poses bc it felt like I had to bend in all sorts of directions to get to the wall.

It was a little time consuming but not to bad.

The vertical lines were then placed randomly. 

 Now it was time to paint.

These were my color choices.

At first I got really scared that everything is blending 

and it didn't look as what I imagined it to be.

however, as soon as the tape came off I was in love

I recommend taking the tape off as soon as you are done painting a section, 

the longer you wait the bigger chances you have for the paint to peel off.

Once everything was done I sealed it with only one coat of Minwax Polycrylic Protective finish

I choose clear gloss, I wish I would have chosen a semi-gloss maybe? 

bc it seemed that the tiles looked to shiny, at least they did to me. 

You don't need to sand or reapply, 

I sanded just a bit (very lightly) to take that "shininess" away.

This is the finished look.

Now it was time to paint the green walls.

  

My wall color choice was Surfer Blue from Sherwin-Williams 

it matched one of the tile colors perfectly.

My second room was painted Dorian Gray also from Sherwin-Williams

Before                                              After

 

Please let me know what you guys think or if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

"Golabki" Polish Style Cabbage Rolls

My mother-in-law was in town so it was time to make some "Golabki" cabbage rolls

here are some quick tips how to make them.

 You can use cabbage or collard greens, 

I felt that the collard greens were stronger and bigger to wrap the meat in

roll up some cooked rice and uncooked ground meat of your choice, 

you can add some mushrooms, onion, carrots and spices to your likening,  

boil the cabbage or collard greens for 5 minutes in some water and drain

when the cabbage is soft place the meat balls on top and roll 

  

fold the sides first and close it up

your finished roll should look like this

place the rolls in a big pot so they all fit on top of each other 

pour in about a cup of water or broth, place one leaf on top, 

cover and cook for about an hour or so, on medium-low, 

Once finished, take out, cover with ketchup if you like and enjoy.

Since you will be making so many you can always freeze the rest to use for later.

Homemade grapefruit juice

We received lots of grapefruits from a friend of ours

so it was only natural that all my kids wanted to do was 

fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

Here is a simple recipe to make it nice and sweet.

Squeeze the juice out or use a juicer

combine:

sugar

raw honey

vanilla extract

(everything to your taste)

mix in a blender

ad some mint leaves on top and enjoy!!!

It's that simple.

Original idea from my sis-in-law Chasing Butterflies.

Writing and painting with a feather

Recently my kids were very fascinated by a book where pictured 

was a boy writing a letter with a feather.

So naturally they wanted to try.

First collect feathers, (my cousin does "pigeon keeping" so we had lots of those) 

Then, simply give them some paint to dip it in and

magic is made.

As you can see they were super excited.

It was a bit of a challenge because they had to dip the feather in paint lots of times

in order to accomplish what they needed,

therefore, towards the end they just flipped the feather around 

and used it as a paintbrush.

And the beautiful art was created

This is "Swirls"

by: my younger awesome dude

and

"I love U"

by: my older awesome dude