I’ll admit, I have quite the obsession with seafood… Especially as of lately. I think it’s because I ate so much of the locally caught fish in Australia, that I became accustomed to it! Obviously moving back to the Midwest, … Continue reading
For all of my followers, I want to thank you for your wonderful comments and posts. I am looking forward to jumping back into the blogosphere with all things Pinterest related! While I travelled a lot with my job in … Continue reading
Well, long time no talk… Seriously it’s been way too long since I have posted on this blog and I want to apologize! Life is a funny thing once you begin a full time job (especially when you move across … Continue reading
In the United States, Peanut Butter Blossom cookies are a well known and popular cookie recipe that often makes an appearance around Christmas time. As you may know, I recently moved to Australia (2 months ago today actually), and had … Continue reading
So I want to apologize, sorry it’s been a while since I have posted, I’ve been busy preparing for my next journey in life and it was a lot more important than blogging. I am VERY excited to announce that … Continue reading
While I initially wanted to spell out a short quote or phrase in decorative wooden letters, I didn’t feel like spending a ton, so I decided to spell out ‘LOVE’ instead. I’ve worked with several DIY projects before where I’ve used … Continue reading
In my last post, I talked about my recent vintage salvage where I bought a vanity tray and jewelry tower from an antique market. Both items were beautiful, but needed a bit of TLC and a good cleaning. The tray was so dirty, you couldn’t even tell there was a mirror underneath all the dirt! I struggled to clean the rust off the edges of the mirrored vanity tray, and had to resort to Pinterest for some help. (Although these photos aren’t the best representation of how dirty the tray really was when I bought it, I wanted to show the tarnished edges before this cleaning process).
I found this Pinterest post about removing tarnish, and decided to try it. Here is my step by step tutorial on how to clean a tarnished item!
Items you will need:
Step 1: Grab a plastic container or bowl large enough, and line the bottom with aluminum foil.
Step 2: Place the container in the sink, and set the tarnished item in the foil lined container.
Step 3: Pour in 1/2 to 1 cup of baking soda into the container (I used 1 cup), and make sure that your water is boiling hot when you add it into the container.
Step 4: Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes, and you should see dirt beginning to float around. I used a toothbrush to try and scrub more tarnish off, but it didn’t work too well.
Step 5: If the tarnish doesn’t all come off, grab some more aluminum foil and use it to clean it some more. Follow my video below!
Step 6: Fully rinse the item in warm water, and wipe dry with a clean cloth!
As you all know, vintage shopping and antiquing have become one of my most recent hobbies. I’ve gone to the majority of local antique malls, garage sales, estate sales, and other similar stores several times, and I was ready to visit a new place to find treasures.
About 15 minutes away from my house, lies a charming historic city known as Cedarburg. It is home to many little specialty stores, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, and is just very unique. They also frequently have a variety of festivals that are recommended on the “things to do in Wisconsin” search, (especially to those visiting from out of state). I have always heard about Maxwell Street Days as a major attraction, but I had no idea what it was.
It was probably a good thing that I didn’t know much about it before, because I would have spent tons of money and several days there! Maxwell Street Days brings together hundreds of vendors from across the state that sell antiques, crafts, and other unique items. I could have gotten lost for hours if I had gone without my friend Leah, I’ve never seen so many vendors and goodies!
I have been searching for a mirrored vanity tray for quite some time now, but have found too many of them to be overpriced and not what I was looking for. I walked up to a vendor with several piles of “junk” containing mannequin legs, tools, broken items, and miraculously, a very dirty mirrored vanity tray! The lady was selling it for $8, but I bargained it down to $3! All it needed was some TLC and a good cleaning! (I wish I would have taken a picture of how dirty it really was before I started washing it down because you couldn’t even tell it was a mirror underneath.) There will be another blog soon on how to clean the rust and dirt off of it well since silver polish didn’t work!
I also have been looking for a jewelry tray/tower, not necessarily vintage, but just one in general. I have found several tutorials on how to make my own with candle sticks and plates from the dollar store. Luckily, I found one at Maxwell Street days for $10, and negotiated to buy it for only $5! Again, it just needed some cleaning and it would be perfect for my room! All I did was use an ‘all metal’ cleaner and a cloth to clean off the grime.
I love these new additions to my vanity! I use the vanity tray for my perfume and a vintage Chanel powder I inherited from my Grandma. The jewelry tray is perfect for small items like rings and bracelets. I would include earrings, however, I cannot wear earrings anymore.
I’ll admit, I am not the biggest fan of maroon, wine, sangria (whatever you want to define it) because I always thought it looked awful on me. That was until I started stepping out of my comfort zone with colors and outfits I never would have tried on otherwise.
Sangria is the must have color for fall 2014, and when I recently went shopping, I stumbled upon this gorgeous dress with gold accents and fell in love immediately. I really didn’t NEED another dress, but isn’t that how all most of us girls feel about the majority of our shopping experiences? I am so glad I bought it because I ended up getting invited to a wedding shortly after my purchase, and of course I wore this dress!
I love this dress so much because it is lightweight, doesn’t wrinkle (especially when packed in a suitcase), and is super comfortable. Plus I don’t think I will ever forget about this dress since I wore it to my first wedding (ever) this past weekend when I went to visit my friend Jack in Texas! Had such a great time, and it even went well with the wedding theme colors (red and turquoise).
I love Lilly Pulitzer, but I never thought I could learn how to paint any of the prints. Well, I was wrong, because I found a tutorial which showed me step by step and I loved how easy it was and how it turned out! I found this tutorial on Pinterest, and followed most of the steps identically.
I’ll admit, I have quite the obsession with seafood… Especially as of lately. I think it’s because I ate so much of the locally caught fish in Australia, that I became accustomed to it!
Obviously moving back to the Midwest, changes the accessibility for fresh seafood; however, it doesn’t change my craving for it. I just have to be willing to pay a bit more money for the imported products… (sigh)
Luckily, I not only have a boyfriend that loves seafood and home cooked meals, but a close friend as well. My friend Lisa and I have started to get together every so often to whip up a healthy and delicious dinner in her kitchen. She’s gluten intolerant, so we have to be a bit flexible on our recipe choices, but that’s okay!
Lisa has never used Pinterest before, and man oh man, have I got her started on using Pinterest after we found this yummy recipe!
The original recipe found on Pinterest just looked so mouth watering.
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes Yield: 4-5 servings
Ingredients
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 400 degrees & get out a large baking dish. Place the salmon in the center of the pan.
Note: The original recipe calls for a 17 x 12 inch baking dish, but we used a large cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil (instead of parchment paper). You can also cut the salmon into smaller pieces if you wish. It may help speed the cooking process up.
Step 2: Get out a mixing bowl and mix together 1 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil, lemon zest, half of the garlic cloves, dijon, and onion powder. Brush it on top of the salmon and add salt and pepper for taste if you’d like. Top the salmon with thin slices of lemon.
Note: We used about 1/2 a clove of garlic from the store bought minced garlic instead of fresh garlic. We didn’t want our salmon to be too garlic-y in flavor. We also didn’t have a lemon zester, so we carefully shaved off pieces of lemon with a knife, which works just as well. If you like lemon flavor, I would also recommend squeezing some lemon juice on top of the salmon!
Step 3: Cut up your asparagus accordingly, and toss with the remaining 1 Tbsp olive oil, garlic, and add salt if you would like. Place around the outside of the salmon on the baking sheet (or baking dish).
Note: We chose to not really cut the asparagus up too much, just preference in presentation, that is all!
Step 4: Place into the oven and bake for about 10 minutes.
Step 5: Remove from oven, rotate the asparagus to allow it to cook evenly, and sprinkle it with parmesan.
Step 6: Return the baking sheet/dish to the oven and bake until the salmon is fully cooked, for about 5-10 minutes.
Note: The recipe says it should take about 5-10 minutes longer, but it took us about 15 more minutes to fully cook. We checked the salmon at about 10 minutes and it was still somewhat raw. This is probably because we had one giant piece of salmon and never really cut it into smaller pieces. Would be worth trying to cut up ahead of time!
Step 7: Check to make sure it is fully cooked. Serve it warm and enjoy!
Tip for recipe: Serve it with sautéed mushrooms and a glass of white wine, and BOOM you have got a perfect meal. =) Plus this still tastes amazing as leftovers!
Well, That's Pinteresting! 