Branching out: a tutorial

I've recently developed an addiction to Pinterest (I know, I jumped on the bandwagon rather late), and for the first little bit, I wasn't sure if I was doing more than just looking at the great ideas of others but losing my own productivity.

Then I saw her.

source

I wasn't happy with how I was dealing with my necklaces. I'll spare you the 'before' shot because a) I forgot to take one and b) it was ugly. You are welcome.

In either case, I decided that this couldn't be all that hard to do, so I spent a few hours wandering antique and second hand shops. I'm sure you could find something at a frame shop, but it seems silly to buy something brand new just to paint it.

By the way- wandering antique shops is a great way to find all sorts of projects and items that you didn't even realize you needed! Mr. Pony doesn't even know how much he appreciates me holding back from buying all the inspirations! But I digress.

Good old J.T. I knew I could count on him.

So I found a frame for all of $8, bought some craft paint {Spicy Mustard- my current color obsession}, and went to work!

Of course, that wasn't the color I wanted. As always, I put a coat of primer on first. This helped cover up the old frame color, and filled in some of the beat up parts so they wouldn't soak in so much of my pretty paint color. {I recommend always having a can of primer on hand. I bought a gallon of the Lowe's cheap stuff for ~$10 and have so far used it on this and this and this. Well worth it!} Then I followed up with 2 coats of my mustard paint. Yay!


I liked how my inspiration used branches, but I didn't want to have to deal with actual branches {shedding bark and bugs all over the place}, so I pulled out a pencil and some 1/4" plywood and sketched out some branches. I cut those puppies out with my handy dandy jigsaw, then sanded them down a bit.


Definitely do a dry run of the branches before you paint anything- I ended up playing around with mine to make sure I had them fitting in the frame like I wanted. It took some playing with, but not much time.

For the branches I used a pearly white craft paint that I had left over from my owl project. Once everything was dry, I  used wood glue to put the branches in place and clamped everything down. I just left it overnight, but check how long the glue you use asks for. 

My next step was going to be screwing dozens of little eye hooks into the branches to hang necklaces on, but I liked Mr. Pony's idea of just hanging the necklaces around the branches. Not only was it WAY faster, but it would give a prettier finished result!

Of course, right when I thought I was done, Mr. Pony said "How are you hanging it?". DOH! I didn't want to put it up as a normal frame since I'd need to be able to reach the back of the branches to hang stuff. I ended up cutting for 3/4"x3/4"x1" wood blocks, painting them yellow and gluing them to the back with wood glue. Add a couple of hooks to the top two blocks, some wire, and you are set!

What do you think of that?!

Also- Mom, I'm sorry for my new addiction to yellow. I will do my best to become addicted to something less... yellow... soon:)

 

Whoooo is there?

I mentioned earlier in the week that I have had some other decorating adventures. Well here they are!!

I've been drooling over art from various Etsy sellers for months {here
here and here, to name a few}, but couldn't justify the extra cost since this revamp was *supposed* to be a cheap thing!

Then, out of the blue, it hit me.

Owls.

Seriously, who wouldn't want an awesome owl on their wall?? So I googled "owl silhouette, found one I liked that wasn't copyrighted {don't steal the art of others for this people- be cool}. I used an online tool called Rasterbator to blow the image up to the size I wanted (about 2'x3' in this case), printed it out and got started!

I ended up using 1/2" ply that I already had in the garage. I initially wanted to use 1/4" ply, but all that I have of that I got secondhand and its badly bowed, so I went with something a little sturdier.

After taping together the pages (it printed out on 9 letter size pages) and cutting out my design, and put it on the board and traced the outline.

If you look at the shot below, I ended up adding another branch with leaves on the other side of the owl- I thought it would look more balanced, and I like how that worked for me.

I tried to minimize the wood waste, so I put the silhouette as close to the edges as possible. I still have another 3'x3' piece of 1/2" ply left from this, and who knows what I'll end up making with that!






Then it was down to the part where I nearly sever digits cutting stage. For this sort of project, the jig saw is really your best friend.

Get to know her and love her and learn to keep her steady, otherwise the wood you are cutting will jiggle its way free and snap. Not that I had that happen. Ever.

And here I am, cutting skillfully. It is REALLY important to make sure the wood is well braced and that you depress the trigger all the way. I ended up losing some leaves because I let up on the trigger a bit, the wood wasn't braced well and the wood just started jumping too much. It worked out in the end, but annoyed me at the time.

On a project like this, the leaves and branch were a bit difficult for me to work with. If there is a smaller jig saw out there and you plan to make a ton of these, it would be good to buy the smaller size for getting into the nooks and crannies. However, our regular old jig did a good job- it just took more time cutting out the detail bits.

I can haz rawr?

On a side note, I liked using the blades labeled 'X-tra clean for wood'- the clean ones do well, but these minimized the sanding that had to be done when I finished cutting.

After all the cutting was done, I cleaned up the edges with a power sander and a hand sander. I also made sure both sides were smooth, but spent more time sanding the side I had designated as the front. 

When sanding make sure you don't put too much pressure on any of the little bits- you don't want to snap off that painstakingly cut leaf {or whatever bitsy thing you cut out} before you've had a chance to enjoy your work!

And here is your finished pro... DOH! Ok, so you've cut out the piece, but you still need to make it purdy (unless you are going for the raw wood look, but even then you still should stain it or something, IMHO) and hangable. This is the only part of the project that actually cost me money. I stopped at Michael's and got some Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Pearl Acrylic Craft Paint {aptly named 'Mother of Pearl'} to finish this with. To minimize coats of paint, I gave the entire project a coat of primer, then gave it two coats of the craft paint.

To hang it, I put eyeholes in two pieces of scrap wood and glued them to the back using wood glue. I also gave them a quick coat of the craft paint just so if you see the owl from the side, they don't stick out. Then I strung some wire between them, put a photo hanger in the wall and we were good to go! If you end up making a smaller piece (like the moon) this approach may not be the one for you. Just mess around with the tidbits you have available or take it to the hardware store with you and see what you can find!

A few days later I randomly decided I wanted a moon to go with my lonely owl, and in less than 3 hours (with paint dry time) it was ready to go!

Total cost? Two buckaroos!! Whoooo can beat that?

On a side note, since my favorite holiday is coming up {hint- it starts with a Hallow and ends with a ween}, I like that the owl adds a slightly spooky element to the room. If painted in a black or orange, it would be very Halloween-y indeed!

Sorry, I can't avoid being cheesy;)






Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

How to make lychee bubble tea

The Pony family is on a summer drinks kick. Yesterday Mr. Pony said 'We have all the ingredients, but we've never made you bubble tea!'. You see, a few weeks {months} ago we visited a large Asian market near my in-laws and purchased whole lychees in syrup, tapioca balls (the bubbles in bubble tea) and lichee black tea. This trio has sat, twiddling their metaphoric thumbs , in our pantry since January. Finally, 7 months later, we have mended this travesty and *tadaaa*!!! Bubble tea!

If you haven't had bubble tea, you really are missing out! The version we made may not be totally 'traditional' (if there is such a thing), but it is really easy (3 ingredients easy) and super tasty for an at home treat on a hot summer day!


Lychee Bubble Tea (makes 2 large cups)

To make tapioca 'bubbles', you need:
6 tbsp tapioca balls (available at most Asian markets)
3.75 cups water

Bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, add the tapioca balls while stirring (this keeps them from clumping). Let the tapioca balls boil until they start to float to the top and look plumped up. Once this happens, lower the temp to medium and cover pot for 5 minutes. Double check the directions on your package of tapioca balls- a 1 cup tapioca to 10 cups water ratio is normal, but for home use, 1 cup tapioca is a LOT.

While the tapioca is cooking, brew up a strong batch of your favorite black or green tea (we used tea flavored like our ingredient, but you can use whatever kind you like).

Next prepare your fruity ingredient. We had lychee's in syrup sitting around which we blended to make 3/4 cup of liquid. I'd recommend using a canned fruit with syrup because then you get a lot of flavorful liquid to add to the bubble tea, but I'm sure using real fruit would be tasty (just make sure its juicy!). Once your fruit ingredient is ready and the tapioca balls have rested, strain out the tapioca and put them in the fruity ingredient. This will help them gain a bit more flavor. If you just want them to be sweet, you can soak them in a simple syrup or coconut milk and it will add a nice flavor as well.
Now for the hard part- you have to wait. I know, it sucks, but trust me- warm bubble tea is not such a great treat as cool bubble tea. My suggestion is to pour 1.5 cups of tea into a container with a lot of surface area (for faster cooling) and put the tea and the fruit ingredient in the fridge for a while so it gets cool quickly. You are nearly done!

Once cool, blend together:

1.5 cups of tea
3/4 cup of blended fruit ingredient (lychee in our case)
6 oz. vanilla ice cream (this adds a pleasant creaminess to the beverage)

Pour into 2 glasses, plop in an extra fat straw (so you can actually suck up the tapioca bubbles as you drink) and enjoy!

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. - T'ien Yiheng

*all photos by me

Strawberries in summer

The 4th of July marks the epitome of summer- a celebration of color and joy that makes me feel a bit warm and fuzzy {even as I inwardly curse the fools setting off bottle rockets in the parking lot at 2am}. After all, summer is the time for catching fireflies in Mason jars, grilling hotdogs by the armful and sipping fruity drinks on the porch swing. Fresh cut grass on a summer evening is still one of my favorite scents, and I can still feel the grass between my toes as my childhood friends and I ran through a sprinkler giggling uncontrollably. Of course, the high point of summer also tends to go hand in hand with the highest temperatures, so to combat the heat, Mr. Pony proposed a solution.


Sound good? I thought so too! So without further ado-

Mr. Pony's Strawberry-Lemon Smoothie

1lb. fresh strawberries, de-stemmed and sliced up
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 4-5 good sized lemons)
1/2 cup simple syrup*

De-stem and cut up the strawberries and combine them with the lemon juice in the blender of your choice (we used a stick blender in a tall, narrow container and had great results). Blend until smooth. At this point you can choose to strain the mixture to remove the strawberry seeds- we left them in because I like the authenticity they add, but you might not like them! Add simple syrup to taste- we used 1/2 cup, but depending on your preference and the sweetness of your strawberries {because we can't all be this lucky}, more or less may be needed for maximum taste-bud relaxation. Chill and serve.

*Quick note- please make your own simple syrup- combine equal parts water and sugar, bring to a boil, and you're done. Really. Let it cool before mixing into a drink to speed up your drinking enjoyment.

This recipe makes about 22 ounces, which is good for 2 servings if you are greedy, or 4 if you are being reasonable.

We were greedy.Mature persons only- this would be great in a mimosa, or add a splash of vodka, and you have a delicious adult beverage.

I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party. - Ron White

* all photos by me