Back at it…
::Peeks around the corner::
Hello…?
Hi. I’m Brittany, the girl that accidentally forgot about this blog.
To be honest, I didn’t forget about it at all. I actually think about it all the time, but after a job change, two moves, and some other crazy sh@!* this past year, it’s been tough to keep up!
The original goal of the blog was to finish a list of 25 things before I turned 25. Welp — I turned 25 in May and didn’t exactly finish the list. Although I didn’t complete it, I cooked, created, traveled, celebrated, and volunteered, which I may not have done without the list, so I’m pretty happy about that.
I think that I started the list when I wasn’t exactly happy where my life was at professionally, so I was looking for something else to do. I was also scared to turn 25… that’s, like, old. After an awesome career change last November, and realizing that 25 is NOT so old, I’ve been incredibly busy, and happy, so I’m now able to do these projects and take these trips as something I WANT to do, not as something I NEED to do to finish a list (even though I still love the idea).
Having said that, I want to start writing again. I’ve been doing so many craft and DIY projects that I want to share. I also am getting more and more into interior design, so I’ll be posting about some of those projects I’m taking on, as well as How-to’s for recycling and reusing items for everyday life or design (see: The 20 Spot Tips).
I hope you come back if you decided to leave (since there was no one here…), or if you’re stopping by for the first time, stick around and I’ll check out your stuff, too!
To kick things back off, here’s a few projects I’ve done for the holiday season this year:
Merry & Bright Canvas:
What you’ll need:
Blank canvas, any size
Markers
(I used gold, silver and bronze metallic paint markers)
Mini white christmas lights
Something sharp to poke holes with!
Christmas “Cheers” Wine Bottle:
What you’ll need:
Wine bottle, clean of all labels (soak in hot water to remove)
White primer spray paint (spray and let dry)
Adhesive Spray paint (spray the bottom once paint is dry)
Epson salt (immediately add the epson salt to the area you sprayed adhesive)
Metallic paint marker (I used silver to write “Cheers” once everything was dry)
Optional: ribbon and fake berries
Ta-ta for now!
xoxo,
b.
Bahama Mama – {#3 visit a foreign country}
Even though I’m not exactly positive the Bahamas is a foreign country (it is to me!), I am officially crossing off #3 of my list, the one I never thought would happen this year!
In our 4 years, Dave and I have never taken a true vacation together. Cape Cod and Vermont trips here and there, and one trip to Texas to visit his Grandmother, but this one was just us, no plans, just relaxation time and boy — it was amazing.
If you’re thinking about a cruise, I highly recommend Norwegian Cruises. We went on the Jewel and had nothing but positive things to say about it. However, if you talk to 10 different people you’ll hear 10 different things, but all I can say is that the food, drinks, entertainment, staff, atmosphere and ports of call were incredible, so, what else do you need!?
We met a couple who did a 3 week cruise around Europe, and now they’ve got me thinking… maybe not 3 weeks, but that seems like the best way to explore Europe if you’ve never been. I loved not having to fly, go through the airport, and the fact that you were surrounded by so many things to do while getting to your destination, you forgot where you were actually going!
Some highlights of our trip:
-Dave had never been to Florida before, so we visited Cocoa Beach for a few hours on our stop in Port Canaveral
-Visiting Great Stirrup Cay (Norwegian’s private island on the Bahamas)
-Nassau and everything there… the beaches, our tour of the island and seeing all the different areas (from the richest to the poorest), trying Bohemian beers, Senor Frogs margaritas on the water, the straw market, shopping, Atlantis Resort (holy moly!), meeting new friends from around the world, and the list goes on and on…
And of course the boat itself! I think my favorite part was we were free to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Want to grab a drink? Sure. See a show? Sure. Tour the islands? Why not…
If you have any questions about the cruise or Bahamas before you plan a trip, let me know! It was an awesome time and I’m glad I get to share it! I already can’t wait for the next one 
xoxo
B
zuppa toscana soup, recipe #6
I bought my boyfriend a crock pot for Christmas, and he came across a recipe for the ahh-mazing Olive Garden soup, Zuppa Toscana that he wanted to try out. I’ll be honest, this was mostly his doing as far as cooking it, but I figured I’d post because it was an AWESOME recipe and it came out so unbelievably wonderful. I think I had soup the entire week we made it. And hey, I grocery shopped, stirred the pot and helped eat it!
{ Zuppa Toscana soup recipe }
You will need:
- 1 (16 ounce) package smoked sausage
- 2 potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 6 slices bacon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic (we used garlic puree, but its much harder to find in the grocery store!)
- 2 cups kale – washed, dried, and shredded
- 2 tablespoons chicken soup base (or 2 cubes of chicken bouillon)
- 1 quart water
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1. Brown the sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat, breaking into small pieces, drain and set aside.
2. Brown the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat, drain and set aside.
3. Place water, broth, potatoes, garlic and onion into the pot and simmer over medium heat until the potatoes are tender.
4. Add sausage and bacon and simmer for another 10 minutes
5. Lastly, add the kale and cream to the pot. Heat thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste and voila!
I’m telling you, this soup was delicioso. You have to try. Oh, and you may be wondering where the crock pot came into play with this recipe… It didn’t. We decided it would take too long, haha, but you can use it, if you’re patient
Enjoy.
xoxo,
B
wine corks + scrabble tiles {DIY}
First of all… Happy New Year!
I apologize if you received an email or an update with a premature post – I just downloaded the WordPress app and obviously didn’t know what I was doing!
I’m a day late in posting my December project, buuuut I’ll make up for it by posting two projects for the month. These are both great to give as gifts to your wine and beer loving friends and family.
#1. Wine Cork Tree Ornaments
You’ll need:
-Wine corks
-Ribbon or string
-Hot glue gun
-Mini screw hooks
-Buttons or other embellishments
Glue the corks together in a 3-2-1 pyramid format. Mine did not hold together very well, so I suggest tying a piece of ribbon or string around them all to secure. Cut another cork in half and glue to the bottom for the stump.
Twist in the screw hook to the top cork and thread through a piece of ribbon to complete the ornament. I kept a few ornaments as is, and added buttons to the front of the corks on the other ones. Which one do you like better?
#2. Scrabble Tile Coasters
You’ll need:
-16 or 20 scrabble tiles. This depends on whether you want to do 4 -or- 5 letter words. 4 letters fit a normal glass or can perfectly, but 5 gives it a little more room.
-Hot glue gun
-Mod podge
-Corkboard
-Exacto knife
Choose the four words you want on your coaster. In one tutorial I read, it said to super glue the letters together, but that didn’t work well for me, so I chose to hot glue the letters right to the corkboard. You definitely need to have a steady hand for this to make sure your letters glue on straight!
Once your four words are glued on in a square shape, trace the outline of the coaster with your exacto knife to cut off the excess corkboard. Paint on the modpodge or other clear sealer to give it a coat of protection. Let dry and voila!
Here’s the one I made my brother (that last row got a little squirly…)
December projects = done! I’ll be posting some recipes for Chocolate Covered Oreo Balls and Zuppa Tuscana (yes, the one from Olive Garden!) later this week.
Hope your holidays were lovely!
xoxo,
B
create.
Woah woah woah. It’s November 30th!?
I haven’t written in a whole month! This last month’s been pretty crazy… I started a new job on the 1st and everything else kind of took a back burner. There was this crazy thing people call the Northeast Blackout on my first week, I spent a week in Framingham for training, and the week after was Thanksgiving. I finally feel a little bit back to normal, and then WHAM! It’s the last of the month, and I realized I haven’t written about my November project.
I know, I know, you’ve been holding your breath in anticipation, and I’m sorry about that. Just so I don’t change things up too fast, I’m only posting a sneak peek of this cutesy little arts+crafts project. It’s nothing fancy, but it brightens up my office space and gives me a little spark of inspiration, so, I like it. Oh yeah, and it’s a recycled project which is always sweet.
This is such an easy, quick project. Grab some scissors, tape, and enough snack and pasta boxes to spell your word of choice. Cut, hang and smile.
The picture above is part A to the project. I like the way they look here, but the room they are hanging in is already so colorful that these just make it noisy. Part B is covering them in fabric to make them a little less loud. I’ll post those pictures soon; I don’t want to throw too much at you at once!
In other news, this month hasn’t been too exciting list wise, but the future is bright people. I made some chicken parmesean for the first time which came out pretty nicely (#22), and explored the town of Greenfield a few times (#13), so I’ll be sharing some of the cool places I’ve come across there soon. I’m also crafting up a scheme to cross #6 off (sell a craft I’ve made) and my goal is to cross off #25 (give a gift made of completely handmade items) for Christmas time.
OH YEAH! And in even more exciting news, my friends have asked me to redecorate their apartment for them! They live in an awesome spot outside of Boston, and I couldn’t be more pumped to do it (well, half nervous, half pumped). #8 is to redo a room so that works out pretty nicely.
Alright, this was longer than anticipated… I guess I’ve missed this a little more than I thought!
xoxo,
B
#10. Pull off a surprise party: check
#10 on my 25 before 25 list was to pull off a surprise party. After my boyfriend, Dave, surprised me with dinner with all my friends for my birthday back in May, I didn’t think I’d be able to surprise him, too. But, minus a few friends almost spoiling the surprise, I pulled it off, and it was a blast
Here’s some pictures from the night:
Yes, that is me holding the sign upside down!
Happy birthday my love, I hope you had fun
xoxo,
B
pumpkin banana chocolate chip bread: recipe #5
pumpkin + banana + chocolate = happy me.
I found a couple different variations for this recipe when I searched, including healthier ones that used whole wheat flour and oats (which I eventually want to try), but it makes me so happy when I have the majority of ingredients in the house already, so I stuck to the simplest one I could find (here on food.com… they used my picture, too!). I was pumped to try this from scratch because I’ve always made banana bread from the box.
You will need:
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup pumpkin, cooked or canned
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I substituted ground cinnamon)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, miniature or canned
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In large bowl combine brown sugar, butter, and eggs. Mix until mixture is light and fluffy, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Add pumpkin and bananas, mix well, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips,mix until just moistened, approximately 1 minute.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Pour into (4) greased 5 1/2 x 3 inch mini loaf pans, or (1) 9 x 13 inch pan
7. If using the smaller pans, bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean. If using the larger, increase the time to 65 to 75 minutes.
8. Cool five minutes and remove from pans
And it should look a little somethin’ like this:
Some other good variations to this recipe I found:
Hope you enjoy as much as I did!
P.S. I’m just getting used to fall and I hear it’s supposed to snow today. Snow?! Before Halloween!? Ah yi yi…
P.P.S. That’s recipe #5 out of 20 on the list! I’m a 1/4 of the way there
xoxo,
B
