Another White BBQ Sauce

Joe loved the White BBQ Chicken we made a while back, so when I had a chance to try another recipe for white BBQ sauce I figured we would try it out.  Honest opinion?  Not as yummy as the other, but still good. :0)  I think the cut of chicken we used made a huge difference.  We used chicken thighs for this one and we were not really fans.  We may try this one again with chicken breasts and see what we think.  If you try it out, let us know your thoughts.

• 1 T dried thyme
• 1 T dried oregano
• 1 T ground cumin
• 1 T paprika
• 1 t onion powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper
• 1 lb boneless chicken thighs
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/4 c white wine vinegar
• 2 t minced garlic
• 1 T pepper
• 1 T spicy mustard
• 1 t sugar
• 1 t salt

Combine thyme, oregano, cumin, paprika, onion powder, salt, and pepper into a rub and rub this mixture over the chicken.Place the chicken in a gallon ziploc bag and chill at least 4 hours. 

Grill the chicken in a non-stick pan or on an outdoor grill, covered, on medium-high heat for 8 – 10 minutes per side until a thermometer reads 180 degrees. Stir together mayo, vinegar, garlic, pepper, mustard, sugar, and salt. 

Cover and chill 2 – 4 hours and then serve with your chicken.

Bonus!  We also served my favorite, Parmesan Roasted Asparagus.  It is so simple, so yummy, and Joe even eats it when I fix it this way.

1.  Spray with Olive Oil cooking spray.  2.  Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  3.  Sprinkle with Garlic Salt.  4.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Mini-Wooden Flag

I have one more little patriotic touch to share with you that you first noticed on my Patriotic Front Porch Reveal.  I love this simple little wooden flag and think it added the perfect little touch to my side table on the front porch for the month of July.

Are you wanting a small patriotic piece for your house?  It is super easy to create! 

1.  Have the hubs cut some scrap wood into the sizes you desire for your piece. :0)   Paint a blue square and some red & white stripes.  I laid out my blocks before I started to make sure I knew what color to paint each block.

2.  Stencil your star(s) onto your blue block.

3.  Glue your pieces together.  Wood glue would work better than hot glue, but I was in a hurry and needed it to dry fast!  At the end of the  month I will take it apart and re-glue with wood glue to make sure it holds up for years to come.

4. Glue a yarn, ribbon, rope, or jute around the perimeter of your shape to help hold it together and give it a little touch of softness.  Then all there is left is to display and enjoy!

Creamy Angel Hair with Sausage & Spinach

If you are in the mood for a one-pot, yummy, quick dish for dinner, this one will hit the spot.  It was so light and refreshing, and made a ton!  This one is great for lunch the next day too!

• 2 t olive oil
• 1 pkg smoked kielbasa, sliced
• 1 c chopped onion
• 2 T minced garlic
• 2 cans of chicken broth
• 1/4 cup water
• 16 oz angel hair pasta, broken in half
• 10 oz pkg chopped spinach, thaw & drain
• 1/3 c whipping cream

Add oil to large soup pot.  Add kielbasa and sauté with onion and garlic.

 

Add broth and 1/4 cup of water;  bring to a boil.  Add pasta to pot and cook for 3 minutes. 

 

Stir in the spinach and cook for about 1 minute.

 

Stir in the cream and heat through.  Serve warm.

Patriotic Wreath

Thank you all for your opinions on which patriotic wreath I should make for the front porch.  I ended up doing a twist on the ribbon/rope wreath.  This wreath was super quick and easy and I love it!

I started by tying small lengths of ribbon around the bottom half of the wreath.  I bought a wooden wreath from Wal-Mart because it was only $2, I think I would have preferred a round foam wreath….but we made it work. :0)  There was no rhyme or reason to where I put the ribbons, other than I didn’t want the same color too close together.  No fancy bows, just knotted it and moved on.  My only goal was to cover all of the wood.

Next I used this craft cord to cover the top part of the wreath.  I used hot glue to hold down the cord on about every fifth time I pulled it around.   Again…I was just trying to cover the wood the best I could.

 

Finally I added a ribbon on the back to hold the wreath, my wooden letter, and a small ribbon to hide a spot of wood that I had missed.  Hang and enjoy!

DIY Dog Silhouette Pillow Cover

I am on a roll with making pillow covers for the front porch.  I wanted to make a pillow cover that was a little more personal, so why not add one of my 2 dogs??

You first got a peek of my pillow on my front porch reveal, but I thought it was hidden too much and you weren’t able to really see Willow’s silhouette at all, so later on it found a new home in the living room with my other throw pillow (which I am much happier with).

I started to make my pillow by creating a silhouette of my Willow girl. (You can go to my silhouette tutorial to see how to complete this.)  I printed out the silhouette and taped the make-your-own-stencil material to it.  Then I used an Exacto knife to carefully cut out the silhouette.

 

Then I carefully stenciled Willow’s silhouette to the front piece of my pillow.  I quickly sewed the silhouette piece to back pieces (see my outdoor pillow post and my knock-off Horchow pillow post to see how to do this) and stuffed my pillow form into my pillow case. 

I love our little personal touch of a Willow Pillow in our living room. :0)

Your Opinion Please – New Rug

So apparently little Miss Harley decided to “show out” while we were gone on vacation.  When we returned home, this is what we found (well actually the house sitter had already let us know about it, we just didn’t know how much damage had been done).

 

I am trying to look on the bright side….I was really wanting a new rug for our living room and now I have a good reason to buy one.  There are a couple of reasons I was on the hunt for a new rug: 

1) There is NO color in our living room (see below…it’s all B-R-O-W-N)! and 2) although this rug has served us well, it was a hand-me-down and doesn’t really reflect our style.



See?!  You almost can’t even see Willow because her brownness blends right in. :0)



So now because Miss Harley made it so we NEED to purchase a new rug, we can’t seem to agree on what to get.

Should we go with something more traditional?


Should we stick with an indoor/outdoor rug?  That’s what we have now and it is so easy to clean up.


Should we be adventurous and add some color?



Should we add some texture?


Maybe we should add some softness??



Or maybe we should go with trendy?



This is such a difficult decision!!  All the rugs above are actual options for us, that Joe and I are considering.  What are your thoughts??  We would love to hear your opinions!

Simple, Cheap, Beautiful

When looking for a sweet little patriotic piece for my front porch, I needed something easy and cheap!  There is nothing easier than a little spray paint. :0)

 

I picked up some dry white beans from the grocery store, painted some red, some blue, and layered them to make my little patriotic candle holder for my front porch.  It took about 5 coats of paint, but each time it dried quickly so it didn’t take too much time.  I would paint, dry, then break up the beans and toss them around a little, then paint again.  I kept going until I didn’t see any white beans left.  :0)  So simple, so cheap, and looks great!

DIY Sofa Throw Pillow

I saw this pillow knock-off on the Twigg Studios blog and I thought, “I can do that.” :0)  You can head over to her blog to see her directions, but as much as I love the Twigg Studios blog, her directions for this project were not very clear. 

I decided to try the project on my own and went on a Google hunt for the original pillow.  Imagine my surprise when I found the Horchow Window Pane Pillow for a nice price of $115!!!  What!?!  It was even on sale, but $56.90 is still way too much for me to pay for one throw pillow!  But I sure did love the look, so I decided to try it on my own.  Below are my steps for re-creating the $115 Horchow pillow for less than $10.

You first got a peek of my pillow on my front porch reveal, but I thought it was hidden too much and you weren’t able to really enjoy all the work I put into it, so later on it found a new home in the living room (which I am much happier with).

How To Make Your Own $115 Horchow Pillow:
Cut List (for an 18 x 18 pillow):

• 1 -  20 x 20 square (front cover base)
• 2 -  20 x 13 rectangles (back pocket sleeves)
• 12 - 20 x 2 1/2 inch strips (for edge and center strips)
• 4 - 25 x 2 1/2 inch strips (for long corner-to-corner strips)
• 4 -  10 x 2 1/2 inch strips (for short corner strips)

1. On all 20 strips you will fold in the edges 1/4 inch and then fold them over again, pin, and sew down the edge.  This part of the process is the most time consuming.



2.  Pin down the strips on the front cover base piece.  There is a weave-type pattern to the front of this pillow, so I carefully looked at the original picture online to set up my strips.  These will not get sewn down, so pin them carefully so they won’t move around as you sew the edges.  I started with the edge and center strips, then moved to the small corner strips, then finally finished with the long cross-ways strips.



3.  Place the backing pieces on top of the front piece you have just created (right sides together), pin, and sew a seam all the way around the piece.



4.  VERY CAREFULLY turn your piece right side out.  Be careful for all the pins that you still have holding down the front strips.  Take out all the pins, stuff your pillow with a pillow form, and find the perfect place to show off your work!



If I was to do it again….

1.  I would either not allow so much overlap (I allowed 2 inches for pillow “fluffiness” and I probably could have gotten away with 1 inch) OR I would purchase a 20 x 20 pillow form.  If my pillow case was filled more completely it would hold my strips in place more and keep them from puckering.

2.  I would make my strips a little thicker to more closely resemble the original piece.

I am very please with my imitation $115 pillow!  It is so unique and I have already gotten a couple of complements.  Joe was impressed that I began working on this while he played his video game and by the time he was done we had a finished project!