DIY Outdoor Pallet Swing Bed - PROVEN

My friend/cousin/neighbor is credited for finding and executing this awesome idea.

I really wish I could do the same, but there are no trees on our property that would allow for this.  I am happy she had the perfect shade tree.

My husband brought her some pallets from work, she painted them and her hubby attached them together to make one large pallet.  

We wrapped the mattress in plastic to protect it from rain.  It was a lot of fun to be able to help out this with project and it really looks awesome and is very comfortable.  I might wander down there sometime to enjoy a book and the cool breeze.

The kids sure loved it!

Maybe the only modification she might make is to add a piece of USB/particle board between the pallets and the mattress to make it more comfortable.

I love the way it looks, so inviting and relaxing!

I suggest you look for an appropriate tree limb in your own yard!  Everyone could use a little slow down! 

Crusty Bread - PROVEN

I realize that hte vast majority of my blog posts involve food.  Well, that's simple to explain, really.  Since my life is so busy (who's isn't, right?) cooking and baking are things i would notmally be doing regardless of whether or not I was publishing a blog.  I figured it's still a great use of this myth busting/pin busting platform since so many things i see on Pinterest involve new recipes. I wonder how many of those recipes actually get tested?

Well, folks, I really try to test all of mine, and it's about time I shared this one with you!

Crusty Bread!!!!!

Ahh, gotta love it, fresh and hot from the oven to soak up your soup, juices from a roast, just to rip off and eat or any way you can imagine!!!

This recipe is awesome.  I have had to modify it here and there to get my dough consistency correct.  It should be sticky, not too thick and not runny in order to get the proper rise and baking result!

This does require a small cast iron dutch oven. My wonderful Mama purchased one for me on sale, I believe it was at Meijer!

The recipe calls for unbleached flour, which is what I buy anyway because...who wants their flour to be bleached?? It's right in with the regular flour and costs about the same!

I don't always let my bread rise for the recommended amount of time.   The recipe calls for 12-18 hours of rise time, but I usually don't make the dough in time in order to eat with dinner the following night, so I have to rush this process. I have let it rise for only 9-10 hours before and the results were the same.

ENJOY!!!

CAN YOU SAY DELICIOUS?!?!?

DIY Father's Day Frame - PROVEN

I found an idea for a homemade Father's Day gift on Pinterest.  I saw this photo and knew I wanted to attempt making this for my hubby from our daughter.

The only problem is, the only thing I found was a photo.  No instructions at all, and even when clicking on the pin to go to the link associated, it showed nothing on how to create this masterpiece so I went at it semi-blind!

The first thing I did was order prints online of some of my favorite photos of my husband and daughter together. I ordered 20, even though I only needed 5!  There are many places online you can order prints but my favorite is www.mpix.com.

I bought a $6 frame at Dollar General and a couple 4x6 frames ($1.50 each). While at the dollar store I also picked up a piece of small poster board.

I printed out DADDY in extra large block letters to use as a guide when cutting out the poster board.

I had to first cut the poster board to the size of the frame, I used the piece of paper that was in the frame, traced it and using scissors, cut it to size.  After that I cut out the letters I had printed and laid them out.  After realizing I didn't have enough room, I staggered them to get them to fit.  I traced them and using an exact-o knife, I cut the letters out of the poster board.  This was not an easy task.  It took a steady hand and patience, neither of which I have much of!

I then chose the pictures I wanted to use to represent each letter, those also had to be cut to fit, I taped them to the back of the poster board to make sure they wouldn't shift around.

I then used a pencil to write the words "I'm lucky as can be the best [DADDY] in the world belongs to me!" After I had that done I used a sharpie to trace over those letters and erased the pencil markings.

I realized a little too late that the words were not centered on the board, and if you know me, that is NOT OK.  Also, the bottom line is at an upward angle and it still drives me a little nuts, but the imperfections are what make it homemade, right?.....Sure.  In order to add Madison's touch and also take up some of the extra space on the right side, I had her add her pink hand print!  It acts like her signature to the art, and it is perfect!  I am glad now that I didn't get it centered perfectly!

I used the smaller frames I purchased and put a couple photos of my precious family in them for my husband's desk at work.  The homemade gift is now hanging on the wall in our hallway at home. :)

Here is the finished product!!!!

Sausage Pizza Tacos - PROVEN

The plan to make this dinner started as a photo my husband saw on some random website.  That was all it was, a photo.  Using the wonderful feature on Google image to search, I uploaded the image he found and was able to bring up this pin which included a recipe!!!

This is the photo he saw, it was love at first sight!!!

They were called Sausage Pizza Tacos, which, if the picture hadn't convinced my husband that this dinner was for him, the name sure did! Those are two of his favorite things!

I decided to make these for him for a special Father's Day dinner!  I usually don't like to experiment with new recipes on a special occasion, but I figured with sausage, pizza toppings and taco shells I could not go wrong.

I followed the recipe almost exactly, the only thing different is I used dried Basil instead of fresh because that is what I had on hand ;)

They turned out great and were a hit with the man of honor on Father's Day!!!

I used Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage

Cheese on the bottom! Cheese in layers! Can't get enough CHEESE

Dye Easter Eggs with Whipped Cream - PROVEN

This was so much fun!!!

My husband was a total skeptic, stuck in his traditional methods for doing things and was unconvinced that this would even work.

Well, we proved him wrong!  He still thinks we should try the traditional way next year...we will see about that ;)

I started with a recommendation from my friend Vanessa on dying Easter eggs with whipped cream.  I thought it sounded like a fun alternative to the traditional way and something our 2 year old would really enjoy (and find tasty).  I was right!

We followed all the directions and we were very excited and pleased with the results!  I did soak them in vinegar as recommended and I used gel food coloring, which I had never heard of, but was easy to find right in with the liquid stuff!

Madison loved playing in the mix, rolling the eggs and licking her fingers off and making quiet the mess.  But, kids are prone to messes anyway so we did this project outside!

It was harder than you would think for us to be able to dye eggs at all. We were in the process of moving and the new place had no appliances, so I had to go back to the old house just to boil the eggs and then transport them back to the new homestead, but that little jaunt aside this project was fun, easy and worked great!

Use Oatmeal to Keep Cast Iron Skillets Clean - PROVEN

Cooking on cast iron is pretty awesome, except when you are left with a mess that is hard to clean up.  And since cast iron is a special material that you aren't supposed to clean with soap it becomes a hassle to keep the pans clean and maintain the "seasoning" you have done so far.

Well my sister found this awesome idea and it's just too good not to share.

Because of this, I will probably uncover and dust off my old cast iron cookware and start using it a lot more often.  Takes a lot of the hassle out of the clean-up and it works amazingly well.

Click the link above to get a detailed list of directions.   She used oatmeal (which I have a ton of in my cupboards)

Can't wait to do this and to be able to use my cast iron more often!

Thanks for sharing the story and pictures, Ann!

Cleaning the Inside of an Oven Door - PROVEN

I am so excited about this one, people!

I have been searching for an easy way to clean inside the glass of my oven door.  There is a double pane and things, nasty, terrible things get trapped there and I needed to get them out.....especially because we have an Open House this weekend!

Beth was here today watching Maddy and I roped her into helping me with this project.

We found this pin on how to clean inside, between the glass and got moving! 

This is my oven before....like all my other 'before' photos, please don't judge!

First we tried it with a wire hanger, because I thought that was a better idea than the stick the pin suggested...plus it was raining.  Also, I didn't have any duct tape handy so I used scotch tape and it worked perfectly (the tape, not the hanger)

Unfortunately, that idea was a bust, I should have put trust in the pin.  The wire hanger was too thin and I couldn't create enough friction with it to clean the inside of the glass, so we went in search of the perfect stick.

I am so happy I did this.  Who thinks about how to clean the inside glass of the oven door?  This girl...she does! And she did it!

Do this one, it is amazing and I couldn't be happier with the results.

(I also cleaned the rust stains from inside our dishwasher but that's a separate issue...I just want you to know I have been busy today! Haha)