Doodles & Stitches: August 2012

Fabulous Friday Link Party #16

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Fabulous Friday Link Party #16

Thank you to everyone who entered something last week.

I really enjoyed reading all of your blogs!

If you are a featured winner this week, please grab a "FEATURED BUTTON" below!

This week's FEATURES:

Take a close look at this beauty. Karin at Art is Beauty painted this... you should see the BEFORE pics. What's unreal is that she etched the flowers with sand paper to expose the underlying color on those flowers. You have to head over there and read all about it!

This is soooo cool! It's a link party of FASHION! To link up, you simply submit a photo of your favorite outfit that week. It's so much fun to look through all the pics. I got some cool ideas. I've never featured a link party before but I thought this was so unique and wanted to let you all know about it! So, head over to The Pleated Poppy and link up.

Isn't this beautiful? Crys at This Euphemeral Life painted this sweet buffet. It's just precious.

I want a chevron wall! I've seen lots of them but I love this one because it's unique with the center line going down the middle of the chevrons. Very cool looking. Sam at Atkinson Drive never disappoints!

I love gray chevron, can you tell? Isn't this an awesome ottoman? You must see the complete transformation over at Remastered Relics.

Wont' you join us for this week's party?
Rules: Share your DIY projects (crafts, furniture, sewing)...do not post link parties or advertisements. Post a permalink to your POST only - not your entire blog. Grab my BUTTON (below) and attach it to your posted link or blog sidebar...

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Pecan Encrusted Goat Cheese Salad

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Pecan Encrusted Goat Cheese Salad

I had a delicious salad while I was on vacation this summer and I tried to duplicate it with this recipe. I think I definitely succeeded and might even go so far as to say that mine's better! Here's the recipe. I'd love to hear what you think about it.

This recipe makes 4 salads:

Goat Cheese Ingredients:

1/2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar

1/4 c. Crushed Pecans

4 oz. Goat Cheese

Salad Ingredients:

Spring Mix Salad

1 c. Fresh Sliced Strawberries

4 Tbsp. Dried Cranberries

Dressing Ingredients:

1 c. Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

1 tsp. Blackberry Jam

To make dressing, whisk together the vinaigrette with jam. Set aside.

Plate each salad, placing the spring mix first and then scatter sliced strawberries and cranberries over the top. Distribute equally among the 4 plates.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Sprinkle brown sugar over crushed pecans on a cookie sheet. Bake for 5 minutes. While the pecans are roasting, roll goat cheese into 4 balls. After you remove the pecans from oven, roll the goat cheese balls in the warm pecan mixture. Push all the pecans into the cheese until none of the pecan mixture is remaining. Place a warm pecan ball on each salad.

Drizzle small amount of dressing over the top of each salad.

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My Blog on Amazon Kindle

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Doodles & Stitches... Now Available on Amazon Kindle

Doodles and Stitches has now officially been published on Amazon Kindle. If you're interested in becoming a subscriber, here's the link...

Doodles & Stitches on Amazon Kindle

Upcoming...

AND to completely change the subject... I've been busy! I found the coolest antique desk this week and I have BIG PLANS for that baby. I can't wait to show you.

I'm also working on craft/art room renovations. Today, I built a wooden bookcase ceiling to floor for storage. I'll paint it and get it posted soon, with a little helpful direction for those of you who want to make one yourself.

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Ro-tel Pimento Cheese

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Ro-tel Pimento Cheese

This is the first time I've ever made pimento cheese and I made up my very own recipe. I kinda added stuff as I went and tasted and added, tasted and added... The end result was amazing. Here's the recipe for you to try.

Ro-tel Pimento Cheese

10 oz. grated sharp cheddar cheese (made with 2% milk)
1/2 c. mild ro-tel tomatoes
4 oz. pimentos, chopped (drained)
1/4 c. mayo (lite)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened

Using the largest holes on cheese grater, grate half of the cheese and then grate the remaining half using the smallest holes. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Refrigerate.

How many servings is this? We had this on sandwiches with fresh, garden tomatoes and a little center-cut bacon. It made 3 sandwiches but we had a ton leftover. Wow! It was wonderful. There was enough left that I served it with crackers the very next day when we had some friends over and I think it was even better then. I'm really proud of this recipe, it's delicious!

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ASCP Stained Boots

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ASCP Stained Boots

I must confess... I'm not generally a "Boot Girl". I own a pair of cheap cowgirl-ish boots that come in handy for dress up at Halloween. I think they are so cute when I see them on other people but they're just not a part of my daily wardrobe. That being said... I was going to see SUGARLAND Friday night and I wanted to wear my boots, of course. The problem with my boots was that they were a very light tan color, almost nude. They were also a little too "perfect" looking (because they haven't been worn much) and needed some distressing. I found this adorable sundress at Loft on clearance for $8... (I'm not even kidding) and I thought it would be cute with some boots for the concert. I even considered buying a new pair of boots just for the show. BUT then the idea hit me, I just wanted darker boots so why not try to stain mine? I got out the ASCP dark wax and started rubbing it in. It was really easy to do and changed the whole look of the shoes!

Before & After

I just love the way it darkened the top stitching and accented all the character of the boots, like the scuff marks and folds that couldn't be seen before. After I rubbed the wax into the leather, I sat the shoes outside in indirect sunlight to dry. They weren't really wet but just a little sticky feeling. After a couple of hours, they were dry and ready to wear!

If you decide to tackle this project, here are a couple of tips to keep in mind...

Wear gloves!
A little wax goes a long way
Work in small areas
Use an old rag to rub in the stain
Layer the stain in areas where you want it to be darker

I'm not really a big country music fan but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Sugarland and this is the second time I've gotten to see them in concert!!! I think Jennifer Nettles has an amazing voice and I love her spunk. It was an awesome concert and a really fun night out on the town with Steve!

And did I mention that I ROCKED THE BOOTS? :)

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Fabulous Friday Link Party #15

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Fabulous Friday Link Party #15

Thank you to everyone who entered something last week.

I really enjoyed reading all of your blogs!

If you are a featured winner this week, please grab a "FEATURED BUTTON" below!

FEATURED WINNERS:

Happy Accident

This is an old watchmaker's cabinet and you have to see the transformation at The Little Cottage on the Pond. It's such a cool piece of furniture.

Roadside Rescue Makeover

This was a great find by Breida with a B. It was in pretty bad shape but she made it into a lovely stool.

A Desk Fit For Florence

Blue Star Antiques... never ceases to amaze me. This is a new color (to me) from ASCP... I've got to buy some of this. I just love it.

Yummy Salad

A spring salad with 4 types of berries, avocado and nuts...YUM! This was submitted by Cherished Handmade Treasures and I will be making this salad asap.

Color Blocking Basics

An awesome tutorial on color blocking using a color wheel! Genius! Abby tells you how to put colors together, what works and what doesn't. FYI: Sew Much Ado also has a great link party every week that I always try to join.

Back to School "Fantel"

Courtenay at The Creek Line House decorated this fantel to celebrate BACK TO SCHOOL and I learned a new word... fantel is a fake mantel.

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Strawberry Cobbler

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Strawberry Cobbler and Recipe Card

This is the easiest, BEST cobbler EVER in my humble opinion :) I don't know why everyone makes peach, apple, blackberry cobblers but they never make strawberry cobbler?!?! I've been making this recipe since I got married almost 20 years ago. A sweet lady from church gave me a peach cobbler recipe at my wedding shower and I've changed it a little over the years but I've always used strawberries instead of peaches. I think once you have strawberry cobbler, it will become your favorite kind! Let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh sliced strawberries

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of self rising four

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

6 tbsp. melted butter

Arrange strawberries in the bottom of a greased 9X13 inch dish. Sift together dry ingredients and add the egg, stirring until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the crumbly ingredients over the strawberries and then pour the melted butter on top. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Here's a free printable recipe card for you...