My mom has been wanting a large art piece for above her bed and I thought that it would be the perfect gift to give her for her birthday. Have you seen how much large wall art cost these days?! I don't know about you but I can't afford $100 plus for wall art so I decided make my own, again. I made one of these large art pieces a few years ago for our bedroom that you can see here. Follow the steps below to create your own masterpiece! I purchased a large poster on Zazzle (using a 50% off coupon), a canvas a little smaller than the poster (also using a 50% off coupon), Mod Podge, and a paint brush. 

Step 1:  Apply a thick layer of Mod Podge all over the canvas. It needs to be thick so it won't dry before placing the poster in place.

Step 2:  Lay the poster ontop of the canvas and carefully smooth out any bubbles starting from the center and working your way out.

Step 3:  Flip the canvas over and apply Mode Podge to the sides and wrap the the poster.

Step 4:  Using painters tape hold the sides taught in place. Using a hand staple gun, staple the edges in place. For the corners fold carefully in place like you would do wrapping a present. Flip the canvas back over and staple the corners in place.

Step 5:  Let it dry completely before adding picture hooks on the back.

The project came out so awesome and only cost me around $45. My mom is going to totaly love her birthday gift!

​When we first bought our house we were given an old large oak dresser set and for years I have dealt with the ugly out of date stain and broken drawers. I had been wanting to strip the stain and re-stain them white, as well as replace the knobs and repair the broken drawers for awhile. Well when we moved everything out of the bedrooms for the new carpet I thought this would be the perfect time to do just that! What was I thinking!? It was already hard enough to move out and move back into the bedrooms. Thankfully Jack was sweet and went along with my insane idea and two months later we are finally finished and they came out fabulous! There was four pieces – a tall dresser, a long dresser and two side dressers, so we thought this would be easy. Boy, were we wrong! We tried three different ways to strip off the old ugly stain from the set. We first tried the chemical remover and scrapped it off. It worked, sort of. We tried different thickness levels and letting it sit for different amount of times. Some sections it would work great and others it didn’t even touch the stain. 

Lastly once everything was dried we drilled the holes for the new handles and repaired the broken drawers. Due to the thickness of the wooden drawer we had to purchase new screws for the new handles, this is actually pretty common when redoing older pieces. I thought it would give the dressers a nice French County feel if we used different types of handles. I used fun Mr. and Mrs. ceramic ones for our side dressers along with crystal and chrome ones. I used different chrome handles and mercury glass, ceramic, and crystal knobs for the two larger dressers. Even though it too much longer than we expected, I am so excited how they turned out and happily it was under $100 which is much cheaper than buying another set that wouldn’t have been built as well. ​

​I was thankful for getting to take the last week off after filming. It gave me a time to relax and to think. Like in my last post, I spent Thursday organizing our kitchen drawers. Lately this has been bothering us because it was becoming impossible to find anything easily. During this past week I realized how stressful Jack and my life have become due to increase demands on us at work, but there was a difference between Jack and I and that was he was happy and felt fulfilled at work. I on the other hand was just stressed. I wanted my new role to help ease some of Jack’s stress by making our home more organized. I took some money out of house project fund and headed to Bed Bath and Beyond to see what I could find to help organize our kitchen. I think I spend an hour trying to decide what to purchase. I ended up deciding on several InterDesign acrylic organizers. I knew I could have Jack make me some wooden pieces to make dividers, but I was trying to remove the stress and I really liked the look of these. 

​As I posted the other day we started filming our second video series and because it was a very long three days I took of Tuesday to rest. That day I enjoyed the beautiful spring day and worked in my courtyard. I spend the whole day just relaxing and thinking about why I have been so stressed lately. That evening I decided to take up my Godmother’s offer to attend the RCIA Easter Virgil practice, I felt being with her and at church would help ease my mind. While there the Deacon stating talking about having to clean out his recently deceased wife’s office at the attached school the next day and my heart sunk. I knew his wife; she was my head RCIA teacher when I went through the program a few years earlier. I immediately volunteered to come and help him. I felt good that I offered to help, as in I was meant to come to practice that night to hear him and volunteer to help. All of the sudden I felt a peace come over me. I went home and called my boss and took Wednesday and Thursday off, since I already had taken Good Friday off. I spend the next day helping him and enjoyed our long talk. Thursday I decided to organize the kitchen drawers, more on that later, and again I felt more at peace. By Friday I was ready to admit out loud what has been bothering me for so long. I was no longer happy at my work and wanted to stay home so I could follow my own passions and dreams. By spending the week mostly alone I was finally able to listen to what was in my heart and what God wanted for me. Now how to I get Jack to agree?

​Today is the day to start filming the second video series for Oak Tree Junction! The first is already in the editing room and will hopefully be out later this year. The new series is going to go over some more basic fondant decorating techniques. I have one more series planned and will shoot that after the editing is finish for the first two series. If you have anything you would like me to teach please reach out! Well the lights are on, the camera is about to roll, so it’s time for “Action”!

​To go along with the Saint Patrick’s Day Trifle, I made these amazing Mint Brownies. The sweetness was a nice balance to the Corned Beef and Cabbage we served for dinner. I used my go to pre-made brownie mix and added a mint cheesecake layer and they came out so soft and chewy!
 
Ingredients:
     1 Pre-made Brownie Mix
Mint Cream Cheese
     8 oz Soften Cream Cheese
     1/4 Cup Sugar
     1 Egg
     1/4 tsp Peppermint Extract
     Green Food Coloring
     1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips, divided
 
Directions:
 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix brownies as instructed. Pour 3/4 of the brownie batter in 9 X 13 prepped pan.
2. To make the mint cream cheese, mix the softened cream cheese, sugar, egg, peppermint extract, and a few drops of the green food coloring until smooth. Slowly stir in half of the mini chocolate chips.
3. Spoon out the mint cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie batter, and then cover the cream cheese mixture with the rest of brownie batter. Using a butter knife create swirls in the batter allowing some of the mint cream cheese to show. Sprinkle the remaining mini chocolate chips on top.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes and cool before cutting.

​Every Fourth of July I make a trifle so I knew it would be fun to make a Saint Patrick’s Day version. Instead of using pound cake I used brownies, vanilla pudding and Mint Oreo’s. It turned out so pretty and was a big hit at our party!
 
Ingredients:
     1 pre-made brownie mix
     1 3.4 oz box instant vanilla pudding
     8 oz whipped cream
     Green food coloring
     10 Mint Oreo’s, crushed
 
Directions:
1. Bake brownies as instructed. Once cool cut brownies into small rectangles
2. Make pudding as instructed and color with green food coloring.
3. Crush Oreo’s by using a food processor with a few pulses or a rolling pin and a gallon zip bag.
4. Place a layer of brownies on the bottom of a trifle bowl, layer 1/3 of the green pudding on top of the brownies, sprinkle on a few of the crushed Oreo’s and cover with 1/3 of the whipped cream. Repeat two more times and sprinkle the rest of the Oreo’s on top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.