I've been neglecting a problem for a little while, only because it wasn't warm enough to spray paint, and I'm lazy, but then we had a few warm days and I went spray paint crazy! I altered two lamps at once, well almost at once, but today I'm going to share with you the lamp I altered for Devlin's room.

You see he used to have two lamps, but then he wanted  to get  rid of the baseball theme, which included a lamp that was made out of  baseballs. Thats when the darkness descended on his room, because unless the sun was shining into his room the lone little lamp we left in his room was not enough light.

So this is the lamp I started with:

Pretty sad, huh? Yea. That's the lamp I bought for a $1 at the estate auction a while ago. Yup, $1. Not to shabby.  So the first order of business was to trash the shade, and paint the base a happy apple green per Dev's request.

Then I busted out a new lampshade, and the wheels started turning. I found some clipart of a silhouette of the continents of the world and loaded it up in Photoshop. I repeated the design until I had enough to go around  my shade, then I skewed each section of the map so that it would match up with the trapezoidal shape of my shade. The I cut it out and taped it to the inside of my lampshade.
Its not a great tape job, but then it doesn't have to be. I then put the shade on the lamp and traced all the continents onto the shade with a pencil. It doesn't have to be perfect. Once you're done with that take out the paper.
The lines are pretty faint, but that's ok, because what I did next was just pull out a sharpie. I do believe that sharpies are my favorite crafty accessory...that is next to coffee. :) So now I just take my sharpie and go back over my pencil lines.
 I was going to add arrows to certain points around the world ala Indiana Jones, but decided in the end I like the simplicity of this map. Now I moved it back to Dev's room.
 The lamp looks so nice in his room. Although I do wish that he'd pick a different color other than green to paint all his accessories. :)

Here is the before and after again. Just for good measure.
 I am loving the transformation. :)

Oh and just for you guys. Here's the clipart I found.
I hope you guys enjoy this little gem, because there are lots more ideas in store for this map. :)

Have a great day guys!

Heather's already spoken about her feelings on St. Patty's day. I have not had the same experiences that she has had, so my outlook is somewhat different, though no more or less valid. Different things, different people, as I like to say. Anyway, I always like to do something to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a big way. I don't really know why I like this day so much. We do have Irish blood in us, but we have a lot of other nationalities in us as well, so it's an unsolved mystery. Let's chalk it up to my intense interest in other cultures for now.

Anyway, I always make a lot of food for our greenest of holidays, usually breakfast for my co-workers and then a semi-traditional Irish dinner. No, we're not talking corned beef and cabbage. I find corned beef very salty, but I love cabbage. There was a time in Mike's and my marriage that he actually put an embargo on the transport of cabbage into my house because I was making it so much. Cabbage is really cheap and really tasty; what's not to love? Anyway, so if we don't have corned beef, what do we have? Lamb! Scrumptious, tender, delicious lamb. If you've never had lamb, you don't know what you're missing. If you don't like lamb, then you need to try my recipe. You may change you mind.



Roasted Leg of Lamb With Garlic and Rosemary

7 to 8 lb. leg of lamb
4 medium garlic cloves
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp rosemary
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 to 3 fresh rosemary sprigs or parsley for garnish

Trim excess fat, leaving a thin film-will cook to a crispy skin-and set aside. Preheat oven to 450. Mix together the garlic, which may need to be crushed, 3/4 tsp. salt, half the pepper, the rosemary, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, and 1 tbsp olive oil.

With a small knife, cut 7 to 8 slits all over the meat 2 to 3 inches deep. Poke the mixed ingredients into the slits and rub any excess paste over the surface of the meat. Brush the lamb with the remaining oil and vinegar and season with remaining salt and pepper.

Place lamb on in a roasting pan with thickest part up and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 and baste with the pan drippings every 15 to 20n minutes. Cook the lamb for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until meat thermometer stuck in the thickest part reads 125 to 130 for medium-rare. For medium to medium-well,cook to 140 to 150. Allow lab to rest for 15 to 20 minutes before carving.

What does a 7 to 8 pound leg of lamb look like? It looks like that! That is a huge piece of meat. We had eight guests over for dinner tonight and every one of them was awestruck at the size of this thing. Let me give you a HUGE hint here: Talk. To. Your. Butcher!!! I cannot stress this enough. I picked this leg up at Publix, which, with the bone, is almost as long as my arm. I looked at it and just knew I couldn't handle it alone, so I took it over to the butcher counter.

Butcher: Hello, how can I help you?
Me: Hi there! I'm buying this, but I don't really know how to handle a leg of lamb. Can you help me?
Butcher: Sure, what do you want done?

And thus ensued a wondrous conversation about the butchery services Publix offers. My new best friend de-boned the leg, took out a nasty, meat-ruining gland that I didn't even know existed, trimmed the fat, and then put the bone back is (bones are flavor!), and tied the whole thing back up into a neat little package for me. This was all at no charge. Now, your supermarket may not offer the same amazing services, but 1) it never hurts to ask and 2) asking can save you a lot of pain and trouble. Thankfully, Mike did not feel threatened when texted him to tell him I was in love with our butcher. Like I said, ASK! The worst they can tell you is no.

This is the first round of flavor. Just the seasoning paste/mix smells glorious. You know your lamb is going to taste amazing with just one whiff.

This should give you an idea of the scale of this piece of meat. I usually do my best to keep one hand clean whenever I'm doing any kind of messy prep work like this, so I used a fork and one hand to put the seasoning in the slits and then used the same hand to spread the love around.

There she is, ready to go into the oven. That is a beautiful sight...

While my lamb was cooking away, I chopped up some cabbage and sliced up some potatoes. The cabbage was steamed in a little water and three tablespoons of butter in a wide, deep saucepan, then drained and tossed with some slightly crushed, seasoned croutons. The croutons add some really nice texture and flavor. The potato sliced were just tossed into another large saucepan with some olive oil and fried up there. I served them with some Parmesan cheese, which I know is not traditional, but it's a quick, easy way to add a salty, cheesy, little kick. I don't have any more food pictures because everyone started arriving pretty quickly in succession, which always causes things to get a little crazy.

Dinner turned out great! The lamb, of course, was the star, and got so many wonderful compliments. Wes even mentioned that I had "talked a big game, but delivered in a big way". Nova kept on going back for nibbles, and we had our own potato mini-famine, as my potatoes were all gone after the first round. I made two-thirds of a 5-lb bag, if not more! We all had a great time, and I couldn't be happier with how things turned out.

Like I said, try this recipe! If you still don't like lamb afterward, okay, but this is a winner no matter what you do. If you have leftovers, which you might not, you can use them in a soup. I have a few bits left and the meaty bone, which is destined for a small stew later on this week. Win-win-win.

I just hope they don't do random drug tests at work tomorrow. Nova brought green food coloring over, and I've been enjoying green wine all night. The side effects of ingesting so much food coloring would be very interesting to explain. :-)

So I have another reason to not like St. Patty's Day. It will probably be a funny story tomorrow. Well maybe  not, but maybe on Sunday it'll be funny. I'm sharing/venting so bear with me. :)

Today was cleaning day. Top to bottom cleaning day. So I had just given the upstairs the final stamp of cleaning approval when I started vacuuming the stairs. When I made it down to the first landing the vacuum decided to viciously attack me, probably because I made it clean up the dogs' bed area. Well I dodged his attack, yes our vacuum is a he, and knocked him to the floor, but also screamed like there was an eight foot boa constrictor coming at me.

Said scream draws the attention of the hubs who comes to the bottom of the stairs to make sure that I'm not strangling the vacuum, and I inform him that I'm fine. What we both missed was that Harrison had come up behind Steve right next to the corner of the stairs, and Steve turned and H fell and knocked his head on the corner of the wall busting his eyebrow open.


Well as most parents know - eye injuries bleed A LOT. So after some going back and forth about whether to call 911 or not, we get the bleeding to almost stop and I realize that we do need to take him to the ER because he will need stitches.

So we call my Mom to babysit Dev, try to calm Dev down because he's scared for his brother, all the while trying to get shoes and things we need just for the trip to the ER, you know like blankets and sippy cups. Amongst all this chaos, Harrison falls asleep. I don't know if this is good or bad. Part of me says its good and the other part not good, you know with a head injury and all. I got a little more nervous when he wasn't waking up or even stirring during all the goings-on.

So we get to the ER, which luckily is not more than 5 or so minutes down the road, and it took longer to sign in than waiting in the lobby. We got seen almost immediately and they started looking at H's injury. The doc asked about using glue, but after discussing the boys' playing antics we decided that stitches would be the better way to go. Oh I should mention he slept all through the injury irrigation which worried all of us even more, including the doc. Luckily, at the very end of the doc's first visit H started to wake up.

Well, he was a  trooper through the first round of numbing gel, and through the numbing needle, then came the curved needle and thread. That we did not like.

Three stitches later we were done and getting discharged. Tomorrow morning we have to talk to Dev about being a little less rough with H, at least until the stitches come out. Next Tuesday. For now, I'm going to unwind, try not to think about the cleaning that still needs to get done and plan for our trip to the zoo tomorrow. :)

Have a nice night y'all!

So I know I've mentioned that I'm not a big St. Patty's Day celbrater, but here's why - 24 years ago on March 18th my great-grandfather died. I will never forget that day. I know some of you will say...wait....you were only like 5 years old then, but I remember. Vividly.

It was a bright, sunny day. Gorgeous out, but I wasn't outside playing. Nope. I was being bitten by my little sister. She was going for and drawing blood. I, in turn, started crying and ran up the stairs to tell Mom.

This is the part I will never forget. The sun was streaming, I mean like blindly so, in the 2 front windows of the sitting area in Mom and Dad's bedroom. They had turned it into their shared office/sewing room, and Mom was sitting at Dad's desk and crying. I didn't see the phone in her hand, but then again she was facing west and had her left side towards me. I stopped crying and hollering, which I'd been doing all the way up the stairs, and in a very small voice asked her what was wrong.

She turned towards me with tears running down her face and just opened her arms. I ran to her. I remember wondering why she was crying, but more importantly just feeling safe and hopefully making her feel better, because her hugs always made me feel better. Mom, for her part, did finally realize that I was bleeding and returned to Mom-mode in a blink, but I wouldn't let her. I asked her why she was crying, and that's when she hesitated. She told me that Pe' had died.

Everything after that was kind of a blur. I know I started crying and Mom started again, and she was trying to bandage my arm, while fussing at Nicole, Dana was flitting around and Dad came home early. Up until a few years ago, I still had a scar from that bite and a reminder of that awful day.

I'm thinking of you today Pe Pe.

Hey guys! How ya doing? Did you like the shirt posts? I did. The boys did. At least I think they did. Oh well if they didn't. One of the perks of being Mom, I get to tell them what to wear {for now}. :)

Anyways, I'm over at Craftoholics Anonymous today! Totally psyched to be guest posting on Linda's blog today. We're sharing our craft spaces. So go check it out!



Have a great day guys. I'll be back tomorrow with a tribute.

Who doesn't love the smell of primer in the AM?

Ok well usually I do, but oil based primer has a distinct smell that I cannot get out of my nose! Oh well the two nightstands will thank me tomorrow when I start putting on the actual paint.

Time to go look for some knobs.....any one have any favorites?

So yesterday I showed of H's shirt, today is Dev's turn! His shirt is so totally  punky like the boy who wears it.

He's a menagerie of faces and he exhibits them all in a range of like 5 minutes. One moment he's thoughtful and somewhat introverted and other moments he's loud, obnoxious and out-going, but he's always photogenic. :) So with out any further ado - Here's DEV!

A face only a mother could love. :)
So there's the goods! A nice Irish rocker. :) I love the gold foil on this one. I couldn't believe my luck when some silver and gold foil went on clearance a year or so ago. Its the perfect accent for this shamrock{in} shirt. :)
So here's the boy in his contemplative mood, about three minutes into our photo session. Love his eyes! So expressive! Love my guys!

Have a great day guys,

So this week is St. Patty's Day, as if we didn't all know that already, but what you may not know is that I don't usually honor this holiday. We used to go to St. Patty's Day parties, but I don't drink much so yea....really I'd  just be extorting people with photos I took at the party. :) Ok so I wouldn't do that. Maybe I wouldn't.

Anyways, I'm sure you guys  have seen the button in my sidebar about the Let's Hear it for the Boys Party over at I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar. Its a shirt party. A shirt party for boys. And how lucky am I that I have three boys to outfit? Very. Well I'm going to show off two this week and then the hubs shirt will be shown later, because  I can do that. Its my blog after all. :)



So here's the first shirt - Small Fry's!
Mmmmmm, chocolate. Yep, someone got into Mommy's dark chocolate kisses. Or maybe she shared. Either way....they don't photograph that well. :) Oh wait, yea we're supposed  to be looking at the shirt. :)
Yay for white dogs and black shirts! Doh! I used my silhouette to cut out the freezer paper for the stencil. Easy Peasey.
Why the attitude-laden shirt? Cause this boy has more attitude than at least two of us - put together. :) Its gotten worse since he's learned to climb and can holler from higher places. At least he's a doll. Although the hubs is upset about the bang trim job I did to him. He says he looks girly and I should cut the rest of his hair. Not. Gonna. Happen. His hair is gorgeous. And so is he, and he can stay cherubic looking for a few more months. What do you guys think?

Have a great day guys!

Let me just begin by telling you how dorky Mike and I are. There have been duck jokes in my house for about two weeks now, ever since I decided to do this dish. This is actually what I wanted to cook and write about last week, but, as I mentioned in last week's post, my day fell apart last week. Not this week, though! It all started when I went looking for just duck legs. I couldn't find them anywhere, so I decided to get a whole duck at that point. When I went back to Publix, however, they were all out of whole duck.

Me: "What the duck, Mike? They're all out of it."
Mike: "Looks like we'll have to go to the other Publix to get some ducking duck."


I know, I know, we're really dumb. Well, the other Publix had what I wanted, so then I just had to increase the recipe. I got this idea from Nigella Lawson's show "Nigella Kitchen", but she's doesn't write her recipes traditionally, so I will just include the link to it here. This is her recipe for Roasted Duck Legs With Potatoes.

This is such a simple recipe, anyone can do it. The only hard part I had to deal with was dismantling the bird itself. Duck is obviously very similar to chicken, as they're both poultry, but there are some distinct differences that slowed a duck-novice like me down. The biggest difference is the duck breast. Ducks are much longer-bodied than chickens and their chests are therefore much longer. I used a good pair of kitchen shears, reserved only for jobs such as this, to spatchcock (or would it be spatch-fowl in this case?) the bird, but I ended up getting a few rib bones in my thigh pieces anyway. Like I said, really long chests. The other major difference is the fat content. Since they're waterfowl, ducks are very fatty. This doesn't really bother me since I hardly ever have duck, but it is not a food for someone who is counting calories. Also, duck is rather expensive, far more so than chicken, which is even more of a reason to only have it once in a great while.

I really wish I had pictures of the dismantling process for you all, but, seeing as how I was wrist deep in duck and Mike was not home, photography was not really an option at the time. Here is a picture of my duck before I got started, though.

And here are the pieces searing up in my cast iron skillet. You need a pan that can go from stove top to oven, and I can think of no better tool. Plus, I've had this baby for a few years now, so it's really well seasoned and just wonderful to cook with.

Here you can see the duck all golden and beautiful on one side. Now, I divided my duck into six pieces. Two legs, two thighs, and two breasts. All the bones stayed in because I do not know how to de-bone anything. We found that it was really fun eating this with our hands, though, so it worked out really well.

Here is everything all cooked up after an hour and a half in a 400 degree oven. I have discovered that I only burn myself on 400 degree dishes. I have a scar on my wrist from a 400 degree pizza and my skillet burned the side of my hand after I pulled it out of the oven. Maybe if I cook things at 399 or 401 degrees, I won't get burnt anymore?



The duck was juicy and so flavorful, while the potatoes were buttery (I used delicious Yukon golds) and slightly crisp on the edges, Mike heated up some tinned green beans for us to round out the meal, which was just divine.

I know duck is not cheap and it's pretty fatty, but, if you want an easy way to treat your family to a really special dish or maybe a way to impress a date (seriously, cooking a savory meal is just as good as going out to a nice dinner), this is your golden ticket. If you can find duck legs or pre-dismantled duck portions, even better! You may be surprised just how much you like this simple, understated waterfowl. Duck yeah. :-)

So it might have been like a year ago that I bought a broken tiered copper serving dish. Yes, I said a year. What's worse was that to fix this poor dilapidated thing was easy. Easier than easy. I know we've all seen them. Glue a candlestick to a couple of plates and voila! Instant tiered serving dish. I know..I'm lazy. I've accepted  it. :)

I may have also added a finial, but only because my copper plates had holes in the center of their plates. :)

So I started with painting the candlestick and the finial and then the glue came out. Let the gorilla gluing begin!

Isn't my oh-so-awesome weight adorable?
How about this weight? It was a balancing act, and this is when I glued the plate to the counter. Woops.
Look how pretty the light is off of the copper. :) I love  my fixed platter. :) Here are some more close-ups of the plates.
Love the stamping!

So does anyone know how to fix a slight glue blemish on my counter top? At least I can admire my pretty platter. :)

Have a great day guys!