Lilies for Mothers Day ~ Victorian Boot Planter DIY (and $25 VISA gift card giveaway)

This post brought to you by iBulb. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

 I love lilies!

They're beautiful,

easy to care for

and smell divine!

 

 

 They're perfect for every occasion

from classic to modern

casual to formal

anniversaries, birthdays...

...and even when you need to apologize for forgetting one of those occasions.

 

 

 Did you know that there are hundreds of types of lilies 

and that they're considered a symbol of refined beauty?

It's no wonder that they were the inspiration for my

 

Mothers Day Lily Bouquet!

 

 

Don't these Astoria lilies look elegant

in this Victorian ladies' lace-up boot?

 

 

I'm excited to show you how to transform

a modern pair of thrift store boots

into a vintage looking Victorian Boot Planter

for the refined beauty in your life!    

 

 

 Victorian Boot Planter

with fresh Lily arrangement

 

For the boot planter:  

•  1 lace-up boot, leather or vinyl (I found a pair at Goodwill for $5.25)


• A few sheets of newspaper


• 1 2oz. bottle acrylic paint in off-white (I used Americana Light Buttermilk by DecoArt)


• Medium sponge brush


• Small paint brush


• Paper towel or soft cloth


• Brown paint or Distress Ink for antiquing


• Pearls or pearl buttons


• Heavy duty glue (I used E6000)

For the arrangement   

• Lilies* (I used three stems in this arrangement)


• Viburnum (Snowballs) or another green, leafy filler


• A tall slender jar (I used a jelly jar)


• A block of floral foam

*You can purchase lilies at grocery stores, garden centers, and flower shops

 

 

Step 1:  Lace up and tie boot.  Fill with a few pieces of crumbled newspaper to give structure while you paint.

 

Step 2: Use a sponge brush to paint entire boot with acrylic paint.  Use a small paint brush to paint the hard-to-reach areas like the laces.  Set aside to dry.

 

Step 3:  Fold over one side of boot (as pictured above).  Paint interior of the boot (you only need to go a few inches down).

 

 

Step 4: Once boot is dry, crumple and bend to make some wrinkles and wear lines.

 

Step 5:  Use a bit of brown paint or stain on a dry brush to add antiquing to areas of the boot that would typically show wear (toe, heel, along edges).  Immediately wipe away with a paper towel or soft cloth.  If antiquing is too dark, you can go over it with more of the light paint.  You can also use a Distress Ink pad (I used a light linen color) to add another dimension of age.

 

Step 6:  Use a dab of glue to attach pearls or pearl buttons to the boot.  Set boot aside to dry. 

 

Time for the lily arrangement!

 

 

Step 7:  Leave the newspaper inside the boot.  It will help support and prop up the jar.  To get the floral foam to fit perfectly inside the jar, place open mouth of jar on the foam and press down.  The jar should cut through the foam and will end up in the jar.  You'll want the floral foam to come 1/4" from the top of the jar, so you may need to repeat the process if your piece of foam isn't as tall as the jar to begin with.  Pour a small amount of water into jar.  Foam will absorb the water.  Continue adding water until the foam will absorb no more.  Insert jar into boot planter.

 

 

Step 8: (optional) Remove the pistils from the center of the lilies by gently pulling off. Remove the lily leaves and trim the stem at an angle to approx. 5".

 

Step 9:  Insert several snowball or leafy green stems all around the jar.  Remove leaves that face the inside.  Insert lilies.  Make adjustments to the greenery as needed to create a balanced look.

 

And you're done!

 

How about some more inspiring ideas for how to use lilies and flowering bulbs to brighten up your home and your day?  Visit  HERE.

 

 GIVEAWAY

 

IBulb Lilies and IZEA are giving one lucky Rook No. 17 follower a $25 VISA giftcard so they can enjoy lilies in their own home!  It's easy to enter!  Leave a comment stating what type of craft project you would make with the lilies if you won, then click "I commented" in the Rafflecopter widget below.   

 

Good luck!

 

Grilled Chicken Taco Marinade

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with my dear friend Katherine. (She has given me many recipes in the past, that I’ve shared with you all. Like this fabulous Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken and this tasty Cinnamon Bear Popcorn. Both a delight! Kind of like Katherine, who is darn delight, herself!)  Anyhow, Katherine and I were talking about food and recipes and she told me about a wonderful bottled marinade she has been using for Grilled Chicken Tacos. The next time I went to the store I searched for it. High and low and around the corner and in every area of the store.

I couldn’t find it, man.

But I had Grilled Chicken Tacos on the mind, and you know how it is when that happens.

A girl has got to have Grilled Chicken Tacos when they are on her mind. So I threw a few things together and made my own marinade. I let the chicken soak up the flavors and then I grilled that chicken up. Good glory, it was good! I sliced the chicken thinly, then lay the slices out over warm tortillas and covered them with guacamole, fresh salsa (recipe coming on Wed), cheddar cheese and sour cream. Heavens, every bite was fabulous. Can’t wait to make them again. This dish is so easy to put together and makes me excited for more warm weather grilling! Thanks for the idea, Katherine! (Hoping to find your marinade and try it soon). For those of you looking for a good bottled marinade, Katherine’s recommendation is KC Masterpiece Marinade Spiced Caribbean Jerk.

Let me show you how easy these are to put together!

Time: 10 min. prep + 6-8 hours marinading + 20 minutes grilling
Yield: 4-6 servings
Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up! Inspired by Katherine Rose

2 C Coke (Coke Zero, or Diet Coke is fine as well)
1/4 C lime juice (bottled is fine)
1 t smoked paprika
1 t seasoned salt
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t cumin
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar
1/3 C green onions
4 chicken breasts (about 2 1/2 pounds)

Flour Tortillas
Guacamole
Cheddar Cheese
Sour Cream
Fresh Salsa

1. Grab yourself 2 cups of  Coke. Coke Zero is my favorite (which is the very important reason that I have some in my fridge) and so I used it! Regular Coke or Diet Coke would be fine as well. Pour the Coke into a medium-sized mixing bowl.

2. Add 1/4 cup lime juice.

3. Chop up 4 cloves of garlic and add them to the bowl.

4. Add 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon seasoned salt…

1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon sugar.

5. Chop yourself 1/3 cup of green onions and add them to the bowl as well. Give everything a nice stir to combine, making sure the seasonings dissolve in the liquid.

6. Grab 4 chicken breasts and place them in gallon sized ziploc bag.

Carefully pour the marinade into the bag. Seal it tightly and pop it into the fridge. Leave it there for 6-8 hours. You could leave it there overnight and it would be all the more fabulous. It also works well to freeze it all together in the bag, then let it thaw in the fridge before you are ready to grill.
7. Take the chicken and marinade out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you are ready to grill.

8. Heat your grill up to 350 degrees. Get your chicken on the grill and cook it through. I like to lay some tin foil out on the grill and drizzle it with olive oil. Then I place the chicken on the tin foil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper and then let it cook until the chicken is no longer pink and has some nice grill marks along the bottom. Flip the chicken over and let it get golden brown on the other side.

9. Take the chicken off of the grill and place it on a plate. Cover it with tin foil and let it rest for about 5 minutes.
10. Slice the chicken thinly. Warm up some small tortillas, place some chicken in the center of each tortilla. Top with cheddar cheese, guacamole, sour cream and fresh salsa.

Enjoy!

Source

Nutella Swirl Coffee Cake

For some reason, Blair thought it was really strange that a couple would register for a bundt cake pan, what could you possibly make in that thing? It all started when his good friend, Brian, got hitched to Molly and they had a bundt cake holder on their registry. Blair thought it was the most ridiculous thing and then insisted that we buy it for them. Of course this came after endless taunting of the fact that this item was on their wish list.

Little did Blair know that when we went to register, I made sure every single baking pan out there made it onto our wish list. What can I say I love to bake and no one was going to stand in my way to get the things I wanted. Brian and Molly ended up buying our bundt pan for us and I think of these course of events every time I pull it out of the cupboard.

Unfortunately, I don’t make too many cakes in my bundt pan, but this one when I saw it, I had to have it. It has been awhile since I did some baking therapy so I planned to make this last weekend. Coffee cake to me is the perfect treat because you can eat it for two different courses, breakfast and or dessert. Nutella has recently shot up on my list of favorites and I need to seek out more recipes to use it in. (Of course, there are many times where I just stick a spoon into the jar, I have no shame.) The cake itself is light and moist, and the beautiful swirl of Nutella inside makes it a beautiful sight. It ended up being the perfect accompaniment to some coffee, but tea or a big glass of milk would suffice as well.

Nutella Swirl Coffee Cake
Ingredients:
¾ cup butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 ounces plain yogurt
½ to 1 cup Nutella

What you’ll do:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large bundt pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside until ready to use.

In your mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in the vanilla.  With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture, alternate with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix until all of the flour is incorporated.

Warm the Nutella for about 20 seconds on low in the microwave. Spread about 1/3 of the batter in the pan, smoothing it so it is even. Drizzle with 1/3 of the warmed Nutella. Swirl with a knife. Repeat two more times ending with the swirling of the Nutella.

Bake 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Source

Sweet Idea: Edible Valentines Day Tic-Tac-Toe (& Valentine Bingo from Martha Stewart too)

Here's a Valentines Day card, activity and treat all rolled into one -- 

Valentine Tic-Tac-Toe with sugar cookie Xs and Os!

My inspiration?  The adorable Bingo-style Valentine Set* and Wood Stamp Set* from Martha Stewart Crafts.  The pack includes 18 cards, envelopes, and sheets of stickers (25/sheet) -- everything you need for a no-fuss, beautifully coordinated valentine.  You don't have to be crafty.  Just place a card and sheet of stickers in the envelope.  Embellish the envelope with your favorite Martha Stewart stickers (I love the cupcake collection) and rubber stamps! Easy!

I couldn't think of a better way to compliment the game-style valentine cards from Martha Stewart Crafts than to come up with my own little classic game-inspired sweet treat to go with it!  Using Martha's classic sugar cookie and royal icing recipes, I whipped up a batch of buttery little cookie game pieces.  

 

The iced cookies got a final touch of whimsy with an edible food pen.  It was hard to keep my family from eating the little bite-sized cookies, but fortunately the recipe makes a multitude.  I designed a cute and simple card that can be printed on watercolor paper and used again and again (or until the players have devoured all of their cookies).

The best part, of course, was when my girls got enjoy an unseasonably sunny afternoon out back playing their new game.

Here's how to make Edible Valentines Day Tic-Tac-Toe for the ones you love!

EDIBLE VALENTINES DAY TIC-TAC-TOE TUTORIAL

For the game boards:

Free printable Tic-tac-toe board (HERE)

8.5" x 11" paper (one sheet will yield two cards)

I used watercolor paper because of its lovely texture and structure.  You may also use heavy card stock

For the game piece cookies:

1 batch Martha Stewart Sugar Cookies (recipe HERE) yields approx. 240 cookies (enough for 24 sets of tic-tac-toe)

1/2 batch Martha Stewart Royal Icing (recipe HERE)

A 1" circular cookie cutter

1 pastry bag with small open tip

Wilton Fine Tip Food Writer pens, Neon Collection

Step 1:  Prepare a batch of sugar cookie dough according to Martha's recipe.   Roll out dough to 1/4".  Cut into 1" circles and arrange on a baking sheet with at least 1/2" in between each cookie.  Freeze for 15 minutes before baking at 325.  Bake on rack in upper 1/3 of oven for 7 minutes, then move pan to a rack in the lower 1/3 of oven for an additional 7 minutes, or until cookies have browned lightly around the edges.  I repeated the process 3 times for a total of around 240 cookies.

Step 2:  Once cookies have cooled, prepare the 1/2 batch of royal icing.  Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a small open tip.  Draw the outline of a circle around the edge of a cookie, then fill.  Repeat with remaining cookies.  Allow to dry overnight. 

Step 3:  The next day, royal icing should be hard to the touch which means that they are ready to be written on.  I used the pink and green FoodWriter pens to create dashed and dotted borders and to add Xs and Os.

Step 4:  Download the free printable tic tac toe boards , print on heavy stock (I prefer watercolor paper, purchased in large books from the craft store, and cut down to 8.5" x 11") and trim.

Step 5:  Package the cookies in cellophane and tie off with ribbon. 

Enjoy!

Feeling inspired?  You can save 20% at MarthaStewartCrafts.com now through Valentine's Day. Just add the code BLOG20 at checkout.

No matter how your spread the love for Valentine’s Day, be sure to enter the Martha Stewart Crafts “Craft Your Heart Out” Sweepstakes for your chance to WIN a DIAMOND HEART NECKLACE! Visit http://bit.ly/CYHOSweeps for more details and to enter.

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* I received one set of valentines and wood stamps, along with two packages of stickers from EK Success for the purpose of review.  All opinions are genuine and are my own.

Espresso and Cream Eats

If you follow along with me on Instagram (madisonjanemayberry), then chances are you saw my photo yesterday of the food journal I’ve started keeping. Over the next 21 days (starting on Sunday) I am taking part in a program called the “Evolve 21 Day Yoga Cleanse” which is a program through our gym that is part cleanse and part yoga workshop. We will be meeting every Sunday for a combination of yoga class and group discussion and nutrition information. I love that I’ll be doing the cleanse with other people to provide support and encouragement. And I’m looking forward to going deeper into my yoga practice, too.

I’ve said in the past that I’m not a big fan of juice cleanses and things that are ultra calorie restrictive since I need food to a) be a kind and pleasant person and b) fuel my active lifestyle. And that is still very true. The thing that drew me to the program was the fact that it is absolutely not calorie restrictive. Although I’ll be limiting the types of food I eat for the next 21 days, I can still eat a lot of food, just as long as its healthy and falls within the program’s confines.

We have been encouraged to journal what we eat a week before the cleanse (normal eating patterns), during the cleanse and after, when we start to introduce foods into our diets that we cut out. Since I can hardly keep track of a piece of paper to save my life, I decided to document my eats and experiences online. But, since I know many of you have no interest in a yoga cleanse and just want tasty recipes, I’m going to keep the cleanse information limited on Espresso and Cream. For those of you who are interested in following along, you can visit Espresso and Cream Eats (espressoandcreameats.wordpress.com) for daily updates and my complete food journal for the next month. It’s not beautiful or fancy by any means, just a basic journal format to keep things in one place.

Madison

Source: Source

Chevron Chocolate Overload Krispie Treats

So I guess you’ve figured out by now that I’m not a trendy person. I don’t own any chevron paper straws, my laundry room is not teal and coral, and I don’t own a chalkboard or a bubble necklace. I do have some cute baker’s twine, and I am all caught up on Parenthood and Downton Abbey so I have that going for me at least. I don’t quite understand the chevron craze. It’s cute and all, don’t get me wrong. I think the first time I saw it or knew what the word “chevron” was referring to was on those Target dresses that everyone went INSANE over. Are people still going crazy over those? I don’t even know.

One thing I do understand is chocolate. And these Chevron Chocolate Overload Rice Krispie Treats are something I can relate to. Cocoa Krispies cereal, chocolate marshmallows, chocolate frosting, topped with M&Ms. And can we talk about this new M&M color mix? I am kind of in love with it. Pink, Teal, Green, Purple, Red, and Blue ? {I found it at Target FYI.}

Let me just say here that even my attempt to be trendy and hop on the chevron train was completely overlooked in my house full of boys. My husband walked in the room and said, “Oh! A Mexican blanket.”

Really? The plus side is that Cinco de Mayo is coming up so you can totally make these for all of your May 5th celebrations. Surely krispie treats are a popular Mexican dish, yes? Mmmmmmkay.

Yield: 9x13 pan

Prep Time: 60 min

Total Time: 60 min

Chevron patterned rice krispie treats recipe made with chocolate cereal, chocolate marshmallows, chocolate frosting, and M&Ms- delicious chocolate overload!

1/4 cup salted butter5 cups Cocoa Krispies rice cereal1 bag (8 oz) Chocolate Royale Jet-Puffed marshmallows1 tub (16 oz) chocolate frosting2 bags (medium sized) M&MsPrepare your 9x13 pan by spraying with cooking spray.In a large pan over medium heat melt your butter.Add marshmallows and stir until melted and incorporated.Remove from heat and stir in cereal until coated.Press into prepared pan.Separate M&Ms into 6 bowls by color.Remove plastic lid and foil cover to frosting. Microwave 15-30 seconds. Stir and pour over pan.Attach M&Ms in a chevron pattern by making triangles.You can spray hands with cooking spray to press cereal treats into pan without sticking.This pattern can of course be made onto cake, brownies, or any dessert- have fun!Or just make the treats without the candy on top- Cocoa Krispie Treats made with chocolate marshmallows are still pretty mind blowing.

Source

Mock Grasshopper Pie

24 Oreo Cookies¼ cup(s) butter1 jar(s) marshmallow cream¼ cup(s) milk3 drop(s) peppermint extract4 drop(s) green food coloring½ pint(s) whipping creamCrust: Crush Oreos and mix with melted butter. Press half the mixture into th bottom of a 20? pie pan or a 11 X 7? oblong pan. (Save the other half for the top).Filling: Beat together the marshmallow cream, milk, peppermint, and food coloring. Whip the cream. Fold the marshmallow mixture into the cream. Pour in shell. Top with remaining crumbs. Freeze.

One of My Favorite Kitchen Tools

When I started this little blog I use to a post about some of my favorite things to use in my kitchen.

Those pictures were pretty horrid (like this one and this one--oh man!) but hey at least we can say that the photography has come a long ways, right!?!

But the tools you use in your kitchen are very important. And because I cook a lot I get quite picky with what I use.

It's like any job, the kitchen tools you use can make the job much easier when you are in your kitchen.

I think the tools I use in my kitchen are pretty great and it makes my day to have things around that are a benefit, but there are definitely some things I have been totally coveting.

A salad spinner is totally one of them.  As we say in our house, they are things that "we want and things that we need".  A salad spinner fit in the category of wanting but man have I been wanting one of those babies for several years now.

Mostly because we tend to eat a lot of salad at our house and I love the way it makes the lettuce so much crispier and crunchy. One of my daughters LOVES salad so it's on the table at least 4-5 times a week.  Because of that I am always rinsing the lettuce and using at least 4 paper towels each time I do, to get all the water off the lettuce. The dressing sticks so much better when all that water is off.

The folks at Zyliss gave me the opportunity to try out some of their kitchen tools and I was way excited. Of course the first thing I picked was a salad spinner. 

And man has it been wonderful.  I have completely loved it. It's amazing the inventions that make our life so much easier. I love that it has a flat top so I can stack other things on top and that I can rinse the lettuce in the bowl I use to spin it around. The kids are fascinated by it and beg to be able to use it.  Perfect! One less chore for this lady.

*I was compensated in product by the good folks at GigaSavvy but the opinions are all my own.