Three Mango Seeds: September 2011

Restored

Friday, September 30, 2011

I found this beauty at our local auction. I stayed till the bitter end waiting for this piece to come up and luckily for me the place had almost cleared out. I really wish I had taken a picture before I wiped it down and started stripping the top.

It was bad! The drawers were literally stuck because of all the goo. This didn't really matter to me because I already knew I was gonna do away with them all together.

It literally took me three days to strip down the top down to this and I still couldn't get all the 101 layers of nasty black paint off! (update: found a new product called Citristrip for stripping -- its awesome!)

All ready looking better. I painted the whole thing an off white. Built shelves where the drawers went.

Found a graphic from the Graphic's Fairy blog and transferred it to the top, filled it in with black paint then heavily distressed the entire piece and finally finished it off with a good sealer. Here is what I ended up with...

If you like the transformation then we'd love for you to PIN IT! Thanks!

{A BIG thank you to the Graphics Fairy for all the wonderful graphics on her site}

Thanks for stopping by!

Front porch fluffing & jalapeno chicken

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

It had been so HOT lately that I had really begun to neglect our front porch. Sorry for being a bad blogger and not taking a before picture. Let me just say...it was not inviting.

I planted some mums, trimmed back the overgrown sweet potato vines and gave the porch a good rinse.

I still need to replace the flag holder {5th time, no joke, crazy Oklahoma winds} and make a new fall wreath for the front door. But all that will have to wait for another day. I've got some hungry kids and they are wanting Jalapeno Chicken.
This was a fire station recipe but its so darn good that I wanted to share it with ya'll.

Jalapeno Chicken

6 to 8 large chicken breasts {cut into small bite size pieces}

Buttermilk {1/2 a pint}

Small jar of jalapeno slices w/the juice

Flour

Panko bread crumbs

The night before: Marinate your bite size chicken chunks in enough buttermilk so that all the pieces are almost covered and then dump in the entire jar of jalapeno slices and juice. Cover and let sit in the frig overnight.

The next day, scoop the chicken out with a slotted spoon and dump in a bowl of flour. Shake to coat them well {just a few at a time} and fry them. I like to use a cast iron skillet but anything will do. Just make sure your oil is really hot before you put the chicken in. Last, I will bread all the jalapeno slices in flour and fry them up too! YUM! so good!

I literally have to run my kids outta the kitchen when I cook these, because they eat them off the plate as fast as I can cook them. Try these...you'll love 'em!

Live Simply

Friday, September 23, 2011

I don't know about you but around our house we are really trying to reduce crap, organize necessities and uncomplicate our lives. In short, LIVE SIMPLY.

I guess these will stand as reminders! {heh heh}

Rustic Lake Signs

Friday, September 16, 2011

I've seen this welcome sign done in vinyl and loved it. However, I'm not really a vinyl kinda girl since I love to paint so much. Here's how my painted version turned out.

This would look great on my father-n-laws country cabin porch. Plus, we live in a lake community so I couldn't go without making this next one.

Gotta Go Paint!

Working...

Thursday, September 8, 2011

I'm finishing up a new project...am really loving it so far. Here's a hint, my inspiration came from within one of these magazines!

Come back MONDAY to see the reveal!

Outta Milk

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

I've had this old metal refrigerator door that a friend of mine gave me for a little bit now and I've had no inspiration as to what needed to be painted on it.

We came home one night after running all of our errands only to find I'd forgotten milk.

Big no no in our house! Must have MILK around here. All of that led to the inspiration for this...