Vegan Shepherds Pie Recipe

Straight out of the oven!

Hopefully this photo gets your tummy grumbling! This was actually quick and easy. Just prepare it like they tell you on the recipe and you will be done in about an hour!

Find the original recipe here ----->   http://food52.com/recipes/19408-vegan-lentil-shepherd-s-pie-with-parsnip-and-and-potato-mash


All I did to modify it was sub out the white potato for sweet potatoes. Delish!


Enjoy!

Girls Day in NYC

Today I had the day off! Woot. I decided to treat myself by visiting a friend in NYC that I don't see often enough. It was just the right amount of food, beverage and conversation. Here is it in pictures...

The easy way to get there!

Stopped at a great vegan restaurant , Blossom, in the Chelsea section

Breakfast and drinks for lunch on a Monday. It's the new Monday Funday!

After lunch and two mimosas, why not have some dessert!

After walking the Chelsea Market, we stopped and had some happy  hour beer. Supporting local NY brewers! 

Every now and again you should treat yourself. I typically don't spend $50 on lunch, but when it's with a friend over good convo, splurge! Heck, I even bought blue mascara that day. Just doing something that makes you feel girlie (for the ladies of course, or gents if they prefer). You have to take care of yourself so that you can take care of others.

So my advice to you, take a week day off, go and splurge. <3 yourself!

We had an ugly foot stool

Good Morning! Well, it is on my end. It's really beautiful out for once. A nice cool breeze through the open windows. Ahh. I feel inspired!

This post will be a quick one, as I never remember to take step by step photos when I am in the process. The short of it is this. I bought a vintage foot stool at an auction months ago. I paid $1 for it. Silly me was worried that someone else might be interested, so I set my max purchase price at $3. Needless to say, I didn't have to worry. Ha

In the beginning...

The mustard yellow is lovely correct? This sat in my poor husbands office for many months. Finally, I decided to use the fabric I had set aside to do my folding chairs with on this project. I have never done anything like this before. I have no upholstering experience, and I don't really even know if this counts as one! It was more like fold the fabric like a Christmas present, staple underside, flip over. Woohoo. haha. I did one more step and took the legs off (they just unscrew) and spray painted them black. They originally had little metal "socks" on them, and I just spray over all of it. 

Haven't painted the legs yet...

In it's place! My camera is old, so the colors are way off. But it's a nice mix of purple, grey and black!

This is my finished project. You can still see the lines where the leather (might have been fake leather) had been. I am personally very happy with it, and that is the key to a project! They don't all have to be store bought perfect! This fits lovely in front of my corner chair, and my cat has adopted it as her new bed. Everyone in the family is happy! :)

Total cost = $5 :)

Trash Picked Table Facelift

We had bulk trash again this month. 4 times a year it's like Christmas in my neighborhood. Everyone puts to the curb their sad and tired furniture. I however, empty my car and start the slow drive through the streets looking for projects. People are very friendly about this too. Recently I stopped to pick up a chair and the woman came out of the garage asking if I wanted a really beautiful ceramic planter (well duh yes!).

Today was a medium warm day with no humidity. I waited until the shade moved to the front of the house then proceeded with my project. I had to scrape off some wood glue that they had used way too much of. After a little sanding, I was ready to roll!

It's a small table that has a latch that allows you to fold the top down to one side. I am sure there is a name for this, but I honestly have no idea what to call it! I taped the metal latch with Frog Tape and started spraying (Rustoleum) . I am pleased with the outcome. I had all the stuff laying around from previous projects, so technically this cost me $0. :)

This is how I found her, sitting by the curb, lost and lonely

All sprayed up with some temporary decor to keep her company!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed the mini project.

Back from a Break

Well, I did it again.  I always get rolling on blogs, then life gets busy and the blog gets pushed back. Honestly, I blame it on Barb! She fell off the wagon which in turn killed my motivation. The good news is, we are back!

I had some career changes in the past few months. I am now checking off my bucket list and being a cocktail waitress at a casino! Glamorous right? I had always wanted to try it. Let's see how long before I die of lung cancer!

I am still part of dog rescue! My latest dog is Baylee. She is a bluetick mix coonhound from Georgia. She is a princess :)

 

 She is up for adoption, so if you are interested, let me know ;)

I am still trash picking! I have a few projects that I will post in the upcoming days! It's amazing how much money you can save with a little sandpaper and spray paint!

Our home reno is moving along. We decided to get new windows in our living room, so all our hard work on trying to make them look nice is out the window (no pun intended). Hopefully we can get them installed within a month.

Ok, this was just a quick peak back into my boring life! ha. Within the next couple of days I will post about my newly decorated ottoman! Less than 5 bucks for the whole thing! :)

Thanks for sticking around!

An old dresser and some spray paint

You will see a few spray paint jobs from me, since this is my first home and I am on a budget! Honestly, if I had more money I'd probably just spray paint more stuff! :) This post is about a tall dresser that I fell in love with.

The search began for a dresser when I realized, well, I didn't have one. I set the budget amount and began searching craigslist (you will see I love this site, even got my job from there!). I figured I'd want to spend no more than $50 for a smaller dresser. I checked out Ikea, and found some that I liked for $100, so I set the challenge at half that! It took a week, but I found one! Asking price was $50, but I knew I'd bargain, after all, I still needed to buy the paint! I took the ride, loved it, asked for $40 and loaded it into my car. The intent for this dresser was to go into "my" room. (I have my own private room for all my stuff, perks of no kids)

First you will see it sitting in there as we do demolition on the room. It was a sad dresser used for dirty tools and drywall dust.

Sad Dresser

So dusty and lonely

Now you can get a glimpse of it all pretty and blue! I had taken step by step photos, but I think they were swallowed up my my computer. If I get around to it, I will add a nice head on picture!

Pretty Blue Dresser <3

The walls are all new drywall, fresh paint, and some decorating by me :) This tiny room has come a long way, with still more to go! I will talk more about this room later. (like how much I love my sunglasses holder!)


This one I did use a spray paint primer, which made the color pop and I had to use less of the colored paint. Plus I did light sanding, then wiped it down with a damp cloth. Easy Peasy! Now go start your project!

Updating Plastic Drawers

Before I bought a house, my husband and I moved around, a lot. We never really bought enough furniture to hold all of our clothing (plus my junk) etc. I purchased several of those 3 tiered plastic storage bins on wheels. They work like mini dressers, craft stations, hide all your junk you have no other place for containers. They are great! Downfall, they are ugly. Companies tried to make them fun, bright colors (higher prices), wider drawers etc. I am too old for a bight purple bin sitting front and center in my tiny room. I have seen many creative people use modge podge and basically redo the entire thing. I think they look great, but I am WAY too LAZY for that! Below is my quick solution. I didn't even worry about making the paper go all the way to the top of the drawer, just to where there was a line that made life easy. I used some extra scrapbook paper I had laying around.

The beginning of hiding my junk

I measured with a ruler to the line, then cut the paper to fit. The nice thing if you use a 12x12 scrapbook piece of paper is, you only have to cut straight across to the measured height. These containers have 12 inch drawers. I used scotch tape to hold the paper in place (no messy glue or drying time)

Finished in less than 5 mins

I used map looking scrap paper, but you could use old maps if you had any laying around. Or, pick out paper that goes with your decor. I made this really easy for me, but you are welcome to get really crafty and bust out the glue and fancy paper and show me up!

I'd love to see what you came up with! :)