The really, really cheap version of DIY French Flower Pots.

By now I'm sure you've seen this very popular DIY from Heaven's Walk on turning boring terra cotta flower pots into the faux vintage french versions.

You may have also seen this post at 17 Apart on how to indefinitely supply yourself with celery.

Well I really wanted to try both, but I didn't want to leave my house to go buy a terra cotta flower pot.  It's about 11 here in Michigan today, and I didn't feel like bundling up my 7 month old just to make a Home Depot run, which inevitably ends in $100.00 worth of purchases, not $3.00 for a pot.

(The temperature is also partly why all the photos so far have been in my kitchen... I need to diversify.)

Luckily I had a really cheap-o plastic pot that was terra cotta colored and slightly textured, so I gave it a try and BAM!  Crappy pot made not so crappy, for free!

The Heaven's Walk tutorial (it's such a good tut I'm not going to bother re-explaining it here) explains how to transfer a printed image onto the pot using Mod Podge.  I tried it... it peeled off the paint.  Oops. Since the plastic pot is non-porous it just sits on top of the pot, where it would soak into a terra cotta pot and not peel away.

BUT, it actually contributed to the aged look, so I just painted over those parts, dabbed on more gray paint and let it dry.

To add the image (curtesy of The Graphics Fairy), I taped white tissue paper to a piece of cardstock I knew could go through my printer and printed my picture on that.  Then I just cut around the image, painted a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the pot, carefully applied my picture, then added a good coat of Mod Podge over the top.  The tissue paper was thin enough that the paint was still visible underneath, so the image looks like it's part of the pot, not slapped on top.

Done!

The drip tray is just an old yogurt container lid :).

All in all I spent about an hour on this, and that's only because I had to wait for the paint to dry.  Otherwise it would've been 15 minutes, tops!

Now I just have to wait for the celery stump inside to grow and add some greenery to my kitchen!

Lentil Soup, fifty cents a serving.

I've been trying to cut meat from my diet for at least one day a week. Don't get me wrong, I love me some bacon, but I know it's a little unnecessary to eat eat every day, for my diet, for sustainability, and for my budget! I made a pot of lentil soup yesterday since lentils are absolutely PACKED with nutrients, and the entire pot cost me around $5.00 since I had a lot of the ingredients in my pantry already. It'll easily serve 10, probably 12!

Simple Lentil Soup

8 cups water
2 cups green lentils
30 oz. stewed tomatoes
3 large carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 cup whole wheat penne, pre-cooked
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 cups spinach, chopped
3 tbsps olive oil, plus more for serving
2 tbsps oregano
1 tbsp thyme
1 bay leaf
3 tbsps lemon juice, plus more for serving
Parmesan cheese, for serving

Add everything but the spinach, lemon juice and pasta into a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 1/2 hours, or until the lentils are tender (you may need to add more water as it simmers). Take the soup off the heat and stir in the pasta, lemon juice and spinach. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with extra olive oil to drizzle on top and parmesan cheese.

The recipe is pretty standard, if you're missing some of the herbs don't sweat it. You can also sub the lemon juice for vinegar, or use veggie stock instead of water (though I don't find it necessary, it's flavorful enough without the stock). Some recipes suggest cooking the onions and garlic before adding them to the soup, but I don't find it necessary (plus I'm lazy).

Nutrition facts for this soup can be found here.

Brave New Blog!

I wear lots of hats. The wife hat, the new mom hat, the employee AND homemaker hats, the crafter hat, the foodie hat, and now the blogger hat! It feels as though that last hat is just as common as the others, but even so, I'm excited to start up this blog and share ideas and information with like-minded people.

My goals for this project are to share with you the ideas, pieces of advice and little trinkets of information that keep me sane, keep my household running and keep my family happy. I'll share what I discover from other bloggers and what I think up myself, and hopefully make your day a little more interesting and your life run a little more smoothly!