Tagged with Rikki Rogers …

Nov 14 2011
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Crafts, DIY

11.14.11 – Cork Craft Ball Centerpiece / Ornament / Kissing Ball

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Have you ever heard of a kissing ball?

Neither had I!

Apparently, it involves the origin of kissing-under-the-mistletoe tradition. In the eighteenth-century, the English credited the mistletoe with a certain magical appeal. They would create a ball out of a tree branch, put a sprig of mistletoe at the bottom, hang it up and call it a “kissing ball.” At Christmas time a young lady standing under the ball, brightly trimmed with evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, cannot refuse to be kissed. Such a kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and goodwill. If the girl remained unkissed, she cannot expect not to marry the following year.

In modern times, kissing balls can be made out of almost anything! I’ve seen some beautiful kissing balls made out of flowers at weddings, and was recently inspired by one that I saw that was made out of – you guessed it – cork!

I used a reflective Christmas ornament ball and glued my halved corks all around the surface. I left the wire hoop on the ornament exposed so that these may double for tree ornaments come December. But as for now, they are simply funky centerpieces keeping my hedge apples company.

They are also the latest addition to my Etsy store!

I’m so excited to share this creation with Etsy and my readers here!

Do you have any cork creation ideas for me? Leave it in the comments below!

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Nov 13 2011
5 Comments
Crafts, DIY

11.13.11 – A Cork Trivet, why not?

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One of the most popular crafts to make out of used corks are trivets. For weeks now I’ve been resistant as these are already everywhere online. But then I remembered the lonely picture frame sitting in my dresser. One of the cats knocked it over and broke the glass out of it about a year ago. For some reason, I held on to it! I knew that it would be good for something someday and after browsing online for some corkspiration (should I trademark that, or what!? haha) I noticed that many of the trivets use old picture frames as a base.

I thought, why not?

It only took five corks sliced roughly in half and a little hot glue. It was a tad time consuming finding the right sized and marked corks and getting them all to fit perfectly into the small frame.

 

Here’s the finished product. Not a bad little trivet, if I don’t say so myself. I left the picture frame stand on the back in tact just in case a future buyer would like to use it as a funky little art display instead. ;)

Click the pictures to be directed to my Etsy shop where you can see my little trivet on display!

In other news, I may have found an old window picture frame! Keep your fingers crossed for me readers – that’s one project that I would just love to take on! I know you will anyway – you’ve got to be sick of all the corks and pallets by now! I need some fresh material to play with!

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Nov 12 2011
3 Comments
Crafts, DIY

11.12.11 – Cork Magnet Crafts!

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One evening a few nights ago, a terrible thing happened to this crafter; I ran out of hot glue.

It happens to the best and most prepared of us. More often to me, as I fall into the “least prepared” category most of the time. But there was no need to fear – a trip to town for more glue sticks was less than 24 hours away.

In the meantime, I still had a box cutter and several boxes of corks at my disposal. Turning one of the corks on its side, I sliced into it and created a few disks from a single cork. Even alone, I thought the cork disks were very cute and had massive potential, so I saved them.

A few Google searches and a failed trivet later, I stumbled upon a group of cork magnets on Etsy. It was a wonderful idea, but poorly applied. The cork magnets already listed were, frankly, a little bit boring.

I knew I could spice the idea up and take some great photos to boot, so I gave it a shot. The collage above, in no particular order, is the result of that effort!

I decided to divide the magnets into sets of four that each had 1 long half cork and 3 disks each.

I then named the sets and listed them for sale at my Etsy shop!

Go check them out if you’d like – as for me, the homemade chicken soup is done and The Big Bang Theory just started so I’m signing off! :)

 

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Nov 11 2011
3 Comments
Crafts, DIY

11.11.11 – More Recycling Art!

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I couldn’t resist the opportunity to write a post that I got to title with “11.11.11″!

Happy Veteran’s Day, everyone. While you’re thinking about it, go grab your phone or log on to Facebook and thank a veteran you know for their service.

Now, if one of the veterans in your life delights in saving money, make them smile by decorating your home with one of these charming recycling art pieces. I found these online and while I would love to make them immediately, we are (1) not currently in possession of any rustic old window frames, and (2) out of pallets. ;)

Hopefully, you guys aren’t too sick of my obsession with pallets yet. But c’mon, how cute is this room divider?

 The only hesitation I have is wondering how stable something like that really would be since it is surely extremely heavy. But with a crafty husband, I suppose we could find some way to secure it so that it couldn’t fall. The other problem would be finding pallets that had that nice light brown color and were in great shape, too. But once those problems are solved, it doesn’t look difficult to put together. Buy a couple of metal hinges from Home Depot and you’re ready to go! ;)

You can click here for the original link but I couldn’t find any directions there. I’m thinking we’d have to wing it if we wanted to try this one!

 

The second inspiring piece is a picture frame idea that I stumbled upon yesterday.

How “Etsy” is this, really!? Here’s the original link.

I’ve actually got a whole stack of 4×6 black and white photo prints of close up flower shots that would look fantastic here! I’m thinking that I could scour the net (Craigslist, maybe?) for old french doors.

OR, I could buy a new pane at Home Depot (with or without the glass), stain the wood a dark color, then paint it white. Hubby has a tool in the garage that looks like a cheese-grater for wood that would scrape chunks of the white paint off nicely.

Surely, readers, if this project ever comes to fruition, you will be the first to see how it turned out.

Again, happy Veteran’s Day to all of you and a happy weekend as well!

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Nov 10 2011
2 Comments
Macrophotography

11.10.11 – Hedge apples

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On my walk yesterday, I stumbled upon two giant tennis balls in the middle of the road. As I approached, and their details came into focus, I realized that they were rather two large, perfectly intact green brains. I wish I could have seen the look on my face as I approached the brains – it’s not every day that one comes upon something so strange. I turned one over and saw a stem protruding from one side which made me realize that these were some sort of strange fruit! They left a familiar thin film on my hands after I touched them that smelled faintly like an orange peel.

I was in love!

I looked around – surely they must have fallen out of someone’s grocery bag. How could such lovely fruits be just lying in the middle of the road? Thankfully, I had my smartphone with me and I quickly googled “green brain fruit” which produced an immediate answer: hedge apples. The wikipedia article describes them as being a fibrous, fragrant fruit from a type of bush that once doubled as fencing for cattle. This explained why in the mountains of Northern Idaho I had never encountered such a plant, but out here in the Midwest, these were commonplace.

Wiki goes on to say that they are nontoxic, so you could eat them if you wanted to, but supposedly they taste awful so no one does. Except for cows – who often get them stuck in their throats. Although, with the size of these things, I don’t see how! There is also an old wive’s tale about the fruit repelling insects and fleas – whether it’s true or not, I’m in! My dining room now smells a little bit like oranges and they do make the most lovely centerpieces for my table!

Hubby just shrugged when I held up my treasures when he returned home from work. “Yeah, hedge apples. So what?”

So for all of you who, like me, have never encountered these before, I wanted to share my fascination and newfound love for these gorgeous little fruits.

Beautiful!

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Nov 01 2011
5 Comments
Macrophotography

11.1.11 – Fall Foliage Photos

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The last two weeks have been a veritable avalanche of graphic design work flooding in. On one hand, I feel incredibly lucky be able to be at home, doing what I love (creating digital graphics), and feeling a daily sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.

On the other hand, I know that it is only through hard work and dedication that someone finds this kind of luck – and that the hard work is far from over! I’ve only just begun my business pursuit – Rikki Rogers Graphic Design is exactly one year old – and the last year has been a roller coaster of emotion, finances, and projects.

If you feel so inclined, you can click here to visit my portfolio site to see some of the newest design work that I’ve created.

Despite the many downs amidst the fantastic ups of freelancing, I can’t help but feel that I might never be able to go back to a run-of-the-mill 9 to 5… this is all simply too much fun!

So far, it’s been a lovely ride and I cannot contain my excitement when I realize that this is just the beginning.

Sunday, I forced myself to step away from my computer. I picked up my camera and walked outside into a windy but room-temperature fall day.

These fall images are the result of my weekend of (admittedly oxymoronic) forced relaxation. ;)

Enjoy!

 

 

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Oct 30 2011
2 Comments
Recipes

10.30.11 – Franken-Sweet-Potato-Minipie-Steins!

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Imagine this – it’s the tail end of October, your yard is covered in orange leaves and surrounded by red and yellow trees, and your house smells like sweet potatoes and cinnamon.

Sounds nice, huh?

Well, what are you waiting for? Go pick up some sweet potatoes and let’s make that a reality!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning, I felt the undeniable urge to bake a pie. And not just any pie, mind you, but a pie that I’d never baked before. Sam’s Club had a sale on sweet potatoes last week so I’d picked up a large bag thinking that hubby was far less picky. Well, when I stumbled across a recipe online for sweet potato pie, I thought, “What a great way to use some of these sweet potatoes!”

Then I made the mistake of running the idea by hubby. We had a problem…

“I hate sweet potatoes.” The bold and italics don’t do that emphasis justice. He proceeded to list every way that sweet potatoes could be prepared followed by, “Hate it.” Baked sweet potatoes, sweet potato fries, sweet potatoes with marshmallows…

Well, I didn’t want to tackle an entire bag of sweet potatoes alone and my heart was set on the pie so I just had to bake it and hope for  the best. I prepared the crust in a bowl and started the potatoes boiling only to discover that we still hadn’t purchased a pie tin. Not to be so easily thwarted, I busted out the muffin pan. You may remember the delicious mini-pumpkin-pies I made last week. How different could these be?

Turns out, not very!

Now, I just had to bake my mini sweet potato pies and hope that the reviews were true. AllRecipes members raved that this pie was “very sweet” and “the best sweet potato pie [they've] ever had…” One even said that it didn’t taste like sweet potatoes at all.

Well, they were wrong about that point. My mini pies definitely taste like they are made of sweet potatoes. But for a sweet potato aficionado such as myself, that’s a good thing! The house smells wonderful – almost like thanksgiving dessert. The cinnamon scent makes the house feel very warm and festive. Surely, hubby will appreciate that when he gets home from hunting tonight, right?

Whether he enjoys these pies or not, I liked them so much that I had one extra portion!

I should note that this is definitely a dessert dish and there is a lot of sugar in each portion. My slight stomach ache now will attest to that. ;) So go easy on your portion and don’t overindulge!

And I admit that these would have turned out a lot cuter if I’d had a little more foresight and a little less willpower and had picked up some whipped cream and glazed pecans at the store. But instead of lamenting an alright photo that could have potentially been pretty good, I’m just going to enjoy my sweet potato mini pie, thank the calorie fairy that this treat was not adorned with a delicious white cloud of cream, and blog about it for a bit.

The recipe is below! The easiest pie I’ve ever made next to pumpkin. If you decide to give the mini version a go, reduce the baking time to 35 minutes and be VERY generous with the Pam if you ever want to pop these bad boys out of the tin… ;)

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

  • (1 pound) sweet potato
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
 Directions
  1. Boil sweet potato whole in skin for 40 to 50 minutes, or until done. Run cold water over the sweet potato, and remove the skin.
  2. Break apart sweet potato in a bowl. Add butter, and mix well with mixer. Stir in sugar, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.
  3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Pie will puff up like a souffle, and then will sink down as it cools.

 

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Oct 27 2011
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Macrophotography

10.26.11 – Fall Photo Share

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 I found these spikey little guys growing wild in our pasture, just wanted to share them with you! I thought that they made for a wonderfully textured photograph and were just bursting with fall colors. :)

The sunset made for the perfect lighting, as well, kind of dim and yellow-orange.

Also, there is a tree in the field across from our house whose leaves are (I’m not kidding) a bright pinkish kind of red. Amazing!

Happy Fall, everyone!

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Oct 21 2011
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Crafts, DIY, Upcycling

10.21.11 – Upcycled Wine Cork Bath Mat with Weave Pattern

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After stumbling onto a charming little supply shop on Etsy and obtaining another big box-load of corks, I was able to finish my second cork mat project!

On hubby’s suggestion, I tried a weave pattern this time. The results? This mat seems to have a little bit more character than my last one! And I’m happy to report that it feels even better underfoot than my first. It did take a couple more hours to arrange and glue than the first, but I believe the results were well worth it.

Even though we want to keep this mat, my intentions from the beginning were to create this one to sell. It’s now happily nestled into its new (temporary?) home on the front page of my Etsy shop.

Click here to head over to the shop and see how it looks!

I’m going to be sad to see it go when the day comes that it gets purchased, but luckily I’ve got half a box of corks left that are just dying to be made into another upcycling creation! :)

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Oct 12 2011
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Recipes

10.12.11 – Thai Tom Ka Gai (Coconut Chicken Soup)!

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Tom Ka Gai (Coconut Chicken Soup)

 
You’ve got to love great food photos!

Even someone hesitant to try different foods would have to admit that the soup in the photo above looks pretty darn appetizing!

I wish that I could take credit for the photo, but sadly, it’s just an excellent photo I found of Tom Ka Gai (Coconut Chicken Soup). It made for an absolutely delicious and different meal but truthfully, mine did not look half as lovely what you see above! And a creepy-looking soup isn’t going to persuade you to try this recipe out for yourself, is it? ;)

Now, if you’re looking for something healthy, you should probably print and dogear this recipe for another day – this soup is coconut milk based, in other words, pretty fattening.
But if you treat it like an appetizer, keep the portions small, and add in some veggies, there’s no reason why you can’t enjoy this with a healthier Thai main dish!

I found an original recipe on AllRecipes, but have modified it for you based on my own (and hubby’s) taste. We’ve upped the chicken, reduced the coconut milk and vegetable oil to save on calories, upped the veggies and spices, and reduced the fish sauce slightly. [ Note: DO NOT smell the fish sauce if you choose to add this ingredient. Alone, it's like a pure whiff of sardine. But mixed into soup, it's simply salty and VERY Thai! ]

Ingredients

    1. 1 or 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken meat
    2. 1 can coconut milk
    3. 1 tablespoon chopped, sweet onion
    4. 1.5 tablespoons vegetable oil
    5. 2 cups water
    6. 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger root
    7. 1.5 tablespoons fish sauce
    8. 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
    9. 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
    10. 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
    11. 2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion
    12. 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
 Directions
  1. Boil half of the coconut milk in a small pan.
  2. Cut chicken into thin strips or bite-sized pieces and add chicken and sweet onion to boiling coconut milk and cook on medium heat until the chicken is done.
  3. Transfer cooked chicken and boiled coconut milk to a larger pot.
  4. Put the pot on medium heat, add the rest of the coconut milk and water to the mixture and bring to a boil.
  5. Reduce to a simmer and add ginger, fish sauce, lime juice, cayenne powder and half of the cilantro. Mix together and simmer until everything is heated through, 10 to 15 minutes.
  6. Sprinkle with scallions and fresh cilantro and serve steaming hot.
Hubby and I had this with some buttered Naan bread and mango slices. (Okay, so I may or may not have eaten all of the mango before he got to it…)

At your international grocery store you can pick up a packet of Tom Ka Paste which nips all the spice adding and measuring in the bud. This makes for a MUCH quicker prep and can turn this soup into a breezy lunch dish rather than as an appetizer for dinner. Next time, I’ll definitely be going this route. Soup doesn’t usually satisfy hubs for dinner.

Additionally, I’d like to be able to eat this without him requesting some “good old American food next time” for dinner. ;) That said, he really enjoyed this soup despite his occasional avoidance of foreign dishes!

Feeling like something foreign for lunch? Pick up a Tom Ka Paste packet  or mix the spices yourself and give this soup a spin. It’s sweet, spicy, and guaranteed to tickle your let’s-take-a-trip-to-Thailand-bone. :)
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