Cheap to Chic

A few weeks ago my good friend called me and said her mother-in-law had some furniture she wanted to get rid of. Did I want it?
I jumped in the Volvo and rolled over. They gave me a few things including a particle boardish cabinet. I am sure this piece came from K-Mart (he worked there for years) and it wasn't something they spent a lot of money on. It was utilitarian and in immaculate condition like everything they own. It had served it's purpose and now was moving on...to me.

At first I envisioned this piece in a creamy white with some blue accents of some kind. However, lately I have been digging the turquoise/sea blue look that is popping up. I had a can of Beyond Blue (Sherwin Williams of course) and decided to go for it. I mixed up my secret concoction of chalk paint to see if it would work on faux wood. It did!

I painted it with two coats and let it sit overnight. I also sanded a few spots off to make it look distressed. Today I wiped a coat of acrylic teak stain I watered down over the entire thing. I thought this toned down the blue a little and made it a bit more rustic. Finally I put a coat of Annie Sloan soft wax on it and buffed it out. I love how it turned out and hope plan on selling it at my trunk show. Speaking of my sale. I am now storing furniture on my front porch because I have not room for it. Our house is beginning to look like a furniture store. YIKES!

I did take some time today to stop and smell the roses...

I Hate Homework

I snatched this up on Craigslist last week.

 I LOVE navy blue and this desk was right up my alley. It was in decent shape. The drawers work, the keyboard tray slides and there was no major damage. The body has a navy blue stain on it and other than a few spots where someone had stuck stickers some white smudges it was in great shape. I took my handy dandy Goof Off to it and away it went. The top on the other hand was a bit rough. I am not a blonde wood fan. I think the light wood dated this piece a bit and to me it seemed to scream for a dark stained top. I could visualize it in my mind. First I used a stripper to get the varnish off. Not a lot came off. Mmmm. Next I got out the belt sander and began to sand. It was tough work. Finally, I got out my paint eater. Opps. There went the veneer and now I was onto faux wood of some kind.

My plan to stain the top wasn't going to work with this piece. I tried it and it simply wouldn't soak into the "wood". I decided to paint it with my new chalk paint concoction. I mixed up a batch using Sherwin William's Jubilee and began to paint. I liked the grey with the navy. It reminded me of baseball...specifically the Red Socks. Can you tell I have baseball on the brain?
An hour later my paint had dried and my secret recipe chalk paint worked. It was stuck on like glue. I busted out some sand paper to distress it and I actually had to work a little. Wahoo. I have created an awesome substitute for good old Annie Sloan (I will be writing a lot about this chalk paint don't worry).

The back is perfect for storage. Originally I was going to sell this piece, but we decided it was perfect for Drexler's "room". Hopefully we move it downstairs this week. I am sure the Red Sox swag will look perfect on it.

When Not to Sew

It has been a crazy few weeks. With the end of the school year festivities and Drexler on an All Star team I haven't had time for anything. The house is a mess, the garage is full of projects, the yard is crazy and I am tired.
My pool laundry table is covered in various projects in different states of completion. Last night after a practice baseball game, and pizza with some members of the team, I sat  down at 10:00 to watch a little tele with Drex. I figured while watching I could also sew a flag on a pillow for the 4th of July decorations. Bad decision.
Do not sew when you have stared at a computer for six hours, watched baseball in the rain and have drank a beer. When I was sewing the flag on it looked even...

Oh well. I could take it off and start over again, but if I did that it wouldn't be done until next 4th of July. I thought about adding a red rosette to even it out a bit, but at this point it will have to wait. By the way I picked up the pillow at IKEA on clearance for $3. I really wish I would have bought more.

Today I have been a painting fool. I am excited to share some posts about those projects soon. I have also been smoking some ribs for my brother-in-laws graduation party tonight.

Traegerized Bacon

I had several questions and comments about bacon and my Traeger. I am not lying when I say this is the best bacon ever. If you really want to go big buy butcher bacon, you know the thick kind that has the perfect amount of fat? Opps, had to wipe off my keyboard from the drool. I don't get to the butcher as often as I like (and I can't afford to buy from there all the time) and cheap pre packaged bacon comes out awesome as well. Let's just say you can't go wrong with bacon. Traegers have a way of making even the cheapest mean good.

Butcher Bacon

 Cheap Bacon

*Google images for the pictures.

Now I firmly believe a Traeger is way safer than any other grill/smoker etc., because it does not have a direct flame. When I used gas I cringed every time I hit the ignite button because I was scared something would happen. It doesn't help that my brother is a fire fighter and tells me all kinds of stories about BBQ fires. Guess what he uses to grill? Yep. A Traeger. In fact, his station buys a pallet of pellets every summer to split up amongst themselves because most of them own Traegers. The station even has one. I am pretty sure they are the outdoor cooking implement of choice when it comes to this group.
Anyway, you can put bacon directly on the grate of your Traeger. This is how I used to do it. The only problem with it is sometimes if falls through to the cover dealy thing below. If you ask me that is a waste of bacon. HOWEVER, I am no longer a fan of this because I have had a fire on my Traeger. I'm not going to lie it was scary.
I knew I needed to clean my Traeger. The fire box was most likely full of ashes, the grill grate had a lot of build up on it and the chimney was pretty gunky too. I figured bacon can make a mess so I would do the bacon THEN clean it really well. It was a hotter than Hades that day at 104 degrees and while I can't prove it I think this played a part in the fire.
I placed the bacon directly on the grate. This was cheap bacon and full of fat. The smoker was on high and the temp was around 475. The next thing I knew I had fire coming out my smoke stack. Because my grill was covered in gunk it quickly caught fire as well. Luckily I had a ton of baking soda on hand and I was able to put it out quickly. My Traeger was cleaned thoroughly and is no worse for the wear. It was scary and I don't want it to happen again which is why I now put my bacon on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil. This is pretty simple to clean in that you simply wait for the grease to harden and throw away the tin foil. I admit I liked it better when the grease ran into my bucket...now that was easy!

The bottom line is you can grill bacon directly on your Traeger. I would make sure your grill is clean and that you don't walk away from it. As with any outdoor cooking always be prepared with a fire extinguisher, baking soda, etc. Just ask the firemen they will tell you the same.

Steps to Perfect Traeger Bacon

1. Fire up your grill to high. A good temp is 350 or more.
2. Place your bacon on the grill or on a tin foil lined cookie sheet.
3. Shut the lid and wait for 15 minutes. Check progress after ten minutes. It is important to note opening and closing your lid messes up your temperature so you want to avoid doing it as much as possible.
4. Pull your bacon when it is to your liking.You know how some people love wiggly bacon? Some like it crispy?  I can't give you exact times because conditions vary with weather as well as thickness of bacon, etc.

Once your bacon is finished serve it up. Here is a list of what I do with my bacon.

BLTs     Crumbled up for salads     Put it in baggies and pull out for breakfast sandwiches     Just eat it    
Taking it camping (so much easier than trying to do it in the wild)     For pizza      For hamburgers
Dipped in chocolate (yep I said it)     Added to any sandwich    

Summer Steak Salad

Salad greens (I like Romaine)
Grated cheddar cheese
Dice Tomatoes
Traegerized bacon cut in pieces
Chopped red onions (I put these on the side since some people don't eat em')
Steak cut into bite sized pieces (Traegerized of course)
Ranch dressing (I use Greg's available at Costco)

I serve this with bread or rolls and that is it. Simple summer salad. We could eat it almost every day. You can use chicken too, but we tend to be big red meat eaters around my house.