Cooking and Crafting

This morning Garrett and I got up early and took care of our daily chores.  We then found the crock pot buried in our kitchen island and fired it up to make pulled pork.  No fancy recipe, just the McCormick's seasoning package and their directions.  I thought we'd do sandwiches one day and tacos another. 

 
Garrett was my sous-chef.  He was thrilled.

I've been in love with the Organic Bloom wooden frames, but while the frames are amazing they do not love my pocket book.  This past weekend my parents and Garrett and I were out shopping when we stopped by Kirkland's to take a peek.  Much to my surprise I came across these framed pieces that look very similar to the OB frames.  I thought they would be very easy to disassemble and refinish.  The artwork was glued and stapled to the frame, so it was a little more challenging to get the artwork out than I thought, but was finally able to get all of the glue off of the frame.  And, since they were on clearance, I only paid $8.00 for them. 

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to paint them or not.  I bought some white and navy paint, thinking to paint them navy with white distressed marks showing through.  Then I just need to find some tab buttons to add to the back to hold the pictures in place.  I may give it a try one day this week.  If I hate it I can always paint them again. 

I've also been trying to find a small, cute chalkboard for the kitchen.  After searching all over, I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for.  I was at Hobby Lobby and found a cute scalloped piece of wood that I thought would be the perfect size for a kitchen board that I could put on a plate stand.  I bought the chalkboard paint at Hobby Lobby too.  The nozzle came off of the paint can while I was tying to open the can, so I ended up with a leaky can and had to sand the first coat to smooth out some of the unexpected drips of paint.   

I am going to use a paint pen and make a dot or dashed border around it to add some character.  Then, I may add a small Velcro square to the top so that I can easily switch out holiday bows.  Hopefully I will be able to get everything finished this week.

I bought regular chalk to use on the board, but was wondering if anyone has tried the chalkboard markers?  I wonder how easily they clean up?  Do they leave "marks" behind?