DIY Striped Tray: Tutorial

Wanna know how to turn this…

into…

this?

It was pretty darn easy.

It started with a plain white tray from Pier 1. You can do this with any tray and any color. I almost bought a plain wood one that was bigger and simpler that I would have just painted white.

However, I liked this design and it was already white so it went in my buggy.

Well, it would have if Pier 1 had buggies. Or do they? I don’t know but if they did apparently I’ve never seen them because I walk around juggling 10 breakable items hoping nothing ends up shattered on the floor.

Anywho, onto what you need.

This little roller kit was very nifty. I still washed it out and kept it but I think it was $1.50 for the roller & tray so could be an affordable throw away as well.

For the paint I ended up with Martha Stewart’s Nimbus Cloud.

I painted the guest room in my last house this color. I love it.

1) Tape.

My tape was 1.5” so I used that as the thickness. I planned to do chevron stripes on this, but I got frustrated and went with just diagonals. Which I’m glad because my house is already in Chevron Stripe overload and I think this may have put it over the edge.

2) Roll.

Make sure all of the tape is super stuck on the edges. I rolled only on the non-painted parts but it tends to overlap quite a bit. As long as your tape is tight, and don’t have a lot of paint on the roller, you should be good.

3) Peel.

Peel the tape off right after you are done painting. Don’t let it dry or it has the tendency to pull up the paint.

4) Seal.

This step is optional but I opted to do it. This tray is going to get a lot of wear on the coffee table so I wanted to protect it.

I covered the sides with more tape so only the painted part would get sealed.

Spray this like you would regular spray paint. Easy peasy. Three light coats.

5) Let dry.

6) Admire & put that baby to use!

Sorry for the flash in the following pictures. It was dark by the time it was dry and ready

It looks itty bitty on my big table. But now I can scootch it over and have room for some other doodads on there as well.

The edge looks like it’s gray too, but it’s not. It’s white.

I just love it!

Oh, and scroll down to see what else I picked up at Pier 1

A Trip to Pier 1

I was at Pier 1 today because I haven’t been in a long time and I was feeling the urge to check out their Spring goodies. I can’t afford any of the big ticket items in there, but I love love love all the knick knacks and such.

I really want one of these ceramic garden stools but at $99 I couldn’t take it home with me. Maybe later in the year. When it’s 70% off…

I picked up several cute things.

I love my tray but we’ll get to that. My next favorite find is a liter size glass bottle for $10. It came with a little plastic top, says 1 liter on the side, and has a chalkboard label. Score.

I don’t plan to use it for beverages, but I will be putting it to use as a flower vase!

First up, I snagged a few of my dozen roses from Valentine’s Day and drew a heart on the label.

 

Super cute right?

I can already picture some gorgeous Spring flowers with a fun little label.

I also got this set of frames. Two came in a pack.

They will look so pretty on a dark blue or gray wall with black and white pictures in them…I keep planning in my head the next house I get to paint!

One other thing I picked up are these cute little coasters.

Love, love, love. They look so cute on the tray too.

I’ll be putting up the tutorial next on how I painted the tray.

DIY Striped Tray

I will give a full review of this little project, but until it dries I can’t style it for “after” pictures. I just couldn’t wait to share though so here’s my little Sunday afternoon project.

I’m in lurve.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

A week or so ago I pinned a Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake that I found from Tasty Kitchen.

It is supposed to be healthy and it looked delicious, so last night I gave it a shot!
I made a few tweaks to the recipe. I used cut up jalapeno peppers instead of Green Chilis, and I went with Sour Cream to be on the safe side, versus risking it with Greek Yogurt.

Ready for mixin.

And after.

It does not look like the recipe’s after picture, but does it ever?

It was soooo good. Kim, Josh, Bailey (their sweet pup) and David were over last night for some Breaking Dawn action, so they got to taste it too.

The consensus was that we all loved it. Except David who didn’t eat any so he didn’t vote. But if he did I’m sure it would have been a good rating!

It was okay on its own but it needed an assistant. So I pulled out some Tostitos Scoops and it was the bomb dot com. Do people still say that? I do anyway. Hah!

I bet it’d also be really good in soft taco shells. Lots of possibilities!

Yum yum, I’ll be eating off of it for the next couple of days. Cooking for one is hard, but then you have meals for several days!

Valentines Day

Last weekend we were planning to do dinner and a movie to celebrate Valentines Day. Friday night though David's grandmother passed away :-( He was able to be with her when she passed but it's been really hard on him and Kimberly. She was definitely more to them than just their grandmother. I won't go into too much of it here because it's not my place, but Heaven definitely got a special angel...

Kim and Josh are here all week and Im so glad because I just love them to pieces. After work I picked up Rem and we headed to the James residence. Waiting on me was a dozen red roses and the perfect Disney card :-) Then the four of us celebrated V day with some Sonic desserts! We all have plans this weekend to try out a new restaurant called Cody's Roadhouse and see The Vow. I'm pumped!

I hope your Vday was happy!

Yum-o

Last night I went to Chili's for girls night with two of my long time friends. I spent a good part of the day agonizing over what to order. I loooove the honey chipotle chicken fingers but at a whopping 1900 calories just for the fingers, no sides or anything, I had to pass seeing as my entire daily limit is about 1375. So, I did my nutrition research like i do now every time I go to a restaurant and decided on the Margarita Grilled Chicken. Its chicken on a bed of rice, black beans and tortilla chips. Oh Em Gee it was sooo good! I really thought it was delicious and at only 550 calories for the whole plate, I was ecstatic. I left really really full. I also kind of went overboard because of the chips and one of Brittney's 2-for-1 strawberry margarita that she gave me. But sometimes u just have to indulge and not worry about stupid calories. I had a great time with you girls!

Here's my delicious dinner! I'd highly recommend it!

Oh and they both gave me weird looks when I took pictures of my food Hah!

It's Really That Simple

I found this on Pinterest today and loved it. It may rub some people the wrong way but it's not meant to. It's just something I really believe in and thought I'd share. So think about it before you add a non-human member to your family :-)

Breakfast

I'm finding that with this mobile blogging I'll probably be able to post more often. They may not have much substance but a little post is better than nothing :-) I've always tried to like Greek yogurt because I hear about it nonstop in all the "healthy food" talk, however I couldn't find one that didn't have the consistency of straight cream cheese. Well, I finally found one I not only like, but actually think I can say...love! It's Voskos Honey Vanilla Bean Greek Yogurt. I hate fruit chunks in my yogurt and this one is free of any. Yum!

Tonight's Dinner

Third post of the day. Go me. Except I technically forgot to include my salad picture in the last post so this one really doesn't count. Here's my salad from tonight. Filling, but I'm gonna leave off the avocado and switch out the spinach next time!

Is This Really MY Food Log?

I recently got the blogger app so I'm giving it a go.

I just felt very proud of myself so I had to share a screenshot of my Lose It (food tracker app) screen from today.

Yes, that's really what I've eaten today. And it's nighttime and I'm way under my allowed calorie intake so I may have a 100 cal Klondike bar.

Annnd my SIL shared this dressing with me and it's sooooo good!

Last Thursday was 4 weeks no soda. So proud of myself! And I'm down about 8 pounds and eating more "raw". This is so weird...hope I can keep it up!

Last thing- I have no idea how these photos will post cause the app isn't letting me drop them where I want in the post...

Pioneer Woman Broccoli Cheese Soup

I’m not going to be too wordy tonight because I’ve been really busy and will continue to be every night this week. Bunko is Friday at my house and I’ve got a dinner Wednesday night and tomorrow night is Book Club so we’re going to eat then see One for the Money. In other words, I’m booked.

Over the weekend I made Pioneer Woman Broccoli Cheese Soup.

Aren’t you proud? I made something! Sorry no time to edit pics…

Awe, an onion heart.

(I finally bought some avocados…the verdict is still out as to whether or not I like them. Had one…and I’m on the fence!)

At one point my burner started smoking so I got out the Fire Extinguisher in case I had to play fire woman. Luckily I blew it real good and the smoldering crumb flew somewhere and my problem was solved.

Before blending.

After immersion blending. Love this thing. Can’t wait to try it on a smoothie! It doesn’t dirty your blender, you just stick it in the cup and blend!

Bon Appetit!

Oh, one more thing…my phone met Renee’s driveway face first yesterday…her driveway won. However, thankfully it still works just fine. I will be waiting until the iPhone5 comes out before replacing it!

Circus Business

Last weekend we went and saw the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus.

I was really excited to go but also not looking forward to the animal acts of the show. As I previously stated, I’m overly sensitive when it comes to animals and their well-being. After reading/seeing Water for Elephants where there’s animal abuse and it’s based in a circus setting, well I was not too excited to see those parts…

But we went, we had fun. Saw some really cool acts, and cringed during the animal acts, but mostly the Elephant one :-/ I can’t even think about what it took to train and elephant to do a head stand and I probably don’t want to know. I didn’t want to support this kind of thing by going to the Circus, but I also wanted to go and have a fun time. I know, I contradict myself. In fact I’d prefer the circus without any animal acts. There was a lot of talent there in the two legged human kind.

Anywho, before it started we were able to go backstage and see the animals. It was neat.

Poor girl. Such an amazing creature.

Just “clowning” around. Har dee har har!

We ended the night with dinner at Miller’s Ale House.

It was a fun “date” night!