Jewelry Rack Time

At our wedding in July, we made the adorable little signs above (Hi Dad!) to direct our guests to the location (I have blacked out the sign in the photo above to protect my parents' privacy).  We used the first initial of my husband and I on the signs.

We had 3 of the signs total, and they were just too cute to scrap or burn after the festivities.  My husband and I packed them up with our wedding gifts and brought them home with us, with me vowing to create something cute for our home with them.

My first project with sign #1 was to create a personalized house marker for the end of our driveway.  I wanted a way for visitors to identify our house without having to read the mailbox.  So I took one of the signs, and screwed it at eye level into the trunk of a pine tree at the end of our driveway, and voila!  Instant personalized home marker!

The second sign I put on a shelf in our bedroom, surrounded by photos of my husband and I on all our many adventures together.  Simple enough.

The third idea actually came from Pinterest (I am a self-admitted Pinterest ADDICT.  That's the whole reason I re-established this blog that was leftover from my wedding planning - so I could Pin all my fun craft successes and failures).  I saw an adorable idea to screw drawer pulls, cabinet knobs, doorknobs, etc. onto boards to create coat hangers, jewelry racks, etc.  The hubby and I were at Home Depot this weekend, so I grabbed a pack of cup hook screws (they only had the brass plated ones.  Oh well).  They cost around $2.50 for a pack of 25 of the large ones.

While dinner cooked, I marked off hole locations 3 inches apart across the top of the board (the board is 22 inches wide, and I wanted uniform spacing so I measured off 7 hooks).  Then along the bottom, I did the same but offset the holes by one inch from the edge so that the hooks would not all be directly lined up.  I did this so that the jewelry on the top would not get snagged on the bottom hooks.

Next, I got out my power drill (rather, my poor excuse for a power drill...but that's a story for another day) and created starter holes for the hooks by screwing in a screw just a tiny bit, then backing it out.  I have to admit, I did this AFTER trying to hand screw in the first cup hook without any starter hole - and my hand was throbbing immediately with the pressure required to screw it in.

After finishing all the starter holes, I used my husbands leatherman to get a good grip on the hooks and screw them in one by one.  Even with the starter holes, screwing in the hooks by hand was still rough on the hands, so thus using the leatherman to get a good grip and make the whole process easier!

The result:




I may redo the hooks someday with something a little flashier, or even just take the hooks out, spray paint them a fun color, and put them back in.  I just wanted to get a concept/jumping off point.

Because I had the board already (it's just simple, cheap plywood - you could use a board from a pallet for this perfectly), the entire creation time for this, from start to finish, was less than 15 minutes.  And it may have even been less than that, as I was trying to keep the cream from boiling on the stove for the 4B's tomato soup I was making (as seen in yesterday's post).  The cost for me was only $2.50 for the cup hooks, since the board was already made and came from my dad's endless home-building supplies (as did the white paint).

Stay tuned for more successes and failures!

Tomato Soup Paradise

I was born and raised in Montana - the land of 4B's Restaurants.  4B's was a family friendly diner chain across the state, where you could get flattop burgers, the richest hot chocolate, and even desserts called dirt n'worms.

When I was sick, having a bad day, had late sports practice, etc., my mom would always pick up a to-go container of 4B's Cream of Tomato Soup for me.  It was creamy, tomato-y, with bits of onions and plenty of butter loveliness floating on the top.  Crumble a few crackers in to add a little more texture, and I was in childhood heaven.

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and 4B's closed several years ago statewide in Montana.  It was the end of an era, and I personally believe all Montanans were sad to see it go.

When I was in college, my mom mailed me a care package that had a box of recipe cards in it, all written by her.  And my favorite was, and still is, the 4B's Tomato Soup recipe that she managed to acquire.

So here is the recipe and a photo of my serving last night, full of crackers - enjoy!

1-32 oz can diced or crushed tomatoes
9 oz chicken broth
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp diced onion
Pinch of baking soda
2 cups cream, half and half or whole milk
Mix all ing except cream. Simmer one hour. SLOWLY heat cream over VERY low heat, and add to other pot in 1/2 cup increments to avoid curdling. Do not let cream boil.
*Note - I let my tomato mixture simmer in the crockpot all day - I mean, ALL day, and it was just as good as this method!
Enjoy!