Chicken Parmesan *Bake* (not fried!)

Who loves one-dish dinners? *I do! I do!* I particularly like them because I live alone, and cooking a large one dish meal once a week and reheating it for the remainder of the week is much easier than cooking dinner for one person every night. Cooking for one is hard work, guys.

This week I made a chicken parmesan bake, based off of this recipe. I like that it's baked, not fried, because frying is a lot more work, and is less healthy. It is perfect paired with a side salad, or atop some spaghetti. Or, I just ate it all on its own, which was fine by me. 

Let’s get to it! 

DIY Upholstered Headboard

Let’s talk upholstered headboards.

I’ve been eyeing upholstered headboards online for quite some time. New from a furniture store they run anywhere from $700-$2000, and even a second-hand upholstered headboard from a popular online free classifieds website is at least $200. Well, that’s out of the question. So DIY it is!

I had never upholstered anything before, but I was inspired by the numerous tutorials I read online. Here’s how mine turned out:

Not too shabby for a first-time upholsterer and two days of work. 

Last Day of School!

Well, yesterday was the last day of school. What a fun day! We had such a good time! But it was also a very sad day. Particularly because my kids know I won’t be back next year, so we were really saying “goodbye,” not just “see you after the summer.” There were tears from a handful of them. Some of the parents were getting sentimental too. It was very sweet, and made me feel loved. I guess I’m doing something right as a teacher to get such a heartfelt farewell.

The nice thing about daycare, though, is I will be running a summer program for about 1/3 of my kids, so I only had to say goodbye to 2/3 of them yesterday. We’ll go through this all over again in 9 weeks!

I want to share some of the gifts I received yesterday, because they were very, very sweet.

Get Rid of the Bed Frame!

Hello all!

Let’s talk about beds today. I have a double bed. I got my bed over 6 years ago, second hand, cheep as can be because I was a starving student at that time. It was a decent bed for what I paid. Wood headboard and footboard, red-ish (kind of rust-coloured) painted rails, very comfy mattress. Everything a moderately picky, cash strapped girl could ask for.

Problem is, the frame (headboard, footboard, and rails) was not very cute, even with a bed skirt covering up the rails. I wish I had a picture, woops. So, 6 years later, I got rid of it!

Here’s what I did to elevate my bed off the floor: Legs!

 

Dresser Drawer Organization

It’s the first day of summer! I’m more of a winter bug, myself; I can’t stand the heat of summer. But the masses are happy that it’s summer, and I’m happy that other people are able to enjoy the sun, so all in all, I’m guess summer is a good thing.

Anyways, since I seem to be behind the times, I’m going to talk to you about spring cleaning. Or, should I say, I’m going to talk to you about one of my favourite things in the world: Organization!

Raise your hand if your dresser drawer looks like this (or worse):

Ya, mine did too for a long, long time! Packed to the brim, shirts forever lost in the smothering heaps that made up my tee-shirt drawer. I mean, look at how many shirts are in there, and all you can see are the two on top.

No good. 

Now, how many of you have heard of the filing system for drawer organization? Check it out!

Toilet Paper Roll Wall Art

This weekend I held a yard sale, where one of the items for sale was a large print from Ikea in a large black frame. The frame was about 2’x3’. During the sale, a woman took out a tape measure and began measuring the frame. I told her the piece was from Ikea, to which she replied “oh, I’m just interested in the frame”.

Suddenly it occurred to me... I can use that frame for something! I can! But what? So I watched the lady size up the frame, silently hoping she wouldn’t buy it. She didn’t, and as soon as she drove off, I tucked the frame safely away from future yard-salers’ prying eyes. Before the end of the sale I decided on what the frame would be used for.

I’ve wanted to try out toilet paper roll art ever since I first saw it on Pinterest about a year ago. I never tried it though, because I thought the finished product would look awkward hanging on a wall on its own. Enter the large Ikea frame. Wouldn’t it look awesome if I hung the frame with no backing, and suspended the TP roll art in the center? I thought so. And I needed a new large piece of art above my new DIY upholstered headboard. Project time!

Fathers Day: Homemade BBQ Sauce!

Today I held a yard sale that was quite successful. Immediately after packing up the leftovers, I hightailed it to Walmart to buy a new pair of sunglasses (a planned purchase because mine were getting very scratched). While browsing the jewellery department I happened to spy this little guy:

Naturally, he came home with me.

Now, onto today's post: Father's Day.

Let me tell you a little something about Father’s Day. At a pretty young age, my mom left my family, and I grew up with my dad and two older brothers. My dad is a ROCK STAR DAD!! My dad taught me about all sorts of things that a mother normally teaches a daughter, like menstruation cycles, how to shave my legs, how to deal with overly dramatic girly emotions, how to deal with boys... Ya, he made a pretty awesome Dad/Mom growing up (and still is awesome today). Because of this, Father’s Day is a pretty big deal to me (I give my dad a gift on Mother’s Day too, actually).

Since becoming a teacher, I have been giving my dad the same Father’s Day gift that I get my kids to make in my program. It ensures that I’m actually coming up with a good gift for my kids, because if it’s not good enough for my dad, it’s not good enough for theirs.

This year: homemade BBQ sauce! Inspired by Inner Child Fun.

 

DIY Embroidery Hoop Pocket

Organization time! My favourite!

Let me show you a very quick and easy pocket I made to hold small things at my front door.

No, it can’t hold a 5lb brick. It’s not even very good at holding keys, because of the bulk of said keys. But it is good for holding my sunglasses, my name badge for work, and my wrist watch (I only wear my watch while I’m at work). Living in a home with two cats, it’s pretty important that I don’t leave small items (like my watch) out and about for long periods of time, because I will never see them again, so this is my solution.

 

Yummy Pizza Bites

I need to remember for future food posts to include a picture of the food once it's cooked. Woops! Anyways...

I like pizza pockets. A lot. I would eat them every day for lunch and dinner if I could... but I don’t. The problem with pizza pockets, though, is the cost, and the lack of options for the stuffing (toppings? innards? I don’t know what you want to call them). To remedy both of these issues, I make my own pizza bites! And eat them nearly every day for lunch.

The original recipe for these yummy bites is from The Gunny Sack, and honestly I changed very little, because it was already awesome! None the less, here are my directions:

Ingredients:

Sharpie on Canvas Stained Glass Window

Did you know that dollar stores carry stretched and primed canvases? I’ve never used a canvas from an actual art supply store, but the dollar store ones seem just as good to me. And they’re a fraction of the price!

Today I’m going to share a nice little piece of wall art I made not too long ago while I was going through my replace-all-my-cheep-store-bought-wall-art-with-DIY-wall-art phase. I call it my stained glass window.

It Begins

First blog post! *woot woot*

Let me be honest with you, I don’t know what I’m doing with this here bloggy-thingie. I’ve been inspired by so many other bloggers to make things, do things, and cook things, and now I have the desire to be one of those inspirational bloggers. It’s a lofty goal.