These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

So we have a lot in common, but we also are okay with all our differences. this is a celebration of our favorite things and our differences.

Melanie's Favorite Drink : Vodka  Coffee. Okay, Starbucks. It's an addiction i'm willing to admit to. But now that Pumpkins Spice latte's are out my husbands wallet is doomed.     
Tiffany's  Favorite Drink:  Dr. Pepper (Seriously people, I should own stock) 
We Agree: Vodka  No really, Vanilla bean Frappachino's with caramel sauce blended in. 

Melanie's Favorite Beauty Products: OPI nail polish (it NEVER chips off) Philosophy micro delivery scrub and Got2Be dry shampoo. You should really try some. It's fabulous!  
Tiffany's Favorite Beauty Products: This is seriously difficult, I'm a makeup junkie! First is Coconut Oil.  I use it for everything (see The One Where We Go Au Naturale).  I love Sally's ION line of hair products.  No parabens or silicones, and makes my hair super soft. I'm also totally addicted to E.L.F.'s high-definition undereye setting powder.  I tend to get mascara smeared under my eyes throughout the day, this has totally stopped that.  Plus E.L.F. has fantastic, affordable makeup.
We Agree: Everything Organix is completely awesome!

Melanie's Favorite Sweet: Ghirardelli Dark chocolate and salted Caramel 
Tiffany's Favorite Sweet: I'm more of a salty snack kind of person, but I cannot resist a Lindt milk chocolate bar.  With the smooth chocolate center, yummy!
We Agree: Lindt truffles Milk chocolate 

Melanie's Favorite Clothing Item: V neck t-shirts and most things from Maurice's. 
Tiffany's Favorite Clothing Item:  Superhero T-shirts!  I have too many to count.  A few even have capes.  I'm nerdy, and I know it!
We Agree: Victoria's Secret Pink sweat suit's. Especially the boyfriend sweats. A great way to wear sweats, and still look cute!

Melanie's Favorite Craft:  Is anything with felt.  You can see several of her felt crafts on (The One With The Completed Projects)
Tiffany's Favorite Craft:  If you've read previous posts, you know I'm addicted to making signs.  I find a saying I like, I just have to make a sign with it.  I make them for everyone! I really enjoy re-doing furniture too.
We Agree:  We both really love anything we can make with our Cricuts.  Although Melanie claims to suffer from Cricut envy, and says that she needs a new one.  Her's is the original Personal Electronic Cutting Machine 6" x 12", and mine is the new Cricut Expression 2  12" x 24".

Melanie's Favorite TV Show:  Game of Thrones I heard someone said that the show had no surprises.....they lie! Holy Moly that show shocks me with it's plot twist's!
Tiffany's Favorite TV Show:  (Did she just say Holy Moly?) It is a tie for my favorite between True Blood, and the one we agree on.
We Agree:  Supernatural.  I (Tiffany) am a complete Supernatural addict, and Jensen Ackles is my future husband, whether he know it or not.

Melanie's Favorite Kitchen Tool: My Kitchen Aid mixer! It's light teal and beautiful and shreds cooked meat. 
Tiffany's Favorite Kitchen Tool:  I want a Kitchen Aid mixer, but don't have one yet.  So for now, I love my crockpot, but I have a tendency to forget to start it, and end up having to make something else for dinner.
We Agree:  Pretty much anything from Pampered Chef

Melanie's Favorite Anti-Depressant/Anti-Anxiety Med:  Zoloft for long term.
Tiffany's Favorite Anti-Depressant/AntiAxiety Med:  Effexor for long term
We Agree:  Xanex for short term.

Melanie's Favorite Superhero:  NaNaNaNa Batman!  He's hot, rich, and has fun toys. (Mind outta the gutter people!)
Tiffany's Favorite Superhero:  Almost like asking me to choose my favorite kid.  Um...Captain America, no um.. Deadpool, um... no Batman, um... no...   Has to be Deadpool... I think.
We Agree:  Ironman.  He's a billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.  And he's hot, rich, and has fun toys.

Melanie's Favorite Movie: The Usual Suspects......Keyser Söze!
Tiffany's Favorite Movie: The Avengers
We Agree: The Notebook and most Superhero movies. 

Melanie's Favorite Perfume:  Victoria's Secret Sexy Little Things Noir
Tiffany's Favorite Perfume:  Vera Wang's Princess and Victoria's Secret Sweet Tease
We Agree:  Victoria's Secret Cozy and Warm
Why don't we own stock in Victoria's Secret?  

When I Think About Cheating

Okay here it is. Laying it out there. Sometimes I cheat. At Crafts. Sometimes I don't have time to sit down with my sewing machine, and get piping and zippers, and then the whole seam ripping part going on... so I take a short cut or two. Sometimes it doesn't pan out but sometimes it works like magic. One of my favorite and recent craft hacks involved my little bench and it's cushion. The cushion was gross and did not want to come clean. I have fabric stock piled (a dirty secret), but kept putting it off. Finally motivation presented itself in the form of several guests coming by. 

I took out a yard of green, white and black floral fabric that I just loved. Laid it flat and wrapped it around the cushion. I used a piece of chalk to mark off where I wanted to cut it. I cut the fabric down and folded over the long sides first. Then secured them with safety pins. I did the same on the short sides. The corners were only a tiny bit more difficult. I had to fold and gather the fabric, smoothing and pinning as I went. All in all it was less that 10 minuets. Didn't permanently alter the cushion and I can change it or wash it anytime I want. 

#crafthack

Look At What We've Done

A big reason Melanie and I decided to start this blog is because we love to craft.  We craft all the time.  We also have about a billion unfinished, or not even started beyond buying supplies, crafts around our houses.  You know how it goes,  kids interrupt, things come up, you realize it is turning into more work than you thought, or you just get distracted.  (Or like me, you get lazy).  Life gets in the way.  However, we have finished a lot of projects before we started the blog, and didn't write tutorials.  I decided to post some pictures of them here, so if there are any you would like a tutorial of, just let us know.

See proof!  We do actually finish things!  Happy Crafting!

Melanie made these adorable signs, out of shims! (Not the anchor, lol)  This is above her fireplace. I love them!

Isn't this beautiful?  Cricut, we love you!

                     

Her hands may not have worked for a week after making this lovely heart wreath, but it was worth it!

    Sorry for the bad lighting.  I think this is fantastic!  A work of art!                 

Who needs a Grandfather clock?  Just make your own!  She's so artistic!

                           

My whole house is red, white, and blue so Melanie made me this adorable wreath...

                           

  ...And this burlap beauty

                       

 My favorite project for my son's Superhero Room

Comic booked (my made up word, feel free to use it) top, and both sides

                                 

 Sign I made for Melanie

                                         

A desk/bookshelf for the superhero room

                                         

 A sign for my hubby!

                             

Entertainment center into a bench

 Another sign.  I told you they were addicting!

                     

 Countdown blocks

                         

 This wreath took FOREVER, but I love the way it turned out.

                               

Painted knife block

Ugly lingerie drawer made pretty!

If we posted pictures of our unfinished projects, it would have been a much longer post!

When I (Annie Sloan Chalk) Paint My Masterpiece

Ever looked at a piece of furniture and think, 
that would look fantastic……..painted.  Neither 
did I until Tiffany saw this Giant MDF Armoire 
at a thrift store. I thought it was ugly. It was 
seriously functional, but ugly just the same. But 
after a bit of arguing and some difficult 
logistics problems, it was home. 

Yup. This is it. I just had no real vision. How 
was I going to sand all those nooks and 
crannies? I wasn't. No sanding of any kind. I 
didn't even remove the hardware. That was 
getting painted too. I'd done a lot of reading about Annie Sloan Chalk 
Paint. I have also read all the recipes for do it yourself chalk paint. We'll talk about those on another post. 

For this project I chose Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Olive. I wiped the furniture down with a damp, clean cloth and made sure it was completely dry. I used some Spackle to fill in a couple of small scratches. When that was dry I sanded it smooth. Okay, yeah I sanded a little. 

Then I got to work. I used a Purdy Nylox Glide 2 in. Angled Sash Brush and started aplying paint to the front doors. It went on really smooth and dried in 15 or 20 minuets. After the doors I worked on the flat portions, like the sides, with a Purdy 2 in. Nylox Sprig Paint Brush. The entire armoire took 2 coats. It was fabulous to work with. I had ton's of paint left. It didn't have any real smell and it washed off my hands without too much scrubbing. 

I read about using wax to cure the paint and I went with good ol' Johnson's floor polish. I took a 2 inch brush and cut the bristles down to about 1 1/2 in length. I applied the wax in a circular motion and wiped off excess with a cloth. I let it dry 24 hours and then gave it a second coat. I really wanted my hard work to last and with 6 kids I knew it would have to stand up to all of them. 

It's my favorite piece. I truly love it. So thank you Tiffany for having a vision! 

This (Pinterest) Addiction

We are both addicted to Pinterest.  I mean addicted.  We use it on our computers.  We have the apps on our phones, and tablets.  Whenever the kids are occupied, or asleep, we log on, and start pinning like crazy.

Now, there have been some fantastic results to pins, and there have been some not so fantastic results to pins.  Some of our biggest disappointments, have been kid crafts.  It would have saved so much grief had someone done these pins before, and warned us that they don't work.

For instance; the "Glowing Mountain Dew".  The video shows an amazing trick that kids go crazy for.  All you do is add a little hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda to Mountain Dew, and... Wow... nothing.  We didn't think it would work, but you try explaining that to kids that just saw a video proving it does.  There is now a Snopes article proving it doesn't BTW.

"Glowing Bubbles".  You break a glow stick, and dump the contents into the bubbles, and wa la...nothing.  The bubbles and glow stick ingredients do not mix.  No matter how much you shake it. Sad kid faces.

Probably my biggest disappointment was the "Homemade Modge Podge".  It worked fantastic.  The problem was, over time, it turned yellow.  An awful yellow, that almost ruined one of my favorite projects.

The point of all my rambling here is this:  I know all of you fellow Pinterest addicts have boards of things you want to try, but haven't gotten around to yet. Here is your chance to have someone else try the project first.  We will then let you know if it is a failure, or success.  We will post all results here on the blog.

So everyone, dig through your boards, and give us some suggestions on what you want us to try for you. Then you can see if it is worth your time, and effort. Leave the comments here or on our Facebook page.  Ok...go!

Food, Glorious Food

Get ready for our very first recipe post!! What’s for dinner you ask?

My name is Melanie and I have 6 kids. Feeding a large family on a one income budget is definitely a challenge. Tonight we are having burritos. This recipe is made in my crockpot, takes minimal effort and makes little or a lot. Plus it’s really yummy.

·         1 pot roast

·         Potatoes (I prefer red or golden)

·         1 jar any kind of salsa (I’m using salsa Verde, the green kind)

·         Tortilla’s (flour or corn. It’s up to you)

   *Toppings which are optional. We use cheese and sour cream. Then again I think cheese and sour cream go on everything.

Place pot roast in the crock pot on low for 6 – 8 hours. If your roast is large or you forgot to get it going (like I do), set it to high, but make sure you’re around to check it after a few hours.

Half way through cooking you’ll want to add your potatoes. You can wash and cube your potatoes anytime and put them in a pan of cool water in the fridge. I’ve also cubed and boiled the potatoes and added them at the end. They don’t get the same flavors as adding them in early. You could also use a bag of frozen hash brown potatoes.

Pull out your roast, but leave all the juices. Put your potatoes in, put the roast back on top, and pour your salsa over the whole thing. Once the roast starts to fall apart and you’re ready to eat, just shred up the roast and mix it into the sauce and potatoes. 

                                      All the ingredients mixed together.  Yummy!

Last. Roll them up and serve. Store the leftovers. They make great leftovers.

My kids get so excited when they hear burrito stuff is for dinner!

                                   Pot Roast Burrito!  You should see the line of kids waiting till pictures are over so they can stuff their faces!

                                      Little salsa on top. MmmmMmmm!

I Saw The Sign

Happy Thursday all!  Thursdays at the Crazy Navy Wives houses mean fresh mini donuts, and Starbucks!  Well, at least during the summer.  Anyone else have a reason to look forward to Thursdays?

Yesterday I promised our first tutorial, so here goes.  Melanie and I decided to make signs.  Warning:  Can become addicting, and quickly run out of wall space.

We found a wonderful new shopping location (and who doesn't love those) called Skagit County Salvage.  If you need something for the home, you can find it there. At affordable prices.  We're married to Sailors, not Trumps.  Although, I frequently tell my hubby, next time, I'm marrying for money!

                       Here was our haul for our first trip.  Those lovely pieces of wood are actually cabinetry.  Melanie also bought some gorgeous tile for her kitchen backsplash!  (Can't wait to see that!)  And a glass brick, for another project later.

We decided to make signs out of the wood pieces.  So first things first.  Think of what you want your sign to say.  I have so many quotes running through my head, it's hard to pick.  Too many ideas can change a project as you go, as I'm sure you will learn on this blog.

Now there are several ways to do signs, we're just going to focus on a couple today.  Using my wonderful, amazing, life-altering, fantastic, awesome... Cricut, ( I could go on, but I won't) we cut the letters out of vinyl, and placed them on the board.  You could also use any type of sticker, that is easily peeled off.  I don't recommend paper stickers.

                         Now Melanie, being the creative genius that she is, also used the outside of the vinyl as a stencil.  Of course, I forgot to get a picture of it, but I will show you how it turned out.

Now, if you don't have a Cricut, I'm very sorry, just kidding, I have another technique for you.  I know, I know, they're expensive, but so worth the investment.  First paint your board.  When it is dry, pick a font, and size in Microsoft Word.  Type up your saying, and print it out.

Flip the page over, and scribble all over the letters with pencil.

Flip the page back over, place it on your wood where you want the letters to go, and firmly trace the letters.

                                    I know, I never was good at following the lines.

It should leave a faint impression of the letters on your board.  Before I received my baby, I mean my Cricut, I used this technique with great success.  Even on painted wood.

                                  As you can see, it is very faint, so you may want to trace it again.  Then just fill in the letters, with a paint of your choice, and a small brush.

Now back to the Cricut way.  Paint over your entire board, stickers and all, with the paint of your choice, or a stain, like I did.

                                       Melanie used Annie Sloan's chalk paint for her signs.

                               I used a stain.  The larger one, is an oil-based stain, which I prefer the appearance of.  The smaller one is a water-based stain, which is much easier to work with.  I chose the oil-based.

                               If you use an oil-based stain, Mineral Spirits are an absolute must for clean up purposes.

Here is how they look painted over.

                               Once again, a lot of mess, because I can't stay in the lines.  I could have taped it, but that would have been too easy, so I had to sand off my mess.

                            Melanie did much better.

Now, wait for the paint to dry.  The stain takes about an hour to dry, and I did two coats.  I painted on the stain, gave it a couple minutes to set in, then wiped off the excess, allowing each coat to completely dry before adding another.

Now peel off the stickers, and....

                                 Ta da!

Melanie finished her chalk painted sign off with a beautiful new hemp oil wood finish, that gave both the wood, and the chalk paint, a nice sheen.

I used an everyday furniture wax, you can find in most any store, to seal my wood, and stain.

In case you wanted to see how the other side of Melanie's sign came out, here's a picture.

                                       Lovely, isn't it?

If you have any questions, or I missed anything, which I'm sure to do, feel free to comment below, or send an email to twocrazynavywives@hotmail.com.  Thanks for reading.