I’m still here, don’t worry.

This is a very busy week as my state, North Carolina, is in the process of passing legislation that would define marriage as something only possible between one man and one woman. We are very busy fighting this legislation and I have spent much of my time following the debate and discussion in our General Assembly, connecting with other residents, and contacting my legislators.

I’ll get back to regular blogging later this week, once the dust settles from all of this!

In the meantime, keep up with me on twitter for the latest update on the fight for equality and general life commentary and hilarity – @tylerjmccall

Well, they were! I already shared the other chair with you earlier this week. It is still in the shape we found it in at the store, but that will change soon. The chair that is the focus of this post had a great frame and great look, but it just needed some love and care.

We started with a dark and worn out chair…

See the complete transformation after the jump!

I knew that some painting would be in store to get this chair to where it needed to be. It was also decided that the seat should be recovered to complete the transformation. After roughly 10 years in the fabric department at Wal-Mart, we finally found a fabric that was perfect! It picked up the green of the table and the blue and yellow we are using throughout the rest of the house.

A can of spray paint, some craft foam, and a few yards of fabric later – the chair was complete!

Let me show you the final project, then I’ll tell you a little bit more about how it got there!

Click the photo to get a closer look at the awesome fabric we found!

So, here’s the rundown. The chair was $3 at the indoor yard sale. I bought a pack of two craft foam seat cushions for $6, but only used one – we actually removed the original fabric from the chair to find a terribly patterned vinyl seat cover and just topped that with the foam cushion. I bought one yard of white muslin to cover the cushion for $3 and one yard of our final fabric for another $3. And then one can of high lacquer furniture spray paint for $4 – the high lacquer paint covered the brown very easily with just a few coats and gave a nice shine to the completed chair. A pair of scissors and a little bit of staple-gunning later, and we were finished. So, for $19 we have this amazing chair and several fabric remnants and a foam seat cushion to use on another project!

So, what do you think?

Any suggestions on what to do with the other chair for the table (here’s a picture to remind you what it looks like):

Eric has suggested a negative space painting technique like you see in this photo here, from Pinterest (not, necessarily, this flower design…just a design painted like this). I’m open to it, but unsure about painting the whole chair (the legs and back brace areas are this great muted blue color with amazing distressing and signs of wear that have come purely from age). I could do a design on the seat and back and just paint them white, leaving the legs and other parts blue…but would that look silly?

I need your suggestions!!! Leave me some comments on what you think would look great with this chair.

Thanks for reading!

A Quick Note: I’m sorry for not having this posted on Wednesday, as I promised – I had the post composed, but forgot to finish editing it and publishing it for you all yesterday. Can you ever forgive me?

I wanted a dessert that had flavors to go along with the meal I was creating, but I also really wanted chocolate, because it’s my first true love. I found a recipe for a pudding pie, but decided that some additions were necessary to bring it up to my standards. This is what we ended up with!

Chocolate Pudding Pie with Candied Ginger

Recipe after the jump!

Chocolate Pudding Pie with Candied Ginger (serves 6-8)

Ingredients – Crust

• 15 chocolate graham crackers
• 15 gingersnaps
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients – Filling

• 2 cups whole milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°
• For the crust: Crush the cookies in a bag and add the ginger, cinnamon, and salt and mix well. Add the butter, mixing well, then pour the crust into a pie pan and smooth out the crumbs to form an even crust on the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven and let cool.
• For the filling: In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk together the milk, egg yolks and vanilla. Stir in the sugar, cornstarch, chocolate, and salt, and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil for 1 minute, then immediately remove from heat. Mixture should be very thick! Quickly stir in the ginger, then pour the pudding into the crust. Cover the surface of pie with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming) and chill for 3 hours, until set.

I served this with some homemade whipped cream I made by using my hand mixer to mix heavy cream and powdered sugar for a few minutes.

The pie is creamy, chocolatey, and has a nice spice to it from the ginger and and cinnamon.

I hope you enjoy!

Are you following me on twitter? You should be, it’s a blast!

Classes have been a bit hectic as my first semester of graduate school kicks off, and I have neglected you all!

But, tomorrow we’re back it. Look for a recipe AND a DIY project tomorrow.

Get excited!

All my love you beautiful website visitors you.

Are you following me on twitter? You should be, it’s a blast!

Recipes aren’t hard for me to come up with, because I really develop something new everyday. I have a journal where I write down recipe ideas and make notes on what worked and what didn’t – those are the yummy things I share with you (if you’re an aspiring cook or chef or sorts, I encourage you to keep a journal of recipes and food ideas for inspiration and sharing).

The DIY projects are what takes me a little more time to come up with. These kinds of projects tend to take longer to make or create, they require more dedication and commitment, they can be a little more pricey than just cooking a meal, and I can be kind of indecisive. With all of that said, I want to share some upcoming projects with you so you have something to look forward to!

While searching around Pinterest the past few weeks, this is what I have come up with that I want to make happen. Most of these pictures are not mine or of our home…they are from various sites, and clicking on the picture will take you to the site it comes from.

Fabric Wallpaper

Painting in our rental unit is not really an option for us. We may do a little covert painting in the living/dining room area, but I’m not about to paint anywhere else that requires repainting before moving.

I’ve seen this idea several times and really want to make it happen. Using a lightweight fabric and laundry starch, this provides a removable wallpaper to decorate a space in your home. I’m thinking about something like this on the wall behind the bed in our bedroom. Hopefully this works!

More projects after the jump! 

Fake Out Mercury Glass Lamps

I’m obsessed with mercury glass. If you share this obsession you will know that this junk is sooo expensive. Like, hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a pair of lamps expensive. I have finally found some online tutorials for creating the mercury glass look and I’m gonna do it! I have two bedside lamps that were a thrift store find and I’m going to work my spray paint magic on them. Just wait!

Refinish the Dresser

Back in the spring, Eric and I bought a bedroom dresser and a small side table for $15…yes…$15. However, the dresser is black and doesn’t go with the look we want in the bedroom. Soooo, it’s time to refinish it! The above look is what I’m going to go for…let’s hope it works!

Find and Refinish a New Entertainment Center

The above entertainment center is from Pottery Barn, I’m sure it costs roughly $27,000. Okay…not really, but something like that. I’m hoping to find something as amazing as this at our local indoor yard sale. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the Universe has something in store when I go shopping in a few weeks.

Do SOMETHING to This Chair

This is the first look at one of the kitchen chairs I got to go along with that amazing green table I refinished. The other chair will be coming up on the blog this week, completely refinished.

This is the one that I can’t decide what to do with. I’m thinking of some type of painting. Eric is encouraging me to do this neat negative space technique on the seat and back…we’ll see what happens.

Paint THIS

I found this on Pinterest, of course, and fell in love with it. Since I’m too cheap to buy it, I’m going to make one of my own! Hopefully…

So, there you have it. Eric and I are really working to get our home to a place that we truly love, and we know that’s going to take time. We are trying use thrift and discount store finds, simple DIY projects, and easy to do and easily changed adjustments that work well for us, since we are renters. I hope you enjoy this journey of creating a home with a 20-something!

Are you following me on twitter? You should be, it’s a blast!

I first was introduced to Buffalo Chicken dip a little over a year ago by my friend Leanna, and became obsessed with the stuff. I love this creamy and spicy dip that goes great on tortilla chips, crackers, crusty bread, pieces of cardboard…okay, maybe not the cardboard. The recipe Leanna shared with me is a pretty standard, straight forward way of making Buffalo Chicken dip and I have made it before with great success.

As I was coming up with ideas for snacks for the VMAs last weekend, a picture of Buffalo Chicken “egg rolls” that I had seen on Pinterest a while back came to mind. And that was that – I decided it was time to take Buffalo Chicken dip to the next level. I used the typical recipe, adding some extra flavor and some crunch in the egg roll.

Buffalo Chicken Rolls

Recipe after the jump!

Buffalo Chicken Rolls

Ingredients

• 10 egg roll wrappers
• 1 cup cooked, shredded chicken
• 8 oz. softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup hot sauce (I used Frank’s classic sauce)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup broccoli slaw (dry – you can find this mix, prepackaged at your grocery store – I actually found packaged stir fry mix and didn’t use the broccoli florets or sugar snap peas that were in the mixture)
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Ranch dressing

Eric and I moved into our new home at the end of May. We made the decision to downsize from a two bedroom with ample space to a one bedroom with a pretty tiny floor plan. It was a great move because we really do not need the space of a two bedroom home and it saves us some money!

With the move came the need to downsize, consolidate, and look for furniture that was a better fit for the smaller space. Our old home had room for a large round kitchen table with four chairs. The new home has room for…well…not much. I had been on the lookout for the perfect table for months now, it needed to be small enough to fit against a wall in the small amount of space that we had, it had to comfortably seat two and have the ability to seat four, it needed to have room for me to spread out and work on homework and type on my computer, and I really wanted something with some kind of leaves or ability to expand to lay out food or work on craft projects. Well, the perfect table was going to be hard to find…but was finally found at a thrift store by my lovely mother.

Here is what we started with:

The two sides that you see fold down to make a smaller table that sits perfectly against the wall behind the table. I was content with the table as is, although it was a bit bland. I’m typically a fan of muted colors (if you check out my wardrobe you will find a mixture of dark green, navy blue, brown, gray, and black garments), but I was open to suggestions for how to make this table better. Eric had this obsession with green going on in his head and I took it and ran.

I decided I wanted to use a distressing technique Eric found on Pinterest that would provide some depth and interest to the table, while breaking up the bright green color that I used.

Here’s what I did (all the details and pictures, after the jump):

1. Using brown paint, I painted around the edges and in strategic places around the table where I wanted to create a distressed appearance.

2. I then took a bar of plain soap, you don’t need anything fancy here, and rubbed around areas of the table that I wanted to show through after I put on my next layer of paint.

3. Then, I went over those areas with yellow paint, covering the areas I had treated with the soap, and other areas where I wanted only the yellow to come through without the brown under it showing.

4. Then it was time to sand after the paint dried. Using a sanding block, I went over the areas of yellow where I wanted the brown to show through and where I had layered the soap earlier. The soap makes the paint sand off very easily.

5. I wiped down everything with a damp cloth, then went on to applying another layer of soap where I wanted the yellow and brown to show through the green paint.

6. After I had those areas covered, it was time to paint with the green! I used a semigloss and the color was called Spritz of Lime. Following painting with the green and waiting for everything to dry, it was back to sanding through the areas I had treated with the soap to get the distressed look I wanted.

Are you ready for the final product?

Here’s an up close view of the distressed effect:

You can see the yellow and brown showing through the bright green table.

And here is the final product with table runner (also known as random white scarf) and three small vases I found at a local bargain shop for $1 each.

Isn’t it great? We are so happy with it.

And, today, we finally found two chairs that go with the table. We refinished on this afternoon and are having a friendly debate over how to treat the other one (I’m pulling for it to be left as is…Eric wants a design painted on it). I can’t wait to share the chairs with you soon!

Has anyone else tried the soap technique for distressing? Are you going to try it now?

Hey! Are you following me on twitter? It’s a blast…I promise ya.

It’s already September – can you believe it? Check out what I wrote this morning about why I love this month of promises!

September is what I like to refer to an “in between month.” It’s a month of little significance (at least it has been; here in the U.S. we now have the date of September 11 in our minds as a way to remember this month). Nothing much happens in September. Yes, there’s Labor Day, but no one really takes time for Labor Day anymore. Fall starts at the end of the month – which is the most exciting day of life ever. But, other than that, September is a month of limited happenings.

To me, September is a month of promises.

It is a month that separates the hot, dog days of summer, and the cool, brisk evenings of fall. September promises that the leaves will soon be changing, the smell of spiced apples and fresh pumpkin will fill our homes, light sweaters and scarves will be pulled out of storage, and my favorite holidays are right around the corner.

September, a month of promises, offers us the assurance that we have almost made it through another year, just 3 months and a handful of days separate us from today and ringing in the new year.

It means that my favorite times of year will be here shortly – autumn, Halloween, Thanksgiving, winter, the first snow fall, Christmas, and New Years.

I will soon get together with my friends and create faces on bright orange pumpkins, string fake spider web around my front porch, and watch “Hocus Pocus.”

Before long, I will be reunited with my family for holiday gatherings around tables piled high with food.

Shortly after that I will decorate a tree in my home and prepare gifts for those closest to me.

I will sip hot chocolate, bundle myself in a winter coat, and celebrate the first, cleansing snow of the season.

And soon, not too many days from now, I will gather with those I love, pop champagne, cheers one another, and wish each other the best as we begin a new year of life, love, and happiness.

Think about September – it’s not such a bad month after all. There’s a lot to look forward to.

I wish you all love and light as you begin this month of promises.

“What’s Next?” Wednesday will feature a look ahead at what’s coming up over the next week on the site. It is a sneak peek of what recipes, projects, TV news, and more you’ll see in the coming days on tylerjmccall.com!

So, are you ready for a quick look at what’s coming up on the site?

Coming Up…

Recipes

Chocolate Pudding Pie with Candied Ginger

Our Indian Night finished out with this sweet and chocolatey pie spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and bits of candied ginger throughout.

Bacon and Egg Breakfast Casserole
A while back, my good friend Sarajane and I mailed recipes back and forth (we need to start that again, by the way) and she sent me a yummy recipe for a breakfast casserole. Well, I put a spin on it and I’m going to share it with you!

Buffalo Chicken Rolls
As you all know, the VMAs were this past Sunday, so I came up with some yummy food for the evening. These were super yummy and I hope you’ll enjoy them too!

DIY Projects

Kitchen Table – From Gray Thrift Store Find to Bright Green Beauty
This is the most exciting project I’ve done in a long time. My wonderful mother found a super cute kitchen table with folding sides that was the perfect fit for our kitchen/living space. I went to refinishing, distressing, and painting this awesome find to make it even more amazing. You’re gonna love this one!

You’ll have to wait for this post to see the after photos – but it’s an amazing transformation!

So get excited for these posts over the coming days!

Hey! Are you following me on twitter? It’s a blast…I promise ya.

The Laughing Heart

your life is your life

don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

be on the watch.

there are ways out.

there is a light somewhere.

it may not be much light but

it beats the darkness.

be on the watch.

the gods will offer you chances.

know them.

take them.

you can’t beat death but

you can beat death in life, sometimes.

and the more often you learn to do it,

the more light there will be.

your life is your life.

know it while you have it.

you are marvelous

the gods wait to delight

in you.

Charles Bukowski