Math Lover's Clock

It took Sherry and Katie's Pinterest challenge to get me off my rear and finally post a new project! A friend of mine who is a math teacher showed me this adorable clock she got for her classroom. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was a great DIY project and pinned an image I found online. This project is actually very timely for this time of year - great for teacher gifts, graduation or simply any math lover that you know. I actually plan to give this to my dad for father's day so Dad, if you're reading this, now would be a good time to stop!

These are the supplies I bought for the project - 10" wooden circle, clock mechanism, black craft paint and a white paint marker. (FYI, the wooden circle is sold right below the clock mechanism in Michael's and it's perfect because there's already a circle drilled through the center.)

First thing is to paint the wooden circle. I used a 1" foam craft brush and did two coats.

While I painted the back and the edges, I stuck a pencil through the center hole to hold it up. You need to paint the back because the clock mechanism (where the battery goes) sticks out a little which prevents the clock from sitting flush against the wall.

The next step was the most time consuming and that was recreating the math problems in Illustrator. If anyone is interested in a pdf of the file, please feel free to drop me an email. I printed it out exactly to size and then then taped the papers together.

Before I taped it to the clock, I shaded the back of it over the areas I would want to transfer - think old school transfer paper!

Then I just traced over each number and it appeared lightly on the clock face.

I used the white paint marker to pretty much color in the lines and then followed the directions on the clock mechanism to put it all together.

I love that it has a chalkboard feel to it! This is also perfect for a home-school classroom.

Are there any math lovers in your life?

Linking up:
Young House Love | Bower Power |  Red Bird Blue |  Sparkle Meets Pop | Craftionary | DIY Showoff | Serenity Now | House on the Way | Twelve O Eight | Home Stories A to Z | Today's Creative Blog |

Privacy Window Film Tutorial

My sister recently bought a new house (full tour to come soon) and they are slowly working on making it "theirs." The other day I drove up for a visit and noticed that you could see all the clothes hanging in her laundry room from outside the house. Uh, not what she wants the whole neighborhood to see! I told her that they make privacy window film that would still let light come in, but prevent her neighbors from seeing their laundry. She didn't hesitate to have me to work on this project for her.

She had already taken down her laundry before I took this shot, but you can get a little peek inside the arched window. (Sorry for all the phone pics, I forgot to bring my good camera.)

This is the view from inside the laundry room.

I pretty much followed Young House Love's directions from when they used a similar product on their first house's basement windows and door. My brother-in-law picked up a plain frosted film and a textured film. We decided to use the plain one on the window and we'll use the textured one on the sidelights of the front door at a later time.

First thing to do is trace around the window and cut out a piece of the film, about an inch or two wider all around.

Next, spray the window with a solution of water and a little dishwashing detergent. I had a GILA Window Film Kit from when I had done this to a window in my own home so that is what I used. Spray liberally!

I couldn't get a picture of the next step, but you just peel back the paper from the film and place it over the window. Because you cut it bigger, it doesn't need to be lined up perfectly, because you will trim the excess anyway. Just do your best to center it and you should be fine.

Use the "squeegie" from the kit or any old credit card will do, and starting from the center, smooth it across to the outer edges to get out all the air bubbles. Don't worry if the edges aren't completely flat yet.

After the film is smooth, use a razor blade (your own or from the kit), and get in real close to the window frame. Get in to the space right where the glass meets the frame and carefully slide your razor blade and slice off the excess.

After: privacy + light!

It's not totally opaque so you can see shadows when something is directly in front of the window, but all least her neighbors won't get a free show anymore!

And since we all love a good before and after:

Another quick and easy project with lots of impact!

p.s. I'll be linking up with Sherry, Katie, Sarah and Carmel as part of the Fall Pinterest Party.



Linking up:
Home Stories A to Z | House on the Way | House of Hepworths | At the Picket Fence |

Coffee Crumb Cake

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't posted all week!! Things have been CRAZY over here. Let's see, first back up to last Friday evening when our air conditioner decided to stop working. Yes, it was in the 90s outside and a cool 84 degrees inside the house all weekend. Needless to say, there was no DIYing taking place. We finally got it fixed Monday afternoon and it took about 4 hours of the AC running continuously for the house to cool down.

Then, Tuesday morning, while at a staff meeting at work, I was standing up in the back of the room and all of a sudden felt really light headed and dizzy. By the time I got to my office, I could barely see and was about to pass out. Thank goodness, someone happened to see me and realized I wasn't ok. I ended up being taken to the ER with a severe case of dehydration. Yikes!

So now it's Thursday and I figured I'd share a delicious recipe with you that you can make for any Father's Day celebrations that you have planned. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it immediately reminded me of the Entemann's cake that I used to eat growing up. I modified the original recipe to make it non-dairy (hubby is lactose intolerant) and I (and my family) think it it came out scrumptious!

Here's the recipe, as I made it with my modifications. If you do make the cake, please be sure to credit Tara as well.

New York-Style Crumb Cake
source: Cooks’ Illustrated free iPhone app and Cooks’ Illustrated May 2007

Don’t be tempted to substitute all-purpose flour for the cake flour, as doing so will make a dry, tough cake. If you can’t find buttermilk, you can substitute an equal amount of plain, low-fat yogurt. When topping the cake, take care to not push the crumbs into the batter. This recipe can be easily doubled and baked in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish. If doubling, increase the baking time to about 45 minutes. Cooled leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.

For the Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted margarine, melted and still warm
1 3/4 cups cake flour

Whisk sugars, cinnamon, salt, and margarine in medium bowl to combine. Add flour and stir with rubber spatula until mixture resembles thick, cohesive dough; set aside to cool to room temperature while you make the batter.

This should be the consistency when it's all mixed.

For the Cake:
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted margarine, cut into 6 tablespoon-size pieces, softened but still cool
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup soy milk
(1/3 teaspoon lemon juice - optional*)

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

*The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of buttermilk. Since I wanted to make this recipe non-dairy, I researched non-dairy substitutes for buttermilk, only to find that there wasn't much out there. The closest I found was to add lemon juice or vinegar to soy milk so that's what I did. I asked my dad about it since he's more of a science guy than I am and he informed me that since soy milk doesn't have the same lactic acid that regular milk has, adding the lemon juice to it wouldn't really have the same chemical reaction that it would have if I added it to cow's milk. He didn't feel like it was necessary to add the lemon juice to the soy milk altogether, but I figured I'd throw it out here for you to decide. Food for thought. (Pun intended, ha!)

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 16-inch length parchment paper or aluminum foil and fold lengthwise to 7-inch width. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and fit parchment into dish, pushing it into corners and up sides; allow excess to overhang edges of dish.

In bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment (I used a hand mixer because I was too lazy to take out the stand mixer), mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt on low speed to combine. With mixer running at low speed, add margarine one piece at a time; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no visible butter chunks remaining, 1 to 2 minutes. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and soy milk mixture; beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping once if necessary.

Transfer batter to baking pan; using rubber spatula, spread batter into even layer.

Break apart crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces between your thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and spread in even layer over batter, beginning with edges and then working toward center. (Look how much crumb topping there is - yum!)

 Bake until crumbs are golden and toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Remove cake from pan by lifting parchment overhang.

  Dust with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

Don't leave this mess for your hubby to clean up if you're making it for Father's Day!

Make sure you get a piece while you can because there most likely won't be any leftovers!

Linking up here:
DIY Showoff | Home Stories A2Z | It's Just Called Spicy | DIY by Design | House of Hepworths |

Pinterest Challenge Complete

For the winter edition of the Pinterest Challenge, I went through my pinterest boards and chose this monogrammed tray as my inspiration. I found it on the blog Being Brook.

(Click image for direct link)

I started with this tray from the dollar spot at Target. It was cute, but could definitely use an upgrade.

The supplies I started with: letter stencils, Martha Stewart floral stencils, acrylic craft paint and foam stencil brushes (all from Michael's). Notice I said "started with" - that should give you a clue that this project did not progess in the way I imagined...

I started by tracing the stencils directly onto the tray just to get an idea of the layout and what it would look like. I knew they would eventually get painted over, but it helped me see how everything would look.

Then I began brushing on the paint with a craft paint brush and things were not looking good. The coverage was very minimal and I wasn't expecting that. I started painting this in the morning before leaving to work and was hoping to get the pink layer finished before I left so I could work on the stencil part when I got home. At the rate I was progressing, I would not make it to work on time so I just had to leave it for later.

As I was driving home, I knew I'd have to pull out the big guns a.k.a. spray paint, and made a detour to Home Depot. I already had primer at home, but wanted to get a bright pink, fun color.

A few coats was all it took to cover up all the polka dots. Phew! (Don't mind my impromptu ribbon roll supports!)

Another few coats of spray paint in "Berry Pink" and I was good to go.

 

Now for the stenciling. On the original tray, Brook used a Silhouette to create her stencil. Since that is not in the budget right now, I relied on good old Martha. Since I have never used a stencil before, I wanted to do a dry run so to speak. I practiced on some craft paper. The first time I used too much paint so it bled through and the design was not very crisp. The second time was much better, and I also learned that even using the smallest brush, it was hard to keep the paint from going off the edges onto the surrounding paper.

I took some painters tape and put it around the edges where the openings were close to the edge of the stencil.

This is how it came out. The lines aren't perfectly crisp but I am totally okay with that. I'm actually really happy with it, especially considering how it was looking in the beginning. I decided not to put any name across the middle because I am becoming a little attached to it myself!

I put some of my stuff on it just to see how it looks and me likey :-) Sorry for the discrepancies in how the color is coming out. I'm still learning my camera, but the true color is closest to the one above, it's not a coral color as its showing below.

What do you think?

Also linking up here:
House of Hepworths | Pincushion Creations

Pinterest Challenge

As you probably know, some awesome bloggers (namely Sherry, Katie, Cassie, and Erin) are hosting a winter edition Pinterest Challenge. In case you just joined the blogging world, you are undoubtedly no stranger to the greatness of Pinterest - an online bulletin board of sorts to pin ideas, inspiration, recipes and the like. However, how many of us just pin, pin, pin all of the amazing stuff out there, but never actually ACT on it and create some of the beauty that we are inspired by?

source

So I invite all of you to join this challenge as well. It can be anything you've pinned - a craft, recipe, organization project, room design, etc. I have been scrolling through my pinterest boards (follow me here) and I'm narrowing down some choices to tackle and link up with the hosts on Wednesday. I know it's a little late in the game to start working, but there's nothing like some good old fashion pressure to get the job done!