Pinning-It

You know the saying "Winning It".. well today my saying is "Pinning It!"

That's right.  I'm a proud carrying, paint and stain covered Pinterest winner!

The spouses' club I'm a part of, hosts a bi-monthly "Pinterest Night."  Because um, hello Pinterest is amazing (and evil) and it's always fun to find something and re-create it!  Well, lucky me, I taught this month's class.  We wanted something that everyone would love and enjoy.  And with all of us being military spouses, that personal touch always adds a little something extra to our homes.

I gave our spouses two options. 1) "This is us" 2) Their Initial, Last Name and the year they were married.

We used a 10 inch by 8 foot Pinewood for the main part of the sign, and a 1 inch thick Oakwood for the trim.  To stain the trim I used MinWax-Special Walnut 224 stain.  Two coats of that and it was the perfect shade!

To speed up time, my husband and I pre-cut and built each sign.  I stained each trim piece prior to assembling the rest of the sign.  I knew if we did it all there from start to finish we would either need a whole lot of wine or it would turn into a sleepover!

Once all the boards were built, I used my Silhouette Cameo to create each stencil using Contact Paper. I prefer to use Contact Paper, mainly because its inexpensive and it sticks nicely to the wood.  And when you're ready to peel it off, it doesn't leave a residue.



Again to save time, I went ahead and added painters tape on all the trim so when they put the first coat of paint on it would touch the trim.  Then it was time to box it all up and get ready for our fun night of painting!

Of course you can't attend Pinterest Night during October without some cupcakes!  Check back soon for a post on these "Bloody Sugar Glass Cupcakes"!

Once we got started I asked all the ladies to first add 2 thin coats of black paint.  Doing thin coats helps it to dry faster and prevents from having dried clumps of paint.  The best part of doing this with friends is while we wait for the paint to dry we could all enjoy the snack and of course girl talk!

After about 30 minutes or so, we added the next step of applying the contact paper stencil.  This part can be kind of hard.  Using a hard card to press the white part onto the board while removing the clear paper on top, go slowly and if it doesn't stick just put it back down and try again.  It takes some practice but eventually it will come off.  Then press down all over the letters to ensure there aren't any bubbles and add another very thin layer of black paint over the letters.  This helps prevent the white paint from bleeding through.

Finally once the last bit of black paint dries, I had everyone do another 2 layers of thin white paint.  I know some of you are probably confused as to why they are putting white paint over a white stencil.  This is called the PVPP method, Paint, Vinyl, Paint, Peel.  I prefer not to use vinyl on my signs mainly because over time they will eventually begin to peel off.  Where as with paint, if it chips or gets scratched, it'll add to the look.

Once the white paint has dried, using a knife/spatula we carefully peeled off the stencil.  And we were left with these beautiful rustic chic signs!

TA-DA!!  I'm so happy to call these ladies my friends and that I was able to teach them how to make a special sign for their own homes!  It was a fun night of laughing and paint.

If you would like more details or have a question on how something was done, please feel free to leave a comment.

XO-Beth

Fresh From My Oven

Ever walk into a house and it smells so good that it reminds you of home or a fond memory?

That's what banana nut bread does for me.  It reminds me of my grandma teaching me how to stir the batter correctly, watching my mom make it from scratch and it gives me that overall sense of home.

I can't even begin to count how many times I've made this recipe.  I've made it so much I have it just about memorized.  From being a newly wed and wanting to impress my husband with something I made from scratch, to now, 12 years later, having my kids get all excited when they see me setting out the ingredients for it.  Banana Nut Bread will always be a staple in our home and I hope for my kids it will always remind them of home.

Lately I've been on a baking spree.  Maybe because I haven't baked a cake in a week or I just have the urge to use my hands and make something delicious for the family.  Whatever is motivating me, I love it.  In the last week or so, I've baked both an apple and pumpkin pie, apple fritter bread, cookies and a few other delicious desserts.  What can I say.. I'm a sucker for sweets!

But one night I was laying in bed watching some mindless tv and my mind started to wander.  I had made this apple fritter bread (we went Apple Picking recently and I had a ton of apples on hand) and I couldn't stop thinking about how the cinnamon sugar mixture really made that bread extra delicious.  Now I'm a little on the weird side, where I don't like cooked fruit/veggies.  Something about the texture really grosses me out!  Anyways I loved that bread, but I love making my banana nut bread even more.  So I thought.. hey why not tweak the recipe a smidge and add some cinnamon sugar to it.

Forgive my photos.  I'm horrible about taking "in progress" photos and staging them so they look pretty!  If you have any tips I'd love to hear them. 😉

Normally I use my Pampered Chef stone loaf dish, but I have become obsessed with Rae Dunn!  Like seriously every room in my house has at least one of her pieces in it!  Yes I know.. I'm crazy!  Anyways I love using my Rae Dunn Bake dish now, only problem (and yes I learned this the hard, smelly way) is you can't use all of the batter in these dishes, but you can use it in the Pampered Chef one.

Anyways, like I was saying, I decided to tweak this recipe.  It's a pretty basic one, but I wanted to try adding a cinnamon sugar mixture to see how that would turn out.

Spoiler Alert: IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!

So to start off, I gathered all the items I needed.  My mom's original recipe (don't ask me where she got it from because I couldn't tell you), calls for 3 bananas.  To me thats overkill, so I only use 2.  The riper the better, but if they're fresh off the farm its still okay to use them.  Just make sure to mash them really well.

Mix your cinnamon and brown sugar together and set aside.  Continue mixing all the ingredients (and don't forget to preheat your oven!)

Once everything has been mixed, its time to toss it into the dish and get to baking!  But first, make sure to grease your dish.  Whether its a stone, glass, or porcelain, adding a bit of crisco (and flour if you wish) will help in keeping your bread from sticking to the dish.

Now start pouring in the batter.  But only fill it about 1/2 way.  Drizzle a good amount of the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Then add the remaining batter and then the rest of the sugar.  But keep an eye on your dish.  If it looks like it's getting 3/4 full... STOP!  Trust me on this!

Side story: (Picture it, 3 days ago...  I was dancing around my kitchen doing some baking of a delicious banana nut bread.  I had it filled nice and full, I placed it in the oven.  20 minutes later my house starts to smell a little funny.  I go and check on the bread, I open the oven and POOF.  Smoke billows out.  Yes.  I had overfilled my dish and it was currently creating a nice volcano affect... in-my-oven!  So I rush to do damage control.  One burnt pinky, a kitchen filled with smoke and a few spoonfuls of batter in the trash later, the dish is placed back in the oven to finish cooking)

Once you fill your dish, take a butter knife and slowly swirl it in the batter.  This helps distribute the sugar mixture within the batter nicely.  Now pop it in the oven for about an hour of so (after 40 minutes check on it.. if the top is looking done, but the center is still gooey, throw on a piece of foil and continue to cook).  Make sure you check the center using a butter knife.  Once it comes out clean pull it out and let it cool!

Once it cools enough to where you don't burn yourself (again in my case) cut a slice off, slather on some butter and enjoy!

It never seems to last long in my house!!

Enjoy the altered recipe!

XO - Beth