Double Macramé Plant holder

Double your fun with double macramé.

 I previously posted macramé plant hanger DIY style but after finding another smaller terra cotta pot I knew I wanted to add another level. You can find the previous posting under both Happy Home and Quick Craft. 

Photos help explain; trying to give instructions would be a tongue twister. 

Start by looping your new twine/cord in the hook loop of the previous plant hanger.

Repeating the same process of knots but this time I doubled that too! 

Square or double knot.

Use the knots to connect all the twine in a circular motion so that the pieces you are tying together are the pieces that fit beside one another when the twine is laid out in a circle.

To finish the top, gather all the twine with a butterfly clip and wrap another piece of twine around it to secure and finish off the hook loop needed for hanging.

DIY Chicken Coop from pallets and scrapes

This is truly a from trash to treasure story. From a used and discarded pile of pallets to an adorable chica coop. I will show you how me and my Mr. threw together our chicken coop (built for half a dozen chicks) with just scrapes and salvaged pallets. 

We started with a mountain of pallets (or more accurately two extra large truck loads). Separating all the pallet boards can be a little tricky. 

You need an assistant. This is absolutly a two person job...thankfully I had my Mr. but for all photo purposes Bella will be my assistant today... It doesn't hurt that she is just the cutest thing ever. 

If you have ever heard the saying "you're only as good as your tools" this would be 100% true for this project. You absolutely have to have a saw with a good blade on it for cutting metal. Your only real option is to cut through the nails. You will never get the nails out, it's like the pallet builders have a contest to see who can build them the fastest and at the same time trying to boost the economy with their nail usage. Another tid bit of advice is to pre-drill. The boards from the pallets are nearly rock hard, I'm not joking either they are seriously like half petrified or something. 

This is Red, she isn't shy when it comes time to lay her egg. 

We live in the south with crazy hot days and flares of humidity. To help our chicas we left two slots open for a breeze way. Every opening, including these "windows", got a covering of raccoon/predator proof screening. Ours was scrape from previous predator proofing project, whoa that's kind of a mouthful. 

This is the back. The chica coop banner is a previous DIY post. 

Behind the banner are the hatch doors. Using some scrape hinges and a spare pallet piece as a "latch" of sorts. I'm not trying to keep humans out just those strong little raccoon hands. They may have strength but they don't have intelligence. 

This is the closed/locked position.

A slight turn to the side and it's "unlocked".

I prop it open with a piece of tent pole we had laying around.

There you have it, there it is.

Here's Red again...that must mean she's done doing her job.

She lays greenish blu eggs. The warmer the weather the bluer the egg and the cooler winter season brings more of a Greenish hue to the egg. 

This is the same latch concept as the backdoors. We built the door all the way to the top of the coop so when it is open, all day long, the door becomes a ramp that the chickens can walk up. This is closed.

Turn to open.

Here's our newest members of the flock. They were hatched May 27th and look at the feathers they have already grown. They really do grow up to fast :) 

Hope you enjoyed. As always, sharing is caring and stay classy. 

Potato Salad Recipe using Leftovers and slashing calories

Happy Friday the 13th. With Father's Day this weekend I'm sure your house is as busy as mine so I have an easy leftover recipe. We don't eat meat that often in our home so when we do, we grill it:) of course when grilling it's like some kind of rule that you must cook enough for a small army, which leads me to leftover grilled chicken dinner. 

My trick to leftovers is to make sure we aren't having a full on repeat dinner. So let's say you had grilled chicken with roasted corn on the cob and a salad, the following night serve up the chicken with potato salad and another fresh green salad...we have a salad pretty much every night with every meal, expect nights when we do breakfast for dinner because that would be weird, haha... Or would it??? Hmm, sure do love salad. 

Salsa Potato Salad

Red onions

Secret salsa 

Guacamole with a twist

Being Queen of throwing things together I took potato salad to a new level of easy. I chose to use red potatoes because the skin is thin enough that I don't bother peeling it. They are also smaller potatoes so I just quartered them, then off for a boiling bath. I seasoned the water because I like it spicy... Think crawfish boil style were your potatoes take on that beautiful seasoned red hue and before you even bite into it your mouth is drooling, yum to a boil. 

Drain off the potatoes and grab the salsa and guacamole from yesterday's post. Using a 70/30 ratio in favor of the guacamole, stir and refrigerate. Traditional recipes call for many ingredients that are not healthy for you, such as mayo. So, not only are you saving time but you are saving your body too. Let it chill out for about an hour and you're done.  

Thanks for reading and stay classy 

Easy Secret Salsa recipe and an Guacamole Twist recipe -

Sharing my secret hot salsa and an extra healthy guacamole. Both recipes are made possible by the help of my handy dandy food processor. Give my momma a shout out on that one as this was passed down to my when she realized that she doesn't cook, love you Mom

Grab the usual suspects... And a food processor, trust me on this one it is a life/wrist saver.

Let's start with that gorgeous guacamole. Did you know the avocado is classified as a large berry? Pretty neat, huh. Ok now for the recipe. I had some split peas leftover (made from dry beans, usually for a soup) and the green was calling the green of the avocado. 

2 good size (between medium and large) avocado

1-2 tomatoes

1 jalapeño (you could totally use more) 

Small bunch of cilantro

Wedge of red onion

Round 1/2 cup split peas

1-2 limes, for juice

Course sea salt and fresh ground black pepper

Grab all your ingredients and throw them in the processor, give a few whirls (not so many that it is completely smooth, leave some of the pieces larger so you get a chunk of flavor when you dip it)... Not everyone adds seasoning to their guacamole but I do... There you have it, guacamole :)

The salsa recipe is very similar in the fact that it too uses the usual suspects.

To take this recipe to the secret level delicious whip out your bottle of Frank's Redhot because I put that $&@& on everything:) ...what a funny slogan but it's true... I step up the heat factor with Chili Garlic Sauce and finally one Granny Smith apple. That last part might have made you do a double read and yes it's an apple. This really plays well with the spiciness. 

Secret Salsa recipe

4-6 tomatoes

1-2 jalapeño (you could totally use more) 

Medium bunch of cilantro

1/2 red onion wedge

1-2 limes, for juice

Course sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.                          

Once again, throw everything in your processor and watch the magic blades shave off the time it takes to complete this. Same as before, just give it a few whirls around as you don't want a completely liquid sauce. Add chips and try not to eat it all in one day:) 

Tips and tricks 

-cut your avocado in half, then to easy remove the seed safely whack the seed with your knife in an axe fashion. The knife will slightly embed in the seed and should come right out with your knife.

-just add the cilantro whole, with its stems. The processor cuts it up all the same.

-to reduce the heat of the jalapeño use a spoon to scope out the seeds and white membrane.

-a soft lime will give you more juice. To soften a lime roll it on your counter, you should start to smell the lime being activated. 

Thanks for reading and stay classy. I would love to give a recipe makeover, email me any recipes and I will attempt to keep the original flavoring but cut any fat, sugar, calories, and sodium.