Fall Decor

So being down here in the south there is no such thing as a "season".  There is no winter, no spring, and no fall. There is summer.  The only way I know it is September is the weather has finally cooled off enough to stay under 100* F a couple days a week. Everything is just as brown and hot as it was mid July. Soooo... in my sanctuary of an apartment I am working to "autumn-ize" my decor. I went looking for old shirts and any other scraps in fall colors I could use.

I changed up my lamps. I don't know why this picture makes it look so crooked... must be the horrible lighting and my lack of a decent camera. Or it's just my lack of photography skills, ha!

I dug up a picture I painted as a Sophomore in high school. Random? Very. Why do I still have it? Who knows.

Pulled out a lace table cloth and put the our random sword (gift from my grandpa) on it for some character.

Finally, I added a homemade monogram wall hanging to make it more personal. (Tutorial to come)

Tuna Crochettes

 As many people know, tuna fish is something that is extremely healthy. Low in fat and high in protein it's a common element of a body builders diet. However, eating tuna without high fat condiments like mayo proves to be very difficult. I have, for a number of years, eatin tuna directly out of the can with only pepper for taste and water to wash it down. Yuck. But let not your heart be troubled! I have found the solution! By eating tuna crochettes you are able to get all of that protein with a very small amount of added fat. They are easy to eat by hand and I love eating them dipped in a little ketchup and baked potato wedges. For those with kids who love those nasty freezer fish sticks... this is an amazing alternative!

2 cans tuna, drained
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Then begin making 2 Tbs balls of the mixture. Place each ball on wax paper or tin foil and allow to sit for 15 minutes. This will allow the extra water and other fluids to "drain" out of the balls. (Make sure you don't skip this step. The crochettes will fall apart as you cook them if you don't allow them to sit.)

After the fifteen minutes, take your balls and roll the balls in bread crumbs or oat crumbs (the oats are my favorite and they make for a crunchier bite). Then place balls in a pan of 3-4 Tbs of hot olive oil. Take a spatula and squash the balls into little patties. Cook each side on medium heat for 3 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

Doggy Diaper Bag

This only took me about an hour to make and it worked really well on a trip we went on a couple days later.  Because I used a bag that already had a bottom in it the process was super simple and quick.

If you make one of these make sure the dog food bag is one of the plastic sturdy ones. I washed mine out and it got rid of the dog food smell.

The first thing I did was measure from the bottom of the dog food bag and mark the desired height of the bag. I chose to make mine tall enough so you can see the "puppy chow" label. Then cut across.

Because I was short on time I chose not to "hem" the edges of the bag but I wanted to make sure that it didn't have the chance to unravel. So I took a lighter and used the heat from the flame to melt the cut edges.

Now for the straps. I used the leftover scrap from cutting the top off the bag for the straps. How wide you want the strips to be is up to you. I basically cut the stips then folded them to the size I wanted. Doing it this way I was able to get the "puppy chow" to be on the front strap. Make sure that the edges of the strap are overlapping that way you can stitch through both flaps at once.

Then take your folded strap and stitch the overlapping flaps down.

I wanted to make sure that the stitches had more stability so I used a zigzag stitch but you can use a straight stitch if you wish.

After that I measured and marked where I wanted my straps to be.

Then I attached them.

The end! It turned out to be very sturdy and worked perfectly for all of my puppys things.