Project of the Week: Crawfish Painting

Oil on Canvas

Finally... After a year and a half, I am DONE with my crawfish painting. Okay, so it didn't take me a year and a half to paint. There were just several holdups and much procrastination going on. :)

It started out last June 2010 as a project I wanted to do for my Louisiana themed kitchen. I bought the canvas and started the background of my painting. Later that night my back starting hurting so bad that I could barely move. That stopped the progress of my painting for about an year. Why so long? I don't know. I always have SO much going on that's hard to find motivation sometimes. Here's a picture of how far I got.

This past June I was motivated to start on my painting again after I went to a garage sale and found the PERFECT frame for the painting at a garage sale for only $4! Though there was a problem. The frame was a little bigger than the painting I had started a year before. So since I had not gotten to far into the painting, I decided to just start over with a fresh canvas. I also decided to try a new composition for the painting. That also may be why I never finished the previous painting. Maybe I wasn't happy with the way everything was laid out? So for this new painting, I decided the best way to come up with a new composition was to buy some crawfish, arrange them how I wanted them, take a picture and paint from it. I got the crawfish from Albertson's (which were the nastiest smelling and grossest looking crawfish I have ever seen. Definitely didn't eat them!). Here is the picture I decided to use for my painting:

I started this new painting in July of this year and it was almost done until I paused to work on some other projects. It wasn't until the end of September that I actually finished the painting. After letting it dry a bit, I was finally able to hang it in my kitchen.

Finally done! Now I am working on another painting project that I hope to post soon!

This was my 50th blog post! Yay! :)

♥ Emily

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Project of the Week: LSU Tutu

I am so happy to announce that two of my best friends, Monica and Josh, just gave birth to a BEAUTIFUL baby girl! I have already done a few projects in honor of this little girl (Check them out HERE). I also wanted to make her something special for when she was born. I decided that she needed a LSU tutu!

It was SUPER easy to do, and didn't cost much at all! And it turned out SO CUTE. I followed the instructions HERE to make the tutu.

I used yellow ribbon.

Trying out the tutu on my bear. :)

While I was visiting the new baby this weekend, we attempted to stick her in the tutu and take some pictures, but she wasn't having any of that! Anytime we tried she would scream! So we are going to try again when she is a little bit older! :)

I did get this sweet picture though... 

If you have a little girl in your life, you have to try this project! So easy and so cute!!!

❤ Emily

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Recipe: Cheesy Crawfish Potato Casserole

As a fundraiser for United Way at work, we decided to make a cookbook where employees submit their favorite recipes. Since I am the graphic designer, I am in charge of creating the cookbook. It has been SUCH a fun project so far, and we already have several recipes submitted that I want to try!

I wanted to submit my Cheesy Crawfish Potato Casserole to the book, but I needed to prepare it so I could write it out. I got the perfect opportunity the other day when I wanted to make a dish to bring to my friends, Monica and Josh, after they had their baby. So I made it, wrote it down, and brought it to Monica and Josh's place. Monica has had this dish several times throughout our years of friendship, and she said this batch was the best yet... which means the recipe I wrote down is a winner! :)

This recipe was an original recipe made up by my mom about 10 or so years ago. It started out when she decided to jazz up our baked potatoes for dinner with a yummy, cheesy, spicy crawfish sauce. Oh man, how I LOVED it! I would request it as my birthday meal! Later she converted it into a large casserole to serve at Christmas time.

Since Monica requested I send her the recipe, I decided to post it here for her and for all of you! It is really simple to make, and is SOOOO GOOD. Try it. You'll LOVE it!

Cheesy Crawfish Potato Casserole

Ingredients
4-5 pounds of red potatoes
2-3 tablespoons of Butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
Cajun Seasoning/Salt and Pepper, to taste
1-2 pounds of crawfish tails
1 (10oz) can of Rotel
1 (32oz) block of Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes
1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped green onions
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Directions
Wash and peel potatoes (you can keep some skin on if you like). Boil until tender. While boiling potatoes, saute onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic in butter until tender. Add crawfish tails and rotel. Continue sautéing for about 5 minutes or so. Set burner to low and add Velveeta, continuously stirring until cheese is fully melted. Add Cajun seasoning/salt and pepper to taste.

In large pot or bowl, mash potatoes, leaving small lumps. Pour cheese mixture over the potatoes and add the parsley and green onion. Mix together well, then transfer to a large baking pan. Spread shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 20-30, until golden and bubbly.

Enjoy! Let me know how you like it!!

Check out the cover I made for the cookbook. Cute, huh? ;)

❤ Emily

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Project of the Week: Washer Board/Bachelor Weekend Cake

This past weekend my boyfriend Will and his friends went to Grand Isle for a bachelor party fishing  weekend for his friend Matt. I decided last minute that they needed something sweet to bring to the camp they were staying at... so I threw together a cake for Matt! I decided to make it in the shape of a washer board... a game he likes to play!

It was easy to make the holes in the cake. I just cut holes in only one layer of the cake. Made the icing resemble a wood texture,  added some fondant washers and piped grass as a border!

Have several projects to post this month that I am excited to share! Keep an eye out! :)

❤  Emily

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