New Nightstand Debut

Well, the Giants nightstand has arrived, just in time for playoffs! This week, the Girls Team completed the final step in our nightstand makeover - decoupage. My mom was able to find an assortment of magazine clippings and photos around the house, so we had plenty of options to choose from for our tabletop design.

Supplies: magazine clippings, Mod Podge, sponge brushes and painted table.

 

Before starting, we laid out the design that we wanted, then took a picture so we wouldn't forget where we wanted to place each image.

 

 

We used Mod Podge to glue the images to the top of the nightstand. After they dried, we painted one more layer of Mod Podge over the top. Each layer takes between 15 and 20 minutes to dry so we weren't waiting too long.

 

 The Girls Team signed our work. :)

 

 

And now, after sanding, painting and decoupage-ing, our Giants nightstand is complete! We started with this surfing themed table I made in high school:

 

 

And created this San Francisco Giants nightstand, made especially for my brother, a life-long fan!

 

 

The Girls Team is really happy with how the table turned out. It is fun and crafty, yet masculine and sporty. We are also really proud of ourselves for tackling a bigger, more time consuming project. Even after some sanding dilemmas, we stuck with it and are thrilled with the final product. Can't wait to see it in Pook's room at school!

 

In case you are just joining us, you can watch us makeover this nightstand from night one to sanding day to the painting step.



Stuffed Flank Steak - Crock Pot Style!

You guys! I finally have a crock pot! This is so exciting. My Girls Team partner had a spare and was generous enough to donate it to my new kitchen. To break it in, we made a crock pot meal this week - Stuffed Flank Steak. My mom has made this dish before, years ago, but I have never had it. She couldn't find her original recipe, but found a very similar one on Food.com. Here is the link: Stuffed Flank Steak in Crock Pot.

My Girls Team partner gathered all of the ingredients, and had a surprisingly hard time finding flank steak. That delayed our meal a few nights, but it was totally worth the wait. I won't bore you with recipe specifics; you can click the link above for that :)

We started by scoring the flank steak on each side.

This makes it easy to roll up later.

 

Then we spread a layer of Dijon mustard over the steak.

 

 

I'm still kind of scared of raw meat. So while my mom handling the first two steps, I made the stuffing mix. Basically mix box stuffing with Parmesan cheese, butter and beef broth.

 

After the stuffing is mixed together, we spread the stuffing on top of the steak, over the mustard layer.

 

 

Next, we rolled up the steak and secured it with ties. I had to get over my fear of touching raw meat. That's what MIHM is all about right?!

 

 

Because I was going to place this in the crock pot the next morning before leaving for work, we wrapped the steak in plastic wrap to maintain freshness and placed it in the refrigerator over night. We actually made two Stuffed Flank Steaks so that my mom could enjoy one at her house too!

 

 

The next morning, I placed my steak roll in the crock pot and poured the gravy mixture over it. I set the crock pot to "LOW" and let it cook for 9 hours.

 

 

After a long day at work and a trip to the gym, I was starving and couldn't wait to slice up the Stuffed Flank Steak. And the house smelled like Thanksgiving!

 

 

Actually, I was so excited, that I forgot to take a picture of the steak plated (and served with a side of stuffing) - whoops.

So here is a picture of how much I enjoyed the dish :)

 

My mom and I both really liked the Stuffed Flank Steak and would definitely make it again. It tasted like Thanksgiving dinner, rolled up in a juicy steak. My only critique would be that the edges of the steak were a little dry. I had been gone for about 9 hours by the time I plated my steak. My mom, who was home while her steak was cooking, mixed the gravy over the steak about 4 hours into cooking which prevented her steak from drying out. Had I been home, I would have done that. But, there were really no other complaints from either of us!

 

My roommate and I have a pretty jam packed schedule and I think crock pot meals will really save us from PB&J sandwiches for dinner or trips to In-n-Out. I'm happy my mom helped me cook this steak, and look forward to more crock pot meals as the weather cools down :)

 

Do any of you have crock pot meals to share? If so, we'd love to know. Leave a recipe in the comments below!

Third Time's a Charm: Nightstand Edition

If you've been keeping up with MIHM lately, you know that we took this nightstand I made back in 2003:

 

 

And sanded it down to this over the course of a couple weeks:

 

 

While the table was almost completely sanded, we still weren't satisfied, so we let my dad loose on the table, and look at it now - it looks like the guy bought a new table!! (Can we confirm he didn't? No.):

 

 

Once the table was sanded down to essentially brand new condition, it was time for the Girls Team to paint. Our plan has been to turn this table into a San Francisco Giants themed nightstand. This Monday, we painted 2 coats of glossy black paint all over the table, but left the top clean for a decoupage layer.

 

 

 

Now the table is painted and ready for the final step in the makeover - decoupage. We haven't started looking for Giants clippings yet, so that may take a while, but the Girls Team is proud of our continued work on this nightstand. After the initial night, we weren't so sure about what we had gotten ourselves into, but now we can see the finish line and our interest in this project is peaking!

 

If you missed the first two phases of this project, you can watch our slow attempt at stripping away the surfing images here and then our exciting discovery of the sander here - enjoy!