Day 52 - Clover Craft

I know it is still February, but March will be here before we know it (and March is looking to be a very busy month - my sisters baby is due to arrive on the 18th, it's getting so close & I cannot wait!). I recently took down all my Valentine's decor and my front door was looking naked, so tonight I made a St. Patrick's day inspired door decoration.

Before the weekend started we had big plans to be super productive, but as this morning rolled around we weren't nearly as far along on our list of 'to-do's as we had hopped. So after church, a quick run to the grocery story and a new frittata (told you I would be hooked - this time I put in turkey, spinach, tomato, mushroom, onion & cheddar cheese) for brunch, we got to work.

Quinn was in the basement. Organizing, rearranging and prepping the floor for a fresh coat of paint and then painting. I was in our room. Cleaning up (& relocating) my craft area, organizing and getting ready to start our next home-project - a master bathroom. As usually time flew by and around 8 o'clock I stopped to make dinner and once we finished eating I took inventory of what supplies I already had to make something creative . . .

My wonderful friend Stacy gave me some fabulous scrap booking supplies for Christmas, including a stack of fun glittery paper that I have been itching to use. I also had a dark green ribbon (left over from our wedding gifts) so I decided to make a 4-leafed clover door decoration.

Here are the supplies I used:
3 Sheets of glitter paper (I went with 2 green & 1 ivory)
7 Sheets of card stock (I used 2 ivory & 1 green for the clovers, 1 to make a template & 3 pieces for support to the back of the clovers)
Ribbon (about 3 or 4 feet long)
Craft glue
Scissors
Craft knife
Pencil
* I also used my circle template (another gift, this one from my good friend Katie), paper cutter and craft cutting board

To begin I made a clover template. I first made a 8&1/2" x 8&1/2" square out of a piece of black card stock. Then I made lines from corner to corner and center to center - this gave me 8 sections, 1 for each 1/2 clover. Next I traced a 2" diameter circle in center (to be sure I would have enough room for my ribbon). The last step was to fold and cut the clover shape (similar to how you would fold a piece of paper in half to make a heart).

Now that I had a basic 4-leafed clover I traced it onto the back of my 3 glitter sheets. And cut them out. My clovers didn't turn out perfectly symmetrical, but I decided in nature they probably wouldn't be either and that mine were just fine.

Next I glued the green clovers onto a sheet of ivory card stock and the ivory clover onto a sheet of green card stock and followed the clover around to make an outline.

Once I had my clovers all laid out I used a hole punch to make a template for stringing the ribbon through (because of the odd shapes I wasn't able to simply punch these out) and made 2 slices into each clover using my craft knife.

Finally I strung the clovers from my ribbon and added a round of black card stock to the back of each for extra strength and support to the ribbon. I hung it on my from door by pushing a flat push pin through the ribbon into the top of my door.
This project was very simple and fun - I estimate that it took me 1.5 hours to complete and if I would of had a clover template probably would of taken half that time.

Other Firsts: When I cook . . . I usually don't follow a recipe and certainly don't keep track of how much of this or that I add in, so I don't typically include my made up recipes as a first, but dinner tonight was just so delicious I wanted to fill you in.

Earlier today, at the grocery store the EZ peel shrimp were on sale and looked good so I bought 3/4lbs of that, then as we were getting in line to check out there was a loaf of that yummy grocery store made garlic bread (I honestly cannot tell you the last time I had this stuff . . . maybe the first time Quinn made me dinner for the first time and burnt the bread - 9 years ago) so that calling my name and I threw it in the cart. When Quinn gave me a funny look I informed him we were having pasta for dinner (I made this decision just about 4 seconds earlier).

Back to dinner - lets call it Shrimp Pasta with a Kick.

You will need:
Angel hair pasta (think I used half a bag)
3/4 lbs of shrimp
1 can of quartered artichoke hearts
olive oil
butter
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce
1 green onion (chopped)
1/2 white onion (diced)
1 garlic clove (diced)
red pepper flakes (about 2 teaspoons)
dried oregano (about 1 tablespoon)
dried parsley (about 1 tablespoon)
cayenne pepper (about 2 teaspoons)
salt
cracked pepper
Shredded mozzarella (about 1.5 cups)
*optional: 1 loaf of grocery store garlic bread

1. In a your largest skillet add about 2 tbl. spoons olive oil & a shake of red pepper flakes - warm to medium heat.
2. Peel shrimp, toss them with some salt & pepper and add to oil in skillet
3. Boil water to cook pasta
4. In a second skillet add some butter (maybe a table spoon) and at medium heat cook onion, garlic & green pepper
5. Flip shrimp
6. Add pasta to water
7. Preheat oven to 350F
8. Once shrimp are pink throughout (probably 5 minutes total) remove from skillet and set aside.
9. Add marinara sauce to skillet (same one you used for the shrimp - don't clean it). to the sauce add a few more shakes of red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, oregano and parsley and cook at medium heat (I also added a couple pinches of sugar).
10. Remove pasta from water and set aside. (I spooned some of the pasta water into my marinara, about 1/2 of a cup)
11. Add the onion, garlic & green pepper mixture to the marinara sauce
12. Put garlic bread in oven
13. Open & drain artichokes, add them to the marinara
14. Add the cooked shrimp back to the marinara mixture, reduce heat to medium-low
15. Toss the pasta with the marinara mixture
16. Put pasta in a casserole dish & top with shredded mozzarella - bake in oven until cheese melts - I ended up broiling it.
17. Take garlic bread out of oven (if you broil the pasta dish take the bread out first)
18. ENJOY!