A $1 Flea Market Transformation

     I've always loved rummage sales (garage sale, yard sale, whatever you want to call it), flea markets, thrift store, Goodwill, etc. In other words, I like a good deal. It's like a treasure hunt!

    I've been in search of a mirror with a raised edge for a while. I'm not sure if there is a proper name for them, but I'll stick with that. Yesterday, while visiting the local flea market, I found one for $1.00. It wasn't in the best shape, but I'm always looking for a quick and easy project. If it turned out badly, I would only be out a buck, right?

  
   It wasn't very pretty. The person who painted it white, didn't do a great job at it. I decided I'd take off the paint with some acetone and see what was hiding underneath. To my surprise, it was a gorgeous gold color. After removing the paint, I came to realize why it was painted to begin with. The gold was pretty in some spots, but faded in others. Boo.

   I had remembered I had some gorgeous turquoise-ish spray paint that I used on this picture frame:

     It took a while to get all of the white paint off, especially in the little cracks. I realized that it didn't matter much anyway, since it was going to be painted over. I didn't take any photos of the painting process simply because I am messy and accident prone. Here are the before and afters:

 It could probably use another coat of paint,
but for now I'm pretty happy with it. :)

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Pretzels! 
A couple years ago my mom bought me a bread machine for a few bucks from a rummage sale. It sat in my pantry for about a year or so until one day I decided to dust it off. Since last year I have been using it almost weekly. I have no idea why it took me so long. It's an incredibly easy and cheap way to make breads, doughs, pasta and you can even make jam in it! 

One of my favorite things to make, though, are these pretzels. The bread machine does most of the work for me. I toss all of my ingredients in, liquid on the bottom, yeast on top. It takes about an hour and a half for the dough to form and rise. After it's done, I take them out, shape them into little snakes, make them into pretzel form, toss on an egg wash to make the outside crispy and brown, salt and bake at 450 for about 12 minutes. Bam! 

These are great while they are still warm out of the oven, but I really like that they remain really good even after storing them. I haven't yet, but I'm considering freezing these in some ziploc bags. When we want one, but don't want to wait a couple hours for them, grab one, pop it in the microwave and there you go. 

Fairly quick, super easy, cheap and more importantly, yummy!