Star Wars Opening Crawl Vinyl Project

One of our friends showed us a picture of a basement stairwell with an opening crawl someone had done, and we decided to do our own take on it.  No I do not plan to sell these, nor do I own an Etsy store.  I made these on my Silhouette Cameo 3 with fonts I found online.  I am not a Silhouette pro by any means so we learned as we went.

We cut the vinyl in 8 different sections on 12" wide oracal 651 vinyl.  "A long time ago" was obviously it's own cut as it's blue vinyl.  The Star Wars logo was it's own, and then crawl itself we divided into 4 line sections to cut.  Our area to apply was about 7 feet tall by 3 feet wide. 

Weeding took quite awhile, we cut the vinyl while painting so we could flatten it out under heavy things so it would be easier to transfer.  We let the paint sit about a week after the last coat before applying the vinyl.  I do use the roller feeder by Silhouette to make cutting longer sections of vinyl easier.

The creation details:
- The Star Wars Title I found a font called "SF Distant Galaxy" that had it already made up as an extension of the font.  I believe I did the "offset" tool in Silhouette to get it where it would be just the outline (I could weed the inside of "Star Wars").  As it comes in the font it would not be the outline.
 - The yellow crawl text we used "News Gothic" size 144.
- A long time ago we did Arial Narrow in size 75, and I discovered character spacing while doing this (after I'd dealt with trying to space out the other text) and upped that to 160% to get it how we wanted it to look.
- After applying our daughter talked us into doing the star field and that helps distract the eye from the fact our application isn't 100% straight (nor are our walls).   That was just white paint on a small brush.
- I did not distort the text at all (I saw some pre-made wall decals where it decreased text size).  We thought walking down stairs was the equivalent to the scroll.  ;) 

That's it.  I do not own the rights to the text, we are just Star Wars fans.  Thought I would share our project for other families looking for something unique.  

Cherry Tomato Pizza Margherita

My latest #freesample challenge from Kroger was utilizing their new Simple Truth Organic Thin and Crispy Vegan pizza crust.  I had just bought Thanksgiving salad staples when the notice of the romaine lettuce recall came out, so I was left with some cherry tomatoes I wasn't sure what to do with. Decided I was in the mood for some Margherita pizza as a Thanksgiving appetizer during the Lions game. I will also make a basic cheese pizza with the second crust for my kids to have, since they aren't a huge fan of tomatoes. Problem solved.  Fulfill my challenge and use up the tomatoes :)

I am going to modify this Epicurious recipe, I will report back on how it goes!  

Ingredients
1 Simple Truth Organic Classic Thin and Crispy Pizza crust
1 Tbsp Olive Oil 1 12oz container cherry tomatoes, cleaned
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/3 cup chopped Simple Truth Organic fresh basil
balsamic vinegar for drizzling when serving.  

Directions
Preheat oven to 400.  Place pizza crust on a baking sheet.
Heat large skillet over high heat 2 minutes. Add oil, then tomatoes; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until tomatoes are charred and beginning to break down, about 5 minutes.
Transfer to large bowl. Mix in garlic, fennel, and crushed red pepper. Using back of fork, crush tomatoes in bowl, leaving large chunks intact. Season mixture with salt and pepper.
Toss cheese and chopped basil in medium bowl. Sprinkle cheese mixture evenly over crust, right up to border.
Spoon on tomato mixture in dollops, leaving some cheese uncovered.
Bake pizza for 12 minutes or until cheese is melted and starting to brown and bubble. Loosen pizza with slide onto board. Garnish with basil leaves and drizzle balsamic over top. Cut into squares for serving.

Here it is before going in the oven!

Turned out great!   Would do it again for appetizers.  Very crispy. 

Trying out a new BBQ sauce

Resurrecting this blog to give a shout out to Kroger for adding me to their MyMagazine Sharing Network. I got a free sample of their Kentucky Bourbon BBQ sauce. They recommended Spatchcocking a whole chicken, but since we prefer white meat I decided to just give it a try on boneless skinless chicken breasts. I paired it with the oven roasted broccoli we like to make, just broccoli crowns chopped with lemon olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper roasted at 425 for 25 min. Along with crispy oven fries. Just slice up 2 russets into fries with pam and season salt. Bake @ 400 for 20 min, flip, then bake another 25 min. I did not put the broccoli in until the potatoes had been flipped. My honest review of the BBQ sauce? It's ok. It is not my favorite, I found it a little on the thin side. I basted the breasts a few times with it to be sure we got the full flavor and then put it on thick on one side the last 10 minutes. I think it may be better served with ribs after a flavorful rub. But I do also make my own whiskey bbq sauce from scratch, so I might be biased on what I was expecting. #PrivateSelectionKentuckyBourbonBBQ sauce found exclusively at #KrogerCo stores! #FreeSamp #MyMagazineSharing http://mymagazinesharing.us