Put A Marble Finish On Anything

Marbling is one of the oldest of all painted finishes. You can marble ceilings, doors, walls, table tops or whole tables (small ones look best) and all types of woodwork and finishings. Marbling can be applied to almost any surface.

This is a fun technique with a wonderful result. You almost can't do it wrong, because it's just about all freeform and what it looks like at the end is totally up to you. So, if it looks good to you, it's right.

This is how you do it...

Before you begin, lightly sand and wipe clean the piece you are going to work on.

Use oil-base enamel paints for the marble application. Marble comes in many different colors so choose colors that match your decor.

Haphazardly brush on a combination of three to five colors in a small area, creating a patchwork effect.

Carefully dab the paint colors onto one another with loosely crumpled newspaper or a sponge. Do not smudge or smear the colors. Use an up and down motion to achieve a mottled effect. The marbling is more realistic if your movements are spontaneous, so work quickly.

Experiment on a scrap piece of wood before trying this technique on a permanent piece.
Repeat the process until the entire piece is covered.

Allow the paint to dry.

Add veins of color randomly with a thin brush. Use light and heavy strokes, and smooth and jagged ones to create uneven veining.

Apply several coats of high-gloss polyurethane, sanding between coats to finish.

Sour Cream Mayonnaise Biscuits

This is one of my husband's recipes, who is a better cook than a baker because he likes to experiment and not follow the recipes, which "those who know" say you're suppose to do if you bake anything.

He wanted some biscuits one night to go with dinner and I told him we did not have all the proper ingredients. So he got into the kitchen and went to work with what he could find.

Most of his recipes are "dump it all in a bowl, mix it up and cook it." It's surprising how often that works, though.

This is one that turned out to be really good. We have had these biscuits many times and they have always turned out great. This recipe will make some very good and quick biscuits that go good with anything.

I like them, not only with a meal, but with butter and jelly after a meal or for breakfast with poached eggs, and bacon.

We hope you will enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups of self-rising flour

1/2 cup of whole milk

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 full tsp. of real mayonnaise (not salad dressing or light mayonnaise)

2 full tsp. of sour cream

Directions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium size bowl combine all the ingredients and mix well.

For each biscuit drop a medium size ice cream scoop, or heaping tablespoon of dough onto a large oiled or greased cookie sheet, leaving about two inches between each biscuit.

Then bake in a preheated 400 degree oven, bake for 13 to 15 minutes. Or until golden brown on the top.

*Note: Keep the scoop or spoon damp or lightly oiled.

Make An Easy Chocolate Pie

I believe that for a chocolate lover, like me, that nothing tastes better for something sweet to eat than a Hershey bar with almonds, or a dessert than a piece of good chocolate pie.

To me this recipe makes the best chocolate pie and is the easiest to make. All you have to do is dump everything in a pot and cook until it is thick, pour it in a baked crust, put it in the refrigerator a while to let it cool, and here I just put whipped cream on it and put it back in the refrigerator or you can beat the egg whites and top it with that if you want. Pretty easy, huh?


Ingredients

1 cup sugar
3 heaping Tbs. flour
4 Tbs. cocoa
2 cups sweet milk (I use 2%)
1 stick margarine
3 egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla
3 egg whites
3 Tbs. sugar
1 baked pie crust

Directions

Mix dry ingredients. Add milk and egg yolks which have been beaten together. Add butter and cook until thick. Add vanilla. Pour into baked pie crust.

Beat three egg whites until stiff. Add 3 Tbs. sugar and beat unil meringue stands in peaks. Spread on pie and brown under broiler. Refrigerate 3-6 hours.

I have had my share of chocolate pies, but this one is the best I have tasted so far. My mother was an absolutely wonderful cook, but she did not bake nor make desserts, but if she had, I think her chocolate pie would have tasted just like this.

Enjoy.

Enhance Your Looks With These Makeup Tips

I remember when I was in high school, which was a while back, we had a cosmotologist come to talk to us in our P.E. class. She gave us some timeless tips (I think they are timeless) on makeup. The thing I remember most about her advice was that makeup is meant to enhance, not to be, or look like, a mask and there is not a woman alive, no matter how good she looks without makeup, that can not benefit her looks with a little makeup. She said that makeup should look natural and not like makeup, that your makeup is right when no one an tell you have any on. Then she gave is these pointers...

Always start with clean and moisturized skin.

Decide which is your best feature and enhance it so attention will be drawn away from a less attractive feature. It is safer to just ignore a feature you don't like and enhance the feature you do like.

Apply makeup in the same kind of light you will be spending most of your time. Check your daytime look by the light through a window. Sunlight will be the harshest light to be seen in.

Your makeup might need to be freshened up a bit after dressing and combing your hair. Sometimes, what you wear or the way you wear your hair makes a difference in how your makeup looks.

Listen to department store makeup demonstrators. You can get a lot of helpful information from them to use at home.

Always remove makeup every night, either with soap and water or a cream or liquid made to remove makeup, especially eye makeup.

As I said, I received these tips many years ago, but, I believe they still work today.

How To Back Up Any Trailer

Whether you have a boat trailer, camper trailer or one of the many utility type trailers, the backing up of all trailers is the same.

The main step is the set-up. Getting the trailer the right distance past and out from the drive or parking space, and also getting yourself in place so the area you want to back into is on your left side, makes backing up a lot easier. If you can get set up so you can back straight in, all the better.

Depending on the size of the unit, trailer and auto combo, you will need to be from one foot to eight feet past and out from the spot. When pulling a trailer you have to remember, at all times, you have a tail. Backing up and going forward, you will have to have swinging room. This gets easier the more you do it with the same trailer.

When backing up, you must turn the steering wheel the other way from the way you want the trailer to go. If you want the trailer to go to your left, turn the steering wheel to the right.

Also, the shorter the trailer the faster it will come around on you, and the less room you will need. If you have a long trailer, you will need more swinging room. So, when backing up, go slow until you learn how fast the trailer will react to the movement of the steering wheel and how far the front of the trailer will swing out.

After you get set up, look out your window and watch the rear end of the trailer for swinging room, and watch the trailer tires to know when to get back under the trailer or to get straight again. As the trailer moves into the place you want it, you will be turning the steering wheel back the other way, to, what is called "stay under it" or straighten up.

Until you get the hang of backing up a trailer you may have to do a pull up for a few feet to get a better alignment. Do not let the trailer cut too much because you could back over it with your vehicle, not good. Also, the trailer tires may roll off of their wheels. Again not good.

Just remember be safe and look around before backing up.