Custom Art - On a Budget

I recently discovered a great way to get custom art for your home on a tight budget. It all started because I wanted vintage botanical prints for our dinning room. Real prints, of course, can cost hundreds of dollars, and I'm a graduate student. So I had to be creative to get the look I wanted for less. I started with Etsy and Art.com. Unfortunately, my options were limited. Despite both sites offering a variety of "vintage" looking prints, I was limited in the sizes of prints both offered. I had a big wall to fill, so I either needed larger prints or many small ones, which automatically boosted the total budget (even at $10 for a small print, if you need 6, that's $60, plus the cost of frames...which can really get up there). So...what to do?

As part of my dissertation I had to purchase royalty free photos. I realized that I could search the photo site for any photo I wanted and print my own prints. Voila! Cheap art! A quick look around showed that photos.com had the cheapest pictures available. I bought a $14.99 package that allows 5 downloads ($3 a picture). (Quick note: the maximum resolution photos.com offers is 300 dpi with a maximum size of 2121 x 1414 pixels. If you want a larger size, you will have to look elsewhere. istockphoto offers bigger photos.) After selecting the botanical prints I wanted, I uploaded the pictures to Mpix. I chose Mpix for two reasons: 1) print and paper quality (real people check your prints to make sure they meet their quality standards) 2) their software told me the maximum size I could print (16X20).  I'm sure you could just as easily use Snapfish or any other printer, but I didn't want to take any risks with quality. I had purchased 16X20 frames with mats which meant I needed a 11X14 print. Each print was $7 (including shipping), which brought my total to $10 a print!

My prints after arriving from Mpix. The quality was excellent!

I snagged the cherry wood frames on sale at Michael's for $22. So when you add in the $10 mat, I paid $42  for each custom botanical print! Of course, smaller sizes, cheaper prints and cheaper frames would bring the total down. The mat was totally optional, but I wanted a matted look. Voila! The look I wanted for hundreds off the custom price.

Some additional ideas (you can do a lot more with the photos): print them on a gallery wrap canvas (with an oil painting effect, this would truly be custom art); print them on matboard and have them framed; print them on a poster; etc....

Diary Free Cooking - Chocolate Cupcakes!

After my husband and I realized our daughter is sensitive to dairy in my diet, we went dairy free. This was challenging for me as I love dairy. One of the things that helped me cope was finding delicious dairy free alternatives to my favorite foods. My first order of business: dairy free chocolate cupcakes.  This recipe was adapted from a recipe from joyofbaking.com. I've never made the recipe with dairy, so I have no idea how it would turn out. I also didn't like the frosting recipe included with the Joy of Baking recipe, so I created my own variation from the recipe on the back of the Rademaker's cocoa box.

These cupcakes are perfect - light and spongy in texture without too much chocolate. Even my husband who normally dislikes chocolate will eat these!

Chocolate Cupcakes
1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa (I use Rademaker's - no dairy or nut cross contamination)
1 cup boiling hot water
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dairy free margarine (I use earth balance buttery sticks)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 375. Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners (or butter the muffin tins). In a small bowl, add the powdered cocoa to the boiling water. Stir until creamy, and then let sit at room temperature. In another bowl, stir together (or sift if you have a sifter) the flower, baking powder, and salt. In a mixer bowl, cream the margarine and sugar together. Add the eggs to the creamed margarine and sugar one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add the vanilla extract, and beat thoroughly. Add the flour mixture, and stir until just incorporated. Add the chocolate last, and stir until all the batter is evenly mixed.

Fill the muffin cups about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake for 18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. They should be springy and moist. If you bake them too long they will dry out.

Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup shortening (I use Spectrum organic shortening)
3 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa (I use Rademaker)
1/3 cup rice milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the shortening and confectioners sugar on high. Lower the speed and add the cocoa powder. Add the milk and vanilla extract. If the texture is too thick, add more milk. Beat until glossy. This frosting is pipeable (see photo above).