Stenciling Your Writing Space
By Maureen Hardegree
Some writers are fortunate enough to have an ivory tower in a
mansion far away from their families, but many of us battle for our
writing space, even if our office is located in the deepest, darkest
recess of our basements. Having won the war to gain the bonus room
for my office, I have to tell you the surest way to keep the space,
once you gain it, is to decorate in a way that says "this is mine."
For me, that involved painting the blue country wallpaper a deep
garnet red, which assured my husband's complete defection. I also
covered the flowered, circa 1992 wallpaper border with a cinnamon
stripe. But stimulating colors weren't enough. I wanted to surround
myself with words that would inspire. That's how I discovered
stenciling. I could pick the quotes I wanted. And you can, too. Even
if your writing space is a cinderblock corner in your basement, you
can define it with paint and stencils. Here's how.
1. Search for quotes that inspire you and make you feel like
writing. Some places to look include Bartlett's Quotations
and O Magazine. I happen to love Emerson and Thoreau, so I
gathered quotations from them. When you're stenciling the border of
an entire room, you'll need several quotes. Gather more than you
think you'll need. Some short. Some long.
2. Head to your local craft store to pick out a stencil in a simple
font that's big enough to read (4 to 5 inches
should work well). Most stencils require two steps to complete the
uppercase letters. Lowercase letters usually require only one step.
While in the stenciling aisle, pick out a pouncing brush, practice
boards, and a pot of stencil paint. Stencil paint is the consistency
of shoe polish, and just like shoe polish, a little goes a long way.
I chose black stencil paint because it provided a good contrast with
the cinnamon border. If you want to read the words you're
stenciling, you need to keep contrast in mind.
3. Practice, practice, practice. Get a feel for pouncing (dabbing
your brush on the practice board), for how dark you want your paint
(determined by how much paint is on the brush), and how much shading
you want. I discovered shading took too long for me, so I went for
one-dimensional, complete coverage. You may have more patience.
Two-dimensional shading is achieved by concentrating the color
around the edges of the stencil.
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4. Notice all the paint building up on the plastic surface of your
stencil as you practice. Periodically, you'll want to clean it off
with a little soap and water. Check the edge of your hand and wash
it, too. It will pick up extra paint left on the stencil. You won't
want to smudge the wall.
5. Once you get enough practice time in, you need to mark a level
line on the wall for lining up your letters. Using an old-fashioned
level or one of those new-fangled laser levels is a good idea to
ensure a straight line. Since the people who lived in the house
before my husband and I bought it hung a border against the ceiling,
I used the border's bottom edge for my line. Call it cheating if you
want. I prefer the term shortcut. If you want a background
color for your stenciled quotes, paint it first. When I painted my
border, I purposely smudged the bottom line which met the garnet
paint. What can I say? I prefer imperfection. If you like the look
of slanting script, you can stencil completely freehand. That means
no guidelines.
6. Wait 24 hours for the background paint to dry, then decide where
to start. I thought about my desk location and which corner I'd see
when I looked up from my computer screen, which meant I started with
my favorite
 quote
in the far right corner of my office space: Henry David Thoreau's
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you
have imagined." I continued around the room in a clockwise fashion,
leaving spaces between quotes.
7. When my project neared completion, I had a small space to fill (a
dormer) so I read through the list of quotes I'd accumulated and
picked a short one: Ralph Waldo Emerson's "We aim above the mark to
hit the mark." Tailor your last quote to fit the remaining space.
My office is about 15 x 20 feet. It took me around three days to
stencil six quotes.
Don't be afraid to give stenciling a try. After all, as Emerson
wrote, "Self-trust is the first secret of success."
When Maureen
Hardegree isn't devising ways to improve her writing space,
she's plotting dark historical romances, contemporary lady lit with
a paranormal twist, and short stories with a southern flavor.
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What to Cook When You Don't Cook
By Karen Potter
I am an anomaly in my family: a non-cook adrift in a sea of
not-merely-good, but great, cooks.
Not that I haven't tried. I have a shelf full of cookbooks, and on
that shelf a binder full of copies of recipes that at one time
either looked really good or were recommended by people who said
they were good.
I love to eat, so I've tried them all, with varying degrees - mostly
bad - of success. Confession time here: I'm easily distracted and
always in a hurry. Most of my kitchen failures are unfortunate
cremations.
Eventually, though, everyone comes to that point where they have to
feed people for one reason or another, or have to contribute to a
community meal. When "Hello, Domino's" and "Do they have that in the
deli at Publix?" no longer suffice, what do you do?
You step up to the plate (pun absolutely intended) and cultivate a
couple of recipes that are sure-fire, no matter how long you leave
them languishing in the oven because you were distracted by
something to clean, that new book you've been dying to read or the
neighbor you meet when you go outside to pull the weeds out of the
shrubs just minutes before your guests are due to arrive.
My favorite "company's coming over" recipe is one I got from a
friend many years ago in Bardstown, Kentucky. It's a Campbell's
recipe (soup is the non-cook's best friend) and is technically
called Creamy Baked Chicken Breasts. In my family, it's called
Chicken and Rice, Chicken and Cheese or sometimes, Cheezy Chicken. I
hope you'll call it yummy.
Creamy Baked Chicken Breasts
(Serve over rice.)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 slices Swiss cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk (I use skim, my sister-in-law uses 3/4 cup of cooking
sherry.)
1 cup dry stuffing mix (Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned is my
favorite.)
1 stick of butter or margarine, melted.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a roomy baking dish with release
spray (Pam). Place chicken breasts in a single layer in the dish (or
you can cube the chicken if you're serving it family style). Salt
and pepper to taste. Place cheese slices over chicken. Combine soup
and milk. Pour over chicken and cheese. Sprinkle dressing over
soup-covered chicken. Drizzle with melted margarine/butter. Bake for
45 minutes to 1 hour. When the soup begins to bubble and the
dressing browns, it's done. This is great with both white and brown
rice.
If you forgot to stop by the bakery for dessert, try this Easy
Cobbler my grandmother taught me to make.
1 can fruit pie filling
1/2 box white or yellow cake mix (Caution: blueberry pie filling and
yellow cake mix turn green. Save for your preteen's monster mash
party.)
1 stick melted margarine or butter (do we see a trend here?)
Butter or spray a 9 x 9 baking dish, or a 9-inch pie plate. Pour pie
filling into dish. Top with dry cake mix. Drizzle with melted
margarine/butter. Bake at 350 degrees until topping browns and pie
filling bubbles. This is very nice with ice cream or whipped cream.
By now you're probably wondering if I can make anything that won't
clog your arteries. Happily the answer is yes! Try this terrific
Coffee Shake.
In a blender, combine one cup skim milk, 1/2 tablespoon instant
coffee powder, 4 ice cubes and 2-4 packages of Splenda or other
sweetener. Blend until smooth. This recipe is so good with
hazelnut-flavored coffee powder, it'll make you weep. Dieters: This
is a filling substitute for that coffee ice cream you've been
yearning for. And it's a good way to get your calcium every day.
Bon Appetit!
To read last
month's Stuff to Make article, click
here
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