Wow, I apparently have not posted in quite a while! It's been pretty crazy around here, some temporary full-time employment, a few weekend trips, and not much time for my usual craftiness. And on top of that, we are moving in a little over a month, so we have spent a lot of formerly free time apartment hunting! Talk about busy! However, since my last update, our bed is finished!! Super excited about it!
In the meantime, I have been trying to come up with side projects for some additional income. My mom and I plan to get a booth at a craft fair at the end of the summer, so I'm going to need merchandise! I've come up with a quick little sewing project, and hoarded some old wood fence posts, which I'm sure the BF is totally thrilled about. :P Hopefully I can turn it into some cool wall art!
I have been working on a little organization/art project for myself here and there, and it's nearly finished: a pallet jewelry display! (Please forgive the phone pic! My poor point-and-shoot bit the dust recently)
Staining a pallet is not as easy as I thought it would be. Sure, I sanded it...on the outside. When I got to the staining part, I suddenly realized that the inside would show through the slats, and would need staining as well. Had I realized that before I had stain on about half of it, I would have gone back and hand sanded, but I guess I can say I preserved the "rustic" look of it.
This particular pallet had three sections, and I knew I wanted to make a shelf for that cute little earring display that I nabbed from a thrift store a while back. I also figured it would be good for large bangles or watches that won't roll around or get tangled. In order to create the shelf, I used a Skil saw, and cut along the interior rails, removing the middle of the slats.
Then I set to work on the cup hooks. I didn't realize how much jewelry I actually have, so it was a bit of a guessing game at first, and I ended up needing to make some adjustments. I hung my longest necklaces from the top, and the shorter ones will share space with my bracelets below the shelf. I also intend to add a few hooks to the side for the BF's belts. The closet 3 feet away seems to be inconvenient, lol!
My other idea for this project involves some kitschy assorted drawer pulls. I plan to use these on the lower section, which will be more at eye-level. I have a few that I've grabbed from junk dressers/chests that have been thrown out, and a couple cute (and pretty cheap) ones I found at Home Depot. I haven't quite decided to use these for necklaces or bracelets, so they aren't installed yet. There is also a horizontal bar on the lower left corner, that I just threw together from scrap wood, which was intended for bracelets, but will probably hold necklaces. (I seriously didn't know I had this much jewelry!)
My next task will be hanging this monstrous thing! After a bit of googling, I settled on Domestic Doozie's method, which uses a french cleat. I really hope there is a stud in the wall I want to hang it on, it's only about 4 feet wide. There must be one...
So although it seems to be moving at a snail's pace, the pallet is nearly done. I can't wait to get it hung up in that dead space in my bedroom!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend! I spent some quality time with family, both mine as well as the bf's, enjoyed a gorgeous Saturday night on a rooftop bar near downtown, and grilled out with friends at their pool/hot tub.
Today I have tasked myself with preparing several meals for the week. Although my meal planning didn't get followed to the T, I am excited that I will have quite a bit of food to carry over into next week! I have several chicken breasts, a couple of pork chops, and 2 pounds of ground beef in my freezer, and very little of it is spoken for. (Ok, I know that doesn't sound like much for a week, but remember that the bf is the only carnivore in my house... well, other than my dogs)
So today, I am preparing arroz con pollo, homemade burritos, and crockpot pork chops for dinner tonight. The pork chops, from Kristi's Recipe Box, I have made before, and as I am told they turned out great. I still can't decide if I'd rather serve them with mashed potatoes or broccoli cheese and rice. The arroz con pollo will be a new adventure for me, and while I have that recipe (via The Shiksa) simmering, I'll roll up my burritos.
I am gradually feeling more at home in the kitchen. Having made the transition from apartment to house, I am definitely enjoying having more than 10 square feet, and lots more counter space, and that helps me to actually want to spend time in the kitchen. Two or three years ago, I could only cook one thing at a time, and only by meticulously following the recipe. I wouldn't call myself a chef by any means, but I am much more comfortable throwing something together on the fly, tasting as I go, and using all four stove burners at once. Our apartment kitchen was tiny, where I had to keep extra appliances or pots in the laundry room, and the refrigerator door wouldn't open all the way because it would hit the counter on the opposite side. When we moved, the bf promised that kitchen space would be one of our priorities, and my wish came true. Now if only I could get the dishes to wash themselves...
Other business for today includes laundry, making a few phone calls, buying stamps, taking care of bills, and mixing up a batch of DIY dishwasher detergent from Being Creative to Keep My Sanity. PS- her laundry detergent is great too! I usually just buy one box each of the borax, washing soda, baking soda, etc. and just make half a batch of each. Half a batch lasts me about 4 months, and I am more than likely using too much per load!
So much to do, so little time!
Today, I have completed a 4-month project!! Well, almost.
Sometime before Thanksgiving, the bf and his brother set out to build us a new bed. I found the plans on Ana White (actually they were from Birds and Soap, I found them on Pinterest and the link took me to her guest post on Ana White), and modified it to fit our king mattress. Since his brother lives about 2 hours away, we came home with a truckload of cut wood and a teeny tiny garage to work in. Gradually we picked up the hinges, brackets, and tools we needed to get that bad boy put together, and I started staining.
Interesting sidenote on the stain: For Christmas 2011, we received a beautiful storage chest from the bf's brother. We called him up and talked to him about the stain he used, since we wanted the bed to match it. Turns out, he had several nearly-empty cans of stain in his garage, and since he had built 5 of these chests, he just decided to mix them all together so he'd have enough stain for all of them. I'm ok with this, it turned out beautiful. But he pretty much said good luck matching it. Well, my trip to Home Depot seemed futile, but I was still dead set on stain instead of paint. I settled on Minwax special walnut, since none of the other tones seemed remotely close. We wound up with several pieces of scrap after cutting the necessary pieces, so I stained a small piece of 1x2 and waited. 30 minutes or so later, when I decided that if it wasn't dry I was sick of waiting anyway, I plopped that scrap down on top of the chest, and BAM. Perfect. So thank you Minwax!
The single solitary reason for building a bed was because the cheap rails we had were beyond repair. 4 C-clamps and a vice-grip just couldn't hold it together anymore. I also wanted more storage in the bedroom, particularly because we have lots of "stuff" that really does not have a home, but somehow I feel like it should go in the bedroom somewhere. I'm sure there will be a future post about organizing when I get there... Anyway, neither of us wanted to just put the box springs on the floor, so the storage platform came first.
Well, we've had the platform built for at least 3 months, and a giant mess in the tiny garage. I have project ADD and went in the garage to work on something else, and decided I simply could not work out there. So after 3 hours and 2 trash bags later, I had workspace! The bf was ecstatic that I had cleaned, but not so stoked about me working on everything-but-the-bed. Well, the last piece to be stained is the headboard frame, and it's a little large for me to be working on it myself. The last time I tried to sand it, I decided I didn't want a bunch of sawdust in the garage for some reason, so I managed to get it out into the front yard. Getting it back was a different story, and somehow I broke off one of the 4x4 legs. So I reattached it and decided that I shouldn't mess with it anymore. Today, now that there is free space in the garage, I decided that leaning it over onto my pallets would be easy enough to get it sanded, and well, it's done!
I guess I can't really say I finished the project yet. But I did get a massive roadblock out of my way! The bf is off for Good Friday tomorrow, so maybe we can get the headboard put together and finally attach it all! I'll let you know!
Welcome to my life. This 24/7/365 world that never stops spinning. A balancing act, but I feel like I'm juggling too. None of this is surprising, I'm sure everyone feels this way. But my purpose for this blog is to tell people how I get through it. How I keep the plates spinning.
My struggle today is with meal planning. Yep, I'm a first-timer. Until today, I was making 3+ trips to the grocery store every week, and flying by the seat of my pants once I got there. Strolling down the aisles, wondering what the bf wanted for dinner. Well, my schedule and my wallet say NO MORE!
I shouldn't say I'm a virgin meal planner. I'm usually the person my friends turn to on a long weekend camping trip, to feed 20 people and keep it cost effective. I just got back from a road trip to Florida, where $130 fed 6 people quite well for 4 days. So I've done this before, just not for myself.
Challenge #1: I am a vegan, the bf loves meat and cheese. I definitely don't mind making two separate dinners. I'm used to it. Soooo thankful to have a 4 burner stove with the little warmer spot in the center! Really the biggest difficulty here is scaling down recipes to feed one person! Not an impossible task, though. I currently have about 1 lb. of brisket cooking in my baby crock pot. Ya know, the little dip-sized one? I had to make that purchase after receiving a 9-quart one in a Chinese gift exchange this past Christmas. A 9-quart crock pot does an excellent job of scorching the holy crap out of one chicken breast. My next trip to the grocery store yielded the baby crock for only $10! As long as the crock pot recipe can be halved so that it will fit, and you only need to cook it on low, you're golden.
Challenge #2: I'm looking for recipes that can be scaled down for one, and will still be yummy the next day in the microwave. Ever since the bf's job moved farther than 5 minutes down the road, he's been out to lunch on a daily basis. Now, after 6 months of him being able to come home on lunch break, to a fresh cooked meal, this has hit our wallets pretty hard. $200/month just on lunches. Yikes! So I'm desperately searching for yummy things I can cook for him, that won't be slaughtered by the microwave.
So thanks to Pinterest, I've found some recipes to add to my repertoire, and I have my upcoming week nailed down.
Lunches to include:
-BBQ brisket sandwiches
-Arroz con Pollo
-Homemade Burritos with rice
-Shepherds Pie
...and one day of dining out. I know it's nice to be able to get out of the office sometimes, and one lunch out per week is only $40-50/month.
Dinners look like:
-Broccoli Beef with rice
-Spaghetti
-Grilled Lemon Pepper Chicken Legs with Broccoli Rice and Cheese
-Kebabs (great for us because he eats all the meat and I get all the veggies!)
-Pork Chops with mashed potatoes (2 pork chops fit beautifully in the baby crock)
-Lasagna Roll Ups
-Chicken Pasta
I sat for a while yesterday, staring at the grocery ads, hoping they would give me some inspiration on what to cook. They helped a little, since chicken legs are $.79/lb today, and broccoli is on super-sale as well. Now that I have my menu for the week, I know exactly what I need, and where to get it cheap! This is all looking much easier now.
The other lucky thing is, I don't mind shopping at 3 different grocery stores to get all the best deals. I mean, I'm no extreme couponer or anything, but they send out weekly sale ads for a reason, right? My goal for the next two months is to basically cut our monthly average grocery bill in half. Obviously I won't count March, because there is less than a week left. But April and May, I want to get us below $200. Over the last 4 months, we have averaged about $350. This is including a lot of beer and wine, and grilling out extra food for friends that don't always show up. But if I budget and shop properly, we can still do all that. So I'm off to peruse the ads, and get my shopping done!
.JPG)
