tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45239915191418037032024-02-18T21:20:07.470-05:00House MadeCorriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-87075433832502052052012-07-27T10:00:00.000-04:002012-07-27T10:04:05.623-04:00She's Baaack!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, after a <i>3 month </i>(gasp!) hiatus, I'm finally back in blogging action. After the dealing with the <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/hard-way.html">dropped laptop/damaged hard drive incident</a>, the busy summer season jumped into full swing in May with planting the garden, my birthday, college reunion, many birthday celebrations for family and friends, plus training for a 100 mile bike ride taking place next weekend and the Chicago Marathon on October 7th. Add to that a month and a half of appointments and tests to diagnose a medical problem I was having, plus many other weekend activities, and you can see why I've been absent from the blogosphere. But never fear, I've still been doing little projects in the meantime and am working on getting some posts together to share with you, specifically a little how-to on biking to work and a breakdown of projects we did for our porch makeover. </div>
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For now, I'll be heading to the dark side. </div>
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But not that one. This one.<br />
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I am FINALLY painting our master bedroom! Specifically, Antique Tin by Behr. Maybe it's just me, but I love feeling like I'm sleeping in a dark, cozy cave. I was looking for something that was navy, but muted a bit with grey so that it would more soothing and calm versus a bluer shade that might read too saturated on the walls. After the swatches had been hanging in our room for, oh, you know, only a year, I just couldn't take the mint green walls anymore. Remember this from the home tour?<br />
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Well, it should probably be labeled "Now-ish" because I couldn't wake up to the pink floral valances one more day and got rid of them long ago. However, everything else is pretty much the same (including the paint swatches). The color we picked is the top swatch on the wall. In addition to painting, I plan to do some caulking around the basboard and windows where there are some gaps, clean the trim (and possibly paint it), and switch out the bedding and window treatments. I already have a cheery, new quilt, so between that and painting, it should make a big difference until I can finish the rest. Plus, it will keep me occupied and out of the way so Darren can have some guy time while he hosts poker at our house tonight. <br />
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Let the Friday night painting extravaganza begin! I'll be back soon with updates!Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-43761019071549524802012-04-29T22:58:00.000-04:002012-04-29T22:58:34.693-04:00The Hard WayToday's post is brought to you by the letter 'H.'<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of www.sesamestreet.org<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Particularly, things that being with the letter H: 'hard drive' and 'hard way.' Used in a sentence: "Corrie has learned the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>hard way</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> by not backing up her </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>hard drive</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">."</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Due to an accidental incident involving my laptop being dropped (not by me), and failure to back up any data during the year I've owned it (all my fault), I was without a computer for much of the month of April...hence my absence from blogland. The good news is that my amazing friend Jeff happened to have an old hard drive sitting in his closet from a mis-shipment awhile back and gave it to me for free. My hero. The bad news is that I probably can't recover (or afford to recover) any of my data, which means I have lost tons of pictures of projects we've done and didn't get a chance to post about. These were some of the more time consuming projects, which would involve long posts that I just hadn't had time to type up yet. They were:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> installing a kitchen cabinet, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">restaining our patio furniture, DIY baby shower gifts (nursing cover, pacifier clips, baby headbands), and replacing pipes/installing a drain in the walkway outside our back door. Perhaps the biggest loss - and most disappointing loss of pictures - was from a an electrical project we did with my dad in which we ran wiring for a new outlet in the dining room and two electrical boxes in the half bath, allowing us to install a wall sconce and light switch. (The half bath formerly had a ceiling light with a pull string that you had to pull horizontally to turn on - not easy for someone who is 5'2".) Not only was it our first major project, but I had planned to rely on the pictures and documented steps as a reference for future electrical work. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">That - relying on pictures and documentation of completed projects to replicate or help with future projects - is really the core purpose of why I started this blog in the first place. Even though the results are physically present in my home or as gifts in my friend's home, the processes are lost. And to me, those processes carry just as much value. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And so my friends, though I am saddened at the loss of all that I wanted to share with you (and keep for reference), I'm forging ahead with some new projects. I am also thanking my lucky stars that I only had one year's worth of data on my computer. Though a lot of bookmarked recipes, project ideas, and house inspiration stuff was lost, most pictures from life events during that time are on Facebook, most of my music is on cd, my iPod or my old desktop in the attic, and important financial documents from my taxes and house purchase are not gone forever. Things could have been much worse. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The moral of today's story? Go out and buy an external hard drive, then back up all your info. Or if you already back up your info, do it more often...You never know when someone might drop your laptop and everything could be gone in an instant! </span></div>
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</tbody></table>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-33900140069233039142012-03-14T01:35:00.000-04:002012-03-14T10:55:22.074-04:00DIY Dog BedLast Tuesday, you got a little glimpse of the <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/emergency-project.html">'party' in the living room</a> that Remy had with her dog bed. As you might recall, we came home the Friday before to find this scene...<br />
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...complete with <strike>not so</strike> innocent face. And so, an 'emergency' dog bed project was born. As I mentioned in my <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/emergency-project.html">first post</a>, this whole situation wasn't exactly a surprise. Remy has ripped holes in her bed (and I've sewn them) twice already, so I knew that my temporary fixes weren't going to last long. A number of people pointed out to me that Costco has large dog beds for about $40, but apart from not having a Costco membership, anything I've seen for that price either wasn't big enough, didn't have a separate washable cover, or had very thin material...meaning it definitely wouldn't last almost 5 years like the first one did. Especially with this kind of action (to the tune of "The Entertainer" so you don't have to listen to our tv...it always pops into my head when she does this):</div>
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That was a little more low-key than usual. Anyway, I decided that DIY-ing a new bed for Remy, reusing the current filling plus adding some new fluff, would be more economical and durable than anything I could buy at a store. Awhile back, I found this tutorial for a kid's floor cushion from <a href="http://www.livingwithpunks.com/2010/05/tutorial-land-of-nod-inspired-floor.html">Living With Punks</a>. <br />
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Source: <a href="http://www.livingwithpunks.com/2010/05/tutorial-land-of-nod-inspired-floor.html" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">livingwithpunks.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/corrieh/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Corrie</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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It was essentially the same shape as Remy's bed, just with different dimensions, so I figured it would be a good guideline for doggy bed assembly. I <a href="http://pinterest.com/corrieh/">pinned it on Pintrest</a> to save for future reference. <br />
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I also pinned this doggy-bed-related-but-otherwise-irrelevant picture of an Irish Wolfhoud, which made me laugh because it perfectly sums up Remy's relationship with other dogs. And I love Irish Wolfhounds.</div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">Uploaded by user</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/corrieh/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Corrie</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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Oooo, I just want to snuggle him! ...Er, Let's get on with the bed making. <br />
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I wanted Remy's bed to be both durable and aesthetically pleasing because - let's be honest - given its size, it might as well be a major focal point in our living room's decor. So the supplies I picked up were:<br />
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<li>4 yards of seafoam-colored indoor/outdoor fabric with a subtle scroll print from Joann Fabrics for <strong>$39.96</strong> with a 50% discount. (It's similar in color to the fabric on my blue pillows, plus its outdoor durability means it's moisture and stain resistant, easy to clean, and stands up to heavy wear.)</li>
<li>Three 12 ounce bags of shredded foam (to add to the existing filling) for <strong>$8.38</strong> with various coupons. (Joann Fabrics will accept multiple coupons in one transaction so I always have them scan the printouts to see what will work.) </li>
<li>Thread in a coordinating color, which I already had</li>
<li><strong>Total cost: $48.34 </strong>(less than half the cost of her original bed when I purchased it almost 5 years ago)</li>
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The foam was very static-y and had lots of tiny pieces, so I decided to sew closed some old t-shirts with the foam inside, plus one additional t-shirt full of the old filling. I literally just sewed the arm and neck holes closed, dumped a bag of foam in each shirt, then sewed the bottom of the shirt closed.<br />
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The idea is that when it comes time to wash her bed, most of the filling (at least the smaller stuff) will be contained in 'bolsters' (the t-shirts) so that we don't have to deal with this :<br />
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You could easily sew together one giant bolster, but I didn't want to spend more money on fabric when I could just use t-shirts.<br />
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While Remy was swimming in a sea of stuffing, I was busy cutting apart her old bed along its seams, which left me with three pieces, much like the pieces in the floor cushion tutorial: the top and bottom circles (each 48 inches in diameter) plus the side piece (6 inches wide and about 154 inches long). The side piece was actually made up of three separate strips of fabric, since one of the strips contained a zipper. Because I also planned to add a zipper (and my fabric wasn't wide enough to cut one long strip), I determined the measurements of the three almost-equal strips were 51in.+51in.+52in.=154inches total (the circumference of the bed). I things are getting a little math-y, so I hope you're still following! <br />
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I used the old bed pieces to trace the top circle onto the new fabric, measuring my pencil line 1 inch out to accommodate the seam allowance.<br />
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I cut out my new top circle and then traced it on the fabric to make the bottom circle. </div>
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Then I measured, drew, and cut out the strips that would form my side piece, adding in 1 inch for seam allowance. Two strips measured 52in. x 7in. and the zipper piece (which I then cut in half to insert the zipper) was 53in. x 8in. </div>
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The reason the zipper piece was 8in. was because I had to account for seams to sew in the zipper, plus seams to attach it to the top and bottom circles (2 sets of seams adds 2 inches). Here's a diagram that better illustrates the pieces:</div>
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The first piece I sewed was the zipper, following <a href="http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2007/05/installing-a-zipper-tutorial-by-michelle/">these instructions</a>, though I kind of half-a**ed it by not doing a basting stitch, using glue, or a zipper foot. Oh, and I bought a separating zipper (the kind you would have on a sweatshirt) instead of a regular one...so basically, it's amazing this thing even turned out ok, especially since I was a zipper-sewing virgin. One thing to note is that I stitched around the whole thing twice for extra reinforcement.<br />
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With the zipper piece done (are you tired of me saying "zipper" yet?), it was time to attach all the side pieces together. This required some quick pinning, then sewing the ends of all three pieces, right sides (aka patterned sides) facing, into one long strip.<br />
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Then I joined the ends of the strip and sewed those together to make a continuous circle. Before proceeding, I pressed all my seams so that my fabric was nice and flat.</div>
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Next step was to attach the side piece to the top circle. I laid the circle out, flat on the ground, with the right side facing up. Laying the side piece on top with right sides facing together, I pinned the outer edge of the side piece to the outer edge of the circle. REWIND. Let me note that I actually did this completely wrong the first time. Not only did I waste an entire night after work incorrectly pinning and double-sewing (twice for reinforcement of course), but then I wasted an additional work night solely ripping seams out to redo it. You live and you learn I guess. So let's learn from my stupidity. </div>
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Wrong way:</div>
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Right way: </div>
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Glad we've got that covered. Evening three of dog bed making was when I finally sewed the side piece and first circle together for the second and last time. After two evenings of issues, I couldn't seem to excuse myself from another. Let me preface this by saying that anyone who has ever used a sewing machine knows that there is an evil spirit lurking inside every single one. Not.Even.Kidding. I think every time I've ever used my sewing machine for a project, at least one thing happens that leaves me cursing at it. Maybe it's because Greta the <strike>Mean</strike> Green <strike>Sewing Machine</strike> has been around since the 1950s and has a short temper.<br />
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Or it could just be user error. Either way, I can't imagine I'm the only one (besides <a href="http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/04/ing-sewing-machine/">Sherry at Young House Love</a>) who has these problems. At least my machine has kept me from subscribing to the Humpty Dumpty school of hard knocks - I've learned how to put her all back together again. <br />
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So I guess what I'm getting to is my night #3 incident.<br />
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Enter stage left: blood blister/cut/thumb nail bruise. Let me tell you. Almost sewing your thumb off is a sure fire way to instill a fear of sewing machines in any DIY- savvy person. I hope the fact that it still hurts and I can barely button my own buttons a week later is enough to convince you to <strike>question my sewing abilities</strike> never let your fingers get caught up in your sewing bidness. By that I mean, don't feed your fabric from the front even when you know it's a bad idea but think it will be ok. Because it won't.<br />
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At this point, my blood, sweat, and almost-tears were officially part of Remy's dog bed. I took a band-aid break and Darren asked, "So, do you think you'll finish tonight so Remy has her bed while we're at work tomorrow?" I think I muttered something along the lines of "Remy can shove it and so can this #*$% bed." (Sorry Remy, I take it all back now. Please don't sit on me.)<br />
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But actually, I did finish that night, after one last step. Sewing the second circle to the other edge of the side piece (which was now attached to the first circle on one edge). I did it the same way as the first circle, by laying the pieces right sides facing and pinning around the edges. I had to bunch some of the top circle's fabric into the middle to get the outer edges to line up flat.<br />
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Then I sewed around the edges twice for reinforcement. Because the bed has a zipper, I didn't need to worry about leaving an opening in the stitching in order to turn the bed right-side-out. Unzip and it was done.<br />
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All that was left was to stuff and fluff with the t-shirt 'bolsters' and the old reused filling.<br />
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Ta daaa!</div>
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No fancy cording around the edges like the floor pillows on Pinterest had (it would've added too much to the cost), but that's ok. It's just a dog bed. And apparently a comfy one at that.</div>
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Oh, what we do for our dogs.<br />
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I'm hooking this project up with the Pinterest Challenge: Winter Edition, hosted by Sherry at <a href="http://www.younghouselove.com/2012/03/winter-pinterest-challenge-bag-it/">Young House Love</a>, Katie at <a href="http://www.bowerpowerblog.com/2012/03/pinterest-challenge-watercoloring/">Bower Power</a>, Cassie at <a href="http://hisugarplum.blogspot.com/2012/03/pinterest-challenge-day-diy-faux.html">Hi Sugarplum</a>, and Erin at <a href="http://tatumgreatindoors.blogspot.com/2012/03/winter-pinterest-challenge-mason-jar.html">The Great Indoors</a>.<br />
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Feel free to check out my past Pintrest Challege projects too! A <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/diy-typography-art.html">personalized typography LOVE print</a> and <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/pillow-talk.html">Pottery Barn knockoff pillows</a>.</div>
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<a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Craft%20Projects/3ee758c5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="305" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Craft%20Projects/3ee758c5.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1XSJ7TLuxzzaAaAW-NqsuC80kRbr0PcUDDVbD6le4in1bzrDh5a5zwdSCcZJOJ7riToZb3OkRxyOwbUakV7Pkf39CO2tDgHUKQcm2aTYZp_RGhwncLXq-kZuQ1lRmXRnR757sE6ZIRc/s1600/DSC02146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img aea="true" border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1XSJ7TLuxzzaAaAW-NqsuC80kRbr0PcUDDVbD6le4in1bzrDh5a5zwdSCcZJOJ7riToZb3OkRxyOwbUakV7Pkf39CO2tDgHUKQcm2aTYZp_RGhwncLXq-kZuQ1lRmXRnR757sE6ZIRc/s320/DSC02146.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-22425599432838671882012-03-06T12:07:00.002-05:002012-03-12T19:53:53.390-04:00'Emergency' ProjectSooo....this is what we came home to on Friday.<br />
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Oh, hey Remy. Looks like you're having some issues with your bed. Sounds like a personal problem.<br />
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Actually, it's been a bit of an ongoing problem - like 6 months ongoing - that started out more like this (the raggedy thing next to her is a giant knotted ball of rope aka one of her toys):<br />
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Which resulted from these (giant holes in her bed that I have already sewn closed two times): <br />
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Which brings us back to this (the holes are ripping open for the third time): <br />
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As you can see, underneath her there is a giant hole about 18 inches wide - among other smaller holes - spewing the contents of her bed all over our living room. <br />
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I don't want to give her any bad street cred, though. This didn't result from her chewing the bed - she's never been much of a chewer-of-things. Despite being a good dog, she isn't exactly a <em>normal </em>dog when it comes to laying down. Apparently, she is on a life-long quest for Ultimate Bed Fluffyness. The quest takes shape in one of two forms. Either stomp-circling her bed before she lays down, as a normal dog would do...although, as you can see in this video, her circling lasts an obscenely long time. (Sorry for the darkness. Even with the lights on in our living room it's still not very bright.)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzjfvPrpk0bmbO1lsFDAXfKiAwSU8qQcqAJikJYCs9KLt5C6x3xWhgGwmpQw8aCYiahSujT2kniVq8hwPxGZw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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This only captured about 30 seconds of it before my camera died - she laid down shortly after - but she sometimes does this for up to 2 minutes. Destructive, no. Weird, yes. Humorous, maybe (probably more so in person). </div>
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And then there is the other way, that in which the beast is unleashed. Apparently disgruntled by its location or lack of fluff, Remy kicks her bed around with her feet, like a kid trying to juggle a soccer ball. She tromps and flops it across the living room and back. Grabs it in her mouth and tries to toss it. Flips it in half. I yell. She stares. Repeat. Her bed becomes less layable than it was in the first place. This inevitably ends with me grabbing her bed, fluffing it, and telling her to lay down on it. She looks at me like I ruined everything, disdainfully obeys, and the sometimes gets back up to try all over again. It's quite a dramatic affair. I only wish I had a video to show you, but since we try to discourage her bed abuse ("ultimate comfort seeking" is probably what she would call it), I don't have any live-action-proof. </div>
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You now understand how her poor, abused bed has been left for the third time bleeding of its fluff, some of which is gone forever. The whole bed has become somewhat deflated, which only perpetuates Remy's need for more fluff. It's like an addition for her, I think. </div>
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Ok, Remy. Three strikes. You win. You get a new bed. </div>
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I've been anticipating this for some time. Because dog beds of the same quality and size that she currently has are hard to find and would cost me at least $100 to buy, I've had some fabric at the ready to make her a new one for much cheaper. </div>
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So, I suppose this isn't a <em>real</em> emergency, but considering we have hardwood floors and Remy isn't allowed on the furniture, I'd like to complete her bed as soon as possible. I'm using her old bed as the template and reusing the old stuffing, plus adding more. Work has already started - not without issues - so I will be back later this week with a full report. </div>
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<br /></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-81621961062784725452012-02-21T22:26:00.001-05:002012-02-22T08:45:14.093-05:00Playing Hard to GetI have a confession to make. I'm in love.<br />
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With Darren...yes. But there is another.<br />
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This week, I began an unhealthy love affair with Chaing Mai.<br />
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I know...Chaing Mai is a little crazy. And has been around the block a few times - for a few years in fact. But I just can't resist.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of <a href="http://thedeskofannie.blogspot.com/2009/10/scalamandres-chang-mai-dynasty-fabric.html">The Desk of Annie</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of <a href="http://caitlinwilsondesign.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html">Caitlin Wilson Design</a></td></tr>
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So complex. So much personality. It was love at first sight.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Courtesy of <a href="http://www.yaydecor.com/home/wallpapers-and-fabrics/">Yay Decor</a></td></tr>
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Couldn't you just see it making a home as a pillow on my couch?<br />
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The seemingly random pattern that's so easy to pair with other patterns. That perfect mix of colors found throughout my house. The piece de resistance of my entire first floor. Oh, the places <strike>you'll</strike> it'll go!<br />
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Oh, the drama.<br />
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.:Sigh:. But I forgot to mention a minor little detail. This is only a visual love affair for now, because I ain't no sugar momma. Think $140 per yard. Ouch. On top of the price, it's a designer fabric made by Schumacher (whose fabrics I'm obsessed with, by the way) so it's playing hard to get. I've searched Ebay and Etsy but with nothing very reasonable to be found. The best I could find was a pair of pillows made with the fabric (only on one side) for $100. Still way out of my meager DIY budget. And there's nothing comparable that satisfies me.<br />
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Soooo for now I suppose I am left to dream. And keep stalking Ebay. And Etsy. And maybe save my pennies. And maybe make some calls to some local fabric/upholstery places to see if they might have any remnants. <br />
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And, hey! Any of you out there! Can you help a sister out? Do you or anyone you know have any scraps of this fabric they would be willing to part with? Any idea where I might find some at a bargain price? Chaing Mai in aquamarine. The bane of my existence right now. (Pathetic to say about a piece of fabric, I know. But gosh does it seem so fitting for my house.)</div>
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In the meantime, I'm going to focus on finding some orange curtains. Yep, orange. And picking a paint color so we can get our bedroom makeover. It's about to get crazy in here, kids.</div>
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<br />Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-45377316494971825552012-02-16T23:12:00.001-05:002012-02-16T23:13:43.377-05:00Sweet & SpicyHappy (now belated) Valentine's Day, loves! I originally started writing this this post as I was waiting for my valentine to arrive home from basketball on Tuesday, but since we didn't get our downtime together until about 10:30pm that night, I was never able to get the pics into the post. (Notice a trend here? Belated holiday greetings...belated Valentine's greetings...sometimes I suck at life.)<br />
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I have to admit...I generally don't go crazy over Valentine's Day. As much as I love decorating for holidays (and in general), Valentine's Day isn't something I go ga-ga about. Maybe it's because I (mostly) hate the color pink. Maybe it's because I don't like how the media seems to tell us that if we aren't buying All The Things for our partner that we don't love them enough. Or maybe I'm just a believer in doing the little things that show you care about your loved ones each day, not just on a day that 'designates' you to do so. Regardless, we don't do fancy dinners, or expensive gifts or grand public gestures of appreciation for Valentine's Day. While I love seeing others become joyful over those things, it's just not our style.<br />
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So in true DIY, made-with-love form, I raise a toast of cheap champagne (though not because I think cheaply of <i>you</i>) to you and your valentines, and I bring you our Valentine's Day.<br />
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The morning started with Darren waking up to find 12 post it notes I wrote out last night with cupid arrows drawn on them, each saying "I love you because..." with a reason underneath each arrow. The picture did not come out clear at all, probably due to the fact that I took it on my <strike>dumbphone</strike> non-smartphone while it was still dark out. Knowing that D gets up before me and let's the dog out, I left the post it notes around the house last night in each place he wanders in the morning so that he would find them as he got ready for work. A free and heartfelt way to tell him how much I love the little things he does. Cheesy? Probably. Did he enjoy it? Yes.<br />
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I proceeded to indulge myself in chocolate at work, thanks to my lovely coworkers. When Darren picked me up from work, he had a card waiting on the seat for me with an unexpected little gift inside - a Groupon for a wine education class, which we had been eying up last week...and which I didn't have money to buy at the time. We both love wine, but unlike beer, don't know much about it, so it was a great thing for him to gift to both of us. The somewhat-unfortunate twist was that he didn't realize when he bought it last week that the promotional value expired a week later. Meaning, Monday, the day before Valentine's Day. Shady Groupon place and their shady timeline. No big deal though, because the paid amount never expires so we can still use it, but we'll just end up paying the full price when the time comes.<br />
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When we got home, we proceeded to make dinner as usual and then Darren ran off to basketball. While he was gone, I decided to take advantage of some leftover dark chocolate we had and make chocolate covered strawberries.<br />
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Chocolate covered strawberries are just about one of the easiest desserts you can make. I wanted to jazz them up a little bit by experimenting with some salty/sweet and spicy chocolate combos, so I pulled out some sea salt and cayenne pepper. I dumped a little more than a cup of dark chocolate chunks into a small bowl and heated them in the microwave, stopping to stir every 15 seconds. I know that sounds ridiculous, but if you choose to melt chocolate in the microwave, you must stir it frequently to distribute the heat and keep the chocolate from burning. As long as you obey that rule, microwave melting is much faster than stovetop melting. My plan of attack was to dip a little more than half the strawberries in the regular dark chocolate, then mix the cayenne pepper into the chocolate to do the rest. </div>
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Right after dipping in the chocolate and giving a little twist to catch any drips, I placed them on top of a freezer bag to cool and reharden. Normally you would put them on wax paper, but I realized after I started melting the chocolate that we were out. Oops. I gave a little sprinkle of coarsely ground sea salt over the top of some of the dipped strawberries while they were still melty, and left others plain. When I only had about 6 or 8 left to dip, I mixed about 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper into the dark chocolate and proceeded to coat the rest. Then I quickly sprinkled some cayenne over the tops in order to identify the spiced ones from the regular ones. At this point, many had hardened enough that I could remove them from the <strike>wax paper</strike> freezer bag and put them on a plate in the frig to chill.</div>
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Since I was hoping to present them a little more fancily than "oh hey, check out the plate in the frig," I decided to make a little box to put them in. It was as simple as google-ing "paper box template" and picking one of the many options that popped up. The one I used was from <a href="http://www.ruthannzaroff.com/mirkwooddesigns/templates.htm">mirkwooddesigns.com</a>, and it was fittingly called "candy box." </div>
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When I printed it in it's original size, it looked a bit too small to hold a bunch of strawberries, so I just adjusted my printer settings to 125% and reprinted. It was as simple as tracing the top and bottom pieces on some card stock, cutting them out, folding along the lines, and gluing the corners in place. </div>
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Oh, and then filling with strawberries. I did a row of the salty sweet, a row of regular dark, and a row of cayenne spiced.<br />
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Then I made a little tag out of paper scraps (it says...*geek alert*... "you're spicy and sweet <3 " to match the strawberries) and I tied everything up with baker's twine. </div>
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When Darren arrived home, he opened his card and we proceeded to enjoy the strawberries alongside a cheap, half-full bottle of champagne that had been sitting in the frig (yet was still as carbonated and delicious as the day we opened it). Classy, right? <br />
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Between the cheesy displays of affection via post it notes, a somewhat expired Groupon gift, and a half bottle of cheap champagne, you probably think we have a dysfunctional relationship. To tell you the truth, it was totally 'us' and I wouldn't have had it any other way.<br />
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PS: The strawberries came out great! I loved the salty sweet ones. The spicy ones actually weren't really spicy - you could tell there was a hidden flavor, but the heat didn't really come through. It could just be that we have a good tolerance for spicy food. I might consider adding more cayenne next time, unless I'm feeding them to spice-intolerant friends or family, of course.<br />
<br />Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-35872571746732370682012-02-11T18:31:00.000-05:002012-02-11T18:36:09.553-05:00While You Were Out<div>
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While you were out...er, I mean...while *I* was out -- away from blogland for extended holiday celebrations -- we made a number of exciting upgrades around the house. The main one involved adding additional electrical boxes to our half bath so that we could install a wall mounted light and corresponding switch (more on that later.) We also installed an additional cabinet in the kitchen (more on that to come too). Lastly, there are a couple things we tweaked in our living room that I'm pretty excited about...and those are what I'm going share with you today! Maybe you won't find them blog-worthy, but I was able to get some good deals and I feel like they've helped brighten up the space a bit.<br />
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Last you saw, my living room probably looked like this:</div>
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Womp womp. Dark. Mismatched. Unexciting. Even Remy looks depressed about it. </div>
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While I am very grateful for our free aka hand-me-down couch, I've never been a fan of it's dark green color and it has become a little worse for wear. As you might have guessed, we don't have money to buy a new one anytime soon, nor is it high on the priority list. The table lamp in the corner <strike>with the freakish lighting effects</strike>, which was leftover from Darren's college apartment days, has always gotten on my nerves as well. It's our primary light in the living room because we don't have any overhead lights and it's closer to the couch than our floor lamp. Don't be fooled by it's unnatural glow in this picture. The lamp is too small and barely gives off enough light to be able to read at the other end of the couch. Apart from it's lack of function, it's way too modern for my taste. </div>
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Soooo, here's how we fixed things up a bit:</div>
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Cue heavenly dream sequence, choir gloriously singing, "ahhhh!"<br />
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I had been stalking slipcovers pretty much since the day we moved in, but the average price I was finding for a basic, two-piece/separate seat, fitted slipcover was $120. Regardless of which store/site I ordered it through, I knew that any place would tack on almost $20 to my order in tax and shipping...meaning $140 for the average slipcover. The Sure Fit brand had a lot of good reviews, but despite signing up for email coupons/sales, prices never came to $100 or less with shipping. Target, Macy's, Amazon, and Overstock all carry the brand, so I was sure to keep an out out online and when I happened to be at the store. The specific slipcovers I had my eye on were the Cotton Duck Cloth 2-piece slipcover and the Twill Supreme 2-piece slipcover. Both offer a separate cover for the seat cushions, which gives more of a custom look, and both are machine washable, which is very important because we have a large dog and do a lot of eating on the couch.<br />
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Finally, in December, Macy's had a big home decor sale, which included their slipcovers. Not only was the Twill Supreme slipcover on sale, but so was a fancier, more expensive version that had Scotchguard in the fabric. The Scotchguard version was normally retailing for $200, but with promo codes and the home decor sale, it was only going to cost me $84.99 before shipping! Not only was that a good price for any 2-piece slipcover, but an AMAZING price for one that has 'stain-proof' fabric!<br />
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As you can see, the final amount came to $100.20. It felt like a steal! Shipping only took about a week, and the day I received it, I immediately washed/dried it and put it on the couch. I was giddy with excitement about how much it brightened up our living room (accompanied by <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pottery%20Barn%20Knockoff" target="_blank">the pillow covers I made</a> awhile back)!<br />
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Ok, maybe it doesn't look very bright in that picture because I took it at night, but the slipcover is a nice neutral color. After 2 months of living with it, I'm happy to say that any food spills have wiped off without a problem, and the dog hair is easy to vacuum off as well. We haven't had any problems with the slipcover shifting either. </div>
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My other little bonus buy, with the help of a $15 TJMaxx gift card I received for Christmas, was this handsome lamp for $35, which replaced the old modern slacker we had next to the couch. </div>
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Even Target, where I found a similar lamp, couldn't match the price of this one (the lamp bases alone were $35 at Target, and drum-style lampshades were $16). It's much taller, the shade is bigger, and it has so much more interest than the old one. I only wish I had a close up picture of the old one so you can see the comparison. Actually, I'm not all that sad that there isn't a picture. You're not missing much. Darren happened to come home from basketball right as I was making the lamp switch-a-roo, which meant that he was right in time to witness the 5 minutes of happy dance that ensued when I turned the lamp on. I said, "Aren't you EXCITEDDD, Darren?!" He responded, "I guess I just don't get that excited about lamps." </div>
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You also may have noticed from the pics that we made another upgrade - the rug under the coffee table. This was another exciting steal-of-a-deal that we got back in July. I wanted something 5'x8', durable, soft and with natural fibers. Plus, I tend toward buying indoor/outdoor rugs because they hold up well to Remy's and our foot traffic, they are durable and easy to clean, and they don't have loops that get caught around Remy's nails when she's playing. Jute was a choice that fit all of these things. However, most 5x8s are around $150 and up. I lucked out and found this guy on Overstock, with great reviews, for $80.99. Thanks to Overstock's cheap shipping, regardless of weight, the rug was still a great deal. </div>
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My favorites things about it, after living with it for over 6 months, are that it's soft, double-sided (meaning we can flip it over for even wear), and that all dirt and most of the dog hair falls right through it. I'm not even kidding. I would have taken a picture when I used the shop vac to sweep underneath it last week, but it would be embarrassing for me to show you how much dirt and dog fur accumulates underneath when the top of the rug looks like it's staying so clean! I'm thinking of replacing the other living room rug, which is patterned, with second jute rug so make the room look more like a unified seating area. As much as I dearly love the patterned one and its cheerful colors, I feel like it breaks up the room too much. What do you think? Here's Remy attempting to model the rugs for you.<br />
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Oh, and just in case you were wondering, we didn't upgrade Remy. That girl could never be upgraded. Best doggy we could ever ask for. (Her stuffed dog from the first pic, however, has been downgraded to various pieces parts, and most recently, to the trash can.)<br />
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And no, we didn't make her lay in essentially-the-same-spot as last time. She did that all by herself. I guess she felt that you needed her in the pic for an accurate comparison to the original living room picture. I'm just sad she didn't cross her front legs like a lady, which is how she usually lays. She mentioned something about not wanting to look like she was trying to hard...</div>
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So there you have it. Total cost for new rug, new slipcover and new lamp = <b>$216.19</b>. These items would've cost me around $400 if I had not bought them on sale, or even at other stores. That's almost $200 I saved! Hooray!<br />
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Maybe you think it's a little silly that I'm SO EXCITED about these little improvements. But when you don't have much money to spend, when you realize you can't just re-do a room all at one time, but that you will have to prioritize and save piece-by-piece...when you have to wait very impatiently, watching an item for months, hoping the prices will fall...watching sales go by, thinking "gosh, I should just get it already even though it's still more than I want to pay...but it IS on sale!...but what if that's as far on sale as it's going to go?"...well, you end up celebrating each great-deal-on-a-purchase as a little victory. And it seems that each item in your home gains more worth in your eyes because you worked hard to save the money for it. You struggled to make the smart decision by rejecting your credit card and waiting until you could afford it. And you end up not just purchasing a meaningless, yet functional object to put in your home, but gaining an appreciation for <i>everything</i> you've come to own. Not saying that someone who has the money can't appreciate a lamp or slipcover they purchase right when they need it, just that when you are forced to save and budget-shop, there is a whole new level of appreciation for what's in your house and every decor upgrade feels like a little victory. Why not celebrate the little victories? Maybe i'm getting too sentimental about my household objects, but when I am forced save and wait to get something even as silly as a lamp, I feel a greater pride in the things I own, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that!<br />
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Any big purchases you've made lately that you're excited about? Maybe even something you've been waiting to get and finally were able to with the help of some holiday gift cards? Do share!</div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-63446243372469122922012-01-31T23:02:00.000-05:002012-01-31T23:02:00.071-05:00She's Aliiiiiiive!<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
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Oh man, you guys. I am sooo embarrassed. Like, walked-in-on-in-a-public-bathroom-stall embarrassed. (Which actually DID happen to me at work last week...Awkward.)</div>
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It has been 2 MONTHS since the last time I blogged! I hope you haven't given up on me. I hope you didn't think I forgot about you, because I haven't. I can explain. Really.</div>
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It's not that I haven't had things to blog about- because there are lots of things! It's really because the holiday season has basically lasted 2 months for me this year. Two craaaazy, family-fun-filled months. It started around the time of my last post, when I was preparing a ton of items for our office's craft show (my first show ever). I made <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-youre-feeling-board.html" target="_blank">fabric covered bulletin boards</a>, baby headbands and pacifier clips (a post on those later), and planned to take orders for those items, plus <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/diy-typography-art.html" target="_blank">customized LOVE prints</a>. It was a LOT of work. I ended up selling a number of things, plus I received orders for four LOVE prints and four bulletin boards of different sizes, due by Christmas. Work began on those, during which time we were traveling to my grandma's house in Toledo for Thanksgiving, then a day trip to Wooster to cut down our Christmas tree. Then throw in beer brewing and other preparations for our 2nd annual holiday party the weekend before Christmas, plus Christmas shopping. In the meantime, my office of 300+ people was preparing to move to a new building over Christmas weekend. Being that my department facilitates the offsite storage of our files, we were basically bearing the brunt of people trying to get rid of 20+ years of stuff. I was in the office on any Saturday that I didn't already have plans, plus occasionaly working late one day per week.</div>
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On Christmas Eve, we became the third generation to host my family's traditional pork chop and pierogi dinner for about 11 people. <br />
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The following days were spent running between my dad's house and my mom's house celebrating Christmas, followed by the arrival of my brother, Joe, on December 28th for his 3-week Navy leave from Japan - the first time we had seen him in 14 months! </div>
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We met him at the airport and then had a little gathering at my mom's house to celebrate. A few days later came a hospital visit after the birth of my friend Emily's first baby, New Year's Eve fun with some friends, plus traditional New Year's Day dinner with my dad. At work, we were officially in our new building, but still dealing with areas under construction plus some issues with an employee. The weekend after New Year's we spent celebrating my youngest brother's birthday, which brought us into the second week of Januray. Darren and I had planned a Thursday through Saturday getaway for our 8 year dating anniversary (our Christmas gifts to each other) at a cabin in Millersburg, Ohio, which was a lovely, relaxing time, sans technology, despite some yucky weather. The Saturday we returned, we had planned to have a 'redo' of Christmas Eve dinner so that Joe could enjoy it with our immediate family. Given that some of our other in-town extended family had been out of town for the original dinner, this ended up being another 11 person event. All three of my siblings ended up staying at my house from that Saturday night through MLK Day, so we had quite an extended weekend. It was nice for all of us to be together again right before Joe returned to Japan on Wednesday, even though Darren and I were able to sneak in one more evening with him by having dinner at my mom's house on Tuesday.</div>
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On Thursday, the day after Joe left, we had more house guests arrive! My cousin, Anna, and her husband, Bill, from Maine flew in with my cousin Alaina (Anna'a sister) from Vermont for a Cleveland visit. Most of our Cleveland relatives hadn't met Bill yet, and none of us had seen Alaina in 16 years! Thank goodness for Facebook, because Alaina and I had been able to reconnect over the past couple years and discovered how remarkably similar we are. I joke that she's my "sister from another mister." (You know, like "brother from another mother"...but for girls.)<br />
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Anyway, my dad and one of my aunts joined us all for dinner at my house to celebrate the cousins' arrival. Darren and I had to work on Friday, so we left Anna, Alaina, and Bill with some suggestions for fun places to visit and they did some exploring. We had a cousin get-together with some in-town cousins that night and then had a big family gathering on Saturday at my aunt Cathy's house. It was such a fantastic time and felt as though Anna, Alaina and Bill had been with us all these years, despite the distance. <br />
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With a week to recuperate and get my house back to normal, that brings us to now! PHEW! So, now that I got that recap - which you probably didn't care about - out of the way, let me leave you with some outtakes from our Christmas card photo shoot, just so we can all get one last little taste of the <strike>belated</strike> holiday spirit before Valentine's Day is upon us....<br />
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Don't worry. This was not torturous for Remy at all. In fact, my mom and I had plenty of shredded chicken to feed her and she was quite content to tolerate our shenanigans as long as the chicken was available. (Card was created by me using various pieces parts on <a href="http://www.mixbook.com/">http://www.mixbook.com/</a>)</div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-2286526139368978852011-11-11T12:30:00.001-05:002011-11-15T11:17:27.373-05:00Apple Of My PieI’ve been doing so many projects over the past week or so that I haven’t even had time to write about them! But I wanted to jump in today with a quick post about how I spent my evening last night while Darren was at his pickup basketball game. <br />
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The holidays are my favorite time of year, and I’m always looking for ways to prolong all the delicious smells and dishes that seem to go along with the season. This is especially the case for the hellish three and a half months of Cleveland winter that follow, during which time comfort food is the only means of <s>sanity</s> survival. For me, apple pie is one of those comfort foods, along with apple crisp or any other dessert that remotely resembles apple pie and does not come from an aluminum can (which is just gloppy and unacceptable). So, let me tell you how to savor the flavor. Do your own canning. Go ahead and laugh. What is this, the early 1900s? No, friends. It’s 2011, and the economy is crap. So let me teach you how to be resourceful. And lazy.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> At the same time.</i> I’m blowing your mind right now, I know. Canning may seem like a lot of work on the day you are preparing everything, but it allows you to indulge in cold-weather-laziness for the rest of winter knowing that half the work of a delicious homemade dessert is already done for you. That’s a win in my book. Canned apple pie filling has its obvious use – pie – but can also be used as the base for apple crisp or topping for ice cream, waffles, pancakes, and any other creation you can think of. And, if you were an overzealous apple picker at the fruit farm this year, it’s a great way to use up any extra apples you might be tired of eating without letting them go to waste. Maybe you can even give the jars as cheap but yummy gifts to your pie-loving coworkers. (Spoiler alert if any my coworkers are reading this.) If you’ve read this far, I think you know what I <s>did last summer</s> was doing last night...canning apple pie filling!<br />
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Canning is different from regular cooking in that you have to precisely follow a recipe that was specifically created for home canning. Unfortunately, you can’t just take any old recipe and throw it in a ball jar, nor can you just eyeball the ingredients and make modifications to suit your tastes (which is usually my preferred way of cooking). The reason for this is that there are food safety standards you need to adhere to when preserving food. Blah blah , standards, blah blah....Just kidding. It’s important to find a canning-approved recipe in order to avoid the food spoiling, or even worse, getting someone sick from botulism. Don’t get freaked out. Just find a book on home canning, do a Google search for “canned <insert name of food>” or look up your state university food safety extension office which will have all the recipes and guidelines laid out for you. <a href="http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/pdf/5355.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">Here’s the apple pie recipe I used</span></a>, laid out in a nice <s>pie</s> chart, from the Ohio State University Extension Office. Whatever you use will likely be the same, or similar, so I’m just going to give you a little play by play of how it all went down. </div>
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Knowing I would need to move pretty quickly once the apples were prepared, I gathered up all my necessary 'equipment' and washed and dried everything. This included my water bath canner (you can find them at Walmart and most grocery stores starting around late August), 7 quart sized jars with never-before-used lids (the sealing compound needs to be intact so an airtight seal will form), a funnel, a stock pot for the 'syrup,' another pot to blanche the apples, a cutting board, bowl, and if you are <s>lazy</s> lucky, an 'apple machine.' Needless to say, my little kitchen was quite crowded with all this stuff. And don’t forget the apples! I gathered up the two giant bags of apples we picked at the end of September and gave them a good <s>rub</s> scrub down. I think they were a mixture of Cortland and Jona-gold, but I don't remember because it was so long ago. There we a few bad ones I had to throw out, which didn't surprise me because it had been awhile since we picked them. <br />
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Enter stage right: The Best Kitchen Invention Ever. Action!<br />
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It's an apple corer-peeler-slicer thingy...aka torture device...aka apple machine (I think that's its real name)! Mine was a gift from my mom, but I think you can find them on Amazon. Even if you only make apple pie once a year, you need one of these. It simultaneously peels, cores and slices your apples in a matter of seconds. I think I was able to get through all the apples I needed for my 7 quarts of pie filling within 15 minutes. Ah-mazing. Anyway, before I got carried away with my apple torture device, I started heating a stock pot half full with water in preparation to blanche the apples. I also filled my water bath canner half full with water to start bringing it to a simmer. (I wanted it to be ready ahead of time because as soon as the jars are filled, they need to start processing in the water bath canner immediately.) I cut the apple rings in half and set them aside with a bit of lemon juice until I could get through all of them. Then I blanched them in batches.</div>
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(I promise my apples weren't really a freakish yellow color. I just have terrible lighting in my kitchen, along with yellow painted walls, which tends give all my in-the-kitchen pictures a yellow tint at night.) The already blanched apples stayed warm in a covered bowl while did new batches. When all the apples were ready, I prepared the 'syrup,' which consisted of spices, water, apple juice, sugar and a canning-specific thickening powder called UltraGel. (UltraGel takes the place of cornstarch and also happens to be a pain in the arse to find. Hence the reason I picked apples in September and am just now canning them in November. I ended up ordering it online.) It all went in the pot to bubble and thicken, while I whisked away so nothing would clump or burn on the bottom. </div>
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<a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Apple%20Pie%20Filling/87f1088c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" nda="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Apple%20Pie%20Filling/87f1088c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Once everything was nice and thick, I added the apples back in, folding them so they wouldnt break apart while being fully coated by the syrup. Oh boy were things starting to smell delicious. I wish they made scratch-and-sniff computer screens for your benefit. Now that the whole shebang was ready, I spooned the mixture into my quart sized jars, using a wide mouthed funnel and leaving an inch of head space at the top.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Apple%20Pie%20Filling/headspace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" nda="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Apple%20Pie%20Filling/headspace.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of www.pickyourown.org</td></tr>
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I found the funnel (along with a magnetic lid grabber and plastic spatula) as part of a canning tool kit when I bought the water bath canner. Not only does the funnel fit perfectly inside the jar, but it reaches exactly an inch down into the jar, which serves as a foolproof guideline for the highest point to which you should fill.</div>
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Remove the funnel and take a look at the sides of the jar. You will likely see a few air bubbles, so use a spatula or knife to slowly push along the sides and get rid of them. </div>
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Then I placed the lids on the jars and attached the screw caps. Most water bath canners come with a metal rack that perfectly holds up to 7 quart sized jars. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of www.pickyourown.org</td></tr>
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I put 6 in mine, then used the handles to lower the rack into the pot (which should be at a simmer by now if you started it earlier.) The water should cover the jars by 1 to 2 inches, so if it doesn’t, add a bit more. <br />
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With the water at a boil, I put the lid on the pot and started the processing time according to the recipe – in this case, it was 25 minutes. When the processing time was up, I pulled the hot jars out using a jar grabber (also in the canning tool kit) and set them on a towel to cool. I also checked the lids to make sure they were concave, meaning they have sealed properly. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of www.pickyourown.org</td></tr>
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In the words of Borat - great success!<br />
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You might have realized at this point that the recipe makes 7 quarts of pie filling, but I only processed 6 jars. Well, you didn’t expect me to stand around smelling all this deliciousness and not eat any of it, did you!? I mean, how could I give away all this pie filling without even knowing how it tastes? So, I dumped what would’ve been the 7<sup>th</sup> jar of filling into a small baking dish and whipped up a quick crumble topping. If you needed to be convinced of the convenience of this recipe, it took me about 5 seconds to put the filling in the pan and mix it with a dash of vanilla extract, and only another 5 min to make the crumble topping ( 1/3 C oats, 1/3 C flour, ½ C brown sugar, 6T cold butter, a dash of salt and a dash of cinnamon mixed with a fork until crumbly). I baked it at 400 degrees for 30 minutes – a sweet surprise for Darren when he returned home from basketball. <br />
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Who am I kidding. It was really just a sweet <s>surprise</s> treat for me. Wink!<br />
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</div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-68442475514745131752011-11-02T09:19:00.002-04:002012-03-14T01:35:41.020-04:00DIY Typography ArtHappy Wednesday! If you remember from Monday, among the <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/all-hallows-eve.html" target="_blank">pumpkin carving shenanigans</a> in my Halloween post, I let you all in on a little preview of my latest DIY project. In case you missed it, I made a personalized, typographic art print for Darren's niece/my goddaughter, Olivia, who was celebrating her first birthday this past weekend. Her mom had made a specific gift request, but since I like to give homemade gifts, I thought I would supplement the requested gift with something else. Of course, I turned to my favorite inspiration-inducing culprit, Pintrest, to get some ideas. If you're a frequent reader of this blog (do any actually exist?), you might remember <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/pillow-talk.html" target="_blank">this Pottery Barn 'pinspired' home decor project</a> awhile back. We interrupt this program for a brief announcement.<br />
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If you haven't yet discovered Pintrest, you don't know what you're missing. It's like the preferred drug of eye-candy oglers and bookmarking fanatics. I'm addicted, on it until the wee hours, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside...only instead of just saying no, I say heck yes every time. And it's legal.<br />
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There. I'm done. Sorry for the bordering-on-creepy analogy. Back to business.<br />
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There were tons of adorable (and DIY-able) baby items and projects I was finding, but for some reason, the personalized art was really striking a chord with me. I think what I liked most about the art was that many of the prints could be appreciated by Olivia for years to come, versus clothes and accessories, which she would quickly outgrow. These were a couple of my favorite finds.<br />
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Source: <a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/80362672/11x14-abc-print-i-love-you-alphabet-love?ref=sr_gallery_29&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=baby+typography&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">etsy.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/corrieh/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Corrie</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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Source: <a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/52965419/custom-baby-name-letter-8x10?ref=sr_gallery_22&ga_search_query=baby+art&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=10&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;">etsy.com</a> via <a href="http://pinterest.com/corrieh/" style="color: #76838b; font-size: 10px; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Corrie</a> on <a href="http://pinterest.com/" style="color: #76838b; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></div>
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I loved how the first print colorfully emphasizes "I love you" within the alphabet, while the second was more personalized with a name and initial. Apart from all other practical and baby-gift-related reasons, I think that typography is pretty much the bees knees (does anyone even use that phrase anymore?). Plus it seemed like something my graphic-arts-rookie self could tackle. Double win. For some reason, seeing the "I love you" print reminded me of Robert Indiana's iconic LOVE screen print.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of www.moma.org</td></tr>
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And...woop there it <strike>is</strike> was. My inspiration (or perhaps 'pinspiration,' thanks to Pintrest's influence). I could do my own take on Indiana's print, personalizing the 'O' with Olivia's name repeated in different fonts and sizes like the 'E' print above. Since I didn't have a plain template to work from, knew I would likely need to make a lot of text boxes, and assumed I would want to have a lot of control over placement, color etc., I knew Microsoft Publisher wasn't going to cut it. However, I don't have Photoshop or Illustrator (I'm too poor to invest the money into buying those programs considering the little bit of design stuff I like to <strike>pretend I can</strike> do), so I jumped into my <strike>ghetto fabulous</strike> free version of Gimp, a Photoshop program wannabe. </div>
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From there, I opened a blank 8.5"x11" 'image,' found a serif font that looked like the one in Indiana's print, and created a separate text box for each giant letter. I rotated the 'O' and changed the font color to a shade of grey so that I could use it as an outline over which to place the text boxes. </div>
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Next mission: create many, many text boxes. I wanted one of Olivia's names to stand out more than the others, so I made that as the first layer in a nice scripted font. Then, like a mad woman, I continued creating 'Olivia' text box layers in all sizes and fonts. Some were all lower case, some all upper case, and some in the traditional proper noun way, but I tried to vary them to keep it interesting. It really started filling in, as you can see in the up-close-and-personal screen shot below.</div>
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Some of the small spaces were getting hard to fill in, but I tried not to let them bother me too much. In fact, I saved a number of them for last, since it was hard to find fonts that I could make small enough to fit, but would still be legible. Once everything was filled in, I removed the original 'O.' </div>
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I was so excited about how it turned out that I got off the couch and did an Ellen-esque dance. Only substitute the cheering audience and President Obama with an unfazed Darren at the other end of the couch (my spontaneous bursts of dancing no longer surprise him). </div>
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Somewhere between finishing the 'O' and busting a move in my living room, I came to the realization that I could do the same design with the 'V,' which couldn't be more perfect since Olivia's last name is Vaughan. (The excitement probably only enhanced my dance moves.) So I immediately got to work on it in the same way I started the 'O' - by greying out the letter 'V', creating a large focal point word in the same font as the one in the 'O,' and throwing in text box layers. It was starting to look like The Sorcerer's Apprentice up in this place, only with multiplying text layers instead of brooms.</div>
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The skinny, right side of the 'V' was a bit challenging because the fonts had to be so small to fit. I didn't want them all the same size, so I made some of the words vertical or broken into two lines. </div>
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When all was said and done, I removed the original, grey 'V.'</div>
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I was really happy with how it came out, but it needed some color. Her room has light blue and light green paint colors, so I considered coordinating the print. However, I also thought about using colors that would be more timeless (less pastel/baby-ish) in hopes that Olivia would still enjoy her art as she grows older and into more mature room decor. </div>
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Ultimately, I decided that the green and blue looked too washed out. The black and rose were a bit more sophisticated, plus the pink color of the focal words drew attention to her full name within the initials. </div>
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A smidge of color and 230 text layers later, I was done. Since Olivia's room doesn't currently have anything on the walls except a tree and Winnie the Pooh mural in the far corner (I knew this from little a reconnaissance mission I did last time I was at their house), I wanted to make sure the print was a fairly large size. I found a 12" square frame with an 8" mat, which I thought would be the perfect size - big enough to read the print and square to fit the shape of the text. Plus it was on sale for 50% off at Michael's. Boo-yah. I had some leftover 110lb card stock leftover from doing the <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Wedding" target="_blank">programs for Rachel's wedding</a>, so I took some of it to Office Max to have my art printed. It came out really nice (though I might try matte photo paper next time just to see what the difference is). I just barely had enough time to frame and wrap it before the party, so I didn't have time to take a picture. Jamie (Olivia's mom) had to send me one from her phone later. </div>
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It seemed that a lot of people at the party liked it, and one of my friends even suggested that I try selling other customized versions on Etsy. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in something like this, either with a child's first and last name or a whole family's first names and last name? Now that I have a 'template,' I wonder how long it would take me to make a new version. Regardless, I hope it has inspired you to try your own typography art. It really was quite simple...just time consuming!...but with a fun result.</div>
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Since Pintrest was a big part of my inspiration for this project, I've decided to link this post up as part of the fall Pintrest Challege, hosted by the lovely and always inspiring ladies at <a href="http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/11/fall-pinterest-challenge-ornaments-a-plenty/" target="_blank">Young House Love</a>, <a href="http://www.bowerpowerblog.com/" target="_blank">Bower Power</a>, <a href="http://ana-white.com/" target="_blank">Ana White</a> and <a href="http://www.houseofearnest.com/2011/11/02/a-little-gold-lining-for-your-wednesday/" target="_blank">House of Earnest</a>. (I participated in their summer challenge <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Pottery%20Barn%20Knockoff" target="_blank">here</a>.) I could only dream of aspiring to their level of blogging greatness and general DIY coolness. </div>
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As well as a couple of other link 'parties':</div>
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<a href="http://www.abeachcottage.com/" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Good Life Wednesdays" border="0" src="http://www.abeachcottage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/good-life-wednesday-a-beach-cottage3.jpg" title="show me the bood life" /></a><a href="http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" src="http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy63/brockmeb/th_wowuswedparty.jpg" /></a></div>
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As always, I would love to hear your feedback! Do you have any cool typography prints in your house? Do you think this project has Etsy potential? </div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-8369469964244349872011-10-31T23:05:00.000-04:002011-10-31T23:05:44.023-04:00All Hallows EveHappy Halloween everyone! I think what might be scariest about today is that it has been nearly a MONTH since I've posted anything! Admittedly, life has gotten in the way a bit this October - a trip to Chicago to run the Chicago Marathon with my good friend, Jeff, and a trip to Toledo to see my Grandma and visit my brother at BGSU, among other things - so I haven't been doing as many projects and posts as I would like. However, there must be some sort of voice inside my head telling me to make up for lost time, because I’ve decided to cram in a number of projects between last week and this week. I must be crazy...Is there a full moon tonight?...Sometimes I hate that little voice...Anyway, you know what ‘lots of projects’ means. Lots of things to post about! So, I will be back in a couple days to dish on some typography art I made, and then soon after that with an outdoor house upgrade and some DIY baby shower gifts. But for now, in honor of Halloween, I thought I would share our pumpkin carving activities from this weekend, along with a few tips and tricks my family likes to use. <br />
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This weekend was another busy one. We hit up The Brew Kettle on Friday to buy some ingredients so that we could homebrew the second of two beers we plan to have ready for our holiday party in December. (Check out <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/something-brew.html">this post</a> for a glimpse into how we brew beer in our kitchen.) On Saturday, my dad came over to help Darren with an outdoor project that we needed to finish before the ground freezes (which is quickly approaching!). Meanwhile, I did a little cleaning and worked on a typographic art gift for Darren’s niece/my goddaughter Olivia’s first birthday. I can’t believe how much that sweet little one has grown over the past year. This is a picture of her from last Halloween, wearing a pumpkin hat I made, just a week after she was born.<br />
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We brewed the beer on Sunday morning and I had Olivia’s “art” printed just in time to go to her party. Here’s a little preview (I’ll tell you more about how I made it on Wednesday):<br />
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Her parents did a great job with the party – yummy food, an activity for the kids, and lots of people. Afterward, we went to my mom’s house to carve pumpkins. In true Corrie-and-Darren-procrastination-spirit – because planning ahead is <s>for smart people </s>lame – we waited until the day before Halloween to buy our pumpkins. Bad choice. I/We stopped at 5 different places trying to find pumpkins, and were overjoyed to finally come across some pathetic looking, on-the-verge-of-rotting ones at Giant Eagle. Didn’t matter. It was something to carve. All was made better when we arrived at my mom’s house, where she had everything ready, including drinks and a cozy fire, which our dog, Remy, loves. (To clarify, Remy loves the fire, not the drinks...though she HAS been known to try stick her face in my wine glass when I’m not looking, so maybe the latter is true as well). <br />
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My mom tried to get in some pics when she wasn’t doing her own carving. Since most people probably already know how to carve a pumpkin, I don’t feel the need to give you a complete rundown, but here’s the pics with a few tips...pics and tips...that sounds fun.<br />
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Look for a pattern online. <a href="http://www.bhg.com/halloween/pumpkin-carving/vampires-werewolves-ghosts-halloween-pumpkin-stencils/">Better Homes and Gardens</a> has some great free ones for all experience levels, including <a href="http://www.bhg.com/halloween/pumpkin-carving/pumpkin-carving-stencils-of-favorite-dogs/">dog breed patterns</a>, though Remy was offended that they didn’t have a Great Dane. Print out your pattern and hold it up to your pumpkin. Cut inward slits in the places where the pattern is not laying very flat to help form it around your pumpkin. Secure it with tape or pins. Use a pen, pushing really hard, or use something with a point to poke holes in order to trace the pattern onto the pumpkin. Putting transfer paper under your pattern is the easiest, if you have it, and you don’t have to press as hard when you use it. <br />
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When you cut out your pumpkin lid, be sure to angle the knife outward from the center of the hole so that there is a slanted ridge for the lid to rest on when you put it back in place. Otherwise, if you cut straight up and down, you risk your lid falling through your pumpkin. Take it from Darren. He had to rig his up with some toothpicks. Rookie mistake. <br />
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For a sweet smelling surprise when you light your pumpkin, sprinkle cinnamon on the underside of your lid after you cut off the goopies. Goopies is the technical name, you know. <br />
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It's worth picking through the goopies to pull out all the pumpkin seeds - think of it as a bonus snack. Lay them on a baking sheet to dry a bit, then mix in a bowl with 2 teaspoons of melted butter (or olive oil) and spices. Try chili powder with cumin or cayenne for spicy, cinnamon and brown sugar for sweet, or just plain ol' seasoned salt. Spread them back out on the baking sheet in a thin layer and roast them in the oven at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the seeds are light brown. <br />
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If you’re unsure of your carving abilities, pick something with simple shapes, like Darren’s owl. It wasn’t too challenging, but turned out super awesome. He was seriously doubting his carving abilities, but I think he did a great job. And now he has renewed confidence for next year.<br />
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</div>Or, if your eyes are bigger than your carving skills, you want to spend a couple hours getting to know your pumpkin, or don’t mind ending up with a claw hand by the time you’re done, pick a more complicated pattern with small openings, like I did. Overachiever mistake. <br />
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Ironically, the very last piece I carved out caused some other thinner sections to detach. If this happens, don't despair - you can use pieces of toothpicks to re-stabilize them. <br />
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Maybe carving out pumpkin chunks isn’t your idea of a good time. You can always ‘shade’ your pumpkin by just cutting away the outer skin and a little bit of the flesh. The light will still shine through, but with a softer glow that creates a different effect. Most of the pattern I carved two years ago was done using this method.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/remypumpkins.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/remypumpkins.png" width="640" /></a></div>Enjoy it as much as you can before it rots, or in our case, before the squirrels eat it! These were what my mom and sister carved.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Feel free to share links/pictures of YOUR pumpkins – it’s so fun to see what everyone made! Happy haunting tonight! </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-82795360527447115042011-10-03T18:58:00.016-04:002011-10-04T22:09:10.239-04:00Halloween Decorations & PrintablesIt's fall ya'll! And boy has October come in with a bang. Here in Cleveland it was a rainy, windy, miserably cold weekend. Who am I kidding...that pretty much sums up the past two weeks. Regardless, I used this gross-weather-weekend as a good opportunity to put in some overtime at work, cook up some potato leek soup, and then bust out the Halloween decorations! The start of October officially means Halloween in my book, and as one of my favorite holidays - a close second only to Christmas - I wanted to get the decorations up asap. (Darren has been asking "When are you going to put up the fall decorations?" for about 2 weeks now, so I guess 'asap' might not be the right description...) Plus, I saw that one of my favorite blogs, <a href="http://theletteredcottage.net/ideas-for-fall/">The Lettered Cottage</a>, was hosting a fall link party, so I thought it would be fun to participate. You know how I need extra motivation sometimes. (If you want to see what a REAL blog looks like, check out Layla and Kevin over on The Lettered Cottage. Not only do awesome house projects, but they have some mad photography skills. Their talent puts me to shame.)<br />
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Anyway, I got D to bring down my one and <strike>lonely</strike> only box of halloween decorations from the attic. Some people like cute little pumpkins and scarecrows as decorations around Halloween time, which can be fun and kid-friendly. But Darren and I? No sir. Our objective is to scare the crap out of kids. We hope to one day win the Lifetime Achievement Award for Halloween Scariness (if one ever existed) by gradually turning our place into the creepiest haunted house on this side of the Cuyahoga. I emphasize gradually because, honestly, do you know how easy it is to blow all of your money on Halloween decorations? That ish is expensive. Which is why we try to buy decorations AFTER Halloween when it all goes on clearance. But what fun is buying decorations after Halloween when you're soooo excited to decorate now? It's not. Which is why I try to find DIY projects and other things around the house that I can use to make me feel like I have something new to put up. Such is the life of <strike>cheap</strike> frugal new homeowners.<br />
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After I pulled everything out of the box, I realized I only had enough decorations to really do the mantel and the dining room table. Kind of lame, but I'll take it for now. I started with 5 kraft paper skulls, which I coffee stained last fall to make them look old and textured; a creepy, furry rat; a bust statue of a vampire we picked up on clearance a few years ago; some candles; and a spider I also made last fall by painting styrofoam balls and attaching black wire for legs.<br />
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When we were up in the attic looking for the Halloween box, I spotted some grey corbels my mom gave me awhile ago for a future unknown project and thought they might work as candle 'holders.' I threw them up on either side of the mirror and scattered some plain candles I already had.<br />
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Since everything was kind of small-scale and spaced out across the mantel, it looked pretty empty. On an experimental whim, I grabbed a yard of burlap and a roll of fall colored ribbon I've had sitting among my craft stuff for close to a year. The burlap acted as a nice base to anchor all the small items, and the ribbon created a nice colorful 'flow' between all of the objects.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Ahh. Better. It sort of came together in a forced and collected-from-all-over-the-house kind of way. You could call it something from nothing I guess.<br />
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Despite my best efforts to arrange things at different heights, the mirror still looked really plain. It is pretty huge, after all. (That's what she said.) I decided to make some sort of banner to drape over it to break up the space a bit. Since I <strike>was in my pajamas</strike> didn't feel like running to the store, I looked around the internet and my house for some more supplies to throw something together. I figured twine would be a nice rustic replacement for string and found this guy from Women's Day via a Google image search:<br />
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I liked that they used newspaper as the background and decided to do something similar, but with newspaper as the foreground and triangle letters instead, a la the bunting on this wreath over at <a href="http://pretty-ditty.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-wreath-and-halloween-bunting.html">Pretty Ditty</a>:<br />
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She had a printable PDF, but since our printer is out of ink, that wasn't going to work. Newspaper is pretty thin, so I figured I would pull up a cool font on my computer and trace over it on the newspaper. Kind of like a shoddy light box of sorts. First, I wanted to figure out how wide to make the triangles so I could adjust the font size on my computer to match. To come up with the triangle size, I determined the length of twine I wanted by draping it over the mirror and cutting it - 40 inches. Since I wanted my banner to spell "beware," which is 6 letters, I decided that 5 inches wide would be enough for each letter to take up space. This allowed for extra width to account for black paper backing behind the newspaper, but not wide enough to look crowded hanging from the twine. This is all very technical, can you tell? I pretty much eyeballed it. I wanted my triangles longer than wide, so I randomly chose 7 inches as the length of each side. Then, I made a template on some white paper (<a href="http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/67464118?access_key=key-2vvrbvbrg4ku11ha6u6">click here</a> for a PDF version) and traced six triangles on non-color, print only sections of the newspaper.<br />
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After cutting out the triangles, I found a font I liked on my computer - QuentinCaps - and enlarged it. Holding a triangle up to the screen, I enlarged the font to a size I liked. My 'light box' idea worked really well and I could see the letter perfectly through the newspaper. Using a pencil, I traced over one letter per triangle, shading in the dark areas. I just carefully held the newspaper against the screen instead of taping it, because I was worried about the tape ruining my screen (and not tearing the newspaper upon removal).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02268.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02268.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
Then I colored the letters in with a black sharpie.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/colorletters.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/colorletters.gif" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>When all was said and done, I had these:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02276.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
All that was left to do was glue them to some black scrapbook paper, cut them out leaving about 1/4" border (eyeballing it of course), poke two holes in the top of each triangle and string the twine through. Clearly it would've been much quicker to just print the letters onto the newspaper, but I made do with what I had.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mantelbanner.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mantelbanner.gif" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ahh, much better. It makes good use use of the empty space, and it adds a nice spooky touch to the decorations....And it was free. I love free. And here's the whole shebang:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02287.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02287.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br />
Pardon the glare in the first pic and the terrible quality of the second. I took the pictures at night and we have terrible lighting in our living room.<br />
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One other quick project I did was to make these mice silhouettes from Martha Stewart to put on our stairs and baseboard (picture courtesy of Martha...my mice aren't up yet).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSlxVbVofb3PCOkb2wpkpOz7qhuZqw_nSedusc3DfoCMycMI5s0GQ6U9x5YfhHNAjA2cwssN1JvvtQbG6n3OOx9FpNh4_qIcBRxS-cMK7L4dW4JvLiN7w-OxTK80jC7evc1tNMRWmqhyphenhyphen0/s1600/micesilhouettes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSlxVbVofb3PCOkb2wpkpOz7qhuZqw_nSedusc3DfoCMycMI5s0GQ6U9x5YfhHNAjA2cwssN1JvvtQbG6n3OOx9FpNh4_qIcBRxS-cMK7L4dW4JvLiN7w-OxTK80jC7evc1tNMRWmqhyphenhyphen0/s400/micesilhouettes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
She made hers out of paper, but if I was going to spend all sorts of time cutting out mice, you can bet your cajones I didn't want something flimsy that would be destroyed in a few weeks, only for me to make them all over again next year. So, I made mine from black craft foam that I had bought last fall. The stuff is super cheap and way more durable than paper.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02274.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02274.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I printed out the mice templates (which you can get <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/266588/paper-mice-halloween-decorations?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/halloween-decorating">here</a>) and traced them with pen onto the foam.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02272.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02272.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Cue some crazy cutting skills while watching TV and I ended up with these guys.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02278.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02278.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Plus a whole bunch more, some of which I still need to cut out.</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, that sums up some of our Halloween stuff this year for a total cost of maybe $2 worth of black craft foam (which I already had, so technically it was free.) Plus, reusing the newspaper also made my project kind of 'green,' which always gives us the warm-and-fuzzies. Hopefully this has inspired you to look through your house for some things you could repurpose as decorations (extra fabric perhaps?), and if anything, at least you can use the free printables if you're feeling a little artsy fartsy. Here are the links to them again:</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
A PDF version of my <a href="http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/67464118?access_key=key-2vvrbvbrg4ku11ha6u6">'Beware' banner</a> </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Martha Stewart's <a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/266588/paper-mice-halloween-decorations?backto=true&backtourl=/photogallery/halloween-decorating">silhouette mice</a></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Pretty Ditty's <a href="http://pretty-ditty.blogspot.com/2010/10/halloween-wreath-and-halloween-bunting.html">Halloween bunting</a></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Are there any fun Halloween projects you're making this year? Maybe a costume or some creepy decorations? Or maybe you're more into the fall harvest stuff, which is nice because it lasts through Thanksgiving. Let's hear all about it! </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Happy Haunting!</div><div align="center"></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-47039108213268707432011-09-29T23:15:00.001-04:002011-09-30T09:14:21.477-04:00Antiques RoadshowThis isn't your standard doing-things-around-the-house post, but I wanted to share with you a little adventure I went on last weekend that resulted in a couple of fun finds for the house. This past Saturday, I made the drive out to Burton, OH, picking up my mom along the way, for the Burton Antiques Festival. Perhaps you could call it my own little Antiques Roadshow adventure (more like 'Antiques Roadtrip'...or maybe 'Antiques Fair-show'...eh, you get the point). Do you guys ever watch that show? I feel like a lot of people have but are embarrassed to admit it, like it's something only people 60+ years old would watch. Well, I'm not afraid to admit that Darren and I both watch it on occasion and appreciate it. I mean, really. There's some crazy ish that can go down on that show. Side note - did you know there's an <a href="http://antiquesroadshowthegame.com/">Antiques Roadshow computer game</a>? I'm not exactly sure I understand how it works, but the fact that it exists makes me laugh. <br />
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Enough of my random tangents, let's get to the goods.<br />
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The Burton Antiques Festival is held outdoors at the Geauga County fairground twice a year - one Saturday in June and one Saturday in September. There are about 400 vendors that attend and it's only $6 to get in (with free parking). My mom has been going for years with a friend from Pennsylvania, but I always seem to either find out about it last minute or have conflicting plans. This time, I got the September date from her after the June show and marked it on my calendar to make sure I wouldn't miss it. And believe me, if you are at all interested in antiques or turning old things into new, you NEED to check out this festival. There is literally something for everyone. From 19th century farmhouse items to Art Deco decor to vintage toys to antique hardware to furniture...the list goes on. You'll feel the need to stop and look at every. single. thing. from every. single. vendor., but if you do, you'll be there the whole day and there will be about a 99% chance that anything you thought "oh, I'll come back for that later" will be gone. In the time I saw a fireplace ash bucket and turned to my mom to say, "That might make for great wood storage in front of my fireplace," some girl had picked it up before I could even get to the word "wood." Since the whole experience was a fun adventure, I thought I would share the things I picked up, along with some interesting-but-not-worth-spending-the-money-on finds. So if you only care about that latter, you might want to scroll down a bit. <br />
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I walked into the festival with a list of items I was hoping to find for the house/future projects, so that helped me stay a bit focused. Some of those things were: old soda crates to hang as shelves, some sort of wooden or wire bins for floor storage in the future pantry, an old desk or vanity to replace my dresser in our bedroom, and a kitchen scale. I was also hoping to scope out some old coffee grinders and vintage fans, even though I didn't really plan on buying them that day. Just kind of price checking for future bartering purposes, ya know?<br />
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A number of vendors were selling soda crates, and I ended up grabbing an old Pepsi one for about $10, which was low to average for what vendors were asking. I also quickly noticed these really cool, wooden, compartmentalized containers, some of which were described as knife trays, that a lot of vendors were selling. I thought they would be a great storage 'centerpiece' for our coffee table, where we could put remotes, a paper pad and pens, and other miscellaneous things, all which would be easy to remove if we needed the table space. What wasn't so nice was the price tag on most of them - $70-$200! Since they seemed to be everywhere, I kept price checking and came across one that I bargained down to $20 because one of the compartment separators wasn't completely secured into place. Here's a pic of it being put to use in its new home:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02246.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02246.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Unfortunately, I later came upon an almost identical one in a really awesome blue color that had nice wear...ALSO for $20! I definitely would've preferred the blue one, which would've gone better with the living room color scheme I'm trying to put together, but there's no way I could've known I would find another at such a cheap price. And if I wouldn't have bought the one I did, it probably would have been taken by the time I came back to it. Alas, the downfall of buying antiques is that you can't return them. I thought maybe the girl would want to swap me for her cooler one, but I'm pretty sure she was trying to sell things...not barter. Wishful thinking. I'm still happy with my purchase though, and it's definitely functional.<br />
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A few fun and random things I found were some really old wooden baby blocks. Each had a carved letter on it along with other printed letters and images of animals. They were worn, but really cool looking. I picked up a 'C' block and a 'D' block for my and Darren's initials. Then, one of the last booths I came across had a HUGE collection of antique printing blocks. I have to tell you, I'm obsessed with these. I just think they are so cool looking, especially in such a large group with all different sized letters:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02232.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
When I was a kid, my mom actually gave me an old printer's box to use as a shadow box, and I intend on hanging it in our house at some point. To add to my collection of letters (which really only include the letters in my name), I picked up an ampersand, thinking I could eventually display it with my C & D blocks in the printer's box.<br />
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I did buy one last thing. The best for last. When you see it, you might think I'm crazy for being so excited over something that appears to be not that big of a deal, but truthfully, I AM a little crazy so you are probably right. It's a lamp. On my second time browsing through the vendors, I realized that I had somehow missed a vendor with a bunch of old vintage industrial lamp shades, electrical parts and hardware. Something caught my eye and I wandered over. Right as I picked an item up to show my mom, I spotted it. My beautiful desk lamp. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. It was the same style I had been drooling over in Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn catalogs for almost a year (those are reproductions of course). I went running over and grabbed it. It is gold. My second least favorite color (next to pink), but I didn't even care. The wire cord appeared to be in excellent condition with the original plug. I asked the guy how much and I could've sworn he said $40. I rushed over to see what my mom thought - even though I had already subliminally decided to buy it - and told her maybe I could work him down to $30 since he said he didn't know if it worked. He had never plugged it in. He must've overheard me because as I walked back over to him he shook his head and said it was a firm $40 because he was asking $75. I didn't ever remember hearing $75, but I figured $40 was worth it even if I had to rewire it. After all, the reproduction lamps I had been looking at were around $100, which I clearly wasn't going to spend. So, I figured it was still a deal, gold color and all. I guess I should show it to you.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02241.jpg" width="295" /></a></div><br />
I know. You're thinking "Nothing special," right? But it's seriously the exact style of desk lamp I've been searching for. (Sitting on top of the Pepsi crate I bought, which you probably noticed.) I had a brief scary moment when I got home, plugged it in and it didn't work (despite having a light bulb in it), but I tried replacing the light bulb and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am it worked like a gem. I think I danced around the house for 5 minutes while Darren watched and tried to forget he lives with a crazy person. I'm still not completely in love with the gold color, but maybe it will grow on me. I'm kind of a purist when it comes to antiques and I feel guilty every time I think about painting it oil rubbed bronze, so I'm going to live with it for awhile.<br />
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In the end, no such luck finding some storage bins for our pantry. Everything was either too big or too small. Our pantry is very narrow and kind of short so I guess it was too awkwardly sized for everything I came across. However, I DO want to share some of other fun/interesting/hilarious things I found at the festival, just for kicks. Some of these pics I snapped literally as I was walking by, or right as people were trying to look at the items, so I apologize that some of them aren't as up close as they could be.<br />
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These fans were exactly the style I was looking for. (Remember I was price comparing?) The smaller of the two was $40 and I didn't really feel like splurging that much, even though the fan appeared to be in good shape. Still...they're gorgeous dah-ling!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02216.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02216.jpg" width="335" /></a></div><br />
I think this piece of furniture was intended to be a workshop table, but the moment I spotted it, I thought it would make the most fantastic two-person desk. If only Darren and I didn't already have desks. ..and I was rich. And I had a car big enough to take it home in. I didn't even tempt myself and look at the price tag for fear I would be heartbroken. The patina on it is cool, but even if it's not your jam it would be an amazing piece refinished.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02215.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02215.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
These seed packets were from the 1920s and I thought the illustrations were so cool, especially all grouped together. The vendor was asking $1 per packet. I though about buying 2 or 4 to arrange in a matted frame for some kitchen art...I don't know why but I never went back to buy them. Probably because I didn't have an exact wall space in mind and I don't like to buy things without knowing where I will put them at the time of purchase.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02222.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ahhh, antique phones. I'm obsessed. My mom has one of the wood/metal wall mount styles and I've always wished for one for myself. I do not wish to spend hundreds of dollars on one, however, which is why I just admired them with my camera. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02225.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This was a glass case full of old apothecary bottles. Gorgeous. A lot of vendors had a few here and there, along with old tobacco tins, but this was the prettiest display I came across. I apologize for the blurriness from the glass. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02226.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I loved this charming little table, thinking it would be perfect for a breakfast nook. If we didn't already have plans to make built in benches and a table for our own, I would've been tempted to buy it. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02227.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02227.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ok. I have no idea what this thing is, but it is SPECTACULAR. Some sort of hexagon-ish shaped drawer unit with the most beautiful carvings on the drawers. All I could think about was what n amazing storage unit it would make for a crafty person like myself. Or even someone with a big CD collection. I didn't catch a price tag.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02223.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02223.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The was one of my favorite finds. It's a brass nutcracker! You lift the tail and the mouth opens. I was so charmed by this and desperately wanted to buy it...however, the $100 price tag was not charming to my wallet. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02220.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02220.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
This German beer towel(?)/tapestry(?) totally cracked me up and I really wanted to buy it for Darren, thinking it might be fairly inexpensive. Boy was I wrong. It was almost $100! I guess it must be something rare. Just goes to show how unpredictable antiques can be.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02228.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These crazy chairs were hilarious and seemed totally out of place. I suppose the chairs themselves were probably antiques prior to someone attacking them with decoupage. They had all sorts of weird phrases and pictures from magazines on them.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02218.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Case and point: The Sexual Healing Chair. I just don't understand how someone could NOT want that in their house. What about you? If 'Sexual Healing' didn't sell you on it, maybe 'Power of Love' will.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02219.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02219.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now THIS is something I wish I had a place for in my house. A wood "Glove" Brand Rubbers box. (Yes, I just said wood, rubbers and box all in one sentence. Keep your mind out of the gutter.) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf6CU8g8tB9iQ468a-biQGbAxrbj48iR7N3QP21yILLTaGt-61gfE-SDlrMVTQb9KKNPfdWKt9vSM18I_5Mc_K5Y8TSMVB0pZV4f9Kda_R6XvSR_n3b3i54rEs1vcEZcHWCkRG-2sHDQQ/s1600/glovebox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf6CU8g8tB9iQ468a-biQGbAxrbj48iR7N3QP21yILLTaGt-61gfE-SDlrMVTQb9KKNPfdWKt9vSM18I_5Mc_K5Y8TSMVB0pZV4f9Kda_R6XvSR_n3b3i54rEs1vcEZcHWCkRG-2sHDQQ/s400/glovebox.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And last of all is the most unique find of the festival. An old movie advertisement that was painted (or somehow printed?) on wood. I couldn't find a price tag anywhere on it and I was afraid to touch it or look on the back/bottom, so I have no idea how much it was. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnh6WjIfPaksUG1caSqWdrHcDIdHPPii28FOE6e_TnA_OFz3NkxpHwzsoK4i0iapEkChuBmn0WDgyO-ltsxIkBpQZrNaCtT1rqVXGHl1uFAeequrm1uCR3r0DlqgrZvMwAo_7lOHul2Lo/s1600/DSC02231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnh6WjIfPaksUG1caSqWdrHcDIdHPPii28FOE6e_TnA_OFz3NkxpHwzsoK4i0iapEkChuBmn0WDgyO-ltsxIkBpQZrNaCtT1rqVXGHl1uFAeequrm1uCR3r0DlqgrZvMwAo_7lOHul2Lo/s400/DSC02231.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I showed the picture to my movie-buff coworker, who said it was from a silent film from 1930. If it's an original, I can't even imagine how much it is worth. Sure beats the sh*t out of today's movie posters though. Could you imagine how cool it would be to hang this in your house? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, that about wraps up my finds and favs from my 'Antiques Roadtrip-Fairshow.' Have I convinced you that antiques are fun, wacky and intriguing all at the same time? Is there anything unique you've picked up in a thrift store or antique shop along the way that holds a special place in your heart or home? I really think there's no better way to make your house unique than through treasures collected over time. </div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-67039500140488364892011-09-22T22:45:00.001-04:002011-09-22T22:54:52.923-04:00Reading RainbowSo, do you remember me mentioning in this post how we still had some things left to unpack? Three months into living here? Just camping out in the breakfast nook. Some of those things were our books. Well well, I finally got tired of seeing them there and decided to unpack them a whopping...wait for it...nearly 4.5 months after living here. You may wonder how we made it all that time without, a) the boxes getting in the way, and b) not reading or needing a single book. Well, we haven't used the breakfast nook as anything except storage (obviously) since we moved in, mostly because we don't have a table and chairs for it, though big plans are to come for that space. Heck, we don't even really have chairs for our dining room table. (That's a lie. We have 4, but they are metal and vinyl and horrible and uncomfortable and I hate them. But that is what we have to sit on for now, until we get the moolah to buy some...either those or BYOC if you ever come to dinner. ) Oh. And about the needing-to-get-to-books part? We conveniently discovered that the bicycle repair manual we needed was right on top. And when Darren wanted a book to read he just picked one off the top. I guess we're lucky/lazy like that.<br />
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Anyway, with my sudden burst of motivation - or annoyance (you decide) - I dragged all the boxes upstairs to our guest room, where our bookcase has taken up residence.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODHWkwnehv-yKuXnEBoxv0ZMZ3BC0-R-FsyeW6WdkgAkRVVDSXHgyehX4jdcyerno4lfrBgnzSmqj-mwqq13auF3t_fZXHxToK4hFdAubQ8WE_-HmXTuZTaQufNpySwerUW0TzBmI9LE/s1600/DSC02199.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjODHWkwnehv-yKuXnEBoxv0ZMZ3BC0-R-FsyeW6WdkgAkRVVDSXHgyehX4jdcyerno4lfrBgnzSmqj-mwqq13auF3t_fZXHxToK4hFdAubQ8WE_-HmXTuZTaQufNpySwerUW0TzBmI9LE/s400/DSC02199.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><br />
There it is in all its nekkid glory. Since I'm still gathering ideas for how to decorate this room, and our books clearly needed a home, I thought I would try a cheery arrangement to brighten the space a bit more until I can do something with it. Enter <a href="http://pinterest.com/">Pintrest</a>. Idea-finding love of my life (second to Darren of course). Check out these beauts:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/rainbowbookcase2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" rba="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/rainbowbookcase2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/rainbowbookcase.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" rba="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/rainbowbookcase.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><br />
Now if that isn't bookcase porn, I don't know what is. <br />
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Well, THIS is too. Possibly the most book-porniferous of all. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2jHhJBu7WQYi6Bcj4_YfTB7zV2UoqG4hY088L5eE2VDh1pyVNdk56zhHFyq3xzyFVlQaXcAqLMOeqq2P3RdDqvQXgupkHInLp00Y5rp6_nQhApWf_1qrjsE5HYs25bwvkRgYTdIeqgsE/s1600/182629836_yIokdniX_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2jHhJBu7WQYi6Bcj4_YfTB7zV2UoqG4hY088L5eE2VDh1pyVNdk56zhHFyq3xzyFVlQaXcAqLMOeqq2P3RdDqvQXgupkHInLp00Y5rp6_nQhApWf_1qrjsE5HYs25bwvkRgYTdIeqgsE/s640/182629836_yIokdniX_c.jpg" width="427" /></a></div><br />
I had to share, though it’s not exactly applicable to our place. We all know my house does not have enough space for a library nor do I even own that many books.<br />
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Anyway, simple task at hand. Sort books by color. I started by putting them in separate piles according to color group. Some people say not to judge a book by its cover, but, well, that’s exactly what I did.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBxlTP9Squmer9_su8MUu4shh506_t_sLiuJdtY8QyJhRwgQ4HnDc_74YC_Th-ypKLPTGXAYu9_6Zyowrd6Hs3w_cnGUCGzfkr-IdMFfuQrzRwsFBX21zMh8HmZtgOFRotJ0DXwCiCAM/s1600/DSC02203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKBxlTP9Squmer9_su8MUu4shh506_t_sLiuJdtY8QyJhRwgQ4HnDc_74YC_Th-ypKLPTGXAYu9_6Zyowrd6Hs3w_cnGUCGzfkr-IdMFfuQrzRwsFBX21zMh8HmZtgOFRotJ0DXwCiCAM/s400/DSC02203.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I never realized I had so many black and white bound books. That kinda put a damper on this whole color thing, but not completely. I started to combine some of the groups, trying to visualize which colors might flow well into each other to make a nice gradient effect for when they would be sitting on the shelves. More obvious were the reds, oranges, and yellows, but surprisingly the greens and blacks also flowed well into each other too. Doing this on the floor seemed to be the best bet, since it allowed me to spread out versus having to keep going up and down, pulling things on and off the shelves if I had tried to organize everything directly on the shelves.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02204.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02204.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL0iutVxXW3CAiLDR4yuye77P1DbLEj3RILa8Ay9pJl8FLLWyTdJobwfS-8kfCE9crpQUUA33vYY1uK5jKGtak0fKUjWsAXfyT-qxA0RCI39uJxeOcRfHr6bSOYr6MTNUg4t6O53NI3fQ/s1600/DSC02205.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL0iutVxXW3CAiLDR4yuye77P1DbLEj3RILa8Ay9pJl8FLLWyTdJobwfS-8kfCE9crpQUUA33vYY1uK5jKGtak0fKUjWsAXfyT-qxA0RCI39uJxeOcRfHr6bSOYr6MTNUg4t6O53NI3fQ/s400/DSC02205.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I didn’t really know which color to start with – and honestly didn’t feel like over-thinking it – so I just kind of put them all up there, starting one shelf down to leave myself some space to arrange. Somehow this left me with empty top and bottom shelves.<br />
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Hmm...I thought I had more books than that. Maybe because we formerly used these shelves to store all our books PLUS dvds and records. Minor details. Our dvds have a new home in our media cabinet, but our records were still in a box in the corner of the breakfast nook, so I put them back on the bottom shelf where they used to live. Afterall, nobody puts <s>baby</s> records in a corner. I had been itching to find a new spot for them downstairs, but took the fact that they were still in a box as a hint to just return them to their former ‘home’ (color grouping them in the process as well). Then, I figured the leftover gaps were an opportunity to unleash my boxes of frames and décor which had also been nestled in the breakfast nook all this time. (embarrassed face.) I just put in some of my more random/colorful frames in groups, a couple candles, and an original painting I picked up during my 6 months in Costa Rica. Oh, and a sign that Darren picked out, which reads, "Friends Welcome, Relative by Appointment Only." He thought it was funny.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRy4n6h0aQUDE_8YSrfIBkvYz4a6e9mEmkXoi_fCBuMhC6BVIhWvjkciLz0muDM3NXD1-yW79aCLAxeTifjesqtbVjFPCsxWZ5pf2HD8d9MFGxvTdbRIkF3VWf7GkIPT-ul7mqTNFyQg/s1600/DSC02209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRy4n6h0aQUDE_8YSrfIBkvYz4a6e9mEmkXoi_fCBuMhC6BVIhWvjkciLz0muDM3NXD1-yW79aCLAxeTifjesqtbVjFPCsxWZ5pf2HD8d9MFGxvTdbRIkF3VWf7GkIPT-ul7mqTNFyQg/s400/DSC02209.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><br />
Take a look it's in a book, <strike>bookcase</strike> reading rainbowww.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/c6j8EiWIVZs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Man I used to love that show. Back on track. Here's closeup of the lower half of the shelf.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUch2qZpFvyjAUzJ_3eoOQbuRYYQq4gQg1XJ8CyWFjjph4obbwhswAdi-kjEgxRqymdiiWOg_e84w5L9xTatzeRTVnjlMb-DqyezTdaAI3nkVBr9F49p8xyRevqUO9GlLEBcrzhByVYA/s1600/DSC02213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUch2qZpFvyjAUzJ_3eoOQbuRYYQq4gQg1XJ8CyWFjjph4obbwhswAdi-kjEgxRqymdiiWOg_e84w5L9xTatzeRTVnjlMb-DqyezTdaAI3nkVBr9F49p8xyRevqUO9GlLEBcrzhByVYA/s400/DSC02213.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><br />
Ahhh, much better. Not that all the rando extra stuff I put up will definitely stay, but it's a solution for now. At least it finally looks like someone uses this room for something besides clothing storage. And ironing. (Even if we really don't.)<br />
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What else do you think would look good on the shelves? I was thinking it might be fun to put a tray or basket with some guest amenities in place of some of the frames in that lower section for when people come to visit. Any suggestions on what you might like to find/use if you came to stay? This room definitely needs a makeover, but I thought some little touches would help make it nice for those who come to visit in the meantime. I love to entertain and would love your input!Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-10756596369770189232011-09-16T00:56:00.003-04:002011-09-16T10:08:55.689-04:00Something A-Brew<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Something's been a-brew around here for the past two weeks, and if you know us well, you probably guessed BEER. And if you did, you would be right. We finally got our sh*t together to make our first brew in the new house. By 'get our sh*t together,' I actually mean that we promised to bring 5 gallons of beer to a relative's Oktoberfest party the first weekend of October, so we were already way past the date in which we should've started the brewing process. Nothing like a <strike>little</strike></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> lot of procrastination and a looming deadline to light a fire under our butts (slash the brew kettle). Or maybe it was the visions we had of 40 something people mobbing us for showing up empty handed...either way.</span><br />
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Apart from this being our first brewing session in the new house, it was also a special occasion because we had the lovely opportunity to host some company. Introducing...House Made brew. Guest starring Molly (my cousin) and Tom (her boyfriend).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mollytom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mollytom.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">People get all charmed and excited when they find out we brew our own beer out of our kitchen, like it's a glamorous hobby that puts us on a whole new level of 'cool.' Maybe kind of like Jesus with the water-into-wine thing, just not as quick (and without the religious following). Ok, I'm exaggerating. But really, watching water and grain boil is not that glamorous, and the only new level it takes us to is a new level of frugal (because it's cheaper to make quality craft beer than to buy it). In reality, WE are not that cool, but the end result is. Molly and Tom likely realized this, but hopefully they weren't too disappointed and still enjoyed our company.</span></div><div><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I should preface this by telling you that Darren already posted about our brewing session over on his totally awesome blog, <a href="http://ohiobrews.blogspot.com/2011/09/home-brewing-dan-man-marzen.html">Ohio Brews</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, but his rundown is geared a bit more toward the craft brewing community (aka those who know a lot about home brewing), so I'm here to give you a dumbed down version. Not saying you're dumb, but perhaps less 'brew-savvy.' We thought about doing a joint post, but in the end decided it would be easier to separate them since our blogs have different audiences.</span><br />
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So, how does the magic happen? Well, you need some basic equipment to get started.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/beerequip.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="380" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/beerequip.png" width="400" /></a></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A giant stock pot slash brew kettle (about 5 gallons) to boil in, a bucket with lid and/or a carboy (1) (each should hold at least 5-6 gallons) for fermenting, a thermometer (2) that can withstand prolonged high heat, kitchen timer, a siphoning tube (3), racking cane (4), an airlock (5), a hydrometer (6), and sanitizing powder/solution (7). You could buy them separately or get a kit, which will have most of those items, like the one in the picture above, courtesy of Northern Brewer. Most beginners bottle their beer, which would require bottles (you can recycle old ones as long as they aren't screw-tops), a bottling bucket with spigot (8), caps, and a capper (9). However, we have a kegging setup, so our equipment is quite different - we'll get into that in another post.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Without getting into much detail, there are three ways to home brew: extract (most basic, typically using no to little actual grain, and is typically what a beer kit involves), partial-mash (using some extract + some grain), all-grain (most advanced, the name says it all). Extract-only brewing gives you the least control over the recipe, being more of a dump-and-stir method, while all-grain gives you the highest level of control over every aspect of the process. The first recipe we ever made was an extract + speciality grain recipe that we wrote ourselves - pretty ballsy of us, looking back - but we quickly jumped into partial mashing after that. Our recipes follow the partial mashing method because we don't have the equipment to do all-grain brewing yet, but it still gives us a decent amount of control and creativity over the end result. To write a recipe, we decide what style beer we want to make, research recipes that follow that style, pick out the desired characteristics we're looking for, then write up our own version with the guidance of a great gadget called <a href="http://www.beertools.com/">BeerTools</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. Beer Tools let's us input all our info and shows us whether we are staying within the style guidelines. Added bonus - it let's us save our recipes too. There's only one recipe we've made that wasn't a Corrie/Darren Original, and we've been lucky enough that all but one of our own recipes have lived up to our expectations. Even the so-called 'failure' brew still had some big fans at our holiday party, so it wasn't completely unsuccessful.</span><br />
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Beers fall under two categories - either ale or lager. Ales are have their own yeast strains that ferment at warmer temperatures, while lagers have specific yeast strains that ferment at much colder temperatures. A commercial example of an ale is Guinness, while a commercial example of a lager is MGD or Budweiser, to give you an idea. But maybe you already knew that. I should give you more credit. Obviously there are many different styles of beer that fall under each category. The one we brewed this time is a Märzen, better known as an Oktoberfest style beer. This beer falls under the lager category and gets it's name because, historically, it was brewed in March (Märzen) and kept in cold storage (a cellar) until late summer/Oktoberfest. Fun fact of the day. Oh, and we named it "Dan-The-Man Marzen" after my cousin who's hosting the Oktoberfest party. It was a big hit last year, so by request, we're bringing it back for round numero dos.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/danmanmarzen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/danmanmarzen.jpg" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">That's the 'label' we made for the outside of the keg last year. Our first ridiculous attempt at using Gimp (aka free 'photoshop') by compiling a picture of Dan, a cheesy clip art, and scanning an image of a record we own (yes, the music is hilariously awesome in case you were wondering).</span><br />
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Let's begin with the basics. The grain for the partial-mash, which we had already measured out and crushed into a reusable mesh sack; lager yeast; and <strike>sour cream</strike> malt extract.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02160-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02160-1.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02164.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02163.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02163.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02164.jpg" width="240" /></span></div><br />
We buy our ingredients from a local restaurant that has a brew-on-premisis facility, so we reuse one of their leftover containers to hold our malt extract. So if you were genuinely concerned that we put sour cream in our beer, fear not.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Now, we do the <strike>monster</strike> Marzen (partial) mash! That was a stretch. Anyway...We started by heating 1.5 gallons of water to 175</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 20px;">°<span style="color: black;"> in our beer kettle (aka the Bayou Classic, as it says on the side</span><span style="color: black;">), then</span></span> add the mesh sack, dunking it a few times to fully submerge all the grain.<br />
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</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02162.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02165.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02165.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The water temp usually falls a bit with the addition of the grain, <span style="color: black;">so we had to bring it back up to between 148<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">°</span>-160<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">°, which is the mashing temperature range</span>. </span>We tried to maintain it around 156<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 20px;">°</span>. You must maintain it between this range, which is the tricky part, because if you don’t the sugars wont extract properly from the grain, which is what mashing is all about. And sugars = fermentation = alcohol. Put a lid on it to preserve heat if you need to. You can add boiling or cold water to the mash to help you control it if you are having a hard time. The more precise your temp control, the more control you have over the flavor of your beer.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">After a little more than 30 minutes, we sparged the grain with about 1.5 gallons of hot water. As Darren says, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Sparging is a fancy way to say "pour hot liquid over the grain to try to get as much flavor out of the grain as possible." </i>In fact, I think that is exactly what he was explaining to Tom as I took this pic.</span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 18px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02167.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="327" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02167.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Tom lifted the bag out of the water, letting it drain, and poured the sparge water through to rinse more sugars into the pot. Sugar mixes better with hot water (as you might know from cooking in general) so it makes more mash-created malt sugars dissolve out of the grain and you’ll get a more efficient extraction (which means better adherence to your recipe). This is where muscles come in handy, because someone - in this case, Tom - gets to hold that heavy bag for awhile. Set the grain sack aside in a bowl and after it rests awhile, be sure to add any additional liquid that has drained out. So far, we've essentially made grain tea, which has a technical name: wort. Not like warts. This is different (and not as gross.) In fact, it smells delicious. At this point, we have sweet wort, which is basically unconcentrated malt extract. Like the extract, this sweet wort is made up of water and sugars, most of which will ferment into alcohol and CO2, but a few which will not ferment and instead add to the flavor and sweetness of the beer. The extract helps bulk up and moderate your wort, which is good in case you made mistakes during the mashing part - hence the advantage of partial mashing. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So now there's about 3 gallons of wort in the kettle. This part of the process is called the boil. Why not boil the whole 5 gallon batch at once? Well, your typical kitchen stove probably isn’t powerful enough to handle boiling that much water. Plus, you will have to cool everything down later to a specific temperature range for the yeast to work, so by only boiling part of the water, you can later top it off with cool water to assist in the cooling process.We turned the heat up to high and mixed in the malt extract, which kind of looks like syrup. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02170.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02170.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Darren poured, while Molly stirred. It's important to stir constantly until the extract is fully incorporated into the liquid, otherwise it will settle and burn on the bottom. </span></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02171.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02174.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02174.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Then we waited for the wort to boil. This is the part where you drink beer, if you haven't started already. Tom brought an Imperial Hefeweizen he brewed on premises at The Brew Kettle (the place we bought our supplies). </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02175.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02175.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><br />
Your boil will last 60 min, but you don’t start the clock until you have a steady rolling boil. As you wait for this to happen, be sure to keep a close eye on the pot, because it could go from calm to overflowing in a hot second. No pun intended.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02178.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02178.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><br />
Once we achieved a rolling boil, we started the timer. The hops needed to be added at certain times, according to the recipe as the time counts down. For ours, we added 1 bag at the 45 minute mark and 1 bag at 5 minutes. Each bag contained 1 ounce of a different type of hops.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02177.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02177.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02176.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Molly and Tom had to do the requisite hop sniff test. Generally speaking, adding hops at the beginning of the boil serves the purpose of contributing bitterness (necessary for balancing out the sweetness of the wort); adding hops between the 15 minute and 5 minute timeframe contributes flavor; and those added from 5 minutes until the end are mostly for aroma. Hop pellets - the kind we used - disperse quickly so there’s no need to stir.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">While we had 60 minutes of boil time to kill, we used this as an opportune time to <strike>drink more beer</strike> sanitize everything that would come in contact with the wort post-boil. For some reason, I always feel a little Beastie Boys taking over at this point...I'm tellin' ya'll <strike>it's sabotage</strike> let's sanitize! For anyone who wants a '90s flashback (or has no idea what the heck I'm talking about), here's a video.</span><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wxvx9tMkcac?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This was our bucket of stuff being sanitized:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That sanitizing solution kills HIV/AIDS. No joke. It says it on the bottle.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When the boil clock reaches zero, turn off the heat and remove the pan. The new goal is to cool the wort as quickly as possible while keeping it as sterile as possible. This is not only in your best interest from a time standpoint, but also because the longer it takes to cool, the more susceptible the wort is to contamination and resulting off-flavors now that it's no longer being heated. The fastest way is to use a funky gadget called a wort chiller, specially designed for this purpose. However, we do not have one, so we do it the <strike>annoyingly long</strike> cheap way and make a cold water bath in our sink. </div></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02182.jpg" width="298" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02180.jpg" width="300" /></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Eek! That sponge should not have been there...Also, it might be hard to tell, but the water is going into the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">sink, not that pot. Darren stirred the wort a bit - with a sanitized spoon of course - to help release more heat. As the wort cools about halfway and the water bath doesn't seem to be as effective, we add ice to the water bath to help move things along. (Sidenote: If you are brewing in winter, you might think putting it in the snow is a genius idea. It won’t work.) As the wort only has about 10 degrees to go, we move it into the bucket it will ferment in and top it off. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02186.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02186.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02185.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Oh, hey, feet.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> Connecting the sanitized tube and racking cane, we siphoned the wort into our fermenter, leaving behind all the icky gunk in the pot (called trub –it’s leftover malt proteins and hop particles). </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02189.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02189.jpg" width="400" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Gross. (Darren is a good sport and does cleanup duty.) We topped off the wort with cool spring water, bringing the volume up to 5 gallons and the temp down to right where we needed it (the exact number which I cannot remember right now). Then, we took a sample of the wort with a (sanitized) turkey baster (who says you can only use them at Thanksgiving?) and put it into our (sanitized) hydrometer tube to measure the Original Gravity. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02194.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02194.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02196.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02196.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We gave the hydrometer a spin to dispel any bubbles, then waited for it to settle and read the number at the point where the top of the liquid meets the instrument. This number - the gravity - is a reading of the density of the beer, specifically the amount of sugars present. As the beer ferments and sugar turns to alcohol and CO2, the gravity drops. By looking at the original gravity/sugar content, you can get an idea of how high in alcohol your beer will be. (BeerTools gives us estimated numbers when we input our recipe, which gives us an idea of how far along the fermentation is as we take additional readings). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Then, we added the yeast and give the thing a stir, which helped oxygenate the wort and activate the yeast. Ale yeast ferments 62<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 18px;">° </span>-75<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 18px;">°</span>ish, while lager yeast (what we used because we're making a lager) ferments around 50<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 18px;">° </span>- 60<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #484848; line-height: 18px;">°</span>, though it can be pitched at a higher temp initially.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02193.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, we attached lid. The lid has a hole in it where the airlock goes (if you are using a carboy to ferment in, you need a stopper with a hole for the airlock). We filled the airlock halfway full with sanitizing solution, capped it, and inserted it in the lid. It acts almost as a filtration device for the CO2 released during fermentation, which you see in the form of bubbles inside the airlock.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02197.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We moved the whole thing into the dining room to let fermentation begin. This is where the waiting game starts. It could take up to 72 hours for the beer to start fermenting, but ours started late that same evening. It's important to keep the beer in an area of the house where the temperature is steady aka not by a drafty door/window. After a couple days of fermenting at room temperature, per the yeast instructions, we moved the entire bucket into our kegerator. Lagers spend most of their time fermenting at a cool temperature, so for some people, a basement might work. We are fortunate in that we have the kegerator for drinking beer, but can also set the temperature to cycle at a specific number, which allows us to use it for lagering as well.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Almost three weeks later, we are still waiting. At the beginning of this week we took another hydrometer reading and decided the beer was ready to move to secondary fermentation, which is basically another step of fermentation where you rack (siphon) the the beer out of the old container, removing it from the yeast that has settled to the bototm, and into a new carboy. Some people think secondary fermentation is optional, but we always do it because it helps clear out extra sediment in the beer and we think it helps improve flavor. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So that's where our little beer is at right now, and where it will probably stay for another week or so until we actual move it into the kegs and carbonate it. A whole new adventure! We were glad to have Tom and Molly over to learn about home brewing, and we hope you learned something as well. Or at least fulfilled any curiosities about what goes on behind closed doors. Did you ever think brewing beer could be so science-y? </span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We'll be sure to update you when it's time for some kegerator/carbonating action!</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Cheers! </span></div></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-80358202473502050892011-09-07T14:15:00.002-04:002011-09-07T15:17:52.029-04:00Recap, Refs & Recipes<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just the fact that I named this a 'recap' is already terrifying me into jibber jabber submission, so I will do my best to tame my feverish fingertips and keep this briefer than last time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm going to be real with myself and assume that my tendency to blab might have kept some people from reading through all of my last post. (Hey, I don't blame you. Confession. There are a number of blogs I <strike>wish I could be as awesome as</strike> adore/follow and some days I just don't have the time/desire to read through long posts either.) Besides that, I was super charmed that a few people not only read </span><a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/getting-down-and-dirty.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">my whole seed starting post</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, but enjoyed it so much that they actually asked me for advice. Since I'm feeling a bit more humble than masterful, I thought I would include the most helpful references I used in my gardening adventures, because what fun is knowledge if you can't share it with others?? So, in this post, I will attempt to do an abbreviated recap - kind of like a little step by step cliff notes version of seed starting with tips and tricks - along with my fav references, and a couple bonus recipes for what I like to do with my garden goodies. Sharing is caring. I feel like I'm channeling my inner Mr. Rogers today. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mr-rogers2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" nba="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mr-rogers2.jpg" width="185" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">In that spirit, I will proceed to put on my blogger sweater and slip on my indoor blogger sneakers so we can get this party started.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pause. Let's do this in reverse order. Recipes, Refs, Recap. Just like that. That way the people who are thinking 'I hate vegetables. Please stop talking about them' or 'I'm only here because the word recipe was in the title and I want food' don't have to scroll through the longer part to get to the goods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Recipes.</span></b></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
<em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Margherita Pizza</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is what I have been obsessively wanting to eat all summer with the tomatoes and basil from my garden. I have a picture, but can't seem to find it. We make a baking sheet-sized pizza, so all ingredient amounts are based off of that. You can use our sauce and yeastless dough recipes, use your own, or buy premade. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ingredients: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2-5 tomatoes (depending upon the size you have), sliced; 1 (16oz) ball of fresh mozzarella; 20 fresh basil leaves, torn ; flour (or cornmeal)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lightly sprinkle flour or cornmeal on a baking sheet. Roll out the dough into a rectangle and transfer it onto the baking sheet, stretching and evening out the dough to fit. Crimp around the edges for the crust. Spread the desired amount of sauce out on the dough with a spoon. Lay out the slices of mozzarella on top. They don’t need to be overlapping because they will spread out as the pizza bakes. Top with tomatoes. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, or until done. (Alternatively, you could try grilling the pizza on low heat). If desired, with 5 minutes left in the bake, mix together equal parts olive oil, liquid from a jar of minced garlic, and a pinch of sugar until the sugar dissolves. Brush onto the crust and continue baking. Garnish with fresh basil before cutting and serving.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Yeastless Dough</em>:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ingredients:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 cup flour, 1/3 cup milk, 2 T veg oil, 1 t baking powder, 1/2 t salt</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Measure out the liquids over a bowl and let them spill over just a bit. Mix everything together with a fork until it mostly comes together, then finish mixing with your hands and let it sit, covered, for 15 minutes. For a baking sheet sized pizza, make two balls of dough and then combine them <i>before</i> you let them sit for 15 minutes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Sauce</em><strong> </strong>(makes enough for 2 baking sheet sized pizzas, depending upon how ‘saucy’ you like it):</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ingredients: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 can condensed tomato soup, 1 (6oz) can tomato paste, 1 tsp. Paprika, 1 Tbsp. dried Oregano, 1.5 tsp. dried minced garlic (or substitute 1 T fresh minced garlic), Crushed Red Pepper (to taste)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Combine everything.</span></div></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
<em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Grilled Zucchini & Squash</span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ingredients: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Olive oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Dried Oregano, Dried Basil</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Slice your zucchini and squash lengthwise, approximately 1/4" to 1/2" thick. If your vegetables are very large, you might want to cut them in half widthwise before slicing. Lay out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and dried herbs to taste. Let marinade or mix around if desired. Grill until the veggies just start to become tender.</span><br />
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</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Preserving Herbs</span></em></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What do you with all the fresh herbs you've grown if you want to make them last through the winter? If bringing them inside isn't an option, dry or freeze them. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Drying:</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cut the herbs, wash and let dry. Tie them in loose bunches with a rubber band or string. Poke a few holes in some paper bags and place an herb bunch upside down in each one, closing the mouth of the bag around the stems. The herbs should be hanging freely inside the bag. Doing so will keep the oils of the leaves from rubbing off on the bags, therefore losing flavor. Hang them in an area with low humidity and good air ciculation for a week or two. Store them in jars or bags on the stem, or remove the dried leaves and store in a small container. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Freezing:</span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cut the herbs, wash and let dry. Most herbs can be frozen in a plastic bag, placed directly in the freezer. Another method, which I used for cilantro, was to remove the leaves from the stems, spread them out in a dense arrangement on half a baking sheet, then just barely cover with water. I used folded plastic wrap to keep the water and cilantro from flowing into the empty half of the baking sheet. Place in the freezer until frozen. Pull out the sheet and break the 'herb ice' into chunks. Place in a bag back in the freezer for future use. You can also do this in ice cube trays. Basil turns black when it freezes, so despite the great flavor it retains for general cooking, it is not worth freezing basil for use as a garnish. </span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
<em><span style="font-family: inherit;">Garden Mint Mojitos</span></em><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mojito.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nba="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/mojito.jpg" width="229" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Check out my </span><a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-good-use-of-garden.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">post from awhile back</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> for individual and pitcher-sized recipes. </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></b></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Refs</b>.*</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a couple books that I used as my holy bibles of container gardening. Not only are they practical for anyone with even the tiniest smidge of a concrete or balcony 'backyard,' but they emphasize ways to grow a flourishing garden without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers = my kind of jam. Plus, they elaborate on and go beyond much of what I touched on here, but in a much more eloquent and intelligent way than my lowly blogger self ever could. Seriously, if you are considering planting even one thing and have any intention of eating part of it, you need to read one or more of these books. All hail to these awesome gardening folk: </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Fresh Food From Small Spaces</em> – R.J. Ruppenthal</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- If you are a city dweller or apartment resident who claims to not have space for a garden, this book will blow all your preconceived notions out of the water. As a city dweller himself, the author tells you how to make the most out of every square inch you have, indoors and out. He provides information on making your own self-watering containers and using vertical gardening and reflected light strategies to maximize your space and lack of sunshine. Apart from your typical container gardening advice, he covers tops like grain/salad sprouting, making yogurt and kefir, and cultivating mushrooms (all which can be accomplished in an urban kitchen), as well as raising chickens and honeybees in the city. He also touches on composting and vermiculture (composting with worms). For those concerned with living sustainably , his last chapter is dedicated to ways in which you can apply the book’s methods for getting through small food shortages, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>creating small scale energy solutions, and building a sustainable future. He concludes with a list of helpful tools and suppliers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>The Bountiful Container</em> – Rose Marie Nichols Mcgee & Maggie Stuckey</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Don’t <s>leave home </s>try container planting without it. The ladies give detailed info on container types (anything can be a container!), planting by color, and succession planting (cool season, warm season and extended season crops). They discuss pests and treatments specific to container gardening, and they tell you which plants are not worth your time to grow in containers. The majority of the book is dedicated to giving detailed info on the vegetables best suited for container gardening, with notes about tried and true varieties, including sections on fruits, herbs, and edible flowers. There are illustrated, theme-based container garden plans and recipes scattered throughout, with mail order resources at the end. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><em>Carrots Love Tomatoes</em> – Louise Riotte</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- The definitive companion planting guide, this book has everything you could ever want to know about the ways in which vegetables , herbs and fruits can mutually benefit or hinder each other when planted in certain combinations. Going even further, she also covers companion planting for nuts, wild plants, grasses and grains, and ornamental trees and shrubs. The author gives garden techniques for intercropping, mulching, shade planting, and vertical gardening, as well as insect control through companion planting. Her section on natural pest control methods is quite exhaustive, and you might be surprised by her poisonous plants chapter, which discusses some common plants you will find in the garden, or even in your kitchen. The last section is dedicated to all sizes of illustrated garden plans, including small scale and window box options. </span></div></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And <em>handy websites</em>:</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.garden.org/zipzone/index.php?img=neusa"><span style="font-family: inherit;">USDA Hardiness Zone Finder</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - It's in the name. Know before you grow. </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.cubitsorganics.com/p/etsy.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cubit's Organics</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - Organic, family run seed company on Etsy that has "high quality organic, rare and heirloom seeds." Not only do they have some unique varieties, but their pictures are gorgeous and I adore their well-designed, sustainable packaging. Their blog is also fantastic and they post some great recipes. </span><br />
<a href="http://www.seedsofchange.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seeds of Change</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - Organic seed catalog (online or by mail). They carry heirloom, rare and traditional seeds with the goal of "preserving countless heirloom seed varieties in danger of being lost to the 'advances' of modern industrial agriculture." These people make me want to start a farm and grow all their vegetables. Most of their products are seeds, but they also carry live plants and have a wealth of resources on their site. </span><br />
<a href="http://plangarden.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/cp-part-iii-comparison-of-companion-planting-guides/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Companion Planting Chart</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - A fantastic companion planting resource that puts the most popular veggies in a table comparing which plants benefit and hinder each other. This is the best visual summarization of companion planting that I've found. </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Vegetable Garden Planner</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - Experiment with garden designs or plant placement. Most useful for people doing square foot or in-ground gardening. It gives you frost dates, best planting times for different veggies, and cute little icons for your plan design. Free 30 day trial if you just want to make a couple plans and be done, or sign up for a full year. </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plans/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Better Homes and Gardens</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - "Garden by Number" is what I like to call it. They do the work for you by putting together garden plans that work well, then they give you the plant info so you can replicate it. Many of them are for flowers gardens, but they have some vegetable plans too.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.homedepotgardenclub.com/us/en?"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Home Depot</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - If you sign up for their free garden club, they will send you coupons and monthly updates/reminders about regular garden maintenance for your region. Might be more useful for people who have a yard. </span><br />
<a href="http://timssquarefootgarden.com/calendar.htm"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Zone 5 Planting Calendar</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> - Wowzers. If you live in Zone 5 (aka anywhere near Cleveland), check out this guy's planting schedule. Talk about maximizing your growing time. Whether you want to get really ambitious or just inspired, the author gives a full run down from planning to garden productivity 12 months of the year. </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> </div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Recap.</b> The no-B.S. seed starting run down.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_n9UPz6xc6rYu8EA4g-zmJOrXbCUkSRXvueOLd2lifr-C64oOyMZtmdcgzmt_Kg2TpDNGd6M237XXya2MWKiDCD-0cGzmjkFathzHmiQAvUyURcxoHzKD9d48es4gAqKfXN_KYXPaFQo/s1600/DSC01540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_n9UPz6xc6rYu8EA4g-zmJOrXbCUkSRXvueOLd2lifr-C64oOyMZtmdcgzmt_Kg2TpDNGd6M237XXya2MWKiDCD-0cGzmjkFathzHmiQAvUyURcxoHzKD9d48es4gAqKfXN_KYXPaFQo/s320/DSC01540.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you plan on starting your own seeds, you need to start planning in January or February. That might sound a little crazy, but for anyone doing seed starting, you will need to start your seeds in March.</span><br />
<br />
<ol><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Determine your available space and any space constraints</i> - Maybe you don't have garden beds or much of a yard, but you have room for a small square foot box. Maybe you are a city dweller and only have a small balcony or fire escape to use. Maybe your space doesn't quite get 8 hours of sun. Good news. You can grow veggies in all these places. But these are all things that will determine what you can successfully grow, so you need to consider them first. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Get in the zone </i>- I'm not talking about Auto Zone. Your garden climate hardiness zone. Cleveland is in Zone 5. You can find out yours </span><a href="http://www.garden.org/zipzone/index.php?img=neusa"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> here</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. This is important for knowing what plants will tolerate your climate as well as when the first and last frost dates are for your area. Frost dates determine your growing season aka the earliest date you should put your seedlings in the ground. You don't want to spend three months trying to grow those little guys only to kill them off by planting them too early.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Decide which veggies/herbs are most important to you</i> - Which do you consume most? The ones you think will give you the biggest bang for your buck (slash that will produce a lot from a small plant in a small space)? The ones that are most expensive to buy at the store? We eat tons of peppers and tomatoes, and peppers are pretty expensive, so those were important to us. I knew I would get a lot of green beans from a small space, so I thought they might be worth planting. How big will the plants of your favorite veggies get, and do you have room for them? Though squash and zucchini might be yummy, the plants get Enormous with a capital E, so they might not be the best choice for a container garden on the balcony of a high rise in NYC.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Decide on something new/different/fun to grow - </i>This step is kind of interchangeable with #5. Experiment with a new type of veggie or herb that you think might be fun, something that looked cool in a catalog (like the amazing and organic eye candy in </span><a href="http://www.seedsofchange.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Seeds of Change </span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">), or something you like but don't eat very often. If your space is really limited, it might only be one plant. It will be exciting if it grows well, but you won't be too heartbroken if it doesn't, and in the meantime it's not taking away much real estate from more productive or desired plants. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Pick out/order your seeds - </i>Seed options are everywhere. You can go to your local garden supply store, Home Depot or Lowes and they will have some of the most popular varieties of vegetable and herb seeds, some of which are organic. If you are really concerned about organic gardening or are looking for special or unusual seed varieties - heirloom tomatoes, purple beans, spicy mustard greens, or chocolate spearmint, perhaps - you might want to consult some gardening catalogues or websites (see my favs in the refs section). These is where the real fun happens. The whole world of different vegetable and herb varieties is amazing and you might never have known they existed because you don't see them in the grocery store. Only by growing your own can you experience them. I guarantee you will be like a kid in a candy store, but try to restrain yourself and only choose one or a couple 'splurges' to experiment with. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Start your <strike>engines</strike> seeds</i> - Around mid-March, purchase some peat pots or reuse old egg cartons (not the plastic/styrofoam kind), potting mix, any seeds you want but don't already have, and some plant markers. Dampen the potting mix, fill the peat pots to the top, then follow the instructions for planting each seed type at the appropriate depth (the packet tells you). Do a few peat pots of each type of seed because you are guaranteed to have some failures, or at least a few plants that aren't exactly D-1 superstars. Water them all when you're done and use plant markers to note the names and date that you planted them. A few notes...Peat pots are preferable to the little plastic ones because they decompose, meaning you can plant the entire thing without having to remove the seedling from it's container later. Use potting mix, not garden soil. Most garden soil isn't naturally nutrient rich, but potting mix is specially balanced specifically for seed starting. More deets in the books about that. Also, instead of buying pre-labled or plastic plant markers, you could just use popsicle sticks which might be cheaper (or free). (The plastic ones I used that I labeled with <strike>supposedly</strike> permanent marker all ended up fading in the sun anyway, so I probably wouldn't recommend my method.) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Mr. Golden Sun</i> - Put them in the sunniest spot you can find, preferably a south facing window. If you have to fudge it with a west or east facing window (or perhaps you have tall buildings very close by that prevent you from maximizing all your south facing sun), try putting a sheet of foil underneath your peat pots so it overlaps around the sides, absorbing more of the warmth. Plants need lots of light and warmth to grow. If you notice this seems to be frying your little plants (I didn't have any problems with it, but you never know), get rid of it. You can also try empty 2 liter bottles cut in half to make covers, or buy a rectangular plastic cover, either option would help retain heat and humidity, which the baby plants love. Obviously, you can use grow lights or fancy hydroponic systems, but those can cost a lot of money and waste a lot of energy. If environmental impact is one of the reasons you're growing your own seeds, these methods might defeat the purpose of your efforts. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Water</i> - Yep. It's really important. Your seedlings' soil should always be damp. Never let them dry out. If that means watering them twice a day, so be it, but they won't grow without H2O. Don't drown them, however. The soil should be damp, not soggy. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Thin your plants </i>- If you planted a few seeds in each peat pot and all of them sprouted, your baby plants might be getting a little crowded. If this is happening, pinch off a couple. This is calling 'thinning' your plants. It may seem counterintuitive, especially because the plants are so small and fragile looking, but it actually encourages growth. The couple times I did it, some of my seedlings were nearly an inch taller by the next day - no joke. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Harden off</i> - Not to be confused with 'hard-on', sickos. Harden off. The week before you are ready to plant (and any chance of frost is clear, of course) you gradually transition your plants from their indoor environment to their new outdoor environment. They haven't been exposed to wind, pests, heavy precipitation, or intense heat yet, so this process helps them adapt and become a little stronger before you put them in the ground. Start with a few hours in the shade and work up to a full day in the sun by the end of the week. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Plot your plot</i> - Sometime between deciding what you will plant and actually putting your seedlings in the ground, figure out where will put your plants. This means assessing your garden bed, plotting your square foot box, or determining what size containers you will need (they should accommodate your plants at their biggest size). This should also involve a sunny spot, with around 8 hours of sun per day for most veggies. Determine your plant placement based off each plant's growing requirements (on the seed packet or plant marker if you bought nursery plants). Also consider which plants are good 'companions', meaning they are mutual beneficial in enhancing flavor and preventing pests. This is known as companion planting, which is a method I used in </span><a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/getting-down-and-dirty.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">my square foot box</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. For example, tomatoes and basil are mutually beneficial - perhaps ironic because they also taste delicious together. Sketch all this out so you don't forget. It doesn't need to be fancy. Or, if you're a technology geek, then maybe it does. They make </span><a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx"><span style="font-family: inherit;">online garden plotting gadgets</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> just for you. You can even find pre-made plans online or in books (see the refs section) that do all the <strike>dirty work</strike> 'research' for you.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Planting day</i> - Aka seedling graduation day. Prep your soil - whether it be more potting mix in containers, soil in a bed, or soil in a square foot box - by mixing in some compost for nutrients and any other amendments you might have decided on. You can also use other natural additives for 'fertilizer,' such as dried egg shells or coffee grounds, at this time. But research what is appropriate for your veggies. Make sure the soil isn't completely dry. Insert plants at their appropriate depth and spacing requirements, per the seed packets or markers (if store bought). Water thoroughly. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Water </i>- Again. And again and again. The dirt should always be damp, but never soggy. If you aren't sure, stick your finger in it about halfway. If it feels dry, it needs water. Plants in containers, hanging baskets or otherwise in a location in which there is a lot of airflow underneath the pot will need more water than plants in square foot boxes or beds. The added airflow causes the roots to dry out quickly, so they might even need water twice per day. Tell tale signs are usually browning leaves. The best times to water are early in the morning or around dusk (the best, I think) because the plants have maximum time to absorb the water before it's sucked up by the heat/sun again. If you are really struggling in the hydration department, you can try covering the top of the soil with peat moss (thanks for the reminder Christin!) or mulch. Or for container gardens, consider planting in a self watering container, such as an Earth Box. They are expensive to buy, but you can DIY your own version...something I actually started doing and never finished, so that will be a blog post for next spring. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Watch for pests - </i>Check the leaves and any appearing 'fruit' regularly to see if pests are getting at your plants, and try to identify them. If holes appear all over your leaves, that is one of the most common signs. Some natural remedies that generally won't harm plants include sprinkling cayenne pepper on leaves or around the base of the plant (or making a spray out of it) or using diatomaceous earth, which is natural powder that kills most pests (but can also kill good ones if you aren't careful or use it too liberally). If you tried companion planting, hopefully pest problems will be unlikely. However, if you have to deal with them, there are many other options beyond what I mentioned that don't involve chemicals. The books I reference are especially helpful in this area.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Harvest </i>- Yum. The best part. Don't forget to pinch of browning leaves as they appear, which can often encourage new growth in it's place. </span></li>
</ol><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is clearly not comprehensive advice, but hopefully gives you a few tips that worked for me, as well as some new tricks to make growing your own organic food easier for you. Or I guess semi-organic if some of the seeds weren't labeled as 'organic' to begin with. But you get the point. I really encourage you to check out the books I reference because they have such a wealth of knowledge and options, even for those with the tiniest spaces. Don't forget, you can grow upward too - vertical gardening!</span><br />
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Ok, so I failed at keeping this short. Like, really failed. But maybe it was useful at least...? <br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">*I wasn't paid/perked in any way for offering up the references I listed - I only WISH I could be cool enough to get offers like that. They are just what I found to be the most helpful for me.</span>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-69329275653215000222011-09-02T19:01:00.002-04:002011-09-09T16:50:50.511-04:00Getting Down and Dirty<em>Revising this to let you know that I did a more concise recap on seed starting, along with tips, tricks and my favorite references in <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/recap-refs-recipes.html">this post</a>. Oh! And recipes too. </em><br />
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First of all...holy crap, it's been a month since I last posted! What is wrong with me? I honestly don't even have a good excuse for you. Just plain Shameful with a capital S. Second, I thought of calling this post 'Veggie Tales' but didn't want you to get confused with the kids cartoon and think I was getting all religious and creepy-singsong-vegetable on you (even if I did sing the song in my head a few times) and then risk you never reading this post.<br />
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Now that I got that out of my system, I want to talk about getting down and dirty. The on-your-hands-and-knees, bare feet, hot and sweaty kind of dirty. Are you all hot and bothered? Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm just talking about gardening. Specifically, VEGGIES! You already know how thrilled I am about our garden space from the <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/were-coming-outside-tour-part-deux.html">outdoor pictures post</a>, and maybe you even noticed the funny looking box of dirt sitting in our driveway.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXrZe2o_irVt6XzTgy94U0uG_EHZEjwcVn6tKIN0ArydO75ckwgTbtaRclOp_kHl1JO9Gjs7vUmTXGq3r2P3NDSez_W_mQ9HzNrljUZhxaKRP3vniY1RRhOCnaroVc_xOMg3-pyRYGzY/s1600/DSC01502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMXrZe2o_irVt6XzTgy94U0uG_EHZEjwcVn6tKIN0ArydO75ckwgTbtaRclOp_kHl1JO9Gjs7vUmTXGq3r2P3NDSez_W_mQ9HzNrljUZhxaKRP3vniY1RRhOCnaroVc_xOMg3-pyRYGzY/s320/DSC01502.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
It's a square foot garden box that the former owner left behind. Since I wasn't sure what plants would pop up in the garden beds, I thought I would leave the square foot box right where it was and make some good use of it. Being the overly ambitious, learning obsessed person I am, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at seed starting, despite the fact that my mom (the most knowledgable gardener I know) has rarely attempted to start any vegetable plants from seed because it's so difficult...and despite the fact that I have nearly zero gardening experience besides throwing some flowers in pots. And eating all the green beans and snow peas out of my mom's garden when I was a kid...if you want to count that as experience. At least I was smart enough to eat something that wouldn't leave my breath smelling funky so that I could lie to my mom about it later...unlike my sister who would eat all the garlic chives, then come in the house, breath reeking of garlic, and try the "no mom, i haven't been eating things from the garden!" line. I suppose if my mom's biggest problem was her kids stealing veggies out of her garden, then either we were weird kids or my mom really lucked out. Maybe both. I digress.<br />
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So, seed starting. It's a beautiful thing. You plant this itty bitty little thing that you can barely pick up between your fingers in some dirt, water it, keep it warm, give it a little love. You wait. A little sprout shows up. And you get excited. You plant it outside and think it's never going to survive the elements or bugs or animals or million other things that could go wrong. But it does. It keeps growing and starts looking like a REAL plant and you <strike>love it like a child</strike> think 'holy crap I haven't killed it yet!'. Then the fruit part (vegetable) appears and it's amazing. It ripens and you <strike>eat it immediately because you're so excited</strike> think 'holy crap, I made that happen!'. Proceed to harvest yummy things which you in turn don't have to buy at the grocery store. Free food! Then the plant starts to die as it gets too cold, but the nutrients it leaves behind help enrich the soil for some cool-weather plants or something new next spring. It's the CIIIIIIIRCLE of LIIIIIIIIFE! (Himinama hima numa namah...)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/JBtPYE-KSA4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Oh, the real lyrics! Apparently my Swahili was way off...<br />
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Anyway. Veggies. Now that I've summed it up, let's get to the real dirt. (What would my posts be without at least one terrible pun?) Knowing I was working with limited space, I chose to plant the veggies we buy most frequently - peppers, broccoli and tomatoes - and a few things I thought we would enjoy - jalepenos, poblano peppers, green beans, <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-good-use-of-garden.html">mint</a>, and basil. Here's how we went from this:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYAcfdIHkTUpTJ62Z3FGSRWX-Ue_tbuSaLvn0QrDWz0AItnE8gmQwmeo4D9dfL6k__eM45yyMBACZKqy1jcEYeA3b-G2hDCUHmDkqVtxYAW-anVr6aIJLSms3nyX2FK7auY-saTdlz9TM/s1600/DSC01738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYAcfdIHkTUpTJ62Z3FGSRWX-Ue_tbuSaLvn0QrDWz0AItnE8gmQwmeo4D9dfL6k__eM45yyMBACZKqy1jcEYeA3b-G2hDCUHmDkqVtxYAW-anVr6aIJLSms3nyX2FK7auY-saTdlz9TM/s320/DSC01738.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">To this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJYm6Dt7yoj5fyeTriMspKZMZ1h-q7BA0VUiV4ij3oBR9DQYU9zEiMb5-q65tcv-SJ7qs-WcCZecpFEQoKGAtwN5F16Ltidh-RI_EjVADKO7aWC2Pk22qQydoAzPSvsKtk9-M6vazCc4/s1600/0804111815.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRJYm6Dt7yoj5fyeTriMspKZMZ1h-q7BA0VUiV4ij3oBR9DQYU9zEiMb5-q65tcv-SJ7qs-WcCZecpFEQoKGAtwN5F16Ltidh-RI_EjVADKO7aWC2Pk22qQydoAzPSvsKtk9-M6vazCc4/s320/0804111815.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Back that thang up. Before we could get to the square foot garden bed, we needed to start even earlier. This took a little pre-planning, since the seeds needed to start growing inside (while it was still cold out) in order to be big and strong enough to plant once any chance of frost had passed. Not all seeds need to start indoors first. Typically, plants that take longer to grow and produce fruit are the ones you want to start indoors. For example, tomatoes and peppers can take 50-60 days or more before they produce fruit. In a short growing season like Cleveland's, it's really important to get the baby plants (seedlings) in the ground asap so you can get a few harvests from your plants before it gets cold again. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So, where to start? I hit up Home Depot for seed packets, some biodegradable seed starting pots (I chose Jiffy Strips, which are made out of peat moss), plus potting mix specifically for seed starting. My total came to about $12 for 13 seed packets (some of which were flowers), 2 Jiffy Strips packages containing 32 'pots' each, and the potting mix. Dirt cheap. (There I go with the dirt references again...I just can't keep my fingers from typing them. If you were to play a drinking game based off my dirt references, you'd probably already be tipsy.) </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/seedpurchase.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/seedpurchase.png" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div>When I got home, I took everything to the basement - it was mid to late March at the time and I didn't want dirt all over our old apartment (this was pre-new-house) - and got set up. I figured I would allot up to 4 seedling pots for each type of plant, assuming a few of each variety might not survive the transition outside. So, about 44 seedling pots total. (I basically assumed I would fail at this whole thing so I tried to set myself up for the least amount of failure as possible.) As you can see, I also used an old egg carton because - fun fact alert! - they are biodegradable, free, and I try to be <strike>frugal</strike> 'green' like that. Then I opened my bag of potting mix and added some water so that the soil was nice and damp but not soaked. You don't want completely dry soil because it will compact when you water your seedling pots later, leaving a big gap at the top. Using a small measuring cup for the least mess possible, I filled all of the pots to the top, packing in the soil a bit. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpVFOhioxZsIyw-QyoZuUwU4WXmu2BBKuDnSpDsFAn9PkBThxlUb6KWm5DTLPE4K99gJriHRQyPibBLatqMqaaJTogSFkCbIqrYEAnmFq85l9v8evg-bVFTRSGd6Wa5dSsXGe6BrFbggQ/s1600/DSC01452.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpVFOhioxZsIyw-QyoZuUwU4WXmu2BBKuDnSpDsFAn9PkBThxlUb6KWm5DTLPE4K99gJriHRQyPibBLatqMqaaJTogSFkCbIqrYEAnmFq85l9v8evg-bVFTRSGd6Wa5dSsXGe6BrFbggQ/s320/DSC01452.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">All that's left was to follow the instructions on the back of the seed packets to know how deep to plant each type of seed. Because seeds are different sizes, they have different planting depths, so it's important to only put them as deep or just slightly less deep than what the packet suggests. If you don't, they won't effectively absorb the sunlight and sprout. You can use a chopstick, pencil, or your little finger to poke a hole in the dirt and insert the seed. Some seeds only require you to lightly 'roughen up' the top bit of soil, sprinkle the seed, and lightly 'rake' the soil back over top. I made sure to put a couple seeds in each pot just in case one didn't sprout. Then I labeled each section of pots with the plant type and date and watered them so the soil would be nice and moist but not soaking. Labeling is especially important because most seedlings look alike until they get bigger and you'll want to be able to identify them. </div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/peatpots.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="384" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/peatpots.png" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div></div><div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Put in the sunniest spot you can find and wait. Easy right?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_n9UPz6xc6rYu8EA4g-zmJOrXbCUkSRXvueOLd2lifr-C64oOyMZtmdcgzmt_Kg2TpDNGd6M237XXya2MWKiDCD-0cGzmjkFathzHmiQAvUyURcxoHzKD9d48es4gAqKfXN_KYXPaFQo/s1600/DSC01540.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_n9UPz6xc6rYu8EA4g-zmJOrXbCUkSRXvueOLd2lifr-C64oOyMZtmdcgzmt_Kg2TpDNGd6M237XXya2MWKiDCD-0cGzmjkFathzHmiQAvUyURcxoHzKD9d48es4gAqKfXN_KYXPaFQo/s320/DSC01540.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">DECEPTION. This is where the hardest part begins. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">You have to attempt to keep that perfect balance of enough sunlight, warmth and soil moisture to get your little seed babies to grow. In our old apartment, which didn't really get south facing sun (aka a full day of sun) and which we kept at a 'toasty' 63 degrees through March and April (58 degrees during work hours) thanks to a freakishly high gas bill, I wouldn't exactly say that I had stellar growing conditions. To help make up for the lack of sun - and therefore warmth - I put a sheet of foil underneath my seedling pots to help attract and absorb more sunlight, hoping it wouldn't overcompensate and end up frying them. Fortunately, it seemed to help and they grew. Then they had to withstand the treacherous transfer that was moving day - sudden temperature changes going from apartment, to outside, to car, to outside, into the new house. And somehow they still held on. When any chance of frost had passed in May and it finally quit raining nonstop, I began to harden off my little seedlings. 'Hardening off' means you gradually introduce the seedlings to the outdoors, usually starting about a week before you intend to plant them. It sounds high maintenance, but it is necessary for them to adapt to the wind and temperature changes which they have been shielded from indoors thus far. For me, this was the last week of May. I started by putting them on the covered front porch for a few hours, then out in part sun/shade for half the day, into mostly sun for a whole day and leaving them overnight. Then it was time to plant in the square foot box.</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYAcfdIHkTUpTJ62Z3FGSRWX-Ue_tbuSaLvn0QrDWz0AItnE8gmQwmeo4D9dfL6k__eM45yyMBACZKqy1jcEYeA3b-G2hDCUHmDkqVtxYAW-anVr6aIJLSms3nyX2FK7auY-saTdlz9TM/s1600/DSC01738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYAcfdIHkTUpTJ62Z3FGSRWX-Ue_tbuSaLvn0QrDWz0AItnE8gmQwmeo4D9dfL6k__eM45yyMBACZKqy1jcEYeA3b-G2hDCUHmDkqVtxYAW-anVr6aIJLSms3nyX2FK7auY-saTdlz9TM/s320/DSC01738.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The day I decided to plant, I ran out to Home Depot and bought a bag of compost (hopefully I will be making my own by next year) and picked up a couple extra veggie plants. That fear of failure was still lurking around in my mind and I at least wanted SOME veggies out of the whole ordeal, so I figured would have a couple ‘backup plants’ just in case my seedlings all died. Grabbing the backup plants also allowed me to nab a couple veggie varieties I had been looking for but couldn’t find seeds for at the store. The backups I bought were 1 pear tomato plant, 1 Early Girl tomato plant, 1 green pepper plant, 1 poblano pepper plant, and peppermint. I had seed starts for everything but the pear tomato plant. What’s that you say? I still haven’t given you the veggie planting run down? Let’s call them the ‘dirty dozen’: heirloom tomatoes, Early Girl tomatoes, pear tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, green pepper, jalepeño pepper, poblano pepper, basil, spearmint, and peppermint. Because I’m firm believer that there's nothing like a fresh tomato from the garden, I carefully chose a few different varieties based off size growth time and how I thought I would use them. We eat tons of green and red peppers – fun fact alert again! Red peppers are actually just ripe green peppers – so I definitely wanted those. The hot peppers were more for fun. The mints I had planned to use for making my own tea (or mojitos...more on those <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/making-good-use-of-garden.html">here</a>), and the basil for cooking. The green bean seeds were left behind by our house’s previous owner, so I figured why not? And so, I planted.</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Even though not all my seeds were organic, I still wanted to garden as organically as possible. Instead of chemical fertilizers, I used compost and a strategy called ‘companion planting’ in which you plant your garden according to groupings of plants that are mutually beneficial to each other, which in turn encourages growth and flavor and wards off pests. To start, I turned all the soil in the square foot box, then incorporated a bag of compost and mixed it all together. Then I dampened the soil with water from the hose. My box is 3’x3’, so I had 9 squares to plant in. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/sqfootbox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/sqfootbox.png" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Large plants, like tomatoes and peppers, need a whole square to themselves, while smaller plants, like green beans, can have about 4-6 plants per square foot. For the seedlings, I separated the little peat pots and gently tore the bottom of them to expose the roots without harming them. Then I made a hole in the dirt and planted them in the center of each square with soil just covering the tops of the pots. For the backup plants, I just removed them from their plastic store pots, gently broke up some of the root ball at the bottom, and planted them in the same way. For the tomato plants that were a bit weak and leggy – meaning they had tall stems but only leaves at the top – I buried them a bit deeper so that about half the stem was in the soil. Tomatoes are able to grow root shoots off the stem, so this approach gives them a stronger start in the ground. All that was left were the green beans and basil, which I seeded directly into the square foot bed, and the mint, which I seeded directly into some containers, per the instructions on their seed packets. I had a few veggie seedlings leftover so I planted some of the more viable looking ones directly in the garden beds in a few random spots where I thought there might be space amongst the still developing flowers. (It's always good to have a doggy supervisor.)</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/boxdone.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="380" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/boxdone.png" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Commence waiting. At this point I basically just monitored the soil to make sure it stayed slightly damp at all times. This meant watering every day (or twice a day if it was really hot) in the square foot bed and containers, which dry out easily because air can get underneath. The garden bed veggies only needed water maybe every other day. If there were any leaves that started browning, I pinched them off to promote more growth. Fast forward to the beginning of July. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="627" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics1.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics2.png" width="576" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics3.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/veggiepics4.png" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Halleluiah! I didn’t kill them all – or ANY in fact! It’s a <s>Christmas in July</s> miracle! The beans started producing first, even though I seeded them directly in the box. But that’s because they produce ‘fruit’ in a really short amount of time. I confess, I got really excited about the first few pear tomatoes that ripened and just ate them straight off the plant, so my first legit harvest was this:</div><div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/harvest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="539" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/harvest.png" width="640" xaa="true" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Glorious. I thought I would end up with so many tomatoes that I could can some, but so far I’ve been eating them like a fiend...straight off the plant, on homemade margherita pizza, sliced with some of the garden basil as a side dish, you name it. We’ve had plenty of the Early Girls and pear tomatoes. I’ve already cooked up about 5 green/red peppers too. And you already know that I’ve used a bunch of mint for drinks. The plants I started from seedlings have been a little slower to produce, so the cherry tomatoes, jalepeños, and heirloom tomatoes are just now ripening. In fact, the heirloom tomato plants are Out. Of. Control. This one in the garden bed is almost as tall as me and so wide that it’s growing its way into two other plants and over the top of the air conditioner, a la Little Shop of Horrors. Feed me, Seymour, feed me! </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">You might not even be able to tell among the chaos of leaves, but I had to use two sticks from the yard to try to support some of the branches coming off the plant (albeit not quite successfully) because it's original stake can no longer support it. Hard to believe that guy started out as a tiny seed in my hand back in March. And has made it all this way without any chemical fertilizers – just some good ol’ compost and a sprinkling of dried coffee grounds for a little au natural boost. That can be said for all my veggie plants. So proud. The peppers and some of the tomatoes might not be as big as what you would buy in the store, but the flavor is so much better and we have the satisfaction of knowing we grew them ourselves. And that they aren’t laden with chemicals. And that they’re (nearly) free! Three points for us. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">So there’s a <s>long</s> little glimpse into seed starting and my first attempt at a vegetable garden. Mad props to you if you made it all the way to the end of this post. I award you the Most Dedicated Reader award. </span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Anyone try growing their own veggies or herbs at home? We would love to hear about your experience/methods. Maybe I’ll share our homemade margherita pizza recipe with you. I think we’ve made it a half dozen times already this summer because it’s So. Delicious. And I’ve been obsessed with the fact that all the ingredients are either in my pantry or my garden - with the exception of fresh mozz – so it’s CHEAP to make. Mmmm...gooey, melty, fresh mozz....I’m hungry....</span></div></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-34573193325114557242011-08-02T20:59:00.001-04:002012-03-14T01:37:53.104-04:00Pillow Talk<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
As you might have noticed in our <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/le-grand-tour.html">house tour post</a>, things are still looking a little blah in the décor department. That might have something to do with my inability to make decisions about where to put anything. And the fact that much of it is still tucked in boxes in our breakfast nook, nice and out of the way... which you would think would be a good thing, but actually isn’t because it keeps me from tripping over and cursing at it every day, both of which seem to be prerequisites for motivating me to actually do something with it. I digress. Since I’ve been all non-committal about our other décor, I thought pillows would be a great place to start. They’re useful (Darren would beg to differ) and an easy way to cheer up or change up a space. I figured I would just make new covers for our already-owned pillows (most of which currently match our hand-me-down couch)...but you probably know that’s easier said than done. Making actually requires <b>doing</b>, and I haven’t been doing any doing when it comes to décor this summer. Phew. Try saying that three times fast. </div>
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Anyway, I got a swift kick in the motivation-pants over the past week when I read about a <a href="http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/08/320-pins/">Pinterest Challenge</a> being hosted on one my favorite blogs, Young House Love. <a href="http://pinterest.com/corrieh/">Pinterest</a> is like an online inspiration/project binder where you can create visual bookmarks of everything that catches your eye. You ‘pin’ things to a ‘board’ (essentially a folder) with a note to remind yourself why you’re obsessing over it. The problem with Pinterest is that I have pinned so many project ideas but haven’t done most of them yet. Apparently other people have this problem too, hence the Pinterest Challenge. Deadline: Today. Aw shoot.</div>
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And so, I paid a little visit to my <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/88799872/">Pinterest pillow inspiration</a> (pillow pinspiration?), these beauts from Pottery Barn:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ZN6m4bWQsL0u-Lsv3seOBd6Ok9UIAeDvsLnjSQVwoLwa97-kVO6p5BU_T4kTpj2sspsbrnAtndq5XneIni9JLotKPKBr2JwB5tq7BEn67jnzESMO1Uim1vGm3bk9bUI_9Z8SXSEwZ3Y/s1600/PBonPintrest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ZN6m4bWQsL0u-Lsv3seOBd6Ok9UIAeDvsLnjSQVwoLwa97-kVO6p5BU_T4kTpj2sspsbrnAtndq5XneIni9JLotKPKBr2JwB5tq7BEn67jnzESMO1Uim1vGm3bk9bUI_9Z8SXSEwZ3Y/s640/PBonPintrest.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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As much as I’m a lover of most things Pottery Barn – their stuff fits the casual but collected look I’m going for - we’re on more of a Target kind of budget. So at $25 per slipcover (not including the pillow insert!), these suckers were put on the ‘to make’, not the ‘to buy’ list. They look pretty simple after all...so it’s Pottery Barn knockoff time baby. (I accidentally typed ‘Potty Barn knockoff’ the first time and giggled to myself. No one wants a knockoff of that. Maybe you had to be there.) </div>
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Back in March, a local Joann Fabrics store was going out of business and having a crazy 50-75% off sale. Knowing we would be moving in April, and anticipating making some pillow covers, I ran over there like a crazy person to <s>buy up the whole store</s> stock up on some fabric. $94 and $131.52 in savings later, I came home with a whole slew of future project supplies, including those for this project: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZmzh1BpxYWAaHSN3YjO01D6SVn0XqVZh1rKGeXJAT-T3Z-aTU6m4mu87RQIV5F6gyLEKb6qaYWBMlx4UqiorHM5g3WANC4AbIO8lnMNQd5VhEAdej6nlsoxXzvGTnk-WL5EhJCWEb9TM/s1600/DSC02103.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZmzh1BpxYWAaHSN3YjO01D6SVn0XqVZh1rKGeXJAT-T3Z-aTU6m4mu87RQIV5F6gyLEKb6qaYWBMlx4UqiorHM5g3WANC4AbIO8lnMNQd5VhEAdej6nlsoxXzvGTnk-WL5EhJCWEb9TM/s320/DSC02103.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Buttons: $1.25 at 50% off (org. $2.50 each)</div>
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Indoor/Outdoor Fabric (sturdy and washable to hold up to large dog and people abuse): Marlin Linen Spa , $9.99 for 2 yards at 75% off (orig. $39.98 - $19.99 per yd). </div>
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Thread - $2.99</div>
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Pillows – already owned.</div>
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Sewing Machine - already owned. It's a White Sewing Machine from the 50's that I found at a festival for $30 - score! Even better, it was made here in Cleveland. I also adore that it's turquoise and had to share a pic.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2fd3bJI5con8U1djJDu41OQu_r5LQUSOn3NYklGzFeCC72yZC8T6UydHgg1GPJ9kmFwd8GKGpf1U69GGzRL0GcP1uD26uamQ_aPyspehPfe2iAB6o8iAsE24dSSMRALzTQukld_i0wG0/s1600/DSC02094.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2fd3bJI5con8U1djJDu41OQu_r5LQUSOn3NYklGzFeCC72yZC8T6UydHgg1GPJ9kmFwd8GKGpf1U69GGzRL0GcP1uD26uamQ_aPyspehPfe2iAB6o8iAsE24dSSMRALzTQukld_i0wG0/s320/DSC02094.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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You probably just realized that I have had the supplies for these pillows sitting in my house for 4 months now. Queen of Procrastination? This kid right here.</div>
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I made a basic envelope style pillow cover on Sunday - for which you can find many tutorials online – and realized that the Pottery Barn pillows were essentially just an envelope style pillow cover, but with the opening in front and a decorative-but-functional button closure. This (the back of the envelope style pillow I made on Sunday) vs. This (Pottery Barn's Textured Linen Pillow Covers):</div>
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See what I mean? So here’s how I did it. First, measure your pillow. Mine was 20”x20”. You will measure and cut one long piece of fabric to wrap around your pillow (why do extra sewing if you don’t have to?) and calculate it like this:</div>
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Front pillow length + Back pillow length + 2” for seams + 3” for envelope overlap. </div>
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In my case this was 20”+20”+2”+3” = 45” for the length. For the width of the pillow, add ½” for seam allowance so you have a snug fit. The dimensions of the fabric I cut were 45”x20 ½” for my 20”x20” pillows. Make sure when you are marking out your measurements that you are doing it on the wrong side of the fabric (wrong side generally = unprinted side). Now cut.it.out (image 1). (Uncle Joey from Full House? Anyone?)<br />
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Because you want finished edges on the envelope part of the pillow since it will be facing front, you will double hem the top and bottom ends. To do this, you fold and press down ½” seam (image 2). Then fold it over ½” and press it down again (image 3). (You might need to pin it to hold it in place while you take it to the sewing machine.) Then sew a ¼” seam down the edge of each of your double hems. </div>
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With the fabric laying right side up, fold in the top part (image 4), then the bottom part, overlapping them by 3” (image 5). Since I wanted my fold to sit just above center on the front of my pillow, I folded the top part down 9” and the bottom part up 14”. This left me with a 20” square with 3” of overlapping fabric (image 6). I pinned the top, bottom and overlapping pieces in place, then sewed a ½” seam allowance up each open side of the pillow (image 7).<br />
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I clipped each corner of the pillow at an angle (image 8), then turned the whole thing right-side out and used a closed pair of scissors to push out nice points in the pillow corners (image 9). Aaaand insert pillow (image 10).</div>
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But wait! There’s more! </div>
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I wanted my pillow to have that fun/functional button closure, remember? So with the envelope fold side of the pillow facing frontward, I measured halfway in from the side and positioned my button where I wanted it to go (image 11).<br />
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I made an inconspicuous little mark on the fabric underneath where the button would be for an easy reference point – it would be covered once the button was sewn on anyway. Then I attached it (image 12). <s>Sew</s> So what about that loop thing that goes around the button? Well, I had to make that too, and it was honestly probably the only difficult part of this project. I suppose I could’ve just sewn one of my unused hair bands to the underside of the flap to create an easy loop closure solution, but I wanted the loop to match the fabric for a more polished look. <br />
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<a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/pillowcord.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/pillowcord.png" width="558" /></a></div>
I cut out a 1” wide strip of fabric that was a few inches long (I didn’t measure since I knew I would trim it down anyway) and took it to the ironing board (image 13). With the wrong side facing up, I folded one long side so its edge was touching the center and ironed it (image 14). Then I did the same with the other long side. At this point, I realized that the skinny little flaps still weren’t laying as flat as I wanted, so I <s>said screw it</s> unfolded the flaps, ran some Fabri-Tac fabric glue down the center, and refolded the flaps. Voila. Nice and flat (image 15). This was important, because I still had to fold the fabric AGAIN. This time completely in half. I pinned it closed (because it wouldn’t stay closed on its own) (image 16) and then sewed right up the center for the length of the folded fabric (image 17). The trick to this is <s>not sewing your fingers off</s> going really slow and straight since you don’t have a whole lot of wiggle room. When you’re done, you have a nice custom ‘cord’ for your button loop iImage 18)! <br />
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<a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/pillowloopclosure.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="369" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/pillowloopclosure.png" width="640" /></a></div>
I fitted it around my button, crossing the ends in an ‘X’ on the underside of the envelope flap (image 19), then hand-sewed it on (image 20). There was some excess cording left, so I just trimmed it off.</div>
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And there you have it! Pottery Barn pillows for a fraction of the price...about $4.50 per pillow, actually (recap: free currently-owned pillow, $1.25 for the button, about $3 for less than a yard of fabric, maybe $0.25 worth of thread). I actually ended up making two of them. (The colors in the pic on the right are not very accurate - I took it at night and the lighting is bad.) I'd say the final comparison is pretty close: </div>
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And where was Darren during all of this? Here’s a video that pretty much sums up his feelings about my pillow endeavors (thankfully he doesn't take it to this extreme). </div>
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Guys and their weird pillow issues.</div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-85387400600889766032011-07-27T14:10:00.004-04:002011-07-27T14:37:52.272-04:00Making Good Use of the Garden<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Last night I shared the <a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/were-coming-outside-tour-part-deux.html">outside tour of our house</a>, which included a glimpse into our ever-changing gardens. Almost all the updated pictures I posted were of the flowers that have popped up - but that's not the only stuff that's growing out there. While some people grow food in their gardens, I grow 'drink accessories.' Just kidding. By drink accessories, I meant herbs, but I grow veggies too. My next post will be about this year's seed starting adventures - my first time trying it! - but I thought I would take a little break from the garden mumbo jumbo and share something you can use, regardless of whether you have a garden. </span></b><br />
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My overly ambitious, type-A self was hoping to plant a window box full of herbs this spring, but due to all the rainy weather, I only got around to planting basil in the square foot box and two kinds of mint in some containers. These were priority herbs for me because we like to make margherita pizzas from scratch (fresh basil goes on top after the bake), and I often drink mint tea before bed or as a way to settle my stomach if I feel sick or eat too much. Instead of buying prepackaged mint tea, I thought I would do a little 'experi-mint' (yay for bad puns) and try making my own. I started the basil from seed, and planted three containers of mint - one container each of peppermint and spearmint with seeds and two small plants in each (as a backup if the seeds failed), and one container of spearmint completely from seed. This is how the mint started out:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdh2m9n0aWkn7y3cRuyn7Bn8OOhnPmF2J9062Hz9Oh-jVOcQQJldhZRB2z6tO98_U5k0o7dIma747MFbm8loKdBzwAMAiigoWvRMGKiNplcHhaY2BxxaYXmZ30MHoAiNMQa9SvxudEH8/s1600/DSC01740.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdh2m9n0aWkn7y3cRuyn7Bn8OOhnPmF2J9062Hz9Oh-jVOcQQJldhZRB2z6tO98_U5k0o7dIma747MFbm8loKdBzwAMAiigoWvRMGKiNplcHhaY2BxxaYXmZ30MHoAiNMQa9SvxudEH8/s400/DSC01740.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
And this is what it looks like now:<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Wowzers does that stuff grow fast! (Tip: If you attempt to plant mint in a garden bed instead of its own container, it's advisable to plant it in a bottomless coffee can or other small container, and then bury the whole thing in your garden. Mint spreads out quickly - and I hear is hard to remove - so this planting method will help contain it.) It was even more lush looking before our heat wave last week. Plus I've experimented with some tea already which has made it a little more sparse. Anyway, I've rambled on about gardeny stuff and still haven't gotten to the fun part you can use: a mojito recipe! (Was my 'drink accessories' comment from above a good hint?) We had some friends visiting from Columbus this past weekend and it occurred to me that growing your mint has yet another fantastic advantage. Mojitos. And so ladies and gents, I bring to you my fabulous Garden Mint Mojito recipe, in both pitcher and single glass form, as adapted from a variety of recipes I found on the internet. (The pitcher version was Columbus guest tested and approved this weekend, and the single glass version tested and approved by me after my 27 mile bike ride on Monday night.)</div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">First a few things to note. The key to a mojito is freshness. Fresh lime juice + fresh mint = fresh tasting drink. It's a little labor intensive, which is why I recommend the pitcher version. Although I grow both spearmint and peppermint in my garden, spearmint imparts the more desirable flavor for this drink. If you are buying your fresh mint from the grocery store, it is likely spearmint, so you shouldn't have to worry about getting the wrong kind. I choose to use entire sprigs - stem and all - when I muddle, because much of the minty oils come from the stem and I think it helps create less 'debris' in the drink than using loose leaves. Don't over-muddle. Your mint should not end up in itty bitty shredded pieces. I know the amount of sugar looks like a lot, but it is necessary. Sugar helps cut through the acid of the limes and enhances the flavor of the mint, so you will want to go with the recommended amounts. Lastly, you might want to consider using simple syrup in place of the sugar because it dissolves instantly. I didn't this time because we made them spur-of-the-moment, but I will likely try it next time. Sip slowly and enjoy the way the flavors meld as you drink. On to the recipe...</span></b><br />
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</b><b>Garden Mint Mojitos</b><br />
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<i><b>For a pitcher: </b></i><br />
Juice of 8-10 limes (depending upon how large they are)<br />
5 springs of mint, intact (about 10 leaves per sprig)<br />
Scant 3/4 cup of granulated sugar (or about 1/2 cup simple syrup - see below)<br />
1-1.5 cups of white rum (depending upon how rough of a week it's been) - I recommend Bacardi<br />
Chilled club soda/sparkling mineral water<br />
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Place lime juice, mint and sugar in a cocktail shaker and muddle, releasing mint oils and dissolving sugar into the juice. If the mint is floating too much in the liquid, strain some out into your pitcher and continue muddling in the shaker. (You can always muddle directly in the pitcher, but mine has an oddly shaped bottom which would've made it difficult.) Strain all liquid and throw some of the muddled-but-still-somewhat-intact mint springs into the pitcher. If you have a clear pitcher, add a couple of the used and abused lime halves for decoration (only if you're optimistic and think the drink will last that long). Fill glasses full of ice and pour the drink over top. Add a fresh, extra mint sprig to each glass for garnish.<br />
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<i><b>For an individual drink:</b> </i>(Cue George Thorogood's 'I Drink Alone'...anybody? anybody?)<br />
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1 whole spring of spearmint (about 12 leaves, intact on the stem)<br />
2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar (depending upon how sweet you like it. Or, substitute .75oz. of simple syrup - see below.)<br />
Juice from half a lime<br />
2 oz. of white rum - I recommend Bacardi<br />
3 oz. chilled club soda/sparkling mineral water<br />
(That's 2 parts rum to 3 parts soda/sparkling water, for those who don't like to measure...which is me sometimes.)<br />
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In a tall glass, add the whole mint spring, sugar (or syrup) and lime juice. Gently muddle to extract the mint oils and dissolve much of the sugar. Just don't go too nuts on it. Add the used lime half from the juice you squeezed out and fill the glass with ice. Pour the rum and soda over the ice and stir until the glass is frosted. Garnish with another mint spring if desired. I recommend a straw if you are 'put off' by the mint bits floating around in the glass. (Sidenote: for those who don't like the muddled remnants in their glass, <s>I think you're crazy.</s> you can do the muddling in a cocktail shaker and then strain the resulting liquid into your glass with a little mint garnish at the end.)<br />
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<i><b>Simple Syrup:</b></i><br />
It's called 'simple syrup' for a reason. It might be the only thing simpler than boiling noodles.<br />
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2 cups (or 2 parts) granulated sugar<br />
2 cups (or 2 parts) boiling water<br />
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Stir together until clear. Let cool and move to a bottle for easy pouring. And that's it. This stuff can be used in a number of cocktails or to sweeten non-alcoholic drinks like lemonade or iced tea - it really gets around.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Cheers! Let me know what you think if you try them! Any other fun uses you can think of for mint from the garden?</div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-26493861698353929732011-07-26T22:07:00.001-04:002011-07-27T09:46:30.236-04:00We're Coming Out(side) - Tour Part DeuxAlright, now that you've seen the<u> </u><a href="http://housemadeblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/le-grand-tour.html">inside of our house</a>, I'll show you what we get to see out our window every day. Despite having a small yard, I have to say that I'm in love with my gardens and front porch. One of the things I was most excited about when we starting looking for houses was the prospect of actually having sunny garden space to plant veggies and flowers. Plus, after living in two rentals with covered front porches, I was hoping a covered front porch would be something I wouldn't have to live without. Fortunately, the seller of our house put a lot of time into the gardens, particularly into choosing plant varieties for blooms from spring through fall (more on the gardens later), AND our house has a nice spacious front porch! So apart from the size of the yard, I feel like we pretty much hit the outdoor jackpot.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Just like the indoor tour, I'll show some pics and list some of the projects we have in mind, crossing out the ones we've completed so far. Let's start with the front yard/porch. I forgot to take pictures of it when we first moved in, but it basically looked like a plantless, chairless version of its current self. We haven't done much with it. (I blurred out our address on the front of the house so the whole world doesn't know where we live, hence the blobby parts of the pictures.)</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Front Yard/Porch: </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02076.jpg?t=1311703374" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img _prototypeuid="11" alt="" border="0" class="media" galleryimg="no" height="320" id="fullSizedImage" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02076.jpg?t=1311703374" width="240" /></a> <img _prototypeuid="11" alt="" class="media" galleryimg="no" height="320" id="fullSizedImage" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02077.jpg?t=1311706425" width="241" /></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02078.jpg?t=1311706486" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img _prototypeuid="11" alt="" border="0" class="media" galleryimg="no" height="320" id="fullSizedImage" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02078.jpg?t=1311706486" width="239" /></a><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02074.jpg" t$="true" width="239" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div></div><ul><li>Obtain clear cafe string lights for some porch ceiling ambiance</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Decorate with potted/hanging annuals - I do have some hanging currently, but not as many as I had hoped</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Plant some shade/part-shade friendly perennials in the front yard to cheer up all the shrubbery</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><s>Paint wood patio furniture</s> and make new cushions for outdoor seating - partially done. The patio furniture has been painted (stained, actually) but I have yet to redo the cushions, which is why we haven't put it on the porch yet. </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><s>Repurpose our old baker's rack as a potting stand</s> - you can see in the lower left picture that it has found its new home - a perfect fit - in the awkward front corner of the porch. </li>
<li>Paint plastic adirondack chairs with Krylon Fusion (plastic friendly paint), possibly light blue.</li>
<li>Replace house numbers and mailbox</li>
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Backyard:</div> <br />
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A few things to point out...The wooden box sitting in the driveway is a 3'x3' square foot raised bed. As you can see in the lower right picture, we have two walkways from the driveway that converge at the back door. Unfortunately, they slope downward toward the house, so every time there is a heavy rain, we get about a 4" deep puddle of water under the door which causes seepage in the basement. See our project list below for what we plan to do about it.<br />
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But first, let me show you some garden updates. Though there are still a few plants I can't identify yet, here are some of the other things you'll find growing since the first pics were taken in April:<br />
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In late spring/early summer...<br />
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As we hit the hot days of Summer...<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Ahhhhh summer...</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Oh, right. Here's the yard projects we have in mind so far: </div><ul><li>Install a privacy fence with gate</li>
<li><strike>Fix the pipe/drain issue outside the back door by installing a new drain</strike> and regrading the landscape - Temporarily done! I will post on our drain-scapades later.</li>
<li>DIY a cobblestone patio with partial retaining wall</li>
<li>Make earthboxes (giant self-watering planters) for balcony veggies</li>
<li><strike>Plant the square foot garden box</strike> - Check! Next up is a garden post about what I planted.</li>
<li>Buy/make window boxes for herbs</li>
<li>Fix garage door, which sometimes doesn't close all the way</li>
<li>Replace back balcony rail to match the front porch</li>
<li>Find something to hide the air conditioner unit - tall plants or bamboo 'fencing'?</li>
</ul><br />
And since there are some other things we have on our list that don't really fit into a specific room/area of the house, here are some of the random projects we have in mind:<br />
<ul><li>Enhance existing insulation - our insulation seems to be pretty good, but I'm sure there is room for improvement. We might have to determine that by having someone do an energy audit though</li>
<li>Repair upstairs windows - our windows are all original to the house except for the storm windows that were added on. Some of the weighted cords on the upstairs windows are broken, so the windows don't open as easily as they should. </li>
<li>Buy and install basement supports - One of the things our inspector noted was that there has been some structural shifting over time, which can easily be fixed/stopped by fitting some support posts and beam brackets in the basement</li>
<li>Paint the house and front porch - our seller touched up some areas, but the paint colors don't exactly match well and you can tell. Some of the paint is starting to peel and I don't really like the hunter green anyway so I'm looking forward to changing it. </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Paint the front door - I like red front doors, but I feel like that's kind of cliche. I'm thinking something terracotta colored - it's not really red, and not really orange (which is my favorite color, but let's be honest it could be kind of questionable as an exterior house paint choice) </li>
</ul><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
So there you have it! Any suggestions for some great flowering, shade-friendly perennials for the front yard and back by the garage? I would love something purple but I know I can't be too picky. Do you have any plants or flowers that have made a surprise appearance in your yard this year?</div><img height="96" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02074.jpg" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 458px; mozopacity: 0.3; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 478px; visibility: hidden;" width="71" /> <img height="96" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02069.jpg" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 233px; mozopacity: 0.3; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 2713px; visibility: hidden;" width="77" />Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-32655733029951977412011-07-20T14:17:00.003-04:002011-07-21T13:02:45.139-04:00If You're Feeling BoardYes, that was a purposeful misspelling. What I REALLY meant to say was if you're feeling bored with your boards - cork boards that is - I have a fun little project to share with you. Today was Darren's twin nieces' 10th birthday (I can't believe they are already 10! I remember feeling so 'grown up' when I reached the double digits...) and they had asked for cork boards for their bedrooms. Ironically, in my recent browsing around the internet, I had come across some DIY tutorials on fabric covered cork boards, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try them out. Soooo today we are taking a little reprieve from the house tour <s>because I'm still editing photos</s> to share with you a fun way to jazz up those old boring cork boards you have sitting around your house.<br />
<br />
Cork boards seem to be making a comeback in home decor for both kids and adults as an obviously practical organization tool. But let's be honest. They aren't exactly attractive on their own. Though some of my favorite stores to window shop are currently selling some more stylish versions of the standard cork board, I thought I could do way better on my own in terms of price.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/messageboards.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/messageboards.png" width="375" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Clockwise: West Elm pushpin canvas board $59 (no longer available); The Container Store Linen Bulletin Board 15" $29.99; PB Teen White Dot Post-It Pinboard 24"x36" $79 (on sale $69)</span><br />
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</span><br />
Knowing the girls wanted the kind of board you use push pins with - instead of a memo board which typically has criss-crossed ribbons that you tuck things under - I browsed around the interwebs for some different tutorials. What I ended up doing was kind of a mix of a few different methods.<br />
<br />
First, I dragged Darren with me to Joann Fabrics <s>since he was footing the bill</s> to help me pick out fabrics that would be fitting for the twins rooms. Despite being twins, the girls have very different personalities and interests so I didn't want to make matching boards. They also have their own rooms - which they have recently started redecorating from what I understand - so I wanted to pick something out that still reflected their girly sides but was a little more sophisticated now that they are getting older. Although the new decor for their rooms would incorporate a number of colors, one of the girls loves pink, and the other purple.<br />
<br />
We scanned through the sale section first and narrowed it down to two fabrics, which were each $2 off per yard.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/fabrics.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/fabrics.png" width="187" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Since each fabric was 42" or more in width, and our cork board dimensions were only 17"x24", we knew that only half a yard would be plenty of fabric. (I realized later that a quarter yard - or a 'fat quarter' in fancy sewing terms - might be enough of some people, but it would've been just barely too short to cover our boards. Fat quarters are often sold in precut bundles and are very cheap.) After grabbing our fabrics, we went off in search of paint for the frames and ribbon for the trim. Since the fabrics we chose had similar accent colors - light blue and pale green - I decided to paint both frames light blue and use pale green ribbon around the edges of the cork. This turned out to be more cost effective because I only needed to buy one small bottle of paint and one roll of ribbon to put together both boards (instead of different ribbon and paint for each one). When we got home, my set up looked something like this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0WawFetR37khoN06TmA36TAJ_nPzpssaYOTnXzWmhi5kqDdtB3pok7VHOxD4dmARJ37jtVLRHdwzamW2q8F8Jfa9yhYzX1c8TOR4wVYkMZ6E_MXvNvD_kqJfySGDRQa9XsG0uJlTyMOI/s1600/DSC02014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0WawFetR37khoN06TmA36TAJ_nPzpssaYOTnXzWmhi5kqDdtB3pok7VHOxD4dmARJ37jtVLRHdwzamW2q8F8Jfa9yhYzX1c8TOR4wVYkMZ6E_MXvNvD_kqJfySGDRQa9XsG0uJlTyMOI/s320/DSC02014.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My supplies were fabric, the cork boards, paint, a dish for the paint, ribbon, a foam paintbrush, spray adhesive, Fabri-Tac (a fabric glue), scissors, a knife, a fabric cutting mat and fabric cutter. Since I was doing this on my glass top dining room table, I laid down a bunch of newspaper first so I didn't end up with a painty gluey mess all over the place. (Well, I had a painty gluey mess anyway, but at least it was on newspaper and not on my table.) I painted the frames first and didn't worry about being too careful not to get paint on the cork since it would be covered anyway. They took 3 coats of paint each since the wood frames had some sort of shiny finish on them that caused the first couple coats to look a little streaky. I might take the time to sand the frames a bit before painting next time, just to roughen them a tad and make the paint adhere better. And so far we have this:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02016.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Let's pretty it up. I laid my fabric right side down on the cork board, took a pen, and traced just barely wider than where the cork meets the frame. Very technical measuring, because I'm a very technical person, obviously. Then I use my fabric cutter and mat to cut along the lines I had traced. You could use scissors for this, but a fabric cutter is much quicker and cuts a clean straight line. At this point, I have to be honest and tell you that I got too fancy for my own good on the first board and attempted to tuck under all the edges by gluing a faux-hem with the Fabri-Tac so the fabric would have nice clean edges in hopes of perfectly aligning with the wood frame. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02018_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02018_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then I came to my senses, got over my type-A personality (momentarily) and realized it wouldn't create a perfectly gapless seam between the frame and fabric. I was wasting my time. No matter how hard I tried, there would always be a little sliver of cork showing through near one of the edges. So, with the fabric still turned right side down, I sprayed the entire back generously with adhesive spray then carefully align it on top of the cork. (Warning: do this away from the cork boards and anything else you don't want to end up with a sticky film all over it when you are done spraying.) Starting from the center ad working outward, I smoothed the fabric so there were no bubbles and creases. Any edges that might not have been sticking well got a little Fabri-Tac treatment to put them in their place. Since there were inevitably some places where the fabric was slightly overlapping the wood frame, I took a knife and tucked the fabric under the frame to secure it for a nice clean look, being careful not to pucker the fabric as I went along. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02027.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>The final step was to cut the ribbon to fit along the cork on the inside edge of the frame. This serves a dual purpose of looking cute and covering and messy looking spots along the edges. Tricky, huh? I cut each end of the ribbons at an angle so that they would align together in a nice neat little corner then glued it all down with Fabri-Tac.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02029.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02030.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Done and done. Two fabric covered bulletin boards completed in one evening. I even had a little extra time before bed to make big tags with the girls' names to attach to the packages as a way to spruce up my cheap-but-slightly-less-than-exciting wrapping paper. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyOH6X7fhLVeQ0UdrtSi0LMQgEf9GMZzMt0f5yuY07emqZl4geAt9hgFQmImqW5ygPIdINMdnrUJfO6se7HqdiRZDIF4v5CxWvYmF1ftLPu1rJo5CAlevEb8y2-LYT85QCmUijbJrncg/s1600/DSC02034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcyOH6X7fhLVeQ0UdrtSi0LMQgEf9GMZzMt0f5yuY07emqZl4geAt9hgFQmImqW5ygPIdINMdnrUJfO6se7HqdiRZDIF4v5CxWvYmF1ftLPu1rJo5CAlevEb8y2-LYT85QCmUijbJrncg/s320/DSC02034.jpg" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02033.jpg" t$="true" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DSC02037.jpg" t$="true" width="239" /></a></div>The plaid one is for A, who is a little more sporty, and the flowery one is for S, who is a little more artsy. They were really excited when they opened their gifts at dinner last night, and the look on S's face when she said "you MADE this?!" was priceless. I hope they enjoy having something unique and functional for their rooms, and especially that they get a lot of use out of their cute little corkboards (with push pins to match). In fact, I'm thinking we could use some of these in our office...Maybe I'll make a couple 'grown up' versions for Darren and I to hang above our desks. Perhaps with burlap or linen or something...the wheels are already turning...<br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: left;">Oh, but wait. The final cost? Less than $30 to make BOTH of the boards, and that included an extra roll of ribbon I didn't use, as well as the Fabri-Tac which I can use for future projects. Compare that to the ones I found above and we ended up with way less expensive gifts that are personalized to each girl's tastes. Score. Personally, I think they're even cuter than the ones I found at PB Teen. But I guess I'm kind of biased because I made them. </div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/smileyface-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/smileyface-1.png" t$="true" /></a></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-50876879870747680202011-07-15T13:43:00.001-04:002011-07-20T15:26:24.575-04:00Le Grand TourYou asked for it. You got it. Welcome to the grand tour of our new casa. Nothing is even remotely close to being in a finished state - few things are even in a permanent place even after living here two(!) months - so we're going to throw in some before and <s>sort of</s> in progress pictures. In addition, we thought it would be fun to list some of the projects we have in mind as we tour along. You know, to help you visualize what kinds of changes we have in mind. Since pictures + project lists = really long post, we'll split this up into two posts - one for inside the house, and one for outside/miscellaneous. <br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">We are pretty fortunate in that there weren't any major changes we needed to make immediately upon moving in...you know, like really heinous brown and orange floral wallpaper or something that would make us want to tear our eyes out just looking at it everyday. Which is pretty good considering our house was built in 1926. That's right folks, our house is older than my grandma. Fortunately, our seller got rid of the scary all-over-wallpaper stuff during the 14 years she lived here - we know how bad it was because she showed us pictures of what it looked like when she moved in. (Thanks for doing the dirty work for us Bev.) Even though there wasn't anything too scary, obviously not everything fits our tastes, so there are plenty of changes we have in mind. Let's start with the inside:<br />
<br />
Living Room: </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/LR714.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/LR714.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/LivingRoom2714.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/LivingRoom2714.png" /></a></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Living Room Projects:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><ul><li>Paint <strike>walls</strike> and ceiling - I painted the walls a pale greyish-taupe before we moved in to hopefully brighten up the dark wood thing we have going on in there. I also bought some Sherwin Williams Brilliance ceiling paint during a later sale, but have yet to paint that. (I think it is fantastic that all the original woodwork is intact - and looks great - so as much as I love the look of bright white trim, I'm going to be a 'naturalist' and keep the original woodwork downstairs for now) </li>
<li>Paint heat registers so they blend in more with the dark woodwork </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Get matching jute rugs for both seating areas - our current rugs are quite clashy, so I'm hoping for something neutral and durable that will create a cohesive look. </li>
<li>Replace loveseat with two chairs - the loveseat doesn't work functionally as its own seating space in our long narrow living room, but hey, we work with what we've got in the meantime</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Acquire less modern looking lamps - left from our college-to-'grown up' transition and a little boring for my taste</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Slipcover the sofa in a washable neutral color - it was a hand-me-down from Darren's oldest sister and is a little rough around the edges. </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Make or buy light and breezy neutral curtains for the windows </li>
<li>Create some front entry organization. There's just an awkward bare wall where Remy's toys <strike>are supposed to</strike> live right now and I feel the need to do something more practical with it. </li>
</ul></div>Dining Room<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DiningRoom7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/DiningRoom7.png" /></a></div><br />
Dining Room Projects:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><strike>Paint walls</strike> and ceiling - check! Did the walls before we moved in. Ceiling soon. </li>
<li>Change out the chandelier - I like it for now but might try to play with changing out the covers or something as a start</li>
<li>Get rid of the old blue recliner (it has a vice grip for a handle - classy.) that is randomly floating at the back of the room because we have no place for it</li>
<li>Create a wood wrap-around 'bar' for the kegerator - the white monster is a bit of an eye sore, but we can't bear to stick our beloved (DIY-ed) kegerator in the basement (not to mention it would be super inconvenient when we have parties) so we plan to class it up a bit.</li>
<li>Make new curtains - dark green is one of my least favorite colors, so I will probably go with something light and breezy to tie into the living room. </li>
<li>Get a larger more room-size appropriate rug (yellow pattern?)</li>
<li>Find different pairs of dining room chairs so they aren't matchy-matchy but still have some cohesiveness and interest</li>
</ul>Kitchen<br />
<br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Kitchen714.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Kitchen714.png" /></a></div>Kitchen Projects: </div><ul><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Replace hardware with oil rubbed bronze knobs and pulls - the current ones are a little modern for my taste and I'm hoping to go for a more rustic, country kitchen kind of look</div></li>
<li>Build breakfast nook benches, possibly with storage, so we can make practical use of the space (currently we just have boxes of picture frames, decor, and books sitting in there, which we have yet to unpack)</li>
<li>Build or find a breakfast nook table</li>
<li>Make roman shades for the windows - there are valances everywhere(!) and I'm not the biggest fan. </li>
<li>Make pantry shelves and paint the pantry - we need more food storage and that closet would make a perfect pantry</li>
<li>Install undercabinet lights</li>
<li>Get rid of the fan or replace it with something smaller and more appropriate for the space</li>
<li>Replace the nook light fixture. Gold = ick. </li>
<li>Replace the countertops</li>
<li>Paint all the trim - it's a little dingy looking</li>
<li>Replace the light fixture above Remy's food, which looks like it's going to fall out of the ceiling</li>
</ul><br />
Half Bath <br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/HalfBath7_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/HalfBath7_1.png" /></a></div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Half Bath Projects:</div><ul><li>Paint a seafoam blue color</li>
<li>Find or make shelves out of crates</li>
<li>Install reclaimed beadboard wainscoting (we have it sitting in the basement from a friend who tore it out of her new house) </li>
<li>Replace the laminate floor with white hexagon tile</li>
<li>Remove the current light fixture and install one or two sconce style fixtures with a switch</li>
</ul><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Stairway/Upstairs Hall - still looks exactly the same and I just plan on painting for now!</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHSwiv4JLnVnqNLx3QEWIZBuFPlaVob_8Ek6JfIZlsdDkIz43J3oMV4yQJDmKmHeV_PzvadievakbzdqSymXEPUARQ5ki1Bjv69rb75PHqRjWAdiDhtjBGEthy8Gq8auN9Q45oglm2MIw/s1600/DSC01501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHSwiv4JLnVnqNLx3QEWIZBuFPlaVob_8Ek6JfIZlsdDkIz43J3oMV4yQJDmKmHeV_PzvadievakbzdqSymXEPUARQ5ki1Bjv69rb75PHqRjWAdiDhtjBGEthy8Gq8auN9Q45oglm2MIw/s320/DSC01501.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhISsXX9scuHUuL9Ly7srk_ihlkxU5ft98zHtJDVZ5U0RZhgLwoWls96euNrM2zvZyhJIyU4qbwXGM1uhrdqlhF1AOgeu7oARclEPMGuWucKSiq4JHtZZKl4yfSJMoT3tjYCnCTmpZ13Sg/s1600/DSC01488.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhISsXX9scuHUuL9Ly7srk_ihlkxU5ft98zHtJDVZ5U0RZhgLwoWls96euNrM2zvZyhJIyU4qbwXGM1uhrdqlhF1AOgeu7oARclEPMGuWucKSiq4JHtZZKl4yfSJMoT3tjYCnCTmpZ13Sg/s320/DSC01488.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div>Full Bath<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/FullBath7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/FullBath7.png" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Full Bath Projects:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><ul><li>Paint a neutral color - maybe the grey from the living room?</li>
<li>Paint the trim and doors - they're white, but all dirty and streaky looking</li>
<li>Make a shelf with hooks for towels</li>
<li>Make shelves for the closet so we can finally put away all our stuff (yep, that's all of it still in boxes) </li>
<li>Repair and clean the white subway tile</li>
<li>Install a fan</li>
<li>Install low flow dual flush toilet adapter </li>
<li>Replace laminate flooring with white hexagon tile </li>
<li>Buy a new shower curtain since the current one is a little too <strike>vertically challenged like me</strike> short</li>
</ul></div><br />
Master Bedroom:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/MasterBR7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/MasterBR7.png" /></a></div>Master Bedroom Projects:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Paint a dark bluish/grey color - You can see the paint swatches on the wall. I like to sleep in places that are dark and cave-like. (Is that weird? Like something Batman would do? I guess I just never understood having a bright bedroom when the whole purpose is sleeping.)</li>
<li>Install bamboo shades in place of the white ones</li>
<li>Replace current quilt with white pickstitch quilt to contrast with the future dark walls</li>
<li>Possibly make/buy a bed skirt so you don't have to see the ugly metal bed frame </li>
<li>Make a few pillows for interest</li>
<li>Replace my dresser with a vanity style dresser I can sit at to do makeup</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Buy/make a shoe rack for the closet</li>
<li>Acquire under bed storage for my out of season clothes</li>
</ul><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
Office</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Office7.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/Office7.png" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Office Projects:</div><ul><li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Paint - possibly orange? I'm feeling like something bright (since this will also be my 'craft room') to get the creative juices flowing.</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Get better craft organization <strike>so Darren will let me make the Office an Office/Craft Room</strike></li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Purchase a desk lamp</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><strike>Buy a desk for me to use</strike> - Done! Scored one for $50 from a sorority sister who moved out of state and couldn't take it. Best part is that the desk was exactly what I had been looking for for months. </li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Replace curtains with something bright - maybe a breezy yellow print?</li>
</ul><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Guest Bedroom</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/GuestBR7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/GuestBR7.png" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Guest Bedroom Projects: </div></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><ul><li>Paint - same seafoam color as the half bath? the current mint green color kills me. </li>
<li>Find a new bedspread - maybe ticking stripe? The old one I used was from college and has a rip in it and a big stain on the underside.</li>
<li>Buy better pillows and throw pillows - we want our guest to be comfy! </li>
</ul></div>So, that's pretty much it for the inside! I apologize for the bad pictures. We just have a basic point and shoot camera that won't allow me to adjust settings manually, so some of the pictures distort colors a bit. <br />
<br />
In addition to what you saw, we have a basement and an attic as well, which I chose not to take pictures of because there really isn't anything to see. The basement is pretty much what you would expect from an 80-something year old house and is too damp to consider finishing. The attic is actually split into two separate rooms and we just use it all for storage. We think someone might have used it as an extra bedroom at one point - though we don't know how because it isn't very temperature controlled. It does have a vent and an old cable line up there, but for now, we don't really have any desire to convert it into an extra room. <br />
<br />
Stay tuned for the <strike>much shorter</strike> back and front yard tour along with other outdoor and miscellaneous projects we have planned. What do you think so far? How about an orange office and dark bluish-grey bedroom? I know it's not everyone's cup of tea...Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-34621858174525535072011-06-21T00:18:00.001-04:002011-07-21T13:02:14.734-04:00Pro-craft-inationAlright. I know what you're thinking..."So much for starting that blog and all those projects...they haven't even posted house pictures yet!" Truth be told, our house has pretty much been a complete mess since we moved in and we just haven't had the time to clean it and take nice pictures to show all of you. You know, the ones where our house will look all <s>well put together</s> clean and sort of organized, to make you think that's what it looks like every day. Well that's not what it looks like every day, and half our stuff still isn't in a permanent place, which is exactly why the pictures don't exist yet. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/smileyface-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/smileyface-1.png" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">While we have already worked on a few projects to share with you - coming soon in future posts! (for real this time) - part of the reason we haven't gotten around to pictures is because I have had craft stuff all over our living room slash house. And this is why:</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01846-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01846-1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
Psych! Not our wedding (you would obviously know about that in advance). Darren's sister, Rachel's wedding! She and her <s>fiance</s> husband got married at Mayfield Country Club this past Saturday. A little background note...When Darren's other sister, Jamie, got married last year, I offered to make all of her escort cards, programs and table numbers as her wedding gift. Rachel liked the idea and asked if I would be willing to do the same for her - which of course, I was. Needless to say, I've had ribbon, paper, and all the other supplies laying all over my living room for the past couple weeks. </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Now, being a 'seasoned' DIY wedding crafter...and by seasoned, I mean 'I did this once before for Jamie, my mom is a wedding planner, and I pretend to know how to do stuff'...I already had some knowledge about the amount of time it would take and the cost of supplies that would be necessary for this undertaking. Rachel liked the style of program and escort cards I did for Jamie, which worked wonderfully because I had saved the templates from last time. (You know, always thinking ahead.) I don't know why I never took pictures of the final products, but here are some <s>terrible</s> pictures I found of the samples she ended up going with.</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC00889-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC00889-1.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC00889-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC00887.jpg" width="240" /></a></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
These were definitely not the final products, as you can tell by the inaccurate information on the program. Plus, I ended up color matching the graphics to the paper (using a Panatone color selector in Microsoft Publisher) and making some other alignment edits, etc for the end results. But these at least give you an idea. The escort cards followed a similar theme.<br />
<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">Rachel, on the other hand, wanted something more simple but just as elegant for her reception 'stationary.' Her wedding colors were black, white, and silver and she didn't want anything too graphic-heavy. In fact, she originally wasn't going to do a program, but based off interest from her and Ryan's moms, she decided to go with something very basic. For the escort cards, she decided to do a combo favor/card by using mini picture frames she found online, which meant easy work for me. Here's how everything turned out:<br />
<br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/weddingcollage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/weddingcollage.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
To make the program, I had created my own template in Microsoft Publisher with dimensions of 4.25"x11" (exact dimensions of a half sheet of regular paper) for Jamie's programs, so I reused that same template to make Rachel's. Each half sheet is considered a 'page,' so I just created two pages (the front and back of the program) and then printed them out double sided on 110lb weight paper, which is a very thick card stock. Since I wanted some fancier font options than what my Mac comes with, I browsed on over to <a href="http://www.dafont.com/">DaFont.com</a> for some sweet free fonts. The script font on the program (as well as the escort frames and table numbers) is called 'Brock Script' and the front graphic is part of a font series called 'Damask Dings.' I just picked a damask image I liked best, super-sized the font in it's own text box, and aligned it with the rest of the text. Ta da! Pretty design. Oh, and the fancy little 'knot' at the top? Here's a quickie on how I did it:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/knotbowinstruct.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/knotbowinstruct.png" width="561" /></a></div><br />
First, I cut pieces of silver ribbon 12" long. Then I punched two holes centered in the top of each program. Starting at the front of the program, I threaded each end of the ribbon through a hole so they would hang out the back of the program. I pulled both ends through, evenly, so the ribbon would be flat up against the front of the program. With the ribbon tails facing upward, I crossed them in an 'X-like loop and inserted them into the opposite holes, pulling them through the front. All that's was left was to tighten the ribbon so it would lay flat on the front, and trim the ends for a nice clean angle. Easy peasy.<br />
<br />
For the escort frames, I just made a spreadsheet of all the guest names, sorted them in alphabetical order (to make it easy on myself when I had to display them) and did a mail merge into a 2"x4" label template, which was close to the actual size of the frames. Then it was as simple as printing them on regular paper and cutting them. (Sidenote: The bolder serif font I used is called 'Copperplate.') Rachel bought the frames and dropped them off for me to 'stuff,' so I'm not entirely sure where she ordered them from.<br />
<br />
Finally, for the table numbers, I used the same template as the program (since the table number cards were just half sheets of paper folded in half to make 'tents'). Then I made separate text boxes for the number and the word in the lower half of the template. This made it easier to align them properly. I grouped them together so they would be one image, then made a copy of the whole thing and rotated it upside down positioned in the upper part of the page. This resulted in mirror image numbers. When I printed everything out, all I had to do was cut and fold in half to make little self-standing table number 'tents' which could be seen from both sides of the tables. Done and done.<br />
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Ok, so this is more than you ever wanted to know about DIY wedding stationary - and probably not even useful to most of you - but it's what has been keeping me busy. And maybe now you <s>enthusiastically</s> know how to tie a fancy ribbon knot. Ok, maybe wishful thinking.<br />
<br />
Sidenote: I also hemmed Darren's nieces' flower girl dresses. I won't go into detail, but let's just say I started with this...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01826.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Did a little of this...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01821.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01821.jpg" width="240" /> </a><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01822.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01822.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And ended up with this <s>terribly blurry and out-of-focus night shot</s>...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01832.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/DSC01832.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">So there you have it friends. Pro-craft-ination at its finest. And I promise to have some house updates in the next post! </div><img height="96" src="http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/myfavholliday/House%20Projects/01155191PUB.png" style="filter: alpha(opacity=30); left: 482px; mozopacity: 0.3; opacity: 0.3; position: absolute; top: 1498px; visibility: hidden;" width="75" />Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4523991519141803703.post-27222232889720537132011-05-20T12:49:00.001-04:002011-05-21T16:59:49.935-04:00The Start of Something(s) New<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As we start a new journey into homeownership, we wanted to create an easy way for friends and family to follow along with our projects. Knowing not everyone has access to social media, we’ve decided to start this blog as a central place for you all to catch up on our household ups and downs, adventures and misadventures (and probably some entertaining pictures).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A little narcissistic? Perhaps. But also a great way to keep ourselves motivated to tackle one project after the next...At least for me, once I tell someone about big plans/goals/undertakings (i.e. run a marathon, create a beer recipe) I then feel accountable to achieve those things. I know that if that same someone asks me how things are progressing, I will feel guilty if I’m not on track with where I <s>think I </s>should be. Maybe that’s weird, or maybe it’s just my type-A personality. Either way, once the excitement of new house projects wears off - which we all know it will - I think this blog will provide some great peer-pressure-because-people-are-following-you motivation. (At least we hope people will be following us....not in the creepy stalker-outside-the-window way, of course. I think you catch the drift.)</span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Oh, did I mention we’ll be DIY-ing our way through everything as much as possible? That’s probably not a surprise though. We’re <s>cheap</s> frugal people on a tight budget and we like the satisfaction of learning new things as we go, plus the pride in accomplishing something big on our own. And we DIY a lot already...beer brewing, transportation (biking to work is kind of DIY?), décor...so we plan to cover those things as well, since we often get questions about those topics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Feel free to subscribe to our RSS Feed, which will auto-send our new blog posts to your email/mobile device/other preferred location. That way you won’t need to navigate out to our blog site when you want to check in. <givenname w:st="on">Hope</givenname> you come along with us for the ride! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">House tour and project list coming soon...</span></div>Corriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11307876689543292595noreply@blogger.com0