Monthly Archives: July 2011

Jul26

Fig Heaven

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It’s that awesome time of year when my figs are finally starting to ripen. Whoo-hoo!  This may not qualify as a reason to celebrate for most of you, but for me personally I’m
downright ecstatic.  Previous owners of our home had planted about five fig trees throughout the half acre property. When we moved in, the quantity of figs wasn’t much to praise.  With a little pruning and TLC, however, these trees are now producing a ridiculous amount of figs- branches bowing down with the weight of them.  I, of course, have
been waiting anxiously their ripening so that I could whip up more fig jam as well as try out other recipes.

If I blow my own horn for a minute, I got major kudos on my jam last year.  Even though I had made almost two dozen jars, they were gone in no time to rave reviews.  This year, the amount of figs will allow me to make more batches as well as try out a few new recipes.   Like homemade fig bars…yum!

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I am planning on trying out some trusty favorites, too.  Like prosciutto wrapped, blue cheese stuffed figs roasted and topped with balsamic reduction drizzle.  Mmm, mmm. (recipe can be found here)

It looks like at least 15 minutes of my evenings for the next few weeks will be occupied by fig picking, tasting, and recipe daydreaming. Three cheers for a great harvest!

Jul25

Lighten Up

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There are many reasons to be thankful this Monday, one of which is that yesterday’s monsoon finally broke the treacherous heat.  I could go on and name a thousand more
reasons for thanks, but instead I’ll move on to today’s topic: making the best out of what you’ve got.  An example of this is a lighting fixture that came courtesy of my MIL and originally intended to put on sale at our recent yard sale.  When I saw it I knew I could use it.

It wasn’t one of those love-at-first-sight moments, but rather “it at least looks better than something already in place”.  What I already had in place was a standard and boring flush mount.  Some might call it settling to use a light fixture simply  because it’s available and they would be absolutely right! In all reality, I  would much rather have a funky light fixture like this to brighten my kitchen cooking adventures:

Edison Chandelier, Black

I could probably make my own version of the above fixture  easily enough.  However, the light  fixture I had was presently available and, most importantly, free.  The first order of business was to modify the  brass arms with a little spray paint remedy.  I wanted to keep the rusted brass center in tact and hence had to cover  it up from any wayward spray paint.
Given the awkwardness of the body, I figured tin foil and painter’s tape  were my best options given their flexibility.

Once ensconced in foil I made quick work of my spraying and gave the piece
ample dry time.  After a little snafu when installing (no need to rehash that
business), it was up.  I still felt it  was a little plain so I decided to finish it off with chandelier shades with a purchase price of 6 for $12 (obviously not well-made or high quality, but…eh).  The end result?  An improvement from what was there before and
a price point my wallet could handle.

Jul20

Bin There, Done That

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I have a soft spot for storage containers.  Not your run of the mill plastic bin containers, but more along the lines of cute baskets of weird shapes, fun prints, and/or special utility.  Of course, purchasing baskets and bins to organize all my items can get particularly pricy and some of the items that need storing can ruin the baskets in a heartbeat.  Take for  instance my craft supplies; between sharp blades on some of my tools to the hodgepodge of paints, my collection of creative instruments can effectively ruin containers.  With my art supplies starting to get out of control, I knew I needed another option.  My solution  came in the form of free roadside treasure (are you even surprised?).

My “solution” was to use discarded wooden drawers to hold my supplies.  They are heavy duty and I could care less if their insides get marred, nicked, and otherwise defaced.  The first step of course was to stealthily load the drawers into my car’s trunk and haul my treasure home.  They weren’t the most aesthetically pleasing drawers in the world, but I figured they would do.

 My process was to clean, prime, paint, and then stripe each of the drawers using latex paint leftover from other projects.

After the necessary cure time, I filled my bins with art supplies and identified their contents with homemade chalkboard tags.   The end result?  Successful organization that was both free and quirky.  Can I get a “woot woot” please?

Jul18

Life’s a Beach!

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This past weekend we visited my ‘rents at the beach and were blessed with cooler weather  and beautiful days.  Being landlocked ourselves, we absolutely could not pass up a visit to the shoreline to soak up the sun and spend some good ole’ quality time together. I made the executive decision to avoid the majority of the crowds in favor of the Cherry Grove
inlet, where at low tide the beach is wide and expansive, sprinkled with tide pools for exploring and cooling off.

 It warms my heart to watch Roscoe play in the water- running and splashing around, having the time of his life with no need for television, expensive toys, or man-made distractions to keep his attention.

 

The tidal pools held all kinds of hermit and other crabs for Aaron and Roscoe to examine together.

 

The views alone were breathtaking and made my heart long to live near the beach once again.

It was simply a wonderful weekend and I could not have planned it better myself. Now it’s back to reality, the heat, and tackling my long lists of projects!

 

Jul14

Get Your Freeze On

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Today’s post was prompted by my habit of carrying a ridiculous amount of fodder while on my epic walks.  What type of fodder, you ask?  A cell phone so I can call my mom (we chat quite frequently), my iPod for when the call is over and I’m ready for the walk to be the same, the dog leash because Hutson comes with, and of course a water bottle large enough to satiate both me and my pup.  The problem is that I only have two hands and rarely large enough pockets to accommodate my supplies.  I’ve seen water bottle holders at the store that strap on, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay almost $30 for something that seemed so superfluous.

Enter in my recent discovery of something called Freezer Paper stencils.  The whole concept is that Freezer Paper is a cheap alternative to something like screen printing as well as incredibly easy to use.  I was itching to give it a whirl and had the perfect material to test my stencils on: Aaron’s old pile of white t-shirts.  At first I just thought I’d practice, but then practicality introduced itself to my creative side and an idea was born: use a stencil to decorate a homemade water bottle holder!

First, I gathered my supplies; simply freezer paper, a cutting board (you could use cardboard instead), my handy dandy exacto knife, fabric paint, and a pencil.

Next step was to draw my design (you could always print one off the internet you like and trace it onto the freezer paper).

Then I cut out my design, which I soon realized was annoying due to all the intricate water bubbles, etc.  Once the design is cut out, it’s time to iron it on to your material SHINY MATERIAL DOWN.  If not, the material will stick to your iron and make a mess of it.

With your design ironed on, place another sheet of freezer paper on the inside of your material so your fabric paint doesn’t bleed  through.  When applying your fabric paint, you don’t need a lot; just lightly dab on until covered.

Pull off the freezer paper and, wah-lah!, you are done.

I took my design and cut it up to make my bag, sewing it up and adding an elastic band on top and a braided handle.

Here’s me about to take my new water bottle bag on its inaugural walk.  Goofy, I know, but Aaron insisted and I wanted to give a sense of perspective on its size.

So now that you’ve learned how easy it is to make your own Freezer Paper stencils, I hope you’ll give a try!  If you do, feel free to send me a photo of the result so I can post it, too.

Jul12

Potion #9

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So today’s topic is an issue that has become increasingly bothersome to me: the volume of chemicals and unpronounceable substances that comprise our hygiene products, permeate our foods, and likely contribute to a ridiculous cancer rate.  I’ve grown disenchanted
with looking at an ingredient list and not knowing what 2/3 of the items are.  Take something as simple as body lotion.  Most of us ladies use this every day and will absorb 3 liters of lotion through our skin a lifetime.  (Exhibit A).  

That means that all those alcohols, dyes, and preservatives are leaching into your bloodstream.  Disturbing.

While reading an older issue of my favorite mag Ready Made (it’s amazing and inspiring), I came across a recipe to make my own organic, chemical free body lotion.  After reading the directions I had a total “whoa” moment and realized that I could be slathering Grade A product on myself as opposed to whatever the manufacturing conglomerates make available.

I bee lined on over to Michael’s and picked up the only ingredient I didn’t already have on hand: beeswax.  The other ingredients are simply filter water and quality organic oil
like olive, almond, sesame, etc.  I’m not going to reiterate the directions as you can simply go here to get them, but I can attest that the lotion turned out phenomenal and it couldn’t have been easier.  It also keeps for up to 3 months; longer if kept in the fridge.

With my 1 lb. block of beeswax (purchased for $10), I can make enough batches of body lotion to last at least a year or more.  So not only I am being more health conscious, I’m actually being economical, too.  Score 1 for Team Randall!

Jul11

Good Karma

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It was a quite a weekend whirlwind at my house this weekend, from the crazy yard
sale on Saturday morning to house projects and pool time.  Let me backtrack and elaborate a bit on our yard sale.  I advertised on Craigslist (because it’s free) on Friday, mentioning a few items in my post that I hoped would lure the shoppers.  I had my
fingers crossed that the torrential downpour and thunder storms we had all that evening would pass.  We woke up early Saturday to blue skies and hauled everything out to the driveway with Aaron’s dad bringing over his own trailer full of stuff to add to the pile.  By 7 am, no one was there.  I started to feel a rise of panic that all our junk was going to be brought back into the house.  Luckily for us folks started to arrive. In droves.  And they bought everything.  Literally.  By 10 am, we had a small Tupperware container’s worth of leftover stuff that was actually bought last minute out of my father in law’s truck by some
late comers.  It was, in short, the most amazing and successful yard sale I had ever  personally witnessed.

For some reason my good karma continued through the weekend when I took our pup
Hutson for an evening stroll.  I passed by a house and noticed a blue rug folded up neatly out by the curb.  Of course, I stopped and gave it the once over.  I knew it was large and slightly damp, which I assumed was from the previous night’s rainstorm since no yucky
smells were emanating.  I wasn’t anxious to bring it home so I continued on my walk.
Not one to pass up on free treasure, my sense of bargain got the best of me and I convinced Aaron to run over and pick it up for me.  He was not thrilled.  Anyhoo, he brought it back home and we laid it in the sun to dry.  Fully stretched out, it was a dhurrie style rug, bout 10 x 12 with no discernible stains, tears, or any other mar that I could find.

After a full day of drying and soaking up the sunshiny goodness, I febreezed the heck
out of it for good measure, lugged it up to our room and laid it out.  It’s not necessarily my style as it is a little country chic, but it was free and I figure I can sell it for a profit at
our next yard sale.  I’d say that’s a win-win for everyone!

Jul5

When One Door Closes…

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I have to admit that I was rather lazy this weekend and deservedly so, might I add.  After a beautiful weekend at the lake house, we returned home Monday morning to lots of laundry and an itch to fit in a quick weekend project.  Before I reveal the project, let me provide a little background.  My MIL keeps an impressive array of delightful decor magazines at the lake house.  They make for easy reading on the deck and are an amazing source of inspiration.  While perusing one mag I saw a rather simple kitchen revamp I felt I could easily similate: take the doors off and paint the inside of the cabinets.

Upon our return home, I enlisted Aaron’s help to take off the doors, sand where the hinges had been screwed in, putty, sand again, etc.  In the meantime I took out the dishes, glasses, and randomness that we had thrown in the cabinets.  It already looked better without the dated doors!

My first painting task was to prime everything inside and outside the cabinets.  When that coat dried I died my first backsplash coat of a yellow/green I picked up from Sherwin Williams.  Then on went the glossy white enamel on the shelves, cabinet sides, and exterior.  It took two coats two achieve good coverage with ample drying time in between. The result? Awesomeness!

I let everything set over night to make sure our dishes/glasses wouldn’t stick when arranged.  For a cheap and rather simple fix, I’m enjoying the results. Will it be a permanently satisfying fix?  No, but it will tide me over until we can decide on and afford a radical kitchen renovation.   An added bonus?  I have plenty of motivation to keep my cabinets neat and organized now that the contents are on full display. :)