Happy Halloween!

It's finally here folks! I still wasn't able to get in the mood for pumpkin-carving, but I did do some pumpkin decorating! I bought these craft pumpkins at a local craft store for 50% - and let me tell you, if they weren't half price, I'm sure some sort of movie would come out about the Halloween Scrooge, and it would be about me (starring someone like Kristen Stewart - because she's got that moody, bad acting thing down and she knows her way around fictional Halloween characters.) The big pumpkin alone was $21.99 alone - ridonkulous, right? Because of the sale I was able to pick up all three for the price of the big guy, and it does soften the blow a bit knowing I'll be able to use them year after year, and throughout the entirety of fall because of my mad decorating skillz. That's skills. With a Z. I found a lot inspiration on Pinterest, so rather than being annoyingly redundant by repeating what's already been done by saying the same thing over and over reiterating verbatim, I'm including links above each picture to let you know where I got the idea from. Sound good? Fabulous. Let's make like Walt Whitman and get outward and onward:

I really wanted something that would last well into the fall season because more usage=less money, or so I keep telling myself.  Enter the Brooke McQueen of pumpkins.  This lovely lady appears sleek and polished with her chic monogrammed design from afar but then has all sorts of problems going on when you get up in her grill and look around.  So a few of the dots glob together...is that really a reason not to vote for her for Prom Queen and run her over with your car?

This one actually turned out really well, though.  I got the idea from John and Sherry @ Young House Love - I know I know, they have a 'P' too, way to be original Carley, but I can't help it if our names start with the same first six letters.  I suppose I could have put another letter, but then Nick would be suspicious and I need to make sure I stay on his good side at least through Christmas to rake in any serious loot.  

For the letter P I just found a font I liked on my computer (Eskargot) and free-handed it onto the pumpkin using a pencil.  Then I just outlined it and filled it with dots of puffy paint.  I free handed the design around the stem and then spray painted it glossy white with Krylon for plastics (it's what I had on hand).

For our next pumpkin, I saw this idea on Pinterest and followed it back here to this very talented lady.  I loved the idea that she had drawn leaves on the pumpkin because it read more "Fall" than "Halloween."  Inspired by her pumpkin as well as the fine art of recursion (11 points go to Carley, for the win!), in which I took some creative liberties, the pumpkin within a pumpkin within a pumpkin was born.

And last, but not least, is my chalkboard pumpkin, also found on Pinterest, and followed back to LRStitched.  I liked the idea of being able to write messages, change the faces, or even use it to countdown to Halloween (or Thanksgiving).  Art is fluid, my friends, and now my pumpkin is, too.



So there you have it, three pumplekins that I can use year after year.  Not bad for $22.  Well, except that I had to buy the chalkboard spray paint and puffy paint - but if you know me, you'll know I'll find another use for those.

May your day be sca-ryyyyyy and friiiiiiiight(ful)...I was trying to get it to rhyme with Merry and Bright.  No? Well, I tried - I'm definitely no Irving Berlin, but whatareyagonnado?   Have a very Happy Halloween!!

Ah(hhhh), Metro Salad

A small number - and when I say small number, I mean my mom - might have read this before.  It migrated over from my old blog, One Handy Mom.  I brought it over here to share, because it simply is delicious and keeping it between myself and this blog's ugly step-sister would have just been mean-spirited, and that's not what Halloween is all about, right?

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Nick and I have this favorite pizza place, and by favorite I mean, favorite. It's Pizza A Metro (A like "ah") and it has THE best pizza we've ever tasted. They love their customers so much that they send out this deliciously addictive salad that comes out before your order that you eat with little pieces of heaven crust that they've cut into little bite-size pieces. At first glance (and taste) I figured it's got tomato, onion and celery in an olive oil/vinegar dressing. From what I've been able to surmise from a quick internet search, this salad is called a tomato, onion and celery salad. Original, eh? I did notice that all the pictures look pretty different than the little salad that Nick and I had the pleasure of wolfing down and licking the plate eating, sooooo I'm put my own spin on it and gave it a better (or at least, shorter) name - Ah, Metro Salad. Or as I like to call it - Ahhhhhhhh, Metro Salad!! Seriously, one bite and the heavens open up and angels start singing.

To get started, this is what you'll need:





1 celery stalk
1 large shallot (or 2-3 smallish ones)
1.5 roma tomatoes
a little olive oil and both balsamic AND red wine vinegar*

Dice everything so it's all roughly the same size and throw it in a bowl.

~This is where you'll need to channel your inner chemical engineer~

Throw a little olive oil in a bowl (about 2-3T) and add some vinegar. I'm crazy about vinegar and if I had posted the amount I use it might knock you out, so I'm leaving this up to you. However, and this is very important, when deciding how much to use (probably a few splashes of each), make sure you use more RED wine vinegar than balsamic (I'm talking 30% B and 70% RW)**. This will result in a dressing that closely resembles above-mention restaurant salad. Whisk oil/vinegar, add a pinch of salt and fresh cracked pepper and revel in it's deliciousness. Spoon, anyone?

It should look like this:

**Since we're just throwing everything together, do what you like with the vinegar. Like balsamic better? That's fine, add some more. Hate the stuff? Skip it and go with the red wine. Just don't go completely freaking nuts and start adding random stuff like corn. Seriously, I came across a corn, tomato, onion and celery salad in my search. Corn! Nothing against corn, but that would be like adding Cheez Whiz to chocolate milk. Gross.

Since, sadly, most of you may not have access to completely awesome pizza crust pieces, I highly recommend grabbing yourself some artisan bread, toasting it and using that to eat this with. Now put down that spoon!

Which came first, the Viking or the Pin?

My name is Carley, and I'm a Pinhead.

I don't actually pin a LOT, unless I'm terrified that I'll never be able to find it again, or it's just that awesome.  I get too busy checking out everyone else's pins that I never get around to pinning much of my own stuff.  When I saw this hat, however, I had to pin it.  I mean, how awesome are vikings??  They're rough and tumble, train dragons, and best of all - offer you credit cards!  Awesome sauce, no?

 

 What's in YOUR wallet?! (Ca. 04/2010 - 2.5 yrs)

If you remember my pity party I had last week, you'll remember that I was a little perturbed by the impending cost of Halloween (which might have also been fueled by my inability to figure out what to have the boys dress up as).   After looking at this hat a few times (which I originally thought would be cute for Carson) and seeing this new and expertly timed Pinterest Challenge on YHL (if you're reading John or Sherry, hi!!!!) I had a lightbulb moment.  Duh!  Make Carson a dragon and Landon a Viking!  We have watched How To Train Your Dragon so many times I practically live and breathe Viking.

By sheer coincidence, my cousin (the one that cheered me up last week) and I went out to an Old Navy out by her house and they happened to have their costumes on sale.  I just happened to glance over and what did I see?  A dragon costume, of course - and only $12!  I did have most of the stuff to make my own on hand, however I still would have needed to purchase stuff and actually figure out how I was going to make it so I figured with the time and energy just to find everything for his costume AND make it, $12 was a better way to go.  Plus, it's a 12-24 month size and Carson's a little peanut (I almost got the 6-12 month size), so if he can wear it next year it ends up really only being $6...right??  This way I was able to put all my hard work into Landon's costume, since he would actually appreciate it anyway and not rip it off as soon as I put it on (coughcoughCarsoncough).

Is this not the cutest dragon you've ever seen?!!

Since I was already going to get the hat regardless of costume choice, I'm not counting the cost of the pattern or yarn.  I did have to purchase the yarn for the beard and duck tape for his weaponry as well, and everything else I had on hand.

----------------------------------------- Viking Hat-Pinspired Viking Costume

I can make tutorials for everything listed below if they're requested, but for now I'll leave you with a quick breakdown (top to bottom):

Viking hat pattern purchased HERE ($5.50), yarn used is Red Heart Soft in Light Heather Grey ($2.50) and horns are Fisherman's Wool (I had on hand)

The beard was made out of Lion Brand Homespun Yarn in Wildfire (couponed for $4.50, normally $5.99).  I made a template out of paper.  Once it fit over L's face like I wanted I traced the paper template onto cotton fabric than sewed loops of yarn in three lines, cutting the bottom loops when finished.  I gathered yarn strands for the mustache making sure they were extra long so I could braid the ends (like in the movie, How to Train Your Dragon).  I attached a piece of elastic to the beard so he could wear it separately from the hat

The vest was made out of fleece by tracing the shirt he was going to wear, sewing the shoulders and sides underneath his arms then cutting out the front neckline and opening.

The shirt was a long sleeved white Circo tee that was stained and forever banished to the back of the closet until I got the motivation to go through the boys' clothes and get rid of it.  I cut out the neckline and cut a V-neck then used the silver duck tape (couponed for $2.71, normally $5) to make it look like he had battle garb on or whatever.  I used thin strips of the vest fleece to tie his wrists to make the whole Viking thing more believable.

The pants we already had.

Shoe covers were made out of the same fleece as the vest.  I traced the side of the shoe, adding more room up top where the laces were at so when I sewed the two pieces together it would lay over the shoe.

The boot tops are actually just rectangles of fleece wrapped around Landon's legs over his pants and secured using brown ribbon laced in a non-sensical fashion then tied in a bow.

For the double axe I simply cut out the shape from some foam board I had, wrapped it in duct tape, drew a design on it, and stuck it in a paper towel tube that I managed to rescue from the recycle bin that day.  We recently bought a new coffee pot so I used the box that came in to make the shield.  I drew out an octagon shape then drew flaps off each side, cut it out, bent the flaps, taped them, covered the whole thing in duck tape, drew a design and added a handle.  Whew! You still with me?

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Anyhoo, that's how I made it happen!  I hope you enjoyed the pictures, I crack up every time I see Landon with that beard on.

And finally, the nitty gritty:

Total with hat pattern and hat yarn: $15.21 buuuuuut....since I'm not counting that because I would have bought it anyway....the total is really $7.21.  Woot!  Add that to Carson's costume - which was about $13 after tax - the total comes out to just over $20, which is half of what I didn't want to spend ($40).  And, because I'm a glass-half-full kinda girl, if Carson wears his costume next year, then this year's costumes only cost about $14.  I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very safe, fun and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

"Wait, let me try that again..."

Thank you, Pinterest Challenge, for lighting a fire under me (no pun intended) - I probably would have never figured out what to do for the boys' costumes and would have spent WAY too much money on a store-bought costume. Here are the projects from the celebrity pinners running the Pinterest Challenge - Sherry @ Young House Love, Katie @ Bower Power, Ana @ Ana White Homemaker(!!) and Erin @ House of Earnest.

My iPhone could have gotten me killed.

It's been one of those mornings.  I'm just glad I made it home alive.

My mom and I just recently got ourselves a fancy schmancy new iPhone 4 (two weeks before the NEWEST one came out, of course) and it turns out it's pretty awesome.  I mean, it does a bunch of cool stuff, but personally my favorite part is being able to listen to Pandora while simultaneously listening to my C25K app.  Awesome.  So, because it's so new fangled and such, I got a text from Verizon saying they were holding a little workshop to teach people how to use their new phones.  I thought, sure, why not?  I'm not really a manual reader, so what's the harm in having someone show me some stuff I might not know about otherwise?  I'll tell you.

Severe bodily harm.  

Not joking.  

Okay, maybe a little.

Upon getting there at 7:30 in the MORNING.  ON A SATURDAY - which, in my opinion, was mistake numero uno as some people are just not morning people, we were split into small groups according to phone manufacturer, software version, etc.  My mom and I, of course, got split up because she chose not to ignore the software update when she connected her phone into iTunes like I did.

Step 1 to survival:  Update your phone software when prompted.

Then, because big companies like Verizon like to further make their employees lives hell by holding seminars in which they purposely don't train their staff but instead give instructions to read off a couple sheets of paper, we got a nice girl who spoke just a little too quietly for a room full of talking people and group of little patience.  She had barely said two words when half of the group sitting opposite me started yelling that they couldn't hear her.  She turned around and started talking again, then the people next to me started yelling that thy couldn't hear.  It was a mad house of people trying to tell this poor girl where stand so that her voice would better bounce off the acoustic ceiling tiles. One lady got fed up because everybody was pointing in her general direction so she just got up and left.

Survival tip #2:  Leave when things start getting ugly.

Finally some of her fellow staff members decided to jump in and save her from the sharks raving loonies customers and (gasp!) break up the group so that everyone could hear.  The rest of the session went fairly well, except that I managed to sit down between my two most very favorites types of people.  First was an old man who didn't know what the heck he was doing but wasn't even really paying attention and just wanted to complain about the iPhone instead.  I really wanted to ask him why he got the iPhone in the first place but instead I was fielding complaints and trying to help keep him up to speed (because I'm a good patron like that).  The lady on my other side was like WOAH with a snappy z-formation.  She thought she knew everything about everything and thought everybody should know it.

Step 3 to survival (and a good life lesson):  If you're going to an iPhone seminar, it's usually best not to act like a know-it-all, because you don't really know it all.  Obviously, or you wouldn't be paining everyone with your presence.

Luckily I was able to escape the mutiny and sneak into my mom's group, which was totally awesome by the way, and got a list of some cool apps that are totally awesome for sending people into seizures.  (iLlumination strobe light, anyone?)  Kidding.  But there really is a strobe light.

Afterwards my mom and I hit up the local Ihop, which I appropriately renamed the International House of Eat Whatever You Want, When You Want It (IHoEWYWWYWI) when she tried to tell me she wasn't sure if I could get a lunch item.  It was tasty-tastaay, except for my pickle that looked like it had been gnawed by rats (oh how I wish I had thought to get a picture).  Yum.

On my way home I figured it was nice enough outside that I could roll down the windows to get a bit of sort-of-fresh-but-not-really-because-Phoenix-is-so-polluted air.  I started to smell burning rubber, so I started frantically searching the dashboard to see if any lights were coming on or if the E-brake was on (which I have never done by the way, as Nick won't tell you).  Turns out it wasn't me, but a nearby semi with a trailer that had a flat tire that was just flopping around waiting to rip completely off the rim at the most oppertune moment.  As I breathed a sigh of relief, I looked back in front of me just in time to see shards of tire splayed out across the freeway (also know as Arizona Alligators, isn't that awesome?!) resulting in a nice game of Frogger to keep them from damaging my car.

Between mutinous iPhone owners, secondhand pickles and rubber-laden freeways, I made it home alive, no worse for wear.  Heck, while I'm living dangerously, I might just leave my cap off the toothpaste and sleep with my mouth open.  Or maybe I'll see just how low my phone battery can go, plugging it in at the last final second just when it's about to turn off which would sever any chances of beating my high score on Fruit Ninja.    'Cuz I'm crazy like that.

Le Zoo

So, I'm feeling a lot better now after a phone call with my cousin (thanks, Adrienne!) so I thought I'd post some pictures from the zoo.

Landon checking out the animals crazy lady with the camera.

Carson-stick Starson Bubba-Larson go Flarson, ti-legged tow-legged bo-legged Carson!

I seriously want to eat those little piggies ♥

And now for the obligatory animal pictures, so you know we were really there (although I suppose I could've taken these off the internet.) You'll just have to take my word for it.



This guy was Fierce, with a capital f.



 This guy, not so much.



And this ladylike lioness just doesn't give a flying fig. She's all, "I'm already locked up, what are they gonna do?"

 And this folks, is pretty much what the art of manipulation our zoo looks like in sunny (read: scorching hot) Arizona. You pay a bunch of money to walk around in the heat to see a bunch of animals that know better than to pay a bunch of money to go walking around in the heat.

Have you been to the zoo recently or planning a trip?  What fun outdoor stuff do you do with the kiddos?

Lackluster, for Lack of Trying

These last few days we've been getting back into our routine.  We had family visiting and had ton of fun at our local fire truck museum and the Phoenix Zoo and just hanging out.  Pictures to come =)

I've struggling this week as I haven't been feeling very inspired with much of anything.  Take grocery shopping, for example.  I'm currently trying to lose weight, and I'm having some difficulty with that.  I haven't had much trouble in the past, but I think part of my current problem, along with some other symptoms, might be due to lack of thyroid function.  I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis which is just a fancy way of saying that eventually I'll have to be treated for hypothyroidism.  I'm trying to get in to see an endocrinologist (who apparently is all MC Hammer when it comes to booking an appointment - 10 points if you get the reference) so until then I'm on my own.  To make a long story even longer, I'm completely uninspired to shop for food because all it does is make me fat (insert violins here).  Combine that with trying to meal plan so we can save some money for said shopping trip pretty much describes my version of hell.

And then we have Halloween - let the money suck begin.  I refuse to pay $20 for a costume which = $40 total.  That's stupid.  Sure, they might wear it again, but probably not.  I'm seriously considering having them wear the same costumes as last year (is that even allowed?!) because I'm not paying for new costumes.  I've been trying to find a way to cheaply make costumes, but so far no luck - of course if I come up with something I'll post about it.  Even the pumpkins aren't cheap.  I think I'll grow some next year.  Seriously.    I've decided to forego pumpkin carving this year because in case you didn't know - it's messy - but before you all start stoning me, I have found some really cute ideas for decorating those that I'll talk about in a later post.

Sorry to be all Debbie Downer today, I just can't seem to get myself into the spirit of...anything.  What do you do when you're uninspired?  Any tips or tricks (is is October after all) that you could share to get my butt in gear?

P.S.  On a happier note - last night I officially reached the half way point in my Couch-to-5k program!  I can officially run 8 miles [edit: minutes - I wish it were miles, ha!] (twice!) without dying.  Yay me!

Unfinished Projects, Take 2: Landon's 'Jamas Take Flight

I really tried to make the title as corny as humanly possible. Mission accomplished. I'm done with the puns, I promise.

I bought this flannel shirting originally to make a sling(?) for Carson...yes, that was it. However, that dream was short lived as Mr. Independent cops an attitude whenever I get all up in his biz, so this poor fabric was neglected for oh...a good year. Wow.

So I thought, what better way to use up this oh-so-cozy flannel than by turning it into pyjamas? I don't really spell pajamas that way, I just get a kick out of it when I see it that way. Did you notice? As some of my family members can attest, I didn't even want to cut into this flannel because I would have rather walked around for the rest of my life with it up against my face, mutterring things like "...so soft..." and "warm and toasty...." but I'm sure Nick would've drawn a line and that would be it. I'd be committed and someone else would be enjoying my flannel or *gasp* cutting into it themselves. So, to save the livelihood of my precious fabric, I made the difficult decision to make pants out of it. AND, because I bought 2.5 yards of it to make the sling, I should have plenty left over to make a pair for myself Carson.





I also had a few of those solid color Garanimal shirts from Walmart laying around for a project undetermined (shock, I know) so I used my seam ripper to take the pocket off and put it on the finished pants (because boys need pockets, dontchyaknow?) and made an applique of flight wings, which is what took the most time, and placed that on the shirt. It's not completely straight, which totally bugs me, but you probably wouldn't even notice if you're not a complete OCD control freak perfectionist me. Transparency, dear friends. Transparency.

For the record, to make the pants I simply traced a pair of shorts that fit him well, making sure to trace the front and back seams and made them longer (duh) because I was making pants. With no desire to reinvent the wheel, here's a great tutorial from Made.

So...if you're keeping track, that's 2 projects down, 572 to go. 2.5 if you count the shirt ;D

Blog Me This...

I took a break from my regular programming as I've been helping a friend redesign her blog:



I had a lot of fun designing a simple and clean layout for her blog that really lets her photos take center stage. She is a VERY talented photographer that currently hails from New Mexico; click the photo to go to her blog!

Unfinished Projects, Take 1: Paperless Towels (and Tutorial!)

Remember that resolution I made?  You know, the one where I finish all my existing/abandoned projects before starting any new ones...well, consider this project Numero Uno.

Though I'm no stranger to cloth diapers, I actually bought these flat diapers with the idea to use them in place of paper towels in our kitchen, hence the "less" in paperless towels.  I wanted to cut down on waste as well as save us some money and time (I can't tell you how many times we've had to run out for paper towels because we forgot to get them).  Out of each flat diaper (typically sold in a dozen) you can get four towels, so each towel ends up costing you 50 cents each.  The savings won't add up right away if your making them for yourself, but if you're gifting them then the savings for the recipient start adding up immediately.  Birdseye cotton is VERY absorbent, and obviously holds up better to ringing out for re-use better than a paper towel.

I made a few of these - over a YEAR ago - and then something better came along.  I'm not sure why it took me so long to get these together as I really liked the ones I had finished - I would just throw them in the wash with our other dishtowels and they were as good as new.   They would make an excellent housewarming gift or a relatively inexpensive Christmas gift, and you don't have to stop at paperless towels either, you could also use these for dinner napkins.

I would like to point out that while I initially purchased a dozen, I know I used a couple to make these towels, then some must have gotten lost in the abyss craft room because I could only find six, which means my stack of towels is only half as much as you'll have when you buy your dozen.  Just wanted you to know so you're not wondering why there isn't as many as there should be.

Ready to learn how to turn this:

into this?:



Let's Go!

First thing's first. Take it from a perfectionist - these DO NOT need to be perfect. They are towels you use to clean up messes. If you're gifting them, sure, take some time to make sure they're all relatively the same size, but I can almost guarantee you that if you are making these for someone - and it's because they couldn't make them for themselves - then I highly doubt that they would be capable of finding a flaw as miniscule as one towel being 1/2" longer than the other.

When you get your cloth diapers, they might have a folded edge on two sides. Mine did. I can assume that because Birdseye cotton is typically 27" wide that they cut it and fold over the cut edges to make the diapers square. Since you don't need to sew selvedge edges, two sides are folded, and two sides are not.

 If they look like my picture, cut the buldge off:

Don't throw your edges scraps away yet, I'll show you what you can do with those towards the end.

Once you do that, cut them into four squares:

(I folded over once, cut, then folded the opposite way, and cut)

I hadn't cut the bulky edges off yet when I took this picture - let's just pretend I did. 

 My fabric is also all ganked up from being stuffed somewhere for the last year...I wouldn't even bother ironing wrinkles unless you're gifting because these will go straight in the wash.

After cutting all your diapers, it's time to sew!

If you've got a serger, serge around all the edges. If you're unsure how to serge square corners, I will be posting about how to do this soon (read: tomorrow). If you don't have a serger, simply fold over your edges (don't even bother ironing, just fold as you sew) about 1/4" and zig zag stitch along the edges. The reason I fold over when I zig zag stitch is because I don't think the stitch hides the raw edges as well as serging does, so folding under just camouflages it better. Both techniques work to keep the edges from fraying.  I spent a total of 40 minutes on my 24 towels, so plan on spending between 1-1.5 hours for 48, unless you sew inhumanly fast, or with two hands :D

Serging is pretty straightforward, so I used a contrasting thread for the zig zag approach to give you an idea of what it would look like. If you use white thread it will be indistinguishable, but you're more than welcome to use a contrasting thread, if you wish.

And you're finished! If you are planning on gifting these, you can take your edge scraps and using a contrasting thread, zig zag (or use another decorative stitch) down the strip, adding another strip by overlapping the two ends about an inch, until you've got three strips sewn together (to bundle 24 towels, 6 strips to bundle 48) and tie around your towels, like-a-so:

There are 24 towels in this bundle.

You will also find this post on my Tutorials page, found here.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial! Let me know if you decide to make the jump, as well as how you like it when you do. If you've already made the change, YAY! We'd love to hear your experiences with being paperless. Let me know!

'Shroom You Think You Can Dance?

Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with a particularly popular prime time TV show. Just sayin'. Null. Nada. Zip. 0.

Moving on...

When I was younger, you could not pay me to eat mushrooms.  And when I say a younger, I mean a year ago.  I hated them.  Vehemently.  As in, I would rather eat the fungus between my toes (jk, totally fungus-free) before I'd even consider being in the same room as a 'shroom (and I'm not talking psychedelics, people - although I've never tried those either).  I mean, they're a FUNGUS.  Even the word FUNGUS is disgusting.

But then something changed in me.  I'm convinced it was pregnancy.  When I was pregnant with Landon, I lost my taste for Dr. Pepper.  Awful, right? It was downright heresy if you ask me.  I couldn't eat shrimp either, it just freaked me out - and shrimp was one of the few seafood items I did like prior to motherhood.  I still can't touch the stuff.  When I was pregnant with Carson, I fell back in love with Dr. P (Hallelujah!) and all has been well since, but Man! - pregnancy sure did mess with my taste buds.

Then one day I saw an episode of Rachael Ray.  I'm neither here nor there on my opinion of her or her show, but she made this dish and it looked Good.  That's good with a capital G.  I thought, something that looks that good can't be bad.   I can't say that I made a conscious effort, but when presented with mushrooms, first on combo pizza, then in pasta, they slowly started to grow on me (NOT literally, we covered that already).  What really sold me was this roasted mushroom and proscuitto pizza I had at Old Chicago a couple weeks ago.  It was awesome.  As in, when I took a bite the clouds parted and angels started singing.  Even though it was a personal pizza, it was bigger than my plate AND my stomach.  I ate it all.  Ever since I have had that mushroom pizza on my mind, so over this past weekend, I found a recipe that sounded similar to the personal piece of heavenzza I had at the restaurant and it was delish.  It didn't satisfy my hunger for my new love of mushrooms though, so when we went to the store to pick up a few essentials, a couple containers of mushrooms somehow made it into the cart and we've been eating them for the last two nights.  You may think I'm crazy, and that's because I am, but if you've never had roasted mushrooms then you need to try it.  There's an awesome recipe here, which I made tonight, even though I didn't have any capers, lemon juice or parsley.  I did however have the butter and garlic, so all systems were go.  Let me repeat that - butter...garlic...mushrooms.  That, my friends, is the Trifecta of Awesome.

My pictures aren't as good as Deb's from Smitten Kitchen, but I thought I'd show you what a regular joe's 'shrooms might look like (without the capers, lemon juice or parsley, of course)



Mine are browning a bit since I bought them sliced. No bigs.


I cannot be held personally responsible for hardware malfunctions resulting in looking at my mushrooms. Seriously. You're drooling on your keyboard.

And here's what dinner looked like. It's Thursday, which is why everything is brown.



Totally kidding. I made a pork roast last night so I shredded the leftovers and threw that pig into some BBQ sauce. We're too fancy for buns over here, we use whole grain bread instead. =D I promise, I will try and stay away from monochromatic food pictures in the future (pinky promise).

Oh yeah, speaking of foot fungus and mushrooms, when I was uploading my pictures to Photobucket the advertisement they showed me was for foot fungus treatments. I'm not even kidding. I can't make this stuff up.

What is something you use to hate, or thought you wouldn't like but then you tried it and became a convert? I wanna know!

Self (and Blog) Improvement

What have you been up to lately?   I've been working on quite a few personal goals:

I have a 5k coming up November 6th that I'm running with my cousin and to prepare I've been using the Couch-to-5k program (also known as C25k, found here).  That's been...fun.  It actually isn't too bad, and it's kind of exciting to see improvements each week (like, dying after three minutes of running vs. one minute of running).  It's a nine week program that has you running/walking 3 days a week that slowly builds up your endurance to go from being a couch potato to being able to run 3 miles or 30 minutes straight without walking by the end of it.  There's a lot of apps out there as well so if you've got a smart phone you can download one to use along with the music on your phone.  I really like the app I've got on my iPhone because I can use it in conjunction with Pandora so I can listen to my music and when it's time to either walk/run the app turns down my music a bit so I can hear the switch, then turns it back up.  Genius.

I've also been trying to pare down our monthly expenses so I've been trying to find some meatless meals to make a few days a week to cut down on our grocery budget.  Luckily, even though Nick is most definitely a meat steak and potatoes kinda guy, he's still really open to trying new things (like my meatless fajitas).  I've also been looking at improving the quality of food that we eat, so I've been looking into CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) around where I live to get fresher, locally grown produce.  We can't always afford organic, but we do try and  CSAs, for the most part, are actually very economical and the produce is fresher (our area harvests the produce the day you pick it up) and don't use harmful pesticides.  You don't get to pick your produce like you do at the store, which means you need to be open to trying new things to use up your produce but that also means you'll get more of a variety of vitamins and nutrients in your diet since you're not always eating the same things (find a CSA in your area here).  I've also been looking into buying sides of beef and chickens that are grass fed and free-range (find meat in your area here).  Buying meat like this is definitely more expensive, however if I can cut down on the amount of meat we eat, we should be able to strike a nice balance.




The post was getting a too little text-heavy, if you ask me.  Solution? Add a cow.

Then, of course, there's the craft room project (read: finish what I've started) and I've been avoiding that (sorry, Mom!) but I have kept to my resolution of not starting anything until said projects are finished.

See, I'm even avoiding talking about the craft room project.

Last, but not last, because I'm sure there's more, is Adobe Illustrator.  I know how to use the basics of the program, but I've been looking at classes to learn the entire program.  I get frustrated a lot because I have a lot of ideas, but I don't know how to use the tools to get it drawn out, so to speak.  I found some local classes that would break cost me, are you ready? $1800.  Yipes.  I'm sure it's a good class, but we don't have that kind of money.  Last night I came across this site, which looks very promising as one) it's free...sort of, and two) it seems like it's really put together well by people that know what they're talking about.  When I say it's sort of free, you do get to watch a certain amount of videos at no cost, but if you'd like to watch more, you have to subscribe which costs $25 monthly for the basic membership, $37.50 for a more in-depth membership, and $375 for a year of the in-depth membership (so you'd save ~$6 a month).  I'm going to try the $25/month membership first, see how it goes, then possibly spring for the year.  It's not just Illustrator instruction though, there's oodles of programs you can learn, all for the base subscription.  Pretty sweet if you ask me, and cheaper then school - because who actually uses their degree anyway? ;D

P.S.  I've been cleaning up the bliggity-blog, too.   At the top of my blog, underneath the title, I'm sure you've all seen the menu links that take you to the tutorials, recipes, downloads, etc.  If you clicked on one, you would have seen a list of links, which was eh.  I've now changed it to buttons with pictures so that you can clearly see which tutorial/recipe/download you're looking for.  Total awesome sauce.







What are some personal/long term goals you're working on, or have just recently accomplished?  What are some things you wish you could do but just don't know how to do it?  Spill it!

If this says anything at all....

...it's says I'm a dork.

And that Nick really needs to work on his picture-taking skills.

And that if you ever have any questions regarding my accident or my one-handedness, you can ask.  I don't care.

Looking at this picture, taken in 2007, I think, "Man! I was a jerk!" What I mean is when this picture was taken - about a year after my accident -  it seemed people, including some of my family members and close friends, weren't sure how to deal with the new me yet.  Nobody had really started playfully joking about me only having one hand (like they do today, anyway) because I don't think they knew where the line between funny/inappropriate was.  So what do I do?  I show up to my sister-in-law's Halloween Party as a lion tamer that got a little too close with a fake bloody hand sitting in Landon's car seat.  Awful right?! It broke the ice at least, and got rid of the lion elephant in the room.  Mission accomplished.

So that's what I'm doing now - breaking the ice.  Whenever I make new friends or meet strangers they're still a little uneasy when I make a joke about being one-handed.  I want you to know, all you strangers friends on the internet, that it's okay to joke.  It's okay to mention it.  I accepted a long time ago that I'm not going to grow another hand (unlike a wacky nurse that my mom kicked out of my hospital room, long story) so don't feel awkward if it comes up.  If you have a question about it or my accident, ask.  I don't care.  I really really REALLY don't care.  Really.   There will be times where I say something or make a joke and I don't want anyone feeling weird or awkward.  That sucks.

On a side note - the only word I HATE, so much that I capitalized the word hate, is stump.  I mean, is that not the most unattractive word used to describe an amputation?? Haven't we been through enough trauma without people throwing the word stump in there?  You don't even know what I think of when I hear the word stump.  Stump stump stump.  Doesn't just get under your skin?!  Okay, enough of that.  Moving on...

Sorry this all is so heavy, I just wanted to mention it so we can get down to business and have fun.

On a lighter note: Why did the one-handed (wo)man cross the street?  To get to the second-hand shop.  Har har har.  Hilarious, I know.  ;D

From Brassy to Classy and Cheap Babies.

My mom's friend was having a garage sale so we decided to stop by and say hi and MAN did she have some AWESOME stuff!  I picked up an old trunk, a wingback chair and this lamp for the low, low price of $20 (thanks, Linda!)  After straightening up my craft room with my Saint-of-a-Mother's help, I found I had a pile of projects that need to be finished and made a resolution to finish those first before starting any new projects.  Keep your eye out for a series, because I've got LOTS of projects to finish.




Anyway, even though technically this is a "new" project, I allowed myself this one due to the fact that my craft room (where I'll be using the lamp) is insanely dark and it was either fix this guy up or invest in night-vision goggles so I could work in there.

The paint I used was this stuff:




The paint color didn't have a name on the can, but the shelf price tag said Royal Blue.

I didn't do anything special to the lamp prior to painting it, other than cleaning it really well with a scrubby sponge (not one that'll scratch it though) to make sure I got all the dust off.  I also stuck paper towel in the socket so that paint wouldn't get in there and covered other parts that I didn't want to turn blue (like the switch.)  I found the paint and lampshade at K-Mart, which was next door to the thrift store at which I found NO lampshade that was even close to something I'd consider bringing into my house, and I didn't want to drive around anymore.

Cost Breakdown:

Lamp - $6.67
Paint - $4 (but I've got some leftover)
Lamp shade - $18 (better than the $24 Target wanted for essentially the same shade)

Total Cost: $28.67

I was looking around the information highway to see how much a lamp like this might cost me if I bought it new.  My guy has a more than a few years on him but I was able to find a lamp with a similar body from Lamp's Plus, in the center.  After some more perusing, I found another that matched the color, on the left.





It's almost as if they ran away together to Vegas and got married and popped out a baby for a fifth of the price (which never happens because babies=moneysuck.)

Anyhoo, I'm pretty happy with the results, and the fact that my craft room is almost organized. Have you made any small changes lately that have made a big difference lately? Tell me about it!

Get Your Bolt On!

This is the story of Adam and Eve Ghost.

I was thinking the other day about Halloween crafts I used to do as a kid and I remembered my mom making these for us, then showing us how to make them as we got older. Tootsie Roll Pop ghosts. Tons O' fun, right?

Right.

But then I got to thinking, ghosts are so BORING. All they do is go around whining about how dead they are, like "Oooooohhhhh, I'm so deeeaaaaaddddddd." Lame. Therefore, I decided to spice scare it up a bit.





I tried to add a little interest to my ghost. See his tie? He's in business attire, because he's on the job, of course. 

Meet Adam. That's the monster's actual name, donchyaknow? It was given to him by the author of the book he stars in (if you haven't read it). Victor "Frankenstein" was actually the creator but people get that confused and think that the actual monster is called Frankenstein. Well I'm here to tell you, they're wrong. Don't feel bad though, I didn't know either until I looked it up on the Internet, because you know, the internet is pure truth.

To make Adam, all you need is green and black construction paper, silver sequins (for the bolts), a fine-tipped marker, gluestick, and a Tootsie Roll Pop.

Cut a rectangle measuring approximately 5" by 2.25" out of the green paper. Wrap it around the Pop BUT DONT GLUE YET. Mark where you want the bolts to go, then unwrap the paper and glue the sequins on. Draw a face above and in-between the bolts (don't forget the scars!), and glue the edges together by laying the Pop down and wrapping the paper around it (edges will overlap about 1"). With your monster's face now on the Pop, turn him upside down on your black construction paper and trace around the green tube, this will be his hair. Draw another circle around the traced one, but add an extra 1/4" all around and if you want him to have jagged bangs like mine, account for that when drawing that line. Cut out your bigger circle and fold in at the inner line. It won't fold perfectly, because it's a circle, but that's okay because this guy's a monster and the last thing he cares about it the way his hair looks. Run your glue stick all around the top edge of your green tube then stick his hair on and hold for a good 10 seconds. Done. Now you can go show him off. Don't blame me if he gets rejected though, that's just how his life goes, it seems.

If you're tired of making Lame-O "I'm so dead I could moan" ghosts, give Adam a try. It's so easy, you can do it one-handed.

P.S. I don't really think ghosts are lame. As long as they have a job with decent pay and good hours, they're alright in my book.