Monday, April 30, 2012

25 Days, 25 Songs- day 4- song that calms you down

let's call this day 4

day 4- song that calms you down

Well this one is tricky. I'm a bit neurotic, and there are several ways I need to be calmed down.

soooo....

day 4, part 1- song that calms me down when I'm angry, Little Things, Good Charolette

day 4, part 2- song that calms me down when I'm stressed, Hot Chelle Rae, Tonight Tonight

day 4, part 3- song that calms me down when I'm sad, His Eye is on the Sparrow, Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount

day 4, part 4- song that calms me down when I'm feeling lost, Please Don't Let me be Misunderstood, The Animals

day 4, part 5- song that calms me down when I feel like a big fat sinner, Lions, Lost and Found

day 4, part 6- song that calms me down on bad days, Bad Day, Daniel Powter

day 4, part 7- song that calms me down when I still miss you, If You go Away, Dusty Springfield

 

day4, part 8- song that calms me down when I'm sick, Soft Kitty, Penny and Sheldon (JK!)
 

I could go on, but I think you are developing a pretty clear picture of just how neurotic I really am, lol. Seriously though, when I'm feeling down, I turn on my radio and rock out til I feel better. Doesn't everyone?

Upcycling Ideas for 10 Pins Tuesday

I think my most popular post of all time was one simply titled "upcycling ideas". I've been meaning to do more upcycling posts, and thought 10 Pins Tuesday was a great opportunity.

What can you upcycle???

1. upcycle a gumball machine into a fish tank

2. upcycle one of those goofy yard geese into an awesome lamp (you'll find it after you soak in the rest of the awesome in this picture!)

3. upcycle your keyboard

4. upcycle a hard-case/suitcase into a medicine cabinet

5. upcycle old, mismatched drawers into a whole new cabinet

6. upcycle old tires into a flower garden (we are doing this at my work... the two's room beat me to it)

7.upcycle coffee tables into a tall display shelf

8. upcycle vintage puzzle pieces into refrigerator magnets

9. upcycle old toys into planters

10. upcycle yourself with a biodegradable urn planter (yes, I realize this is kinda controversial, but I like the idea of leaving behind a tree rather than a tombstone.)


 I hope that's enough upcycling ideas for you!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

10 Pins Tuesday- Inspirational

Sometimes pinterest can be so inspiring. I picked ten pins that really make me want to do or be or grow or sit and contemplate my existence.

1. This video makes me want to sing in a choir again. I miss those days! Seriously, just take the 8 minutes and watch it all. It's really well done.

2. This drawing makes me want to crochet. (a lot!) I've been crocheting again. I'm really pushing myself to get my spring/summer afghan done.

3. This pillow makes me want to embroider... but I'm too busy crocheting right now, lol.

 4.  This stencil makes me want to finish and paint my bathroom.

5. This makes me want to transform that ganky pallet in our garage into a herb garden.

6. This makes me want to pimp out an adult space in our back or front yard. Seriously, couldn't you just read and drink wine there for hours???

7. This makes me want to paint our coffee table bright yellow. (I'm kinda a chicken though... I sneak in my color in little bits. BUT I love this colorful coffee table)

8. This makes me want to be that artist I always wanted to be. I need some wealthy patrons to pay me to go walk in circles in the snow and make art. This is so cool... I die!


9. This makes me want to stand by the sea and soak in how small I am and how big God is.

10. This makes me want to paint. (I've tried a copy with water colors, but they were not the correct medium. I need to use acrylics the next time I try it.)



So there ya go! Be Inspired! Go, do, make, be, sit and contemplate!

Monday, April 23, 2012

25 songs, 25 days- days 2-3

day 2- a song that reminds you of your most recent ex-boyfriend Maroon 5 This Love

The last boy I dated before Justin was a total loser, and this was our song. It's actually strangely prophetic, "kept playing love like it was just a game pretending to feel the same." We were together almost a year, and I loved him. At the end of our relationship, when I broke up with him for cheating on me with his best-friend's little sister (she was like 15, the sicko) he told me he never loved me, or even liked me for that matter. He was only with me because he had nothing better to do. Cute, right? Yeah it sucked. BUT then I met Justin, and he loved me and still loves me more than anyone has ever loved me. Justin loves me so much it eclipses all the hurt and ugliness the total losers of my past inflicted. I'm not bitter about it anymore because it honestly doesn't matter. I don't ever think about him or what he did. Why would I? I'm happily married and settled :) Then I do a fun 25 days of songs thing, and it pops up. I was going to be snarky and put up Alkaline Trio's Stupid Kid, but this is the only song that truly makes me think of him. Don't try to avoid or outrun your past, learn from it and put it behind you.

day 3- a song that reminds you of one/both of your parents Barenaked Ladies- Big Bang Theme

It's very rare that I can find something my parents, who've been divorced for as long as I can remember, agree on. BUT, they are both in love with that great unifier of mankind, our mutual love of Big Bang. Seriously, who among you didn't shed a tear when Sheldon hugged Penny? And who among you doesn't sing soft kitty to yourself every now and then? BAZINGA! You are part of the cult, embrace it! I can talk to both of my parents about Big Bang. Plus it's a three-fer because my step-mom loves it too. (My dad and step-mom have homemade pizza and Big Bang rerun dates once a week. How cute right?)

Saturday, April 21, 2012

25 Songs, 25 Days- day 1


Look what I just found!


Who's with me? I'm going to go on and start.


 day 1-There's an Alligator in the Elevator by Rick Charette


There used to be a radio station called Planet Fun, which was replaced by Radio Disney forever ago, but when I was a kid Planet Fun was always on. My sister and I used to record our own cassette tape (yeah, old school) radio programs. We'd pretend to be DJ's and introduce songs, then put two radios side by side and record the songs. Mom came in and ruined our productions a few times telling us to turn the radio down, and we'd say, "MMMMOOOOOMMMM! We're recording, shhhhh!" You can still here it on some of the tapes. Good times. This was one of the songs I loved from Planet Fun because seriously, what's not to love? "There's an alligator in the elevator, I can't believe what I see! There's and alligator in the elevator and he's makin' eyes at me...."

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Learning to Garden by Gardening- Thinning Seedlings

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Sure if we all had eight pretty maids in a row, growing a beautiful garden would be a snap. I'd be the girl in the hammock with a pina colada. But alas, I don't even have one pretty maid... in fact, I'm my own pretty maid, as I bet you are too.

The hubs and I are really trying to get healthy. We've done that thing Americans do... you know gain a secretive, sneaky 10 pounds a year... and well it's been 5-6 years... and it 'aint pretty people. But, I know this is how most Americans gain weight, so we are normal. Yay! ("sarcasm sign" for all you Sheldon's out there.)

Are you sick of being normal? Aka, a fatty Mc fatty American face! Yeah, us too. The good thing is, Justin and I LOVE fruits and veggies. One of the big problems with weight loss I've discovered (through internet research, not from talking to an actual nutritionist... but it makes since, so I'm going with it) is eating processed foods. If you read the label and it has more than a few ingredients, it's not good for you. Logical right? Things like Lecithin, PGPR, Emulisifier, TBHQ, and Vanillin don't make since to our brains (I would also like to add, my spell check does not even recognize them as proper words) so why would we think our bodies would recognize them? Reality check, our bodies don't... they are like "PGPR? What's that? Penguin Garbage Panel Representative? Purple Geeky Prehensile Reptiles? ... Nope don't know, I will just store this with the fat." We are overloading our bodies with weird crap it can't process, and so, it doesn't process it. It stores it. Hello, fatty Mc fatty storage facility.

The sick part is. You can't even trust processed "healthy food". If it's been processed, it has preservatives, and preservatives tend to preserve themselves inside us.... FOREVER!

Ok, let me add right here, that I'm not a professional. I have only just begun my weight loss journey, and you really have no reason to listen to my babble. (Give me a year or so, and you probably will though.)

BUT! There was a point to this rant, which I do apologize that it turned into a rant. How can you make sure you aren't getting the icky stuff that's in processed food? Maybe grow some of your food yourself. That's our plan. Carrot from the garden- ingredient, carrot. Check. Plus, if we dehydrate our veggies we will have ready made healthy soup mix for fall and winter, not canned. AND if we dehydrate our fruits and berries, we will have snacks... mmmm...

SOOOOOOO, all that, now to the point. Thinning seeds. My dad, an amazing gardener who doesn't mess around, suggested that we start our own seedlings instead of buying juvenile plants. His reasoning, it's WAY cheaper and he says his seedlings always grow better and faster than when he gets juveniles. Well, I planted my seeds* (the star is for a sidetrack I'll lead you down later.)

Here's my Zinnia babies. (Yeah, Zinnia's are a flower not a food. I'm not a hypocrite, they just germinated first.) See how they are kind bunched all up together? That's bad. On the back of my seed packets, I kept seeing "thin to 9-12 inches" or "thin to 1-2 inches". I looked it up, via the internet, thank you vast receptacle of information, and thinning, is pretty much just like it sounds. You don't want your seedlings over crowded, because their roots will get all tangle up, and they will choke each other out of food and water. They kinda just kill each other fighting over resources.
 So, you my friend get to play mother nature and do a little natural selection... that's right pick off the weak ones and let the strong ones survive.
I noticed after plucking a few baby Zinnia sprouts out, that their little roots were very straight. After plucking the weak guys out, I just kinda scootched the strong seedlings away from each other. I left a finger space (as suggested by one internet gardening de-boggler) between my healthy guys.
This is my Zinnia nursery after thinning. When they get bigger, I will probably have to thin them again. I didn't want to take them down to one per seed pot because I don't trust myself that much and it seems a little wasteful.

**** Here's that sidetrack I told you was coming. speaking of wasteful. I did something dumb... that I'm sure lots of other first time gardeners do, so I'm comforted that there is strength in numbers. YOU DON'T NEED TO PUT A TON OF SEEDS PER POT. I just kinda filled them all up hoping, please, please something grow. Some of those seeds were so tiny (like almost microscopic) and I didn't trust them to grow. I planted too many, and then I had to thin, thin, thin. (Which kinda means waste, waste, waste.)

Prime example- my lettuce seeds. (Which, sadly, I'm probably gonna have to try again...) Those little buggers are all over each other. They just sprouted, but they are in little bunches. I tried my first thinning, and I thinned more than I left. This is bad.

  Look at all those tiny lettuces that will never be. I still have more to thin too. I'm thinking next year I need to be way more frugal with my seeds to prevent having to over thin. I'm thinking they should be laid out like so.
If you are an actual good gardener, unlike me, who knows stuff, I'd appreciate your thoughts.

PS. Here are our new raised beds... which we just put in this weekend... no dirt yet because it's been raining and pouring.
As per the internet directions said (are you seeing a them here... I do a lot of stuff the internet tells me to) We lined the bottoms with chicken wire, newspaper, and pea gravel.
  
 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

10 Pins Tuesday

Yay, 10 Pins Tuesday again! Let's get to it!!! This time I did all things that I love.


1. I love to crochet. Drawing from Obey Crochet... so many more funny ones.
 

2. Glasses :) worn them since Kindergarten. These are from Warby Parker, which is the Tom's Shoes of glasses. You buy a pair, they donate a pair.



3. Graffiti- This is street art from London.

4. Owls- I have a whole board on Pinterest devoted to my owl love. This picture makes me fantasize about being a character in Harry Potter. I would soooo have an owl.
5. Monsters- I also have a board devoted to my monster love... this guy is the cutest!

6. Mermaids- Yep, you guessed it, I have a whole board for mermaids too. This one is from a vintage Golden Book version of the Little Mermaid.

7. I love this porch with it's awesome custom made slats.(I was kinda thinking something like this for our back yard...)

8. Make your own granola bars. I've really been loving granola bars lately especially Cliff bars... yummy.

9. White ink tattoos... seriously magical!

10. And THIS!
 See? Other people love their dogs as much as me, lol. (P.S. a not-funny from this morning... Journey ran away, but Justin was able to get her home. She almost got hit by a car for real though, and I'm still all shook up about it.)

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS WEEK'S 10 PIN TUESDAY!!!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

two projects and a party

Last weekend, my husband had to work a 48 hour shift... right??? Can you even imagine it? He's a paramedic, and I'll tell you one thing, unless I'm unconscious, you will never see me on an ambulance! They work medics to the bone around here, and 48's and sometimes even 72's aren't all that uncommon, so you never know if you are getting a fresh medic or one who hasn't had any sleep. Poor guys.

But anyway, off that soap box. While he was gone, I had two goals, I wanted to get Journey's new bench made and my crochet/knitting chair recovered. My mom came over to help, thanks again mom!

This is what I started with. I think it was a coffee table, but it was pretty weird. I bought it for $3 at the thrift store by my work. The lady started a $10, but I made a "you've got to be kidding" face, and she said "ok, $5, but that's as low as I'm going". I said, "ok, do you have the glass pieces that slide in the sides?"... and I got it for $3. That's right people make faces and haggle.
 
 The laminate on this thing was rough! The corners were terrible. You could see the composite chipping in lots of places. It had weird holes in the middle section that maybe dowels or something went in? The sides had weird shelves with wide ridges on them. I have no clue what this things intended purpose was, lol. It says patent pending on the bottom. I wonder how that worked out for the inventor, lol.
 Friday, I removed the weird shelves, sanded and primed it. The fire you see in the background is the stumps from our ugo-dead Christmas trees that Justin finally cut down. We are planning some big stuff for our yard this year. I will try to remember to post some of our ideas soon. I can't wait!
 When I woke up Saturday, I decided that I hated this little quarter inch lip on the middle section.
 So I sanded, and sanded, and sanded the ba-jesus out of it. Then I decided, I could not live with the weirdo holes everywhere. (Even though I planned on buying baskets for all of Journey's stuff, anyway... I was going to do this right.) So I got out the wood filler, and I patched up all the holes, the corners, and the yucky spots.
 Meanwhile, my mama came outside to keep my company and sew my new chair covers.
 Journey just chilled. She LOVES to be outside, and she was obviously feeling no pain.
 Finally, the wood filler dried up, and I primed over the bad spots. Then I painted the whole thing "Brighton Beach" blue by ACE. It came down to two blues, but I went with Brighton because that's where Lydia Bennett ran off to, and I love me some Jane Austen :) Did you notice my patch work?
 No more weird shelves.
 Then I cut some MDF to fit the top, upholstered it, and wa-la! Doesn't it kinda look like it's smiling at you?
 Journey loves it already... but mostly she just loves having a soft place to lay around and look out her window. It's way more comfy and sturdy than the last coffee table bench I made.
 I got the baskets at Micheal's. They were having a 40% off sale on all their baskets, score! AND they fit perfectly. One has her toys, one has her meds and treats, and one has her harness and clothes. (Yeah, she's a fancy clothes wearing dog sometimes. My favorites are her footie pj's and her Valentine's tee shirt.)
 She's such a crazy good photo creeper model.
 While I was working on the bench, my mom was sewing, sewing, sewing. I needed to recover this chair, and the ottoman. (p.s. the ottoman turns into two little people chairs and a foot stool. My nieces love it. The bright starry red was a little much though, lol)
 I bought the fabric for the top of my bench and this fabric at Hancocks. I got this soft stone color on the remnant table, represent! It was only $5 a yard. The butterfly fabric was thrifted, and I think it made a good springy pillow cover.

So that was last weekend :) And even though we worked from dawn til dusk Saturday, it was really fun! This weekend was great too. It was my niece Emilia's birthday yesterday. I was painting faces, so I put mom in charge of taking pictures. (I think my camera was giving her some trouble, but here are some cute ones.)
 This is her opening the tutu I made her. (She lives in tutus!) Mom chopped off her head, but the stance is great!
 She put it on under the tutu she was already wearing. I also made her the sea horse necklace she's wearing.
She had a fairy/pirate party. My sister is dressed as Tinker Bell, and Mia is Rosetta.

Today I went over to my mother-in-law's for Easter brunch, and it was wonderful too. I hope you've had a great Easter weekend! Love, Clare