move-away

I Miss My Salad

Posted by Nat on Jan 16, 2012 | 2 comments

Yes, you read that right.  I miss my salad.

If you’re new to Crafting Crazy you should know that I’m currently a breastfeeding mommy.  Emily is currently 6 months old, and she has now earned the title “longest breastfed baby” of my 3.  It’s going really well and I love it, but teeth are on the horizon.  Teeth change everything for me in the world of breastfeeding, but that’s an entirely different post.  Back to why I miss my salad.

This is my salad:

Doesn’t it look AMAZING?  It is.  It’s sooooo delicious!  It’s my go-to salad.  My, “I think I’ll have an adult lunch today” salad.  My, “DAMN.  This is good!” salad.

Why do I miss it?  I can’t eat it right now. Why?  Because every time I do, it makes this little miss….

very unhappy in the tummy department.  And we’re not talking just a few toots and hollers, folks- she screams in pain every time I eat it.  Boo.  I haven’t had it for at least 2 months, and I think I will have to wait to have it again for a while- maybe once she’s on more solids we’ll try.  The sacrifices we make as mothers….

What’s in it?   Well, like most salads, it’s a bit different every time, but I’ll give you the basics and then you can add your own spin.

I use baby spinach as the base.  I LOVE spinach.  It’s my favorite leafy green.  In the photos on this post I think we were getting rid of some other salad mix so it’s romaine that you see up there, but spinach is my fave.

Add to that:

• chopped apple (I’m a big fan of the Fuji these days)
• roasted almonds (or unroasted if that’s how you roll), or toasted pine nuts if you want to get fancy
• cranberries
• grape tomatoes (I like them better than cherry- they are sweeter and smaller- no slicing)
• avocado
• shredded carrot or baby carrots
• crumbled coat cheese (my husband likes crumbled blue cheese- bleh)
• cooked chicken or other meat if you need some protein in there- you could even add tofu

And then, there’s the piece de resistance:  my honey-dijon-balsamic vinaigrette (recipe below).

I put the salad in the bowl, I sprinkle everything else on in the quantity that I want (I probably put on wayyyy to much goat cheese because….well, it’s goat cheese), and then drizzle on the dressing.  This salad does not mix well in a big bowl- the toppings are too heavy and they all sink to the bottom.  So, if you make this for a dinner party or something (it’s always a big hit) I usually do a “make your own” and let people build their own salad.  It looks prettier and everyone gets what they want.

The dressing:

• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard (I use Trader Joe’s)
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dash of pepper
• *bloob of honey

Combine all of the ingredients and whisk until combined.  If it sits for a while before you use it you’ll need to whisk it up again.

*What’s a bloob ?  Depends on how much sweetness you want.  I usually hold the honey over the measuring cup and squeeze while I count to 5.  Then I taste and add some more.  I could say “honey to taste” but I think bloob sounds more fun.  Almost like boob, but not.

Let me know if you make this- it’s awesome!  And one more shot:

A New Chapter: We Have a Piano

Posted by Nat on Jan 12, 2012 | 1 comment

We have a piano now.  Seems a bit full circle.  You may or may not know that I majored in music education in college.  I played piano as my main instrument, though I also play flute.  In high school my parents recognized my desire to make music a big part of my life, and we got a Steinway grand piano.  I got to pick it out.  Talk about amazing.  So if you told me back then that someday I’d be excited to have an electric, plug-in piano, I would have scoffed and said, “Never!”  Ah, how things change.

Once we got the piano, this whole room seemed to come together in terms of furniture arrangement.  Our poster of Louis seems so much more appropriate now with something musical underneath him.  Before he was just hangin’ out, smokin’ a cig.  Now he has some company.

My parents gave this piece of art to me years ago- I think they got it in New Orleans.  We finally got it framed and it now hangs next to Louis.  I love it because it combines my two instruments, flute and piano, into one piece.  Rad.

Why the electric?  We have kids.  Who sleep.  The only time I can possibly play for my own enjoyment is when they are asleep.  With an electric piano I can plug in the headphones and play to my heart’s content.

I am also loving our lamp.  I recovered it after being inspired by this pin.  As much as I would love to buy one as I saw it, I couldn’t justify it when I had all the materials to make one myself.  Music paper, hot glue annnnnd…. done!

Now if I can just get my confidence and my super-speedy fingers back….

Pinterest Projects: Laundry Detergent!

Posted by Nat on Jan 11, 2012 | 3 comments

I want to share the things I try from Pinterest that work, so I shall begin another series here on CC:  Pinterest Projects.  Sometimes I’ll devote an entire post to them, other times I’ll just mention them within a post.   I think it’s important to do more than just pin things- you must try them, too!

I was immediately intrigued by this pin.   The thought of making a boat-load of my own detergent and then not having to buy it for a long time…. awesome.  So I did it.  I made my own laundry detergent.  Here’s the original post in case you’d like to make your own.

I put mine in a giant glass cookie jar from IKEA.  I love it.  It’s so nice to have this instead of a big ol’ plastic bottle of detergent.  Does it work?  Yup.  Does it smell good?  It does.  It doesn’t necessarily make your clothes smell amazing, so if you need spring-fresh clothes you’ll want to add a fabric softener or something along those lines, but our clothes are clean.

Other tips I would add:

Order everything you need from Amazon.  It’s so much easier than driving all over kingdom-come for the ingredients, as they are not necessarily all in the same place.  What I really love is that everything the ingredients come in, for the most part, is recyclable.  RAD!

Mix it up outside, and wear a mask.  There will be soap dust everywhere, but it will smell amazing.  Love it!

If you grate the soap by hand, it’s quite a nice workout for your arms. 🙂

 I’m pondering trying the dishwasher detergent next.  Woo hoo!

DIY: IKEA Chair Makeover, Part 2

Posted by Nat on Jan 10, 2012 | 9 comments

I am so excited!  The chairs are done!  Read here if you missed Part 1.  If you are considering doing this yourself, be sure to read to the bottom- I link up to a few posts that really helped me out.  And if you like what you see, feel free to leave me some comment love!

Here they are- check them out:

And here’s a “before and after” comparison- doesn’t it look sooo much better?

Side note:  the light in the “before” picture is 3:30 p.m.-ish.  The light in the “after” picture is 9:30 a.m.-ish.  Interesting, eh?

I’ve decided that I am a color person.  I like rooms, especially rooms with light, to have color.  It helps my eyes dance around and it makes my heart happy.

So a few things about my process/what I did:

• I bought my fabric at a local upholstery fabric store.  The guy I spoke with at the store thought I was crazy for my fabric choice.  It’s cotton, and he seemed a bit car salesman-ish to me.  It was the only thing I liked in the store, so I bought it anyway.   I Scotchguarded the crap out of it- I think there are 4 coats on it.  We’ll see how they hold up.  The nice thing is that even if the fabric doesn’t hold up, I love the color, so I can just find new fabric and redo the seats if needed- that won’t take much time at all.
• I used Rustoleum primer and paint.  I believe the green color is called “Eden.”  I did two coats of primer, two coats of green.  I think I probably should have done 3 coats of green for good luck, but I didn’t.  Oh well.  I used every drop of every can I bought, which was 3 cans of primer and 3 cans of paint.
• I sanded the chairs lightly and wiped them down before priming.  I’m not sure it was necessary, but I did it just in case.
• I’ve never been entirely sure how long I had to wait between coats, but I had one morning to bust this out while Anna & Jack were in preschool from 8-12.  So after reading the directions on the can, I came up with a plan.  It took me about 20-25 minutes to do one coat on all 4 chairs, which is about how long the can said to wait.  So I just worked my way around the chairs, checked my watch when one “round” was complete, and then moved on.  I started at 9:30 and finished at 11:45.  I will say this:  it was VERY hot the day I did this and the sun was VERY bright.  This actually made it harder to see any missed spots when I went from white primer to green.

After letting the chairs dry for 24 hours, I coated them with one coat of Polycrylic (I used Minwax).  I HATE that stuff.  It was not fun to use at.  All.  I’m hoping it really does help because I was cussing inwardly a lot.  It did give the green a nice sheen, as the finish of the paint was “Satin” and it wasn’t quite as glossy as I wanted.  But you can see below that the chairs have bubbles in a few places.  Oh well.  I still love them.

I did ponder sanding the bubbles down, but it seemed like I would go through the paint and have to repaint again.  Not gonna go there- I am DONE painting furniture for a while. So, we’ll live with the bubbles and it will be fine.  They are just in a few spots, anyway.

The seat cushions were easy.  I did two coats of Scotchguard to the fabric before cutting and stapling it to the seat pads (I did it several days before actually doing the pads).  As you can see below, I stapled all four sides down in the center, pulling tight, then I worked on each side, and then folded in the corners.  It doesn’t look as neat and tidy as the original Ikea fabric, but I bet that was done by a machine or a person who does a bazillion a day, and no one is going to look underneath my chairs, so… I don’t care. 🙂  Once the fabric was attached, I Scotchguarded it two more times with very light coats.  I’ll keep you posted with how the fabric holds up- I’m curious to see how it does.

One final view.  I just love them.  They’re so bright and cheery.  The first time we used them we talked about sitting on rainbows.  Ha!

The following links proved very helpful to me in this process:

All Things Thrifty posted here about her spraypaint knowledge- uber helpful.

She also posted here with a Spray Painting 101, which includes a video of someone spray painting the correct way.

Lovely Nest’s post here about her dining chair makeover helped in terms of learning about Polycrylic.

My Weekend

Posted by Nat on Jan 9, 2012 | 1 comment

Have you ever had a weekend you just didn’t want to forget?  Everything seems to work right, things get done but you’re not feeling rushed…. that was my weekend.  It was awesome.  It started Friday night- a date with my husband- a much-needed date. We didn’t do anything but go to dinner, but that was sufficient because our meal was awesome, and so was our waiter (I have such an appreciation for a good waiter since I was a horrible waitress).  San Diego friends, if you haven’t been to Whisk n Ladle, get there soon.  Yum!

Saturday started with working on our chairs– I’m done (post coming soon)!  My husband took the kids on a walk so I could enjoy a long shower (I also cleaned it) and get ready for an evening of fun with my friend Dana.   Just after Christmas, Dana asked me if I wanted to go to a launch party for a book called Creative Pilgrimage.  The party was taking place in Santa Ana, which is a nice little drive from San Diego.  Yay!  We drove up and got there just as it was getting busy.  Studio Crescendoh is a lovely little nook of artistic wonder, and there were so many beautiful things to be inspired by.   Some of my favorite parts….We met Jenny Doh, brainchild of Crescendoh.  She’s exactly how she seems on her blog- friendly, warm, sincere.  We got to make our own bracelets:

There was some simple garland strung up in the window.  It was so neat.  Here’s a shot of them in the window:

Here’s my attempt at a close-up:

Dana is so good for me- she doesn’t know a stranger, so she introduced us around as if we were supposed to be there and people should want to meet us.  I did have Emily with me, so that got lots of smiles, too.  Today I checked the blog, and Dana and I are in their slideshow (so is Em, too).  15 seconds?  Ha!

As we were leaving to have some dinner, Dana couldn’t help herself.  She had to take a picture of this guy in the window of a studio next door.   In case you can’t tell, he’s painting a picture while wearing a spikey helmet.  

Dana and I got a bite to eat before our drive back to San Diego.  We told stories of dogs flying out of cars and remarked several times that we are so happy we are married and don’t have to wear 4-inch heels and hussy dresses.  If we weren’t driving a good distance I have a feeling the evening would have involved a few glasses of wine or some drinky-drinks.  We’ll have to work on that next time.

Today we went to church and then had Emily’s Godparents and their kids over for lunch.  Then our little ones napped, and we ended the evening with our first viewing of Toy Story 3.

Perfect weekend.

Can’t wait to show off my chairs tomorrow.  They are awesome!

What did you do this weekend?  Have you ever had a completely pleasant one like this?

DIY: IKEA Chair Makeover, Part I

Posted by Nat on Jan 6, 2012 | Comments Off on DIY: IKEA Chair Makeover, Part I

Warning:  I am going to embarrass myself in a bit with photos of our actual kitchen chairs.  My hope is to help all people everywhere feel better about how gross their kitchen chairs are.  We are not alone.  

Have you ever had a project that all of a sudden you just HAD to finish?  A switch goes off, and WHAM-O- you simply must. Do. It. NOW.  That’s where I am with this one.

I’ve been hunting for months on Pinterest and the WWW for fabric to use to redo our kitchen chairs.  I hemmed and hawed and then realized that the problem is not that I can’t find fabric I like, it’s that I don’t want to buy fabric online.  It weirds me out.  I’m sure someday I’ll do it and it will be great, but I’m a very tactile person- I don’t want to buy something sight unseen that my rear end is going to sit on for who-knows-how-long.

I digress.  Here are the chairs in their current state.  I hate them.  (I also can’t believe I’m showing you how bad they are, but hey- it’s cleansing in a way…)

(upper left:  for some dumb-a** reason I thought it would be okay to put the vacuum on the chair while vacuuming bugs out of the ceiling-fan light.  Duh.) 

It’s not just the seats, though. The frames have had their fair share of…  well, here- have a look:

Dirt, milk, juice, food, nicks, fading- the works.

I should say that while I do hate how dirty they are, I also think they have held up surprisingly well for IKEA chairs.  They’ve been with us through two moves, for five years, we have never had to tighten them, and they are never uneven on the floor or anything.  They deserve a little pick-me-up, eh?

Here they are in my kitchen.

They totally don’t match.  We used to have a dark table that they matched, but that table is long gone.  Now we have a huge birch table (love it) and the dark chairs just do. Not. Match.

So, this weekend I will be finishing them up.  If you’ve been to my Facebook Page you may have noticed I posted about the fabric I chose.  You’ll have to wait and see what color I chose for paint when I post the final product next week- can’t wait!

Do you have anything in your house that needs a pick-me-up?