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Christmas Week! A Handmade Christmas

Posted by Nat on Dec 13, 2011 | Comments Off on Christmas Week! A Handmade Christmas

This year we are trying to go light on the gifts because we are taking our kids to Disneyland.  That will be our main gift to them.  Between that, a few other things, and gifts from family, I know that they will have an amazing Christmas.  Because of the closet projects I’ve taken on, I haven’t had the time to make as many things as I’d like for Christmas this year.  I also feel it’s insane for me to attempt when I have an infant in my brood- too much is still unpredictable, so I’m not going to set myself up for disappointment.

My challenge, though, is that I wanted to have some handmade gifts for the kids- I don’t want everything they receive to be made of plastic and say, “Made in China,” though it seems inevitable at times.

My handmade solution?  I went to the Queen Bee Market last month.  I thought I’d share some of the awesome gifts we bought for the kids.

I’m not sure how I’ll divvy up these hair clips, but here they are- one for Em and one for Anna.

Above:  from Bebecha; I love how this one feels- I wish I could show it to you in person.

Above: from Lillybug Lane; super high-quality felt flowers.  I need to learn how to make them, but until then…  I also purchased a Christmas clip for Anna, and a headband for Emily, seen here.  Such great quality.

Lastly, Jack will get this crown- I can’t wait to see it on his noggin’.  Anna and Jack will be getting LOTS of dress up clothes from Santa this year- right now all Jack has is whatever Anna has, so we’re adding to the collection so that they can both put on a whole bunch of different things.  This will be an awesome addition.  The crown is from The Little Red Wren.  I don’t see any crowns there at the moment- maybe after the holidays she’ll add some more.

I also got a fun gift for a family member.  Can’t wait until he gets it!

Christmas Week! An Easy Wreath

Posted by Nat on Dec 12, 2011 | 1 comment

I hereby declare this Christmas Week and Crafting Crazy.  Woo hoo!  I am not going to post anything revolutionary.  My crafts and thoughts will be simple.  I like to keep it simple during the holidays because it’s hard to get everything done in terms of gifts, cards, and more- why throw in a totally-involved project to add to the stress?

So project #1:  an easy wreath.  This really happened by accident.  I was shopping with my 3 kids at Michael’s.  Anna, my 4-year-old, said, “Mommy!  Sparkle balls!”  Done.  We found a fake wreath just the right size for our door for $6.  Two little packets of various styrofoam balls of silver, white and red, and we were set to go.

It was super easy and Anna loves it.  Anna would hand me a ball, and I just used my hot-glue gun to stick them in place.  I’m also very proud to say that I did NOT burn myself this time.  I almost did, but I didn’t.

I do plan on making some of those fancy yarn wreaths after the new year- you know, the ones that are flying all over Pinterest.  But for now, our sparkle balls will do just fine. 🙂

How do you use Pinterest?

Posted by Nat on Dec 6, 2011 | 1 comment

“Hello, my name is Natalie, and I’m addicted to Pinterest.”

Are you hooked yet?  Do you just love it?  If you haven’t gotten on the Pinterest bandwagon, shoot me an email and I’ll send you an invitation.  Pinterest is the place to be these days.  I’ve abandoned so many other tools, and I am now a fully-fledged, self-proclaimed Pinterest ADDICT.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the definition I give my friends.  The conversation usually goes like this:

Me: “…so when I pinned that to my Pinterest boards…”

Friend:  “I’m sorry, when you what?”

Me:  “Pinned.  You know, Pinterest?”

Friend:  “What’s Pinterest?”

Me: {insert inner squee here} “It’s like visual bookmarking!  It’s life changing!  It’s the best thing ever!”

If you want to check it out, you can watch a great tutorial on how to get started here.

I think some people are under the impression that Pinterest is only for women.  Or that Pinterest is only for bloggers and people who are online 24/7.  But in fact, Pinterest is a valuable tool that can help you in so many ways.  Aside from the addictive, eye-candy experience that I simply must have on a nearly-daily basis, here are a few other things I’ve started using Pinterest for.

#1:  I’m done with “bookmarking”

This is my favorite one.

Ah, good ol’ bookmarks.  Go on- check your bookmarks in your browser.  Give ’em a click and hover through them.  Are they organized?  Do you have category upon category of bookmarks?  Or all they all just lumped together in one ginormous list, waiting for you to sort them out on a day when you have nothing to do?  Mine were a mess.  I tried to keep them organized, and then I’d go back through them from time to time and ask myself, “Whaaa?  Am I supposed to remember these?”

So here’s what I did.  I had so many bookmarks that this probably took me an afternoon or two (but it was totally worth it).  I sat down and made myself open all of those bookmarks, one by one.  I pinned the ones to my boards that I still liked- projects I want to do, places I want to go, recipes I want to remember or try.  Other links I realized were no longer active, so they were just taking up virtual space in my browser. Then, when I had gone through everything, I deleted them.  Forever.  Now, my bookmarks look like this:

Everything is neat and tidy, and really there are hardly any links in those folders- nearly all of them were moved to Pinterest or deleted.

It is so much nicer to have a picture associated with a link.  Visual, people, visual!

#2:  Organizing and Planning Projects

How many projects does any person have on their to-do list that take planning?  Everyone does at some point.  Pinterest is such a great place to get ideas for anything you want to do.  Parties, revamping a lamp, dinner menus- the possibilities are endless.

For example, I am planning on giving our kitchen chairs a major overhaul.  Paint, new fabric, etc.  Not only can I search Pinterest for ideas, but I can also pin different fabrics I’m considering so that I can see them all at once.  I can also show them to my husband all at once so that he can say, “Yes to the stripes.  Hell no to the elephants.”  See what I mean by visiting my Kitchen Chair Project board.

So what now?

Are you convinced yet?  It didn’t take me long to get hooked.  A few other things to know:

– Pinterest sometimes gets wonky.  You may check your boards and it will look like pins are missing.  Usually they fix it within a few hours, so don’t freak out.

– You can’t pin everything.  Some sites don’t have the right kind of graphics (or any graphics at all), and some sites somehow block it. For example, I’m a Ravelry user (a site for knitters & crocheters) and usually you cannot pin projects from Ravelry onto your boards.

– You can get totally addicted in two seconds flat.  It is the best time-suck ever.  I will be posting in the next week or so some other things I’ve done inspired by Pinterest, so it’s not a complete time-waster.  Sometimes you will see an idea for something that will change your day-to-day life.   It’s awesome!

And I will restate:  if you’re not on board yet, email me!  I’ll shoot you an invitation to join!

What have you done with Pinterest?  Tell me!

Real Simple Easy Dinners: Roundup!

Posted by Nat on Dec 5, 2011 | Comments Off on Real Simple Easy Dinners: Roundup!

If you’re new to this series, start here, then go here, here, and here, and then here.  Or just get yourself a copy of the magazine. 🙂

So, my brain has had plenty of time to process all of the cooking I did.  I’m rather proud of myself that I made every single meal except one.  That’s 19 new dinners in just 5 weeks (should have been 4 but we lost steam at the end).  Yowzas.  There were meals we will make continually for a long time to come, and then there were meals that we will never make ever again.  But the important thing is that we tried something new and have lots of recipes in our back pocket to refer to.  Hooray!

Our top 5 favorite meals from this experience would be:

#1:  Steak with Cognac Sauce and Salad (from week 2)

#2:  Chipotle Beef & Beer Chili (from week 4)

#3:  Chickpea Spinach Curry with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce (from week 3)

#4: Lemony Tuna and Olive Oil Pasta (from week 3)

#5: Tomato Soup with Roast Beef & Cheddar Panini (from week 1)

A few of my least favorites, which I will not visit again:

Chicken with Potatoes, Bacon and Cabbage

Pork Loin with Sauteed Cauliflower and Capers

Lime and Soy-Glazed Chicken with Cabbage Slaw

One thing that I love about this whole experience: it has me really thinking about food.  I’m making some changes in our day-to-day diet that I’ll be exploring with you soon.

What about you?  Could you try this many new recipes all at once?  Are you looking for new recipes to try or to make a change in your diet?  What’s holding you back?  For me, it’s the fear of change and trying something and failing.  But I learned through this that one bad meal isn’t the end of the world (though it is a pain in the tushie).

Real Simple Easy Dinners: Week 4

Posted by Nat on Nov 22, 2011 | Comments Off on Real Simple Easy Dinners: Week 4

Finally!  We finished!  If you’re new to this series, start here, then go here, here, and here.

I was horrible about taking pictures this week, AND we skipped a meal.  Just didn’t make it because it didn’t sound good to me (red peppers are not my thing).  BUT, to make up for it, I did make another RS meal from the magazine, and will share about that later- it was a HUGE success and part of a new thing I’ll be trying for our family.

We didn’t make the meals in order, but I’m labeling the way they appear in the magazine in case you’re following along.

Monday :  Pan-Roasted Cod and Fennel with Spinach Couscous

(No picture- sorry!) This one was really, really yummy.  I’m not a white fish person (right, Mom?).  BUT- this was good.  I wasn’t sure about the fennel- I tend to shy away from anything that reminds me of black licorice.  But I was pleasantly surprised.  What I was most pleased with was the couscous- I usually HATE couscous, but Michael bought some Israeli couscous from Trader Joe’s, and it turns out that I don’t hate couscous, I just hate the way it’s usually prepared.  This way, with spinach, was really good, and I’d totally make it again.

Tuesday:  Chipotle Beef and Beer Chili

Let’s get one thing straight:  I’m snooty about my chili.  I did not think I could possibly like a chili that you whip up in an hour.  I was set in my ways- this chili would not be good, and I even told Michael that I was prepared for it to taste like crap.  And guess what?  I was wrong.  It was awesome.  Michael loved it, too.  I didn’t do the chipotles because neither of us “need” them in our chili- we are savory chili people.  And the corn muffins….oh, who doesn’t love a good corn muffin.  I think the next time I make it I will used crushed tomatoes instead of whole peeled tomatoes, but otherwise it will stay as is.  YUM.

Wednesday:  Lime and Soy-Glazed Chicken with Cabbage Slaw

(no picture- again!)  Fail.  This one was not great.  Maybe it’s because we have an old, OLD oven and it just didn’t do well, but it didn’t taste the way I was hoping it would.  It also ruined a baking dish because the glaze scorched itself on, and no amount of elbow grease was going to get it out.  Oh well.  I think of all the recipes in all the weeks, this might be the least favorite for us.  They can’t all be amazing, eh?

Thursday:  Salami & Brussel Sprouts Pizza

This was awesome.  We actually made it for lunch over the weekend, and it was neat to have a fresh pizza for lunch on a chilly day.   I think the key thing I learned from this recipe:  leave your pizza dough out until it’s room temp!  I’ve tried soooo many pizza doughs, and have never liked the way they turn out- but I’ve also never let them come to room temp before, and this pizza dough (Trader Joe’s) was amazing.

Friday:  Skillet-Poached Eggs with Braised Peppers and Onions

Skipped it.  I hate peppers.  I’ve tried, really, I have.  And I still hate them.  Michael even looked at this one in the magazine and said, “Honey, there’s no way you’d want to eat that.”  And so, we’re done!

Coming up after Thanksgiving:  a RS Easy Dinners Roundup, and lots of other fun posts!  I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I get to make mashed potatoes and corn muffins- woo hoo!

Operation Organization: Front Hall Closet, part 1

Posted by Nat on Nov 17, 2011 | 1 comment

*Note:  I’ve decided to make this a series since I have lots of organizing to do.  I’m a bit type A in this area, so I will hopefully have some good stuff to share with you as I strive towards knowing where all of my crap is .

A long time ago I posted about our hallway closet.  I love that closet.  The rest of our closets, however, have been on the back burner.  Back at the beginning of this year my husband and I bought Elfa shelving from The Container Store during their huge Elfa sale.  If you live near a Container Store you should check out that sale- it’s rad.  The shelving we bought, however, has been sitting, waiting to be installed.  Now that things have calmed down on the baby front we are ready to dive back into some house projects, and this is one of them.  We also did not paint this closet upon move-in at this house, mainly because we had nearly 2,000 square feet of house to paint, and this closet was low on the totem pole of paint.

It’s in a tricky spot, right by our front door, and it doesn’t have a light inside it, so these shots will not be the best photos.

I emptied it out, and here’s what it looks like empty.

I can’t believe I’m showing you this, but here’s a corner up close, so you can see all the cobwebs, dust and faded paint.

When I demoed (sp?) the existing shelving it was really more difficult than I thought it would be.  I had to pry the shelf supports off and they had the longest nails I’ve ever seen.  And the dividing board that separated the hanging garments from the rest- it was like moving a mountain.  Okay, not a mountain.  But it was hard. What I was left with was lots of holes in the drywall.  Lots.  That top “oops” and left-pointing arrow are pointing to a hole I didn’t get on my camera, but my husband had to patch it by sawing out some of the existing dry wall and replacing it with new stuff.  Neat.  Oops.

And here’s where we are today:  ready for installation.  I’m waiting for Emily to go to sleep so I can put in the shelving.

The only challenge we have once finished is what to do with this crack in the flooring and baseboard where the previous closet set up was.  I’m thinking a rug?  Not sure…  This flooring will get replaced eventually, so we’re not patching it up.