Something Special Saturday - 5/14/11

I can't believe it is already Saturday.

Mind if I start today's version of SSS with a bit o' bragging?  And shameless advertising?

I think I've mentioned that earlier this year, I was hired by The CSI Project to do some of their writing.

The best things about my job?  I get to know who wins the weekly craft competitions before anyone else AND I get to discover all kinds of amazing home decor and craft blogs as I write up the different posts.  How amazing is it that I'm getting paid to look at other people's blogs?!?!?!  (Trust me, Bionic Man is still scratching his head over this turn of events.)

Something Special Saturday - 5/7/11

Pretty things I've spotted during the last week.

1.  An absolutely over the top Butterfly Garden 1st birthday party was featured at Birthday Girl.  Ignore the fact that it really is over the top, and enjoy the prettiness.  Can't remember how I stumbled across Birthday Girl's blog, but it is a delightful read when you are party planning.

2.  Speaking of over-the-top parties, after I mentioned how much I liked Pippa's bridesmaid dress, one of my readers sent me a link to a sewing pattern for it.  Thank you thank you thank you!  I will lose 40 pounds and find an occasion to wear it, and then I will make good use of this pattern.

3.  I've been finding a lot of great recipes to pin on my cooking board at Pinterest.  I like the ones with pretty pictures best, can you tell?  This recipe for peach cake makes me want to lick my computer screen.  I could really give my tongue a workout with 50+ recipes for homemade popsicles--in fact, these recipes inspired me to pick up some popsicle molds from the dollar bin.  And, you are going to swoon over the simplicity of raspberries stuffed with white and dark chocolate chips.


Enjoy your weekend!

Girls' Rights

In March, I read a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Sarah from Clover Lane.

It was titled, "What About Our Girls?  Growing Up Too Fast."  It definitely made me think, as Sarah's posts so often do.  First of all, it made me grateful for a tween daughter who isn't attached to a cell phone, doesn't worry about having a boyfriend, and who looks the way I think a twelve year old should.  Second of all, it made me pause to wonder  about how much of what Sarah talked about when discussing the pressures surrounding her eighth grade daughter applied to my own little sixth grader.

It wasn't long before I found out.  One of Endeavor's teachers invited me to help chaperone a sixth grade field trip.  Three teachers and four mothers (including me) took a group of about 100 sixth graders to an outdoor challenge course.  Designed to promote team-building and facilitate communication, the course was led by a group of experienced trainers.  They divided the kids into groups of 10-12, and then put them through a variety of exercises that were more mentally than physically challenging.

Spending time with the sixth graders and observing the groups try to work through the challenges was educational.  Here's some of what I learned:

Something Special Saturday - 4/9/11

I don't know if it is because I just came back from vacation, or what, but I have to confess something.  I've become obsessed with maps.  Specifically, maps used for decoration.

I've been finding super fun ways to decorate with maps, lately, and I'm just about ready to roll up my sleeves and put together a map room.  (We're all about going places, in this family.)  I've never really done anything to decorate our basement rec room, maybe that's because it needs to become the map room.  Check out what I've found, so far:

Vintage World Canvas from Etsy shop LilyGene's

Sliding Home

I may have mentioned before that Bionic Man is extremely creative.  He comes up with some pretty wild ideas, some of which I won't mention.  (Like how he'd love to install clear tubes along the ceiling and fill them with water and tropical fish.  If only I would let him....)   Most of those wild ideas turn into amazing finished products, once Bionic Man gets to turn his ideas into reality, like our gazebo playscape.

Even before we were married, Bionic Man shared his dream with me of having a slide inside our future home.  We're not talking a Little Tykes mini slide, we're talking a slide.  And you know what?  I kinda dug that idea.  Unfortunately, we just haven't ever lived in a home where a slide was architecturally feasible.  It seemed like something we'd have to design ourselves.

Recently, a friend showed me pictures of a home in Japan, with a slide as the central design feature.  I loved it!

Curated

Trust me, you'll want to see the other pictures of this home.  

Those pictures got me wondering about other homes with slides, so I went looking and found these:

Pinteresting Tutorial

What?  What's that you say?  I misspelled the word interesting?

Au contraire, my friends.  I have discovered the website Pinterest.

  

Well, to be fair, I didn't exactly discover it.  Kami from No Biggie told her readers about it, here.  I was curious, and went exploring.  What I found is just too fun not to share!

About Pinterest

What it is:  I like to think of it as the virtual equivalent to my habit of ripping pages out of magazines and filing them.  Pinterest is an online tool that lets you store images on your own virtual "bulletin board."  Here's what the folks at Pinterest have to say about it:

Something Special Saturday - 3/12/11

Once again, I'm going to point you in the direction of a few special things that caught my eye this week.  Follow the links to see for yourself!

It seems like I just decorated my house for winter, but now it is time to start thinking about spring--what's up with the seasons changing so quickly?  I had so much fun making winter accessories for my front room, that I'm going to have to do the same for spring.  Luckily, I won't be short on inspiration, since discovering Just Another Hang-up.  Suzanne has tutorials for pillows that put mine to shame.  I will be copying.  Check out some of her creations here, here, and here.  Sewing not your thing?  Suzanne has an Etsy shop.

Something Special Saturday on a Monday - 3/7/11

I've had a goal to post these little featurettes on a more regular basis.  But I have to say, this last week ran me over like a truck.  Thank goodness for Blogger's schedule post option (lets me write in advance and publish later), or you wouldn't have heard a word out of me last week.  So, let's pretend today is Saturday, okay?

You know how I'm currently suffering from a slight slipcover obsession?  They've been on my brain.  Now that slipcovered chair #1 is sitting in all her finished, completed glory in my front room, receiving compliments from any who see her, I'm getting the itch to sew a few more.  In fact, I'm thinking of branching out from cheap canvas dropcloths, to an actual fabric.  Linen, actually.  (Note:  I have no idea how much linen costs, yet, so this could all change.)  Look at these extremely nifty slipcover/upholstery pictures I found while getting a post ready for the CSI Project:

Something Special Saturday - 2/26/11

We just got a brand-new baby niece, this month.  She lives far away from us, so we haven't met her in person...just in photos and videos.  I love pictures of newborns almost as much as I love newborns.  So, today's special picks from the blogosphere are all centered around babies and baby pictures, as a tribute to little Stella.  (Note: I'm not including pics from the featured blogs in my post because I don't want to infringe on the copyrights of any of the talented photographers.  Make sure you click on the links to enjoy the fun!)

Speaking of Stella, wouldn't you love to see the portraits from her sweet newborn session?

Something Special Saturday - 1/29/11

Hope you are having a great weekend!  Here are a few things I discovered this week that are special enough to share.

As you know, health and fitness have been on my brain, lately, so I was intrigued when I ran across this post by Beth of The Stories of A to Z.  Beth asked her blog readers for their tried-and-true weight loss and fitness tips, and then compiled their top answers into a nice, easy-to-see chart.  Thanks for sharing, Beth!

Something Special Saturday - 1/22/11

Here is this week's list of things that I've enjoyed looking at on my computer screen.   You might enjoy seeing them on yours, too!

Just discovered a new site that I'm anxious to explore:  Jessica of Good(CHEAP)Eats has some fantastic ideas and recipes that will stretch your grocery budget.  I'm soooo very ready to try her version of beans and rice, get five easy pantry meals into my recipe file,  and then go learn more about how to build a frugal pantry with beans and lentils.  (And that was a sentence that my sixteen year old self never, ever, dreamed of writing.)  Just from what I've seen so far, Jessica's food photography makes trimming your grocery budget look very, very good.

Something Special Saturday - 1/15/2011

It's definitely been a while since I showcased some of my favorite internet finds.  So, here you go!

What do you think the Bionic Man would say if I painted our piano?  (Click on the link to see how it is done.)

Bento 2011

Just so ya' know, I'm still bento-ing.

Here's a pic of the first bento of 2011.

Clockwise from left:  ranch dressing, thin-sliced turkey breast, Pringles chips, 

Golden Grahams & Chocolate (my marshmallows went stale--drat!--or this would have been s'mores!), applesawuce, carrots

Thanks and Giving

Whew!

The last two weeks at my house have been C-R-A-Z-Y.  My in-laws came to visit for several days before and after Thanksgiving.  We're always so happy to have visitors, and it was great to spend that time with them.  It was especially fun to throw a big Thanksgiving feast with them as guests of honor.

But it doesn't matter who the visitors are, visitors throw off my puttering time.  And I must have my puttering time.  What can I say, I'm a homebody.  I have to have at least 3 days in the week where I just putter around my house, or else I start to lose my mind.  It's okay if the other 4 days have me running willy-nilly over hill and vale, as long as I get those puttering days in, too.  Trouble is, people on vacation don't want to putter, they want to get out and see things!  Which I totally get.

Anywho, so I've been busy, the last couple of days, puttering around my house and my blog, catching up on all the things I don't do when I'm unable to putter.  We had a really nice Thanksgiving, which I pretty much failed to capture on film, due to the fact that I was busy cleaning, cooking, serving, and cleaning.  The Bionic Man could have snapped a few pics, but since we had no Engineering Feats or Natural Resources of Great Importance in attendance at our Thanksgiving Feast, that would be asking a lot.

What I did manage to get pictures of, ended up being one of my favorite things about this Thanksgiving:  Our Thankful Tree.

Inspired by the Pothier's tree over at 71 Toes, we added a Thankful Tree to our own Thanksgiving traditions. Endeavor made ours, totally by herself, leaves and all.  Don't you love the way she wrinkled the brown paper for a bark-like effect?  I tell you, it's probably a good thing Martha Stewart is approaching retirement.  Endeavor cut out many blank leaves, which we had our guests place on the branches of the tree, after they wrote down something they were thankful for.

I have loved having these expressions of gratitude on our kitchen wall.  Some of the things our family members and friends who joined us for dinner were grateful for included:

showers

flowers

Hunter (our dog was mentioned on multiple leaves)

Church

Family

Friends

Corndogs (4 year old Mason really appreciates the finer things in life)

Tigers & Elephants

Good Doctors & Nurses

Parents

Freedom

Waterproof Shoes (two Mormon missionaries, Elders Huse and Huntsman, joined us for dessert)

We had such a nice time sharing dinner with Ben's parents and several other families.  I just love the way everyone contributes to the feast: bringing family favorites of their own, sharing their favorite traditions, helping us make new ones, and taking the time to celebrate all of our blessings.

More Bentos

Just to prove to you that bentos aren't one of my many passing phases (yet), AND that they really aren't that tricky to put together, I'm going to show you Endeavor's lunch.

Of my three bento packing children, Endeavor is probably the one who enjoys and appreciates the bentos the most.  She loves hearing her friends ooh and ahh over them at lunchtime.  Justone, on the other hand, tolerates them, and Superkid seems to be completely uninterested.  Despite their malaise, they bring their bento boxes home empty, which is the point, so I still feel successful.

Anyway, these pics are to prove that bentos needn't be complex.

All that went into this bento were a few leftovers and some typical lunch items that went to the bento side via some plastic picks.

Clockwise from the upper left:  mini cupcake (leftover from the teeny-tiny party we had this weekend), fresh peach chunks, skewers of pepper jack cheese (the only cheese Endeavor will eat cold), skewers of thin sliced roast turkey breast, wheat crackers (I put extras in a ziplock bag, as well), and small celery sticks.  Every food group represented, boo-yah!

I whipped today's bentos up  in less that five minutes.  Now I have to work on making sure everyone gets their bento boxes unpacked and into the dishwasher every day after school, so I'm not scrambling to get things washed up before I can pack them in the morning.

I love that since I featured my first bentos, one of my sisters and one of my sister-in-laws have become really excited about them, too.  See?  It's not just me.  SIL Kris left me this comment:

Cue Angels singing and light streaming from heaven as the Bento lunches are illuminated from above! I have really struggled with my kids taking lunches because they always bring them back home with barely a nibble consumed. I think this could very well be our answer. I need to do some Bento shopping!

I, in turn, told Kris that if she ever made a bento, it was her civic duty to post a picture of it.  After all, she is a nationally award winning photographer.  Well, Kris has not only done her civic duty, she did it very well.  You can see her bento here (a Yoda sandwich!).  I'm not going to let my kids see it, because their cousins' bentos are officially way cooler than theirs.  If you stop by Kris's blog, don't leave without checking out the amazing costume shoots she does with children and families.  All I'm saying is, these ain't your mamas Halloween snapshots.

Dorothy & Toto

Spiderman

Percy Jackson 

Star Wars

If you are jumping on the bento bandwagon, too, make sure you send me pictures!  I'm especially interested in creative ways to bento without breaking the bank-o.

Bento Lunch, Yet?

My children usually eat lunches that we pack at home.  While I'm fairly confident that our school lunch program tries to provide food that is healthier for the students than what they could get for the same price from McDonald's, it's still heavily processed food.  Not to mention, at an average price of $2.50/day per student, it would cost me about $150 each month to let my kids have school lunch every day.

I don't think so.

This year I have three children with widely varying tastes and appetites.  Superkid would eat PB&J for every meal, if I let her.  Justone would fill up on pudding and granola bars, if I let him.  And Endeavor is at the point where she has to learn to fill up her always empty stomach with things other than empty carbs.  I made a goal at the beginning of this school year to come up with lunches that would give them variety, healthy choices, be filling, and that they would be able to enjoy despite the tempting highly processed foods everyone around them eats at lunch time.

Easier said than done.  Until Kami of no biggie introduced me to the bento lunch.  I had never heard of bento.  I'm pretty sure no one else in my neighborhood has, either.  But the bento concept was an answer to my lunchtime prep prayers.  (Not to be dramatic, or anything.)  For those of you who--like me--are saying, "ben-whaaa?" right now, here's Wikipedia's description:

Bento (弁当, bentō) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento are readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋, bentō-ya^?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend time and energy for their spouse, child, or themselves producing a carefully prepared lunch box.

 littleeverydaythings.wordpress.com

family.go.com

After visiting a few of the sites Kami recommended, I was hooked.  Bento lunches are just plain pretty.  I really felt like I could get both Superkid and Justone to eat more than 2 of 5 items placed in their lunches if they could see all their choices before them.  I was also pretty convinced that they would try more lunch options if those options were presented in a visually appealing way. 

Here are pictures from my first day of bentos:

 All the bentos, lined up in their snap-lock containers.

 Endeavor's bento:  baked whole-wheat crackers, thin-sliced roast beef, strawberries, tiny celery sticks, chocolate chips.

 Justone's bento: sliced strawberris, cubed colby-jack cheese, baked whole wheat crackers, chocolate chips, tiny celery sticks.

 Superkid's bento:  sliced strawberries, cubed colby-jack cheese, chocolate chips, 1/2 hotdog bun, tiny celery sticks.

After the first day, I was really pleased to hear the kids talk about how much they enjoyed lunch AND open their lunch boxes and find empty containers.  Success!  The kids did report that things "spilled" somewhat, so I tried to remedy that the next time around.  Here are some bentos from this week:

 Justone's bento: mini-mini carrots, tomato slices, pepperoni slices, baked whole-wheat crackers, shredded cheddar, marinara sauce.

Superkid's bento: mini-mini carrots, banana, pumkin-shaped swiss cheese on whole wheat sandwiches (2), popcorn

One really interesting benefit of the bento lunch at our house has been that the kids are getting really into the whole concept.  They are making suggestions of things that would fit into the bentos.  I don't have a picture of this one, but one day Endeavor was willing to try cold pizza for the first time at lunch, just because she could see that the mini slices I'd made would fit into her bento.  

It was relatively easy to assemble the non-food supplies for our bentos.

When I first read about bentos, I kind of anticipated buying a bunch of supplies to make this work.  But, when I looked around my house, I was able to find quite a few things I already had that would work.  

Snap-lock containers: I happened to find these at my local Aldi, in a nesting set of 10,

a week or so before I started bento-ing.  I bought a couple of sets for $7.99/each.

Plastic pics:  wooden toothpicks will work just fine, but I decided to get some plastic ones,

since I can wash and reuse them.  I found these in the picnic section of my grocery store

for about $2/box.

Cookie-cutters:  the hallmark of bentos seems to be shaped foods.  I could have spent 

money on fancy sandwich cutters, but I just used cutters I already had as a guide to cut

around the food I made with a knife.

Silicone baking cups: the one thing I decided I was willing to splurge on,

these are invaluable for their flexibility and reusability.  I got mine at JoAnn's,

in the cake decorating section, using my 50% off coupon.  A set of 12 is about $10. 

Are you wondering how much time this is taking me?  Surprisingly, not much more time than it was taking me to pack our former lunches of sandwich-veggies-chips-applesauce-pudding.  You might notice that each bento is slightly different, since I have a child that hates cheese, a child who hates crackers, and a child who will try just about anything once.  The extra time (about 5-10 minutes) required is mitigated by the fact that we're now buying and eating fewer processed foods, and that a lot of the prep I can do the night before.  Plus, I'm using up some leftovers!  And yes, I'm making sure that these bentos are packed with plenty of ice. 

Let me tell you, the extra time was worth it when Endeavor hopped in the car the other day after school and reported, "The girls at my lunch table couldn't stop talking about my lunch!  They said it was the prettiest food they'd ever seen.  One of the girls said it was like edible art.  They couldn't believe that my mom would make my lunch that way."  If packing her lunch like that helps my middle schooler feel special, that totally justifies the extra time and thought.

Here are some of the good bento resources I've been using for ideas.  And, thanks again to Kami for the original inspiration.

anotherlunch.com

lunchinabox.net 

wendolonia.com

Let me know if you have any great lunch-packing ideas or resources, bento-style, or not!  By the way, Melissa at Another Lunch as the BEST recipe for homemade granola bars, here.  They were a hit with my entire family.

I'm Slipping

Okay, I apologize in advance for the woeful lack of pictures.  Camera shopping has begun.  I've found the one I want, now I just have to make the Bionic Man think it's the one he wants, too.  But I'm just about ready to bust my buttons, here, so I had to share--pictures or no pictures! 

Guess what I did today?

I slipcovered a chair!

Now, don't get the wrong idea.  I'm no sewing genius, trust me.  Remember?  I can't make anything with zippers or buttons.  I'm clueless.  But I think that is why it has worked out so well.  I just grabbed one of my trusty canvas drop cloths, a bunch of pins, my pinking shears, and dove on in.  No pattern, no clue, no assistance.  It was thrilling, I tell you, thrilling!  I felt like the Lewis and Clark of Upholstery.  (Only they had Sacajewea.  I didn't.)

I did have some guidance from The Nester.  She provided some very handy pictures that guided me along the way.  Like this:

Thanks to the Nester's recommendation, I checked out Pink and Polka Dot for more inspiration and ideas.  Wow, she does all kinds of things with slipcovers!  She even has a weekly slipcover party, where I found lots and lots of slipcovered beauties on which to gaze.

While I saw lots of neat things along the way, the Nester's pictures were my constant companion throughout my day of slipcovering madness.  Speaking of madness, don't ask me to try to explain why I chose a wing-back chair as my very first piece of furniture to sew a slipcover for.  It couldn't be a footstool, could it?

I've shut down my sweat shop for the weekend, and I'll have to finish on Monday.  I've finished the hard part--the body is sewn, but on Monday I need to cover the cushion and finish off the hem.  I'm thinking a ruffled hem is the way it has to be.  Ruffled canvas is such a contradiction that I'm sure it will work.  I'm so excited! 

Details on the Goodwill Makeover

As I promised yesterday, here are some of the details on my master bedroom makeover.

This makeover began after a lucky day at Goodwill.

I found all of these lovely things at one of the three Goodwill thrift shops that I like to frequent.  Most of them were new.  Good etiquette would be to not tell you how much I paid for things.  But this is a makeover--a bargain makeover--so I'm going to tell you.

Notice how many new items I discovered at the thrift store?  This is not uncommon.  Many stores will take damaged items from their shelves and donate them to places like Goodwill, so they can get a tax break.  I could find no damage to any of the linens, other than the fact that they weren't in their original packaging.  The lampshade was only slightly damaged, not enough to stop my from loving it and bringing it home.  Here's a handy tip I learned: at Goodwill, items donated by stores are marked with a gray tag. 

Let's talk makeover, now.  I was happy with the parts of my room that would have cost the most time and money to redo: the furniture and walls.  The walls are a custom color of Behr paint.  Custom because we tweaked the original color to make it work for us.  I call it Creamy Tan.  The furniture was our very first furniture purchase that wasn't a)used b)damaged c)unfinished d)particle board.  It's pretty matchy-matchy, and I know some of you are screaming a your screens, "Paint it white!" but Bionic Man loves natural wood, and I love the Bionic Man, so it's not going to get painted white.  I was also happy with the silk coverlet we have on the bed.

After making sure that the new bedding fit my bed, I switched out the curtains.  Um...the fitted sheet actually didn't fit.  I think it was twin sized.  No problem, it actually matches the bedding in my girls' room, and I had a fitted sheet already that matched.

I removed the old Waverly Vintage Rose curtains that had been on this window since the previous homeowners put them up.  The only new thing I purchased for this room went up next: a set of sheers from one of my all-time favorite discount decor stores, The Christmas Tree Shoppes.  They cost me a whopping $4.99/panel.

I shopped my house for the next layer of curtains, and stole these from my dining room:

Amanda from Serenity Now had told me about some similar curtains that she made from canvas drop cloths, too.  I copied her idea in my bedroom....it will be easy to get another set of drop cloths for the dining room!

After decluttering and vacuuming, I shopped my house for a few accessories, and changed up a few of those with a little spray paint.  I also spray painted my brass lamp from Goodwill.  I used Rustoleum's Painter's Touch in Green Apple Satin for all of these projects ($3.49/can).  I especially love the way the lamp turned out.

 

 

I got the idea to paint that old, ugly, brass lamp from Melissa of 320 Sycamore.  Thanks, Melissa!

Then I added a little to this space, with some stars I've had for a while.

Eventually, I'll get the Bionic Man and a tall ladder to switch some of the things on that tall shelf.  the barn stars will go up there, and I'll hang the plates I found above the dresser.  But that's a project for another day!

The armoire in the corner also needed a little TLC.

I'm really, really happy with the way everything turned out!  Admittedly, the Bionic Man was a little skeptical about it, when he came home to a new bedroom.  However, by the time he climbed into bed last night, he had to admit that he liked it.  He especially like that I pulled the whole thing off for under $100.

Here's my cost breakdown:

New Bedding: $53.94

Lamp & Shade: $9.48

Sheers: $9.98

Spray Paint: $3.49

Total: $76.89 for a new room!

It amazes me what a little imagination and a willingness to shop at a thrift store have done for my blah bedroom.  Complete transformation!  My most recent Goodwill shopping trip was inspired by Shelley over at House of Smiths.  Thanks, Shelley!

What's the best thing you've ever found at a thrift store?

I'm linking this post to:

Between Naps on the Porch - Metamorphosis Monday

Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrap-Up Party