More in the kitchen—the spice

Bj and I have a tiny little kitchen, but we have it set up to work for us. The old ironing board was turned into a spice rack when I first moved in, and I didn’t think I’d run out of space. But then I started canning (queue things like dill seed into the mix) and cooking more (lemon pepper, I’ve never heard of it!) and we were taking a risk whenever we opened that door. Plus we were keeping some spices elsewhere which of course ended up with us buying duplicates. I knew we’d have to start stacking the jars, but all spice jars I found were too tall, or too wide. Then I stumbled upon these (we bought the 4 ounce size) on a shelf above my head at the Container Store (not in the spice section).

Bliss! So far I’ve only moved spices into these jars when I didn’t need the sifting capability of the original ones (the only bummer about these jars). Just doubling up this one row has solved most of our problems.

I alphabetized the jars for the most part. You may notice some duplicates, whoopsies!

Also the stickers on the top of the jar was something I started a few years ago. I keep little circle labels and a pen in our everything drawer and write down the date when we get new spices (if they get put away with out this being done, I ball park it as soon as I notice). A few older spices got tossed this organization round as a result.

Now that I have this cute jar option I can admit I was mostly buying Morton and Bassett for the looks, hehehe.

Autumn


All from a two block radius around our house. 
It is chilly. I want the heat on all the time… and blankies. I’m working super hard to get a rhythm down as we head into long cold nights and short rainy days. I’ve decided to try and get a bit of schedule together for myself, our meals, and Tuesday. We pretty much wing it… um daily. I don’t mind that so much, but I think with the time change it’s really having an effect on Tuesday. Plus I think she needs a bit more attention part of the day for learning activities, since we don’t send her to pre-school.
Step one was to tackle the meal thing. I have a great group of friends who are working moms and all cook more than me. We decided to get together and do a dinner swappers group. We cook one day every other week (at my friend’s to die for huge kitchen) and end up with 10 or so meals each to freeze for later.

Last Friday two of us cooked 17 pounds of chicken!!! We made tortilla soup, a casserole, breakfast pie, and chicken enchiladas. This was only our second go and already we’ve gotten a lot more efficient. I checked out pretty much every book about it at the library and am loving all the tips.

I realized pretty quick that just having the food in the freezer wasn’t a huge help unless I to use it somehow. So I’m going to try the menu planning (this chart downloaded here). This is my first real week of it. I tried just dinner, but I found I was still shopping like normal and when I really go through my cupboards I found lots of things to use up. Of course I had to clean those out too:

We don’t have a lot of storage space. This cupboard is the only one for food in our kitchen. We also have a drawer for stuff. I call it the carb drawer (it’s mostly candy and bar type things). In the basement I have my canned storage, so I made a list on a piece of chalkboard decal to remind me what’s down there.
So far so good. I’m going to make chalkboard labels for all the storage in the cupboard (I can cut it with my Silhouette). I’d love your meal planning/freezer cooking tips. Also what to do with dried beans (I don’t have a slow cooker FYI). I have a lot of them from the CSA and more that Tuesday and I need to shuck downstairs. Next up, I tackle Tuesday’s schedule.

Sensory Bin—Farm Living

I’ve been a big fan of sensory bins for a while now (see my preschool pinterest board), but the closest thing we’ve gotten to them was our big vat of beans last year. I took that out of rotation after a while, because it wasn’t holding interest. Well when I found these awesome supposed to be drawer organizer tray things at Marshalls a few weeks back I knew I had to try the bins out. They are a bit smaller than I would have liked, but for Tuesday’s little shelves in the dining room they work perfectly.

I’ve since learned they come in other colors, but the green, besides being outright awesome, totally reminded me of grass so I thought it would be an extra fun base to the bins.

I just ran around the house during a nap time and found random things to entice her to experience this activity. Pom-poms, small farm animals (left over from a college art project), cardboard tubes, some math blocks I found at a teacher’s garage sale (it was epic), a jar of shells, rocks and feathers she’s collected, bigger rocks, and buckwheat as the base material (from when I thought I would cook buckwheat… it never happened).

The bin sits on top of a thrifted set of shelves that usually hold her nature table, some books, and whatever she is really into (right now calico critters). I just added the bin, made from chinese newspapers, to hold those annoying purses she can’t live with out. I got the bin at Marshalls… Sciarrino and I seriously had the most epic shopping day, found everything we wanted and more, and it was all on sale. So fun. Anyway this is tucked in a small corner of our small dining room:

The kitchen is across from it, and both Bj and my offices are through that hallway so it’s really central. I like having this here as a dedicated space for her things instead of always having to pick up after her.
To introduce the sensory bin… I did nothing. I wanted her to find it. And she did, when I was out of the room (she was with her nana). She said it was “cool” and then stared at it asking us questions about it the whole time she ate (she got up really late from her nap).

In my mind there was no wrong way she could play with these bins, but I admit I figured she would go the animal pretend route since she loves that. Since I’m sure you’ll never ever ever guess what she came up with after encountering this, I’ll tell you: pretend hairdresser. I know, what?!?! She had us sit down (or a doll) and would go back and forth to the bin getting different “things” and “piggies” for our hair. Brush it with the feathers, rub it with the rocks, and other really random stuff. Totally awesome imagination, but I was like, where is this coming from!?!? Kids are so funny.

She had to be taught to clean up the bits of buckwheat that went everywhere. Nana is helping her here. I do insist that she clean up the mess, if she makes one, from this before she goes onto another activity. That wasn’t met with a  very good response the first time, but she knows she has to do it now. And if she is really trying and can’t get every last piece I’ll help her out. All in all I like these bins, I’m sure I’ll try different variations. Though I do need to find a new place for the nature table, as she misses it and still calls this spot, “nature table”. I really am coveting this sensory table with a drain (the possibilities!), but am thinking about trying to make a homemade version. I wish I could find clear lidded bins like that with drains already in them.
Get ready for more school posts. We have noticed some behavior in Tuesday that makes me think we just have to get her sleep thing figured out and get a little most structure to her days, so I’m going to start working on that. Perhaps a dedicated school time would be helpful. Though I do really like unschooling, I think some Montessori activities at this age would be a huge hit, and give her mornings a nice purpose (she does so love to feel useful). I’m just trying to go with the flow.

Halloween (SUGAR!!!!)

This was Tuesday’s first real Halloween. I mean she got it. When I told her earlier in the week that we would go around knock on people’s doors and they would give her candy she said, “WHAT?” It was awesome.

We did a fun craft yesterday I wanted to mention. I cut out pumpkins and face shapes from the silhouette and let her go to town with them:

I was very inspired by this blog post.

Tuesday was very proud of her creations!
Tuesday had been saying she wanted to be “candy” when I asked her earlier in the month. I had no idea what that meant since her idea of candy is a cookie or something. I was changing her into jammies one night and saw the old polka dots pants I had given my god daughter years ago. I searched around and yes, we had a red shirt, so ladybug it was!

The only things I had to buy were a black headband, some pipe cleaners and pom poms (also awesome ribbon from my mom: Lipstick Red Georgette for the “backpack” and Lipstick Red Ribbon with Braided Edge for the shoes). If I had to change anything I would have put the antenna on a hat since it’s so wet and cold here on Halloween (I just carried an umbrella right over her when it was really raining, and she has a double layer of shirts on).

The back was the best part. All I did was paper mache over a balloon, let it dry and pop it. Then I cut the edges clean and painted it. I love how it turned out (in case you’re wondering I went for the Coccinella septempunctata or 7 spot ladybug since they are garden helpers :)).

Tuesday “pick me up please” Garrison was insane trick-or-treating. She walked at least a mile and probably would have gone longer, but the bigger kids were coming out and they sprint up and down staircases. Plus it was pretty cold and got really dark really fast. All in all a great night. I let Tuesday eat whatever candy she wanted, and then the candy fairy came and took the rest of the candy and left a surprise (a great idea I read about on Amanda’s blog).

Papa had to work so she made sure to show him all her scores.
And for nostalgia’s sake: 2009, 2010

Project Life, are you in?

I’m excited to say I’m going to try Project Life next year. Sarah is in too, and I just saw Paula’s post so she’s doing it too. What is it? It’s a kind of all in one yearly scrapbook with special divided page protectors that you can fill with journaling cards, pictures, or bits and bobbles of your life. I don’t think I’ll make a spread a week, just more keep the life in order for this book. I’ve held off doing it for a while for a couple of reasons. 1. I wasn’t sure what it would do to my “regular” scrapbooking. But I think it will be a nice counterpoint. 2. I didn’t have any where to put it. I was afraid that if I couldn’t leave it out I’d never work on it. I’m going to talk my brother into making me a big tray for the top of the black dresser in my living room so I can leave it out along with journaling cards and a few basic supplies. Bj is excited about the project too so I’m hoping we both fill in the blanks of our lives in this thing.

From my new turquoise core kit (all the components are on the products page). I love these cards. I’m also planning on getting the clementine core kit to mix it up (you can see detailed pictures of all the different kits here). Besides loving the designs of the products a few things really sold me on trying it out for 2012 (2012?!?!). First of all the amazing examples all over the web. Lisa, Ali, Liz, and Marcy are just some of my favorite examples (I’ve linked to their project life pages).  I just love how different everyone’s looks. My favorite thing though is all the bits and pieces of life. The drawings, the notes, the receipts, all that stuff. I love it, I collect it and I never do anything with it (or rarely). So I’m super excited to get that part of my life into books. Also to really free up the “classic” pages to stories I really want to tell, instead of making sure all the things I think should be documented are. I sure wish Grandpa had this type of system (I need to take a picture of his albums to show you!).

Sarah and I had an impromptu craft day last weekend and I didn’t want to haul out all my stuff so I decide to work on filler cards for next year. I figure I’ll have lots ready to go to make it easy for me to stay on top of this project.

I love the idea of artist trading cards, but never got into them, so I’m really looking forward to working with these little tiny canvases within my bigger pages.

I used last years card size (they are slightly bigger this year). I don’t think it will bug me, but in case you’re wondering the new size of the cards is 2 7/8″ x almost 4″. Making these was so fun!

Cell phone scrapping

So I recently got a new iPhone, and I’m super excited about the camera most of all, the pictures look great from it. My older phone didn’t take the greatest pictures, but that hasn’t stopped me from scrapping them. I thought I’d share a handful of layouts I’ve done recently using pictures from my phone.

Sometimes with a less than stellar photo using a smaller page size works great. And for me fun embellishments help take away from the graininess/off color of some cell phone photos.

Using a bunch of pictures on one layout works too. Because I used five pictures on this layout I was able to crop out parts of the photos that didn’t add to the story.

One of the best things about a cell phone is that it’s with you all the time (at least mine is!). So you’re able to capture things instantly instead of running for your bigger/better camera. I really like the photo of Tuesday reaching for the phone too, I could do a whole mini book with those types of photos!

I have a few photo editing apps on my phone (camera + is my favorite). It’s fun to play around with cropping and filters in the camera. And if you use a program like postal pics (which I did for all the square shaped photos) you can get them mailed to you with out ever uploading them into the computer.

Don’t forget to actually scrapbook about the fact that you are taking photos with your phone! I’m sure Tuesday will never think anything of it, so it might be interesting to her that it was a big deal to me when she was little. I’m thinking a mini book about this topic is in order….
What have you done with cell phone photos? I’d love to see some of your projects, link up!

Living room, after.

I keep meaning to post these photos of our living room, updated and without the television. Here is the before:

It wasn’t all that terrible, it just wasn’t all that useful either. We didn’t use it as much as we could have because we don’t watch TV with Tuesday (or really that much ourselves anymore) and it was weird to hang out in here all facing a big black box that wasn’t on. With the television gone we re-arranged to make the room more open and hang out friendly. I also wanted to lighten it up so I sewed new curtains from some gorgeous Japanese fabric.

I still need to figure out a few accessories, but this is it! We love the new layout (and we pretty much tried everything). I’m sure you’re going to ask about this beautiful rug. I’ll tell you it’s by Amy Butler for Chandra. DON’T BUY IT! Stay far away from these rugs, and this company. We searched all over the place to find a rug that fit our look, and this was it. Unfortunately I think the workmanship is poor. Our first rug had chunks coming apart and now we have to treat this thing like a baby. We can barely vacuum it, it took months for the company to finally concede and give us another rug and I’m not sure this one will last either. Super annoying.

The only new things I made for the room were the curtains and pillows. I just moved everything else around from the room or other places in the house.




The surround I painted five years ago (over existing tile). It’s held up wonderfully, I’ve never retouched it, though I probably should in places. I was reminded of what it used to be when Amanda posted this. If you have a surround you really don’t like and no money to replace it I highly recommend trying paint!

Now this room I still have to figure out. I want to pull down the pretty glass fronts for the side cabinets and paint those. They have a lot of little panes so I’ve put it off for years and they’re collecting dust in the garage. The table I am still wavering on. I think black would be too dark. I’m glad I didn’t get to this project in the summer because with light coming in I didn’t think about the darkness factor. Now that light is so much less and such a rare site I think I would be sad to see all the reflection from a lighter top go away. But I don’t know if I want it all white. Maybe a black base? I’d like to not have to bother much with the chairs, and that way I could just keep them black. Ideas my friends?

Craftification

Last month some girlfriends and I went to the beach to celebrate craftiness.  Sarah, Sciarrino, Erin, Kristen, Jenna, and I headed to Pacific City on the coast to get our craft on. We were each responsible for a project or activity, and of course we brought lots of other things to do as well, including games and great food.





My project was mini books. Everyone’s turned out so great. I love how different and special they each are. And how everyone had a different process (that’s Kristen’s laid out above).





Other projects: natural dyed scarfs, bottle cap art, freezer paper stencils, necklaces.


Plus great food.

Such lovely friends and such a great weekend. It’s so easy to forget these kind of single adventures when you have a significant other. Then you add a child, and for us it’s all about family time. We can never seem to get enough. So it seems kind of selfish in a way to take days away from the family. But coming home relaxed, inspired, refreshed… that is really worth something for me. I don’t do this kind of thing often, but I want to make sure I remember to let myself have this time, because I really am a better everything else (partner, mom, friend) when I do.