What's this? ITS HALLOWEEN! (Almost)

If you all hadn't read before, let me take a moment to say I work for a university (in the library.) If there's one thing that universities (and university towns) take seriously, it's Halloween. And that fits me just fine. Halloween/ Day of the Dead are absolutely my favorite holidays, hands down. This year, because of moving, I have seriously slacked on the fall decorating. Most of my decorations went to my office, to be oo'ed and awe'd over by the students (everyone loves my huge glitter skulls. Who wouldn't!?) However, moving did not cure my costume fever, past or present.

The other night, some of the girls and I had a "drag out all of Sarah's costume crap and play dress-up" night. What fun! Two big rubbermaid tubs and a basket of stuff, and that still wasn't all of it! We took some silly videos, but here were a few of the highlights:

 The Jane Austen dresses never fail to please. They are also pretty much the most comfortable things ever.

Hilarity ensued when we found my "historically accurate socks" and single mock-up of a shoe, made out of none other than a vinyl tablecloth. I kid you not. We rolled.

Here is my niece in her costume, which is only a little bit long in the shoulders! Her cape magically matches, even though neither her mom or I had seen what the other was doing! Brilliant!

And now the big reveal! Since I work in the library, I needed a work-appropriate costume. First I had planned on being Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus, but I couldn't find the right dress. Instead, I decided on Mary Poppins (I am practically perfect in EVERY way, after all!) I already had a skirt that would work, but needed a frilly white shirt, squashy hat, some old-lady heel, and a carpet bag. My friend and I went on the thrifting trip of a lifetime and scored big! She found everything she needed for her Carmen San Diego costume, and I found everything I needed, all in 2 stops! It was magical. The stars aligned.
 Unfortunately, I didn't get pics of the whole thing finished, but here's a taste!

The skirt, I already owned. The frilly shirt, shoes, and hat were Goodwill finds, and the jacket and bag were Salvation Army finds. I added trim to the jacket this week. The bowtie is just some ribbon hot glued to a safety pin.
 The hat what just a straw hat, spray painted black. I gussied it up with some berries and cheap flowers.

This is also the first Halloween costume that I've finished a WEEK before!
So what did all this cost me?

• Skirt: Free
• Shirt: $2.50
• Jacket: $2
• Trim: $1
• Bag: $1.99
• Shoes: $3
• Hat: $1.50
• Fake flowers: $2
• Bowtie: Free
• Tights (which I will wear): Free

Total:  $13.99

That makes me one

happy Mary Poppins :-)

In other news, I made a fabulous cauliflower crust pizza. Nom nom nom.

There's No Place Like Home

Randomly, I woke up this morning at 8 am. Sounds like a normal day, right? Sure, except I go to bed at 3am. Say whaaaaaaaat? I am a night owl. I don't wake up early. But when I woke up this morning, before the sun was even fully out, all I could think about was buying a Dremel and cleaning my room. No joke. I sat there in bed for at least a half an hour debating the merits of buying a Dremel, or buying groceries. The Dremel won, for the record, but luckily I have a friend who has one and might let me borrow hers to decide if I want one! Anyway. After I was totally amped up, I decided to just give up and fiddle around the house until I was tired enough to nap. I never napped. I had such a great day of cleaning and getting projects done that I didn't have time! I didn't even have time to make dinner!

First things first, I decided to make breakfast:

Bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits

These are really delicious. They look nothing like the recipe picture (which are neat little pucks of breakfast goodness with clearly defined strata), but they definitely fill you up. The only thing I would do differently than the recipe is to cook the biscuits for a few minutes before adding the egg. They rose so much they went right through the egg and there's nothing on the bottom (although they are still tasty!)

I also made these Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies. They are divine. I'm making a huge batch to bring to work on Halloween for all my poor little dears stuck at work and not out... I dunno.... trick or treating. Or whatever it is that kids do these days. It says to put them in an 11X7, but for a single batch I think I would just do a 9X9 and see if they came out a bit thicker. No pictures because I literally made these instead of getting ready for work, and ran out the door with steaming hot brownies in my paws.

I did a bunch of other stuff, but the bulk of my day was spent trying to to get my room in some semblance of order. I stayed up til 3 last night because I spent an hour and a half folding and putting away clothes, I kid you not. With everything put away (other than a small pile of hanging stuff that is hiding in my closet...), I had a LOT more room to work with and could start really putting things away.

Downsizing from having my stuff spread over pretty much an entire acre to a townhouse is a bit shocking. I've always known I have a lot of stuff, but it's amazing to see it all shoved in a small area. It's also amazing to see how little of it I actually use! I'm trying to be judicious as I unpack and put things away (the Roomie witnessed me recycling an iced tea bottle instead of saving it. I swear!) but also not get rid of things and then have to re-buy them (or worse, regret getting rid of them and NOT being able to replace them.)

So here's a quick run-through of what I've been up to! I also have no shame in showing the piles of stuff still left to do. You'll be able to appreciate my progress as we go :-)

Dresser wall got the most attention of the day.The dresser got cleared of junk (a lot of it was re-located when I freed up space elsewhere.) Then there is the addition of my street-side rescue shelf (holla to Savannah for stopping in the middle of the parking lot for me. You are a true friend to indulge my furniture-rescuing compulsion.)  I just used 2 sets of L-brackets to attach it to a stud, easy peasy. The shelf itself is pretty rough, and obviously homemade, but it was free, and it holds stuff, so it works for me!

Here's a close-up of what's on the shelf right now. A lot of random stuff that I'm sure will be moved around. Right now it's my half-dead orchids, my jewelry tray, library books, kids toys, glitter glue, and glue sticks in a tin. The hatbox and winebox are both empty. I'm sure I'll remedy that.

This cute little silver tray works perfectly for catching all kinds of jewelry as I take it off, without risking the cats knocking it around. Salvation Army find!

Moving clockwise is the bunny hutch! I gave up on trying to teach Boo to go up to the second level, so I just took out the ramp and now the upstairs is bunny supply storage (treats, towels, vinegar spray, etc.) The top got cleared off, my last few bottles from my bottle collection found a home, and pictures were finally hung! All of those are special. Top left is a sheep print from VA that reminds me of my 3 sheep babies, top right is a hand-printed picture Lindsay took of my old cat, Gato, bottom right is a peacock girl print from Lindsay, and bottom left is a smocking piece that my grandma made. My vanilla is also still there, steeping :-)

Here comes the messy part! Hats, gloves, and scarves are living in the big wall hanging. The prints are Ikea. The red desk finally made it inside and now will house the sewing machine and craft supplies. Right now it's just piled with flotsam.

Here's the long view of the crap side. The pile is getting smaller though! My Barbara Arnett dance sword has a proud place over the door :-)

 Inside the closet we have my medicine chest and earrings.

And a surprising amount of my craft crap fits in the top of the closet. No, that is not even close to all of my yarn.

This corner is much the same. Fish tank is in a black-out period to kill algae. The big pile is really just a box of vintage sheets (project!) and aprons. Hoarder.

Finally hung up my hair-accessory bins, and pared the bed side table down to just Day of the Dead skulls :-) Good stuff!

What happened to the papisan chair, you ask?

It migrated to the kitchen, where we can now cook and hang out indefinitely :-)

And someone wore herself out with all that work :-)

Hope you all are having a good start to your week too!~Sarah

Make Do

"Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without."

Words of wisdom, no doubt, but ones that are hard to adhere to strictly in a consumer-driven society. I am certainly not the best example of this adage, but I do try to do my best whenever I can.

Tonight was a pretty good example of how I both embody and flout this notion, simultaneously. It all starts with a confession: I have a shoe problem. A pretty bad one. And sure, I'm a girl, and that's to be expected. But I still feel terrible about my 60+ pair shoe collection (granted, a lot of them are second hand.) I've been trying to keep myself from buying more, and trying to wear them all or get rid of them.

While feeding my caffeine addiction in the coffee shop at work, I noticed that the rope on one of my favorite pair of wedges was completely falling off.

And aren't they adorable?

"Wear it out."

Unfortunately, let me reiterate that they're one of my favorite pairs. And I usually don't do anything but flats.

So... "Make do."

That's right. I stapled my shoe together.

Certainly, this is not a permanent fix. But it will certainly keep me from walking around with half my shoe flopping off.

I refuse to "do without."

So why is this such a big deal to me?

I guess it's that I hate seeing people take a perfectly good item and literally throw it away (not donate, not give to a friend, not find a new use for) simply because it has a cosmetic flaw or something so simple as a missing button. Did your dryer put a pinhole in your favorite sweater? Darn it! Put a patch on it! Embroider over it! For God's sake, don't just throw it out.



In related, but not really, news, I had leftover pumpkin pie filling last night, and so I made little pumpkin handpies.

Hand. Pies.

I just used store bought crust, so they aren't as delectable as they could be, but it was pretty good for 2 am ;-)

Last up: What's in my book bag today?

I work in a library, so usually there are a LOT of things in my book bag, but this is what I'm currently digesting.



I worked in Montessori schools for two years and really loved it, both as a job and as a teaching method. I've been missing it lately, so I'm brushing up with this oh-so-up-to-date volume ;-)

So what's your favorite ways to Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without?

Hope everyone's having a good week!

~Sarah

Ants in my pants!

Hey everyone! Yay for Thursday posting, which I can actually remember!

Today, I have a pretty girly post! You know what I hate, as a girl? Jeans that NEVER fit right. If they fit through the hips and thighs, they're huge in the waist, and vice-versa. I also have a ridiculously large difference between my hips and waist, which makes it even harder! I don't know why they seem to build jeans only for straight up and down people, but they do!

Anyway, the other day on Pinterest*, I saw a post about tailoring the back of your jeans with... get this... elastic. No joke, elasticizing your jeans. Like a 4 year old. I have a particularly notorious pair of jeans, in which I always feel like I'm flashing people my buttocks, or like I could store snacks in the extra space... so I decided to try it.

Yes. I put elastic in my jeans.

And you know what? I LOVE IT. No joke, best thing ever. Here are some butt pictures to prove it. Really. I put pictures of my butt on the internet. Anything in the name of crafts.



Lays flat!



Look, mom, no gap!

So how did I do it? HOW DID I CREATE SUCH MAGICAL TROUSERS, YOU ASK?

Easy.



All it is is a piece of elastic in the waistband. You cut two slits (I lined mine up with the outside edge of the pockets, but I might go all the way to the sides next time), insert the elastic, and sew the elastic down on each side!



TADA! I used crazy thread, just in case it sucked and I had to rip it out.

I did have to take the Levi's label off mine, since it was sewn through the waistband, but I'm fine with that. I don't want your stinkin labels on me anyway!



They look a little bit like kid's pants when they're laying flat, but they look just fine when they're on, and I never wear anything short enough to show the top of my pants anyway! BRILLIANT.

*Pinterest.com is an awesome website. It's basically a way to bookmark websites and pictures and share them with other people. There are always great recipes, decorating tips, craft ideas, you name it! You can find both Patricia and I wasting a lot of time on there ;-)

In less-exciting news, my vanilla is coming along nicely!



Hurray!

I also set up a little craft corner in my new room today, so I can keep on craftin while I keep on movin!



That's all, kiddos! See you on Monday!

~Sarah

No rest on Labor Day!

Hey y'all!

Sorry for the late post! Promise we're going to get back on schedule.

So yesterday was Labor Day, and for like the FIRST TIME ever, I was actually off work. How weird. What did I do???

I LABORED! All weekend. Well, part of the weekend. Some of the weekend. A little bit of the weekend...

Yesterday I mostly ran around outside in the rain, excited that it was under 80 degrees outside! I've been painting furniture, Day of the Dead skeletons, you name it!

Some things I've made:



Buttermilk pumpkin donuts. Oh my God they were good.

While making these I got this:



My first double-yolk egg!! I'm pretty sure that means that my girls are getting fat, but it's so neat I don't care. You go girls!

One of my little Americauna/Maran girls laid her first egg.



It's in the middle. It's a pretty goose-turd green in real life.

Two words:



Homemade vanilla.

Oh yeah baby. I used a Kentucky distilled vodka, called Pure Blue, I think, the first distiller to come back to the distillery district in Lexington. It actually doesn't taste like rubbing alcohol. Not bad!

In non-culinary goings-on, I made a curtain for two of my friends' office.



Love the hounds tooth!

I also finally made rag balls out of this huge roll of fabric I got at a thrift store for $2. I think I'm going to make a braided rug.




I didn't make these last things, but I'm such a proud momma about this! I have a 30 gallon saltwater tank, and even though I ignore it most of the time like a terrible person, I do get super-excited about it. A couple of months ago, I bought a type of coral called a rhodactis mushroom (fancy name) that was a lovely aqua color. Love it. Paid $10 for one piece I loved it so much. Yesterday, I noticed this:



My little baby coral split in to THREE!! Hurray! I love corals. So neat.

Here's a pretty dirty shot of the whole thing from a few weeks ago.



I've got some cleaning to do!

Hope you all had a good holiday!

-Sarah

Saucy Lady

So, about a week ago, I bout a $5 basket of roma tomatoes from a Mennonite farm in Scottsville.



I was pretty darn excited since my roma plant (which took forever to find, because they all looked terrible) was the first to get eaten by something. So, I finally got around to doing something with them today. Sort of following this recipe, I tried first to put them through the food mill. No dice. So, I blanched, cooled, peeled, and de-seeded an entire basket of tomatoes. Because I am a crazy person. I made a hot mess of the kitchen (spilled tomato juice everywhere, seeds and juice splattered far and wide), but in the end, I wound up with a huge bowl of skins and seeds for the chickens (happy girls!), a good amount of tomato juice, and a huge bowl of tomato meat.

Not bad, before work!

Tonight when I get home, I'll cook them down, and see what I come up with. Tomato sauce is pretty much impossible to mess up. Anything that's mushed up tomatoes is good with me.


In other garden news, look what I found!!

It's MAGICAL.

My first pumpkin to grow successfully, to full term. I had one that I accidentally knocked off the vine too soon (it was adorable too...), and one that had gotten nibbled from the underside which went to the chickens. But this one is perfect. The vine had dried up, but it made it through. I'm so proud. Now I need to decide what to do with it. I don't think it will last long enough to carve, so I'll probably eat it.


In crafty news, I finished the entire tea set that goes with the cup I made the other day!! The tea cup pattern can be found here, and the tea pot and saucers come from this site. I just used white tissue paper to paper mache it, since I actually really liked the look of the box art. Are you ready for this? Cause really... it's amazing...

Oh yeah. I'm that good.

I'm keeping this one for me (Oh, the Boysenberry tea pot!!), but I've already cut out another to make for some very special little ladies in my life... Hopefully they enjoy it as much as I do!!

What's for dinner when you can't cook?

I love Patricia's ideas for meal planning. Having everything on a set schedule sounds heaven sent, but what happens if YOU aren't on a set schedule? Are you doomed to eating Taco Bell 4 meals a day? My job involves having a weird schedule, hands down. I usually don't get home until 9 or 10 o'clock at night, and I'm lazy and don't wake up until I absolutely HAVE to. So what's a girl to do when she wants to eat like a normal person, but not be banging pots and pans together at midnight?

Meet your best friend:

image from: http://www.psfk.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/freezer.jpg

Unfortunately, my freezer doesn't look like that. Honestly, my freezer is stuffed full of crap, including our chest freezer downstairs. Why? And what does this have to do with being lazy?

So, think back to your post-high school days... if you were anything like me, you probably lived off microwaveable frozen foods. Because they are easy. You know what else they are? They are just foods made and then shoved in the freezer to be reheated later. You know what you can do? Make burritos and shove them in the freezer. It's just that simple. No, they probably won't last until Armageddon like Totinos pizza rolls, but they are also much tastier if made with exactly the ingredients you like.

Personally, I do this with just about everything. Especially if you live on your own, this is a great way to cook without having to quarter recipes. I usually take a day on the weekend and cook a few different types of each meal, for example, I might make breakfast burritos, scones, and pancakes for breakfast, and then a few different types of lunch/dinner meals, like a soup, lasagna, or a chicken dish. This works great for taking your lunch to work, since you just have to pop something out of the freezer and it defrosts by lunch time. It's also great if you're lazy in the morning, because you can pop a homemade waffle in the toaster just as easy as an Eggo, and it's not full of terrible junk.

So last night, I can home and got in a cooking mood and made:

vegetable lentil soup.
Soup always looks terrible, but tastes so good.

Bacon Cheddar Scones



which turned out AMAZING. I'll post the recipe tonight. It was adapted from a metric recipe, so it's definitely a guessing game...

This morning, I paired one of those puppies with some fresh eggs, one of which had the most enormous yolk.

Thanks girls.

So don't be afraid of meal planning, even if you're a crappy planner, or "don't have the time." Cook it up as you get a chance, and pop it in the freezer! It'll save you a world of worry later (and you can choose from multiple things rather than sticking to a plan!)

**UPDATE**

Here's the recipe for the bacon cheddar scones, adapted from this blog.

1 1/3c flour
2 TBSP baking powder
salt & pepper
1/3 c butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 c buttermilk
1/3 grated cheddar cheese
BACON. The recipe calls for 4 slices. I used much, MUCH more. Like 1/2 lb.

In a bowl, stir together flour,baking powder,salt/pepper,cheese and bacon. Now pour in the egg,milk,yogurt and butter. Stir until JUST incorporated. With scones,you want to mix them as little as possible to keep them nice and tender. Over mixing = hard scones which is not good. So incorporate in the wet ingredients,and then turn out onto a floured board and shape into a circle using your hands. Slice the circle into 8 wedges. Brush each wedge with milk and sprinkle pepper on top. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown on top and cooked through.
Makes 8 scones.

You might need to adjust the liquid/dry ingredients depending. I used a LOT more cheese and bacon. Just play with it. It's baking, not rocket science!

Weekend Roundup!

Hello everyone!

It was a busy weekend! Two of my friends celebrated their 22nd birthday Saturday (they're twins!) That called for CUPCAKES! I used this recipe for chocolate cake and fresh strawberry frosting. I have to say, I really enjoyed this recipe! The frosting tasted just like strawberries, and was delightfully pink (I added more puree than the recipe called for, but didn't have any problems with it being too runny.) The cake was nice and soft, although I think next time I'll used dark cocoa, since I like it super chocolatey. And they're lovely.



Mmmmm.

I've been dorking around with making a "princess" dress for my niece. It's been fun so far using the inspiration and patterns in this book. There's a lot of trim involved, because I can't help myself!



It's going to be a fun one. Tracing and drafting out seam allowances, not so much. I really do like the book, but I wish they weren't "European" patterns. It's nice that you can do with them what you wish, but it would be nice to have at least the standard seam allowances worked in.

Since I'm on a normal schedule for the next two weeks, I got to play with the chickens in the yard yesterday afternoon. We don't usually let them roam free anymore, after we had an unfortunate encounter with a fox carrying off one of our Buff Orpingtons. We still have three of our originals, including these girls:



Meet Thelma (the Dominique) and Louise (the Buff Orpington.) They're quite the pair. They do everything together. Our other original hen, Glorious Raptor (a mixed breed) seems to like hanging with the younger ladies, who are a bit wilder. In the background, you can see this lovely lad:



His name was Zha-Zha (he was quite the fancy chick!) However, given that he has DEFINITELY started crowing, he needs a new name. I'm thinking Ghengis Khan. Something fancy and exotic still, but a little more fitting of his masculine nature. In the background of this picture, you can see Bambi and Poofy Cheeks, our two Americauna hens who are starting to REALLY look like chickens now! They should be laying here shortly too! I'm guessing they were born at the end of April, so they should be around 5 months old. I'm really looking forward to some neat-colored eggs! A gentleman stopped by Sunday while I wasn't home and was really interested in the chickens, so hopefully I'll be able to trade off my extra roosters (Khan, and a black one I've now named Michael Jackson) for some new hens! Not pictured is the rooster I actually intend to keep (at least for now), a lovely black-bodied Maran cross like Michael, but with lots of red feathers. He's also very shy, which I like in a rooster (no more spurs please!)

Well, that's all I have for today, folks. Look forward to Patricia's post tomorrow!