Mea culpa

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa for my absence.

I have just wrapped 3 weeks of travel for work, and while the busy time at work is not quite done I am at least home so feeling a bit more grounded and ready to come back to the blogsophere.

Part of the events I was working on included my giving a short presentation/introducing an activity inspired by Six Words by SMITH Magazine.  This is a project that I learned about several years ago when I heard the founder speak at a professional conference - clearly it stuck with me.

So working on my own...

Craft enthusiast, loyal friend, lifelong learner

Or a dating site headline...

Curly, curvy, sassy. Looking for love.

Helping out a friend

My good friend and her husband have decided that it's time for a decor overhaul of their apartment. They have a great space but over the years have hodge podged (yes that is a verb) together random furniture, so it's missing an overall cohesiveness.  They have jumped in head first, and I'm sure it's obvious that I'm excited to help, give opinions, or contribute in any way that is accepted.

A major item on the list is the paint throughout the rooms.  They inherited several murals throughout the apartment which are actually great but limit their color choices and after many years they're more than ready for a change.  The walls are going to live in the neutral gray shades, pretty much throughout the space, leaving room for furniture and accent pieces to really play up their personalities and fun.

First on their list, an upgrade to their standard Malm IKEA dresser.  For inspiration we went, where else, to Pinterest and found this idea:

So with inspiration in hand we went to the hardware store to pick the paint color.  Originally planning to go with a traditional navy, we were faced with an amazing teal option that threw that into question.

Feeling bold, she picked the more teal/aqua blue - my favorite, though I attempted to keep my opinions to myself - in a high-gloss finish.  We also picked up an ivory white for the overlays.  Now we were ready to work...

Our first step was to use a liquid deglosser, instead of sanding.  We were in an apartment without a lot of protection or tools and were happy to forego all the sanding dust. One tip, we didn't do this until the last coat but if you are using brushes and not a sprayer, I would definitely use Floetrol to thin out the paint and help remove some of the brush strokes in the paint.  One nice thing on this IKEA dresser is that it was super easy to pop the drawer faces off for easy painting. After letting that dry, we started with a first coat.

You can see that the first coat didn't cover very well, and looked worryingly like the blue tape color instead of our chic deep teal.  Not to be dissuaded though, we went and got Thai takeout while we waited for the first and second coat to dry.

Then it started to come together

You can see the gloss reflecting the light and the color is much closer to what we wanted it to be. Success!

I hate to say this but the completely finished result for this project is going to be a cliff hanger.  My friend's husband has access to a woodshop and is going to be creating the overlays for the drawers.  Until those are done we can't call this complete, but, the majority of it got done on super bowl Sunday while the Broncos got the asses handed to them...heard it was a pretty sad game and we didn't miss much by painting instead.

Goodwill Find!

As teased, here is one of my projects that I got through the other weekend.

After a leisurely brunch with a friend we decided to walk over to the Goodwill that was near where we were eating.  No, I wasn't looking for anything in particular and no, that doesn't matter.  After perusing the odds and ends we made it over to the furniture area.  That's when I saw it!

An amazing teal blue chair with bronze studs along the piping. It was listed at $35 dollars which was a steal in itself but when I got to the cash register I only paid a whopping total of $29 for the chair, a picnic basket, 2 frames, and 2 books!  The prices a Goodwill never get old, it always feel like I just won a contest or something.  After some maneuvering of the backseat, and strategic angling, we got the chair in the back of my Beetle and I headed home with my bounty.

The chair was great but had a chocolatey brown wood for the legs and on the arms that just dragged the whole thing down.  Spray paint to the rescue.  I had on hand an ivory, high-gloss, spray paint and after taping/papering off the fabric and quickly sanding down the legs I went to work.  It took two coats and I am so happy with the final look of the chair.  Now I just need to find the perfect place for it in the house...

Here are the pics, in order of production - please forgive the angles on some of them, but I remembered to actually take pictures this time:

 

    

Yeah, me too

Do you ever have something happen that knocks you flat on your ass? And once the rug is fully out from under you then makes you question someone you thought you knew?

Yeah, me too

Smiles

I actually made some pretty significant progress on some projects this weekend however, I'm not quite ready to blog about them - feels almost more daunting than the project itself.   Instead I thought I would quickly share with you something that left me with a huge smile on my face, and made me want to watch it over and over again.  Enjoy!

Old Timey Christmas Garland

I'm still building out my personal collection of Christmas decorations and like the idea of making them when I can.

I found this project on Pinterest and after collecting some scraps from fabric stores nearby set to work. 

First I cut a conservative amount of strips of the fabrics I gathered (1). I included some red and green felt in my garland.  I liked the idea of the differing weights mixed together.  My length was limited by this because I only purchase 2 squares of each, though this worked out great for me, the garland could have gone much longer had I purchased a few more.

I used some hemp cord that I had lying around as the base, thinking that it's strong and will hold up for years.  I didn't cut this ahead of time, because I didin't know how long it would be in the end. I don't plan ahead like that - sometimes works and sometimes bites me in the you know what.  I tied a loop in one end and looped it around a water bottle to hold the end up, you want that end stable, like when you used to safety pin friendship bracelets to the knee of your jeans - remember?

Next step - start tying (2).  That's pretty much it.  I picked the order that I wanted for my garland and just kept going.  I put on my Hulu and just plugged away.  It took me a couple evenings after work but I got it done in time for the holidays (even if I didn't get it posted).

The finished product (3) hung across the entry to my living room and brough cheer immediately upon entering my house.  Very pleased with this Pinterest success, definitely one of the easier DIY Christmas decorations that I found that still looked really good.

Happy New Year - OkCupid, Fitbit, and Quiche, Oh My!

Yes, yes I realize that it is already 10 days into the new year and I'm just now posting.  Thank you for pointing that out.  I've been through the ups and downs, excited about the new year, depressed that it feels the same as last year, hopeful for romance and tragically disappointed by the OkCupid prospects popping up on their mobile app.

One of the ups that has stuck for now is the back to WW and eating healthier (i.e. grocery shopping) and documenting all this a bit better here so I feel accountable and appropriately shamed when there are hiccups. I don't believe in shaming other people for hiccups in their resolutions/intentions/goals/whateveryoucallem, but I work well when faced with self-shaming or losing any sort of competition.

The results for this first week (I'm counting this as the first week since I was having an amazing beach vacation for the week over New Years which obviously means nothing counts) include trying out a few new recipes and amping up the Fitbit competition.

Slight tangent on the Fitbit - I like this tracker much better than any others I've had.  I don't think it does anything more, or different, than countless others but it hasn't broken.  I went through several pedometers that either broke with sweat or fell off.  I've had my Fitbit for over 4 years and love it.  For me having the data of how much I've done in a day definitely helps me do just that extra bit more.

Two more people I know got a Fitbit for Christmas and are now in my friends on that app - which really means are two more people in the cut throat, never ending competition for highest steps!  They may not have known they were entering that race, I may never tell them they're in the race, but they are!  Right now I'm second to my friend and co-worker for the week and it's driving me crazy - or I'm already crazy and therefore I care - you pick.

Here is a recipe I tried this week that I was actually really pleasantly surprised by.  Originally intended as a  party food I actually made the whole recipe and have had them throughout the week as a little snack or a couple for breakfast.  Tasty and not horrible for me definitely equals a win in my book.  It was pretty straightforward once you got all the ingredients.  Let me know what you think.

Ingredients

• 4 spray(s) cooking spray   
• 2 small uncooked zucchini, finely chopped   
• 1 large uncooked onion(s), finely chopped   
• 1 cup(s) shredded parmesan cheese, about 3 oz   
• 6 large egg(s)   
• 1/2 cup(s) all purpose flour   
• 1/4 cup(s) basil, fresh, finely chopped   
• 3 Tbsp olive oil, extra virgin   
• 2 tsp baking powder   
• 1 tsp sugar   
• 1 tsp kosher salt   
• 1/2 tsp black pepper   

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat two 24-hole nonstick mini muffin pans with cooking spray (or use just one pan and cook in two batches). 
• Combine all ingredients in a large bowl; spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon egg mixture into each prepared hole, making sure to stir mixture after filling each one. 
• Bake until bottoms are golden brown and quiche are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove pan(s) from oven and let quiche cool for a few minutes in pan(s); remove quiche to a wire rack to cool more (and repeat with remaining ingredients if necessary). Yields 1 quiche per serving.