Old Things are Old Again

I have been on the look out for a corner cabinet for some time now. I found one for $40.00 at an antique shop in Centralia, WA. Turns out Centralia is an antique mecca. I had also seen a fun scrap wood wall paper featured on a number of websites. I purchased the wallpaper from the retailer's online site on a Monday. It was shipped from the Netherlands on Wednesday. I had it in my hand on Friday. UPS you are amazing. Granted there is a significant time difference, because really my Monday order actually got shipped on my Tuesday and got to me by the retailers Saturday. You really can go back in time!

Whatever laws of time and space were bent to get my package to me, I am grateful. It meant that I had a project this weekend!



The cabinet before the magic began.



Cabinet hosed down with Citristrip paint remover. Great product I found at Home Depot.


Cabinet door that got the "orange" treatment. In hindsight I think I could have skipped this step and gone straight to sanding the surfacing with my orbital sander. However, I am nothing if not thorough. And/or prone to overkill when tackling projects I have not attempted before.


I stripped the paint, sanded the surface and then used mod-podge to attach the wallpaper. I really was working hard to try and get the vertical planks to at least kind of line up with each other.


One of the cabinet doors. Can you see the toothpicks I used to try and make sure I knew where the hardware screws needed to go?


After attaching the wall paper, I used a clear matte spray polyurethane to seal the edges. (well, that's what I hope I did anyway) Reattached the hardware and BAM. This cabinet officially got kicked up a notch.


While nobody is supposed to put baby in a corner, the corner cabinet looks right at home! Ignore the strange light reflecting off the tv screen. It is not the flash from my camera, but the cabinet basking in its moment in the sun!

Buy or Build

The longer i looked at clip art with the word "buy" in it the weirder that word became.

What happens

I love black cherry kool-aid. Some people know how to make it juuust right. Some people don't. I can honestly say I don't understand why kool-aid makes any other flavors. Black Cherry Kool-Aid. Perfection. Stop there.

Being that I do know how to make black cherry kool-aid juuust right, I whipped myself up a batch a couple months ago. The key here is the time line. I enjoyed my awesomeness in a cup a number of times. Then forgot I had it in the fridge. What happens when kool-aid gets left in the fridge too long unattended? It crystallizes.

I took photo evidence of this miracle of science (I think that makes it sound intended, less accidental). The first picture creep-ed me out a bit. It reminded me of a weird glowing red eye. Or some kind of galactic phenomenon.

I have learned that black cherry kool-aid is a love that doesn't like to be left on the shelf.

Its the Most Wonderful time of the Year

It the most wonderful time of the year! No, no, its not Christmas in May. Its berry season! Annnnnnnd that means ....... Berry Chantilly Cake is back in stores near you! Well, maybe not near you. But near me, in select stores (Whole Foods) ..... sometimes. I Heart Berry Chantilly Cake. Nothing like it on the planet. I've tried to make it myself and failed. My friend Jill made it for me one year for my birthday. Success. Jill has mad skills like that.
Sigh. What a wonderful world.

Buy or Build

I have been mentally planning a home project in which I was/am going to build a reclaimed wood headboard. Found these art pieces at a great store yesterday. Its a new favorite called
Moe's Home Collection (showrooms near me in both Seattle and Federal Way).
The dilemma then became ....
to build or to buy.


What did I decide? Que the the cliffhanger!
Stay tuned for a future blog episode in which the stunning choice will be revealed!

http://www.moeshome.com/

Guilty as Charged

I now travel regularly on work related assignments. As a result I have started to develop a very specific opinion on what I think are quality hotel accommodations. In other words I am becoming a hotel snob. On a recent trip I returned home and upon emptying my suitcase came across a random washcloth. I did not intentionally take it from the hotel. I SWEAR! I didn't know what I should do with the little washcloth, so I kept it. It haunts me daily.

On a separate trip for personal travel I stayed at a hotel that had the following in the bathroom.

" Due to the popularity of our guest room amenities our Housekeeping Department now offers these items for sale." ...
"Each guest room attendant is responsible for maintaining the guest room items. Should you decide to take these articles from your room instead of obtaining them from the Executive Housekeeper, we will assume you approve a corresponding charge to your account.
Thank You.

Translation: Don't steal our stuff.

I laughed out loud. It was a very nice hotel, and it was a pleasant stay. I did not take any of the amenities with me. I think the hotel has every right to charge me for any amenities I take that do not come with the price of my room. They just said it so nicely!

Welcome Back Bacon

I may be late to the party, and others may have toasted louder, but I'd like to take a moment to celebrate the return of bacon in all its many forms. As a result of the bacon resurgence there is a wealth of information that could be provided and links that could be referenced. Of all the products out there I have personally purchased, or received, the following as gifts.
1 - bacon flavored lip balm
2 - bacon flavored popcorn
3 - Bacon Explosion, the grand-daddy of all bacon.
4 - 365 days of bacon insights and quotes courtesy of the Bacon desk calendar


The Bacon Explosion. Ah-Ma-Zing.
http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion

Bacon Roses
Found this one today. Holy Bacon Batman!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bacon-Roses

In parting I leave with highlights from the Bacon Manifesto found at
http://monkeygoggles.com/?p=912

The Bacon Eater’s Manifesto

Before beginning, we must acknowledge bacon as the most perfect food that has ever or will ever exist. It is the food which holds the perfect balance of fat and salt. The crispiness to withstand even the moistest sandwich and the heartiness to make even a salad edible. We sing the praises of bacon. We dance in its honor. We close our eyes and inhale deeply allowing its scent to enter our bodies and fill us with happiness as if we were human balloons and the bacon is God’s breath.

Bacon is also the universal food, for it is not elitist fancy-pants eating. It is enjoyed by everyone from the lowliest hobo to the wealthiest Wall Street tycoon. Even Mr. Rockefeller himself is known to partake in bacon during breaks from counting his large stacks of money. It is the chosen last meal of death row inmates and the first thing men ask for after being rescued from desert islands. After all, if you were stranded on an island, would you rather have a beautiful woman or endless bacon? The choice is clear.

We suggest renaming the pig to something more descriptive of its purpose. This animal should be renamed “living bacon” or “bacon with legs” so as not to hide that inner beauty it holds. The swine lives in filth, but just as plants grow from manure, so does the seed of bacon take hold in the swill of mud and garbage and grow into the redwood of meats. Bacon.

Now that we have paid proper homage to bacon, we name ourselves as eaters of bacon and set forth our purpose and pathway. These are the truths we live by and hold sacred.

1. There is nothing that cannot be improved by the addition of bacon.

Some might hold out sweets as being spoiled by adding bacon or a gourmet chef might say that the balance of a dish will be upset by the addition of bacon, but we state here and now that they are wrong. There is no food, or indeed no event, that cannot be improved with the addition of bacon. A single slice of bacon can act as a magnifying glass on the smallest amount of goodness or happiness in something, and magnify it to skyscraper size.

2. Bacon may shorten your life, but what is life without bacon?

Doctors, health nuts and vegetarians are constantly whispering in our ears that bacon poses some kind of health risk. That your life would be longer without it. But, we ask, what is your life without it? It’s a cupcake without frosting. A marriage without love. A summer without a sunny day. Quality of life must be taken into consideration when choosing your food. Do not waste time with green beans and squash; fill all the empty moments with the king of meat.

3. Bacon is the best thing at a breakfast buffet.

Loading up on toast or eggs is a tragedy. For they are simply buffer foods to distract you from bacon.

4. Bacon is so delicious, some people claim it wrote the works of Shakespeare.

We have our doubts that it did. For if bacon could write, why would it write something so boring and inscrutable to the common man?

5. The greatest odor in the world is the smell of cooking bacon.

If one were to truly and dutifully bottle its essence, even a woman plain as tap water could attract a square-jawed, Hollywood dreamboat. If it were promised that heaven smelled like bacon, surely men would do no evil from that moment forward.


"To thine own bacon be true". - Me.

I Cut My Finger

I cut my finger.

The grommets are finished, and I only made one significant slip with the exact-o knife. I've been sharing my projects with one of my co-workers and she has decided that the next logical step is a store called "Kurtains by Kendra".

While I have had a great time trying new ways to make curtains (the grommets were by FAR the easiest and most impressive for results) I am ready to move to new project.
Unless I find great fabric that screams "I am a curtain". Then i suppose I'll just have to make more! :)

Pockets, tabs and grommets ... oh MY!

And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make. (Exodus 26:7)

The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: the curtains were all of one size. (Exodus 36:9)

I haven't used goat hair just yet, but anything that has fabric in it has been up for grabs in my curtain madness. And while things are going okay, I might as well be measuring in cubits for the fits I have in measuring and sewing things that match. Good night!

The pictures below are from my recent set of sewing projects.




To celebrate the YEAR OF THE CURTAIN. (just go with it ... the household item calendar will be the next big zodiac calendar. Year of the Rabbit, meet Year of the Potholder) This was the very first curtain.




This was made from a baby quilt kit that I had purchased, received and then became immediately intimidated by the amount of measuring and precise shapes that needed to be made. I am happy to report that I did cut out the shapes as called for on the instructions when I decided to use it for a curtain. And then I fudged from there. :)




Curtain from material I found at Goodwill. There was a lot of it. So far it has yielded 5 curtains with 2 more on the way!



This came from a dress that I may or may not wear to my brother's wedding. I bought 2 of the same dress (it's one of the long flow-y summer dresses), and then removed the bottom piece of dress 1. So in dress 1 there is a shirt, and two curtains from the dress. And I have me dress 2 to wear. I think these look pretty cool.

I have some other curtain projects here to work on from tablecloths my mom and I bought at Target. Grommets are next!

Back in the day backwards was in. I think I am a late bloomer. Or I have just reached a place where certain social norms don't apply. I never wore my clothes backwards in high school, but have recently started wearing this one shirt I own backwards. I just don't like the neckline anymore. I have also worn dresses as shirts and shirts as dresses in recent years. AND, I have started conditioning and then shampooing (I read about this online and decided to give it a try). If that isn't backwards I don't know what is. It is even hard to type. I wonder if I am breaking some kind of law by not following the instructions on my hair care products. Whatever the reason, I know that my hair has some extra bounce when I ..... wait for it ..... JUMP! JUMP!