Archive for March 2011
So you think you’re funny, Ryan?
One evening I came home from a busy day at a conference, and logged into the blog, only to find over a dozen blog comments from Ryan. He must’ve had a slow day at the office or something.
I also discovered some fun comments from others, as well, so here’s a little overview of the nuggets.
In response to “Ironing is Fun Again“ – in which I dish the dirt on my new ironing board cover – he wrote:
I was so surprised that this worked that I wrapped the vacuum and dishes in fabric so that doing them becomes fun again. See? I’m always looking for ways to make you happy!
I’m going to need a few more yards (of cloth!) for the lawnmower too.
As for “Rental-Friendly Temporary Wallpaper {Let’s Take a Risk}” – aka the day I spent 6 hours reorganizing and decorating a coat closet (yeah, fo’ real). What did Ryan have to say? Well, when he read this: “This is by far the biggest decorating risk I’ve taken so far, and I can’t guarantee that it works in the long run. But you don’t know if you don’t try, right?”
I’m glad you’re venturing so far out there in the world of hallway closet decorating. I certainly hope you don’t get blacklisted by the Hallway Closet Home Decor cartel for your edgy space-saving techniques.
Just so you all know, I wanted to start a hallway closet firepit for my National Take A Risk Day link party, but SOMEONE thought it was a little too risky. No sense of adventure! I guess no one gets hallway closet s’mores now.
As for “Vintage Kitchen Additions” – I shared pics of our two new sets of vintage dishes which my brother found in his new house. In regards to the fact that some were still in their original packaging, reader Rebecca had this interesting point:
I am totally cracking up. Because we ALL have friends who are dy-ing for something new for their home, buy it with no discussion with the other half-owner of the family budget, and then bring it home and stash it until they work up the courage to tell The Hubs (or the wife, in the case of fishing rods and electronic gadgets). I’ve seen friends do this with towels, plates, bedding, throw pillows. I can just picture the 1950′s/1960′s housewife charging this on her store account “way back when” and storing it, unused, never getting the courage to tell what she’d done.
I can totally picture this. How hilarious is it to think of housewives 50 years ago doing the same thing we do today? Right on, Rebecca!
In response to “Mistake Turned Great: Kitchen Update” – Ryan registers a complaint about the rug:
Just so you know, you can use these rugs for booby traps too. Apparently you can sprinkle rice, beans, caltrops… all over the thing and the first person to walk barefoot over it won’t notice them until they feel the stabs of pain shoot through their feet.
Oops. Sorry, Ryan. I told the dogs to eat the stray grains of rice and beans! Clearly they didn’t listen to me.
And last but not least, in response to “Stories Rooms Tell” - in which I share a peek at “my” room at my parents’ house,here’s what Ryan had to say when I wrote: “As a matter of fact, I often sleep better there than in my own home.”
That’s because of our cats. You don’t believe me but they use your head as a trampoline in the middle of the night.
Good point. Am I the only one whose animals act as though they’re auditioning for a clown act? Do you even know what Ryan has caught our male cat doing in the middle of the night? Maybe you don’t want to.
I think it’s time for Ryan to write What the Hell: Animal Edition.
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Gourmet Dinners: Not Home-Made, but Faux-Made
Gourmet flavors on a not-so-gourmet budget. That’s what tickles our tastebuds here at the Borrowed Abode.
Ryan and I both love the pre-made Indian meals that come in cardboard boxes. But yowza, we don’t love the prices. At $3.50 a box, it would cost $7 or more to feed us one dinner, especially now that we’re avoiding carbs like rice most of the time.
Tuesday I experimented with using the prepackaged meal as a base, and building upon it with some other ingredients. Guess what? It worked! Ryan and I enjoyed a tasty Indian meal, chock full of fresh veggies and lean proteins, for about $4 per person. What was on the menu? Chicken vegetable Biryani and Palak Paneer.
The two dishes cost about $19 to create, but provided two dinners for us each, as well as lunch for me. That’s a total of $3. 80 per person, per meal. The best part? It took me less than 30 minutes to prepare this fabulosity.
Here’s how I did it:
Jane’s Home Faux
Ingredients:
- 2 boxes Palak Paneer
- 1 pound fresh spinach
- 1 cup re-hydrated chick peas
Directions:
1. Chop 1 pound fresh spinach into smaller pieces.
2. Dump pre-made Palak Paneer into a large pot.
3. Add the chick peas and fresh chopped spinach.
4. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fresh spinach has wilted.
Jane’s Semi-HomeMade Chicken Veggie Biryani
Ingredients:
- 1/2 jar Patak’s Biryani Curry Paste
- 1 pound chicken, chopped into small chunks (I buy free-range, pastured, local chicken. You could substitute Tofu.)
- 1 small can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 cup re-hydrated chick peas
- Fresh string beans, chopped
Directions:
1. Dice the onion.
2. Sautee the onion in olive oil over medium heat.
3. Add the chicken and sear on med-high heat for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the can of tomatoes, including juice.
5. When mixture is simmering, add 1/2 can of Patak’s Biryani Curry Paste. Stir until dissolved in the mixture.
6. Add fresh string beans and chick peas. Stir to mix.
7. Simmer for 15 or so minutes. You can’t really simmer it too long.
Random tips:
I don’t follow recipes when I make these sorts of things. Me and recipes, well we just don’t seem to get along. With the above Indian pastes, you can pretty much mix them with anything, in my opinion. Take whatever leftover veggies and proteins you have in your fridge.
We like chick peas because they absorb so many flavors well, and because they’re cheaper than meat.
Speaking of chick peas, we buy them (and other beans) dried at Whole Foods, and then rehydrate them by leaving them in water in a slow cooker on low for about 12-14 hours. Then we drain them and portion them into jars or ziploc bags and freeze them until they’re needed. It’s much cheaper and healthier than buying canned beans. Have you seen the sodium count in canned beans??? Ick.
Well that’s it for me. Have you made any good kitchen experiments lately? What’s your fave way to get gourmet flavor on a not-so-gourmet budget?
**Psst: I’m linking this up to the What I Ate Wednesday party hosted by the Ab-Fab Jenn of Peas and Crayons.
***UPDATE: I totally forgot that Jenn did this a few weeks ago with Chana Masala – check it out!!!
{Re}Fashion: 4 Awesome Projects
Reason #123,202 that I love blogging: You ladies sure are a crafty, stylish bunch, and always provide such great inspiration!
Several of my fave bloggers shared beautiful refashion / sewn-from-scratch fashion posts today and I wanted to share them with you:
- Mikalah turned a questionable, vintage wedding dress into a gorgeous, swanky, cocktail dress.
- Katie sewed a fun top that’s perfect for layering in spring, summer, and fall – and she made it from scratch!
- Dana shared the most ingenious refashioned vintage wedding dress idea ever. It’s a two-in-one convertible dress. Awesome.
- Also, Sunny is preparing to host her first What the !@#!@# Are You Wearing Wednesday link party. I love her sense of humor and can’t wait to join in!
That’s all I have to say for now, because Sunday I was hit with a sinus thingy/cold that has zapped my energy. Fortunately now I think I’m on the upswing.
Oh, and on another note – if you’ve got any interest in social media / marketing, be sure to check out this talk by Scott Stratten of Unmarketing. It’s similar to the speech he gave at Blissdom, but it’s so much more fun to watch him than to read my notes on the talk.
Clean and Steamy.
Wahoo! Look what we got! This should foil Merlin’s attempts to muddy our carpets from here on out.
Am I the only one whose dog feels the need to kick the ground, driving the mud deep between his toes, after peeing and prior to re-entering a carpeted home? It sure does a number – not only on the carpets – but on the grass we attempt to grow in our yard. Le sigh.
Ironing is Fun Again (& a product peek)
Ironing is fun again, thanks to City Chic Country Mouse, a mother/daughter sewing and blogging duo who aim to inject some joy into the otherwise world of mundane household tasks. They’re having a Spring Cleaning Sale over in their Etsy shop, and I couldn’t help but snag a cute new ironing board cover.
It arrived just a few days later, and it was wrapped so adorably that it felt like Christmas or my birthday all over again.
The item was wrapped in tissue, secured with a cute little mouse sticker, tied with a fabric strip (that coordinated with the product), and topped off with a hand-written “thank-you” note.
After I opened it I reassembled it so I could take a photo.
I peeled back the precious wrapping to find the ironing board cover neatly folded, and topped with a small envelope.
And what was inside that envelope? Their super cute business card, a mini-card with a coupon code, and a spare piece of fabric (which I can only assume is for patching the cover, etc, if need be). If you guys ask me, these ladies take the cake with product packaging.
As for the actual item I ordered? Well it fit my ironing board perfectly, thanks to its sturdy drawstring closure. I’m happy as a clam now that my ironing board has a new look. Did I mention that my old cover was stained, and so worn that the elastic no longer worked, and after I last washed it I had to hand-sew it in place to hold it on the ironing board? Goodbye, ugly!
Pardon the poor lighting, this shot was snapped at midnight.
Though you can’t see it here, the cover coordinates well with the colorful fabrics I used in my studio makeover. All the bright colors help to keep me energized when I’m working late at night.
Speaking of working in my studio, would you like a peek at a design I made last night? I love it! This pleated design will be for lumbar pillows, and I will have coordinating square pillows and cat purr pads to go with it.
This is an example of what I love most with sewing. The creation of designs and the piecing together of colors and fabrics and textures. Yum. Is it 5 o’clock yet? My fingers are itchin’ to get back to stitchin’.
Operation Closet Cleanup
Let’s follow-up yesterday’s closet “wallpapering” post with a closer look at the storage solutions I whipped up for the small space.
Remember, before my overhaul it was this embarrassing:
But it was easily transformed, with just a few hours’ work (ok, 6 hrs), to look like this:
After temporarily “wallpapering” the side walls with contact paper, I was on a roll.
The closet bar got a little update (as one astute reader, Loren, pointed out in yesterday’s comments.) I covered the splintery old closet bar with some contact paper just to keep the splinters under wraps. . . literally. :) I also bought a new set of rod holders so that I could move the bar to the back of the closet and free up more of the front space for hanging storage, etc. on the sides.
Doesn’t the bar look so much nicer now?
Above the bar I created some shelf storage. After living with my mess for so long, I’d realized that the simple open shelves invited messiness. The space needed to be broken up into assigned sections.
- My huge toolkit slid perfectly onto the top shelf for easy access (although Ryan pointed out that it’s not ideal to store a heavy toolkit so high up).
- Three inexpensive storage bins fit the shelf perfectly, providing space for dog clothes, my fancy cashmere wraps, and travel booklets & maps. Better yet, their blue covers coordinated with the walls! ($2.50 each, Home Depot)
- The bottom left cubby holds the extra reusable grocery bags, which are each rolled up and stashed inside a compartment in a small, divided “wine bottle” shopping bag.
- The middle cubby, which I created from a cardboard box covered in contact paper, holds the helmet and the fanny pack I wear when I bike. Yes. I said fanny pack. Worse yet, I wear it. Teehee.
- The bottom right cubby holds my small handled shopping bags, which I use for taking lunches to work, etc.
You may notice the closet bar brackets on the board. They were caked in years of paint, so I installed new ones further back in the closet. This freed up the side walls for hanging storage, like our broom and dustpan.
Further back on the wall, hidden by the hanging coats, are two hooks for our backpacks. Just in case we get a hankerin’ to go to school. In reality, they’re used when we bike or walk to the grocery.
Speaking of side storage, I’m pretty pleased with myself. I snuck a camouflaged storage option onto the top left wall, so that I could store my large paper grocery bags (which I use whenever I forget my cloth bags at the grocery, shame on me).
Right below the paper bags are two hooks for our dogs’ primary leashes and gentle leaders.
Our other dog-walking accessories, as well as the backup leashes and collars, are stored in the pockets of our over-door organizer. Also housed there are winter hats, etc. as well as our plastic dog doo bags and my reusable produce bags.
Finally, Ryan’s Mexican Coca~Colas got a housing upgrade, as they were relocated into a lovely wooden wine crate.
Rental Friendly Temporary Wallpaper? {Let’s Take a Risk}
A few weeks ago I spent 6 hours organizing our tiny coat closet. What is wrong with me?
I mean, really. Who spends 6 hours organizing a closet? Me, apparently. And it was supposed to be a quick-n-easy project. But in the midst of emptying out the closet, I stood there trying to decide if I should paint it. But then I was inspired to try something. Something ridiculous. Could I use contact paper to “wallpaper” the walls?
I decided to try out a little rental-friendly decorating trick on the off-chance that it worked. And it did.
Do you see how the side wall in the above photo appears to be patterned? I experimented with DIYing a temporary “wallpaper” look.
Here’s how it went down.
I must warn you: our closet was mortifyingly messy. When we moved in I decided to “just put stuff in there” and not worry about it until winter. But I didn’t get to it in December. . . or January. . . and with spring looming over the horizon, I decided I couldn’t take it any longer. Time to launch operation closet cleanup.
So on that fateful day, I yanked everything out of that sorry excuse for a closet.
First, I measured the width of the wall. Then I cut strips of the contact paper to size.
Next, I peeled the backing off the piece of contact paper, and carefully pressed it onto the wall. It took a little patience to get it smooth and straight, but it was not at all the nightmare I thought it would be. Thanks to its “easily-removable” nature, when I found the paper going on crooked I was able to just peel it off and try again.
*I found that it worked best if I lined up the side of the contact paper along the wall seam first, then smoothed it horizontally across the wall. I allowed about a 1/2 inch overlap between sheets, so that if it wasn’t exactly straight you couldn’t tell.
Here’s a little action shot, because – being the good blogger that I am – I tried to photograph every step of the process. Note that I didn’t worry about matching up the pattern perfectly at each seam. Actually, I didn’t try to match it at all – because I didn’t want to waste paper. Heck, I don’t even know if matching up was possible for this pattern. It’s busy enough that you don’t really notice. And remember, perfection is not the goal. It’s only a closet, after all.
Several hours later, when I was almost done covering the walls, I ran out of contact paper. It was then I knew I was in love with the idea, because I ran off to Home Depot (again) for a second roll – so that I could finish the top of the closet walls. I think I’ve finally learned to do things the right way, even if it means they take longer.
But back to the faux-papered walls. Once I’d covered each wall, I wanted to have straight, tidy seams at the corners, so I held a straight-edge to the corner and ran a razor blade lightly down the corner, trimming the uneven ends.
I love how this crazy decorating idea worked out.
I am not sure how it will hold up over time, so I’ll be sure to update you in a month or so. My gut feeling is that it will stay put, because that stuff has some serious cling to it. In a month or so I intend to carefully peel some corners back, to see if the paper can be removed without damaging the paint. Again, the product is supposed to be removable as a shelf and drawer liner, so here’s hoping the same holds true with walls.
As for the total cost? $12 for two rolls of contact paper. That’s a price I can live with.
And I have 2/3 of the second roll left, so that’s a bonus.
This is by far the biggest decorating risk I’ve taken so far, and I can’t guarantee that it works in the long run. But you don’t know if you don’t try, right?
Stop back tomorrow and I’ll share some other fun organizational DIY tricks I used in the rest of the closet!
If you have any experience putting contact paper on your walls, please let me know how it turned out for you! Or if you have an alternate non-paint wallcovering idea that works in rentals, I’m sure we’d all love to hear about that too!
Psst: I’m glad I waited until now to share this project, because it’s just in time for the Nester’s National Take A Risk Day link party! Be sure to visit her and see what risks more fabulous women have taken.
Update: 9 months later I can tell you the closet wallpaper is still holding strong, but peels off safely if I want it to.
Vintage Kitchen Additions
While we’re on the topic of kitchen-y updates, would you like to see our new-to-us dishes?
When my brother and his wife recently moved into their 100-yr-old home, they discovered this awesome vintage set of atomic dishes in a basement crawl space:
And when he asked if we wanted them, I jumped at it faster than a cat on a mouse! Our only dishes are a pricey set of Denby stoneware. Therefore I’d been glancing at thrift stores hoping to find a few inexpensive vintage plates for casual daily use.
These fit the bill almost perfectly. And after a smidgen of online research, I now know we obtained Salem China’s North Star pattern, made in the 1960′s. They seem pretty popular amongst mid-mod enthusiasts. I’m just not sure about two things.
1) I don’t like to save things I don’t need. And I certainly don’t need the teacups and saucers that came with the set. For nightly mugs of tea I prefer a large mug. For a morning coffee or post-dinner-party coffee I use my “good” stoneware teacups. Should I split up this vintage set and give away / sell the teacups and saucers? Or should I store them in a box in the basement, so that the whole set can remain together? As a vintage dish fan, I’m reluctant to split up a pristine set.
2) I have no idea if this stuff is microwave safe. Anyone have any idea?
Check out the sweet platter that was included. And from what I found on Atomic Inspired, there’s even more fun to be had with the matching teapot, cream and sugar set, and casserole dish. If Ryan approves, I may have to hunt those pieces down on Etsy and eBay.
But that’s not all the vintage goodness we received!
Also in the crawl space was this set of white stoneware, made in and shipped by Ceramano in West Germany (circa 19-??). Even better, most of the dishes were still in their crumbling original packaging. Never opened or used. Would I love to know the story behind that.
All in all, our set is comprised of 8 dinner plates, salad plates, pasta bowls, mugs, and 1 cream and sugar set.
How much fun is the recessed circular pattern? The only thing I can’t figure out is why there is a mismatched black stoneware lid for the sugar bowl. Information on this exact pattern seems to be lacking, though a similar pattern, Ceramano Omega, exists. If you know anything more about these dishes, or can point me in the right direction, I’d love to know!!
So now we have not two, but THREE sets of dishes. Oh dear. I’m absolutely keeping the Ceramano cream and sugar set, because I can’t wait to make some small flower arrangements in them. And the Ceramano pasta bowls are awesome – a cross between large bowls and small plates.
So back to my anti-hoarding tendencies. There’s NO REASON we need three sets of dishes. But I can’t decide if I want to break up the Ceramano set either. So I told Ryan that for now we’ll store the white plates and mugs, and the atomic teacups, in a box in the yet-unused attic. And I promise to make up my mind in a few months. Decisions about mint-condition sets of vintage dishware are not to be made lightly!
In case you haven’t yet noticed, I have a thing for vintage dinnerware, Pyrex, and barware. What’s your weakness when it comes to collecting?
