Changing my Blog

I am thinking of taking a new approach to this blog.

Making it more about travels than crafting, however I will still be showing off any of my goods.

As my daughter is growing into a young lady, she has decided she loves roadtrips and I am going to make this the way to share our outings. We will dish on the restaurants we dine at. We will share our opinions on hotels and attractions we see.

Perhaps by the time she is out of school for good we will be popular enough to be invited by places that want to appear on our blog.

Either way, our first trip is coming up!

$25 lounge chair....

I have been looking over the lounge chairs and found that $200 for something I only get to use for a few months was not in the cards.

So when I noticed this lounge chair at my work just sitting in the second greenhouse collecting dust, I decided that it should be mine.

It was a little rough looking, and white was not doing it any favors. $20 bucks and every penny went right to a worksite account for students with disabilities. Sold!

SO...we come to today. This chair has been waiting very patiently for its paint. $5 at Fred Meyers and about 45 minutes of work and we now have this...

I will be making a padded green pillow seat for it once i find just the right color of green to match my other outside chair!

Spray paint doesn't kill grass, or does it. Guess I will find out in a few days.

Finally available for purchase!!!

http://www.sockittome.com/cart/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30078
http://www.sockittome.com/cart/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30078

Attached is my winning entry to the design a sock contest from Sock It to Me!

I am so excited to see them made and I am awaiting my pair to be delivered. I am not sure what I will submit for next year.

Banana Bread-kinda the healthy way

So I decided to make some banana bread, and since it is such an simple recipe I also decided to play a bit with it to reduce the sugar and sneak in a bit of healthy additions as well.

Here is the recipe i used today
4 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of oil
3 tsp vanilla
mix it up

I am a HUGE fan of the sifted flours
and always sift my dry ingredients together

1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 & 1/2 tsp salt
2 & 1/2 cups flour (whole wheat or white)

I used white today because I could not reach the whole wheat and my step ladder is in the bathroom sub floor...(Husband is on a DIY mission)

Mix it all up again...

In a blender or magic bullet, puree 3 or 4 bananas

add and mix

if it is a bit too thick you can use some applesauce to thin it down a smidge, this happened to me because I accidentally used an extra 1/2 cup of flour and added 8oz of unsweetened applesauce.

I then put in the extras

1/2 cup of flax meal
3 large shredded carrots
3/4 cup of walnuts

then once you have the massive amount all mixed up
divide it into your bakeware of choice and pop it in a preheated
oven at 350

depending on your pan choice you will have to vary baking time, I have regular 8 in loaf pans and they
bake up in 45 minutes

always let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing and putting on a rack

Fresh out of the oven and the bread is good, not as dessert like as the original recipe but with half the sugar out it makes a great bread to serve with tea or coffee.

Hot Air Balloon

Today I went for a balloon ride...

It was super fun and something that people should make a plan to do!

Lazy...or just no time?

I have been slacking on my projects, but that doesn't deter me from getting piles of books from the library looking for new and fun ideas....

A small piece of success..

My beautiful mystery bulb has finally decided to show itself!

The Amaryllis was a find at the Greenhouse, the new greenhouse leader was not sure what it was and my response was "Let's Pot It" and once it took to growing it was sent home with me to watch over. 

I will be working on some additional garden projects soon and posting pictures as I do the work. 

My to do list includes some raised beds for zucchini and a path for the power chair to get to the back patio.

<3

Dog Bed Upcycle?

I love my pets, but at the end of the day and the end of my budget we have to sometimes get creative with their items. At almost 90 pounds of lovable lap dog, our princess Joi Boo, tracks in a fair share of muck.

We have been reusing the stuffing from the same bed for the last 2 years, and replacing the outside by buying the couch cushion covers from the Ikea as is bins. Blessed with out a flea problem, all we had to worry about was the dirty cover. 

However, keeping the floor plan as open as possible to ensure easy wheelchair access has been one of the challenges. I purchased a black dog bed cover last month for a whopping $2.00 at Ikea. It looked plenty big in the store, but once home and stuffed with only half of the dog bed stuffing our Boo could not fit on it. And she was not pleased one bit. 

I decided to toss the old stuffing and opt for using a queen size fleece blanket from our bed. It has been used for several seasons and no longer was as snuggly as I like them. 

Pulled from the Goodwill pile, I folded it in half length wise and then in thirds to get a overall space of 2ft x 3ft. Just enough space for Boo to lay and play with yogurt containers. (another bit of a reuse, she will clean them and then carry them around  but will not put them in the recycling bin) Knowing dogs like to ruffle up on beds and paw up the blankets, I knew this needed a cover or I would be constantly folding the bed back up. 

I grabbed one of the small fleece blankets from a the closet and created a no-sew cover by cutting 1 inch strips and knotting them on the 2 shorter ends. This left one end open, and makes this bed very easy to wash in our small washing machine. 

By reusing a few items that have been kicked around here, I was able to build this bed for Boo in less than 20 minutes. 

Sellwood Columbia outlet store---SCORE!

A shout out to my Mom for driving me there!

We went yesterday and found a few clearance racks with an additional 50% off of lowest price.

I spotted the trench rain coats at retail stores and have been wanting them, perfect for the rainy Pacific NW and our regular visits to the beach.

Here is my rundown.

Color print trench style rain coat (original price $115.00) paid $13.50

Black and white trench style rain coat (original price $115.00) paid $13.50

Girls Pink reversible sweater (original price $60.00) paid $9.00

White and blue tee (original price $36.00) paid $5.30

Full price I would have never pick up this stuff ($326.00)

But with the discounts I left with only $41.30 coming out of my wallet.

Not sure how long the sale will last, but it is a steal if you have been wanting to add a really stylish rain coat to your wardrobe.

Plans do get delayed...part 1

Here is my first of many projects.

We purchased this chair as a set with a little insert/table.

My original intentions were to paint them and have them on my porch, well life happened and they sat outside and unused for not 1 year, but 3 years. Clearly they needed a bit of cleaning before i could get started on the beautifying part. So I set off with my mini sweeper and some tiny brush that came with a pedicure set I got 10 years ago. 

Did I mention that I do things as frugally as possible, otherwise it seems like a waste to throw money at fixing things up. 

So once all the pine needles were out, spider webs and built up dirt were gone, I busted out my trusty sander and gave it a good once over. 

I decided to skip primer, because I was feeling too lazy to get it from the garage. MISTAKE 1. 

4 coats later and I still had some of this....

MISTAKE 2, painting in the grass....it was sunny and warm outside so I don't regret it, but there were added challenges.

But with all my spare time I was able to splash 2 more coats of green on. 

But with all my spare time I was able to splash 2 more coats of green on.

Now I have one finished seat! I am waiting till the set is done to buy some pillows, thinking magenta?

Welcome to my online spot!

Hello All! I have been very busy scrolling through craft blogs and LOVING all the fun projects. I have a bookmark list a mile long of fun projects I want to do.
So I decided to start my own little DIY spot here to share my success, failure, changed plans and fun deals with the world.

I am taking up home in the wet and often gray Pacific NW, and my projects are all geared at bringing color and new life to what I have on hand or find on the cheap.

Stay tuned, I will have some finished projects to share soon