I've got a bug

A crafting bug. Which is made ten times worse by pinterest. (Here's my pinterest if you wanna follow my boards) I saw these paper clip earrings on pinterest and had to make a pair for myself.

I used some yarn left over from a sweater my grandma knit me when I was 10 or so. I love the color and knew I had to use some of it to make something some day and I saw these and knew I had to use the yarn. The tutorial suggests using a liquid stitch or something like that but I had no problems using hot glue. I can see how it can get kinda gloopy but it was pretty easy to work around that and I love being able to make things out of stuff I have lying around the house.

I've been de-cluttering, organizing, and of course cleaning as I go. I've completed the bedroom (but not the master bath yet, point a marital contention, it'll get done eventually, I think). I will post what I've done there at some point, don't have any before pictures, it's too hard to take before pictures. I am currently working on the bulk of the apartment, the living/dining areas. The hardest part is the de-cluttering, I am a bit of a pack rat. So much stuff. In the process I've been making things, like the can I made last night, see previous post. Today I made a charger corral of sorts.

It is made from the cardboard of a Tofuky pack of Italian sausages, which are really tasty by the way. I opened it up on it's seam and glued it back together backwards, so all the product stuff was on the inside and it was plain cardboard on the outside. To make it more decorative I took a picture from an old calendar and glued it to the outside.

This is also something that can be done with toilet paper rolls. I made one like that years ago for my husbands head phones. I used an add for some beach get-a-way or something like that if memory serves. It's just a pretty serene picture.

Make it Monday

Started with this

And end with this

 Super simple and can be used for all sorts of things. This was originally a can of coconut milk and is now a pen holder. 

Sunday Confession Jan 15

First on the last confession. I made a plastic bag holder so it looks a lot more put together and not as WTF I have way too many plastic bags.

I realize it still is the same amount of bags and something I need to work on but it looks prettier. It was super easy to sew together and if you have even the basic of sewing skills it is totally a diy you could do. It has a elastic opening on the top to stuff in the bags and one on the bottom to pull bags out one by one. I googled plastic bag holder tutorial to get ideas and quickly sewed one up. We use plastic bags for cat litter and as a trash can liner in one bathroom and the kitchen. In our apartment lease agreement it is stated that we have to do this. Especially for the cat litter. Garbage must be in plastic bags. I doubt we would have any issues with taking unlined cans out to the dumpster, we don't create a lot of garbage,  maybe 1 grocery store sized bag a week, and it is all pretty much dry garbage since I compost. Maybe at some point if I get our garbage production down even more I will think about not using liners.


Onto a new confession: When we eat out at the cheap fast yet fresh wok Chinese food I often get the noodles on the side. The problem, I am vegan, and I while I haven't asked I am pretty sure they are egg noodles (and even possibly made with chicken broth)!!!

I am sorry I just have no self control with these noodles. I haven't found good vegan Lo Mein noodles close to home or even at the store to make myself. I think I will try using bean threads as a traditional Lo Mein noodle substitute. I really love bean threads and I make them in a soup all the time. 

If anyone has an easy yummy and vegan (perhaps besides the noodles) Lo Mein recipe, send  it my way please, mostly the sauce/flavor they get on the noodles, I would greatly appreciate that. Mmmm now I am getting hungry again but that is a whole other confession, maybe for a different Sunday.

As last time, feel free to confess anything on your mind. It feels good to share and commiserate or even better talk about this stuff with other people.

Sunday Confession

Let's try something shall we. A weekly (or less if needed) confessional of things that we do that we aren't exactly happy about. Little things, big things, whatever kind of things you wanna get off your chest. I'll lead the confessional.

So here is my first one. I am a very eco-conscious person and do and try many things to make small and big changes. One of the easiest things by far is reusable bags, I have a good number in my car and I use them all the time but some how under my sink still looks like this:

And I have another stash in my extra closet. I forget now and then, forget to ask paper. Most are from stops at non grocery stores, Target, the liquor store, places where bringing your own bag is still somewhere you get looks for doing it. I really need to get past this. Under my sink could be used for much better things than this.

Have anything you want to share as a confession?

Giveaway Winners

Yes that's right winners. 

I'm giving a pumpkin to all you. 

Meesh, Sara, and Courtney. 

I will email you to get your addresses. 

Congrats friends. :)

Last Halloween post featuring my Halloween cards

I sent out Halloween cards, because as I've said before, it is my favorite holiday, oh and they were hand made cards. I got creative, something I love doing but have problems doing because I have no drawing/painting ability so I am limited. 

I used packing paper. My husband got a box of drinks from Hubert's Lemonade and this brown paper was what they were packed with. Perfect for what I was doing.

Not only did I make cards but I made envelopes as well. For the envelopes I used paper grocery bags. For a template I used a little card/envelope I had lying around. 

I actually had to ask my brother for a few grocery bags and got lucky with the packing paper. Before the packing paper surprisingly appeared I was kinda in a panic of what I would use. I didn't want to go out and buy something, I really wanted to reuse something. 

The hardest part in the process was keeping the paper from my cats.  We use cloth grocery bags and when we do get paper bags or any kind in general it goes on the floor for the cats to play with. They did not get why they didn't get to play and chew and tear this paper apart.

 Here are the cards and envelopes once they were finished. 

I ran out of ribbon so I wasn't able to make as many cards as I wanted and I wasn't about to mar the nice look of the front of the cards with my icky hand writing, it just wouldn't have looked as good.

One last time. Don't forget to enter for a chance to win one of my hand made fabric pumpkins. They'd make a great addition to Thanksgiving decoration. I'm picking a winner tomorrow (November 8th) at 2pm PST (or  sometime around then). GIVEAWAY  (click it!!)

Work bag contents and it's a video!!

Apparently I find this video blogging addictive. Which sounds all fun and harmless but who knows what I will vlog next, hehe. This could be bad for you, my poor readers.

I've wanted to do a contents of my purse before but pictures and descriptions of what in my bag just don't quite capture what is in my bag well enough. I often have some odd/random things in my bag. Once I came home with a frozen mouse in my jacket pocket, oh aren't you jealous of my job? Nothing like that this time, don't worry but there are some funny things. So here you go, take a look at what's in my work bag.

30 days of thankfulness and other things to do in November (aka rambling)

I love the idea of 30 days of thankfulness. I would love to do it BUT I know there is no way I would keep up with it. NO WAY. I also know I wouldn't be able to think of things I would feel like sharing. I would find most of the things I would come up with as lame and embarrassed isn't the right word but comfortable I guess. I might check in here, facebook, twitter, for random thing I am thankful for but I am not going to try and force myself to keep up with it.

That being said I do have things I want to accomplish in November. Save money. Eat better/get fit. First thing on both those lists is to break my Starbucks addiction. Caffeine is an issue with me. It really keeps me from sleeping well. I don't care to be completely caffeine free, I always start my morning with a green tea blend. Large amounts of caffeine do affect me in different ways, I can totally tell when I have been visiting Starbucks too much. It's not the coffee I am going to miss most, no it's the people. I like the people that work at the Starbucks down the street. They all know my name now, and get the soy out when they see me walk in. It's so nice. In the past I have switched from vanilla lattes to chai lattes. The caffeine is low enough to not bother my sleep patterns as much but they do nothing for my wallet. To help break the habit I am going to make a pumpkin spice syrup, Sara over at From Blah to Ta-Daa posted a recipe (click it) recently and I still have plenty of pumpkin puree left over from making other sweets and see if the syrup added to my hot chocolate mix is any good. I expect it to be delicious. Oh I don't think this is going to help me get fit....

So on that I really need to pull out those exercise dvd's I have and use them. I actually like them, all of them. I wish I could run/use a treadmill but I don't feel safe running alone and I can't afford a gym membership. Even if I could afford, or more like was willing to pay a gym membership it really would be a giant waste of money. I can't use a large quantity of the equipment because I am just too damn small and bruise way too easy. I use the equipment and end up with fully bruised thighs, arms, ass, back, you name it. Even working out at home I get bruises on my tailbone doing pilates/yoga type exercises. I bruise way too easy, WAY too easy.

What else for November, oh I need to research sewing machines. My husband wants to buy me a new one for Christmas. I don't actually own a sewing machine, I have my moms, the same one my mom used to make my Halloween costumes etc when I was a child. It works fine, it is great for most things I do, but I would really like to get one with a few more bells and whistles, perhaps expand what I do. Something new and fancy  is always fun to play with right.

We need new dishes and I found some pretty simple yet stylish ones at Crate &Barrel. We have a Crate and Barrel outlet a few miles away. The dishes we have now are hand me downs, the plates my parents got when they married in 1978, half which have broken and the rest have cracks in them. We also have a set we don't use anymore because I am totally unsure of their safety. They were given to us when we married but are cheap, which is fine, but they used to be purple and they are now pink. Where is all that color going, why does my food sometimes change color, that CAN'T be good right. We also have some great hand me down salad bowls from Rich's grandmother but we need soup bowls and plates. They have some square glass plates and bowls that I really like and they won't go and bleed their color on my food. Hopefully they are still available or I can find something simple but with a bit of an edge, I really liked the squareness, made them less plain.

One more thing I know I want to do in November, Christmas cards. I said I wasn't going to do Christmas cards, I did Halloween cards and sent them to a few people, I ran out of one of supplies and couldn't make as many as I wanted, sorry if you didn't get one, I wanted to send more. I had originally planned on not sending out Christmas cards, it's not really my holiday, Halloween is totally my holiday. But I had a BRILLIANT and totally Nessa idea for Christmas cards so I will be sending them out and I should have plenty of supplies for these so yay friends and family Christmas cards. Or Season Greetings to be pc I guess. I hate seasons greetings because I do not like this season so why would I be all yay cold and rainy and icky weather I don't care about.

One last thing. Don't forget to enter my pumpkin giveaway, pumpkins I made. Who doesn't want a cute little fabric pumpkin? It's my first giveaway by the way, don't you want to be the winner of my first giveaway. Should I say it again GIVEAWAY! (click it)

Halloween and a GIVEAWAY!!

Halloween has to be my favorite holiday, possibly day, or group of days since it's really more than just that one day. So here enjoy my Halloween with me and yes the title says giveaway, details at the end, don't be a dick and just hit end, take a look at everything. Hehe.

Costumes:
I'm a Peacock (you gotta let me fly) and The Beerded Knight, who has his own twitter by the way, click it!!

 At home on Halloween night waiting for kids to come trick or treating (we got none)

 Yeah Batman let himself go a bit, you should have seen his raggedy cape, dude not looking like his old self. 

 Everyone wants to be a peacock!

BAKING!!!! WITH PUMPKIN!!!!!!!

 I've heard smaller pumpkins have better flavor but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.

 Decapitate your pumpkins. 

 Cut in half and take the guts out. (SAVE THE SEEDS TO BE ROASTED. I haven't done that yet but they will be roasted)

 Quarter or whatever size you want your pumpkin and put on baking sheet(s) and bake until fork tender. I had them in at 350F for a bit over an hour but my temp is off and I forgot so it was actually less than 350F.

 Bake until fork tender and starts to turn golden. Let cool, peel, the peel comes off REALLY easily after baking. Then throw in a food processor and process to make a puree. I didn't add any liquid but can add some if you want a more watery puree. 

Then use your fresh pumpkin puree in your favorite pumpkin recipes. 

I made Pumpkin Cookies with Pumpkin Spice Icing.

The biggest hit was the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread. 

On todays to do list is make a few more loafs of this. YUM! 

(The crazy Beered Knight wants some with out chocolate chips!!)

More pumpkin fun (and the giveaway part)

 Fabric pumpkins!!! How cool are they! I love them!

 My favorite patterned one.

 Oh but you have no idea what their size is. Here for size comparison, on my hand.

 Psh! That doesn't help, how lame is that. 

Oh wait I know the perfect place to put it. 

ON MY HEAD!!! DUH!!

 I made mini-pumpkins too. Haven't finished all the mini ones yet, ran out of stuffing.

So this GIVEAWAY business. I am giving away a pumpkin. One of the three below, sorry not the more patterned ones.

To enter just leave a comment. Just say hi, or whatever you want. (Comment here, on the blog, not twitter/facebook/tumblr/wherever else you may see this post linked to.) Make sure you leave your email address in the comment form (I think it works that way, has a place to enter an address, hopefully).  I will also post a follow up notifying the winner on my blog so if you don't put your address for whatever reason make sure you check back to see if you won. I will pick a winner using a random number generator on November 8th. That's one week. Good luck my pretties. (Said creepy like evil witches do. It's just the mood I am in. Oh and I have 2 cats so if you are allergic to cats know that. The pumpkins aren't covered in fur or anything but I wouldn't want them to make someone all itchy and sneezy by chance.)