Favorite Spaces: The Porch

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Being unemployed* is weird. Days are like three times as long as they are when I’m actually working, and it’s nice to have time to enjoy my house. The weather has been perfect the last two days, so I’ve been enjoyed some time out on my porch.

I thought I’d share some of my favorite things on the porch since its come together so well!

The chair I redid with my mom.

With the series of “Rock Pictures” my sister gave me for my birthday last year (taken every time we go to our family’s house in Lake Tahoe)

The comfy hand-me-down chair that’s great to read in, with my garden stool that I wanted forever.

My cabinet (which was oddly impossible to find), with the cute prints we got from Orange Beautiful and framed.

The totally useless but adorable glass lantern

What’s your favorite place in your house?

*I’m not really-truly unemployed. I’m just not working because it’s summer and I’m a teacher. But it’s still weird.

Life is Fragile

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This has been a rough couple of weeks. I don’t really have a point here, but:

Last night my father was hit by a car. He was going out to dinner with his wife and saw a car get sideswiped (or something). He got the license plate number and went to cross the street to tell them. He walked in front of a stopped bus, saw no one coming on the left, and stepped out. Just as a car changed lanes from behind the bus to his lane. Going over 30. He went flying through the air, shattered the cars windshield and then fell to the ground. HE’S FINE. He never lost consciousness, and didn’t even break anything.

The day before my birthday, my student (and mentee) was shot. He’ll be ok, but the friend that was with him was killed. I spent the first half hour of my birthday frantically trying with the dean to get details–was it him? (yes) what hospital is he in? can we see him? will he be ok?

He’s in a gang. He has some pretty serious psychological issues. He had it coming. He’s also a fifteen year old kid, who loves math and asks amazing questions in an “on” day in class. He’s really bright. He’s also the worst kid in the school. But he’s my worst kid and it was terrifying. I saw him in the hospital, and he’ll be ok.

And last, this weekend I was in Tennessee* with a bunch of family to scatter my grandparents ashes. Both of them passed away within the past year, less than six months apart. My grandma and I were very close and her death was sudden–but I had all four of my grandparents nine months ago, and I don’t know anyone else who had so long with all of their grandparents. I’m lucky for that.

I don’t have a point here. Go call your parents/grandparents/kids. Realize how incredibly quickly everything changes. And be so grateful for what you have. I get sulky that my summer feels almost over and I haven’t gotten this done and whatever isn’t going my way. Don’t lose sight of what really matters.

I don’t have it in me to proof or reread or whatever right now. So, take this for whatever you will. But be grateful.

*Don’t scatter ashes somewhere no one lives that is inconvenient to get to. No one will visit, and that will make them sad.

Cooking from a CSA, Part 8: Freezing Basil

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It’s been a while since I blogged about the CSA. It’s been incredibly hot here in Wisconsin this July, making me not want to cook in my un-air-conditioned kitchen. With that, plus the fact that I’m on the half share and not getting nearly as many vegetables and making a lot of repeat dishes, my kitchen has been boring.

But no more! I actually scored a CSA bonanza this week. When I went to pick up my share, I didn’t grab my basil out of the box. Apparently no one did. And there was an extra box down there, so I walked away with two CSA shares and entire box of basil. (I did try to contact other CSA members to see whose share I had, but no luck.)

I had a ton of cauliflower and two boxes of tomatoes, both of which have already gone to good use in Cauliflower and Parmesan Cake and Tomato and Corn Pie. These two dishes (from Smitten Kitchen) are two of my absolute favorites, but both taste best in season–especially the Tomato Pie. In fact, last year, I tried to make it with store-bought tomatoes after tomato season ended, and it just didn’t have the same oomph that makes it so wonderful during the season.

Both those dishes used a healthy dose of basil, but even after I gave away bunches to coworkers, my carpool buddy, and even my landlord, I still had 10 giant bunches of basil left. What to do? I froze it.

It’s super-easy to freeze basil. I rinsed it thorough in a colander, spun it in my salad spinner to remove the water, and laid it on a dish towel in a single layer. Then I rolled up the dish towel to gently wring out the last of the water, unrolled it, and put the basil in a freezer bag in a single layer. I sucked all the air out the bag with a straw, and threw it in the freezer. The basil won’t have the same leafy texture that fresh basil has, but it has a bit more flavor and body than dried basil, so it works great for cooking.

Where does summer go?

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This weekend was a busy one of hosting several out of town guests, buying tile (!) and trying to sort out a few other details on the bathroom. (Expect an epic vanity-search post once I actually find one. I’m trying not to bore you.)

I made a big list by room of all the stuff I hope to get done with the rest of my summer, which feels like it is quickly slipping away (I have two more weekends I’m actually here for! Two!)

In other news, I have three fun birthday presents to tell you about:

From my dad

I can do basically two kinds of writing, and only one of them consistently turns out card worthy. I am so so excited to play with this book.

From my Dad

This is BURNING A HOLE IN MY FLOOR (like pocket? Get it?) and I cannot wait to stencil the front hallway. I’ve got two weekends before school starts–we need to talk schedule. Day trip maybe? I also need to put a final coat on the buffet (I got new paint custom mixed–by which I mean the guy added more pigment and very nicely tried to get it closer to what I want. Worth a shot.) so it seems like I could do both at once, with the same tools (they use the same tools, I’m not just being ridiculous).

And the last one I don’t have a picture of yet. But its this:

From http://ourhumbleabowedblog.com/ because she is possibly the coolest person ever

You can go click on the picture and read her post now. Amanda’s will be cooler than mine anyhow. That’s just how it is.

For my birthday I held my own ice cream social. It all looked super cute, and I don’t think I took pictures (maybe someone else did? I will have to see.) And then I told everyone it was time for them to make my birthday present. And they were all like, “huh?”.

And then (true story) my mother got out the paints and I pulled out the pad of watercolor paper I picked up in Colorado (from my grandma’s things, with an unfinished picture she was working on) and I showed people the picture above, explained I was going to cut up their artwork, asked them to use my colors (some obeyed better than others) and told them to go for it. Without children, it was the best I could do. Expect more when I get it done and hung.

But mostly I look at pictures of vanities on the internet, with occasional trips to look at things in stores. Its thrilling. But I hope to have them start within two weeks, so I am making progress!

Are you getting your summer projects done?

Paper Stars

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Paper stars were one of the first, if not the first, craft project Mary and I ever did together. We originally made a bunch as a birthday present for a friend who was decorating her room with a starry night theme. (Apparently when someone tells me I probably can’t do something, like make 3D stars out of paper, I feel inclined to prove them wrong.) They were a huge hit. Then we made a bunch for our room. Then, when we moved, we hung them from the ceiling of our office.

So when we were trying to think of something good for our blog masthead, paper stars seemed like a logical choice. And now you can learn to make your very own!

Now, making the template takes longer than making any of the stars. And the first one or two might be rough, as you are learning to make even folds and match up edges and get the glue to hold while not flattening the whole thing. But! Once you make the first few, they are actually pretty fast and addictive.

Paper Stars

You’ll need…

  • Stiff paper for template
  • Decorative paper for the stars (we’ve used construction, water color, and scrapbook paper with equal success)
  • Protractor
  • Pencil
  • Glue (fine tip glue for scrapbooks works really well)
  • Scissors

Template

  1. Trace a circle onto the template paper using the inner edge of your compass.
  2. Place the Protractor over the circle, and mark at 90° and the mid-point of the straight edge. Flip the protractor so that you mark it at 90° on the other side—marking a straight line dividing the circle exactly in half. Use the edge of the protractor to trace this entire line, and mark the halfway point so you can see the exact center of the circle. (My protractor has a handy opening for just this purpose.)
  3. Making sure your protractor stays centered, mark a point on the circle 72° from the marked line.

    Draw a line through that point and the center point to the other side of the circle.

    Repeat until you’ve made five lines, and the circle is divided into 10 sections. (Alternatively, you can mark every 36° around the circle and connect the dots to make the 10 sections.)
  4. Start at the top point, skip three lines around the edge, and line up your straight edge between the top point and the fourth point. Draw a line between the points.
  5. Skip the next three lines and use your straight edge to draw a line between the fourth point and where you left off.
  6. Repeat until you have a five-point star.
  7. Move your straight edge about 3 or 4 mm from one of the star’s sides and draw a parallel line, skipping the inside of the star itself.

    Repeat until you’ve created a second set of lines around each point (these lines are used for the flaps).
  8. Use your straight edge to mark a gradual taper at each point between the outside lines and the point.
  9. Cut out your template, following the outside lines and the tapered points.

Cutting and folding stars

  1. Trace the template onto the back of your decorative paper. Repeat to trace a second star.
  2. Cut out both stars.
  3. Fold the star in half from an outer point to the inner point directly across from it. Unfold.
  4. Turn the star, and fold in half at the next point.
  5. Repeat until the star has been folded in half at every point.
  6. Gently fold the star, tucking the inside point down and folding the two “legs” on either side together.
  7. Repeat around, so that every inside point folds in, and every outside point folds out.
  8. Now you’ll need to cut a small notch on every inside point to make the folding flaps. Look at your template to see how large this flap needs to be—it’s the distance from the outside of the template to the inner point on the inside set of lines. Cut the notches on all inside points.
  9. Fold each flap in from the notch to the tip of the outside point.
  10. Repeat with the other star, and figure out which points best match each other when they are help inside-to-inside.
  11. Place glue on the flaps of two adjacent points, and firmly press the two star halves together along the glue line. It doesn’t matter if you flatten the stars at this point.
  12. When the glue is dry, gently pop the stars back into their 3D shape, and add glue along two more edges. Be more gentle as you press these edges together—the more edges that are glued, the more difficult it is to pop the star back into shape.
  13. Glue the final edges together and gently press together–by this time, the shape of the star itself should help hold it together.

As you create more stars, you’ll get better at folding evenly, and you’ll discover your own technique for gluing.

{Mary adds:}

{I made a mobile for a coworker with a new baby using the star template, and it turned out awesome. Non-directions here–at the end.}

Have you ever made something cool just to prove you could?

A Better Bathroom: Let’s Make some Decisions!

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I’ve been silent on the bathroom front lately, I know. But I’ve actually been making some progress and (fingers crossed!) will start soon.

Here’s the scoop:

Still out in Colorado (um, almost a month ago), we went shopping. Here’s some of the fun we found:

And this mirror:

Still love the mirror. The vanity is 36 in. wide, and I think staying under 32 in. is going to be best for me. But the rest of the plan has really been coming together.

  • There’s going to be a vanity, and it will measure between 30 – 36 in. wide
  • The medicine cabinet will feature an oval mirror
  • There will be 3 open shelves above the toilet
  • The vanity will be dark with a light top, have an open shelf, and (hopefully!) two drawers and a cabinet
  • The tiles are (mostly) chosen

So. The good stuff?

That’s the layout the contractor drew for me. Everything has to go on that one long wall, so that’s basically all I needed. The vanity and mirror will match my ideas above, and the shelves aren’t there, but we’ve got the rest of it.

I’m not positive I will go with him yet (but I do like him), but I love the To Do list he gave me.

  1. Choose tile (Floor, shower wall, shower floor)
  2. Choose vanity
  3. Buy shower hardware
  4. Buy other hardware (ceiling light with vent fan, vanity light)

I’ve pretty much decided on my tile (it was in the sneak peak that Lesley shared in her post!) and I’ve looked at bunches of vanities (unsuccessfully). I haven’t even thought about lights though.

So here are my big questions that I need to decide before I’m ready to start (in addition to choosing a darn vanity!):

Big Question #1: What to do with the left-most side of the room (right next to where the door opens)?

Minor Question #1: Do I want a ceiling light with a fan (not required, the bathroom has a window)?

Minor Question #2: What goes above the sink? Backsplash? Continue tile?

It also comes down to how much storage I can eke out. My place has only two (?!) real closets, and I would love to put some real storage into the bathroom. But how much does storage balance with other desires?

The rest is mostly aesthetics and minor decisions, so I just need to do some materials choosing and get on with it.

For BQ#1, it’s a space issue. Space is obviously finite and I want to have the biggest shower possible. But biggest measures in two dimensions, and that’s the problem. As in the diagram above, it can go from the door to the edge of the vanity. I made myself a table, but I’m still pretty stuck.

Wall to vanity: Starts next to the door, ends next to the vanity Storage wall: Storage next to door (probably pretty narrow), then shower starts 12-18” in
50” long shower Shorter 36” shower
Only 27” deep Deeper (by several inches?)
Bench Bench would make it cramped
Single small cabinet is all the storage I can get, and maybe some nooks Cabinet for storage below, open shelves above
Room will look wider Room may look more narrow, but more space in shower
Will keep open look Room may look more/too crowded

I could also have the shower angle in, so that near the door its 27″ wide and then a foot in it widens. But that might look awkward. And it still leaves me without a ton of storage.

Thoughts? Especially on my Big Question? What do you vote for? And know of any vanities that meet my requirements?

P.S. My birthday was Friday! Look for two fun birthday presents that I’m super excited for, and the birthday present I made my party guests make for me!

P.P.S. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern about the Worst Birthday Ever. My mentee (from school, a 15 year old boy) was shot on Thursday, and I found out the morning of my birthday. His friend was killed in front of him, but he was just shot in the leg. It really scared me and shook me up, but I went to see him in the hospital on Saturday and he will be ok. Hopefully this taught him a lesson.

Color Wars

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Things this post should be:

  • A reveal of the newly-painted buffet
  • Adorably lined and repaired drawers
  • See how cute in my dining room!

Things it is instead:

  • Pictures of other people’s stuff.

Sigh.

When Lesley visited (almost two weeks ago), we* figured where better to spend the weekend than in a basement?

There is some cool stuff down there:

And the buffet is now mine. I think there used to be one of these in every unit in my building, and although simple, they are fairly well made and pretty. Not necessarily in the best of shape though…

While much of the finish was in good shape, there were enough spots that were in really bad shape that sanding and then re-staining was NOT going to be fun. The picture on the right is a long mirror (perched on top of the dresser in the first set of pictures) that is supposed to go on top of the buffet. It’s a pretty mirror, but I wasn’t positive I wanted it because it would make the (already big) piece (even) bigger.

Plus: You can see the bottom left corner was having some frame issues anyhow…no mirror fixing for us!

Minus: You can see the top left corner of the buffet doesn’t look quite right. That’s because there is a cutout in the back for the mirror to slot in to…that we weren’t going to use. Mirror fix, off the list; Gap fix, on.

We decided to go with a really deep navy, so that it wouldn’t be too much of a pop in the room, hopefully read pretty neutrally, and tie in with my dining room drapes:

And then they went and bought supplies and they sanded (and sanded and sanded. and melted.) and then they painted and then…

Yeah.

The sanding made it look like this:

And we bought a board (which was actually pretty complicated, since we needed exactly 1.75 across and pretty long) and patched the hole. We also patched the worst of the nicks and scratches on the top. And then we primed and painted.

So here is where you usually do at least a sneak peek….so, now for our (non) sneak peek:

(Not) ta-da!

Please go back and read above:

We decided to go with a really deep navy, so that it wouldn’t be too much of a pop in the room, hopefully read pretty neutrally, and tie in with my dining room drapes.

That’s Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy. It reads very, very Americana-type blue to us. Sadly. Which does not match with my curtains at all. And before you go all, “Maybe you should do another coat?”…That’s THREE. 3. Its got a lot of gray it isn’t that dark, and it certainly isn’t navy like my curtains are navy. Our fault. Don’t pick paint so fast (we were just excited!).

So it’s close to being done (with repaired drawers, which hopefully my dad can help with Saturday) and new hardware, but I still need new paint.

I picked up my friend’s husband (such paint-choosing talent!) on my way home yesterday, and we hit the hardware store to try to fix this situation.

My thoughts:

  • Maybe what I want isn’t a very deep navy, its black with a lot of navy in it?
  • Can I just get something darker than my paint?
  • How do I make sure it doesn’t just look black (which I think would look funny with all of my dark wood)?
  • Why did I not just test first?

We found a “Greys” swatch that might have a couple options:

Benjamin Moore Soot (the lighter one)

Anna, who used it on the walls above, says, “I used Benjamin Moore’s ‘Soot’ with a matte finish. It’s actually the deepest, darkest indigo blue imaginable and not a true black, but that’s what gives it that extra oompf.” So thats a good sign, right?

Another option was Benjamin Moore “midnight dream”

…still looks kind of black.

But I liked this one:

Ooooh, and this:

They’re both Midnight Dream too. Funny, they look more like the blue I was going for, not that gray/black one above. Because it’s by Behr. Oh.

So, I think the color I like exists (maybe?). I know that the two BM colors have more parts black in them (we asked them to look up the formula). But I also doubt that a color that looks really dark blue in real people’s houses exists. I think I might take back my original (still mostly full) quart and ask for more black tint and try that out. And if it doesn’t I’ll buy new paint, by a different brand. On the plus side, the piece itself isn’t hard to paint at all—I’ll spend more time on clean up than I will on the painting.

LESSON LEARNED: Google image the heck out of the paint color you want to buy. You’ll see what it looks like, avoid an unwanted Happy-4th-Americana-blue moment and get other ideas from “liked this color but LOVED that.”

What was your biggest paint color mistake?

*ie Lesley thought I should wait before going after the bathroom walls with a hammer. But at least we shopped for tile!

Ice cream! With fresh cherries! And booze!

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A few years ago, my awesome former roommate got me an ice cream maker for my birthday or Christmas. I LOVE ice cream. It’s my all-time favorite food. But I don’t make it from scratch that often…and after this week I remember why—it takes a good chunk of time. Making ice cream is a two or three day process. Luckily, the results are usually worth the wait.

I always store my ice cream maker cylinder in the freezer, so it’s ready to go when I want to make some (otherwise it’s an additional 24-hour wait while it freezes). I had some very ripe cherries in the fridge that needed to be turned into something, so when I found this recipe by Apple a Day, it sounded perfect.

It took one evening to make the custard base and prep the cherries. The next evening, I took it out of the fridge and churned it in the ice cream maker. Then it took another day to freeze through. But we tried it last night—and it was fabulous!

Cherry Bourbon Ice Cream (adapted from Apple a Day)

  • 1 pint whipping or heavy cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 1/4 cup sugar, divided
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 lb. fresh cherries, pitted and halved (I used a dark red variety)
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 5 tablespoon bourbon, divided
  1. In a large saucepan, combine the egg yolks and 3/4 cup of the sugar, whisking together until blended. Set aside.
  2. Mix the cream and milk in a saucepan. Heat on medium, stirring occasionally, until it starts to steam (about 5 minutes).
  3. Gradually add the hot cream to the egg mixture, whisking constantly so the eggs don’t cook. Heat the mixture on medium, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spoon or spatula and you can see a trail if you run a finger down it. (About 7-9 minutes) Don’t let the custard boil.
  4. Place a mesh sieve over a clean, heat-proof bowl, and pour the custard through. Stir in the vanilla.
  5. Place the custard bowl in a larger bowl and fill the large bowl with enough ice water to be level with or above the custard level. (This is to cool the custard consistently.) Allow the custard to cool to room temperature—it may take up to an hour.
  6. In a saucepan, mix the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, the cherries, and 2 tablespoons of the bourbon over medium-high heat. Bring to a low simmer and cook until the cherries have expelled their juices and softened, and the liquid has begun to thicken (about 10 minutes). Strain the cherries, reserving the liquid. You might have anywhere from 1/2 to 1 cup liquid.
  7. In a small bowl, mix the cherries with the lemon juice and remaining 3 tablespoons of bourbon. Let everything cool to room temperature, then mix the cherry liquid into the custard, and put the custard and the cherries in the refrigerator over night.
  8. Set up your ice cream maker and churn/freeze the custard according to your maker’s instructions, adding the cherries in the last 5-10 minutes of churning. Since I don’t have air conditioning in my kitchen, it took almost 40 minutes for my custard to freeze to a nice slushy state, which is when I added the cherries.
  9. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-proof container (I used an 8-cup Glad freezer container), and freeze until set—probably at least 4 hours.
  10. Enjoy!