The Island of Misfit Keys

This is a really simple project, so simple that it's almost not worth blogging about... but it's amazing what a few dollars and a few minutes can do to ease your mind!  EVERYONE should do this!  Every year that passes is just another key to forget the purpose of.  

It makes me think of my grandparents' kitchen.  I always wondered why my grandmother would write the date on things with a wax pencil... how could you forget when you got something, or have it and not use it for long enough that it would go bad?  Well, I found out when I was helping her after my grandfather died.  In 2006, I was finding things in the pantry that were marked as early as 1992.  Turns out that when you're busy and things are around you long enough, you forgot when you got them and what you got them for.  There was even a bottle of liquor in a cupboard in the laundry room marked "opened April 1974"

This little project started when I accidentally broke a window pane in our side door (which we never use) and proceeded to tear through the junk/key drawer and laundry room looking for the keys to it... with no luck.  And to top it off, they were keys to a deadbolt which we had just installed a couple of months before, so I knew they were around somewhere!  I did manage to find the keys within a few days and they happened to be safety pinned to our spare house key (I'm always putting things in "safe" places, never to be found again).  

It got me thinking though... how long will I remember that the little keys on the piece of molding on the shelf by the phone belong to our storm door?  Or that the keys attached to the yellow springy bracelet thing are for my grandmother's apartment (note that those were still in the drawer even though she died two years ago)?

Enough is enough!  I decided it was high time to label every single key that we have and know the use for and toss the ones that we know for sure don't go to anything anymore.  

I whipped out my trusty label maker and hit up the local hardware store for a bunch of fun colored plastic key chains.

colorful organization things + labelmaker = YAY FUN!!!!

As usual, I got caught up in the project and only took the "after" photo!  We threw out lots of keys, including keys for a car we don't have anymore, my deceased grandmother's apartment keys, old work keys, places we don't live anymore, etc...   but naturally it couldn't be that simple because there are still a number of mystery keys that we weren't totally sure about and weren't ready to trash.  So for now there's a zip baggie labeled "keys I think are trash, 2012."  

The rest got labeled (there are WAY more than in these photos).  It took about 15 minutes and I bought a couple dozen of the plastic key labels for less than $10... time and money well spent!  

semi-DIY picture framing

A few weeks ago, I started looking around the house at all the unframed art we have.  This particular poster has been sitting on top of books in the office for as long as I remember which is a shame because it's really cool!  I decided it was high time to put it in a frame, but since I'd just taken three of my grandmother's watercolor paintings to a proper frame shop (and paid the ouchie price), I wanted to find a cheaper option.  

It's an odd size, so buying a readymade frame wasn't an option.  I headed to Jerry's Artarama to see the frame pieces that you buy and assemble yourself.  They've got four frame styles and then you just choose the dimensions.  I did have the frame person at Jerry's cut the mat for me (about $14) and then I bought the 13" and 28" frame segments and the offset clips.  It was so easy to put together!

You just tap the piece of plastic into place with hammer!

Next, lay everything inside the frame (note: I have foamcore and the extra practice mat behind the picture)

I got 1/2" offset clips (the largest they had) and they weren't deep enough, so I stacked squares cut from extra mat board to make up the difference.  I drilled pilot holes, then screwed the clips in place

Looking good!  I cut a bit of the mat board out to go around the monkey's foot... this is why there's a practice one behind the picture - it didn't go well the first time!

Gluten Free Nutella Pizza

I had the most amazing dessert pizza this summer at a restaurant called Nebo in Boston's historic North End.  On their gluten free menu, it is described as "sweet pizza dough topped with chocolate, Nutella, and chopped hazelnuts"

A few months passed and while making pizza for dinner one night I decided to make my own!  I didn't reference my photo of their pizza or look the menu up online, I just remembered that it involved Nutella and nuts.  Nebo's is much classier looking with the delicately piped chocolate lattice, but mine tasted just as delicious!

Nutella pizza with almonds

My go-to pizza recipe is Bette Hagman's "Yeast-Rising Thick Pizza Crust" recipe from her "Gluten-Free Gourmet" cookbook.  It makes crust for two pizzas.  I cannot recommend a Kitchenaid mixer strongly enough for this crust.  It gets pretty doughey at the end and a regular handheld mixer might choke. 

Bette Hagman's "Yeast-Rising Thick Pizza Crust" with my adaptations:

2 c  rice flour

2 c  tapioca flour

2/3 c  dry milk powder

3 1/2 t  xanthan gum

1 t  salt

2 T  dry yeast granules

1 c  lukewarm water

1 T  sugar

3 T  butter

1/2 c  hot water

4 eggs

Mix dry ingredients in the bowl of your mixer.  Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the lukewarm water.  Melt the butter in the hot water.  Pour the hot water/butter mixture into the mixer and blend.  Add the eggs and blend again.  Last, add the yeast mixture and then beat on high for 4 minutes (might be longer with a handheld mixer)

The beauty of gluten free pizza dough is that there is no rolling or kneading or tossing dough above your head.  It's more like frosting a cake.

Lightly grease your pizza pans.  Spread the dough out across the pan using a spatula.  Officially you are supposed to let it rise 10-20 minutes and then bake in a 400 degree oven for 5-7 minutes before adding toppings.  I typically put it in a cold oven and then set it to bake at 400.  I figure that by the time 400 is reached, it's been a nice warm place to let the dough rise.  So after the oven dings that it's hit 400, I let the crust bake until the top starts to brown just a little (around that 5-7 minute range)

Next, take the crust out of the oven, slap your toppings on, and put it back in the oven until it starts browning!  My impulse to do the Nutella pizza was very last minute so it's incredibly simple.  I just slathered Nutella on the crust and sprinkled on a package of slivered almonds and then put it back in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

Next time I would plan in advance and get hazelnuts.  I'd also add a little sugar to the dough if I were planning to make a whole dessert pizza.  You could also just bake the crust with butter and sugar and the hazelnuts on top and then add the Nutella after baking.

delicious half and half cheese and Nutella pizza... mmmm...

note the classier design of the inspiration Nutella pizza at Nebo (so tasty that we were halfway through before remembering to take a photo!)

Gluten Free "Gooey Butter Cake"

Gooey Butter Cake... the name says it all!

Surprisingly, despite my love of butter and cream and all things yummy I've never thought about checking out Paula Deen's recipes before.  This past Saturday, one of my friends came over and we had a girl's day out with shopping, lunch, and some baking.  She brought Paula Deen's recipe for Gooey Butter cake and naturally we made our version gluten free.

I'm thinking that the gluten free version is even tastier and more decadent than her original because Paula uses a box of cake mix and we used the dry ingredients from a scratch-made yellow cake recipe (from the classic Better Homes and Gardens checkerboard cookbook).  In my opinion, buying a gluten free cake mix is a good waste of money... they're around $4 a box and typically makes just one layer of cake.  That's a lot considering that there's not much in boxed mixes besides flour, baking powder, and xanthan gum.  There's nothing mysterious or hard to make about it!

You can find Paula Deen's original recipe all over the internet, so I'll just share my gluten free adaptation.

preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Crust:
2 1/2 cups gluten free flour (I used the 4 Flour Bean Mix from Bette Hagman's cookbooks)
1 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 1/2 tsp banking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted

Combine and mix well with an electric mixer.  Grease a 9x13 baking pan and pat the mixture into the bottom of the pan using wax paper.

Filling:
1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
1 16 ounce box powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together.  Slowly add powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over the crust and bake for 40-50 minutes.  The cake should be a little gooey in the center, make sure not to overbake.  It turns out more like a bar cookie than a cake.

We ran a knife around the edge after we took the pan out of the oven.  It was hard not to sample immediately!  After about 20 minutes we dove in...  and it was deliciously gooey and warm!  Paula's recipe calls for it to serve 6-8, but I'm pretty sure that it should be thought of as more like 16 servings!  It's so rich that I think if you really ate a sixth of the pan, you'd get ill!

mmm... just look at that buttery flaky crust!

Fun with Storm Windows

I've been watching the water run down the windows in my sewing room on particularly cold winter mornings for a while now.  It's starting to damage the paint and it looks like some mold spores are setting up shop.  Mysteriously, all of the other windows in the house have storms except for these two, and it doesn't help that they're single pane windows.

*Very Important*  Condensation on windows doesn't mean that there's something wrong with your windows or that they need to be replaced... it's just got to do with the relative humidity in the house and the temperature outside the house.  What you need is a good storm window, not a new window.  The whole new window industry is such a scam, but that's a rant for another day.  If you're interested in why it's more earth friendly to keep your old windows (and who doesn't want great reasons to save tens of thousands of dollars), read this article.

this actually isn't even that bad

the condensation is making the window frame very sad

In the interest of preserving our original wood windows, I decided that something had to be done!  I have a 3-fold plan of attack to combat the water in my house- storm windows, vapor barrier in the crawlspace, and install a bathroom exhaust fan.  Items 2 and 3 are pretty involved, so naturally I decided to work on the storm windows first.

I wasted nearly a whole day coming up with a plan.  I searched online trying to figure out how to replicate the storms on the other awning windows on our house - which are simply a piece of glass framed in aluminum and held in place by the tension of two screws in the window molding.  I even called a glass shop in the area and was told that "we don't do anything like that".  Seriously people?  You can't do piece of glass with the edge wrapped in metal and you call yourselves a glass shop?  

I sent an email to another glass shop and then headed off to the big box hardware store to see what I could find.  The nice store clerk back in the window/door section helped price a custom storm (hard to find without sashes or screens!) and then sent me home to take measurements.  

I headed home to take measurements and realized that standard exterior storms wouldn't work because there are two windows together and the molding is narrow and funny.  Argh!  Finally, at this point, I decided that I should stop fixating on recreating the existing storms on our other awning windows and start focusing on new solutions that will work just as well.

Starting back at zero.  I look around some more online and see that for historic houses (like Victorians and other with really fancy and special windows) people seem to recommend interior storm windows because it doesn't detract from the fancy windows.  Interior storms, you say?  Then I wouldn't have to get up on a ladder with a screw gun!

I found the website of a guy in New Hampshire who makes interior storm windows.  I called to ask about them and he said that they do help with condensation.  He said that he wouldn't make them for me because I lived too far away, but that it would be easy for me to make myself.  They're basically a sheet of acrylic framed out and edged with weatherstripping.  You place it in inside of your window frame and it stays in place with the tension of the weatherstripping.

Sounds like a fun project!

the initial sketch and dimensions

being tough and manly, cutting the miters by hand

 the acrylic (cut to size at the store) and the two horizontal trim pieces

here's where I lose my carpenter cred - I have to confess that the squiggly line is liquid nails adhesive

*very important*  measure your diagonals because it can look square and have the miters line up, but not actually be square... and it would be very hard to fit a trapezoid into a rectangular window opening ; )

The liquid nails goo was fun to put down and worked perfectly fine.  If I'd been patient enough for my dad to get back to town, he could have cut dados into the molding for the acrylic to sit in which would have been much classier.  But I was impatient excited and wanted to do the project immediately!

Rats!  My first acrylic window was about 1/8" too wide for the opening... so I temporarily moved the weatherstripping to the outside on that piece to keep it airtight.  I imagine that using a putty knife whilst cursing a little will work wonders for jamming that weatherstripping in - if not, I'll sand the side of the molding to fix it.

The other window fit PERFECTLY!!

BEAUTIFUL!  Now, if only the foamy weatherstripping came in white *sigh* (and some caulk in the miter joints and a coat of glossy white wouldn't hurt)
  

Overall, I'm so pleased with how the interior storms turned out (despite the hiccup with the first one).  There's no more water running down the windows!  It was a really easy project.  The hardest part was dealing with the measurements because every 1/8" counts when you're compression fitting something in.   I highly recommend it if you've got a condensation problem.  The estimate I got for purchased ones was $89 per window and I spent around $30 per window on the ones I made.  Acrylic is the single biggest cost, at $15 per sheet for the size I needed.  A few strips of wood molding, tube of liquid nails, and two packages of weather stripping made up the rest of the cost 

Naturally, doing one project tends to create others... as you can see, we never got around to painting the window trim white.  Now that my new white window frames are in there, the cream is looking pretty yucky!  When my husband bought the house, everything in the house, and I mean EVERYTHING was that dirty old flat cream paint - we're talking walls, trim, doors, AND ceiling!  We've been steadily painting the ceilings white and the walls different colors but we haven't made it all the way around the house with the trim yet.

A cheerful to-do board

I like LOVE lists!  I have a marker board on the wall in the hall that's a collage of lists.  I use a different color marker for one and they each start in their own little corner.  House projects, craft projects, groceries, errands, wish list, things to look up later... you name it and I've probably got a list for it.  I was inspired to combine my love for lists with my perpetual desire for a healthier and more organized life and made this totally cute to-do board.

Last year, a friend and I were talking about making permanent habits out of things we'd like to do (and should be doing) everyday... things like taking vitamins, flossing teeth (which has been a daily habit of mine for over 3 years now!), exercising, eating vegetables, etc...  basic things that a normal healthy productive adult should do anyways.

Some of us like to have lists to help accomplish goals, and so recently I decided to put a life tasks list on the wall too.  I chose a mildly embarrassing assortment of healthy habits and chores (I don't really plan on cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming every single day), and some like no tv and being in bed by midnight are just hopeful goals I rarely check off.

I spray painted a frame glossy white, placed some cute scrapbook paper inside, and drew an analog excel spreadsheet on it with a sharpie and a ruler.  Dry erase markers work on glass, and when you erase (gently) the sharpie stays behind.

I used 1" painters tape to edge the glass insert, freehanded straight(ish) lines with a sharpie and a cardstock home store coupon (quicker than finding a ruler), then wrote out a list

The painter's tape left a perfect little border

Now, when I do something as simple as walking the dog, I get to put a little check in a box.  Yippee!   I'm all set to improve my life with one checkbox at a time!

Checking in on the gardening

I took these photos in August and September to check on the progress of my flowers and little garden.  I was gone for a lot of the summer, so I am giving equal credit to our friend Luke who housesat and generously took care of the plants as well.

Now that we're settled into autumn, the flowers are winding down.  I do still have a lot of happy zinnia, cosmos, and marigolds.  The butterfly bushes have some flowers left but definitely aren't in full glory anymore.  My mom and I bought some perennials at my local nursery's fall sale and they're settling into the ground now.  A few are looking a little shocked, so I'll wait a bit and put pictures up once they perk up.

proof that butterflies loved my butterfly bush!

flowers from the yard... cosmos, zinnia, butterfly bush, marigold

butterfly bush, canna lilies, zinnias

some of my little sungold tomatoes

The pumpkin vine really rocked it out this year, making the shed look even better!

morning glory growing up onto the shed

a pepper!

my finest batch of pumpkins ever (the only one really)

slightly overgrown zucchini

my cute little bell peppers

Crafting in Boston

I used to envision getting loads of things done on my trips but eventually gave up on that, realizing that I'm much happier to spend my time walking around a city figuring out what makes it tick and how it got to be the way it is today than I am to sit around the hotel room working on crafts waiting for my husband to get off work.

I spent a whole month in Boston this summer and when I was packing, I thought I ought to try bringing along a couple of projects in the hopes that I'd get something productive accomplished, being away from the distractions of home.  I decided to work on a smocked dress for my friend's new baby girl and went off to my local heirloom sewing type fabric store to get a few fabric options pleated.

The first week of Boston, I found Grey's Fabrics, a cute local store that was a short bus ride (or a long walk) away down in the South End.  Grey's specializes in cottons with really interesting and unique prints.  There were some neat retro designs and a lot of feed sack cloth reproduction prints.

I decided to sign up for a couple of classes for the camaraderie and fun of doing a project that someone else comes up (I did feel a little silly paying for easy sewing classes when I'm sort of a professional seamstress).  I picked the dog leash class and the tie class, easy projects with instant gratification!  Even though they weren't groundbreaking projects, I had a blast and got a little of my years long sewing burn-out worn off.

I like the soft aqua pattern of the outside and I like the orange reproduction feed sack fabric lining even more!

Another great reproduction feed sack fabric!  It's so pretty I hate to use the leash and dirty it!

I also learned that she rents time at the machines for a few bucks an hour and was excited to be able to come in and work on my little dress.  Even better is that I learned they had sewing evenings every Wednesday where people would come and drink wine and work on their own projects.  I was able to finish my two little dresses during the sewing evenings I attended and had a great time doing it.  I'd love to start something like that with my friends at home!

 One of the adorable vintage machines in the sewing area.  I used Beatrix most of the times I came in to sew.

The smocked dress I made for baby Hazel turned out beautifully.  I wish I could finish every project I start in under two weeks!  I finished it so quickly that the dress only just now fits her and she's had it since July!  The nice thing about babies is that if you make it too big, eventually they'll grow into it : )

 The smocking panel in progress (almost done actually)

All finished!  I designed the smocking plate myself, though it's hardly anything groundbreaking... there are diamonds and hearts in lots of plates!  Coming up with the design and picking floss colors are really the hardest part about smocking.

On a hanger for scale reference... it's a tiny dress!  There are matching tiny bloomers too (not pictured)

After finishing the purple dress for Hazel, I was on a roll, so for the last sewing evening at Grey's, I whipped up this one for another friend's baby with a cute fabric they had on sale.

A long but fun drive to Colorado

My sister moved out to Colorado in August and being the amazing big sister I am, I offered to drive out with her.  The only problem I saw with this trip was that she likes to listed to her ipod in the car, but had to use a FM transmitter - and we all know those are garbage.  I knew I couldn't handle that static sound for 3 days straight.  

For a weird throw back birthday/early Christmas gift, I decided to gift her with a tape deck installation in her car (her stereo has a built in option for one), so she could use a tape converter thing that plugs into ipods and we (*ahem* she) could enjoy the sound of blissfully static-free music.  I called up the Mazda dealership and inquired... luckily since it was just an optional component it wasn't too much (did you know that a whole factory stereo will cost you around $900?)  Guess what?  Now that it's 2011 and her car is from 2003, there was ONE of these tape deck inserts left in the country!  They got it shipped in from California and the rest is history.   Side note:  The button on her stereo says tape/md, which I can only assume means mini-disk was the other optional component when the car was sold - talk about a failed media form!

Before: with the blank space teasing us

After:  with tape deck insert and just for fun, Bob's old Ice-T tape playing : )  Her stereo will never again play music like this I'm sure

On to the actual road trip...  I love seeing silly roadside attractions, so I got the Roadside America app for my phone.  Most of the things we saw were planned ahead, but the pink elephant was a perfect accident.  Partway through Tennessee, I happened to do a search and saw that in one mile there would be an exit and a giant pink elephant just a couple of miles down the road.  Technology does have its benefits!

We took our sweet time and did the drive in three days that were each 8-9 hours of driving.  Day One: we stopped in Asheville for lunch, Nashville for dinner, and spent the night in Clarksville, Tennessee (it was a really great hotel room, too bad it's so out of the way!).  Day Two:  lunch in St. Louis at Rooster (planned on purpose, I love that place), afternoon running around at the City Museum, dinner at T-Rex Cafe in Kansas City, and spent the night in Topeka, KS.  Day Three:  lunch snacking on the road, dinner at Casa Bonita in Denver, and spent the night in Boulder!  Day Four:  massages and bike ride around Boulder, lunch at the tea house, and sending me off to the airport.

First stop:   Juice Shop in Winston Salem for a razzmatazz smoothie 

Knoxville, TN - A big thanks to Hungary's participation in the 1982 World's Fair for their working gigantic rubik's cube.  Unfortunately it's not plugged in so the motor wasn't moving.

Cookeville, TN

Nashville, TN:  A life size replica of the Parthenon which is also an art museum

St Louis:  Rooster Cafe, home of some of the bestest crepes ever (and gluten free!)

St Louis:  City Museum which is more of a giant playground for adults and kids with kooky structures, tunnels and slides everywhere (including a 10 story one) and a rooftop playground complete with ferris wheel.  Did I mention that they also sell alcohol?  It was a totally different place in the afternoon than my previous visit which was at night!

St Louis:  City Museum's rooftop 10 stories up.  The ferris wheel is slightly terrifying, but worth going on!

St Louis:  City Museum's 10 story slide using the old factory waste chutes!  I slid down it last time and didn't really feel a need to go again : )

St Louis:  The scene of the crime...  When I was here on tour, I followed a too skinny friend between the lamp post and post box and smashed the camera in my pocket into the lamppost.  Oops!  It turned out ok, because a couple of weeks later in Indianapolis, we went to the mall with the Sony Store to replace my camera and I ended up finding my PERFECT wedding shoes too (after ordering a dozen pair from Zappos and searching shoe stores while traveling across the country)

Kansas City, KS:  Dinner at the T-Rex Cafe!

Goodland, KS:  Gigantic Van Gogh replica in the middle of a field

Denver, CO:  Casa Bonita restaurant has to be experienced to be believed.  It's in an old strip mall department store and is HUGE.  It's decorated like a tropical village and has a two story waterfall in the center.  Every 15 minutes there's some kind of show with cliff divers or pirates or something!  It's featured in an episode of South Park, you should check out the clips on youtube.

Boulder, CO:  riding bikes along Boulder's incredible bike path