It's the little things

There are roughly a zillion things I love about our new house. But to narrow it down a bit, today we will focus on sinks.

The kitchen sink is the center of attention here. It has two basins: one is deep and wide, enough to get my biggest pan in there for serious scrubbing. The other basin, which contains the disposal, is shallower, but not so shallow that it overflows nasty disposal gunk onto the coutertop when the dishwasher runs, like the disposal-sink at a certain house we won't mention.

Then there's the utterly mundane-seeming garage sink. A sink... in the garage. What a concept. I've never had one of these before, but it is so logical, you want to smack your forehead with your palm. Of course, when you are in the garage, and working on some garden task or other garagey chore, you would want to wash your hands!

(In our McGarvey house I wanted to put in a garage sink, mostly to create a dark room. The contractor that came out estimated the work to be in the thousands. That never happened, obviously. I don't know that a dark room is in the cards at this house, partly because there's a skylight almost directly above the garage sink.)

Stencil!

If anyone remembers the colorful walls in our old house, you'll understand how excrutiatingly bored I am with our current white walls (which are also textured to death and therefor way too hard to paint, especially since this house will probably get torn down some time in the next year or two!).

So since I can't paint walls, I'm painting furniture.

I've had this dresser for about 13 years. Who knew I'd still have it now after buying it at Meijer in Champaign and putting it together with Nathan in my apartment there?

It's not the world's ugliest dresser, but some sprucing up sure couldn't hurt it.

The blogoshpere is abuzz with the stenciling trend, so I decided to try it out on this small scale. Here's the initial attempt:

Not perfect by any means, but not bad. The fact that the stencil hangs off the drawer makes it bow and therefor there's space for bleed. I bought a can of repositionable adhesive for the next round. I also decided I'm not madly in love with this result, so I'm going to try white-on-turquoise next instead of the other way around. We'll see how it goes.

Now, the next big question: What kind of hardware? Any thoughts on what goes with Moroccan window pattern in turquoise?

Overreach much?

Here's a list of my current craft projects:

SEWING/QUILTING:
-T-shirt quilt: Believe it or not, the reason I started sewing. Years ago I heard of people making quilts out of the screen prints, iron-ons, etc, on all those t-shirts from high school, college, runs, bike rides, and I thought, Of COURSE that's what I should do! I immediately cut the front (and sometimes back) designs out of the tshirts that I didn't want to wear any more and turned the remaining fabric into rags. Now I'm quilting on a 15-patch top. Shirts include those from a Yellowstone trip when I was 11, horseback camp when I was 12, a mission trip to Mississippi with my youth group the summer I graduated from high school, and a couple bike rides from the last 10 years. Oddly, I realized after I had assembled the top, I didn't include any college tees, even though I collected a good dozen in my four years.

Unfortunately, my machine started acting all wonky a little while after I started using the "free-motion" foot for the quilting and I think I'll have to take it in to have it looked at. In the meantime, I'm piecing the next quilt with no problem.

-Dinosaur quilt: It's a "crazy nine-patch" with about 6 dinosaur prints and three other coordinating "solid" prints. It's meant for Arthur, who just moved into a twin bed from his toddler bed. This one I just started when quilting on the t-quilt got to be too much. I've cut out the 12x12 pieces necessary to start my first few blocks and hope to start cutting soon.

-Dying: Yesterday I started dying some pieces of IKEA curtain fabric cut from some too-long curtains that came with our new house. They are muslin-like, and my first attempt at eggplant turned out beautifully! This will surely be cheaper than buying new quilting fabric. And didn't quilting start out as a form of recycling?

-Sun shirt: I realized recently that I need a flowy, light-colored shirt for covering up when it's warm and sunny (those days will come soon, right?). I tried one on at Patagonia called "Sun Shelter" but it just wasn't flowy. I don't want a fitted blouse when I'm sweating in the sun! I haven't *really* started this project, but I have cut out some of the pattern pieces and ordered the fabric.

KNITTING:

Believe it or not, I only have one knitting project in progress: A tank made from corn yarn. I am trying to decide from among three other patterns for my next one...

SCRAPBOOKING:

I am so, so behind on scrapbooking. Right now I'm working on a surprise gift for someone that I need to finish in the next month or so. I've started working on Australia. And I've been doing a bit of the day-to-day stuff of the boys growing and having fun in the meantime.

Gluten-free baking

I now have roughly 18 different kinds of gluten-free flour in my pantry. If you don't believe me, check out the baking aisle next time you're at Whole Foods. (After reading a magazine called Living Without, purchased at WF, natch, I realize I now need coconut flour, too.

I bought a book recently called Allergy Free Desserts. I made the lemon bars, and those were decent. But the Cherry Bars were so 0ff-the-hook-amazing I feel like I got my money's worth on just that one recipe. The second batch is almost gone, and even my hubby thinks they're great.

Then there's The Cravings Place, which does great brownies and customizable quickbread/muffin mix. I may have to start ordering it in bulk...

Call me Purl Girl

I am officially obsessed with knitting. When I see someone wearing a sweater, I stare and try to determine the kind of stitch and the yarn weight. When I'm falling asleep at night, I think about what I knitted that day and/or what I'll knit the next day. I'm falling behind on my quilting and way, WAY behind on scrapbooking (Joshua Tree? Only happened a year ago. I did purchase an album for Australia though...). I can't remember the last time I left my house without an in-progress knitting project in a tote.

What have I knitted so far? Three hats, which are pretty cool. Part of a poncho. And the front of a sweater for my four-year-old. The poncho is on hold because I need help with my increases, which are MUCH harder than decreases, IMO. I hope to actually complete some large projects soon...

Knit happens

Last month Megan taught me how to knit! If I knew where the scarf that I was working went to, I would have a picture of how the rows that she cast on and started for me are all neat and lovely, and then there are a few rows of mess before I start to get the hang of it. Over Christmas I bought a book and taught myself how to purl on the plane home. (Purling is not the horribly un-fun, nearly impossible task some people would have you believe.) With this same book I taught myself how to cast on, increase and decrease. These are all good things to know if you want to make stuff with yarn.





I made this hat with a pattern in the book. I followed all the instructions and made a swatch to check the size of my stitches, but it turned out way too small. I made it with the intent of wearing it myself but it's too small for two-and-a-half-year-old (who has a giant head, but still). Maybe my little one-year-old niece can wear it.

I'm knitting another hat in the same pattern but with 20 percent more cast-on stitches and about 15 extra rows. I've also ordered some circular needles to do the next project I want to work on from the book: a sweet-looking poncho.

*Yes, I stole the title of this post from the book.
** If you're ever in St. Louis, get thee to the Knittery.

Butternut squash and split-pea stew

I made this recipe tonight, and as usual, it was fantastic. I clipped it out of Sunset Magazine a few years ago because I love butternut squash, and it sounded interesting. I make it at least a few times each fall. It is so flavorful and unique.

I halve the amount of butter used to save some calories, and I don't believe that it detracts from the taste. The star anise are a bit pricey, but not any more than the meat for a similar sized non-vegetarian dish would cost.

It also goes pretty quickly, after you get the squash cooked. Earlier in the afternoon, I cut the very top off a big squash (to vent) and put it in a glass baking dish with half a cup of water, covered loosely with plastic wrap. 15 minutes in the microwave and I was able to easily slice the skin off with a knife and chop the meat. I left it in a bowl on the coutnertop covered with the plastic wrap.

Yum yum yum!!

Eggplant parmigiana FAIL

Last night I tried to make eggplant parmigiana and the problem came with drying out the eggplant. The recipe called for sprinkling the eggplant "generously" with salt. It didn't indicate how much salt to use, nor how I would get the salt off. I thought, "maybe it will come off in the hot oil?" Well, it didn't. The final result was too salty to eat.

Any suggestions on how to prevent this in the future?

Sale sale sale!

My garage sale got mostly rained-out, so I'm offering the choicest leftover items in a "virtual" garage sale. Please email me at kathy@schrenk.org if you're interested in any of the items.





Wet suit, probably 1.5 mm thick, served me well on one dive in Florida in March. Size 9/10, brand name Dacor. $25


Wool jacket, size 6 petite, it's BLACK, not grey, like it appears in the pic. $10




Lot of two women's pants, size 8 Short, by Old Navy. Pretty darn nice dress pants for Old Navy! One is grey, the other black. Would work well with the wool jacket above! $12


Lot of 3 jackets, size 12-18 months. Grey one is Greendog (Macy's) brand, orange rain jacket is Old Navy, orange hoodie is Gymboree. $10




Women's black sweater vest by Old Navy, size Medium. $5



24 month Carters onsie, new with tag, $5



Red Talbots Kids sweater, super-cute, size 18 months, worn maybe twice, $5


Chariot jogging kit for a Chariot double chassis (click here for details). $50


SF tank top, teen size XL, fits a petite woman, $5





Lot of 3 onsies, all by Talbots Kids. Blue one is long sleeved, size 18 months; red one is NWT, size 24 months, short-sleeved polo; cream one is NWT, size 18 months, long-sleeved turtleneck. If your boy fits into these long-sleeved ones now, he'll fit into the short-sleeved one in the spring! $15

Thanks for checking out my on-line garage sale! :-)

Cookin up a storm

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This has been a good weekend for producing tasty treats in the kitchen. First I made pumpkin chocolate chip bread on Friday night, after I devoured a bunch that the snack mom served on Thursday morning.

Last night was chili night, with cornbread from scratch, my own chili seasoning and tomatoes from my store. For some reason it seemed better than usual. Maybe the white beans?

And right now I'm eating a dish that I just dug up on the CSA web site. I don't know why I always worry about what to do with "all these beets" from the CSA. After I cooked the ones for this recipe, roasting as directed, I could have eaten a whole serving of it without anything else. The recipe probably didn't need the raisins, and I skipped the pine nuts because I didn't have them, but the beets made it so flavorful that it didn't matter.

Ch ch ch changes

Last week Arthur started at a new school. It's a Montessori, which basically means that the approach is to provide academically enriching activities for the child to chose from and let them work at their own pace and on what they chose to work on. This sounds pretty unstructured, but it's mega-structure compared to the play-based parent co-op Arthur had been attending.

Last week was his first official week at his new school, but he only attended for about a day-and-a-half, due to runny noses and grandparents in town. Monday was mega-meltdown day. He screamed and yelled and fell on the floor writhing when I tried to drop him off. Finally I pried his hands from the door and ran, and he was ok. Yesterday was Tumblebus day, promptly at 9, so that was easy. And today he walked right in, I said "Adios" (the Spanish teacher comes Wednesdays) and took off. All good.

Arthur doesn't do so well with transitions, so it's no shock there'd be a couple bumps. The biggest challenge may be getting used to the teacher, who today passed on a note that said: "Arthur got a timeout during recess today for saying to the other children in the sandbox 'stinky penis.' Please discuss this with him tonight."

Can-tastic!

This is a lot of tomatoes.

My mother-in-law is in town and yesterday she loaned her 30 years of canning experience to help me "put up" lots of tomatoes (probably about 40 pounds, costing me about $48). This is fourteen 32-oz jars (why do they call it canning when you use jars?) I borrowed the supplies (a very large pot, a mechanism that holds the jars in place, a gripper to pull the jars out of the boiling water and a funnel) from someone in the mothers' club.

The jars cost $1.10 each. I need to go to the store and figure out what the actual cost per oz is for the home-canned vs the store-bought. Of course there's a lot of work involved with the actual home canning, but there are benefits...

I love fall!

Last night I made butternut squash soup and it made the whole house smell divinely of fall. I used two very large squash and double the recipe, leaving out the chili flakes.

This was after the boys and I went to the nursery and got a bunch of lovely Halloween-colored plants. We're not into Halloween so much, at least not like some people are, making their front lawns look like graveyards (ick). I much prefer to decorate for two months of "Harvest" time leading up to Thanksgiving. It's starting to feel a little bit like fall; maybe Sunday was the last day of 80-plus weather!

Here's some of our handiwork (this pic doesn't quite do it justice; those coreopsis [the daisy-type flowers are an incredible shade of orange)!

Furiture fun

This is a piece I picked up at Savers -- after I took the sander to it.








Here it is with a new coat of paint and some fabric from Cloth in Sydney. The paint is left over from the bathroom trim painting -- it's a bright purple. I think I'll repaint it with the brownish purple I'm using in the guest room...

Tomatoes!

I use tomatoes in at least 50 percent of the recipes I regularly make, so when my mother-in-law comes to town at the end of the month, she's going to teach me how to can, and tomatoes are going to be the big staple to "put up" in our house. I'll be borrowing the gear from someone in the mothers' club and my neighbor is planning to come over and learn from the expert, too.

Yesterday I asked one of my favorite vendors at the Menlo Park Farmers' Market which of his tomatoes would be good for canning. He said I should buy one of his big boxes of "soft" tomatoes for $20. Oh my word that's a lot of tomatoes! Below is a picture of maybe half of them in the sink. Last night I boiled, peeled and chopped the rest. This morning I finished the job. About five of the tomatoes were too far gone to even be used for canning and another 5-10 were some variety that just disintigrated when I tried to peel them. It boils down to what seems like not very much: three gallon freezer bags filled half way.

New room

It's time for yet another room transformation, but not nearly as dramatic as last time: this one involves only one room of the house being covered in dust.

The former office was more-or-less transformed into a functioning guest room for the house-swappers. This mainly involved moving some furniture and making some new curtains (which I stopped liking before I finished making them). Since then, we stayed in this house in Australia that was green and purple, and I fell in love with the color scheme. (Now I just need to find the right fabric for curtains.)

Last night I did some spackling of the area that used to be covered by these random strips of faux-wood about a foot below the ceiling. Hideous. Today I sanded the spackling. Have you ever sanded after spackling? The dust is incredible. I was covered in it. The room is still covered in it, after I wiped the walls and the floor with wet rags. I will have to do so again tomorrow. But then the fun begins! Gotta buy that paint this week...

Bare walls

I'm pretty sure we are never going to find proper dining room furniture. We have a table and chairs, and we did have a corner cabinet for china, but the new door to the kitchen made the corner too small for the cabinet. For some reason, it is really hard to find corner cabinets. And then we need some kind of console table for the wall on the other side of the door. The problem there is that someone in my family is way too picky. The good news is, if we had an Asian-themed decor scheme, we would have found a dozen pieces to suit our needs at the Home Consignment Center in Mountain View today!

SF fabric tour

A couple weeks ago Linda and I went to the city looking for fabrics for a couple projects. We were both mostly looking for home decor fabrics, but I also wanted to get a better feel for what the shopping is like in SF, so I got recommendations from a few friends who sew.

First we went to Discount Fabrics in the Mission. Definitely a place to go back to! They have at least a little of everything, but I've never seen as many different kinds of trim and wacky stuff you can stick on your clothes or curtains. For this reason it's one of the go-to stores for my belly-dancing friends.

Linda found everything she needed there. I found some good candidates for the guest-room curtains I plan to make, but didn't actually buy anything.

Next we went to Fabrix, which was underwhelming. It's a pretty small place, but it's crammed with fabric that mostly seemed cheap and blah. It might be a good place to check out regularly to see what comes through if you lived in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't seek it out.

Across the street is a place called Satin Moon that sounds great, but it's closed right now because of a water main leak! I'll check back next time I need something special. My impression is that it's mostly home dec type fabrics with some high-end silks.

Discount Fabrics was on our list but we didn't make it there. Definitely hoping to check it out some time. I'm also intrigued by this place in the Haight.

Britex, of course, is the Mood of San Francisco, but is pretty overpriced. Rounding out my list is a place you should definitely check out: Peapod. It's a tiny store in the Inner Sunset with a great selection of quilting fabrics. They are beautifully chosen and displayed and coordinated; I bought all the fabric for this quilt I made for my niece, Gwen, at Peapod.



Thanks to Lorah, Laura and Rebeca for their recommendations on where to go!

Finally, I found a pretty cool blog post about SF fabric stores.

New guest room!

Right now our guest room consists of some bland curtains, a blah-ish lamp and some leftover office furniture. When our house-swappers were here, there was inflatable bed, too. The only exciting piece (and it is pretty darn exciting, if you ask me) is the bedside table that Nathan and I (mostly Nathan) made in a woodworking class we took way back before we had kids.

But I have big plans: new curtains, which I started shopping for last week. A new sofa bed, of the same kind Linda and Adam had in their guest room (yes, I slept on it, and it was very comfy). And a color scheme that I plan to base partly on the house we stayed at in the Blue Mountains and partly on the invitation to a million-dollar wedding we went to on Lanai about six years ago -- in short, green and purple. Here's an idea of the colors from the Blue Mountains house:

veggies, veggies, veggies

If you invite me to any kind of potluck event this summer, I shall be bringing a green salad. That's because I get piles of lettuce and other crazy greens (bok choy, arugula, mizuna[?] among them) each week in the CSA box, and I can only eat so many salads. I've also had it with fava beans, and even though almost everything I cook has onions in it, I still can't use them all.

But the CSA also brings lots of the best strawberries ever, wondeful fresh eggs, and yummy stuff we are excited about like carrots and fennel. And those apples that are like eating candy, but are already gone for the spring. And I've lost about 3 pounds since the season started 7 weeks ago, because I'm eating so many more veggies, and not as much other junk :-)