Menu Plan Update

Remember my super amazing menu board that's going to revolutionize Husband's and my eating habits? Yeah, that was a big fat fail. Not the finished product, but the actual usage.  Whoever first invented these clearly cook no more than ten specific meals, nor did he or she ever try anything new. Once I went through my recipe binder and created strips for each meal, I easily had 200ish strips of paper. Which had to be sorted through each and every time the board changed. Plus, sometimes we just like to call an audible and eat out or eat something planned for a different day. So I retooled the board a bit.

I recycled all of the paper strips and junk and just hot glued a push pin to a paper pad I had.  The board is really a moot now, but it's so pretty! I left the clothes pins up as well, just in case specific things need to get clipped, like a paper recipe.

On the pad, I just write the various meals Husband and I decide to have when making the grocery list. I put about three meals worth of meat in the fridge and freeze the rest. As we actually cook, I cross the meal off the list and pull something out of the freezer. This has cut down on the amount of meat that spoils.

The pad below the "menu board" lists the staples we're running low on. Then I just add it to the shopping list.

What actually has revolutionized our meal planning/shopping/eating is the greatest website ever: Pepperplate. It's FREE and has an app for iPhone and iPad (we don't do Android, so I can't vouch for that).

It lists all of my recipes...

and you can import recipes--a handful of websites are supported for direct imports...

or you can manually import (i.e. copy and paste from a blog). Let's just say I don't repin recipes from Pinterest anymore. I just upload them to Pepperplate.

You can save the original website source (yay for legal!) in case you need to refer to it and upload pictures. There's even space for notes, so when Husband suggests a variation, I make a note. If a recipe needed a little something, I make a note. 

You can also create menus. We're hosting Christmas this year, so I'm already working on some recipes I may need.

It also has a menu planner, but as I've already mentioned, that style doesn't work for us.

What's truly awesome is you can select the recipes you're cooking and it will generate a shopping list. You can manually add in items (like those staples we're low on) and it's customizable so the categories can be switched up to match your usual grocery store. Because I'm always forgetting SOMETHING that's in one of the first aisles I hit. And it all syncs between devices, so the recipes I import on my laptop are available on my iPad when I cook and the shopping list is always on my phone.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Pepperplate. They have never heard of me and I was in no way compensated for singing their praises. I just think it's awesome, yo.

Weekly Menu

I have a confession. Husband and I eat out too much. Like, way too much. I always begin the week with good intentions, but usually by Wednesday, I'm so wiped out from work and school that take-out rules our household for the rest of the week. And my waistline is certainly showing that. Enter Pinterest (seriously, how did anyone come up with any kind of creative idea before Pinterest?).

Source

Source

The idea is that by having the visual reminder of what's for dinner each night, we curb the "It's a quarter til 7 and we just got home and we still have to walk the dog and what's for dinner?" So last week, I hit up Hobby Lobby to gather supplies (cork board and fabric) and spent a Saturday morning crafting.

I covered the cork board with fabric, hot glued thumb tacks to the clothes pins and meal envelopes (made from scrapbooking scraps), and cut/hot glued the days circles. I decided to do only 6 days because 1) That's all the room my board had and 2) If we can stick to meals during the week, I'd be OK with cheating on weekends.

I went through our recipe binder and wrote down almost all of the recipes (didn't do sides or desserts because I'm lazy and didn't have enough strips). I also made strips for standards that don't need recipes (like spaghetti and porkchops).

Rearranging the magnets and a command hook on the fridge later, you have this:

I know, I'm a terrible tutorialist, but since my inspiration came from tutorials, I figure you can just follow my sources and figure out what to do. Not that it's hard.

I, of course, picked the worst week to try a menu board. Notice I only have meals for Monday and Tuesday. Yeah, that's because Husband has been out of town on business, so I was on my own for 3 dinners. Like I'm cooking for just me. Time will tell if we stick to it, but I have high hopes.

Couple of ideas: I plan on adjusting the strips just a bit. As I was getting the board ready for next week, combing through the ideas was a pain. I'm not quite sure what to do about the overall idea, but I'm planning on making more strips but in different colors. So main dishes would be one color, sides another, maybe even crockpot meals another color. That way if I'm looking for something specific, I can eliminate strips more quickly. The pins will certainly hold more than one strip at a time. I also love the idea of using clothes pins--you could clip a new recipe and after you've tried it, decide to make a strip or let it go.

Also, I like having the shopping list right below. That way, if we have a hankering for something, we can jot it down.

Finally, I think it's a good idea to write where specific recipes can be located on the back. I used card stock for the strips, so Sharpies don't bleed through. Like I mentioned, I wrote the recipes from our binder and usual suspects that don't need a recipe, but I also went through one of our recipe books. We have 3 similar books (Taste of Home from different years), so I'm always confusing which recipe is in which book. I jotted down the book name and year on the back of the strip and I think that will help give even more options.

The strips are the most time-consuming part, but overall, this project was only a couple of hours. And if it helps us get back on track both health- and budget-wise, it's worth it.

Count this as a repin to my "I Actually Did/Made Something from Pinterest!" board

Oops, I Did It Again: Another Building Project

I have reclaimed my garage parking spot after my latest building project: a fold-down sewing table, plans courtesy of Ana White.  I've needed this for some time now, mostly because there's not a single pair of pants that enter my home and get put away on my side of the closet or in my dresser that DON'T need alterations. And yes, Stacey and Clinton say alterations are small potatoes (I paraphrase...I'd kind of pay money to hear Stacey or Clinton say that, though) in the grand scheme of investment pieces, when it's a $10 alteration over 8, 9, 10+ pairs...that's a much larger investment! And no, heels don't cut it.

So yes, sewing table.

In case you're too lazy to actually look at the plans, there is essentially a base unit in the middle and fold down leaves on either side. The legs fold under and the weight of the leaves hold them in place.  This picture was taken after I attached the legs on one side, to make sure I did those right!

And the finished product:

                                    

I painted the entire thing with leftovers from our bedroom (Sherwin William's Orient Blue color matched by Valspar). Then, I randomly taped off stripes and painted the same green as the laundry room (the color name escapes me, but it's Valspar) and "Wet Path" by American...something or other. The Hubs actually gets credit for the stripes idea. I was debating paint or stain and his suggestion was paint and "some kind of graphic print, like stripes or checkerboard." I actually debated argyle for a while, but decided that was way too much effort. And for the record, random stripes on a table are much easier than on a bedroom wall.

Just a larger angle:

                                 

My proudest moment with this project (other than actually getting the base unit to be square) is creating the ironing board top. See the paisley on the left?

Close up. You can't tell, but the green background matches the green stripes.

I got the brilliant idea that ironing is a large part of sewing properly. While I don't do sewing projects "properly," I figure I'll be doing more and it will probably eventually necessary. I was browsing Pinterest one day (seriously, I don't know I've had a single original idea since that thing came around) and came across this gem. After a little Googling, since the original pin, nor the source actually describe the process, I discovered all iron board padding really is is batting and fabric. The fabric needs to be 100% cotton, because of the heat from an iron (any kind of blend will scorch eventually). I doubled up the batting (which was actually already done for me in packaging) and bought a yard of fabric (perfect for this project's measurements) and a light duty staple gun, since I was in the craft store already anyway. I started in the middle of one side and worked my way out, pulling the fabric and batting tight and stapling.  Mister supervised.

Then, when all is said and done, the table folds up and rolls out of the way:

One side of storage: the basket holds thread, buttons, and other sewing notions. This is already actually outdated. I started switching baskets around and now have those things in the striped bin seen on the top shelf in the above photo. It was actually generally my inspiration for the stripes.  My extra fabric is on the bottom shelf.

Storage on the other side: Sewing machine manual, extension piece thingy I haven't used, and on the bottom is a canvas drop cloth that will turn into curtains for the master bedroom.

That's what I've been doing, instead of working on a presentation for class.

Project Update

I know. I know. I know. But in my defense, December was insane. And January is proving to be incredibly productive. So what I'm lacking in blogging, I'm actually making up for in projects. Since I'm not Young House Love (for better or worse), I'm combining all of my projects into one behemoth of a post! But, to make it worth your while, I have pictures!

How about we just back up and I'll do a little timeline for y'all.

As is our tradition, we have 2 Christmases (Christmai?), one with Adam's side, one with mine. Adam's family Christmas was the weekend before calendar Christmas, with my family following the calendar this year. Both were great. Being with family is always fun (well, usually). After Christmas, I had the week off work and seized the opportunity to work on a project I had been planning: the master closet:

(I could never, ever be a hoarder. Having my life like this for just 2 days drove me absolutely bonkers)

I painted both the master closet and the "toilet room" in our bathroom Olive Green (by Valspar). Don't let the pictures fool you, it's a very nice green. I also built and painted my laundry sorter:

I'm about a week into actually utilizing my new laundry system and I LOVE it. I'm doing laundry a little more often, but instead of doing it ALL in a day, only a load or two at a time. Keeps the dirty laundry piles out of the dining room.

I built the sorter basically exactly to Ana's plans. I used 2x2s so I didn't have to fool with the metal angles. Her plans don't actually instruct you in attaching those, so I had to figure that out myself. Not hard if all the pieces are already cut. I painted the interior the same green as the closet and the exterior was primed white and then painted with Sherwin Williams' Snowbound in semi gloss, color matched by Lowe's (I had gift cards, so the total of both area's redecoration cost about $25 out of pocket).

I also re-re-hung (long story) a shelf at the end of the closet.

After having the week off, I went back down to Tennessee and went with my parents to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. Adam stayed home with Mister (an adventure that ended much better than either of us expected), not wanting to travel a third weekend in a row.

Cincinnati (Dad's alma mater) took on Vandy (on of the schools in Mom's repertoire and a team we all like to see succeed). Mom and I were prepared to root for either team, but ultimately cheered for UC.

(don't worry. The stadium filled in. It was like an hour before kick-off.)

A sign for Pead (/peed/), Cincinnati's lead running back

When I finally settled in at home, I had a few small projects happening around the house (besides constantly moving the laundry sorter. It's in its third and final home).

First, I took some inspiration from Pinterest (here and here) and made a Christmas canvas with my favorite quote from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." I downloaded the Grinch font and typed it out in Pages. The font went way wonky (some letters overlapped, others had huge spaces), so I actually cut everything out and then taped back together. Then, I got some graphite paper from Michael's (in the painting section) and used that to transfer the traced letters onto the canvas. A little painting later and there you go.

Some of you may wonder "why didn't you just use a Cricut for the lettering?" Easy. I don't have a Cricut to do the fancy vinyl transfers everyone on Etsy and Pinterest use. I'd say insert subtle hint for my birthday here, but honestly, I'm not entirely sure I'd use it that often. Sure it'd be handy when I needed, but how often would that actually be?

I also hung a floating shelf in the toilet room. Previously, there was a towel bar over the toilet, but with no sink in that "room" and since it was far from the shower, it served absolutely no purpose. I stole a sunflower from a fake bouquet I got for the fall and love the pop it gives the room. The shelf itself is hung a little high (since I'm so short, I tend to overestimate "eye level" to normal people), but I think some art would be nice underneath it. By the way, I really like the shelf. Last year, I got one from Target for the guest room, but it didn't hang flush against the wall. I was afraid that with enough weight, it would come crashing down. This one is solid and isn't going anywhere on its own.

I have another tiny project/picture, but for whatever reason, iPhoto doesn't want to upload it from my photo stream. For Christmas, my MIL got me a nice set of make-up brushes. I took this idea from Pinterest and put my own spin on it. I was concerned about using actual coffee beans, since I didn't know if they would spoil or otherwise get gross over time. So I used some vase filler marbles (or whatever they're called) instead. I used mostly clear with a few pops of green and turquoise. Super cute and very functional.

Whew! So that's what I've been doing instead of blogging. How about y'all?

Halloween by Pinterest

I think I mentioned earlier my new obsession, Pinterest. Pinterest is a website that acts as a virtual "pin board." It's a cross between bookmarking websites and tearing pictures out of magazines. Essentially, as you browse websites and what-not, if you see a pretty picture or something you want to replicate, you pin it. You can also browse the pictures others have pinned and re-pin their pictures. Always, the pin will take you back to the original source, which is helpful if you need a few reminders for steps in a project :). The thing I love most is the creative ideas I can't come up with on my own, but can easily do once I see it!

Last week, I finished TWO projects I saw on Pinterest.

(original source)

I started with the picture. After a quick trip to Hobby Lobby, I created these:

Jack-o-lantern and a mummy that actually became more of a ghost

Vampire and Frankenstein

I think they turned out so cute! I've been seriously lacking in varying Halloween decor and these were so easy. The blog had printouts for faces, but I just painted free-hand with black acrylic paint, using the originals as guides.

Also, I made these candy corns:

Based on this pin (the picture wouldn't let me paste it). The only thing I did different was instead of hot gluing a button on top, I just worked the yarn into a spiral. I also dug a little into the bottom of the cone so the yellow yarn fit easily inside and would sit flat with the hot glue bump.

Both projects took me just a couple of hours...some of which was drying time :)