Addressing the topic

A few days ago I posted about wanting to do an up-cycling swap, and I have had a lot of people interested in participating. If you are planning on playing along please send me your address so I may pass it along to the person you'll be swapping with. Given the recent anthrax scare I think it's safe to say that anything having to do with a Tide detergent container should be off limits. If you are interested in participating but short on time you could certainly do a smaller project. This is more about recycling and making new friends than anything else, so don't stress and have fun.
My email is kanan454@gmail.com, for your own safety I ask that you send your address to my email rather than leaving it as a comment on my blog, which is open to public viewing.

Peace participate!

After Christmas sweets

Are you craving something sweet that won't make you feel guilty after the holidays? Then whip your self up a delicious batch of brown sugar body scrub. This super easy recipe may be adapted in pretty much any way, so customize and indulge!

Brown sugar body scrub-
2 cups light brown sugar
3/4 cup grapeseed oil, safflower oil, or olive oil  (I use grape seed oil for most of my beauty needs because it's lighter, cheaper and doesn't go rancid at room temp.)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
5-6 finely ground cardamom pods (optional and expensive)

Mix ingredients in large bowl and transfer to clean container. I prefer to use glass canning jars but plastic tupperware might make more sense if you are using it in the shower and do not want to drop it.

You can decorate your jar and give it as a nice gift or keep it all for yourself and be the only one with deliciously exfoliated skin.


Pie Scented Peace!

Getting ready to sell

I love our home, I really do, but this is not where we want to live forever. We dream of moving back to Siskiyou county and living on the river again. We dream of gardening in the blistering summer heat and shoveling our driveway while cussing under our breath in the winter. The coast is a strange place to live, especially when you grew up in a place with seasons. Here there are 2 seasons, the rainy season, and the foggy season. we have been here for just over 5 years now and it still does not feel like home. Granted, it is an amazingly beautiful place to live, but it will just never feel like home. We hope to move nearer to one of our families, and we hope to do it soon.
That is why we are getting our house is a better condition to sell, if the chance ever arises. Since we have moved in we have made many improvements, but we have done so at a leisurely pace. Often we don't quite finish a project. So now it's high time we do. Now that our kitchen remodel is nearly finished we are turning our focus to the other unsightly ares of our home. The door that goes to nowhere, our tiny yet frightening master bath, the half painted doors...all of this is on the TO-DO list. Some of these chores really aren't fun. Like painting the ceilings, ugh, I can't wait to do that!

A few months ago I painted all of our interior doors black, and I loved it!  The problem is that I only painted 1 side of them black because on the inside of the door black would not "go" with the rest of the room. While I may not mind a half black/half white door it might put off future buyers of our home. So I sucked it up and painted all over again. this time I painted both sides of each door a nice warm white. and you know what...I love that too! It definitely gives our home a lighter, beach-ier feel that I am enjoying in the middle of our dark rainy winter.

 The white doors do give my striped hallway a fresher look than the black did!

Now I just have to quit procrastinating and take down my christmas tree. Or maybe I'll just add some pink to it and call it a valentine tree, hmm...

Peace and paint drips!

Junk swap

Do you have items that you hold on to because you know that something really fun and beautiful could be made out of it. I have an entire pile of treasures just waiting to be upcycled into something great. Over the years I have turned a lot of landfill-bound junk into one of a kind pieces for myself and friends. Everyone loves to say that they made some incredible piece themselves out of mere junk and creativity. So here's your chance...

I think we should have a junk swap! Now if we all lived near each other I'd have all of you over for a swap party and we'd eat cupcakes, swap junk and have a grand time. Of course that's not gonna happen, so here's how I think we should do it instead.
1- Rummage through your "someday I'll do something neat with this" pile and pull out a few things you don't mind giving up.
2- I will pick someone who is also participating and send you their address, then you can mail your (hopefully not that heavy) junk package to them.
3- With all the junk distributed we can all begin turning someone else's stuff into something great. This is the fun part and I am so excited to see what people come up with. It always amazes me how differently people can look at the same item and use their own creativity to transform it.
4- We all post photos of our one of a kind fantablous pieces and show off what we have done with it in our own homes.

So what do you think?  Is anyone interested in joining in on the fun? This will be open to not just to my blog followers but anyone else willing to potentially mail their junk across the country and make a few new friends.

wine bottle lamps

bottle cap lamp shade

for some more amazing inspiration go here

Peace and packing peanuts!

The New Year itch

No not that kind! Every January I am suddenly struck with an overwhelming need to organize and streamline our  home. Last January I began our kitchen renovation, yeah the one we're just finishing up. Here it is the 2nd day of the year and I am already planning to paint my bedroom, rip out my bathroom vanity and completely clean out all of the closets in our home...this week. I know I'm not the only one either, many folks I know get the January itch. You know to make their lives and homes neat and tidy. I guess seeing as I refuse to make resolutions this is my yearly fresh start. So what are you planning? Is anyone else eagerly sorting their paint swatches or preparing for war with their junk drawers/closets/piles? C'mon and tell me what your scheming on...
For me I am happy to say I have finally, (after months of indecision,) chosen which shade of  warm white I will be painting our currently fuschia colored bedroom.
I'll be back tomorrow to pitch my big junk idea to you. So if you are planning on editing the contents of your home, don't throw it all out just yet.

Peace and paint swatches!

Easy Beingets

Oh, how I adore fresh hot doughnuts! I think almost every person in the known world feels the same way. Would you believe that in all of Humboldt county there is not one single place to get a decent doughnut. Which to me seems even more appalling when you consider what our most produced "crop" is. This morning when I woke up I was determined to have some beingets, I would have gladly settled for a good doughnut if they existed here, but no, neither of them do.
I could have made a yeast dough, waited a few hours for the dough to rise, and then made beingets, but I don't like to wait. So I went to the fridge and dug out the can of ready to bake bread-stick dough I bought a few weeks ago. I simply heated my canola oil, cut the bread-sticks, rolled them into little balls, deep fried them and poof I had perfect crunchy on the outside and fluffy soft on the inside beingets.
Since the beingets were so simple I thought I'd make a few dipping sauces to go along with them.
I made a quick Kahlua-chocolate glaze by melting some chips in the microwave then stirring in a tablespoon of Kahlua and a bit of milk.Then I made and a delicious orange-vanilla bean glaze with orange juice, powdered sugar and vanilla bean cream cheese frosting I had leftover in the fridge.
I choose not to completely cover my beingets in powdered sugar because I prefer to dip them, and because I ALWAYS manage to inhale the powdered sugar and choke on it. Traditionally beingets are served only after a blizzard of powdered sugar has attacked them. I have also seen where these can also be made with canned biscuit dough and I imagine in of the canned doughs would work.
This made a perfect romantic breakfast for Jess and I but I can't wait until the boys come back from Gramma's so I can make them some too! Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and have a very Safe and Happy new year! 

Peace don't drink and drive, eat beingets instead!

Wishing you the happiest holidays

We Wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new Year!

We are enjoying a nice Christmas with our families and loved ones and hope you are doing the same. 

Bring on the egg-nogg and the carols! Despite my previous apprehension my boys and I are having a blast with our family.

Thank you all for being a part of Lillidale, Happy Christmas!

Much Love!

Sleep In Heavenly Peace

Letter's to Santa

 

This is the first year that his letter to Santa was done all by himself. He even wrote for Masie too, what a nice brother.

 I tried to talk him into making small talk in his letter. Maybe ask how Mrs. Claus is doing or mention the reindeer, but no, he was all business.

But he did draw a picture of his house all decorated for Christmas on the back of his letter

 

All ready to pop into the mail

He even watched to make sure the mailman would get it out of the mailbox.

I'll be sad when these days end!

We are at Nono & Gramma's house busily exploring in the snow with the dogs, drinking cocoa, rearranging the ornaments on gramma's tree and helping Nono plow snow on his quad.

 

  

Merry Almost Christmas!

Peace and snowflakes!

Over the river and through the woods...

Today's to do list:

-Bake cookies for the trip, and for Santa

-Re-Wrap the gifts (Thanks Masie!)

-Get the house to a more respectable level of dirty so we can leave it for a week

-Wash the dog, yes the one who lives outside and goes to work with Jessie every day just to play in every bit of muddy water she can find, she will be taking her first trip in my new car {wincing while I type that!}

-Hope in desperation that her,( the dog, Siri) farts subside before we get in the car for 5 hours

-Pack for everyone, except Jessie, because he insists on only packing himself  2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of manties and 1 other shirt for an entire week, Yikes!

-Have a mini Christmas party with my neighbor and best friend so the children may exchange gifts.

-Look in disgust at the abyss guest room that my parents will be staying in the day after we get home, then shut the door and resign myself to cleaning it as soon as we get back, Ha!

-Sneeze, cough, wheeze and blow my nose ten thousand more times, yep, I've caught a cold, if there is something I really love it's breathing through my mouth. But on the bright side I won't be able to smell Siri's dog farts.

-Make a 'fridge cleaning' meal for dinner. By the looks of I think it will be some large scary quiche.

-Take our friends, and previous owners of our house all their Christmas cards that came here, for the 3rd year in a row. and politely remind them to give people their new address, for the 3rd year in a row

-Pack the car, Tetris style, so that at any given time nobody is is smashing more than 2 gifts or able to see the Santa bag.

-Pick up the pile of bandage wrappers, neosporin and bloody tissues from Jessie's cooking accident. We'll just say he may or may not have forgotten how to use a knife.

-Bathe the boys, Relax, enjoy my Christmas tree for one last day and kiss my husband, but not for long because I can't breathe through my nose.

Nono & Gramma Jana here we come with a stinky dog,wounded dad, sick mom, somewhat bratty kids and a whole car load of stuff.

Peace let there be enough coffee made to get me through the day!

{Day 4} Snuggle Monsters

This year the boys seem to be very enamored with their stuffed friends. Mason, of course, has Baby, and Orion seems to have a new favorite snuggle partner everyday. So I thought I'd try to make them each a stuffed creature for Christmas. Then the other day while watching them squabble over the my heating pad I had a brilliant idea. I would make them stuffed creatures that were filled with rice so they could microwave them and have a warm and snuggly friend to take to bed each night. Now I am planning on making them for all the little munchkins in my life. Here's how I did it

1- Cut 2 large rectangles, 4 medium rectangles, and 4 long medium rectangles the long ones will be your legs, the shorter ones will be the arms and the 2 large ones will be the body. You can make a round monster or whatever you like, I'm going with this shape for ease of production.

2- Sew the leg and arm pieces together leaving 1 end open, turn them right sides out. This is easily done with a smooth chop stick or dowel.

3- Fill the arms and legs with rice and sew the open end shut. Pin the appendages in-between the 2 (right sides together rectangles) where you want them to be. ie, arms in arm like places and legs in a leggish sort of place. sew the entire creature together leaving an opening so you can turn it right sides out. I like to round my corners but do as you wish it is a monster and therefore may have any form.

all sewn up and half way turned out!

Turned right sides out and ready to be filled with rice and sewn shut

see finished snuggly monster, well I guess he is faceless but he's mostly finished

The monster may be microwaved for 1-2 minutes and should stay warm for at least an hour or so afterward. So today I am waist deep in flannel and rice making these little monsters for all of my little monsters.

Peace is a warm monster!