A Place of Verdure

Mixing it up

2012-01-28T22:18:00.000-05:00

I never got around to posting this last night, but yesterday the prompt was to mix patterns. After the rest of the prompts this week, this one felt easy. In actuality, most of my clothing is solid, and that goes double for my winter clothes. So the fact is, I didn't have all that many options. I put this together pretty quickly. I really liked this outfit, but I didn't feel like I was stretching myself with it. I don't bat an eyelash at stripes with patterns now. :) It was fun setting everyone else's pattern mixing. Quite the stripy group!

The 10 Day Winter Challenge is weekday gig, so I'll be back Monday with another outfit.

Sweater, The Limited. It was a gift several years ago. Striped shirt, jeans, shoes, thrifted.

Anything you can do...

2012-01-26T23:41:00.000-05:00

The prompt today was to channel someone--to create an outfit inspired by the style of a person or fictional character. So far the challenges have gotten progressively harder for me every day. I was so stumped with this one! I kept trying to think of someone whose style I admire, but I couldn't seem to build an outfit from there. Finally, I stood in my closet and tried to think about whether any of my clothes reminded me of anyone. That took me in an unexpected direction. I decided to channel the sartorial style of Annie Oakley. She definitely a had style of her own, and she was one of the first female American celebrities, in the modern sense.

Image Source

The reason I settled on Annie Oakley was I spotted this shirt. It was the fringe that made me think of her. The shirt was given to me by my grandmother when I was in college. I was completely befuddled by the gift, since it seemed totally outside the realm of my usual wardrobe. I couldn't imagine why she might have given me such a shirt. The only thing I could figure was that she gave it to me because of the Western look, since I went to college in Texas. She must have been on to something, though, since I still have it. I can't remember the last time I wore it, but I guess I have a sentimental attachment to it, so it hasn't ended up in the donate pile.

I was kind of nervous my outfit too costumey, but my husband actually liked it. An Annie Oakley look requires boots, and the shirt has all the shape of a potato sack, so it cried out for a belt. Thus, the same belt and boots as yesterday, totally different look. I added my twirly denim skirt, red tights, and I was ready to go. This was a pretty fun outfit to wear, and it was very comfortable and warm. Since James gave it the thumbs up, I may wear it again.

Shirt, gift. T-shirt & skirt, thrifted. Tights, another item I've had since high school (Express, I think. Can't believe they've lasted this long.). Boots, TJ Maxx, Belt, Kohls.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

2012-01-25T22:37:00.000-05:00

I thought the challenge to embrace a trend was going to be really hard, since I am just not a trendy person. I like what I like, and I don't really worry about trends. Hey, I still wear clothes from high school!

And I read through Kayla's list of suggestions with mounting concern about my ability to meet the prompt. I rejected trend after trend basically because I owned no clothes that fit the bill. And nail polish wasn't going to happen. Fun fact: I don't mind toe nail polish, but I can't stand how it feels on my fingernails. My options seemed pretty limited.

But then at the bottom of the list was ”Tangerine.” And I thought, "Oh, yeah. Orange!” I knew all about the Pantone color of the year. And because I'm so in tune with the zeitgeist, I bought this orange shirt at a thrift store at the beginning of November, before the color was even announced. It's been in my special needs laundry pile ever since. So last night I gathered some other delicates and washed it.

Being as it's cold here, I layered it with this cream colored sweater. I decided to wear it with this blue skirt, because thanks to my knowledge of the color wheel, I knew pairing the orange with its complementary color would play up its orangeness. And you can't tell in the picture, despite the fact that I forgot to zip my boots, but my tights have a chevron pattern. So I believe that's actually two trends in one outfit, even if chevrons are like, so totally 2011.

Shirt, thrifted. Sweater, hand-me-down. Skirt, Stein Mart. Belt, Kohls. Tights, Target. Boots, TJ Maxx

Don't take my monochrome away

2012-01-24T23:15:00.000-05:00

Today the prompt was monochrome: to wear clothes from only color family. We did this one in the summer, too, and both times it was super hard for me. Head to toe neutrals is not a look I feel like I can pull off, but I don't have any colored pants or skirts for winter at the moment. I do have this reddish brown skirt, so I went with maroon. I can't remember if I've ever worn this combination before, so I don't know if met my novel outfit criteria, but it was my only option that wasn't brown, blue, or black.

Since I thought I might have worn this before, I added jewelry, which I normally wouldn't bother with. Not sure I loved the jewelry I chose with this outfit, but at least it was different than what I would typically do. I've had both the jewelry and the shirt since high school (probably 16-18 years). The shirt is very comfortable and doesn't have to be ironed, so it's always been a favorite. Plus, I like the colors, and it's still in great shape. Go cotton velour! It was from American Eagle. I wonder if their stuff generally holds up this well? The skirt is a hand-me-down and probably from the late '70s, early '80s? I like how it flares at the bottom. The movement when I walk makes it fun to wear. All in all, I'd say this outfit gets a passing grade. I was satisfied with it, but not excited about it.

Skirt: vintage. Shirt, jewelry: vintage-ish. Boots: TJMaxx. Tank: thrifted.

Layering

2012-01-23T22:29:00.000-05:00

Kayla over at Freckles in April is hosting another clothing challenge. This time it's only 10 days, not 21. Since the last time was so educational and inspiring to me, and 10 days doesn't seem too daunting, I thought I'd try it again. I hope it's not boring for people to see what I wear everyday, since I'm certainly no fashionista. For me it's kind of an interesting creative exercise. The 21 Day Challenge in August led me to introduce more stripes, scarves, and belts into my wardrobe, so we'll see what happens this time.

Today, the prompt was to wear layers. This was not outside my comfort zone at all. I frequently layer clothes but usually for practical reasons: warmth or modesty. I have a lot of go-to layered outfits, but my personal goal with this challenge is to combine my clothes in a novel way each day--to come up with an outfit I've never worn before.

Today I layered a short sleeved pale pink cashmere sweater with a long sleeved red tee. My guess is the sweater was once part of a twinset, but I got it at a thrift store (I actually bought it during the last challenge), and it is sadly divorced from its matching cardigan. I liked it with the red t-shirt, because I thought it was kind of a fun, modern look for the soft, sweet, vintage sweater. Plus it was bright and cheerful on this grey, gloomy day. The necklace I made for the statement jewelry prompt in the 21 Day Challenge, and I just remembered I wore it on the last day, too. I forgot about that! We could just pretend that I was intentionally bridging the two challenges, though. :)

Shirt, sweater, corduroys all thrifted. Necklace made by me. Shoes, from Kohls, forever ago.

Organizing a Purse

2012-01-17T00:56:00.001-05:00

January tends to be a time when people have organization on their minds. People make resolutions to become more organized or to de-clutter. People are putting away Christmas decorations and trying to make space in their homes for the gifts they've received. Orthodox Christians generally are trying to get their houses ready to be blessed, which means every room must be presentable; no shoving things in one room and shutting the door. And since people tend to be spending a lot of time inside, it's natural to think about how to make our homes more pleasant and livable.

I'm no exception. I have a lot of plans for making my home more functional this year. I want to spend less time looking for things, less time shoving stuff back into closets, less time rearranging thing so they'll fit. I have plans for my laundry room, my closets, my kitchen, my bathrooms. But I decided to start small. I organized my purse.

I'm very fond of my purse for several reasons. Most importantly, it belonged to my cousin Alison, who departed this life a year ago at the age of 34 due to an infection complicated by type 1 diabetes. She was a kind, smart, funny, beautiful person, and I love carrying this reminder of her everywhere I go. Secondly, I like that it's green, my favorite color. (My family would probably call it my signature color.) Finally, I like that it's nice and deep and holds a lot of stuff.

The downside to the depth and capacity of my purse is that invariably what I need is at the very bottom. It leaves me digging around with my arm in it up to my elbow, or pulling out all the contents and piling them somewhere in order to find what I need. Very soon after I received the purse, I realized that constantly trying to find my keys in the depths of my bag wasn't going to work. I bought a carabiner (big clip) to put on my keyring, so I can clip it to the strap. It's one of the best organizational things I ever did. But you can see how sadly I was lacking order in my handbag. Here are its contents. Note that this picture is not staged in any way. I just pulled everything out and piled it on the ottoman.

In my experience, the main steps to organizing something are editing, categorizing, and containerizing. For me these steps are pretty fluid. Sometimes editing and categorizing might take place simultaneously, and depending on what you're organizing, either one might take place first. Editing is determining what needs to be kept and what doesn't belong in the area being organized. Categorizing is sorting the items and grouping like items together, and containerizing is storing the items so that they're accessible and will stay sorted. A good way to start the editing process is to sort everything into keep, discard, and store elsewhere piles.

This is my store elsewhere pile. It contains an eyeglass case, a pair of sunglasses, a clip, an emery board, and a lip gloss. I realized I don't take off my glasses when out and about, so I don't really need the eyeglass case. I'm now keeping prescription sunglasses in my car, for easy access when driving, so I don't really need to carry around the sunglasses. The clip was from a bag of snacks which have been consumed, and the lip gloss and emery board were duplicates. All of these have now been stored in an appropriate place other than my purse.

This is the discard pile. There are lots of receipts, an empty checkbook, expired coupons, assorted paper items. Some could be recycled, some needed to be shredded, some had to be tossed.

The big wad of paper with the receipts actually wasn't in my purse. It's the stuffing from this purse insert, which was a key part of the containerizing process.

My extended family does a $10 random gift swap on Christmas, and this is the gift I received. I doubt I would have thought of buying something like this myself, but I really think it's going to help keep things accessible. Here's what I put in it: a pen, an eyeglass cleaning cloth, a little notebook, the printout from our most recent Bible study that I want to read over, two zipper pouches, and some mints. The pouches and notebook fit neatly in the main compartment, and the pen, mints, and eyeglass cleaner each fit into a designated pocket.

The icon pouch contains my little prayer book. A friend of mine brought this pouch back from Greece a while back, and when she gave it to me, I immediately put my prayer book in it. Aside from my key clip this is really the only successful organizing effort I had previously instituted in my purse. The book had taken a beating from being knocked around with the other items. I've had to reinforce it with book tape. The pouch protects it, and by keeping it from falling open, has made it easier to extract from my purse.

The peace sign pouch was given to me this Christmas by one of our God sons. I'd been thinking about making some zipper pouches for my handbag, so I was really pleased to get this pouch and the purse organizer for Christmas. I'm sure my purse got organized much faster than it would have if the project had required me to purchase supplies and get motivated to do some sewing! The contents of this pouch are an an example of categorizing and containerizing, I grouped like items together and then contained them so they'll stay together. I used this zipper pouch for grooming items. The comb and hair bands went in the side pocket, and I put lip gloss, chapstick, and an emery board in the main pocket.

Now you've seen all the contents of the purse organizer. Here are the other two items currently in my purse: my wallet and a small umbrella. The wallet got cleaned out as well, and the loose change from my purse is now stowed in the zipper pocket of my wallet.

When I'm not at home, my phone goes in my purse as well, but as you may have guessed, I've been using it to take these pictures. Typically I also keep a re-usable bag that folds into a pouch in my purse, but I believe I left it at my parents' house over the holidays. Having now given a lot of thought to the contents of my purse, I think some hand lotion and a handkerchief or tissues would be useful to have. There's room for a book, when needed, but usually I carry another bag with me to work for library materials, or I stow a book in my knitting bag. Do you have any purse organization tips? Is there anything I don't have in mine which you consider a necessity?

Fast Food Friday: Poinsettia Sipper

2011-12-16T23:54:00.000-05:00

This is a drink that my husband's family has long made at this time of year, and it is now a favorite with my family as well. I'm generally a fan of hot mulled beverages, and this makes a tasty alternative to egg nog or hot chocolate. Since it's appropriate for fasting, it's nice to serve for the Feast of St. Nicholas. We like to drink it as we decorate our Christmas tree, and it would be great in a thermos for looking at Christmas lights.

Apparently the recipe was originally published in Cooking Light, but this is our own slight variation, which James and I feel we have perfected over the past several years. We frequently double or triple the quantities, but this amount is works for just a few people. We often mix up a batch on Sunday afternoons this time of year, and it makes the house smell wonderful.

Poinsettia Sipper
2 cups water
2 cups apple juice
2 cups cranberry juice blend (I prefer 100% juice blends, not cranberry cocktail. Cranberry Pomegranate blends are my favorite.)
2 Tbs. sugar (optional)
2 cinnamon sticks
4 whole cloves
The juice of one clementine (2 Tbs. orange juice can be substituted, but freshly squeezed is preferred)

Stir together all the ingredients in a pan over medium heat until sugar dissolves (if using) Simmer for 20-30 minutes, and serve when it smells lovely. Note that if you double the recipe there is no need to add more cinnamon sticks.

Hanging Around

2011-12-12T12:31:00.001-05:00

The headboard did get hung up. We've been enjoying it for about a month now. You can see we also hung up some pictures. These are some wedding pictures, and they were hanging on a different wall before. We ended up abandoning the flush mounts to hang the headboard, as the ones we bought were not intended for something this big. Instead, James bought some other brackets with eye holes. He attached two of them to the top board on the back of the headboard. Then he screwed two wood screws into the studs in our wall, and hung the headboard from the wall by hanging the brackets from the screws. I wasn't around for this, so I don't have pictures. I'm not sure what kind of brackets they were or the exact steps of the installation. I'm sure it involved measuring and a level, and if anyone is on the edge of their seat waiting for details I can probably get James to answer questions in the comments.

I did a little tweaking of the headboard by tucking some squares of the fabric into the spots at the corners of the panels. Because of the rounded edges, the corners didn't quite meet, and the boards behind the panels showed through at some angles, as you can see above. I probably should have attached fabric to the boards before we attached the panels since it was a little tricky tucking the fabric into these small gaps. It's a small thing, but it makes the headboard look more finished. Below is the new and improved close-up. I've got some other bedroom decorating projects in the works, but things have slowed down in there a bit while I focus on preparing for Christmas. I do have some projects I've completed that I haven't shared here yet, so I hope to talk about those in the next week or so.

And I'm excited to share this picture sent to me by Laura, who made her own paneled headboard with canvases. I love how the same concept has a totally different look with a different fabric and canvas configuration. I really like the square canvases she used, and how they fit perfectly under her window. I think her headboard turned out great, and it was really fun seeing a project inspired by mine. Thanks so much for sharing, Laura!

Open to Interpretation

2011-12-08T11:32:00.001-05:00

Remember way back in August when I did the 21 Day Challenge and I managed something unheard of for me and posted every day for 21 days in a row? And I posted awkward photos of what I wore? I had a lot of fun and thought about clothes in a different way. I'm not gonna lie to you, I still frequently go with my standard method of wearing anything that doesn't need ironed (and one thing I love about fall and winter is that my sweaters usually don't require ironing). But at least some of the time I'm trying to apply what I learned and accessorize, layer my clothes, and wear scarves and belts. I feel really fancy when I bother with that. :)

Well, today Kayla, who organized the 21 Day Challenge, is hosting another fashion challenge, along with bloggers Amy and Erica. They do this fun thing called Open to Interpretation where they choose an image with a look they like and then they create an outfit inspired by that one. And they've invited everyone to play along this time, so I thought I'd join in.

Here's the inspiration outfit:

Unfortunately the original source is unknown.

And here is my outfit:

Sweater:Ann Taylor Loft c/o my mom, t-shirt: Gap via Goodwill, pants: Goodwill (no idea what brand), Shoes: Kohls, Necklace: made by me.

Textured oatmeal sweater? Check. Layered with a striped tee? Check. Big furry earflap hat? Ummm, no. Red skinny jeans? Sorry. Brown booties? Nope. I actually tried a bunch of possibilities for the bottom half of this outfit before I went with this. I have some red tights, and I was really hoping to make those work, but I didn't like any of the skirts or shorts I tried with it. Oh, well. Camel colored cords it is. I tried my brown boots with this, too, but it was a no go. So this is what we've got. And I took a bunch of pictures and even experimented with the timer, and, sadly, this really was the best I could do. But check out my new specs!

And go check out all the other interpretations:

Feast of St. Nicholas

2011-12-06T23:56:00.002-05:00

Blessed feast to you. Most people can't help but love St. Nicholas, and he is special to James and me because he was the patron of the church where we began inquiring about the Orthodox faith. We try to go there to celebrate the feast each year. Since James is working 50-60 hours a week right now, rather than going there for liturgy today, we went on Sunday when they had a meal in honor of their Patron. It turned out to be a good thing, because today would not have been a good day for me to be in the car.

I thought it would be fun to share a bit of the tradition of St. Nicholas with my co-workers this year. I made up these little bags of "gold" to take them. Each one contains chocolate coins, a clementine and some mini candy canes. The bags are actually just squares cut from a T-shirt tied with ribbon. I like to re-purpose things for wrapping, and the simple bags are meant to evoke the bags of gold St. Nicholas is said to have given for dowries. According to tradition, St. Nicholas anonymously tossed a bag of gold into the window of an impoverished family on three different occasions, for each of three daughters. This saved the girls from being sold into slavery or prostitution. The bags of gold are said to have landed in the shoes of the girls set out by the fire to dry, and that's the basis of the tradition of setting out shoes or stockings to be filled with gifts on this feast and at Christmas time.

To personalize them for my co-workers, I made these salt dough gift tags/Christmas tree ornaments. I got the idea for them on Pinterest, where I kept seeing lovely ones like this:

Source: pinterest-project.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

It seemed simple enough, but isn't that always the way with crafts? I made some, and I think they're pretty cute, but they are a lot more rustic and homemade looking than what I was envisioning. It's true that they are simple enough to make. You just mix 2 parts flour to 1 part water and 1 part salt to make the dough. For little tags like these 1/2 tablespoon for each part times however many tags you want should about do it, with a little extra for mistakes. I definitely made mistakes! Stamping letters backwards, not allowing enough room for the whole name...I started over several times. Once you've mixed as much dough as you need, knead it a little, roll it out about a quarter inch thick, cut your shapes, then stamp away. I stamped them on one side with my co-workers' names and the other side with a decorative stamp. The Christmasy stamps were part of the bounty from my mom's basement when she and my dad downsized their house, and the letter stamps I've had since I was a kid. The ribbon for the hangers is from my wedding. Spur of the moment crafters benefit from a slight tendency to hoard things. :)

So after I stamped them, I poked holes in them with the insert to a ball point pen and then I baked them at 325 for about a half hour. I've now seen other recipes say to bake at 250, and maybe they wouldn't have browned quite so much if I'd gone that route. I also recommend that you line your baking sheet with foil if it is not pristine, as the salt dough can pick up oil baked onto the sheet (Not that I would know, from experience, ahem.) Once they were cool, I gave them a few coats of Modge Podge for preservation, and I threaded some ribbon through them as hangers. I tied them to my little bags, and they're ready to go.

Naturally, I planned to give them to my co-workers today, but I'll keep it real by disclosing that I completely forgot to give them out! I spent the morning in a meeting with librarians from other libraries, and then had to leave work with a migraine. I'll have to pass them out tomorrow. I've only had a few migraines in my life, thankfully. I came home and slept, and I feel fine now.

Drumroll Please...

2011-12-05T21:38:00.004-05:00

...And the winner is:
Rebekah of Verdant Bents

The winning number 4 was generated at random.org.

I'll be in touch with you about the prize, Rebekah.

Thanks so much everyone for your kind words about my blog. I wasn't fishing for compliments. :) I thought maybe feedback would help me find some focus for my random ramblings. I guess writing about whatever's on my mind at the moment will lead me to hit publish the most frequently, and that definitely means more talk about the house will be forthcoming.

Fast Food Friday: Peanut Butter Pasta

2011-12-02T23:12:00.000-05:00

We often eat this meal on fasting weeknights because it is quite quick and easy. This recipe is loosely based on one from When You Fast...Recipes for Lenten Seasons by Catherine Mandell. It contains essentially the same ingredients, but she doesn't recommend natural peanut butter for her sauce, whereas I prefer it. And, over the years, my version has diverged quite a bit from the original. I've changed the type of pasta, the ratio of ingredients in the sauce, and the preparation method to suit my own taste and cooking style. I'm finding the blog is handy way to keep a record of my recipe variations. So many things I ostensibly make from a cookbook, but in reality prepare very differently than the recipe as printed.

Peanut Butter Pasta

3/4 lb. whole wheat spaghetti
3-4 carrots, julienned (sometimes I go with ribbons instead of matchsticks)
1 head of broccoli, chopped or 1 16 oz bag frozen broccoli
5 Tbs. natural peanut butter
7 Tbs. low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs. lime or lemon juice
1-2 Tbs brown sugar (try the sauce with 1, and if you'd like it to be sweeter, add another)
2 cloves minced garlic
Hot Sauce, to taste (I often skip this, as James doesn't care for spicy foods, but it's good with it, too)

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, chop your carrots and broccoli. When water comes to a boil, add your pasta and boil for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and broccoli and boil 5 minutes more. Drain and return to pot. While the pasta and vegetables are cooking, whisk together the ingredients for your sauce. Stir the sauce into the pasta and vegetables. I use a silicone spatula to scrape all the sauce out of the bowl.

100th Post Giveaway

2011-11-27T17:17:00.003-05:00

This is my 100th blog post! My very first post was on February 8, 2009, so I'm going on three years of blogging. This year I have blogged twice as much as in 2009 and 2010 put together. Since my blogging has been so sporadic, I haven't done anything for my ”blogiversaries,” but I thought it would be fun to mark the 100 post milestone with a little giveaway. Thank you for stopping by here to see what I have to say, and thanks especially for taking the time to comment. I have really enjoyed getting to know people via their blogs, and have found blogging to be a great learning experience and creative outlet.

I'm giving away one knitted to order (meaning you can choose the color and texture) wash/dishcloth and a bar of Monastery soap. I have a few kinds on hand, so I'll let you choose your scent (or lack thereof). The monks aren't paying me or bribing me to promote their soap. :) I just like it.

To enter, just leave a comment here by Monday, December 5 at 8:00 am Eastern Time. I'll randomly generate a winner and announce the results Monday evening. Since the prize is small and lightweight, I'll ship anywhere. Because I tend to write about a variety of topics, I'd welcome comments about the type of content on my blog that most interests you (but that's not required to enter). Thanks for reading!

Fast Food Friday: Pease Porridge Hot!

2011-11-18T22:28:00.003-05:00

It hasn't been all decorating, all the time here lately. We've had all kinds of stuff to keep us busy so far this month. The first weekend of the month we took a quick jaunt to Ohio for my dad's birthday. I made this cake which was very well received. I strongly recommend it for all your festal chocolate cake needs. And that's high praise from me, because despite my abiding love of chocolate, I generally don't really care for chocolate cake. I made it by request of the birthday boy. The second weekend of November was jam-packed. On Saturday, I attended Holy Liturgy for the feast of St. Varnava of Indiana, as well as a very edifying lecture on the book of Revelation by Dr. Jeannie Constantinou, a Presvytera and professor who does an excellent podcast called Search the Scripture on Ancient Faith Radio. Then we went to a wedding on Sunday evening, which was lovely. We're having friends over for dinner tomorrow, and I need to do my shopping for Thanksgiving. Lots going on around here this month, and that's just the weekends!

It seems like the Nativity Fast snuck up on us, but here we are. We now turn our hearts to preparing for the joyous celebration of the Incarnation of our God and Lord, and attempt to humbly remember Him who humbled Himself to be born of a Virgin. During fasting seasons, I like to share recipes on Fridays, so here is one of my very favorites. (Do I always say that? I really do love fasting foods.) When it comes to split pea soup, I like it hot or even cold. I sincerely doubt it's ever lasted 9 days at my house, but I would probably like it nine days old, as well. Sadly, it's one of the least photogenic foods in the world. I felt obliged to include the picture of the view from our bedroom window the last week in October to make up for the image of pease porridge. The riot of red leaves has fallen, and the view is now almost as drab looking as the soup, so I'm thankful I have the picture to remember the brief glory we're treated to each year.

Split Pea Soup

1 tsp oil (optional)
1 1/2 cups diced onion
1 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced celery
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 lb dry split peas (about 2 1/4 cups)
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
Salt and pepper

Lightly brown your vegetables over medium high heat in a good sized pot. You can do this in oil or a splash of vegetable broth, as you like. Add in the broth, water, split peas, marjoram and liquid smoke. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover. Simmer for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, until the the split peas fall apart. After 45 minutes check and stir occasionally. Add more water if needed or desired. I like my split pea soup good and thick in true pease porridge style. If you like it thinner, feel free to add more water. Add salt and pepper, to taste. It depends on how salty your broth is, and how salty your taste is. My soup didn't need any more salt, and I like to give it a few good grinds of pepper.

Paneled Upholstered Headboard

2011-11-02T07:54:00.004-04:00

I was really excited last week when Sherry of Young House Love and Katie of Bower Power are hosting another Pinterest Challenge, along with Ana White and Erin of House of Earnest. The idea is that you stop pinning, step away from your computer and actually make something you've pinned. Then you share what you've made, check out all the fun projects everyone else made, and start the pinning cycle all over. Last time, I had a lot of fun making a painting based on a TV quotation for my brother. The timing of this challenge was the perfect incentive to build a headboard for our bedroom. (Big surprise that I made something for the bedroom, right?)

My Pinspiration was this paneled headboard:

Source: allthingsthrifty.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I pinned it from Brooke at All Things Thrifty. I combed the web looking at dozens of upholstered headboards before deciding I wanted to make a paneled one. There are instructions on how the inspiration headboard was made here, but mine was actually constructed pretty differently. For the base of my panels, I used canvases. I bought two packs of seven 11 x 14 canvases at Michaels. They are regularly $20, but I bought them with 50 percent off coupons (of course) so I got the two packs for $20 total. I only used 12 for the headboard, so I have 2 more for another project. I loved the giant headboard that Brooke made, but I wasn't going for something that dramatic, since I didn't want it to compete with my stencil wall. Also, although we have no plans to move, I've never lived anywhere longer than 5 years, so I guess it's in my nature to want my furniture to be portable. Canvases made our headboard much more lightweight than making the panels out of any type of boards. I can easily pick up the headboard and move it myself.

I bought the fabric ages ago at JoAnn Fabric. I don't remember how much it cost or how much I purchased, but I do know I bought it when decorator fabric was half off. It is the same fabric I used for the rocking chair. In addition to the canvases and the fabric, I used a queen sized foam mattress pad for the padding. I cut out 12 rectangles from the mattress pad, 15x18 inches each. Then I wrapped each canvas with the foam (bumpy side in). I used my staple gun to attach the foam to the inside of the canvas frame, and then I stapled down the corners. I found it was easiset to staple the short sides of the rectangle and then the long sides. Perhaps you could make it easier on youself and staple the foam right into the back of the canvas frame, but I thought it made things smoother to wrap it around, and I also l liked that I had fewer staples to avoid when I stapled my fabric.

After I covered all the canvases with foam, I moved on to the fabric. I cut out the 16x20 rectangles for the fabric. Then I ironed them all, and finally I got to round two of stapling. I centered each foam covered canvas on the fabric, stapled the short ends, stapled the long ends, and then I stapled the corners. I tried several ways of stapling the corners before I settled on the method I used. I liked the smooth, rounded corners, but in retrospect, I would have chosen a method that gave me corners closer to right angles, since the rounded corners don't meet up. Apparently I got really focused on the project during the fabric stage and stopped taking picturss. The only one I took was to demonstrate the corner folding method:

Once I finished covering all the canvases with fabric. I went to bed. It was a tiring project! I turned it over to my husband at that point. He bought four 6 foot 1x3s, and cut them to length (around 54 in.) They are not quite as wide as the headboard, which is 58 in. It is just about exactly as wide as our queen size bed. Then he laid out the panels and used the 1x3s to attach them together. He screwed them into the frames of the canvases. Obviously, you want to make sure your screws won't protrude through your panels, so he used 1 5/8 inch screws.

And here is the final headboard!

How did we mount it, you might wonder? Confession: It's just leaning up against the wall for this picture. We've got some flush mount brackets to use, but it turns out the screws that came with them aren't long enough to go into the studs. So currently the headboard is leaning up against the bookcases in our bedroom, and we'll have to install it later this week. I'll post an update with daytime pictures once we get it hung. I'm so excited to be finished with the construction, though! This is the first headboard we've had in eight years of marriage. Yay for the Pinterest Challenge to inspire us to get the headboard constructed. And I still have quite a bit more up my sleeve as part of the bedroom overhaul, so I should have some more Pinterest inspired projects to share in the next few weeks.

Edited to add: Click here for a headboard update.

What a corker

2011-10-21T07:11:00.001-04:00

After three years of waiting, we finally replaced the floors in the bedrooms. It would have been relatively cheap and easy to just buy new carpeting, but we knew that wasn't what we wanted. One of the reasons it took us so long is that we didn't want to put in more carpeting. We wanted hard surface flooring, since it's more durable, easier to keep clean, and much easier on the respiratory system. We save up for our home improvements so that we can pay cash. (OK, actually we use credit cards because we rack up major rewards points with the big ticket purchases, but we pay the monthly balance in full, so we have to have the cash before we spend.) Floors got pushed back on the priority list for a while, but this summer was finally the time.

Some of the downsides to hard floors (besides that they are usually pricier than carpeting) are that they can be cold and not very acoustically friendly, which aren't great qualities for the bedroom. Our solution to this was to install cork flooring. Thanks to its natural insulating properties, it's warmer, quieter and easier on the legs than most kinds of hard flooring. The flooring we chose was an Apollo Brown floating floor made by APC Cork. We bought it at Menards, which is a Midwestern chain similar to Home Depot or Lowes. (We have those around here, too, but we have Green in addition to Orange and Blue)

This project was pretty much all James, though I did help a bit with the underlayment. He tells me the floating floor was fairly easy to install. It seemed to go quickly and smoothly. First he took out the carpeting, by cutting it into strips with a box knife and rolling them up. Luckily there is a carpet recycler just a couple of miles from our house, so James just loaded up the carpeting and hauled it there. We had to pay $20 bucks per load, but that was well worth it to keep it out of the landfill. James took out the tack strips with a crowbar. Then we had to clean up the floors, scrape away bit of glue and drywall mud and whatnot so we'd have a smooth surface to install over.

The process after that is to put down a strip of underlayment, install the floors over it, and then move to the next strip. James used some special tools to snap the pieces together. There's no glue or anything. He used spacers along the walls to leave a small gap so there's room for the floor to expand and contract. Once the floor was all in, he covered the gap with quarter round, which we bought pre-finished. That's pretty much what I know about it. If you have questions, ask away, and if I don't know, I'll try to get James to come field them.

We love the results. We think they look great, and they are so nice and warm underfoot. We can definitely feel how they have more give than the bamboo in the main rooms. It was a pretty big project, since he installed the new floors in all three bedrooms, and it's fantastic to be done. We've been shuffling the contents of our house around for a few months now! The floors are completely in, and things are mostly back in their places finally. We've been trying to purge and organize as we go. I've taken bags of stuff to Goodwill, and my closets are starting to look pretty good.

A quick comparison--before:

Now:

I've got quite a few more projects planned, but it feels great to be done with the big stuff. Now it's time to start adding the fun details.

Blue on Blue

2011-09-27T08:07:00.002-04:00

Since we decided to use two different colors of paint in the bedroom, we had to figure out how to incorporate them both. For a while we considered doing a chair rail and putting the lighter color above and the darker color below. I was thinking about going with a faux board and batten look, but then I decided two colors might make the room look too choppy, since the ceilings in the bedroom aren't very high. And I started seeing all these great wall stencils, so I suggested stenciling an accent wall. James was down with the idea. He gave some input, but he pretty much left the decision of what stencil to choose up to me. Now, my friends and family will tell you that selecting among an array of options is not my strong suit. I dither. One of the great things about being a vegetarian is it makes it much easier for me to order from an menu.

So it took me a few weeks to decide. There are so many gorgeous choices, like this from Cutting Edge Stencils and this from Olive Leaf Stencils. Eventually, after much agonizing, I settled on this damask from Royal Design Studio. Criteria I used to help narrow it down included: not too girly (read floral), not too geometric (I have an upholstered headboard planned that will be very geometric and I wanted contrast), not to much negative space in the design, so as to incorporate a good amount of our darker color into the room, and something more classic than trendy so that we won't quickly tire of something that took hours to do. The 10% off coupon code for this seller from Young House Love (YHL10) didn't hurt, either.

Compared to deciding which stencil to use, actually stenciling was a breeze, despite the fact that it took about eight hours to finish. I did a fair amount of googling about stenciling before I started. I wanted it to be as easy as possible. The most important tip I found was to use repositionable spray adhesive. I bought the adhesive seen above at Michaels. You spray the back of the stencil, and it keeps the paint from bleeding under the stencil. It worked like a charm. The edges came out really crisp. I took the stencil out to the back yard, laid in the grass, and gave the back a couple of thin and even coats with the adhesive.

The stencil I chose was 21 x 24.5 inches, which helped move the process along, so I shudder to think of how long it would have taken with a smaller stencil. I started in the center of the wall at the ceiling, which is recommended if you are doing one wall to make sure it comes out evenly on either side. The process was to position the stencil on the wall using the guide marks and the level. The stencil has extra little floating cut outs outside the main design that you use to match it up. You can see them in the pictures above. I used a level each time I repositioned the stencil just to make sure it didn't get wonky. Then I would roll the paint on in a couple of thin coats using a small roller, like this. I just used regular, full strength latex wall paint. I didn't worry about getting absolutely perfect coverage, since you with a pattern like this you really notice the big whole effect more than the tiny details. We bought a quart of Smoke Screen, which was more than enough for this project. Over time, it did gum up the stencil, so halfway through I washed it off with warm water, and then reapplied the spray adhesive. You could probably avoid the washing step if you thinned the paint, or used craft paint instead of latex. You'd still need to reapply the spray adhesive, because it wore off after a while.

I was able to do the bottom of the wall and the corners by taping the baseboard (or opposite wall, for the corners) and bending the stencil. You can see that above the previous paragraph. That didn't work for the top of the wall, though because gravity worked against me. Even with tape, the stencil wouldn't stay stuck to the ceiling, so after I had finished nearly everything but the top, I cut the stencil. Above you can see the parts I needed to cut the stencil to do. The bottom corners didn't really work that way either, because two folds was too tricky.

And here you can see the stencil after I cut it. I wish I would have taken a picture of how I marked the stencil to cut it, because it worked well but is hard to describe. I stuck the stencil on the wall, matching it up to one of the designs I had already stenciled. Then I took my level and lined it up to the tops of the designs on either side and marked the line straight across the stencil with a Sharpie. I peeled the stencil off the wall and cut it with a regular pair of scissors. I had no plans to use the stencil again, so I didn't mind cutting it. It made it far easier to finish the stenciling.

I absolutely love the results. It really adds a lot of interest and gives a whole different feel to the room. I'm pleased with the colors and the pattern. It was well worth the effort. I was surprised that even though it was fairly time consuming to do, it actually went really smoothly. I didn't really have any trouble. I just turned on some music and cranked it out. Next time I'll talk about installing the new floors, which you can see a bit of here.

New Coat of Paint

2011-09-26T08:08:00.002-04:00

You can see the test spots of paint colors on the walls in the last couple of posts. I wanted to go with something completely different from the yellow, something cool, restful, light and airy. James wanted something a little darker and moodier. We decided to incorporate two different shades of blue-grey. Like all the rest of the paint in our house, we used Olympic No-VOC paint from Lowes. The colors are April Sky and Smoke Screen.

In addition to painting the walls, we also painted the ceiling. I say we, but in this case, James actually painted the ceiling. He works four 10 hour days, so he did this on one of the days he has off that I had to work. This is not a fun job, so I seriously appreciate his effort. I know it's not a fun job because I did the ceilings of the other two bedrooms and the hall bath. We have textured ceilings. We weren't too keen on these when we bought the house, but they've kind of grown on us. Obviously it isn't a style that's currently popular or trendy, but it's one of the few features of our typical 1980s suburban home that shows some craftmanship, so I kind of appreciate it for that reason.

The previous owners of our home had had the ceilings of the great room and kitchen painted with a semi-gloss paint not too long before we bought the house. We kind of liked how that played up the texture and made it seem clean and bright, rather than dusty, which can be one of the downsides of textured ceilings. So we've painted the rest of the ceilings in semi-gloss as well. It might not be the choice others would make, but we're pleased with it, and it's our house. :) Above is a night time picture to display the texture. In real life it's more subtle and doesn't look this shiny/harsh. We just used off-the-shelf white semi-gloss, in the Olympic no-VOC. We bought a big 5 gallon bucket, since we knew over time we were doing all three bedrooms and two baths, and the texture soaks up a lot of paint. It actually ended up being a couple of years between the first set of rooms and the second, and we took the paint back to Lowes to have them spin it for us so it would be well mixed after settling all that time.

It's exciting to be pretty much done with the ceilings now, since they're such a pain to do. The only room we haven't painted yet is the laundry room. To paint the ceilings, we just used a deep (3/4 or 1 inch) napped roller. We used a broom handle attachment to the paint roller, and we did the cutting in with a brush and ladder. We taped off and/or removed light fixtures. If you do this, safety glasses are good idea, because paint splatters everywhere! You will get it in your eyes. Also, definitely do ceilings first, then walls. It's helpful if you can just clear everything out of the room, which we had to do in this case anyway since we were also installing floors. If not, be sure to cover everything very well. You will have a very tired neck and shoulders when you are finished. If you are doing a whole house at once, it might be worth renting a sprayer rather than doing it the hard way, like us! Thank goodness we didn't have to do the rooms with the cathedral ceilings ourselves.

Once James got the ceilings done, we tackled the walls. James and I are a pretty good painting team. Chiefly, I'm the roller and James does the cutting in. The rolling is straight forward. I don't have any special tips. I just use the W technique that you'll see in a million how-to tutorials, and try to roll it on in a few thin, even coats. For cutting in, James likes to use an edging tool, like this. It kind of takes some practice, but once you get the knack of it (like James) it means we don't tape off many things. His technique is to apply paint with the edger and then roll over it with a small roller to blend the paint to the rest of the walls. Without doing that, the edger leaves a brushed on look. Then we use a brush to get the corners and any other tight spaces the edger won't reach. Here is our lovely April Sky colored room. We're really pleased with the color. I like how it looks different in different lights. It's kind of fascinating to see it go from blue to grey to white to purple depending on the time of day and part of the room. I'll be back tomorrow to talk about what we did with Smoke Screen.

Bye Bye Borders

2011-09-21T09:18:00.000-04:00

I have never liked the wallpaper border in our bedroom, which you can see here. Since the previous owners used the room as an office, the pattern of books and a teapot didn't really feel appropriate to a bedroom. The repeat was very frequent, which I found a little annoying. I thought the dark colors made the ceiling feel lower, and that it was too much of a contrast with the pale yellow paint. Yet it took me almost three years of living here before I finished taking it down earlier this summer in preparation for painting.

I removed the border from the window wall about two and a half years ago when we installed the curtains. We didn't want to install the hardware over the border. Somehow I never made the time to finish the project. I was really lucky that there was no other wallpaper in the house, considering how (clearly not very) motivated I was to take down this small amount. When we were house hunting we looked at another house in this neighborhood that had wallpaper in nearly every room. I'm so glad we got this house, or I'd probably still be living with lots of '80s era wallpaper. Thankfully, borders are not too difficult to remove, and this one was paper, not vinyl, which made it even easier.

Full wallpaper is much more of a hassle. If you need to take that down, a mixture of 1 part water to 1 part fabric softener works well, and one of these scoring tools can be helpful. But to take down the border, I just used a (re-purposed) spray bottle filled with 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water, a scraper, and an old hand towel. And a good step stool, of course. It was a fairly simple process. I sprayed a section, peeled off the top layer, as seen above, sprayed the layer underneath, and then scraped off the paper with the scraper. I used the towel to keep the vinegar mixture from running down the walls, and to rub off tiny bits of paper that remained.

I stripped the bed and threw the sheets in the wash while I worked. Then I just stood on the bed to work on the wall above it. I made a huge mess as I worked, but after I finished I gathered up the pieces and threw them away. Then James vacuumed the floor. We ended up with clean bedding, a freshly vacuumed bedroom, and no more borders. Not a bad Saturday's work.

Below is pictured our bedroom with no borders (or furniture). I took the border down back in May, but I guess I didn't take any after shots at that point. This was the only picture I could find before we painted the walls. I was amazed at how much of a difference that one small change made in the room, and it really made me excited to get rolling on the all the bigger projects we had planned.

Our Bedroom, in the Beginning

2011-09-12T23:38:00.000-04:00

I said I would share our DIY adventures in our bedroom, and I thought I'd start by sharing what our bedroom looked like when we started. First of all, above you can see what it looked like just over three years ago when my husband did the walk-through before we bought it. The previous owners used the master bedroom as an office. That explains the bookshelf wallpaper border. There's really no explanation for the amount of stuff in there. It looked marginally better when we came to see it while house hunting, but I'm afraid at least one of the ladies we bought it from had issues with compulsive hoarding. I think you could say at this point the bedroom was dark and without form.

Below is a picture taken from the same angle in April of this year. This is taken from the door of the bedroom. We had made a few changes, but besides new windows, they're pretty minor. The valance didn't stay with the house. We took down the existing mini-blinds and hung the curtains when we added these. At that point I took down the border on the wall with the windows. Other than that we had put up some pictures, and I purchased a bunch of fabric, some of which I used to make covers for the rocking chair. We also installed the light fixture on the fan. It's not beautiful, but it's functional. You can see we had also tested our new paint colors on the wall.

The house was built in 1989, and this was the original carpeting. When we bought the house we had bamboo floors installed in kitchen, great room, and hallway. James steam cleaned the carpeting in the bedrooms before we moved in, and we planned to put in new floors in the bedrooms the next year. But James's job situation was in flux that year, so we waited. Then the next summer we decided it would be better to take advantage of the tax rebates and install new windows. So now here we are three years later, and we are so excited to be getting rid of the grungy 20+ year old carpeting in the bedrooms. It may look unobjectionable in that picture, but trust me, it was in bad shape. We had decided to wait to paint this room until we put in the new flooring, not realizing it would be such a long wait. Our bedroom has looked pretty much like this most of the time we've lived here.

Here are a few more angles. In the picture below, the doorway is just outside the frame on the right.

Around the corner below you can see the edge of door to the closet. Behind the wall with the bookcases is the bathroom. I'll share pictures of the closet and bathroom and the projects going on in those areas another day.

Our bedroom was reasonably tidy in these pictures, but these before pictures also keep it pretty real with the clutter on top of the bookcases and laundry baskets. We've got plans to address those things after we put everything back together. The bedroom is a good size, which is one of the reasons we chose this house. We thought it had a lot of potential. We've made a lot of progress toward realizing that potential now. Next time, I'll talk about the first project I completed, which was taking down the rest of the border.

21 Day Challenge, Day 21: Work It

2011-09-04T23:57:00.000-04:00

Today is the last day of the Challenge! Wow, I can't believe I made it through the whole thing and participated every day. It was a great experience to think of my clothes as an outlet for creativity, and to stretch myself by trying new things with my clothing. I think it helped me get a better feel for my own style, and I hope to carry some of what I learned with me. Also it was great to take on a project that required some blogging discipline and actually complete it. I'm pretty excited about that, and another thing I hope to do is carry that blogging energy forward to new topics (the bedroom DIY projects will get talked about, for sure). Also, it was really fun to see all the outfits of the other ladies, check out their interpretations of the prompts, and get some some feedback about my efforts. I will add a few new blogs to my reader. As positive as the experience has been, I'm kind of glad it's over. I'll be glad to have a little more free time to work on other things. Blogging every single day is a little too much for me. We'll see what kind of pattern I'll fall into with it now.

The final prompt was to put together a great outfit showcasing what we've learned. This dress has been hanging in my closet for a year, and I've never worn it before. After I got it, I washed it, as you do. But then it needed ironing, and it's linen. And the skirt is super full with a ton of those panels. So I knew it was going to take for-ev-er to iron. And it did. An hour. It took a whole hour. I listened to an entire disk of Neil Diamond's greatest hits while ironing this dress. But I'm glad I did it. Closet orphan, no more. I love the dress, and I think in the future I might have it dry-cleaned. :) But it definitely illustrated one of the main things I learned from this challenge. Looking put together and styled requires a lot of ironing! I think I ironed at least one thing for 21 out of 22 outfits. That is a crazy high percentage for me, since my most common method of choosing outfits is to go for whatever doesn't need ironed. This outfit also showcases my new-found love for belts, layering, and statement jewelry. Right now I can only make the one statement, but that is something I plan to work on.

And I said 22 outfits because after church today we headed to the toe of the state to spend some time with my family over Labor Day weekend. My husband had to be here for the annual family fantasy football draft, and I tagged along to hang out with my grandmother, aunts and cousins. I changed into something a little more comfortable and appropriate for that part of our agenda. I'm sharing this outfit too, because another thing I learned was to take as much trouble with your casual, hanging out with family or Saturday running errands outfits as you do with your go to church or go to work looks. Although I admit, my outfit for tomorrow involved far less thought. I even forgot to pack shoes for it. Hopefully I'll do a little better at applying what I've learned in the future. It was a really fun ride. Thanks to Kayla for hosting this virtual shindig. Thanks to everyone who has put in a kind word and indulged me in this exercise, and thanks to my husband for taking my picture every day without complaint or mockery.

Church--Dress:Calvin Klein, TJ Maxx; Sweater: DKNY, thrifted; Shoes: Target, Necklace: made by me, beads from Michael's

Casual--Shirt: Clio, hand me down; Sweater: see above; Shorts:Target; Shoes: Liz Claiborne, thrifted; headband: belt from dress

21 Day Challenge, Day 20: Sunday Shoes.

2011-09-03T23:24:00.005-04:00

I really don't have much delineation between church shoes and everyday shoes. If anything, I tend to wear more comfortable shoes for church, since it involves a lot of standing, whereas at work I spend most of my day sitting at my desk with my shoes kicked off. I do admit, I tend to go for the most casual footwear on Saturdays. Today we were supposed to pull out the fancy kicks. But it was the first Saturday of the month. You may think this has nothing to do with fancy shoes, but that's where you'd be wrong. On the first Saturday of the month the Indianapolis area Goodwill stores have their storewide 50% off sale. I go to the two closest Goodwill stores, which takes several hours if I am looking for clothes. Consequently, I just wasn't going to go for any fancy heels today. I decided to take the Sunday Shoes thing literally, and I wore the comfy wedges I wore the first Sunday of the challenge. And I decided to give the neutral with a pop of color thing another go, since I wasn't thrilled with my outfit for that prompt. I'm pretty pleased with this one. And it wasn't even bad for trying on clothes. I just left the scarf pinned and slipped it off over my head.

Here is my haul for the day. I got all this for less than $20. I bought a pair of wide leg khakis, my first pair of skinny jeans, a patterned coral tunic, stretchy striped Tee, cabled coral sweater, pale pink cashmere, a belt, and some navy wedges. I spent longer than usual today, since I don't generally bother to look at the patterned shirts. I had never looked at the belts before, either. They are only 50 cents on half price day! The challenge has definitely given me a new eye.

21 Day Challenge, Day 19: Wear Something On Your Head

2011-09-02T21:39:00.001-04:00

Wearing a scarf headband seemed like an easy way to meet today's prompt: wear some kind of head accessory. I don't think I've ever worn a scarf like this before, and when I tried it out, I thought it seemed very 1950s. I went with that idea, and rolled up my jeans, which was a smart move since it was 95 here today. Classic Keds or saddle shoes would have suited the theme, but I don't have any, so ballet flats seemed like the way to go. Here I am in my fave green shoes again, since they are my only ballet flats. I've got to say, wearing three different shades of green kind of hurt my brain. I felt ready to whip off my scarf to start a drag race, but I can't quite decide if the greens worked or not. I'm glad the challenge is taking me out of my comfort zone, though.

Scarf: gift from my Mom from India; Shirt: hand me down; Shoes and jeans: thrifted

21 Day Challenge, Day 18: Statement Jewelry

2011-09-01T23:51:00.001-04:00

I was really excited about my outfit for today's challenge. I previously didn't own anything you could really call statement jewelry, unless that statement was a very subtle one. But last week I wore this T-shirt on jazz up your jeans day, and I just didn't think it was jazzy enough. I really wanted it to have some more pops of red, so when I saw that today was statement jewelry day, I knew I wanted a chunky red necklace. I didn't have a lot of time to be combing stores looking for something, so I just went to Michael's. They have a big bead selection, and they were having a sale. I bought three packs of these beads and some clear elastic cord. The packs of beads were about 5.60 each, and the cord was 2.50, so the necklace came out to about $20. Frankly, that was pretty painful to my cheapskate self, since I've been buying all my clothes at thrift stores. Luckily, I was returning some stuff I didn't need for a different project, so even with the 1.92 for 2 yards of ribbon for my belt, I only had to fork over about six bucks.

I have to say, I actually do think it was money well spent. I love the necklace, and I got tons of compliments on my outfit at work today. Since we'll be promoting Geek the Library through the spring, I'll be wearing this shirt a lot. I like having the red necklace to wear with this shirt, since I tend to look like death warmed over when I wear black next to my face. I think this necklace will also look great with turquoise. Plus it will be fun to wear at Christmas time. So, no regrets. I still have plenty of elastic cord, so I will probably make some more jewelry, too. Thanks to the 21 Day Challenge I will be checking thrift stores for jewelry and belts in the future.

I'd like to note that I wore my remix piece for the fourth time today. See the other looks here, here, and here. All four outfits were combinations I'd never worn before, and I thought they were pretty different looks. The neutral one was kind of blah, (too much neutral, not enough pop) but I really liked the others. I'd say overall the remix project was a success. I might try some starch when ironing this skirt in the future since it tends to get really wrinkly by the end of the day. The remix was a very fun and useful challenge.

Finally, I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year! It's a time of endings and new beginnings, and we are very nearly to the end of the 21 Day Challenge. I have had a great time, learned a lot, and enjoyed meeting some new people.

T-shirt: www.geekthelibrary.org ; Skirt: Target; Shoes: Keds; Belt:grosgrain ribbon, Michaels; Necklace: I made it, beads from Michaels

21 Day Challenge, Day 17: Repair It and Wear It

2011-08-31T23:10:00.000-04:00

Today we were enjoined to take something out of our mending piles, fix it, and wear it. I have a pair of pants that have wax on them from Holy Week (ahem, 2010) and my plan was to clean those up and wear them. But I couldn't find them. I had recently pulled them out of the pile and left them on the guest bed in the hopes of spurring me to take action on. Currently the guest bed is disassembled and leaning against the wall as part of our remodeling upheaval, so clearly they are no longer there. I poked around a bit, but there are all kinds of bags and boxes of stuff in the guest room right now, so I gave up. I did manage to find my mending pile. It contains: 3 winter sweaters, 2 pairs of pants and a shirt belonging to James, a towel, one pair of pants with completely seam ripped legs, which in theory I intend to convert to a skirt, and this shirt. There were also a few things that had been in the pile so long that they no longer fit, and they are now in the donate pile. There was no way I was going to wear I a sweater, since I thought it was too hot for slacks and a long sleeved shirt yesterday. The towel and the clothes belonging to James were definitely out. My sewing machine is inaccessible, thanks to the general mayhem, so that ruled out the pants/future skirt project.

That left this shirt. Confession: I didn't actually repair the shirt before I wore it. It has a small rip in one of the ties, right where it's attached to the shirt. You can't see it when it's tied. The shirt has been in the repair pile for years. It never got fixed because I'm not that keen on this shirt. It's one of those weird tie it 100 different ways for 98 strange and unflattering looks shirts. It was a freebie from an Avon grab bag, and I figured I'd wear it as a test run before going to the trouble of fixing it. I'm still on the fence about whether or not I want to keep it. Feel free to cast your vote as to whether or not it's a keeper. I put it on and I thought, "Meh, I hate this shirt." But then, thanks to all the fashion knowledge I've absorbed in the last 17 days, I decided to tuck it in. And I tied the tie so it was like a belt. I've always worn it tied under the bust for an empire waste before. I don't hate it like this, but I can't say I love it either. I do love the skirt, though. And I got a new hair dryer yesterday, so I'm loving my haircut, too.

Shirt: Avon; Tank: Kohls; Skirt: Thrifted (vintage), Shoes: Shoe Carnival; Jewelry: Don't remember.

21 Day Challenge, Day 16: Menswear Inspired

2011-08-30T22:19:00.002-04:00

Today the prompt was to create a menswear inspired outfit. This was a pretty fun one. It felt natural to me, and check out how I'm applying what I've learned. Not only did I tuck my shirt in and belt it again, I've actually layered accessories. I thought the dogtag style necklace went with the whole menswear thing, and I decided to add pearls for a classic feminine touch. These pants have a herringbone stripe, so they fit the challenge perfectly. I didn't raid my husband's closet for the tie, I actually bought it several years ago for a Hermione costume, and it's not the first time I've worn it as a belt. I also wore it the day the final Harry Potter book was released. I liked this outfit, but it felt pretty autumnal. Fall is not here yet in central Indiana. Ironically, I was a bit too warm wearing this when we were rehearsing our dancing librarians routine for the Fall Festival parade today. In non-clothing related news, here's a bit of a sneak peek of more of the work that's been going on in our bedroom this week.

Shirt: Eddie Bauer; Pants: Scott Taylor, Stein Mart; Tie: Brooks, thrifted; Shoes: Danexx (That's the brand name on them. I don't remember the name of the store where I bought them) Jewelry: dogtag, Anne Klein, Pearls: I've had the necklace since high school, they're fake and probably from Claire's; Earrings, they were my mother's, real.

21 Day Challenge, Day 15: New Hair Do

2011-08-29T22:31:00.000-04:00

I mentioned yesterday that I was excited about today's prompt, which is to sport a new hairstyle. Kayla, the host of the 21 Day Challenge told us, ”Your head has the power to makeorbreak your outfit (AND your confidence).” It occurred to me that I always feel the most confident with a bob, and that all summer long I've been wanting to get my hair cut. It's been driving me crazy for the past month, so I took the challenge as the push I needed to get it cut. It definitely gave me a confidence boost today, and that's despite the fact that my hair dryer fritzed out on me this morning. I'll have to make sure I don't put off replacing it as long as I put off getting a haircut.

In honor of confidence boosts, I wore my favorite shirt. Not sure I love it with this skirt, though. It's been helpful to see my clothes in photos. A full length mirror is just not the same perspective.

Shirt, vintage; Skirt, J. Crew; Shoes, Avon; Bracelet, gift--Moroccan

21 Day Challenge, Day 14, Copycat

2011-08-28T15:53:00.001-04:00

When I read today's prompt, find an outfit you love and recreate it,my first thought was: "Oh, no!" You might think it would be kind of fun and easy to copy somebody else's outfit, but before this I didn't read fashion blogs, and I while I love Pinterest, I've been pinning house stuff, not clothes. The only thing I had pinned to my "wearables" board was a swimming suit. Not really an outfit I could recreate. Yesterday I worked a half day, and then spent the rest of the day working on my bedroom. I managed to squeeze in a little time looking at the fashion and apparel boards on Pinterest to find an outfit I could recreate. I settled on this:

Source: polyvore.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Finding a look I liked that I could actually replicate with my own clothes on short order was definitely a challenge. Then add into the mix that I needed a church outfit, and I felt pretty stumped. When I saw this, I thought it was pretty cute. I'm a fan of blue and green together, and I happen to have a green purse. Plus, I have a blue and white striped silk shell. So I decided to take this basic idea and dress it up a little for church. So here we go. I like the scarf in the inspiration pic, but I don't have one with this shade of green. I decided to go with my green flats and green jewelry. All in all, I was pleased with this outfit, and I think I might try the casual version sometime, too. Maybe I'll have to start pinning clothing more in the future.

Since you can't see my bracelet in the picture, and I love it, here's a picture of it, too. It's malachite and lapis lazuli. My mom gave it to me when I was in high school.

Oh, and I was having a terrible hair day, and I'm really excited about tomorrow's prompt!

Cardigan: Croft and Barrow, thrifted; Shell: Silx, hand me down; Skirt: Jones & Co., Stein Mart; Shoes: Repetto, thrifted; necklace: I made it; Purse: Coach, inherited from my kind, generous, funny, smart,beautiful, stylish cousin who departed this life in January at the age of 34 from complications related to Diabetes. Memory eternal, Alison!

21 Day Challenge, Day 13: Neutrals with a Pop of Color

2011-08-27T23:58:00.000-04:00

Over all I think I liked my outfits for week one of the 21 Day Challenge better than my week two efforts. Traveling definitely added an extra layer of complication to things at the beginning of the week, and the rest of the week has been so busy as a result that I still didn't have much energy to put into my clothes. Hopefully I can step up my game for the third and final week. I'm looking forward to some of the prompts, and some will be more of a reach. Should be fun, though.

Today the prompt was to wear neutrals with with a pop of color. I figured this was a good chance to wear my remix skirt again, since white is definitely a neutral. I just wanted something easy, since I knew it would be a long day. I threw on a heathered grey t-shirt and these bright peep toe flats for my pop of color. That was still pretty boring, so I added this shell necklace. I like that the pink beads tie in with my shoes, but the shells still read as neutral. Not the most adventurous outfit, but it got the job done. James didn't get home from work until I was in the midst of painting, so we took this picture after I had showered for dinner. You can see random evidence of DIY in the photo. I'm really pleased with the progress we're making, and as soon as the Challenge is over I'll start chronicling our DIY adventures.

T-shirt: J. Crew, thrifted; Skirt: Target, remix! Shoes: Avon (My mom works for Avon corporate, so I think these were free in some grab bag) Necklace: Some vacation?

21 Day Challenge, Day 12: Jazz Up Jeans

2011-08-26T22:52:00.003-04:00

Jazzing up jeans is not really something I typically do these days. Usually I reach for jeans because they are easy, and at work more often than not I'm wearing some obligatory T-shirt with them. Witness today's shirt: Geek the library is a national campaign to promote public libraries, their value to communities, and the services they provide. The library where I work kicked off the campaign locally this week. It makes use of the word geek as a verb meaning to be passionate for or really interested in something. Whatever you geek, your local public library has resources to support your interest. So if you geek fashion, you may find the library has subscriptions to your favorite fashion mags, and if you geek church history your library may have or can inter-library loan books on that topic. Libraries offer all kinds of resources to help you get your geek on, like wi-fi, community rooms, instructional DVDs, online classes and materials, programs, and, yes, books. So if you haven't visited your local library lately, you should check it out. And if you're already a big fan of libraries, you might want to see what you can do to support library funding in your community. Library funding has taken a hit all over the country, and library use goes up during economic downturns. Unfortunately, libraries tend to have the least money when we have the most users. /public service announcement

Since we kicked off the campaign this week, I wanted to wear my T-shirt, team player that I am. I would probably have worn it yesterday with my skirt, and gone with something a little jazzier today if I had known today was going to be just jeans, not jeans and a tee. I think this would be more fun with another pop of red, like a red belt, or some big red beads. However, I had to work with what I've got, so I did what I could with red heels, and ”fancy” jewelry. I also added this belt since I learned last Friday that a belt and heels go a long way to dress up jeans and a t-shirt. My assessment of this outfit: not bad, but room for improvement. Since we will be running Geek the Library through the spring, I'm going to have to get some red accessories.

Jeans: Old Navy, thrifted; T-shirt: www.geekthelibrary.org; Shoes, bracelets, earrings: Target, Belt: came with a dress

21 Day Challenge, Day 11: Skirt or Dress

2011-08-25T23:17:00.000-04:00

We're just over halfway through the 21 Day Challenge! Good news if you're getting bored with seeing pictures of my clothes every day. Or if you're my husband and you're getting sick of taking my picture every day. And have you noticed it's getting dark earlier? I got home before dark today, but I started fixing dinner and the next thing I knew the sun had set. I'm kind of bummed because this was one of my favorite outfits so far, and this picture doesn't do justice to these shoes. I really liked how fresh and summery the green and white felt. Autumn may be coming fast, but I'm not ready for it quite yet.

The prompt today was to wear a skirt or dress. This was, without a doubt, the easiest one for me so far. I love wearing skirts and dresses. You may have guessed that by the fact that I wore one every day for the first week. They're so comfortable, and they're much easier in terms of fit than pants and shorts. My first thought with this prompt was to wear a dress, since I've only worn one so far, but then I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to wear my remix piece. It seemed like a no-brainer, since it is a skirt. I've also been wanting a chance to wear these fun green flats, which are a recent Goodwill find. I will definitely wear this again.

Shirt: Old Navy, thrifted; Shoes: Repetto, thrifted; Skirt: Target; jewelry: gifts

21 Day Challenge, Day 10: Closet Orphan

2011-08-24T23:21:00.000-04:00

Imagine the clothes you have hanging around, gathering dust at the back of your closet because you never wear them. Those are your closet orphans, and today for the 21 Day Challenge we were supposed to drag one out and wear it. I don't know about you, but most of my clothes are in regular rotation, except for the ones that don't quite fit. I do have several items in that category that I'm particularly fond of and can't bring myself to donate. You know, just in case I lose 5-10 pounds.

So that limited my options of wearable closet orphans. However, I've had this shirt for about three years, and I'd only worn it once before. It is blue silk shot with purple, and I guess it just seems really dressy to me. I never think to wear it; the one time I did wear it was for a wedding. Today, I decided to embrace the dressiness, and I wore it with tuxedo pants. It's rather hard to see the satin stripe on the pant leg since I get home after dark on Wednesdays. I actually really liked this outfit, so I think I'll start wearing this shirt more. I'd say operation closet orphan was a success.

Since I had to take a picture inside, here I am in my bedroom with our beautiful new cork floor. As you can see by the lack of outlet covers, the bedroom is still a work in progress, but the floor is such a huge step in the right direction.

Shirt & pants: hand me downs, Shoes: Shoe Carnival, Jewelry: gifts

21 Day Challenge, Day 9: Monochrome

2011-08-23T22:25:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that I am 5'2", and wearing all one color is supposed to make you look taller, this is something I very rarely do. For some reason I feel weird about it. Partly I think it's my deeply ingrained desire for colors to match precisely. If they aren't exactly the same shade, I feel like they shouldn't be worn together. I'm trying to stretch myself as part of the 21 Day Challenge. So I'm trying to break myself of the matchy-matchy thing. For instance, on color blocking day, my scarf and skirt were slightly different shades of green. Two different green tones! Wacky, right? And for today's monochromatic prompt here I am in all brown, even though the browns are not the same. I'm breaking my self-imposed rules. (Or maybe mother imposed?)

I thought this was kind of boring, and I wish I would have gone with another color. I could have managed a monochrome outfit in all green, but I've worn both of my green skirts already. I don't have many skirts or pants that are not neutrals. I did really like the jewelry with it, though. I only wore this for about 2 hours today, and I don't think anyone saw it besides my husband. We just got up and drove home this morning. James took my picture (once again in our backyard), we ate lunch, and then we spent the rest of the day working on the flooring in our bedroom.

I stuck with the monochrome look for my work clothes, though. Two shades of blue! I feel no personal obligation for my clothes to match when I am installing flooring underlayment, however, so I didn't really go out on a limb with the different blues. We finished the floor today! We set up the bed in our room again, and we are pretty excited to be sleeping in our own bed tonight. There are still a number of other projects ahead of us in our bedroom, and we also still have to install the new flooring in the other two bedrooms. Even so, it felt pretty wonderful to finish this phase of the project.

Shirt: Kohls; Capris: Ann Taylor Loft; Shoes: Target; Necklace & earrings: made by my SIL; Bracelet: gift; I'm also wearing a tank. It's beige, so it's blending in with my skin tone and not really showing up in this picture. It's from the Limited, and I've had it for about 12 years. I'm sure you're dying to know the sources for my work clothing, too. The t-shirt was designed by a fellow AmeriCorps*NCCC member back in 2001. The shorts are a pair of my little brother's old gym shorts.

21 Day Challenge, Day 8: Mixing Fancy & Casual

2011-08-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

I think packing for a trip is challenging enough without adding another later of complication, but we are spending a couple of days in a state park lodge as a little anniversary getaway/escape from remodeling chaos. So here I am with a travel edition of the 21 Day Challenge, squinty vacation picture and all. I was a little concerned when I saw the prompt for today was to mix dressy and casual, since my plans for the day included hiking and swimming. I puzzled over it for quite a while, but finally I thought of this shirt. I usually wear it with black pants or skirt. Full disclosure: I did not wear this for hiking or swimming. :-) But it was great for playing tourist in town where we wandered around checking out boutiques and galleries. I even got a few compliments on my shirt. We are having a great time and enjoying gorgeous weather. Back to vacation now; I'll write more about our trip later.

Details: Shirt: Hand me down; Jeans: Target, thrifted; Shoes, Sketchers; one of my bracelets from yesterday

21 Day Challenge, Day 7: Layering Accessories

2011-08-21T23:44:00.000-04:00

I made it through week one, and I've met every challenge! Plus I've blogged every day, which is unheard of for me. Now, there's no chance I'm going to become a fashion blogger after this 21 Day Challenge is over, but it has been such a great experience so far. We'll see if I've changed my tune after week two. :-) Today the challenge was to layer accessories. I don't think I came up with a particularly interesting look, but it is definitely outside my normal comfort zone. I've actually been accessorizing much more than normal this past week. Typically I wear my cross and the same pair of silver earrings, and maybe I'll throw on a bracelet. I used to wear more jewelry, but I have a bad habit of losing it. My skin is pretty sensitive, and I don't really like the feel of it, so I take it off and misplace it. All this to say, generally I don't really bother with accessories, so I definitely don't layer them.

I played around with them a lot trying to decide what to layer. I had fun with it, but in the end I decided to keep it pretty simple. We left on a short getaway right after church, and since we were going to be spending time in the car and playing tourist, my main goal with my clothing was comfort. I decided to wear a necklace with my cross, and wear three bracelets. I pretty much never wear other necklaces with my cross. On the rare occasion that I do wear a different necklace, I just don't wear the cross. What I took from this challenge is that I'll have to be on the lookout for other necklaces I can wear with it, because I feel kind of naked without my cross.

Dress and shoes: Kohls; Tank: Valerie Stevens, hand me down (it's part of a twinset with the cardigan I wore Monday; Cross: gift; Turquoise necklace: ? I don't remember; Bracelets: I made the one with black beads, the other two are hand me downs

21 Day Challenge: Day 6, Unconventional

2011-08-20T21:20:00.002-04:00

Today for the 21 Day Challenge we were supposed to take an item of clothing and wear it in an unconventional fashion. At the beginning of the week I thought this would be really hard for me. Thankfully, after a week of seeing all the creative outfits the other women in the challenge were putting together, it was a lot easier to get my head around the idea.

I ended up having a very swimwear oriented day. I struck on the idea of using this bikini top from my college days. Even though I haven't worn a bikini in years, I haven't let go of this one because I love the colors. I tried this as a headband, which I really liked, but then when I was trying to decide what to wear with it, I thought of this T-shirt dress. It's also from college, making both of these over 10 years old, and I've only kept the dress for use as a swimsuit cover-up. I thought it would tie in well with the orange in the swimsuit. So then I decided to tuck it into this skirt, and wear the swimsuit top as a belt/sash.

I'm hitting on a ton of challenge prompts today. I'm tucked in, belted, and wearing a closet orphan, in addition to fulfilling the prompt for today. I thought it wasn't a bad look for casual Saturday running errands. But I don't recommend unconventional dressing when you're going to be trying on clothes! One of my errands was to try on some clearance swimsuits for a brief getaway we're taking this week. No luck unfortunately, and this outfit was kind of a hassle to take off and put on.

T-shirt dress as shirt: the Limited; bandeau bikini top as sash: Old Navy; Skirt (only 5 years old), J. Crew; Flip flops: my mom brought these back from India

21 Day Challenge: Day 5, Belt It

2011-08-19T21:57:00.001-04:00

Today the prompt for the 21 Day Challenge was to wear a belt. This was actually the hardest one for me so far. I have three belts, and I wore one of them for Day 2, Tuck It In, so my choices were limited. As far as I can recall, I have never, no not ever, worn a belt over a shirt, so I tried something new. I wasn't thrilled with the result. The belt felt awkward, and I kept fussing with it all day. I did like how the belt dressed up a simple T-shirt. I think without the belt this would have seemed too casual for work, even for jeans day. Plus, I love these shoes, and they worked for this prompt because they have a belt thing going on with the buckles. I think I might like belting a shirt more if I had a belt that stayed in place better. I'm glad I tried something different for me, and I think I'll be more open to belts in the future.

Shirt: Ann Taylor Loft; Jeans: Target, thrifted; Belt: Kohl's; Shoes: Nine West, Stein Mart; Necklace: made for me by my lovely sister-in-law; Bracelet, gift from my parents, who got it as a souvenir in Morocco about 20 years ago.

21 Day Challenge: Day 4, Color Blocking

2011-08-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

Today was color blocking day for the 21 Day Challenge which is basically wearing multiple solid colors together. This is actually something I do all the time, since most of my wardrobe pieces are solids. Usually I pair a bright with a neutral, so since I'm doing this challenge to challenge myself, I went with two brights. Plus, I wore a scarf! I know, heady stuff, but usually my major consideration when getting dressed is what I can wear that doesn't need to be ironed. Accessories don't typically enter into it. This challenge has been really fun and inspiring so far. I can't wait to see what the prompts are for next week.

Details: Sweater: Ann Taylor, thrifted; S.L.B., hand me down; Scarf: gift, my best friend brought this back for me after she was in India with the Foreign Service; Shoes: Liz Claiborn, Stein Mart; Bracelet, gift from my mother in law--it has a little guy and girl charms, the year we got married, plus three hearts to represent the three family weddings that summer.

21 Day Challenge: Day 3, Pattern Mixing

2011-08-17T23:48:00.001-04:00

Today the prompt for the 21 Day Challenge was pattern mixing. I don't really wear many patterns. I'd say 90% of my clothing is solid, so mixing patterns definitely isn't something I do, um, ever. I immediately knew what I wanted to wear for this challenge, though. I've kind of been wanting to wear these two pieces together. I like the combo of navy and green, but my mind always balked at the pattern mixing. I don't know why I couldn't bring myself to try this before. I'm not exactly out on a limb with this outfit. The pattern on the shirt is so subtle you can't even see it in my photo! The second chapter of Pattern Mixing for Beginners by Dotty Houndstooth (my imaginary guide) is: Try Patterns that Read as Solids. The first chapter, if you're wondering, is: Try Stripes. I'm sure there are more chapters, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm taking baby steps with the patterns.

I added the inset so you can see the tiny polka dots in my shirt. I had to prove I really did mix patterns. Sorry for the terrible photo where you can't even see my mixing efforts. I didn't get home until after dark, and it just wasn't happening with the cell phone. It was bedtime, and we didn't have the energy to track down the regular camera and batteries in the chaos that is remodeling. Anyway, I think the pattern mixing was a success, even thought I didn't get any shrugs. :) I'll have to try harder next time. I think I'd have to buy some more patterned shirts to manage it, though.

Outfit details--Top and skirt: Ann Taylor Loft, a few years ago; earrings and bracelets: Target, last year; shoes: Nina, my wedding shoes! Still love these, 8 years ago from Lazarus, which is now Macy's.

Despite the fact that it's getting rather ragged at this point, and I'm in my jammies, I wanted to show my favorite part of my look for today. This pic makes me think of Hermione, "Is that really how my hair looks from the back?"

21 Day Challenge: Day 2, Tuck It In

2011-08-16T23:49:00.002-04:00

OK, so today's challenge was to tuck it in. I almost never wear my shirt tucked in, and the last few times I've tried it, I've been dissatisfied with my outfit. I felt like I was going to have trouble with this challenge, and I didn't pick anything out until this morning. I had visions of myself trying on every pair of pants I own, but then I thought of this skirt. This was the first thing I put on today, and I loved it! I never would have thought of wearing a shirt tucked into this skirt if it weren't for the challenge, and I will probably wear this again.

Outfit details: my shirt is from Eddie Bauer, 5-10 years old. Tank is Danzen, thrifted. The skirt is from the Gap. I was so pleased when I found it at a thrift store last month. It is fun to wear because it's very full and twirly. My shoes are from Payless, 4-5 years ago. I've always liked the color combo in them; they're kind of peach striped with green, and the heels are green. The belt is a hand me down from a friend. The bracelet was a gift. It's originally supposed to be a choker, but the beads feel sharp to me, so I twisted the wire into a bracelet. It has a bigger bead dangling from it that you can't see in the pic. My basic white earrings are from Target last year.

So that's it for today.

21 Day Challenge: Day 1

2011-08-15T23:55:00.000-04:00

Here is my first outfit for the 21 Day Challenge. This is definitely going to be a learning experience. I've never read fashion blogs before, and I really don't enjoy shopping. For me clothes are pretty utilitarian. It's going to be interesting to try to think about them a little more creatively and step out of my usual comfort zone. I wouldn't say that I really did that here, but I have never worn these three pieces all together before.

Since I haven't bought clothes anywhere besides a thrift store in over a year, I don't know how helpful it is to share sources for my clothes, but that seems to be part of the deal. Here's the info, for what it's worth. My sweater is a hand-me-down from a friend, tag says Valerie Stevens. Top is from Old Navy, 10+ years ago. Skirt is from Target, 5+ years ago. I bought the shoes at Shoe Carnival 8 years ago (the summer I got married). I'm not sure what brand they are. Earrings were a gift.

One thing I've learned already is I feel completely awkward getting my picture taken for this. I'm so impressed with you bloggers who do this regularly, and have such lovely photos. Mine was taken in the Home Depot parking lot. A good reflection of my life lately. :)

The white eyelet skirt is what I will remix. It's pretty versatile, and I figure I might as well wear it now; summer will be gone before we know it. The top is kind of a gingham seersucker, and the sweater is trimmed in bugle beads. That's about all I have to say about my clothing, except that I wore blue today for the Dormition. I try to wear blue for the feasts of the Theotokos.

Joyous feast to my normal readers! I don't have the energy for two separate posts, so here is our church's new Dormition icon.

21 Day Challenge

2011-08-12T00:45:00.000-04:00

Sign me up. I'm probably crazy to try something like this when my bedroom currently looks like this:

Or to put it in words, it's a construction site, and most of my clothes are consequently jammed into the guest bedroom closet. I'm not even sure where some of them are, because James took them out when he painted the ceiling of our closet. Hmmm. I'll have to check with him about that. But even so, I'm kind of excited about this idea. I learned about it from Rebekah at Verdant Bents.

As you might guess from the picture, we've got this whole bedroom makeover in the works. Since it will include the closet, over the summer I've been trying to go through my clothes and get rid of things that don't fit and that I don't love to wear. I've also been trying to replace some of the clothes I've been divesting myself of with clothes that do fit, that I do love to wear. I've been thinking a lot more about clothes than I usually do, which is why I'm keen on this idea, despite the craziness going on around here.

This challenge is hosted by Freckles in April, a new-to-me blog. I really like that Kayla does fashion blogging as a regular girl on a budget, and that, like me, she gets a lot of her clothes at thrift shops. Other things we have in common: we both have freckles, were born in April, and like to cook healthy foods for our families. So I'm going to trust her enough to spend August 15-September 4 getting dressed based on her prompts, and, um, posting pictures of my outfits on the internet. Should be fun. Go check it out. There are even cool prizes involved, if you want to join in.

Transfiguration

2011-08-06T17:07:00.000-04:00

Our parish has commissioned a set of festal icons from iconographer Dennis Bell, and we received three new ones this week. One of them was the Transfiguration, so not only did we have the blessing of the first fruits today, we had the blessing of the new icon. You can see it's still wet with holy water. I wish you could see it in person, instead of my poor effort with my cell phone camera. It's quite beautiful. I wanted to display it larger so that you could see some of the details. I had to edit the html of my blog template to change the margins, so please let me know if that's resulted in any weird formatting for you.

I also took some pictures during the blessing of the icon, but later when I was taking the picture of the icon itself, I wondered why the camera just wouldn't seem to focus. Then I realized the lens was smudged. That explains why my pictures have been so blurry this week! I wish I could pretend my picture of first fruits below is intentionally blurry for artistic reasons. Ah, well. Sometimes I think I might enjoy getting a nice camera and learning photography, but for now I'll see if I can improve things simply by keeping the lens clean.

Tomatoes are the fruit of the vine for this Indiana girl, and the yellow tomato is literally the first fruit from that plant. I picked these this morning before liturgy. We sliced them up and ate them afterward, along with the grapes and other fruits which people had brought. It was lovely. I hope you have had (or will have) a lovely feast day as well .

Joyous feast!

Fast Food Friday: TLTs

2011-08-05T08:05:00.001-04:00

Since we're in the midst of the Dormition fast, I thought I'd share a favorite summertime fasting recipe. At the beginning of August tomatoes start coming on fast and furious in central Indiana. It's also usually so hot and humid that anything that requires much cooking is pretty unappealing, making the classic Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich a perfect dinner. I remember having them often this time of year as a kid, but of course, I've been a vegetarian for now for about 10 years. So, no bacon for me.

Enter tempeh "bacon." While we occasionally eat vegetarian meat substitutes, I avoid them during fasting periods. I just don't see this as one, because honestly, it's nothing like real bacon. It has a totally different texture, and it just doesn't taste like meat. But it does make a smoky, flavorful sandwich filling that's a great foil for lettuce and tomato. This recipe is adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

The ingredients:

3 Tbs. soy sauce
3 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs. molasses
1 Tbs. tomato paste
1 Tbs. water
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 8 oz. package of tempeh
2 Tbs. oil for frying

Measure all the ingredients but the last two ingreients into a container for marinating, such as a covered baking dish. Whisk them together until well combined. Slice the tempeh into 1/4 inch. thin strips. The shape doesn't really matter, but I cut them like this:

Add your strips to the marinade and make sure the strips are well coated. Treat them fairly gently, or the tempeh will crumble. Put in the refrigerator to marinate for at least an hour. I did this in the morning before I went to work. The night before works great, too.

When you're ready, heat your oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add your tempeh strips, and cook about 3-5 minutes. How long it takes will depend on your pan and how hot your stove cooks. They go from nicely browned to burnt to a crisp quickly, so watch them carefully. When they are browned flip them over and cook for another 2-4 minutes, until the other side is browned. Remove from heat. You can toss them with the remaining marinade (take out the garlic), if you like.

Enjoy on a sandwich with fresh tomatoes and lettuce. Yum!

If you are looking for an easy, no-bake fasting dessert , I made these PB Crispy Treats last week, and, well, they are long gone now, so James and I recommend them.

Be Awesome

2011-08-02T07:28:00.002-04:00

So, I mentioned the last time I was here that I have been ~~spending~~ wasting time on Pinterest. And that is true. Maybe I'll be inspired to write about a few of the other things I've managed to do lately, but last week I read this over at Young House Love. And I thought a Pinterest Challenge was a great idea, so I took them up on the invitation to create my own spin on something I've pinned.

This week is my brother's birthday, and I had pinned this poster, which I thought was right up his alley. It is a quotation from Barney on the TV show How I Met Your Mother. But I didn't really think he would dig the yellow, and I have no idea if this poster is still available, so I wanted to make my own version.

Source: assets.lukesbeard.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I invested $15 and one Saturday into this project. First, I picked up a 2x4 foot canvas at Michaels with a 50% off coupon. Beyond that I only used supplies I already had, which included a paint sample I bought to test the color for my bedroom (Smoke Screen in Olympic paint from Lowes), and some red and black craft paint. I think it was $15 well spent. And I had fun making it, so I can't complain about it costing me a Saturday, either.

I rolled on the Smoke Screen with a mini-roller. I really like this color; it's blue in some lights, grey in others. I didn't put down anything to protect the carpet because we are going to be tearing it out any day now. (Can't wait!) While it dried I played around with layouts and fonts for the text. I settled on Britannic Bold and Segoe Condensed. Then I printed out the letters I needed to make stencils. I just did this in MS Word. I printed the stencils in landscape orientation so I could fit more letters per page. I used the outline effect on the font so that I wouldn't waste a ton of ink, which was wise since my cartridge is almost empty.

Then I spent a few hours cutting out the letters while watching HGTV Design Star on Hulu. I mostly used scissors, but I used an exacto knife for the little ones and tricky parts. Finally, I got to paint. I mixed together red and black paint to make the dark red and used a teeny tiny brush from a kids watercolor set to paint all the letters. I dry brushed "sad" to make it look a little sad. I painted "awesome" with straight red to make it stand out. The color scheme kind of reminds me of the St. Louis Cardinals jerseys from the '80s, which is perfect, because my brother is a huge Cardinals fan. I used the lid from a popcorn tin to trace the circle for "true story." The lid even fit in with the color scheme. I just scotch taped my stencils to the canvas to paint them on, and I eye-balled the placement.

It probably took about eight hours total to do this project. The stencil cutting and painting were both time-consuming, but my method got the job done. It could probably be done more quickly if your tools are superior to mine. If I would change anything, I'd stretch the letters in "awesome" to make them a little taller. If you're more particular than me, you could pencil in lines for guidelines for your stencils. But all in all, I'm really pleased with how it came out, and my brother loved it. Which is awesome.

Edited to add: By the way, be sure to go check out all the other great Pinterest inspired projects at the blogs of the amazing challenge hosts:

Bower Power
Making a House a Home
Style by Emily Henderson
Young House Love

Things to which I have been up

2011-06-18T18:59:00.000-04:00

Since the last time I wrote here I have:

Spent a long weekend with our dear friends in Grand Rapids. Young men don't turn 6 every day, you know.
Celebrated my own birthday. For my 6th birthday, I got a Peaches and Cream bicycle with a banana seat. For my 33rd, I got an enameled dutch oven and Legos.
Entered with faith and love into Holy Week, and passed through it to celebrate the most glorious Resurrection of our Lord.
Sung and proclaimed Christ is Risen! throughout the Paschal season. I'm sorry I didn't do so here this year, so I'll say it now: Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen! Because, of course, this is always true.
Spent Bright Week in Decatur, Georgia for a conference for work, thanks to a grant. It was a really good conference, and I enjoyed Georgia very much.
Watched the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Braves in extra innings.

Removed the wallpaper border in my bedroom, at long last.
Loved heading straight to the farmer's market after work each Friday since the beginning of May.
Gotten out of the cooking funk I was in, thanks to the joy of fresh veggies, and tried some tasty new recipes. I think I was really ready for the change of seasons.
Failed at finding my kitchen cleaning mojo when I got back in the cooking groove. Consequently it seems like the kitchen has been in a constant state of disaster lately. Ugh.
Planted my vegetable garden and my herb and flower pots.
Weeded.
Watered
Weeded
Watered. Ad infinitum, it seems; we've had very little rain here since I planted the garden.
Said good-bye to my beloved green VW Beetle. It needed over $3,000 of repairs. With much anguish, we decided it wasn't worth it to put that into the 10 year old car.

Purchased a 2007 Honda Fit. It make more sense to put the $3000 toward a new car. I've mourned the Beetle, and am finding the new car to be a very good Fit for me.
Spent Memorial Day weekend with my parents, and went to the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It's huge. And free--if you're anywhere near Dayton, you should check it out.
Celebrated the Feast of Ascension, (speaking of things that are up).
Signed up for Pinterest and have found it to be a lovely way to waste time, as well as a way to organize links that is fascinating to this cataloger's brain.
Celebrated the Feast of Pentecost with green attire, kneeling, and a fund-raising dinner for a mission that's working to purchase a building.
Spent some time with my grandmother.
Been playing Word Feud.
Contemplated what I want for this space. I'm trying to decide whether it's valuable for me to establish some kind of discipline for when I post, or to just continue to let the blog be something I do when so inspired.
Squeezed in a few other things here and there.
Attempted to live a Christian life, with mixed success.

And if you made it through that, we're pretty well caught up.

Fast Food Friday/What I Cooked

2011-03-25T23:48:00.000-04:00

Here I am again with a Fast Food Friday/What I Cooked combo edition. If you see something on any of my what I ate posts that you'd like to see the recipe for Fast Food Friday, let me know.

Sunday: We had dinner at church after Great Vespers for the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Monday: Quick and easy burritos with spinach tortillas, refried beans, avocado, salsa, and rice.

Tuesday: Banana French toast and scrambled tofu. Breakfast for dinner is always a hit at our house. The french toast is really good and uses simple ingredients that we usually have on hand, so we make this pretty often.

Banana French Toast
1 ripe (good size) banana
3/4 cup orange juice or non-dairy milk of your choice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
Sliced bread
vegetable oil

Blend the banana, liquid and cinnamon (if using) in a blender until smooth. Pour it into a bowl or pan. Coat the bread on both sides with liquid. This will do 8-10 slices of french bread or 4-5 slices sandwich bread. Unlike with regular french toast, it doesn't really have to be soaked through. Oil a nonstick or cast iron pan, and heat over medium. When hot, arrange slices of bread in one even layer in your pan. Cook on each side for 2 minutes. I actually use a timer. Flipping too soon or too late doesn't turn out as well. Basically you're caramelizing the sugar from the banana, and since you're dealing with sugars, it sticks more than regular French toast. You need to give it a firm scrape underneath with the spatula when you flip it, because you want make sure you keep the yummy coating on the bread and not leave it on the pan. Add oil to the pan for each new batch. Top with maple syrup and/or fruit.

This is adapted from Student's Vegetarian Cookbook by Carole Raymond.

Wednesday: I took chips and salsa for the pitch-in, so no cooking. I had planned to take 17 bean & barley soup, but I forgot to turn on the crockpot. Guess what we had for dinner Thursday?

Thursday: 17 bean and barley soup. I know, big surprise, right? This actually worked out well, because I had a meeting Thursday night, and dinner was all set. I got the 17 beans and barley in a bag from Trader Joe's. I'd been eyeing it for a while. I'm glad I tried it, but I think I'll just go with my own mix in the future.

Friday: Ate at church

Saturday: Sushi! Yum :) Some of these have red bell pepper, carrot, and avocado, and some have avocado and marinated mushroom.

I hope everyone on the new calendar has has a Blessed Feast of the Annunciation today!

8. Plant more bulbs--check

2011-03-21T23:47:00.000-04:00

When I added number eight to the list, I envisioned planting more bulbs in our yard. When we moved in there were a few tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils in the yard, if I recall correctly. Our second fall here, when we had lived here a little over a year, we planted a lot of crocuses, and more tulips and daffodils. I had wanted to add some more last fall, but I didn't get around to it. So I feel very blessed this spring to see that they multiplying on their own. The crocuses (croci?) and daffodils are naturalizing beautifully. I do still want to plant more tulips this coming fall. I love bulbs--for one thing because spring is my favorite time of year. I am unfailingly joyful when I see those green tips start to emerge from the ground, sturdily resisting the snow, and then bursting into colorful bloom even when everything else is still brown and gloomy. Also, I am a very lazy gardener (as my weeds will attest). All it takes is a few hours of effort to plant the bulbs, and I get beautiful flowers every spring for years and years. In fact, I think I need to choose some summer blooming bulbs and plant those, too.

I'm not giving myself a check mark for the natural multiplication of the bulbs in my yard, however. I planted some in the house, so I'm going to count that. I was given a few paperwhite bulbs at Christmas, and while I didn't plant those, I did tend them. They had only sprouted when I received them, and they all successfully went on to bloom. Given my deplorable track record with houseplants, that's significant. And the one pictured below I did, in fact, plant. I have loved having these beauties around over the winter. I would definitely plant some again next year, but we found that James doesn't really care for the smell. Paperwhites have a very strong scent. I do plan to try my hand at some other forced bulbs.

Fast Food Friday/What I Cooked

2011-03-18T23:12:00.000-04:00

Wow, I can't believe we're almost 2 weeks into the Fast already! This is what I cooked during the first week of Lent.

Cheesefare Sunday: Leftovers :)

Monday: James found out he had gotten a new job, so we celebrated by going out for Q-doba.

Tuesday: Curried Lentils

Wednesday: I took this Chickpea and Tahini casserole to the post Pre-Sanctified pitch-in.

Thursday: We had a fend for yourself kind of night. James had burritos with refried beans and salsa. I had a baked potato topped with broccoli, chickpeas, barbecue sauce, and some nutritional yeast.

Friday: Each week a different family or church group hosts a dinner before the Akathist to the Theotokos.

Saturday: I made this Black Bean Coconut Soup. Easy and so delicious. It also happens to be oil-free. Another recipe adapted from Okay, So Now You're a Vegetarian by Lauren Butts.

2 14.5 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed (or equivalent cooked dried)
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 1/2 cups water
1 4 oz. can diced green chiles
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
1 14.5 oz can coconut milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup cooked rice (I use brown)

Add beans, tomatoes, water and chiles to a pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15-30 minutes. It's even better the next day. The original recipe calls for a seeded and minced fresh jalapeno pepper instead of the green chiles. That's even tastier, I think, since it adds a fresh note, but that's not something I keep on hand. I often make it this way since it is entirely from pantry items. My guess is that shrimp would go well in this, since it's got a lot of Caribbean flavors, but I never tried that before I stopped eating seafood.

I hope to be in this space next week with some non-food related stuff. It's hard to tell from the blog, but I actually do think about other things during Lent. At the moment I'm finding the opportunity to spend so much time in corporate prayer a great comfort in the face of so much suffering around the world. May God grant comfort to all those suffering as well, and may He bless the efforts of all who give aid.

Fast Food Friday: Red beans and rice (belated)

2011-03-12T00:55:00.000-05:00

I had totally forgotten how exhausting the first week of Lent is. I mean that in a completely good way. It's kind of exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. We don't even do the Canon of St. Andrew in my parish, but still church is occupying a whole lot more of my time. And I like that. I love Lent. I know that weak as I am, I could not keep up this pace of church-going and praying all the time, but it is my favorite time of year. I've promised to post Lenten recipes on Fridays, and I thought I was going to get this in under the wire. I got a phone call from one of my best friends and spent a few hours catching up instead, so it's a little late. This is oil-free, and is slightly adapted from Okay, So Now You're a Vegetarian by Lauren Butts.

2 cans dark red kidney beans--or any other red beans you like. I also sometimes use cooked dried beans instead.
1 cup vegetable broth--I use water plus vegetable bullion.
1 cup water
1 cup diced tomatoes (canned or fresh) I often use a little more than this, because I like tomatoes.
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 cup diced onion
2 cloves minced garlic

Place all ingredients in a large pot. Cover and simmer about 45 minutes. The broth will thicken and beans will get more tender. Serve with cooked rice. I serve it with brown rice, which takes about an hour to cook in my steamer, so I start the rice, and then start the beans.

Note that most Worcestershire sauce is made with anchovies. If you want to avoid that, you can often purchase vegetarian Worcestershire at health food stores. I buy the Kroger store brand, which is one of those "accidentally" vegan products. You might look at other store brands, if you don't have Kroger in your area. Also, for years before I discovered Kroger brand is vegetarian, I just substituted 1 tsp. molasses and 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce for the Worcestershire sauce, which I think is just as tasty.

As I've mentioned, we love this with greens, like kale or collards. We usually just layer it all in a bowl. Also, as a person with southern roots, I think red beans and rice require cornbread on the side, and I still haven't settled on Lenten recipe for it. However, I recently found this recipe. I haven't had a chance to try it, but I thought I'd share it now.

What I Cooked: Cheesefare edition

2011-03-06T12:01:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd share what I cooked for Cheesefare week today, rather than after the fast has begun. It was quite a week! I did make a fair amount of soup for my flu-fighter. He's on the mend now, thanks be to God, and even went to work on Friday.

Sunday: Leftovers for me, canned chicken and rice soup for James--not his best Meatfare Sunday.

Monday: Egg drop soup. I'd never made this before, but it was really simple. I thought this would be the perfect thing for someone with a sore throat. Nourishing, tasty, and easy to swallow. Well, it was very nourishing and tasty, and I thought the leftovers made a terrific breakfast. Unfortunately, it didn't work out so great for James. Let's just say that the texture didn't bring the best thoughts to mind for someone having sinus issues.

Tuesday: Tortellini soup. This was a big hit.

Wednesday: Macaroni and cheese, corn "soufflé," and roasted vegetables--for twenty. I've mentioned before that most Wednesday nights we have prayer, adult study, and dinner at church. Usually that means I don't cook on Wednesdays, but occasionally I take my turn to cook for the whole group. I had volunteered for this week. So, on my way home from work on Tuesday I stopped and bought groceries. Then I whipped up a batch of tortellini soup for my poor sick guy, who ate it and went to sleep.

I proceeded to spend the rest of the evening cooking. I really enjoy cooking, so I had a good time making some of my favorite foods, listening to music, and hoping everyone would enjoy the meal I was preparing. About midnight the mac and cheese was almost finished baking, and the other two dishes were done. I was contemplating whether to push on through and make a batch of brownies before going to bed, or to get up early to make them the next day. I'd almost decided to go ahead and make them (I'm not a morning person) when James came groggily into the room. "Are you cooking for church tomorrow?" he asked me. "Uh-huh," I replied. "It was canceled," he told me. "Father sent an email earlier today."

!!!!

Needless to say, I did not make the brownies, and we have been eating macaroni and cheese, corn casserole, and roasted vegetables ever since. I wasn't quite sure whether to feel relieved or sorry that I hadn't made the brownies yet. I am very thankful that I had cooked a meal that we really like!

By Friday evening we were getting a little tired of this meal, and James was still craving soup. Per his request, I made another batch of the tortellini soup. As I said, it was a big hit. I also mixed up some desperation chili which gave a whole new spin to the mac and cheese. Normally, I would have asked some friends over to help us eat all that food, but company isn't really the best idea when part of your household is miserable and possibly still contagious. By dint of eating it for lunch and dinner pretty much every day, we've actually managed to polish off most of the Wednesday dinner. Whatever macaroni we don't finish today will go in the freezer. I think I accomplished my goal of going into Lent feeling really good about saying farewell to cheese, and I also think this is going to be a Cheesefare week to remember!

Books I Read in July

2011-03-04T08:12:00.001-05:00

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
This is a modern gothic horror, and it is in fact rather horrifying. The premise is of a mysterious fiction writer finally revealing her true life story to a biographer.There is no wonder that a character would never tell anyone the truth about her life and prefer to create fictional worlds. Families don't get more dysfunctional than this one.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
This book moves back and forth between the narrator a present day nursing home, and his memories of his time with a traveling circus in the Depression-era.The writing is elementary, and the dialog doesn't seem to fit the time period, but the stories about life on a circus train are entertaining. In the afterward the writer explains that many of them are based on historical events. I also found the character in the present day very sympathetic.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
This was a fun read, and I can see why this epistolary novel has been so popular. It piqued my interest in Guernsey in general and the German occupation in particular.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
This was a re-read. I read it first shortly after it came out, and my brother raved about it. It's totally fascinating to me, and I could (and probably will) read it over and over. In many ways it's a fantasy novel, but it doesn't fit with generic convention. Usually in fantasy novels, the hero is a type of Christ. Instead, this hero is a type of Adam. He is a fallen man who has eaten the apple and mucked up the garden.The book is well-written, and is filled with allusions to other fantasy novels, particularly the Narnia books, which is fun. It shows the main character as a young guy who loves fantasy novels, but then he finds himself in that world. He discovers it's far more complicated than he imagined, and that being able to do magic doesn't make him a better person. So good. I highly recommend it, but it's definitely for adults.

Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
I had never before read anything by this author, who also wrote Chocolat. I picked it up off a display of food-related novels at my library. It deals with the German occupation of France in WWII. I definitely was engaged by the foodie aspects of the book, but the characters are mostly unlikable. It really took reading the whole book to connect with and understand the motivations of any of them.

The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
This is a gardening memoir, and it's very amusingly written. The only caveat I have about the book is the author has an extremely adversarial view towards the wildlife that eat the fruits of his labor. His efforts in deterring them sometimes seem inhumane, but that could partially be him trying to spin it in a "humorous" way. For the most part I really enjoyed the book.

Ecological Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
I expected to really like this book, because I'm usually intrigued by analysis of consumer behavior. I'm also highly interested in the life cycles of the products we buy and how to make them more sustainable. Unfortunately, I was completely bored by this book. It just never engaged me, and it didn't really present anything that was new to me.

What I Cooked

2011-03-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Nachos with re-fried beans, corn and tomato salsas, guacamole

Monday: Penne with TVP "Bolognese" sauce, pea salad, garlic cheese bread

Tuesday: Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese sauce

Wednesday: Ate at church

Thursday: Evening meeting, leftovers

Friday: We had friends over for a fondue party. When we made the plans a month ago, we thought it was for the week of the Publican and the Pharisee, but we miscalculated. When we realized the mistake it was too late to reschedule to another day before Lent. We had a delicious dinner and a lot of fun playing cards. I didn't even think to take any pictures, so here's some of the fondue I ate as leftovers. Definitely doesn't do it justice.

Saturday: The plan was to go to Five Guys so James could get his cheeseburger fix before Cheesefare week, but the poor guy had a terrible sore throat. All he wanted was soup. I made this gypsy soup from The New Moosewood Cookbook, which is one of my favorites. It has a delicious broth and lots of immune boosting ingredients. Turns out James has the flu, so probably lots of soup will be eaten at our house this week.

13. Make cushions for rocking chair--check

2011-02-28T08:58:00.003-05:00

Sometime last fall or winter James bought a gliding rocker off Craigslist for our bedroom . The cushions were in sorry shape, and we didn't even bring those into the house. We shopped around for some, but didn't find quite what we wanted, so I decided to make some. I don't really know what I was thinking, because I'm an inexperienced sewer. I find it kind of daunting, so I really procrastinate projects that involve sewing. Case in point, we bought the materials for the cushions about a year ago. At some point I cut the foam into the appropriate shapes and put it on the chair. We have been using it that way ever since. Just imagine the foam seen above used as cushions--very comfortable and elegant.

But no longer! Last weekend we had no plans, and I finally decided to tackle those cushions. It's a good thing I chose to do it on a free weekend, because it probably took me about 12 hours total to get it done. Part of that includes having to fix one of the zippers, which I managed to break just when I was inserting the second cushion into its cover. But I did it! It's the most complicated sewing I've ever done. They both have covered zippers, thanks to Erin of House on Hill Road. I could not have done it without her helpful tutorials. I watched the video and then used the written tutorial to guide me step by step both times.

Both cushions are made of two inch foam. For the seat I doubled it over and made a box cushion cover. The back is just one layer of the foam, so I just did a simple case with front and back for that one. I also made ties to attach both cushions to the chair. Neither of the covers turned out perfectly, but I'm very satisfied with my novice efforts. It really was a good learning experience, too. I feel more confident with my sewing machine now. The chair certainly looks worlds better than it did with the raw foam. I still need to recover the ottoman, because I need more foam for that, and I'm excited to make some more progress on our master bedroom. We have big plans for it this year. We're hoping to say goodbye to the dingy wall color and carpeting.

What I Cooked

2011-02-22T08:25:00.002-05:00

We love cheese at our house, quite a bit, and we tend to eat lots of cheesy, "junky" food this time of year. I'm of a mind that it's good to go into Clean Monday feeling kind of sick of cheese. So--plenty of cheese. That's what you'll be seeing for the next few weeks here.

Sunday: Panini. I make this on a George Foreman Grill. It works really well. The bread was homemade whole wheat. My sandwich had sauteed collard greens, mushrooms, and, of course, cheese. White Irish cheddar. Yum. I try not to eat a lot of processed foods, but I admit to loving these cheesy corn puff things.

Monday: Homemade pizza for my Valentine. Kalamata olive, onion, crimini mushroom. It also has this. More processed foods. Yep. Lots of junk around here right now. We both do quite like this "sausage." Also cake, of course.

Tuesday: Haluski--I love this meal. It's hard to tell, but there is a ton of cabbage and onion in with those noodles. No cheese in this, but plenty of butter. I like to make it with homemade egg noodles, and then it is really, really, insanely good. But even with these run-of-the-mill store bought (from when we were sick) this is very tasty.

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Snacky dinner
Not a whole lot of cooking here, but I did make spinach artichoke dip and hard boiled eggs. That's a pear in the middle of the bottom row.

Friday: Total indulgence dinner. Scrambled eggs with cheese, biscuits and gravy. I love biscuits and gravy. My grandmother always used to make this for me when I was a little girl. One of the main reasons I kind of like the "sausage" stuff. I put some mushrooms in this gravy, too.

Saturday:
Vegetable fried rice with egg.

Library Cat

2011-02-18T08:53:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we had an unusual visitor at the library where I work. It is in a residential neighborhood, so from time to time we have cats wander in or find them hanging out in the parking lot. Thankfully this cat was tagged, so the owner was contacted. Last year a cat stayed with us for several days while library staff tried to find out if it had an owner, and eventually one of the library volunteers adopted it.

I work in a very large room that is not open to the public, so this guy got to spend some time with us. He was very social and liked attention, but as you can imagine, he was not too keen on being trapped in an unfamiliar place. He spent a lot of time prowling around and giving his opinion about the situation. This made it a little tricky to take his picture. I had to catch him whenever he paused. He explored every part of the room and jumped on every desk, counter, table, and cart, but eventually he settled down. Librarians tend to be cat people, so he also spent time in some other offices. He was a welcome distraction, but I'm very glad he had a tag so he could go home where he belongs. I'm sure he was glad, too.

The Care and Keeping of Cast Iron

2011-02-16T09:43:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that I seasoned some cast iron pieces during the recent ice storm. I found this great little heart pan at a thrift store a while back, and I had also been given this little fajita pan. It appears that someone had used the heart pan without seasoning it, so they had trouble with their baked goods sticking. That didn't deter me a bit from buying it, since I love cast iron and I knew I could clean it up and season it easily. I had been meaning to season these pieces for a while, and there's nothing like being stuck in your house to spur you to get things done.

There's tons of information on the web about cast iron, but I think often it can sound really fussy. Actually, it's pretty easy to care for and almost indestructible. Seasoning cast iron is very simple. It involves coating the pan with a layer of fat, which bakes on (polymerizes) to create a non-stick surface. The first step is to remove any rust spots. Steel wool works great. Then wash it in soap and water, and dry it well. Thoroughly coat the whole piece with shortening or lard. Coconut oil works well, too. Vegetable oil will do in a pinch, but it's not ideal for seasoning it the first time as it tends to get brown. Butter and margarine will not work. Once your cast iron is well coated on all sides, put it in a 300 degree oven for an hour. It's best to set the piece upside down, which helps to keep the fat from pooling. You might want to put a baking sheet or foil on a rack below to catch any that might drip off.

After I had baked these pieces for one hour, I let them cool a little, coated them again and baked them for one more hour. You don't have to do it twice, but if you have time, it certainly doesn't hurt. The pieces won't seem much different, although they may have a few spots where you can see cooked on oil. That's fine. Also, water should bead on it. Here they are after being seasoned. A little darker and shinier perhaps (part of that may be due to this picture being taken after the sun went down), but I think the main difference you can see is that the heart pan is clean.

When caring for your seasoned cast iron, it's usually recommended that you don't use soap. Just scrape it out and rinse well with hot water. Definitely don't put it in the dishwasher. A bowl scraper is my main cleaning tool for my cast iron skillets. You can scrub burned on bits with salt or steel wool, if needed. Also, I say go ahead and use soap if you feel it's called for. It's really no big deal. I've washed old, well-seasoned pans with soap with no problems. I just give it a coat of oil afterward, and it's perfectly fine. I will try to avoid soap with these new pans for a while, though. You can see the difference in the color between the new pan and one of my old skillets here. Cast iron turns black with repeated use.

Do always make sure to dry cast iron very thoroughly before you put it away, because you don't want it to rust. For the same reason, don't store food in it, or leave it to soak. But if it does get rusty, it's not ruined. You can just clean the rust off and re-season it. Usually it's recommended that you lightly coat cast iron with fat before storing it, but for a well-seasoned piece that you use frequently, that's not really necessary. It is good to do that for pieces that haven't developed the black patina yet, or if it's something that you won't be using again for a while, though.

Naturally if it's St. Valentine's Day, and you have a freshly seasoned cast iron heart pan, the thing to do is bake a little heart-shaped something for your sweetheart. I hope your day was sweet as well.

What I Cooked

2011-02-14T07:57:00.001-05:00

We were out of town at the beginning of the week. We came home with either food poisoning or a stomach virus, so we subsisted on Gatorade, ginger ale, and canned soup for a few days. Not a lot of cooking going on. Things are back to normal now, thankfully!

Thursday: A favorite quick and easy dinner--quinoa with kale and tahini sauce. We love this, and I try to keep the ingredients for the sauce on hand. As long as I have some kind of fresh greens, I can have this on the table in about 20 minutes. Plus it's an oil-free Lenten dish.

Friday: Tempeh hash with potatoes and cabbage.

Saturday: Enchilada bake served with lettuce, tomato, sour cream.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Books I Read in June

2011-02-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

The Wind-Up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
This book is set in a future, dystopic, post-apocalyptic (in the literary sense) Thailand. I find this sort of fiction fascinating. It tends to reflect pretty accurately the fears in society at the time it is written. Naturally, the book is very grim. In this world, food is very limited, and calories are currency. Genetic engineering has run amuck, and the wind-up girl is person who is the result of it. She's considered sub-human. For me the setting was the most intriguing part about this book. I was very interested in learning about the world the author imagined, but the characters and plot didn't hold my interest as much.

Promises to Keep by Jane Green
This book is about a pair of sisters. One of the sisters has cancer. I don't recall too much about it, except that it was a tear-jerker, as you might expect. Also, one of the sisters is a vegan chef, and most of the chapters include recipes, which was an odd device for this particular book, I think. I didn't end up trying any of them, but several of them sounded delicious, so maybe I should get the book again to try some of them for Lent.

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Children of the Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
I read both of these planning to write about them as part of the 100 Children's books series. I'm going to get back to that as soon as I catch up with the books I read posts, so I'll discuss these then.

I may have read more books in June, but I don't have a record of it. Then again, this may have been it. The Wind-Up Girl was a slow read, and June was a very busy month. At any rate, this concludes the second catch-up edition of Books I Read.

18. Knit some more dishcloths--Check

2011-02-10T08:03:00.008-05:00

Since I took a break from blogging, I had sort of forgotten my 33 before 33 list. I have accomplished a few of the things on the list, but several of the goals are definitely out of reach at this point. I only have 2 more months! I have knitted several new dishcloths, though, and I have another on the needles right now. This was definitely one of the simpler items on the list. I really enjoy knitting them, and James and I like using them, so I'm trying to build up a good supply. Since we favor them, they tend to wear out.

This is the pattern I've been using for the dishcloths. I usually put the stripe off center. I've it made it in variegated yarn without the stripe, too. I've learned that I prefer darker colored yarn, like the one above, as the light colored ones show stains quickly. This is currently my favorite pattern and color combination. I like knitting dishcloths because they're a very portable knitting project, and they're quick and satisfying.

Be There and Make a Square

2011-02-09T07:54:00.006-05:00

A friend from college is getting married this summer. He is Jewish, and he and his bride will get married under a chuppah. Evidently it's currently popular to involve friends and relatives in the creation of the chuppah as a visible way to represent their love and support as a couple begins their married life.

They sent out these squares and requested that we decorate them and send them back. The bride's mother will then turn them into a quilt. I'm really curious to see the results when it's all assembled. I had fun designing the square and then embroidering it during travel and down time in December.

I chose to embroider the square with a comet because that is our college mascot. J + J are the initials of the happy couple, and that's their wedding date. SFC are my initials. The color scheme is a bit of a nod to our school as well.

I learned a fair amount about Judaism from this friend, who I dated for quite a while. That was actually an important part of my path to the Orthodox Church. It led me to realize how much ritual speaks to me, and to acknowledge the importance of having guidance on how to lead a Godly life, even for such simple things as choosing what we eat. I'm really grateful for that experience, and wish many years to the engaged couple.

Getting My House in Order: Refrigerator

2011-02-08T07:44:00.003-05:00

So, as I mentioned, the ice storm last week gave me plenty of time to get some projects done around the house. The biggest accomplishment was cleaning out the refrigerator, which probably hadn't been done since some time in the summer. It was sorely in need of cleaning and organization, as you can see:

It was a pretty straight-forward project, but it took me a whole afternoon to get it done. I pulled everything out of the refrigerator one shelf at a time, sorting things as I went. Then I cleaned off each shelf in the sink before pulling out the next shelf. Once I had cleaned all the shelves and drawers, I wiped out the interior, dried and reinstalled the shelves, and returned the keepers. Then I repeated the whole process with the door. My dish washer was about 2/3rds full, and I filled it with the newly emptied containers and ran it immediately. That was handy for banishing odors from a few things which were spoiled.

As I was sorting, I paid a lot of attention to the things that I had let go to waste. I wanted to better organize things and establish a system to make sure we eat what we buy and don't let things turn into science experiments. The main trouble spots I identified were: leftover odds and ends, an insane number of lemon and lime slices, a surplus of homemade salad dressings, and fresh herbs.

The solutions I've come up with for these problem areas are:

1. I designated the top shelf for leftover odds and ends that need to be used up. We don't usually have a problem with leftover meals going to waste. It's things like half a can of re-fried beans, leftover toppings and sauces, and way too many slices of lemons and limes in tiny containers that make their way to the back of the fridge to die. Hopefully having all these things corralled in one place will help us use things up, and will prevent us from slicing a new lemon when there's half of one already cut. I'm trying to monitor the shelf and utilize the contents in meals or put things in the freezer before they've been hanging around too long.

2. I'm trying to make only enough dressing for the salad I've made that night. I realized that when I make too much, we just don't end up using it.

3.When I buy fresh herbs, I'm going to try freezing half the bunch in ice cube trays immediately after I've bought it. I almost never use a whole bunch of cilantro or parsley, so it turns to green goo in the produce drawer. Yuck.

So here is the after, almost one week later. The contents have rotated a fair amount. So far the new system is working well, although a week isn't really enough to know if it's standing the test of time.

I'm really pleased with the result. I haven't decided the best use for the top right hand section of the door, though. It has a really flimsy shelf, so I need to make sure I don't put anything heavy there. Right now it has essential oil and ginger for sushi. Also, I can't believe how soon I'll be finding a new use for the eggs/dairy section! Lent is quickly approaching. I'll probably put packed lunches there then. Right now I have that with the breads, just to distinguish it from other leftovers.

What do methods do you find helpful for managing the refrigerator?

What I Cooked

2011-02-07T15:51:00.000-05:00

Sunday:
We just ate our Cheesecake Factory leftovers.

Monday:
I don't know what to call these, but I make these quiche or fritatta-like muffin things with rice, cheese, eggs, and veggies. These had spinach, and we ate them with roasted sweet potatoes. Basically the recipe for the fritatta muffins is: 2 eggs, 1 cup rice, 1/2 cup cheese, 1-2 cups fillings. Bake in a muffin tin at 400 for about 20 minutes until slightly browned on top and eggs are cooked. This makes six: obviously it can be scaled up easily.

Tuesday:
Pot pie made with a "turkey" gluten loaf that I made and had in the freezer from Thanksgiving, salad, homemade rye bread.

Wednesday:
Wild rice and mushroom soup, more salad and rye bread, plus a wacky cake with peanut butter frosting.

Thursday:
I made a different version of the frittata rice muffins with chiles, black beans, tomatoes, and cheddar to use up leftover odds and ends. We also had eggless (vegan/Lenten) banana french toast.

Friday:
Red beans and rice, sauteed collard greens, cornbread. This is one of my favorite dinners. I love these collard greens, the recipe comes from Veganomicon.

Saturday:
Out of town. Out to dinner with family.

Icing--Or What to Do When You're Iced In

2011-02-04T08:33:00.000-05:00

1. Clean your kitchen:
      a. scrub stovetop,
      b. scrub sink,
      c. clear clutter off your counters and clean them,
      d. clean the backsplash,
      e. wipe down your appliances,
      f. clear clutter off the top of your refrigerator and clean it,
g. clean out your refrigerator.
      h. Get your husband to do the floor.

2. Do four loads of laundry: wash, dry, put away.
3. Count your blessings--in particular, thank God that the power has stayed on.
4. Change the sheets.
5. Clean the guest bathroom.
6. Finish the book you're reading.
7. Spend plenty of time reading blogs and playing on YouTube.
8. And writing.
9. Do a project you've been meaning to do for a long time, like seasoning cast iron.
10. Get a little stir crazy and go out in the back yard to take pictures

11. Cook
      a. pot pie,
      b. a big pot of soup, and
      c. concoct a way to use up the leftover odds and ends you found when cleaning out the fridge.
12. Bake
      a. rye bread
      b. and cake--so you can do a little icing of your own.

Books I Read in May

2011-02-03T08:44:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure if this is an exhaustive list. I may not have kept very good track, and well, it's been a little while, but here we go for the first catch-up edition of Books I Read.

Winter's Heart by Robert Jordan
Crossroads of Twilight by Robert Jordan
Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan
Books 9, 10, and 11 of the Wheel of Time series, which I discussed here.

A New Spring by Robert Jordan
This is a prequel to the Wheel of Time series. I greatly resented it when it was published, because at that point the series was nowhere near its conclusion, and the books in the series were getting incredibly bogged down and drawn out. I just wanted the author to focus on finishing the series in an enjoyable and reasonably efficient manner. And that was typical of the feelings of fans of the series at the time. actually complained to my brother that if Jordan was going to waste time with prequels and didn't focus on completing the WOT, he would die before he finished it. This seemed like hyperbole, because Jordan was only about 55 then, so he should have had easily 20 years to write. But then he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, and sadly he did depart this life before finishing the series. So of course I regret my words, and I have to admit I quite like the book. Apparently Jordan planned to write 2 more prequels, so I'll be curious to see if those will be written by Brandon Sanderson (the author now completing the series) once the main saga is published.

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove by Cathy Erway
Food memoirs are a favorite genre of mine. In this one, the author stops eating out for two years. I really enjoyed the book. It's fascinating to me to read about life in New York City. It's completely foreign because it's so unlike any of the many places I have lived. Yet at the same time it's completely familiar because it's such a constant subject in our popular culture. Additionally the book is interesting because the author is a very adventurous cook, and she combines the food stories well with the memoir aspect of the book.

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
I discussed this book here as number 100 from the list of the top 100 Children's books.

Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
I like Emily Giffin's writing quite a bit. Her characters are very real and for the most part likable. This the second novel in a row in which she deals with the topic of infidelity. In Love the One You're With she treats a wife's infidelity, and in this one it's the infidelity of the husband. This novel goes back and forth between the perspective of the wife and the other woman. As popular women's fiction, of course it's not presented as a book about sin and how it infects our lives, but in effect, that's what it is. By having the perspective of both the women, we see hw everyone is harmed by the relationship. The book deals with the relationship in a way where we can see how the couple are drawn into it. I like and could sympathize with them even when I didn't like or agree with the choices they made. It liked that to me it seemed it was written so that we root for redemption rather than retribution.

The Meeting of Our Lord

2011-02-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

Today we commemorate the Presentation of Our Lord at the Temple in Jerusalem. In the Gospel reading for the Feast, we hear the prayer prayed by St. Simeon upon receiving Him.

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.

We learn from Holy Tradition that St. Simeon was one of the translators of the Septuagint, and St. Luke tells us that he was waiting to see Our Lord in person before dying (Luke 2:25-32). This puts him at 360 years old when he received Christ in the Temple. He recognized Him who is our Salvation, and prayed to God to depart this life. This prayer is said or sung daily at the conclusion of Vespers in the Orthodox Church, where we usually call it the Prayer or Song of St. Simeon. It is generally sung during Compline in the West, where it is known as the Nunc Dimittis, the first words of the prayer in Latin. Orthodox Christians also sing this hymn at the Churching of a child, which I think is a rather beautiful thing to do, since by seeing each tiny baby being presented in the Church as an icon of Christ being presented in the Temple, we are reminded that we are all called to be icons of Christ.

Because this hymn is sung so frequently, and probably also because it's such a beautiful prayer, there are many musical settings for it, both Eastern and Western. One evening with my husband's family as we sat around talking, somehow we ended up singing as many different versions as we knew, and we came up with about four or five, just from singing in churches over the years. Here a few different ones. You can find hundreds more recordings by searching YouTube for St. Simeon and Nunc Dimittis. These are all in English; you can also find it in many other languages. For instance, the Rachmaninoff version is quite haunting.

I hope you enjoy them. Blessed Feast day to you!

Getting My House in Order:Bathroom Drawer

2011-02-01T08:19:00.001-05:00

We have lived in our house almost two and half years now, and so, of course, we're facing the classic American problem: too much stuff. Right now we're embarking on a mission to amp up the storage around here and to pare down on the over-abundance. I plan to go through every drawer and closet in the house, and leave it looking like something out of a Martha Stewart magazine. Okay, probably not nearly that prettified, but hopefully by the end of the year (or sooner) we will have a place for everything and everything in its place. I'd like our home to be as pleasant as we can make it, and I want to make sure clutter and confusion are not wasting our time and draining our energy.

So, last week I attacked my bathroom drawer. There is only the one in the master bathroom, and I'm the one who uses it. (James gets the medicine cabinet.) Here's the scary before--I know how inspirational a good before and after is. This is what my drawer actually looked like. It really was organized at some point, but clearly that system had long since stopped working for me.

Before:

Hopefully, everyone knows what comes next. I pulled everything out of the drawer and sorted it.

Most of the empty containers were recycled. I saved a couple for re-use with a project I have planned. I put the things that don't belong in the bathroom in their proper places. I got rid of old make-up items. I stowed extra stuff that I don't use on a day-to-day basis under the sink. I'm going to overhaul that cabinet soon, too. Then I cleaned every single item that was going back in the drawer: removed the general make-up gunk, cleaned the lint out of the vents in the hair-dryer, washed the make-up brushes, and cleaned out the hairbrush. I also wiped out the drawer, though that may have been after I took the next picture.

When I told James about this project, he suggested I might like to use this extra utensil organizer we had from a former kitchen. I was skeptical, but he was right. It works great! I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

After:

I put the make-up that I most frequently use in a small make-up bag that I also already had. I don't generally wear it, so I put it in the back of the drawer, but it's handy when I want it and conveniently corralled so I can grab it for trips. I put the soaps in the back of the drawer, since they fit neatly there, but they may not stay once I reorganize under the sink. I love how all my day-to-day stuff is neatly stowed in the utensil holder, with plenty of room for the hair-dryer. It's amazing what a joy it is to bring order to small areas of chaos in my life. I feel a little giddy every time I open the drawer and see everything neatly arrayed.

What I Cooked

2011-01-31T09:14:00.000-05:00

Long time, no see. Obviously I took a break from blogging. I decided I miss it, so I'm back. I'm not going to belabor why I stopped or why I'm starting again. I'm just going to dive right back in. I thought it might be fun to do a weekly recap of dinners. I figure I can use it as reference for meal-planning. I'd like to use it help me recognize when we get into ruts, as a reminder of what we ate at different times of year, favorites, and things we didn't like as much. Plus whenever I ask James for ideas when I plan meals, he's stumped, so hopefully it will be a good reference for him, too. I always enjoy seeing this kind of things in other people's blogs, so perhaps it will be interesting to others as well.

Sunday: Chili Cheese Fries--homemade oven fries, topped with leftover homemade three-bean chili, and colby-jack cheese. Easy, yummy comfort food.

Monday: Potato soup, old school pea salad, beer bread. I think I've found my new favorite potato soup recipe. For future reference--from Betty Crocker Vegetarian Cooking, Jalapeno Potato chowder, substituted canned green chiles for the jalapenos, celery for the bell pepper, upped the potatoes to ~4 cups and upped the milk to 3 cups. Creamy and good--added cheese not necessary.

Tuesday: I had an evening meeting, so it was fend for yourself sandwiches or leftovers.

Wednesday: On Wednesday nights we have prayer, dinner and adult study at church, so I usually don't have to cook.

Thursday: I worked late, so we had a fallback quick pantry dinner. Organic boxed max and cheese jazzed up with some crumbled black bean burger from the freezer and diced canned tomatoes.

Friday: Baked tempeh, rice pilaf, roasted cauliflower.

Saturday: We had a Cheesecake Factory gift card, and we went out to dinner...so it was kind of light week for cooking this week.

The Dormition of the Theotokos

2010-08-15T19:23:00.000-04:00

Blessed Feast to you! My husband and I married before we converted to the Orthodox Faith, and our wedding anniversary falls during Dormition fast, on August 9th. This year we are celebrating 7 years of marriage. On our fourth anniversary, my grandfather departed this life, so on that day we also remember him--Memory Eternal! It happens that I was born on my grandparent's wedding anniversary, which I think forms an interesting circle. This morning during Divine Liturgy, I was struck by the Troparion of the Feast and how it similarly juxtaposes birth and death.

To non-Christians, and perhaps even to those Christians who do not celebrate the lives of the saints, it may seem odd that we would celebrate the departure from life of the Mother of God as a Great Feast. It may seem backward or callous that we celebrate someone on the day of their "death." In secular life we celebrate birthdays, even for people we are remembering. We honor the Presidents in February because two of our great Presidents, Washington and Lincoln had birthdays in this month. We honor Martin Luther King Jr. in January for his birthday, rather than in April when he was assassinated. And we do celebrate births in the church, most notably of course, the birth of Christ, but also that of the Theotokos and St. John the Forerunner. In fact, we even commemorate the conception of these Saints. However, for most saints, the date of their repose is the primary date on which the they are honored.

When we celebrate the Saints' lives on the date when they departed from this life, we are celebrating their whole lives, here on Earth, and the Heavenly lives to which they depart. The Feast of the Dormition illustrates for us why this is so. When we refer to the Theotokos as the Mother of Life, as we do in the Troparion of the Feast, we refer to the fact that she gave birth to the One who is Life, and who conquered death. The name of the Feast is another clue about why we celebrate the date that Saints depart from this life. The word Dormition means "falling asleep." When we refer to Christians as falling asleep or as departing this life, and to death as repose, we are not speaking euphemistically. We are not trying to soften death for the living or to avoid thinking of death. We take this language from the Bible, and by speaking this way we are affirming that those who die in Christ do not die.

Like the Theotokos, when we depart this life, we do not forsake the world. When Christians repose, we enter into the eternal Life of the Kingdom of Heaven, that same Life that we participate in during the Divine Liturgy. So while it is difficult and painful when our friends and family depart this life, at the same time we celebrate Christ's victory over death, knowing that because He is risen, so are our loved ones. While they depart this life, they do not forsake us, and we ever ask them to intercede for us. Most Holy Theotokos, save us!

Fast Food Friday: Sushi

2010-06-18T18:20:00.000-04:00

During Great Lent, James and I made our first attempt at making our own sushi, and last weekend we enjoyed making it with friends. We've definitely got room to improve as far as making beautiful rolls, but we've had a lot of fun making it. We think it's pretty delicious. In fact, we like our homemade as much as restaurant sushi. During Lent we really enjoyed it with a pot of jasmine tea, but now we're finding one of the things we like about it is it's so cool and refreshing.

It's certainly far more economical to make it than buy it now that we've got some supplies, too. We bought a mat to roll the sushi, nori sheets, wasabi powder, pickled ginger, some black sesame seeds, and sushi rice. The condiments will last a long time, and even the nori and rice are enough for a few meals. For fillings we've tried carrots, avocado, bell pepper, cucumber, steamed asparagus, mushrooms marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, as well as shrimp and smoked salmon for the seafood eaters. I'm enjoying trying different combinations of fillings. I especially like asparagus and mushroom.

It's really pretty easy to do, and it makes a quick to prepare, almost no-cook dinner. It's a nice addition to our rotation of fasting meals. You cook the sushi rice, then spread it out on a plate, and sprinkle it with rice vinegar to cool and season it. Then you spread rice very thinly on the nori, add your fillings in a line, roll it up and slice it. I'm sure you can find a million tutorials and videos on how to make sushi, with much better advice than a novice like me can give, so give it a try.

Fast Food Friday (belated): Tostadas

2010-06-12T12:44:00.000-04:00

OK, so I know it's Saturday, but here we are in the midst of the Apostle's Fast, so I thought I'd do a few fast food Friday posts. We had these for dinner last night, and this morning I realized they'd be a great food to write about. I thought about saving this for next Friday, but then I thought, why wait? Tostadas are one of my favorite summertime fasting dinners. We really enjoy these during the Dormition Fast when we have all those great summer vegetables, and we often eat them on Fridays throughout the summer. They are super easy to make, and they are a great way to take advantage of bounty from the garden and farmer's market.

This is not so much a recipe as a process and list of suggestions. First, you need the shells. I make the tostada shells by baking corn tortillas. Lay as many as will fit on a baking sheet, bake for about 7 minutes in a 400 degree oven until they are good and crispy but not browned. You could do a few baking sheets worth at a time for a big family. I've done that before for company, but generally I do 5 or 6 for James and me. If you want them to be pretty flat, you can flip them over halfway through. Do NOT forget you have them in the oven, and keep an eye on them because they burn easily if left too long. I've burnt many a tortilla by getting distracted! If I'm just making tostadas for one, I will stick two tortillas in the toaster oven. You can buy tostada shells, but they are more expensive than corn tortillas, and they are fried. If you make your own tortillas, go for it and do the whole thing from scratch. I mean to try that some time, but I've only ever made flour tortillas.

So, once you have your tostada shells, you need toppings. Here are my suggestions:

Beans: you can do refried, mashed, or just cooked or canned. We usually use pintos or black, sometimes refried, sometimes not.

Salsas: Whatever you like. In tomato season, we like homemade pico de gallo. We also like corn salsa. I prefer a chunky salsa for this, but I generally just use what I've got.

Grilled or roasted veggies: This is one of my favorite parts. We grill or roast squash, peppers, onions, mushrooms, tossed with some oil, lime juice, chile powder and cumin. Yum. You could do whatever vegetables you like, but that is my favorite combination. Cherry or grape tomatoes are good, too.

Other chopped vegetables: fresh tomato, corn off the cob, bell pepper, canned or fresh hot peppers/chiles of some kind (if you want some heat), lettuce, onion (green, red, sweet), olives, avocado

Guacamole

Seafood (if you are a fish eater): Grilled fish or shrimp, quality canned tuna

If it's not a fasting day, or you're not Orthodox: Shredded cheese, sour cream

And if you're not a vegetarian like me: shredded chicken or pork, grilled strips of beef

The tostadas pictured here are topped with refried pintos, shredded lettuce, corn salsa, and guacamole. These are from my lunch. Last night I had roasted veggies to top them, but we ate those all up! I think this is pretty kid-friendly, since you can put out a whole bunch of toppings and people can pick what they like. They are also good for eating outside, because they are messy!

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

2010-05-31T23:59:00.000-04:00

This was a childhood favorite of mine. There were a lot of things for me to identify with in this book. I liked "imagining games better than anything," as Melanie says in the book, and I remember being very interested in ancient Egypt, so I loved their Egypt game. The main characters are Melanie, her precocious, tag-along younger brother Marshall, and her new friend April. I identified with Melanie because I also have a younger brother who I was very close to growing up, and with April because I moved all the time as a kid, so I had a lot of sympathy for her as the new kid going through a rough transition.

In the story Melanie, April, and Marshall play an elaborate, imaginative game where they are ancient Egyptians in the unused backyard and shed of a curio shop in their neighborhood. As the story progresses, they bring more children into the game. Then something happens that halts their game. It's a pretty suspenseful mystery, as a matter of fact, and I had completely forgotten about that part. Another thing I had forgotten about is that it's beautifully illustrated by Alton Raible. Looking at the pictures again, I'm pretty sure I really liked them as a kid, too, because they're enchanting. They're clearly contemporaneous with the story which was originally published in 1967, unlike the cover of my 1986 Scholastic copy. Other things worth noting are that it has a quite racially diverse cast of characters, and is set in a university town. I'm not sure if I realized as a kid that the book wasn't written at that time, but now I can see it's pretty emblematic of it's time.

Upon re-reading I was surprised to realize I'm not sure if I've read any other works by Snyder. This is odd since as I kid if I found a book I liked, I'd usually read everything else I could find by that author. There's now a sequel to The Egypt Game that I'm curious to check out as well. Any recommendations for Snyder books I should read immediately?

5. Make cheese--Check

2010-05-30T17:26:00.000-04:00

For my first-ever venture into cheese-making, I decided to try one of the most simple cheeses. I made paneer. It has only two ingredients. Milk and some kind of acid with which to curdle it. Following this recipe, I used lime juice. I was amazed at how easy it was. You bring the milk to a boil, add the lime juice, stir and cook for about 5 minutes, strain out the curds, press them into a ball, drain it for an hour, and then chill it. I will definitely make this again, and I think after the Apostle's Fast, I will try my hand at some other cheeses as well.

The only downside was that it was that it took a long time! I knew it would, and I planned for the draining and chilling, but I didn't take into account how long it would take to bring a half-gallon of milk to a boil. I did it over medium heat because I didn't want to scorch it or let it boil over, and it took about 45 minutes! Other than that the several hours were no big deal, since they weren't hands on. I didn't have to be around for the draining or chilling.

I used the cheese to make palak paneer, (spinach curry with cheese) which is one of my favorite foods. You can see the chunks of cheese in the curry above. I love Indian food, but I for some reason I don't cook it all that often. The palak paneer was delicious, and I was so proud of making it totally from scratch. I kind of melded a few different recipes on the fly, so I'm not sure how authentic it was, but no matter since it was yummy. I didn't take notes, so I don't really have a recipe to share. Next time I make it I'll try to pay attention to how I'm doing it. I actually used chard instead of spinach, because that's what they had at the farmer's market. The milk for the cheese came from the local dairy, so the two main ingredients for this international dish were locally produced. I'm excited that we're coming into the time of year when we have an abundance of fresh local vegetables.

24. Get some glass dishes for taking my lunch--Check

2010-05-29T13:26:00.000-04:00

So, it may seem that I am failing miserably with goals 32 (Continue posting at least once a week on average) and 33 (Track my progress with this list) from my Birthday List, but I'm actually making some progress with some of the other goals. And in order to live up to goal number 33 (and help fulfill goal 32), I'm posting my first update.

I got some glass dishes to take my lunch to work in. Two of them are pictured above. I actually got them over a month ago--my mom gave four to me as a birthday gift. I'm loving them so far. One of my favorite things about them is that it's so easy to see what's in them. They look really pretty in the refrigerator, and I can tell at a glance what leftovers they contain. I think they'll really help prevent food waste. I actually now want to get some more, but this is a great start. It's nice to know I'm not imbibing plastic with my lunch.

I've been trying to reduce the amount of plastic I bring into my life for a long time now, because of concerns about how it may affect our health, the effects of all the waste plastic on animals and the ecosystem, and the depletion of petroleum resources from its production. I go through periods where I'm more successful at keeping it at bay, and then I tend to backslide as I find myself busy and seduced by the convenience of plastic. I like to read Fake Plastic Fish when I need some inspiration in this area.

I'm working on making bulk buying an ingrained habit so that I won't be so likely to slide back into buying packaged things, and I'm just generally trying to be more aware about the plastic I'm buying. I've just started really trying to reduce the existing plastic in my house, especially in my kitchen. Michelle mentioned recently how frustrating it is that plastic is so pervasive, and I definitely know what she means. My glass containers even have plastic lids, but plastic lidded glass seems like the best option for me. I need dishes with leak-proof lids that I can use for transporting, heating and serving my lunch. Bringing my lunch in stainless steel containers would mean transferring the food to other dishes to heat them in the microwave at work. I know myself well enough to know that would mean that I'm less likely to use them than the glass dishes I'm so enjoying.

Books I Read in April

2010-05-28T00:12:00.000-04:00

Middlemarch by George Eliot
I started reading this lo, these many months ago, and finally finished it at the very, very, tail end of April. I read it for Mimi's Lenten read-along, and I so enjoyed it. It was a really dense read, and is rather long. So be forewarned, this is not a book you can just flirt with, it requires a serious commitment. It was thought provoking with interesting characters and a historical backdrop that taught me a few things. Fiction is my favorite way to learn!

This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson
I really loved this book, but the topic is pretty close to my heart. I just think libraries and librarians are so important, and even more so in this age of information overload. I enjoyed the stories about the various libraries and librarians. I liked reading about the cool things different librarians are doing. It was fun to read about other aspects of librarianship, and also to see some familiar names crop up from my own field. It's mostly a pretty rah-rah book about librarians, but it also depicts us as humans with real flaws, and not cookie-cutter stereotypes.

Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
I come from a family of political junkies, so this book was fascinating to me. It was pretty intriguing to see the process of the presidential campaigns behind-the-scenes. This book was somewhat controversial because the authors chose to leave there sources anonymous, so take it with that grain of salt. It's not a book everyone would enjoy as it's certainly not an uplifting read, but I found it to be pretty engrossing.

Wild Ride by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
I read this book after I cataloged it because the premise was so wacky, I just couldn't resist. An amusement park on an island in the Ohio River is a prison for five ancient Etruscan demons, and there are five guardians who have to make sure they stay trapped. Wow, talk about suspension of disbelief. I was somewhat intrigued because I've read most of Crusie's other books, and this seemed nothing like her usual work. Most of her novels are really funny, character based romances. Her collaborations with Mayer have been more plot based, but this is a even a departure from those. I can't say I really cared for it, and it doesn't seem like it would appeal to her fan base. It was just pretty out-there. And shockingly, (I say with tongue somewhat in cheek) despite people being possessed by pesky demons left and right, none of them had to be cast out with prayer and fasting.

Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail
This book is beautiful! I love the pictures. And that's really what gardening books are all about, right? The pictures? Considering I'm pretty much totally inexperienced as a gardener myself, they're one of my favorite things about gardening books, anyway. It seemed to have lots of cool, practical advice for growing vegetables in small spaces. I actually have a reasonably good sized yard, but most of it's shady so we don't have a lot of prime vegetable growing space, so I think a lot of these tips will be useful...you know, when I plant a garden.

One Magic Square: One magic square : the easy, organic way to grow your own food on a 3-foot square by Lolo Houbein
Not so many color photos as the book above, but lots of different charts for 3 foot square gardens vegetable gardens, which sounds like a totally reasonable size for a complete garden neophyte. It also has recipes and all sorts of stories from an experienced gardener.

Lightening things up

2010-04-30T07:58:00.005-04:00

I mentioned a little over a year ago that my parents were getting their house ready to sell and had been ~~foisting their unwanted stuff~~ generously giving of their bountiful surplus to my brother and me. Well, they have sold their house and are now getting settled into their new condo. They seriously downsized, and the purging of excess household goods continues. Shortly before they moved, James and I spent a weekend at their house helping to pack. James and my brother took a couple truckloads of stuff to Goodwill, and to further lighten the load of things my parents would have to move into their new house, they sent us home with a carload as well. The above picture shows most of the haul on my guest bedroom floor. I'm still working on integrating some of these items into our home and off the floor, but a number of them are already earning their keep. Although, not the ones below.

This picture shows my dollhouse (obviously) and my set of encyclopedias (in the box). Yeah, those are still sitting exactly as pictured, and they are the flagship items for the things still sitting around. Most of them are books or toys. I don't have any children, so the toys are not really going to be actively used at this time. I need to get those boxed up and stored. And our bookcases are full right now. I won't mention how many we have, but suffice it to say, more bookcases aren't really an option. So we need to do some weeding of our books, which James has scheduled for when school lets out.

In the meantime, one of the items we are really enjoying is the lampshade. You may remember it as one of the few items from the first picture not packed in a canvas tote bag. (I love canvas tote bags. I use them constantly. My mom had ~~a million~~ at least a score of these, so I nabbed several.) I'd been wanting a lamp for our living room for quite a while, so I stopped at my favorite thrift store shortly after I brought the lampshade home and picked up this lamp for $2.99. I love it, and it's much cozier than the overhead light. I've found that lampshades with warm earth tones really help warm up the light from those energy-saving compact florescent light bulbs. I'm pretty keen on the retro vibe of the wooden lamp, too.

100 Children's Books

2010-04-28T11:44:00.002-04:00

Recently I posted my Birthday List, and now I'm going to go ahead and divulge that I love lists. Particularly book lists. Perhaps this is not a shock, considering that I'm a cataloger. I am not actually by nature a particularly organized person, but I love creating small pockets of order in an often disorderly world. I find it very satisfying. For instance, when I clean out a closet, I will repeatedly open it to gaze inside at the newly ordered shelves. Lists give me this same feeling. (So does a well written MARC record. Yep. I'm a cataloger.)

All this to say that I just read this post over at Book Scout, and I want to join in the fun. This list is from the School Library Journal.

100. The Egypt Game – Snyder (1967)
99. The Indian in the Cupboard – Banks (1980)
98. Children of Green Knowe – Boston (1954)
97. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – DiCamillo (2006)
96. The Witches – Dahl (1983)
95. Pippi Longstocking – Lindgren (1950
94. Swallows and Amazons – Ransome (1930)
93. Caddie Woodlawn – Brink (1935)
92. Ella Enchanted – Levine (1997)
91. Sideways Stories from Wayside School – Sachar (1978)
90. Sarah, Plain and Tall -- Mac Lachlan (1985)
89. Ramona and Her Father – Cleary (1977)
88. The High King -- Alexander (1968)
87. The View from Saturday – Konigsburg (1996)
86. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Rowling (1999)
85. On the Banks of Plum Creek – Wilder (1937)
84. The Little White Horse – Goudge (1946)
83. The Thief – Turner (1997)
82. The Book of Three – Alexander (1964)
81. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon – Lin (2009)
80. The Graveyard Book – Gaiman (2008)
79. All-of-a-Kind-Family – Taylor (1951)
78. Johnny Tremain – Forbes (1943)
77. The City of Ember – DuPrau (2003)
76. Out of the Dust – Hesse (1997)
75. Love That Dog – Creech (2001)
74. The Borrowers – Norton (1953)
73. My Side of the Mountain – George (1959)
72. My Father’s Dragon – Gannett (1948)
71. The Bad Beginning – Snicket (1999)
70. Betsy-Tacy – Lovelace (1940)
69. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Stewart (2007)
68. Walk Two Moons – Creech (1994)
67. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher – Coville (1991)
66. Henry Huggins – Cleary (1950)
65. Ballet Shoes – Stratfeild (1936)
64. A Long Way from Chicago -- Peck (1998)
63. Gone-Away Lake – Enright (1957)
62. The Secret of the Old Clock – Keene (1959)
61. Stargirl – Spinelli (2000)
60. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi (1990)
59. Inkheart – Funke (2003)
58. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase – Aiken (1962)
57. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 – Cleary (1981)
56. Number the Stars – Lowry (1989)
55. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Paterson (1978)
54. The BFG – Dahl (1982)
53. Wind in the Willows – Grahame (1908)
52. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)
51. The Saturdays – Enright (1941)
50. Island of the Blue Dolphins – O’Dell (1960)
49. Frindle – Clements (1996)
48. The Penderwicks – Birdsall (2005)
47. Bud, Not Buddy – Curtis (1999)
46. Where the Red Fern Grows – Rawls (1961)
45. The Golden Compass – Pullman (1995)
44. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing – Blume (1972)
43. Ramona the Pest – Cleary (1968)
42. Little House on the Prairie – Wilder (1935)
41. The Witch of Blackbird Pond – Speare (1958)
40. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – Baum (1900)
39. When You Reach Me – Stead (2009)
38. HP and the Order of the Phoenix – Rowling (2003)
37. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Taylor (1976)
36. Are You there, God? It’s Me, Margaret – Blume (1970)
35. HP and the Goblet of Fire – Rowling (2000)
34. The Watson’s Go to Birmingham – Curtis (1995)
33. James and the Giant Peach – Dahl (1961)
32. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – O’Brian (1971)
31. Half Magic – Eager (1954)
30. Winnie-the-Pooh – Milne (1926)
29. The Dark Is Rising – Cooper (1973)
28. A Little Princess – Burnett (1905)
27. Alice I and II – Carroll (1865/72)
26. Hatchet – Paulsen (1989)
25. Little Women – Alcott (1868/9)
24. HP and the Deathly Hallows – Rowling (2007)
23. Little House in the Big Woods – Wilder (1932)
22. The Tale of Despereaux – DiCamillo (2003)
21. The Lightening Thief – Riordan (2005)
20. Tuck Everlasting – Babbitt (1975)
19. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Dahl (1964)
18. Matilda – Dahl (1988)
17. Maniac Magee – Spinelli (1990)
16. Harriet the Spy – Fitzhugh (1964)
15. Because of Winn-Dixie – DiCamillo (2000)
14. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Rowling (1999)
13. Bridge to Terabithia – Paterson (1977)
12. The Hobbit – Tolkien (1938)
11. The Westing Game – Raskin (1978)
10. The Phantom Tollbooth – Juster (1961)
9. Anne of Green Gables – Montgomery (1908)
8. The Secret Garden – Burnett (1911)
7. The Giver -Lowry (1993)
6. Holes – Sachar (1998)
5. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – Koningsburg (1967)
4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – Lewis (1950)
3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone – Rowling (1997)
2. A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle (1962)
1. Charlotte’s Web – White (1952)

So. The one's I've read are in bold. There are a few others that I may have read, but I can't remember for sure, so those are not bolded. You can tell that I haven't really been keeping up with children's books lately, so it will be fun to read the current ones. Plus there are a couple I've never read that are classics, so I'll be able to count those toward my goal for my other list! Now here's my plan: Each week I'm going to write a post about one of the books on this list. I'm going to do the whole list, both bold and unbolded. Any votes as to whether I start with number one or make it a countdown and start with number 100?

Books I Read in March

2010-04-21T23:11:00.001-04:00

Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living by Doug Fine
An eco-memoir--I've read several of these now. I like reading these for the personal inspiration to continue edging myself towards a greener life, but this one wasn't really a favorite. For one, the author moves to Arizona to start his green lifestyle in earnest, and so a lot of the things aren't really transferable to my life in Indiana. Also, the writer makes a number of jokes about the political right and despite often finding them amusing, I felt like the book could be alienating to some readers, which I found frustrating.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers translated by Benedicta Ward
We read this for our adult study at church this Lent. It is excellent for Lenten reading--very humbling and thought provoking. It's arranged with with sections of sayings from various desert Fathers and some desert Mothers grouped (Greek) alphabetically by the saint's name. So good. So perfect for Lent.

Homegrown Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs: a Bountiful, Healthful Garden for Lean Times by Jim Wilson
Lots of pictures, user-friendly, devotes a full or half page to info and tips on growing many kinds of fruits and vegetables. I especially liked the sidebar with tips from the author's personal experience, like how to retain aroma and flavor when you dry basil. This book doesn't advocate completely organic methods, seems like an integrated pest management approach.

The New American Backyard: Easy, Organic Techniques and Solutions for a Landscape You'll Love by Kris Medic
Tons of advice on choosing plants, managing a lawn, landscaping to work with what your soil and yard, arranging plantings to reduce energy costs in your home, and dealing with weeds and pests.

The Landscape Makeover Book: How to Bring New Life to an Old Yard by Sara Jane von Trapp
Tips on how to update the look of your yard, how to decide what to keep and what to get remove. Also pruning, thinning and transplanting things that are overgrown, and generally planning and prioritizing. Doesn't have an organic focus.

James keeps teasing me that I like reading about gardening more than actually gardening. I've got a few more gardening books that I've been reading in April. We are planning to put in our very first vegetable garden this weekend, though. April should be a pretty long book post, actually. I'm slowing myself down by juggling a lot of books at once, but I'm hoping to edge Middlemarch out of the currently reading sidebar. Winter's Heart is my lunch book at work, though. I take half hour lunches, and it's a long book..hopefully it will show up in the May edition of Books I Read.

33 things to do before I turn 33

2010-04-13T23:15:00.008-04:00

1. Make spanikopita
2. Make tamales
3. Make 3 different kinds of homemade ice cream
4. Bake bread once a month
5. ~~Make cheese~~
6. Can something
7. Eat something grown in our backyard
8. ~~Plant more bulbs~~
9. Hang a fern in our front entry
10. Put up (and use) a clothesline in our yard
11. Organize our non-fiction books
12. Do a kitchen organization and spruce up
13. ~~Make cushions for rocking chair~~
14. Do some decoupage
15. Finish Christmas project for our Godchildren
16. Make Christmas stockings
17. Finish the socks I have in progress
18. ~~Knit some more dish cloths~~
19. Finally make that t-shirt quilt
20. Organize a photo scavenger hunt
21. Go to 3 garage, yard or rummage sales
22. Go on a walk at least once a month and take pictures to mark the seasonal changes
23. Get a conveniently portable, reusable set of dishes to use before next Lent
24. ~~Get some glass dishes for taking my lunch~~
25. Visit a state I've never visited before
26. Get my hair cut
27. Visit the IMA 6 times
28. Play croquet at least 3 times
29. Start using a lectionary for daily Bible readings
30. Memorize 1 Psalm per month
31. Read 3 classic works of literature I've never read before
32. Continue posting at least once a week on average
33. Track my progress with this list

Christ is Risen! Χριστός ἀνέστη! !المسيح قام

2010-04-05T20:16:00.001-04:00

I hope everyone has had a joyous Feast of Feasts. I had not intended for my spring break post to indicate that I was going to take a break from blogging for the rest of the fast, but I guess it served as such. Today I have caught up on all my blog reading. I really enjoyed looking at the many pictures of Holy Week and Paschal celebrations, but I don't have any to share myself, just a few photos around the house.

The last few weeks have been very full. Efforts are being made locally to form an Orthodox school, and I had the opportunity to meet with one of the leaders of the steering committee about serving on the school board which is being formed. We had our annual staff appreciation dinner at the library where I work. The weekend of the fifth Sunday of Lent, we had a wonderful Lenten retreat at our church which is hosted jointly by the women of our parish as well as those of the local Greek parish. This year Maria Khoury came and spoke to us of her experiences raising a family in the Holy Land, which was very inspiring. On the 25th of March after Holy Liturgy for the Annunciation, there was a fish dinner at church celebrating not only the feast, but also the 50th birthday of our parish priest. And of course, through it all there have been the Lenten church services.

And then, Holy Week: my favorite week of the year. I was telling a non-Orthodox co-worker about the services of Holy Week, and she commented, "It sounds like you could just pitch a tent in the church parking lot for the week." I believe that most of my readers are Orthodox Christians, but for any that are not, or for those curious about the schedule we follow in our Antiochian parish, here is the schedule for Holy Week this year. It gives a brief description of the various services. Each one is unique and beautiful and a blessing to attend.

I find Bright Week a bit of a shock to the system, in more ways than one. Staying up most of the night on Pascha, eating all of the rich, (delicious!) festal foods, and then after being so immersed in the life of the Church for Lent and Holy Week, suddenly finding myself back to life as usual. I take the day off of work on Bright Monday to ease myself back into it, but the big shift in the pattern of daily life tends to feel very abrupt to me. I do find it helps if I have some fun things and projects planned to fill the time I was spending in church: there is a garden to be planted, things to make, and books to read. Not to mention chores to be done, which have been severely neglected! I'm so impressed with those of you who do a Lenten spring clean. For this working wife Lent means work, church, sleep, repeat. Food and food shopping find their way into that pattern sometimes, but cleaning, almost never. So I have plenty to do to help me adjust to the seasonal shift, and hopefully I'll be inspired to share a few of these projects here.

Blessed Paschal season to you all!

Spring Break

2010-03-15T23:19:00.003-04:00

James was on Spring Break last week, so we took a little weekend trip to a popular spring break destination. The weather was beautiful. We frolicked on the beach, enjoyed some fine dining, saw the sights, and did a little celebrity watching.

Oh, wait, actually we went to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Weather? It rained the whole weekend. But at least it didn't snow! Beach? We didn't even think to bring swimsuits to take advantage of the hotel pool. Fine dining? We had Chinese food, which is kind of a treat for us, anyway. We also went to Burger King. Did you know they have veggie burgers? I hadn't been there in years, and I had forgotten. Burger King was one of the highlights of our trip, actually, since we got to spend a leisurely lunch talking with Emily and Ben while their kids played in the playground. So Burger King gets five stars from me.

And sights? Yes, there were certainly sights to see. We got to attend the Opening of the Doors for St. John Chrysostom's beautiful new building, as well as the first Divine Liturgy celebrated in their temple. Celebrities? His Grace Bishop MARK was presiding. Through a confluence of events the year we were Chrismated, James and I saw His Grace in so many different cities, that he joked upon seeing us after the fourth or fifth place, "Here come my groupies."

OK, so not a beach vacation at a popular spring break destination, but a still a lovely little spring break. The Opening of the Doors was joyous. It was wonderful to attend during Lent, since I can't help but anticipate hearing the same dialog from Psalm 24 on Pascha and thus being reminded of Our Lord breaking the gates of Hades and His victory over death.

You can read about the Opening of the Doors and see more of the sights at Emily's blog. And the first two pictures are from a trip that James and I took a couple of years ago to the San Francisco Bay area.

Lenten Lentils: Sloppy Lentils

2010-03-12T23:43:00.001-05:00

1 1/2 cups red lentils, sorted and rinsed
4 cups water
1 bunch kale, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 Tbs. dried basil
1 dash cayenne pepper
1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
Couple of drops liquid smoke

Add all ingredients to a large pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer. Stir occasionally, and add more water if needed, until lentils and kale are tender, about 40 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.

As you can see, I like to serve this as an open faced sandwich on a bun. You can also serve it as a stew. I really like the kale chopped more finely than this for sandwiches. I guess I was being a little rushed when I made this. This recipe is very forgiving. I make it a little differently every time. I found the recipe here originally. It's one of those adaptations of an adaptation of an adaptation, as most recipes are. I have changed it up a bit to reflect how I make it. I also tried to give more precise directions, but the amount of seasonings I use for this actually varies pretty widely. Sometimes I use twice as much as this, but this is a good starting point. It's really easy, tasty, healthy, and no-oil.

Lenten Lentils: Curried Lentils

2010-03-05T21:46:00.000-05:00

1 cup dried lentils (brown or red)
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
3/4 tsp. dried ginger
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/8 tsp. ground turmeric
3 1/2 cups or 2 14.5 oz. cans vegetable broth
1 cup diced canned tomatoes, or 3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 to 1 1/2 cups frozen spinach (I use the flash frozen kind, no need to thaw or drain. A few good handfuls of fresh would be fine too.)
Salt and pepper to taste

Sort and rinse lentils. Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat, add onion and saute until transparent, about 10 minutes. Add spices and cook another 2 minutes, stirring well. Stir in the lentils and broth, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and spinach. Simmer for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender. Serve over rice (of course). We love this with naan or chapatis, too.

I forgot to take a picture of this, but it's one of my favorites. I make it at least once a month all winter long. I've adapted it from a recipe from OK, So Now You're a Vegetarian by Lauren Butts, a cookbook I've had for about 10 years which is pretty much falling apart from use. There are several recipes from it that I still make regularly. Since I don't have a photo to share, I'm including a bonus recipe, which is my own creation.

Lenten Pumpkin Cake

1/2 cup margarine, softened (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 cups dark brown sugar
3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. dried ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 14.5 oz. can pumpkin
1/2 cup applesauce

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and dust with flour a 13x9 baking pan. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, oil, and brown sugar. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. To creamed mixture, stir in alternately a cup of the dry ingredients, half the pumpkin and applesauce, another cup of dry ingredients, the rest of the pumpkin and applesauce and the final cup of the dry ingredients until well blended. Spread batter in pan, and bake about 40-45 minutes until done (toothpick poked in center comes out clean)

So far I've just served this dusted with powdered sugar, but I suspect it would be really good with a maple icing. Enjoy!

Books I Read in February

2010-03-02T19:15:00.000-05:00

Blackout by Connie Willis

Two of my favorite novels are Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, both by Willis, so I was excited to see she had written another of book about her time-traveling Oxford historians. This book is set during the London Blitz and it was totally engrossing. I really enjoyed it right up until the cliff-hanger ending. I didn't realize it was part of a 2 volume work, and I was left reeling. Now I have to wait until All Clear comes out. I devoured this book, and I recommend it with the caveat that you might want to wait to read it until the second volume is released in October.

The Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan

Book eight of the Wheel of Time series. See Books I Read in January for my comments on WOT.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

I had never read this before and didn't know what to expect, so I was surprised by this book. I don't want to give away the premise if any of you are unfamiliar with it. It was a very quick read, but thought-provoking. It is told in a very engaging manner, but I found it quite sad. It's rather depressing to consider all the ways we separate ourselves from God. I highly recommend it.

Thus concludes this short edition of Books I Read. The brevity is partly because I'm in the midst of reading several books which I have yet to finish. It's also partly due to spending half of this short month attending church services. Books aren't the only thing I'm reading less of this month. My blog reading has fallen off as well. I tend to do it in concentrated bursts once or twice a week. So somewhat belatedly, I mention that I was delighted to see this kind write-up of my blog by Anastasia at Kyrie, Eleison! And also very amused at her assessment of what my stash size says about my status as a "True Knitter." At least through the joys of blogging I can vicariously enjoy the stash of others while I aspire to enter the ranks of the True Knitters.

Lenten Lentils: Pineapple Lentils

2010-02-26T07:36:00.007-05:00

1 1b. brown lentils, rinsed and sorted

8 oz. can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple in 100% juice, drained with juice reserved

4 cups water

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice or vinegar

3 Tbs. molasses

1 Tbs. dry mustard

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 clove garlic, minced

Combine all the ingredients except for the pineapple in a baking dish (Set aside the pineapple, but add the juice at this point). Cover and bake at 350 for an hour to an hour and a half. After about 45 minutes of baking, stir in the pineapple, and add more water, if needed. You can also make this in a crockpot, cooking about 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high, adding the pineapple in the last half hour or so.

I like to make crockpot meals on Mondays during Lent because we have Great Compline that night with no meal at the church. It makes life so much easier on those nights knowing dinner will be ready when I get home from work. While this dish has a fairly long list of ingredients, it's really simple to make, which is definitely a plus for Lent. And you can be pretty flexible about the seasonings. Feel free to adjust them to your taste or omit or substitute something if you don't have all of these on hand.

I serve this over rice, as you can see in the picture. This actually shows leftovers. The rice and lentils were stored together so the rice has absorbed the juice from the lentils, which is pretty yummy. We usually eat this with sweet potatoes, also seen in the picture, and a green salad or other green vegetable. This recipe easily serves 12. I generally either make a half batch or freeze half of it. It freezes really well. I recommend adding the pineapple after it defrosts if you want it to hold its shape, but it's pretty tasty either way.

Sunday of Orthodoxy

2010-02-21T14:34:00.001-05:00

We venerate your most pure image, O Good One, and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ our God. Of Your goodwill, You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh and deliver your people from bondage to the enemy. Therefore with thankfulness we cry aloud unto you: You have filled all with joy, O Savior, for You did come to save the world.

Lenten Lentils: M'jaddarah

2010-02-19T07:32:00.010-05:00

Last year I completely disappeared from this space during Lent, but I'm trying to post at least once a week, so this year I've decided to create a Lenten series of fast food Friday posts. I'll be combining my love of two things, Lent and lentils (Well, make that three things, if you include puns.). Lent is my favorite time of year (OK, Lent and Pascha, but you can't have one without the other, so in my mind, it's one time of year.) I so value the increased opportunities for corporate prayer, and I treasure the increased sense of community with my brothers and sisters in the parish. I love the rhythm that the near-daily church services gives to my weeks. Even though it makes me really busy, the time seems to feel really peaceful and ordered rather than hectic.

And lentils are one of my favorite foods. I love all kinds of lentils, and I love them prepared many different ways. I don't believe I ever even had lentils until I went away to college, but I was instantly smitten and have only come to love them more and more in the years since. Thankfully, James is a lentil fan, too, because we eat them at least once a week during Lent. I thought it would be fun to share some of my go-to lentil recipes.

Today I'm sharing my own personal m'jaddarah recipe. If you've spent any time in an Antiochian parish, you're probably familiar with this dish. M'jaddarah is one of those very simple and very delicious foods that each cook makes in her own way. I think we first had it at our first Lenten pitch-in (as we call potlucks here in central Indiana). James loved it so much, that he begged the woman who brought it to make it again and again, so I knew I had to learn to make it. My version uses brown rice, which is not typical, but that's all I ever buy. And I actually find it easier to use brown rice, since you can add the rice and lentils at the same time.

2-3 onions
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup brown lentils
1 cup brown rice
6 cups water
salt & pepper

Chop the onions (I think the more onions the better, but if I'm low on onions I'll use two), and heat the oil (a cast iron skillet is perfect for this) Add the onions to the oil, and cook slowly over low heat, stirring occasionally until they're a nice deep golden brown color. One you've got the onions going, drain and rinse the lentils. Put them a in pot with the water and rice, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer. Periodically check on the onions and the rice and lentils and give both a stir. After the lentils and rice have been cooking about 20 minutes, stir in some of the onions and oil (up to half, I do a couple of big spoonfuls) Total cooking time on lentils and rice is about 40 minutes, and about an hour for the onions. This can vary and you may need to cook it longer and/or add more water to the lentils and rice if it's sticking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the m'jaddarah topped with the remaining onions. Additional toppings may include green salad, cucumber, green onions and more olive oil. It's often served at room temperature, but it's also tasty warm. I like it topped with salad which I give a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Obviously, this dish contains oil.

St. Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T18:13:00.002-05:00

Blessed St. Valentine's Day to all. It seems that there are various stories about why this saint and this day came to be associated with romantic love. In fact, as there are more than one saints named Valentine, it's not completely clear which of these saints is being commemorated. The Writer's Almanac on NPR today relates one story of a St. Valentine, who would secretly perform marriages, despite Emperor Claudius II forbidding men to marry in order to boost enrollment in the army. On being discovered, he was sentenced to beheading, so in addition to promoting marriage, as a martyr St. Valentine was a great witness for his love of God.

Regardless of how this day came to be observed, the gesture of expressing our love to those dear to us is a good one on any day. I usually make small token for my husband and leave it somewhere for him to find. Last year I used cutouts from the cardboard sleeves of some Charlie Brown DVDs that we had gotten at the library to decorate a few Valentines.

The first year we were married, I made these felt Valentines that I left scattered all over the place.

This year, I don't know if you could say I went in a really silly direction, or a really practical one. We have a few hand-knit dishcloths that I have made, and we both really prefer these to the store bought cloths, so I made this:

A heart-shaped dishcloth. It certainly made James laugh, but he's not quite sure if he should be irritated that I gave him cleaning supplies as a token of my love and affection. Although I have to admit, I do feel particularly loving toward him when he does the washing up. :o)

Since today is also the last of Cheesefare, we are industriously applying ourselves to the remaining items of dairy in the house. We've managed to eat up most of the cheese, and we will likely have eggs and milkshakes for dinner. I ate this for an afternoon snack, which is sort of a Valentine in itself. It's Black Raspberry Chip from Graeter's, which I was thrilled to find is now available at a local grocery store chain here in Indianapolis.

It feels quite appropriate that St. Valentine's Day should fall on Forgiveness Sunday, as we endeavor to show love and humility to one another and to God, forgiving one another as we enter Great Lent.

The blog goes Blue!

2010-02-07T15:35:00.000-05:00

Go Colts!

Books I Read in January

2010-02-04T23:37:00.011-05:00

The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan
Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan

Right now I'm plowing my way through a re-reading of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which I do every once in a while. There are currently 12 reeeeaaaallllly long (700-1000 page) books in this series. And it's not done yet. Even though Robert Jordan passed away in 2007. If you are unfamiliar with the Wheel of Time, it's a fantasy saga with a huge following of sometimes fanatic readers. There are a number of fan sites devoted to it. I started reading this series when I was 14, and a friend asked me to read the first book. He was delighted that I was undaunted by its length and that he would have someone to talk with about the books. At that point only three of the books had been published, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. So this series is a habit that I've retained since my teen years. The twelfth book was released in the fall, and I've been re-reading them ever since. It's necessary to do this occasionally so that I can keep track of all the characters and story lines in my head. All this to say that I've mostly been reading WoT books this month.

I'm not going to write notes on each of these books individually. I think would be a bit pointless to read any of the three (books 5, 6 & 7) without reading the whole series. The first book is The Eye of the World. If you like epic fantasy novels, you should read it and decide if you wish to read on. This series is a (perhaps the) seminal modern work in the genre. If you don't enjoy fantasy novels, or series with a huge scope, you probably won't enjoy this, and you might not even if you do like the genre. To me they are old friends, and I love them despite their flaws.

Vintage Knits for Modern Babies by Hadley Fierlinger

This book is lovely. I want to knit about a dozen different things from this. I'm currently knitting a gift for a friend from it, which is why it is sticking around in my sidebar. I got it from the library, and I think I may need to add this to my personal library, especially if I ever have some modern babies of my own. I suspect you'll be seeing a few projects from this pictures in the future.
I didn't really care for this book. I read it because I was intrigued by the concept, a Revolutionary War soldier who gets propelled forward in time to modern day. It's a romance novel, and I didn't find the heroine to be very likable. I also didn't think the major conflict of their cultural differences due to being from different time periods was resolved very convincingly. If you enjoy reading romance that's not overtly sexual, I can recommend it on that front, but note that it has a rather syncretistic treatment of Christian and pagan practices.

And thus ends my summary of the books I read in January. I plan to do this the first week of each month. Likely the list will get more varied and lengthy when I finish the WoT re-read.