Posts

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Procreate-ing

Having young kids plus a full time job is an around the clock venture. Now that my kids are a little older I am finding pockets of time to do some creating again. I am really enjoying messing around in Procreate on my iPad. Starting with simple tracing of images I soon started looking around for tutorials to help me understand what Procreate can really do. I have been thoroughly enjoying the tutorials put together by Teela of Every Tuesday. She does such a great job of walking through every step and has a wide variety of projects. It has inspired me to practice my lettering, which is a little shaky at the moment.

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Cozy Reading

photo of the fully extended reading nook

There is nothing more satisfying than taking unused items and giving them purpose. We recently needed to find a space for my youngest daughter to relax and read or draw or color. Space is at a premium in our apartment and the kids’ shared bedroom wasn’t an option.

Time to get creative. I grabbed a storage bench that had outlived its usefulness, an IKEA bed tent, and some scarves we got from our building’s share table (more on that in another post.) I added a pillow I got from amazon (the only thing I purchased for this project), a wall hook, and a few binder clips. Voila! V loves her new reading nook and when she isn’t snuggled inside we use the wall hook to fold back the tent.

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Blog Reloaded

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

Here is my first step to restarting life as a blogger. Side note, kids sure do take a lot of care and attention.

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Tattly

Who among us has not at one time or another worn a temporary tattoo? I mean come on, they are so much fun. But to be honest, most times they are some crappy clip art nonsense that is more ironic than actually cool. Swiss Miss has saved us from the mundane and given us some temporary tattoo that are actually cool! I personally am very bummed that Knucks is sold out. Come on Tina, give us more Knucks! Pretty please with sugar? Well in the meantime this one has a message I just can’t argue with and can’t we all use a reminder to focus on the important things in life.

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Water Water Everywhere

For whatever reason I just don’t enjoy drinking water. When I was younger I would often get dehydration headaches, that is how much I am not fond of drinking it. And if I am going to drink it plain it has to be cold. Really cold. Glass full of ice type cold. Usually I make it into seltzer and more often than not add a splash of juice (or more than a splash if you must know). It was like this Wikihow post via Lifehacker was written for me. I have tried the lemon, so maybe what I need to do it rethink how I think about water. Flushing toxins sounds good, or maybe I will have to trick myself into drinking more. Boy do I love the taste of water! Hmmm, this may take a while.

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Super Simple Granola

I have a new job title. Stay at home mom. I am cool with it for the moment. Not only am I getting the opportunity to spend lots more time with my little one, but I get to try out things I wasn’t able to do before… assuming O takes her nap. One thing I have been especially excited about is making granola. I had it in my head it was going to be really difficult and time-consuming, probably because a relatively small amount of homemade granola is ridiculously expensive. Well I have come to find that it is neither! Using this post on Apartment Therapy as my starting point (it holds the secret to getting granola clusters) I use this recipe from the NY Times for the granola base and add a bag of my favorite Trader Joe’s fruit and nut mix. That is it. If I feel like adding a few more goodies, I do, if I get tired of one mix, I get another. The result is so satisfying I have started eating yogurt and granola at least once a day.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 bag Trader Joe’s fruit and nut mix
  • 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 2 egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except for the egg whites mixing well.

2. Whisk egg whites in a small cup until they are frothy and foamy.

3. Stir the egg whites into the granola. Spread the granola out in an even layer on a baking sheet with a silpat mat or parchment, and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and well toasted.

4. Take the granola out of the oven and let it cool overnight, uncovered.

5. When the granola is completely cool, break up into clumpy chunks, and transfer to an airtight container for storage.

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April Showers

April is upon us and that means umbrella season. You could of course be one of the many contributing to the sea of boring black umbrellas but a friend once pointed out that a lighter color umbrella will make you feel less like there is a dark cloud above you. How much better would it be to have an umbrella that was not only light in color but had a lovely pattern. Your favorite pattern even. Usually these types of umbrellas are pretty spendy and you may find a pattern you like, you may not. Well get ready to have the most amazingly perfect umbrella on the block. Jessica from Me Sew Crazy has posted a wonderful tutorial with lots of pictures. Bring on those showers April, I am ready!

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Put a Bird On It

As you know I am big into birds on stuff. Well it looks like the folks behind the IFC show Portlandia think it is a trend that deserves to be made fun of. The show is hilarious and if you haven’t already seen it you should check it out. I don’t care, I still like birds on stuff.

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M + E

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us. Personally I am not a huge fan of the holiday but I do like creative DIY projects and what better excuse to make one up than V Day. I seriously heart this fingerprint poster tutorial over at Man Made. Super clear directions and great tips (printing at a local print shop, WDITOT!?) help you come up with a personalized work of art that is not to sappy but still pretty sweet and won’t break the bank. I am thinking I might make our equation include a little tiny fingerprint. via

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Where Am I??

Oh hi! You are still checking in? You are probably wondering about the radio silence. Well since my last post my little girl made her official debut! I talk about it here if you are interested. I am finally figuring out how to get some sleep so I am hoping to get back to rambling on soon. Thanks for sticking with me!