Pinterest Day: You are an obsession (chalkboard paint!)

Pinterest Day: You are an Obsession (Chalkboard Paint)

Recently, my dear friend Erin and I got together to do a Pinterest inspired craft and lunch with a Pinterest recipe.  It was a blast.  We decided to chalkboard board books.  Basically, you chalkboard paint old board book and then kids or adults can have their own chalkboard book.  Project below.  Our recipe was jalapeno popper grilled cheese sandwiches, recipe below.

The Project: Chalkboard Board Books

She's Crafty

She's Crafty!

I recently joined Pinterest, which is basically a virtual bulletin board for blogs and websites.  For the crafty, it's more addictive than anything illegal.  The first project I did was a Kindle cover for my husband which is from the blog Come Together Kids.  Click that link for their instructions, I won't duplicate, you should head over to that great blog anyway, but I will tell you the modifications I did.

1. I used fleece instead of quilted fabric.  This meant I didn't need to hem it, just glue it down.

2. I sewed.  I sewed the pocket and the elastics.  It was quick and I'm a sewing moron so don't sweat it.  I did all the sewing pre- hot glue.

3. I changed the direction of the pocket so the open side is facing the spine.  This is so you can put it in the book and close it and it won't fall out.

Check out my drawers

We live in an old house, it's a beautiful, wonderful old house that we love, but with each old house comes certain issues.  One issue common to all old houses is lead paint. Our old house is it was well loved for many years but hadn't been redecorated since the late 60's early 70's, which we loved because we made the choices.  The issue with that is ALL of the paint is lead.  Our kids are older, we've talked to our pediatrician about it and we're all good, but certain things come up.  In our pantry, we have drawers that are painted in the interior.  Now, I don't know about you, but painting the interior of drawers is so far down on my list it doesn't even make the list, so we've assumed that the paint in it is lead.  So, painting the interior of drawers has made my list.  It's not a very exciting thing to do, no one can see it and in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter.  Until I thought about painting them different colors, then I got excited.

I love painting my toes funky colors, I've done it for years, and it's the one personal indulgence I held onto from my pre-child world.  Painting the interior of my drawers could be like that, only not as sparkly.  So, I went through my huge stash of paint samples and pulled out three greenish- bluey colors, and painted away.  It makes me really happy.  So the point of this post is not to trumpet the fact that I very shoddily painted the interior of my drawers, the point is sometimes something that is not so great (like having lead paint around) makes you do something small that makes your life better and makes you really happy.  That's pretty fantastic.  Please note the colors are a bit more vibrant than it looks, I may be many things, but I'm no photographer.

Good Life

Good Life

Last winter skiing and I got together and we fought.  Skiing won.  For a big chunk of time, the casualty of the quarrel was my knee, which complained a great deal with many different things.  I'm happy to report that all will be fine, but my relationship with downhill skiing can't be repaired.  So, here I am.  A non-skiier in a family of skiing fiends.  I feel like I'm getting to know myself again.  Although there will be plenty of things I should do, I've been hoarding projects for the ski time.  Today, it's all about the seeds.

I am a tomatoista.  This is the fancy made up word I've given for my tomato obsession.  This year I have 16 different varieties of seeds saved.  There are a few favorites I've saved for years that I didn't save this year because my garden tanked later in the season.

The tomatoes I'm most looking forward to?  Right below.

1. Absinthe*:  Green, large.
This one was a new one last year, and I loved it.  A good green tomato is so fun and although Green Zebra is delicious, you have a long wait for it.  Absinthe is bigger and although not early, is earlier, and is delicious.  Worth the space.

2. Amish Paste*: Red, medium, mid.
Over the years I have tried a wide variety of paste tomatoes.  Most disappoint.  They are usually meaty, which is good, but are also often small and susceptible to blossom end rot.  I dreamed of a big, meaty, delicious, prolific paste tomato that would keep me canning sauce throughout the season.  Amish Paste is just that.  It's huge and meaty and good enough to be a sandwich tomato.

3. Andrew's Big Bite*: Red, cherry, early.
This is a red cherry.  It's yummy, prolific, and one of my own varieties, so it's always welcome back and saved.