Spot-the-Dollar-Store-Item Quiz

I didn't do so hot. I only got three right. Take the quiz and try to beat my score!

In other news, we leave for Chattanooga tomorrow! Seven-and-a-half-hour-car-ride-with-an-infant here we come!

I didn't go to BlogHer

I think I'm the only blogger in the US that didn't make the trek to the Windy City last weekend. Instead of mingling with blog-stars and battling what sounds like fierce, greedy crowds, I stayed home this weekend. Here's ten things I did that I could not have done if I went to Chicago.

10. Cleaned out the basement closet and the pantry. I was inspired by a fellow blogger (can't remember who, so if it was you who just blogged about it the other day, let me know so I can give credit where credit is due).
9. Discovered I have five jars of pickles in the pantry. I can't even blame it on the pregnancy. I never craved pickles.
8. Took craploads of stuff out to the shed for a future garage sale. (And in the future, I'll probably go through it again, decide that I really do need this stuff, and bring it back into the house).
7. Sewed Joel a bean bag chair, filled with my stuffed animals rather than normal bean bag stuffing.
6. Tore off a piece of wallpaper border in the nursery, which led to a full-scale redo.
5. Sewed window treatments, painted stripes on the nursery walls, repainted a toy box, and painted a book shelf for the nursery. (I just painted that toy box green a couple months ago and now decided that it really should be brown).
4. Continued with my de-wallpaper-borderizing in the upstairs bathroom. Now I'll have to paint that room too. While I'm at it, I will go ahead and repaint our bedroom as well. Pfew.
3. Make tons and tons of Beef Vegetable Soup, froze it, and will bring it with us to Tennessee for free meals in the hotel. Also made and froze baby food green beans, carrots, and sweet peas for the little one.
2. Went to visit my mom's dad and stepmom because they were having a ginormous garage sale. Came home with lots of free stuff, including a blue and white platter, plastic fruit for Joel's toy kitchen, tons of vintage trims, rick rack, seam binding, and bias tape, some children's books, and "Cottage Style" for my reading pleasure. Will blog about that later.
1. Spent time with my family and got spit up on by my baby boy a million times.

What did you do last weekend?

The Fruits (er, Vegetables) of my Labor

Menu Planning Madness is brought to you today by the letters E, P, T, and Z. (No, not a pregnancy test, Thank goodness!!!) Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini. As in, those are the veges growing in my garden :)

I harvested my first three vegetables yesterday: three zukes were just the right size! I have one tomato turning red (which means gadzooks of them will probably ripen while we're away on vacation...), and even though my green peppers are small, I think they're done growing. They're turning brown which I read was a sign of ripening. My little eggplants are chugging along as well.

I went on a rampage last night looking up recipes to use up all these vegetables as they ripen. Menu planning will revolve around what vegetables are picked that week. My best guess for this week is as follows:

To use up the ranch dressing and potatoes before we leave for vacation:
Ranch Baked Chicken with Ranch Mashed Potatoes
Zucchini Casserole
Plum Upside Down Cake to use up the plums

Italian Sausages with sauteed bell peppers and onions are on the menu later in the week after all that above is eaten. That should do it for the week, and then bright and early Saturday morning we leave for Tennessee! Woot, woot!

Dress Reconstructed

What do you get when you cross a dress with a bulletin board? Give up?
Why, window treatments, of course! And it couldn't be simpler!

I cut the bottom 14 inches off for one panel, and next 14 inches off for the other panel (see the red lines). That was all I needed for the curtains. The top portion of the dress did not get touched, so I now have a wonderful tank top! (Which I'm probably too fat for, but that's neither here nor there).

Several years ago I purchased solid fabrics for three bulletin boards in my classroom. Paper fades, however fabric on bulletin boards work wonders! I will no longer be teaching in that building, and so I brought all that fabric home with me. I married the brown bulletin board fabric with my pretty-but-can't-squeeze-my-ginormous-hips-into-it-anymore dress, and here's what you get: *drumroll*



Please pay no mind to the painters tape and hodge podge shelf. This room is in a transitional state right now. I also am thinking about upgrading the curtain rod to one with finials, however I am not sure how that would look since the right side of the curtain rod really wouldn't have room for a finial. Plus I'm trying not to buy anything for the room and instead remix what I already have, so maybe I'll just stick with the plain white one. A coat of brown spray paint might spruce it up though.

A breakdown of the materials:
Brown and Blue Paint- from the basement. Free!
Paintbrushes/roller/paint tray- already had them from a previous project. Free!
Painters Tape- $6 something at Lowes
Window treatments- from my closet and fabric stash. Free!
Clips to hang the window treatments- previously used for the shower curtain. Free!

Sewing Chick: 4, Opponent: 1. Woohoo!

Nursery Walls Redo

My son is five months old. I'm just now getting around to removing the wallpaper border and painting the nursery.

It's not really worth making it all cutesy since he will outgrow that kind of decor lickety split. Instead, here is the color scheme I have come up with. I've picked this color scheme because the tan and the green were already on the walls when I moved in eight years ago. Yes, I'm lazy. All I want to do is paint the area where the border was.

Painting stripes. Good times. I painted the brown stripe first (color chosen because I already had a quart of it in the basement). Of course, the color ran under the tape. Argh. And to make matters worse, the painters tape pulled up some of the green and tan original paint in several spots.

Plan B: Add blue stripes above and below the brown. Why blue? Because I had some dark blue paint, and I had leftover white paint from the kitchen cabinets. Dark blue plus white equals a nice light blue.

I went out and bought a different painters tape. This one is low adhesion and is rated to go over paint that isn't cured yet. We'll see how that goes. Keep your fingers crossed.

Also this time I am going to paint a clear coat under the blue. This way, the clear coat creates a bond with the tape so that the blue will not be able to seep underneath. I learned that little trick from Danielle Hirsch on HGTV. She's the bomb diggety painter.

I'll keep you posted!

Green Thumb Thursday

When it comes to gardening, I've got two left feet. (And neither of them are green). I somehow managed to all but kill my hanging tomato plant.

Does anyone know why when I water it, the water just drains straight through the soil and lands on the plate underneath? I think that is why it's dying. It's not that I'm not watering it (though I admit that I probably don't water it as much as I should...), it's just that the water doesn't stay in the soil.


Here's my next question for you gardening gurus out there: why are my green peppers turning brown?




And other question: are Japanese long eggplants supposed to be white? Will it turn purple later, or do I have a prize-winning albino eggplant on my hands?


Finally. Something is growing normally. These two tomato plants are thriving. *Knocks on wood*


This is my Dusty Eggplant. He's purple. And tiny. Look closely- he's there.

This is how I know Hubby Loves Me

These little black plastic thingies originally held my husband's ammo (he's a gun enthusiast). He gave them to me the other day and said that he didn't want to throw them away because he thought I might be able to do something with them. He knows me so well. Most women swoon over a man who brings them flowers; I swoon for recycled craftables. Love ya babe!

So what should I make with these? They remind me of those things you'd see in a forensic lab where they put the little vials for DNA testing. Yes, I've been watching too much "Crime 360" and "The First 48."