Turquoise Necklaces

Aren't these beauties? My grandma was getting rid of some of her old jewelry, and I snagged them. She said she bought them from a trip to Arizona 50 years ago.

Creamy Chai Goodness

I found this in Real Simple Magazine.

Boil 4 cups of water, steep 4 bags of chai tea for 10 minutes. Allow to cool. I put my saucepan of chai out on the pool table so it wouldn't warm up the house anymore on this blistering 95 degree day. Fill a tall glass with ice, add a shot of clear rum, not the spiced, yuck. I used a soup ladle to get the tea into the glass. Add two tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk to the top. I slowly stirred it into it as I drank. Supa Yummy. You can make it w/o the rum to become a lovely afternoon sipper as well.

Basement Redux

Everyone is talking about the big basement make over. (ok, so I've been talking to everyone who will listen) With the inspiration and assistance from IHeartOrganizing, and my shopping buddy Jenna, my financier John and my supportive Pre-Schooler Connor.

Before: Large TV in corner, toys leaking into the "computer room", toys piled on top of the TV. Toys scattered all over the place, with no real proper home.

Now: Large new shevling units! The big one is new ($99 at IKEA) and the smaller one used to be our TV stand up in the living room. It has been replaced by something new. Green Rubbermaid bins from Target for the toys, $6.99 a piece. The large bins on top are also from Target.
Connor, so happy to show off his new shelves. He helped me with the big one. The corner space he has a few pillows. He likes to hid back in there when he gets overwhelmed. It's a nice sensory break space. The top right on the smaller shelf is MY shelf. I keep my coffee cup there, along with some magazines for me to read while Con plays.

Connor and I made labels for each shelf, so that everything has a home. And since Connor isn't too good at reading, we painted pictures on the labels. I was not planning for Woody and Buzz to have their very own shelf, but Connor insisted. I gave him a few days to sort things out, put the toys where he wanted before attaching the labels. It's his space, let him put things where he wants!

The door to the "computer room" is closed, and no toys are in there. Unburied couch, super comfy! Considering a storage ottoman.

Before: Small TV sitting there, piles of old clothes stacked up next to it, random junk on the top shelf.

After: Got rid of the little TV, turned that stand into a place to play cars. It's the right height for a car garage to be parked on. The tool box is under the window, and he uses it as a stool to peak outside.

Before: Utter and complete chaos.

After: All the little toys are picked up and put into there proper homes on the shelves.

Before: Big open space in the center of the room being unused.


After: Plenty of room for his train table, with more than enough open floor space to play on the floor as well. In the back corner is a "bean bag" I made awhile ago, that homes all of Connor's stuffed animals. The green bucket on top has a few large/long toys that don't fit onto the shelves.

Chicken Stir Fry

• 1 chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• lemon-pepper
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup of pea-pods
• 1 garlic scape
• 3 large napa cabbage leaves shredded
• 3 large chard leaves shredded

Season the chicken with lemon-pepper. Heat the wok to a medium-high heat with oil. Cook the chicken throughly, about 4 minutes or so. Add the soy sauce about half way through cooking the chicken. Add the peas, garlic scapes and carrots, cook for 2 minutes. Add the cabbage and chard, cook until wilted, about 2 or 3 minutes. Serve over brown rice.

Croc Scutes

I bought the pink and orange ones at Canadian Tire, maybe 2 years ago. I think they were less than $10, and who knows what brand they are. John bought the blue and white ones last week, for around $12, Croc brand. They are exactly the same. The holes are even in the exact same place. All that is different is the word "Croc" is no painted on the soles of the orange ones. Makes you wonder......

The Spraka

I have been on the hunt for pepper mill for ever. Seriously. Since I was born. Life got in the way. I had all sorts of pepper shakers given to me as wedding gifts and they were just so easy, that my dream of a pepper mill just kept getting scooted back. I went so far is to have put "nice big wooden pepper mill" (don't laugh, this isn't middle school) on my birthday wish list. Of course, John had no idea what the heck that means, so I got an apron instead.

Last weekend while browsing for a paper towel holder at IKEA, I came across the Spraka. It's 15 inches tall, birch, grinds pepper. Fits my requirements. I find it to be nice, it was only $20, so I fear I may get what I pay for. Time will tell if it can hold up. Until then, I am happy with the appearance and the quality of grinding. Bring on the eggs!

Under the Kitchen Sink

Under the sink makeover! The left white thing is the can/glass/plastic recycle bin. The right half was chaos of cleaning products, paper bags, plastic bags, paper towels.
Behind the recycle bin, more scary stuff! An old dish drying rack full of crap like gloves, candles and ant poison.
I took everything out, bought some nice storage and got rid of crap.
The metal bucket that holds all my cleaning supplies slides out! How handy is that? From the Container Store. Behind the recycle bin is a plastic bag holder. The metal bucket was too tall to go on the right side because of the garbage disposal. I should have measured. There were shorter sizes. John actually had to cut a small chunk out of the metal bucket to make it get fit on the left side even. But it works, and you can't really tell.
Paper towels got upgraded to an under the upper cabinets storage.