Superest Salad Ever

It's been a while since I've posted, and although I have had inspiration and have even made a thing or two, I'm not quite ready to expose them to the universe yet. However, I made a hell of a great salad today so I thought I'd share that with you.

The other day I placed an order through Greenling.com, a sort of multi-farm coop plus health food grocery website, where you can order food, particularly local and organic produce, to be delivered to your door. While I can see why this would be a terrific service for some, I don't think it's really right for my family. I prefer selecting my own produce, and I would rather support my local area farmers more directly by buying from them at the farmer's market.

That said, I did get a pretty cool assortment of veggies, none of which were quite enough to feed me, my kids, and my parents this weekend, but many of which came together in a pretty beautiful way.

Ingredients:

1 small head of Romaine lettuce
2 cups loosely packed baby spinach
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 orange bell pepper
5-6 medium sized carrots
2 large radishes
1/4 head cauliflower
1 cup micro greens
1 can garbanzo beans
1 can kernel corn
Parsley to taste
1/4 cup bottled raspberry vinaigrette

Chop the greens, peppers, radishes, cauliflower, and parsley roughly (I diced them so the pieces would be small and easy to eat). Shred the carrots. Mix all ingredients together, including the drained cans of garbanzo beans and corn. Toss with dressing and serve.

This was delicious, filling, and entirely vegan, and very very healthy. Even my kids liked it! Well, my daughter did. My son balked a little, but not too much.

Of course, this is just what I had on hand, so obviously it'll be different every time. It's hardly a recipe at all, but I loved it. All the different textures and fresh flavors came together really made it special, and the garbanzo beans gave it a protein boost that made it filling and a whole meal by itself. It's been a long time since I've been so satisfied by a single salad!

A cabinet for filing things!

So this isn't a wearable, which is kinda sorta against the rules, but I have been wanting to fix up an old filing cabinet for so long that when I finally got a chance this week, I realized I had to share it with the world! (I don't actually think anybody reads this blog but me.)

I found this beauty at a garage sale for the absurdly and hilariously low price of $3:

Here it is in my trunk, all happy because someone bought it (and on the last day of the sale too!) While it was the striking color that first caught my eye, after close inspection I learned that the drawers sat properly in their rails, the handles were solid, there didn't appear to be any rust (I found some on there later, but only a tiny bit), and it had the little metal dividers in both drawers. A great find for only $3!!

I took it home and started to work on getting that awful contact paper off. I used a combination of Vinegar Multisurface Windex, a plastic scraper, and patience to get every scrap of it off:

Worse than the contact paper though was the duct tape. EEEEWWWWW. (I have a weird phobic issue with sticky stuff.) I wasn't able to get all the adhesive off, but you can hardly tell now.

When I finally got all the contact paper off, I realized why they had put it there to begin with. The paint on top was in lousy shape:

And I began to notice other places on the sides and front of the cabinet that had chips and scratches in the paint as well:

I was sad because I'd hoped that I could salvage the paint job. But I couldn't, so I bucked up, put on my big girl panties, and sanded the crap out of every surface to get off the dirt, rust, and to rough up the texture a little so it would take new paint better. Then I ran to Home Depot and came home with this:

Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch in Paprika and Sage Green. They were literally the first two colors I saw that I fell in love with, so I grabbed them for less than $4 apiece (I had no idea spraypaint was so inexpensive!! I am in trouble.) and ran back home with some sort of plan in my head.

After consulting with my 9-year-old, who is the real artist in the family, I decided to paint the main body of the cabinet green and use the paprika as the "accent" on the drawer facings.

First coat:

I touched up the drawer pulls with some black paint I had laying around, reassembled the whole thing (after letting it dry of course) and here is the result:

Yes, I loved the orange, but frankly, these colors work better with my decor, with my life, with my taste, and with my happiness factor. I couldn't be more pleased with how this turned out, and even though it isn't wearable, it is yet another item that goes on my list of things I will be leaving hell with.

Last Sweaters for a While I SWEAR!

So look.

I love sweaters.

I really do.

SUE ME.

Problem is, sweaters don't work well in a place that's basically just hot all the time. Sure, there are a few months a year during which having a little extra warmth cuddling around you is pretty useful, but then the sweaters get tucked away into Rubbermaids or back closets, sleeping with the moth balls until we find use for them again.

Right around now, in this part of the country, sweaters go on major sale at Goodwill and other thrift stores. It's very exciting but a little sad to see them all, because we really don't have a good way to show them off to the world until it gets chilly again. Plus, you never know when you'll spot the perfect sweater from across the store, only to discover that it has holes, stains, or spots that have worn through.

So I've compiled a little list of things you can make from sweaters that are not, well, other sweaters.

First on the program is this juicy little number that actually made me gasp out loud when I saw it:

It's a sweater purse! A Lemon Squeezy Home has put together a brilliant and easy-to-follow tutorial for this adorable little thing and I can NOT wait to make one. And I'm serious. I even have a purse with awesome handles that I'd be willing to cannibalize for something like this. I could even see picking up a bigger sweater and turning it into a laptop sleeve.

Here's another awesome example of a good idea:

Found on the always fabulous Make It Love It blog, also with a super easy tutorial, this adorable little sling bag could be stitched up in a couple of hours and made in a variety of colors. One for every day of the week, I'm thinking. And people told me I had too many purses before! Hahahahahaha. Hahaha. Haha. Oh my. I'll show them. I'll show them all.

Here's another cute idea, not wearable but totally doable:

Featured in a post on the Schmath blog, but not linked to a tutorial, I can't see how these would be that hard. Pick up a cardigan with an interesting texture, cut out the pieces, sew them together, stuff a pillow form in there...and done! This could really cozy up a cold living room in no time flat.

Here's a simple but effective recon:

This Mama Makes Stuff made this stuff right here - a cashmere baby blanket, ooh la la! Only for the babies with the most sophisticated and high class taste.

Finally, this one made my heart stop and then I immediately started making insane plans:

I just oh my god I don't even.

Yes please.

(From Country Living.)

Okay I promise I won't cover sweaters anymore. For at least...a month. Two. Maybe.

Kids Go Handmade! (Banana Edition)

Yes I said banana edition. Bananas!!

Friday was my son's seventh birthday. My son loves bananas. Nobody loves bananas more than my sweet boy.

So my daughter made him a banana out of felt for his birthday!

She's a creative little sprout, huh?

We also made a truly delicious trifle with angel food cake, banana pudding, fresh mixed berries, and walnuts. It was SO good!!! Best birthday cake ever. :)

Also, see below for my daughter's other great creation for the week: an evil paper mustache.

Color Block Skirt

So you remember how just a couple of days ago I was posting about color block recons and how much I love them and how much I'm inspired by them?

Well I found myself today with a few hours to spare, a Buffy marathon on Netflix, and a couple of garments that had seen better days, so I just decided to go for it. I didn't have a plan, I didn't have a design in mind...well, I kind of did, but after I cut everything to pieces I realized it wasn't going to work, so I had to figure out something else on the fly. And when you think about it, gazing in befuddled panic at a virtually useless pile of scraps in front of you is the best way to design. Really. Honest.

This is what I made:

 

Which I think is pretty darn cute, and something that - again - I can actually wear somewhere. Not sure where. But OUT. In the WORLD. Instead of just prancing around in it at home because it shouldn't be seen by eyes other than mine.

No, this is hella cute and I love it. It feels very feminine and pretty, and it does give a similar feel to the ones I displayed in my last post. The color blocking process was really fun, and it was exciting coming up with a cute way to put these three completely different fabrics together.

The main green part came from this dress:

 Which was sweet in its own way, but definitely dated and not terribly flattering. Also, I never wear strappy dresses, not even with something over it. I am ALWAYS worried that my bra will show (you don't even want to see the BACK of this thing...bra-city).

So I cut it to pieces and combined it with a schoolgirl skirt in neutral colors and some vintage elastic lace, and I am really glad I like the result because otherwise I would probably have cannibalized it to get that lace back. But I am happy with what happened today, and very proud to put this new thing in my closet.