How to Control All of the Things (or at Least Feel Like You Do)!

So remember last week when I told you I wasn't doing anything and needed to get myself back into a routine? Well, today I'm gonna tell you a little bit about mine so you can come up with your own.

So I made a list of the usual chores everyone has to do in every household everywhere (clean the bathroom(s), laundry, dishes, etc) Then I broke that down into two lists: stuff that has to get done every day nearly every day (baby steps), and stuff that has to get done weekly (otherwise known as my "daily chore"). With the daily stuff, I created a morning and evening routine in EverNote so I can refer to it on my phone if I need a reminder as to what I'm supposed to be doing next.

And then I did the same with the weekly stuff, but a little more thought went into it. It all comes down to when it makes sense to do something. For example, tonight, Monday, is trash night in our neighborhood, so I decided that cleaning out the fridge should be done on Monday. Whenever I can, I multitask. Because I need time in the evenings to watch True Blood now that I finally talked My Fella into HBO. So on Mondays (and laundry nights [Tuesday and Thursday...because I know you were dying to know]), I do my daily chore during whatever down time I have while cooking dinner. I also clean up the mess as I go, to the extent that I can.

This is where you're really going to tweak a routine to fit your lifestyle. I have off every weekend, so I try to get my errands done on those Saturdays or Sundays. I also have off every other Friday. I try to use those days to do "extra" stuff (organize a closet, hang towel hooks, etc) because the two Fridays that I DO work leave me with no time whatsoever. I work, plus get The Girl from the train at nearly 7:00 p.m., almost an hour from home (but only 11 minutes from work) aaaaaaaand we've been getting into a habit of getting Chinese on the way home, so I leave at 8:30 a.m. and don't get in till nearly 9:00 p.m.

I've gotten some projects finished that I'd been meaning to get to for forever. They're not huge things, but I feel like if I can get through that list, I can work on my bigger/unimportant/just for fun projects with less guilt. Pluuuuuus, since they're mostly organizational stuff, it helps me get through my routine quicker (ya know, when I'm not going, "Where the F*CK did I leave my/the <insert the thing I need that didn't have a home because my closet/cabinet/etc was not organized in the way it should have been>?!" things move faster. Just sayin'). Plus they look prettier and that calms my nerves :) Anyway, I'll probably share my kitchen cabinet and laundry hall (because it isn't a room) and the improvements I've made on them next week!

I Owe You an Apology

I have been gone forever, I know. I think about you all the time, though! And I DO have a good reason. On St. Patrick's Day, I started a job. It's almost an hour drive, so even though my hours are only 10-4, it's really like 9-5 (sometimes later)...and actually, as of this past Friday, 8:30-5. BUT (there are so many buts), firstly, I REALLY like this job, so you should forgive me for my absence because you are ever so happy for me :) Right? Before I get to the "secondly" part (which is good news for yous, btw), I should give yous some background about me. I am crazy. Absolutely neurotic. I've mentioned my need to face my cans, right? And that my kids are trained to give me even amounts of Reeses Pieces? And that I thrive on routines (oh, and lists. I do so love my lists)? Well, if I haven't, now you know. And when I don't have my lists and routines, my "routine" looks like this:

Neglect a bunch of things, stress over not being able to find the time to NOT neglect them, and then, one day, neglect other stuff to do ALL OF THINGS. At once. Repeat.

It's utter chaos. Which only serves to make me MORE anxious. In the past, to combat this insanity, I employed more insanity a structured routine. This is where it gets good for you. The last couple of months have been the aforementioned cycle of insanity. It's been incredibly difficult for me to re-acclimate to working again after not working for so long. I can't seem to restructure accordingly because there was no structure to  begin with, ya dig? As such, I've come up with a daily routine (morning/evening) and a weekly routine. It's pretty basic right now as I test it out and make adjustments, but it will become rigidly structured over time because that's how I roll. I somehow have an easier time deviating from the routine the more structured it is. Does that even make sense? If I know exactly what every minute of every day looks like, I know exactly what can be rearranged when something unexpected comes up. Somebody out there "gets" me, I'm sure. Anyway, back to you. So I've determined to include 1. crafting time and 2. blogging time. I think to start, I'll keep it to blogging once a week. But crafting and blogging were my hobbies. And it's true what they say, everyone DOES need a hobby. And I need to get mine back. In the meantime, bear with me!

St. Patty's Subway Art

A few days ago I showed you my St. Patty's mantle where my subway art hangs and promised to show you how I made it. Let's discuss this idea of "subway art", first, though. WHY is it called subway art? What does that even MEEEAAAN?! I've taken the subway. A LOT. No fewer than 10 times a week, and sometimes more. I've never seen art in the subway. I've seen maps. I've seen ads. I've seen "tags." I've even seen, well, nothing you wanna hear about. None of it could be considered art. Somebody help me out here. Where did the name come from????

Ok, now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's talk about my wall hanging. First off, there's no way I could have done this freehand. Buuuuuuut....I wanted to decide what it was going to say and how it would be placed, so using someone else's image wasn't gonna do, either. Lucky for me, LeAna from A Small Snippet posted this Easy DIY Handpainted Canvas tutorial. The trick is transferring pencil marks, which is something I wouldn't have even know existed if not for her post :) Knowing what steps I'd be taking, I downloaded some free fonts and got to work with an image editor.

Don't forget your fadas!

This is what I came up with. Not all of the fonts included characters with fadas, so I made a little reminder to myself to add the ones that weren't printed. It came out a bit smaller than my canvas (don't ask...). From there, I followed LeAna's instructions and got t' tracin'. One of the commenters on her post suggested placing your print on a glass table with a lamp underneath. Pure genius.

I did this over the course of two evenings. No lie, I write hard and my hand cramped up after awhile. I DID have a large-ish image with a lot of letters, though. The knots in "sláinte" (which gets a fada over the "a" and I DID forget it, despite my note to myself) didn't help, either.

It worked! Holy crap! I totally expected it not to. Not because I didn't trust LeAna, but because that would just be my luck (contrary to popular belief, the Irish are NOT a lucky bunch). In the original tutorial, she tells us to place the print, right side up, on the canvas and trace back over the letters. I'm not a great tracer to begin with, so when I went back over, sometimes I didn't trace over the PENCIL MARKS on the backside if they didn't line up with where I traced the front. Did that make sense? So I scribbled over the front. True story. And I didn't have a pencil sharpener, so I went through three pencils because mechanical pencils, which we have in abundance, do NOT work well. But. There's always a but, isn't there? Three of my fonts had knots in them. You can see in the "MAR" that's not a huge problem, but where I used a smaller size font, you just can't get the detail [presumably] because of the texture of the canvas. See?

I removed them from one of the phrases (well, blessing, really), but left them in "sláinte." I also needed to outline the knots in black so they looked like knots and not just swirls once they were painted.

With the letters/knots in "sláinte," I used the pencil marks I WAS able to make out, and just kinda made up the parts I couldn't. If you look closely, you can see some of them don't actually work out proper like, but whataryag'nnado, right? Then I hung it, still wet. I didn't trust Boots not to destroy it trying to sharpen his claws on it or trust any of the three of them not to walk or sleep on it while it dried. So yeah, it went right on the wall. 

The Girl thinks we should leave it up year round. I'd consider it if it wasn't dated. Wish I'd thought of that...

TL;DR: 

1. Full instructions are on A Small Snippet and the specific post is HERE.
2. If you're using an image with a lot of words or detail, expect to take a break or few because your hand will hurt.
3. If you can put a light under your image, do.
4. Try to avoid small, extremely detailed fonts (such as ones with Celtic knots). Get rid of them completely, or use a larger font size.

Me Father, He Was Orange and Me Mother, She Was Green

Teaser. *cue stripper music*

Ok, that's not true. Me mother was Orange. My grandfather was Green, though, so there's that. Any ol' way, I posted this teaser on Facebook earlier yesterday and promised a post to go along with it. To hold me accountable if I didn't update. It's tomorrow. But this is progress, people! And I blame me mother for my tardiness. We went to Target. Shenanigans ensued. I fed my peeps McDonald's for dinner because I didn't make it home early enough to cook. True story. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about St. Patrick's Day! Some more, I mean. Let's talk about it some more.

So, I'm Irish. Me ma (as she'll be known henceforth) almost named me O'tilly. They'd have called me Oat for short. I'm not even making that up. Literally, on her birthing bed, she changed her mind. Granted, we're protestant (except for my grandfather's side), but we're also American. So of COURSE I celebrate St. Patrick's Day. With gusto! And whiskey. And decorations...which is the reason you're here. The teaser above is part of my mantle which I've changed up as often as possible.

I mostly used things I already owned. The apothecary jar and candle holders are mantle staples. I change out what's in the jar and the ribbon around the candles as I get bored the occasion calls.

The books and beer glasses came from my already existing collection. The Irish books have the perfect style/color for the scheme already. I added a copy of Great Expectations because of the green cover. Considering adding a few more green books, but we'll see. The beer glasses were filled with water and green food coloring with some floating candles.

The wooden shamrock garland was an impulse buy in Ross a few years back. I've never really been able to do anything with it before this mantle. The length just wasn't quite right for anything in my old homes. Seeing it now, I think it needs more orange. A trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics for some ribbon might be in order.

Pictured: less coinage than you'd think 2 lbs would be :/

I wasn't sure what I was going to put in the jar...I had a few ideas and wasn't sure which was my fave or which was the most practical given the size of the thing (and by practical, I mean cheap). I ended up buying two pounds of these chocolate coins, not because they were my fave (I hadn't yet made that decision) or the most practical, but because they were convenient. Like, I was in the grocery store and they had them in the loose candy aisle, so I bought them because if I let myself think about it, I'd never decide and my mantle would never be finished. But really though, they ARE fun, are they not? SN: two pounds of coins was NOT enough to make it look full enough. I wadded up newspaper, covered it in masking tape, and put that at the bottom of the jar. I placed the coins systematically around the "ball" to add bulk. Now it appears half full rather than a quarter full. W00t!

Now this...THIS is my baby. I made it myself. I can't paint or draw or anything like that. This is the closest I've come to being an artist lol I'll post tomorrow about HOW I did it (spoiler: it was totes through the help of another blog. Tune in tomorrow to see whose!!!!). I won't post a tutorial, as the original does a fine job of explaining it (and I'll link you to it, never fear!), but I will share some tips and pictures from my own experience.

In the upcoming week(s), I plan to share some of my favorite St. Patty's Irish recipes. I make the same thing every year -- and no, it is NOT corned beef and cabbage because hello...corned beef?! Hold your breath...it's not Irish, although there is some debate as to whether what I DO make is Irish, but we'll cross that bridge later. How do YOU celebrate the holiday?

Homemade Chicken Stock (Broth?!)

Is it stock or broth?! I may never figure out the difference. And apparently, there's a big ol' debate on the interwebs amongst the foodies. I just don't care that much. I DO wish, however, that I had one of those beautiful photos of my stock in mason jars. But how would you store that?! WHERE would you store it?! So, I don't have one of those pictures. My way is better anyway, dontcha think? It stores really conveniently, and is super easy to only thaw the amount I need*.

*About a cup. Each "patty" is approximately 1/3c.

I make mine with the leftovers from my roasted chicken. If you wanna make your own stock (broth?!) you should know two important things: it's insanely time consuming...about 5 hours + overnight (but REALLY easy, actually) and don't add salt! This may be the only time you ever here me tell you to hold the salt, BUT this advice came straight from my poppop (whose alfredo recipe, admittedly, will result in you having a heart attack, but he does know his stuff!). And he has good reason for this advice! This way, you can use it in any recipe without worrying about having too much salt in the end product. Ok, so let's get started!

Grab the biggest pot you have. I use my 11-qt Ikea 365+ Stock pot that I got FREE. I had to get there before noon and stand in the longest line EVER, but it was totally worth it. Stick your leftover chicken/chicken pieces in it and cover with an inch or so of water. Note: wings float ;) Bring this to a boil. Icky stuff will rise, skim this off. (Not pictured: icky stuff)

In the meantime, you're going to need to grab some veggies and herbs. Whatever you have on hand should probably do, unless all you have in the fridge is mustard. Mustard most likely won't cut it, but I've never tried it, so don't let me stop you! My standards are carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and bay leaves. On this day, I happened to have some rosemary and parsley, so I added those, as well. There's no hard and fast rule about how many or how much (or at least not one I care about! I'm just a rebel! Livin' on the edge!!!), but I wouldn't use fewer than two carrots/stalks of celery/, three if you have them. I used quite a few bay leaves because mine were tiny, but I'd use at least two of those and onions as well. I KNOW I didn't "measure" the rosemary and parsley.

Chop your veggies up fairly large. An inch/inchandahalf oughta do it. I toss everything in a bowl with the herbs and garlic (confession: I use the garlic in the jar that's already diced) as I go.

Pictured: prettier than icky stuff

Once your water has boiled (and you've removed the aforementioned icky stuff), toss your veggies in, reduce to a simmer, and walk away. Just walk away. Come back every so often to stir and make sure it hasn't heated to above a simmer, but you might as well throw in some laundry, watch some SVU, write a blog post. Whatev. Point is, it's gonna be there, on your stove, for about four hours.

After your entire afternoon has passed, strain the big stuff outta your stock. Kinda icky, but less icky than the floaters from earlier.

And then again through a mesh strainer for the smaller bits. And then refrigerate overnight. All the fat will rise and it'll be a lot easier to skim off. I suppose you don't HAVE to refrigerate it, but like I said, easier. And I'm anal about removing ALL of it (not because I care about fat, but because I'm just insane).

After the fat's been skimmed, one way or another, pull out your muffin tins. Fill each cup with your stock and pop in the freezer. I have a side-by-side, so I'm stuck using 6-cup tins. I flash freeze one tin at a time, then stack the next tin on top with a layer of waxed paper between.

Once they're frozen I pop them out and toss them into a gallon-size freezer bag. I also spray my tins with Pam. I'm fully convinced it takes less prying to get the "patties" out once they're frozen. Martha Stewart claims each one is approximately 1/3 cup. And she's Martha Stewart, so I believe her. This knowledge will come in hand later when you're using a recipe that calls for "1 cup of broth."

When you want to use it, just thaw as many "patties" as needed for your recipe. I've never had any issues with not knowing exactly how much each cup holds. You may need to add a bit more salt to your recipe if your recipe assumes you're starting with canned broth or bouillon cubes.

Ingredients:

Chicken carcass (including wings and whatever pieces you don't plan to use for another recipe)

3 Carrots, peeled and chopped in 1ish inch pieces

3 Stalks of celery, chopped in 1ish inch pieces

2 Onions, chopped in big ol' chunks

2-3 Large bay leaves

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

Fresh herbs on hand

Directions:

Cover leftover chicken/chicken pieces with 1-3 inches of water in large pot. Bring to a boil, skimming fat from surface. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare vegetables by cutting into 1-inch pieces. Reduce heat to low simmer and add vegetables and herbs. Allow to simmer four hours, stirring occasionally. Thoroughly strain solids from broth and throw away. Refrigerate 6-8 hours. Skim fat from top. Refrigerate or, for long-term storage, freeze or can. Makes about 4 quarts.

Freezing suggestion: Use muffin tins to measure out and freeze 1/3 cup portions. Freeze in the tins and move portions to a freezer storage bag.

Lennon's "Imagine" Art

The Girl, if you haven't guessed by now, is a bleeding heart with a strong desire for peace and harmony for all. Naturally, she's a John Lennon fan and his "Imagine" is her anthem. She asked for something Lennon inspired for her room and I'd seen a lot of window frame art (is that a thing?) on Pintrest and took inspiration from that. It was a super simple project and could be adapted to any theme.

What you'll need:

• A picture frame
• Permanent markers
• A traceable image of your choice
• A printer (I guess this is optional...I'm working on the assumption that you're finding your traceable image online)
• A sheet of tissue paper

I used a 10x13 frame I had on hand (bought at Walmart for $5). I had painted the frame white awhile back, so all it took to prep it was cleaning the glass. After that, I did a quick Google image search of the lyrics. Once I found an image we liked, I printed it out in black and white, messing around with the size a bit. It was a matter of trial and error, and I can't be more specific than that because the original image size will make a difference. I think I searched "imagine all the people" because "Imagine" alone got me a lot of pictures of John Lennon. But you could search, oh, I dunno...the words to Rings of Power or a few lines from your favorite video game or the lyrics to Aqua's "Barbie Girl". Whatever's fun for you.

After I had it sized to my liking, I taped it to the back of the glass like so:

Sorry about the flash. I turned it off for the other pictures...not sure what I was doing here!

Then came the fun part...COLORING! Because, be honest, it's still fun. So get out your permanent markers. I traced the outline of each word first and as I went, I replaced the printer paper with tissue paper. The marker is somewhat transparent and against the black ink of the printed image, was a little difficult to see. Same went for when there was nothing behind it. So tissue paper saved the day. Once I'd traced the outlines, I went back over and colored them in. Yay!

Tissue paper to make it easier to see my words

I don't know how permanent permanent marker really is in this use, so I won't be cleaning it with glass cleaner. Obviously, you'll want to hang it when you're finished :) The tissue paper won't be needed once it's up on the wall, so you can remove that! Oh, pro tip: I wouldn't recommend this method with a large image. You can see in the larger letters here the marker lines. While I think an elephant in a nursery would be adorable, I don't think a large area would color well. The ink sits on the glass and will smear away if you're not careful or leave those lines. So yeah, there's that. Smaller areas of color :)

Oh, and if you use this method for the lyrics to "Barbie Girl," PLEASE share it with me *wink*

Going Green

So, when we moved, The Girl got a MUCH larger room and I no longer had a use for my (larger) bedroom furniture. As such, she got my stuff. But we had to make it "hers," so we decided to paint the dresser. Bright Green.

I knew I was going to want to distress it AND that I'd want some of the original black to show through the distressed areas, so I went with Glidden's paint and primer in one so I wouldn't have to sand the black away, but neither would it show through where it WASN'T distressed. It didn't negate the need to sand ENTIRELY since I needed to get rid of the finish, but there was a lot LESS sanding this way.

Emma chose New Grass Green as the color and we got it in an eggshell finish.

Here it is in place:

Hippie Swagaliciousness

So I made this thing. Outta stuff. I can't even begin to know what to call it. The inspiration came from this, though: 

It's a hippie thing. You wouldn't get it.

I went to Big Lots and picked up a few "curiosities" and added them to some costume jewelry and other randomness from around the craft room. 

Beads and other hippie stuff

Somehow, the other photos of the randomness from around the house and me putting it together have been lost to some nameless abyss. Basically, the other stuff included: a stick stolen from The Boy, chain necklaces and earrings that we never wore anymore (or to begin with, you know how it goes!), and loose charms plus a bunch of pompoms made from a few of my brightest yarns added to the pile o' junk (I mean, really, it kinda was).

The construction was pretty uncomplicated, albeit tedious. I just removed the clasps and things from the chain jewelry so I was left with lots of different lengths of lots of different chains. I strung them with fishing line from the stick (alternately, you could use those tiny screw eyes...I wanted to, but The Boy's head was already close to exploding as it was, so I didn't want to damage the stick) in a mostly random manner and then began attaching the curiosities in the same mostly random manner. The beads and charms I just attached with jump rings and the pompoms I attached with safety pins that ACTED like jump rings, ya dig? So the final result was something like this:

Harry and Niall REALLY love pompoms

I say "something like" because the actual final result is with the longest chain shortened and a charm or pompom missing. Evidently, it was too much temptation for the cats. The novelty has since worn off, though, and I think it's finally finalized now ;)