Recycled Paper Coasters

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Recycled Coasters

This is what I do when my kid doesn’t want to go outside, wants to snuggle and watch The Wiggles, Sesame Street and Little Bill. I have a hard time sitting still. So, I took apart a catalog that just came in the mail and made these coasters. Can  you see Martha Stewart’s noggin? Heh. Wish I could take credit for these little paper projects, but I found this tutorial a while ago on Jess Jones’s blog, How About Orange. After following her blog a little while, I actually met her in person this past Spring at the first Craft Social. My coasters need a little work because I didn’t exactly follow her directions, nor did I have the computer by my side, but they work!

While this is a departure from my seemingly endless conversation about food, it’s made me think about how this journal is evolving. I’m contemplating extracting all the food (and some entertaining) entries and starting a separate blog. I really thought I’d be talking about crafting more often, and no doubt, it has a special place in my heart, but somehow I take more pictures of food and have this want to share it online. Not only that, I’m finding it difficult to make time for crafting, but hey, everyone has to eat, right?

I have no name ideas, I don’t even know how to do the task. WordPress for Dummies seems to be a good purchase right about now. But, I haven’t yet made the executive decision to lop off the food conversations. There are pros and cons to having everything in one place.

Lunching in the Napa Valley

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Most people go to the Napa Valley for wine tasting. We don’t drink much, to the bewilderment of some of our friends, but we do love to eat!  On another note, do people call it “THE Napa Valley” or just Napa Valley? I think that I might be a little too much into my Chicago-ese, like “da Bulls”, “da Coach”, “I buy my meat at THE Jewel.”  *sigh* Oh, well, we digress. DA Napa Valley was great… we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary slightly early with a lunch for two at The Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant thanks to our cousin watching our kids.

Greystone Cellars was beautiful. Built in 1888 as a co-op winery, then bought by the Christian Brothers in 1950, it’s easy to imagine monks wandering around campus and stomping on grapes to make wine. The Culinary Institute of America now inhabits the campus, and it’s their students who work in the kitchens and are wait staff.

Greystone Cornerstone

Culinary Institute of America Napa ValleyMenu readingMenu of the DayEntrees

Eastman’s mock mojito… he couldn’t get enough. Like Summer in a glass… except, for the lack of rum.

Mojito, no, Mock-jito

Chef’s choice appetizers were fabulous.

AppetizersSeafood RagoutPan Seared Scallops

Eating this crepe with rose syrup (It tasted like roses) was like tasting Spring on an early morning.

Strawberry Crepe with Rose Syrup

We wandered into the campus bookstore after lunch to take a peek at the wares. The book section was so cozy. I just wanted to sit there and read. These were just the cookbooks, too.

Bookstore at Greystone CellarsGreystone Cellars-Inside the Main Building

We ended our “day date” with a visit to the V. Sattui winery, but opted out for the tasting. It was so chaotic, we could hardly get a server’s attention!

V. Sattui Winery

Out in California

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I haven’t made much time to blog about our trip to California. Maybe because there are so many destinations I want to write about, and I will! They revolve around food, surprised? But, it was fantastic to stay with my cousin and his family (they were the best hosts) near Sacramento. It was our one taste of REAL summer, because when we stepped off the plane it was over 100 degrees. Chicago has had a crazy bout of cold and rainy weather this year. Totally opposite of the hot and humid summers we usually have.

The trip was a change to our original plans of traveling to New Orleans without the kids. Basically, got a call, ill relative, not much time, that sort of thing. But, he’s doing okay now, not completely cured, but as good as he’s going to be at this stage. The kids were excited to go on an airplane. This came a few weeks after my daughter was asking me, “Mooooom, when are we going to take an airplane again? I like the airport, like when we have to take off our shoes.” And, we did get Ollie his own seat. So worth it! This was a much better ride than last year when he sat on my lap from Chicago to Los Angeles, and the L.A. to Hawaii, and back again.

Ready for Takeoff

We took a trip to Napa and San Francisco…I’ll have some more focused journals about where we went there. Fog, slight chill (got really chilly), ocean-bay air, See’s candies, fudge at Pier 39…Oh, I do love San Francisco.

Transamerica Building

Abby didn’t realize how much driving we would be doing. Essentially it takes an hour or more to get anywhere…

So much driving around

But really, the best parts of the trip: hanging out with my aunts, uncles, my cousins and their kids, reconnecting with another cousin whom I haven’t seen in years, Jelly Belly factory tour, playing in the local park, slip and slide during the hot afternoon. We don’t see them enough… wish we lived closer.

Checking out the waterScooting on the carpet

Should I Use These for Grocery Bags?

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You know when your family or relatives go on vacation and they bring back a little something as a momento from their trip? It’s a nice gesture, right? I think it is. Normally. But why these designs? Seriously, is my sense of style that hard to read that my relatives purchase these very, uh, unique totes?

Totes from afar

It’s not that I don’t appreciate my family’s thinking of me while away on their tours. The tote on the far left is beaded, crazy beaded. Where would I use this? And the tote with the woman came with it’s own makeup/satellite bag. My daughter thought that bag was slightly creepy. And, the one on the bottom is newly acquired, even though the date on it is the year 2000. Note to family: if you feel like you want to buy something, really, just spend it on my kids. They LOVE it when you come with small treasures from abroad. They have stories to tell their friends like, “My grandparents got this for me in Paris.”

So, do I take these totes to the grocery and use them until they fall apart? I suppose they could be good dress-up material for the kids. Library book bags? Ooh, white elephant gift!

Rain Barrel at Work

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Our 55 gallon rain barrel filled up so fast, which is great, and then it started spilling over. That was expected. The problem is WHERE it was spilling into.

Rain barrel at work

Soil was getting washed away, and water was just pouring right underneath our driveway. It probably disturbed critters living there, if there were any at all. But the big concern is that the soil backfill is just eroding, and soon we might have a big problem with our basement flooding, or driveway sinking, or who knows. The weather calls for more rain tomorrow, so we emptied the barrel into the side yard which hardly gets wet from the rain since it’s shaded by a big tree on our neighbor’s lawn.

We’re thinking about painting the barrel someday. See here for some examples!

Amazing Spray Paint

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Register grilles - before paint

We turned our white air vent registers into beautiful hammered bronze registers, all with a spritz of spray paint. Love those Rustoleum products!

Hammered bronze - after

It was a lot less expensive than buying the actual decorative cast metal ones that we have in our dining room. But, we love those covers too.

In the hallway

Close up of hammered finish

We decided to spray paint the ones in the living room, too. Just a few more to do around the house…

Register grilles with new finish

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