a little DIY

November 22, 2015November 22, 2015 / erin / 1 Comment

Okay, it’s cold, and the trailer work is a little slow as of late due to work and weather.

I am going to share some of my DIY projects, past and present.

Probably the one that I am most proud of, and I hope to do more like it, is an old rocking chair that I was given by my father in law. Rustic old thing that more than likely would be passed over by people time and again.

I also have had in my possession, some light brown hide that’s ready for use. One day I may want to try and make a purse out of it (there is a LOT of it) but I KNEW as soon as I saw the rocking chair that the leather would be PERFECT for it. I’ve been in possession of the leather for awhile just waiting to put it to crafty use 🙂

Here is how I started… I cleaned and stripped the chair completely so it was just the frame remaining.

I chose the spray paint color I wanted to use and had at it — The reason I choose spray paint is simply because it’s cheap, and if I wanted to re-do it one day it would be fairly easy.

I then just traced the seat bottom size on some brown paper, so I could cut the leather to fit properly. That leather was NOT easy to cut, a good pair of scissors would be advised. . .

I purchased some decorative nails from Walmart as well as upholstery nails. The tiny upholstery nails were sturdier and I liked the look it gave too, almost simple, so I placed those in between the decor nails.

Here is the final product. I LOVED how it turned out and it was so easy. I ended up gifting it to a friend to was recently married and I knew it would fit her new home and her style.

I hope its enjoyed and loved! 🙂 The best part being if she doesn’t like it, it would still be very easy to re-do again!

Cold. ish.

November 20, 2015November 20, 2015 / erin / Leave a comment

The weather in Colorado fluctuates on a DAILY basis. I’ve never lived somewhere where the weather is so dramatic. I like it.

So we are so very lucky to be staying on the property of someone we know, and oftentimes in the morning we will go into the house and share breakfast and coffee. One of the homeowners is a dog named Katie. I love her.

Anywho, in the mornings she likes to stand on the table, and wait for us (me) to come out of the trailer and come inside. The other morning Ben sent me this picture of her waiting for me when I was just a little behind him.

Katie is a hairless terrier (I think) and she has SO much personality AND she adores me. Us girls have to stick together 😉 She REALLY makes me want to go rescue a dog, but that will all come in due time. There is an order to the plans for the trailer and a reason for it. BUT I DON’T LIKE WAITING.

That’s what’s wrong with everything. The need for instant gratification. Okay at least I struggle with that if no one else.

— In other news, I was actually able to go to work with Ben the other day. This time not on the trailer but rather thru his actual employer. They needed extra hands and mine were free 🙂 It was a lot of fun, VERY tiring, and very educating.

I’ve worked with Ben a lot, have learned a lot about foam, even worked for a company that also uses spray polyurethane foam, but actually working hands on gave me a much better understanding for it.

I have a picture but not handy SO I will post a picture of my new meditation stool I found at the thrift store the other day! I included a grande coffee from Starbucks for size. Pretty excited about this find!

Sorry I have been MIA as of late, just a lot going on and looking for a minute to grab!

The MoST comforting of FOODS – –

November 9, 2015November 10, 2015 / erin / Leave a comment

PIZZA!

One of my favorite meals to make is homemade pizza with Ben. It’s SO easy, cheap, and usually the pizza is WAY better than take out.

Let me back up a few steps first. My standards for pizza were developed and grew to be the way they are as a result of being raised in close proximity to the great Chicago 😉

– – – I am not trying to be snobby about it, because truly I believe that Little Caesars is underrated, but I also do know there is good pizza, and then there is good pizza.

Anywho, I don’t like spending a lot of time on the crust, so honestly I just buy the Jiffy pizza crust mix, yeah the one that cost a bit under $2.00 and you just add water, that one. It’s rather good, I am able to create a “deep dish” or thin crust if I desired, and it is so quick to make.

The fun part about making the pizza is we just grab whatever toppings we want to put on it that time, and have at it. No two pizzas we make are ever the same, and usually the two staples are mozzarella cheese and jalapenos. Everything else is subject to change. 🙂

I baked this ‘za in a pie pan, which enabled me to make it more of a deep dish, rather reminded me of Uno’s Pizza. mmmmm Uno’s…

I will get better with my images with time, I hope. Sorry for the dark images (if they are, they seem to be to me).

Part of the reason I baked in a pie pan is because the pan I WAS going to use is a bit big for our oven… I grabbed the wrong one from storage. Whoops! But it turned out to be great, in fact, I may prefer it to a sheet or circular pan. It makes the perfect size pizza for the two of us. Sometimes we double the recipe and make two crusts and cook it on a cookie sheet, but that’s out of the question as you’ll see below.

Can you find the elephant in the room? 😉

It’s smaller in size but as you can see it has a lot of different options for cooking and a timer which is great. For comparison sake, it would be big enough for one frozen pizza perfectly!

This was also found at a great deal! I think it was less than $15 bucks and in near perfect condition at Goodwill. I found it about two years ago, but that was also something that I was in the market for, for quite a long time as well before I finally found it.

The key is PATIENCE! If you allow yourself time to browse, sometimes having to go back a few times, eventually what you are looking for will filter thru and that persons junk becomes your treasure! I usually go to the thrift stores about once a week and just walk thru casually with my list in the back of my mind.

For instance… yesterday I found an amazing stool / seat for meditating!

I do NOT have patience for walking around a mall, but thrift stores… I can give the time of day.

Okay so back on track … this is pretty standard for our pizza topping options.

Salt and pepper (if needed, but usually always pepper)

TEXAS PETE hot sauce (personal favorite)

And of course classic parmesan and crushed red pepper.

Comfort foods. All of them.

I am also pleasently suprised over how great cooking is in the trailer. Sure its not AS easy as it could be, but it still is not that tedious, cramped, inconvient, (instert complaint here) as you may think it could be. I just CANNOT wait until we get our cupboards and counter design in place and put in!

Okay. Go forth now, and PIZZA!

New? Furniture Ü

November 9, 2015 / erin / Leave a comment

I have FINALLY found something to house my food/pantry! #yay!

I have been slowly browsing thrift stores around me looking for just the right piece to function for whatever I need it for. I’ve been looking for something to hold our food that would normally go in a cupboard or pantry, and something to go right next to our door/bed to double as a night stand and hold all of the “extras”.

Mission completed.

The Kirkland beer you see in the picture is leftover from the wedding… We’re working on it! It’s a slow process when you don’t drink beer on the regular

If you can see, the doors slide both ways, it’s very light in weight and I LOVE the pale yellow color! (Yellow is one of my favorite colors, so happy) AND it matches my rug PERFECTLY, so that makes a double win 🙂

The rug its partially sitting on is yellow as a base color, then has many other colors woven in as well. It was made by the Amish of Wisconsin, close to my parents place, and I got it on a visit there years ago. It’s one of those pieces that will probably stick around for a long time.

Here is the other piece I found, with my blue “catch-all” basket sitting on top of it. ( I also have a hook that our coats call home right above the blue basket)

This drawer cracks me up tho! IT IS CARDBOARD! I have NEVER seen the like before, but it’s so awesome! So much so, that I had to make mention of it to the lady behind me in line at the Goodwill, she didn’t seem as pumped as I did, but she at least gave me what I can only call pity excitement.

I don’t care, it’s so awesome! It’s so great because I didn’t want to spend the money on something that I may not have for a long time, well I can recycle cardboard easily in SO many ways! The possibilities!

The other piece isn’t going anywhere tho. I am planning on keeping that one around, I just think it’s pretty unique and I will probably not find one like it again.

I forgot the BEST part! … and I am just going to mention one of my greatest pleasures in life is being able to find a really good deal …

There was a 50% off sale on Saturday (when I went to buy the items) …. The first one was a total of $1.50 and the cardboard drawer was $2.00.

Seriously.

Soups (was) ON!

November 8, 2015November 8, 2015 / erin / Leave a comment

I’ve been trying a few new recipes lately, like I said I would.

First up. Broccoli Cheddar Soup in a bread bowl. I got the recipe from Tip Hero on Facebook. It was a very easy recipe and I tweaked it a bit. I definitely let the broccoli cook longer then they suggested, and over all I would FOR sure make it again.

I LOVE broccoli but for some reason when it’s cooked it just smells like bad farts. IM SORRY someone had to say it! But it is OH so good, and well, growing up so close to the land of cheese I really can’t get enough of that.

Perfect combo!

The bread that I got for the bread bowls wasn’t sourdough (which I LOVE) but it was on sale and it was huge enough for Ben and I to split just one loaf, so that basically turned out perfectly, and I ripped out the interior bread for dipping pieces. I would rate it… 8/10. Needed more pepper.

The more I am using my stove the more I am not sure about it. So it is an induction only stove top, so it only works with pots and pans that are magnetic.

HERE is an explanation from the kitchn website of how they work. — taken from there “The key to induction cooktops is that the pots and pans you use must be made from a magnetic material to work with this system. The induction cooktop will induce the electrons in a magnetic material to move, creating an electric current in that magnetic material. That current generates heat in the pot.”

Great news… our pots and pans ARE magnetic and induction ready (bought from Costco) but there is a VERY high-pitched squealing when using said pots on said stove top. It doesn’t happen when I use the teapot, just these pots and pans.

After some research on the internets, it’s not really determined what it’s from but others are experiencing the same thing. So the jury is still out and is also why I use the crock pot more, until I can figure out if its safe or not.

There is about 5 or 6 different heat levels on the stove top, and the higher the setting the higher pitched the sound. It sends shooting tings all over my body that can’t be right. I was able to cook the soup at about the 2nd / 3rd level comfortably, but not much higher than that.

Well – all this talk of food AGAIN — I am going to find some for myself!

p.s.

The mountains look lovely again.

* SnoW *

November 5, 2015November 5, 2015 / erin / Leave a comment

IT SNOWED! Heavens to Betsy its WAY too early for snow, but I LOVE the first snow! LOOVE!

Last night the rain started, and the sounds on the roof were nature’s music. I slept like a baby! I woke up around 5 AM to get some water and I looked out the door, and it was snowing! I couldn’t help it but I woke Ben up with me! Whoops! 😉 But he even got up to take a look – but honestly, I think I squealed so it was my sheer volume that did the trick.

If I didn’t look outside I would’ve had NO idea it was snowing or how cold it was because our new heater is perfect!

Someone gifted us a Lakewood Radiator Oil Heater that runs off of a thermostat as well, its electrical and it maintains such a comfortable temperature I think we may stick with it!

That heater/ fan we were using I don’t think would take the cold like this does at all. It too was run on a thermostat and would shut on and off when it hit its temps, but I almost would feel an electric current/spark when it would turn off / on and I did NOT like it. I am keeping it on hand because it was really good for the fall temps, but with these colder nights coming it wouldn’t have regulated the temp like this radiator.

My two cents on that.

Back to magic —

The first snow always feels so magical to me – but honestly, tell me it’s not magic. Halloween is over and boom, white stuff everywhere – now you have people being nicer to each other for a couple of months and smiling more because they just cannot help but feel the magic too! (Fairies)

Don’t misunderstand me though, I don’t think people are intentionally crabby with everyone but I think fall/winter is a season people take a break from all of that (mostly). I try to stay optimistic about it all anyhow. The world can always use more smiles so I am glad to give!

Someone say fOOD?!

November 4, 2015November 4, 2015 / erin / Leave a comment

I have been trying to be better about cooking at home rather than eating out. Something I feel like a lot of us can relate to, it’s easier to sometimes make excuses and not cook. I am beyond guilty! I am not a bad cook, (I know that makes me sound great at the start of my rant LOL bear with me… ) but I feel like I lack originality when it comes to meal planning and meal making. That and I love a good cheeseburger any day and every day.

Morning tea in my favorite mug, the only one I kept out of the packed boxes for me actually… and that’s saying something because I LOVE mugs 🙂

I am the same ol’ same ol’ type of person — Honestly Ben is a really good cook, and very original, almost to the point I’m worried I may need to have a plan B simply because it looks like a science experiment because it just forms as it goes. I have yet to have had plan B put into action so that’s really good! Some of the dishes were VERY good but we never wrote down what was put in and don’t remember what was done. Lost in food heaven.

Anywhoo, (Every time I hear/say/type that word it makes me think of that lady cop from the movie/show Fargo… or basically anyone from Minnesota. Makes me smile and miss living there) –

From our wedding I kept one of the lace tablecloths and donated the rest (I originally bought them all second-hand). I found it to be the perfect privacy curtain when I have the back patio open!

♥

Another thing, or two, eating out rather than cooking at home does for you is thin out your wallet and more often than not the food you’re making at home is healthier that what’s ‘out there’. We all know this, BUT I still struggle with following thru with the knowledge. With all that being said, I obviously want to cook more at home and make it a regular practice again.

… I am going to digress for a moment … Something also I want to talk about. So I have this love/hate relationship with CHANGE. It is constant and we cannot avoid it. With moving around often change is constant, and I can feel uncomfortable and not really “at home” yet, and I forget my healthy routines and I tend to spend more, or be wasteful more, eat out more, not exercise etc. It’s happens like a rollercoaster / cycle and once I become more settled in the area and familiar with everything my energy settles down and I am able to re-center and remember my good routines.

So this is also something I saw coming, but living in a box (as I like to call it) throws a special wrench into the situation.

I am constantly saving recipes on Pinterest or Facebook on my phone and I do have a few cookbooks but I am rarely cooking them, so I want to be more conscious about that and try my hand at making them. BUT I am kind of limited to what I can do for my meals because I don’t have an oven. I do have a stove top burner, toaster/convection oven, griddle and my…. CROCK POT! Scowering thru Pinterest I realized I (of course) have a TON of crock pot recipes pinned and have yet to make one of them (typical).

Well not anymore! I am realizing my fortune in that thing and am about to start utilizing it a hell of a lot more, and see what else I can make in this small space with my limited resources, and see if it really makes much of a difference at all. Stay tuned! I will be posting what I make and letting you know where I got the recipe from, how they turn out and flops that just don’t cut it.

SPEAKING of flop… I tried to make a “breakfast quesadilla” — It started out promising, but it. was. not. Ah well, it was a good effort on my part simply because I have a really bad habit of not eating breakfast. I did get half of it down tho 😉

My dad made this handy caddy out of old barn wood, and it is awesome! It perfectly holds together what my kitchen counter / table otherwise would 🙂

**Oh I am also making a lot of updates to the site, tweaking and seeing what I like, so things may be changing a lot over the next few days. If you have an opinion and liked one layout and I changed it, feel free to drop a comment and let me know!

dynomadic life

Dynamic Design. Nomadic Nature.

Month: November 2015