Category: things to do
Upcycling #1 and Pranks
two things we’ve had a lot of fun with lately are upcycling (because i don’t like wasting) and harmless pranks! i have some fun step by step upcycling posts to share later, but for now i have some small finished projects that i did to redo a wall in our living room.
my grandma gave me a whole box of old cameras, lenses and filters etc. i had them sitting in a box for the longest time not knowing what to do with them. we did a little redecorating and wanted to do movie/camera/film sort of theme. so this is what i did with some of the lenses and filters:
and a few flashes – i wish i didn’t have to use so much glue but i couldn’t figure out how to keep them in there. they are also in an old crayon box i picked up from an antique store 🙂
and this one is a bit more personal. my grandparents had all of their 8mm home movies in a box stored away for decades. i can’t remember why i had them, but we finally digitized them and ended up with all the boxes which i couldn’t throw away. they are just so cool looking! so i made a little collage of them. the fun part about them is that we’ll be able to show our kids what our grandparents had to do in order to see their home movies!
and we also put a little montage of outdated maps together. these are all cities we’ve been to:
now for the prank. it all started when we were watching gentlemen broncos with our friends over at zelo photography. they made a time capsule and blew on a friendship stone…well it’s kind of a weird movie and you just have to watch it. aaaaanyway…so since we live about 2 miles away from each other we talked about giving each other keys so we can watch each others’ houses when we’re out of town.
so this is how they gave us our key:
we were laughing so hard, especially when we opened it and found the key on top of the friendship stone 🙂
so, we had to come up with something just as good for giving them our key. my grandma also gives me things that aren’t so useful sometimes, like these ‘old’ cameras from the 90’s. i did save them just in case and then when we were at a flea market, i thought of it!!
a camera with antlers! random i know, but i think it turned out pretty cool.
and her’s the finished product and we put the key in the film slot 🙂
and, since they happened to be out of town when we finished it, we thought it would be fun to play a little prank and sprinkle their place with army men. unfortunately i couldn’t find any army men so cowboys and indians it was 🙂
i think it fits in really well on their entry table!
oh and these picture frames below were empty so we filled them too.
You are what you eat Part 3
this is part three of a series about our all natural and organic diet. Read part one here, read part two here.
on shopping, what we buy, and reading those pesky labels.
this is probably one of the more common questions we get from people, usually based on two concerns, time constraints and money. so since i hate being wasteful of anything including time and money, i’ve put together a little list. DISCLAIMER: items in stores are changing constantly so keep a list of where you like to buy things to save time.
here’s where we shop and why:
1. Jimbo’s (similar to Whole Foods) – jimbo’s is more expensive than some of the other stores, but since most of their items fall under what we can eat, it saves tons of time shopping there not having to read labels.
meat: you can find lots of organic meats but they are not super cheap. it’s good to know where they sell it though in case you need it. plus they have a meat grinder so if you want ground chicken they’ll do it for you right there. i also buy my all natural nitrate/nitrite free bacon, hot dogs and salami products there.
bread: i have actually started making my own bread with a breadmaker to save money (plus it’s delicious) but jimbo’s is one of the only places i’ve been able to find all natural bread with no soy that jared liked, hahaha! it’s just really refreshing when something only has a small amount of ingredients.
fruits/vegetables: most of their fresh food is affordable but the best thing about jimbo’s is that ALL of their produce is organic so you don’t have to worry about finding the things you need organic and compromising on others. this is especially important for us because we juice. i don’t want to have to go to multiple stores looking for all my juicing ingredients, i just grab everything i need in 2 minutes.
drinks: jared loves zevia, an all natural soda that uses stevia instead of sugar so it’s all natural and calorie free. i prefer the cane sugar sodas (when i crave one ever so rarely) and they have those too.
2. trader joe’s – my new favorite place to shop and according to their website (not sure how true it is) all of their name brand items are GMO free, which is awesome!
meat: they sell organic chickens. they also have frozen free range beef for the best price i’ve found so far.
candy: i’ve found a bunch of all natural candy here which is great because it’s nice to not have to give up everything you like when you go all natural. i’ll do a whole post on sweets 🙂
produce: not everything is organic at tj’s but they do have some things in bags like kale and spinach which makes it much easier for juicing.
appetizers: tj’s has the best all natural appetizers for parties when you don’t have time to make them yourself, they also have puff pastry and philo dough if you do want to make your own.
3. sprouts – i used to shop here all the time, but when i started reading labels i realized that many things there were off my list. but they do have plenty of all natural snacks and sodas. i also just found all natural sprinkles which is great for cupcakes and cake since i don’t use food coloring.
4. costco and vons – every time i go to costco or vons, i see something new that is all natural. they don’t have a ton of things, but it’s great to see that they are listening to people and what they want.
5. farmer’s markets – great for all natural food, but not a time saver because they won’t always have what you’re looking for. but i love going when i want to wander and run into people i know!
if you are looking for a specific item, leave me a comment and maybe i can point you in the right direction 🙂
reading labels: this is the most important thing if you are going to change your eating habits, mainly because of all the advertising gimmicks. something that has a healthy looking label might be horrible for you. there is high fructose corn syrup in so many things you would not believe, and i’ve found sucralose (splenda) in a ton of products that aren’t even labeled as diet. so don’t just look at the name, ‘natural’ doesn’t mean ‘all natural’, always always read the list of ingredients!!
here are some examples. this jam you would most certainly think is healthy, ‘pure boysenberry preserves’
but check out what’s really in it…
this one at least is honest about their use of splenda
but it’s not just sugar free, it has preservatives and food coloring…why do we need food coloring in jam???
even something i thought for sure would be healthy, i picked this up to maybe buy it and read the side first…when the fruit is the 3rd ingredient, you have to wonder…
and this example is why you should always read the labels…these are actually all natural cheetos, but the packaging is so bad you would probably pass over it assuming they were bad. so don’t be misled by branding, it is worth your time to read labels!
Project Rocking Chair
my parents went through their attic and found some fun stuff that had been forgotten over the years. one item was my dad’s grandma’s rocking chair. he asked if i wanted it and i was excited to get it home and refurbish it! this was my first time refurbishing anything and i had no idea what i was doing [thanks internet].
i just LOVE this stained floral print, don’t you?
luckily the only part that needed upholstery was the pad, and it was removable!
i actually thought it would be easy enough to work on this in my living room so we could watch tv together while i took this thing apart. turns out, it was incredibly dirty inside, whoops!
all the nails and staples were rusted and pretty difficult to get out. once i got them all out i noticed that the top layer of material had just been placed over the original leather upholstery. the leather was completely thrashed underneath, and it was like an onion taking this thing apart, more and more layers! underneath the leather was hay used as the padding. again, should have done this outside!
all the garbage after ripping this thing apart…
i honestly didn’t expect that this would be all that was left after stripping it down.
this is the chair without the pad and that’s the material i picked out.
already looking much much better
and done! well for now anyway. still trying to decide if i should repaint the chair, thoughts??
Merry Christmas!
Hope you all had a wonderful and eventful 2012! I know we sure did, and we even survived another end of the world fake out, we’re still hereSince we’re still here, you get the wonderful opportunity to see another masterpiece of ours. If you don’t know what you have happened upon, we do an annual Christmas card film. Here are all of our past years’ films if you haven’t seen them: 2011, 2011 bloopers, 2010, 2009 & 2008.
enjoy!!
Oh, and be sure to have your 3d glasses ready…
You are what you eat part 2
this is part two in a series on healthy eating. read part 1 here.
one thing you should know about me is that i hate wasting food, time and money…i realize that most people are that way too so if you feel the same way, you’re in good company! when we started our venture, i wanted to find good ways to make habits that were not time consuming or expensive or i would just give them up. (yes, i really am that undisciplined!)
meat
this is one thing we’ve gotten a lot of questions about, how we do meat on this diet. we buy organic free range chicken, grass fed beef, and all natural pork products (like hot dogs and bacon). we buy all of our meat at jimbo’s and trader joe’s. sometimes at sprouts or costco when we hear that they have something in that meets the requirements!
so, isn’t all that kind of meat super expensive? yes, it is more expensive than regular meat, BUT we’ve figured out some ways to make the meat last longer than usual. so here’s what we do:
buy an organic free range whole chicken…what? a whole chicken?! yes, a whole chicken. if you’ve never made one, you’re in for a pleasant surprise, they’re super easy and taste just like the cooked ones you buy whole at vons, albertsons or costco, plus they make your house smell like what i think martha stewart’s house might smell like. so why don’t we just buy one of the ready made chickens? first of all they aren’t organic/free range/hormone free (they might be but they don’t advertise that they are). and if you read the ingredients, they do not use all natural ingredients to cook/season their whole chickens.
1. get out your crock pot, cut up 4-5 organic carrots, 3-4 stalks of organic celery and an organic onion and put them in the pot.
2. unwrap your chicken (this is the hardest part for me because touching raw chicken is one of the most disgusting things in life – first world problems i know!) remove any giblets that came with it (heart, liver, neck etc..) don’t throw those away though because although we don’t eat them i let them cook with the chicken so we can get some of the nutrients. also i give the heart and liver to my dog afterward and she LOVES them!
3. rinse off the chicken and then rub it with garlic inside and out. then rub the chicken with seasoning. you can use any kind of seasoning you want but i like doing one that is more neutral so that we can use the leftover meat for other dishes later in the week. here’s what i season with (recipe from this site):
4 tsp salt
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
i mix together this recipe x4 and put it in a jar so that i only have to spend the time mixing all these ingredients once every 4 chickens (i thought of that one myself 🙂
*optional – put a quartered lemon inside, i have done it both ways, and jared likes it better without so there you have it!
plop the chicken in the slow cooker on low for 4-8 hours depending on weight, a 4 lb chicken usually takes about 6 hours. just make sure that the temp is 160 degrees to be sure it’s done. this recipe calls for broiling it afterward but i never do that and it’s delicious.
once it’s done we eat it with a salad and some potatoes, jared eats plain and i like sweet 🙂
then i go about making this puppy last! once we’re done eating, i pick all the chicken off the bones and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. this shredded chicken lasts for 2-3 more recipes that usually yield leftovers (for a family of 2) so we really get quite a few meals out of one chicken. we’ve made bbq chicken pizza, tacos, chicken bakes, enchiladas, pretty much anything you can think to do with leftover chicken.
after i’ve stripped the bones, i dump the whole crock pot full of carcass and veges into a pot on the stove. i have a really great feature on my pot and it has a strainer that fits in it so that when i’m all done it’s easy to throw everything away and just have broth left. then i put enough water in the pot to cover all the food but don’t fill it too high or it will boil out. i boil that for about 2-3 hours and voila, homemade organic chicken stock! with the chicken stock, you can make chicken tortilla soup (with leftover chicken), any other type of broth or even pureed vegetable soups, or rice or couscous.
i know it sounds like a lot of time 2-3 hours, but you are just letting it sit there and do it’s thing while you can do laundry or watch tv.
look at that golden deliciousness!