Improving

We've been hard at work over here.  Lots of rewiring to get rid of the knob and tube.  We've also added switches and outlets to more convenient places and gotten rid of the ones that didn't make sense. We're turning 2 circuits into 6, which will also be more safe and hopefully help with the flickering lights.  We finished the first circuit no real problems.  The second circuit has proven more difficult with limited access to run wire.  I'm excited to have lights in the kitchen again someday.

A new project means new tools for Aaron, including these extenders for his drill and a Rotozip which I think he is loving.

This little project is up next.  I started cleaning off the soot with soap and water and got quite a bit off, but need to TSP to finish it up for painting.

I painted our bed frame white and decided the night stands needed to be painted too.  My vote was for ombre, but Aaron opted for white.  I'm still leaning towards ombre.  Thoughts?

Yes that lamp needs a new light shade badly...the white is okay.  But I think they need some color.  I do like the crystal knobs however.

Meanwhile we have been plotting for our next big project.  Stay tuned.

Glittery Animal Ornaments

Somewhere online I found glittery animal ornaments and knew I had to make them.   I carefully chose my animals from all over the place. Sea creatures, bugs, and more sea creatures.  The African animals, farm animals and large dinosaurs came from the Dollar Tree.  Those that were 3 - 4 inches tall worked best.  Aaron helped me put hooks in them by finding the balancing point and drilling a hole if the animal was made of hard plastic.  I will say this turned out to be much more costly and time consuming that I anticipated, but isn't that the way with craft projects that look simple?

Then I sorted the animals based on what color I wanted them to be.

Priming them worked best (as opposed to just painting), although the metal primer shown here did not work for this, it never fully dried.

Generally I would paint the undersides first.

This was definitely a toxic project and doing it in our basement was probably not the best idea.  Especially ten feet from our furnace, but there were no flash fires luckily.

I used Krylon Glitter Blast which can be found at Fred Meyer (in select colors), Walmart and I also saw it at Craft Warehouse in red and green, but it was super expensive there.  This paint did give me the effect that I wanted, but at a price.  I had read online that this paint did not work well and I had a similar experience.  The nozzle would clog with the glitter, one time immediately.  Meaning that I went to spray paint with a brand new can and once it was on, it was on and wouldn't turn off.  So I always had all my animals laid out ready to go for that color in case the can exploded glitter uncontrollably.  I also kept a plastic shopping bag in my hand to stuff the can in.  Sometimes working the nozzle in and out would solve the problem, sometimes this just caused a geyser of paint to erupt out of the top of the can.  Other times it would work fine the first time, but continue to leak all of the propellant out so nothing would come out the next time I went to use it, even though it was half full.  At $6 a can (although I did find some colors on sale for $3.84 at Fred Meyer, and up to $11 a can at Craft Warehouse - what?!) this got spendy.

After getting as even a coat of glitter as I could, I added a Glitter Blast Clear Coat.

Christmas Caramels

The last two years we have gifted these caramels to our friends and families.  They do take some time to make, but are not overly difficult, and one batch makes more than enough for all of our people (around 200 caramels depending on what size you cut them).  

So yummy, and they travel and keep well for gift giving.  I didn't do too great on capturing every step, but in the middle they get poured into a greased half sheet baking pan, allowed to cool and then cut.

Christmasy

It's definitely getting Christmasy around here.  Dec. 1 I got serious about shopping, and did most of it that weekend.  I have a few more gifts to find, but for the most part everything is purchased and wrapped.  Now comes the hard part - not opening them.  Does anyone else have this problem?  We are always so excited about what we've gotten each other it's hard for us to wait until Christmas!  Home improvement has taken somewhat of a back burner, but painting that fireplace is high on the list...

I found this vintage light up Christmas tree at an estate sale a few months ago.  

Last night we had my parents over for full Thanksgiving dinner.  They were out of the country for Thanksgiving, so we celebrated late.  I can't believe I didn't take a single picture of the food!  The turkey was perfectly golden brown and everything else turned out great as well.  We were able to try out our new remote thermometer for the turkey and it was so nice to be able to monitor the temp the whole time.

Some home improving has still been going on.  Aaron used a wire brush to take the paint and rust off these original register covers.  The plan was to paint them white, but when he got the old paint off , we really liked the industrial look of the brushed silver.  So he cleaned them with acetone and clear coated them.  They may rust, but hopefully they won't.  If they do we will just go with the first plan and paint them white.

 I wish I could share what I've been crafting...but not until after Christmas!

Birthday Dinner

I have a couple of catch up posts from the months when we were frantically getting as much done in the new house before we had to move.

We had my birthday dinner at my favorite place to eat ever - Gathering Together Farms in Philomath.  We have had the most delicious, high quality, reasonably priced meals here.  I can't remember the names of all of these things, but the photos speak for themselves.

Salmon with pearl couscous and pesto

Flat iron steak (so tender you can cut with a fork) with smashed potatoes, zucchini and I think that is aioli on top.

So good!  I can't wait to have another birthday...luckily we took my mom her for birthday and she loved it, so at least two meals here a year :)

Turkey Broth

Every time we cook a turkey we use the frame to make broth.  This Thanksgiving we were given the best leftovers of all - the turkey bones!  We stuck it all in the freezer until we had time to make it.  This morning I put 3 carrots, 3 stalks of celery, 3 onions and 5 cloves of garlic into a large stock pot.  

Next the turkey frame goes in.

We made a big batch and added 24 cups of water.

Brought it to a boil, then turned the heat down to low and let it simmer 1 1/2 - 2 hours.  I let it cool then pulled the bones out and strained the vegetables out.  We ended up with 22 cups of stock.  I put into quart bags to freeze, 2 cups per bag, which works well with most recipes.  

It's amazing how good soup will turn out when you use this, it definitely takes it to the next level flavor wise.  I substitute it in for any recipe that uses chicken broth.  I especially love it in corn chowder.

Pear Juice

A few weeks ago I did a Salem Harvest with pears.  I came home with a lot.  Like I picked a whole large tree by myself and took half.  They took quite a long time to ripen, but we were soon faced with a ton of ripe pears.  They are pretty soft, so I didn't think canning them would be worth the effort.  They do have excellent flavor though, so we decided to juice them.  

I cut them into quarters - we'll do eighths for the next batch to speed up the process.

We put them in the steamer juicer lined with a double layer of extra fine cheese cloth to catch particulates.  Then let them steam.

The first juice to come out was really watery.  This is the first (left) compared to the last (right).  We poured it back in the juicer to mix, then filled the jars again.  This worked well.  I added a teaspoon of lemon juice to each quart for good measure.

This is what the pears cook down too.  Still lots of goodness here.

So we ran it through the food mill to make baby food for Bennet.

The good stuff coming out.

The waste after it's "pooped" out.

Our finished juice.  The color difference is more pronounced here than in real life.  It's delicious!  We got 4 quarts out of one juicer load, which means we should get about 16 quarts.  Not bad for free pears.  We'll have lots of puree for pear leather too!