Confessions of a Former Stocker

Shortly after I was diagnosed last year, I noticed that my appetite had changed.  Suddenly many of the things I'd eaten in the past just didn't taste good any more.  Burger and fries?  No appeal.  Pizza?  No thanks.  Ice Cream?  Eh, not so much.  What I really started craving was much healthier foods.  Lots of fruit and veggies, a little bit of lean beef and chicken, Greek yogurt, plain pasta, frozen fruit bars.  And I can't eat a lot at one time.  In fact, often for breakfast and lunch I just sort of snack.  Maybe some yogurt for breakfast and a while later a piece of fruit.  Then around lunch time, a bit of cheese and some nuts.  Later maybe another piece of fruit and a few crackers.

I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the medications that I take, but there was definitely a huge difference.  Additionally with the heart disease component of the cancer, I've really had to cut back on the amount of sodium I consume.  Which is really a good thing!  Honestly, it's quite shocking to find out how much sodium we take in every day.  Shocking and scary!  Until the edema started last year, I hadn't really worried much about my sodium intake.  Now I notice.  Trust me.  When your ankles become cankles, it's hard not to notice!

Anyway.

Though we've changed the way we eat, we haven't changed what our cupboards hold.  Well, technically we've added some things - like lower sodium chicken and beef broth, lower sodium soy sauce, and a wide variety of different snacks - but we haven't taken anything away.  And I admit, it's overwhelming to me when I open the cupboards to find something.  Rather than sort through what's in the cupboard - which I haven't the energy to do - I choose to pick up whatever we need for a recipe at the market.  I know I'm only putting off the inevitable task of cleaning out the cupboards, but at least I'd been able to avoid it just a little longer.

Until last weekend.

We'd been talking about going the 'Graze' snack route, (but creating the snacks in our own containers and taking them to work -- much cheaper than subscribing to Graze or it's competitors) and had been doing so for about 2 weeks.  It's worked out well, but the snacks were just sitting on the counter taking up space because there wasn't space in the cupboard.  So I did it:  I broke down and bought some of these awesome containers...                                                  

The cereal and snack cupboard was fun to organize!  There were a few products that had expired, or crackers that had gone stale, but overall, it went together pretty well - things were much more organized and accessible.  Just what you want when you clean out your cupboards!  Then…I headed over to the canned goods and mixes cupboard.  Oh.My.  When had it become so disorganized and crowded?  The cupboard was so full I swear I heard it moan under it's own weight when I opened the doors.  Where to start?  Kevin took a break from what he was doing to come in to help - and I'm so thankful he did!  Many of the canned goods had expired and most of the rest of them, as well as the rice mixes, etc., had SO MUCH SODIUM that we knew we couldn't keep them.  We would never eat them, so it wasn't even a question - they had to go.  We filled up a large box to donate to our local food pantry and dumped out the products that had expired.  We were overwhelmed with the many things that we hadn't used and didn't really need.  I decided right then and there that I would never again stock this much stuff in our cupboards.  There are only two of us for Heaven sakes.  It hurt my poor little frugal heart to see all of the waste we'd created.  It was senseless.  From now on our cupboards will hold just enough. I don't care if soup is on sale for just twenty five cents a can - we don't eat it.  We've become soup snobs and are really only interested in our own homemade soups.  Canned veggies?  Blech.  Bring on the fresh stuff or nothing at all.  After we removed all of the things we can't eat, and tossed out the expired items, our cupboards were a thing of beauty.  I kept opening them to peek inside and make sure everything was still in its proper place.  

Ahhh.  So simple and yet so extraordinary at the same time.  Be honest - when was the last time you cleaned out your cupboards?  Don't you think it's time? Go on, go…clean!  It will make you feel better!

Let the Gardening Begin

Every year, right around the end of January, I begin thinking what I'd like to do in the garden for the season.  I always have lots of ideas running through my head, and I'm usually able to translate a few of those and make them work in the garden.

… at least for a little while.
                                   
Then, suddenly it's the middle of summer and what was easy to care for in the spring, has become unbearable to care for in the blazing heat of the summer sun.  I know this, and yet, I'm ever the eternal optimist that this will be the year!  With that in mind, we've made some physical changes in the backyard garden area that we're hoping will be more inspirational to keep us going during the hotter months.  To wit, we removed a large palm tree that was beginning to lean a bit and tangle in the wires that cross the back of the property.  We were afraid that we might lose it in a powerful wind storm and, if so, it would cause a great deal of damage to the retaining wall that surrounds it, as well as the swimming pool.  We also removed a sago palm that's been there for years.  Our original thought was to re-plant the sago in place of the palm tree, but when we discovered that the pods it sheds are poisonous to animals, so we knew that would have to go too.

This year, I decided to sketch things out a bit before we did any planting.  I'm not really much of an artist, but I have to say that it was a fun task deciding where to put the herb garden, where the lettuces would grow best, and where to plant the hummingbird garden.  I thoroughly enjoyed sketching all of the different shades of green and adding some flowers for pops of colors.

I've also been thinking about some decor I'd like to add here and there to punch things up in the planters, as well as a rather dull redwood fence that outlines the sides of the yard.  Each year I add a few pieces of Talavera pottery to add splashes of color.  I have several planters as well as a beautiful bird bath.  This year I'm going to focus on buying some things that will add splashes of color to the fence.  I already had several terra cotta sun faces and decided to gather and hang them in one area of the fence; I added a large Talavera sun face to this area and I think it's the perfect addition.  I also found a climbing frog that we positioned on another area of the fence.  He looks a bit lonely and will need some mates, so I'll be looking for several more to add to this area.  On the other side of the yard we already have five large. open work wrought iron stars.  I'm going to add small battery pack lights to each of the stars for a little more sparkle at night, and I found some Talavera stars to intersperse in this area as well.

I love adding all of these fun things to the garden, but it does get a little expensive!  This weekend, however, I thought of a really wonderful addition to the garden that won't cost us one dime.  I thought of a clever way to use something we already had outside that hasn't been used in years, and I'm really excited about it!  Years ago dad received a small outdoor fountain as a gift.  He put the pump together and used it for about a year or so, and then stopped using it.  I'm not sure if the pump broke and needed to be replaced, or if he just didn't want to deal with the hassle of it, but it's been sitting in the same spot on the patio for years now without a purpose.  I don't know why I didn't think about this before, but it suddenly hit me over the weekend - why don't we 'cut the cord' (literally and figuratively!), turn the fountain into a planter, and move it to the garden area?!  There isn't a lot of room to plant anything, but I believe the basket the little girl is holding will be just deep enough for impatiens.  The fountain is similar to this one, but not exactly.  Anyway, it's enough for you to get the idea.  Fun, right?!

I think next weekend we'll actually begin some planting!  I have a few things to start from seed, but we'll also be buying some additional herbs, a few veggies and some flowers.  We've decided to add a large fern to the area where the palm tree formerly lived and we will surround that with … well, I guess I have a little more dreaming to do to figure that out!

The Sol Tones

Kevin has a new band - and they're really terrific!

About 6 months ago he answered a few postings on Craigslist and played with a couple of different bands.  Neither of them were a good fit for him, but one of the other guys who also answered one of the postings is a great bass player.  Kevin really liked him, but not so much the others in the band.  I suggested that maybe he contact the bass player on his own to see if maybe they could work something out.  Before he could do that, the bass player called him, and they did indeed work something out!

In a strange turn of events, it turns out the bass player is the cousin of a friend of mine from school.  Small world, isn't it?

Anyway, the Sol Tones have been rehearsing and have had several gigs over the summer, with another upcoming on August 10th.  Last Saturday they played a private party and the hosts were so sweet!  They invited the guys to bring people with them if they wanted to, so Vicky and I both went.  It's so exciting!  It's fun to be a groupie.  No, a roadie.  No a groupie...well, okay, both.

A Cottage Garden in the Making

After we removed all of the old shrubs along the back fence, we discovered there is plenty of room to work with.  In fact, it is so much larger of an area that it ever appeared to be.  So much so, in fact, that I am still in the process of filling in with plants here and there.  But.  We got a pretty good head of steam going and I know that once we've finished planting everything and things begin to fill in, it will be a lovely garden.  Looking so forward to that!

In the meantime, we've still been enjoying watching the plants grow and bloom, and now they're going through a second bloom as we head into the middle of summer.

In addition to the plants, we've added some other features.  For instance, I've always wanted a few of these ceramic stools.  I found these two at the Pier 1 and fell in love with the colors, so I bought both.

I also wanted an obelisk on either side of the garden to kind of anchor the space.  I searched online and found a bunch of different choices, but they were all either too small, too large, or too expensive.  I finally found what I was looking for at Tai Pan Trading.  In looking through the photos, I see that I don't have one of the obelisks, so I'll have to get out there and take one soon!  Anyway, I loved them the moment I saw them.  The one problem is that they were brown and I really wanted black.  A can of spray paint remedied that one ;-)  While at Tai Pan, I also found a graduated set of willow teepees that I thought would be perfect for a cottage garden, so I bought a couple of those also.  This is not ours, but it's just like the two we bought (sorry, I know the pic is a bit small!)

I also discovered a beautiful talavera pottery birdbath at HomeGoods one day that I just had to have.  I've seen so few of these and of those that I have seen, they are terribly expensive.  I thought this one was a bargain by comparison, and actually prettier than most I've seen.  Again, this one is not ours, but it's very similar.  The colors are the same, but ours has a raised ceramic flower in the center instead of the birds sitting on the edge.

Anyway - all of this to say that I have some photos to share of the garden, but most of these elements were added after the plants were planted and I haven't taken more updated photos really since then.  

If you look closely in one of the pics, you'll see the white actuator for the pool.  It's still functional, but it stands out so much because it's white.  Since these photos were taken, and because I already had the black spray paint for the obelisks, I've since painted the white actuator black ... and it looks much better!  

The last thing we've done is to add lights.  We thought about a couple of different options, but decided on cute little Italian cafe lights strung across the back, close to the hedge.  We also added another set along the overhang close to the house.  It's amazing how much light they add to the yard!  Additionally we've got lots of little ceramic lanterns around the yard and patio and have been using flameless candles to light them up; it ads a nice warm glow and a wonderful ambiance.  The last thing we added (well, at least for now!) is a candle chandelier over the dining table.  It, too, came with the flameless candles, but these candles are on timers!  We can set them for either 4 or 8 hours and when they reach their limit, they go off automatically.  Niiiiice!  Here's an ad photo of the chandelier:

And here are some night-time photos of the lights we added to the back yard:

Drum Roll, Please

Since moving into the house last summer, we've continued to work on projects here and there.  Some are really just small and require nothing more than a bit of decorating 'polish'.  Others are a bit more complex and require expertise that neither Kevin nor myself possess.

Case in point: the drum room.

This one little out building has run the gamut of incarnations.  In a former life, the little room in the back was a playhouse for me and Deb.  When we got a bit older, it was still a playhouse, but most of the 'play' revolved around playing school where Deb was always the teachers, and I was always the student.  (Huh, little wonder that she fulfilled her prophecy and has been a teacher for, oh, ever!)

When we had the pool put in, we transformed the room from a playhouse to a pool cabana.  The front of it came off and a tiki bar went in.  It stayed that way for a number of years, even though the tiki bar wasn't getting a whole lot of use.  The tiki bar got the heave-ho when I decided that I wanted to turn it into an office for me; I had big plans to run a home based business.  I was going to be a 'Girl Friday' of sorts, and run errands for busy corporate types.  Hey, it was the mid/late 80's and this was a hoppin' idea for that time!  I eventually talked dad into this being a great (okay, somewhat viable) idea and he agreed to help me with the construction.  We worked side by side re-building the front of the room so that it would be fully enclosed once again.  Moreover, he worked and I schleped, but we did work together.

After a while I decided that the business idea had kinda fizzled, as had my enthusiasm for it, and the building just sat for a bit.  Not long, though, as shortly afterward dad turned it into an office for himself while he ran a home based business.  I often teased him by asking "Aren't you glad I had the bright idea to run a home based business?  This sure is a nice office!  ;o)"  It remained dad's office until he passed away.  When we moved in last year, we knew that eventually we'd be turning it into Kevin's drum room, but we had too much on our plates to begin working on that right away.

Late this past spring after a false start (a wacky story all on it's own - trust me!), the planets finally aligned - or rather the finances and the contractor - and the drum room began it's new life.  Kevin had been storing his drums in there since our move and used it to practice, but it wasn't ideal and didn't have enough insulation/sound deadening material to satisfy our little neighborhood.  Besides, after all these years, it really just needed a general overhaul.

So without further ado, here are some photos of the transformation ...

Before:

In upgrading the space, we removed all of the old wood paneling, replaced some damaged wood and added new wood where there should have been studs but they were missing, raised the floor 2" (to help with sound and help alleviate any rain flooding), installed a TON of insulation, added can lights, installed a new a/c unit, painted walls and stained the wood floor.  

The 'After' pictures only tell part of the story as Kevin removed the piece of rug and stained the floors after these photos were taken:

What a H.U.G.E. difference!  It looks so nice now, and is so much more functional for what Kevin needs for a drum room.  Although he wouldn't like the drums in his office, I know that dad would be really pleased with how the room turned out.

The Maxwell Files

Dad's office used to be in a small out building in back of the house.  He set up shop out there years ago and ran a very successful home-based business until just two months before he passed away.

After we moved into the house, one of the monumental tasks was to sort through everything in the office to see what we needed to keep and what could be tossed.  Eventually we would be turning this space into Kevin's drum room, so we needed to move out all of the furniture.  We were able to deal with most of this last summer - at least the larger pieces (desk, large wooden filing cabinets, etc.), but knew that we still had a lot to work on over the spring.

We narrowed it down to boxes and boxes and boxes of files and old binders, and one small filing cabinet that was in pretty rough shape.  The paperwork in the files and binders we organized and boxed up for our credit union's annual 'Shred Day'.  I was wondering what to do with the small filing cabinet when it dawned on me that we could really use it for our own paperwork, but it just looked terrible.

I then remembered that many years ago, I'd acquired an old filing cabinet - about the same size as this one - from my dad's old business.  It, too, was in pretty rough shape but I was able to bring it back to life simply by covering it with Contact paper.  I covered this particular cabinet about 18 years ago and it still looks great!

Yep, I had another spring break project ahead of me =)

All in all it's a fairly simple process.  The thing I love about it is that the Contact paper is sticky and adheres well to the cabinet.  The think I hate about it is that the Contact paper is sticky and adheres well to the cabinet!  It takes a bit of patience, peeling and unpeeling until you have it just right,  but the end result is so worth it!  For the small investment of $7.00 for the roll of Contact paper, and about two hours of my time, we ended up with a very respectable filing cabinet that I don't mind having out in the open.

See for yourself.

Before:  

And after:  

Kinda cute, right?!

...now I just have to work on getting our paperwork dealt with and placed inside the filing cabinet.  Good thing summer break is right around the corner!

Outdoor Livin'

It hasn't quite been a year since we've been in our new/old house, and we've accomplished quite a bit.

When we moved in at the beginning of July, obviously our focus was to have everything moved into the new, out of our old, and have everything - or at least almost everything - painted/put away/hung up/etc. before we started back to work in August.  And for the most part, we did just that.  Everything was painted; pictures, etc., were hung, and most things were put away.  As with most moves, there are still things to do over the months - like arrange bookshelves and the like - but it all happens, little by little.

Since we were mainly focused on the inside of the house, we really didn't do too much with the outside - specifically the back yard.  Over the winter and early spring, we began making lists of things we wanted to do in the yard.  Whoa!  Those were growing into some pretttty long lists!

When the calendar hit March, we finally began putting our plans into action. Our goal was to have most  things completed by Easter.  A lofty goal, certainly.  But we figured with a plan and lots of hard work we could reach our goal.  And we did!  Sort of.  I kind of think that your home and it's surroundings are always a work in progress.  You never really 'finish' things - you're still always tweaking this or that; making adjustments here or there.  At least that's what I find myself doing.

I'll have several posts highlighting our projects, but let's start with just one.  It's one of my favorites!

A couple of years ago some friends of ours bought an outdoor fireplace.  It's not a firepit, or a chiminea - it's actually a fireplace.  So cool!  We were invited for it's inaugural fire and enjoyed it several additional times that year.  Over the winter when it rained, it stained the front of the fireplace making it look weathered.  Yeah, I know - outdoor fireplace, right?  But there is a difference between having the whole thing weather over time, and have streaks that look dirty just across the front of the fireplace.  It really did look ... well, odd.  Bev called the company, told them what had happened and they gave her a few suggestions of things she could try to remove the streaks.  She tried each one of their suggestions, but nothing helped.  After she'd tried the last suggestion, she phoned the company to let them know that she'd tried all of their suggestions, but nothing had worked.  They told her they would send her a replacement.  She was a bit shocked and asked what she should do with the old fireplace.  They told her she could do whatever she wanted with it.  Keep it, give it away, throw it out - the decision was up to her.  She asked if we wanted it.  Ummm...YEAH, we sure do!

Of course, right after that, first mom fell ill, and then dad.  We were so caught up with the health issues, and then their passings, that we never did move the fireplace.  Which, in the end was a good thing because, at that point, it would have been moved to our old house.  Last summer, we would have had to turn around and move it over to this house.  And, lest you think it's simple to move, let me just say the thing is a BEAST.  It's rather large and solid concrete.  It does come in several pieces, which makes it easier (easy for me to say since I didn't actually have to move it!), but it's still very, very heavy.

With a bit of help from a friend (and a nice gift card =), we moved the fireplace to it's new home last June.  Of course, it was one of those projects we never quite got to .... until March.  While Kevin was away one weekend at an umpire camp, I went up to the hardware to get a little advise and some paint.  I explained to the guy at the hardware store what I was going to do and he told me that any exterior paint would work fine, but I'd have to prime it first to cover the stains.  It actually took 2 coats of primer to cover everything, and then one nice, smooth coat of paint; but the finished product was totally worth it! It came out just beautiful!  Our friends saw it recently and said that they think it looks better NOW than when they got it brand new.  I have to say, we agreed!

I completely forgot to take 'before' photos, but I was able to find a photo at the company's website that shows how it looked before:

See the streaks?  It's so odd because it doesn't really look 'weathered' anywhere else - which make the streaks stand out even more.

So, here is our fireplace after I painted it:  

Isn't it just beautiful?  I absolutely love it!  I even like the new color better than the original.  This photo doesn't do it justice, but you'll be able to see it better in another post (coming soon).  It's a really warm terra cotta color that goes perfect with the colors we have in our outdoor dining set and seating areas (those photos are coming soon, too!).

The black wrought iron piece is one that I already had - it just happened to fit atop the mantle and look great!  Almost like I'd planned it ... but I hadn't =)  I have two more of the same pieces; I'll have to find someplace to put them as well.

I felt so accomplished when I'd finished!  One project down ... lots more to go.

Preserving the Season

One of our teachers at work has been bringing in fresh, homegrown oranges from her tree.  Let me tell you, they are addictive!  Thankfully they're good for me because I can't stop eating them.  I'm not sure why oranges that come from your own (or a friend's) tree taste so much better than the ones you buy in the grocery store, but they definitely do.

Last week when she stopped by the office, I thanked her for bringing them in and told her how much I'd been enjoying the oranges.  I mentioned that one of my goals this year was to learn how to make orange marmalade.  She thought that sounded fabulous and asked how many oranges I'd need.  I told her that the recipes I'd been looking at required 8 or nine oranges.  Two days later, she left a bag of oranges on my desk =)

Since I'm definitely one who is always up for a challenge, I knew that my first attempt at orange marmalade was in my very near future.  I mentioned it to Kevin and he thought it sounded like a great project for us for the long President's Day weekend.  Having given donated all of my canning jars in our move last summer (I know, I know, but honestly we were too darn tired to move and/or find a place for one more thing), I stopped at OSH one day and picked up a dozen canning jars and some paraffin.  (Yes, I know that paraffin is not 'the' standard for canning, but it's what I've always used to make jam.  If it was good enough for my grandmother, it's good enough for me!).

When the weekend finally rolled around, we were ready.  Kevin and I were both very excited to attempt something new.  Moreover, we could hardly wait to taste the end result on a warm, buttery biscuit.  Mmmmm.

What we discovered is that orange marmalade is not difficult to make.  Compared to other jams we've made in the past, it's a bit more time consuming (particularly preparing the ultra fine strips of peel that go in the marmalade), but certainly nothing prohibitive.  And with only three ingredients - oranges, sugar and water - it's an inexpensive way to preserve the bounty of the citrus season.

If you have an abundance of oranges, why not give it a try?  It's a cinch, and you'll be glad to have those gleaming jars of yummy orange marmalade lining your pantry shelves.