May 19, 2010

Just a couple of shots to update the progress Phil is making on the uber cheap arbor he is building. The total cost so far is around 5 dollars, which was spent on the rope to lash the pieces together. Doesn’t he look pleased with himself?

The morning glories I have been training up the fence are starting to grow up over it so he attached some wire to the fence and arbor so it can continue growing up and over it.

I have to admit I am impressed at how well this thing has stood up to some very intense wind and rain.  I will take more pictures when things are prettier! Lastly, a shot out of the back window when it was raining the other day.

the fandom menace May 18, 2010

So I saw this yesterday.

Is it wrong that I kinda want this? Is this taking my love for all things Star Wars too far?? It’s bad enough that my desire for fluffy summer reading has led me to the plethora of trashy Star Wars novels that I have begun to devour.  Also excited about this site heruniverse.com. Which will be the first  collection of Star Wars clothing designed for the ladies. I want this shirt, and one of Han too…
Yep, that’s the good stuff. Perhaps some soap instead, tell me you wouldn’t LOVE this. You can’t even get this stuff right now, it’s on back order at luxurylanesoap.com until they can catch up with the demand.

Okay, I think I got it out of my system…

Some Garden DIY for your Wednesday May 12, 2010

I picked my first home grown cucumber today which is the inspiration for this post. Many people feel that lack of space/yard prohibits the ability to garden, so my focus today is on ways you can have a little gardeny goodness with little to no space OR money. I am sure that everyone has seen those As Seen On TV Topsy Turvy things, they sell them everywhere these days. Great concept but poor execution in my opinion. Why not try this instead, as it’s more cost effective and you have the ability to create something useful and attractive out of potential garbage.
So much cuter than the ugly plastic alternative! You can find the step by step instructions at Design*Sponge one of my favorite DIY/crafty blogs.

Another upcycled garden win is this shoe rack herb garden from greenupgrader.com This ingenious little number was one item from a feature they did called 10 killer diy garden hacks.

Apparently this was designed to keep the neighborhood cats from violating their herb garden!

Last  I wanted to feature the craftiness of a friend of mine who has been recycling all sorts of glass jars, jewelery, driftwood, etc. into adorable little rooters/hanging bud vases.

These photos cannot really convey the originality and cuteness of these things!

So none of these things involves spending much if any money, nor do they require much space. I am planning on testing out the diy topsy turvy here in the next week or two so expect pictures to follow.

My latest obsession May 11, 2010

In my constant search for new recipes that are both cheap and gluten free I have stumbled upon this INCREDIBLE site. Foodgawker makes it enjoyable to search for new recipes which is a process I have always disliked, almost as much as I dislike eating the same things over and over again.
I made these last night which were submitted to foodgawker by the cooking photographer. Uber simple and yummy!

Phil and I are big fans of cornish hens so this is one next week’s menu and it’s an actual meat dish which we haven’t seen on this blog yet.

This was submitted to foodgawker by cooking on the side. I will let you know how it turns out.

I should also mention that they have 2 sister sites craftgawker and weddinggawker.

Prepare to lose hours of your life looking at all of the tasty/crafty/weddingy goodness!

Eat this! May 5, 2010

This is starting to become a habit but my latest recipe blog is vegetarian once again. I promise that the next one will have lots of bacon…and cheese.

This one was super easy and delish. I picked this recipe up from one of my current favorite foodie blogs Broke and Healthy.

This is jicama cucumber slaw over black beans with avocado, sour cream and queso fresco.  Phil and I gorged ourselves on this last night and didn’t have to feel gross about it after!

Ingredients

black beans ( I used canned out of laziness), sour cream, 1 avocado, queso fresco, jicama, 1 cucumber, 1 jalapeno, 2 cloves garlic, salt, vinegar or lime juice (I used vinegar because that is what I had), cumin, some sort of sweetener like agave or honey

Directions

To make jicama slaw, grate equal parts of the jicama and cucumber into a bowl. Add half of a minced jalapeno (more or less to taste, I did less as I am a wuss), then add the 2 cloves of minced garlic, the salt, splash of vinegar, cumin and sweetener and play with the flavors a little to get it how you like. I added quite a bit of vinegar and a little extra salt and that suited my taste buds quite well. Hubby gobbled it down! Heat up your black beans and put a heaping spoonful of sour cream and as much avocado as you like on top, crumble a little queso fresco over everything and top everything with the slaw.

I highly recommend checking out her blog for yummy cheap meal options!!

May 3, 2010

It is mind boggling how many amazing artists are on Etsy.  If you are interested in having something other than a Starry Night Van Gogh print to hang on the wall, the options are many. Just a few of my current favorites.

This is called Fear’s Uncloaking that was done in pen and ink by studiomme

I am a big fan of watercolor painting, my few attempts to paint with watercolor were pathetic indeed so I have a great respect for anyone who does it well like Paola Zakimi

While this couldn’t hang on your wall, I have always had the big love for fairy type stuff and the fairy houses created by this artist are amazing!!! The detail is incredible.

She received a World of Froud Award for her little houses which is a big deal if you are in the know in the fairy community!

The Robert Paul Watkins Experience (featuring Rob) May 2, 2010

I attended a coffee shop art/live music show last night.  The Robert Paul Watkins Experience with art by Khammi Hurd. The artist created fantastic mixed media portraits of each of her coworkers. Her stuff is gorgeous, this one was my favorite!

My friend Chandra as Kali.

I didn’t manage to get decent pictures of any of the rest of them 😦
The music was provided by Rob. Who burst forth from this stunningly accurate picture of him and his dog…
Rob performed a few original songs as well some covers including fabulous renditions of Rumpshaker and Single Ladies. Did I mention the sparklers?

Or the personalized Robert Paul Watkins shirts??

Another shirt worn by the lovely artist!

And one more shirt just because this little lady is so adorable!

Big (free) fun!

Playing in the mud April 30, 2010

A couple of (crap) pictures of the mighty Unicorn Acres thistle weed. This thing started sometime in October as a pretty variegated leafy weed that was intentionally avoided come mowing time. It has since grown into a 7 ft tall tree like thing with purple thistles and needle like points on the leaves. I would love to know what the heck it is!

The hubby has been working on building an arbor type thing to shade our RV from the harsh Texas summer. Being that he is both cheap and industrious, a fairly good combination, he is building it for virtually nothing. He is using large pruned tree branches for the structure. He is then digging post holes into the ground and securing them with a mud/straw mixture.

Phil playing in the mud whilst doing his best Chuck Norris (Rambo?) impression. This stuff is like cement when it dries. His idea for this came from research on cob houses . The Cob or “earth” house is made of dirt. Dirt is universally and easily available. It has been used a a building material throughout history and in most cultures around the world. Phil and I would like to build our own someday. To give you an idea of what it is…

I will update with pictures of the living arbor as things progress!

I will… drink heavily and shout at you! April 28, 2010

We don’t watch tv around here much, we don’t even have the basic channels anymore since our tv is older and needed one of those boxes for the digital conversion blah, blah, blah.  What we do have is a netflix subscription and if there is one show I fervently recommend it is a little BBC series called Black Books. I own all three seasons of the series on DVD and watch them repeatedly. I recently lent them to a friend of mine which has started a bit of a quote a thon on facebook.  My husband thinks I am a little too similar to the main character but I don’t think an enthusiasm for books and wine paired with occasional crankiness means anything. I have quit smoking after all…

A few memorable quotes:

Bernard: (to Manny) Don’t make me laugh… bitterly. Fran will fail. You’ll toil your life away. And I’ll die alone, upside-down on the floor of a pub toilet.

Bernard: I’ve got to get a girlfriend, just for the summer, until this wears off. She’ll be a summery girl. She’ll have hair. She’ll have summery friends who know how to be outside. She’ll play tennis and wear dresses and have bare feet, and in the autumn, I’ll ditch her, because she’s my summer girl!

Bernard: Perhaps you’d like me to put the price down.
Customer: Well I was thinking two pounds.
Bernard: Because three pounds is just naked profiteering? For a book, a mere… 912 pages long? What’ll I do with that extra pound? I’ll add an acre to the grounds. I’ll chuck some more koi carp in my piano-shaped pond. No, I know, I’ll build a wing on the National Gallery with my name on it.

Fran: (talking to Bernard about about him and Manny) You know, if the two of you could do something relaxing together, this place wouldn’t be so tense.
Bernard: What? Every time we bicker we should have sex? Just have a drink and be yourself again, will you?
Fran: So what’s it like then? The fags and booze.
Bernard: Well, to be honest, after years of smoking and drinking, you do sometimes look at yourself and think…
Fran: Yep…
Bernard: You know, just sometimes, in between the first cigarette with coffee in the morning to that four hundredth glass of cornershop piss at 3am, you do sometimes look at yourself and think…
Fran: Yep…
Bernard: … “this is fantastic. I’m in heaven.”

Mostly I have a big school girl crush on Dylan Moran, something about an Irish accent…

little bread and butterflies kiss the tulips April 23, 2010

I was feeling lazy and a little bit resentful yesterday as it was earth day and it was miserable out.  Something earthy today then, perhaps a few crappy shots of the garden. I in no way exaggerate when I say that I have absolutely no photography skill. I cannot even hold a camera steady to take a picture, which means that most of the pictures I take are more than a little blurry, so I am very grateful for my little digital camera. My friend Chandra has a photo album of polaroids from a camping trip we took several years ago and almost every picture of her is blurred to some degree…

Carrots and dill

Some spinach, leeks, cilantro and salad greens. I just planted some more cilantro seeds today since the two plants we have right now are not meeting the the demands of two ravenous cilantro junkies. Sadly those are the only two decent pictures of the bunch I took. I also ran into this little friend while I was weeding a bed this morning.You can seem my photography skills in action here for sure, but more frightening than that is the giant eggs sac under the giant spider that is uncomfortably close to my front door.