CSA Share #8

Corn and hot peppers!  Some weird herb that I can't identify either by smell or sight.

Anybody know what this is?

New Scrapbooking Room!

I'm thrilled to be finished with the redecorating/reorganizing of my scrapbooking room!  Just in the nick of time for our German exchange student who will be arriving this evening!

Here are some before pics from shortly after I started dismantling the room.

This had been a little boy's room when we moved in 6 years ago.   I never changed the paint or the window treatments.

My brother helped me put up these wire shelves when we moved in to hold my scrapbooking stuff, but they were not sufficient.  I guess I acquired more stuff over the years, too.

The TV was always a thorn in my side.  It took up precious space and was inconvenient to view from the whole room.  I originally put it in there so that the kids could watch movies while I scrapbooked, and that plan did work out well when they were little.  Now they can watch movies in their own room, and they don't want to hang out with me 24/7 like before.

I wanted a guest bed in the room, so I bought this daybed frame shortly after we moved in.  It was the cheapest thing I could find at the time, but I never really liked it.  It was coming apart, too, so it was time for it to go.

I had small bookshelves in this corner with more scrapbooking stuff on them, but I had already taken them down when I realized I should take some "before" shots.

Here was my little personal corner.  I had all the important stuff within reach, so I could just swivel around and get it while working.  It worked for me for a while, but now I have too much stuff and it was difficult to unstack everything while I was working.

Since my life now revolves around Pinterest, I started gathering ideas and pinned them onto this board. I liked the look of the hot pink, bright orange, and lime green together, and since I already had some lime green things, I decided to go with those colors.  I loved the treatment they did to the shades in this picture, so I decided to try it.  I love how the room turned out.  It's fun and cheery and it will work out well for scrapbooking and guests.

Here's the new look:

I really like how the colors look together.  The second craft table is also stored under the bed.

My sister Nellie made me this most excellent duvet cover.  I got the new bed at Ikea, and finally made some scrapbook pages to put in those 3 frames that I've had forever.

I added a cord trim to the window treatments (different from Pinterest idea), and made a little valence from balsa wood and fabric, which I hot glued to a curtain rod.  Nellie's scrapbooking stuff is on this wall.  We can put the second table up next to mine and she can just swivel around to get to her stuff when she wants to join me.

To the right is the wall that the bed used to be on.  I got the Antonius shelves at Ikea, and they are perfect for my stuff. In this picture, I have the table pulled out like I would when I'm working.

In the corner, I hung the Ikea shoe bins that I had in my other little corner.  I'm keeping some paper, photos, and other supplies in them.  I also hung my Cricut mats on a hook.

View of my work area from the other side.

Here the table is pushed back against the wall to give more access in and out of the room when not crafting.

Nellie convinced me to paint the built in dresser green, and I'm so glad I listened.  It looks adorable.  My mom gave me her old small flat TV, and I ran the wires around the bottom of the closet to the plugs and cable, and it is awesome.  No more big clunky TV in the way.

Pretty soon my whole house will look like an Ikea catalog.  This bag holder and the storage cups are all from Ikea.

Got this idea from Pinterest.  Glued a cookie sheet to the bottom of a shelf and glued magnets to the bottom of the glitter glue bottles.  I think I need stronger magnets, though, because a slight bump will knock them down.

I hope our guests will enjoy staying in here, and I can't wait to invite some friends over to scrapbook with me in my new room!

CSA Share #7

Eddie whooped a happy whoop when I told him there was more cauliflower!

And we have fennel for real this time!  I'm going to juice one bulb, and make a salad out of the other.

More little red potatoes are exciting, and our first green pepper and pattypan squash!

Guess I'll have to make more Mexican Cheesy Rice with the green pepper, since Nellie was looking for some in the freezer the other day and we didn't have any more.

Maybe I'll get some avocados to stuff with all those little tomatoes . . .

CSA Share #6

This share was a little smaller than usual, but the lettuce and tomatoes look good.  I can make Addie some pureed green beans, and Eddie will be happy about the little red potatoes.

Why, yes, I AM a Harry Potter nerd. Thanks for asking.

I saw this decal on Pinterest, and I just HAD to get it for our guest bathroom.  It makes me happy.

Two fresh salads

Here's the salad I had for lunch:

Caprese salad with the cherry tomatoes and basil from the CSA, and some olive oil and shredded mozzarella

 And for dinner:

Cucumber, red onion & feta with fresh parsley, dill and mint.  Drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice.

Now, that would all be wonderful if I hadn't gone to Dairy Queen in between to calm my nerves after taking five kids (one of whom was a crying baby!) to the library.  :P

CSA share #5

That's one enormous kohlrabi.  I guess I'll have to figure out how to grill them, finally.
Andrew will be excited about the blueberries. The onion looks good.  More broccoli for the kids!  Romaine and cherry tomatoes!  Yippeee!

Here's what happens when you try to use up your CSA veggies before the next share

I had a bunch of zucchini, so I sliced some up in thin slices, then layered them in a baking dish into which I had drizzled olive oil.  Then I topped that layer with sliced tomatoes.  I sprinkled with dried basil and oregano. Then I layered Applegate Farms uncured pepperoni on top of that.  A liberal layer of shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan for the final layer.  Baked @ 375 for about 20-25 minutes.  Voilà!  Kind of like pizza with no crust.

I'm into the omelets these days

Today was zucchini, green onion, mushroom and feta cheese.

This was yesterday's beet and grapefruit juice.  

Brekkie!

I was so proud of myself yesterday morning.  I made the kids scrambled eggs for breakfast, but I managed to save some of the eggs for myself and make a scrambled omelette with some spinach, green onion and tomatoes, all from my CSA share.  Then I sprinkled on some of Nellie's Slap Your Mama.  I'm usually too brain dead in the morning to think of something like this, but I managed to do this while baby boy was napping and baby girl was playing in the saucer.