I don’t know why Ozzy yawns are so entertaining, but they are.  He believes that bowl was made just for him.  He slept there for 3 hours today.

The alternate title to this post could be: How Pinterest Saves Dinner.  We are three weeks into our CSA, and so far I’d rate our performance as “poor”.  I’m ashamed to admit that in the hullabaloo of moving and unpacking the first week, we let almost all of our beautiful greens go bad.  Last week we ate most of the greens, but the radishes and arugula only saw the inside of our compost bin.  So this week, I was determined to make sure that didn’t happen again!

Our magical box of organic, Maine-grown veggies!  The breakdown:

• Kale
• Broccoli
• Scallions
• Loose Leaf Lettuce
• Huge bag of Spinach
• Kohlrabi

Upon learning what our haul would be for the week, I took to Pinterest for inspiration on how to slay the bounty.  I decided on Udon Noodles with Wilted Greens and Scallions, “French Canadian Salad” (my family in Fort Kent, Maine makes this and it’s delicious.  I don’t know what its actual name is, it’s just loose leaf lettuce, sour cream, scallions and copious amounts of salt.  Aka, it’s bitter and delicious), Pizza with spinach and broccoli, and Parmesan Baked Kohlrabi.

Tonight was the salad and the Udon dish (the pictures aren’t pretty, I was too hungry to stage them, lol).  I was a little disappointed with the ratio of noodles to veggies, and may saute some more spinach to pump up the nutritional value.  The salad came out a bit too salty.  Alas, at least the veggies were used and it was edible!

The other Pinterest inspiration I found I used for dessert: frozen greek yogurt bites with peanut butter and chocolate.  These were fantastic!

This picture was before they were frozen, but they still aren’t solid yet so it’ll have to do.  I piped them from a plastic ziplock bag, not too shabby, huh?  I think I’d add some cocoa powder to these next time to take a bit of the tang away, either that or use real sugar instead of agave syrup.

On the new home front, we’re doing better with the unpacking/getting settled.  I am a theater widow for another 2 weeks, so hopefully we’ll be finished and organized soon.  I still have several projects itching to happen (that hutch base stares at me sadly every time I cook) but since we hid the rest of the unpacked boxes in our extra room, our living spaces have been more zen.

I’ll leave you with a picture of Lilly “worshiping” the chandelier in the living room.  She stares at it, without blinking, like a creeper, for hours.  We can’t figure out why.

Whoo boy have we been busy!  So, so many projects accomplished, many more yet to finish. My fabulous mother came over this afternoon and helped me make something I’ve wanted to do for over four years. See this lovely new bench in our entry way?

It’s actually our brand new hidden-in-plain-sight litter box solution!

Our two cats are territorial about their litter boxes.  When we had only one box, our Persian mix, Ozzy, would pee on things (like our brand new sofa).  As long as we’ve had two litter boxes, they’ve always been fine.

In our new apartment, there is z.e.r.o. space in our bathroom, which is where we’ve always kept the litter boxes.  Like, zero.  I am going to have to work all kinds of magic in there to have any sort of towel and toiletry storage, but that’s another project for another day.

Long story short, I needed to find a way to hide the litter boxes, keep two of them, and not take away a whole bunch of usable space.  A search on Pinterest turned up this pin:

I liked the idea, but it was way too expensive, and too small for our cats to use it comfortably.  Two of those wouldn’t be usable in the entry way.  I needed something bigger and with a surface that we could use as a table or a bench.

At the Mill Store yesterday, I spied that teak storage bench, and knew it would be perfect!  I cut two cat-sized holes in the sides, lined the bottom of it with a vinyl mat cut to size from Target, and put in two high-backed litter boxes that happened to fit perfectly!  Voila!  We’ve dubbed it the “Litter Palace”.

My next big project will be turning this hutch base into a kitchen island…stay tuned for that one!

Well, hello there blog-land!  Haven’t caught up in a while.  Suffice it to say that 2013 has been a monumentally busy and wonderful year so far (are we really 6 months in already!?!).  

Noises Off was such an incredible experience from start to finish- I keep pinching myself that it all went as well as it did.  And one of the best parts?  The cast and crew have continued to hang out since the show closed- having movie nights and dinners at Sebago.  Every great cast I’ve been a part of  has always said, “We’re going to get together and hang out when this show is over!” and, invariably, it never happens.  I adore that this group has bucked the odds.  We are our own diverse, loud family, and I love it :)

Shawn and I (along with the help from some AMAZING friends and family members) moved this weekend into a fantastic, bright new space.  It’s a two bedroom and I absolutely adore it.  Our living room has a wall of entirely windows, and we’ve been slightly creeped out by how well some of our furniture fits into the space.  

There is an entire bed of blooming, purple bearded irises in front of the house, which I took as a very good omen.  Purple bearded irises were my father’s favorite flower, and my one tattoo depicts that flower in his honor.  Note the rain drops, it poured through the whole move.

Shawn and I signed up for a CSA through Crystal Spring Farm and our deliveries start tomorrow!  I’m very excited to see how it goes and what new recipes we can come up with to cope with the copious amount of produce.  I’m going to try the chopped-and-frozen crockpot meal method of preparing soups and things, and freezing them in  bags to minimize wasted food and save time down the line.  I’m sure it’ll be a fun adventure!

So, that’s my mini update for now!  Many house/craft projects are sure to follow as we set up our new space on the SUPER cheap.  Enjoy your Tuesday!

I have been a diaper-making fiend this week! My friends are about to have their new baby. To prepare for the transition from disposables, they’ve switched their older daughter to cloth to get the routine down before the new baby comes. They have a few gifted name brand diapers, but liked the fit of the Sprout Snap I made for them, and asked if I’d mind making them some more. Of course I jumped and said I’d be happy to! 

I cranked these out in the past 3 days…4 Sprout Snap AI2s with snap-in soakers topped with CDMF or wicking pique, 1 Med DDU “nighttime fitted diaper” with snap in soaker, and 1 T&T Sprout Snap cover with 2 layers of PUL. Most fabric except for the minky and PUL was purchased at Goodwill. (The coffee mug fabric is an inside joke- they’ve posted all of these cute pictures of their daughter “drinking coffee” like mom on their FB pages, so when I saw that fabric I thought they’d get a kick out of it ;) )

Post-traumatic casserole purchase.  Tomorrow, Mexican Baked Spaghetti Squash, you will be MINE!

After 2 hours of making a Mexican baked spaghetti squash “casserole”…this happened.  Didn’t realize the stovetop was on and my lasagna dish exploded with the force of a small bomb sending glass shards all over the whole kitchen.  So much food waste. :(

Learning new techniques- always exciting!  AI2 shells with hidden PUL and internal gussets.  The top diaper was sewn with advice from the ladies on the Make Laugh Love forum, which I so recommend if you are interested in sewing diapers.  They are a wealth of knowledge and very generous with advice and feedback. With their help I figured out why my leg elastic has always looked wonky and uneven (compare the bottom photo to the top one).  And voila, I know how to fix that now!  As always, the top prints are recycled shirts from Goodwill. :)

Poster for Noises Off!  Sorry for the radio silence of late, but I’m living at the theater at this point.  Off to do lots of faux painting this afternoon- faux woodgrain on our “beams”, faux hardwood floor, rag painting the walls to look like plaster, and wet blending our “wood doors”. I can’t believe we open in a mere 3 weeks!

Celebrating our blizzard snow day in style- garlic and olive oil roasted brussels sprouts and loaded sweet potato with homemade fresh salsa.

I’ve been on a bit of a blog hiatus the past few weeks, but 2013 is off to a fantastic start.  The new job is going swimmingly, and Noises Off has begun in style!  I was interviewed for Dispatch Magazine’s March/April issue about the show, and since they have very early deadlines, our first read-through also turned into an impromptu photo shoot.  We are three days into blocking, and the show is hilarious already.  I can tell this is going to be an exceptional ride :)

This week, my friends found out they are having another girl!  They had talked to me about cloth diapers, so I decided to make them a little present.  I made four AI2 shells with hidden PUL.  All of the decorative fabric was found at Goodwill, even the luxurious cotton velour that I used to top the soakers.  I hope they like them!

Happy Holidays from my family to yours!  Big changes on the horizon in 2013…all of them wonderful.  I am excited to start my new adventure at SMRT in their Marketing Department. I can’t wait to see Noises Off come together. I am very much looking forward to the new year!

Our nieces spent the night last night, and as soon as I found out they’d be coming over, I knew what I wanted to do as a craft project- clay ornaments!

My family has a tradition of choosing one special ornament each Christmas to represent your year. I love looking at the choices I made over the years (or the choices my thoughtful mom made, as I was the family Grinch for, cough, several seasons, cough.)  The other tradition we had was to make clay ornaments with the paw prints of our family pets.  As our pets have passed on, these have become even more special as a way to honor them.  Since we haven’t made ornaments yet for our cats, Ozzy and Lilly, I thought clay ornament time could serve a double purpose!

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TV stand makeover is done! Not gonna lie, I’m way more excited about the TV stand than the TV ;)