MoxieLife

C is for Cookie

The First Few Days of Clearing Out #clearingout365

I have started giving things away - way more than the required 1 a day - and already the house is feeling a little lighter. My goal is to take an Instagram photo of each item - mostly to keep myself committed to the project. Then on Facebook, when I have time, I write a little about each of the things that are headed to the thrift shop. Here were the first few days of good bye items:

This suit was the first thing to go. I bought it at a consignment shop over 5 years ago and I never wore it. I thought I would, but it just isn't me. At all.

This decanter was given to me by a vendor over 10 years ago. It was from Craft and Barrel and although nice I never used it. It is a great dust collector and if you peer through it just right you can see an alien.

The entire back of my car is filled with give away, but I only counted the sewing machine. My daughter bought it years ago at the same thrift shop that we are giving it back to. A nice full circle.

This was probably my worst purchase of 2011. I thought the scent of popcorn would be wonderful. I love popcorn! Every time I lit this candle though, my husband would rush in asking what that horrible smell was. Every. Single. Time. Goodbye candle.

My family doesn't think I have 365 things to get rid of - either trash or donations - but I am certain I do. Even if I only go half the year, I will have cleared out a ton of stuff. We live in a really tiny house and so much of this stuff I have carted through three states and I am just ready to start letting it go. You can follow the project on Twitter. The hashtag is #clearingout365. You can follow me on Instagram and see the actual unloading of stuff via cool photos. You can also ask to be my friend on Facebook and see how this unravels day by day. In other words, you are invited to participate vicariously - not having to do a thing while I whittle down my life!

 

Choose Your Weapon Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving menu is a bit odd this year, but I refused to fix a turkey. We just don't need that and it takes up my entire oven, leaving me with no room to cook anything else. I also refuse to make the meal the big deal. I hate cooking, having people devour food quickly, and then rush off to do something else - holidays centered around food seem to mean work for me and not a bunch of fun. So food is just part of the whole day.

Our day will consist of a photo booth where our daughter has made all kinds of props for us to take pictures. I am thinking of downloading the photo booth app, but I don't usually pay for apps. I'll have to consider that.

An official Scrabble tournament where I hope to beat the crap out of all of our guests. Really, holidays are a great time to show your verbal prowess and knowledge of two letter words. Qi anyone?

Other games as chosen by guests: currently we have Choose Your Weapon chosen by my husband in a fit of giggles last night. My choice of weapon was popcorn which, if the game is played outside, also includes chickens. Not sure how the game is played, but I am sure to win. I chose Freeze Tag where all the guests are frozen and then I can tag them at my leisure. It is my idea of a great silent moment. Our daughter says we have the wrong idea completely. More traditional choices are Rumicube, Scatagories and Yahtzee (but only because I love yelling Yahtzee).

For the meal we are having a cheese course with 5 types of cheeses. A vegetable platter to be enjoyed throughout the day. For the main meal we are having an apple walnut salad tossed with cranberry dressing, smashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans, and rolls. Then for desert cherry pie and pumpkin pie in which I try to make my own crust.

I'll let everyone know how I do in Choose Your Weapon and any other pursuits we try on the day of thanks.

The Illusive Sweetpea

This is Sweetpea. She is illusive. Beautiful. Tortured. She has her own demons that we will never understand that make her dash from the room if you look at her and she is attacked on a regular basis by our other cat Emmy. She was the love of Beau, our cat that died this year. She has been having a lot of issues and yet, she is a beauty - when she dons to let us snap a shot.

We rescued her when we were living in San Francisco. My husband really didn't want another cat, but we were smitten by her beautiful green eyes. When we went to get her at an apartment in the Haight we had to dig her out from behind the refrigerator. We should have known.

When she was ready to be fixed we knew it because she yowled for days in heat on the bottom floor of our house. We should have known.

When we moved across country my husband carried both cats in a carrier in the front of his Uhaul and she cried the entire way - 2000 miles of cat crying. We should have known.

Right now she is having issues getting down the stairs to the litter box. Not because she is skittish or unable, but because Emmy refuses to let her come downstairs. We should have known.

And all though we should have known that she was not the ideal pet I wonder what happens to animals that aren't perfect, don't meet the standard of our dream, or are just a little rough around the edges. We knew that we could never give her away - who would want her? So instead we try to make her as comfortable as possible even though we should have known better.

All Stones on Deck

Our deck was rotting so my husband was going to replace a few boards and fix the post holding up the roof, but when he opened up the deck he saw the most amazing thing - stones holding up the rotting boards. Yes. Stones.

The black goo seams to be some kind of roofing tar. The joy, and we are never sure when he attempts one of these house exploration projects if it is joy, of living in the Ozarks in a 110+ year old house is that we never know what we are going to find.

Let's just say the joy never ends.

Carrot Sweet Potato Soup Du Jour

I never make soup from a recipe unless I am trying something new. And now that the autumn weather has rushed in it is definitely soup weather. Last night I whipped up this bowl of (vegan) Carrot Sweet Potato soup in about 30 minutes and it was both beautiful and exactly what I hoped for - strong flavored, beautifully colored and the perfect end to a cold and blustery day.

Ingredients:

1 yellow onion chopped

A dash of olive oil

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

A big dash (probably a tablespoon) of cumin

A dash of paprika (teaspoon)

A dash of turmeric (teaspoon)

3 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

5 cups of water (4 would make the soup creamier)

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large pot and then add onions. Cook until softened, but not brown (5-7 minutes). Add carrots, sweet potato, and all spices to the onions. Cook for 3-5 minutes stirring often. This will allow the spice blend to meld a bit with the onion and oil as well as "roast" the vegetables a little, adding depth of flavor. Add the water. Cook, uncovered, until the vegetables are soft. This took me 25 - 30 minutes and might have took less time, but I got busy reading and forgot to check on it.

After the vegetables have cooked thoroughly either use an immersion blender (which is what I did) right in the pot. I don't even turn the stove off, yes that is probably dangerous, but it is how I roll in the kitchen. The other option is to use a blender which I find to be a pain, but would totally work. Make sure that you work in batches to blend the soup though because it will or could explode. Hot liquids, plus blenders, equals explosions.

Serve soup immediately.

Options:

I considered adding half and half, cream or even soy milk to make this richer, but went for the vegan version instead. You could also add a dollop of sour cream to the top of this soup or swirl in some cream at the end, which would be pretty. Another idea would be to use this soup as a base for a hearty stew type meal, adding green beans, corn, and northern white beans, but again, I went for simple.

Addendum: I totally blocked it out. I also put half a jalapeno that I minced in the soup. We grew them so I add them to everything and don't even think about it. But I shouldn't have forgotten! I had touched the edge of my right eye some time after handling the pepper and my eye was on fire. Fire! After much rinsing, I ate soup. Which was great and not hot at all.

I'm in Love with a Knife

I am in love. With a knife. I have been using the same crappy knives that we bought 20 years ago that had never been sharpened. I don't think they could even BE sharpened. They came in one of those butcher block knife storage things as a set. A cheap set.

And I have gotten by with them. For 20 years.

Until I decided I was worth a real knife.

Now, you know, people can't buy you knives because it will sever the relationship. Yes, old wives tale, but I didn't want to jink the precariousness of my relationship with my husband and have him get me a knife for a present.

So, for my 42nd birthday this year I bought the Victorinox Chef Knife. They are the Swiss Army knife folks and this knife was rated #1 by Cook's Magazine.

And it is freaking amazing.

Seriously, it cuts things like everything is butter.

I had no idea what I was missing, but I had been hacking away at things. I had sawed, clawed and chewed vegetables, meat, and, even, butter for years. When I could have been in slicing heaven with Victor... which is what I call my new kitchen friend.

I am in love and for $25 bucks plus shipping you could be too.

I get nothing if you buy it... I just wanted to share my new romance with you.

Ozark Living

Last night we were sitting on the couch decompressing from our stressful weekend when out of the corner of my eye I notice that our cat, Emmy, is playing with something behind the door to the porch. The door is open because we have been painting it for the last two weeks and because the weather has been phenomenal.

I watch her for a few seconds when I see a snake slither out from behind the door on to the porch.

"There's a snake on the door frame."

"Where?"

"On the door frame."

This was not calm... this was two people who grew up in Southern California and then lived in the Bay Area trying to figure out what to do with a snake in their house. In the house... that we live in... where we sleep.

Ozark living - it is like no other place. I swear that in our 114 year old house I am just beating back nature, and obviously not winning.

The week before there was a huge spider crawling across the floor. Usually, we will move them out, but this was moving fast and my husband smashed it with his hand - only to have a hundred baby spiders jump off its back.

It was like a freaking science fiction movie. Creepy.

I finally looked online and it was a wolf spider. See photo - not of our spider because we weren't in a photographing mode. They carry their children on their backs... good to know. Next time we are swooping any spider outside.

Or maybe, just maybe, there won't be another spider and I can have my house to myself. Ha!

Glidden Porch Makeover Paint Choices #cbias

When we were notified that we were one of the families that was going to be able to redo a room and that our room was our sleeping porch I knew I had to call my friend Kath. She is an expert colorist, she is an artist, a designer - pretty much if she didn't live in the country and had marketed herself different she could have been Martha Stewart (although, I think she blushes a lot when people tell her that.)

I called her on Tuesday at work and she said she could come on Wednesday afternoon. Not soon enough I was so excited! She brought with her a box of color samples from all over and although they might not have been Glidden (#gliddengallons) she said she was positive I could find exactly what we were looking for when I got to Walmart.

With her excellent eye she took our original idea of black and white and softened it to: A taupe color for the walls, white trim for the outer trim, and a really dark green for the window frames and doors. For the floor she suggested a deep pine green.

Then we talked about sheen and what to paint where and how to paint it all... I know... it was like having my own personal design consultant!

Before she left we made sure that she would come back when we were styling the room... I'm not sure she trusts us, but I'm just happy that she is going to lend her amazing hand to our project.

After that I tweeted with the @Glidden_Paint folks about whether I should use exterior or interior paint. Exterior! And they answered my questions right away and clued me into the idea about porch paint for the floor - I had no idea!

So, that evening, after a really long day of meetings and work I headed over to Walmart to buy the Glidden Brilliance paint for our Porch Makeover (Squee... I am so excited about this.)

When I got there it was pretty quiet, being dinner time, but the Glidden balloons led the way to the paint department and I got busy matching chips. Kath was right! They had exact matches! I even splurged on getting the Glidden Brilliance Floor paint to match the forest green. The poor Walmart paint guys were so patient with me... I knew one of them was ready to get off work, but he mixed all of that paint and waited until I had called my husband to debrief about getting flat paint for the walls. Paint guys must have patience!

Wood Smoke for the walls, Deepest Woodland Green for the doors and window trim and Oyster Shell for the other trim. (I am a little intimidated, we have never used 3 colors in a room or painted trim before... we will see how it goes!) And the floor of the porch was specially mixed (they have premixed porch paint too) Deep Forest Pine. These Glidden colors make me so happy!

I feel, for the first time, that our home is starting to look like a grown ups home instead of a sparkly kids cottage (which was great when our daughter was little, but we are all growing older)! I can't wait to show you what we do with this. We won't start painting until next week, busy schedules, but when we do we will take you  all along! There is a coupon on the sidebar for one for $3 off a gallon and one for $3 off 2 testers. That is a great deal and only lasts until 9/11/11. Take advantage of that savings and make a room over too!

Here is the link to MyThisMoment about shopping for the paint.. see how much I love our Walmart paint guys for putting up with me.

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All of the opinions, work, and crazy painting days ahead of us are all mine. You can pay me to do something, but you can't make me say something!

 

Glidden Porch Makeover Before Photos #cbias

I can not tell you how excited I am that I was chosen by Glidden Gallon's (#gliddengallons) to do a porch makeover! Our sleeping porch is, for those that don't know me in real life, the summer bedroom of our daughter and has needed a spiffing up for some time. She spends most of her summer working as a camp counselor at Girl Scout camp, so sleeping outside without air conditioning doesn't seem to bother her and I think she likes the modicum of privacy in our teeny tiny cottage.

We will be painting the walls and trim and are looking at a bold cream and black. Those purple walls, gone! That red door, gone! We can't wait to go to Walmart and pick out the paint and trim color. Today I tweeted with @glidden_paint and they agreed that we should use exterior paint. The whole Brilliance line at Walmart in the paint department is new and I am excited to try it.

First though... before I even go shop for this I have to have my friend Kath come over. She is an expert colorist and she can help us pick out the three colors that we are going to use.

Stay posted! Next I will post about the inspiration for the room and where I am going with it and share with you what Kath says to do - always trust good paint and good friends. I'm lucky, I have both.

 

Note: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All of the opinions, work, and crazy painting days ahead of us are all mine. You can pay me to do something, but you can't make me say something!