Party Hard-y!

Gosh, what a busy week.

It's the week I decided to start painting the guest room, even though I was also prepping for my daughter's TENTH birthday. Holy crap. Ten years old.

I went with a very typical fall theme. It's weird because my daughter is now at the age when cutesy themes just aren't cool anymore. It was a small affair of just family and two of my daughter's closest pals. The latter kept us up with their sleepover giggles and screams.

Here are a few snacks and treats I prepared. Thanks to Pinterest, I scored some fabulous recipes and ideas for yummy things to serve. The best part is that they are all super easy to make. Pumpkin fluff dip literally consists of whipped cream, canned pumpkin, one package of instant vanilla pudding mix, and pie spice (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove). The skewers were made from sliced strawberries, lemon cake cut into rounds, and whipped cream. Mmmmm, someone loves whipped cream ...

The acorn treats are fun to assemble, even of your kids want to help. I used almond Hershey Kisses, Voortmans mini coconut cookies, milk chocolate chips, and natural peanut butter for the glue. So. Good. And a little too easy to pop in your mouth, FYI.

I love the vintage quality that pennant or bunting garlands lend to party decor. I buy scrapbooking paper when it goes on clearance at craft stores, because you never know when it might come in handy. So I used that to make my pennants and they are especially cute when paired with pom-poms in coordinating colours. For the place settings, I made name cards from patterned paper and secured them to pinecones. These were then nestled into folded bandanas, which I thought felt pretty country and tied into the fall theme.

Yellow Vegetable Thai Curry

Every now and then, I get the urge to have a creamy coconut curry with noodles. Since our little dude loves tofu (weird, right?), I figured I could throw something together to suit us all.

I had picked up some smoked tofu the other day, which is something I've never seen before. Turns out, it's a great addition to this curry.

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp puréed garlic
1 tbsp puréed ginger
1 tsp red Thai curry paste
1 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp natural peanut butter
4 cups vegetables (I used sliced red peppers, white mushrooms, celery, carrots, and shredded zucchini)
1 can of coconut milk
1 pkg smoked tofu, cubed
1/2 cup water
Salt, to taste
1 cup toasted almonds, cashews, or peanuts

Heat oil in a pan and cook onion until golden. Add garlic, ginger purées and the curry paste and fry, being careful not to burn. You'll want to keep the heat on low for this part, as the puréed tend to spit - ouch!

Throw in the vegetables, peanut butter, tofu and turmeric and fry for a few minutes, until everything is incorporated. Pour the coconut milk and water in and simmer for 15-20 minutes. It should thicken into a nice, creamy sauce. Don't forget to add your salt at this point, if you dig it.

Serve on flat rice noodles or rice and sprinkle with toasted nuts. I have my almonds a little whir in the food processor before toasting, but you can do whatever the heck you want. Enjoy!

Fresh Start

Oh hey ... What is happening in the guest room?

All I'm going to say is that I've got a couple of projects waiting in the wings and they're all for the guest room. It might take a few weeks for everything to be done-zo, so stay tuned ...

IKEA Lamp Re-Do

Woo! I've got a couple of projects on the go, but naturally, few are finished and documented just yet.
Except for one measly DIY IKEA hack that I slammed in about half an hour.

This was one of those projects that I put on the back burner because it simply wasn't urgent on my spruce-up-the-house list. When we got married and moved into this house, Scientist Husband brought with him a few IKEA rice paper shade lamps. Most of the shades didn't completely survive the move and this table lamp (actually, one similar, since I didn't take a picture of the poor thing) has been hiding in shame in the basement:


So I removed what was left of the tattered rice paper shade and decided to use some leftover fabric from the dining room curtain panels that Mom and I made in the spring. By measuring the length of the supporting metal rods inside the lamp, I cut out a nice swatch of fabric and decided I might as well tackle this one. The little dude was napping and I figured I still had a bit of uninterrupted time to concentrate on something.

At first, I wanted to use Modge Podge, but it quickly became clear that that wasn't going to do the trick. Hail, glue gun! I pretty much glued the fabric around each frame, waited for it to dry, and inserted the supporting rods back in place.


The lamp is going to hang out in the guest room until I decided to take the plunge and get started on its transformation ... Which is soon ...

Desperate Scalloped Potatoes: Milk and Butter-Free!

I was really feeling uninspired in the cooking department all day today. So much so, that I ate very little because I couldn't come up with anything that sounded appetizing; it didn't help that I need to grocery shop pretty badly, so pickings were slim anyway.

Then dinner time rolled around, the kids were hungry and I thought about picking something up for dinner. Must. Resist. The. Urge. So I did what any desperate mom would do and asked my toddler: "What do YOU want for dinner?". Potatoes. He wants potatoes. Oh, hey, I have those. What I don't have is anything to eat them with, at least in a traditional sense. So, the title of this post may have made you thought that I'm a health nut and/or looking to avoid dairy, but I really just have a lack of fridge essentials. No milk or butter, even. Sigh.

But I do have almond milk (unsweetened), cream, and olive oil. That should work, right? Right?!
Again, as all desperate mothers know, anything thrown together in a baking pan gives you prime opportunity to sneak in nutritious accessories. Like beans. "Holy hell, she's putting beans in her scalloped potatoes!", you may be thinking. Yes. Yes, I am. Put on your helmet, folks ...

Desperate Scalloped Potatoes

6 or so potatoes, peeled, and thinly sliced
1 onion, sliced (or half a red onion, in my case)
2 cups cheese of choice, shredded
1 can of white beans, drained and rinsed

Sauce:
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. thyme

In a saucepan, heat the olive oil, flour, salt, pepper, thyme and cook, stirring for one minute. While whisking constantly, add in the almond milk and cream. let it boil and thicken (this should take a few minutes), then set aside.

Grease a glass pan with olive oil (9 x 13" should work well) and layer one-third of your potatoes on the bottom. Drop and handful of beans on top and layer half the onions on top of that, followed by some sauce and cheese. Repeat layers until ingredients are gone.

Cover and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F. Remove foil and bake another 30 minutes until cheese is browned. Let stand for a few minutes so the sauce can firm up a little. Enjoy with chives, sour cream and some more pepper, to taste.

(*This recipe is a loose adaptation of a more traditional version of scalloped potatoes over at Canadian Living.)

Circus Room For A Little Monkey

If you know a little boy, you're probably most familiar with their monkey-like antics and abundant energy. Coming up with ideas for a boy's bedroom can be pretty fun and creative. A few months ago, I applied for a position as a part-time blogger for Apartment Therapy (which I didn't score, thankyouverymuch). The site requested a few submissions as part of the application. One of the tasks I chose was to create a mood board for a little boy's room. Around this time, I had just finished reading Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants, so I still had the old-school circus romanticism in my mind and decided that would be a great depart for a theme.

After I finished the submission, part of me wished that I had chosen to create a vintage circus theme in my son's bedroom. I've always been fascinated by the travelling circus community and it's history. Nomadic workers in the entertainment field were (and still are) one of a kind. From seeing the freak show to watching wild animals perform, the circus of the past was a highlight of every kid's childhood - until, of course, they find out that the living conditions of both humans and animals were not the greatest. But, let's not burst that little bubble and remain ignorant for the purpose of home decor, ok?

*I managed to somehow delete source information for some of the following products, but if you're interested and it isn't sourced, I can at least try to point you in the right direction.

Worn vintage colours from Sherwin-Williams.

Left: Striped bedding imitates the Big Top. Right: Hanging pennants are a playful motif (pillow case found HERE!).

A steamer trunk dresser is functional, but still cohesive with the theme. Solid pieces like these can be passed down through generations.

Top left: Circus print on typed sheet, from Etsy. Top right: Simple wooden mobile.
Bottom left: Adorable baby circus elephant cushion. Bottom right: Red solid wood student's desk, from an antiques dealer.

Left: Another sweet cushion. Right: Lighted marquee letter lamps to personalized your space.

Someday, We'll Look Back On This ...

... and it will all seem funny? If you're now singing 'Rosalita', you're welcome.

Here's the thing about being a mom: I usually act and look like an unbalanced derelict. That might sound a little harsh and probably isn't true ALL the time, but it sure feels like it. You have to grow some thick skin to deal with the fact that a toddler's hug will inevitably leave a smudge of something hideous and wet right on your crotch area while you're out in public.

After one of the more annoying mornings of the summer (long doctor's office wait with a whiny toddler and a moody 9-year-old), I came home to have a much needed shower. While washing my face, I couldn't figure out why yesterday's eye make-up wasn't coming off completely until I realized that those are dark circles under my eyes and they aren't going anywhere. "But I'm only 27!", I think to myself before globbing on a ton of concealer to satisfy my bruised self-esteem. You know, because I'm going to have to look good while cleaning the house and refereeing the epic battles between siblings.

I don't know where I'm going with this, so I'll just leave you with a picture of my dog, dressed as a sand dinosaur. Rawr!

I give my dog all credit for the shreds of sanity I have left.