friday fixations: kristen wiig halloween costumes

We never do Halloween. I mean, sure, we hand out candy occasionally when we feel like it (and frankly, if we still have enough of what we bought for the kids and haven't eaten it all ourselves), but we never go to Halloween parties or bother to dress up (I don't really like dressing up. I'm too aware of how fake I'm being, and I suppose that's the point, but I don't like it. It's makes me feel super uncomfortable). Anyway, every year, I still like to look at Halloween costumes and admire all the creativity and work that goes into them!

These costume ideas just happen to be my favourite costume ideas that I would actually do if I had to. You know, cuz there were those three times in my past where I found myself suddenly having to dress up, so it's good to have ideas in your brain at all Octobers (and yeah, they just happen to all be Kristen Wiig characters. I like her a lot, okay?)

{garth and kat} Cuz Idle Husband and I would do this so well. We're always making up songs. Not quite this terribly, but we're still so funny and random that it could work. Plus matching sweater vests and turtle necks!!

{the target lady} I'm always drawn to costumes that are super easy and aren't really costume-y (plus I can't help but yell to myself, "approved!" every time I swipe the credit card). Idle Husband doesn't like dressing up either, so I think he'd be on board with this one cuz he could dress as the disgruntled customer which would just be his every day clothes (he's always a disgruntled customer).

{gilly} Have I ever mentioned how my secret wish is to have an afro? NO? Well, guess what? It is! At least being Gilly would give me the opportunity to act on that wish even if just for a night. (Idle Husband = annoyed teacher?)

{dooneese} This is (little) hands down my favourite costume idea. I've been thinking about it for.ev.er. It's probably the most difficult to do, but I already have (much of) the forehead (there's a reason I have bangs) so the rest should kind of fall into place. (Idle Husband would obviously dress as the announcer and carry bubbles around with him so I could pop them with my doll hands all night, right?)

my meh projects

Just to prove that I haven't been doing absolutely nothing in the DIY and food department, I thought I'd share a few projects that I originally did up for the blog. The problem was that once I started going through the pictures and thinking more about how to write them up, I decided to scrap them. They're still in my house and I still love them, I just couldn't come up with enough stuff to say in order to write a whole post on them. And I'm still struggling. Nice.

{spray painted fridge magnets} I've been trying to grow up my style in the house lately so one of my first projects towards that goal was spray painting our alphabet magnets. See, it would be really easy to get rid of them, yes, but I still love them and half of them are Greek letters from a set I found on our first trip to Greece together. So I can't really just toss them aside carelessly, and yet, their rainbow colours were really annoying me. A quick spray with some silver spray paint and now they fit right in with our stainless appliances. That's the whole DIY. If you can't stand the rainbow effect your magnets are giving you, spray paint them. They'll look better, I promise.

{muted artwork} In the process of putting our basement back together (after the flooding), I needed a large piece of art for the wall that's opposite the staircase. I got a large canvas at the thrift store with someone's terrible painting on it (again, should've taken a picture of that), then simply painted right over it with regular wall paint I had sitting around. Do you know how much large canvases are to buy new? It's crazy! But do you know how much a crappy piece of art painted on a large piece of canvas is at the thrift store? Like, $5.99! So if you need some cheap art, get a used canvas, paint it white, then paint it however the heck you like!

{no bake cheesecake} I'm torn on this one cuz if you made it, you'd be like, this isn't cheesecake. Well, you're right there. It isn't proper cheesecake. But if you're trying to cut down on sugar AND have your cake, too, this might be straight up your alley. See, the main problem with this picture is that I didn't like it paired with the crust. The crust absolutely ruined it for me. Normally when I make cheesecake, I make the filling and pour it into individual ramikins and eat it without a crust. Don't get me wrong, I am all about pie crust. Most of the time, I could really care less about the filling (unless it's pumpkin), but for cheesecakes, all I want is the cream cheese. This crusted one made me so angry over the waste of cream cheese. I thought to make it again without a crust for your viewing pleasure, but I just haven't had the desire to make it again and I probably won't until Thanksgiving. And the pictures from this pie were so pretty! See? Torn! I'd also really like to give you the recipe now, but it's been so long since I made this that I can't remember if I used one block of cream cheese or two. I'm officially the world's worst blogger.

I have a few projects on the go now. Let's hope I get them right!

dream decorating project

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but my ultimate decorating fantasy (well, at the moment, anyway) is to redo Idle Husband's apartment in Athens.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the apartment or the furnishings. It would be perfectly acceptable if one person stayed there but now that I'm around, that apartment has become the most uncomfortable place ever in the history of ever.

I'll start in the bedroom which has really good bones, i.e. a built in closet. The furnishings include:

• 1 hard-as-rock twin bed
• 1 pretty useless desk covered in stuff
• 1 pretty useless shelf with doors also full of stuff no one's using (duh useless!)

The living room/kitchen/dining room, again, has pretty good bones, i.e. the kitchen cabinets are nice and all along one wall. The furnishings include:

• 1 probably too large tv stand and 1 older model tv
• 1 six-seater dining room table
• 4 extra large dining room chairs
• 1 three seat sofa that (get this) converts into a twin bunk bed (a twin set of bunk beds! I discovered this after I insisted I had to know what it converted into after one particularly sleepless night)
• there might be a couple side tables doing nothing but taking up space, too, I just can't seem to focus on the little details anymore

In theory, that doesn't sound so dismal, right? But when I tell you this apartment is 388 square feet and this stuff is literally squished into it, do you understand now?

Let me describe to you a typical stay there. Since the bedroom is pretty much useless to us (twin bed and all), we leave our suitcases in there and live out of them. I know, I said there's a super nice built-in closet? Well, there's stuff in there or no hangers... or some reason why we never use it.

Therefore, we find ourselves pulling out the sofa "mattresses" that are really just foam pads that are a part of the twin bunk bed shenanigans. They don't really function as a double mattress but, pushed together, they kind of work (except they always slide apart mid-night). There are no sheets, no comforters, no suitable pillows for some reason, just blankets, and the mattresses go straight on the floor in the kitchen (my layouts are not to scale, so, to answer your thought, no we can't put the mattress on the bedroom floor. There's not enough space). To give you an idea of space in the living area, once the mattresses are on the floor, in front of the sofa frame, the bottom of the mattress (i.e. where our feet are) wedges right up against the kitchen counters. That's the width of the whole living area.

Now we're wedged on the floor and we have to get up off the floor, go around the dining room chairs -- let's hope we remembered to push them in the night before so no one stubs their toe -- and each other (sad is the person close to the window wall), to access the bathroom (and as much as I don't want to admit it, the older you get, the harder it is to get up off the floor in the middle of the night).

Furthermore, the tv is on the other side of the dining room table, so we can either sit in upright dining room chairs to watch shows at night or we can lay on the floor and angle ourselves so we can watch tv through the dining room chair legs from our makeshift bed (since the couch is unusable with all of its cushions on the floor for sleeping -- not like it was usable for tv viewing before since it's not even facing in the direction of the tv -- it's too wide to be placed that way).

Sounds like a relaxing vacation, right? And the jet lag going to Greece is absolute murder (coming back is much easier on the system). We're usually so tired from the trip itself that all we want to do for the first day is sleep and these are the accommodations we're arriving to. It's better than the chairs at the airport but not by much.

So I have suggested many times that the most awesome gift Idle Husband's parents could ever give us would be to empty the apartment of all the furniture and stuff. They don't have to do anything else to it. Just empty it (cuz for the life of me I have no idea how they got that stuff in there in the first place).

Then I could do something like this:

With this stuff:

Greek apartment by idlewife on polyvore.com

Everything is from IKEA since they make a lot of cheap furniture (this is definitely a project for a small budget) designed for small spaces like this (and it would be easy to get most of it up the spiral staircase or the tiny elevator).

I might go with a different sofa once at the store but I actually had this one when I lived in the NAIT apartment and I like that it's small and can convert into a small double bed (good for anyone else -- especially with kids -- who happens to stay at the apartment when we're not there) and it's relatively comfortable (couple of throw pillows would round it out). The splurge is really the dining room set. I could be talked into another, cheaper version, but I've always liked the look of that particular set plus I love that the chairs slide under the table like pieces of a puzzle which makes the whole set only as large as the table itself. I also chose a small laptop desk that would double as a side console and a room divider when placed behind the sofa. We'd be able to use it as a table for drinks etc. when sitting on the sofa, a sideboard for dining, and we could swing a chair over from the dining room set and use it as a desk as well (multi-functional!).

The final total doesn't include the price of a double mattress (and I would definitely agree to a cheaper IKEA mattress, too. Any actual mattress will do!), and the price of the curtains are included, but they're probably not necessary since I think the existing curtains were just fine -- I just wanted to add some nice cheery colour to my layout.

I would also use existing lighting and accessories, I just can't really remember what they were. If anything, these are the things that should be collected over time, here and there, so that's why I haven't included them. I would definitely use this as an excuse to drag Idle Husband to the Monastiraki flea market again! And despite my usual disgust with fake plants, I think some of the fakes IKEA offers would be really perfect for the place since they'd provide that necessary green life without having to worry about keeping them alive while no one is there (shown: house bamboo, succulent, maidenhair tree -- nothing with flowers because I find fake plants with flowers look... faker than a leafy plant. It's not about the design of the flowers, but the fact that your plant seems to always be flowering and that's not natural).

One final thing, the tiles in the apartment are amazing! They're a coppery browny orange and shiny like glass, so I think blues and greys would work the best in the space because of them. And I'm envisioning a blue-grey tone for the walls. Perhaps a feature wall in the living area to make the space appear wider and then carrying that tone into the bedroom as well.

Pretend decorating can be so much fun. Do you have any dream decorating projects that you'd love to make a reality some day?

the dragon age

Yay! I'm excited about this year! Probably because it's the year of the dragon and I've always had a real love for dragons. My family used to celebrate each Chinese new year with some homemade (or take-out) Chinese food, but we haven't done it for years. So this year I'm doing a little pulled pork dinner (maybe with some noodles -- the longer the better -- for long life). Do you ever do anything special for Chinese new year?

I found some interesting links for new year traditions (I always love reading my horoscope):

{superstitions}

{horoscopes}

And some super cute stuff related to dragons!

{dragon pillows}

{dragon cards}

{dragon cookies}

{dragon dinnerware}

{dragon ring}

{asian print apron}

Gong Hai Fat Choy!

recap and resolutions

most popular posts of the year

{how to idly clean jewelry} This is one of those tips/tricks that's handy at any time of year so it's no wonder people visited it the most often.

{diy wrapped feather gel pens} Initially, I didn't think this was a really awesome DIY, but then I noticed it getting a lot of exposure on a number of different platforms, so its popularity really surprised me in the end. I did enjoy putting together a bird-themed package (which these were a part of) for my cousin, but (sadly) I think the whole thing has since been lost in the mail.

{peanut butter s'mores bars} This is kind of a no brainer. Chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallows, graham cracker -- I mean, who can argue with that? (I could really go for a piece of the original butterscotch type, though.)

{blog update} Wow. I had no clue this managed to sneak into the top five most popular posts. I thank you all for your support regarding my endeavors and I'm (really!) planning on doing more in-real-life stuff regarding this in the new year.

{earring storage ideas} This post was popular because of the title, I think. Those are strong google search terms. BUT I did have those little jewelry frames hanging up for a whole year so it was definitely a popular post for me, too.

my favourite posts

{blog update} Obviously, this one's pretty important to me. I was so nervous? scared? anxious? about the reaction to this, but I was pleasantly pleased with the overall result. It made (makes) me feel like I could do it for real.

{tzatziki} Getting the parent's proper recipe was the best thing that ever happened. I am literally making this at least once a week as we can't sit down to a single meal without it and I always bring a tub when visiting mom (she says she'd like to "take a bath in it"). I've since revised the process to be super fast. I use the food processor for the grating and found this amazing technique for peeling multiple cloves of garlic (and yes, it really does work! I use two smaller bowls -- easier clean-up -- and you must shake for longer than 2 seconds).

{alberta aviation museum vs weed bouquets} Speaking of Greek stuff, these two posts remind me of Idle Husband's parents' visit, so they're both really important to me. I miss having little weed arrangements in the house a lot and the pictures I got from the aviation museum are some of my favourites from this year.

{early morning storm} I can't believe how lucky I was to wake up to this storm. It was so exciting and looking back at all my photographs, it still blows my mind that they're real.

{abraham lake} I loved this trip. It's a place I frequented growing up, so it holds a lot of meaning for me. It was really great sharing it with Idle Husband and I hope we go back again this summer.

resolutions

I don't like to make a big deal out of resolutions only because they can end up making you feel worse than you did before if you realize you haven't accomplished a single goal. That being said, there are a few things I'd like to try to work on:

{take more pictures} Since moving, I haven't felt the desire to take my camera out. Actually, since getting my new camera, I haven't felt the desire to take pictures outside of the house. Why? Well, it's more expensive, has a larger LCD screen, and it's bigger and heavier than my old one. I guess I just didn't want to risk it getting hurt and I felt self-conscious about what other people would think if I were to pull out such a camera to photograph seemingly random things. But that's a terrible way to live, right? Cameras should be used and I shouldn't let what I think other people think determine my actions. Besides, since getting two photographs blown up into posters, I've had a real desire to see more of my art in our house.

{step outside my comfort zone at least once a month} I really love habit. Like, really really love habit. I get so comfortable in routine that the minute it's thrown off even if just for a week, I get really frazzled and stressed out (like, crying into a burger in public stressed out). But the only way to grow and evolve as a person is to try new things. Take different steps. Go in the opposite direction as normal. When I think back to how I got to where I am now, everything that lead me on this path was from a direct and deliberate change in pattern and routine. Those changes didn't kill me, they made my life better, and it's time to start doing more of that now.

{eat in season} Sometimes, I have this dumb thought that even if it's January and I want a tomato in my salad, I should be able to have a damn tomato in my salad, it's 2012. I never really stop to think about how tomatoes are even available in January (because they shouldn't be sitting in our grocery stores at all at this time of year). So while this past year I made a conscious effort to purchase more Canadian produce (I'm so glad they've started putting the origin of food items on the tags), I think I could do even more by eating what's in season. I love to have my salads with every meal, but that doesn't meant they can't be made with shaved brussel sprouts or cabbage and carrots instead of (small but expensive) lettuce and (not-so-tasty/rotting in two days and expensive) tomatoes. This sort of thing is a little tougher in a winter climate (i.e. everything is out of season after October), but I found this chart that'll at least help me find the cheaper, better tasting produce throughout the year (also: canned stuff).

{rethink eating habits} While we're on the subject, I need to stop worrying so much about feeding us. Isn't that a weird thing to say? I've just been in wife mode for so long that the desire to feed has turned into more of an emotional thing than a sustenance thing. In other words, I don't feel like I'm pulling my weight around here if I'm not baking or cooking something at every meal juncture. So if I can't decide what to make or I don't feel like making anything one day, I feel very much like a failure and I get really frustrated, annoyed, and upset about it. I think it would help if I concentrated more on feeding us when we're actually hungry. The benefit to being just the two of us is that we don't need to have a set schedule for when to eat. What we really should be doing is eating when we're actually hungry not just because, "oh hey! it's 5 I have to make dinner" when we're not at all hungry in the slightest and would be just fine with a light snack closer to 7. This is an issue that's plagued me my whole life (I'm a giver and this is one of the best ways I know how to give) so it's definitely something I have to work hard at.

I feel like 2012 is going to be an exciting year full of good changes! What about you? Do you make resolutions?

don't like it, paint it

I have been doing a lot of painting lately, so I thought I'd update you on the pieces.

Remember this thrift store find?

Well, here it is now! Sleek and black.

Aside from painting the bedroom and putting most things back, I haven't exactly decorated or done anything much in there so please excuse the boringness of this picture.

Having this type of headboard has been really nice. It did come with a footboard, but I opted not to use it. We're still using our regular metal bed frame and I've just pushed the whole bed up against the headboard. It doesn't jiggle or bump so I think that's good enough for me. I would suggest that queen beds were slightly smaller width-wise back when this headboard was made because our frame is about 3-4 inches wider than the legs on the headboard. Therefore, my idea of just screwing the headboard to the new metal frame didn't work.

I really love the storage and the ample top space for glasses and remotes and what not. Do you think it's too much to have bedside tables? I put our old ones back, but they're too short for my liking. I've got designs on buying IKEA's RAST drawers and painting them. Having them would mean more storage (we need so much storage!) and a taller surface. I'm not really keen on buying more IKEA furniture, but I've seen what lovely things other people have done with them plus they're real wood (and cheap too).

You probably don't remember this dresser. I bought it for $5 and repainted it to highlight the plaid-like wood detail. It really fit into our old house and the scheme over there, but once we moved, I almost immediately grew to hate how it looked. Plus those knobs. Oh man, what was I thinking with those stupid knobs?

Here it is now! We couldn't decide if the body should be black, so I thought I'd start with the drawers and decide after. I think that the white body gives it a more refreshing look since all of the furniture in the bedroom is black. This makes it look different but cohesive. 

I replaced the knobs with sleek silver handles that I picked up at a restoration store in Red Deer. They were a dollar each! I was also very nervous about them because I've never had to measure and drill new holes for handles before and I wanted to make sure they were all level and matching. 

Here's the trick to doing it: Make a template! I had the good fortune of having the pattern right on the drawers which meant I only had to make a template the size of the middle rectangle. I just measured a piece of paper to fit in that rectangle, figured out where the handle should go (a combo of eyeballing it and measuring), used some chalk to mark where the screws should hit, and poked holes in the paper to line up with the screw holes. Then I did a trial run where I lined my pattern up in the middle rectangle, marked the holes with chalk, set the handles on and stood back to double check that everything was even and lined up. Finally, I drilled the holes and screwed in the handles (that makes it sound super easy. Not quite. I kept buying the wrong size of screw for the handles. That part was a headache). I think it was well worth it. Not only do these handles look better, but they function better, too.

I got this dresser at IKEA a few years ago. I don't remember the name and I can't find it on their website. I guess I should have taken a before picture, but this used to be their standard dark brown colour. Painting it black helped to cover a really noticeable dent in the top drawer (I dropped a belt buckle on it and apparently that spells disaster for this type of furniture). 

You'll notice that I painted that little thrifted storage drawer yellow. I'm not 100% liking how it looks over there, and I don't like that other jewelry box (which I've always had but never used), either. I feel like I need something taller to sit on the top. I have a lot of stuff, but I don't seem to have enough decorative stuff!

The driftwood is something Idle Husband and I found on our trip to Abraham Lake. I kinda thought I might hang some of my most used necklaces off of it, but that's still in trial. I also wrapped that small portion (which was damaged a little) with yellow string, but I'm not sure I really like it (though I like that it matches the yellow ceramic drawers). What I am really loving is hanging driftwood up on walls. There's another one in the bathroom and I've stuck big branches and little twigs all over the place, in every corner. That's too much, right? That's borderline crazy.

Oh wait. You haven't seen crazy yet!

Mom gave me this corner shelving unit. It's been in her garage for almost 10 years (and this is after I cleaned it up. You should have seen the filth!).

So I painted it black (ignore the artwork in such a dumb arrangement. I used to have bookcases there so they made sense then. I'm contemplating paint colours now, so I haven't done anything else in this room as I'll be painting it soon anyway).

And then I filled it with birds. They were displaced when we moved the bookcases upstairs. That's a crazy amount of birds.

Finally, I painted this guy. My childhood horse. I've been wanting to do this for a while now because, uh... he was covered in toothpaste. I remember doing it, but I don't remember why. Maybe I wanted to clean him? Or Maybe I wanted to fill in the parts that used to be white? I don't know, but he's been like this for over 20 years. I've kept him this long because he's not just a horse, he's a horse bank! I probably shouldn't even be telling you, but he's filled with special coins. He's also very heavy.

It's surprising how easily 20 years of toothpaste comes off!

I spray painted him gold. That seemed like the right colour choice to me.

That's it for now. I'm all painted out for this week! But it's really amazing how a little bit of paint can spruce things up. It feels so fresh in here!

friday fixations: thrift edition

One of the best parts of the vacation? Thrift shopping! You know I love a good thrift store. So here are some of the things I picked up:

{1 owl salt and pepper shakers} I still feel like I paid too much for these ($10 is too much, right?), but they're owls and they're salt and pepper shakers and they're cute! I just couldn't let some other person get them, I just couldn't.

{2 glass water decanters} I was literally paying for stuff when mom came running over with these bottles. They're both different shades of purple and they've got glass stoppers. I think I'd like to use them bedside. I think. I'm still not sure.

{3 little cubby of painted ceramic drawers} I really don't know what I'm going to use this for, but it seemed too handy to pass up. Currently, I'm leaning more towards using it for jewelry storage but it could also go in the kitchen or in the craft room. The wood is in pretty bad shape, so I'm planning on painting that portion. It's kinda hard to tell by the photo, but I've already filled in cracks with wood filler and given it a quick sanding. (I had that stuff out so I wanted to do it all at the same time, and then I thought, wait I haven't taken pictures of the before yet! Stop the presses!) Ah, question. Should I paint it white or yellow? I have both. I'll probably make the decision once I see it primed.

{4 jewelry boxes} I mentioned it in a friday fixation post and I'll mention it again: I'm gaga for jewelry boxes now. I'm still using my little frame and doily jewelry hangers, but I'm tired of them. They're nice. They work great. But I'm just really sick of seeing all of my junk hanging there. The two larger boxes need a good scrubbing and I'm going to fix up the wooden one a little. Hopefully I can figure out how to change the fabric top on it. I'm not 100% keen on the floral couch-like fabric. The small one is another suede travelling jewelry holder which almost makes up for the one the thrift store took away from me a couple weeks ago. It's newer, but it's in better shape (I have to do some searching on how to clean that suede/velvet type of fabric).

{5 lettuce shaped serving bowl} I think this little ceramic lidded bowl is the cutest! Maybe it's not lettuce. Maybe it's a cabbage? Whatever. I really want to serve some vegetables in it (preferably brussel sprouts).

{6 more decorative tins} Two have hinges! I can't pass up a tin with hinges! The other two, well, I just liked them and it's been ages since I've allowed myself to even look in the tin section let alone buy anything from it. Besides, it's winter. That means it's time to display them. I got a little excited.

And then there's this:

It's a headboard! You know those old ones with the drawers? My gram used to have them at her summer cabin and I always thought they were the best. You could hide all sorts of stuff behind the doors and the top is wide enough for lamps and books, too. I think it's the most useful headboard ever designed.

So when I started to notice that someone needs a little more storage for things such as cords and phones, I thought this would be the perfect solution. Would you believe we got it for $15?! (This and the footboard, but I don't plan on using that part.)

I've painted it already and I'm going to drill a hole in the back (behind the doors) for cables to slip in, then everything can be closed and hidden so our room has that nice, neat, and orderly look while still providing the necessary space for gadgets and doodads. I'll definitely do a before and after post once I finish it up completely. I'm already totally in love with how it looks after painting. What a difference from the photo!

caramel apples

Can you believe I've never once had a caramel apple? Not once. Sure, I've seen them and lusted after them, but they're always sold in public settings, and, like, how on earth do you eat one of these things in public without looking foolish and/or getting stick all over your face?

It seemed like something I'd feel mortified to attempt so I figured it was best to avoid them.

I don't know why the thought to make my own never occurred to me until now. Probably because they seemed like one of those high fuss desserts. Kinda like cake pops. Baking, then mashing with icing, then rolling, popping them on a stick and dipping them in chocolate. Whew! Why not just eat the cake pre-cake pop? Making caramel, inserting sticks, dipping, rolling, letting cool. Why not just dip some apple slices in soft caramel and call it a day?

Anyway, this is another non recipe because I just couldn't be bothered to make my own caramel.

It's not because I'm too lazy or I just didn't have time. I've had ups and downs with caramel in the past. Either I cooked it too long or too short (usually because I was nervous as hell and thought my candy thermometer was playing tricks on me) or I was a complete dummy and used shortening instead of butter which gives it a weird flavour (do not do that).

With Halloween upon us, what's stopping me from buying a huge bag of creamy caramels and melting them down? You can find these bags literally everywhere you go at this time of year. And if you want candy apples in the middle of May, soft caramels can always be found in the bulk aisle. So there's really no reason to go through the nerve-wracking agony of making caramel.

Still not convinced? Well, I should also mention that there's usually a recipe/how-to printed right on these bags of caramels. Yeah. I just saved you a good bit of searching on google for a recipe. And I saved you a trip back to the store to get some cream because who the heck knew that that was necessary in making caramel apples. Oh and you know what else is in most of those bags? Sticks. So you don't have to go foraging for branches or buy that super econo pack of 1000 wooden popsicle sticks just to make 12 apples (like I had to for making popsicles because the regular, normal-person sized boxes of wooden popsicle sticks were out of stock every. single. time. I went to the store and I was tired of hounding popsicle sticks like a crazy person).

I used these tart little apples homegrown by mom and self-picked by Idle Husband and I. I think that makes them specialer. Plus there's no waxy coating which I've heard can keep the caramel from sticking (make sure to really scrub your apples if you're using store-bought).

The branches were kind of one of the main reasons I wanted to do these in the first place. I saw a picture of some candy apples with branch sticks a couple years ago and I really wanted to do it, too. In retrospect, I should have made sure to find branches that were smooth and had bark that was not falling off all over the place. I had some issues with a few of them. I really should have snatched an apple branch at the same time as picking these, so if you want to do the same thing, fair warning.

I think that using little apples made a huge difference when it came down to the eating part. Not only were they a little more tart than the average grocery store apple (which pairs really well with the intense sweetness from the caramel), but the smaller scale made them a little more manageable in the "how do I bite into this?" department.

My favourite was chocolate and caramel. I just chopped up some semi-sweet chocolate chips and dipped the warm, caramel covered apple into them. (I may have gotten chocolate on my face while eating this but at least I was in the comfort of my own home.)

I also rolled a few in chopped walnuts. These were Idle Husband's favourite. Basically, I'm saying you can roll them in pretty much anything you choose. Just have everything prepped before you start dipping.

I almost forgot -- if you really want to be lazy about it and still have the same effect, just chew a piece of caramel while eating an apple. It totally works in a pinch. (Don't ask me how I know these things! No! I'm not addicted! I can stop any time! Stop judging me with your judgy eyes.)

hey, man!

I got a little box of treasures this week.

Someone's grandma's old recipes. I don't know why anyone would ever give this away.

There are a few intriguing recipes. A lot of recipes for zucchini. I liked the idea of zucchini jam -- from Esther; Quite a few healthy granola-ish recipes, like this one for nut milk; And, of course, a lot of cookies and cakes. Golden honey carrot cookies sounded like something I have to try.

I had to laugh at the salad section. It only contains the jello, whipped cream, and fruit kind of salads, all happily named, "salad." It wasn't until I started reading ingredients that I caught on.

But the best part was what was printed on the back of some of the recipes cut from old newspapers.

Let me quote one of my favourites, a portion devoted to finding penpals.

...Age:14; Birthday: June 12; Favourite colour: purple; Favourite song: Too much Tequila; Favourite singer: me; Favourite actor: Kookie; Favourite saying: Hey, man! Favourite animal: wolf; Food: Spearmint and Juicy Fruit; Drink: H2O; Costume: bobby sox and blue jeans (etc.); Pet peeve: conceited boys like Jimmy F.; Secret ambitions: to become a beatnik, be first human on moon, live to be 21. All kidding aside (against my usual policy), I would like to have lots of penpals. Kookie fans, Elvis fans, horse lovers, and anybody interested in teen talk grab a hunk of wood and lead and scrawl me a line.

So I did some research.

miniature roses

I set Hermes' cage down beside the roses, but I didn't think he was that close to them. We were eating dinner, and I could hear him making his, "Oh this is good!" chirps and I thought, "But I haven't given him anything today..." and looked over to see him hanging off the side of his cage, nibbling away. He seems fine. Don't worry.

I figured out how to add different gradient and texture layers in Photoshop, so I had a little fun with these pics.

I've always loved miniature roses. They're so pretty and delicate and this particular pot has four different colours in one. I've since planted them outside. I hope they survive the winter. (The internet tells me they should.)

DIY project: decoupage mirror frame

I don't know if you remember this mirror. I picked it up from a thrift store a while back, and I think I've finally finished making it over.

I think.

That's important to note because I'm still not really clear on whether I like it or not. You see, it went through a couple stages before I finally arrived at this idea.

Initially, I just wanted to paint it white. So I sanded it and applied layer after layer of paint only to keep ending up with this:

And then we moved, so I set it down in a corner of my craft room and pretended it didn't exist for a few months.

I don't know where the idea of putting this crazy plaid tissue paper on it came from, but it did, and I couldn't get it out of my brain until I did it.

Let's just be clear. I've never decoupaged anything in my life. I really don't even remember how I came to have mod podge in the first place. It must have been for some other crafty thing, but what that crafty thing was is anyone's guess. And since this was my first time using it with tissue paper, my whole method may be somewhat skewed. I do have some little tips I picked up that might be helpful for you if you should ever decide to decoupage anything in the future (lord have mercy on you).

{tip 1: use the right supplies} Please promise me you won't try to decoupage a textured surface like I did. It's very difficult, very infuriating, and was compounded by the fact that I used a patterned paper. Also please choose a different paper. I think this would have been awesome with a solid coloured tissue paper. If anything, you're going to have some texture after application from any little layers or scrunches the tissue paper makes while you're applying it. You're also going to need mod podge and some brushes. I used a smaller craft brush (because of the texture on the frame), but I think you should use a foam craft brush. Mod podge doesn't wash out completely, so a bristle brush will be pretty much useless for anything else after you use it with this product. A cheap throw-away brush is what you want.

{tip 2: less is more} It was instinctual to put a lot of mod podge on the frame at first because I was rushing and I was doing the whole thing at once. I thought it would give me a little more time between it completely drying and me applying the paper. But when I went to press on the paper, the frame was entirely too wet and the paper slid around too much, so my first papering attempt ended with a gigantic rip in one of the corners. I knew I wouldn't be able to patch that large of a gap, so I ripped the whole sheet off and started again (and I only had to do a few extra mod podge applications to areas that had dried faster, that's how wet it was).

{tip 3: work in sections} Do not think that mod podging the whole frame and then pushing on one whole sheet of tissue paper is a quick and easy way to get this project done. I did consider applying the paper in sections, but I thought the pattern would line up better if I did it in one whole sheet. In reality, after everything was done, I don't think it really would have mattered if it lined up from one side of the mirror to the other. Had I done it in 4 or 5 inch blocks, I would have been able to better apply the paper into all of the grooves and I would have had less cracks, shifts, rips, and tears overall. Even better, had I made a template of the frame and gotten a rough idea of how much paper and where it would be placed, working in sections would still have made a lot of sense with regards to keeping the plaid pattern lined up.

{tip 4: don't stress! Patch!} If you find you've ripped some of the paper in your application, don't fret. Make sure to wait for the whole thing to dry before trying to patch these tears; otherwise, you might create more. All it takes is a tiny amount of mod podge and a tiny scrap of tissue paper and you won't even notice the tear is there. Just apply the podge, gingerly stick on the paper, and sweep more podge over top of it. Tip #2 is extra important here.

{tip 5: seal} I guess this is less of a tip and more of a to-do. Once your patches have dried, apply another layer of mod podge to the whole thing. This will seal the paper and prevent it from ripping or scuffing and it'll give it a nice sheen depending on the type of mod podge you're using (mine is the matte version, but it also comes in gloss, glitter, sparkle, etc.).

That's my finished mirror. Honestly, even though I spent almost a whole day patching rips and tears, I should really spend some more time on it if I want to keep this look. There are still a few places where the pattern is a little splotchy.

I've got it on a wall in the basement where I can walk by and stare at it pretty regularly. It's starting to grow on me a bit, but I'm still not sure if I like it. And now I'm not even sure I could paint over it or re-decoupage it if I wanted to do something else. I don't think I'll stop pondering the fate of this mirror quite yet.

the diy list is here