End of vacation purge

I'm sure all of you know when you're at the end of your vacation and you have all this food left in the refrigerator! We were pretty good at getting things eaten up but you always end up with a half of bottle of something. We sent home what we could with my family and ate leftovers for the last few days. 

While I was here in Carmel I found dried gluten free ramen style noodles at Costco. At first I wasn't a fan because it doesn't come with any type of sauce. 

I had to gather up all the ingredients to make a soup base.  Miso broth from Trader Joe's and then added whatever Japanese spices I have handy. I think it turned out pretty good. During the refrigerator clean out there was some smoked turkey and green onion left. That made a very nice topping to my mid day meal. 

My daughter was really into making  fancy specialty salads since here getting the greens here are so easy. She made what my niece called "extra fancy" restaurant salads that even die hard non salad eaters liked. :) 

Lost count of how many onions I found cut up, almost empty fancy olives, goat cheese and beets. During the last few days we had some epic salads for dinner!

Reuse Repurpose Fabric

Several months ago I found a pair of brand new pants at the Goodwill it this awesome cow print . My mom's lucky charm was a brown spotted cow so when I saw them I had to pick them up! I would never wear them but I had to think what could I do with them. 

My good friend Patty (amazing quilter) made me a bag several years ago of fabric I picked out. Using it everyday as my go to purse, it's showing its age and needs to be retired. I thought how fun it would it be to have her make me a new bag with this fun print. I only use a cross over type of bag (safety reasons) if I carry one at all. I only have my phone and car keys with me unless I have to carry my wallet which is rare. 

I asked that the bag be small enough to just hold my phone, keys and sunglasses. That if she could, use the pant pockets on the outside that would be an added bonus. 

Bags turned out great! THANK YOU Patty!

Gnomes Relocation

Our family vacation is winding down and now I'm slowing rehoming as much as I can. It took me three trips to get everything down to the Carmel house and I so don't want to have to make that many trips back home. 

The little gnome houses will be going to this cute little fairy garden that's just around the corner from us. The boys love to go exploring in the garden and they've been really good about not wanting to bring any of the toy trucks home. It is a challenge to get them to leave!

I did have fun making the gnome houses so I think I'll make a few more theme houses for the Village of Fae. Now just have to decide what the themes will be. 

Farmer's Market - Carmel

There's a farmer's market in downtown Carmel every Thursday. Not having a car here when my daughter drives into San Francisco, I decided to walk into in town. At this farmer's market there is a fish monger who has this great shrimp with salsa sauce. One of my favorites! Just enough spiciness to make it tasty but doesn't make you sweat! This was my breakfast this morning. :) 

I also picked up some fresh salmon, which cost a fortune but having my family here, it's a splurged for the holidays. I also picked up some dried apricots and dried fruit. I learned the difference between slab and regular apricots. 

Slab = are apricots that have fallen off the tree because they were very ripe. Take a little longer to pick up, cut and get on the trays. Hopefully washed. 

Regular = hand cut and dried on trays. 

Taste wise there isn't a big difference but I do think slab apricots are sweeter but I'm a dried apricot fan.  Having grown up on a farm, fruit that hits the ground isn't always very clean so I went with the regular, just saying.  This purchase also cost a fortune but it was a local farmer (Hollister) and part of the sale was going to a scholarship for a high school student who will be the first in his family to go to college.  So yes I did buy a little more than I would have normally.  :) 

California Weather

This weekend the weather was different as night and day. Saturday is was sunny and warm, shorts and tee shirt weather.  Sunday was cold and rainy so only indoor activities. 

On Saturday we went down to the beach and it was a super high tide. It was so high that it created pools of water way up on the beach. Made a nice wading pool of the boys. They could splash around without worry of a wave knocking them down. 

I rarely go down to the beach during a high tide because it does making walking on the beach a little harder. 

Yes, another cookbook

I've been looking for children's cookbook thinking someday getting the boys to learn to follow a recipe. Right now they like to "help" but it's more keeping them from cutting off their fingers. 

I saw this book at the Yellow Brick Road book store and it was price at $12. A little high for my thrifty self so I waited until Monday when all books are 50% off. I still think $6 is a but much but I got it anyways.  The recipes are very basics but more for elementary school age kids so it will have to wait for my boys to get a little older.  It's also a good cookbook for someone who has never cooked before. 

What I really liked about it was the vintage graphics and layout. I looked up the author Tina Davis and found out she's was graphic designer back in the day not much of a cook but I think she did a super job

Flatfish Art

I've been hanging out at the Monterey Bay Aquarium a lot this month since the grandkids are in town. They have a membership and it's nice to just pop in for a few hours, which is all the boys can handle. We visit just a few areas and give the boys time to just explore. 

This week we had front row seats to the feeding at the kelp forest and then we went over to the flatfish fish exhibits. Of  course I just loved this bronze flatfish that was next to one of the interactive exhibit for kids. 

Years ago when I thought I would be moving down here to open a store (flatfish paper arts) I envisioned a large (California size) metal flatfish set into the floor.  

Another Weird Gluten Free Cookbook

I'm one of those weird people who likes to read cookbooks. I'm not a fancy cook but because of my gluten sensitivity I cook all my meals. 

Most gluten free cookbooks require way too many specialty ingredients or just don't taste good. 

I was given the cookbook and the first thing I noticed on the cover was the burnt waffles. I flipped through the book to find several more photos of burnt food. I can appreciate that the author didn't doctor her food by using any of the food stylist trick (and hopefully she didn't pay a stylist) but seriously this doesn't make me confident in her cooking skills or her recipes. I think the book should have been title "Charred Gluten Free". 

Learning something new - photo editing.

I finally learned how to edit out the background of photos. I don't do any editing as far as using filters or adding things in. I'm hoping to figure out how to blur the background instead of getting rid of it completely but I still thrilled I can at least do this! 

When Henkie really likes something, he wants to hold it in both hands. You can imagine what a hot mess that makes of he decides to go for a walk with his food. His breakfast of choice is a toasted English muffin with peanut butter and scrambled eggs. He's not of fan of bacon which I find surprising, he's such a meat eater. 

Power Thrifting Christmas Tree

I wasn't planning a doing a Christmas tree because the boys are just to wild and I know things will get broken. 

My daughter really wanted one, so we picked up a tiny one at Whole Foods. Yes, I know a weird place to get a tree but it was a noble fir and had came with a stand. It would have been fun if we could have taken the boys to cut one down but that was more than my bandwidth could handle. 

So being down here in Carmel I didn't have my Christmas ornaments or lights. 

I made a quick stop at all the the private thrift stores, because I wasn't going to pay full retail know I had tons back home. The only store that had anything was "Branches" in Monterey. I scored a vintage tree topper(blinks on and off), multi color mini lights and vintage ornaments. I looked really hard for ornaments that wouldn't break and only found one bag. I did pick up some small glass balls hoping the boys wouldn't try and play with them, but that was wishful thinking. A few have already been broken and the tree was almost pulled over this morning. I think it's worse than having a cat!

Everything for the tree was less than $20, which I think is a good deal for something I wasn't planning on!

Square peg in round hole

Mees decided to try and shove a square toy fire truck into a round knot hole in the deck. He was successful but then wanted the firetruck back. It was a crack up as everyone tried with no success to get it back out.  They even drove to the hardware store to get a magnet on a stick. My daughter finally said "where's your father, he likes sh*t like this". The next morning dad did go out there and got the truck out. 

The hole is now covered with duck tape. :) 

Monterey Bay Aquarium

While the grandkids are here my daughter got a membership to the Monterey Bay aquarium. It's a very impressive aquarium and a great place to take the kids when the weather is bad. 

There have been a lot of guests stopping by so it's also a nice place to hang out for a few hours. 

So creative rice crispy treat for the holidays!

When these walked in to Cottage Crafts, I thought what a cute holiday treat! Rice crispy treats (colored orange) shaped like a piece of pumpkin pie with a whip cream (cookie) top. 

My son like rice crispy treats so much when he made them he would just pour it out on a marble slab. Pretty much looked like a bowling ball. He said he was going to eat the whole thing anyways so why dirty another pan. 

Tent

This tent is proving to be a big hit with the grandkids. 

Last night Mees decided he wanted to sleep in it and made it through the whole night! Of course we were at the beach for a few hours after going to the farmer's market in town so both boys were wiped out. Weather has been breezy but very sunny. During the week the beach is pretty much empty so for us adults it was great.

I think this is an Ikea tent that I picked up at Happy Dragon. Goes together super fast and very stable. 

Banner Project Almost Complete

I've been happily sewing everyday making these pennant banners for the boys. Guess it's a Dutch thing to hang banners for parties so my daughter asked if I could make some out of fabric. It was a lot of fun to find the fabric at FabMo. I only had to buy some solid colors to round out the banners. 

With all the loose threads hitting the floor, it's like having a very hairy dog again. I have to vacuum almost everyday! Good think I like to vacuum. :) A few of them will be send to some of my daughter's friends because how many does one family really need? :) 

Koru posing with one of the banners

Brown Spotted Cow Designs

A few months ago I found a new pair of brown spotted cow hide print jeans at Goodwill. If you've been following my blog, you know that was my mom's lucky charm. 
I thought it would be fun to take the jeans and make it into purses. I can sew but I can't sew something with all this detail so I ask my good friend Patty (who made my cat purse and an amazing quilter) if she could make a few for me. They turned out so stinky cute! I asked that the jean pockets be used on the outside of the bag if possible. I don't carry a purse anymore for safety reason so I  now use a small cross body bag mainly for my phone. Patty was able to get four out of the XL  jeans so I plan to give my daughter and niece one for Christmas. I know it's not their style and they will roll their eyes but it's the memory of their grandmother who they loved.  

Creative moment

A friend posted this on Facebook and I just love the font and total l over all look. I liked it so much I hope another crafty friend Roz, who repurposes flannel shirts will add this to her collections. At some point I will make my version of it in some form or other. 

Roz currently makes some shirts for the boys for Christmas with the saying below. I think it's funny and having them added to shirts was more interesting than a tee shirt. 

Birthday Banner

sea creatures one is my favorite!

I was asked to make a birthday pennant banner for the boys. I guess it's a thing in Holland and a standard party decoration. 

I decided I wanted to use bright and colorful prints. I call it a California thing. :)

The first fabric I found was the black and white vintage IKEA fabric which lead me down the rabbit hole in search for more interesting designs. 

I visited FabMo's online store and when I saw the ocean creatures print, well things just ended up in my cart! Prices are so reasonable, I have enough fabric to make several banners. The plan is to send the extras out to all the of my daughters friends who have children the same age as my grandsons.  

Sixth sense ?

Yellow roses are my favorite flower, well maybe favorite rose.

There are some people who just have to sixth sense or psychic ability. I believe we all have a sixth sense but some have it at a much higher degree. 

Yesterday at CCB I was in a discuss with another vendor who has having a hard time selling her tiny house in Nevada. I been talking about the house in Sunnyvale that I had just cleaned out and how much it sold for. It went 500k (yes half a million) over the asking price. Sold for 2.89 million.  

She was complaining about not being able to sell her small place in Carson NV for just $250k. The house has a ton of structural issues so getting a bank loan would be almost impossible.  Sounds like it should be a torn down.  Anyways, I said you have too much emotional attachment to the house because your'e unwilling to sell it "as is".  Then Tami (owner at CCB who's at a much higher level psychically) said "Let go of your house, tell it good-bye". For me the light bulb clicked on and the air around us just got calm. I know as weird as that sounds but you could feel the change. 

The vendor had said in our conversation that the home had a lot of memories (most not good) and emotions attached to it because of her mother. You could tell she wasn't ready to say good-bye so very good chance the house wouldn't sell until she can. 

Another clean out almost done

I know a very boring photo but I'm doing another house clean out. What most listing agents do is just have a dumpster pull up and throw everything in the house out. Now days if time permits, they have someone like me come in. As I'm clearing the house of junk that can't be sold or donated post online to sell or give away. There isn't enough in the house to do an estate sale or even a garage sale. It's much faster while the house is being cleaned up to find new homes for what I can. 

I took 8 loads (I drive a very big SUV) to Goodwill and Savers. I was amazed how fast I filled the bins at Goodwill - 2.5 bins. 

It's a very old house that hasn't be update or taken very good care of. Hopefully today will be my last day before the dump truck comes to take away what is left. 

 

Another great piece of art

I went to an open house next door to Buzz's house in Monte Sereno. This house belonged to the original land owner (pre 1960's) of the whole hill where about dozen plus estate homes (each lot is at least an acre if not more) are now. I could tell the minute I walked into the house, it had to be an old Japanese family. Every room had an antique tansu, large and small. The artwork wasn't your typical Japanese artwork either, which I found very impressive. I just love this painting hanging in the stairwell and if I had to guess the owner is one of those ladies. It's a painting I would love to have but I'm sure if it's going to be sold, it will cost way more than my budget can handle. Fingers crossed they will do an estate sale and I can least buy one of the small tansu cabinets. 

Picasso in the house!

Still Life On Pedestal

I posted on Facebook I may not own a Birkin bag but I now own a Picasso! I helped unload a car full of over sized artwork  at the thrift store last week and when this one walked pass me I said wow. I'm not a fan of Picasso in general but I liked this one for some unknown reason. Even with it being a print, I know the framing alone had to have been $500-$600 back in the day when this was framed. Everything is over sized and done really well. The original painting is huge! It was a challenge hanging this all by myself and I was so proud when I was done. Then I remembered I have plans to raise my sofa up by 6 inches after Christmas. So now the big question is do I do it or just leave well enough alone. 

Crows (maybe) left me something.

I think that my local crows left something for me! I found it in my backyard that I cleared of all the bamboo that basically went unchecked for years. The ground has been left bare because I'm waiting to see if any bamboo pops up. 

My neighbors are never and I mean never out in their backyards so I can't imagine they would have throw it over the fence. 

At Buzz's house I've been feeding the crows grain fed mice and rats. With all the bird seed everywhere it goes without saying there are rodents. I do have some crows that hang around my house and feeders.  Maybe they found out where I actually live. :) 

Anyways it was a nice surprise no matter how it got there. 

Family Tomato Salad

One of my favorite things is making my family's version of caprese salad. Since I grew up on a farm, eating vine ripe tomatoes that are still warm from the sun is really all I knew for many, many years.  The tomato plants here at Buzz's house are on their last leg, so there's only a short window of time to make this. Tomatoes from the store just aren't the same so I was lucky that Buzz's family had all the makings on hand. Fresh basil, mozzarella cheese and Italian spices. Growing up in California and living on a farm, I never ate a lot of canned or processed foods. It wasn't something I realized until I became an adult on how healthy our meals really were. Mom of course was a great cook. Nothing was ever over the top but everything was made from scratch and fresh from the fields.  

Up cycled a new sign

I've been volunteering at the Happy Dragon and as the new volunteer I was given one of the worse departments to handle. Notions is a mishmash of small stuff. I didn't take these type of things in at the Thrifty Kitty because the amount of time it takes to process someone's junk drawer.  Most thrift stores don't handle this stuff either. 

Anyways I took the assignment to prove that with the right pricing, organizing and displays it would increase the sell thru rate. By increasing the sell thru rate there won't be a back log which also means we would have new inventory out all the time. 

We did a major clean up at the store and I finally got to move fixtures around. My little corner looks great and much easier to see everything. There's a lot of empty bins, so that means things are selling fast. By having empty bins means I can process everything as it comes in so there's no back log waiting for space to open up. Notions will never be a big money maker but I have to say there are a lot of sales everyday. If that's enough to bring in people more often, then it's a win for the whole store. 

Ok so the long rant is over and now to explain the photo. My little notions corner is the only space that still has slant wall. It goes all the way up to the ceiling. I've been wanting to put up some artwork but it would scare the other volunteers about having to get it down if someone wanted it. I pulled this canvas out of the go away bins. The store has two huge bins that Goodwill and Hope pick up every week. I decided to make a sign for my area about what you may find there. I think calling it 'notions" is a little old school and a little vague. 

It was also my first time using Mod Podge which I also got out of the bins. :)