Odds and Ends

School is back.  Crafty has mostly been set aside.  Kitchen adventures are more infrequent.  I assure myself it's only for a season when journal articles take priority over pleasure reading and paper proposals take precedent over blog postings.  Yet, I have accumulated some odds and ends to share....

Best Soup Ever:  Seriously good.  This gets rave reviews on pinterest and for good reason.  It's got all the goodness of lasagna but it's easy and quick to make.  Highly recommend and go big, use the real deal Italian sausage.  Usually I skimp and replace beef with turkey, etc. but go all the way with this recipe.  It's worth it.


Letters:  I tried my hand at yarn letters.  Not as easy as I thought, but a few hours of mindless television later and voila!  I learned the trick to get every edge covered is to use a glue gun - if someone can make the letter completely covered without a glue gun, I would gladly declare them a crafting genius.  I am not sure I am up to making an alphabet of these but they look good for a monogram or an initial.  And this just might be an instance when it's worth whatever someone is charging on etsy.

Fabric Pennants:  I have made these a few time as a great way to use up scrap fabric and get a cute end result.  My dear friend, Barbara, said I do and some pennants I made in her wedding colors graced the dessert table.  It was fun to be included, but as friends who were at the wedding can attest, the dessert table was more like a feeding frenzy than a tasteful  distribution of their wedding treats.  Seriously, I have never seen anything like it - people lost all their manners at the sight of cupcakes and key lime pie.  They didn't even wait for the bride and groom to be served, much less notice the cute penants hanging from the table.  This picture is of the aftermath.

More good soup:  For a girl that lives in the city and loves that I can avoid strip malls for 99% of my life, I love me some Panera.  I welcomed their arrival in DC with open arms.  I like their treats, their company values that compel them to have some stores that are pay what you can and most of all their broccoli cheese soup.  Yum.  This recipe is easy and makes good use of an immersion blender.  I opted for the skim milk (actually lactose free too), and it's also easy to make vegetarian with the replacement of veggie broth in lieu of chicken.  I even took this picture (pre-immersion) because it might be one of the healthiest looking dishes I have made in a long while.  The only thing missing at home is that crusty whole wheat baguette that comes with the real deal.

That's it for now....I try to make good on life, including the crafty, tasty life, not ending during grad school.  So far so good.

Channeling the Amish

My sewing skills recently took on a new challenge...make something that I would be willing to wear...in public.  I know there are plenty of people in our world who sew adult clothes regularly and wear them proudly.  Yet, I have visions of the bubble suits I wore as I child that proclaimed without words they were homemade (truth be told - mine didn't have the collar but I was still old enough to know better).  Fashion these homemade clothes were not.

I have seen though where fashion and sewing skills can intersect.  Made by Rae showcased a darling dress this summer and my old workmate, Katie, showed off her mad sewing skills with a spring skirt over on her DIY Del Ray blog.  Earlier this spring, I had gotten inspired by a Boden catalog and had a moment of semi-irrational "I can make that" attitude.  A cute tunic - that looked too simple for what they were charging - prompted a purchase of 3 yards of fabric.  I eventually came to my senses but I was 3 yards richer.

Along came the milkmaid skirt on Pinterest.  It's a tutorial - no pattern needed, just measuring and a few easy steps.  I was sold.  It was easy.  And it turned out good enough - good enough that I had fabric left over so made one for my sister.  I figured we could be twinsies since we live almost 1,000 miles away - except for when we are posing for pictures of said matching skirts at the beach.

Have I worn it in public?  Yes.  A little sheepishly, I'll admit - wondering if anyone notices that it's homemade??  Or even worse that there will be loose threads hanging that will reveal my secret.  With my skills, that is probably more likely.

Any other crafty friends ventured into sewing for themselves?

Homemade to Share

School is back and it doesn't return quietly.  Between reading "Mostly Harmless Econometrics" and organizational behavior books dating back to 1937 (it's about as exciting as it reads here), I found some time last week to engage in a little food hospitality.  My southern upbringing dictates that when someone you care about has a baby or an illness, you show up laden with home cooked goodness.  It's just what we do.  Maybe you don't have to be southern to partake in this ritual but it sure doesn't hurt and it might just dictate the menu.

My simple menu consisted of soup and salad, some muffins and my go-to Toffee Bars.  A little bit healthy, a little bit not.  All made with love to help my first DC friend, Abbie as she welcomed her new baby girl (Welcome to the World, baby Emma!)

Here's the good word on what I made:
Tomato, Basil and Cheddar Soup:  Tastes like summer in a bowl.  It doesn't call for fresh tomatoes, but could be an easy substitute.  With low fat cheddar and fat free yogurt, I will even declare it healthy.  I didn't have fresh basil and couldn't find it at the grocery, so substituted some fresh pesto I had made earlier in the summer and froze.

Newk's Favorite Salad:  This has become a favorite of mine - discovered it on a trip to my sister's hometown in MS and have been making it ever since.  I retroactively pinned it on Pinterest but if you go to Newk's website you can basically make your own mixed salad using any balance of the ingredients you desire.  I typically leave out the croutons, substitute feta and make mine with chicken I have marinated in Italian dressing and cooked in a grill pan.  Easy enough and I have been keeping a bottle of this good dressing in my fridge to top it off.

Lemon Zucchini Bread:  I saw this in my mom's Southern Living and since I was looking for the shredded zucchini in my freezer, it was perfect to try and even better to eat.  Next time I am going to try and substitute apple sauce for some of the butter.

And the Toffee Bars I blogged about here and have made repeatedly this summer - they're that good.

The beauty of food hospitality that if you make a bit extra, you get to enjoy the goodness too.  Yum.  Now back to school reading.....

Off-Roading a Recipe

Some cooks follow recipes scrupulously.  Measuring exactly, even weighing ingredients.  Testing temperatures and checking ingredients before embarking on a recipe.  These type of cooks probably subscribe to Cooks Illustrated and hold membership in Alton Brown's fan club.

I don't fall in this school of cooks - to many who know me this will not come as a surprise.  I substitute ingredients based on convenience, follow recipes loosely and have the philosophy that good ingredients combined together will likely have a good result.  This does not mean I mix genres of food and I do in fact like Cooks Illustrated, but I often take liberties in modifying recipes - twas the case when it came to trying my hand at homemade hot fudge.  I consulted several recipes - some on Pinterest and some off.  Some called for evaporated milk and others called for cream.  Some for unsweetened chocolate and others for cocoa powder.

I am sure there's some cooking science I am missing, but I promise when you are tasting gooey hot chocolate, you are not going to wish you had gone for the cream instead of the evaporated milk.  It's just good.  I couldn't even repeat what I made in my variation of hot fudge - it was a mix of what I had on hand - unsweetened chocolate with some cocoa powder, a little fat free half and half and some regular milk.  Stirring and cooking until the consistency looked hot fudge-familiar.

The point is - sometimes what we cook doesn't need an exact science.  Pinterest recipes and recipes in general are good in their own right.  But perhaps too they can point us to new combinations that we hadn't thought of or introduce us to new substitutions.  Take my friend, Brooke who discovered lime worked as good as lemon in concocting this yummy looking main dish.  Now my mother would warn that you don't want to vary too much but even so....sometimes cooking just needs a little flexibility in knowing that whatever you end up with will be satisfyingly good if you can trust the ingredients and the process.  That's good enough for me.

Any off-roading suggestions you have tried with a recipe worthy of sharing?

Upcycling

 

Pinterest is full of upcycling ideas...transforming the old into new, reclaiming what was once discarded.  You can transform light bulbs into flower vases, wine corks into a bath mat or a cheese grater into a pencil holder??!

While I appreciate the environmental conscientiousness that upcycling encourages, some of the ideas seem a little extreme and even like a potential for a mess (thinking moldy wine corks - yuck.)  Yet some of the ideas seem charming - a little bit of paint can transform some picture frames or an ikea dresser.  With a little help from my old favorite, mod podge, I got inspired to take on two projects - albeit revised from the original plan on Pinterest.  

Project 1 - Fabric mosaic.  With lots of fabric remnants leftover from various sewing projects, I had more than enough to tackle this fabric mosaic project.  I took a different spin though and made a stencil of the "letter" m and filled in the simple design using fabrics from various projects I used for my niece and nephew.  A couple of layers of mod podge later, it looks good enough to hang on their wall and remind them of their last name or their Mimi!

Project 2 -Rehabbed tray:  Cheap trays + craft paper + mod podge = an upcycled tray worthy of entertaining.  I had picked up a tray at a thrift store that is about the size of a large pizza and some craft paper showing the hot spots of Italy - the result a decent combo for rooftop entertaining.  

Pinterest Trial:  Fabric Mosaic

Review:  Make use of a fabric scraps with a cute result

Pinterest Trial:  Decoupage Tray

Review:  Cute but not perfect

My results: 

Project #1

Project #2

Taste of Home

This post is not for my vegetarian friends but if you are a vegetarian from the south, perhaps you will understand.  

As anyone who no longer lives in the south will tell you, there are things that just taste better in the south - grown in the south, made by people from the south, consumed in the south.  Sweet tea.  Peaches.  Barbeque. Cobblers.  Barbeque.  And yes, that's an intentional repeat and my list could go on....


My sister and I have long complained that what DC is missing is a decent lunch place.  A place like we knew growing up in the south - rotates the meat and veggies each day to give you a meat and 2 or 3.  A place that counts mac and cheese or cobbler as a veggie.  Plus a chicken salad plate.  


I am adding chicken salad to the list of foods that taste better in the south.  I'm not talking about the tuna fish salad variety of chicken salad that the lunch places in DC serve up.  I'm talking about the kind I grew up eating with grapes and pecans mixed in to the usual combo of chicken and mayo.  It was the only kind my mother made.  It was the only kind served by the lunch places in my hometown. 

If you have spent any time in Birmingham, then you likely know the chicken salad plate that O'Carr's serves up.  The heaping scoop of chicken salad, the medley of exotic fruits and fancy crackers.  I was excited to try this copycat of O'Carr's chicken salad that I found on Pinterest.  The thought of food processing my chicken was not appealing and while I didn't have a sample of the real deal to do a side-by-side comparison, the result hit the spot and was a good taste of home.  Plus with low fat mayo and cream cheese, it was not that bad and even more low carb if you forego the fancy crackers for veggies.

Good stuff for lunch.  The kind of good stuff DC is missing.  We are getting closer up here....some investors recently helped franchise Zoe's and their chicken salad will do but it's not got all the good stuff in it.  I think if O'Carr's is looking for any investors in the DC area, I would be happy to help and I imagine there are lots of other transplants that would welcome them as well.

Pinterest trial:  O'Carr's Chicken Salad
Review:  Minus the fancy crackers and fruit, it's a good stand in for the real deal.

Pinning Italy

Periodically on Pinterest, you will find pictures that appear too good to be true.  Pinned with hope of going there one day.  Recently I was lucky enough to have one of those days.  Italy for 2 weeks with 3 friends, 4 cities and 1 academic conference.   (Disclaimer: this might read as a boondoggle but with all honesty it was a helpful conference convened by the International Society of Third Sector Research – i.e. international NGOs). 

Months ago on Pinterest I had found some pics – a market in Siena, the coast of Cinque Terre.  As the days rolled by in Italy, I took great delight in seeing the Italy I had pinned – the Italy of the tour books.  The canals of Venice, the blue sky of Florence, the stacked colored houses of Cinque Terre, the rolling hills of Tuscany.  It was one glorious sight after another.

Travel for me is about the food and the people.  You can’t go to Italy and not talk about the food and wine.   The pasta cooked just so, the flavors of pesto and fresh lemon, amarena/cherry gelato, panna cotta that made you want to lick the bowl.  Chianti in the Chianti region, Prosecco on a patio near the beach, homemade lemoncello, grand crema frozen coffee.  Sure it was rich, sure I don’t usually drink wine in the afternoon but it was all glorious.  And yes, I did bring back a shirt that says I heart gelato. 

And the people - talking at bus stops, lingering in the piazzas, gathering under lampposts for late night community conversations, the drama and intonations of an ordinary conversation.  In Siena the celebration of one neighborhood’s win in a horse race was continuing 2 weeks after their victory – complete with impromptu parades that attracted all generations.  In Vernazza, old men, assisted by their canes, were eager to give directions. 

I could go on about Italy but there’s also more to be said about the experience of travel.  Getting away from a routine and then deciding weeks later that a routine is good to return to.  Having 3 girlfriends that want to travel together on the first day and the last day.  Conversations that continue seamlessly, laughs and inside jokes that emerge from the experience. Seeing the art and churches of the ages. Finding your way – whether it’s navigating the train stations or the backroads of Tuscany that don’t even show up on GPS and force you to talk to locals whose words you don’t understand but hand gestures you do.  

 So my review from pinterest is to do something you have been wanting to do.  Don't take the privilege of travel for granted.  Enjoy the adventure and eat good food.   

Lessons Learned

When I worked in monitoring and evaluation, we would talk about lessons learned as a nice way to describe what good could come of a failure.  I have had plenty of lessons learned recently.  Some could be described as problems while others could be described as inconveniences.  I am hoping for more inconveniences.  

In matters of do-it-yourself, you have to be prepared for failure.  On one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love, they have gracefully shared about their recent D-I-Y deck failure.  Some things are going to go as planned while others will not - much to your chagrin.  


In the land of pinterest, there are some ideas that get re-pinned repeatedly and catch my attention. But that doesn't always lead to success.  This simple canvas project caught my attention and with its low cost threshold, I gave it a try.  Project failure.  Even application of the glue was the major issue and my own color choice for the paint caused another...I scrapped the project.  My sister has since redeemed it but it's nowhere near the intended outcome.  Some you win and some you lose.  

A few months ago, my sister recruited me to make this rain cape for my niece.  Super cute and seemingly simple pattern.  The cost of the oil cloth fabric made us nervous because with that kind of investment, I wanted to do it right.   But we were excited and even got ahead of ourselves by having visions of rain capes being my thing - my thing as in a money maker (i.e. Mandi aka mass producer of cutie rain capes).  The project went pretty well, but I quickly learned that I am no fan of sewing on oil cloth.  I couldn't figure out the trick to getting it to slide through the machine when you sewed slick side up as you had to do with this pattern.  Quickly my thing became the thing I never wanted to do again.  

Yet, the pattern cut left me with a significant portion of leftover fabric and so with this leftover expensive oil cloth I went looking on pinterest for a project and found this lunch sack.  Hoping that ol' Martha wouldn't fail me, I tried it - a simple pattern until you got to finishing the edges.  With my prior experience of sewing slick side up, no thanks.  I stopped the pattern early and while it seems to work just fine, it's not as finished as Martha would have liked.

So  I've learned my lesson - thankful I didn't invest in gobs of oil cloth to start my cape business before I learned how much I dislike sewing with oil cloth, thankful failures can be redeemed and thankful I have this little one to sew for and loves me no matter what.

Pinterest trial:  Oilcloth Lunchsack
Review:  Easy to follow but be warned about oil cloth

Taco Bell a mi Casa

When I was little, Taco Bell's beans and cheese constituted a meal for me- a little pot of gooey, cheesy perfection.  Yet as my taste buds matured, I abandoned the 59-cent menu for higher standards of culinary delights.  I occasionally found myself returning - airport terminals sometimes have limited options - but being introduced recently to my foodie friend, Liz's passion for all things Taco Bell convinced me to give it a fresh look.

Liz, me, the sauce and the wrap

With Crunch Wraps as a recent addition to the offerings of Taco Bell, they are reason alone to try the Bell again - a combination of goodness that fits in your hand.  Yet, when I saw a posting on Pinterest for a homemade  Crunch Wrap, I was delighted and a bit relieved to be able to make this savory treat at home.

On a recent summer night, I invited some friends over, including Liz, to try this fast food-inspired delight.  Taco Bell would typically not be the offering of a dinner party but for this crowd and with the addition of chips and guacamole, we had a great combination for dinner.

To satisfy my vegetarian friends, I substituted the meat in the recipe for a bean mixture of pintos, refried beans and taco seasoning.  The directions worked great to produce a copy, and all agreed that it's an easy dinner option with ingredients you can trust since you are your own Taco Bell assembly line.  Plus if you have a little baggy of leftover Taco Bell sauce packets like Liz brought to the dinner, you are set for your own south of the border experience at home.

Pinterest Trial:  Homemade Crunch Wraps
Review:  Just like the real deal, only better.

Then Comes a Baby in a Baby Carriage

It is a truth universally acknowledged that once you have successfully graduated through a series of wedding showers and weddings that baby showers will soon follow.  Nearly two year to the weekend, I found myself planning a lovely afternoon gathering for a dear friend Abbie at the same place we had 'just' hosted her bachelorette party.  We gathered to celebrate the upcoming birth of her baby Emma.  Here's some of the details I contributed that were all very a'la Pinterest.

The decorations:  Our mom-to-be friend is shying away from pink-overload and has adopted a cute whale theme for the baby girl's room so we obliged and I contributed some tissue paper pompoms.  Who doesn't like a craft that involves tissue paper that turns into fluffy balls of cuteness - these make for cheap decorations that have a wow factor.

The food:  We had a full spread for an afternoon shower.  I made some meringues that reminded me - in the best possible way - of the marshmallows from Lucky Charms cereal.  I have learned the trick to light and airy meringues is no humidity and patience.  I'm not a patient person by nature and typically not one when it comes to baking and following directions but to get the results with meringues, I found that listening to a podcast while I whip the egg whites keeps me mixing for the requisite 6-8 minutes (I skipped the chocolate dipped bottoms for my version).  I also made some of these cream cheese filled strawberries.  While the results didn't hold well together because I made it without butter (i.e. runny filling when they sat on the table for a while), what's not to like about sweetened cream cheese stuffed in a strawberry?! 

The games:  When I think of baby games, I am inclined to groan - melted chocolate in diapers is just not my style and frankly gross.  I wanted to do something sweet to welcome baby Emma so we circulated cards to record a series of wishes for the baby girl based loosely on this baby worksheet .  We kept the cards circulating while Abbie opened gifts and then read the cards aloud - the results were sweet sentiments that Abbie can tuck away to share one day with baby Emma.

I'll report later on the baby gift I made that was a true feat of "I can make that...."


Pinterest Trial:  Tissue Paper Flowers
Review: Surprisingly classy and easy to do

Pinterest Trial:  Meringues
Review:  Patience is key but worth it.

Pinterest Trial:  Strawberries with Cream Cheese
Review:  Delicious and rich filling

Pinterest Trial:  Baby Wishes
Review:  Sweet activity and better than other baby games

Secret Ingredients

Last weekend was one of those weekends blessed with good friends, laughing till your belly hurt and yummy meal after yummy meal.  We swam in the river, went for lazy walks and played games that involved water balloons and blindfolds.  And it didn't hurt that our view looked like this.

I was in charge of dinner on Friday and hosted a homemade pizza bar using this recipe for pizza dough.  For once, I had success with a yeast dough (my failings at a sourdough starter made me nervous and let's just say this recipe for dutch oven bread did not turn out as planned), so I felt dinner was a success before it really even got started.  

I knew the weekend would include its fill of gluttony but wanted to include a dessert in my dinner menu.  I had tried this recipe previously for a chocolate chip cookie pie.  Except it's not your typical cookie pie.  Maybe you don't have a typical one but for my family, it was always a toll house pie with 1 1/2 sticks of butter.  Good stuff, no doubt but not good for you.

So the fact that this alternative recipe is vegan, has minimal fat and is based on chickpeas (!) may surprise that it all adds up to equal deliciousness.  The amount of brown sugar goes a long way in sweetening the recipe but all in all, it's a healthier alternative.  I will caution you though that this is not a cookie dough you want to eat raw...while it has no eggs and would seem safe, you will be disappointed to find yourself sampling basically brown sugar hummus.  Something happens in the oven to meld these ingredients and turn it into gooey goodness.  And the best part, you don't have to confess the secret ingredient unless you want to.


Pinterest Trial:  Deep Dish Cookie Pie
Review:  Gooey goodness and tastes like the real deal.

Perfection can be Overrated

Confession:  I'm not a perfectionist.  I tend to multi-task to the point of distraction.  I typically don't measure when I bake.  I can claim a lot of imperfect accomplishments.  But the job gets done, I am usually satisfied with the outcome and I move onto the next task.

I have been sewing for about 3 years and my approach is much the same.  I have made friends with my seam ripper, typically run my machine on a straight side at the top speed and overlook a bunch of flaws.  Thankfully, my sister, whose kids are the prime consumer of my sewing output, has this same gift for overlooking flaws.  She has also made friends with an old fashioned needle and thread to mend the seams I occasionally miss.

Yet, she's a repeat customer so I figure she must be happy.  And she's created for me a board on Pinterest to further hint at what she would like to suggest as a next project for me.  She even named it "for mimi" as if naming it after the sweet name my niece christened me with years ago would do the trick.  Well it did and I  took her up on this tutorial for a ruffled skirt this week.  It's cute, it's easy and it let me use up some fabric odds and ends that just happened to coordinate.

Here's the result (elastic to be added) and hope you will agree that as with most sewing projects the flaws will be overlooked as long as the fabric is cute and there's ruffles involved.  My sweet niece, Ellie Bean, will be a happy girl once she gives this skirt a twirl.

Any cute sewing projects for little ones that you would recommend?

BTW, here's some blogs I follow that help satisfy a sewing fix:  Made by Rae, Sew Like My Mom and Gussy Sews.

Pinterest Trial:  Ruffled Skirt
Review:  Easy and good for leftover fabric scraps

'Tis the Season for Margaritas

The postings on Pinterest would make one think that we all have inordinate amounts of time on our hands for crafting, we have a limitless home decorating budget, most of our meals come straight from crock pots and that we are all routine consumers of frosty and fruity beverages.  Since I have limited time, an even more limited budget and don't even own a crock pot (yet!), I will gladly be the last.  

When I was a child, the month of May would bring to mind the rhyme of "April showers brings May flowers," but as an adult and particularly as an adult that just finished her 2nd semester of a PhD program, 'tis the season for margaritas.

Plus in my world, the dawn of summer means the return of rooftop entertaining.  I live in an apartment smaller than most people's living rooms so with a view like this, spending as much time on my building's rooftop when the weather permits is a no-brainer.

Last week I hosted a few of my classmates for a little food and drink on the rooftop - a perfect opportunity to try out one of the viral drink recipes on Pinterest.  Touted as "The Best Margaritas," this non-traditional take on an old favorite did not disappoint. With limeade, 7-up, vodka and beer making up its ingredients, the result is refreshing, tasty....and strong.  I adjusted the recipe to include a little more soda than the recipe called for, and the drink was just how a margarita should be - tart, sweet and strong.  Good stuff and I'm already planning to make this as the "house drink" when I go away with friends for Memorial Day.

As a bonus, I also made these Creamy Lemon Bars to pair with drinks, chips and guacamole on the rooftop.  These bars are a great combo of salty, sweet and citrusy. Yum!

Pinterest Trial:  The Best Margarita
The Bonus:  Creamy Lemon Bars
Review:  Easy and tasty!

My "Go-To's"

A girl has got to have her "go-to's" - the things you do, wear, go to, talk to when you are in a pinch or just need a reliable fall-back plan.  My beloved Grandma Arkansas told me once that muffins were her "strong suit" when she was taking food to someone in that way that Southern women know how to do so well.  That's exactly how she described her blueberry muffin - her strong suit.  A muffin made blue from the berries' juices seeping through the batter graced many a table because she knew they were dependable and worth sharing.  

When I think about it, I have my own set of reliable go-to's in my life.  My sister who faithfully talks through any situation.  Room 11 when I want a lovely night out or Astor when take out will do the trick.  The familiarity of 30A has become the go-to of winter holidays for my family.  There's the dress I bought on whim at Banana a few years ago that has been reliably dressed up and down.  The cocktail of blueberry simple syrup and vanilla vodka has become standard repertoire for my summer entertaining.

And then there's all the delights I find on Pinterest that are inviting me to make new friends and welcome them in as standard fare.  I like trying new things - sometimes.  Familiar is comforting but new can be refreshing.  The anticipation if it's going to turn out like the recipe and review said.  How it measures up to old favorites will determine its staying power .  Well, making this recipe three times in three weeks to all rave reviews has made it a new "go-to."

Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars graced the table for a going away party, a dinner with a friend and a discussion group at my church.  It's no ordinary cookie bar - it's good like eating raw cookie dough straight from the bowl good but it's cooked and not a health risk good.  It even got a rave review from a 85-year old church member that has many more desserts in her repertoire to compare it to - I took that as a high compliment.

I'm sure there are more delights to discover but for now I am confident these bars will make yet another appearance and I'm sure if you tried, you might try again too.  Enjoy and let me know in comments what are your reliable recipes or go-to's in life.

Pinterest Trial:  Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars
Review:  Delicious and easy

The Challenge

So here's the deal.  I like being crafty+cooking, etc + Pinterest is fun to look at.  Lots of people try to make ways to live more in the present so why not try Pinterest.  To stop saying I want to try or do.... and start doing it.

In the course of my school procrastination, Pinterest has become a favorite outlet.  I have tried various ideas on it with various levels of success (dutch oven bread>not so much vs. toffee bars=rave reviews).  In the spirit that I am a single girl living in a studio apartment, a lot of the things on it don't make any sense for me but are fun to consider and dream about for one day.  Plus I may have started one too many sentences with "I saw this on Pinterest....."

It's early May, and it's officially the start of my summer.  School is out for nearly four months.  I will still be working on various school and consulting type gigs but I need a little more creative in my life so am starting this challenge to try at least one new thing from Pinterest each week.  I'll try to mix it up but there will be no major renovations or even grand makeovers (think small space and smaller budget).  But perhaps I'll get a crockpot, try my hand at spray painting something, indulge some new recipes and have a little fun.  And perhaps this will continue past summer because a little creative in life is never a bad thing.

Suggestions are most welcome and if nothing else, I will satisfy at least one of my sister's suggestions at things I should start (a blog) in her list of living vicariously through me (still to be tried: starting a food truck, starting a sewing business....)

And a disclaimer: I have no idea about copyright of Pinterest so no harm was intended in the use of their name.  I'm not sure this disclaimer helps things if it becomes an issue but thought it couldn't hurt either.