More Upcycled Paper

I've been the worst blogger this month! Being out of town last weekend was a good excuse but I really don't have one for the last 4 days. I always have a rough time settling back into the normal routine of things when I get back to Santa Barbara (I still haven't unpacked), especially when I have such a good time at home! However, its raining in SB today so I figured I might as well do some crafting!

I was inspired by the paper banner thing (I dont really know what to call it) from the last picture in my last post. It was made from old book pages, which of course I always have on hand. So all I had to do was find a proper place for it. There wasn't many options in my little and already pretty thoroughly decorated apartment. However I found one space that could use some sprucing up!

Aside from Christmas decorations this awkward hall space has looked pretty much the same since I moved in. There's not much I can do with it, but I thought any change would be good. This craft was quite simple, but definitely time consuming! Here's what I used...

After alot of paper crumbling and stringing it onto a ribbon. This is what I got...

As usual I am not sure how I feel about it. I feel like it accentuates the enormous smoke detector AND the off-centered dresser/mirror which are too heavy to move. But I will give it a few days and I am working on a few more paper decorations for that area which might help!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Mini weekend update!

So far my weekend at home has been amazing!! Brett and I stopped at Firestone brewery in Paso Robles on the way home. Then yesterday was filled with family, friends, good food and a bit of shopping at my favorite boutiques! Today's been a little more low key but we are headed to Fresno tonight for my brother Ian's swim banquet. Here's some weekend pictures with more to come!

Continuous Lines

I am going home today!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just for the weekend, but I am incredibly excited to see my whole family and to get out of Santa Barbara for a few days. As much as I love it here, living where I work is definitely a unique situation which doesn't always allow me really relax. Even when I am home I often have to deal with work related things...loud neighbors, residents needing help with something, etc... So the husfriend and I are hitting the road as soon as I can escape from work and to Turlock we go!

Something else, completely unrelated, that I have been excited about this week is this amazing artist I came across online. Kal Barteski from [i]LoveLife does some absolutely amazing and awe-inspiring work. Her blog also really opened my eyes to some interesting things about pinterest and other similar sites that I had never considered before. For more on that check out THIS site. Two of my favorites pieces from her site are:

SOURCE

SOURCE

I absolutely love the asparagus on plywood . Using a unique material as a canvas is right up my ally! But the scissors, which are a continuous line drawing (something I had to google) really inspired me to try something new. So for the first time in quite awhile, I picked up my paint brush. Here is a sneak peak of a piece I'm working on:

Its not nearly finished and the iphoto doesn't do it justice but anybody bold enough to guess what it might be? Hint: I've already painted something with the same subject matter

Well I don't know how I will do about posting while I'm at home but I'll do my best!

mocha or espresso

So it's official! I'm getting a new couch and chair in a few weeks! I'm incredibly excited about the prospect of new comfortable furniture that I will get to enjoy for the next year. With our limited budget it was no problem picking out the furniture, we were shooting for comfort and had no problem finding that. The problem was picking out the color! We had about 30 choices, in everything from white to red to gray to green. Luckily I was able to narrow it down to 2 colors...

Mocha (lighter) or espresso (darker)!?
Even though the colors dont quite photograph accurately in my apartment I held both of the swatches up to my accent wall, wood furniture and carpet..

Mocha on left...Espresso on right.

I had trouble choosing! They were quite similar and both would probably look fine. However, knowing that someone else would have to live with my color choices for who knows how long, I wanted to put some thought into my decision! What color would you choose??

Furniture shopping

Sorry about my unexpected absence, I dont know where the last seven days have gone! I guess I've been busy doing a variety of non blog related things and dreaming about my upcoming trip to Turlock with the Husfriend.  Today, however, I got to do something totally fun, out of the ordinary, and blog worthy... Furniture shop! Not just any type of furniture either, Pam and I got to go couch shopping for our apartments!

Have I ever complained about my couches before?? Well either way here it goes. My couches are so uncomfortable! They are stiff and shallow, make me feel like I am in a doctors office and aren't conducive to long periods of sitting or laying. So no cuddling or crafting or tv/movie marathons.... You get the point!

I hate to complain about my free apartment full of things I didn't have to buy but couches are one thing that really dictates how you live in a space. And these couches don't dictate good things! So last week at work we found out that there are all these extra brand new couches in storage. Pam and I started asking around and we were given a small budget to go buy some new stuff!!So thats what we did this morning...

I loved this couch! Totally looked like burlap but it was out of our price range and looked alittle to traditional for my apartment.

Pam and I agreed that this white leather couch is about 10x more comfortable than what we already have. But there is no way either of us would go there!

Pam and I both loved this couch. Its super comfy and in our budget! Yay! See my shoes right there? I had to check to see if I could sit on the couch crosslegged b/c that is how I tend to do my crafting...It passed!

And we get to pick our colors! These were taken with  my phone under weird lighting so they dont properly represent the colors...but I think I'm going to go for something brownish. (p.s. dont my pink zebra nails look great??)

 Talk about exciting! I never really get to furniture shop for things I will actually get because of my live in jobs, so the prospect of new furniture that I picked out is totally new for me! I cant wait to show it off but more so to use it!

Tasty Tuesday: Eggplant Roll Ups

Prepare for deliciousness, straight out of Eat To Live! Seriously, I hardly deviated from the recipe on this one at all (besides cutting it in half) and was pleasantly surprised.  I am never quite sure how I feel about eggplant but this recipe definitely did it justice.

So cut 1 large egglpant into 1/4-1/2 inch slices lengthwise. Place eggplant slices on a slightly oiled pan, put them in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes-30 minutes. You want them to be come out tender enough to "roll".

While those are in the oven coarsely cut up 1 bell pepper, 1/4 cup of celery, 1/2 cup carrot, 1 small onion. Water saute all the veggies with 2 cloves of diced garlic until just tender. Add one large handful of spinach and 1 tablespoon of no-salt seasoning.

 Transfer all veggies to a mixing bowl and mix with 1/4 cup no-salt pasta sauce and 1 cup non-dairy cheese. I was scared to try this stuff...

but it was SUPER good! I won't be using it on a regular basis because it is more processed than I would prefer but I thought it was ok to splurge alittle on this otherwise super healthy dish..Anyways! Once you've mixed all the ingredients together, spread the mixture on a piece of eggplant and roll! Place on a baking dish over a thin layer of pasta sauce. Continue until eggplant slices and veggie mixture are used up.

Cover with a little more sauce and cheese...

Place in the oven for another 20 minutes, then ENJOY!

If you've been skeptical about trying a vegan dish, give this one a try! It's pretty simple and the ingredients aren't anything out of the ordinary (unlike the Thai curry dish). Let me know if you have the pleasure of trying this!

Little piece of Paris

I am absolutely loving my new Eiffel tower picture! A very well spent 12.99. I was frightened climbing onto my island and then the frig to hoist myself on the weird landing above my kitchen. But the result was well worth it. Doesn't it look great with my extra bunch of now blooming branches?  Slowly my apartment is becoming less and less like a sterile dorm room and more and more like a warm little home. Excuse the phone pics, I will take a better one soon!

"close" up view from the kitchen.

view from the stairs.

view from the living room.

On a total tangent...I had to BUY space for my blog yesterday! I had used up all the space google/picassa provided. Just thought I'd share!

Spring Time Makeover

Thought it was time to make the blog a little brighter! 

Just in time for Spring. 

Hope you all like it as much as I do. 

Babbling and Paper Blossoms

As I was catching up on some of my fav blogs I came across a video announcement by Katie Bower from Bower Power. Now I hardly ever cry or really even get teary eyed, but Katie's little video made me emotional! She announced that she's pregnant! It's been along time coming and I am so excited for her. She is a truly godly woman and I love how she seems to do it all..love Jesus, take care of her family, build a beautiful home, have a success photography career, write a creative and hilarious blogger, I could go on but I don't even know her so I'll stop. Total blog crush? Maybe. :-) Enough babbling! Here is the (semi) long awaited paper blossom tutorial:

So above is what I mean by paper blossoms. Here is what I used and following is how I made them:

Super simple! I think they are very seasonally appropriate and definitely make my tree come alive...

 I also had some left over branches that I couldn't stand to throw out after my hard working in getting them. So instead I am planning on making them bloom too.

This pic also just happens to be a clue for tomorrows post about a little something I mentioned yesterday!

Unexpected shopping trip!

So I went into Ross today on a whim. I wasn't expecting to buy anything but as I was wondering around I fell in love with a few different things. First I wanted to buy this...

Since the ottoman was alittle pricey and way to big for my tiny living room I thought about buying this...

But I really didn't know where I would put a bird cage. So instead I settled for this, but dont get me wrong I love it too...

It's hard to tell but that eiffel tower picture is taller than me and it was dirt cheap! I thought it would be 24.99 but when I got up to the register it rang up at 12.99! How awesome is that! I have plans to put it in a very unique location which I will hopefully be able to show off tomorrow.
Happy Sunday everyone!

On the job...

Today at work I revisited a small project I did last year for work. A studebt came into the office asking about living here, what it was like, if people liked it (of course I had to say YA), and what the apartments are like. Sometimes we have an open apartment that we can show people but right now we don't so I referred our FB page where there are pictures of our apartments. The project last year was right up my alley...I got to decorate out model apartment so that it could be photographed and used to show folks what our apartments look like. Now you all know what MY apartment looks like, but the rest of the apartments in my building look nothing like mine. Instead they look like this...

View of the living room from the front door.

View of kitchen from living room.

View of bedroom. (Look familiar??)



Just for kicks...the front of our complex.


I had to decorate with stuff I already had which is why most of the decor is pretty minimal (kitchen/living room especially). Nonetheless, I thought it'd be fun to show off alittle bit about my workplace and some of the fun things I get to do on the job every once in awhile!

Tasty Tuesday: Bean Enchiladas

Although the Thai Veggie Curry from last week is still winning as my favorite vegan dish, these bean enchiladas are another great dish! I think my vegan cooking is making huge improvements and in general I feel I am being a lot more adventurous and creative with my cooking. That and being healthier was the point of this whole dietary switch up and I have to say I am enjoying it. Anyways, here is the enchilada recipe, also straight from Eat to Live...

1 bell pepper (or a cup of frozen bell pepper--I like to use the frozen combo bag from the one and only trader joes)
1/2 cup sliced onion
1 (8 ounce) can no or low sodium tomato sauce, divided
2 cups cooked black beans (I used some of my "purple beans" that I had turned into refried beans and frozen)
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tablespoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1Tablespoon onion powder
6-8 corn tortillas

Saute the bell pepper and onions in 2 tablespoons of the tomato sauce until tender. Stir in the remaining tomato sauce, beans, corn, cilantro, chili powder, cumin, and onion powder; simmer for 5 minutes...

  Spoon about 1/4 cup of the bean mixture on each tortilla and roll up.

 Since they looked quite ugly I decided to deviate from the recipe and cover the tortillas with some of the extra tomato sauce, cilantro and onions...

 You can serve it as is or bake it for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven! Because this was way too much for me I actually froze it...but I had more than could fit on that pan so made a mini pan of enchiladas to eat at the time.

These were delicious. I haven't tried vegan cheese yet but I think it would probably be the perfect touch to these as well. I really do enjoying eating veggies and large salads most of the time, but this was a nice variation from the norm! Anybody getting sick of all the food stuff I have been posting lately?

Food Friday: Loads of Green!

So I wrote this post on Friday and totally forgot to press "publish post". Whoops! So pretend its Friday!

 I have been cooking and trying so many new things, I can hardly keep them straight! And so that I don't lose track, today will be a special food edition. I don't think it will become a regular like "tasty tuesday", but it may show up every so often if I have been cooking alot!  Check out all this delicious vegan stuff ...

 {Vegan} Caprese Salad

Use:

Tomatoes

Fresh Basil

Extra Firm Tofu

Olive Oil

Balsalmic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Do:

Layer tomato, basil, and tofu. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

 {Twisted} Tabouli

 (recipe adapted from Stone Brewery, first make by the Husfriend)

Use:
2 Cups Barley
1 Cup Quinoa
1 Packed cup of chopped parsley
1/2 cup of chopped mint
3 diced roma tomatoes
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
Do:
Cook the barley and quinoa as directed on packages (heads up: barley takes at least 45 minutes). Once these have cooked and cooled down completely add all of the other ingredients. I just estimated the measurements on all of these so feel free to adjust them to your own taste. I like my tabouli green and lemony but it can be good dryer and browner as well! :-) Anyways...once all the ingredients are mixed together let it sit for at least 30 minutes so the flavors can develop. I prefer mine room temp but it often "marinates" in the frig. I'm calling this twisted tabouli b/c its made with barley and quinoa (which has little "twisty" tails) instead of cous cous or bulgar(what I normally use), fun huh!?

{Vegan} Pesto covered greens and white beans

So I just made this on the fly because after eating at Adama the other night, I've been craving pesto (which we had in a mezza plate and was probably the best pesto I have ever had)! I tried making some for myself...

but actually over did the garlic a bit, even though I didn't know this was possible! Of course I still enjoyed it but it wasn't quite the delicious homemade vegan pesto I was hoping for. Once I perfect it I will share the recipe! But since I posted about it now I thought it was worth noting that I did really like it on veggies and white beans as opposed to the normal pasta dish.

So that was a very foody friday! Have a great weekend everyone! I plan to work on my tree some more and maybe, just maybe try to get my sewing machine working again!