Labor Day Weekend: So Much Work

Well, here it is the Tuesday after Labor Day, 5 am, and I'm still awake.  Once in awhile, my weekly dose of methotrexate hits me like a ton of bricks and I spend the next day nauseous.  This week there was some added misery, as I spent two solid days in the kitchen and took a pain pill on Sunday night.  I topped it off with some anti-nausea meds Monday morning and long story short, slept all day Monday.  Literally.   Until 7 pm.  Since I'm up, I figured why not blog about my weekend?

Last year, I decided to redo my pantry.  I don't use any animal products anymore when I cook at home, and I buy a lot of my dry goods in bulk and keep them in glass jars in the pantry.  This system has worked extremely well.  As a matter of fact, I'm able to buy my staples only once  every couple of months and they keep in the pantry without any issues.

I noticed, however, that a good deal of produce was going to waste in Casa Schmiddy. When you work all the time and live alone, it's easy for this to happen.  Anyway, my remedy for this was to make a big shopping trip and get good deals on produce that was on sale, then prepare and freeze it.  It took three solid days of work to get all of the freezer items squared away, plus clean the pantry and package the last haul of dry goods-but it was worth it.

I got a lot of things on sale-including ten pounds of potatoes at Pro's Ranch Market for 99 cents.  (Pro's Ranch has the best sales on produce.  Typically, oranges are 99 cents for 5 pounds).  As soon as I got everything home, I set about cleaning, chopping, slicing, shredding, roasting, blanching, boiling, zesting, juicing, bagging, and freezing.

Making chai concentrate.

Roasting my Hatch green chiles.  

Shredding potatoes for hash browns with my Kitchenaid mixer.  (Thanks to my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Russell...this only took about ten minutes!  That mixer is a lifesaver!)

Potatoes ready to be blanched/boiled/mashed.

When all was said and done, here's what I ended up with in my freezer.  (The number is the number of quart-sized ziploc bags that were filled).

• 1 sliced limes
• 4 hash brown potatoes
• 3 red potatoes (chunks)
• 2 sliced peaches
• 2 sweet potato fries
• 2 sweet potatoes (chunks)
• 2 whole key limes
• 2 diced onion
• 2 tomato quarters
• 3 salsa
• 1 sliced onion
• 1 onion quarters
• 5 rosemary and garlic mashed potatoes
• 5 white velvet soup
• 1 carrots (sticks)
• 1 carrots (sliced)
• 1 (big bag) green beans
• 2 french fries
• 2 green bell pepper slices
• 1 jicama
• 2 raspberries
• 2 blueberries
• 1 strawberries
• 1 spiced strawberry sauce
• 1 roasted green chiles
• 1 rosemary
• 2 cilantro
• 1 roasted garlic
• 1 (big bag) pineapple
• 1 lemon juice cubes
• 1 lime juice cubes
• 1 lemon zest
• 1 lime zest
• 1 lemon rinds (for boiling for homemade air freshener, cleaning, etc)
• 1 sage
• 1 dill
• 1 chai spices (already used once, but again, for homemade air freshener-it smells great!)
• 1 chai concentrate
• 5 chai concentrate cubes

Yup, that's a lot of food.  Hopefully it will make my life easier for the next couple of months as we head into a more stressful time of year (when is it not a stressful time of year?)  Here are a couple of pictures of the final product.  It's so organized when everything freezes flat!

And here's the pantry (also beautiful!).  I didn't take any pictures of the spice cabinet, but I also buy my spices in bulk at the local Indian grocery because they're cheaper, so picture rows of smaller glass jars.

Not to worry-this weekend was not all work and no play.  I took some time out Saturday night to go on a ghost tour  of Concordia Cemetery.  This tour was great, but even if you're not into ghosts, it's worth it for the history.  El Paso has a very long and rich history and I love learning more about it. 

The moon was very bright.

View of the star on the mountain.

The most visited grave in El Paso-gun fighter John Wesley Hardin.

I also had some, uh..."help."  Thanks, Mac?

If I fits, I sits.

Where Did the Summer Go?

We are already in our second week of school with students...so that's three weeks of school for me.  Summer felt like it went by quickly even though I didn't go anywhere.  I normally go to Roswell, and had a great costume planned, but given my health over the last year by the time we got to the end of the school year I was exhausted.  I'll take the time to finish my costume over the course of this year and go next year.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I put up a few new posters in my classroom.

And I built a dining room table.  

Many thanks to the great Ana White, who posted plans for this lovely farmhouse table.   My jigsaw is on loan to a friend, but even if it weren't, I wouldn't want to cut a whole bunch of 1x10 with it.  So I went to Lowe's as soon as it opened at 6 am and had them make the cuts.  They were extremely accurate and extremely friendly.  

Here are some process photos:

This table top is solid...here I am standing on top of it before adding the legs.

Before staining.

I distressed the top before I stained it.

Finished!

So far, it's been a great sewing/paperwork table.  I can't say I've eaten a whole lot of meals while sitting there, though.  I need dinner guests!

Oh...and many apologies for the lack of updates.  My phone (which doubles as my camera) got stolen shortly after I built the table.  I just replaced it.  Therefore, no method for taking pictures.  Fortunately, a lot of these were saved on Instagram.

Girl, Fix it Yourself! Replacing a tail light

Like I said, I had a busy morning.

A friend alerted me a few days ago that my left brake light was not working.  Brake lights are a safety issue, so this morning I decided to finally get on that and fix it. The same concepts here apply for any lights in the tail light assembly and for headlights-but headlights are a lot trickier.

You need:
1. A new replacement bulb
2. Screwdriver
3. Something to place between your hand and the bulb-glove, rag, paper towel, old sock, etc.

To fix it:
1. Determine exactly which light is out: brake light, tail light, turn signal, etc.
2.Get thee to the auto parts store and walk straight to the counter.  Project confidence, for Pete's sake.  You're a girl on a mission, you're confident in your abilities, and you don't have time to dink around an aisle reading tiny little product numbers to find the right part.
3.  Tell the person behind the counter what you need and what kind of car you drive.  He or she find the part for you and you're on your way.
4. Open the trunk and move aside the carpet (there are usually two little plastic things that hold it in), or if you drive a truck, open the tailgate.
5.  There are two screws holding in the tail light assembly.  Remove them and set aside.

6. Gently lift up and out...the whole assembly should just fall right out.

7. Find the bulb you needed to replace.  Push in slightly and turn the socket to remove it.

8.  Usually, you pull straight out on the bulb to remove it.  If you're not sure whether you got the right one, use your sock/glove/rag to handle the bulb just in case.  Oils from your hands will cause a good bulb to burn out prematurely.  It's pretty easy to tell a good bulb from a bad one (see the difference?)  Obviously, if you got the wrong one, try door number two.

9.  Open the package and grab the new bulb with your gloved/socked hand.  Push it straight into the socket the same way you pulled the old one out.

10.  Twist the socket back in, replace the assembly, and put the screws back in.

11.  Test the lights.  If it's a brake light and you don't have a buddy around to push the brake, put something heavy on it and walk to the back of the vehicle to see if it works.  A music history text works well...notice I said the BRAKE, not the gas.  This is a critical distinction.

12.  If it works, congratulations, your'e done!  If it doesn't work you might have a bad fuse, or you might have the problem that I have, which is that the socket is bad:

Cue sad trombone music.  These are both topics for another post....but let's just say that nobody seems to carry the replacement socket, so I'm probably stuck going to the dealer anyway.  BOO.  But congratulations if your car is better behaved than mine.

Girl, Fix it Yourself! Mind the Gap

I realized that lately I've been fixing a lot of things myself and thought it might make a fun series.  For those of you who are single and living alone, this might be handy.  For those of you whose husbands or boyfriends are out of town/deployed/mechanically inept this might come in handy. Or if your cat doesn't have thumbs and therefore can't help you, or if your cat does have thumbs but is too dumb anyway. None of it is novel information, but it proves that girls can fix things, too!

Now that we have that out of the way, I had a busy morning.  I've had problems with my dishwasher's air gap for awhile now, but today it really went crazy with my first load of dishes in the dishwasher.

This is the air gap:

This is designed to prevent sewage and gross water from backing up again onto your clean dishes.  The dishwasher drains UP into it and then the water flows back DOWN into the disposal.  If water is constantly pouring out of that little hole in the front, you have a clog somewhere.  A few little trickles, fine...but a gushing waterfall...no way!  Here's how to fix it.

First of all, watch this video, which has a lot of great tips.  I'll run it down for you just in case you don't want to watch...but if you're a visual learner, go for it!

You need:

1. A flathead screwdriver

2. A bucket

3. Hot water

4. Vinegar

5. Baking soda

6. Some kind of long brush or stick

7. Flashlight

1. Open up the cabinet under the sink.  You will see the garbage disposal with the air gap hose attached:

2. Clear a space (you know, all those 5 year old cleaning products you forgot you had) and put the bucket underneath the hose and disposal.

3. If the garbage disposal's electrical cord is in the way, unplug it and move it.

4. On the air gap hose right where it attaches to the disposal is a metal ring with a screw in it.  Loosen the screw and pull off the hose.  Some icky water will probably drain into the bucket.

5.  Shine your flashlight into the disposal from where you just pulled off the hose.  Is it blocked?  If so, whoever installed your garbage disposal forgot to knock out the knockout plug!  Using your flathead screwdriver, punch it into the disposal, then reach in and remove it.  Reconnect all of the hoses and you're good to go!

6.  Knockout plug is already knocked out?  Bummer.  Leave everything disconnected.  You're now going to have to flush out what probably looks and smells like the spawn of Chtulhu.  

7.  Head back up to the thing on top of the sink.  The chrome part will slide right off-set it aside. 

8.  There's a plastic part under the chrome.  The top (cap) will either screw off, or you have one that you can either pry up or squeeze it with your fingers and pull straight up.

9.  Look down into the air gap.  There's a small hose off to one side that you're not worried about.  Look into the deep, dark recesses of the large space.  Is there water in it?  Does it smell weird?  Then you have a clog. 

10.  Get a paper towel or toilet paper roll and place it over the air gap.  Blow hard into it, using your hand if necessary to create a better seal.  If there's a clog, you'll feel it.  It's a lot like blowing into an oboe (which for those of you who have never taken a woodwinds course, is a lot like blowing into a potato). If  the clog comes out, you'll feel it "pop."  Look in the bucket to see if a seed or something popped out.  

11.  Snake the air gap.  A dryer vent brush works well for this because it's long and flexible.  Just put it in (which may require some force) and pull it back out.  I considered posting a picture of the gunk that mine pulled out and left in the bucket, but I thought you might like to eat today.  If you don't have a dryer vent brush (which is worth the investment...dryer safety is important!) then consider some of the extra long zip ties you can get at the hardware store.  (As a bonus, these have great sewing applications as stays or boning...and they're cheaper than the "real" stuff at the fabric store).

12. Dump some baking soda down the air gap and follow with vinegar.  You'll get a volcano, and possibly a volcano of gunk.  Gross.  If you do this at the bottom end of the hose, too, it's more effective.  You might have to break up baking soda clumps with your "snake" while doing this.

13.  Follow by pouring in the hot water.  Everything should be flowing very freely now.

14.  Reconnect the hose, tighten the screw, and find a suitable place to dump that nasty soup of gunk...eww. Rinse off your brush if you used one. 

15.  Replace the cap and chrome portion of the air gap. 

16.  Run and clean your disposal.  

Good luck!  This created a vast improvement for my dishwasher.  If it didn't work for you, then you have bigger problems.  Call a plumber, and perhaps an old priest and a young priest and Mulder and Scully and see what they say.

How to Reupholster Anything

Last year, I posted about my summer reupholstering project but I never told you how I did it.  I took an old chair from our district warehouse that had good structure but nasty, dusty fabric.  I'm not going to lie and say it was easy, but it was inexpensive and the results are great.  I now have the best office chair EVER.  This isn't an exact science-details will vary depending on the project, but this is the basic idea.  Good luck!

Before-icky!

You'll need:

1. The item you're reupholstering

2. Scissors

3. A seam ripper

4. A permanent marker

5. Water soluble marking pen/dressmaker's pencil/chalk

6. Disinfectant spray

7. Screwdrivers

8. New fabric of your choice

9. A sewing machine and thread

10. A staple gun.

11. Trash bags.

12. Optional: ribbon and fabric glue.

Time to upgrade!

1. Remove any hardware from your piece that you aren't going to be working with.  For me, it was the base of the chair with the wheels.  It came off pretty easily with a screwdriver-and was surprisingly heavy!

2. Label EVERY SINGLE PIECE of fabric on your current upholstery with a  permanent marker in a way you will remember and understand.  When I say every single piece, I mean if there's a seam separating two pieces you need to label both.  Trust me. 

3. Get out your screwdriver and seam ripper and start ripping!  Make sure that as you do this you're careful not to rip pieces of fabric too much (they'll be your pattern pieces later).  Initially, you'll use your flathead screwdriver to pry up the edges of the fabric.  BE CAREFUL as they're likely held on with heavy duty staples and/or upholstery nails.  You don't want to stab yourself.  If you're extra cautious you might consider gloves or eye protection. This is by far the hardest part.

4. Remember the order in which you take everything apart (take photos-it makes things easier later).  Set your pieces aside as you go.

5. You should now be stripped down to the frame.  If you had stuffing anywhere that isn't attached to the frame (for example, in that back cushion), you might want to save it in a trash bag.  If it's not too gross, that is.  Otherwise you'll have to go buy more.  Vacuum up any dirt and spray this whole thing down with disinfectant spray (careful not to spray the cat...seriously, that spray is toxic to cats).

6. Prepare your fabric as you usually would-wash, iron, etc.

7. Lay out all of those pieces you cut apart on top of your new fabric and trace using your water soluble marker.  Then label all of those pieces on the new fabric using the labels you had for the old fabric.

8. Cut out your pieces.  Sew together anything that was sewn together on the original (the cushion in the back, the seat cushion.)  As always, make sure you're sewing right sides together.

8. Get out your staple gun and start reassembling in reverse order of the way you deconstructed.  This takes patience.  Make sure you're stretching the fabric taut as you go, and be careful with that staple gun!  Eye protection is a fabulous idea.

9. Re-stuff anything that needs to be stuffed and close up seams.

10.  If you have edges where you can tell that you've stapled (for example, the original had cording or piping and yours doesn't), you can either use fabric glue and piping to cover it up or you can do what I did and use fabric glue and a flat ribbon in a coordinating color.  

11.  If you want to paint any hardware that you removed, do so and then put it all back together.

Voila!  You're done!

iPad Flip Case and Stand Tutorial

My dad is the most impossible man to shop for EVER.  Anything he wants he just goes out and gets for himself.  For Father's Day, I wracked my brains for a long time to figure out what to give him.  Since he's obsessed with the tablet he purchased last year and has a very boring slide-in cover for it, I figured one of these would be perfect.

Unfortunately, they're expensive and not all that unique.  Now, if you have a boring, run of the mill dad then that might be fine, but my dad is responsible for some of my best party stories, so one of those wasn't good enough.

I couldn't find any free tutorials on this online, so I just made one.  Naturally, I forgot to take pictures of the process because I threw it together in a couple of hours the night before.  You get a lovely mix of actual (but crummy phone) photos and computer drawings.  I ask that you only use these for personal gifts, because I'm not making any money by posting the tutorial here.  Enjoy!


Materials:

1. Two kinds of fabric.  1/4 yard of each should do it.
2. Scissors.
3. Rotary cutter (you can also just use scissors)
4. Measuring device of some kind.
5. Rotary cutting mat.
6. Utility knife.
7. Roll of adhesive craft magnet.
8. Square (optional but handy)
9. Embroidered letters for monogramming.
10. Tablet, or if you don't have the tablet, a cardboard mock-up as a template.
11. Chalk for marking.
12. Elastic (optional-I didn't end up using it).
13. Vinyl floor tiles.  These go for between 35 and 99 cents each at home improvement stores, depending on how rigid they are.  You decide what works best for you.
14. Sewing machine and matching thread.
16. Iron and ironing board.

Assembly:
1. Measure your tablet.  If you're making it as a gift and don't have the tablet, make a cardboard template.
2. Cut four pieces of fabric 1.5-2 inches larger than your tablet, two pieces with a length that matches the pieces you just cut and a width about 2/3 of what you just cut, and four squares about 1/4 the size of your first four pieces. The color combo is up to you, but you can see how these are laid out below (pieces are numbered for future reference):

 

3. Cut your squares in half diagonally to form 8 triangles.  Place the triangles right sides together and stitch according to the diagrams below:

4. Press the seams open, then fold wrong sides together and press flat.

5. Pin the triangles in place on piece #3, right sides up.  If you want to use elastic along the edges for extra tablet security, pin that in place now.

6. Lay out your odd numbered pieces as shown below.  Stitch 1 to 3 and 3 to 5, RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER.

7. Press the seams open.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 using your even numbered pieces. 

9. You now have two sides that look the same except for the corner pieces.  Place them RIGHT SIDES TOGETHER and stitch 3 sides.  Leave the top side open.

10.  Clip your corners and turn right side out.  You might need to poke the corners out.  You should now have something that resembles a pillowcase.

10.  Measure how large each of your 3 sections are and subtract 1/4 inch from both the length and the width.  Cut your vinyl floor tiles to those measurements.  (To cut a vinyl floor tile, just score it with your utility knife and then bend it to "break" it.  It's extremely easy.  Leave the paper backing in place, because they're hard to handle when sticky).

***UPDATE***

I made an error here. See that top section?  You're actually going to use two separate vinyl pieces for that.  The one nearest the end is a very narrow strip that is the same size as your magnetic strip.  So you can still use your measurements, then add the magnetic strip and simply cut that section free.  Does that make sense?

11. Cut magnetic strips to the length of the vinyl pieces and place them on the tiles as shown below.  (Back side refers to the side you're not looking at when you can see the corner pieces).

12.  Slide the bottom vinyl piece inside the case and top stitch along your previous seam between pieces 3 and 5.  Slide the middle section of vinyl in and top stitch along your previous seam between pieces 1 and 3. Slide in your third section and top stitch again. A zipper foot makes this top stitching a lot easier, since the vinyl creates a sort of ridge between sections.

13. Fold over the top (not sewn) edge and press.  Trust me, this makes it easier.  Slide in your last piece of vinyl (the very narrow strip with the magnets on it) and stitch the top edge closed, sewing as close to the edge as possible.

 14. You can now fold your case closed (the magnets should catch and hold it in place) and decide where you want to place your monogramming (optional).  If you're using those embroidered letters, just follow the directions on the package.

15. You can fold this out into a stand, as shown below.  The magnets will catch to hold everything together.  And if you're worried about magnets affecting your tablet, consider that these are the magnets rated a 2 out of 10 on magnetic strength by the craft store.  It's hard to get them to stick to the fridge.  They'll do the job for this project, but they're probably not going to damage anything.  I say probably, of course, because I'm not responsible if they do cause damage.

 The tablet should slide into the corner pockets.  My dad didn't have his tablet with him on Father's Day but he tells me it fits perfectly and he loves the case.

If you liked this tutorial, please share!

Easy DIY Landing Strip

I have a chronic disorganization problem, but to most people apparently I appear to be organized.  At school, I misplace my keys regularly, but at home, thanks to my handy landing strip by the front door, I always know where they are.  This trick is relatively simple, functional, and looks good!

To achieve this, you'll need:

1. An antique furnace grate (I found mine at an antique store for about $20)

2. Toggle bolts, or a suitable wall anchor of your choice.  There's a great tutorial at Natural Handyman.

3. A good power drill.  

4. Measuring tape.
5. Pencil.
6. Carpenter's level.
7. Round craft magnets* (the strong ones) from a craft store.
8. Giant clothespin or other fastener from the craft store (optional).
9. Spray paint (optional).
10. Stud finder (optional).

To install:

1. Decide where you want your furnace grate to go and measure it. 

2. Mark the midpoint of the wall where you'd like to hang it along with the midpoint of the grate.

3. Using the carpenter's level, draw a line level with the mark you just made on the wall.

4. Look at where the holes are for mounting the grate.  You can use the stud finder to determine whether one of them will line up with a stud in your wall, which is handy because then you can anchor it to that on the one side and not have to mess with a toggle bolt on that side.

5. How heavy is the grate?  Determine which type of wall anchor you'll use.  My grate is cast iron, so toggle bolts were really the only option.  Measure the distance from the holes in the grate to the wall.  Your anchors are probably going to have to be pretty long.  Also check to see how big the hole is; you don't want the anchor to slip right through the grate.

6.  Line up your grate on the wall with the marks you just made and mark the location where you will drill the holes for the anchors.

7. Drill the holes for the anchors.

8. Place the bolts through the holes on the grate and thread the toggle onto the end.  Make sure you do it correctly! 

9.  It's handy to have a friend for this step: line everything up, fold in the toggles, and push them into the wall.  Using your drill, tighten the bolts.  You'll want to try to work evenly on each side, so tighten a little on the right and then a little on the left and so on until everything looks good.  Trust me on this!  It's hard to do otherwise.  Hence the friend. 

10.  Place the magnets along the bottom edge of the grate and toss your keys up there.  They'll stick and you'll never lose them again!

11.  Glue a magnet to the back of your chosen fastener (spray painted in the color of your choice) and stick it to the side.  Perfect place for outgoing mail!

12.  Add some coat hangers underneath the grate for even more places to put things you need at the door.

As you can see, this is a great place to drop incoming and outgoing mail, hang your keys and ID badges, place your glasses (seriously, I'd lose mine if they weren't here!), bluetooth headset, etc.

*Important note about magnets: if you have kids or pets, you need to be extra careful to keep these rare earth magnets completely out of their reach.  If they swallow them, they can attach to one another in the digestive tract and cause severe damage and death.  My cats haven't swallowed any, but I'm pretty careful!