Creative Upload

Well, more like creative overload.

I've been keeping busy with creative endeavors. This post is just a jumble of everything I've been doing the last couple of weeks. 

1. I've started an inspiration notebook, where I keep track of things I find beautiful or interesting. Here are a couple of pages:

 2. Our kitchen is in the corner of the main room, and when I stand in front of the sink to wash dishes, my body blocks most of the light from the window and/or from the ceiling light. I got sick of always trying to wash my dishes in shadow and decided to see if I could create a light. We can't alter our apartment at all (no nail holes, paint, etc...) unless we're willing to pay extra, which we're not. I found two small nails under the cupboard above the sink, and decided to see what I could come up with using that and a few things on hand.

 I found this tutorial  for string lanterns while browsing on Pinterest: http://veryirie.blogspot.com/2010/08/diy-string-lanterns-string-lighting.html

I decided to give it a try and this is what I came up with:

Before

 After

It didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned (which was much cuter/classy/awesome), but it works.
I didn't have any wallpaper glue or fabric stiffener or tapioca starch, and didn't have room in our budget to go buy any, so I made up my own mix of glue with Modge Podge, cornstarch, a little hot water, and Elmer's glue. It worked great, as far as I can tell, though I think that fabric stiffener or wallpaper glue might have had a better finished effect.
I wrapped saran wrap around the balloons to try and keep the string from sticking to them since I didn't have any Vaseline, but I think next time it would be worth it to go buy some. The saran made it look more messy and less professional than I wanted. It kept shifting, making it hard to wrap the string tightly and neatly. It also helped the glue crystallize in the gaps between the strings, which made it hard to clean out. Moral of the story: don't use saran wrap.

3. I went on a quote making spree a little while ago. I wrote some inspirational quotes on index cards and stuck them around the house.

 This hot air balloon was something I made for one of my sister's wedding decorations in June. I hadn't posted it yet, and thought this was a good place.

4. I made Brandon a case for his wireless keyboard. He was taking it to school in the box it came in, which was starting to get really hammered. I made a basic pouch and padded it with minky and felt and then used Heat n' Bond to add a little stiffness. I was pleased with how it turned out, though next time I think I would add a little more padding.

5. I have been dabbling in culinary artistry and food preservation. Brandon and I have been trying to really stick to a budget now that we are in medical school. We had a budget before, but we were a little less stringent about following it.  Potatoes were on sale, so we bought 2 10 lb bags for .98 each and then I washed, peeled, cut and froze them. I love having them in the freezer all ready to go. I'm getting creative in using them since they should be used up within the next couple of months. Hence, potato pizza!

I know what you're thinking:
Tillamook ice cream is not a necessity...cheaper varieties are available.
It was on a really good sale, and
Brandon needed it for moral support to get through his exam.

Potato Pizza "Recipe":
I just made it up, so I don’t have a specific recipe for it, but here's what I did.

I made cilantro-garlic sauce, which can be found at http://www.thyhandhathprovided.com/2011/05/preserving-cilantroin-april.html
We add extra cilantro and only do about 2 T of lemon juice, instead of 3-4. This sauce is SO good by the way. Totally worth making, and really good on burritos, spaghetti, bread, chicken tikka marsala, etc...

I took the potatoes from the freezer and fried them in butter, like I would hash browns, and added spices: garlic powder, salt, sage, seasoned salt, and Herbs Provence (which I think has rosemary and oregano in it, among other things).

I cooked about half a sausage and ground it up.


 I took my homemade pizza dough and rolled it out to the desired size (frying pan size in this case).
I put a little bit of butter on the pan, and baked it until lightly brown on that side, then flipped it. While the other side was browning, I quickly put on the sauce, sour cream, and other toppings and let it cook until the cheese had melted. I sprinkled it with a little bit of Parmesan and ta-da!

 It was a huge hit with the hubby. As you can see...
He wanted me to take the pictures. Just saying.

We had a pizza buffet for conference Sunday lunch. The other pizza pictured is just cheese with pesto and alfredo sauce, and then I made cinnamon sticks. It was all really good, and SUPER filling. Probably because it had so many calories. I had two small slices of each (about a quarter) and I was completely full for the rest of the day. Couldn't even eat dinner that night.

6. I made some earrings! I really like them.

                 

 7. Halloween season is here! I wanted to decorate, but I'm not generally big on most Halloween decorations.  I like them to be subtle. So I found some nice dead branches, cut out some paper bats and stars, and voila!

I'm thinking of maybe putting up a banner that says Happy Halloween or something, but I haven't decided yet.

8. That is all. At least, that is all I have pictures of. Thanks for reading!