Aug 16 2012
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Upcycling

Summer Shopping!

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It has been FOREVER since I posted anything new here, hasn’t it!?

I want to apologize for that – the new baby is keeping me pretty darn busy. But all the e-apologies on the web won’t earn back my readers who have probably abandoned this blog after checking so many times and finding it unchaged.

Well, you’re here now and that’s what matters. Welcome back!
Now that my little man has arrived and spends his afternoons napping, perhaps I can get around to updating this more frequently? My writing has gotten a little rusty and it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to set a goal of updating regularly to get it back into shape. :)

For today, I’m sharing a giveaway that I stumbled upon!

Go ahead, click that lovely photo. It won’t bite!

I’m entering because I can’t get enough of that gorgeous red canvas bag. My inner hippy would be VERY happy with that beautiful bag slung over my shoulder. And surely, the $9 sunglasses that I purchased a year ago at American Eagle don’t have any UV protection so those shades would probably be quite an upgrade for yours truly.

There are a few hoops to jump through if you’d like to enter to win – of course, I’m only dissuading you because I absolutely love winning. ESPECIALLY when the prizes are so darn cute. Go ahead and enter if you’ve got a few extra minutes and a blog. ;-)

 

So, what is up with the blog post title, “Summer Shopping”, you ask?

Well, I just placed an order with Old Navy for 8 items of summer clothing for less than $50 (including shipping!). When I started writing this post, I was going to brag about everything I got and share a couple of online clothing shopping secrets with you. Instead, I’m going to wait until I actually get those items in the mail and then perhaps I’ll have some photos to post as well.

Until then, what are you waiting for? Enter to win all that swag up there! ;-)

Jun 12 2012
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DIY, Recipes

Peach Pineapple Smoothie!

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So you think smoothies aren’t good for you, huh?

Well, they don’t have to be full of sugar, whole milk, and ice cream to be sweet and refreshing.

Take a gander at my latest creation: the peach pineapple smoothie.

1 cup of frozen pineapple chunks
1/4 cup fresh peach chunks in light syrup
1/4 cup crushed ice

Blend and enjoy.

The fruit is so sweet that there’s no need to add sugar and the ice and frozen pineapple makes this smoothie super thick!

Jun 08 2012
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DIY

Garden Update – June 2012

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My fresh basil and Italian parsley are doing fantastic – they both seem to require a ton of water as it’s been very hot. The meals that I’ve seasoned with them have all turned out fantastic and full of flavor – nothing beats fresh herbs! The lemon balm and catnip both took a spill off the porch yesterday thanks to some high winds but seem to be recovering nicely. Plenty of water and a new wind-resisant home on the floor of the porch as opposed to the railing should prevent a repeat fall!

All of my tomato plants are growing like weeds! Yesterday I enjoyed my first cherry tomato and used two of my Early Girl slicers on my nachos. They were all very sweet and very ripe. Looking forward to plucking more of these red gems off of my healthy, happy plants!

Last but not least is the strawberry bed that my husband planted. Several different types of critters have been digging in it and may have killed a couple of the plants but a few seem to be taking off quite nicely! Looking forward to at least a few quarts of fresh strawberries next summer.

May 10 2012
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Macrophotography

Rosy Maple Moth

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 A bit of a cool down has brought out all kinds of interesting creatures! I found this gorgeous girl clinging to the front door screen for a couple of hours yesterday evening. She’s a Rosy Maple Moth – and true to their name, they love maple trees. I’m hoping that she’s here to lay some pink eggs on the underside of the maples in our front yard. I’m normally not a big fan of moths but I wouldn’t mind a few of these hanging around… gorgeous!

In other news, prolonged house-cleaning suddenly results in crippling pelvic pain! I bought a small, tan washcloth at the store which I plan to sew into a pouch and fill with rice. Zap a rice pillow in the microwave for about 3 minutes and bam, instant-pain relief! :)

May 07 2012
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Recipes

Strawberry Ice Treat!

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I just stumbled upon the coolest treat and I had to give it a try!

Over at AllRecipes, I was cruising the most popular strawberry recipes. My goal: a good way to use some of the 4 quarts of strawberries that we picked up during our yearly visit to Blueberry Hill Strawberry Farm over in Cobden, IL. When I ran into a highly rated recipe called, “Strawberry Ice”, the Southern Illinois heat persuaded me to click and with one glance at the super simple ingredient list, I knew I had a winner.

The ratio of raw strawberry and lemon juice to sugar is pretty darn low, I thought, and I reduced the sugar a little more since our strawberries are already nice and sweet.

It took all of ten minutes to chop up a few cups of strawberries, add lemon and sugar water, and blend. Now, I’ve got the mixture in the freezer where I’ll probably be checking on it every ten minutes, trying not to drool on myself!

I took a sip right before sealing it up for freezing and I must admit – I was tempted to drink the entire thing and skip the whole freezing process!

I’ll update below the recipe to let you all know how it turns out after freezing. :)

Strawberry Ice

Ingredients

  • 5 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries, thawed
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice

Directions

  1. Place the strawberries in a blender or food processor; cover and process until smooth. In a saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Cook and stir until sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes; cool slightly. Add to blender. Add lemon juice; cover and process until combined.
  2. Pour into a shallow freezer container; cover and freeze for 4-6 hours or until almost frozen. Just before serving, whip mixture in a blender or food processor.

*     *     *     UPDATE!     *     *     *

WOW. This stuff is amazing. It reminds me of strawberry daiquiri mix, but frozen and MUCH healthier! I set it out this morning after letter it freeze overnight and after a couple of hours, it’s the perfect consistency. Just thawed enough that I can eat it with a spoon.

It has an extremely strong strawberry flavor (which is wonderful!) but the lemon flavor is definitely there, too – it’s a great combination. And it’s nice to know that I didn’t have to add a ton of sugar to get this great, sweet flavor!

It’s also a very pretty bright pink – identical to the photo above. I have a feeling that most of the farm strawberries we came home with are going to end up in little freezer containers so that I can enjoy them like this further into the summer. I can’t guarantee they are going to last that long, though!

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Apr 28 2012
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Crafts, DIY

4.28.12 – Custom birth print

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  I stumbled across some custom birth prints on Etsy and Pinterest and fell in love! This is exactly the type of thing that I’d love to have in Carter’s room, especially considering my love for print and typography. LOVE it! Will be easy easy easy to create and print… just have the find the right frame. :) Happy Saturday!

Apr 19 2012
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Crafts, DIY, Upcycling

Paper mobile project

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On a whim, I purchased a paper punch after seeing all of the beautiful mobiles that my sister was making and selling online at her Etsy shop.

What a relaxing project this turned out to be! My mini mobile has about 30 raindrop-shaped pieces of paper strung from some of Brad’s unused lightweight fishing line and suspended from a wooden ring. It’s so delicate and light that the slightest breeze seems to make it spin just a little. I’m VERY proud to have just listed it in my own Etsy shop and cannot wait for someone to give it a new home! My sister is currently making an orange and white one for baby Carter that will fit my orange and white teddy themed baby room a lot better.

All in all, I really can’t complain. Business is nice and steady and it’s warm enough  that all the windows are open (in the 70′s all day today!) and the mobile is spinning just a bit where I hung it in the corner – it’s so nice to let some fresh air in while I work at my computer.

In other news, I discovered a baby tomato growing on my biggest tomato plant (an Early Girl tomato plant) and my herbs are thriving in this nice weather! It must be time to lay that pallet out flat, fill it with potting soil, and get my carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce started!

PS! I’ve chosen a photographer for Carter’s first photo shoot. Imagine Photography out of Murphysboro had these shots in their portfolio that were TOO CUTE and exactly what I was envisioning for Carter’s newborn photos:

 

Apr 06 2012
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DIY

4.6.12 – Front yard landscaping is finished!

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Before I launch into this blog, I just wanted to quickly plug my newest social media endeavor – Tumblr! Tumblr is a photoblog and if any of you are currently posting photos there, readers, follow me ( my username is rikkirogersblog ) and I’ll follow you back! Or, just creep over to my Tumblr page to check out my latest Instagram shots!

I’m happy to present our front yard landscaping – finished!

I have trouble feeling bad about a single dollar that we’ve spent on this project, as it has completely and utterly transformed our property. I heard once that “curb-appeal”, kitchen updates, and bathroom remodels are the best places to put your money when fixing up a home and with the completion of our latest project, I couldn’t agree more!

Back in 2009 when we were house hunting, I remember seeing the first photos of this house before we drove out to take a look. Brad almost didn’t convince me to drive out here with him! The front yard was completely overgrown, un-mowed, the trees were in bad need of trimming, and there was almost no landscaping to speak of. A large, square deck with no railing served as the front porch about a foot below a hideously outdated screen door, flanked on either side by cheap, plastic, “imitation rock” garden lining in a weed-strewn flower bed devoid of flowers!

(There were many problems inside the house as well, but over the years we’ve painted, rebuilt, rewired, and replumbed the interior back into shape!)

The most expensive and labor-intensive part of this landscaping project, but by far the most rewarding, was the installation and leveling of the castle rock.

The gray rocks are quite heavy and while they don’t NEED to be leveled, it looks a lot more professional when they are. That leveling also makes the process about 10 times slower than if you just plunk them into the ground!

The brick patio for the front porch was also quite costly, but really looks nice. It was considerably less difficult and time consuming to install once Brad and his Dad had the sandy base poured and leveled. We’re currently shopping around for a small metal bistro table for it!

The gravel and mulch were fairly cheap, and a few of the plants were given to us by our neighbor Betty who has a huge flower garden! (That saved a lot of money as each flowering plant and bush can add up rather quickly!)

You’ll have to excuse my far-from-perfect before and after shots in this next graphic!

When the Before shot was taken, it was very overcast – near-perfect lighting! At this point, we had mowed the yard and trimmed up the trees (as well as removed a tree that had once stood right in front of the front door!) Also, our new metal roof had been installed at this point. This was a huge improvement as the original roof was in dire need of replacing.

In the after shot, all we need is our little metal table and chairs and we’re ready to go!

Unfortunately, I was shooting directly into the sun, but I think the photo still provides a nice view of the corner tiered castle rock garden and walkway that greet visitors who pull up into the driveway. We’re quite proud of that part, can you tell?

While my pallet herb garden is probably our next immediate project, the back of the house will be our next major one.

And for those of you who haven’t seen the back of the house, you’re just going to have to wait. I’m definitely not going to be posting a “before” photo until the “after” one has been taken – we have quite a bit of work to do back there!

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Apr 03 2012
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DIY, Macrophotography, Upcycling

Porch Garden, Pre Pallet Placement!

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Happy April, everyone!

I wanted to share my pallet garden progress and in the process, stumbled upon the blue-tailed skink who has been living under our porch. This time, I caught him camera-in-hand and managed to snap this shot of him! He’s been keeping my plants company while they await their new home – a pallet garden that my husband and I will be planting soon!

At Rural King this weekend, I purchased the following herbs and veggie plants:

  • lemon balm
  • flat italian parsley
  • rosemary
  • catnip
  • cilantro
  • cinnamon basil
  • sweet basil
  • Early Girl tomato plant
  • Lemon Boy tomato plant
  • Cherokee Purple tomato plant
  • Super Sweet tomato plant
  • Carrot seeds
  • Cucumber seeds
  • Lettuce seeds

A little overboard? Maybe. But hopefully, they all survive until I can get them pallet-planted and firmly rooted and my backyard will be full of fresh herbs and veggies this year!

For the last 2 weeks, we’ve been experienced unseasonably warm weather here in Southern Illinois. Our end of March averages were all in the 60′s and 70′s and the the few days have been solidly in the 80′s! Sounds like prime planting weather to me. Soon Brad will be bringing home a new pallet and some more potting soil and we’ll be crossing our fingers that a late frost won’t zap all my little plants.

Here are some shots of my herbs pre-pallet!

And of course, my tomato plants, too!

Check back soon for the final pallet garden photo, as well as an array of new photos showing how our front yard landscaping (ALMOST FINISHED!) turned out! :)

Mar 20 2012
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Crafts, DIY, Upcycling

Easy Pallet Garden and (Difficult) Pallet Garden Bench!

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Well, it’s officially spring!

Right in the middle of an unseasonably warm mid-March, the temperature here in sunny Southern Illinois is a comfortable 81 degrees. The birds are busy painting my black car white, the bugs are collecting on my windshield, and the red wasps are busy making nests around our back door. But honestly, even with those unpleasantries, I can’t wipe the smile off of my face. This is, without a doubt, my favorite season in this part of the country for a few reasons.

The humidity is still low! I can go outside and enjoy the sun without instantly being covered in sweat. I can enjoy the wind in my hair without crazy 80′s frizz. And without humidity, 80 degrees feels a lot more like 80 degrees and not 100. ;) I can throw the windows and sliding door open and let all that musty winter air out of the house and hear the birds singing while I graphic design at my desk. Which, while not as good as working outside, is about as close as you can get.

For those of you who have been keeping up on the blog or following me on facebook, you may already know that our little Christmas surprise has been keeping me from blogging regularly! But now that I am well into the second trimester and feeling much better, I plan to jump back into writing regularly, so check back or friend me on facebook for updates on new posts!

First an update on the last blog post: Baby Rogers is a boy! He is tentatively named (oh, who am I kidding? We’ve loved this name from the very beginning…) Carter Bradley. And while I may have grown up blissfully oblivious to what a “pallet” is and its many folksy and useful upcycling uses, Carter is probably going to be painfully aware. That’s right, I’ve stumbled upon a couple of new pallet projects and I couldn’t help but share. ;)

I can already see it… Our little family is cruising down the freeway in Daddy’s truck. From the shade of a quiet group of storage units, right next to a large dumpster, a stack of handsome pallets catches our eye. *Screeeech!* We’ll whip around and pull in the lot to inspect them. If Carter is, by this time, old enough to be embarrassed by us, this is the part where he’ll be rolling his eyes or hoping against hope that no one from his school recognizes his parent’s truck. ;) Yep, we’re already refining our “weird parents” quirks well before Carter makes his grand debut. But thankfully for all of you, I’m perfectly comfortable with embarrassing my child with my love for  ”upcycling” so he’d better just learn to love it. ;)

On to the project!

How easy and adorable is this planter? I’ve been eyeing the standing planters at Rural King for a year now, unable to pull the trigger and drop $80+ on a tall, wooden box for my plants. I’d never even considered that my beloved pallets could do the same job!

The supplies for this project are all things that we have here, thanks in part to Brad’s extensive garage tool arsenal.

  • 1 pallet
  • 2 large bags of potting soil
  • 16 six packs of flowers (one six pack per opening on the face of the pallet, and two six packs per opening on the top of the completed pallet garden)
  • landscape fabric
  • a staple gun w/ staples
  • sand paper

I fully plan on asking Brad to help me construct this environmentally-friendly-and-folksy project which I heard about from a friend and found instructions for online at Life on the Balcony. I imagine this project taking off in the next month or so, so stay tuned as I will most certainly be posting photos!

Now what pallet garden would be complete without an upcycled pallet bench upon which to sit and admire my plants?

This project looks a bit trickier. But thanks to Brad’s affinity for woodworking and our love of pallet makeovers, I think we’ve got what it takes to figure this one out. There are no directions at the Garden Daddy website, but with the photos he posted, I’m betting Brad can figure the design out.

That’s all I’ve got for now as we haven’t started these projects yet. Be ready for a new cork mat, a paper mobile, and (probably) more pallet creations in the coming weeks!

Happy spring, everyone. And here’s hoping that my Idaho friends get to enjoy this weather nice and early this year, too!

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