Scottish Oatcakes

Ok so it all started when I was reading a book set in mid evil England, and the character mentioned oat cakes with honey, and I thought to myself “I must have these!” Then I thought more on it and realized they would make a great breakfast item to keep in the house.

So I scoured the internet and came up with about 50 variety of oat cakes – sigh – damn you internet why can’t anything be easy. And they all ranged from a pancake consistency to a cracker consistency – neither of which I wanted. I wanted a cookie/shortbread consistency.

So I made up my own – let’s now say there are 51 varieties to oatcakes on the internet.

Crumble in your yogurt, eat them as cookies, have them before you go workout – very versatile little snacks – very low in sugar and high in fiber.  Also I make some of them somewhat bite sized to keep as quick pick me ups.

Hearty Irish Wheat Bread

Hearty Irish Wheat Bread

So back in December I decided to start making all of my own bread, no buying in the store. Why? Cost mostly and waste. As much as I love artisan healthy breads they are expensive ranging from $4-$8 a loaf, then halfway through it’s just meh and I waste it.

I’ve made some great ones, apple walnut was a hit, cranberry, healthy grain and nut breads etc. But the biggest hit came with this baby. And where did I get the recipe – well 85%  of it at least as I tweak just about every recipe. My mom found it in the back of her fiction novel.

It’s some of the best bread I’ve had – and was SO easy – took about 10 minutes to make and an hour to cook. No yeast, no rising and so good!

Juice of the Day – Beets Beets I Love Beets

No I did not take this photo, I drank my juice before it dawned on me, but it’s beet juice so it pretty much looks like this.

This is random – because I haven’t posted anything about the fact that I’m juicing, but I have for about a month and it’s great and I feel 100% better and I love it! Minus the disaster “V8″ juice I made – it’s been spectacular.

So juice of the day goes to beets – will I post a juice every day – no – cause I simply know myself, but this is the first one that was so good that I promptly wanted another.

Be My Guest

If you’ll remember – this room used to look like it was sponsored by Tang…and a shelving company.

Now it’s my lovely serene and calm office / guest bedroom. No pictures of the office side because photos of the back of monitors and cords make me break out into hives – plus that side of the room is minus many decorations as of right now.

I was inspired by this photo

And this was the result – with my own flare added – you may recognize that chair from my post on things you should buy on CraigsList so I won’t – well I did anyway – dammit!

Painting Bath Cabinets Almost Drama Proof

I found a great “recipe” to paint my bathroom cabinets. The current cabinets were scuffed, worn, dated and ugly.

They are now sleek, pretty and contemporary.


1. Clean the cabinets with a deglosser/sander – Klean Strip is a great brand, you can only find it at Home Depot.

2. Let the deglosser dry, only takes about an hour.

3. Apply a latex primer – or all purpose primer with a good quality brush – the site recommended 2 1/2″ but if you have any kind of raised decorative face to your doors you may want to use a 2″ – Purdy are awesome brushes and worth every cent!!

Have then tint the primer dark – very necessary.

4. Let the primer dry overnight. Then apply your OIL based paint with a Purdy 2″ brush that is made for all paints or oil based paint.

Paint with the grain of the wood.

You should only need a quart of paint. I painted this vanity and used less than 1/4 of the can!

Soak your brushes in a can of brush cleaner, since it’s oil based this is the only way you’re getting them clean. Rinse with cold water.

Good luck

Tips provided by Addicted2Decorating.com

Decoration Inspiration

As I venture forth decorating and updating my home I realize it may be fun to show off a little of what inspires me as I plan rooms because really 90% starts in my head and then I tend to stumble upon a finished product on the internet etc. It can be a little exhausting to have a complete idea in your head and then have to go search for the items out in the real world to make that idea come true, especially when like me you’re on a budget or just refuse to pay full price.

To get a room the way I want it takes a lot of scouring Craigslist, vintage stores, online stores, sales, estate sales and consignment sales. Out of all of these sources I have advice and opinions on each which I’ll formulate on another day.

But here are some images that show you what inspires me, from wall color to furniture to bedding to art work. Of course there are a lot of cool things out there that I love and you can see those here – but these are all images that actually will be reflected in my home one way or another.

 

above photo courtesy of bradybunchremodel.com

Sources include:

ApartmentTherapy.com
BradyBunchRemodel.com – great for mid century modern lovers
Etsy art
Dwell Studios