4-prong to 3-prong conversion correction!

This is an update to correct a mistake in my initial post about converting my dryer plug from a 3-prong plug to a 4-prong one. A reader left a comment linking to a video demonstrating the installation of a 4-prong code, which indicated that I made a mistake in my original post.

Here’s how the configuration of wires looked in my original post:

Here’s how it SHOULD look (I got out my tools and made the fix just now):

Here, the neutral (white) and ground (green) wires are separate, as intended for 4-prong plugs. Thanks, Samurai Repairman!

Easing back into blogging with Scotch Eggs and an update

If you follow my blog, you may have noticed that there’s been nothing to follow in a few months. Sorry! Lots of life changes and time spent outside during the summer = less time and motivation to work on the computer. Luckily, I’ve been taking pics of all the stuff I’ve been working on, so there’s lots to share. Let’s get started. First off, Scotch eggs, a delicacy I just discovered today (recipe from Edible Ireland).

Here’s what you need:

Bread crumbs (I combined seasoned ones with panko)

8 eggs

~1 lb good sausage (I used hot pork sausage from Kings Red and White market; it’s the best)

Flour

What you’ll need to do:

1. Place 7 eggs in cold water (just enough to cover) in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. The recipe makes 6 Scotch eggs, but whenever I boil eggs, I always throw in one extra in case of disaster. Once the eggs are boiling, reduce the heat to medium-high and boil for 8-9 min.

Once the eggs boil, reduce heat to medium-high and boil for 8-9 minutes.

2. While that’s going on, prep the dredging materials:

Breadcrumbs:

1 beaten egg:

And flour:

Also, divide the sausage into 6 equal(ish) portions:

That’s a thing of beauty.

3. Once the eggs are boiled, pour off some of the water and immediately add in several handfuls of ice. This is the best way I’ve found to get beautiful peeled eggs without burning my hands. That, and using the freshest eggs I can.

Edit: Some readers have asked about whether it is better to use fresh eggs or eggs that are a little older. I’ve read that older eggs are better as the egg volume has decreased through evaporation, making the space between the egg and the shell a little larger. However, I’ve attempted using old eggs many times, and all I usually end up with is a larger air bubble at the base. I find that fresher eggs, although bigger, seem to stick less to the inner membrane and can be peeled more easily. But that’s just my own experience. Use whatever eggs you’ve got and don’t forget to throw in an extra, just in case.

Then, peel and admire.

Gorgeous!

4. Here comes the part I found trickiest: wrapping the sausage around the eggs. The sausage tended to stick to my hands more than to the eggs. I tried making two patties and sandwiching them around the egg and making one big patty and rolling the egg in it. Both seemed to work alright, especially when I focused on using my palms rather than fingers.

One down, 6 to go.

It’s like magic!

5. To dredge the eggs and get a nice crispy coating, each egg needs to be rolled in flour, dipped in egg, and then rolled in the breadcrumbs. I did this immediately after covering the eggs in sausage, and the residual warmth of the eggs make the sausage-covered eggs a little difficult to handle because some of the sausage tended to fall off. Refrigerating the sausage-covered eggs a little before dredging would probably have helped with this. Also, at this stage, pre-head the oven to 400 deg. F.

Flour:

Egg:

Breadcrumbs:

6. Bake the eggs on a rimmed (this is really important; without the rim, the grease from the sausage will drip all over your oven, which would be unpleasant) baking sheet at 400 deg. F for ~30 min or so.

While the eggs bake, look up your old pics from the summer and update your blog. Potential subjects include the following:

New pets! Meet Mafishka Hargitay 2 (Mafishka 1 went to the great fishtank in the sky in August).

Rehabbing the mailbox!

Before: 

Mid-rehab:

Final product:

Painting the shed!

Back in the day (the original color):

Done!

I used Valspar Duramax in Notre Dame with a satin finish.

Planting plants in the front yard!

Before:

After:

That’s 5 cubic yards of mulch from The Rock Shop (they deliver and are very reasonable) spread by yours truly.

Even more plants!

Dwarf gardenias

Fringe flower

Lemon ball sedum

Nasturtiums

Even MORE plants!

Clockwise from the purple one: Ellen DeGenerex, ZZ Top, and RuPaul

Billy Mack (christmas cactus is all around you, so let the feeling grow)

7. Once you’ve written your post (or 30 min has elapsed), remove the eggs from the oven.

8. Serve with a condiment of your choice and a side dish with lots and lots (and lots) of vegetables. I went with Mrs. H.S. Balls original recipe chutney, which is by far my favorite, and a cucumber and onion salad. Delish!

Thanks for continuing to follow my house (and cooking, more often than not) blog, despite the long hiatus. You have a lot to look forward to, including painting the guest bath (in progress) and painting the house’s exterior with a little help from my friends (early October). Fun! Follow me on Instagram: @whatwasthequestion

What’s new in NC?

It’s spring! Time to fold up and put away the blanket monster taking up most of my couch, open up some windows and do some stuff. My Mom visited last weekend and helped me jumpstart my sluggish, winter-self with a little spring cleaning, art hanging, and furniture rearranging. Then we went on a semi-tropical vacation for a week, but that’s beside the point. Check out how great all my stuff looks!

We started on the living room, where Mom helped me rearrange all my accessories. I swear they looked good the way I had them, so I was very excited when I saw that they looked even better after she was done! The power of free time and a glass (or two…) of wine.

Note the new and fabulous magazine rack (now full of magazines courtesy of my friend Stephanie) and my beautiful antique orange candy dish.

That’s an industrial-sized spool of rope. It will eventually be an art project, but until then, it makes a very nice place to put drinks. Forgive the computer cord; if I unplug, the compy shuts down…

After sprucing up the living room, we moved to the kitchen and repotted Liam the pitcher plant…

…hung my cork art (a gift from my soon-to-be sister-in-law!) (notice the distinct North Carolina shape) up on the fridge…

…and re-hung the now-(finally)-magnetic pantry door!

Don’t look too close; I still have to touch up the hinges.

Finally, she rescued my cool semi-circular shelves (I think it was once an endcap) from it’s lonely place in the corner and put it by my front door, where it clearly makes an excellent place for keys and mail. The painting sitting on top was a gift from my nextdoor neighbor. She was best friends with the woman who formerly owned this house, Dee. Dee took up painting at the age of 65 and was apparently quite prolific. She painted this one while on an art retreat in Montana. She was in her 80s. It will soon have a nice spot in the living room.

Once I got back from vacation, I hung up my new, spiffy accessories. The first thing I bought was a sea turtle bead curtain, which I got from Nautical but Nice. It’s now the “door” that separates the foyer from my office.

It’s tacky, but there’s no accounting for taste.

I also hung the Hawaiian quilt my Aunt Dottie gave to me. It’s up there temporarily while I decide if I like it there (in the hall on the way to the bedrooms) and also purchase a curtain rod to hang it from. I think it looks great!

I know there’s not a lot of progress to report in this post, but that’s how it goes. I’m enjoying the warmer (at last!) weather and working in the yard, trying to beat down the weeds that have apparently taken over. Fun times. Look forward to more soon! Until then, I hope these pics and the beach selfie below will tide you over.

Beef Short Ribs: Possibly the best meat on the planet

Winter has been visiting us over the last two weeks, dumping in excess of 6 inches of snow and essentially grinding all traveling to a complete halt. No matter how pretty something looks, it rapidly loses it’s charm once you’ve been stuck in the house for more than a few days.

You’d think that all that enforced time inside would have led to tons of progress on the house, but you’d be wrong. Instead, I mostly puttered around, watching movies and cooking tasty things. Of them all, the short ribs were the tastiest. Seriously, make this recipe. You’re welcome.

You’ll also need tomato paste and bay leaves, but I forgot to get them in the picture. My bad.

First, chop your veggies: 1 onion (I used sweet), 1 sweet potato (not the baking potato shown in the pic, for those of you with eagle eyes; that potato turned out to be kind of gross inside), 8 oz button mushrooms, baby carrots, 1 shallot, and 3 cloves garlic. Look at all those vegetables. This is definitely healthy!

Heat up some butter and olive oil in a large, oven-safe pot. You can also render the fat out of some bacon or pancetta if you prefer, but I didn’t have any.

While your fats are heating, liberally salt and pepper the short ribs…

…and pat them with flour on all sides. This isn’t an exact science, so don’t stress. 

Once the pan is obviously really, really hot, add the ribs and sear on each side. Don’t let them sit too long; they should get brown but not cooked through.

Now comes the secret maneuver you need to elevate your veggies to the next level: remove the seared meat to a place and add the vegetables (except the garlic), allowing them to cook in the meaty fats/juices. I apologize to all vegetarians out there. I’d feel shame if it wasn’t so, so good. Also throw in a generous amount of tomato paste (I’m obsessed with the stuff that comes in a tube; so convenient!), 2 bay leaves, and a sprig of rosemary (left over from Thug Kitchen’s White Bean Rosemary Hummus). Once the veggies look like they’re well on their way to being cooked, toss in the garlic for a minute or two.

It looks so yummy and there’s not even meat yet.

There it is. Also, 2 cups of Whole Food’s cheapest red wine (I don’t shop at Whole Foods usually; it cost $3.99 and, as I found out by drinking the remainder, was terrible) and some beef broth.

Cover the pot and cook in a 350 degree oven for 2 hours. At this point, you can get down to the serious part of cooking.

That would be the part where you relax in a rocking chair and drink the leftover wine. Be sure to wear an apron. Otherwise, people will confuse you with someone who is not slaving over a hot stove.

After two hours, you’ll have a pot of deliciousness that looks something like this.

Spoon into a bowl (if you can resist eating it directly out of the pot) and serve with bread for dipping. Alternatively, I could see serving the ribs on a bed of polenta or mashed potatoes or even pureeing the veg into a gravy. Any way you do it, you’ll thank yourself. I’m not joking, these things are amazing, the best antidote to snowy, rainy, mucky winter weather.

Half-Bath Reno: How hard could it be?

Potential guests at Chez Amy: Rejoice! I took a couple days of vacation and tackled the hall bath. Half of it anyway…

Here’s what it looked like when I bought the house:Your eyes do not deceive you; that is orange flower wallpaper and green wood trim. I had originally planned to leave the wallpaper alone for a while given that it was in reasonably good shape. However, in a fit of snit last week, I started picking at a torn edge. Twenty minutes later, I emerged in a cloud of glue dust, victorious and holding a garbage bag full of scraps. When the spirit take you, it’s sometimes good to just go along with it. Also, it came off in huge sheets, which made pulling it down super fun.Oh, the destruction:Feels good.

Under the paper was bare drywall, which led me to believe that the wallpaper was original to the house. Luckily, the glue sanded off remarkably easily, and the remaining cracks and holes were pretty simple to fill with caulk (lots of caulk) and spackle. Before I got started priming the drywall, I decided to spray paint the wall sconces rather than buy new ones. Instead of taking them down, because I had to paint the whole room anyway, I just draped the vanity in plastic so I could paint the fixtures in place.Say goodbye, old brown fixture.Say hello to my little friend, Zinsser.I love this stuff; it sticks to everything!Then, I applied two coats of Valspar Color Radiance spray paint+primer in “azure snow” with a gloss finish. I have no idea how I ended up with that color. The short version is that I got overwhelmed at Lowes by the variety of white spray paint choices and basically picked at random. It’s a cool, vaguely bluish white with a pearly sheen. I like it.The little bit of paint that got onto the plug in the fixture was easy to scrape off.

Once the fixtures were painted, I went about priming the drywall. As I worked, it became evident that the ceiling was not in fact white, so I went ahead and feathered the primer onto the ceiling. There’s nothing worse than a corner where two types of paint meet that doesn’t quite get covered with either.Priming ended up being annoyingly time consuming, mostly because I was out of cheap roller covers and decided to use a brush rather than put on clean clothes and go to the hardware store. #priorities

I then moved onto the ceiling, which took two coats of white and ended up looking very white. Success!Next up was the wall color. The overall plan is to do a dark turquoise in the front half of the bath and a lighter one in the back. I’ve chosen Valspar’s Exotic Sea (5004-10C) (below) for the front and (probably) Beach Sparkle (5004-9C) for the back.

This was the darkest color I’ve ever painted, which made it pretty exciting. Not going to lie, I got it on the ceiling and the woodwork once or twice. I conveniently did not take pictures of those oopsies…In a larger room, I would have cut in and then rolled immediately, but because there were SO MANY edges and corners, I cut in the whole room and then feathered the edges out so I could roll the whole thing in one go.Although I could have probably gotten away with two coats, I noticed a streak or two and went ahead with two coats. I used hardly any of the paint, which covered GREAT, the first time around anyway.

Once the walls were done, I moved on to the trim and vanity.Omg, gross, right?

The vanity and trim took a coat of primer, which I used because the original paint was really shiny, and two coats of paint (color: snow cap) (one flat coat and one eggshell coat). So much better, amiright? I put the old pulls back on because the cabinet is really difficult to get open without them. I will have it be known that I have my country-wide home decor army (right now, my mom and my aunt Dottie) on the hunt for awesome knobs (sea glass? fossils?), so look forward to that.

After spending more time on the bathroom floor than I ever have on a day that wasn’t January 1st, I eventually finished the trim and moved on to other finishing touches: installing the new, non-broken vent cover; re-installing the towel bar in a place I liked slightly better than where it was; and putting up some “art”.

All of this involved drilling holes in my newly painted walls, which was an incredibly painful experience.But it was worth it to use these awesome drywall anchors that theoretically support 46 lbs. Hopefully, no one will pull the towel bar out of the wall…It was also worth it to actually put some things on the wall, which I have hardly done in the rest of the house.Once it’s not winter anymore (it’s snowing out there as I write this), I’ll take it down and give it a spray paint to make it pop. I’ll also repair the slight damage I did getting it up there (oops…).

In any case, here’s the finished product:I’ll get started on the other half of the bath soon, but given that this part took several days, it may take a bit. 🙂 Onwards!

New thermostat installation success (no electrical fires or anything!)

This weekend was dedicated to getting the hallway ready for painting, which sounds simple but was complicated by a developing head cold, patching and caulking around 6 doorways, and replacing my thermostat. This post will just cover the thermostat, as it is the only project I actually completed; you’ll hear about the rest later this week.

This is my old thermostat. It works perfectly well, but it’s very basic and wholly unexciting. My brothers sent me a brand new one (it’s programmable! it connects to wifi!) for Christmas. #fancy

I decided to install it today so that I can paint around it (it’s way smaller!). I wrote a whole post about it because it actually took about 2 hours (most of the time spent letting my dad convince me that I wasn’t going to electrocute myself or burn the house down probably).

The first step was turning off the breaker to the heater. I also flipped the switch inside the heater’s closet, which turned out, as my dad suggested, to be a convenient way to shut the power off without affecting the rest of the house.Then I labeled and disconnected all the wires to the old thermostat.This is when it became evident that there was no C (common) wire connected, which is needed to power the smart display (the old display was battery powered, as you can see above). Luckily, after removing the wall plate, I discovered an extra, unconnected wire in the bundle (it’s the blue one).I installed the back plate of the new thermostat and then, following the alternative instructions published by Honeywell, hooked up the other end of the blue wire to the C terminal inside the furnace.If you look closely, you can see it in the upper left-hand corner of the beige circuit board. I accidentally snipped off the end of the wire the first time I tried to strip off the insulation, which made it irritatingly short, but I eventually got it. Finally, I got to hook up the wires to the new thermostat (starting with the C wire). To do this, I had to find my bass clarinet tool kit because none of my other screwdrivers were tiny enough. If you don’t have a bass clarinet tool kit, good luck.Then I closed up the furnace, put everything away and generally delayed, just in case turning the power back on blew up the house. As far as I’m concerned, a clean workspace is the clean underwear your house puts on.Eventually, I did turn the power back on.Success! Now I can program my thermostat AND control it from work (or, you know, from bed if it’s cold in the morning…). Thanks, Kevin and Alex!

2015 (will be) beautiful

Belated Happy Holidays and New Year!I put up my holiday card mostly to make up for the fact that the rest of this post contains 0 selfies.

I went home to the Midwest this year, and thus, I’m just now getting back into the swing of home renovation. I’m continuing on with my project of painting all the doors, but because pictures of doors might make up the most boring post ever, I’m putting in a food post in the mean time. But don’t worry, it’s a good one: Beef Wellington!

My brother requested this one. It sounded fun because I’ve never tried it before, and it also sounded incredibly bad for you, a.k.a., something we might only justify during the holiday season. The fact that my parents were willing to spring for the beef tenderloin ($$$) wasn’t a contributing factor. At least, it wasn’t the deciding factor.

The recipe was based off of this video from Gordon Ramsay (I love that guy). Here’s what we started with:

 

Trim the tenderloin into a cute piece (or have your mom do it… thanks, Mom!) of approximately 2-2.5 pounds, rub with olive oil and cracked pepper, and place in a roasting pan.

 

Roast at 425 degrees for ~20 minutes. If you have a working smoke alarm, it will definitely go off. You can fight it or you can just warn everybody. It should be nice and brown on the outside but obviously not fully cooked.At this point, it’s time to have your brother (or the family member or friend of your choice) pour you a glass of wine. Enjoy but don’t drink it too fast; the next part involves knives.

Clean ~1/2 a pound or more of crimini mushrooms and start chopping.Keep chopping until you get a pile of mushroom granules that looks something like this:Throw the pile into a large pan with butter and olive oil over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, put some large pieces of plastic wrap on the counter and lay down an overlapping layer of prosciutto.Pour some white wine (~1/2 of one of those tiny bottles) into the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and continue cooking for 10 more minutes. Initially, it’ll be really liquidy……but that’ll go away.

Let the mushrooms cool a little and rub the beef with some stone-ground mustard.Now is also a good time to make sure you’re defrosting the puff pastry.

Spread the now-cool mushroom mixture onto the prosciutto.Place the beef on top of the whole thing and carefully wrap the whole thing into a tight bundle. Holding it will feel pretty weird. I advise just going with it and letting your family take silly pictures of you to immortalize the moment.Put your frankenstein creation into the fridge to get nice and chill while you roll out the puff pastry. If you take a few minutes to put your feet up and drink some wine, that’s fine too.

Roll 1/3 of the package to a nice rectangle and place it in your roasting pan. Carefully unwrap the beef-mushroom-prosciutto bundle and place it in the middle of the rectangle. Brush the entire mess with an egg wash (2 yolks and 1 tsp water).Try to ignore the people playing with your calendar.Give up and join them.Roll out the other 2/3 of the puff pastry (you may have to kind of stick two pieces together to do this; don’t panic). Drape it over the beef, crimp the edges with a fork, and paint on the remaining egg wash to create a giant yellow ravioli. Score the top with the back of a knife (don’t actually cut the pastry, just kind of dent it).Chillax (it in the fridge, you on the couch or whatever) for at least 30 min. Then, bake at 390 degrees or so for approximately 30 min. Check occasionally, and if the puff pastry looks too brown, cover it with some foil pieces.

Before serving, let it rest for about 10 minutes while taking a lot of photographs.Feel free to spend some time commenting that it looks a little like a baked Horta (but more delicious)…

Finally, slice in thick slices……and serve……but don’t try to go back for seconds. Anyway, hope you all had a nice holiday and are looking forward to new posts (with selfies!) in 2015!

 

 

Pinterest Christmas: Lima Bean Wreath

Pinterest is dangerous. So many great ideas (and ways to fail…)! Surfing around looking for cheap Christmas decor ideas, I came across this lima bean wreath tutorial, and I knew that I had to make a wreath and I had to make it out of beans.

This is not totally unprecedented. When I was a kid, I once spent hours gluing dried peas and beans to a large Mason jar (without permission; sorry, Mom) to spell out Merry Xmas in a big design. I’m pretty sure it’s still around my parents’ house somewhere…

Unlike the makers of the wreath I saw on Pinterest, I decided to avoid using any kind of foam. Foams–styro- or otherwise–have burned me in the past. Either they dissolve in the solvents used in the paint or glue or the stuff I stick on comes off with a thin crust of foam particles all over the glue. No matter how good the idea seems, I avoid using foam.

Instead, after browsing around AC Moore, I found this, which I believe is supposed to be a picture frame.It’s bumpy, cute, and round, perfect for a wreath. I gave it a quick coat of my interior paint (which turned out to be damn near the color of dried lima beans) so that the wood wouldn’t show through.In addition to the picture frame, I also needed dried beans, tacky glue, paint, and ribbon.Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures during the gluing process, possibly because I was pretty covered in glue and possibly because I was highly distracted by season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race (as a member of Team Chad Michaels, I’m pretty disappointed). To summarize the process, I glued the limas around the edges of the wreath and then filled in randomly, leaving spaces for pinto bean ornaments.

I did take photos of painting the inner part. Because I couldn’t think of anything better, I went for a stained glass look. First, I painted some random, angular shapes.Then I filled in the thick black lines to get the right effect.I hung it on my door using a long length of red ribbon, which I fed through the hardware on the back of the frame and then nailed to the top of the door.I’m happy with the overall effect, especially against the yellow door. However, I kind of hated the pinto bean ornaments. They clashed with the middle part and weren’t particularly well executed (I’d like to blame it on the beans, but I’m guessing there’s a lack of skill or planning at work here as well). Meh.

I decided to paint over them, which I think greatly improves the final product (just don’t look too close if you come to visit).Happy holidays!

Kitchen Nightmare

Just kidding, it’s actually coming along pretty nicely. However, it isn’t easy. Here’s a couple random updates from the past couple days (hooray for long weekends!).

Rehanging the curtains: Y’all may remember that I finally got around to putting up the kitchen curtains and hanging the plants in the window last week. If not, here’s a reminder.After living with it for a couple days, I decided that the curtains were too high. So, I took them down, fixed the wall, and rehung the rod and plants. Here’s the final result.It’s not composed as prettily (it’s the middle of the night for one), but I like it a lot better. I’ll remove the dangling strings when I’m completely sure everything is at the right height.

Painting the doors: I’m taking the interior doors down one by one and repairing/painting them. I’m currently on number 3 of 13, a.k.a., the pantry door. I had the brilliant idea of using magnetic primer on the front of this one so that I could hang menus or shopping lists. I picked up a quart of Rustoleum’s magnetic primer.The gist is that you paint three coats of this stuff on, cover it with your top coat, and voila! Magnets will stick to it like magic. So simple!Very simple until you realize two things: 1. this stuff is as black as your soul and 2. it is unstirrable. After a quick change out of my paint-splattered Batman pants (colloquially known as my Bat-pants) and a trip to Lowes to get the nice paint guys to shake it for me, I applied the first coat.The good news is that yes, as promised on the box, it is super easy to apply. However, the fumes will gas you if you’re not careful (I’m still having O=chem flashbacks, canigetanamen?), and although the second coat is now dry, I’m not getting any impression of magnetism using my one magnet. Oh well, worst come to worst, I’ll embrace the non-magnetic blackness, slap some chalkboard paint overtop and get my jollies that way.

New stuff(!): Between Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, I had a bonanza of new items. First, I picked up this lamp for $2 and topped it off with a shade from Target (~$10, if I remember correctly). I’ll likely end up painting the base, but for now, I’m really enjoying the fact that it has a dingle-dangle (how often do you find lamps with moving parts?).Additionally, I also finally found EXACTLY the chairs I’ve been looking for to go with the kitchen table I bought in Oct (from the Durham Rescue Mission for ~$50). When I say exactly, I mean I took a pic on my phone, texted it to my mother, gave a middle-aged couple that was hovering the stink eye, and ran across the new TROSA thrift store (100,000 sq ft!) to find someone to tell me the price (I’m not joking; I literally ran).

Here they are as I found them.The last time I texted a picture was when I saw this “vase filler” at Target for $10…

 

Fo’ realz? You want some of that, you come see me. I’ll hook you up.

Anyway, here’s my redesigned tablescape with my new chairs, trivet, and Jamocha Shake walls.And here’s the view from the passthrough (complete with in-progress decoupage! and a cabinet that’s practically finished except for one door!).How far we’ve come since this: There may be a long way to go, but it’s totally, probably doable. 😀

 

 

 

Making it happen on Monday night

Stop what you’re doing and listen to this right now:

This song (and the rest of the album, The Thin Line) has been motivating me for three days straight. This is my JAM. If you can listen to it without grooving, I’m not sure we can be friends. Check out what I got done while listening to it on repeat!

I’ve been working pretty hard to get the kitchen curtains back up after taking down the ugly, dead plant-printed ones on Friday night. I bought the same curtain rod as I used in the family room, just a size smaller. I like that it has a subtle style that doesn’t rely on fancy knobbly bits on the ends that stick way far out. Even better, when combined with the $5 Target gift card I got last time I loaded up on curly hair goop, the price was right (about $10). #scoreThe hardest part about putting up the rod was, as is becoming a pattern, actually making pencil marks on the walls. I mean, yeah, I can just fix them. But the wall FINALLY looks so PRETTY. Oh, the pain. Luckily, it was over in about 5 minutes once I got the curtain rod up. Phew.

This is about the time when I realized I was going to have to get creative if I was going to get the window at least somewhat done tonight. And by “get creative”, I mean that I had a hanging plant (y’all remember Liam, right?)……and only a super-ugly plastic hanger that was too long to work anyway. Hmmm…

Digging around in the pile of random stuff in the back room the craft area, I found the last bits of chain and all the left over crochet floss from my string art project. Here’s Liam the pitcher plant getting fitted for his new get-up:The first go at threading the string through the chain ended in disaster and a giant knot that had to be cut off. I also discovered that you have to be careful with poor Liam’s pitchers. He had kind of a bad time there for a few minutes and made a tiny wee on my carpet. I eventually figured out a better method of threading the string through the chain (it got complicated and involved both hands and my teeth…).Eventually, voila!Looking good, my carnivorous, Irish friend.

In addition to Liam, I also had to hang Hugh Plant and Colin Fern. Because those glass baubles weigh nothing, I just tied some of the string around a couple of thumb tacks.Easy peasy. Don’t forget to use needle nose pliers to hold them steady while hammering them in. If you do, you’ll smash your finger and be a sad panda.

Eventually, the plants were hung by the window with care. Drum roll for the curtain reveal please.I’m not absolutely sure about whether that’s the plants’ final arrangement (hence the thread loops still hanging off the air plants), so I’m going to live with it and see. What I am sure about is how AWESOME the curtains came out. If you don’t recognize them (and I don’t expect you to), they were originally the family room curtains, aka, “the dirty laundry” I used to have some privacy. They came with the house.After looking around unsuccessfully for some non-frumpy kitchen curtains, my Mom ended up taking the old family room curtains home with her and up-cycling them into brand new kitchen curtains. Thanks, Mom!#betterthanyesterday

Finally, I realized that the vases I’ve been telling all my friends about were blurry in the last post. Here are a couple of (hopefully) better close ups. I’m super proud of them. I got them at the Durham Rescue Mission store after stalking them for a week.Adults own vases.I am an adult. 😀