Tag Archives: repurpose

Weekly Photo Challenge: Object

03 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by in photo challenge

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A few months ago, I had the fortune (misfortune?) of getting some training at work.  Got to sit in a classroom for a month while someone spouted a bunch of gibberish at me.

I have a work little brother; we rib each other, talk trash, share gossip, and snarked (is that really a word) under our breath during that class.  He is a pen clicker, to which I would respond by taking his pens away.  He responded one day by dismantling something, I don’t recall what now.  But this thing he dismantled had a spring inside.  He stretched out that spring and made it into something fun.  We played with this thing for the next couple of weeks and it ended up at my desk after the class.  It hangs on my cabinet with a magnet and sometimes it comes down to work away stress.

Here’s my contribution to this week’s challenge: object

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Another coworker stopped by my desk today when I was snapping a few pictures today and gave me the most quizzical look.  Gotta love life in a cube farm.

Thirsty Thursday was Mortified

17 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in about town, cocktails, dining

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Giggly girl’s night went out on the town. After work, Christa and I headed to NW to kill time before meeting up with the other girls. We scored an incredible parking spot and now wondered what we’d do with this extra 45 minutes.

What’s that? Used to be St Cupcake, looks like it might be a bar now. Perfect.

We wandered into Fish Sauce and were immediately taken with the decor and layout of the small space. On your right is a chalk drawn mural that looks like a 50’s cocktail scene and running down the length of the restaurant is a gorgeous community table. Over the table are mason jar lights and over the entrance to the kitchen are half pallets that have been hung as light fixtures. Upon closer inspection, I realized the wood paneling all over the restaurant is wood from old pallets. It’s brilliant and gorgeous!

We had planned on gathering then heading out for dinner before we went to Mortified, but decided to stay where we were since the menu looked great.


The happy hour menu had quite an offering, both of food and drink. I asked our bartender Jared for his pick between 2 and his recommendation was the Elephant Parade with tequila, sherry, and strawberry drinking vinegar. I’ve been enjoying drinking vinegars lately so I went with it. It was lovely and while I would never have put all these flavors together, they all worked well and was balanced with just a hint of vinegar tartness.

My friend Megan turned me onto sesame balls at our secret sushi joint, so I had to give these a try. It was what I was expecting, but not. Up to now all the mung bean paste I have had has been either brown or a dark purple. This was pale throughout and was mixed with a bit of coconut. Jared did some quizzing of the chef for us and advised us there are actually 3 different varieties of mung bean. Any which way, they were tasty and sweet.


After the first round, and one of the girl’s realizing this place was on her to-do list, we moved to the big table.


I ordered the other drink off the menu that caught my eye, the Green Lemon. A delightful blend of gin, rum, peach, lemon, and basil. A combination I’m going to have to play with now that New Deal has released a rum. I could have drank this all night!

We ordered a bunch of dishes to share. The salad rolls were salad rolls, nothing special there. But the corn on the cob with scallion oil and chili was quite good. We ordered the Kalbi, Korean short ribs, which we unanimously enjoyed. The Ga Hainan, chicken served with soy ginger garlic sauce, was the one dish we all agreed was skip-able. The one dish we didn’t order (and will have to go back for) because we were so full from the huge happy hour portions was the Bo Luc Lac, a huge plate of bites of filet mignon.

Off to Mortified. If this comes to your town, I recommend going. What an entertaining evening. A handful of folks regaling you with the horror stories and lessons learned from their youth as recorded in their personal journals, letters, poems, and in one case a horror movie. This gave me some good ideas for a future party.

Since I had gotten up so darn early, as usual, I faded early but couldn’t quite wind down when I got home. That was coupled with my house was over 80! After all the things I’ve been cramming in my head this week, this ecard was just too appropriate. Now how do I get this song out of my head 😉

Good riddance to Good rubbish

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Portland

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Portland has this awesome way of reusing and repurposing.  So many things end up in landfills when it could be used in someone else’s house.

I had a roommate move in last year who was new to Portland. We went to home depot one day so I could buy a new gas grill. Upon arriving home, he asked what I would do with the old one. I said we are going to put it out on the curb. He was stunned and really thought I was nuts. I assured him it would be on its way to a new home in mere minutes.  Sure enough, it was getting loaded into the back of a pickup in under 15 minutes.  It still worked, not great, but someone would get more good use out of it. In fact I had been the second owner and had gotten way more use out of it than anyone ever expected.

I am the beneficiary of my father’s shopping spree for new kitchen appliances.  I’m not getting the new ones, I’m getting the old fridge, which really isn’t that old. Everyone needs a backup fridge for beverages and party preparation.  I’ve known for some time where it was going but had to actually move some things to make the actual spot.  Now that sweet Eliot has moved on, I can get rid of his corner.

I used to work for a company that did a lot of shipping to and from Asia. I had seen someone’s idea (kinda like this) of making a hutch or cabinet into a litter box hide-a-way, so I made my own out of a wooden shipping crate. I hinged the lid on and cut a small square for Mr E to get in and out of. It was perfect because it kept his food just high enough off the ground that Coe couldn’t get to it and it kept him agile jumping up.

When I got home from work, I moved the box out of the corner and onto the curb with a note explaining what I had used it for. I thought a caveat was appropriate.  It didn’t vanish with the speed of the grill, but I was delighted it was gone when I went for my walk at 5:15 the next morning.

My neighborhood doesn’t net some of the awesome things others do. Kristin found an incredible Le Cruset lasagna pan that I was the proud recipient of. She ventures through loads more neighborhoods than I do, so she has netted lots more cool stuff. One of the most awesome finds I’ve heard of though is Domaphile who snagged a loom. Talk about a score!

So, the next time you are going to toss it in the trash or load it in your car to drive to Goodwill, try taking it to the curb and let someone experience the joy of a found treasure.

fun photo holders

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by in crafting, photography

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Modern technology is a blessing and a curse.  Blessing: digital cameras.  Curse: never printing all the awesome pictures we take.  So, what to do with all the photos we never display?  Display them in cool wire holders!

Another fun gift I made for the holidays were twisted wire photo holders kinda like this but better, because I made it!  Here’s a quick and dirty tutorial on how I did it and what I used.

Getting started with all my supplies:  Wire, wire cutters, vases, styrofoam, glue stick (to wrap wire around) and decorative rocks. hot glue gun not pictured.

I used a slightly heavier gauge wire than I’ve seen in some of these kinda things.  Available at your local home mega store.  This whole roll was about $6

So, I ditched the glue stick and found the marker was a better wire wrapping mold.

I put some foam in the vase and inserted my twisted wire.  I applied hot glue then added my decorative rocks.

Add photos and Ta-Dah!

I also used flower pots, small wooden boxes, salt shakers and shot glasses as my holders.  They all turned out super cute.  Just one more fun way to up-cycle.

let’s go shopping!

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in crafting

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I love my girlfriends.  We are all so crafty and original.  For the holidays we all made stuff for each other.  Here in Portland they have banned plastic shopping bags.  I’m thrilled.  I’ve used my own shopping bags for some time.  I have bags from stores I frequent, bags I’ve gotten as gifts, and bags I’ve gotten as freebies from the bank.  Now the girls have cute-cute bags from Gayle!

I made a repurposed, upcycled and renewed shopping bag!  Take one cute-cute old sheet and cut and sew into a new life.

this was a fun day at Ikea  and our bags came in handy (that’s your fair Lula on the  left).  And that awesome green cow is the newest member of my herd!

Happy Friday 13th!!

boredom day camera bag

26 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in crafting

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I realized this blog is supposed to be about cooking, crafting and self discovery.  I cook A LOT, I bore myself regularly with “self discovery”, but I realized I haven’t posted any crafty stuff.  Part of that is because the most recent crafty stuff is going to be gifted, so I’ll have to post those after they are gifted.

But today’s project was a gift to myself.  Like every sewer out there, I see pretty fabric and think “ooooh, I know what I could make…”  You then promptly buy 16 bolts of said pretty fabric and shortly discover that you have a tub/room/basement full of pretty fabric with no projects in sight.

About 2 months ago, I was wandering downtown and discovered a new-to-me fabric shop with some of the cutest vinyl covered fabric.  I had recently been thinking I wanted a camera bag that I could carry when it was raining.  Oh how the stars seemed to align!

Fast forward to today.  I was sewing some other stuff and was in a good rhythm.  I sew like I cook.  I don’t follow directions, I measure only if I have to, and I figure it out as I go.  I think today’s bag turned out quite well.  I won’t show you the major flaws but you’ll see in the interior picture my pocket isn’t centered (who cares).  So, here are a few shots to show it off!

I’m quite proud of my gussetted bottom!  and I did it on the inside too!

The interior is repurposed sheet that I got from Vallue Village ages ago with the intent of making it into something.  I’m so PROUD of myself!  It’s so freaking cute!!  Yea me!