More posts will be coming soon

I've had to take a break the last week or so as I've dealt with some gluten problems. I'm feeling better now, and am gathering materials to start working on some projects I've been wanting to do.

Some of my projects:
Refinishing a cabinet for my craft and sewing supplies
Building storage cubbies for LMS's toys
Building storage and work space for my craft and sewing supplies
Reupholstering some chairs
Decorating LMS's room

I have other projects in mind, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself :)

A new project to work on

I haven't gotten as much accomplished lately as I'd like to due to some gluten problems. I finally figured it out last night (some contaminated vitamins) and stopped taking them. I'm feeling better today, and will hopefully be back to normal soon.

I did buy my first piece of project furniture last night. I got a great deal on an old chair that I'm going to reupholster. It'll end up either in LMS's room or our library/guest room. I haven't made a decision yet. LMS's bed is quite massive, so I think I'll probably need a taller chair to balance it out better. I found one on craigslist that I think would fit the bill, but am waiting for more info. Hopefully it works out.

It's not pretty, which is why I'll be reupholstering it, but it seems solid, and I like the woodwork. Right now it's airing out on our screened-in back porch: the previous owners sprayed it with Fabreze. Yuck! Because of my chemical sensitivities, I can't abide the smell of that stuff- it gives me an instant headache.

Once I have both chairs, I'll figure out what fabrics to use for each. I have some fabric that might work for the chair for LMS's room, but I'm not sure if I have enough. I've found several reupholstering tutorials lately, so I feel confident that I can do this and am looking forward to learning new skills.

Why we will be building bookcases

Monday I unpacked all of our books.

They haven't been unpacked all at once in years.

And we've gotten a lot more books since that time.

Once I've finished the storage cubbies for the playroom/sewing room I plan on building enough bookcases to fill the wall behind LMS. Hopefully that'll be enough space for our books. If not, I'll have to get rid of some of them. I have a hard time doing that, though, so I'm hoping it won't come to that. In the meantime, LMS is having fun re-discovering her books.

Organic Coupons

I recently found out about a new organic coupon site- Mambo Sprouts. You can sign up for coupons to be emailed or snail mailed to you, and they have giveaways, recipes, articles, and so on.

May is Celiac Awareness Month, so they are having a giveaway for several gluten free products. Head over here to check it out.

I'm always looking for coupons for gluten free products (they tend to be rather scarce), so I'm happy to find another source.

U-Pick Strawberries

There's nothing like the taste of a freshly picked strawberry. Yum!

Saturday we went to a local u-pick farm and picked about 22 pounds of strawberries. As I paid for them, I realized that I could have bought them for a lot cheaper at the grocery store. This got me thinking about the trade-off between lowest cost and locally grown. Locally grown isn't necessarily cheaper, but it is the greener option.

While we did spend more, we also had the satisfaction of picking our own produce. Since we picked it, we know exactly where it was grown- not across the country in California and not in another country.

Was it a money saver? No. 

Do I think it was worth it? Yes.

Lots of strawberries for our green smoothies!

Glass Straws for Our Green Smoothies

It's way more fun drinking a green smoothie with a cool glass straw. I did some research and we ended up buying four Glass Dharma glass straws with the little colored bumps and a cleaning tool on ebay. (The little colored bumps keep the straws from rolling away.)

They aren't super cheap, but I think it's better to buy once, wash, and reuse glass straws, than to keep buying and throwing away plastic straws. We bought wide straws and they're great for smoothies- much better than super skinny plastic straws. I read reviews about the straws and everyone agreed that the glass straws don't break very easily, and if they do, Glass Dharma will replace them.

Broken glass is not something I wanted to deal with, so I also looked into stainless steel straws. However, someone brought up the point that you can't see inside them to make sure they're clean. Ewww! I'll risk broken glass rather than have green fuzzies possibly growing in my straw. At least with glass straws what you see is what you get.

LMS has been thoroughly instructed on the proper handling procedures of the straws, and hopefully there won't be any unfortunate accidents.

Gluten Free Granola

I can't eat most store-bought granola, as oats are frequently contaminated with gluten. I've tried several varieties of gluten free granola, but I haven't loved any of them, and they are expensive.

I found a recipe in Baking with Agave Nectar by Ania Catalano for granola and decided to try it since I only needed to make slight adaptations. There are no wheat ingredients, and while it does call for oats and oat bran, you can find gluten free versions of both.

I bought gluten free oats and oat bran, which aren't cheap but do last awhile. Since it's the first time I used this recipe and I wasn't sure of the results I halved the recipe. I wanted to put it on top of yogurt with some fresh berries, so I didn't go the orange flavoring route, though now that I think of it that might taste really good. I also left out the dried currants.

There's not a lot of oil, and the applesauce makes it a lot moister than my pre-gluten free granola recipe. I like crunchy granola, so I left it in the oven an extra half hour. It got more crunchy as it cooled though, so I may not have needed to do that.

Taste verdict:
I liked it. The pecans are nice touch, but I really like pecans. I think it would make a good granola bar because of the moisture content. I need to do some experimentation and try different flavor combinations. Hmmm.... orange pecan cranberry, lemon blueberry, dark chocolate cherry, apple cinnamon.... yummy!