Peggy’s Super Smoothie

OK, this post is completely off-topic.

But here’s the deal.

I live in Southern California.  If you don’t speak regularly about losing weight, going to the gym or that you’re considering becoming a vegetarian – they will ask you to leave. …. I wish I was kidding.

So, my mom is a terrific cook with a zero tolerance for picky eaters.  When confronted with a “picky” she has been known to happily trick them into eating things they claimed not to like.

Subsequently I grew up consuming a huge variety of food (sometimes unintentionally) and pride myself on the fact that I like almost everything and will try anything.  I also have zero tolerance for “Pickys”

My friend Peggy is a terrific, adventurous cook.   She has never made anything I didn’t like.  So when Peggy said she was making a new, super-healthy smoothie I immediately asked what was in it.

She replied: “Water, banana, mango, pineapple, mint and spinach”

I, self-proclaimed adventurous, non-picky eater extraordinaire naturally replied:  “That’s DISGUSTING!!”

She just smiled.

Now Peggy is not like my mom – it’s not her style to trick someone.  No, Peggy’s  a New York gal and more straightforward.   So she just showed up at my door one day with her blender jar full of a green fluid.

I contemplated feigning illness but instead took a polite sip.

OMG – it’s delicious!  I drank the entire blender jar’s worth (I’m the youngest and the only boy in my family – sharing is not one of my virtues)

And I say that being someone who, though not picky, doesn’t like mango, thinks spinach is a necessary evil and who is pretty icked out by the idea of creaming previously solid veggies.

But this is so tasty and so refreshing it’s amazing! And it is so freakin’ good for you that, once consumed, you could spend the rest of your day stealing cookies from Girl Scouts,* eating carbs and jay-walking** and STILL feel incredibly virtuous.

It’s easy to make:

• 1 cup water
• 1 banana
• ½ cup frozen mango
• ½ cup pineapple
• 1 cup baby spinach
• A few mint leaves.

Stick them in a blender and blend thoroughly.

Try it!  I swear you will be amazed.

Have a great weekend everyone!

*This blog does not condone the act of stealing from Girl Scouts

** Please do not jay-walk.  You can have some carbs though

Lets Get Lazy!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I’m pleased to report that Amy  just posted my latest tutorial over on Mod Podge Rocks.

Apparently a deep desire to create lazy susans runs in my family.

You may remember my dad’s beautiful lazy susans. Well, in an Oedipus like maneuver (without the killing, eye gouging or marrying your mom part)I have come up with my on lazy susan design!

Of course, my father’s were meticulously crafted using fine wood, incredible patience, creativity and crazy-mad woodworking skills and mine were…….made of random stuff I grabbed on sale at Home Depot.  But lets not quibble about minor details or explore too deeply what makes my dad my dad and me, well, me.

So, I found some metal plant saucers (the things that go under the planters to protect your floor) and thought they would make great, oversize, lazy susans when combined with an inexpensive turntable.

So I had this:

And then, of course, due to my graphics obsession/color problem I had to make it all bright, shiny and graphicy so I ended up with this:

I hope you’ll check it out and, as always, if you have any questions you can ask over on the site or drop me a line here and I’ll be happy to answer.

Hi Ho Hi Ho…….

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I was in full production mode  (the fact that it was rainy, cold and grey in So Cal made it easier).

It’s been quiet (vewy qwuiet….. wabbit hunting qwuiet) around Etsy of late – which I gather is a seasonal/cyclical thing.  I’ve heard numerous seller say that down times are the time to stock up so I’m taking that to heart.

I got to churning out coastersMy goal is ten of each image….however, that would actually require me to make about 1500 coasters so perhaps that’s a bit overambitious on my part.  In any case I’m going to keep plowing away.

I did manage to, finally, get my Chicago HOME sign up and photographable

Click here to go to the Etsy page for this HOME sign

And I got rolling on another set of “regional” coasters – this time Texas.  All of Texas.  I may have cast this net a little wide but I just love these graphics (if you click on them it will take you to the Etsy shop – just so you know).

OK, back to work.  Those coasters won’t put cork back on themselves (lazy coasters).

 

Paris Metro Coffee Table Makeover

I woke up yesterday to find my Vintage Postcard Dresser made the Before and After section of Apartment Therapy.com.  Wow!  I felt totally honored and equally amazed by the bump in my blog views!

The commenters were really kind and my sister Phebe received a lot of praise for steering me away from my original idea of using chalkboard paint on the drawers.  I think this is a great new path for Phebe – consultant – I’ve taken the liberty of printing up business cards for her:And I finally (FINALLY!!) finished up my long ago started, long ago sidetracked Paris Subway Art Coffee Table.

There is a bit of history here that you may have forgotten so let’s do it TV style

 Previously on “French Coffee Table……”

David found a cast off coffee table with broken legs.

David reglued the legs and patched the ugly cracks using Bondo!Frenchy curves led David to make some questionable decisions……David impulsively purchased a Cameo Silhouette machine.  Women in store were excited!  A little too excited.  David was nervous. David had lots of trouble getting machine to work (“read the instructions?!  I don’t read instructions!  I’m a guy!  I just instinctively know how things work…..and how to get somewhere without a map….STOP QUESTIONING ME!”) and the project got delayed.

The table was painted and the top distressed in anticipation of design.

The Silhouette problem was solved (apparently it was in a turf war with other printers) and the letters applied!

And after a top coat, some letter peeling, some serious sanding and a bit of distressing with antiquing glaze:Tune in next week when you’ll hear David say:

“Ow!!!!!!  Why do I keep doing that?!!!!!!”

Linking up here:

For the Love of Books!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

It was gloriously rainy and cold in Los Angeles so I was forced to be inside getting my act together.

I failed.  My act is very, very not-together.  Ah well

But, it was still a nice weekend!

And I woke up this morning to see that Courtney over at A Diamond in the Stuff had chosen to feature my Shakespeare Table – which was a great way to start off a week.

Actually, I’ve been on quite a text-on-furniture kick of late and wanted to share another table I made recently.

You may recall I picked up this little guy about a week ago.  I’m not quite sure what the original owner’s plan was there with the blue top and the one blue leg nor was I quite sure what I wanted to do with it. But the little shelf there on the bottom got me to thinking about my family’s deep and sincere love of books.

My grandfather’s basement had a book collection so large that there was actually a card catalog!  My Uncle Chuck is a terrific author of everything from mysteries to a wonderful book on the History of Advertising.

And, throughout my childhood the Sunday routine was to go to church, go to brunch and then go to a bookstore wherein each member of the family would go off in different directions and bury themselves in books.  The Hardy Boys were my literature of choice for quite a while and there was nothing better than a new adventure.

I still love books and spend huge hunks of time happily wandering the ever-scarcer book stores in the area.  So when The Muse gave me the following quote I knew it was destined for my little table:

How perfect is that!? (I didn’t put my Hardy Boys on there but I do have some vintage Tom Swift books that make me smile every time I see them).

I’m pleased with how it came out but I think the real star of the show is the detailed edges of the table – beautiful!

OK, I’m off to make more stuff!

Look what I found! And Amazing Friends!

Thanks very much for all the support about my Rose Bowl report  – I so appreciate it.

Before I move on from the Rose Bowl though I just have to marvel again at the friends that surround me.

I was, as usual, running behind for RB so Karla spent a good chunk of her Friday night sitting patiently gluing backs on coasters and cutting out wrappers.   Nice!  Then she drove me to get the van on Saturday.  Very nice!  THEN she made post Rose Bowl dinner for me.  Incredibly nice!

But even Karla – who we’ve already established is “Incredibly Nice” – bows down before Ken’s good – friendness.

Ken is a terrific, professional photographer and when I was first getting going photography was my big hang up.  Ken agreed to take some shots to get me started.   Well, he didn’t just plop them on a table he spent days working on them and came up with these:

Have coasters ever looked so upscale before or since?  I think not!

Ken is also the reason I have one of my retail outlets as he talked me up to the owner.

So, clearly Ken is awesome, and then a few weeks ago he offered to help with Rose Bowl.

•  Me:  You don’t want to do that – it means getting up super early and standing in a parking lot all day.
• Ken: That’s fine

I wondered if he was high or something.

As the date approached I checked in.

•  Me: Ken, it means getting to my house at 5:15AM
• Ken:  OK – see you then.

He was clearly high again.

Then, shortly thereafter when I realized that Daylight Savings Time kicked in Sunday morning I called again.

• Me:  It’s daylight savings time so 5:15 is really 4:15
• Ken:  OK, see you then.

And that’s when I realized my friend Ken had developed a drug problem.  So sad.  But drug-addled nut or not I wasn’t gonna say no.

And there he was at 5:15 (really 4:15) AM.   Awake, not grumpy (unlike myself) and up for anything.

And it was great to have him there!

OK, my ode to friends is over and now I have to marvel at what people throw out.  They tore down some very nice apartments near my home and have left us with an oh-so-attractive weed-filled eyesore.  On the plus side, the weed-filled eyesore has become a repository for cast off furniture.  So on Wednesday I found this solid wood coffee table, in very good shape.  And on Thursday there was this vintage vanity (bad picture, sorry) beautiful dove-tailed joints and in good conditions despite the stickers.  I can’t wait to get to work!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Umm……..

Have you ever had a stressful week and decided to give yourself a “Monday off” and then, suddenly, somehow it’s Tuesday at 5 and you’ve eaten badly, accomplished little and seriously pushed the limits of not-flossing?

No?

Oh.

Neither have I.  I don’t even know why I brought it up-LOOK!! SOMETHING SPARKLY!!!!!!!

(image courtesy SheSitsByTheSeashore.etsy.com

……So, anyhoo, like I was saying, it was a beautiful day for the Rose Bowl.  A bit chilly at first but it warmed up and the crowds really turned out.

However there were a few bumps.

For instance, my friend Nicki, a fellow vendor, had commissioned me a few weeks ago to make some of my subway graphic signs for her – which made me like her a lot!

Nicki had promised that she would only sell the signs at the non-Rose Bowl markets she attends.  But I thought that, as long as we agreed on a sale price, there was no harm in us both having them at Rose Bowl.  So we set  a price and all was good.

However, whenever anyone picked a sign up in my booth and I told them the cost I might have well as said “It’s $X and dipped radioactive lye!” they put it down again so fast.

Nicki, however, sold two of them.

Which made me like her less.

But then she asked me to make a few more for her.

Which made me feelings towards her….complicated.

My other sales were great!  I went through a ton of coasters, tea light blocks, lots of letters and several of my magnetic chalk boards.  So, yay!

And, of course, I’d brought this

And this

And several other pieces I’ve yet to share here.

But I didn’t sell a stick of furniture.  I’m not exaggerating.  Not a stick.  No one even asked about it.  Not even a “could you do better on the price” negotiation fail.  Just…..nothing.

Now, to be fair, I’ve had days when I sold all my furniture so perhaps it was just the Universe attempting to find balance.

Or perhaps I should just give all my furniture to Nicki…….

A Rose By Any Other……

Hi!

I just have time for a quick post as I’m scrambling to get everything together and ready for tomorrow’s Rose Bowl.

I seem to be on a text kick.  Subway Art, letters etc etc.

I either know exactly what I want to do with a piece of furniture or I have no clue what to do and it has to sit in my garage for a while before inspiration strikes.

When I saw this woebegone piece in the thrift store I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.It was in bad shape.  Wobbly legs, and ton’s of splits along the rim but I really liked the shape of the top and the curve of the legs.

So, after some serious patching and priming I got to work with my blender pen method and one of my favorite Shakespeare Sonnets and headed for the romantic side of furniture.

OK, off to sand things, staple things and general finish all the things that really should have been finished two days ago.  Wish me luck! (and, of course, if you’re local please come on by the Rose Bowl tomorrow.  It should be a beautiful day!)

Rose Bowl Ramp Up!

It’s the big Rose Bowl run up.  One piece of furniture down……several to go……..

When I first saw this little dresser I thought (and you may remember) that I’d put chalkboard paint on the front and make it for a kids room.

However, my sister Phebe wisely weighed in on that idea.

You see Phebe marches to a different drummer than I do.

Phebe’s  drummer is way cool and waaaay together.  Her drummer leads her to have alphabetized spices and to never be late.  My drummer…..probably got fired from the band for missing rehearsal.

Anyway, Phebe pointed out that as a mom of three she wouldn’t have been thrilled to find chalk dust all over her children’s clean clothes.

I really couldn’t argue with her reasoning and so a new idea was born.

Or rather a recent idea was expanded.

I seem to have a thing lately for old postcards.  So after some mad downloading from the Graphics Fairy and a few other sources I came up with this.

Once again, here is the before with it’s charming shelf liner top

And here we go.

Perhaps a little on the busy side but I’m pleased.

OK – back to work!

To the Manor Born

Like most good Anglophiles I got completely caught up in the first season of PBS’ Downton Abbey.  Plotting, intrigue, lots of stiff-upper-lipping and excellent snark from Maggie Smith.  Awesome!

The second season proved to be a little too soap-opera-ish for my taste – (all we needed was for Lady Sybil’s evil twin to pop up and we’d have had an episode of Days of our Overpriviledged Lives.) and I had forgotten to watch the final episode until last Saturday night.

I liked the episode, went right to bed and had a Downton Abbey dream.

I was working in the kitchen (my kitchen) when Lady Mary appeared at the breakfast bar and wanted to eat some chocolate I had laid out.  She accused me of being “silly” when I tried to explain that the chocolate was an important part of a project I was working on and then she ate it!

Drama ensued.

Now, I realize there is a lot wrong with everything I have written so far but what’s really wrong is that it should be obvious to everyone (including my subconscious)  that I AM CLEARLY AN ABOVE-STAIRS KINDA GUY!!  What the hell was I doing working in the kitchen and wearing black?!

Anyway, my annoyance with Lady Mary, along with the aforementioned horror at the realization of my servant status, lead me to wake up very, very early on Sunday and, having nothing better to do, I got a LOT done!

I had been working on a new subway sign for my friend NickiI delivered it to her and managed to pick up this sweet little table along the way.

Back home I made a million coasters.

Photographed my newest HOME sign – San Francisco

And fixed, sanded and primed four pieces of furniture (cause Rose Bowl is coming next weekend).

Now, comes the hard part – figuring out what I want to do with the primed-and-ready furniture…….For two of them I know absolutely what I want to do.  The other ones?  Not so much.

I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I will be  in the library trying to figure out what a “week-end” is.  I do not wish to be disturbed.