This summer, like the last, we have been trying to grow our own vegetables. That means we have stuck with easy-ish stuff, like tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and some herbs. By non-easy stuff, I mean the whole broccoli/cabbage/Brussels sprout family which in past experiences has wildly attracted a crowd of caterpillars and other insects who hide while the plant is being picked and washed but make a showy appearance as soon as the plant is being sauteed (cue traumatized-vegetarian music). I also mean things that are more finicky, like basically any fruits, or generally  complex to grow in small quantities, like corn.

Surprise acorn squash from compost pile!

But I digress. One of the things I love most about gardening is that you often get what you get, when you get it (nice metaphor for life). It’s hard to tell the plants to produce more tomatoes, or less zucchini to suit your needs (trust me, I’ve tried, but all I got was strange looks from the neighbor). It’s the same situation if you shop at farmer’s markets, which I also do to get my fill of non-easy plants so I don’t have to be a traumatized vegetarian (see above). Because of this, you often have to plan your meals based on the ingredients you are able to get from your garden, hence the improvisation. I know this contradicts my previous post about planning meals ahead of time, but it’s always nice to take more time during the summer to cook because all of the produce is so fresh and delicious. Plus, when you are in a hurry, there’s nothing quicker than dashing to your backyard and grabbing some veggies and herbs to make a fast meal.

Tomatoes that will not traumatize a vegetarian

As a Dance major in college, one of my favorite classes was Improvisation. I had been improvising for a while before college, but that class really opened up the idea of “tools” that help you improvise, which made the whole concept less scary and a lot more successful (as an aside, if you ever see me perform a solo, 98%

I’m smiling because I don’t know what I’m doing next!

of the time I am improvising). The “tools” were basically structures which helped you, so instead of coming up with everything from scratch, there would be smaller sections to improvise. The same concept can be applied to cooking, or pretty much anything else, although the guidelines will be a bit different obviously. My idea of realistic cooking improv is not to find a ton of random ingredients and make something completely made up, and hope it tastes good (this is simply the food you find in cafeterias and jails). Instead, you find a main ingredient and compliment it with “sidekick” ingredients, and then spice it up with some herbs. Done!

For example, our zucchini plant has been very prolific this summer, and we frequently get two or three zucchinis a week. One of my improv meals was stuffed zucchini. The zucchini was the main ingredient, and I used fresh corn and soy “beef” from my freezer as a complimentary ingredients. I sauteed those with some onions, and seasoned with oregano and basil from the garden. That was the stuffing for my zucchini, and I topped the whole thing with some leftover feta after I took it out from the oven (baking it at 350 degrees for about 20 mins). And whala! Improv meal. Another time, I sauteed a zucchini with some garden tomatoes and onion, and of course seasoned that with more garden herbs, and tossed it with some pasta.

Yum!

Here are my “tools” for cooking improv:

– Keep side ingredients in stock like pasta, frozen protein, maybe some cheese, and always keep onion and garlic around
– Become familiar with recipe categories and their general cooking times/temps: sautee over pasta or rice, stuffed vegetables that are baked, casseroles, pies/quiches, raw/room temp salads/mixes, etc. That way you have a general idea of how to cook what you are making without having to follow a specific recipe
– Keep it simple! Use few ingredients, and always season with fresh herb combinations that you also keep simple (don’t feel like you need to do a thyme and bay and basil and dill combo to be fancy, just go with two herbs at a time).

Those are just some ideas, but the possibilities are endless. What’s neat is that you get to experiment, and each meal is completely different and unique. Almost like an artist with a blank canvas, if you have delicious ingredients you’ll probably get a delicious and healthy meal too, improved and based on what you got, when you got it. That’s why summer is so great!

As the summer draws to a close, I have been scrambling to finish house projects before it’s time to go back to school. The end of this season always makes me a little sad, a little nostalgic. That’s why finishing big projects and feeling accomplished is so much better because it distracts me of the philosophical thoughts about life’s shortness, how there’s never enough time, and so on.

One of our big projects was to decorate our guest bedroom. I wrote this post about making the curtains for the room, but we also needed a bed. We already had a mattress from our deceased futon (it served us well, but had a fatal accident during transport to our house which frankly was too much trouble to repair; the accident was convenient too as the futon had been slowly falling apart). All we needed was a bed frame. As usual, it’s so much more fun to make your own!

This became a joint project with my husband, which was great because he had been wanting to do more carpentry and I always like bonding over power tools and slight danger in the garage! I asked him to choose what bed he wanted to make (it can be scary to say “honey, do whatever you like!” but trust me, it sometimes always works out). He chose a simple and low waste platform bed design that has a rustic look but gets the job done. We didn’t mind that it had a less-finished look because it complimented the simple look of the bedroom well and then it looks homemade, which earns you more compliments.

Since I’m writing the post and you all know by now how awesome I am at measuring and detailed instruction-following completely messing up specific directions that involve engineering, I will just send you to the tutorial link from Instructables.com. We did make some changes:

• added a bar down the middle for extra support
• 12 slats instead of 10 for more stability
• shrunk the size of the frame by 5″ on each side to match a full size mattress (tutorial is for a queen)

Needless to say, my husband did all the planning and most of the measuring, but I got my fair share of power tool action!

The first surprise in this project was how little wood we actually needed to buy. We bought three 2″x4″x10′, six 1″x4″x12′ and exactly 100 #10 2″ screws and 12 #10 3″ screws. That was it! I was amazed at how little that was in terms of materials. We had all the necessary power tools back home, including a drill, an electric sander, a circular saw and clamps. We spent $70 in materials (instructions says $30 but perhaps they had a cheaper supplier or live in a different dimension where dollars are worth more).

The second surprise (which was no surprise to me but may be to anyone new to DYI projects) was that the tutorial says an hour for this project. Ha HA with capitals. It took us about four hours total, although some of that time was waiting for the drill’s battery to charge and a little bit of it was redoing work because of stupid things, like drilling the frame together with one of the sides going through a stool we were using as a horse (“er… the stool appears to be attached to the bed”).

No step-by-steps photos this time, but that’s so you can’t see all the messy closeups.

Regardless of the attached stool, the project was relatively simple and very fun to do together. We felt so accomplished when we had a sturdy, good bed! Carpentry seems scary because of the measuring (no one else has nightmares of rulers and levels?) but it truly isn’t so bad, especially when you aren’t as concerned with the perfect look and finish but instead happy with sturdy and homemade (also applies to cakes). Next we would like to try making some benches for our yard and maybe someday a gazebo!

Welcome to our guest bedroom!

The bed meets with the very rigorous George Certificate of Approval for Napping Locations

I’ve been on a fabric rant recently, especially with curtains. Because we have lived in our house a good 17 months with only our living room properly curtained. What a shame for someone who professes themselves to be a Modern Domestica!

But no fear, now our house is 66% curtained (I don’t count the kitchen and laundry rooms, as the windows are tiny). Only rooms left are sunroom (the name of which implies it does not need them) and the office, because that room will hopefully have another very important function someday and will require adorably cute fabric which I should not purchase yet because I would be getting way ahead of myself!

Anyways! Away from future endeavors, and back to curtains. With the number of options available, and the coupons you can find, the hardest part of making the curtains truly was deciding on which fabric I wanted. I measured my windows, which were 37″ wide which meant the default width of the bolt of fabric was wide enough for a relatively flat look (if you want a super gathered look for your curtains, then you need double the amount of fabric and to make two curtains per window). They were 60″ long, and I was going for a basic look so maybe about 4″ overhang. About 2 yards of fabric was more than enough and allowed me to sew a nice boarder on the bottom of the curtain.

With the measurements, some coupons, and a relative idea of the color schemes, I went to Jo-Ann’s to find some fabric. Found a very neat cotton that had a slightly plastic texture, great for the bathroom with its yellows and greens, which ties in the shower curtain and the tile.

The curtain washes our bathroom in a yellow/greenish light and every time I walk by it, I momentarily think Aliens are landing in our yard to abduct us. Or maybe the Ozone layer has finally come undone?

Also found a light, soft cotton with slight floral prints that was perfect for the bedroom.

It is hard to take pictures of curtains…

I really noticed how much the curtains added to the room, and tied elements together. Without them, the walls looked more plain. But with them, any art work or other colors in the room really stood out more. It was awesome to observe this after having lived with the curtain-less painted and decorated rooms for a few months.

Curtains are like the eyes of the room. If you’ve got no eye-liner on, no eye shadow, it doesn’t matter how great your lips and cheeks look. It will look as if something is missing. Without curtains, your room won’t look quite done.

So go make some neat curtains for your room so that you, too, can think Aliens are attacking whenever casually walking by your window!

My most recent project this summer has been making an ottoman. This resulted from various coffee table experiments that did not work. First there was the IKEA coffee table, not the most sturdy but perfectly fine. When we moved into our house our cats needed a place to stand so they could look out of the window, since the window sills are narrow and our cats are not so narrow… Hence the coffee table was abducted for that use. 

You can kinda see the coffee table that George is sitting on.

Then came the awesome antique piano bench that we got from my mom. Super neat looking, but not so sturdy. Couple of months and it collapsed, sending my laptop and one of the cats flying (no picture is available of this event, but you can imagine). 

Next came this camping table, which is awesome but not meant to hold drinks or my husband’s legs. Or the cat.

He makes it work, but you know it won’t last long.

Finally, the ottoman. Because really we needed a place for legs to rest, and cats to sleep. Not as much a table, but an ottoman instead. I searched for ottomans to buy in IKEA but they are super expensive and have very complicated names like Ektorp and Bosnäs. Ektorp is especially awesome, sounds like someone’s unfortunate middle name. However, I just needed a plain ole ottoman. 

DYI time! Found a piece of 3/4″ plywood in the garage, approximately 18″x 24″. Turns out they sell awesome finished wooden legs in Lowes that are ready to screw in after you paint them, about $4.50 each. Bought some black acrylic paint from Michael’s, $2.99 and painted them. 

I bought a square of foam from JoAnns that measured 22″ x 22″. The price was $12 but I had a 40% coupon (very useful!). Also bought a yard of thick, durable cotton in the quilting section to hold the foam in place. Finally I splurged on Southwestern-themed fabric that matched our placemats which my sister in lawn had made us for Christmas. They are awesome, and matching them with the ottoman adds a neat touch! The fabric was $11.50 a yard from Amazon, and I only needed one. After reading a lot of tutorials, I decided to skip the upholstery buttons and not tuft the ottoman, instead creating a smooth surface.

Materials also include Dremel with a 115 cutter bit, staple gun, epoxy, hammer, safety glasses.

The most difficult part for me was attaching the legs, which is what I started with. It was important to have a very sturdy ottoman since people’s legs and also cats will be supported by it. I drilled small “craters” into the wood at the distance I wanted from the edge, and the depth of the bolts I was going to use to screw the legs into the wood. I then glued and hammered the bolts into place for extra re-enforcement with Epoxy. 

One of the bolts came out later and I had to re-glue, so it may need a little re-adjustment.

Then I cut the foam to the size of the plywood, laying an extra 2″ piece to make it long enough. I folded the quilting cotton so I had four layers, and laid it smoothly on the table. I placed the foam and plywood on top, making sure all the edges were aligned. 

George was very involved in the process.

For the next steps, you need another pair of hands. I’m sure you could do it alone, but it would be much harder. Pulling the cotton tight, staple along the edges until you have finished all four sides, leaving the corners free. 

Then fold the corners neatly, or if you aren’t good at folding then get someone else who can do it. Staple securely making sure you don’t add too many staples or it will be hard to do the last layer. I recommend no more than two staples per corner. This is the bottom layer so looks don’t matter, you just want it to be neat so the top layer can stretch over it without lumps. 

My husband is the one that folded the corners neatly, as seen here.

Finally, lay out the top fabric smoothly (you may need to iron it) and then place the ottoman on top. Repeat stapling process, making sure it is done neatly. Leave corners until you staple all the sides. Fold corners neatly and staple. We did a fold that involves pinching the fabric and then smoothing out the sides creating a tapered rectangle. 

Not very good at describing how to do folds, but hopefully the picture helps.

Screw the legs in, and you are done! Hello ottoman! Total price= $45.70. I did not include price of epoxy glue, plywood and other tools. This ottoman is custom made for our living room, and making it was fun married bonding time with power tools and staple guns! What else can you ask for?

Yes, it’s missing a leg because I had to glue the bolt back into the wood.