The Before Photos

Well, it is happening this weekend, folks! I'm moving. Again. Funny how one of my goals was to turn my apartment into a home, to really settle into it and make roots. What fun!

But, I have a new place that I'm gearing up to settle into. It is an old house that is getting a facelift, so I get to have much more of a hand in how that will look in my unit. I spent last weekend painting with a couple of friends, and I'm on my way back there tomorrow to finish up the details.

I thought since this home-project is going to be starting from scratch, it would be fun for me to share some of the before and afters. I have lots of projects already planned in addition to the painting: light fixtures, cabinet details, some fun textiles that I will do with the help of my mother who is visiting at the end of April, and much more. I will of course do side-by-sides once projects get finished, but until then, have a look at the raw material I am working with!

Bricked up fireplace in my bedroom. Booya

Kitchen

Living Room, with all the kitchen appliances in it. Cool.

Basement, which I have NO idea what I'm going to do with. Ideas?!

So those are the new digs! I will share the half-painted pics with you all later this weekend, and some more once my stuff is moved in. If you follow me on instagram or twitter (@cmacmizzle) you are getting lots of sneak peeks already :) 

That's it for now! I'd love to hear your thoughts/ideas, so comment here or reply on facebook/twitter. I need ideas!!!

Oh Hai

It's me again. You all knew I would be back.

And as promised, I come bearing gifts! Well, photos. Of...stuff. Just hold on a sec and we will get there.

So I had a long-ass day, but a very nice one. Work was non-sucky. But then I had to stay late and missed a knitting date with friends. Cry! I made up for it by taking myself out for coffee hot apple cider and knitting in Starbucks for awhile while listening to novelty rap. Yup. That girl.

Anyway, I ended up having a really great night. I got to sit down and chat a bit about my 30x30 goals (among other things) with someone and it lit a proverbial fire under my ass to look at the list and get SOMETHING done.

So I got home and looked, and then did! I decided to take a crack at the "make my apartment a home" goal, which meant making a list of projects. Here is what I came up with:

 An impressive list, no? I think that most of them are doable - I need to get the sewing machine for the curtains (hear that, Santa?!) so that is an easy one to tick off when the time comes. I am working away on the kitchen dry goods (my cupboards look so pretty on the inside!) The closet organization may be tricky, but I have high hopes for doing some shelving. Anyway, there are some places I need help! Such as:

Check out how HUGE that wall is. It goes from the dining room and into the living room and is just this gigantic expanse of wall. I need to do something with it. Thoughts? Help? Ideas? All suggestions are welcome! (As are suggestions with what to do with the dining room in general - you will notice I am at a bit of a loss). 

That space on top of the fridge - what can I put up there? Right now it is just...junk/nothing special; cereal, garlic, some random stuff. I want to use that space. 

This is the wall that the dream built-in shelving would go. How gorgeous would that be, right? Need to evaluate a few things first (how long I am going to be here, how much it will be, etc.)

Right! So I moved my bed under the skylight (it had been under the light fixture on that wall before) and now there is SO MUCH ROOM! Like, to the point that I have no idea what to do with it all. So get a rug, a nice chair (rocking chair?!) and some shelving/a table and have a little reading space. 

One of the closets that needs something to happen in it. Ideas? 

Seriously - help! Please! 

Vegan baking

So last night I stopped by the grocery store on my way home to pick up ingrediants for Lara bars (more on that in a bit). While at the store I found myself looking at the vegan cheese. I have yet to really try many vegan substitutes, not just because I'm scared to (I am a little scared of them) but also because based on my experience with vegetarian meat substitutes they just aren't the same as the real thing. Meat eaters will try veggie burgers or veggie "chicken" nuggets expecting them to taste the same and when they don't often times the substitute it written off as "not good" when really, if viewed for what it is and not what it is trying to be, it is pretty good. Does that make sense? So I didn't want to try vegan cheese because I knew it would be expecting cheese, and when it failed to be exactly like cheese I would think it was gross and never go near it again. (The other reason I've been avoiding it is that on a whole I think "fake" foods should be eaten in moderation and it is a better plan to go with whole, real food as often as possible.)

ANYWAY. I figured I should at least try it, so I picked up a package of "mozzarella" and decided to make some pizza.

I whipped up a dough (does anyone have a REALLY GOOD pizza dough recipe? Mine is fine, but nothing spectacular) and got ready to let the vegan pizza experiment begin.

Then I realized I had no veggies in the house because they all went into the failed stuffed peppers. My solution - cut up the leftover peppers (of which there were many) and throw those on the pizza.

In the end it looked enough like pizza for me to feel okay with this. And then it was time for the "cheese"

I'm clearly excited.

The verdict? It looked like pizza and it mostly tasted like pizza. As I expected the vegan cheese wasn't BAD but it certainly wasn't cheese. It tasted mostly like cheese-whiz and so that was pretty icky. But I can see it being better IN something than ON it, maybe burritos or something like that.


My other vegan food experiment last night was to make some Lara bars. So while my dough was rising I pulled out my food processor. I am a BIG fan of these things and I have been buying them more now that I have to go from work to school with no time for a proper dinner until 10:30pm. The problem is that they are a little on the pricey side. So I did a quick internet search and found some really simple recipes. I decided to try this one, but also copied quite a few from Chocolate Cover Katie's collection.

As is always the case when I cook, the recipe quickly flew out the window. I processed down about half my package of dates, along with some water to soften them up. Then I threw in about 125g of salted cashews (half the package), some brown rice syrup (1/4 cup?), some vanilla (2 tsp?),  a dollop of natural peanut butter (1/2 cup?), and a handful of almonds. All that got processed into a paste and then shaped into bars.

Guys. They are perfect. Identical in taste to something you would buy as a Lara bar - not too sweet, not too nutty, just delicious and healthy. I am pretty excited.

So good! So over all I think my night of vegan cooking/baking went pretty well! 

Makeover Makeover

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a great day.

So after my book making DIY afternoon at Hanji on Saturday, I made my way home via Home Depot and arrived paint in tow. I decided that it was time to turn my ugly bookshelves into something I could actually stand to look at. As previously posted, I like the paper-painted look, so I used a variation of that and whipped up something. I think I did a pretty good job! Check it out:

Primed, painted and pasted some decorative paper on the back. 

Everything back in place - looks nice, no? (Ignore the dining room chairs.)

Next to the drawers that I found on the side of the road. Quick paint job and some new hardware made a huge difference. Painted these in "Forest Glen" - the picture doesn't really do the colour justice. 

Primed, painted, and a change of hardware. Not bad. 

happy in its new home. 

I also did my night stands, but I think I will wait to reveal those unti my bed frame is also done. 

Besides, I'm exhausta-pooped from making dinner all day. It was great though! With the exception of the stuffed peppers, which were not great/done on time (stupid lying recipe!) But hopefully my homemade brown bread rolls made up for it. 

And the highlight of the meal? This vegan, gluten-free pumpkin pie. Pecan crust, delicious pumpkin filling. And look how pretty!!!!!

I used this recipe from Oh She Glows - the pecan crust and classic filling. Delish! (And so pretty).

It was a great night with friends, even if the food wasn't spectacular (stupid lying stuffed pepper recipe - seriously! Not cool!) I haven't had people over really at all since my break up, so it was nice to have other people around in my space. I think I was a little starved for socialization. 

I'm super pleased with how this weekend went - I got a lot done around the house and made some yummy food, had friends over and was reminded of all the things I have to be thankful for. 

Weekend!

Hey everyone! I am going to take the weekend off from blogging here, but don't worry - there is lots of blog-worthy things in the works. A few teasers...

• My first two furniture makeover projects - I bought paint, paper, and new hardware so I'm going to see what I can do. I will do my best to take pictures throughout, but this is less a "how to" and more a "can I?" kind of thing. 
• Nerd alert! I'm cataloguing my library. Yes, I'm going to write about it. 
• Thanksgiving is this weekend and I'm cooking a vegan feast.
• I have something coming in the mail to tell you about...
• Two things coming in the mail actually! Exciting!
• I made something this weekend. I'll be blogging about it tonight at my other blog. Check it out out. 

Thanks all. My weekend will be spent writing, reading, painting, and watching Freaks and Geeks on Netflix, because I love Jason Segel. 

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!

Blogger Fail / September Wrap up

Yeees, I have been neglectful. What can I say? Real life got in the way. Real life like work, school, more work, errands, and work (again).

Things are trucking along though. For those of you reading this via Facebook, you are likely aware of my nutty electric shock injury (gas stove ignitor got me and messed up some muscles in my neck. It hurts. I slept for 15 hours last night). That has been a real bummer. I made a trip to Ikea yesterday to puck up some "make my apartment a home" stuff and had to leave in a hurry because I was in so much pain. Even now, almost 48 hours after the initial injury, I am hurtin' - my head is in a permanent tilt to the left, which sucks but makes me seem like a more caring, sympathetic person I think :) Before you tell me to go to the doctor, I am going to. Tomorrow.

Right - to the wrap up:

1. Running has been put on hold. I REALLY want to start again in October but between my doctor telling me to pull back and now not being able to turn my head, I may have to be a little patient on this. 
2. Vegan month starts TOMORROW!!!! I have done a bunch of research, have some recipes in waiting, and I've pretty much indulged all my dairy loves over the past week, so I'm ready to go! Expect to see a lot of pictures of food over the next month. The highlight? Cooking my own completely vegan Thanksgiving dinner next weekend. Gulp!
3. Quit my Job - not yet. Apps and skill development in progress. 
4. No drinking - not a problem. (side note: the Bookstravaganza event I went to earlier this month was open bar - OPEN BAR! That one kind of stung) 
5. Knitting - it is really coming along! Slowly, but surely. Check out my scarf progress (at bottom)
6. Make a quilt - still trying to find a sewing machine. I think Santa may bring one for me...
7. Volunteer - putting this one off until later in the year. 
8. Apartment decoration - doing okay. Got shelves (still need to be painted) and have worked on my work area a lot (photos below). I really want to tackle the kitchen organization next and then once my sewing machine and I meet, there will be a lot of textile work. 
9. Yard Sale - in spring
10. Vancouver - no progress
11. Print 20 photos per month - On my way to print these today! I'll post a photo of the photos later. The thing that I learned this month about this one is that if I want to print photos of things, I need to TAKE photos of things. So events like dinners with friends, markets, outdoor festivals, etc - take pictures of things that I will want to keep. 
12. Dinner Party - scheduled for later in the year
13. Chicago - planned for later
14. Surprise Party - I can't write about that anymore...
15. Cards for B-days/Anniversaries - Yeah. I sucked up this one this month. Going to make a point of getting on top of October. 
16. Mail a letter - sending it today!
17. Get a Dog - Need to think of something new for this one...
18. Go to Dentist - scheduled for later
19. Retirement Fund - totally forgot about this one. Shit.
20. Book/movie/album recommendations from family - they are slowly coming in! I'm excited to get started
21. Journaling - I may amend this one to journaling specific days. Maintaining this blog daily as well as trying to work on my other one is a big time commitment. So I may need to cut back on this one and focus more on the book blog. Don't worry, you will you still get to hear all about this exciting stuff (</sarcasm>) 
22. Rock Climbing - I have that scheduled for a particular month. I can't remember which one or find my yearly schedule...I should get on that. 
23. Birthday date - check!
24. Poetry reading/book event/concert  - went to Bookstravaganza all myself! 
25. ass-kicking glass - scheduled
26. Call my sisters - going really well. It is hard to schedule with them but we are talking a lot more. 
27. Beginners art class - I found a book binding workshop yesterday! So I am going to do that, but I also want to find an actually weekly class that runs for awhile. 
28. Boston - scheduled
29. Credit Card - app sent in. Waiting. 
30. Museum memberships - going to get these in October

So there you go! I think I'm doing pretty well, all things considering. 

Now enjoy some photos...

Desk-area is coming together slowly; I have too many lots of really great books to read this month; My scarf so far

My younger sister will be the recipient of the first of my hand-written letters. I hope she likes it!  

On a lighter note, my favourite pub has LOTS of vegan options including the best veggie bacon ever. Ever.  

My ambitious plan for the weekend

The weekend plan is ambitious not only in the volume of tasks I am going to tackle, but what some of those tasks are. There is the list, it should speak for itself:*

1. Interview Friday after work for another p/t job
2. Pick up eggs Friday after interview
3. Spend my night washing down my kitchen and all my floors (the original plan was to go out for a birthday dinner with my friends, but none of them seem to be available. Take out and cleaning it is!)
4. Run Saturday morning (Ughghghghghghghghguyuugyhushdghsdlkjghsldfg goodie)
5. Brunch! Something fun! Yay! No one could make it. Boo.
6. Either:
1. work all afternoon
2. go get primer, paint, and wall paper to turn my ugly new bookshelves into something that looks pretty (see below)
7. DO LAUNDRY OTHERWISE I WILL BE A DIRT BAG! (side note: I don't have laundry in my home and this has never really been an issue. I mean I would definitely prefer to have laundry here, but I kinda like the laudromat, so it's all good. Or was. Enter running, aka: Let's wear something for only 30 mins that is gonna get gross and sweaty. This means that every day that I run, I wear THREE outfits - sometimes four! Running Outfit (1), Work Outfit (2), Potential change of shirt and/or pants for school so I don't have baby snot/sweat/food/dirt on myself in public Outfit (3), PJs (4). This is, in a word, foolish.) 
8. Get home and do homework/write/read (fun Saturday night or what?!)
9. Make chili Sunday morning
10. Meeting with Internship-supervisor
11. Knitting and tea! Something fun! Yay! 
12. Get primer, paint and wallpaper if I had to work on Saturday and couldn't do it then. 
13. Homework/write/read
14. Two job applications

Some of those are gonna be fun (yay brunch and knitting and writing and all that!) but some of them are gonna be HARD. 

Namely, the bookshelves. I just don't have any design sense. I  know what I like and I know what kind of feel I want in my home, but I am not good and bringing things together to create a cohesive "feel" for a space. So I have no idea if these bookshelves are gonna be great or look silly, but I am moving ahead with them all the same. I spent $20 on them so I want to keep the makeover cheap too. I really have been digging the look of wallpapered bookshelves like this one. I just don't know how it will look in the space, and if it will be too much to have two of them wall papered, and how bold a paper I should use, and so on and so on. But we will see! I figure they can't look any worse...









*Disclaimer - this isn't an "I'm so busy and important and everyone else sucks" list. It is an "If I don't write all these things down now Imma forget something and feel like a moron" list.