Jars, the painted ones

The Gentleman Friend surprised me a few weeks back with a box of Ball Mason Jars. I had been coveting them for many reasons. They apparently are magical items even if you can’t can anything (or don’t have the desire to go through the laborious process). You can keep your salads fresher, longer! You can put/bake cupcakes/cakes in them! With jars in your possession, a whole wide world of crafts are open to you!

So, with that in mind, TGF and I painted some jars. I wanted to make some tea light holder jars for the outside. Ironically, I didn’t use a single jar he had given me. Instead I used two salsa jars that we had saved.

Here’s what I used:

• Jars of any size, mason or not
• Painters tape
• Spray paint
• Newspaper or something to lay down so you don’t create a huge mess when you spray paint

Get your jars ready and cleaned.

I wanted to have random stripes. The idea I got from the internet had used yarn, but when TGF pulled out the painters tape for his jar I just decided to use it too.

Spray paint! We let them dry while we went and grabbed some dinner and while we ate said dinner, watching Hollywood Treasure on Hulu.

Once dry, I peeled off the tape. And I realized that I did a craptastic job spray painting these jars.

Threw in some fake tea lights and went “Eh, good enough.”

TGF was never happy with his jar the entire process. He’s such a little perfectionist, it’s cute. I liked it, though; but out of respect for his disapproval I did not include it in my photos.

Library Trip

I might have gone a little crazy when I went to check out The Golden Compass from my local library.

Gone Fishing

A few weeks back, The Gentleman Friend and I went fishing with his dad. It was fun and I now have a “one that got away” fishing story. Just thought I’d share some photos from the day.

Enjoy!

TGF and his dad, leading the way to the fishing spot.

Some turtles we passed along the way.

When we got to the spot, this guy was swimming around. (That’s a young alligator in case you can’t tell from my crappy photo)

TGF checking the shrimp trap they had out there to see if we had any bait waiting for us (we didn’t, but we had worms with us).

TGF caught the first fish of the day. I have no idea what kind of fish this is, but he was pretty.

My “one that got away.” It was a huge catfish. This photo doesn’t do it justice. It was at least 30lbs. And it snapped my line.

The only thing I caught after that was this poor fella. Don’t worry. He is ok.

Food Waste Friday

I was good this week! No food waste to report! I also did not go grocery shopping this week, so the food I had in the house was sparse and meals were whatever was available (or fast food on the nights when I needed instant gratification and could not wait 20 mins for something to cook).

Now, if I could only have no waste weeks when I actually have food, like a normal person, in my possession.

How did you do this week?

Click on this to see other FWF posts by other authors (via Frugal Girl).

Clay Circus

 

After The Gentleman Friend and I made our To-Do Jar, we of course pulled out a project the very next morning. And, of course, it is a project that requires a lot of time. In other words, we started it; spent one full night working on it; stopped working on it; still plan to finish it.

However, I did insist to TGF that we pull another project because we aren’t going to finish the clay circus anytime soon. Thought I’d share some of our progress on it though.

All our supplies. We have an overabundance of USPS postal boxes at the apartment from some eBaying we did for my mom. They’re free so we figured we’d use up some of them for this project.

Some measurements being figured out and some sketches.

These will house the figurines we will make…well, you’ll see.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress!

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Felt like I should post…something…anything

I had a post written for today about the adventures in bridesmaids’ dress shopping; it was just a draft that I started and was going to fill in after the actual excursion this past Saturday. I was going to have photos. But, as usual, I forgot my camera. So I just trashed it. I’m sure I will have more posts about my best friend’s wedding in the future.

However, I then realized that I only have one post scheduled (for tomorrow) and one in my drafts (that is no where near being ready to post). Uh oh. I’ve run out of posts. DUN DUN DUNNNN. I will have to look through my photos and see what posts I’ve just forgotten to write. And I guess get crackin on some new content!

But in other news, The Gentleman Friend and I are getting more serious about finding an apartment we can truly call our own. He’s been living with me ever since his living situation was no longer an option, but my apartment is really a one person sized apartment. He only has clothes and toiletries at the apartment. Plus, it would be nice if we had our place. As it is, I still think about the apartment as mine.

My work asked me to do some illustration work for them, which I am super excited about. It will be for a children’s special section this summer. I still haven’t gotten all the details yet, but I’m happy about this development.

I think that about catches you up on what’s going on with me. Hope all is well with all of you.

The Results!

The past three weeks, I’ve been getting feedback from you, my lovely readers, about what books I should read. I admit, the blog has been a little poll crazy as of late, but I needed help making some decisions that concerned the content you read. Who better to ask than you?

Any way, enough of that…the polls have been closed and the results have been tallied. Here’s what you picked for me to read:

• A Bad Day’s Work by Nora McFarland
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

And, from the comment suggests of which there was one, I’ll be reading Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. I’m apprehensive about this one. I enjoy erotica, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve heard mixed reviews about this one. I remember when it first became a sensation the internet was all “You MUST read this book!” However, more recently, I’ve been seeing reviews of the book about how it is very poorly written. Still, I will give it a shot. I think perhaps some people who aren’t into the realm of erotica are trying to judge this book on contemporary or classic fiction. You judge erotica on it’s saucy scenes.

I’ll also be reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. My mom gave it to me to read after seeing these posts as opposed to posting in the comments.

So, thanks for voting and keeping Reading Is Sexy alive!

Chicken

The first time TGF and I made the most delicious meal ever, we used a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. We made it again, and this time boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale (buy one pack of breasts, get one free–who would pass that up?).

So we decided to cook ALL the chicken at once, shred it and freeze what we didn’t use for dinner that night.

In the morning, TGF put the breasts in the crockpot with some water, put it on low and that was that.

The chicken after cooking all day. (Sorry it's a crappy pic)

When we got home at the end of the day, I shredded up the meat and packed it up once it was cool. I also attempted to save the broth. I’m not sure this will be usable. I strained it, but not very well apparently.

Freezer bag filled with the "leftovers", a container with what we needed for dinner right then and my sad broth.

I considered this Lazy Cooking worthy because this is my first go at any type of batch cooking and batch cooking is “lazy cooking” to me. It utilizes that one moment in time where I feel productive so I can be lazy when it comes to meals in the future!

Read any good books lately? Part 3

Next week, I will post the results of the polls in Part 1  and Part 2. This week, I’m opening to floor for suggestions. You tell me what book you think I should read down below in the comments. I have a pretty wide variety in taste when it comes to literature, so the sky is the limit with these suggestions.

I look forward to seeing what you have to suggest!