I Get Mail..

"I get mail, therefore I am.."-Scott Adams

       I don't really get that much mail personally. I get bills and reminders of car and dentist appointments. I get flyer's telling me about the best pizza in Halifax and how it can be mine for only $10. I also get an awful lot of mail from a certain Megan Leslie, the NDP leader for Halifax. I really wish she would stop writing me, I have never even met the woman and she is wasting so much paper! But then every once and a while there is this little glimmer in my small, rectangular mail slot. A diamond in the rough, a card, a real card from a friend or my mom. My mom often sends me mail. I think there are few things better than getting real mail, heart sent "Just wanted to say Hi's", or holiday mail which is equally as good. This is why about once a month, sometimes more often, sometimes less often, I send long-distance, mail-by-post- love to friends and family. Its becoming a problem, I can't pass up a good card when I see one. Now I have a basket of cards sitting next to my pens and my address book, patiently waiting to be sent to unexpected people and hopefully brighten their day.

   Surprisingly, this post is not to talk about sending mail or making cards, although it is fun and well appreciated. If you are anything like me, which you probably are not..I can't throw away a card that I receivee. All my cards are neatly bundled and kept in a vintage shoe box. Some of these cards are beautiful and some are just silly. So this is an idea for anyone that needs wall art and that has particularly beautiful or meaningful mail. This even works for a card you may have purchased just because you loved it so much. Instead of filing these cards away where you can't enjoy them or tossing them in the trash (gasp!!!)  . Try framing them and using them as art. I have two cards in my kitchen. You would never know they are cards, one is from my sister when she was living away and one is from my nanny and papa. Inexpensive frames, mine are from Walmart, can turn meaningful cards into beautiful works of art. Think about it.
-m

My collection...

...neat little bundles

Beautiful card from my sister..

Meaningful card from my grandparents (this bad boy even sings you a song!)

Turned into instant art!

I love my mismatched random and scattered framed pictures/cards in my kitchen

Future framing projects..

hmmmm

Somehow my very first post managed to make it up to the front of the herd, please skip and move onto todays entry "I measure my life in coffeespoons". Strange. Enjoy!
-m

Hello all!

Hello world!  This is a project that begins with peer pressure and ends with a  need of a creative outlet for a full-time NICU nurse looking for a little something to work on besides work itself. As my best friend says, I am “knacky”. I like to do projects, hunt for treasures at thrift stores, flea markets and on the side of the road. I take them home to my shabby but slightly chic apartment in an ancient low-rise building (it seriously looks like an elementary school found in some remote village… shhhhaaabbby) and  polish them up and make them my own.
My other hobbies might include:
- baking and trying not to eat what I have baked.
-pawning baked goods off on friends (so that I do not eat them).
-cooking/entertaining.
-thrifting.
-drinking as much coffee as humanly possible.
-grooving to the oldies.
-talking about my cat all the time…I kid.. although she is pretty darn cute!
-reading anything I can get my hands on.
-listening to anything I can get my hands on.
-sending love letters and mail to my friends and loved ones .
-shoes.
-fashion.
Ah you get my drift, regardless bear with me, I am about as technically savvy as a 96-year-old who still can’t get the VHS player to work.
-m

I measure my life in coffee spoons...

"I measure my life in coffee spoons"- T.S. Elliot (The Love song of J Alfred Prufrock)

Coffee...my most or at least close to my most favorite inanimate thing in the world. I love the smell, the color, the taste and how great a hot cup of coffee in a porcelain mug feels in ones hand. I also love how easy it is to feed this addiction... coffee is accessible everywhere and it is more than culturally acceptable (especially for a nurse) to sometimes dream of an IV drip filled with steaming hot coffee. I guess you could also say coffee is something that brings people together, friends, family, co-workers and lets face it we have all been on a coffee date. See coffee is awesome.

Now here is the beef. Why are so few people capable of making a decent cup of coffee? No offense to anyone in particular but of all of the places (besides a coffee house) that I have been to enjoy a cup of coffee, especially at friends homes, it usually sucks. So...

Here is how I make coffee ( inspired by my mum and my dad..), I almost guarantee you will skip the Timmy's drive through on the way to work and invest in a good travel mug (look at you saving money AND the environment). But I don't promise anything!

-start with the basics...you need coffee beans (fair trade if you can find them), much better than pre-ground coffee and easy got get a hold of. I recommend 49th parallel ( available at Steve-O -Renos and Two If By Sea), Just Us ( Just Us cafe,sobeys or farmers market), Ginger bread Haus`s German Blend or Caledonia House ( PEI farmers market). If you really are lazy, you can buy preground beans from anywhere at any price point! Just don`t get instant coffee or decaf, because decaf is sac religious. That my friends is a fact. If you are a decaf drinker, you better have a heart condition /some other medical condition or we probably can`t be friends.

-coffee grinder, doesn`t have to be anything fancy, rumor has it a magic bullet can even do the trick

-coffee machine of any variety

-tap water haha

...now here is the kicker... use minimum of one very heaping (probably really two) tablespoons per two cups of water on your coffee pot. Aka...fill your pot to the level eight because you..
 1) are having people over or
 2) plan on sitting there are drinking an entire pot in one sitting (totally my style...don't forget the tums)

..with eight cups of water you need a MINIMUM of four very heaping ( probably eight) tablespoons of freshly ground coffee...got it? Loader up and press start...Voila!!! Perfect cup of coffee, guaranteed to please everyone.

Wanna get fancy? Try sprinkling some ground cinnamon on the grounds before percolating. Nutmeg is nice as well. Wanna get extra fancy? Try half of a vanilla bean...or the left over pod from some of your baking adventures.

Lastly, what I think is the final step to the perfect cup of coffee (or any hot beverage) and this step is often overlooked, invest in a comfortable mug. Yes I know this seems petty and insignificant but we all have had an uncomfortable mug in our hands at one point. Maybe it's too large in diameter to fit comfortably in your hand or maybe the handle is too square or not quite big enough to fit you fingers...regardless test drive those babies before you make a purchase. I have spent many an afternoon at Pier 1, Home Sense and even the dollar store testing out mugs like a crazy person and getting whomever happens to be with me to try them out as well. Now I have a collection or coordinating mugs that make coffee drinking even more pleasurable.
-m

supplies

whole beans..these are Just Us

Grinder pulvorizes those beans..

Cinnamon is my favorite to add...but just a sprinkle

This is my heaping tablespoon...could be two normal ones!

Comfy mug, hot coffee and dress it up however you like!

And just because the perfect cup of joe needs company..

-m
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I would rather have roses...

"I would rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck"- Emma Goldman

Haha...maybe not but as many know, I am a very big fan of fresh flowers. I almost always have a vase with a few stems on my kitchen table as well as in my bathroom and often next to my bed. They boost my mood and I feel they make a home inviting and warm, not to mention they can be a small and inexpensive luxury that is especially affordable if you know where to shop and if you are pinching pennies. Research shows (ya..I researched it ha) that the presence of fresh flowers can instantly boost a mood, decrease anxiety, stress and depression and are in general very good for ones well being.The farmers market is where I like to pick mine up! I have a very loving relationship with the farmers market but in my opinion the flowers are the best part! They are cheap...dollar roses, three for five spider mums and Gerber daisy's and many new and different things each week. If you are lazy they even have pre-made bouquets for usually around twelve bucks. What is not to love?

Where else can you get roses for a dollar that have been freshly cut?

Or spider mums that last for two weeks in a sunny spot?

Picked up this morning with my friend Ally...$5

Last week's market purchase..$6

Knees-under-the-table conundrum...

If you are among the lucky few to be invited to my place for dinner, supper, breakfast or just coffee, you are well aware that my kitchen table, although adorable in every way, is only suitable for those of us under the five foot, zero inch stature. It’s an old farm table, salvage from a yard sale and stripped, painted and varnished within an inch of it’s life by my mother and I. Now that I am a grown up, having more than just my gravitationally enhanced friends and small children over to dinner has been starting to look a little bit more attractive. So months ago I started my search for a new table and chairs. Initially I looked at big box stores, quickly realizing that my tastes would not allow for an easy pick up and delivery. There was beautiful stuff but we are talking about a kitchen with a petite, sunny dining nook, blue linoleum floors and faded life-preserver orange counters. So modern was out of the question and a pedestal table seemed like the best option for seating as many people comfortably as possible.  For months I have been diligently searching online ( if you have not made friends with kijiji..I highly recommend it) and finally this week , a perfect table appeared for $25 dollars! I only had to pick it up at a random house in a shaddy part of town, go into a basement with a man I did not know (stranger danger people!!) and load it (surprisingly easily) into my little golf and get out of there as quickly as humanly possible.

With the help of my cousin Brogan, Carmel (my paint expert at Home depot), some supplies and three days work, this table along with my old vintage bistro chairs and a hutch (previously purchased from kijiji as well for $60 ) are now a perfectly adorable, shabby yet chic dining area that my friends with in seams longer than 28 inches can enjoy! -m

Before and after:

Before $25 table..

Before my previously owned bistro chairs

Half done! Covered in Paint!

Finished product!! ( Plus one crooked picture...)

Hutch, has same fabric as the chairs for a wallpaper affect

Filled with all of my pretty things!