Making Fabric Covered Boxes

The shoe boxes with flip lids that my sons' shoes come in make great storage boxes. I decided to buy some cheap fabric to cover them and make them suitable for use somewhere other than a closet. I chose a patterned fabric that came in many colors because I'm all about color coding and I wanted them to be coordinated. It's much quicker than reading a label, though I'll probably put some kind of temporary labels on them.

After an attempt to fit the fabric around an intact box, I realized the project would go faster and look more professional if I took the box apart, so that it would lie flat and I could make a pattern for it. These boxes don't use glue at all; they fit together using only slots.

First, I traced around the box on some paper that had been used as filler in a parcel we received. I cut out the paper pattern and pinned it on the fabric, then cut out the fabric.

Then I used double sided tape to attach the fabric to the shoebox. Pull the edges tight for a nice smooth look. I tried to have a generous half inch of fabric on the inside edges, so as not to be short somewhere. You can always trim off the extra. Here is the box about halfway completed.

After you've taped all the edges, reassemble the box. I am very pleased with how my first two turned out. Now I have turquise, purple, blue and pink to do.

Green Christmas

I found some pretty fabrics today that I thought would be great for wrapping Christmas presents. No sewing needed.

I bought a yard and a quarter of each of the three fabrics. Just cut on the lengthwise fold line down the middle of the fabric and get two wrapping pieces. Each piece will cover a normal size clothing box. Perhaps leave one or two of them uncut to cover large boxes.

Wrap around the box until you've used all the fabric. If it wraps around three times...who cares. And two of the three are black backgrounds, so the recipient can't see through. Tape, and put a ribbon around it!

No wrapping paper to gather up on Christmas morning and no waste going to the landfill. Just fold it up and put in your wrapping paper box til next year. My family will love this.

Meeting Pioneer Woman

Yesterday, I got to meet Pioneer Woman aka Ree Drummond in Denver at The Tattered Cover for her first book signing outside her home state. And her mother-in-law, Nan and sister-in-law, Missy.

PW held a thirty minute Q & A session, then got down to business signing books. In the Q& A we learned that Ree is going to publish a book on her romance with Marlboro Man. Yeah!

It was no surprise to all PW's fans that hundreds of people-- I heard the figure of 500 tossed around--showed up, but the bookstore was caught off guard . The bookstore ran out of books sometime after I bought mine ...whew, I would have been upset if I hadn't been able to buy a book. All seats were taken by the time I arrived, so people lined the walls and filled the stairways on either side of the room. An employee said they would have picked their bigger store had they known.

I did not get my book signed til 11 PM. I did not mind the 3 hour wait though. I passed the time very pleasantly talking with Blair and Tara, whom I met at the signing. And I also got to speak with Nan and Missy for a while. (I'm kicking myself now because I didn't think to ask them to sign my book and magazine.) I had Ree sign my cookbook and the People magazine that had an article about her and her family. She did not rush anybody through the line even though it was getting very late. (There were probably 40 people after me, so she was there til at least midnight I'm sure.)

The cookbook is absolutely gorgeous with lots of yummy recipes and has lots of beautiful photos of Ree's family too. Thanks , Ree!

The Magic of Kale

Dietary experts are always saying, "Eat lots of dark greens." I recently noticed that my skin seemed to improve when I ate kale. Was it my imagination that kale helped? I did an internet search for "nutrition of kale" and came up with this great site...

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2461/2


Not only did it tell me all the vitamins, minerals, calories and percents of fats, carbs and proteins, but it also provided the glycemic load AND inflammation factor. Kale has an extremely high anti-inflammation factor. So it was not my imagination. Kale was helping the psoriasis calm down. A magic food. I must eat more of it.



I'm not real crazy about plain kale, raw or cooked, so I came up with this simple one dish recipe to make it tastey. Baked chicken on a bed of kale and whatever other veggies you like. I use chicken with the bone in and skin on because of all the wonderful flavor the kale soaks up comes from the bone and skin. I don't eat the skin, ( I feed it to the dog), but it really keeps the chicken from drying out.

Chicken and Kale

Lightly oil the bottom of your roasting pan. I use extra virgin olive oil because that is the only oil I ever use. Wash the kale and cut away the thick middle stem. Chop into bite-size pieces. Fill the bottom of the pan with the kale. It cooks down like spinach, so be generous.

Lay any other veggies you are using on top of the kale. I used zucchini coins here. Then lay your washed and seasoned chicken pieces on top. I season with garlic powder, dried basil, and salt. Drizzle a little olive oil over the chicken pieces, cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees F. or whatever temperature you normally bake your chicken at for about an hour. I remove the foil after approximately 45 minutes so the skin will brown.

M Stands for Mountain

I had to deliver a couple of items to Number Three Son at college this week. He's only been there for three weeks and misses driving and riding in a car. We made him leave his car at home for several reasons.

a.) He has no need of a car. He has to walk all of about 100 feet from his dorm to the dining cafe. It is a small campus and it takes him less than 5 minutes to walk to any of his classes.

b.) He won't waste time and gas driving around when he should be studying.

c.) We can use the money saved by removing his car from insurance to put toward his college costs.

d.) He won't be "drifting" around the hairpin curves of Lookout Mountain in his car. This wasn't one of the reasons we ever considered, but it is now that I've driven this road!

Lookout Mountain is where Buffalo Bill is buried. In the thirty years we have lived in this state, we have never visited his gravesite. Every time we'd see the exit on I-70 we think, "We should go visit that sometime."

So when we finished the task I came to campus for, he asked if we could just drive somewhere, even just around town, but immediately suggested we take a drive up the mountain to the whitewashed "M" made of thousands of stones near the top. The road they had had to walk up, with a ten pound rock to add to the M three weeks before, part of freshman orientation. Good idea, let's go.



The M can be seen from miles away, even at night, as it is lit up. And it looks high up. But it doesn't look nearly as high up when you are at the bottom, as it does when you are at the top looking down on the campus, ...and downtown Denver and probably Colorado Springs on a clear day. I don't think I have ever driven on such a steep mountain. I lost count of how many bikers I saw pedaling up the mountain road. Number Three Son said he heard it is about a 38% grade mountain. I just call it Sheer Dropoff from one side of the "hairpin curve" to the other.

This view is from the first pullout I stopped at. ( Click on the photo to see details.) See the tiny litle red and white sign in the distance... behind the athletic fields? That's the famous Coors Brewery. If you build a brewery, a college will come.





That group of buildings in the upper left corner is downtown Denver. Those are tall office buildings. They look like kids' toy buildings blocks from half way up the mountain.




This is the view from the place where Buffalo Bill is buried. You are truly at cloud level here... gazing down at plateaus, towns, cities, and roads like a map brought to life. We never did actually see the grave site because we ran out of time. Son had to get back to campus for a meeting. Next time we'll see it and the Boettcher Mansion, which is further up the mountain.

Multi-Tasking

The older I get the less I tolerate tool noise, so I trim the grass edges by hand. While carrying out this chore along side flower beds, I get to enjoy the flowers and check for any disease or bug problems, but it can get a bit boring when cutting the grass next to sidewalks, the patio or the cement garage foundation. I used to try to talk on the phone, but sometimes no one is available to talk or the conversation ends before or extends beyond the chore. What to do?

Resume Beth Moore's Bible Memory Verse Challenge to memorize 24 verses (2 per month) in a year. We pick our own verses so they have personal application or meaning to us. I'm not very good at sitting myself down to do scripture memory, but I am finding myself looking forward to cutting the grass now because I get to work on my memory verses. In fact, I think of it as memorizing time and I just happen to be getting the grass cut at the same time.

My Favorite Garden

My "Aspen Garden" on 26 May 2007

In the autumn of 2006, I killed the front lawn so we could start over with better soil, less watering, a sprinkler system and a new fescue grass, called Rescue Fescue. Anyway, I didn't get the seed into the soil until October 2007, so this garden was the only pretty thing to look at in our front yard that year.

A few years after we moved to this house I started a garden journal in a plain little spiral notebook...the kind school kids use. I wanted something simple that I could tape pictures in and write about the failures and successes of each season. It's a great history of my front and back yards because I have added gardens, transplanted perennials and ripped out bushes and trees. It is also wonderful to look at during the winter when everything has died, or looks dead, in the case of perennials.

I still have the garden journal notebook, but have not kept up with the entries since I bought a digital camera in 2001. I rarely make prints of digital photos. I would like to get back to it, but in the meantime this blog will serve as my garden journal.


My yard is an ever changing palette for the art of gardening. Many times all these changes have frustrated me. I accepted that plants and trees die, but I wished I could just figure out a plan that worked and be done with it. Not make so much work for myself. And now I am trying to reduce the numbers of plants, etc because I have other interests and less energy than I did in my younger days. It's difficult for me to rip out a healthy baby 'volunteer' plant. It breaks my heart to do that, but I remind myself that the garden will be prettier if I keep it under control and it will mean less work in autumn when everything is going to seed.

In this garden that I call the "Aspen Garden" I planted a half dozen lupines or so many years ago. The originals have died, but 'volunteers' have taken their place. Three years ago I did not have many lupines, but last year I didn't have time to pull up the volunteers and I'm so happy to see the new colors this year...pinks and lavenders. Just gorgeous! I lost the blue columbines under one of the aspens and that was okay because the flowers quickly became covered in sticky sap dripping from the aphids that were feasting on the aspen leaves and then fluffy 'cotton' from the neighbors cottonwood trees stuck to the flower petals. Very ugly. This happened for several years. Ants 'farm' the aphids and it's difficult to get rid of the ants.




My "Aspen Garden" on 30 May 2008

The grass has come in, along with a lot of volunteer Johnny Jump Ups, that came from ONE garden. I decided to let them grow along with the grass. It looked like a mountain meadow to me. I pulled them up when the seed began to mature. It was a one time experiment.



"Aspen Garden" under clouds 26 May 2009

I think this is my favorite year for this garden. It just keeps getting better and better. I have gotten the best ever close ups with my macro lens.



"Aspen Garden" under the sun 27 May 2009

Sun dappled petals are so beautiful. I am easily transported to a fairy tale scene when I sit on the front patio overlooking this garden



Three colors of lupines 27 May 2009

Love this color combo.