Snowman | Scarecrow Pallet Project

Guys! I made a thing! All by myself!
Well if we're being honest, the boyfriend did break down the pallet, but after that it was all me!

 Yeah, that right there, I made that! It's actually just one piece, a front and a back. Five pallet pieces in total! I originally found saw this going around Pinterest, but one there were now how-tos, and two I didn't wanna buy it pre-made, I really wanted to use the pallets.

So to start with I had to get a pallet. There's a place I drive by every day on my way to and from work that always has pallets out for free... expect of course for the one time I really want some. Lucky for me we have junk pallets at work that I was able to snag some from.

There are a variety of ways on the internet of how to take apart a pallet. I didn't do this part. Blake, the boyfriend, did. He pulled all the nails out using a hammer. Which sounds exhausting! Apparently you can also take one apart using a sawzall.

Once it was taken apart, there are two next steps, sand all the pieces you have, or sand only the pieces you'll use. I choose the latter because I really dislike sanding things.

Either way you'll want to decide which pieces you're going to use. I went though all my pieces to find which pieces went together the best. I used four pallet pieces for the body and one for the brim of the hat.

After they were all sanded I had to cut the brim of the hat in half. You know the whole measure twice, cut once thing, yeah I did that. What they don't mention is to take into account the width of the saw. Oops. I was cutting it a second time to take about an inch off.

I then labeled which order the boards would go in so I didn't have to figure it out after they were painted. Also I had to mark where the brim would be on both sides. Which took three tries. And I still messed it up. Oh well, thankfully paint can cover itself.

Then is time to paint/stain. I got all my paints and stains from Home Depot. When I started this project they were having a sale on all their paint and stain samples. 8oz for less and two or three bucks. I did end up purchasing a paint pen from Joann's for the detail work. It was perfect! This whole project cost me about $16 to make. Below are the paints I used:

Scarecrow:
Dark Brown Hat
Brown Body

Snowman:
Black Hat
White Body

Orange
Pink

Black Detail Work

 My biggest issue with painting was the scarecrow's body. I choose a stain, which was super light. So to get the color I really wanted I "painted" the stain on. Basically I just didn't wipe off the stain.

Day one I did the scarecrow side, roughly trying to follow my guidelines for where the brim of the hat would go. I was a total success on this side! This side took about 3 coats of paint. Well many coats of the light stain before I decided to use it like paint, then it was only one. But the dark side I mainly used the stain like paint and that took about 3 layer to get the color shade I wanted.

 The snowman side, not so much. After it was all but together I definitely needed to do some tough ups. This would have taken only one coat. But I had to repaint one section, so I repainted the entire thing with a second coat.

Next was time to attached everything together. Here is where it got a little tricky. I wasn't sure what I would need. I did measure how tall the project was with both brims on so I would know what size nail to get (no larger than one inch for my project). I highly recommend doing this, as the thickness of pallet boards varies. But I only got the one inch nails. While putting it together I had wished I would have bought a little longer nails. With the brims nailed on, it didn't feel study enough to me.
**I did read somewhere online that you should mark where you'll put your nails in so they don't hit each other. I didn't not do this. I kind of just did "upper left" on one side and "lower right" on the other. Someone it worked, I didn't hit any nails**
The hardest part was nailing the top and bottom together. I barely succeeded at this, so I don't totally recommend my way. Basically I just tried to but the nails in at an angle so they would go from one board to the next (hence the longer nails being helpful). My next pallet project I may try a different way. Blake suggested wood glue, but that would require a c-clamp of sorts, and patience. The patience is what I didn't have. I just wanted to get to designing!

For the faces I drew them on with pencil first, then painted them on. It was around this time I discovered that I'm not skilled at detail work. So off to Joann's I went to find a paint pen. Once I had the paint pen it was smooth sailing. I even bought a bunch off amazon after for future projects!

So here are the finished pictures!

Oh and since I'm oh-so-fancy, my porch was turned into my art studio :D

Let me know if you decide to give this project a go and have any questions.

I have too many ideas for what to do next. I just need to get sanding!

Below are some other pictures of inspiration I saved

Found at: SouthernGritDesign

I only ever found the picture, let me know if you know who this credit belongs to!

STRESSED | DESSERTS

So why doesn't that make me feel any better? 

I've been feeling incredibly stressed lately, about most things it feels. Being this stressed resulted in restlessness and a lack of good sleep at night. Now I'm fighting the beginnings of a cold because of it. I've haven't been truly sick in almost a year! Since I quit my last job. Working my old job I was working 10-12 hours a day, constantly stressed, unhappy, and consistently toughing cash and credit cards (read: germs). So when I quit most those stressors went away. 

But when I quit I didn't have another job lined up (oops). I just needed out. I had signed up to do the Seattle Tough Mudder months in advance, and suddenly they were requiring me to work the entire weekend, they wouldn't compromise, just a flat "no" so I put in my notice. When I took the job I currently have I took a MAJOR pay cut! Major. So while I no longer stress about my job, I'm constantly stressing about money. I've gone back to living paycheck to paycheck. No, not even paycheck to paycheck, paycheck to three days before paycheck. People at work ask why don't I just take a day off if I'm sick, and when I answer that I can't afford to be sick they chuckle at me. Like how could that possibly be a thing? But I can't, I have almost no vacation left, which needs to last till the end of the year, I make very little money, and have no savings. So believe me when I say, "I can't afford to be sick."

This is turned into quite the pitty-party hasn't it. I've been looking for other jobs, some pay the same but are closer to home. Some pay more. Some less. I keep turning in applications but haven't heard anything. Some jobs I'm putting off applying for because you don't get vacation or holiday pay for 3+ months, and I already did that last year, I just recently got out of that financial hole. 

I've been feeling like Alexander today. Today has just not been grand, enter this post. I know, I know, things will get better. But right now I want to just wallow in my self pity. I've felt on the verge of tears and just cannot wait for the work day to be over. I need to go home, I need to get a good sweat session in. I need to just put this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, behind me.

Freezer Crockpot Verde Chicken

We just had our first freezer crockpot meal and it was a TOTAL success!
I decided to go with one I was fairly certain would turn out well, or could at least be salvaged if not.

Verde Chicken

It's seriously one of the easiest crockpot meals and could be made day of without freezing. This was for two people and didn't result in any left overs - next time I think I'll do a 1.5 recipe for leftovers! 

Chicken | I did one breast, one thigh. Pick which ever chicken bits you like most

Black Beans | Half a can

Frozen Corn | About one cup

Verde Salsa | About 8oz

8-10 Hours Low
Serve over white rice, or in a tortilla, or with chips, or however!

Fresh not frozen may need less time. I plug mine in when I leave for work at 7:00. When I got home around 4:30 I shredded the chicken and let it sit till Dinner at 6:00.

September 2016 Goals

So its been September for about a week now and I've been thinking about my goals and thought maybe if I write them down, put them out there, I'll be more likely to meet them. These are longer term goals than just September so here they are...

Lose 20 pounds by Thanksgiving.

So this may be a bit lofty, in reality I'm thinking roughly 20 pounds - because to be honest I don't even remember what I looked like at 165. What I do know is that in recent months I've started to dislike what I see in the mirror. Going from a job where I walked an average of 6-8 miles a day to walking maybe 2 has really taken its toll. My mom visited back in July, and while she didn't mention anything (she never would to my face) I could tell she noticed too. I'm not willing to go home at Thanksgiving and have my whole family notice. To help I made a rough 20 week workout plan. I know Thanksgiving is 11 weeks away, but I also signed up for a half marathon in January.

Run a 3:00 Half Marathon

On a whim I decided to sign up for the Rock & Roll half marathon in Phoenix with my mom and aunt. Both run a lot more than me and will be faster. While I don't mind them finishing ahead of me, my mom usually does, I would like to finish roughly around the same time as them. So that where my 20 week training plan comes in. Its really no where near the plans I see online, that's because I wanted it to really reflect how I'll actually workout and the activities I like to do. For example, Ben, the greatest zumba instructor ever, comes back next week, meaning my zumba days will increase. I know I'll need to get my millage up, but I still want to do bbg.

Run a 1:10 10K on Thanksgiving

For the past two years my mom and I have run the Clark County Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Its something I talked about doing every year on Thanksgiving while I saw all these pictures of others doing it but never did. So when we finally thought about it before turkey day one year I said why not do the 10K over the 5K and thus a tradition was born! The first year I ran it in 1:16, a PR since I had never done that distance before. Seriously, always run new distances, you'll always get a PR! Last year I ran it in 1:19, I contribute part of that to the fact it didn't get above freezing the entire race! So this year the goal is 1:10, a nice round number and works out to about 11 minute miles.

Crockpot Freezer Meals

So while there may still be three weeks of Summer, Mother Nature disagrees. Bellingham has been cooler and grayer lately. While I love Fall I'm not quite ready to give up on Summer yet! I've been spending quite a bit of time on Pinterest lately, after taking quite a few months off, and my Crockpot recipe board as grown substantially! I'm all about prepping a crockpot meal at night before bed, putting the whole pot in the fridge and pulling it out in the morning on my way out the door. I know myself and there is no way I'm going to wake up early to prep for dinner, I won't even open a can! So this method of doing it the night before has worked wonders! But I've wanted to start getting into meal prepping and figured what better way than to start with crockpot meals that we can just pull from the freezer!

I tried to do a bit of research and figure out what meals I would want to make, and what items I would need to buy. I ended up spending around $80 and got 12 meals. That's $6.67/meal for two people. I was pretty happy with that.

That's another struggle I have with all these AMAZING recipes online. They're usually for families. Which is great, but it means I'm cutting all these amounts in half, which will change the cooking time, so I really don't know how they'll turn out in the end. I plan to do some more posts when I actually cook these meals - I would like to make sure they turn out before I set them on the world!

Here's a picture of almost everything I got - no pictured is a family size package of chicken breasts, chicken thighs, and 3 pounds ground beef (my counter just isn't big enough to picture it all)

Items include: 

• Canned beans: black, pinto, kidney, great northern, small red, garbanzo
• Bag o' celery
• Bag o' carrots
• Garlic
• 3 onions" 2 sweet 1 red (just for the sake of variety)
• Canned tomato products: paste, diced, sauce
• Salsa: both red and green
• Peppers: one green, one yellow (peppers are spendy right now!)
• Canned green chilies
• Frozen corn, frozen peas & carrots

Now I'm lucky and my boyfriend has spent the last 16 years working in a kitchen and wanted to help. So I set him to chopping all my onions, it took him all of two minutes. About 27 times faster than it would have taken me. And because he's amazing he also peeled all my garlic. Got myself a winner!

So next step was prepping the bags. Most sites I read talked about using freezer ziplock bags, which is a great choice. We happen to own a vacuum sealer which is what I used. Honestly, I recommend getting one, put it on your Christmas list because its amazing. We got it because the previously mention boyfriend ages his own meats, making is own bacon, all that jazz so it's super helpful for him. I primarily use it to reseal my chip bags - no more stale chips! Its also handy for resealing all bags, not just chips. Rice, pasta, frozen peas & corn, brown sugar, seriously I could go on forever!

I have no idea how much this sealer actually cost. Ours is a FoodSaver - very similar to this one. It has settings for dry and moist which is REALLY helpful when sealing bags with liquid.

 I also stumbled upon these awesome gadgets that hold your bag upright and open while you fill them. Seriously they're amazing and were only a few bucks. They made the process so much faster! My only regret is that I only bought three of them! I had all my recipes written down and with all my ingredients prepped out all I had to do was fill each bag, seal it, label it, throw it in the freezer. Super easy!

Here's what they looked like after they were sealed up. I tried to make them as flat as possible to they're freezer and thaw quickly.

In the end I ended up with twelve meals! Since I plan to only do these on week nights that's a little over two weeks worth of meals. But knowing us we won't want a crockpot meal every night of the week. And since these were just the trial runs, I figure at least one won't turn out right. Below is a list of some of the meals I did. Some bags also ended up just being throw bags - I just took whatever ingredients were left and dumped them in a bag. So who know how they'll turn out!

• Salsa Verde Chicken
• Chicken Beans and Rice
• Mexican Chicken Crockpot Dump
• Sweet BBQ Chicken
• Chicken Soup
• "Lasagna" Soup
• Pasta "Casserole"
• A handful of other meals I can't remember off the top of my head!

Homemade Plum Jam

Recently a co-worker asked if I knew how to make plum jam. Turns out he has a plum tree in his backyard and he asked if I could be willing to make him some plum jam. Figuring it couldn't be that hard I said sure! A few days later he brought a 20 pound bag of plum into work for me.

Seriously, I should have taken a picture of it. There were SO MANY PLUMS.
It was also at this time I learned I'm allergic to plums, but that's another story.

Since I had never actually made jam before I took to Google to find some inspiration. I ended up using this post for most of my how-to information.

You need to start be macerating the plums - this is a fancy way of saying marinate. After checking with the boyfriend who's been cooking professionally for over a decade I was informed that macerating is something done to fruit, which helps bring out the sugars and such. Marinating is something done to meat and vegetables. The more you know!


Here's a picture of the plums after the macerating process. In the future I'll be sure and document my process a bit more.

What I did:
Cut the plums - I ended up with about 4-5 pounds of plum.
All I did was cut them in half, remove the pit, then quarter them.
Leave the skins on, that's where a lot of them "plum-flavor" comes from (so they say).

Add the sugar. I did about one and half pounds of sugar. I couldn't find any of our kitchen scales (we have about three) so I eye-balled this based on a four pound bag of sugar.

At this point I should have added the pectin - but somehow I missed that part, which is probably why my jam didn't thicken up quite like I wanted. But hey, you live and you learn!

I choose to add lemon juice to mine. Since there were something I would be giving to others I decided to err on the side of caution and add some (about a Tablespoon)

The next day its time to start cooking!

In the largest saucepan you have dump all (or has much will fit) of the plums and juice into the pan. I had to do mine in two rounds.

Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring regularly so you don't burn the bottom.

Around this time put a few spoons in the freezer, we'll need them later

You want your mixture to reduce by about a quarter - I didn't get quite patient enough, so my jam is on the thinner side.


The post I was following said to mill the fruit next. I don't own a fruit mill and from my search they tend to be a bit pricey. Instead a choose you use a stick blender. If you don't own one go out and invest in one! They are fairly inexpensive and can be used for so many things!

After blending the fruit mixture I had something that looked a bit like jam! I returned it back to the heat and let it cook down a bit more (could have used more time!)

Now is when those freezer spoons come into play. Put a small amount of your warm jam on the spoon and return to the freezer. Five minutes later check on the spoon. The jam should be firm, not rubbery, and should just cling to the spoon if you tip it. Just like store bought jam should do.

Now I've never made freezer jam, and our freezer is currently filled to capacity, so I choose to can (jar) my jam. I've never like how canning has been called canning when you put them into jars. But who am I and what do I know!

If you've never canned below see below for how I do. You can always follow the direction on box of jars you buy. If there's a way you've always done it go for it!

Few things to note:

• I don't own a pressure cooker, so I can my jars in a pot of water. 
• I also don't have a lot of large pot, so this process took me a while.

Equipment you'll need:

• Jars, lids, and rings
• Canning funnel (I own plastic but stainless steel will do)
• Canning Jar Lifter (the first time I canned I didn't own one, you can get the jars out of the boiling water without one, but its just so handy!) There are a ton of styles, this is the one I have. Any would work I'm sure!
• Magnetic Lid Wand/Lifter same as the jar lifter, there are a ton of style, I got mine on clearance for about a dollar
• Silicone Spatula

First you need to sterilize your jars 

• I do this by rinsing them in hot water 
• I'm sure my Grandma wouldn't approved of my methods, but I just recently starting canning and haven't reused any jars yet.
• You'll want to make sure the jars are warm/hot when you fill them so they aren't shocked with the heat from the jam
• The lids, I put in a pan of boiling water and let them simmer till I'm ready to use them.
• Recently the producers of Bell jars say this isn't necessary, but it's what I've always done and I'm a creature of habit.

Fill the jars

• To do this I place the funnel on the jar and use a measuring cup to fill the jars, you can honestly use just about anything to fill the jars - I've seen people use the lids of sour cream containers
• I leave about an inch of room - or fill to the bottom of where the rings will sit
• After filling all the jars, use the silicone spatula and carefully run in along the inside of the jar - we're removing the air bubbles here
• Wipe off the rims of the jar 

Finishing up

• Using the magnetic wand, grad one of the lids from the simmer water and place on the jar
• Add a ring and tighten until snug, you'll want to tighten until you just feel resistance
• It may be tempting to make them as tight as you can, but this may actually get you a worse seal

Process the jars

• Put the jars in the largest pot you have - I had to do three pots at a time. Don't worry, I added a bit canning pot to my Christmas list, fingers crossed Santa comes though!
• Fill the pot with water so there is about an inch of water above the jars
• Turn stove top on high
• Once you get a strong boil set your timer for 15 minutes.
• While they're boiling I set up my cooling racks - the same racks you would use to cool cookies on
• When your timer goes off, use the jar lifter to carefully take the jars out of the water and place on the cooling rack,

• I've always been told they need to sit for 24 hours undisturbed
• Allow the jars to cool naturally at room temperature
• I personally keep all the rings on my jars while they cool
• You'll start to hear that satisfying pop sound telling you your seal took
• If the buttons are depressed you'll know you got a proper seal
• If you have a jar that didn't get a proper seal, no worries, once the jar has cooled enough you can place it in the fridge and eat it first.
• After 24 hours I remove the rings, label my jars, and store them
• note: you can keep the rings on the jars, but growing up my Grandma always kept her rings when she gave us our canned goods - rings are expensive. We also always had to return the jars to be reused
• final note: Never reuse the lids if trying to can more things. I don't know why - maybe its a bacteria thing, but my whole life I've always been told we don't reuse rings

Let me know what jams/jellies you make and what other tips and trick you might have!

Enter the Quarter Life Crisis

The BIG 2-5 happened just over three months ago

I have my degree ✓
I'm working in my field ✓
I have a side gig business ✓
I should be happy with my place in life - but I don't
I feel like something is missing.

ENTER THE QUARTER LIFE CRISIS

I started college with the idea that I would be an physical therapist, but things don't always work out how we planned. Turns out I'm terrible at science! Chem, bio, my brain just doesn't understand them. On a whim I had taken an intro to accounting class. I did great at it so I took another. When it came time to declare a major I figured - why not - I'm good at it, I enjoy it, major selected! Expect for me, the real world of accounting isn't nearly as fun as it was learning about it.

I recently started watching Elementary, there was a quote in the pilot episode that struck a cord with me: 

Holmes: Why do you suppose you hate your job so much?

Watson: I don't have my job/

Holmes: You have two alarm clocks. No one with two alarm clocks loves their job. Two alarm clocks means it's a chore for you to get up in the morning.

I set two alarms every night. Waking up in the morning has become a chore.

The Voice - Shel Silvertein

There's this part of me that always thought after a while in the professional world I'd leave to teach accounting to high school or college kids. But after only two years after graduation I feel that pull, that desire. So I've started researching.

I know I'll need to get my Career Tech Educator Certificate.

I know which schools in the state offer it (only one in the area I want to teach)

I know I can go a different route and get my teaching certificate, then my CTE.

Both options will take any where from one to two years.

Both ultimately mean cutting back hours at work and leaving at some point to student teach. 

My city is saturated with teachers - my college (the town I still live in) has an amazing Elementary Ed program. But will that make it harder for me to get a teaching job?

All of this requires money - I already feel like I'm drowning in student loans, do I really want to take on more? What are my chances of getting financial aid now that I'm an "independent student"?

I jumped on an amazing opportunity to join Rodan+Fields, should I just work my side gig harder and for-go this idea? Will I feel satisfied? Inspired? Happy? There are so many ideas in my head that this is turning into a rambling... I just needed to get my ideas down or I feel I would explode.

If you've made it this far, I thank you, and I am open to your thoughts :)