Friday, November 30, 2012

design change out & new name

I hope you like the new webdesign and name, I feel that this is totally me all the way around and I'm really excited about it.  In the past I've tried my best with my novice know how about html and css to create a design that I'm happy with, however, by the time I finish I'm tired of the design and want to change it up again, so this time I decided to scour the web to find a pre-made template that say's "hey you, this is your design" I also figured it would be more effective to have a pre-made since what you see is what you get and there isn't much in trying to determine how I want it to look.  Life is just way to busy and I have far more crap stuff to sort through, so when I found this design I was super excited.  The price was at a comfortable level and it had my name written all over it.


I've been mulling over my blog name for sometime, I'm very indecisive and get bored easily so I have a tendency to make new blogs up every few months and then change the name.  It wasn't until recently that with blogger you can change your blog name and web address and still keep the same blog you were working with.   This is a great feature for me, though I don't really want to keep changing the address since that's the main way people will find me.  I liked nourishing choices, but after a while it seemed boring and just not what I really wanted for my blog name, so I decided to review some of my favorite blogs and jot down words and phrases that stuck me.  I had about 5 pages of scribble and spent about a week working on a name that I would like and said exactly what I wanted. 

It wasn't until the last day that it hit me...I love mid century design, art deco, danish, mod, retro (but not kitchys retro) and bauhous designs.  I had been looking up art deco, retro, vintage, and other food names, but it wasn't until I was reading about bauhous that I loved how hous was spelled.  It was unique, yet simple in it's meaning and for some reason my middle name pop out at me and that how RaeHous came about.  I love how the name reflects a part of my own name and one of my favorite styles, but it doesn't box me in to just being a health or DIY or food blog it allows me to broaden and write about what makes me smile, or some new recipe I tried and loved, or a new DIY project I'm thinking about working on.  It's RaeHous all things about me and my house.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new design and name.

hello my beautiful mid century dresser

I'm so excited!  Last night two guy friends came over to help me transport my new to me dresser from my SUV to my bedroom (on the second floor), though luckily it's the first room right up the stairs so they didn't have to do far.  I thought that it would be heavier since the two men in their late 40s / 50s who loaded it had quite a bit of trouble.  However, they decided not to remove the drawers, which then caused some damage to my perfectly good condition mid-century dresser that I'm none to thrilled with. 

I love that I found this dresser and I scored it for 20 bucks.  I was actually going for this 1950s dresser that once reviewing it in person decided to pass on it.  The cool thing was that it was located in a indoor flee market so there were multiple vendors that I was able to browse through.  By passing on that it gave me room for the dresser, which I almost missed since it was buried under accessories that the vendor was displaying on top.  When I go to any type of second hand store I always browse through the store at least twice, sometimes I'll go through a third time, but it depends on how quickly I browsed the first two times and how big the store is.  There was so much to check out along with some furniture hidden in the basement.  Though not much that I really wanted to take home as most of it was either country decor, way to much TLC required, or just nothing that I needed.  I did see a pretty vintage tree skirt and stockings, but they wanted over $50 just for the skirt so I passed.

Here is the current version of my dressing area.  It's still a work in progress, so please pardon my non-awesome photo and the lack of wall wow.  I still have to find a art deco mirror and some deco-fied art for the wall above.  I also need to figure out how to store my blow dryer.  It's currently in the top left drawer {you can see the cord out of the side of the drawer} but it wont shut all the way, but I also don't want to plug and unplug it everyday.   It's all about baby steps, especially with my indecisiveness and very little extra to spend on decor.

NEW MID CENTURY JEWELRY BOX                    MAKE UP STATION

I did end up buying a $5 kitchy 50s sign that promotes baking soda and a $1 white tea light owl.  I don't like candles, but the owl was so adorable and had the mid-century flair that I love so much.  I try not to buy to many owls, but sometimes I have to make an exception.  At this point I need to find ways to better display my collection.

Here is what my make-shift vanity table looked like before.  Though this was actually version 2, maybe 3.  I change things up to often and soon after I changed it last & I don't always remember to document.

 
MAKE SHIFT VANITY AREA BEFORE - COFFEE TABLE WITH MDF SHELF


Monday, November 26, 2012

Paleo Delights + Whole30 Thanksgiving Meal

* Strawberry Lemon Muffins
   I have to say I'm pretty proud at how the photos of these muffins came out, considering I only used my droid incredible.  I hope to have a SLR in the future, but my budget doesn't allow for that expense right now so I've been playing with the lighting settings.  You can really tell the difference between the outcome of these muffins versus the food shots below.  It's not the end all, but it's at least progress in learning to know how to use what I have and coming out with better visual results.  

My version made 12, but didn't cook well and the bottoms were pretty mushy even after 40 minutes in the oven {10 of that outside of the muffin pan}.  I had used Canola Oil for the Coconut Oil, mainly because I had more of that on hand and thought I would try it.  Then I used frozen versus fresh strawberries.

* 4 Egg Veggie Omelet {serves 2}    

      Saute mushrooms and tomatoes (or veggies of choice) 4-5 minutes.
      Remove from pan and plate.
     Add 4 Eggs, scrambled, with Crushed Red Peppers mixed in {optional}
     Let sit until Cooked though.
     Add Sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes on top of eggs and flip half over.
     Cook for a few extra minutes.
     Cut in half and save the other half for breakfast tomorrow.
     Serve with a side of fruit.

Very delicious and so easy to make ahead of time.  I made batch and then dished them in lunch box containers so I could grab and go in the morning.  I either had a banana or two mandarin  oranges with it.  

* Soft Egg with Avocado and Tomatoes

This was okay.  I had to much cilantro on mine or maybe I just didn't chop it fine enough. I most likely wont make this again.

* Happy Thanksgiving Meal

* Quick Pan Seared Turkey Chickn Cutlets
   This was really super easy, and very delicious.  I had to sub the Turkey for Chicken, because I couldn't find Turkey Cutlets.  

* Roasted Mushroom Melody 
   Yummy.  can't go wrong with roasted mushrooms.

* Grilled Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad with Honey Lime Dressing 
   This was absolutely my favorite part of my thanksgiving meal.  It was super delicious and pretty easy to make.  Though I didn't use corn on the cobb I used a canned mexican corn mixture I had in a can that I wanted to use up.  Next time I make this I'll use corn on the Cobb.

* Pumpkin Pie  {gluten free, dairy free, soy free}
   In general I'm not a pumpkin, but I thought it was good.  We did finish the pie, but some needed ice cream since the pie wasn't very sweet.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Whole 30 Week 3

So I’m pretty excited, because I decided to weigh myself and it said 148!  Wow, haven’t been that light since April and that didn’t last but a week before I sprung back up to 152lb.  This last year I’ve been less than 155lb, which has been nice, but since starting the Whole30 Challenge I’ve never felt healthier & satisfied with what I’m eating.  It’s amazing when you don’t rely on processed foods how quickly your stomach can communicate with your brain that your satisfied even before you finish you place.    It’s also been nice no needed a cup or two or three of coffee a day to keep me going, and I’m really thinking about not going back to coffee.  When you’re on the Whole30 challenge they don’t recommend you weigh yourself, because it’s not about weight loss, that’s really only an extra benefit that comes along with eating well.  However, I hadn’t weighed myself in a while and wanted to see where I was at especially since my clothes are getting looser. 

I’ve also been drinking more water.  I’ve not been totally on with the no sugar no gluten as last night I did have some graham crackers with peanut butter and honey dipped in unsweetened Almond Milk, but I could only eat 4 small pieces (= 2 full sticks) before I was sick to my stomach.  I ended up giving the rest to my dog who enjoyed them far more.  It’s funny how sweet and nauseating they were after not having sugar & gluten in my system for a few weeks.  I’m glad I did eat try to eat them, because now I know they make me feel sick, and blah feeling and super groggy in the morning.  I feel better and have more energy when I’ve had at least 7 hours of sleep and no gluten. 

I love actually how my sleep patterns have improved doing the Whole 30 Challenge.  I’m ready for bed between 10pm and 11pm and sleep through the entire night!  It’s been several months of waking up around 2am or 4am and then it would take me a while to go back to sleep.  Plus, I’m finding time to read.  I’m not much a  reader, but I’ve been working on the ‘It Starts with Food’ book based on the Whole30 Challenge and it’s been very helpful in understanding why the foods were selected for the challenge and why it’s been so hard to lose weight in the past.    I read about a chapter a day, but break it up depending on the number of pages.  The past day or so my reading has been delayed, but for good reasons.  This morning I’m excited to say that I finally, finally tried on a large banker’s box full of clothing + a small bankers box worth of blue jeans that I’ve been procrastinating for the last several months now.    It felt really good to finally get that done and now I have two nice size piles, one to donate and one to sell, and 2 pants for snow removal and 2 workout pants for running outdoors and 3 pairs of jeans I can wear right now.   I currently have several boxes that I need to write up so I can take them to be donated.  That’s on my list of things to do this week.  Once that’s done my living room will look less like a storage unit.  Though I have brought more items in, I’m still okay with that since I’m also taking things out and the new items work better with my overall concept design and have designated uses.  

I took a few photos of my latest thrifty finds, but they will have to be posted later this week.  I also need to set up a time to look at an old 1950s white table so I can have it ready for guest for Thanksgiving and also send out the invite for dinner to a few people.  It will be small maybe 5 or 6 people, as I can’t seat any more then that at the table. 

List of Recipes I’ve tried – liked – won’t make again.

LIKED:

Breakfast
Paleo Egg and Veggie Muffins
{I combined two recipes, but didn't add bacon: one / two}


Snack
 Coconut Milk Ice Cream
apple's soaked in orange and lemon juice.
 
Lunch / Dinner


Chicken Veggie Meatballs with Pesto Zucchini "Noodles

Paleo Coconut Nuggets w "BBQ" Sauce {these are my favorite so far}

Almond Crusted Stuffed Chicken {very very delicious}


NOT A FAN: 

chicken salad made by mixing avocado

Sunday, November 11, 2012

{60 minute} Red Owl

It's been an exhausting, but productive weekend of cleaning out.  Yesterday during my morning reading I had some inspiration to change the layout of my living and dining room and it's made such a difference.  My living room just by switching my amazing IKEA walnut finish bookcase and my 1970 metal shelf how open my living now feels and how functional my bookshelf is now.  I'm finally able to use my chalkboard that I purchased at IKEA a few months back.  I've been hesitant to hang it up on the wall, because I've just not found the right location for it, but so far I'm pretty satisfied with where it's at.  I even hung up my white board next to my bookcase, which has a list of projects I need to take care.

I moved my dining table to the kitchen, which will be replaced hopefully this week with another table with real legs.  Currently, it's being held up by sawhorses.  My elliptical is being stored in my dining room and has been for many months.  It's gone back and forth from my living and dining area, but so far it works best in the dining room.  However, it's super tight since I live in a townhouse so I have it listed on craigslist and  hope that it will sell soon. 

I also purchased a new table lamp from the thrift store that I LOVE!  It's a nice mid-century style lamp that has been added to my 1970s bar cart.  It works great and gives a landing spot for my roommates papers and bags. 



Once I finished up I headed to a local used furniture store, which had a few pieces that caught my eye, but nothing that I felt I needed to purchase right now so I just snapped a few photos and headed for my run.  Since I hadn't run in over a month I decided to do a run/walk (2 min run / 4 min walk).


In the evening my roommate and I headed to our local thrift store and I came home with a few more purchases.  They are currently still residing in my vehicle, because of all the cleaning out I've been doing.

Sunday we bathed the dog, I made eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast, and read for a bit.  Afterwards I took my vintage metal cabinet outside to begin removing the rest.  I used this DIY for vintage items, but thre is still more rust left on the cabinet then I'd like so I'm going to try this DIY.  Here is what it looked like before, but the after isn't much different with the first / natural process.


I also painted my 70s wall decor red to match my bedroom.



I used two light coats of the primer and then let it dry inbetween cleaning the basement.  Then I sprayed 3 light coats of the red and rotated my spray paint tin (I used a deer feed tin we had on hand) around so I could get all sides for an equal coat.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Thrifty Mid Century Finds



I’m so excited, yesterday after work I headed out to one of our local thrift stores as they are 50% off EVERYTHING on Wednesday’s, including home décor items.  I had some ideas in mind when I went, but didn’t come home with anything on my list which included: * Herringbone / Chevron pattern * Frames 8x10, 4x6, 5x7 * spice jars *bed side table. 
What I ended up with was * 4 table lamps (1 / living room 2/ bedroom 3/ office 4/ hand held for when taking photos)

* String of wooden apples that spell out ‘welcome’
Plan: Remove the current yard attachment and spray paint the apples, then restring.  They kind of look like owls, so I’m going to try to make them more owl like once they are sparyed a color to match my kitchen.

* Rattan food tray
Plan: Add several pieces of picture wire across then mount on wall.  The plan is to use it to hang my earrings from, instead of using apicture frame. 

* Metal card file box
Plan: Host all my new favorite Paleo recipes in.

* Milk glass vase/cup
Plan: make up brush holder

* Translucent green glass decorative bowl
Plan: store my dish rags when not in use.

* Red shower curtain (still in its original packaging)
Plan:  Use as bedroom curtains

* 6 min owl trivets
Plan:  I’m not sure yet, but I couldn’t resist because they were owls and only .99 cents

* Red frame with canvas
Plan: Was to use for jewelery, but I may just add a photo to use for wall art.

* ‘Nose’ glasses holder
Plan: Spray Paint!  This thing is super ugly so for .50 cents it’s worth testing my spray painting skills on a high gloss item and use it to store my sunglasses on in the Living Room.

* Banana hammock
Plan: We really need something to hang our banana’s on, but I haven’t found anything I really like.  They are either wire and black or wood with a traditional look.  This one was perfect – white and had a bit of a vintage feel to it and for .99 cents it was a steal.  It looks great ontop of my bread box, which is a white metal faux metal vintage bread box.
* big red caddy. 

 I definitely left with a vast array of things and some are just to test my painting skills on, but this is why I don’t go there on a regular basis.   It’s also a good idea not to shop here after perusing pinterest for craft /DIY ideas, because you want to spray paint everything. 

After my adrenaline rush from there I decided to hit another local favorite thrifty store, which tends to carry more furniture.   I was highly disappointed there in my search of a mid-century bed side table that I could modify.  I don’t want to pay a lot for one, because I want to spray paint it red so I thought finding one there might be helpful.  I found one online for $25, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for and I’m not sure I want to spend $25 on something that will take more time to make pretty.   What I did end up bringing home was * a red/white large floral print table cloth * black and cyan pillow case set * 5 large juice cups with a modern / retro design * milk glass vase * crotched pear *

Most of what I brought home had a retro / mid century feel or was actually from that era.  That’s one reason I love thrifty stores.  It helps me to bring home accessories that I love without breaking the bank. 

When I arrived home I sorted everything and took off all the annoying price tags and goo-goned any residue left behind ad then sorted my glassware either in the dishwasher or washed the rest by hand.  Then I got out some spray bleach cleaner to brighten up my living and bedroom lamp.  The living room has more of a mid-century danish flair and I even like the shade since adding it to the end table.  The other one has more of a retro chic flair and I think it’s a perfect addition to my “Rock the Retro Femme Flair” theme I’m working on in my bedroom.  There was no shade for this one, but the option to add one.  Thinking about buying a cheap one that has the shape I want and then adding a new fabric to match my décor. 

I made sure to put everything in their appropriate rooms so to look as if I didn’t bring anything in and straightened up a bit. 

Goals this weekend
- Clean up metal file cabinet
- Clean pendant
- Wash fabrics

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Whole 30 bound

OMGoodness, I can't believe I've survived almost a week without coffee and animal cookies (particularly Targets Market Pantry in the teddy bear container)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's pretty much an amazing feat for me as I pretty much live on them. However, my body has been telling me these past weeks that I need a change. I've been relying to much on coffee and cookies to get me through the day and yogurt, eggs and nuts for my main source of protein.
 
I need to stop being lazy about my food preparation and start making nourishing choices with my food.  So after reading around a few blogs and searching pinterest to see what others have done I came across Today's Letters and her Whole 30 challenge.  It intrigued me and so I decided to see what this Whole 30 thing was all about. I liked that it took a lot of the foods I've been relying on out so that I would be forced to be creative and think again outside of my box, which is something I used to do very well with my food choices.  I also liked that it would help me ween myself off the caffeine and cleanse my body of all the dairy since I'm lactose intolerant I knew it wasn't doing good things for me. 

You are giving yourself 30 days to eat in a way that is nourishing to your body. Each successful day that passes will get easier and easier.

Overall, I'm pretty happy so far with the results, especially in my energy and my abilities to cook again in MY  kitchen.  I emphasized MY because I have my own kitchen in my own townhome.  It's kind of awesome to have it set up the way I want it, though it's still a work in progress on how I want it to look. 

For breakfast I made a Fruit Smoothie ,however, I forgot when I went to the grocery store that SO DELICOUS COCONUT MILK wasn't a Paleo approved option, but I'm going to finish it out and when it's gone I will buy the canned coconut milk.  I made a few variation, but my favorite is with

Fruit Smoothie
1 Frozen Banana
3 Fresh Strawberries
Frozen Bananas
1/4 cup Coconut Milk
1/2 cup Organic Breakfast Blend 100% Juice
1/2 cup Spinach (too much makes the smoothie taste not as good)

Snacks: I kept it simple with a LaraBar (with hb egg) & {Chili Roasted Pumpkin Seeds}
Lunch: Chicken & Veggie Meatballs with Pesto Zucchini "Noodles" the first half and Organic Spaghetti sauce (without sugar) the other half of the week.  I was shocked at how many sauces contained sugar and in the 1st four ingredients.  side: Strawberries and Pineapple
Dinner: Spiced Tilapia with Cucumbers in lemon juice and chili powder

I have yet to make the Banana Ice Cream.she has on her blog, but I hope to try some this week.



 goal
stay focused
create meal plns
prep food
maybe even keep eating paleo even after the 30 days
read it starts with food



 however, is a month of diligence. Really putting my effort into cleanly fueling myself, which means paying attention to some of the things that I let slide regularly: seed oils, options when dining out, dairy products and booze. It’s the A++ version of how we normally eat, and I’m excited to see the results of our efforts — whether they are dramatic or not know that I am going to be challenged with the sheer amount of food prep this month is going to require. I definitely rely on things like Post-Workout protein shakes and some pre-made convenience items right now that probably aren’t doing me any favors. Eliminating those will be different, so for me, I have to make it fun. I’ve got a calendar chock full of awesome recipes that I am SO STOKED to make, and post work out options that are fun, fancy and WAY MORE DELICIOUS than a shake. I’ve got to make it fun or I’ll want to quit.