Sunday, February 27, 2011

March Sanity

Farewell February. I have successfully survived a month without consuming alcohol. It was shockingly much more difficult than I thought it would be, but I'm really glad I did it. Knowing I can fully enjoy social gatherings without alcohol is worth remembering. I will be happily returning to drinking occasionally, careful to avoid overindulgence. Last month I also started a tradition of adding a positive habit to my routine with moderate success. So what to I have in store for March? I know you are all on the edge of your seats.

I could probably continue to cut out food related overindulgences forever, but I've decided to mix things up. This month I'm going to put myself on a media diet. The thought of not watching any movies or tv shows makes me break out into cold sweats (which just goes to show how much of a problem I have) but I think I can reasonably limit myself to a few hours a week without having a mental breakdown. Have you ever had Hulu ask you if you needed a break? I have. Hulu asked me if I was sure I wanted to continue using their product since I'd been watching for so long. Embarrassing. But I shall overcome.

I've decided to limit myself to five hours of solo tv or film watching per week. This allows me an episode of tv every day after work or two full movies, which seems reasonable. It also keeps me from being a social outcast by allowing me to enjoy communal media consumption. Watching a movie with Mike, or catching a tv show with friends does not count against my meager allowance.

I can't wait to see if this opens up my evenings to other productive enterprises or just makes me sit watching a blank screen thinking longingly of what I could be watching. I'll be sure to let you know.

As for the new habit? Vitamins. Lame, I know. But I watched a terrifying documentary on Netflix called "Food Matters" that convinced me that something as simple as taking vitamins can have a big impact on my health. Better systemic health seems worth trying to remember to take a single pill a day. I'll let you know how that goes too.

Bring on a new month, a new season on Covert Affairs, and a new challenge.

~Claire Out

Mission Accomplished!

I swam a mile today.

One mile. Me. Swimming. No stopping. A MILE. How cool is that?

When I started my swimming challenge six weeks ago I certainly wasn't able to swim a mile without stopping and now I can. Just let the epic-ness of that sink in. In six weeks I went from can't to can (couldn't to can?). Some of you may be saying to yourselves 'Duh, if you swim three times a week for six weeks you're bound to get better.' Well good job dear (skeptical) reader, because you are right, however, it was a lesson I needed to re-learn.

As a kid you obviously get better both physically and mentally all the time. Babies can't even focus their eyes and they learn how to get a handle on that pretty quickly. But it seems that lately (for the past 3-10 years) I had been on a downward slope. So often I was able to do less physically than I was the day before. How is that okay? It isn't. Which is why being able to swim a mile without stopping is so important to me. It represents for the first time in a long time, an upward trend of physical ability.

Now that I've had my first taste, I just want more. I'm going to try to keep up with swimming three times a week. This will be made much more challenging since my job will be starting tomorrow and the fact my usual gym is closing which means I have to endure a bit of a commute, but I am determined to keep going. My goal is to work out three times a week for the whole month of March. I'll let you know how it goes.

Claire Out.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Walls and My Style

For the past three days I've been in a picture hanging frenzy. I just returned from a quick weekend trip to visit my family and returned (as usual) with TONS of stuff. My kind and generous family donates all sorts of great loot to the 'Keeping Claire Living in Style Organization' the KCLSO for short. Yeah, that'll catch on. On previous trips gotten a beautiful new laptop computer, an entire set of china and even bags of flour. How lucky am I? This batch of goodies had a distinctive theme: Wall Decor.

Anyone who has ever been to college or has had a similar 'first place' of an empty box with generic furniture knows the quickest way to make it your own, is to get some stuff up on the walls. In college I bought posters and tacked them up to express my personal style. Round that out with building a collage (...in college... heh) of random keepsakes made me feel downright individual. Having moved three times in the last three years my posters and keepsakes have gotten a little dog eared. Pair that with the fact that I moved to my current home while I was also technically still in school and working full time and you have a recipe for some blank walls.

Once my job ended for the season I was spending a lot more time in my apartment staring at the blank (mocking) walls. So I started looking around for a solution. I browsed the internet for fun cheap pieces of art, I searched through the targets and the wall-marts looking for some inspiration and wound up with basically nothing. All I added was what you see here, a small splatter of mirrors.


If at first you don't succeed, you ask the family for back up. Check out the awesome stuff I got!


My key chain collection, framed with love by my aunt Carol.


An awesome set of square plates from my Mom, all of which are places I've traveled to! (Framed with love by my aunt Carol. Cool new placemats are from of my aunt and uncle too.)


This awesome (and huge) piece of art that my Dad had in storage. I couldn't seem to photograph it without glare off the glass. You are just going to have to take my word for it that it is a super cool artwork.


A cool grid of album art from my friend Kris.



A closer look.

And these amazing posters! Framed with love by my aunt Carol. (Are you noticing a pattern?) Please ignore the termostat. I'm working on getting some of the wall paint from my landlord to help it blend in a little better.

Thank you all. My apartment has never felt more like a home.

My Aunt (who just happens to be a professional framer with her own shop and amazing taste) ALSO gave me three silver mirrors to spruce up my sad mirror cluster. I happily took down the round mirrors and started playing around with designs on the floor. Here's what I settled on.


When I first hung the round mirrors I arranged them on the floor too, but when I went to hang them on the wall not only did they sort of drift apart from each other, but they distinctly drifted to the left of the center of the wall. Hoping to avoid that problem with the new-and-improved version I turned magazine pages into templates for each of the mirrors. Then, using painters tape, I hung them up.


This step was vital! I re-arranged this maybe fifty times, that would have left a fair few holes if I were using the 'hang first-readjust later' approach. When I finally had it where I wanted it, I simply installed the hangers right over the paper. Once everything was hung I just tore the paper down leaving only my mirrors.





Ta DA!


What do you think? What tricks do you use when hanging art?

Dining Room Phase 1

Sorry for the long break. It isn't that I haven't been doing new things, it is just the projects are a little more long-term and I refused to post before I had a good after picture.

I have been wanting to refinish my dining room table for a long time. It was a great hand-me-down that is solid and simple enough to go with a lot of different styles. However, this great table has seen been through the trenches of the young adult nomadic lifestyle; it has moved three times as well as being subjected to art projects and food experiments. Needless to say it needed a little love.

So I gathered together the supplies I would need.


I sanded down the table (BY HAND!). First using 60 grit sandpaper than 220. This was by FAR the hardest part of the process. I started by using my sandpaper sponge tool from my previous chair project, but quickly found I needed a better system. I ended up going back to the hardware store to buy a sanding block and a supply of both types of sand paper. There is still plenty left over for future projects in case I'm crazy enough to tackle something like this again.

After putting a REAL drop cloth out on my balcony (to avoid the tan line problem that I had last time) I began to stain the table. I ended up taking the table apart turning the hellish sanding process, and figured I would put it all back together post stain. Here are some works in progress.



After the stain was applied three times of applying, sitting, and removing it was time to apply the sealant. I used was was recommended on the back of my stain bottle. Unfortunately in my haste, I neglected to notice that the sealant I choose was a satin finish AKA matte. After this was kindly pointed out to me by my aunt, I took another trip to the hardware store to get a gloss sealant. (That's trip number three for those of you counting at home.) After applying several coats of that new sealant I was prepared to call it finished.

So here it is, the moment you've been waiting for: Before.


And After!


With this victory of course comes a list of more things to do. Now my folding chairs look totally out of place, so it is high on my priority list to be getting some new dark chairs from Ikea as soon as I can afford them. Observe the issues.


Also that handy side board table also sticks out like a soar thumb. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with that yet either. I want to keep the very top natural, since I use it so often as a cutting board. Maybe paint the legs and shelfs black and the drawers white? Still a lot to think about, but I've at least crossed one big thing off my to-do list. One down many more to go.

Claire Out.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Good with the Bad

Regular readers of my blog may remember that this month I am abstaining from alcohol. It is part of my plan to learn moderation by examining my life without an indulgence for a month. I have to say that not drinking has proven much more difficult than giving up soda. Perhaps all the more reason for me to stick to my one month separation.

However, upon examination I feel this plan is somewhat incomplete. Just giving up an indulgence for a month, while a good start, isn't going to make me into a better person. While I will continue to examine old habits, I've also decided to start some new (positive) habits every month.

(I keep wanting to spell habits like hobbits with a double 'b' ... I'm a nerd.)

I was largely inspired to start new habits after reading "How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day" by Michael J. Gelb. The book was recommended to me by my friend Laura, who thought it would fit in with the Renaissance theme of my blog. The book suggests that there are seven aspects of thinking like Leo. 1. Curiosity 2. Experience and reflection on experience. 3. Honing the senses. 4. Embracing paradox and uncertainty. 5. Art and Science together. 6. Fitness and Grace. 7. Recognizing the interconnectedness of everything. Not too much to ask, right? Yikes! That's a lot to be working towards. Luckily, the book offers some great writing, physical, drawing and introspection exercises to help you work towards your ideal Renaissance self.

So I will pick an exercise from each of the categories to play with for a month, balancing my bad habit breaking with good habit forming. Hopefully, by March 15th I'll be a step closer to thinking like a Renaissance Woman. I'll be sure to report how it went.

~Claire Out.

Pasta and Perseverance

Sorry to post two food posts in a row, but there is something so fun for me about tackling a new recipe. My plan to try home-made pasta has been in the works for a long time. Ever since I saw Wil's post about pasta being an 'Inconvenience Food' that is worth the effort WAY back in August, I've been planning on giving it a go. I finally decided to take the plunge for a special dinner for Mike on Saturday to celebrate Valentines Day. What better way to show my love for my Italian-American boyfriend than by making a little home-made pasta? Way to think inside the box.

I chose to make ravioli. So I made some dough, rolled out the pasta. (Cranking the dough into paper thin ribbions was by far the most fun part of the process. All hail the inventor of the pasta machine.) I made a filling with ricotta, chicken, and basil. Yum. Here they are ready to be wrapped.


When it came time to wrap the little buggers, I was on my own. All the recipes I had (I was using a mash up of several) said something along the lines of 'seal the ravioli'. NOT very helpful. So I got a little creative and basically wrapped each of the twelve or so ravioli differently. Scientifically speaking, it was a sound plan: try many techniques, observe which are most successful. Alas, aesthetically speaking they were not such a success. My camera actually ate the picture of the wrapped ravioli and the finished product. Perhaps my camera judged it a sight better left unseen.

I think my experimentation with Ravioli is the biggest failure that I have yet shared on the blog. I feel it is my duty to be honest that trying new things doesn't always work out perfectly the first time. While my ravioli certainly were not the worst thing I've ever eaten, they were far from the best. Next time I will 1) Flour the surface that I place the wrapped ravioli on. They ended up sticking and all but one had to go into the boiling water without a bottom. This made the previously delicious insides watery and a bit flavorless by the time they got out. Not to mention my wrapping durability experiment was completely foiled. 2) I will NOT fold over many layers of pasta to 'seal in' the sides. The pasta cooks up to be thick and a pretty tough. We ended up eating out the middles of the pasta leaving rings of stiff dough on our plates. Lessons learned.

I am not discouraged. In fact, I am yearning for another excuse to tackle ravioli again. Nothing brings me more determination than a setback. I'll certainly let you know how it goes. Until then,

Claire Out.


Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Claire vs. Tofu

I don't know about you, but in my family I was the picky eater. When we sat down to eat lovingly homemade dinners each night (so lucky I know!) I would turn up my nose at the meal before me. Over the years I ate edited versions of our family meals, pasta without any sauce, veggies without steak, and on the occasional meatloaf night I would happily munch on toast for dinner.

Now that I live alone and cook for myself I rarely have to face my picky eating ways. I buy the food I want to eat. Totally easy. However, this blog isn't about living easy, it is about stretching and trying something new. So I took on tofu.


As fas as I know I have never eaten a piece of tofu. (and never once did I feel deprived about it) But, I decided to take on this strange substance after reading this great post from the Daily Garnish. So, I went to the store and bought some firm tofu. Yes it comes in different consistencies, but I decided to overlook that fact because, it was shockingly cheap when compared with say, chicken.

I followed the recipe. Here are my tofu chunks drained.


The tofu cooking away.


And the final product. I decided to eat my new (scary) food in an old way. One of my go-to lunches. (Salad, quinoa, and protein with balsamic and olive oil)


I ate a single piece before digging into my meal. People tell you that tofu doesn't taste like anything. Those people are wrong. Tofu tastes (shockingly enough) like edamame, but it has a sort of grain-y back-taste, like wheat husks. The texture was rather novel too. The way I cooked them they came out crunchy/chewy in a way I have nothing to compare it to. Final grade? New, but not bad.

Is tofu my new favorite food? No. Would I eat it again? Absolutely. Mostly I'm proud of myself for preparing and trying a brand new food. Picky eaters can learn to expand their food horizons.

What was the last time you tried a new food?

Claire Out.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Clairecut

What do you do on a nice Wednesday evening after a yummy homemade pizza and a movie? Why you cut your boyfriends hair, obviously!

I tried to explain to Mike that I had never ever cut hair before. (Well there was this one time in fifth grade when I 'trimmed' my own bangs, but I didn't want to scare him with horror stories.) I am particularly ignorant about boy hair cuts. Side burns? What? However, Mike wouldn't listen to my warnings. He was just so fed up with doing the 'Bieber' head shake and all the other annoying parts of a mop-head that he was willing to hand me the scissors.

Scary right?

Cutting his hair took so long! I would say it was about forty-five minutes of me apologizing for not knowing what I was doing as I trimmed off tiny pieces of hair at a time. I was having flashbacks to the fifth grade bang incident, and wanted to 'hair' on the side of caution. (hee hee) I was completely flummoxed about what to do when I came to the ears. Do you cut around them? Make little ear flaps to go over the ear? I winged it.


Mike tried to give me useful tips about how the pros cut boy hair using a razor, sadly this only resulted in a slightly bald patch near the back. (Sorry love!) There were also several incidents of scissor stabs, that Mike handled with a lot more patience than I deserved. By the end of the haircut I had developed what I would loosely call a technique that I could apply in the future. (If, indeed, anyone trusts me with a pair of scissors again.)

We neglected to get a before picture since it was only halfway through that Mike mentioned this would qualify for a blog. Heck, I'm trying new things without even having to think about them! But here is the final product. Not to shabby right? (For a first attempt)

I choose to think of his expression as dignified instead of skeptical. And he can always wear a hat.

Any tips to a hair cutting novice?