Unfortunately I didn’t take any before pictures, but here are some “in progress” pictures.  This was actually about 2/3rds of the way through.

Newly organized bookcases.  Sorry for the blurry picture!  (And don’t worry, the cord got fixed later.)

Here’s the closet now.  In case you can’t tell, he collects shoes.  If you think it still looks full now, it was overflowing before.

After we went through everything, we were able to rearrange his furniture and make a much more functional space.  Functionality was definitely the key to this space.  I would have loved to keep going and redo everything, but all he wanted was a functional space that he could spend time in.  Now he has it!  (And I may have a future as a professional organizer.)

P.S.  You’re welcome.

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I’ve been inspired by spring!  I’ve never been very good at growing things (see here), but I decided that I wanted to try gardening this year.  Part of my reason is that I’ve been cooking more, so the idea of having fresh herbs just a few steps away is pretty tempting.

A friend loaned me The Bountiful Container, which is an incredibly helpful and informative book.  I decided I wanted to grow flat leaf parsley, oregano, basil, chives, and bell peppers.

When it got to the actual planting, I realized I really didn’t know how much space each of the plants needed, so I did what I thought looked good and we’ll see how it turns out!  I did a container with the parsley, basil, and oregano, another with a pepper plant and chives, and the last with two pepper plants.

I also picked up some gerbera daises that I just couldn’t resist – we’ll see if I can keep them alive!

Also, for anyone who is concerned about my ficus, here it is today.  Still not fully recovered, but definitely doing much better!

And here’s my little garden!

Any gardening tips for a beginner?  Please share!

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My family makes maple syrup, so I’m always looking for opportunities to add its wonderful flavor into food.  I recently made some cookies with maple syrup, and they turned out okay, but weren’t anything special.  Here’s the recipe I used (its basically just an adaptation of the Tollhouse recipe).

• 2 1/4 c. flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. salt
• 1 c. butter, softened
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. pure maple syrup
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 12 oz chocolate chips

Beat butter, sugar, syrup, and vanilla together.  Beat in eggs, then add dry ingredients.  Mix in chocolate chips.  Bake for 10 minutes at 375.

I actually made a half batch, which was a little tricky (see here for more about my issues with cooking for one person).  The dough seemed a little liquidy to me, so I added another 1/4 cup of flour or so and then chilled it for a while before baking.  Next time I’ll definitely use Grade B syrup (its darker and has a stronger flavor), because the maple flavor wasn’t very noticeable in the cookies.

Do any of you have a good maple cookie recipe?  Or any another maple recipe?  Please share!

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For the bookcase, my biggest challenge is filling the space.  Here’s how it looked back in December.

I liked the look, but once winter was over I had a hard time figuring out how to update it.  The vases got moved around to other areas and for a while I just had a few small things scattered on it, which didn’t really make it the focal point I wanted it to be.

Here’s my latest version.

I bought the candleholder so that I would have one piece to really focus on, and then built it up from that.  It was sorely lacking in color at first, so I added the ribbon to the candles, but that really wasn’t enough – the candleholder was just fading into the bookcase.  I looked around and saw the yellow fabric, which I’d gotten as an option for another project but ended up not using.  It was a great bright spring color, so I just folded it up and then put a piece of glass on top of it (from this project).  Then I added some tea candles (because I have a lot of those and not so many pillars), and also a few extra little mirrors leftover from my bulletin board for a little more sparkle.

My “mantle” has always been pretty empty, because I’m still looking for a mirror or some other large object to really build things around.  Here it is in December.

I moved some of the candles to the bookcase, so I had to fill it in a bit.  I used the pieces of slate that my mom mailed me.

It’s pretty simple, but it’s working for me right now.  The “faith” in front of the slate reminds me that a little faith is really all you need to make it up the mountain you might see in front of you .  I’m still looking for something to add a little height though, so any ideas would be much appreciated!

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It’s not quite as fun to try out new recipes when you don’t have anyone to share them with, but its definitely still worth it.  In the last few weeks I’ve made Italian Wedding Soup, a delicious stuffed pepper filling (ground turkey, orzo, romano cheese, onions, and garlic), meatloaf, and pesto from fresh basil.  But since I’m only one person, I had way more than I could eat of all of this.  So I froze a lot of it, which is great, because now I can have a delicious homemade meal in about 5 minutes.

However, my freezer is only so big, so I really do wish there were more recipes out there for only one person.  I’m actually quite surprised there’s not.  So many people live alone or eat alone regularly – its a huge market waiting to be targeted!  I do make just one serving of chicken or pasta frequently, but its not very exciting.  And occasionally I mis-measure and end up with way too much – like the time I made pasta with carmelized onions, toasted walnuts, and romano cheese.  At the last minute I decided I wanted some leftovers, so I added some more pasta to the pot without really thinking.  I ended up with so much that I ate it for at least one meal a day for about a week and a half.  I wish I was exaggerating.

But anyway, my biggest challenge is baking.  I have a huge sweet tooth and love to make cookies, brownies, cakes, and anything else that sounds good.  Unfortunately most recipes make at least 2 dozen cookies/brownies and they’re very hard to cut down.  I need 1/8 and 1/6 measuring cups (and a way to split an egg in half accurately)!  And I’ve just given up on making cakes .  It’s not quite as enjoyable when you have to force yourself to eat it before it goes bad!  I’d love to find some good one-person desserts.

So do any of you have any advice about cooking or baking for just one person?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

I also made a very simple ribbon holder.  I’ve seen some gorgeous ones out in blogland, but I just went for very quick and easy.

Yes, it is propped up on a couple of nails.  Don’t judge me.

It doesn’t look like anything special and I’m not sure how sturdy it is, but it works.  It also fits in the very strange cupboard I have – the shelves are so narrow that I can’t actually store anything in there, but putting the ribbon in there frees up some more usable space.

Keep checking back, more to come soon on my adventures in the kitchen and the garden!

It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it had the storage I wanted and the price was hard to beat, so I bought it.  When I got it home, it seemed a little bland, so I decided to cover the top with a more interesting fabric.  I just cut out a piece of fabric a little larger than the top and stapled it around the sides.

It took me about 10 minutes and now I have a much more interesting personalized ottoman for under $25!

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It looked terrible (real life was worse than the picture).  The brown fabric looked reddish and clashed with the rest of the room, and the frame looked dingy.  So I bought a couple other fabrics to try, but none of them looked any better, so I repainted the frame and suddenly it worked!  The brown fabric was brown and the frame looked beautiful.  Huge sigh of relief.

The bulletin board is just batting and fabric stapled around a piece of cardboard that came with the frame.  I hotglued my ribbon to the back, stapled down the points where they crossed, and then glued little square mirrors at each point.  I absolutely love the mirrors – I’ve never been much of a girly girl, but I do love things that sparkle!

Word of advice – I wouldn’t recommend using a striped fabric, especially one with any stretch, for this type of project unless you’re a very patient person.  My stripes ended up quite squiggly (but its all the same color, so I didn’t care too much).

Into the frame…

And its done!  (Well it still needs to be hung up, but I’ll get to that eventually.)

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I saw this post about creating a “chandelier” a few weeks ago and have been thinking about doing something similar ever since then.  I absolutely love glittery, glam chandeliers, but there was no way to ever fit one in my current apartment.  My lighting is basically a track with three lights, so I thought I would try doing something with the center light, because its directly over my “living room” area.  I didn’t take any before pictures, but you can see part of the track here.

Here are my supplies.  Two different sizes of clear beads, beading thread, and a pair of scissors.  It cost me $3 for the bag of bigger beads and I had everything else already.  But even if you had to buy every single thing, you could do this project for $5-6.

I just knotted the thread, slid on a small bead, a big one, and then repeated at roughly equal intervals for the length of the thread.  Usually I measure things out, but I did this kind of haphazardly and it worked out wonderfully, so I don’t think any planning is necessary for this.  I did 17 strands, each with 6 sets of beads.  It takes a while, but its easy to do while you’re watching tv or something.

Then I just tied the strands around the light and cut off all the loose ends.  You can still see all the knots if you look closely, but who would do that?

I love the way it looks finished.  It shines beautifully when the lights are on, and it gives my seating area a really warm, cozy feeling.  What do you think?

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Gorgeous detail though!

So I spray painted it in Heirloom White (I’d heard so much about it that I had to give it a try!) and it turned out beautifully.

Now comes the problem.  My original plan was to glaze it to bring out all of the details.  But now that it looks so nice I’m afraid to try it!  I’ve never glazed anything before and I have no idea how it would turn out.  So what do you think?  Glaze it or leave it be?

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