New Media Console - IKEA Hack

Since February when we moved furniture around between our living and family rooms, this has been our media console:

Oh it's terrible! It's always been on the list to replace, but still as of late (like a couple of weeks ago when my son hurt his arm at daycare), this was still our set-up.

And I have been looking, browsing, trying to find something that I like that is reasonably priced to go in that spot. Everything is too expensive for what we can afford right now, but I seemed to be gravitating to things like this:

 Crate and Barrel's Austin Media Console $999

 Pottery Barn's Griffin Reclaimed Wood Media Console $1099

Restoration Hardware's Dutch Industrial Media Console at $1295

I finally found some inspiration on Centsational Girl blog, when she posted about IKEA's Vittsjo's line that can be spray painted and morphed in so many ways. She found pictures from West Elm, Ballard Designs, etc. and showed that the Vittsjo's pieces could be used to make most all of them.

 

Image from Centsational Girl

Her images sat in my Pinterest board for a while, until I had time to scope out the Vittsjo's line and figured out what I would need. Then, it was time for a trip to IKEA and Home Depot! Luckily, my husband was willing to make the trip to Home Depot with me, to pick out the type of wood and size of boards that we would need to be most cost effective and we wouldn't have too many wasted scraps. We ended up buying the wood that comes on the shelf like this:

It's down the lumber aisle, neatly stacked together with boards that could be used for shelving.

 All the DIY projects at our house, end up becoming my husband's project for at least some or most of the project life. I really try to do it myself, but I seem to always be the idea girl. This time, I assembled all three Vittsjo pieces myself and played around with stacking them in different ways, to see which layout I liked the best. I only needed the metal frames for this project, so I stacked the glass, that comes with each unit, together under our bed.

We decided to make one complete table first to see how would look. This way we could get the stain the exact color we wanted and figure out exactly what would be needed to complete the project, before we got to assembling the entire thing. He cut the board for the new table top, stained, and assembled the board to the metal. He was able to use the pre-drilled holes in the metal frame to attach the board to the frame, but needed a bit longer screws.

Using a piece of baseboard trim to make a straight cut.

Using the pre-drilled holes to attached the metal frame to the wood.

When we liked the "finished" product, so we got to work on the rest of the wood and pieces. I conditioned (using the method that Young House Love recommended), stained, and sealed all the wood tops.

 Used a combo of these two colors (Minwax's Golden Pecan and Dark Walnut) to achieve the desired look.

 Putting the wood conditioner on

The husband figured out which metal pieces would stay and which would need to be cut out. The tricky part was make sure it was still stable, as when some of the pieces were removed, it seemed it would be wobbly.

What helped to make everything more secure was using L brackets to attach each piece together. So one L bracket would be drilled into the wood itself and also into the metal frame. Most were placed in the back of the media console, so when the baskets would be in, they wouldn't be visible.

 When it was all said and done, here is the new media console, in place in our family room. It holds our XBOX, the sound bar, our awesome TV antenna, record player, my son's DVDs, some of our favorite or need to watch soon DVDs, and our Nintendo (yes, the original one) and its games.

In the end, between the wood, the stain and conditioner, and the shelves, I would say we spent about $250 on this media console. Not bad considering the price of the others I was looking at!

The only thing that would need to be fixed is the feet of the console. They are rough unfinished edges from the cutting off of the metal, so that is something you could make sure to complete or we just have little bits of rag under there now protecting the carpet. Hope you like our IKEA hack using the Vittsjo line.

First Birthday Party - Vroom!

Had the chance to spend some time with my close friends whose son celebrated his first birthday earlier this week. They planned a cute car theme for family and close friends for his love of their Step 2 Red Push Around Buggy.

Of course my girlfriend had some wonderful special touches that I thought I'd share.

Chalk board sign next to their front door.

The nibbles for everyone kept with the fun car theme and I was given the task of making brownie rectangles that looked like stoplights. I didn't have any instructions for knowing how much to purchase or types of M&M's to purchase (as they are all different sizes), so just winged it.

I just picked up the individual packets at a local grocery store, purchasing the chocolate and the peanut ones. If I had a grocery store with a bulk section that sold M&M's I would have bought those, as I could have been more strategic about what colors I picked out; the packages have a lot of blue M&M's! 

I like that the peanut M&M's could be pressed in, almost like they were countersinked in to the brownies, but the chocolate ones were flatter and looked good too.

Cute cake on a star cake plate!

Right before the birthday song, whip cream was added to the cake.

Parents Magazine Sweet-Pea Mash on Toast

Found this recipe in Parents magazine recently (March 2014 issue) and thought it would be a healthy starter for Easter brunch, since so many of the foods my family prepares are carb city!

They call it Sweet- Pea Mash on Toast and it was very yummy. Only complaint, I was expecting it to make way more than it did, so next time double or triple it!

Ingredients are:

• 1 1/2 cups  fresh or frozen sweet peas
• 1 1/2 tablespoons  fresh mint leaves
• 2 tablespoons  olive oil
• 2 cups  yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon  salt
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 French-style baguette
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 cup  part-skim ricotta cheese 

Look what I used to to mash the peas, this Salsa Master (an as seen on TV product) that my mom has had forever! Worked great though!

I had my prep station ready to go, complete with a fresh mojito that my hubby made for us when we arrived. Nice!

Directions are:
Boil peas for 4 minutes and transfer to a large bowl of ice-cold water; drain.

2. In a food processor combine the peas and mint. Cover and process until almost smooth.

3. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook and stir until onion s are golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Lightly season with salt and pepper and set aside.

4. Slice the baguette on a bias, brush the slices of bread with remaining oil and toast under a broiler or on a grill. Rub the toasted bread with the crushed garlic.

5. Spread each slice of baguette with ricotta cheese. top with a spoonful of crushed sweet peas and a few of the caramelized onions.

And voila - out and ready to serve for everyone.

Staple Stores and Restaurants Closing

It seems some of those staple stores and restaurants in our area, those with the great neon signs, the ones that your parents visited if they grew up here in the 60's (or worked at) are closing. And it isn't necessarily because of financial trouble or money.

Overly simplified, the story is something like these mom-and-pop places made it all these years, made it through the Great Recession, now the owners are ready to retire, their kids don't want to take over the family business, so the owners sell the property to retire (which is now easier to find buyers for the property than it was three or four years ago).

The IGA store off St. Johns Road closed after many years being the only large grocery store for the homes in this neighborhood.

This store did close because of financial hardship, story can be found here.

Across the street is Bill's Chicken and Steakhouse and it is closing at the end of this month.  They still served water in those very small brown drinking glass that maybe held four ounces. Probably the same ones for 30, 40 years.

Not Your Ordinary Bath Toys

On many Facebook pages, one reoccurring question I see often from parents is new bath toy ideas for their toddler. Maybe they have had the same ones since their baby was an infant and don't want to spend a lot on a whole new bath toy collection.

One thing that has proven to be a good bath toy (and toy in general) are the plastic reusable ice cube balls. Originally purchased for my son's first birthday party since it was a circle/ball theme, but they have proven to be a very versatile toy.

I have found that these ice cubes are fun for them to take in and out of the freezer, he likes to feel them when they are very cold and see how they take time to melt. We stick them in our salad spinner and he likes to watch them whirl around. We've put them in the back of his dump truck and he takes them to the "dump" and they roll out of the truck into the garbage pit easily.

I like the color ones more than the clear that are also available.

Then, they have come in to our bathtub. They are fun to thrown in while frozen or they float when they are thawed. My son uses his bath net to scoop them up, which is a good hand eye coordination skill.

Photo credit: Amazon.com

I can't seem to find the exact ones that we purchased on Amazon, but here are some clear ones in the shape of balls and some colored cube ones. While doing a quick Google search, I came across so make different types of plastic reusable ice cubes that would also be really fun and good options like: goldfish, stars, fruit, flowers, etc. So have fun!

The other nontraditional bath toy in our house, is the shower caddy from my college days. I can't believe this thing is still around my house, but it has been a fun toy in and out of the bathtub. I like the totes where the handle is fixed, so it is easy to grip and maneuver for little ones. I also like the totes that only have some holes, so only a little water goes in and out at a time, allowing for more play and discovery.

Here is one I found on Amazon, where it is currently a solid piece, but could easily drill several holes in and around the top of the tote.

Photo credit: Amazon.com

Out of the bathtub, it acts as a boat or Noah's ark since it holds a lot of stuffed animals. I love when toys are simple home items!

Advent Calendar: A New Take on an Old Tradition

Advent Calendars have such a history and are a tradition in so many homes. For a while I've been looking for Advent Calendars that can hold items, that don't have a cheesy design, that can be reused, and the spot that can hold items isn't super small where only a piece of nickel candy can fit inside. 

Decided to go with the Grundtal "spice jars" from IKEA. I picked up enough to for 25 days, but a couple extra in case one goes missing or breaks. I think I picked up about nine or ten packages, so the initial cost was between $70-$80, more than I was planning on, but I am hoping to use this system for many many years!

When opened, I pulled out the paper that was inside the lid (that has the lovely food pictures on them) and I used it as my template and traced 25 circles onto cranberry cardstock and paper (of course left over from our wedding. Will we ever use up all the wedding paper goods?!).

Coming up with what picture or design went on the cardstock was a little challenging. I didn't want something that was "too adult" or was pretty just for me, but something that my son would like or would be interested in. At Fred Meyer, I found a bunch of gift tag stickers in a variety of pictures and styles that I thought would be perfect. Since he knows a lot of his animals, I picked up kitties and puppies. He also knows what snowmen/snow/snowflakes are, so picked up ones that had a lot of images of snow "things" too.

Then, I got to assembling each date, writing the numbers really large and tried to find a good place for all the stickers. Some stickers had to be cut, or used in a funny spot, but I tried to used most of the images so I didn't have a lot of repeaters.

I had enough canisters to make a complete tree and hang low on our fridge, so it is right at eye level for him. He LOVES opening and closing the canisters. Really he could care less about the prize inside at this point, but everyday I find him playing with them. I am pretty happy with the entire project and I love that it is something I don't have to find a spot for on a self or table.

My thought is, I can change the images as he gets older and even start to print some of my favorite Christmas pictures from over the years to put inside too. I also like that the space is large enough for other treats other than candy. Since my son is just about 17 months, this year's goodies were those sticky window decals, really tiny jars of Play-Do, and little monsters that squish when you squeeze them.