{Field Trip} The Resource Exchange

Last weekend we took a little field trip to The Resource Exchange in Philadelphia.  It's in a pretty nondescript building and we might have missed it if we hadn't seen this huge wheel in the window.

This place is incredible.  They call themselves "a creative reuse center" and they truly live up to that.  You can find pretty much anything here and it's all so neatly displayed.

I liked this vintage camera corner..and that's an old phonograph you can rent.

There were rolls and rolls of fabric, skeins of yarn, bins of zippers and other sewing supplies.  You could find housewares and decor items throughout the space.

Back in the "way too weird" room were thousands of art slides and old projectors.

This room was a mishmash of things that also included Christmas decorations and party supplies.

This arts and crafts supply area was so neat and tidy and the prices were great.

There were art prints, matts and frames.

That big wheel in the window was for sale as well as the half wheel. I really wanted one!

There were a lot of salvaged film and theater production items for sale.  A whole room was devoted to green building and home building supplies.  

Framed artwork and ...

more artwork and books

The front of the warehouse is a cute storefront with examples of reused and upcycled art pieces for sale. There was also a workshop area where they hold classes (mostly free) featuring artists who use recycled materials.   I could have spent hours in there!

We came home with an eclectic assortment of goodies.  College Girl has an idea in mind for the "Reserved" signs.   Miss Middle School picked up some brass plate stencils, fun letters, shiny silver paper squares and old key and a vintage playbook.  I scored a nice piece of slate, some Asian wrapping paper/decorations and cute bamboo plates.  Sadly, no giant wheel.

If you're ever in Philly, this place is definitely worth the trip!

Part 2 of our field trip here.

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Three Generation Thrifting & Lunch

I spent a fun morning thrifting with my mom and College Girl last week.

Here's my pile of goodies!

On the bottom is a decorative flag that I got for $5.  It was in perfect condition and those flags can be expensive.  I also found a nice wooden cutting board and bowl, some pretty linens, a shirt for me and a vintage pin for Miss Middle School(who was at school).

 After all that shopping we went out to lunch at our favorite vegetarian restaurant. It's always so good! 

This was C-Girl's Cobb Salad.  It was loaded with edamame, avocado, grilled corn and grilled onions on a bed of baby spinach with a vidalia poppy seed dressing.

 I ordered the Grilled Fingerling Potato Salad.  It's served on a spring mix and has scallion oil grilled fingerling potatoes along with maple pecans and char grilled  red onions, topped with feta cheese, beet chips and a maple mustard dressing.

I didn't get a photo of my mom's El Fino Wrap but that was also amazing.

For dessert we shared this trio of sorbets (coconut, mango and pineapple) on coconut griddle cakes topped with a delicious fruity lime sauce and sesame granola bark.

Are you hungry yet?

It was a really nice day together and of course I went right home and put up my new flag. 

It's so summery!

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Catching Up...

I hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend.  

Ours was pretty quiet but we did go to a family barbecue on Sunday and got to witness this stunning sunset.   

How was your weekend?

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Happening Lately....

So many things have been going on lately, I decided to do one post to cover them all.

Miss Middle School and I went vegan for a week in support of National Vegetarian Week 2014. It wasn't that hard and just took a little extra planning.  I tried out some new recipes, like my Vegetarian/Vegan Pot Pie from yesterday's post.   I also cut up a whole butternut squash (not fun) to make this...

Creamy vegan butternut squash pasta with crispy fried sage.   It sounds better than it tasted...so no post on this one.

I've been loving all of the spring flowers that are blooming in my yard. 

Lilacs have to be one my favorites.

 We got to visit College Girl over Mother's Day weekend and also got to see some of her projects from the year.   The middle one is her silk painting.

 Hers is the first one in this group (bad Iphone photo).

 We had beautiful weather that weekend and squeezed in a lot of fun activities --including a Mother's Day breakfast at my favorite waffle place.  One of my gifts was this hand made laptop sleeve from College Girl.  Love!!

I'm taking another photography class and that is keeping me busy. I'm having fun with Photoshop Actions (pre recorded editing steps) but I should be shooting more.

I've been trying to finish my 2011 scrapbook (so close!) and while I'm up in my scrap room I get to look at this pretty giftie from Julie.  I still haven't figured out the perfect spot to hang it up yet so for now it's right here by the bed.

And...I bought a chair! I found this at Goodwill for $5. I've been looking for a good photo prop chair for awhile. Yes, it's in BAD shape but I took it right over to an upholstery store so hopefully it's going to look like a million bucks when it's done. I'll keep you posted.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!!
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{Recipe} Vegetarian/Vegan Pot Pie, Take 2

I was craving a traditional pot pie with a real, flaky pie crust so I adapted this recipe for 1 hour pot pies. Having already tackled a biscuit topped pot pie, it was time to add another version to my kitchen arsenal.  I did take the easy route and buy my (double) crust (making sure there were no animal products in it). 

*Note: Some brands contain lard. 

 The filling is creamy, comforting and delicious plus it's full of veggies.  This pie reminded me of a typical frozen pot pie but healthier, because I knew exactly what was going into it.

 To make the filling:

2 TBS olive oil

1/2 medium yellow or red onion, chopped

1 large clove of garlic, minced

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups frozen vegetables (or you can use fresh)

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup unbleached flour (or thickener of choice)

2 bay leaves

salt & pepper

Preheat oven according to pie crust package directions.  Saute onion and garlic in olive oil, adding a pinch of salt.  Cook until soft - about 7 minutes.

Add the flour and stir with a whisk, slowly whisk in the broth.

Add the almond milk and bay leaves, stir and simmer until thickened

Add the frozen vegetables and cook about 5 minutes more. Add salt & pepper to taste. Remove bay leaves.

Pour mixture into bottom pie shell and top with other crust.

Pinch the edges of the crusts together and cut off any excess.

Cut a few slits in the top crust.

Bake according to the package (or your pie crust recipe) until crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

 Serve piping hot (try not to burn your tongue!).

Enjoy this bowl of comfort food! 

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Score Discounted Tickets with ScoreBig.com

Have you heard of Scorebig.com?

I was offered a chance to try out their site to purchase tickets to an event.

The site is super easy to navigate and gives you lots of options in your own city for games, concerts, shows and special events.  They always offer the tickets at a discount.  You get to pick the section you want to sit in and how many seats you need, then you make an offer for the tickets. Easy!

You can also search other cities if you are planning a trip somewhere and want to see a show or catch a game or concert while you're away.

The biggest issue is deciding what tickets I want to buy!

Disclaimer: I was provided with a discount code for trying out this service.  The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

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{The Abode} Choosing The Perfect Master Bedroom Navy

 Back in this post, I talked about painting our master bedroom navy and now I've

 narrowed it down to three choices.

My friend has an account with Benjamin Moore (sweet!) so she ordered the larger paint swatches for me and I was able to hang them up on all four walls of our room.  

(They've been up for a few weeks so they're starting to curl.)

I narrowed our selections down to 1) Hale Navy 2)Van Deusen Blue and 3)Newportbury Blue- all from the Historical Colors collection from Benjamin Moore.  I love the historical colors in my house and they all seem to work nicely together.

 I'm leaning toward Newportbury Blue.  Hale Navy feels too dark and Van Deusen Blue doesn't feel quite "navy" enough for me.  Newportbury Blue is a nice in between color, it's dark and rich but not too dark.

I can't wait to get started and share the "after" with you!

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My Sneaky "Wood" Photo Back Drop

 I try to style my photos with interesting backgrounds and props.

I love the look of wood to set off whatever I'm presenting.

Burlap is also nice for a back drop.

 You've probably seen this blue wooden one a lot, I think it's my favorite.

Well, all of these backgrounds are actually...

Scrapbook paper that I found at Hobby Lobby!

I'd love to have lots of real wood backdrops (and I did just buy this one from Ikea) but until I do, I'll be using these stand-ins to style my photos.

Have you ever tried this technique? 

How do you keep your photos fun and interesting?

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{DIY} Re-covering Kitchen Stools

So this is my happy ending to my stained kitchen stool saga.

I don't have a miracle cleaner so I decided to re-cover them.

To catch up from yesterday's post, I had tried a Pinterest idea to clean my stained microfiber kitchen stools.

It didn't work and I couldn't get the stains out, no matter what I tried.

I wanted a darker fabric anyway so I finally picked out some fabric and decided to cover them.
It has 'only' taken me two years or so to find a fabric that I like.

Mr. Click was around to help me and removed the base of the chairs so we could get to the cushions.

Once the base came off, it was easy to remove the cushions.

I bought two yards of fabric at Hobby Lobby for about $12.  Here I was laying out the cushion on the fabric to see how it looked.  I loved it so we proceeded with the new covers.

I cut a piece slightly larger than the cushion and we stapled the fabric to the cushion, pulling tightly as we went.

We used a screwdriver to poke holes in the fabric to line up the holes in the the base with the holes on the cushions.  I trimmed away any excess fabric.

Then attached the base to the newly covered cushions!
Yay! 

Before and After!

This was a really quick project. I love when something comes together so quickly and easily.

It was also inexpensive, I could have gotten away with less fabric but now I have some left over for a a future project.  The fabric is nice and thick and it has been holding up really well so far.

It might not be the ending you expected but it's a happy one none the less.

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