The Ottoman Empire

During the first couple of weeks we owned our house (early September 2010) I bought a torn up, green leather ottoman at a garage sale for $5. It was a great size, shape and price and had cute brass feet. . . all in all it had a lot of potential but was in no shape to be out for people to see it! Since its purchase the poor thing has sat, or more truthfully, been shoved under the table in our laundry/craft room until last week. But let's start at the begining. . .

Here it is in it's original state. . .torn up but waiting to be cute.

I began by removing all of the leather and setting it aside for pattern pieces. Removing the original leathe was probably the most time consuming part of the whole project.

Once the leather was removed I suplemented the original batting (which was in pretty good shape) with a little more just to even things out and give it a little more cushion.
Oh-I will also say at this point, I decided to eleminate the piping around the top and bottom of the ottoman and only keep some along the center seam. I tried it a couple of ways but decided that the piping was a bit fussy when mixed with the plaid fabric I was using to recover it.
One more note. . . This is the same fabric I used on our dining room chairs. I think this ties everything together nicely PLUS this fabric was donated to me from my lovely friend Amy. Making this a super cheap fix up. All told I think I spent under $10 on the whole project, how is that for frugal?

Okay. . . back to the upholstery. After I added the batting, I sewed the top and side pieces together and slipped it over the top half. Once I made sure everything was in it's place and fitting snug I tacked the edge down with upholstery tacks making sure everything was pulled evenly and securely.

Next I attached the center piping and lower fabric, covering the raw edges of the top half and piping. I attached all of this with my trusty staple gun.

With all of the visible parts being finished and pretty I stapled the remaining raw edge to the underside of the ottomen and called it done. . .well almost. . .

In it's original incarnation the ottoman had cute brass brads finishing the fabric around the legs I went ahead and bought new brads hammered them in and watched them shine!

The cats, as always, were a huge help every step of the way.

Here it is in the living room! Don't you want to kick your feet up and cuddle with a cat?

Falafel Factory

Last Saturday morning Jerod and I got to talking about our plans for the day and came to the conclusion we would have a stay-at-home date that night (i.e. cooking and a movie). It was a cold, gloomy day perfect for being in the the kitchen so I decided to tackle one of my cooking fears and make falafel! Jerod and I both LOVE falafel sandwiches but I have only attempted to make it once, about 6 years ago, with little success. This time was not without problem but better, I think I have figured out the issues and will be able to perfect it in the future.

. . . And if one is having falafel one needs pita too so not only did I have a falafel factory I had a pita factory (thanks to the Hobgood Five for titling these kitchen endeavors) we now have pita in the freezer for at least a month, no more boring sandwiches on regular bread for us. Below are some details about the falafel process:

There really aren't too many ingredients in the falafel-Chickpeas, onion, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, and a few spices.

oh, I merged recipes from here and here to create the falafel recipe.

Food processing . . .

. . .more food processing.

Shaped into balls and ready for cooking.

The oil heating up. I do not often deep fry things and was quite nervous about this step. As it turns out I had every reason to be, but we'll get to that.

As you can see I am no longer deep frying and have transferred everything to a skillet, at least it's a little healthier for us now. Here is what happened: I put the first 5 falafel in the oil to fry and they completely disintegrated, as in were gone, no longer existed! After a little cussing I figured out that my mixture was too wet, mixed a bit of flour in and cooked them in the skillet. Everything went much more smoothly after that.

Here is our little feast ready to be turned into sandwiches. To complete the sandwiches we have hummus, cucumber, tomato, and yogurt sauce (recipes for hummus and yogurt sauce are from here and here).

The pita looking puffy and happy! (I used the recipe from here, which is where I cook most of my bread from)

Oven baked fries looking crispy and delicious! (this recipe I just kind of make up: potates, oil, salt, pepper...bake at 425 degrees until crispy, flip once)

Dinner in all of it's tasty goodness. We had the perfect night and watched one of the best movies Jerod and I had seen in a long time, Drive. If you haven't watched it you should, unless you are my Mom then DO NOT!!!!!! This movie is not for you. We followed this up with some chocolate and peanut butter chip, oatmeal cookies which I didn't get a picture of but were great all the same. I really love weekends. I hope all of you did something fun too.

366 Project: Week 6

Week 6. . . .

February 5

February 6

February 7

February 8

February 9

February 10

February 11

Jumbo Gumbo

Inspired by our trip to NOLA, the last of the rapidly freeze-burning okra (from our garden), the chilly day, and my somewhat new found love for sausage. I decided to try making some gumbo last Sunday.

The frozen okra I just spoke of.

The sausage (I think this part is self explanatory)

The beginning of my roux.

Onions, tomatoes, etc. together and ready to simmer.

A big bowl of delicious! Jerod loved this and it was pretty easy, I think I will be making variations of it again.

oh-the recipe is from here. I tend to use the same cook books a lot.

Striped Sweater: An Actual Project!!!!!!

I know, I know. . .I am actually posting on craft project on a blog named "More Projects Than Time" it's a real shocker! About a year ago I mentioned a sweater I was knitting and had completely screwed up. Well I finally finished it! I predominately worked on it this fall during a time I was not actively engaged in this blog, meaning I don't have any process pictures but I thought I would share this silly (fuzzy and crooked-faced) picture of myself, all dressed up for work in my new sweater.

I'm a little proud of myself and my hair looked cute that day!

6th Anniversary Trip: New Orleans, LA

With our anniversary being so close to Christmas (two weeks after) and no need to buy each other an additional present Jerod and I typically try to take a few days off of work to get away and relax. This year (a few weeks after our anniversary proper) we drove to New Orleans, LA!!!!!!!!!!!!! The drive took about 11 hours and wasn't too bad, on the way there we went the back way through southeastern OK, the corner of AR, and into LA and the way home we went the more direct route of LA into TX and up into OK. We had a wonderful time, weather (except for small rain storms and a horrible rain storm on the drive home), food, everything! Here are some of the highlights.

We stayed a beautiful hotel (the Place De Armes) right by Jackson Square.

Did tons of walking and exploring during the day.

Went to the Marie Laveau museum

The aquarium

Rode the trolley (sorry!!! STREETCAR) through the Garden District. It was cool to see people starting to put up their Mardi Gras decorations.

Went on a National Parks Service tour of the river front. It was cold that morning but our tour guide was excellent! I would recommend this tour to anyone.

Ate and drank (or maybe it was the other way around?)

. . .and went for a night time Ghost Tour. Not that spooky but very informative. Supposedly, most people have "orbs" or abnormalities show up in the photos they take during the tour. . .we did not. Although, my friend Megan showed me pictures her brother took on the same tour and that had tons of orbs, so who knows.

Goodbye NOLA. . .the Belteau-Gerfen's had fun.