It's Raining, It's Pouring

You know how if one thing goes wrong in your world, it seems as though everything else falls apart as well?  Now is a good time to tell you the other title I considered for this post: For Sale: A Naughty Kitty. With doctors appointments, hours of crying (baby and me), and way too much time scouring the internet for solutions to newborn allergies, I guess the four-legged fur babies have been feeling neglected. They tend to act out in these situations in a ploy for attention. Usually they scratch the sofa. Sometimes they attack the houseplants or an occasional house-guest (sorry Sis). Apparently, when these naughty behaviors don't get the results they are after, the behavior escalates until one morning I find a giant lake of urine on my bed. If you have pets, you have certainly been there. If not, trust me when I tell you this: it's coming for you. Sadly, this has happened so often in our house that we now have a set arsenal to rid the area of the offending fluid. Here is what works for us:

A 12 Step Process To Remove Pet Stains From Your Mattress (or other areas in your home)

Step 1: Identify the culprit. If you are lucky enough - no scratch that - smart enough to have just one furry creature sharing your house, this step will be fairly straight forward. If you have sucker plastered across your forehead and you just can't say no to a cute whiskered face then this step could get complicated. First look around the scene of the crime, the offender is usually not smart enough to whiz and leave (either that or they receive a sick, twisted satisfaction watching you discover their little "gift"). He's probably under the bed. Yep, he's there, crouching just out of reach. You get down all fours and deftly swipe at him while spewing forth obscenities, but to no avail. You begin to screech. Strange, guttural sounds that you have never heard before escape your throat like a mental patient trying to escape a killer bee attack. You never thought that you could hate that orange striped, whiskered, purr-factory with so much vengeance. You have just rounded the bend to crazy town.

Suspect #1

Suspect #2 and the alleged culprit

Step 2: Throw his furry arse outside. Remember how you advocated for kitties to stay indoors to all your outdoor pet friends? And spouted off all those statistics about pets living longer, being healthier and safer if they are kept indoors? Remember how you looked down on your neighbors for letting their pets roam the neighborhood and sniffed disapprovingly in their direction? None of that matters anymore. You are blinded by rage. You have that crazy look in your eyes. You begin to imagine your life without offending kitties and you begin to laugh hysterically at the thought of a fur-free sofa. You have visions of some unsuspecting fool driving off with your kitty carrier strapped in the backseat.  Your mind reels with the freedom of never having to swiffer piles of kitty fur off the bedroom floor. You have turned into an irrational crazy person. Yes, he is much safer outside the range of your profuse spewing of obscenities. Ignore the sad little meows and big sad eyes peeking in through the windows. It's a ploy. He's evil.

Step 3: Spread the blame. Pick up the phone and call your now least favorite brother. You know the one. The one that suckered you into taking not one, but two (two!!!) furry little rodents. Spew obscenities. Hang up. Take a deep breath.

Step 4: Strip the bed. Immediately put the soiled bedding into the washer with two cups of full strength white distilled vinegar.  Repeat the wash cycle again, this time using detergent and one whole box of baking soda. That's right, now is not the time to be cheap. It's $.79. Use the WHOLE box. You'll thank me later.

If you were faced with a giant lake of urine, chances are the "lake" soaked through to the mattress. If that is the case, continue through to step 12. If not, count your lucky stars and offer a little dance to the pet owner gods for sparing you this time around.

Step 5: Gather your arsenal. You will need:

Oxy Clean

water

paper towels

disposable cloth rags

one box of baking soda

white vinegar

spray bottle

Step 6: Blot the area. Using the paper towels, blot up as much of the "lake" as you can. You may want to arm yourself with some thick rubber gloves. It depends on your "fluid" tolerance. Mine is very low.

Step 7: Mix and spritz. Fill the spray bottle with full strength vinegar and spray the entire area until it is damp but not soaked. Let it sit for 10 few minutes and then blot up with a cloth rag.

Step 8: Mix and spritz again. Fill the spray bottle with a strong solution of oxy-clean and water. We use about 1/4 cup of oxy-clean to 2 cups of water. Spray the area until damp but not soaked. Let it sit for 10 minutes and then blot up with a cloth rag.

Step 9: Sprinkle and soak. Sprinkle a whole box of baking soda all around the area. Again, a WHOLE box is necessary. You are trying to save your mattress which I'm guessing costs a heck of a lot more than a measly box of baking soda or two. Rub it in lightly with a clean dry cloth and let sit for a few hours to allow the soda to absorb all the moisture

Step 10: Vacuum. Using the hand attachment, vacuum the mattress, making sure to get all the baking soda.

Repeat steps 7-10 if necessary.

Step 11: Bask. Remake the bed and breathe in the intoxicating scent of fresh bedding pulled from the wash.  Revel in your kitty-free bed that now smells April fresh.

Step 12: Admit to your weakness. As the hours drag on your stalwart resolve begins to falter. Your bed looks empty. Your kitty looks very sorry. You turn Pandora on to the Mumford and Sons station to drown out the now frantic kitty cries. Big mistake. They are playing "Little Lion Man" and a tear streaks down your cheek.

*Disclaimer: This song is not "family friendly"

That is his song. The orange striped, whiskered, purr-factory little Lion Man that is now staring at you through the open window. You open the door as you sing "it was not your fault, but mine" and you vow to pay better attention to ALL the babies in your life.

All is right in the world again.

Ginger Cookies

I have been on this dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free, meat-free diet now for about six weeks. The question I keep getting is "are you starving?" Surprisingly no, it hasn't been as hard as I thought. Of course, I have a pretty big reason to do it. Trust me, when you wake up one morning to find blood in your infant's diaper, you'll resolve to do whatever it takes to make your little one feel better. And as an added bonus, I feel really great too!

Are there foods I really miss? In a word: toast. Yep, you read that right. I am a big fan of toast. There is nothing better in this world than a thick slice of whole grain bread (La Brea Bakery's is the best!), toasted ever so lightly, and slathered with salted butter. Oh sure, I can still eat wheat (for now), but take the butter (remember, no dairy) out of the scenario and all you have left is hard bread.

Besides my mid-day buttered toast daydreams, I really don't feel deprived at all. Especially now that I have discovered how to replace the dairy and egg in certain baked goods. This is a recipe I have had for years. I got it from my sister-in-law and it has always been one of Mr.'s favorites. Now, with a little tweaking, we can eat them again!

Ginger Cookies
*dairy-free, soy-free, egg-free - but don't let that throw you off! They are delicious!

2 1/4 c. flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. canola oil
1/4 c. molasses
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water

In a small bowl combine flaxseed with water and set aside (it will sort-of 'gel' together and look gelatinous like a beaten egg). Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt) and set aside. Mix together the oil, molasses, sugar and flaxseed mixture. Add dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Form 1 inch balls and roll in granulated sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  Makes 48 cookies (depending on how big you make them).

Note: If you aren't trying to avoid egg, or don't have any flaxseed you can substitute the flaxseed/water mixture with one egg.

Enjoy!

Italian Inspiration: Venice

A year ago today we were in Venice, Italy, blissfully unaware of the major life changes that were headed our way in the next year! Last night we were reminiscing about our fantastic Europe trip that we took last year and wishing we were anywhere else but here. Since our daughter was born we haven't traveled anywhere and we are getting the bug big time. We are working on getting her passport so that we can share the world with her. She needs to see Venice, and soon!

Just in case you aren't headed to Venice today but wish you were, here is a little something to keep you occupied for a few minutes. *Tiny disclaimer: these photos may insight a full-out, kicking, screaming, fists-a-flailing, I-just-want-to-jump-on-a-plane-right-now, giant hissy fit. If this happens to you, I apologize in advance. Take a deep breath and eat some chocolate (dairy-free, soy-free if you're like me!)*

Motivation

Renovating an entire house has it's ups and downs, periods of frenzied activity where you feel like the projects are practically ticking themselves off the to-do list and periods of sheer laziness where it would take an asteroid colliding with your precious new roof to actually get your rear in gear and repair that gaping hole (or paint that room, or put in that new french door that has been sitting in the garage for a year, or finish that crown molding and base board that you purchased last fall, and on and on.) I think you know what period we are experiencing around here (ahem). And the reason?

Everything about this tiny little person makes us weak in the knees, from her hilarious laugh which sounds more like a cough, to her crazy little kicks and wiggles when she sleeps. We just can't get enough of her and find ourselves mesmerized by her every sound, which is why she eats into our 'project' time! Not to mention that by the time we FINALLY get her to take a nap (really? you only need a ten minute nap at 10 weeks?) the last thing we want to do is pull out the air compressor and shoot nails into the wall. So, very little has been done around here....until now. We just got the motivation we needed. We found out a few weeks ago that our I-don't-really-think-it-is-necessary-to-sleep-EVER daughter has some pretty severe food allergies. Because I am choosing to continue breastfeeding (I'm stubborn like that) we are now faced with some big changes to our lifestyle. Cutting out dairy, eggs, soy, and meat from your diet means that the eating-out options are slim to none. No more last minute runs to Cafe Rio or Yanni's, no stopping by Cafe Trang for a take-out noodle bowl. Now we spend our time at the grocery store reading every...single...label. Don't get me wrong. I have always loved to cook, but cooking with an infant is no easy task. So we often opted for take-out. Well those days are over. I am now cooking everything from scratch (prepackaged foods often contain dairy, soy or a combination) and am spending more time in the kitchen again. 

So, we have turned our attention back to the kitchen (again!) Here is the progress so far: 

The view from the dining room before the walls came tumbling down.

Same view without the walls

Sheet rock is finished and bead board goes up on the ceiling (my absolute favorite feature of the new kitchen, but more on that later)

This is what the kitchen looks like today. We still have a long way to go before we can proclaim it "done" but we are already loving the way it is turning out! Mr. is going to be working on trim this week and then we will paint the cabinets and walls! It's overcast and yucky today, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to post more pics. These are definitely "in progress" shots, no beautiful "after" photos just yet!

Until then, have a happy wednesday (or whatever day it is where you're from!)

Behind the Scenes: Nursery Renovation

I always love a good after, the final reveal, the finished product. But I also love to see the work that went into making a space beautiful. I think it helps for future projects as well, because once you've seen the steps that it takes and then see it all come together, you can then look at a "before" space and instantly know how to transform it. So if you're weird like me and are interested in the behind-the-scenes footage, then this is for you. 

If you have been reading for a while, you will be well acquainted with how our cottage appeared when we first purchased it three and a half years ago. Teal and pink pretty much sums it up, and not in a good way. You also know that we had some serious space problems. Both bedrooms came with one tiny closet each, which meant that my clothes were stuffed into the closet in the master bedroom and Mr.'s clothes were stuffed into the closet in the guest bedroom (very inconvenient). So we started Project Pepto to create space where we really needed it most. After all there is no such thing as too many closets. 

This sketch shows the layout of part of our cottage before renovations began. 

This next sketch shows the changes that we have made to the floorplan. To see the dining room renovation go here and for the master bedroom closet renovation go here.  For this last phase of the project we closed off the old closet from the master bedroom side and opened up the space on the other side of the guest bedroom (which is now the nursery) to create a larger closet which is way more usable.

This shows what the room looked like when we bought the house. Yep, teal. From top to bottom. 

This picture shows the tiny size of the closet before. It was three feet wide.

 Here is the guest bedroom after we knocked down the wall between the two closets and created a larger opening for the new closet.

This is what the floors looked like after we took the walls down. We ended up replacing the entire floor so we didn't have to worry about patching the old hardwoods.

The closet after the opening had been patched and primed by Mr. New floors are finished.

Closet shelving going in.

The closet shelving is finished and Mr. works on trim and molding.

Molding is finished and paint goes on.

New lighting is installed.

New doors finally go in. I initially thought that I would put curtains behind the glass doors, and that is my back-up plan for when H turns out to be messy and not keep her closet OCD clean like her mother!

This shows our master bedroom closet doors that we installed when we finished that phase of the project. We decided to match the doors in the nursery to lend some continuity to this crazy cottage. It may seem like an odd choice to put glass doors on a closet, but I love it. It makes the rooms seem larger, more open. 

These knobs were original to our 1940s cottage. The backplates on the master closet doors were also original to the cottage and were spray painted to match the hinges. When it came time to finish the nursery, we wanted them to be similar but we didn't have any more backplates that had been salvaged. What to do? Our favorite architectural salvage yard saved the day (I'll have to do a post on that place someday, it's amazing). They had the exact same ones that had been original to our cottage, so those got a coat of spray paint as well and installed on the nursery closet doors along with two more knobs salvaged from the cottage. 

So there you have it - a condensed version of the whole renovation process on the nursery. In case you missed the reveal you can find it here.