Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

I saw this project awhile ago on pinterest and pinned it to use as a quick and inexpensive way to put a personal touch in the kitchen...and hide the enormous dish soap bottle under the sink.

Altogether it cost only $.65 (the jar).  I did need some help from Karl to get the hole cut in the top (I couldn't get it past the size of a dime), but other than that it was easy-peasy.

Giving credit where credit is due (and I'm feeling too lazy today to type the tutorial), here is the original blog entry from The Frugal Homemaker with instructions for you to do this as well.

Nice to actually do one of those blasted projects I pinned!  As you can see on my board, I have quite a few to cross off my list...

p.s. - I didn't bother painting the soap dispenser and lid as frugal homemaker did.  I...er...planned it that way so that you would have a reference for what it looks like unpainted....yeup.

Erin's Lemon Muffins

I haven't posted a recipe since March, and guess what?  I'm still on a lemon kick!

This recipe came from the inspiration of my friend, Erin, who recently took my all-around muffin recipe and had the brilliant idea to add lemon juice.  She brought them over for me to try, and they were so moist and delicious!  They are infused with lemon; it's like 'eating' lemonade - a perfect baked dessert for summer.

Oh, and as you can see, these aren't muffins.  I made them as bars because I discovered I was out of muffin paper cups, but it turned out to be a good turn, as I could now use them like brownies and put ice cream on top!  :)

The choice is now yours: breakfast muffins, or dessert bars.  Either one wins.

You'll Need:

- 2 tbsp grounded flaxseed (+ 6 tbsp hot water)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- dash of salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup brown rice flour
- 1 cup sorghum flour
- 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (approx. 3 lemons)
- 1/2 cup olive oil (just a little over 1/2 cup)
- 1 tsp lemon zest (optional)

* Heat oven to 400 F degrees

To Start:

- mix together in a small bowl the flaxseed and hot water.  Set aside and let it soak for a few minutes.
- juice the lemons
- mix the flaxseed, brown sugar, lemon juice, and olive oil together (if prefer, also add the lemon zest).
- add the baking powder and salt
- add the brown rice and sorghum flours at about a cup at a time, mixing in-between cups.

Bake for about 30 mins (I did have to turn my oven back to 350 after about 20 mins, so do keep an eye on it so that you don't over-bake the outside before the inside is firmed up).  Do the toothpick test to make sure the batter doesn't stick, and then once done, have fun trying to stop yourself from eating too many.  ;)

Tip: if you'd like to make a lemon glaze for these, use lemon zest and powered sugar (and water).

Blue! No Gray! No....Aahhhhh! - Dining Room Color Choices #2

If you didn't get the reference being made in this entry's title, here ya go.  You're welcome.

Continuing on from this first post when we started this project, we had two colors we chose and painted on the dining wall.  The winners were Admirality, and the lighter color on its swatch, named Blue Zephr.

Buuuut......neither of them work.  The landlords don't want it to be too dark a color (Admirality) so it's not hard to paint over it again in the future.  The lighter color (Zephr) is a nice color, but it's not quite what I was picturing - it's too much of a gray-blue.  

Back to lowe's, this time to look at brighter blues, and again at grays.

Now it's down to Mountain Lake, and Volcanic Ash.

More pictures:

Gray w/ only one coat

This blue is definitely blue.  I rather like it.  It goes with the picture I was inspired by in the last post.

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Draven on Pinterest

As for the Gray/Volcanic Ash - it's a color that could be nice.  Safe, but nice.  Here's another pic to help ya picture what I'm trying to do if we go the gray route (wall color-wise):

Source: theyellowcapecod.com via Draven on Pinterest

I still wouldn't be opposed to having gray, but I would prefer not to go 'safe'.  After living with plain white walls for upteen years (since college, really), I'm feeling adventurous.

This'll come down to the landlords....hopefully we'll have a verdict soon!

Bottom Dollar Haul

Please tell me you have a Bottom Dollar near you.  It will change.  your.  grocery. bill.

I've been a loyal customer of BD since my sis-in-law and fellow penny-stretcher, Chelsea, took me shopping with her at it last fall.  It didn't take long to see the benefits:  $0.78 for a carton of a dozen large eggs.  Boxes of pasta for $0.89.  Bananas at $.44/lb.  See what I mean?

I find myself amazed every time I walk out of BD, and this past trip was no exception.  They are not a "damaged goods" or "expired" grocery store; everything is fresh.  From what I've seen at the store, I believe some of the savings are able to be passed to the customer from not having lots of the veggies and fruits pre-packaged, and they have a lot of store-brand or non-brand items (they have name-brands as well tho).  Another is they don't provide plastic bags at checkout.  Instead you can bring your own cloth bag, or use their cardboard boxes in the front that are leftovers from their shipments.

To get the "member discounts", all you have to do is fill-out a small slip with your name and email, and that's it! (a.k.a. FREE)  You'll get lil cards for your keychain and wallet (keychain ftw), and off you go!

I've got a few hauls to show how consistent the savings are.

Today's haul was this:

- 3 powerades (1-quart each)
- green pepper
- 1 lb.strawberries
- bunch of green onions
- 16 oz. Ragu alfredo sauce
- 24 oz. herbed tomato sauce
- 2 dozen large eggs
- roll of paper towels
- pack of chicken hotdogs
- pack of hotdog rolls (apparently i forgot to put the rolls in the pic)
- veggie 'garden' pasta

Total amount due: $12.54

Here's my proof for any naysayers.  ;)

The only coupons tendered in this haul were the member discounts.  Not bad, eh?  Imagine if you had manufacturer coupons in addition...

Here's the pic and list of items from another haul:

- box of garden rotini pasta
- 16 oz. alfredo sauce
- 2 cans of 24 oz. tomato sauce
- 2 lbs of red seedless grapes
- 2.5 lbs of bananas
- 3 lemons
- 2 dozen large eggs
- can of tuna
- bunch of celery
- 3 lbs. rice
- english muffins (6-pk)
- 1 lb. of unsalted butter

This could easily feed a person on a tight budget for a week.  It'd be safe to say a list like this would normally be around $30, right?

The total for these items came to a whopping $15.15.  Holy crap!

As I sort of mentioned, they also accept manufacturer coupons, and even have coupons of their own that print out with your receipt.  However, unlike a lot of grocery store receipt coupons, their coupons are useful.  Instead of them being geared towards certain items you may never get, like a brand of frozen dinners or spaghettios, they have coupons such as, "spend $10 and get a free carton of eggs", or "$2 off of $5 worth of produce", "$3 off of $20 total purchase", etc.  I think this is one of the smartest things I've seen a grocery store do in a looong time.

Hopefully some of you have a Bottom Dollar near ya.  If not, demand it!  Here's their Facebook page.  ;)

Guests - Film Fest Announcement

What was it I said about slowing down the film fest circuit with Guests of a Nation until this Fall?  Well, scratch that!  We're officially selected for the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival, which will be taking place at the end of next month!  We're still waiting on show time/s and venue/s, but I'll be updating as soon as they let us know!

It'll be rather fitting to show a film about a country's fight for independence in the city known for declaring our own independence.

Decisions, Decisions - Dining Room Color Choices

Who knew there were so many shades of dark blue?

With temperatures warming enough lately to allow us to open our windows (so wonderful!), Karl and I have realized this is a good time to paint a room we've been hankering to do a makeover for.

Paint where?

Think, purple walls.

A.k.a. our current dining room.

Oooh yeah, baby.

We've been accepting of the lavender-colored walls in our dining room since moving last fall, and initially I was planning to work around it with decorating.  But now that it's spring and we have yet to even hang anything on the walls in the dining room, it's as good a time as any to give the room a makeover more to our style.  So, not wanting to miss our earliest opportunity to take advantage of the warm weather, we recently asked our landlords and have gotten the "ok" to get our paint on!

What our dining room looked like after we moved in

Better example of what the true color is (snapped this today on cel phone)

We wanted a somewhat "regal" color, so dark colors were the ticket.  A dark color contrasted by our already-white baseboards and window frame.  Oh happy days.  At first we were leaning towards grays, like these:

Source: cotedetexas.blogspot.com via Pat on Pinterest

Source: nestdesigns.com.au via Nest Designs on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Draven on Pinterest

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Draven on Pinterest

But when I got to Lowes, I got drawn to the blues.  Bonus: blue is Karl's favorite color, so I knew it would have an automatic stamp of approval from him.  I picked up a few swatches of both grays and blues.  Then I went for groceries and saw beautiful orange tulips.  It made me picture how well the blue would still go with the accent colors I was originally going to do in the dining room: orange, green, gray, and white.  And I got excited.  I also got the tulips.  Blue it was.

Getting on pinterest again for some examples of what's in my mind's eye:

Source: thefoodogatemyhomework.tumblr.com via Draven on Pinterest

Source: decorpad.com via Draven on Pinterest

Source: paloma81.blogspot.com via Draven on Pinterest

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Draven on Pinterest

Now to just decide on which dark blue!

Annapolis is like a cobalt bright dark-blue, Admirality is a  middle-ground navy blue, Sailor's Coat is like a dark teal-blue

It's hard to get the colors exactly in these pictures compared to real life, but hopefully you can at least see the small differences in the colors...

I'm leaning towards the Admirality.  What do you all think?

Guests of a Nation - Montclair & Diamond Screen Film Festivals

Two weeks ago on a Friday night was the screening of Guests at the Montclair FF, a rather prestigious film festival, attracting well-known artists, filmmakers, and Stephen Colbert!


(Those of you on mobile, if video doesn't work, click link here)

Our screening block for Guests sold out weeks in advance of the showing, which as you can imagine, is exciting.  Definitely another festival to be proud to show Guests at.  :)

Finally, Guests was shown last week at the Diamond FF, where we had been nominated for Best Fiction Film.  This little film has certainly been getting around.

I think upon entering the summer season that we'll have a bit of a respite, at least until the Fall season.  We're pretty proud of what the film managed in the Spring season of festivals, and hope the momentum stays.

In the meantime, we're starting to get Infinite's engines revved, so I am crossing fingers that I'll have some news about it in the near-future!