The Cupboard Under the Stairs - Part 1

It happened innocently enough.  I was sitting on the floor, crafting.  In a flurry of conversation, quickly lost in the ensuing pandemonium, my husband said something like, "I'm just surprised you haven't done anything with the cupboard under the stairs."

Pause.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! HOW DID I NOT REALIZE BEFORE NOW - WE HAVE A CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS?

Because. We. Do. People.

And thus the newest project was born: The Harry Potter reading room, in a cupboard under our stairs.

dirty, yellow 'before'

Craft day was on a Friday.  The next day I had cleaned out the cupboard (who's contents are still sitting abandoned in our foyer) and bought ceiling paint.  The first thing I wanted to do was paint the ceiling to look like the sky.  Because Hogwarts Great Hall.  I had the idea to have the lower part of the wall be night and then as the ceiling sloped up have it turn into day.

The cupboard probably hadn't been painted since the house was built nearly 30 years ago, and it showed.  The entire thing was dingy yellow and the covered in scuffs and stains.

A confession: I've never actually painted a real ... painting.  So I was well into trying to do the background fading before I realized I had NO CLUE what I was doing.  I did it by gut.  I painted a light blue over the whole ceiling and then just scrubbed a brush of navy paint around for the night sky.  It wasn't very good.  I spent an hour on YouTube and tried again.  The second attempt was significantly better.

close up of lower 'night'

completed ceiling

I tried a technique to paint clouds my stepmother told me about ... but I wasn't competent enough for that.  Another hour on YouTube, and I started at the bottom and worked my way up.  The first attempts were ok, but the largest clouds in the center didn't turn out so hot.  I talked to my stepsister (an art goddess) and she gave me ideas that I used to touch up.  And ... well, that was it.  I painted the walls a light grey, and the trim ivory.  By Sunday night, I was finished.

There is a good chance that the Black family tree will eventually grace one of the walls ... but for now, it's good enough.

surprisingly perfect cast off

I also replaced the tan light switch with one I had removed from the front foyer when we renovated.  It was too traditional (and gaudy) for that room ...
 but was pretty much perfect for this.

Next time I will talk about the lighting and furniture!

Ceiling, walls, and trim finished

Oatmeal for a Week

I get the question "how do you do it all?" at least once a week.  My immediate answer is always (and will always be) sarcastic - badly.

But seriously, it is hard to keep up with a full-time job, 3 kids, a husband, a small farm (and related 11 animals), a writing habit and all the sundry things needed to keep life going.  One thing I find helps, is spending a few hours over the weekend prepping food for the week ahead.  This is by no means revolutionary, and yet so many people don't do it.  

I think there is a misnomer that making meals for the week is difficult, when in reality it's quite simple.  What can be hard is committing yourself to eat the same thing several days in a row. You can prep for different meals each day but it takes far more planning and effort ... and I, for one, don't have the time or energy for that.

One of the healthy-ish meals I like is McDonald's oatmeal.  Seriously people, if you haven't tried it you're missing out.  There are many reasons the natural eating voice inside my head is screaming "that isn't actually healthy!" but it's closer than a fried chicken biscuit, so for now I am going to say it's healthy ... ish.

I prepped my breakfast for the week this morning while the kids watched an episode of Smurfs (original).  What you'll need:

• two small apples
• golden raisins
• craisins
• instant oatmeal (I prefer maple and brown sugar)
• lemon juice
• cinnamon (optional)

If you have large apples, you might
only need to use one

Start by coring the apples and cutting them into small pieces.  I prefer to quarter the apple, then slice the core out, but that's just me.  After they are diced you will want to coat them in a teaspoon, or so, of lemon juice to keep them from browning.  I also sprinkle with cinnamon because they will soften over the week and the spice sinks in making them taste like candy.  I store the week's worth of apples in the fridge.

To create the package I take to work, I combine a tablespoon-ish of raisins, craisins, and two tablespoons of apple.  I reuse kids' yogurt containers for this because they are perfect size and I don't care if they get lost.  I make a couple of day's worth at a time but you could do the whole week at once.

I put the apple/raisin container inside a take-out soup container along with the dry oatmeal packet.  I like take-out containers because they can withstand a lot of microwaving, plus I try and reuse as much as I can.  I take the whole thing to work, and it doesn't even need refrigeration.  When you're ready for breakfast just toss all the ingredients together, add water (2/3 of the oatmeal envelope is the right amount of water ... seriously.  Easy right!), and microwave for 2 minutes.

Everything fits in the soup container 

There you go, super simple, cheap, healthy-ish breakfast for 5 days in less than 30 minutes.  Not bad, eh?