Quick Fix: Easy Collage Box

Sometimes you just need a quick, easy craft to fill up some time and make yourself feel productive. Last weekend I found myself in exactly that situation, and whipped up this collaged shoe box to hold my unseemly amount of hoarded coupons. It's pretty straightforward, and ridiculously cheap. I used simple white glue (18 cents at Target! What is this, the 1950s?!) but for a more polished, durable result Modge Podge would be better.

Before: Boring

After: Bam!

What other things could you put in this box? For lots of storage, make a whole series of them! Much cheaper than fabric organizers, but more visually appealing than piles of papers or knick knacks. I'm off to brainstorm more collage-able items!

"Healthy" Weekend Treat: Paleo Banana Bread

I put healthy in quotes because if you eat the amount of it I did, it ceases to be so! My local grocer had a sale on organic bananas that were overripe, so I figured it was time to flex my long-unused baking muscles. I dabble with eating paleo, and when I saw this recipe I had to try it for myself. I love that it doesn't use lots of complicated nut flours, and I was astounded when it came out as bread-like as it did!

I didn't change the recipe at all from the original, but I thought it'd be nice to repost it in American measurements. Enjoy!

Ingredients
3 VERY ripe bananas
1/2 cup almond butter (peanut butter can be used for a cheaper, non-paleo alternative)
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt (be careful with this if your nut butter has salt in it!)
optional: handful of walnuts/raisins (for me, the walnuts were NOT optional!)
coconut oil

Preheat oven to 325 and grease baking pan with coconut oil. Mash bananas and combine with other ingredients. The original recipe says to bake for 35 min, but mine needed a little over 45 min to firm up in the middle. Let cool 10 min. Slather with grass-fed butter or honey and devour! 

Ghetto Shade

Man, has it been hot the last week or so! When a Southern girl is complaining about the heat in Northern California, there has to be something wrong. This brings me to one of my favorite rants: California's (and other regions of America's) constant state of denial about its need for A/C. It is definitely hot enough here to warrant central air, or even those window units, but no. We live in The Bay, where the weather is always Perfect and we cannot acknowledge a potential flaw by being comfortable in our own homes. For christ's sake, the high in Palo Alto this week is 95, and no one I know who lives there has A/C! I've heard many of the Silicon Valley billionaires swear by shading their windows as well, despite their obvious financial ability to bask in cool comfort.

I, however, am not as lucky in the financial department. My apartment does a mildly decent job of staying cool with the windows open for ventilation, provided that it's not the middle of the day. At night the breeze is perfect but the bugs stream happily in through the open windows. So, I decided to try the heat-blocking method. Money has been tight recently and I wasn't keen on the idea of buying new curtains and rods and whatever else one needs to do this the "right" way.

I had been looking for a way to incorporate a beautiful Indian batik into my decor, but didn't want to puncture holes in it to hang it anywhere. After roasting in the light coming through my sunny window, I realized I still had some shower curtain rings left over from the bathroom (again, you never know when things will be useful!). I was able to pinch the batik between the clasps, and the resulting shade blocker adds a gorgeous touch to the dining nook. No holes required!

You can use any printed fabric and shower hooks that aren't entirely circular. The light will illuminate the design on the fabric and look lovely. If your window doesn't already have a bar above it, you could try hooking the curtain rings onto the molding above it.

Fair Savings

Throughout all of my vast experience, I have detected a trend among the male populace; an inexplicable detest of change. No, I don't mean Change in the grander sense--just pennies, nickels and the like. I think it's because most wallets don't have super functional zipper pouches, or men simply can't be bothered to pull out their wallet again to put away change. Instead they store it in their pockets, where it annoyingly falls out and covers the home in a cold copper blanket. 

I used to have a policy that if I found change, my finder's fee was to deposit it in my piggy bank. Especially at my house, there was always the lingering possibility that it could, in fact, be mine. However, after discovering recently that boyfriend had taken to compiling produce bags full of loose coins in a sadly adorable effort to save his change, I had the idea of making a second bank. That way, coins that I knew were actually his could get saved in his name. Plus, the two pigs look so cute together.

Ideally, both banks would be see through to foster some kind of exciting coin collecting competition! Anyone else try something similar?

Let there be light!

I recently had the good luck of meeting a nearby family moving out of their house, desperate to get rid of (rather than throw out) some less-than-stellar household items. I gleefully took most of it--chipped dishes, worn wooden furniture, lamps of questionable function. And it's the lamps I want to talk about today, because they symbolize an important concept for me: you can never tell what will be useful in the future!

That makes it sound like I'm a hoarder. I'm not, although to look at my eyeshadow collection you might not believe me. Anyway, these lamps. Decently attractive, although all three were in need of new lampshades due to the children that apparently rampaged through their previous home. Today I finally got around to testing them all, and discovered that the one I was most excited about didn't work. However, what did all three of them come with? Fancy energy-efficient light bulbs that the previous owner didn't take out. I'm not advocating trying to get free lamps in the hopes of finding light bulbs, but it was quite an easter egg.

I have now arranged the energy-efficient lightbulbs in the lights that I use most often, and am excited to see if I notice a difference in my energy usage (which I monitor online using the PG&E website).

Lesson learned: don't pass up things just because they don't seem immediately useful. I was pretty skeptical about any of the lamps working at all. Now I have two lamps, two lampshades to re-vamp, and a more energy-efficient home!

Welcome to E.L.

Setting up a new apartment can be daunting. While it's certainly exciting to get to pick out all your own things for the first time, it can also be a bit of a shock to realize that all of those household necessities you once took for granted are no longer around. In my case, this panic is coupled with the horrifying realization of how expensive every little thing can be. Take, for example, the trash can. There really couldn't be a less exciting component of a kitchen--it is, literally, a receptacle for things that you no longer want. However, when you do a lot of cooking, it seems like a sensible thing to invest in. I gleefully went online to order a nice one and nearly dropped my hand-painted coffee mug when I saw that what I had in mind was a little more than I had expected. Thus began my first quest, and the beginning of Eastlake Lavender.

After many early mornings and a fair amount of frustration, I finally found a beautiful cobalt blue trash can at a nearby yard sale. A quick Google search confirmed my suspicion that it was one I could never normally afford, and I snagged it for $7 after haggling.

I bungeed it to the back of my scooter, and carefully headed home.

 I can never remember when to put out the bins for collection, so I made a cute sign to remind myself.

This whole escapade captures the type of project that this blog is going to be about. Solving a household issue with creativity, perseverance, and a little bit of hard work. I'll probably throw in recipes occasionally too, so stick around!