DIY Hanging Rope Shelf

I made this shelf probably five or six years ago and it’s followed me around in all those years. I brought it over to our new house when we moved in last year and it’s just been sitting in Jack’s closet since then. Yesterday I finally decided to put it up, but then when I got some questions about it I realized I had never posted the DIY to my blog! So here it is!

What you’ll need:

• Rope

• Screw hooks and anchors

• Wood planks

• Drill

1/ Drill holes in the shelves in their four corners, about an inch in from the edges.

2/  Decide how far apart you want your shelves to hang from eachother. Cut a length of rope long enough to go from the bottom of the lowest shelf, up to the top of the shelves and back to the bottom, plus a couple of feet.

3/ Tie a knot at one end of the rope and push the other end through a corner hole on the first plank. Tie the next knot at the distance apart you decided to make your shelves and then push the end of the rope through the next shelf’s corresponding corner hole.

4/ Repeat with each shelf. When you reach the top shelf, create a looped knot at the top, forming a right triangle so the shelves hang level from the screw hook you’ll be hanging the shelves from.

5/  Now, take the rope down through the back holes in the shelves, tying knots at equal distances as the first set of knots so the shelves hang level. When you get back to the bottom knot, cut off the excess rope. Repeat with the second side.

6/ Measure the distance between the two rope sides to determine how far apart you’ll place your hooks. Decide how high you want the shelves to hang, then install your screw hooks. You might want to put anchors in, depending on what kind of walls you have and how heavy you predict the items on your shelf will be.

7/  Once the screw hooks are in, you can hang the shelf! Use a level to check that your shelves are straight. You may need to do some tweaking and raise/lower some of the knots to get everything perfectly level.

Quarantine Meal Planning Round Up

Since the start of quarantine, my meal planning has looked quite different. Or rather, I should say, I’m ACTUALLY meal-planning now. Like picking out recipes for the week or two weeks, then shopping for everything I need for those two weeks so I don’t have to go back to the grocery store for one thing I forgot, which is my usual Modus Operandi.

I don’t have the mental space to go out and scour the internet for recipes to make each week, but early on in the quarantine my friend sent over the Budget Bytes “15 Pantry Recipes for Emergency Preparedness” round up and since then I have been making recipes from Budget Bytes … like pretty much exclusively for the past two months.

I’ve asked on Instagram if you guys wanted me to round up my favorite recipes that I’ve tried (and most of these I’ve made multiple times!), so here they are!

Pasta Sauce
I had been using a similar recipe for pasta sauce from one of my old Hello Fresh meals, but this one is similar and so I’ve started using this one instead. The one thing I pulled over from the Hello Fresh recipe was to slice up 2 small zucchini’s into half-moon chunks and saute those with the onions. It adds a bit more to the sauce and makes it more substantial. Plus, I just like zucchini.

Tikka Masala
My house smelled AMAZING the whole day I was cooking this one. I have been meaning to make it again because I loved it a LOT.

Pineapple Teriyaki Chicken
This one is similar to the skillet pineapple chicken, but I dig pineapple and chicken so both are solid in my book.

Jerk Chicken with Pineapple Black Bean Salsa
I had never had Jerk Chicken before and it was bomb. The pineapple black bean salsa was super delicious and added a nice flavor dynamic.

Skillet Pineapple Chicken
I’ve made this one maybe three times in the past two months? It’s so good and so easy.

Slow Cooker 5 Spice Chicken
We just made this one a couple days ago! Another chicken flavor I had not tried before. Another that made my house smell delicious all day.

Thai Chicken Pizza
I love Thai Chicken Pizza, and this one was fun because I made my own Naan bread for the crusts!

King Ranch Chicken Casserole
I love a good casserole. Mostly I love having hella leftovers and not having to cook the next day. This one was real tasty. I’d never had King Ranch Casserole before, but I was into it. Making it again this week!

Creamy Salsa Chicken Skillet
This one was so delicious. So many good flavors, and I’m always down for a sprinkle of Queso Fresco. This one is solid and is added to my will-make-again-many-times roster.

One Pot Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta
This one was recommended by an instagram follower of mine who also loves Budget Bytes’ recipes. I’m not typically a big pasta fan, so I don’t think to make it too often, but I loved the Cajun flavor and creaminess of this recipe. Plus: leftovers!

Lemon Blueberry Cornbread Skillet
I just made this one today, because I just happened to have everything on hand for it! I love cornbread and this is a more dessert-y version that I will probably eat for breakfast for the rest of the week (if it lasts that long).

all images via Budget Bytes, except cornbread images

ORC Week 2: Master Bath Progress!

Progress! this was one of the few rooms in the house that actually got down to the studs. We had to take out the whole left half of the room where the old (tiny, gross) shower, and the (stupidly deep) linen closet were. We were lucky to find a shower pan that was the exact dimensions we needed for the space, which was kind of amazing because it’s not really the most common size, but Home Depot had ONE that came in that size. Huzzah! We contemplated doing a tiled shower floor but it just felt a little frustrating to figure out so we decided to just simplify things and go for the shower pan.

We had to add a layer of OSB subfloor to beef up the floor so it’d be sturdy enough to take the tile, and once that was done we were able to finally lay tile!!! I’m so in love with the black hex tile we got. It was surprisingly affordable, but still had the exact look I wanted.

When I bought the mirror, I did not realize that the brass was a slightly different tone than the brass sconces I’d ordered. The mirror was going to be right between the two sconces so having it be a different shade of brass (way more yellow-toned) was definitely going to be waaay too clashy, so I just grabbed my trusty spray paint, masked off the mirror, and after a few minutes it was the perfect color.

I knew I wanted to do a “barn door” because we were eliminating the pocket door, but didn’t want to take up precious floor space in the small bedroom with a swinging door. Since there’s nothing about this home that says “farmhouse,” a barn-y barn door wouldn’t fly. I found this reclaimed french door from Earthwise Salvage here in Tacoma and knew it’d be the perfect fit. I’m going to paint it black so it stands out against the white wall and really pops!

I ordered the barn door hardware from Amazon and it was pretty easy to install! The locations where the lag bolts go are not moveable, and since the studs on that wall are in pretty odd locations I did have to add backing in a few spots, but luckily we hadn’t put up drywall in the bathroom yet, so that was easy peasy.

Next up on the project is to update the shower valve to a modern pressure balanced valve so we can put up the wonderboard on that wall, and then tile the shower surround!

Make sure to check out the ORC blog to see all the other room transformations!

ORC Week 1: Our Master Bath Before!

Our Master bath was the one room that we really needed to gut completely and start from scratch. It had a disgusting 3x3ft shower, with a tiny linen closet next to it, an itty bitty vanity and the toilet sat smack dab in the door way. Whoever designed this space was completely insane. We didn’t have the budget to move a bunch of plumbing around, so we are working with what we’ve got for the most part (yes, including the toilet location).

Originally, this bathroom really didn’t feel at all like a “master” bath. It feels like the dingy basement bathroom from my college duplex, only less spacious. So while we couldn’t do a ton with the layout of the space, we could make it feel more like a nice bathroom that was designed in this decade.

Like, you guys, it kind of even gives me the heebie-jeebies just looking at these pictures. There are so many things about this house that made me a little stunned that humans were living here right before we bought it, but this bathroom was definitely high on that list.

We’re also removing the pocket door, and moving the doorway slightly to the left so that the toilet isn’t RIGHT in the middle of the doorway. Look, I love my husband, but I’d rather not have a direct line of sight to him taking a dump while I’m laying in bed. But that’s just me. Taking out the pocket door also allows us to beef up that wall where the pocket was for the door, so it’s sturdy enough to take the tile that we’ll be putting on the shower surround. We still really need a sliding door since our bedroom isn’t very big and a traditional door will take up too much space, so we’re putting in a sliding barn door instead. I got a vintage french door, which I’ll be rehabbing and doing a faux mercury glass treatment on the glass panes for privacy.

Next to the shower was a tiny, 3ft deep linen closet which felt minimally useful, so we decided to tear out that whole side of the room and instead put a walk-in shower. Originally I wanted to do a penny tile floor for the shower, but it ended up being a lot of work to do all that ourselves, so instead we bought a pre-made shower pan that fit the space perfectly. It’s not fancy, so I’m going to make a teak slat floor for the shower that will fit right on top of the shower pan and make things feel way more “spa” like.

The flooring will be completely replaced with large black hex tile, and we are moving the vanity to be on the wall opposite the doorway, next to the shower. Since the shower entrance will now be where the linen closet used to be, we can utilize that wall for a vanity with way more counter space. We’re putting up a gorgeous brass hexagonal mirror and two brass sconces on either side of the mirror!

I’m so excited to have a functional bathroom in our master! We have a second full bath in the house, so we haven’t “needed” it, but it’s going to be SO nice to have a space of our own.

Check out the other One Room Challenge posts!

corn chowder

I'm making a pact not to make anymore sweets for a while.  As tempting as it is to try out all the amazing recipes on pinterest, I'd like to lay of the sweet stuff for a bit and try making some more filling, hot meals.  I made this soup a couple weeks ago and I've made different versions of it since then. I really like how easy it is to play around with soup.  I subbed in carrots for onions the second time I made it and it still tasted really great!  Chowders are just the best for warming up my insides during the colder months.  So thick and filling and radiates the warmth from your insides out.  I think I might try to make clam chowder next, maybe with an Alaskan vibe to it.  I absolutely love clam chowder and I've always liked it best when it has a bit of an Alaskan spin to it.  A little taste of home.

Maybe I'll do a bunch of my favorite Alaskan-y recipes.  I have a bunch of recipes from my Mom and Grandma that remind me so much of home... halibut, salmon, crab, lox and bagels, etc, etc.  A couple years ago for Christmas my Grandma and Grampa gave me a recipe box, which was carved by my grampa and filled with my Grandmas recipes!  I'm ashamed to say that I haven't made a single one of the recipes yet, but I'm going to change that, effective immediately.  I really love my Grandma's take on sort of homestead Alaskan cooking.  She's allergic to fish, so she couldn't make any of the Alaskan fish dishes (a shame, since my Grampa, Dad, and Uncle were all commercial fishermen!).  Alaska back in the mid 1900's didn't have a lot of fresh produce options and stuff, so she made do with whatever they had available.  It's so neat to see how creative she was, working with whatever she had (awesome stuff like slim jim chili, pioneer mac and cheese, and beans and wieners).  As a kid I remember looking so forward to getting some of her amazing

Scotch-a-roos

in the mail, and just the other day my mom mailed us a care package with a tupperware full of scotch-a-roos in it!  I felt an overwhelming sense that someday I'd be sending my kids and grandkids care packages filled with scotch-a-roos...

(adapted from 

Suzie the Foodie

)

1 (15.4 oz) can of corn, drained

4 strips of bacon

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup flour

3 cups chicken broth

1 large potato, diced

2 bay leaves

2 tsp sriracha

1. Crisp 4 slices of bacon in a large soup pot and remove. Throw your onion in the bacon grease and saute for a minute, then add the garlic and season with a bit of salt and pepper to your liking.

2. Add the flour and stir it around for about a minute, then add the chicken stock and your diced potato. Let this simmer for about 10 minutes.

3. Add the corn and your bay leaves, and two teaspoons of sriracha. Don't be afraid, it won't make it super spicy, just give it a bit of a zing. Let this simmer for another 15 minutes.

4. Remove the bay leaves and blend about 1/2 - 2/3 of the soup in a blender (or you can use an immersion blender if you have one), and stir the pureed soup back into the pot with the rest of the soup.

Crunch up the bacon you crisped at the beginning to use as a garnish along with some grated cheddar and some chopped green onion, or if you're like me and only have cilantro, that works too.  Tastes amazing with some crunch bread to it soak up!