Product/Service Review: FedEx Printing

Normally, I wouldn't write a blog entry about a corporate giant (like FedEx), but I have to say I'm quite impressed with the quality of work I received from them for a collage I had printed on photo paper.

I use FedEx quite regularly for shipping, but I've never used them for any kind of personal printing I've done in the past. Normally, I would just print my own stuff on my printer at home. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option for this particular project. Basically, at the end of every year, I compile all the pictures I've taken with work colleagues throughout the year. Then, I print the collage to hang in my office. It makes me happy to look up at all the fun I've had with my co-workers over the previous year. I only started doing this since I started work at FMI. My collage for 2011 wasn't very big because I began working for the company in August. I was able to print that collage on my home printer. But I had a lot more pictures for my 2012 collage.

I know it's hard to tell in this little picture, but we definitely had a lot of fun in 2012 (or at least, I did).

I ordered a frame for my collage a few weeks ago, but I've been putting off ordering the actual photo print. I found a couple of places online that offered printing, but I kept having trouble with those places. My photo is 12 x 18, and a lot of the places online didn't offer that size as an option. I was in the process of trying to print via Walgreens, but the site kept saying my picture was too low quality. Hello...all you accept is jpg format. Of course it isn't going to be great quality. I needed a printer who could print from a pdf, where my collage looked crisp and clear. I was about to give up hope when I remembered that FedEx is for more than shipping.

From the FedEx Office site, I was able to upload my file, specify a custom size and place my order within a 5-minute (or less) time frame. I never even had to call the store. The online ordering system made everything so incredibly easy. I did get a call from the FedEx store that was handling my order to ask if I needed a proof, which I appreciated but thought wasn't necessary.

The final good point I can bring up about FedEx is that they completed my order before noon the following day. I had submitted my order around 5 p.m. and almost 18 hours later, my project was complete. It wasn't a rush job, but they certainly didn't waste any time on it. And the price of $25 was reasonable considering I had a custom request.

*Note: I'm only recommending FedEx if you have a small project (like my one picture). If you have a large project, I would recommend going to a local, professional print shop. Cliff works at a great print shop in the area, but I would have never bothered him with a job as insignificant as printing my collage. That's what FedEx is for.

Recipe Review: Vegan Dinner

In following along with the theme of Comfort Food that I posted for my own recipe yesterday, I decided to try a different kind of comfort food. On a whim a few months ago, I purchased nutritional yeast and soy curls. For some reason, I kept thinking that I would need these ingredients for the vegan meals I would start preparing once a week. Since that purchase, these two ingredients have been taunting me from the pantry. I didn't really know what to do with them because I hadn't done enough research. But finally, I put my foot down and decided to see what their appeal is to the ordinary vegan.

Since I'm an omnivore and love meaty things, I didn't want to try anything too outside the box with these ingredients. So, I decided to keep it simple and see if I could veganize some comfort food. I found a recipe for Homestyle Soy Curls BBQ and one for Macaroni and Cheese (the creator of the macaroni proclaims it to be the best vegan macaroni and cheese in the world, but I have nothing to compare it to at the moment).

I was happy to find that the BBQ recipe was a crockpot recipe. It's always so nice to come home from work and find that dinner is basically waiting on me instead of vice versa. The first thing I did before even putting the first ingredient in the crockpot was to scale down the recipe. I didn't have nearly enough soy curls for 5 cups worth, so I cut the sauce mixture in half and just put 2 cups of soy curls in the crockpot. Also, instead of soy sauce, I used liquid aminos to try to cut back on some of the sodium. Then I dumped it all in the crockpot and set it to low. Since I'm away from home anywhere from 8-10 hours, I figured it's better to cook it on low rather than cooking on high for 5 hours when I won't be there to check on it.

While my BBQ was simmering in the crockpot, I took a moment to total up the nutritional information for both the BBQ and the macaroni and cheese. It is quite a calorie-heavy dinner, but I think I can make it work with my calorie budget if I portion correctly.

For the macaroni, I actually cut the ingredients by 1/3 before calculations. Again, using the liquid aminos instead of the soy sauce helps with the sodium level. Curiosity got the best of me. I had to know what vegan cheese sauce tastes like. I took a taste, and I can detect the "cheesiness", but it definitely isn't like real cheese in the raw sauce form.

Sorry the pic isn't better quality. I was so hungry when I finally sat down to eat that I scarfed it all up without getting a picture of it on my plate. As for my review, I was pleasantly surprised. The BBQ was really yummy. There was something about the mouthfeel of the soy curls that seemed similar to pork. It actually tasted decadent. I really enjoyed it.

I'm probably a little more picky about the macaroni and cheese. It was pretty good, but I wasn't fooled into thinking it was real cheese. I can definitely understand why people believe that nutritional yeast makes it taste cheesy. It has a tangy quality that sort of mimics cheese.

I would definitely have this meal again, and I can't wait to see what else I can do with those soy curls. I'm imagining a "beef" stew.

Comfort Food: Creamy Bacon-Wrapped Buffalo Chicken

Instead of doing a "Clean Eating" recipe this week, I've opted to do a "Comfort Food" post. One of Cliff's favorite dishes is this baked chicken recipe his mom used to make for him. She would line a baking pan with dried beef, wrap bacon around a chicken breast and lay the breast on the dried beef, then top everything with a mixture of cream of mushroom soup and sour cream. It really is quite a tasty dish. I decided to surprise Cliff with a spin on this favorite dish.

Ingredients:
8 strips of Jennie-O Extra Lean Turkey Bacon
4 Chicken Breasts (I used Perfect Portions chicken)
6 oz Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt
2 oz Cream Cheese Light
1/4 cup Blue Cheese Crumbles
4 oz Deli Turkey Breast Slices
1/4 cup + 1 tsp Frank's Red Hot Wings Sauce
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Garlic Powder
2 stalk Celery
2 Carrots

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.

Peel carrots and cut carrots and celery into small pieces. Place in a food processor and finely chop. Put chopped veggies in a large bowl.

   

Rinse out food processor. Add blue cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, garlic powder, lemon juice and 1 tsp of hot sauce to food processor. Pulse chop until well blended. Add up to 1/4 cup of water to get desired consistency.

Cut each chicken breast in half. Place in a large bowl and top with 1/4 cup of hot sauce. Toss with hands until chicken pieces are well coated.

Spray a casserole pan with cooking spray. Line the pan with turkey slices.

Place chicken pieces in carrot/celery mixture to coat (like a breading). Wrap each half chicken in with one strip of bacon. Place on top of the layer of turkey slices.

    

Spread the top of the chicken pieces with blue cheese mixture.

Cover dish with aluminum foil. Bake for 20-30 minutes until done.

Serve alongside rice or vegetable of choice. The blue cheese sauce makes an excellent gravy.

Nutrition Facts
Serves 4
Serving Size 2 pieces with 1/4 sauce (412.3g)
__________________________________________________

Calories - 308
Calories from Fat - 92
Total Fat - 10.2 g
Saturated Fat - 3.1g
Trans Fat - 0g
Cholesterol - 118mg
Sodium - 1200mg
Total Carbohydrates - 8.8g
Dietary Fiber - 1.3g
Sugar - 5g
Protein - 42.8g
---
Vitamin A - 102%
Vitamin C - 9%
Calcium - 16%
Iron - 4%

Pet Care: Cat Glove

For as long as I can remember, I have had cats in my life. I have come to love their aloof way. And I'm quite used to cats gracing their owners with affection instead of giving it freely. If ever there was an animal worthy of being part of the social elite, it would be cats. In other words, cats can be quite snobby.

I'm blessed with having two of these fancy felines in my life. Misser Kitty is definitely the more social and pleasant of the two. He comes on command and loves to give and receive affection. Bingbong, on the other hand, does things on his own time. He can be very affectionate, but it has to be his idea. And he has the most seniority of any of our pets, although he often wonders why we never ask his opinion before we add other members to our menagerie.

So, today's pet care post is for my shedding furballs. Until now, my other pet care posts have been about treats for whichever pet I feature. Well, cats are very finicky, so I didn't want to attempt a treat with them. Instead, I wanted to make them a toy. I got the inspiration for a toy for them from PetSmart.

This bundle of kitty fun retails for $8.99 at PetSmart. Really? It's just a glove with dangly things. I knew I would be able to make something similar that my little cougars would love. And trust me, when playing with Bingbong, you definitely want to incorporate gloves. Otherwise, his Freddy Kruger claws have no problem flaying the flesh from your hands.

In my enormous bedroom clean-up this weekend, I found a pair of gloves that I never wear. These would be perfect for the new toy. I'm going to start with one, but I'll have a backup in case I want to engage in ambidextrous play in the future. So, I went on a hunt for some cat-friendly dangly toys. I managed to find a couple of things that would work.

I clipped off the arms from the orange toy and removed the big eyes. I also clipped the white feathery thing away from the stick. Then, I turned one of the gloves inside out and snipped off the tip of each finger.

After snipped the fingertip, I fished one end of the toy inside the glove and through the snipped hole.

Next, I fed each finger through the sewing machine to secure the dangling toys to each finger.

I used the legs from the orange toy and the long, white feathery toy for three of the fingers. I still needed to use the goggly eyes, but I needed something long to attach to them.

It just so happens I had some elastic available in my sewing kit. After I sewed the elastic to the remaining two fingertips, I pulled out a needle and thread. I begin to hand-sew the goggly eyes to the free end of the elastic.

And voila! Just like that I have a brand new kitty toy.

 

And it looks like it might have gotten the Bingbong approval.

  

Tidying: From Disaster Bedroom to Master Bedroom

Laundry is one of my least favorite chores. I don't mind washing and drying the clothes, but I abhor having to put them all away. So, I tend to let the clean laundry pile up on whatever horizontal surface is available.

Then, when I finally go to fold the laundry, I end up sorting through a wrinkled mess that I put back in the dryer for a winkle release.

And then, I get lazy and put the newly de-wrinklized laundry in a pile...and thus the cycle continues.

I decided enough is enough. I want to have my bedroom back. As it was, I always felt a little ashamed to have anyone go up there. For example, when I got my wedding dress, I asked Jade (little sister) to help me try it on. Now, Jade is family and she's played the role of my maid previously, but I was still a little ashamed to have her standing around my funky, cluttered bedroom. Now, I'm quite proud of my sleeping space. But as usual, I couldn't have done it without a couple of friends.

There's this guy.

Mr. Suck-it got all the big pieces off my carpet.

With my menagerie of pets, there was certainly a lot of hair and various dirt I had to get out of the carpet. Our Bissell is the one designed to help with pet hair. I really think that's just a marketing scam. After all, dirt is dirt, and if a normal vacuum can't suck it up, then there is something wrong with that vacuum. But since I have pets, I bought into the marketing scam when we purchased this Bissell a couple years ago. 

After a couple of hours of cleaning and vacuuming and emptying the dirt reservoir, out carpet looks great (or at least, less trashed).

Do you remember this guy?

Kaboom, not just for bathrooms...

Believe it or not, this product worked well on carpet stains. I'm sure the Kaboom manufacturers would never recommend using this on your carpet. I'm not even recommending you use it on your carpet. But my carpet has seen better days after years of being trafficked by humans, dogs, cats and ferrets. I wasn't really worried about ruining my already ruined carpet. And since I didn't have any other carpet cleaners in the house, I opted to give it a try. In my mind, it was better than nothing. And it actually worked fairly well on the carpet. If you have nothing to lose (i.e., you don't mind potentially ruining your carpet), you could certainly give it a try.

But my best buddy in this clean-up was him.

     My superhero! 

Without Cliff's help, I'm all too certain that I would not have had a successful cleaning experience. He did a lot of the vacuuming, he was the muscle moving the furniture around and he helped sort clothes into keep/donate piles. We helped keep each other motivated to get the room clean, and our hard work paid off.

Here are the before and after photos of what used to be my sewing area but is now the sitting area.

 

 

 

I thought I had gotten some "before" photos of the rest of my bedroom, but unfortunately, it looks like I may have accidentally deleted those. So, all I have to show are the "after" pictures. But considering how messy the sitting area was, you can imagine how messy the rest of the bedroom might have been.

  

Here's a close up shot of my new sewing area. I actually like having it in this location because it is right beside my vanity which not only has a bright light that I can use when refashioning, but there is also the little vanity bench that works perfectly as a sewing bench.

Finally, Cliff placed our little guardian atop the column in our room to watch over us while we sleep.

Meet Cliff's Mini-Me

That's right, we have a stuffed Cliff to watch over us while we sleep. If you think this is too cute (and why wouldn't you), you can make your own stuffed animal by clicking here.

So to sum up, laundry piles have been diminished, Kaboom works well as a carpet cleaner and having a nice, clean bedroom is great (although, I still find myself stepping gingerly in the dark because I forget there isn't clutter everywhere). What a nice getaway for me and my wonderful man!

Refashion: 2 Cowls to 1 Dress

I'm so excited. I finally got my sewing area cleaned up and my new sewing machine set up for my refashions. And I had a great idea for my first (sewing machine) refashion. First, take a look at my brand new toy.

 

Isn't it pretty? It's got so many cool buttons. I can't wait to get to know all of them. I actually had to read the instruction manual to make sure I understood it before I launched into my project. It's a bit different from my old machine, but it didn't take us long to become good friends. I got it threaded and practiced on one of Cliff's shirts that I needed to stitch. It works great, and I was so happy to begin my refashion. So, here is where my project began.

Apparently, I have a thing for shirts with cowl necks. But because of my weight loss (yea!), these shirts are now too big for me. It's funny because I actually just wore the purple shirt this week. But when I noticed it kept hanging over my shoulder, I knew it was time to retire it. But instead of donating it, I decided it would  make for a beautiful refashion.

First, I started with the black shirt. I needed to sew through the shoulders a little so it wouldn't hang on me so much. I took in each shoulder by 2 inches.

Then I made it permanent with a straight stitch through my machine.

Next, I had to take in the sides. I pinned each side in by 2 inches.

Then, once again, I sent it through the machine. Since this material is quite stretchy, I opted to do a zigzag stitch to allow for a little give.

   

After I got the shoulders and sides taken in, I had to trim off all the excess.

Next, it was time to take care of the pink cowl shirt. My plan was to turn this whole ensemble into a dress, so the pink cowl shirt was going to become the bottom of the dress. First, I chopped off the top part of the shirt from the bottom, right under the sleeves.

Then I placed the raw cut edge of the pink shirt against the finished edge of the black shirt with the inside of each shirt touching and pinned them together.

Next, I sewed these two pieces together to create one long dress. Again, the fabric is stretchy, so I once again used a zigzag stitch for it.

After I connected the bottom of the dress to the top of the dress, I got out my trusty (rarely used) iron to press all the newly sewn seams.

I tried on the dress, and I wasn't completely happy with the way it was hanging. I didn't want to put on a sash because I wasn't sure that would give me the effect I sought. So, I grabbed my dragonfly brooch to make a gather around my midsection. After getting dolled up and putting on some jewelry and boots, I was ready to show off my new dress.

I was all dressed up and ready to hit the town. So, Cliff and I opted to go to dinner at Edwards Mill Bar & Grill.

After a slightly disappointing meal, we stopped by Starbucks so I could get a skinny mocha. Luckily, I had the willpower to avoid getting a tasty-looking pastry from their display case.

I'm happy with how this dress turned out. I wasn't really sure it would work out, but I believe the dragonfly brooch saved it.