Classic, Spicy, Delicious Breakfast

05/17/2011

Poached eggs are the new fad around this mid-century modern ranch. Jason, who is a wonderfully creative cook, came up with this twist on the classic poached egg and toast.

Poach an egg the way you always do. We use a deep skillet with a few inches of water and a splash of apple cider vinegar and gentle slide the egg into the water when it’s at a gentle boil. Figuring out when it’s done is not an art we’ve perfected yet. Place the poached egg on a piece of buttered toast. Sprinkle with sharp cheddar cheese, dill, salt & pepper, and a few drops of Louisiana Jalepeño Hot Sauce. (Side note: Best brand of hot sauce EVER. I thought I didn’t like hot sauce until I had Lousiana Hot Sauce. Great flavor and not overly hot.)

Easy peasy. And it’s truly yummy! In fact, I want one right now just thinking about it…

1 Comment | Art, Art: Cooking, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Modern Wood Fence — Step 7: Windows

05/16/2011

A month ago I published Step 6: Almost Done… Well, we’re still almost done with the fence. Which means not done yet. I needed to refocus our attention on inside projects to get our house ready for our home study. So we STILL have to finish staining, patch some gaps along the bottom and add gates to our lovely modern wood fence.

I haven’t told you about these “windows” yet, though. We have a beautiful flowering plum tree that was in the way of our fence. We didn’t want to mangle one side of the tree by sawing off branches so we decided to build the fence around the tree. Or is it build the tree into the fence. Or build the … nevermind. See what we did here?

In one section we only used half of a plank, attaching one end to the 4×4 post and the other end the 2×4 support post. In another section, we created a small window, bracing a short plank to the planks above and below it using a scrap piece of plank. Did I say plank enough times for you? And yes, I, too, am curious how this is going to affect the tree and fence in years to come…

————————————————————–

Step 1: Inspiration, Step 2: Planning, Step 3: Posts, Step 4: Progress, Step 5: Transport, Step 6: Almost Done…

2 Comments | Art, Art: gardening, Art: modern design, Art: modern wood fence | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Medical Kit for New Parents of Foster Kids

05/13/2011

…or any new parents, really.

I got some wonderful, thoughtful, generous gifts at my shower. Most of them were from Amazon.com where I’ve been keeping a wish list of baby/kid items for my own reference. A couple gifts were totally original ideas. And one gift really took the cake with it’s thoughtfulness. I call it the Nurse Memaw Medical Kit. My mom, soon to be “Memaw” to our foster kids, is a nurse so it’s even more perfect coming from her. This is a great idea for a new foster parent or any new parent.

Medical supplies for kids:
baby wipes
sunscreen
shampoo for kids
baby bath solution
kid-safe toothpaste
fun kids toothbrushes
fever reducer for kids
fever reducer to infants (drastically different dosage!)
medicine droppers
bandaids
neosporin wound cleaner

My mom is awesome! So clever with her gifts. This reminds me of my bridal shower when she gave me a huge basket full of kitchen staples and spices. All those little things that it’s so nice to have on hand when you need them in the middle of a recipe, or in the case of the kids medical supplies, in the middle of the night.

A week later, a friend gave me the medicine lock box and infant medical pack off my Amazon list. I added this kit to my list because it contains a thermometer, nail clippers, a nose sucker (what are those called?), and some different kinds of medicine droppers. I think we’re all set now. Did we miss anything you can think of? Do you have any other great gift ideas for new foster parents? Is my mom amazing or what?

10 Comments | Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends, Family: Foster Parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Gift Ideas for New Foster Parents

05/12/2011

A lot of people have been asking us what we need and how they can help. A group of my closest friends even threw me a little “baby” shower. (That deserves it’s own post…as soon as I can track down some decent pictures! I did take this one of my awesome niece. She’s not so sure about that camera I’m sticking her face. Don’t mess with her, she’ll punch your lights out.) So, in case you know some new foster parents and are looking for ways to bless them, I’m sharing what I’ve learned. Please note: this is NOT a plea for more stuff. We have almost all we need already covered. Also, this list is slanted toward newborn-5, our age range.

Before the first child arrives, what to get:
books, books, books
kids CDs for the car, for dancing around the house, for night time
games
car seats
child proofing safety items (outlet covers, medicine lock box, night light, cabinet locks, etc.)
kids tableware
rocking chair
infant and child medical kit
bath toys
staple toys (blocks, cars, dolls, puzzles, instruments)
stroller
movies
bedding
towels
booster seat
shopping cart / high chair cover

Before the first child arrives, what NOT to get:
gender specific items (this mainly applies to sparkly pink and purple things)
items with a limited age range (mainly infant items)
big toys (take up too much space)
clothes

Child-specific gifts / After a child is placed, what to get:
attachment building helpers (photo albums, snapfish gift cards, vouchers for outings)
child specific clothes*
child specific toys*
age specific equipment (lots of fancy gear out there for newborns, for example)
thoughtful, encouraging card
offer to babysit
meals
duffle bag, suitcase or backpack (to keep personal belongs in if moved to another home)

*Foster parents are given a stipend specifically intended for clothing and allowance for children. With our agency, we’re required to spend at least $1 a day on clothing and a $1 a day on fun things for each child. Some children come with a lot of toys and clothing already, especially if they’re moving from one foster home to another. Sometimes they only come with the clothing on their backs. Check with the parents to see if clothing is a need. Same goes for toys. Keep in mind anything purchased for the child after his or her arrival belongs to the child and goes with him or her if reunification happens. Gifts purchased before a child arrives are considered family gifts and stay with the foster parents.

Leave a Comment » | Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

The Silver Bullet

05/11/2011

Yes, that’s right: not only have we become minivan people but I insisted that we pose in front of the Silver Bullet for a picture. We used the auto-timer and my gorillapod so no innocent bystander was affect by our dorkiness. Don’t mind Jason’s work clothes; I caught him between projects.

I’d like to take a few moments to brag on my husband’s awesome negotiating skills. The dealership was asking $7900 for this van, about $1000 more than the KBB value. Our maximum budget was $5000. And really, Jason was aiming for $4000. He decided to lay his cards out on the table right from the start because in this case, there really was no room to meet in the middle. If he had offered $3000, they may have been insulted. His old car was worth between $1000-2000. We tried to sell it on craigslist but it was unappealing to most buyers because it needed some serious repair to the under-carriage. So Jason’s initial offer was that we’d pay $5000 for the van and they’d give us $1000 for our trade-in. Their first counter-offer was $6200. Jason says they went back and forth several times and his offer never changed. $4000 for the van with our trade-in. Firm. Finally, they said the best they could do was $5200. Jason said thanks and left. As he was walking to his car, he faintly heard over the garbled intercomm, “Call customer back.” One of the sales guys tried to wave him back in but he ignored him and drove off of the lot. Before he reached the main road, his phone was ringing. The sales manager was on the other end (the guy that sits in the little booth and sends the counter offers) begging him to come back. He said they could do $4000 plus taxes and fees (coming out to a little less than $4600), insisting that he’d be making no money on this van. My reaction: Yeah right. Then why did he call back? I am so proud of my husband! I think three major factors that allowed him to get such a good deal in case any of you out there are looking for some car buying tips. 1.) Jason had cash and was prepared to pay that day. 2.) He knew what he wanted to pay and stayed calm and confident. 3.) He was truly willing to walk away.

Why did we want a minivan? Jason has always liked driving vans, while I’m more of a small car fan. There were several motivators that convinced me to hop on board the minivan train:
• room for more people (obviously)
• better gas milage than an SUV
• room for transporting furniture home from estate sales and thrift stores (yay!)
• space for transporting lumber and supplies for home projects (did you see this craziness?!)
• Jason’s sedan was slowly falling apart
• enough space for two kids plus Jason’s music gear

Because of our desire to be able to transport lots of stuff in the van, we’re super excited about the stow-n-go feature in this Dodge Grand Caravan. In less than 30 seconds, the back row of seats can be folded down and disappear into the floor of the van. The two bucket seats in the middle do the same thing, although we haven’t tried them yet. Basically it can become a cargo van in a matter of minutes without us having to remove and store heavy, bulky seats. I love smart design! We’re not “car people” and we generally don’t care much about what kind of car we’re driving. As long as it’s paid for, it gets us around reliably and it serves our transport needs; we’re happy.

Now I need to practice parking this big ol’ bullet.

7 Comments | Art, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Jason | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Just Across the Way

05/10/2011

Sorry for the lack of blogging yesterday. We’ve been busy, y’all! Buying a minivan, painting our kids room, demolishing and retiling our fireplace, fixing up our pergola, going to our LAST foster parent certification class… Lots going on but I haven’t had time to go though photos and write up blog posts about it yet.

Here’s a funny story. When I looked up on Google Maps where the Department of Children’s Services office was located, I was surprised to see it was right by the apartment we lived in when we first moved to Nashville. (Our address was 1000 1st Avenue North, Nashville, TN. Cool, huh?) Last night during our last class, I looked out the window behind me and realized our apartment was RIGHT THERE. Right across the parking lot. I could practically see the door. How strange is that?! I feel like something in my life should have been coming full circle at that point but I’m not sure what.

I’m not shocked that I never noticed the DCS office. We lived in that apartment for 7 months and never realized we were within walking distance of the Farmer’s Market and Bicentennial State Park.

I loved living downtown. I’m so glad we did. We live about 4 miles from this apartment now which is the perfect distance for us. At this point, it would be nearly impossible to give up our house with our own 4 walls and roof, our yard, our garden, our patio, our neighborhood, our washer and dryer…

3 Comments | Family, Family: Foster Parenting, Family: Jason, Family: Me, Other | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

05/06/2011

Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: Phone Photo Friday, Family, Family: Lucy | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Preparing a Bedroom for Foster Kids: Furniture & Decor

05/05/2011

The Challenge:
Gender neutral: We are choosing to be prepared for a boy or a girl
Age range: We are choosing to be prepared for newborn through age 5
Two?: We may consider taking a sibling set of 2. And/or we might have a child biological in the midst of this foster parenting adventure.

First, acknowledging the obvious: There is no theme. I’m not a fan of themes for ANY room, kids rooms and nurseries included. It is neutral. We’re keeping the colors gender neutral and soothing for reasons I hope are obvious. We’ll add more color depending on specific kids and what works at the time. And of course we’ll also have toys and books adding pops of color all over the room.

Specifics:
I mentioned last week that we’re planning on a SOMNAT crib. It comes in turquoise (love!), green (love!) and pink (cute but not boy-friendly). I ain’t gonna lie—when I first saw the green one on IKEA’s website back in August, I almost went and bought it right then. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE colored cribs. At some point, I started preferring the blue one. I could still do the green if blue is out of stock. We’ll see.

It was at least 2 year ago when I fell in love with the KURA bed. It’s a four poster twin bed. It’s a loft bed. It’s a bunk bed. Oh the versatility! I would have adored this as a kid. My bunk bed was cool but this just begs to be turned into a fort or a house or a secret cave or a cozy hiding place. We’ll keep it as a low bed for now, so it’s toddler friendly. If we’re confident in a kid’s ability to climb the (I’m guessing) 3′ ladder, we’ll flip it around. If we have 2 kiddos that are bigger than crib size, we’ll have to use it as a bunk bed.

Beyond the essential pieces of sleeping furniture, we have our little green 2 drawer dresser and yellow lamp and a full length mirror for the wall (I read somewhere that mirrors promote good self-esteem for kids.) I’m also the proud owner of  the Animal Alphabet poster from Petit Collage. Currently, I have this chair and footstool in the book nook of the kids room, but it’s not real comfortable and I would prefer to have a rocker anyway. I have lovely memories of my parents reading books to me in a rocking chair when I was little. This mid-century rocker from Urban Outfitters fits the bill stylistically but it’s a bit pricey for my taste.

We don’t have a dresser yet. I’d like to find a vintage one like the picture above that’s changing table height, walnut or teak, and not more than 46″ wide. That’s not too much to ask, right? Oh, and less than $100 please. If we can’t find that, we have a white MALM dresser that’s out on loan and I think we can get back.

RIBBA picture ledges work great as shallow book shelves. My plan is to get 4 and create the look of a bookshelf with the depth of 3.5.” Rugs. We have issues with rugs. As long as Jason and I have been married (almost 8 years, that is…) we’ve been pet owners. Getting pet hair out of rugs is a nightmare. Now we’re the proud owners of a beloved cocker spaniel and well, she pees sometimes. Always on something absorbant cuz she’s smart like that. So we don’t do rugs at our house. But, we do have the perfect doormat by our backdoor. It’s got rubber anti-slip backing and it’s machine washable. Hello! It’s so perfect because it secretly is a bathmat. So, I figure I can get 4 of these perfect TOFTBO rugs and put them together to create one perfect, machine-washable, kid-friendly 4’x6′ rug. I’ll let you know how that works out. Other than that, I think I’ll add some art, maybe a mobile above the crib, perhaps commission my mama to knit a pouf like this. I also included some samples of bedding from Target I’m considering.

Budget Breakdown:
KURA twin bed (4-poster, bunk or loft) – $199
SULTAN HARESTUA twin mattress – $100
SOMNAT crib – $99
VYSSA SLOA crib mattress – $50
RIBBA picture ledges 21″ x 4 – $40
TOFTBO bathmat 2’x3′ x 4 – $40
Chair + footstool – using what we currently own for now
Dresser found on craigslist for $50 (details coming soon) – $50
ANIMAL ALPHABET poster – won in a giveaway
ELLIE GRAY 1 gallon of Sherwin Williams Cashmere paint – $27 (purchased on sale)
Full-length wall mirror – free (from my parent’s house)
Paint for green nightstand and blue mirror – already owned

————————————————–
TOTAL: $605

5 Comments | Art, Art: Bedoom for Foster Kids, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

CBB 3.0 – Update (Walls, Floors, Paint, Cabinets)

05/04/2011

I’ve had a very busy week. My husband is home on a break from traveling so we’ve been in full-force project mode at home. That means I have blog material but no time to blog. 🙂 So this is an update on our friend’s post-flood reconstruction house with photos and lazy captions. Click here to watch a video update from one of our local news channels that aired on the 1 year anniversary of the 2010 Nashville Flood. It recaps Jeremy and Leila’s freshly renovated house being flooded, their rental house getting robbed, the demolition of their flooded house and where they’re at with the construction of their new house. Here are my pictures from a couple weeks ago…

From the dining room, facing the kitchen:

Jason and Jeremy in the living room:

Living room with high sloped ceilings since it’s at the back of the house and paper covering up the finished wood floors:

Hallway from the living room. Master bedroom is at the end to the right. Full bath on the right. Guest room, laundry room and nursery on the left, which is toward the front of the house:

Guest room:

Nursery:

Master bedroom:

Deck off the dining room:

Maggie Moo, the cow-dog:

Bonus room (office):

Bonus room looking toward the kitchen. Lucy inhaled construction dust to the point of vomiting. Fun times:

Kitchen:

Dining room shot from the kitchen. (Leila, Jeremy, Jason):

OK, all of those were my pictures. The rest of them are Jeremy’s pictures that I snagged off facebook.

Tile, countertop and vanity consideration for master bathroom:

Wood flooring installation:

Finished wood floors. Solid white oak with a stain mix of 50% jacobean and 50% dark walnut. Semi-gloss oil poly on top:

Full overlay style cabinets in the kitchen, oak with espresso stain:

Granite choice for kitchen countertops, “white sands”:

Radiant heat for concrete bathroom floors:

Master bath vanity in cherry wood with espresso stain, with finished “permacrete” concrete floors:

Same in the hall full bath:

Master bedroom accent wall in a brownish, copper color. (I’m not sure what is going on with the color in this photo. The foreground walls are either white or light gray…not blue. I didn’t take this photo but I think the orange is pretty accurate.):

That’s it for now. As you can tell, it’s very close to completion. Hopefully just another week or two and they’ll be moving in! Which should be pretty easy considering they lost 80-90% of their belongings in the flood… They have a mattress, clothes, dishes and kitchen items that could be salvaged, a few boxes of personal items, and some electronics that either weren’t in the house during the flood, have been recently purchased or survived. (Can you believe their LCD TV was submerged half way in floodwater and still works?!)

1 Comment | Art, Art: CBB 3.0, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Frosting a Cake

05/03/2011

I am a cake connoisseur. I am not, however, a cake decorator. In face, I made my first ever layer cake the other day for my mom’s birthday. Frosting it was no piece of cake. Later that day, I came across this video from The Kitchn: The Easiest Way to Frost a Cake. I think part of my problem is that the tops of the cakes were a bit sticky. Maybe I should have left them uncovered overnight rather than covered. I wish I had thought to flip the cakes over. That’s just plain old smart.

Oh, and icing the cake? I need a tutorial on that! I have some ancient (I mean “vintage”) cake decorating tools. I bought a new tube of red icing from the grocery store. I envisioned some lovely red tulips (mom’s favorite flower) with green stems. The red icing + the born-before-my-mother tools worked OK. I had a tube of leftover green icing that was too thick. I tried to water it down and well… not a great idea. The top of the “B” almost ran right off the top of the cake. Help me, Rhonda.

Next time I think I’ll make my own icing so I can get the consistency and color however I like. Do you have any suggestions for cake decorating? A favorite icing recipe?

3 Comments | Art, Art: Cooking, Family | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »