EYE POPPING BEAUTIES

Here is a sneak peek at the new lampwork beads I have for creating, excuse me while I wipe the drool.  Is there a bead you can't live without, let me know so I can create something fabulous for you.

leafnlily@yahoo.com

LOVE YOUR PLANET

A little late but here are two of my favourite planet happy items, not to mention Canadian Companies.

The first is a floor cleaner. It comes in all different types of cleaners (bathroom, all-purpose...) for what ever reason the floor cleaner seems to be the hard one to get. I purchased my at Planet Organic in Edmonton some time ago but recently spotted it at London Drugs and Superstore! Here is what it looks like.

You purchase the bottle full of cleaner and then the little container is the refill. You attach it to the lid and add tap water, yes, tap water. Here is their website if you are interested in checking it out.

http://www.iqclean.com/

Here is an interesting article.

http://www.wetaskiwintimes.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2850021


This next product is for taking snacks to work, school or play. They also have bigger ones for bulk food or larger items. They are tougher than they looks and super easy to clean.

The are called Moukisac. Brilliant. I purchased my at Earth General Store in Edmonton. I'm sure you can find them at your local Organic store too, if not, here is the link to their web page.

http://www.moukisac.com/index.php?id=32

TO DO

On our list of things left to recover, we only have two  BUT one is huge.

This chair is exactly the same as the chair we recovered in pink. We bought them at separate times, differently places and they came in completely different fabrics but they are exactly the same. What we love best about these chairs is that they rock and swivel.

Here is the first chair that is already recovered.

Ok now you might need to shield your eyes or get your sunglasses. For those that haven't had the good fortune of seeing this couch in person, it's not quite as crazy as it looks. Ok it is but we love it. We bought it from a guy whose Aunt had this couch custom made. She didn't sit on it and neither did he. Well, we do and it's old and isn't going to make it, if we don't recover it. It is called "Auntie's couch" our children refer to it as that and they tell their friends, "your not allowed to jump on Auntie's couch". People probably think, we are borrowing it. Well here she is....

Sometime, you come across a piece that's so perfectly perfect, you just let it be. This chair is from my Grandma and she took very good care of it. The fabric is in perfect condition and it goes in my crazy home and it makes me happy.

I am going to listing a few of my favourite eco friendly products next. Stay tuned!

QUICK AND EASY DINNER

I am always trying to find healthy, quick and easy dinners. I made this recipe tonight and it's great, my kids actually ate meat and liked it! My daughter thought it reminded her of Chicken Soup as I served it with plan pasta on the side (no sauce). I made some changes to accommodate what I had at home and those changes are listed at the bottom.

Cheesy Chicken Meatballs


1 lb ground chicken
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup roasted garlic light cream cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 TBSP red pepper flakes
1 TSP Italian seasoning
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 1/2 TBSP vegetable oil
1 TSP salt
1 TSP ground black pepper


Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, stray with cooking spray.


Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Form mixture into 20 meatballs; place on prepared pan.


Bake in centre of preheated oven until juices run clear, 17-18 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the centre should read at least 165 degrees F.


Here is the link to print your own recipe. 


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cheesy-Chicken-Meatballs/Detail.aspx


Here are the changes, I made. I doubled the recipe and kept the 4 eggs however 3 would have been fine. I just added more bread crumbs but still kept it quite wet. I  used regular cream cheese and warmed it slightly in the microwave so it was easy to combine and subbed in greek seasoning for Italian, leaving the pepper flakes out. I added maybe 3 TBSP more cheese and left out the oil. DO spray your foil, they stick. Ground chicken is always moist and I didn't roll these into perfect little balls. I shaped them slightly and plopped them on the pan.

OUR INSPIRATION

As I was posting the pictures of the chairs, I was trying to figure out how we decided recovering furniture was something we should try. Over the past few days as I was cleaning the house and it came to me. The first is a trunk that I have had since, I was my daughters age. It had patterned paper on it so we put fabric on it and ta-da, updated toy trunk.

Not really that impressive but that's how it started. Here is what followed. My Grandma gave me two wooden boxes. Great heavy solid wood toy box or trunk style boxes. We decided to recover one for my daughters room and one for my son.

JETSON STYLE CHAIR

Well this chair is the sun in my pocket. I have to admit, I put up a fight to recover this. It might have been the work that I knew was involved but I think it was the pink. Pink can be a sickness. It wasn't has hard as it looks other than the cushion, it was responsible for a few lost hairs. Well here she is.....

SUNROOM ROCKER

This chair has been incomplete for a while. Our biggest decision is whether we should put the arms back on. I like it without the arms but my husband wants the arms. I like that you can sit down on it from the front or the sides. At first we were going to sell it but I couldn't bring myself to do it. While the fabric isn't my style, I love it. I think if I ever had a sunroom this would be the perfect chair - it's cheery. We do have a lot of chairs but for now, it sits and waits for our decision - arms or no arms, sell or keep? Want to weight in?