The Mother-in-laws Chair

The Original Chair 

So my mother in law was giving away her living room furniture and I had been hunting for a chairs with the same arms as my ikea couch for a while.  Her chair is by a big name so it's well made, but worn out. I planned to recover the chair for over a year, but really got a bug as my son's 5th birthday approaches.  I cannot stand paying $12. per yard for nice fabric it makes me crazy so I keep my eyes open for cheap fabric when I can find it.  I was in Ikea looking through the "as is" department in this area they have tons of covers for chairs and couches they sell because the covers are mostly changeable which is why I love their stuff.  I found the Ectorp cover but just the base in black and white.  That is to say if you have a typical sofa and take off the six pillows three under butt and three back and you are left with what is covering the arms and skirt and back, they had just this piece for a large sofa.   Black and white all the trend right now for 3.99.  Haaa! more my speed so I decided I am going to cover the whole chair with this.  And I did....

The bottom and patched
side of the cushion

So deconstructing the cover was terrifying because essentially I took it apart.   Not completely though.  First I seam ripped along the back end where the arm meets the back on one side only.  And along the front where the skirt is sewn to the arm on one side only.  Then I cut and re sewed to fit the chair.  The extra fabric I used to cover the back of the chair and the cushion.  the only area I had to piece together was around the seat cushion but its an area you will never see.  The bottom of the seat I used extra fabric so  I could never flip the cushion but hey $3.99!  

The Finished Chair is just what I wanted and was willing to pay a lot more for. 

Pottery Barn Mirror

I love this mirror from pottery barn.  It stopped me in my tracks when flipping through the catalog.  I have a room with high ceilings that makes me nuts for wall pieces and this could work.  The wheels began to turn...
Guess how much ... $699.00
yeah well um ... the wheels turn harder
I COULD MAKE IT  -- (husbands eyes roll)


So I found some mirrors or similar ones at Ikea for if I remember correctly 5 bucks ish - they had them at walmart too but, well I went with Ikea bought four packs.  They come four to a pack.  A thin piece of wood painted brown used the wood graining tool for some dimension and stuck the mirrors on with the provided stickies. We screwed the board directly to the wall into a stud before adding the last couple of mirrors.  Sorry about the grainy picture its late.  But it looks nice and best part I got to make the size I wanted.  Oh and better part I paid about $25 bucks

 

So... I was at whole foods for lunch

Tonights dinner is something that I changed over.  The fam devoured it so I never got a picture but really it looked like pasta salad with peas so use your imagination people.

Anyway I was at whole foods for lunch, my kids never eat anything but macaroni and I don't push vegan only on them so I grabbed what looked to be macaroni salad, I never read the label.   We got to the roof top patio of our beautiful new store, it was gorgeous!  Everything was delicious the tofu steak, the lima beans and so on, love it! Got to the macaroni salad and holy cow this was better than any macaroni salad I had ever had.  It was only what I can describe to you as airy.   Boo it was not vegan! I checked the label when we got back down into the store.  I wanted to know the ingredients because I want to make it for my sons birthday party.

So I never wrote it down but I remember seeing mayo and egg yolks and whites... hmmm okay so if there is mayo and yolks and whites then its probably french in some way right?
Not sure. I go home, look it up, the recipe is online apparently in their cookbook -
here is a link for the original  WholeFoods Smoked Mozzarella Penne Pasta Salad
I am not happy with it, none of the same ingredients I read on the label it does not look similar.
I give it a go with what I have just to get started here is what I did

Vegan Mozzarella Penne Pasta Salad

1 Box Penne Pasta
1 Cup of Peas (I did not have spinach so you can use that if you like)
3 oz  Follow your heart vegan Mozzarella, cubed small
2 slices of vegan deli

the sauce
1/2 Cup Tofutti Sour Cream
1/3 Cup Trader Joe's Egg Free Mayo
2    Tabs Tofutti Cream Cheese
1    Tab Vegan Butter
1/4 Cup White Wine Vinegar
2    Cloves of minced garlic
Pinch Cayenne
Pinch garlic powder (go with your taste here we like garlic, but my son noticed the garlic- he still ate it)
Salt and pepper to taste


I started the pasta,  Added the sauce ingredients to a small pot, except for the minced garlic that I decided last minute to saute a bit.  I stirred it all until it was a smooth sauce.  Once the Pasta was almost cooked I threw the peas in the boiling water to warm them and took it off at al dente.
I then rinsed the pasta and peas with cold water (the dish is a cold one).  I added the sauce and the deli and finally the cubed vegan mozzarella.



You can see that I did not use vegan parmesan, I did not have any on hand.  Really though, I did not taste parmesan in the original so It did not bother me not to add it.  I think the add ins made it a meal, over just a side, the spinach would have been nice - - oh well.  It was good anyway, and the kids had seconds.  I am always happy for that!

hope you like it

The First Post

The reason I decided to create this blog is because I am a copycat.  I do this every day. I hate to admit it, but I happen to think I may have something worth writing about.  I find something in a magazine or on TV or what have you, and I copy it.  This could be a recipe a design or some type of craft.  


Typically the husband is shaking his head saying why, why do you want to MAKE that?  When you could buy it... Well it is who I am, I obtain things free or nearly free and I turn them into useable desired things that I have made.  As for recipes, I like to take the recipe and change it to make it meat and dairy free.  He is usually pretty pleased with the results, and typically so am I.  I guess you can say this is my very own blog to show the day to day things that I create. 

I also have a cake blog that I keep separate, Thesweetestthingcakes.blogspot.com.  I do not spend too much time adding any writing to that site because I let it serve as a digital photo album for clients.  Where they can see my work and see their cakes showcased.  My cakes may or may not be displayed here, I guess it depends on how artful I feel it is. 

Finally, to clarify, my cakes are  not always vegan.  They can be, I choose not to since most of my clients are not looking for that.  I do this as an art form, a release, if you will of my creativity.  Therefore I go for what my client is looking for.  That being said please hold your comments about using animal products in this venue.  I vegan-ize recipes because I enjoy eating that way. I happen to think I am still pretty good changing recipes over.   


In close of this very first post, I would like to say to the zero followers that I have, welcome!  Maybe you will find me, maybe you won't, but follow me if you like it, and don't forget my other blog too.  I am now dubbing myself The Copycat Kid.