Heather's Handmade Life

Something "real" on a Sunday night

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Heather Laura Clarke

When you’re a “mommy blogger,” sometimes it feels like there isn’t really a place — on your little corner of the internet — for you to be sad sometimes.

We blog about recipes (and recipe fails). We blog about crafty projects and DIY projects. We blog about our babies’ milestones and the funny things our toddlers say. When we show pictures of our houses, they’re always taken immediately after we’ve cleaned and picked up the toys — except for the occasional “messy house” photo we may post under the guise of “keepin’ it real.”

The closest we ever get to REAL-real is when we do those occasional posts about how we are overwhelmed and overtired. When we’re fed up with the constant housecleaning or burdened by our careers and can’t handle the stress of “having it all.” When we want sympathy or empathy or a pat on the back.

These posts are few and far between — posted when we really are at our wits’ end — and then we go back to our sunny Instagram-y happy posts about glueguns and slowcookers and toddler antics.

There have been so many times lately when I wanted to post something real, but didn’t. I will freely admit that this blog feels different than it did four years ago, when I started out. I was just a newly-married professional, desperately waiting for my time to have a baby. No one knew about the blog, because it was my secret space for writing about my dreams of starting a family. I could say anything I wanted. And I did. And it was liberating.

Now, my husband and I have two amazing children that make us unbelievably happy every single day. My career has gone in the direction I wanted (writing, self-employment). And the followers of this little blog continue to amaze me with their support. But it’s no longer a secret, private blog. It’s become an extension of my freelance career — and, as much as I hate it, that comes with a filter.

A post about sadness is not exactly Pinnable. It’s not easily Tweeted about, or teased with an Instagram photo. It’s hard to fit a post about sadness in between a sponsored posts about teething necklaces and a cheerful ditty about your latest Pinterest recipe fail. It just doesn’t fit. So we don’t do them.

I hope this doesn’t come across badly, or like I’m living/sharing a lie (I’m definitely not). Social media does a very accurate job of depicting my day-to-day life — what I wear, what I cook or bake, what activities I do with the kids, where we go, how I decorate or organize the house, what projects I’m working on, how my work is going, what Darling Husband and I are doing. It’s all right there. That is truly my life, and I love it. I love that it’s documented. And I love keeping up with the lives of my friends — both IRL and virtual — through these channels.

The trouble is, sometimes it’s easy to forget where that “social media” persona stops. It’s also easy to forget how to deal with feelings that you can’t put out there. Can’t Tweet about it. Can’t blog about it. Can’t Facebook about it. Certainly can’t Instagram a photo of you staring into space, as you realize that you can’t say any of the things you are thinking.

Talking to a friend sounds like the clear answer, but that’s not so easy, either. So much of our communication today is through texting and emailing and Facebook-messaging and Skyping. Even phone calls are kind of archaic now. When we’re together in person, there are zillions of our babies and tiny children who need to be fed and cleaned and kept alive. It feels like we never get to have real, uninterrupted conversations. Even if we could, who’s to say the shiny, tidy, “social media presence” would actually take a backseat? Who’s to say we could stop talking the easy, fun conversation about our kids, and talk about anything deeper? I honestly don’t know if I would want that, or if I could do it.

It’s just that it’s a strange feeling to share so much of your life — with friends, family, and total strangers — and still have leftover feelings that you have nowhere to put.

It’s poising your fingers above the keyboard and realizing you’ll censor yourself if you even try.

It’s staring at your phone and realizing you definitely can’t Tweet right now, because what could you possibly say?

It’s listening to the hum of your computer and typing out a post like this one.

(Thanks for listening)
xoxo

… and then she was one

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Heather Laura Clarke

Give your playhouse a makeover with spraypaint

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Heather Laura Clarke

4 Comments

Give your playhouse an easy makeover with a little spraypaint! {Heather's Handmade Life}

Want to know a secret? I’m a terrible spray-painter who really, really likes to have things spray-painted.

I have quite a talent for spotting inspiring photos on Pinterest, rushing to the home improvement store to buy cans of spray paint, taping off a project, and beginning to spray it. But things go downhill quickly when the nozzle starts to clog and the paint drips.

Luckily, my husband is well aware of my spray-painting shortcomings, and steps in during the height of my frustration to finish up the project.

That’s pretty much what happened in this case. Last winter, we’d purchased a plastic playhouse on Kijiji for $40, but it was faded from years of being left out in the elements — plus, the colours were kind of gross.

One of my pet peeves — other than the phrase “pet peeve” — is kiddie gear in ugly colours. I understand that manufacturers want to make brightly-coloured items that appeal to children, but sometimes they are WAY off the mark in terms of what actually looks good.

I jokingly call our backyard “a Little Tikes wasteland” because of the plastic toys everywhere, but I knew this playhouse could be different. I wanted it to match our house — and our newly-painted shed — by giving it beige siding, a brown roof, and a bright red door.

Here’s what I did …

I loaded up a shopping cart with cans of Krylon Fusion for Plastic spray paint — three cans of beige, two cans of brown, and one can of red. This paint actually has a picture of an outdoor playhouse on the front, which confirmed I was getting the right type.
I hosed down the playhouse to remove the dirt (and spiders), and dried it off with some old towels. Then I unscrewed the roof panels to make them easier to paint. I was hoping more of the house would come apart — like the doors and shutters — but no such luck.
I sat the house and the roof panels on a plastic drop-cloth in the backyard, but then I learned the hard way that it was far too windy for outdoor spray-painting. So I dragged everything into the shed, and started applying a coat of beige to the “siding” of the playhouse.
The wind had died down at this point, so I was able to spread the roof panels on the grass and spray them outside. The shiny, rich shade of brown made it look like the roof was made of chocolate bars!
Once the beige was dry, I headed back into the shed for the detail work. I taped sheets of newspaper all around the windows and doorway, and just left the blue shutters and the door exposed. The red paint seemed runnier than the beige, and it was hard to get good coverage. This is the point where my handy, patient husband stepped in to finish the job — thanks, Babe! He screwed the playhouse roof back on when everything was dry, and “we” were done.

Our kids have a blast playing in this cute little house. To our daughter, it’s a restaurant where she serves ice cream, Diet Coke, and “hot tea” through the windows. To our son, it’s his shed — a serious building full of tools, just like Daddy’s shed.

Me? I’m barely holding myself back from buying another playhouse on Kijiji, just for the satisfaction of having another tiny matching building in our yard! Maybe we could have a little village of them?

Here’s our “Before” shot, with my little cuties inside! As you can see, the playhouse was very faded and weathered. It needed to be freshened up! (Plus, I wanted it to match our house, of course)

Darling Husband unscrewed the roof, and I gathered up my gear (four cans of beige Krylon plastic spraypaint for the house, two cans of brown for the roof, and one can of red for the door and shutters — we’re painting our own front door red this summer, so … how cute will that be?!)

Because the roof was a nice flat surface, the paint went on beautifully. One can was almost enough!

We took turns spraying the walls beige — inside and out — and the paint seemed to go on streaky, but it dried fine.

Last came the red shutters and front door!

Home, sweet home!

D was thrilled with the change. He kept saying “Paint da house! Ooh, nice!”

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Menu makeover

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Heather Laura Clarke

3 Comments

Super inspired by this chalkboard menu from Oh H’Evans. Love the red!

I’ve been chattering lately about my (lack of) cooking skills (and few successes), and I’ve decided (to try!) to do something about it (how’s that for a lot of parentheses in one sentence?).

Here are my basic problems:

I don’t go grocery shopping alone EVER (see: cart rage), which means I only get to tag along on occasion (with the kids in tow). This means I have to plan EVERY DETAIL in advance, on a list for Darling Husband, or we don’t have what I need.
I hate making grocery lists with a PASSION. I don’t know what it is about it. It seems fun in theory. Making lists! Writing! Food! Buying stuff! But somehow I hate it.
I also hate meal-planning. Darling Husband and I both hate trying to decide what to make for dinners. On his days off, we start this discussion at lunchtime, and we’re both just so darn BLAH about it. “What are we having for dinner?” “Ugh, I don’t know. Do we have any meals in the freezer?” “I think we made the last baggie of slowcooker chicken yesterday.” “UGH! I don’t know!” Deciding just sucks.
Neither of us are very interested in cooking. We’d both LIKE to take a cooking course (if we had the time, babysitting, you name it). We’d both LIKE to be better at cooking. We just have other stuff that seems to get in the way (see: life, a baby, a toddler, crazy work schedules).

Several years back, when I only had one child and apparently had TIME FOR WRITING STUFF DOWN AT MY LEISURE, I started an awesome Google Doc that assigned each day of the week a category with a cute name, and put all different meal suggestions. I did absolutely nothing with the document, BUT now I think I’m going to try. I think.

My (genius? insane?) idea was to basically make it easier for us to meal-plan, write grocery lists, and grocery shop, because it would all be very formulaic. We aren’t fancy cooks/eaters, so we don’t particularly care if we have a crazy variety with our meals. We just need to stop this day-to-day BLAHNESS over meal-planning and list-making and grocery-shopping.

(Plus, I also like the cuteness of knowing what kind of meal we’ll eat on specific days — kind of like a family tradition, you know? As a kid, we had a routine-centric live-in nanny, and I remember being very attached to having specific meals on specific days)

So … drumroll, please … here are my proposed categories for our family:

Mexican Monday
Homestyle Tuesday
Sandwich Wednesday
Barbeque Thursday
Pizza Friday
Pasta Saturday
Slowcooker Sunday

I have ideas jotted down for each day of the week (i.e. tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas on Mexican Mondays; baked chicken, meatloaf, or roast on Homestyle Tuesdays; chicken wraps, Sloppy Joes, clubhouses, etc. on Sandwich Wednesdays; burgers, steaks, grilled chicken, etc. on BBQ Thursdays; various homemade pizzas on Pizza Fridays; spaghetti, meatballs, etc. on Pasta Saturdays; and stews, chillis, and casseroles on Slowcooker Sundays).

I’m not sure which day we will grocery shop on (right now it’s just whatever day we happen to go), but I’d like to have one specific day a week — and I’d like to fine-tune the system so that the meals we eat right after getting groceries involve more fresh produce, meat, etc. and the meals towards the end of the week require more pantry and frozen items.

So what’s the verdict? Is this the most insane post you’ve ever read — keeping in mind that I wrote an entire post about how to put your makeup on while dealing with your baby? — or do I have some interesting ideas here?

More importantly, how am I going to sneak more Mexican dishes into the week???

xoxo