Month: January 2015

DIY Reusable Grocery Bag

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-9I haven’t done a “Fashion Friday” DIY for sooooo long, and since it’s a new year, it’s definitely time! This DIY was inspired by Cassey from Blogilates! I always have my car stocked with reusable shopping bags for last minute farmer’s market and grocery shopping trips, and thought this “do it yourself” bag/tote was the cutest addition to my collection. You can use any old T shirt (the bigger the better!) but I decided to buy an ACDC shirt from Target to give my bag a chic rocker look! I’m absolutely obsessed with how it turned out and got stopped a couple of times at the North Park Farmer’s Market in San Diego to ask where it was from (major points!)!
DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-1Jacket: c/o Smythe (on sale 65% off & free shipping!)  |  Leggings: American Apparel  |  Shoes: Converse  |  Beanie: Ebay (black)  |   |  Lip Liner: Mac ‘Cherry’  |  Lipstick: Lime Crime ‘Red Velvet’

My favorite part about this DIY is that it’s a no sew project! No needle, thread, or sewing machine required! All you really need is a pair of scissors and an old T shirt, but if you are a perfectionist like me, a white or colored pencil, ruler, and rotary cutter, will do the job just perfectly! If you are super crafty and looking for a rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler set, this one by Fiskars is amazing!

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-3 DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-4I’m obsessed with my new Faux-Fur Cropped Jacket by Smythe! It’s faux shearling with a huge oversized collar that is seriously way too cute. I’ve been wearing it nonstop since they sent it to me! I also just found out that it’s on sale at Neiman’s for 65% off, which is INSANE! Oh and did I mention they are offering free shipping? Unreal.

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-5DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Tote-Step-By-Step-2DIY Grocery Bag

Ingredients
T-shirt (the bigger the better)
white or colored pencil
scissors or rotary cutter
ruler
cutting mat

Directions
1. Get a large T shirt and lay it flat.

2. Cut off the neck (about 2-3 inches below the neck hemline), sleeves, and bottom hem.

3. From the bottom of each arm hole, measure down 6 inches and make a mark. This is where the bottom of your bag will be, and your fringe pieces will start.

4. Line your ruler up horizontal across the shirt from both marks that you just made. Start marking small dots/lines 1/2 inch apart all the way across the entire width of the shirt. This marks where each fringe will be cut.

5. Place the ruler horizontally across the bottom of the shirt and mark small dots/lines every 1/2 inch all the way across (the same way you just did in step 4). This will help you to get perfectly aligned/straight fringe pieces.

6. Using scissors or your rotary cutter and ruler, cut from the top dot, straight down to the aligning bottom dot (through both layers of fabric). Work from left to right until all of the fringe has been cut.

7. Once all of your fringe pieces have been cut, double knot both of the corresponding front and back pieces of fabric together. This will seal up the bottom of your bag.

8. Voilà, Your grocery bag is complete! For even longer fringe and more sealed up edges of your bag, stretch out your fringe and handles!

Note: If you don’t want to go through all of the marking and aligning with a  ruler, you can totally freehand it and make bigger fringe pieces with scissors. I personally think it looks best when you take the time and measure out the small 1/2 inch fringe pieces, but it’s still an awesome and fun DIY no matter how you do it!

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-6Above is an example of the dots 1/2 inch apart along the bottom of the fabric.

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-7Cutting from top to bottom dot.

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-8Double knotting the fringe pieces.

DIY-Reusable-Grocery-Bag-Farmers-Market-Shopping-Bag-2So cute! Grocery shop away!
This is a really fun project to do with friends for a girls night in, and it also makes a super cute gift!

Health & Happiness
xo-Catherine

Kale Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing

M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-1 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-2 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-3 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-4 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-5 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-6 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-7 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-8 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-9 M-Cafe-CopyCat-Kale-Salad-with-Spicy-Peanut-Dressing-10

When I lived in LA, I loved going to M Café for their Peanut Kale Deli Salad. It’s one of my top 10 favorite kale salads (yes I love that many kale salads). It’s super rich, flavorful, and even better with a side of brown rice!

The salad at M Café de Chaya is served with blanched/wilted curly kale, which is how I prepared my salad in this recipe. If you are more of a tuscan kale (dinosaur kale) fan, I have also prepped the salad with it for you! With the dinosaur kale, I left it cold and unbalanced, rinsed it, chopped it, warmed the dressing over the stove, and then massaged it in and let the kale wilt a bit! I loved the salad both ways, but I think the dino kale might be my new fav!

Kale Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
Adapted from Linda LaRue

Salad
1 large bunch curly kale
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped for garnish
1/4 red onion, halved and sliced for garnish

Spicy Peanut Dressing
makes about 1/2 cup of dressing

1/2 cup peanut butter [for more macro version use tahini instead]
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce or Tamari
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ginger, minced
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp salt
3 Tbsp hot water

Remove the kale from the stems. Add a pinch of salt to a pot of boiling water, then blanch the kale for 3 minutes. Remove the kale from the boiling water and shock it in a container of ice water. Finally, squeeze the excess water out of the cooled kale. For the dressing, place all dressing ingredients into a blender. Blend until mixture turns into a smooth consistency. Add 1 Tbsp of dressing per 1 cup of kale and mix until kale is evenly coated. Garnish with sliced red onions and chopped peanuts.

Seattle Christmas Visit

Happy new year everybunny! I’ve been traveling traveling traveling — and I want to keep you posted on my latest adventures, so here we go! After Matt finished the Jingle Ball tour, he flew straight to Seattle to his sister’s house for Christmas with his family. I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family and then flew up to Seattle later in the afternoon on Christmas eve and had Christmas dinner with Matt, his parents, his sister & husband, and their two little boys!

DAY 1 //
Seattle-December-44I have come to realize that every time I visit Seattle, I drink copious amounts of coffee! The day after Christmas Matt’s family and I went shopping and grabbed some lunch and then Nana and Papa took the kiddos home for their naps so we could go out for some java. Matt, Olivia, Michael, and I met up with my friend Lynae who lives in Seattle and had big plans to go to the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room, but by the time we arrived, the line wrapped around the building! Sooooo we cheated on Starbucks and went to Stumptown and Gas Works Park!
Seattle-December-22 Matt and I at Gas Works Park. The view is so beautiful. Space Needle to the right!
Seattle-December-24Lynae and I at Gas Works Park!
Seattle-December-23Matt, his sister Olivia, and I.

Seattle-December-42After visiting Gas Works Park, we found the Freemont Troll. Super creepy!

DAY 2 //
Seattle-December-1Above is Matt’s youngest nephew Maddox pretending to be Uncle Matt. We started calling him “Tiny TM” for Tiny Tour Manager! So stinkin’ cute with the Jingle Ball beanie, backstage pass, and radio!

Seattle-December-43On Me:  Beanie: Ebay (black)  |  Sunnies: Celine  |  Jacket:  Element (Matt’s, old) Similar Here and Here (on sale!)  |  Leggings: Zella

We all decided to go on a walk with the boys so they could run off some energy while Olivia was at work. Seattle has some of the prettiest trails. I love this photo of little Maddox running full blast towards me!

Seattle-December-3
Seattle-December-4Found a baby bear in the woods! These awesome two-toned booties are from Forever 21, but unfortunately I couldn’t find them online for you guys!

Seattle-December-5And he’s the cutest bear you’ve ever seen!

Seattle-December-6Uncle Matt and his nephews.

Seattle-December-7Strong nuggets!

Seattle-December-8I can’t get enough of these two!

Seattle-December-9So on our walk Matt thought it would be fun to teach the boys “hard styles” (take a knee, grab a hand, make a mean face), and this is what we got from a 5 year old and a 2 year old.
Seattle-December-10SO HARD! Check out that squat! DGAF!

Seattle-December-14And then we tried to get all of the boys to do “hard styles.” I’m really liking those #raresquats going on in the front. So good. So hard.

Seattle-December-13Baby bear Maddox and poppa bear Michael.

Seattle-December-11On Matt: Beanie: Beanie  |  Sunnies: RetroSUPERfuture  |  Jacket: The North Face (TNF Black)

Uncle Matthew and Nixon walking with their suh-weeeet new sticks they found.
Seattle-December-12Seattle-December-15Cuties. Their dimples are too much, I can’t handle it!
Seattle-December-17Seattle-December-16Matt’s mom Linda and dad Carlos and their grandsons!

Seattle-December-19Boys will be boys!

Seattle-December-20On Me:  Beanie: Ebay (black)  |  Sunnies: Celine  |  Jacket:  Element (Matt’s, old) Similar Here and Here (on sale!)

On Matt: Beanie: Beanie  |  Sunnies: RetroSUPERfuture  |  Jacket: The North Face (TNF Black)

Seattle-December-18Seattle-December-21

DAY 3 //
Seattle-December-26Maddox helping Matt tie his shoes before we left for Gas Works Park.

Seattle-December-27Hat: Brixton (Light Heather Gray)  |  Jacket: Glamour Kills (also available in girls!)  |  Shoes: Jack Purcell

We decided to go back to Gas Works Park and take the boys to run around and play !
Seattle-December-28 Seattle-December-29 Seattle-December-31Uncle Matthew at his finest!

Seattle-December-32There was this random platform out in the water, so Matt insisted on walking out to it for a photo.
Seattle-December-33Surprisingly he made it, and didn’t fall in!

Seattle-December-38Seattle-December-34Seattle-December-35 Seattle-December-37Hat: Brixton (Light Heather Gray)  |  Jacket: Glamour Kills (also available in girls!)  |  Shoes: Jack Purcell

Seattle-December-36Maddox is obsessed with Matt, and every other second he would yell “I WANT HIM!!!!!” and would only hold Matt’s hand or let Matt pick him up haha. You can imagine what he’s saying in this photo!

Seattle-December-41Hat: Brixton (Light Heather Gray)  |  Jacket: Glamour Kills (also available in girls!)  |  Shoes: Jack Purcell

During my trip I established that Matt is my new assistant. He is an excellent purse, coffee,and camera holder!

Seattle-December-39Beanie: Anthropologie  |  Jacket: Nasty Gal  |  Leggings: Zella  |  Boots: Stuart Wizeman (also here)

Soooo, this is a great little story… the boys LOVE being swung, and they get serious air. As seen above, Michael and I are safely swinging Maddox. Below is what happens when someone’s hand slips…
Seattle-December-40On Me: Beanie: Anthropologie  |  Jacket: Nasty Gal  |  Leggings: Zella  |  Boots: Stuart Wizeman (also here)

On Matt: Hat: Brixton (Light Heather Gray)  |  Jacket: Glamour Kills (also available in girls!)  |  Shoes: Jack Purcell

It’s ok, I caught him with my motherly instinct and ninja like reflex/grip! He literally had no idea what happened and yelled “DO IT AGAINNNNNN!!!” I cannot believe Michael caught this moment on camera! If anyone is looking for babysitters, Matt and I are totally available! Hahahahaha. Just kidding!

I hope you had a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
I can’t wait to share my photos from Canada & Niagara Falls next!
xo-Catherine

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