Treasure Hunting in Miami

Where I grew up, trash, recycling, and yard waste pick up all happened on the same day. Not only that, we had separate cans for each. Regular trash was a black can, recycling was a blue can and yard waste was a green can. It was a simple thing, really. All you had to remember was, once a week, pull out all the cans to the sidewalk.

Then I moved to Miami…

Trash day is twice a week, and they are both different days than recycle day, which is once every two weeks. Doesn’t make much sense to me because we always fill our recycling way faster than we fill our trash. Not only that, but there is no yard waste can, instead people dig these pits and throw all their yard waste and random waste into them. Yes, the yard waste truck makes it’s round on a different day than the trash and recycle trucks.

So, now that you’re up to speed on the irrational Miami-Dade garbage cycle, I will let you know that it really doesn’t have much to do with how we made someone’s trash into our cute antique treasure. Except for the fact that the weird pit is where the Hubby found the “trash”.

On our walks with Luna we are often Antique-ing (sometimes I think I watch a little too much HGTV), unfortunately good finds are slim to none. However we did get lucky when Jordan found this awesome door in one of the trash pits. We decided to cut the door (super heavy door by-the-way) and use the window part to make a picture frame for Jordan’s parents and I’m still deciding what to do with the other part. Any ideas?!

Our awesome find!

What you’ll need:

Old door with windowpanes

Paint

Sandpaper (60-80 grit)

Mill File 

Painters Tape

Small Paintbrush

Mini Glue Dots

This was a fairly easy project and I think it turned out great! I would say the “hardest part” was taping the edges of the window prior to painting. I HATE taping edges, so thankfully the Hubby handled that part. Once the taping was done we painted a few coats of blue paint over the old white paint that was already on the door. Then we let it dry completely before we started distressing for that old antique look.

We put a few dings and scrapes in using the Mill file and sanded edges so the white paint underneath showed through. Have fun with this part; this is what’s going to make your project unique. But don’t go too crazy, sometimes less is more and if you do want more its always easier to add dings and sand than it is to take them away. Well, you really can’t take them away unless you repaint…. So, take your time. Ding, step back and look, sand a little, step back and look, you get the idea.

Once you’re done with that find some pictures you like! One of my favorite parts of this whole thing was going through old pictures with Jordan. Since we knew we were giving it to Jordan’s parents, we looked at old pictures of him and his brother growing up in Orient, NY. I loved hearing Jordan tell stories of the “good ol’ days” while he was living young, wild, and free. Let’s just say they weren’t lacking adventure.

I first thought of transferring the pictures to the glass using Omni-Gel Image transfer but I tested the method using a different picture and a glass jar and it didn’t turn out that great. And if I did that we wouldn’t be able to change the pictures. So, instead I used Mini Glue Dots, one in each corner of the picture and voila!

Now a few more practice projects before we send in our application for Flea Market Flip!

You want me to put Butter in my Coffee?!

Good Morning!

Boy, it has been a while! Over a year! Don’t worry, I’ve been keeping a list of things I want to Blog about, it’s just a matter of finding the time. I don’t know where it goes (lame excuse, I know)! This is going to be a quick post, I’m waiting for our repair man, Humberto, to come fix the dryer. The other night is was drying and then is sounded like there was a small person fighting to get out. Kind of scary, then it stopped spinning all together. Hopefully it’s a quick fix!

This morning I made Bulletproof Coffee for the first time. I’ve seen it on Pinterest and Instagram, all those Paleo links I follow…. Paleo, that’s a whole different blog. I love it, the concept, the health benefits, the variations of “plain” meals. The only sad thing is no bread. I LOVE BREAD, I digress.

 

Back to Bulletproof (This time, baby, I’ll be Bulletprooooof… Can’t help it, every time I say bulletproof the song starts playing in my head. Good thing I like that song, for now). There are quite a few sites that talk about the benefits of Bulletproof Coffee. It started “trending” when Dave Asprey came back from a trip in Tibet where he drank hot tea mixed with yak butter. He enjoyed the benefits (more energy, jump start on fat burning, no caffeine high crash) so much he developed his own version and called it Bulletproof Coffee. Here is the link to Dave’s site. Here is the link to Dave's site. He promotes his own coffee and oil but I did not use his product. I view it as Name Brand v. Generic Brand, I’m a Generic Brand kind of girl, unless you’re talking about shoes and purses. That’s my weakness. Don’t tell the Hubby ;)

Wait, who am I kidding, he already knows.

I recommend getting some quality coffee, fresh and organic. Today I used Panther Coffee, a local coffee roaster. So delicious. I brewed a cup in our Keurig machine. Any way you brew your coffee is fine.

You’ll also need grass-fed butter, not grain-fed. You’re probably like “what’s the difference?!” Grass-fed butter means the cows were allowed to graze on fresh grass, absorbing more nutrients, making the milk they produce much healthier and contain more vitamins than grain-fed cows. I used Kerrygold Grass-Fed Butter.

 

The last ingredient you will need MTC Oil or Coconut Oil. I used MTC Oil, bought on Amazon. If you do shop on Amazon don’t forget to shop http://smile.amazon.com to support a charity of your choosing!

 

There are a few recipes out there, some adding up to 2 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of MTC Oil. I just started with one of each. I also added a packet of Truvia to make it a little sweeter. I’m a sweet coffee drinker so if you usually drink yours black I would try it without a sweetener first. The butter and oil make the finished product so creamy and delicious!

Now, to make the coffee all creamy and delicious, you MUST blend. Stirring will just leave the coffee oily and gross. Blending is the secret. I used my Magic Bullet, other people have used food processers, blenders, handheld immersion blenders… so whatever you have, just be sure to blend! If you use a magic bullet blend for a second or two and then release the pressure created from the steam. I did that 4-5 times.

The quick and dirty on how to make Bulletproof Coffee:

Ingredients

            1 Tablespoon Kerrygold Grass-Fed Butter

            1 Tablespoon MTC Oil

            1 Cup of Coffee

Brew your cup of coffee. Add the Butter, MTC Oil, and Coffee (and sweetener if that’s your thing) into a blender. Blend for a few seconds. A foam will settle to the top. Pour into your favorite coffee cup and enjoy! Easy-peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Have you tried Bulletproof Coffee? What do you think?