Chalking It Up

"Back to School" is as much its own season nowadays as Christmas, and there's nothing that evokes the notion of kids again spending their days in the classroom as much as chalkboards do.  The zen-like ability to write something and have it be easily erased is one that's been easy to take home now for some time, a la chalkboard paint.  While fun for children's spaces, chalkboard paint is also useful and appropriate for numerous adult pieces and places.  Now is the perfect time of year to get reintroduced to this simple paint that can transition any surface!

If you're the type to go big or go home even AT home, consider painting an entire wall and using it as a blank canvas for chalk drawings:

Photos via Design Conundrum

Should obsessive organizing be more your fetish, consider chalkboard paint for your cabinet doors, so no one will ever again need to wonder what is in any given cabinet.  And heaven forbid someone tries to put something in a space where it clearly doesn't belong!  Now, you don't even have to do the work of letting them know something was put away incorrectly, because your cabinet will tell them first.  What a win-win.

Photo from everythingfab.com

Photo via remodelingguy.net

Is just labeling your cabinets not enough?  Can clarity of what goes where and belongs to whom go even further?  Yes!  Yes, it can, and these are two examples of where chalkboard paint may have actually gone TOO far:

Photo from maddiegdesigns.com

Photo via 818.com

Hopefully, it's safe to assume that neither you nor your offspring need quite that much direction in the bathroom, so we will now leave you with a few more normal, but still creative, uses.  Like, for example, painting over a globe, because we all know geography is totally thrilling... and the only way to make geography even more enticing would be to paint over your home globe and try to sketch it out in chalk yourself!  But you know what's really funny?  It's pretty impossible to find a globe done over in paint that anyone has drawn the world back on to!  Apparently, this is the ideal spot for random notes and messages.

Photo from Hoot Designs

Photo via Today's Mama

And now for the winner of Most Interesting Use of Chalkboard Paint: Mad in Crafts Blog has redone a pair of shoes with it, and if nothing else, they are unique!  

Leave Your Allergies at the Door

August is upon us, and that doesn't just mean it's the hottest month of the year for most states; it also means that allergy season is at its peak.  From humid days that make mold breed like bunnies to bee stings that could send you straight to the ER, the list of allergens is varied and long.  We've found some coping mechanisms for the allergens that ail you:

Bug bites are miserable whether or not you're allergic to them, and nowadays biting and stinging bugs tend to be particularly dangerous, as they carry diseases like Lyme and West Nile.  You could spray yourself down with toxic insect repellants, but rather than poison yourself, you could try Mosquito No Bite.  It's a vitamin B patch that you place on a discreet part of your body, and it successfully repels pretty much all bugs, even in swampy humid weather, for 36 hours.  The downside: these patches get absorbed through the skin, and make one smell a bit like a bottle of vitamins.

For indoor allergens, air purifiers are a great choice.  Apartment Therapy recommends this Honeywell purifier, which retails for around $200.  Air purifiers help year round with everything from  dust to pollen, so they're an investment that will continue to be worthwhile even after the change of seasons.

Allergens are at their lowest during and right after rain, so take advantage of that time for outdoor activities if you or your kids are sensitive to pollen.  You can take walks in bathing suits and galoshes, make mud pies on the lawn, or just let the little ones splash around in puddles.

Organic, raw local honey can actually reduce allergies when consumed regularly. It's a very tasty way to build up a tolerance for allergens, but you can't just buy regular grocery store honey-- it will only be effective if you're eating the product of local bees, who are pollinating flowers in your area.  Buckwheat honey is the highest antioxidant choice, but flower honeys like orange and clover have a milder and lighter flavor.

Beyond Burgers

Barbeques are the quintessential summertime gathering, and with good reason: nearly everything good tastes better when you hit it with some fire and smoke.  Granted, your soon-to-be-smoky clothes and hair might not agree with that, but even they should concur that the odor left is well worth it to bite into something delectable and charred.  Though hamburgers and hot dogs are still the first things that most of us think of when it comes to barbequeing and grilling, like most other aspects of life, times have changed for bbq, and many other options now abound.

To address first the hamburgers-and-hot-dogs paradigm, factory farmed products are thankfully taking a back burner to organic and humanely raised ones.  Grass fed ground beef is available at all health food stores, and  some mainstream groceries too.  You work with it the same way you would the grain-fed tragic type, only because it tends to be leaner, it shouldn't be cooked for quite as long.  Grass fed steaks are also readily available, and the same cooking techniques hold true for them: err on the rarer side to avoid toughness.  As for hot dogs, there are several brands now of humanely raised, antibiotic and hormone free, grass fed dogs.  Applegate Farms is the standard go-to, and they're very good.  This brand, slightly more boutique (though still available at large chains like Whole Foods), are even more heavenly:

They also have other size options: 

Now, let's move on from the standards-- and we hope your standards are of the raised, humane variety-- into some foods you may not realize are just perfect for charring up.  

Figs:

Skewered alone or stuffed with goat cheese, figs should be grilled just until they begin to ooze and split. Both the darker black mission and their green Adriatic cousins are equally delicious this way and will compliment entrees of fish or meat.  Alternately, chop them up, add some honey and vinegar, and serve them on toast.   (Photo from Blimpy Girl)

Peaches and nectarines:

You can grill them sliced or halved, and can even use peaches and nectarines that are under ripe provided you bathe them briefly in some simple syrup.  Once done, these make a good salad topper as is, side dish with a vinaigrette, or chop them up and add some onion and fresh herbs for an unusual salsa.  (Photo from  Becky and the Beanstalk)

Octopus:

There's a reason you've been seeing grilled octopus on the menus of cutting-edge restaurants like Michael Voltaggio's Ink LA: it tastes incredible.  Unfortunately, octopus is going to make you work a little bit before the bbq.  You'll need to both tenderize it and marinate it, if not also boil it first.  (Photo from KRRB)

Romaine: 

Caeser salad becomes a different dish completely when served with romaine lettuce that's been charred.  If Caeser dressing isn't your style, try sprinkling the cooked veggie with some blue cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  (Photo from Slashfood)

Pound cake:

Sometimes the best grilled meal can only end with more of the same.  When you just can't get enough of everything being blackened, bust out the pound cake!  Slice it thick-- one inch slices are ideal-- and grill or bbq briefly on both sides.  Top with berries and ice cream and serve, then sit back and enjoy being the talk of barbeque town for days to come.