After a long break from making my "what I ate" videos, I finally have one to share with you greenies, and this time I have a special guest...Mila! Her grandma who usually watches her on Tuesday and Thursday was out of town, so I had the day off to watch her. So my food for the day will not only include my food but also her's as well so you can see my some of our favorite vegan kid foods and snacks.
So let's get started with Mila and I's food for the day...
Okay so usually I post not only the video but also detailed pictures of each thing I ate during the day, but with my busy schedule, I've decided to cut down on all the pictures in my blog posts to help save time. Sorry to loyal blog readers, but it's just become too time consuming to take the pictures, compile the video clips, edit the video, write the post, link products...and still edit the pictures, stick my logo on them and then arrange them on the blog. So for awhile I think I'm going to be going with reduced-picture blog posts so that hopefully I can get more videos out to you guys. Thanks for understanding. With that said, here's a list and all the links to the food Mila and I ate that day...
Mila’s Breakfast: “Chia Seed Milk” with ½ teaspoon Vitamineral Green, ¾ Tbs. Sunwarrior Chocolate Warrior Blend Protein Powder, ¾ Tbs. Sunwarrior Vanilla Warrior Blend Protein Powder, ¼ tsp. Pure Synergy Pure Radiance C, ¼ tsp. Health Force Friendly Force Probiotic and 1 tsp. chia seeds
2nd Smoothie Snack: PB Berry Smoothie (banana, blueberries, peanut butter, almond milk, cinnamon) and Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana Smoothie (banana, orange juice, coconut milk) from Terra Health & Wellness Market
Sometimes when I do home improvement projects things start
to snowball. It’s starts out as replacing the flooring, then the kitchen
cabinets need painting, then a new countertop has to be installed, followed by
new appliances, and what do you know…a new backsplash! What can I say, when I
get on a roll with my home improvements I go a little overboard and no stone is
left unturned. That’s the case with my new kitchen backsplash. The only problem
was after using most of our home improvement budget for new floors, a few new
appliances, and a new countertop there wasn’t much money left to replace the
backsplash, so I took the internet and found a cool, cost-effective solution
that would save me from ripping out my old tile and trying my hand at
installing new tile, which I can guarantee is not in my skillset.
The product I found is calledSmart Tiles. The idea is
simple; they are basically tile-like “stickers” that you stick over your
existing tile to create a new look for your backsplash. If you don’t already have a tile backsplash,
you can also use the Smart Tiles too, you just place them on the wall in your
kitchen or bathroom.
What motivated me to want to change my backsplash in the
first place were the dated, off-white tiles that remained probably from back
when my house was built in the 70s. I thought they might look okay once I
painted my kitchen cabinets white, but all it did was highlight the off-white
color and also I really started to notice the textured, slight bevel look the
tiles had, not to mention the old grout was looking very yellow. Eww, I was not
a fan. These days when subway tiles are all the rage, not grid-like square
tiles I like had, so I knew I needed an update.
Thank goodness I found Smart Tiles.
The "Before"
Some features of Smart Tiles include how they are:
-lightweight, easy to handle, cut and clean
-resistant to heat of stovetops and humidity of bathrooms
-you don’t have to add any extra glue
-they can removed if needed
-they have a patented Gel-O technology that will not yellow
over time
On their website they have styles that range from a variety
of colors and tile sizes. My personal favorite tile-style called “Metro
Blanco.” It was a crisp, bright white,
large subway-style tile, which I thought would go great in my newly
painted white kitchen.
So I contacted Smart Tiles and they sent me the product to
try out in my kitchen.
The tiles are sold in sheets and each sheet costs about $7.99
(other styles have different prices) and you figure up how much surface area
you need to cover and then purchase that amount of sheets. For my project I
needed to cover approximately 20 sq. ft. so I needed about 40 sheets of the
Metro Blanco tile. Which works out to be
about $320.
I then gathered the rest of the supplies I needed for the
project, which included:
·A rotary mat
·Box cutter
·Rulers or sewing rulers
·Pen
Then I got to work. After watching several Youtube videos
about the installation of the SmartTiles and re-reading the instructions, I was
ready to get started. Thinking it would
be a quick project; I planned to do it during my girls’ nap one afternoon.
The steps to the project are fairly simple and go like this:
1.Clean and prep the surface (using a degreaser, I
like Krud Kutter)
2.Remove outlet and light covers.
3.Start installing the Smart Tiles in the corner
and work your way out and then start on the other side making sure to overlap
the grout lines as you go.
4.Measure around outlets and cut the Smart Tiles
accordingly before placing on the wall.
5.That’s all!
Unfortunately once I got started, I realized this was no
easy afternoon project. Once I started installing the Smart Tiles over my existing
tile I had some trouble. Mainly the fact that the existing tile and it’s
already made lines were messing with me big time. I could not get the
Smart Tiles to line up nicely in the corners or on the wall. Also, in the installation videos I saw the
tile sheets seemed to be more symmetrical and even, but with the subway-style
look of my Metro Blanco tiles, things did not line up as perfectly, which made
cutting it even harder (for me).
See how the tiles slightly angle out on the left-hand side? The grout
of the previous tile made things a little more confusing!
Add on top of that that measuring and cutting out materials
were not my forte. What stressed me out
the most was messing up my measurements or cutting incorrectly so then that entire
sheet of tiles was wasted and when you know you only have a set number of
sheets, it’s kind of hard not to wonder if you are going to end up with enough. (My advice would be to order 5-10 extra sheets just in case!)
So that’s when I called in my project helper, my husband Brandon.
He installs duct work for a heating and cooling company for a living so taking
measurements and cutting out supplies are things he does all day, every day. He
had no quams about measuring and cutting out the tiles, where as I on the other
hand would measure, re-measure, line it up, re-measure again, think about it
some more and then if I was feeling brave, finally cut it.
So with him by my side, he took on the measuring and cutting
and I did the smaller work like filling in the smaller tile sections and
staying away from the outlets and light switches…my least favorite part.
Making progress...
Another challenge we faced was in my windowsill because the
tile goes all the way into the windowsill which left us wondering, how do the
tiles to go around a corner without having them pop up or open?
Luckily the Smart Tiles team emailed us with some specific
instructions for folding the tile vertically for this space and then treating
it like a corner on each side.
Once all the tiles were complete and in place, we went
through and caulked the corners, and the tops.
Then it was finally complete.
The "After"
Looking back at the install process, I’d have to say it was
much more difficult than I planned, so if measuring and precise work involved
in this project doesn’t seem like something you are good at, you may be better
off hiring a pro and sticking with real tile.
But if a good ol’ DIY is your thing, this Smart Tiles would
be great for you.
Since having the Smart Tiles installed for a few weeks now
I’m loving the cleaner, brighter look and of course, the way it completely
changed the look of my dated backsplash.It’s also much easier to clean and I really enjoy knowing that I didn’t
have to send any of my old tile to the landfill, so kudos to Smart Tiles for
that green factor!
If you’ve ever installed a peel and stick-like tile for your
backsplash before or this Smart Tiles product, share below! Or if you have any
questions for me about the product or installation, feel free to post that
below too.
Happy home renovating!
Disclaimer: Smart Tiles sent me these tiles for free to try for this video, all views expressed are my own.
