Trenton ReynoldsIt is Tuesday, August 20th, 2016. This is Room of the Trees, a podcast about things that make us happy. Is that good enough?
Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy
Trenton ReynoldsThe following has not been recorded yet. We're about to record it. This is episode number 21. Coconuts and containers. Things that make us happy. Room in the Trees is hosted by Sabrina Harrison and me, Trent Reynolds. Show notes, including pictures, links, video, and more for every episode can be found at roominthetrees.com. If you are enjoying this podcast, and I think you are, please take a moment to rate us on iTunes which you can get to by going to roominthetrees.com backslash iTunes and if you would like to show monetary support we would really appreciate if you go to patreon.com backslash room and you can become our patron by subscribing for three or five dollars a month. We really appreciate all your support and appreciate you sharing the podcast with your friends and getting the word out. And today, Sabrina, what are we going to do today? What's the episode?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWe are talking about things that are going to make us happy.
Trenton ReynoldsGeneral happiness bringers.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYep. Neither one of us spent a lot of time ruminating about this. I will say one thing I make a lot of references to Amazon.com and Amazon Prime Amazon unfortunately is not sponsoring this episode but it will be mentioned so just know that ahead of time because Amazon Prime is rocking my world and quite a few of my items have been delivered from Amazon in the past
Trenton Reynoldsif this sounds like a Prime ad it pretty much is
Sabrina Ward Harrisonand if Amazon is listing and decides they want to we're all in.
Trenton ReynoldsWe're open to that conversation.
That possibility.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, okay. So, do you want to talk about some...
Trenton ReynoldsWell, let me... Can I start off? Yes, please. I just want to tell you the thing... One of the things that makes me the happiest in this world is just driving in my car. I don't know if it's because I'm California born and bred or whatever, but it's in my blood. I love just getting in the car, cold beverage, and a great song, and just driving around. And it doesn't really even matter where.
Totally. I love cruising.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonJust being in California. that you go up the coast, what do you like listening to?
Trenton Reynolds- There's one song in particular that I think our listeners should go and seek out and memorize. And that song is "Blues Music" by G. Love and Special Sauce. Fantastic song and really reminds me of good times and makes me happy. do you have a song that you listen to while cruising? Are you a cruiser? I don't think we talked about this
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI really really really miss driving and cruising around I did that a lot in California and my little old Mazda Miata with the roof that flew off on the freeway. It was a great little vehicle. And I love the drive from San Francisco down the 1 going over the 17 down to the Tap Moon Bay and then down the coast. I just drove like a bat out of hell. I just, just falls the wall completely. I wore these little earphones that were from Jet Blue that, you know, from the airline that you, that you get for like a dollar and then I'd put a winter hat over it to kind of conceal it, but also gently push the earphones closer to my ears so I could hear when I was, because it was very, very windy to drive that. that car. And I would have my old disc man and I would just play. I love listening to Manishow.
Trenton ReynoldsI feel so privileged to have had the experience of driving with you in that. Oh, you did. You got to. Yes, I did on a couple of occasions. And in fact, that's We built the room in the trees by piling things like vines and bushes of debris into that little car and taking it back to your place.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOh, my gosh.
Great memory.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo Manu Shah was one of my favorites. Key in the Jungle, definitely. You probably are, you guys are familiar with it, but definitely one of my favorite songs. I also love, remember the album, love listening to Moby's album, Play. It's such a great, great.
Trenton ReynoldsCan you, what's one of the songs that, no, you don't do that. I forgot.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI just am not musical. I don't have rhythm.
Trenton ReynoldsWhat's one of the songs that is on that album? I'm not remembering. I don't remember.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI have it in my head.
Look it up.
Trenton ReynoldsAll right, I'll look it up.
Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsOkay, one small admission that I would like to make here publicly about cruising, and that is that I have, in the last year, we went and got a minivan, because we have three kids now. and it just was the right thing to do. And turns out I love cruising in the minivan. You do. And I am a little disappointed that I've waited this long to discover the comforts, and it's fantastic.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhat's something about it? I haven't been.
Trenton Reynoldsa minivan. Well, I feel like there's a stereotype that there's a kind of midlife crisis or depression that comes on when somebody gets their first minivan. And I was surprised to find that I like the spaciousness, like my elbows have plenty of room. I like that the air conditioning doesn't just jet right at you. It's more kind of swirling around you because there's just more space for it to move around in. It's just great. And cup holders, plenty of cup holders. So I want to throw that in there.
Oh, good.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah. Bless the minivan. Yeah. Bless the minivan. Okay, what's next?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt's gotten a lot more modern. Like, remember, I just think of the old ones from high school, like carpooling and and just the doors and the, I was like. - That's true, minivans have gotten better. - Yeah. - Do you wanna talk about a friend or two?
Trenton Reynolds- Just one in particular. If you.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- We only have time for one right now though,
Trenton Reynolds'cause this is-- - Well, I only have one friend. If you go to my website, Trenton, T-R-E-N-T-O-N, that's my full name, trentonreynolds.com, that's where I post some of my personal artwork, and it's a little bit old, so I apologize for that. But there's a series called The Book of Rick, and those are paintings of my friend Rick Brommel. The reason I love Rick, he's one of my students that has been coming to my classes on and off, for the past eight years. And he's a retired shipwright. He's from Australia and worked for years in Marina, at the Marina, Marina del Rey, fixing ships. And the reason I love Rick is, A, he's been an awesome friend, and he's just been really... helped me a lot in different projects and stuff like that. But also, he's had this epic life. He built ships. He's sailed around the world. He has had these just amazing adventures, and you would never know it when you meet him. He's so... just unassuming, down-to-earth, just cool guy. And then you get to talking to him, and it doesn't take long before he's telling you these amazing stories. So just really love Rick Brommel. Great friend.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWonderful. I'm thinking of just my great friend Jesse Smith-Larson, who I talk to practically every day, sometimes a couple times a day, with good laugh about just really annoying stuff that's going on. I find ventilating about annoying stuff is... is pretty funny. It's helpful and funny. And we also talk about, you know, great things. But she's a dear friend and so authentic. And she's just a superb human being. She and her husband live in Chicago, so I don't see them as often. But she's a really true, great person, and I appreciate her. every day awesome are you guys feeling happy i'm feeling happy uh what's next um let's talk a little bit about art supplies a couple things okay so one thing that happens to me a lot is i spill things because i have things on the floor in different places. And I like having a lot of paint out at once, but I don't like it drying up. And so I thought about those, you know, when kids are painting, they just have those cups that have a top on them with a little hole with the paint brush that goes in. So I just looked on Amazon and got me some, a set of 10 for like 12 bucks. And I did a sort of test. I put paint in it last Friday, went to use a little bit of red paint today, do a little dribble drabble on something. There it is. The red paint is not dried out. It's just perfect. I also will give a shout out to Nori Paste. I've been... using that. I had forgotten about that. It's a good kind of bookbinding glue that's a little bit like gel medium, but I just really like how it dries and like the finish on it. Yeah, I like forgetting it and remembering about good supplies. Definitely. Affordable. Nori paste,
Trenton ReynoldsI have not used that. I'm gonna have to give that a try.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- Yeah, what about you?
Trenton Reynolds- Two supplies that I have kind of been excited about recently. One, for this most recent project in my painting class, mixed media portrait. I revisited, actually I had a student give me a packet of silver leaf. Years and years ago, I tried doing some gold leaf and just, it was a disaster and it was really, really difficult to get good results. Anyway, this time around, a little bit of matte medium on whatever surface you're trying to add the leaf to and you kind of blow on it, 'cause it's really delicate stuff, and blow it down onto the surface. And it was surprisingly easy to use and it's really cool looking. So that's silver leaf.
Sabrina Ward Harrison- I have a question about the silver leafing. What if, you know how sometimes it comes off and it's kind of, there's like, corner so it'll be this kind of sharp edge how do you kind of adjust or not muck it up but like
Trenton Reynoldskind of get it how do you get rid of the sharp edge yeah well you know you can't really it's so delicate that you can't touch it or adjust it at all really i mean the minute you try to pick it around it's it tears so what I found that I didn't realize before is that you can actually layer layer it on top of each other you don't have to like put the seams right up next to each other and when you layer it on like one sheet on a previous sheet it it covers it up entirely so you don't end up seeing those those edges or seams. So anyway, I didn't find that to be a problem.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo even if you don't mean you don't have to put the gel medium over the part where it overlaps?
No, you do.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. It doesn't pick up the, it doesn't pick up the leaf.
Trenton ReynoldsNo, you don't. Well, you don't see the seam. You don't see that sharp edge underneath it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonNo, no. But when you put the gel medium down on the actual like silver stuff, it doesn't like to, pull off onto your finger?
Trenton ReynoldsNo, not if you let it dry first.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOh. Duh.
Trenton ReynoldsWell, yeah. No, I didn't think about it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI was thinking, like, of course, Sabrina. Dude, let it dry.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, so if you're doing multiple layers, you'd want to let the first layer dry and then put more matte medium down and then layer on top of it if you want to get rid of it. to that corner or edge or whatever.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI need to take some art classes from you.
Trenton ReynoldsAnyway, so Silverleaf, if you have never done it, it's not as intimidating as it might seem. And it's worth picking up. It's not even that expensive. Pick up a packet and try adding it to your next painting. or whatever. The other thing that I wanted to mention that is a fairly new product, I think it's been within the last year or less, the company Arches, A-R-C-H-E-S, they make watercolor paper that many people are probably familiar with. They just came out with a paper fairly recently, like I said, within the last year or so, that is called Hueli, H-U-I-L-E. And it is formulated specifically to work with oil paint. So you don't have to prime it. You don't have to put any gesso or matte medium to seal the paper. You can paint directly on the paper with oil paint, which- That's incredible. Which before, you know, on regular watercolor paper is a, is a, no-no. So it just makes painting with oil paint on paper much more convenient. And I've really enjoyed it. I've really enjoyed testing it and comes in regular sheets, 22 by 30 or big rolls that are like 48 by 10 yards or something like that. And it doesn't affect the drying time or
Sabrina Ward Harrisonyou still can kind of keep working at it?
Trenton ReynoldsIt does. It's not exactly like painting on a primed surface like canvas or primed paper. It absorbs some of the paint, and that gives you a more matte surface, and it does, I think, dry a little bit faster because of that. But yeah, it's got its own character that you may or may not like. But it's worth it. worth giving a try.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSpeaking of new stuff, can we hear about your favorite, one of your happy places?
Trenton ReynoldsYeah. That was a great little segue, Sabrina.
Thanks. Well done.
Trenton Reynoldsone of my absolutely happiest of places is the container store you have told me that you've never been to the container store which blows my mind I don't like new stuff
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI guess that's true very smart you did tell me about this last week, so I'm prepped for what you're
Trenton Reynoldsgoing to say. This place is magical. It really is. If you have any containment problems needing to be solved, you need to go to Container Store. They've got so many great ideas. So Container Store, for example, they have a container that is the exact shape of a slice of bread that fits a ham sandwich or sandwich of any kind. perfectly. They've got a container that's the exact size to fit a pound of pasta. And they've got any other kind of container that you could ever want. And I have come up with so many solutions for just like little little bits and pieces that I need to put somewhere that don't have like a logical container. Let me give you an example. So I often collect little like screws of different sizes. Like you'll go to the store. I need a screw for, you know, fill in the blank. You buy a little packet of like 10 screws. You use two of them to like, whatever, fix a frame or whatever. And then you've got, you know, these, these, the remaining remaining screws and where do you put those and you're going to need them eventually. And are you just going to throw them in a box and so you have to root through a box full of different sizes of screws. Like there's no good way to solve that problem. Previously, I had purchased one of those little racks of little drawers like my dad used to use. But those aren't very useful because you can't really see what's in the different compartments without opening them. And the drawers are bigger than you need for like 10 screws. Right. So, container store, coming to the rescue. They've got these little plastic makeup containers. I don't know if it's for makeup or not. or whatever, but they stack on top of each other. Yeah. And they're clear, and they're little, and they're the perfect size for like 10 to 15 screws. So I've got a stack of these little circular stackable containers. Each little compartment has a different size of screw. Now when I need a screw, I can go and I pick up this stack of little containers and I can get the exact size screw I need. and it doesn't take up a bunch of space and it's totally functional. Anyway, huge fan, huge fan of the container store.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonCan I give you an assignment, a little project for it?
Trenton ReynoldsI'm on it. Tell me.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI use black ink all the time and I would like to not have the fear of it spilling. I would like to find a container. So usually I put the bottle of ink inside like a heavier ceramic. ceramic jar or something like a heavy thing. But I would like to find a way to be able to also keep it and move it around and have it in a container and somehow have a top, that's a separate thing, maybe just so it doesn't dry out.
Trenton ReynoldsContainer stores place for you, man. You got to check this place out. They've got suction cup containers. They've got magnets. They got clips. They got, I can think of like-
Sabrina Ward HarrisonMagnet would be really cool.
Yeah. I'm telling you, they got it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonIt sounds like it's more satisfying to go in person than really go online for that. You just want the real experience.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah, well it's kind of like going to an art supply store where you don't even really know what you're going to end up getting excited about. You'll stumble upon something that you've never seen before and all of a sudden it's the perfect thing for what you know. Totally. what you're looking for. So, yeah, you definitely got to go in person. Container store. What about you?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonJust your basic kind of magical moments I have at a thrift store. I find very...
Trenton ReynoldsYour garden variety magical moment.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah, truly. It's always kind of... It feels like it's whispering from beyond the thing... the things that I find that I feel like they were just meant to be found right at that moment, right in that place. I love going to a thrift store when I'm needing a little break from working on a project that I, and I feel like I find some piece of fabric, a little broken something, this or that, that just works perfectly. I would say that most of my pieces and pages of books have involved, definitely involved some element of something from a thrift store or garage sale. That's, I have to tie that into really missing driving, cruising around because one of my favorite things is just to happen upon a yard sale and be like, yes! Woo! And feel like there's something in there to find. So, I just love that feeling. I, I, I love it.
Trenton ReynoldsYeah. How would you describe that feeling? Because I suspect that the feeling you have in a thrift store is very similar to the feeling I have in the container store. There's like this deep satisfaction.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYes. Yes.
Trenton ReynoldsAnd hope and possibility and wonder.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOh, I know.
I know. I know.
Trenton Reynoldsjust awe in humanity and its its creations
Sabrina Ward Harrisonmaybe also the price point because containers couldn't be that expensive and I don't think it like a thrift store you know you know that you're going to find something that probably somehow you're going to be able to afford like it doesn't feel like it's a big it's not like a you know I've got some habit to go to like Prada or something it's a very like it's a reasonable thing to be really into doing.
Right.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonBut it also feels really good to donate a bunch of stuff back to a thrift store when I finally got some of my stuff from Portland sent over here. I just, before it arrived, I took, I had about 10 bags, huge bags full of all the clothes I kind of randomly wore until my, for two years before my clothes got here. It was like... give them back get them back there
Trenton Reynoldsyeah that's interesting that it seems like that becomes then about your like connecting to other people in this way it's like this it's it's a tribe it's a community it's a like it's connection of a certain kind like you're taking you're taking and giving back i only take okay here what do
Sabrina Ward Harrisonyou do with the with all the containers when you're done with them do you guys just have like singing of laura you just have like tons of containers and like what happens when you lose the top to them
Trenton ReynoldsI don't think that that's generally a problem.
Really?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThat being said... I lose tops to every single container I have.
A lot of them. Yeah.
Trenton ReynoldsI don't think... Yeah, I'm looking around and trying to think of containers I've lost and...
Like Tupperware?
Trenton ReynoldsTupperware... Now, Tupperware is a whole another... That's a different episode. We got...
Okay.
Trenton ReynoldsI got lots of thoughts about Tupperware. But yeah, no, that's like, those are like socks, right? Right. Somehow between putting them in the dirty bin and cleaning them in the laundry, like, you end up losing one sock. But it's the same with Tupperware. Like, you know that you only ever use them with the lid on. But somehow between getting them dirty and washing them, you lose the lid. And then what do you do with, you know, one half of a Tupperware? upperware set.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI can think of a lot of things.
Trenton ReynoldsYou send it to Sabrina. That's what you do.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonOkay. What, um, I want to tell people a little bit about briefly suggest a ambient, a nice ambient website.
Um,
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI, as most of you know, I love Italy. and I miss Italy regularly. I name my dog after Italy. One of the little towns along the seaside in the Cinque Terre is Genoa. And I came across this there are these webcams in different parts. I was really jonesing for Italy a couple months ago and I like I need to see Piazza Navona in Rome so I saw that and there was a link to another so you can see different parts of Italy and different parts around the world you know you guys are all familiar with that like thing anyway I love this one especially in Genoa because you it's kind of from a distance but you hear the way crashing and you can see it throughout the day and I just like hearing the sound of the waves crashing and hearing you know faint Italian children yet you know calling out laughing and I got a little bit obsessed with this looking at it once and I saw this like yellow ball that had been left on the beach like I just know I had his back over here. So I love that website. Oh, and I'll put the link in the show notes for that.
I like it in the background.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonI'll mention just while we're at it briefly,
Trenton Reynoldsthe show I've been into recently,
Sabrina Ward Harrisonrecently. I don't know about you guys, but I'm really into the Great British Bake Off. I love it. We're on season 7. It's hard to watch in the States. I know one season is on Netflix. But it's so great. It's a competition between amateur bakers. I think it starts at 10 each week. someone is dismissed and one is the star baker of the week and they have different themed themed challenges one is like pudding bread cakes so they'll have they'll have a whole episode just about pudding yeah and it starts out with one that is their anyway it's breaking into three different assignments one they have to make all the exact same thing they don't know what it is and they don't get a really clear recipe. And it's just as dramatic. I don't bake whatsoever, but I love the music. I love the anticipation. I love the different people. I love the British accents.
It's great.
Trenton ReynoldsGot to check out. What is it? The Great British Bake Off.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYep. If you hear it and you know it, you know it. And if you don't.
Trenton Reynoldsyou don't got it you know what well i my mind just got locked in on pudding you know i love i love banana pudding with little chunks of banana in it have you ever had good banana pudding no so
good
Trenton ReynoldsThat makes me hungry. What else do you like to eat? What else do I like to eat? Well, let me share while we're talking about TV shows. I just really quickly have to agree with all the hype around Stranger Things. Laura and I just finished that. Eight episodes. Awesome 80s vibe. Perfect amount of scary and suspense. Great story. You got to go watch it. Stranger Things. It's on Netflix. Netflix. So I spent a couple years in the Philippines, and there is a dish, a Filipino dish that I like to eat every once in a while called chicken adobo. And it is savory, just yummy, yummy, yummy, and you eat it with rice. It's satisfying, and it takes me to a happy place. So chicken adobo. Got to check that out. them.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonThat sounds really good. Speaking of chicken, I've been eating a lot of chicken, a lot of sweet potatoes, and a lot of coconut, different coconut things. Three months ago, I'm just starting my fourth month, I got on the bandwagon with this whole Whole30 concept. Have you heard of that, Trenton?
Mm-hmm.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo it's just like eating really clean, no sugar, no alcohol, no caffeine. I think it's, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's no caffeine. Well, anyway, so I did that for the past three months and I feel fantastic, and it really helped me prepare. prepare to start CrossFit. And I fell in love with all these coconut things because I like something, I like creamy and so also yeah, you can't have dairy so coconut has just been awesome. And I love multiple coconut products. I don't have them. But one of the things, a little trick and I think people talk, I didn't know what the Maybe I can do a little video demonstration.
Trenton ReynoldsOh, you totally should do that. That sounds fantastic.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo I just... I like that so many people are kind of getting on this kick of eating this way. It's exciting. If there is something to be trending right now, that's a very good thing to do. it's exciting that people are embracing and getting excited about. And speaking of just saying something about containers, that's something because I've been doing this meal prep. And getting really good sets of containers makes eating healthy so much better when you can make a lot of it. And when you're hungry, you have a lot of food. have something really good to eat in multiple sized option containers.
Trenton ReynoldsSo I could tell you a place where you can find. Yes.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonSo.
Trenton ReynoldsOh, coconut. Before we move on from coconut, there are two things that I have found recently from Trader Joe's. two coconut products. One that's, they're like strip, like chunk strips of coconut. And they're lightly sugared and they are fantastic. Very wonderful little snacks. And then there's also like thinly sliced toasted coconut chips that are also very tasty. So Trader Joe's, look around for their coconut option. Oh, that's good.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonWhat else? Are we covered?
Trenton ReynoldsIs there anything else that makes you happy that you would like to share?
Sabrina Ward HarrisonDoing this podcast makes me happy.
Trenton ReynoldsIt makes me happy, too.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonYeah. I think it's a really great thing to shake up your week to just have just kind of a structured random commitment to a conversation.
Trenton ReynoldsThat's a good description of it.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd it makes you just sort of ventilate and talk about what you're thinking about. I think when you're working and trying to figure all this stuff out. So this was a joyful break a little bit from that.
Trenton Reynoldsdefinitely I think that is perhaps a good thing to focus on a little bit and that is that I think especially artists where we're spending a lot of time alone a lot of time focusing on our artwork a lot of time in our heads that I know for me these conversations every week help me get out of my head and help me, you know, I realize when I try to explain my thoughts and ideas verbally, it helps me realize where the weaknesses of my ideas are and where the strengths are, you know, or kind of helps me make them more concrete. So that's true. I don't know. I find it, I find it really helpful just creatively to have these conversations. So. yay yay podcasts
Sabrina Ward Harrisonyay people listening too I'll just say that I equally as much I appreciate having this conversation I am so loving listening to conversations all the time so for you people listening and people that have talked to us about enjoying it and so on. I know that feeling, and it is great. Well, I'm feeling happy, and this is the end. Join us next week. Room of the Trees is brought to you by...
Trenton ReynoldsCoconuts and containers and happiness.
Sabrina Ward HarrisonAnd happiness. You can find us on iTunes. Thank you for sharing with your friends. Thank you for having your own conversations. Let us know what makes you happy. Tag us on Instagram. And leave us a comment or leave us a review. It's really, it's really cool. You can support us on Patreon, patreon.com. You can find us on iTunes and share with your friends. And just have a wonderful week and may happiness pass through your day. today.
Over and out. Over and out.