Look What I Found!

Remember those vintage Valentines I framed for my Valentine's Day decorations?

Well apparently somebody else has the same one, and made it into a free printable download.

How Fun is the Internet?

Check out this great source for CUTE oil cloth!

Found Via this post on Prudent Baby.

Thank You Martha

So I was reading this months Martha Stewart Sunday night and saw an ad for this:

I don't think I've ever seen lemon ice cream before. Lemon sorbet or sherbet, yes. Ice cream, no. I'm a bit of a lemon fiend, and really, who doesn't love anything Haagen-Dazs? So Monday night at the grocery store, I decided to pick some up and try it.

Oh, it's good.

Even my husband (who is not a lemon fiend, and thinks I have a some-what unnatural affinity for lemons) really liked it. I'm excited to have a little more after dinner tonight. You should probably try it. That's all. :)

Yup, She's My Sister!

Witness the moment my sister's company becomes a household name! Katie Richardson and her husband own Puj Baby, and her baby bath tub was on Ellen today. I couldn't be more excited for her! Click here for a link to the video. (I was having a hard time trying to embed it). Now go buy an awesome baby tub, or booties, or sling for every pregnant lady you know!

I Could Make That...

Oh man, I say that a lot when I'm shopping, or see something I like on a blog. The question is not whether I could, but whether I'd ever actually get around to it! But that was the first thing I thought when I saw these lovely, yet prohibitivly expensive letter blocks from the MOMA Store.


Cute, right? But they're $120.00! Don't get me wrong, I totally respect paying for a quality designed beautiful product. I just can't always afford it. So I might have to go the thrifty route and make some similar ones out of cute craft paper and modge podge. Nancy, you're my resident modge podge expert, what do you say?

Guess I Should Have Gone Shopping First

My sister Becky is in town, and that means shopping with the girls! We went to Nordstroms on Tuesday and I saw the cutest purses. At first I thought they must be Orla Kiely bags, but no, they are Fossil! And way less expensive than Orla Kiely bags. Too bad I just made a new purse...

Maybe I'll just have to get a new wallet instead.



I just love coated canvas in a cute print!

Nursery Tour

Well, I finally did it, I finished the nursery! I wanted to make as many things in here as possible, so that's why it took me so long. And you thought I was just being lazy!

We'll begin our virtual tour where you first enter the room. On our left are two wall mounted shelves (painted with the help of the lovely and talented Nancy). Here we find a few familiar faces, the elephant shrew, the dachshund lamp, and Karla's elephant, along with a few new faces that include some toys that belonged to my husband as a child.

Moving on to the second shelf, is a stuffed owl I made, a pink rubber duck (everyone needs one of those, right?) and soft letter blocks that my mom helped me finish.

Below the shelves is an white dresser that I made into a changing station. I made the pad using some vinyl coated fabric I purchased at Corn Wagon in Springville (they have the cutest vinyl coated fabric around, if you're in the market) and I got the pad inside at JoAnn's. I also made pockets to go on either side to hold all my diaper changing necessities.

As we continue our way around the room, on the next wall hang a couple of needle point pieces that my grandpa made a long time ago. (Yes, grandpa! He was one of my biggest crafting inspirations.) Next to those is a nice bright window with a patchwork curtain. This was actually the first decor item I made for the room, and was the fabric inspiration for most everything else, including something hanging from the ceiling to our right.

The mobile! I made the birds for the mobile using a pattern I found here, and I attached them to an embroidery hoop, trimmed with pom-poms, fabric, and ribbon. I got the idea to use pom-poms from Lovely by M's mobile. And my mom helped make the bias tape that covers the hoop.

Below the mobile is the crib, a gift from my husband's parents. Hanging on the side of the crib are a couple of afghans my husband's grandma made, and a quilt from Nancy is there to prevent soothie's from falling behind the crib. Yes, this happened once in the middle of the night. Not fun. Around the base of the crib is a crib skirt that is made using the same fabrics as in the curtain. (Okay, so part of the reason everything is made out of the same fabrics, is, well, I bought way too much. I'm really bad at trying to figure out how much fabric I need for a project, and tend to buy about twice as much as I need. Let's just say, I still have more. Maybe I'll make a quilt or something.) To the right of the crib is a painting I did in high school, that happens to co-ordinate with the room. Awesome.

And down inside the crib is the best part of the nursery. :)

Thanks to everyone who helped me finish all my projects!

New Purse

Well, my last purse was starting to wear holes in the bottom, so that means it's really time to make a new one. I had a couple of fat quarters I bought a while ago at The Cotton Shop, which by the way, is an excellent place to get cute flannel for receiving blankets. My favorite place for that, actually.

So I just used two fat quarters for this project. It's pretty much the same basic design as all my other purses. If I didn't carry them over my shoulder like that, I'm pretty sure I'd loose my purse a lot. There's an interior pocket for my cell phone, and I decided to outline a few of the flowers on the flap with gold thread. What do you think?

Happy Valentines Day!

What's that, you say? Valentines was over a week and a half ago? Well, the decorations are still up at my house! And I'm just now getting around to blogging about them. What can I say, I'm a little slow. I have a box full of vintage Valentines I found at my grandparent's house that I've kept, and this year I decided to frame some of them with some scrapbook paper for Valentine's Decorations. What do you think?

Also my sweet husband gave me some lovely flowers. He bought two bouquets so I could combine them into one arrangement since he knows I like to arrange flowers. So thoughtful, that one. I think I'll keep him!

And I got him this DVD, because, you know, he's a rock star.

Oopa!

Since Nancy shared her recipe for her salad dressing after our Greek themed birthday party, I thought I'd share my recipe for tatziki sauce. The rock star isn't such a fan of gyro meat, as he relates it to meatloaf, mystery meat, etc. So when we make gyros, we just grill steak with gyro type seasonings on it and slice it thin. Mostly, I just need an excuse to eat that tatziki sauce. Oh man, I love this stuff!

Tatziki Sauce:
1 pint Greek Style Yogurt*
2 Cucumbers
2-3 cloves garlic
1 Lemon
salt

Peel cucumbers, then cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds with a spoon and discard. Dice cucumbers, and add to yogurt. Peel garlic cloves and grate with a fine grater over the bowl with yogurt and cucumbers. Juice lemon and add juice, salt to taste, but I usually do about 1 tsp. Now, enjoy, because it's delicious. Yeah, it's that easy!

*If you can't find Greek yogurt (I've been able to get it at Macey's), you can use regular plain yogurt, and strain it of the extra liquid through a tea towel or paper towels and a sieve. Keep in mind that you'll probably want to start out with more than a pint so you end up with about a pint after it's strained.

I also got my mom's recipe for making pita's. They don't end up with a pocket in the middle, but they're really tasty, and work good for making wrap style gyros.

Pita Bread
1/4 Cup warm water
1 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
3 cups flour*
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in mixer and allow yeast to bloom. Add buttermilk, flour, salt, and baking soda, combine and run mixer for a few minutes to knead the dough. Allow dough to rise for about an hour, then pound it down and divide into eight equal pieces. Roll out each piece into a round, and cook on stove top over medium-high heat until browned, about 2-3 minutes per side. Now throw on some of that tatziki sauce, and gyro meat, because they're best fresh. We also decided that these would work well as individual pizza crusts, or as naan for the next time you make curry or tikka masala.

* I used all plain white flour but my mom made them with 1/2 white 1/2 wheat flour, and both ways were tasty.

1, 2, 3

1. Last call for Haiti Donations through my shop. Thanks to everyone who supported the effort. It feels so nice to help, even if it's just a little.

2. So you know how Ina always says to get the "really good" ingredients, and that the mozzarella from the grocery store is just rubber? Well, in an effort to live up to Ina (not all of us live in the Hampton's where there are cheese stores), I made my own mozzarella cheese, you know, from milk and stuff. Okay, so really, Brian did a lot of it. But it was pretty exciting! I am a horrible food photographer, but suffice it to say, it turned out really well. And what did I make with this homemade cheese? Pizza. I know I was supposed to make, like, a caprese salad or something elegant, but we're just pizza people. I will say that everything on the pizza (crust, sauce, cheese) was homemade, except for the pepperonis. And really, who wants to know how that is made? Anyway, it was a fun activity, and if you want to try it, click here for the directions I used. And a special thanks to Mom, who informed me that rennet can be found at the grocery store in the Jello section.

3. Back by popular demand, here are some pictures of my exceptionally cute baby:

More Items Posted

I have a couple of new items posted in the shop, and have at least one more necklace to post before the end of the donation period. Here are a couple pictures, but click here to go to the shop and see what is available.

Thank you to everyone who has made a purchase! It means so much to me.