Monday, January 31, 2011

oh Monday- can I hide under the covers from you?

rockin' out to new music from http://ilistentoeverything.com this morning- making it more than bearable especially when Jay Z. and Kanye come up on the playlist

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Valentines wreath

a tad blurry



I had some boas laying around from my bachelorette party and this was a great way to use them. It makes me giggle a bit when looking at it. I combined the boas with a hanging sign I've had for awhile with no good place to put it- I used to have big thing with fish decorations. This guy is a cutie. My little puppy, Haplo, joined in with me and helped decorate. He likes feathers :)




it's a little much for our neighborhood but the husband says the over the top-ness of it will be just fine for the few weeks before valentines day. Regardless- I think it will make coming home from long stressful days at work even more delightful :)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Sending a little love into the universe

I just can't say it enough- I love my husband. He is adorable and handsome and so intelligent. He is continually impressing me and making me laugh. I don't know what I'd do without him.
He has been looking for a job recently and it hasn't been easy. But this week he has blown it out of the water! Two phone interviews, two in person interviews and one next week. My baby is kicking ass :) He's off on an interview right now and I couldn't be more proud. Like beaming over here.
So, I'm sending a little love to him through our mental connection of love and I'm sending some love to these fabulous companies that should totally hire him. Because he's amazing :)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Thrifty Thursday



We've just started the coupon hunt around here about a month ago and this is our best score yet. Over a pound of oatmeal and a four pack of lightbulbs. We got this deal by combining target printable coupons with newspaper coupons in conjunction with Target sales.




That's Right!!! I paid just 31 cents. I see a bright future with lots of oatmeal cookies, oatmeal bread and....got any oatmeal baking ideas? Deal ends Saturday- go grab yours!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tuesday Tutorail-Drab to Fab in two steps

step 1-start with your in great shape but faded out mess:



step 2- ghetto style it because we don't all have cricuts (do we?) duct tape and cardboard cut out:


add a $0.97 can of spray paint:


and voila! a like new doormat!

okay- so it's not perfect, but we gotta start somewhere. Next time I'm doing a harlequin style a la Ballard designs but for now this is enough of a pop at our door and after a day it was worn in and looks perfect.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Valentines decor

"vows, young couple, man and wife"

It's time! Yay for the month of love and hearts and ushy gushy-ness and flowers. bring it on!!
I don't usually decorate much for Valentines day, just a little something here and there. This year I added a few extra touches that I'm really enjoying. Everything centers around my favorite Penguins. These guys are adorable. I found them at an antique store in Winston-Salem years ago and they are hands down my favorite decoration of all time. Their 'fur' is made up of tiny little beads and yes, that's hand-knitted scarves around them. I was just passing through Winston so I've never been back to the store, but boy was it a gem. What a find. This is my main table that you see when you walk into the house, since we don't have a fireplace I decorate it as I would a mantle. Which is fine by me, I love this little table. Here is the before picture of what I had up in January, although I thought about taking it after I started taking things down so it's missing a few items but you get the gist...




And here it is ready for Valentine's Day- that precious penguin family isn't going anywhere! I added fleece hearts and xox to their scarves, made a simple frame insert and then worked on the vase filler. I found these wonderful vine branches off the side of the road and spray painted them white. I just love the inter twining and twisting. Then I cut up a romance book from Goodwill into hearts, glittered the edges of some, burned the edges of others for some depth and circled some lovey (sometimes dirty-hey it's just me and my mister) words, ya know things like "perfect bride," "i will love you forever," "wedding" etc. Total cost about 1.50 and it is perfect for me-simple and romantic. I like the basic red and white . oh, and the heart is from Michael's last year after sale. gotta love it :)


Monday Madness

Well things were already crazy at 8 am this morning. Thankfully things got semi-worked out and I ended up at my desk being welcomed by this cuteness first up on my changing desktop background
Thank goodess for cute puppies and snow. Pulled up the Pandora and all is good as I enter work mode again. I can't wait to tell you all about my job which I love, but that will be later- I've got work to do. Posting crafty-ness tonight!

Monday Madness

Well things were already crazy at 8 am this morning. Thankfully things got semi-worked out and I ended up at my desk being welcomed by this cuteness first up on my changing desktop background
Thank goodess for cute puppies and snow. Pulled up the Pandora and all is good as I enter work mode again. I can't wait to tell you all about my job which I love, but that will be later- I've got work to do. Posting crafty-ness tonight!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Weekend's almost over

Well it's almost time to go back to work. I took the last week off and boy am I glad I did. I got so much done- my blog is off and running to a good start, lots of projects completed and definitely finally relaxed. Admittedly lots of these helped-



My Mom's infamous Peach Daquiries- I froze fresh peaches this summer after we made preserves :) in our brand spanking new (wedding gift) Kitchen aid blender thank you Aunt J. I love the red!
I didn't get done practically any of the responsible things I was supposed to do-maybe I can fit them in today. Somehow I still haven't even changed my name yet, all those horror stories about the social security office must be keeping me away-regardless must do that next week.

Last night me and the mister had a date night- it was super special. We did romantic things like, ya know, buy a trash can..a beautiful trash can


and we went to our favorite Cary hole in the wall restaurant Hot Point

I might try to do some more projects today but it's a bit of a day before work Sunday- planning the weekly menu, going to the grocery store, ironing and doing laundry. Fun fun- is it too early for another batch of daquiries? lol Hope you all had a great weekend.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Crafts on the To do list:

I found some fun things yesterday perusing through blogs that I can't wait to try...

I'm loving this headband tutorial from raegunwear blog. I just found her yesterday and she has so many headbands!


she also has these in her shop and I'm going to give a go at trying to make them myself.




next time fleece goes on sale at JoAnn's I am definitely buying some appropriate for a little girl and a little boy to make these thrifty and cute reusable diaper wipes from over at theparishfam blog. This is such a cute family and blog- I read a ton of her posts the first night I found it.



Let's see- I also want to make:
I have lots of fabric picked out for bibs-just need to grab some velcro (i've never sewn w/velcro before)
another baby blanket repurposed from sleep pants
camera strap cover-I've been meaning to make this forever
jalapeno cheese bread- I'm dying to find a fabulous recipe for this. do any of you out there know of one?
fabric labels
knit toboggan for the mister and maybe another one for me

I've also got this big basket of about 30 lighthouse cookie cutters that are left over favors from our wedding and I don't have a clue what to do with them... any ideas?

This week I'm going to post my valentines decor. I can't wait to share! :)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Thursday, January 20, 2011

puppy love- a few cute pics of my boys

our new puppy- Haplo!! a standard poodle- Apricot colored. He is so different from Mingo and we love just love him :)



My Mingo!! got him the second week after I got my first job-he is turning 3 in February!!! a labradoodle :)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

New years resolutions in effect-number 1. Read more, ponder more, less tv


We have been watching totally too much tv around here. It's a little too normal to be eating in front of the tv even-which is just not okay! Santa brought us table topics for Christmas and we've used them a bit since then as we try to eat at our dinner table more often.
We also decided to..dun dun dun.. drop cable. We dropped it last week and this Saturday we joined our public library. One of the branches is literally 10 minutes away from us. Boy have things changed since I've been to the library!! You can now reserve books online and they will have them ready for you when you get there, you can renew online and you even check them out yourselves. Our branch was super clean and was full of books. I came home with three and the mister came home with two. We're both super excited to get started on them!
I realized while I was trying to find some that I like that I have no clue how to pick out books though! As a youngster at the library I would just walk down the aisles and peruse until I found one I liked (which is what I did yesterday) and then as I got older I mostly read literature and was so surrounded by other readers that I always knew what to read next or could just go to an author I knew. I'm not always up for reading classics anymore, though I did get Gilgamesh so what do I do? Anyone know of good lists to refer to or have any recommendations? Thanks!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Ribbons!

I found out about a great online ribbon and fabric shop. Some beautiful ribbon that I haven't seen locally anywhere. They also have ribbon grab bags which I've done from other online ribbon sites and they are wonderful. Check them out!

http://www.theribbonretreat.com/Default.aspx

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Passing it on- engagement bliss.

I've been married to my wonderful sweetheart for about 130 days now. I have continued to get enjoyment out of my bride and wedding magazines around the house but I figured it's time to pass them on. I remember when I first got engaged and every magazine was sheer joy to look through. My fiance and I would even look through them together sometimes. He promises that I will always be his bride so I think I'm ready to give the joy that I got from these magazines on to someone else to enjoy them. I posted them on the free stuff on craigslist and a guy contacted me wanting to get them for his fiancee that is busy planning their wedding. Absolutely exciting. I passed them along today with some happy wishes for them both.

Tuesday Tutorial-Tutu cute

My sweet niece is in the princess stage- I love it!! I knew exactly what I was going to make her for Christmas- a tutu!! and a purple tutu at that(her favorite color) I've seen a lot of tutorials online some that are faster than others. I ended up following one I found on youtube that involves fishing line, hand knotting each piece of tulle and then sewing a ribbon over it to tie around her waist. It took me two nights but probably could have been done in one, it was 22 inches long to go around her waist and she'll be able to wear it for awhile since it ties instead of is a piece of elastic. For length measure from waist to knees and double that as it's tied in to the top after being folded in half.
youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu91Gt1OEUA
not the best picture but you can see the ribbon that ties around her waist up top and all the fun tulle.


To comlete her princess look I appliqued a crown onto a t shirt: purple and white polka dot fabric, added some jewels for bling and a "C" for her name then completed the kit with a wand.


I am thankful to say she loves it. She wears it everywhere and throws it on over jeans or tights which is just as I imagined. I also hear she doesn't go anywhere without the wand. yay.



all ready to be wrapped. I can't wait to make one of these for my little kiddos... or myself!