Mr. and Mrs. B

Midnight Marzipan

2012-01-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

Late last night along with good friends I whipped up some delicious Martha Stewart muffins.
They are Carrot Ginger Spice, with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese frosting. Topped with the cutest almond paste (like marzipan) carrots that my friend Stephanie (mostly) and I sculpted.

They didn't make it to the frosting stage till this afternoon. Not that they needed frosting, but Mr. B requested it, and I have a hard time saying no to him, and frosting.

The carrots are just almond paste tinted with a touch of gel food coloring, then shaped into "organic" carrots, dusted with cocoa powder for the earthy look and topped with parsley and mint sprigs.

Most of Stephanie's carrots were so darling and had such character. This is probably the sweetest and my favorite, "lovers embrace".

Recipe from Martha Stewart Baking book, but also found here.

I substituted the buttermilk for whole milk with a tsp of vinegar, because I didn't have any buttermilk. I also added about 3 cubes of candied ginger chopped finely to the batter.
The frosting I made was a simple cream cheese frosting with vanilla bean added to it. I think orange would be lovely though!

Enjoy!

Finally bedroom furniture!

2012-01-21T16:22:00.000-08:00

The reason for the above mentioned "finally" is that I had ordered new bedroom furniture back on....Labor Day, from an online store that (long story short) went out of business. So I had to re-order the furniture from a real store after Christmas, and we got it in a month. Yay for real stores!

We did have perfectly usable solid wood furniture that was given to Mr. B many, many years ago. Shown below the oak nightstands that clearly did not match the darker wood bed that we bought 2 1/2 years ago when we moved into our new home.
Before

It's been doing the job, but driving me a little bonkers, also it wasn't enough drawer space for all of our clothing.
Our closets are super tiny and we have a lot of knitted goods (as you can imagine) and small things (unmentionables) that were being crammed into 3 drawers between the two of us.

This is our Kindcaid USA made, solid wood bedroom set :)
It's a beautiful distressed dark wood finish, that just happens to match our Costco bed just perfectly. The style is called Stonewater.
After

Oh what's that in the corner you say? Oh that's my new Lingerie Chest, it rocks.
I didn't think I could love a piece of functional furniture this much, but it has turned my crammed, socks, hats, scarves, underthings, & even jewelery into a perfectly organized and well kept goodies. I smile every time I open it.

It fits well in the corner of the room by my side of the bed. I was worried it would look crammed in, but it really goes nicely in that corner. Now I think it would empty without it.

This is our new dresser, or what the furniture company calls a "Drawer Chest". Its mostly for Mr. B (I got one drawer) and our TV. The size difference from our old armoire is major. This dresser although it holds more clothing it's substantially smaller, therefore makes our room feel larger.

I will feel a bit more at ease walking my way into the bathroom in the middle of the night now. I won't have to worry about my toes as much with this little lady.

We moved the old oak nightstands and armoire into our guest room where the long dresser that goes with the set has been all along. Now its a nicely matching and functional set for our guests.

Here is the new stuff one more time all together, just for me. I can't believe we actually got it after 4 months of waiting. It was totally worth it.

Solo updates around here

2012-01-14T16:13:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning with a plan, a plan to fix a few things that were just not right around here. Two problem areas to be exact.
1.) Our Utility closet disaster area.
2.) The Guest Bath broken towel holder in the tub. (yeah I know, I'll explain below)

Normally I involve Mr. B in these plans, well lets be frank, he usually does the majority of the work as I take on all creative control.
This time I was working solo. Mr. B has been tied up rebuilding a vehicle in our garage and that's a top priority. While I had elaborate ideas of how perfect my 2 projects could be in my head, I set out to town for supplies I quickly realized something.
I could fix them the easy way, or the time consuming and expensive way which happens to be the only way to achieve what my mind had made up.
Well guess what. I went cheap and easy folks, and I finished the projects in less than a couple hours and I am okay with that.

Sure they aren't quite what I wanted, but as a very smart and realistic woman once told me, "it's good 'nuff"

Project # 1. Utility closet.
Here is my very shameful and horrifying broom/utility closet, before.

Ahhhhh!!!

It's really bad, totally unorganized but very much used on a daily basis. This small cluttered closet is our broom storage, dog food closet, grocery bag hanging area, shoe storage, and it holds my rolling case full of tools and crafting supplies. Unfortunately the plan I had of turning it into a beautifully looking custom built-in storage area didn't quite make it in my budget for today.
So I turned this.

To this with a trip to the hardware store, and the local thrift store.

I paid $8.00 for this really heavy duty broom holder bracket. It keeps my long handled cleaning devices up and away from the floor, and therefore in a nicely sectioned off area in the closet. No more flopping around all over the ground.

I moved our hook rack to the back of the closet and much higher up, so it stores all of my reusable grocery bags up high, where there used to be a useless tiny shelf that I couldn't reach.

I also picked up this small wooded shelf and basket from a thrift store (that supports our local humane society) I set the rolling cart on top of it, along with Baxter's large ant proof food bin. On the bottom shelf I placed the basket that I am using to store smaller shoes and my old Ugg boots are just to the left. This is really helpful to have a place we can neatly store our "not so nice shoes" and keep them out of sight.

Not that pretty, but it's organized and it works so I'm happy.

Project # 2.
The guest bath broken towel rack tile things.
Have you ever been in a bath with a towel rack in it? No? Neither had I until we bought our home with one! The guest bathroom had a horizontal bar in it, kind of like the ones you could pull on to assist you while getting out of the bathtub, we quickly realized this was not made to hold much weight at all. So it must have been for towels? right?
Here it is broken. The bar was pulled on (over a year ago) and it snapped out breaking the two tile holders on either side.

It doesn't look too bad from the front.

But from the side the gaping holes that were left behind had sharp awful mortar sticking out, just at the right height to scratch the cr@p out of an unsuspecting arm. OUCH!

So in my head I was going to perfectly chip out the broken holder bases that were there, and find exact matching 4.25" square, off white tiles to replace them.
Well the nearest tile shop was a 30 min drive each way, and I didn't feel like spending more money on gas than the tile would be. So I chipped out the bases, and all that extra mortar and tiled in two of our extra Talavera tiles from our master bath renovation.
Tada! Cheap fix! Well actually free fix, since we already had all the supplies.

Okay so they don't match the white, but atleast they go with the existing blue and green border tiles above.

The best part is they don't have dangerous pointy scratchy edges that want to cut you! Yeah!!

So, it was a day of half a$$ed fixes, but I think they turned out just "good 'nuff"

Twenty twelve

2012-01-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

The New Year is here, today is the first day of 2012. Lets hope this warm breezy weather we are having is a sign that this year will hold many pleasant & unexpected events like today.

The first project I would like to share with you is my handmade knitting needle case. I technically made it last year (yesterday) but didn't have the daylight or the energy to take pictures of it till this morning.
It was a total labor of love, and also craziness. It took me FOREVER! Well like 8 hours, that's a really long time and my whole Saturday. But I totally love it and it's extremely practical, plus the cost was minimal....if you don't count the labor :)

I saw this pretty item on Etsy, and quickly pinned it on Pinterest, along with similar cases. I have been in need of a much larger and safer knitting needle case since I started knitting last spring. My old one worked pretty well, but occasionally I had needles slip out and with the price for knitting needles that is just plain unacceptable.

The price tag of $104 with shipping for the large case on Etsy was pretty crazy too (or so I thought). Also I wanted something a bit more custom! Or course. So I headed to the craft store and picked up $20 in fabric & supplies and a button for $6, going into the books as "the most expensive button I've ever bought".

I made my case out of some cedar green linen that I had left over from my pillow project a couple years ago. I used the crinkly texture idea from the etsy seller above, and sewed some organic looking creases in the linen first.

The outside of the case has a very natural feel. The randomly creased leafy green linen, and my favorite part of the whole case, the manzanita branch button handmade by a local artisan. The button is fabulous, super smooth feel to it, but really rustic at the same time.

The inside has a vibrant patterned cotton fabric that I picked up at our local quilting store. Its a fun, unexpected interior that I just fell in love with. The cottons at this store feel amazing, and the iron on fleece that I sandwiched between each layer of fabric holds on to my needles nice and snug.

I made my case extra large. It's interior dimensions, not counting the flaps is, 15" x 24". Total of 19" x 28". I added a velcro pocket to the right to hold my measuring tape and other larger items.
There are 30 pockets for all different needles and a circular needle hanger over to the right.

The case has safety flaps to hold the needles in safe and sound. I numbered the pockets on the white fabric row for organization. The whole case rolls up to about 6" x 15" when closed.

I may be seriously considering making a clutch out of this fabric. I love it! It's my new favorite thing in my knitting bag, and totally practical. Can't wait to show it off in the yarn shops to my fellow yarn snobs!

New Rug!

2011-12-29T16:55:00.000-08:00

I swore I would never order a large item via internet for our home without seeing a sample or something, but I took a chance and I'm happy I did! Plus, RugsUSA.com was having this epic facebook sale and I got this rug for 50% and no shipping.

This was our living room rug before. It was a nice Persian style wool rug hand-me-down that was neutral enough, but I wanted something a bit more modern.

New rug!!!
I ruv it. It looks pretty blue in these photos but its actually a charcoal color, either way it works!

I love the texture, it's wool but it's a loop pile. It feels so good on the feet, like little plush nubbies.

Yay new rug!

Picture Wall

2011-12-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

We had a hallway that was in need of dressing. You can see half of it below between the white sofa and the white cane chair.
I of course forgot to take a close up of the naked hallway before I masking-taped out my photo wall. So imagine a hallway wall with nothing on it, but the thermostat, the fire alarm and the door bell speaker thing....really attractive sounding, eh?

The spark for this day after Christmas decor job was actually because of Christmas. Mr. B's dad came over last night for our holiday dinner and gave us a few photos he had taken. He matted and framed them in his handmade barn wood frames, which I love.

Now these frames below that we had, although they are really nice solid wood they are not my style. Light Oak is just not a wood that goes with anything in our home. So I painted them quickly with a brush and some acrylic.

Here is my, "oh yeah I forgot to take a picture before Mr. B starts hanging pictures" shot.
Note I used the masking tape technique to map out the placement of the frames. I highly recommend this, it sped up time tremendously and there was no need to have Mr. B hold them up so I could see the placement.

Here is our hallway 1 minute later! I may add more pictures down the road as we grow our frame collection.

Here is the view when walking toward the bedrooms.

**updated I added a few more things tonight 12-27-11

View from the sitting room.

And here it is walking towards the living room and front door. It really seems much more "homey" now. I also think it looks more complete and somehow makes the space seem bigger? Weird right?

Glad we finally did something with that wall space! Just takes a little gift, or inspiration sometimes to get the fire burning.

Mistletoe Kissing Ball

2011-12-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

I was inspired to make my kissing ball after I saw this link on Pinterest. Although my faux mistletoe technique was totally different from the link I posted, I still made use of the felt material to make mine.

Materials used:
1 Grapevine Ball 6"
Cream ribbon
5 squares cheap felt (synthetic) in pale green
1 square wool felt in leaf green
bag of mini white pom poms
hot glue
wood roses (I collect mine down the street)

I didn't take any photos of "how to" steps....sorry. I was on a crafting buzz after getting back from Michaels, Walmart and the Yarn Store!
To make it, I basically cut out a bunch of mistletoe shaped leaves from the felt, hot glued them to a grapevine ball, and then added few white pom poms. I filled some of the empty spaces with my wood roses, because, well I have about 8 pounds of them & I think it breaks up the green nicely with some contrast.
I looped the ribbon through one of the vines and hung it from a hook, pretty easy right? Make one! You'll love it :)

I just happened to hang it in the walkway between our dining room and living room, so Mr. B can't miss it!

Happy kissing!

Other great tutorials on Mistletoe Kissing Balls here!
Martha Stewart Live Mistletoe Ball & Silk Kissing Ball

Cowl for Grandma

2011-12-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

I have been knitting away these last few months on the cardigan below, and during the off time I have had from that (ha) I have been making my grandmother this (just finished) cowl.
She asked me for it oh, back in October. Since I love my grandmother I ran right out and bought the yarn for it, but quickly realized I had just signed up for a class on my sweater. The deadline on that came first. So it's the first week of December its done and its cold out, I plan to send this baby down to her asap.

I literally just finished it and blocked it tonight.

I took some shots of the cowl before it was blocked. It's a really bumpy mess at this point due to all the lace detail in the pattern. It causes the yarn to wave up and down and you really cant see the pattern all that well here.

This is the cowl pre-blocking inside out. It looks like an egg crate.

Voila! Its amazing what a little water and heat can do.
I steamed it on a piece of clean white linen and lightly sprayed it with water for the night. You can really see the shield pattern now.

Here I am testing it out in my PJ's after blocking. Its shorter than my cowl, which is the same pattern, but she asked for it that way. I hope she likes it!

It was knit from this beautiful and very large skein of Alpaca Yarn with an uneven spin to it. It was $25 for the 1 lb. skein but I could knit 3 cowls out of it! I think I am going to have to knit a fun loose scarf with the rest for myself. Its so soft and the cream color goes with everything.

Perry, the cardigan

2011-12-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

The project that has been taking up the last 2 months of my free time, is now finished! Meet my new cardigan named "Perry"
Here is the pattern by Michele Wang at Brooklyn Tweed dot net.
Here I am wearing mine!
Please excuse the no makeup, undone hair, and dark circles under my eyes. If you know me personally, you know I don't wear makeup, so for this shoot I may look a bit pale and scary, and I apologize. Next time I take photos of myself for this blog I think makeup is a must!

Note that the skill level is a 2 out of 5. This was by far the hardest pattern I have even done, and I was only able to because of the step by step class I have been taking for it. I have been going to a Saturday morning class every two weeks just to learn how to do the math involved and steps for knitting a garment like this.

It's super comfy to wear, and soft! (Sorry Brooklyn Tweed's Wool Shelter is so itchy to me) I knitted it out of Canopy worsted. It's a 50% Baby Alpaca, 30% Merino, & 20% Bamboo blend, in Sarsaparilla color.

Here is my, Mr. B is in the Garage and I can't wait for a photo of me wearing it, shot.

This is a good shot of the lace detail on the bottom edge. I did it a bit differently than the pattern, not intentionally at first but I liked the look after I noticed.

I am really proud of myself for finishing the sweater. It was a huge project, but I learned so many essentials from the class, and now I can say I have made a real garment. Not just a hat or scarf!

Baxters new "do"

2011-11-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I have done a Baxter post. So here is our pup!

This is Baxter our Lakeland Terrier, he is now 6 years old and just got back from a new groomer that gave him such a great new do.
Just check out that profile!

He is pretty much always playing, but going around and around in the bushes is his favorite thing (besides eating). He is one lucky pup that gets to go to work with us and have plenty of room to run around all day.

Pincushion sweets

2011-11-27T18:21:00.000-08:00

Today I felt I had to make a pincushion in the shape of a cupcake.

So I did.

I really winged this one, so I don't have step by step tutorial in case you want to make one of your own, but I can try to explain what I did.

I cut a large circle out of cream color felt, about 9" in diameter. I then cut a frosting shape splatter out of pink felt and stitched it on with brown embroidery thread.
I basted around the outer edge of the white circle for the next step.

The basted stitch made it so I could pull it tight and gather the bottom for a nice little pillow.

I took some upholstery batting and tore it apart to make stuffing.

Here it is all stuffed. I think it looks like a Chinese dumpling. It actually gave me a major craving for Dim sum, yummy!

I had this one small white ramekin dish that didn't match any of my others so I pushed the stuffed pillow into that. You could hot glue it in to secure it, but I didn't.

I had the sleeve of an old cashmere sweater that the moths got to years ago, (darn moths, I hate them!) so I hot glued that sleeve cuff to the outside of the ramekin. I also glued a small circle to the bottom to make it look neat and finished (not pictured).

Final steps are the cute finishing touches. I felted a red "cherry" for the top and pinned it in with a leaf green sewing pin. I also glued on a cute grosgrain ribbon with polka dots.

Cute enough to eat!

Here it is with some of my pins stuck in it, kind of like sprinkles! I just love it.

Macaron success!

2011-11-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

Yeah you heard me, after last nights (see below) Epic fail, I have succeeded!
Okay I can't really take the credit because I had a very awesome friend come over and pretty much show me how to make them and I watched. I did help out with piping them out though.
Basically I think I can rock these little cookies now. She showed me that there are 4 important things to baking French Macarons. They may seem like obvious points, but they are really important to these particular cookies.

1.) A good recipe base. (which I now have! )
2.) The right ingredients
3.) Sifting and Folding are key!
4.) Temperature changes before & during baking

And look! Our macarons have "feet", yay. That's the little spongy base at the bottom of the cookie. Besides looking great, they were also delicious. These are Allspice macarons with chocolate ganache filling. They are Thanksgiving in a cookie.

Epic fail.

2011-11-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

I was hoping to post some great photos of my first macaron baking experience, but alas, I failed.
I did not bake delicious light crispy coated chewy centered French Macarons, but dense very almondy chewy almond paste cookies. (it could have been due to my cockiness as a baker, and I felt I could substitute almond flour with almond paste, big mistake)

Ahhhhh, failure, you are not something I experience often, but I don't hate you as much as I once did. I handled tonight's mishap with a little advice from the kitchen of my mother. When something doesn't look as pretty as it should, or taste as you want it to, dip it in chocolate!
So that's what I did, well I drizzled my chewy almond cookies in dark chocolate and they are really yummy & cute, just not, I repeat NOT French macarons.

Macaron mania!

2011-11-21T12:57:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to attempt French Macarons for sometime now. They are amazingly delicious, as well visually appealing. This cookie is versatile and ideal to change with the seasonal fruits and nuts available to us here "on the farm".
Look at all the pretty colors!

If you know me at all, you know that I don't just jump into anything without a ton of research. This includes building a piece of furniture, upholstering a chair, or cooking anyhing. Its what I like to call my OCD of perfection.

So the same goes with baking French Macarons. I have looked up multiple recipes, asked friends that have baked them, I've done some recent field taste tests, and even watched videos.
I know, I know, I'm nuts!

~Speaking of nuts, what has sparked the need to bake these cookies is our overload of home grown Pistachios. We have about 5 female trees that were loaded. After picking, peeling, drying and shelling quite a few of them, I crave a different outlet with pistachios then salting them and eating them as a snack. I want a dessert! Or three!

So in my search for the most epic macaron recipe I found this this absolutely adorable video of a young woman (I think I read that she is from Brazil) being delightfully chipper & entertaining while baking macarons with tons of great tips.

Her blog is Dulce Delight
Although I don't plan on using her exact recipe, I am going to be making Pistachio flavored cookies so I can certainly use some of her techniques.

So stay tuned for my actual macarons, let's hope I succeed!

Hanging around on a rainy day

2011-11-20T11:33:00.000-08:00

I just picked up this really great space saver clothing line for indoor drying. On a rainy Sunday like today, I still need to hang up some articles of clothing that can't go in the dryer. Our small laundry hallway posed a bit of space a challenge for setting up a clothing line.
This 5 line Sunbeam brand retractable one works great.

When it's extended it obviously blocks the cabinets above the washer and dryer, but as soon as I'm done with it, I just lift up the other end (shown here) and it rolls back to the other side and it's out of the way.

I hung up this little copper basket to hold clothing pins and keep them easily at hand. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it home and Mr. B installed it, to see that it matched our cabinets blue almost exactly.
Yay, for unexpected coordination!

Stamping out ease

2011-11-18T16:58:00.000-08:00

I love it when I find something that can combine visual appeal and make life simpler at the same time. That is a true "win win" for me.

For years I have wanted one of those old fashioned wax initial kits for stamping our seal on all of our letters. Let's face it, as cool as they look they are just not that practical for mailing real letters, and they are not fast and simple to use. There is all that melting involved.

So lately I have been lusting over personalized address stamps. I went online to check out the cost and found that some stores wanted $50.00 or more (once tax and shipping was added) to their overpriced yet adorable stamps.
So I searched a bit more, and found a site called rubberstamps.com that had them for under $20.00 and free shipping. So I ordered monogram #32 with brown ink and I got it in 4 days!

I used it with my Creative Memories tag punch tonight to make labels for our holiday gifts.

I am especially excited to use our new stamp for the holiday cards I have in the works this year. It will make return addressing so much faster and really cute.
So if you have been wanting one of your own return address stamps, I highly recommend the site above, and the quality of the ExcelMark stamps is really great.

The replacement ink cartridges are pretty pricey, so choose your color wisely!

Squash art

2011-11-03T10:36:00.000-07:00

What is it about pumpkin carving that makes you feel like a kid? The smell of a pumpkin just brings me back to being little and the first time I remember scooping out the "guts" with my hand. The whole process is so unique and totally fun!
This year was the first time we have carved pumpkins in years. We had two of our friends over for a carving party. We have used zombiepumpkins.com for their off the chart awesome templates in the past, and this year we went back for more.

Here are Stephanie and Bear having some fun with the radish eyeball apps. I had made them last year also for our pre-haunted house party. They are really simple to make, they look great/creepy and they taste so good!
Stephanie is wearing a really cool white feather wig in this picture. That was about the extent of the costumes this year. It was the first time in years that we haven't dressed up.

Here is Bear's Zombie creation, he used a drill to quickly drill holes all over the back of the pumpkin for a really great effect.

Stephanie, who is so creative came up with her design by combining elements of two templates she liked and her own ideas, she free hand drew this right onto the pumpkin. Pretty impressive, and really cute!

Mr.B used the template for the "headless horseman", I love the flaming pumpkin head.

I have a thing for owls, they are such beautiful birds. This little cutie was irresistible, so I had to carve it.

We had apps and dinner followed by hot mulled cider and pumpkin pie. During the evening we watched scary flicks (more like listened to them in the background), as we carved.
Here we are posing by our creations in the dark.

The next night (Monday) was Halloween. Mr. B and I carved another pumpkin each.
I went with Edgar Allan Poe, I just love this one!

Mr. B went with a goofy Jack-o-Lantern face for fun.

Hope you all had a fun and treat filled Halloween this year!

San Francisco Trip

2011-10-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mr. B and I finally got away for a brief vacation. We traveled up north to the Bay area to visit my brother, and site see in the city.
We really enjoyed our "new" car (the outback that we bought last year) especially for this trip. It made the road time quite easy. Heated seats, roomy and the back up camera came in handy for parallel parking on the busy streets.

We walked the whole Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. We were really excited to check out in detail this WWII Submarine. The USS Pampanito.

I saw this "Rosie the Riveter" cut out and I couldn't resist. I have always loved that poster, and what it represented back then. Us DIY-er women can do anything!

I Loved these! We were walking towards a gourmet doughnut shop (more on that soon) and we walked through a very Hispanic influenced part of the city, it was so cool. They had great big murals on the sides of buildings, and tons of fab looking little restaurants in small spaces. We could have spent a day there.
These sugar skulls were set out for Dia de los Muertos, and you could decorate your own inside. Sadly they were closed that day or I would have totally gone home with one of my own.

Here I am enjoying the best doughnut I have ever had. We were in "Dynamo Donuts" in SF. The one I was holding in this picture was a Molasses Guinness Pear. OMG!

Yeah this pretty much sums it up.

Mr. B's favorite was the Bacon Maple Apple. Check out this shop if you have time and are in San Fran, its worth it.

The next morning after we came home from our trip, I headed out to my knitting class, and on the way home I went to check out the Pottery Barn for ideas. I often DIY their decor items for the holidays. Well this time I fell in love with bedding
I picked up this beautiful Duvet and Euro case from the "Alisa" line. It was on Sale!!

It's thick linen style cotton with beautiful floral embroidery.

I just love the French Knots. They have such a great texture, and the embroiderer in me appreciates the hand work to achieve them.

I really love how a change of a little bedding can transform the whole room. The colors are great in this set, they just go with everything.

Time for Halloween, decor!

2011-10-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

Warning!! This post is going to be pretty picture heavy, as I love Halloween and I love to decorate.
I really didn't go crazy this year with decorations, but I still want to share them with blog world and maybe spread the Halloween spookiness around.
These great new dishes are from Mr. B's Mom, they were an early anniversary gift.

I like to keep our dining table decor to a minimum, because we use it everyday and too much stuff is impractical. So just a couple spooky candles and some striped place mats. I took this small bud vase and drew a skull and cross bones on it with a chalk pen and filled it with candies.

You may recognize these two? I painted this lovely couple to resemble "Dia de los Muertos" skulls in my own way. They are residing on our side table in the dining room watching over us as we eat.

The entry way inside has lots of spooky going on. I added some candles, a few Jack-be-little's, and some bottles & jars with Martha Stewart Halloween labels.

Delicious Frog Syrup canister with black roses, a bottle of Eye of Newt 2011, and a few pumpkins.

I don't know why candles are creepy to me but I love the dark yellow beeswax colored ones especially for Halloween.

I couldn't ignore the outside. The entry way got some new flowers in my hanging baskets, I had just put up the wreath last week and now I have added Halloween touches to the door.

A few hanging ghouls.

I picked up some discounted mums in yellow, white and orange for fall.

I made the "Boo" sign from supplies won in a blog giveaway a few months back. Canvas Corp gave away the burlap triangles, and tiny little black clothes pins. I printed out the letters, glued them on the black card stock and added a few spiderweb drawings.

Our front door got a makeover months ago when I added the privacy film and cut out the oak tree design. But the bats are new! I used a chalk board pen to draw a large harvest moon and other spooky elements like a graveyard to the tree, and I cut out bats and stuck them into the scene.

It's a very subtle decoration, but I love it. Not everyone would even notice it with everything else going on out front, but I think its a cute idea.

I really haven't had the time to search other blogs with great Halloween decor ideas and DIY. So if you know of any or want to share yours please leave a comment with a link, and if I find any soon I'll make sure to post links! Happy Halloween...almost!

Low Effort Fall

2011-09-25T20:05:00.000-07:00

My very simple decor for Fall this year was pretty low effort. I mean there was some work involved when I planted a pumpkin patch with my mom over at her place back in May. We decided to grow all of our pumpkins and gourds for Fall ourselves, and they were quite easy to do.
I grew theses two beautiful Fairytale Pumpkins from the one I bought last year from Trader Joes. I just saved the seeds and stuck them in the ground with a bit of water and a few months, voila! I picked these and have 2 more small ones still growing.

I also finally decided to cut the 2 hydrangea blooms from or back yard. I just love how the white blooms changed to green, and although they are fading a bit I think it looks just fine for a Fall centerpiece. The little tattered edges to the flowers have a rustic look that's just my style.

Outside I filled one of my many garage sale wicker baskets with numerous decorative gourds. All grown from just a few plants. These things grow like crazy. I planted them for our wedding 3 years ago as well, and we were thrilled with how many each plant yields. There are also "jack be little's" and Kabocha squash.

I ran to the new craft store today with coupons in hand to pick up some knitting needles. While I was there I grabbed a couple 40% off Fall decor items and put them together for this really simple fall wreath.
It's just a grape vine wreath a cute "Welcome" sign and an adorable plush crow that is so much cuter in person. I like that the wreath is bare, it feels appropriate for Fall. I was going to add moss and a bow but I think less is more here.

The little crow had this tag around his neck that said "welcome friends" but with the other sign on the wreath that seemed redundant. So I flipped it around and wrote, "Nevermore!" instead. I have always loved Poe, and it seems too fitting.

**Updated to show a close up of the plush crow, who I named Edgar. Isn't he cute?

Cupcake for a cause

2011-09-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

A friend of ours is helping organize an event tomorrow night to help raise money to build a hospital in Haiti.
She asked me to bake some cupcakes for a bake sale at the charity. Hopefully these bring in some money for the cause.

I made Coconut rum cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting. I topped them with fondant hearts in the colors of the Haitian flag.

I also made Chocolate cupcakes made extra dark with coffee in the batter, and Cinnamon Frosting. Yum!

About 63 in the Coconut.

And about 66 in the Chocolate. So just about 130 mini cupcakes total.

I baked a few large cupcakes when I ran out of mini papers and had extra batter. These guys will have to stay home for lucky Mr. B :)

Clutter fix

2011-09-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Everyone's got some spot of their home that gets cluttered. Whether it's a drawer in the kitchen, a closet down the hall, or like us the whole backyard!
This has been our backyard for the last 3 months. Yard tools strewn about, and pool toys laying around.

Mainly we have this problem because we have a 2 car garage, and WAY too many toys that go in it.
So we decided to remedy some of the overflow with a garden shed. We picked up a very well priced metal shed from Home Depot, USA made, which is great, only we had to actually assemble it!

Not really a problem, since we have plenty of DIY skills, but it was one of the hottest weekends of the summer and this shed had about 10,000 screws to put in.
I am smiling here, but I am still on my coffee high.

We finished it after two half days of work, stuck it in our perfect spot for it on the back side of the house, and promptly filled it with all of our tools for the garden.

(Baxter thinks it's a giant dog house)

And now for something completely different. Well it's still garden related, but look how pretty!
This is the beginning of a new hydrangea bloom, I am super excited to see if it opens up blue, because it's supposed to.

I bought 2 hydrangeas this July for our Fire pit install and backyard face lift. One was blue, and one was white.

Since then my blue bloom died, and now has a new one about to open, and my white hydrangea turned pink then the green!!
Here is a bloom from the white plant, you can see a hint of purple/pink to the centers of each flower.

WTH? I love the green older blooms, but the in between pink blush is not my favorite. I really had no idea they would morph like this, I think its a pretty cool surprise.

Passion for baking

2011-09-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering what those wrinkly purple things are. If you aren't familiar with this fruit, it is the yummy result of the beautiful Passion Flower.
This photo of a passion fruit flower was taken by Mr. B's Dad, he has a passion fruit vine that as taken over the front half of his home. You can see here how much the bees love it, and the fruits are very much appreciated by us humans.

I cut about a dozen of them in half, scooped out the juicy seeds and strained them. I then made a passion fruit curd, similar to lemon curd just subbed out the lemon juice for the passion.
Then I whipped the passion fruit curd into a whipped cream frosting.

I baked a two 8" round coconut butter cakes.

Cut the tops off then cut each in half horizontally.

Here is my Coconut Butter cake with Passion Fruit Curd filling and Whipped Cream Passion Fruit Frosting.

I layered the first cake with the passion fruit whipped cream, then a layer of the passion fruit curd, and the final layer with more frosting. I had just enough frosting to cover the whole cake.

What happened to projects?

2011-09-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

I've been totally MIA with blogging lately, not because I forgot about it. I just haven't been working on any cool projects. I have totally stopped decorating and have been busy working, maintaining our yard and knitting. I smell a change in the air though.

Fall is certainly in the air this morning. We awoke to a thunder and lightning storm and even a bit of rain. After the 105 degree temperature we had this week, it's really refreshing. I have been harvesting my decorative gourds, and watching our pumpkin patch grow.
Yesterday I picked up a few goodies that will hopefully be the new stars in my Fall decorating.
This wooden bench for our front door entry.

I plan to decorate it seasonally, and have already set out a basket of gourds.

Then I checked out a new craft store in town! (can you sense my giddiness?) I found these awesome papier mâché skulls for $3. They are the perfect blank canvases for me to dec out in Dia de Los Muertos fashion. I am calling them Mr. & Mrs. Muertos for now.
I cannot wait for the hand painted fun that awaits me! Craft on!

Tie Dye Hair bands

2011-08-03T10:42:00.001-07:00

Recently I was introduced to these great hair ties from a friend. I know, I know, hair ties? Lame blog post? Possibly.
They seem like such a small thing to care about, but these are special, I swear! They are stretchy elastic, no tangle and double as a bracelet & look really cute at the same time.

The best part is they won't pull your hair out, & I have a lot of hair!! My locks are currently about 2 feet long, just to the small of my back, its curly, thick (heavy) and unruly most of the time, so I have been going through about 1 of these ties a week.
They cost about $1.50 at a local store, no biggie but lately I have been flying through my supply.

They go from looking like this :)

....to this :(

So as usual, I made my own.
I bought a bulk roll of elastic from a sewing supply store. 100 yards to be exact. That should last me a while. According to my calculations I can make approx 350 hair ties.

How I made them:

These are the dyes I had laying around already, in green, black, navy, and royal blue. I also used a scissor, rubber bands, a plastic fork, rubber gloves, hot water, cold water, a candle and various plastic dying cups.

I love them in a tie dye pattern. You don't need to dye them this way if you simply want them a solid color. But the variance & multi colors is my favorite part. So I used a couple rubber bands and tied up about 2 yards at a time into a small bundle.

I dipped the elastic into concentrated dye.

I placed the dipped elastic into a large tupperware, to set for a minute.

Then I poured a bit of hot water on top to activate the dye.

Let that sit for just a bit and scooped it up with my plastic fork.

I then plunged it into a cup of cold water.

Then I rinsed them off in the large tupperware in the sink until the water was clear and removed the rubber bands.

I hung them outside in the shade to air dry.

Cut them to length and tied a knot. I used the candle to heat melt the edges, so they won't unravel and fray.

And there you have it!

My hair should be supplied with ties for the next few years. They were really fun to make. I haven't tie dyed anything since I was a kid. It was so much fun, I may be tie dyeing things around the house for pure entertainment!

Let there be Fire!

2011-07-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

This was what the corner of our back yard looked like 2 days ago. It was pretty much like this when we moved in. I added the bottles hanging from the tree and stained the fence last summer.

But it's been a pretty useless space for us. We just never feel like sitting over there when we have a great patio table under the shade.

So we decided to put something out there that would be useful to the space. We didn't need another table and chairs so we thought why not a fire pit!? We figure it will be great on summer evenings with some smores, and friends. Also we may buy or make a BBQ grill top for it so we can use it as a oak pit BBQ on occasion.
Here is Mr. B lighting the first fire in it last night.

The stones for our new fire pit are manufactured concrete stones that are made locally. They stack like a breeze and even dry stacked is really stable. We opted to not mortar them, so it went together in a half an hour.

We also picked up a couple of raw wood Adirondack chairs from Home Depot, we primed and painted them blue with some extra paint I had from a guest house project.

Let me tell you, Adirondack chairs are the most comfy chair to "chill" in ever.

That tall birdhouse in the back I picked up at our local town's annual day fair/my birthday. It was a great deal and handmade as you can see. We may mount it up higher so a bird could safely nest in it.

We used the extra flagstone that we took out of the center to make a pathway. Honestly this was the hardest work we did for the whole project. It took a lot of back pain and shoveling to removed those patches of lawn nicely so we could replant them elsewhere (where our lawn has died) and to set the flagstone flush with the grass.
It's super convenient though and we are glad we took the time to do it right.

Mr. Piggy got moved from my potting cart, to the corner "chill spot" (that's what I'm calling it) because he is blue and fun and just goes!

Speaking of blue...this is my favorite part. We went out and bought two hydrangea plants for our yard. I LOVE hydrangeas they are one of my favorite flowers and for years I thought they didn't even grow here. Well I was wrong. The first spring we lived in our new home I started seeing them in our neighborhood, and they looked very happy in these people's yards. Then this spring I saw them come up again, even our crazy lady's yard next door had them, and she never waters her dirt/front lawn!

So I thought I can do that!!! We bought a 5 gallon white (swoon) and a 1 gallon blue! Love.
Wish me lots of green thumb luck. I may need it.

Over all it is a great up grade. Not free but really no too bad cost wise. Mostly labor intensive, that's the best kind of upgrade.

Knit, knit.

2011-07-21T21:12:00.000-07:00

In the middle of summer I find myself knitting.
I love it. It is a new passion, and although I am off seasonally I am really looking forward to sporting my new fashions this fall, when its cool.

I made this gray cowl scarf from an amazing yarn, Alpaca Seta. Its a baby alpaca and silk blend.

The pattern is "A Noble Cowl" that I found on Ravelry.

It's soft. Like super soft.

It might not go with my summertime tank top, but it will work in a few months I swear!

Shower decor

2011-07-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

I have to post about the beautiful baby shower I went to today. I was in charge of the decorations and helping coordinate. It was so much fun for me to do, I love decorating and creating and as you may have figured out, if it's DIY I love it even more!!

I went with a "green" theme, because the momma-to-be is having her first boy and I wanted to incorporate a lot of garden elements.

For the decor I made Martha Stewart tissue pom poms in shades of blue & green, I strung them from the umbrellas at the restaurant with jute twine.

I had three beautiful floral arrangement made with some of my favorite green flowers, there are green and white Hydrangeas, Green Bells of Ireland, and Kermit mums. All in a terracotta pot.

I made the favors from cuttings of my own succulents out back and put them all in these tiny terracotta pots tied with a raffia bow.

I printed custom favor tags and hot glued them to a popsicle stick. The restaurant printed us a custom menu as well.

Of course I saved the best part for last! The dessert. Oh yum. In honor of the very Danish mommy the shower was for, I made "Danish Layer Cupcakes".
If you are not familiar with Danish Layer cake it is layer upon layer of delicious vanilla cake, with whipped cream, custard, raspberry preserves, and a marzipan cookie layer.

I filled my vanilla cupcakes with the custard and preserves.

They were so decadent, but the almond whipped topping was nice and light.

My favorite part was the little bit of raspberry preserve you get inside.

All topped with a marzipan leaf.

It was a beautiful day!

I'm a Nerd

2011-07-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

When I first started dating Mr. B (8 1/2 years ago), he had just had knee surgery. So for the first month we dated we spent a lot of time watching movies and putting ice on his poor leg.
In that time he quickly discovered that I had never seen any of the Star Wars movies in my life. To Mr. B this was unacceptable. So he remedied my little problem and made me watch all the movies available at the time.
I was mildly impressed, but not smitten like he was.

Flash forward to 8 1/2 years later! After seeing each Star Wars movie about 50 times they have really grown on me. Okay okay I LOVE THEM, well some more than others.

So I am an official Star Wars nerd, not the kind that can say every line in the movie (Mr. B) but enough of one to nerd-out on these!

I found these on Etsy here, the patterns are for sale and I may need to make a set of these as soon as the weather cools off a bit. Aren't they adorable?

Just look at the Ewok?

Sorry, the weather has been too nice

2011-06-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have been MIA when it comes to blogging about crafts, decor, or renovations. It's because I haven't been doing much of that!
Mr. B, Baxter and I have been enjoying the sun, and our weekends off. We have also been busy going to weddings and spending time with friends. So you can't really blame me for slacking off on our home (besides trying to keep up on the landscaping). I promise to get to something crafty soon, but I think I am a seasonal blogger for now. At least until our lawn looks presentable, we do have priorities now!

We got new bikes for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and we love them! I bike all the time on my own, and Mr. B comes with me for long rides together. We have felt like Baxter has been a bit left out, so we got to creating.

Mr. B built him a wooden seat for the back of my cruiser today and Baxter was great on it. We harnessed him in and buckled him down lined it with a fleece blanket and took him for a test ride. Its just a prototype, so its particle board and unfinished, don't judge. We mainly wanted to see if I could ride with 21 lbs behind me, and if Baxter would dig it or not. He loved it!

Now our little buddy can be included on our summer cruises.

It's business time

2011-06-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

Last night my new business cards that I designed were delivered. I was super excited to start toting them around in my purse to give out, when I realized I didn't have a good way to store them.

So I started a search on the "interwebs" for one I could make. I came across this really cute and easy DIY business card holder on a blog called JenniferLaddHandmade.
She makes some pretty cute purses and card holders, I tell you what!

Her tutorial uses wool felt as the material which is really easy to work with, but I have a lot of linen on hand from various projects, plus it matches my purse. The ribbon was probably from a gift I received, I save everything worth saving, & grosgrain ribbon is always useful.

I left the edges raw, so they will unravel slightly for a "laid back" look. I mean they are business cards but lets not be too formal!

Jars!

2011-06-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

Oh I am so excited to post about my jars :)
I think I am starting to turn into a neat freak as I age...(my birthday is in 3 days so I am feeling older) I have to have a place for everything, and everything in its place! Well most of everything.
As a typical teenager and lets face it in my early twenties I was kind of sloppy. Never dirty, but just really unorganized. I am not really a neat freak now, but I do like to know where all of my crafting supplies are and have them in an easily accessible place.

So as soon as I got my antique medical cart I started a search for containers to put on the conveniently placed rack on top. I have stored my beads, trim, needles, buttons, anything small-etc in bags since well, I started crafting. Those bags went into bigger bags and when I needed something it was the old, "dump the bag out and search for it" routine, time and time again.

With a great suggestion from my mom, I headed to Trader Joe's for these spice jars, filled with spices I may add. Because it was cheaper to buy them filled with spices and herbs then it was going to be to buy them empty from a container store online.

A short soak in warm sudsy water (after I emptied out the spices into baggies, ironically) the labels came right off, no sweat!
Now the 12 little jars are holding my safety pins, beads, jewelery supplies, and rivets.

For the larger spaces I wanted real vintage medical jars. But at about $40.00 a piece minimum, I passed. I found these new, but still vintage looking glass jars on a medical supply website for about $8.00 a jar. I needed 6 and they came in a pack of 5 so I ordered and extra cotton.

I have already almost filled them up, and they are a good size, 4 1/4" x 7".

Oh I just love being organized, and it all has character. That's my favorite part!

Yarn snob

2011-06-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Yep I am a total yarn snob. I have turned into a crazy knitter by the way. I love all the gorgeous wools, silks, alpaca, organic cottons and more that are available. I have recently fallen in love with a certain brand of Merino wool hand dyed yarn ( I know I have expensive taste) but the way I look at it is, if I am going to spend all this time knitting I might as well be doing it with quality stuff, or you could just buy a hat anywhere!
These yarns feel so soft and cuddly perfect for baby hats and adults! Mr. B requested a beanie shortly after I made my first few little ones.

Out of necessity I made myself a new tote for all of my balls of yarn, knitting needles and other "accoutrement" that I have been acquiring.
This was a free canvas bag my mom gave me two actually that she had never used.

I printed up the text in various sized and use my "window tracing technique" that I have been happy with in the past here.

The light blue pen is a disappearing embroidery pen that I initially trace with then I go over it with special fabric pens set with an iron, but sharpies can work too.

I just love sheep, and this is a special cartoon of a merino ram who is helping me spread that fact that I have become a total Yarn Snob! I crocheted a strap from some left over regular wool that I have had forever since its itchy and I can't use it for long wear garments. I finished off each side with an extra large button. The bag is nice and long and holds about 4 balls of yarn and my knitting needles.
Oh what's that peaking out of my new bag?

I ended up moving the strap to the sides to show off the design when "sporting" my bag.

This is the latest sleepy time night cap that I knitted up out of that softy merino wool. So soft. I'm obsessed.

Knitting!

2011-05-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

Check out my newest crafting crave! I LOVE knitting, its actually great. For years I was anti knitting and only chose to crochet, mainly because I found knitting difficult. But its not at all! So I encourage anyone out there reading this that has been apprehensive to try it, its pretty awesome actually, and I think I am converted now. I will still crochet things in the future, but I prefer the speediness of knitting and how little yarn it uses to make something.

I have been busting out baby beanies like they are going out of style...or in style...or whatever that expression is trying to convey. I made four beanies in mini sizes for gifts and one for me! (not pictured below)

This fun stripped one was the most time consuming due to the switch back and forth of colors, and its long...but it came out so cute! I love the nightcap look.
Made out of soft non itchy Merino wool.

These simple beanies are fast to make but totally practical. I made them out of organic cotton yarn.

Pom pom hat made from organic cotton as well. I wish I could sport this style hat without getting the side eye. I would put pom poms on everything I make, but I restrain myself. Not everyone loves them, but come on! Look how cute!!

New Old Medical cart

2011-05-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest find, its a craigslist score. I saw it and knew exactly what I would be using it for, storage in my craft room.
What is it you may ask? Well its a vintage medical cart from a company that went out of business in 1959 A.S. Aloe Company in St. Louis MO.

If anyone has any idea what age this cart is, please let me know!

We were thinking it was 60's but we must be way off. I am trying to research the year it was made but it's not easy. I have had some say 30's or 40's. I just don't know? But I do know that it is cool, and really functional. The wheels on the thing make it super easy to move around and it has a ton of storage space.

After a lot of cleaning, and scrubbing with "bar keepers friend" and then a spray with the power washer, it was allowed to come inside the house.

I am going to try to find some glass jars to fit in the rack on top to hold buttons, tools, scissors, whatever. For now the stainless steel counter top is a great new surface to work on top of with my various projects.

I couldn't help add to the "Mad Scientist" look of the cart by setting my glass head on top.
teehee...

I sprayed a few slats of wood with chalkboard paint and attached them to each storage section for labels.

The old tape and bandage drawer with metal dowel make a perfect spot for twines and ribbons.

The open shelf underneath was just asking for a rattan basket to warm up all the metal, I am using the basket to hold all of my yarns.

New things!

2011-05-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

First things first, I made a new blog header! Up there check it out. I dig it :)

The other new thing to me, is that I am teaching myself to knit, well trying to...
I do crochet, thanks to my mother in law, who took the time to break that down for me years ago. But I have been inspired by some pretty adorable knitted baby beanies lately that I would love to make myself and give as gifts.

And with all the beautiful yarns out there I am in yarn shopping heaven!

So I'm giving it a try. Wish me luck, and if you have any advice please share!

These are a couple of cool 1940's knitting images.

DIY Quatrefoil Mirrors

2011-05-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

Our Living room has been a decorating work in progress. We updated and refaced our fireplace this last winter, and then I removed the gray shutters from our large window and replaced them with linen curtains for a much improved look.
On either side of the window I have been wanting to put up something to finish the wall and add a shape of interest without too much time involved. So we whipped up two quatrefoil shaped mirrors from scratch. I got the idea from these online at $139.00 each on sale from $168.00 each.
I love the quatrefoil shape, it lends well to our style. Its has a very Moroccan look that I love.

Each mirror is 18"x 18" and we finished them in a day.

So here is my "How To" if you are interested in making some yourself.
(click on images to enlarge)
**Warning some fancy power tools necessary**

What I used:
• Two 15"x 15" mirrors that I had custom cut out of 1/8" thick mirror from local glass guys. $20.00

• One 8' x 12"x 3/4" piece of pine wood, $10.00 cut into 18" pieces and glued together and clamped in the center seam. Mr. B did this for me.
• Wood glue
• Clamps
• Table saw
• Jigsaw
• Router
• Silicone
• Wood stain and finish in one
• Hanging brackets $3.00
• Two drywall anchors
• Two screws
• Masking tape
• Measuring tape
• Sandpaper
• Scissors, pencil, scotch tape.... other random DIY things everyone should have

Here is the seam being glued and clamped.

• A 14" Quatrefoil template, I made in InDesign, you can get the image here if you would like to print it, you may need to adjust the size on your end.
I printed it in 4 sections and taped it together then cut off the outer edges.

I traced the template with a pencil after centering it on the 18" square piece of wood.
Then Mr. B used his Jigsaw to cut out the shape. He then Routered out a 15" square on the back at about 1/8" for the mirror to fit on the back flush.

I sanded and stained both, let that dry.
I used Silicone to adhere the mirrors to the backs of the wood in the groove cut out by the router. I let the mirrors set overnight face down.

The next day I nailed one bracket to the top center of each mirror.

You can see my custom "termite holes" that I added for an aged look before staining.

Here the are ready to be hung up.

Mr. B anchored two screws on the wall, I use the masking tape technique for easy clean up.

Side note, while Mr. B was busy putting the screws in the wall, Baxter was infatuated by his reflection in the mirrors. He stared at him self and scratched at his reflection over and over again.
Mr. B took this as a message that he wants a friend. Which means dog #2 for the "B" household. I am not so sure about that!

Here they are all done and in place, I think for the money they are a great addition. The whole project cost us about $33.00 since we had the majority of the items already.

What do you think?

I'm on Vacation!

2011-05-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well we were!
Mr. B and I just got back from a much needed mini vaca to the lake. We rested and played and enjoyed the awesome views. The lake was 100% full thanks to all the rain we had this year. Its the first time since the early 80's that it has been this full.

Of course knowing me, I couldn't stay away from a project while I was supposed to be vacationing. On the way up to the lake we stopped by the craft supply store, and I picked up beading and jewelery supplies and made 2 beaded wrap bracelets.

This one below is made of turquoise round beads and dark brown leather cord.

The other one is a fun multi-colored onyx, unakite and turquoise beads with caramel color leather cord.

I enjoyed my bracelet project just as much as all the tanning, reading and relaxing I got to do on our little trip! So now back to work...

DIY Showoff Rules!

2011-05-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

So I won the "Earthly Essentials Giveaway" on The DIY Showoff blog!! Yay, free crafting supplies!!!
I entered a few of my projects using natural materials such as burlap, linen, jute, and rope. I won with my Purse entry just by luck of the # draw.

Oh I cannot wait for the goodie bag, and the crafting that will come of it....

Frosted glass with flare

2011-05-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

These are our front doors (actually only one door opens) they have 4 very large panes of glass so everyone can see right into our living room, which can be an issue. We haven't had that many visitors unannounced in the last year and a half since we moved in, but after a few recent drop-ins while I was sporting some not so covering ensembles, we decided to make the inside of our home more private.
Before

So we played with the idea of changing out the glass for a few hundred dollars to privacy glass, like seeded or frosted. But I just couldn't make the permanent commitment.

I do love seeing through the front door, I look at our beautiful oak tree out front (I can also see it out our living room windows) and when visitors do come by I like to see who they are before I open the door.
So I came up with an idea on how to make the glass private during the day and night but also see through the glass a bit.
Here is a partial view of our tree currently.

So I bought a $20 roll of stick on velum in frost, and then cut out the shape of our tree. I focused the majority of leaves and cut outs where we would need to view the faces of our visitors. And not so many where they can really see into our living room on the right. Plus its the same shape as our tree out front.
After

For $20 and a bit of patience with an exacto-knife its an easy trial run. I can always take it off as I am still not quite used to it. What do you think?

Okay okay, its not ideal, but it gets the job done and I like that its unique and that I DIY-ed the design myself.

It still lets in light, an option we thought over for a bit was changing the doors out for solid ones, but we quickly decided that would be too dark and close the house in.

Here is the view from outside.

We will see if I fall in love or if I will pull it off, but for now I think it isn't so bad. And now I can walk around my home in whatever I choose!

Wall art x2

2011-04-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

I "finished" 2 new paintings for our sitting room. Yay the walls aren't naked anymore!

I wrote"finished" because I don't feel like they are quite there yet, but that's pretty typical with me and my paintings.

They are a panoramic view of one our favorite stretches of land here. They usually have cows visible on the hillside, and about a thousand ground squirrels. The grass on the hillside gets so long in the spring that it moves like waves in the wind.

I don't frame my paintings, as the canvases wrap all the way around with hidden staples so I paint the edges. Also because frames are EXPENSIVE. So for now they are frame-less.

Photo Pin Board

2011-04-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

I revamped our Laundry Hall pin board into something I actually want to look at, and it only cost me $6.00!
Okay so the pin board was free, it was left in our garage when we bought the place, and I had all of the photos already. So all I had to buy was the large wooden "B" and the white/colored and textured card stock via Michaels Crafts.
Side note: I love that you can pretty much print out a 40% or 50% off one item coupon every time you go into a Micheals on their website! I bought a roll of jute twine with my discount.

Here it was before as I started to take it apart on the floor. Basically a bunch of old memorabilia of our youth and some photos of friends.

I white washed the frame for a little contrast with the cork using acrylic craft paint and water.
I cut out all the photos and backed them with gray, white, and blue card-stock backings. Like faux mats.

Now its a collage of mostly our wedding photos, some silly high school images with friends, including our Senior class photos. Also a few of our favorite things, like Baxter, Mr. B's new '66 Triumph bike and of course a Jamaica Blue Coffee sticker (the best coffee in the world).

I was going to paint the "B" with a shade of gray or blue, but I left it white for now. All the pictures are pinned up with T-pins.

Doing laundry is just a little bit better now that I get to look at this :)

Outdoor love

2011-04-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

Despite my seasonal allergies, I love being outside in this weather. This weekend it was in the high 80's and just perfect! I spent the majority of my time laying out on our outdoor lounge chairs with a girlfriend and Baxter.

I have been lightly fixing up our outdoor space now that we can actually enjoy it again.
This old wooden bowl from India was picked up on sale from a local import shop that is perpetually having a sale, and actually has really great pricing. I filled it with glass fisherman floats wrapped in jute rope from Pottery Barn, and a conch shell I picked up years ago from the Caribbean.

Right outside our backdoor I hung this chalkboard up last year. It was given to me from a good friend that works at our local bar.
Not so into the Malibu brand advert on the frame, I busted out my bright acrylics and went full theme on it.

Now it very simply says "La Cantina" and in bright Macaw colors that you know I love so much!

Okay, I'm ready for summer.

Tablecloth or Runner?

2011-04-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

It's really not quite either is it? But I still love it!
Mostly because its burlap and I have an obsession...

While returning a rug at Pottery Barn last week I saw these wide burlap table runners on display and also for sale in store, but unfortunately not on their website, so I can't share my inspiration. They were $39.00. They layered faux fishing nets on top and all sorts of nautical decor, think starfish. Of course it was an outdoor table dream come true. So I thought...I have an extra bit of burlap and I could throw that on top of my outside table!
So I did, and its not exactly wide enough for a tablecloth and a little too wide for a runner, but who makes the rules anyway? I think it looks good, and for something I picked up at the hardware store for another project, (seen here) I think it is just right. I might add a few new decor items on top if I find some while hunting at garage sales this spring.

Latest and greatest etsy shop!

2011-04-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

Ahhh Etsy! Isn't it great? It's where I've found lovely things sold by people that love handmade items and vintage finds as much as I do!
My wedding clutch was one of my first purchases, a beautiful silk and pearl beauty from the 50's.

My latest lovely find is this beautiful single cupcake sized glass cloche and milk glass plate, which I plan to use to display my future yummy baked goods! Isn't it just adorable?

I even got a couple of extra goodies in the box, these 2 really beautiful bookmarks/tags with ribbon. I have them here in our guest bedroom on my shabby-chic CL found nightstands.

The seller junktojoyshop is also having a giveaway on her blog!

So if you want to check out her wonderful items for sale at the etsy shop, and then visit her blog to to enter a chance (or 4) to win some fabulous giveaway items. I did!

Technical difficulties?

2011-04-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently Photobucket the online photo storing site I use is having some maintenance issues. So sorry the images are down on our blog for now. Hopefully they will be back up and visible soon.

So here is a cute picture of Baxter that I manually uploaded! Take that internet!

Finds for the weekend

2011-04-03T19:01:00.001-07:00

AAAhhhh, its my favorite time of the year. Not spring, but sale season. It means spring cleaning, and that brings garage sales! My favorite addiction.
I know someday with my habits I will be the one having the garage sale, but until we run out of room and purpose for my things, I am going to keep on hunting for finds.
So yesterday I went out and picked up some $5 goodies. Here are a few.

These old widows are something I have wanted for a while. They remind me of the windows we had is our first place we rented together, it was built in 1914. The old fashioned pulley mechanisms are not the best for use, but these paned old tattered frames look great above the guest bed.

I stuck these handmade letter-pressed card stocks up to the glass for now. They were given to me from a friend (for our house warming gift) inspirational cards with a handmade stand. The stand only holds one card at a time, and I have so many others I thought I would put them to use.
I might change out what is behind the glass later, its fun having the option for a change of decor. But for now these are so cute.

Okay so the next item I found is a little weird, but I had to have it and the price was right. I have no idea what its roll will play just yet. But just look how cool/odd it is. Its a very thick glass head, I mean come on!

These large old looking keys are too fun, I plan to move them around from tabletop to tabletop. Currently I am using them as paper weights for my magazines on our coffee table.

Who knew?

2011-04-02T15:45:00.000-07:00

Occasionally when I'm trying to change something I don't like around the house, I discover a completely unexpected and wonderful surprise. I think that just happens when you buy a home and inherit many unknown secrets from past owners. Like when taking out old carpeting you discover a second floor below! That can be great when its beautiful hardwood, but not so great when its ugly stained vinyl flooring that's glued down to the slab (that happened in my craft room).

Well today something in our home surprised me again. This chandelier was here when we bought the place and its not bad. I don't love it, but I certainly don't hate it enough to replace it for a few hundred dollars or more. Mainly I dislike the yellow "pineapple" shades, they just seem dingy and I hate that they match the wall color. I have searched hardware stores and online and I have had zero luck finding affordable glass replacement shades that actually fit this fixture.
Not knowing what brand the fixture is certainly makes that harder, but the shades are not a standard size either.

So while at the hardware store today I was talking to a helpful clerk who recommended painting them with Krylon frosted glass spray. I thought its worth the a try for $7 bucks, right?

I came home and took off one shade to test it out, but first I wanted to clean them really well so the paint would be sure to stick. I sprayed the first shade with windex and when I went to clean it the paper towel turned completely yellow!
At first I was a bit freaked that it was dirt and I started to panic that we had been eating under filth. That was not the case, thankfully! Phew!
The glass shades that were yellow were some how sprayed in a way with a very non permanent paint from the factory. So, I got very excited :) and I pulled out my cleaning products and gloves.

I busted out my nail polish remover (with acetone) and stuck it in an empty spray bottle. I sprayed the acetone all over the glass shades and I watched with amazement as the hideous amber tint dripped right off.

6 shades later, and this is what they looked like. Still slightly tinged yellow but very faintly. I think they look a million times better, although the shape and carving is not really my style.

So to brighten them up and bit more and really help them look even cleaner, I gave them a coat with the glass frosting spay paint I picked up.

After 2 coats, this is now what the chandelier looks like. Not too shabby for $7.00 and a lot of nail polish remover.

After

Just in case you forgot.
Before

Linked to:

The Jaderbomb Blog

We're having a heat wave...

2011-03-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

..A tropical heat wave!
Oh man today was a doosie. It was a whopping 91 degrees at our casa, and did I mention its March? The week before this little heat wave we had rain storms and snow on the mountain, and it averaged in the low 60's. The heat + previous rain really has things popping up too. Like my fringed tulips that surprised me for the first time last year. From just 3 we now have 5!

Our lawn has also recently developed a bit of a weed problem, the spring time and warmth helped them to multiply and one section of the backyard was about 99% dandelions. I spent about 40 mins pulling those little nasty lawn squatters out. I filled my weeding bucket up 5 times, and we still have more.
This tool is pretty much the best thing ever for digging up a weed and its entire root. We got ours at Home Depot and I'll tell you we pretty much need two. Mr. B and I had contests last year seeing who could pull the most weeds in our spare time after work. I know pretty lame huh? But there is something satisfying about getting the whole thing out, almost like you are the winner in an odd game of Man vs Weed.

Pouf Love

2011-03-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

Poufs may not be new to you or me, although 2 of them are brand new to our home. I have been lusting over the many designs of decorative poufs that retailers have been selling for quite some time. Yesterday I got us our very own poufs.
What is a pouf? Its like a stool, or cushion that is very firm and upholstered. They are really pretty popular as most furniture shops have a version or more, I find the different style options the best part. You can find one to go with any decor.

I picked these two heavy flat weave rug style upholstered poufs, a cube and a flat square.
Best of all they are really functional and comfortable. We needed a softer surface to sit on by the fireplace. The floor just wasn't cutting it.

Our new poufs are from a locally owned independent retailer, the only name on the tag is "Roost" and that it is a Just woven cover and filled with 90% wool and 10% cotton. After googling them the closest I could find was using the search term "kilim pouf". Check them out here and here, & here.

Here are some other Poufs that I love.

This is one of my favorites, this flax and ivory cotton zig zag is just so perfect.

Calypso St. Barth

Furry Poufs are becoming popular I have seen these on a few sites. This sheep skin one would be so soft!

West Elm

Oh so wonderful for an outdoor setting or a sun room, these are made from woven Jute.

Pottery Barn

Patterns and solids have a classic look.

West Elm

Okay this is adorable and pretty much awesome. It speaks to the Alice in all of us. It would be so cute in a child's room.

Anthropologie

Leather is a great choice for a covered Pouf, its durable and cleans well. I think the metalics are really fun, but they come is all colors of the rainbow.

Jonathan Alder

Slipcover in minutes

2011-03-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

This little stool has been through a lot. After our home renovations especially our master bath & the need to stand on it while tiling has left some thin-set and grout stains that just won't come out. We do have a real step stool but in a pinch when both of us were tiling this little guy sure helped.

Well I walked by our guest bathroom today and saw it sitting there so sad and stained. I decided to make a little slipcover for it.
I had this fabric, which is just white linen that I painted with fabric paint. I painted it originally to make a decorative pillow, but the pattern clashed with our rug so its been sitting on my fabric pile for months.

I pinned it and stitched it up on my machine with a simple corner.

I think it adds some fun color and pattern to our fairly plain guest bath.
Which by the way this is the first time I have posted a picture of this room in our house. Its the only room that we really haven't done anything to since we moved in and painted. Its all original, so that's why I'm not showing it off. But the cute little stool helps, I think?

Tonight's looking blue

2011-03-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well that's a good thing around here actually.
I just got a knock on the door from Mr. UPS and here is my new floor mat for our laundry hall.
I love it of course, and if it doesn't look familiar to you the zig zag blue is something I am making into a theme, here and here are two examples of why I just had to have it.

Zig Zag Jaipuri from Calypso St. Barth

Blueberries whats better? Blueberry muffins are according to Mr. B.
So with the beautiful blueberries that were on sale at our local organic mart I whipped up 6 fresh blueberry muffins that he and I are enjoying tonight.

Its cold and gray out there lately, not too many blue skies these days so lets hope for more blue tomorrow and maybe even a little sun?

What a Storm!

2011-03-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Holy canole what a Sunday morning!
We hardly slept last night as our home sounded like it was in a tornado from 2am on. The storm we got this morning really was a bad one, with wind, sideways rain and flooding. The gusts of wind were up to 75 mph, our oak tree out front held strong through another storm in its 600 year old life and it actually did a good job of clearing off some dead branches on its own.

Our guest home with new tenants, went from looking like this...

to this...

Well not quite, but we did need to make an emergency trip to the hardware store for 2 submersible water pumps, and rip up the carpet in 2 rooms and we will continue with the flood damage control this week. It was quite a morning.

Then we fitted Baxter with the "Cone of Shame" yep, he needs it. Hopefully his foot will heal now.

Hope all is as well as it can be with everyone in the rest of the country, and the world. We are very thankful for everything we have and we wish the best for all those effected in Japans earthquake.

Egg wreath

2011-03-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have a thing for seasonal wreaths. A few years ago I would have never thought of hanging a wreath up other than on Christmas, but I have really caught the decorating bug and I will pretty much make up a reason now for a new wreath.
I saw a beautiful tutorial for an Easter Egg wreath on Crafty Sisters blog from last year. I got inspired and quickly dismantled this wreath from January, and ran out to the store.
I actually had most of the materials to pull this off, so while at the grocery store I picked up 2 bags of multi sized plastic eggs, the kind that open in the middle and then 2 bottles of acrylic paint & 1 can of white spray paint at the hardware store. The whole project cost me $14.00 without the other stuff I had on hand.
I used:
• Copious amounts of moss (I have a flat of it for planting and crafts)
• One 24 inch vine wreath (I made mine)
• 70 or so plastic eggs of varying sizes
• Acrylic paints
• White spray paint (I used matte finish white for plastic surfaces)
• Feathers
• Hot glue, lots of it.

Here is my wreath that I am reusing, I actually added more vines to it for this project. They are ivy vines from our backyard. The box to the left is filled with some moss.

I sprayed the bright colored eggs white, let them dry then brushed them with 2 coats of acrylic paint in natural egg colors. I was having a really hard time masking the seem where the eggs open. Unlike in the Crafty Sisters tutorial where you can barely see a seam, mine were quite obvious. So I sanded each one to minimize it, and to camouflage the seam further I sprayed them with speckles and that really did the trick.
In the tutorial link they use a toothbrush to speckle the eggs but I used an empty spray bottle filled with a little watered down brown paint. It worked great!

I kept spraying them till the seams were barely noticeable.

Then I got to gluing. Randomly positioning the eggs then when I was done with the eggs I filled every void by gluing moss in between. I then wove vines in and out of the wreath and finished it by adding feathers here and there.

Here you can see a close up of the feathers, I feel like it really give the wreath that nest feel.

Here it is hung up on our front door.

~Oh and so far today we got one of our new low profile fans up, this one is in my craft room. Its so much better than the previous fan and it makes the room seem larger because its so close to the ceiling. I love it!

Been Busy

2011-03-12T20:16:00.001-08:00

The last couple days have been a nonstop crafting fest over here.
Today I whipped up this really cute milk bottle cookie mix thanks to Bakerella's recipe.
They are called "Cowgirl Cookies" and I'm giving them to a friend of mine for her bridal shower gift. She is a total cowgirl, and I just couldn't resist pairing this cute mix with her other baking oriented gift from her registry.
It's layers consist of flour with baking soda and power and salt, oats, pink and purple m&m's, chocolate chips, brown sugar, and chopped pecans. Yum!

I used a milk bottle, well because I have a bunch of them and although you are supposed to use a Ball jar I thought this little cow was just too cute not to use.

Yesterday I finished this very black and very red cake for a casino themed birthday party.

And tonight I just finished coating all these eggs (71 according to Rory) with paint for an Easter decor project I hope to be posting tomorrow.

What have you been up to?

Privacy glass?

2011-03-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

We have this great big front door, actually only one side works the other is stationary. The problem is with these large front doors we have large panes of glass (4 - 24"x32") to be exact) that anyone can just walk up to and take a peek inside.
The glass is perfectly clear aside from the bits of dust I noticed while snapping these shots, so you can see right into our living room where we spend the majority of our evenings.
When people come up to the front door when its dark they can see us before we even know they are there.

Here is the dwelling area of Mr. & Mrs. B, you can observe them in their natural habitat at night...
..watch how they view Netflix and surf the web.

Here is the view of our front entrance table that I don't mind people seeing, but not the rest of the view.

I need a solution. What can I do to this glass that won't look awful?
I'm not putting curtains on them, no way! That excludes shades and blinds too.
I can't imagine frosted glass looking good, do you think?
I love the look of seedy glass, but how much is that going to cost to replace!?!?
I would love to pick out new front doors completely but we are not ready to take that on, plus when I mentioned it Mr. B said he would like to build new front doors from scratch, so with all the other projects he has that might be a while.

Please let me know your opinion and any ideas!

Baxter's poor toe

2011-03-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

He ripped most of his front pinkie toenail off on Friday. We don't know how he did it, but as soon as I went to feed him I noticed his foot was covered in blood, he just wanted to eat and didn't even seem to notice it, but we took him next door to our Vet/Tenant who said we should soak it, keep it clean and watch for infection.
So I have been watching it, soaking it in betadine solution, putting doggie neosporin on it, wrapping it in gauze and vet wrap.
It's pretty nasty looking, but I think it will grow back. If you want to see a photo of it up close and in all it's bloodiness click Here. But I'm warning ya! Its gross.

He was not a fan of the new green boot, but it helps him walk on it and keeps it clean. When I take it off he tends to lick at it. It looks pretty painful and he is really uncomfortable when I have to clean it, so I know it hurts.
Poor pup, but we found a cheap and easy solution to fix his little situation.

Here is is tonight all tuckered out from hours of playing with his new hedgehog buddy. He actually fell asleep with his new toy and his good arm on it (notice the couch covered with blankets to protect it from blood) he is just so cute!

Not a fan of fans?

2011-03-01T18:36:00.000-08:00

Its no secret that ceiling fans can be ugly, most of them are not on a decorators list to install, more like remove. But we find them an everyday necessity. We sleep just a little better every night with our ceiling fan on low just to have that slight breeze in the room. We are addicted to it, and our trusty Hunter fan has really been a good one, its been on every night for 7 years now. So while shopping to replace the awful disasters (see below) that we inherited with the purchase of our home, I looked at the same brand.
With a little sleuthing online I found that Home Depot dot com has a Presidents Day sale still on if you shop and use the code PRES40 at checkout you get 40% off ceiling fans till 3/10/11.
That's awesome savings!
So I picked out 2 for practically the price of one of these low profile, Hunter fans named "Vancouver".

Not too bad for a fan? Well better than some.

I can't wait to install them. One is going in our guestroom so our friends and family don't have to stare at this!

Ahhhh! I know pretty bad huh?
This lovely spot light style aged brass fan from the 80's is not really working in our guestroom. It's so bright but in a bad way.

And the other is going in my craft/art/dance/extra guestroom. Where this shiny gold colored brass fan with frosted and fluted glass lamps has been. Isn't is bad? Check out the southwestern motive pull, a pink coyote.

I am replacing these with much joy, not only because the existing are severe eyesores but also with the new low profile one I won't hit my hands on the fan blades while dancing or doing yoga, yay!
Thanks to our 8' ceilings this has been a problem. My art room is fitted with one wall of full length mirrors just so I can practice my dance in there and I also use the room for yoga. I am not tall by any means but being 5' 5" and reaching to the ceiling my hands would often get whacked with the fan blades.
I hope the almost 4" height difference of these low profile fans will put an end to that. I'll post pics as soon as we get then in and installed.

Oh, I wanted to show off my salad making skills too while I'm at it. Every Wednesday my local grocery store gives 20% off everything to special card holders, you just have to buy a $35 pass for the year and the money for those goes directly to the high school football team. So in an effort to use up what we had so I wouldn't need to run to store for groceries till tomorrow, I came up with Cobb salads or a version of them.
They were yum, I made croutons and sauteed fresh asparagus from my folks garden. Avo and a chopped hb egg, also some shredded celery root (which I have been addicted to for months) and fresh radishes from my parents neighbors garden. SO GOOD.

Life with plants

2011-02-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Indoor plants certainly add a vibrancy and joy to a home, but getting them to stay happy has never been my forté.
I have had a black thumb (Urban dictionary: A wannabe gardener who kills plants, opposite of a green thumb) my whole life. I want to change that so instead of avoiding plants I am submerging myself in them, making it my goal to keep all of them or at least most of them alive indoors.
As of today we have 8 indoor potted plants, I took a photo inventory of them to share and to see with luck if they would look the same in a few months. I have had a few of them for a while now but most of these are brand new, due to all the great hardware store sales they are having lately I bought some last week and today our local store was 20% off of everything! So I bought a few more challenges to add to our home.

Maidenhair Ferns
These two beauties are a plant that I have been coveting for months now. At just a couple bucks a piece today I couldn't pass up the chance, and if they don't make it I won't feel too bad, after all they are ferns. I haven't had luck with a fern in... um ever!

Keeping them in this frosted window and in the bathroom off our laundry room might be their only chance of survival. Humidity is supposed to be their friend, so here goes nothing. Aren't they beautiful though?

Zebra Haworthia
These aloe like little succulents grow great indoors and don't need quite as much direct sun as a lot of other succulents do. I got the one on the right about 2 weeks ago, and picked up the blooming one today. I didn't even know they bloomed!

Check out the tiny and odd little white flowers on this Zebra plant.

Giant Bird of Paradise
Although beautiful with just the leaves the flowers of bird of paradise is one of my favorites. Sadly my plant will probably never bloom indoors and its too cold here in the winter to plant it outside. I am happy to say I have had this plant over a year and its doing well.

ZZ plant
These Zamioculcas plants are supposed to be "idiot proof" indoor plants, I got it about a month ago from my mom and lets hope that what they say is true and it stays around. I just love the hardy and shiny green leaves.

Bromeliad
I love these and even if 3 years ago I successfully murdered one just like it, I plan to keep this one around at least for a bit. It was only $3 at home depot and SO beautiful. I love the color it brings into the house.

Snake Plant
Or what I like to call, Old Faithful. Also known as Mother in-laws tongue. This plant is great, it is happy no matter where I put it in the house, it grows. I can't kill it, not that I would want to.
It was the perfect gift from my mother in law to a beginner over a year and half ago. I am calling this one a success, which may sound premature at only a year and half, but in black thumb years that like decades.

Outside I also have some fun stuff to share. This succulent has been sending off these shoots with little blooms on it for weeks.

And I finally got tired of buying the same herbs at the grocery store for cooking and planted my own. Here I just planted sage, cilantro, and basil. I have also been growing thyme, mint and rosemary for a while.

Baxter also got a little treat from today's sale, a new toy for him to dismantle. Its his favorite pass time, besides eating.

I hope this encourages more plant killers like me to try at it again. I went a long time without plants and I now feel confidant to try it again with new ones. If there are any indoor plants that you have had great luck with please share them with me... just in case some of the ones above don't make it!

My first purse

2011-02-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

I don't think it will be my last either. I really enjoyed sewing this bag from the beginning to the end. Which is rare for me with my sewing projects as I usually get frustrated and hit a lot of speed bumps.
I tend to make everything without a pattern, just using a basic idea in my head that I usually end up changing as I progress.
This purse was in my head for a couple days and I had to get it out! Its a bit off the wall for some but I'm really happy the way it came out. I wanted a casual sack that I can fit all of my usual junk in and my camera. I also wanted a long strap that I could sling it around to my back and across my chest and go hands free for shopping.
The "Day of the Dead" embroidery was something I really wanted on an accessory for a while now. I went with embroidery because it looks so custom and the colors are vibrant and lavish, it sure is time consuming so the look makes it worth it.

The purse is pretty basic, its really more of a casual sack, with a zipper closure, long strap and I sewed in a cell phone pocket for convenience. Its made out of natural brown linen I had extra laying around from other projects and the liner is blue cotton that I reused from a curtain I made and didn't like.

I had a lot of fun making this giant linen tag for the inside. I wanted it to look really fun and youthful.

I'm super exited to be experimenting with my sewing machine lately. This stitch on the tag is so cool, like a perfect scalloped edge.

Here is old skully pinned on before being stuffed and made 3-D.

I think it will be my "go to" bag for a while...until I make a new one!

The Silhouette

2011-02-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

I must have one. This thing rules and it will be mine, oh yes it will be mine. Well I hope.
I entered in The DIY Show Off's latest giveaway for one. I hope I win, or someone that will love as much as I will, and if you want to give it a try enter your comment to win here.

I'm a Green wrapper

2011-02-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

I declared my hatred for wrapping paper years ago, around the time I started getting invited to lots of baby showers, bridal showers, and kids birthdays. Seeing those trash bags full of colorful wrapping paper just got me peeved.
Okay okay I don't want to be a "Debbie downer" here. Sure who doesn't love a lavishly wrapped present with bows and shiny paper.

But when it comes down to it that wrapping paper just gets ripped off in seconds and thrown in the trash. Not the recycling bin, as its printed with non recyclable materials and laminated, and those plastic bows are just the same.
So instead of adding non biodegradable materials to a landfill I decided to get more eco-friendly with gifts and still manage to make them look pretty.
When I was around 22 I just went the easy route, with the color funnies from the Sunday Paper for family gifts. But showers and weddings presented a problem. These gifts were on display and the comics were not quite appropriate for those occasions.
The wrapping paper section at stores don't usually have a "green" or recyclable option, and to make it worse the options they do have are not cheap! On average a small roll of decorative wrapping paper will set you back about $5.00 for enough paper to wrap one large gift and the ribbon another $3.00 minimum. Gift bags are even worse. With tax that adds on about $10.00 a gift that's just getting thrown away.
That just doesn't make sense to me. I rather spend the money on the gift and come up with a cheap way to wrap them without damaging the environment.

This year I have been invited to a couple of bridal showers in the spring and we are going to the weddings early this summer so that means gifts! Here are a couple of make shift wrap jobs I came up with just using supplies I had on hand and a roll of what I call "every occasion wrapping paper".
This 3 foot x 140 foot long roll of builders paper I picked up at Home Depot for $9.00 puts those $5.00 rolls of 6' long colorful paper to shame. I can wrap over 50 gifts with this baby, and recycle the paper!

I took a scrap piece of linen fabric from my scrap pile and hemmed it with a contrasting green thread.

I enjoy a earthy more subtle look to wedding gifts and white is always a good choice.

The brown, white and green combo are very typical "me" colors but this paper works with any colors you want to pair it with.
I took the linen runner I whipped up, wrapped it around the mysterious brown box and finished it with a raffia bow. The raffia (comes from a palm tree) I had in bulk from a hula costume I made a couple years ago. I customized a mini card with green initials of the bride and groom.

Here is the bride's shower gift. A bit more color to hers came from this up-cycled gift bag from a retailer.
A gift I received recently from Anne Taylor Loft came in this beautiful white paper bag with amazingly fun big grosgrain ribbon handles.

Normally it would be a big "no no" to stick a bridal shower gift in a reused bag with a retailers name on it, unless the gift was from that store. In this case it's not. But I think that's silly. Why throw this perfectly good and pretty gift bag away when it can be re used?

So I cut out some large hearts from my roll of brown paper.

Stuck them over the "Loft" on each side of the bag with a little wood glue.

Let that sit with weight on for about 10 min.

Then reused the tissue paper in a crinkled technique.

I cut it into strips and rolled it up in the shape of 2 roses.

Glued those roses to the hearts and drew on the bride's initial to make it personal.

I think they look pretty darn good for practically nothing in cost. I find it fun and really personal to wrap gifts in these unique ways. I hope that this trend catches on as its good for the pocket book and the planet!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hope you all spend the day with someone you love!

I am loving white flowers right now! These 24 white roses were picked up at the local farmers market and I just love how they look in that deep red glass vase.
Below the white begonia pot is covered in blooms...for now. We will see if I can keep them coming.

More vases!

2011-02-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

I seem to be doing a lot of posts on vases and arrangements lately. I think I'm in the spirit of spring a touch early. Things do seem to be beginning to bloom around here and I have even started with seasonal allergies, so I guess its probably not a good idea to surround myself with flowers and greenery, but I just can't help myself!

I bought these 3 vases last week from Macy's awesome White Sale and with an extra 20% off of the sale price, score!

I have been wanting to put out flowers every week but with nothing blooming in our yard quite yet, I got a little inventive.

Olives! I have never seen olives in a vase acting as the main attraction so I gave it a try. After all this year the trees are loaded. So much so that if we don't cut them they might take limbs off. Olives are heavy, and they were challenging to put in the tall vase as they wanted to pull it over.

This is the perfect time to cut them for an arrangement as they are in the middle of turning black. So its a great mixture of green and black shiny little round cuties.

Bud Vases

2011-01-30T13:47:00.000-08:00

They are perfect for mini floral arrangements for a small space or dining table. I find them most useful when downsizing a declining larger arrangement, like this one from 11 days ago.

Once a few of the flowers started to fade, I quickly disassembled my large arrangement and moved it to the dining table in these cute little bud vases that I got for Christmas. I recently saw some just like them at Cost Plus World Market and I have seen them online at Crate&Barrel.com.
These are especially nice because they have a lot of weight to them so they can hold substantial size stems and as you can see I loaded them up with filler too.

All you need is Love

2011-01-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

Da dadada dah!
Sorry I have been on a Beatles kick since Christmas, Rory bought us the best of the The Beatles from 1962-66 & 1967-70. So its been nothing but the boys from across the pond for over a month.

So get on with it! With Valentines Day in just a little over 2 weeks, and I am seeing some lovely decor in Blog world. Personally I have never decorated for Valentines day, probably because of my very odd and very real refusal to decorate with the colors pink and red. But it is a new year and I think its time to give a little pink a try.

Trisha at The Sweet Survival has a great tutorial on this beautiful crepe paper rosette topiary. She has an awesome blog and the step by step shows you just how to replicate these adorable and simple pink paper roses. So I followed her lead, but with a Mrs. B twist and strayed from her perfect and neat little topiary to make something of my own.

Image via The Sweet Survival

This Jumanji like Wisteria vine at my parents house has been my inspiration lately for making my own wreath bases. I made one the other day out of cut wisteria vines, it's now on our front door. It needs the trimming anyway, and the materials are free.

I clipped quite a few of the newer growth vines that were still flexible to form them into the letters for Love. The lower case "e" was the hardest!

But where the vines wouldn't bend or go my way I simply spliced the vine and used it to tie knots like twine.

Then I got out the craft supplies and got crafting. I already had the pink crepe paper from a birthday party a couple years back where I made a pink flamingo piñata for a friend of ours.
Seen here
So I used the technique of crepe paper rosette making from the blog linked above. I collected Spanish moss from the oak tree droppings out front. Heated up the glue gun, and started to decorate the vine letter wreaths.

Okay so I didn't cover them with pink rosettes, just a few for color and I went a little crazy with the pale green Spanish moss for a very weathered natural look.

The larger heart shaped wreath was also formed out of extra wisteria vines and covered in Spanish moss. I think I might just be okay with this much pink in my house for a couple weeks, after all it does a fantastic job of reminding Mr. B that Valentines Day is coming up!

The Time has Come!

2011-01-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

Check out the new clock, we pretty much love it! I have been on the look out for a clock for our home ever since we moved in. I had the space all picked out for 18 months, but I could not find one in the right size. I knew I wanted it to be wood and rustic, also large but it had to fit the wall.

So while I waited for Pottery barn to make a perfect clock for our home, like this but 4" smaller in diameter please.

Or this beauty that is a whopping 30" in diameter and that would make it about 7" too large to fit our wall.

So what did we do? We ordered it custom! This is our carved wine barrel clock, 23" diameter just our size. Its the perfect stain color, finish, and design too. Made out of the top of a used wine barrel, so its eco-friendly as a wine barrel is used only 3 times before it has to be discarded or made into something else.
But best of all its local, and supporting a local company is something I would rather do any day than buy from a large retailer like the Pottery Barn clocks above.
Oh it also goes along with our stave coat hook that I made last month out of a wine barrel, seen here.

Here is a close up of the 3 dimensional sunburst carving.

Check out their website.
ewoodart.com

January wreath

2011-01-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

I have been longing for something to put up ever since all the holiday decor got packed away.
Do you think there is something wrong with a wreath in January? I didn't think so, neither did I.
So I made this stick wreath a week ago with clippings from our wisteria vine. I took the cut vines and just started forming them into a circle intertwining them into each other for structure, pretty simple and I figured I will eventually use it for something.

While at the farmers market today I picked up 2 bunches of these beautiful and what I figured are California native flowers, to me they look so tropical. Being a novice when it comes to plant names I only know some, the others I had too look up...but they are all beautiful and so large! I guess that's why they feel tropical to me, its the size and they are all so unique looking.

Red hot poker
Bird of paradise
Status flower
Protea it came in many shades of pink and one in a pale green
Orange Protea

I also picked up a bunch of these eucalyptus branches for a couple bucks, I used some wire and cutters and I formed it into a wonderfully smelling green leafy wreath.

I stole a few flowers from the bouquet and wired them on the wreath. These Protea flowers are amazing, the tips of some are like feathers, so soft too.

Oh happy day!

2011-01-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

I can finally take a decent indoor photo thanks to my new camera!!! (and tripod) I got a Nikon Coolpix P7000.
I picked up a much needed new digital camera yesterday. After using the same Canon Elph for over 8 years it was time for an upgrade.
Here she is! I am just beginning to learn all that it will do, so keep in mind while straying from auto on this baby I may produce some weird shots.

So I would like to share with you our new fireplace all decorated and our new window treatments! I posted the drapes last week after I thought we were finished, but I ended up ordering more fabric and doubling the panels of linen and getting a new drapery rod. So here they are, fuller and the trim has been painted around the window from where we ripped off the shutters.
You can see the accessories I have added to the mantel, a trio of pillar candles a beautiful iron cross which we received 3 unique ones for Christmas gifts this year form Rory's Aunt. I hung the other two on an opposing wall to tie them in together. Oh also a plant on the mantel in a cobalt blue pot.

Before of our fireplace & shutters

Here is a new addition to our home a Zee zee plant, I hope I can take care of it well. You can also see my new tripod sitting on top of our trunk.

NOVICA

2011-01-13T08:22:00.001-08:00

If you haven't heard of NOVICA by now I am going to introduce it to you.
NOVICA is a webstore by the National Geographic company, they have beautiful handcrafted items from around the world. These talented artisans have a safe and wonderful way to get their crafts out to the world, it benefits them as well as the consumer who is supporting them while buying items that you just can't pick up locally.

Like these!
Today I got an email telling me these were once again available to purchase. They were out of them over 3 months ago but I signed up for an email notification once they had more in. They got in 6 sets and I just ordered 1 set for us.
They are a set of 6 beautifully hand blown dessert glasses in cobalt blue (what else) from Mexico. Shown here filled with delicious piña coladas! Yum. I plan to use these beauties for desserts mainly, ice creams (our favorite is McConnel'ls Coconut) , panna cotta, flan, who knows!

I can't wait to get them and display them in our glass cabinets.
I used a coupon code I found while searching the internet "NOVICA8494" for an order over $40.00 and saved $10.00!

Refinished, for good.

2011-01-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

I think we have almost completed our fireplace renovation. That last step basically was to cover up the existing rough stucco finish with a much smoother and more "us" version of a hand troweled plaster look. We did this with a special concrete Venetian style plaster.
But first!

We did this to our fireplace...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
We turned it pink!! Its Pepto Bismol pink actually, due to the special concrete/mortar/stucco primer, you can see Rory applying it below. It was this horrendous color most of the morning today, until we got to mixing up the plaster.

Currently this is the finish. Its a little gray still as it's wet and should dry to white in the next few days. Rory is still hand troweling it as I type, which needed to be done many times over the last couple hours to get a nice smooth finish.

Here is a close up of the trowel marks.

A long way from what it once was.

Bye bye shutters

2011-01-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

I took a plunge and decided to remove the custom shutters that covered our large window in our living room and also seen here in between our living room and sitting room. These shutters were here when we bought the home, and by the state of them they had most likely been installed over a decade ago.
The main reason I wanted to remove them was their lack of ease when trying to operated them. We spend a lot of time in this room in the evening so we preferred them shut for privacy, but during the day I would have loved to be able to open them and let the light in. Doing that was a lengthy process that usually involved me struggling with the somewhat dilapidated shutters, until frustration set in and I would just shut them.
Here they are in their lovely putty color goodness, the other option besides removal was to repair the broken parts and somehow paint them a more complimentary color of white. I started to think about how difficult it would be to paint moving shutters, and I quickly decided to take them out, it started to hurt just thinking about the free time that painting them would involve.
(the flash really makes the yellow look bright, its not really this color in real life)

So here we are today. I took out the shutters and whipped up some linen curtains last night. Now we have privacy at the flick of a wrist! Its so easy to "swish" them open and closed just like that. I even think they look better.
I still have some repairs around the window where the shutters were attached and bit of sanding & painting, but I love the difference so far.

I mean look at that view that we get to see now that the window is open, and the light poring in is great. The shutters darkened the room so much that during the day we would need the light on. So it just proves that decoration really should be based around practicality more than anything.
I love seeing our giant oak tree out front, I can't wait till there are leaves on it again.

The brown linen curtains are just more fitting in the room than the gray putty colored shutters ever were, and best of all they fit our life style.

The only thing I wish I could have done was make the drapes wider. The window is 98" wide and my linen source only has 59" width fabric. So after sewing & hemming the 2 drape panels I made just barely cover the window.
Ideally I would have just bought 2 of these 100" wide x 96" long Belgian linen drapes from RH, but at a whopping $767 + tax I thought making them myself even if they would be half the width it was good enough!

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T16:35:00.000-08:00

To end 2010 which has been a wonderful year I want to share this photo with you. I took it on Christmas night. The sunset was just so beautiful, my photo only shows part of its beauty.
Have a Spectacular 2011.

This has been us lately

2010-12-30T20:21:00.000-08:00

A whole lot of painting and fixing up to end the year. Our guest house is now empty and we are getting it ready for the new renters, whomever they may be. It needs a bit of paint and polishing before its ready so we have been busy doing just that everyday this week, after work of course.
More of the same planned for us for the New Year weekend, but I plan to fully loaf for at least an hour to watch the Rose parade!

Hope you all had a Great Weekend

2010-12-26T12:51:00.000-08:00

We sure did. It was a weekend full of amazing food, a fun time, and great gifts.

Rory and I enjoyed our 3rd year in a row of our traditional homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning. Baxter really enjoyed his traditional Christmas breakfast of a Prime rib bone from our dinner the night before.

We opened our gifts, one of which was a Wii from Rory to us! It's so much fun actually and here is a Wii version of Baxter and me.

From all the rain these humongous toadstools have been growing on our lawn, this was right as we left for our long morning walk.

The rest of our day consisted of relaxing, eating and another walk. The perfect lazy Christmas day. Hope yours was great as well!

Christmas cookies

2010-12-23T19:44:00.000-08:00

It's the night before Christmas Eve, & I've been cooking most of the day and will be cooking all day tomorrow. In preparation of our traditional overnight cinnamon rolls I have 4 unused egg whites. I made a huge batch of "white cookies" which usually consist of egg whites, lemon zest, sugar and mini chocolate chips. This time I piped them into Christmas tree shapes after I tinted them green for a holiday theme. We sprinkled them with red, white and silver dragee balls as little ornaments.
Here they are in the oven slowly cooling, they'll stay here till tomorrow until they harden up all the way.

Oh, I got my Manger! Rory built it right after work, and I just finished up a Shepherd and a little fluffy sheep.
And a felted star above the manger leading the 3 wise men to the baby Jesus.

Almost a Nativity

2010-12-22T20:39:00.000-08:00

I have been working on getting my felted Nativity set done by Christmas Eve, but with that in just a day I am not sure I'll meet my goal. I still have a shepherd and a wooly lamb to felt, and I also need to build a manger out of something. I have tried to pawn that job off on Rory but it hasn't worked, maybe some bribery will be in order.
Here is the latest, I have a Camel (definitely my favorite) a lamb, a donkey, 3 wise men carrying a gift each, Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus. I think in the right setting, like faux hay and a wood manger they will really look in place. The large pine cones kind of throw me off, so I'll stage them the right way once it's all done.

My mom sent me this last night and I have to share it. It's the story of The Nativity in a modern twist. It goes fast, so watch close!

Felting, it's time consuming

2010-12-14T17:57:00.000-08:00

I finished 3 animals so far. The lamb of course was my first, the burro next and then the camel. Each getting more and more elaborate. I am now going to start the people, I have 3 wise men, Mary and Joseph, baby Jesus, and possibly a shepherd and an angel. Wish me luck getting those done before Christmas.

***Edited to add! Here is the first person I've felted. I did it last night and he only took me about an hour. So much faster than that Camel!!!
He is one of the wisemen with a small chest of gold.

Proud owners of a Mantel

2010-12-12T17:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Rory finished installing our fir wood mantel he built. He really did a great job building it despite all the tough elements, like the fact that its 9 feet long, curved, huge and the delicate mitered seams.
You can't even tell its not a solid piece of wood.

Here is a shot of the inside, its a plywood box with an inch of solid fir wood over it for the outside.

The estimate from the custom woodworker in town was $1610.00 to built it the same way out of Fir. It was going to be $2163.00 out of Walnut. We decided to make it out of Fir from the lumber supply for about $40 with the plywood.
We figured stain would do the work to make it look how we envisioned, an old world Spanish beam. So once it was installed and done we got up close and personal distressing it, Rory used his electric wire wheel to speed up the process, we even put in faux termite damage, and the usual dings bangs and scratches.

In a flash it transformed into a dark, and beautifully rich looking beam with just a little bit of walnut stain. We plan to finish it with an old world look using Briwax or a satin varnish tomorrow.

Here it is spills and all, of course we are going to completely resurface the stucco so those spills and test spots will soon be all one color. But doesn't the wood look great?

Felting, a new hobby

2010-12-05T09:48:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I need another new hobby like a hole in the head don't I? Well I think I found a really cute one that will hopefully produce a Nativity set before Christmas. Its pretty fast too, needle felting. I saw these adorable little guys on Etsy, and I had to try my hand in it.

Here is my first felted animal, a little lamb.

It's pretty simple really just make a form with pipe cleaners, then add un-spun wool and poke it with special needles until you get the right form. I bought a how to book and the supplies yesterday and had the lamb done in about 2 hours. I plan on starting a 'burro' today.

Decor obsession?

2010-12-03T09:35:00.000-08:00

I may or may not have a little thing for Burlap. You may remember our Holiday decor from our first Christmas in our home last year. I bought a large artificial wreath and garland that I decorated with fresh greens and silver bows.
Well this year it's all about Burlap. I made a Burlap tree skirt in January of this year, that I plan to add some "flare" to, so as soon as we get our tree I'll post pic's.

This is the "new" (Craigslist) entry table with the garland I used last year to make a mantel for our fireplace. Since the fireplace is still under construction.... I am using it here. Its the first thing you see in our home so I find it to be the best place to decorate for the seasons.

I added a large burlap bow, and pine cones from down the street, & some fresh cut juniper for fragrance.

Here it is with the lights on!

Our wreath with a new look, a much better sized bow than last year, I think.

I haven't gotten around to cooking my pumpkins yet, so here is one sneaking into December with a bit of red and green to camo it in. These red berries are Pyracantha, and I was going to use them inside but feared they might be poisonous, so with Baxter I didn't want to chance it. I googled them and they are not, so for now they are outside, but they might make their way indoors.

Here is our old entry way table with a pine display. A tall glass vase filled with pine cones and branches, and my favorite trifle dish filled with glittered pine cones. That little sachet bag is filled with ground fir needles and it smells like a little bag of Christmas, its just heavenly.

Anfora Pottery

2010-11-26T13:41:00.000-08:00

As most may know, I have a thing for Mexican ceramics. We redid our kitchen to have cobalt blue Talavera tile and our whole master bathroom is covered in it. I have large hand painted Ginger jars from Mexico, and a collection of other little great ceramics all with the same theme.
Today I picked up these Anfora plates at a little shop for $3.00 ea. I found these cute little matching pattern (called Blue Pueblo) cups and saucers at Pottery Barn a while back that I display in my cabinet, so I thought they would match perfectly and they happen to be the same manufacturer at that. Anfora ceramics since 1920.

I put them up here on that long empty space above our raised bar. The area always seemed so empty and I had tried other things in the past, like painting on wall words, and that failed. I got tired of explaining to everyone what it meant.

So here they are! They look great in person they are one of the first things you see when walking into the kitchen from our dinning room and then your eye goes over to the cabinet with the matching cups and saucers.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

2010-11-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

I hope you all have days filled with Family, Food and Joy. I am headed to my parents shortly to put that bird in the oven and prepare the rest of the traditional meal for them. Its a frosty morning here in California, we woke up and its 30 out, about 55 inside. So I'm sitting by the fire and enjoying the calm before the cooking storm.
As usual I baked my pies yesterday to save time and oven space for today. I made a new recipe for pecan and my classic apple pie. The pecan pie is a recipe from Bubby's pies in NY. It included great ingredients like molasses, maple syrup and orange liqueur! Yum!

In my post below I made a DIY wreath with beautiful and mysterious wood roses from the tops of pine cones. I had never seen these before so I really didn't know what they were I just knew I wanted to make something out of them.

So I went searching online to find out what they are. Apparently certain types of Cedar trees call Deodar have these thin pine cones that start out like little green eggs and then pop off their tops around late summer.

I was fortunate enough to have one down the street but if you want to make a wreath like mine you can get them online, of course! Dried Cedar wood roses to buy are here. I probably had about a pound and used them all for my small 12" vine wreath.
~Have a Happy Thanksgiving~

Hot Glue & Wine Barrels

2010-11-21T18:29:00.000-08:00

Although I am eager to decorate the house with Christmas cheer, I am a firm believer of waiting until after Thanksgiving to decorate. That doesn't mean I can craft!
Have you ever heard of a pine cone top? I don't think anyone has, I tried googling it and found nothing on them. Down our street there are some large pine trees that had sprouted bright green pine cones this spring. We walked the dog by daily watching them grow and change over the months. Then one day after they had turned brown and opened up, the tops were popping off, and laying all over the street. They look like little wood roses, and I had to do something with them. We started collecting the pine cone tops 2 months ago, aren't they cool?

I got this grapevine wreath at the craft store.

And these are all the pine cone tops that we collected down the road.

I simply hot glued them on easy peasy.

Then finished off the wreath with a large burlap bow wired on, I made it out of a roll of burlap garland that I picked up at Michael's.

Another quick project that has needed some addressing for a while was our coat rack. This was it this morning. It's was a cheap buy that we picked up years ago. Kind of small, blah and the hooks were really close together.
As you can see I hang my giant purse on the hooks and it takes a lot of space.

We quickly put this together out of a piece of a wine barrel that our next door neighbors gave us, they have plenty, and some hooks from the hardware store.

Much better looking and less cluttered, just like that!

Well I am at a loss

2010-11-16T18:55:00.000-08:00

Our fireplace has us spinning in circles. I'll post progress on it once we actually decide on a mantel and commit enough to build one. The post below is now on hold. I feel so indecisive, it's amazing because if you know me, I always know what I want and rarely change my mind. So something like this really shouldn't get me hung up, but it has!

Um... we changed our minds

2010-11-15T19:23:00.000-08:00

After a week staring at our demolition job we started to second guess our decision on our mantel and fireplace renovation. We had originally decided to add a large rustic wood mantel. But some complications finding wood that large and affordable has been a major road block. We have gone over idea after idea on this challenging mantel, and have come to a semi decision to demolish it further.
This was it before.

We took the hammer to it here, and we plan to do much more!

We will need to remove the whole top stucco structure, just to sink it back about 6 inches to create a stepped back mantel and hopefully find a 3" wood slab for our mantel top.
Something like this.

Tarte Tatin

2010-11-11T11:41:00.000-08:00

Tonight Rory and I are invited to a friends new home for dinner. We offered to bring something of course, and they said if I wanted to bring a dessert that they would love it.
So the little sugar coated wheels in my mind started turning. I always love to bake and create delicious desserts, and I love to challenge myself with something new. But on a week night after work I only have so much time, so a 9 layer cake is out. I wanted to find a great but also fast and simple recipe using apples as we have an orchard full of them right now. I started searching through my baking books and found this.

Tarte Tatin by Martha Stewart Baking

Recipe

This classic French dessert the Tarte Tatin originated in the late 1800's in France, it is basically an upside down apple tart that is cooked in caramel. Yum! It's beautifully rustic, simple and fast!
I went online to check it out and what do you know there is even a video of how to make it with Martha and a guest. Perfect.

Here is a great video from Julia Child making a Tarte Tatin, I really enjoy watching her cook, she is more than entertaining. It's a long video, but if you can watch it through to the part where she flips the pan over to unveil the tarte, you won't be disappointed and you will get a taste of her famous optimism. Lets hope that doesn't happen to mine!
She did use a mixer for the tarte dough but I used the Martha recipe in which the dough is made quite fast in a food possessor.

Watch the full episode. See more Julia Child.

I made my Pate Brisee (dough) last night, lickity-split, wrapped it in plastic and stuck it in the fridge to chill overnight.
The apples are easily peeled, cored and quartered, not in slices so that was fast. I used Granny Smith apples from my parents orchard. I like the tart flavor of Granny's and the way they hold up in cooking, there are my "go to" pie apple as well.

Well here goes.
This is the tarte assembled upside down in the pan with the dough on top as it went into the oven.

Then it cooked for about a half hour and filled the kitchen with the smell of butter, apples and caramel.
You have to invert the tarte onto a plate while its still hot, so this is the tricky part. I was a little nervous after seeing Julia's attempt!

I waited a minute, mainly out of fear that it hadn't detached from the top. Then I got up the courage and lifted the pan.

Voila! Apple Tarte Tatin! It's not perfect, but never apologize, just cover up the boo boo spots with caramel. Off we go to dinner, can't wait to taste it :)

Went shopping and came home to this!

2010-11-07T08:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my mom and I went shopping to celebrate her Birthday!! Although the day was not too fruitful in the way of great finds, I did come home to something exciting :)
Rory worked on our mantel, well after he made a trip to Home depot and splurged on some nice new and much needed tools to accomplished building this ourselves.
You see we got a quote from a local custom wood worker to see what it would cost to job out our mantel. Well that was not quite realistic, so we passed and decided to give it the good ol' DIY try.

While I usually have my hand in most of the projects we have done, this one has me a bit bewildered. For some reason I just can see how it's going to work, and Rory seems confident enough to do it.
He is going to make a faux wood beam mantel. We had originally decided that a solid mantel would be nicer but the weight of it, and cost of the wood was too much, not to mention the waste of hardwood is not very environmentally friendly. So he is building a plywood base and is going to put up a thick (probably 1 inch) veneer walnut box over that.

This is what it looked like before.

Then with a bit of this...

We knocked off the useless round stucco mantel.

And my mock up via Photoshop of what we hope to accomplish.

Well this is where we are, today. Rory anchored one long piece of plywood around the curve into the brick that was underneath the stucco with 6 large bolts. Then he attached those smaller pieces of plywood to kind of make the skeleton of the box... geez I really have no idea what to call this technique. I think he should be writing this blog post.

Currently he is cutting out the plywood box to go over this. I'll update that later when he is done. Wish us luck on this renovation, and if you know what he is doing please explain it to me!

(Update)
While Baxter was doing this.
He looks uncomfortable doesn't he?

Rory was installing this.

Here you have our plywood mantel. Rory built this box as the hollow structure that will have the finished hardwood veneer attached to it. Now to buy some wood, which will we choose?

Baxter's 5th Birthday

2010-11-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today is Baxter's Birthday, and I can't believe he is five!! That flew by. As you may know Baxter is our little boy and we on occasion have been known to spoil him. When we lived in town he used to frequent the pet store at least once a month, and usually leave with a new toy. He went through them quickly, as soon as the squeaker is destroyed then he rips them apart.
Well since we moved far away from the "toy store" he hasn't been there much at all. So for his special day we took him in and sure enough he picked out a new toy to take home.

This little video montage will give you a glimpse of what we have been dealing with for the last 3 hours straight. He is so happy!

Haunted snacks

2010-10-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

I had a blast making these Halloween snacks. We had a couple friends over for just a bit then we all went to the local haunted house for a scare! Scared we were, I am still pumped up from the frights.

These spooky veg body parts were time consuming but worth it. The Radishes have a green olive with a pimento in them to look like a creepy eyeball, and the carrot fingers are simply a sliced almond stuck on with some sour cream.

Guacamole with black beans and blue corn tortilla chips, a perfect color for the evening.

Mummy dogs! So cute.

And for dessert these bloody fallen glass chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, the blood is cherry sauce.
I got the idea from this great book "A Zombie Ate My Cupcake" The many creepy & gross cupcake ideas are so visually appealing and the recipes are great! I was concerned to try a new cake recipe on guests but everyone was delighted. They were moist and delicious!!

Dressed to Impress

2010-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out to our friends annual Halloween costume party. We dressed in early 1950's inspired costumes. I was hoping to look like a proper 50's woman and Rory went with a Buddy Holly look.
I had a blast in the dress and the hair, despite the time it took to do. I really appreciate the time women spent getting ready back then.

Paint and Demo

2010-10-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

Today was Saturday and that means many things to us, usually chores around the house and maintenance, but most importantly its having the time for a walk in the morning with Baxter and Mr. B, then quickly off to drive around hunting the garage sales.

We picked up 2 deals today for pocket change. An 18 foot extension ladder (that we have needed badly since we bought our home) and this funky wood dish shelf that I quickly coated with some spray paint and installed in my craft room.

All these supplies were cluttering up my work table, so it's great to get them up and out of the way.
I really have to do something with that fabulous bag of French lavender sitting up on the top shelf...another day.

That's a little better, but I have plans to straighten up more and have better use for this space as soon as I can find the right desk.

So today we got a little crazy and decided to demolish our fireplace! Doesn't it look great? Well no, but it will soon... I hope. We just have to do a few things first before we can have a mantle.

Oh if you are wondering what Baxter has on his face, those are his Doggles. You see he insists on being near us when we make any kind of demo noise like hammering. He was quite upset outside while we did this but as soon as we let him in he was fine. Of course he has to be literally right under us and with all that rubble flying about he needed to be safe.

Safety first that's what Baxter says!

Apple spice cupcakes

2010-10-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

These delicious spicy little cakes are a creation from Martha's Apple Spice Cake recipe that I twisted just a bit. The recipe is a typical cake, flour, sugar, butter, eggs, spices, etc. But it called for a few interesting ingredients, honey and apples cooked in caramelized sugar...oh yeah!
I could eat just that, its basically homemade apple sauce (from our home grown apples) I used 2 granny smith and 2 Fuji apples. You cook a small amount of sugar in a pot till it completely liquefies and turns into a deep brown color. Then you add your peeled, sliced & chopped apples and cook them till they turn into a caramelized apple sauce. That is cooled and added to the batter.
I decided I wanted a bit more kick to my spice muffins, so I added the zest from an orange. I also made cream cheese frosting with orange zest. Oh that made it great! Too bad there are 24 of these babies, I think we will have to share them with our friends, if they are lucky.

Hall Laundry plan, take 1

2010-10-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

So I've started to think about how our narrow laundry room could be better!

Of course my plan involves demolishing the existing closet and cabinets.
The existing storage is large but lacks function and is difficult to reach (for me). So I decided that the standard coat closet is going and we will be fitting in a pull out hamper with a folding counter top made out of wood. A narrow broom closet for mop & storage of tall items, a pull out drawer for Baxter's food bin and cookies. And three wider cabinets above the washer dryer and folding table.
Also I want a little shelf above the washer and dryer to put cute accessories and to hang a burlap curtain to cover up the ugly exposed water pipes and drain.

Here is my mock up, everything is in centimeters because that's how we do it.

We have a towel holder

2010-10-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

When we remodeled our master bathroom we removed the closet to make room for a jacuzzi tub. For me this was a simple choice, as I don't need a full closet in a bathroom and I love my bath time.
The only problem is we did not have room for a linen closet to store towels and other supplies. Thankfully the guest bathroom is close to our room and has a lot of storage so we didn't need it...right, well 4 months later and I changed my mind :)

We did build a custom 8 foot long vanity that originally we decided to leave the middle open for shelving just for towels. Well we decided that instead of that we would eliminate the need of having a hamper on the floor and we put a hamper in the vanity center cabinet. I love it and I use it everyday, and I'm glad we put it in. But where could we store fresh clean towels?

Today we installed this handmade wrought iron towel rack here, above the commode where I had originally envisioned a painting going.

It works great, I think its a nice decor element too. It holds the perfect about of bath towels and can hold little washcloths below in the basket, or other supplies.

Help me choose our new fireplace

2010-10-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well here we go again, I have ideas swirling around in my head and they involve renovating.
Our Fireplace has looked like this since we bought the place. We painted around it, the walls a sunny yellow and the ceiling a buttery off white. You can still see the spot where we tested the ceiling paint on the fireplace.
Current state

You can see that there is a strange rounded "mantle" on there currently that really serves no function and is not even visually appealing. The surface of the fireplace is a rough stucco which we plan to change to a smooth plaster or hand trowelled concrete finish. I want the fireplace to look less blah, but I don't want it "in your face" if you know what I mean.
Here are the options I have come up with and have Photo-shopped to help me decide, and you can vote for your favorite, if any.

Here we have the fireplace with a large curved Rustic Wood Mantle, and it's finished in a super white colored plaster.

This is with a large curved Rustic Wood Mantle, finished in a super white colored plaster, with small 2x2 Cobalt blue tiles.

This is with a large curved Rustic Wood Mantle, finished in a super white colored plaster, with 4x4 Terracotta Deco tiles.

Here we have the fireplace with a large curved Rustic Wood Mantle, and it's finished in a butter white colored plaster.

This is with a large curved Rustic Wood Mantle, finished in a butter white colored plaster, with small 2x2 Cobalt blue tiles.

This is with a large curved Rustic Wood Mantle, finished in a butter white colored plaster, with 4x4 Terracotta Deco tiles.

Please Vote your favorite, or feel free to write your own wonderful ideas for this dilemma in the comment section. I appreciate any and all feedback from you!