I LOVE PEEPS

Dana from MADE posted this bunting tutorial on V and Co. Which Dylan just emailed me about when she found it on The Moody Fashionista.  LOVE IT. Two obsessions in one, garland bunting and peeps.  Oh, how I love peeps. I simply must make this.  Even if I am getting home after Easter, to the top of my TO DO list it goes.

The color options are endless, like when I looked at them on MADE.  She even has door hangers!!! I LOVE you Dana, and I just found you today!

A Beautiful Idea

I first read about this on Frenchie and Flea, who is also participating.   A Beautiful Idea is a movement and vehicle to partner artists with a greater good. It is a place where artists can create and collaborate their profits for donation; where shoppers can make a difference with their purchases. Its more than a beautiful idea, it is profound, astonishing, and unbelievable.  Imagine the impact that can be made with each of us giving just a little. A Beautiful Idea is a revolutionary concept with a beautiful agenda. They make it easy to make a change.  All you do is sign up your shop to their network  and donate the profits of one (or more) of your products. Or you can just shop and support great causes, or donate directly.  After the charity goal has been met, a new one is chosen. Its beautifully ongoing. Loveliness in the best form.

 

images via A Beautiful Idea

Daily Doily

Yet another obsession of mine...doilies. While flitting around Veer, I saw these lovlies. How adorable! Love the simplicity of the ruffled edge and they are made out of unused newsprint! Then, you can recycle them after use! Perfectly superb!

Things you didn't know about me...

My friend, neighbor, and first/only follower gave me this award. Miss Dylan is awesome. I am lucky, I don't think you can get cooler neighbors. The first people I've ever met that have been to Antarctica. Antarctica!!! How awesome is that? And she can knit, and sew, and is rockin' the blogging. She has more entries/pics/links than me and I stay home all day!!! (what do I do?) and her stories are SO good!
For nominees: copy the image above and send it to 7 faves. Then write about seven things no one knows about you...no pressure, just for fun. :)
So for this award, I will pick my seven fave bloggers. I really love what you do, and each day you brighten my world.

imprintables

cupcakes and cashmere

ModernKiddo

Martha Moments

The Party Dress

Twig & Thistle

little. lovely.


So, seven things no one knows about me...hmmmm...

1. I am secretly jealous of my younger brother. Who somehow knows everyone, does crazy things, and travels everywhere/anywhere at the drop of the hat. He just flew to China, yesterday. I get calls "oh, I forgot to tell you I am in London" or "I'm in Vegas..." We have had words about this and he promises to let me know ahead of time when he is going to leave the country. Part of me thinks he's crazy, the other part loves it.
2. I haven't really exercised in two years. or is that two years, four months... how ever long its been since Hunter got here. I used to be very consistant. I did do a video last month almost twice. Probably should consider picking it back up again... if only to save money on jeans.
3. I can never remember, or feel confident in, how to spell "because" (ha, got it right) but I've struggled since grade school, always having this little voice in my head that wonders if it should be "beacause"...
4. If I could meet/see/befriend/be/live by any famous person in the world, it would be Martha Stewart.
5. I was born in Texas, think its the best state ever, and secretly want to move back so I can get that license plate that says "NATIVE TEXAN" (okay, that one is super weird, sorry.)
6. I have eaten entire cans of frosting, sans cake from the can. It makes me smile just to think of it. And yes...it has happened multiple times.
7. I think I am half hoarder/half minimalist. Okay, not minimalist exactly, but I love getting rid of clutter. A constant battle with the self that loves to keep things 'cause its cool/its vintage/can use it later/have a collection/save it for my inspiration board etc...

Whew, that was hard. I guess I tell people alot more than I thought. Most of the fun stuff, anyway! Doxie obsession anyone?

happy bunting!! fabric edition (via etsy)

small house Love the description she gives "frivolous and fancy"...perfect.

Booster seat Cute twist on fabric bunting...bunting on fabric. Fat quarter of her original design.

jump up and down Gorgeous vintage fabrics, lovely.

Frogs and Fairies So perfect for spring, love the colors and shapes.

DolciOdille Ahhhh, gorgeous colors, so pretty.

Corrieberry Pie Lovely embroidered edges, gorgeous color and I am obsessed with scallops.

31vintageroad I love cream colors. I love burlap. I love this.

Happy (early) Easter!

There is something gorgeous about this photo. I think its the uber-traditional style and uber-nontraditional color. I never decorate for Easter, but oh...how I wish I did...

image via iDiY blog

BW or color???

Ahhhh...I wish I could take gorgeous color pictures. Maybe it is my current aversion to color. Grey and muslin cream...I love you. Which couldn't be at the worst time - Pantone chose my fave color turquoise as the color of the year...But, with color pictures, I always have too many colors in it. I have also realized that I try too hard with my pics of the boys. Toddlers do NOT pose. Do NOT sit still. Do NOT care that you want a cute memory... So I am gonna try an experiment. ONE MONTH. Black and white. My snapshots will be ONLY black and white. My food trials pictures will be ONLY black and white. We'll see what happens...

Cowboys and parties

So last week, we had everyone over for Henry's 4th birthday. Here are some of the pics from it. Decorating took much longer than I originally thought. But overall it turned out pretty cute. I had a ton of help with the printables from ChatchkeDesigns.

I found Sarah' shop while browsing ideas on etsy. Her invites and party package were incredibly cute! AND incredibly reasonably priced!

Just too cute. I put them on rootbeer bottles.

I made cowboy cookies from some Williams Sonoma ice cream sandwich cutters.

Add lots and lots of jute rope (tons in one of those rolls), roll some of them up like lassos. Clip everywhere with clothes pins.

Add rusty metal picture frames ($2 each on clearance at Craft Market in Carson City), and other cowboy items we have lying around. My boys are "everyday" cowboys and man are they cute!

A variety of vintage pics of cowboys found online for ambience...
mini hay bales (found at Michaels)and cowboy plates (Party Universe)

...and my current obsession...scrabble tiles!

Cupcakes, anyone?

These little guys are from a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to get them up here. I have almost perfected my "chemical icing": the kind that doesn't melt in water, tastes sugary and gets a crusty hard shell on the outside, usually found in grocery store bakery displays. I can't help it. I love it. I think I am addicted. I have ordered cakes for my own birthday that require extra icing, think dinosaur (all icing head and tail.) My family thinks I am nuts, my hubby think I have a sickness, but they love me anyway. This is my first batch (partially remembered recipe at the bottom). I didn't write it down and just kind of eyeballed everything, which is really bad for me, I can never make the same thing twice with a recipe, so what am I to do now?

Henry and Hunter helped decorate.

Henry very precisely put a heart on each top.

Hunter ate some and tried to cover it up with 'em.

Hmmm. Thanks to Geraldine and Katie at Auntie Ang's baby shower for sharing the concept of shortening in the icing mix. Didn't know you could do that, it has a big part of the "chemical" in "chemical icing". For this first batch I only had butter flavored Crisco, which was kind of funny tasting right after mixing. After a day, (yep, I saved it in a tub before we decorated, with two little ones who can bake all day?) it tasted pretty good. It seems to me when making icing,that the longer it sits, the more that the sugar particles melt away and taste like frosting instead of butter (or shortening) and sugar. Anyhoo, here is what I remember...

Chemical Icing #1
3/4 stick of butter flavored Crisco
1 # + confectioners sugar
6 tsp + vanilla
3 tbs + whole milk

Mix until blended, add any milk or vanilla as needed to get the right consistency. I used lots of vanilla to hide the butter flavor weirdness. I am working on improving this accuracy (or lack there of) but I also need to lose the poundage gained in "experimenting", sad, I know, but it has to be pretty bad for me not to eat it...
As in, "I used salt instead of sugar" bad, which has never happened, hence the problem...