a bridal shower

Here for the giveaway? Click here.

I mentioned in a previous post that I am going to a wedding in South Carolina next week. Over the last weekend I got to play a small part in throwing a shower for the bride-to-be. It was so much fun! And thanks to the hard work of my friend Jen, the house looked gorgeous and the food was awesome! Not that I would have expected anything less.

I threw some simple invitations together with the ink I had left in my printer and paper I had on hand. They inspired the colors for the decorations. I love the way it looked! (luckily Jen had some ribbon and white cardstock to dress one up for a keepsake.) I made some cake balls a la Bakerella for favors. They were lemon cake dipped in white chocolate. You can sort of see them in their cellophane bags under the invite.

Tissue pom poms, by Martha, adorned the windows.

An assortment of little sandwiches: curried chicken, waldorf chicken, and the quintessential crustless cucumber. (thanks to Jen for the recipes, found below)

Why yes, this salad did taste as good as it looks! Blueberries, strawberries, candied almonds, feta and mixed greens. She used Brianna's blush wine vinaigrette. That's my kind of salad. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sit down with that bowl all to myself.

Really, who doesn't love a fruit kabob? (Even if the picture is blurry!)

I loved that she reused these lemonade bottles instead of pitchers. I thought they looked so cute!

And I've not jumped on the cupcake-love wagon, preferring more traditional pastry type desserts, but I have to say, these. were. AMAZING. I had blueberry-lemon and I can barely talk about it with bursting into tears of joy. They were from local bakery Baked and Wired.

We had so much fun celebrating our dear friend! Can't wait for the wedding. Did I mention that I'm going sans kids? I think I will be sleeping a lot. Not DURING the wedding of course. Just in the car.


The Recipes

Minty Cucumber Sandwiches

1 8oz. Cream Cheese1 Stick Butter
3-4 T. Fresh Mint (minced)
1 tsp. Fresh Tarragon (minced)
1-2 tsp. lime juice
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 cucumbers, sliced
Sliced bread

Blend ingredients until creamy. Spread over bread of your choice, followed by one layer of sliced cucumbers, cut off crust. You can make these as open faced or close faced sandwiches.

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Waldorf

1 lb. cooked chicken (minced)
½- ¾ C Mayonnaise
½ Celery (minced)
3-4 Green Onions (minced)
¼ C Dried Currants or Craisins
¼ C Slivered Almonds
2 tsp. cider vinegar
1 T. Sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste

Curry Chicken

1 lb. cooked chicken (minced)
½- ¾ C Mayonnaise
½ Celery (minced)
3-4 Green Onions (minced)
¼ C Raisins
¼ C Slivered Almonds (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tsp. Curry Powder

Mix and adjust to taste.

happy spring!

and belated Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I just wanted to share a couple of nifty egg ideas, um, for .... ahem, NEXT year. :)

There's always the traditional PAAS egg dying kit. Fun! and a blast from my childhood. But now there are 9 colors or something - I almost didn't have enough containers!

I saw this cute tutorial at V. and Co. for fabric covered eggs - and it was pretty easy! Although if you look at the orange egg you can see it wasn't put on an orange egg - I would spray the eggs white next time if my fabric doesn't coordinate with the egg color.

Now, do you remember this post? I love the idea of paying it forward. Well, because I responded to a similar post on my friend's blog she brought me these lovelies the other day!

Don't ask me how she did it. It has to do with silk ties and wrapping the eggs with them and then some fabric and then boiling them with vinegar and water... all I know it that they were the coolest eggs I've ever seen!!! And they made pretty darn good deviled eggs too.

Okay, I just googled silk tie egg dye and there were a ton of references. And, as I suspected it's from Martha!

This is as close as I got to a family Easter picture.... hmmm, I couldn't even get one of my two kids together. I'm not sure getting a group shot is possible. . . at least he's smiling!

extreme makeover: craigslist edition - the reveal

One of my goals for the year has been to bring more color into my all-white rental. The Nester has inspired me to be more creative (like putting my dresser in the closet), to stop pouting about renting and make it beautiful anyway. So I'm trying.

My kitchen is a little challenging - while large square feet wise it is tiny on storage. So I had a baker's rack (read: boring and open-storage messy) and decided a cheap bedroom dresser painted up all fun would do just the trick.

(There is a reason there is not a paint color named craigslist brown.)

plus

and a little modge podge and fabric equals

After the first coat of paint I was really skeptical if I was going to like it. It's SO bright! It is exactly the color I picked out, but in reality brighter than I initially wanted. I moved it into the kitchen so I could give it a test drive, see if I needed to go darker, or calmer, or something-er.

I was thinking about glass knobs, but I was trying to keep this little project within a tight budget. So when I got these cute little fabric covered button magnets (Thanks Lolly!) made with the scraps from my quilting bee quilt, I realized that fabric covered knobs might be just the thing!

and I think they are.

budget: dresser 35$ + paint 12$ + primer 3$ + scraps (on hand) + modge podge (on hand) = 50$!!

(This dresser is going to be re-purposed to my sewing studio when I have a sewing studio. And when it's not needed in the kitchen!)


*****In other magnet news*****

Have you ever made these? little flat glass rocks + modge podge + amy butler scrapbook paper =

I think modge podge is going to be my new best friend.

christmas is the best

and the busiest! Things have been so crazy around here. Along with shopping for birthday and Christmas gifts, ear infection visits to the doctor and pharmacy and a myriad of other errands and parties . . .

We've been doing a little decorating,

making more placemat pillows (I think I'm addicted),

this one is a microsuede, way too nice for food to be spilled on it! But perfect for a pillow. Plus I have a thing for snowflakes.

eating a little birthday cake with peppermint ice cream,

and maybe I had cake for breakfast this morning

visiting with Santa,

playing with those foam sticker thingies,

and exchanging hand-made gifts with friends.

My friend Megan gave me this little gem. She is so creative and fun! She raided my scraps and used some of my favorites! I love it so much! It will hang in my sewing corner forever (it really is just a corner - until we get to a house where I can have my own room).

Here' s a closer look:

Then she handed me another package and told me this was a gag gift. I opened it and saw Amy Butler paper and thought, "Huh? How can THIS be a gag gift?"

Click on the image to read what's written on the package.

Remember the dream I had? That Megan, she sure makes me laugh! What a great friend.

oh and I was wondering if anyone else finds that their definition of the 4 food groups changes this time of year. Here's mine:
M&Ms - mint chocolate and peanut
Clementines
Cheese balls and crackers
Cookies, cookies and more cookies (this is a whole different category than just cookies)

whew! and some link love

Can you believe it's mid-October and I still have these lovely flowers in my garden? I hope they brighten your day as much as they do mine.

It's been a busy and productive few days. It's nice having my mom here to keep me company and to entertain Alison. She's gotten kind of bored with good ole mom! I painted my table - just working on the seats for the chairs now. I love it so far and can't wait to see how it all pulls together.

I finished the binding

on Andrew's quilt

and made a matching crib sheet!

Who knew you could do that? And it's pretty easy. I used this tuturial. Joanna does these tutorials for the Michael Miller blog, which I love. I just found it a few weeks ago. There's a good one for baby shoes, beach balls, and bean bags chairs too. Oops! that beach ball one is from The Purl Bee. Another great place for tutorials - also a new find.

My mom and I got to go her my friend Karen play Barber's violin concerto with the Richmond Symphony. It was amazing. I can't even begin to explain how cool it is to see her up there playing. I'm in awe. Here is a video of the 2nd movement - just to give you an idea.

We've also made some spooky pom-pom spiders (idea courtesy of Make and Takes.) They are now hanging in our doorways and lurking in unexpected places *like grandma's purse*! I have a crafter in the making. Alison loves cutting, gluing, playdoh-ing, etc. I better find a mini sewing machine. . .

We had this soup for dinner tonight. A totally EASY good soup - you throw stuff in a pot and simmer for 3 hours! It's a great recipe from the Smitten Kitchen - which is another blog that is new to me, I'm sure most people know about, but I've been a little slow around here. I am planning on trying this one - in honor of apple season and this one too. I have a problem with recipes. I love them. I read my Cook's Illustrated before bed. I love the possibility of good food.

One last thing, remember the dream my friend Allyn had? Well, here is her bag! It is so adorable, I think I need her to make me one. And check out her sidebar with pics of her latest projects - some adorable baby outfits. Did I mention how creative and amazing she is?! It was her birthday Saturday too - I'm sure she'd love some birthday comment love!

Oh yeah, don't get me started on the scarf I am crocheting - it is lovely, but I've had a hard time getting it right! Maybe I'll write about it when it is finished.

So we've been busy - luckily we've also managed to get a few naps in.

a bag, some buttons, and a spider! oh my!

I finally finished another bag! I can't show the whole thing yet, because I don't want to ruin the surprise factor for my friend, Julianne, who ordered it. I really loved how it turned out. I made the strap about 4" shorter for her so she could wear it just as a shoulder bag. I'm trying to figure out what length I should do the bags to sell - messenger length (~36") or shoulder length (~34"). Any suggestions?

One of my friends asked me how I have time to sew, and really - it's all done in 10 minute intervals and it takes me weeks to finish something. It's a little frustrating, but that's the way my life is right now, and I've almost accepted it.

On that note, here's a 2-minute project that is just so, so cute. And they are nothing new, I've seen them all over the place. And now I know why. They couldn't be easier! Fabric covered button magnets.

And this is what my mother-in-law found at my house while she was tending my kids for a bit the other night. I felt REALLY bad, because, she really doesn't like spiders, AT ALL. She smashed it, so this is the little dead spider, she said it was a lot bigger alive. But still, pretty big.

I was going to say that it looks like my luck has run out, but then when I thought about it, I was lucky! I wasn't there when it was still alive and she even vacuumed it up for me. But not until after I snapped a shot. It really looks like a mini tarantula to me. ewwww.