How pinterest has changed my life

Seeing a variety of nicely packaged gifts inspired me to get past my deep seeded aversion to wrapping and actually wrap presents this year. These are banana bread loafs for my husbands co-workers. By the way, did you know tape will not stick to parchment paper? Glue doesn't work either. I am going to have to try using it when I bake!

a return

Over the past two years I have done very little projecting or crafting. Now that I have graduated I am enjoying a vast amount of free time and thus the projecting has begun again!

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My Mom made the base for this advent calendar 20+ years ago. She gave it to me so I could create a similar advent to the one my husband had in his house growing up. I made the ornaments from felt. My sister-in-law has been experimenting with painting the back of an advent with magnetic paint to avoid having to put velcro all over an advent and it worked! I still need to add magnets to the ornaments, paint the back of the tree with magnetic paint and put numbers on the pockets, but getting the ornaments made felt like a big hurdle passed.

This project took 10 minutes. Inspired by how my sister-in-law hangs her Christmas cards, I bought a bunch of clothes pins for $2, cut some red ribbon from my stash and put no fray on the edges and voila!

Now I just need to finish all the other million projects that I put aside for grad school.

here and there

Boxwood wreaths and morse code greeting cards? I love it all.

via High Fives for Everyone and Under the Sycamore

holly jolly wreath

I think this qualifies as one of the best Christmas wreaths I have ever seen!
via the diary of dave's wife

Getting in the spirit

Now that Thanksgiving is over I can now officially get in the Christmas spirit. The stockings are hung, the tree is dressed and the Christmas village is up. I love Christmas.

a disease

I love a good wedding, especially when they feature semi-famous people. Case in point, Will and Kate. I followed their wedding plans from the time they announced the engagement. Although Lauren Bush and her Ralph Lauren heir husband, are by no means Will and Kate (I don't even know his name or anything about him except that he is Ralph Lauren's son), they are semi-famous so I took an interest.

Lauren Bush is the granddaughter of the older President Bush and thus the niece of the other President Bush. So she is semi-famous for being a socialite and connected to the ever prominent Bush family and her husband is obviously the son of Ralph Lauren. An interesting tidbit, she is hyphenating her last names Bush-Lauren to avoid being Lauren Lauren.

They had a Western theme for their wedding. The wedding was held at Ralph Lauren's ranch in Colorado. Her gorgeous dress was naturally designed by Ralph himself. While they haven't released any actual pictures of the wedding they did a couple of recreations for Vogue. Since they are only semi-famous (and really not even that) this is probably as good as it will get.

photos via Vogue.com

holiday book guide

My sister is something of a children's literature aficionado/expert. Which makes a lot of sense when you consider the fact that she has three children, a Master's degree in Children's Literature and formerly taught a university class on the subject. This week she created a guide to good books to give to children for the holidays, and it is featured on Kirtsy. You can also see her reviews of many, many other good children's books on her blog, A Curious Thing.

maternity skirt

I have a brainstorm for a maternity skirt. This may never actually come to fruition since it requires me to sew, I am counting on the fact that my Mom is coming to town to help.

This is Dana Made It's circle skirt. She has a tutorial on how to make it on her blog (for adults and children). I figure the elastic on the circle skirt will give itself nicely for maternity wear.

Now for the inspiration for my skirt. I want to find a similar fabric to that in this skirt. I love the floral...

via Dana Made It, Karla's Closet

for the twins

This is the basis of the inspiration for the twins nursery. Two simple white cribs that come out from the wall.

I want to try putting a dresser between the cribs, although I still have to measure to ensure that this is possible for the wall space.

I kind of like this dresser as an inspiration for the room. I want one a little higher with maybe four drawers. And it will be painted, color tbd. Cribs are another story. We have to get two, which makes cost a consideration. Does anyone have any recommendations of crib brands you like or recommend avoiding?

via nursery ideas, ohdeedoh, marta writes

happy veteran's day

Happy Veteran's Day!

This guy is my very favorite veteran, my Grandpa. He served in World War 2 under General Patton in Europe.

You may ask yourself why I am including a picture of William and Kate on Veteran's Day. It is because they are wearing poppies. I love the British and Canadian tradition of wearing poppies in support of Veteran's. I believe it is connected to one of my favorite poems, In Flanders Fields.

Thank you to all the Veteran's.

the thanksgiving tree

I have been having a hard time concentrating on Thanksgiving this year. Christmas is so close, and I love Christmas. So here is my effort to give Thanksgiving it's due.

The Thanksgiving Tree.

This is a tradition I was unaware of until my sister started her own about five years ago. I don't remember exactly how she goes about it but the bottom line is there are colorful paper leaves that every family member gets to write something they are thankful for and hang on the tree.

This is a similar version to my sisters. Branches filled with thankful leaves.

I kind of like the idea of taking that concept and applying it to a Thanksgiving advent Tree. Put things you are thankful for in each day.

Do you have any Thanksgiving month traditions?

via skip to my lou, one more moore, pb kids

goat cheese pasta and other pasta

via Smitten Kitchen

This pasta has lemon, lemon zest, asparagus and goat cheese. It sounds delicious. I am going to make it next week. I found it on pinterest but when I clicked further I saw it is a Smitten Kitchen recipe, which means it is probably as good as it looks/sounds.

I used it as a partial inspiration when I made this Butter Noodles with Chives recipe from Epicurious. I made it mostly as directed except I boiled the noodles in chicken broth rather than adding it later and I added about a cup of feta cheese and a tablespoon or two of milk. It was delicious and easy. I recommend it.

to party

When it comes to parties, I am not a detail oriented person. I don't go all out on decorations, I rarely plan a balanced menu (hodge podge would be a more adequate term for my food selections) and I never make cute tag things that identify everything.

Then I saw this post on Lizzy Writes, and if you replace typed labels with hand-written ones, I think I could pull these cute tag labels off. Maybe my next party will be a fancy one with labels!

photos via Lizzy Writes

designs to love

I read somewhere this week about how many people think of quilts as something that belong in their grandmother's house. Personally, I love quilts. I think that quilting is a dying art (and ironically I am the only one of my sister's who has yet to take it up). Besides which, even a log cabin or patchwork quilt can be made to look modern with the right fabrics. Here are some quilts that nobody could associate with their grandmother.

via etsy, tea rose home, quiltastic, bobbins nest, sew it pretty, blempgorf

flourless chocolate cake

I think I need to make this flourless chocolate cake, actually named Chocolate Idiot Cake (because apparently it is incredibly simple), this week. David Lebovitz is the genius behind the recipe but I want to add salted caramel sauce like Melissa did here. Mmmm, sounds delicious don't you think?

photo via this week for dinner

earning stripes

Today I am all about stripes on the floor. Tomorrow it may be oriental rugs or perhaps floral rugs but today it is striped rugs. Too bad Ikea stopped selling their version.

via Kristin Buie, Beth L., Cassie Trueblood, Lindsay Shull

bookshelves

I love bookshelves. I love imagining my dream bookshelves/library even more. Here are a couple more to add to the files.

Thanks to Martha for sending this picture my way.

All this library needs is a ladder going across.

Kids need a library too. This is probably my favorite children's book shelf ever.

via Daily Cup of Couture, Amanda and Brady, C C

on food

I love the mass availability of recipes on pinterest. Actually, I love the mass availability of just about everything on pinterest. Here are some recipes that have caught my eye recently:

Mini Frittatas

Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas

Red Velvet Strawberry Shortcake

via Family Fun, Camilla's Pinterest, Dana's Pinterest

a little bit of random

Last week I tried Haagen Dazs' raspberry sorbet. It was amazing. Since we Texans will still be hovering around 90 I think this weekend calls for some more sorbet.

back

It is Thursday and I am doing my first post for the week. I blame the internet router. I found these ghost dresses on my Aunt's pinterest board. I love them. Halloween is coming!

a brunch weekend

I think this weekend will be a good one for brunch foods. I am going to try this Blueberry French Toast Casserole. It sounds amazing.

it's coming

Only one more day until Halloween decorations can legitimately come out of storage. I am excited, are you?

via martha stewart

for the children

Here are a couple of things I have seen this week that I think are awesome:

Land of Nod has chalkboard map wall decals. I want one for my study.

I saw this dollhouse on Little Green Notebook, she bought it to revamp for a dollhouse challenge she is participating in. Even in its run down state, this has got to be the coolest dollhouse I have ever seen. I can't wait to see what she does with it!