Tuesday, January 31, 2012

:: Home Decor - great deal on canvas

I recently bought two 16x20 canvases from Canvas People
and absolutely love them!
I catch myself quite often walking in the living room and just starting at them.


Right now there's a great deal going on at Canvas People.


Click here to get your canvas!


I eventually want to get the family picture in this size too, to put in between the pics.

Monday, January 30, 2012

:: Design - wedding shower invite

We're having a wedding shower for my soon-to-be sis-in-law tonight.
I designed the invitations.
I think they turned out pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself.
{although I did make a mistake and was too lazy to fix it again - - can you see?  if not, that's great!}



Not only am I excited to eat some delicious desserts,
but I'm also excited to meet the bride!
{unfortunately, because I live in another state, I haven't met her yet}

Friday, January 27, 2012

:: Valentine's Day - decor inspiration













Love the Valentine's Day decor I was able to find on Pinterest.
If you haven't decorated already, here are some cute ideas . . .

Source: duitang.com via Amy on Pinterest














You can follow my boards on Pinterest here.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

:: Family Happenings - reese's birthday party . . . stay tuned



I'll be posting soon about Reese's 1st birthday party.
Isn't she the cutest one year old?
Stay tuned.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

:: Good Reads - the maze runner

One of my goals is to read one book a month.
You laugh.
But it's the truth.
This is actually pretty good for me.
I love to read, but just have so many other hobbies I enjoy,
that reading often gets overlooked.

I borrowed this book from my brother/sis-in-law.
{we won't say for how long though}
It took me awhile to get through it, but by the end, I couldn't put it down.
It's a young adult science fiction (and I'm not really into science fiction),
but I did like it.
And of course it's a sequel, so guess what I'll be reading next month?
I'm actually in suspense right now.
I need to read it.


What should I read for March?
Do tell!

Monday, January 23, 2012

:: Deals - jcrew clothing

We usually can't afford Jcrew's prices,
but . . . when there's a deal like this
there's bound to be something I can afford.
I mainly just shop their girl's clearance to get Ava's clothes for next year.
Love the quality of their clothes.
AND all their clearance is free shipping.
{wow.  and they're not even paying me to say this.}
Check it out here.


Friday, January 20, 2012

:: Ramblings

I drive a TON for my job.
If I'm not going to a hospital in Riverside County, them I'm going to LA, 
Orange County, Palm Springs, San Diego or even Victorville.
It gets old after awhile - the driving part does.

Last Friday I drove to Palm Springs to do a procedure.
But that's one area I actually don't mind driving to.
There's rarely any traffic.
It just seems so much more peaceful than the hustle and bustle of L.A.
Plus, I absolutely love those energy windmills.




{FYI:  eyes on the road while taking pics}



Thursday, January 19, 2012

:: Family Happenings - trampoline jumping

We recently bought a trampoline for the girls.
Bought it from a friend for a great price.

This little one absolutely LOVES it!
I'll put her on and she'll bounce up and down with the biggest smile on her face.
Oh, life's simple pleasures.








Wednesday, January 18, 2012

:: Refashioning - shirt to toddler skirt

For our family pictures in November, I'd had this color palette all worked out in my head.
Maybe it looked a little too halloween-ish (I added in black), but I thought it worked.

I was wanting to make the girls outfits but I ended up just making their skirts.
{which was fine with me}

For Ava's skirt, I wanted to use this woman's XL top.
I'd found it at Downeast Basics on clearance and thought I'd resize it to fit me,
 but that never happend {the story of my life},
 so I knew it'd make a perfect skirt.

It already had shirring.
 {that's what it's called, right? - - I'm still a beginner sewer}
So, 
1.  I just cut across a few inches above
2.  folded over right above the shirring
3. then sewed it.
4.  I next got out my elastic and measured it to Ava's waist
5.  I pinned the elastic to the shirring and did zig-zag stitches across it

Turned out to be cute, definitely not professionally done,
but it worked. 


This is what it ended up looking like.
It's a little big, but she'll grow into it.


And there's my little cheese-ball.
{the skirt underneath is this skirt from DowneastGirl}


I'll be linking to these parties here.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

:: Organization - the master bedroom

I decided that at the beginning of each year, I'd like to select a word.
One word that will encourage me and help me to remember the goals that I've set.

So, a few weeks ago, I decided that my word of 2012 would be "organize".
Sometimes I feel so scatterbrained.  
There are so many things that I'd like to accomplish, but I feel that I just don't have enough time.
But I think that half the reason why I don't accomplish what I'd like to,
is because I'm just not organized.

With this main goal of organizing,
I also decided that I'd do separate smaller goals for each month that will help
me to accomplish that main goal of being organized.
{am I making sense?}

One of my main goals for the month of January was to work on the master bedroom.
Lately, it's been majorly disorganized.
Yesterday, the hubby didn't have school, so we tackled the bedroom.
And can I tell you . . . it looks amazing!
It looks like a completely different room.

Before I can show it to you, we need to finish the baseboards, finish the headboard,
and then put things up on the wall.
We've lived here 2 1/2 years and haven't done this yet . . . 
I will be organized by the end of this year, I tell ya!

Here are some master bedroom inspirations . . .

Source: decorpad.com via Amy on Pinterest








{I'm hoping our headboard will resemble the headboard at the top . . . we'll see}

Friday, January 13, 2012

:: Just For Fun - famous objects from classic movies

Because it's Friday,
play this game.
I showed it to my husband and I've never
seen him get so excited over a game.
That man doesn't play them . . . at all.
He also watches a lot of movies, so maybe that's why he likes it a lot.

And I think we did pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Play it.


It's fun.
Go here.


Thursday, January 12, 2012

:: Baking - lemon crinkle cookies

I needed to bring some food to a get-together with 
some friends so I decided to make some lemon cookies that I found here on pinterest.
They were delicious!


Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Lauren Brennan; laurenslatest.com

I'll be linking to these parties here.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

:: Valentine's Day - love canvas

I made this last year and being that it's such and easy Valentine's Day decoration,
I thought I'd post it again.
It seriously took me 2 minutes and I had all of the supplies on hand.

All you need are:
- canvas (I had an 11x14 laying around)
- chipboard letters (mine were pink - - perfect)
- hot glue gun

Just come up with a word that you want to place on your canvas and glue it (or you could tape it to the canvas and use the canvas for other holidays). I glued mine to the bottom right hand corner. And you're done!
I placed mine on the chalkboard canvas that I made. I even scalloped around the edges of the canvas to make it look a little more valentines day-ish (don't look too closely at my scallops - - they look like my 3 year old did it).




I'll be linking to these parties here.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

:: Fashion - asymmetrical collars

I'm loving these little girl dresses with the
asymmetrical collars.
I'm trying really hard to resist the desire to make a few.






Monday, January 9, 2012

:: Design - free fonts

Happy Monday!
Guess what?!
I have a new obsession.
Fonts.
I love designing invites, posters, working on my blog, etc.
So this is perfect.
And what's great about it is that a lot of the fonts are free!!!





You can find some free fonts at Lost Type, Font Squirrel, UrbanFonts, Dafont
and I'm sure there's many more.