WBAL segment

What a crazy week! Katey and Ashley of Lemon and Lime Event Design invited me to help them with a segment on WBAL on wedding cake alternatives. Not only to contribute some of those “alternatives” but to help design the table setup of dessert alternatives.

The WBAL studio was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

We had about an hour to set up before the 9am news came on – the segment was scheduled to be at 9:50am.

The ice cream desserts and snow cones couldn’t go out until the very last minute, which made things very interesting!

What a fun experience and great exposure for Lemon and Lime!

fonts, fonts and more fonts

Watch out – I’m using my lunch break to blog (only because I ate my sandwich while I was doing work). Do you love fonts? Maybe it’s my recent obsession with typography and calligraphy, but I came across this amazing blog, The Fozzy Book and she has a fun Friday thing called “Oh Hello Friday Font!” Umm, hello new best friend. I love you!

fabric flowers

I’ve wanted to make these fabric flowers for awhile now and got around to it. There’s a great tutorial on the Jones Design blog. There’s something about playing with a flame of a candle and creating these really intricate but easy-to-make flowers that is so satisfying… maybe because we always got in trouble for playing with candles as kids. And let me tell you – just about any polyester fabric will curl.

These would be beautiful to somehow incorporate into wedding decor…

 

 

some election day sneak peeks

While I sit eagerly awaiting the announcement of the next president of our nation, here are a few sneak peeks to some projects and blog posts we’ve been working on:

The console table is almost complete!

I finally made a trip to World Market:

A gallery wall work-in-progress:

And finally, slowly completing my modern calligraphy class!

Happy Election Day!

growing butterflies

I was searching for some green peppers in our jungle of a garden about a month ago and was surprised to find some of these guys on my parsley. When I was little, we would wait all summer for them to show up on my grandma’s parsley plants.

Why would one ever get excited about these guys? Because they turn into these:

They grow FAST! I refilled their parsley stash after two days and this one guy suddenly looked like this:

After a few short weeks of stuffing their faces, I have two vibrant green chrysalis that will grow butterflies over the next few cold months.

It’s back! The Scharffen Berger Chocolate Adventure Contest:

.. and I am tempted. I have never made a cookie sandwich, but how hard can it be? In addition to making a variation of the cookie sandwich, you have to include one or more of the listed “adventure” ingredients:

Coconut milk or coconut cream
Sweet potato
Tapioca or tapioca flour
Tequila
Banana
Chili pepper(any type; fresh, whole-dried or ground)
Pine nuts
Corn meal
Sumatra coffee
Fresh ginger
Yerba Mate
Cacao nibs

So many ideas swirling around in my head… I can think of a few good ways to use chocolate and some of these adventure ingredients. And the $25,000 wouldn’t be too bad either!

sunday things

——> did you know you can give an 11lb dog 5mg of pepcid and it magically helps a gassy tummy? i have a very unhappy dog so that means i have an excuse to procrastinate house cleaning and compose a “sunday things,” at least until the pepcid kicks in.

——> the middle floor powder room is coming along. i finally finished painting, we put up a new mirror and are working on some shelving.

——> … and now i need to figure out a) if i want a third shelf or if i want to spread the two out and b) how to decorate them. here is some inspiration from caitlin’s diy chunky shelves:

——> i made a really good chicken tortilla soup the other night. it’s adapted from pioneer woman’s recipe. instead of baking chicken, i cut up the chicken and tossed it in a slow cooker with the spices and rotel and let it cook on low for several hours until it fell apart.

——> i finally broke down and bought this bedding that i’ve wanted for awhile. now we just need a huge down comforter to put under it so it looks fluffy like the picture… and tons of decorative pillows. it’s hard to make a kind sized bed look big and fluffy.

 ——> this console is almost done! Brandon just has to put on the top, then i can begin sanding and staining and painting.

——> this blog is my new favorite blog at the moment – it’s the one i referenced above

——> here’s the pillow i sewed for Katie – and i also found some upholstery fabric on sale at joann’s so i made a few for the living room

——> the hubby is home to cuddle with phoebe so i guess i should get back to work. i’ll leave you with this dreamy cocktail i had last night. if you are close to the baltimore area, visit townhouse kitchen + bar. and yes, that is a tequila boat.

hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

where have I been?

To say that life has been busy is an understatement… and I know most of my “catch up” posts start like this. I would love to actively blog but that means being more active on home projects, which currently, have taken a backseat to my 10 – 12 hour work days.

Luckily, I got away recently and got to visit my amazing childhood friend, Rachel, in Chicago! She has the coolest job and gets to participate in 2-month long rotations around the country.

We rented a hotel room in the fancy JW Marriott and explored all weekend. Here are some of the pictures! I promise to be back this weekend for an update on some fun stuff around the house that the hubby and I plan to pick back up (powder room make-over, rustic console table, some fabric flowers). Stay tuned!

weekend plans

I have lots of crafty plans this weekend and luckily we have three-day weekend to get a lot done!

First up – a Flag Pole installation! No, not an American flag, but this baby:

I just need to find an installation kit so that we can hang it outside the door by Monday.

Next – dog beds. We crate our dogs during the day and I’m tired of washing their little beds so often. We thought about buying some more, but Brandon suggested I sew some. They can’t be that hard. I’m thinking some long, tufted pillows? I’ll be stopping by JoAnn’s to pick up some of this fleece tomorrow morning:

IKEA! I get in trouble when I go, but that’s okay. We need two more dining room chairs, among other things. I also want some girly curtains for my office (that I will FINISH this weekend!!) I also want shelving in my powder room off the living room so I’ll be searching for some decorative brackets. I really like these featured on the Lavender Tub blog:

Happy Friday!!

sunday things

Free time is few and far between around here. Between house projects, visitors and traveling, there’s barely any downtime. This weekend, we decided not to make any plans and use our time to clean the house and catch up on some projects – stay tuned for some fun pictures. Inspired by Jess’ “crumbs,” I decided that since people DO read this blog, I wanted to devote every Sunday morning that I could to catch you up on my current thoughts. I think it will give me some time to relax, drink a cup of coffee, collect my thoughts and review some of my recent pinterest posts. So here we go!

——> we just had french toast from the left over french bread i bought for topping on mac and cheese. AND bacon. too bad we didn’t have any bubbly for mimosas…

——> … and now i have a lap full of dogs and blanket

——> the hubby surprised me with a kreg jig – something we’ve been thinking about for awhile – so now we can get to work on this rustic x console table

——> do your dogs sleep in the bed with you? this is a typical night for us… decorating the bedroom is on my to-do list, i swear

——> this is how i want to paint the rustic console table when we finish it

——> painting our awful ikea malm dressers is on my to-do list too. i want to do something like this zinc oxide painted furniture. i’ve heard that oil-based primer is the key. hopefully my second try at painting laminate turns out much better than my first…

——> i’m going to sew some of these fun pillow covers today. i promised katie i’d make her a big mustard yellow pillow cover a long time ago so it’s probably about time i actually did it…

——> have you heard of maybooks? they had an awesome groupon so i ordered an academic planner for my sister and a lined notebook for all my furniture ideas. they are eco-friendly too!

——> if you are looking for an inexpensive dog toy and need an excuse to go to ikea, grab some of these guys. they are riley’s all-time favorite. she has two big ones and a slew of little ones that she likes to carry around in her mouth two at a time :)

 ——> is it weird that i don’t care for fresh-sliced, out-of-the-garden tomatoes but i love the viney smell they leave on my hands after picking them? i think we’ll make fresh tomato and mozzarella pizzas using my homemade pizza crust recipe tonight

——> hopefully i’ll have a fully functioning office by next weekend and that means i’ll have the space to start creating a sewing space for this new machine!!

——> i think fall is my favorite time of the year. hokie football is only a handful of days away. all i want to do to make wreaths like this one or this one and this one…

——> i had a “terrific lady day” yesterday. if you haven’t heard of that, ask your significant other. hopefully they watch The League.

hope you are having a wonderful weekend!