And Ze Winner Iz:

Sunny from Life in Rehab is just too hilarious for words. If you haven't seen her blog yet, you should stop by! It's chock full of amazing recipes and projects, and lots of personality. =)

Thanks everyone for participating! That was a fun little contest. Hope you have a wonderful day!

Caption this Picture

After I found Agatha in the bathroom sink yesterday, I had to snap this picture. Then I thought, why not try my hand at one of those "I can haz cheezburger" quotes?

Now it's your turn! I want to hear your ideas for a cute quote. =) Just for funsies, I will hand-pick the winner and post it again tomorrow with their quote!


P.S. More craftiness to come tomorrow! I made a trip to JoAnne Fabrics and pretty much promised them my first child. Let's just say I bought a LOT of crafting supplies. Woot!

A New Throw Pillow, with Tutorial!

Well, the sewing of the throw pillows for our bedroom makeover is underway! I started with this lovely pile of fabrics that you see above. Using the floral fabric, I covered a round pillow to make this adorable little accent pillow.

Are you ready for some cuteness? =)


Thankfully, my hubby doesn't even care that this looks like something that belongs in a little girl's room. I just HAD to have some pink in there somehow.

So, I also took step-by-step pictures to show you exactly how to create a cute pillow for yourself! It's a very picture-heavy post, but hopefully it will be helpful to someone who maybe wants to try sewing for the first time!

I started out by purchasing a pillow form from JoAnne's. You can make a pillow cover and just stuff it with batting, but pillow forms really help them keep their shape. Plus, if you're like me and enjoy changing things up all the time, they are easy to re-cover with new fabric!


Next, I laid the pillow form out on the fabric and traced a line around it for the pattern. I've done this 2 ways- by measuring and cutting an exact pattern and by tracing, and I've found that just tracing it out works just as well. And saves tons of time. No brainer!

Just leave about 1/2 inch of space. You want the pillow form to fit inside snugly, but not too tight!


After cutting out your pattern, you will end up with 2 identical circles of fabric.


Next comes the trim!


Leaving the trim on the spool, attach it with pins to ONE of the pieces of fabric, like so:

Here's a close up:


You will want to slightly overlap the trim before you make the final cut. Then comes the fun part! Start sewing! Keep your sewing line close to the edge of the fabric and trim, pulling out the pins as you go. One pin can break the needle on your sewing machine if it hits it at the wrong angle, so that's why you don't want to leave them in.


When you're done, you will have one circle with the trim attached.


Next, lay the other circle of fabric over the one you just sewed. The "bad" side should be facing out. Carefully pin the fabric pieces together, making sure to keep the outer edges together as much as possible.


That part's a little tricky. Be careful to not poke yourself with those pins! =)

Next, sew these two pieces of fabric together. As you are sewing, feel through the fabric to make sure you are sewing as close to the edge of the trim as possible. It's hard to explain, but basically you want the pom-poms to show through, and not the binding of the trim! It should look like individual pom-poms attached to the edge of the pillow when you are done.


As you are sewing, leave a space open that's about 4-5 inches wide. This will be used to stuff in the pillow form. On both sides of the gap, you will want to go forward and back up the thread a few times to make sure it is really stable!

When you turn the pillow cover right-side out, it should look like this:


Then, grab your pillow form and stuff, stuff, stuff until it's all inside!


You will end up with a little hole on one side, like this:


So you need to grab a hand-sewing needle and make some little stitches to bring it all together:


And voila! You have a decorative pillow!


I decided to add some covered buttons to mine to make it a little more polished. These can be found in any craft/sewing store in the "notions" section. They are super easy to make, and a little more challenging to attach. I haven't figured out the best way to attach them yet so you are on your own for that!



This project takes about an hour to complete! Not bad for a fun accessory!


Linking up to some fabulous parties here:

Sushi Party

This weekend, we felt like being really adventurous, so we invited some friends over to our house to have a Sushi Party. Yup, you read that right. Sushi.

My sister and I went shopping the day before for all of the ingredients from the Peas and Crayons Sushi Tutorial. We went to a few asian supermarkets and found everything we needed (except for the tuna, which we found at Kowalski's).


It's a little time-consuming prepping all the ingredients, but we were all surprised at how easy it was to actually make the sushi rolls.


Josh was a little skeptical at times...


They turned out really well! It actually looked like what we were trying to make, which always surprises me a little. Sadly, I was not a huge fan of the sushi like I thought I would be. Oddly enough, it was the seaweed wrapper that got to me and not the raw tuna. Seaweed. Blech.


But it sure looks pretty, doesn't it?



So that was (part of) our weekend. How about you? Did you do anything new and exciting this weekend?

My Love Affair with the Kitchen

Cooking and baking. These are two things that give me endless amounts of joy. But, it hasn't always been that way. In fact, when was I younger I firmly decided to never be found in a kitchen, wearing an apron. My mom worked tirelessly in the kitchen, for hours it seemed every day. Everything we ate was made from scratch. She even ground her own flour for making bread. As much as I enjoyed the fruits of her labor, I solemnly swore to myself that I would never become a slave to the kitchen. It seemed to me that no amount of appreciative "Mmmms" could make up for the time it took to prepare meals each and every day. Besides, I planned to be a Super-Woman who had no time for things like that anyway.


I continued to nurse these feelings of extreme aversion towards cooking through college, surviving on a diet that mostly consisted of Ramen Noodles and Pop Tarts. Once I was living on my own with a couple of roommates, I would occasionally make soup or throw together a pasta salad, but nothing that was too time consuming. It was just food, right?

Then, my whole world turned upside down.


This adorable man walked into my life. He must have awakened some primal voice deep inside me, because suddenly all I wanted to do was fill his stomach with lots and lots of delicious, homemade food. And his face with lots and lots of kisses. Ahem.

Something was different. Instead of mentally planning out my outfits or my weekend plans, I found myself thinking things like, "I wonder if he likes banana bread?" I had never even made banana bread before.


The first time I had him over to my apartment for dinner, everything had to be absolutely perfect. I don't even remember what I cooked for dinner itself, but I do know that there was not a speck of dirt in the whole entire place because I had cleaned every nook and cranny like a deranged woman the night before.

I actually took off from work early that day so I could go home and prepare for our dinner. I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, baking and cooking up a storm. The windows were open, the birds were singing, and I was chopping onions and feeling like the happiest girl in the world. It just felt so right.


Even once I had won his heart (he claims it wasn't my cooking, but my smile), my love for cooking and baking only continued to increase. I hadn't cared one whit about food before, but suddenly I had a reason to care. I had someone to take care of, and that alone was enough to propel me into a deep desire and appreciation for the art of food preparation.


So that's part of my story! Of course, it hasn't always been an easy road. Sometimes my adventures in the kitchen turn out to be more, uh, mishaps. But, it's a learning process! And the best part is, now I can tell my Mom that I know exactly how she feels. It's not about being appreciated or even applauded (although that is nice!), it's about providing for the people we love and knowing that even though life isn't always a piece of cake, a slice of homemade pie can brighten up any day.

New Light Fixture!

(Bye bye, brass!)

I gave you guys a sneek peak at this new light fixture a couple of posts ago, but wanted to share the final product, with pictures taken in daylight, with you too!

Here's what the fixture looked like when we brought it home from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (love that place!). It looks like it's from the 70's, with that icky old, crackly brass finish.


But, once we took apart the metal pieces and spray painted them with Krylon's Satin Nickel spray paint, they really started to shine.


In the evening, they give off a nice, soft glow. It's the perfect amount of light!




So there it is. How about you? What have you spray-painted lately?


I linked up to some fabulous places here:






"What I Whipped Up Wednesday" at Sugar and Dots

Some New Goings-On

Well, we all know this blog is geared more towards decorating/remodeling/housewifing, but I just have to take a moment and share some exciting news with you guys!

I've been writing music for a long time, practically my whole life, but lately I've finally started working on actually recording some stuff.

So, I pulled together a band and we are heading to a recording studio this month to record some demo songs! I can't wait. I'm really not sure where this is headed, but I do know that it's a dream I've had forever. Plus, my sisters and some really good friends are joining in on this project so it's sure to be lots of fun as well!

I will let you know once things are on a roll (hello, Myspace musician page! Haha), but I just had to share my good news with you all!

Apparently, this quitting my day job thing has been helping in so many ways. I really feel like my creativity has spiked and I feel free to write, sing, create, and be who I am again. Has that ever happened for you? Have you "rediscovered" a dream lately? I would really love to hear all about it!