Making It Ours, A Home that Is: Wallpaper in the Bedroom?

(all pictures from Apartment Therapy)

So it's hard to deny that wallpaper is really in right now. I feel like every design blog or magazine I look at is constantly featuring rooms with wallpaper. And I'm just not sure what to do with our bedroom. It needs character. The room is small and we can't do a headboard because of how the bed is positioned ( the only way it fits in the room) and I haven't seen bedding I love (I figure I can sew up something at some point). So I was thinking since really what I have to work with is walls, that maybe wallpaper might be the answer. I'm not really in love with any of the designs above but others that I've seen that of course I can't find pictures of now.

So what do you think about wallpaper on the window wall. Or on the window wall and/or the left hand wall? Do any of you guys know if wallpaper nowadays is as much a pain as far as getting it up and taking it off when you're tired of it as in the past? I feel like I've heard lots of wallpaper related whining. Have any of you guys had good or bad experiences with wallpaper? Any tips, resources, etc.? Any other ideas you think I should consider?

What's for Dinner: Week 27

(croque madame from lunch the other day)

For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

I promised I'd put the recipe up for Taco Mac and Cheese but I wanted a photo. Unfortunately me in my hunger scarfed it without a thought so we'll eat it again and I'll post the recipe later this week. And to report on Cheesecake day it was such a hit that I made a White Chocolate Blueberry Cheesecake this weekend for our Palm Sunday family lunch thing so hopefully I'll get that recipe up too. I've had so much fun making an involved recipe each Saturday but I don't think I can keep the cheesecake thing going if I'm ever going to fit back into all my cute dresses (or if I stand the chance of not being burnt out on cheesecake) so I'm thinking this Saturday I'm going to try my hand at real empanadas. Not empanadas with puff pastry or the bread dough that is in my fridge but actually traditional style. I will report.
 

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Palm Sunday Big Family lunch so a small salad maybe	Grains: WW bread, WW pasta Veggies: carrots with dip snacks, and salad for lunch Fish: Talapia
Monday	Taco Mac and Cheese
Tuesday	Sewing Girls Potluck
Wednesday	Campanelli
Thursday	Chili and Corn Bread
Friday	Spicy Fish and Cheesy Corn Potatoes
Saturday	Empanadas

To Make: Wreaths

(Spring Wreath from Gathering Place Designs)

Doehler Days has been featuring wreaths like crazy and I've totally caught the bug. I want to make a few so bad. I just have to find a spare moment to make it happen. Here are a few of my favs.

(Butterfly Wreath from maryjanes and galoshes)

(Moss Wreath from moody girl projects)

There was another that I absolutely love with cones of book pages but I couldn't find where I got the picture from. Just a saved image in my "to make" folder so maybe I'll have to do that one first some I can't take my own photo and not worry about photo credits. Anyways Spring seems like a good time to get into wreaths don't you think?

Making It Ours, A Home that Is: House Tour Part II

For those of you who are new here, I recently moved into a new home which I love. Today I'm taking you on the second part of the house tour -the living room and dinning room area. This I think is the area of the house that is the next most put together part after the kitchen. The walls are naked still which drives me crazy if I think about it but we're hoping to get a few pieces of of furniture and I haven't found anything I like enough to buy yet you know.

(move your mouse over the picture and you can see some labels, I've included a couple old pictures of how the old owners had it decorated)

We love our new IKEA table,  that metal bowl, the new grey couch and the rugs. The rug under the table (from RC Willy) is more of a traditional style (what I call Aladin rugs)  that my husband is totally drawn to that doesn't do much for me. But this one looks like it is almost made to coordinate with the rug we got from World Market so it's pretty cool. I absolute love how the couches look on the Medallion Rug, thanks again for all of the feedback and suggestions!

This that need to be done:

• I want something new to put the TV on. We like the height of the IKEA thing there now but don't like the feel (we'll stick the cubbie thing in the play room when we find a replacement).
• I think we want a buffet or china cabinet tall thing where those green chairs are. Something nice that will give us extra storage. And maybe an upholstered chair in that area as well. 
• I'm not sure about the ladder shelf but we've got it so it's there for now.
• I'm thinking about maybe a side table with a lamp on it or a little shelf on the left side of the grey couch.
• I want to paint the chairs at the table and get a few more chairs to add a variety but I want to make sure we have the new chairs and new furniture before I decide what color to paint the chairs.
• And of course things on the walls.
• On the wall that touches the kitchen (look at the shot that's far from the table) I'm thinking of hanging 3 hooks and hanging pretty aprons on there and then maybe seasonal decorations from time to time

That's all I can think of let me know if you have any ideas or worries. Okay so the put-togetherness of the house is going to go downhill from now, just warning you to brace yourself for the next parts of the house tour.

Home Tour Part I
More Home Posts

Show and Tell: He's Here!

Remember that baby shower? Well the baby is here. It's a boy, I was certain it was going to be a boy from the beginning. But anyways Langdon arrived last week and I was able to stop by and let me tell you he is just perfect! Congratulations to Heidi and Daniel. I guess this means I'll be forced to come up with more boy designs.

Rae Gun Finds: CSN Stores

I'm a big fan of online shopping, well I'm a big fan of any shopping but that's besides the point. I know lots of people shop online because of the convenience (for me it's open late at night when I'm most awake), the selection (seriously sometimes it's just easier to find just what you want), or the ability to find great prices. But what I love most about shopping online is getting fun presents in the mail. So I'm excited to share a new source I've been introduced to, CSN Stores. It's a collection of over 200 stores with various products from kids bedding, to cookware, to awesome kid's furniture and toys, to amazing modern furnishings and more.

A rep from CSN Stores contacted me about the possibility of doing a review. While I was browsing the site to see if I would want to participate I realized that pretty much anything I might want is there and what's even better is that I compared the prices to amazon and to my surprise everything I was drawn to was priced better than amazon, yeah for saving money. I don't know how I didn't know about this place before. It was so hard to decide what to review (I was really tempted by the fondue pot, I want a bigger one than the ahem 2 that we have) but I finally settled on one of these cool Rodys for the naughties. Just wanted to share this new resource and my excitement that I get to do a cool review.
 

Naughty TIme: Happy Birthday Tira

Most of you know Tira as just one of the naughties, my little niece that I love with all my heart, that has worn her snow white dress since I finished it on Halloween. But as far as Rae Gun goes, she really was the start of it all together. I found out my sister was pregnant with a little girl, I started making clothes for this new baby, people started complimenting me on them, so I decided to give Etsy a shot. And here we are on her 3rd birthday and Rae Gun is a real business and more. Little Tira gave me back my love for creating, sewing, and celebrating family (others and my own) that hadn't even realized I missed.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet Tiraya. She's in Thailand with my parents visiting relative for a couple weeks but here are some of my favorite shots of her birthday party that we had last week.

Some Highlights: My mom made the cutest Dora and Star Mountain cake. All morning Tira was talking about her "beautiful cake". We had the playroom set up with balloons and music and disco lights. Of course we had a variety fantastic food and wonderful company. The girls all found the dress up tub and were wearing tutus and petticoats of various types (it was cuteness overload). And Tira received a number of princess dolls which Lanna immediately snuck away with, they were a big hit.

What's for Dinner: Week 26

 

(photo from gourmet mom on the go)


For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

Tomorrow is Cheesecake Day (well at least in my house). I've had this page for turtle cheesecake, from Gourmet Mom on the Go, open as one of my tabs for a couple weeks now and I've finally got a second, and space in my diet to try it out. I'm so excited I'll report the results I hope it turns out as good as it sounds. And something totally random but I'm shocked, I know it's crazy but I went through a whole bag of potatoes last week, we are a two person family, but I guess it was St. Patrick's day. Now on to the rest of the week.
 

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Chicken Asparagus and Rice Cream Soup and Homemade bread	Grains: WW bread, WW pasta Veggies: green beans and carrots with dip snacks, and salad for lunch, stir fry Fish: Shrimp
Monday	Taco Mac and Cheese
Tuesday	Basil Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Wednesday	BBQ Ribs, Corn and Tortillas
Thursday	Homemade Pizza
Friday	Shrimp and Veggie Stir Fry
Saturday	Maybe Eat Out?

Show and Tell: Princess Tiana Dress from The Princess and the Frog

Last weekend we had little miss Tira's birthday party (pictures of that still to come). Remember how we took her to The Princess and the Frog (thanks again for all the toddler/movie going tips). She adored it. Before the movie she was all "I'm princess 'no white'" and after it it was still snow white some but also "princess T'nana". So I knew exactly what to make her for her birthday. It's a Princess Tiana dress. At first I was worried she'd think it was Tinkerbell but I really like how it turned out after the addition of the flower and the vine sash!

Regardless of what I think she LOVED it. Besides saying "I love it" and "it's my favorite" and "so beautiful" over and over she put it on immediately and started twirling (it's a circle skirt :) ). Oh and I was besides myself with happiness when the day before the party I found that adorable felt frog bucket at World Market, so much better that the rubber frog I was looking for. (It was by all the Easter stuff too cool!)

I will probably add these to the shop but I may just do them ready to ship since the size is super flexible with the elastic back, the sash and the shoulder ties. If any of you want one I'm happy to make one up for you just send me a note but I'm still thinking of how I'm going to list it in the shop.

Yes you may have noticed that Tira is wearing two different tops under the dress, it's because she had it on the next day too :) Ah feeling appreciated is there anything better? I'll be adding more shots up on my flickr.

p.s. the stinking cute blocks are from nursery love on etsy

Customer Appreciation Pic: Peekaboo Dress

I love pictures of my customer's little ones, it just adds that personal touch you know. This cutie pie is wearing one of my peekaboo dresses. This particular one is a really cool Alice in Wonderland print just in time for the movie.

Mother's Day Issue of Modern Handmade Child

Many of you wanted a reminder so here it is, the newest, in fact special edition of Modern Handmade Child is here. I know it's not quite Mother's Day in the States but the crew over at Modern Handmade Child wanted to make sure that the international Mama's were covered. Enjoy.

What's for Dinner: Week 25

(Pork Costelleta  -Cheesecake Factory Fake Out- w/asparagus and galric mashed potatoes)

For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

An okay week I think. Did some good cooking which felt good. I really do like cooking when I have time, and I'm not totally starving when I start and I can just enjoy the experience. So that was nice.

Also I want to use some of the Talapia I have in the freezer if any of you guys know of a good way to prepare that I'd love some direction.
 

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Homemade Pizza Ricotta, Sausage and Basil	Grains: oatmeal, WW pasta Veggies: green beans with dip snacks,  asparagus and salad for lunch Fish: Talapia
Monday	Red Iguana
Tuesday	Thai Chicken Satay Wraps
Wednesday	Shepard's Pie
Thursday	Girls Pot Luck
Friday	Tomato Wine Basil Sausage Pasta
Saturday	Something With Talapia send me ideas please

Running: My First 10K

(me before the race)

I never in my life would have thought I would ever be a runner. But I guess I am now. I'm not a good runner at all but I'm figuring it out. A couple of weekends ago I ran my first 10K. I was super nervous about it because I didn't want to walk most of the race so my wonderful trainer ran it with me. While I ran at a really slow pace, at times it was more like a shuffle, I did run most of it so I'm quite excited. Unlike my 5K I didn't finish last, I'm not saying I wasn't close to last, but I wasn't last this time.

(me after, Swan wanted me to do a victorious pose, hence the awkward pose)

I just did the 10K part of the SLCTC Winter Series and I totally recommend it. I definitely will be doing it next winter. For running on a highway along the wide openness of the salt flats I was surprised at how beautiful it was. Plus, there were all kinds of different people and that was really cool.

Show and Tell: Baby Shower Part II

Remember that shower, well I finally uploaded and sorted pictures. It was a great time. A wonderful turn out and I think Heidi felt very loved which is the point right? I am so excited for that baby to get here already.

Things turned out great. I think everything looked and tasted delicious and I definitely got a good number of complements on my cupcakes. The menu included waffles (including some vegan one's which turned out great, see the recipe below), fruit, some yummy salads, funeral potatoes (a utah must), asparagus quiche, sausage and egg casserole, french toast casserole, veggies with lemon basil dip and of course the cupcakes.

Don't forget that the lovely shower gift set giveaway ends this Friday so if you haven't entered or want to tell your friends to enter do it soon.

Eat It: Vegan Waffles Recipe

I'm not a vegan but I love to feed people and we've got a decent amount of vegan friends. My problem is that I just don't trust vegan chefs/recipes (I haven't had many good experiences) and as someone who wants to respect and be sensitive to my vegan friends I'd really appreciate a cookbook, for normal, non-fancy smancy food like the Great Chefs Cook Vegan, written by someone who is currently used to eating anything and isn't "sacrificing" for their cause, dietary choices, or belief system. (If you know of anything like this please let me know)

I always get excited when I successfully tweak or find a good omnivore safe vegan recipe. I hope to share any I find that I personally actually enjoy because I'm sure there are others in my predicament. I'd love to hear of any you may have success with too.

Vegan Waffles
4-8 servings

2 C flour
4tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
11/2 C soy milk
6 TBS vegetable oil
2TBS sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer
4 TBS water
(I'm assuming another egg replacer would work but this is the one I use, and love it should equal 2 eggs worth)

1. Stir to combine the first group of ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl mix the Ener-G with water and then beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.
3. Fold the Ener-G mixture into the flour mixture
4. Scoop and bake in a waffle maker.

If you've never used Ener-G I love it. It's a great egg replacer in baked goods and I use it all the time when I coat meat for breading and that sort of thing. It lasts forever so it's nice to have it on hand.

If you don't have vegans to feed you can use regular milk instead of soy milk and 2 eggs instead of the Ener-G and water. But mix the egg yolks in with the flour mixture and beat and fold in the egg whites.

p.s. This guac recipe I posted a while back is vegan and is the best guacamole I have ever tasted. People eat it up and always love it anywhere I take it.

Making It Ours, A Home that Is: House Tour Part I

So I'm not calling these before and afters because I think these are more like the way before and before shots. We're still in search of a lot furniture and art and other stuff to make afters but here's a few shots of where we are now. I've got pictures I took of how the previous owners had their house set up all staged for selling and how we have it now (we've got very different tastes than they did).

(if you move your mouse over the pictures you can see some labels)

Entry Way
Besides getting a big mirror to put above the stairway and some other stuff up on the walls I think we're mostly ready here. I bought a rug to go under the stools but hated it when I got home, but I like how easy it is to clean under the island without the rug.

I may want to do something with that window spot besides let it be a place to collect junk. I'm not a up for just displaying nick nacks like they did but I'm not sure. Anyone have ideas?

Front Room
There's a point in unpacking where you just get tired of it and shove the rest into a spare room, garage or other designated "I'll get to it later" room. We reached that point about week two in the new home and I've been trying to unpack that room little by little each week. Since it's on the main floor it was easy just to leave everything there instead of carry up or down stairs just to have to move it again but it's kinda tacky I should take care of it soon.

Unfortunately it's the first room of the house so I really want to clear it out so it doesn't look so junky but I've just been so busy or too tired. I'm hoping it will be like a quite office and/or spare bedroom. We'll for sure have all our books in there (which are plentiful) but I'm not sure past that.


Kitchen
I adore my kitchen it is so functional. I love my island and the hidden window area. I love the double oven and how I only have to heat up a small part most of the time. But most of all I love how the trash cans are so convenient and HIDDEN! The only thing I don't like is the style of the hanging lamps. I kind of hate them but I think they are okay and I'm not positive of what I want there. I was thinking maybe like cylinder shades but I'm not sure, let me know if you have any ideas. I'm totally searching for something to leave on the island, like a big bowl or maybe nesting flower dishes but I want them to be similar shades as  my ice cream bowls in the corner shelf then and my black apple print by the window (I like the yellow, orange, red thing).

So that's the first part of the tour. More to come.

What's for Dinner: Week 24

(tomato basil soup)

For those of you are new  to my blog I write these weekly plans to help me spend less (I kinda of love grocery shopping, yea I know I'm weird), to save time and to try and help us eat in more often. Also I love knowing what other people eat so I thought it would be fun to share. For a while I'll be adding my plans for what greens I'll be eating since one of my resolutions is to build a habit of introducing more green veggies into our diet. Maybe some day it'll be so normal for us that I won't have to mention them any more.

Ug another bad week of eating. I only stuck to the meal plan for 2 of the days. We ate out a lot, used some Restaurant.com gift certificates so it wasn't too much money wise, but you have to spend a minimum so we ate way too much food yuck. I still am not sure what I think about those gift certificates. I got a great deal on a 6 month certificate of the month thing but I don't know if it really saves us money and we totally over eat trying to order enough to spend the minimum. Maybe if we took people out to eat it would be a better deal, but yeah I'm still undecided. But all of that is to say there are a lot of repeats from last week but hopefully I'll stick to it and have a healthy eating week.
 

Day	Main Meal	Goals (Veggies, Whole Grain, Fish)
Sunday	Fancy Ramen	Grains: oatmeal, WW pasta Veggies: green beans with dip snacks, asparagus, salad Fish: Shrimp
Monday	Shrimp, Mushroom and Asparagus Pesto pasta
Tuesday	Pork Costelleta (Cheesecake Factory Fake Out) w/asparagus
Wednesday	Apple Sausage and Jalepeno Mac and Cheese
Thursday	Basil Tomato Soup (I love this recipe) w/salad and homemade bread
Friday	Homemade Pizza (feta, pine nuts, asparagus, chicken?)
Saturday	Tira B-day Party

Eat It: Skor Cake So Yummy

I saw the Skor Cake post over at This and That and became obsessed. I needed to make it. And it was delicious. So it may sound weird but I bake because I like to and I have a couple servings and I'm done. There are very few sweets that I can make a whole recipe of and not have go bad on my counter or in my fridge. I can't say the same thing about salty snacks though, those are my demise. So for the most part I half or third dessert recipes. But my mom in all her wisdom said to make the whole recipe so we did and at the end of the night I sent her home with half of the cake (we'd polished off a fourth) and now as I'm sitting here I totally regret that. There's only one small little bowl left in my fridge, but I know better now.

Anyways it's easy and it sounds like it would be sweet overkill but that's really why I like it, the flavors are really subtle. It doesn't taste like very sugary at all.

Skor Cake
1 box devils food cake prepared (9X13)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 ish C whipped cream (I used just the tiniest amount of sugar in my cream)
2 Skor Bars broken up with a hammer

Bake up the cake and poke a bunch of holes in the cake (I used the toothpick that I tested the doneness for this job). Pour the whole can of sweetened condensed milk over the cake. Let sit for a couple hours. Right before serving top with whipped cream and broken up skor bar.

We just assembled each serving as we dished it but over at this and that she topped it all at once and that looked super pretty too. Anyways enjoy.

Okay so I just polished off a bowl and I'm seriously thinking of finishing that last serving hmmm.

And I need some accountability. I've been meaning to show you all the new house, like the inside but every time I think of taking pictures there's too much cleaning so I'm telling you guys now, I will tidy up and get some pictures to share for next week. I will give you the tour.