May your day be filled with lots of yummy chocolate, beautiful flowers, big sloppy kisses, and whatever else makes your heart smile. 
{ 4 comments }
As I mentioned on Friday, I’m starting a new feature on the blog called Craft the Catalog and I’m so excited to share the first installment! I got the idea for Craft the Catalog while browsing through the latest West Elm catalog before bed one night… I spotted these beautiful terrariums and thought how nice they’d look in our living room. Aaaaand then I looked at the price. $29 for a fish bowl? $69 for a slightly fancier terrarium?? And that doesn’t even include the plants (which, let’s face it, I’ll eventually kill.) I was certain that with a little searching and elbow grease I could recreate the look for a lot less. And (thankfully) I was right…
{Ikea lantern / Petsmart fishbowl / plants and soil from Home Depot}
Not an exact match, but considering how much I saved I’m thrilled with the end result. I don’t have a before picture, but they definitely brought some much needed life to the top of our bookshelf…
I already have two more projects planned, so I hope you guys like this new feature. I’m planning to do both home goods and clothing, making only things I’d actually want to buy (I set this rule for myself so that I wouldn’t just make things because they were easy to DIY.) Look for the next project in a few weeks!
{ 3 comments }
It’s almost the weekend! I’m particularly excited about this weekend because Jared and I are going to see one of our absolute favorite musicians – Langhorne Slim – on Saturday night (huge thanks to our friend, Rachael, for babysitting!) If you haven’t heard of Langhorne before, do yourself a favor and watch this.
Here’s what caught my eye this week…
- Personalized Alphabet Book on Modern Parents Messy Kids – I saw this on Pinterest a few days ago and thought, “oh, how clever!” I’ll definitely be making one of these for Emma.
- Breakfast Cookie on Pinterest – These sound a bit too good to be true, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
- Craft Punch Concentration on Prudent Baby – I love a good scrap busting project, and this is a great one. You can use a circle or square punch to make them less girly/Valentines-y.
Have a great weekend! And be sure to check back next week when I’ll be unveiling a fun new feature I’m calling “Craft the Catalog.” It’s basically just what it sounds like. Stay tuned!
{ 3 comments }
One of the easier to accomplish items on my Life List is to rock my natural hair color, and I’ve been pinning some inspiration in an attempt to motivate myself to take the plunge. First, let’s take a journey back in time…
Here I am around age 2, with the blonde hair I’ve spent literally thousands of dollars over the years trying to pretend I still have…
And here I am a few years later, with the mousy brown hair I’ve spent literally thousands of dollars trying to hide… (and yes, I’m fully aware of the many awesome things going on in this picture)
And here I am this past Christmas, all dyed up…
So why the change? Well, despite being happy with the shade of blonde I’ve been getting the past couple of years, the upkeep is wearing on me. And I’ve been increasingly drawn to the natural-looking hair and makeup among the J Crew and Anthropologie models. And, honestly, I’m just curious what the heck my natural hair color actually looks like after all these years! Every girl who’s been dying her hair for years has visions of shaving it all off and starting from scratch. (Or maybe that’s just me.) And since there’s no way that will ever happen, in order to do this I’ll have to dye my hair what I think is my natural color and hope it grows out to match.
Here are a few of the inspiration pics I’m planning to take to my colorist. All three are essentially (what I think is) my natural color, with some warm dark gold highlights….
What do you think? Should I do it??
{ 6 comments }
I hope you all had a wonderful Super Bowl Sunday! I was pretty underwhelmed both by the game and the commercials, but thankfully the food was fantastic. Jared made some delicious wings, and for dessert – since we already had the fryer out – I made some deep fried Oreos. (We actually bought our deep fryer for the sole purpose of frying food for the Super Bowl a few years ago.) Now, before you judge, do not underestimate the perfection that is the deep fried Oreo. I know, I know – it sounds gluttonous and wrong in so many ways, but it’s really so insanely good. I’m a fan of regular Oreos, but something happens to them in the frying process that takes them to a whole new level. You bite into the golden crispy dough and hit this warm cakey center of Oreo wonderment… it’s so soft and pillowy and yes it’s everything that’s wrong with America in a single bite, but put that out of your mind and just appreciate the American ingenuity that went into creating something so delicious. Everything in moderation, right? Right! Okay, so here’s how we make them…
Ingredients:
- Double Stuf Oreos (you’re frying the thing anyway, might as well go Double Stuf!)
- Pancake mix (I use Bisquick)
- Whatever you need to make 1 batch of pancake batter according to the instructions on the box
- Deep fryer
- Lots of oil (we use vegetable)
- Powdered sugar
Directions
- Heat the oil to 375 degrees
- Make the pancake batter according to the instructions on the box
- Dip a few Oreos into the batter (I do 3 at a time) and cover them on all sides
- Make sure the basket in your fryer is completely submerged
- Take the Oreos out of the batter one by one and drop them into the oil (I use metal skewers to pinch the Oreos as I take them out of the batter and into the oil… I find this results in the least amount of batter coming off of the Oreo during this process)
- Fry the Oreos for 1-2 minutes per side, until each side is a nice golden brown
- Remove from the oil and place onto paper towels
- Sprinkle powered sugar over top (do not skip this, it’s not nearly as good without it!) and serve hot
Confession… one of the Oreos in the photo is actually a Thin Mint. I had what I thought was a genius idea to deep fry a few Thin Mints – you know, since we were frying things – and I’m sad to report that they were a bit of a bust. The batter didn’t cling to the cookie very well, and the cookie didn’t soften when fried like the Oreos do. Verdict: Plain old Thin Mints with milk are still the way to go.
{ 0 comments }
