curiouser & curiouser

Nursery Chandlier

2012-02-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

I heart the way chandeliers look in nurseries. For some reason it just gives the room a fancy accessory to go along with all the other usual nursery must haves that are not so fancy(changing pads, video monitors, sound machines, the list goes on). Unfortunately, the bedrooms in our house do not have overhead lights so we had to install from scratch and I was adamant that it be on a dimmer. It just seems much easier to be able to turn the light on a low level when checking in on the little one to make sure she's breathing. With my obsessiveness I'm sure that will be a frequent occurence in this house.

I sent off to Chris a handful of ones that I liked and even one non-chandelier that I also had a jones for.

We ended up picking this one from Walmart of all places.

For the Walmart discount price of $49.98 it fit our price range perfectly. Chris spent his Saturday running the wiring and come up and down from the attic to the bedroom. His brother happend to stop in just when the light wouldn't work unless a lamp plugged into a switch was turned on. He used his good ole GHS electrical shop knowledge to tell Chris how to fix it in less than 5 minutes. It was a big help!

I want a comfy nursery chair glider...

2012-01-31T08:27:00.000-08:00

I was being really picky about a rocking chair/glider for the nursery. I had the following requirements:

Must be white...and yes I'm aware that is nuts.
Not look like a traditional glider with wooden arms etc.
Have a removeable/washable cover (see item 1).
Must be a reasonable size..I didn't want it to take up the entire room.

After looking at what was available I discovered two things.

Chairs at most retailers are either junk (babies r us) or extremely expensive (pottery barn).
To get what you want, you don't have to compromise, you just have to do it yourself.

So I went online and searched for 'upholstered chair to glider' tutorials. Not only did I find a website that had a tutorial, but also that sold the base to make it swivel/glide/rock. After much consideration we ended up going with the swivel glider instead of the rocker. I was impartial, but Chris thought the swivel glider would be better, in the end he was right.

Deciding on a chair was a no-brainer with an Ikea an hour away. The Ektorp Jennylund fit the bill perfectly. I was also able to get myself an extra cover for when the one on there needs a washing.

Chris had to cut some wood pieces in order to fit the bottom on, but it wasn't too taxing and was well worth the few hours of labor he had to put into the project.

I now have exactly what I want...and Sofie loves it too. What's even better is that it was a gift from my parents for Christmas so it was 'free' to Chris and I!

A Coral Nursery

2012-01-30T09:20:00.000-08:00

When it was time to decide on how to decorate the nursery I knew I didn't want something too traditional. No Winnie the Pooh, Safari, or Flowers. I looked around and saw this picture and totally fell in love with the white and coral color of this nursery.

I saw another photo that had wainscoting going up half the wall in white which I really liked. After some deliberation and 15 different color swatches I decided on Behr cheerful coral and white beadboard. Chris ended up having to do 4 coats of paint and spend well over 20 hours painting, cutting, and installing the beadboard, but the result is beautiful. We also had to install a ceiling light since none of the bedrooms have light fixtures. Thankfully Chris' brother stopped by and recalled some of his high school electrical shop knowledge to get the light working independent from the outlet that the switch originally was hooked up to.
Overall the room is pretty much done. I need to make some decisions on shelves, a mirror, etc. for the walls, but am not going to rush into it.

Here is a little sneak peek:

Back To Sewing

2012-01-17T12:41:00.000-08:00

So I've finally gotten back into sewing since we came back from our vacation.
A few months ago I did some stuff for the babies room, which I'll post about once the room is done, but other than that my machine has been unplugged.

I found some easy tutorials for baby dresses and bloomers. I am obsessed with bloomers! I found the tutorial on non other than the cute diy sewing site www.danamadeit.com. She has some great and easy projects on there. For the dress I can't find the specific tutorial to link to, but search for pillowcase dress tutorial...there are lots of those out there and that's basically what this is.

Hawaii

2012-01-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

We made it to Hawaii! We are 100% aware that it would've made more sense to go when living on the west coast, but with vacation time used up visiting back east every year we just couldn't work it in our schedule. We had decided pre-pregnant me that we were going to take one last BIG trip. We tried going to Australia first, but there literally was nothing by way of flights using our points. We decided after that Hawaii would be a good choice. After I found out I was expecting I was relieved that Australia didn't pan out..that's a long flight and lots of outdoor excursions that at 6 months pregnant I couldn't have dealt with.

Our friends Dee and Jason from SD met us there and it was a fun and relaxing. The only thing I couldn't do was hike the Napali Coast, but I wasn't too sad about it honestly.

The weather was perfect throughout the trip - Chris didn't even burn! I was bummed that we couldn't see active lava flow, but we did get to climb on dried up crusty lava which was neat. Food for me was so/so and expensive, but the rest of the crew had some really good meals.

We got to see some amazing wild life, including Hammerhead Sharks from our snorkeling boat. That was fantastic! I also made a sea-turtle friend. I was determined to get to swim with them and read the guidebook and looked online for where they could be found on Kauai. Thankfully there was a little rocky beach on the side of the road not far from our rental that had one friendly guy just floating around. I was so excited I even let Chris take a picture of me in a bathing suit.

Getting Back To Blogging

2011-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

Blogging has been at the bottom of my list of To-Do's lately (which by the way is WICKED FRICKEN LONG). I generally feel like I don't have much to talk about on here unless I make something that is interesting and I've been in a craft funk for a while. I think the priorities at this house are already shifting due to our impending arrival in April. Previously I would never have thrown a themed party without a post about it, but we did and I didn't. Hopefully our trip to Hawaii will provide some good photographic material that will get my creative mojo moving again. Until then I'll just keep obsessing over the counters being cleaned, no fingerprints on the appliances, and how people cheat at words with friends...all current concerns of mine at the moment.

Last, but certainly not least - The Master Bath

2011-10-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

I never dreamed of having my own bathroom. I grew up in a house with one bathroom so didn't know any different. When we moved into this house having 2 1/2 baths was a dream. Cleaning them isn't so much my favorite chore, but they are well worth it. Having a bathroom next to my bedroom makes my life so much easier. As someone who visits the bathroom at least once after I go to bed the proximity of bed to bath cannot be beat in this house.

We got rid of the blue in the bathroom. It didn't match the cherry wood tones and granite at all (which I still don't really care for). By painting the walls a more neutral color I think it toned down those areas. We couldn't find a mirror that would fit in the space above the sink so Chris ordered the glass and made the frame. Lucky gal I am that he can do that sort of stuff.

There is a nice jacuzzi tub that is more of a dust collector than anything. Unfortunately I am not patient enough of a person to take baths.

And that's our casa. Good thing I snapped these photos because the upstairs is now in complete disarray as we are putting in hard wood floor!

The Small Guest Room & Our Bedroom

2011-10-26T12:57:00.000-07:00

I posted a while back about the room re-do in the small guest room. I had an itching to have a bright green room, so that's just what I created.

Our bedroom was something that took me a while to get how I wanted it. The wall color had to go, particularly because it was in so many other rooms in the house. We also searched far and wide for a bedroom set. We went to over 10 different stores and back and forth to Pottery Barn about 5 times looking at one set. We ended up finding the one we have now at Arhaus Furniture and ironically it's the Kieran collection. For those of you not in the know, Chris has a little cousin Kieran who we adore.

The Craft Room

2011-09-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

I spend quite a bit of time in the craft room. I've set it up so I have a monitor and keyboard up for an optimal working from home environment. Recently we had lots of house guests for Marissa and Lance's wedding so we ended up putting a twin bed in here and decided to leave it. Sofie likes to lounge on it while I'm working or crafting. This is probably my favorite room of the house. It has lots of elements of my life and many mementos.

You can go to this post HERE to read more detail about my wall.

Big Guest Room

2011-09-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

The big guest room is probably the one where we have done the least amount of decorating. I just can't decide how I want the room to be and therefore don't want to commit much time to making changes. We've gone from having 2 twins to 1 king which has been nice. I also very much enjoy the extra closet space for myself.

Other than that, not much change in this room.

The Office

2011-08-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

The office is the room I thought I'd be spending quite a bit of time in considering that I work from home often. However, Chris actually works in here more when he isn't travelling and I setup in my craft room.

We kept the walls the same color in this room and just decorated. This room definitely has some big pieces that pull the room together.

The shelves are actually two separate units from Ikea pushed together. This was a big bang for little buck.

We got the desk free off of craigslists and eventually sanded, painted, and replaced the pulls. What a different this made. I went from hating the desk, to loving it!

I got some cool math art for a great price at 20X200. It's perfect for an office and its letterpress which I heart big time.

My favorite piece in this room is the map. Chris LOVES maps. I bought him this huge one and had it framed for valentines day last year. We have stickers on it for all the places we have travelled.

The Living Room

2011-08-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Our living room is probably the room that has been moved around the most since we first moved in. Originally the TV wasn't mounted (that took us over a year to do) and the rest of the room was arranged around where the TV is. Chris had to do some re-wiring in the living room in order to get the TV on the wall we wanted. What a difference hanging it made in the room. Everything just seems much bigger.

My favorite part about this room are all the framed photo's we have on the walls and shelves. I have a picture dating back to the two of us in 8th grade all the way up to our wedding last September.

Here are a few more pictures of our living room now.

The Kitchen

2011-08-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

I never thought we'd spend as much time in the kitchen as we do. It seems as though whenever we have a get together all the ladies end up gathered around the counter chatting...probably because thats where the food usually is!

We have done no physical work to the kitchen, the color was great, cabinets perfect, and counter top amazing. My only complaint is the stainless steel appliances. Up until I was responsible for stainless steel I had no idea how frustrating it was to clean. Everytime we open the fridge, use the microwave, turn on stove, open the dishwasher, and so on there is a smudge. Being the anal person that I am I am cleaning the appliances at least once a day. I even have a requirement that the stove knobs be taken off and wiped down when used. Its absurd, but it's my attempt at keeping what we have looking as new as possible for as long as possible.

My favorite part about this room is definetely the two cabinets with glass panes. I get to show off my amazing champagne glasses and collection of cookbooks.

2 Years

2011-08-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been two years since we signed on the dotted line and bought our house. Owning a house is something I think many of us take for granted. I have to remind myself regularly of the years we lived in small, cramped, over priced, apartments. It makes me happy to think that now I can yell to Chris from upstairs and if he is in the garage or basement he can't hear me. I'm sure it makes him happy too, but because he doesn't have to hear my bone crushing voice.

When we decided to buy our home, we knew it was a little more house than we needed for the time. We figure that we will eventually grow into it and to enjoy the extra space while we can by having friends visit and stay with us. We currently have a King, Queen, Full, and Twin bed setup somewhere in the house!

Stay tuned as I'll go through the changes we've made and how much we've accrued to fill these rooms in the past 24 months.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?

2011-08-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

All spring long I kept saying, I HATE GARDENING! Now that the fruits of our labor have paid off...I might not use the word HATE anymore.

Growing up my mom always had the most beautiful garden in our small yard. I never appreciated how much love and care went into it until I decided to have my own.

To the right is what the front of our house looked like when we bought it almost two years ago. Each side had an evergreen tree, a big redish colored tree/bush, LOTS of lavender, and some other random perennials.

Last summer we pulled out everything, but the evergreens and put in a few plants. With so many wedding festivities at our house we wanted the front to be somewhat acceptable.

This summer, we decided to over haul the entire front. First came yanking out those tree's. I hate to pull a tree out of the ground, but truth be told we had no idea how to take care of it. It was totally out of hand and too wily to frame our front door. Chris tied a few boyscout knots to one of the trees, attached the rope to the truck and drove. Those babies came out and pulled right across the pavement perfectly.

After that was done we had to order screened loam to replace the dirt that was currently residing in our garden beds. The old dirt was full of concrete from the construction of the house and sand that was used to fill the cracks between the pavers. The day the truck delivered the dirt was a nasty one, but we didn't give up despit the rain. We dug out quite a bit of the old dirt and then shoveled in the new stuff. IT WAS TOUGH WORK! I have a new found respect for landscapers.

Next was planting which is where I got cheap and needy. I didn't want to spend money on plants that I didn't know how to take care of and would be replanting and rebuyihg next year. My mom came through like a champ and took a ton of stuff from hers and a friends garden. That almost filled up the space!

There is a house down the street from us that sells plants out front in the spring at a super cheap price. They are mostly annuals but the price was right and I knew I'd need some to fill in blank spaces.

I then went and had the back of the truck filled with mulch...the darkest available. We laid soaker hoses and then mulched, and mulched, and mulched.

Chris took it upon himself to put pavers down to line the side of the garden that is edged with grass. As usual Chris went above and beyond (aka was wicked anal) and the result is absolutely beautiful.

In the end, all the hard work was well worth it. Whenever I pull up the driveway and stare it all the beautiful flowers and their colors it puts a smile on my face.

Accidental Art

2011-06-28T12:12:00.000-07:00

I can't take credit for puposely putting this in this spot because I knew this would happen...

But I'm sure glad my father in law noticed it!

Hey Jealousy

2011-06-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

It's finally happened...Marissa got married! Her and Lance had a beautiful wedding and it was funner than fun.

There amazing photographer (see photo to the left) was Bharat Parmar. I give Bharat extra props as he called me Biker Shorts because I was donning a special undergarment that inspired this one night only nickname.

At any rate, Marissa's wedding being in June allowed her to have peonies. I was green with envy over this! I wanted peonies for my wedding desperately and while I usually make it happen, some things just can't be done. In September you'd be hard pressed to find them anywhere in the world...much less at an affordable rate. I wouldn't change the flowers at my wedding because in the end it was everything I ever wanted, but I can't help be a bit envious of Marissa.

Because I love peonies I took a few from a leftover wedding arrangement and had a full fledged photo shoot with one that was especially spectacular.

My Wall

2011-04-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

I stare at the wall in my craft room for hours on end. When I work from home I sit at the desk in that room and I was sick of looking at the plane old walls...so I just started one afternoon putting stuff on the wall.

A self portrait my brother did of himself and threw away..I took it out of the trash and kept it.

Picture of me and the chica's on our cruise and a framed collage of alice in wonderland mini playing cards I got in Oxford

Scores from 'who is your match' that we did in high school...my number one match is none other than my husband!

A water color of a frog tyler did for me for Christmas one year

A cigarette tin that was my Grampy Grimes'

A picture of my Nana Grimes as a teenager and some keys from Grampy Davis' house

Pirate Lego Party

2011-02-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

Kieran said he wanted a Pirate Lego birthday party...so that was what he had! Instead of giving gifts to my fave little kiddos I volunteer to help out with their parties when it comes to decorations, favors, and cakes. This way their every busy parents dont have to stress about that part and I get to have fun planning and plotting.

While a Pirate Lego party seems easy...it wasn't so much. I pretty much had to create all the paper stuff from scratch...but that makes it fun. I also got lucky as I happened to be in Carlsbad two weeks before the party and got into Lego Land for 1 hour to shop! I went crazy looking for stuff and thanks to my pal Jamie P. who went the weekend before I knew I could score some cool bags with Pirate Lego people on them. I also scored lots of other fun stuff.

Making the cake was pretty easy as it was just a square. The lego figureine was my first attempt at working with cereal treats and covering them in fondant. It was surprisngly really easy. I even tried to get the birthday boy to bite the head off, but that was a no go.

Room Re-Do Results

2011-02-22T09:00:00.000-08:00

When I want to do something, that pretty much means I'm going to do it RIGHT AWAY. I have zero patience so when I get something in my head there is little to no time before I start working on.

After I found the inspiration pics in my previous post I went to work. I went to Home Depot that night and grabbed a handful of paint colors I liked. When I got home I stuck them on the wall next to the window. I waited until the next morning when the natural light was shinning through the room and picked my color. That day after work I went back to Home Depot and grabbed the necessary supplies.

By 11pm that night the room was all painted and by Friday afternoon the mirror and shadow boxes hung to finish everything up. I ended up spending $50 on paint and supplies because everything else I had on hand. What a difference paint makes in a room!

It is super bright, but I dig it.

You want to what?

2011-02-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

So as my travels have subsided for a while I am obsessing over the house. What I want done (lights in all the rooms, hardwood floors in the bedrooms, french-doors in the dinning room that opens OUT) and what will actually happen are two very different things. I figure that if there are a few quick and easy things I can do myself on a low cost Doezy will leave me alone about it. Unfortunately when I told him I wanted to do some re-decorating in the guest bedroom he said "you want to what?". He knew when he met me that I like to change things often so this really shouldn't come as a surprise.

Here are some inspirations of what I'm thinking:

The room is tiny so can't have too much furniture. We already have a perfectly good black cast iron look alike bed frame from Ikea that I plan to use with a matching mirror. Also I have both black and white bedding that can be used in the room so that is another item I wont have to buy.

Truffle/Olive Oil and Lemon Cupcakes with Rosemary Whipped Cream

2011-01-12T15:20:00.000-08:00

You didn't think that I would make 5 recipes and not have any be a baked good did you?? Obvoiusly I had to have some sort of cake or cupcake because I love to make them! Plus I got a whipper for Christmas so incorporated a whipped cream of some sort was a must.

I looked around the internet for savory cupcakes to get my brain moving in the right direction. I ended up only making half a batch because I' the ony person home and there is a blizzard outside, so I doubt that anyone would be trying them with me.

Cupcakes
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
little less than 2/3Cup Olive Oil
Add to bring total oil to 2/3 CupTruffle Oil
3/3 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 Eggs
lemon zest for taste

First I made the cupcake batter, which was relatively easy. I sifted all of the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. I added all of the wet ingredients and stirred until all mixed. Lastly I added the lemon zest and combined.

I pored the batter into the cupcake tins in the pan. I used my big cupcake pan so as not to have tiny cupcakes.

Lastly, I drizzled a little more truffle oil on the top...just for taste....I couldn't resist.

I stuck these babies in the oven for 20-25 minutes on 375.

While they were baking I got started on the whipped cream.

I put 1 Cup of whole cream in a pan on medium heat. Added 3 TBSP each of rosemary and powdered sugar. I didn't have fresh rosemary so I needed to use dried. I probably would've thrown in two or three whole sprigs if I had fresh. I brought this to a quick boil and then removed it from the heat. I tried to infuse as much rosemary taste as possible into the mix. I then put in the refrigerator because it needs to be nice and cold to make into whipped cream.

I took the muffins out of the oven and they looked very dense, but yummy. I let them cool to room temperature (which was cold, b/c the heat is off downstairs during the day).

I put the cream mixture through a strainer so the bits of rosemary wouldn't get caught in the nozzle. I pored the concoction into the whip creamer and voila!

They tasted really yummy. At first you got the olive/truffle taste and then a blast of lemon. The whipped cream certainly had a rosemary flavor to it that added to the yumminess swirling around in my mouth.

Now I have 5 other cupcakes and plenty of whipped cream just sitting here! Damn you blizzard.

Popcorn with Truffe Oil & Parmesan Cheese

2011-01-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite restaurants is Blanca in Solana Beach, CA. For a swanky atmosphere, delicious drinks, and tasteful appetizers this places Happy Hour can't be beat. One of their offerings that I favor is the Popcorn with truffle salt and Parmesan. I love popcorn so the addition of truffle oil to a great snack is fantastic.

So tonight, I did my own take on this delicious appie.

I bought midnight black popcorn at Homegoods for pretty cheap and measured out 1/3 of a cup.

Next I measured out 1/8 of a cup of truffle oil/olive oil. I didn't want to use all truffle oil because I just couldn't bare to part with that much for one snack, so I did about 1/16 truffle oil and 1/16 olive oil.

That went into a big pot set on high and I dropped in two popcorn kernels. When the two kernels popped I knew that the oil was ready.

It only took a few minutes for the popcorn to start popping in the pan. I was at least smart enough to put the cover on so all the kernels didn't pop right out of the pot. While the popcorn was in the pan I grated about 1/4 a cup of Parmesan cheese.

When the popcorn was finished popping, I put it in a bowl, added some salt and pepper, then the cheese and tossed it around.

The popcorn was yummy, but the taste of the truffles was not easy to find. I think using the dark popcorn masked the truffle flavor a bit. All in all it was a good snack.

Truffle Oil Pizza

2011-01-09T15:01:00.000-08:00

I was craving something crunchy and cheesy for dinner tonight so I decided on making myself a pizza. I have a little pizza about once per week and they are super yummy. However, it was even yummier this time because I used truffle oil!

First, I cut in half whole wheat pita bread. I usually use pita or lavash for my pizzas. Then drizzled it with some truffle oil..yum!

I went into he fridge and grabbed cheeses that I thought would work well with the oil. I ended up using Parmesan, Romano, Feta, and Brie. I found at Trader Joe's mini single serving brie all in their own containers. Obviously I had to have them because they are MINI! Once assembled I sprinkled it with a little dill, salt, and lots of pepper.

I popped her in the oven for about 10 minutes on 350 and voila!

The warm cheeses and the truffle oil all went really well together. Another good supper featuring my new BFF truffle oil!

Truffle Cream Sauce

2011-01-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

So last night I needed to make something for dinner, but because of the Holidays our cabinets and fridge were pretty bare. I did have the ingredients to make a cream sauce so I figured why not make it a truffle one! Here is how I did it:

I grabbed my Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Vol. 1 and looked up how to make a roux. Right there on page 56 were the basic flour to liquid ratios. Thanks Julia!

2. Then I grabbed the ingredients I figured I'd need.

2 tbs and 1 tsp Flour
1 cup Light Cream (that's all I had, otherwise I would've used heavy)
2 tbs Truffle Oil
1 cup Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese
~~Garlic~~ (I decided not to use Garlic because I was afraid it would mask the truffle flavor)
2 tbsp Unsalted Butter
Salt & Pepper to taste

3. Next I put the light cream and butter in a sauce pan and melted it on med/low heat. Once combined I added the flour.

4. With the flour in there I kept stirring until completely mixed in. Next I put the cheese, stirred until melted, and then finally the Truffle Oil, stirring all the while.

5. Lastly I added salt and pepper to taste and voila it was done!

Adventures in Truffle Oil

2011-01-02T15:28:00.000-08:00

Every year for Christmas Chris tries to get me something to do with cooking or baking. But not just anything, something slightly off the cuff, which makes it fun and adds to our household collection of utensils, ingredients, and gadgets. This year one of my food themed gifts was truffle oil. Chris did A LOT of research on truffles and truffle oil to ensure that I got a quality product that wasn't a 'like' truffle oil sort. He even got me a book on truffles. While the book is interesting some of it is WAY over my head.

With my piqued interest in Truffles I have decided that this month I am going to create 5 recipes that have truffle oil as its ingredient. Obviously these won't be anything award winning, but it'll be my first attempt to really come up with something edible completely from the ground up. Plus I'll get to enjoy the buttery taste of truffle oil!

Wish me luck!

Kiley & the Chocolate Factory

2010-12-15T19:31:00.000-08:00

The past three nights here at Doeviswood have been spent producing mass quantities of truffles. I like to bring something to the people in the office I work closely with and other miscellaneous people (the guy who drives my work shuttle, mail-lady, security guy who lets me in the garage without a key card). I knew that I had to get the truffles finished and boxed before my husband got home because he likes to sneak anything sweet that I make and then lie about it.

I made a bunch of different kinds using the most fattening ingredients available. I also refuse to use the wilton melting chocolate because my mom trash talks it, so I struggle with chocolate bars, which are not for candy making. Nonetheless they came out yummy. I also did some with chocolate peppermint cookie centers a la Bakarella's cake balls.

I wrapped them up in some boxes I got on super clearance last year and voila they are ready to go.

Add caption

Cute & Easy Christmas Craft

2010-12-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

Cupcakes are super chic and have been for the past couple years. This fits in nicely into my life because I love to bake and decorate them. I saw this tutorial on one pretty thing by way of bake it pretty and had to try it. I sent it over to Michelle and she had already seen it, printed it, and decided to make some for people on her list. We decided we are going to have these be our activity for Friday's girls night. When searching for the materials the full size cup cake papers just seemed a bit big for my taste so I decided to do mini ones. I love anything miniature.

I think this one came out pretty darn cute!

Getting back into the groove

2010-11-09T21:38:00.000-08:00

Since we've gotten back from our honeymoon I've had a tough time getting into any projects. I've been looking online for something that strikes my fancy and so far nada. Today I was browsing on How About Orange and saw a few camera strap covers. In the past this was on my 'to do list', but it never happened. I decided tonight to whip up a quick one. It took me all of 10 minutes start to finish. The hardest part was getting the strap through the cover.

Sofie doesn't really have demon eyes

Oh yeah...and I spent two hours tonight making a dress. This was the second time I've tried to read and follow a pattern. The dress is not done, but its about 80% there.

Tendercrop Farms and the Llama love fest

2010-10-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Brenda and I took a ride up to Newbury today to browse around Tendercrop Farms. I was told that when I had been there as a kid, but couldn't remember it. Once we pulled in the fence helped me remember being there before. I'm pretty sure the buffalo that I climbed the fence to watch as a kid is still there. But, the buffalo really wasn't the main event..it was the llama.

We brought along Sofie and as soon as we got her out of the car she went straight to the fence. For once I was a responsible dog owner and had her a leash..otherwise she may have met her demise as the Llama's late lunch. She was OBSESSED with this big furry animal. She got as close as she possibly could, which was pretty close. She was smelling the llama's behind and inspecting the rest of it's body. The Llama was pretty unimpressed and would occasionally turn its head, pose like Maizy (mom's dog), and then go back to staring off into space.

After letting Sofie spend quality time with the llama, we checked out the buffalo (she wasn't nearly as interested), and then headed inside. There was a market downstairs and upstairs a room filled with beautiful dried flowers. They were only $3.99 a bunch!

We strolled back over for another Sofie/llama love fest and then fed the chickens. There were a few of them that had hilarious feathers. 2 of them had crazy head feathers and another one had feathers on it's shins (or that general area because I'm not sure if chicken have shins) that looked like some indian ceremonial outfit.

Oh yeah...on the way home we scored pumpkins from a stand outside someones house for $1!!! Gotta love fall in New England.

The only good kind of flood is the cookie kind!

2010-10-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

I LOVE to make sugar cookies and I love decorating them even more. In true Kiley form I am always excited to start, attack with much gusto, and then ten minutes into the frosting portion of the show hit the hate button. I never understood why my cookies always looked like frosted gunk. Then I remembered that years ago Brenda (aka mi madre) shared with me the concept of 'flooding'...well well well what a smart woman she is.

I am still working on a technique that really works for me. Sometimes the colors run, other times the frosting doesn't harden enough. It is a vicious cycle. I'd get one piece right, but another would inevitably be wrong.

Granted, they are just cookies and I make them for fun...but I have issues with things being Kiley Perfect* and will work until they are....or I give up (whatever comes first).

A perfect example of this happened just last week. I baked onesie, carriage, and bear cookies for a baby shower. I had to do them a few days in advance because of a hectic week I had signed myself up for. When I got to the shower and saw the cookies.... holy embarrassment batman! The faces of the bears had run and they looked like demon spawn teddy bears. I immediately took them off the plate and trashed them. NO WAY was I being associated with something like that or being known as the girl who can't draw a bear face.

I digress.....
However, tonight I think I've hit my stride. I banged out a bunch of pumpkin, ghost, and circle cookies for girls night tomorrow and I'm liking them.

Here are a few tips that I think helped me get to a point where I can say they are 'Kiley Perfect'

don't draw your outline too close to the edge or else your flooding will embark on a journey to your counter top
when flooding the cookie use more frosting than you think you need and spread slowly..otherwise it looks like you cheaped out on the frosting
let your flooded cookies dry overnight before decorating them as your cute bear faces will turn into demo spawn faces
theres no need to be overly obsessed with the ouline, once you fill the inside it will look just fine

*Kiley Perfect: it is really pretty simple to explain...whatever it is i'm doing whether it be crafting, baking, cooking, cleaning, organzing...I have to be able to own up to it and not feel guilty, embarassed, or ashamed.

lets talk a lil shellac

2010-10-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

I love having painted nails. But generally don't have them done because:

1. I cannot stand chipped nails and my nails chip pretty quickly because i'm always scrubbing or picking at something.

2. No matter how hard you try, you cannot paint them yourself and have them look as good as at the salon.

3. I don't like having my nails drilled or filed down to nothing so no Gel.

4. I can't stand having fake nails.

Therefore...my nails generally are not painted.

However, when Sam and Kaela told me about Shellac I was over the moon. First I'd heard of Axium and tried it out...didn't last. So I decided to try Shellac. Sam and I got our nails done for Scott's wedding last Thursday. It was $30 for the manicure and so far it is WELL worth it. No chips and they look pretty good. I'm even wearing the darkest color they offered which would certainly show chips easily.

This stuff may change my life!

Tahitian Flowers

2010-10-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

When people get a nice camera I think one of the things they are just drawn to are flowers. First off they are mostly still...so that makes photographing them easy. On top of that the colors for some reason can be so rewarding when transltated into a digital fie. Also, you can stand in front of a plant and play with your camera; change the settings, use the flash, use pre-set mode, change your ISO...the possibilities are endless. Try doing this with a person as a subject!

In Tahiti the flora and fauna are unbelievably beautiful. You really can't help yourself when everywhere you turn there is a new flower staring at you that immediatley grabs all of your attention.

When we arrived in Tahiti most women and man men were wearing flowers behind one of there ears. At first I thought this was just something hotel employee's did to create a paradise like atmosphere for the guests. However aftera few days on the island it was clear that this wasn't the case. People wore them in there every day life. Here is how to translate what the flowers mean:
behind right ear -single & available
behind left ear - married, engaged, or otherwise taken
behind both ears - married, but still available
backwards behind either ear - available RIGHT NOW

I'm someones old lady....

2010-09-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

So it's been a LONG LONG LONG time since I've blogged. The obvious reason is that I was busy getting MARRIED. Our wedding was on Sept. 4th and was truely one of the best days of my life. Not only did I marry my partner Doezy of 10 years, but we celebrated with over 200 of our friends and family memebers, including over 15 guests from San Diego. Now that we are back from our beautiful honeymoon in Tahiti and Bora Bora I am back on track with obsessing about cleaning, craft projects, and both mine and everyone elses general existance. Today I bought materials for my first NON WEDDING project in months and I'm excited to get started. I just need Doe to come home from CT and cut some wood for me!

Yeah I know...

2010-03-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

I'm a slacker. But two blogs come one people.
kileyandchris.blogspot.com is updated much more frequently out of necessity!

Heck Yeah We Had A Photo-Booth!

2010-01-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

From NYE 2009

Tear

2009-12-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Glee is over for the season.

Fiona's 6 Month Photo's

2009-11-30T10:43:00.001-08:00

Fiona is a cutie little baby girl. She is Chris' cousins second child and we both love her to death. I love her pink little nose! She looks like a little baby bird and is totally precious. I took some photo's to mark her 1/2 birthday and she was so cooperative and made tons of great facial expressions!

Besties unite!

2009-11-24T09:19:00.000-08:00

Last week Chris and I both had the flu. He visited the hospital on Tuesday morning and I went 24 hours later. It was real bad. I can't believe how it knocked us out. I take advantage of ALL sick days, but Chris never really has been that type. He took his very first sick day on Monday and it was followed by two more days at home on the couch. We were pretty miz.
A few weekends before we got sick I went down to visit Erin in Alexandria. Arianne even flew in for the occasion. It was GLORIOUS! We toured around DC Friday and Arianne got a bazillion stupid stamps in her National Parks stamp book...NERD! We got to go to Old Ebbitt's and have some yummy drinks. Saturday we went to Georgetown which was a beautiful shopping mecca and had to watch the dumb football game. However, I did get grilled cheese and tomato soup so that made me happy.
We ended up having a crazy night out on Saturday in Arlington. We met up with T-Mac and TJ and drank 300 beers. I woke up the next day in Erin's bed still in my clothes from the night before. Arianne was yelling we had to get up and go to the airport...I was still drunk.

David Gray

2009-10-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

Mich and I went and saw David Gray on Friday. It was unbelievable. I've been to A TON of concerts and this ranks in the top 3 quality wise. He sounded great live and everything was just simple and enjoyable. Plus seeing someone like DG at the Wang is amazing! The picture above is of the lobby. The theater itself is equally as breath taking.

Shower

2009-10-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

I was just transferring pictures onto discs for filing and realized I didn't blog about Kelly's shower. Janelle is born and a cute little lovie already, but before she was born her grandmother gave her mom a glorious shower. Cathy (grandma) gave Michelle and I free-reign when it came to decorations and center pieces. Mich and I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas, but the execution was the tough part. In the end everything came out super cute and was worth all cutting, pasting, stirring, and piping.

A Smiling Mommy to be!

Onesie Decorations

These cuties were super easy to sew and are now required at any of our friends baby showers!

Table Centerpices with edible cookies.

Cookie Favors and Onesies for writing advice on.

happy birthday

2009-10-14T06:56:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. ARIANNE NEIGH

A tiny bed in Sebago

2009-10-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Sebago this weekend with big ideas of drinking, dancing, partying, and karaokeing...unfortunately for Kiley this was not to be. After spending time in a tiny bed in a closet in the trailer we rented and yesterday in bed I finally made it to the doctor today and he said I had Sciatica...I still don't really understand what this stupid diagnosis is, but we'll see if the meds he gives me works. I'm pretty miz and am on the brink of bed sores.

Glorious Glee

2009-10-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

LOVING this show! Sam showed me the pilot when I was in NJ for Marissa's 30th. Obviously I love musicals and have never hidden that fact. Now a musical tv show with teen drama...LOVE. I think that Rachel had to at some point be based on Tracy Flick from Election. Oh and Kurt...how much I love you! Really the dance to Single Ladies in the beginning of last weeks episode was outrageous.

Bestie Birthday

2009-10-07T08:29:00.001-07:00

Mich this ones for you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVIE LOO!

Cancer Gift Baskets

2009-10-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

My moms friend Kate asked me to help with her Cancer Gift Basket project. She sells baskets with lots of goodies to help people during their treatments. A breast cancer survivor herself she found out what works and lots of times for stuff other than what its for. She asked me to work on the tags. I wanted a little cartoon Kate to put on the tags and I couldn't find something I liked or come up with something myself...so I south parked her! And she needed a male counterpart for men diagnosed so here is her buddy Duff! He is a lymphoma survivor and allegedly modeled after my moms cousin...living in a small town tends to make every other person your cousin.

Apples everywhere

2009-09-28T07:15:00.001-07:00

We went apple picking with the Brancs on Saturday and it was glorious! The orchard was overflowing with apples. Our bags were stuffed and now we have about 10 thousand apples in the house. I've already made mini apple pies, apple cake, and apple squares. I am now over apples.

Big Reach

Huge Apple

Yummy Hot Cider

One of Pauls Victims

PS: Chris eight 4 out of 6 cider donuts.

Here's what we've been working on....

2009-09-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

The craft fair is October 17th so Mich and I have been sewing and crafting when the mood strikes. For me,that usually means a stint of 4 hours of straight sewing.

Here are a few things I've done this week. I didn't actually sew the dress or the onesies...just embellished them. I did however make the apron...I can do those with my eyes closed at this point!

A lil caterpillar

Obviously baby boys need the option to look dapper

Sweet Little Cupcake Onesie

I heart aprons!

these are just a few of the items that will be on sale at the craft fair on October 17th! Be sure to come support Friends for Friends RFL Team!

So Glorious

2009-09-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Really...can't even handle this...

We're going for it!

2009-09-15T13:10:00.000-07:00

A craft fair being 'it'! Mich and I are going to be selling some of our glorious yet to be made sewing projects at a craft fair. While a craft fair is 80's and probably makes you think of hand panted wooden cut outs...Mich and I are taking it to another level! Coffee Cuffs, Key Chains, Aprons, Luggage Bands, and any other crazy thing we can come up with will be for sale. All the proceeds go to benefit my Mother mother's Relay For Life Team; Friends For Friends! We need to get sewing.

I know I fell behind...

2009-09-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

but it was for a good reason, not just being lazy.
My computer DIED....and I had to go to Cali for work. While I wasn't too enthused with traveling 4,000 miles for a 3 hour meeting with a crappy loaner computer I did get to visit with friends..which is always fantastic. I got to see lots of amigos and amigas as well as eat at Kemosabe! Good Things Growing may be my favorite meal item ever!

While I was away a sweet little baby girl was born. We've all been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Brancaleone and she came just before I boarded my plain to Oakland.

Janelle Olivia Brancaleone of the Branc2 is the cutest! I got to meet her yesterday and love love love her. She is not only blessed with amazing parents, but a seriously loving Auntie Mich and Uncle Mink who are going to spoil her rotten. I brought my camera along for our first rendezvous and only took 167 photos.

First Night & some Bill Simmons

2009-09-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first night by myself in doeviswood! Chris is out in Cali for work and it was just the loafster and I. It's wicked quiet. Thankfully I'm reading a baseball book instead of something scary or else I'd be sleeping with a henkle next to the bed.

Speaking of baseball.....

Anyone whose a Boston sports fan knows Bill Simmons. I think he is hilarious. I had the opportunity to meet him a few years back at a book signing. He definitely has OCD.

Speaking of bill Simmons.....

I'm not much of a basketball fan...not yet anyway. Being back home may be the catalyst for an obsession with the Celtics, but we shall see. However, this article is AMAZING! Really...using quotes from Almost Famous...my favorite movie to explain the NBA free-agent buying spree:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090727

Erin Loves Airplanes

2009-08-31T10:38:00.000-07:00

Check out this early photo of Erin in her favorite tweety shirt....

Family Photo Shoot

2009-08-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

I am NOT a photographer.
I love photography. I love to look at it, read about it, and even participate in the activity myself...but I am NOT a photographer.
With that said...I took some photo's of a family members sister in laws kids (confused?).
The mom told the kids that I was a corrections officer and my attire choice for the day helped the stories believability as I was wearing camo capris.
At this point I have come to the conclusion that I NEED photoshop, but with a new house and winter coming I have other priorities. IE fabric for curtains and warm clothes for cold nor-eastern days.

We Are Homeowners

2009-08-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

Chris and I passed papers on Friday and moved mere minutes later! We couldn't wait to get started. I am in love with my house and can't believe it's mine. I feel like such a big kid! I've already started 'putting holes all over the walls' as my dad said, but they are MY WALLS!!! I can't believe how generous everyone in our life has been. I even got my first delivery to the house...flowers from the Brancs.

We don't have internet yet (tomorrow) so I haven't uploaded the photo's yet. They'll follow soon.

tick tock

2009-08-19T08:01:00.001-07:00

The clock is ticking....we should know soon if we can close on Friday. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

Houes

2009-08-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is the house we hope to be closing on and living in come Friday.

PS: I get to have a craft room!

Family Photo's

2009-08-12T10:36:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of living back home is that we get to see family often. It seems like there is a cookout, birthday, graduation, or something going on every weekend. A few weeks back we celebrated Nana Rodgers 80th birthday! The Rodgers family ALWAYS provides me with plenty of material for great photos.

Warren & Fiona

Fiona's baby toes & Uncle Ronnie

Sam & Kieran

Derek scaring Kieran & Sam

Gloucester Tri

2009-08-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

Chris decided out of the blue to participate in the Gloucester Triathlon. He was worried he wouldn't make it out of the water, but did much better than that. He finished the entire race in 1:37:09!!!! It was so amazing to see him in three different events within 2 hours time. I was lucky enough to catch him coming out of the water, both laps on the bike, and both laps of the run.

love connection

2009-08-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

I Love Sam & Jamey

Sam loves this band & I love this song

I'm back!

2009-08-05T11:18:00.001-07:00

Ok...I am back. I needed to take a little break. We have SOOOOOOOOOOOO very much going on in our lives right now its hard to wrap my brain around it all.

Between planning a wedding, buying a house, and the necessary house furniture/stuff I am flustered.

This past weekend I went down to Dirty Jersey for Marissa's 30th Birthday! She is no longer 'almost thirty', which she'd been saying for a good 10 years now. It was a fantastic time and everyone had a great time.

My Cake Masterpiece!!

Happy Birthday Miss M

Me & Lancelot

Rissa & some Besties

Fiona's Blanket

2009-06-08T12:05:00.001-07:00

Fiona relaxin under the baby blanket I made her:

When....

2009-06-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

your boyfriend and cousin hate condiments what do you do?

Britney and I take pictures with them :)

sometimes you don't need words..

2009-06-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

3,000 Miles behind a trailer

2009-06-03T05:57:00.001-07:00

Following a trailer across the country was very annoying! When you are following another vehicle that is ALL you see and when it's a big blue trailer that blocks everything from your view it's even worse. Dad said he was going to have dreams of the trailer at night.

The Pretty Room

2009-06-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

Chris and I are settled into our new bedroom, aka the pretty room. I have the most fabulous closet in the world...it's like my personal dream. I just stare at it in the morning when I open the door, the shelves, the drawers, the different height hanging bars...ah nirvana! The bathroom wasn't finished and it didn't even bother me because the closet is so fabulous. A particularly nice part about our new bedroom is the view...here are some photo's of what I see when sitting in bed.

How do you get a bike in the back of a truck....

2009-06-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

....when you don't have a ramp?

You drive it as close as you can to your steps then use an ironing board as a bridge. At least that's what we did!

Around Del Mar

2009-05-12T12:48:00.001-07:00

From May 2009

On mothers day Mom, Chris, and I spent some time driving around Del Mar and Solana Beach so I could get some time with my camera in. There were people everywhere as the sun was shining and it was a beautiful Sunday.

From May 2009

A Twilight Party

2009-05-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

A Twilight Party

From Twilight

I am obsessed with Twilight. It is embarrassing, but I can’t resist. I even went out at midnight to purchase the movie when it came out. There are a few of us in the office who are Twilighters so we decided to have a party. Our company supports Water For People (check it out, it’s an amazing charity) so we decided to hold a viewing party and donate the funds raised to wfp. We raised over $200 and had a great time doing it. The people in the office pretty much let me do whatever because they are best so I worked on a few little things over the weeks before the party. All the little details were key and I think everyone enjoyed them so it was not unnoticed.
Here are some fun things we included:

From Twilight

Golden Onion & Apples all over the place

From Twilight

Blood Type drinks and Rainier Beer (actually soda, we just covered the cans)

From Twilight

Lots of yummy desserts

From Twilight

Each table represented a different character and contained items specific to that person

From Twilight

Popcorn Cones with Quotes from the book

From Twilight

Lots of flowers and candles…we used Pine scented to give the feelings of Forks

From Twilight

A Family Photo Wall

From Twilight

Quotes from the Books & Movie

From Twilight

Big Screen for optimal viewing

From Twilight

Prizes for trivia games

New Camera

2009-04-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

Chris bought me an AMAZING camera for my birthday. I was totally surprised and elated with my gift. While I took high school photo I'm not too savvy when it comes to these high tech digital cameras. A fab friend (Liz Cockrum) is going to give me a lesson on how to use it...I should probably get a lesson on the software too. I took loaf to dog beach last night and played around a bit with it. Move over frame purse my new bestie is my camera.

Liz

2009-04-20T12:14:00.001-07:00

Liz Cockrum is an amazing photographer! Quite a bit of her work is centered around surfing and the women who are passionate about the sport and lifestyle that goes along with it. Her work is very organic. I know her personally so I know she is a fantastic person to boot! Check out her stuff:
http://www.lizcockrum.com/

Red Nail Polish

2009-04-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

I am loving it right now! I pretty much rotate between super brite red or pink or dark dark brown. I'm totally feeling the red right now and it may be my signature summer nail color.

Wild Animal Park

2009-04-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Chris and I went to the Wild Animal Park on Easter and it was fantastic! It was an absolutely beautiful day and being spring all the little babies were out and about. We got to see a baby rhino, cheetah, giraffe, and lots of little baby antelope. I even got to pet some deer. It didn't take long to see most of the park, but it was really interesting. They explained how they were taking skin samples from Rhinos and putting them in their 'frozen zoo'. Essentially they are cryogenically freezing samples of animals in case of extinction with the hopes that the samples will someday help in recreating the animals.. pretty crazy stuff.

I promise to be back

2009-04-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

I have been slacking...and Lauren reminds me regularly of this! Starting today I will be back to posting on a daily basis...promise!

Yummy Diner in Santa Monica

2009-04-08T08:51:00.000-07:00

We went up to LA to hang out with Tim and Kate this past weekend. Along with the Krugers we stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel which was fabulous. We ran into American Idol contestant Megan Joy at the hotel and introduced ourselves to her. She was very nice and chit chatted with us for a few minutes. After a fun LA night out we went to Rae's for breakfast. Serious dive, old school diner, with the cheapest menu I've ever seen. 6 of us ate breakfast for $36!!! I was lucky enough to not have a hang over, but the kids across from me did. We were squeezed into a tiny booth and it was about 100 degrees. I'm surprised no one got sick.

I am in love with...

2009-04-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

.....the Popcorn at Blanca. It's a bit absurd. I went with Erin on Friday and was in heaven when our large sized order came to us at the bar. It tastes so darn good. Here is how its listed on the menu:

Heirloom Wisconsin Black Popcorn -

finely grated parmigiano reggiano

The restaurant is totally chic and features fantastic mixed drinks and food!

Always a good time to be had here!

Best Ever

2009-03-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

My friends are truly the bestest bests! My 27th birthday was last week and I had an amazing time . Chris surprised me on Thursday by inviting friends to a restaurant and surprising me when I got there. I had NO idea. I think it was the first time I was ever surprised because i'm so nosy. Friday we both took the day off and lounged around. Neither of us were feeling that fantastic. I got a facial from my fave esthetician and read all day. It was fantastic! Saturday was my birthday bar crawl, which was simply glorious. My fabulous friends put on an 80's themed bar crawl that took us around mission beach and ended at Canes to see Tainted Love, my fave cover band. Everyone dressed up and had a great time. Karen made me a fabulous cake, Erin/Carly/Arianne had some fun banners, and Picchi had trivia games complete with awesome prizes. It was probably my best birthday!

Like no place on earth

2009-03-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Venice Beach is easily one of the strangest yet funnest places on earth. The first time I went to this epicenter of weird was when I was out here visiting the Muniz' in middle school. I bought an Eiffel tour dress (which I still have) at one of the sketchy shops and just enjoyed people watching with the family. I thought it would be a fun trip for Brit, Warren, Chris, and I for Sunday. The day was beautiful and the nutso people were all out. Mom even was able to see us from her computer room in MA on a web cam she found. Warren bought a fantastic EZ E shirt and Brit got an awesome painted skull for her sister. We naturally saw the crazy street performers and legions of homeless people who flock to Venice for attention and spare change.

Warren & EZ E's 'dad'Scary mannequin head

Hollywood

2009-03-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Warren and Brittany came out to visit for their spring break and we hit up Hollywood on Saturday. Obviously we took a tour and as usual it was fantastic. We went to places I'd never been before which was nice. Here are some photo's of our fun day:

Outside the playboy mansion. That' sour little convertible truck/bus!

MJ's rental house with Christmas decor still up!

Fabulousity!

We got to see homes owned by Will Ferrel, Orlando Bloom, Jennifer Aniston, Dr. Phil, Nicole Ritchie, Candy Spelling, David Spade, and many more! Our tour guide Brian was fantastic and I would recommend him to anyone!

Really?

2009-03-03T12:36:00.000-08:00

A woman I am working with here in Tennessee has a vanity plate on her car. She is a pretty nice lady and saw nothing wrong with what she chose to have seen by every person that ever drives behind her car. We had someone here ask her what it meant and it doesn't mean what you may think. She gets notes left on her car quite often I guess inquiring about her preferences and social schedule.

It stands for:

Society of Women Engineers

Hotel Room Crafting

2009-02-23T13:19:00.001-08:00

I'm in week 2of my 3 week stay here in Tennessee. I was supposed to leave last Friday the 20th, but am now here until the 5th. I had no choice, but to get started on my birthday skirt for the bar crawl/tainted love show. I want a BIG HUGE PUFFY PINK tulle skirt and I think I succeeded in making one. I went to the Joanns in Knoxville and got myself the necessities, which was everything because I am in a hotel with no supplies. Obviously I had to hand sew the entire thing. I think that when I get home I'll go over the hand stitches with my machine just to double up on security. I know it will get 80's crazy and don't want to lose my clothes!

Here is what hotel crafting looks like:

I used my pillow as a form and the ironing board as a table...lovely!

Middle of Nowhere

2009-02-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

I've been sent to Middle of Nowhere Tennessee to work on a big proposal. It seems that the places I'm sent for proposals are less glamorous each time. When I arrived the every radio station was country and the one rock station was playing Rammstein...very random. I have never seen to many fast food/chain/unhealthy restaurants in one place in my life. In a 1 mile radius there are the following places:

McDonalds
Hardees (aka Carls Junior)
Panera
Ruby Tuesdays
Outback
Red Lobster
Sonic
Taco Bell
Subway
Arbys
Shoneys
Papa Johns
Chick Fil A
Pizza Hit
Chinese Food Buffet
Waffle House
Sagebrush
El Cantarito

Now you would think these places may surround a shopping mall, car dealerships, etc. But not so much. There are those things, but the food seems to the be the focal point.

Valentines Sweeties

2009-02-12T09:37:00.000-08:00

Here is what I've been up to the past few days:

First thing is I get home from work, put on my pj's, crocs, and amazing apron made by my bestie Mich

I decorated cookies...on the coffee table. Tragic isn't it?

I made Cake Balls courtesey of Bakarella . Ignore the pans...they are well used.

Made brownies and put together a little tray for Sandra's birthday! (this picture WOULD NOT rotate..I have no idea what the darn issue is)

Wrapped up the cake balls and put them in these cute boxes from the paper source. The boxes needed a little flair so I decorated them with some paper I had in my craft box.

I also made chocolate kisses also from Bakarella...they came out really yummy! I highly suggest that any baker follow her blog.

I can't wait for..

2009-02-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

...the button chocolate molds I ordered from www.bakeitpretty.com get here! I'm hoping I get them before Thursday so I can use them for some of my Heart Day treats. Every year I send a big tray of yummies to work with Chris. It gives me an excuse to try and create different goodies that I don't normally do. Also it's nice to make something that's pretty and made of something OTHER than fondant, which lately rules everything around me. I flooded some cookies last night and Chris went directly to the kitchen table when he got home and spotted them. He and Sofie stood their looking longingly at the cookies and our conversation went like this:

C: "there are only 25 cookies here you know"

K: "really, that's good"

C: "don't you think that 24 is a better number than 25?"

K: "I don't much care really, but you're not having any cookies"

C: "but don't you just prefer to have 24 cookies instead of 25, its such a better number"

K: "no Chris I don't prefer one number over the other and under no circumstances can you have a cookie"

C: "what if its broken?"

K: "you still can't have one"

C: "have you had any?"

K: "no Chris, I haven't had any"

C: "I licked this one I have to eat it now!!!"

K: "you fake licked it and I'm not falling for that"

silence for about 30 seconds

C: "I just found one on the chair that fell off so now you have 26, you said you were ok with 25 so if I eat this you'll be right back at 25 and it won't matter"

At this point I give him my 'if you don't shut up right now I'm going to kill you' look and he gave up.

However, you can be sure I'll be counting the cookies when I get home as he's been known to get up late night and eat anything he can get his hands on.

A cake for Jamie

2009-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Jamie Peddycords birthday this last weekend by going to Temecula wine tasting. To say it was fun would be an understatement. We turned our limo bus into a dance club and then continued the party at their house. The cake was the first time I've made flowers out of fondant instead of gum paste. They are definitely much more fragile, but worked for this purpose. I don't think I'd do any bigger sized flowers in fondant.

A cake for Niki

2009-02-04T11:49:00.000-08:00

This is the second year I've done a cake for my fab friend Niki. Last year it was two tiers ,but due to the fact that I was doing another cake for the next day it had to just be one. It came out pretty cute. I was inspired by some wrapping paper I had, which I ulimately used to wrap her gift in.

I really want..

2009-02-03T15:51:00.000-08:00

a sewing room all to myself! Currently in our tiny, cramped, over paid for apartment I do all my sewing on the kitchen table. I have to do my cutting on the stove and use the ironing board for much more than ironing. I get super jealous when people post on their blogs about how they've redone their craft space. I keep everything in big tubs and have to lug it all out of my closet whenever I want to work on something. Huge pain in the butt. Hopefully, Chris and I will be buying a house in the next year or so and since we have no immediate plans to either get married or have kids I can probably convince him that a craft room is 100% necessary. The photo below is of Heather Bailey's sewing room. She is an amazing designer, craftster, sewer, and artist. Everything about her is Just fab. You can find her blog on my blog roll (hello my name is heather) or check out her amazing fabrics and paper products here.

a girl can dream............

If you know me you know that....

2009-01-30T11:29:00.000-08:00

....one of my favorite food items is a grilled cheese sandwich. I order them about 35% of the time I go out to eat. While reading my monthly lover (aka Real Simple) they had a grilled cheese toaster bag. Obviously I ordered one the next day. Now what this amazing invention does is creates a grilled cheese for you in the toaster (just like the name says...what a concept)! To create this fabulous sandwich you put a slice of cheese between two pieces of bread, put the sandwich in the bag, put the bag in the toaster, and toast! Viola...you have a great grilled cheese. These grilled cheese sandwiches are actually less fattening because you do not use butter to aid in the toasting of the bread. Now, don't get me wrong, its not the best grilled cheese on earth, but its pretty darn good for a lunch at work when I want a toasty sandwich. I ended up buying mine on Ebay for $5 for two bags. You can get up to 50 uses out of each bag and they are dishwasher safe. You can also make french toast (eggs and all), warm up pizza, the options are endless.

What happens when...

2009-01-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

...everything you plan falls through??

For Erin's birthday she really wanted to go to a taping of the Cheslea Lately show. We totally lucked out and got tickets for the taping on Friday the 23rd. We had all taken the day off from work (for the most part) and were stoked about going up to LA for the day for some Hollywood glam. On Monday we get an email notifying us that the Friday taping was CANCELLED! Everyone was bummed, particularly Erin.

We decided we were still going to do something that day as we had it on our calendars. Erin loves roller coasters so going up to Knotts Berry Farm for the day seemed like a fun alternative. The weather was not looking good all week long. Friday we decided to deal with the weather and get on the road at about 10am and headed up to Buena Park. We are getting all excited because we can see the rides from the road, pull up to the parking lot, and there is a sign that says "PARK CLOSED"...in the words of Marissa "Defeated Again!!!" I now know exactly how Clarke Griswold felt upon arrival at Wally World.
We headed over to a Chili's to re-group. The first important move was to order 4 big size Coors Lights followed by brainstorming of what we could do.

We told our waitress about our botched birthday themed plans and she brought out the crew to sing happy birthday. We destroyed the yummy cake & ice cream!

We ultimately decided to go to the Irvine Spectrum (rich people mall) and engage in retail therapy. Arianne however had the brilliant idea to make a pit stop first. After a scooby snacks shot at Dave and Busters we had an intense skee ball tournament. We played 4 games and I obviously won with 1240 points...these girls had nothing on me! Carly had the lowest score and her punishment was to buy us another round of shots. Needless to say our shopping experience was enjoyable.

In the end, we had a great time together. Just proves the point its not the what, but the who that matters.

A Cake For Erin

2009-01-23T09:02:00.000-08:00

One of my bests birthdays was this week. The hold hag is 28! She is now 2 years older and as she says two years wiser than I. She is annoyingly obsessed with Ohio State so I caved and made her a cake that she would enjoy. It was tough for me to make, but I like the gal so I dealt with it.

I love aprons

2009-01-18T19:59:00.000-08:00

I've started my own little collection and I love each one I have. Thanks Mich for the fabulous one she made me for Christmas. I made one the other night for a friends birthday. They've gotten to be pretty easy for me to whip up and I'm enjoying finding fun fabrics to pair together! I even added a little bling to this one.

Chris was 'forced' to model it for me!

A Journey To The Top

2009-01-14T10:51:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning Chris got up early and headed to Heavenly to hit the slopes. I slept in and planned to dilly dally around town and then meet up with him for lunch. I rolled over and looked at the clock and I thought it said 10:55...I jumped out of bed mad at myself for wasting time sleeping when I could be out site seeing. When I looked at the clock a second time it was about 8:15. I had looked at the radio station which is 105.5!

I took the free bus over to heavenly village and decided to go up the gondola to see South Lake Tahoe from the top of the mountain. The resort charged me $30 just to go up! I thought it was absurd, but I didn't want to go all the way there and not get some good photo's so I begrudgingly paid for the lift ticket.

The first stop off the gondola was 3/4 up the mountain and had a observer deck. The views were amazing. Everything was covered in snow and the lake was glistening in the sunlight. I spent about 45 minutes walking around and taking photos.

I then headed to the top of the mountain in hopes I'd cross paths with Chris. By the time I got up there he had already gone over to another side of the mountain to ski.

After my mountain excursion I went for a massage at a great little spa! It was my activity for the weekend. At 1pm we met up for lunch at the bottom of the Gondola. Obviously we had to hit up Fire and Ice as it was right there and we both love the food!

Lake Tahoe

2009-01-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

After dinner Chris and I got on the road. The drive was very windy and my ears kept popping. Once we got into Tahoe we checked into our hotel. I went on priceline and put in 4 star resort for $160/night. We really lucked out! We ended up at a timeshare property. Our room had a nice big flat screen TV, little kitchenette, and a really pretty bathroom. Chris was a fan of the random tree log that was placed in the corner of the room.

After we got into our room we decided to take a ride and see what was around. We were about 5 minutes from the Nevada border. We crossed over and turned around and started driving back. We realized there wasn't much else to do, but go to the casino. I wanted to get a new Harrahs players club card as we get discounts for their hotels and I'm hoping to get my girls Vegas trip booked soon. So we went inside and decided to play craps. 4 hours later we left, each winning a little bit!

Tex Wasabi's

2009-01-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

I had to go to Sacramento for work Friday and a meeting on Monday. Chris and I decided to visit Tahoe over the weekend as neither of us have been before and we thought it perfect opportunity.

Chris got into Sacramento at about 5:30 and we decided to go to Tex Wasabi's for dinner. We are both fans of Guy Fieri and watch him on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives so thought trying his restaurant would be fun.

I saw the buffalo fries on the menu and couldn't resist. There aren't many vegetarian items on menus that have buffalo wing sauce so I was pretty excited. Chris said they were 'too much', but I enjoyed them thoroughly.

Chris ordered the pork sliders and a Kemosabe Roll that had BBQ beef brisket, french fries, crispy onions & a garlic chili mayo sauce.

I got Morgan's Earthy Crunchy Roll that had crunchy tempura bits, avocado, cucumber, julienne vegetables, daikon sprouts served with a ponzu dipping sauce. It was pretty good. It was nice to have 'gringo' sushi as its called there. Chris said it was 'weird', but he liked it non the less.

Everyone needs a set

2009-01-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

For Christmas Mom got us a set of 'hotel collection' sheets. Chris has been bugging me for MONTHS about getting a set of sheets like they had at hotel he basically lived at this summer. I kept telling him it's the high thread count and to just buy a set. Obviously he didnt. I think he saw the price tag and got scared away. When Mom asked for some ideas for him for Christmas I suggested a set of 'hotel collection' sheets. She laughed and said that he wouldn't want those. I explained to her his obsession and she embarked on a quest to find an affordable set. Mom thought it was too weird to give Chris sheets for Christmas so she gave them to both of us. They are super comfy, crisp white, and by far the best sheets we have. I'm not sure our bedroom is even worthy of these sheets. Now I understand why people pay the high prices for these...they are completely worth it!

I think that I'm addicted to...

2009-01-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

obsessions..
I get obsessed with things and can not stop thinking about them. I think I am addicted to having obsessions.

Examples:

1. Trinket - It's a darn mini horse that I've never even seen in person!

2. Music - I get a little mini playlist going and play those songs OVER and OVER again all day at work. Each playlist has a shelf life of about 7-10 days then I move onto a new one. Generally speaking the music is completely random and spans across genres. Currently the playlist consists of

Paper Shoes - Incubus
Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Before I Forget - Slipknot
Kids - MGMT
Human - The Killers
Road To Nowhere - Talking Heads
Hot N Cold - Katy Perry

3. Neat Handwriting - If I write even one letter messy then I just throw the entire paper out and start over. Its maddening.

Now, I know that I am OCD, but the above type things have nothing to do with the OCD, I think they are just quirks. I like to become addicted to quirky behavior I guess.

I'm going to miss...

2009-01-06T14:20:00.000-08:00

What am I going to watch on Sunday nights now? True Blood, Entourage, and now Summer Heights High have all ended. From what I understand Summer Heights high has not just ended for the season, but forever. Jonah has gone to live with his Uncle in Tonga and Ja'mie back to her private school. The only ones left are Mr. G and Celine.

Is that a miniature horse?

2009-01-05T16:09:00.000-08:00

I recently learned that a co-worker of mine has a miniature horse. I saw a photo of her and became obsessed. Over the next few days the obsession continued to grow and all I could do was talk about her. I had the chance to sit with his wife at our holiday party and chit chat. Naturally one of the topics was Trinket their miniature horse.

Trinket was brought onto their land to be a friend for their full-size horse. I decided that if they ever got another one they would need to name it Morsel (mini+horse=morsel, I know I'm clever). I kept telling Steve that Trinket should live inside the house and he was not having that. So I did the next best thing and made her a scarf!

Here she is modeling my design.

Heck yea i'll go!

2009-01-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

That was my response when asked if I wanted to go to see Ms. Britney Spears. How could I pass up an opportunity to see Brit Brit in Las Vegas of all places. I'm totall stoked about it...now I just have to wait until the end of April to go.

Things to do in 2009

2009-01-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

I generally am not a fan of new years resolutions, you shouldn't need to wait for a specific date to turn over a new leaf. However today is as good a time as any, so here is a list of things that I want to do in 2009...

1. stop drinking diet coke....the hardest thing in the world for me to give up
2. read more biographies..there are some pretty rad stories of peoples lives
3. switch to Toms of Maine toothpaste...the company is the least harmful to the environment of all tooth paste makers
4. eat at local restaurants & not chains... we've started trying to do this already and we've found some great places
5. go to the farmers market....buy local its better for everyone