so this is what hard work looks like

I have some seriously exciting shop stuff going on right now.  Most of it is still in my head.  But that's where everything has to start, right? 

Last week, I set up a work zone in the living room so that I could spread out.  I always think more clearly with plenty of room.  After a few hours of work, I realized that my "discard" pile was almost as tall as the table I was working on.  And I know you're probably wondering at my sanity, taking pictures of a big pile of trash and all, but I thought to myself, "Sometimes hard work looks like a dozen brightly colored zipper pouches and sometimes it looks like a big pile of trash."  And then I took a few pictures, as a way to sort of validate the importance of my work that day. 

So what am I working on that looks so much like trash?  Inspiration boards.  I have a whole slew of ideas about new products and unique fabrics and I just needed a way to get the vision in my head onto some paper.  Inspiration boards are great for that- you fill them with pictures and fabric swatches and paint samples and maybe a few sketches and- all of a sudden- you have some of your brain out where everyone can see it.  But not in a gross way, because that sounded sort of gross when I typed it out. 

I'm still working, but can't wait to show you something in a few weeks here.  Today, I'm getting the house back in order after a fun weekend with friends.  We finished up the weekend with a Superbowl party for two last night.  I made crispy chicken bites and twice baked potato skins (an idea inspired by my brother) and blue cheese dip with veggies.  I cheered for the Patriots, not because I have any professional football team loyalty at all (this was the only game I've watched this season), but because I think it's so cute that a bunch of tiny states had to all band together to make one football team.  And if you think that's poor reasoning, just wait until you hear how I choose teams for March Madness...

don't drive angry

I know I've mentioned it before, but we LOVE Groundhog Day.  Both the movie and the day, but I think we mainly love the day because we get to watch the movie.  Way to go, Bill Murray- way to make February fun. 

We've been planning our little Groundhog day celebration for about a week now, and it has expanded to include not only movie watching, but Chinese take-out and Valentine making.  The trifecta of a perfect winter evening.

Last year, I wrote a few posts with fun ideas for Valentine's day.  You can find them here and here, if you're looking for ideas.   Steve and I love making cards and always make them for each other, but this year I think we're going to make a few for some other people that we love too.  I'm gathering the card-making supplies today and setting them out so that we'll be ready to start when Steve gets home. 

In case you haven't heard yet, Phil saw his shadow this morning, which means six more weeks of winter.  Normally, I complain a bit when Phil sees his shadow, but as this "winter" has been characterized by daily temperatures in the 50s and 60s, I'm a little relieved.  If Phil had predicted an early spring, we'd probably be running the air conditioner by President's day. 

Along with preparing for our evening of fun, I'm also getting the house ready for guests this weekend and finishing up our taxes.  I actually really like doing taxes- probably left over from my grade school love of worksheets.  Whatever the reason, I am thankful to enjoy something that is generally considered to be a chore. 

Now if only I could figure out how to feel that way about vacuuming...

easy floral arranging tips

It's true- one of my required courses in college was Floral Design.  And, as with any serious science course, (you didn't realize that floral design was a science?) the class involved both a lecture and a lab.  In my case, a night lab. 

I don't know about you, but I always considered night labs one of life's real cruelties.  To have to go to class at night?  When it's dark out?  During my dinner time?!?

Somehow, I made it through that semester.  And there have actually been multiple occasions over the past twelve or so years since (how can it have been that long?) that I've been glad I did. 

So, without any further complaining about missing dinner, here are, what I consider, the five key points of floral design:

Lesson 1: any container can be a vase.  For the arrangements we made over the weekend, we used one actual glass vase and four smaller glass jars.  I believe that the glass jars all came from candles we have purchased over the years, finished, cleaned out the jar, and saved it for just such a moment.  Much like the Scouts- we like to be prepared. 

We cut thin strips of burlap and wound them around each jar, securing with a straight pin.  This not only looked cute and went with our color theme, but it unified the dissimilar containers to look like a group. 

Lesson 2: you will need help keeping your flowers in place.  You can use any number of things- a chunk of florist's foam, a flower frog, or tape.  We used regular old scotch tape and made a grid over the top of each container. 

Lesson 3: greenery is your friend.  And it's cheap.  If you were to make a flower arrangement using all flowers, it would not only be very expensive, it would be so full of flowers that you probably couldn't appreciate them each properly.  Before you start adding flowers to your design, you want to fill in the outer edges with green stuff.  In this case, we raided the yard and clipped eucalyptus, cedar, and sprigs from a nice green bush. 

Using the holes in the tape, I put greenery around the whole outer edge of the container.  I tried to have some hanging over the edge and some standing straight up.  A good rule of thumb is that your highest piece in the arrangement should be no more than two times the height of your container. (I can hear Dr. McDaniel cheering me on right now...)

Lesson 4: add flowers in layers, starting with the big ones.  We bought three bouquets of different types of white flowers from the grocery store.  If you are worried about your skills as a flower arranger, or you don't have a great flower selection to work with, just choose flowers that are all the same color.  Using one color flower in different shapes and textures always looks good.  I somewhat evenly spaced my first flowers throughout the container, keeping the flower heads fairly close to the top and letting them rest on the greenery. 

Lesson 5: fill, fill, fill!  An attractive flower arrangement is a full flower arrangement.  Instead of seeing individual flower heads, you want to see one solid shape of flowers.  This shape should be slightly rounded, with a few longer pieces sticking out as accents.  You also want to stuff in enough flowers to hide your tape or floral foam.  Don't forget to add a few that can peek out under your greenery around the sides.  Turn your vase as you work so that you don't leave any bald spots. 

And, done!  We made five flower arrangements in one hour for about $12.  Not too shabby.  If you want to see some more pictures of the finished arrangements, you can check out the photos that were taken at the shower. 

Happy arranging!

a proper welcome

This weekend, we celebrated with some good friends the arrival of a new baby in our midst.  I was in charge of decorations. 

After fighting a cold for several days, Saturday arrived and I was still in charge of decorations and Steve, as it turned out, was in charge of feeding me medicine at regular intervals and helping me stay upright through the whole event.  And decorations too. 

Our biggest task was making flower arrangements for all the tables.  Floral options in January are fairly limited, even here in the South, but I was quite proud of what we came up with. 

You also may spot a familiar party banner in the background.  It worked out perfectly that I just happened to have one in Levi's colors.  We strung it right up, set out the flowers, and then settled in for a good time. 

I had been working all week on some burp cloths for the occasion.  I may not be a Clemson fan, but I have to admit that paw print is pretty cute. 

There were lots of great gifts.  Isn't it fun how people just love to buy things for babies?  I find baby shower gifts infinitely more fun than wedding shower gifts.  It's hard to make a cheese grater exciting. 

While we oohhhed and aaahhhed over each miniature bib and tiny pair of socks, Levi worked the crowd.

He was content to lay on shoulder after shoulder, sometimes awake, sometimes asleep. 

Mostly asleep.  But I love that he'll be able to look back, when he's older, and see what fun we had celebrating his arrival. 

After the shower, Steve took me home and parked me on the sofa, where I rested and rested and I think it worked because today I am feeling much better.  I've been doing housework all morning and haven't contemplated taking a nap once.  The sure sign of health. 

We're still enjoying the flowers that we arranged and tomorrow I thought I'd share a tutorial on how we did it.  If you can believe it, I took a floral design course in college and I was actually able to use some of what I learned! 

no place like home

Our mantle right now is filled up with silver and red and white lights.  It looks celebratory, like we're gearing up for some holiday.  Maybe Valentine's day or Presidents day or just coming home to a cozy house at the end of the day.  That's kind of like a holiday too. 

I have a couple of lovely red glass pieces that I've received as gifts that I was excited to pull out.  All of the silver candlesticks and bowls were purchased last January.  And the lights- well, you know- they're just hard to put away.  I think that white lights are in order for any months during which it gets dark before 6pm. 

I enjoy this season of the year, when the house looks rather bare.  It's an opportunity for me to think up new furniture arrangements or to see the beginnings of a new color scheme.  I do my best household thinking in the winter. 

Last winter, I moved my sewing station all the way upstairs, only to move it down again a few months later.  This winter, what do you think I've been dreaming about?  Moving everything back upstairs, of course.  It's a good thing Steve is a patient man.  I certainly can't move all that furniture by myself. 

Today I am happy to be home, making soup.  It's potato leek and we're all properly excited. 

class is in session

I taught my first sewing class this morning.  It was even more fun than I thought it would be. 

Yesterday, I was so excited to get started that I made pin cushions for each of my students. 

Today, my dining room filled up with intelligent, funny, creative women and we spent most of the morning doing one of my favorite things.  It was so, so great. 

I love to teach and, more than that, I love to share things with others that bring me joy.  Hobbies, skills, information, food- I just like to share.  I think I probably made a really great preschooler. 

We talked about sewing terms and learned how to wind a bobbin and thread the machine and my favorite part was when someone would comment, "I can't believe I'm actually sewing!". 

Watching others learn inspires me to learn. 

The sun is out today (finally) and I am ready to be outside a bit after all the rain we've had.  I'm also almost ready to show you the mantle- I can't believe that January is almost over!  This is a wintry mantle though, that will keep on going through February.  I've been tweaking it a lot, but I think it's almost done, so I'll plan to show pictures later this week.  













if you're not hungry, you will be soon

There's something about our new kitchen lights that makes me feel like I'm on a cooking show.  Food just looks great under bright lights! 

As I looked back over our pictures from the past week, I noticed that they were mostly of food. 

You know what I like to do. 

We've had some pretty great meals recently, but this weekend especially amazing.  It was cold and rainy and we barely left the house.  In fact, on Saturday I was only out of my pajamas for a couple of hours.  Just long enough to run to the store and pick up a few more groceries. 

Friday night I made macaroni and cheese with chicken and we enjoyed it all weekend long.  It's one of those casseroles that gets better with each reheating. 

On Saturday, we decided to make brunch together.  Cooking with Steve is one of my favorite things.  We both love eggs Benedict, but have never made them at home.  Feeling ambitious, Steve watched this cool You Tube video and learned how to make poached eggs for us.  I did a little Internet searching and found this easy blender Hollandaise sauce recipe and it turned out great on the first try!  I'm not sure what we were happier about- the delicious food, or the new skills that we learned! 

Our cast iron skillet was in almost constant use, and we pulled it out one more time to make a berry crumble on Saturday night. 

Berry crumble + Haagen-Dazs vanilla bean ice cream + fire in the fireplace + watching Mary Tyler Moore with my sweetheart = the best kind of weekend entertainment

After listing everything out like this, I'm a little shocked that we didn't have to roll each other out of bed this morning.  I promise that we ate very reasonable portions of everything, and also threw in some apples and oranges for good measure.  And tea- always lots of tea.  Our new favorite is Celestial Seasonings Lemon Zinger.  It's pink! 

The rain continues and today I'm feeling thankful to be dry at home, working my way through a pretty fun list of Monday tasks.