Crochet...

My 23 year old brother drew my name for Christmas this year.

I told him that I really really really want to learn how to crochet...

He got me this book... a pack of seven different crochet hooks... and some beautiful green yarn.

He scored... big time! I've got the best brother....

Photo from here...

My bedroom...

... is boring... period! I was going to do a before shot today but my camera wont even turn on... I think that it died. Lucky you!



I have never in the seven years that I've been married tried to decorate my bedroom... okay, that's a small lie. Last year my husband tried to help me decorate our bedroom and pressured me into buying this silver bedspread... which didn't help the problem. Then we painted the wall behind the bed a dark purple that was short lived because it just looked like mud brown... sigh... it's been struggling for a while now but I think that I finally have my ideas in line enough to make something of this room. That's one of my goals for this year is to make this room beautiful!



So here are the rough plans...





1- I've always wanted to make an upholstered headboard... and I keep going between a dark brown or a white one... but I think that brown is going to win out.

2- I love white bedding. I'm nervous about this one because I have a wild and sticky fingered little two year old... but there is always bleach right? This is one from West Elm that is just beautiful.

3- We need a new quilt for under the duvet as well.... and I really love this pattern called Stacking the Odds from Denyse Schmidt.

4- I love these knit throw pillows from West Elm. However, I think that I'm going to knit my own for our bed (besides, I saved this picture a million years ago and I don't think that they carry them anymore anyway...)

5- We had some amazing family pictures taken in September and I love them. Just the colors that I want to put in the room too... aqua, white, touches of yellow. And look at my little man... what a doll he is! I can't wait to put this one up on the wall!

6- We really need some more clothing storage in our room. I saw this Ikea Hack that Little Green Notebook blogged about. So nicely done! I think those would look great as night stands in our room.

7- Just tying in more of the pretty colors from the Hope Valley fabric line from Denyse Schmidt. More blues, aqua and yellow please!

8- Also some pretty artwork from Urban Design would look great on the walls...



So there are the plans... I can't wait for it to all come together!

Fabric Matching Game...

Finally, my sis opened her present from Christmas!!! Here is a fun matching game that I made for her family...

I was going to print off the pictures and modge podge them onto wooden tiles... but then I saw this fabric matching game over on No Big Dill (instructions are on her blog) and knew that I would have more fun with this. I'm more of a sewing girl than a modge podge girl after all...

I wasn't a huge fan of the iron on transfer paper that I used. Other than that I love the way that it turned out!

This is a baseball loving family so I used Alexander Henry's baseball fabric. A smaller print might have been better (or is it just me that would want to cheat and memorize the patterns on the back...)

Chairs...

Twas two nights before Christmas and we were completely done Christmas shopping!!! So we decided to have a little fun... eat some pizza and egg nog (because we're healthy like that)... and recover our dinning room chairs!

Before...

We bought our dinning room set a year and a half ago on Craigslist and the chair seats were white. We knew that they didn't have a chance of staying white in our house, and I've been meaning to recover them ever since... but I just kept putting it off.

So we went and got some pretty green/brown/cream/gray fabric to go on top. And I have to say, this $12 staple gun from Home Depot may be the best $12 I've ever spent on anything...

We just cut out the fabric, pulled it tight, I made husband fold under the raw edges because I wanted it to look nice (even though nobody will ever see the bottom of the chair...) and stapled away!

After...

We even went the extra mile and covered them in vinyl too... just so that we wont have to do it again anytime soon! I love them! They look so much better! Now to finish the rest of the room to match the chairs...

My favorite pasta...

This is too good not to share...

I have a favorite pasta dish... it's so easy it's pretty much a no brainer! It only needs four main ingredients and they are things that I usually have around all the time. Husband thinks that it's pretty good too!

Here's how it's made...

Boil up some pasta noodles, any kind will do. Drain the water and then add:

olive oil

lemon juice

a little garlic salt

Parmesan cheese

That's it! No measurements, just add it in and taste, see what flavors you want a little more of. Sometimes I like it more lemon-y, sometimes a little more garlic-y. It always tastes light and fresh which I love!

I threw in some grilled chicken and asparagus last night and called it a complete meal. Yum!

Christmas revealed...

I made some of the gifts that I gave out this year... so here are a few now that they've been opened.

My sister and brother in law are big BYU fans.... I mean big! So I knit their family of five hats in the BYU colors. I think that they turned out pretty cute.

I found this great purse pattern over at Made by Rae. So I made these two purses for my two younger sisters and then filled them up will all kinds of goodies that they would like (guitar picks, earrings, Burt's Bees....)

Both sisters are so different, it was fun to make a purse that would fit their personalities.

I have one more present that I made but it hasn't been opened yet... so I'll share that one later!

Thinking about...

I wish there was more time in December to work on holiday crafting.... but there never is! Maybe in July... is that what Christmas in July is all about? Work on the crafts you want for Christmas but wont have time to make once the fall comes around? Like this cute little deer (sorry, I have no clue where I got this picture from... anyone know?) I would love to make some cute little deer for part of our Christmas...

I made this Guiltless Alfredo Sauce the other day... Oh my... it was really really good! Really easy too! Anything that uses real garlic is good in my book though. Never again will I use pre-canned Alfredo sauce...

I'm starting to get a real shoe fetish... a little late in life?... maybe I don't want to turn 30 and not have bought any real cute shoes in my lifetime ;) (I've got a little ways to 30 though... so there is still time). I'm planning on finding some of these under the tree... why little man... you shouldn't have!

I also have a thing for yellow these days. Maybe it's the gloominess of winter... I keep finding myself drawn to yellow. Like these flowers, and this fabric, (down at the bottom) and maybe even something like this skirt...

Reindeer...

Reindeer... aren't they beautiful!

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Big thank you!!!

I wanted to say THANK YOU!!! to everyone who ordered family trees this year! It's been a forest around here... literally! I've had so much fun making these, knowing that someone will open this on Christmas morning... a tree symbolizing their family... I'm so happy to be a part of that.

I wanted to share my most "challenging" tree of the season. One family named four of their kids "R" names... so initials weren't the best idea. Instead I stitched out the full names...

I think that it turned out really cute! Ron, Richard, Ryan, Randy... and Kelli ;). Too cute!

Christmas-y...

We finally got our Christmas decorations up... about time! I knew that if I didn't get them up this last weekend then it wasn't going to happen... but it did.

We don't have a whole lot of Christmas decorations. I'm really bad at decorating for holiday's, Christmas included. This is going to be something that I'm going to work on next year... more on that later.

Yes... I do have Santa decked out in leopard print as part of my Christmas decor... I love it! I don't mind having leopard print swirled into our holiday fun... Red, silver... and leopard.

We are starting a new tradition this year though. A friend of ours gets their kids a new ornament every year that symbolizes "the year" for that child. I thought that was a cute idea! So this year we got little man...

... an elephant. He's already ripped the poor elephants spring arms off of him... but he's two... so whatever. He's still cute. And little man has been obsessed with elephants all year so it fits him.

Chocolate chip cookie...

I've been on the hunt for a while... for the best chocolate chip cookie out there. You see, I'd been making this one recipe forever... and I noticed that my husband would eat one and call it good. That sort of bothered me, because if I'm going to try and be a good wife and have warm cookies available then I think they should get eaten right? So one time I asked him if he didn't like chocolate chip cookies or something and he said, "Umm... I like them, just not those ones..." Oh please!

So I've tried out about six different recipes now, all claiming to be the best... each time husband has not given his utmost approval. Until yesterday...

These may be the winners... they were dang good! Crisp on the outside yet still chewy in the middle... husband took a little baggie to work this morning...

Stacking the Odds...

Oh my... have you ever fallen in love with a quilt before? I hadn't "fallen in love" until last night when I saw this Stacking the Odds quilt by Denyse Schmidt. Oh my... I love it!

I love the pattern... the clean lines... the rows... the white.... how modern it is compared to other quilt patterns... I love this new fabric line she has going called Hope Valley.

My husband has been asking me for years (literally) to make a new quilt for our bed. Ours was a wedding gift and has been well loved... and is falling apart. I've been hesitant because it's pricy and takes so much work to make a king sized quilt... but I'm doing it! I'm totally going to make this one... I can't wait!

Amy Butler Rugs...

I've always loved Amy Butler's fabric. Now they've made her fabric into rugs!!! Oh they are beautiful... if I only had you know... $1700 to drop on a rug.

John and Emily Jones Memorial Auction...

Stephanie over at A Daily Scoop is hosting an online auction for Emily Jones, the wife of John Jones who died in the Nutty Putty caves last Friday (you can read about it here). He leaves behind a wife who is pregnant with her second child, and a 14 month old daughter. My heart aches for this sweet family... my own husband has gone through those caves many times. Life is so fragile, and I can't even imagine what his sweet wife is going though now and will continue to go through with this great loss.

I am auctioning off one of my family trees. It is item #22 in the auction. The auction is running until December 7th. So please head on over there and take a look at the items up for auction. All proceeds will go to the John and Emily Jones Memorial Fund.

Snow...

I don't plan on seeing any of this anytime soon... so enjoy it for me.

Snow on berries... photo from Getty Images.