Sugar, Spice, and Lace

Bathroom Remodel: The process

2012-06-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen my first post on our pretty bathroom makeover you can check it out here.

I wanted to share more pictures of the process this bathroom went through to get to its finished beautiful state.

It was a lonely unused bathroom that hadn't been properly finished till we moved it.

I did all the demo myself, besides the toilet my husband took that one out so we could prepare the floor to lay tile.

We laid tile. Patched walls and ceiling. Sanded and primed everything. Put board and batten up and primed that. Ceiling was Spackle to match and painted colorplace white satin. Board and batten was painted the same colorplace white satin as the ceiling. Above the board and batten the walls were painted colorplace quaint village green. A new light fixture was installed. A new mirror was hung along with new toilet paper roll holder, and towel bar. I painted the vanity quaint village green. My husband and I built the shelves and installed them. (I will post more about how we did those soon.)

There will be a few more post coming soon about some of the details in this bathroom and how we did them ourselves on a budget.

Look for those coming soon.

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Batman Birthday cakes and cupcakes

2012-06-19T00:11:00.000-07:00

In our family batman is pretty popular.

My husband is one of the biggest fans of batman out there and our nephew is following him.

I just wanted to share the batman birthday cake I made for my nephew and cupcakes for my husband.

The cake was many ideas I had seen before put together in one cake. It was quite simple but very fun.

I made two 8" round chocolate cakes allowed them to cool then place on a pan covered in foil and stuck in the freezer for an hour. Freezing cakes make them really easy to frost. The frosting is a simple chocolate with a little bit of black food dye to make it look more like black without tasting like tons of food dye. The add white frosting circles in the middle to create the number 8. It was my nephews 8th birthday by the way. The buildings are chocolate wafer cookies cut at different shapes then stuck to the sides and in the middle along the white circle. Yellow frosting piped on in little dots and lines create the building effect and some yellow lines pipped on for the street. I added a few batman toys I bought for him to keep to the cake the hella-copter is on a skewer with a dot of hot glue to keep it on along with the bat symbol.

For the batman symbol cupcakes they were super simple.

I made cupcakes and yellow butter cream and frosted in a frosting bag with a round tip. For the bat symbols they are made of chocolate. I just printed of a bat symbol of the size I wanted placed it under a piece of wax paper then with melted chocolate in a frosting bag with a small hole I piped it on tracing the symbol and filling it in and allowing it to cool in the fridge. Once cool carefully peel of and place on cupcakes and ta-dah its awesome!!

Do you make birthday cakes for your family?

What are some you have done?

Tell me in the comments below!

Also fill free to join this site by pressing join this site in the column to the right, signing up to receive these posts by email, or like my page on facebook

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

<3 Lace

Our Bathroom Remodel Reveal!

2012-06-18T18:28:00.001-07:00

For the past three weeks my husband and I have been working on our little basement suite bathroom.

I wanted to take what we had and make it better easily and low on cost. Man we hit that goal on the head. I started looking at different blogs that have done bathrooms of the same size as ours. I love two I found and most inspiration come from

Master Bathroom Redo @ 320 Sycamore

And I loved the board at batten from Thrifty and Chic

SO you wanna see what my bathroom looked like when we started?

Yeah it doesn't look very inviting and needed a lot of love.

But now I love it.

We added board and batten to the walls that really open up that bathroom.

My husband built the shelves above the toilet.

This was a super fun project that made a huge difference in the spaces feel and functionality.

I will be posting more blogs on this remodle and how we did for low cost our selves.

You can follow my blog by clicking the follow button the the right side bar or on facebook.

<3 Lace

Potato Soup with Rivels

2012-04-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

I grew up having this soup and I love it.

My mother caught the concept on a news show cooking segment a long time ago she then adapted it for our family and taught me this recipe. I now make it for my husband and his family.

This Potato soup is a little different then most others. It contains red potatoes, bacon, and onion, as wells as rivels.

Unlike most potato soups that are thickened by flour and butter this soup has rivels. Rivels are a egg and flour mixture that make some dumpling like pieces.

Wanna make this super easy and yummy recipe?

Well keep reading I will take you step by step.

What you will need.

6-9 Red potatoes if you have smaller ones use more and for larger use less.

6 cups chicken broth

4 slices bacon chopped

1 cup onion chopped

3 cups milk

1 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

3 drops Tabasco sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Chop your red potatoes into small pieces.

Place in your soup pot.

Cover with chicken broth.

Allow to simmer for about 20-30 mins till soft.

While potatoes cook in a separate frying pan add chopped bacon pieces.

Cook the bacon till it starts to crisp then add chopped onion.

Cook till onion is soft and bacon is crisp.

Let bacon and onion rest on a paper towel to drain off grease. Set aside.

In small bowl add eggs and flour and with fork mix together. Keep combining and cutting with fork till you form rivels, they will look like small rice grains.

When potatoes are soft add the milk and rivels and cook for ten minutes on medium high heat. The rivels will thicken up the soup and rivels will be soft.

Add bacon and onion mixture, slat, pepper, and Tabasco sauce. Cook for five more minutes on low. Then you are ready to serve.

This recipe makes six large servings.

ENjoy

Hope you like it. If you try it let me know in the comments below!

Love <3 Lace

Springtime Basket Wreath

2012-04-08T22:26:00.002-07:00

Awe well happy belated happy Easter.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday however you celebrate it in your family.
We had a lovely gathering with my husbands family and are nieces and nephew.
We hid Easter eggs for the kids and had too much really good food.

now down to business...

Doesn't this time of year just make you want to splash bits of color throughout your house?

I love the blooms and buds popping up all around.

And you can't forget to adorn your door with a spring inspired wreath!

This basket of spring only costed $3 to make!!

Wanna know how I made this cute yet cheep wreath?

Well if so read on and I will show you how.

First you need a few simple things as follows....
Wreath form (I used a straw one bought at the dollar store)
Yellow Crate Paper (dollar store as well. I used two rolls comes in one pack)
Wide cheap ribbon (bought for a dollar from Walmart)
Silk Leaves (had some leftover from our wedding)
And hot glue and pretty ribbon to tie a bow with if you like.

Place and hot glue your leaves on half the wreath making the handle part of the basket wreath.
I simply placed all my leaves where I wanted them then went back and glued them in place.

Next start right under where the leaves end take a piece of wide ribbon cut a length the fits across the wreath with the ends fitting behind the wreath. Hot glue in place. And repeat all the way down.

Make sure you put the ribbon on tight because this is the basket part that the flowers will attach to.

OK now onto the flower making. I must confess that I didn't get any photos of the making of the yellow pretty flowers so I took some making the same flower with brown packing paper. So this is why the following pictures will be of a brown flower.

For the flowers I cut 1' , 1' 6", and 2' strips of crate paper.

Strip of paper.

Scrunch it up in your hand.

Straighten it out again, but be careful this is still paper.

With your hands holding each end twist the paper to get a nicely twisted gathered strip like the photo.

Starting at one end fold over and place a small dot of glue to start your flower.

Wrap around the glue fold. Hold in place with your fingers and continue placing small dots of glue and wrapping around. Keep the flower flat to achieve the shape of the flowers on the wreath.

Wrap and glue until you have a tail left that is big enough to cover the backside of the flower.

Glue a circle on the tail and press on the back of the flower to cover the backside and hold in place.

Trim any excess paper that may be sticky out the edges from the back side we glued on.

Your flower should look something like this one.

The length of your strip will determine the size of your flower.

Now make a bunch more. For my wreath I used two rolls of crate paper and made the perfect amount of flowers for my wreath.

Once you have your wreath prepared and your flowers made, comes the fun part of gluing the flowers on!

Use hot glue to glue the flowers on the ribbon. I place mine starting from the sides to the bottom placing them very close and over lapping at times. I think this achived the best look over all.

Glue them on close together.

And your DONE!

Add a bow then hang it up and admire your hard work and few dollars spent well!

Thanks for hanging out with me.

Hope you have a super day!

Love <3 Lace

Little Ballerinas

2012-04-02T17:43:00.002-07:00

When I was a little girl I wanted to be a ballerina, like most little girls do! My mother took me and my sisters to ballet class supporting us in this dream we all had of being ballerinas.

I found out years later that my large feet and odd proportions were not meant for the dance floor, so I did not become a ballerina and that's fine by me. My sisters Kate and Natalie on the other hand are true ballerinas. Kate lives in Washington D.C. living the life of a ballerina. She amazes me with her talent and perseverance to reach for her dreams. Natalie continues her training in ballet along with trying new sports and activities like her new found talent in swimming. It is true that training in ballet can help you in any physical activity. It is pretty obvious that I have grown up and around the ballet world and it still is apart of my life as I continue to support my beautiful ballerina sisters.

Kate as Clara, and Natalie as a Russian girl with the Nutcracker Prince

We love to share are love and experience in ballet with other little girls. My cousins wife just recently had a little baby girl, we could not pass up the opportunity to make her little one her very own ballerina outfit, so with the efforts of our mother and sisters we all set off to make a very personal to us gift that held a story behind it.

My mother crochet these very delicate soft pink baby ballerina slippers

My sisters made this beautiful pink baby tutu names the Kate tutu.

My sisters would make tutus to raise money for their ballet school. Every ballerina that made a tutu would name it after their self, so every little girl that received one of these tutus also received a story of the ballerina that made it. Kate included hers for our cousin's baby girl. In the card is two pictures of Kate one of her as a 3 year old little ballerina and one recent picture as the sugar plum fairy for the Washington ballet's nutcracker.

Kate as the Washington Ballet's Sugar Plum Fairy

I appliqued these onesies by hand of ballet slippers.

And whats a cute little ballerina without some matching bows? These were also made by myself as well.

And tired with ribbons and bows.

All together these precious hand made gifts create a one of a kind baby shower gift for a little girl to be welcomed into the world with. All little girls should have the chance to dream of being a ballerina one day.

With love <3 Lacy, Our Mommy Tamra, Kate, and Natalie!

Cherry Limeade in a Cupcake!

2012-03-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

Ahh Spring is here and there is nothing like Cherry Limeade to ring in spring.

And nothing like a yummy cupcake either.

So how about some Cherry Limeade Cupcakes!

I made these for a family birthday party. My sister in law always makes me cherry limeade when I go to her house so when I saw this recipe for a cherry limeade cupcake I had to make them for her birthday.

Everyone loved them and thought they were super yummy.

I think they look super cute!

So are you tempted yet? Would you like to make your own cherry limeade cupcakes?
Well you can too!
Head over to Annies-Eats for the recipe.
Enjoy!!

Love <3 Lace

Bountiful Baskets and such

2012-03-17T03:18:00.002-07:00

I grew up in CA with plentiful amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Living now in Utah I was noticing the lack of fresher and afodable produce until I heard about Bountiful Baskets a co-op that is ran by volunteers and people like me the make a contribution to buy the product. We recently started receiving bountiful baskets and LOVE everything we get. Their basic basket is made up of half fruits and vegetables and normally fills up a big laundry basket all for $16.50

They have locations for pick up in many states click here to find a location near you!

In our last basket we had kale I didn't know what to do with kale so we tried this recipe

Baked Parmesan Kale Chips from Skinny Taste

They were so yummy I was surprised how much everyone who tried them loved them!

<3 Lace

I've been a bit MIA lately....

2012-03-15T03:24:00.001-07:00

Sooo.....

this is not a craft post.

so if that's what you are looking for skip this one.

this isn't a post to give you a million reasons/excuses as to why I haven't blogged.

but more as to what I have learned in these about two weeks of being MIA.

it's ok to cry in public.

walks in the sun are good for the soul.

comfort food is good but a friend to talk to is much better.

I'm my worst judge/critic.

It's never as bad as it seems.

doing something I love makes my heart warm.

I miss not regularly crafting and posting!

Ok so that is my little list of things I have learned/rediscovered.

I have been ~~trying~~ tweaking my blog I just wasn't loving the look and feel so maybe one day I will figure it all out as for now I am still a student in all blogging maters.

And Lastly I want to know what things you would like me to post about. If you have a recipe I should try please share it in the comments below, or if you have something you think I would love to make please share it in the comments below.

I have a bunch of half done projects so I will get back to finishing them so I can share!! Yay!

Love <3 Lace

My Birthday Minnie and Mickey Mouse Cupcakes!!

2012-03-02T02:13:00.001-08:00

Yay Its my Birthday!

I am one of those silly people who love to cook and even make there own birthday cake! Weird? I know!

I saw a picture for mickey and Minnie mouse cupcakes but for the life of me can find where it came from.

So I made up my own version and instructions.

I just made a simple white cupcake

and whipped up my fluffy white butter cream frosting.

1 cup softened butter

whipping cream

powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

With my mixer I beat the butter and start adding a little cream and a few cups of powdered sugar give it a whirl with the mixer and add vanilla and more sugar till the consistency fluffy yet not wet.

I really dont measure when making this frosting and just go by taste and texture.

When my cupcakes are cooled I piped a circle of frosting on each cupcake place one big Oreo cookie in the bottom center and two mini Oreos above the other like ears. For the Minnie ones I piped a bow on with pink with a easy sugar water and food color I mixed up.

Super easy and super cute.

My nieces and nephews loved them so much!

My favorite Oatmeal Cookies!

2012-02-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

I love oatmeal cookies, but I am picky. I love the sugary thin and crispy only oatmeal ones.

So I went on a such for that recipe and I found it here.

So yummy!

Best Oatmeal Cookies!

Lollipop Flower Pot

2012-02-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

My nieces and nephews LOVE lollipops

So when I saw this picture here I had to make my mother in law one.

Super easy!

I used a Styrofoam ball, a planter pot, hot glue, and six pounds of dum dums.

Go here for the full directions.

My mother in law loves it and so do the kids!

Mini Little Cheesecakes!!

2012-02-27T12:52:00.000-08:00

Yummy Little Cheesecakes

These are delish and have a faster cooking time because of there smaller bite size.

Crust:

1 cup of cookies, crushed (I used oatmeal cookies crushed)

2 Tablespoons Butter, melted

Filling:

2 - 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

a pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees

Place liners in 24 muffin cups.

Mix cookie crumbs with melted butter together and spoon into each muffin cup and gently pressing down to cover the bottom of each muffin cup.

Cover and set aside.

To make filling combine all filling ingredients and mix thoroughly then spoon on top of crust filled muffin cups till just about full and evenly split between all 24 cups.

Bake for 18-20 minutes until firm to touch but still soft. Chill for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

Garnish with powder sugar and slice berries.

Love <3 Lace

Desk Organizer:Craft Corner

2012-02-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

Isn't it fun to take something that you don't use often but can't bare to get rid of and make it useful.

Well I do.

SO this funny looking thing here is a cake stand that we used at our wedding. It was perfect for what we needed and can be used and such a stand when we have cake again. But I don't know about you but we don't have cake on a silver cake stand every week. It was laying around upside down.

Upside down makes it look like a tray with a bowl.

So now it sits in my craft area all cute like with fun things in it.

The paper flowers inside the bowl are punch outs leftover from our wedding.

The jars are small jam size mason jars with just the lid rings with do dads inside them.

It makes the perfect caddy to hold things I use often.

Love <3 Lace

Dressed up white board:Craft Corner

2012-02-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Here is another little make over of something I had laying around that I thought would work in my craft corner.

I had this boring looking white board.

So I dressed it up a little.

Painted the edges green-blue color I mixed myself with craft glue. Made a few rolled felt flowers and a ruffled fabric flower. Perfect for writing to-do lists and notes.

Love <3 Lace

Sharing here:
every creative endeavor

Ruffled Fabric Flowers

2012-02-22T18:50:00.003-08:00

I love fabric flowers so here is another quick and easy tutorial.

What you need

4" Satin Ribbon (fabric can be used)

Thread

Needle of sewing machine

Take any length of the ribbon (I used about 16")

and fold it in half.

Sew a straight line on the edge of the ribbon where the ends are.

Pull the thread to gather the ribbon.

You want to gather the ribbon till it starts to ruffle and form a flower shape.

Arrange the ribbon so it looks like a flower then on the backside stitch it together with a few stitches to hold it together.

Add a cute button are some sparkly beads to the center.

These flowers can be used to decorate picture frames, to make hair clips, and many other things.

To check out some other fabric flowers I have done.

Rolled Felt Flowers

Rolled Fabric Flowers

Love <3 Lace

Letters:Craft Corner

2012-02-22T17:15:00.003-08:00

Hey Everyone!

I haven't been a very good blogger lately.

I have been making things just not very inspired to share them lol I hope that happens to everyone.

Well I have been working hard to make something of my craft area. So I will be doing some posts to share what I am doing and making while I finish my craft corner.

I had these foam letters of my name my Mom gave me many years ago and they are super cute but I wasn't sure what to do with them anymore. They were pink and white, and didn't really go with the colors I am using. So I ask my husband what I should do with them and he said paint them and put them on your craft desk. Good idea!

I wasn't sure if they would paint very well, but this type of foam does.

I had pictures of the process of making them so you could see before and afters but I can find them anywhere!

Aren't they cute?

I love making over the things I have to give it new life.

I just painted them a Tiffany blue and dressed up the Y with some craft pearls.

Love <3 Lace

Well hello again!

2012-02-17T07:28:00.001-08:00

I have been MIA lately which isn't like me, but I took a little break due to sickness and such. Now I am back in hopes to be in the swing of things once again.

A few things to share.....

I recently won a giveaway by Sew Dang Cute Crafts.

She is awesome go check her out.

So the prize was for a stencil from Royal Design Studio

I am thrilled to revive my pretty stencil.

I hope the walls to our love shack will soon be stencil ready because I can not wait!

Also a big thank you to both Sew Dang Cute Crafts & Royal Design Studio

Another exciting bit of news...

My baby is fixed.

My sewing machine that is.

Let me take a minute and tell you a little about this singer.

I didn't have a sewing machine since moving from WI and having to return my mothers kidnapped machine to her. My father in law has a rental house and upon one of his tenets vacating the place he left behind this little gal. So my father in law brought it to me. I was excited except one problem it did not have a foot peddle and for the life of me I could not figure out where one would plug in. So off to the sewing machine expert she went and found out she needed a air pressured foot peddle. I have never heard of one. We bought a cheap used one and she was up and running. She had a hard time keeping pressure so sewing would go like this...sew for 5 seconds wait for 10. Well it became difficult to sew with but my awesome hubby who enjoys taking things about and somehow magically putting them back together did just that with my little peddle and now it sews like a dream!!!

Now you can look forward to more sewing projects by me!!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

Love <3 Lace

St. Patrick's Day Rag Wreath

2012-02-09T21:16:00.000-08:00

I know it isn't even valentines or March yet....

But I had the urge to make these cute wreaths.

Yes I made two.

Gave one to my MIL and the other for me.

I love a cute wreath that I happen to have everything for.

SO here is how I made them.

Here are the supplies.

All the green fabric I had on hand (scraps and such)

Green ribbons

Wire (you can use a hanger) I had some green craft wire its not as sturdy as a hanger.

I used a frying pan about 13" and wrapped my wire around it to create a nice circle then twisted the ends together.

My wreath form.

I cut strips 1"x 7" from my fabric, ribbon, and burlap.

(you cant see the burlap in the picture but I also used a green tinted burlap.

I just went in the line of my piles and took a piece tied it on the wire and went to the next pile repeating until the wreath was full. Also it helps to push the knots together to create a full wreath.

I had enough for two wreaths.

Here is wreath #1 I added a bow and some foil clovers from the dollar store.

And here is wreath #2 with a little Irish hat and large clover from the dollar store and a bow.

I love how these turned out so very cute and easy.

Love <3 Lace

Breakfast Tray-Pretty and Easy

2012-02-08T12:59:00.000-08:00

I love a pretty and easy project that looks adorable.

My Mom loves breakfast trays and has a cute collection of them. They are fun to have as decoration and to serve a simple meal in bed with.

I recently went to Michaels and found in there unpainted wood craft section these awesome trays that come in a set of two for $3.99!! Can't beat that.

They come ready to paint, just a quick sanding with a high grit paper and you are set.

I got creative and bought my first stencil to try out.

I have never stenciled before so this was a perfect little project to practice on, and it turned out beautiful!

This is the smaller one.

And the larger one.

I want to put some sort of wording/saying on them just not sure what yet.

Any suggestions?

Let me know in the comments!

Valentines Picture Frame/Gift

2012-02-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

I love creating cute little things I can make for nothing yet are adorable enough to give to a friend.

I decorated this cute frame using a dollar store picture frame and some felt, paper scraps, mod podge, and ribbon.

Dollar Store Frame

Roughly one inch paper strips

Mod Podged the strips on

All finished...well with the paper part.

Used my ribbon and hot glued one end to the back and pulled across to other side gluing in the back. I did that for all four sides and alternated colors.

Made felt flowers
Learn how to make them here.

Glued them to the corner of my frame.

And DONE!

You can place your favorite quote or a cute message or a picture and give it to someone for a valentines gift! This one is for my husband heehee!

Love <3 Lace

Wreath Cheap and Chic!

2012-02-07T08:43:00.000-08:00

Just like everyone else seems to be doing this year, I am doing my best to spend less!

Even for Crafts!

So when I thought of this cute wreath that uses things I had laying around I got excited.

I love being thrifty.

So here we go.

This is what I used.

Yep a pan (for measuring purposes only)

A cardboard box

Leftover tole from our wedding

And a hot glue gun

Set the large frying pan on the cardboard and trace it with a marker.

Like this!

Cut it out.

Cut cardboard circle in half.

Center a smaller lid in the center of the cardboard and trace it.

Cut out the cent on the trace lines.

Tape all around the seem sealing the two pieces together.

Cut 24" strips of tole or you could use other fabrics and materials.

These flowers are made just like I showed in this post here.

Tie a knot on one end.

Twist and glue.

For more directions go here.

Glue each tole flower to the wreath form.

And Now For the final Product.....

Sorry for the poor picture one day I might have a better camera.

I added a few craft pearls to give it some pizazz!

Well there you have it a cheap and chic wreath!

Perfect for anytime of the year.

Love <3 Lace

Quick Craft Wood Flowers

2012-02-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

I love a little quick craft idea that can be used to decorate. You know those cute little features to put on a book shelf of window seal.

Michaels has these cute laser cut wood flowers for 99 cents!

They come in many different flower styles so its fun picking them out. Plus they are smooth and ready to paint.

So I picked out some pretty colors based on what I am doing with them and whipped some put on them in minutes they where dry and adorable!

Got them dressed to party with some ribbon!

Oh Cute!

The blue one in its new home!

See that twiggy candle there? Learn how to make it here!

Love <3 Lace

Valentines Rolled Felt Flower Wreath

2012-02-04T20:14:00.000-08:00

Remember when I told you how I was trying to make a wreath here well I finished it just in time for Valentines.

Learn how to make the rolled felt flowers here.

I love how this wreath turned out.

This wreath is fairly simple. Just the matter of time it takes to make all of the felt rolled flowers.

I started out with a basic foam ring bought from the craft store.

I wrapped strips of white fabric around the wring securing with hot glue.

I made dozens of different sizes and colors of rolled felt flowers. I went with traditional Valentines colors.

Click here to find out how to make them.

Using hot glue I glued each rolled felt flower to the fabric making sure they are tight and close to each one.

After lots of gluing and rolling felt covering every bit of the wreath, I finish it off with a felt bow.

And that my pretty Valentines Wreath with Felt!

To see my other February Wreath go here

Love <3 Lace

Simple Fix with Curtains

2012-02-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

My mom and I where just discussing how curtains are such a easy and cheap fix to a room.

Well I remembered that when I was trying to tackle this area.

The shelf isn't anything fancy I wasn't ready to paint it at the moment, but I wanted to give a more finished look.

So I bought a tension rod from Walmart. They run around $2. And scored some cheap fabric (5yd for $4!).

A little cleaning up and finding homes for batman and other things that didn't belong.

Taa-Daa

I love hiding things. I wasn't a fan of showing off the fact that we have all the seasons of Simpsons on DVD.

So curtains on a book self work perfect.

Cheap and easy fix.

Curtains don't have to be just for windows anymore!

Love <3 Lace