Next Step

ScrapFest 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:28:00 +0000

This was a day so big, I just had to take off of work for it. . .for awhile now my sister, aunt and I have talked about getting all of our crafty stuff together in one place and having a day of creativity. With my sister still on maternity leave for a little longer and my aunt visiting from Madison, we took advantage of this past Monday to do just that. By 8:30 we were all set up, the living room pretty much filled up - even the extra card table made its way up from the basement to make more surface area for all of our stuff. Suddenly, it was quarter to 4. Where does the time go? And why can't we do this every day??

While my sister focused on completing her baby books for Ella (so that she can start up on the baby books for little Amelia!) and my aunt helped out on some creative scrapbook pages, I focused on a new set of cards for my declining stockpile. Bring on a collection of birthday cards, wedding congratulations and "just because" cards.

But first, check out some of my aunt's handiwork. Using the phrase "you've got the little cutest baby face" as inspiration, my niece Ella was put center stage. Adorable!

Not to be outdone, Amelia's newborn photo shoot got her own page as well. My Aunt Christine created a little pocket on the page and decorated a tag with Amelia's little feet on one side and some cute giraffe stamps on the other.

And on to the cards. . .This just because one could also be a good St. Patrick's Day card perhaps?

This birthday card, using the phrase stamp "happy bird-day to you" and some cute little chickies, features balloons made out of circle punches and string. Just minimalist enough.

Can you tell I like tags? And scalloped edge paper?

I used a tried and true version of the wedding cards I typically make, but then used some yellow rick rack and a Love stamp to change it up a bit. Who doesn't love yellow and gray together?

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not focus on some Valentine's Day cards! My aunt has a lot of cool heart stamps so I took full advantage. With the red one I just went nuts with the stamp pad and with the music themed one I used the scalloped edge paper (again) to frame a piece of music sheet. Both feature the phrase "all you need is love." The hearts are cut out from a vintage sheet of heart art.

And finally, a play on words to leave you with.

Have you been making any creative cards lately? Or seen any ultra-cool ones in the stores? Do share.

Until the next ScrapFest. . .

Sounds Like a Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:14:00 +0000

When Bob and I moved into our new place we conducted a search of all the random stuff that was left in the condo by the previous owner. One find was a set of surround sound speakers stored high above our heads.

After months of letting them sit in the guest bedroom (also know as, the room where all of our stuff with no place to go lives), we dusted them off and picked up some speaker wire from Ace. The speaker wire wasn't any particular brand or quality - we found 50 feet of economy speaker cable for about $8.

It was quite the sight to come home from work one day and see our media center dismantled and speaker wire all over the room. A pleasant sight though - I love when Bob gets as crazy with productivity as I usually do (see: 10 nights and 2 weekends spent working on my shag rug and only finding myself 1/3 of the way done).

Before we even got working on the speakers, we had to remember how to hook the receiver back up. You may recall a long ago post on the drama we faced in purchasing the right receiver. After a few utterances of "no sound,. . .okay now there's sound but no picture. . .now why is the screen purple?" our receiver was back on.

To get the speakers to work, Bob cut the end off of the exposed wire on the speaker and then split the new wire to expose the copper and silver (positive and negative). He simply twisted it around the speaker's wire and secured with electrical tape.

Then, he took the other ends of wire and connected them to the proper receiver outputs and set the receiver to 5 Channel Stereo. We do need to play with the audio levels and percentages a bit as our back speakers sometimes get a bit loud.

For aesthetic purposes, the stand up speakers right behinds our heads as we sit on the couch leaves something to be desired with me, so there may be a switcheroo in our future. . .One goal was to have a low console table behind our couch with a lamp and more bookshelves, so we could always hide the speakers a bit more. But that is for another day!

We only have 4 speakers, so may look at getting the fifth to optimize the audio further, but for now our free surround sound is feeling just fine.

Look closely at these photos and you can see our back panels going up slowly but surely. All we need to put up are the shelves and the decoration and this project is ready to post!

Goals Year Two - Q2 Check In

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:29:00 +0000

Has it been six months already? Time to check in to see if I am on track to be able to complete my goals in half a year.
Culture Vulture

1. Read 15 books - I succeeded in this goal last year and thought I'd tackle it again. Between book club and random reads should hopefully not be a problem. Now as you read down the list at some of the other projects I am putting on tap for myself one might wonder when I will have time to read. . .
The Hunger Games - okay, consider me hooked.
The Paris Wife - Hemingway's First Wife Historical Fiction, call it "Loving Hem"
We Need to Talk About Kevin - disturbing, but engrossing, emphasis on the gross. Not sure I am going to be able to stomach the movie.
Unbroken - great story, filed in the "can't believe it's true" category.

2. Watch 120 movies - time to expand the horizons even further! Maybe this will be the year I finish out the Woody Allen oeuvre.
about 55 in so far. Just a tad behind at the halfway mark, better pick it up! Right now I am watching the Up documentary series and loving it all!

3. Two trips to the theater - My sister and I take an annual trip to see a show and this winter A Christmas Story is going musical! Methinks tickets shall be purchased!

4. Visit two museums - culture me, Chicago, culture me.
8/13/11 - a trip to the Art Institute turned a little special - Bob and I got engaged!

5. Travel to three new cities - Will this finally be the year I make it to New Orleans? What about DC? Or a road trip through Maine? Big plans in my head, lets put something on the calendar.
Consider me covered - Charleston, SC followed by San Antonio. Two February work trips include Boston and New Orleans - first time visits for me. We'll be extending our New Orleans trip for some fun!

6. Book an international trip - chant it with me now: London 2012! London 2012!
photo source
8/16/11 - the trip is booked! April 2012 here we come. . .

7. Have a day of fun and culture with my niece - she'll be coming up on three years old in May - time she got familiar with downtown Chicago! I think we might put off a trip to American Girl Place for another year though. No sense starting too early on that money train.

8. Walk the Willis Tower Ledge - I've been to the observatory deck of the then Sears Tower, but not since the glass box had been added. Face a fear and take the step out!

How Entertaining
9. Make a cheesecake - I have already borrowed the springform pan from sister. Time to try my hand at this new endeavor!

10. Bake bread - After reading through some recipes at a friend's house, I started to think that baking bread (without a breadmaker) was quite doable indeed. Challenge accepted: will it be sourdough or pumpernickel?

11. Love the crockpot - I loves me my meatballs recipe and chicken enchilada recipe, but lets get creative with the crockpot. 4 new recipes in this next year.
Made Taco Soup and a Sweet Chili.

12. Host 3 parties - Last year I took on 4, but with our impending move and a few months of potential dissaray at our casa makes me rethink how many we should commit to. I will tell you this - I am already planning a massive housewarming/holiday party come December!
Housewarming party check.
13. Plan someone else's party - If I can't host at my house I'll take my business elsewhere. Calling on friends and family: bring on your baby shower, your bridal shower or your bar mitzvah and let me take a crack at it.

Health and Wellness
14. Drink more water - My name is Lydia and I am dehydrated. I have never loved water, the taste just doesn't appeal to me. But the positive effects can't be denied. I will try to commit to filling up a water bottle each day at least a couple times.
Been making a considerable effort to fill up the bottle at work. It stares at me from my desk, but I've been good!
15. Run another 5K - time to get back out on the sidewalk and improve my game. When this intense heat finally goes the way of the buffalo I will strap back on the shoes and hit the pavement.

16. Go to the Dermatologist - This fair, freckled face should finally get checked out. Too many scary stories of skin cancer scares out there not to.

17. Build an Indoor Garden - is this health and wellness? I can't figure out what category it would go under. If the purchase of our next place goes through we may be sans outdoor space. How can I still incorporate some greenery?

Adventures in DIY

18. Build a craft table - because I can't bring myself to pay a fortune for this Pottery Barn beauty to the left, lets see how two bookshelves and my old IKEA Malm headboard look together.
Coming together. . .bought the two shelves for the edges as well as wheels and castors to make the table mobile!

19. Pinterest Projects - use the knowledge base and take on at least one new project a month based on the wonderful pins that make the world go round.
Count 'em up with me: Thumbtack Vase Fillers, Egg Roll Wrapper Mozzerella Sticks, Yarn Wreath, Plant Markers, Housewarming Party apps

20. Make a rug - Speaking of Pinterest projects, this one is a doozy. Do I have 60 manhours to commit to making this bad boy? Will I get two steps in and realize I don't know what I'm doing? We'll see what develops. . .
It's 1/3 of the way done. Can't wait to share, it is looking awesome so far. However, the time commitment is no joke.

21. Make 100 cards - seems daunting at first, but considering I get about 25 out of the way come Christmastime I could be able to make this one happen.
Christmas has been the only cards thus far, need to get going!
22. Plan a renovation - this one has some considerations. a) We need to be in our next place. b) It needs to have enough wrong with it to look at totally rehabbing a room. c) we need to have some moolah saved up.
The wedding may put this one on the back burner!

Professional and Personal Development
23. Join a networking group - For a person who works in association management, I haven't taken advantage of many career enhancing opportunities myself.

24. Do something with the Wisconsin Alumni Association - I miss my Badgers!
I did go to a Badger game in October. Does that count??

25. Volunteer once a month - keep it up with Chicago Cares, those little three year olds we read to are too adorable for words.
Knocked out signing up for three months at a time to close out the year with a Library Maintenance activity, Read With Me night with the little kids and making dinner at the Ronald McDonald House!

26. Donate to 3 charities/fundraising activities - Lets help some people out in the things they are fighting for, or fighting against.

27. Look into an Etsy shop - could I possibly turn some of my little endeavors into a selling opportunity? I'm not committing to anything, but will definitely look into what it might take to set up a shop and invest the time.
I just bought 500 one inch blocks to make a bunch of my holiday blocks. So I better start looking into how I'll be offloading them!

28. Learn how to use my camera - I really don't know what I am doing yet with my point and shoot. Time to make a change.
Oh my gosh - there is a setting for incandescent lighting! My indoor photos look 10 times better!

29. Implement video into the blog - I recently got a Sony Bloggie. Let's play.

30. 100 blog posts - with an impending home purchase this shouldn't be a problem at all. There has been a struggle to find enough quality stuff to write about the past few months once the old apartment was pretty much the exact way we wanted it. But the idea of a brand new place? Bring it on blog.
About 45 in so far, still some work to do to hit 100!

31. Develop Adobe skills - Photoshop, thy will be tamed.

32. Wardrobe rehaul - now this is a fun goal: spend lots of money on clothes! It has been awhile since I invested in some new pieces. Already got a jump start by finding the perfect pair of jeans for Casual Friday at Gap this week.
photo source
I plan on treating myself to a couple new outfits for engagement photos - the plus side being that they should also double as cute London trip outfits!

Money Matters
33. Pay off one student loan - Sort of cheating on this one because I already have a plan to get my ECSI loan out of the way come August 1. I decided to take a little bit of extra cash I had and put it towards my smaller loan. After putting the extra minimum payment against my larger loan I should be able to get that one done with in 2012!
8/2/11 - one is done. Ahh, that felt good.

34. Increase percentage of 401K savings - I believe I am already on my way to a healthy retirement considering I was able to start my account at age 22 and take advantage of a company match. However, there is always room for a little more. Look at increasing by a percentage point or two to bring even more money my way when I am in my wisened older days.

35. Assess the portfolio - Do I know what that 401K really means? Not really. I haven't readdressed the investments I am working on in quite awhile so it may be time to make sure I'm doing the best for myself.
Done! We have complimentary access to UBS advisors through my work so I set up a meeting and re-adjusted where I was putting my money. Feeling smarter already.
36. Find three ways to earn extra cash - And no, I won't turn to a life of crime. Working a street festival weekend, market research studies or simply selling off unwanted stuff can help me pad the bank account little by little. Bob and I are going to be able to buy our new bed for the next place based off of a three day weekend working at Lollapalooza!
photo source

8/7/11 - Now that was an exhausting 3 days but the money earned on Lollapalooza weekend will help pay for our new bedroom.
9/10/11 - Worked another fest - this time the Wells St. Fall Fest in a beer tent. Not a bad gig when Sixteen Candles, the 80s music cover band, is playing on the stage right next to you.
9/13/11 - Those focus group sign ups pay off with another one! $150 free in my pocket!

Finally

36.5 Be an excellent Aunt to one - no, make that two - little girls! With a new niece on the way this fall I have plenty of auntie love to go around.
That new niece is here and she is quite something! And I think I'm starting to earn some cool Aunt points with Ella - check out the book I made her for Christmas here.

Smoothie Sailing

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:21:00 +0000

Bob has impressively been rockin' a raw diet for the last week and a half, which will continue to the end of the month. Though I am not riding this wave with him (in fact, just yesterday I ate a giant slice of cheese pizza right in front of him), I did spend some time in the produce aisle myself to stock up on ingredients for smoothies. I decided to go on a bit of a smoothie kick this month and have been getting to know our blender quite well because of it.

I started with some good old fashioned google searching on different ingredients to amass a shopping list. Here are a few of those that have made the cut:

Carrot-Apple Smoothie
from incrediblesmoothies.com
2 whole carrots
1 apple (peeled)
2 cups baby spinach or leafy green
1/2 cucumber
1/2 cup water

This was my first attempt so I don't know that I pulsed it for as long as I should have. It was pretty thick so I added some orange juice to lighten it up. You can definitely taste the carrot! This may have been the greenest thing I've ever drunk.

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1 cup strawberry yogurt
4 ice cubes
1/2 cup milk

Now this one holds a special place in my heart as it is from a Better Homes & Garden Junior Kids Cookbook that we grew up with. It gets pretty frothy and is not quite as filling as some of the others but still pretty tasty.

Mango-Banana Smoothie
1 banana
1/2 cup mango pieces (I just used a whole mango)
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice

This one was nice and thick, very nice. I think I forgot to take pictures even though I made this twice! Mango just makes everything a little better, doesn't it?

Pineapple-Parsley Smoothie
from incrediblesmoothies.com
1 cup pineapple chunks
2 bananas
1 cup loosely packed parsley
2 heads baby bok choy, chopped
6 oz filtered water (you could also use coconut milk)

This was a delight - the bite of the parsley taste with the pineapple made this smoothie ultra-fresh. I recommend! Also, mark it down as a first foray into bok choy!

I did not remember to flag all of the webpages that I was using to build my shopping list, so as I look at the box of flax seed I bought I'm at a bit of a loss! Ahh well, I'm sure a good looking recipe will present itself soon.

Mantle in Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:56:00 +0000

As Bob nears the completion of his painting (all that's left is to dampen the color of the white dots so they aren't so bright and then add in all of the black paint), I look to how to best complement it with mantle decor. Since we moved in last October, our fireplace has been host to Halloween, Fall and Holiday decor. I haven't had to worry about a year round option until now!

Months ago we decided on a color scheme of ice blue, berry and grey for this library/sitting area. The comic book inspiration for Bob's painting had similar shades. On another note, I am in the middle of making a grey shag rug out of a couple dozen cut up white t-shirts (a pinterest find). Cross your fingers this rug turns out well! We have been keeping our eyeballs open for the perfect two chairs. This beauty from Crate and Barrel made us look twice, but the price tag of $900 might be a little beyond what we are willing to shell out!

As for mantle decor, I brought out the vase filler thumbtack balls I made this summer (another pinterest find, check out my how-to here) and also snagged some dried eucalyptus that has been at home in this same white vase in our bathroom for the last two and a half years. I love the layering the branches add in front of the painting! I should also note that the plan is to hang the painting, not just lean it against the wall, so we'll have a little more brick background at the base.

We have these three black candlesticks, but no candles for them just yet. I'm not sure if they will be staying put above the fireplace or if we'll find a different option to jazz up the space. Only time will tell.

So while I can't say just yet that the mantle is a finished product, I am very pleased at how it is coming along! We'll also likely paint the fireplace, but what color????

The Idea's Got Legs

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:13:00 +0000

You may recall a couple months ago I filled you in on our idea to turn 10 IKEA Lack tables into a wall panel/entertainment center.

Well, we are drilling holes into our brick wall as we speak and should have the finished product all up in the next couple weeks to show off!

In the meantime, I had to ask the question, what are we going to do with all of these legs? 10 tables x 4 equals 40 random pieces of wood I don't really have a use for. . .unless. . .I took some inspiration from end tables that consisted of bound together logs or individual pieces of wood, and started creating a 6 leg x 6 leg piece.

Ignore the twine around the "table" - for now I just tried to bind them together as best I could to drag it around easily. As it turns out, we are only planning on using 9 of the Lack tabletops for our wall piece, which leaves the extra tabletop as the perfect fit for this little makeshift table base. Picture it between two cozy chairs in front of the fireplace and I think you may be on to something!

However, the big question is how to get the 36 legs to stick together? Is the answer as simple as wood glue? Interior screws somehow? I suggested stapling and Bob quietly shook his head at me. The cool thing would be to bind them together from the outside, like with something that looks like a belt, but the sturdiness factor would probably take a hit. Here's an image taken from this blog. I suppose we could still keep the belt as merely decorative if screws were in place holding the table itself together. Lots to think about!

I am open to suggestions and will be on the lookout for ideas. Happily, the blogs I just stumbled on trying to find the inspiration pictures had some good ideas for screwing them together!

Next step is making the rug for under the table and finding our perfect fireside chairs!

But a Trifle

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:07:00 +0000

Every few months I have the opportunity to volunteer at the Ronald McDonald house associated with the Childrens' Memorial Hospital to make dinner for the houseguests. You can read about the Hawaiian Night dinner we put together here.

Right ahead of the holidays, the dinner organizer (who always comes up with creative dinner night options!) put me to work making the dessert: a Christmas Trifle! Intimidating at first, once I got started it really came together easily. So easily, in fact, that I decided to recreate the recipe for our own family Christmas!

The recipe calls for green maraschino cherries. I searched high and low (make that, I went to three stores) for these little green guys. I have taken it upon myself to declare that they don't exist. On another note, I have to say the pudding mix with egg nog is a pretty amazing combo. This might be a dish all in itself next holiday season!

Christmas Trifle
16-20 servingsTaken from a Taste of Home recipe.
1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple
3 medium firm bananas, sliced
1 jar (10 ounces) red maraschino cherries
1 jar (6 ounces) green maraschino cherries
3-1/2 cups eggnog, chilled
2 packages (3.4 ounces each) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 prepared angel food cake (8 to 10 ounces), cut into 1-inch cubes
1 carton (16 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Dip bananas in juice; drain and discard juice. Set aside pineapple, bananas, three red cherries and three green cherries. In a bowl, whisk the eggnog and pudding mixes until slightly thickened.

Place half of the pudding in a 4-qt. serving or trifle bowl; layer with half of the bananas, pineapple. cherries, cake cubes and whipped topping. Repeat layers. Garnish with reserved cherries.

My sister was all to happy to use her trifle dish again and it was great to add a dessert to the Christmas Dinner mix (although we definitely had our fill of cookies and snacks before we sat down to our meal!)

Another Martha Challenge: Homemade Snow Globes

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:36:00 +0000

I was a smitten kitten when it came to Martha's homemade snow globe idea. I tackled this one for Christmas and was overall pleased with the results.

You can find the play by play instructions on her website here. I made a couple minor tweaks here and there when it came to making my globes, including skipping the glycerin.

First off was figuring out what scenes to create in the jars. Although my first step REALLY should have been finding the jars. I bought a couple little trinkets thinking they I would find jars to fit them and it didn't exactly work out that way. I also made less snow globes than originally intended so I have a few extra pieces lying around for next year.

I picked up a reindeer and two fawns from the safari display at Michaels. I used to work in a zoo gift shop so I am all too familiar with the vast array of the safari animals! Also at Michaels, I found a package of trees meant for holiday village displays. I picked up the snowmen (I think for $2 at Walgreens!) with the idea of doing a set of three globes, but this project may wait until next year!

Another toy shop garnered me the little santa figurine above. Unfortunately for all involved, Mr. Santa was actually made out of a clay substance and when I immersed him in his watery globe he started to flake apart. Calling it a wash, I opened the lid and he immediately disintegrated! Poor little guy. I guess Martha's tip on knowing the material of your pieces is that much more important to me now.

I used a large jar I had on hand to make a reindeer and tree display. He is quite heavy once I filled it with water, so I hope this one doesn't get dropped! I painted the white lid green and made quite the mistake by painting the inside lid as well. The gorilla glue I used stuck to the paint and not the lid, so when the acrylic paint flecked off when immersed in water the figurines went with them. Take two went much smoother! A healthy dose of glitter later and voila. . .

The next globe was a gift for my Aunt. I used the same "deer and tree" scene and a pickle jar this time around. No paint involved as the gold lid already screamed holiday decor. I noticed in both snow globes that I had a little bit of leaking in the first couple minutes but then I think it made itself water-tight. I chose not to glue the lids on just yet as I wasn't sure if I would need to re-do the water eventually. Sure enough, the water started to get a bit cloudy - I believe the trees I used flaked some green dye into the water. After a quick re-fill these have been back to normal water colors!

Have you tried to make the homemade snow globes yet? What fun scenes can you imagine putting together? What about some without water in them at all? A quick snapshot from Pinterest searching for "homemade snow globes" is inspiration alley indeed!

Pinterest Project - Corky Plant Markers

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:11:00 +0000

Pinterest is definitely not lacking when it comes to possible projects for all of the wine corks you have lying around the house! Message boards, bath mats and jewelry holders - oh my!

I wanted to use my bag o' corks for something this holiday season and nodded my head enthusiastically when this one found its way to my browser. My mom is an avid gardener, so I thought some herb garden markers for her indoor plants this winter could be a nice little gift. Here is the original project post.

The materials: my alphabet stamp set, corks, bamboo appetizer forks and a sharpie (since the stamp ink is water soluble and these may get wet after the plants are watered.)

I started with corks that did not have too much writing on them and did the stamping. Then I traced the letters with the sharpie. I could have tried this free hand but have bad handwriting. For some corks the bamboo forks went in smoothly, but for others I had to use a sharper toothpick to start the holes the forks would sit in to ensure a hold.

The bamboo forks added a little extra flair in their design, but longer skewers or other stakes found at the garden center would work just as well.

I did a test in one of my plants to ensure the ink does not run and the bamboo holds up, and we see to be in the clear.

I included a couple blank plant markers and a sharpie in the gift box when I gave these to my mom for Christmas. In case she has a few more exotic options I did not think of!

So there's one of the more simple cork projects out there. What cork projects strike your fancy? Do you agree with me that this bath"mat", while attractive, could really hurt the feet if you stub your toe on the wooden sides?? (original project post here)

Her Very Own Book

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:37:00 +0000

With Christmas over, this means one thing: I can finally post about some of the presents I made my family without them getting the surprise ruined!

I had a goal to include at least one homemade gift per person this year, I didn't quite get to everybody, but still had plenty of Pinterest inspiration to go round! First up, a few months ago I had written about Baby Shower gift ideas and really enjoyed this one in which you make a personalized book for baby. Here is the original post.

My niece, Ella, is well beyond recognizing her mom and dad at age 2 1/2, but she does love reading books, so I tweaked the idea a bit and took advantage of all of the sites that offer reasonably priced photo books.

I stumbled onto mixbook.com and loved having the option of making a hardcover book. Christmas pricing specials didn't hurt either! I decided to write a story about all of the exciting things Ella did or learned this year including helping in the kitchen, riding a tricycle and becoming a big sister. I didn't think to take any photos of the actual book so these images are of the interactive preview mode on mixbook.com. Hence the page turned down on this cover image!

The templates were so easy to use, drag and drop all the way! They are also very flexible to allow you to create your own layout or change the amount of text vs. pictures. After scouring my own and my sister's hard drive and saving umpteen photos to a flash drive (avoiding telling her exactly what I needed them for to allow them to be just as surprised), I had enough to create quite a story. Ella received a play kitchen from Santa this year (and everyone loaded her up on toy food and kitchen accessories! I found this adorable felt and wood pita pocket set on Amazon), so I found the page below to be fitting.

It ended up being about 20 pages long, and we could also personalize the back with a message. I tried to include a photo of most everyone in Ella's life - parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents to keep her family close! Shipping was quick, I was a bit nervous considering I did not finish this project until a couple weeks before Christmas. It arrived several days before it said it would which eased my stress levels for sure! Nothing like waiting til the last minute.

When Ella opened the gift I think there might have been some confusion at first when she saw her own face staring back at her, but she quickly sat on her daddy's lap and it was read aloud. I hope this is a gift she enjoys pulling out and re-reading all year!

Ella is also sporting the Bucky Badger hat we bought her when we went up to Madison for a football game the other month - Rose Bowl baby!

Get Carded

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:12:00 +0000

As briefly mentioned in the gift wrapping post, the theme for this year's cards was snowflakes.

My original idea was to cut out half a snowflake on the front of a card and have the words or images seen through the holes. After trying one or two out, I decided to forgo this method and try something a little different. It didn't help that I had traced the template in pen so the other side of the card had pen marks all over it. Smart, Lydia.

Taking two snowflake templates found through google search, I traced on holiday scrapbook papers and used an exacto knife to cut out the middle. I quickly realized that perfection was not needed and the process actually went pretty fast! It wouldn't be a post without a reality shot of the mess I make when crafting. The joys of a second bedroom mean you can leave the mess until the next day when you feel like cleaning up :-) The cutting mat we found 50% off at Blick this summer came in handy when it came to slicing and dicing out the snowflake middles. Excited to put this on a project table instead of crouching down on the floor!

Once I had a good number of snowflakes, I started arranging and seeing how they would work on the cards. For a select few the template itself became a reverse stencil and using a blue ink pad I made an icy front cover. The key is to leave the card alone as long as possible to avoid smudging - something I have yet to master when it comes to stampin' it up.

After some more google searching, I came upon a few "snowflake" or "winter" related quotes to throw on the front of the cards. The blue cards featured the phrase, "Silver dreams under a blue winter sky." Here are a couple more:

December come to me
I hope I can see
You not just in dreams
- Norah Jones

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity;
so that not a snowflake escapes
its fashioning hand.
- Henry David Thoreau

Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories
gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone.
- Deborah Whipp

I used glue dots (one of my favorite tools in the arsenal) for the snowflakes, but 3D foam stickers for the phrases. After seeing how a few of them looked after going through the mail system, I think I would have been better off using glue dots all around as they get a little bent and squished. Instead of printing the quotes on regular printer paper, I used some old resume paper I still have kicking around. Happily, when I used my paper cutter to trim the text, the unclean cut left some texture on the sides (see above) which I thought added to the card.

The insides of the cards received my Season's Greetings stamp before Bob and I wished everyone a happy holiday.

And, sticking with last year's tradition, I used a "with love" stamp to put my calling card on the back.

As previously mentioned, a few extra snowflakes were used in the gift wrapping stage. I was planning on sending more cards with them but all of a sudden it was December 23 which meant the cards would arrive post holiday for sure! Next year I definitely need to start working on cards earlier!

I realized this year the number of photo cards I received greatly outweighed the number of traditional cards. While I am not complaining as I love seeing the creative things folks do to put together their card and the poses their children are instructed to make, I will admit to missing out on the gorgeous cards that are out there - especially as I save them to use for decoration or other projects in future years!

That's a Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 03:10:00 +0000

As this Christmas Day comes to a close, I hope you had a lovely time with friends and family - and if you are like me the family time doesn't end today. We spent the weekend with Bob's family and will head out to my sister's house tomorrow for some quality Goessel time.

I had much of last week off of work, though relaxing might not be the word - it was a present wrapping extravaganza - well, lets be honest, it was also a last minute present buying extravaganza. Most was done, but there was always room for a little more.

I decided to forgo the brightly colored holiday papers and pick up a big roll of brown kraft paper from Staples. The good news is that I still have plenty left and with the right amount of decoration this paper can be used for just about any occasion! I think I found my new stand by.

If you are wondering why I am eager to turn the second bedroom into a project room, just check out this mess. How does my craft stuff explode all over the entire living room? Its amazing.

Using some tags from a scrapbook paper pack and random ribbon left around the house, I got to work. After running out of ideas to attach the tags to the gifts so you could still read the back (to see who the gift is for and from), I broke out the stamp pad ink and alphabet stamps. I only ended up messing up once in a major way - and we are none the wiser once I taped a tag over the mistake. . . .

I jazzed them up with some leftover snowflakes from my Christmas Cards. And I am now realizing I have written these posts out of order. Consider this a sneak peek into what I did for Christmas cards this year and check back the next couple days to hear about them (and if you were a recipient of one I hope they were enjoyed!)

When I said I used ribbon from around the house I wasn't kidding. I ended up using garden twine and kitchen string for the most part. Equal parts resourceful and cheap - or maybe more cheap than resourceful? You be the judge.

Mr. Sonny likes to think he's a gift. Per usual he and his brother spent the gift wrapping hours attacking the paper and stealing my alphabet stamps. I fear the day I am unable to find the letter "l" or "f" and need to think carefully about the words I use in my next card to avoid the missing ones!

Excited to give and get tomorrow with the fam. We had a nice holiday with Bob's family already. Bob framed three photos he took on our Egypt/Italy trip last spring for his mom, aunt and grandmother. Using the same kraft paper and gold and burgandy ribbons they were all ready to be unwrapped and enjoyed!

Here's the shot Bob captured of the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo. The frame and matting was bought at Michaels. What an eye this guy has for framing.

I hope you have tomorrow off of work to continue your holiday!

Crock Pot Cookin' - Sweet Bean Chili

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:36:00 +0000

Part of my goals is to use the crock pot to its fullest extent this year. Getting to know new recipes and such. Awhile back we made this Sweet Chili and I figured it was due time I shared the recipe!

I was looking up slow cooker recipes on - where else? - allrecipes.com and hit on this highly rated goodie.

Slow Cooker Bean Casserole (aka Sweet Chili)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 (16 ounce) can baked beans with pork
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 slices bacon
1 large green bell pepper, chopped (the pepper hater in me left this one out)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef

Cook bacon and diced pepper in skillet. Crumble the bacon and put both in the crockpot with first 6 ingredients. Brown the beef and stir into the crockpot. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour.

What I liked about this one was that it wasn't as time intensive as other slow cooker recipes - from start to finish I could complete it when I got home from work as opposed to getting everything ready the night before or early morning.

The molasses and BBQ flavor of the dish was a nice change from the usual spiciness that you get with chili and that my weak palette can't handle.

I Demand to Be Housewarmed!

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 23:33:00 +0000

** the post title comes from Troy on Community. Don't get me started on the show not coming back mid-season.

Bob and I recently hosted our Housewarming Holiday Party and I would call it a success! If it wasn't for my intended tradition of always having a Harvest Party in October/November timeframe, I would definitely add a holiday party to the annual mix - it was so festive with the tree lights bright and the wine flowing!

As part of allrecipes.com "Cookies Across America" campaign, I asked guests to bring baking items to donate to the local pantry. In the end we have 25+ items (and many many pounds) to donate including flour, sugar, baking soda, peanut butter and more. Thanks generous friends!

Appetizer wise I used a mostly Pinterest inspired menu! First up, these anti-pasto skewers were so easy to make once all the ingredients were purchased. Black olives, green olives, grape tomatoes, mozzerella balls, cheese tortellini marinated in balsamic vinagrette, salami and proscuitto. Don't mind if I do. Original idea featured in this blog.

I re-used the Pear and Blue Cheese Tartlets that went over well at Thanksgiving, but also added in some Brie and Walnut Tarlets to the mix as well. But how to tell the similar looking shells apart? I put them on different platters and was planning on making little tent cards to go along with them. However, once I got started, here's what I ended up with. I had a couple left over tags so I decorated the top with a vintage Christmas sticker and attached a jingle bell through the top. Sorry no photo of the actual food - the one I took is actually a bit blurry now that I look at it on the computer!

Next up, another Pinspired foodie item! After making this spinach dip recipe from allrecipes.com (minus the water chestnuts), we hollowed out some 2 inch baguette pieces (making sure not to rip through the bottom) and filled with the dip. A few veggies on the side creates a mini-bread bowl you can eat after you are done! I don't have the actual link to the source, but here's the Pinterest photo.

Finally, for dessert I made my Pumpkin Whoopie Pies at the behest of one of our guests who had them last year and made the request. So easy and so good - unfortunately I didn't eat one myself! (okay, I just re-read my first line here and saw that it contains many rhyming words, not the intention :-)

Bob and I decided to make a signature cocktail for the party and he stumbled onto Vanilla-Rum Colas on Martha Stewart's site. Dark rum, coke and a splash of vanilla was all it took. The garnish according to the recipe was oranges or kumquats. No kumquats in the three stores we went to, so we settled for something called a "satsuma" from Whole Foods. I even splurged and bought a fancy jar of vanilla for the display. I did run out of vanilla so needed it for baking anways. . .The glass coke bottle was just there for display - although I did buy a six pack of the glass coke bottles for myself. I don't drink a ton when we entertain but I wanted something fun to drink out of and am a sucker for the glass holiday bottles!

Soon enough, the new house filled with friends and we showed off the new space in between all of the eating and drinking. We had a great time and, as mentioned above, it was fun to not only show off our newly painted entryway and hung art, but also the tree and holiday decor!

Now that's a holiday card. . .

Another weekend is almost upon us - are you getting some last minute shopping done? Maybe not so last minute considering I am likely going to still be in purchase mode this time next week!

Hangin' Around

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:48:00 +0000

Nothing like an impending housewarming party to get our butts in gear to finish up some home decor! In between a cleaning marathon before our guests arrived last Saturday night (more on the food, fun and frivolity in an upcoming post) we took some time out to hang a few items on the walls.

For a few months now, most of our framed pieces have been leaning against the walls of the second bedroom. Time to start emptying out that corner! We started by taking advantage of our newly painted green entryway and hung our Chicago signs. We don't have a hallway table just yet, but it will be placed just to the other side of the signs.

You might remember these signs and the story behind them from our "Chicago Wall" from our previous place. That was one of the first areas of our old home to come together so the Chicago Wall holds a special place in my heart.

And if you are curious, the Chicago neighborhoods piece now hangs in our second bathroom - it complements our shower curtain: a replica of the CTA map! Bought at Bed Bath and Beyond half ironically, we are starting to like the feel it gives the room!

Next up, Bob found a place for his black and white photography he made back in college. These are in simple black IKEA frames. For reference, they hung on the kitchen wall in our old apartment.

Our initial idea was to hang them as a similar foursome above the desk in the second bedroom. The black and white really pops against the blue wall. However, Bob had a brilliant idea of hanging them in a row with the fourth (or first, depending on your perception) on the kitty corner wall. Ta Da! I love how these turned out. It reminds me of a filmstrip. That lamp is in its temporary home, it is a bit too tall for the desk, we admit. However, we didn't want the frames too low as we'll likely be getting a monitor for the desk to go along with our impending Mac mini purchase. And by impending, I mean eventual.

Makes for a nice little work corner in the room! Of course, we can't actually use the desk because the twin beds currently take up every bit of space in the room, but more on that to come! We're thinking Murphy Bed or Sofa Bed or. . . who knows!

Also still to come - where we're putting all those darn travel posters we stocked up on when our guest bedroom had a Vintage Travel theme. We are thinking the opposite wall in the second bedroom, but will need to wait until we see how the layout of that room is going to end up to make a final call.

The Importance of the Vignette

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:30:00 +0000

My friend Kara taught me the importance of the vignette. Creating small tableaus with accessories or furniture throughout the house as opposed to trying to focus on decorating a huge room. I have been pleased to complete two in my house so far, and with an empty hallway area begging for an entryway table I can definitely see where we might fit another.

First up, against the brick wall in the library area, we have a $20 IKEA Stefan Chair I snagged about 7 years ago alongside a tall vase with some fake foliage from Michael's. Currently we have some holiday themed gold and red berry branches to give it a little spirit. Above the chair we hung Bob's original art piece, first written about here. Now hanging from brick has been an interesting endeavor. I'll detail the how-to in an upcoming post!

Next up is the vignette in our bedroom. Now I'm not saying a chair is a requirement in every vignette, but they can help, can't they? We have our $99 IKEA Mongstad Mirror leaning against the Poppy Glow closet wall. One of the chairs we found at an estate sale awhile back (the other is used as a desk chair) sits next to my newest purchase: a Sunset Orange Garden Stool.

What do you think about a stack of coffee table books on the chair? It seems like this vignette is missing a little something. . . I will take any and all suggestions! We have been thinking a out spray painting the chair a deep purple to play with our warm Moroccan feel to the bedroom. Not to mention it would be nice to hide some of the scratches our little chair has endured in the past two moves.

I have been seeing these Porcelain Garden Stools for about a year or more in almost every home store and design mag. Before I knew what they were called, my google searches consisted of "oval stool" or "ceramic end table" which didn't always get me very far. Finally I stumbled onto some images of a Porcelain Garden Stool and had my answer! Now, I have seen these run much more expensive, so color me surprised when I snagged one for $110 (and free shipping) from Amazon.com.

For further inspiration, I look to Pinterest (where else?)
Hello entryways. Nice to meet you. (from this blog)

And this fireplace sitting area option with chaise, suitcases, lamp and flowers could definitely be at home in my home.

What vignettes can you find in your house? Maybe a holiday display vignette or a rarely used spot in the hallway you've jazzed up - bringing a little more to your decor?

Bake A Difference Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 02:12:00 +0000

I received a notice this week from allrecipes.com regarding a holiday program and just had to share! Along with Taste of Home Magazine and Nestle, allrecipes is serving up "Cookies Across America" on December 10 (and throughout December). Host a bake-off amongst friends, make a few dozen yourself to wrap up or just collect baking ingredients to share with your local food pantry, nursing home, shelter or community agency.

They also have information on the "Drop In & Decorate" give back program to bake, decorate and donate to those who need a little extra help this holiday season and throughout the year.

Fittingly, we are hosting our housewarming party on December 10! I have updated our evite to ask guests to bring baking items to help us make a donation to the local food pantry. Here's a short list that might get you thinking of pulling something together on your side:

- Flour
- Peanut Butter
- Shortening
- White Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Powdered Sugar
- Vanilla
- Baking Soda
- Baking Powder

And in the spirit of "Cookies Across America," be sure to check out these links from past posts showcasing some of my favorite cookie recipes! (see if you can find the theme in the types of cookies I like. . .)

Chocolate Crinkles
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

So get yourself in the giving mood, but do feel free to eat a few treats yourself this season!

Tree Time

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:13:00 +0000

When you have 17-foot ceilings, the size of your Christmas Tree is not a huge concern. However, when you are buying said tree in downtown Chicago as opposed to northwoods Wisconsin where they are a dime a dozen, suddenly size matters!

We headed out on a rainy post-Thanksgiving weekend to Gethsemane in Andersonville, the same place we found a tree two holidays ago. The one nice thing about looking for trees in this environment is that they are all pretty well groomed already. Trudging through the tree farms of the "cut your own" variety, every misshapen, non-perfect tree is looked at before you find those perfect specimens. We set our sights on this 9 foot beauty and they trimmed the bottom and trunk for us before twining it to the roof of our car.

Bob and I came up with a business idea on the car ride home. We buy our own twining machine and stand outside tree lots. A cute child repeats our tagline, "We'll twine your twee for a twenty!" Who would pay $20 just to get it twined up? I would hope no one, but it works with the other words so there you go. . .

The tree stand was dug out of the storage area and set up against our brick wall. Originally, we were going to put the tree against the window in the library area, but this way we can always see it while sitting on the couch!

The twine was snipped and we let the branches settle a bit before tackling it with lights. As mentioned in a previous post, we still need to buy another set of lights. I realized the other day that our middle set is out! D'oh!

Bob uses a step stool to snip off the top in order to fit our tree topper. This is the first year in a long time the topper is not angled awkwardly and actually looks right!

I keep seeing "how to take perfect tree photos" links on Pinterest and will need to check them out. For now, a couple shots of some up close ornaments. Many of these are from Bob and my individual childhoods, but I have been amassing quite the collection over the last five or six years between book club ornament exchange, gifts and my own shopping excursions! Freshman year of college I decided I liked star ornaments and now have at least 30 covering the tree - maybe when we are a two-tree household we'll have one dedicated to all of the stars!

Although it seems you should only be able to decorate a tree with Christmas music in the background, I think I decorated to the sounds of NFL Sunday. . .ahh well, Bob did let me hijack the system for a couple hours to listen to the new Michael Buble CD and my Diana Krall Christmas CD. Jazzy, indeed.

Setting the Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:43:00 +0000

The Thanksgiving leftovers are barely cold and we're already dismantling the fall decor to make room for Christmas! Our extra desk was moved to make room for the Christmas Tree, so we created some extra space in the library for the time being to set up a display for the holidays. I'm also looking ahead at this table being utilized for our upcoming housewarming party!

Bob and I have been playing around with a plain white frame up on the wall. Against the brick, the picture-less frame looks pretty modern and fun. I turned it sideways and hung glittery snowflakes at different lengths to set a background. My three-years-running imagery of sheepskin rug, silver deer and two feather trees makes an appearance along with several vases and a hurricane holding blue and silver hued balls.

A silver snowman and snowflake candle fill up one side. The candle is actually on a silver candy plate I filled with small decorative ornaments. And the story behind the snowman? Each year our book club does an ornament exchange. Last year, I was not the recipient of the adorable Pottery Barn snowman ornament and planned a quick shopping trip in my jealousy. By the end of the week I had my own little man. This year's ornament exchange is happening tomorrow night - what else will my eyes be tempted by??

I picked up the "Seasons Greetings" decoration during a random thrift store stop for $2.50. I normally wouldn't buy something just because it was on sale, but I am lacking in "phrase" decor" for the holiday and thought it finished off the display.

On one hand, I want to create a new scene each year, but on the other I don't want that to mean I buy all new things with each year! One or two new decor items a year - that's what I get. Although. . .if one of those things only cost $2.50, maybe that means I have a little more leeway?

Okay, now I hit my quota - I'm a little bit in love with this bird I picked up at Gethsemane Garden Center and Gift Shop when we were tree shopping this weekend!

Here's a reminder of the slight differences featured on my display table from the past couple years.
2009:

2010. PS. those cheap-o mirrors from TJ Maxx ripped paint off of our walls. Yikes. We hid the mess by putting up a painting and then touching up the paint before moving out!

A bit above the table you'll see three ornaments hanging by decorative ribbon. I took the ornament cluster idea from a few Pinterest shots.

Alongside the table, you'll see our card holder stuffed to the gills with Christmas Cards. No, I haven't already received my share of greetings, I am just one of those people who saves the best looking cards and my friends and family do not disappoint with some gorgeous ones year after year! As we do get new ones in this season I'll just plan on switching out some of the old ones to freshen it up. That reminds me that I need to get a move on my cards for the year. . .

Stay tuned this week for more photos of how our fireplace mantle turned out and a few shots of our lovely, albeit pricey, tree! Here's a sneak peek - we're in the process of procuring a few more lights - I swear I had another strand of 100 but seemed to come up short this year. We followed last year's tradition and hung the lights vertically. Let's just say I had to re-do it at least three times because I kept starting with the wrong end. . .

What about you? Is the tree up? Did you take advantage of Cyber Monday? I abstained from any shopping today, but am quickly realizing how little time there actually is to cross all those presents off the list!

Give Thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 01:14:00 +0000

The oven was on for 8 hours straight on Thursday, every piece of tupperware in the house is being used and we've been eating turkey leftovers for four straight meals. Must be Thanksgiving week!

I had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving for the first time for my family, based around my sister's impending delivery of her second daughter. Since we weren't sure when she would have the baby, due to arrive on November 22, we had our parents come down to us this holiday season. Luckily for us, baby Amelia was born on Monday morning, which meant my sister and the new addition could join us at our house on Thanksgiving day!

Okay, so how to break down this holiday feast? I should first and foremost say that there is no way I could have stayed sane and on time if not for my mom's guidance and chopping skills! She happily tackled the apples, celery, onions, herbs, bread cubes, pears and more - a job I usually despise!

Here's the menu I created, with links to the recipes (either on allrecipes.com or this blog)

Appetizers
Creamy Goat Cheese and Honey
Pear and Blue Cheese Tartlets

Main Menu
Velvety Squash Soup
Maple Roast Turkey and Gravy
Cranberry, Sausage and Apple Stuffing
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Cheesy Crock Pot Potatoes (calling for the recipe, sis!)
Creamy Brussels Sprouts
Cranberries (simply frozen package microwaved with sugar and water)
Rolls with Herb Butter (see recipe below)

Dessert
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Devil's Food Cake with pumpkin and chocolate frosting (to celebrate my Aunt's birthday)

Got all that? Let me start by saying that the pumpkin and apple pies were bought ahead of time to help a co-worker's daughter's softball team, my sister's fam brought the cheesy potatoes and my mother whipped up her famous creamy brussels sprouts and brought the rolls down. So again, couldn't have done it all without a little help! And if I ask nicely, maybe my sister will share her recipe for cheesy potatoes??

We don't yet have a table that fits more than 4, so I made sure to hold off on selling our outdoor table and chairs on craigslist until this holiday passed. With a fall themed tablecloth you wouldn't know that we were sitting on an IKEA patio table! This was an idea cribbed from my harvest dinner party last year.

I also used a desk that has yet to find a home in our new place as a makeshift buffet against one wall. Simple decorations including a bowl filled with candy corn (heavily marked down after Halloween at Walgreens!) and fake leaves scattered across the tables helped set the scene. We used the buffet for a crockpot of hot apple cider and the appetizers set out before dinner. Later, it would be used for the side dish overflow. We set the table at about 9am so not to have to worry about it later in the day. Once that turkey came out of the oven it was fast and furious getting everything else done!

I first made these goat cheese appetizers for a housewarming party a couple years ago - so simple! Then on allrecipes.com I found these pear and blue cheese tartletts and after trapsing around town to find the frozen tartlet shells (thanks Jewel, boo Dominicks!) these were too easy and so so good! Chopped pear, blue cheese, a bit of light cream and 10 minutes in the oven later here's what we have:

Okay, onto the main meal. I made the Cooking Light Velvety Squash Soup on Wednesday and left it in the fridge to just re-heat the next day. Smartypants move by me. My mom and I also made the Maple Glaze the night before to make our Thursday morning a little easier on us.

Either way, we were up by 6:45 in the morning to prep getting the turkey in the oven by 10am (to eat at 4pm). While I tackled the stuffing, my mom kept up with the dishes (something I can never seem to keep up with during meal making) and worked on her Brussels Sprouts.

The stuffing was delish - 12 cups, or almost 2 loaves, of bread cubes dried in the oven added to sausage, dried cranberries and apples. I replaced the leeks in the recipe with onion partly because I was too lazy to find leeks in the grocery store and partly because I already had the onion on hand.

At the last minute, I realized our extra lemon zest and fresh thyme from my mother's garden could be used to create some herb butter. We had a recipe from a Chopping Block visit where we realized how easy making speciality butters can be! 1 stick of room temperature butter, mixed with thyme, lemon zest and parsley.

Mix together and form into a tube with saran wrap. Put in the fridge for about an hour and then set out for the meal! You can also freeze these for up to 6 months or so.

Did I forget about the turkey? Not by a long shot. Let me start by saying that this turkey was FREE! We found a deal through Dominicks to spend $150 in a shopping trip and get a turkey up to 20lbs for nada. We filled the cart and were convinced we had enough to make the cut. However, I had also applied a ton of coupons online to our Dominicks card so the total kept going down down down. We had a plan for this. Bob ran to the liquor aisle and grabbed a bottle of Ketel One and a Maker's Mark. That did the trick. By the end of the trip, we had saved 48% or almost $150 off of our bill that included ingredients for three full meals and all of the dry ingredients for our Thanksgiving meal!

Defrosting the turkey started last Sunday when I made some room in the fridge for our big bird. On Tuesday night I took it out of the wrapper and rinsed it with water, wrapping it in saran wrap to help it defrost a bit faster. I wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed at this point as I didn't think about juices running down onto the refrigerator shelves once it thawed out. Wishing I would have put a pan under the turkey!

This maple glaze was an easy one as well - highly rated on allrecipes, I trusted the reviews enough to have this be the one we used for the big day.

Again, huge thanks to my mom for being at my side all day - I would not have known how to pull the neck out, find the gizzard packet or how to, ahem, shove my hand under the skin to rub the glaze into the breast.

We borrowed my sister's roasting pan and into the oven it went.

10 minutes later I freaked out - missed the step involving chicken stock and vegetables added to the bottom of the roasting pan! Take two.

We added a tin foil tent after the first 30 minutes and basted occasionally throughout the day.

Perfect timing for a Packers game break - and win!

Around 1:30pm we picked things back up. The sweet potatoes were peeled, cubed and put to a boil.

The soup was re-heated, the cranberries were prepped and the appetizers were formed. When the turkey came out, the brussels sprouts and stuffing went in. Here's a mid-way shot.

Who's ready to eat? Bob and my Dad watched a youtube video on the perfect carve and then got to work.

I dished out the soup course while the meat stayed warm in the oven.

After mastering the art of passing dishes, our plates were full and just as quickly our bellies were. My three day old niece slept perfectly through the whole dinner, allowing a bit of quiet time for my sister and brother in law to eat!

With dinner done, we cracked open the pies and cake to wish my aunt a happy 64th! Instead of Happy Birthday, we sang along to The Beatles' "When I'm 64" blaring from the iPad. Notice our Egyptian Alabaster vases glowing brightly with tea lights? Nice ambience to the evening.

All in all, a great night for a feast and to give thanks that we could spend it together as a family!

Of course, no Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without leftovers. My sister brought a couple to-go plates with dividers and we realized they fit perfectly in the pie boxes to not get squished on the ride home.

Bob and I are researching turkey recipes - after all a 20lb turkey for only 8 adults means plenty o' leftover bird. Here's a sandwich I whipped up today: herb butter, turkey, spinach and apple slices on fresh italian bread.

Bob went more traditional with stuffing cranberries, mayo, mustard and turkey on his sammie.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well! Any big traditions your family upholds every year? Any recipes you refuse to celebrate Turkey Day without?

Eat Your Vegetables

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:50:00 +0000

As we embark on another Thanksgiving holiday filled with food, family and more food, I thought I would share a quick and easy appetizer (or even dinner) option to help keep your kitchen time under control.

Who else loves Veggie Pizza? Raise your hands high. We grew up making this for a simple snack, but now I find it to be a great option to pack for work week lunches. I had to giggle when we were grocery shopping and Bob grew a look of horror when I said, "you grab the carrots, I'll get the cauliflower." He thought I meant "veggie pizza" - as in mushrooms and peppers, hold the sausage and pepperoni!

The base consists of 2 packs of crescent rolls flattened onto a baking sheet. You need to get a balance of not too thin that it can't hold all the toppings and not too thick that most of your piece is crust. Even though the crescents are pretty buttery already, I like to grease the pan because there is nothing worse than a stuck crust!

Bake according to package directions, but keep a close eye on how quickly it browns. Let cool before putting on the cream cheese layer, or it will melt into the crust.

The "sauce" is 8 oz of softened cream cheese and 8 oz of sour cream mixed with a half package of ranch dressing and a few shakes of dill. I basically use the same mixture for my taco dip (which my family officially calls, "Lydia's Taco Dip") but replace the ranch dressing and dill with taco seasoning.

Then just go to town on the toppings. I stick with broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, carrots and black olives, with some shredded cheese on top for good measure. If I liked peppers they would definitely appear, but alas that is one food I just can't wrap my head around.

Cut it into squares and snack away!

I'll be back after Thanksgiving with the rundown of our (fingers crossed) successful hosting endeavor. A 20 lb turkey, 8 adults, a 2 1/2 year old and - BIG ANNOUNCEMENT - my 3 day year old niece Amelia will be taking over our condo.

Prove It - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:55:00 +0000

Remember when I wrote about Bob's 5 foot painting that will hang above the fireplace? Well, we've made a little more progress and I think it just may be completed by our housewarming party in mid December!

Looking closely at the comic book cell we are using as inspiration (and by inspiration, I mean blatantly copying), you can see the dots that create the image. Pop Art indeed, but how to make this work in the real world?

We have gone through more than a few ideas to make uniform, clean dots on the canvas:

1. Free-form it.
No way. Too easy to mess up!

2. Create a stencil
That's the ticket! Okay, now what to use for the stencil?

2a. Use transparancy paper purchased from Blick.
A little too flimsy. What else you got?

2b. Use clear divider pages from a binder
That's the ticket! Okay, how to make the stencil?

2b1. Use a rubber stamp of dots to create the shapes on a plastic sheet.
Good thought, but quickly showed limitations by giving us uneven blocks of dots.

2b2. Use a print out of dots to create the shapes on a plastic sheet.
That's the ticket! Okay, now how to punch out the circles?

2b2a. A hole punch
Good idea, but limits you to the outer edges of a sheet, meaning the stencil would need to be applied many more times, which could cause more errors.

2b2b. This screw punch from Martha Stewart.
That's the ticket! Easy to use and only hurt the hand a little after 100+ punches! Okay, now how to apply paint to the canvas?

2b2b1. Regular paint and a regular paint brush.
Being as careful as possible, and basically wiping most paint off of the brush, we still ended up with some gloppy areas.

2b2b2. Regular paint and a sponge brush.
Same result as above. (Are you now singing, "2b2b2, strangers in the night, exchanging glances. . ."?)

2b2b3. A paint pen.
Worked well on the practice canvas, but proved a bit messier when applied to the actual painting - the lack of back support under the canvas.

2b2b4. Water soluble paint and makeup sponges.
That's the ticket! This has seemed to work well so far.

I am sure with each stencil Bob will get better and better. Up close the inconsistencies can be seen, but when this is up on the wall and from a normal distance it looks pretty darn cool.

Dang, I should put that process in a flow chart for ya!

After he repeats what he's done so far about 10 more times, the dots should be dotted and the spots should be spotted. Then it is a matter of outlining everything in black and adding the text in the word bubble. After that we might be looking at a finished product! Here's a wide shot to put it in perspective:

Lack Table Hack Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:51:00 +0000

I almost didn't want to write this post because one other time I detailed out the build plans for a piece of furniture in our house it never made it past the design stage. . .I'm hoping I am not jinxing myself this time around, but I was pretty excited to share an idea Bob and I had to create an "entertainment center" without actually investing in a huge piece of furniture.

This our current TV stand. It's from IKEA and is a great unit to hold all of our components and fit my 42" Samsung comfortably. (This photo was taken at the old place when we had it up on the wall)

However, to give it some scale - this is how it fits in our new living room. Keep in mind this is a work in progress photo and we have gotten further in setting up the place since this was taken!

That expansive brick wall can be a bit intimidating. We were trying to think of how to create more vertical shelf space and my head went to two recent inspiration areas:
- going to modern furniture stores and seeing back panel entertainment center set ups like this one:

- seeing this headboard made of Lack tabletops on IKEA Hacker.

After doing some measuring and noodling on it for a couple months, we found ourselves with an IKEA cart that looked like this a few weeks ago:

We bought 10 Lack Tables! Now, at $10 a pop for the black-brown color that matches the current TV stand that isn't exactly breaking the bank. (The white tables were only $8, too bad it was a limited sale when it came to color!)

On the car ride home, I started telling Bob how I pictured the shelves attaching to the back panel and we quickly realized we had different views of how this would end up looking in our heads. Uh oh.

Time to break out google sketch up. I downloaded it and left the design to Bob the expert. My half hour playing around resulted in a big ole mess on the page. Did you know you can find specific products to add into the program? Now that was easy.

First up, here was my idea. All Lack tabletops stuck together. 2 rows of 4 and another 2 on the bottom alongside the TV stand. We would put shelves (likely also Lack) in a couple rows. I do worry about the stability of the tops - could they hold a shelf that is in turn holding semi-heavy items? Or would they give out on us.

Next, Bob created his view. Each tabletop on its own, seeing the brick between. Shelves would likely go in between the tabletops, attached to the brick. Our challenge here would be a bit too dizzying an effect when trying to concentrate on the television. Also, I think it makes it more obvious that we just stuck a bunch of tabletops to the wall.

We came to a happy medium: three rows. We can put the shelves either on the brick or on the tabletops, depending on what we think will look and work best.

Next steps will be determining how to attach the tabletops together, how to attach them to the wall and how to attach the shelves! Stay tuned! This project will happen. I am not going to want to stare at these 10 Lack Tables in the guest bedroom for too much longer!

Closet Case

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:51:00 +0000

Shudder to think, but this is how we were living for the first few weeks in the new place. Okay, these photos were taken at its worst state when we were getting ready to organize the closet, but still! And yes, Bob's Elway jersey was handled with the utmost care while our other bags were thrown around like we were airport baggage handlers!

The closet organizer then had to be dismantled to re-do the floors in the room and also so we could finish painting, so for a bit of time the closet contents exploded into the rest of the room. Yes, that is a bedroom with two twin mattresses on the floor surrounded by bags and bags of clothes. Oy vey!

But let's start at the very beginning. Here's what our master bedroom closet looked like upon closing.

While we are not looking our elfa system gift horse in the mouth, the set up was definitely geared more towards a bachelor living alone than a couple with a whole lot of clothes. We knew we would need to re-arrange to fit at least a couple more rods for hanging duds.

Also, the "wasted spaces" hunt continues - the closet door opens in, which means there is nothing on the opposite wall. We agree that another full set of shelves/rods would make the space feel pretty boxed in, but we could get creative with an ottoman/mirror option to turn the closet more into a dressing room.

After taking down all of the organizer elements, Bob broke out the Poppy Glow paint again and finished the job in the bedroom - this was what he was working on while we were also doing my Bridesmaid Invite photo shoot - such multi-taskers we are.

We had picked up three additional rods and hardware at The Container Store during an elfa sale, so for about $15 total. After some re-arranging of the shelves to maximize space, here's what we came up with. 5 hanging sections total, with three for me and two for him. Ideally, we would have a bit more space between his two sections, but the existing wall piece did not go all the way down to the floor. This is called working with what you've got.

Little touches include our sheepskin rug laid out on the floor and my jewelry shadowbox display (see how I made that here) perched on one of the open shelves.

Our tall ceilings mean we could stack a lot more on the top shelves, but we also don't want too many random items sticking out the top, considering the ceiling does not go all the way to the top, as seen here. This is also an issue with the coat closet and the second bedroom closet. . .

For now I'm just happy we have a closet to work with and we are beginning to be able to see our bedroom floor again!

PS. the new bed was delivered late last week, the big unveil will happen soon. You will be able to marvel at how we are using full size bedding on a king bed until we find that perfect duvet cover!

Crock Pot Cookin'

noreply@blogger.com (Lydia) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:06:00 +0000

It has been awhile since I have shared a recipe, so I thought I would break out one of the crockpot recipes we have tried in the last few weeks. One of my goals is to find at least four new crockpot recipes this year - my staples of chili and spaghetti sauce and meatballs are tried and true, but diversifying never hurts.

I started an allreceipes search with "slow cooker" in the nav bar options. I usually start with the "Top 20" in a category and after narrowing down ingredients I can find the one or two that we'll be making. We had a ton of chicken in the freezer so when I landed on Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup I figured I had a hit.

One caveat? The "family sized" recipe was for a few more servings than my crock pot was made for. Some overflowing ensued and some of the liquid had to go bye-bye.

After cooking the chicken through, the shredding was quite the painstaking process. I read a tip on Pinterest last week that said to shred chicken for these types of recipes put the cooked breasts in your KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment and it does all the work for you. Very interested to try this and see if it works!

After a little more time simmering, and throwing sour cream and cheese on top, we had a lovely little meal. Re-heated versions included straining out the extra liquid and putting right into soft tortillas. Yum-o!

Bravo to this photo for also being the one in which I found a new setting on my camera - incandescent lighting! What a find!

Rather than type out the whole recipe here, I have linked the title above and here so you can read through it and the comments that usually help tweak the recipes a bit!