Side Project Reveal!

I have been getting really into Pinterest lately. What is Pinterest? Wikipedia says: "Pinterest is a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create and manage theme-based image collections." It's basically a big 'mood board'.

I have the app on my iPhone and I'll admit that I've gone bonkers over it. I love checking for new things, like DIY projects for the house or new clothes that I think would add to my wardrobe. The site is constantly updated by a huge number of followers and it's really becoming amazing.

So, I decided that I should try my hand at actually doing a tutorial that I pinned so I took on this little side project while I was baking bread a few weekends ago. I found this great little idea that suggested buying a cheap metal Letter from the hardware store, spray painting it and then sanding off some to rough the edges and get a metallic sheen underneath. A cool and inexpensive way to dress up a room with something that isn't a photo or framed art.

I decided to get a wooden letter and after I painted it, I decided not to sand it at all. I added some ribbon on the back (a sweet houndstooth that someone sent us at work and I snagged for my ribbon collection) and mounted a hook to display it on. The hook is oil rubbed bronze, so it matches our dining room mirror and finish on our coffee table.We also added a second bookcase to the living room which really gives the room balance. I can't believe how much different the room looks having two bookcases flank the sides of the sofa. I didn't take a photo that really shows it, but it's an amazing difference. I will try to post a before and after.

However, adding the bookcase meant rearranging the furniture, so I came up with this layout. I really like the positioning and the addition of the "S". It makes that little reading nook with the wing back chair really come together and look finished. The whole house is really starting to look more finished. I'm still looking for a piece of art to put between the "S" and Audrey... Any suggestions?? Maybe a small cluster of framed objects?On a side note, last week we put on a big event at work and we found these bottles of champagne with amazing bonus ice jackets for Veuve Clicquot. The bummer is that the store only had one left and we had hoped to get 2. Getting to have this again at the event solidified my thoughts that this is the best tasting champagne!

This week, my boss surprised me by buying me a bottle with an ice jacket as a gift for all my hard work in putting on the event! I'm so excited to have this ice jacket to keep on our bar. Isn't this the most amazing packaging ever? Love this ice jacket! So very cute and practical... Tres French.

Boo!

Aren't these pumpkins scary?

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!

Ta da!

When I was in NYC, I had the pleasure of meeting Dan Leader. Dan is the owner/baker for Bread Alone in New York. He was kind enough to give me a copy of his cookbook 'Local Breads' and even autographed it for me!

In return, I promised to use it to further my New Year's Resolution of becoming an excellent bread baker. His advice was to start out with the 4 Hour Baguette. I do love a good baguette, so I figured I would give it a try.

However, I was a little apprehensive about making a baguette because I've read up pretty extensively on it. Julia Child has an incredibly detailed account in her cookbooks. When I read her memoir I nearly died hearing about how her original method included a block of asbestos in order to produce the heat needed, in addition to steam, which produces the most authentic texture. Obviously, I am not located in France, nor do I have a baker's wood fired oven at my disposal, so I'm a slave to what I have available to me as a home baker. Hence, feeling a little nervous about how to get a good quality turn out.

Turns out, I needn't have worried. Other cookbooks have a lot of technical jargon about them. This is where Julia's methods start getting scary. Dan's book was super straight forward and I really appreciated it!

I like the idea of a 4 Hour Baguette. His time line is spelled out and I followed along pretty dang accurately. The start of the process is the least time consuming. Nigella Lawson would consider it "quick, cook slow", meaning that you spend a little time prepping it and then it does its own thing. This gets you through the dough prep, fermentation and first rising. I was able to eat lunch and do some laundry in between bread steps. Then things start to get more hands on. And fun.

Steven was kind enough to photograph for me:

Here I am starting to shape the dough:

The rolling creates the seamless shape of the baguette. I had no idea that there are special techniques for this. All handily spelled out with diagrams in the book.

Lovely cookbook!
Finally, all risen and ready for baking. I slashed those marks quickly and confidently! (Seriously- that's what it says to do)...
Finally, after some not-so-patiently waiting I was rewarded with some delicious looking loaves of bread.

I was worried that my oven wouldn't be big enough to accommodate the cast iron skillet (where you put some ice in to create the steam) and the baking stone, but it worked out. However, my baguettes didn't fit on my stone so I had to improvise. I have a bigger stone which I will use next time. I ended up just placing my baking sheet on the stone directly instead of using it to transfer the bread to the stone. I improvised and it turned out ok. Next time I will know what to do better.
Not too bad for a little Sunday project! I even managed a craft project between risings. More on that when I hang it up tomorrow. I'm going downstairs to enjoy some spoils of my bread victory!

It's Halloween Time!!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a generalized statement: Fall is my FAVORITE season. Seriously. I love all things about it. Apples, Pumpkins, putting up decorations, having a great excuse to eat candy, seeing adorable costumes when I answer the door, days getting cooler and shorter, wearing tights and boots, crispy leaves and cider!

This is the time before the threat of snow, red cups at Starbucks and holiday madness. This is the time when we harvest and enjoy relaxing with each other, have dinner parties and don't have to worry about turning on the oven and start canning.

I don't have any photos of our house all decorated yet because I'm still working out what to put where- it is like all my decorations are new and I'm trying to decide where to put what. I also have a large porch to decorate and I'm waiting on my pumpkins before I take photos. Speaking of photos...

I just got these photos from my Mom. Hi Mom! Mom has her own pumpkin patch, which we've visited before, but this year she harvested for us. This is a cell phone pic and I'm blown away by the colors and composition. Good Job Mom!

Isn't this walkway at Mom's house adorable?? I can't wait to see it in person.
More Fall and Halloween time photos to come from me. For now, I'm going to have an apple and relax!

First Time in New York...

There is a "How I Met Your Mother" episode of the same title and I think this is fitting... I have never been to NYC. When I got the job I have now, I remember in the first maybe 3 weeks being told by my boss that we'd be going to a conference in September. It was in New York at the Roosevelt Hotel. And I'd need to come along too. I just about peed my pants I was so excited.

It felt like forever waiting for it to be September and then it was here. I was on my way, on the plane, in a taxi, driving to our Client's house (On Park Ave.) and finally, on the streets of the Big Apple.

Holy Crap!

Here I am in the taxi on our way to our Client's House. She was so gracious to offer us each a room and to stay with her while we were in town.

The conference took up practically all of my time, when I wasn't working I was sleeping, seriously... but I did find a moment to sneak up to the Rooftop bar of the Roosevelt Hotel with some other ladies from the conference and I snapped this on my iPhone: The Rooftop bar has the most amazing view and this huckleberry cocktail that was to die for. These ladies were so sweet and we had the best time!

The one thing I've been wanting to do since January 2011 was visit Eataly. Steven went there when he was in NYC last and raved about it. So naturally, I wanted to go. I managed to somehow set up a dinner for 12 people, with no reservations, at 7 PM, on a Friday Night in Midtown NYC with a private room. NO IDEA HOW I GOT SO LUCKY. Seriously.

But it was fate- I was meant to eat there because it all came together and went off without a hitch and the dinner was as fantastic as the company we were with.

I love this photo that I got with my iPhone:Last, but not least, here is me and Julia, my boss. We enjoyed the open air market after we ate pasta. It was so cool. That's about how I'd sum up the whole city.

NYC. Rocks.

It's my Party!

I had the most fabulous birthday celebration! I have some amazing friends and family in my life who helped me to celebrate in total style.

First, my annual "Birthday Present to Myself" was a dress from the Banana Republic MAD MEN collection. The dress is the most beautiful blue color and fits amazingly. They really paid attention to the tailoring and I feel like such a lady when I wear it. It was a little pricy, but that's what a "present" to yourself should be, right?

I walked into Banana Republic the day after the collection came out and said I want that one- pointed at it, tried it on and the sales associates all collected around me. They hadn't really seen anyone try it on yet and when I say it fit perfectly, I mean it. It was like it was made for me almost! I said I had a fancy birthday dinner to go to and they happily steamed it for me.

Later that night, our friends Shelley and Kevin took us to Allium Bistro where we had duck fat fries, wine galore and indulged in dessert. We returned to the house where we took this photo in front of my dahlias:Then we watched Shelley and Kevin's amazing vacation slides and enjoyed great conversation. Seriously, is this not the most amazing vacation photo?
On my actual birthday we hosted an Open House for our friends and family to come and see what we'd done since moving in in December. The house has changed so much since then! I can't help but think, "Have we really been here almost a year?"...

We had the most amazing spread, thanks to Steven and the "Mom's",... Corn on the cob, chips and fresh salsa, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, Ribs and more.

It was so hot, but thankfully the patio got shady pretty quickly. At least it wasn't raining! We had a full house that night and the next day we got to enjoy a lovely lunch and more family time. I really enjoyed the entire weekend. Thank you so much to everyone who came and celebrated with me!

I've been MIA

Yeah. I've been MIA for a while. I'll admit it. Sorry for my loyal readers, but fear not, for I have returned!

Some things to catch up on:

• My birthday party was amazing! We had about 30 people here at the new house and Steven was such a great cook. We had the usual spread of goodies, plus Steven's smoked ribs in the BBQ smoker. Everyone was so impressed! They were really tasty.
• NYC trip! I went to NYC for the first time and it was so exciting!
  
• Family Reunion: My Mom's side of the family got together for food, fun and cribbage!
  
• It's Halloween time again! Love it.
  

Individual posts for each to follow!!

Craft-ernoon

A lot of people ask me what I do all day at work. I guess the term "Operations Consulting" is kind of vague. Here's a little photo I snapped yesterday of only a fraction of what I do:

Whenever we send anything out to clients, be it deliverables, gifts or proposals, we always send a handmade card. I get to make the cards. I love playing with different cardstocks, ribbon textures and colors and fun little gold additions. We just got these amazing bronze cards and matching envelopes. I couldn't resist having a little fun at the end of the day yesterday. Some little gems I made yesterday:New gold ribbons! Had to test them out!Wouldn't you love to open this?
The ribbon gets folded around the card and you have to "break the seal" to open the card.
Very fancy!Our seal gets pressed onto every thing we send out.
This one looks really good on the bronze card.

So I've only scratched the surface of what I do all day. But being able to have a "Craft-ernoon" every once in a while is a pretty awesome perk to a job, for me at least.

Melissa and Ryan's Wedding- August 2011

Melissa and Ryan's Wedding was the weekend after Keith and Stephanie's. Needless to say, we were two pooped attendants after it was all over. But we had some good partying and thoroughly enjoyed seeing our good friends marry their best friends.

I had so much fun at Melissa's wedding that I did not take one single picture on my own camera. But apparently I took some wine-induced photos on the single-use cameras they had on the tables. She posted this to my wall a few days later:

So happy!
A lot of wine here, but also a beautiful dress and handsome Husband too!

Keith and Stephanie's Wedding July 2011

First of all, let's say Congrats to Keith and Stephanie for tying the knot!

We had a whirlwind wedding weekend preparing for, enjoying and resting after the big party.

We got to see the wedding site on Thursday Night after the boys had spent the day running around taking care of last minute errands and wedding prep. Stephen S. came in to town and so it was a lot of fun getting to catch up with him. We all went home and tried to get some sleep.

Friday Morning we woke up and got to work. When Steven and I arrived on site, there was a flower crisis. I was able to help solve it and then spent the afternoon making Boutonnieres and Bouquets, neither of which I had ever made before. I think they turned out pretty good.

Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner and had a lovely time, but we made the mistake of coming home and taking a "nap" before getting up again at 12:30 AM to drive to the airport to pick up our friends Chris and Michelle, in from Boston for the wedding. On the way there we passed a train track and the train blew a whistle... Steven and I both shot up saying, "I'm awake!"... We were able to pick them up without incident and we all came back to the house to pass out.

Saturday morning Darren picked up Steven early. Michelle, Chris and I were able to be a little more leisurely. Which was very nice. We arrived at the site with beer and gifts in hand and ready to enjoy the day. After the reception had died down, some one put up a volleyball net and everyone played on the grass for a good two hours. We finally made it home around 9:30, ordered a pizza and watched the great photos that Chris took on our Wii. I didn't snap a single photo, so these are all from Chris. They are so good. Enjoy!

Steven and I before the ceremony

The "Groomsmen"

The owners of the property were the 'right' kind of fans...

My flowers in action!

The lovely Bride, Groom, Michelle and Me

With the Bride

Posing with Darren

Stephen was uncooperative, so we all played along

Their "Thank You" gifts were all amazing!
Something to change into, because it was HOT!

Love this photo so.much.

Men, Men Manly Men.

In all, a very fun day. Keith is now married!

Congrats again to you Keith and Stephanie!

A busy Fourth of July Weekend:

I got a bee in my bonnet for Fourth of July Weekend...

I had four days off and I decided that we were gonna get some more projects done. We have house guests coming and more events this summer to do so we need to finish up some of these lingering projects.

First project to finish up was "South Facing Windows"... We started with "Blackout" on our Master Bedroom drapes. We also have a south facing skylight in the bathroom and if you remember, we talked about making a custom shade for that. Well here it is:
Steven took on the frame and I had left over black out fabric to line this adorable print from Dwell Studio. I only had to buy a yard, which is good, because it is EXPENSIVE. I think I have enough left over to do a little valence for the LAST south facing window, a little frosted number in the toilet/shower area.

This shade is perfect. I swear it. I can't even believe how exact it turned out for not having a pattern to work off. We just kind winged the entire thing, but we're really happy with the results. It is already making a big difference in the temperature and the light blockage. Plus, I think the little birds are cute.

The other shade that needed to be made was a curtain for the extra bedroom. I fell in love with the Damask Duchess fabric. At 54" wide, I only needed one panel. I love the black and white in here too, because we have a lot of red and pink accents. The muted taupe wall color works well too. This room just needs some art work to be done!
These last pictures aren't about home projects, Steven cut me some roses off our bushes in the backyard and put them in the bathroom for me. They smell SO good! I'm a lucky girl.Finally, here's a close up on my first dahlias, grown from bulbs! Here's hoping they keep blooming all summer long...
Basil plant in the background is doing spectacular too- just trimmed him and got enough for a full batch of pesto, that's 2 cups! Yummy!!

Recovering Dining Chairs: Part II

So after recovering Shelly's chairs, I decided to do mine!

It took a while to decide on fabric and have a garage to work in, but we finally decided that last weekend was the time to do it. We borrowed the staple gun from Dad and we set out to do 4 chairs by ourselves.

Here's the Before:Here we are mid-way through the process. The staples have been pulled, the old fabric and foam is off and we are officially half way through. From here we will cut the foam to fit and then hot glue it down to the board.

I would recommend shaving some of the edges off to give the foam a more rounded look, but we didn't do that here. I also got 2 inch foam instead of the 1 inch that was previously on it because, frankly, when I looked at the 1 inch in the store, I thought "That can't be enough to be comfortable!"... It wasn't.

I'm glad we went with the 2 inch.

In case anyone is wondering, to measure for how much fabric you need, I read directions on the internet:
- Measure the dimensions of your chair in inches
- Measure how thick your foam will be (here 2 in)
- Add 6 inches to each dimension for a chair with 1 inch foam, 8 inches for 2 inch foam. (This is so you will have enough extra fabric to cover the top and pull around the sides of the foam and still have enough to staple down. You can always trim away extra- you can't add more...
- Determine how many yards you need based on the measurements. I was lucky to find 54" width home fabric so I could get two per width. Sometimes you can only get one and you have a bunch extra...


After:I read that you can fold the corners down in hospital corners or you can do what I did here, which has a little more flair to it. We stapled the sides first and then pulled the corners down to give a rounded look rather than a folded look. All about personal preference.

I went with a black fabric that was very thick. It felt like it would hold up to any abuse. The white ticks are a fun bonus touch and the pattern wasn't anything too fussy that would require me to be careful about how I put the covers on... All in all, it ended up being a great choice! Also- it was on sale for Half off, plus I got another 10% with my holiday coupon. Score! I ended up needing a yard and a half for 4 chairs.Here is our 'refreshed' dinette set. I have my first dahlias from the garden in a vase and a new pewter bowl that I received as a hostess gift last weekend. I think the red place mats and white napkins (Homemade, they have Eiffel Towers on them!) add the final touch.

I have to say that I'm surprised what a difference the black and white fabric makes in the kitchen. It ties everything together for our color scheme. I'm now considering going back for some more fabric for a valence for the big kitchen window... projects, projects. I'm going to have to save that one for a rainy day...

Recovering Dining Chairs: Part I

Last Fall I promised my sister Shelly that I would help her recover her dining room chairs as part of my Christmas Gift to her.

We went to Mill End and picked out some lovely fabric for the chairs and coordinating fabric for some curtains.

Here's the before and after on the chairs.

Before:After:
She inherited this set from her in-laws and so we wanted to make sure we did a really good job with the recover. I think we did pretty good. It was a learning experience, for sure, but it turned out well in the end.

The main issue with these is that there is a swatch of fabric around the edges of the 2" foam. We had to cut a pattern out of muslin (cheap!) and then cut all the individual pieces and sew them all together to make a slip cover of sorts. Then we had to pull all the staple (trust me, there are A LOT) on the old covers, cut new foam to fit, hot glue the foam down (it makes it a lot easier, but not required), then we could actually put the new slip cover on and staple it down.

I have to say, it sounds like a lot of work... and it is kind of a big project, but we had Me, Shelly, Mom, Dad and for a while Steven helping out. We did all 6 chairs in less than 8 hours. We also took a break for lunch and then we had a nice dinner to top it off.

Pretty good right?

Mel's Bridal Shower!

I was so excited to be able to help host a Bridal Shower for my good friend Melissa last month!

It was so much fun putting together these goodies:

The shower was "Kitchen" themed, so I went for prizes that would go well in the Kitchen, soaps, lotions, candle and notepad set and two handmade aprons! I fell in love this this First Corinthians tissue paper at Hallmark, so I lined a basket I had laying around with it for some extra presentation flair!

I also made Strawberry Jam for favors. Then I used the cricut to cut card stock circles out and then used my favorite flower stamps to emboss the tops in her colors, purple and green. Very joyful! The card topper just sits between the lid and the ring. Then finished it all off with a little ribbon around the ring in a coordinating purple ribbon.

Here are the lovely people who won the aprons. I asked them each to pose for a photo:These aprons are the easiest things and out of fat quarters- who doesn't have a few of those laying around their sewing basket?? Using my serger, it takes longer to iron and cut the fabric than it does to actually sew it...
Look at all that loot girl! Somewhere in there was an ice cream maker and a crock pot- two things she really wanted!

Ryan: I just want you to know, you are marrying this:That's some "sisterly" love there :)
Finally, a serious pose with the Bride-to-be and her two bridesmaids.

I'm really looking forward to the wedding! Happy Bridal Shower to Melissa!!