Gas for an unexpected trip to Gresham- $5
Tire repair for my flat at the Dealership- Free
Two friends who would:
Come to my rescue,
Follow me across town to the dealership because my Husband couldn't get off work,
Take me to lunch,
And then come over later for dinner and bring cupcakes- PRICELESS.
And frankly, pretty awesome!
This is how I know I'm a lucky girl and my glass is totally half full today!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
I can SO tablescape...
Steven and I enjoy watching Food Network probably more than most people. However, we have one celebrity chef that we call "The Hack"...she doesn't actually cook everything and she takes a lot of help from the store- but hey- sometimes, that's what you need.
What she's really good at is what she calls "Tablescaping". She takes a theme and then goes crazy on it! I've seen her do kids birthday party tables like you've never seen before. Anyways- this is my attempt at tablescaping. I am working on some gifts for people and when I saw parts of them done I put them together and almost died a little inside. I actually almost wanted to keep them for myself, but in the end- they will go to the people they were intended for!
Here's my first try at two things: Tablescaping and the new camera's manual settings! Yay for trying new things!Please excuse my slumped over roses. They are such a pretty magenta that I couldn't resist keeping them a little past their prime.
I broke out the fine wine glasses and my Grandmother's silverware.
I was so excited the napkins came together so awesomely.
Then I realized that "Hey, these are also perfect placemats when they are full size"
I wish I'd finished my Black and White polka dot napkins because they would complete this table perfectly!
The napkins are such a pretty print- poppies! The tablecloth is the most gorgeous silky material.
Finally- I made lables for all my hand made creations! I'm pretty excited about it actually. I'll need to take a close up photo sometime soon. They say:
Hand Made
For You.
By Me.
With my name and a star and a place for care instructions. :)
What she's really good at is what she calls "Tablescaping". She takes a theme and then goes crazy on it! I've seen her do kids birthday party tables like you've never seen before. Anyways- this is my attempt at tablescaping. I am working on some gifts for people and when I saw parts of them done I put them together and almost died a little inside. I actually almost wanted to keep them for myself, but in the end- they will go to the people they were intended for!
Here's my first try at two things: Tablescaping and the new camera's manual settings! Yay for trying new things!Please excuse my slumped over roses. They are such a pretty magenta that I couldn't resist keeping them a little past their prime.
I broke out the fine wine glasses and my Grandmother's silverware.
I was so excited the napkins came together so awesomely.
Then I realized that "Hey, these are also perfect placemats when they are full size"
I wish I'd finished my Black and White polka dot napkins because they would complete this table perfectly!
The napkins are such a pretty print- poppies! The tablecloth is the most gorgeous silky material.
Finally- I made lables for all my hand made creations! I'm pretty excited about it actually. I'll need to take a close up photo sometime soon. They say:Hand Made
For You.
By Me.
With my name and a star and a place for care instructions. :)
Monday, February 15, 2010
Crafting
Here are some things I've been working on lately-
I made my Mom a set of 16 cloth napkins, She got 12 for Christmas and these are the final set. There are 4 of each color- lake blue, sage green, pale yellow and finally beige. You can't tell at all but these are monogrammed with her initials!
I made my Mom a set of 16 cloth napkins, She got 12 for Christmas and these are the final set. There are 4 of each color- lake blue, sage green, pale yellow and finally beige. You can't tell at all but these are monogrammed with her initials!
I learned to make tea towels before Christmas and gave out 2 sets as gifts to my friends- which I have NO photos of...but they were adorable prints with polka dot ribbons. These are Holiday themed and I have one more set to do that is waiting on me to get around to.
Finally, I went all out on Valentine's Day this year for my gift exchange with my friend Shelley. She's so fun to make things for and I go crazy trying to come up with new ideas- but I am so thrilled when they turn out well. This year I saw a mason jar like this and the price tag was ridiculous for something not even filled with anything! I said- "I can make that!" and so I did. A little fabric, imagination, monogramming sewing machine and hand stitching on the hearts. SO CUTE!
I ended up with two jars (one test subject) and enough material to try making this gift bag that I saw on another blog. This is my recreation of it- but I'd just assume try it a different way next time. However, I love how these two materials played off each other. I tied the bag up with a black ribbon with white polka dots on it and put the same ribbon on the jars too. Very sweet! The little printed Chinese take-out box was a Target dollar find that got filled with brownies and taken as a house warming gift for Brenda and Keary.
Following all my sewing machine time, I made hand made Valentine's for the family! It was so fun to cut out the hearts from left over fabric and coordinate paper colors. I had a ball. All the ribbon was scrap too- came together really nicely!
My last plan for Shelley's gift was to make big cookies that looked like conversation hearts candies! I mixed the pink coloring, iced and then piped on the phrases.
I also did some other sizes with some of Mom's nested hearts cookie cutters that I borrowed. I did a different icing color/pattern on each one. Medium sized have baby pink frosting and large sprinkles. Smallest sized cookies have white icing and colored sugar dusted over. YUM!
Final packaging looked like this! I sent these to my Sister and Family and my nephew called me totally surprised! Such a sweet ending to the day!Valentine's Day
Love is in the Air!
Our Valentine's Tradition since we tied the knot is to get something from our china pattern as a gift to each other rather than individual gifts (which are so hard to buy!).
Last year we went all out and got two place settings (so we'd have enough for Easter Dinner) and the Open Vegetable Dish and we loved them. I was very "on the ball" and got them ordered in plenty of time!
This year-- total FAIL on my part. I waited until the last minute and on the Tuesday before said, "Hey are we doing this?"... OOPS! In short, we were able to get it ordered and shipped and it was here on Friday without our worries and without costing us a fortune due to an unexpected gift from Macy's! WOO HOO!
What might this be? Well this year we got a 10" serving bowl and it is fantastic! It's going to be so great when it is heaping full of mashed potatoes and we can use the covered vegetable dish for something like green beans or broccoli. Anyways- we have options for bowls now, which we did not before!
Our table looked amazing because Steven bought me awesome bright pink roses!
The new bowl in action- housed a large salad and it was so good.
Drinking Champagne appetizers! One of Steven's best ideas ever...
And finally- enjoying our night with our favorite red wine (Mayasara Jamsheed Pinot Noir) which was served at our wedding and steaks with bread and salad. Low key, but great. Then we watched "That Thing You Do"...
Lovely.
Our Valentine's Tradition since we tied the knot is to get something from our china pattern as a gift to each other rather than individual gifts (which are so hard to buy!).
Last year we went all out and got two place settings (so we'd have enough for Easter Dinner) and the Open Vegetable Dish and we loved them. I was very "on the ball" and got them ordered in plenty of time!
This year-- total FAIL on my part. I waited until the last minute and on the Tuesday before said, "Hey are we doing this?"... OOPS! In short, we were able to get it ordered and shipped and it was here on Friday without our worries and without costing us a fortune due to an unexpected gift from Macy's! WOO HOO!
What might this be? Well this year we got a 10" serving bowl and it is fantastic! It's going to be so great when it is heaping full of mashed potatoes and we can use the covered vegetable dish for something like green beans or broccoli. Anyways- we have options for bowls now, which we did not before!
Our table looked amazing because Steven bought me awesome bright pink roses!
The new bowl in action- housed a large salad and it was so good.
Drinking Champagne appetizers! One of Steven's best ideas ever...
And finally- enjoying our night with our favorite red wine (Mayasara Jamsheed Pinot Noir) which was served at our wedding and steaks with bread and salad. Low key, but great. Then we watched "That Thing You Do"...
Lovely.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Go Saints!
Several weeks ago, at the start of the NFL season, I told Steven that the only way he could get me to watch NFL football was to engage my interest by having me pick a team to root for.
I picked the Saints.
I kind of kept up on their progress and watched Monday Night Games when they would play and stayed on top of the season...way more interest than I normally show in sports.
Well, tonight they proved that having me as a fan pays off! Superbowl 44 champs!!
They never lost a game that I watched. And they did lose 3 games this year, but I didn't happen to see those...So I'll stand by my claim that my fan-dom is lucky.
Now- if my "other" team, Villanova, would just pick things up for March Madness, I will be on top of sports picks for the year. And, that's something to blog about!
I picked the Saints.
I kind of kept up on their progress and watched Monday Night Games when they would play and stayed on top of the season...way more interest than I normally show in sports.
Well, tonight they proved that having me as a fan pays off! Superbowl 44 champs!!
They never lost a game that I watched. And they did lose 3 games this year, but I didn't happen to see those...So I'll stand by my claim that my fan-dom is lucky.
Now- if my "other" team, Villanova, would just pick things up for March Madness, I will be on top of sports picks for the year. And, that's something to blog about!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Beach Trip 2010...
Steven and I were very lucky to get the chance to go to the beach in the middle of last week for three days!
Poor Steven had to spend an entire week in NYC (I know, that's tough, right? Not like going to Montana or anything!) and when he came home on 1/21 he had Friday and the entire next week off! I'll post some of his photos and stories in a bit when I can commandeer his laptop! So these posts will be out of order. We celebrated Marlene's 50th Birthday on Saturday, relaxed on Sunday and Monday and then hit the road praying for good weather!
We turned up earlier than we'd expected so we hit Seaside up for breakfast at Pig 'N Pancake and walked around the boardwalk and such. It was the perfect time for us to be there- no people! Then we got in the car and hoped they'd be able to check us in early and they were!
Once we got up to the room and started getting settled, it started to rain...hard. We thought that was all we were going to get the entire time so we'd packed movies and things to keep us occupied indoors. Halfway through an episode of October Road I glanced out the window and shouted, "IT'S NOT RAINING!"...
We threw on our shoes and jackets and packed up the camera and this is what we saw:
This is my favorite statue. Turns out his name is "Sailor Steve"! How perfect?
Wednesday Morning at Hug Point, perfect weather but high tide...
Wednesday afternoon after Tillamook run and the longest car ride back to Cannon Beach EVER.
View from 101 view point of the bay.
These types of photos with back lighting are my favorite- on a whim I asked Steven to try taking this and he got a pretty good shot!
Our favorite large rock formation.
On Tuesday up until now it had been cloudy and the light was slim. All of a sudden the sun came out and so with some "iso" changes, our colors got really nice!
My second best shot! Steven set all the manual settings, naturally.
Best shot of the trip! Go me! I thought this came out so well. The first attempt was dark but more manual adjustments turned out this. Notice how the cloud cover is all dark and grey? Yeah, five minutes later we got the shot above with gorgeous colors.
The new camera is SO much fun. Obviously Steven is much more advanced than I am (unless otherwise noted, the shots are his), but I'm actually considering watching the video so I'll get some of my own 'know-how'. Shocking, I know.
Poor Steven had to spend an entire week in NYC (I know, that's tough, right? Not like going to Montana or anything!) and when he came home on 1/21 he had Friday and the entire next week off! I'll post some of his photos and stories in a bit when I can commandeer his laptop! So these posts will be out of order. We celebrated Marlene's 50th Birthday on Saturday, relaxed on Sunday and Monday and then hit the road praying for good weather!
We turned up earlier than we'd expected so we hit Seaside up for breakfast at Pig 'N Pancake and walked around the boardwalk and such. It was the perfect time for us to be there- no people! Then we got in the car and hoped they'd be able to check us in early and they were!
Once we got up to the room and started getting settled, it started to rain...hard. We thought that was all we were going to get the entire time so we'd packed movies and things to keep us occupied indoors. Halfway through an episode of October Road I glanced out the window and shouted, "IT'S NOT RAINING!"...
We threw on our shoes and jackets and packed up the camera and this is what we saw:
This is my favorite statue. Turns out his name is "Sailor Steve"! How perfect?
Wednesday Morning at Hug Point, perfect weather but high tide...
Wednesday afternoon after Tillamook run and the longest car ride back to Cannon Beach EVER.
View from 101 view point of the bay.
These types of photos with back lighting are my favorite- on a whim I asked Steven to try taking this and he got a pretty good shot!
Our favorite large rock formation.
On Tuesday up until now it had been cloudy and the light was slim. All of a sudden the sun came out and so with some "iso" changes, our colors got really nice!
My second best shot! Steven set all the manual settings, naturally.
Best shot of the trip! Go me! I thought this came out so well. The first attempt was dark but more manual adjustments turned out this. Notice how the cloud cover is all dark and grey? Yeah, five minutes later we got the shot above with gorgeous colors.The new camera is SO much fun. Obviously Steven is much more advanced than I am (unless otherwise noted, the shots are his), but I'm actually considering watching the video so I'll get some of my own 'know-how'. Shocking, I know.
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