trying my hand at something new and other random things

If you have never been to this website you have to go. Bakerella has such CUTE baking ideas. So, with being on Spring Break, I thought I would try her red velvet cake balls. It all started out going great...I baked my red velvet cake according to the package directions and then mixed in the container of cream cheese frosting.

I tried to make the balls round, but it was a little more difficult than I thought. Looking back, I think my mistake was not letting the mixture cool enough and taking the time to roll more perfectly shaped spheres.

The dipping in chocolate was extremely difficult. I found it hard to keep the cake balls together in the warm melted chocolate.

They still taste great...they just don't look their prettiest. I think I will try to make these again, but just try a few different tricks next time I make them (like freezing the cake balls for like 15 or 20 minutes before dipping them into the chocolate).

On a completely unrelated note, I got to go to Amanda's baby shower today with Katie in Illinois. Amanda is one of the cutest pregnant girls I have ever seen. She was wearing this stylish dress that I don't know if I could pull off without carrying a pound of meat in my belly. She got so much cute stuff and she was just glowing. It was a really great day (despite the gross St. Louis March weather - yes Kerns, I realize you are probably laying by the pool in LA while reading this so get a tan for the both of us...)!

Tonight I was very productive. Will hung out upstairs while I decluttered my closet (yes, Katie you can do it too). It felt SO good. We take all of our gently loved things to a consignment shop nearby and boy will I have a mother load for them. I counted 48 pieces of clothing that I am getting rid of. It was good having Will there for all those things I was so-so about, all I would have to do is hold it up and he would look at it like, "did you really used to wear that" and I would put it in the sell pile. I also got rid of many pairs of shoes and a few other accessories like purses and belts. Spring cleaning feels very good.

Photo - Walmart

Sometime Monday or Tuesday we are going to Walmart to purchase our new patio set for our deck. I will post new pictures of it once I have it assembled and on the deck. I am very excited to have something to actually sit on out there (and so is our four-legged friend Samson).

Also on my Monday or Tuesday list is purchasing good old fashioned pegboard to organize our tools.

And some hooks... And although we don't have this many tools to organize, I think it will help us find what we do have easier.

We are also going to purchase shelves for our garage. I'll take pictures when we are done (towards the end of Spring Break) to show you our garage makeover. ; ) You would think that my husband would be the one really excited about this, but actually he does not really care - I'm the one who is orchestrating this project on our to-do list.

See you on the blog tomorrow...

A New Arrival

My new sewing machine arrived in the mail yesterday. I ordered it from Overstock on Tuesday night and it came in two days! I'm excited to work on a few projects on it over Spring Break - which started yesterday at 4:00. I'm off work all next week and I'm so excited because Will also took the week off. I should have time to do a lot of posting in the next week...

A Triple Set

As you can tell (because I have been crafting), the husband has been gone again this week...

This week I have been working on a set of three small spring wreaths to hang on my arch grid in our family room. I bought three foam wreath forms at the dollar store. I covered the wreath form in burlap (long strips about 3 inches wide). I used this tutorial to make these fabric flowers. I alternated two kinds of fabric. They were very similar to each other.



I hot glued the fabric flower to the wreath and then hot glued a yoyo fabric flower in the middle (you could also do a button).



I used some green gross grain ribbon I had to hang the three small wreaths on my arched grid (once the flowers were hot glued on).

I couldn't get a good closeup shot.

I thought about covering the whole thing in different kinds of fabric flowers, but I kind of liked the simplicity of this for my family room.

Leave a comment, tell me what you think...

Can you feel it?

Today I woke up at 7:15, yes it is Saturday, but the sun is SHINING. I feel spring coming, no it hasn't arrived yet, but it is close. Can you feel it?

Spring Break is in two weeks and all I can say is it better be nice weather. That is the funny thing about March in St. Louis, it can be 70 degrees one day and snow the next (this happened during our wedding).

Will and I have big plans for Spring Break - do as little as possible and spend the whole week together. Will has been traveling A LOT lately and I miss him (so does his four legged friend). We have little things we want to accomplish too, but our main goal is just to relax. We have a few movies we want to see and we would like to buy our patio furniture. We will probably pick out the stone for our mini retaining wall in front of our front porch so we can work on that as soon as the ground unfreezes a little. We will probably buy the paint for our foundation so we can paint it to match our siding (also when it warms up a little more). I'm sure we will pick up a few more things for the house to hang or put together. I'd like to clean out the garage and buy some shelving. I'll probably purchase my new sewing machine. Oh, and we have to buy shoes, yes shoes. Will needs new work out shoes, I need new tennis shoes, and we both need new sandals. Thank goodness Will gets his bonus in March, Spring Break is starting to sound expensive...and busy.

I want to cook too - good food for my guy - I love having yummy snacks for him lying around. Food makes him happy. I've got to find some new recipes to try, got any ideas?

I've been working on some projects this week, but none of them are done yet to photograph and post. I'll share when I'm done.

I'm going to go get ready for the day...I want to get out in this sun, even if it is still cold...I can't wait for spring, but without the bees and wasps.

Another Hair Accessory

I made another headband today. I was hoping to get a few done, but I've had a headache almost all weekend, it's raining outside and I'm just feeling a little lazy. I decided to try a green headband for spring. This time, instead of doing the accordion flowers, I tried the yoyo style fabric flowers. Directions for making yoyo's can be found here. Again, I wrapped my headband in gross grain and then attached three yoyo flowers. I put buttons in the middle of the yoyo's to add some more character. I just love cute hair accessory.

Shout Out to ALLIE and Old Memories

This post is a shout out to my dear old Auburn friend, Allie Shelton! I just realized yesterday that people had been commenting on my blog...not a lot and not often, but a few. And my friend Allie had told me WAY back, in like July, that she had a blog and I didn't even realize it because it was in a comment I didn't realize that I had - OOPS! So this is a shout out to you Allie...get back to blogging! Inspire us with design...and check out her blog!

http://alliesdoseofdesign.blogspot.com/

And while I am talking about Auburn and old friends - I just decided to look through old photos...Will and I are a month and a half away from our one year wedding anniversary and we just celebrated our five years of being a couple. Our best friends, Kerns and Chris, will be married TWO years this June. Time flies, but it is fun to look back, laugh, and occasionally remember things that make you want to cry.

PANDA...need I say more?

Fall Formal Junior Year...remember the blonde?

Will turns 21.

Winter 2005/2006

Fall Senior Year at Auburn

I think this week I am going to dig out old LHS photos and scan them on the computer. How fun would it be to look back to from 1999-2003 to bring back REALLY old memories. Life goes fast...

Headband Fun!

Yesterday I posted about how I have seen cute headbands everywhere - so today I made my own. I'm trying to grow my hair out, just a little, and so I've been throwing it up more and more - I thought I needed something cute to put in my hair for the next month before I get it done again. So, I decided to make some cute hair accessories. Tonight I made my first one, but I plan on doing one in green soon. I just went to Walmart and bought a pack of 3 cheap headbands (therefore I still have two more to make- at least). They were like $3.50 for 3. You cut a strip of fabric about 20 inches long and fold it in half. I ironed my to make it easier to work with. Then you sew down the side with the fold - big spaces between each thread point. Then you pull the two ends of the extra thread together and tie them in a knot.

You have to sew the part where the "flower" ends meet together so it looks like one flowing shape.
I wrapped my headband in gross grain ribbon, but you wouldn't have to do that. Then I hot glued my flower to it and added a circle to the back.

Here is the finished headband with the last touch I added to the middle of the flower - a fabric circle and button.

Another shot! I glued my flower on so that it would be close to the ear when I wear the headband, but you could glue it anywhere you like depending on what look you are going for. I think the next one I make will have three smaller flowers (instead of the one big one) in the white and black polka dot with black buttons.