Princess Tutu

So a little reprieve from wedding stuff for a moment.

A while back I made this tutu for my little missy.  My sister had given her a tutu for Christmas and her everyday wearing had made it quite thin and scragly. 

Easy cheesy revamp!

Zipper Flower Headbands

So the wedding is tomorrow and I have some things to show off before it all goes down.  Remember these zipper flowers?

 There they are!  Oh, so cute and perfectly positioned.  If you want some ooh and aah over something, here it is.

And do you remember the Ribbon Flowers?  Here they are hot glued along the top of another black headband.  Such a cute little girl thing.

 We are all getting excited for tomorrow.  It's going to be a beautiful day!

Button Earrings

These were just too cute to pass up!  I found this idea from Trey & Lucy and Just Another Day.  Just followed their tutorials for know how.  I love my new earrings.

P.S. I was totally jealous that Tanya had her sisters close to have a night of craftiness.  I loves sisters!  And you will notice that I have the same red ones - too cute.

P.S. I'm Loving Portland!

This is on our way to Powell's Books.  A-MAZ-ING.  Go there.  Now.

Ash Cakes!

So the deliciousness that is covered in dirt and ash has additional butter, cinnamon, and sugar to go along with it.  I know it looks gross and unsanitary, it probably is, but it's so good.

The number 1 requirement for this treat is a real fire.  Preferably out in the wild.

I made a dress!

So the big reveal will be after this weekend.  The infamous "wedding" that I sewed up a bunch of things for (see earlier posts like bow ties, reception aprons, zipper flowers, and ribbon flowers) is finally here.  Saturday is the big day and I'm so excited to take pictures of all the things I made in action.

I'll make sure to fill you in.

For now, this is a sneak picture of my dress (simple elegance):

And to wet your appetite...who doesn't love chicken salad!  This is seriously one of my favorites.  I really do love pizza and I really do love chicken salad.

My favorite CHICKEN SALAD
I chop up the following and mix together:
3 cooked chicken breast, diced and seasoned
apple, diced
3-4 celery stalks, diced
2 cups grapes, halved
1 large can pineapple, tidbits
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup mayo - start with this and then ADD more to your liking
salt and pepper to taste


We ate this in whole wheat pita pockets.  I ate some by the spoon.  I just can't resist.

We really just ate it too fast for me to even think about taking a cute picture of the salad all wrapped up in it's pita.  But rest assured, it was cute.

And to keep the suspense going...what is Amy eating that could cause so much joy although it's covered in dirt and ash?  Answer to be revealed tomorrow.  Dun dun duuuuun....

I hope you're all having a spectacular week. :)

Samosa

I love Indian food!  If I could go somewhere and learn how to cook authentically, my top choices would be Indian (I need to perfect my naan making and garam masala use), Thai (I want to learn a mango chicken recipe), and Mediterranean food (I just don't make very good falafel).  I'm going global everyone!  See you in a year!  ...I wish that were true.  How fun would that be to take of on a cooking adventure.  Comment me where you would go.  :)

When I lived at my last apartment complex, I was a resident assistant for part of the time.  This meant that I organized programs for residents, among other things.

One set of programs that I really enjoyed was cultural cooking.  There were people from all over the world surrounding me.  Asking them to cook, giving them all the ingredients they needed, helping them prepare, and then enjoying them in their own element teaching other residents - this is my favorite.  I think it really gave me a picture of who they were as they told stories about their recipes and home country.

I asked a woman named Aruna to make something and she choose samosa.  I will be forever grateful for Aruna's choice because I've probably made them at least 5 times.  They are a special treat since they do take a good 2 hours to completion.  BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Do NOT get scared away!

Really, it's quite simple, just a little bit of time to get everything together.  The 2 hours also includes the time to make our favorite tamarind sauce to go with it.

Fabric Frames Wall Art Tutorial

I'm back and now live in Portland instead of Sacramento!  What a change.  The packing is done, the loading is done, the driving is done, the unpacking is done, and the house has things in proper places. On top of that, I'm totally spoiled right now.

We've been living in about 600 sq ft and now live in almost 1200 sq ft!!  The simplest things are so exciting right now: a bathroom mirror big enough that my husband and I can see ourselves in it AT THE SAME TIME, let alone counter space on either side of the sink.  Then there's the dishwasher, the disposal, the washer and dryer, the ice maker in the freezer, and the apartments we live in do valet garbage pick-up if you put it outside your door.  Oh, one more thing...there is carpet everywhere!  The last place we lived in didn't have carpet, we bought our own rugs.  The kids came in and started rolling all over the floor.  I guess it passed!  :)

So on to the fun stuff.  I've been cooking up a storm: samosas, tostadas, salsa, gourmet hot dogs (yum), and chicken salad.  Look forward to some recipes.

For tonight I have a NO SEW wall decoration that will look like a million bucks!

I've been anxiously awaiting a time to recover my fabric frames from Ikea and tonight I had my chance. After a quick trip to Ikea, I pulled out my staple gun, and got to work!

Tutorial: Fabric Frame Wall Art


What you need:
Staple Gun and staples (not long ones)
Wood frames (I got mine from Ikea in the frame section.  You could easily make some with some 1x2 board)
Fabric of choice (large enough to fit around frame and be stapled onto the back)

So I saw this scrumptious damask fabric and had to have it.  I am in love with yellow right now so it was perfect.  I also got to other yellows to go with it.

Spotlight on sWeeT cHarLi

If you want to see a fun blog with lots of good ideas, here's one for you.  Thanks for the spotlight, Kami!  Go to sWeeT cHarLi to see my men's dress shirt girl-ified.

I promise there's fun stuff

Hi friends.

So my world is a little upside down right now.  I have a sort-of organized mess in every room as I'm trying to finish packing.  We move in exactly one week from today and I'm trying to kick it in gear.  I know the next couple of days will just get more intense, and that's okay.

However, I have lots of fun things to show you.  So my goal is to get them up, but just have low expectations in case it doesn't happen.  :)  And if it does, then you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I'll be back.

Pants to Crops

Is there anyone else out there who loves to free-pile!  It is one thing I'll miss about living in our current apartments.  Everyone treats a laundry room bin as a free-pile for give and takes.  I have found quite the steals there and enjoy using the stuff to cut up to make MORE things.  

Here are some capris that I made from some old pants.  Cute and perfect on-the-run summer wear.  (*Thanks Jess for the awesome modeling!)