Arhaus - it's very fine

If I had all the money in the world, I think I would furnish my house entirely from Arhaus. I didn't realize how much I loved that store until I walked through it again last weekend. I think I love it even more than Restoration Hardware, another home store that is completely out of my budget. It's fun to dream, right, and drool. Try not to drool on the furniture though. They frown upon that.

I was lucky enough to fall in love with an accessory that even my wallet could handle.




It's a taupe magnolia plate that can be placed on a table or hung on the wall. Arhaus had them all over the walls in the store. I bought just one at $22 and am hunting for the perfect home for her in my house. The pictures don't show how the petals curl up towards you. So pretty. They also sell a smaller version in cream. It's only $12. I may have to go back for that one. Before you know it my whole wall will be magnolia plates. That would be a bit of all right.

G-Money Monogram

I have had all the components for this project for months. I often fall into this crafting cycle in which I get really excited for a project at first, and then lose steam even before starting. Then, all the purchased supplies just sit there begging to be crafted.

In our foyer is a small alcove screaming for some artwork. Everything I've looked at in the stores has not been very inspiring to me. When store-bought items are uninspired, you must make your own, yes? I know I saw the finished result of this project somewhere as the idea is not originally mine, but for the life of me, I can't remember where. If it's yours, I'd be happy to give you credit. Let's get started!

I purchased a white 10"x10" canvas from Michael's and painted it with a leftover paint sample I had in the garage. Then, I played around with some fonts until I found one I liked and made it HUGE. Well, big enough to fill the canvas. See?




I lightly traced the outline of the G onto the canvas. If you do this on a lighter color, you'll probably want to erase the line. When I was finished with the next step, you couldn't really see where the line was in the places it didn't get covered.

After tracing the letter, I laid out these white buttons (I bought a tube of them at Hobby Lobby) carefully fitting smaller ones around the larger buttons. I was going to sew on each button individually but decided against it. Too time consuming. Sounds like a good time to bust out the hot glue gun instead!



Here's my G, all buttoned up!

Here he is all alone on the alcove wall.

Very lonely. Don't worry, there are other pieces of artwork ready and waiting to be hung. We didn't get to painting the foyer or stairwell yet so it's still white from the previous owners. The ceilings here are 17 ft. Quite an undertaking.....someday. In the meantime, I want to paint the alcove wall taupe. John is unconvinced.

Anyway, I think this would also look cute matted and framed. I have a housewarming party to go to in a few weeks and if I can find the time, I think I'll do one for the hosts!

Instagram It Up

Am I the last one to come to the Instagram party? If you have an iphone, or probably some other app ready piece of technology, you MUST download this free app. It will revolutionize your pictures, for free! I do not pay for apps so I was pretty stoked that this one was gratis.


Here is an iphone photo on its own



Here it is using a filter (Nashville, I think) on Instagram!




And because a post about pictures without a picture of Sadie just isn't right. Here's Sadie at a charity walk we did in the spring.





And here's the same picture Instagrammed up. I don't remember which filter I used but I zoomed in and used the feature that lets you make a focal point super crisp and then fuzzy up the background. It's subtle here but you can make the contrast much greater if you like.

This is definitely my new favorite app. And now because of this, maybe my pictures on here will look loads better. Well, some of them anyway.

Recipe Re-blog #31

Guys, I have a new obsession. Homemade donuts. (Is it donuts or doughnuts? Normally, I'm all for the proper spelling but in the interest of fewer keystrokes, donuts it is.) I kept coming across recipes for homemade baked cake donuts and I could not stop thinking about them. Sometimes when you are living a certain lifestyle of eating that can only be described as deprivation, you start obsessing over the foods you cannot have. Full disclosure, a couple weeks ago someone brought in the freshest donuts I've ever smelled at the office. And they had my fave! Maple iced, cream-filled. I couldn't ignore that they were just sitting there in the snack room. And so I took a spoon, carved out the center where all the creamy goodness was and ate it. Did I tell you this already in another post? Forgive me, I'm writing this on a Friday evening with a glass of Carmenere pouring down my throat. Anyway, I digress. THE POINT IS.....I wanted to satisfy my donut craving more often than not and so I purchased donut pans. I bought both a full size and a mini pan, because who doesn't love mini things. They were relatively inexpensive on Amazon so I went for it. And then I found some donut recipes.

Chocolate Cake Donuts http://www.familycircle.com/recipe/cakes/chocolate-cake-doughnuts/: This recipe is from Family Circle. It's healthier than a fried donut but not by much, probably. I had all the ingredients on hand which was lucky. The recipe suggested putting the batter in a makeshift ziploc pastry bag. This is fine but be warned, when you are squeezing chocolate brown batter from a bag into a pan, it looks like poo. If you can get past that and lose yourself in the aroma from the oven while they bake, you'll be just fine. Yum, yum, yum. I made these for some B&B guests and they went fast.

Apple Cinnamon Donuts http://www.preventionrd.com/baked-apple-cinnamon-doughnuts-weekly-menu/: These are of a healthier variety. Because this was my second batch in the same day (after a night of LOTS of wine -- are you sensing a theme?) I didn't mess with the pastry bag on these. Also, John had to go buy brown sugar in the middle of my mixing up the batter for both recipes....oops! Anyway, these are relatively healthy as far as donuts go. The recipe uses some whole wheat as well which made them a bit denser but still tasty. Applesauce is the key here for keeping the calories low. If you are not a supersweet breakfast person, these are for you!

Recipe #3, comin' atcha!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas http://stephaniecooks.blogspot.com/2011/07/honey-lime-enchiladas.html: Does anyone else feel like a lot of Mexican entrees are very similar in ingredients and taste? I love Mexican but it's basically all the same stuff. I've never made enchiladas before but this recipe was very similar to the baked flautas that I make. Well, let's say it's similar in preparation but very different in taste. And Oh.Em.GEE!!! PLEASE try these enchiladas. These were so amazing that John and I kept making Mmmm noises while eating them. Bite after bite. The leftovers were even better. AH-MAZING! I cooked the chicken overnight in the crockpot so that it would already be shredded and ready the next night. I had only seasoned it with salt and pepper at that point but since the recipe calls for chili powder and garlic powder, you could probably add it during the crockpot stage to really let the flavors sit. Also, John bought red enchilada sauce instead of the green it called for. I've never had green enchilada sauce but the red tasted fine so either will do. And for the cream, I used fat free half and half to save some calories. I could not believe the brightness of flavor in these. So refreshing!

P.S. Sorry, again, about the non-hyper links. I figured out the problem, just have to fix it.

YOU: On a Diet

As a whole, I don't really like reading diet/nutrition books even though it's a topic I'm very interested in. However, I'm never able to follow their plans, nor do I want to, and they're typically extremely dull. Nevertheless, I picked up YOU: On a Diet - The Owner's Manual for Waist Management by Drs. Mehmet Oz (Yes, Dr. Oz) and Michael Roizen from the library a week or so ago. It had been awhile since I read anything non-fiction of this nature so I decided, what the heck. This is just one of a whole YOU series by these two but it's the first I've ever read.

Unlike other diet books, this one actually held my interest. It was very informative in an un-clinical way. It did delve pretty deeply into a lot of biology but somehow it wasn't terribly dry. There were many chapters dealing with how an dwhy your body processes food. Some of it I knew but most I didn't, or at least I didn't know the scientific names for everything. I picked up some remarkable facts that I didn't expect to. This book is also helping my look at the types of food I'm eating and when I need it for fuel or why I'm craving a specific type of food.

As for the diet and exercise plan, the jury is still out. It appears that I have pretty much been following the majority of the diet plan all along. Yea me! But, since I've plateaued, I was looking for a little extra oomph to kickstart my weight loss and I don't think I found that here. Additionally, they suggest starting off your exercise plan by walking 30 minutes every day and incorporating 20 minutes of strength and stretching 3 times a week. I'm sorry but I just don't see how a 30 minute walk is going to give me more benefit thatn the 5 miles I ran on Sunday. Maybe it you're already of a certain physical fitness you would just be expected to improve on what you're already doing? I'm assuming if you were starting this plan from scratch, chances are your diet and exercise are a bit lacking and you would need to start slowly. They claim in 2 weeks you will lose inches from your waist. Again, maybe if you are just starting a healthy lifestyle you would see these results but I guess I wouldn't really know unless I tried. I'm not willing to stop running, lifting or zumba-ing so I suppose I'm not a convert to this plan. And now I've gone off on a long-winded tangent.

Even if you don't think you'd follow the food and exercise plan, the book will teach you quite a bit. It was a relatively quick read as well. If you're looking for a little guidance, this is probably a good choice for you.

Rating: * * * 1/2

Birthday Banner for Ben

My nephew turns 1 year old today. A whole year! It's a tad hard to believe. Considering I only got to see him 3 times during that year, he seems to grow so fast. Those Texans are coming up to Ohio over Labor Day for a belated birthday party and now that he's walking (!) I REALLY can't wait for them to come, even if the trip will be brief.

For Ben's first birthday, I wanted to make him something in addition to the other gifts we sent. Sewing for boys is difficult. They don't wear cute, frilly dresses or need little girl accessories. This year, I must make more of an effort to make things for him. There are a lot of good ideas out there so I should just get cracking. My first thought was a penant banner that said 'Happy Birthday' but that is a lot of letters! I shortened it to CELEBRATE instead. This was a great project also because I used fabric and ribbon from my stash.

I used a red pique cotton that had a little stiffness to it. I thought about also ironing on some fusib;e web but skipped that step and instead, used a white pique cotton to back each triangle so they would hang better and also for a bit more color variation.

My triangles were 6 inches wide and 9 inches long. A ruler and rotary cutter made cutting them out a snap. I printed and cut out the letters to be approx. 3 inches. I think the font I used was just Arial, bolded. Cutting out those letters was the most tedious step to this whole project. I don't have a fancy Silhouette, just good old-fashioned scissors.

The penants are red on one side and white on the other. I used a navy and white polka dot fabric for half the letters and a light blue and white stripe for the others. I stitched the triangles together and then sewed on the letters. Then, I took my pinking shears to the edges to help stop fraying and make them a little more exciting. Here's the C!

And here they are all laid out with Sadie standing guard. That other polka dot fabric is for a really excited furniture project. More on that in the future!

When all the penants were stitched, I sewed them to a 1" wide length of navy grosgrain ribbon.

And here is the finished project!

As a one year old, Ben probably won't find it nearly as exciting as the electric car he just got. But, I hope they'll hang it for him every year on his birthday and since I probably won't be there for those birthdays, he'll know I'm celebrating for him elsewhere.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BEN!

Things that Rock my World right now

SADIE!

I'm sure everyone says it about their own pets but I have the best dog. This is pre-haircut. She got a new summer 'do a couple weeks ago. Cool and comfortable. Sadie also makes me smile. She's bumming pretty hard as I type though. My in-laws just left after a fun weekend visit. She loves houseguests. We do too. Wanna come stay at the Chez G B&B?

New nailpolish!

This is Austin-tatious Turquoise from OPI's Texas line. Sorry for the crappy iphone picture. Also, sorry I have the gangliest toes in the world. I thought putting the bottle there would hide my freakishly long second toe. I was wrong. Either way, I love this color for summer. I also think it will match the color of the ocean when we are in Mexico in 70-some odd days.

Hummus!

I am newly in love with hummus. I think maybe I was previously just scared of it. I don't know why. It's delicious! I love this garlic flavor. I also love that it only has 25 calories for 2 tbsps. WHAT!?! Do you know how much less that is than peanut butter? I think I found my new post-work, pre-workout snack!

New socks!

You guys, my other shorty socks were downright nasty. They were pretty much gray from all the sweat I pour into them and all the washing they go through. I decided it was time for an upgrade. Not only are they still the brightest of white, they are also much softer than my old socks. Sweat stiffens things you know. Are you grossed out yet by all this talk of sweating? You should have seen me after yesterday's run. P. U.

Happy August, everyone!

Can you believe we've already lived through 7 months of 2011? Yeah, me neither.