DIY Prints

This summer I bought a calendar from Anthropologie (also have seen it at PaperSource and some other places like that) because I really liked the prints inside. I figured I could probably frame them one day. When I was upstairs in my “junk room” I came across them again and decided they’d be perfect for Emery’s nursery. It was such an easy craft and I really like the way they turned out.

FYI - I do notice that I’m starting to get a little bird theme going on when I said I wasn’t going to have a theme in my nursery, but I’m going to try and stop that by not putting in ANY more birds (except for the bird on the rug I want and my bird mobile, which is now going to turn into wall art, I think – more details to come.) My mom was just here visiting and she noticed I had birds on pillows in my living area and on my hand towels in the bathroom. What is with all the bird stuff that's around these days?! I'm guess I'm just drawn to them for some reason.

Anyways, here’s how simple this project was if you want to give it a try:

1) Cut out the prints (might want to leave a little edge as my mom suggested after I cut them out).

2) Take the paper insert that comes in the frame and trace the size onto poster board and cut it out. Then trace the size of the print onto the poster board and cut out the middle. Now you have a mat to go with the print.

3) Take your poster board mat and lay it on the fabric you want to cover it with (lining it up however you want). Tape the fabric around the edges and cut out the middle and tape it the same way (I cut at an angle to the inside corners so it wraps well).

4) Tape in the print and put it all together in the frame. Easy peasy!

Oh! I also got the chandelier installed today and I LOVE IT! The nursery is finally coming together. All I have left to do is recover the rocker, make my basket liners, finish the wardrobe, do my bird wall art, and find some different curtains because the ones I have right now are NOT gonna work!

(Not a great picture, but you get the idea of how it's looking right now, right?) I'll post better pics when it's all done.

Fabric Letters - Do it yourself!

I saw these cardboard letters at PaperSource when I found out I was pregnant and thought it would be fun to make my own fabric letters for the baby once I knew the sex and the name. I finally finished them this weekend. I’m not sure if I made these the best way, but it worked. It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be and I was really glad she only has five letters in her name.

Here’s what I did if you want to try it on your own and if you know of an easier way – let me know. I don’t think I’m going to do this again for a while!

Supplies:

• Staple gun with staples
• Poster board
• Scotch tape
• Batting
• Pencil
• Super Glue
• Glue stick
• Cardboard letters
• Fabrics of your choice
• Fabric scissors
• Regular scissors

1) Trace the letters onto poster board and cut them out.

2) Place fabric to go around the edges of your letter and staple the fabric to the front and backs of the letter (you will cover these staples with the poster board letter and the other side will be the back).

3) Trace the letters onto batting (make sure it’s facing the right direction – the batting will go on top of the poster board cutout) and cut it out using fabric scissors. Attach the batting to the poster board letter with a glue stick.

4) Place the poster board and batting letter onto the fabric you want to show on top of the letter and cut around and fold it onto the back. I used scotch tape to attach the fabric. (It’s kind of like you’re gift wrapping the letter almost). I found that cutting slits to fold down around the curved parts worked best.

5) Super glue your fabric, batting and poster board letter on top of the cardboard letter than has the fabric covered on the sides.

I punched a hold in the back of the cardboard and hung them up with nails.

Sounds easy, right? That’s what I had thought. Wrapping the fabric around the sides was definitely the hardest part for me and my hands were really sore from the staple gun. I must have used a hundred staples!

You can also use these letters for other things. I bought some a year ago from Anthropologie and hung the word “EAT” in my kitchen and love it. You could also do “SEW” for a sewing room or “TEA” if you really like tea. I wanted a 3-letter word to keep the cost down and if you’re making them, I recommend keeping your word short or you’ll hate yourself halfway through the process.

Happy Letter Making!

Want to be a French Woman Who Doesn't Get Fat?

I do! Look at the French -they eat cheese, bread, chocolate, wine and champagne and are sticks! I want to eat and look like that!

Those that know me, know I'm a junkie for health books, but only those that DON'T have you follow meal plans. The type of health books I like to read are the ones that teach an eating philosophy to help you keep the weight off, but still enjoy food. Well, I was watching FitTV the other night and a segment on Mirielle Guilliano's "French Women Don't Get Fat" was airing. I'd heard of this book and actually borrowed it from a friend a couple of years ago, but didn't find it so interesting. I'm not sure why, but this time around I was intrigued. I borrowed it again from the same friend so I could re-read it and have started to take some of her concepts into action these past two weeks.

Here's are a few things that I love about her philosophy:

• You don't have to worry so much about working out as long as you walk at least 30 minutes a day - French women don't go to the gym (Being pregnant right now and not being able to run or workout hard is most likely why I love this philosophy right now and probably why I didn't buy into it a couple of years ago.)
• Eat what you want, but try to make sure it's a close to it's original source as possible and in season- NOT PROCESSED! (I gave up most processed foods about a year ago and it's made such a difference in how I feel and, I think, has made keeping the weight off easy and enjoyable. I probably was really into Lean Cuisines and fat free chips and things a couple of years ago which is another reason I wasn't ready for this philosophy at that point.)
• Have a glass of wine with dinner - just don't have more than 1 or 2 glasses (Love this! I love wine with food and I can't have more than that right now anyways being pregnant so this one is EASY for me! Also to note: A glass of wine is a 3 second pour. Try it - it's way smaller than you'd think. I heard that on a show the other month and found that pretty interesting.)
• Eat chocolate, just make sure it's dark. (Favorite new dessert - a dark chocolate square - and I'm telling you, it really does nip your chocolate/sweet cravings in the bud.)

My favorite type of Dark Chocolate. YUM!

• Eat breakfast -preferably plain nonfat yogurt (I recommend plain Greek yogurt) with homemade granola and fresh fruit. (Okay, I usually HATE this type of breakfast, but I'm now HOOKED. I tweaked a homemade granola recipe I found online and make a batch on the weekend to keep for the entire week in a Tupperware container. It's also great when you don't have but a few seconds to prepare your breakfast and its' really filling. Another great thing I've found about this breakfast is that I don't crave my mochas or lattes afterwards because it has dairy and sugars in it - and it's a much healthier version of dairy and sugars! I'm not sure what it is about yogurt, but supposedly the French eat 1-2 servings a day so it must do something good.)

Here's my recipe for granola if you want to give it a try:

Homemade Granola

• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup steel cut quick-cook oats
• 1T honey
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2T light brown sugar
• 1T extra virgin olive oil

Whisk together sugar, vanilla, olive oil, and honey. Mix all ingredients together well (make sure all dry ingredients are coated). Place on a baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about 16 minutes – tossing halfway to make sure it doesn’t stick to the baking sheet. Let cool.

Those are just a few of the things I love about her philosophy. If you want to find out more, check out her website or her book. It's a quick, easy read and if you love cheese, bread, wine, chocolate - basically REAL food - this is definitely an eating style you might want to adopt. I've had a lot of fun trying to eat "French" this past week and plan on sticking to it for the time being.

Here is a "French" dinner I had the other night - French Lentil Vegetable Soup with cheese and bread, of course! It's an Ina Garten recipe if you want to try it

(I added zuchinni and a can of crushed tomatoes to mine.)

Supposedly the French eat soup for dinner on most nights.

Happy French Eating!

The crib has arrived!

And I love, love, love it! It’s exactly what I wanted for Emery’s nursery. After 1 ½ hours, we got it assembled. I’m not sure how I’m going to position it yet, but below in the pictures you'll see three different ways, which I believe may be my only options. I like it caddy-corned, but my favorite part of the crib is the design on the end, so I might not do that. I welcome all of your opinions! It's crazy how real this baby feels with the crib now here. Exciting!

I had to throw in one of Elton assembling it - classic for every family, right? More exciting for me was that he was actually home to help so I didn't have to do it on my own!!!

Caddy-corned
Another option
Third option

Another view

I'm about 99% sure I'm going to go with this rug from Anthropologie. I love it and think I'll want it in my house forever, not just for this nursery. I also think it'll look great with the crib and chandelier I'm having installed tomorrow.

Imagine this rug where you see the rug pad in the pictures. I love it!

Mason and Brady wanted us to turn the box into a dog house fort for them to play in. I told them they had until tomorrow to play with it and then I’m breaking it down and moving it out. Or maybe I’ll put it in the backyard for them to destroy themselves.

Quilts!

I finished Emery’s quilt today. Here are two pictures and I'll take one with my crib later this week once I pick it up and assemble it:

I also want to share some of the other quilts I’ve tackled this year.

This one was made for my niece, Emelin. I think it was the Bella quilt pattern from Amy Butler, which you can find online. This was definitely the most time consuming and complicated quilt I’ve tackled, but it was a lot of fun to make.

This one was made for my nephew, Owen.

This one was made for my soon to be nephew, Woodburn (due March 11^th).

I think one of my favorite things about all of them is the Cuddles fabric that I use for the backing -so soft and great for kids and babies to snuggle up in.

My Kind of Super Bowl

I read an article online the other day that guys don’t want healthy food for the Super Bowl – they like the full-fat dips, pizza, subs, ribs, meatballs, etc. Honestly, all that stuff sounds gross and processed to me. I really wanted something more natural, but decided I would let my husband decide what we’d have to eat, since he’s a guy and the Super Bowl only happens once a year. At first he said ribs, and I said, “Fine, but let’s get grass-fed ribs from Earth Fare and you’re in charge of making them since I don’t know how do to ribs.” When we got to Earth Fare he changed his mind and said he wanted a steak, baked potato, and salad instead. He also wanted some cheese, olives and bread for an app. That brightened my day because that’s definitely more up my Super Bowl food alley.

Here was our Super Bowl menu:

Appetizer

Platter of:

• Manchego cheese
• Mixed Greek olives
• Organic grapes
• 100% whole-wheat bakery bread
• Dipping sauce of homemade pesto topped with balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, and some red pepper flakes

Glass of red wine (of course!)

Dinner

Grass-fed beef tenderloin steaks

Organic baked potatoes

Spinach, red onion, tomato and goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Dessert

My semi-healthy “Oatmeal, Walnut and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies.” I'm telling you, they are REALLY good! The next time you want cookies and feel guilty, try these. I definitely feel less guilty about eating them over regular cookies and they taste even better to me.

This is a recipe I tweaked from one I found on-line. You can find the original link on my “snow day” post. Here’s what I do:

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup 100% whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 dark chocolate bar chopped (3.5 oz)

Bring butter and egg to room temperature. Beat butter and sugars together in a mixer. Add egg and vanilla and beat again. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Slowly mix in with wet ingredients. Stir in oats, walnuts and chocolate.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes.

FYI - Now you might be thinking, “Did your husband actually like the whole wheat bread with the appetizer and the semi-healthy cookies?” His response when eating the appetizer was “this bread is awesome!” and he loves those cookies. If I don’t tell him it’s somewhat healthy before he eats it, he never notices and always comments that he loves it. Then I tell him it’s whole wheat or that I used whole-wheat flour and he responds, “Really? Yum!”

Hope everyone had a happy Super Bowl doing it “your kind of” way!

And the craving of the week is...

Chicken salad!

That’s all I’ve been thinking about ever since I had a delicious chicken salad sandwich at a brunch-get-together on Sunday. I love sandwiches and I normally stay away from chicken salad because I automatically think it’s loaded with fat from the mayonnaise, but… after some Internet research, I found some healthy alternatives to mayonnaise and gave it a try today for lunch…and for a snack…and for another snack. Yep, I’ve had THREE chicken salad sandwiches today. So good! And, no, I’m not feeling guilty b/c it’s actually pretty healthy.

Here’s the recipe (approx. amounts – I kind of just guessed at the amounts of each item):

• 1 large chicken breast, cooked and chopped into tiny bits
• ¼ cup red onion, chopped in tiny bits
• 1 T fresh tarragon, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped in tiny bits
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts, again tiny bits
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
• ½ T Dijon mustard
• ½ juice of a lemon
• Salt
• Pepper

I ate it sometimes on my mini-whole wheat bagels from Trader Joes and other times on sliced wheat bread with spinach and tomato. Both were equally delicious. Man, I could go for a FOURTH sandwich just typing this up right now – but I’ll save the rest for lunch tomorrow - or maybe my 3am snack - I don’t know if I can wait until lunch.

Happy Chicken Salad-ing!

Tweet, Tweet!

I'm excited because I think I decided on a mobile for Emery's nursery. I found this one while browsing the internet today. I had bought a crib mobile from a consignment shop and was just going to redo the fabrics and items hanging down, but then decided a mobile is really more of a decorative item, anyway, right? If not, let me know. I haven't had a baby yet. So... if that being the case, I thought something like this would look really cool over her crib. I already made my first bird!