Grow Baby

Way back when my good friend Kenna (below) was still pregnant with the beautiful Paislee, she and I decided to make the ever popular growth charts. Her dad had acquired some stunningly rustic old barn wood. I think she said it came from an old barn in Spray, Oregon. Regardless, it was perfect for our growth charts.

We cut the wood to exactly 6 feet and measured up six inches to mark off the 1' mark. We figured we would mount the over sized rulers six inches from the ground.

 We printed out large numbers to our liking from word and traced around them with sharpie. Then we painted them in with black paint.

Then I decided to put a clear coat over the top of mine. Oops... big mistake. The whole board turned really dark. So I did what I do best and I painted over all the marking with GOLD!

Here she is! I really like her. I think I will frame pictures of Lou next to the ruler to indicate where she is and was with her growth as a little sassy lady.

Here it is in reality too. Unfortunately, we have not hung it up yet. Hint hint Cole!

Vintage Trash to Vintage Awesome...

For those of you not familiar with the North Coast let me tell you one thing that will set it straight for you. We do not have a Target. Therefore I am left to browse a very select few stores. One being a giant Goodwill. I love treasure hunting and who knows what you might find. Well the other day I found a comfy, ugly, fringed ottoman for $7.99. I knew I loved it right away and took it home to where I could love it more.

 Hurley was being a bit of a camera whore that morning.

 See I wasn't lying... $7.99!!!

 Check out those legs. I love the nobby little brown curvy stubs! Cole helped me by removing them and the staples that held the fabric securly in place.

Then we tore off the old fabric and laid out the new. God I love Ikea... I got this awesome upholstry fabric for $7.99 a yard. I love the bold classic lines.

 I cut the fabric sparingly but gave myself several inches to play with for staples.

 Then I started at one side, pulling the fabric tight and began to staple away like a mad-woman with my beloved staple gun.

 Stripes really can blow when recovering a piece. I am not anal but just lazy and really into instant gratification so I did not take the time like most would to really line it up to make it stunning.

 Final product! Well I guess it did turn out stunning after all. Lucy loves it. I think she figured I made it just for her..... and Lola?

 Here it is all nestled in and ready to be loved. Since these photos have been taken the ottoman has taken up permanent residency in out breakfast nook where Lucy loves to dine on it. As a new mom I forgot to take into account white strpies. I have gotten a lot better at stain removal lately.... Thanks to Baking Soda! Go to Goodwill and find a treasure!

 P.S. I made the burlap pillow above for Cole several months ago. I have never been good at song lyrics as you can tell... oops... Love it even more now.

Burlap-ness Tree Skirt

The Holidays are definitely well under way and we are very ready for them in this house. As I had mentioned earlier, we recently made a trip south to get our tree from the beach house. Mark started planting trees around the property years ago and now most of them are huge. Too huge in fact to fit in our houses accordingly. However, Cole and Lucy found a tree that would look nice all decorated and lit up. Above is a picture of the crew trimming the tree so that it would fit in our house. After the tree was up and all decorated I realized that I wanted something better for our tree. I wanted a nice tree skirt to really make our tree amazing. You see for the past several years I have been using curtains from my college years. I knew exactly what I wanted to make and after several discussions with my friend Chelsea we decided that we were going to craft the ever popular ruffled tree skirt off of Pinterest. If my directions throw you for a loop you can follow these directions and images here from Done over Decor.

First I found an old duvet cover (my childhood duvet cover actually, which I could never part with but now I feel better knowing that it will be a magical part of our lives for years to come!) then Chelsea traced around it with an old Christmas tree skirt I purchased from Goodwill. Which I am totally returning for $3.99 I know that makes me sound cheap but really I mean every penny counts here.

Then we collected our fabrics. I used burlap from leftover coffee bags I had and Chelsea used green and cream burlap from our local Joann's store. Then we started cutting it into strips four inches wide.

Then we put on gardening gloves because working with burlap and hot glue is a sticky hot mess. Then we started gluing away leaving room for a ruffle fold every five to six inches or so.

 Then we added a second layer. This project took a lot of fabric. I would estimate several yards of each color or around three to four coffee bags.

 Then my little monster woke up and wanted to over love on Chelsea's beautiful brand new baby Jack. It was quitting time then.

Several mornings later during nap time I got back in the saddle and started gluing away on mine again.

 After several hours of hard determined work I was finished and very happy with my results. I feel like our monstrous tree takes away from the skirt but until next year when we can downsize all I can say is .... I am pretty damn proud of the outcome.

 And my kid looks good in front of it.

 And I love the simple burlap-ness of it.

 Here is a picture of our tree. I know what your thinking ... But it is ours and that's all the matters.

Do it, Make it!

Rosemary Wreath

Several weekends ago we went to Pacific City to the beach house to get out Christmas tree. I was feeling overly ambitious that weekend with many holiday crafts dancing in my head. When we were outside of the house walking the perimeter, we came upon the Rosemary bush I had planted several years ago. The bush was huge and was in need of trimming. My mom and I decided that we should make wreaths from the Rosemary and adorn them in our kitchens to cook from for the month.

1st we purchased plastic Dixie bowls and cut out the center. Then I took some natural jute and started tying on sprigs of Rosemary, over and over again.   

Each wreath took me around twenty minutes or so to make. Needless to say my hands smelled amazing!

Earlier that day we had purchased some cute ornaments from a local mercantile in town for two bucks each.

After I went around maybe all of two times and added the ornament this is what I ended up with...

I pretty much thought they were great. I looked up what a rosemary wreath would retail at online and it was like 65 bucks. I made it for pretty much nothing. Granted the one online was trimmed and perfect looking.

 This is not a great picture but here you can see that we went on a wreath frenzy because we had so much leftover rosemary and I didn't want to waste any.

 I also had to add this photo. I mean hello cuteness. They were picking out the tree!

 Making these is a messy undertaking so be sure to work in an area that can be swept up easily.

 One last glimpse of the final product! So if you are looking for a way to use that Rosemary in your yard here you go. PS if you give them as a gift they dry up pretty quick so give them fast while they look nice and full. We sent one to my sister in Vail and between probably freezing and drying it looked a little sad by the time she got it. But she still loved it. Love you Sis.

Thrifty Quick Fix

I am feeling really blessed this holiday season. I know that it has only just begun but I am feeling like I hit the jackpot when it comes to all the family, friends and things I am thankful for. I could go on and on about how grateful I am for my life (because I really really am) but lets get to the dirty details of this post....  I am thankful for Target. They have some of the greatest stuff ever.... The other day when I was mindlessly wandering the isles (one of my favorite pastimes) I came across these two napkins for 3.99.

 

Yes, I know the whole deer head thing is overdone but I liked them and had good intentions for them for the Thanksgiving feast I was throwing. I would use them to cover two chairs I purchased at a garage sale this past summer for five bucks a pop. So I traced over all the gold with my favorite black Sharpie. Then I took the nasty old seat cushions off the chairs which had apparently been recovered several times before. I stripped off the old layers of fabric because for all I knew a cat had peed on them or something.

Then I took my staple gun and covered the foam with an old, clean, white tea towel I had in my kitchen drawer.

Next I took my colored on napkins and I stapled them over the dish towel and placed the seats back in the old chairs.

This was the perfect quick fix for I what I needed. I hosted thanksgiving and needed more chairs. However, I didn't want my guests subjected to the gross old fabric and I wanted chairs that matched my decor. I need to sand and paint the chairs down to a color I like but that is for another day.

Also, whenever I get tired of these covers I can just buy some new fabric or possibly cheap dinner napkins from Target.

Total side note.... One of my dearest friends (whom shall remain anonymous) told me that her husband thought they looked like snails coming up to attack you in the.... you know whats. Now that's all I can think of.

PS.... Happy holidays from my family to yours and yes I had to share this next picture to brag about my bad ass bird.... I got lucky... It was awesome...

 

 

Pumpkin Fever

This year I went overboard with the pumpkins. Not only did we go to the pumpkin patch with Lucy, I also collected a bunch of pumpkins from a patch locally that gave them away for free. What to do with all the pumpkins....?

 

I decided I wanted to use my pumpkins to make puree. I love pumpkin flavored everything and wanted to preserve the flavor for as long as I could. I figured pureeing a pumpkin couldn't be any harder than a squash. To my surprise I was right.

 

The pumpkins from the local patch were small but yielded a lot. To start I washed them then broke off their stems.

Then I cut them in half and took out all the seeds.

On a greased or foil lined cooking tray I placed the pumpkins flesh side down.

Next I baked them at 375' until they started to juice and turn slightly brown.

Once the pumpkins cooled I peeled the skin off and placed the flesh into my handy food processor.

I hit the puree button for about thirty seconds until a nice smooth non clumpy texture formed.

I put some in a jar to use for dinner that night and the rest in a plastic bag to be frozen for the future. I was super pleased. Nothing beats fresh pumpkin especially in a pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin thief...

 

Look at how pretty it looks...

For those of you interested I also made this pumpkin pasta and these scones with my puree. They were both huge hits and definitely repeat offenders.

 

From Bake Your Day .... However I added sausage and garnished with bacon. AMAZING

 

 

Pumpkin scones from

Inspired Taste..... Very pleased.