Loving....

In this week of love and Valentine's week, I wanted to share some things I'm loving lately. Lots it seems like making me happy.

Including, a trip with my friend Sarah to visit our friend Amanda in Denver. We thought we weren't gonna make it because of a blizzard there, but we did and we we had the best time! This is a picture of Sarah when we got back to KC and it made me laugh because somehow she ended up with 3 purses.....from here we went to Mi Ranchito- Sarah's first time there! Love it!



This is a really crummy picture but I couldn't get a good one...it's of the bracelet Sarah gave me (she got a 3-pack from our friend at work, Jenny). You keep one in the pack and give two others away.....it's from www.positivity.org and it says positivity on it. A reminder to be positive and have a good attitude! Sometimes I need it....I wear it to work a lot!

This is the new canvas art I got last week for my bathroom on my main floor. It makes me happy. The woman who makes them is a KU grad that works in Boston, but I bought it at a local store here. If you can't read it, in the lower left it says, "We must take every opportunity to make the most of this very remarkable life." Love it.

My mom tried a new recipe from Pinterest last night- a taco casserole bake. The picture doesn't do it justice but it was really good.

Peanut Butter Cheerios. I am LOVING them! I am pretty much told everyone I know. If you haven't already tried them and you're a peanut butter fan, do it!

Rearranging my furniture! Not sure why I love this so much, but here are a few new little spots in my house. :)

Thanks to Pinterest, I did quite a bit of Valentines crafting this year...here is the wreath for my parents house.

This is the wreath on my front door....couldn't do red since the door is red!

Mini wreaths leaning up on my mantle....

And, tonight, we had family dinner with my parents, cousin and her boyfriend.....nothing fancy but tasty and entertaining.

How my dad arrived....he didn't know if the dress code was casual or dressy, so he did both....scarf and black sweats. Looks like he is carrying a purse. :)

The baked zuichinni chips and ravioli....so good!

Linds with the Trader Joe drink my cousin brought...

The heart shaped pizza (courtesy of Papa Murphy's)...

Linds trying to get in the trifle....

A really random game we invented after dinner.....see who can blow the candle out at the furthest distance. Things got pretty wild!

Happy Valentine's Week, friends! Hope you are having lots of things you're loving too. xo

Pinterest = Obsessed

Once again, I have been failing miserably with keeping my blog updated. Boo! Yes, I have been busy this fall with trips and going to football games I have a new obsession I can blame....

Like so many of you, I spent an unthinkably large number of hours and minutes each day looking at the cyber world of Pinterest. I frequently "pin" items that I haven't gotten around to making/trying/etc, but when my sister was home over Thanksgiving weekend, we helped my parents decorate their tree and house for Christmas and while we did, we made several recipes I had found on Pinterest, so I wanted to share the results. I have seen a few friends sharing on their blogs some Pinterest successes. I wish there was a way to mark on Pinterest that you have completed something!

Here's my sis decorating the tree....

And here's the mantle...

Here's what we made that day....

1. Homemade Pretzel Bites

Verdict- We didn't loooooove them, but I would probably make them again; especially since I have more Rhodes Rolls in the freezer. We all liked the cinnamon and sugar ones better than the parmesan, but I expected it to be the other way around. The sweet sauce was okay but the cheese sauce was pretty gross. My overall score = 6.

2. Chicken Pastry Puffs

Verdict- These were better but again, not my favorite thing ever. Kind of bland....maybe would be better with green onions or some spice added? My overall score = 5.

3. Buffalo Chicken Bites

Verdict- My dad thought these looked good, so we made them and I got my first experience of using Panko, an Asian breadcrumb. I would make these again and they are relatively low-calorie, which is always a bonus. My overall score = 7.

Other recent Pinterest experiments.....

My mom hosted bunko in November so I made just a couple sweet things for her to have there. I had these at my bunko group in November, and acorns too, which were apparently a big hit. Fyi, the cookie gets soggy after a few days.

I made a wreath I found on Pinterest for a decoration this fall. It was fairly easy, just more time consuming than I realized it would be. And, it was cheap...yea! I bought a $3 wreath at Michaels and then used scraps of fabric that I had at home. I forgot to take a picture of it and apparently didn't pin it to my board, but it turned out pretty cute.

Last week, I made these Homemade Butterfingers to take to work and people liked them. I wasn't wild about them for how much labor was involved and I'm pretty sure I didn't get the candy corn melted enough. They had the flavor of butterfingers, but the texture of a Baby Ruth.

Another Pinterest find I recently brought to life was something my friend Sarah shared that she had found on Pinterest and made. It's roasted broccoli, which I have heard of doing before this, but never actually got around to doing. I left out the pine nuts and squeezed too much lemon juice on after, but I'll definitely make this again. Love how fresh it is!

Okay, that's all I can think of right now to share, but am loving trying some new things! Have anyone found anything on Pinterest that they are wild about?!

Makeover Time!

Somehow I luckily ended up with my friend Sarah's old family rocking chair that her family wasn't ready to part with, (it's been around a long time) but they didn't really have a good place to keep it. So, for now, it was at my house to use until the time came when Sarah wanted it back....problem was that it needed to be recushioned and recovered. As of tonight, problem solved! A couple months ago, I bought some fabric to recover the chair, but I was lacking the skills on how to do it. I have another rocking chair that's going to be recovered with the same fabric. It's fun how a little change can give a room a whole different feel. Here are a few before and after pictures:

Before-

After-

Painted project

When my sister and I were little, my mom had a kids table for us that she painted and stenciled a Cabbage Patch doll on it (is there anything better for little girls?!). It was a table for us to play at, which we did quite often. Thoughout the years, it somehow didn't get sold or thrown away and my parents kept it in their basement storage. Now that I have my own place, and friends that visit with little ones, I thought I should have a place for them to sit, play and eat. I will hopefully stencil some Wildcats on it and may many future Wildcats sit here! :)

Before:

After:

Connected.

Where to start?! I have been computer-free at my house for several weeks and FINALLY got my computer cord in the mail yesterday (mine stopped working, so the computer wouldn't charge). Since I haven't really posted for almost a month and it has been a busy month of summer, I will try to do an overview.

To back up, I will start with my Topeka "Stay-ca-tion" the last week of June. My sis was in town from Dallas and we found lots of fun here, along with me getting moved into my house....more on that another time. The week went by of course too quickly, but we had a great time. We saw 3 movies: "The Proposal", "The Hangover" and "My Sister's Keeper", all very good but differnt types of shows for sure. I pretty much cried during the entire showing of "My Sister's Keeper"...quite a mess, but just a pretty big fan of my own sister. We also found one day to go lay out at the pool at our parents' new neighborhood pool, which was fun, although I'm not too sure how effective for my see-through skin.

Here are some pictures of the eventful week of family time....

During this week was also my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. On the day of, we went to KC and did some shopping, ate at "The Yard House" and went to a Royals game.

The next day, we went to dinner at a restaurant here in Topeka called "The Row House" and it was SO good! Wednesdays are their sample nights and for each of the 7 courses, they bring you a little taste. It's in an old row house (hence, the name) downtown and is close to the capital building that you can see in the background in one of the pics. Very cool building and good food.

Also, for my parents' anniversary, Megan and I had a card shower for them and their friends and some family sent cards to Meg. We gave them all of the cards in this box- they were definitely surprised!

I also made a quilt for them to have to remember their anniversary. Not sure how much my dad will cuddle up with it while he is watching sports, but I enjoyed making it for them. :)

Lastly, I have to brag about my sister's unselfish helping during her week off. What a trooper!Here is my carpenter in front of the two bookshelves and desk that she put together for me. I got them at Target and then next day she had all of the manual labor done. Thanks Meg, I promise our next vacation with involve less hammers and nails!! :)

Adding to the bunch....

This weekend I went to Kansas City for a baby shower for one of my college roommates. I met Julie in the dorms our first weekend in college, the next day we bonded over a dinner at Wendy's and we went on to live together for 4 years after that first meeting. She and her husband Aaron are having their first little one soon! She is due with a little girl on June 1st....very exciting! With this little "pumpkin" as she called her, the count will be up to four (five in July with another roomie expecting) with kids my college roommates have had. I am excited for Julie and Aaron to start their family and to meet Pumpkin!

The parents-to-be opening a gift....
Katie (due in July with a little girl) and Julie hide Lindsay (my other offspring-less friend). Cute!

All the girls together again....doesn't happen nearly enough!
Good picture!

I made a little quilt for Julie's daughter and was finally able to give it to her at the shower! Hopefully it will be a soft spot for the little baby to rest.

It's not really crooked....it's draped over a chair.

I also got a chance to work on my cake decorating skills for the shower. The hosts for the shower are from Dallas, so I offered to decorate some cupcakes for the day to bring over....I liked the little ones with chocolate frosting. :)

It's a little baby buggy with wheels and a baby inside, complete with a binkie. I wasn't too pleased with how the brown turned out...it's really hard to get a dark brown or black. I will have to keep working on it! :)