A nice weekend

We had such a nice weekend - the kind with not much to do and a lot of time to do it. On Friday night we went to my parent's house for dinner, which was fun. I managed to come home with some nail polish, socks, and dog toys as well... someone in our family was pretty happy about that one.

We worked on a few house projects, did some cleaning, and finally watched Bridesmaids.  I get what all the fuss was about - what a fantastic movie. Zac and I both loved it. Hopefully Kristen Wiig will make another one soon now that she's left SNL.

I even got in a little bit of sewing. I made a few baby gifts and started working on a "just because" project. It will be a table runner for our dining room - it still needs corners, applique, and to be quilted, but here's a preview.

I am tickled with how straight my lines ended up!! Those are 3.5" squares, for reference.

The horrific heat finally lifted in the Mid-west, and it felt a little bit like fall this weekend. We even made chili yesterday, though I have to admit that may have been pushing it a little. I can not wait for when it actually IS fall!

Even the crape myrtle had a nice weekend. I hope you did too!

A very crocheted blanket

A few months ago, I was bitten by the crocheting bug. I don't know why, but all of a sudden I just wanted to crochet things. It coincided with the end of school, so it could have been that I wasn't multi-tasking all the time at home so I needed something else to do!

I love crocheting for so many reasons. It's easy, it's fast, and it gives me something to do with my hands while we're just hanging out talking or watching tv. It also makes the time we spend watching a movie or a tv show feel productive, and you know I love to feel productive!

I saw some sweet baby yarn on sale at JoAnn's and bought enough to try this pattern, found on Pinterest, of course. I used Sensations Baby Cuddle yarn.  I loved everything about the yarn except the color selection. I used one skein of each color, and had a little bit left over to make some coordinating baby hats. 

I started crocheting the first week of May. I did it mostly in the evenings after dinner when Zac and I were spending time together. I also took it with me on a girl's night and got a few rows finished while we were gabbing!

In progress

I finished it about four weeks later. I'm not sure exactly how many hours it took, but it never felt long or overwhelming. In fact, it really came together quickly.

The pattern uses an alternating single crochet and double crochet stitch. It's crazy easy. I consider myself an intermediate crocheter, but you could easily tackle this as your very first project. 

The only change I made was to use five colors instead of six (because I couldn't find a sixth that coordinated). On the pattern, I used pink twice (as D and F). 

The blanket feels like it comes together quickly because you can finish a color strip in one sitting. When you finish a section you feel like you're making progress!

The stitch is so pretty and makes the blanket feel heavy yet stretchy. It's the perfect size and weight for a toddler to drag around as a security blanket.

I love the double border - it makes the blanket feel so much more "finished" than others I've seen. 

I'm in love with the whole thing. It doesn't belong to a specific baby yet -- I need a baby girl to be born who I love enough to part with it! I'm working on a boy version next, though admittedly much slower since temperatures have been in the triple digits here lately. 

If you've ever thought about crocheting but haven't known where to start, start here! I promise you won't regret it. If you have any other good crocheting projects to share, let me know. I'm not sure what I'll tackle next!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

More Pinterest Finds

I have a snobby confession to make: I think I'm a super awesome pinner. So much so, in fact, that I'm worried that you don't follow me on Pinterest and you might have missed out on some of my awesome pins.

So I'm going to share some of them with you here, too. Hope that's okay with you!!

Asparagus goat cheese pasta. Yes, please.

Sixteen ideas for food bars for parties. So cute.

A jar to write fun memories on throughout the year. Open them on New Year's Eve.

What a fun family tradition!

A love map! Where you met, where you got married, and where you live now.

I don't know how to make this sweet thing but I'm going to have to figure it out!

Strength workout. I did half of it and couldn't walk for two days. Victory.

This might be my favorite quilt of all time. I need to make this!

Because sometimes we all need a little reminder.

What have you been pinning?

More pallet art

I have a confession to make. Sometimes we do big house projects and I don't show you right away because they aren't "finished." And then I never show them to you because they're never finished. Case in point - our bedroom. We spent a weekend doing a bedroom makeover in January, and I still haven't shown it to you yet. Oops. We still need to add the finishing touches that really tie the room together - art, etc. - and we talked that a bit over the weekend.

I'm obsessed with the pallet art I made last fall, and ever since we found another pallet, I've been itching to make another one. Pinterest inspired me with things like this:

and this:

Zac made the pallet into a sign just like he did last time, and we went to work. I was planning to cut the letters from cardstock or contact paper, but my friend Clare caught me in time and cut them for me on her Cricuit. That saved me a ton of time. And made it look like this:

She cut the letters out on colored paper and we taped them to the pallet.

Our next step was to trace the letters with a pencil. Zac's more precise than I am, so he took care of this part.

Derby, meanwhile, was super helpful. But oh my goodness is he cute.

Tracing the letters turned into this...

which then turned into this.

We wanted a "rustic" look, so I used a paint brush to fill in the letters. I used a paint pen where I needed it, but for the most part I just used a brush.

Here's our finished product:

If we did it all over again, there are a few things I would do differently (like not use black paint), but overall, I'm happy with it.

Here it is in the overall room:

I really like the contrast between the silk curtains and the rustic art. What do you think? Fingers crossed that I'll show you the whole room over the next few days. We love it and I hope you will too!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

A special Mother's Day (or any day) gift

It's hard to find a gift for my mother. She's one of those women who has a little bit of everything. She's always grateful and loves everything we give her, but I want our gifts to be special.

This year, we went simple. I purchased a pretty glass jar and asked my sisters to send me lists of reasons why they love our mom, things they were grateful for, etc. We all hand wrote them so that she'd recognize our handwriting. Even Zac added a few!

Some were sweet, some where funny. My mom isn't an overly sentimental person, so I wasn't sure what she was going to think!

When she opened it, she liked it. She read a few (shout out to Zac to writing the ones that cased the most "awwws!"), and then set it aside. Later, she got home and read them all...

And that's when my not very sentimental mom declared it to be the best gift ever. She loved them all, re-rolled them, and put the whole jar smack on her mantle. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y is mine! We wanted to do it for Zac's mom too, but his brother and sister-in-law are still travelling and we wanted to wait until everyone could participate.

Want to make your own? Buy a pretty jar, write things you love, cut them into strips, and roll them all pretty around a pen. Perfect for any birthday, anniversary, mother's day, father's day, graduation, or other fun day!

Did you give or receive any special Mother's Day gifts? It's not too early for me to start planning for next year...

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

What I'm Pinning

Now that school is over (for all of 4 days), I have been dreaming about all of the projects I want to tackle next. Well, to be honest, I've been dreaming about them for two years, but now I finally will have some time to do them!

The first thing I did was head over to my Pinterest account to look at the things that have caught my eye over the past few months. Usually themes arise without me knowing it...

I want to have a fancy party.

'

I want to crochet baby blankets.

And these guys.

I want to eat summer foods.

Asparagus with goat cheese

Zucchini pizzas

Zucchini roll ups. Mmmmm.

I want to become Martha Stewart.

Make your own cooking spray.

And make a wreath for every single season of the year.

What's a realistic "make things in real life that I love on Pinterest goal?" Because there are SO MANY THINGS that I really want to make!!!

Picture Wall Close Ups

Yesterday I promised you close ups of some of my favorite things on our picture wall. This wall is a mix of things, but I do have a few that I just love the most. Let me warn you now that I take terrible pictures normally, but pictures of pictures taken at night time are especially awful.

This is my very favorite shot from our Trash the Dress session, which gave it the prime spot on the picture wall. This is a bridge that usually has cars on it, so we had a lookout at either end and did this shot quickly!! The wind blowing my dress is my favorite part!

This is one of the very first pictures we ever took together, and it makes me smile!

Oh, I love everything about this. The day of our wedding it downpoured. I mean, rained cats and dogs. Rained so so hard. We had to take pictures inside at a Conservatory, and there was a woman there sketching. She walked up to my sister and handed her this -- it's me! Isn't it amazing??

Just when I think the last one was my favorite. This is a picture of Zac's grandfather taken more than 50 years ago. My favorite part? How much it looks like Zac! We've had three friends ask what Zac was eating in this picture -- I love how they resemble each other so much!

This is my grandmother and her brother when they were younger. Isn't the reflection so neat? When you're looking at it in person, it's really difficult to tell which side is right side up.

So there you go -- a close up of our picture wall. Is there anything you display that you love that I haven't thought of yet??