cheap and chic

loving these sale finds from crate and barrel - a chic tote to go w/ your crisp summer whites and a sleek over the cabinet kitchen towel bar.

cheap fontabulousness

some great finds from three potato four - a $12 pencil/ makeup case and an $8 utility apron.

customize your knob

3 of 20 simple ideas to pretty up your furniture knobs from diy ideas.

bbc award winner

just watched the 1st season and i'm still making up my mind. here's the summary from netflix:

The quirky Gallagher family includes a mum who's disappeared, a boozing dad and six very dissimilar kids: surrogate mother Fiona, moody Lip, in-the-closet Ian, bipolar Debbie, rowdy Carl and toddler Liam. Living in a Manchester housing project, the anarchic clan gets into all manners of misadventures. The critically acclaimed and hilarious British series has received numerous accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award for Best Drama Series.

blue bath Buddha

what a gorgeous bathroom - vintage and a great robin's egg blue. also makes me think i was right on with my Buddha redo...



pic from canadian house and home.

2" of springtime goodness

how cute are these handmade gnomes by humblebea?!

salmon with fakeout fried rice

here's another simple pantry dinner - salmon w/ fakeout fried rice.



bake some salmon at 450 for about 15 minutes.

boil some rice, when the rice is almost done cooking add some frozen veggies - i used peas and corn- and let it steam covered so the veggies get crisp tender.

microwave some whisked eggs to make scrambled eggs w/o any additional fat.

make sauce for salmon - i used approximately 2 parts sweet chili sauce, 1 part soy, and 1 part apple vinegar.

add the eggs to the rice and sauce to the salmon.

sorry about the quality of the pic :)

picture pouch

i *finally* got my hands on some inkjet fabric, and my 2nd project with the stuff was making this pouch for my friend's birthday. i scanned a pic i had of her, adjusted the color, added a quote, and then stitched it up into a little zipper pouch - click for a bigger pic if you want to see all the groovy details. i think it turned out cute :)

ps - i love that pic of her - and it was taken in agra - home of the taj mahal :)

sew that's a box

last friday night i signed myself up for my first sewing class and i had so much fun! it was self paced - so you could bring whatever you were working on and the teach would help you out. i wanted to learn how to do a box corner - which was really tough for me b/c it involves manipulating 4 pieces of fabric at right angles - but 2 hours later and i finally managed a recognizable one :)

tuna me-coise

a few weeks ago martha was focusing on pantry cooking, the gist being that if you have a well stocked pantry - dinner comes easy in a pinch. last week i had a "pinch" so this was my pantry dinner - my uber quick version of tuna nicoise w/ pasta. it wasn't too bad :)



3 cups cooked spaghetti (or any other pasta - linguini, bowtie, etc.)
half 14 oz. can olives, chopped
half 14 oz. can artichokes, chopped
1 6oz. can tuna, drained
1/4 cup italian salad dressing
1 Tbsp. mustard (i always have brown spicy mustard)
red pepper flakes - i use about 1 Tbsp.

mix everything together in a big bowl. makes 2 generous pasta servings or 4 regular servings. this is so easy to change - add cheese, any other veggies, would love to have had tomatoes...the critical pantry staples here were the pasta, tuna, and something to make a dressing.

a size 8 (!) gets this much grief ?!

worldly

check out skeem's new candle packaging - serious ethnic flair. the middle one is the indian themed one - with scents of fig and citrus.

auntie knees her pillow

a couple of weeks ago i bookmarked an awesome rice bag pillow tutorial by the super talented blair of wise craft. i had never even heard of one but quickly found out they're pretty popular. then last week i found out my aunt in va. was having knee surgery for a miniscus tear, and i thought she might appreciate something like...oh, i don't know...a rice pillow! so i went to see her with this little thing i made and she was doing great so we ended up having a fabulous lunch and watched some kick ass indian cable shows :)

canada is no joke

talking to a friend while googling the canada map, and i realized just how big that place is!!! it's like at least 3x as big as the US - the northern boundary of our alaska isn't even halfway north into canadian territories - which stretch to the arctic! and they have oil fields that are 2nd only to the mideast - and once they figure out how to tap/ leverage that resource - playtime is over. every time i learn something new about canada, i think it's even cooler. ha!

the 3 ladies

my husband loves these wooden figurines. if he doesn't see them b/c i've put them away to change things up a bit - he always notices and asks me "where the ladies are." i think it's b/c of a story i told him.

i told him i always put them in this order, b/c it's the story of a wife who is patiently waiting for her husband to come home b/c she's made him dinner with lots of love and of course she won't eat until her beloved is home safe and sound (lady 1) but he's late, and now he's explaining what took him so long and she's listening to him talk (lady 2) but somehow the excuse isn't good enough and she gets mad (lady 3) and now he has to shower her with love and apologies so they can have dinner in peace.

when i told him he was listening very intently, then he laughed and said her husband was a lucky guy. but whenever he cleans the table, i never have to tell him - the ladies are always put back in exactly the same order :)

bookends and Buddhas

i spray painted a $2 thrifted bookend and $7 Buddha from target. what do you think?

white and grey save the day ...again!

check out this budget bathroom makeover where the major changes were pretty much just a coat of paint and a new sink.

patchwork please

with my new machine and my hippie chic heart, i am so craving a big patchwork project - aren't these just awesome?!! way 70's...




images from flickr

mail goodness

got 2 great cards in the mail last week. one was a really cute button thank you card and the other a card from the beautiful project - cloud 9 all the time baby.

cover them balls

have you ever noticed how expensive little styrofoam balls are when covered with moss or seashells and sold in a home design store?! that's why i think this idea of fabric covered balls is so genius - easy to do, easy to coordinate, and really cheap!!! check out some more fabric ideas at bhg.

Congratulations My!

today is my's of tha hotness 2nd blogiversary! just wanted to congratulate her and say i that i love all the great finds and eyecandy on her site :) to celebrate she's invited us over for a tea party and asked us to maybe have a little one on our own...

for mine, i'd invite you to ladakh. it's a little valley nestled in the himalayas, in the very northern part of india, and is many times referred to as "little tibet." there we'll stop for a rest after a wonderful trek, and laugh and have hot chai, samosas, and maybe a chance meeting with some saintly person who will bless us as we travel on our way...








all of these are from flickr!

great DIY

do you subscribe to photojojo? you should - check out their latest photography idea:

gross out jello

i picked up katie brown's latest book, Katie Brown Celebrates: Simple and Spectacular Parties All Year Round, and this one recipe looked simple with lots of bang for your gross out buck.




insect jigglers

insect candies
4 (4 serving size) pkgs. of jello flavored gelatin
2.5 cups boiling water
muffin tins

1. place some insect candies in each muffin cup

2. mix gelatin with boiling water, stir until dissolved. set aside and let cool for about 5 minutes.

3. fill each mold with gelatin and put in refrigerator until set - about 2 hours.

this chair

by chatelaine designs might be one of the prettiest i have ever seen. perfect sorbet colors, perfectly feminine.