The Princess's Bedroom, Before.

I have every intention of living in this house for many years. I may actually never move out of this house. Therefore, even though it's a rental (with the option to buy), I am painting and decorating. The first room I'm going to tackle is The Princess's room, because I've never done a little girl bedroom. I am so excited!  These two pictures from Pinterest are my inspiration, but I have an entire board devoted to her:






(And when I went to get those two pictures, I about died looking at everything I have pinned. So! Cute!)

Her room, as it currently is, is a light cream color, but I had planned to paint it gray. The trim in there is wooden tho, so I am wondering if I shouldn't leave it as is.  Here are a couple pictures of the room:

 From the hallway

 From the corner by the closet

 From the corner behind the crib

The crib will convert to a toddler bed and then a full bed, but we are in no hurry as she hasn't shown any signs of being tired of a crib.  I plan to paint the dresser white, and the dresser pulls silver or pewter. I failed to take a picture of them, but they are star shaped, very retro.  I'm having a hard time with the layout of the room as well. The large wall, over the bed, would be best for the display, but you can't really see it from the hallway. Plus, do I want it over the bed? So I am considering moving the bed to be under the window across from the door, or possibly angled in between the windows. Angled won't work when it's a full bed tho, so maybe it would be interesting to fill the space between the windows with the fun stuff?  I just don't know.

I've started to gather some things. I have a blank canvas to do this:



And I'm gathering some pictures and frames and little goodies as well.

 This one is hard to photo, but I have an old ragged hexagon quilt. I am planning to cut out a flower or two and frame them.

 Things I've been saving for her room (Sorry for the sideways picture.)

 A gray and white picture a good friend drew me in high school, and a picture of me from high school.

A page out of a thrifted kid's book of rhymes.

I'd like to do some embroidery hoops and, of course, one day she'll have the pink and gray hexagon quilt. I'm also thinking about a floating wall shelf with some little girly things, for depth and some girly pillows for the glider. Curtains, too, but she'll keep those shades, they are great for blocking light.

What do you guys think? Specifically, about painting the walls gray, and about bed placement?

Pin It and Do it! October wrap up.

This month I joined in with Trish's Pin It and Do It Challenge. Some of my pins weren't worthy of an entire post devoted to them, and I failed to photograph many of them. Here are a few of them, with comments.

Source: allrecipes.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I made this Spaetzle the night I made the Pomegranate Pork loin from Dinner: A Love Story. One of the commenters suggested that you use a cheese grater and spatula to push the dough through  into the water and it worked perfectly. After boiling it, I put it in the fridge for a few minutes before sauteing it in butter. It was terrific. And the pork loin was seriously the best thing I've eaten in months, and that's saying a LOT. Mike and I both wanted to turn around and make it again the next day.

Source: sixsistersstuff.com via Lisa on Pinterest

This Honey Sesame chicken was a huge hit, but I ended up doing it on the stove top by browning the chicken pieces and then simmering it another 30 minutes or so instead of in the crock pot. I followed her recipe for the sauce and it was really great. Sweet, but not too strong of honey. (Which is good, cause I don't love honey.)

Source: fortheloveofcooking.net via Lisa on Pinterest

The kids and I made these crescent rolls one afternoon after school. They were good, but not as spectacular as you'd hope. I think that if I were to do it again I'd go with Nutella instead of peanut better and chocolate chips.

Source: thinfithot.tumblr.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Oh yes I did. Let me tell you, 300 jumping jacks is no easy feat.



Now that one is actually MY picture! This was an engagement gift for my cousin. I was unable to make it to her shower, so I sent this in my place. I used two other pins for my inspiration- this faux bois hoop, and this charming quilt. I considered wrapping the hoop in fabric or silk or something, but decided that the bare wood went with the tree theme.

Happy 8th Anniversary Mike!

Happy anniversary to the best husband ever! I love you!

For our anniversary this year, I shamelessly stole this art idea from Happy Together.

Source: happytogethercreates.com via Lisa on Pinterest

I even stole her quote idea!  I did change it a little bit by using a 16 x 20 canvas from Walmart, but otherwise followed the original poster's instructions.  I used a dark brown paint with a tiny bit of metallic gold mixed in and it turned out to be kind of a burnished brown, very pretty. Not that you can tell from my terrific photography! I really wish I could have found lower case letters, but you make do with what you have available.  (The top one is mine, if it isn't clear.)

This will count as my first pin in Trish's Pin It and Do It Challenge for October!

Pinterest Challenge #1: Almond Bars

I choose to do this pin for Almond Bars from Write Meg for my first entry in the Pin It and Do It Challenge.

Source: writemeg.com via Lisa on Pinterest

It looked tasty and miracle of miracles, it's all ingredients I actually have on hand. I mixed them up during naptime with the Bug, and he was the first tester. He LOVED them.  Success!

Here's my version of food styling:



Not quite so pretty as hers! 

I did have to increase the baking time from 20-25 minutes to almost 35 minutes, and then  they still didn't cut into pretty bars like hers did (as you can tell.) They still tasted terrific though, and that's really all that matters.

I'm also linking up to Weekend Cooking with this one.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend.You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.
-- Hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Maureen Johnson, Pinterest, Dallas

• The Bug picked out Lincoln Logs with his birthday money. He's such a little builder.
• Do you see the wrinkles in my rug in that picture? Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop the rug from wrinkling? It's driving me insane. I've tried to weight it down with the furniture, but no dice.
• Maureen Johnson talks about photoshop and advertising. "Altering the image creates something truly and profoundly OTHER. It creates the unattainable, which means you have the endless carrot and stick."
• This is an absolutely wonderful post on Motherhood. Seriously. Especially if you've struggled in those first few months.
• I love Pinterest, I really do, but I'm starting to wonder just where all these crafters are getting all their pretty thrifted wool sweaters (my thrift store has a nice selection of pilly acrylic ones) and decent used furniture. At some point there's going to be more play kitchens made from bedside tables than there are bedside tables.
• On Tuesday I had coffee with a new friend. It was terrific. I can't wait to do it again.
• Trish and Andi are agitating for me to drive through Dallas on my way from Alabama to South Dakota later this summer. This is only possible if I find a place to spend the night in the middle of Kansas, or southern Nebraska. Suggestions?
• I did not get the perfect job. I was very confident that I would when I applied. I'm pretty bummed. However, I'm now suspending the search for the perfect part time job until after the summer.

What I Read This Week (and other Bookish Thoughts):

• Speaking of Andi, she's persuaded me to pick Outlander back up.  I haven't yet, but any day now.
• My library copy of Insurgent came in, and I hope to start it today.
• My library still doesn't even have The Last Boyfriend: Book Two of the Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy in the system and it's making me crazy. I keep walking past it in the store and hovering over the link on Amazon.
• I read Midnight Bayouby Nora Roberts in two long sittings this week. It was good, but the ending was very rushed and left me unsatisfied. You can find more thoughts on it here.
• Last night I finised up First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh. I'm pretty sure I've read another Balogh, but I couldn't tell you what. This one was quite good. If I had a complaint it would be that the heroine is a tad too philosophically introspective. I might write more on it later.
• I'm also lugging around The Digital Mom Handbook: How to Blog, Vlog, Tweet, and Facebook Your Way to a Dream Career at Home, because it can't hurt to read it, right?

Pin It and Do It Challenge

As I've said many times before, I love Pinterest. I have 36 different pin boards and roughly a zillion pins (some of them need tidied up, please forgive me.) The problem is, I have more pins than I can possibly ever do. I'm fairly good at trying recipes, but the craft and sewing pins are a wee bit overwhelming. Despite this, every time I do something silly like look at my quilting board, I get an itch to Quilt! Something! Now!  This is why I encouraged Trish to start a formal Pinterest Challenge.  You can see the details over there, but the short version is we have one month to complete x number of pins, and report back. I did try to do this on my own, with this board, but I forget to keep up with it, oops! Here's hoping some accountability will help a girl out.

The first pin I plan to do? This one:

Source: writemeg.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Are you on Pinterest? I'd love to see what you're making and doing! (But, to be completely honest, not what you're reading. That's what Goodreads is for!)

Random Friday: Sewing organization

• I thought I'd share how I organize my sewing stuff. I labelled all those boxes on Flickr, if you click the picture it'll take you over.
• All my quilting cottons, interfacing, decor weight, canvas, twill, and solids are inside, as are most of the supplies like needles, elastic, thread, etc.
• This is my box of solid fabrics and blenders.
• 
• This is the best take I've seen on Pinterest, tho this one is a very close second.
• Next week is Bo Peep's last week with us, as she's going to full time pre-school.
• I made this slow cooker chicken tikka masala for dinner this week. I liked it, no one else did.

Books I Read This week:

• 
  Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller. Interesting, but could use an editor. Not finished yet.
• 
  Split by Swati Avasthi. Still good, still reading.
• 
  The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown. Just started this one for the BlogHer Book Club.
• 
  Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods by Jennifer Reese. Very interesting and funny. On Chapter 2.