talking while you're eating

clémence got out of her nap by her stubbornness outlasting ours. so we got up and decided to give her an early lunch (and eat ourselves) before attempting the nap again.

turned out that eating cheesy mashed potatoes resulted in talking while feeding herself (see video)--which then resulted in the pictures below! it was so fun to watch her and i just love these extra moments we get when she would have otherwise been sleeping. (we did, by the way, win the next match and she took a nice, long nap...after a bath of course!)

how you fell asleep...

diy chevron curtains

so i kind of felt like my kitchen needed a bit of a makeover. for being a mostly white kitchen, it felt a little dark and drab. i have been drooling over everything chevron lately, so i decided the pattern would be great for that space. so i went over to etsy to find some fabric...and just out of curiosity i looked up 'chevron curtains' to see how much people were charging..turns out they are running on average about $150 for 2 panels! Ouch! where i support people wanting to make a living, curtains are just not that hard to make and i am not even near being a professional sewer...all that to say, if i can do it--you definitely can! so i checked out some fabric prices and ended up ordering 3 yards of premier prints grey ash and white from everydaychic for $9.50/yd. then i went to our local discount fabric store and bought some white sunbrella fabric to back it with because of how much sun our kitchen gets in the afternoon (the backs of my previous curtains--see below--faded so quickly). that fabric cost me $6.00. after that i came home and got to work.

this panel is for our door which goes out to our backyard.
i cut out my fabric with 1/2 in seam allowance and 1 1/2 in for the top and bottom
 fold-over where the rods will go.
i also did the same for 2 smaller panels to go over our longer window that is above the sink.

next, i ironed and hemmed the edges.
then, i sewed the 2 fold-over areas on the top and bottom of the door panel with just one line

for the 2 smaller panels, i wanted a little ruffle at the top so i
accomplished this by sewing one line at the top about 1 1/2 in. or so wide
and then another line about an inch below that. so the rod will go in between
those 2 lines i just sewed.

finally, i cut out 2 strips to work as ties for the 2 smaller panels, folded them in
 half (right sides together), sewed the fold together and turned it right-side-out. then just closed
up the ends.

i got some help with the measurements from this little one!

So here is the before and after!!!

before:

(i added this photo to show where the paint had come off on our door. before
making the curtains, i took some white paint and repainted the whole door..
it is so amazing what a little paint can do!)

after!!!!!

honestly, it may sound silly, but i am so much happier every time i walk into our kitchen. its cleaner and brighter--those things (in my opinion) are the way a kitchen should be and feel! and if you aren't convinced yet---i only spent around $40 total! not to mention i get the bragging rights of being able to say that i made them

;-)



happy eight months lil peanut!



flowers......moon

clémence and i stayed up at my parents house while jeremiah was in oregon for the wedding. one of the evenings my mom took her outside (she loves being outside) and decided to teach her a few vocab words. she is a pretty fast learner...

a (mostly) handmade wedding present

a dear friend of ours is getting married tomorrow and we wanted to give him and his bride-to-be something meaningful and unique. and while i think registries serve a wonderfully practical purpose, sometimes it is fun to give something unexpected.

so i started with an embroidery hoop, some mustard fabric, and a few options of embroidery floss. i couldn't choose between brown and fuchsia so i decided to fuse them together using 3 strands of brown and 1 of fuchsia. they love the musician ray lamontagne so with some help, i figured out what their favorite song was and took a line from it to embroider. i posted a tutorial here about how to do this, only this time instead of using my own handwriting, i printed off a style that i liked and used it as a template. below is the result:

 being a girl who is all about themed gift situation, we bought them 2 LPs to go along with it. my darling husband remembered that the bride has her father's record player but the doesn't have many records so we felt like this was perfect.  (the song i used for the embroidery piece is from that top album 'trouble')

fabric flowers, kraft paper, and some twine to wrap them in--simple yet sweet. the flowers are in no way a genius idea of mine, but i have made them in the past...so if you're interested, here is how you make them:

start with some fabric and cut out a handful of 'petal' shapes in different sizes. its not really about perfection here and how many is entirely up to you and how big you would like them to be. also, cut out a more narrow piece (the one on the right).

then, take some tacky glue and apply it at the bottom of your narrow piece.

roll it up like so...

this is the center of your flower.

next, take a 'petal' and also apply glue at the bottom.

wrap the 'petal' around your center piece.

add the 'petals' one by one around the center overlapping them (i used smaller 'petals' inside and larger ones around the outside).

using some thread, tie a tight knot around the bottom.

wrap the gift, tie it with twine, and arrange the flowers to your liking. (to give them a little extra security, i glued them to the twine...i also propped them with something to allow them to dry in place)

the art of entertaining oneself

ever since clémence has started crawling, she has been a lot more independent in the area of entertainment. we put a mat down in our living room where she can play and explore while she gets used to moving around on a hard floor. i love to sit and watch her, in her own little world, finding the most simple, inanimate object so fascinating and fun. below is a video of just that...there is not a ton of action in it, but it is filled with the imagination of a child and i love it!



because it should be cold outside

it's fall darn it! and though it may be just barely under 100 degrees i am in the mood for soups, and sweaters, and warm drinks. so with that in mind, here's a recipe for a delicious vegetarian corn chowder. so turn the temp down on your ac, turn the fireplace on your t.v, and put something warm on your table!


                                                                                     ingredients:

2 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1/2 t cayenne pepper

2 c diced red potatoes

5 c vegetable broth

1/2 c sour cream

1/2 t salt

kernels from 5 ears fresh corn

1 c grated cheddar cheese

pepper, to taste

2 scallions, chopped

In a large sauce, pan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onions, and cook 10 minutes, until beginning to brown. Stir in cayenne and potatoes, and cook 3 minutes, stirring often. Add vegetable broth, sour cream and salt, stirring well. Cook 20 minutes. With a potato masher, lightly mash about half the potatoes, to create a thicker broth. Cook an additional 10 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Stir in corn and cheddar, and cook 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with scallions and additional sour cream, if desired (i recommend this step)





a new buddy

i made a new little friend for clémence to play with. this little mushy belly bunny is just her size. i found the great tutorial here. it's the first time i have made a little animal, but can't wait to make more for her (and get better at it). plus, what a great gift idea. i used some fabric that i had on hand, but the tutorial tells you to use recycled stripe t-shirts. how awesome is that? (well, actually her ears are made from a grey tank i had).

                                                                happy sewing!!!

a picture is worth a thousand words

jeremiah calls us to check in everyday at lunch. occasionally i put the phone up to clémence's ear and let him say hi and ask her about her day; 'how's the napping going? are you being good for mommy? what did you have for breakfast?' things like that. when i get back on the phone with him i try to describe the faces she makes when she hears his voice.

this time i grabbed my camera so he could really see: