My fall wreath!

I'm in loveee with my fall wreath!

I didn't want the traditional fall wreath. I had seen these fabric flowers a million places but I saw two of these wreaths. I think Shanty2Chic did one but they sprayed their wreath white. And the other place, unfortunately I can't remember where is a little more similar to the one I just did. I must start saving where I found these things!

Anyhoo, I looked up a couple tutorials because I've never made these fabric flowers before and picked out my favorite. I actually ended up going with a combo of two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPAWhD5ebG8

http://littlepinkdollhouse.blogspot.com/2010/03/pillow-revamp-fabric-rosette-tutorial.html

I picked out all of the fabrics from the bin and the fabric samples (so I didn't get any cut for me) at Hancock Fabrics. I wanted to use burlap but I don't know where to buy it! But the tan felt actually worked great! All of my fabric samples were about 19"x22" so I cut 2" by 22" strips at a time. I ripped all of the strips except the felt obviously. I was really nervous about that, but it's amazing how it came out almost perfect each time! The only two that I used just one strip on are the tiny flowers. All of the rest I used two, so I hot glued two strips (this is explained in little pink dollhouse's tutorial) together, let them dry and tied them in the middle. Then the biggest one (with the button) I used three strips). I had actually made two more flowers too, one small and one medium but they didn't really seem to have a place! Maybe I can find another use for them!

This took quite a while to do but I think it's because it's the first time I've done it. If you watch the video it takes her like 3 minutes. If all of mine took 3 minutes then I'd be good to go! But I'm pretty sure it took me like 2 hours, hahaha. But it was fun! And it took like 5 hot glue sticks :) And I love it!! Oh and the embellishments I used are actually jean buttons I picked up at Michaels, I thought they would go perfect and they do....but I didn't want to put them on all of the flowers, just some!.

The whole wreath was less than $15....

Grape Wreath $3.99

4 Fabric Samples $7

Jean Buttons (still have 3 leftover) $3(I think)

New mailbox!!

Oooo I'm giddy with excitement over this one! Almost ALL of the houses we looked at had a front door little box thing instead of an actual mailbox and when we found our house I completely forgot to check if it did! And for some reason I have this excitement over cute mailboxes....well I drove past the house to check during my lunch break one day after our offer was accepted and yippee! It had a mailbox.....But it looked like this.....

Yikes...So that was definitely on our list of to do's! So for my birthday my dad was asking me what I wanted and I really, really didn't know...REALLY. So finally I thought, mailbox! I had plenty of time to "window shop"...I've practically stared down every mailbox in every neighborhood I've been in for the last two months and finally decided on what color combo and everything that I wanted. He thought I was crazy but I got my mailbox for my birthday! The post was unpainted so we had to paint it....Here Chance is trying to spray paint it....that didn't work so well so luckily I found a can of Rustoleum Indoor/Outdoor Wood White Paint while I was cleaning and finished it, it worked perfect.

Then he installed it and it's sooo pretty now! :) Our mail lady came by just as we were finishing up and she said "It's been a long time coming, replacing this mailbox"....haha. I'm SO excited about it. Now I just need to put some house numbers on it...I think I'm going to put it on the post somewhere. And in the spring next year I'm going to plant some flowers around the base I think. And we also plan to spray paint the little holder that is black, white....but for now it's fine!

Now we have to do the light post, it's so dinky and uuuugly!

Ooo, new background website

I always use The Cutest Blog on the Block which I do love but I just stumbled upon Shabby Blogs which is pretty similar but since it's hard to find other blogger template sites it's nice to see other designs! I thought I'd share since I figure other people are in the same boat.....though if you have a secret site you use, please share! :)

Even though they have cute stuff, I probably won't change my background for awhile because it took me forever to get my header exactly right! :)

Yummiest fruit dip ever

You're definitely going to want to write this one down....SO yum..

I love it, people don't realize how good it's going to be. In fact I've had a lot of people pass it over. It's so funny how excited people get after they try it. Which was me, four years ago when I first tried it. I was told sort of how to make it, but I looked online just to be sure I had a correct recipe and the right amounts. Fruit dip is made a bunch of different ways but this way is so good that I wouldn't even bother trying any other way.

It's three ingredients.

• 1 package of cream cheese (8oz)
• 1 jar of marshmallow fluff (7 1/2 oz)
• 2ish tbsp of cherry juice from the marschino cherry jar

Mix. I use my Kitchen aid mixer...you have to use some sort of mixer for this, but I can't imagine trying this without my wonderful mixer, the fluff is a little hard to work with but the cherry juice softens it all up a little and makes it less sticky, it also gives it that great light pink color. I would suggest leaving the cream cheese out of the fridge for 15 minutes so it's easier to mix.

Then your ready to serve, I usually make it for parties the night before and serve it the next day. I always serve with red seedless grapes, strawberries, and pineapple. It's also really yum with cherries, I just never seem to get them. And for tomorrow I'm just doing strawberries to make it easier (and cheaper) for myself. How pretty do all of those strawberries look!?

Trust me, you definitely have to try this...and if you need to bring something for a party, this is perfect.

New dishes...

Okay so here's another thing I did completely opposite from what I said I was going to do.

When we moved to the townhouse, we bought cheapo, less than a dollar cream colored dishes from Ikea....I'm not such a fan anymore. I really wanted a dish set, something that might be a little nicer than this cheapo stuff we have....but nothing fancy, I'm talking Target. I've been looking, I haven't found anything, I'm not sure what color, what style...I just don't know

Well....hello Saturday night...I'm at Giant and I see these pretties as I'm grocery shopping in the seasonal aisle (they also have blue, yellow & orange I think). They just happen to match my kitchen perfectly...oh look at that, they're called "Olive"...my wall color is "Tate Olive"....hmmm, they are also $1.25 per dish....

I'm now the proud owner of more cheapo dishes. At least this time they were more than a dollar, and much nicer. One day I'll get crazy and spend like $8 a dish....gasp.

Yeah, no salad plate....other cheapo plates had no salad plate in the set either.

Who buys their dishes at the grocery store?

Me, apparently.

The perfect lasagna

I keep meaning to post recipes because I think I really have some yummy, easy ones. In fact, I took these pictures in March (happens to be the same month we started house hunting...coincidence? I think not) but I just never got around to sharing. Tonight I'm going to make a super simple fruit dip which I'll take a picture and be sure to post. I really want to start using this blog more and maybe I'll actually worry about getting more people to read it!

My dad taught me how to make lasagna. I tried to remember how to make it and had to call him the first couple times just to be sure I had it right, turns out it didn't really matter because I don't actually have this recipe written down anywhere (this will be the first time it's written somewhere), in fact I often forget things and it still turns out...SO....GOOD. After looking back at these pictures from March I realized last time I made this, I'm pretty sure I only used one can of sauce! :)

Here are the ingredients (if you remember them all)

• 1 poundish of ground beef (at least use a pound, definitely doesn't hurt to use more...sometimes I randomly use two)
• 1 can of spaghetti sauce (at least one can, depends on how much meat you use, I would say go with 1lb ground beef=1 can sauce, 1.5lb ground beef, 1.5 cans of sauce, you get the point, a little extra sauce neverrr hurts)
• 1 box of lasagna noodles (DON'T get the no boil kind, gross...Note: I've actually never tried them, they just look gross gross gross)
• 1 egg (something I usually forget but you really should put it in there I guess :) )
• 1 8oz packet of shredded parmesean (I typically will get reduced fat now)
• 1 8oz packet of shredded mozeralla (again, I typically will get reduced fat now)
• 1 larger container of ricotta (I usually get part skim now)
• if you have Italian seasoning mix (in picture) throw maybe a tbsp and a half in, maybe two? I don't know, until it mixes well. Though if you don't, before I had this seasoning, I used to use parsley and garlic salt.
• 1 onion (your preference, if I'm feeling lazy, I do without it)

First you cook the ground beef and onion (if you used) and then mix it all together with the spaghetti sauce. Then somewhere along the way you should probably preheat your oven to 350.

Then (wash your hands BUT it's really much easier to do this with your hands) mix the three cheeses (parm, mozz, and ricotta) with the egg and the seasoning.

Then your ready to layer!

First you put just a little sauce mixture in the bottom of an uncoated 13x9 pan, just enough to coat the bottom....

Then you put the UNCOOKED lasagna noodles on top of the sauce. Four across then one to fill the gap. Though the one to fill the gap never fits so you have to break it a little...don't worry about getting it perfect, see mine is all crooked & crazy, no big deal.

Then spread the cheese mixture across the top until you don't see the noodles anymore. A typical 13x9 pan isn't very big so you'll actually only get about two layers of cheese, three layers of sauce and two layers of noodles. So when you spread the cheese, use half of it. (Sorry, I clearly forgot to take pictures here)

Then use half of the sauce on the next layer.

Then noodles (4 across, 1 to fill the gap)

Then the rest of the cheese

Then the rest of the sauce

Then put it in the oven for 45 minutes at 350.

Nom. And I swear it lasts us for like 3 days.....not recommended for dieters though ;)

The big 2-5

I've had a great day....low key but just great! :)

This morning I left a little early to get my most favorite bagel from Panera...an asiago cheese bagel with plain cream cheese, lightly toasted! It's the worst breakfast I've had since I started my diet I'm sure so I was feeling a little shameful but it was so yummy, and I won't make a habit of it. And of course a bottled water.

When I got to work my wonderful, super great co-workers had balloons and flowers and a bunch of cards. I love my friends at work!! They're the best!! :) I even got this super cute butterfly candy dish! And we had cake for my birthday and another co-worker of mine who's birthday was also today! And at lunch, Candece, Donna & I went to Panera again (I kinda hid from the cashier I saw in the morning, I didn't want her to think I spent all day eating at Panera, lol) and I got a yummy chicken caeser sandwich...again shameful but so yummy. And of couuurse a bottled water.

After work, I came home and Chance had bought me very pretty flowers from Johnson's! We have this on going joke that I won't feel "legit" (what does that even mean, being legit? I don't know) until he gets me Johnson's flowers, haha. It's this florist that used to be right next to the shop and I always wanted flowers from there, from a real florist. Chance is definitely a safeway guy, but mostly a side of the road flower guy :) lol. So I was thrilled for the pretty flowers but even more thrilled when I saw the frosty vase and little card read johnsons flowers. I know this sounds horrible, don't worry, I don't expect him to buy me high end flowers all of the time, I'm happy with just this one occasion! lol It's just very exciting that he actually had to go into a florist, pick out some flowers and the whole ordeal. :) Love my man!

Then we went to Dogfish Head Alehouse.....obviously, I'm not a drinker but there's tons of new resturaunts around here and we didn't want to spend a ton, we wanted a place that looked like it would definitely be good so this seemed like the perfect place and it was! It was so yum...I had water of course, haha and Chance tried this beer called lawnmower something or other? :) Anyway he liked it....we had crab dip for an appetizer, so yum....then he had a fish trio with grouper, cod & shrimp. And I had macaroni & cheese with chicken, zucchini, bacon and red peppers I think....yummm. Great dinner.

Then we headed over to the mall since the only thing I had actually asked for my birthday was the cake pop book that came out last week by Bakerella! Well of course Chance every Christmas & birthday always wants to give me presents early so he gave me the book last night, I love it! Though he said it wasn't an early birthday gift, it was a "random act of kindness gift"....ok :) Well either way, "random act of kindness" or not, I sure appreciate it! It's so cute and I'm so excited. I couldn't think of anything else I really wanted for my birthday so I told him if it would be easier that we could just go shopping...so that's what we did!

I decided I wanted a cupcake carrier, I've been wanting/needing one forever. Especially since I sadly ruined an entire batch of super cute burgercakes on memorial day this year because I had no way to carry them except a plate and they fell on the ground!! Soooo we went and picked up this great Martha Stewart double cupcake carrier from Macy's!

Then, ok don't laugh...I had to go get these fake glasses!! Lol ever since I tried some on at the beach weekend at Katie's I've wanted some! I look cute with glasses! Plus they were cheap, so I told Chance I wanted them. I will not be wearing them at work...I don't even know what I'll really wear them for, I just like them! haha....sure makes me wish I didn't have such great vision!

And lastly we went and picked up a new perfume....I have tons of perfumes but my favorite three all ran out....one has been out and the other two ran out at the same time. So even though I still am without my three favorites, I definitely wanted a cute new one....and a cute new one I got! How cute is this top? The ribbon and the little charms stay on! woo hoo!

After that we went and picked up this great cone of chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva. Did you know if you sign up for their email list you also get a free chocolate from their display case each month?! I got a coconut cream thing, so good! And the strawberries, so yummm!

We just went home after that....I'm tired and I had such a good day, there was nothing else I felt like doing! My friend Christina announced she was pregnant today.....I'm SO EXCITEDDDDD! Really, like SO excited! It makes me want to go spend all my money on baby things ASAP!

Today was a great, great day! Happy Birthday to mee!

We're not the only happy new homeowners...

I just thought I'd share some pictures of the other happy homeowners in our new house...Tonka & Trixie are enjoying the new fenced in yard....they never want to come back inside. They also are enjoying all the room to run in the house!

Trixie is now "with cone" :) I always feel soo bad for her, I do. But like 2-3 times a year she scratches her upper chest until she gets a scab and then I need to put stuff on it and stick the cone on her and unfortunately she was at it again so she's been coned! But otherwise she's been very excited. Here she is before the cone...

Annnd after....poor thing!

Rosco was completely freaked out at first, in fact the day we moved he clung onto my arm and ended up scratching me during a freak out while I was taking him to the car...then when we got to the house, he somehow managed to get in a wall and down about 3 feet....luckily it was in the laundry room so we just cut a little square in the drywall and he walked on out. He's a happy camper now though.

Kallie is liking it too....I think she is missing all the low windows at the townhouse, so right now she's spending all her time in the messy room because it has a pretty low window and then I have our chest below it so she sits there all day and stares out the window....then she does a lot of this....

Another 4 pounds!

I've been terrified to get back on the scale after our move! Absolutely terrified. I was sure I gained weight. Especially after I ate 4 regular sized of these in ONE week......

Don't judge me. It's SO yum, plus it wasn't my idea....the husband has a new found love for their cheesteakes (I'm speaking of the delicious Jersey Mike's that is). Anyway, so I ate 4 of those along with an assortment of other unhealthy things. Including a couple small glasses of sweet tea, oops. Though I did try to keep the balance by eating some healthy things and still drinking water. And I have been hauling things all around. Yet I was still sure I had gained some weight!

So to my amazement and excitement, I was surprised to get on the scale this morning and see that I had lost another 4 pounds in the last three weeks! Which puts me at 31 pounds lost with only 17 pounds to go! Hooray!

I had one slice of papa johns cheese pizza for lunch to celebrate. I would have had light veggie progresso soup but there happened to be a good bye party at lunch today for a coworker. Again, no judging...I'll cook something healthy for dinner.

Craft room color?

Chance is going to be putting up the wall soon so I can get started on my craft room! I can't wait! Though I've been agonizing about what color to paint the room once he has it finished. I was going to paint it a light gray, then I would have white furniture then I could do any accent color I wanted...pink, teal, green...whatever. But since we ended up doing the tv room gray (even though it is dark gray), I don't want the entire basement gray. I'm not sure what color to choose, but I did pick up this super cute & super cheap ($20) rug at Ikea last week, so I would love if it would match the room!

I definitely want it to be girly, I'm not sure that I want it to be too loud...I just don't want it to be overwhelming. Though, I'm loving this raspberry color.....

Then I keep thinking that, should I ever need to use it for something else, maybe I should pick a nice neutral color and pick some bright, girly accents....

Though I'm loving these bright colors too...

And this last picture here, this set up would be perfect!

Stay tuned....you know as soon as he gets that wall built, I'm going to get started! :)