Pressed ... Ahh ... Things ...

Over on The Dainty Squid Kaylah posted photos of her pressed flowers, and I fell in love with the idea.  At first I had ambition intentions to make my own journal, but the other day I was at Michael's, and they had this amazing journal for only a buck!  Of course I had to buy it, so for today's Saturday Blogger Love I wanted to celebrate Kaylah, and show you my first pressing from Wednesday's evening walk. Kaylah has an amazing blog.  She has great style, amazing hair, fantastic tattoos, and I like every posts she writes.  I either leave her blog thinking 'yeah, I love that too!', or 'or wow I didn't know about that, I'm going to check that out soon!'.  I think of her as one of the illustrious established bloggers, so I feel like most of you probably already read her blog, but if not definitely check her out!  Love her blog.  

I guess I'm kind of picky about what I carry around on our walks.  I feel like a little kid when I have mushrooms in my hand, but they are so fragile I can only carry so many.  The 'bike safe' sticker caught my eye, and I almost past it up, but then I doubled back for it.  So glad I did.  It looks awesome on my first page.  Oh, and I must say, I was pleasantly pleased with the paper inside this dollar notebook.  The color couldn't be more prefect for pressing my finds against.  

Right now I'm up in Vermont, and hopefully I'm pressing some awesome New England finds in this new lovely notebook.  Hope ya'll are having a great Saturday!  Happy DIYing, chris!

Fun Friday Fascinations #8

Happy Friday!  Here are some of my Fun Friday Fascinations I found this week on the web.  

This is a magical street fashion photo.  Found on The Sartorialist.  I  love how the sun is hitting her beautiful yellow dress, and the way the wind is slightly tugging at the back of the skirt.  Simply beautiful.

I'm drooling over this dress.  I love the print and the colors.  I better buy it from ModCloth before it disappears, that always seems to happen when I really like an item.  

Guy le Tatooer.  Just google image search, and be amazed.  

I saw this DIY a while back, but I think it's high time I gave this a try.  Fantastic instructions found on Bettina's Blog.  

I love to handmake any cards I give, and this would be awesome for father's day.  Poppytalk always has super inspiring posts.  

I've been thinking Moose needs a bow tie.  Ya know, for special occasions.  This tutorial from The Ribbon Retreat Blog for a baby bow tie look perfect.  

This find is a little on the DIY side of things and little of the food front.  What a great idea to use brown sugar as a mold for chocolates.  Thank you Domestic Fits!

Now for a nice relaxing drink.  Doesn't this watermelon and cucumber cooler look delightful?  Lauren concocted this yummy treat over on Healthy Food For Living.    

Hope ya'll enjoyed my finds this week.  I am currently enjoying the lovely Vermont spring weather, and I hope ya'll are having a fantastic Friday!  Happy DIYing, chris!

May Wrap-up

I think May went by even faster than April!  I can't believe we are at the end of the month already.  Just like every other month I had a million and one things I wanted to accomplish, and I only got the smallest fraction done.  I pledged to do more DIYs this month, and I did more than the previous month, but still only accomplished seven.  Damn!  Though the quality of these DIYs are through the roof, so I guess I didn't do too bad.  :) Today I'm going to share some of my favorite posts from this month.  

I love this hammerhead dip dyed t-shirt.  It definitely got me in a fabric paint kind of mood.  I also painted some amazing sailboats on a pair of black leggings. 

I'm wearing this rock necklace all the time.  This might be my favorite DIY ever.  I didn't pay a penny for any of the materials, and it looks AMAZING.  Can't get much better than that!  Though my ModCloth barrette DIY runs a close second, I only had to by the paint, and that was only sixty cents!  Other DIYs I did this month include a card I made for Aaron's birthday, which was May first.  I made a tutorial on how to make patterns in GIMP.  I also showed how I store my pens & markers.  

Of course I also baked Aaron a cake for his birthday, don't you love the mini happy birthday bunting?  We also made some salsa to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.  

I made Strawberry Butter and Double Decker Oreo Fudge for Mother's day.  Then for Memorial Day I threw together a Peanut Butter Nutella Brownie Trifle. I know, everything but the kitchen sink!  On the more simple side of things, I cooked up a simple fruit cup, and a homegrown salad and a simple chicken with a creamy dijon mustard sauce.  

We didn't do much on the gardening front this month.  I say 'we', because all my gardening involves the mister, he's our garden guru.  I shared some photos of our kohlrabi and broccoli plants.  We planted them earlier, I think back in April, but that was apparently too late.  They have the tiniest of broccoli heads right now.   I tried my hand at starting some onion and garlic in pebbles.  Sadly, they just ended up rotting, icky!  Though, as you can see in the photo below all the seeds we started in the paper pulp cups are growing like gang busters!  I posted an update on those planties here.  

We got a dog this month!  His name is Moose.  We go on lots of mushroom hunting walks with him.  He's the cutest thing, and we just want to eat him up!  :)  We also went to a dog show, totally fun, next we'll bring Moose.

I guess with all the DIY, garden, and food photography I've been pining to get back to my roots with some good old fashioned macro nature shots.  I posted some lovely plant pics with some self reflecting, and thoughts on blogging.  

Another post with thoughts on blogging, and some black and white film photos.  

I also made a post of all my fave photos from the past couple years.  There are some lovely photos in that bunch, definitely worth checking out.  :)

I've managed to sneak in a total of four outfit pics.  I like taking these photos more than I feel comfortable admitting.  :)  On some days I wish I could take and post outfit pics everyday.  Chictopia is just as addictive as Pinterest.  This outfit is a perfect reflection of me in the spring/summer.  

I also showed how us layer addicts don't have to give up our love for layers just because the temperatures rise.  I posted how I wore my sailboat legging DIY, and a cute simple spring/summer outfit. 

One last post I totally enjoyed writing this month, was my post on street fashion photography and the FSA, the photo below was taken by Dorothea Lange.  

Hope ya'll enjoyed May, and I can't wait to kick off June with another Fun Friday Fascinations!  Aaron and I have a fun weekend planned.  Tomorrow we are going to drive up to Vermont, because Peter Dinklage is giving the commencement speech at my alma mater, Bennington College, and we are big Dinklage fans.  Ever since I saw him in Station Agent I've had the ever growing crush on him.  Then Game of Thrones started, and boy oh boy is a handsome fellow!  I hope we can get a picture with him.  :)  Hope ya'll have a great weekend!  The blog will be on autopilot, so don't worry there will still be posts to read.  Happy DIYing, chris!

A Pop Of Color

For this DIY I took the white plastic bow hair clip seen in this Photo An Hour, and this outfit post.  I got the barrett as a gift with a purchase from ModCloth.  

This is the paint and brush I used.  I used that tin lid as a paint tray.  

I painted the middle band, and the inside of the bow for a pop of color.  I needed to paint two coats to cover the white plastic.  I'm not much of an all white kind of girl.  I'm loving this green color recently.  I have tons of things in this color or similar shades, so I thought it would be this DIY.  Any color would look great!  You could even play with making polka dots or stripes.  

Then I varnished the painted areas.  I probably should have used a high gloss since the plastic is so shiny, but I rarely like to use anything but satin. Just my personal taste though.  

This is what it looks like on now.  Yay, totally me.  Hope ya'll enjoyed, happy DIYing, chris!  

Sail Away With Me

Today I decided to apply my fabric painting talents to a pair of leggings.  I'm not sure why I've only painted on t-shirts before, but I saw Annika painted some hearts onto a pair of tights over on The Pineneedle Collective, so I thought I'd give it a go on some black leggings.  

Here are the leggings I started off with.  They are great leggings, but I own tons of black leggings, so I thought I'd give these a make-over.  

I started off by sticking blue painter's tape all over my legs while I was still wearing the leggings.  That way I could look at myself in the mirror, and make sure I liked the placement of all the spots.  Then I carefully slipped them off, trying not to remove any of the tape.  

Next, I used a sailboat stencil, and traced it onto foam.  I would have preferred to use foam with a sticky back, but this is what I had on hand.  I made a bunch, because after painting five or more sailboats I'd start having major bleed issues.  If I had foam with sticky backing this probably wouldn't have happened.  

These are the tools I used to paint on the sailboats.  I didn't realize until I was nearly done that the sponge applicator was the best tool.  I usually use a paintbrush, and that's what I started off with, but then I realized I had some sponges I bought for this type of project.  So thrilled I bought these, I will definitely only be using these from now on when I paint stencils.  

This is what they look like finished.  I'm pretty happy with them.  Now I wish it was legging weather!  Well, not really, but these will bring a smile on my face when it gets cold out again.  

Here is what they look like in an outfit.  I almost thought I didn't have anything to wear them with!  Then I remembered this skirt, I haven't worn it in ages.  This style skirt was all the rage last spring/summer.  I guess the mini bodycon skirt replaced this look this year.  Still a totally cute look.

Tank Top -- Kohl's

Skirt -- Boscov's

Leggings -- Macy's

Belt -- Target

Shoes -- Target

Hope ya'll enjoyed!  Happy DIYing, chris!

Peanut Butter Nutella Brownie Trifle

Happy Memorial Day, and Nom Nom Monday!  Today's dish is the prefect dessert for summer holidays like Memorial Day.  I made a Peanut Butter Nutella Brownie Trifle.  I adapted this recipe from How Sweet It Is' recipe for a Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie Trifle.  It's best to prepare this yummy treat the day before you plan on serving it.  

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

- 5.5 oz box of Instant Vanilla Pudding

-Your favorite Brownie recipe (I used a box mix, because we had it, and it cut down on the work)

- 1 Bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

- 1/2 Bag of Reese's Pieces

- 2 Cups Heavy Cream

- 4 Tablespoons of Sugar (white, granulated)

- 1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter

- 3 Tablespoons of Nutella

- 8 oz Cream Cheese

- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar

- 2 Tablespoons of Milk

Directions:

Start by making the instant pudding.  Follow directions on the package.  I suggest starting this early in the day, because it takes a couple hours to firm up in the refrigerator.  Next, make the brownies.  I used a box mix, and just followed the direction on there.  While the brownies are in the oven, unwrap the peanut butter cups, and cut them into quarters.  

When the brownies are done cooling down, cut the brownies into tiny squares.  Then make the whipped cream layer, by combining the heavy cream and sugar in an electric mixer.  Whip the two ingredients together until they thicken up, and start to look like whipped cream.  I worked my way up to a fast speed, and it took almost five minutes to get thick enough.  When that's done, stick it in the fridge until you are ready to start layering.  

Now mix up the Peanut Butter Nutella layer.  Don't worry about cleaning out the mixer, and combine the peanut butter, nutella, and cream cheese.  Once those ingredients are well mixed, add in the powdered sugar, milk, and a cup of the whipped cream mixture.  Mix until creamy.  

Finally we can start layering everything in a large glass container.  You can layer the ingredients in whatever order you like.  I started with the brownies on the bottom, then the peanut butter nutella mixture, the pudding, the whipped cream, then the peanut butter cups and reese's pieces.  

The candy looks tasty on top!  How Sweet It Is piped her whipped cream on the top layer.  Which looked awesome, but was more work then I wanted.  I obviously took the easy route with this, but if you're trying to impress, I'd suggest piping on the final layer of whipped cream.    

I like my trifles to be three layers, so finding the correct sized container is important.  Or you could make many small trifles, with only one layer of each ingredient.  The smaller cups would probably be less messy serving.  I've made a similar trifle to this before, and once you dig in, this dessert looks less pretty, and more like a big slop.  A slop of amazing tastiness of course!  Maybe trying the smaller individual cups would maintain the pretty layered look.  Hope ya'll enjoy!  Happy DIYing, chris!

Fun in the Sun

Headband -- Target

Sunglasses --  Bodega in L.A., California

Cardigan --  Target 

Tank Top  -- ModCloth

Mini Skirt  -- Target

Bracelet  -- Target

Shoes  -- Blowfish

A simple Spring outfit, for hanging out in the sun.  I'm digging the bodycon mini skirts, that are so popular this season.   They make everyone's bottoms look amazing!  I bought a basic black, so it would go with all my tops.  I always like to have some color in an outfit, and yellow just screams spring.  Today I went with a headband, some sunnies, a bracelet, and my favorite flats.  I've never owned a pair of "dressy" shoes so incredible comfortable.  The insides of the shoes are super soft, and bright green!  I like how with this outfit they tone down the sexiness of the skirt, but when I wear them with some skinny jeans I look fancier than with my usual sneakers.  

It's been super warm here, humid, and threatening thunderstorms daily.  There are tons of bugs flying about, and baby birds yapping.  There's an owl that hoots every evening, while we are walking Moose.  He's my favorite.  Yesterday while we were walking Moose, he dove into a bush, and Aaron realized he was biting at a garter snake!  I know they aren't poisonous, but that gave us a good fright.  We're lucky he didn't lose an eye! :)  We'll I'm hungry, and it's almost dinner time.  Then we have to walk Moose, and I need to finish preparing my dessert for tomorrow.  Man, oh man, do I enjoy cooking desserts!  hehe, happy DIYing, chris.