This Is Me #9

#1. I made this blanket.  It's an absolutely ridiculous size.  It probably measures around six feet by twenty feet.  

#2.  I got lazy at the end, and didn't bind off properly, and now it's beginning to become unraveled.  

#3.  I'm overwhelmed by how large this blanket is.  When I take a nap on the couch with it, sometimes I get tangled up in the countless stitches.  

#4.  It's super soft though, and extra warm.  Plus you could house a clown convention under it.  

#5.  I worked all week, and spent the evening curled up with this blanket watching Revenge.  

Have a lovely Saturday, and happy DIYing, chris.  

Fun Friday Fascinations #16

#1. Lovely colorful dress from ModCloth.  You know me, I'm always into a good print with bright colors.  

#2.  Another great print, but this time on a shoe by Shellys of London.  

#3.  A beaded bow-tie DIY by Jordon over on Stellaire.  She used it as gift wrap, but it could also make a cute bracelette or necklace.  

#4.  More bow-tie swooning.  This cute bow-tie belt is made by the Darlingtonia Moccasin Co.  

#5.  Amazing rug found via the Ugly Duckling House.

Hope you enjoyed, and happy DIYing, chris!

In the mood for Peanut Butter & Chocolate

Today was a day for Peanut Butter and Chocolate.  So for Thirsty Thursday I made a Peanut Butter Nutella Snicker Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- two scoops of snickers ice cream

- one heaping tablespoon of peanut butter

- two heaping tablespoons of nutella

- 1/4 cup milk

Simply blend everything together, and wah-la!  A yummy peanut buttery creamy concoction.  Hope ya'll are having a great thursday, and happy DIYing, chris! 

Bun Love.

Buns are the perfect daytime hair-do.  Especially when it's hot, and your busy lifting heavy things, and moving around a lot.  It's easy to make a bun look cute too.  Simply add a cute hair clip, like a bow-tie barrette.  Sometimes it's fun to tuck the hair clip up under your bun, for a fun surprise when you turn around.  

I especially like to wear buns during the day, because after a long day, and I'm ready to let my hair down my hair looks awesome, when I shake it out.  I love how full and wavy my hair is after wearing a bun all day.  

If I were to wear my hair down all day it would be super straight, and slightly greasy looking by this time of day.  

If I wore it in a plain ponytail I'd have a big crease in my hair.  A bun is the only way to go, when it comes to keeping cool with long hair.  Hope you're having a good Wednesday, and happy DIYing, chris!

July Wrap-Up

I know I say this every month, but I can't believe it's the end of July!  This has been a super busy month.  I started it off with a nice overnight trip to Long Beach Island to visit my college buddy, Mamie, and her family, and new roommate, Hannah.  I had a ton of fun with them, and it was a great way to start this hectic month.  

On the ninth (which also happens to be my sister-in-law's birthday, Happy Birthday Michelle!) Aaron and I became homeowners!  Yay us!

We've been super busy working on the house.  It needs a ton of work, and the list is never ending.  So far the kitchen is the closest to livable.  

My DIY projects have been hyper focused on getting the house ready, so the only crafty thing I did this month was stamp my handmade calendar for June and July.  They came out super cute.  I need to think about what's happening in August, and get that together!  

I've been most happy with my Thirsty Thursday series this month.  So many yummy fruity creations!  I'm having a hard time picking a favorite.  It's a tie between the Plum Kiwi Pineapple Cocktail and the Tropical Creamsicle.  They are both good in a fruity way, but for completely different reasons.  

I've also continued on with my self-indulgent series, This Is Me.  I like that this series gives me back a bit of my weekends, while still pushing me to think creatively.  I want to think about making more  imaginative self portraits in the future.  

We also celebrated my brother, Chris' engagement.  We went out to dinner with his fiance, Jamie's family and got to know them.  We had a lovely time!  They are awesome people.  I wore this cute little number to the fabulous Half Moon, where we wine & dined.  

I've loved everything I've cooked for Nom Nom Monday, but my favorite this month is my Fresh Tomato & Bell Pepper Pasta Salad.  It could be because I grew the tomatoes, peppers, and basil in it.  Or because I had it for dinner last night, and I also ate it for lunch, AND as an after-work snack.  I definitely liked this dish.  :)  

Speaking of our garden, haven't these little paper pulp seedlings come a long way?  Look at one of our many fruitful harvests! Just as yummy as it looks.  

I hope you had a good July too, and happy DIYing, chris!  

Fresh Tomato & Bell Pepper Pasta Salad

Happy Nom Nom Monday!  Today I made a pasta salad using some of the fresh pickin's from our garden.  Cold pasta salads are perfect for lunch or dinner in the summer.  I could eat it everyday.  

I used some green grape tomatoes, riesentraube tomatoes, a couple black cherry tomatoes, and the peppers are technically purple beauties.  I couldn't wait until the peppers got purple, they've been tempting me for days, weeks on end.  Then I looked to our herb garden, and decided the lemon basil was the way to go.  I based my recipe off of this Lemon Pasta Salad with Tomatoes and Feta I found on yummly.  

Ingredients:

- 7 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

- 2.5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice

- 3 tablespoons of dijon mustard

- 2 garlic cloves (where were out, what! so I substituted with garlic salt)

- 12 ounces of bow-tie pasta

- 2 cups cherry tomatoes

- 1 1/2 cups bell peppers

- 1 1/2 feta cheese

- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

- 1/4 cup white onion

- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon basil

Directions:

I began by boiling water, and cooking the pasta.  While that was happening I chopped all of the my cherry tomatoes, peppers, and onion up.  I also tore my basil into small bits and mixed that in.  Next I mixed together the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, and garlic salt together in a medium bowl.  When the pasta was done I mixed the pasta and veggies together, then I poured the sauce over them, and mixed throughly.  Finishing with the cheeses.  Now truthfully I didn't have that much cheese, I used what was left in a half used feta tub, and about a tablespoon of freshly grated parmesan cheese.  I threw some black pepper on for seasoning, and called it lovely!  

It was tasty.  Even my hubby who usually doesn't go for cold pasta salads had seconds of this one.  I think the only thing that could have made it better was if I had more cheese, and fresh garlic.  

I love eating pasta salads the next day.  The flavors have a chance to really culminate and become alive together.  I already have this packed up for work tomorrow.  Hope ya'll are having a wonderful Nom Nom Monday, and happy DIYing, chris!

Colorful Progress

I'm making colorful progress (finally!) at my house.  First, here is a reminder of what my kitchen looked like:

 Wood paneling and dirty grubbiness and all.  

Now for some color on those nasty walls!

Of course I scrubbed, and scrubbed, and then scrubbed some more before we primed, and painted.  Actually, we did such a good job cleaning and priming, we only needed one coat of Valspar's Sea Air.  

Loving this bright cheery color.  Can't wait to finish the trim, and take all the painter's tape down.  Wait, no, I can't wait to cook in my new pretty kitchen!  

Now we're moving on to the dining room.  For the rest of the house I bought an airless paint sprayer.  I was nervous about using it, so I let my mom put it to the test.  My mom's always good like that.  It's turning out well.  So glad we made this purchase, it will make painting the rest of the house ten times faster.  

Hope ya'll had a great weekend, and happy DIYing, chris!

P.S.  Here's a funny photo of how the airless paint sprayer coated my nose hairs.  I had a good laugh when I looked in the mirror, and I hope you do too. :)