Weekend Inspiration

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.


Time lapse footage of the milky way captured by Terje Sorgjerd between April 4th and 11th, 2011, from atop El Teide, Spain's highest mountain. 


This makes my soul ache....absolutely stunning.   Happy weekend!

Oh, hello there!

Meet little miss Columbine.  She's a real sweetie.

Little Boy Blue

I am so glad I married Evan.  Really, this whole marriage thing has been one nice surprise.  One of the things I didn't anticipate before the big day however, was my newfound access to totally rad furniture.  His parents hook us up all of the time. Yay for furniture!  Yay for marrying Evan!  Yay for Evan's parents!

 This little number has been with us for several years and is a little worse for wear.  I have had an intense hankering to paint it, but have resisted only because I am something of a wood purist.   I think wood is pretty, you see.  Also, because I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to paint it anything but blue.  I have a problem.

My favorite part about this table is that it opens up to store our extensive knife collection.  We are BIG into knives.   Especially butter knives.  And I know we only have one so far... but my fingers are crossed for a nice anniversary gift from Evan.  

And okay, you did see that purple velvet lining, right? Goodness!  It's fantastic!

Surprise!  

It's blue! (wait, are you surprised?)

And I love it so much I want to marry it.  Sorry Evan.

On a somewhat related note, while I was looking online for tips on 'aging' furniture, I ran across a video of a woman beating an old dresser with a rusty chain.  It was quite frightening!.  I stuck to good ol' sandpaper for little boy blue here.

p.s. Evan, I was totally joking about anniversary knives.  Please don't buy me any knives.  Buy me chocolate.

Earth Day

They have a special candy for that too.

*bite*

Wishing you a Happy Earth Day and a wonderful Easter!  See you next week.

Would someone please take away my cake pans?

Because I can't stop making cakes.  

So very Egg-cellent

Eggs!  Eggs!  Everywhere!  Are you sick of it yet?  Yeah...sorry.  I'm trying to quit.   But I do have to share these eggs that I made. So very easy! 

Here's the whole story:  Once upon a time I found these cardboard eggs at the craft store for about a quarter (!).  I gave them all a coat of Mod Podge to help 'seal' them (wasn't sure how cardboard would absorb the paint).  I then proceeded to paint them with acrylic paint, using an old egg carton for my stand.  Eggs are kind of a pain to paint.  They roll.  Just sayin'.  Once everyone was good and dry, I used a white paint pen to do the doodles.  After a final coat of Mod Podge, they were ready to go to lay in their bed of soft wheat grass.

They make me happy.

And this will be my last post on anything egg.  For at least a year.  Probably.

And then I got snubbed

Gesso is all the sudden way too cool for me.  He must be getting into his teenage years....sigh.  Where did the time go?

p.s.  so cute.  I want a nap.

Where's the Cream Filling??

In lieu of a fancy Birthday Cake (I was lacking one of those bullet-proof-cake-dome-transporter-things), I opted for something a little different for my mom's late Birthday celebration.

Birthday Twinkies!  

I wrote about my first Twinkie experience here.  And since then, we have eaten a lot of sub-par Twinkies.  You see, I was having such a hard time getting the right recipe for the cream filling.  For the record, any recipe that has marshmallow puff and crisco??  Bad bad news.

But never fear! I have found the perfect filling/frosting to compliment these golden little cakes.

I found the frosting recipe here, but have decided to write it out again for my own archival purposes.  And don't be alarmed by the unusual list of ingredients.  You have to trust me, this frosting is amazing.  Even Evan, who thinks that the worst thing you could do to a cake is to add frosting, likes it.  So, yeah.  It's delicious. Would I lie to you?  About frosting?

That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had

     from MissyDew

5 Tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar (not powdered!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens.  You want it to be pretty thick--brownie batter consistency.  Once thickened, remove from heat and let it cool completely.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  You don't want any sugar graininess left.  Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and beat the living daylights out of it.  If it looks separated, you haven't beaten it enough.  Beat!  Beat!  Beat!

Grab a spoon and eat out of the bowl.  Grab a knife and frost the cake or fill the Twinkies.

Yum. Yum. Yum.

This is also the frosting I used to fill the giant Ding Dong cake I made for Evan's Birthday.  And for those of you who asked, I've edited that post with cake instructions.

 Who knew I had such an affinity for Hostess?  *burp*

Mug Rug for Mom

Last month was my mom's Birthday.  And because I knew I would be seeing her this week (!!!), I have been holding on to her present.  Because Birthday presents are better in person I'm pretty sure. 

And because I have an awesome mother who taught me about making things, I knew my gift had to be hand-made (and awesome).  So I sewed together a tiny patchwork quilt and made it into a mug rug.  

I like the rectangular nature of mug rugs, perfect for a steaming mug + a little treat (not pictured :)

And now we are off to meet my parents + little sister for a super ski adventure at Big Sky.   Because it's not even pretending to be Spring here.  No siree.  So more skiing for us (not complaining).

Have a great weekend!

Just in Time

It seems like I have been looking for little egg cups my whole life.  Well, okay, not really.  I used to be afraid of eggs and tell people I was allergic to them (is that even possible?).  But now that I am super mature I like eggs.  No, adore eggs.  And I couldn't seem to find egg cups anywhere.

And then last week, while out on a totally unrelated mission, I came upon these psychedelic gems.

Hello there! 

While I probably could have gone for something a little less snazzy, I was too elated at finding them to care.  Egg cups!  My life is finally complete!

And just in time too.  Because there are plenty of eggs around our house...

...that need a proper cup.

 :)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.



If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' over at Soulemama for all to find and see.