Easter...

We had a great Easter with our family...though our plans did change just a bit, it was still turned out to be a pretty relaxing day!  I don't have too much else to add to the kitchen, but here are some adorable pictures of Belly Boo on her first Easter egg hunt.  She had a blast!

Easter Prep: Peanut Butter Eggs

I love me some peanut butter eggs, so since it's the best time to make and partake in these lovely little treats, I decided to make some for the family and our Easter afternoon dessert that we're hosting this coming Sunday.  I found a really easy recipe online and just went from there.

It was really, really, really hard to not nom on them while I was making them.  I can only imagine how hard it's going to be to resist eating them until Sunday.

Goodbye Wallpaper!

When we bought our house a year and a half ago, the only eyesore for me was this horrible outdated wallpaper in the hallway where our bedrooms are.  I couldn't wait until it was time to rip that down.  It didn't seem to bother the hubs as much, but after looking at it day in and day out, and watching it start to peel off in some places it had to go.

And so it went.

Before: Notice our lovely outdated light fixture and nasty wallpaper.  Over the course of our little home's 70 year history someone must have smoked in the house because all I could smell was stale smoke as I took down the paper.  Nasty!

The wallpaper.  And yes, I kept a piece for scrap booking purposes.  

So outdated!

During: It took me a few days to get all the paper and glue off the walls...it was not an easy task.  Last Friday we had a friend come and replace the old light with a newer, spiffier light, and I did some priming of the walls on Saturday night.  On Sunday I did the paint and trim...the paint was looking a little pink to me, but since then has either grown on me or darkened a bit.

Primer is done!

Our new light.

After: It looks so much better!  I'm so happy that I finally took this wallpaper down!  I still want to hang some pictures in the hallway but I will get to that soon.  I'm just happy that it's done!

All finished!

Music Monday, Vol 5

I know I just did a Death Cab for Cutie song a few weeks ago, but as I was painting our hallway this weekend and it was raining cats and dogs outside, they were playing in the background and helped me to move my little project along.

And in honor of Record Store Day this past weekend, I actually found a video of the song playing on vinyl.  Enjoy!

Quilting Update: April

I finished the first row of my quilt this morning, and was so excited!  It is moving along a lot faster than I thought it was going to, and I'm so happy with how it looks so far!  I'm also surprised at how relaxing it is, even sewing everything by hand!  I can't wait to see how far I get next month!

The whole first row - I still have some things to fill in and I think I'll do two rows on the outside to make it a bit wider.

Up-close of one of the flowers.

Lots of tiny, tiny stitches!

PSA: Proud Sister Announcement

This weekend we went home to watch my brother perform in his school's musical, and the whole cast totally blew me away.  I always love watching my brother during his performances - he's voice and state presence amaze me and it's truly a sight to see.  It was also wonderful to hear him sing seriously since he usually just acts goofy when he's singing in the car.  He had me in tears a few times when I heard his beautiful voice float over the auditorium.

All the hard work and hours of preparation were worth every moment and memory you made up on that stage this weekend.  I can't wait to watch and be amazed again next year!

Isn't he adorable?!

for more info on the musical, go here.  Blake was Able in the first act and Ham in the second act.  

Tutorial: Easy Easter Bunting

I just did a post on some of my Easter decorations, and I wanted to share my Easter bunting that I made in about an hour!  It was so easy!

Here's what you need:

• cute paper (I used some scrap booking paper)
• egg template
• scissors
• hole punch
• letters
• ribbon
• glue or photo backing squares

Let's get started! 


To make my egg template, I just found an egg that I liked off of Google Images and resized it in Picasa to get the sizes that I wanted.  You can make your eggs as big or small as you'd like - since my mantle is pretty big my eggs are on the larger side.

After my egg templates were cut out, I picked my papers, traced the eggs on the back, then cut them out.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the next part, but it's really simple.  I just took a hole punch and punched two holes near the top of each egg.  Then I used my Cricut to cut out the letters for "Happy Easter" and also cut out a few flowers to add some space between the two words.  After they were attached with the photo backing squares, I strung the letters on my ribbon and hung them up, and......

ta-da!  Easy Easter Bunting to add a little spring color to your home!

If you were wondering about the smaller eggs in the first few pictures, I used them to decorate my front door. I just hand wrote "Happy Easter" and used some clear tape to hang them up!

Happy Easter decorating!  

Decorating for Easter

I wasn't really sure how to decorate the house for Easter this year.  I don't think I really decorated last year, but now that Belly Boo is a bit older I wanted to start doing some cute things, and it gives me an excuse to be crafty.  I didn't go overboard and I think we only spent about $10 on plastic eggs (gotta have those!), and I used things that I already had around the house.

Resolutions Update

We're a quarter of the way through the year, so I figured now is the perfect time for a progress report on my resolutions for 2011.  See the original post here.

Eating healthy/exercising more. This has been so-so...I've lost almost a pant size (yay!) and I've been eating smaller portions and more veggies.  Now that it's finally getting a bit warmer I've been taking more walks with Belly Boo and now we're starting a massive yard project that will keep me very busy.  Hopefully the warmer weather will re-inspire me to work out a bit more.

Get my driver's license.  Test is scheduled for May 6.  I think I can...I think I can...

Find a job.  Just browsing right now...maybe a more intense search after the license is in my hand.

Meet more people.  I feel like this is getting easier to do.  I've met some cool people the past couple of months that I'd like to spend more time getting to know.

Try new foods.  Hey!  I've been doing better on this.  I've tried and liked hummus, and I ate crab for the first time over my birthday.  I'm also eating my veggies.  :-)

Read more books/use internet less.  I'm definitely using the internet less, but I haven't been reading as much as I would like.  I still have plenty of time to read more, though!