Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is a milestone in my life - surviving to a quarter of a century!  To celebrate, I treated myself to the Clarisonic Mia.  After some research, I purchased mine at Skinstore.com because they seemed to have the best discounts.  


I've been using it twice a day since last Friday.  That being said, I don't think that's enough time to clear up my face in time for my birthday (skin - didn't you get the memo I'm not a teenager anymore?), but I do feel like it does an excellent job of cleansing my skin.  My face feels much softer after I use it and my serum and moisturizer soak in quickly.  Here's hoping my pesky little zits and clogged pores get zapped in no time with the supposedly amazing Clarisonic!

Oh Snap!

I came upon a great surprise while waiting for my bimonthly Starbucks treat today.  While perusing the shelves of coffee paraphernalia, I discovered my favorite part of Starbucks is available in a bottle for my personal use - the caramel sauce!!  

My drink of choice is a tall iced caramel macchiato, nonfat of course.  And now, for the seemingly reasonable price of $4.95 (just for the sauce), I can bring the caramel home with me!? Incredible!  This has to go on my birthday and/or Christmas list.  

If you don't care for coffee drinks, my cousin came up with a tasty tea concoction at Starbucks.  She orders an iced Passion Tea flavored with raspberry syrup.  It's very refreshing on a smoking hot day.  It's also pretty cheap!

Oh my, another give away!

All Things Vintage Sheets, a lovely blog I found a few months ago, is hosting a give away with fabulous prizes including items from Moda's vintage sheet inspired line, Dream On, that will debut in October.  Go check it out!  Open until Sept 8.

Give Away Time!

Just a quick note that a la mode fabric is hosting a give away featuring the AccuQuilt Go, which is a nifty item that cuts fabric pieces out by the handful!  Go check it out, and good luck!  You have until Fri. Aug 27 at 9pm to enter.

Did You Know?

I recently stumbled into the local Pottery Barn pretending that I could actually afford the furniture.  While browsing and silently praying that the floor models were going to be on sale, I started talking to one of the employees about a sectional couch that had a price that seemed too good to be true.  It was – the price was for the slipcover only (which made that go from a great deal to OMG outrageous really quickly!). 

Long story short, I told her I had just moved into town from another state and was in the market for a couch.  She says, “Oh that’s great!  We have a just-moved-into-the-area discount of 10%!”  Say what?  PB has a we’re glad you moved close to us from who cares how far away discount that I can use on anything online as long as I get it through the store?  This is too much for me to handle!  Of course, the furniture prices are still way out of my budget, but I thought I’d let you know in case you’re interested.  The discount usually only negates the shipping/handling fee on the furniture, but at least that’s something.  In my opinion, if you buy a $1500 couch it should be shipped to you for free.  I guess I’m still in cheap college student mode :D 

I’ll probably have to stick to craigslist furniture for the next year, but after that when I can actually afford PB, I can get the couch I always dreamed of!

French memo board in, you guessed it, houndstooth!

I have this French memo board that I made a long time ago when I was in the zebra print fabric phase.  It's not really my taste now for my new apartment, so I decided to jazz it up with that green houndstooth fabric that kind of reminds me of the temple oil lamps that never ran out of oil - I may never use it all up!  


Sorry I forgot to take a before picture, but here's the after.  Same technique as the necklace holder, but I crisscrossed and stapled ivory grosgrain ribbon across the front to hold stuff.  The ribbon was on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1 for 15 yards - awesome!  To keep the ribbons crisscrossed just so, I screwed in those little plastic and metal Dritz Twist Pins.  

I hung it up in the kitchen. Don't mind the mess!

Can I get some more houndstooth please?

It's been a busy weekend for me working on a bunch of different projects.  Ideas just flew into my head as I was planning the things I needed to do!  

So I'd been having trouble keeping my necklaces orderly and out of an untangled monster blob in my jewelry box and I'd been keeping my eye out for tutorials on making something to keep them in line.  I contemplated a picture frame with window screen mesh, but that stuff is wicked expensive for how little I wanted.  I thought about ribbons and snaps and that just sounded way too complicated.  

Before

Ultimately I went with what I know...fabric!  I bought a picture frame with a decent design at the thrift store for $1.62.  BTW, I chose a paint color for the desk project and thought, hmm, I should paint this picture frame to match.  So I did.  I removed the glass and was left with a few pieces of cardboard.  I didn't have batting, but I do have some polar fleece that I saved from the trash (don't ask) that I stapled to the cardboard.  Then I stapled another piece of beautiful preppy green houndstooth over it.  Popped it all back in the frame and thought, now what?  Well I wanted it to be an effective but simple solution, so I used those pearly glass topped pins stuck into the fabric to hold the necklaces.  Heavy pieces like the one in the middle needed a couple pins.  I alternated white and green pins, because I have a type A personality.  So far it seems to be a good project, and it didn't come crashing down in the middle of the night like other things I've hung.  Now if I could only get Carlton to stop jumping up at it to play with the pretty chains...

After!  Sorry you can't tell the size of this, but I think it's about 10x14...

Nobody puts Carlton in the corner!

Sometimes a deal doesn't save you money...

I needed a desk for the sewing machine and I've been cruising around CL (craigslist) for one over the past several weeks.  Yesterday I thought I struck gold again with a "like new white desk, we think it's Pottery Barn, only $50" ad.  As soon as I saw it, I replied and met the man after work.  He showed me the desk which was filthy and looked like it had been setting in his garage for decades.  I offered $40, and he said no because he's had a lot of responses on it.  I really doubted it was actually a Pottery Barn desk because it was kind of flimsy.  Exasperated that I had driven so far to look at it, I yielded and paid $50.  As soon as we picked it up to load it, I could tell it wasn't that sturdy!  I was scared it would break on it's way in my door, and even worse, that my sewing machine would be too heavy for it!  Ugh...why do I do this to myself?  After I got it in my house, I washed it down only to discover the grime won't come off!  ARGGHHH now I have to paint it :(  On the bright side, I'm thinking of painting it a nice sage green or possibly robin's egg blue.  Ooo maybe I'll match the green in my favorite houndstooth fabric!  That'll tie everything together nicely  :)

On the flip side, I went to the nearby thrift store last week and scored a queen size pleated bed skirt for $1!!  It's an adorable green check that magically happens to match my comforter.  Now this is an amazing deal because I've been wanting a bed skirt for ages!  The same one isn't available right now, but the others run around $80 plus. 


I guess what I saved in the bedskirt, I paid for the desk.  I guess the moral of the story is, if you have any doubts about it, don't buy it!

I heart houndstooth!

I feel like I had a pretty productive weekend, all things considered.  Here's a quick recap.


I'm sitting at my new (to me) Pottery Barn Kids (that's right!) desk, thanks to craigslist.  A lady had 2 of them for her kids that she was getting rid of and I was one of the lucky buyers!  It's the Keaton desk from 2006 in a honey oak color.  The desk is basically a table on casters and there's a hutch with a big corkboard and shelf on top.  She sold it with a rolling filing cabinet style table and the matching chair.  I'm sure this was around $1000 or more new, and I rolled it away for the sweet price of $150.  Ka-ching!  Awesome deal :D  

I decided to recover the seat of one of my mismatched dining room chairs yesterday.  I told you that the green houndstooth would return!  It would be more cohesive as a look if I painted the wood cream to match the fire place screen, but we'll see if I get around to that.  Here's hoping Carlton doesn't use it as a new scratching post!  Looks much better, no?  Whoever put the plaid on before didn't seem to notice how crooked it was.


Before:

After:

Carlton!

Zucchini Bread sweetened with Applesauce

I baked zucchini bread today even though it's 104 degrees outside, actual temperature.  I don't want to know what the heat index is!  


I know there are a lot of zucchini bread recipes out there, but I thought I'd share my concoction.  I sweetened it with applesauce to cut down on the fat/calories scariness.  


To make 2 loaves:


Mix together:
3 cups flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder


In a separate bowl, mix together:
2 cups shredded zucchini, patted with some paper towels to cut down on the juice
3/4 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract


Combine the wet and dry ingredients until just moistened.  Spray 2 loaf pans with cooking spray.  Divide dough between two pans.  Bake at 350 for about an hour.  Be sure to check it beforehand though!  My oven runs wicked hot so they were done in 45 min :D


Enjoy!