High Five For Friday!

Linking up with Lauren from My Grey Desk to celebrate the fact that it's Friday!

So - 5 things that were great about the past week:

1. Mani Monday Party! Friends, food, gossip, and painting our nails. So much fun!

2. Seeing a great friend who now lives way too far away! 

3. Getting my sewing machine back from the repair shop. Now I'm all fired up to get back to sewing!

4. Working out with my boo. Probably did more laughing than working out, but it was fun!

5. Funny pictures that people come up with in the Draw Something App. 

Have a great weekend!

Julia

Pretty {& FREE} Desktop Backgrounds

Desktop images from Vera Bradley

Desktop images/calendar from oh, hello friend: you are loved



oh, hello friend has lots of free templates/calendars/etc to share. I love when people share the things they've made. I've enjoyed her monthly backgrounds the whole year so far.

-Julia

Whoa! One year later...

HELLO!

Oh geez...it's been a year. Time flies when you've got a large load on your plate at work...but...I'm back...and I've been pinning. Check it out here. Here are some of my favs from Pinterest.

For the home...

{Cat Studio Atlanta Pillow}

Wish this was my home...

{beautiful kitchen}

Made this already...

{doily runner}

Yep...

{yes please}

Well, that about sums it up. I should be back more regularly now.

Toodles.
Julia

Headboard

While surfing through my daily blog reads tonight I stumbled upon this cool headboard (so fitting with Valentine's Day tomorrow):

{image here} {project here}

A headboard is the next thing on my list of "wants/needs/to-do's" and this one is just my style - minus the word love. I'll probably just leave it blank... Luckily I was already planning on heading to the Lakewood Antique Market next weekend so I'll just add "random pieces of wood" to my list of things to look for, along with something to put my TV on and a bus or car seat for work...

Toodles,
Julia

Kudzu Antique Market

Since I haven't had as much time to sew or do anything crafty lately I've gotten on a redecorating kick. By now, my roomies are used to coming home and finding new fabric on the dining room chairs, new pillows, new art above the mantel, etc.... My last two trips to Kudzu were in search of a new TV stand, which I'm still looking for, but I found a few other kooky, cool, fun items I thought I'd share with you.


1. Flour, coffee, sugar, and tea canisters. I almost scooped them up to replace the red-checked ones we have now, but left them because they would take up a bit too much space in our tiny, tiny kitchen.



2. Child sized stove, mixer, and blender(not pictured)! Where were these when I was growing up? I had to use my imagination...though I have to say, it's a little scary that the stove has an electrical outlet plug. Maybe it just made noises and lights go on? Anyone have one of these when you were growing up? Oh, and it says "Suzy Homemaker" on it. Ha!



3. Hoof ash tray...ewwww! Need I say more?


4. Super cute pie cabinet. I'd use it in a bathroom to store extra towels and glass jars filled with cotton balls, q-tips, and other pretty white things....a girl can dream of a bathroom that big, right?


5. Amazing, industrial furniture. The pictures don't do justice to the pieces, but they are incredible in person. The bike wheel artwork was massive - at least 5 feet wide. Clearly these aren't antiques...but gorgeous nonetheless. Definitely out of my budget, but not too insanely priced...something to save up for.





A few items came home with me that day, but I'll post pictures of them later. They've been added to the living room mantle, but I need something 'new' (to me) up there to tie into the vintage/homey feel of the room. I've had a cool print above it, but it's a little too modern for the room, so it'll be moved somewhere else in the house. I'm thinking about something along the lines of these pieces:

{Image from here} {Available here}

• 

{Image from here} {Available here}

Enough for now. I'll be back soon with pictures from my trip to the big apple for the New York Gift Show. That city is a blast, but I'm always ready to come back home...

Julia

Wanting something pretty...

...to put my TV on. Currently it's sitting on an old Ikea-like desk that I got from a friend. It's a light wood finish and it's got some crayon scribbles on top from the younger days of her cute daughter. I made a curtain to cover the cords that hang down the back, but I'm getting bored with it and want something new...different...cool...antique-y...

This is what it looks like now:

I was a little too lazy to hem the curtain to the correct length...but I also made it around midnight the night before I hosted my step-mom's baby shower, so I was a little rushed.

Anyways, last weekend I took a little trip to Kudzu Antique Market to look around and see if I could find anything. {I love Kudzu!} Here's the first piece I thought about:

The piece is massive! I have no idea what it was once used for, but it was old, on wheels...big, red, and beautiful! Unfortunately the price on it was a bit out of my budget (not sure what the budget was, but definitely out of it). It also didn't really have a good spot for a dvd player to reside, so I left it there for someone else to find.

This is what I really, really wanted to bring home that day:
I think it's an old school cart of some sorts...but I'm probably wrong. Painted green metal with a few rust spots, the doors open out and would be a great place to store books, dvd's, odds'n'ends, etc... I'm a sucker for old metal things {which explains my metal basket collection}. Unfortunately, this piece was even more outside my budget than the first one, so it stayed at Kudzu.

I wish I still had the Scoutmob deal for Kudzu. Maybe they'll do another one? Anyone have any suggestions on other places to look for cool pieces of furniture?

Julia

SNOW!!

It snowed the day after Christmas in North Carolina and was pretty much the "perfect snow". It covered the ground, but didn't stick to the roads or sidewalks. That was the first white Christmas I remember...ever. Pretty cool thing to experience as a Southerner.

{tree at my grandmother's house}

{throwing snow in the air}

Now, it's snowing here in Georgia and we're all freaking out! The grocery store shelves are empty, restaurants only have frozen {read as fry-able} food left, and we're going into our third day off from work/school...except for me because I live a mile from work and can walk there. Anyways, the snow was absolutely gorgeous Sunday night when it was coming down. So light and powdery. The roomies and I went for a walk that night and it was so neat to only hear the snow falling.

{late night walk through the falling snow}

{snow building up on our back staircase}

{people sledding in the cemetary}

Snow Day 1 was filled with snowball fights, sledding, walking into town to the local pub, and snuggling up on the couch. Snow Day 2 involved working a little bit, going to the pub, working a little more, snuggling up on the couch at home. I'm hoping that Snow Day 3 gets back to normal. I can only take so much free time. Apparently I'm better at getting things done only when I have a million other things to do.

Oh, and cookie sheets work really well for sledding down driveways and hills, but be careful because they go really fast on ice and you might not be able to use them for cookies after you're done.

Happy Snowpocalypse!
Julia

Calendars

This year I bought the Snow & Graham write on calendar for me and the roomies to use. The images for each month are so beautiful and the little squares on the bottom half will hopefully enable us to keep up with each others schedules.


...but this one has me totally rethinking that choice! Using chalkboard paint to make a calendar on your wall. Such a cool idea.

{image found here}

Roomies...how about it??

Julia

Pumpkin Waffles

With a leftover can of pumpkin puree I was able to spice up my Saturday morning waffles and boy were they tasty! I used Aunt Jemima pancake/waffle mix and made a batch according to the directions. After that I added in about 1/2 a can of pumpkin puree, a tablespoon or so of cinnamon, and about a 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Mix it all together and you're good to go. The aroma of the cinnamon and brown sugar was so amazing. After the waffles were done I topped them with some leftover cranberry relish and they were good to go.

{Then I had a little too much fun editing the photo with the PictureShow iPhone app}

Enjoy!
Julia

Holiday Crafting

All the blogs I've been looking at have some great holiday craft ideas, but this tutorial for felt ornaments from MADE is one of the only ones I've had time to try yet. It's simple, quick, and cheap. All the things we need in our life right now!

Here are the ornaments I've made so far.

K for my friend Katie and M for her cute pooch Mason.

All you need for the project is felt, embroidery floss, hot glue gun, thin ribbon, and some batting. -Cut two circles out of the felt.
-Cut out your letter and glue onto one circle.
-Sew a loop of ribbon onto the other circle of felt so that you can hang the ornament.
-Start sewing both circles together. Sew around 3/4 of the way, stuff the ornament and finish sewing the circle closed.

Easy as pie!

Julia

Fall

The leaves have just started changing color over the past two weeks here in the south. I always forget how pretty they are against a blue sky. The red leaves on this tree were amazingly bright and vibrant.

{taken with hipstamatic}

Thanksgiving Dinner

Oh man, I am still full from Thanksgiving dinner! Cooking for everyone wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Things ran pretty smoothly...nothing was burned, the food was hot, and it was all super tasty!

The table set with my regular dishes and some really cool, vintage glasses from my great grandfathers general store.

Fresh cranberries cooking down with sugar and the juice from two, fresh squeezed oranges. So simple and tasty and way better than anything canned. The fresh, tart taste was a great compliment to the heavy flavors of all the other dishes. And...while the cranberries were cooking down I could hear them pop open in the pot. :)

Caramelized onions for the stuffing. Mixed with chunks of Italian bread, fresh chives, and thyme. I forgot to take pictures of the other main dishes, but take my word that they were tasty. My 10 year old brother-cousin ate a few brussel sprouts, scarfed down turkey, stuffing, and rice, tried the sweet potato casserole {which he loved}, and then proclaimed that it was the best Thanksgiving ever {yay!} ... and he said all that before dessert!

Speaking of dessert...flourless, chocolate cake...mmmmmm. So tasty with a scoop of homemade whip cream, but soooo not good for you at all. I won't tell you how many sticks of butter are in the whole cake. Trust me, you don't want to know {but if you insist, here is the recipe}.

I hope you all had a lovely dinner with your friends and family. My day was quite relaxing and calm, even with all the cooking. I enjoyed spending the day with part of my family, missed the rest, but am thankful that I have them in my life.

Julia

Happy Thanksgiving!

I've got a lot of cooking to do today and tomorrow! I'm staying in town this year and having my dad, stepmom, stepmom's mom, cousin-brother, and baby brothers over for Thanksgiving dinner. It's my first time cooking the whole meal by myself, but I'm super excited about it! Here's the menu...which had to encompass vegetarians, meat eaters, and gluten free diets. That's a lot to think about for one meal!

Tofurky - no, it does not taste like turkey, but it does taste good in a fake meat way...
carmelized onion and herb stuffing {find it here}
roasted brussel sprouts
sweet potato casserole with gluten free cornflake and pecan topping
wild rice
cranberry relish
flourless chocolate cake {find it here}
cherry pie
vanilla ice cream with cranberry compote {find it here}

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Enjoy your day with family and friends!

Julia

ICE - Indie Craft Experience

The Indie Craft Experience happens this weekend! I've missed it the past few years because of the craziness of work around the holidays, but this year I'm determined to make it. I can't wait to check out all the great handmade art, jewelry, hair accessories, clothes, paper goods, etc, etc.... Some of my favorite local artists will be there:

{Talulah B.} {Glak Love} {Mama Bath + Body} {June Shin} {Blue Eyed Freckle}

The Indie Craft Experience is happening this Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 6pm at Ambient Plus Studio. $5 admission at the door. I'm also looking forward to trying out King of Pops. Haven't made it out to their popsicle cart on N. Highland/North Ave. yet, but definitely looking forward to trying out one of their tasty flavors...

Enjoy the week!
Julia

4 years!

And Even More... Freezer Paper Stenciling

I had to get a little crafty this weekend and make my little brothers some outfits! Simple freezer paper stenciling to make Halloween onesies:

And some monogrammed onesies since they have names now:

Freezer paper stenciling is soooo easy. I've used it on a couple different projects and need to start doing more with it. You can draw your own shapes or print out images to trace. After that, all you need is an iron and permanent fabric paint. Look here for full instructions.

Toodles,
Julia

Happy Halloween!!

{creepy, wart-covered pumpkins}

{pumpkin patch}

{pumpkin carving parties}

{my first pumpkin...that rotted in the GA humidity}

{second pumpkin with a little mustache}


So glad that the fall weather is finally here.
Hopefully it stays so that my pumpkins don't rot!

Julia

Halloween

Here's my Morton Salt Girl costume! The yellow t-shirt is from Target and it happened to perfectly match the inner layer of a skirt I had on my donation pile, so out came the scissors. After cutting the outer layer off I sewed in some elastic and was set to go.
The yellow shoes were spray painted...and I have to tell you that I picked the WRONG shoes to try and spray paint. I don't know why I though fabric flats with little sequins on them would be easy to paint over. After about 7 coats of paint {that just kept seeping into the fabric} I just left them splotchy. Luckily you couldn't tell unless you got really close...

All in all a successful Halloween costume.

Hope you all have a good weekend!
Julia

My little cousin/brother turned 10 years old on 10/10/2010....how cool is that?! For his birthday party my roomie and I made him a baseball themed birthday cake in the shape of a 10. We're pretty sure he loved it. :)


Toodles,
Julia

Halloween Costume

My Halloween costumes have gotten a lot more inventive over the past years, but I took the lazy way out last year and was a cowgirl...boring! So, this year I'm putting last years idea into action...Morton Salt Girl here I come!

I've got the blond hair and the umbrella, so all I need are the yellow shoes and dress. For the shoes I'm going to spray paint these cheap, Target flats below. Spray painting shoes? Oh yes, it's nowhere near as scary as you may think. I did it two years ago when I needed gold boots for my She-Ra costume and it turned out really well! I found a good tutorial on MADE that explains how to paint your shoes.

As far as the dress goes...I'm trying to figure out the best/cheapest/easiest way to do it...so if you see and cute little yellow dresses out there, let me know! I'll probably see what I can find at the thrift store and merge a skirt and shirt together...can't wait to see how it turns out! I post pictures along the way.

Toodles,
Julia