measure once, cut once

i went through my quilting phase last year right before chicken nugget was born.  

let's just say it was short lived.  

i realized i have no patience for ornate designs.  i hate cutting and measuring.  i like to do things by eye.  and if i must, i will only measure once and cut once.  who has time for measuring twice, anyway?!?!  there are toilet bowls to be cleaned and children to be fed!

i made a quilt for dd and a matching pillowcase.  

i also made a quilt, matching burp clothes, and onsies for another friend with a newborn.  just need to get around to finishing hers.  i'm such a slacker.

one of my favorite places to visit (besides wegmans, tj's, thrift shops, and candyland) is pennington quilt works.  the website doesn't give the shop enough credit.  it is a fabric addict's dream!!

this laminated cotton (much nicer than oilcloth) will be turned into a table protector for dd's arts and crafts.

ahhhhh.  amy butler.  love her.  

for anyone who loves amy butler...are you aware that her designs are also available as wallpaper?

(i asked hubby what he thought about wallpaper.  telling by his response, i will be putting up wallpaper by myself.)

they have pre-cut fat quarters all over the store.

such cute projects.

displays of their work are all over the store.  love this quilt!

glad he's too young to whine about going to the  quilt shop.  my time will come, i know;(

every time i go to pennington quilt works i get the sewing bug. maybe before i start another project, i should finish some of the ones i started.  last year.

sigh.  

do you have a stash of some sort of craft you do?  knitting, scrapbooking...

when i have a free moment, i'll put up a tutorial on a simple, one day sewing project. 

stay posted!!

thanks for stopping by,

jill

st. paddy's day whoopie pies

the initial idea was to make green velvet whoopie pies.

but then, thankfully there were enough reviews out there that steered me away, everyone complained of the cakes being too dry, no matter the recipe.

in my head, i have been stuck on making whoopie pies for some time now.  i don't know why, i think the closest i've ever come to actually eating one was a devil dog.

do they even count?!?

my go-to food website of all-time is epicurious.  when i started getting too cheap to buy bon appetit, i went to the website instead...plus, gourmet is on there, too.

i found a recipe with great reviews.

whoopie pies.

the recipe asks for buttermilk.  i know most people don't have this in their fridge, so what you can do is add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to the milk and let it sit for 5 minutes.  i did this and they still turned out great.

they turned out beautifully.  and may i add...they are huge!!  my dd thinks she's going to get one all to herself.

i'm bracing myself for her disappointment.

besides adding sprinkles or something fru-fru like that...the only way i can think of to make this st. paddy's day-ish is to add green food coloring to the icing.

store them in the fridge, take out 10 minutes before you plan on eating them.  

if you give these a try, lemme know what you think.

(do not...i repeat, do not drink these without a glass of milk.  check your fridge before you indulge.)

have a happy day!

jill

guinness is gross...

but it makes one heck of a stew.

a friend of mine brought over a bunch of guinness from her fridge that her fiance left over at her home.  they have been sitting in my veggie drawer for months.  and by months, i mean a year.

i personally think they are gross.

yeah, i'm thinking about dumping it down the drain!

if i'm going to drink a beer, gosh darn it, it has got to have some fizz.

how gross guinness is as a beer is not the objective for this post.

my objective was to find a way to use up these draughts in the spirit of st. patrick's day and share it with you.

i found a food network recipe for beef and guinness stew. surprisingly, i had everything i needed for the recipe in my fridge...and i haven't done food shopping in a week!

changes i made:

1. i added bacon.  
2. i added a tablespoon of brown sugar.  
3. i added semi-cooked, diced potatoes towards the end.

if i had a little more patience and less cleaning to do i would have figured out a way to photoshop my fingerprints off my spoon.  

just keepin' it real.  

cheers, big ears!

stay tuned for some kind of green dessert.  

xoxo

jill

bathroom ta-daaah

we're all sick over here.  


i took dd out of school all week,  i have had weee little time to get on here and blog. 


the best i can do right now is update y'all.  (i may or may not have a post tomorrow on green velvet whoopie pies.)


sooo....


we are on our way from bathroom blahs to bathroom ta-daaahs.

vanity gone.  kinda gross what has been left behind over 20 years.  

the builders were kind of cheap, couldn't even fill in the entire area with tile.

and, yes, that is a panty liner on the wall....gross!!

hubby called in his one-man-army

patched up holes.  then realized he filled it with wrong material. would have taken years to dry.

he just refilled it with plaster.

$1 bundle of tiles at lowes.  $23 total.  score.

someone (not mentioning any names) backed himself into a corner while laying down the tile.
the ladder was used as an escape route.  totally, my idea.  i'm so smart.

not much else going on.  i'll probably just shoot down to hd tomorrow to get some paint, a new light fixture, and some other bathroom accessories.  

hubby's working, so i have to bring the kiddos along with me. crossing fingers they aren't too terribly sick to go out. i'm going crazy in here!!

good night everyone...or two of you that actually read this:)

jill

dare to dump

the sun just started hitting our balcony this morning.  it may have hit it earlier this week, but clouds got in the way.

sun hitting the balcony = the earth is beginning its shift towards the sun = warmth

and after i kicked around a pile a leaves at our future home i found the first petals of daffodils poking out through the soil.

i know you are all psyched for spring.

however...when there is spring, there also comes spring cleaning.

i'm not trying to be a debbie downer.  but it needs to be done.

my home is screaming for help.

vanilla pudding on top of my cereal boxes.

ice cream maker in our bedroom closet.

laundry baskets full of paper that needs to be filed.

stuffed animals that need to be ::cough, cough::  thrown away.

i don't mind cleaning.  i was raised my a cleaning lady.  it's in my blood.

i always start with the pantry.  it's the quickest area that can cleaned while making you feel like you've accomplished something.

chaos.

i know where everything is.  that's all that matters, right?!?!

don't be afraid to throw things away.  for me, i had a hard time throwing away this peach bundt mix from williams sonoma that my neighbor gave me after she de-cluttered her pantry.  it was in my pantry for two years and survived three pantry clean outs.  i finally put my foot down in december of 2010.

au revoir, peach-bundt-you-probably-tasted-like-mothballs-anyway.

step one:  grab a garbage can.

have a brown bag on the side for non-perishable food items you know you won't use, but can be donated to your local food pantry.

have handy a bucket of sudsy water and a rag.

step two:  walk to pantry.

step three:  take everything out.

i usually start at the top and work my way down.  chuck out things that you won't use or are just plain ol' stale.  remember not to throw away anything that can be used at food bank.

step four:  put aside items that are staying.

step five: wipe down shelves.

yes.  my hands are really that pasty.

now would be a good time to add some character to your cabinets, try contact paper.  if your shelves are scuffed up and unsightly, this would be perfect.

target sells an array of different styles and materials to protect your shelves.

just cut.  peel. adhere.

from my experience for larger shelves, have another person help you.  it will save you from losing your mind.

step six:  put everything back.

i know this is obvious, but i'd hate for someone to clean out their pantry and not put anything back because i didn't instruct them to.

just kidding, but seriously, this is a good time to organize your items according to how you use them.

baking shelf after some tlc.

canned veggies.

pasta. rice.

in our pantry, we have it organized from top to bottom:

• cereal
• pasta and rice
• canned items, sauce, vinegars
• snacks, chips, crackers
• baking items

the baking items may have to be moved up soon.  chicken nugget is becoming more curious by the day.  i've already had to move the sprinkles up to the cabinet in my kitchen.

yeah. that happened.

(and if you look close enough at our baking shelf, you can see the lick marks on the pink sprinkle container. )

although my home is torn to shreds right now, i'm glad i accomplished something.

throwing junk away and organizing refreshes me.

next up:  cleaning out the loft.  papers, magazines, and stuffed animals galore!

what's your must-do spring cleaning chore?

thanks for stopping by:)

jill

happy international women's day

i did a little "research."  (thank you, cosmopolitan. )

i am by no-means a feminist.  you know who i'm talking about. the "men and women are equal" kind.  yes, men and women are equal in the eyes of the Lord.

so, i just want to let you i'm not on that "men suck" bandwagon.

however, there are things women do better than men.  and i am fine with accepting that there are things men do better than women...like taking out the garbage.

i could go on and on of the things men do better, but today is our day...

1. we evolve hotter.

2. we survive car accidents more often.

3. we're better at seeking comfort.

4. we're more recession-proof.

5. we graduate college more often.

6. we eat healthier.

7. we have stronger immune systems.

8. we live longer.

9. we're better managers, especially in this economy.

10. we invest better.

happy international women's day.

say goodbye to miss frump

yes, i'm miss frump.  err...mrs. frump.

i'd say it's a condition of being a mom and a stay-at-home mom.

before i got married i'd get my hair highlighted, buy clothes regularly, put deodorant on.

my mascara was fresh.

then i had kids.

i stopped caring.  i'd go out in my old tee-shirts with spit-up on them.  i wore my maternity clothes long after i gave birth.

last time i got my haircut was in june.  no lie.  and i wouldn't have got one then if i wasn't for a friends wedding.

being a mom isn't a good enough excuse to let myself get this way.  it really isn't.  there are plenty of hot moms out there.

that's why i have my backup excuse:

i hate that i don't make my own money.

my husband provides for our family just fine, but there is still that guilt of not being able to buy the things i need with money i "earned."

so what do i do...i don't buy anything except for what we need.  i don't take care of myself.  that guilt came from daddy issues.  it's something i'm working on.

it wasn't until i finally finished school and my daughter turned two that we made it official that i would be a stay-at-home-mom.  that's when i started to really go downhill.

i'm kind of embarrassed now.  why didn't anyone say "jill, you look like crap?"

i totally ruined my family pics.

ugggh.  except for the chicken nugget.

remind me: no more beige!

i've been thinking about it a lot lately.  here's why:

i'm turning 30 in april.  i'm only young once.  why look like hell now when i know i'll look like hell later...naturally.

$hellbug gets on my case.  she's seen my closet.  she holds me accountable.

i now realize that i have minimal clothes.  i hate going out anywhere, because i seriously don't have anything to wear.

my make-up is down to nubs and bottom palette.

the worst part of it is that since i am home most of the time, in my head i just don't feel like i need a reason to look decent.

i'm so wrong.  i should look good for my husband.  not my kids.  or our friends.

my husband.  oh, how i have failed you.

however, in the past few days i've made some baby steps.

nursing bras.  gone.

maternity clothes.  gone.

new socks.  check.

new bras.  check.

new deodorant.  clinical strength.  (sorry toms of maine, you kinda suck...er...stink).

my own razors.  no longer stealing hubby's.  check.

i'm feeling good about this.

and thanks to MeLi at domestiquette...i now know how to hide my dark circles.

am i the only one out there that gets into a funk?  do you have a cycle you fall into every few years?

if you do, remember, you are not alone.  we can get out of this funk together.

and for everyone else that has no idea what a funk is...

good for you!

jill