High 5 for Friday! 8.2.13

Woot woot for Friday!

Boo hoo for my last Friday before school starts on Monday.

1.  I have crocheted my brains out this week.  I have made 8 hats, 7 decorative flowers and zero progress on putting my granny square quilt together.  

I have a few more hats to make for some friends.

I LOVE the easy patterns I have found over at Sarah's blog.

2.  I have loved doing the crossword puzzle each day this summer. 

I'm sure going to miss it when school starts.

3.  I went into my classroom for the first time all summer and made a little headway.

Simply putting my desks where they belong made a HUGE difference.

4.  I got my polish on today.

I don't usually paint my own nails because I'm not patient enough to wait for them to dry.

However, the dealership that we got our Escape from has a manicurist on staff.

And it's free!

This may become a weekly thing until the baby comes...

5.  I had my first, true pregnancy craving this week.  

I wanted chicken wings from a place we never go to.

They had to be the real deal, too.

No boneless wings for this baby.

Handsome Husband laughed at my insistence.

I hope you had a great week, too.

Please forgive me if I don't post every day since the school year is starting up and I never know what could happen!

Check out the other H54F blogs here.

Laters!

Mrs. B

Dressing Up My Drawers

Don't worry!

I'm not talking undies in this post.

I'm talking the wonders of how consignment furniture + a little paint and tlc = a fanabulous new piece.

I found this little number for $50 at a local store.

It has great bones, but the color just doesn't cut it for my eyeballs or my kitchen.

My kitchen is white and tan with some pops of color.

This color was too washed out.

So, with the help of the ever-so-wonderful Julie Bergdall of Red Door Designs I picked Rave Red by Sherwin Williams.

Since I wanted the paint to have a bit more durability I used Sherwin Williams' latex enamel paint. 

(FYI...make sure that if you use this kind the person mixing your paint double, triple, quadruple checks the tint.  It took 4 tries to get the color right, but we did!!)

I reused the original handles.

I spray-painted them using Valspar black in gloss.

I am in LOVE with the result!

Doesn't it just POP??!!

I can't wait to get my paint-covered hands on something else!

Laters,

Mrs. B

High 5 For Friday!

Fridays don't have quite the same appeal during the summer as they do during the school year.

They simply mark that the school year is that much closer!!!

Boo.

Oh well!

Here are my top 5 from this week:

(top row, l to r)

1)  Handsome Husband and I took his parents dogs on a long walk the other day.

It was absolutely GORGEOUS!

The only problemo was that kinda stinky dogs + close quarters in the car + pregnant woman = the pregnant woman hanging out the window while moving...not the dogs.

I may have to drive separately next time...blech!

2)  I have been finding some GREAT furniture at consignment stores and garage sales this summer.

I got around to painting this dresser this week.

When it's done it will go in our kitchen to house towels, placemats, potholders, etc.

I LOVE the color.  

It really pops in our kitchen.

3)  Handsome Husband and I F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. got around to eating our wedding cake topper.

We completely forgot last year, so second anniversary it was.

It was still sooooo good.

I definitely recommend Mrs. T's Bakery for your wedding cake and other occasions.

(bottom row, l to r)

4)  I painted the future nursery this week!

The color is Breaktime by Sherwin Williams.

I love the color.

It's neutral without being grey, yellow or green.

5)  I moved my dresser while painting and found the message that my mom had "written" to me when we painted the dresser after we rescued it from the side of the road way back when.

I love finding old memories like that.

6)  Handsome Husband ADORED his anniversary meal.

We went to a local restaurant where he ordered the "Sword of John Adams".

It consisted of a ribeye, quarter chicken, and small rack of ribs.

So cool!

(I love the look on his face!!!)

I hope your week was great, too!

Check out other posts here.

Laters,

Mrs. B

Stepping Stones

Each summer the lovely Donna Jo hosts a stepping stone party at her home.

It is a blast!

Here are the photos from this year's get-together:

April

John being John.

I really love this little orange stool!

My momma

Leighbert

I LOVE this photo of my mom.

She thought she was hilarious or something and I clicked at just the right time.

Mom again.

Some of the stones laid out before the concrete was poured.

John sitting pretty.

My stone from this year...I love the mirrors.

This is such a fun, creative activity!

I am so grateful that Donna is willing to host and feed us all on these mornings.

I can't wait to see what I come up with next year!

Laters,

Mrs. B

What I'm Loving Wednesday: 5.1.13

Woo hoo!

I got the date right the first time!

That's a big deal for me...I usually have to go back and change it.

Here's what I'm loving this week:

I'm loving that I got my stairs done this weekend.

I'm loving this blanket and all it's colors.

I'm also loving the method of laying out color progressions for a blanket.

I'm loving that I spent an hour or so roaming my local farmer's market this weekend.

I can't wait to do it again.

I go at least once a week in the summer.

I'm loving these succulents that I got while roaming the market.

I'm loving that I got to crochet my brains out on Monday night.

I'm hating that I had to do it during two show finales.

Dang you season-endings!

I'm loving that Handsome Husband said that I may have cooked him his favorite meal last night.

Pork chops (cooked in white wine), caramelized bourbon onions, roasted zucchini and summer squash, and Stove Top.

I LOVE cooking and felt so relaxed while I was doing it.

I'm loving that I joined a photo challenge for the month of May.

I'm loving that I found the most PERFECT little table for in front of the window in the living room.

I just happened to stop in at a local second hand shop and found this beauty for $12.00.

Saweet!

What are you loving?

Laters,

Mrs. B

High Five for Friday 4.26.13

What an exhausting week!

I've been a bad blogger this week.

I have had zero energy and motivation...maybe because I needed it all for this weekend.

I'm in the process of painting my stair risers.

Here are my top 5 from this week.

They like it!

They really like it!

I'm seeing progress on my granny square quilt.

I grow one stinking daisy (well, keep it alive) and think that I can grow herbs, too.

We shall see.

I went to a cooking show with my mom and a friend at a local college.

It was like being able to smell the cooking channels.

Yummo!

My stairs are a work in progress.

I got all of the sanding and priming done today.

I.  am. exhausted.

My shoulder is killing me, too!

The payoff is going to be totally worth it, though.

I hope your week was great, too!

Laters,

Mrs. B

Ring Pillow

So, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

I have been working on my friends' (Lindsay and Nate) ring bearer pillow for their wedding in June.

I was so stinking nervous.

It's their wedding day!

That's huge!

It had to be perfect.

I started it as soon as Handsome Husband and I got home from LA.

This was the skinniest yarn I've ever worked with.

It is a gorgeous cream color with a bit of sheen worked in.

It's called Seduce by Berroco.

My original plan was to use an ivory towel (it gave the under layer a great texture) but I felt that the color took away from the yarn.

This picture shows the 5th attempt...which I hated and promptly ripped out.

Cue 3 more tries. :)

(I'm a bit of a perfectionist.)

I did the first few tries in a half-double stitch, but changed to a double stitch to get better texture.

And heck yes I used a TP roll...I couldn't get the stinking yarn to stay balled up.

This worked PERFECTLY!

The end was in sight last Monday night.

Thank heavens two of my shows are on on Monday nights...it gave me plenty of work time.

I used a petal pink towel with stuffing for the innards of the pillow.

I then sewed the crocheting around the innards.

It was so exciting to get to this point!

The finished product!

The ribbon is a pink-edged ivory silk that was left over from their invitations.

It's hard to see the pink, but I'm sure that their photographer will get some great pictures I can share!

This was a thank-goodness-it's-cute-10:30-at-night photo.

Here it is Instagrammified.

They both loved it which made me breathe a sigh of relief.

I was so honored to be asked to do this for them.

Now...back to the granny square afghan!

And this hat for Jayders Potaters;

Picture via

Laters!

Mrs. B

Thrifty Thursday

So, after running my (not so) little tushie off yesterday, I got some much needed down time.

(I actually woke up at 7:30 on my own - which is unheard of - and stayed up - also unheard of.)

I crocheted my little heart out and worked on my granny square quilt while I patiently impatiently waited on the floor lady to show up to give me some stain samples.

She was supposed to show up between 10:30 and 11:30.

So, I wasn't too happy when I had to call her at 12:30 to see if she was coming at all.

However, I got this done in the meantime:

It felt so much more productive to do the innards first and then add the white later.

I am so excited to see it coming together!

I also had to give some pretty explicit instructions to the mailman:

The gorgeous sunlight isn't just a trick of the filter.

It was a gorgeous day today.

I guess it's hard to tell which one is the mailbox.

You know...because one has our house number on it and the other has the name of our newspaper.

Difficult, I tell you.

*insert wry facial expression here*

I don't normally care, but as you can see from the picture just above, the flag was up...

FOR THREE DAYS!!!!!!!

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I hope you had a great day!

Did you do anything thrifty on this gorgeous Thursday?

Laters!

Mrs. B

P. S.  I almost forgot to post something today because I kept thinking that it was Saturday!

Darn "spring break brain".

:)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Follow Me On Bloglovin!

So, apparently Google tried to pull a fast one on us all and ditch the Google Reader element.

That worried me a bit!

My first thought was, "Dang it!  I don't have time for this crap."

But then, I checked out Bloglovin and realized that it was super easy to switch over!

I signed up and Bloglovin prompted me to import all of the blogs I already follow via GFC.

Score!

So, I have added a new little gadget over to the right.
Please make sure that you leave me a comment to let me know that you are a new follower!
I'm not sure if I can see who is or not and I would love to follow you back.

I'm thrilled that all that it took was the click of a mouse!

Now I can get cracking on some granny squares...

Do you have any crafty business going on?

Laters!

Mrs. B

What I'm Loving Wednesday 3.13.13

This edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday is being brought to you by a very tired teacher.

So, I guess one thing I'm loving is that Wednesday is almost over!

I'm loving that we had a two hour delay this morning.

It meant that the planning meeting with my team lasted until 12:30 instead of 11:00.

We got so much done!

I'm loving that my birthday is in less than one week!

I'm loving that I got my hair cut last night and it looks like this...

mixed with this...

I'm loving that my friend Lindsay asked me to try and make something like this for her wedding.

I'm loving that I can find pins that show me outfits with things I already own...

like this polka-dot sweater.

I'm loving these blanket patterns and colors.

I am going to try my hand at an afghan soon...

I'm loving this pin I found...

We all need to remember this and it can only help my nuggets to learn it early.

What are you loving on this snowy Indiana Wednesday?

(Don't forget to check out the other Wednesday "lovers" here!)

Laters!

Mrs. B