restyling auction

so, i've waited to do this post because i am still feeling a little raw over the flop that was otherwise known as the restyling auction. the partnership of a busy weekend, a sunny saturday (after a lot of rain and clouds), and a few other things beyond my control lead to very few people in attendance. a couple studio families showed up, but most of the people who were there came because of me. a few random people came who had seen posters i put up around town. after weeks of work sifting through donations, pairing items, and sewing, sewing, sewing, the whole event fell apart. frustrating, but, hey...i know i did everything i could. the idealistic side of me knew how much money could have been raised, so that was disappointing. the selfish side of me looks at all the work i put into it and is angry at the outcome. it really could have been a great event...if people had come. ;)

  

beautiful bags...that i forgot to put the minimum bid tags on. saddest part of the night for me was "giving" the blue bags to the "highest bidder" for $5 each. i wanted to puke. i should have said, "i'm sorry, but i forgot the minimum bid for these and your bid does not qualify you to win this item."  but i didn't...

what was left to donate after the auction...

a day at the beach

mom and dad were in oregon, so we went to the coast. after a mandatory stop at camp 18 for a late breakfast, we drove the last 30-40 minutes to short sands...our normal beach of choice. despite the wind, it was a very nice day.

skinnying jeans

i have two pairs of skinny jeans that i like, but for months have been hoping to find a lighter pair than the unwashed denim look i have. after finding a link on pinterest, i decided to rummage through my closet for pairs of pants to make skinny. this was relatively easy to do, though would have been easier for me to do on someone else. andy has a few pairs of dress pants for me to slim down and things are settling just enough for me to do that for him this weekend.

so, turn your pants inside out and put them on. do your best to button and zip so they are on properly. pinch and pin down each side of one leg. once you are happy with the new line, take them off and match the pins on the other leg. sew down the lines, being especially careful in the crotch to avoid puckering. on the jeans i cut off the bottom of the leg because i wanted them to end up slightly cropped. on another pair of dress pants i left them long because i wanted them to be a little slouchy in the leg.

**NOTE: this works best if you have jeans/pants with some stretch. you will enjoy wearing the end result much better if you can sit comfortably (stretch) after they are skinnied! ;)

restyling your own closet is the best!

leg on your right is pinned

s'mores cookies

i have a bit of an obsession with s'mores...i'll admit that right off the bat. after signing up for pinterest, s'mores recipes kept popping up right and left. oh my yummy goodness. after looking through a couple of the recipes, i decided to alter my own cookie recipe.

after playing around with the format of the cookie, i have found it easiest to make individual cookies in lieu of bars. the bars turn out beautiful, but are hard to cut (think sticky marshmallow knife) and hard to eat without use of plate and fork.

s'mores cookies

2 sticks butter
1 C brown sugar
2 T molasses
2 T honey

cream above ingredients until smooth...3-5 minutes. then add:

2 eggs
2 t vanilla

mix well, then add:

1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 C unbleached white flour
1 C oatbran
1 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt

mix well. drop by scoop onto cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes at 350. remove from oven and top with 2 joined rectangles of hershey's milk chocolate bar. top with 1/2 a marshmallow (cut with kitchen scissors) and return to oven. broil for 1-3 minutes -- watch closely so they don't burn! let cool on rack and enjoy.

alternatively, you can add a bag of milk chocolate chips to the cookie dough. then, after baking simply top with marshmallow and broil.

chickens and coops

by about four or five weeks of age, the chickens were making quite an impact. the kids were still in love with them...and my house smelled like a barn. despite changing bedding and partially covering the aquarium they were living in, their odor was still present. over memorial day weekend andy began creating a coop and my fine feathered friends were happily settled by the next week.

as projects go in our house, a simple/quick design was put aside when andy found a picture online of a coop with a curved roof. we decided to put the run underneath, as well, making for a more compact footprint but necessitating that andy lay on his back while wrapping wire mesh around the perimeter (from the inside).

i will give a better tour later of the finished product after i paint the windows, but for now here is the construction of our chicken coop. we used a window from our house in colorado for the end of the coop along with two cabinet doors leftover from our oregon kitchen remodel.

my little chicken whisperer  :)

a crazy couple of months

so, i haven't posted for a long time. things have been busy and i have been checking email/facebook/etc on the ipod touch. not having the computer fired up makes it difficult to blog. pathetic excuse, but nonetheless, that's where i've been. ;)

after making the previously posted blankets, we were busy finishing up the school year with our out-of-the-home classes. those wrapped up mid-may and there was a little time of normal catch up before beginning sewing and remaking clothing for the repurposing auction i had volunteered to do for our dance studio. that project consumed the next three and a half weeks, leading right into multiple visitors coming to stay with us. through all of this, i was riding and running to train for seattle to portland. needless to say, i have been on the verge of crazy for a while...

next week begins all the costume design and sewing for the musical our studio is doing this summer, but for the rest of this week i will breathe, relax, finish catching up...and blog all the craziness that has been the last two months. there are chickens and recipes and coops and skinnying pants and restyling clothing and trips to the beach. stay tuned. for now, i have to go pick up kids from musical practice. ;)

here's to one crazy life!