Friday, March 14, 2014

As it turns out...

So as it turns out... Georgia is not the cutest :( 
I'm sure you're just as shocked as I was. I mean seriously, did you know another dog could top this? 
Well as it turns out, 3 other dogs did just that. 

This last week our favorite dog boarder ever (really the only one we've planned on using) started hosting a cute dog contest. Each week 5 dogs would be chosen to be that week's finalist. Then people could vote via Facebook on which dog they thought should win for that week. Then that winner would go on to compete for the cutest dog of the month! No prizes were involved, just bragging rights. 

So I did the natural thing and immediately entered Georgia in the contest! And this was the photo I sent in. 
Now The Good Lord knows I have some seriously cute pictures of her doing funny thing, looking like a fool, and dressed up in the sweetest outfits. But no, I wanted to be fair. The contest was about the dog (or so I thought) and I was going to play by the rules and only send in a picture that showed her natural beauty. 

Then this last Sunday, when they announced the top 5 to vote on who's face do you think I saw?! 
My sweet girl was in the top 5! 
Really there was no huge surprise. I know how freakin adorable she can be. It was just a matter of if others saw it too, lol. 

This was her competition for the day. 

That's a tough contest huh? I mean those eyes on Ellie Mae and Henry's human like smile!! This was no easy contest! 
In the end Daisy was the weekly winner.
2nd place went to Henry, Ellie Mae took 3rd, and poor little Georgia got fat out 4th. Oh well. She'll always be the number 1 dog to me :) 
(Jason says I should just stick to saying she made it into the top 5, because it sounds better.)

It was a really fun experience though! Who knows maybe only 6 dogs were originally nominated for the whole thing in the first place. And since I would more than likely never put my child in any type of a contest like that, it was a fun one time thing. I loved reading all the comments from strangers about how they liked her face just as much as I do. 
In all, I still think she is just the most precious thing ever!! But I'm not biased or anything. 






Thursday, March 13, 2014

craft blogger wannabe

Spring Break...

Could anything really be better than spring break? The weather is great, there is no school, and the best part is...when I go back to work on Monday it's all down hill planning for the end of the year! I truly love my job! And weeks like this help are a huge part of why :)

This week I wanted to tackle a few craft projects that I've been putting off for far too long. One being a no-sew faux roman shade for my kitchen window. Ever since I first saw the idea of a no-sew shade on pinterest I had been wanting to make this happen. But I had two main concerns that I wasn't sure how to handle. Thus the reason for continuously putting it off.

My first concern was having to disassemble blinds. Maybe it's just me, but I hate having to put up and take down blinds. I was not willing to do this until I knew for sure that I was going to be 100% happy with the end result.

Secondly, I had heard from friends who had done the original diy shade that they weren't pleased with the finished look. When you're on the outside of the house looking in you end up seeing the backside of the fabric as well as parts of the blinds. Overall it just makes for an unfinished look.

So after searching pinterest again, I chose to combine two tutorials to make it work for my window. And I'm very pleased with the result. You can check out the two I chose here and here.

This is what I was starting with. I wanted to add some color, some height to the window, and I didn't want to loose any functionality of the blinds I already had up there.


And here are all of the materials I used.


And I realized after I took that picture that I had grabbed the wrong fabric glue. So I switched it out for this one.


Let's list it out shall we...

You'll need:
*Fabric- I bought 3 yards. I measured my window in length and then added about 30 more inches. In hind sight I should have gone for a few more. But it turned out good, so who cares.
*measuring tape
*fabric glue- get one with a permanent bond.
*hot glue gun (did you notice that glue gun stand?!? That would be my grandpa's handy work from the pre-pinterest days. He definitely knew the way to a woman's heart.)
*velcro- any kind will do. I had some super cheap stuff left over from a previous craft project.
*2 tension rods- I got mine at target for about $3.50 each. They were on sale and originally cost about $3.95 I think.
*a good pair of fabric scissors
*fabric pins (not pictured)
*a good old trusty iron (not pictured)
*a piece of wood to attach the shade above the window (also not pictured. can you tell I forgot some things?)

I started by measuring out and cutting my fabric for the length.Truth be told I was originally looking for a non-geometric print because I thought all of the perfect straight lines would not be as forgiving when it came to mess ups. But it was great! And made cutting a straight line a breeze. I just found some lines to match up and cut away.


Then came time for hemming the sides. I measured the width of the space and folded both sides of fabric in to be exactly that width. This was the time to break out the iron and fabric pins. 


Truth be told I hate ironing. Like really hate it. The only time I ever use this thing is when I have to for craft projects. Thankfully, this project didn't take to long. 

Once I had my width just right and ironed, I removed the fabric pins to add the fabric glue. 


Then it was time to put the pins back in, put something heavy over the hemmed edges, and walk away for a couple of hours. 


Once the glue had dried, and I could safely remove the pins, it was time to attach both ends. 

Now here is the trick! The big idea to insure you don't have an unfinished look from  the outside of your window looking in. You're basically going to glue the end of the fabric to the top, creating one big circled loop. This is where your hot glue gun comes in handy. 


You are left with a seam where the two ends meet. This makes for a great place to attach your Velcro and hide that ugly seam! Again, just use the glue gun to attach the Velcro to the fabric. Easy peasy!


And what's even better about the whole thing is with one strip of Velcro cut and glued on, I just laid down the top piece of Velcro, cut it to be the same size, took it back up, glued it to the wood that would be used above the window, and had the length already measured out for Mr. hubs to cut for me!


Now once the Mr. came home and cut the wood to size, all that was left to do was screw the wood into the wall above the window. And I could easily hang the curtains up.


Once your curtains are up you can adjust the tension rods to tightly fit the space. (This is where it was great that I was making the curtains to fit the width of the space in between the cabinets instead of the window frame. Since my tension rod wouldn't be going in the window frame I didn't have to take down the blinds that were already there. Instead they are just tucked behind the curtains ready to be used if need be.)


Then you just have to start folding the fabric so that it drapes over one tension rod, then down to the other.


 This took a couple minutes of playing with it to make sure it was right. And even after taking the final picture I had to readjust to straighten things out a bit. But overall, I love the finished product! 

What do you think?

I'm so thankful for days like this when I can craft and not worry about going back to the real world. Now it's on to the next project... DIY canvas prints. Wish me luck!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

let the juice flow

so...hello...

You might have noticed my little absence her (or maybe you didn't) but that's right. I took a little break for myself. And the reason being... this blogging stuff can be hard! 
It's definitely not as easy as any other social site. Truth is I wrote out this post 2 previous times and both times when I went to publish it had deleted itself!!! 
Now more than likely it was a user error, but who cares! I was irritated to say the least. So I chose to back off for a month. 

Anywho, I did have some exciting health news!

We got a juicer!!!

(Do you like that graphic there? I'm probably the last person on the planet to find picmonkey.com and turned into a kid discovering paint for the first time on a pc. It was a very exciting 20 minutes!)

I had secretly been wanting one for a while now, but was trying to convince myself I didn't need it due to the cost and lack of cabinet space. But now that we have one I love it and am so glad that it came when it did!

The best part of it all was we didn't have to pay anything for it! A sweet family friend had an extra that she was hoping to find a new home for and thought of us. (Amazing right? Such a thoughtful friend!)

When I got the text that she could send it my way if I just said yes I was beyond excited! I immediately started to look up juicing recipes. 

I had read about juicing benefits over the past year and had heard from friends about all the great things it can do for your body during allergy season (Jason's an allergy sufferer). I couldn't wait for it to get to my house and let the juice start flowing. 


But then it came. And it sat there. It was intimidating and looked so complicated. I knew the first step would be to take it apart and clean it, but how? It didn't come in the box, or with any instructions, and the last thing I wanted to do was break it before I ever figured out how to use it.

After a few days of allowing it to taunt me as I walked by, I finally put my foot down and decided I was either going to learn how to use that thing or break it trying. 
So I did what any self respecting wife would do.
I went and begged Jason to help me. 

As he figured out how to take it all apart and put it back together, I prepped the fruit and veggies and we made our first batch of homemade fresh beet, carrot, and orange juice.


It was good! 
Now I'll admit I was really nervous that I wouldn't like it, or any other juice containing veggies. As a previous world's pickiest eater I wasn't sure that Jason wouldn't kill me for making him go through all this trouble just to have me turn up my nose. But I was so pleasantly surprised! 
And as it turns out I must have passed all of my pickiness onto Mr. Hubs when we exchanged wedding vows because this man who use to eat pretty much anything, didn't like it. And that's not too uncommon these days. I have become very adventurous in my menu choices, and Jason has narrowed things down. A lot.

However, I liked the juice so much that I set out to try more recipes! I decided to try a different kind of juice as a meal replacement for most days of the week. 

This was not an easy task. I looked through the recipe book that the same sweet friend had sent with the juicer and found 5 recipes that I thought would suite me well and that incorporated some of the same foods so that I wouldn't waste too much money purchasing an overabundance of produce.Then it was off to sprouts I went to collect all of my goodies. When I came home I washed, cut, and prepped each juice recipe's ingredients, and stored it inside it's own bag to make for easy pull and juicing later in the week. (<-- this proved to be a great time saver.)

I chose to replace my dinner with juices for a few reasons. 
1. I couldn't do lunch since the juice doesn't keep as much of it's nutrients after being stored.
2. I really didn't see myself waking up even a bit earlier to have time to clean the juicer before heading out the door. 
3. I'm a stress eater. Let's face it, my job can be stressful, and I enjoy snacking as much as possible throughout the day. So when I get home I'm not typically hungry enough for a large meal. 

Now that I have tried several recipes I can say with certainty that I love juicing my veggies and am so beyond thankful that I got this juicer when I did. 

If you have been thinking of purchasing one, I would definitely encourage you to do so. It's NOTHING like store bought juice. NOTHING.
It's amazing. 
And you won't regret it.



Do you juice?