Inspiration Friday

Today, after countless rainy, soggy, wet days, the sun has finally made an appearance. I'm so happy I could burst.  Usually, I love rain, but so many days of it in a row had me feeling sort of down.  It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, so I need to get all my sunny day activities out now!

I want to ride my bike.

I want to work in my garden.

I want to eat ice cream.

I want to jump in puddles.

I want to go to the market.

What do you most want to do on a perfect spring day?

-alison

Something Crafty- A Crafted Shower (Part II)

Remember a few weeks back, when I shared pictures of some of the decorations I was making for an upcoming bridal shower?  Well, this week I'm back with more.  I have the completed product to share with you.  I have to say, that the decorations turned out better than I had imagined, and I wouldn't change a thing about any of them
Since the budget I had would make a "shoestring budget" look extravagant, I was really limited in what I could buy for supplies.  I decided to go with an "old book" theme for the event, and used pages from a $1 Swedish dictionary as the base for most of the crafts.

For the centerpieces, I took the Ball jars I decorated and filled them with bouquets of the paper starburst flowers my sister posted about a few months ago.

I created table runners by gluing pages of the dictionary together.  This turned out to be the coolest, cheapest craft I've ever made.

For an extra pop of color, I created yarn balls using balloons, Elmer's glue, and water.  You can find the tutorial here.

Remember these?

Well, they turned into this.

 

Making all this stuff was a lot of work, but I'm so happy I put in the time. Since the bride-to-be is a lover of all things handmade, I really wanted to create a unique "crafted" bridal shower for her. I had so much fun, and the results were so great! I'm already looking forward to creating my next "crafted" event! 

-alison

Fresh Finds

I must warn you that this isn't really a fresh find post...

(This is me studying...obviously)
The next couple weeks are going to be pretty busy for me. This is my last week of classes, followed by finals week. On May 8, I leave to go on a two week trip to His Mansion, a Christian rehab center in New Hampshire. I've never been to New Hampshire before, but I figure any state with "shire" in its name must be pretty cool.

(My luggage for when I return from Hogwarts)

I am going with a group of Psychology students from my school, the first week, we will just be working (His Mansion is a working farm) and helping out. The second week, we will be taking a class. I was pretty sad when I found out I wouldn't be able go back to Ohio to the homeless shelter I've worked at the past two summers, so I'm glad I get to be involved with this ministry for a couple of weeks.

(Summer? My sister? More luggage?)

So, my sister will have to hold down the blog by herself for two weeks. But when I return, it will be summer and I will actually have time to craft and cook and post about fun things. Yay!

-Ana Kristina

(Please pretend my pictures are relevant)

She Cooks...A Free Meal (Or- "How a Sandwich Changed My Life")

Every year around Christmas time, the company I work for gives out gifts to all it's employees.  In the past, we've gotten, backpacks, ipod shuffles, gift cards, tracksuits, luggage, and even an extra day of vacation.  The gifts are always amazing, and each year people look forward to seeing what it will be. 
This year, the gift was (at least in my opinion) the best ever- a $75 gift card to Willy Street Co-op (our local grocery co-op), a re-usable grocery tote, and a cookbook. Even though I don't usually get all my groceries at Willy Street (too expensive for my blood), I was psyched to have $75 worth of free money to spend there.  I thought about savoring it, and only using little bits of it at a time, but true to style, I ended up spending the entire gift card on my first trip there.
I ended up with a tote full of awesome food that I couldn't wait to try.

Bang for the Buck- What I Got

Fresh Baked Ciabatta bread

Cranberry Salami

Sweet Applewood Smoked Cheddar (from Carr Valley Cheese)

Organic Lemongrass Soap

White Chocolate Strawberry Divine Chocolate Bar (fair trade chocolate)

Peppermint Extract

San Pellegrino Aranciata (if this wasn't so expensive, I'd drink it like water)

Pesto Cheese

Revolution Roast Coffee (from the Just Coffee Cooperative. Best. Coffee. Ever)

Organic Concord Grape Juice

Rp's Pasta Tortelloni

Turkish Olive Oil

I managed to get several meals out of the ingredients I purchased during my trip, but by far the best was the sandwich creation I whipped up right after I got home from shopping. It was late in the evening, and although I didn't have the energy to cook something that took a lot of effort, I couldn't bear to not use some of these amazing ingredients.  I've always been a big fan of the classic turkey sandwich, so I decided to take that and class it up a little.

The "Classy" Turkey Sandwich

Ingredients:

-ciabatta bread

-mayonnaise

-butter

-mesquite turkey breast, sliced

-thick cut, black pepper crusted bacon, cooked

-sweet applewood smoked cheddar

I'm not going to write out all the directions for making this, because I really feel that most of you can probably figure out how to make a sandwich.  I served mine hot, and cooked it on my George Foreman grill. One tip I will give though- to make your sandwich extra delicious, melt some butter in a pan and place your slices of ciabatta bread face down in it for about 2 minutes, or until bread turns a light brown color.  Then pile all your ingredients on and place on the GFG. If you have a panini maker, you could use that too. 

This sandwich got rave reviews from my husband, and I have to admit, I thought it was pretty good too.  Making this was a good for me. It taught me that sometimes, a few simple, high quality ingredients can make a meal that's as good (if not better) than some super complicated thing that takes hours to prepare. 

It seems a little weird that such a simple sandwich could change my whole cooking philosophy, but it sort of did.  Since makinging it, I'v started to think a lot more about exactly what sort of ingredients are going into my food.  I've tried making dishes that use fewer, more flavorful ingredients, and the results so far have been great.  Now, that's not to say that I'm going to altogether abandon lasagna, paella, and dishes that require a large number of indgredients, but it's nice to know that sometimes, less can be more.

-alison

Something Crafty- Crafting Inspiration

Because my husband is still out of town, and I'm still camera-less, I won't be posting any crafting how-to's today.  Instead, I thought I would do the crafting version of Monday's post- a roundup of things that are on my "must make" list.

 

Bokeh

This one is definitely at the very top of my list.  I am dying to create fun images like the one above. Don't know what a bokeh is?  Read about them here.

Puffy Clouds

I'm tempted to make the spare bedroom into a nursery just so I can hang these from the ceiling.

Paper Cup Wreath

I'm completely obsessed with wreaths. I've made so many in the past few months, I'm running out of places to put them.  However, that doesn't stop me from having a hankering to make this one. It looks so cute, and it's got to be one of the cheapest crafts of all time.

Happy Tape Bunting

Every time I sit decide I'm going to sit down and make one of these, I end up not doing it because I don't want to buy/cut/sew the fabric needed to do it.  Lazy, I know- but it's the truth.  This bunting is perfect for me because it requires minimal effort and even less skill. Yay for underachieving!

Jewelry Screen

I have a huge old frame with a screen in it at home just waiting for this craft to happen.

Map Coasters

I couldn't do any legit craft roundup post without including at least one from The Martha, so here it is. These map coasters are super cute, and way less involved than most of her super intricate, over the top crafts.

Tin Can Planters

I love this craft because it's literally made out of garbage.  Plus, it involves a lot of smashing things with a hammer.  Count me in.

Terrarium

I feel like the amount of blogging I do about my love for terrariums is getting rather out of control. I just can't help myself though. I have no good explanation for why I love them so much, but is an explanation ever really needed when it comes to matters of true love? I think not.

 I already have the glass globes to make these, and I'm just waiting until I've saved up enough cashola to buy the rest of the supplies.  When that happens, I fully plan on going to the store and buying enough moss to turn our home into an enchanted forest.

-alison

Fresh Finds

I'm sort of over the moon about these vintage seed bag sacks by Selina Vaughan.  I love that they are both artistic and utilitarian. The fact that each one has been repurposed to give an old bag new life makes them even better. I'm seriously considering gifting one to myself for my upcoming birthday. The only problem is, I can't decide which one I want!

-alison

[images: etsy- selina vaughan]