My First Project = Complete

If you've been reading my decor posts, you know I'm making pillows for the house. I finally completed all of the ones for the couch and the yoga room.

I have two like this which are different fabrics for each side. They took the longest because we had to 1) monogram them and 2) sew the zipper. These are the only ones we did like this. They are 20 inch pillows, sewed on 3 sides and a zipper being on the last side. 

These are the matching pillows for the couch. They are the same fabric on each side and have a fold over in the back. One is 16 x 16, one is 18 x 18 and one is 12 x 18. 

Placed on the couch. The flower fabric actually has a color guide, so I'm going to use that to pick the paint for the walls. I still have to paint the living room, finish decorating the mantle, choose artwork and the right side of the room will be done. I'll have to buy a chair, table and some type of desk for the other side. That will be the reading area. 

Pillows for the yoga room. This is all I have done in there. I have a LOT more to do. The backs gap a little but I think it has more to do with the pillow. I think as they flatten out, they'll be okay. 

I'm pretty excited about my new pillows. It took some time, but I think as I get better at sewing, it won't be as time consuming. The whole project only cost me about $60. 

Next on my list - curtains. I have already bought the fabric. 

Blueberry Pancakes and my First Pillow

I made blueberry pancakes after yoga this morning. I found the recipes on Allrecipes using whole wheat flour.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk, plus more if necessary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon artificial sweetener
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Directions

1. Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside. Beat together the egg, milk, salt and artificial sweetener in a bowl. Stir in flour until just moistened, add blueberries, and stir to incorporate.
2. Preheat a heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat, and spray with cooking spray. Pour approximately 1/4 cup of the batter into the pan for each pancake. Cook until bubbly, about 1 1/2 minutes. Turn, and continue cooking until golden brown.

I went to a couple of different sites, including FFF, but I don't have wild rice flour or oat flour or any of those things, so I just googled whole wheat pancake recipes. This is what I came up with. 

It was good, but it was a little floury. I'd prefer to use Whole Wheat Pastry Flour because it tends to be a little softer. 

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Yesterday was a crafty day for me. I started off painting the cabinet for my kitchen. Here is the rug I'm basing all of my colors on 

I love the blues, greens and oranges. My kitchen is like a beige, so these are all in the same color family

This is the before

our paint

This is where we are now. I'm going to try to finish it today

I also went to my mother in law's house and we worked on pillows. We decided to monogram the pillows which seemed to take a long time. So we got 1 pillow done, but it is awesome. 

We're making another one like this, but it will have a W&J on it for Wendi & James. Then we have a small pillow to make and we'll be done with the living room pillows. Woot Woot!!

 

I got it!!

I just ordered my new stand mixer -

The Cuisinart 5.5 qt stand mixer!! I bought it from Everything Kitchens. It was on sale for $249.95 with free shipping and I get a mail in rebate for a free food processor attachment after mail in rebate. Woot Woot!! 

So which do I choose?

I hope your break has been good so far. I am at home, enjoying a FULL WEEK off from work!! I have done some stuff in my house, cleaned, organized, I even took the christmas decorations down already. A lot of people are going back to work today, so if you're just catching up, I made a dessert, I entertained, and I did some christmas shopping.


I realized through the holidays after baking a bazillion cookies and even making some mash potatoes, that I am in serious need of a stand mixer. I've been wanting one for a long time, but it because they are so expensive, I've been holding off. My husband has sold a couple of things after our move, his trailer, his 1964 Bel Air, etc, and he has now given me permission to buy my mixer. I'm super excited, but still trying to decide which mixer to get. Here are my choices -


Some rules I've been given by my grandmother and mother in law -

*it needs to be over 400 watt. Anything under that is going to break or burn out
*the parts need to be all metal. Plastic is going to break

That's it. So Simple.


Kitchen Aid

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The thing I like about this mixer is that it comes in a lot of colors and it has all the attachments, mainly for pasta and for ice cream. I also like that it's affordable BUT it's only a 325 watt motor and some of the gears are plastic. There are some bad reviews on Amazon, so all of those combined make me think this isn't a good idea. 

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This mixer does have all metal parts and it's 525 but it's also $500. So, I could get a refurbished one, but let's see what my other options are first. 

Vikings

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The Viking is a professional grade mixer that fits all of the qualifications. It has an 800 watt motor with all metal parts. My only issue - it's at least $350 or more. That's not as bad as the one above though as far as cost and it has better reviews. Some of the reviews aren't great, but there aren't as many as there were for the KA. 

Breville

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550 watt, I didn't see anything about the parts. The reviews were all good and it's about $300. 

Cuisinart

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This is the highest wattage and my mother in law has one. Some of the reviews say that the motor smokes, so that makes me nervous. 

Which one, which one? I don't know. Anyone have experience with any of these??? 

And the DIY begins

Now that Christmas is over, the decorations are coming down and it's time to being thinking about making my new house a home. I've had all kinds of design ideas, but making those come to fruition is a bit overwhelming. I'm having a hard time visualizing a finished room, and really, even just choosing paint colors. One tip that a lady from work suggested was to go ahead and get my fabrics, then I can decide on my paint/room decor later. Thank goodness I listened because what I had envisioned is a lot different than the fabric I got. 

My mother is law is super crafty, and she knows how to make all kinds of things, so she went with me to buy the fabric for my pillows. I got fabric to make pillows since buying pillows seems to be expensive. Here are the fabrics I've chosen for my pillows

Two 18 x 18 pillows in this - 

2 14 x 14 in this

it's actually more orange than this picture shows 

1 12 x 16 in this - 

I'm not sure what paint color I will choose. I may do a green, or I was even thinking it might be neat to use that wallpaper that has a linen look to it. You can tell the room downstairs used to be wood paneling that they painted over, so I don't know if it'd be better to do wall paper vs paint. 

In my yoga room, I have nothing but two pillows. I got some fabric to cover those as well -

Again, I don't know what color I'm going to do for that room, but I have lots of thoughts about it. I also need to just get some furniture for that room, but it's a beginning. And I bought enough fabric for 7 pillows, 3 form pillows and a headband for $60!!! 

I start sewing Wednesday!

A New Christmas Tradition

Yesterday was a special day because it was a day of firsts. It was our first Christmas Eve in our home, our first dinner party in our home and hopefully, a first year for many Christmas Eve dinner's with our family. My parents and James parents came over to have dinner and watch the girls open their Christmas parents.

We got up early and spent the day unpacking boxes that were still hanging around, cleaning the house and preparing the food.

I made herb crusted pork tenderloin

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

and mesquite chocolate chip cookies

I got to use my fine china and crystal for the first time since we got married - almost 5 years ago

And I got to use the napkins my mother in law made me for our wedding that match my china

I bought some flowers

We still don't have a formal dining table and I didn't want to buy a table cloth for a table we don't have, so there are some little things that I will do differently next year, but overall, it was a success. The food turned out great and I have found that I LOVE cooking. I knew I did before, but when I have time, I REALLY do. 

Overall, I feel a little emotional because I am so grateful for everything. A house is a material thing but this new house has brought us a lot of gifts. We now have a space to fill with love and to share with others we love. Our old house was cute, but it was hard to have anyone come over and be with us because there was no room. We both never thought we would have anything like this, so we are humbled and very grateful for the gifts we have been given.