Almost There

Little by little I am working on my 'list' from the beginning of the year...  It just takes me awhile to blog about it!  I've also been diligently checking off assignments and internship requirements as I finish up my masters degree in community counseling.  *Sigh.  It feels like it has been a long time coming, but then, at the same time, it feels as though it has gone by fast.  At the end of this semester I will be finished with my coursework, and only be left with post-degree requirements before I am able to sit for the licensure exam (another 2 years away).  Perhaps another post will be dedicated to the ends-&-outs of these requirements, but for now all you need to know is that I am... almost there!! :)  Next week I will be fine-tuning my resume in hopes to start applying for counseling positions to start in May.  I will keep you posted about that process.

Now back to this list of mine, & the non-graduate work that I have been doing :)  

I actually made this first project over Christmas break.  I've had an empty frame hanging in my kitchen for some time now (don't get me wrong- I love the empty-frame look; however, they tend to make sense and be cuter among other empty frames...not just one).  So, I was intrigued when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I was truly inspired!  I went with my friend, Tracy, to Hobby Lobby and found the supplies I needed, wire & cute little antique paperclips!  Using the Hubster's handy staple gun I attache the wire to the back of the frame.  I then added Christmas cards to it (as it was Christmas time when I made this).

Here's what it looked like...

I recently received my cousin, Em's wedding save-the-date in the mail and instantly wanted to put it on display!  (SO happy for Em & Michael!!).  I went ahead and changed the display in my frame, and I absolutely love how it turned out!!  I intend to continue to update it with thank-yous, wedding invites, baby announcements, and what-not!  SO fun!


Here's what it looked like after I did the 'switch-a-roo'...

& Here's a little close-up of my cousin's save-the-date!  You can also see the tiny antique paperclips I was talking about.  This save-the-date is such a cute idea! The date shows up in the background as if it is on the old theater sign!  Em, have I told you yet that I am excited for you?  Ah!  Can't wait!

 

 

I have also tried a new recipe that I originally found on Pinterest!  It's called Mexican Baked Eggs, and it was absolutely delicious~ and especially SPICY (which I love)!! 

 Mine did not turn out as 'fancy' as the one pictured in the link above, but it was still tastey ;) This is what mine looked like...

Though this dish was technically a breakfast dish, we had it for dinner so whatevs :)  Oh yeah, & the Huster approved!  (That is always a plus!)

Another thing that I have been trying to make room for is helping my friend, Lindsay, decorate her kid's bedroom.  As I mentioned with my list from the beginning, her & her husband are expecting a baby boy this summer!  Not only that, her little girl, Olivia, will be turning 2!  (I can hardly believe it!)  With that being said, Olivia will be needing a 'big girl' bed to sleep in, and her brother will be taking over her crib.  Lindsay is planning to have them share a room so we've gotten together to brainstorm ideas to make that possible.  

Lindsay was not sure she wanted to buy a new comforter set for Olivia, and we tried to brainstorm what we could do with her twin size grey duvet cover.  We decided to use fun fabrics to make a flower print on the duvet, and then Lindsay would use the rest of the fabric to make some cute throw pillows for the bed.

So far we've taken a trip to cute little fabric store in Bloomington, IN called Shiisa Quilts.  They carried some cute & unique fabrics!  We were able to pick out some fabrics for Olivia's portion of the room.  And after brainstorming ideas Lindsay put this together...

Here's a picture of me with the little princess, Olivia, herself!  So cute!  

We still need to work on the nursery side of the room, and add a few finishing touches/stitches to Olivia's duvet cover & pillows, BUT... we are ALMOST THERE!!!  ;) 

Love,  Bekah

Rick~Rack & Recipes

One of my goals for this year is to make birthday presents as much as possible.  This is something that I have been making steps towards since last year (as you've noticed in my previous post).  So far this year, my niece, Claire, has turned 3!   Her birthday was on January 15th.  I was inspired by this pin for her gift idea, yet I wanted to add my own 'touch' to it.  Though my gift did not reach her in time, I stuck with it and made her gift.

Here's what I did...

I painted a base coat of white acrylic onto an 8x10 canvas.

I then taped a piece of pink tissue paper to a regular sheet of printer paper and printed a copy of the picture I wanted to use of me & Claire.  After that I mod-podged the tissue paper picture onto the canvas.  This part was rather difficult since the tissue paper is so delicate.  I actually had to do this step over because the piece ripped.  I found that using a foam brush is very helpful when applying the mod-podge.

The next part is where my special 'touch' comes in.  I wanted to make the piece more fun by adding modeling paste around the edges of the picture to add texture, and then using the opposite end of a paintbrush to make little hearts around the picture.

I let the modeling paste dry for about a day, and then I used watercolor paints to add some color.  This really helped the texture and hearts to 'pop'!  Of course, I used pink... I was told that was the little princess' favorite color :)

Next, I had some fun defining the hearts with charcoal and sharpie scribbles.  This also added to the texture piece.  To continue with the heart theme, I added a stamped message at the bottom corner of the piece.  I found these stamps a few years ago at Hobby Lobby; I absolutely love them and use them on almost everything I make ;)

My final step was to finish the edge of the piece.  I decided to paint the edge black with a simple acrylic paint.  Once that dried, I used my hot glue gun to add the pink rick-rack.   She received it last week (I know, I know... a little late), but it seemed to be worth it!  My sister texted me a picture of Claire with her gift and told me that she said, "Mom I need some tape so that I can hang this in my room."  So precious!  With her sister, Adrienne's, birthday coming up in March and her brother, Shelden's, in April I had better get started on their gifts for this year! 

Another one of my goals is to try new recipes and post about ones that we've enjoyed.  I wanted to start this journey off by first adding some of our favs.  We really like fish, and I've found a quick and easy recipe that I have used and it seems to get good results (aka... the Hubster approves!).  This recipe is for Flounder, but we have also used a similar version on Tilapia.  Here are some pictures of this delicious dish!  The first is of the fish before they were baked.  The second shows the finished product along with a fresh spinach salad.

I sometimes like to make my own salad dressings as well.  For this salad, I made a lemon pepper salad dressing since there was lemon pepper seasoning on the fish.  It went really well with the main dish!

Here's a picture of my fun little dressing mixer from pampered chef!  Love this thing!

The next dish is another favorite, enchilada casserole! The only thing that I did different in this recipe is that I used refried black beans rather than refried pinto beans, but we have had it both ways and we like both- sometimes it comes down to what I have in my cupboard!  Chopped green onions and tomatoes on top add a little extra goodness that is so delicious :)  We also liked placing our pieces on some fresh spinach.  Jazz it up however you like!  If you try this out, let me know what you think!

ENJOY!!!

Past Projects

Christmas 2010 the Hubster gave me a new digital camera!  Nothing too fancy, but I was still excited to be able to document our lives through snap shots.  I also happened to take a few pics of some of the projects that I finished last year.  That being said, what better way to be inspired for my list of projects for 2012 than to reminisce on 2011?

I mentioned in my previous post that I would like to make more hand-stitched alphabet wall-hangings.  To give you an idea of what I was talking about, below are a few pictures of some of the wall-hangings I made last year.  Though these show an entire name, I would like to try and have a variety of alphabet letters stitched and stretched on an 8x10 canvas frame (i.e. instead of 'Adrienne' I would just put an 'A').

This was made for my niece, Adrienne, for her 8th birthday last spring!  Unfortunately, I do not have the finished project pictured, but I ended up stretching the fabric on an 8x10 canvas frame and adding pink rick-rack ribbon around the edges.  (And Adrienne absolutely loved it)  :)

This one was made for an amazing young woman, Tader, for her birthday & graduation/dorm warming gift this past fall.  Here you can see the final touches with the rick-rack around the edge.  (Plus if you notice real closely, you will see that I had to relocate the large pink dot from the original idea... oops!)

I love this piece!  This was for my sister-in-law's birthday last fall.  I like it because it has a vintage/fun feel to it.  The flowers on this piece were actually from an old pillowcase!  If you look closely you can see that I stitched around the different shapes of the flowers onto a mustard yellow fabric, and then stitched that whole piece onto the white background.  The button seemed like a fun addition, too! You can tell I love those rick-rack edges!

I give credit to my friend Laura who gave me the stitchin' inspiration!  Here is an example of some of her work.

Well, what do you think?