Saving

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Tonight I'm trading in all my old manual photography equipment and putting that money towards an DSLR camera. Just something basic, but it'll be such an upgrade for me: Canon Rebel T2i. 

There are free classes at the local camera store, so I'll probably go to some of those, and check out some tutorials online. Gotta get on this because it seems I'm tardy to the photography party.

Nice links:

Tips for taking photos of your home.
Source for contemporary fine art photography.
I also still want to get an instant film camera like this Polaroid or Fujifilm Instax.

Granola Gifts

source via Pinterest

I decided to make homemade granola and package it in mason jars for my officemates this year. I can't decide on a recipe, but I have to whip it up tonight, so I gathered all sorts of nuts, dried fruit and lots of oatmeal. I'll be putting mine in half pint jars with a nice little tag and ingredient list. 

Here are a few that I'm deciding between: 

Crunchy Granola via The Minimalist

Maple Almond Granola found here (and pictured above). 

Big Batch Olive Oil Granola from Everybody Likes Sandwiches.

'Tis the Season

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Happy Friday and Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah, too--we celebrate both at our house.
I hope you are doing something fun and seasonal. This weekend I'll be strolling through Georgetown to get a few small presents, going out with friends for a double birthday party, and staying at the Ritz downtown for a night. Definitely not the norm for a weekend, but I'll take it. I hope to have some really good hot chocolate and see the national Christmas tree while we're out and about.

Here are a few nice things:

I'll be making one of these to hang up this weekend.
I've been waiting for a reason to buy one of these boxes.
Inexpensive holiday decor.
Stressed at work? Perfect sign for above your desk.
Sweet minimalist jewelry: here, here, and here.

Halter Dress Apron

A great pattern caught my eye at Goodwill the other day, and it turned out to be a nice little halter dress from H&M. I originally wanted to cut up the fabric for another project, but the dress fit, so I wore it out a few times. After having those strings on the halter dig into my neck one too many times, I said, oh well, and decided to chop it up after all.

Then I thought I could use the back of the dress for fabric, and keep the front of the dress to wear as an apron. 

This is the dress before I did anything. Its a nice graphic print with a halter and ties that go around the back.

This is after I cut out the back of the dress along the seams. I kept the black liner since the fabric is pretty thin. The only tricky part was getting the zipper out with my seam ripper. I cut off the ties that go around the back at this point, so I could move them down about 4 inches lower. This made it more comfortable and wrapped nicely around my waist.

I folded over the edges I had just cut, placed my apron strings where I wanted them, and stitched all the way down both edges. Easy!

Getting Engaged

In Boston over the weekend! I was so surprised and happy. Tyler was so relieved and happy.

Entering to Win a Trip to Paris!

One of my favorite blogs is Oh Happy Day! written by Jordan Ferney. She lives her life, that's all I can say. And, she's giving away a trip to Paris!!

Visit Oh Happy Day ! to enter to win

Making over a Dresser

I made over my childhood dresser because it needed a little TLC.
I guess I forgot to take a before picture, but just use your imagination.

First I sanded away the stain on the wood. This step took the longest and I went through a lot of sandpaper.

Then I primed the wood

Then I did 2 coats of white semi-gloss and added pulls from World Market

Nice!

Farinata Recipe

Farinata

Last night I made a delicious farinata for dinner. The name literally means "floured" and is a popular street food in the Liguria region of Italy. I first tasted it when I studied abroad in 2007 and finally got around to making one. It's a dense pancake-like dish made from chickpea flour, and made a simple, delicious dinner when paired with some steamed veggies.

I think simple is my new thing. 

I loosely following this recipe from the Minimalist

Basic Farinata: (serves 4ish generously)

4 cups warm water

3 cups chickpea flour (Bob's Red Mill)

2 tsp. salt, plus more to taste

2 tsp black pepper, plus more to taste

5 Tbsp olive oil

• Preheat the oven to 475*
• Fill a large bowl with the water and slowly whisk in the flour to prevent lumps
• Let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hr, but as long 12 hrs
• Skim any foam that has formed on the top and add the oil, salt & pepper. You can add any other herbs or sauteed veggies at this stage if you want to get creative.
• Pour the mixture into a very well greased baking pan (mine was 9 x 13 and worked perfectly)
• Bake for 25 minutes, or until crispy golden brown and cooked throughout.

 Farinata

This was amazing and next time I am going to experiment with some more flavors and a little less oil next time. Although, I might just keep it simple.

DIY Gold Sequins T-shirt

I was over at Say Yes! to Hoboken and saw a project I had to try myself. Liz took a regular pocket t-shirt and used gold elastic trim from the fabric store to jazz up the mini pocket. I just happened to buy a bunch of white pocket t-shirts from Target the other day, so it was fate.

I always find a new project to try whenever I stop by Say Yes! to Hoboken out so check it out if you please. The full step-by-step instructions for the pocket embellishment-ing is here.

Read on for my version...

So I headed to G Street fabrics, but they didn't have elastic sequins strips, only non-stretchy trim. The main difference is that mine has border of thread around the edges, but I wasn't happy with how mine looked after I pinned it down. I felt like you could see the edges too much. Blast, this always happens when I try to copy someone else.

Well, as you can see from this picture, I was already toying with the idea of gold trim around the neckline, so I decided to go with that look and save the cute pocket project for another time.

I sewed down both side of the strip with my trusty Brother, careful not to puncture the sequins (there were a few casualties). A few sequins fell off along the way, but I just saved those to hand sew into the point in the front to neaten things up. At this point, I was still debating the pocket, but decided it might be too much gold. But if I were to do it again, I might just go for it.

Finished project: 

 

I love how the gold adds such a little pop. Oh, hey there, I'm just some gold sequins peaking out on a Tuesday, no big deal.


These little bird scissors are the best for making little cuts. I got them at Sally Beauty Supply and I use them for everything.

Now I just need to find more things that need gold sequins...shouldn't be hard!

The House

(I deleted the outside photo of the house just in case I get famous and get stalkers)

There she is. Looking pretty good for 101 years old! Stay tuned for some before and after pics of some small(ish) projects being done.

I have a meeting about a job tomorrow... in bocca al lupo to me! crepi !