Stairway Art

I have been MIA these last couple weeks... due to being in full on nesting mode!
Which is a good thing and means I have been knocking projects off my list left and right. I also celebrated my 30th birthday in there and had my parents come visit for a week! Who says turning 30 isn't a blast!?

Having my mom stay with me was a HUGE blessing! She helped with many of the little projects that desperately needed done( like hanging tons of baby cloths and ripping down offending border in the baby's room)! She also helped with a few projects I was too afraid to tackle on my own. One of those was my stairway photo wall... I have a very hard time committing on where to hang artwork, my mom on the other hand just goes for it! Her house is an example of how to hang art work correctly...it all makes sense and is always the right scale for its location. I don't know how she does it! I, on the other hand, way over think everything...which is why my mud room is pretty much an art work storage area. Kinda sad! SO...while she was here, I asked if she would help me hang pictures in my stairwell. I wasn't going to hang much art work until the walls and trim got painted (notice the lovely honey colored stair rail ..blah..), but I think my nesting mode makes me want our house to feel more lived in. Thankfully my mom took on the task and showed me a thing or two in the process!

I had a ton of black framed family photos and an empty one I wanted to make a sign for. We got the idea to add a few other empty frames to balance out the first one!

Burp Cloths Part II {sewing}

I have been on a sewing roll as I prep for our little man's impending arrival!

We are at the 35 week mark which means only a couple weeks until I'm full term!!  Wowza!

I spent the last week and a half teaching myself some basic sewing...it started off pretty rough, but by the time I was done making 12...count them TWELVE burp cloths, I pretty much worked out all the kinks and they don't look half bad! Yay me!

Don't you just love these!??

Spa Wrap and Pig Pillow {sewing}

I thought I would share the gift I sewed for my niece Baylee!

My first REAL sewing project all by myself!

 It took a lot of seam ripping and redoing, but I finally got it right!

2nd Annual PICU Gift Drive {in memory of Averie Elizabeth}

UPDATE: 
Thanks for all the support! We delivered over 100 sets of books and toys to the PICU at Spokane Sacred Heart! That is enough to supply them with almost two months worth of gifts! What an amazing way to honor my daughter Averie!

Love,
Amber

I am so excited to be hosting the 2nd Annual PICU Gift drive!

If you have read our story you know a little about our daughter Averie and her battle with mitochondrial disease. She spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals, especially in the last few months before she passed away. We spent from August to October bouncing between Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and Spokane Sacred Heart...so much that it became home to us. When Averie passed away last year on November 13th it was heartbreaking and unexpected. I always had hope that she would make it and it was even harder because it was right before the holidays. It was a huge blessing when Justin's military unit decided to donate toys to the PICU(Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) instead of sending flowers to us. When we heard what they were doing we decided to match their efforts and with the help of family and friends we ended up to donating almost 60 sets Kohl's Cares books and stuffed animals to the PICU at Sacred Heart.

Kohl's Cares are beautiful books and stuffed animals like this...

$10 buys both the book and the animal and if I buy them in the Spokane area the money they raise gets donated back to Sacred Heart Hospital! Double awesome!

So worth every penny!! The quality is AMAZING!!

They are even MORE amazing this year because one of the featured books is Wizard of Oz and it comes with a little Toto dog. The W of O movie was one of Averie's MOST FAVORITE movies and she loved her own little Toto dog Roxy!

We heard such great feedback from families that received the sets, we decided this needed to become an annual event! Our goal is to raise enough money to buy a set of these for each child who stays in the PICU during the month of December. We know how hard it can be to have to spend the holidays in the hospital and we think these beautiful gifts will help make a child smile and make a very special Christmas gift!

We need your help! A donation of just $10 buys a book/toy combo! Just $10!! We need to raise enough to buy at least 60 sets- if not more!!

I added a PayPal donation button to the blog (look up there to the right!) to make it easy for you to make a donation. Please consider this as a way to help make a child's Christmas a little merrier this year!

 

Office Chair Makeover {before & after}

As you know we have been working on our office...and it is SOOO close to being done. Since I know the suspense has to be killing you, I thought I would share a sneak peek at one of the projects I did for the room. 
Since my taste is a little on the expensive side, but my budget is clearly not I had to again get creative with an office chair solution. Luckily I scored some new{old} dining chairs over the summer so I could retire my old ones. Originally I tried selling the set on our local yard sale Facebook page, but then the more I looked at them I realized I was missing an opportunity to use them in the office!

Here's the before-

Blah...

Homemade Ravioli w/ Acorn Squash Filling + Chunky Zucchini Tomato Sauce {recipe}

Ever have one of those nights when you realize you have forgotten to take something out for dinner an hour before it should be served? That happened last night, I had a fabulous lunch with my Mom-in-law and so I was totally not thinking about dinner. Then I remembered that even tho I might not be starved, the hubby would be home soon and he WOULD be!

Eek! What to do??! Well, I happen to have a huge box of summer veggies from my aunt's garden and in that box happened to be be several acorn squash. I actually have never cooked with them and had no idea what they tasted like....so of course I headed over to Pinterest to look for some ideas( I am one of those people that actually make the recipes I pin...shocking!) I came across some ideas for roasted acorn squash and THEN I saw a recipe for ravioli! That was it!

So I broke out our never used, brand new, $5, yard sale pasta maker(...yea, I know...its one of those great deals that we couldn't pass up, but I haven't had the guts to use) and set to work!

I used this great recipe for my Ravioli Dough...I will skip giving my own tutorial since this one is so good! It also shows how to make the ravioli by hand without using a pasta machine, which is handy I think! Since I do have one, I followed the directions on the box...or at least I attempted too. They are all in Italian for the most part! Lol!

I also found this recipe that inspired my filling. She also has a great tutorial and a couple filling options + a sauce! Such a cute blog too! I adapted the recipe for my own use because I didn't have all the ingredients and I obviously didn't have time to make a grocery run.

So here is my recipe for the filling...

Acorn Squash Filling

2 acorn squash

olive oil

1/2 large onion

2 cloves garlic- minced

1 egg

1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1/4 cup sour cream

salt/pepper

I cut my two acorn squash in half and placed them on a cookie sheet greased with olive oil, salt & pepper. I roasted them at 400 degrees for about 30 mins. While they cooked I worked on my pasta dough and got it in the fridge to rest. I also chopped my onion and garlic and sauteed it until soft. After the squash was cooked I scraped it out of the skin- I did this while it was blazing hot...if you have more time I recommend letting it cool first! I then mashed it with the onion/ garlic mixture and the rest of the ingredients. You could run it thru a food processor, but I didn't mind small bits of onion running throughout the filling. I set aside while I prepped my dough to be filled.

Lil Elle was fascinated by ravioli process!

It was so easy using the pasta machine! I am now dreaming up other recipes to make homemade noodles for! yummy! My hubby helped me fill the ravioli and seal them up. We don't have any fancy tools for cutting them so we just used a knife and fork. Since they aren't perfect I'm calling them "rustic"...that's a get out of jail free card at our house!

At this point we realized we hadn't even thought of a sauce...oopsy! I guess I got a little too involved with the pasta making process..luckily for me, I married a cooker husband! He whipped up a quick sauce that was seriously perfect with the ravioli. He really doesn't measure anything and normally can't even remember what he did, but this time he was kind enough to write it down for me!

Here's his recipe for an easy sauce!

Chunky Zucchini Tomato Sauce

1/2 onion- chopped

1/2 bulb garlic ( five or six cloves)- chopped

1/2 large zucchini or 1 small- cubed

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 tbl dried basil

1/4 cup white wine ( we actually used a moscato, because it was all we had)

salt and pepper

olive oil

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add dried basil, salt & pepper. Add cubed zucchini and saute until it just starts to soften. Deglaze pan with wine and add can of tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer while you cook up the ravioli!

SO YUMMY! This was a perfect combo...slightly sweet from the squash, yet hearty and filling! Not to mention a totally vegetarian meal...which wasn't intentional, but still so good! We couldn't stop gushing at our kitchen brilliance and our superb teamwork! If only you could have smelled our house! I hope you try this recipe...and if you do let me know what you think!!!!

Yard Sale Tales {week 11}

 Happy October 1st everyone!! Its finally feeling like fall here in N. Idaho and I love it! It means we are getting closer to the arrival of our little guy ... under two months to go! Sadly it also means a wrap up of yard sale season. Which is probably a good thing around here{we have PLENTY of projects to keep us going all winter!}. That said, we did manage at least one last haul!

I really wasn't looking for anything in particular, but we came across some good stuff. The biggest find were the shutters, we picked up 4 pairs and a single for $22! I normally don't see shutters and usually if I do they are a little pricier. These are going to get makeovers and be part of my first craft show! I have several ideas for the shutters and can't wait to show what I do! We also picked up a box of wall sconce lights for $5- there were two different sets, three of one style and two of another. I am crossing my fingers that at least two work in Ellery's room, because the last ones I bought sure didn't. I like these ones way way way better anyway and I can sell the ones we don't use and make my money back on them.

I also snagged this ugly gold frame for free! It too will be getting made over for the craft show!

The belt is for me... it is made out of layers of a shell like material...almost like scales...and is stretchy, which is a bonus!!  I am pretty sure it is vintage...or at least the dry cleaners tag on it is!

Sometimes I find things that totally crack me up...in this case it was this creepy baby! Haha! Its actually a poseable store display mannequin. I found it for $5, which I didn't know was a screaming good deal until I looked up what they cost new( $50 and up!). The creepy baby will actually go live with my sister- she makes the cutest dresses, but only has a little boy to act as her model..which you can imagine doesn't work very well!  

I also found a car seat cover for $1! Nice find considering we will be having a baby in the middle of winter!

I also found some beautiful vintage pillowcases/sheet sets, some vintage ribbon and a whole bag of clothes pins for $4 total! I am racking my brain on how to use the ribbon...I'm thinking it might work to embellish Ellery's curtains...  if I have enough. I also can't wait to see what my sister can do with the pillowcases! I will be doing a post soon featuring her beautiful pillowcase dresses!