I see you Easter Bunny....

Change of plans

Sometimes things just don't work out the way you hoped, but then you end up getting something good out of it anyway.

I started out trying to make this skirt (from the blog Me Sew Crazy) for my little angel. There was even a tutorial on how to make it! But since I'm not so great at following directions or sewing (and it was midnight), I kept making mistakes and so I just gave up.

I didn't want all my hard work to go to waste though, so I made a cute little bag :)

 

 Maybe I'll attempt the skirt again another day. 

Balls!

Q playing in her temporary ball pit.
Hopefully Marshall is going to build a ball pit under the fort in the backyard.

Q-tip ball take 2. The first one that was made a craft day didn't turn out so well...

Any my favorite, the coffee filter ball. I took one of the balls I had left over from
our Q-tip project and poked coffee filters into it.
I think it's going in Q's room.

The Painting Blues

The weather. It's got me down. All I ever wear nowadays is grey and black. And the only color I want to paint is blue. 

The walls in the living room and kitchen have been painted now for a couple weeks now... Here are the before and after pictures. 

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

 AFTER

I really like the color of the living room. The jury's still out on the color of the kitchen though. And although it's much better than the first color we painted, I kind of feel like I'm in a swimming pool. 

I am so over painting.

Cupcake Fail

Last night we thought about getting a cupcake from a cupcake shop. But I felt like $3 is a lot to spend on a mediocre cupcake, when I could make 12 mediocre cupcakes at home for practically free! 

Anyway, I decided to try a new recipe. 

Mmmmm....don't these look yummy!

The recipe called for molasses as the sweetener...a whole cup of molasses. I guess I should have realized then that these would not taste right, but the batter smelled kind of like chocolate covered malt balls, and who doesn't like those? Also, molasses is probably better for you than regular sugar. Marshall tasted the batter, and well, his expression said it all. I reassured him that they would taste better after they are baked. Wrong. They were so gross.

Even with Mounds of whipped cream. 

What a disappointment.

I had to redeem myself. So, I made another batch of chocolate cupcakes. And boy were they tasty!

Here is the link to the recipe from the NY Times.

Excursions

Ah, the weekend...it goes by so fast. 

We started off the weekend by going to the farmers market at PSU. I love this place! I especially love all the pastries and prepared foods - the fruits and veggies are good too :)

Made to order drip coffee. 

I have a chocolate panini and Q has a sugar covered yeast roll
(this might explain why I'm getting so fat).

Huevos Rancheros. Look at that bacon!

Sunday (today) we had planned on going to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, but not all the tulips are in bloom, so we decided to go to breakfast at the Hands on Cafe at the Oregon College of Art and Craft. Excellent decision - it was delicious! Fruit sprinkled with ginger sugar, sweet breads, and then the main course.

Marshall's omelet. He didn't want to take a picture of my fennel fritters because I had taken a potato off the plate...whatever.

After our meal we explored the campus. Q had a blast walking on the gravel paths and throwing flower petals (I think she's preparing for her role as a flower girl - don't disappoint her Auntie Kerri).

Showering herself with flower petals

Annoying Marshall by getting in his shot

He likes to take pictures without people.

Hope everyone had a great weekend too! Looking forward to the next one!

I am a sewing MACHINE! Part 2

On Monday I decided to start a new sewing project. A sweet little pinafore for my sweet little Quinnie. I got the pattern from the book One Yard Wonders (which I bought for $22 and is now on sale on Amazon for $13.49 ahhhh!). Anyway...It looked so simple, but of course it wasn't. I ripped out a lot of hair seams that day. 

Huh...It would probably look a lot better if I had ironed it...oh well.

 On to the next project! Today (I guess it's yesterday now) I was browsing craft blogs and I came across this cute summer dress from Freshly Picked. It looked so easy I just had to make it! It took maybe an hour and a half and I finished it before Q woke up from her nap.

I think the dress will look much better without all the layers of clothing underneath. It might be a while though...there were 28 days of rain in March and somehow I doubt April will be much better.