Boring No More

I finally did something with the big blank boring beige wall in Ellery's nursery! 

I love her blue walls with white accents,

(thanks to my very detail-oriented man!)

but I have been stumped on what to do with this

big ol' uninterrupted wall.

I saw this idea on the purl bee to use fun fabrics and embroidery hoops in a sort of color collage across the wall.  Great way to bring some color into the space without painting or just hanging more shelves!

Here's the tutorial I followed...and here are some pictures of my progress along the way!

First pick a bunch of fun fabrics and find lots of different sizes of embroidery hoops.  

Cut the fabric squares a bit bigger than your hoop...I didn't leave enough room on a few (after adjusting the hoop around to frame what I wanted to see of the design), but they turned out fine.

Put the square into the hoop, then line up what you want to see in the end.  

I changed my mind after I cut this one, so the fabric is really close the edge. 

Ellery loves to help.

The tutorial said to glue first, but I thought it was easier to start with cutting.

Trim around in a circle, but leave enough room to glue down.

Use a hot glue gun along the inside edge, pressing the remaining fabric down until it's all hidden.

Flip, hang, and enjoy!

I laid them out on the floor in front of the wall first just to get an idea of how much space they all needed.  In another life I would have been a lot more detailed with the spacing and layout, but I wanted to get this finished...and I think they look nice all randomly hung!

The whole thing ended up being a bit higher on the wall than I had planned,  but I didn't want them to be within grabbing distance from the changing pad.

The beige wall is boring no more!  I love it!

Weekly Menu Time!

This is something I do just about every Monday...I find that planning a week ahead saves money and time once I get to the grocery store.  One of the sweet women whose blogs I follow (she's so crafty!) started posting her own menus along with recipes, which I find to be really helpful when I'm looking for ideas.

Hmm...maybe if her posts help me, then these could help one of you!

I start by thinking through the week to figure out

how many dinners we'll be eating at home,

which nights need to be quick,

what leftovers we already have that I want to use up, and

what the weather is going to be like.

(Soup for snow days, grilling for hot ones...)

It's not hard, and it makes weeknights way easier.

I'll try to post these on Mondays as I make decisions!  I know we're starting out late already, but whatev.  Here it is!

Week of Jan 11-15

Mon: Chicken Curry with Wild Rice (new recipe!)

Tues: Balsamic Pasta with leftover stuffed chicken from the weekend

Weds: Chicken Pizza Packets (new recipe!)

Thurs: Finish Chicken Curry from Mon (I'll change it up a bit)

Fri: Tim heads to Alta for a long weekend, so Momma's ordering out!

(sushi and martinis for me!)

Normally I would make sure that at least one more meal would last us for leftovers on the weekend, but Tim is headed to Alta, UT to ski from Friday to Monday.  We're on our own, so I don't need to plan ahead too much!  I won't eat out too many times, I promise.  :)

Saturday Mornings

I couldn't resist getting the camera out during Saturday morning breakfast this week...

the lighting, the colors, a precious Boo making faces at her dad...

it ended up being a bit of an impromptu photo shoot! 

She was actually in kind of a grumpy mood,

(even avocados weren't enough to stop the fussing)

but faces from Dad are always a sure-fire solution.

I love those blue eyes and strawberry hair!

Blogtastic

Okay, I finally got sick of trying to tell stories to all of you, my adoring fans, through facebook. Add this blog to the list of Things I Really Should Have Done Before Now...the digital world has totally missed my sweet Ellery's first 7.75 months when all this time I could have been bloggaliciously documenting every moment.

The wait is over! I have finally stopped procrastinating, gotten over trying to be clever with my URL, and started trying to post enough things to make this an interesting place for my first visitors. I would really like to create an online record of my foray into the world of Stay-At-Home-Momming...I know that nothing I'm doing here is overly original, but it's a look into our lives, so there's that.

If you're interested in keeping up on Ellery pictures and stories, I promise there will be plenty. If you like reading, I hope to write up some solid reviews of the latest literature I've soaked in. If you're the crafty type, I want to motivate myself to actually finish a few projects by talking about them to someone. If you cook or eat, I plan to post delish recipes as I try them and to publish my weekly meal plans in case anyone needs ideas. Mmm...and if you enjoy single malt, then you should come over and we'll pour a wee dram.

Here's to having an online journal for the world to see! Let's hope that I write more here than in any actual journal I've ever owned!