Butterfly Tree

Before Hubby and I were even married we did this project for Hubby's sister while visiting Boise (Can you tell I've been looking through old pictures lately?). She was putting together a room for her two girls and wanted to use a little pink in the room. We started by painting the walls a light pink. Then I took painter's tape and created an outline of a tree which we then painted in with a darker pink. We removed the tape and hubby cut out a sponge in the shape of a butterfly. Then we randomly covered the tree with butterflies and added some swooping across the wall like they were being blown away in the wind. I remember having a lot of fun on this project and feeling very satisfied with the end result.tada!

Lily's Garden

A few months ago my sister-in-law asked Hubby and me if we would help out with decorating my niece's bedroom. That was back in my first trimester and I was a little under-the-weather so I was a spectator for most of the work. My contribution was sketching and painting these cute little flowers along the bottom of one small wall. The big job was painting this wall. My niece has kind of an odd-shaped room, which actually worked out really well for a bold focal point like this. We used painter's tape to create vertical lines randomly all over the wall and then got to painting. It is a very bright wall, but I think it turned out really cute especially once we moved the furniture back against that wall. And the important thing is... Lily loves it.

a Blanket for baby R

I made this blanket for a new little baby girl in our extended family. I saw this idea of using a zigzag stitch instead of ties for a baby quilt in a sewing book once and just had to try it. I just love the green thread on yellow. Too cute.

Chicken Enchiladas

Taken from allrecipes.com:

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon margarine
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers, drained
8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl mix the soup and sour cream; set aside.
3. Melt margarine in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion and chili powder, and saute until tender. Stir in the chicken, chile peppers, and 2 tablespoons of the soup mixture. Cook and stir until heated through.
4. Spread 1/2 cup of the soup mixture in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up tortillas, and place, seam-side-down, in the baking dish. Spoon remaining soup mixture on top, and sprinkle with cheese.
5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

These enchiladas are so good and simple to make. They have kind of a bland, comfort-food kind of taste which is so yummy. Next time I think I'll try some jalapeno seasoning to spice it up though. Also, the recipe says it serves eight, but I'd say more like 3-4 adults.

Jean Blanket

Ever since my mother made my oldest brother a jean blanket years and years ago he has been collecting for another one. He LOVEs jean blankets. So for his 30th birthday I secretly took his stash and put one together. I cut the jeans into rectangles because it seemed cooler than the standard squares and also maybe less time consuming. Most of the jeans I cut into 8 inch wide rectangles and made them however long I could. Some of the jeans were smaller and I had to cut them 6 inches instead. The back I did in corduroy I found 40% off at Joanns. The middle section is made of three of my brother's favorite old shirts he had given to me in order to make into a t-shirt blanket for myself. I also used batting in the middle and tied it all together with yarn ties throughout. I think the finished blanket turned out to be about 5ish by 5 1/2ish feet. I'm not really sure.
I loved how it turned out and actually it didn't seem like that much work all together. I think I'm going to have to make one for Hubby and me now.

for baby

I recently was able to take a trip to visit my parents in Kentucky for a week. And what a productive week it was. We spent lots of time shopping, crafting, eating good food, and visiting around the fire on the back porch.

Did I mention crafting?

First off, a baby toy I crocheted stuffed with plastic bags to give it a slight crinkling noise when squeezed. Good for church I think. In real life it is mostly purple with white. It is hard to tell in this picture.Here's a sling I talked my mother into making for me to carry the little one around in that goes around my neck and shoulder. And a nursing cover my mother also did for me made out of nice, heavy-duty fabric for privacy.And finally a little quilt perfect for snuggling. The inside fabric is this beautiful yellowish fabric that is oh so soft.It's good to go home every once-in-awhile, especially when you come back with a suitcase full of new and pretty things for your little girl.
P.S. Did you notice my new rocking chair? I bought it second-hand for very cheap.

Classifieds

I am so excited today because as luck would have it I found two great deals scouring online classified ads. Here is the fruit of my labors:
One bag of 0-6 month clothes: $5
Two bags of 6-9 month clothes: $12.50

I was going to lay them all out so you could see all the cute little girl stuff I got, but you can fit a lot of little baby clothes in three bags. So here they are ready to be thrown in the wash and stored away in the nursery (which still needs a lot of work before the big day).

Among my favorite things are a stash of cute rompers ready for the summer months.