DIY Love

Some great DIY projects out in the blogosphere that are going on my to-do list,

Party Skirt Tutorial by Creative Spaces.

Handmade Car Playmat by homemade by Jill.

Handmade Fabric Baskets by homemade by Jill.

Happy Friday!

Embrace Messy Hair

Love this lino block print.

I can relate to this cute little print. I feel like my hair is always a mess, I am not at all a "hair" person. I admire my coworkers that come to work with long beautiful hair or tight perfect curls. I am guilty of almost always having my hair tied up and a lot of the time I don't even bother to blow out my bangs, opting to pin them back instead.

This cute print is from an Etsy shop called Funnel Cloud Studio.

Don't you love good packaging?

To check out the print click here.

Right now the print is on my fireplace mantle. When I get around to sprucing up the bathroom I think it will be moved there.


Hope your week is going well!

Sprouts!

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I love sprouts! They are delicious on sandwiches or in a nice salad. Sprouts are surprisingly easy to grow at home in a mason jar with a bit of cheese cloth and are ready within a few days. For some informative sprout growing information click here.

I recently purchased some sprout seeds from the lovely Etsy shop MoonlightMicroFarm. I went with China Rose Radish Organic Sprout Seeds as well as I got some wheat grass seeds. I plan on growing the wheat grass and using it as a nutritional booster in smoothies. I look forward to updating with my sprout growing results!

Sunday Easter Love

Here are a few quick pictures from our Saturday Easter dinner. I completely forgot to take a picture of everything completed and all of the side dishes!

Happy Easter!

Warmest Easter wishes! I just put a 19lb turkey in the oven, I anticipate my house will be smelling wonderful in an hour or so! We are hosting Easter dinner this year and I'm looking forward to some good family and good food.

I am delighted that spring finally feels like it has arrived to the Vancouver area. We have enjoyed several lovely sunny days and this morning is no exception. There is something about a crisp sunny morning that makes me feel so deeply inspired about life.

Yesterday I planted a flower garden by our front entrance which has enhanced my spring-y nostalgia. I planted some dahlia's, pansies and some hyacinth. I am most excited about the hyacinth, I've always wanted to grow it but they are a little expensive. I can't wait until they bloom.

I potted the hyacinths in preparation for when we eventually move (and buy a place!) so I can easily save them and bring them with us.

I love the little pansies in the bottom of this picture. Pansies are so sweet and grow well here. When I was younger and living at home my dad would always let me pick out pansies to plant in the front garden. I have such fond memories of us packing up in his truck and going to the local nursery to pick out my pansies. I found a flat of pansies at my local nursery for $8, a good find!

The little garden, complete with gas meter!

Hello pug in the window!

Weeding and other matters

Having just spent over an hour in my garden weeding dandelions and other well rooted plants I found myself dreaming the whole time about the kitchen garden in the movie It's Complicated. I thought this movie was cute, and very cheesy which are two things I appreciate in a chick flick.

The garden, oh my goodness... it makes my heart go pitter patter.

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Looking at these images makes me happy that I broke ground in my weedy rocky garden. I dream of recreating this garden one day when I have my own home and I'm no longer renting.

My lovely gal pal at Reckless Bliss blogged about the whole It's Complicated house tour awhile back. To check that out click here. I suggest you do, it's a gorgeous home!

40th post! And cheesecake!

Very excited to say this is my 40th post!

I also have a recipe to share, which makes me happy as I haven't shared one in awhile. Today is my darling beau's birthday. I made him homemade macaroni and cheese and cast iron blackened chicken for dinner, needless to say he was happy. I also tracked down this recipe for a no bake cheesecake that his mom makes every time we go over to visit for dinner. I love how nostalgic he is for this recipe, and it made me happy to surprise him with it after a long day at work.

A side note this recipe is more assembling then baking.

Ingredients,
1 dream pouch of dream whip (it has to be dream whip, don't ask me why)
1 brick of cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup of icing sugar
1 pre made graham cracker crust (if you want to get all fancy you can make one)

I like to whisk my icing sugar prior to using it in a recipe to get out lumps.

Step 1
Make dream whip using packet instructions. (I used a wire wisk attachment for the dream whip portion, and a paddle attachment for the cream cheese part of the recipe).

When you get fluffy peaks transfer mixture into another bowl. Or if you have two mixing bowls just rotate and use a new bowl.

Drop in your cream cheese and whip until it gets a little fluffy. Add icing sugar and whip some more until combined.

Once your cream cheese mixture has come together (no lumps!) gently fold in your fluffy dream whip.

Pour into your crust. I love the way packaged crusts look, so perfect.

Now this next part is optional, but I took a little of my beau's favorite chocolate,

and grated a bit for on top! Chill the cheesecake for a few hours before serving. This cheesecake will be quite fluffy and not as firm as a regular cheesecake.


He was excited to see the cheesecake when he got home from work, and perhaps more excited to dive in after dinner!

Friday Inspiration

The color white,

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Etsy typography prints,

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and Iced Coffee beverages.

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What has been inspiring you lately?

Instagram

Artful Pears.

Have you heard of Instagram? It's an app (a year ago if you would have asked me what an app was I would have looked at you like you were nuts, technology confuses me). This app lets you upload pictures then add fun filters to make amazing art. Best of all, the app is free!

Here's a little bit of what I've been up to on Instagram,

Titled,

Mushed Pug.

My current favorite coffee cup.

Sunday Morning.

All of these photos were taken easily from my Iphone camera. I don't even have the new Iphone where you can zoom and have flash! I have the older version. My recommendation is to download Instagram and have some picture fun!

Homemade Dish Soap

I thought I would share a recipe I've been using for the last few months for homemade dish soap. This recipe is a great way to use up cold process soap that may be ugly or imperfect in some way. You can buy "ugly" handmade soap heavily discounted online (go to Etsy and search for ugly soap, you'll have lots of results at your fingertips!). You could also use pretty much any type of bar soap in this recipe provided that it is naturally based. I used a handmade bar of soap from a batch I made awhile back that traced too quickly and didn't turn out as I had planned. You want this recipe to be cost effective, as well as natural - I don't suggest you use a fancy 7$ bar of handmade soap, save that baby for a long bath!

What you'll need,
1 4 ounce bar of soap - I went with an unscented homemade bar.
1 3/4 cups Hot boiling water.
1-2 tsp Liquid Glycerin - this is completely optional but it will give your soap a silkier feel. It's kind of an indescribable difference to the soap, but I really love it.

Onto some good DIY!

Start with your bar of soap,

And grate that baby up!

Plunk it into a pot,

Pour the boiling water over top,

Wait 5 minutes or so for the water to start melting the soap.

Mash like crazy with a fork.

Your soap might start lumping together, this is normal.

Now grab your immersion blender, and blend! You can also pour all of this goodness into a blender and blend. Your mixture will froth a bit.

Blend until all the bits are combined. Near the end of blending add in your glycerin.


Let the mixture now sit for awhile then pour into your favorite dispensing container. I used an old plastic soap pump I already had. Depending on the soap you used you might need to dilute the mixture a bit. You also want all the froth to come down, do not fear it will! I find this soap is great for scrubbing dishes under a running tap or scrubbing dishes first then rinsing in your sink. Because this soap doesn't have oodles of chemical degreasers (it does still cut grease very well) it isn't really effective when pumped into a water filled sink of dirty dishes. My process for using this dish soap is: rinse the sink of dishes, let the water drain, scrub my dishes with a pump of soap here and there and rinse off again. A little bit of this soap really does go a long way!

P.S.,
I'm linking up here, one project at a time!