Listen, Watch, Repeat

I feel like poop and have to go to work in a bit, so just a quick little music Monday post for your listening and viewing pleasure:

Two songs I can't get enough of right now, and the stunning videos to accompany them.

First, The Paper Kites: These folks are from our home away from home, Australia, and we had the pleasure of getting to know a couple of them two years ago. They are wonderful people and their music is infectious. So as the Aussies say, give it a go - and then do it again and again and again, because you won't be able to stop listening.

Worth another mention - the video was directed by Pete Seamons, another Aussie acquaintance we've gotten to know over the last couple years. It's really beautiful, isn't it?

{---------------}

Second, The Civil Wars: this duo resides in our current home of Nashville and they are freakin amazing! This video has been out for some time, but I can't stop listening. I'm very excited for their new album to come out in February, it will be a must buy! Plus, you may have seen them kill it on Jay Leno a couple weeks ago. Betcha can't listen just once. 

The female half of The Civil Wars is Joy Williams, who achieved considerable success playing Christian music years ago. It just so happens that Curt & I danced to one of her songs as our first dance at our wedding :)

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed the tunes. And I hope you are all feeling better than I am so you can have a fantastic start to the week!

New Shoes! (or, oh Happy Days!)

Not really, I already had the shoes, but they needed an upgrade, so in stepped a black Sharpie and some fabric paint and I have some newly minted old fashioned saddle shoes!

Want the SUPER EASY how-to? Three steps:

1. Buy a plain ole white pair of canvas shoes. I got these at Target for a whopping $9.

2. Use your Sharpie to outline the section you'll be painting black.

3. Fill in the rest with black fabric paint. I suppose you could do the whole thing with a Sharpie, but that would take longer and you might faint from the fumes.

Enjoy your new saddle shoes! These would also be cute in little tiny baby or kid shoes, and you could do another color too. Take black and white photos and pretend you are living in an episode of Happy Days. Preferably the one where The Fonz jumps the shark. 

As for my shoes, I'm going to wear them to work and pretend I'm working at an old fashioned soda shop. I'll be rocking them with my newly skinny-fied black pants, which were atrocious before but are now quite stylin.

Another easy how-to: Skinny Your Pants

1. Take you old pants, lay them flat. Lay a pair of skinny jeans you like on top and line up the double seams on each leg.

2. Draw a line along the old pair on the new pair. Sew up that line, easing your new line into the old line somewhere up the leg near the crotch.

3. Try them on inside-out and make sure they are okay, adjust as needed, then cut the excess fabric, I zig zag the seam, turn then right-side out, and rock what you got!

(ignore the fact that I'm wearing black and brown, and please excuse the terrible quality of these photos - they were taken late last night with my phone)

So quick - go out and re-do your wardrobe. Both these projects are super fast and the results are always pretty darn sufficient. 

iPad Sleeve

Curt's mom got an iPad for Christmas, that lucky lady! So of course I had to make her a stylish sleeve to go with it. 

A simple sleeve, with a pocket across the front, lined with fleece. 

Velcro closure, which Curt thought was useless, but I proved was actually quite strong. 

She really likes blues & greens, so I hope she will like this sleeve, I know I do. 

The flap is double-secured, no iPad slippage here! 

Now we just have to send it off so she can make use of it!

Both the fabrics are from Jo-Ann's, but I don't know what they are. I love the prints and colors and I've been using them in all kinds of projects lately. 

As for the project specs - It's my own pattern: two sleeves (liner and outside w/pocket) sewn together at the top inside out and backwards all that jazz, left an opening at the flap's location for turning, then put the flap in place and topstitched it all closed. It worked really well and made for a quick project. I would definitely make it again when the need arises .. aka I get an iPad. Hey, a girl can dream and my 25th birthday is only two months away :) 

this moment

{this moment} - A weekend ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

A Recipe

I'm not much of a cook, but every now and then I come up with something delicious. This is one of my favorite meals; it's easy to make, tastes yummy, and is relatively healthy. Curt has been counting calories lately, and I'm happy to say the fajita ingredients themselves were pretty low-cal, but the chips and tortillas are chock full, so be warned :) 

So here's the recipe: Cilantro Lime Fajitas!

You'll need:

Chicken

Lime

Cilantro

Green Pepper

Red Onion

Garlic

Cut your chicken, peppers, and onions in like-size strips or chunks, whichever you prefer.

Cook your chicken in some oil until no longer pink, add in the onion and a clove or so of minced garlic.

Mmm .. starting to smell good!

Go ahead and throw in some chopped cilantro at this point too, I like to add some throughout the cooking process.

Squeeze the juice of half a lime into the skillet. Save the other half for serving later.

I save the peppers for last so they stay al dente. Add a little more chopped cilantro - you can't have too much of that stuff! 

Voila! Your fajitas are done, easy right?!

Serve them up with some shredded cheese, lime juice, more cilantro, sour cream, tomatoes, whatever you want .. my favorite topping? - homemade guacamole!

Want a recipe? Okay!

Easy peasy, and you already have almost all the ingredients from the fajitas:

Avocado

1/2 Red Onion, finely chopped

Handful of Cilantro, coarsely chopped

Juice from half a Lime

A pinch of salt

Now put it all in a bowl and mash it together!

I like to chop my onions and cilantro ahead of time, throw them in the bowl, add the lime juice and salt, and then wait until just before dinner is served to add the avocado so it doesn't turn brown (eww!)

Serve with chips or on your fajitas. Or just eat it with a spoon like ice cream if you're like me. I'm kidding! {kind of}

We tried whole wheat tortillas this time around, and besides the added healthiness, they were darn tasty! Might as well get a little extra whole wheat where you don't necessarily notice it. Sound good? Let me know if you try it, I hope you'll like it! 

this moment

{this moment} - My weekend ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Pinteresting

Have you joined Pinterest yet? Everyone's doing it. What are you waiting for? You'll only be cool if you join.

Did I peer pressure you into joining? Seriously thought, it's a lot of fun. And a disastrous waste of time waiting. But it can be very helpful, too. 

Now, instead of dragging photos onto my desktop to throw into iPhoto for inspiration later, I can just "Pin It" and keep a beautiful collection of inspiration right on my page. And the people who follow my pins can see them too, and they can repin them and share them with their followers, and it's one giant orgy of inspiration. They have a handy button you can throw on your internet browser so your collections are only a click away.

Quilts, fashion, recipes, photos, colors, home decor .. there's a board for everything. Think of it as your virtual inspiration board - no more clipping magazines, ripping newspapers, or poking yourself with those darn thumbtacks. Unless of course, you like that kind of thing. Then carry on and ignore me.

Here's part of my "taste the rainbow" board. Because I have a thing for color in an organized order.

Gorgeous interface, right? All that white space, the photos just organize themselves, you can scroll all the way down the page to find infinite inspiration...

Give it a try, and if you like it, add me to your list. 

these moments

{this moment} - A weekend ritual, inspired by SouleMama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{last week - Christmas crafts with the cousins}

{this week - Happy New Year!}