These are the days

Well folks I don't know what it is like where you are, but we could not have had a better weekend here. The sun was shining and the leaves were changing colors, perfectly fall.

I just had to get out and enjoy. With little persuading my cousin Lydia's two girls agreed to join me on a little trip to the park yesterday afternoon.

We had just a wonderful time. While most of the people in our neck of the woods watched Michigan and Michigan State run around with a football, we counted bridges (we crossed four in case you were wondering), we followed chipmunks around, we waved to people on boats and there was lots and lots of swinging.

You can't see it very well, but this was my favorite thing that we saw, a house peeking through the trees out at the river. In my mind there would be no place better to live. I hope your week will be just as beautiful as my weekend!

Cheater Cake

A few weeks ago at our little weekly Girls Night my we celebrated my lovely friend Mel's Birthday. I whipped up my now perfected (I think!) cheater cake (in my family we call this kinda thing/half cheating at something "The Johnny Way" after my cousin who taught us it was okay to pick the next card in war, you know if you are loosing). So anyway here is my "Johnny Way" surprise it's your birthday cake.
I start with a boxed cake from Trader Joe's - you can use any cake that you want, but if I am looking for the right time + quality mix I go with their cakes, real butter and milk make a big difference.
After baking the cake and letting it cool I put a layer of Raspberry Jam (again I think mine was from Trader Joe's, but any fancy or not so fancy jam will do).
Last I made up some easy frosting: powdered sugar, milk, butter and vanilla to taste and texture. You could frost the whole cake, but I don't really like frosting that much so I normally only frost the top of my cakes.
The whole thing takes less than an hour to make, bake and clean up from so this is a great way to have a little something to celebrate someone for whatever reason!
As a variation I have also used; lemon curd or a thin layer of Strawberry in place of the jam.

So do you have any quick "Johnny Way" tricks you could share with me?

Lazy Sunday

Today I had what can only be described as a Lazy Sunday. I went to church with my family last night and ended up staying the night at my mom and dad's that meant snuggling with me sister in the morning and eggs for breakfast.

I watched far to much junk on Hulu (Modern Family, Bones, The Middle and maybe something else I can't even remember) and drank way more coffee than I normally do.

There was a lot of laughing and talk of Nutcracker dances, old and new while Phoebe, Prisca and I made some "cup-pies".

I hope your weekend was relaxing and peaceful and you are ready to face the new week!

I can hear the bells

I so love this dress from Anthropologie, if I was getting married anytime soon I would absolutely have it on my list.

My oh my

Well goodness me where has the time gone. Is it really already October? I guess it is. Well here we find ourselves on a Friday night. I have had a really long week, full of things I will not relay here and now, but trust me not a great one.
But then there are warm fireplaces and snuggly people, and tips to the thrift store (see above photo) and if you are really down you can watch "Marcel the Shell" for the millionth time and it will still put a smile on your face.

Keeping Promises

Remember when I promised all those wonderful blog things and then never did them, well here I am trying to follow through on a few of them. So here we are the wreath.

This is a really easy and fun project, great to do while watching TV (I would recommend DVDs of That Girl). I started out with felt that I picked up at the fabric store, wool felt would be nice, but I just used good old acrylic and it was fine.

I made a pattern to trace for the leaves, I made Birch, Oak and Maple leaves. I just went to Google images and looked up leaf line drawings to get the idea of what they should look like.

After I cut out my leaves I embellished a few of them. And I couldn't resist adding a few buttons of course!

I then glued them onto a wreath form from the fabric store I covered in brown felt.

Finally I pinned a little bit of ric-rac to the back for a hanger.

Here it is hanging on my door in the lovely sun shine.

Fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at lunch - Penelope

Penelope is one of my favorite movies! And of course like everything else I blog about in these little fashion posts one of the parts I love the best is the clothing - the shoes, tights, circle skirts and cardigans are just fab!

It is definitely a goal of mine to incorporate more colored shows and matching tights into my wardrobe.

The wedding dress is really some kind of magic.

I really like the layering of many different patterns together.

Oh and there is James McAvoy too, and he is always a cutie!

New look with a little help from Amy

I started off my Labor Day weekend with this fun and quick project (aided by the last disk of season 1 of Fringe, my new favorite show). I started off with some Amy Butler fabric and two 60's chairs.

These chairs were left in the garage by former owners of my house. They were covered in nasty nasty fabric and cat (or maybe racoon) hair.

I think they turned out nicely, if I do say so myself. And more importantly they are the start of a very big adveture; namely the basement make over!

The colors are based off these three fabrics and will be the place where all my 1960's furniture will eventually end up.

The Fabric is Amy Butler Lacework in Olive from her Lotus collection. It is out of print, but you can find it on Etsy and some quilt shops.

Just Like A Friday Afternoon!

Well, there's a feeling in the air

Just like a Friday afternoon.

Yeah, you can go there if you want

Though it fades too soon.

So go on, let it be.

If there's a feeling coming over me,

Seems like it's always understood this time of year.
"This Time of Year" - Better Than Ezra

We are having lovely crisp fall weather this week and I couldn't be happier. Every year about this time I begin my annual love affair with Michigan. There is no place I would rather live than Michigan in the Fall. Sunny afternoons, and cool nights, brightly colored trees and ripe apples, the wind and the over night thunderstorms, oh and the smell, and the sweater wearing, and I can't for getting being able to open my window at work and hear the EMU marching band practice. I know it sounds perfect, and it is!

P.S. in case you do not know and love Better Than Ezra and have most of their songs on shuffle in your mind I have added the song quoted above to my sidebar (you will like it I promise, I know I do I listened to it three times while writing this post alone!). Also both images above are from the Pure Michigan website.

P.P.S. a small before and after project will be posted tomorrow, as a little taste test of the next big before and after project happening at the silly little house!

P.P.P.S. keep your eyes peeled next week for talk of tights, skirt making (yes I said making!), autumnal wreath DIY walk through and maybe if I get around to it (and that is a big if) a slight blog make over it is time I think!

Fall Style w/Phoebe

According to the latest issue of Real Simple red is the hot color for fall. If money and all that other good stuff was not an object this is how I would do a red hot fall outfit. Love the heart sweater and watch and the tiny ballet broach! This collection was made with the help of my little sister Phoebe, though she thinks it is a little to mismatched for her.

Artful

One thing I have come to realize living in my little house is how little I have to hang on my walls. I always felt like I had almost enough stuff when I was in my small apartment, but now there are just so many empty walls. While I know there are many folks who like the look of clean blank walls, I am not one of them.

Fruit

So I am on a quest to find some nice bits and pieces for my walls. I am in love with the look of Victorian text book illustrations. I have one I picked up a long time ago of butterflies, but these are so much lovelier!

Mushrooms

Eggs

Of course I think I paid a fraction of the price for mine, well a girl can dream. I right now I'm dreaming of a living room with pained walls (someday I'll pick a color), a new sofa and a few of these prints all in a row!

Fashion Show Fashion Show Fashion Show at Lunch - Fall Fashion Shoes

Even though we are having horrid 90 degree days here in Michigan I have fall on my mind. Maybe I should start growing veggies or something so I would enjoy the hot-hot-hot end of summer a little more, but hands down fall is my favorite time of year! There is so much to love about the fall in my neck of the woods, one of them of course is the clothes and the shoes - oh the shoes!

I am a Mary Jane's type of girl. I already have them in many (many!) styles and colors, but right now I have my mind on a pair of sweet blue ladies.

With a pair of gray or brown tights and a red cord skirt a pair of blue Mary Jane's just screams cool nights and sunny afternoons!

Tell me that pair with the yellow edging is not to die for cute! Oh and let us not forget how great the rick-racky bow tied pair are!

And there are the boots, I actually have a hard time finding boots that work for me, but this is the year that I find the perfect pair. Now I'm not really awesome enough to pull off the above pair, but we are talking about eye candy here people and these are nothing if not eye candy!

Now these are more me. Can't you just imagine crunching through leaves on a crisp October day?

I have also been thinking about getting a pair of moccasins this year. Maybe a cute ankle boot style like these - or:

If I am really bold this crazy cool pair - I'm thinking navy tights, jean skirt, floral shirt cable knit cardigan - perfect out and about on a Saturday afternoon outfit.

So there you have it a day late (because I forgot to set up the auto post -yes you know I write these lunch time fashion post late at night high on diet coke and endless games of freecell). but still good. And I'll end with a confession I have already started the fall shoe expansion by picking up this way cute pair last week!

I hope you all have a loverly weekend! I will be at a wedding with my dancing shoes on!

The top two images are from Anthropologie! And the moccasins are from Minnetonka the rest including the ones that I own are from Endless.

To Market to Market

Yesterday was Farmers Market day. In town we have a market downtown on Tuesday afternoons, I try when I can to swing by after work hit the market and then the library. Yesterday I was able to do both.

As a result I had a yummy, rather green dinner of; green tomatoes with parsley, salt and pepper, cucumber with lime juice and salt, fresh mozzarella and farm bread all while watching Last Chance Harvey a kinda cute movie.

Umm yea hi!

Oh my I have had great luck thrifting lately. The weekend before last my I stopped with my mom at an antique shop downtown I think the name is Salt City Antiques and I found not only this vintage Pyrex in great shape and in a pattern I have never seen before, but also this awesome step ladder.

When you are not exactly the tallest girl around, things like shelves and curtain rods tend to be out of reach. I had this functional, but frankly ugly step ladder that I am now happy to send to the basement to live. Isn't it just great so cute when tucked beside the fridge or when accidentally/lazily left out.

Plus how would I reach the top shelf to put away my new baking dish with out it?