Celebrate: Happy Birthday!

Yesterday while most of the world around her slept my newest little niece was born. She is a joy and I can't wait to spend more time with her. Heart full of love today!

January In Pictures

p.s. you can find me on instagram @elizabethpfink

Read: Bright Star

For your late night reading and all night dreaming . . .

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death. 

John Keats

View this image of the stars and many more at spacetelescope.org 

7 Day Challenge: Eat Breakfast Everyday

At the beginning of the year I knew that I wanted to take on some new challenges, create good habits, organize those never organized spaces of the house, start and finish a few projects. So, I came up with a plan I am calling: 7 Day Challenges. It is simple for a week I will focus on one (or more) of my goals and what better way to keep me accountable than to share them with you every once and a while. I don't know that there will be 52 challenges and I don't plan on sharing them all here, but I do want to be an encouragement to others to stop saying "I should really . . ." or "I want to . . ." and instead just give it a shot and see what you can do in 7 days!

The first challenge was to eat breakfast everyday, I have never been a breakfast eater, so even just a bowl of cereal or a yogurt seemed like a good step. You can see only one day did I revert to my old ways (cup of coffee and a handful of cough drops).

P.S. This week was the first time I have tried Coconut milk as a dairy milk replacement (I do not drink cows milk and when I went to the store they were out of Almond milk), I wasn't crazy about it at the beginning, but by the end of the week I actually drank a glass of the stuff. If you are looking for a dairy alternative  but find almond milk to thin I would suggest you try coconut milk it is more like 2% than skim.

P.P.S. The pink pills are my multivitamin, taking one daily is another thing I am trying to be better about.

P.P.P.S. Do you have any goals you are working on? What kind of plans do you put into place to help you achieve them?

Listen: From Mom & Dad's Record Collection

Sunday night I was over at my parents house, where my younger sister was having friends spend the night. Somehow one of the girls started talking to my dad about music, which lead to the opening of the cupboards in my parents library that hold the records that my dad has saved over the last fifty years or so. Long after the girls had made their way down to the basement to play around in my sisters new "dance studio" my dad and I were left pulling out favorite and playing great songs for one another. It was wonderful, I grew up in a music listening family, but lately I just don't find myself putting tunes on all the often. I tend to turn on NPR when I listen to the radio and my iphone has more hours of audiobooks than music on it. So, it was really great to listen to some of the music I have loved for most of my life. I even made you a little play list, it has some of my dad's Motown and a little of my mom's 70s folk, classic country that my mom grew up listening to and my dad found a love for as an adult and Edgar Winter rock 'n roll (the ultimate soundtrack of the Fink kids young lives). I hope you enjoy it, now if you'll excuse me I'm off to listen to more Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Dusty Springfield and The Dave Clark Five.

Eat: Baked Grapefruit

Can you handle more citrus? The month is close to over, but I am still going strong with my pursuit of juicy fruit. Today I bring you a little treat I used to enjoy as a child. These days I mostly eat grapefruit pealed and without any sugar. But this was a great, sweet change of pace.

What you need:
Grapefruit
Dark Brown Sugar

What you do:
Pre-Heat the oven to 350
Sprinkle grapefruit halves with brown sugar
Bake for 15-20 min

Enjoy!

Make: Snow Ball Wreath

Before we even get into it I'm just gonna come right out and say: I'm not really crazy about how this project turned out. I think that there is a germ of a cute wreath here, I just didn't really accomplish it, but maybe you can figure out a modification or two and would make this fit to hang on a front door for all to see.

There aren't any step instructions here, but basically I just wrapped my wreath form with felt, made yarn poofs  with the fringy yarn and popped a little (it is a little small though) bow on top.

So there you have it, my winter wreath project fail. Good thing Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I can swap it out for my felt heart wreath. 

Share: Pinterest Faves Starlight

indoor camping, star chandler, star ring, stamped packaging, stars and twinkle lights

Do you remember back in the beginning of January when I said that I had stars on my mind? Well I have been collecting Star centric pins all month and am happy to share the first of a few star related posts.

In the mean time check out my Starlight Star Bright board!

Oh also, I've had some internet issues this week, so I haven't been posting, which means I have a bunch of post up my sleeve. So I'll be posting over the weekend!

Drink: Citrus Squeeze

Congratulations! You have made it to the weekend. So, can I get you a drink? In keeping with my citrus exploration, I came up with this lemon and lime and grapefruit soda drink.

Making the drink is pretty straight forward, juice your lemon and lime, mix juice with gin and Squirt, add sparkling water to fill glass, garnish with lemon. I am not one for sweet drinks and gin is my all time favorite, but if it is too sour or if you don't like gin you can add simple syrup to taste and replace the gin with vodka.

Happy weekend and enjoy!

Make: Puffed Pup Sweater

I have started operation Use Up Stash Yarn and I kicked things off with the silliest crochet project I have ever made. A sweater for Amelia, because she is a red head I thought that this gorgeous coral yarn would look great on her and I have a bunch of cream wool so that was an easy pairing.

The pattern is a modification of the Woody Dog Coat from Vintage Crochet. Because Amelia is longer than most dogs her size I added some length to the sweater and I also made the chest piece a little larger. Also the pattern has you button the bottom panel into place, but I knew that our dog would never leave buttons alone, so I just crochet the two piece together. Over all this was a quick and fun project and a great way to use up some of the wool I've had squirreled away.

And one last picture of the pup licking her lips! So much cuteness!

Do you have any knit or crochet projects in the works? Do share!

Eat: Pomelo

Back at the beginning of the month I said that I had Citrus Fruit on the mind, so much so that I have been stocking up every time I go to the store. With that in mind, I thought throughout the month I'd share my adventures in citrus with you. The availability of fresh grapefruits and oranges is one of my favorite things about winter, but today I am trying out a fruit I have never had be for the giant Pomelo.

After a quick unscientific google search I learned that  Pomelo is a Southeast Asian fruit similar to a grapefruit. I wasn't sure how you were supposed to eat the fruit so I decided to just peal it, as I would a grapefruit. The rind of the Pomelo is very thick and it took two rounds of pealing to get at the flesh of the fruit. For an idea of how large this fruit is, click here for a picture of a cat wearing the rind of a Pomelo as a hat (I'm not kidding). According to what I could find most Pomelos have yellow flesh (Am I the only feeling a little bit Walking Dead-ish with all the references to eating flesh?), but mine was a lovely light pink with a lighter brighter scent then grapefruits. Now for the part that you have been waiting for, the taste. To be honest I wasn't crazy about how the fruit tasted. It was more mild than I would have liked and kinda sour. In the end I sprinkled some sugar in the raw over top and thought that the added sweetness and crunch really went a long way. So, while it is always fun to try a new food, I think I'll stick with my old friends oranges and grapefruits from now on.

Order: Bathroom Storage 3 Ways

I know that a lot of us resolve to be more organized in the New Year, it is one of my 2013 goals for sure. So I am going to have a few posts this month on ways to organize your home, that will, I hope, inspire you as they do me to get your stuff in order. I don't really claim to be an expert (or really all that great) about anything, but I do think I am pretty good at coming up with stylish storage options. And after years of living in little apartments with tiny bathrooms, you know I have a few bathroom storage tricks up my sleeve. I think you will find that these three ideas sure beat those plastic storage shelves we all had in our dorm bathrooms. Get ready for lots of pictures of the back of my toilet! And bonus points if you can spot the picture taken with my old camera.

#1 Is a collected look that is as much about decorating as it is about storing. The idea behind it is simple, pull the prettiest things out of your medicine cabinet and put them on display. Use a tray, like this mirrored one I found for a few bucks at the thrift store. I also used a votive holder to contain q-tips, a vintage candy dish to hold cotton balls and shallow dish for jewelry. And flowers, perfume bottles and candles always equal pretty.

#2 If you live in a place that, like my first "grown-up" apartment, doesn't have a medicine cabinet you might need a little more practical storage than the first idea. So for this one I pulled out a box to hold make up or medication or whatever else you might want to hide away, a few glass jars for your toothbrush and paste and hairbrush and for a little color I added a bright mug that I popped a cute pink cactus in. The jars are just regular canning jars you can pick up at the grocery store, the mug is another thrift store find and the box I picked up a few years ago at Target, but you can find boxes like this at places like Pier One and World Market all the time.

#3 If having your toothbrush out in the open creeps you out and scalloped boxes and flowers are a little girly for your taste I give you a more simple and less cutesy option. I love this ceramic paper bag, mine came from (you guessed it) the thrift store, but a quick Esty search turned up this cute option. I have stashed the toothbrush and paste in the Wheaties tin, this one was a gift, but I have seen similar ones at Homegoods. Finally because I still think you need something to make the room a little softer, I put a white candle in this glass jar that, I think, once held olives.

Bonus picture of what the back of my toilet actually looks like. My bathroom had quite a bit of storage so I don't really need to use the space to house my veracious toiletries, but you can see I use items from all three of the above photos in my everyday life, including the paper bag hair brush holder on the edge of the sink!

Inspire: January

This month I am being inspired by:

Reading Sweet Paul Magazine (I pored through all the back issues).

Searching Design Seeds for great color combinations (I am crazy for the colors from this cookie image).

Watching the movie Damsels in Distress (I found it to be a delightful little film and I loved the styling of Violet, plus Adam Brody).

Listening to The Dinner Party (I've been  downloading the podcast to listen to while doing house work).

Gazing at my friend Megan's amazing Favorite Places & Spaces pinboard (she is like the best pinner ever!).

What are you finding inspiring this month?

Read: Re-Tell Me a Story

**Each year I take on the fun project of reading new books, in 2011 I had a book of the month, in 2012 I had seasonal reading lists, for 2013 I will be focusing on three books a month the are tied together with a similar theme, author or story. Each month will have one book that is new to me and two I have read before.**

For January's Read Something Good post I have gathered three books that are retellings of classic stories, a Greek myth, a Fairy tale and a Bible story. 

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
I love Lewis so I am excited to jump into his retelling of the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Do you like dystopian YA science fiction? If so you will enjoy this retelling of the Cinderella Fairy Tale.

Certain Women by Madeline L'Engle
A retelling of the story of King David, by one of my all time favorite authors.

January 2013

I don't know about you, but I am feeling really ready for a New Year. My friend Amanda calls days like New Year's Day reset days and I know exactly what she means. It is a chance to sit back and evaluate what is going on in your life, decide to keep the good and toss the bad and refocus on the changes to come in the year ahead. For me that will means I am taking some time to really look over my priorities for the next year - for my home, career, budget and life. As well as organization, de-cluttering and deep cleaning.

Now, for January I am looking forward to sharing with you some fun projects involving winter white, stars and patchwork. I'm also thinking about bright music for winter nights, citrus and retellings of classic tales.

Hooray Bring on 2013!