Great vacation and a little more sewing...

I'm back! I had a wonderful time in Florida with my family, but unfortunately I caught a nasty cold and so I've been away from my blog a little longer than planned. Luckily, I'm feeling much better now.

First, I would like to share the dish mat I made for my mother, with matching kitchen towels. Again, I used Darby's tutorial from Fly Through Our Window, which you can find HERE. I love how it turned out (and my mom did too)! I used Amy Butler's Love fabrics, and I think the colors and patterns are perfect for my mom in Florida. I also had a lot easier time making this dish mat with the thinner towel.

While I was at it, I also made some dish towels with Valentines Day fabric that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics. The fabric on the left actually has glitter in it, which brings a little bit of sparkle to the kitchen.

I have lots of crafty plans up my sleeve too! I bought two chairs from craigslist that I plan to paint and to reupholster the seat cushions. I bought a fun green trellis fabric that I think will great. I've never painted furniture before, but I can't wait to give it a try. Any tips you would like to share before I start?

A warm getaway...

Next week I'm taking the week off work and going to Florida to visit my mother. My brother and his family are coming too. They live in Chicago. I can't wait to spend time with my niece (almost age 3) and my nephew (age 1), and hopefully the weather will be warm enough that we can play outside. So far, the forecast is calling for highs in the upper 60s and mid 70s, and I really, really hope its right! That would be dreamy compared to here.

Anyway, to get me in the mood for warmer weather, here are some beautiful images from Traditional Home showing a 10 acre farm in Santa Barbara. I love the tent, balcony and other outdoor living areas.

All images from Traditional Home

I hope to do another post or two before I leave on Monday. I have a few more sewing projects to share, but since they are gifts for my mom, I'm going to schedule to post them after I leave so I won't ruin the surprise!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend.

A little bit of sewing...

While it was snowing outside this weekend, I had fun tackling a few sewing projects that had been put on hold the last few weeks (or really, months). I made a few pillows on Saturday for my living room and then on Sunday a dish mat from this tutorial by Darby from Fly Though Our Window. She is a wonderfully talented person, and I love all her sewing projects. I cannot tell you how happy I am that she writes these tutorials for us beginners!

I'll use the dish mat by putting it on my kitchen counter, and then placing items on it that didn't thoroughly dry in the dishwasher (or when I'm hand washing dishes, I can set the dishes on it to dry). It will be better than the Bounty towels or thinner dish towels that I normally use. Plus, I'm really happy with the way it turned it! I chose two coordinating bright and cheery fabrics to bring a little color into these long winter months.

I probably should have straightened the mat better before taking the photo - oh well!

Here's a close up of the triple stitch that Darby recommended using. It is a nice substantial stitch, and it was the first time I used a speciality stitch on my sewing machine.

The one thing that I would do differently next time is to use a thinner towel. I couldn't do the final step because I couldn't get the dish mat to fit under my sewing machine's foot to sew the last top stitch around the perimeter of the mat. Even so, I think it will work fine and hold up well in the washing machine. Plus, it will look pretty hanging from the bar on my oven!

*** UPDATE*** I should have mentioned in my original post that the base of this project is a bath towel, which is what makes the dish mat more absorbent than paper towels or regular kitchen towels. The project is very inexpensive since you can use an old bath towel and less than two yards of coordinating fabric. It will also be more economical than running through a lot of paper towels when you're trying to dry items that didn't complete dry in the dishwasher (or letting hand washed items air dry). Darby has a very easy tutorial for any sewers out there!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday! I am looking forward to the long weekend, and the New Year. Hopefully 2010 is much better than 2009!

So, to try something a little different today, I took a stab at creating a fun New Years outfit on Polyore. Ever since my sister-in-law asked her bridesmaids to wear gold shoes for her and my brother's wedding, I've had a thing for sparkly gold shoes. So, I picked an outfit around this fun pair of shoes.

New Years Eve by designesquire featuring J Crew

I hope you have a fun, safe New Year's Eve. I'll be at home watching the ball drop on TV (assuming I don't fall asleep on the couch).

New Year's Eve Ball, 1978. Photo credit: The New York Times.

This picture cracks me up. I'm not sure why. I imagine the guy with the pipe saying, "Wow, this is one big ball. Now, how is this going to work again?".

I also wanted to thank everyone for all the comments and emails this past year. I am so glad that I took a chance and started a blog. I've met so many nice, talented people and I can't begin to thank all the other bloggers out there enough for sharing all their creativity, knowledge and ideas. I've learned so much in the last few months and I now have so many design ideas floating around in my head. I can't wait to start putting them in action.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Traditions

Growing up, Christmas wasn't Christmas without my mother's breakfast casserole. She would either prepare it the night before or get up early Christmas morning to make it. She would then put it in the oven right before we started opening presents, so by the time we were finished the casserole was ready. (It also made the whole house smell good while it was cooking!) In case you need a new breakfast recipe, here is my mother's recipe.

Breakfast Casserole

1 (16 ounce) package Regular Flavor Jimmy Dean Sausage

10 eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups milk

2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon salt

6 cups cubed bread

2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped (optional)

1/2 cup thin-sliced green onion (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 F. In large skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until thoroughly cooked and no longer pink. In large mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, mustard and salt; stir well.

Distribute half the bread evenly in a buttered 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with half the pepper, half the cheese, half the sausage and half of each optional ingredient. Repeat layering using remaining bread, pepper, cheese, sausage and optional ingredients. Pour egg mixture evenly over casserole.

Bake uncovered for 55-60 minutes, or until eggs are set. Tent with foil if top begins to brown too quickly.

I think this recipe could also be modified by substituting in peppers, ham, bacon, veggies or anything else that floats your boat. This year I may mix it up a bit by combining my mother's recipe with my mother-in-law's quiche recipe, that way I could incorporate some of the traditions from my husband's family into our breakfast (plus, a buttery crust usually makes anything taste better!).

All images from Better Homes and Gardens

Karen over at Strictly Simple Style is also discussing some of her favorite Christmas traditions today, including the Caramel Apple French Toast casserole that she serves for brunch every Christmas morning. I will definitely need to make that soon, it sounds delicious!

A Country Christmas

I can't believe that Christmas is next week! I'm not quite ready yet. There are still a few gifts that I need to get, a Christmas Eve menu to plan and my house is in desperate need of a cleaning. That will have to wait though because Mr. DE will be busy painting our foyer and upstairs hallway this week.

Also, is anyone else having the problem that they're buying themselves gifts instead of their loved ones? There is just so many cute things out there, and so much of it is on sale that I can't help buying myself a thing or two when I go shopping . . .

I think if I lived in this house, I would always be ready for the holidays and guests (at least, this is part of my fantasy). I love how they decorated this old Colonial with a bit of a rustic cottage feel. The home looks so relaxed and beautiful, its just waiting for a party to be thrown in it! All the wreaths and greenery are just stunning too. Enjoy!

Images from Country Living

Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Yesterday morning I woke up to a winter wonderland outside. I love snow. I especially love how snow makes my favorite tree in the backyard look. It was a lot of fun decorating our Christmas tree Saturday night with the snow falling. I felt like I was in a Christmas carol!

A few Christmas decorations...

This weekend I started putting out my Christmas decorations. This year I'm mixing it up a little. To add some drama, I bought this large gold bowl and filled it with some giant ornaments from Target. (The check-out guy at Target remarked that I must have one giant tree when he saw these ornaments, which made me chuckle.) I love the gold and red color combination.

While the bowl currently lives on my dining room table, it will be moving into my living room next weekend when I get my new coffee table. I've been working the last few months on updating my living room, and I think it will be ready for a few after photos in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll post a few sneak peeks this weekend. I have a few sewing projects that I want to tackle before the room will be closer to done. Is anything ever really "done"?

** Note: I know my dining room set is terrible. I plan on getting a real, wood dining room set when I find one that I like (and when I've saved some money). Little by little I'm tackling the rooms in my house, and the dining room is on the bottom of the list! Karen, you did a post on this a few months ago when you started your dining room redesign that I completely related to. You can find the post, here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell

Image from Best Norman Rockwell Art

I'm really looking forward to spending time with my husband's family tomorrow. Although this hasn't been an easy year, I have so much to be thankful for. I'm off for the rest of the week to spend time with family, eat a lot food, watch a lot of football and do a little shopping! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

More images I'm thankful for...

All of these images are getting me in the mood for Thanksgiving. I really enjoy how simple, yet beautiful, each room is decorated. It just goes to show that your home doesn't need to be fancy to be warm and inviting for the holidays.

All images from Country Living