our life in a click: February 2012

Wednesday, February 29

Wordless Wednesday - No More Braces!

And we couldn't be more thrilled!
Linking up with:
Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Alphabe-Thursday
SOOC Saturday
Favorite Photo Friday

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Tuesday, February 28

The Perfect Spot For My Thrifted Clock

I can't believe I bought this clock over a year ago at Goodwill.

It's big..24 inches in diameter and from Bombay & Co and cost me less than thirteen dollars.

It even works! Problem was, I didn't know where to hang it.

So it sat propped up against the long wall in the basement.

I didn't want to make a decision so monumental and important (or it could have been laziness).

As we were fixing up the house for this party, hubs asked me where I wanted to hang "that clock"? I knew I couldn't put it off any longer. We had recently added the drum shade and recessed light converter over the sink of our basement snack center and it still looked a little empty over there.

So I suggested we hang it over the water cooler.

I'm really happy with it's new spot (so much better than the floor!)

It gives that wall a little more oomph and interest as you come down the steps into the basement.

Bonus, you can see the time!

The room is evolving from a playroom (as we craigslist all the toys) to a family room and I have more plans for it so stay tuned!

To see the entire basement renovation, click here.

Have you ever waited a year to hang something?

one year ago...I Heart Faces-Anything But a Face
Linking up with:
Twice Owned Tuesday
Tuesday To Do
Terrific Under Ten Tuesday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

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Monday, February 27

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 2.26.12

Crossed

We've crossed out all of these busy days on the calendar and can relax a little.

A Glimpse

I caught a glimpse of my reflection while I was backstage at my daughter's show.

Handwritten

This is from a few weeks ago and this party. My daughter hand wrote out the letters for this banner.

Bliss

I'm pretty happy about turning the calendar to March in a few days!

Grey

My slippers and pj's.
one year ago...Scavenger Hunt Sunday
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Saturday, February 25

Friday Phone Dump Week 8

row 1 *my niece 'helping' with the cupcakes*windshield full of frosty snowflakes*gel manicure week 2, slight chip on my left pinky* right hand looks pretty good*

row 2 *getting her top braces off*barefoot on my deck-it was raining*leftover lemons*backstage at Willy Wonka(my daughter's school musical)*

row 3 *more backstage at Willy Wonka*the oompa-loompas*decorating for St Pat's*lucky banner*

row 4 *on the stage door at Willy Wonka* helping backstage during daytime performance*blogging*school audience at Willy Wonka*

It's been a lot of Wonka this week!!

Linking up with:

iphoneography
a good life
insta friday
Life in an instant

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Thursday, February 23

{Recipe}Vegan Meyer Lemon Iced Cookies

What I've learned about vegan baking, is that I prefer things that are either "naturally vegan" or don't need too many vegan substitutions. The recipe here for Lemon Bar Cookies looked perfect for my daughter's Grey & Yellow themed party---they were vegan AND yellow.

The kicker was this huge box of Meyer lemons that I found at Costco. I'd never purchased a Meyer lemon before or cooked with one but I had heard they were the cream of the lemon crop. The box proclaimed that they were preferred by chefs everywhere for their orangey-lemony taste.

Ingredients:

{Cookies}

6 ounces vegan margarine

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp lemon zest

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

{Glaze}

1 cup sifted confectioners sugar

3 TBS margarine, melted

1-2 TBS lemon juice

Preheat Oven to 350 F.

Cream margarine in mixer. Add sugar, baking soda and lemon zest, blending well. Beat in lemon juice then add the flour, mixing until the dough comes together.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 5 minutes then rotate trays in oven. Bake for another 5 minutes or until edges just begin to brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.

For the glaze: Mix melted margarine, confectioners sugar and just enough lemon juice to make it a glaze consistency. The recipe said to dip the cookies but I did better with icing them with a small offset spatula.

*Don't make the glaze until you're ready to dip/ice the cookies and they are cooled*

I stored them in an air tight container until the party.

I think it made about 2-3 dozen cookies.

I used the rest of the lemons to decorate the dessert buffet and for ...

Lemon Drop Champagne Punch.

I did find one shot of this delicious cocktail.

We still had quite a few leftover lemons and my younger daughter made Meyer lemon sorbet.

It was delish!

What's your favorite lemon recipe..love 'em, hate 'em?

one year ago...{Entertaining} "the office" Party

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Wednesday, February 22

Wordless Wednesday

Is it Wednesday already? I'm a day off from the holiday on Monday.

What are you up to?
Linking up with:
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Tuesday, February 21

{Getting Crafty} Birthday Photo Banner

I made a photo banner for my daughter's 18th birthday party.

It was a little time consuming but very simple to put together once everything was cut out. I printed out photos,two or three to a page, on plain white card stock.

I converted them all the black & white to make it more cohesive looking.

I used a circle cutter to cut out each photo.

Aww...look at that sweet face!

I made mats for each photo out of scrapbook paper and used scrapbook adhesive to stick them together. This determined the size of my triangles for the banner. I got two triangles out of each 8 1/2x11 inch piece of card stock. After each photo was stuck onto the triangles, I used a hole punch and ribbon to string them together.

To put her age under each photo, I used clear labels and spelled out each number.

Then I strung all of them together with grey gingham ribbon. I needed more than one spool of ribbon so I had to tie on another piece.
I trimmed that up later (and also took down the snowy garland).

I love how it turned out.

The birthday girl didn't even mind. :)

I just took it down and the mantel looks a little empty.

I also made this yummy treat as favors.

Linking up with:
WOYWW
Sunday Showcase
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Tuesday To Do
Terrific Under Ten Tuesday
Craftastic Monday
Wednesday Wowzers
Sugar & Spice
Inspired Creations

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Monday, February 20

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 2.19.12

Love

I love this photo of my daughter and her friends while they sang Happy Birthday to her.
Linking up with:
You Capture
Favorite Photo Friday

Duplicated

Duplicating our photo taking efforts --at a party this weekend.

Trend or Trending

Flowers: We've had a lot of them around the house lately and I hope the trend continues.

Paper

Starbucks V-Day cups

Plastic

Very cool balloon wreath that my sister made.

one year ago...Scavenger Hunt Sunday
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Scavenger Hunt Sunday

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Saturday, February 18

Friday Phone Dump Week 7

Row 1) More decor from dd1's party * leftover roses from party * dd2's sculpture *dd2 back at the doc's for a recheck * leaving the doc's office*
Row 2) Balloons from "exploding valentines" (from the Dollar Store..FUN!) * Our Valentine flowers from hubs * looking through our old albums--this one cracked me up! * Journey~Frontiers..so good!*
Row 3) Love the V'Day Starbucks cups! * Gorgeous morning sky * At the salon, finally getting my hair cut and colored!! *And the new hair * Day 3 of my gel manicure, still looking good*
Row 4) Selfie * Trying out Stream Zoo * Shopping with hubs * Lunch with hubs * Funny Detour sign we saw that the road was open to the bakery. haha!!*

one year ago...Thriftin' Away Again at Goodwill-aville

Linking up with:

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a good life

Insta Friday
Life In an Instant

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Friday, February 17

{Pinned} White Chocolate M & M Popcorn

These were the party favors from my daughter's recent party.

I pinned the idea here from this blog. It looked easy to make and exceedingly yummy.

It only required 3 ingredients, what could be easier?

Pop a big pot of popcorn-I like white popcorn so that's what I used.

Dump it into a big bowl. I love this thrifted bowl!

Add some salt if you like, I thought sweet and salty, yes please!

Melt a package of almond bark. This stuff melts up really nicely.

Add a bag of M & M's to the popcorn and pour the melted almond bark on top, reserving some for later.

Stir gently to coat.

Pour the mixture out onto a parchment covered baking sheet and drizzle with remaining melted bark.

Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

We wrapped it up in clear cups and cellophane with ribbon.

I also added a thank you sticker with a baby picture of the birthday girl that I designed on Avery.com.

You can adapt this to any holiday or occasion by using different colored m & m's and/or almond bark.

Happy Friday!

Linking up with:
Project Pinterest
Kitchen Fun & Crafty Friday
Food Trip Friday
Food Friday
It's So Very Creative

Weekly Photo Stew
Terrific Under Ten Tuesday
Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Show Me What Ya Got
Wow Us Wednesday
Wow Me Wednesday
What I Wore/Made Wednesday
4 Real Friday
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Feature Yourself Friday
Friday Favorites
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My Spin On The Pin
I Took The Pinterest Challenge
Winter Pinterest Challenge YHL
Winter Pinterest Challenge BP
Winter Pinterest Challenge HSP
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Thursday, February 16

{Entertaining} Grey & Yellow Party For Her 18th

You may or may not have seen my posts here , here and here too about my daughter turning 18 (if not, where ya been, I've missed you!?). Anyway..without further ado...here is the low down on the party.

The birthday girl (don't you love her dress? Jason Wu for Tarjay-styled with her own belt).

Soon-to-be-18-year-olds don't really want a theme so Mom gets to pick a color combo that matches her newly-ish painted kitchen. I wanted to use grey and yellow and found the perfect linens at Target (Dwell Studio) and they were on clearance!
I ordered a bunch of paper lanterns in yellow, grey and white.
I also made some tissue paper pom poms.

This is the tablecloth.
I'm hoping to make a valance out of it for the kitchen window like this one.

{pinned here}

My daughter wanted to make her own cake. She used this vegan chocolate cake recipe from The Moosewood Restaurant cookbook and colored vanilla icing. It was delicious!

The favors were an idea that I pinned. More on this in a later post.

I got all of the flowers from Costco and my dear friend arranged them for me (and helped sick-y me decorate for the party the day before!)

Of course I took loads of photos before the party as I was setting up(not so many during). I bought a big box of Meyer lemons (also from Costco) for decoration but also for Vegan Lemon Bar cookies and our signature cocktail.

I printed out labels from Avery.com and used scrapbook paper to frame them.

I thought the dessert buffet needed a banner too so I asked my daughter to write out "SWEETS" for me on doilies, then I strung them together with some ribbon over the mirror.

More pre-party shots...

The rosettes in the window were made with scrapbook paper and card stock then hung on fishing line.

You can see them reflected in the mirror.

Since my baby was born in a blizzard, of course it snowed the morning of her birthday (and party). It was only a tiny bit and really looked pretty.

The other decoration I made was a birthday photo banner.

This turned out really cute and got a lot of compliments at the party.

Details to come...

I used this Pottery Barn chalkboard for our drinks menu.

I'm so mad that I didn't get a picture of the Lemon Drop Champagne Punch. The recipe is here and it was really tart and bubbly.
*edit* There's a photo here.