madi (sp?) jean

i am here at the hospital with my champ of a sister waiting for my niece to make her appearance. kelli came in today for a few dr. appt's (she is 34 weeks and 3 days) and was admitted and induced around 7:30pm. so, now we wait. pray for kel. we don't quite know how long it will take but most likely kel and corey will be introduced to their little one sometime tomorrow. (my prediction is tomorrow afternoon.) keep them in your prayers. i will try and post updates on here as they come.

lu.

this face makes me smile.
i can't wait till i'm all better and can give her lots of kisses.

oink.

sorry if you came looking for a decorating board today, but there will be none. i'm bogged down with the swine flu and am quite woozy at the moment. so, it will have to wait till next week.

today is day 5 of H1N1. sitting on the couch all day is getting a little old and i miss seeing people from the outside world. i am so very grateful for sharpie who decided to get the swine flu at the exact same time as me. we commiserate and watch tlc together. i have started making a list of things i can't wait to do when i'm finally allowed out of the house.

-go to anthropologie.
-go to chick-fil-a
-go shopping with traci.
-go see kelli.
-go to goodwill to look for a sewing machine.
-go to jo-ann fabrics.

basically, just being able to go anywhere.

philly red

this week's board is inspired by those philadelphia phillies. game nights have been tense here lately...well they're always tense i guess. honestly, i was trying to get sarah g's request done, but i was a little overwhelmed.
sarah g-i love you, but please comment what the main colors of your room are and which are the accent :)
i think red can be done really tacky, but i love the second photo and how she used red more as accents.

row 1
phillies logo
office by candice stringham
curtains from urban outfitters (love a damask)

row 2
lulu chair from urban outfitters
notice board from poppyseedliving
mini cooper

row 3
our love print from urban outfitters
basketweave pillow from urban outfitters
hello ladies photo by alicia bock

row 4
hello wall art sticker by tastysuite
retro clock from target
metal cabinet by oldcrowfarm (already sold though)

go phils!

apple butter.

last week, my mom in law gave me a bunch of apples. i had so many, i knew i needed to do something special with them. so, sss (sarah sharp smith) gave me the idea to make apple butter. mmmm. but, that sounded hard. until, traci sent me a recipe for it and i thought i would try it out. and yesterday, i did just that. and let me tell ya, i'm glad i did. it is one of the most delicious things ever. i made some homemade bread too in my new bread maker and i don't think there's a better combo. and it was so simple. go here for the recipe. i only had 13 apples, so i didn't put as much sugar and spices in. i sorta eyed it and it still came out ok.

this is what my apples looked like before cooking...



i chopped my finger while peeling the apples. it hurt. matt bandaged me up.



and here is the finished product ready to be delivered to two lucky friends.


sorry if you weren't one of those two friends. i had to keep some for myself. but, i would highly recommend trying your own. the hardest part was peeling, coring, and slicing the apples. but, after that, you just put it in the crock pot for 9 or so hours. easy peasy. my next attempt may or may not be pumpkin butter!

coming soon...another inspiration board.

yellow&gray

introducing a new feature to my blog...decorating inspiration boards. i hope to post one every week. let me know if you have any requests. it is quite fun. first up, is my new idea for my bedroom (see, i told you it would change)...yellow and gray. i like it.

row 1
howdy card by DWRI Letterpress
crocodile print by Farouche
light from ikea

row 2
buttons by Button Empire
bedroom unknown (traci sent it to me)
pillow from willam sonoma home

row 3
photo by (my favorite) alicia bock
drawer pull from lowe's
curtains from anthropologie

row 4
bedding from pottery barn
photo unknown
tea from harney and sons

finds.

it is my first full week not working and it's allowing me to start doing some things that i want to get done. one thing is redoing our bedroom (yes, already). right now it is painted a dark brown and i like it, but it's just too dark. so, i started flipping through my domino book


that matt bought me. which, i love and would recommend to all. the problem is there are just so many good ideas, i don't know which one to use. but, right now i've zeroed in on using warm earth tones, like this room:


that is today. who knows what it will be tomorrow, but hopefully i'll stick with it. there are a lot of things in the room i'm still gonna use, just needs a makeover. there is a bedside table that i need to paint and put some new pulls on. of course, the first place i look for those would be anthropologie, and of course they're almost $20 for one. i saw these that i liked:


and then i went to lowe's to get some paint chips and i found these:
for $5.97! they look a lot nicer in person and are silver instead of gold, which would work better for what i wanna do. i was excited.

finding something you like that is expensive and finding something similar for cheaper. i love these sort of challenges.

also, i really liked these two other knobs i saw at anthro:

hoot.

i'm kinda obsessed with coral right now.

and while there, i got a deal on this cute dress:


beware of their sale.

this post is dedicated to ange. i am working up to that decorating blog.