Wood Ring Refashion

I have an absolute favorite store. One that I love anything that anyone gets me from it because I love everything in it! It's called Blue Windows ~ great name ~ and I've been a loyal customer for over 11 years now. There's a little bit of everything there: jewelry, candles, serving dishes, picture frames, clothing...all with a shabby, artisan flair and it smells soooo good when you walk in.

When I was pregnant with my first son I bought the first piece of nursery furniture there; a tall distressed dresser, and my kitchen/craft table is also off their floor. And if you've visited our marriage blog in the past, you may have noticed the matching cross bracelets that Michael and I wore in the blog header pic - also from Blue Windows. Okay...you get the idea.

This past Christmas, my daughter gave me a gift certificate to said store and I just got around to using it today which is an unheard of feat for me as my normal M.O. is to redeem certificates or gift cards like, the same day I get them. Anyway, look at this pretty little bauble I got today,





Isn't it pretty? Love it and love the way it looks with my dark nail polish. And how 'bout the little box? Very sweet. Oh...that's Popeye (aka Pops, Poppy, the Pie, Popsicle, etc. ad infinitum) in the background. So, it's just a fun little piece to wear around whether I'm dressed up or down - it works. Buuuutttt....being a crafty girl and being that I wear lots of white gold/silver, I thought it needed a bit of snazzing up so I tipped the edges in a little metallic silver paint and I got this...






Love it! And if you ever find yourself in Long Beach, CA (or if you want to get me a present...jk...sort of) you really should visit Blue Windows. I just know that you'll love it as much as I do!

Salted Nutella Croissants

Chocolate

Bread

Salt

Need I say more? These are so yummy you won't believe it and even better - they're super easy to whip up. Nutella has become a staple in our house of late and I absolutely love chocolate croissants so combining the two was just a matter of time for me.

There's lots of recipes floating around that use store bought puff pastry as a quick way to make sweet and savory croissants but there's not much to it; here's what I used:

Nutella, naturally
1 sheet of Puff Pastry, bought at Trader Joe's
1 egg, beaten
Pink Crystal Salt, in a grinder also from Traders

I put a little flour on my board and rolled out the pastry about an inch out on each side then cut it into thirds, those thirds in half then the halves on the diagonal to make 12 small triangles.


I topped each triangle with about a teaspoon of Nutella at the bottom.


Then I rolled them up into little croissants - they're so cute - and brushed them with beaten egg.


A few grinds of pink salt to get some chunky crystals on the tops.


Then just baked them at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes. Glorious, hazelnutty, chocolatey, buttery bready, slightly salty deliciousness....


You could probably eat all of these on your own but....be a lovey and invite someone special over to share them with because they're that special. And so are you!!!

Baby! Baby! Baby!

When I first learned how to quilt ~ gosh, about 18 years ago now ~ I pretty much kept my projects to quilts for babies for the mere fact that they don't take too long to make. Of course, that only works if the quilt you start on doesn't end up as a w.i.p. that you don't get around to finishing for 3 years. yeah, i've done that.

This quilt, though, I finished in less than a week which is still a surprise to me because it's not my usual m.o. (see above). I wanted to make something special to give as a gift for the mom-to-be and got inspired by this little quilt over at The Purl Bee.


Isn't it so cute? And relatively easy too (directions are on the site) but a little more time consuming than I wanted. I played around with the design in my mind and changed things up a bit. I wanted to use material that I already had and liked the idea and ease of a "rag" quilt. I decided on ovals instead of circles for the mere fact that I had four sizes of them from my creative memories stuff; necessity being the mother of invention and all.

Once I cut the ovals and laid them out on the muslin, it was pretty quick to put it all together, even the quilting, which I do by hand, didn't take too long.













I'm really happy with it and can hardly wait to see it laying over a new little baby. Plus, I kinda forgot how nice it is to just sit quietly and sew; very relaxing in a little house on the prairie-ish sort of way. Reminded me of a friend who always says that it's fun do a little hand work once in a while.

She's right.