thrifty thursday...

O.M.G. 

Look what i found at a yard sale right down the street from my house on Saturday!  I saw this cute scrolly frame peeking out from under a pile of stuff and thought "great...I'll paint it and make it into a cute little chalkboard." 

So I pulled it out from under the stack and this is what I saw:

I.love.this.painting.  By a Michigan artist named Emily Wolf.  I Googled her, but didn't really find anything.  There's an Etsy artist named Emily Wolf, but I'm pretty sure it's not the same person.  If you're Emily Wolf from Michigan, drop me a line so that I can tell you how awesome you are.  Anywhooo...treasure found!  Love love love it!

What treasures have you found lately?

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what i wore wednesday :)

Hi there...it's What I Wore Wednesday again!

I read that a lot of people do WIWW to stay accountable...to make sure that they get out of their sweats at least once a week. Well...I'm a working mom, so I'm getting dressed every day. But...gotta say: I can always use a second look in the mirror before I walk out the door. It's funny how I have outfits that I love - and I think they look pretty cute - until I see a picture of myself in them and think "WHOA Nelly! That looks pretty bad!" or "I wonder if people think I'm pregnant in this outfit?"

So here's what I got this week.

I pray you don't think, "WHOA Nelly!"

Outfit on the left: Casual Friday...Floral tank from Old Navy, Target cami underneath, thrifted jeans (Levi's, I think), and yellow patent flip flops from DSW.

Center: Client presentations...Jones New York no-iron blouse, Ann Taylor pants, Marc Fisher orange patent wedges (yeah baby!)

Right: Semi-casual Thursday...Old Navy chambray peasant blouse (my new favorite), J Crew pants and flip flops.

And everyone? Have a great week!

Linking up at The Pleated Poppy

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STAY TUNED FOR 10 PROJECTS IN 10 DAYS...COMING SOON!

aaahhh friday...

yum...

Rustic No-Knead Bread

Ok...first off?  I have to say.  I fiddled with this photo on Picnik.  And I thought it looked really cool.  And I uploaded to my blog post.  But now that I look at it here, it looks really weird.  Like, really bright.  This bread is not this bright in person.  It's just kind of regular delicious bread-color.  So keep that in mind.  But this recipe?  LOVE IT!  So easy.  You'll never eat store-bought bread again!  Bon apetit!

3 cups self-rising flour

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/2 cups warm (but not hot) water

Put the flour and yeast together in a medium-sized bowl.  No need to stir them together, but make sure the yeast is on top.  You want the warm water to touch the yeast and get it going.

Add water and mix until you have a nice ball of dough. It shouldn't be too moist.  It should just be enough water to get the flour to form into a ball.  You may need to add a little additional water at this step (by the tablespoonful). Cover with plastic for about 20 hours (we usually have this for dinner, and I prep it the night before).

An hour or two before you want to bake your bread, turn your ball of dough onto a floured cutting board and shape into a ball. Even though this is a no-knead recipe, I sometimes give it a little knead at this point.  But it's totally not necessary.  I'm just a weirdo. 

Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a dish towel. When the dough is ready to bake, preheat your empty dutch oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. This sounds odd, but you want your dutch oven to be really hot when you put your dough in.  Plop your dough directly into the middle of your dutch oven (careful...it's going to be really hot), cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the the lid and place back in the oven to bake for an additional 15 minutes. 

When you take off the lid, but before you put it back into the oven for the final bake-time, you can brush your bread with melted butter, rosemary and kosher salt...YUM!  Or maybe some asiago cheese?  Or some crushed garlic?  Create your own recipe...go crazy!  The more you bake with this recipe, the more comfortable you'll get with it, and the more ideas you'll have for creating your own delicious bread.

Have fun!


YUM!

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Linking up here...

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lamp loveliness...

Remember this lamp?

{from this post here}

I painted it - and I sure liked it better than when I found it. But it wasn't quite there. So...it wound up living in the garage for a few months while I thought about what to do with it. Finally decided to paint it light blue and distress/glaze it a little, and now I LOVE it. It's going to sit on a little table that I bought on Craigslist for two (yes TWO) bucks! Just need to do a little painting, of course. Here's the after on that lamp:

SOOO much better...dontcha think?

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Domestically Speaking

We Remember September 11

{in honor of all that was lost that day}

aaahhh friday...

what i wore...thursday

We had a super-fun Labor Day weekend! Took the kiddos out of town for the day on Saturday to visit my Mom. Visited a ghost town and stopped for ice cream on the way. Then fireworks in the evening. As Paige said - BEST DAY EVER! But then she said that the next day, too! :)

We had a stay-cation on Sunday night at a local resort and hung out at the pool/water slide all day on Monday. Awesome and relaxing!

So here's my WIWW - or, since I'm a day late - WIWT:

Outfit on the left: Guess top, Ann Taylor pants, Calvin Klein heels.

Middle: Target tee and necklace, J Crew pants, DSW flats.

Right: Ann Taylor Loft cami and cardi, Dockers capris, Payless flats, Coach bag {thrifted}.

So how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun?

Linking up at The Pleated Poppy

aaaaahhhhh friday...