etc.

This Week

May 18, 2013

This week… well it was a doozy.  The weekend was fabulous with lots of celebrations. We celebrated my baby brother’s 25th birthday (who also finished painting my garage), Lonnie’s birthday, Mother’s day and a I hosted fun baby shower.  Then came Monday morning – I got rear ended at a red light!  Boo, Mondays do stink.  But, I’ve pushed through this week and actually ended it on a pretty productive note.  I’m refinishing a small dresser for Lonnie’s bedside table and I’m also repainting Olivia little play kitchen.  I hope you all have a great weekend.  I’m looking forward to getting a lot accomplished.
Olivia // My freshly painted garage
Honeyed Apricot Marshmallows // Lonnie with his birthday cinnamon rolls
Thrifting Thursday Finds // A last minute baby shower gift
Me enjoying a post-baby shower iced coffee // A sneak peek at the thrift store dresser I’m refinishing

If you follow my instagram, these pictures may look familiar to you.  But here’s a little instagram taste of my week.

etc. / Find

Thrifting Thursday – Pyrex Pitcher and a Ceramic Bowl

May 16, 2013

It’s been way too long since I hit a thrift store.  I love thrifting, but for the past few months I’ve restrained myself because I really needed absolutely nothing at all.  But, on Monday, I couldn’t stand it any longer.  What if there was some really great treasure out there that I was missing out on?  So, Olivia and I headed to our local Salvation Army.  
My first attempt to get there was foiled.  While stopped at a red light, we were rear-ended my a big full-sized truck.  My little Toyota Matrix got hurt pretty badly.  Olivia cried, I think mostly because she was scarred, and I ended up with a fat lip and some sore muscles.  I am pretty bummed with the whole situation.  I love our little Matrix and it’s totally paid for.  Now I am just waiting for the police report (which takes over a week) and then we can see what the insurance company wants to do.  
But, I didn’t let this stop me.  The next day I headed to the thrift store in our truck (I’m so grateful we have 2 cars, we didn’t for the first 13 yrs. of marriage).  And I came home with this cute Pyrex Pitcher for $3.84 and this beautiful hand made bowl for the same price.  Did I really NEED these items?  No, but I think this was a pretty harmless $8 to spend.  And I know I’ll use both, and probably often. 

Food & Drink

Cranberry Orange Corn Pancakes

May 15, 2013

If you’ve missed it this week, I’m in the mood to go camping.  Yesterday I shared some cool Camping Decor and the day before a little video from our Spring Break trip to Joshua Tree National Park.

I really enjoy cooking for my family when we camp.  It’s a great excuse to come up with new, easy to make in the great outdoors recipes.  The last two times we’ve been out camping, I’ve made these Cranberry Orange Corn Pancakes.  They were a hit with my family.  They require very simple ingredients and really no syrup is required, they are naturally sweet with the orange juice.

We even ran out of camp fuel, and I cooked these over the fire one morning.

Cranberry Orange Corn Pancakes
1 pkg. JIFFY Corn Muffin Mix
1 egg
2 tbsp. butter (melted)
Zest of one orange
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 2 oranges)
1/3 cup craisins

Place the butter in your frying pan or griddle, heat it until the butter melts.  In a bowl, combine all the ingredients , including the melted butter, well.  When your griddle is hot, pour about 1/2 cup of batter for each pancake.  You will need additional butter for cooking the pancakes.  Cook the pancakes just as you would regular pancakes.  When the tops of the pancakes are bubbly, flip them.  Because these pancakes have corn meal in them, they are a little more fragile to work with. Don’t be alarmed if the first couple break in half.

I’ve also discovered that Trader Joe’s sells shelf stable UHT whipping cream (so no need to refrigerate).  I used to buy this when I lived overseas in Papua New Guinea and Yemen.  I had never seen it here in the States though.  It’s such a handy product to have in your pantry.  I gave the chore of whipping this by hand to my kiddos.  It kept them busy while a cooked the pancakes.  A dollop of whipped cream on pancakes while your camping – wow, now that’s pretty good.

If you’re interested in more kid approved, outdoor tested camping recipes, you might like some of these:

Design / etc.

Window Shopping – Camping and Outdoors Decor

May 14, 2013

Yesterday I shared a little family video from our Spring Break camping trip to Joshua Tree.  We are gearing up for Summer and camping is on my mind. I love decorating and accessorizing Riley, and I have a vision. It’s a slow process though, firstly because I’m picky and want to do it right, and secondly because it has to be on a budget (like almost free budget).  But, I recently was checking out some of my favorite online shops and I found a few dream pieces for my trailer. So here’s my finds, and wouldn’t this be a great start to a little boy’s camping/outdoors themed bedroom? 
Squirrel Nightlight // Camp Bedding // Pendleton Pillow
National Park Canvas // Away We Go Print
Smore Pillow (Land of Nod – no longer available) // Teepee Print // Bear Pillow

etc.

Spring Break in Joshua Tree National Park

May 13, 2013

I’ve been wanting to share a little bit of Spring Break trip with you for weeks and weeks now.  I put together a little video of some of our adventures in Joshua Tree National Park.  It might just be my favorite National Park. I had a lot of fun making this little movie, I really should do it more often.  I’ve always taken a lot of pictures, but videos have never really been my thing.  I think it will be so fun to look back at this. My iphone made shooting this a breeze.  It’s funny how the iphone has totally changed how I record memories.  Instead of carrying my digital SLR everywhere, I found myself taking lots of instagrams and short videos.

Now as Summer is quickly approaching, I’m itching to get out and camp more with Riley.  Over the next week I’ll be sharing more of our trip, some camping treats, and a little camping decor (yes, you can camp in style).

Are you a camper?  Where’s your favorite spot to camp?  Do you have a favorite National Park?

Food & Drink

Orange Curd

May 10, 2013

I’m hosting a baby shower tomorrow for a sweet friend and one of the treats I’m making is Creamsicle Cupcakes.  I’m making a vanilla bean cupcake, filling them with orange curd and then topping them with orange buttercream.  

One of my favorite things to make is Lemon Curd.  It’s a fun process and the end result couldn’t be more rewarding.  We still have a few oranges high up on our tree, so I couldn’t think of a better use for them then making a batch of orange curd.  I based my orange curd recipe on my favorite lemon curd recipe (Martha’s). This curd is not as zippy as lemon, but is bright and citrusy and a fun new twist.

Orange Curd
8 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp. finely grated orange zest
1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 stick of cold butter cubed(1/4 cup)
orange gel food coloring (optional)

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, egg yolks, zest and juice.  Mix until smooth with a wire whisk.  Bring the mixture to a boil and cook stirring constantly for about 8-10 mins.  When the mixture thickens and can coat the back of a wooden spoon, then you know it is done.  Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until it is melted.  Then strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps and the big pieces of zest.  Pour into canning jars, seal and store in the fridge.

Because orange juice doesn’t give a really bright orange color, you may want to add a tiny bit of orange gel food coloring to the mixture with the butter.  But, this is totally optional.

I hope you all have a great weekend.  Take some time to make something homemade and from scratch this weekend. You’ll feel totally productive and your family and friends will be pleased.

etc. / Find

Window Shopping – Coral Accents

May 8, 2013

I’ve been loving coral colored flowers this week, if you follow my instagram, you may have noticed.  And seeing this color with all the grey and green in our home, I’m total digging it.  It’s my new favorite color combo coral, grey and green.  It would sure make a pretty party palette as well. 

Ombre Pillow // Giraffe // Coffee Table
World Map // Bird Print
Rectangle Print // Paper Flowers // Bowl
So, I thought I’d do a little online window shopping at my favorite stores and pick out some fun coral accents that would look good in my living room.  Now that I have a new chair, I’m really wanting to modernize and update our living room.  I’m thinking a few splashes of coral might be nice, what do you think?   Is there anything in this round up that catches your eye? 

Design / DIY / etc.

My Good Looking Chair

May 6, 2013

I am beyond excited and totally in love with my new chair. He is just so handsome, I kind of want to name him. We don’t buy furniture very often and he was an investment, so this little guy is going to be part of the McConnel family for quite a while. Over a year ago I sold the green chair that used to sit in that corner of my living room on Craig’s list. And ever since, I’ve been saving my pennies to get this West Elm Sweep chair.  I got it in performance velvet in the color Shadow.

I’m just itching to give this room a much more modern look and feel.  This chair is the starting point. The next step will be painting the walls.  Right now it’s a tan/beige color, kind of boring, but practical and neutral.  It’s been this color for almost 10 years, it was the first room we painted in the house. And as boring as beige is, I think I’m going to stay boring and  paint the whole room a crisp white. Our dining room is a dark charcoal grey and I think this would be a nice bright contrast. What do you think?  I love color, but I think a white backdrop will be a fresh way to showcase colorful pieces like my green and gold geometric pillow.

DIY / etc.

Painting our Garage

May 2, 2013

Our home is a small California bungalow built in 1920.  We have a garage in the back, which is very necessary for all of life’s junk.  But, for years and years it’s really needed a paint job badly.  This poor little building has weathered and chipped white paint on it’s siding. I even added this job to my 2013 New Years resolutions in hopes of making this a priority.

My very handy youngest brother is here visiting this week. He doesn’t sit still for very long, so he’s been doing all kinds of projects around my house.  It’s awesome! He decided to take on the garage this week for me. He’s spent the last 2 LONG days scraping and sanding the very peeled and chipped paint. It’s a warm 92F here as well. This morning I helped with some sanding. It’s going to look so great with a fresh, crisp coat of white paint. My backyard is going to feel like a new place with this is done.
Have you got any home improvement jobs that you’ve been stalling to complete or even start for that matter? What are you going to tackle this weekend? 

DIY / etc.

Watercolor Gift Tags

May 1, 2013

On Monday I shared that I’ve been playing with my watercolor paints a bit.  And last week I packaged up some Vanilla Bean Lavender Salt Scrub with watercolor tags and lids.  And I’m obviously having fun with this medium, so I decided to make a bunch of watercolor gift tags to just have on hand for gifts and treats I’ll wrap in the future.  My Mother’s Day gifts will probably be sporting one of these fun tags.

To make these tags, I simply took a large piece of good quality watercolor paper and just painted and swirled and dripped some of my favorite colors onto the page.  And then, when it was dry, I used my secret weapon – my Cricut machine, to cut out all these great tag shapes.  But, if you don’t have a Cricut, you could easily just cut these by hand by making a cardboard template.  Then I tied a little black and white baker’s twine to each of them. Because baker’s twine makes everything cuter, right?

If you like these, be the first one to leave a comment, and I’ll happily send them your way.