My Kitchen Hutch

Having a broken sewing machine as at least
afforded me time to finally finish my kitchen hutch!

After much sanding and painting it is assembled
and holding dishes.

I have also been playing around with the wall decor
that goes around it.

I think, as soon as I get some frames, I will be happy with the result.

I still haven't fully finished the bead board on the back.
I think I do want it wallpapered or painted a color or something.
I just haven't made up my mind yet.
So for now it is white
and I am happy.

Problems

Sorry for my lengthy silence ...
I've been having some, uh, personal problems over here.

Happy Mother's Day (Spoiler Alert!)

Happy Mother's Day!

Dear Mom,

Thank you for raising me.
Thank you for teaching me values
like honesty and hardwork
Thank you for teaching me the words to every silly little song ever written
this skill has come in handy while raising my own little one.

Thank you for letting me participate in all those activities as a child
even though it ran you ragged.

Especially during Student Council Elections.
Thank you for staying up all night
helping make posters
and writing slogans on hundreds of little hand outs.

In fact, thank you for staying up all night with me
helping me complete every school project I ever had
like that giant ship in the sixth grade
which turned out to be the coolest thing ever.

Thank you for being the deep breath I needed to take every time I got stressed out
which was often.

And thank you for teaching me that the best friends I would ever need and have
are my brothers and sisters.
You were right!

In fact, you were right about most things.
I love you!



For Mother's Day I made embroidered dish cloths.

Nothing too fancy, just flour sack cloth.
I haven't mailed them yet (and I am feeling sheepish about it)
but I haven't had a car for the past two weeks.
And I won't have one for the next week either.
But as soon as I can, they will be in the mail, I promise!

For my Mother-in-Law
I did an apple tree
and a bird house,
two motifs I know she happens to like.


And for my mother
I did images representing the places
her children have served church missions,
Russia and Italy.

I actually happen to be obsessed with this little Italian chef.
I would share the pattern with you,
but it was "borrowed" from a place online ...
so I will just give you another closeup.

Isn't he cute?
I think I am going to make myself one.

cream-filled cupcakes

i am obsessed with filled cupcakes

to the point where i am starting to believe that no cupcake should be left unfilled.

i might make it my motto.

it is so easy too

i just pipe it in with a large pastry tip

and squeeze until there is a popping sound.


for my husband's birthday
(which, yes, was a month ago)

i made him these



spice cake
with a cream cheese frosting for the filling
and topped with swiss meringue frosting



delectable!

the smell of citrus

sorry about that last post.

i have been frustrated with a lot of things right now.
my toddler seems to be 'exerting his independence' through blatant defiance
and my body is stupid
and i have been kind of cranky about it all.
i'm working on it :)
anyway ...

I want a lime tree in my kitchen
although any citrus tree would do, I guess.

as soon as I am finished refinishing my new hutch
(I have been sanding every day until my arms ache)
and it is in its place
there will be a blank spot of wall
and I think a citrus tree would be perfect there.

I could grow my own zest
make awesome fajitas
or every now and then get a whiff of that fresh citrus scent

image via gardenandgreen


the only problem is, I have an incredibly black thumb.
I can barely keep silk plants alive.

When I was dating [the boy who is now my husband] I had to drop out of school and move back in with my parents for a while,
for health reasons.
And as I was leaving my boyfriend gave me a whispy little pot of white flowers.
so cute.

They died within the first week.

With his visit approaching my mom and I ran out and bought a replacement plant.
It didn't look at all like the first one.
My boyfriend noticed - he said, "Is this the same plant? It seems more robust"

I assured him it was just thriving under my tender loving care.
It wasn't.
The new plant was dead within a week.

This is just one example of many of my inability to keep plants alive.
I do my research, I follow instructions,
it just doesn't work out for me.

I have gotten a bit off topic, but I guess there wasn't much of a point to this post except to send this message out into the universe:
I want a lime tree in my kitchen.

Dear Blog,

i hate you.

seriously.

i don't like blogging.

it takes up way too much time.
each post takes me almost an hour.
(although, I probably should write shorter posts)

and yet, for some reason,
i want people to read you

as in, people who aren't just my mother
(love you, Mom! thanks for reading!)

i don't know why.

maybe it is to verify that i have some degree of creativity
or that i have merit beyond my role as a wife and mother.

either way, it is definitely self-aggrandizing.

so you can probably take this as my pledge to be better.
to write on you more

i actually have a whole list of things i want to post about
not to mention the billions of posts i write in my head on a daily basis

but then i sit down in front of the computer and i am just too tired

my toddler is wearing me out

i have been feeling really lazy lately

and to top it all, i have been in a fashion slump

and the blahness of me has made me ignore you.

sorry.

i'm working on it.

photo-shop tutorial

I don't have a very good camera
and it isn't likely that I will get a newer or better one soon.

So I am always looking for ways to improve my images

either through a better command of lighting when taking the initial photograph

or touching up photos in photo-shop afterward.

It is all very new to me and I am still very much in the process of learning.

I came across this tutorial today

and having never known what the Sponge did
I was eager to try it out.

I just opened a picture at random
and during my son's allotted half hour of TV time,
this is what I came up with:

before: after:
I think I may have gone a bit overboard and overexposed it,
but its a start!