The Cowboy and the Lego Man

I hope you are all enjoying your Halloween. We are back from candy collecting and are all snuggled up with our favorite halloween movies and bellies full of sweets. Speaking of sweets here are a few highlights of mine...

This year My oldest decided he wanted to be Lego Luke Skywalker

So, 1 Costco sized red vines container and a cardboard box later we had a pretty good Luke, complete with black glove covering the hand Darth hacked off!

My little Lego Jedi was pretty popular, he even won a costume contest

Then there was my little cowpoke. His exact words were "I wanna be a cowboy with a rope!"

We had a blast at our annual Halloween party

We decorated cupcakes, read some spooky stories and played a lot!

Then we carved our pumpkins, making sure to save the seeds so we could roast them and make a delicious snack

luckily, daddy was able to help 

then it was finally time to go trick or treating

and get some "CANDY" !!!

Happy Halloween from our home to yours! I hope everyone is enjoying a safe and sugary sweet night!

pass the candy

Fairly Magical

As you know last year I was Ms. Mirriam A.Webster the Diction-Fairy for Halloween. 

You can go here for more information

This year I shared my tutorial and am happy to say that I have had loads of people copy me! I have received so many sweet emails from all sorts of people thanking me for the idea. A few crafty people have even won costume contests! Here are a few adorable fairies that were sweet enough to send along a pic. I love to see how each person has made it their own by adding special little touches!

From Devin & Kathy

From Dukes and Duchesses

From My friend Katie who made all 3!

From Jessica in Louisville, KY

This year I hope to see a whole army of book fairies out and about but so far I'm still the only one in my area. I wore my costume to the school carnival on Friday and then to work Saturday night, I know I'm a crazy lady! While waiting tables in a paper tutu and wings wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done it certainly was fun to see peoples reactions. My Favorite was the guy who just couldn't understand and kept calling me a newspaper!

 If you are also a Literary Fairy this year please send me a pic, I'd love to add it to these! 

Happy Halloween and watch out for paper cuts!

& Popcorn balls!

It just keeps getting better

Yesterday was my birthday. I have never in my life felt as loved as I do on this my 27th birthday. As I ease into my late twenties it's hard not to notice how much more comfortable I am with myself than I once was. As far as birthdays go, this year had to be the best one yet. 

A few days before my boys made me some new Halloween decorations

thanks boys!

My sweet husband took me out to my very favorite Creperie (after dropping the boys at school). Oh that giant hot chocolate was AMAZING, le sigh! 

We came home from breakfast to find that my sweet daddy had sent me some beautiful flowers, Thanks Daddy!

Then Jess got to work finishing making my little decorative shelf over my baking area in the kitchen. It looks kinda jumbled now but once I paint it all a creamy white it will look perfect

My friend and neighbor brought me a warm apple pie, you know you have some seriously awesome friends when they bring you pie! I was more than happy to have them and a few other friends/neighbors over for cheesecake and pie later. It is so nice to live in the same neighborhood with 3 of my very good friends!

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with another one of my favorite girls and a few of my co workers. I'm gonna wear these, my other gift from that wonderful hubby. 

Today my mom and I have to get to work getting ready for our kiddo Halloween party on Friday. I also have to finish making someones Lego Luke Skywalker costume. 

I hope you all have a great day!

of leftover pie for breakfast

Stencil the day away

This week despite not feeling all together well I decided to paint my bathroom. Well, not just paint but stencil my bathroom. I love painting a bathroom because in the course of a day or two you can completely change an entire room. Inspired by Emily's office over at Jones Design Co. I decided I would paint all my troubles away and make my bathroom a little more interesting too.

First I painted the top half of the walls with

 Restoration Hardware Silver Sage

I love this color and I got a gallon for $4 when our RH (which was the original RH) went out of business a while back. I was happy about the price but sad to see the original RH close :(

Then I made my cardboard stencil and began tracing my pattern on the walls

Thank goodness I had NPR and Pandora to keep me entertained!

Next with my favorite shade of white 

Ace Royal in New canvas

I began painting over my penciled design with a 1/4" paint brush

Several sessions and some pretty serious hand deformations later and I had gone all around the room

The lower half of the walls are now painted white and awaiting trim to separate the 2 colors

Now I could have used a real stencil and my lines would be perfect but I much prefer the hand painted look even if it does get a little wonky in a few places. In this pic you can see a sample of the trim I want to put all around the room. The trim is a job for the Mr. and I've been warned that it is a low priority so it may be a while before he gets around to it. 

Overall the room is much brighter and much more fun! I'll post a few more pics after I get the whole room cleaned up and back together.

I hope you all have a great fall weekend!

& crisp fall mornings

Enjoy the ride

Hello all my lovely friends! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours had a few ups and downs, but overall it was a surprisingly productive weekend around here. Although I'm currently battling an intense flare up with my Crohn's, I was finally able to get around to hanging up these little jewels in my dining room.

Now before you think I might have a little problem let me remind you that I work at a restaurant and that's where most of these corks are from.

These letters couldn't be easier to make! I simply cut the basic letter shape out of thick cardstock then hot glued my corks to the cardboard. The finished letters are about 10 inches high and are able to either stand on their own or be hung on the wall. They do, however, take forever to make! Then again maybe that's just because I'm a perfectionist and have to find just the right cork for each spot.

Hopefully I will have some finished photos of the dining room to share soon but I have a few other things to wrap up first, like this darn flare up!

& plentiful corks

Life is what you make it {pt.2}

A few weeks ago I showed you the beginnings of our diy chandelier project here. After finishing gluing, rewiring, and painting I am finally finished! Believe me when I tell you that there is no more dangerous thing to do than make a ball out of very delicate wood veneer and then leave it lying around 2 little boys for a few days. Perhaps I was a little over zealous when I had my husband take down our old chandelier well before I was ready to hang the new one. A few dimly lit days later we got it all hung up and I'm in love! 
so again, we went from this

through all this

to this!

It still needs a bit of tweaking, 

I'm not loving the bulbs but they were the only ones my local Ace had.

I think I'd like to order some round edison style bulbs for it...and a dimmer!

I love the shadows the rings cast on the ceiling at night

now I just have the rest of my dining room to finish!

So what do you think? 

Tomorrow I am hoping to start my Frightful Feasts countdown to Halloween

I have all of the boys favorites plus a few new spooky recipes to share

& Pumpkin Spice!

Italiano Eggs Benedict

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. 

Mine started off kinda rough, my car was broken into by someone while in my driveway, I got in a fight with a complete stranger (thanks blogland!) and I had to make an emergency trip to pick up my youngest from my mom's house a few hours away because he was sick.

Yeah, pretty crappy start to the weekend!

but it got better

and it keeps getting better

I thought I'd share this recipe for my new favorite twist on the classic Benedict.This was a dish My husband and I found at a cute little Italian cafe in Long Beach. As soon as I tried it I knew I would have to make this for our next Saturday Family Breakfast. I am happy to say that it is easier to make than the usual benedict with that temperamental hollandaise.

Italiano Eggs Benedict

Good quality rustic bread (I used a sourdough baguette) but focaccia is good too!

1-2 slices provolone cheese per serving

1-2 slices prosciutto (crisped under the broiler)

2 poached eggs per serving

1/2 tbsp. pesto per serving

Toast bread, layer on cheese and place under broiler until melted. Then place prosciutto and poached eggs top with pesto sprinkle with salt and pepper and enjoy!

I hope everyone has a beautiful day,  I'll be at work all day serving breakfast and dancing to the live jazz band!

& crispy prosciutto

A Winning Book

I just found out that I won a giveaway from Chelsea over at Room to Inspire
Chelsea is a super-duper sweet blogger who has loads of great ideas & recipesIf you haven't already checked out her blog make sure you pop on over and say Hi!
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
& happy days!

First Things First!

The Masked Chicken is obviously excited!

Happy October 1st everyone! we are all getting ready to head out (in the rain) to go to our town's annual Apple Harvest festival! Hopefully later today I'll be able to get my Halloween Decorations up before I head out to work, but until then here's a peek at what our home looked like last year all decked out. I hope everyone has a great day!

& Beguiling Foul