Kitschy Coffee Kitchen Towels

Waaaaaay back when I bought my quilt fabric, I threw in a half yard of this from Kaufman’s  Metro Cafe collection to my order:

Today was the finally the day I was struck to put it to use. Using it in combination with some coordinating leftovers from my quilt, I was able to put together four towels, two of each design.

Side Yard Debut

After just one month of TLC my side and back yards have come in beautifully from humble seed beginnings, so much so I’ve had to mow twice. This week was finally time to shape up and shrub up the side yard to match it’s bigger brother front yard on the other side of the driveway. So without further ado:

A few days ago, untamed and scraggly:

 

Today, trim, fit, and ready for show:

Mind you this is what I started with 18 months ago, with 30 of those ugly arborvitae outlining the narrow side yard as well:

And while I’m at it, a recent shot of the main front yard and house:

What I’ve Been Up To….

Momentum on the house has anything but lulled, just my diligence in bragging out it:) So in no particular order here’s some of the projects of the last few months…

After nearly a year and a half without a backyard and a weekend of major work, I finally got to trade this in

… for this:

I have never been happier to now have a weekly date with the lawn mower. The bright, shiny white deck was also a major overall project bringing that back to life.

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I also have managed to yet again over do it on jam making. Thought I was playing it safe with intending to only make one kind: triple berry. Wasn’t expecting 37 jars. Now I feel like I *have* to make apricot jam as well just so I don’t get absolutely sick of such a wonderful thing.

I’m sure pears and tomatoes will tempt me again later this summer, once the jams have been shelved away in the garage out of memory.

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After folding to the temptations of beautiful fall and winter store-bought wreaths, I was adamant I would make my own spring/summer wreath. I was quite happy when I was able to turn this quick stop at the craft store

…in to this:

 

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And lastly, I finally finished the for-now redo of the master bath. The white and teal ceramic tiles is staying for the time being, but the Hollywood lighting and sheet mirror had to do.

Here’s a before, before from move in:

Here’s the new light fixture and mirrors:

I’ll spare you the photo of the awesome new toilet :)

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I hope to finish organizing and setting up the garage, finally creating a *proper* guest bedroom, and re-stain the front door before summer is out.

Finally Finished!

With summer here next week, I needed to get my butt in gear and finished the quilt I started in February. I am in love with how it turned out.

 

Here’s my post with all the fabric and design details.

Crab and Zucchini Quiche

Pulled this together with from combining a couple recipes I found  and using items on hand. Super easy, plus it turned out perfect for being on the whim.

1/2 lb. crab, shopped
4 eggs
8 oz. evaporated milk
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded zucchini
1/2 chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt, pepper, and paprika to taste
1 premade piecrust

Mix all ingredients except the piecrust together. Pour into piecrust. Bake at 400 for 40 to 45 minutes on a cookie sheet.

Lemon Coconut Loaf Cake

There isn’t a loaf cake that I have ever said no to,   especially new ones (how have I never heard of Lemon Coconut?). When Rhonda at Southern Hospitality showed off hers earlier this month, I immediately added it to my list of monthly “to-try” recipes. She credits Southern Living magazine for the recipe, and having never heard of this variety before, it struck me as quite quintessentially Southern and oh-so spring appropriate. So while the weather this weekend here in the great Pacific Northwest involved grey clouds and inches of rain, I pretended spring was just around the corner.

1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 sour cream
2 tsp. lemon zest (I used 2 tsp. lemon juice instead)
1/2 cup dried coconut flakes

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp. milk
2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 dried coconut flakes

 

Preheat oven to 325. Beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar until mixed. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just mixed.

Mix dry ingredients (flour, salt, and baking soda). Add mix to butter mixture. Add sour cream. Stir in lemon and coconut flakes. Pour into a greased and floured 9x5 loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour. Let cool for 1 hour. Mix glaze ingredients together and pour over loaf. Sprinkle with coconut flakes.

Cheapest Makeover Yet

Alternate post titles include:

Why Did I Not Do This Sooner?
What Would I Do Without Target?
The Joys of Leftover Paint
From Ugly to Not Too Bad in Three Easy Steps

Stage One of Master Bathroom Redo: Option One is done. Thanks so some must-have stripped blue-green towels from Target, an almost entire gallon of soothing grey-green paint left over from another bathroom, two of the absolute cheapest yet fairly snazzy DIY projects I’ve come up with in recent months, and a few accessories I already had on hand I can honestly say it all came in well under $100 (with the towels being the massive bulk of it all).

Recap of the already mentioned towels and paint:

Inspired by the mighty classic subway tile (which sadly was not popular in circa 1990 suburban housing) and the absolute beauty of recent design choice of glass tile laid vertically,

   (taken from Apartment Therapy)

I created some “art”…

From the much underappreciated, humble paint chip.

I could have easily snipped the ends that out their original use, but they are so subtle you don’t even see the marking sunless up close, and I think it leads itself  to being a little quirky the way it is.

Super easy, this was. The wonderful Martha Stewart has the best chips- long, straight edges, great colors. I grabbed a few in several different greens, blues, and creams. I also used several from my stash at home. To alleviate the guilt, I tell myself over and over how many thousands of dollars I’ve spent there over the last year; that helps a little. Only took about an hour and a half to cut and glue all those strips into position. The frame came out of the crawl space, where it was waiting for a new purpose. So it came out to be….. free.

The window “treatment” also was about as easy as could be too.

I stole this basic white canvas valence (yes, Target striking again)from the laundry room (where I am thinking about finding some colorful, patterned fabric to sew my own valence anyway to make it more interesting down there). So besides the lightweight “cafe” curtain rod (from.. you guessed it!), it was only few bucks on a grey slate blue roll of ribbon to match the hand towels (no way I was going to match that bright teal in the tile work). Measure, pin, sew, hang.

Idea came from all the “hotel” stripped bed and bath linens:

Lastly, a few accessories already all on hand (of course, except the towels):

Glass jar with sage green bath salts, olive green vase (which eerily has the same vertical, glass tiling design), faux succulent, rolled towels, fresh candle all in a beachy basket.

Done and done.