Christmas Trees 2012

Like every Black Friday, I do a small amount of shopping. No really just a bit. We always get up too late for the good stuff and vow not to go out, nut the idea that it is the biggest shopping day of the year gets us every time. So this morning the girls and I got up and geared up to go. The good thing we only went for some decoration updates... No rush. No large crowds and it only took 1 1/2 hours to do 4 stores. First we started by decorating the door outside, easy purchased it all from Sam's. Abigail wanted to do her tree next. Finally, I was able to start on my trees.

I always start by fluffing my branches and adding any lights that are missing. Next it's deco mesh time. This year I did both red and green and polka dot ribbon.

Next I add the large ornaments. I do this so I can work around them. Next I add the regular ornaments. Personally I use the shatterproof because we used to have a large husky in the house and now we have the baby. Now there are no worries. The other plus is that they are cheap for a lot of them. The set I use on the this tree comes from Sam's. I put them on in color order because I can be somewhat OCD. I put them in the center of the tree to give depth and to fit it all. I try to cluster the ornaments around the mesh poofs.

Finally I add the picks. These again came as a set from Sam's and like everything else I buy a few things here and there every year to add and spruce it up. This year I added the hat topper and the awesome light bulb picks. The same process goes for our dining room tree. I have several sets of decorations and multiple trees so I try to put them to use. And the blue and white was perfect for my monochromatic dining room. Hope you enjoy. I'm off to enjoy a fire and egg nog. Happy holidays

Aunt Lizzie's Egg Nog

 

Ever since I was a small child, my mom always fixed homemade egg nog. I loved it and could not get enough. Finally it was my turn to take on the task of fixing the egg nog every year. My family can't wait until I fix it now. Tonight was the perfect night to start the holiday season in my house. After supper Matt and I are sharing a cup of egg nog and the movie 2016. Go figure the movie is not very seasonal, but Matt has become very interested in politics since the election. Anyways, on to the simple recipe. Fair warning this is by no means a health food.

 

First you need to gather the necessary ingredients.

3 cans of evaporated or pet milk

1 can of condensed milk

8 cups of water

6 large eggs

& sugar

 

The first thing is to put all the milks, evaporated and pet, along with the water in the pot and let is heat slowly. This is not a very specific recipe either. It is part of the cajun culture. Dishes just happen. 

 

While this is heating, separate the eggs. Add 2 teaspoons to the egg whites and start beating. I will return to this process a bit later. While that is beating, which can be slow, add 1/2 cup of sugar to the egg yolks, stir and set aside.

 

Now back to the egg whites. First I will give you Aunt Lizzie's version and then the way I prefer it. Aunt Lizzie would beat the egg whites until stiff. Once they were stiff put them in the milks and remove them. We will find out what happens to these later. My version is to beat until soft peaks and then wisk into the milks.

 

Once you decide which version you want, you add 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to the milks. Then you quickly and gradually wisk in the egg yolks into the milk. Make sure you mix well and quickly as not to scramble the eggs. (Yuck!)

 

If you have chosen to use Aunt Lizzie's version then you would finally fold in the egg whites back into the milk.

 

Now it is ready to enjoy! That is it. The entire process only takes about as much time as it takes to beat the egg whites regardless of which route you choose. I hope you enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

Abi's 6th birthday

With all the chaos in our lives with the new baby, I still had to plan a great birthday party for Abigail. She is turning 6 this year. I also wanted to keep it simple and inexpensive. The first thing I decided was that with the new baby I did not want to spend the whole day decorating and cleaning up. So we decided not to do it at home. We chose to do it at the local gymnastics gym, James Academy of Gymnastics. This means no entertaining kids, not a lot of decorating and virtually no clean up. The next step was what kind of party. Well, Abigail has been requesting an LSU birthday since after last year's party. So LSU it is. We got the purple and gold plates and napkins. And her Maw Janie bought Abi an LSU cheerleader outfit to wear. But how to invite everyone to the event? Well invitations of course. I usually order invites online at Etsy, but lately I have been giving my hand at it. I don't use the best software, and I am not always the most creative, but I think I can do the job and it saves me at least $10 or so. So I created the invitations at home and had them printed on cardstock at Office Depot. We mailed these in purple envelopes. Next on the to-do list was a cake. Last year I attempted to do the great shaped cake from a local vendor. Well I will never spend $100 on a birthday cake for kids again. The baker insisted she only uses fresh cakes which is good if your cake is not shaped like a strawberry. Anyways off of that rant, I decided we would go with the local grocer's cakes. She decided she wanted a "regular cake" quarter sheet that looked like an LSU football field. The party is around lunch so hot dog via the crockpot (Pinterest) will be served. Finally, a thank you gift for the attendants. Back to Pinterest for idea. Well we found the best. Tiger tails made of marshmallows coved in orange candy melts with black icing tiger stripes. Cannot wait to post all the pictures and let you know how it all came out tomorrow.

Lillian's nursery

We were all very shocked to find out we were having another little girl. It was time to get her room ready. We didn't want the usual girl decor, this took months to decide on bedding. When I found something I loved it was out of stock or they didn't have everything I need. Until I came across the Harlington set at Pottery Barn kids! This was just what we were looking for; modern and girly without the usual pastels etc.

Once we got the bedding in person, it was time to decide on the wall color. The red suggested by Pbkids was just too much for me, so we decided to go with a pale blue that shows up ever so slightly in the bedding.

Furniture! I had Matt repaint Abigail's crib from a pretty dark cherry to white. This keeps the room bright and airy. The rocker is a hand-me-down from my step-mother's dad and the changing table and nightstand are hand-me-downs from Abigail and my niece's rooms. Again I had Matt paint the rocker which was like it should be, worn and beautifully aged aling with the rocker and bed the nightstand got a fresh coat of white. The spray gun really helped with the painting and gives a nice finish. For the changing table I had been dreaming of a bright red one since I found out I was pregnant; so Matt sprayed it bright red. Note everyone thought I was crazy, bit it seems to be most peoples favorite thing in the room, a little something unexpected.

The lamp in the corner is left over from Abigail's previous room that I made. Lillian's initials above the bed were inspired by letters created by letterperfectdesigns on etsy.

And finally the curtains were a project my mom and I completed. See the previous post for a how-to.

Ruffle Curtains

In decorating Lillian's room for her arrival, we decided she needed curtains of course. While on Pinterest I kept seeing posts of waterfall ruffle curtains. I just had to have some ruffles for my little princess. So my mom and I decided we would make them! Here is a quick tutorial that we used for the curtains along with some links from others that we pulled from.

Step 1: Gather supplies. We decided to go with and ombre style from dark red to light pink which matched the bedding (another post). We measured for our panels which we are going to attach the ruffles to and decided how many ruffles we needed on each panel. Each ruffle is 14" long so each panel we needed 9 ruffles. We picked basic cotton fabrics and a nuetral cotton for the panel. If you are using a sheer fabric for the ruffles I suggest using the same fabric for the panel. We asked thefabric store to cut each ruffle separately; saves you time and no calculations on yardage! The ruffle should be 1 1/2 to 2x the size of the panel to have a good ruffle. For the panels add a little extra to use for the hidden tabs. We used 12 4" tabs between both panels.


Step 2: Creating the panel. For the panels we hemmed the bottom with a 2 inch hem and the top with a 4 inch hem and were able to use the salvage edges on either side. We created the tabs by cutting them into 4x2" pieces and zig zaging the raw edges flipping them inside out (similar to a belt loop). Sew down the top and bottom to close. To attach it to the panel simply space evenly and sew the top and bottom along the top hem. Your panel is complete!

Step 3: Create the ruffles. We used the salvage edges on either side so only had to hem the top and bottom. We ironed stitch witchery to the bottom hem before sewing just to give it a more stable edge once finished. This will depend on the fabric you choose and is good for decorative stitches. Once the 18 panels were ironed and hemmed it was time to ruffle. We used a pintuck foot to ruffle. You need to cut a piece of crochet thread (comes in a big 400 yard roll; not yarn) that is double the width of the panel. Tie the ends together. Find the center of the thread and loop over the center part of the hook. Now sew the fabric with a zig zag stich wide enough to go over both sides of the crochet tread. As you stitch pull the ruffle away from the foot so it doesn't get caught. This takes time. Once all of the ruffles have been ruffled its time to put it together.

Step 4: Put the pieces together. Pin the ruffles onto the panel to sew. Start at the bottom and work your way up. Make sure the bottom hem on the last ruffle and the bottom hem on the panel line up. Each panel should be evenly spaced on the panel. For ours we used 10 1/2" from the top of the one panel to the top of the next. This gave a nice overlap. They should overlap to give the waterfall look and hide the top stitch of the ruffles.

Now you are ready to hang!

Welcome to the House of Princesses

I would like to welcome you all to the House of Princesses. I am the queen married to my king. We have one six year old princess, Abigail and one princess on the way, Lillian (due August 27th). I am on a journey to create a better home for our family, a better me through my creativity,and a successful me through my work. I have learned the best way to create a better home environment is to create a better me. My current status: I am a 24 year old wife and mother, a graduate student (praying for a December 2013 graduation), an artist, an accountant (yes, kind of an oxymoron). I have several goals for myself this year in my journey to a better me. I want to become a healthier me by finally eating better and learning how to enjoy excercise. I want to become a more creative me; I need to reconnect with the artist that I was years ago; this is my outlet. I want to learn how to enjoy my children and the chaos that comes with them. I want to learn to keep my marriage entertaining. I am hoping to hold myself accountable using the blog and hope you all will join me for the journey.