the goose loves l-o-v-e pillows

Boo! I'm back!

You thought I was gone for good, huh. But not so. I was just on an extended hiatus. Pesky things like work and cooking and cleaning and walking the dog have gotten in the way of posting fun projects and tasty recipes and poorly-taken photos.

But even if I've been slacking in the posting department, I certainly haven't been slacking in the making department. I've been sewing things, building things, baking things, cooking things, and beautify-ing things. And slowly checking items off my 25 for 25 list. Emphasis on slowly.

But here's one for the sewing and "make from pinterest" categories. A few weeks ago, I saw this adorable pillow on the crafty blog UCreate - full tutorial here.



via

That weekend, I was in sewing mode but not ready to take on the full bedroom makeover project, so I decided to whip up a pillow that could live in my soon-to-be-beautiful bedroom.

The best part of this project (and what makes many projects just terrific) is that I had all the supplies on hand. Old ugly pillow that came from the couch and made with both leather and suede? Check. Cheerful green home dec fabric in enough yardage? Check. (It's Amsterdam in Chartreuse) Enough felt in a coordiating color? Check. About two dog-free hours? Well no, but it worked out anyway.

The project was super easy - just a basic envelope style pillow cover, cut out letters (I just drew letters on paper, cut them out, pinned them to felt, and cut.) I almost didn't have enough fabric, so my pillow sticks out a little in back. But who looks at the backs of pillows anyway?

In the tutorial, the letters were sewn on with embroidery thread in big stiches, which looked super cute. But I do my best to avoid threading needles and sewing in the old fashioned way, especially when it means that it'll take me another 30 minutes to finish. So I just ran the pinned-down letters through the machine, sewing along all sides in white. For the heart "O" I used a decorative stitch, which looks sweet.

It was an enjoyable afternoon and it felt good to just get a project done. Now if only I could finish the room makeover that quickly...

the goose loves raspberry salads

Usually I like to bake. I love making Brownies and Boston Cream Pie and Chocolate Chip Cookies among other things. But sometimes you have to counter the sweets with a little healthiness. So sometimes I make a salad. But to really be balanced, I put sweet things in it. Balance is good, right?

Like when I had an abundance of berries. After making delicious sweet things, like Berry Streusel Muffins and Berry Cobbler Waffles, I used my berries for health and made a rasberry salad. You've probably heard of (and salivated for?) strawberry-spinach salads, before? So this one is like that, but raspberry-romaine instead. And I even have the alliteration going still. :)

Here's my inspiration:To make my salad more dinner-like, and to add some oomph (yes, that's a real thing), I had Billy grill up a mahi mahi fillet (we got a package of frozen fillets from Costco - so easy and tasty!). I then roughly chopped it and added it to the salad when it was slightly warm still. I tore up some romaine and probably some other lettuce we had hanging around from the farm share. I included some sunflower seeds, cashews, baby tomatoes, bell peppers, and craisins. And to go alongside, Billy grilled some flour tortillas brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with garlic powder.

I chose to sprinkle the raspberries on top of the salad right before serving - I was afraid that mixing them in would lead to raspberry breakage, which looks like bloody guts.

Let me point out that this salad would be perfect for Valentine's Day. You didn't count all the red things? I'll help you: raspberries, raspberry dressing, craisins, baby tomatoes, bell peppers, and love. Bonus points for grilling sundried-tomato-flavored tortillas and sprinkling them with red pepper flakes. :)