the goose loves st. paddy's, even late

Happy St. Paddy's Day, Friends!

Yes, I'm not dumb. I know I'm an entire week behind. But bear with me. A few weeks ago, I arranged a collection of our green/Irish/Scottish/shamrock things on our two floating shelves, above the kitchen table. These shelves had Christmas stuff awhile ago, then were empty, and will have other stuff in the future, but for awhile, we're going with green.

But there's several reasons why this is okay:

a) green is good for all of March, especially in hippie-ville Portland

b) we're an Irish/Scottish family, so we could keep this stuff up year round if we wanted

c) it snowed on Thursday, and it's supposed to snow on Monday, so it's not going to be spring here anytime soon, so there's no point in replacing it with "springy" decor

d) it'll probably be June by the time I get around to changing it up again anyway.

I love this display because almost all of these pieces have a special meaning or story or origin.

I'll zoom in, so you can see our treasures close up. The large shamrock plate is from my aunt and uncle - Jim and Pat Dempsey of the "Spokane" Dempseys. They gifted us this plate when Billy and I got engaged, and we loved their early display of support and the truly thoughtful gift. 

I made the whisky tasting frame of Billy and three of his groomsmen back in 2009, after they attended an event in CA following Billy's mom's memorial service. Such good buddies.

The (empty) bottle of Balvenie (that's whisky, for you PBR-lovers) and the quiach cup (the little silver thing with handles) are from our wedding - Billy and the boys (dads included, right?) enjoyed the "wedding whisky" in celebration, and we used the quaich cup tradition as part of our celtic-themed rehearsal dinner.

The little white dish was a wedding gift from the Shaugnessys (Pat Dempsey's mom & dad), an Irish family themselves, and has an Irish blessing on top.

Then, to the right: the four-photo frame was displayed at our rehearsal dinner, and includes photos from when Billy and his parents traveled to Scotland in 2005. 

The glass vase with the stones and the candle was lit as a memorial to Billy's mom Barbara, also used at our rehearsal dinner.

The tartan is a sash that Billy's aunts presented to me at the wedding, another Scottish tradition. They pinned it using the little silver sword pin (in the above photo).

The center frame was purchased at HomeGoods, and the print inside was printed from Pinterest. Probably the least-meaninful piece, but I like how it brings everything together.

On the top shelf - a photo of Billy and his parents, which we displayed at the rehearsal dinner. The green pieces of paper are bookmarks that we gave as rehearsal dinner favors, and have a celtic blessing on them.

The candle has the claddagh image and a prayer, and was a Christmas gift from Barbara many years ago, now. We used it at the wedding - Bill lit the candle before the main procession at the beginning, and it stayed lit throughout the ceremony.

Finally, the last "quadrant" includes a photo of Billy from Scotland, and a purple-wood cross my parents gave us for our wedding.

The white frame has another printable found on Pinterest, and the green vase was made by Jackie awhile ago at our house. She hadn't taken it home yet, so I incorporated it into my display!

The black frame has an Irish blessing and photo from our wedding RSVPs - our friend Allison put it together as a gift for our rehearsal dinner, and we love it.

In the back is a mirror from Goodwill that I refinished and spraypainted. It's kinda hidden, but I think the shape and color goes well with the display.

But I couldn't just bore you with all of our special mementos for an entire post, right? Well I could, but I won't. Let's move on to more fun things.

Remember this tutu?

Well after I finished making it, but before I wore it to the race, I let Bentley take a spin with it.

More like I forced him. Can you see the pain in his eyes? I can't, but Billy says it's written all over his face.

 Wouldn't he make the cutest little Ballerina Beagle Bentley?

 This one says, "Hey Mom, let's dance."

Or maybe, "Ugh Mom, you better not show this to any of my friends."

Does that count the internet and all his friends who read this blog? Oops!

Maybe I have to make him a super-dog cape now, just to make up for his embarrassment over these....

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 friendsmas

Christmas came early this year!

Not real Christmas. Friendsmas (Christmas+friends). This year (like last year, actually), my two best friends  here in Portland are going home for Christmas, while Billy and I stayed up here. We still wanted to get together and exchange some gifts, though, so we all gathered at our house on Monday (you like how timely this post is?! it's not weeks late, like my usual ones!). Our evening involved food (duh), some sugar, some holiday movies, and some gifts.

We started with a present for the Bentley, from his girlfriend Dakota. Bents is pretty good at opening his own gifts. He's better at opening them than I am at focusing my camera, actually. Except sometimes once he gets into the gift, he gives up on unwrapping and just starts chewing on the gift. Usually they're chewable, though.

 Look at those stockings, all hung by the fire! more on that later.

 It's a chewy stick! And I'm sad to report that Bentley has already chewed off like 14 little pieces of red "bark." But that also means he loves chewing on his new toy. Thank you, Kody!

 We baked a pizza and filled Christmas cups with soda. And I still haven't learned the art of focusing.

 Jackie brought adorable party napkins and plates.

 And our stockpile of gifts. Yay for pretty wrapping!

 The evening also included some sugar cookie making and decorating.

 And more drinking. Like my christmas display in the background? More on that eventually, too...

 Love the Christmas shapes!

 But this batch got a little crispy. Uh oh.

 We got some green, red, and white frosting going.

 Meanwhile, the dogs got a little Christmas "lollipop" - completely dog safe, of course.

 They loved it.

 Once I burned baked enough cookies, we got to decorating. Let the sprinkle fest begin!

 Even Billy got in on the action. I chose not to share his version of a decorated gingerbread boy, though...

 Pretty snowflake, pretty snowflake, falling down from the sky.

 And a J for Jackie!

 Lucia's the star. (And a rare appearance on my own blog, actually!)

 Carolyn decorated this pretty mitten, but when she picked it up for a photograph, a shower of sprinkles rained down. Hahaha.

 A few of our results.

 Then it was present time! Jackie gave Carolyn a rotary cutter for her fabric cutting pleasure.

 Bentley opened his second present, which I failed to photograph - it was a doggie backpack! Now he can carry his own water and poop bags when we run or hike... yesss.

 Jackie got us these ADORABLE beagle prints when she was in Florida! They're not speckled with white, though - they're reflecting our Christmas lights. And mom, can you spot the advent wreath? :)

 Carolyn got Jackie a series of pig-themed cooking utensils - Jackie loves pigs. And these are super cute.

 Billy and I got Jackie two squashes and a pencil. Yes. Anyone else watch the Jimmy Kimmel video where parents get their kids bad Christmas presents? You tube that stuff. Its hilarious.

 Okay just kidding - we got them a both a trip to the Columbia Gorge! It's a lodge about 30 min from Mt Hood, so we'll do some skiing/snowshoeing/snowboarding/relaxing/jacuzzi-ing/eating. The only drawback? They have to go with us. :)

 We spent the rest of the evening eating more cookies and watching the movie "The Holiday." Jude Law is hot.

It was an awesome Friendsmas celebration. And now we can all have equally-awesome Christmas celebrations with our families! T-minus 4 days...

the goose loves the half bath curtain

Welcome, Friends. We're still in catch-up mode over here, but not for long. My goal is to be caught up by the end of October, which gives me 5 short days. Wow!

So let's get moving. This house project is a mix of old + recent. I started months ago (in September, so one month I guess) and just finished about a week ago!

Meet my half bath window:

Our place has two and a half gorgeous bathrooms - a master bath and a guest bath upstairs, and a half bath downstairs. The half bath is pretty basic, but not too shabby. Except that it came with this awful paper shade to keep peepers from peeping at you while you're peeing. (Say that 10 times fast?) The window isn't really that low, but I get that it's good to have some covering. If our neighbors were on the porch and craned their necks into our window, they might catch a glance at something. But the paper shade had to go.

It was just taped to the window, and then folded up at the bottom; the folds were kept together with this nice binder clip. Classy, eh?

So I pulled out the ol' miscellaneous tool & equipment bag and pulled out a curtain rod that used to hang in my college house from junior and senior year. I lived in the "attic" upstairs room of that house, with a door at the bottom of the stairs. I got sick of the door in the hallway and replaced it with a basic curtain, using this little "rod" thing to hold it up. It's just a wire set-up from Ikea, still purchase-able for abuot $5.

The ends screw into the wall, and the wire is just pulled tight inbetween. It also comes with some little hanging clips for your curtain of choice.

Of course, my curtain of choice was a handmade polka-dot number with blues and greens. I bought a yard, and cut off about 6" from the bottom to fit the window. I first used some basic hem tape to hem the sides.

Then I zig-zag stictched the sides to secure the hemtaped-hem. You never know how rough people will be with your half bath curtain, right?

I sewed around all four sides, backstitching at the start and end for security, and then ironed it out.

After spending a few minutes clipping it up evenly, here's the result!

Yeah not really a huge deal. Would have been more breathtaking if I could paint or something, but this is good enough for now.

My favorite part is how well the curtain complements the art I got from Angela Vandenbogaard, who has one of my favorite Etsy shops, called Jelly Beans. I got three prints from her - Celebration, Standing Tall, and Fireflies. I put them in colorful frames, and I love the result.

It literally took me about 6 weeks to decide which prints to order - I loved them all so much. She's got a new one called Hedgehogs - original art with a pink tree and two cute little hedgehogs - I would totally buy it if I had money to spend on hedgehog art.

It looks crooked, but I promise it isn't!

To go with the dots, I found a toilet paper holder with circles. Check out that fancy Costco toilet paper! There's no cupboard in the bathroom, but I wanted to make sure guests wouldn't run out of TP mid-trip, so this works well.

And the curtain, a little further away.

And even further - the angle is pretty awkward, with the door opening out into the hallway.

And my other piece of Etsy art - its called Wee Wee Dance and Jo, the artist, worked with me to customize the colors. She did a fantastic job, I love it! It hangs on the outside of the door, so that guests can distinguish half bath from laundry room, which is on the other side of the hall. And that's an important distinguishment (is that a word?) that I'd like them to make.

I think my favorite look is with the curtain open, letting in what little light Portland has to offer this time of year! (You can see our nice neighbors' porch and the top of the car in the driveway, here).

Hooray for another house project checked off the list, and for replacing a dumb old paper shade with something much more colorful and cheerful. Who doesn't want to be cheered up when doing their business, anyway? :)