Simply XSBaggage

Sunny Forecast

Oh happy day! Look at this forecast for Puyallup tomorrow:

After feeling like Siberian winter at the market last Saturday, I am oh-so-thankful for this forecast.

/Rant/: Why can't I have those dreaded hot flashes when I need them? They seem to present themselves ONLY at the most inopportune times! Mature ladies: Can you relate?? /End Rant/

The Puyallup Farmer's Market hours are 9:00 - 2:00. They usually place me on the Meridian Street side, for you locals.

I'm looking forward to getting some fresh, local vegetables and maybe a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Oh, and being warm, I'm really looking forward to being warm tomorrow!

Pulling My Hair Out Trying to Choose Paint Colors

Hi there! Indecisive me is trying to choose paint colors. I should have it figured out in the next 10 years or so... just kidding. I was able to make a decision about our front living room and have finished painting it. I'll post photos after we get the outlet covers put back on and the furniture moved back into the room.

Here's what I'm trying to choose from:

My goal is a light color scheme on the walls, with pops of color in the accessories. The pink fabric above is what we used to cover our dining room chairs. The other fabric is an Amy Butler fabric that I'm using as my 'inspiration piece', and trying to draw colors from it. I think having an inspiration piece that I can use throughout the house will help keep a cohesive look.

My next project will be our hallway. Currently a dark brown, (as were all of the other walls that I've painted so far. -Hello multiple coats of paint!) it's going to get lightened up as well.

Our main living room is two stories high. My hubby and I are both very uncomfortable with heighths, so we may have to hire some help with that room. We'll see. Maybe I can get hypnotized and overcome that fear. ummm.... no.

Here's a peek at the mantel in that room, dressed up for Spring:

Off to the paint store for me today!! Wish me luck on deciding on a color between now and then!

A Mini Anthropologie Tour

My hubby and I recently took a week off from work, but instead of going some place warm and sunny, we stayed home and got ready to have a garage sale. (Yeah, we're fun like that).

After moving me here last year, our garage was bursting with boxes of household 'stuff'. Since we both had fully furnished homes, there were duplicates of everything! We spent 3 days going through boxes, sorting and pricing. My mother-in-law came at the end of the week and stayed through the weekend to help out. She's awesome at getting in and pricing things and we really appreciated her help.

We held our garage sale on Saturday and Sunday and it was a big success! If you're tired of having too much stuff around your house or garage, I highly recommend making the effort to just get through it and sell it or give it away. We had been putting it off for several months, but now that we've had our garage sale, it feels great to be rid of the extra clutter. And the bonus - we made about $1100.00! We sold some furniture, which helped with our total. We even sold our living room furniture and have already picked out and ordered a new sofa and two chairs for the living room. We'll be using the proceeds from our garage sale to help pay for it!

Since we hadn't done anything fun on our 'vacation' we decided to take a day to go to the 'big city' for some fun. I've always wanted to go to Anthropologie and luckily, my hubby is always up for going somewhere new so we headed to Bellevue (near Seattle). Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain. all. day.

That didn't stop us though! We were ready for a little road trip - and shopping!! Here's a little tour of the Anthropologie store in Bellevue.

Bright little timers:

My hubby and I both loved this pink dress, but at $158.00 I decided I could live without it.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to this store, was because I had always heard about the creative displays in the store. I was not disappointed.

So interesting. A grouping of paintings and some of the canvases are hung backwards.

We saw a lot of paper mache' cactuses used in displays. Also, the display below is made with ladders and scaffolding.

Another really cute summer dress. I loved the pretty yellow and the white embroidery. Again, $158.00.

Another grouping of paintings, but if you look closely, the canvases are, again, hung backwards with little prints in the center of the backs!

I LOVED these lampshades with the scrappy fabrics and they've given me an idea of a project I'd like to try.

This was another really unique display piece. It's hard to tell in the photo, but it's supposed to look like a sail on a sailboat. They've taken what looks like diamond shaped fabrics, folded them in half, and attached them to rope, signifying sails. Does that make sense? It's hard to explain, and the photos don't really do it justice. dang it.

A great selection of knobs! Every style and color you could need.

That's it for my Anthro tour! We bought a hand towel for our guest bathroom because it was the perfect color and the quality seemed really great. We also bought a fabric 'H'. We've been collecting the letter 'H' since we got married last year. I have them on our mantle, and will try to post a photo of them soon.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Have you been to an Anthropologie store? How did you like it?

Tree Tent

We were on one of our many walks with the dogs and found this cool tree tent (tree tee pee? what would you call it?).

We've been blessed to have some sunny and warm weather the last couple of days, but the weather man says we're getting rain - very soon.

It feels so great to get out into the fresh air and the smells of the forest.

Somebody spent some time building this tree tent. Spencer was as curious about it as we were.

A Day In The Studio

A glimpse of a day in my home sewing studio.

 

 

{Linking up today with Today's Creative Blog 'Get Your Craft On'}

Self Portrait Day

Have you heard of PInterest? My guess is, you probably have. But, if you haven't, and you like looking at cool and pretty things, or you love finding new recipes, or if you're the kind of person that buys magazines to look at the beautiful photos, well then, you should run - don't walk- to Pinterest.com. You will love it. I promise!

 

I first discovered it last year, and in just the short time that I've been using it, it has grown immensely! I LOVE looking at pretty things, but I also started to see how it could be a great asset to someone like me that has an online business. Some of the things 'Pinned' on Pinterest have gone viral, meaning if someone pins one of my blog posts, or something they see and like in my online shop, it has the potential of being seen by hundreds or even thousands of people. (To get an idea of the sorts of things I like to pin you can follow me here.)

 

So, naturally, I would love it if people started pinning my products. That would mean my items could be seen, potentially, by a whole new audience.

 

One way to make photos more 'pinnable' is to have really great shots. Something I constantly try to improve on. My photography skills can always use improvement. That's why I decided to join the 'Pin-tastic Pinterest Photography Challenge' on the SITS Girls site.  Courtney, from 'Click It Up A Notch' is teaching it. I had recently discovered Courtney's blog and was thrilled with the way she explains how to use the manual settings on your camera, and thought it would be a great idea for me to join in.

 

I've been following along with the challenge all week and doing the Daily Tasks that she assigns us and I'm really learning a lot. Our Task for this weekend has been the hardest. We are to take a self portrait and post it to the Forum. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has an issue with photos of themself, but man, it's really hard for me to be happy with any photos of myself. This Task really got me out of my comfort zone! I took about 40 shots of myself, and thought I'd be really brave and post the three shots that I don't 'hate'. Okay, here goes.... deep breath...

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The serious one:

 The residual Bells Palsy look:

The 'trying to force a smile' look:

 

This was a good challenge for me, and maybe if I do this more often I won't be so uncomfortable with seeing photos of myself. 

My Sewing Companions

These two are with me every day as I work in my studio. Meet my sewing companions:

This is Spencer. He's an old guy, but you'd never know it when we take him to the river for a walk. He runs around like a pup, sniffing and exploring to his heart's content. He's an extrovert and thinks that everyone he meets is his best friend. Also, he LIVES for dog bones. Seriously. He has some sort of internal clock that tells him it's 5:30 (dog bone time) and he is relentless in begging for that bone until you give it to him. But, we love him anyways. He's a really good doggy.

 

This is Tanner. He's just a big lump of love. A big scared-y dog. He is content to lay around casually observing everything that goes on in the house. Unless we have company. In that case, he'll run immediately upstairs and hide in our bedroom for as long as the company is here. He's a very gentle, loving dog who's afraid of his own shadow. 

 

On Christmas Eve, Tanner was laying under the coffee table and my hubby reached over him to blow out a candle. Tanner freaked, jumped up, knocking into the table and green candle wax went everywhere, including on Tanner.

You can still see remnants of his little Christmas Eve 'wax-ident' in his fur. hehe.

 

Those are my two sewing companions most days. We also have a cat, Bogey, who graces us with his presence occasionally. But usually just long enough to harass and irritate the dogs. Cats are funny like that. 

Lightening Up The Bathroom With Paint

They say that if you want to change the look and feel of a room, one of the easiest and cheapest ways to do so is to give the room a fresh coat of paint. 

Our guest bathroom on the main floor of our home was definitely in need of a new look. The paint color was so, so dark for such a small area. I felt like I was in a cave when I used that bathroom. Let me show you:

Oh, and did I mention that there were dragonflies stuck randomly all over the walls? ummm, yeah. 

Please excuse my really bad, blurry photos. Anyway, I think you get the idea. Dark and a little bit, uh, tacky.

Picking a paint color is always the hardest part for me. I have to really think about it and get a plan in my head of how I want the room to feel, and then narrow down the color that I think will work best. I knew I wanted a color that would work well with the tile around the sink and look fresh and modern. I ended up pulling from the aqua color in the tile for the paint color. 

I first painted the ceiling a nice creamy white. And then went to work on the walls. Small spaces paint up quickly, but it's sometimes a little hard to maneuver and reach into corners. A couple of coats of paint later, though, and it's all worth it!

And here is the finished bathroom:

When I found this Amy Butler hand towel at Bed, Bath & Beyond, I knew it would work perfectly with our new bathroom colors. I've been a huge fan of her fabrics for years.

I bought a set of prints on Etsy to create a small gallery wall.

And another print, also found on Etsy, for over the toilet.

(In case you're wondering what it says, 'I Love You Like A Fat Pug Loves Cake'.)

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's just so much brighter and fresher looking now. It still amazes me what a big difference paint can make!

 

{Linking up with Thrifty Decor Chicks March Before & After Party}

Easy Delicious Crock Pot Chicken

I wanted to share this recipe with you because it is so easy, and so delicious! I use my Crock Pot a lot and I'm always looking for new recipes that me and my cute hubby would like. I call it 'Italian Chicken'. I used a recipe that I found on Food.com, but then adapted to work with ingredients that I would have on hand. 

I first made this in December, and we loved it so much, we decided it was what we would serve to our friends and family on Christmas Day. I love a meal that I can prep early in the day and forget, so I can enjoy family time.

Lay your Chicken Breasts (I use boneless skinless) in the bottom of the Crock Pot. Cover with sliced mushrooms.

In sauce pan, melt butter. Then add Italian Seasoning, cheddar cheese soup, wine, cream cheese and onion.

Stir and bring to boil.

Pour over chicken and mushrooms.

Put the lid on it and try to forget it for the rest of the day. I say 'try'' because if you're home to smell this cooking, you'll be very anxious to eat it!

We've served it with either brown rice, wild rice or garlic mashed potatoes. You'll have lots of the yummy sauce to pour over whichever one you choose to serve with this.

Italian Chicken

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup Italian Seasoning

1 can Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 cup dry white wine

4 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup minced onion

 

1. Place chicken & mushrooms in Crock Pot.

2. In a sauce pan, melt the butter. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat. 

3. Remove from heat and pour over chicken and mushrooms.

4. Cook on low 4 - 6 hours. (I put my chicken in the crock pot frozen and let it cook on low for 8 hours.)

Enjoy! I'd love to hear what you think if you try this yourself.

Mystery Mail

The other day I went out to the mailbox to pick up the day's mail. This magazine page package was in amongst our mail. It was addressed to me.

Yep, that square package made from magazines came to me all the way from Costa Rica. This is the strangest looking package I have ever received, and I don't mind saying, I was a little afraid to open it.

I mean, really, who sends packages like that other than kidnappers demanding a ransom? After contemplating a few minutes over whether or not I should open it, I got brave and cut it open.

Inside were my new business cards that I recently ordered from a new supplier. The new cards are wonderful, but I kind of want to write to the seller and say, 'What's the deal with the strange packaging?!'

Was I right to be apprehensive, or am I just a big chicken?