Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Today is my first mother's day- yay! Little E is almost 4 weeks old. DH has been very sweet today- picked me up some Starbucks (decaf!), some roses, and I have a new waffle iron coming in the mail! Oh yes, and he's currently taking care of E while I relax a bit :) Love our little family!

So here's the spring/summer wreath that I made last week. I added on the little "mom" banner that I whipped up just using some paper scraps, circle punch, alpha stickers, and Twinery twine. Since I like to be able to reuse my wreath bases, the banner (as well as the pinwheels) are attached with pins!

I also spruced up our mantle a bit for the occasion (kinda looks similar to our Easter mantle, I know!)- super simple stuff since I don't have as much time to craft right now with baby and since some of my crafting stuff is already packed since we're moving to our next Army post in the coming week!

I made a super simple banner for the plant using scrap paper, an SU! punch, some Twinery twine, Memento inks, and a stamp from Unity's April KOM.

I also made some little pennants for the decorative branches using again some scrap papers, Twinery twine, circle punch, and stickers.

Well,  that's about it for now... have a fabulous Sunday and Mother's Day everyone :)

Pinwheel Wreath

{ please excuse the less-than-stellar iPhone photos! my camera is still buried somewhere in our hospital bag... }

So the hubby is reading to Little E, which means I had a little time to photograph the simple spring/summer pinwheel wreath I put together! I was inspired by {this post} over at Until Wednesday Calls where she gives a great tutorial on how to make the pinwheels.

I needed something simple for a bright festive wreath, something that I could make whilst little one napped on my lap. These pinwheels were it! I actually sewed them together instead of using hot glue {hot glue + baby = no no} and then I simply used a straight pin or two to attach each pinwheel to the wreath base. Since it already feels like summer down here in the south, I decided to make one wreath for both spring & summer- so I did a mix of springy & summery colors :)

You may recognize the wreath base from my Saint Patty's Day Wreath. That's the beauty of attaching the decorations with straight pins- you can reuse the base! Saves a LOT of time, especially since I like the yarn-wrapped look for my wreaths :) Anyhoo, I should go relieve DH from baby duty- he's making dinner tonite, such a sweetie! Hopefully I'll get another chance to post later this week- I have so many projects I've been meaning to share!!

maternity leave

Hi friends! I just wanted to let you know that I'm on "maternity leave" hehe... this past Tuesday we welcomed our little bundle of joy, "Little E", into the family! Everyone is happy and healthy and we're enjoying time getting to know our daughter :) I'm a bit protective of our little one, so I can't promise any photos will be posted, but I hope to be back posting more regularly soon!
God bless- Shauna

Easter Mantel

Welcome to our "He is Risen" mantel! AKA our Easter Mantel :) With baby ready to arrive almost any day now, I kept the mantel pretty simple... a cross trio, little banner, twine eggs, church photo painted by my MIL, glass cross, and pretty blue jar. On our "secondary mantel" (aka. top of our entertainment center, what we use as our mantel when we're in a home that doesn't have real a mantel) I also have a little crystal bowl with "Jesus" eggs :)
Here's a close up of the banner that I made with just some paper, circle paper punch, sticker letters, twine, hole punch, and two bamboo skewers.
I love my twine from The Twinery and used it to wrap a few pieces of cardboard that I cut out into egg shapes. I hung them from some decorative branches using twisty ties!

The Jesus eggs {below} were super simple too. I picked up a package of 6 kraft eggs, painted a little white spot on the fronts, then added gold stickers. Voila!
Here's some close ups of the rest of the mantel bits and pieces. May you have a truly blessed Easter weekend, and thanks for stopping by! :)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

-John 3:16 (ESV)

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quinoa stuffed peppers

So DH and I recently discovered/re-discovered the amazingness of quinoa- it's hailed as the "future superfood," yet is actually an ancient grain {a bit of irony, hehe}. Anyhoo, it's got omega-3's, all 8 essential amino acids, and protein. It's technically not even a grain (although you use it like one when cooking) but it's really a grass, well actually, a grass seed. It cooks up just like rice, has a slightly nutty flavor, or can be ground into a flour. Oh! And it's naturally gluten free! Score for me ;)

So, now that I've gone over a few of the perks of quinoa, let's get onto the recipe...

loosely based on the {Incredibly Easy Gluten-Free Recipes} cookbook p. 44

makes: 2 large servings or ~4 side servings

{ingredients}

• 2 bell peppers, tops removed, seeded & hollowed out
• 1/2 c. uncooked quinoa
• 1 c. water
• 1/2 tsp salt, divided
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1/8 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 TB butter

{directions}
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place quinoa in fine-mesh strainer and rinse well. Bring water and 1/4 tsp salt to a boil, and stir in quinoa. Cover, reduce heat to low. Simmer 12-14 minutes or until quinoa is tender and water is absorbed (like you would with rice).

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add onion and tomato. Cook 7-10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in quinoa, remaining 1/4 tsp salt, and Italian seasoning. Add butter and stir until melted.

3. Arrange peppers in baking dish. Fill peppers with quinoa mixture. Bake 15-20 minutes or until peppers are tender (we did ours until peppers were slightly al dente still).

4. Serve warm. A decent main meal for a vegetarian (aka. me), or if you cut the peppers in half after cooking, it would make ~4 side servings.

NOTES:: You can definitely eat this sans peppers... DH and I liked this so much, we had it again the night after and just skipped the peppers! You could also substitute the peppers with a hollowed out onion, tomato, etc. You could substitute the chopped up veggies with pretty much anything you wanted too!

Cross-posted at the cooking blog {Comestibilis}

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DIY St Patty's Day mantel tour

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

May the luck of the Irish be with you today and the whole year through :)

So! Now that we've got that out of the way, hehe, let me introduce you to my festive mantel! A lot of the ideas you'll probably see repeated in my mantels throughout the year because they're easy to change up! I'm all for keeping it simple, DIY, and reusable ;) So let's get going with the tour...

• Fabric Wrapped Balls- I simply cut out 3/4" wide strips of fabric, wrap them around styrofoam balls, and use a straight pin to adhere the fabric to the ball! Repeat until completely covered and bam! Instant decor :) And so easy to change up the fabric for different holidays/seasons.
• Metal Shamrock- well... it's actually a belt buckle I already had! Love using things for unexpected/unintended purposes :)

• more fabric wrapped balls....
• Framed Fabric- another super simple insta-decor piece! I taped the fabric around a 12"x12" piece of thin cardboard and then put it in the frame. So easy! And again, easily changed out for different holidays and seasons :)
• Fabric Trees- another easy piece. I just pinned strips of fabric around the styrofoam trees, ruffling the fabric as I went. Easy to change out the fabric for the next mantel too!
• Fabric Wrapped Candle- yet again, super simple. I took leftover pieces of fabric, twisted them, wrapped them around the candle, and taped them in the back. Easy to change up too! For the record, I'm paranoid and would never actually burn this candle with the fabric on there... it might be fine, but I would NOT risk it!! So it's a purely decorative candle for the moment :)

• Shamrock Banner- another easy decor piece. I cut my The Twinery twine a few inches longer than my mantel, punched out some shamrocks and threaded them onto the twine about every 3 inches or so. Didn't even tie them or adhere them to the twine, they stay all by themselves :)

This area is actually on top of my entertainment center in the living room, but is another festive area I wanted to share ;)

• Tulle Balls- see them peeking out of the basket there? super simple- I just wrapped a bunch of tulle around three of my fingers, tied a piece of twine around the center of the bundle, cut the loops at the top and bottom, then fluffed up the tulle!
• Festive Branches- let's not forget the branches! I punched out a few shamrocks, looped them on some wire, and hung them on the branches (kinda like Christmas ornaments!). And I tied some fabric scraps onto a few branches too. Easy to do and easy to change up!

And of course a few green candles in the fireplace. It's a working wood fireplace, but being in the south, we've not yet had occasion to use it! I hope you enjoyed the tour of my mantel!! :) Have a fabulous weekend!

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