anthropologie knock-off (aka the worst tutorial ever)

For Mother's Day, Mom wanted one of these shower curtains from anthropologie, but she wanted it in white....the only problem was, it didn't come in white.  So I decided to make one!

I called my grandma and she took me to the fabric store (secretly!) and I got 3 yards of white cotton fabric. When I got back and started to cut the pieces out, I realized I probably didn't have enough! I squeezed out just what I needed and used every square inch!  I wanted to have extra to make a skirt.....next time. :)

My grandma and grandpa were super helpful by letting me sew it at their house so Mom didn't see! Since I was doing this secretly, I didn't have time to take pictures of the whole process, so I'll just give you the general idea.

I cut one big rectangle 72" x 66" then cut out 8 ruffle pieces 9" x 100".

I hemmed all the rough edges except for the tops of the ruffle pieces, which I just cut off with pinking shears.

Then I ruffled all the ruffles and pinned and sewed them on to the big square piece, one ruffle at a time. I eyed it, just making sure that the ruffle on top covered the edge of the bottom ruffle.


When I had sewed all the ruffles on, I folded over the left over fabric that was on top, and sewed it over the rough edge of the top ruffle.

For the holes to put the shower curtain rings through, I just made ten 1" wide buttonholes, six inches apart.

And I was done! It was super easy - actually a lot like my ruffle skirts, but just in a big flat square shape.

On Mother's Day morning, I hung it on the shower and Mom walked in to a nice new curtain. I'd say it was a hit! :)

bees

 Last week, Jesse turned 14. And what did he want for his birthday? Bees!

So this week Jesse, Davy and Dad drove out past London to pick up about 20,000 of them. Yikes!

(pants tucked into socks for extra protection :)

They brought the bees here to the farm and while they were calming down, Dad and Jesse then started to build their hives.

This is a smoker. It's used to calm the bees down when Jesse needs to get into their hives.

That evening Jesse let them out into their hives.

Smoke and bees everywhere....they were crawling all over his clothes!

And amazingly, he didn't get stung.

(pictures taken with Dad's phone)

Now all I seem to hear is the buzzing of bees.....

two year old in a speedo

If you're feeling down, depressed, sad, or just bored, here's some pictures of a two year old in a speedo to cheer you up:

You're welcome. :)

why, hello there!

I know I haven't posted for two weeks, and that I STILL haven't done a glimpses post in more than a month, BUT.....I'm here to tell you that I'm still alive and to show you some previews of a photo shoot I posted on my photography blog - check it out, NOW! I mean, uh, I would be most obliged if you would look at my humble photographs - www.sydneyellenphotography.com.

I'll try to be back this week with a glimpses post! (no promises, though.)

spring has sprung...and i'm loving it.

Spring has finally definitely arrived. Yay!

I'm pretty sure that Jonas has now found and caught every toad on our whole property.

Oh yeah, and we got a horse!  His name's Nick. I absolutely ADORE him.

He is super well-trained, and I love being able to go outside and ride him whenever I want. We took riding lessons last summer and I'm so happy we don't have to wait once a week to ride a horse.

^^ Mom loves riding too! ^^

Just this morning, a calf was born. It was wet and shivering, and needed to get warm quick, so we wrapped her in towels.

That didn't seem to be working, so Dad picked her up....

...and brought her inside the house. I served as the soother. If you had told me 5 years ago that we would have a newborn calf in our house, with it sucking on my fingers, I would not have believed you.

When she had warmed up and dried off, we brought her back outside...

...and let the mama do her work. These cows are such great mothers.

So there's a quick farm update for you. Lot's going on! Jesse wants to name the calf Windy.

What are your suggestions? (it's a girl, btw)

Oh, and here's a message from Brock.  If you haven't had a laugh today, you need to watch this. And even if you have, you still need to watch it!

it's been a while since I've done a what I wore post....

Today was SO nice out, and I was feeling summer-y.

 

shirt - aborcombie & fitch // skirt - columbia // jeggings - old navy // shoes - old navy 

I had actually put this skirt away, because I felt that it was too summer-y to wear for winter, but I pulled it out today.  It's one of my favourites.  I love pairing these kind of skirts with jeggings - makes it seem more casual and I love girly fabrics paired with the look of denim - kind of dresses it down a bit.

Happy Monday! Hope to be back to catch up on a long-overdue glimpses post this week.

nutella bites

So, I had great plans for the blog last week... but life got in the way. :) 

Here's a recipe I made yesterday. This was pretty much the first time I ever made something without actually following a recipe. But it turned out ah.maze.ing!

 so - ingredients!

1/2 cup melted butter
4 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup nutella
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups pitted dates - about 50
7 cups oats

Yes, the nutella is actually in the picture, it's just in that little green bowl. :)

 Chop up those dates!

 I cut them into about thirds - it depends on how much you want to taste them. They kind of mash up anyway, so it doesn't really make too much of a difference.

 Add the butter, cocoa, peanut butter, nutella, sugar, milk in a bowl and stir it all up...

 like this!

 Now add the dates,

 and the oats...

 ..and mix it all together.

Then scoop them on a baking sheet, and eat them! You can put them in the fridge if you want them a little more firm, but they were fine just as-is.

super easy, and super good!

february 26 - march 22 {2 week catch-up!}

more posts to come hopefully next week! What a busy two weeks we've had.... feel free to shout out your favs! ( favs or faves? :) Happy Saturday!