so what wednesday

it's that time of the week again!!

linking up with shannon to say so what!

here's what i'm saying so what to this week:

 

*if i just finally did an iphone update? yup, never done that before...

 

*if i need some down time after work on wednesdays before i go home? i need a few minutes where i don't have to talk to anyone

 

*if i second guess some posts/instagrams/blogs becuase of my job?

 

*if i listen to instramental versions of songs while i'm at work because they're less distracting?

 

*if my office was a disaster zone? it took me almost 4 hours to clean it on friday. oops.

 

*if i'm unfriending people everyday on facebook? i'm 'friends' with people that i don't even know and people from high school that i don't really care to hear from any more.

 

*if my wedding dress is still hanging in our living room? almost 10 months after the wedding...

 

*if i find myself saying 'so what' all the time??

 

what are you saying so what to?

head on over to life after i 'dew' to see what

everyone else is so whating and to link up!

 

love, mrs. k

closet challenge/what i wore

hey friends! back for another round of my closet challenge and this week i actually wore clothes that haven't seen the outside of my closet in a looong time!! i'm also linking up with lindsy from the pleated poppy for a little 'what i wore' wednesday!!

last Wednesday, it was the 1st night of confirmation at church so we had our parent orientation and our first class time:

the dress is from wal*mart last spring. i really like it but it's just a few inches too short. i've thought about adding fabric to the bottom of it but i can't decide what color to add.

pink t: vanity (probs 5 years ago!!), necklace: vintage wanna bee, sandals: target, last summer

then i added the scarf & jean jacket cuz it's been kinda chilly up here in northern mn

scarf: american eagle, jean jacket: vanity (when i was a senior in high school!)

 

thursday:

make a change t shirt: the lovely rachel kurtz. she's my friend. she loves jesus. and she has an amazing voice. she helped write the theme song for this year's ELCA national youth gathering. you can listen to it on her website, it's call "Make A Difference" and it's beautiful.

side note- one day when i was wearing this two random guys give me the change from their pockets becuase they thought my shirt just said make change :)

cardi: target, skirt: vanity, leggins: wal*mart (so nice- they aren't super thin), boots: payless, leg warmers: sleeves from an old sweater, yup, you read that right.

loved this outfit- super comfy

 

friday & saturday were cleaning days for me. friday i tackled my office and saturday i did some stuff around the hosue so it was black yoga pants & sweatshirts for me.

 

sunday:

cardi: target, flower pins: made by me, black t: JCP, jeans: target, shoes: kmart (fake out toms, this time they're black & sparkely!)

this was a good church outfit because i have to sit down on the floor when i give my children's sermons and i run around a lot on sunday morning.

but the knock off toms from kmart need to be broken in! they hurt my feet while i was still at home so i had to change my shoes:

trusty pink sandals from target :) but it was a chilly walk to church! there were frost crystals on some blades of grass! 

 

sunday after church:

had to support my mn vikings!!

by the way- what is up with the replacement refs? they are terrible!!

 

monday:

this was a challenge outfit for me for sure!!

sweater: vanity (last winter? two winters ago?), gray t: old navy, white jeans: no idea... the tag in the back says dollhouse jeans, boots: payless

i fell in love with this sweater in the store but i'm just never really sure what to wear it with.

and the jeans. ugh. i like them but they are so low rise that every time i move i feel like you can see my crack. and they aren't really skinny enough to fit in my boots, and they aren't really long enough to be jeans or short enough to be capris. i'm really not sure if they're worth keeping.

side note- i have made a list of things that i would like to add to my closet, and if i find something on that list for a good deal i'll get it but i'm not letting myself just go shopping. that list includes: white skinnies, dark or regular blue skinnies (i'm jumping on the band wangon a little late), a brown leather jacket (fake leather), a navy blue short blazer, a leopard or cheeta scarf, and brown/gold aviators.

 

tuesday:

i love this outfit!

jean jacket: old navy; purple shirt: old navy, pink tank top: old navy, necklace: vintage wanna bee, jeans: american eagle, shoes: glow by jlo for kmart

the purple shirt is plaid, it's just hard to tell in this pic. i'm not going to lie- this morning i really just wanted to put on jeans and a sweatshirt and call it good. but because of the challenge and sharing my outfits i knew i had to put something on :)

 

did you wear anything great this week?

love, mrs. k

 



cookie fail

so, last fall i made these a couple of times and they were delish:

link to website & instructions

home-made butterfing bars. oh my gosh! so good!! and so easy. you melt candy corn, mix it with peanut butter, pour it into a pan, let it cool, cut into squares, and dip it in chocolate. enjoy.

 

but this fall i wanted to take it a step farther. i wanted make them into cookies. the bars were good but they were hard to store and with the chocolate on the outside they were a little messy to eat. so i thought if i could make them in a cookie form they'd be great.

 

since the bars call for candy corn, peanut butter and chocolate i knew i had to use all three of those things but i didn't want to stray to far away from those ingredients.

 

so i started with peanut butter cookies. simple enough. used this recipe from pinterest:



Martha Stewart's Peanut Butter Cookies

i thought that since this was martha's recipe they'd be great. wrong. they were the dryest peanut butter cookies i have ever eaten. even. and i like peanut butter cookies.

 

but i was determined, so i used the dough. probs mistake #1.

 

i assembled my supplies:

and got to baking

 

for my first batch i measured out my 6 cookies:

side note: i love my cookie scoop that i got from pampered chef for a bridal shower gift. use it all the time. medium scoop for cookies. i got the small scoop too but idk what to use it for.

 

then i flattened the cookies out, put choco chips and a few candy corn pieces in the middle then folded them back up

y'all, i'm going to be honest with you. i really thought this would work. i thought the candy corn & chocolate would melt & join with the peanut butter cookie and taste like a butterfinger.

 

no dice. 2 of the cookies exploded out the side and i had hard as rock candy corn goo on my cookie sheet. the other four were burnt on the bottom and hard in the middle. martha told me to bake these cookies for 18-22 min. i baked them for 15 and checked on the often cuz i was worried about the candy corn.

 

so for my next batch i tried to melt the candy corn first, so i could mix it in with my peanut butter dough. well, when you melt candy corn in the microwave it gets hard like right away. so i thought i'd try a different route:

 

a double boiler

now, this was my 1st experience with a double boiler. how do you get things to melt in one of these?? all of my steam escaped between the bowl and the pot. so i ended up melting them in the microwave anyway. then mixing in dough and choco chips.

 

well the choco chips started to melt before even making it into the oven because the candy corn was hot enough to heat up the dough and melt the choco chips. awesome.

 

those 6 ended up being burnt on the bottoms and falling apart when i tried to take them off of the pan.

fail.

 

so my last ditch effort was to make them like my mom makes peanut butter cup cookies at chrismas. in her mini muffin tin:

i mixed the choco chips in with the peanut butter dough, put a small ball of dough in each muffin spot, baked it then stuck a candy corn in each cookie hopeing it would melt. nope, no melting here. cookies weren't hot enough even tho they were right out of the oven.

 

so with the remaining dough, enought for 10 cookies. i make regular peanut butter cookies with choco chips mixed in. the mr is eating them with his lunch this week. poor guy.

 

love, mrs. k



 

Craft Sale

I did it. I put myself out there.

I've said for a long time that I want to sell my crafts. But I've always had an excuse for why I haven't sold them, there has always been something stopping me. First I wanted to have somewhat of a 'stock pile' incase it really took off, I didn't want to run out of things. Then I talked myself out of it because really? Who would want to buy my stuff? After that what I was making wasn't good enough, it wasn't a high enough quality. But I'm done now. I'm out there.

And you can check it out here:

Crafts for Sale on Facebook

A sample of what's there:

 

I would love to be able to sell crafts full time. To go to street faires, craft shows, and flea markets. To have crafts be my source of income. But right now that is not a reality. My job provides 1/2 of our steady income (with student loans and car payments/insurance we need steady income x2), my job also provides insurance for both the Mr and I. So, for now, it's just a hobby and maybe it'll put a few extra dollars in my pocket (for my diet coke and hobby lobby addictions).

 

If you see something that you like, or you've seen me do a tutorial of something that you want- let me know and we'll figure out shipping to get it to you. I'm willing to do cutosm stuff too- wreaths in the color of your college or the team that you cheer for, Christmas tutus or birthday tutus (they can be done in any size), just let me know!

 

Love, Mrs. K

So What Wednesday

It's that time of the week again!
Time to link up with Shannon from L.A.I.D for So What Wednesday!

 

Here's what I'm saying So What to this week:

 

*if I constantly check my blog & my email to see if anyone said anything, liked a picture, or commented on something that I did? I know, I know, just last week I was talking about being less tied down to the internet :)

 

*if I kind of like watching Honey Boo Boo on TLC? What? It makes me feel better about my life!

 

*if I like to have strawberry fruit snacks with my Moscoto? I'm classy

 

*if sometimes I need a pressing deadline at work to get things done?

 

*if I almost always leave my phone on silent?

 

*if somedays I feel like I just copy Shannon? There are worse people in this world I could be copying! And I give credit where credit is due.

 

What are you saying So What to this week?

Head on over to Life After I "Dew" to see what

everyone else is So What-ing and to link up!

 

Love, Mrs. K

Challenge Your Closet

 

I'm linking up with the lovely Mrs. Dew for a little Challenge Your Closet today. Shannon and I are taking a little different approach to this but it should be fun anyway :) Each week she is sharing a different 'style' with you- this week she is rocking maxi dresses. Here is what I'm doing:

First of all I had to wait to link up because I had a few more things on my fall list that I wanted to add to my closet- and I wanted to be honest in this challenge, no shopping for this girl. Here are the last few things I wanted:

An oatmeal colored cardi from Target, a black cardi from Target, knock-off Toms from K-Mart, an orange striped shirt from JCP, a plaid shirt from Target, and my first pair of colored skinnies!!

 

Then I decided to really challenge my closet because I had no where to put my new finds! Really:

Not sure what's going on with the left picutre but as you can see my closet is full! And that isn't all of my clothes:





The ones on the bed are the ones that I didn't have hangers for, the ones on the floor are pjs/gym clothes/sweats & comfy clothes, then the drawers are in place of a dresser for undies, socks, tanks, white t shirts and swim suits. So yea, I have a lot of clothes.

But! By challneging my closet I went through and got rid of everything that doesn't fit or that I don't wear anymore:

That wasn't all, the pile continued to grow.

So now I'm challenging myself to actually wear the things in that pile that fit. Uff-da.

Here's what my closet looks like now:

Look at all of that space!!

And here are the outfits that I wore this week:

Wednesday- 1st day of youth group and such at church this fall.

Plaid top- Target; Blue skinnies- JCP; sandles- Target (last summer), necklace The Vintage Wanna Bee

Thursday- Had to wear my new sweatshirt :)

Pink tee- Gap; sweatshirt- made by me; jeans- Maurices; shoes- Bongo from K*Mart

Friday- supporting our local sports teams, rocking the blue and gold. Super hard to wear this when the football team was playing the high school that I went to! Wanted to wear red & white so bad!!

white long sleeve tee- Vanity; blue cardi- Nordstrom Rack; yellow scarf- no idea; jeans- Maurices; sparkly tennis shoes- American Eagle

Saturday- morning meeting with confirmation guides and lunch with a friend. I will wear this outfit again for sure! Thanks pinterest!!

white tee- Wal*Mart (5 packs from the men's dept); cardi- Target; red scarf- no idea; blue skinnies- JCP; leopard flats- Burlington Coat Factory

 

Sunday- I wore jeans and one of the tshirts from our church trip cuz the kids talked about our experience at church.

 

Monday- home with a migraine all day, didn't get out of my jammie's, nothing picture worthy

 

Today- comfy cardi cuz it's chilly here

Green long sleeve tee- Vanity; cardi- Old Navy; jeans- Maurices; shoes- Bongo from K*Mart

 

What are you wearing this week?

Love, Mrs. K

 

 

 

 

Halloween wreath

I pinned this wreath on my holiday board on pinterest a while back:

via

That's just a link to my pin because the pin doesn't take you to a tutorial. Grrr...

 

But while we were cruising around Hobby Lobby last week I noticed that they had tulle on sale. And the sell wooden letters at HL. Things started brewing.

 

I bought two rolls of black tulle (at 50% off!) and one of glittery orange (also 50% off!). Then found the letters I needed and some oragne paint to match the tulle. I also had to buy paint brushes since we were in Rochester with my loved one and I didn't have all of my craft supplies with.

 

I forgot to take a supplies picture. Oops! But I used the tulle that I bought, wire that I already had to form the wreath (I get mine at L&M Fleet Supply, reasonable priced and you can use it for a bunch of crafts. Or you could use a wire hanger for this- just untwist it at the top & reform it into a circle), the letters that I got, orange paint, a paint brush, and fabric scissors.

I started by painting my letters. I think I painted 6 coats, it was the watery-est paint I have ever bought! But it was the right color. Give and take I guess.

Then I made my wreath form. I laid the letters out in about the spacing that I wanted then I made my wreath big enough to fit around them. It's pretty big- that's a 'normal' size fabric scissor in the middle!

Next was cutting and tying the tulle to the wreath. This part takes forever!! But it was a great craft to do in the hospital because I didn't have to be super focused on it, it's mindless, and I could walk away at any time to give my attention to something else (ie- the doctors and nurses). How long you cut the tulle is up to you, it's all about how fluffy you want your wreath. I like mine to be fluffly but not long. My pieces of tulle were probably 6 inches long, then I cut them in 1/2 length wise (so instead of 5 inches wide they were only 2.5) so they'd be easier to tie. That black roll of tulle is 25 yards long, I used two of them to fill that whole wreath!!

What it looked like all filled up with black tulle.

Just waiting for the letters.

Finished product!

I used the orange tulle to string the letters onto the wreath. All I did was wrap the orange tulle around the letters- at the top of the straight part of the 'b' and then around each side of both 'o's and to hang it.

I have three more of these that I'm looking to sell! $20 each plus shipping. Let me know if you want one :)

 

And I started working on my Halloween costume! Apparently fall is on my mind!

Love, Mrs. K

weekend projects

well, sunday projects. we slept in on saturday, had french toast for brunch and then i went to work to try and catch up after being gone for two weeks. i am so excited to not have some where to go or something to pack for, i can finally put my suitcase away for a while :)

anyway... sunday projects. the mr put fishing line in his two new fishing rods. yes, two new rods. thank goodness for end of the season sales- boyfriend knows how to bargin shop. he got a $96 rod for $35, say what?! way to go mr k! so i helped sting them. really all i did was hold the fishing line so that it didn't get tangled up. i think he gets a little frustrated with how little i know about fishing (and hunting for that matter), but i was willing to hold that line and i held it good :)

then i did this:

this is the bulletin board/command center in our kitchen (isn't that wall paper fabulous... gross). there wasn't reallyl anything wrong with the way that it was, it just wasn't super nice to look at. so i changed it. my only issue now is that it looks like "bliss" instead of "bills" if you look really quick at the bottom left corner. bills do not equal bliss in our house.

 

then i broke out the chalkboard spray paint and made this beauty:

because, let's be real, when you have chalkboard paint at your disposal- it begs to be used :) i hung this above our stove and it isn't really our menu for the coming days. it's a list of things that we have in the freezer in the basement, but somehow i thought the word menu would look better across the top :) this was really easy to make and i'm bummed that i didn't take better picutres for you. i bought the frame for $4 at wal*mart, took the glass out & spray painted the frame silver- it was gold & black. then i took the glass and spray painted it with the chalkboard paint. i bought 16 sticks of colored chalk at wal*mart for $0.47 to go with it, now i just need to figure out somewhere to store them :)

 

love, mrs. k



So What Wednesday!

is it really wednesday already? uff da.

here we go with Shannon for another SWW!

here's what i'm saying so what to this week:

 

*if i stopped using capital letters? not really sure why i did, i just did.

 

*if i re-did all of my pinterest boards? now i have boards for the bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom, entry way, and future kids rooms instead of just one for the house. a little overboard, i know, but now i can find what i'm looking for. and i found a bunch of stuff that i had double (and triple!!) pinned. cleand that right up. come check it out!

 

*if i checked out other peoples pinterest boards first to try and find creative names for my new boards?

 

*if my facebook page is almost all instagram picutres?

 

*if  i sort my groceries by where they go in my kitchen when i'm unloading them from the cart at the check out?

 

*if i still do some light school shopping?

 

*if i've been waiting to link up with shannon for challenge your closet til i was done with said school shopping? the idea behind the challenge is that you don't buy new clothes, you find outfits in your closet. if i was going to link up i had to be honest, right? but i love the idea of the challenge & not buying new clothes, i'm sure the mr will too :)

 

*if regular wednesday night programing starts today at church and i'm not ready for it? seriously- where did the summer go??

*if i sometimes change the word i want to use because i don't know how to spell it?

 

*if i already wrote the post about the halloween wreath that i made? how soon is too soon to post about halloween crafts?

 

what are you saying so what to this week?

head on over to life after i "dew" to see what everyone

else is so what-ing and to link up!

 

love, mrs. k

sweatshirt makeover

so when i see things on pinterest i'm all like "i could make that" and sometimes i actually do. this is one of those times. it all started with this pin:

via

but that link took me to an etsy shop that charges $130 for that shirt. umm... not happening. well then i found this pin:



via

girlfriend broke it down step by step, her directions were super easy to follow. she got the sweatshirt from her brother in law, unfortunately i don't have a brother in law that wears a sweatshirt 2 sizes larger than me. my brother in law probably wears a medium, he's pretty fit and he likes he shirts tight. so i ventured out to the local wal*mart (cuz we don't have a traget) and bought myself a men's 3X zip up sweatshirt for $12.50, and some matching thread for $1.50. $14, that's my whole investment in this shirt aside from my time.

 

first i took the ackward before picture:

i look a little like i want to fight someone...

then i set up shop on our living room floor sunday afternoon while watching football and went to work. following the directions i started by taking in the arms to make them more feminine. i seriously followed all of kate's directions. i might have been able to figure this one out by myself but it would not have turned out so good.





no turning back now!

then i sewed the arms back up. i really need to set up my sewing machine and learn how to use it- i think it really would've helped on this project. instead i sewed it all by hand.

a long task. good thing football was on all day, you can just listen to that you don't have to keep looking at the tv.

one arm done! you can really see the difference here. at this point the mr was like "you know you can buy girl sweatshirts and skip all of that."

i thought it was so funny, my right arm looks like it go a shot of novicane and was all droopy :)



i also did darts on the shoulders to bring them up closer to where they should be. i've never done darts before so this was a learning experience. my first one needs to be redone but the 2nd was ok.

then i did the other arm so that they matched. and i cut out the zipper.

next was picking out buttons and deciding where to put said buttons:

then i sewed on the buttons and added button holes (yes, all by hand still...) and here's the finished product:

next time i do this these are things that i will do differently:

use a white or cream colored sweatshirt- no need to have 2 gray ones right?
use a pull over sweatshirt instead of a zip up one. that way i can get the buttons where i want them, i'm not committed to using the center of the sweatshirt.

make sure that when i take the arms in, i just take the arms in. i ended up taking to much of the sides in with the arm so it's a little snug.

start my buttons up higher. since it got a little snug i put a button right on the bottom so that it doesn't pull apart.

take better pictures- i promise i don't always wear yoga pants!!

 

thanks for the inspiration kate!

love, mrs. k