Archive for April, 2008

In the Garden (or: Heck, who needs digital cameras anyway?)

Published by Sarah Bray on April 30, 2008 in In the Garden. 5 Comments

I scorn digital cameras. Such gluttonous symbols of American come-and-get-it, all-you-can-eat, here-have-600-images-of-your-dog-Gizmo-while-the-people-in-Africa-are-starving thinking. I am starting a new blogging revolution. A revolution in which we use pen and paper to connect to the hearts and souls of readers everywhere. One in which we reveal our true selves for who we really are. And I’m starting with my garden.

Let me take you on a little tour.

As you enter the garden gate, you will notice a pristine pathway of various-sized rocky terrain. These were purchased with utmost care from the heights of a truly magnificent mountainous region in an otherwise remarkably flat environment. (Aka: the rock store in Virginia Beach.)

Around the perimeter of the garden, you will notice a slightly sunken trench which holds in its heart the treasured pods of beans and snow peas. The ultimate destiny of these as-yet-unformed plants will be to climb to the heights of the wired garden gate, enveloping the premises with their gnarled and graceful arms.

If you will look with me to the right, you will notice the beginnings of pungent tomato plants forming an outer border to the smaller pepper plants in the foreground. A rocky path leads the way in and out of the dramatic scene.

To the left, we see more pepper plants, held within the confines of the splendid squash, zucchini, and eggplant…plants. In the distance straight ahead, we are lucky to behold a slew of okra plants, beckoning us with their pointy fronds.

Now, if you’ll turn with me as we exit the garden gate (Actually, no, you can’t open it. Don’t try to open it!!! Humph. You step over it…like this. What were you thinking?), breathe deeply with me and inhale the fragrant smells of spring. Anticipate the bountiful harvest of summer and fall. Pray hard that the terrifying fact that I ended up planting on the windiest day of the year will not have any detrimental effect on the plantlings.

It was lovely having you join me today. If you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my digital camera research. What does everyone think of the Canon XTi?

Food, Glorious Food: Kill your diet edition

Published by Sarah Bray on April 28, 2008 in Food, Glorious Food. 10 Comments

This week, I haven’t been doing too much impromptu cooking. Wait a minute…that’s not just this week. That’s the past four weeks! Oh well. Busy-ness has its downsides. But I did find Your Home Cafe a few days ago, and it has been a phenomenal life-saver. (And no, they didn’t pay me to say that. For all I know, they have no clue who I am or that I even know who THEY are.) It has saved me so much time and hassle, and for that I am extremely happy.

But. I think this week I’ll have some more time on my hands. I don’t want to jinx it, but you know…it just seems like it’s going to be one of those weeks. So here are some recipes that I’ve been saving up. If you could only choose one, which would you make? I’m trying to decide.

My favorite food blog of all time has now covered my favorite pizza of all time - pizza bianca. Is there anything better? I absolutely implore you to find something. Anything. I knew you couldn’t do it.

 

 

 

I’m not a huge fan of guacamole. I know, I know. I’m a sinner. But avocado GOAT CHEESE spread? Umm, yeah. Sinner no longer.

 

 

 

 

Remember when I blogged about loving these chocolate cupcake lollipops? Well, apparently so did Martha Stewart. (I knew we had to have something in common!) And now, the lovely Bakerella has decided to grace us with the recipe! How delightful!

 

 

 

Feeling nostalgic for the good ole days? The appropriately-named “I-wish-I-was-born-in-the-50’s-kitschy-icebox-pie” might have your name written all over it. (You might recognize it as “key lime” by another name).

 

 

 

Further proof that I am evil. There is not a single healthy thing on my list today! Well, I’m just making up for my dairy-free post of a few weeks back. These vanilla sugar sweet buns are going to require an extra pilates session…or two.

 

 

 

Here is where I redeem myself. What?! Whole wheat apple muffins do not make you love me again? But it has WHOLE WHEAT! C’mon…

 

 

 

 

Lastly, Danielle from Design Mom has written an excellent post on making it easier for your kids to help in the kitchen. Nolan has been helping me quite a bit this week, and so far the one (tiny) burn he’s suffered has not made it any less exciting for him. Now maybe he’ll believe me that the stove is, in fact, quite hot!

WOWee!

Published by Sarah Bray on April 26, 2008 in Site Updates. 1 Comment

Wow. Thank you guys SO MUCH for your excitement about the carnival. Yesterday, there was a huge influx of people from Home Ec 101 just giving their congrats and entries and support. Amazing. Thank you so much! I will get back to each and every one of you very very soon!

And thanks to Shak in Style and North of the 49 for posting about us yesterday. Amazing!

I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend. We are currently getting ready to go “Touch a Truck” at our local rec center. Lots of trucks. Lots of fun for the little ones. See you Monday!

Thanks for promoting the Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling!

Published by Sarah Bray on April 25, 2008 in Site Updates. 0 Comments

I just wanted to thank the people who responded to my plea for help a few days ago. I really appreciate it! I am so looking forward to the carnival, and I can’t wait to share all of the goodies I’m finding with you. I especially want to thank the following people for posting about the carnival:

Heather and Ivy from Home Ec 101.

Jennifer from The Laundry Is Never Finished and Bliss Home Goods.

Julia from Kingdom Jewels.

Robin from Ideal Design.

I just submitted the carnival to BlogCarnival.com, so I am hoping we’ll get some more entries from that. So far, there has been a TON of positive response, but only 20 or so entries. Which is absolutely fine! I’ve got a bunch of stuff saved up in my “Adore” folder to showcase in case we don’t get enough entries.

Anywho, if you’ve been waiting on submitting your stuff, I’ve extended the deadlines for entries a wee bit to May 12th. And sponsors now have no deadline for promoting the event. The carnival is still scheduled to run May 14th thru the 21st unless you hear otherwise.

There have been a few other changes in the sponsorship information, so I’ll just share it with you here.

THE GOOD: Anyone can now be a sponsor! Yes, even if you are entering the carnival. Visit the sponsor page to find out more.

THE NOT AS GOOD, BUT STILL GOOD: We are no longer accepting donations for the prize packages that are being sent to the winners. Why? Well, sadly, we haven’t (yet! still hoping!) gotten the publicity we needed to be able to give you a good return on your investment. So now we’re offering sponsorship benefits to anyone JUST for spreading the word. (See? Still good.) And the winners are STILL receiving their prize packages…it’s just that I’ll be footing the bill. :)

Thank you everyone for supporting us as we’re gearing up for our first “big” thing here at Today’s Homemaker. I knew it was risky in the beginning, and I’m still praying for some blogger diva to come by and say “Wow! This is cool! Let me send my 50 billion readers her direction!” but I am guessing that’s not likely to happen.

(Note to all of you small-time bloggers out there, like myself. It might be better to attempt something like this if you have 2,000+ readers a day instead of 200!)

But to end on a positive note: I’ve been putting together a detailed cleaning/organization plan that is going to knock your socks off! I may actually wait until AFTER the carnival to debut it, which would be the smart thing, since I am perpetually prone to getting so excited about what I’m doing that I do it RIGHT NOW without thought to all of the other things I have to do. But anyway, it’s going to be great! Thanks so much for reading and subscribing and all of that jazz. You guys are the best!

>> Official Entry Form
>> Sponsor Information

Art and Craft

Published by Sarah Bray on April 24, 2008 in Art and Craft. 0 Comments

Now that I’m not sticking to a specific topic each day, I’m able to have more than 5 topics. An unexpected benefit! Since one of my loves is artsy/crafty things (though I don’t get to them as much as I’d like with my current schedule), I thought I’d share some stuff I’m dying to try in that area today.

I adore this free infant dress pattern by Rae. It looks so surprisingly substantial and professionally done. Of course it might not look that way if I made it, but we can hope.

 

 

 

 

Christy has the cutest tutorial on these little paper flowers that you can make with your kids. They’re made out of little Dixie cups, it looks like. So sweet!

 

 

 

 

Jessica Gonacha has put together a wonderful tutorial on how to make your own herbal facial astringent. It’s a bit time-consuming (you have to wait 10 days for the herbs to infuse into the liquid) but these would make such cute gifts.

 

 

 

Adorable reversible children’s apron with fabric crayon embellishment tutorial from Yetta of LangLangCreations. I love how the apron tie is all one piece.

 

 

 

 

So it’s not just me. Silhouettes/cameos really ARE everywhere right now. Here’s a tutorial on how to make your very own silhouette plaque from Danielle of Thompson Family.

 

 

 

 

Fun stuff! Maybe I’ll be inspired to get some crafty things done, since things have slowed down a bit around here.

Food, Glorious Food: Meal planning solution

Published by Sarah Bray on April 23, 2008 in Food, Glorious Food. 4 Comments

As I was doing my daily blog reading/sk*rt browsing, I found this great site that allows you to do a simple meal plan for the week, including ingredients and easy-to-print recipes, in about…oh…15 minutes. Seriously. And that’s including the learning curve!

I’m doing my free 5 day trial right now, and I’m already really excited about it. So far in “my game plan” (as it’s called in Your Home Cafe-land) for the week is:

  • Baked Ravioli with a side of Garlic Green Beans
  • Cheese Crisps with Roasted Chicken and Green Salsa
  • Chicken Parmigiana
  • French Dip Sandwiches
  • Grilled Pork Chops with Maple Glaze
  • Grilled Pork Satay

I love how when you’re done adding everything, you just print the whole thing out. It prints the shopping list first and the recipes right after. It separates your ingredients into sections that ACTUALLY make sense. It prints each recipe on a separate page. And everything is very, very easy to read.

The only glitch I noticed on the website is that I wasn’t able to check the “Add to my game plan” button on the page that showed my search results. I had to go to the individual recipe to click on it. It’s probably a browser issue with Safari.

Anyway, the website promises that these are things you AND your kids will love. I’ve no doubt. Everything looks fresh and delicious with a hint of sophistication. Have you checked out Your Home Cafe? What do you think?

I need your help: Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling getting nearer!

Published by Sarah Bray on April 22, 2008 in Site Updates. 1 Comment

Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling

I need your help! The Carnival of Modern Home Dwelling is getting closer, and in order to have a successful event, I need help spreading the word! You can use the image above or the smaller one in my sidebar to proclaim this fun event to the world over.

ALSO, for helping me spread the word, I will automatically include you on the sponsor list and will thank you profusely for all of my days. Just send me the link at sarahjoy AT todayshomemaker DOT com or leave a comment on this post.

Another easy thing you can do? Click the “skirt this” link at the bottom of this post. I am so thrilled about showcasing the best in modern living, and I know this event is going to be such an awesome one. Thanks in advance!!

Comments on Today’s Homemaker

Published by Sarah Bray on April 22, 2008 in Site Updates. 2 Comments

The community aspect is my favorite thing about blogging. I love meeting new people, and it’s so cool to me when people respond to something I’ve written. Usually, I email anyone who leaves a comment. But recently, I’ve decided to stop doing that in favor of responding in the comments section so that everyone can read my response. When you leave a comment, there’s an option that lets you subscribe to it via email in case there are any follow-up comments to that post. I’d definitely recommend doing that when you leave a particularly dashing comment.

I’ve also implemented the CommentLuv plugin so that it will automatically post your latest blog post’s title underneath your comment. I’ve always loved that feature on other blogs, so I thought I’d do the same here. Happy commenting!

Everyday Design: Emma Cassi’s beautiful home featured on Design*Sponge

Published by Sarah Bray on April 21, 2008 in Everyday Design. 2 Comments

There is so much amazing stuff going on in the design world right now. A lot of times I just glance over articles quickly without really considering how I can use the information to make my home a better place. So today I’m going to pause and reflect on one of my favorite sneak peeks that I’ve seen lately. And that would be Grace’s article on jewelry designer and interior stylist Emma Cassi’s home. Click on the image to see the full article at Design*Sponge1.

I feel like whenever I post something from Design*Sponge, everyone and their dog already knows about it. But that’s okay because it inspires me nonetheless. Emma Cassi has an absolutely gorgeous home, and I love how she makes plain white walls work so well. I remember living in one of our first apartments, thinking “When I own my own place, I will finally be able to decorate.” I just didn’t know what I was talking about. Apparently those white walls which I deemed impossible to work with can work quite well in the hands of someone who is talented at such things.

Things I want to implement in my house:

  • White mantel. We are in the process of turning our formal living room into a master bedroom. It has this great fireplace, but the wood is old and dated. I think a coat of crisp white paint would help it out a ton.
  • Towels stacked on a chair. I think having towels on display in my bathroom would make me feel like I’m at a great little bed and breakfast. Of course, I’d have to get new towels. All of mine are quite ragged. I’d be interested in seeing how someone makes raggedy old towels look chic! It seems like some people can do ANYthing, but I would be truly amazed at that.
  • Silhouette in the mirror. Both my daughter and son have sliding mirrored doors in their rooms, which are not really my style, but they’ll have to work for now. Now this photo has got me wondering — is there something MORE I can do with those mirrors? Surely that’s not a piece of paper stuck on the front. And it doesn’t really look like a reflection. So I’m just going to go ahead and say that there is a black silhouette on the mirror, and I want to know how to get such a shape on mine. Any ideas?
  • Painted white floors. I’ve said before that I want to paint my floors, and I’ve mentioned it to my husband a few times. He just replies, “But when they’re painted, they’re painted. You can’t get the wood back.” And that is why I hesitate. Also, I’d love to be sure that I got those lovely dark cracks to show through between the floorboards. Wonder how that’s done? It seems I’m giving more questions than answers in this post. Moving on.
  • Horizontal stripe around the room where a chair rail would be. I just think this is so understatedly cool. I’m not sure how it would look on my son’s textured walls, though.
  • Vintage-y leather recliners. Don’t those look like the comfiest things in the world? I imagine if I sat in one in the morning, I might not get back up until 3 in the afternoon.

So what do you see that would look good in YOUR house?

  1. Why didn’t you guys tell me that link wasn’t working?! Now it is. :) [↩]

Startup Princess

Published by Sarah Bray on April 21, 2008 in Everything Else. 2 Comments

I’ve been reading Startup Princess for a while now (what better blog for me to read than one that is dedicated to women entrepreneurs?), and up until recently, I have had no clue about the incredible passion that is behind this site. Then I met Kelly King Anderson.

Kelly is the founder of Startup Princess, and she has a huge vision for touching the lives of women. She has been building this empire since 2006 and has been touted as one of the top resources online for women in business. Is that cool or what? And you know what’s even cooler (for me anyway)? I got to re-design her site!

So today’s “Launch Day” and I am so thrilled to be a part of this project. I wish Kelly the absolute best as she makes royalty out of all of us.