Catchin' the Trend: Flower Hairpiece

Ok, so is anyone else an American Idol addict watcher??? I am sad to say that AI takes up three nights of my life per week, but hey, when I get home from class after being gone from 7:30 to 7:30 all I really want to do is veg out...lazy, I know. Anyways, if you've been tunin' in, you'll have noticed that the IN item this year is hairpieces...ruffly, flowery hairpieces. So I decided to add a little feminine fun to my wardrobe (which generally consists of jeans, fitted tees and sweaters...every day...you know its bad when your folding your laundry and all you see is sweats, jeans and tee-shirts and wonder where all your cute stuff is). Back from my tangent, here is a tutorial for a cute vintage flower piece that only takes about 15 minutes.



Here's what I started with. My aunt gave me like 4 bags of this lovely white lace from her sewing stash. Problem being, I don't like white lace...at all.
ENTER: tea bags. After a short bath in tea, the lace was the perfect vintage look for my new flower. (see first pic, I forgot to photograph this part!)
Okay now, so take your fabric, whatever kind, print, or style your heart desires and cut two long strips, I would say about 2 feet (the longer, the crinklier the flower) and a few inches wide. The width determines how big the flower will be, so adjust accordingly. One strip should be narrower than the other by about 1/2 inch to an inch. You could add more layers if you want your flower to be more ruffly. Pin the strips together and hand sew a basting stitch down the bottom of the strips (the part where the pins are). Don't worry if it isn't perfect, noone will see.
Now, scrunch up your fabric as shown by pulling your thread.
Finish off the pinwheel shape by stitching the two ends of your fabric together.
Cut a square of fabric to fit the back of the flower. (mine was about 2in x 2 in). Fold under the edges of the square to make it look finished and hot glue to the back of the flower, only using glue in the corners. You want to be able to slide your bobby pins or headband under this pocket.
Embellish away! I just took my faux vintage lace and used my old buddy, the glue gun, who was o so happy to come out of storage, to glue the lace in the center by spiraling it around the middle point. I also added a few buttons in a dark gray color to really set it off. If you have an old brooch, that would look great too.

Here's how it looks in the hair (sorry, these are bad pics, I took them as I was running out the door). Pinned in with a soft bun:

Pinned onto a headband:


Hope you guys have fun with these let me know if you make one so I can come see!!

Happy Monday!

Treat yourself to something fun/yum to start off your week right!

Love and toodles,

Ramsey

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Along the Way with K&J

Fajita Potatoes-Breaking the Dinnertime Rut

I'm sure this NEVER happens to any of you, but I tend to get stuck making the same thing for dinner all the time. So, today I decided to mix it up a little, thus Fajita Potatoes were born. : ) This ONE DISH dinner is hearty enough for a chilly day but fresh enough to give your taste buds the thrill of spring that I'm sure you are all dying for right about now.

Take your beef (I recommend flank steak but any inexpensive cut of beef is great) and season it up with salt and pepper. Now break out your cast iron skillet or cast iron grill pan! If you don't have one, no worries, just any old skillet will do. Brown the beef on both sides, then plop it on the cutting board and allow the juices to soak in for about 10 minutes. Now slice it up real nice and thin so it's tender and chunk it back into the skillet. Saute the beef until it is browned. Slice up a bell pepper and an onion into thin strips and add them into the pan with the beef. Salt and pepper to make it taste yummy.

Some tips on baked potatoes (as used by the famously awesome potato bakers at Outback):

After potatoes are washed and dried, rub them down with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and about 1/2 tsp. salt per potato. Wrap 'em up in aluminum foil and bake for about an hour and a half until they are nice and tender.

I LOVE potatoes and could so eat some version of them at every meal!

I also whipped up a little salsa to go on top. Dice a tomato into small pieces and add a little bit of onion (as much as you like, or leave it out if you want). I zested a lime into the salsa and added the juice of the lime. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt, but not too much because lime hits your taste buds the same way as salt does and you don't want it to be too salty.

If you have a cast iron skillet or are in the market for one (which you really should invest in because they are the BOMB!) here are some tips for geting them to perform at their greatest potential.

Once the potatoes are done, slice down the middle to open them up and top with the fajita mixture, salsa, sour cream and cheese. Can I get a WHOOP for one pan dinners?!?

HAPPY EATING!
Love to you all!

Ramsey

P.S.: Does anyone else have to wait until they are home alone to take their foodie pics??? I get made fun of like crazy for whipping out my camera in the kitchen. Just wondering...

P.S.S.: Sorry, this was never intended to be a recipe blog, but when time gets short (school gets demaning) sometimes dinner is the "craftiest" thing I have time for.

The Not-So-Crafty Part of Life

Just thought I'd pop in and say hi and let you know that my craftiness is hiding under a textbook and an enourmous stack of notes right now. Maybe I can pull it back out after el biggo examo numero uno (unfortunately, I can't speak Spanish fluently like my uber-talented boyfriend so this is what I end up with) for my Welfare States class (fun...that's right...be jealous). Hope you guys had a FABULOUS weekend! The weather here was AMAZING! We even laid out by the pool yesterday, I know, hate me, I'm from Florida. Anywho, I'm headed back to the trenches for a few more hours of intense studying. Light at the end of the tunnel: I have chocolate chip cookies to enjoy later while watching House (please say it comes on tonight, last week's hiatus about killed me).

Happy Monday!!!

Lots of Love,

Ramsey

Quick and Easy Brunswick Stew

This is literally an open and dump recipe. Chunk a few ingredients in your handy dandy crock pot and at the end of the day you will have a warm hearty dinner perfect for snuggling up with by a fire to ward off the chilliness of February. We will be enjoying some of this tonight with some yummy corn bread before we watch American Idol. Yup, I'm addicted, it pulls me in earlier and earlier each year.

Ingredients...seriously, this is it:

1 tub BBQ meat (any kind) found in the meat section by the Hormel stuff *

1 can lima beans

1 can whole kernel corn

3 small cans diced tomatoes

You can also saute an onion and add it in if you would like

Put it in your crock pot on low and let the flavors develop while you are at work, running errands, or just chilling at the house and smelling the deliciousness. Please, do yourself a favor and give this a try...well worth the lack of effort it takes. : )
*For the BBQ part, you can also use a mixture of canned BBQ beef, pork, and chicken OR if you have any left-over BBQ from sandwiches, stick it in the freezer and keep it around for this recipe another night. Any kind of shredded BBQ meat (with sauce) works awesome. I think the refrigerated brand is called Lloyds. You can totally adjust the meatiness of this recipe as well.

Enjoy! Happy Hump Day!!!

Ramsey

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Blue Cricket Design

Photography Take 2

Okay, so my sister and her boyfriend begrudgingly agreed after much coercion happily allowed me to engage them in another photo shoot. The pictures came out so sweet! I am completely infatuated with black and white photos, but even I couldn't bring myself to take away the beautiful color of their hair. Here is a little Valentinesish photography session for all of you hopeless romantics out there. Sorry if I got a little picture heavy but there were just so many to choose from.

Yes, they are really photogenic when they want to be, BUT about 90% of the photos end up looking like this...

Lovin' the sweet look on his face.

These were so soft and sweet. They ended up looking like a scene out of a movie.

Red Hair+perfect lighting=BEAUTIFUL!

This location was so urban and industrial-looking, which fit them perfectly. Too bad they were getting tired and fussy and goofy.

Red and rusty... LOVE.

This was such a perfect analogy for meeting at the line...he's from Thomasville and she's from Monticello.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!!!

P.S.: If you haven't seen the movie Valentine's Day yet, I highly recomend it! Definately a chick flick, but really cute and so sweet. I love that Valentine's is a great excuse to be super mushy and cheesy!

Have a wonderful day with those that you love!

Hugs,

Ramsey

Happy Valentines Week!!!

So, since it's Valentines week, I thought I should FINALLY do a post on this sweet holiday. Valentines Day is one of my most favoritest holidays because it gives me a wonderful excuse to give sweet, cheesy, corny gifts, which I LOVE! Here are some of the things that I've created. I plan to give my boyfriend, Dusty, one gift every day of Valentimes week (as he calls it) and on V-day I'm giving him a basket filled with goodies he loves (car washing stuff, TV snacks, candles-yes he loves candles, etc.) I can't wait to find out what he's doing, he's keeping it a surprise!

This is one of my favorite Valentines goodies...so cute an I-love fake I-pod!!! You can find the tutorial here. It's made using sweet hearts, construction paper and Hershey's kisses or mini Reeces.

This deck of cards was inspired by something I saw online...don't remember where though...SORRY! I bought a plain deck of cards and printed a list of 52 things I love about Dusty and glued one reason to each card. It took awhile, but the result is super special.

Monday morning, he is getting a chilled box of Swiss Rolls. He used to get Swiss Rolls packed in his lunch box and the ice pack would make them cold. Ever since, he has liked to eat them chilly. If you've never tried this, please do, they are YUM! I know, classy right?

Here is a box of Mrs. Fields White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies that I just fancied up with some construction paper, buttons, and twine. So much more than just a box of cookies!

Next up, some Ghiradelli bars with a sweet new wrapper. I just inserted a picture into a word document and added a note to it.


Here are some Toblerone bars all cutesied out for my mom, sister, and dad.

Sorry about the lateness of this post, but I hope you enjoy and add a little Valentines goodness to your week if you haven't finished your Valentines already. Happy Valentimes week!!!

Love to my sweet followers and everyone else out there in blogland!!

Until I can steel another few minutes out of my day,

Ramsey

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