The Katniss Braid

Despite all the hoopla around the book and movie "The Hunger Games" I have yet to read the book or see the movie. Its not that I'm not interested in it, because I am, Its the pure fact that I have 2 kids and a husband who works odd hours and isn't always home when a baby sitter is available. I have it on good authority though, that my friend Amy will take me to see the movie soon. So until that day, I am reduced to watching youtube clips and searching for ways to look like Katniss on pinterest.
During one of my searches I came across the Katniss braid which I didn't even know she had because i haven't seen the movie. Let me tell you, its awesome and fairly easy to do, if you know how to french braid.

So, sitting in front of my computer after watching a tutorial on how to do such braids (Which in my opinion is self explanatory) I braided my hair. Just like that. Usually when I do anything to my hair without watching what i'm doing in the mirror it looks like poo, but this time I was extremely surprised. I must have channeled my inner Katniss since it was actually a braid that was worth wearing out in public. To bad it was 7:30 at night and I was home alone with the kids. A waist of a good braid.

Makes me want to grow my hair longer so the braid can wrap around my shoulder more. Good thing that's what I was planing on doing before this happened. 

After I put the kids to bed, I felt ambitious, still channeling my inner Katniss I found an outfit that I could pull off.

I had a pair of green pants from my teen-hood that were a little wide legged but I could fix that and a pair of boots that wen't a little higher up the leg. Last but not least, I unfortunately couldn't find a black v neck t-shirt, so that will be my next thrift store hunt with maybe some shorter boots.

So, to sum it all up. I've got the Katniss hair and half the outfit, now all I need to do is learn how to shoot a bow and arrow. Maybe I'll stick with reading the book, it sounds a little less dangerous.

Cheesy Turkey Panini

I came across this yummy picture of a cheesy pizza panini and it looked so yummy I had to try it.
Now, I can't eat a lot of carbs, so if I was going to splurge on this sandwich it needed to be packed full of protean and veggies to make it worth my while.








Here is what I used:

1. Fresh spinach leaves
2. Tomato
3. Mozzarella cheese (YUM!)
4. Deli turkey breast
5. Real butter
6. Sourdough English muffin

So first I cut the English muffin in half and buttered both sides. Why they call it an English muffin instead of a bun I do not know. Then I put a nice layer of cheese on one side. then on goes the spinach and tomato, followed by a nice big heap of turkey. I topped it all off with another layer of cheese and then placed it in the oven on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes on 400.

Here is what mine looked like fresh out of the oven.

They turned out a lot thicker since I put a lot more on them, but they were really flavor full and yummy and really good for you too. I would make them again.

DIY pillow case

Sara here. I've been doing a lot of planing about how I wan't my bedroom to look. It is one of the last rooms in our house that we haven't done anything to until now. We just painted to walls an apricot color and the trim a deep chocolate. It makes the wood paneling on the other walls more bearable since I haven't been convinced that painting them would make them look better. So I was surfing Pinterest one day when I came across these awesome pillow cases that would look great in my bedroom and just screamed "ME."

I've never made pillow cases before but they didn't look to hard so I deemed this my newest project and off I went.

I wanted to make pillow shams so they wouldn't be open on the side like the picture above, but I couldn't find a tutorial for them so I was stuck with a normal pillow case. But finding a tutorial for that was hard too. I finally found a simple one that didn't have a weird seem or flowers on them.

Of course I didn't make them with the flower garnish because I hate flowers, especially in my bedroom, but the pattern was perfect. 

So I went to the fabric store on my lunch break from work (Its a great thing I work only a block away) and picked up a green cotton fabric and a cream cotton fabric, a yard each.

I then cut the fabric into 71/2 inch by 36 inch strips.There were six of each and it used all my fabric so there was non left over. 

I sewed the strips together to make stripes. and then followed the pillow pattern above. If you would like to see it click here.

After I had sewn two striped pillow cases I then needed to write on them. I purchased a fabric marker and used stencils I already had laying around. I got the idea from here,

This is a really cool idea and was really easy to do. Make sure you set the marker by running a hot iron over it before you wash it, or the marker will wash out.

So here is my finished product.

I can't wait to finish the other one and see how they look with the rest of my bedding.

Have fun!