Fresh Blackberry Cobbler

I just wrote a post over at the cookbook proposal about some amazing fresh blackberry cobbler I made this evening. I definitely recommend you jump on over there to read about it but I warn you: take too long to read and you may need to make some for yourself.

Read at your own risk.

The Beginnings...

My work has decided that after 10 years in the same office space it is in need of a makeover. At the beginning any good makeover everything has to be taken out of the space to construct, decorate, and then move items back in. That includes the people. That's right, starting the beginning of November, everyone in my office will be working from home for 2-3 months.

So what does a girl do that will be working from home for 2-3 months? Why, make a cloffice of course!

Closet + office = cloffice.

I know that it has been three whole months since we moved into our house and I haven't even so much as taken you on a tour of the place {I promise I will do that soon!}, so I decided that you should come along while I make my cloffice. I have just a little over two months to complete my workspace - with a 10-day road trip in the middle of it all - so be prepared to see this thing done sooner rather than later.

Inspiration
There are a lot of fabulous cloffices out there on the interwebs and with my handy Pinterest at my side I was able to pin a lot of different photos to help inspire my workspace.

via

This is one of my favorite cloffices on the web. I'm not sure why I always come back to this one but it could be its simple yet organized style, the clear chair, or the easy and budget-friendly accessories. Maybe even the color. It could also be because this cloffice is from the amazing blog iheartorganizing where I soak up the before and after pictures as well as the fun, logical, intensely organizational posts.

via

Here's another cloffice I love that may have something to do with the color. This color is pretty close to the one I chose for my cloffice so we may be bosom buddies for reals.

I also dig the pegboard on the door. Growing up I would always see pegboard in the garage with tools hung perfectly organized so I'm not that surprised I like it inside the house as well. I won't have doors on my cloffice so I might have to figure something else out.

via

Ahh yes, a cloffice with a sewing machine. I heart a cloffice with a sewing machine. I plan on using my cloffice for sewing and, because I haven't sewed anything since before moving into our new house, I'm itching to start working the needle again. Plus, look at all these little boxes! Just think of all the cutsey things that could be put in those boxes! {swoon}

I am always on the lookout for more inspirational blog posts and pictures about cloffices. Google and Pinterest have been my friend but if you know of any more send them my way.

{Up next, the beginning stages of my cloffice work.}

What is the Price of Convenience?

What would you pay to not have to pick it up yourself? $5.00? $10.00? $25.00?

I, for one, am cheap so paying anything extra to have it delivered makes me take a step back and think about my intended purchase just a little bit longer. Unless of course it's for one tiny, amazingly brilliant item* that I can't live without that can be found at one store in the middle of our local mall.

Why would I pay extra to have one tiny item delivered to my desk instead of pick it up at the mall? Have you SEEN these two?

'Nuff said.







*Seriously the best eyeshadow primer in the world. It makes your eyeshadow stay all day - long after the rest of your face has melted off in the heat.

It's Already Monday?

Let's just think about the weekend a little bit longer, shall we?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend.

We took the light rail up to the Seattle Aquarium yesterday and then ended the night over at a friend's house for dinner. Although it was drizzly and overcast most of the day, everyone was still in good spirits about the amazing 70* weather we had on Saturday so all in all, it was a great weekend. Plus we got to spend an entire day with Lucky. That always puts us in a good mood.

Of course pictures of this weekend are spread onto two or three different cameras and, naturally, none of them are with me right now so I don't have anything to post.

Oh well, back to the grind anyway.

A Jolly Good Time

You know, I might just have to invite a few friends over for a Royal Wedding party just so that I can make these super cute items.

Because really, who DOESN'T want mimosas, scones, and tea with "Jolly Good!" along the side?

Find all the printables ready for download at Design Editor.

Love is All You Need

Last week my cube buddy and I were drooling over a simple yet colorful garland on Flikr. The garland isn't too in-your-face but it does draw the eye to the *normally* blank wall above the bed.

I got a spur of creativity this weekend and decided to make a similar version for over our bed however I wanted to make mine a little smaller. We have two reading lights attached to the wall over our pillows and I am saving room for the bedframe I am going to make in the future. When we move into a house. Possibly when pigs fly.

The colors and mixture of large and small letters were fabulous however I did want to change the type of the letters to something more my style and, in the far future, style of our house. I don't have one of those fancy Cricut paper cutters, otherwise this project wouldn't have been so time consuming. {That doesn't really mean much because it took me only two evenings after the kids went to bed to cut out the letters.}

After stringing up the letters with some left over string from another project, really the hardest part was hanging them up to look relatively straight. I think I did a pretty good job.

So, now I'm giving it to you. Here is the .pdf that I created and used for my garland above. You should just be able to download and print. I recommend printing on cardstock to have it hold up better however I'm sure you could use a little Mod Podge to make it sturdy.

Have a ball!


All You Need is Love

Yay for Colors!

I don't know if it's because it's the beginning of Spring or because Kate did REALLY well on her Dial-3 Screening, but I decided I wanted to make a color recognition sheet for Oliver. Sometimes I feel that he's lagging a bit when it comes to speech, recognizing objects, colors, counting, etc. compared to how Kate was doing at his age. Maybe it's because I'm slightly comparing Oliver to how Kate is now and {obviously} she's more proficient in every category {duh}. I know I don't work with Oliver on animals and colors as I did with Kate so I'm here to change that.

I've created a color recognition chart for Ollie to use to learn his colors and color words. I just printed it out and asked him where each color was, he was great but got white and purple mixed up when I asked him what the color was. Exactly why I made this in the first place.

And now I'm giving it to you.

If you have a very young child and want a physical sheet to go over the different colors, feel free to download this handy, basic color chart. You're welcome.



Click on the picture to download.



What does this mean? It's so bright, so vivid

In front of my office window.

Borders is Bankrupt

I bet you hundreds of Borders inventory clerks are thinking that if the executive team ever WORKED at a Borders store they wouldn't be in this position right now....

Two Buildings Falling in Love

{Valentine's Day had come again this year (unfortunately for a few) and as I was eating cereal in my office kitchen, I looked out the window to the Expedia building next to us wondering why there were signs of love pointing in our direction. I was so inspired that I almost made a huge sign to post in our window - but it looks like someone beat me to it.  This story is from our Intranet and I had to share it with all of you. It is definitely a great, sweet read.}


by Kristan Curren, Margaret Bruya and Ingrid Belobradic, WE-Seattle, February 16, 2011

Sometimes curiosity gets the better of you and leads you to places you wouldn't expect.

The Waggener Edstrom Bellevue office is surrounded by a number of high-rise buildings and, for more than a year, we have had a view of our Expedia neighbors to the north. The office building has garnered the nick name “ant farm” as WE Bellevue office employees enjoy watching Expedia employees through the windows as they go about their daily work lives.

One late night last week, three members of the WinClient team; Kristan Curren, Margaret Bruya and Ingrid Belobradic; wondered if Expedia employees could see inside the Civica building. After trying (and failing)- failed to make contact by waving enthusiatically, they noticed someone at Expedia had put post-it notes on their window in the form of a smiley face. What follows is the story of how this simple gesture evolved into a full “conversation” between the two companies:

• Late Thursday: Kristan, Ingrid and Margaret decided to create a post-it note message in response to the Expedia building to let them know they were loved - a simple “We ♥ You” created out of approximately 80 standard yellow and pink flower-shaped post-its.

• The next morning: we looked out the window to discover the smiley face had been transformed into “XOX”. Shortly after, a large QR Code appeared in the window. We were able to take a picture, zoom in and scan the code that lead to this bit.ly link. It turns out we had been rickroll’d!

• We followed up with a quick “Be Mine” in post its - and this is when Expedia really got involved. We started seeing signs and post-it notes popping up in a number of windows across various floors. We were so excited by the pick up from our post-it note messages that we decided to post a bit.ly link to a short film about two shy colleagues who use post-it art to express their love.

• While we took a few minutes to check our artwork from the outside (and to make sure all the letters were properly posted backwards), we met Expedia employees on the street who told us how fun they thought the messages were! It was a proud moment- we felt like we’d gone beyond proving that they could see us to actually brightening their days!

• Monday morning was Valentine’s Day so we wanted to go big. We updated the window to say “Happy ♥ Day” and created some pictures inspired by the post it YouTube video we had shared the day before. This prompted Expedia employees to add more window decorations including a bit.ly link to a slide show sharing pictures of their employees decorating themselves in post it notes. One person posted the message “TXT ME” on their window

• In reponse, we upped the ante and posted “CALL ME” with a Waggener Edstrom phone number. The twist? The line lead to a voice mail message courtesy of the Old Spice “perfect man” (created using this voice mail generator), telling them that Waggener Edstrom could not come to the phone but were wishing them a Happy Valentine’s Day. Our personal goal was to receive 20 external calls to the number and we beat our metrics with 33 calls! Six people left us messages, to wish us a Happy Valentine's Day in return and to thank us for adding a little humor to their day!

There you have it… thanks to approximately 130 post-its (reused after each new message), we created a modern day love story. It began with a simple experiment to find out if people would look up from their desks long enough to see a love note in a window next door and, at least for a few days, employees from two buildings and two companies were brought closer together.

Bake a Heart in a Cupcake!

Wow look at this amazing cupcake! If I was staying home this weekend I know what I would be doing.... I may have to try it next weekend. (That is Laffy Taffy buttercream frosting btw.) 

Check out the recipe from Bake it in a Cake!

Kate

Lucky took this pic the other night at the tattoo shop {obv.}.

Jewelry Now Has a Home!

I finally made a jewelry box! My jewelry has been scattered over my bedroom, backpack, bag, and bathroom for the last few years and I'm done! I've finally found the motivation to do something about my jewelry problem and came up with this little bad boy.

{yes there is a surf board in my room. don't judge.}

{I had originally picked up this box for free from a wine distributer looking to get rid of it. That was way too easy. I called them up, asked if they had any wooden boxes, and went down to collect. It's amazing what stores will have on hand to give you for free.}

This glorified stack of wood was intended to create a storage bin to put on a shelf in my craft area, however, the shelf isn't even hung on the wall yet (we needed shelves for other areas of the house) and the shelf we have wouldn't hold a crate this large. So it's been sitting under my desk for the past few months. And that is boring. Finally I had the brilliant idea to paint it, turn it on its side, stick some dowel rods in it, and call it good. Of course I didn't think of taking pictures during this process so unfortunately all you get to see if the final product.

I picked up a dowel rod for $.68, a hacksaw for $3.49 (to cut the dowel), and a can of gray semi-gloss paint for $10.99. Total I spent $15.16 for this baby and have enough paint left over for a few project to come. Now I just have to find all my jewelry to fill it!

This tastes just as good as it looks...

Fresh blackberry cobbler. Next time I'm going to have to write out the recipe, this was too easy and too good to keep a secret. :)

Just Somethin' Extra

Just a little somein' I made for my desk and for the shop.

Christmas Tree To-Do Lists

To keep you in the holiday spirit, print out these handy to do lists while you compete your holiday tasks, courtesy of Tricia-Rennea over at Trillustrations.

If you're like me and want actual notepads instead of loose paper laying around, Skip to my Lou has a very helpful tutorial on how to make your own. One thing to note about the tutorial, it says that you need C clamps for the paper but if you're like me and don't have them handy, a few binder clips will work just fine.

Enjoy.

November 18, 2005

Has it really been FIVE years already? I can't believe it. I have to pinch myself sometimes to make sure that yes, it has been five whole years since I gave birth to the most unbelieveably amazing daughter in the world.

Five years ago today I was at home alone when I received a phone call from my doctor who was a little perturbed that I wasn't already at the hospital waiting to be induced.  I was already two days overdue and he wanted to induce me. I, deciding that I wanted my labor to start naturally, didn't go to the hospital but after the phone call I couldn't say no to my doctor. {Side note: with a doctor looking like a young Rob Lowe, who could really say no?}

At lunch Lucky came home and we packed up to head to the hospital to begin the nerve-racking process of giving birth. After being administered pitocin, the drug that is supposed to help start labor for all you no-children people, I didn't actually start going into labor until after 1pm. Then it was time to wait.

And wait.

After a while the nurses decided that it was time to stick me with an epidural so that when the real fun begins I would be prepared. Thank god they decided to do it then because that anesthesiologist must have been new as it took him OVER AN HOUR to stick my back with a freakin' needle. An hour. And I was already having contractions. Do you know how long an hour feels when you are having contractions? THREE YEARS. AT LEAST. I'm sure I was breaking Lucky's hands by now because they only thing he could do was hold my hands and hold me up straight enough for that stupid guy to get to my lower back. Little did I know that this guy was just a moron and I could have layed on my side and it should have taken no more than a few minutes but alas, it took having a second child to figure that one out.

After seven hours of labor, with all our friends and family kicked out of our room {into the waiting room where my brother had overtaken the tv and hooked up his XBox} it was time to start pushing. 7:45pm I started and 8:08pm is when Kate came out. The first thing I said after she came out is that she had huge feet. Yes, that is a Cardwell trait. The second thing I said was giving birth was a lot easier than what I thought it was going to be. Lucky looked at me, laughed, and said I just screwed it up for every other pregnant woman. If giving birth was so easy, would others still get away with screaming bloody murder? The ones without drugs would. :D

Here, on my chest, was this precious little baby girl and I couldn't look away. She was ours and so tiny and so perfect. Well, not really TINY, she weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz, and was about 21.25" long. But close enough.

The days in the hospital were a blur, people coming in and going out, I never got to hold Kate longer than 45 minutes before someone else wanted a turn. No worries, though, Lucky and I both were completely at ease and it felt like this was baby # 9 in regards to being stressed. That part was really weird. At no time in the first couple of months were we stressed and wondering what we were going to do. I've heard of subconsciously knowing how to raise a child but we had unknowingly taken that one step further and were completely at peace with this change to our lives.

Now, over the next five years it wasn't all rainbows and butterflies all the time but it was pretty close. Kate is too smart for her own good AND KNOWS IT. She seems like she's 9 or 10 and it still frustrates me that she throws little kid tantrums - which is what she's supposed to do as a little kid.

What's really weird are those times I have to catch myself from getting upset with her because she can't peel a potato or how to press the menu button on the DVD player. What???? Four-year-olds aren't supposed to know how to do that?

She can, however, count to 100, pour her own milk, break Oliver out of his crib, take care of him so much better than I ever took care of my little brother, count to 10 in Spanish {that darn Dora!}, draw better pictures than I can, be the life of the party, ignore the sound of my voice better than Lucky can, and too many other things I can post here.

Instead of talking any more I will post some pictures.

Kate, you will be our little princess forever and I thank God every day that you were born. I love you.

EE