jaina in the movies

We spend a lot of time together...

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi! You're my only hope."

"There's no place like home."

"Come on, Dover!!! Move your bloomin' a***!"

sausage, spinach, provolawesome!

Whipped this up the other night. Can't say I'm not proud of it.

It was a Spinach, Sausage, Provolone Pizza, and it was incredible.Got the recipe from one of my favorite magazines, Real Simple. Here's a link to the online recipe.

Zach giving his thumbs up.

Tried any new recipes lately?

oh valentine

I've always loved "scrappy" crafts; collages, decoupage, ransom notes... I'm a sucker for pretty slips of paper, and I tear apart most every magazine I get ahold of. I've even been known to furtively rip out pages in the doctor's office, shhh. So for my homemade valentines I like to go scrappy.

Back in Victorian days the ladies were really into the collage thing. They would sit around gabbing in parlors while they cut apart old magazines, books, and cards. I read somewhere that it was even a thing to trade your really good scraps, as in, "I'll trade you this wicked dove for those dope violets." The Valentines back in the day were especially cool.

This one's kind of intense. Is he seriously touching her boob?

I'm sure this card would've been "tradeable".

I like finding these online, printing them off, then doing what they would've done; cut up old cards to make new ones. I made a bunch this week, using all stuff I had around the house and pictures I've saved for a while.

 Perfect project to do on the couch with your hubby.

It takes a lot of patience. And very sharp scissors.

I went through my old scrapbooking stash, and found some fun paper. A couple stickers, a little glue, and - ooh la la - Victorian Style Valentines.

I was in such a scrapping mood after that, I dove into my favorite resource: magazines. I buzzed through and found all of the mostly red pages, and started folding paper hearts. Here's what I came up with:

I used this pattern to make the hearts. It was fun to try to fold strategically to get the berries, flowers, or gorgeous Persian rugs to show up on the front. Here's what I finally figured out. The purple bar on step three is what will make the front of your heart. Also I taped down all the back foldy pieces once each heart was done.

I even swiped the string off of a Valentine's present I just got. Ha! Completely free holiday decor. I love it. 

This post is featured on My Life, as Mommy & Wife's blog hop, Spread the Love.

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AND on Bower Power's link-up Lovely Crafts Linky Party.

a truth universally acknowledged

I. Love. Pride & Prejudice.

Someone lent us the  5+ hour BBC version when I was in early high school, and I've been bound by this story ever since (not to mention in love with Colin Firth).

Since the novel was originally published 200 years ago last week, it seems only fitting that I share my little collection with you.

I first started collecting copies of Pride & Prejudice in college. I got the idea from Mel Gibson's character, Jerry Fletcher, in "Conspiracy Theory" who manically buys A Catcher in the Rye every time he's in a bookstore. I wanted to be an un-crazy version of that. However, that gets expensive, plus, the vast majority that I see are cheapy copies with boring cover art. So I tried to limit myself to one-of-a-kind copies or to buying them during important events.

This rather nondescript version is actually pretty special since we bought it right after we were engaged. 

We ducked into a little used bookshop right after Zach flew to Philly and scared me half to death 

by showing up on my doorstep with something sparkly.

This one's so pretty. I got it from my sister and bro-in-law for Christmas last year.

They've also given me this one:

 

Tons of fun. Definitely the only bit of Marvel that I'm a fan of.

Then there are the weird ones:

 Don't ever read this. It's hilariously awful. I got it as a joke, but it's just sad. 
It's supposed to be about Darcy and Elizabeth after they get married, 
but it's basically juts a sex book. 
If I had to read about Darcy's burning loins one more time...

 And of course you've gotta have P,P&Z. Honestly, I've never read this, 
I got it for Zach. It combines both of our obsessions 
in one gross, so-far-from-what-the-original-author-intended book. 

 I hadn't added to my collection in quite some time, but with the birth of my daughter came another new addition:

 Starting her off young. ; )

 Cracks me up. But who are we kidding? 

This is Mommy's book, Jaina's just borrowing it for a little while.

 It lives way up on the top shelf. 

She can play with it once she learns that books are for reading, not for eating.

 You can tell just how far I let my obsession get by what I let myself make this summer.

 That's right. That's a cross stitch. Hey, I was on bed-rest. I needed something to occupy my fingers and my brain, and this was perfect. 

Do you have a favorite book? One that you don't mind reading over and over? I hope my baby girl grows up loving to read as much as I do.  

Stay tuned for some fun projects we're doing around the house!