cold with a side of ice

Our little family is headed to Toy Story 3 on Ice today, and I'm geeked out stupid excited. You see Lucy has loved the Toy Story movies since what seemed like birth. The bright colors keep her attention and she watches at least one of the three installments every day. Luckily for Nick and I the hidden adult innuendos make it funny and tolerable for us too. We've never taken her to anything like this before so I'm so pumped for her.

She and I were "colded in" (-3 outside) yesterday so out of sheer boredom we had ourselves a little photo shoot. I was surprised she left the hat on the whole time and didn't try and rip it off and give me the stink eye for putting it on her. If you never messed around on picnik.com (photo editing) you should. It fabulous! I only use the free tools because I'm frugal like that and they keep adding great ones but I hear the ones that come with a membership are well worth it.

Hope you have a super weekend! 

frenchy toast

I'll make this short because I've got a toddler behaving like a stage 5 clinger for some reason right now. I hope you all have a great weekend and if it's as cold where you are as it is here you might enjoy this recipe originally posted by Cassandra at Coco+Kelley. It's heavenly! TGIF kids! 

Amaretto-baked French Toast

3 eggs
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons amaretto
1 loaf brioche bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon butter (for greasing your baking dish)
1/2 cup pecans
maple syrup for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla & amaretto. Add brioche cubes and let mixture soak for 5 minutes. Spoon into a 9” x 12” well greased baking dish; sprinkle with pecans. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Pour maple syrup over & serve

blog anniversary giveaway

My little blog turns the t-w-o today! It almost slipped right by me but it hit me this morning whilst drinking my coffee right before a tiny mouse scurried by and sent the morning into a tail spin. All I can say is I really ♥ my kitty cat for gingerly corralling him and my husband for being quick with the mop bucket. 

ANYWAY in honor of this special day I thought I'd send the very first person to leave a comment one of my favorite aqua ball jars as a thank you for your bloggy world friendship. I had know idea when I got bored one day and created this page it would still be going strong and I would meet so many wonderful people as a result. It's been truly life changing. 

Hope you're all having a great week. We are expecting yet more snow tomorrow so I'm going to cozy in with my little family and work on the pretty new cable knit hat I started to knit today. Love you all! 

color amore

I cannot even begin to describe my love for this image. I don't think I could live with this kind of color on a daily basis but it's one of those "it'd be a nice place to visit" type spaces for sure! The paintings totally remind me of my last two years of undergrad as a painting major.

*le sigh*

union jack pillow

Everywhere I turn lately I see such sweet union jack decor. I decided to hop on the bandwagon and create my own. I couldn't wait to jump on this project and I knew my mom would love one too and with her birthday this week it was motivation enough to get started so this is how I spent part of my weekend. I bought a couple of yards of tan moleskin fabric from Jo Ann's along with some pretty ribbon. The inserts are 12''x16''s from Walmart. I've never really made a pillow cover before but I thought the envelope closure looked pretty simple. After the first cover was done the next two went fairly quickly. I made three all together because of course I needed one and I knew one would be perfect for Nicks momma too. Look out world of pillow covers I'm hooked now!

simple envelope closure

light blue ribbon version

I left the muslin unhemmed for a messy frayed look.

seafoam green ribbon versions 

(ribbon from the Martha Stewart line at Michael's on clearance right now. RUN!)

***

update! due to all of the positive response i've added them to our etsy boutique (link to arkanoffdesignco.@etsy is located on the side bar)

linking up to