The Pinterest Challenge: Summer edition

My friend Alex posted this to my Facebook last week and told me I needed to do this. But then, like most things I do, I ended up doing it late. I was supposed to have this post up last Tuesday, but instead I'm going to make it two posts and a week late. I like to make things my own, after all.

I'm always nervous about doing something I've seen online because I'm afraid I won't do it as well as the original, like this pin I found:

Note: I didn't make these cupcakes. I found this picture on Pinterest.

But I put on my big girl craft pants and went to work. My Pinterest is heavy with items on my "to crochet" list. Sometimes I feel like I should apologize to my followers for my yarn-centric pins, but there are so many awesome things to make out there! I'd been looking for the perfect baby gift to make for my coworker Heather's baby shower when I found this adorable teddy bear hat.

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The pin didn't lead to a pattern, so I was left to my own devices as far as making it. I have a generic baby hat, but it was the alternating patterns that had me scared. Was I woman enough to tackle these various stitches? After some time searching YouTube (where I've learned most of my stitches), I went to work on this baby shower gift. Here's the final result.

I think it's pretty spot on! I really love the criss-cross stitch and think the various stitches give the hat lots of texture and character. I can't wait to see it modeled in a few more weeks! To go along with the hat, I crocheted my first stuffed animal — appropriately enough, a teddy bear.

I think they make a cute pair, don't you? And while the bear didn't come from Pinterest inspiration, I couldn't help but show her off anyway. I'm a crafter and a bragger.

Later this week I'll show you the bracelets I made from another Pinterest inspiration. Try not to soil yourself with excitement, OK?

What Pinterest-inpired crafts have you undertaken?

P.S. Want to see more of my Pinterest crafts? Click here.

Linked up at The Crafty Nest

Duty calls

Some call it your civic duty, others call it torture, but whatever you call jury duty, it's seldom looked at as an exciting event. Scott got his notice in the mail last week and, compounded with the ongoing car saga, exclaimed, "Why do bad things keep happening to us?"

So he's off to the courthouse this morning, trying his best to look like an unfriendly potential juror. I suggested he pull a Liz Lemon.



Do you have any jury duty horror stories? How do you attempt to get out of it?

Thoughts from the mister: Some like it hot

Scott enjoyed blogging so much last time that he thought he'd do it again. This time it's all about his latest love affair with TABASCO. Enjoy!

Would you believe me if I told you that I devour a bottle of TABASCO brand pepper sauce every month? Well, it’s true. As of late, it seems that no food is complete with a dash or two or three of TABASCO. The spicy and vinegary sauce delights my taste buds and awakens my mouth, providing a much loved Southern Creole comfort. Whether you are sitting down to a platter of a dozen oysters or a warm bowl of pinto beans and cornbread, TABASCO must somehow find its way on to your plate. It always finds its way onto mine.

Some Like Its History
According to family tradition, Original TABASCO brand pepper sauce was created in the mid-to-late 1860s by Edmund McIlhenny. A food lover and avid gardener, McIlhenny was given seeds of Capsicum frutescens peppers that had come from Mexico or Central America. On Avery Island in south Louisiana, he sowed the seeds, nurtured the plants, and delighted in the spicy flavor of the peppers they bore.

The diet of the Reconstruction South was bland and monotonous, especially by Louisiana standards. So Edmund McIlhenny decided to create a pepper sauce to give the food some spice and flavor — some excitement. Selecting and crushing the reddest peppers from his plants, he mixed them with Avery Island salt and aged this “mash” for 30 days in crockery jars and barrels. McIlhenny then blended the mash with French white wine vinegar and aged the mixture for at least another 30 days. After straining it, he transferred the sauce to small cologne-type bottles with sprinkler fitments, which he then corked and sealed in green wax.

More than 140 years later, TABASCO Sauce is made much the same way except now the aging process for the mash is longer — up to three years in white oak barrels and the vinegar is high quality distilled vinegar (www.tabasco.com).

Rocky Top Tennessee

Since Tuesday's post was rather Arkansas-centric, I thought I'd keep my parents happy and not neglect my home of 22 years, Tennessee. It's hard because to me both Tennessee and Arkansas are my home. I know that there's no better way to celebrate "good ol' Rocky Top" than with a collection of some of my favorite Volunteer state pieces. Maybe I can convince Scott that we need one of these at home.

A simple gray canvas print of home.

 Tennessee's state motto.

I love this Tennessee necklace with the cut-out heart.

 This would be nice in a frame in the office at home.

 Well-known Nashville districts. 

I love seeing all the Tennessee points of interest on this pillow.

If you're like me and call two states "home," how do you celebrate both?

Sources: canvas, motto, necklace, print, sign and pillow.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

That's right! I'm already counting down; after all it's only 38 days until the beginning of football season! (What? Did you think I was talking about Christmas?)

Last week's SEC media days got me trembling with excitement. Football season is almost here, and I am giddy with anticipation! I thought I'd collect a few of my favorite Razorback things to get you as excited as I am to call the hogs!

A good Hogs shirt is a must, and I love the vintage logo on this one.

I love this preppy Vineyard Vines tote with tiny razorbacks around the brim. 

I've got a razorback cookie cutter that I can't wait to put to use. These cookies are my inspiration.

 No house should be without the fight song on one of its walls!

 I love this tailgating decor. It would be perfect for an away game party at home.

Red TOMS classics are my favorite game day shoes. 

The red polka dot trim is adorable on this pillow.

A neat design celebrating all things Arkansas.

 I might not be a pet person, but this little piggy in red boots has me rethinking that. 

Are you as excited as I am about Arkansas football? What are you looking most forward to for football season? 

Sources: Shirt, tote, sign, decor, shoes, pillow, print,  and pig.

His and hers: Ice cream

Scott and I have very different tastes when it comes to the foods we like. He prefers the perfect mix of sweet and salty, while I want sugar with a side of sugar and a little sugar on top. This difference is best displayed in our freezer where we each have our favorite ice cream treats stored. His is Haagen-Dazs' butter pecan; mine is Blue Bunny's birthday party ice cream sandwiches.

Now, Scott's not here to tell you why he loves his, but I can go on for days about why the birthday party ice cream sandwiches are far superior. One, it has cake batter-flavored sandwich cake. Two, it has sprinkles in the ice cream. Three, it has blue frosting swirled around inside. Yes, I'll say it again, blue frosting! While my taste buds might not be the most mature in the world, they know what they like — and they like blue frosting.

(Can't get enough of my blogging today? Then click on over to the Harding magazine blog to read about the Searcy Summer Dinner Theater date Scott and I went on this weekend.)

What a day

Well, here's the car. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it's definitely not in the condition I last saw it.

Despite the stress of the car wreck, we actually had a nice evening. At about 4:45 the body shop called and said that the tow truck driver and failed to get the car key from Scott and therefore we needed to go back to Little Rock and drop it off. We loaded up in our little rental (a roller-skate otherwise known as a Chevy Cobalt) and headed back.

Once we dropped of the key, we decided we needed to do something fun, so we went to Pei Wei (not Taco Bell) for dinner. It was nice to feel like we were out for a special reason (since dinner in Little Rock is a special event) in the midst of a trying day. When we opened our fortune cookies, we got a nice reminder that things weren't really that bad.

Yet another reminder that the car is just a thing, that we have God and each other, and that is just what we need. Plus, the wreck was an "unexpected event," so maybe we'll be getting some riches out of that?

Afterward, I decided Scott needed some cheering up, so we went to his favorite place on earth — The Container Store, a veritable heaven on earth for Type-A's. We then headed home, playing our version of "Name That Tune" with Cranium's Humdinger rules. (If your not familiar with the game Cranium or its Humdinger cards, let me explain. You've got to get your partner to guess the song by only humming or whistling. It can be quite difficult based on the song or the hummer.) Scott boasted about his whistling skills, while mine were less than great. It's hard to whistle when you're laughing. I do think I did a pretty great rendition of Weezer's "Say It Ain't So," though.

There's an Italian Renaissance idea of romance called sprezzatura. It means that you find the romance in your ordinary life. (I'd like to say that I learned this from my studies in Italian culture or through reading the manuscripts of ancient Italian philosophers, but, alas, I learned it from Ames on "The Bachelorette.") I realized that last night in the car coming home, laughing and whistling and enjoying our night despite the fact the morning had been so difficult. That's why I can say that yesterday was a good day.