Pantone's Color of the Year

Several years ago, my classmates and I had to sit in on a special seminar about color and fashion. It was at 8am, barely related to my major, and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep in my chair for the majority of it, but there was one key thing I took from the lecture: The 2009 color of the year was Insomnia Yellow.
I refused to believe it. It was the most hideous color I'd ever seen. It was like neon yellow mixed with lime green and hints of brown. I immediately hated it with a passion. But without fail, it became the most popular color that year. I saw it everywhere.

-in fashion.

- in accessories

-in design

 I finally gave in and accepted it when I saw a  fashionable friend of mine owning not one, but TWO articles of clothing in that color. I silently wept inside, but gave up my fight.
I have since learned that the color was not called Insomnia (no idea where that name came from) but the much more pleasant Mimosa Yellow.

Every year, the color authority, Pantone, releases a collection of colors that they claim will be the most popular colors of the year and one color to be the Color Of The Year. Quite a title if you ask me.

The 2009 Color of the Year was Mimosa.
The 2010 Color of the Year was Turquoise.

And, fellow pink lovers rejoice, the 2011 Color of the Year is Honeysuckle.

How beautiful is that? So much more preferable to Mimosa.
In case you're curious (I was) the rest of 2011's colors (at least the spring colors) are these:

Beautiful colors, every one of them.
They're also available on Visa cards, if you love them that much. Seriously.

The undeniable point is once Pantone names a color of the year, it immediately becomes the most popular color in every field. Since not everyone will love exactly this shade of pink, the surrounding colors are generally accepted. This is probably how I ended up thinking that awful insomnia yellow was the true color of the year when it was just an off branch of Mimosa.

If Honeysuckle isn't your cup of tea, pick a shade you can live with and go with it.
The Pantone website states that they chose Honeysuckle following Turquoise to literally ward off the blues of last year. Honeysuckle is an invigorating color that will embolden us to face our everyday troubles with courage and bravery. Think of it as the pink version of power red. This is not baby nursery pink. This is a kick butt and take names kinda color.

I have collected a few pictures of Honeysuckle from various fields to prepare you for 2011.
Enjoy. :)

They even have a collection of Honeysuckle-ish yarns for me to choose from. How thoughtful.

Incorporating a new color into your wardrobe or home decor doesn't mean a total overhaul. A few key pieces are all you need. A new scarf or bracelet. A throw pillow or blanket. A bouquet of fresh flowers. Unless Mimosa, Turquoise or Honeysuckle is your favorite color, there's no need to go overboard, because you can be sure there will be a new color of the year next year.

Until next time,
xoxo.

Two Crafts and a Snack

I have a legitimate reason for completely skipping a week of blogging:

Meet Watson, my new dog. He's a seven year old mini beagle and he's just precious. He's not yet housebroken and is quite hyperactive, so he's taken up a lot of my time these past two weeks.

To make up for it, I have a massive THREE PART BLOG! Yay!

Part One: Book Binding

I love the look of hand-bound books. They're so rustic and beautiful. I finally decided to give it a try.

All it takes to bind your own book is paper, front and back covers, a heavy thread (I chose embroidery floss) and a needle. My covers are scrapbooking paper wrapped around cardboard.

Cut the paper to be the height of the book and twice the width, then fold in half. Create mini books by folding several sheets together. This creates what's called a signature. A signature for a book like this can have anywhere from 3 to 7 sheets of paper. Less than that and it might rip. More than that and it won't close properly. You can have as many signatures as you'd like. I chose 4 signatures of 5 sheets, so my book has 40 pages since each folded sheet creates 2 pages. (80 if you want to count fronts and backs separately.)

Decide how many stitches you want holding your book together. I chose 5. Open each signature up and, in the crease, punch holes through all the papers. Make sure the holes are in the exact same place in each signature or the book won't line up correctly. I created a little template that I used when punching my holes.

The top two holes in my signatures.

Now, this is kinda cheating, I know, but I'm gonna redirect you to a video. The book binding stitch I used is called the Coptic Stitch. It's hard to explain, but easy to do and easier to learn via video. There are several great coptic stitch videos on Youtube. They do a much better job explaining the process than I would.

My completed book. I kinda love it. And it's the perfect dimensions for writing lists, my favorite.

Now, onward!

Part Two: Turning a table runner into a sweet piece of wall art.

My bedroom is shamrock green, dusty pink and dark brown. At least, I wanted it to be, but I needed a little more color. When I found a great green table runner on sale at my store, I knew I needed it for something. After thinking it over, it turned into a banner above my window.

The only problem was the ends of the runner had shamrocks on them. Clearly it's a St. Patrick's Day runner. But, no hill for a crafty climber. My solution: RIBBON!
Ribbons come in so many colors and designs that it was easy to find a few that worked with my vision.

And luckily, Michaels was having a sale on ribbons. Great find.

I laid out my runner and ironed out all the creases. (My mom would be so proud of me.) Then I had to remove all the dog hair from Watson's snooping.

By strategically laying out the ribbons, I magically made the shamrocks disappear! I played around with them for a while until I found a layout I liked.

Pup was bored of craft time. (Prepare yourself for many more Watson pictures in the future.)

Once I found a layout I liked, I took a picture of it, both for blogging and for memory when I transferred it to my wall.

I attached the runner to my wall with white thumb tacks and then tacked each end of the ribbon. It took a while, but it will leave no lasting marks on the wall or on the runner. (Other than a dozen tack holes. No big deal in the grand scheme.) And now my window wall has the perfect amount of color in just the right shades.

Part Three: Valentine's Rice Krispie Treats
Oh, you wanted a difficult snack recipe? My bad.

Coming from someone who doesn't eat chocolate, good desserts are hard to come by. Rice Krispie treats have been a standby for me for a long time. So classic. But since it's almost Valentine's Day, I decided to add a little color in the form of M&Ms. (I can handle a little chocolate.)

I like short ingredient lists: Rice Krispies, marshmallows, butter, vanilla flavoring and M&Ms.

6 cups of Rice Krispies and 4 cups of marshmallows. (Plus another handful to just eat.)

I melted my butter and then tossed in my marshmallows. I think melting marshmallows look so strange. (I may have tossed in a handful of french vanilla snowman-shaped marshmallows. Something's gotta counteract those M&Ms!)

Once the butter melted, I dumped in my Rice Krispies and mixed it all up. Then I threw in about a cup of Valentine's M&M's.

Once it was evenly mixed, I spread it out in a well greased 9x13 pan and let it set up. So easy and so delicious.

I never promised my crafts and recipes would always be brilliantly innovative. But who doesn't love Rice Krispie Treats? (Other than my roommate, as I just learned...)

And I will leave you with one last picture of the pup... trying to help me make the bed...

Until next time... Happy Valentine's Day!

Pepper Vodka and Russia's Revenge

Apparently I am on a super easy recipe kick because this one is also about as easy as it can get, but oh, so worth it. (On second thought, is infusing vodka considered a recipe?)

One of my best friends had a firefighter themed 21st birthday and I bought her a bottle of Absolut Peppar to celebrate with. We made shots out of it and Kahlua that were pretty much amazing, but there was no way we could have downed the vodka straight. When they make it pepper flavored, they go all the way.
Being me, I wondered how they infuse these flavors into vodkas. As it turns out, it's a fairly simple process, at least for the home cook.

Step 1, as always, is gather ingredients. One bottle of average vodka (who doesn't love a good quality bottle like Smirnoff?), one airtight bottle large enough to hold the vodka (lucky you if they're on sale at the store you work at), and three peppers: a serrano, a habanero and a jalapeno.

Cut each pepper in half and remove the seeds. Save only the seedless half. You could use the other half for something else, like salsa or enchilada soup. Yum.

Pour the vodka into the bottle and add the peppers. I only used about 3/4 of the bottle of the vodka. Some drinks just won't work with pepper vodka. Sad, but true. And I had to cut my peppers into slices so they would fit through the neck of the bottle. Not a problem.

Seal the top and swirl the bottle to thoroughly mix the peppers and the vodka. Let it sit in a cold, dark place for 3-5 days. Once (or twice, if you're antsy like me) a day swirl the bottle around again to continue the mixing. The longer you wait, the more peppery the vodka will be, but don't wait longer than 5 days.

When it's ready, pour the contents out into a large enough container and remove the peppers. If pepper pieces are left in the vodka, strain through a piece of cheesecloth or a coffee filter and the pour back into the bottle. My vodka took on a really cool green tint from the peppers.

Now pour yourself a nice wine glass (don't judge) of spicy Bloody Mary with your pepper vodka. I don't have a cool Bloody Mary recipe, but I do have another recipe! No pictures though. Sorry.

Russia's Revenge
2 oz pepper vodka
1 oz Kahlua
Milk (or light cream, if you want to be legit)

1. Pour the pepper vodka and kahlua over ice in a rocks glass.
2. Fill the rest of the glass with milk.
3. Feel the burn.

I lied about the picture. This is what it'll look like. Perfection.

Chicken & Dumplings

Growing up, my mom usually did all the cooking. If it was my dad's night to cook, our options were limited to pizza, mac and cheese, or chicken and dumplings. I love chicken and dumplings more than any other meal. If I were going to die and was given a last meal, this would be it... except for maybe the world's most perfectly cooked steak, but I don't have a recipe for that ...yet.

I once made the mistake of ordering chicken and dumplings at Cracker Barrel. This was a very bad idea. As it turns out, there are two different recipes: southern chicken and dumplings, like Cracker Barrel makes, and northern chicken and dumplings, like my dad made. Northern is the way to go.

Switching gears a little bit: I went out drinking with a friend the other night at a club where he works. A week night. As soon as I woke up the next morning to head to work, I regretted the third, and fourth, martini. I felt awful all day. Serves me right. When I got home, I knew the only thing I wanted to eat was chicken and dumplings, the world's most perfect hangover meal. Plus it's freezing cold again this week and this is classic cold weather food.

This is the easiest recipe in the whole world. I promise.

First, as always, gather ingredients. Bisquick, a can of cream of chicken soup, a can of chicken (any size you'd like), a cup of chicken broth, and milk. I decided this would also be a good time to show off my new wine glass...full of Dr. Pepper. You can't tell, but it has a faint white spiral around the whole glass. I'm in love with it, even if the sound of putting wine in it still makes me cringe.

Pour the chicken broth, the cream of chicken soup and the can of chicken into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, mix together the bisquick and milk. Also, invest in some mixing bowls.

Drop the dough into the boiling soup mixture by spoonfuls. Try to evenly space them out in the pot, but don't worry when they crowd.. because they will. Cook for 10 minutes then cover and cook for 10 more. This is the hardest part because the kitchen will smell AMAZING, but be patient.

When it's ready, it will look awful, but have some faith. So delicious.

Scoop out a lot into a bowl, cover with salt and pepper and devour. You will not regret it. In fact, you'll love it so much that you'll make some for your friends and then they will love it and nickname it something disgusting like Chicken & Dumps and ask you to make it all the time. I swear.


Chicken & Dumplings
1 can chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken
2 1/4 cups Bisquick
2/3 cup milk

1. Pour the broth, cream of chicken soup and chicken into a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Mix together the bisquick and the milk until it forms a dough.
3. Drop the dough by spoonfuls into the boiling soup.
4. Cook for 10 minutes, cover and cook for 10 more minutes.
5. Ladle in a bowl, cover with salt and pepper and enjoy. :)

Easiest recipe ever. Also easy to double, or triple, like my family always had to. One bowl is never enough.

In case you can't remember this recipe (and then I might be worried about you) it's on the Bisquick box! Clearly Bisquick understands that northern chicken and dumplings is the way to go.

PS. After a BIG helping of Chicken and Dumplings and a good night's sleep, I'm feeling much better. :)

Big Blank Walls

So you have a big blank wall and you're not sure what to do with it. Welcome to my life.

I was recently told that January brings the biggest business for home decor stores. After taking down holiday decorations everyone seems to believe their home is now empty and needs a painting or silk plant.

I completely understand this feeling. In my parents home we have a very large stone fireplace and two years ago we built a portable mantle for it, just to display Christmas decorations and hang stockings. Come January, we'd take it down.. and then realize just how large and empty the stone fireplace looks. Ever since then we've been on the lookout for a equally large clock to hang on the stone.

The same thing is happening in my apartment right now. Almost as soon as we moved in I put up a little Christmas tree next to our television. Now that I've thrown out the tree, it's become very obvious that we have nothing on that wall and the roommate and I are debating what to do with it. We also have another large wall over our couch that needs... something.

I decided to do some research and I'll share my discoveries with you.

This will only be a small fraction of the options out there, but maybe one will work in your space.

Artwork - Art always seems to be the go-to wall cover. There's nothing wrong with that idea. It's tried and true. Find a large painting that suits your style, space and budget and live happily ever after together.

Frames - The other wall cover standard. There are a million options here as well. They could be filled with photos or paintings or certificates or anything else your heart desires. I would suggest either keeping all the frames similar, like the picture on the left, or completely different, like the one on the right. The goal is to make it look like it was planned and not just an accident.

Shelving - Shelves are great because they can hold almost anything. This is a nice way to combine frames and art and maybe books and a plant or two. There are tons of shelving styles out there to choose from ranging from very modern to very traditional. The key here is restraint. As you can see in this picture, just because there is space on the shelves doesn't mean it needs to be filled with something. Empty space speaks just as loudly as filled space.

This is where I'll start to get into the more unique options.

Vinyl Wall Stickers -  I personally love this new trend. They're so affordable, easily removable and transportable. There are countless options in all shapes and sizes and if you can't find the perfect graphic, there are companies that will create one just for you. Talk about unique!

Letters - Maybe you're a writer, or a reader, or just someone who loves the bold graphics of the alphabet. The letters could spell something, although I'm not a big fan of the self-help-esque "Live Laugh Love" trend going on now, or they could just be a collection of letters. 

Salvaged Doors, Windows and Shutters - While this option won't fit every style, when it does, it's a match made in heaven. Salvage yards and antique dealers always have a large selection of this kind of art (yes, in this case I consider them art). It might take a little effort to find the perfect piece and then clean it up, but it would be well worth it.

Collections - Maybe you have a collection of something worth showing off, like in the case of this picture, a few beautiful George Nelson clocks. (insert dreamy sigh.) However before showing off your prized collection of kitten plates like Umbridge from Harry Potter...  

...maybe it'd be best to get a few trusted opinions first. Just to be on the safe side.

Graffiti - If you're looking to make a bold, urban statement, I can think of no better way than a whole wall of graffiti. Again, this won't suit everyone's taste, but when it does, it would be magnificent. Finding a true graffiti artist might be a bit of a challenge since every kid with a can of spray paint thinks he's an urban Picasso but when you find one, like my friend Mike, they would do wonders with a blank wall.

Ceiling Medallions - I'm 85% sure that these beautiful yellow circles were intended to be ceiling medallions, plates that attach to the ceiling above lights or fans. They come in many shapes and sizes and can be painted to match any decor. This is turning an everyday object into art at its finest.

Animal Head - I couldn't help but include this one in my list. If you're stumped on how to redecorate your hunting lodge, look no further. An animal head is the clear way to go.

Maybe my roommate and I will eventually decide on what to put over our couch, but I don't think an animal head will be it.

This barely scratches the surface of wall decor and if you've got other interesting wall art ideas, I'd love to hear them!