Grandpa Sweater for Baby

I fell in love with the buttons on this baby sweater and decided to knit my first sweater pattern (on a small scale: For babies!) It's a pretty easy pattern and so fun to knit. So I made two. One for baby Jacob and one for baby Desmond.

Lemon and Berry Wreath

This wreath was inspired by the magnolia branch and pineapple wreaths that are popular in the south. I secured the lemons with wire and harvested the berry sprigs and pine cone from our yard. Easy!

Red Maple Farm Delights

My stepsister Meghan and her family live on a farm and are busy making too many delights to keep track of. They gave us this amazing basket of wedding goodies, including homemade wine and beer (both delicious!) fresh-pressed cider, and honey from their hive, comb and all. We're ready to invest in a share of Red Maple Farm.

We mixed the crabapple juice with soda water to make these juice spritzers.

Hand-Embroidered Kitchen Towels

We received some lovely handmade items for our wedding. I'll post a few to share the craftiness! These towels were embroidered by our good friend Jess. She took inspiration from our registry, so many of the items on the towels are also in our kitchen. Jess also authors this delicious food blog.

A Choo Choooo Birthday Party

Elijah's 2nd birthday was a smashing success! Ever since Elijah went on the Durbin Rocket steam locomotive in WV this summer, he, like all other little boys, has developed a keen interest in trains. So when I found the invitation and DIY printables here and cute conductor overalls, we were off and running (my excuse for not sewing and crafting myself is the fact I'm about 14 months pregnant...ugh). We made pulled pork mini sandwiches with cucumber slaw, mac&cheese and baked beans as well as Korean beef, kimchi, shrimp skewers and mandu. The Korean food was practically inhaled by all ages, so from this point forward we will not split the bill between American and Korean food - it's one or the other! My friend Meghan of CosmoCookie provided me with the amazing vanilla and chocolate (with cinnamon!) cake recipes which were both frosted with buttercream. The gift bags consisted of wooden train whistles, red bandanas and stickers.

Thank you for all who helped celebrate!

Yarn Wreath

Check out this cute idea for a wreath posted here on Apartment Therapy. I don't have time to craft myself, but that won't stop me from making suggestions for other people!

Inspiration for a "big boy" room

The transformation from guest to "big boy" room is underway! I finished painting the walls with Serena and Lily's "Oatmeal" paint and I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I decided on a red/gray/blue color palate for the bedding and went with Serena and Lily's red star sheet set, slate/bay blue cabin quilt and white bed skirt. The cute woodlands lamp was on clearance at Serena and Lily (thanks for that, Grandma!). The sweet robot alphabet print is available on Etsy. I'm looking around for a bookshelf and love the idea of the star and fabric storage bin combination (also from S&L). Something like the Boja pendant light from Ikea would be a big improvement over the current flush mount. Stay tuned...

Pickled Ramps

Our first CSA delivery arrived this week, including several vegetables we'd never encountered (sorrel, black radishes and sunchokes). Ramps are wild leeks that have to be foraged, and our farm has them growing on their land. We grilled some of the ramps this week, and pickled the rest. Here is a very easy refrigerator pickling recipe for ramps.

A Brightly Colored Desk

I bought a beige steel and formica-topped desk off of Craigslist. I like to think it came from the University of Minnesota because I found interoffice mail envelopes wedged behind the drawers. The project started in February in our one-car garage, which means the one car that used to park there was stuck navigating snowdrifts for several weeks. I sanded the desk with an electric sander rented from our local hardware store. Then I read the directions on the spray paint cans I'd bought and realized the paint couldn't be used in temps below 45 degrees.

I managed to heat the garage with a space heater sufficiently to get the primer on. But the rest of the paint wasn't finished until the end of March. Oops.

I used this DELICIOUS spray paint called Montana Gold. I want to paint everything with this stuff. It is so gorgeous and comes in over 200 colors.

I found this lovable '60s era radio (it works!) at a place called Salvage One in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, a multi-floor warehouse filled with mid-century delights. I'm looking for a dark wood lamp to round it all out. And a shelving system will go above the desk to organize my fabric, craft boxes and files.

Minnesota Onesies

Some Minnesota sweetness for cousins' babies in Wisconsin and Colorado.