Easter Sunday

we had such a fun Easter this year. 

stay tuned for pictures from our fun filled day...here's one just to tide you over! ;)

Happy Easter!

adventures in sewing

as i have mentioned a few times, learning to sew is pretty high on my bucket list. 

so when my friend ashley offered to teach me some basic about sewing, i jumped at the opportunity!

ashley & her husband are southern california natives and have such a cute apartment with a beachy feel to it. ashley decided that she wanted to cover her brown & green decorative pillows to match a little better. she found a really straight forward tutorial for making pillow covers via pinterest & bought some simple star fish fabric from amazon. what a cheap & easy option for covering pillows!

^^^ashley even let me give it a try!^^^

& the finished product!!! isn't that the cutest pillow cover? and it only took like 20 minutes. 

next we are going to try to tackle making maxi & pencil skirts with jersey fabric!

thanks for a fun morning, ash!

book club? ya right!

i have never been a big reader. i kind of go through little spurts of reading and then i won't see the inside of a book for months. 

i wish i was better! 

i am currently going through one of those rare times that i am actually interested in reading!! go me! but i am almost done with the novel i have been tackling for the past 3 years. okay, come on...i don't read THAT slow! i have read other books during that time but this particular book was rather hard to get through. obviously. but i was determined to finally finish it & move on.

so for all your book worms out there, do you have any good novels that you just loved??? i'm not into sci fi or fantasy, sorry i only got through the first harry potter. i love girly books, mysteries, historical ones or basically anything with a good story that will catch my attention early on!

help me out!! i would love to be introduced to new authors or books that i would probably never find on my own.

**this picture is from a recent phototshoot i did with a friend. i did not go blonde! ;)

recipes {ratatouille}

i have to admit, ever since watching ratatouille as a kid, i have been so curious to know what this dish would taste like. i know it is a bunch of veggies, but in the movie, & yes i know it is a cartoon, it just looks so good! so to keep with the french theme of mark's birthday back in february, i made this side dish!

i had a lot of fun making this dish. i used a mandolin to slice all of the vegetables & it took about 5 minutes to go through an eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper. hello, FAST! you can use a really sharp knife instead of a mandolin, but if you use a knife you most likely won't get a consistent thickness. once all of your veggies are sliced you can really be creative & layer everything however you'd like. it did take a while to layer all of the thinly sliced vegetables but it came out looking so pretty! this is definitely a dish to make if you want to impress your guests & get a few compliments :)

what you'll need >>
recipe adapted from smitten kitchen
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1/2 egg plant
1/2 zuchinni
1/2 yellow squash
1/2 red pepper
a few sprigs of thyme
salt & pepper

directions >>
1. preheat oven to 375.

2. using a round baking dish, about 9 inches, pour tomato puree in the bottom of the pan. add onions, garlic & 1 tbsp of olive oil. salt and pepper generously & mix gently to combine.

3. trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. trim the ends off of the red pepper & remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

4. using a mandoline, or a very sharp knife, cut the veggies into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

5. on top of the tomato puree, arrange slices of veggies from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. you may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

6. drizzle remaining tablespoon of olive oil on top of the veggies and season generously with salt and pepper. remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs and roughly chop them. then sprinkle over the veggies.

7. bake for about 45-55 minutes until veggies are cooked but not totally limp. the tomato sauce will be bubbling up around the edges.

8. serve on top of a grain with a dollop of goat cheese or as a side dish with a yummy protein!

happy friday, y'all!