Custom Roller Shade Tutorial

Do any of you HATE blinds with a PASSION like me? I HATE BLINDS! They tend to always do something like this:


Well, I finally decided I'd HAD ENOUGH! So I got the idea from Design Sponge, a great site for inspiration! And made my own custom roller shades.

I have been LOVING stripes, so I went with brown and white stripes for my fabric. Here's how I did it.

1. Go to your local hardware store (I went to Lowes and the workers were IDIOTS! I like Home Depot for the service...I like Lowes for prices...it's really a toss-up which is better all around, in my opinion). Get the right size roller blind and ask someone to cut it to your specifications. Make sure you get the hardware too- cause it doesn't come with the roller blind!

2. Buy heavy cotton, or decorator/upholstery fabric. I bought enough so that the width was about 2 inches wider than my window, and so the length is my window length + 9 inches extra.

3. Press sides of fabric in 1/2 inch.
4. Press those sides AGAIN- 1/2 inch over.
5. Sew close to the edge of fold on each side.

6. Press bottom of fabric up about 1/2 inch.

7. Press up another 1 1/2 to 2 inches.
8. Sew close to edge of fold. The side of this seam will be open, which it's supposed to be!

9. Take off the shade that comes on the roller shade.
It will be sticky, which is good for the next step. Press the shade you made onto the roller shade sticky part with your hands. Keep in mind the direction you want it to roll.
Then staple every 6 inches or so to secure fabric.
10. Last, put your wooden stick thingy you took out of the previous shade in your new shade's slot!
After you follow the manufacturers direction on tension adjustments, you'll have an awesome custom made roller shade!

Does your husband do things like this?

You see my two beautiful chairs I worked SO HARD on?

You see what I come home to EVERY day?

The husband seems to think it's okay to put our big gaudy pillows on my chairs to get them out of his way...so he can lay like this.


And guess what? When the husband isn't home- the pillows remain on the chairs...meaning- does he think they look nice there? Is that why he leaves them there? I don't know. It's just one of those man things ya know? The classic Man vs Woman. Man simply doesn't understand. Woman does.

I asked Dante what he thought on the matter...but Dante...he just doesn't really care, as he was pre-occupied with his big purple toy bone...as he is most of the day.
I could get really upset with the hubster about all this...but I choose not to. It's things like this that I just accept comes from his inherit manness. Yep, manness. My new word.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

I got this recipe from the lovely Stephanie of NieNie Dialogues. When I saw the recipe, I knew I had to try it! My husband was weary of it at first...just by me saying "Whole Wheat Pizza", he was scared. However, he said that he couldn't tell the difference and that I could keep using that for our pizza crust! I make this with fresh whole wheat ground the very same day- which makes for a very healthy pizza!


Ingredients

2 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast (or one packet)
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tbs oil
1/4 tsp sugar

Instructions

Add yeast to cup of warm water. Let sit

Mix dry ingredients together, then add oil. Add yeast mixture and knead for approximately 5 minutes. Let rise for 30-45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450.

Roll dough out onto a cookie sheet. Cook for 7 minutes (WITHOUT toppings- this helps it so it's not soggy). Take out of oven and add toppings. Cook for 8-10 more minutes.

BBQ Pork Pizza

I got this recipe from my amazing sister Lizzie. She made this for me and my husband while visiting and we absolutely FELL INLOVE with it! This is definitely one to impress and don't let the instructions scare you. It's actually very easy! The great thing is, the leftover pork can be frozen in a freezer ziploc bag, and thawed for later use!




Ingredients:

Boneless pork loin
salt
1 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1 TBS liquid smoke
onion
fresh cilantro
monterey jack cheese
pizza crust dough (you can buy at store, or make your own- see my whole wheat pizza crust recipe)

Instructions:

Mix ketchup, brown sugar, and liquid smoke.

Cut pork into four chunks. Put in crock pot. Salt pork very liberally. Pour ketchup mixture over pork. Put crock pot on low for 10 hours.

Take pork out and shred. It should fall apart very easily, so you can do this part with a fork! Put back in crock pot and stir pork around to get leftover BBQ sauce all over it. Taste, and if you feel it needs a stronger BBQ taste, make the ketchup mixture again and mix in with shredded pork.

Caramelize onions: Slice onion into VERY THIN slices. AS THIN as you can get them! Put skillet on medium with a bit of oil and put onions in for 30 minutes, until caramelized.

Put caramelized onions on pizza dough. Then put shredded pork. Then put shredded jack cheese. Cook for however long the pizza crust needs to be cooked.

Once out of the oven, sprinkle fresh chopped cilantro on top and eat!

Sometime's Clay shows me youtube videos...

and this one is definitely blog worthy! I know my star-wars fan family will enjoy:)



ttehehhehehe

Clay's and my favorite parts tend to be the Luke parts..."A jedi's gotta do what a jedi's gotta do.." and "ohhh why'd you slice off my heaaaaaaand"

hahah

we laugh every time

Danielle's take on paintballing...

Sometimes I feel a tad awkward when I talk in 3rd person like that. Whateva.

So last night we went paintballing. I'd say there were around 20 people that showed up! Holy friggin smokes. I knew like...3 people I think sooooo it was a little nerve wracking.

The whole way up I had this anxiety filled chest where my heart would start beating fast, and my stomach would hurt and I'd scrunch my face in a worried fashion and seriously wonder why I agreed to do this. I'm not joking. I was SCARED OUT OF MY MIND. Yeah- I understand that people don't typically die from paintballing, but it's just this thing...I have to talk myself through things. Like, when I go to the lake, and it's so FREAKING COLD, I have to tell myself that I really won't die if I get in. I'm not joking. I tell myself this because for some reason, my body thinks it will die if it goes UNDER the freezing cold water.

Back to the paintballing. I was in the process of talking myself up and starting to feel good about it. Cause I mean...as I was talking myself up (in my head), Clay was talking me up out loud. He'd say things like, "Hey- just remember to be really quiet, and your ears are your biggest tool, and just shoot a BUNCH of times..not just once because you probably will miss with just one shot...if they are running shoot ahead of them...if you're running they are less likely to hit you...just stick with me and you'll be fine...It really doesn't hurt anyway...you'll be fine" tip after tip after tip. I was almost stressed because of the OVERLOAD of info he was giving me. But it was nice- he was lookin out for me:)

We get there- to this ISLAND. Yeah. An island. And Clay carries me across because there's no bridge. Thank goodness for Clay! He unfortunately got quite wet, along with the other men. We get across to the island and there are GUNS EVERYWHERE! Granted, they are paintball guns...but it was still a scary site for a lil Oregonion wussy girl (me). Everyone was in camo or black or green (myself included) and no one looked near as scared as me. Or even scared at all. If they were, they hid it very well.

The games finally start and it's basically like...two teams, shoot eachother till a whole team is out. I follow Clay and this is where it all begins. Crouching and hiding. I tell you- I was bored out of my ever loving MIND! The majority of the 3 hours of games...I just crouched, and moved, and crouched, and moved, and crouched, and moved, and crouched and...you get the picture. Clay DID say that this was not the most exciting game he's ever played. I guess he is used to more action and people taking more chances...there wasn't too much of that this time...so I think he wishes I coulda seen that more.

The most exciting part of the night was when we played President. How it goes is, there are two teams. One team has the President and the rest of the team is the President's bodyguard. The President doesn't get a gun, and the bodyguards are in charge of getting the president to their home base. In order for the other team to win is they have to hit the president in the chest, or the back. So you know- I volunteered to be President cause it really is not likely you get hit. It was kinda fun for me cause I had all these people trying to protect me. So all of a sudden, as I was crawling under a bush, following these guys out of our hiding spot- I get this image of Princess Leah, and Luke, and Han Solo, running from crazy bad guys. Then I felt kinda like a princess. I'm not even joking. So as I'm decked out in baggy camo in a foresty island, crouching in bushes, I am seeing this whole different scenario where I am a princess being saved by valiant men. It made the whole experience a lot better. Thank GOODNESS, they got the princess to her castle (aka. Got the President to Home Base). I was safe.

I got hit 4 times. Once in the leg, and it didn't break. Once in the shoulder, and it didn't break. Once on my other shoulder and it didn't break. Once in the arm and it broke. The one shoulder- HURTS! I woke up in the night cause it hurt when it got rubbed. But the other ones don't hurt at all now. They just stung for a minute right after I got shot. hahaha. I GOT SHOT! Yikes.

Overall, I decided...I'm not so much of a painballin kinda girl. I think I'll leave it to those valiant men. I woke up this morning EXAUSTED, sore, and kinda ticked. I mean- I spent a whole night crouching and crawling, which if you think about it- kinda means I spent the whole night doing squats or played target for some man to shoot at.

Lastly- I NEVER EVEN FREAKING SHOT MY GUN! ughhhhhhhhh. As Clay put it on the drive home, "We didn't go through many paintballs. Thanks to my conservative shot here:)". hahaha. Conservative Shot. I like that:) The thing about it is, I never saw anyone until they shot me. Then I saw them. So it was like...too late. Ya know?

So that's my take on paintballing. I'm glad I went though. It was fun to get dressed up in Camo and Clay tell me I look good and...well...it was good to try it out ya know? Like- I've never been and always wondered if I'd be an amazing paintballer. I always wonder that if I've never tried something. I'm like- I've never tried snowboarding...I probably should cause what if that's my life calling? Clay thinks I need to try it again. I'm not so sure. We'll see after it's been a while and my legs don't feel like I've been on a 10k marathon and my shoulder has healed. I might go...offer to be princess again:)

What's been goin onnnnnnn?

Well, since I did my giveaway- I didn't really post for over a week! Yikes- soooo what have we been up to?

• Well you know, we bought TWO tables. Yep! Two! I will just wait to tell you what we're doing with them until we are done. Cause you'll just get it a lot easier when I show you pictures. But...needless to say, we have a LOT of tables in our possession right now!
• It's FINALLY summer in Idaho. As in, high 80's everyday now, summer. FINALLY. I'm already dreading winter...bad. I wish it just wouldn't come this year. Wouldn't that be nice?
• I told Clay I wanted nice cute perfect boots for winter this year. He told me he wanted a big screen tv. Sigh....
• We paid off our car! YES! It is officially OURS- I am so happy about this.
• I'm going to Oregon in less than 2 WEEKS! Meaning, I'll get to stroll the bayfront, sample some fresh salt-water taffee, giggle at the barking seals, go to the aquarium where I hear there are exceptionally large snakes right now!, eat a smore made by a fire on the beach, see my sistas, brother, grandparents and PARENTS! Oh- I am soooooooo excited. Not to mention a WEEK off of work. That alone is enough to be excited about! I am so excited. I think about it EVERY DAY, multiple times a day, and get excited everytime! I know- excited excited excited.
• Speaking of excited- bachelorette is on tonight! Hellooooooooooo drama! Frank frank frank. I'm guessing I'll despise you after tonight.
• Got two of Clay's birthday presents last week in the mail- I am SO EXCITED for his birthday. I'm going to make truffle chocolate cheesecake, and yes- it's even better than it sounds. Did I ever tell you about his first birthday in our marriage? Well- it's perfect. I decided to make him truffle chocolate cheesecake, like a perfect little wife. Whaaaaaaaaale....our oven happened to be CRAZY- and cook things differently all the time. So I try to make this cheesecake, specific to the instructions, and when I take it out of the oven at the exact time I am supposed to, and undo the latchy thing on the cheesecake pan that I'm supposed to undo, at the precise time I'm supposed to, it melts and goes all over my counter. The top 1/2" of the cake was cooked, but the bottom 3 inches or so was basically like dough. So...of course I start crying. And Clay starts eating the top 1/2 inch that cooked. And he begins to tell me, "This is amazing! The part that is cooked is sooooo good. You did such a good job!" and I cry even MORE and am like- "YEAH RIGHT! It's ruined!" and I tell him to stop eating it and he doesn't have to eat it. He says, "I want to! It's so good!" And continues to eat the top part. Then the rest of the week he keeps eating the truffles that are supposed to go on top which are SO RICH- and keeps telling me how good they are. It was a disaster.
• A few months later we found out our oven was set 100 degrees higher than it was supposed to be. That explains it.
• So this year, as I have a wondrous oven that I LOVE- I will make him an entire truffle cheesecake that he can eat an actual piece of. How luxurious!
• I made a Martha Stewart Recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies. They were scrumptious. I swear- every Martha Cookie recipe is the best- EXCEPT for her chocolate sugar cookies...which are NASTAY!
• We had some friends stay at our house over the weekend, which meant cleaning the HECK out of our house. Oh my- it was great. We have this really clean house and we are so happy about it. I wish I was an awesome cleaner...cause it'd just feel great. Someday...someday.

That's all! Can't think of much else. We are going paintballing on Wednesday I guess...soooo I'm guessing I'll have some sort of "Danielle is a clumsy wimp who isn't the most coordinated" story to tell on Thursday. Cya!

Padded Headboard- The Tutorial

Alright folks, I'm finally bunkering down and giving the tutorial on how to make a padded, tufted, headboard. Anyone can do this if they have a DRILL, and a STAPLE GUN. Here we go!

Supplies for a Queen Size Headboard:

2 yards of fabric
cover buttons
upholstery thread
lots of thick batting, yardage depends on how thick you want it- OR- at Fred Meyers they sell thick foam for $20/piece and you will need 2 of them for a queen size (unless you don't want it tall like mine)
4x8 board from Lowes or Home Depot- I usually get 3/4" thick
2x4


Step 1: Measure how wide you want your headboard. I did mine a few inches wider on each side of my bed. Draw a line, and cut it!

Step 2: Lay out your buttons, and decide where you want them. Do you want them staggered? Lined up exactly? Each look can look good, but is different! After you have an idea of where you want them, measure carefully and mark the spots with a permanent marker- I'd suggest drawing a BIG dot so it stands out.
Step 3: Drill holes in the spots you just marked. This part is pretty dang fun actually:) One of my favorite parts! I would suggest using a fairly large bit...maybe about half an inch, because it will come in handy for the following steps.

Step 4: Put the legs on. We did this by drilling a hole through the board, and legs (which were made by cutting a 2x4 in half) and then screwing in screws:)
Note: When we made another headboard later, we put the legs on LAST- after the headboard was all put together. I would suggest this. Just make sure you get long enough screws to go through the 2x4 and the board, but short enough that they don't poke through too far. It's okay if they do a little bit because the foam usually protects ya!

Step 5: Lay your foam/batting on the ground, and then lay your board ontop of it. Staple all around the foam to keep it in place.

Step 6: Do the same with the fabric. Lay it right side down on the floor, then put your board ontop of it. Pull the fabric tight around the board and staple it.

Step 7: Prop your headboard on something that will hold it in the air. Take your super long needle, and wrap your upholstery thread around it. We quadrupled the thread...to make it super strong. Next you go from the back of the headboard (the exposed wood part) and poke your needle through one of the holes you made. It will then poke out of the fabric, where you then thread the covered button through (to cover your buttons, read instructions on package!), then poke back up through the fabric. This is where the bigger bit can come in handy when drilling holes, because it can be tough to find that hole again!
Then you pull as TIGHT as you can on both ends of the thread, and staple in a kind of zig-zag fashion. This holds it tight.

Continue this step with all the holes, and WALLAH! You are done! Put that bad boy up behind your bed, and you will just feel so happy:)

Congrats to Erin!

Well, the Giveaway is officially over! And Erin won! Just so you know it's fair, I'll let you know how we did it. Melanie from Fishing and Wishing took the number of comments on her post, and added it to the number of comments on MY post, and then put that number in a random number generator, and then counted down the number of comments to whatever number it came up with! Erin chose the Summer Striped Tote Bag- a personal favorite of mine!

This was fun, but I am excited to move on and post some stuff I've been doing the past week! Stay tuned!

Trendy Patterns--THE GIVEAWAY!

Trendy Patterns is officially open!

Want to enter a giveaway to win one of these? Or something else from the shop?

Then you've come to the right place! Follow these instructions to WIN! And yes, you can do BOTH things giving you DOUBLE the chance!

1. Go to my shop, look around, and leave me a comment right HERE on THIS POST, that says what your favorite item in the shop is. Make sure to leave your e-mail address.
2. Follow this blog! Once you've followed, leave a comment saying, "I'm following your blog" with your email address.
3. Go to the blog Fishing and Wishing and follow the instructions there to see even more ways to enter! (there's lots) Melanie from Fishing and Wishing is hosting the giveaway as well- and she does tons of other giveaways as well, so check her out and you could even win some other stuff too!

The giveaway winner will be announced in a week, so you have a whole week to enter and tell all your friends and family about it!

Thanks so much guys! Good luck!

Trendy Patterns---A GIVEAWAY!

Alrighty folks. I have finally done it, I opened my very own etsy shop! It's called

Trendy Patterns

I am SO EXCITED about this and am finally ready to share it with you. I've been sewing sewing sewing the past couple weeks and now have a show-worthy shop up and running! You can find my stuff ANYtime by clicking on one of the items to the right, on my sidebar! Right now the shop is stocked with tote-bags and scarves! Very cute ones, I might add.

Oh yes- The GIVEAWAY! You're probably wondering about that! Head on over to my craft site, I Create It and follow the instructions there. There are MULTIPLE ways you can enter! I am way excited- but slightly nervous that I'll get like...two people who enter and I'll feel like an idiot. But PLEASE, check out my site, my shop, tell people about it, and enter to win!

Chicken Fajitas

Berry Smoothies

Taco Salad

I think I need this!

See this scarf? I'm loving it. I really want it. But, it's for sale in my shop. Do you not get it? Neither do I. However, when I bought the fabrics for a series of scarfs I'm making, I thought this would be my least favorite- but I know lots of people are into this kind of look...so I bought it. Yet, it is my ABSOLUTE favorite! Oh! So, if you love it too- go ahead and step on over to my shop, and take a look!

Seriously...I'm thinking this scarf will work some magic for SOMEone. My husband, took one look at me with it on and got that smile. You know? The one where just one smile from him makes you feel like a million bucks. Love it.

My shop is stocked with cute cute tote bags, a few scarfs, and more to be added every day this week! Get ready cause I'm having my GRAND OPENING on Friday! I mean, you can buy stuff now, but you can expect something exciting for Friday:) So stay tuned!

I just watched "Remember Me"

And I hated it.

Seriously- that was the most DEPRESSING MOVIE in my ENTIRE LIFE! UGH! Seriously? Seriously. How do people decide this is good entertainment? I don't know. All I know is I felt heavy through the whole thing and I just wanted to cry and punch myself in the head all at the same time.

Thank goodness the bachelorette was on after we watched it...otherwise my night would be ruined. Team Vienna, by the way. Jake is a twerp. Yeah, V is annoying, but J is a manipulative meany head.

Anyway, that's all. I have more updates and stuff but I'm too tired. Peace. If you want to be happy, don't watch Remember Me.

Steak & Veggie Kebabs

The day of treats.......

So today I ate treats! They were/are quite tasty. Let me just give you an idea of what it was like.

Clay wanted to be a part of the whole scene where I eat chocolate for the first time. So I made peanut butter swirl brownies (YUM) last night, and we each ate a slice about 1"x2". Not exaggerating, it was really that small. Neither of us had eaten breakfast yet and I was scared. I'm not joking. I had that piece in my hand for a good 15 seconds before I ate it and I kept saying, "I'm so scared!" The only thing I can really relate it to that I think would put perspective is...you know how you're told over and over again- no sex no sex no sex, then you get married and all of a sudden it's okay? You are scared and almost feeling kinda guilty? Like...wait, it's okay now? I'm kinda scared. Well...that's kinda the feeling I had here.

So I ate the bite of brownie and it was pretty good. But I was like- seriously? That's it? I don't even want more. I was expecting to be like "OH MY GOSH, WHAT HAVE I BEEN MISSING?!??!!" But...not really. So I brought a brownie for myself, and my coworkers to work...they ate theirs and I seriously couldn't eat mine. My body was already full on sweets from the morning! So after about an hour...I decided to take a bite. This brownie was about 3"x3" or so...and it took me 2 WHOLE HOURS to finish it! I'm not joking! It's all I could handle! I just took a bite every time I felt like it...and it took 2 hours to finish a VERY SMALL brownie. Then I just felt like I needed LOTS OF WATER. I drank SO MUCH water today...i think I was just trying to cleanse myself or something.

So I came home for lunch and there were the brownies. Now the old Danielle would've eaten...2, probably 4 brownies during her lunch break. But this new Danielle, she didn't even touch them! I didn't want any!

I ate less than half a candybar that my coworkers have been raving about for a month. But couldn't finish it. It was really really good, but I just couldn't! I'd eat one square, and I'd be like, "Woah...okay...slow down there" SERIOUSLY- crazy!

So I think my 6 month fast on sweets worked! In fact, I have here a brownie infront of me, cause I thought I wanted one...and I've taken 2 bites. And it's been like 20 minutes. I just can't handle it anymore!

Now I have to say something that BUGS me. So many people, when they find out I'm doing this...say things like, "Oh I couldn't do that." or "Oh I love treats WAY too much to do that"...or something. They act as if I didn't like treats, wasn't as addicted as them, or whatever. I'll have you know that I am the ONLY person in the entire UNIVERSE that I've EVER MET besides my siblings, that could eat as much treats, OR who was as addicted to treats. And pretty much every person I've ever known has eaten treats around me because I always made treats. Always. So....I saw how much they ate. The point is- it is kinda offensive when people act like that cause it's as if they are down-playing my accomplishment here. I am SO proud because I know that this was a HUGE dedication and I didn't slip ONCE! I went 6 WHOLE MONTHS without sweets, and I am SO PROUD of that.

And I've just gotta say, this was one of the most empowering things I've ever done. It's like- I have power over my body. And....I really REALLY suggest it to EVERYone. And, not that this was the reason, I lost like 5ish pounds doing it I think, and I'd probably have lost a lot more if I had more body weight. So yeah........just do it.