Shoes for Fall - My Latest Obsession

Every once in a while we talk about fashion here on Take the Side Street, because I am secretly a total fashion expert and I like to share my knowledge with my friends. Really.

Okay, you caught me. Every once in a while we talk about fashion because something catches my eye that I can't stop obsessing about and I need someone to say, "girl, I understand -- I love it too, let's both buy one!"

Enter stage left, The Loafer Pump. This has been a fall/winter trend for the past several years, so I don't know why I'm just jumping on the bandwagon today, but here I am. Better late than never! If you already bought a ticket for this ride, make room for little old me.

So cute. More my style than the oxford pumps I obsessed about in 2009 (oh yeah, that's where I've been for the last few years...) but still retaining a little of the menswear styling that we love so much this time of year.

Check out these cute loafer pumps with chunky heels:

{A. Report 'Bishop' in Tan for $98.95

B. Mia 'Nolen' in Luggage for $59

C. Boutique 9 'Night' in Green/Green on sale for $126

D. a.n.a. 'Lillian' in Olive for $65}

Or you could go for a spikier heel, which is (of course), still on trend this and every season...

{E. Call It Spring 'Vinti' in Cognac for $49.99 

F. Nine West 'Abalene' in Medium Natural Leather for $89}

And then there's the one I sort of fell head over heels for... I do love a good wedge.

{Lucky Brand 'June' in Tortoise for $119}

I loooove the Bishops (A -- tassels!), the Boutique 9s (C -- the green and the seam on the toe both make my head spin) and of course those wedges. OY.

Does anybody else need a pair of loafer pumps (or wedges!) in their closet?

It's Begun...

It's happening all over... kids are going back to school. Although I'm ferociously clinging onto summer as if my life depended on it, I've made peace with this transition back into routines, homework, and solitary errand running. Who else feels like they're on vacation when they walk through the grocery store in blissful silence? Best. thing. ever.

My boys' favorite cookies are cooling in preparation for our first after school snack of the year...

... and while my younger son naps, I'm enjoying this last hour of quiet before my oldest comes home from his first day of 1st grade.  (!!)

He was so excited for school that he said he was going to "wake up at dawn," and unfortunately for me, he kept that promise. Yawn. I'm incredibly proud of him because he's always struggled with anxiety and every year he does a bit better. This year his excitement completely overshadowed his nervousness and he ran right up to the school, his friends, and his new teacher. Did I mention I'm so proud? 'Cause I am.

The morning didn't go quite as smoothly for my younger son, who is the sweetest, most stubborn three year old I know. I was fine with him picking out his own outfit, including red striped Snoopy socks, but when I told him he needed to wear his new shoes (you know, the ones that fit him) he had a little meltdown. It was super fun, guys!

He was in a much better mood after school and was more than happy to pose for some photos.

I can't wait for projects, and early morning thrifting, and alone time in the grocery store. Three cheers for school!

More Bedroom Shennanigans

Nah, don't worry. You don't need to cover your eyes... nothin' to see here, people.

Nothing... except my bedding switcheroo!

Here's a reminder of how my bedding usually looks:

Down comforter in a duvet on the bed, coverlet folded at the bottom; elegant, clean, simple... 195°F in the summer nights. Vom. (That's my new slang for 'blah.' It's so hip, it's so now.)

So while switching the duvet and the coverlet made practical sense, I think it's a great fresh look for the room. I used to be a serial rearranger so it's nice for me to be able to change things up even if the furniture stays in one boring spot.

Plus the new accent pillow introduces a bright pop of color to the otherwise calm room. Every time I see it I can't help but feel happy. Yellow is so fun. It's so hip and so now.

And sleeping the last few nights has been so much more pleasant. I hate to be hot at night, and I admit that I'm a foot-sticker-outer. I just wish I had thought of changing the bedding oh, say... two months ago!

What small changes have you made lately to bring new life into your space?

P.S. Speaking of changes... should I get bangs? They're so hip and so now. I think we can all tell how I feel about hip and now things.

P.P.S. Are you a foot-sticker-outer too? We should be friends.

Sharing at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Thrifty Decor Chick, Home Stories A to Z

Super Speedy Iced Tea

Yesterday, when I talked about how I've been doing my fair share of lazing about this summer, reading books and eating grapes that my sweet husband peels and pops into my mouth. Well, my official lazing about in the summertime drink is unsweetened iced tea. Un. sweetened. Sweet tea makes my eyeballs twitch, no offense if it's your drink of choice. But really, twitching eyeballs.

I grew up drinking sun tea -- the sort you leave out all day in the (wait for it...) sun. The water heats up, the tea steeps and the magic happens. I don't have time for that in my life nowadays, not to mention I forget about the jar sitting out on my deck half the time... so a few years ago I started making the shortcut version.

 

Easiest thing ever. Get ready for it, iced tea lovers.

 

1. Almost-boil some water. Don't actually let it boil, just get it super hot.

 

2. Fill your pitcher halfway with the hot water, and let the tea steep. You're going for double-strength tea here, so don't be shy with the tea bags. If you're feeling like a daredevil throw an herbal tea bag in for fun -- mint, raspberry... surprise me.

(Yeah, that's me being crazy innovative with a bag clip keeping the tea bags from falling into the water. I'm pretty sure I'm the first person ever to think of that one. Awwwwesome.)

3. Remove the tea bags after 15-20 minutes, and add lots of ice.

4. Once the tea has cooled down, which should only take a minute or two if you add lots of ice, finish filling the pitcher with cold water and consume large quantities of it.

Eschew all water in the months of June, July, August and instead drink gallons of iced tea while reading and not painting your crown moulding. Do it. You know you want to.

Monumental Changes

Today I took a step forward on my bedroom project; one small step for a project, one giant leap for lazy people everywhere.

Remember this?

 

Yeah, you may recall that my bedroom has had sa-weet unpainted crown moulding for over a year because I've been too busy (lazy? distracted?) to prime and paint.

 

I always have an excuse -- oil-based primer is stinky, so I wanted to wait until the weather was better and I could open my window to air it out. Then I didn't have any brushes in the house. (I use them once for oil-based paints and toss them. Did I mention that I'm lazy?) Then I had the brushes, but it was a Tuesday. Then my horoscope told me not to make any drastic changes. All completely legitimate excuses, right?

No longer, friends!

Check out my progress:

 

Oh... you thought I had painted? Or even primed? Nah -- it's a Tuesday again, guys. Also, I've put this project off for so long that if I rushed it by being too on task, I might disturb the balance of the universe. Or something. Anyway I caulked, and that has to count for something.

 

And while I caulked, I realized a few very important things:

 

1. I waited way too long to start this project -- holy procrastination, Batman.
2. This summer has been almost entirely unproductive, unless you're counting iced tea consumption and books read. I hope you've enjoyed a similarly lazy summer.
3. I really need to dust my chandelier.

 

But I'm pretty sure I can't dust on Tuesdays either. Darn.

Mango Flavored Love

Mangoes. I heart them so.

When I first had one as a young teenager though, I was not a fan. While I sawed the fruit straight down the middle through its fibrous pit like a woman on a mission, my father thankfully stepped in to teach me a thing or two before I cut my fingers off or threw the fruit through a window in my frustration.

Oh, it has a pit, you say? Well that changes everything.

If you're unfamiliar with navigating mango flavored waters, take a looksee at this helpful video below, where a couple different methods of cutting mangoes are demonstrated...


 And if, during that video, you said to yourself, "zoinks! A mango splitter? I must have one!" 

... well then, you should probably hop over and pick one up. I'm so adding this to my Christmas list.

In honor of my love of mango, I thought I'd share a few of my favorite mango recipes with you. If you have any fabulous ones, please feel free to share in the comments section!

Mango Pico de Gallo (from Our Best Bites) 

I die, for real. Crazy good on grilled fish tacos too.

Mango Quinoa Salad(also from Our Best Bites -- I think they share my mango love) 

Not only is this salad absolutely beautiful and colorful (and healthy!), but it tastes insane. Serve it over grilled chicken, or just eat serving spoonfuls of it when no one is looking. Or serve it as a legitimate side dish if you're not a sneaky salad hoarder like I am.

Mangorita

(from Allrecipes)

I realize not everyone drinks, but if you do, then you should make these. Unfortunately it was so delicious that the only real photo I have is a mid-creation mess photo (that for some reason includes a bottle of canola oil -- I assure you, there is no canola oil in the recipe!). I use frozen mango chunks for this, which can be found at major grocery stores with all the other frozen fruit goodness.

Oh wait, I also have this photo of a satisfied customer:

(I'm worried that I might get in trouble for posting that, but I feel it was necessary to illustrate the awesomeness of this drink. Take one for the team, sister.)

A Porch Pick-Me-Up (Or, 'Aqua Strikes Again')

My front porch has a fresh new look thanks to a little spray paint. Gosh, I love paint. Is there anything paint can't do? Besides, you know, deliver babies or write novels... I'm talking about paint-related stuff here.

(And just in case you're crazy, please know that my house number has been changed in photoshop)

Here's my porch last fall, and you can see that the adirondack chairs were a nice sagey green color...

But here's a close up:

See how sad my chairs were? They needed some serious love and a fresh coat of paint.

And thanks to Krylon's Catalina Mist spray paint, which might be one of my very favorite colors, even if it's ridiculously hard to find in my town because almost no one carries it except a craft store that starts with "M" and wants $6 a can and has mysteriously stopped issuing 40% coupons right when I needed them most....

... ahem. Thanks to the Catalina Mist paint, which might be one of my favorite colors, I have two new(ish) chairs and a fun pop of color on my front porch!

 

Oh, and I also have a pot of pansies. I can't forget about that.

Really though, who else loves aqua and bright red together? So fun! Y'all should come over and we'll have some iced tea on my aqua chairs and critique passers-by on their wardrobe choices. It'll be super fun.

Sharing at Just a Girl, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Thrifty Decor Chick

She Laughs Without Fear of the Future {Printable}

I'll be the first to admit that if I sat down to take a quiz on scripture or even the order of books in the Bible, I would fail. However, I was introduced to Proverbs 31 by a friend a couple years ago and I instantly fell in love with one of the verses.

That pretty much sums it up for me. To be comfortable in your skin, confident in the strength of your character, and content to live in the present and enjoy all that God has lovingly given to you... yep, I'm feeling that. I want to be that woman, don't you?

Sometimes I need a helpful reminder, so I made these. Maybe you need a reminder on occasion too? Feel free to take one!

Leave a comment with your email address and I'll send you whichever version you want. The full verse prints as an 8x10 and "she laughs" prints as a 5x7.

{Sorry to handle the print distribution through the comments, but I think I might need to pay for a fancy account so I can upload full-sized photos which will be print-quality on here. Both Picasa and Photobucket compress them so they print out a tad grainy, and that's no good! Any suggestions??}

Sharing at Home Stories A to Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Just a Girl

Ferny Love

Sometimes the smallest thing can brighten a day...

Like a $1.25 clearanced asparagus fern from your neighborhood Wally world planted in a little aqua pot.

Y'all might remember from this spring that I'm a big fan of asparagus ferns. I love the foliage and it's good to have a real plant on my little table again.



No clearance section is safe. I love clearance. Never. ending. lurve.

Have a Seat, Part Deux {Pillow Tutorial}

Last week, after I added some 2x4s to my deck benches to improve the foundation of awesomeness for the aforementioned party capital of the city-to be, I said to myself, "self, what this zebra deck needs is some pillows."

Of course, pillows! Because instead of actually just sanding and staining the deck, I'm much more likely to attempt to distract from the stripes until I can muster the motivation to replace 500 old nails and spend a weekend slapping $75 worth of stain around. Yep, that sounds about right.

As luck would have it, outdoor fabric was 60% off at the store last weekend so I ran out and bought a bit of it and got to work sewing some envelope pillow covers. Why envelope pillow covers?  I like to be able to remove the covers easily for cleaning or if I decide to change things up. Oh, and that's the only type I know how to make... so there you have it!

Are you as clueless as I am when it comes to sewing machines? Well then, look no further!

Today's lesson: "Envelope Pillows for the Home Ec Dropout" 

Alternate title: "Most likely the only sewing tutorial you'll ever see on this blog"

(If you know what you're doing, feel free to skip this post, because I'm most definitely writing this for the other sewing machine-challenged people like me in the world!!)

1. Cut your fabric.

I use a quilter's ruler and a pencil on the back side of my fabric, but I'm pretty sure there's a fancier, less pencil lead-filled way of doing that. Oh well. I like my covers to be snug, so if my pillow insert is 18x18 inches, I cut one square that is 18.5x18.5 inches. This means that my finished pillow cover will actually be 17.5 inches square after I sew with a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Wow, that sentence sounded so crafty... did I even use the term 'seam allowance' correctly? I'm already breaking a sweat just writing this tutorial.

The back side of your pillow is actually two pieces that overlap a little to create a... (wait for it) envelope-like opening for easy pillow removal!  I use this handy formula to figure out what size these pieces need to be:

(front fabric piece width/2) + 1 (left piece overlap) + 1 (right piece overlap)

For example, if the front of my pillow is going to be that 18.5-inch square piece of fabric...

(18.5/2) + 1 +1 = 11.25 inches

This means I cut out two identical pieces of fabric that are 11.25 x 18.5 inches for the back of my pillow.

Lazy Time Saving Tip: If you're making multiple pillows that are the same size, use your first cut pieces as templates for your future cuts. They'll be close enough to the same size, and close enough is pretty much as good as it gets around here!

  

2. Finish one edge on both the back pieces.

Since you'll be seeing one of the edges on both of those smaller pieces (where they overlap), you need to finish them. I fold the raw edge over about 1/4" and press, then fold it again to hide that raw edge, press and pin.

 I like to make those folds as small as possible, but if you wanted to make the folds wider, you would just want to make your back pillow pieces a little wider as well to accomodate that and still maintain the overlap on the finished pillow back (instead of 11.25 inches used in the example, maybe make them 11.5 inches instead)

3 Assemble pillow and sew.

Lay the front pillow piece right side up and then add each of the back pieces on top of it right side down, making sure to  line up the corners and outside edges. It should resemble a nice little pillow that's inside out.

(one piece of back side fabric is on)

Make sure the wrong side of the fabric is visible on both sides so you don't sew 75% of your pillow only to realize that half of it will be wrong-side out when it's done. That's no fun, I speak from experience.

Pin it carefully (notice in the above photo that I have extra pins where the back envelope pieces overlap -- one on either side of each finished edge, and one right in the middle where all three pieces of fabric overlap).

Now sew that sucker up.

Finally, go over the edges with pinking shears, making sure to cut all the corners on a diagonal close to the seam so they lay better and are more corner-y.

Or something. Just do it, okay? It's important for reasons which I can't explain.

Fourth: flip, stuff, admire.

By far the best step. This is where you get to say: "Oh yeah, I'm awesome. I am woman, hear me roar, I'm a sewing master, maybe I could sew a slipcover..." before you reign yourself in and remind yourself to be happy with your baby sewing successes.

See, you don't even notice the stripes now. Ha.

Sharing at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Best Weekend Ever

One of my love languages is receiving gifts. I say one of my love languages because I'm high maintenace and when I take the assessment I usually end up with a three way love language tie because I like to confuse my poor husband like that. If he could hug me with one arm, give me a thoughtful token with another while gazing into my eyes and listening to what I was saying with rapt attention while balancing a plate on his head, we'd be good.

I don't ask for a lot, really.

...except I had been asking for a new car. I've wanted one for a year or so since my current one wasn't really working with the whole '70-pound dog and two kids' thing. Have you ever shared the passenger seat of a compact car with a furry, shedding beast of a golden retriever? If not, run right out and add that one to your bucket list.

We had toyed with the idea of getting a new one but it never really made financial sense for us, so color me surprised when my husband took the boys out in his truck last Saturday, and returned home in this:

Aaahhh!!!

My sweet husband had been moving money from his paychecks each month to save on the sly so he could surprise me with the car I had been pining away for over the last year.

There's even enough room for the dog so I can take her along on errands.

Isn't he the best husband ever? I think so. What a fun surprise!!

Have a Seat...

I'm sort of a big deal around these parts right now.

I finished sorting through some of our back deck's many issues, and now people can sit on it!

It looks like a zebra, but at least you can sit on this zebra. And because of the legs I added, it won't even break when you do sit on it -- we are definitely movin' on up in the world of decks.

Just don't look closely, okay? Really, don't do it. Let's just focus on the positive. I'm building a fondation of awesomeness (isn't that what I said earlier? Let's go with that).

Did I mention you can sit on it now? Without being strangled or poked by a plant?

Look how happy that orange man looks... that has to count for something.

I need to sand it all down and stain it but I'm right now I'm busy pretending that I don't have to do that, so I'll get back to you on that one in the next few weeks.

Instead, today I'm running to JoAnn because all outdoor fabric is 60% off and I might try to make a few pillows to distract from the zebracity of it all. Which means I might be forced to sew. Which means I may or may not need a spotter.

I also need to clean this up:

(making messes is so much better than cleaning messes.)

And I also need to hurry up and do this:



I was busy all week and the cherries are officially in the "pick me now or lose me forever" stage, which only took until the beginning of August, because this spring alternated between frozen tundra and monsoony swampland and now we, the poor townspeople of this region, are dealing with late cherries and squatty tomatoes.

Okay, the squatty tomatoes are probably my fault.