Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas=Water

Two villages have the gift of Water!

and Project 320 is responsible.

Amazing. Glorious. Unbelievable.

Lives have been saved!

Thanks to the wonderful women behind Project 320 for being God's hands and feet.

I have truly been personally inspired by each of them.

This feels like Christmas.

Project 320

On December 14th,

We are going to build a well.
You are going to build a well.

(photo courtesy of Jody Landers)

Because we can.
Because you can.

How?

Right now sweet, generous, creative and caring women from all over the country are sewing, knitting, painting, shopping, blogging, praying.
Donating.

Over 100 items.
Handmade and heartfelt happiness.

Starting
December 14th
and ending
December 18th

Project 320
will be holding a virtual raffle.

10 prize bundles.
Each $10 donation to the well
earns one virtual ticket.

You get to choose how many "tickets" to buy
and which prize package you want to win.

On December 21st we will "draw" ten winners.

But most of all,
we will celebrate the victory.

The promise of clean water for a village.
Life.

Are you excited?

You should be!!!!

Because it is going to be awesome.

Grab a button.

Spread the word.

-post shared from the Project 320 blog

My First Craft Fair!

So after months of planning and trying to make inventory every spare moment, my first craft fair has come and went. Boy, was it alot of work, but oh was it fun!

I used this craft fair as a thumbprint for the many more I hope to do. Figuring out my display was a hurtle but I really heart it.

Anthropologie is always a source of inspiration for me so I tried to use that to create a display I was pretty happy with.

The branch is from my front yard and was perfect with a quick coat of turquoise spray paint for my headbands. Some thrifty finds and some borrowed things pulled it all together.

My friend Jill from Three Little Rosebuds shared space with me. Aren't her canvases so adorable?

Especially this one that I'm dying for.

It sold first for her. Yay! She was also the show coordinator and did a fabulous job!

It was great to get feedback from the public about my product. Sales weren't too shabby either.

Always nice to take on a new adventure and be pleased with the results!

Tutu's In my Etsy shop!

So I finally am going to put some tutu's in my etsy shop.

Can you say neglect?
I've totally been neglecting my shop and blog with the added pressure of getting ready for an upcoming craft show.

Does it count that I think about both alot?
At some point I will figure out how to manage it all:)

Atleast I have talented friends who have adorable daughter's to take pics of for Poppies & Poetry.

Aren't these the sweetest?

Their Mommie sure knows her way around a camera.

It's almost Christmas!

Come over and buy a tutu for a special little girl you know.

~Kylee Burnett Photography~

Water for Christmas

This year my family and I have decided to challenge ourselves in our generosity with both our money and time.

I recently became aware of Water for Christmas, a charity that works to provide clean water across the globe to those who do not have access to it.

Did you know:

One billion people on earth do not have clean water.

4,500 mothers bury their babies everyday due to the lack of clean water.

Unclean water and the lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

Now get this:

Only $10 dollars could provide clean drinking water to a person in Africa for ten years.

That's about 3 grande latte's at Starbucks (which I've been know to drink all in one day).

A dollar a year to save a life.

Unbelievable!

If you are like me I struggle on what to get my friends and family for Christmas because they all basically want for nothing.

Buy Water in their name instead.

Save a life instead of buying that gift that will most likely end up being in the white elephant gift exchange elsewhere anyway.

100% of the money raised goes directly to drill for clean water.

Join me.

BUY WATER. SAVE LIVES.

October Travel

This month includes lots of traveling for me. My bi-annual trip to New York City for Bridal Fashion week with Paris Inc. and then a lovely trip to Siesta Key, Florida to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday with my fabulous Aunts.

Now that my work trip is over I can look forward to some fun in the sun!

I must say NYC was some hard work but there was some shining moments of glamourous fun.

We attended the annual Martha Stewart Weddings Party. This year was the 15th Anniversary celebration and it was held at the gorgeous Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. It was quite the party!

I'll share more of all the fun details later, but for now here are some fun pics of the party:

The Paris Crew

Me and my newest BFF, Robert Verdi

Shoe Overhaul

Recently, I have stumbled among some amazing ideas for re-doing or enhancing your shoe wardrobe. From boots to Sex-in-the-City-like chic heels, there are some amazing ideas complete with tutorials. Check them out and get inspired to freshen up your shoe situation!

A little ribbon can make a big difference:

Hope Studio's Tute

fabric, ribbon and thread=big designer impact

One of my very favorite blogs ever ..Love Meagan's amazing tute:

I found this crafty gal via craftster.org, who took sweater arms and an 'ol pair of mary jane crocs and got this:

the craftster link here

I absolutely love DIY!

Make-It Monday

So vacay is over and I am (almost) back on track. I've gotten many fun things accomplished that I've been wanting to share. My best laid plan is that my posts will be more frequent and scheduled through the week. Let's start now with Make-It Monday!

My oldest dumpling, Caleb is super obsessed with Star Wars. Really it's bordering scary obsession. Luckily the Hubby and I are way into it too.

I found the greatest Star Wars vintage pillowcase at the thrift (my obsession) for 40 cents. Joe said he had the same sheets and pillowcases on his bed when he was little, so it makes this one all the more special.

I contemplated for a couple of weeks on exactly what I was going to do with it and then I ran across this adorable tutorial for a travel pillow from Maya Made and knew immediately. The tutorial was super easy to follow and took about an hour or so from start to finish.

When I find the right fabric I'm gonna do one for my Quinnie too.

This made quite the companion for Caleb on the long drive to and from Myrtle Beach. It has a strap for carrying easily and I added a little Darth Vader pocket from the scraps for his little figures. R2 feels totally at home among his peeps!

Enjoy:)

A Beachy Hiatus

I've been out of my usual routine lately. Went on a wonderful beach getaway with my family. Have some fun new stuff to share soon...

Name Change

So, I'm working on my etsy account again. I let it go there for awhile, but now I'm back with a whole new name and new vision for it's future. Presenting: Poppies & Poetry.

Handmade whimsy for your pleasure. Stop by. I plan to be loading it up with all kinds of goodies over the next week or so.

Lemon Obsession!

As I may have already mentioned I love all things lemon...especially desserts!

I found this recipe recently on allrecipes.com and it is now my new favorite. So easy to make and has the most gourmet result for minimal effort. The top bakes up into sort of a light angel food cake and the bottom becomes a rich lemon sauce. Perfection!!

Embarassingly enough, the damage done to this is all done by me. Don't judge, once you taste this you will not be able to restrain yourself without help. I promise!

Lemon Pudding Cake:

4 eggs, separated
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup white sugar (I cut sugar downfrom original recipe)
1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk


DIRECTIONS
Beat together egg yolks, lemon juice, lemon rind, and butter or margarine until thick and lemon colored. Combine sugar, flour, and salt; add alternately with milk to the yolk mixture, beating well after each addition.
Beat egg whites until stiff. Blend egg whites into batter on low speed of electric mixer. Pour into 8 inch square baking dish.
Place a pan of hot water in the oven, and set the baking dish into the pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes.

Kitchen Towel to Fab Pillow

During one of my many yard sale-ing days this summer I picked up this super cute Anthropologie kitchen towel for just 25 cents.

What a steal, right?

Well it was just too cute to wipe greasy hands on, so in as little as 10 minutes I transformed it into a pillow.

I know I've seen this done out there before as well as an instance where someone turned an Anthropologie towel into kitchen curtains.

Super cute results when you start thinking outside the box!

Just Plain Awesomeness!

Not sure if awesomeness is an actual word, but that's exactly what came to mind when I saw this:

A Pacman grooms cake by the domesic scientist. This would be absolutely great for any occasion in my book (-the bride and groom)! Genious!

TuuuuTuuuu CUTE!

I made two tutus, matching monogram shirts and coordinating hairbows for two very special little ladies of a close friend of mine a few ap-erotik.com weeks ago. They wore them on vacation to the Isle of Palms and so these stunning pictures were born:





Thanks and kudos to the stylist, Jill (Mom) and lead photographer, Vince (Dad) for these adorable shots.

Vince happens to be a very talented photographer. Check him out at

salzarulophotography.com

I just ♥ making these!

Butterfly Cake

I got asked to make a butterfly cake for a little girls 2nd birthday party which I gladly said yes to.

I love any opportunity to make something girly. It's a nice departure from my usual Star Wars, bugs and sports that my boys request.

It took me a couple hours between baking and making homemade tinted buttercream but once I got going it went quick. A star tip is a beautiful thing...

GO NEW ORLEANS! Lemon Cookies

I go to a pretty amazing church here in Cincinnati called Crossroads. Each year my church sends teams to New Orleans in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild the city and love on it's peeps.

I couldn't swing going this year on the trip since I was already spread thin with some other commitments, but I'm holding out hope I can next year.

My neighbor, Bethanne is taking the amazing journey to the Big Easy and I thought with a 17 hour bus trip to endure, she would appreciate some cookie bliss.

I give you the easiest and quite yummy lemon cookie recipe made with a cake mix:

1 box lemon cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter softened

zest of one lemon

Mix lemon cake mix, eggs, butter and lemon zest together. Drop teaspoons of dough on to ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar if desired. I also think a cream cheese glaze drizzled over them would be a nice touch too.

Here are mine all boxed up to send off with Bethanne:

Hope you enjoy!

Eat Well...Live Long

The Lindsey household is striving to get healthier! My cooking is now very health conscious and we now have a membership to the local Y for frequent calorie burning.

Someone told me to grocery shop only in the outer rim of the store where all the fresh veggies, fruit and meats are. It's a challenge to stay away from pre-packaged items just for the convenience factor but we're doing well avoiding them.

I'm really trying to be creative with meals but that's also challenging when you have limited time to whip something up after work.

I've been doing alot of salads like tuna, egg and chicken with lots of greens to accompany it. Very light, fresh and perfect for summer! Arranging it all on a platter really makes it seem dinner worthy.

A rotisserie chicken makes throwing together the chicken salad a breeze. My chicken salad is full of yummy herbs, nuts and grapes. Here's my recipe:

Yummy Chicken Salad

2 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 cup of halved grapes (green or red)
1/3 cup of chopped or halved pecans
handful of fresh chopped parsley
salt & pepper to taste

Toss all together and refridgerate. The longer it sits so the flavors meld together, the better it tastes.

Enjoy!

Blog Envy

So many amazing blogs on the web!

Especially ones written by other mothers who are crafty, domestic and whitty.

I have serious blog envy!

Here are some of the sources of my green eyes:

Joys Hope:

She has this great & easy tutuorial for an absolutely adorable fabric necklace. I plan on making many with my fabric remnants.

Maya Made:

Check out this simple summer pavilion She made her kids. I want one for my boys!

Joyful Abode

She has delicious recipes complete with mouth watering photography.

Like these baked egg rolls.

Pretty Partridge

The cutest toddler tank made perfect with the addition of a ruffle.

The Art of Indecision

She recently posted pics of my dream caravan. Absolutely stunning!

Make sure you check out all the pics on Her blog post. I'm drooling right now!

So GO off and discover some of these amazing blogs who provide so much inspiration, knowledge and invoke complete envy!

Come have Coffee with me. I like tea too.

So my front porch bistro set project is done!

The chairs turned out just like I imagined in my head. I painted a black bistro table I already had white and I think I'll add an outdoor rug when I find the right one. Otherwise it's ready for company!

I love it so much that I thought about opening my own little cafe right here on my porch like Jack does outside his apartment on Will and Grace. Yes, I think I love that idea:)

Now off to make the right coffee house apron...

I whipped up a matching pillow out of the left over fabric and added it to the bench on the other side.

I am a proud 'DIY'er!

Mantle Magnificence

I stopped in at my neighbor's house and a spur of the moment divine design happened. Bethanne is an avid thrifter/yard saler like myself and she has a great collection of colored glass throughout her house.

All of a sudden I had an intense desire to see it all on her mantle. Luckily she's open to spur of the moment suggestions. We collected all the glass from around her house and together we arranged it on her mantle.

The result was so lovely and is even more so all aglow. I am inspired to look around my home to see if there is anything I have that would lend itself to a re-design!

Front Porch Chairs

So last week on my Bellevue Street Sale bargain hunting I found two of these chairs:

$4 a piece!

I know I can breathe new life into them.

Along with a bistro table they will make the perfect compliment to my front porch.

Just the place for my morning coffee!

These chairs are soon to meet with these:

Can't wait to show you the beautiful results!

Birthday Bliss

My 29th birthday has came and gone and boy was it a fun weekend! My day started out with t-ball on Saturday morning. Caleb is ridiculously adorable in his uniform:

See what I mean:)

Afterwards I hit the Bellevue street sale for a minute before I was off to the spa. Joe arranged for me to have a wonderful day at the Avalon spa in Hyde Park.

A swedish massage, manicure and pedicure later I felt like a new girl! See here that I decided to go dark with the nails. The Starbucks coffee cup was also a sweet little birthday gift.

The night ended with my and my girlfriends celebrating at Jefferson Hall listening to the Swimsuit Models. We had a great time!

Sunday morning I woke up to a cookies & cream birthday cake complete with candles and song from my boys. So adorable!

Couldn't have celebrated 29 any better thanks to my wonderful family and friends!

My Etsy shop is finally open for biz! A long time coming, I just haven't had the time to dedicate to getting some of my things uploaded into my store.

So I hunkered down tonight and got 5 of my most precious vintage finds posted. I have alot to learn yet about the photography aspect but I figure I'll get a groove soon enough. Now I just can't wait to get some of my handmade goodies in there!


Click on my etsy button and come visit me!