hello munday

a few instagram shots from our weekend:

{clockwise from upper left}

1 // many of you messaged about "the super cell" that was heading directly for nashville on friday. thankfully the storm wasn't quite what they had expected. w + i took shelter w/ friends chris & faith and enjoyed a little candlelit game playing until the electricity came back on. check out that HAIL!?! (photo courtesy: chandra)

2 // you didn't realize that nashville is the athens of the south, did you? saturday am our running team met at the parthenon for our mid-training run! 6.5 miles. yeowch. did i mention we're running for a great cause? read about it here. :) i need to get on my fundraising. we're asking $1 a mile. that's $13.10 for me and $26.20 for wade (yes - he's running the FULL!).

3 // i bought supplies for a fun little sewing project. but unfortunately didn't even start it over the weekend! would you believe that we have 4 friends having baby boys this month!?! crazy! time to make some welcome home presents.

4 // wow - i've been baking a lot lately. thankfully w + i are running must of it off. :) these yummy lemon bars are based on this recipe from the baking beauties. and they are the perfect equation of light fluffy crust and lemon tart! i modified the "all-purpose flour mix" by using sweet rice flour instead of brown rice flour since it's what i had on hand. while brown rice flour would have been a bit healthier, at least the lemon will fight off scurvy. ;)

i hope you had a super fun weekend.

more color please, part 2

remember these guys ... my inspiration for the armoire in the living room:

{source: better homes and gardens, living etc magazine, the decorologist}

well ... we did it! talk about a week of living room mayhem (we live in a teensy 1 bedroom apt - so our living room dbled as workshop). 2 coats of tinted primer, 2 coats of valspar paint in homestead resort olive, 1 buff w/ martha stewart's metallic glaze in muscavado and 2 coats of satin polyurethane - and i'm pretty satisfied w/ the result:

{the before - the after}

of course, new knobs from anthropologie were the icing on the cake:

{click to shop}

speaking of martha stewart's glaze ... have you worked w/ this stuff!?! i used the glaze as a buff to basically antique the armoire - but that's apparently not ALL you can do with it:

{source: click for DIYs}

{food for thought} betty crocker?

i've been gluten free (except a minor slip up at bonnaroo*) for 3 weeks now!

instead of heading to whole foods day 1 and stocking up on all sorts of bread, cookie and pasta substitutes - i've pretty much kept my usual diet: oatmeal for breakfast - vegetables, chicken/salmon, rice for lunch/dinner - fresh fruit in between. i've opted for corn tortillas when we hit up mexican and icecream or a popsicle for dessert instead of chocolate cake.

i have however been missing donuts (i never really craved them before!) and i know it's only days before wade begs me to make my spinach feta lasagna rolls again. so it's time, people. time to start weeding through the "not so yummy" gfree items to find the winners.

last night, we tried out betty crocker's gluten free chocolate chip cookie mix:

i'm a little sad that it took me a week to build up the courage to bake these bad boys. you have to understand ... i'm gag-frequent. it takes a lot of convincing for me to try something i might not like, bc i know what the outcome might be. but wade, our friend ketric, and i agree - these were really really yummy. while i probably will try to find a gfree choc chip cookie recipe from scratch (to save $), i'm thrilled to have this last minute sweet fix.

kudos to betty for considering the dietary needs of 2 of her gfree employees and not only creating 4 gluten free options (white/choc cake, brownies and cc cookies) but also building a separate gluten free processing facility for these treats. find fun recipes based on her mixes here.

my friend faith has been telling me "no one can come close to udi's". and i plan to make a trip to trader joe's next week to pick up a loaf of bread and/or granola. ... now to find a good pasta substitute. recommendations?

after dinner and a ride around town in the back of ketric's jeep (feeling 16 again!), i found a few spare seconds to begin a little project!

a pile of doilies, hankerchiefs, and other random linens ...

... a few pins here and there ...

... and i have 1 curtain panel for our bathroom pieced together.

... now to garage sale for additional pieces to make a "mismatched" pair. and then while wade is traveling, i'll finish and hang.

have a wonderful weekend, blogosphere. :)
i needed this little "retreat" blog post today. thank you!

* to explain my moment of weakness, after 2 days of ordering gyros w/out the pita and buritos w/out the taco shell. i had a HOTDOG + the bun. yikes. i know. what a waste of my weak moment. i could have had banana bread or crepes. ugh. stupid me. of course then i woke up w/ another rash (not hives) but what i call "texture" on tuesday. maybe the hotdog bun? maybe the workload?

weekend update: not quite a {craft}station

not quite a {craft}station of my very own ...

but i did attack this mess over the weekend:

our apartment is super small - so my supplies either have to fit under our bed, in a closet (which are already packed to the brim w/ non-craft related stuff) or on display. and i decided to limit myself to 2 under the bed storage tubs, 1 shelf of fabric + 1 sewing box. i'll pat myself on the back!

i am particularly in love w/ this little way of displaying ribbon (found on smashed peas & carrots). (another use for the 100s of mason jars we have left over from the wedding!)

what are your supplies storage tips/favs?