I'm alive!!

I'm so sorry I've seemingly fallen off the face of the earth! I've been feeling really under the weather and haven't felt much like getting on a computer. I promise that as soon as I feel better I'm going to have some great posts for you, including my makeover of the box my Papa built :)

I hope you don't miss me too much while I take a little time out. Have a great week!!

Mom's Banana Bread!

I am here today with a pretty amazing recipe: my mom's banana bread! I've been eating this awesome loaf my whole life, it's an old, old recipe. I recently started making it myself, but I make it into muffins instead of loaf, since I just think it's more practical and it's easier to grab one and take it to work.

I promised to share this with you when I mentioned them in my camping recap post, so here it is:

 

1/2 cup butter/margarine
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (well-beaten)
3 large bananas (mashed) *Bananas should be over-ripe, almost entirely brown works really well, but just a little brown is ok too. Just don't use ripe bananas :)
1 tsp of vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Cream margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla.
3. Stir in bananas.
4. Add flour, soda, salt.
5. Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the muffin comes out dry. I would say it's about 15-20 minutes, but I didn't time it so make sure you keep an eye on them!

Don't they just look delicious? A banana muffin is the perfect morning snack :). I have been taking one to work for my daily 10am snack every day this week! I need to get some more brown/black bananas soon because I am running out! Hope you enjoy this recipe if you try it!

This is the box that my Papa built...

My Papa (my mom's dad) was an amazing, kind, caring, soft spoken, and supremely talented man. I have so many memories of him, and a lot of them involved some kind of project. See, he was an expert woodworker. He could build absolutely anything, and he was such a perfectionist that you knew it would be, well, perfect. We built a lot of bird houses together. By together, I of course mean that he cut out all of the wood and put the whole thing together while I watched wide-eyed. Then he would have me paint and decorate our creation. Trust me when I say, these were some very interesting "pieces". I was not very good with the paint... Anyway, I think my mom still has our "Eat at Sarah's" diner-inspired birdfeeder in her yard! Oh how I wish I had some pictures!

When I got a bit older, my Papa would build things for my sister and me, and we'd usually receive them as gifts. One year for Christmas, I got this box:

It's gorgeous. He didn't paint it any particular color, leaving it blank for me to one day create something hopefully nicer than any of the bird houses/feeders I created. I think he gave this to me about 10 years ago, and here it still sits, untouched in my entranceway. It houses many odds and ends, but mostly winter accessories, hats, mittens, scarves. Every single time I look at it I think of my Papa. It's been about 6.5 years since he passed away, and this is one tangible object I have to remember him by.

Finally, my husband and I spruced up the box a bit. We went back and forth on what color to paint it. Did I want a neutral that would go with anything? Did I want a bright bold color to brighten up our otherwise dull entranceway? I think the choice was pretty obvious. My Papa was a very bright spot in the lives of everyone he ever met, I had to go bright.

Our main floor has a lot of aqua blues, and lime greens. In the basement we have ton of reds and yellows, and other bright colors. Since this box resides on the main floor, I grabbed a few paint chips in various blues, greens, and yellows. I set them all out on top of the box, and stood back and imagined. It was a highly technical process which ended in me picking this one: Behr 490B-4 (Sea Life).

I'm actually planning on completing this project this weekend so I can post about it on Monday! Stay tuned to see how it turned out!!

My big finger and iPhone keyboard do not get along...

Guys, twice now I have deleted comments by accident. I went to push "publish" and my big fingers hit "delete" instead. The first time I just emailed the commenter and they resubmitted, but today I couldn't do that, there was no email associated with the comment :(. I feel like such a loser... please don't hate me :)

Here's a great post over on Living in Yellow that tells you how to add an email address to your google account, so if I do this to you, I can let you know what a total moron I am!

Happy Monday!

Weekend Recap, Vol. 5...

Well, yet another summer weekend has passed... we are that much closer to cooler weather, sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and turning on our fireplace. But not quite yet! I am still not really ready to be done with the warm summer days. Unfortunately, our weather didn't really cooperate this weekend, it was gloomy and our plans of going to a country fair were cancelled and we spent the days mostly inside. We played some scrabble, and some cards, and Leroy laid around like the lazy dog that he is...

We did venture out for a little window shopping, and we finally tried Five Guys!! It only recently opened up in Ottawa, and I have been hearing such glowing reviews from all of my internet friends in the USA. Finally, we made it there for lunch. The menu was a bit strange, we're not used to having to order fries and drinks seperately, usually fast food comes in a meal deal! Anyhow, we both got a bacon cheeseburger and split a large fry and large drink. Friends, it was insanely delicious!! And they give you soooo much. Next time we'll only split a regular fry.

Anyhow, it was a pretty lazy weekend, but I think I needed it. It's been a pretty busy summer so far, and the next few weeks will be pretty packed too. Having a couple of days to just laze around and run some errands was just what the doctor ordered!

Tell me about your weekend!!

Tails & Toes made its first big sale!!

My mom and I were SO excited to get our first big sale this week! We sold one of my mom's beautiful baby quilts, and a few bibs, all in one order. I was so excited to send it off, so I spent a few hours brainstorming how to package it up all nicely. I strongly feel that in a creative industry, first impressions are so extremely important. Whenever I order something on Etsy, I love when it comes packaged all nice and pretty :)

Here's what I came up with! I put the items in clear plastic bags, which I sealed with our shop sticker (forgot to take a photo of this detail - damn!). Then I wrapped the package in raffia, tied in a bow with our business card attached. Lastly, I put the Etsy invoice in a pretty pink envelope.

And off it went! Can't wait for more orders. If you haven't yet, please check us out here. 

Friday Favorites!

I'm a lucky girl, yesterday was faux Friday for me! I am off again this Friday, but this time I took a vacation day. Just felt like I needed it! Anyhow, like most of my Fridays off, I am busy cleaning up the house and doing laundry. It's especially necessary this week since we were away last weekend and things have definitely been neglected.

This week went pretty quick, since it was only a 3 day work week for me! It was pretty busy too, on Tuesday night we went and upgraded our iPhones. We both had the 3GS and now we both have the 4. We're behind the times, but we're economically conscience (read: cheap) so we always go for the earlier model for the cheaper price :) In this case it saved us $125! Siri sounds cool and all, but I can live without it. Oh, and you betcha I got the pretty white one this time!

Anyhow, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Here are my favorite blog posts of the week, in no particular order:

There are two ways to look at life... over on Kate Henley. Beautiful post about positivity and life. I really loved reading this yesterday, I am always finding it hard to stop viewing everything that happens with complete negativity. This helped.

our last days of summer bucket list... over on Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles. Short and sweet! Loved the idea of creating this list. Our summer days are numbered!!

these are my [confessions]... over on In this Beautiful Life.

Facebook Rehab: Day 1... over on Diary of a Blonde Newlywed. I have tried to give up Facebook several times and have never been successful!

A Stenciled Accent Wall... over on Love & Renovations. Loved the end result and it's a cool idea!

Lastly, even though I am new to the blogging world, I really wanted to share this post and button (I'll be putting it on my sidebar for sure!) from five30three. Please please please turn off the word verification on comments! It's very frustrating, especially if you don't get the words right in one try :) Have a fabulous weekend!