Sunday Southern Days

I have some great finds from today's, not one but two, farmer's market stops today! I started the morning at Joann Fabrics and found these little gems for pillows for the Living Room redo currently in progress. Top: Orange and ivory Chevron, Middle: Waverly Blue, Orange, and Green Floral, and Bottom: Martini Olive. All three will be throw pillow fabrics (check back later this week for the finish products). One of them (still unsure which) will also be a lumbar pillow on the wing back chair I'm recovering soon. If you remember the inspiration board and Chip It! I posted a couple of weeks ago, the fabrics are coming together! On to the farmers markets. I stopped at the Batavia Farmers Market on Water Street first. There were some nice finds from family farms located in Illinois and southern Wisconsin. I picked up summer yellow squash and bi-colored corn for dinners this week. Next, I headed over to the Aurora Farmer's Market (if you remember it at the ...

I'm totally in love with this s'mores bar. Found on Pinterest, it appears to be a wood box filled with gravel and gel sternos. How adorable can you get for year-round indoor s'mores?!

When we were in Michigan for Steve & Nikki's wedding last month, we caught a great glimpse of the Mackinac Bridge from a little gift shop on the main road. Turns out the shop had constructed stairs to the roof of their building for the best bridge view around!! Here is a series of photos I took from the roof, all put together in this collage. Isn't it beautiful?

Coming Soon to TFBC -- A Great Giveaway from Katiedid Productions! Katie sews these adorable elastic headbands from fun ribbons and other creative materials to bring you some stealthy stylish sporty fashion (say that 5 times fast). Check out a little Sneak Peak: Every 1,000 hit TFBC gets and every 100 followers we have, we'll be having a great raffle giveaway just like this. We're only 55 hits short of 4,000 hits, so keep an eye out for this giveaway in the coming days! Check out Katie's Etsy shop!

The Captain was on ebaumsworld.com earlier this week and  found a video on how to make McDonald's Big Mac sauce. So of course, we needed to test out this recipe. Because we're big geeks like that. It turns out we had every ingredient except the sesame seed buns, which The Captain lovingly picked up on his way home from work tonight. If you don't need the recipe of the fries, scroll on down and start making your own Big Mac at home! Homemade Fries - 1 large spud - 1 c vegetable oil - 1 t salt I started slicing the potato into 1 cm strips. You can cut them smaller or larger, just adjust your fry time accordingly. While the oil is heating, soak the potatoes in a bowl of water. This will help wash off the starch and give a better crisp when we fry. I heated the oil in a LeCruset dutch oven (over med-high heat). I find that frying in a deeper dutch oven almost eliminates any oil splatters. Add the fries (use tongs!) and be careful not to ...

The Captain and I saw the new comedy "Ted" when it came out a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty darn hilarious. The Captain and I had put down a pitcher of Margaritas before the showing (Brew and View theater), which can make anything funnier, but this movie was legitimately funny. and so inappropriate. Go see it. Seriously, a bear, on a cell phone, in a tub? I'm sold.

I went to work today and when asked what I did over the weekend, no one in my office could grasp that I painted and rehabbed an aging motorola in our home. Because this is the kind of motorola they were picturing: Wrong motorola. For those unfamiliar with the term NOT pertaining to the above image, a motorola is also a piece of furniture, popular in the 1960s and 70s, that included a radio and some other form of entertainment, usually a TV, record player, or 8-track player. Ours includes a radio, record player, and 8-track player. Yes, those are 8-tracks. All old Greek music and still play great!! My in-laws purchased this new back in the early 70s (the estimation was 1972-1973). We know it was before The Captain was born in 1976, because if you look closely, you can see all of his teething marks from when he was 12-18 months, according to Poulos-lore. See all those bite marks? A little shallac never hurt a toddler, right? We inherited this piece 7 yea...