passport to yummsville

If you're visiting from Helene in Between, thanks so much for stopping by! I did a domain switch this morning - so if you are viewing me on put-a-bowinit.blogspot.com, it won't let you follow me :( Head on over to putabowonitblog.com and you should be able to - I would love to have you follow along!

Remember that time I kept talking about Mardi Gras, but I spelled it Mardis Gras? Yea, I'm still embarrassed about that. I've only lived here for 6 years, no big deal or anything. 

We don't really do anything for Valentine's Day. I'm not a fan of waiting for a table at a restaurant or paying an arm and a leg to eat good food while people are making out at the table next to us. But I always like to do a little something for Andre' as a surprise. Usually I make him some baked goodies, but we're trying to not eat so much dessert, so this year I did something I found on Pinterest. Where else would I look?!

original pin via

I knew we HAD to do this. Mainly because on the nights that we want to go out to eat, we spend more time deciding where we want to go than actually eating there. Lafayette is a small-ish city, but there are restaurants galore and we've been to very few of them. 

The original pinner did 50 restaurants that they had never been to. Andre' grew up here, so I'm sure that he has been to some of the ones I did, but I say they count because I've never been to them. 

Here's how I made mine. 

My Steps:
1. Find an old notebook you don't need for anything else.
2. Tear out the pages until you have the amount you need. (I'm re-purposing the pages as scratch paper for work.)
4. I didn't want to write it, so I went on inDesign and used cute fonts. I printed it on sticky back paper and then cut to size.
4. Stick in the book and there you go!
5. As we try out the places, I'm going to do what the original pinner did: green for amazing, pink for OK, and yellow for never go there again. 

We don't eat out a lot (cheaper and healthier to eat at home!), but I think this will make those nights when we do even more fun.

In other exciting (to me) news:
1. You may have seen me complaining about my domain woes. I never got it figured out after HOURS of trying, so I just called it a $10 loss and bought a new one. The original one was supposed to be thebowblog (dot) com, because I just thought my full name would be too long, but I couldn't think of anything else when that one didn't work, so it's now and forever: putabowonitblog.com. (Mouthful, huh?)

2. Over the weekend I noticed that I now have over 100 of you following me! I remember being excited for FIVE people to follow me. If you haven't reached out via email or comment, please do! I love getting to know everyone. 

3. I made a facebook page! There's nothing on it because I'm the only one who has liked it so far...but I plan on updating it with this week's posts today. Like away!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday/Valentine's Day :)

Linking up with Steph and Katie for saw it. pinned it. did it!

balls, etc.

That's right, Bowden is losing his manhood on Monday. 

Not to toot my own horn, but he's pretty genius, so I think he hears us mentioning it. Psycho dog mom alert. There's been lots of hiding in the corners around here lately. 

Yesterday Beth posted some photos of a sandwich she made. It made me crave the PB Bacon burger from Yo Mama's in New Orleans, but I couldn't drive two hours just for a burger. So instead I pulled a copy cat and made an elvis just like Beth did, minus the jelly. Because that's just gross. You guys, IT WAS SO GOOD. Bacon + pb + texas toast = the best lunch ever. 

I found this on pinterest (via) and I'm going to add it to the toilets in our apt on my lunch break. HOW COME HE NEVER REMEMBERS THIS?! Men...

This will be made this weekend. I joined a gym Tuesday so I can eat this with no regret, right? Joining the gym and actually going to the gym are the same thing, right?

I'll be building this soon, but not for my child that doesn't exist, for me. Kid at heart, y'all. (via)

Now excuse me as I end this randomness and escape to paradise. (via)

Saw It. Pinned It. Did It.

Hello there! I am finally getting a free moment today to work on a post. This is my busy season at work, but luckily I only have FOUR workdays left in 2012!

 

I'm linking up again with Steph and Katie. This is something I pinned a while back and have always meant to do, but waited until the worst time to actually do it. It's really hard to find a blow-up pool in November. So what did I do with said pool?

 

Here's my inspiration pin.

 

via

 

My favorite thing to do as a kid was to make a pallet/fort and watch movies all weekend on it. So that's exactly what we did!

 

It overtook our entire teeee-tiny living room and made the apartment look like a mess, but it was so worth it. We spent all Friday night cuddled up in the pool watching movies. Here we were watching What to Expect. Super cute!

Bowden wanted to know where all of his play space went. Good thing he passed out for the night at 5pm - tired from being a country dog all day long.

No movie night is complete without some cupcakes. Lafayette just got the cutest little dessert shop and we go way too much. A got a peppermint cupcake and I got a wedding cake cupcake. Almond flavored HEAVEN.

So there you have it! If you're looking for a fun date night at home, I highly suggest this. Just make sure to plan ahead and buy your pool during summer.

Go link up - there's some good stuff today!

saw it. pinned it. did it.

I REALLY wanted this edition of saw it pinned it did it to be un-wedding related, but I failed majorly this week. I made three recipes from pinterest, but forgot to take step my step photos of them. Next week I'll start fresh...but for now, here's something else I made for the wedding. (catching on? i made almost everything myself. get help for yours, it was rough!)

So, here's some of my inspiration pins.

via

via

I knew that chalkboard would fit in with the feel I was going for, so I set off to find some cute ones. FAIL. They don't really sell cute chalkboards anywhere. I almost gave up on this one until I saw these platters at Marshall's. (And here's where I tell you that I got a new phone since then so the only photos I have are screen shots off instagram. Baaadddd blogger.)

 

Each platter was around $5.00. Then I spray painted each with a clear coat because I read somewhere once that you can't paint on ceramic and have it stick without that. Don't skip this step!!

 

Then I followed this tutorial on how to make your own chalkboard paint. Yes, you can buy it, but this way is MUCH cheaper! I ventured over to Lowe's. On a Friday night...yep, life of the party over here! (I did go get wine right after, though. All crafting needs some wine. Just a fact.)

 

Anyways, I got the little trial container of valspar, I think it was three dollars. It's right at a cup. I got a navy color because my wedding colors were navy and yellow. 

via

Then came the painting. I had to do three coats because I'm a perfectionist. Two would have been fine, though. Let it dry completely and then you have to chalk the whole thing and wipe it off with a damp rag. Once dry, it's ready!

Here's what mine looked like once completed. (Sidenote - if you make your own paint and want to change out what you write on there, you have to use REAL chalk. I used a chalk pen so I can never change what they say. For some reason the chalk pen doesn't erase well on homemade chalk paint. I guess I could just paint over it, though!)

next to the card holder

the bar menu

we didn't want assigned seating, but did want our family members to get the best tables

our sign in books were children's books of our college teams

the sign in/gifts table

 

Now go link up with Katie and Stephanie to see what others are pinning and making! That is my favorite part of this, seeing how others use their crafty skills.