THE PEAKS...and the pits

THE PEAKS...
Pre-Spring Cleaning:
Getting a head start on the spring cleaning with tossing out a lot of useless things and feeling like I'm on my way to a less cluttered and organized life. -Rebecca
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade:
Yes, being sick at home sucks but I just happened to have a slew of unwatched DVDs waiting for me to view. Sick Day = Productive movie watching day. - Andrea

the pits...

Caught in the Act:

Getting caught in the middle of singing along to Adele just when you thought there was no one listening, pretty embarrassing.-Rebecca 

Driving Miss Daisy:
Seriously, I am thinking of riding my bike to work. Gas is SO expensive!!! - Andrea 

Irish Coffee

With this Saturday being St. Patrick's Day, I had originally planned to go out with some friends and enjoy that green beer. Well, things changed when I saw that we are going to have a rainy weekend here in LA. Whenever it rains I usually take it as an excuse to stay in, watch movies, and sip hot chocolate. So that I can stay in and still celebrate the holiday, my usual hot chocolate will be replaced with Irish Coffee. If you stick to the same motto of being a homebody during rainy days, try this recipe I tested out for you. It's such a great alternative to the norm. Wouldn't some Irish Coffee taste amazing with the treats Rebecca showed on yesterday's post? I think so!
xx,
Andrea

St. Patricks Day Treats!!!

St. Patrick's day is just days away and what better way to get in the spirit than to make some DIY treats. I wanted to make some goodies to share with my family and friends so I made two of my favorites, chocolate chip cookies and a brownie cake. I figured if I'm going to make treats I might as well make treats I like too. I made the chocolate chip cookies using the infamous Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe which is really easy to follow plus it's the best recipe I've ever tried! 

Well it didn't stop there...

I started off with the cookies and then I moved on to make the brownie cake. I really wanted to try out this recipe I found in People Magazine over the weekend for a Cream Cheese Frosting and made the cake a brownie cake instead of the chocolate cake on the recipe. So to make the frosting more exciting, I added green food coloring to fit in with the St. Patty's holiday color theme.

With the extra frosting left over, I got a little creative in the spirit of baking so I grabbed a few of the cookies and added some four leaf clovers on them. Although the shape of my frosted clover isn't the best it tasted pretty darn good if I do say so myself! Also made a cookie sandwich and added frosting in the middle which was a challenge to eat but so worth it! These treats were a great hit with my family and friends plus I really enjoyed them too!
Hope you have a jolly St. Patrick's Day!!!

...Rebecca...

Ingredients used...

Chocolate Chip Cookies...Yum!!!

Brownie Cake with Green Cream Cheese Frosting!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie with Four Leaf Clover Frosting...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich with Cream Cheese Filling...

DIY: Twig Necklace

After seeing this necklace the other day, I immediately got inspired. With just the pick of a twig from the tree outside our house, I got started. Check out the easy steps below and try it out for yourself.
xx,
Andrea

1. What you will need: 

2. Pick your twig of choice and get to spray painting. I found this one in Gold Leaf at Michaels.

3. After the twig has completely dried, get your thin wire. On each side of the twig, twist the wire 3 times around the twig. On the 3rd turn, place the jump ring on the wire and continue to turn the wire another 3 times.

4. After you have completed step 3, your twig should look like the below.

 5. Now open one of the jump rings, attach the gold chain and twig to it and close. Repeat this step to the other side.

6. Attach the lobster claw clasp to the gold chain and your done! Pretty, huh?

All images via Andrea

Revamp it...

Thanks to the unpredictable weather changes, allergies and time change, I was indoors most of the weekend trying to recover from this cold. So to occupy my time I started organizing my sweaters and coats which had piled up on my coat rack. After digging under a few coats, I found a dark green sweater I had completely forgotten about and had barely worn. It's a cute plain sweater but I thought it could use a little revamping so I decided to change the buttons on it with cute gold shank buttons I bought months ago at Joann's. All I really needed were scissors, buttons and the thread plus it was really easy to do and it gave my sweater a new look just by changing it's buttons. Also it's perfect timing with St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, now I can wear my revamped sweater to avoid getting pinched...

 ...Rebecca...

Sweater pre-vamp with small matching buttons...

Gold Shank Buttons...

Needle and Thread...

Sweater post revamp with new gold shank buttons...

Close up of the gold shank button...

THE PEAKS...and the pits

THE PEAKS...
Just like old times:
- This week I had dinner with 2 long time friends. Don't you love when you haven't seen a friend in a really long time and when you do, its just like you had never stopped seeing them? It's the best feeling. - Andrea
Stepping outside the box:
-Breaking the routine to venture out to new places and enjoying a good funky cocktail with some funny conversations makes for a damn good night! -Rebecca

and the pits...

Funky Times:

Do you ever just get in a funk that you just can't shake? I hate that feeling! - Andrea
Damn weather!!!:
Seriously, the weather! Do I need to say more, it's hot then cold and windy then cloudy. It's like I'm having hot flashes! I can't keep up and neither can my sinuses! -Rebecca
Getting nailed:
Discovering I had 2 nails in my car tire and having to go thru the whole repair patching process! Bummer and waste of time! -Rebecca

DIY: Get Wired

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of cute and simple wired jewelry pendants around in stores so I thought I would try to see if I could make my own for a fraction of the price. So I made a quick run to Joann's Crafts store for some materials and tools so I could get started which you can also get a Michael's too.

Tools Needed:

Rounded Tip Pliers

Thin Wire

Small Jump Rings

Necklace Chains

First step for me was thinking of what I wanted to do which was the initial "R" for my name. After I knew what I wanted to make, I cut enough wire using scissors then I started with the edges using my rounded tip pliers and worked my way to make the shape until I was finished. There are no real steps it's basically just bending the wire as you go along to make the design you want. I just went with the flow of the wire and did my own thing until I felt it looked good as shown below so do what you want and wired...

...Rebecca...

Thin wires in gold and silver...

Use rounded tip pliers to twist and bend your wires...

Twist ends towards which ever side you want so the edges are curled...

Voila!!! The edge is curled and now I can finish working on the rest of the letters shape...

Continue twisting the wire until you get your end product which for me was "R" and I made it in gold and silver...

To link the wire pendant onto a necklace I added these small jump rings...

Final pendants and tools used...

I got extra inspired and made an infinity symbol pendant...