2 in the news.

The White House made the news!  Not like it's all that hard in a small town like Iron Mountain...but still, press is press.  Check out the clip.

5 TGIF...sort of.

I'm kind of afraid to go back to the UP this weekend.  The business is doing well so far.  Almost too well.  As in, not enough fridges to store the amount of food that is being served in one day without running out.  Sending me pictures at 5am of the ribs they are currently putting in the smoker so they don't run out (and not having left from the night before yet).  My parents haven't really had time to sleep or eat all week.  They need to hire more people but don't have enough time to actually figure out who to hire.  I've been a nervous wreck all week because I can't be there to help them.  It's kind of stressful!  I'm a slightly isolated from it while I'm here...but as soon as I get home I know I won't have time to sit down for 2 minutes all weekend.  Hopefully I'll feel better just being able to help a little bit!  I know it will get a bit more manageable for them after the "honeymoon" period is over... you know, when people aren't going there for lunch and dinner on the same day!  I am so grateful that they've been having such a good turnout so far, it's just a lot to handle during the first week.

In other news, I've been doing a little sewing this week even though I'm not really in the mood.  I'm making a quilt to donate to a silent auction at work that will benefit the American Heart Association (p.s. want to donate?  you can do it here!), and I need to finish it next week.  That means I had to make some progress on it before we leave today.

I'm making a lattice quilt like this one from Film in the Fridge.  Maybe someday soon I'll actually come up with my own ideas for quilt designs, but to be honest I just haven't had time lately.  So thanks Ashley for being my main source of inspiration!  I still have to trim these blocks before I can sew them together, but that's going to have to wait.  I also need to figure out what I'm doing with the back because my Kona Ash is in short supply and I don't think I have solids in any colors that match the prints (fabric is Arcadia).  I'm open to any ideas you might have!

Next week I'll have some pictures of the bridal shower I'm throwing for my cousin this weekend to share.  Did I mention that's being held at The White House this weekend too?  Because obviously there isn't enough going on there already, what's another 50 shower guests added to the mix?  I'll let you know how everything goes, assuming I live to tell the tale.  Happy weekend!

11 open for business.

Big news today people.  The White House opens for business at 11am today!  I wish I could be there to see the first customers walk in the door.  It has been a long, hard road but I am so proud of my parents for finally opening the business they've always dreamed of.  I know the food will taste as good if not better than it sounds on the menu!

I put this menu together last week once I finally got the list of what they're serving and the ingredients for each.  It's supposed to look sort of like an old newspaper.  They were printed yesterday and are being delivered this morning, talk about cutting it close!!  I'll take a Caprese Sandwich and some Lake Superior Whitefish...yum!  Now I'm hungry.  Good thing we'll be there to taste the delicious food ourselves on Saturday, but it is going to be hard for me to wait that long.

7 my husband makes stuff too.

Except his stuff usually involves power tools.  Check out the chalkboard he made for the The White House!

We wanted a fancy chalkboard to post the specials on for the week, and couldn't find anything we liked.  So we headed to Home Depot and bought a piece of plywood, some decorative trim, chalkboard paint and brushed gold spray paint.  Then he did some of his garage magic and out popped the perfect chalkboard.

I must say, I enjoy having a husband who can build things.  He has made me a ton of picture frames, designed and built our patio set, and built me a custom cutting table which my back thanks him for daily.  Maybe at some point I'll post pictures of those things too.  They're pretty fantastic.

We're off to Michigan again this weekend, lots of things to do before the restaurant opens on Tuesday!  Only 3 days to go.  Hanging this chalkboard is just one of about a million tasks on our list.  I've been knee deep in designing the menu this week, but it will be off to the printer tomorrow thank goodness.  It will feel great to get it out of my hands.  TGIF!!

12 it's beginning to look a lot like christmas.

Okay no, not really.  But I am enjoying the cooler weather here in the past few days.  I don't feel like I'm going to suffocate when I get in my car, which is nice.  Even though winter is still months away, I couldn't say no to a little Christmas fabric.

Have I mentioned that Christmas is my favorite holiday ever?  The fact that I share a name with a certain Christmas-y plant that you can deck your halls with is not a coincidence.

Plus, a certain someone keeps posting about Christmas fabric and I've never been good at resistance.  It was bound to happen.

What will come out of it is yet to be determined, but honestly I'd be happy just staring at it while listening to Christmas music and watching It's A Wonderful Life (in black and white, of course).

Fabric is Riley Blake Colorful Christmas.

3 lovely inspiration: Rio De Janeiro.

These buildings in Rio de Janeiro that were painted by the Firmeza Foundation have given me yet another idea for a quilt!  I love the use of all the bright colors.

Wouldn't a quilt using bright solids that fan out in all directions look cool?  I'm thinking yes.  

So many quilt ideas...so little time!  Read more about this project here.

10 sewing progress. finally!

I finally got some sewing in this weekend!

I made some serious progress on the Nicey Jane patchwork quilt.  It felt so great to spend quality time with my sewing machine.

I love the solids mixed in!

I can't wait to finish this one.  You might see it in the shop soon!

I also started making blocks for another quilt today...stay tuned for details!

3 Flickr Friends & Facebook.

Now that I have a Flickr group, I can start sharing your projects! It's so much fun seeing what you come up with. Jenny made two market totes, and even turned one of them into a beach bag with a drawstring closure.  

I love the striped fabric she used in her second tote, and the drawstring closure is genius! Nice job Jenny!

If you've made something using one of my tutorials, don't forget to share your projects in the Bijou Lovelies Flickr group. I also finally got with the times and created a Facebook page. You can now "Like" Bijou Lovely (and I would love it if you "Liked" it!)!

4 more paper.

Remember the bridal shower invitations I mentioned that I had to finish recently?

They are finished and off to all 75 invitees.  

You may be thinking... "75 invitations to a shower?  Isn't that kind of a lot?"  I was thinking that too when I made them, so simplicity was my goal.  I picked up a Paper Pail Stationary Set from Target and used the notecards as my invitation backing to avoid cutting.  I switched up the envelope color based on the invitation backing for a little variety.

Then I lined each envelope with some wrapping paper leftover from last Christmas that miraculously coordinated.

I realize envelope liners aren't really a necessity, but they make the invites seem much more special and give the envelopes a nice weight (they were pretty flimsy on their own).

Plus, they just sort of look pretty.

One big task off my plate!  I've been doing a little bit of sewing to celebrate.  I feel like I've been writing a lot of non-sewing related posts lately, is that okay with all of you?  Do you like a little variety?  Sewing pictures will come soon, I promise :)

6 lovely things: letterpress quilt cards.

How cute are these letterpress quilt cards from Krank Press?

I want to buy them and frame them to put in my sewing room!

That is, once we move to a place that actually has space for a sewing room.

The hexagons are perfect for all the hexie-lovers out there!

I think the pennants are my favorite.  I want to make a real quilt that looks like this with all my scraps!

via PaperCrave

Which one is your favorite?

13 The White House.

I spent the weekend in the UP, first at a wedding in Copper Harbor (aka really far north...google it).  Then we drove to Iron Mountain for the first of many gatherings at our family's restaurant.  After spending the day hanging artwork, we enjoyed delicious food and a wonderful time celebrating the fact that it's almost finished.  Only a couple more weeks until it opens!  I thought I'd share a few pictures here since it's one of the things I've been working on the most in the past 10 months or so.

This is the dining room.  My mom and I chose all of the paint colors.  My dad thought I was crazy at first, but I kind of love them together in this space.  We were going for a blend of modern and traditional meet presidential.

Featuring some fabulous original artwork from Samantha Biallas.  We still have to add a piece of art to the mantle and attach the brass eagle to the brick on the fireplace.  We also have the curtains left to hang.

Now entering the bar, with a view of the JFK caricature we gave to my parents at our wedding rehearsal (painted by my cousin, Brock Rumohr).

Not to worry, the liquor shelves will be stocked soon enough!

Then onto the deck.  Perfect to enjoy the live music on a summer night.

The view from the street.

A closeup of the sign we designed. I love it!

Hopefully in a couple weeks this place will be packed.  But there are a lot of little things we have to finish first!

5 circle quilt sighting.

Sara from Stinkerpants recently posted the adorable nursery she put together for her baby girl Charlie, featuring a gorgeous circle quilt made by her mother!  Head over to her blog to see more pictures of the room, and check out the fun illustrations she draws while you're at it.

If you have a project that was inspired by this blog or based off of one of my tutorials, I'd love it if you added your photos to my new flickr group, Bijou Lovelies!  It's empty right now and I'm the only member, so I'm a little desperate for friends (and photos!).  If you add your photos to the group, your projects have a good chance of being featured here as well.  I'm excited to see what you've all been making!

10 kitchen time.

I spent most of Saturday morning in my kitchen, making homemade cheese ravioli with my mother-in-law.

There are a lot of steps to making ravs, and every family has a completely different method of accomplishing the same task.  The process this time was a little foreign to me, as I was used to the way my own mother would make them when I was a child.  It felt almost wrong learning this new method, like I was getting let in on a secret that I wasn't supposed to know about.

The hardest part has to be forming the dough around the cheese, making sure to get all the air bubbles out (but without making any holes in the dough) so they won't explode when you try to cook them.

Cutting them out is almost as fun as cutting fabric!  Plus there's no measuring (bonus!).

After pinching the edges with a fork, they all get lined up on cookie sheets.

And added to a pot of boiling water to cook.

Then they're left to dry off on cloths, in this case, vintage pillowcases (see that embroidery?).

We tested out our new pasta cutter with the excess dough...perfect for some fettucine!

After 3+ hours in the kitchen, we package up 12 dozen delicious cheese ravioli.  Yum!

It feels so satisfying to put all that work into turning bricks of cheese, flour, and egg and into something so good.  It also reminds me how much I enjoy spending time in the kitchen.  I'm pretty sure my husband is happy about it too, considering how much he loves cheese ravs.  Now all that's left is to eat them!  For some reason, I don't think we'll have any trouble with that part.