There is light! I see it! I can almost touch it!

What pray tell am I talking about?

This.

My first crocus bloom.

So my tiling project is taking far longer than I anticipated it would, but hopefully tonight we can knock out the remaining wall, and then do all of those cuts. Here's where we are now. :)

I have been so good about my posts. I have been at least 2 weeks ahead for the last month. Until now. I mean I do have a post, but its not the post I planned on putting up. The post I planned on putting up may get shelved for a bit. Like 4 days. Well 3 days now.

I'm also disappointed. Disappointed that I am no longer ahead on posts and that none of the projects I'm working on are going very smoothly, hence why I've run out of posts. I was doing things so well. Getting stuff knocked out. Already working on Easter gifts for the boys. I was doing it! Till now. Ugh.

Pier 1 ain't got nothing on me! If you guys 'like' my facebook page, then you'll know that I received a Pier 1 catalog a few weeks ago and in it was quite a surprise. Look and see for yourself :)
 Do you see what I'm talking about? Oh wait...no you don't because I haven't shown you the funny part yet. Well then here it is!

Gather 'round, everyone! It's time for a trip down memory lane. Back when I was thirteen and trying to figure myself out, I told my mom that I wanted to be a vegetarian. Our "very serious, grown-up" conversation went something like this...

Me: "Mom, I really want to be a vegetarian."
Mom: "I'm worried about you getting proper nutrition. Are you going to get enough protein?"
Me: "Yes, I promise."
Mom: "Fine, but if you start getting malnourished, this stops."
Me: "Fair enough."

So I guess I first saw Vogue 1165 when the Fall or Winter books came out last year. It was love at first sight! Even better the pattern comes in all range of sizes and is one of Sandra Betzina's Today's Fit patterns.

I love this pattern. I will love it more when I tweak it more for me. I am also happy to say that I wore the shirt with the popped collar all day long, which is unusual for me {Sorry Dana}. And I liked the look. Although the shirt did not want the collar to stay popped, which is problematic because there is a seam that runs down the center inside back of the collar.

So part of my late winter ritual is going to Maymont Flower Show down in Richmond. I go with the females of Mom's family and we always have a blast. I brought the boys with me, cause - well our trip was on a Friday and Steve still works. :) My Aunt Toni, Bet, Mom, Aunt Colie and then the three of us all went down and we had a blast, but guess what I forgot?!? My camera. Of course. Why not? Its not like I didn't want to take pictures or anything. Luckily, I had my trusty cell phone. So I apologize for the quality of these pictures, but its what I got. :)

Ok so by now it's no secret that I love coffee. So it may be a surprise that my coffee station has been a point of annoyance with me. I just couldn't find the right place for it, or maybe I just hadn't found the right balance in my kitchen for all the decor I have in it. Either way....its been solved. :) Well solved except for that desk, but eh, moving on. The working kitchen counters are now just perfect, and here's why. :)
 The desk. Its bad. Really bad. We've got a plan. We need to implement it. Oh and the boys are helping make breakfast. Dev is totally into it. I mean. Well, he's in to whatever was on the tv. Probably Disney or PBS kids, but H was paying attention. Are you wondering about that cabinet door? Yea. Harrison broke it. Right off its hinges. Wasn't that nice? Stephen has since fixed this poor broken cabinet door.

The boys are waiting patiently for the orange sweet rolls to come out. :)

Happy V-DAY Everyone! 

I busted out another heart.

I know this is an oddity, but I'm posting today to remind you guys of some very exciting happenings!

Don't forget about the $90 CSN giveaway that ends tomorrow, February 13th!

There is also the sponsor spots. They're free. Who doesn't like free? Even if you just want to drive traffic to your site! Just shoot me an email!

You'll also notice that I cleaned up the sidebars a bit! Did you notice the fun social bookmark buttons? And I have started trying to use Twitter more. I want you guys to be more involved! So come join me on Twitter or Facebook!

Have a terrific Saturday guys!

Well, today is the big day. HAPPY ONE YEAR BLOGGY-VERSARY, HEATHER!!! Be sure to check out the earlier posts from this week to see all of Heather's celebratory discounts and whatnot.

In foodie news, I got my brinner recipe done! The only thing is I didn't end up having it for brinner, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain. So it snowed yesterday...again! This is the the fourth or fifth time this year, which is simply unheard of for Nashville. I don't think Nashville school kids are going to get any summer vacation. To make a long story short, it took and hour and a half to drive the nine miles it takes me to get home. Snow makes all of Nashville miserable and a half. After that stressful little jaunt through the snow and with Mike out of town at the time, I really hated the thought of trying to get back out there the next morning after everything had a chance to freeze. Thankfully, my boss is awesome and let me stay home, so I made myself a lovely little breakfast, the main feature of which was *drum roll* homemade hash browns!

Tomorrow will mark the one year blogiversary of Straight Stitches. How amazing is that? I can't believe how much this blog has evolved and helped me evolve. I know my decorating style has gotten a bit more defined since entering the blogiverse, and I am so excited about the upcoming year. I've also met some great gals and been inspired too look at more things in different ways. I also know that my love  of old windows has gone to new heights because of blogging. :)

With this 1-year anniversary, I am going to be adding some sponsor spots to the site. I don't want a slew of sponsors. Just a few, and since I have no idea how to go about getting sponsors nor am I sales pitche-y person I'm just going to throw this out there.

If you want a sponsor spot then just email me at haboyajian at gmail dot com. There will be 9 spots. That's it. :) The spots will be free for 2 months and then after that it'll be $4 a month. The first 9 people to email me will get spots. :)

Now on to other bloggy birthday news. I'm going to Maymont Flower Show tomorrow and I can't be more excited and you know what that means...At least a post or two about the show. Can't wait! And because I can't have a post without a picture...here's my fave photo from last year's trip.
How sweet is that? I wish my front yard  looked like that. Instead I'm left with a poor broken boxwood. Who broke it, you ask? The snow. Stupid snow. Ah well. Time to retire the boxwoods and make way for the azaleas :)

Also don't forget that the $90 CSN Giveaway is {here} and the giveaway for my etsy shop is {here}. Go enter and good luck guys!!!!

Yep, you read that right. CSN is giving away $90. How's that for a birthday thank you? I knew you guys would like it. First lets talk about LCD TV Stands, or just flat panel tv screens in general. :)

You see with tax time upon us, and me being the uber-anal person I am. I have already filed our taxes and Virginia has graciously already cut our check. We didn't need a new TV, but the setup downstairs would work much better with a flat panel. We have two already, but the projection screen that we have will really only fit downstairs. The TV is only 5 years old. Its still got a lot of years behind it.

You see I'm playing Devil's advocate here, or the argument that Stephen and I have had about this TV for the last 6 months or so. We bought the projection with savings bonds of mine that had come of age, and it was good timing too, because the TV we did have was starting to go. Everyone on the right side of the screen was going green. Not to mention that we bought it on Black Friday of '05. Remember I have a 5 year old. Who turned 5 in December? Yea. I was 8 months pregnant and wholly miserable during this trip to Best Buy. I will tell you what though. No one messes with an angry uber-pregnant woman at 5 am on Black Friday at Best Buy. We got very nice service, probably because they were afraid I'd take off their heads if they weren't. :)

So in continuing with celebrating of Straight Stitches turning 1, I figured I'd revisit my very first post ever, and I'd also be offering my favorite post.

This is Dev at his third birthday. Yay for black icing!

Ok, nevermind. We won't be revisiting that first post. In all honesty I find it kind of repetitive. :) Maybe I should do my first project. Yes, that's what I'll do. :)  Nevermind. You know what I'll do? I'll share some of the things I've learned.

First I want to share that the shop is having a sale in honor of the birthday celebrations. Just type in Birthday15 and you'll receive 15% your order! And in other news! Over at Leslie's blog, Night Owl Crafting, I'm hosting a giveaway! It starts at 8 am PST so be sure to fly on over there and check that out!

So I mentioned last week that my 1 year blog birthday is coming up. It's Friday! Can you believe it? I can't. A year seems so long at the outset, but then when you finish it you're kind of left going.....well...where'd it go?

Luckily, we can go back and see where this year has gone, but before I do that I wanted to share with you guys how great Overstock.com is! I'm certain that I don't have to tell you guys, but here are just a few of the things you can get from there....and if you pay attention you may notice a theme. ;-)

I know I said that I was going to do a brinner-type recipe this week, but my plans for that kind of fell through. That doesn't mean I wasn't a busy bee in the kitchen this week. In addition to today's post, I also created a new recipe, which I will feature in a future post. The brinner-related recipe will be next week. Now, as Heather says, onto the show.

So I keep on seeing all these obscure root vegetables in these cooking shows I like to DVR. I like new foods and root vegetables keep for a long time. Sounds like a plan to me.

Ok, so another song is in my head. Leaving on a jet plane.....don't know when I'll be back again....
Remember that scene in Armageddon? Love it when Michael Clark Duncan and Steve Buscemi join in. :) In fact I'm going to share it with y'all. :)
There. Wasn't that nice? Don't much care for Mr. Affleck, but I do love that his oldest is named Violet, and she's about Dev's age. :)  Ok so I have majorly strayed from my point, but you guys are used to that aren't you? Ah well, at least the song has something to do with the content of the post. I was able to go get some more Cherry Red thread and finish up those curtains of Devlin's! Yay! It only took twice as long as it should have because I ran out of thread! Whoopie!

So remember when I told you guys that I was working on an even simpler curtain transformation that I would show you guys today? You know....when I said that yesterday? Well you know what they say about the best laid plans....
Yea....It was that kind of day. I ran out of thread after only getting one curtain up. Hopefully tomorrow I can run out to get some more. Otherwise...well...otherwise you're going to see the ghetto pictures I had planned putting up until I remembered that I had yet to show off Bet's creation! My grandmother made me a roman shade for the window above my sink! Unfortunately I don't know how she did it, because I've never made one, but I do know that we went to Walmart and I picked out a chocolate suede thermal panel (for $15) and she created gorgeousness!