Learning to LOV3 my home

You might recall that in the new year I pledged to try and embrace the perfectly imperfect and show my love to home, family and self.

My girls embarked on a sparkler project on New Year's Eve on the beach, and one miscalculated the "E".  However, I realized that I loved that LOV3 and everything it represented.  

I thought I'd share some of my recent efforts to show some love around here and to embrace my house - even though it isn't perfect.

This project was based on a similar one I found in the book Crafting a Meaningful Home by Meg Mateo.  I think I still need to play around with the frames to keep them "perfectly" together but I love seeing all the family love notes up on the wall and out of the box.  It reminds me everyday of where we have come and what it means to be a family.

Just below the frame, I worked on another way to show this space some love.

My husband brought this old red bean bag ottoman from Pottery Barn up from the basement to rest his feet when he watches world cup soccer.  Yuck - it was driving me crazy so I pulled out the scraps from our old linen slipcover and sewed up a cover that makes me so happy - it's not perfect but I still LOV3 it!

This is another reminder of love.  Every year (maybe a couple of slips) we have taken a picture of the girls at the beach in our neighbourhood.  It all started with the picture on the top right.  Ali was just under a year and her big sister Helana just over 2.  I had these crazy hats on them.  That was the start and every year since we have tried to capture them in their winter coat and hat - it is a way to remember how much they have changed over the years and it really fills the hallway to our basement with a clean look but one that has meaning and personality.

I'm hoping to continue this LOV3 of home this summer, tackling some projects that have been weighing on me.  Things that maybe seem like a mountain to climb but if I put one foot in front of the other I know it will help me to embrace this perfectly, imperfect life and feel the LOV3.

A Layer Cake from Better Homes and Gardens

The May issue of Better Homes and Gardens is out and if you haven't seen it, it has the most beautiful, tempting cake on the cover.  It is layers of that color.  You know, tangerine tango.  Maybe not exactly, more pink than that but still very 2012.  I haven't taken on a baking project for a while but this cake had me baking this weekend.  Okay, so it isn't perfect.  Next time I would use more of the icing between the layers and I would work on getting my layers nice and even but I do think that the color is bang on.  So pretty and fresh.

You start by tinting the whole batter with some red food coloring for light pink - taking out half to bake and adding more food coloring to the remaining batter, to get that deeper color.  The best thing about this cake, though, is the lemon flavor.  With concentrated lemonade and lemon extract the cake tastes as fresh as it looks.  It really is a simple cake, designed by Karen Tack of Hello Cupcake, and I appreciated that, as it pretty much took over my kitchen for the day.  Any more complicated and I might have spent the weekend on a cake.

It would be so pretty for a shower, bridal or baby, but I think I might perfect my layers and serve it up for Mother's Day.  Once again, perfectly imperfect... but tasty.