Lots to be thankful for

I absolutely love the holidays.  I love decorating, entertaining, and all the cooking that this season brings.  Darrell and I hosted our family Thanksgiving this year at our home.  This was our first Thanksgiving in our new house and it was nice to actually have space to entertain.   My parents drove down from Kansas, and we invited one of our friends over for dinner that couldn't go back home for the holidays. 

I didn't have a ton of baking to do, but I did start Thanksgiving day off by making my favorite pumpkin roll.  If you are like me and love pumpkin, you have to try one.  They are super easy to make and yummy!!!  I'll post my recipe later this week.  

My brother found the turkey recipe that we made this year, Herb-Roasted Turkey with Apple Cider Gravy.  It was by far one of the best ones we have ever made.

This year, I decided to decorate our table in a more rustic theme.  I love the look of burlap, so I went to our neighborhood JoAnn's and picked up 6 yards of tan burlap and 2 yards of a dark tan burlap.  I recently figured out how to use my mom's sewing machine, and all projects lately have revolved around it.  Since we have a square table, we had to sew the table cloth together to make the yards fit.  One of the first things we did with the burlap was wash it.  If you work with burlap, make sure to do this because they treat it with a chemical to keep bugs from eating it.  I decided to do the table cloth in the lighter tan and place mats in the darker tan.  I had a stump that my brother had made for me and I used some of the decorations I had around the house to put together our over all look.  I used pine cones as the stand for the place cards and used the extra burlap to make a  string of flags to go over my make shift buffet.  I basically just covered up our bathroom vanity that is currently in our bay window.

I also had gotten some curly willow that was on our fireplace mantle that needed to be tossed.  My mom really didn't want me to throw it away, so I decided to use it as a front door wreath.  We used some of the light burlap to secure the branches together and my mom brought down ribbon she had found, and I made a few flowers for it as well.

I am so thankful for my absolutely amazing husband, my loveable little bully Bella, my two crazy cats, my family, friends and all the blessings I have in my life.  I am so lucky and blessed.

Love B

Featured

So excited to say that my chairs are being featured on The DIY Show Off today.  Check us out at the link below.

Will be showing off our Turkey celebration, with more DIY items that mom and I made, soon!  Til then, hope everyone enjoyed their Black Friday shopping.  We enjoyed ours in our warms beds. :o)

Love B 

Meet Apollo

This past Saturday I went out with Bella to our neighborhood pet store.  Almost every day they have rescue groups outside with puppies and dogs up for adoption.  I saw this adorable little pup that was mostly black, but had some white on his tail and white legs with black spots and a matching nose and chest.  The pup looked like the kind my brother was looking at, and Bella enjoyed playing with him, even through the gate.

I took this adorable video. How can you resist this face!!?!

So I showed my brother the video, and the next afternoon we went and visited the pup.  He was still available and my brother quickly fell in love.  Now Bella has a new 'brother'.  They are so silly together, and it made me realize just how big she has gotten.  Bella is getting better at playing with such a small puppy.  I was worried she would step on him and break something with all her muscle.

{Sorry if the video makes you a little motion sick}

Their favorite game right now is tug-of-war!  Bella basically holds on to the toy and flops Apollo all over the place.  SOOO cute.
Love B

Bathroom Update

Here is our Monday update on the bathroom, we painted!  I matched the wall color to one of the colors from our glass tile.  We still need to do another layer of paint, but it's so humid here, we have to wait all night before it will dry.  Progress. Progress.  Next item on the menu is the floor!!  

It's slowly coming together!!! 

Love B

Comfy, Cozy, Lazy kind of night

Happy Thursday!  Although I know I live in Texas, and yes I grew up with much colder weather, I still can't seem to get warm today.  It's amazing how quickly your body adjust to this warmer climate, and even the temperature getting into the 30's makes me cold.  Tonight has turned out to be a night for me and Bella on the couch.  She likes to snuggle up to me and is quite the little heater, which I love.  

 The boys, however, have been pretty busy on the bathroom.  Here are a few picture from what we have done so far.  They are currently working on putting on the new door that will open up the other way.  We should be painting and putting the floors down in the next few days! 

Here's to warm snugglie blankets! 
B

Doesn't This Sound Delicious

Seriously!!  I have not had the opportunity to bake this yet, but definitely on my to-do list!  Yum. 

 

Marbleous Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake with Salted Caramel 

Glaze Prep: 30 minutes. Bake 40 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Oven 350 degrees.

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

3 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 recipe Salted Caramel Glaze, sea salt {optional, see below}

{1} Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray 10-in fluted tube pan with cooking spray; set aside. In bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

{2} In large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on low to medium speed 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low to medium speed 1 minute after each addition and scraping bowl frequently. Beat in sour cream and vanilla.  Alternately add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

{3} Divide batter into two bowls. Stir melted chocolate into half the batter until well combined. Stir peanut butter into remaining half until well combined.

{4} Alternately drop spoonfuls of batter into prepared pan.  Use a small metal spatula or butter knife to gently swirl the batters together {do not over mix}

{5} Bake in preheated oven 40 to 50 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on wire rack.  Remove cake from pan; cool thoroughly on wire rack. Drizzle cake with half of the salted caramel glaze.  Sprinkle with Sea Salt. Pass remaining sauce. Makes 12 servings.

{Salted Caramel Glaze}

In heavy small saucepan melt 1/4 cup unsalted butter over medium-low heat. Stir in 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar.  Bring to boiling, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/2 cup whipping cream and return to boiling.  Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 to 3/4 tsp sea salt. Cool completely. Makes about 1 cup.

I found the recipe at BH&G. 

As Good As New

I must say that I am pretty proud of these chairs.  It was my first attempt at reupholstering furniture and I think I did pretty well.  Thanks so much to my amazing mom and brother that helped out in the process. The first step that I tackled was getting all the old fabric off.  I literally think I took off 500 staples from both the chairs.  The important part while doing this was to remember how they placed the fabric on there, so I could duplicate it with the new fabric.  

Once I got all the chairs torn apart, it was time to refinish the wood.  I used my brothers Dremel tool to sand off all the chairs previous finish.  After I did a rough job sanding, my brother stepped in and really made them look good!  He sanded them until they were smooth and also stained the wood for me.  While he was finishing them up, my mom and I worked on the fabric portion.  Mostly it was initially figuring out where we should start.  As I took apart the chairs, I came to realize what items could be pulled, stapled and covered with another layer of fabric.  The first chair we did, we had to redo the seat portion three times.  It was definitely trial and error for both of us.  By the time we finished the second chair we had the pattern down.  The first chair took us an entire day and a half, while the second one we got done in one evening.  Although I know there are some upholstery flaws on the chairs, it's not too bad for our first try.  Two chairs down, three to go! 

{Here are some of the steps we took and images from the process}

Bella thought she was helping!! 

{Flash Back}
This is what they started out looking like... Gross.

{Here is the finished product} 
Oh, so much better!!!

This is really what the pup was doing while we worked!! Love her. 

Love B

Etsy - Oh hello, friend

I came across this jewelry on Etsy, while I was browsing through my different daily reads.  The shop is called Oh hello, friend and I love everything they have.  Definitely an addition to my Christmas list!  Check them out and here are some of my favorites!  Adorable. 

Love B

Sneak Peak - Upholstered Kitchen Chairs

I am pretty excited to share this next post.  I am not even finished with one full chair, but so far I am loving the result.  I still have the back to do, but so far so good.  Thanks so much to my talented momma who spent most of her trip down here on her sewing machine.  Did I mention that we never like to do things just once?  It only took us about 3 tries to get the bottom to fit just right.  Love you mom!  I know you are excited to do all the other chairs I have lined up.  Here you go, what do you think?

Can't wait until they are all done! 

B

Yummy Blueberry Orange Scones

My dad loves blueberries.  That said, he spoils me with more and more blueberries every time he comes down to visit.  I love my fruits, but I still can't eat that many blueberries at a time, so they go in the freezer.  I had never made scones before, but when I came across this recipe of blueberry orange scones, I had to try it.  Not to mention it would lower my stock of blueberries.  I was weary about the orange in the recipe, but I went ahead and added it anyways.  I LOVED them.  Sadly, I made them right before I got my appendix removed, and D ate the majority of them.  However, they are super easy to make and are a delicious morning snack with coffee or juice.  They are a must try if you like scones, plus they are only 198 calories.

 Not the best picture, but they really are amazing!

{Blueberry Orange Scones}

Time: 30 minutes.  Yields 8 scones.

{Ingredients}

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 TBLS sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. grated orange peel

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 cup cold butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup orange juice {I just squeezed the orange that I grated}

1/2 cup fresh or frozen unsweetened blueberries

{1} In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in buttermilk and orange juice just until moistened. Gently fold in blueberries.

{2} Turn onto a floured surface; gently knead 10 times. Pat into and 8 in circle. Cut into eight wedges. seperate and place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 425 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm.

Never too late to celebrate!

So even though we moved into our house, oh, five months ago, we finally decided to have a housewarming party.  Initially it was to show off our finished master bathroom, but we were not able to get it completely done.  Never the less, we decided to celebrate.  We wanted to thank everyone that came out to see the house last night.  We had so much fun.  Here are a few pictures to show everyone else what our current house looks like, missing a few rooms, but you get the picture.  :o)

 Our delicious spread of the evening.  

 My mini pumpkin cookie pies.  If I haven't made these for you, you might be missing out.  I'm just saying. 

 My attempt to make mini blueberry pies.  Everything mini is always better.  They turned out pretty good! 

 Bella bear was SO excited for the party.  I LOVE her. 

 She did pretty good and helped 'clean' the floor with all the guests there.

 This is the view from our front door.  We rearranged our living room.  SO much better.  My parents brought down one of their chairs that I will attempt to reupholster.   Thanks to my amazing family for helping get the house ready for the party!! 

Our dining room.  New addition was the place settings and the fabric on the wall.  I took 2 pillow cases and made these for the wall.  They were the perfect color to match my theme in the living room.  It's so hard to find good patterns at the fabric stores with out ordering, so pillows were the next best thing!  I want to get a 'dresser' and repaint it and place it in the bay window.  So many projects. 

 The view from the dining room.  New front door from the break in.  I have SO much wall room that they still look empty, but we are getting there.  

Our bedroom.  Finally got the boxes and tubs out of my room.  I forgot how much space we have in there.  Found the perfect lamps and picked up the chairs by the fire place at a garage sale.  We are thinking about reupholstering them in black leather and I'm hoping to order yellow curtains for the windows. 

The new additions to our mantel.  Since we have not tested out our fire places, we just put candles in them.  I LOVE the chairs and they are so, so comfortable.  Best part was that the two of them were only $20. 

 I had to take a picture of the flowers I got for the evening.  I think they are gorgeous. 

Sadly we did not get our chairs done for the evening for our breakfast nook.  We are hoping to do that tomorrow while my mom is here.  New curtains that I'm obsessed with.  They are amazing.  

Love B