Thursday, January 19, 2012

Old Turquoise Hutch {Before}

I am SO excited! You might look at these pictures and think this thing belongs at the dump, but I see POTENTIAL! ;) I also see lots of kitchen storage! We just got back from picking this up. It needs a lot of help, but as it turns out, I'm quite the helper.The two pieces didn't originally go together, but somewhere along the way, someone married them...and I'm glad they did! Step one is cleaning, which I'll be doing tomorrow while the girls are at elective classes.
I am going to paint the insides of top, bottom, and drawers a shade of antique white.
When driving home, the door on the left flew off from the wind, so I need to perform surgery on it tonight, but it will be fine. ;) I'm going to take the door to Lowe's to have them match the paint. It definitely needs some touching up and covering of the dirt stains that won't wash off. BUT, I like that the paint is not solid, so I think I'll have to water it down so that I can blend it well.
While I was there, I looked through her knob collection and found these two gems! The ones that were on the bottom doors didn't match with the piece.
The above picture is the drawer pull that was on it, I found a matching one, but after deciding to use those top knobs, I wanted to keep them as-is instead of painting them. BUT, these ones I'm not ok with the color. The picture below is a drawer pull that I think I've decided on!
They seem to go better with the distressed look.
Well, here is the "before". Hopefully in a few days I'll be posting the "after". ;)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Decorating with Crates

I redecorated one of my "top shelf" areas today. I'm ignoring the fact that our A/C return vent is here. Big eyesore, but it's actually better blended-in now. It could almost pass for a shutter now, I just noticed that! What USED to be here were a set of two giant, dark wicker hamper baskets. I've had them since we got married (almost 9 years ago!) and they are completely faded on the back sides because the "top shelf" in our last house had lighting behind it. I've been gathering wooden crates, and I had no idea what I'd end up with today when I started pulling all of this together, but I. AM. IN. LOVE. with how it turned out!
Yesterday was my second trip to one of my best friend's mother in law's house. She is a antique dealer and has oooooodles of treasures. They might not LOOK like treasures when you're digging through dirty piles of cobwebs and spiders, but they are like gold to me. ;) This big frame is the larger of the two I bought for $5 total. All I did was wash it off, I left the crazy paint the way it was. I actually like it that way. The bottom drawer I bought for $2 and added a metal knob from the BAG of knobs, pulls, and metal pieces I bought from her collection! After we treasure hunted there, my sister in law and I went to Rocky Hill Antiques in Exeter and I found the top greenish/tealish crate. It was actually from my friend Luci's section in the store!

The green crate standing on it's end was $2 from my friend's house. The bottom crate on the right was one of the crates I made and stained for the wedding I did last year. I needed to give height to the smaller turquoise crate that I got for my birthday last year. I believe it was from Marshall's or Home Goods. I love how you can marry old and new when you are buying distressed pieces. You can't tell the difference. The tall piece in the back I got from my first trip to the antique dealer's property. It was also $2.
Here is what it looked like with only crates. I toyed with the idea of only doing an arrangement of empty crates, but once I started adding things from other areas of the house, I liked it better. The tall piece on the right is a chippy, architectural-type of candlestick.


Keeping it REAL... here's what the other side now looks like because I pulled so much stuff to finish it the way I wanted. And LOOK at that pile of dust! Ahh! Now I've got some work to do to make the other side equally satisfying. I may have to buy some more stuff from her when I go pick up my new big furniture piece I'm buying for the dining room! I'm SO excited, I can't wait to get it!

One last look... I'm in love!!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Family Brownie Recipe

Tonight I had a craving. A craving for the BEST brownies ever, like EVER! I shared this recipe a long time ago but its totally re-share worthy for my new friends. This recipe has been in my family longer than i have. I've mentioned that 2 generations before me were professional bakers, right? ;)

This is the first thing I ever baked solo. Bless my late father's heart he ate my first batch of brownies even though I switched the amounts of salt and flour! He didn't want me to feel bad, even though they were the flattest, saltiest things you can imagine.

Recipe
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix the first three ingredients, then add eggs and beat well. In a separate bowl combine remaining ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients while mixing until all is in. Bake at 350 in 9x13 rectangle pan sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

You'll thank me later. The top has a crisp crust that breaks and crumbles in your mouth, and the center is chewy and delicious. Don't even get me started on the edges!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Valentine Shelf

I brought out my Valentine decor from last year. I forgot how much I have! The rose balls were made out of streamers. I made the hearts hanging on the window out of old sweaters I picked up at thrift stores. The only thing new is the chippy looking thing on the right. I don't know what to call it but it's BEAUTIFUL! I found it in the new spring section at hobby lobby and it was 30% off. It will definitely be out year round at my house!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Taste of Orange Blossom {Smoked Pork Chop with Spicy Apple Butter}

Last night we made our weekly trip to Orange Blossom. This time, we had our kids with us because it was Emma's 8th birthday! Yikes, where does the time go? She specifically asked for us to go to OBJ so that she could get sung to, and it's HER favorite as well. ;)Last night I was lucky enough to order the special salad! It was Fresh Greens with Fried Mozzarella and Roasted Tomato Garlic Dressing! This is something I've never seen here, and it was good! The mozzarella was hot and melty, covered in that crispy crust. MMM MMM. I LOVED the Roasted Tomato Garlic Dressing! The tomato flavor wasn't too overpowering, not surprising since I've never had a salad dressing there I didn't like!
Smoked Pork Chop with Spicy Apple Butter. Can I just say...comfort food? This is one of my all time fav's at OBJ. You've never had a pork chop like this one. Trust me. It's SUPER-thick cut, and smoked to perfection, then it goes for a swim in the spicy apple butter to make it complete. Ahhh, I want it again just looking at this picture!
How's that for a full plate? Have you ever noticed that usually if the food is high quality, the portions are tiny and leave you wanting more OR if the food isn't very good, the portions are big? This is the ONE place that I've been to that ALWAYS combines high-quality gourmet food, with larger than life portions.
Our girls at the family hangout!
Emma chose Chocolate Trauma for her birthday dessert. A girl after my own heart. ;)
Our girl felt really special, thanks OBJ staff! We love you guys!
The special dessert that I got with my 3 course meal was a Warm Peach Tart with Tangerine Ice Cream! This was SO good! There were slices of whole peaches in a layer in the tart... it was as delicious as it sounds, especially when combined with the ice cream!
Thanks for a special night OBJ! Check them out on the web!

Emma's Bunny Birthday Party {8 Years Old!}

My daughter turned 8! Yikes! That makes me feel old! She is OBSESSED with bunnies so of course she asked for a bunny party! We'll start with the invitations...(Photo from etsy.com) I ordered these invites from stockberrystudio on etsy and the file arrived super fast, and I printed them at Costco.
There were a lot of kids coming, so I brought in an extra table to make a big square table. It's easy enough to use basic white tablecloths and add a yard of bunny fabric to the center. I just used pinking shears on the edges. A yard was a perfect fit for the center of two 6 ft tables.
Since Emma has bunny stuff everywhere already, I was able to pull a few things from what she has. There are no bunnies to be found in stores at the beginning of January. This little felt basket was perfect for forks.
I've had these wooden berry boxes for awhile and I FINALLY got to use some of them! They held the bunny place card, and their take-home treats.
Bunny cookies from Nandie!
Giant marshmallows as "Bunny Tails".
I made a fabric strip banner to decorate the area where they were sitting.

I made this bunny banner with my Silhouette machine and some cotton balls. :)
This is a "punch game". I cut holes in a tri-fold display board with an exacto knife. Then I covered the holes with tissue paper, taped on the back. After that, you tape a box or bag onto the back of it, filled with candy or goodies. The kids choose which hole to punch and then discover their prize.


This GIANT balloon is from Shop Sweet Lulu. I LOVE it! I think all of my parties will require giant balloons from now on!
We have two bunnies that have a large outdoor cage, but we decided to bring them in for the party. We put them in the smaller cage, and let the kids feed them lettuce.
After pizza, we headed outside for Bunny Hop Sack Races.
At first, we were going to race on the straight part of the track, but Emma fell and hit her knee right away and said it was too hard, so we switched to the grass. I don't think our grass is much softer right now though, it's sleeping for the winter.
We raced 5 at a time.
I bought the sacks at the feed store for $2 each and then I added the white yarn for tails.



Punch game!
One thing I did that I will ALWAYS do again is pre-scoop the ice cream! I bought little bowls with lids from Smart and Final and the day before the party I scooped them, and wrote which flavor it was with a sharpie. All I had to do was pass them out, it was SO easy! No more waiting!
I always think that I'll remember to have someone take pictures of me with the birthday girl, and I ALWAYS forget. So... here's the girls with Nana!

Linking up to Bird's Party Blog