New House!

Wow! I can't believe it has been 4 months since my last post. We have been so busy and have had so much going on. A couple of months ago we decided to sell our townhouse on a whim. We put it up for sale, and it sold the first day! We weren't expecting it to sell that fast, so we were really excited. Then came the house hunting. We found the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood that is on a cul de sac and we absolutely love it! The house is a little outdated, so we have started remodeling and I will be posting all of our updates on our blog. In other news, tomorrow my little girl is turning 2! Time is flying by way too fast. I don't even know where these last two years went, but she is growing and learning new things every day. She is a little smarty pants, and is talking so much. We are taking the next two days off from remodeling and just going to have tons of fun for her birthday!

 

Fabric Covered Cork Boards

I was roaming through Ikea one day and found these heat trivets that I thought would be perfect as cork boards for my office makeover that I am doing. The hubby started his own company, so I wanted to redo the office for him so he would enjoy doing work in there(post on the office makeover will be coming soon!). I hung them up and they looked perfect for what I was going for. A couple of weeks later, I was thinking how much I liked them better than my plain old square cork board that I have had for years in my craft area. I decided that they would look even cuter covered in fabric, so I made my way to Hobby Lobby to get some cute stuff. All you need to do is cut a circle about 2 inches wider than the cork and use a hand stapler to secure the fabric on the back. Then I cut the extra fabric off. You can use a hot glue gun, but I didn't want to burn my fingers and thought the stapler would hold the fabric better. I used 3m strips to hold them onto the wall.

   

 

Painted Faux Granite CounterTop

We have laminate counters throughout our home that are out of date and ugly! When we moved in 4 years ago, we decided to re-do our kitchen counters right away and instead of going with granite, we decided to use travertine tile. It looks awesome and has held up perfectly, but we never got around to doing our bathroom counter tops. We just didn't want to spend the money to do them, because we are hoping to be moving soon. I got so sick of them, that one day I decided there should be an easy, cheap way to re-do them. I thought about painting them, and then came across some videos of doing them as faux granite. I was so excited because it would be a cheaper way to do them, but also looked pretty good!  So we got started, and it ended up being super easy. Here is the step by step:

~ First you will want to sand the counter top to get any dirt or anything off
~ Tape off the wall and around the sink
~ Next you will take a sea foam sponge and start to sponge the first color on
~ Wait for it to dry, and then sponge on your second color (Repeat each step for each color until you get the desired look you are going for)
~ Once finished, you will then roll on your poly (After first coat, lightly sand to get any of the bumps from the paint drying)
~ I would recommend doing two coats of poly on a bathroom counter top, and maybe three on a kitchen
~ Let dry a couple of days before using the counter top to make sure everything has settled
~ The colors I used and in the order of sponging: Tan, Black, Tan again, and then a little Black again to fill in. I took Metallic Gold and did a little bit of it through out the counter top. If you mess up and do too much of one color, just lightly sponge another color over it until you get the look you want. 

*Please note: This is how we did our counter tops, and I am not an expert. Our counter tops are still in the same shape from the day we did them, but they do get little traffic.*

 

 

 

All supplies I used were purchased at Wal-Mart. The paint I used was Acrylic Craft Paint. I debated between using that or real paint, and from my experience, I feel the craft paint seemed stronger on the counter top. They have a small package of Martha Stewart sea foam sponges that I used. But if you are doing a kitchen counter top, I recommend going to Home Depot to buy a couple of large sea foam sponges. It will be a lot faster! 

My hubby does home remodels and I have gone in and done the counter tops and all of them have turned out awesome. Here are a couple of different ones that I have done:

And I couldn't forget this cute little helper of mine! She came with me to take the AFTER pictures. I wouldn't recommend having children around when doing the poly. It has really strong fumes. 

 

Yummy HomeMade Chili

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We flew down to Arizona to spend Christmas with my sister and her family. It was a lot of fun, and little R loved waking up and playing with her cousins all day. Unfortunately we had to come back to snowy, cold Utah and get back to real life. But it was nice to get away for a week.

 

 Christmas Eve 2012

 Whenever it is cold outside, I love making soup or chili. Usually I am lazy and use canned chili and cut up hot dogs in it. That is one of the hubby's favorite meals, but sometimes I love busting out the crock pot and making homemade chili. A couple of years ago I came across this recipe, but I just use it as a guidline and add my own things to it as well.

CHILI

2 lbs. Ground Beef

1 Cup Chopped Onion

1 Green Pepper, Chopped

2 to 3 Ribs Celery, Chopped

1 Large (28 oz) Can Crushed Tomatoes

1 (8oz) Can Tomato Sauce

1 Can Kidney Beans, Drained

1-2 Cans Pinto Beans, Drained

1 tsp. Pepper

3 tsp. Chili Powder

1 tsp. Garlic Salt

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain well. Combine ground beef and all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook for 7 to 8 hours on LOW, or until done. 

Extra ingredients that I add: 

Chopped Cilantro

1 Can Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies

1 (4oz) Can Green Chilies

1 Habenero Pepper Finely Chopped (This is a really hot pepper, so I wouldn't use it if you don't like your chili spicy)

You can play around with the ingredients to your liking and can also add anything else that you like. Hope you enjoy!

Easy DIY Ruffle LampShade

I bought this lamp at HomeGoods, but the shade was just plain white and boring. I wanted to do something to make it stand out a little more. I found some white burlap at Hobby Lobby and started to get to work. I originally cut 2-3 inch strips(you can cut it however wide you would like, depending on how big you want the ruffles), sewed down the middle, and started pulling the thread to make the ruffle. Unfortunately it was so hard to pull the thread through the burlap, it ended up breaking the thread. I didn't know how else to make a ruffle, so I just started to wing it. I just took the strip and started to make the ruffles as I was sewing. You will just sew straight down the middle of the strip folding the ruffle as you go. I then hot glued the strips around the lampshade, and was done! It was so easy, and I love how it turned out. 

Hello Dolly Bars (aka Magic Bars)

Growing up, my Mom would always make a treat on Sunday nights. Hello Dolly Bars seemed to be the choice on most occasions. Still to this day when I am over at my parent's house for Sunday dinner, my Dad always suggests that we make Hello Dolly Bars.They are just that good! Warning: Once you try them, you will be addicted. Hope you enjoy!

Hello Dolly Bars

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs  

1/2 cup butter, melted  

1 cup butterscotch-flavored chips  

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips  

1 1/3 cups flaked coconut  

1 cup chopped nuts (pecans)

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk   

Preperation:

Melt the butter in a pot; mix in graham cracker crumbs. Pat crumb mixture in a 9x13" baking pan (spray pan with cooking spray first) to make crust. Sprinkle the remaining ingredients over the crumbs in the order given above, in layers. Drizzle the sweetened condensed milk on top. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 mins. Let cool.

Just some notes: The graham crackers usually have 3 bags in each box. I take 2 bags and smash them with my hands before I open the bag to make the crumbs. I then take 1 1/2 sticks of butter and melt it, and then add 1 1/2 bags of graham cracker to the butter. I like to have a thicker graham cracker crust, so it really is what you prefer. I do not measure any of the ingredients. I just spread them out and eyeball it. I also found that I like to use a pie dish instead of a baking pan. 

 

Frame Wall

One year for Christmas the hubby got me a clock that I had been wanting for a long time. YAY!  It has our last name and the date that we were married.  I wanted to display it for everyone to see, but I did it pretty fast and I never liked the two candle holders on the sides of it. I could never really think of what else I could put to make it look good, so sadly it sat like that for a couple of years.  Yes... yes.... I was that lazy to change it up even though I absolutely hated it! So one night while browsing Pinterest, these frame walls kept popping up everywhere. I thought they were so cute, then a thought popped into my head that I should try and do something similar on the big wall and I can finally get rid of those ugly candle holders! So the next day I went shopping.  I wanted to have silver and gray frames, and found a couple that I loved from TJ Maxx HomeGoods.  I then made my way to Hobby Lobby (seriously, who doesn't love that store??) and found a yellow mirror, and a blue J to add some color.  The hubby helped me hang them all and I love how it turned out. I still want to eventually add some more frames, but for now it looks so much better than before!

~Before~

  

~After~