Feeling Fall-ish?

Even though it is 100000 degrees here in Phoenix, I am thinking about Fall. J won't let me put out any of our decorations until October 1st, so until then I am just loving some other decorations and projects people have up.

This wreath from Centsational Girl

Adorable Owl Towels {that look SO easy} from Craft Jr

Incredible pillow from Cluk Cluck Sew  {I am definitely making this pillow soon-so we will see how it comes out}

I love this autumn banner from this blog

And this awesomely creepy little owl in a jar from here

As of now Im not really all that into the actual Halloween aspect of fall for decorating. Now im sure that will change once we have kids, but for now, no Halloween stuff. 

Are you doing any fall projects? Have you already decorated? I'll be sure to post some pics of our stuff once Oct. 1st comes:)

<3,

Adri

Recovering Dining Chairs

When we first got our old dining room set from Craigslist we knew the fabric had to go. Technically there wasn't anything wrong with it, but to us it was SO not the right fit for our home. This was the first time I had ever recovered anything so I was a little nervous. It turned out to be the easiest project ever!!

This what what we started with:

Sorry for the quality of these photos, they were taken with my iPhone

This is what we ended up with:

Now I could have made this even easier on my self and just removed the fabric and replaced it with, but I didn't. I knew that even if we don't keep the table for long {which we kept it for about 8 months, then sold it} the padding should be replaced. At the same fabric store that I got the fabric from they also sold the foam there. It was so easy. All I did was take in the old board {the bottom of the seat} and have them cut out the foam to fit.

This is what the bottom looked like:

These were all the steps I took:

• Unscrew the seat from the chair
• Take out nails from old fabric
• Throw out {grrrooossss} old foam
• Get new foam and fabric
• Layer base-foam-fabric
• Staple all together on the back
• Screw back in to chair
• Smile because it looks so much better!

Can you tell I did this a long time ago-we didn't even have our wainscoting finished yet!

Now these chairs have new foam, new fabric, and a whole {much better I think} look! If y'all are ever wanting to recover a chair I strongly urge you to try, especially if it is an easy fix like these were.

You like the fabric? Have you ever tried recovering anything? If so, how did it go?!

<3,

Adri

How many Mason Jars is Too Many?

Well obviously the answer is: there is never too many!


I love using Mason Jars for many things...

Decorating:

Food Storage: 

Freezing sauces and soups are my favorite

To hold things:

You mean to tell me that you don't take the free matches from everywhere you go?!

Yes, that is a Winnie the Pooh pen. No its doesn't have my name on it..it says Hayley. Why do I have it, no idea!

As a vase:

Whats that? Oh yes, I do realize the flowers are dead..maybe Ill throw them out, tomorrow

Last but not least, soap dispenser:

I think that this is my favorite use for them

I also use the 5 big ones {that are in the white cabinet currently} during the summer to hold the flour,sugar,etc. But when its fall and winter I switch to white ones:)

How do you use your Mason Jars? 

<3,

Adri

Eames chair love

Ok seriously, how amazing is my hubby?! He surprised me with this beautiful Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. I have secretly wanted one for a while now, and I guess he knew that because he got one on Craigslist today for me! Only $150. Obviously  its a replica {considering the real deal costs about $4,000}. I am so excited because we want it to be a little different than most of them, so we are going to cover it with some fun fabric.

I will do a post as soon as we choose out some fun print, and then its off to the upholstery person. I like attempting re-upholstering things, but not this guy! Way out of my league!

Do you like this style as much as we do?? Don't you think that I just have the most incredible husband!!? I do;)

<3,
Adri

Lemon Cupcakes- an absolute necessity

Ok, so I know not too many people are lemon lovers, but if you even think you could consider liking it just a little bit, you NEED to try these.


The cake batter alone uses 3 {thats right, 3} sticks of butter, and 5 eggs...how could it not be delicious!

Note: I hadn't changed it out to the correct paddle here

Recipe for the cake batter:


1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) of REAL butter
3 c. cake flour (no substitutions here--you really need the lightness of cake flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons (just zest the other lemons before you squeeze them)
1 c. buttermilk


Recipe for the lemon buttercream frosting:


1 1/4 c. butter (2 1/2 sticks)
2 tsp. grated lemon rind
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
3 c. powdered sugar


Yep, thats right, this whole recipe requires a total of 5 1/2 sticks of butter- my heaven! Be sure to go to Our Best Bites to get the full recipe. They are above and beyond my favorite food blog. Everything they do is delicious and easy!I made these little bites of heaven for my MIL's birthday.It is now a tradition for me to make Debbie her favorite Lemon Cupcakes  every year. It started last year when I told her that I wanted to make her cake and she said "Ooo, please make it something lemon". I had honestly not made anything lemon in years {ever since I accidentally took too many birth control pills one night and ended up throwing up through my nose the lemon poppyseed muffins I had eaten that morning}What, is that too much information?! Any way, love you Debbie! To many more birthdays celebrating you and eating yummy cupcakes:)

<3,
Adri

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover Part 2

Here are the cabinets after being put together:

Sorry for the terrible lighting

Obviously I have to have some Mason Jars in there!

Yes, they really are this straight all the time

This is real life:)

Here is the step by step process:

• Find cabinets on Craigslist {$200}
• Install them together and put in nook
• Clean, clean, and clean some more-they were pretty nasty
• Purchase glass shelves {1/4 in. thick, for durability} that were $30 a piece {$180 total}
• Purchase new hardware for the whole kitchen to tie it all together, because we hated the gold hardware this came with, and weren't fans of the plain white hardware our kitchen already had
• Fill with all of our goodies

I am not exaggerating when I say that every time someone comes to our house and asks for a cup or bowl for something, they ALWAYS say, "Well do I actually take it out of there, or is that for looks?". Or they say, "Oh you probably just straightened everything up in there before we came, huh?". Really though, for me it is just as easy to put things away in a straight line then it is to just throw them in there. Call it OCD if you want, but hey- my dishes always look good:)

Then the wonderful large drawers can hide all the things not so pretty! After all, I do live in my house and not just look at it. Real life, right?!

One of my most favorite parts of the cabinets is that we can put our microwave in there. It frees up so much needed counter space, which is great!We have it pulled far enough forward that there are no worries of it not being able to vent properly, it works out great!

So what do you think? Like it, love it, hate it? We think spending roughly $400-420 is pretty great for having all the extra storage that fits right in, don't you?

<3, 

Adri

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover Part 1

I honestly don't really know how I want to blog about our kitchen. It is one of the spots in our house that I am just not crazy about, yet I spend 1/2 of my time in there. Our house is beautiful, great, dreamy, but the kitchen..is not.

I dream of a kitchen like this:

Or this:

Or this:

But instead I have this:

Melissa Young

Now before you get to thinking that I am an ungrateful brat, I promise I am not! I am SO thankful for our home, and each room in it. I am beyond blessed to be living in a home that J and I OWN. I am beyond blessed that we had the ability to fix it up a lot to the way we want it. I am blessed to have new great appliances {that we got for a steal!!} that work amazing. I am blessed that I even have a place to cook, to be able to provide yummy dinners for J, family, and friends. Still think I am a brat? Hope not!

Heres my selfish reality though, I wish we could remodel our kitchen. 
I dream, seriously dream, about the day that we can have a window over the kitchen sink {where I could hopefully look out of a see some cute kiddies of ours ;) } I would love to have an open kitchen. I would love to have awesome countertops-granite, chopping block, corian, anything other than tiles {with grout that is impossible to clean}. I would love to have a double oven, and a french door refrigerator. I would love to have all {well almost all} of our cabinets have glass doors. I would love a lot of things, but for now, we make what we have beautiful.

When we moved in this is what it looked like:

The one area though that was a serious problem was the empty space across from the dishwasher {Sorry I don't have a before shot of the area}. We knew we needed more cabinets and storage area, so an extra set of cabinets would be perfect. The problem though was-how do you add cabinets that you want to blend in with the rest, when you can't get the same exact ones? CRAIGSLIST!! We found this bad boy on Craigslist, and knew with a few adjustments, it would seem as though it was always part of the kitchen.There originally were 2 sets of cabinets.  The hardest thing about the install was dealing with the height of the cabinets.  Since it was a tight fit to begin with the fact that the cabinets were only 3" shorter than our ceiling made for it challenging just to fit the cabinets in the space, since we had to lean them in.  Once they were in their spot, just a few screws into eachother and into the wall and they were all set. Here is a shot of the cabinets after J installed them.

Before

Be sure to check back to see the changes we made to it...

<3,

Adri

Finding the perfect rug

I don't know about you, but for us, finding the perfect rug is near impossible. Seriously. We finally just purchased a rug for our dining room after about 8 months of looking.


Rugs are so hard. Finding the right size, material, color, pattern, price, did I say price yet?! We needed a rug for going underneath our dining room table badly. The rug couldn't be too patterned, too colorful, or too pricey. Our first try was this one:

Woolrich Floral Rug - Blue/White (60x84")

We figured the blue could tie in the living room, but really it was just too much color and not enough size. We did like it so much that we even tried to make it work in our reading room {off of our bedroom}. No such luck. Bummer

We ended up with this:

Home Scroll Area Rug - Cream (78x120")

It was an awesome deal for only $99, which is amazing for how big it is. It goes well with the room, adding a lightness to it because the table and chairs are so dark {remember?} So far its holding up great, and Boomer especially loves it. I swear he thinks its his own little home under the table, and now he loves having a comfy rug to fall asleep on:)

His home

I had finally felt like we found an amazing rug for our space {and I still feel that way}, but then I saw a post a friend put up on her Facebook. I immediately felt envy for this rug:

Amy Butler- found on Ohdeeoh

Is that not the most beautiful perfect rug you have ever seen?!?Ugh! I love it so, but I so hate the price {on sale for $1,500!!!!!!!} Yikes! That rug would literally be the most perfect rug ever for our reading room since the color theme is grey and yellow. One day, right?.......

<3,

Adri