Pumpkin Carving and Caramel Apple Cider

The other night we had a small group of our friends over for some pumpkin carving and yummy caramel apple cider, yum! Every year somehow it works out that J is the one that has to do all the carving, with my job simply being to scoop out the insides. Is it just me, or is scooping out the inside the best part? Maybe that has to do something with the fact that I pop pimples for a living?!Anyway, here are some fun photos of the night.

some fun friends

haha J doesn't look quite comfortable holding babies yet

ours is on the right. its a cute little owl

For the caramel apple cider I got the recipe from Our Best Bites {as usual}.

For the full directions go to here, but here is a quick shot of the ingredients:

1/2 C orange juice, fresh squeezed or good quality bottled like Simply Orange
1 orange
8 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks (if yours are more than a year old- buy new ones!!)
1/4 t ground allspice
1/3 C jarred caramel sauce* more to taste if needed
optional: caramel flavored syrup
sweetened whipped cream (or from a can is fine!)*For a delicious twist, substitute maple syrup for the caramel sauce in this recipe.

I doubled the recipe and it made enough to serve about 10 mugs full and some for leftovers. Soo yummy!

What is everyones plans for Halloween? Dressing up this year, or no? Have a fun and safe weekend!

<3,

Adri

6 years together

Woohoo!!! Today J and I have been together for SIX years! I can't even believe it. I remember so vividly the night we first met. Then how he pursued me for a couple of weeks before I was willing to go on a date with him:) Oh our first date! Haha, I was such a brat. We went to a haunted house {it being only a couple days before Halloween and all} and he kept on trying to hold my hand while walking through the house. Every time he went for it, I would instead just slip my arm through his! I had no idea if I liked him at all, so I didn't want him to automatically think that I did because I held his hand. Wow, what was I thinking {or not thinking!?}. After the haunted house we went to rent a movie and he let me choose..and for some weird reason I chose 'Mean Girls'. I have no idea why I chose that, because to this day I don't even like that movie, or even the idea of it! But he was amazing and acted exited to see it:) 


Another example of what a brat I was is this: I thought that if I let him pay for everything that night, then he once again would assume that I for sure liked him. Well, I couldn't let that happen! So what do I do, I stuffed $5 {the cost of the movie rental} into his glove compartment. Now there could be no blame on me if I ended up not liking him. That fact still cracks both of us up!!One of the cutest parts of the night was right before we walked in to my apartment, he said he had a gift for me. A gift, what?! It was a bottle of Pepto-Bismol!!! Oh man! I guess I had told him on the phone the night before our date that my tummy was hurting. He got me a bottle of Pepto-Bismol! I still can't decide if that was the: sweetest thing, most awkward thing, or most embarrassing thing, that could have happened! At the end of the night he left me with a sweet kiss on the cheek:)


J I love you more than words can express, especially my poor written ones:) You are my best friend, my one and only love, and partner for life. Thank you for loving me like Christ loves.

Our very first picture together Oct. 31, 2004

I LOVE the fact that this is the first picture I showed my mom and dad of J. They were definitely hesitant that this was their daughters new boyfriend:) It was Halloween though, so no worries.

The night he proposed June 22, 2007

Lets be honest here, why on earth did he want to propose to me when I was looking like that?! He proposed to me at a Young Life camp that we were both working at for a month:) Im a lucky lucky luckkkyy girl.

This ones obvious, right? Save the Date.
Melissa Young Photo {obvious as well;)}

Yay! Were married!
David Blakeman Photo

<3,

Adri

Winter Grass Makeover

Over the past month our lawn has gone from looking quite scary and ugly, to beautiful! I love the look of lush green winter grass. We happen to be extremely lucky and have our next-door neighbor be a landscaper that takes care of our front yard. He is amazing and does our yard for a steal! You might remember our grass looking like this in a post I did a couple of weeks ago:

It has been a little over three weeks now, and this is the end result. Keep in mind that I did not edit these photos at all,  and we know that I do not have a nice fancy camera {one day, one day}. I did round out the edges though- because, well, I think that just looks pretty rounded and all:)

If you have never had your lawn switched over to winter grass, it can be a pain. Luckily our neighbor does ours with the same type of seed that they use on golf courses, rather than the manure.  I don't know if I could handle manure, the smell and everything. Also, we let the pups play out front most evenings, and theres no way they could go out there with manure. {I bet they would love it, but I wouldn't so much!} 

The process:

• Mow your lawn down to as low as you can get it
• Let it dry out for about a week {turning off your sprinklers all together} 
• Place the seed on and water like crazy for the next week

 I seriously am dreading our water bill:/ Of course though, it didn't go as planned for us. We had about 3 days of good "drying out" time and then it rained pretty hard for 3 days. Which lead us to needing them to come back and mow it really low all over again, and then wait another week for it to dry out again. Nothing can ever go as planned, can it!? BUT the end result is just so beautiful,soft, and luxurious. It's totally not weird to call your grass luxurious, is it?!

Does everyone out there with grass do the winter grass thing? If so, have you had as great of an outcome as us??

This photo is edited just a little, but thats our house:)

<3,

Adri

Spray Paint Makeover

Meet my new friends..2 birds and an owl. I like them:) I especially like that I got them at Savers for just a little $$. I don't especially like their color though, so...spray paint saves the day, yet again!

Supplies:

• 1 Can Heirloom White spray paint
• 1 set of gloves {for those of you like me who tend to get the paint ALL over yourself}. Totally not necessary to some, but totally necessary to me.
• If you're lucky enough the objects will already be wrapped in newspaper from the store {yes!!} but if not, some sort of surface to paint on
• 3 adorable objects

After 3 light coats to each and ample drying time here is the outcome:

Lets just ignore the incredibly dirty window:)

Anyone notice the subtle difference of the photos? Haha hes too cute:)

Have you been doing any spray paint necessary projects lately? Put up your link so we can all check them out.

<3,

Adri

I linked this post up to my weekly links.

Inspiration Monday

Some things that have caught my eye lately for a great reason:

Apartment Therapy

I love love love the table. The door {at least thats what I think it is!} on the wall is magnificent. And of course the glass door cabinets.

Ish and Chi

This yellow front door is so stunning to me. Although for my house it would be too much, since our exterior is almost that same exact yellow. For someone else though, yesss please!

West Elm

This little bench from West Elm is so fun. I really love the fabric choice, and the legs.

Crate&Barrel

This Bedford Chest from C&B is amazing. One draw back to me though is that I would much rather find something similar to this at an estate sale or Craigslist, instead of paying the insane price of $699.



Some things that have caught my lately for a badddd reason:

Apartment Theraphy

Neon lighting for furniture..nope, not my style. Is this really anyones style?!


Now this dresser might just be bad to me. I have always lived in AZ and have grown to dis-like the look of Southwestern anything, so to me, this is no good. Especially because this is what it looked like before, and I think I actually would have liked it then:

Design*Sponge

Design*Sponge

To finish it off, this bad boy. The fact that this person painted the already beautiful wood, and then didn't even paint the whole thing, just the drawers, baffles me. I am not against painting any and all wood pieces, but when the wood looks to be in good enough condition and its a beautiful color already, why change it?! You agree, or no?

Apartment Theraphy

Apartment Therapy

Anything out there inspiring you, for the good or bad?!? If you show me some fun stuff I promise to love you forever:)

<3,

Adri

What are you doing this weekend??

To all the people in the Phoenix area:


If you are free on Saturday night, I have a place for you to be! Our amazing friends Ryan and Kylie are part owners of an incredible Mid-Century Modern furniture store called Modern Manor. They are having a Mad Men themed party and it is going to be amazing!! Here are the details:

Time	Saturday, October 23 · 7:00pm - 11:00pm
Location	Modern Manor 716 W. Hazelwood St. Phoenix, AZ
Created By	modern manor
More Info	Modern Manor is having a huge press release "Mad Men Cocktail Party" ! Come dressed in your best 1960's attire, because you are going back in time to when things were a little more swanky. There will be a cash bar, photo booth, best costume contest, catered food, Mad Men being played on a giant projection screen the whole night (but of course)... basically it is going to be amazing night with all our friends! Come join us with cocktail in hand as we officially kick off our store~

Also, check out their website here. Hope to see some of you there! And i'll be sure to post pictures from the event later! If you don't live in Phoenix, booo. Have a great weekend:)

<3,
Adri

Sentimental Furniture

Do any of y'all have a piece of furniture in your home that you know isn't that cute, doesn't really fit in, etc.-but yet you still love it??

Mine is my GMA's lime green chair. 

Melissa Young Photo

All through growing up my GMA lived with me. She was my absolute best friend. She moved in with my parents two months after they got married, and lived for another 23 years. This chair used to be in her room at my parents house. She would sit in it everyday and read, crochet, or paint her nails. She said that it was by far her most favorite color in the world and the most comfortable chair as well! Now, i'm not gonna lie, the chair is pretty darn comfortable, but I don't know so much about it being the best color!!

The chair is now in our home, in our office. We call the office the "green room" because well, the walls are green, the chair is green, and the paintings have a lot of green in them:) We don't really think the chair goes great with the room, BUT I don't care. This chair has so much sentimental value to me that I love it no matter what!

Do you have a piece like this? Not too good looking, but so special that it doesn't matter? I only wish that I could have my GMA come on over and sit in it just one more time...

<3,

Adri

in 2004

Being Featured On...

Design*Sponge

Yaya! If you want to check it out, here you go! Also, if you're visiting from Design Sponge, so nice to meet you!

<3,

Adri

Cleaning Hardwood Floors

Ok, I must admit before I write anything that I hate, hate, hate, cleaning our floors. I seriously could spend a whole day cleaning our house and be so happy about it, but if I have to spend 1-2 hours cleaning our floors I get in the worst mood. I've come up with a couple of reasons as to why I hate it so much, here they are:

1. I could clean them every three days and they would still look like a disaster in the mean time.
2. I feel as though I have to do twice the cleaning because of our method {which I'll share in a sec.}, but it's the only way that seems to really get ours clean.
3. I feel like I could clean so much more of our house in the time that it takes me to clean just the floors. Seriously, I could clean our WHOLE house in the time that the floors alone take!
4. It used to be J's only job when it comes to cleaning {other than "trash duty" if that counts} but now I took it over because my work is a whole lot slower than his is.
5. I have to make sure that I clean the baseboards, wainscotting, and trim before I do the floors, otherwise I end up getting that dust and dirt all over ALL over again!

Now if you are sitting here reading and just not "getting" it as to how someone could hate cleaning their floors so much, here is a pretty little example for you as to what they can look like from just one afternoon of rain:

Yep, those are all muddy paw prints, that get everywhere. The floor, rugs, couch, etc. We definitely try to watch them come in from when its raining and clean off their paws, but that definitely doesn't stop it from happening!

Heres how we clean these beauties:

• Vacuum, yep, vacuum all the floors, tile and wood. Now for this we don't just scoot by with the Dyson vacuum, we bust out the attachments as well to really get in to the tight corners!
•  Also, before we move on, we vacuum the couch every week as well. Between dogs, friends, and eating on it sometimes, this couch is messy! The only thing that we've found to work is using the attachment that has a felt-ish feel. Between the suction and the felt, it picks up almost all the hair and crumbs {eekk, so bad that we even have those on the couch}.
• After all vacuuming is finished {which I think is the part that takes the longest}, bust out the Bona Hardwood Floor cleaner. This is what our buddy Steve, who installed our wood, recommended. At first we bought the Shark steam mop, and he quickly told us that the Shark would ruin and split our wood. Im not sure if thats true for all wood, or just ours, but we took it back to Bed, Bath,&Beyond fast and got the Bona Hardwood system. 
• Last but not least, almost cry when minutes later the pups run in with wet and muddy paws and ruin it all. I swear we don't get much {really- barely ANY} rain here in Phoenix, but somehow our pups paws are always wet and muddy!

These are the steps that seem to work for us, and even though I do loathe {no joke} cleaning the floors, I love when they are all squeaky clean. 

I'll leave y'all with some pictures of the pups so that you can see why we still love them after all they put us through;)

Boomers face=adorable. Honeys butt=not so much.

No joke, this is how they were sleeping the other day,UGH too cute!

For any of you that have hardwood, how do you keep it clean? Any tips or tricks? Also, even if you don't have hardwood, does anyone out there despise cleaning their floors as much as I do?!? Please tell me i'm not alone in this thought:)

<3,

Adri

Being featured on..

Remodelaholic

Woohoo! Go check it out if you have a sec. And if you're coming here from Remodelaholic, WELCOME:)

<3,

Adri

Teacup Lamp Tutorial

In a post a while back I wrote about how much I loved the Teacup lamp from Anthropologie and then how J made me one for Valentines day! I love this lamp so much and thought y'all might like it too, so heres a tutorial for you {we made a different one, since J didnt take enough pics the first time GRRR)!

Supplies needed:

• 1 large bowl
• 1 medium tea cup/coffee mug, 1 small tea cup, 1 EXTRA small teacup
• 1 large plate, 1 medium plate, 1 small plate
• 1 teapot
• White primer spray paint
• White high gloss spray paint
• Lamp kit {or you could go get a cheap lamp at a thrift store/one from home you don't like, and use its electrical works, which is what J did for the first lamp he made}
• Drill with a ceramic drill-bit (ceramic drill bits can be $15 to $30)
• 5 Min Epoxy gel

Process:

• Start by taking your large bowl {which will be the base} and drill a hole directly in the middle. You need to make sure to add water as you drill through the ceramic material, otherwise the ceramic may crack.  When first starting to drill start your drill at a tilt on the bowl, until you can feel a grove forming. Then gradually move your drill to where it is perpendicular to the center of the drilling surface. Drill until you produce a hole {may take a couple minutes}.

• Once you have the first hole finished then drill a hole on the back side of the bowl {where the cord will eventually come out of}.

• Continue drilling a hole through the center of all the dishes {minus the extra small tea cup} and wince at the horrible sound the drill makes on the ceramic.

• Once the plates, teacups {again, minus the extra small one}, and bowl have holes through the middle, drill a hole right through the middle of the teapot lid. By doing this it should remove any top handle the lid could have.

• Now you want to drill a hole in the extra small teacup. Make sure that you drill the hole on the bottom side of the teacup, it will look crooked{like pictured}.

• Side note- if you are having your amazing hubby/boyfriend/whoever you think is hot, do this for you, make sure to take notice at how hot their arms look working the drill:):) Haha J will kill me for saying this and ESP. for posting the picture-oops;)

mmhmm

• Stack the dishes in the correct order and make sure that the hole lines up through all.

Tada! All done..jk

• Next, time to start with Epoxying the pieces together. You want to make sure that you put the Epoxy on the high part of the piece {the piece that is going to be in contact with the other piece}. For instance, when gluing the base bowl to the plate we put the epoxy on the bottom raised edge of the plate because that was going to go over the bowl. 

• Once everything is epoxyed together in the correct order {make sure correct order, J tried to glue down the wrong plate in a spot, luckily I noticed fast and we could fix it} its then time for a quick clean and then priming and painting.

PS- Don't prime or paint one of your dogs, just the lamp. And just for the record, J was just shaking the can by Boomer, not spraying.  Don't want to make PETA mad.

• To get the end result we ended up using the whole can of primer and the whole can of paint.

• Now is when your patience needs to kick in. In theory you should let this puppy dry for about 7-8 hours...in reality we let ours dry for 3:) Now comes the electrical part of the project. Here are the supplies laid out:

• The electrical is pretty simple, just insert the wires into the wire hole in the back of the lamp.  

• Then insert the wires into the hollow pole that will be in the center of your lamp.  At the bottom of the pole, inside the upside down bowl, you will need to attach it to something that is wider than the hole you made.  We used a small block of wood.  Then insert the pole into the center of the lamp.

• After you slide the pole to the top you will pull the wire up to give you room to attach the base of the light screw-in thingy majig.  

• You will need to attach the wires, this is really simple {this goes without saying but don't have the lamp plugged in while handling the wires} just unscrew the screws on the side of the base, wrap the wires around the screw and tighten.

• Next pull the wire tight from the bottom and put the cap on the light screw-in thingy majig and you are done.  Screw in the bulb and plug in the lamp and hopefully it works.  If it doesn't blame your hubby :)

•  Also, at this time you would want to put the extra small teacup at the top of the lamp, bbuttt sadly our broke..:(

Overall, we love how it turned out. I definitely would have preferred if I could have found a different teapot, because I feel that the teapot really makes or breaks the lamp, but they seem really hard to come by at Goodwill/Savers. And obviously I wish our adorable extra small teacup didn't brake- but overall I do still love it. Also, keep in mind that this definitely would not be a shade we would choose for the lamp, we just got it off another one in our house and used it for photo purposes.

What do y'all think? You want to try to make your own? Please do, and if you do- let me know!!!

<3,

Adri

I linked this post up with my normal weekly parties:)