Steal this Look: Metallic Pedestal Table

Metallic pedestal tables, who isn't obsessed?  But when on the hunt for one, on the cheap, they are near impossible to find.  So with my trusty can of spray paint and a 40% Hobby Lobby coupon in hand I was able to snatch up two of these pedestal end tables and "Steal this Look."

 

Easely Amused

For Christmas this year my sister and I gave our aunts gift cards to a local painting studio.  You know the ones where you bring a bottle of wine and attempt to get in touch with your artistic abilities.  My sister and I went earlier this year to one and we thought it would make a great Christmas gift for our aunts; we plan to go with them and make it into a Aunt/Niece evening...a little bit of paint...a little bit of wine...a whole lot of fun!!!

Instead of the generic and impersonal white paper envelope I thought I'd spruce up the wrapping a bit to make it a little more festive under the Christmas tree.

 

 

I was able to find the tins at the Target Dollar Spot, bought miniature bottles of wine, and the paint brushes were $2 a pack at Target.  These made for a great Christmas gift, or they would make a great year round gift for anyone (just need a plain galvanized tin or any small basket).

 

 

 Linked to: House of Rose: Inspire Me Please



Turkey Day

Since I have hosted Thanksgiving at my house for the last 4 years one would think that I would have cooked a Thanksgiving turkey before, well one would be wrong.  With our first Thanksgiving in our new home I decided that this would be the year for me to defeat the beast that is the Thanksgiving Day Turkey!  I searched Pinterest, cookbooks, and internet cooking sites for the perfect recipe.  I had my "a-ha" moment on Allrecipes.com when I found a Maple Roasted Turkey.  I had to try this recipe, and since this was going to be my first Thanksgiving turkey I couldn't have a Griswold Christmas Vacation experience, so I had to do a trial run.  After the trial run, I knew this was my turkey!  The recipe for this turkey can be found HERE.  After the trial run I decided to double it based on the size of my 18lb turkey. 

I was terrified the whole time that the turkey wasn't going to fit in the our oven, which is by chance the world's smallest oven.

No Griswold turkey reenactment here, it came out perfect.

I was so excited this year to not have to rent tables and chairs for Thanksgiving.  I actually have a dining room and a breakfast room that was able to seat everyone.  Fancy dining room called for fancy place setting as well, I used my wedding china and wedding silver for the occasion.

I discovered the best benefit to cooking the turkey is getting to make turkey stock!  I was able to make a ton of it and have it frozen for future use.  I have already benefited from it and made turkey soup, yum! 

Just call me Betty Crocker

For Trevor's impending descent into his 30's I decided to let him indulge and gift him 30 of his favorite things for his birthday, one of which being German Chocolate cake.

*Side Note* Coming up with 30 of someone's favorite things is a lot harder than it seems. It's hard enough to come up with 30 of my own favorite things, let alone someone else's!

Lucky for me my Grandmother has an amazing German Chocolate cake recipe that helped satisfy at least one of his favorite things, as well as helping me conquer another item on my 30 Before 30 list. With my Granny' recipe in hand and my KitchenAid "locked and loaded" (literally) I baked my first cake...from scratch that is! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a German Chocolate cake from scratch...YEAH ME! That is after 4 phone calls for further instruction, 4 and a half hours of baking, 1 bad batch of icing, the wrong type of flour and 2 cake rounds that broke in half...maybe I should stick to cooking instead!

 



 

I've gone to the DARK side! EEKK!

 For the past year or so I have been wanting to dye my hair a dark brunette color.  I've never been attached to my hair and never been a stranger to changing it up every now and then; I have just never been this dark before.  I was actually wanting to go in earlier in the fall and dye it but I had to wait until after Halloween due to my costume.  The Hubs and I were Princess Buttercup and Wesley from The Princess Bride, so I had to stay blonde.

So the day after Halloween there I was with my stylist hair deep in dye!  I wasn't too nervous about going dark, I was more nervous about going back to blonde if I didn't love it.  Luckily for me and Magen, my stylist, I loved it, and so did the man who married a blonde! 

 

P.S. Sorry Dad, I'm still a blonde at heart

 

 

Happy HalloweenChristmasBirthday to ME!

If you know my sister and me you know of the infamous teal file folders we carry in our purses, at all times, that hold our coupons.  So when my sister told me she wanted to take me to a painting class for my birthday, which was in June, it wasn't a surprise that she wanted to wait for a Groupon.  Heck, I would have done the same thing!

So on "Halloween" Weekend we went to a painting class to paint an Andy Warhol Christmas Tree for my Birthday!

 

Because Hoda and Kathy Lee say that if you want to look happy in a picture, open your mouth! It must be true because we look ecstatic!

We had a great time painting, it made for a great evening and a great Birthday present.

"Happy paintings.  We want happy paintings.  If you want sad things watch the news."  - Bob Ross

It's 3:37 and OU Still Sucks!

It's not that I have never been to a football game, for I have been to many, ex-cheerleader and ex-band nerd here!  It's that since I was five years old, probably younger based on my family, I have watched and cheered on my beloved Horns and never once sat in the stands of DKR Stadium to cheer them on.

After climbing our way into the "Football Heavens" (as my mom called it) we made our way to our seats, a mere seven rows from the top.  So God may be visible in some of these pictures as we cheered on the horns in the first victory of the season.

 

Hook 'Em!

My first Palm Reading

I’ve always wanted a palm reading, but not out of some deep desire to know what my future holds.  Mainly my curiosity is intrigue.  The psychics themselves intrigue me; are there really supernatural powers out there that people possess that are able to give them insight into other people lives?  Or are they just really good at reading people and their body language?  Perhaps my fascination is a product of growing up on too many episodes of “Unsolved Mysteries.”

A friend of mine joined me this weekend as I had my first palm reading experience. I timidly admitted that I never had a reading done to the medium.  As a result she offered my friend and myself a palm reading as well as a tarot card reading. 

My reading was about twenty minutes in length, which included both the tarot and the palm reading.  I didn’t flinch at any revelations.  In fact, I found most of everything she said to me to be nothing new to me, there was nothing too insightful, and no goosebumps. 

After my first tarot and palm reading I am reminded to never underestimate what happens when we sit still long enough to realize the answers are already out there and within us. We just have to be quiet and open enough to hear them.

New Jewelry Storage

I finally have finished one aspect of my new glorious closet, my jewelry storage!  I am so excited to finally have it all out and on display...well behind closed doors at least.  With having my jewelry out and on display I see it more, which means I wear it more.

I took one drawer and one shelf of the new closet and turned it into jewelry storage.  Most of the storage items in the shelf part of the storage were from thrift stores.  I found these candle sticks that I turned into bracelet holders for $.50 each.

I found this candle holder that I turned into a bracelet holder and earring storage at Hobby Lobby, and of course used a 40% off coupon for just a few bucks.  This candle holder was originally black, so I had to remove the glass to spray paint it gold.  I soaked the candle holder in hot water to be able to remove the glass from the metal since it was glued to the bottom.

I found a glass tea cup at a Thrift store to use as more earring storage as well as to put rings inside the teacup.  The mirrored jewelry box I found at Home Goods.

I used drawer pulls to hang a piece of chain to be able to have more earring storage.  I've come to the conclusion that I have too many earring, wait, no one can ever have too many earrings.  I also used different crystal drawer pulls to hang necklaces.

For more necklace storage I made a custom fit necklace holder that fit into one of the drawers.

To begin I measured the drawer to find out the width, length, and height to cut the plywood and what size board I would need to prop it with for the angle.  I then nailed the two boards together.

I then stapled black velvet around the wood and trimmed off any excess fabric that hung too low.

After stapling the fabric on I graphed out on a piece of paper where I wanted to place the hooks but putting dots across the top.  I taped the paper on the holder and began to nail into each specific dot where I had graphed.  I did this so the hooks would twist in easier as well as not snag the fabric.

I love jewelry, and I can't wait to acquire more since now I have the space and more room for it. 

Linked to: House of Rose: Inspire Me Please