Make This: Wine Cork Wreath

For the last several weeks, I've been participating in A Bowl Full of Lemons Home Organization Challenge.  To date, I've purged the kitchen, pantry and most recently our dining room.  The idea is to go through everrrryythinnnggg and rid your house of excess!  Challengers have a facebook page where organizational/functionality ideas are shared and it helps keep many of us accountable.  Sunday after I checked all the items off the list of things to do, I posted a picture on Instagram and in the facebook group to mark my weekly achievement. 

Fellow Challengers posted lovely comments about the room and the decorating style (which I'd sum up as: farmhouse, rustic and country) that we've chosen for our home.  I had questions about how I redid the chairs, the A-frame wine rack and if I had made the placemats, but folks were gaga over the wine cork wreath! Since there was such a genuine interest in how it was made, I promised a tutorial would appear on the blog this week.  So as promised....

Make This: Wine Cork Wreath

Items Needed:
Straw Wreath
Wine Corks
Toothpicks
Jute


Instructions:
First and foremost, do yourself a favor and leave the plastic wrapping on the wreath!  Your wreath will be full of corks and you won't even see it.  It's not worth the mess you'll have if you remove it. 

Cut a rather long piece of jute (or cord or some other heavy string), that will be how your wreath is hung up.  The length is purely your decision.  The jute in the tutorial was 22 inches long.  You'll double it up and lay it underneath your straw wreath.  Feed the tails through the loop at the top and finish by knotting the tails together, as shown.

Now, grab a wine cork and a toothpick.  You will carefully pierce the toothpick into one end of your cork.  You may have to wiggle the toothpick and hold your mouth just so to get it started...  Once you've got the toothpick attached to the cork, start placing the toothpicks into the straw wreath. 

You will continue the process of attaching the toothpick to the cork and place them into the wreath.  Place each cork close to it's neighbor so that you see very little of the straw wreath.  

Inevitably, you will have a toothpick break on you.  Just pull it out and start again.

As you continue to place the cork/toothpicks into the wreath you'll want to remember to fill in the middle and outside edge of the wreath. 

As I was creating this wreath several years ago, I had a couple friends saving corks for me.  I solemnly swear I didn't drink every bottle associated with each cork!  There was a point that I just started sticking the corks in the wreath and added to it as I came across more.  Just last week I added a few corks to a spot or two that was thin.  My wreath is always evolving!  I'd encourage you to jump right in and not wait until you have enough corks.  Honestly, I have no idea how many are enough...

Oh oh!!  Something else that's noteworthy... Depending on the size of your wreath it can get really HEAVY!!!  Seriously.  If you decide to hang it on your wall use an anchor or double-check it's hanging from a stud.  It would be really sad for your wall and your wreath if it came crashing down!

Go collect your supplies, open a bottle of wine because you'll need the cork and get crafting!

Nursery Reveal

Made ya look!  Ha!

So technically it IS a nursery reveal, but it's the one I help design/decorate for my sister-in-law... Not one for me or anything crazy wacky like that.

Jennifer is very much a left-brain analytical thinker.  She absolutely can be creative, but it's not her forte!  You want someone to formulate rations and get all PhD on you, she's your girl!  Back at the baby shower, I had extended an offer to come down and help trick out the nursery for the baby. 

I was really excited when she took me up on it!  So Haddie and I hightailed it down to Tennessee for a long weekend and we got to "work".  In my world, decorating and being creative is nothing like work!

Obviously, Jen had some ideas for the nursery that they put in place over the last several months.  They decided on coral paint for the walls, white wainscoting, with accents of grey and teal.  Sounds lovely, eh?! 

Armed with photos of the room and our Pinterest apps, we headed to town to shop.  We found adorable wall hangings, frames and shelf decor that would give us a nice start to our 'vision'. 

That afternoon we got crafty and made a mobile for the crib.  We used this tutorial as a guide.  Jen picked up a mobile frame at a local resale shop and we were both tickled with the end result!

Sunday morning, Kyle joined Jen and I on another shopping excursion and I'm so glad he did!  To my surprise, Kyle and I agreed that the ruffled lampshade was an absolute must...  Initially, Jen wasn't convinced.  She's come around though!

I had my work cut out bringing them both to the dark side when I said that I thought the end table would look really cool if we spray painted it and then 'dipped' the legs in gold spray paint.  Bless their hearts, I could see the doubt in their eyes!  But I think (and I got a text saying they agreed!) that it was a sound decision.

The rest of the nursery came together pretty quickly and quite well, in my humble opinion!!  You'll notice that we incorporated several of the shower decorations into the nursery as well.

 

 

I'm also proud to report that our niece, Adelyn Margaret, joined the world on Sunday, July 12!!  She weighed 6 lb, 13 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long.  She's such a cutie!!

Get In My Belly. Recipes That Didn't Disappoint.

Hey folks!! 

So last time I gushed about all the handmade and personal touches that went into the baby shower that I hosted for my sister-in-law.  I still swoon over the pictures!  This post is dedicated to all the amazing recipes (and their creators) that were created. 

I'm telling you, do yourself a favor and find a reason (any reason) and make some or ALL of these!  You won't be sorry.

With the shower being at 2pm, I knew that I wanted to make some lighter snacky options that were both savory and sweet.  I scoured Pinterest and started pinning away.  The menu was narrowed down to three savory options, fresh fruit and dip and 2 desserts.  Along with the food, guests could choose between iced tea or punch. 

The savory dishes included:

Corn Muffin Thumbprints.  I followed Cristen's recipe to the letter and opted to top these thumbprints with Matt's homemade strawberry jam that he cans every year.  These little gals were delicious!  The honey butter and little bits of corn, woo! 

Fresh Fruit and Orange Creamsicle Dip.  Deliciousness abounds!  I'm a BIG lover of all things creamsicle and this was spot on.  For this recipe I did substitute fresh OJ for concentrate.  

The two other recipes... Blogger Fail.  No pictures.  Alas.  You'll just have to trust me and make them without the pictures.  I'm a trustworthy gal, promise.

This Pickle Wrap Dip tastes JUST LIKE those old school, painstakingly created Pickle Wraps.  My mom is a champion Pickle Wrap maker and finding a shortcut recipe was right up my alley!  I've made this dip several times and always add a splash or two of pickle juice just before stirring.  Extra pickle flavor never hurt nobody!  

At each table setting, I set a small paper cup of this Snack Mix.  I added garlic powder in lieu of the infused olive oil and also added some chili powder.  Initially, I was a little worried this might be more spicy than most of the group could take, but they all ponied up and loved it!

On to the desserts.  Oh, the desserts!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake and Mini Apple Tarts, oh my!  They were as delicious as they look.  The cake was epic!  Seriously.  I'm a sucker for the salted caramel phase that's going around and it paired great with vanilla ice cream.  I did end up doubling the chocolate frosting recipe.  Because well, it's frosting!  

The Mini Apple Tarts were a variation of this recipe.  I opted to use store bought pie crust and went with apple filling because I'd canned some last fall... that was delicious!  Is there any interest in having my write up all my adaptations and post this recipe?  Lemme know!

To wash down all these tasty treats, I served good ol' Lipton raspberry ice tea and punch. 

 

The punch was super-duper good, but I didn't follow the recipe to the letter.  Based on several of the reviews I decided to use raspberry sherbert instead of strawberry ice cream.  And I did float some limes and lemons!  It tasted great and obviously the color was spot on too!

Rustic Chic Baby Shower Decor

Last month I had the honor of hosting my sister-in-laws baby shower!  You may have seen several teaser shots on Instagram because I started planning it months in advance.  #compulsiveoverplanner

The guest list was relatively small and my 'vision' for the shower was going to most easily created if I could start putting things together over the course of a few weeks.  So the decision to host the shower at our house was made relatively quickly!  Thankfully, we have the extra space and we borrowed the tables and chairs from Matt's office.

Jennifer and I spent several hours on the phone talking about what she didn't want for the shower (hot pink, lambs or shower games) and things she did (ice cream, rustic/vintage and not too much of a fuss... Ya, that didn't happen!).  Armed with that knowledge and what I had in my party planning/catering stash, I settled on  subtle feminine touches with lots of burlap, barn wood and pastels.  Rustic Chic, if you will!

The first thing I started obsessing over on was the invitation and book request cards!  Thank goodness for free graphics and PicMonkey.

Once I was satisfied with the invites, all my attention was turned towards decorations!  Using some leftover vintage fabric, I sewed napkins.

I made pink tulle pom poms, burlap pennants and paper fans to hang as the backdrop for the food table.  The straps of fabric I tied in little bows around jute.  The white curtains?  Plastic tablecloths hung with fishing line!  Thank you, Husband!  Matt also cut and built the barnwood 'canvas' that I painted to say "You're our greatest adventure!!". 

I also came across some really cute clothespins at TJ Maxx and figured out a way to incorporate them as well with some paper doilies!

All of the linens were freebie fabric that I was given by a friend and the burlap runners were leftovers from our wedding decorations!  I don't save everything, but what I do I know I'll use again.

For the table decorations, I borrowed wood slices to set burlap wrapped cans, wine bottles wrapped in jute and old hinge topped Ball jars.

By the grace of God, I was able to track down peonies and force bloom them just in time for the shower!  The pops of pink and green from the store bought flowers coordinated nicely with the pink center in the peony!

 

Let's talk table service, shall we?  I decided early on that I wanted to use 'real' plates, so I hit up The Dollar Tree for plates and bowls for a $1.00 each.  Since the shower, we retired our existing plateware and are using these!  I pretty much dig 'em. 

 

When the new purple Ball Heritage Collection came out late this winter, I had already decided that I needed a pack.  You know, just because.  The shower gave me a perfect excuse to buy three boxes!  I tied some jute in a bow around the neck and popped in a paper straw.  Done!  And cute to boot.

To finish off the tables, I used Marisa's amazing recipes for Blueberry Butter and Orange Rhubarb Butter to give everyone as a favor for attending.  After scouring Pinterest high and low, I found the perfect printable to accessorize each little jar!

I {big puffy heart} love how it all turned out!  More importantly, Jennifer loved it too!!!

A post fully dedicated to food and drink will be next!  Come back, you'll be glad you did.

Just One Blister

Holy productive weekend, Batman!

I couldn't tell you the last time I've spent the bulk of Saturday and Sunday at home, but this past weekend was different!  And I made darn good use of the time too!  Knowing that the weeks are going to really start flying by now that horse show season kicks off this weekend, I knew I had to get cracking on my list of projects. 

Hosting a baby shower at your house will, none the less, light a fire under ya!

The project of redoing our very formal dining room chairs has been in the works for, oh six years or so!  Obviously they weren't too high up the list.  Since the new floors went in (hand-scraped engineered hardwood) the chairs were really sticking out like sore thumbs and something needed to be done!  Here's the before...

A fine chair, but far too stuffy and formal for our house's "style".  I knew I was going to take them in the 'farmhouse' direction by painting them white-ish and then roughing them up to make them look worn and well loved!

Friday afternoon I made collected all the necessary supplies and started by first reupholstering the seats with a new 'farmhouse style' fabric.  Learning from past mistakes, I measured twice and cut once, that part was smooth sailing!  I finished up the seats just as Matt walked in the door, he did stop to say how nice they looked before he ushered me out the door to meet friends for supper.  Bonus points, husband.  Bonus points.

Saturday morning I started off by using flat black spray paint and spraying all six chairs.  Living on the prairie, I lucked out with an almost windless day!  While the paint was drying, I took the dogs for a run and then came back and did a second coat.  The weather was so gorgeous that I left the chairs out in the yard while I drove down and rode Louie. 

After getting back that afternoon, I busted out the paint.  I went with Glidden's Antique Beige, which coordinated nicely with the cream in the fabric.  By the end of Saturday, I had three of the six chairs painted!  Makin' progress.

Sunday morning after my workout, I went back to painting the rest of chairs.  For whatever reason it took an extra coat of the beige paint to cover the black?  Who knows why?  I had to stop occasionally for snacks and to play with the dogs, but by 8:30pm Sunday all six chairs were painted, distressed, reassembled and back in the dining room! 

And despite the one blister, I'm so stinking thrilled with the end product!

Did anyone else work on projects this weekend? 

Linking up with B Loved Boston

Fall Decor Tour

Each year I can hardly wait to drag all my Fall decorations up from the basement and get the house looking all sorts of snazzy!

I usually wait until Labor Day weekend to start decorating and then everything stays up until the end of November.  I don't specifically decorate for just Fall or just Halloween, but have learned that for me easier to incorporate both into my 'design'.  It doesn't hurt to have a good friend that makes some amazing wood crafts that I absolutely love!  Shameless plug.  It's also in my favor that I'm handy with a paint brush and other crafting essentials.

So much of what you'll see are decorations that we used at our wedding four years ago.  I didn't want all of our table decor to be the same so that I could use them again and again!  At this point, I actually have too much stuff to put out...

Let's start this tour shall we?  If you come through the front door (for inquiring minds, that the purple one!) you enter into our dining room.   As you can tell, I love burlap.  For the wedding, I'm not even ashamed to say I bought a hundred yards of the stuff... if it stood still, it was draped in burlap!  The 30+ table runners that I cut have been loaned out and reused at several weddings and showers over the last few years, so I'd say it was a good buy!  I still have oodles of it left and honestly use it quite a bit.  The 'FALL' pennant flags are just one of the things I've used it for over the years!

I painstakingly glittered everyone of the pumpkins on our table.  Mod Podge and extra fine glitter.  I freaking love them!  The wide hurricane vases are new this year.  They were a birthday present and I really like the way they look in this grouping!

You'll spy one of Diana's wood crafts hanging on the ladder here.  While it's Halloween, it doesn't scream it.  For a long time I struggled with wanting to decorate with black, orange and purple at Halloween, but resigned to the more rustic look so I didn't have to take down, put up and take down again.  The gourds in the picture are also from the wedding.  They were dried and scrubbed clean so I could bring them in the house.  The apple shaped ones are in a vintage bunny cage that we used to collect our cards on our wedding day.

Also in the dining room, I made what I call a 'Thankful Tree'.  It has paper circles hanging on the branches and each year we fill out a few to share our blessings.  If we host Thanksgiving we also ask our family to make one.  I enjoy looking back at who was thankful for what and when.

Remember how I said I have a lot of decorations... 

Well, they continue into the kitchen.  The two pumpkins on the shelf were made by Diana and I did the wood burning back in high school.  The wreath, Harvest sign and print with the spices were also made by yours truly!  I also have some cute decorations on top of the refrigerator, but honestly it's entirely too dusty up there to show you!  Just keeping it real.

Our living room downstairs is also sporting Fall finery!  The glittery FALL frames were also made specifically for our wedding, aside from the glitter pumpkins, it's one of my favorite things to put out each year.  The floral arrangement behind the frames sat on the alter where we lit our unity candle.  
You guys thought I was kidding when you said I wanted to reuse all our wedding decorations, huh?  

More of Diana's adorable stuff is on display here!  The witches hat is brand new this year and it's my favorite piece she's done.  The top actually comes apart from the base for easy storage!  She really thinks of everything.  

Each of the bathrooms also have some pumpkins in them, ya know because I can!  

I know I have a problem.  You don't have to tell me.

It makes me sad, but I'll probably start putting away my Fall decor away within a week or two.  We aren't hosting Turkey Day, but our annual Christmas party is butting right up to our trip to Las Vegas and getting the house undecorated and redecorated will be a bit of a squeeze.  I do love my Christmas decorations, so I won't grieve Fall too long!

 

Linking up with Lisa