They're out of a box, but still blog-worthy...

Today I'm not feeling well so I stayed home, but I got bored and couldn't sleep anymore so I decided to do some baking or cooking.  I know that sounds weird, but it felt right at the time.

I wanted to make cocktail meatballs, but realized that I bought cocktail sauce instead of chili sauce.  They're called cocktail meatballs right?  So why do they call for chili sauce instead?  SO, that idea got scratched, although I'm sure they would have tasted the same, so I just threw the meatballs in with tomato sauce instead.  BORING, I know.  They're simmering in the crock pot now, and will be yummy over tortellini later.

That whole process, from the initial thought, to walking away from the crock pot, only took about 5 minutes, so I needed another project to make the trip downstairs worthwhile.  Stood at the pantry and saw a box of Magic Cookie Bars - sounds magical right?  I thought so, too.

It's an easy graham cracker crumb crust mixed with butter, then a layer of sweetened condensed milk, and a layer of magic - chocolate and peanut butter chips, coconut, and walnuts:

 

They baked for about 15 minutes and need to cool for 2 hours.  Plenty of time to recover (hopefully) from whatever this stomach thing is that hit me during the night, and enjoy them.  I feel a hundred times better than I did this morning, but not quite good enough to eat magic.  

Here's the magical goodness, in all its glory:

A pineapple and more fabric

Today we checked out U-Fab, a local fabric shop, to look at more options for dining room curtains.  We found 2 that we both agree on.  Imagine that?

But first - the other night at HomeGoods, when I picked up my open/closed sign for River City Sweets, I also bought a ceramic pineapple as inspiration for the dining room.  Since we want the dining room to be comfortable, casual, and inviting to guests, what other symbol better represents those things than the pineapple?  It seems very Virginia to me, and it has me inspired to get this process seriously started.

Isn't it cute?  We have shelves hanging in the room now, which I'll stain to match the new furniture, and I can see this little guy sitting on one of the shelves, saying "Welcome!"  haha

Now, back to U-Fab.  This place is AWESOME!  Most of the fabric I saw was $2.99-$7.99 a yard - way cheaper than chains.  Here are some that we liked, and as usual, my commentary :)

This one has the colors we like, but it looks like boxer shorts:

 

 I love this one because it's a little funky - I was playing with flash settings under the flourescents, so it looks more yellow than it is.  It's sage and white:

Here's plaid, with the reds we want:

And another with reds, but stripes.  Not really a fan of this one:

 Here are our two favorites of the day. In the store:

 

And, one the wall:

Opinions?

I bought something I hope I'll need someday

I know it might sound weird, but I have this dream of opening a pastry shoppe - specifically to sell cupcakes.  I've been thinking about how cool it would be to own my own business and spend all my time in the kitchen baking, which is the least stressful activity of my day.

Last night, I went to HomeGoods and found this adorable sign, with open on one side and closed on the other:

It comes on a little chain to hang from a hook or on a doorknob, and I couldn't resist.  I do realize I don't have  shoppe to put it in, but one day I will!  Until then, it's going in my wish box.

And don't worry, it was only $4.99...I can hear the bells ringing on the door as my first customer enters!  Yes, I know I'm a dork.

Valentine's treats for my work peeps!

Whaddya get when you mix red velvet cake, frosting with red food coloring, and hershey kisses?

Valentine's treats - that's what!

Found my light!

We went to Lowe's to browse at the light fixtures - I think I found my light for the dining room.  And it's only $61!  Woohoo!

I really like the style of both of these, with the bulb facing the ceilig instead of our heads, but the first one looks a little too 16th century castle:

The second one is much more simple and it's a rustic iron finish:

 

I restrained myself and didn't buy it today, but it's item #2420 and I will own it soon!  

We did pick up some lights to replace our mid-90's fixtures throughout the house that look like this...

  

...with a more modern look:

The best part?  We snagged a 6-pack for $40!  What a deal!  Dave's honey-do list is getting looooonger.

What's my style? I thought I knew...

I headed over to Joann Fabrics last night to get some inspiration for a project that is mum for now, and while I was there, I thought I'd take a look at the fabrics.  I'm going to make panels for the dining room makeover instead of buying them, so they're super-personal and homemade. 

Sure, it's easy to just go to Target or Lowe's and pick up some panels, but I'll probably hate them in 2 or 5 years, and will wish that I had paid more attention the first time and picked something that was just right.  I felt like that about my father-daughter dance song at my wedding.  Can't get it out of my head.  I should have chosen that Beatles song that he used to sing to me - still can't pinpoint the name of it, but whenever I hear it I think of him, so why didn't we dance to it?  Because I took the easy route and decided that wasn't one of the details I wanted to spend my energy on.  The result:  we danced to some country song I liked at the time, but can't sing in my head today.  Bad.  Choice.

So, it's decided that I'm choosing fabric and making my own, but now we get into my indecisiveness.  You all remember the paint debacle.  I won't explain as to not open old wounds, but I tend to over-analyze things and think them to death before committing.  I don't think I've always been like that, but it's done and I can't change it now.  This makes picking the perfect fabric more difficult than what I'm having for dinner or which movie I want to watch instead of doing homework.

A few things I know for sure:

• home-made
• 2 floor-to-almost-ceiling panels
• hung using hooks instead of sewing in a rod pocket
• bold-ish pattern to bring life into the room
• contain colors that can be used with complementing accessories

Here are some samples I found last night, along with some commentary/insight into my indecisive brain (seriously, they should study it when I die).  The top color on the paint chip is the one that will be on the walls:

I like both of these muted stripes with red/pink in them. I hope to bring in red somewhere in the room to brighten it. Everything else will be wood, sage, or khaki, so we need a splash of something fun!

This one is also muted and contains the reds I'm looking for, but it looks a little southwestern in person. Less homey, more Aztec-y...?

This one's girly and more formal, and I think that's why I like it. It's classic, tasteful, and lovely. Too bad it doesn't make me wanna buy it.

This is the first of the funky ones I saw - love the circles, the colors are perfect, but I think it would bore me very quickly and I'd be going through this process again in a year or so. That's bad.

Love. Love. Love this fabric! Unfortch I've only found one other person who loves it as much as I do. If that's any indication of the odds of a dinner guest wanting to sit in a room with this on the windows, it's not looking good. So do I choose one for me, or for my potential guests?

This one reminds me of a shower curtain a friend has. It's pretty, but everytime I look at it I'll think of a bathroom. Probably not the vision I need when I'm eating my Thanksgiving turkey.

Another funky one. I love it, but it's a little Grandma-ish. I love the paisley, and this is sort of a crushed velvet-and it matches the paint perfectly! Not sure how the crushed velvet would play with the suede finish under the chair rail.

More stripes, more red, but bolder. Thoughts?

A co-worker told me about u-fab, a fab (get it) fabric store in the Fan that has drapery fabric on the cheap!  I checked out their site, and some of their stuff is $2.99 a yard!  WOAH!  Also heard about the Interior Outlet, which is so close to home and super cute. 

I need to do this right the first time, and not just pick one to get curtain panels up - so as long as it takes to the the fabric, I'll be looking :) 

Get busy girls!

Someone needs to get knocked up real quick (with a girl) so I can make you a quilt out of these:

K thanks ;)

Dump cake

While some of you were eating creme brulee and flan growing up, I was eating dump cake.

This is a great dessert when you can't decide if you want to bake a pie or a cake, or when you only have pie filling and cake mix, but no crust or vegetable oil, which is the case in my house today.

I put 2 cans of cherry pie filling in a 9x13 cake pan, sprinkled dry white cake mix on top, then a layer of walnuts (pecans work too), and some squares of butter.   

Not sure how long to bake it, but I'm starting with the directions on the cake box and we'll go from there.

EDIT:  Here's the finished product:

My next big house project

I've never been one to have meals in a dining room, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and in every house/townhouse/condo I've ever lived in, the dining room was either wasted space, or space with a table and chairs that was never used. I was ok with that - but now that I'm growing up (I guess) I feel like I want a grown up dining room. Not sure when the change happened, but I've been thinking about it seriously for the last few months.

When we moved into this house, I knew we weren't going to use the dining room for that purpose, so we turned it into a study/library, with a whole wall of bookshelves and a big comfy chair and ottoman. It was a great idea in theory, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've spent more than 15 minutes in there, and cannot recall any time when I sat in said big comfy chair and read anything. Most of my reading is done in the other big comfy chair in the living room, in front of the window that overlooks the trees and birds outside. Much better than the view from the dining room.

In order to turn this unused study into a dining room, I need to find a new home for its current inhabitants: the books. There are plenty that could be put in a box in the attic, like the yearbooks and the 23 Bibles. Ok, it's not that many, but we have more Bibles than any couple should have and I don't feel right about discarding any of them. Think about it - I'd be the girl who's 'donating' a Bible. Whether I take some to a church or library, they don't know that I have 22 more at home, they'd naturally think I'm symbolically discarding more than a book. It might seem illogical, but it makes perfect sense in my head. Yearbooks don't need to be out all the time, the recipe books can find a home in the kitchen, Jodi Picoult books can go to someone who will actually read them, and Harry Potter can go in the office with the rest of Dave's boy-ness. Twilight and my favorite fiction books can find a home in my craft room, and that just leaves the classics. Haven't figured out where to put them yet. I'm sure if I do enough purging, it'll all work out :)

Bored yet? It's ok, me too.

On to the fun part - the shopping! Here's my polyvore of the ideal dining room:



1: You've all heard about our painting project. We're continuing Behr's 'Restful' in this room because it shares a wall with the living room, which shares a wall with the kitchen, but we hope to add a chair rail, with Ralph Lauren's suede 'Snowdrift' on the bottom half of the wall.

2: I found this chandelier at Home Depot when I was picking up paint and fell in love with it! It's simple, and the bulbs are mounted so you aren't blinded when you look up from the table at the light. I hate that! I love the rustic iron finish, but if I found one in stainless steel, I wouldn't be disappointed.

3: After our first flood at the house, caused by me flushing Clorox wipes after cleaning the half bath, we installed laminate flooring in the dining room. Even though the purpose of the room at the time was a cozy study, I was thinking about the future when replacing the floors instead of putting down carpet.

4: Since everything else in the room will be wood or neutral tones, I want to bring in some punches of color with the curtains and accessories. I love red as an accent color in small doses, but a fally orange would be even better! Once we start seriously shopping for this project, I'm going to hit up a local fabric outlet to see if I can score an awesome print for curtains!

5: Whatever finish I choose for the chandelier will be matched to the decorative curtain rod, like this one I found! I need to find the perfect one - I love the decorative finial of the one in the polyvore, but need a double rod, so I can hang a sheer behind the panels. It's a weird thing i have about the windows looking the same from the street. All the other windows (except my bedroom closet) have sheers and the blinds are always open, but this room just has a bare window. Unacceptable.

6: is the number of these chairs we need to buy! I fell in love with this style of chair at Thanksgiving when we visited Dave's brother in Dallas. They are so comfortable! His are from Pottery Barn and cost an arm and a leg, so I've got my eye on this less expensive version from the Room Store.

7: Love this table - also from the Room Store. It is rectangular, but comes with a leaf that expands the tabletop to 54x54, and seats 6. Perfect for holiday meals with family. I'm picturing it with a table runner with a red or orange (whichever punch of color I choose) and some fresh flowers, or no table runner, but a bowl full of apples in the middle of the table?

8: This is a piece similar to one I received as a gift from the Millers at Christmas a few years ago. Right now it's sitting in a pantry with my other serving dishes, but is so cool that it deserves to be displayed on a buffet, waiting for a party!

9: I'm in love with natural fiber rugs. I love the way they feel on my feet, even though they're not soft and cushy...it's almost like walking on the beach. Crate and Barrel has some good ones, but I found this one on Overstock.com. I'd love to find a square one to match the proportions of the table, but affordable square rugs are hard to find.

10: This is my favorite piece! It's perfect for our needs - wine storage room for my serving platters and placemats to get rid of an old piece of furniture in the kitchen. It's not normally something I'd pick out because of the marble top and modern style, but I love it!

Well, there you go! That's the dining room that I'd love to have in my home by the end of the year! I want to take my time to find the perfect items, not just throw a bunch of stuff together just to call it done. Stay tuned for more details!

I should have stopped reading her blog weeks ago

Kara got me hooked on this blog written by this horribly spoiled, Lilly Pulitzer-clad, 'preppy' chick. I started reading it for the laughs, but as I read more and more, I stopped laughing, and now every time I read an entry, I want to SCREAM!

Kara has since moved on to preppier (and more annoying) blogs, but for some reason I can't stop looking...it's like Rosemary's Baby - it's hideous but you can't look away!

So, to start my day with a nice fit of rage, I pulled up her blog, and these are the first few lines:

"Well, I am so glad to be back on my game! I fell TERRIBLY ill last week and only started to feel somewhat better yesterday. It was simply dreadful as NO medicine would work, but this made me realize how the people in Haiti and in any third world country must feel with no medicine. We are VERY blessed in the US!"

Right. So, having (presumably) a cold that doesn't go away with over the counter medicine for a whole week is EXACTLY the same as what the citizens of Haiti are going through right now? Really?

This chick needs a reality check!