updated mantel - moss edition

One time I read that Ashley Olsen's favorite flower/plant was moss, and I totally understand now. It has taken over the house this year.

Here's a little vignette I'm adoring right now... Most of these supplies are from Hobby Lobby, (thanks to Blake's Mimi - for my birthday I received a gift card, and it's been supplying me with things to do for a whole month now!)

I painted that box (from HL) picked up that metal stand (from HL) and purchased that glass bowl (from HL) for my first and very beginner terrarium.

Succulent from Home Depot.

Moss in mason jars - what could be better??

maybe, moss in a glass hurricane, plus candle?? oh, it's getting out of hand.

I've had that poster "Theatre du Chat Noir" since college, for some reason I can't get rid of it. It's black and I don't have black anywhere in the house, but I just like it so much! good purchase college Lauren!

simple spring wreath

I'm probably a little early for spring decorating, but I think this addition is OK. Ever since the winter wreath came down, the door/porch has been seeming a little lack luster.

I started with bag of moss - half off a hobby lobby right now!!

then, a craft wood letter "J" painted with the 87 cent Acrylic white paint

start hot glueing moss to a styrofoam loop. (this is SUPER messy - maybe do outside if you can)

I've been a little too into MOSS this month (see next post, also). It is just so easy and earthy.

(side note - I cannot WAIT until we own a house. I cannot tell you how hard it is to deal with rust red and olive green every day. Sometimes I like to picture this porch stuff on a long, dark stained, reclaimed wood porch with a big bright white door and huge windows, maybe a swing next to our adirondack chairs - where there's no red or green to be seen! and no off-centered windows on the door, either!)

until then...

DIY: mock Anthro necklace

I have actually never dished out the Benji's (ok, maybe not Benji's - maybe Hami's) for the coveted Anthropologie necklace, the Urban knock-off is the closest I've gotten. It just doesn't seem right to spend that much money on one of those - especially when I found out I can make one, almost identical, for less than 5 bucks!

Crystals, gold chain (so thug), connecting hoops, and nail polish. Everything from Hobby Lobby minus the nail polish I already owned.

It's so fun being able to say I made this for less than 5 bucks, I wore it out last night and loved every second of it!

PS. that "I found out" link has the tutorial

crockpot - cooking or not?

no ones knows... it seems impossible with how easy it is. You're literally doing nothing and then 8 hours later, delicious meals... I don't get it, but I love it.

I get these serious cravings sometimes, and recently I've learned this isn't exactly normal for non-pregnant people. Last week it was fried mushrooms. This week it was chicken tacos. Found some crockpot recipes online, and with all the different ways comin' at me, I decided to choose the best (read "easiest") and start my "cooking"

3 hardy chicken breasts pieces

one cup of chicken broth

one package of taco seasoning

Didn't even mix it up - just threw it in there and after work, 8 hours later, it was TACOOOOOO TIMEEEEE.

See all that junk on top? Delicious mixture of white corn, black beans, cilantro, tomato, green pepper, avocado, onion all chopped up (no measuring over here, just use as much or little as you want) mix in some lime juice and garlic salt and there you have BLACK BEAN CORN SALSA.

mmmmm... I've never been so excited for leftovers.

also, look at these:

DIY weekend; part three

New seat cushions on our dining chairs. It's been decided that the curtains in this home need an upgrade, so, with that, I had some extra fabric on my hands. I bought this fabric a while back and still get weak in the knees when I see it. It's navy, number one, and it's a graphic herringbone pattern, number two. I didn't mind the cushions that came with them when I bought them off of craigslist, but I always knew there would be a bright new future for these chairs, some day.

From the terrible iphone pictures, it doesn't look like that big of a change, but to me, it's made such the difference (I also got to add some batting to the seats, which make them so much more enjoyable on the tush while eating dinner).

and that's the end to my DIY weekend, hopefully I can cross the last three off my list next weekend!

DIY weekend; part two

Over Thanksgiving weekend I received a coal scuttle from my family. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what a coal scuttle was, but they had heard that I was into antique-y things and re-finishing pieces of furniture, so I knew this had to be good. I got it out of the back of my Aunt Annette's car and the ideas immediately starting flowing. First - what color will I paint this? Second - what can I use this for since we don't really have an immense need to scuttle coal anymore with our gas fireplaces and such.

I knew I wanted it to be near the fireplace just because it looked like it belonged there.... I knew, next to our brick fireplace that the color needed to be bright. I know white isn't the most thrilling choice out of the entire ROYGBIV, but for this project it worked and I kind of love it.

I painted it white on the outside in gloss, and coated the inside with a hammered metal paint. I'm really diggin' the contrast. With some left over potting soil from this summer, I loaded the scuttle up. I had an extra plant in the kitchen that didn't get much lovin', so I thought a transplant would work. It's so nice to admire in our living room now.

DIY weekend; part one

This 3-day weekend had my name written all over it. I had about 6 things on my to-do list, but only got to three. 50% not too shabby!

No. 1 being the rug in the guest room/blake's study. It was yellow and cheery since we've moved in, but something inside of me was never completely satisfied with it. Maybe because it looked almost exactly like the one under our bed? So, I took some advice from some online tutorials on how to paint a rug, flipped over my yellow one, and went at it.

Supplies: Paint medium that makes acrylic paint turn into fabric paint. 3 bottles of Anita's charcoal grey, painter's tape and a sponge brush.

First, I laid down my design - stripes. I kinda have this thing for anything striped. Then I mixed my medium and paint in an old tuperware and just started painting. super easy, kind of time consuming, but, maybe the biggest perk, the whole project cost about $5 dollars! easy easy little fix.

Here's the new and improved guest bedroom rug....

weekend outings

frisbee golf, or was it disc golf? either way it was a new adventure for me, and I'll admit, it was really fun (I have some reservations/nightmares when it comes to frisbees, I guess you could trace it back to the beginning of college when I first met Blake and he threw a frisbee at me and gave me a black eye - hard to move past something like that).

Mitchells + Johnsons = one fun time.

my disc had a viper on it. If you couldn't tell from my most venomous fang looking smile + hand signal...

Man/Disc down. The water doesn't look that bad from my little Hipstamatic print, but trust me, it was nastaaay. Chris went swimmin' for it, and successfully pulled it back to land!

You meet some interesting people at the disc golf course. Some folks came with back packs FULL of like 30 different discs. One day I'll get to that point, I can only hope..

restore to me, lord.

Restore to me, the joy of my salvation. Gosh, how easily I forget that my Lord Christ loves me. He cherishes me and actually delights in me. I hope that this year it becomes unwaveringly hard to forget the love that Christ has for me. First, He sees me. He sees me for every secret, every thought, every anything that I've done and still yearns for me. Second, He came down to earth to serve me. He came from his perfect shalom to this earth to love and serve and teach us. Why doesn't that weigh heavier on my heart? I am a delight. Whenever I find myself weary, I pray that Christ's love for me becomes so evident it's impossible to ignore. I pray that I find myself, more often, running full speed arms open towards Him, rejoicing and delighting in Him, too.

west elm wishlist

all photos taken from West Elm's website.