I have always wanted a chalkboard table but I thought that it was going to be a big project or that it would be impractical or expensive but when my roomate got a new kitchen table for our house I decided to take the plunge! And it was the easiest thing ever. I'm actually kind of upset I didn't do it sooner.
The entire project took about twenty minutes of work time and cost about ten dollars.
We bought two cans of Rustoleum spray paint, one red and one chalkboard and sprayed the table. We let it dry overnight and did a second coat of the chalkboard paint. That's it.
And guys, we love our table.
If you too want a chalkboard table, you should definitely do it! Just learn from our mistake and only use a wet cloth to clean it (not paper towels).
I'm kind of on a health kick. I'll admit that it probably won't last too long but I'm determined to make the most of it. Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day (and my favorite) I thought that would be a good place to start.
I'll bake in the morning but I'll only make pancakes or dutch babies or muffins. I can't convince myself to bake something healthy so early. So I decided to bake healthy muffins and stick them in the freezer so I can pop one in the microwave before I can eat something sugary.
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash salt
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
3 teaspoons raisins (you can add more I just don't love raisins)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (I couldn't resist)
1/2 cup pineapple
1 cup shredded carrots
1 banana
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 cup milk (I use coconut or soy milk)
1. Preheat oven to 400 and spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray.
2. Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt until there are no lumps.
3. Add oats, raisins, pineapple, carrots and banana. Stir until everything is coated with the flour mixture.
4. Add the egg, applesauce, and milk and stir until combined. The batter will be runny.
5. Put 1/3 cup of mixture into each muffin cup. Bake for 23 minutes or until golden.
6. If you want to freeze the muffins wait until they are completely cooled (otherwise they'll get mushy) and then put them in an airtight container and put that in the freezer!
And voila! You have healthy muffins to eat for the week! Enjoy!
After I moved into my new house, I found that I had a lot of empty wall space. I looked at oversized prints and posters but I wasn't happy with the idea of having so many on my walls. So, I started looking for other things to decorate with but I couldn't find anything I really liked. I decided to make something with dimension to add depth and interest.
I came up with a floral wall sculpture. Here's how it turned out!
If you like it, and you think you might want to make it, here's the how I did it!
Materials:
- 200 coffee filters
- 50 (+) styrofoam cups
(exactly how many depends on how big you want your sculpture)
- Water color paint
- A paint brush
- A hot glue gun & hot glue
- A hanging hook with adhesive
Start off hot gluing styrofoam cups together. You'll want to cut some of them down so that they're not all exactly the same height. Keep gluing them together until you get a shape you're happy with.
Once you've gotten the skeleton of the sculpture done, you're going to start making coffee filter flowers. This is the hard part. You're going to (very lightly!) paint all the coffee filters the color you want before you make them into flowers.
This is the flower-making method I used, but there are about a million different ways to do it. Find a way that works for you, because you're going to be making a lot of them!
After you've made a whole bunch of flowers, you're going to start hot gluing them onto the sculpture skeleton.
The best way is to put hot glue all around the top of the cup and to press the flower down on top. Once you have a few flowers glued down, it helps if you put a little glue on the surrounding flowers too. Then, just keep gluing flowers down.
When you're ready to hang your sculpture, hang the hook first. Then, push the sculpture onto the hook (you're going to make a hole in one of the cups).
And, that's it!
The whole sculpture costs about ten dollars to make and takes about five hours to finish. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the result!
This weekend I went on a road trip with my best friend to Gruene, Texas! We ate delicious pulled pork sandwiches, visited Texas' oldest dance hall and went to a whole bunch of antique shops.
We found these gigantic windchimes. Honestly, the picture doesn't even capture how enormous they are, they were probably five feet high.
The drive was gorgeous and we had so much fun exploring Gruene!
It's good to be back! I've survived finals week, moving and traveling home for the holidays! Hopefully things here can go back to normal, at least for a little while!
This weekend my parents and I went on a little road trip to see my sister in Virginia Beach. It was so lovely!
If you read regularly, you've probably noticed that I'm on a little bit of a braiding rampage. This time I experimented with Dutch braiding! This was kind of a fun one, and I got lots of compliments and questions and requests to re-create it!
As usual, I watched the tutorial by Luxy Hair (seriously, the best hair tutorials)...
Mine definitely didn't come out as perfectly as hers, but for a first attempt, I was pretty happy!
This is a great (and pretty easy!) style for holiday events! It's different and has a little personality and you'll have all the girls asking how you did it!
"Everyone had a Day One. A Day One of their first yoga class, a Day One
of their being single again, a Day One at their new job. No matter how
weird or self-conscious you feel, any type of Day One you are having,
other people have also had and gotten through. And after Day One,
usually comes a much easier, less worrisome Day Two."
“There’s no such thing as a creative type. I think people need to
be reminded that creativity is a verb; a very time-consuming verb. It’s
about taking an idea in your head and transforming that idea into
something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult
process. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel like work.”
Deep, dark lips has been one of the biggest trends on the runways and the red carpet as the weather has gotten cooler. It's definitely a bold statement look. But for all the pictures and posts I've seen about it, I have yet to see a dark lip in person!
I think there are two ways to pull this off. First, embrace the vamp-y side of the look and wear a kitten eye and blush. Second, go au-naturale except the lip. I'm leaning towards trying the second version. Would wear a dark lip?
Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it's officially time to begin holiday shopping! This is, of course, assuming you didn't brave Black Friday shopping this morning and cross everyone off your list!
If you're shopping for sisters, girl friends, aunts or any ladies in your life here are a few ideas!
1. Stationary ($7-$20)
Everyone needs stationary (especially after Christmas for writing thank you notes)! This one's from Anthropologie but you can also find some super cute ones on Etsy or Papyrus!
2. Love Letters of Great Men ($30)
These letters are so sweet and interesting! It's available on Amazon.
3. Striped Boatneck Tee ($10-$90)
This is the perfect shirt! I waited to buy one because I thought they'd be a passing trend, but it appears that it has some staying power. It's chic on its own or layered with a scarf or coat! You can find one at Lands' End, J.Crew or Old Navy.
I have some exciting news! I'm moving in just a few weeks! I'll be moving into a house and I'm so excited to have a kitchen and do a little bit of decorating!
I'm seriously considering making a pallet bed...
Has anyone done it? What do you think? Eeeek! I'm super excited!
The weather has finally turned here and I'm looking forward to wearing tights and ankle boots and lots of layers this weekend!
I have to (frantically) study Spanish this weekend, but I'm hoping to make a really yummy breakfast tomorrow morning! I've been craving breakfast sandwiches and cocoa all week! And if I can manage to squeeze it in, I've been planning a little art project for quite a while. More on that later!
