Sneak Peek

Right now we have several items in our garage that we are working on for the booth. I thought I would show you some before pictures to give you a sneak peek of things to come in the booth.

First we have a dresser that we found on Craig's List. We had to peel some paint off of it and sand it. We did that and this a picture of it disassembled. We are going to paint it because it smells like smoke so bad and the paint isn't in good condition. Then we will put new hardware on it. Depending on what we paint the dresser, we may paint the hardware that we got (from ebay) as well.

The second item we have is a buffet or dresser. We got this at Goodwill! We are going to paint it and replace the hardware as well (because we are not digging those blue painted knobs).

Lastly, I scored another side table from Craig's List. We are debating whether or not to just paint it teal (because that seems to work) or do a teal and white chevron pattern. What do you guys think?

Look for these pieces to be finished and posted in the coming weeks!

Cheese Please

Normally I love to bake and hate to cook. But with fall rolling around I have found myself falling in love with a certain item that I have to cook: potatoes au gratin. The other day I wanted them with dinner and Kyle (the usual chef at our house) groaned when I showed him the recipe. So I offered to make them. And boy did my hard work pay off, in the cheesy variety.

I used this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. The recipe is copied below with some of my modifications.

I usually cut the recipe in half since I am only feeding two people. Even cutting it in half, we always have leftovers the next day. We just heat the leftovers up in a pan and they are just as delicious!

Ingredients

• 4 whole Russet Potatoes, Scrubbed Clean
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
• 1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream
• 1/2 cup Whole Milk - If you don't have whole milk you can use what you have and just add more flour
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 4 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
• 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Freshly Grated
• I also like to add Basil since we have some fresh Basil we grew this summer

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Smear softened butter all over the bottom of a baking dish. -Since I cut the recipe in half I use a loaf pan
Slice potatoes, then cut slices into fourths.
In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, flour, minced garlic, salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
Place 1/3 of the potatoes in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour 1/3 of the cream mixture over the potatoes.
Repeat this two more times, ending with the cream mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown and really bubbling. Add grated cheese to the top of the potatoes and bake for 3 to 5 more minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Allow to stand for a few minutes before serving by the spoonful. Delicious!

Here is ours:

It seriously tastes like a warm hug, which is perfect for a crisp fall day, if you ask me. Enjoy!

The Mr. & Mrs.

Today I have another wedding DIY to share with you! I'm trying to get wedding DIYs done as I have time now so that I don't feel super stressed out closer to the wedding.

This time I made signs for the back of Kyle and I's chairs. I knew I wanted to make Mr. and Mrs. signs, but I am also very excited about the first letter of my new last name: L. For years I have been stuck with a boring R as the first letter of my last name. I am pretty stoked to be able to sign a swoopy L as the first letter of my last name. My mom's first name starts with an L and I have been jealous of her swoopy L since I was a kid. So I knew I was totally doing Mr. and Mrs. L. There was no doubt that the swoopy L celebration would start with our wedding.

Even though you now think I'm crazy for my love of the swoopy L, there is someone who took it far more seriously than I did, Laverne from Laverne and Shirley. And she was the fun one!

I thought the easiest way to make the letters would be to use cardboard. One day when Kyle was about to throw away our Ginger Ale container I said "Noooooooooo. I need that for a project." Yes, I have become one of those crazy craft ladies who won't let her fiance throw away anything because she needs it for a craft project. So enough about that, here is the tutorial.

What You'll Need:

3 Cardboard boxes (soda or beer box works great)
Pencil
Scissors
Hole punch
Glitter or paint
Ribbon

Steps:
1. Dismantle the cardboard boxes
2. Write the letters on the boxes and cut them out
3. Put two hole punches on each letter (for the ribbon)
4. Paint or glitter them
5. String the ribbon through

Here's the after picture:

It's a simple and cute DIY that will let me celebrate my new title (and swoopy L of course)!

Deep blue chair

The past couple of weeks have been crazy! Don't get me wrong, I loved having Labor Day off. But every time I have a day off, I feel like I end up paying for it and trying to catch up. So between grad school and work, I haven't had much time to work on projects this week.

I did have time to work on one small project though. A while back Kyle and I bought a pack of retro school chairs. Four of them were an awesome orange color we loved, but two were a tan color. The tan color would have been fine, but they showed some wear. So I decided I wanted to paint them royal blue. I used oil-based paint so it would hold up. Kyle didn't like the idea at first, but when I started painting he admitted that it was a great idea.

Here is the before picture:

Here is a picture of me painting the chair. This really lets you see how much the blue makes the chair pop compared to the drab brown color.

And here are the after pictures:

I am really happy with how it turned out. And we have another brown chair that I now know I am going to do the same thing with!