The weather was absolutely beautiful this weekend, and I took advantage of it by spending some time outside spray painting a new doormat for our front door.  Our old one was falling apart, and I haven’t been able to find any doormats in stores that I like so I figured I’d just make one myself.

This project was quick and easy, and I couldn’t be happier with the results.  I’ll never buy a ready made doormat again!

Materials

• Plain doormat (I got mine from Ikea for $10.  Can’t beat that!)
• One can of spray paint
• Painter’s/masking tape (I recommend using the light green Scotch masking tape for hard to stick surfaces)
• Pencil and ruler (depending on your desired design)

I was inspired by this rug that I saw from Serena & Lily.  The pattern is a combination of herringbone and chevron.  The best of both worlds…how can you go wrong with that?

I started by taping the horizontal lines across the rug, making sure to press the tape in firmly.

The rug was 35″ across so using a measuring tape, I penciled a mark every 5″ on all three pieces of tape.  Using the pencil marks as a guide to make sure everything was evenly spaced, I taped the diagonal sections off.

Again I made sure to press firmly on the tape to minimize the chances of any spray paint bleeding under.  Crisp lines are key!

For the spray paint, I decided to go with Rustoleum’s Night Tide.  This is the same color I used for the base of my fabric covered lampshade.  It’s a perfect peacock blue.

After shaking the can well, I stood over the doormat and sprayed down straight onto it (to minimize bleeding under the tape) in long even strokes.

About halfway through, I realized I’d need to do a second coat since the fibers were absorbing the paint pretty well.  I didn’t think it was necessary to let it dry between coats so I went ahead and finished the entire doormat.

After letting it sit for a few hours in the sun to dry thoroughly, I peeled back the tape and was happy to see that the lines were nice and crisp.

The pattern turned out just as I hoped it would.

It adds such a nice pop of color to the front porch, and it makes me just as happy to see it on my way out the door…

…as it does coming in.

Strider agrees.

By the way, for anyone wondering I’ve walked on it and wiped my shoes on it several times already and there hasn’t been any paint coming off onto the soles of my shoes at all.

I’ll definitely be spray painting another rug for the back patio door at some point in the future.  At less than $15 for a custom doormat, how could I not?

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Let’s talk about breakfast rolls.  I am probably the last person on earth who wants to get out of bed and put together some complicated breakfast recipe first thing in the morning.  If you’re like me, then you will love these breakfast rolls because they are 1) SUPER easy and quick to make and 2) only require a handful of ingredients.  Oh and 3) one of them involves Nutella and the other one involves cinnamon, sugar and butter.  I mean, what’s not to like?

First up are the Nutella rolls.

Ingredients (recipe adapted from Inspired by Charm)

• 1 can refrigerated biscuit dough
• 3/4-1 cup Nutella
• flour and sugar for rolling

Yields 8 rolls

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a muffin tin with baking spray.

Lightly flour and sugar your surface, and using a rolling pin, roll out each biscuit until it’s flat and even.

Spread 1-2 tablespoons of Nutella on each disc of dough.

Then tightly roll up each disc and cut into three sections.

Place the three pieces, cut side up into one section of the muffin tin.

Repeat for the remaining discs then bake for about 15 minutes.

For the purposes of promoting safe baking practices, you should let them cool about 5 minutes before popping them out of the muffin tins.  But I won’t blame you if you don’t.  (I didn’t.)

The original recipe calls for spreading cream cheese icing on these, but in my opinion they’re perfect alone.  The icing might take them over the sweetness ledge for me, however if that’s your cup of tea then go for it!

The biscuits are flaky and buttery and if you didn’t think Nutella on a spoon could get any better, just wait until you take a bite of these.  The best part is you can pull the sections apart for easy bite size pieces.

I’d recommend making two batches because the first 8 will be gone in minutes.  Not that I know from experience or anything.

Next up: Cinnamon Sugar Rolls!

Recipes

We’ve cooked a lot of yummy recipes that we’ll definitely be making again and will share some of them here in the near future.

Like these cute Christmas tree cake pops I made for the holidays…

and this artichoke soup…

and these chicken enchiladas…

and these banana fritters…

and these parmesan crusted calamari steaks with lemon caper sauce…

and this farfalle with pistachio cream sauce.

Guest Room

We painted the guest room in Valspar’s Filtered Shade.

I had some trouble deciding which rug to put in the freshened up space.  Ultimately I went with Genevieve Gorder’s Arabesque rug on the left.

We took out the bulky bed and added a sofa bed to turn it into a functional TV room when we don’t have house guests.

(pre wall art)

I then promptly changed my mind (big surprise) about the throw pillows and switched them out with these black and white ones.

Living Room

We painted our fireplace and re-tiled the hearth with slate in my beloved herringbone pattern.  Okay, more like Devin re-tiled the fireplace, but I directed.  I am super in love with it. (Details to come in a separate post.)

Last August we replaced the old mirror over the fireplace with a reclaimed wood one (sorry for the holiday decorations)…

then last week I fell in love with this antiqued glass gem mirror (on sale!) at West Elm.

Dining Room

We got a beautiful reclaimed wood farmhouse table for the dining room along with a new rug and Tolix marais chairs…

and I finally finally have a chandelier. (Separate before/after post to come.)

Office

I took some baby steps towards my office redux. I still need to paint my beloved campaign desk and dresser, but the filing cabinet looks great in there already.  Here’s a peek of a new print in the room.

Master Bedroom

Currently we’re concentrating on redecorating the Master Bedroom.  I’m really excited about the beautiful rug that will add a fun pop of color to the room.

Here’s a sneak peek of the new dresser and lamp.

So.  As you can see we’ve been busy.  I’m looking forward to sharing all the details of the above projects with you all!

Also, welcome to all of the new readers who have been popping over from Recipe by Photo.  I’m so happy you’ve all been enjoying my spinach artichoke bites .

(Photo credit:  Christine Caj)

We did it!  I’m officially a married woman.  I have a HUSBAND!!  Holy smokes it still feels so surreal every time I say that!  I’m still recovering from all of the wedding and honeymoon festivities, but in the meantime here are a few photos of our amazing day courtesy of my dearest friends Christine and Michelle.

(Photo credit:  MSH Photography)

(Photo credit:  MSH Photography)

(Photo credit:  MSH Photography)

(Photo credit: Christine Caj)

(Photo credit: Christine Caj)

(Photo credit:  MSH Photography)

Everything came together beautifully from the succulent centerpieces to our DIY bouquets and boutonnieres to the homemade favors…it was amazing to see my vision come to life.  I’m looking forward to sharing all of the details with you in the coming weeks as well as some work we’ve been doing around the house

Well, I worked on it .

I love it!  A couple weekends ago we went to Lamps Plus and looked at the fixture in person.  Not only did Devin end up liking it when he saw it, but it was on sale.  Score!  Not only that, there’s a matching longer one that we’ll be getting for the back of the house by the sliding door.

I like the simple clean Mission style and the rubbed bronze finish…and the clear seeded glass.

It hangs just far enough off the wall to be noticeable but not in the way.

In other news, yesterday marked the two month countdown to our wedding!  I can’t believe how fast time is flying.  You may have noticed that it’s been pretty quiet around these parts in the last few weeks.  That’s because I’m neck deep in wedding projects, but I can’t share any of them on this blog yet because I want our wedding guests to be seeing all of the details for the first time on the day of.  Fear not, I’ll be providing detailed posts on our wedding after I get back from the honeymoon .

To whet your appetite, here’s a sneak peek of the kraft paper tags I made with a custom stamp for our wedding invitations.

I’m really happy with how they turned out, and all of the guests have been loving them…I can’t wait ’til I can share them with you all in their entirety!

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Our old living room curtains weren’t particularly horrible in any way. (These photos were taken last fall, hence the pumpkins on the mantel.)

There was just nothing special about them.

The cream color was pretty blah, and Devin and I both agreed (surprisingly) that we needed curtains with more oomph to them.

Enter, Magnolia Home Fashions Java Ikat Fabric in Yacht Blue.  This is one of those patterns that you’ll either love or hate, given that it’s pretty bold.  But hey, go big or go home right?  Thankfully, we both loved it.

There’s really no set formula for making curtains since the measurements and rod pocket size are really up to you.

Have enough fabric to cover the length that you want your curtains to be plus additional length to allow for the top and bottom seams.  I wanted my curtains to be 89″ long.  I also wanted 3″ wide pockets for both the top and bottom.  Accounting for the first 1/2″ that I would have to fold over each end before folding over again for the 3″ pocket, that equated to: 89″ + 3.5″ + 3.5″ = 96″ length for each curtain panel.  For the width, the fabric I chose was 54″ wide and that ended up being just the right width per panel for our big front window.  (If you want your curtains wider than the width the fabric comes in, you’d have to sew two lengths of fabric together side by side, or conversely, if you want it narrower, just cut the fabric down to the width you prefer.)

As I mentioned above, it took me forever to get the measurements right.  It came in one super long piece that was enough for both panels so I had to cut it down to size, and then I had to make sure the cuts were STRAIGHT which was difficult given how wide the fabric was.  Lastly, since I wanted the pattern to flow continuously across when the two panels were closed, I had to make sure I cut each panel at the same point in the pattern.  I’m not even going to tell you how long it took me to do this.  It’s pretty embarrassing.  If any of you sewing pros out there have tips for measuring and cutting huge pieces of fabric, PLEASE bring them on!

Three days later (last night) I finally got to the sewing part.

First I did the side seams.  I folded the fabric over to the wrong side 1/2″, pressed, then over another 1/2″ and pressed again (you could do whatever width you prefer here, though I hear 1″ is the norm.)  I pinned this down every 4-6″, then I sewed a (fairly) straight stitch all the way down the length of each panel.  Then I repeated this with the other sides.

Next I did the top and bottom pockets.  Starting with the top end, I folded over 1/2″ to the wrong side of the fabric and pressed then folded over another 3″ and pressed.  I pinned this down too every few inches.

Then I sewed a straight stitch along the inner fold where I pinned, making sure to backstitch at the beginning and the end to secure it all in place.  When I was finished, the pocket looked like this.

Here’s a close up of the corner where I backstitched over the side seam.

Then it was time to hang them up. I took some photos last night right after we hung them so excuse the lighting.

How’s that for some oomph?  Notice, after all of my work, they’re STILL not perfectly straight..the ends of the bottom turn up a little.  No idea where I went wrong, but you know what?  I can live with it .  Also, the slight sag in the middle of the sheer curtain rod is due to the dogs sometimes stepping on the curtain when they look out the window.  We’ll be screwing that rod into the top of the window frame so it doesn’t sag anymore.

Here are the curtains during the day.

I love how that side of the room has such a big pop of color now.  Our next living room project is to paint the fireplace (again ha) to match the trim color which is Behr Ivory Mist.  The fireplace being a neutral color will give me more room to add more pops of color to the space and to the mantle.

I’m sort of super in love with them.

Turned up bottoms and all .

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Do you love it as much as I do?  To read about how I did it, please hop on over to Tiffany’s awesomely creative blog Living Savvy where I am guest posting today as part of her Spray Painter’s Anonymous series.

In other news, I’ve spent this week nursing a cold that I caught at the tale end of my bachelorette party in New Orleans last weekend.  It was well worth it, and I had an amazing time with my bridesmaids…but let me tell you…as I near my 30th birthday it’s painfully apparent that I’m getting too old for three day benders!  I’d love to hit up New Orleans again, but maybe with less drinking next time .

We rented a condo in the French Quarter right off of Bourbon street, and I HIGHLY recommend it.  It was much cheaper for our group of 6 than staying in a hotel plus we had an awesome balcony, beautiful digs and all of the amenities that come with a hotel combined with the comforts of home.  It was perfect!

My bridesmaids came up with a couple of games to keep me on my toes.  They had Devin answer a bunch of questions about me prior to the trip (sneaky!) and I had to guess how he answered them.  If I got it right, they all took a shot…if I got it wrong, I took a shot.  I still came out winning in the end, but let’s just say I drank more than I expected to .  The second game was to find other people named Devin in New Orleans.  1 point if it was a girl, 2 points if it was a guy, 3 points if it was spelled the same way with an “i” and 4 points if it was a “hot” Devin.  Wouldn’t you know, the doorman at Pat O’Briens our first night out was named Devin…AND he even let me keep his name tag!  Best souvenir ever…and I won that game

Add to that a great jazz show at Preservation Hall, private walking tour of the quarter, a rum distillery tour, shopping in the French Market, taking the streetcar to the Garden District and Lafayette Cemetery….

…mix in some adult beverages at Pat O’Brien’s, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, French 75 and Coquette…

…plus dancing and all around revelry on Bourbon Street and Frenchman Street…

…and THEN top it off with all of the delicious food we ate at Cafe Du Monde, NOLA, Johnny’s Po-Boys and Cochon among others…

…and you get a pretty amazing weekend with the best Maid of Honor (my sister) and bridesmaids a bride could ever ask for.

I’ll leave it to Instagram to sum it up in photos for y’all .

I always assumed that butterflying a chicken was one of those things that “fancy” chefs do.  Until I saw this recipe on Food Network one morning and it looked SO good that I just had to try it.  As it turns out, butterflying a chicken isn’t so difficult.  If I can do it, anyone can do it.

How to Butterfly a Chicken

1. Place chicken on a flat surface, breast side down with the drumsticks pointing towards you.
2. Using kitchen shears, cut along either side of the backbone and remove completely (you will hear a crunching sound as you cut through the ribs).
3. Use a sharp knife to make an incision down the center of the gristle or cartilage running down the breast bone in the now open cavity of the chicken.
4. Turn chicken over and using the palm of your hand, press down on the center of the breast until you hear a crack and the chicken lays flat.

Not so hard right?

This chicken is DELICIOUS.  The meat is moist and juicy, and the sweet tangy glaze in particular is finger licking good.  Seriously, this stuff should be bottled.   I’m not exaggerating one bit.  In fact, next time I’ll be doubling, maybe even tripling the glaze recipe so that there’s extra to go around.   The Tater and Asparagus Toss goes perfectly with it and can easily be made while the chicken is roasting in the oven.

Sweet Glazed Butterflied Chicken (recipe from Sunny Anderson)

• 1 (5 pound) whole chicken, butterflied
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 3 TBSP butter
• 2 TBSP onion, grated (I used a microplane zester)
• 2 cloves garlic, grated
• 1/8 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 TBSP stone ground mustard
• 1/4 tsp hot sauce
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Allow to rest on the counter for up to 2 hours to come to room temperature.

Heat a large cast iron skillet (or other oven safe pan) over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Just as the oil begins to smoke, add the chicken, skin side down. Press gently while cooking and sear until skin is golden brown, about 10 minutes. Flip the bird over so that the skin is on top, place the pan in the oven and roast about 30 minutes.

While the chicken is roasting you can make the finger licking good sweet glaze.  Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat.  Add the onions, garlic and allspice, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Sweat the onions for a few minutes, but do not brown. Add the brown sugar, mustard, hot sauce and vinegar. Cook a few more minutes to bring the flavors together, then remove from the heat.

Remove the chicken from the oven and brush on the glaze.  Don’t be stingy and make sure you get that deliciousness in every nook and cranny.  Return to the oven and continue to cook until an instant-read thermometer reads 165 degrees F, about 15 more minutes. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving and try not to drool all over it.

Tater and Asparagus Toss (recipe adapted from Sunny Anderson)

• 2 strips bacon, chopped
• 2 TBSP butter
• 4 yellow potatoes, thinly sliced
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
• grated zest of 1 lemon

In a large pan over medium high heat, cook bacon until crisp.  Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.  Add butter to the remaining bacon fat and add the potato slices.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook until crisp on one side, then toss and cook on the other side until crispy.  Add the onions, garlic, scallions and asparagus.  Cool until the asparagus are bright green and tender, yet still crunchy, about 3-5 minutes.  Season with salt to taste, and sprinkle with lemon juice and lemon zest.  Toss in the reserved bacon.

 

 

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I’ve finally taken some photos of the house exterior, though it’s not quite done and won’t be for some time.  Because “done” to me means:

1. Spray painting the door hardware
2. Choosing a new light fixture for the front porch
3. Building a wooden railing and banister for the front porch
4. Get a new front door
5. Get a new roof

Those are in order of “most likely to happen fairly soon” to “maybe once our unborn child goes to college.”  As many of you homeowners may know, getting a new roof ain’t cheap.  We’re not talking about adding another layer of shingles on top of what’s already there.  We’re talking rip the whole enchilada out and start afresh.  The roof doesn’t leak (thankfully) so it’s not the greatest sense of urgency.  Though it’s become much more obvious now that the rest of the house looks nice and refreshed that the roof is pretty sad.  Whenever we do take the plunge, we’ll replace the brown shingles with some crisp dark gray ones.

Here’s the house before. (This was also before we put the front island in.)

I don’t even know what you’d call that color.  Pale pink?  Blush?  Whatever you call it, it was pretty BLAH.

Now, Devin and I have been talking about painting the house for the last three years.  It’s taken us THAT LONG to agree on a color.  Hey, don’t look at me.  Look at my fiance aka THE MOST INDECISIVE MAN IN THE HISTORY OF THE KNOWN UNIVERSE.  We’d settle on a color, then he’d be all “Eh, I don’t know about that one anymore…it’s too brown/gray/blue/green/light/dark, let’s go look at more paint colors.”  Repeat eleventy hundred times.

We finally settled on Behr’s Fashion Gray for the walls, Graceful Gray for the accent and Gallery White for the trim around the windows and doors. The shutters and front door are Myth, also by Behr.

What do you think?

I love the blue of the shutters we made against the new wall color.  They look so much better than the old white louvered ones.

You can see that we also tore out the wrought iron railing that used to be on the porch, which as mentioned above we’ll be replacing with a wood railing soon eventually.

We debated for days about whether the window and door trim should be the Gallery White or the Graceful Gray like the peak and the garage door.  My vote was for white, Devin’s was for the gray.  I knew I was right, but let him have his way and we had the trim painted the lighter gray.  After which, he decided it was too much gray and not enough contrast (as I knew it would be), so then we had it painted over again with the white.

I’m not going to say “I told him so”…

…but I did.

By the way, that little sliver in the front curtain in all of the photos would be Echo trying to see what was going on outside WITHOUT HER HOW DARE I.

I neglected to take a before photo of the front door, but it was a light cedar wood.  I HATE the carved detailing in the center and wanted to fill it in with wood filler, but everyone warned us that it would still show through so I settled on just painting it for now.  Eventually I’d love to get a nice craftsman style door with maybe some windows across the top.

As you’ll see, no light fixture yet since we haven’t decided on one.  I like one on Lamps Plus, but I’m still trying to sell Devin on it because he doesn’t like that the glass is clear.  Give me a little bit of time .

I also need to brighten up the porch with a couple accessories and need to spray the hardware with some oil-rubbed bronze (which is why the knocker is already removed).  I think it’ll really make it pop against the blue.

The copper rain chain was a gift from Devin’s dad and stepmom.

We’re pretty happy with the results.  Even Mr. Indecisive now comments every time we come home that “the house looks nice.”  Hallelujah.

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I haven’t talked much about my dogs yet on this blog, which is surprising to me since I talk about them to basically everyone else in the universe.  I love them to bits and pieces, and we rarely go anywhere without them.  Thankfully the bay area is a very dog friendly place…in fact I heard somewhere that it is one of the most dog friendly areas in the country.  Dog parks, off leash beaches and dog friendly trails abound.

This is Strider, our five year old black lab.

He’s pretty much the handsomest, gentlest, most loving and awesomest dog in the known universe.

Maybe I’m a little biased in saying that, but so does everyone else who meets him.  I adopted him when he was four months old, and he’s been at my side ever since.

I joke with Devin that he fell in love with my dog before he fell in love with me.  (But it’s true.)

Who can blame him?

Last year we decided that Strider needed some company.  (Though if you ask him, Strider may or may not disagree with that fact.)

So that’s when we brought home Echo, our now one year old chocolate lab.  This was the day we brought her home.

I KNOW.  Those sad puppy eyes.  They slayed me.  And THIS…

…and THIS…

Don’t let these cute puppy photos fool you though.  She’s a wild child.  This girl is full of sass and personality and she pretty much drove us batshit crazy her first few months with us.  Just ask Strider.  He pretends sometimes like he can’t stand the sight of her, but secretly, I know he loves her.

She’s come to fit into our little family just perfectly, and I can’t imagine life without her.  She LOOOOVES her big brother and tries to be just like him.

I call her his “mini me.”

This is Echo now at over a year old.

Have you had enough of the dog pictures yet?  Because I have thousands more!  Just ask!  Haha…

Anyway, all of this preface is to say, our dogs are a big part of our lives.  I’ve been slowly gathering bits and pieces for the office redux, but have yet to settle on any art for the walls.  I decided that the dogs needed to be represented in the new office, so this past weekend I created some silhouettes of them.

Supplies

• Canvas (I used 12″ x 12″)
• Contact paper
• Profile photo of subject
• Acrylic paint (I used Americana Deep Midnight Blue and Titanium White)
• Foam brush
• Fine paint brush for touch ups
• Scissors
• Pen/pencil

The hardest part of this project was getting good profile shots of the dogs.  Correction…getting a good profile shot of Echo.  Strider was easy, like he always is.  “What ma?  You need a profile pic?  Okay how about this?”

Echo on the other hand gets spazzy the minute I grab the camera.  Which is why you may have noticed that in almost all of her photos, she’s asleep.  Ha.

I finally got it by yelling out “Echo look!  What’s that?!” and pointing out the front window.  She probably thought it was a visitor or a cat or something so she went all on the alert.

A little mean, I know…but I gave her a treat afterwards .  (Also please divert your eyes away from the tangled mess of cables behind her.  We need to take some zip ties to them.)

The first thing I did was to paint my canvases with the background color.  This is the color that you want your silhouette to be.  I did one white and one in dark blue.  I found that squirting some paint directly onto the canvas and spreading it out with a foam brush worked fine for me.  (Hey, I never said I was a professional painter!)

While the canvases were drying, I resized the photos in Photoshop to fit my 12″ x 12″ canvases, printed them up, then carefully cut them out.

Next I turned the cutout face down onto the back of my contact paper and traced around it.

After cutting the silhouette out, I peeled the backing off and positioned it onto my canvas, pressing outward firmly to flatten out any bubbles.

Then I painted over the whole canvas with my top color starting from on top of the cutout and working my way out to the canvas.

I let the first coat dry, then put another coat on for good measure.

Next, I carefully peeled the contact paper off, pulling straight up from the canvas.

It looks pretty good, but the edges were a little rough, so I went in with a fine tipped brush to touch it up.

I repeated the same steps with Echo’s silhouette in opposing colors, and voila!

I think I may touch up around the edges of Strider’s canvas with more blue, but overall I’m happy with the result and I think they’ll add a nice touch to the new office .

I’ll wrap up with one more gratuitous dog shot for good measure.

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