Snickers Cupcakes and STDs

Last night A couple months ago {oops, just finishing the post...}Rick and I had C+A over to hang out and work on their Save The Dates {thus the STDs..get it? haha} for their upcoming wedding. Of course we couldn't have people over and me not make a dessert - that would be like...me liking the Steelers. Never gonna happen.

Sooooo I'd love to say that I slaved away on these CC's but that would be a lie. These are the definition of 'doctored' cakes. Easy peasy. They love snickers so I did a chocolate cake with a frozen snicker bar in the middle {keeps it from melting while it bakes}, crushed snickers on top and a drizzle of caramel. Seriously so easy and yummy.

And while I love any excuse to bake, the focus of the evening was not on my fab baking skills. No tonight the focus was on my fab DIY-ing skills. haha I kid. {kinda}. For real, I do enjoy making paper products so I was excited to design these for 2 of my most-favoritest peeps. The wedding has a pride and prejudice feeling and they LOVE books so we wanted the STDs to evoke the same idea. C and I hit the scrapbooking stores and scored some vintagey paper.

We were originally going to make them look like library cards in little pockets but decided to not go as literal and just place the insets in our DIY pocket. Yes, we made a pocket on each card. We lucked out on some of the paper and only had to do some folding {like this one that has a fab front and back}

but we weren't so lucky on all of them. These only had one side that we liked. So we made the pocket out of regular cardstock and then trimmed a patterned piece to line the top and create a belly band. These took quite a while to do. But totally worth it. 

 {doesn't this pattern remind you of the inside of an old book?}

They really did turn out beautifully. But I'm glad we're not DIY-ing the actual invites, too :)

Which one is your favorite? 

Mine's the first one, the grey-ish floral swirly one. That's the official description of the paper. :)

No Sew DIY Pillow

That kinda rhymes, huh?

No Sew,

DIY Pillow.

::i kill myself::

anywho, remember my new fabulous pillows? 

I thought I'd share how they came about. Cause this is what I do on Sunday afternoons after hubs works for almost 2 days straight....

Materials:

• old pillow or pillow form
• fabric 
• iron-on adhesive 
• pins
• scissors 
• iron(s) * keep reading it will make sense...

So before I started this I had no clue how I was going to put them together. My mom kept asking me if I was for real going to make my own covers like, for real. And I said 'yup, sure am. Don't know how but I will!' Mom's an interior designer and has her workroom to deal with such silly things. She kept telling me to use her people but what can I say? I love a challenge. And proving her wrong. hehe. 

OK let's do this!

1. Get a glass of wine 

1. Lay out the fabric and stare at it confidently. 

2. Continue to stare until you get an idea on how to move forward...

3. Keep staring...

4. Cut the fabric so it can be folded over your pillow

5. Resume staring...

6. Finally realize you'll need to at least hem the unfinished sides before you really get started. Damn. 

7. Fold over raw edges and pin them down {this was a pain in the ass}

8. Fold over the edges and iron on the adhesive to close the edges

9. Remove the back of the adhesive to expose the sticky side

10. Realize if you fold the sides in you can make a pocket! YES! So fold both sides in and iron over the adhesive strips to make it stick.

11. Fold the bottom half of the fabric up to form the pocket that you can slide the pillow in! Yessssss!

12. Fold the top over and tuck it into your pocket

14.  Add adhesive strips where the side seams meet and use the iron to close them up!

What? The iron won't let you get that close? Yes, I had that problem as well. 

But I'm a genius and figured out that my flat iron would be perfect for this part. 

and it was:

Booya. You've got a covered pillow. 

15. Smile smug-ly at your mama. That's right, I figured it out all.by.myself. 

16. Hang your head in shame when you realize you made a mess out of your kitchen. :::sigh::::

It's totally safe, mom. What are you talking about???

Living Room {DIY} Makeover!

Confession: I cannot stand my living room. Like it bothers me on a day-to-day basis and I'm not really sure why. It felt cold and just, unfriendly.

Sure it has come a faaaar way from when we first moved in...

{You can read more about that remodel here} 

 and here's where we've been for about 2 years now

but with these pillows and black storage ottoman. 

{sorry, best pic I had!}

and I've haaaated it pretty much since we remodeled it. I desperately wanted to paint the walls and get a new rug. Hubs refused to paint {he's completely in love with the color. It's tropical nut. He still remembers the name. Nevermind that he can't remember anything I say...}

BUT I did win the rug debate so mom and I went off to find a new rug and we ended up redecorating the whole room. Mom's a former interior designer so that helps.

and here we are:

I love it. 

and the best part? The whole redo cost me around $150 which includes the $70 rug. Gotta love that!

You see those pillows? Aren't they uber fab? Yeah, I made those! The black/white pattern and the solid gold covers are made from curtains and the smaller blue ones are valances. 

BTW, I cannot sew. Not will not but can not. Me + needles does not equal anything good. So I covered these by using the adhesive strips that you iron on. Easy peasy. and they're exactly what I wanted. Plus I get to say 'oh yeah, I made those'. Sa-weet!

Here's some other shots from around the room.

{the large picture is of and signed by, Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. It's very cool}

{this is just scrap booking paper. score!}

{pic of me and hubs at our senior prom, pic of me and seister when were little}

That lamp is a $3 find from the thrift store. I didn't think it would work but mom instisted. 

So glad she did...

Since we did this last Friday I've re-painted all of the kitchen trim and did a little accent wall with a chevron pattern. I've been a busy bee over here!

I finally don't hate my living room. 

Amazing.

Living Room Remodel

Meet our living room before...

And After: {sorry about those spots on the lens!}

Basically there was this huge panty in the kitchen that jutted into the middle of the living room...it was ridiculous and pointless. Not things I enjoy in a house! {see jut below. Oh and meet hubs! My other half and the main reason why I'm lovin' life}

 

Soooo we knocked it out...

and created a pass through between the living room and kitchen:

added a new paint color...

and some travertine tiles...

which made a new 'bar' that hubs eats most of his dinners at!

All in all I think it took about a month to do everything. As we've found many time since, being an old house the more we tore into the more we had to do. The electric wasn't wired correctly, the load baring wall was about to drop the load it was supposed to be baring {thus that box-like structure on the ceiling as seen above} and on and on. 

BUT it completely opened up the house and allowed us the room to finally get a new couch. {That you can typically find our niece and nephew curled up on!}

Since this picture we're added an ottoman in the center and added pops of orange for a little color. Sounds weird, I know, I'll post pics to show you that red, tan and orange can work in harmony!

Thanks to hubs and friends for working so hard!!

My Dirty Little Secret...

So I lured you back today, huh?

First,  you should know that I am kind of a neat freak. I hate things being out of place. I like organization and never leave things around the house. It actually drives Hubs crazy because I am constantly telling him to pick things up. I mean, there's no reason to put a dish in the sink when the dishwasher is right next to it. Drives. me. crazy.

OK now that you know that, here we go - as promised,  here's my dirty little secret....

This

is

my

closet......

Our house is a little cape cod with itty-bitty closets. Being that I'm a shopaholic Rick built me a large closet in one of the rooms upstairs. I love it because I can have all my clothes out all the time, no more switching items out with the change of the season. Buuuuut since I don't actually stay up there I tend to allow things to pile up and get a little messy....ok more like way messy.

And here's the money shot....

OH MY GOSH! HOW DID IT GET THAT MESSY??? I'm so embarrassed. Like for real embarrassed. And that's not even the worse of it....here's the 'storage' area...

and the guest bedroom...

 Can you believe that? What an effin' mess!! So I spent the past few days cleaning everything out and I can now stay up there for more than 10 minutes.

I went through all my clothes and tried on every single thing that I own. If it didn't fit it went into 1 of 3 piles - 1. donate 2. consignment shop or 3. trash. I can't tell you how great it is to know that everything in your closet fits. It's making it much easier to get dressed in the morning!

So here's what upstairs looks like now. I feel much better about it. Now if only I could get Hubs to listen to me and let me paint all the wood. I can't stand the wood!! He says "do you know how much people pay for cedar closets?" I say - "I don't care. I want to paint it white". It's an ongoing battle. Would you paint it? I think it would make it so much brighter and modern. Humph.

Yes, the rug is too small...I need to buy a new one...

 I have a thing for shoes...ya think?!

The storage area now:

and the guest room...

 My favorite thing is my curtain. Like the damask trim on it?

Want to know what it is? OK OK I'll tell you...it is..{wait for it, wait for it}...TAPE! Yes, TAPE! It's one of the pattern tapes - all I did was run it along the side and bottom of the white curtain. I got mine at Ballard Designs but you can get them several different places. How sweet is that?! A DIY project I can excel at! No sewing necessary. Loooooooove it! 

And now I'm on a hiatus from cleaning.....