Master Bedroom Phase II: Lighting

Our work in progress Master Bedroom Renovation.....

I am pretty complete with all of the bedding. I have the new duvet covers, new bed skirt, new sheets, and some new throw pillows. I still need pillow cases for our euro pillows and our King pillows. I am continued to search for those. However, this week I did manage to buy the new lighting we will be using in our new master.

I bought 2 of these beautiful turquoise lamps to go on our night stands. They are the perfect size for out small night stands and the turquoise totally pops next to the Duvet. I got each of these lamps from Target for $9.99!! How could I resist! The clear glass bottom reminds me of some of the uber expensive and beautiful lamps from Pottery Barn.

 (see the pretty turquoise in the duvet)

I also wanted a pretty lamp to go on the new dresser that I am refinished for our master. I am going with organic burlap shades and I found this owl candle at Kirklands and I had to have it! Not only do I LOVE owls, but I love that this one is two owls in Love. I picked up this lamp for $24.99, and I think it is going to look great!

We have a ceiling fan in our room and I would love to replace it with a beautiful chandelier but the hubs and I LOVE the fan, I have trouble sleeping without one, so for now that will stay the way that it is. Maybe one day we can get a fandelier!

I am also so excited about the dresser I bought to refinish. I have been searching Craigslist for months looking for the right one, and I was so excited when this one popped up and the seller was only 4 miles from our house! WIN!!! And it was only $25!! WIN!!! Here is how it looks right now

I love the legs and the fact that it has 9 drawers!! It is going to look so great refinished! Stay tuned to see how it turns out!

We still have a lot to do in the master, just trying to do a little at a time. Our To Do List

• Paint (pick out paint, and paint the room)
• curtains
• art work
• headboard
• finish the dress

The goal is to have it all complete by the end of February!!

Thanks for reading! :)

An Organized Linen Closet

Thanks to pinterest, my need to organize has only been increased, due to all the innovative and creative ways to organize your spaces. One area of the house that was screaming to be organized, was the linen closet. It wasn't the craziest, messiest closet in the world but it was lacking some structure. If you visit my Orgnaiztion board on pinterest you can see some of my inspiration for this project.

          Before      &      After



I had been searching for baskets or bins to use in my closet for a while now, but I wasn't willing to spend the asking price for the baskets and bins I was finding. It is pretty amazing how expensive pretty baskets/bins can be. Which is why, when Old Time Pottery had these baskets in their ad this week for $4.99 I jumped at the opportunity to go pick up a few. I bought 4 baskets and decided to use all 4 for a different purpose:

1. Our master bedroom sheets (this bin holds 3 sets of King bedroom sheets, impressive!)
2.  Guest room sheets
3. Misc. (stores mismatch pillow cases, and sheet sets that we use when we have company staying on an air mattress or in the man room)
4. Products (full of travel shampoos, conditioners, tooth paste, etc.)

I also used a trick I read about through pinterest. I use a pillow case from the set of sheets and store the sheets in the pillow case, so a set is always together.

I had an old basket lying around that use to store Zoe's toys, but she has since outgrown that basket, so I used that basket to hold all of our extra rolls of toilet paper. I also used a hanger to hang our extra Duvet blanket from the bottom shelf.

I created these lovely labels using my AWESOME cricut that I got for Christmas, and I love the way they came out. I thought it would be great to use clothes pins and hot glue them to the basket to hold the labels, this will make the labels very easy to change and reduce all the sticky residue that a sticker label would create.

It is still not the most gorgeous linen closet in the world, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. It looks so much cleaner and organized in stead of just sheets and towels over flowing. I would love to get rid of the wire shelving but it will totally work for now. I organized this closet for under $25 and that totally makes me happy and the hubs!

Thanks for reading! :)

White Chocolate Covered Oreo's

Over the holidays, the hubs and I hosted our inaugural tacky sweater party and I made some fancy treats to go along with it. I have seen Oreo pops all over the place, but I did not really feel like spending the time to carefully insert the sticks to create the pops. I needed something quick, easy, and few ingredients. So, I made my White Chocolate Covered Oreo's.  I am HUGE fan of white chocolate as you may be able to tell from my Dessert Kabob's, or my Garbage Candy so I decided to use white chocolate instead of regular ole chocolate. 

Please forgive me, but I did not take a lot of photo's. I was about halfway through when I realized I wasn't doing my job on taking photo's and all I had with me was my iPhone.

Ingredients:

White Choclate Bark 

Package of Oreo's ( I was making for 25 people, so I used 2 packages, 1 double stuffed, and 1 regular)

Sprinkles (something pretty to decorate with)

Oil (used to thin out the chocolate)

Directions:

Melt the white chocolate using a double boiler

Add a little oil to help thin out the chocolate so that it is easier to work with

Drop you Oreo into the melted chocolate and make sure it is covered

Scoop out and place on parchment paper for cooling

Add sprinkles while chocolate is still warm so that it holds well

After the batch is complete place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to harden

Serve and Enjoy!!

Total Time: 30 minutes

The white chocolate covered Oreo's were a huge hit and I was even able to box some up to send home with guests and box some up to bring to my parents. I think the double stuffed oreo's were better than the regular so if I make them again  I will definitely be using the double stuffed Oreo's.  It was a really awesome, easy, recipe that was cost effective, all under 10 dollars, and gave everybody a sweet treat or two, or three. 

Thanks for reading! :)

Master Bedroom Phase I: Bedding

I have written about my desire to create a dream master bedroom space for the hubs and I, and I am so excited that the dream is finally coming to fruition. The house has continued to grow and spaces have continued to transform into the spaces I have imagined but there has always been, the black hole, our master bedroom. We have never had a consistent theme or really any functional pieces. I have pretty much stripped the room of any decor that we did have to disperse through out the house because I was one day going to make over our bedroom.

I have been searching for something that inspired me, something that would serve as a jumping off point for the room. I was hoping that something inspiring would be bedding, because that is such a huge focal point and large space. I had fallen in love with a few patterns from Pottery Barn, but to be honest..the thought of spending 300 dollars on bedding, makes me sick. I know it is bedding and it is so important, but why can't I get it an affordable price!?! So frustrating.

This weekend in Hilton Head, I ventured over to Home Goods and I found my diamond in the ruff! I found this beautiful duvet set!!

 A King Duvet with 2 Shams on clearance for $35!!!

I absolutely LOVED the pattern and I as I scoured the store and found even more pieces to add to our "dream master bedroom", I knew I had to get it and everything else that was in our budget!

I found this awesome HUGE purple pillow on clearance for $14 and it totally pulls out the purple color in the duvet set! SCORE

 Just wait...it gets better! The hubs and I have been talking about finding a large dog bed for our pup Zoe for our bedroom, but without knowing what direction I was going in I didn't want to spend money on a bed for her that did not match our new room. I came across the most adorable bed I have seen and it had all the colors that I needed to match the new duvet and pillow. I had to get it and I am so glad I did...#1 becauseshe is one happy pup, and #2 because of the cute little birdies on it!

 I also was able to purchase a beautiful pillow top mattress pad and an awesome ivory bed skirt with a Christmas gift that I had returned to Kohls. So it looks like our room is finally starting to come together!

(duvet, pillow, and bed skirt)

There is still SO much to do, like paint, curtains, wall decor, create a headboard, dresser (either buy or refurbish one), lamps, and I am sure the list will only continue to grow! But I am very excited about out starting off point and I can't wait to share this journey with you! If you hold out a bit and wait, you really can find something beautiful and amazing and more importantly in your budget!!

Thanks for reading! :)

Hello 2012 and Mini Fruit Tarts

Welcome 2012!! Can you believe it?! It's already 2012 and we have already flown through the holidays! The hubs and I came home from our New Years trip to Hilton Head today, and I worked hard at taking down all of our Christmas decor! So sad.....I wish we could leave it up year round, but then I guess it wouldn't be as special! I wanted to share with you this awesome mini fruit tart recipe as well as some pictures from new years.

 

Did everyone have a good new years?! We had a blast, it was 65 and sunny on New Years eve and New Years Day! Absolutely gorgeous! We got to spend some quality time with my parents and a little time relaxing and spoiling our pup rotten.

New Years Eve Fun

                    

New Years Day at the Marina

We also had a great dinner one night, that was complimented with these amazing mini fruit tart's that my step mom and I created. They were so simple to make and so yummy!!

Ingredients:

 Key Lime Fruit Tart (we found this at Home Good's but you could use lemon curd)

Whipped Topping

Mini Ready Graham Cracker Pie Crusts

Blue Berries

Strawberries

**lemon curd can be found at your local grocer

Directions

• Mix equal parts curd or fruit tart mixture with whipped cream. This is done to take away some of the tart-ness and add more of a fluff to the filling.
• Wash fruit, and then slice strawberries
• fill pie cups with the tart and whipped cream mixture
• Top with fruit
• Sit in refrigerator for about 30 minutes

Check out these YUMMY treats

Don't they look heavenly? I will definitely be making these again, they were so simple. It took about 15 minutes to put together, and was very low cost.

Thanks for reading! :)