Cookie Bites and Ottoman Covers, Oh My!

I posted this picture on Instagram recently, and a number of people asked me what exactly it was and if they could have the recipe.

I figured it would be easiest to share the recipe here, so here ya go!

Cookie Dough Pretzel Bites*

1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
pretzels
8 oz. chocolate chips (about 1 c.)
1 tsp. coconut oil or shortening (for thinning the chocolate)

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together on medium speed until light and creamy.  Add the milk and vanilla.  Mix.  Add the flour and salt all at once and slowly mix until everything is moist.  Add the mini chocolate chips and mix.

3. Roll the dough into balls, about 1 1/2-2 tsp. of dough per sandwich, depending on desired cookie size.  Sandwich balls between two pretzels and place on baking sheet.  Freeze for 20 mins.

4.  While the pretzel bites are chilling, melt the chocolate and the coconut oil or shortening in microwave for about 1 minute, stopping to stir every 20 seconds.  Dip the pretzel bites halfway into the melted chocolate and place back on the baking sheet.  Refrigerate the dipped bites for at least 15 minutes to allow the chocolate to set.  Cover and store pretzel bites in the fridge for up to five days.

*recipe found under my "Sweet Treats" Pinterest board.

It's an added bonus that this recipe is egg-free, which allows Wade to enjoy them!  And enjoy them he did.  I can't say that I blame him; they are quite tasty.

Switching gears, I just have to share a fun little project I just completed.  Remember when I shared pictures of our entryway last year?

I'd always planned to come up with some sort of slipcover for those ottomans because I knew that some fresh fabric could go a long way with their nice shape.  (I was originally inspired by what Emily A. Clark did with a similar pair of ottomans.) I finally did it, and I have to say, I am so proud of myself!

Seriously, it is a minor miracle that I somehow managed to pull this off.  I mean, I sewed these babies with minimal mistakes along the way and very little frustration.  I can hardly believe it.  I honestly find it challenging to even sew a straight line, so I really don't know how this happened.

After I completed the first one, I was so tickled with myself, I may have giggled out loud with delight.  (Let me be clear--I was also quite tired because I stayed up way too late getting these done.  But I say, sometimes all a mama needs is to enjoy a finished project in the midst of the chaos, and the satisfaction that is found makes up for some of that lost sleep!)

The fabric I used is by Nate Berkus.  I had pinned it and then quite fortuitously found it for a very discounted price on eBay.  I ordered it through this seller.

Gosh, I love the feeling when my vision for a project comes to fruition!

A Tale of Two Coffee Tables {Part 3--The Big Reveal!}

The wait is over, my friends.  Are y'all ready to see my new coffee table*?  I love it so much, and I hope you do too!

It's always nice to remember where we started, no? (Part I and Part II for reference :)

And here she is after I brought her back to her life!

It's rather nice to have a shot of my table with neat and organized piles on top of it.  One forgets what that kind of order looks like without the pictures to serve as a reminder :)

I am so happy I stayed the course and committed to my original plan to strip and stain vs. paint.

As you can see, I have plenty of painted pieces.  I think the new coffee table is just what the room needed.

I just love that yummy walnut stain!

You can also see that I went with one long bench cushion on my new sofa (I posted about that dilemma HERE), and I am pleased to report that we have been so happy with it.  In the absence of a guest room, it comes in handy as the bench cushion almost feels like a bed.  I have also been impressed with the Sunbrella indoor/outdoor fabric I chose for the sofa.  It cleans up really nicely with soap and water as I had hoped.

One last before and after photo of the table that consumed my life for many weeks:

Many thanks to those of you who cheered me on when I felt like giving up!  Once I finally removed all the old paint, I really enjoyed the process of staining the table, so I plan to tackle some similar projects in the future.  Next on my list though is painting both of my bookshelves white….

*disclaimer:  my living room is never this clean and/or organized.  These pretty pictures are courtesy of a kind friend who came by and picked up my older kids while MG napped (Hi Michelle!), which allowed me to tidy up.  

A Tale of Two Coffee Tables {Part 2}

As sad as I was to see my beloved marble-top coffee table go (read about that here), there was a part of me that thought our current living room layout would actually work best with a round coffee table.  The marble table was pretty big too, and there's not much in my California house that could be described as big…

So, round and smaller…my mission was clear.  (I'm sure you don't have to guess where I went looking.)  I eventually stumbled across this listing.

I loved the unique shape and the dimensions seemed perfect, but of course, a bright blue top and white base were not really what I had in mind.  While the easiest thing would have been to just paint it, I really felt like my room could stand a dose of good 'ol fashioned wood.  I have quite a few painted and upholstered pieces, and a pretty wood-stained piece seemed like the right addition.

I'm also nothing if not over-zealous for a daunting project that's perhaps just slightly out of my comfort zone.

Our sweet babysitter was kind enough to accompany me to go see the table.  She is one of my very favorite things about California.

I am in denial about how old I am, so I like to pretend that our babysitter, Natalie and I are peers by asking her if she wants to hang out with me and take selfies with me.

Now I have to confess, I almost backed out on the table when I saw it.  It seemed like the top was a veneer, and it had some small splits in it.  There's also something about seeing an old piece of furniture in the dark in a not so cute environment that can cause even the most visionary among us to doubt potential!  But, when the seller said she'd take 40 bucks for it, I figured it was worth a try. (Also having the vote of confidence from some DIY gurus like my friend Carson and even Jenny Komenda herself gave me an extra dose of courage!)

I was itching to get started to see what would come of this guy with a little elbow grease, so I followed the advice I read on Little Green Notebook and Little Black Door and quickly got to work.  I applied Citristrip all over the table and found that so long as I put it on thick enough, it took the paint right off the legs of the table.

The orange substance is the Citristrip product.

You can see how the stripper did its job by causing the paint to bubble up so that I could scrape it off.  

The top was another story.  Something about the wood veneer made for a surface that sucked that blue paint deep down into each and every crevice!  When I had hit a wall with Citristrip, I figured I'd pull out the big guns and go for the heavy duty stuff.  It seemed to be more effective, but it was still slow going and required multiple coats.

I used our electric sander and made progress with that too, but no matter what I did, that blue paint would not disappear.  {This is when it comes in handy to be stubborn and obsessive.  Eventually you will prevail.}

It was fascinating to see how the stripping agent literally lifted the blue out of the wood.  

I finally got that sucker down to about as raw a state as it was gonna get (We are talking weeks went by with multiple coats of the stripper!).  Sweet mercy.

I cleaned the wood with mineral spirits, gave it a final light sanding with a finer grit paper, and wiped it down.  (I also repaired a few of the cracks in the veneer with a stainable wood filler)

Finally, it was time to apply the stain!  I had only done one other stripping and staining project, so this was still pretty new to me.  I used a brush to apply the stain, but I think a cloth would have perhaps worked better.  Working with the grain of the wood, I applied the stain in manageable sections and allowed it to soak into the wood for 10-15 seconds or so before I wiped off whatever was remaining with a clean cloth.

This is the only photo I have of this process as I was nervously trying to work quickly, hoping I wouldn't mess it up!

Staining the wood felt more creative than when you simply paint furniture, and I loved seeing the wood grain take on the stain.  Once I had let the stain dry for the recommended amount of time, I applied several coats of poly in a satin finish.

Yes, it was a lot of work, but let me tell you, I LOVE my new table!  Stay tuned for the final reveal!

Inspired by Fall

Fall is probably my favorite season.  I love the crispness and the coziness of autumn, the sense of energy and renewal I feel with the return of routines (yay for preschool!), and the promise of the holidays to come. I'm a Virginia girl at heart, so I'm definitely missing the beauty of the changing leaves that I'm sure the great Commonwealth is beginning to show off.

Fall at Monticello

Philip and I just returned from a week in Banff, Canada where the weather was really more like winter. Needless to say, we got a good dose of chilly air to tide us over during these warm afternoons in Northern California.  I hope to share some photos from our trip soon, but in the meantime, here are some things that are inspiring me this Fall.

I'm obsessed with this image!  The combination of the earthy wood tones in the pinecones with that black door and the orange satin ribbon is making my heart sing!  This is a totally doable DIY, and a few easy changes could easily take this wreath through the Christmas season.

Keeping with the same colors, I love this one as well.  Also, a very doable DIY.  Would it be weird if I decided to spend a bunch of time trying to make one of these wreaths instead of actually unpacking boxes once we get in our new house?

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Last wreath.  But oh how I love her.  Kind of makes that one from TJMaxx look rather sad in comparison wouldn't you say?  The wildness of the branches mixed with real berries; you just can't beat it.

This image has been around in blogland for a couple years, but it's such a classic I think.  I long for the day when I might have a working fireplace in my home!



How cute are these little acorns?!  So perfect to take to a Fall gathering.

I've made this apple cake, and it's really yummy.  If you ask me, it could totally count for breakfast.

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I love the rustic simplicity of this tablescape.  Leaves + pumpkins + candles = just right.

We've had this butternut squash pizza, and the crispy sage leaves are a perfect accompaniment to the squash and the cheese.

I love the bright pop of orange in this plaid scarf.

I spotted these side tables at Ross recently.  The warm metallic tones of the base and the black top are totally screaming Fall to me.

I would love to make this pumpkin and feta tart sometime this season...

If I were hosting a Fall dinner party, these personalized leaves would definitely make an appearance.  Even if you didn't use them to mark each guest's seat, you could identify the different dishes you were serving with this trick too!

Ok, so to be honest, I get these cookies from Trader Joe's year round.  But there's something about eating them in the Fall that just feels right.  (they're dairy free too!)

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Lastly, placing a few mini pumpkins in a clear vase and adding some branches for height is an easy way to bring a quick dose of Fall into your home.  Now I just need to actually move into my home, and I'll be set :)

A Tale of a Craigslist Sale

While it's arguably the most fun to score a great piece on Craigslist for cheap, it's pretty darn thrilling to sell things too!  (I've written about my love of doing so before.)

This past September, I bought a dining table and set of six chairs from my friend Craig for $100 total, with the intention of doing some work on the chairs and using them with my current table (this one).

I planned to sell the table, even though I thought it was actually lovely itself.  (When I mentioned to my husband the possibility of storing the table in the garage long-term and "switching it out" with our current one when the mood struck me, he basically told me I was insane and no way were we going to be doing that.)  Sad face.  

As for the chairs, I was inspired by this photo while re-reading the Domino book.

 

  I love the look of pairing a wooden table with chairs that provide some contrast.

I felt pretty sure about what color I would paint the chairs (white), but wasn't quite sure what I wanted to use for reupholstering the seats.  Ultimately, I knew I needed something kid-friendly (read: wipeable), so I debated between laminating some fabric or going with a fabric that was already spill-proof.

When I found this orange faux-snakeskin at a local fabric shop for cheap, I felt the decision had been made.

I can't remember exactly what I paid, but it was well under $10/yard I'm quite certain.

What followed were many, many hours of prepping, painting, repairing and reupholstering the chairs, which though old, were actually quite sturdy.  (post to follow with details on this process)

I finished this one chair and was pretty pumped about it.

However, once I'd gotten three chairs done, I found that fitting them each on one side of our table (like we're used to doing) was a bit tight.  womp, womp.  (I think Decorating ADD probably started to set in too and I was probably already dreaming up a new scheme that I thought would work better.)

At this point, I was already half way in, and I'd probably spent about $100 on supplies, so there was no backing out.  I finished the rest of the chairs and got these babies ready for their photo shoot.  With nearly two months till our move (at the time), I figured I had enough time to try to be fairly patient and sell the set on Craigslist.

Turns out after a couple weeks of reposting my ads on Craigslist, I was able to sell the set for $450 to a very sweet girl who was very excited about her new furniture!  Granted, I spent some time and money on this project, but I continue to be encouraged by what a little elbow grease and spray paint can do :)  Rest assured my profit of $250 will go towards some new pieces we definitely "need" for California.  I hope perhaps this inspires someone reading to get creative if you happen to be looking for an unexpected way to make a little extra cash!