Rustic Stand on the Frontier of Craftiness

Who likes my title?  I thought it was pretty clever and thought about it during my most genius-idea producing time...the shower of course!  You may be wondering why it is so clever and lucky for you I am about to tell you.

A few weeks back I was contacted by Charley Cooke of Cooke's Frontier (ah, there is the key to my awesome title) to do a review and giveaway of our cupcake stand from our Etsy shop.  I was super excited because I had always seen bloggers doing giveaways and I always wondered how they teamed up with these people to give away the items, and lo and behold it was happening to me!

Charley did a great review of our cupcake stand and came up with so many cool ideas for alternative ways to use the stand - fairy themed parties anyone??  She also did a really awesome mockup for Halloween, go check it out HERE to see more pictures and some other super cool ideas.  And duh, if any of you out there want to win this stand for free don't miss the super easy opportunity over on her blog when you are visiting.

Thanks for stopping by!

Erin

hello 25, goodbye bad habits

Just dropping in for a quick post while I begin the recovery road back from two weeks of birthday celebrations.  It is amazing how easy it is to get in the habit of eating horribly based off 1 or 2 nights of eating fried and chocolatey awesomeness.  I wish it was only so easy to keep going with healthy habits.  Michael and I were fortunate enough to have multiple celebrations with friends and family for our birthdays including a surprise family dinner, beer tasting, wine tasting, and of course great food.

While I have been known to start these healthy regimes and lose them after awhile, I am trying a new tactic of putting it out here where I can feel accountable to someone (even if there are only a couple people reading) and for all you who have been privy to my phases of getting healthy  cough*ErikKara*cough #newlyengaged and are doubtful of my commitment, well to you I only hope that I can come back in a few months and say BOOM.

Yesterday I started P90X again and I really felt so much better about myself afterwards and this morning so if I can just keep that feeling in mind to reach my end goal (actually finishing!) I should be successful.  On the other hand, I can feel a difference between my body now and my body two years ago when I did P90X the first time - hence 25 = getting old.  I have also started a new meal plan that includes mostly chicken, rice, veggies, and other fresh foods and so far I have been thoroughly enjoying how easy dinner is to make now and how great I feel after dinner.

So bring it on holidays - I will be searching high and low for ways to distract myself from all your awesome baked good-ness.

Actually saw this on Pinterest this morning and thought it was hilarious:

Happy Birthday to Michael!

Today is Michael's birthday, my best friend and new husband!  I was lucky enough to get the day off but he was not :( This morning I made him breakfast in bed, made his lunch, AND gave him his first birthday present before work - I am such an awesome wife! But seriously, I had a great time today surprising him by cleaning out the storage closet like he has wanted and cooking him an awesome meal of imitation Chick-Fil-A nuggets (and sauce!) and homemade potato chips!  The chips were from Paula Dean and were super simple and A-mazing, check out this two step recipe, here.  The nuggets were also great but I had a little too much breading to chicken ratio because I forgot to cut down the recipe for just two chicken breasts, whoops!  I found this recipe over on Table for Two.  The only thing I changed was that I marinated the chicken in pickle juice beforehand, something I had read somewhere else and it really did make them taste more authentic!  For the big finale, aka dessert, I made chocolate peanut butter Reeses cupcakes.  I actually made these yesterday because Michael wanted to bring them in to work, and they were a big hit!  The recipe was adapted from Chef in Training - I just love her recipe index!

The big thing I did differently was that I crushed up some Reeses cups and put them in the cupcake batter before baking - mmm :)

Check out the deliciousness in action!

Only put a little bit of batter in the bottom.

Smash up some Reeses

Add the Reeses to the batter and pour more batter on top.

Now on to my most favorite kitchen gadget!

 Homemade PB frosting = awesomeness.

I don't have a frosting piper so I improvised with some advice from my Mom. 

Messy but it worked! 

Perfect birthday cupcake!

Enjoy!!

IKEA Hack: Storage Bench

I am pretty excited about this hack that we did with a $2 scrap piece from IKEA.  Michael has been using this IKEA shelf/box thing as a nightstand for a few years now.  He found it in the damaged/scrap section.  We decided to turn it into a storage bench.  We really wanted one for the end of our bed, and while this is a bit too small for our king size bed - it will do for now!  And in the future we plan on turning it into a toy box :)

Here is what we started with, basically just a box with no top.

Then Michael created some legs using 2x4 and some legs we found at Home Depot.  He also created a top for the opening out of plywood.  At this point I was pretty impressed already.

Then I did one coat of primer and two coats of paint - Bahama Breeze I believe - but honestly I am too tired to go down and look :)  I also picked out a fabric and did my first ever upholstery project, however we have decided that the fabric isn't really what we want so we are now on the hunt for something with more yellow in it.  I didn't get any photos at these stages, but I did get some from last night when Michael added the crown molding.  This is an in action, right before bed shot.

And finally, we have the finished product!  

Here is the bench in the room - I think the color was a bold choice but I really enjoy it!

This picture is a bit darker for some reason but I thought it was cool with the light literally streaming in the window.

Here is a little closer up picture of the fabric. I really like the fabric but I don't like it next to the bedspread.

Let's do a quick before and after:

Pretty awesome if I do say so myself!  And now we have a storage bench for a room and a future toy box for any kids that come along.  When we get our new fabric I think we will add an extra layer of foam to make it a little thicker on top - I just was not sure how much to buy at first.  

And this turned out so great that when I was at IKEA this weekend, I found another but slightly larger piece of wood EXACTLY the same.  Coffee table here we come!