Hosting Thanksgiving

For this Thanksgiving, Michael and I hosted and I cooked our very first turkey!  We had my family and Michael's family (plus Omar) over for dinner and it was a great success!  I had lots of fun putting together a festive display on the table and mantle, using many items from our wedding decor and a few new creations.  I went for a more traditional but simple yellow, orange, gold, and green.  The flowers were a wonderful addition to the display and provided by my mother-in-law.

The chalkboard was added to hide the ugly gray TV behind it :) and it was the best I could come up with at the last minute.

Beautiful fall colors!  The vase and wood centerpiece were both used in the centerpieces for our wedding.

The banner and vases were a Pinterest creation, however I think I have some better ways to make the vases work better.

Each place setting had a place card made from tree branch slices, which can now be used as ornaments.

The corn kernel vases were a Pinterest idea and I used extra Eucalyptus left over as a sort of table runner.

This is a shot my sister took with Instagram, so sorry for the quality but I really enjoy it :)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and had some fun entertaining for those who were hosting!

Erin

IKEA Semi-Hack: Nightstands

Michael and I are slowly working on our bedroom.  Our most recent addition is a nightstand for each of us.  My parents bought me two of these from IKEA for my birthday.  I had seen this post on Pinterest where this woman took these super cheap pine dressers and turned them into really pretty nightstands so I decided to take a stab at it!  I took hurricane sandy as an opportunity to get working on these.  We are going for a gray/blue color scheme in our room with lots of neutral colors and pops of yellow.  Therefore, we opted for Classic Gray from Minwax as our stain of choice.  

Since I am still new to this and do not remember to take before or in process pictures yet, you just get to see the (semi) finished product!  Take a look at IKEA's site if you want to see how plain they were beforehand.

We LOVE them!

Since Michael's side is a little darker, I could not get any natural light pictures of his side, I did not just intentionally leave him out :)

I think the neutral colors of the lights go really great with the gray.

We really like the weathered look that the stain created.

All the knobs are from Hobby Lobby at 50% off!

There are still more improvements to come, one of which is almost finished. Hint: it has to do with the inside of the drawers!  We also plan on adding a finished top and perhaps something to the bottom since it has that weird lip piece.  What do you think?  Our bedroom is slowly coming together, here are some more items on the list:

• Headboard
• 2nd Dresser
• Wall Art
• New Curtains

Thanks for stopping by!

Erin

  

Cold Nights

Is anyone else still holding out to keep their heat off?  Michael and I are both always hot so we don't particularly mind the cold and still have not turned on our heat.  I am thinking we (ok I am) are going to cave soon.  We figured out how to work the gas fireplace but it gives me a headache and it only heats the one floor.  Recently, it has been a race to see how fast we can eat our dinner before it is cold - cold dinner = unhappy Erin!  The only really nice thing (besides the money savings) has been the fact that once we are in bed and have warmed up the covers, neither of us has gotten cold at night - thanks to our amazing down duvet/comforter - and it has gotten down to 58 in our house!  I guess that really isn't that cold, but it feels colder.  Even Sadie has decided that we are worthy enough to cuddle with at night, as long as we are keeping her warm.

One semi-benefit is that coming into a cold house in the afternoon has made me want to work out more because then my body gets warmed up and I am pretty god for an hour or so after.  Here is to holding out for a few more nights, before cold feet and food take take over the money saving side of me!

P.S.  I have been doing fairly good at the whole working out thing, keeping up with it a few times a week and I feel SO much better the next day after having worked out the night before.  Let's hope I can keep it up :)

A little football weekend...

Today we are off to Charlottesville to go to the UVA/Miami game with my family.  My sister was able to get us free tickets since it is Veterans weekend and she is in AF-ROTC at UVA!  So even though I don't particularly like football and UVA has not been doing the greatest, I am excited for tailgate food and hanging out with family on a crisp fall day.  Michael has made pulled BBQ from his first deer of the season and I have made some fun little dessert treats, I will have to post about them later :)

Have a great Saturday!

Erin

Halloween Recap...a week late

This year was the first year since living on my own that I had trick or treaters!  We didn't really get them at my parents house either so I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately, due to the storm, Michael and I's plans to carve pumpkins and decorate a bit was ruined so Halloween afternoon I picked up some spider web, 3 pumpkins (one for Sadie too!), and decorated the bushes outside the house.  I wanted to make sure that kids knew our house was giving out candy since the houses right around us were not.  I even had the awesome idea at the last second to play Pandora out the window from my phone (ghetto style) on the "Halloween Theme" station.  It was actually pretty spooky sounding from what I could hear :)

Since I was by myself (Michael was off hunting) I did not get any pictures of the actual candy giving, but we were quite successful - all my candy was gone and I had to turn my lights out by 8!  I was a bit worried how Sadie would do with the doorbell ringing and the knocking, and as expected she went pretty crazy barking the first few times and I had to lock her in a room while I opened the door.  By the end though, she was over the whole barking thing and did not even get off the couch.

Here she is decked out in her homemade bandana from a Halloween dish towel scored for $1 at Hobby Lobby!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween, I can't believe Thanksgiving is two weeks away!!

Most Awesome Refried Beans

One of my new favorite recipes is actually a crock pot recipe and it is super easy and super delicious.  I have made it multiple times since finding it and it has been a smash hit with everyone and lasts forever!  The recipe comes from Chef In Training, and Michael and I have added a few extra ingredients to doctor it up for our liking.  This is perfect for a get together - thinking tailgates or football viewing parties!

Ingredients:

1 package of pinto beans
1/2 onion
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 stick of butter
Salt, to taste
Cheddar cheese
Salsa

What to do...

Put the pinto beans in a crock pot with water that covers them, add half an onion on top (uncut), and the garlic.
Slow cook on low for 8 hours, you could probably also do this on high for 4 hours or so - just make sure the beans are soft enough to be mashed in the end!
After the beans are ready, drain the beans, saving the liquid.
Mash the beans up and add the butter and salt along with some of the drained liquid.  I usually mash them like you would potatoes until they are pretty well mixed and then I use a hand mixer to get them extra smooth and to add some extra mixing.
Make sure you add enough liquid so that when the beans set up they are not too dry - they absorb the liquid fast!
Add cheddar cheese on top and mix in or leave to melt!

Enjoy!

Note: To reheat, we usually add a little water or salsa to add some moisture back when it is heating up.