Weekend Recap & Recipe

Well, fall is officially here.  And the weather this weekend definitely showed that….I’m not mad about it.

Friday, Derek and I went to Cincinnati’s Oktoberfest.  If you remember, this is something we try and go to every year.  Even though I could not participate in the bratwursts or beers, I was really looking forward to this!  Derek and I always have such a good time.  Well, this year Mother Nature decided to rain all night.  And when I say rain, I mean POUR!  We didn’t bring an umbrella and got completely soaked.  COMPLETELY! 

Because of the rain, I didn’t get many pictures.  However, Derek managed to snag a photo of our dessert right before we left…funnel cake.  I mean, who doesn’t love funnel cakes?!



Even though it rained, it will definitely be the most memorable Okotberfest for us.  The streets were pretty much dead due to the rain so we had our pick of every food we could want, no lines, and ability to sit and listen to all the German music.  We didn’t care that we were soaking wet :)


Saturday morning, I spent getting our house ready for fall.  Honestly, I should have enlisted Derek in carrying everything up from the basement for me (he was working Saturday).  I understand when they say “breathing for two” because man, those trips up and down the stairs got me good!  Anyway, I was thinking the entire time that when I would be putting these things away, we would have a little girl at home!!!  So exciting.



A new addition this year is the “thankful” burlap banner I ordered from the Etsy shop funkyshique.  I just love the orange polka dots for Halloween and the glittered thankful for Thanksgiving.  I can keep this bad boy up for a while!



Added my Holiday Apothecary Jars to the island.



And decorated our outside with the Ohio State pumpkin, polka dot pumpkin, and glittered Boo topiary.

Saturday evening, we had our first installment of dinner club!  2 other couples, including Sarah and her husband, and Derek & I have decided that once a month we would take turns hosting a dinner club.  This month, the meal was at Emily’s house.  We had a delicious Italian meal.  Can’t wait to keep this going!


Now, I completely forgot to post this recipe last week, but I have a super fabulous and easy dessert for you!

No Bake Key Lime Cheesecakes (recipe adapted from Delish)

 {via}

Ingredients:
Crust

• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 4 tablespoons (unsalted) butter, melted

Filling

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 can (14-oz.) sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cups (bottled) key lime or regular lime juice
• 1 container (8-oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• lime slices and/or lime zest, for garnish, optional

Directions

1. Line 12 cupcake cups with foil liners. Stir graham cracker crumbs (I would use food processor to get the crumbs very fine) and melted butter together in a bowl to combine. Spoon 1 Tbsp. of the mixture into each liner, pressing it down to make the crust.
2. With an electric mixer on low speed, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until creamy, about 30 seconds. Add the condensed milk and lime juice, and blend on medium speed until just combined, 20 to 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of the whipped topping and lime zest and blend on low speed for 15 seconds longer.
3. Spoon mixture evenly into liners. Cover pan with plastic and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours. Remove from freezer 15 minutes before serving; peel off liners and dollop 1 Tbsp. remaining whipped topping on each cake. Garnish with lime slices, if you like.

Try it!  It is pretty much amazing.  Such a refreshing dessert!



Hope you had a great weekend!

Holiday Catch-Up!

Hellllloooooo there.  Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!  It’s been a while and I couldn’t wait to get back to blogging.  I took a little break (if you couldn’t tell).  And now, I’ve got all these pictures and details I need to catch you up on.  So, let’s jump right into it!

We had an ugly Christmas sweater party with our neighbors right before Christmas. I seriously could not find anything!! Finally, in the ladies department at Meijer, I found both Derek and I some amazing sweaters. Derek just topped off his look with one of my turtlenecks…amazing!

And because we wanted to add a little more swag in our outfits….

I ordered a new table runner for our dinning room table.  You can’t go wrong with a little burlap and lace right?  I loved our previous chevron runner, but this matches our décor in the dining room a bit more.


And even though it’s wayyyy past Christmas, I wanted to show you my tablescape that I was very very very excited about!




Now that all the Christmas decorations are gone (humph), my only winter décor is a printable from Pinterest!




Right before New Years Eve, Derek and I got the chance to go to the Zac Brown Band concert.  Seriously ladies, this has been on my list!!!  I love this band and knew they would be phenom in concert!  Plus, how fun is putting flannel and cowboy boots on, right?



This concert was ah-mazing!  A couple hours of seriously talented musicians!  I could listen to them all day and night.  AND, it makes me want to go back to Nashville pronto!




We rang in the New Years in a cabin down in the Hocking Hills.  I was soooo excited for this!  We went with our friends Sarah, Emily, and their significant others.  We were literally disconnected from society: zero phone service and no cable.  Although we didn’t get to see the ball drop (don’t worry, we made our own ball), we had the best time playing games and soaking it up in the hot tub.  Great way to ring in the New Year!  A special thanks to Sarah for taking all the photos!





Another great thing about NYE, it was Sarah’s birthday!  How fun of a birthday is that?  Well, we couldn’t wait to give her the cake we ordered for her birthday!  It was a hugeeeee hit and so delicious!



How amazing is this cake?!?! 

Well, that about wraps it up for me! Hope you had a great last couple of weeks and I cannot wait to catch up with all of your lives!  I’m very behind on emails, comments, blogs, etc. so don’t worry, you’ll be hearing from me!


Oh, and don’t forget, my link-up is back up and running tomorrow!

Hope you are able to link up!

Bedroom Reveal

Alright, let’s do it!  First, let me show you the before photos.  Please note- these were taken with the iPhone and it was untypically and incredibly messy at the time

Before

See that itty bitty un-made full size bed?  Oh, and everybody say hello to my husband’s pile of clothes laying right there beside the bed

And that, is our lone dresser!  See, when we moved, our other chest was literally falling apart!!  And we knew that we didn’t want to buy anything since we would be purchasing a new set within the year.  So basically, our closet as been a hell hole mess for a year!

After

So, granted that this bed is made and I took this with an actual camera…..I think it looks much better & bigger!  We painted the accent wall behind the bed to reflect the teals/blues in the room!  We also have a big duvet that matches the stripes on two of the euro pillows; but, because it is the summer time, it is off the bed!

And just so you know what it took to take these pictures…..

Every time I would go to take a photo, Brutie Man was right there in front of the camera!  I literally had to move him every shot!  What can I say, he likes to show off!

And here are my plans of to-do’s before the room is considered finished! 

1) Curtains- These are already up thanks to Derek!  I should note that these are our first curtains in the wholllleeee house, thanks dear : )

2) Lamps for side tables- Also completed; I found some great ones at Home Goods

3) Some type of art work/sign for the wall above the headboard…I have something in mind

4) Possibly a new light fixture….I also have something in mind!!

5) Full length mirror in between the two side windows; I can’t wait for this!

6) Lastly, I forgot to add this to the picture; but, we really need a bed skirt!

Thanks so much for letting me share our bedroom redo!

Craving Color!

I’m linking up today with the Vintage Apple because I’m craving bold colors…more specifically paint colors!  Now, because we have a plan to sell our house sometime down the road, we are keeping all walls neutral.  HOWEVER, my next house, I plan to do some crazy things with paint!  Until then…


Yellows….

Source: countryliving.com via Katie on Pinterest

Greens….

 

Source: houzz.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: materialgirlsblog.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

Blues…

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Katie on Pinterest                  

Source: google.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: google.ca via Katie on Pinterest

Purples…

 

Source: apunchofcolordesign.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via Katie on Pinterest

And of course, Pinks….

Source: jpmdesign.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: architectureatlarge.com via Katie on Pinterest

Source: paloma81.blogspot.com via Katie on Pinterest

After looking at Pinterest, I think the most fun place to do a crazy/bold paint color would be the laundry room or an office.

What do you think?  Does your house have a bold color combination or do you steer clear of colors on your walls?

I'm Baaack!

Well I am finally back!  Our housewarming party went sooo good, but man, it was a job to prepare for that sucker!  Between decorating, cleaning, shopping, cooking, and putting the final touches on everything, I think I wore myself out!  Unfortunately, I was sick leading up to the party and then completely lost my voice the day-of.....BUT it was still a success!  A special shout-out to my mom who came on Saturday morning to help before everybody came over!

It was super fantastic seeing all of our good friends!  Everybody was so generous and brought such great gifts...even some for Brutus!  Our friends, Emily and Nick, brought us a frozen Giordano's pizza from Chicago and we are SERIOUSLY so excited to devour it tonight!  Thanks so much everybody!

So, I'm going to quit chatting up the storm and just come out and say it...I DIDN'T TAKE ANY PHOTOS!  I know, can you believe it?!?  I just really didn't feel that well; so I'm going to make up for it by posting pictures of the house!  WAIT, there was one photo from the day of the party....

 

....the keg!  LOL, sorry but like I said I'm going to totally overwhelm you with house crap details!

So, one of my projects before the party was to clean out our garage.  Now if you look at the photo below, it's really not that bad, I know.  But everything was just so cluttered and didn't have a spot.  So, I changed that of course!

 Ahh, much better!

So, during the whirlwind of moving, I won a free e-design package from Julia's blog with the lovely Michaela!!  I knew right away I wanted to do our entry way because it is less than fantastic!  Michaela was sooooo wonderful to work with and honestly, it was the easiest thing ever!  We loved her first inspiration board she sent over!  We certainly are not finished yet, but we did get something together for the party.  Here is the inspiration board:

I think it looks better already!  We love the idea of painting the door black.....but we are good with not doing any house projects for a while!  It will be the next project!

 

Ok- another before and after for you gals!  So, I picked up this mirror from Home Goods and I wanted to give it a little white wash to go with everything in our family room.  I started doing the project, and thought "crap, I need to take a "before" picture for the ladies on the blog-land."  So while I have already started white-washing in this photo, I tried right?!?

So the photos really don't show a HUGE difference; but, the mirror picks up so much more white in our family room.  I promise! 

 

Wait wait wait wait, what's that?  You said you would like to see it?  Ok, ok.  And, I am super excited to show off those rustic pieces I found also at Home Goods!

Well, if you made it to the end of this post- you deserve a medal.  Hope you had a wonderful weekend and I'm excited to catch up on all of your blogs!