Good-bye animal print and fleece pillows

So this past week I went out West to visit my parents in Missoula. Before I left, I knew I needed to finish at least one of my craft projects that took over our guest bedroom. I couldn’t leave Joe living in my mess for a week.

My big project I’ve been working on is the throw pillows in the living room. When we got our couches, the couple we bought them from included their zebra print pillows. While that was very kind, animal print isn’t really Joe or I and we needed to fix that.

   

I followed 3 different sites (links below) for inspiration for each pillow. I wanted to keep the natural and green theme for the living room but since our couches are a neutral color, the pillows needed to pop.

I bought some of the fabric from Crafts Direct up in Waite Park when I went to visit my in-laws for a weekend. Some of the fabric is actually left over from the lampshades from the living room. And lastly, probably my favorite pillow, was made with some fabric that was left over from my grandma’s sewing supplies. There isn’t much of her stuff remaining as my aunts and uncles have gone through her house and have taken what they wanted, but I found this fabric and had to incorporate it into our new home. It makes the room more special to me.

Dark Green Pillows

Yellow Striped Pillows

Long Envelope Pillow

I’d say it was quite the transformation in our living room and we haven’t even moved yet!

Inspired, Brenna

Master Bedroom Lamps

So Joe and I bought these lamps from Unique (the local second hand store) when we first moved into our apartment. We didn’t realize we needed to provide our own lighting since there wasn’t an overhead light in the master bedroom. From the beginning I have thought these lamps needed a little TLC but I couldn’t come up with exactly what needed to happen. Now that we bought a new house and we were going to paint and decorate a little more than our apartment, it was time for the lamps to match our bedroom furniture.

Goodbye pleats and gold

      

1. Follow my Revamped Lamps post to make the lamp shades nice and new!

2. I found this spray paint at Michael’s that gives the ‘natural stone’ look to help match some of the metal in our bedroom furniture. I wrapped up the lamp base to only show the gold that I wanted to spray paint. I used painters tape to keep clean lines.

These lamps look SO much better in our room and have created a cleaner look. Especially, since when I was taking off the pleated fabric, tons of dirt and dust were stuck in the creases. GROSS!

Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken & Veggies

I made this for dinner last night and Joe couldn’t get enough of it. Generally when I cook I ask him if I should keep the recipe or try something else. Last night, I didn’t even need to ask. Even the leftovers, Joe loved.

“That may have been the greatest lunch of all time…”
Joe’s text to me after lunch today

Time to share the recipe and put it on your table

Roasted lemon-garlilc chicken & Veggies

6 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/2 lb green beans
2 red potatoes, diced
1 sweet potato, diced
3 large carrots, sliced
1.5 lb chicken breast

1. In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley.

2. Add the green beans, red potatoes, sweet potato and carrots and toss to coat. Using a slotted spoon (or your hands!) remove the veggies and put on the bottom of a greased glass baking dish. Cover and put in fridge until chicken is done marinating.

3. Pour remaining marinade in a zip lock with the chicken. Shake the bag to coat the chicken and place in fridge for at least 15 minutes (but it can be several hours)

4. Place the chicken on top of the veggies and pour any remaining marinade on top.

5. Roast for 30-40 minutes uncovered at 425 degrees.

Eat up!

Inspired, Brenna

Cowboy Cookies

The other day I was craving the cookies I grew up with, Cowboy Cookies. For some reason, I couldn’t find the recipe anywhere so I had to call the holder of the recipe, Mom. These cookies are amazing, they are slightly sweeter than the typical chocolate chip cookie with the addition of oatmeal. One thing that has always  bugged me about this recipe is how dry and hard the cookies get after one day. I took this as a challenge to modify the recipe to make them just as soft and chewy as they were when they came out of the oven. We are on Day 3 and my brother tested them and succeeded. He was impressed. Now I feel a little bad that I changed mom’s recipe but I don’t think I can go back to the original after I made them this way. Sorry mom!

The new and improved Cowboy Cookie recipe:

2 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 C Shortening
1 C Sugar
1 C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Egg Yolk
2 C Oatmeal
2 tsp Vanilla
1 12-oz pkg Chocolate Chips

1.  Blend shortening and sugars together. Add eggs and egg yolk.

2. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder and mix well

3. Add vanilla and mix well

4. Spoon in oatmeal and chocolate chips

5. Scoop onto cookie sheet and back for 10-15 minutes at 350°

Revamped Lamps

Last summer Joe and I got a pair of lamps for free from a garage sale. They have been lighting up our living room ever since but they have been long overdue for a makeover. Now that we are moving and I have created a vision for our new living room (more to come on that!) Originally, I was going to buy new lamp shades and call it good, but I didn’t realize how pricey one lamp shade is, let alone two! So I went to the drawing boards (aka Pinterest) to learn what other crafty people have done.

Recover the current lamp shade. Could it really be that easy? Yes! 

1. Find the fabric. Instead of buying fabric from the craft store, I found a table cloth (yes, a table cloth) on clearance at Target. It was enough fabric for both lamp shades and some extra for future projects I already have planned for the living room.

2. Size out the lamp shade. I used wrapping paper and literally traced the outline of the lamp. I used my wrapping paper pattern and cut out my fabric. Easy enough.

3. Add something attractive. Patterns are the way to go these days. If I was going to revamp these lamp shades, I wasn’t going to go from one solid color to the next. I stenciled a pattern to draw some attention to the lamps.

4. Sew one edge to have a nice clean line when you’re finished wrapping the fabric around the current lamp shade.

5. Iron the fabric to remove all those wrinkles and then spray the fabric with an adhesive to help the fabric stay in place on the lamp shade when you’re gluing the top and bottom.

6. Use fabric glue on the top hem and the bottom rims and pull the fabric tight over the lip. Use clothespins to secure the fabric until the glue is dry. Replace the lampshade for the revamped look!

   

   

Costs:
Fabric $10.51
Stencil $3.59
Stencil Bruch $0.99
Paint $0.50
Glue $4.89
Total: $20.48

The first step to the new and improved living room is complete with the revamped lamps! I couldn’t be more proud to display these lamps, knowing the money I saved and the time I put into them.

More to come on this living room makeover soon!

Inspired, Brenna