Black Ballerina Flats . . . from Ebay!

Happy weekend everyone! I hope yours was as nice as mine was. After being gone the last 4 weekends, I savored my time at home and filled it up with lots of sleep, house cleaning, hammock time, weeding the garden, a movie, hosted a fire-pit s'mores party and drank lots of iced-tea.

Anyways . . . I love a good deal, so I just have to show you my new favorite shoes in case you need some fun black flats too. These were around $11 from ebay. They came from China (sorry, I still haven't quite bought in to the whole buy-American thing). They aren't going to last a lifetime, but they are perfect for casual wear, or to dress up a little. These also come in teal, watermelon and cream colored. I'm tempted to buy another pair. I think what I love most about them is that they are plastic, so I can easily wipe the dust and dirt off that's just a given living in the mountains. Winner winner!

DIY Wedding Guest Seating Tags

Ok, it seems like it's time to once again post some little details and projects from our wedding last September. I'm trying to spread out my wedding posts so that I don't use up all my good photography in one fell swoop :-) Here was how we did our seating assignments for our guests. First, we borrowed the door frame (gotta love free wedding decor!), bought mini clothespins from ebay or Amazon, bought some jute string, made the chalkboard ourselves (wood, a saw and chalkboard paint), and then my sister in law hand-wrote all the names on little tags that we punched out on paper we got from Michaels. Oh, and we borrowed the tag punch too. I couldn't tell you exactly, but this whole project probably cost around $30. Perfect for our do-it-yourself wedding on a budget!

Verve Coffee Roasters - Santa Cruz, CA

I love it when something "wows' me.  I think it's because I have a desire for excellence in practically everything. So I was thrilled when earlier in April I found myself at Verve in Santa Cruz, CA. Not only was their environment awesome (think Restoration Hardware-ish), the seating was fun and different, the retail selection was simple and looked great and the menu was mostly non-frilly/coffee appreciator drinks. I think they've also won some recent espresso awards and a design award.  But I was totally wowed by the first sip of my soy cappuccino. I couldn't even tell you what it tasted like, but it was the best espresso I've had in a loooong time. And of course, the latte art is always a plus. The espresso is pretty pricey at $20 a pound, but I ordered some which came today. I can't wait to try it tomorrow morning and see if it tastes nearly as good as at the shop. I'll let you know! 

Trying out some new espresso at home

 Soy Cappuccino from Verve in Santa Cruz, CA

 Latte from Verve

Salted Nutella Cookie Sandwiches

When salted Nutella cookies popped up on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago, I of course had no choice but to try them. The original recipe posted was for a crunchy cookie . . . and I don't know about you, but I think cookies should always be nice and chewy unless it's an Oreo. So I used my staple chocolate cookie recipe, sprinkled a tad of sea salt on the cookies before they baked, and then put a large dollop of Nutella between two cookies. Yum!

I had every intention of putting the chocolate cookie recipe on here . . . but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Sorry about that!

Single Serving Sparkling Mint Lemonade

I'm not sure what triggered this evening's brief moment of inspiration . . . but tonight I made me, myself and I, a refreshing sparkling mint lemonade. I was actually in the process of prepping some stuff for lemon ice cream (tomorrow's project!) and I ended up with an extra half of lemon that had already been zested. So I juiced the lemon, added some sugar, and then poured my lemony mixture over sparking mineral water. And it just seemed appropriate to add mint from the herb garden I planted today (pictures of that to come too!) 

In case this is something you want to try, the 1/2 lemon made just under half a cup of juice, stir in sugar to taste, and then I used probably 8-10 ounces of sparking mineral water from Trader Joe's. It wasn't super sweet like lemonade, but was just right in my opinion.

*The gray and white striped straw was bought here on Amazon. They come in packs of 144 for less than $7. Waaaaaay cheaper than anything you'll find on Etsy or any specialty party store . . . believe me, I've looked.

DIY Refinished Hall Tree

Wow . . . my blog has made it to 90 followers . . . thanks everyone! I hope you've enjoyed my random projects and recipes and such. I've been looking forward to posting this project, so here it is! This is our less than $35 do-it-yourself redo of an old ugly hall tree. We found the piece and purchased it for $20, and were even more pleased to discover all the Martha Stewart paint on sale for half price at Home Depot awhile back. So, since we bought her paint and love her trademark teal . . . we decided to paint it teal. 

After a simple sanding, we took the paint gun to it. It was so fast and easy. The whole thing took less than an afternoon. We even kept the original worn out iron hooks just the way they were. You may notice in the "before" picture that the hall tree seems to have traces of some old triangle piece near the top. There were several screw holes there, but no piece . . . and since the wood seemed a little sketchy to patch up . . . we took an old frame, painted it the same color and filled it with one of our home made chalkboards. Now the holes are covered up and we actually have a functional piece. And as our style and preferences change . . . we'll just keep changing the color. Next I'm thinking some shade of royal blue.

Before

 After

Gray Tufted Couch Set

Meet our new couch set, the "Tory" couch from Macy's. It can be set up in so many fun ways! And because Macy's delivery company was lame . . . . we saved a good chunk of change because it was delivered eight weeks lake. Now we'll just have to figure out what to put on the walls.