Celebrating Marriage!

While it's a little early to celebrate our marriage just yet (I mean, we haven't even been married for 6 months...), I was so excited when my boss asked me to help plan her in-laws' 40th wedding anniversary! 

It's so reassuring to see people who are still in love with each other after being married for so long! I can only hope that we will be just as happy in 39 years and 7.5 months! 

My boss and I scoured Pinterest for some amazing ideas and then put our own spin on things. I helped her create a wreath for their front door, a chalkboard sign and a fantastic cake. I won't go into much detail about the wreath and sign, but I'll explain the cake a bit more below. Enjoy these pictures in the meantime!

I have to say, I had SO much fun making this cake!

The boss didn't want anyone to bump into it, so she put it in the corner. 

It's not perfect, but I did it pretty quickly...on my lunch break. 

This actually turned out WAY cuter than I thought it would!

Ok, so this cake was a first for me. I had never worked with gumpaste before. It was SO much fun!!! I had such a ball! Oh, and the silly puppy did too. In fact, she decided to eat some of the leftovers...that was a fun digestive experience for her. 

I digress. I tinted the gumpaste, rolled it out, used a handy dandy cookie cutter and used these marvelous flower forming cups. 

You can find these at Michaels. They are super helpful!

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I didn't have quite enough of the cups, so we improvised...with wine glasses. Wish I had a picture of this, but I was too busy to remember to document the process.

The centers of the flowers were crystal beads we found at Michaels. I threaded wire through the holes and twisted until I had little sticks. Obviously, these weren't edible. No word on whether anyone tried them, though.

I alternated between pink and white layers, different sizes and let them "set up" a little differently for each layer. Once they were kinda set up, I assembled them and stuck my crystal/wire stem through them. I wanted them all to hang naturally, but I hadn't thought to purchase one of these: 

So I had to improvise. I twisted the head of a wire hanger (Mommy Dearest flashbacks, anyone?) and let them hang from the fireplace overnight. Clearly I closed the door to the bedroom so no curious kitties or precocious pups would try to taste them. 

As for the cake itself, I basically doctored up a vanilla cake mix by adding a box of vanilla instant pudding and changing the liquid measurements a tad. Don't remember exactly what I did though so will try to find that recipe later. Promise! Scout's Honor! (Haha...but I wasn't a scout so you can't hold me to it!)

As with all icing emergencies, I defer to the person I consider to be the baking guru...Whisk Kid. I followed her directions for Italian Meringue Buttercream. Almost perfectly. Except I'm not perfect and I'm very impatient and this lack of patience and perfection caused me to have to wait a while for things to look as good as hers. Don't be like me. Follow the directions. And don't use boxed egg whites. They just don't work as well. 

Oh, and I also decided to flavor my icing with a little Amaretto. Just to make it interesting. Icing it was a royal pain. I wanted to make it as smooth as possible, so I kept sticking it back in the freezer and then smoothing it out with a paper towel. I know this sounds silly, but it really helped a lot! 

Anywho...after everything was said and done and perfect enough, I stuck the flowers in and, well, you see the final result...and apparently it tasted pretty good too! Success!! 

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Jones'. And yes, that's actually their name, not some pseudonym! 

One Man's Trash...

Is our awesome new dining room!!! I know it's been a hot minute since I blogged last, but we've been extremely busy. You know, the Olympics have been going on. Now, we don't have cable, but I've been super pumped about it at work and I've been spending a lot of time decorating there. I'll be sure to upload pics of that later. 

But, while I've been extremely busy at work, Evan and I have also been really busy at home! See, we have this really awesome friend, Genesis, whose dad had this awesome table. I had seen this thing on Pinterest...

Check out the AWESOME Blog this came from

So I decided I wanted to replicate it. But I couldn't find the same stencil. Or anything close to it. But I also wasn't willing to wait for something I ordered online to come in. Ever get that bug in your butt about finishing a project IMMEDIATELY? That's me every single time I get an idea...

Anyway, I went to Michael's and found a Martha Stewart stencil. And then I stared at it...and tried to figure out how I wanted to lay it all out. And I stared at it for over an hour...

And then I decided I might want to sand it before I got a headache from trying to figure out how to lay everything out. Cali decided to help. By licking the sandpaper. Have I mentioned that she's not very bright?

And then I started to paint. And that took forever. I mean, like...FOREVER. Evan actually went out, had drinks with his friend, Jeff, and came home before I was even close to being done.

Now, Ashley from Domestic Imperfection stained over her paisley table. Since our table had been previously stained or treated or something, I decided that I was just going to varnish over ours. I have yet to do this. I got too impatient and wanted to put it all back together. And use it. I'll get to it eventually.

But I did manage to paint the legs and the bottom lip of the table.

Evan did varnish them while I was at work. It took forever for them to dry. But the table looks really great!

After that was done, I really wanted to use the table...but we had no chairs. But THEN, Gen's awesome mom had these chairs she didn't want anymore! So I gladly took them off her hands! 

Now...they didn't exactly match our decor. And they had a nice layer of dirt on them. So I scrubbed them clean and took the covers off the pads. Mercedes was VERY happy with the "lilypads" we had sitting in the living room for a few days. 

We had friends coming over for dinner last night and I had a day off...so naturally, I repainted them and recovered them. It was a really busy day! 

Now, Gen's mom only had 5 of these chairs. We really need a 6th one. If you happen to have this EXACT SAME chair, please message me! I know the chances are slim, but it would really be great! 

Here's the finished product...our dining room is really coming together! 

And this adorable bird cupcake dish is courtesy of my amazing mother-in-law!
Red velvet cupcakes courtesy of me. :) 

Once we get the bar built in the back, we'll be all set! Can't wait to show everyone the finished product!!

Oh, and here is our newly-built Cali area. I love having all of her stuff in one place!

I promise she has more toys than this...she just doesn't put them away. Ever. 

Thanks to Ben and Phyllis for her adorable Georgia bowls! We all love them!

Vegan(ish) Cinnamon Rolls

I am not a morning person. Neither is my husband, really, but he generally wakes up much more like a human than I do. In fact, I would say that I resemble something like a zombie with a toothache and a broken foot who just crawled out of a bog of negativity mud. Don't talk to me in the morning. Fair warning. 

This morning, however, I woke up with my mind racing and my stomach growling. I have been so busy lately with home decorating projects and I keep thinking of these great things that I can do to make my already awesome ideas even more awesome! It's a bit of a problem. No project is ever simple for me. 

So, I wake up this morning to a wet puppy nose in the eye and decide I might as well get a start on my day. Apparently I had been dreaming of pastries or danishes last night because that was literally ALL I COULD THINK OF. I had to have something. Enter the yummy Vegan(ish) Cinnamon Rolls.

Maybe not pretty, but definitely tasty!

Vegan(ish)? No...we're not trying to make a statement or eat healthier. We're just too lazy to go to the store. (It's approximately 2 miles away...I mean, it's just too far.)

Here's how we ended up choosing this recipe: 

The aforementioned pastry craving has now taken over my entire thought process. So I go on the magical world of Pinterest and look for ideas. Yum...cinnamon rolls sound delish. Here's a recipe...do we have what we need? Milk? HA! No milk. Before you think that I'm a horrible wife and that my husband must be starving, you should know that Evan actually does the grocery shopping and he does a great job. We just happened to use the last of the milk last night making "It's time to go shopping" mac and cheese. 

So I start searching for milk-free recipes. There are tons, but for some reason, the internet seems to think that if I don't have milk on hand, I must surely have BUTTERMILK. No thank you. Search changes to dairy-free recipes. Apparently, if you don't have any sort of dairy, you certainly have about a billion eggs...nope. We only have one. (Well, that's not technically true. We have 4 more, but they expired right before our wedding. 3 months ago...been there, done that, had the food poisoning to prove it.)

Ok...here we go...what do we have? Yeast? Yes! Sugar? Yes! Flour, butter, cinnamon, maple syrup, vanilla and brown sugar? YES!!! 

I know what I have to do. I go onto my favorite "what's in your pantry" recipe collection website. Yummly. I love this site because you can put in ingredients you have as well as what you don't and it will bring up things you can make! I searched for cinnamon rolls with no dairy or eggs. Bam! Done! 

Vegan Cinnamon Rolls! Only 1 1/2 hours and a big old mess in the kitchen (sorry, babe. I would have cleaned it up, but I was running late for work! My bad!) and you've got some delicious breakfast goodies! I consider ours Vegan(ish) because we didn't have vegan butter on hand. I used regular butter. Other than that, though, it was totally vegan. 

For the icing, I just mixed up some powdered sugar, vanilla and water. Super simple. 

They weren't the prettiest cinnamon rolls, but they were tasty! Mission "Avoid the Grocery Store" was a success. Now...what to make for dinner? Hm...

A Little Bit of Old in the New...

So, a lot of people have those grandparents that are just such amazing people that you can't help but think of them long after they're gone. My Nana was this kind of woman. Sure, she could be abrupt and she might interrupt your story to tell you about the amazing thing that your cousin just did, but you always knew that the next time she was talking to that cousin, she'd interrupt their story to tell them your news. She was a strong, willful, passionate woman who did crossword puzzles every day, played golf well into her late 80s and firmly believed in the power of a strongly worded letter. She was a pioneer in her own right, banning smoking inside her beauty shop long before people were aware of the dangers of second-hand smoke. She was an all-around amazing woman. 

Nana and Bopa in Hawaii

When Nana was still alive, she and I found an old book of hers that made my inner word-nerd squeal with delight: Chief Modern Poets of America and England. It was from 1936. It was an English Major's dream come true. I mean, it had WHITMAN! Anyway, I digress...Nana and Mom and I totally geeked out over the book and at the end of our visit, Nana told me to take it home with me. It has been sitting on my nightstand ever since. It is, by far, my most favorite possession. 


When Nana passed away, I got this amazing chair that was in Nana's formal sitting room. I had always loved this chair and it looked perfect in my bedroom. 

I seriously love this chair. It's so pretty!

I probably should have researched the
Stratford Company to see if this was an
"Antiques Roadshow" worthy chair.
Oh well...

Over time, the chair had gotten some minor scuffs and scrapes. The fabric desperately needed a good cleaning and was getting slightly itchy. One weekend, my adorable 2 year old nephew accidentally flipped over it backwards and put the final nail in the coffin of the back right leg. Since then, we've had it ghetto-rigged with books and pillows. 

Yes, we actually use it like this.
Beats not having it at all!

I had been thinking for some time that I wanted to get it reupholstered, but I just couldn't afford it. Then I found this blog...http://www.threeboys.net/2011/10/anthropologie-inspired-upholstered.html


Can I just pause for a moment and thank Sarah from Three Boys for posting this? She detailed every step of the process and made it so easy to understand! She really inspired me to try this project. And I am so proud of myself, honestly. It was such hard work, but I'm so excited to say that I did it by myself. Completely. 


I'm not going to post every detail of my journey. If you want to find out how to do this yourself, please hop on over to Sarah's Blog. She put a lot of time and energy into her helpful videos! They're super helpful! Instead, I'll simply share the photos of this reupholstering rollercoaster I was on! 

Awesome...this is what was inside Nana's chair.
It literally fell apart in my hands. Gross. 

Deconstruction begins

Skeleton chair

Cali thinks I'm crazy at this point, but is
intrigued by this fluff coming from the chair.
PS...don't let your dog eat this stuff.
She threw up on that blanket shortly after.
Yeah. Cali's not that bright sometimes. 

This is where I decided to go to
bed on the first night. I was pooped. 

Cushy, right?

We found the fabric on sale for
half off at Hancock Fabric! I love it!

Here you can see the covered buttons and
that the back is still completely bare! 

And here is our finished product! Piping and all done!!

It's not perfect. At some point I'll need to replace
the tack strips (I just reused the old ones...)

And that leg is still broken, so Evan is going to Lowe's to pick up some new, sturdy ones!

I have to give my wonderful husband credit for his moral support. I was determined to do this on my own and he cheered me along from the sidelines (until I needed his help with one really mean screw that just WOULDN'T go in!!) and let me get frustrated and cranky and sore. And then he rubbed my shoulders. :) Am I lucky or what?!


Anyway, at the end of this tiresome project, I have to say that it may not look the same, but I know that I'll always have a piece of Nana in my home. As the years go on, I will continue to reupholster this chair and fix it when it breaks so that I can always have some old in my life. Nana will always be in my heart, but now she will also have a place in my home. 

Meet the Wings

All dressed up and not a drop to drink! 
Wait. That's not right. Oh well...cheers!

Well, here we are. On that blog I told myself I'd never create. You know, those blogs that only the writer's mom or grandma really care about? The ones that document your married life, your kids (future ones for us, that is), your pets and all that stuff that no one needs to know about? Yep. That's this blog. (Hi, Mom!) 


But, in reality, this is not just that kind of blog. Well...ok, I'm sure it will mostly involve the marriage/kids/pets stuff, but it's also going to involve a lot of crafty stuff. And beer stuff. And food stuff. 


That's who we are. We're pet owners and future kid havers who brew beer and bake and who might just be a little obsessed with Pinterest. We've always been these people (see my old blog), but we've been them separately. Now we're those people together. Newly married, perpetually broke and pretty damn happy (for the most part...the whole broke part isn't really my favorite).  


I'll try to make it more interesting than just keeping up with our crazy transcontinental families, but I don't guarantee it. But hey, for the time being, we don't have kids...so at least you don't have to read about dirty diapers. Yet. 


We have an anxiety-ridden dog with great taste in shoes and an angry, satanic cat who is perpetually plotting my husband's death. 

Cali, our 1/2 Catahoula, 1/2 Whippet, 100% crazy pup.
(I'd include the cat, but pictures don't capture her special
kind of crazy...I'll work on that)

I can bake a mean cake, but I always burn the bacon. Evan likes beer. And video games. And has an identical twin. We both have big, loud, crazy, amazing families. Things can get pretty interesting. We don't know what we're doing most of the time. We like to make it up as we go along. Get it now? That's right...We're just "Wingin' It!" 


Enjoy!


-Shelly, Evan, Cali and Mersatan...I mean, Mercedes. 

This is pretty typical.

A little more well-behaved, I guess. 

Evan comes with a hat now. He got it on the honeymoon.