Thrifty Thursday: Painted Lamp

This is just a quick post because my shoulder is really sore...

from patting myself on the back!

(pause for joke applause)

That's because I found this guy at a resale shop for $3

and then I found this guy at a thrift store for also $3.

Then I bought this spray paint:

For not $3 - it was $6.

And now I have this on my desk!

Aaaannnnnd...

I still have lots of spray paint left over so I might could even do this:

via

And then maybe start a show called Pimp My Kitchen.

 Happy Thrifty Thursday, everyone!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

What's Cookin': PALEO Almond Butter Cups

Prior to starting a Paleo diet, my husband was a Reese's Peanut Butter cup enthusiast. 

Since those are now considered evil and malicious I decided to put myself in the running for Wife of the Year by making a Paleo version of his greatly missed candy of choice.

PALEO Almond Butter Cups
Ingredients:
Almond Butter
Dark Chocolate -72% or higher is preferred for Paleo

I like the dark chocolate from Trader Joe's pictured below.  It's 72% and you can get this huge bar (over 1 pound) for around $5 and some change.  That is the least expensive dark chocolate I have found anywhere!

Directions:
-Line MINI muffin tin with MINI paper liners.

-Melt dark chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth.

 -Spread about 1/2 teaspoon of melted chocolate in the bottom of each muffin cup.

-Put muffin pan in freezer for about 5 minutes to set the chocolate.

-Spoon almond butter onto top of set chocolate, filling each muffin cup about 3/4 full.

-Top the almond butter with the remaining melted chocolate.  You may need to use a spoon to help spread it around so it pours into the nooks and crannies and holds all the almond butter in.

-Place muffin tin back in freezer for about 5 minutes or until the chocolate is set and no longer shiny.

-Remove candies from tin and eat!

-Store your Almond Butter Cups in an airtight container.

À la vie et à l'amour

  -Cortney

These Little Things

Some little things that are making me smile right now...

 ...a pair of adorably retro saddle oxfords (purchase on Ebay) to wear with rolled up skinny jeans,

a round pedestal side table from the thrift store, 

painted in a punchy color for the living room,

gold and pearl bracelets worn together...with everything,

this bathroom,

and dress shopping for Bailey's first formal dance.

(This isn't "The Dress" - just one of about a bazillion she tried on.)

What little things are you taking time to appreciate right now? 

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Around the House: Trays

After my Thrifty Thursday post yesterday, I decided that more attention was needed in regards to trays.

Trays are such a fantastic way to make all of those small, sometimes unrelated items look like they were meant to be together and live happily ever after.

Here's how I use trays to keep some of the spaces in my home organized:

I have 2 on my desk,

My new blue lamp!  Shade coming soon!

2 in the kitchen,

1 on the breakfast table,

1 on the bar,

1 on the entryway table,

1 on the coffee table in the living room,

This one is slate and also makes a great cheese board and/or chalk board!

1 in each bathroom,

and, of course, 1 on my nightstand.

And now I'm a little embarrassed because I have 11 trays being utilized in my house and I don't even have 11 rooms in my house!

Maybe I should TRADE them for something else?

Get it? Trade/tray-ed?

Yeah.  It's Friday.
My brain is pretty much fried.
Have a great weekend, everyone!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Thrifty Thursday: Thinking Outside the Box

I am toying with the idea of making Thursdays be a regular series of posts.
Of course I have to give it a cheeseball alliterative name because that's how I roll, people.

So Thrifty Thursdays are, from here until eternity
(or until I change my mind for the umpteenth million time)
going to be regular weekly posts about my thrifty ideas or thrifty finds.

Here's my first Thrifty Thursday idear.
(That's 'idea' but fancied up with a country accent because it's really the only accent I can do well.)

This thrifty project is a use-what-you-have type because those are my most favoritest!

These stacked boxes were atop my husband's nightstand.

I dumped all of his junk that was in the smaller box into the larger, bottom one that already had a bunch of his other junk in it.

Then I put the bottom part of the box into the top drawer of my nightstand.

It holds my favorite nighttime hand lotion that's smells really super good that I have to use sparingly because its discontinued, cough drops that taste like rot gut whiskey, a booklight and sticky notes for tagging ideas in decorating books or writing down all the random crap that you forget during the day but then remember just as you're about to fall asleep, and Chapstick because I hate going to bed with dry lips.

Then I used the lid as a tray on top of my nightstand!

And it's all texture-y and wood-y (those are highly technical decorating terms) which helped my nightstand area feel more finished because now it has my standard 6 elements of design.

And it was free!

So be sure to check back next Thursday for another Thrifty Thursday.

Unless I decide to change Thursdays to something else that can be alliterated.

Like Therapy Thursdays.

Where I just unload all my mind's ramblings (scary!)

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Breakfast On The Go! (PALEO recipe)

Mornings at our house during the week are not all sunshine and rainbows.

For example-

Me: Good morning!

Daughter: I have no pants. They are all in the wash.
(Translation: "Good morning to you, too, mom".)

Me: I'll put them in the dryer while you finish getting ready and eat breakfast.

Daughter: I don't have time for breakfast!

Sometimes it goes like this-

Me:  Good morning!

Daughter or Son:  I'm STAR-VING!
(Translation: "Good morning to you, too, mom.") 

Me: What can I get you for breakfast?

Daughter or Son: We have nothing good.

Me:  We have [this and this and this and this.]

Daughter or Son:  Nevermind.  I'm not even hungry.

When I found the following PALEO recipe for On The Go Egg Bites from PaleOMG, I knew this would solve all the world's problems.

Well, at least one morning problem at our house.

On the Go Egg Bites (a.k.a Sunshine & Rainbows Breakfast Muffins)
(adapted slightly from original recipe found here)

Ingredients:
1 lb pork italian sausage
(I actually use breakfast sausage even though it's not ideal Paleo)
12 eggs, beaten
1-2 narrow sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into rounds about 1/4 inch thick
salt and pepper

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) Cook sausage in pan over medium until no longer pink.  Use your spatula to get it broken up into little pieces.  Once it's finished cooking, transfer to plate or bowl (but keep the pan and the sausage grease in it on the stove.)

3) Add sweet potato slices to the pan you used for the sausage and cook for about 5 minutes per side or until the potato is soft in the center and toasty outside.

4) Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray (prefereably PALEO) or use silicone muffin cups and place a cooked sweet potato round at the bottom of each muffin cup.

5) Top each potato evenly with the sausage.

6) Then top each tin off with the beaten egg, being careful not to let it overflow (very messy!)

7) Cook in preheated oven for about 10-15 minutes (mine take the full 15) until the egg is no longer jiggly when you shake the pan slightly.

8) Let them cool a little then top with some salsa.
9) Refrigerate the leftovers.  If you have any!

 They are also great reheated in the microwave for about 45 seconds to 1 minute.

And the best part...my kids can grab one and eat it on the way to school!

Need more PALEO breakfast recipes?

Click here for PALEO Blueberry or Banana Nut Muffins.

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

We did important things on MLK day...

...such as teaching our son how to get the most out of a home copy machine.

Hope your day was just as productive!

À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney

Painted File Cabinets & Furbish & Splatter Pillows

2013 is going to be all about paint for me!

It is, by far, the easiest and least expensive way to instantly update walls, furniture, and accessories.

Like my brown living room that I posted about here, my office has an excessive amount of brown furnishings.

There are too many wood pieces (4 to be exact), and I recently switched out my brown living room sofa with the one that was in here so now the brown sofa is in there.

And the wood floors are also brown.

On top of that, the walls are goldy-beige which makes the entire room sort of a brownish goldy on brown tone on tone monochromatic mess.

husbands ugly brown office

As I've mentioned before, I have plans to paint all the walls in my house a cool gray.

There is also a really large entertainment center/bookcase in there that will definitely be getting some paint, too.

I'm thinking that's where my white will come in since it's the biggest piece in there.

BIG piece o' furniture

Once I have those big projects tackled, the color will be coming in!

We have two black metal file cabinets in there.

bad photo because cabinet is so ugly it didn't deserve a real photo

The file cabinets are a necessary evil because they hold important crap.

Like papers.

And big giant printers.

But I want to make them a little less evil with some paint.

Right now I'm thinking about a glossy cobalt blue

Hi! I'm a blue non-evil file cabinet!

But I also liked these painted file cabinets

Trellis stencil maybe?

This makes me want to get 2 matching chairs for the office and put one file cabinet between them.

Then I started thinking that I could also add an ikat fabric on top once they are painted to provide an additional punch of color.

I like this one from Furbish:

I love that hint of light blue and the muted colors.

It would tie the two blues together but still let the bright blue file cabinets stand out.

And it's only $20 per yard and I would probably only need one yard of it to go over my two cabinets.

You should check out the Furbish site for other office accessories because they have some really great stuff there!

Like this:

 

It's a splatter pillow.

It's $50.00.

See this?

It's also a splatter pillow.

It was $5.00

Because I made it.

You can find the tutorial here.

You can use black paint instead.

You're welcome.

 À la vie et à l'amour

-Cortney