Southern Bloggers Conference - My Fall placesetting

I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Southern Bloggers Conference in Raleigh this weekend. I learned so much, got some great ideas, and met lots of new friends and well-respected bloggers. (Not to mention I got to hang out with Jacque and Matt Knowlton from the DIY Village all weekend (who just happen to be my brother and sister-in-law!).

This was my first bloggers' conference, so before i got there I didn't know what to expect, and was feeling very much like a newbie and a little unconfident about my blog! There was a fall decor contest on Friday night, so I entered the contest with the expectation to "only do it for fun"...the attendees (around 100 bloggers) voted for their favorites in each category (fall wreaths, centerpieces, place settings, fall decor...I know I'm leaving one out!), and my placesetting won that category!! I was thrilled!!

It turns out that, for someone who's relatively new to blogging, I'm doing pretty well so far and have some smart, creative ideas, so I left the event with a renewed confidence, new information, and excitement of what's to come :-). I guess I need to have a little more faith in myself...

While there's no step-by-step for my *winning* placesetting, I wanted to share where I bought everything, so as to maybe inspire ya'll for autumn get-togethers or Thanksgiving dinner. Most of the items came from discount stores like Target, the Christmas Tree Shops, and Dollar Tree - some items we already had on-hand, and others are expensive brands (i.e.: Vietri) that we either received as wedding gifts, or I bought at the annual Vietri warehouse sale, deeply discounted, at the Vietri outlet nearby. I'm a bargain hunter, so there's no way I could pay retail price for Vietri!

Placemat: I sewed it together, with 3 pieces of brown patterned fabric I had on-hand & orange bias tape from JoAnn Fabric

Dinner plate: Portmeirion Sophie Conran (our everyday plates)

Orange paper leaf: Target, sold in a pack in the dollar section

Owl silverware holder: Cracker Barrel Old Country store

Mini-pumpkin: Trader Joe's for 69-cents :)

Salad plate: Vietri "Pineta-Acorn Brown"

Green leaf bowl: Vietri "Basilico Small Grape Leaf Bowl"

Cloth napkin: Christmas Tree Shops

Goblet: Pier1 Imports

Pumpkin drink swizzle stick: Target

Paper leaf, tied around base of goblet: Target, sold in a pack of 8 (?) in the dollar section

Orange sheer ribbon: Dollar Tree

 Pumpkin shaped placecard holder: Christmas Tree Shops

Do you decorate for fall? If so, what do you do? Know of any other good bargain stores you care to share?!

Halloween cookie-stamp Shortbread Cookies

These dee-lish shortbread cookies are a family favorite - so good, in fact, that we made them as our wedding favors! (erm...not the pumpkin and owl ones...the ones with a "B"...for "Biddle" on them). They are super-tasty and super-easy!

I'm headed to the Southern Bloggers Conference this afternoon, so baked up a Halloween bunch to share with my new blogger-friends! I hope you love these as much as our families do...

Ingredients:

• cookie stamps (mine are terracotta ones from Rycraft)
• mixer (stand mixer is best, since the dough gets tough to mix, but a hand mixer also works)
• 1.5 cups butter, softened 
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 cups flour
• gift bags (*if* you're giving them away!)

Step #1: Cream butter and sugar thoroughly. *important because the dough can flake off when stamping if not creamed well.

 

Yes, yes..."Keep Calm and Bake On"...

Step #2: Add flour gradually, one cup at a time. Mix this until well blended. It will look something like this:

 Step #3: Roll into 1-inch balls, and place on an un-greased cookie sheet.
When you get towards the bottom of the dough bowl, you may notice the dough is more crumbly. Not a problem - just take some into your hands and roll it around a bit - the warmth from your hands will soften the butter and smooth out the crumbliness.

 Step #4: Stamp with cookie stamp. (Spray the cookie stamp with non-stick spray (like PAM)). Press down until the dough is about the same width as the stamp. If it doesn't turn out "right", just roll it back into a ball and try again! No worries.

Step #5: Bake at 350-degrees (F) for 17-18 minutes.
I didn't bake them this close together...I just put them all together for picture-sake. Space them out as in the pictures above. Since they're shortbread, they don't really rise, or get wider, which is good when you're trying to stamp a design on a cookie. Typical sugar cookies *probably* wouldn't work because they'd rise, and the stamp-design would turn into a blob :)

 Aren't they adorable!?? I'm sure you can guess the owl and pumpkin are for halloween...but the "B"?...it's for "Biddle Bits" :)

Happy H-OWL-oween!

All packaged up and ready to go!

Step #6: Pour yourself a big ol' glass of milk and ENJOY!! Let me know how they taste :)

For all you bakers (and store-bought cookie Connoisseurs out there), 

What's your favorite type of cookie? Care to share the recipe?!

How to update an inherited sewing box

Can you tell I'm on a roll right with spray-paint? Give me a can of Krylon and I'll paint ANYTHING!!

I inherited this oldie, but goodie sewing box from my Grandma Adams. It's sentimental to me...she wasn't a seamstress, really, but it held the needles and thread she used to hem Grandpa's pants, along with the materials she used to make yo-yo circles for her homemade clown dolls for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Now that I have a dedicated sewing/craft desk (thanks, Honey!), this lovely leaf-motive box has been sitting out on display - However, it's not really my style. I knew I could give it new life, so figured out how to dismantle it and make it "mine"!

Stuff you need:

• screwdriver/putty knife you can wedge between the trim & the box
• needle-nose pliers
• primer
• spray paint
• your choice of new fabric
• staple gun
• hammer
• scissors

Instructions:

Step #1: Check to see how your sewing box was assembled. 

Step #2: Mine had staples holding the material together, so I used a putty knife/screwdriver to wedge between the trim and the box. 

Wedging the putty knife in there should loosen the staples a bit, so you can then remove the staples by grabbing them with your needle-nose pliers:

Continue with your putty knife and pliers all around the perimeter of the box, until the trim is completely off. You can throw away the staples you removed, but keep the piece of trim!

This is what it will look like: (I removed the small piece of velcro after I took this picture - I decided that I didn't need velcro on the final project)

Step #3: Take outside and spray paint with 1 coat of primer. When that dries, spray paint a 2nd coat. Don't worry about getting paint on the fabric...you'll cover that up anyways! Let primer dry completely.

Step #4: Using your choice of spray paint, (I used Navy Blue Gloss from Krylon), spray the sewing box with a light coat of paint. Let dry, then spray a 2nd coat (and 3rd, if needed). Let dry completely ~ 2 hours, depending on the humidity. It's typically humid here in NC, so I let it dry overnight.

Step #5: Cut a piece of fabric for the top of the sewing box. Mine is a simple cotton fabric remnant from another project. Make sure it hangs over the edge of the sewing box lid by about 1 inch on all sides.

Step #6: Using your staple gun, staple your fabric along the sides of the box lid, pulling the sides taut as you go. My staples didn't go all the way in, so I used a hammer to make sure they laid flush against the lid:

Here's how it should look after you staple it. Using scissors, trim any excess fabric on the sides of the lid.

Step #7: Re-align your trim piece along the sides of the lid, and use your staple gun to re-staple it to the lid. Again, use a hammer to make sure the staples are in as far as they'll go (and you can't see them). If you can still see the staples, you could dab a bit of matching-color paint to mask them, or use a colored sharpie marker in the same color as your trim. OR, you could try to hot-glue the trim back on...didn't think of that until just now :)

Step #8: You're done!! Enjoy your updated sewing box!!

Quite a difference, don't you think?!

Using spray paint to update your light fixtures

We did (hired someone to do) a beautiful overhaul to our master bathroom earlier this year, and we've been meaning to undertake two looming projects in that room since then: scraping the icky popcorn ceiling in there and updating the light fixture above our vanity.

I'll broach the popcorn ceiling project in a future post, so today we're tackling the light fixture!

We did some searching for a large-ish light fixture in an oil-rubbed bronze (ORB) finish, and couldn't find one that we loved. So, we decided to stick with the old fixture - Bring on the ORB spray paint!

Items you need:

• Masking tape
• Fine grit (120) sand paper
• Rustoleum primer
• Rustoleum ORB (oil-rubbed bronze) spray paint
• Optional: clear spray paint

Instructions:

Step #1: Turn off the power to your fixture and remove it from your wall. 

Step #2: Remove any glass fixtures and lightbulbs, and tape off areas you don't want painted (especially the opening where the lightbulb goes)

Step #3: Use the sandpaper to lightly sand the fixture. Rough it up just enough to help the paint stick. Wipe off dust with a damp cloth. Let it dry completely.

Step #4: Go outdoors and spray a light first coat of primer to the fixture. Let dry for at least 1 hour. Spray a 2nd coat of primer, if needed (we did). Let dry completely.

Step #5: Break out the ORB spray paint :) Lightly spray a first coat of paint over the primer. Let dry for at least an hour. Lightly spray a second coat and let dry overnight. Check for any nooks and crannies that the paint may have missed!

Step #6: (optional): Spray with a clear coat of spray paint, if you'd like a protective layer of paint.

Step #7: Once the fixture is completely dry, remove the masking tape, reattach any glass covers and lightbulbs, and (ensuring the power source is still turned off) reattach the wires and rehang in your room!

Before...

...and after!!

The newly refurbished light looks so much better than the old light, don't you think??

How to paint vinyl shutters

We've been in our house for over a year now, and we've compiled a list of things that we notice need a little updating. 

Near the top of that list (for me, anyways): painting our shutters.

Our current shutters are vinyl/plastic and are in *perfect* condition...in fact, I can't tell how old they are b/c they look brand new (but I know they're not). But, the longer I looked at them, the more the color was blah to me - depending on the light, they're brownish/reddish, with a tinge of wine-purple. blah-blah.

I went on Sherwin Williams' website, for their "color visualizer". There, you can upload a picture of your house (or use their photo examples) and play around with different colors for siding, trim, and shutters... = FUN for moi! I didn't have anything too whacky in mind...just classic black shutters, so I chose their blackest black color, called "Tricorn Black": It looked like a million bucks on the Sherwin Williams website, and it really got me excited about the idea of painting our shutters.

I showed the updated online picture to the Hubs, and his reaction wasn't quite as dramatic as mine. (Can you imagine??!) He shrugged his shoulders and said something along the lines of "yeah - looks good" - little did he know that I already had one foot out the door to go buy the paint at Sherwin Williams' 40% off sale!  

At the S. W. store, I asked the (very helpful) manager what paint would work best for vinyl shutters, and did I need to use any primer? His reply: no primer is needed (unless you're going from a very light to a very dark color -  a tinted primer would be beneficial in that case), and he recommended their "SuperPaint" Exterior Acrylic Latex Paint. I chose their Satin finish...not too glossy, but not too flat. They do offer a Flat finish, but the manager said it has a slight chalk-like finish, which isn't the look we were going for.

Stuff you need:

• Exterior paint (I bought one-gallon, and have a ton leftover)
• 2" Paintbrush
• Ladder 
• Screwdriver (depending on how your shutters are attached to your house)
• Bucket of soapy water (water/dish detergent)
• Water hose

Instructions:

Step #1: Remove the shutters from your house. (We only have shutters on the first story of our house...For safety's sake, you may want to hire someone to take down shutters on 2nd story windows). I used a cordless screwdriver - the screws on our shutters were located on the very top and bottom of each shutter (2 on top, 2 on the bottom), then one more in the very middle of the shutter.

**Be sure to keep track of which shutter goes where!** 

Stick a piece of masking tape to the back of each shutter, and write down if the shutter goes on window 1, 2, or 3, etc...and on the left or right of that window. This little step will make re-hanging the shutters easy-peasy!

The house is looking a little naked...

Step #2: Clean the cobwebs and general outdoor dirt from each shutter. I used a sponge and soapy water  to clean out all the cracks and crevices. Then, rinse off with a water hose.

 Step #3: Let them dry overnight.

Step #4: Time to paint! I used my paintbrush to paint into the interior recessed "rectangles" in the shutters first, then painted the edges and flat surfaces of the shutter. Be sure to only put down a thin layer of paint, so it won't "glop up" and it will dry evenly. Once you've painted over a surface, leave it alone - if you go over it repeatedly, you run the risk of pulling up half-dried paint under your brush! When the first shutter is done, move onto your next one, and let them each dry in a covered area for a minimum of 5 hours. (I let them dry overnight, just to be sure). 

Step #5: Paint the 2nd coat, again painting the recessed areas first, then the edges and flat surfaces. Let dry at least 5 hours.

Step #6: Hang your shutters back up and give yourself a pat on the back for your handiwork!

Next on our my list: Replace our front door with something that's a little less "Welcome to Granny's Parlor", but still lets light into our very dark front hallway. I'd love a front door with some color, so I predict I'll be using the online color visualizer again in the near future :)

Just as I was about to pour myself a glass of wine to celebrate another "to-do" ticked off our list, Mike called me outside to call attention to another set of shutters on the side of our garage. DOH!

...it's a good thing that none of our neighbors can see them! Guess I've got some more painting to do this weekend :) 

What have you painted lately?