our guest room (lots more progress)

instead of my regular friday “loving…” post i thought i would do a post on our guest room.  i still have a few more projects to finish in there, but it’s come such a long way from where it started.  i am seriously embarrassed to show you the before picture.  i’m going to do it anyway though because it makes the after look that much better.  {please don’t judge my designing abilities by the before picture.  this room was like the stepchild that i seriously neglected for a LONG time}

here is a picture after i painted my furniture and did some accessorizing.  it still needed a lot of work though.

and here is what it looks like now.  i love it!  i still need to get some small nightstands and art and fix our headboard/frame (you can read about that here) but it’s so much better than before and the extra closet space is seriously a lifesaver.

  i thought the before and after pictures would be good for this post.  next week i’ll do a couple of tutorials to let you know how i diy’d it all.

i’m so ready for the weekend.  we have friends coming into town and a wedding to go to.  oh yeah, we are also going to a st. patty’s day festival on saturday and celebrating billy’s birthday one day early on sunday.  needless to say we will be very busy but it will be a fun weekend! 

LiveJournal Tags: our house,guest bedroom,my design

Easiest Appetizer EVER - Cream Cheese & Olive Crescents

This recipe is so easy, it's almost embarrassing........I don't even know if I should call it a recipe.

Yesterday I wanted to make something super yummy for my daughter and I for lunch (my 2-year old loves olives).  I was kind of in a comfort food sort of mood (what's new, right?) and this is what I came up with and boy was it good!!

Cream Cheese & Olive Crescents

Ingredients:

1/2 brick cream cheese

Marinated olives, chopped - I used an olive muffaleta spread, but olive tapenade would work well

1 package crescent rolls

Directions:

Cottage Mama's Note:  What do you think of my little tutorial?  Like the text on the pictures?

Pretty Dish Soap Storage

So, I don't know about you, but being the Mom of two little ones (both of which use the high-chair), I am constantly hand-washing their high-chair tray about 4-6 times per day.  I don't care to have things out on my kitchen counter that are not esthetically pleasing, but what a pain to have to get out the dish soap a gazillion times a day.

So I store my dish soap on my kitchen counter in a pretty olive oil bottle.  This way it is always out when I need it, but it still looks pretty.  The soap easily dispenses out of the bottle just by tipping it over and shaking it slightly.  My Mom was the one who originally gave me this idea.......she is such a smart lady!!

Anyway, I just thought I would pass along this idea to you all in case you wanted to "prettify" (I don't know if that's a word) your kitchen counter! 

The Cottage Mama's Favorite Mac & Cheese Recipe

You know the saying "If it's not broke, don't fix it"?  Well, I should have listened to this several nights ago when I tried to change up my homemade Mac & Cheese recipe.  Yes, I can admit it........my new recipe........not so good.  I think from now on I will just stick to the one I know I can count on.

So here is my GOOD mac & cheese recipe - the one you can count on to be perfect every time.  This is from Ina Garten, the "Barefoot Contessa", and it is the creamiest, dreamiest mac & cheese recipe you will ever have!

The Cottage Mama's Favorite Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

nocouponsKosher salt

Vegetable oil

1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi

1 quart milk

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

12 ounces Gruyere, grated (4 cups)

8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small)

1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large (4-quart) pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3-quart baking dish.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange on top. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Cottage Mama's Note:  Feel free to add shredded chicken or cubed ham to add some protein to this dish.  I live with a meat and potatoes lover so he is always looking for the meat!!

how to: DIY no sew entry table

if you’re interested in learning how to make a no sew skirt like i did with my entry table, here are the directions.  all-in-all it takes about 8 hours or a few weeknights and a little bit of your weekend. 

items you’ll need:

table that you don’t mind messing up with staples, fabric drop cloth, 1” wide fabric tape or ribbon, heavy duty stich-witchery, fabric glue, right angle ruler, pencil, staple gun & staples

instructions:

{you may want to iron your drop cloth before starting to make sure that your fabric lays flat.}

1. measure your table (width & length of each side and top).  if you are using a three-sided table then you should have the measurements of both ends of the table, the front and the top.

2. using a right angle ruler(so that your corners are square) draw out lines on your fabric.  make sure you draw out 4 side panels instead of only two because you’ll be using two of them to fold around the corners.  using sharp fabric scissors cut out the pieces that you have drawn leaving about a 1” border around the lines of the front and sides and a 2” border around the lines of the top.  you’ll be folding this border down later.

2.  once you’ve cut out your fabric then iron down the edges at the pencil lines so that you have nice folds and a guide for the stich-witchery.  (only do this to the edges of the side panels and not the top panel)

3.  insert the stich-witchery into the folds of your side panels and iron them in.  (do not insert stich-witchery into the top of the panels.  just leave them empty because you will be stapling them later.)  i personally prefer to iron the front side and the back side.  i feel like it makes the stich-witchery hold better.

5.  once you have your side and front panels hemmed with stich-witchery then take your fabric tape and create your design. on the front side of each of them.  you can do a design like mine or you could also just do an outline instead of adding the triangles.

6.  when you have your perfect pattern laid out carefully life the fabric tape one section at a time and insert pieces of stich-witchery.  iron over the top of the tape and on the back side of the fabric to fasten the tape.  you’ll have to hold the iron on the tape a little longer than usual because it’s so thick. {sorry guys.  don’t have a picture of this step}

6.  attach the top panel to the back side of the top of your table only using your staple gun.  DO NOT ATTACH TO ALL SIDES YET.  {don’t have a picture of this step either}

7.  once you’ve attached your top.  attach both side panels to the corners of the front and side using your staple gun.  this step helps hide your table legs and also give the table a tailored, pleated look.

7.  next attach your other side and front panels in the same fashion.

once you have all of your sides attached then it’s time to attach your top piece.

8.  pull the top piece down over the table top and trim the edges so that there is just enough of the edge to staple it down to your front and sides.

9.  pull the front tight and staple it to the table.  repeat for each side continuing to pull tight.

can you believe it…you’re almost finished.

8.  for the final step.  measure out the amount of fabric tape you will need to wrap around the edges of your top so that all the ugly staples are covered.  then attach the tape with fabric glue.

when you finish that step you’ll have something that looks an awful lot like this…minus the dog and the accessories.

GOOD LUCK finishing your own DIY no sew table.  send me pictures of them when you get them completed.

LiveJournal Tags: our house,no sew side table,diy

the dump

i’ll be bringing you the tutorial on my diy entry table tomorrow.  today, let’s talk about the dump.

the big buzz in atlanta all last week (let me rephrase that)…the big buzz on billboards and tv ads in atlanta last week was that the dump was having their atlanta location grand opening this weekend.  luckily billy was willing to go over there with me.  i think he was pretty curious what all of the fuss was about. 

we headed over to lindberg on saturday around lunchtime.  i’m not sure whether it was the beautiful weather that brought everyone out or whether the dump really did generate that much traffic, but i swear it was like 5 o’clock rush hour while we were trying to get to that place.  it took us a while to find a parking space but we did and made it inside.  when we first walked in i was pretty excited.  i loved the gi-normous pendants that were hanging everywhere.

i guess the gi-normous chandeliers are in proportion to the complex.  i don’t know exactly how big it is but the complex itself is massive.  for those of you who haven’t been to it it’s in an old home depot building…and it takes up the whole building.

things were looking good as we started to walk along.  i saw quite a bit that i didn’t like but quite a bit that i did.  i wasn’t too impressed with the prices though.  i think i expected too much.  from the way they advertised i was thinking the prices were going to be dirt cheap.  in my opinion they weren’t even close to dirt cheap.  i think it’s probably one of those stores that’s hit or miss.  i did see a few pieces that were a good deal but they were few and far between.  there was also a mix of run-of-the-mill furniture and very cool pieces.

i wish i would have taken pictures of everything.  i mostly took pictures of things that i really liked.

the olive paint on the inside of the hutch above is so striking.

  there was a large selection of reclaimed wood pieces which i really liked.

   

everyone loves birds right now and i thought these canvas prints were so sweet.

most of the art on this wall wasn’t as great.

i really liked this bedding.

there was a huge rug section

yes the tag on that sofa does say $7995, and just so you can see how big that sofa really is…

i probably won’t be going back to the dump for a while, at least not until the newness wears off and the traffic dies down.

LiveJournal Tags: the dump,atlanta design stores,lindbergh

no sew entry table revealed

on saturday afternoon i finished my no sew entry table and i’m so excited about it.  our condo is really small, and it has an extra small entry hallway.  when i first moved in over three years ago i quickly realized that i needed to find some kind of small table to fit into the entryway.  i looked everywhere for a table with a depth of less than 10” and never found one in my price range.  my last resort was building my own table.  i headed to home depot and picked up a wood shelf, a few table legs, some stain and made my own table.  it looked pretty sad for the last three years until this weekend.

the table (shown above) was functional but that’s about all it was.  it definitely wasn’t something that you would expect to find in the entryway of a designer’s home.  after billy and i decided that we were going to take our house off of the market and stay in it for a while i knew it was time to give my cheap little table a facelift.  i had some pieces of a drop cloth left-over from a previous project so i used that for the fabric.  then i added new black fabric tape to give it a more decorative look.

here is how it looks after a little cosmetic surgery.  since the table is by the front door anytime i headed that way my dog sweetie thought she was getting to go for a walk. 

so much better than before.  i also have extra storage underneath the skirt.  {huge bonus!!}  the best part is that it was super cheap and easy.  the total cost of the skirt was only $25.00.  the total cost of the table (way back when) was approximately $30.  so for less than $60 i have a pretty good looking table.  can’t beat that.  stay tuned to hear how to make this super-easy table skirt.

LiveJournal Tags: our house,no sew side table