Find: Mad Men is back and all I can think about is that couch

Yesterday I finally got around to watching the season opener of Mad Men. It didn't disappoint, let me tell you. However my biggest take away was: I want to live in Don and Megan's swanky mod apartment. But seeing as I can't time warp my way back to 1966, I'm just going to obsess about that couch. It is my dream family room couch, stylish with lots and lots of seating. There are at least 5 adults on it in this shot with plenty of room for more. I actually have a brown mid century couch in my basement (hey on a side note I have been working on basement projects and I think we will have a little room tour sometime soonish!), but it is not a sectional, it is not amazing and it is not the couch of my dreams. So you know me, I had to set off on a little imaginary shopping trip to find myself a dreamy brown sectional that I can't justify buying, but will enjoy imagining in my space.
This bad boy from Thrive is the closest that I was able to find. Actually it is pretty close. Let me know if you have some extra cash hanging around and decide to pick one up for your own home. But don't tell me how great it is, I might be crushed.

Not u of the real deal from the show, but it was they only one I could find. If you watch the episode you can see the couch a lot better when the Draper kids are having breakfast.

Share: Little Wood Box

Oh I've been wanting to share this little find with you for a while, but I never seem to remember to snap pictures. So finally here it is bathed in shattery afternoon sun. When I was doing my 100 Things purge a month and a half ago I came across this little box deep in the folds of a half finished crochet blanket. See that basket of yarn I got rid of came from my Grandma and I had never looked in it, just shoved it in a closet, but I wanted to keep the basket for a future project so I emptied it and all the way at the bottom was this little box.
I could tell right away that the top slid open. Inside I found a stash of vintage crochet hooks. It was then that I saw the little slit running along the top of the hidden compartment.
Slide it open and what do we have, another compartment (filled to the brim with hooks!). There is something so fun about vintage craft supplies and storage/organization. Isn't is cute? Do you have any fun vintage craft supplies?

Make: Tile Trivets

Okay Friends, this is one of those projects that is so easy I dare not even call this a how-to post, more like a in case you haven't thought of this before or you have thought of it, but forgot about it or hadn't worked out the details yet. I have been picking up tiles at the thrift store lately, but I really wanted to make sure I was using them and not just adding them to my every growing collection of "pretty things to do something with". Here is how I turned them into Trivets.
What You'll Need:

Tiles - Mine are quite large, but you could use smaller ones as coasters.

Cork Contact Paper - You can find this in the cleaning section of Target. You could also use just a regular sheet of thin cork and glue it on, but I already had the contact paper.

Pen

Scissors - I used my kitchen scissors, because they cut through tougher materials nicely. What You'll Do:

As I said this is sooo simple, all you need to do is trace around the tile on the sticky side of the contact paper, cut out the shape, peel off the protective paper and stick the tile.

So there you have it, a quick and easy project for a Friday afternoon.

Pinterest Challenge: Ombre Nightstand

TA-DA The day has come for the reveal of my Winter Pinterest Challenge. And guys I'm not gonna lie this is one of my favorite projects that I have done for my house. Plus it challenged me to get over my painting wood phobia. Once I got going it wasn't so bad.
This is my original inspiration pin - Pink Ombre Cake made by Eddie Ross. You can check out some more of my pinspiration for this project in Monday's post.
And this is what I did. I picked up three paint testers from my local paint store. Then painted each drawer in a descending color.

BEFORE:
AFTER:

And with that we are one step closer to the Guest Room make over reveal!

P.S. You can find lots of other Pinterest Challengers work by checking out the Pinterest posts on Young House Love, Bower Power, The Great Indoors and Hi Sugarplum.

Listen: Karmin

I was introduced to Karmin by my little sister Phoebs, I think our brother James first played their stuff for her. So here I am passing along this fun find to you. Karmin has light, fun and very danceable (is danceable a word? - no, bummer). For more from Karmin check out their website and youtube channel.

P.S. You can buy their song BrokenHearted on iTunes for only $0.69. Totally worth it!

I'm Diggin': Pinterest plus a Pinterest Challenge

The other day I was looking through my Pinterest pins so I could share with you something that I am currently really digging. I realized I had been pinning a lot of Pink Ombre pins, particularly lots of Pink Ombre cakes, like this pretty little treat from Eddie Ross. I'm thinking I really need to bake one myself; who has a birthday coming up? Wanta a pink cake? Great!
Oh and then I saw this table cloth, don't you love it? This summer come over to my house and we will have a dip dyeing party in my back yard and then we can have dinner on a fab-ly decorated picnic table. Table cloth originally from here.
Next I found this lamp shade. Let's just call it L-O-V-E! Oh course it is Martha and they want you to make your own. Check out the DIY.
Finally we have the cutest desk in the world by Vintage Revivals. And inspiration has struck. I have the perfect project to channel all my Ombre love into.
So how serendipitous that Young House Love and Bower Power have invited us all to join in their seasonal Pinterest Challenge. I'll be back on Wednesday to post my project, if you'd like to join in you can find all the info right here. If you'd like to see my Fall Challenge you can check out my Cross Stitch Painting.

Eat: Black Bean Enchilada

Shortly before a few friends welcomed a darling daughter into this world my sister in-law, another friend and I put together a few freezable meals for them. It took us a few hours of shopping and cooking and we were able to send three main dishes all ready to go into the freezer over to them. It was great fun and inspired me to think differently about meal prep around my own home. I started thinking why not do more freeze ahead meals for easy, inexpensive and quick lunches and dinners at home. Maybe it is because I grew up in a family of 8, but I often feel like cooking a meal just for myself is a waste of time and find that I gravitate towards the convent foods at the store or end up eating a dinner made up entirely of walnuts and dried cherries or cheese and popcorn (not that there is anything wrong with a cheese and popcorn night, I am a huge fan, but four nights a week might be over kill). With that in mind I started to think wouldn't it be better to spend one afternoon making a few meals that I could freeze in to single serving and reheat just as quickly as that "Chinese" Orange Chicken meal? With a clear yes answer I embarked on coming up with a few easy make ahead meals and of course I am going to share them with you, because that's just the kind of helpful girl I am!
To kick things off I'm going to start with a lunch time favorite; Black Bean Enchilada. This recipe is so simple and quick it almost doesn't seem fair to call it a recipe. What you'll need is:

A mixing bowl and a baking dish

1 can black beans (I buy mine at Trader Joe's for less than a buck a can)

1 can Enchilada sauce - I like green, but red is good too (extra points if you make your own)

1 can green chilies - if you like things a little hotter

1 cup of shredded cheese - I like the "Mexican" blend

1/2 onion chopped - optional, I don't really like onion and I really hate chopping them so I leave it out

6 flour tortillas
What you'll do is this:

Preheat oven to 350

Drain beans

Mix beans, cheese, 1/2 can of chilies and 2 tbls of sauce in mixing bowl - this is your filling

Mix remaining chilies into remaining sauce - set aside

Divide filling evenly between tortillas and wrap tightly - it is important to wrap tightly so they are easy to wrap individually for freezing

Place filled tortillas into baking dish

Smother with sauce

Bake until tortilla turn golden brown - takes about 20 min in my oven, but I don't really trust that old boy to stay at a consistent temp so you may find that things go quicker or slower
See I told you they were easy. After baking I let them cool completely then jimmied each one out of the baking dish and wrapped them in two layers of tin foil (next time I'll use a layer of plastic wrap and then the foil, because I found the foil hard to remove before microwaving). I new I'd eat them fairly quickly so I did not bother dating them before tossing them into my freezer, but it would be a good idea, I think they will keep nicely for a few months if you seal them up nice and tight.
Now I'm wondering if you have any easy and quick freezer to table meal ideas you could share with me. If so do please tell!

Change: 100

At the beginning of the year I was inspired by this post over on Makeunder My Live to get rid of 100 things that were cluttering up my life. It took me a few weeks to pull all the items together, but I can say that with out a doubt it was totally worth it.
Maybe a quarter of the things were leftover from all the junk in the house when I bought it. Stuff that I thought at the time I might use, but alimentary just ended up hanging around taking up space.
At first I thought I'd make a list of everything, but now that seems a little silly and boring. I think these four images are enough to remind me to move things along a little quicker.
Finally I had such a good time (really truly it was fun!) putting together these vignette of 25 Things to Dump I'm going to keep up with the challenge and get rid of 25 more things each month for the rest of 2012. Next week I'll post about February and March's items.

Did you do any big clean out for 2012? What do you do to keep clutter at bay? Any good junk reducing challenges you can share? I'd love to hear all about it so please, please share.

Change: Back in the Habit

Dear Blog,

A long time ago we used to be friends, but I'm sure you haven't thought of me lately at all.

Yeah I have that song stuck in my head too, lets see what we can do about that.

Okay press play and we can get started.

Like so much of life Blogging is based on forming good habits and breaking bad habits. The good; take pictures as you work on projects, record details, actually sit down and write. The bad; well really they are just the opposite of the good, forget all about pictures until the end of a project, toss packaging without noting the color of the yarn or the brand of floral print masking tape and so on. I have been in a bad habit funk for the last month and a half, like getting up in the morning to work out - skipping a day or two seems okay, but before you know it you haven't rolled out of bed in weeks and you aren't sure where you tossed your running shoes (check in the back of the closet, bottom of the basement stairs or under the bed - well maybe that is just where I end up finding my missing things!), but just like the sun rising earlier makes getting out of bed easier, the changes going on around me make me feel ready to get back into working on projects and type up posts. So here I am quietly saying: "I'm back!" maybe a little slowly at first. I have always looked at blogging at being something I do for me - I think it is fun to pull together posts to share the projects I'm working on or my new favorite song or the colors I'm currently in love with. With that in mind I'm freeing myself from the old schedule, but I will be sticking with the themes like Make, Change, Share etc and maybe adding a few new ones. Anyway I'm excited to get back to blogging!

xoxo,

Libby