Decorating Cookies with Royal Icing

Growing up in Lexington I was a big fan of Magee’s Bakery. They have some seriously delicious iced sugar cookies and they usually decorate them in themes for holidays. Check them out here Magee's. There is a place in Brentwood that makes similar adorably decorated cookies, Puffy Muffin. They are expensive though, especially if you were going to get several for party favors for a shower or for a gift. So as I was browsing tons of fun blogs I came across Bake at 350 . She has TONS of pictures of the iced sugar cookies that she has decorated. They are all so cute!! After I saw her designs I became inspired and wanted to try to make some myself. Lauren was co-hosting a baby shower this past weekend for one of her co-workers, so I volunteered to make some cookies.

The lady at bake at 350 has a youtube channel Cookie Tutorials with over 20 videos explaining different steps of the process. Of course, I didn’t find this until after I was done but I’m glad I found it for the next time I decorate. She also has a different website called University of Cookie that has additional photos and other bakers chip in with their tips. So with that being said, go to all the above mentioned sites on the how-to if you’re interested. And check out my creations below!

It was really fun to decorate these but quite time consuming. I think that now I’ve learned all the steps, the next time I do this it will be a bit easier. I’m excited to try next some pumpkin/fall cookies. I’ll post pics if I give it another go!

Lauren’s 27th Birthday

We had a great time celebrating Lauren’s birthday this weekend. Friday night Colin hosted a fabulous party with delicious food and awesome company. Before everyone arrived, Dad gave Lauren with her gift and I love how I captured her true excitement and surprise in this photo

Check the wrapping on her presents

I love how Dad wrapped her gift with white paper and drew the bow and ribbon! For my gift I got a little more intense. I looked up some YouTube videos on how to wrap a gift with a wire ribbon.

We had a great time with all of Lauren’s friends and then kept the party going on Saturday with dinner out at Samurai for some sushi. A great weekend for sure!

Happy Birthday Sissy! Love you =)

A new wreath for fall

I have been loving my W moss covered door hanging throughout the summer, Pottery Barn Moss Letters After browsing around online of various blogs on my Google Reader, I found a super cute fall wreath that I wanted to replicate and to take the place of my "W". Here is the original website that inspired me http://missloviecreations.blogspot.com She was featured over at http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com which was how I found her blog.

So I got a grapevine wreath that was $4.99 at Hobby Lobby, 4 bright colored flowers that were 50% off at Michael's, and some berries and fluffy brown things also at Michael's. All together I spent about $18 on supplies. It took me about 1 hour to complete because I was being a bit picky about where to place each item. I used floral wire to attach the big flowers and then used hot glue to attach the berries and fluffy things.

Living Room Decoration is Complete!

So we went from this....

to this!!!!!

It has been quite a long process but I have finally put my seal of approval on our living room. I really like the way it turned out. An initial challenge was finding furniture that would fit the room. I bought a couch that I loved but it practically swallowed the room it was so big. Thank goodness it fit perfectly upstairs in our tv nook or that would've been one expensive mistake.

The print on the wall was a gift from Lauren and Dad several birthday's ago. It's a frame print of a scene at Keeneland to always remind me of home!

Quite comfy too!

Once we decided the couch was too big, we made an awesome find at Chris' parents house. These two pink chairs pictured above. The chairs were chilling in the basement of Dave and Ellen's at Thanksgiving. I thought they had a lot of character and seemed like they would be a great size to fit our small living room. Luckily Dave and Ellen said we could take them and here they are! I thought about recovering them with a different fabric but once I picked out the fabric for the curtains I decided they matched perfectly!  I had enough fabric leftover the make some throw pillows. This was my first adventure sewing pillows and curtains and I think they both turned out nicely.

Figured I would wave "hi"!

The couch we found to fit came at a bargain price from West Elm. I don't feel like you can normally associate the words bargain and West Elm but it happened! We went to the store mainly to browse but these guys were on sale and we scooped them up that same day

Now Dinah says "hi" and also "what are you doing, take all these pictures?"

The fireplace was originally painted all white which was a nice neutral looking at first but then it started to feel like WAY TOO MUCH WHITE. I decided to start off by painting the backs of built-ins and then liked it so much I decided to go for the whole fireplace but keeping the ledge of the mantel white. I'm also a fan of how this is looking

A few things to mention in the above pic... The lamp base is the shape of a pineapple! LOVE IT!
The fireplace is non-working and is now the home of a decorative elephant. Lauren has decided to name her Gertrude but Chris hasn't approved the name yet, so we'll see. But I smile every time I see this crazy little elephant so we're keeping her!  The coffee table is IKEA and the rug is West Elm. Table the lamp is sitting on is from Nadeau Nashville. They were offering a groupon a while back so I got a good deal on that. The leaf bowl blends well with the curtain colors and the leaf design and is from Home Goods. Oh yeah, lamp and elephant are also Home Goods.
Now another few awesome things to point out...

A second fabric for the throw pillows on the couch were found at Calico Corners in Green Hills. Lamp is Home Goods, table is ReMix Furniture a consignment furniture place here in town. AND the painting is by Mom! The house featured is my great-grandmother's house in Miami. An artist did a painting of it and Mom took a copy of one of the prints and then did her own interpretation. I love how it turned out! Original art that also has family history to it! Here's a close up

Of note in the next picture is the new light fixture Chris installed

We got a free standing coat rack to hang up jackets, a small table to store random items with a basket on top to drop keys in when we come home. The picture is a framed print that Chris got for me while he was in Spain. It has a beautiful dancing ballerina on it and a lovely note from Chris on the back, so an excellent piece all around.
Well I guess that's it for the living room pictures! Next I'm moving on to decorating the dining room. Pictures to come =)

Bye Bye Front Yard Tree

Hey everyone! My first blog post in a while comes to update everyone on the storm that came through early Tuesday morning. We woke up around 4:30ish to my weather app on my phone alerting us to a severe thunderstorm warning. I didn't think much of it and tried to go back to sleep. That didn't really work because then a SUPER LOUD and scary sounding storm came through. After I felt the entire house shake, we decided to go downstairs until the storm passed. I'm not normally affected too much by storms but while hearing this powerful storm go through our neighbhorhood, I was truly frightened. When we went back upstairs to try to go back to sleep after the storm, we noticed that a few branches were down on our tree out front, but didn't seem like a big deal. Apparently it kept storming after that, because when we fully surveyed the damage when the sun came out, we couldn't see Chris' car anymore because of how much of the tree that had fallen. Thank goodness that it fell towards the street instead of on our house! The tree guys that removed it said the rest of the tree should come down for safety since the remaining branches are leaning towards the house.

Several of our neighbors came over to check out the damage and many remarked on how that tree had been one of their faves on the street. Apparently it was really beautiful during fall. I told Chris, well at least you'll have less leaves to rake up this year! Why not try to put a positive spin on it? =)

Also, we're waiting to hear it the insurance company is going to deem his car totaled or not. If they do decide it's a bust, at least it's good timing...Chris is definitely due for a new ride.  And above all else, thank goodness we are safe!!

Love to you all =)

Our tree blocking the street as well as another one 2 houses down

Chris' car after the tree company removed all the fallen branches

Blocking the street

Another view

Up close

We woke up to find Chris' car buried under our  front yard tree

You can sort of see the car

Pottery Barn Moss Letters

My awesome new "W" moss letter

I got the newest Pottery Barn catalog yesterday and fell in love with the moss letters. Anyone that knows me is aware that I LOVE all things monogrammed. When I saw the price, $79, I was totally shocked. Who would spend that much?! Not me, so I thought I'd figure out a way to craft it myself. I think it turned out pretty well, see what you think...

Here's a picture I took from the catalog yesterday, I can't figure out how to rotate it. but anyway, $79!!!!!! craziness

Started with a wooden "W" which cost $3.99 at JoAnn Fabrics

Moss

Hot glue

Close up


Feeling pretty excellent about my intense savings that went on here by  crafting it up.

2 months later, hi again!

We're still hard at work on decorating and settling into the new house. I'll post some new pictures soon.

I just hosted our first official party at the new house! I decided to throw a "Cookie Exchange" party. I had read about these types of parties on a few different blogs. It seems like it is typically something that is done around the holiday season. BUT I didn't want to have to wait 10 months to have this party. i thought that Valentine's Day would be a good reason to get some girl friends together and enjoy hanging out.

I think the party was a big success, we certainly all parted ways on a big sugar high! I had a few savory snacks on hand to try to balance out the sweetness but I think sugar won the battle. We voted on the best cookie, our winner was Lianne and she got to take home a fun prize. I forgot to take any pictures which is a shame because the table was full of beautiful desserts!!

After we tasted and voted on best cookie we went around the table and took a couple of cookies from each tray until all the cookies were gone. Everyone got to go home with about 1 dozen cookies of their choice. 

Chris is excited to get to try everything. He and some of the guys went to the bar to play Golden Tee while us girls were hanging out.

We celebrated Valentine's Day a bit early, last night at Watermark. it was amazing!!!!!!!!! Go there!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!