I’d like the thank the academy…

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Brooke

Actually I’d like to thank Diane at Finicky Girl for the Liebster Blog award! Thank you so much Diane! Right now she has a post with some fabulous items in one of my new favorite colors, blue. It’s defnitely worth checking out! http://finickygirl.com/

Liebster is German for dearest, beloved or favorite. This award is bestowed on blogs with less than 200 followers that deserve more attention (hello, yes, you, reading this, you could be the 200th). Pretty soon I’m going to have to drop the “my blog is in it’s infancy excuse”.

The honor of accepting the award is traditionally done in the following way:

1. Show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to their blog.

2. Pick 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know about your nomination by leaving a comment on their blog

3. Post the award on your blog!

I nominate:

Jennifer at Ginger Freckle- http://www.gingerfreckle.com/. She has AMAZING sewing skills and equally as amazing taste in fabrics. I almost want to have a baby just to be able to use some of her blankets.

Elvira at 1st Time Momm- http://1sttimemomm.wordpress.com/. A requirement for the award wasn’t owning a Ragdoll cat but it did have some influence .

Mommy in the Mountains- http://mommyinthemountains.com/. I am loving the Easter decor photos she has.

#’s 4-5 I’ll get to you soon, I promise. Finding new blogs with less than 200 followers isn’t easy, unless I’m missing something which of course is entirely possible.

I would also like to thank myself for the award, as I said in my cookbook dedication page, I couldn’t have done it without me!

Restoration Hardware Knock Off Bedroom Set

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Brooke

Since I brought up Restoration Hardware knock offs yesterday I figured I’d continue the trend by mentioning one more. We have a bedroom that we not so affectionately call “the tan room”. It could also be called, where furniture goes to die. When we’re sick of something it seems to get repurposed in this room. For the most part this has worked out fine but it’s also resulted in “the tan room” needing a facelift. I mentioned to a friend that I had been eyeing the Restoration Hardware Camden bedroom set and she sent me a link to Urban Home, the Havana Collection. Can you spot the fake?

The Urban Home nightstand is on the left, Restoration’s Camden on the right. I must admit that I prefer the darker finish of the Camden but the price difference just might be enough to make me forget that, especially for an extra bedroom.

Urban Home’s Havana Nightstand- $179.00

Restoration Hardware’s Camden Nighstand $885.00

Urban Home didn’t stop at just the nighstand, they made an entire collection with Camden-ish look alikes.

Restoration Hardware Queen Camden Bed: $1995
Restoration Hardware 1 Drawer Nightstand: $745
Restoration Hardware Camden 11 drawer dresser: $2360

Urban Home Queen Havana Bed: $299
Urban Home Havana Plasma Chest: $249
Urban Home Havana 9 Drawer Dresser: $399

The rumors are the Urban Home quality is pretty good too, making it a deal that may be worthwhile

Restoration Hardware Knock Off Lamp

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Brooke

I waited a year for a mirrored dresser from Pottery Barn that I’d been lusting after to be removed from the recall list, restyled and reissued for sale. During that year you would have thought I would have started to take the time to think about accesories for the top of the dresser for when I actually received it. Nope, nope I didn’t. Never even occured to me. I planned this photo wall, but never thought about what to put on top of the actual dresser.

Enter my recent trip to Home Goods. While browsing around I came across a gorgeous solid crystal lamp. After closer examination I realized it looks just like this Restoration Hardware lamp. It doesn’t come much closer to being an exact match than this! An added bonus? It comes with a gorgeous shade that Restoration Hardware is asking $74 for on sale.

Why buy the Restoration Hardware Chelsea Column Table Lamp when you can pick up the Home Goods version with a silk shade for $99? I’m in love.

Replacing door hinges, or refusing to replace them

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Brooke

Who mixes and matches door hardware like it’s going out of style? The people who previously owned our house. In the upstairs hallway alone there were not one, not two but three different kinds of knobs. To their credit they were all the same finish at least but style and shape, not so much. If you tried to shut John’s office door on the first floor the knob would come out in your hand.

Yes replacing the door hardware was mandatory, but it was also expensive, our mudroom has 6 doors alone (why the smallest room in the house has the most doors is beyond me). We saved credit card points and bought Schlage brushed nickel knobs. Then we had to face the hinges. As if buying the knobs wasn’t bad enough! Willa-A-Rama is the queen of spray paint. It’s her solution to everything. Don’t like that? Spray paint it. So guess what we did? Guess what looks great, saved us a ton of money and made rehanging the doors a breeze? Spray painting all the door hinges! Why else would Krylon make a brushed nickel spray paint?

TasteBook, I love you.

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Brooke

I get really excited about donating, I always have a pile of donation items at the bottom of the basement stairs (with at least 1 or 2 Will-A-Rama items). Donating is genius, you’re giving to someone in need while de-cluttering and you get a tax write off. Clearly I like to purge. There are a few things I’m not good at parting with. I am a recipe hoarder. I have stacks of magazines and pages I’ve printed from dozens of websites, I just can’t seem to let go. I’ve been looking for a way to organize and condense, TasteBook.com you are my savior. Their custom recipes binders are gorgeous, well priced and the perfect size. You can upload your own photos which I had a ton of fun with when I made a family favorites cookbook for my sister in law’s birthday. No more saving stacks of paper and overstuffing my 3 ring binder, TasteBook stores everything your virtual library. You can even directly import from sites like Food Network and Epicurious and see what your friends save and import. They also have a super intuitive app.

Recipe Club

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Brooke

It’s true, I’m getting old. The first sign was when I realized some of the clothes I wear to work are the same clothes I wear when I go out. Another sign is my excitement surrounding Recipe Club. I hosted over the weekend and used my china, which caused even more excitement and is probably advancing the aging process.

I can’t take credit for coming up with the concept, I may not be a founding member but I am an avid participant and for the purpose of this post that is good enough.

How to Start a Recipe Club/ Recipe Club Rules

You must bring copies of 3 new recipes to every meeting.
The recipe should be something you have made and enjoyed (the goal here is to impress, don’t bring a chocolate chip cookie recipe unless it is laced with crack or gold).
Make one of your recipes and bring it to Recipe Club when we meet.

At the time of inception we brought 5 recipes each but the piles of things we wanted to make that others brought started multiplying quickly so we switched it up to 3. We meet in the even numbered months and typically have 6-8 people. We rotate who hosts and meet at a restaurant at Christmas and do a $25 grab bag.

Recipe Club inspired my menu for the next two weeks:

Crockpot Tomato Basil Soup with Grilled Cheese

Rotisserie Chicken with Tomato Cucumber Salad and Baked Potatoes

Cook’s Illustrated Pasta cooked in Wine and Greek Salad

Zucchini Soup with Arugula Salad and Rolls

Artichoke Chicken with Au Gratin Spaghetti Squash

BLT’s and Sweet Potato Fries

Homemade Pizza with Spring Mix Salad

Lemon Sage Chicken with Green Beans & Rice

Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil

Wine Night Does Wisconsin

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Brooke

It was last Wednesday (thought I would take the opportunity to throw in another W word).

Instead of our typical reality tv/magazine/pizza/wine gathering Gretchen and I headed to Wisconsin to reap the benefits of the still crappy economy and the closing of yet another store. If you have been living under a rock, the economy is bad and the current administration has failed to turn it around. I just summed up about 15,000 news articles for you.

We spent the better part of last week stalking the online auction and pricing out what we were interested in. After we won we headed to Brown Deer, WI. They sold EVERYTHING in the store. I literally mean everything.

Somewhere in WI there is an idiot whose house now says “LOWES” on the front.

This same person also has 5 different styles of kitchen cabinets from the displays. I’m sure they’re putting the 5 mismatched sink bases to good use.
We did get some awesome deals. I scored 3 new lights for the Farm, 1 for my mudroom and a ceiling fan for one of our spare bedrooms. What I paid is in red. This would be like my own personal Will-A-Rama except for the fact that everything came legitimately new from INSIDE of a store.

Second to the deals the highlight of the trip was pulling into the Lowes parking lot and watching a toilet being loaded into a horse trailer. Any doubt that we had officially crossed the border at that point was gone.

Wife and Style

Stylish wife. Domestic life.