lovely little details.

Lovely Little Details...

mercury glass::bunting banners

I LOVE love mercury glass!!  Don't you?  It's so pretty and unique and it's popping up in just about every decorating store.  I have to tell myself to stop buying it at this point. We have mercury glass accents in just about every room of our apartment...living, bedroom and bathrooms!  The pot is from Pottery Barn and was on sale for $13, the beautiful candle is from Anthropologie (little splurge for my bedroom night stand), two of the votives are also from Pottery Barn for $3 each and the other two votives are my roommates and I believe she bought them at Maggie's in Market Street.  

So pretty! 

Easy DIY bunting banner made from scrapbook paper... dresses up a boring mirror (which still needs to be painted)

Also dresses up this antique window frame that I hung on a wall in my bedroom.

I found the perfect turquoise tray to accent my coffee table and throw pillows from Target-$17.99.  I planted some beautiful succulents which do so well indoors and on our patio. They are low maintenance!  this perfect size tray is my new place to display magazines.  The brass top jar is an Anthro knock off I found for $5.50 at TJ Maxx!  At Anthro they are between $24-32. Woohoo!  I filled  the jar with white and ivory buttons.

(btw this issue of Cooking Light has some delicious recipes)

Makes me happy when the little details come together!  Soon our apartment living room will be complete when I pick up my newly reupholstered antique french arm chair on Friday!  YAY!                I will post the pictures soon.

"pintastic" recipes.

Liz LIKES to bake y'all...and thanks to Pinterest I've tried many new recipes!

Here are a few of my favs...

dark chocolate comfort cookies. amazing. will make again and again.

do you like banana bread?

banana bread bars with brown butter frosting. to die for.

our birthday cake. chocolate, reese's and peanut butter. clearly.

double chocolate chip muffins.  super moist.

chocolate chip cookie birthday cake. yum.

funfetti cake.

 (not from scratch bc my boyfriend asked for the box. sad face.)

cinnamon rolls with coffee maple glaze (christmas time).

snowflake loft house cookies.

peppermint meltaways (christmas time favorite).

four ingredient nutella cookies.

 nutella pumpkin muffins.  fall favorite.

ooey gooey chocolate chip cake.

inside out carrot cake muffins with cream cheese.

You can find these recipes and many more by following my "cookies and cakes" board on Pinterest!

http://pinterest.com/liz_aubuchon/cookies-and-cakes/

To support my baking hobby/addiction:: I run...and yep, that's why!

refinishing my antique dresser.

My antique dresser antiqued...

Last week was one for crafts and projects due to all the rain, rain and more rain.  My kind and generous sister gave me an antique dresser for free that she bought for $25 dollars at a garage sale!  I painted it "Dover White" from Sherwin Williams and then glazed it with an antique glaze to match a few other pieces I have in my bedroom.  All I have left to do is find new hardware that fits the existing 2.75 inch holes.  I found some perfect drawer pulls at Anthropologie (surprise, surprise) but they are 3 inches in width and cost $18 a piece. So the search is on to find hardware that doesn't only come in the standard 3" width.  So far I have looked at Anthro, World Market, Hobby Lobby, Lowe's and Home Depot.  I have one more place in the area to go check.  May have to special order them.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find the perfect ones for $10 or less!

Here are some examples of what I'm searching for...

banana bread bars.

My new favorite banana bread recipe...amazingly delicious!!

If you like banana bread you are going to LOVE these banana bread bars with brown butter frosting! Mmmmmm. I already want to bake them again!  Thank you Pinterest.

Here's the recipe...

Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

Banana Bread Bars:

1-1/2 c. sugar

1 c. sour cream

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 eggs

1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 c. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Brown Butter Frosting:

1/2 c. butter

4 c. powdered sugar

1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. milk

Directions:

1.  Heat oven to 375F.  Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.  For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy.  Blend in bananas and vanilla extract.  Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute.  Stir in walnuts.

2.  Spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3.  Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling.  Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

4.  Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk.  Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting).  Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm). 

Yield: 2 dozen large bars

Enjoy!!

camp hope.

Camp Hope::Bringing hope to the teens in foster care

This summer I had the privilege of serving at a camp for  teens in foster care! The camp is a nation and world wide camp called TRAC (Teen Reach Adventure Camp) and The Bridge (a co-ed high school camp that we started this summer in our area!!!)  Meeting the teen girls and hearing their stories has changed my heart and forever put them in my thoughts and prayers.  I am thankful that God placed each of them in my life and allowed me to love them and be the hands and feet of Christ.  Jesus calls us to father the fatherless and that is one thing the staff at this camp does so well!  Our purpose is to bring them a new hope for their future and for them to leave knowing how much Jesus loves and treasures them and the plan and purpose God has for each of their lives!

My cabin's theme was "Girls on Fire"!  We went with The Hunger Games trend and focused on Katniss's character traits and her admirable, strong qualities which many of the foster girls could relate to.  These girls are also so strong, brave, resilient and courageous.  I can't wait for camp next summer to see them all again and also am looking forward to mentoring a couple of the girls during the year!  

God has a special place in his heart for these children, and now so do I!

Decorating and getting ready for our campers to come the next morning!

 Red Cabin::Girls on Fire

Hand painted signs for the girls to take home to remember camp this summer!

Girls on Fire!  I had an artistic student make this for me before the school year ended.

Each girl enjoyed wearing a "flame" TuTu.

Katniss collage with all of her character traits and bible verses to go along with them.. "Be strong and courageous...", "She was clothed with strength and dignity..."

DIY wine bottle candles and vintage kitchen prints.

Thank you Pinterest!

DIY wine bottle candles

and

vintage kitchen prints

These two quick DIY ideas were inexpensive, easy and fun to do!

Over a few months I saved wine bottles in different colors and shapes.  I bought 3 ivory candle sticks at Walmart for $.88 each, cut and scrapped the bottom so that they fit into the wine bottle.  Next you want to get some newspaper, foil, etc. to set underneath the bottles to collect the fallen wax.  I placed my bottles and candles under the air vent and fan in the living room and rotated/turned them so the wax evenly melted all around.  It was fun to play with the wax and fire! Pleased with how they turned out!

I placed mine on top of our hutch in the dining room! 

Soon I'll be painting that mirror another color besides boring white.

That cook book is "Peace Meals" by the Houston Jr. League...one of my favorites given to me from my sister in law, Kate who is a wonderful cook!

I was so excited to make these vintage prints!  I saw them on Pinterest and thought, "Oooo how easy and inexpensive!"

The total DIY project cost me around $8 which was the cost of the frames from Hobby Lobby.  I bought regular, wooden, 8x12 frames when they were 40% off.  Then spray painted them black!  The prints are from @TheGraphicsFairy and are FREE!  I printed and cut the prints out, modge podged them on top of torn book pages which were modge podged onto white 8x12 card stock paper.

So easy and turned out so cute!  I hung them vertically on a wall in our dining area.