Best sangria recipe

Welcome to Friday, whoot! Hope your week was great and you have an even better weekend planned!

First up, I’m over at SAS Interiors today sharing how I strive to create a meaningful home:

It’s a great series with some fabulous bloggers contributing – check it out! Thanks for having me Jenna!

So today I’m sharing one of my very favorite recipes…of the liquid kind. :) I figured I’d post it today so maybe you can make it yourselves and toast to the weekend, yes?

Aw yeah.

So a lovely reader shared this sangria with me years ago – I needed a good one for an event coming up and sent out the call on Twitter. I’ve tried a lot of sangria in my day (well not a LOT, but a few…you know. Whatever.) and it’s hard to find one that has the right amount of sweet and fruitiness.

Here’s the thing – the initial cost of the ingredients is a little expensive. The liquor needed is about 20 bucks and then you’ll need to buy a few things to make it each time (most of which we already have). But the expensive stuff will last you a really really long time – so over time it’s not too crazy bad.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp triple sec
1/2 cup brandy
1 bottle (750 ml) fruity red wine (the cheaper, the sweeter, the better) :)
3 tbsp sugar
2-3 cinnamon sticks
lemon/orange/lime or even strawberry, pineapple, whatever!
1 1/2 cup chilled lemon/lime sparkling water

You’ll want to mix the first six ingredients (hold off on the lemon/lime water) and stir. Next up, cut the fruit into slices:

One of the reasons I love this drink is because it’s such a pretty one to serve. :)

Just make sure to clean the fruit well before slicing since you will be adding it to the drink:

Side note – we like our orange juice with pulp. Usually I make this with OJ without it (it’s clearer) but I was using what we had this time.

This is where I like to let it steep in the fridge for a while – preferably over night. But it is still super delicious right away too. My sister-in-law had some right after I mixed it last night and it was yummy, but letting it sit really deepens the flavor.

Right before you serve it (after letting it steep for awhile or right after mixing everything), add the lemon lime sparkling water – this is what gives it a slight fizz. So good!

I make this for every party or girl’s night and it’s always a hit. My SIL and I were reminiscing tonight how my father-in-law loved sangria and would always order it when we went out to new restaurants. Thing is he would always turn up his nose after trying it and it made us laugh every time – he could never find one that was just right.

But I’m proud to say he LOVED my sangria. ;)

Hope you’ll try it and love it too!:

Have a great weekend, cheers!   

**Go here to see all of my easy recipes!

Too many spoons in the kitchen

Heyyyy all! How is your week going?

So you get that play on words? Cooks in the kitchen? Spoons? Well…maybe by the end of this post it will be clever.

I’m SO happy to be done with the powder room – have I mentioned that?? There’s a million reasons (hello…functioning bathroom) but one of the big ones is that I can finally start addressing some of the other little projects around the house. I told myself I would hold off until I got the bathroom done.

I told you a few months ago that I’m slowly but surely attacking the clutter hot spots around our house. At this rate I’ll be done next year in time to start it all over again, but whatever.

I’m on a mission in our kitchen to declutter the countertops. Mostly – not completely clear them off, but be smarter about the things we have out. I know it’s probably silly but lately all the utensils next to the stove were driving me crazy:

Especially considering we have a drawer right there that I use for the rest of the utensils:

Problem was, as you can see – it was a hot mess. Every time I’d put something away I would have to try to close the drawer about five times before I finally got it shut. ;)

I realized it was getting a little ridiculous – who needs all those spoons? Really? Especially for someone who rarely hardly ever occasionally cooks? So I took about 15 minutes to declutter the situation.

You’ll notice the wonky drawer organizers in that pic above – that was a little DIY project I did years ago. (I saw the idea at Stephanie’s site here.) At the time I didn’t secure them well enough so they weren’t working so great.

All I did was take scrap wood from the garage and cut it to the width of the drawer and then nail it in. Stephanie just used glue for hers but that didn’t hold well enough for me. So I needed to add one more nail to each side to make them more secure and I used the little trick I used years ago:

I used my Frogtape to mark off where the wood was so I could nail into it without missing. Does that make sense? Cause otherwise this happens:

(The nail didn’t hit the wood and came out the side.)

Obviously you still need to have good aim. Gah!

In hindsight I wish I would have installed the wood slats the long way instead of across, but if I remember right I was trying to work with scraps of wood I already had.

So once the organizers were secure again I started the purging and reorganizing. The bigger items went into a cabinet in the kitchen with like items and all the grilling stuff went outside underneath the grill:

By the way, those little marshmallow sticks telescope out and are perfect for making smores! :) I got them at the Target dollar spot last summer, not sure if they still have them.

We had doubles and triples of plenty, which I pared down. And then I found things that I have NO idea why we had:

Uhhhh…what are those?

I was able to purge plenty so now I don’t even need the holder next to the stove anymore, which was my goal:

On a side note, Squish the Fish is doing AWESOME! We’ve had this Squish for three years now and he’s the most spoiled fish I’ve ever known. My husband loves him. You can see more about the gumball fish tank here.

But let’s marvel at the lovely utensil drawer, with a (little) room to spare:

One drawer done, eleventy billion to go.

And one thing you don’t ever think you’ll do until you blog – take a picture of your utensil drawer and share it with the world.

This little spot makes me feel like I did a lot – I find decrapifying is a lot more manageable when I tackle little bits at a time.

So do you have too many spoons in your kitchen? Can you close your utensil drawer??

Dark or light side?

Hello all! Hope you had a great weekend! We took a little road trip to the Chicago area for a couple drum corp shows (for hubby), Legoland (for the kiddo) and IKEA (for me). It was a fun, quick trip!

So now that the powder room is done I’m moving on to a room I’ve been itching to change up for a while – our master bedroom. I made some changes earlier this year using things I already had, and the room got a few other changes a couple years ago.

We have a new addition coming to the room that kind of spurred a new redo on but I’ve been wanting to change some things up for a while – No. 1 on my list is getting rid of the striped wall behind our bed. It’s given me the itches for a few years now.

But my biggest dilemma before I can really get moving is the wall color – I’m torn between the allure of a deep, dark wall color and the light and bright look. I STILL can’t decide. Every time I think I have I see a new picture and it takes me back to the dark side. Or light. Or dark.

You get the idea.

I’m drawn to the moody, comfy feeling of a dark room:

(source)

Did you notice the trim is painted the same color as the walls? What do you think of that?

Although if I went dark I would keep the headboard light like Dear Lillie’s room:

The light bedding brightens up the room and gives great contrast – I’m a lover of contrast you know.

I actually have a sample of a deep navy color like Carmel’s room:

Mine has a little more of an aqua tint to it, if that makes any sense – like a peacock blue. Can I just say how much I LOVE that mirror above her bed too??

In general I think it’s easier to pull in colors with a lighter room, but I love how color was used in this room, even with the dark walls:

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I do love the pop of pink with the dark chocolate walls in this bedroom:

(source)

Just not sure the hubby would go for that. ;)

Here’s a great example of how a darker color completely changes the look of a room:

(source)

There’s plenty of other changes too, but isn’t funny how much bigger it looks in a dark color? You always think it will be the opposite but that’s not always the case.

But here’s the thing – I’m finding I’m loving the power of a neutral wall color. It’s soothing, yes, but it also allows you more options when it comes to decorating with color:

My friend Layla’s old master bedroom is one of my favorites:

I love that the walls and bedding are light but the room is still so warm and colorful.

I think it’s evident by my photos (and recent projects) that I’m loving the wall planks:

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I just adore that room – I think every room can take some black pieces and this looks amazing with the white walls and green accents. Love!

And no, I’m not planking our bedroom walls – I need a break from the painting for awhile. ;)

Of course it doesn’t have to be white on the walls – I don’t think I could do an all white room anyway. This greige-ish space is just beautiful:

I love that you could pull in pretty much any accent color and it would work. It’s that a gorgeous room?

I love this blue color too – and it proves that a lighter color can still offer plenty of contrast against white trim:

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I also love that there are plenty of darker accents in there (rug, chairs, ottomans) that offer some depth without making the room really heavy.

Overall I just love the idea of a calming, serene space:

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But the thing is, our current wall color is darker (Tornado Watch at Lowe’s) and it feels super cozy too:

A dark room feels like a hug to me, a lighter one feels like a big breath of fresh air.

Decisions, decisions.

A few months ago I was getting ready to slap a deep color on the walls, now I’m leaning big time toward a light color. I think I’m ready for a change!

What is your favorite for a bedroom – dark or light? Do/did you struggle with your wall color like me or did you know exactly what you wanted? Do tell!

P.S. I also painted the Bub’s room a dark blue but kept it light with lots of white trim – you can see it here.

The thrill of the thrifty hunt

Hey hey all! Hope you had a lovely weekend! I got a ton done on the powder room, just one more coat and then I get to start “fluffing” – finally! I’ll show you this week! I seriously cannot believe the room is finally in a (mostly) finished state.

This weekend a girlfriend and I went to a local barn sale and found a few goodies that I wanted to show you, and I realized I hadn’t shown you a few others I’ve gotten while thrifting over the past few months.

I love the “hunt” – I think it’s so much more fun to shop antique malls and consignment shops and second hand types of places! You never know what you’ll find and what you find is most likely something that’s unique to your home.

I got these big marquee letters a few months ago and still haven’t decided on where they’ll go:

I’m planning on putting them in two different spots, and I may try to light them! (There’s a hole in the back where I can slip in some lights.) How fun is that?

I found these beautiful coasters this weekend and couldn’t pass them up:

The bonus is we actually needed coasters. ;) So we’ll use them a lot. Aren’t they pretty?

I got this one a while back, I can’t remember where, but I love changing up the use for things. This vintage floral “frog” sits on my desk and holds pens and pencils:

Including my DIY flower pen that the Bub made me for Mother’s Day. ;)

My friend found a little succulent in a vintage container this weekend, and I was inspired by it’s cuteness! I grabbed a succulent at the nursery and stuck it in part of a vintage creamer set I found at Goodwill:

Adorable, eh? I love it!!

I found this old oar recently too, and I have an idea for a little redo:

It’s in rough shape, but I like it that way. ;)

I LOVED these old wood window screen/frame things I found this weekend:

I’m trying them out in a few places and will let you know where they end up. They’ll get a paint job eventually too. It’s so hard to find big art and these are awesome to fill a big space!

I found a cute hanging basket too – perfect for a few (of my meeellions) magazines:

I swear I looked it over so well and missed a broken part at the bottom, which doesn’t really bug me. Then I got it home and realized the whole top row was busted up. So I just cut out some of the slats that were still there to make it look like it was supposed to be like that. ;) 

So there’s a few of my favorite thrifting finds lately – do you love the hunt too? If you don’t know of any sales or shops near you, do a quick internet search -- you may be surprised at what’s nearby! Some of my favorite places are little spots that I found just by searching “antiques” on my iphone map!

I’ll be back with the bathroom reveal this week! Holla!!

Month in review and hydrangea update

Hello all and WHOOT for Friday! We’re having a blast so far this summer, hope yours has been great! I’m back with another month in review for May, and I’m a little behind. Whatevs.

I’m trying to keep up with questions in the posts too, so if you’ve had any in the comments on these posts, go back and take a look – you should see a response! Or you will by the end of the weekend. :)

First up was a super yummy, super easy dessert I found:

Only two ingredients and it’s SO GOOD! I tried it with cherry filling too, but I still prefer the pineapple. YUMMO.

We had an interested discussion about shopping Goodwill and how the prices have changed:

I guess I wasn’t the only one who has noticed a change! I will continue to shop there, it’s just not as often as I used to.

There was a lot of powder room progress, finally! I shared some of it here and the new paint color here:

And my cheater crown molding method here:

No, I haven’t abandoned the room again. Well, kinda. It’s thisclose to done!! I just have to finish painting some trim and I’ve been putting it off. It WILL be done next week, stay tuned for the reveal!

I shared a small change that I thought made a big difference in the living room:

Go here to see what it was. :)

I celebrated five years of blogging in May and shared my thoughts, advice and what I consider my top five projects here:

Ripping the carpet off those stairs was high on that list. :)

I have a favorite resource for inexpensive and fun knobs:

Their selection is HUGE too!

Towards the end of the month I showed you our backyard garden, as it is now:

We’ve already added a few new things back there, but what I’m most excited about is the hydrangea progress! If you remember back on this post last summer, I told you how I cannot get them to grow! I moved them around last year and they did OK, but still didn’t bloom.

This was one set of plants as they were in that post:

And this is them now, just two weeks later!:

Those are BLOOMS people!! 

We have had the MOST glorious summer so far – seriously amazing. Low temps, lots of rain – they LOVE it:

 

That one has a ton of blooms going on it, and the others are flowering as well:

Here’s the area on the back of the patio before:

I took out the one that had died and replaced it with a new one, so I can’t take credit for the large one on the left:

Well, I guess I can take credit that it’s still alive and blooming. ;) But the others are doing much better. Oh yeah, and there’s a tree there now too. We put it there for shade on the patio, but I’m hoping it gives those hydrangeas some much needed relief from the sun in the hotter months as well.

Have I mentioned how happy I am that for the first time ever…I have blooms!!:

Awesome, eh? I am so excited!! I have hope hydrangeas don’t hate me anymore.

Finally, I finished off the month with a spot in the master I call the “man nook”:

That corner used to be dark and gloomy, now it’s a pretty spot that the hubby loves to use! I’m starting on some big changes in this room this weekend!

That’s it for the month of May – did you miss one? :) How has your summer weather been so far? Have a great weekend peeps, I’ll see you back here next week!