We Are Loving Right Now - Volume 14 - Quirky Home Decor Edition

Decorating your home with the same old same old can get boring...so why not throw in some quirky touches? For this edition of We Are Loving Right Now, we've rounded up 8 fun home decorations to add a little funk to your home decor.

Marquee Light via Vintage Marquee Lights on Fab.

Micro Dino Taxidermy via Eat. Sleep. Make.

Giraffe Succulent Planter via Crazy Couture on Etsy

Patchwork Hound Pillow via Anthropologie

Octopus Tentacle Art Pieces via Art Akimbo

Faux Taxidermy Wall via Eat. Sleep. Make.

 

Cat Cellphone Stand via Luvocracy

 

Bandage Magnet via Urban Outfitters

 

Do you have any quirky pieces that you love in your home?

 

PS Can you believe we're only one day away from September?? Where did the summer go?

 







Vegetarian Stacked Tostada Pizza

This is by far one of my favorite vegetarian meals to make!  It's a little time consuming, but easy... and not to mention DELISH!

Ingredients:

5 flour tortillas (9-10 inches)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 diced sweet onion

2 minced garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cans black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of beer (12 oz)

1 small package of frozen corn (about 10 oz)

Green Onions

1-2 bags of shredded Mexican cheese (amount depends on you!)

You will also need a spring form pan.

1 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2 - Saute diced onion, garlic and cumin in a large sauce pan.  Salt & pepper to taste.  Cook until onions are soft.

3 - Add beans and pour in can of beer.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer until almost all of the liquid is gone.

4 - Remove from heat and stir in the corn and 3/4 of the green onions.

5 - Place 1 tortilla in bottom of spring form pan.  If it is too big, trim the tortillas to fit with a knife.  Spread 1/4 of the beans filling on first tortilla, then cover with cheese.  Repeat this 3 more times.  You should have 4 layers. 

6 - On the top tortilla, cover with cheese.

7 - Bake for 20 minutes.

8 - Garnish with toppings of your choice!  We sprinkled more onions on top + cilantro + cilantro lime ranch dressing and salsa.  We also cut up some lettuce and tomato to compliment the dish.

Cut in wedges like a pizza/pie and dig in!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

How To Add Snaps To A Romper

If you have a daughter, you probably also have several of these around:

 

 

Rompers are super adorable and very in style right now, but if you own a romper, you can attest to the fact that it's not exactly ideal to strip down to your birthday suit just to go to the bathroom. It's especially bad for little girls, like my daughter and niece, who aren't able to dress themselves quite yet. I mean, you'd think that there would be snaps on those things to help out the kids at least, right?

 

Not always the case.

 

My SIL asked me to add some snaps to a romper for my niece recently, and I thought that there may be a few of you out there that would find this little fix pretty helpful as well :)

 

SUPPLIES: romper, scraps of fabric for snaps (I cut some pieces from an old knit t-shirt), snap kit and snap setter (or sew-in snaps if you don't own a snap setter), sewing machine or needle and thread, seam ripper, tape measure, iron and ironing board.

 

ONE: first, use your seam ripper to carefully rip the stitches in the crotch area where the snaps will be sewn.

TWO: next, use your tape measure to determine how wide to cut your fabric for the snaps and add 1/2 inch. My pieces ended up being 3 inches x 3 inches.

THREE: cut out two pieces of fabric in the dimensions noted above.



FOUR: use your iron to iron all the sides 1/4 inch, then iron each piece in half (see picture above.)
FIVE: encase the raw edge of the crotch area in your fabric piece and pin all around. Sew to secure. Repeat for the other side.
SIX: finally, follow the instructions on your snap setter to attach your snaps.

Yay for snaps and for no more awkward bathroom moments!

 

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

8 Java Lovin Ideas + Birthday Giveaway Winner!

We are coffee lovers.  There, we said it.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?  Fortunately, for me, I have doctors orders not to give up caffeine.  Last time I attempted to do that I ended up in the emergency room for hours with IVs running in and out of me.  Not fun.  It seems I've developed some kind of symbiotic dependency on this beautiful, natural, God-ordained substance called caffeine.

Anyway, there are SO many more fun things to do with coffee than just drink it!  Check out some of these ingenious ideas that we are so hearting right now!

Chocolate Coffee Cupcakes with Coffee Frosting via Roxana's Home Baking

Don't Speak Coffee Addict Mug via Chantilly Stay

Java Jr. - Mini Coffee Pot Creamer

Coffee Can Lantern via Design Sponge

Coffee Filter Wreath via Fox Hollow Cottage

DIY I Love You Coffee Stencil via Merry Brides

Use coffee beans in your make-up brush holder and they'll double as a yummy air freshener.

Coffee Bean Butter Sugar Scrub via HeartJCreations

Now, it's time to announce the winner of the Birthday Giveaway!!

Drum roll please.....

KESHA GOODING!!!

Be on the lookout for an email from us!

We really want to say thank you to all of our amazing followers.  We wouldn't be doing any of this if it wasn't for you!  You all push us to stretch the limits of our creativity and we are so so thankful for that.  We love you all!  Here's to another year of fun together on Eat.Sleep.Make!

Reversible Paper Bag Skirt

Shannon and I have the amazing opportunity to contribute to 3 fantastic blogs: The Sewing Rabbit, Whipperberry, and The Lovely Cupboard. It's been several months now since we started contributing, and for me personally, the experience has challenged me and pushed me outside my comfort zone. It's both thrilling and intimidating to create next to such extremely talented women!

Celina of Petit a Petit and Family is one of the talented ladies I have the pleasure of creating alongside on The Sewing Rabbit. When she posted her tutorial for the Reversible Paper Bag Skirt, I was instantly excited because I'm not much of a skirt wearer, but I love skirts. It's not that I don't want to wear them, it's just that I have a smaller waist and wider hips, so many times skirts just don't flatter my figure.

Since her paper bag skirt features a gathered high-waist, it was the perfect excuse for me to make myself a skirt that I'd actually be able to wear!

It turned out just as good as I hoped, and I love that the skirt is reversible. For the gingham, I used fabric from a set of curtains I thrifted months ago. The floral print is from who knows where, but it's wonderfully soft and drapey. Another benefit of following Celina's tutorial is that I learned how to sew flat felled hems (flat felled hems are commonly used on jeans to encase the raw edges and give the jeans a nice, finished look.) Yay for new techniques!

Thanks for the great tutorial, Celina! And if you've ever considered contributing to another blogger's blog sometime, DO IT. It will stretch you in the best way possible.

Vintage Toolbox Herb Garden (Revived & Repurposed!)

Happy Hump Day fellow blogerinas!  Just a few more days until the weekend is here!  For me, that means getting lots of projects done.  Last weekend I finally finished reviving this awesome vintage toolbox that I scored for just a few dollars at an estate sale a few weeks ago.  As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it to be an herb garden for my porch.  I considered just putting the soil directly in the box, but I like to keep my herbs as long as possible into the winter, so I decided to use pots inside the box that I can bring inside when the temps drop.  (from Ikea, of course!)

To paint the triangles I used the same paint that I did on the front door (see that post here).  I thought it would be a good way to make my porch cohesive. 

After I painted the triangles, I coated the bare wood with Thompson's WaterSeal to keep it safe from the elements.  This goes on super easy, but takes about 24 hrs to dry.  Make sure you do this outside because the fumes are killer!

For my labels, I took some little wooden triangles, painted them with chalkboard paint, drilled holes in them and tied them to the toolbox handle with bakers twine.  This way, you can change the labels when needed.

The best part of this?  Using the herbs to make delicious food!  I made a whole wheat margarita pizza with fresh basil and oregano on top. SOOOO yummy!

I love finding little gems like this toolbox and repurposing them into something fabulous!  What kinds of things have you repurposed lately?  We'd love for you to share inspiration with us!

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!

Refashioned Tiger Shirt + Mini Tutorial

Shannon gave me this awesome tiger tee forever ago. I loved it and wore it a ton...that is until I managed to shrink it (or maybe it was always like that and I was blissfully unaware of that fact because I loved the cool tiger graphic.) Either way, it was time for me to retire the tiger tee, so it sat in my refashion giant box pile until I rediscovered it and decided that Connor needed this shirt.

I just love refashions, don't you? Breathing new life into a discarded piece of clothing can be so much fun! That may be one of the major reasons why I have a hard time getting rid of clothes - I always think about what they could become (and if you see me on "Hoarders: Buried Alive" you'll know why.)

For this tee, I decided to refashion it into a sleeveless tank for Connor. There are tons of great patterns out there that you could use (like Dana's muscle tee) but if you don't have a pattern, no fear. All you need to do is take one of your child's t-shirts and fold it in half with the sleeves tucked in, then trace around the shirt adding 1/2 inch seam allowance, and 1 inch on the bottom for the hem. Boom. Little guy tank. Then it's just a matter of placing your pattern on the t-shirt to be refashioned and cutting out. Then, cut the front neckline a little lower than the back, assemble as usual, and hem your neckline, armholes, and bottom. If you cut out your tank on the existing hemline of your shirt, you won't even have to bother with sewing a bottom hem.

And I'm all about saving time. Because then I get to spend more time with this guy:

All this kid needs to be happy is a stick. What is it with little boys? They can make weapons out of anything, can't they? And PS, it is extremely difficult to make a 2-year-old stand still for pictures when you're out of M&M's.

What kind of fun stuff do you have sitting in your refashion pile?

Check out our Link Party Page to see where we link up each week!