Project Final Home – Master Bath

Tags

bathroom, bathrooms, decor, Decorating, fixer upper, floating shelves, master bath, metal pipe, modern farmhouse, new home, subway tile, walk in shower, white

We decided to do a walk in shower since I couldn’t seem to keep a glass door clean!

The tub I ordered online on Black Friday from Vintage Tub and Bath.

The floating shelves were custom made and the metal piping came from a hardware store and we painted them black!

Decorations are from Hobby Lobby.

Modern Farmhouse Kitchen

Tags

accent wall, decor, Decorating, farmhouse, faux wood wall, fixerupper, floating shelves, home, island, joanna gaines, kitchen, modern farmhouse, new home, stikwood, style, white subway tile

I’ll start with the kitchen and share room-to-room in our final home as each room becomes fully decorated! As of now, the kitchen is the only thing that’s complete!

For the wood accent wall, we used Stikwood! It turned out even better than I expected!

The glass pendant lights are from Wayfair and bar stools are from Overstock.

The appliances are all GE Cafe Series.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This recipe was incredibly delicious! If you follow it exactly as it says, you will be eating a super yummy, moist (although I hate that word, it’s an awesome adjective for a cake) pound cake in a couple of hours!

Finished product!

BLUEBERRY CREAM CHEESE POUND CAKE
INGREDIENTS 

8 ounces cream cheese

1 1⁄2 cups butter

3 cups granulated sugar

6 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 cup frozen blueberries

DIRECTIONS
Cream together the cream cheese, butter and sugar.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg.

Add the flour, one-cup at a time, beating well after each cup.

Add vanilla and lemon extracts; beat well.

Fold in the blueberries.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured Bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, and then turn the temperature down to 325 degrees F and bake for another 55 minutes.

Test the cake, and bake a little longer if needed.

Folding in the Blueberries

Ready to bake!

For the glaze topping, just mix 1 1/4c. Confectioners Sugar and 3 Tbsp. Milk

DIY Faux Barnwood Accent Wall

Tags

accent wall, barn, barnwood, boards, distress, distressed, diy, rustic, wall, white, white pine, wood

I had gotten inspired to take on our babies room at 6 1/2 months pregnant. (I think I’m going through the nesting period.)

I had seen so many BEAUTIFUL faux Barnwood walls, that I had to have one. I started getting the spare bedroom cleaned out

(before)

  (After paint)

So next began my endeavor to find “faux peel and stick barnwood”. If you can find some of that, it look halfway decent and not pay $1,400… I might just kiss your hiney.

IT. WAS. IMPOSSIBLE.

I ordered vinyl peel and stick flooring from Lowe’s, waited a week for it to come in, and it looked terrible. It was all shiney, you wouldn’t have seen any grooves PLUS they sent me the glue on kind instead of the “peel and stick”… so I took it back.

Time to scramble and come up with a new option. The next day, I drove all around my town looking for barns/buildings that were falling in to see if I could find the owners and ask them if I could have their wood. I stopped after 3 people turned me down. Plus, I was kind of nervous about bugs… and sticking them over my babies head. (The $1,500 Stickwood was looking MIGHTY good at about that time.)

So I scratched that idea. My husband was off work the next day, so I decided to add him to the venture. My next plan was to buy wood from Lowes and distress it like the tutorial here.

So the process begins.

First we found a good looking, even board. The 8′ 6″x1″ white pine was what we went with.

We figured how much wood we would need for our wall, and it turns out my husband is an expert square foot figurer, seeing as we only had 1 extra board after the wall was complete.

We thought out a pattern that would go well with our 11 foot wide room and cut the boards, writing what size they were on the back of each plank.

8′ and a 3′

2′ 4′ and a 5′

4′ 3′ and a 4′

all totaling 11′, you get the picture, etc. etc.

We laid the boards out and made sure it would fit our wall before we started staining.

  

Next, we stained the wood planks, starting from the 8′ boards to the 2′. It was a sunny, warm day so we were able to lay them out to dry and by the time we got done staining the 2′ boards, I could start dry brushing the white paint on. (You can check the link above on how to distress wood, we used everything exactly as was mentioned there except the DIY wood stain.)

After the white paint dried, I took the steel wool (with gloves!) and rubbed down all of the pieces. Next, we took all of the boards to the room and laid them out by size, and wrote out the exact pattern we wanted (above) so it was easy to grab the pieces and nail them up. All of the pieces fit perfectly on the wall because we made sure to measure them as they were laid out on the pavement to be sure they equaled 11′. Also, you see those blue chalk lines on the wall? Instead of nailing up new boards to nail THESE planks into causing the planks to overhang the floor molding, my husband used his stud finder to find the studs in the walls and we chalked them and was easily able to nail right into a stud when hanging the boards. We also wanted to start hanging from the top, so that when we got to the bottom and had to cut a board in half to make it fit, it wouldn’t look weird. (In case we messed up!)

   We ended up having to cut our bottom board to a 2″ and stain and paint those after we got all the boards up, because we weren’t sure exactly what that measurement would end up being after it was all said and done. We used 2 1/2″ nails in our nail gun and the boards felt very stable on the wall! I didn’t cover the nail holes with anything, because I think it looks better with them!

Here is the finished product!

It’s been a while since my last post, I hope you all are doing well and maybe I will get back into this blogging thing! Have a great day everyone!

Mamaw Margaret’s Pecan Pie

This is one of my grandmothers recipes. Aren’t those the best? Why of course they are! And this one is no let down! Try it out and see for yourself!

Mamaw Margaret’s Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

5 Eggs

2 Sticks Margarine

1c. Sugar

4 Tbsp. Flour

1c. Light Corn Syrup

1c. Dark Corn Syrup

1Tbsp. Vanilla

Dash of Salt

2c. Pecans

2 Pie Crusts

Directions:

Heat oven to 375. Mix flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream eggs, butter, syrups and vanilla.

Mix both bowls together and fold in pecans.

Pour into pie crusts and bake for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 350 and bake for 40 more minutes.

Enjoy!

Country Style Steak

Country Style Steak

(printable version)

Meat Patty Ingredients:

Hamburger Meat (1lb will make 4 patties)

Oil

Salt and Pepper

Brown Gravy Ingredients:

1/3 c. Self-Rising Flour

2 Tbsp. Oil

3 c. Hot Water

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Form patties out of your hamburger meat. Salt and pepper on both sides. In a large frying pan, heat your vegetable oil. Place the patties in the pan and brown on both sides. Remove patties and set aside after browning. Pour the oil/grease out.

In the same pan (on medium heat), add your flour and oil for your gravy. Stirring with a whisk, let the mixture brown just slightly. Add your water and salt and pepper and continue stirring with a whisk until it starts to thicken.

Place the patties back into the pan and cover with a lid and let simmer on medium/low for about 2 hours. You could also put the meat and gravy in a crockpot and cook on low all day or on high for 2 hours.

Also, an easier method is just buying cubed steak at the grocery store where your patties are already made. Just make sure they are thawed out before browning, but you would make them the exact same way!

Baked Spaghetti

(printable version)

Ingredients:

Meat sauce (use the same recipe as sauce for lasagna)

1 (16 oz.) box uncooked spaghetti, broken into thirds

2 eggs

1 c. milk

1 tsp. salt

2 c. (8 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Make your meat sauce.

Cook spaghetti according to package directions; drain. In a large bowl, beat the egg, milk and salt. Add spaghetti; toss to coat. Transfer to a greased 13×9 in. baking dish.

Spoon your sauce over the spaghetti mixture. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with the cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Yield: 12-16 servings

Peach Tart

So, tonight I had an overwhelming amount of peaches sitting on my counter. What to do what to do. I have been watching a lot of The American Baking Competition, so why not try something new? I did feel pretty inspired. I could make a tart. I’ve never made one of those before. So I did! And it turned out absolutely delightful. It wasn’t nearly as complicated as I thought it would be either! As long as you have a food processor, you’re all set! Here’s the recipe:

Short Crust Pastry

In a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds). Pour 1/8 cup water in a slow, steady stream through the feed tube until the pastry just holds together when pinched. Add remaining water, if necessary. Do not process more than about 30 seconds.

Turn the pastry out onto your work surface, gather it into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour to chill the butter and allow the gluten in the flour to relax. 

Once the pastry has chilled, remove from refrigerator and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry into a 14 inch square.To prevent the pastry from sticking to the counter and to ensure uniform thickness, keep lifting up and turning the pastry a quarter turn as you roll (always roll from the center of the pastry outwards to get uniform thickness). Transfer the pastry to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover and place in the refrigerator while you slice the peaches.

Peach Filling

Wash and rub the peaches to remove any fuzz. Cut the peach following the suture from stem to blossom end and then up the opposite side. Gently twist the two halves of the peach and it should easily separate. Remove the seed and cut into 3/4 – 1 inch slices. You will need about 4 cups of sliced peaches. Place the peach slices in a large bowl and season with a pinch of salt. Then add about 3 to 4 tablespoons of granulated white sugar, or to taste. Arrange peach slices randomly on the pastry, leaving about a two inch wide border. Scrape any remaining sugar from the bowl and sprinkle over the peaches. Gently fold the edges of the pastry up and over the peaches, pleating as necessary. Make sure to seal any cracks in the pastry.

Bake the tart in a preheated 425 degree F oven for about 35 -45 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Reduce heat by 25 degrees if the pastry starts to burn. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Best served warm, within an hour of baking, with vanilla ice cream.

Recipe Source: Joy of Baking

Molten Lava Cake

Tags

Dessert

Molten Lava Cake

(Printable Version)

Makes 3 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

4 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate

1/2 c. (1 stick) butter

3 Egg Yolks

1/4 c. Sugar

3 Egg Whites

Directions:

Lightly grease 3-4 ramekins with butter.
Melt the chocolate into the butter in a double boiler and let cool a bit.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar and mix into the chocolate.

Beat the egg whites in a bowl until the form soft peaks.

Fold the chocolate into the egg whites.

Pour the batter into the ramekins, no more than 2/3 full.

Bake in a preheated 400F oven for 7-10 minutes. The outside will be set and possibly crack and the inside will still be liquid.

Let cool for a few minutes and then run a knife around the edges and tip onto a plate. (I ate mine straight out of the ramekin with some vanilla icecream on the side!)

Enjoy!

Mini Raspberry Cobblers

This is a recipe I got from my friend, Anne Flanagan, (a/k/a Raleigh Cake Pops). I follow her on Instagram and she usually is posting wonderful pics of all different types of cakepops, but this week she posted a complete eye catcher for me. These little treats not only LOOK delish… they. are. It was so kind of her to share the recipe, so I will share it here as well! I hope you all enjoy as much as I did!

Mini Raspberry Cobblers

Ingredients:

1 c. Sugar

1 c. Flour

2 tsp. Baking Powder

Dash of Salt (omit when using salted butter)

3/4 c. Milk

1 stick Butter, melted

Whole Raspberries (you can use your fruit of choice,  but this was mine)

Brown Sugar and Cinnamon for dusting (or just plain white sugar)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a cupcake pan with parchment liners or paper cupcake liners.
I made my own liners by cutting 5-inch squares out of parchment paper and then wrap/mold around a glass.

Whisk dry/first four ingredients in a bowl

Slowly add milk and mix by hand until combined

Melt butter (microwave or stovetop)
Add 1 teaspoon of melted butter in each cupcake liner

Next, add 2 tablespoons of batter, on top of the butter

Now add 1 tablespoon of fruit on top of the batter
Sprinkle with sugar or cinnamon/sugar

Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 14-16 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool completely before removing from pan.

Serve with fruit or icecream! They are such a tasty treat! Thanks again, Anne!