Weekend Recap

The weekend kicked off with hubs walking through the door Friday night with a beautiful bouquet of pink tulips {my favorite} for me.  It was a total surprise, but a welcomed one!

I made my mom's crabcake recipe for dinner.  It was the first time I'd made them, not sure why because they're super easy and quick to make. They were delish -- no filler!  And it was an addded bonus that hubs was able to eat them since he can't chew anything for a few more weeks.  They will definitely be added into our regualr dinner rotation.

Saturday was a lazy day full of cleaning the house, laundry, a few errands followed by a date night in.  I indulged in some long, overdue vino and a cheese plate and hubs chowed down on peach cobbler while watching Horrible Bosses.  Have you seen it? It was one of those stupid, funny movies but man is Jennifer Anniston's character vulgar!  I'm pretty sure I need to go to church all week after watching it!

Oh but the best part of Saturday?!  Learning our good friends, actually our old neighbors, spilled the beans that they're pregnant....with TWINS!!  They have a little guy, Luc, who is 15 months.  Needless to say we were SHOCKED by the news and SO incredibly excited for them.  I can't wait, twins are so much fun!

Sunday was filled with a morning of church, much needed after missing the last 3 Sundays, followed by an afternoon of shopping at the outlets. 

We did a little damage! : )

We were excited to find out the outlets now have a Vineyard Vines -- with amazing prices!

It was a nice, lazy weekend.  One of the lasts for quite a while until all the holiday craziness is over. 

Happy Monday and yay for a short week!

cBv

Trash to Treasure - Living Room Ottoman

When we moved and gained more space I knew right off the bat that I wanted a round ottoman for our living room to use in place a traditional coffee table. We shopped around at a few home décor/furniture stores such as Arhaus, Ethan Allen, etc. but I refused to spend $1,000 on a coffee table that wasn’t e.x.a.c.t.l.y what I wanted. So I started watching trusty old Craigslist and after a couple weeks I found this eyesore.

Although the fabric was hideous, it had great bones and was from a smoke-free environment and was in excellent condition, structurally. It was listed for $60 but I low balled the seller since they were moving {and I assumed eager to get rid of things} and snagged it for $40. I knew there was endless potential to reupholster.

I started searching for a fabric and scoured the interwebs for local upholstery shops, reading reviews and getting estimates. I stumbled upon a super nice, older man with a little shop that offered free pick-up and delivery AND was a third of the price as the other two estimates I received. Even better, the few reviews I was able to find online claimed he did great work and the clients were thrilled with the outcome.

I decided to take a chance. Mr. Upholstery Man picked up the ottoman and two weeks later delivered what looked like a brand spanking new ottoman.

I am more than thrilled with the quality of work and the way it turned out overall. So pleased, in fact, that I’m considering buying two used accent chairs and having them reupholstered instead of buying brand new in order to achieve exactly what I want. I’ve been giddy like a kid on Christmas morning every time I walk into our living room and see it. It is by far my favorite piece in our house.

If you live in the DC Metro area and are looking for a great upholstery shop please email me and I’ll be more than happy to share the info with you. 

In the end we ended up saving about $600 and ended up with a custom piece.

Total Cost: $450

Breakdown:

Ottoman $40

Reupholster $290

Robert Allen Fabric (5 yards) $120

I'm thinking a cute tray is the perfect finishing touch.

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Review: Target Frye Look Alike Boots by Merona

Lately there just aren't enough hours in the day and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever get back to blogging, regularly.  I've been busy playing nurse to my wonderful, amazing and hero husband who underwent some unplanned surgery last week.

Anyways, the Target Frye wannabe boots by Merona arrived last week and I finally got around to trying them on this weekend.

The verdict? 

Meh. 

They had lots of potential but both pairs, cognac and brown, ended up being returned to Target. 

Ignore the jeans, they went back, too.  I'm striking out lately w. fashion.

Although they were extremely comfortable on my feet, they just looked cheap to me. The other thing I wasn't crazy about was they were a bit tight on my upper calves, I wasn't blessed with chicken legs, and they slouched (already) on my ankles.  I don't want to be walking around with cankles. And I totally forgot to take a picture of the brown ones but you can see a smidgen of the color in the corner of the pic.

And while we're talking footwear, does anyone else have this problem?

No matter what brand or type of footies/liners I buy to wear with (any pair of) flats they always show.  So then I end up just wearing flats barefoot, which I hate because I don't want them smelling funky. 

Do y'all wear footies with flats? If so, where/what brands do you buy?  And do they show?

Driving.me.crazy.

Hope everyone is having a good week. 

CVB

DIY Halloween Treat Bucket

For the past five years we’ve lived in a condo building which meant no trick or treaters at Halloween. Boo! Which in my opinion is the best part of Halloween! So you can imagine my excitement when we moved to a townhouse in the middle of a great neighborhood. I’m so excited to have an actual real Halloween this year complete with trick or treaters. I hope we see lots of kiddos, Lord knows I bought about 15 bags of candy so I hope they don’t disappoint and force the hubs and I to eat all the candy ourselves.

Anyways, I started searching back in August for the perfect treat bucket to use to pass out Halloween goodies. I came across this one but then I saw the $32 price tag I did a double take.

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Any other year I’d pay that in a heartbeat, but this year we have way too many furniture/home decor purchases to justify that price for a bucket I’ll use once a year. So I headed over to Pinterest confident I could find something just as cute that I could make for half the price.

Of course, Pinterest had no problem providing me with more than enough inspiration.

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I ended up using this picture to recreate my own.

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And came up with this.

Quick, easy and best of all cheap. The entire project cost $16 and was completed, start to finish in under 30 minutes. If you have a Cricut and can make your own decal, you'll save a few extra dineros.

Here’s what you need:

Ribbon – I bought one 3-yard spool from JoAnn’s at 50% for $2.00

Bucket – I found the perfect sized plastic one in the Halloween section at Target for $6.00

Decal – Ordered a custom decal from an Etsy shop for $8 (two parts: pumpkin & text)

Drill – borrowed the hubs’

The only real effort was drilling the holes in the bucket for the ribbon. This actually took real muscles so I had the hubs drill the holes with the biggest bit (about a 1/2 inch) that he had.

Choose how far or close apart to drill the holes; I drilled mine about 2 inches apart. Weave the ribbon through the holes and then tie a big ‘ole bow. Place the decal on the bucket.

And voila! Fill with candy and you’re ready to greet trick or treaters.

So far I haven't given in to the chocolately goodness, but the hubs has!

CVB

 

P.S. - I ordered the boots I mentioned here in both Cognac and Brown so I'll be sure to give you a full report when they arrive later this week.

Frugal Fashion: Frye Boots

I am head over heels, gaga over the Frye Melissa Button boots.  But I'm not so in love with their price tag. 

So I started searching for a more wallet-friendly alternative to the droolworthy Frye and stumbled upon this lovely.

Enter the Merona Kasia Boot at Target.

It comes in Cognac, Dark Brown AND Black.

It's leather.

And the best part? 

It's only $69.99.

With free shipping.

Too good to be true?  Quite possibly -- the reviews are mixed on Target's website.  But with free shipping and easy in-store returns what's a girl got to lose?!

Has anyone purchased these?  If so, what's your take?

Happy Friday!

CVB

Why Hello! Catch Up in Pics

Let's just forget I've been MIA for the last 8 months or so and get on with it, shall we?  Here's a brief recap of the goings on before I dive back into regularly scheduled blogging. 
April - we visited Seattle and Vancouver, BC for almost a week.  It is by far one of our favorite cities, right behind Nahsville of course.  And if you are a seafood, sushi or mac n' cheese lover like myself, Seattle is a must! 

Grouse Mountain - Vancouver, BC

Beecher's Famous Mac n' Cheese

May

• Annual family vacation to Duck, NC (in the Outer Banks), hubs and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with one heck of a celebration at the Washington Monument(!), and we put the final touches on our condo in preparation for putting it on the market.

June

• Weddings, birthdays, summer fun and putting our teeny, tiny, under 700 sq. ft., condo on the market FSBO!

July

• Under contract on our condo and a surprise birthday trip to the beloved city of Nashville complete with a scavenger hunt around town to reveal surprise visitors

My little sis

The. best.bananas.foster.french.toast.period.

The big 2-8 at one of our Nashville favorites, the Stock Yard

August

• Hubs' last birthday before the big 3-0, closed on our condo (!), found a new, much bigger, home, moved our stuff to storage, wedding

September

• Football season!  Pumpkin spice lattes, lots of home/furniture purchases, winery visits, and best of all the arrival of our 2nd nephew!

I'm excited to get back into the swing of things and document our life! Happy fall y'all!

CVB

Yum Endorsement

Run, do not walk, to your Trader Joe's store and pick up a box, or 10, of these. I was looking for a small treat to satisfy my nightly sweet tooth cravings and man did I hit the jackpot.


We've already almost finished the box I bought on Monday. If you don't have T. Joe's I'm really, really sorry! I would mail you all a box if they wouldn't melt!
cBv

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