My Floral Craving Satisfied.... Frugally!!

For the last couple of months I have been craving floral patterns... intensely.

I think it originated from a couple pins on my French Romance Board on Pinterest. It is a board where I just pin pretty things that are my style and I don't know where else to put them. Anyways, I pinned this basket of beautiful floral quilts, some floral print teacups, and some floral pillows. (I was going to share, but I couldn't find their sources...bummer.)

So then I just wanted to surround myself with everything floral! I think it was a bit of Spring Fever. Anyways, I have no income currently (being a full time student) so I tried to avoid shopping. However one night after grocery shopping I sweetly asked my husband if we could quickly stop into GoodWill. He agreed...and there it was!

A Simply Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell pillow sham! For $2.99! Now I know that some of you from bigger cities have more impressive thrifting experiences (as far as price), but here in WI I think that is a pretty good deal for the usually overpriced thrift stores! It was brand-spankin-new and $20 at one point in its life!

Pink isn't necessarily my go-to decorating color or anything, but I can handle a touch of soft pinks around the home, and I think pinks always work well with floral patterns.

Well that should hold me over for now...at least until I graduate at the end of the month and get a job (hopefully right away!)... and then once I do, well... watch out!! Our little apartment may look like an English garden. Mwahahaha... my husband will just have to embrace the feminine touches. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Olivia



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A trip to the Party Barn ....to do some wedding planning!!

This past weekend my friends Aaron and Whitnie invited me to go to the Pedretti Party Barn in Viroqua, WI with them - that is where they will be having their wedding ceremony and reception on September 6th! I am honored to be a bridesmaid, and was excited to go with and check out the space.

Right away when we got there we walked on to the deck and this gigantic mule came running over to say hi! It's hard to tell by this picture just how fat he is. I was definitely confused because I knew it wasn't a horse, but it was much bigger than some of the horses I have seen.
Anyways, there are a few other mules too, and they will just be hanging out right next to the barn and deck at the wedding reception, which I think is cool...gotta love partying mules.

Here is the inside of the barn with the current game plan for set up. I think it will work nicely. It is similar to what my husband and I did at our wedding, It allows for all of the guest to visit with the bride and groom and wedding party when they are in line to get their food.

This is the view from the other end. There is a nice stage in the corner, and those two old door are super cool and detailed! I wish I would have gotten a better picture of them.

It is definitely an awesome space, and it's already partly decorated!

I thought this was so cute! They put a little bow tie and hat on the ...uh...elk?
P.S. Whitnie is not that tall! She is up on Aaron's shoulders :)

In my mind I can see all the dancing and partying going on already! It will look great. Whitnie was talking about possibly putting some Spanish moss up in the light fixtures that would hang down. That would look really pretty... Also maybe decorating with some of the grape vines that are out in the vineyard, because they are getting married outside in the vineyard area, and there is a rustic wine theme going on (centerpieces are decorated wine bottles!) so I think that would look awesome too!
No matter what, it will be beautiful...it is a gorgeous space already, and outside it is surrounded by rolling hills of farm land, the vineyard, and of course the mules!
I can just picture it all green and lush and wonderful.... hurry up spring!!

Before we left we stopped at the Viroqua Food Co-op and got some Honest Tea and organic cookies. This is what the inside of my tea bottle cap said. I thought it was sweet...

Have a blessed day!
~Olivia


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Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Well I tried out another recipe from my Yum Board on Pinterest. Now only about 200 more to go right!? Haha...

Okay, so first I have to admit that I only kinda followed the recipe. I didn't have everything, and so I used it for an inspiration you could say.
But the real recipe can be found HERE!

If you are looking for something to make for dinner I definitely recommend them. Tasty and healthy.

So I didn't really measure...Like I said, it was an "inspiration". I know for sure I doubled the black beans (we love black beans!) and I didn't have water chestnuts, cayenne pepper, or tomato sauce (I used paste + water). And they still turned out!

I'm learning how much I love recipes that can be flexible.... because I hardly ever have all the ingredients I need. No space to put them all!

Oh, and I only used 3 peppers instead of 7. We just ate some of the stuffing on its own. (Check out big red...it was seriously a giant!!)

Now before you go thinking, "Oh, this poor girl doesn't even know how to cut her peppers!", let me tell you that we like them that way!! We have decided that we like them as more of a "bowl" style rather than a "cup" style because...
1.) You get more of the pepper with every bite.
2.) When you cut them they aren't as messy.
3.) You double your peppers! (kinda)

So that's that.

Here they are all stuffed and pretty. Ready to bake for close to an hour...make sure you start making them long before you are hungry, or make sure you are a patient person. My husband is not...at least not when it comes to food.

All done. Make sure you don't forget the cheese. These WI cheese heads never do. NOM NOM.
Delicious and nutritious... a complete protein and lots of veggies. Can't beat that!

Thanks for visiting! And a special shout out to my FIRST TWO FOLLOWERS!!!! I was soooo excited to see that. Thanks ladies.

Blessings,
Olivia

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The Most Precious Wedding Gift

This truly is the most precious wedding gift that my husband and I received from our wedding last summer. This lovely and hand-crafted ceramic dish was a gift from the Maid of Honer - my little sister.

My sister Maddie is a very talented artist in more ways then one. She has worked with about every medium now, but I remember back in the day when she would paint on scraps of wood. She is an amazing painter, cake decorator, sketcher, sculptor, musician, and overall creator. She constantly creates beauty! And I know she could make a career out of it is she chooses to do so.

It is tough to see in this picture, but underneath the crackled glass bottom it says our names and wedding date in the clay! You can kind of make out the 2013 right in the middle. That makes it even more personal and darling.

She actually made this gift in one of her advanced art classes in high school after Matt and I had gotten engaged and long before the wedding. She is good at keeping a secret I guess! If I would have created this beauty I would have been bragging about it to the world as soon as it was done!! She is a humble artist though, which makes her that much more lovable. 

I absolutely adore these white flowers along the edge! She just knows me too well...

There are seven of them too! This is exciting to me because the number seven means perfect and complete (in Biblical meaning). So I really like the number seven. Also it represents the month of July when we were married. 

These pretty flowers also came with the gift...she told me, "There are six, for the number of kids you two want to have." So sweet! :)  But now Matt and I better stick to what we said! Lets hope I like motherhood...

They even have holes that go through there bases so I can string them if I want to! She thought of it all, that wonderful sister of mine. 

Can you see why this is so precious to me? Such a beautiful, personal, one-of-a-kind gift. I love it so much, and I love my beautiful sister that created it!

Blessings,

Olivia

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Chest Makeover.....

I wanted to share another one of my furniture makeovers. I re-did this chest at the end of last summer. It had been in my husband's parent's basement, and it was on its way to the dumpster when things were getting cleared out for moving. The top of it was broken (the wood glue had stopped being glueish and there was a board just sitting on top.). Also, it was pretty old and beat up. Here is the before....

It had a lot of deep scratches all over it...even after I stripped it and sanded it for a while...It wasn't a big deal though since this time I decided to embrace them and go for the distressed look. I learned that lesson the hard way after my desk makeover, which can be seen HERE.

I didn't like the orangy stain it had so I decided to paint it white! Because white is awesome and happy and bright and timeless. And it would then go with all of my other white things...  Of course my dad gave me a lot of crap for this, and my husband only a little. What is it with men and their issue with painting wood!?!

My husband fixed the top of it for me with a little wood glue and some clamps (I know he secretly likes to be in on the projects I do). You can kind of see in the before picture how many scratches there were. And you can see in the after how much fun I had distressing it...

Maybe a little too much fun?? Yeah, I know. I will have to try to hold back some more next time I distress...ohh well. I'm a beginner!

I knew that you distress in areas that get a lot of use, like where it would be opened or the feet and edges for example. And that is where I started! I just didn't stop... What can I say? Palm sanders are too stinkin' fun!

I also knew that I wanted to put a Bible verse on the front of it, because I had pinned a few white chests with wording on the front on My Home Style Board on Pinterest. And I love God's words, so I though I would use some of His!

I knew that I wanted to use Colossians 3:12 because that was the verse that my pastor used during our wedding ceremony. The whole verse is "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."

The chest is currently in my old bedroom at my parent's place, so it is kinda cramped and I couldn't get a picture with all of the wording close up and in one shot. To do the wording I used some sweet lettering stickers my momma got me.
-First I painted the spots where I wanted the wording to be with white and cream paint.
-Then I sanded those spots heavily because the words mostly needed to be dark. I just wanted some white to show through.
-Then I stuck on my awesome stickers and tried not to be too much of a perfectionist so that it would have a bit of a free-spirited kind of feel. Because, lets face it - I wish I was more free-spirited and not caring so much about the little things.
-After that I painted over all of it with white.
-Finally I got to peel off the stickers and distress! And then distress some more... haha Oyy.

Hope you enjoyed.

Blessings,
Olivia

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Cinnamon-Streusel Coffee Cake

I went back home to the real country (Hayward) last weekend. People in La Crosse keep saying this is a "small town". To them all I have to say is...  NO. It is not. Go visit Hayward. Anyways, it was nice to be back...I enjoy having a yard instead of a parking lot space. Haha - But really, I start to miss the fresh air here.

On one of the days I was there my sister and I decided to make a coffee cake. It turned out to be pretty yummy, so I thought I would share.

My sister had the recipe as a pin on one of her Pinterest boards. The recipe can be found HERE.

We didn't have the same pan as the recipe called for; we just had a regular spring form pan. We tried to stick an empty salt shaker jar in the middle to get the hole, but it was too little. Just a little extra baking time worked fine though!

Between me, my husband, my sister, my mom, and my dad...it did not last very long at all!

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!! Yummy! hehe

If you're in the mood for some coffee cake, I recommend this one for sure!


Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Olivia



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