When I realized that Rob and I needed a sideboard/credenza for our dining room to hold serving pieces and extra dishes, I began looking at all our options. I quickly realized that I didn’t really want a sideboard enough to part with hundreds of dollars. I wanted a stopgap sideboard that would suffice until I could afford the sideboard of my dreams.

Enter ugly dresser found from Craigslist:


This dresser had 4 things that made it the perfect temporary sideboard:
1. Cabinets with doors in addition to drawers. Drawers can be useful in a dining room (hello silverware storage), but for the most part they become unwieldy when filled with heavy dishes. The cabinets with doors are perfect for large heavy stacks of plates and other china. (The drawers are perfect for bulky large platters or those over-sized chip/dip trays that won’t fit anywhere else in your house.)
2. Interesting Hardware. The drawer pulls had some spunk.
3. Interesting Architecture. The cabinet doors had some intriguing ornament to them. Don’t get me wrong; it’s definitely UGLY — late 70′s/early 80′s plastic-glued-to-manufactured-wood furniture. However, when looking at the pictures of the dresser on Craigslist and later in person at the thrift store, I saw some potential.
4. Cheap price. I’m not going to euphemize this one; the dresser wasn’t affordable or cost-efficient. It was cheap. And at a fraction of the cost of my other options, I pulled the trigger.

Fast forward through the horrible difficulties of transporting over-sized, manufactured wood furniture (thanks Mom for letting me borrow your Envoy!), and I had to decide how to make this ugly dresser fit in our cute little home. I did some research online & decided on spray paint, but not just any old color. I chose silver spray paint with gold for the handles. We lugged the monstrosity outside, gave it a good cleaning, and 3 coats of spray paint later, Voilà!:

Gilding (silvering) makes it all look ok!

Martha Stewart is ruining eBay for me. Every weekend, I take a moment to relax and execute two searches: 1) Sour Cream Glass and 2) Sour Cream Glasses. (For some strange reason, these searches don’t yield the same results.) These glasses are generally vintage glasses that sour cream manufacturers used to package their sour cream in as a freebie gift, like jelly jars. They come in pint and half-pint sizes; I’m definitely partial to the half-pint glasses. Over the years, I’ve found some great buys on these gorgeous little glasses that we use in our home everyday. They’re perfect for wine, juice, or a quick glass of water. I never worried about breaking these glasses because they were so ubiquitous. Sometimes, I even found the glasses at thrift stores priced at $.50 or $1.00. I fear this will never again be the case.

Martha Stewart’s magazine recently featured sour cream glasses in its, “Our Finds,” section. (PS they have a new section of the same name on their website.) Suffice it to say, the prices for sour cream glasses are skyrocketing on eBay. I’m thinking maybe I should start selling my collection, but I’m too in love with all the patterns. Oh well, maybe this trend will die down soon, and I can go back to scoring them for a reasonable price (or at least less than $10.00 per glass)!

Although it has been some time since I’ve posted, I’d thought I’d feature a project that I really enjoy knitting for friends–bracelets! I recently made this bracelet for an amazing lady’s birthday present. Before sealing it up in the gift box, I took a few pictures for julepstyle. Each knitted bracelet I’ve made has been very different, but I’m pretty pleased with how this bracelet turned out.


I didn’t really take enough images to do a tutorial, but I can briefly explain how I made this bracelet. I start with 24 Gauge, Tarnish Resistant Copper Wire. To incorporate the beads into the bracelet, they need to all be on the wire before you begin knitting. Thread about 3-4′ of beads on the wire. (I am never really exact about this; I always err on the side of too many beads, because once you start knitting, you can’t add more.) Then start knitting!

For this bracelet, I cast on 7 stitches (has to be an odd number for me) to size 8 metal circular knitting needles; I think my normal bamboo needles might be damaged by the wire over time. The whole bracelet is done in garter stitch; each time you make a new knit stitch, just bring up a bead and use it in the stitch. Keep knitting until the bracelet’s the desired length. There is some give with the metal; you can stretch it or compress it if you need to after it’s finished. I haven’t been able to find copper clasps that I am happy with, so I just used a shiny silver clasp that blended with the bead colors. Just space the jump rings evenly over the ends of the bracelet, and it’s finished!

We went to Brookgreen Gardens Friday evening for their summer evening concert series. It was fun, and I drew my husband as he enjoyed the scene beside me.

ETA — Is it super-obvious that I hate drawing ears?

I’m taking this opportunity to try out some new technology. Yesterday, I finally relented and upgraded my 16gb white iPhone 3G to the 16gb white iPhone 4. On Sunday, we were at Walmart buying our food for the week and trying to stay out of the way of all the tourists. On a whim, I asked if we could check to see if the store had any of the white phones in, now that they were being offered for $147. And although Rob had called earlier in the week (to ask the same thing) with no luck, this time we hit the jackpot! Walmart had 2! white iPhones in stock.

On Saturday, Rob and I timed the speeds it took my 3G and his 4 to perform tasks. It took 40 seconds on my phone to open the camera, take a picture, and return to the home screen. That was unacceptable. Now my cute little phone is functional again! (And it matches its sister – my white iPad 2.)

This post is really just an experiment in blogging. I’m making the whole post from my new iPhone. The star of this post is a new indoor/outdoor rug that I bought for our master bathroom. I’ve seen this rug a few places online (here and here), but I found the best price for it at OutdoorRugsOnly.com.

Check out how it looks in our bathroom! We’re using it to replace a brown shag; I just wasn’t happy with how the shag stood up to the harsh bathroom environment. It’s a little crazy, but I think that Rob and I both like it. Even the cats are getting used to it. (Initially, they walked on the plastic material like they were walking on something very unpleasant–paws held high, nervously looking around, very careful steps.)

There’s only one kind of deviled egg recipe in the world that I’ll eat, and it’s this one. I grew up on these deviled eggs, first from my grandma, then my mother. Now I’m sharing the recipe because there are entirely too many deviled eggs recipes on the internets that don’t have bacon!

I will be honest and say that I’m a little reluctant to share the pictures. I think deviled eggs don’t make for the most photogenic of foods…

Deviled Eggs

These eggs are perfect for picnics, family gatherings, and cookouts. This recipe is for a lot (48!), so adjust proportions as necessary.

Ingredients:

• Two dozen eggs
• 1 pound of bacon
• Yellow Mustard
• Miracle Whip

1. Boil all of your eggs. Peel them, and slice them in half longways.
2. Cook the bacon. Straight pieces don’t matter, and it’s better to have the bacon well done.
3. Remove all of the yolks and place them in a small mixing bowl. Use a fork to break up the yolks into little pieces.
4. Add mustard and miracle whip. I started out using about 1/2 cup of the miracle whip and 1/4 cup of the mustard. After mixing that in and tasting, I increased both. The final measurements are probably close to 1/3 cup of mustard and 2/3 cup of miracle whip.
5. Crumble bacon and add to the egg mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Spoon the egg yolk mixture back into your eggs.

Easy, tasty, mmm…bacon!

Deviled Eggs - Close-up

When I was a kid, I used to love the Butterscotch Haystacks. This recipe modifies the traditional haystack recipe by shaping it like a bird’s nest and adding eggs to create a really cute (and tasty) spring dessert recipe. (I was totally inspired by the No Bake Easter Nest Cookie Recipe at Prudent Baby.)The other best thing is that it’s super easy to make.

1) Assemble ingredients: Two, 5-oz. cans of Chow Mein Noodle, Peanut Butter, an 11-oz. Bag of Butterscotch Chips, and a Bag of Peanut M&M’s.

Ingredients

2) Sort the peanut M&M’s by color. (So pretty).

Sorted Peanut M&M's

3. Combine Ingredients. Melt 3/4 cup of peanut butter and the butterscotch chips in a pan over medium heat. Stir regularly; you don’t want this to burn! Then add in the chow mein noodles, & take the pan off the heat. Stir in the chow mein noodles until they’re evenly coated with the butterscotch.

4. Spoon the noodles into “nest-sized” blobs on parchment paper. Add three M&M’s in an egg formation.

5. Allow cookies to cool on the counter; for good measure, I also chilled them in the fridge.

Butterscotch Bird's Nest

Butterscotch Bird's Nest - Close-up