Happy Monday! What better way to start out the week than with a delicious muffin recipe?

These muffins are great for two reasons: fresh strawberries and greek yogurt!  I realize now that this is the third recipe in a row I’ve posted that includes these two ingredients (don’t forget about those cupcakes and popsicles!), but can you even blame me? Try them out for yourself!

Strawberry Lemonade Muffins

Recipe adapted from Southern Living

• 2 1/2 C self rising flour*
• 1 C Sugar
• 1 C plain Greek Yogurt
• 1/2 C butter, melted
• 1 Tbs lemon zest
• 1/4 C lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 C diced fresh strawberries

I haven’t posted a Music Monday song on here in FOREVER, but I have one today! Enjoy some Muffins and Music this Monday

Well as you would expect after yesterday’s rug story, I’ve been hounding the rug sections on tons of websites looking for the new “perfect rug.” I’m keeping an open mind and not just trying to find the closest replacement to the first rug.  Here are some of the options I’ve found.

Note: some of these are a little out of the original set budget, but that’s what window shopping is all about, right!?

 I would put my first rug under the graphic motif category: 2 colors, repetitive pattern, but still somewhat neutral and flexible to go with a lot of different stuff. I could follow suit and stick with the same type…

1|2

  Or I could go for a little more bolder graphic…

1|2

Or go for the luxe texture…(nothing quite says welcome to the bedroom like a giant thumbprint rug)

1|2 

Want to see more? Check out my Pinterest board for more rug finds! What do you think? Is it all about texture? or the fun pattern? or both?

When I was first thinking about taking the plunge and actually redoing the bedroom I talked it over with a bunch of people and every conversation went like this:

me: “So I’m thinking I’m going to redo the bedroom”

friend: “oh yeah?! What are you going to do?”

me: “um, I don’t really know yet, I think I need to find a rug first then everything else will just fall into place”

I was hung up on the rug. I couldn’t get anything else. There needed to be something for me to base everything else on, and I decided a rug was just the thing.

I spent the next few weeks scouring the internet for rugs and even started a Pinterest board for the search. And sure, if you want to throw down $1200 on a rug you can find just about anything; however, my budget was much less (take off that first 1 in that last number) which really narrowed the pool of possibilities for me.

I went to store after store looking for a decent rug that wasn’t beige and never found the right one. I knew when I saw it I would just know it was the right one. Sort of like picking out a puppy. You just know that that dog was meant to be with you. I needed that feeling with my rug.

One fateful Saturday in April, after a day full of rug shopping with no luck and my rug energy quickly dwindling away, we went into Lowe’s just so I could cross it off the list of places I tried. After looking through their (beige) rug collection with no luck and starting to walk out, I saw it.  A wool oasis among the laminate flooring samples. There was a special order of rugs just laying there on some pallets. It was like the rug gods felt pity for me and just placed some awesome rugs in right in my path.

I found the rug. The Rug. It had a cool pattern, not beige, subtle, and it was $130! Way under the budget! Rug energy was through the roof at this point and I happily took that rug home. “I can finally start the bedroom now!” I thought, and all the blog posts were starting to formulate in my mind.

So I got the pillow fabric, the duvet cover (which totally matches that grey in the rug), painted the nightstand and everything. All based on the rug. Then I laid it all out ready to finally “redo the bedroom.”

You have to be wondering by now where this is going. Did she spill red wine on it? Was there a hole in it? Is everything great and this is just a silly story for lack of a better blog post? 

Well just so you know, no, no, and no.

Everything looked great. I laid out the rug and just sat on it, loving that the empty wood floors finally had some softness again.

Then, a couple days later, it was cleaning day.

Unlike the rest of the cleaning chores, I was actually looking forward to vacuuming the new rug. But that’s where the story starts to go awry. I vacuumed that rug once. Once! and after that one vacuum, big threads started coming out.

No! My rug! The one piece that started the entire room! Well needless to say, I rolled that rug back up and took it back. (luckily I hadn’t taken the tag off yet). My $80 Target rug lasted 4 years before the threads started coming up, so I expected at least the same from this one. Not one measly vacuum later.

So now, instead of starting with a rug and basing everything else off of that, I have an entire bedroom and need to find a rug to match. I don’t think this is an impossible feat, it’s just a little annoying that I have to go back to searching and pinning rugs.

So that’s where I am now. The floors are empty and I’m currently on the hunt for another rug. I would like to stay around that $200 mark, but if I have to spend a little more to get a little better quality, then maybe that will happen, but I’m still not about to throw down $1200.

Any advice? Any great rug places out there? Where do you get your rugs? I’m definitely in the market again!

I went strawberry picking with a friend and now I have A TON of strawberries. I think I subconsciously put myself in these situations where I end up with an overwhelming amount of  some ingredient (i.e. Limes and Guinness) and then I have to figure out what to do with it all before it goes bad. Sure I could freeze them but that’s not as fun, right? These ingredient binges usually end up with some sort of disastrous kitchen fail or just a bad decision (Seriously, a lime asparagus pie!? We all know that was a stretch) 

Fortunately I’ve been having good luck with these strawberries and now you get to reap the benefits!  These fantastic, not-too-sweet, Strawberries and Cream Popsicles definitely need to go on your must-make list. Plus it uses Greek yogurt and we all know how I feel about that magic ingredient.

Strawberries and Cream Popsicles

Makes about 8 Pops 

• 1 Quart Strawberries
• 1 tbs sugar (optional)
• Vanilla Greek Yogurt
• Popsicle Molds / Sticks

Puree the strawberries and stir in the sugar if you want. If you want the popsicles sweeter, add some more sugar. Pour the strawberries into the molds about 1/2 full. Spoon in some greek yogurt until its not quite full and use the wooden stick to poke and slightly mix the strawberries and yogurt together. Top of with some more yogurt, place the stick in the mixture and freeze until hard!

So simple! And think of the possibilities for this!

• Try strawberry or honey yogurt
• Stir in some lemon zest and some lemon juice
• Add some mint or basil
• Try it with different berries
• Nix the yogurt and just go for full fledged fruit bars

I’m thinking I may need to start some new popsicle diet just so I can make and eat all these delicious treats! Are you with me?

How fun and happy does that look?! I’m in love with these bed pillows. Such a refreshing change from what I had before. Aside from the fabric change, I think the best part of these new pillows is that I reduced my daily pillow load by nearly 50%. 

I’m totally serious. Every morning I would make the bed and stack not 7, not 8, but nine pillows onto the bed, properly arrange them, and then leave the room for the next 16 hours only to come back and take all nine pillows off the bed so I had somewhere to sleep. Basically I had nine pillows on the bed for Lucy to enjoy, and you know, she already gets an entire bed for the whole day, she doesn’t need nine pillows too. I think five will suffice.

Just to make sure you completely get the point, watch this clip from Along Came Polly. It basically sums up my feelings on superfluous pillows. 2 years ago I was Ben Stiller’s character, and I have been slowly morphing into Jennifer’s.

Of course I didn’t stab any of my pillows, but I think you catch my drift.

Ok. I’ll actually talk about the pillows now.

The fabrics I linked to in my bedroom mood board post is actually what I got for these pillows. I got the three prints at Sew to Speak, a fantastically awesome fabric shoppe here in Columbus, and then I got some navy linen for the back of the Euros at JoAnn. I just used some of the existing pillow forms I had, so I didn’t need to buy any fillers.

The yellow print is on the back of the shams (geometric print). When I initially bought the fabric I thought I was going to show the yellow fabric more, but I ended up changing my mind once it got on the bed. Funny how that happens.

As for the throw pillows, my felted loops pillow is the only one that made the cut. That pillow is probably the most labor intensive thing I’ve blogged about which means it’s sticking around for the long haul.

Oh, and by the way, I got a simple, grey duvet cover, too (Real Simple, in fact). I found it at Bed Bath and Beyond and snatched it up once I got a 20% off coupon in the mail. I love it. It has a subtle linear pattern on it to give it some texture but is still just clean and simple.  However, since it is so plain, I really feel like there needs to be some other color or pattern at the foot of the bed (i.e. Lucy’s Blanket). That black and white thing is still living there for now, which actually looks slightly better with this new stuff.

So now you are up to date with the bedroom makeover! Here’s the updated to-do list:

Done

• Bedspread
• Pillows
• Nightstand Revival (including the Drawer Pulls)

I participated in my first ever yard sale this past weekend. I feel like this is a big step into adulthood. I mean, I can’t believe we have accumulated enough stuff on our own to make a good showing at a yard sale. Granted, Ias part of a joint sale with three other women, but as a group we took up a pretty big stretch of sidewalk for our sale.

I’m not claiming to be an expert on garage sales now, but I did learn a few things and wanted to share them with you since June is prime yard sale time and you may be planning your own soon.

1. Bigger is better.

People tend to stop, look and buy more when there is more for sale. If you only have a few items to sell and put them out at the sidewalk all by their lonesome, you’ll most likely get skipped over. Get your neighbors to pull together and have one larger sale, or get some friends to bring stuff to your house.

Turn it up another notch and check if your area is having a neighborhood wide sale. You’re more likely to reach a wider audience if there are 50 other yard sales going on at the same time.

2. Know what your stuff is worth.

Selling some big ticket items or antiques? Do some research ahead of time and know what you should be able to get for those items. Make sure that basket you’re selling for 2 bucks isn’t a Longaberger and double check the brand name on those old plates from your Grandma before selling them for next to nothing.

Selling slightly used electronics or appliances? Search for those items on Craigslist or eBay and see what they are selling for. This will give you a good idea on what you can expect to get for your own items.

3. Keep your money on you.

Some sales have a constantly manned table by one person and then another person is up around talking to people. I did not have that luxury and had to keep my money with me while moving around talking to people and showing them how things work etc. Make sure your money is in something secure that fits in your pocket or tied around your waist so you don’t mindlessly set it down and walk away.

4. Start with change.

You want to be prepared if you sell your first item of the day for a dollar and the customer gives you a twenty. Before the sale, stock your money pouch/apron/box with one and five dollar bills as well as a few dollars worth of quarters.

5. Presentation is everything.

Make sure people can see what you’re selling! I had a comforter for sale that was getting passed by over and over. One of my sale-mates pulled it partially out of the bag mid-sale so it was more visible. Within 10 minutes it sold for my asking price! People aren’t going to buy what they can’t see, so make sure your items are arranged nicely and things are out in the open.

Think of your sale like a department store, and arrange items by type. A couple of us were both selling holiday items, so we put them together into a holiday section. People stopped and looked at things longer when they were organized into larger sections.

So there you have it. My tips and lessons learned from my first yard sale. Have you ever had a yard sale? What tips and tricks do you have? Or, on the flip side, any tips for buying items at a yard sale? Share in the comments!

Happy Monday! I’m taking a break from the bedroom updates to do a more personal post since today is the five year mark of B and I being together. We never do too much to celebrate other than exchange cards and eat a good dinner somewhere, but I thought five years was a good enough excuse to share some fun photos of our past on here.

I’m probably doubling or tripling the amount of pictures of me (and B) on the blog with this post alone, but it was fun going through old photos and memories putting this together. The first photo is us singing karaoke at our undergrad bar crawl 2 days before our first official date, (he was totally trying to impress me then since I can’t get him remotely close to any sort of karaoke stage now) and then they are in chronological order up until this past weekend on our celebratory date night.

We’ve made it through two grad school graduations, first real jobs, rental nightmares, and so much more and I can’t imagine going through it all with anyone else. Love you, B,  Here’s to many more years!

Here’s the thing, I like to wake up to the radio. I hate coming out of the past night’s slumber to the incessant buzzing or annoying ringtone of a phone. Talk radio is so much more soothing and calming to wake up to. But I fear since everyone relies on their phone so much, the table top accessory is quickly becoming obsolete. Any clocks that you do see are hideous blobs of silver plastic with neon blue lights, which will not work for my nicely styled nightstands! What’s a girl to do? Search for some better looking clocks, that’s what!

one| I love the modern spin on this twin bell alarm clock. two | Jasper Morrison’s modern design is sleek and cool. three | An eye-shaped retro clock? sure! four | How cool is this wood clock that looks like a vintage clock radio charges and uses your phone for the clock? five | This one by Anything Design is just fantastic.

Did you see the one issue with all of these clocks? None of them have a radio! I guess I’ll either have to adjust to waking up to ringtones or deal with my silver plastic blob.

Have a wonderful weekend! It’s June! And happy, happy Friday.

Talk about variations on a theme! This is variation 3 of my Geometric Sculpey Craze. (variation 1 | variation 2 )  and I think it’s safe to say this is the final one. Although who knows what else will pop into this head of mine, but for now, I’m calling it quits on the Geo/Femo stuff.

I’m hoping to get some better finished product versions of these once I get everything all together because guess what? White objects on dark reflective surfaces are really hard to photograph. And I know there are camera settings to adjust this. I fiddled with it a little bit. But obviously not enough because they still ended up looking like these glowing blobs of light. Not really what I was going for. I swear in real life the only thing they radiate is sheer awesomeness.

The material list for these isn’t too complicated.

• Oven bake clay in the color of your choice
• Cheapo Drawer pulls with a flat head
• 1 screw and 1 washer per knob
• Razor blade, clay knife, xacto knife, etc. Something that will make clean cuts in the clay.
• Glaze, optional, but recommended

When I say cheapo drawer pulls, I mean cheapo drawer pulls. I got these lovely knobs at Lowe’s for less than a buck each.  Seriously, you’re going to cover them in clay, all you need is something flat to wrap the clay around and the threaded hole for attaching it to the drawer.

The steps for this are basically the same as the thumb tacks only scaled up a bit, but I’ll go through them anyway for you this time around.

one: place the cheapo drawer pull flat side down on a layer of clay.
two: build up the clay around the post until
three: you are flush with the top of the post.
four: you will have a nice cube. Mine was about 1.5″ x 1.5″ This will be dependent on how big your cheapo pull is.
five: start slicing at varying angles. Keep the cuts straight and clean. I think it helps to make fewer, bigger moves instead of a ton of little ones. If your clay is too soft and not cutting cleanly, place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to harden it up a bit.
six: bake the knobs at 275 F for 15 mins per 1/4″. (mine baked for a full hour) Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely before handling and glazing.

Easy enough, right? I’m actually not fully convinced these knobs are right for this nightstand, but I’m waiting until I see it as part of the whole room. They are a little bit more bulky than I imagined, but I’m not hating…just waiting to see!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! This bedroom makeover is well underway and the first item up for a face lift is my nightstand. I’ve had this little bedside table for years, and before that it was where my mom put all her doll clothes growing up, so needless to say it’s been around for a while and could use a little refresh.

During the initial furniture “merge” I put on those, shall we say, underwhelming knobs on to attempt to make it a little more “sophisticated.” I know. Quite the risk taker I was.

Now it’s time for a bolder change. What this nightstand really needs is a new color. A fresh coat of paint and a second take at the drawer pulls sounds just about right. Here’s what I did:

First things first: Remove the knobs and clean that furniture with some warm water and a general cleaner.

Once it’s dry, sand it with a fine grit sandpaper. I used a 220 grit. You may need to use a heavier grit if you have more heavy duty sanding to do. I just needed to roughen up the surface a bit for painting, so the finer grit worked wonderfully.

The little dog is not necessary. Lucy has a way of getting in to the frame of my pictures whenever possible.  She’s actually been cut out of the title image. Here is the pre-cropped version of the photo:

She never lays there! Only when there’s a photo opp I guess…

While I was cleaning and sanding my nightstand I found this little time capsule gem:

Look at those bubble letter skills! For some reason I found it necessary to mark “Stephanie was here on Nov 25, 1996″ and let any future users of this nightstand know where it was.  A few years earlier I had made my mark on a dresser by carving a smiley face on the front of the drawer with a pick-up stick. It seems as though I had learned my lesson since I decided to do this one on the back of the drawer.

Alright, now its time to paint! I used a semi-gloss paint +primer in Valspar’s Royal Navy. I painted most of the nightstand with a 4″ foam roller, but used the foam brush for a few hard to get places. (do you see Lucy’s legs in that paint picture? I told you, she’s everywhere)

First coat complete! I realize I only needed those wood rails for the actual nightstand since the drawers could just lay on their ends, but since I went through all the trouble digging out that many 1×1′s from our dingy dark cellar basement (that’s the  cellar door on bottom right of the picture) I was going to use them!

Let the paint dry for a couple hours before repainting.

I know, no dog in this picture. That’s because she’s been busy painting herself in solid dirt. Shortly after finishing my first coat of paint, this is how I found Lucy:

Needless to say, she got a bath while the first coat dried.

Once the dog is clean and the paint is dry, give it a second coat. Two coats was golden for me.

After the paint is dry, put on your knobs and bask in the glory of a refreshed nightstand.

Did you check out those drawer pulls? A DIY for those will be coming soon, so don’t go too far!