High Five for Friday

 

1.  I finished decorating my front door with pumpkins from our Elijay trip.

 

 

 

2.  I love that my parents still decorate the house with our childhood crafts!

 

 

 

3.  Homemade mini pumpkin pies, made by my sweet BF :)

 

 

 

4.  Trader Joe's pumpkin chai tea.

 

 

The pumpkin chai tea has not lived up to my expectations :( 

The pumpkin flavor is too artificial tasting and way too sweet.  Ironically, the best way to make it taste good is to add 1 semi-sweet chocolate chip to it.  This balances out the sweetness and makes the tea super creamy.

 

 

5. Homemade sugar cookies!!

 

 

  

Happy Friday! I hope y'all have a nice weekend!

 

After work I'm meeting a friend for happy hour, tomorrow will be spent crafting and watching college  football, and hopefully Sunday I'll make it to church!

 

~Elizabeth

 

 

 

 

 

Elijay Apple Festival

This past weekend the ladies of our family went to North Georgia for an Apple Festival.  One of my favorite things to do in the fall is attend outdoor craft festivals.  It's a great way to get inspired...and eat yummy fried food!

 

My favorite craft of the entire weekend were these painted windows with SEC football mascots.  I already have several old windows from my grandparents house so all I need to do now is figure out how to paint a bulldog...hmmm.

 



 

For lunch we had apples dipped in caramel, cajun fries, brunswick stew and hotdogs.  It's impossible for me to go anywhere (especially a festival) without getting a hotdog....I just love them!

 

 

The cajun fries were made fresh to order.  I love how this booth cut the fries!  They used an apple corer with a wireless drill attached to cut the potatoes in seconds - genius idea!

 

Here's another craft we loved!  Hand knitted winter hats - doesn't Elizabeth look so good in it!

 



 

After the apple festival we went to an actual apple farm where you can pick your own apples.  We opted to buy the pre picked apples...no need to get dirty :)

 

The apple farm also had tons of pumpkins in every shape and color.

 

We decided to stack our pumpkins for the house so we chose 3 semi-flat pumpkins to stack on top of each other.  While we were choosing our pumpkins we noticed all of the little kids sitting on the pumpkins while their parents took their picture.  We just couldn't resist this cute photo moment...doesn't Elizabeth look cute!

 

What's your favorite fall activity?

 

~Julia

 

Tailgate Tuesday: It's all about the cup

Every tailgate is all about the cocktails!  But the cup the cocktail is served in is just as important as the cokctail itself.  Here are some UGA cups and koozies I use during the football season.

Do you have a go to cocktail cup for football season?

~Julia



Spray Paint Lamp Tutorial

Happy Monday Everyone!! 

 

I had a busy weekend!  I went fabic shopping with my girl friends on Saturday and then I went to an apple festival and orchard on Sunday with the ladies in my family. It was so much fun and the weather was perfect!  We'll post pics of the apple festival and orchard later this week :)

 

My mom has been wanting some new lamps for her bedroom so instead of going out and spending a $100 on a new pair we decided to update some of her old lamps. 

 

Here are the lamps before:

 

 

We decided to spray paint the lamps a satin nickel.

 

 

Before spray painting tape off the light switch and the power cord with painters tape (unless you want those spray painted too).  Then you can start spray painting.  Remember light and even coats so the paint doesn't drip!

There you go!  Now you have new lamps for the bedroom that only cost $7 (the cost of the spray paint).  The lamp shades came from another set of lamps that were broken in a recent move so they were FREE!
 

 

I love cheap and easy projects like this!!

~Julia



 

 

 

High Five for Friday!

It is finally starting to feel like fall outside and I am loving it!!

 

Here are some fall recipes I've pinned lately:

 

 

Pumpkin Spice Puppy Chow

 

Giant Butternut Squash Ravioli

 

Pumpkin Fluff

 

Pumpkin Bread

 

Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta

Pretty much anything with pumpkin or butternut squash in it reminds me of fall :)

What's your favorite fall recipe?


Have a great weekend!

~Julia

 

Firepit Revealed!

Remember a month ago when I told you about the firepit area we created in my backyard?!?!? 

Here is what the area looked like before:

I tried repeatedly to grow grass in this area and was unsuccessful every time.  This area just doesn't get enough sun :(  Luckily the other half of the backyard gets plenty of sun so my four legged baby has a grassy area to play in. 

The first step to creating the perfect firepit area - kill any weeds or grass in the area.

Next lay out weed block fabric.  I got 3 ft x 100ft and had just enough fabric for the entire space.

Secure the weed block fabric to the ground with fabric and garden staples (I used 30 of these).

 We placed the staples at the seam of the block fabric. 

Use a hammer to push it into the ground.

Next I created a border for the firepit area out of stones.  These stones were originally in the front yard but I wasn't a fan of them there so I moved them to the backyard.  I love reusing materials...saved me so much money!

The stones created a barrier for when we later spread out the pea gravel.  I would recommend adding some type of border so that the gravel doesn't spread out forever in your yard.

We then created a circle in the center of the firepit area with pavers for the actual firepit to sit on.  These pavers were free too!  They were originally stepping stones but had become overgrown with grass and plants...you couldn't even see them so I pulled them up and reused them.



Now it's time for the pea gravel!! We used Vigoro pea gravel that came in 0.5 cu ft bags - we got 80 bags.  I decided to get individual bags instead of a truck load of pea gravel (which would have been cheaper) because I don't have a truck or SUV.  We were able to haul the pea gravel ourselves from Home Depot to the house in our Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.  It was quite a sight...these cars are not made for hauling things so they were pretty loaded down which meant we had to drive very slowly!

It was quite a workout moving the pea gravel from the cars to the backyard.  This was definitely the hardest part of the entire project!!  Each bag weighed 20lbs. so be prepared for some "heavy" lifting!

Pour out all of the pea gravel.  Level the surface using a rack to spread the pea gravel evenly.

This was a very messy job!  Even though the pea gravel were in individual bags the bags were dirty and wet! 

Last but not least...put your firepit area furniture out!  I got four adirondack chairs, outdoor pillows, and a metal firepit.



I love how the project turned out!! Now it's time to enjoy it!

~Julia



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