Congratulations to the new Burger Family

This weekend we went to a fabulous wedding for two of our college friends. While Andy was fulfilling his groomsman duties, I was taking tons of notes. This was a great wedding, everyone had a wonderful time and I can only hope our wedding will be such a memorable day. (P.S. We are under three months away. I can’t believe it!) Here are some of the beautiful details from the evening.

Loved the cake and the initial backdrop. 

I can't be to excited about anything Steelers (we are a Ravens household) but this was a great groom's cake.

 I loved the centerpieces and photo booth!

We obviously got lots of use out of the photo booth.

Monogram Monday

I'm slightly obsessed with monograms and I saw the idea for Monogram Monday on another blog, sorry I can't remember where, and thought I would adopt it as well. First in line: monogrammed hats!

{Source}

Years of T-shirts

One of the best decisions I made in college was joining Epsilon Sigma Alpha. I met some of the most beautiful, intelligent, kind, and strong women during my four years in ESA and I made some of my favorite memories with them. I have a HUGE stack of t-shirt to show from my years with ESA and I think I want to make them into a quilt. Of course when I say “I want to make” I mean pay someone else to make it because I literally have no sewing skills. I have a very specific idea of what I want, but I cannot create it myself and I don’t want to ruin the shirts by trying. Here are some ideas:

Nailed It!

I have never been very adventurous when it comes to nail polish. I don’t know why other than it’s just easier to put seven layers, I have weak nails, of clear polish on and forget it. Even if it chips, no one can tell. Plus it matches everything. However Pinterest has really opened up my eyes to the possibilities. Here are some of my favorites that I’ll have to pump myself up to try. (I’m just not sure if I’m cool enough to pull cool nail polish off.)

 OPI - Don't Mess With OPI

 Essie - Mesmerize

 White nail polish and silver Sharpe

 OPI - Russian Navy in Matte

 OPI - Funky Dunky

 OPI - Black Cherry Chutney

 (Pictures all from Pinterest)

Shredded Chicken with my KitchenAid Mixer

I have a new favorite use for my KitchenAid mixer, SHEDDING CHICKEN! I know, say what? I found a cool tip on Pinterest and actually tried it out. This was awesome. Shredded chicken is my favorite way to add protein to a meal, but it’s such a pain in the butt to bake the chicken and then sit there with two forks or a knife and shredded it. I know, cry me a river but it can really slow down prep time. So in walks the KitchenAid and you have beautifully shredded chicken in no time. So here’s the low down.

Buy chicken, duh! If you have frozen chicken breasts in the freezer those will totally work.
Boil the chicken. I’ve never done this before but it’s easy. Bring a pot of water to a boil, throw the chicken in, and let it do its thing for about 20-30 minutes. It won't look very appetizing but it will, I promise. Take the chicken straight out of the pot while it’s still hot and throw it into the mixing bowl. Use the paddle attachment and turn it on for 20-30 seconds. And voila! You have fabulous shredded chicken that you can use in pasta, soups, tacos, etc. I highly recommend you try this!

DIY Upholstered Headboard

To be perfectly honest I spend way too much time on Pinterest. I can get lost on that website for hours and hours. I make well intentioned plans to make all kinds of crafts, food, and life changes when I look through Pinterest. But somehow I rarely used any of the ideas I “pin”. I’m going to try and change that.

However this post is not about making something I actually found on Pinterest, more like Pinterest inspired me to create something of my own. Our guest room has been the place where anything we don’t know what to do with goes. It’s a combination of mismatched stuff and it drove me nuts. So I decided I was going to accomplish something I’ve always want to create, an upholstered headboard. I figured a statement headboard would be a great way to give the room a focus.

I read lots of blog posts of people who had made an upholstered headboard and some of them were a little intimidating. They talked about saws, and sewing machines, and lots of other stuff I didn’t have. I knew I wanted something with a shape, opposed to the straight rectangle a piece of plywood would give me. So Andy and I went to a couple Habitat for Humanity restores and were able to find an old wood headboard with a cool shape. (This was a really fast and cheap way to find a base, plus all the money goes to charity!) We stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up two huge bags of batting (way cheaper than at the fabric store) and then the fabric store to pick up fabric, duh.
And the process began! The headboard we picked up had slats and we were worried people would feel them through the batting so we wrapped each rung with a little extra batting. (The quickest way we could think to hand the batting was with shipping tape, don't laugh, it worked like a charm.) My mom later suggested that I could have placed a piece of foam over them but I didn’t think of that at the time so whatever. I then unfolded the bags of batting and refolded them to fit the headboard. I was able to triple up each piece which meant the board would be really plush! We already owned a staple gun from when we reupholstered the dining room chairs so we brought that out and went to work. We started by putting one staple at the top and then one at the bottom to keep everything centered. I held the batting taunt while Andy stapled. We found this to be way easier with two people working on it. The corners were a little tricky and I don’t have a super cool way of doing them other than leave them to the end and then fold them like you are wrapping a gift. We cut out some of the bottom layers so the staple gun could get through it but don’t cut the top layer! We repeated the process with the second 3 layers of batting and then the fabric. Make sure you line your fabric up straight if you choose something with a pattern. After that you are done! Our guest bed is a full and the headboard is for a queen mattress so Andy had to jerry-rig everything together but it turned out great and stable. Now I’m going to be obsessed with finding new linens, a bedspread, curtains, and wall decorations to pull it all together.