DIY Rustic Barstools

One of my favorite places to go is Fredericksburg. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a small German town in Texas that has amazing scenery, fun things to do, and great shopping. Most of the shops are pretty similar to our style- rustic, western, and classic. I like to think of our style as Texas Hill Country, with a touch of glam.

 

Each time I’m in a shop with furniture there, I’m soaking it all in. The pieces are beautifully made, usually with a wood stain and a lot of times with animal hide. The only thing not exciting is the prices!

We have a small bar in our house that we love to sit at. Jake and I wanted rustic barstools, but the ones we have seen usually run about $650 bare minimum a piece.  That’s $1,300 for two. One day, I was walking through a little antique shop on my lunch break, and I found these:

 

 

They had great lines and a rustic shape (I loved the Texas star) but they needed a lot of TLC. I called Jake because I knew I’d need help on this one, and he agreed, so I snapped them up, negotiated the price down and brought them home.

 

The chairs had multiple layers of paint (black, red, and blue) very thickly glopped on. We (mostly Jake) worked with a paint stripper and tons of sandpaper and finally got that bare wood. (I should note, this project was taken on pre-pregnancy, but I'm just now posting on the blog!) After a stain job, they were starting to have that classic rustic look.

They had nearly neon red vinyl seats, so I reupholstered the seats with an axis hide I sourced from Craigslist for a steal. The hide was just barely large enough to cover both seats, as they are pretty large, but I scrimped and made it work. It was my first go with upholstery with hide, and it went well! I must say, though, it’s much harder to upholster with hide than with fabric. All in all, after some hard work, we got our dream barstools for much less.

 

 

 

In the above photo the hide upholstery looks wrinkled, but I believe it's the angle of the photo showing the individual hairs. It's smooth in person.

 

And here's a side by side:

 

 

 

They're very comfortable, and we love the look. I also love having something special we made together for our home.

 



On Saving Things

I have found so much joy in the kitchen lately, and it is due to my "new" cutting board. There are quotation marks around new because it's new, but it's not. I bought it around five months ago with a birthday gift card. I just started using it about three weeks ago.

Why? I was saving it. I do that with most of my new or nice things; do you? But here's the question, what exactly am I saving it for?

Yes, it's a beautiful cutting board with lovely graining, color, and details in the wood. But it's a cutting board. It was purchased with a given gift card. And, it is intended to use for cutting things!

For five months, it has been in my skinny cutting board cabinet with all of my other cutting boards that I actually use. It was tucked away, buried in the cabinet. I was saving it because I loved it and didn't want to mess it up, but wasn't it an even bigger travesty to not use it? Better to love it and use it than never mess it up and keep it tucked away forever, for fear of ruining it.

Here's the beauty: I actually love it even more now with the hundred little knife marks in it. It's rustically beautiful. I get to use it on a daily basis, and I enjoy it the entire time I'm using it. When I look at it or use it, it creates happiness. And, who doesn't need a little extra happiness in their day?

Life is a celebration. Let's treasure and celebrate each moment, even if that means messing up a perfectly good cutting board.

Baking: Mason Jar Shaped Cookies

Every year for Mother's and Father's Day, Jake and I always get a little something "from the dogs". Usually it's a cute card with a dog on it and a note from Tex and Charlie, and they sign it. In past, I've used ink and stamped their paw print on them, and Jake's drawn pictures of the boys. It's always something fun and silly.

 

I had a little extra dough from the beer shaped cookies, so I made Jake some cookies. He had to work when we celebrated Father's Day, so he didn't get any of those cookies. I left one at home for him, but I think someone couldn't help himself and ate it. (I'm looking at you, Tex.) So of course, Tex was apologetic and asked me to make some more.

 

One of my friends shares my love for mason jars and gifted me a mason jar cookie cutter some time ago as a thank you. I thought it would be fun to make cookies and say thanks for being an "a mason" dad! 

This time, it was a lot easier to roll out the dough. I think I learned my lesson last time- you have to press down on the dough hard with the rolling pin bit by bit until it's mostly flattened, and then roll it out. So if you use this recipe, make sure to do that. All in all it was a happy ending, Jake loved his cookies and Tex was reprieved. That silly pup!

Baking: Beer Shaped Sugar Cookies

This year for Father's Day my family went to a local brewery. My dad loves to do different and fun things, so this was just the ticket! The brewery allowed picnic lunches, so my mom brought sandwiches and chips, and I brought cookies. I love to do themed things, and I'm known in my family to always bring some sort of themed dish to holidays. I've brought turkey and pumpkin shaped cheese balls to Thanksgiving, popcorn cupcakes to a movie night, all sorts of Christmas cupcakes, and on and on. I just love making things extra special! When I asked my mom what I could bring, she said cookies, so my mind went to work on how I could make themed cookies. Beer shaped cookies would be fun, I thought!

 

I got a bottle and beer mug cookie cutter, and I used this recipe. In the past, when I've made cookies, they never seem to keep their shape, and since I had such cute cookie cutters, I wanted to make sure they would this time.

 

I gathered all of my ingredients:

 



Along with my new cute cookie cutters:

And I went to work. I will note, the beer mug shaped cookie cutter is copper, and the beer bottle cookie cutter is aluminum. The copper cookie cutter was so much easier to work with, because it was so much sturdier. The aluminum cookie cutter was a bit flimsier, so I had to be more careful when cutting the dough.

Also, my parents gifted me a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas and a marble rolling pin. It was so heavenly to work with these! I love to bake, but I've never used a mixer before; I've always done it by hand. It was so lovely and so fun to watch the mixer do the work!

I painstakingly followed the recipe, which includes making the dough, refrigerating it for 45 minutes, then rolling the dough to a certain width, refrigerating it again for 15 minutes, cutting the shapes, then freezing it for 15 minutes, all before baking. She says this is to keep the shape, and I think it did pretty well! Usually when I bake cookies they tend to spread out, sometimes leaving the shape indistinguishable, but these kept very well. When you roll the dough out for the first time, she says it takes a bit of elbow grease, and I can certainly say it does. I had to use my body weight, pushing down onto the roller to get them going.

I did half of the batch with just sugar, for any sugar cookie purists.

I decorated the other half with icing. For the bottles, I created a beer label and beer cap, and wrote "Pops Brew." I started calling my dad Pops some time ago, and it's stuck. My niece even calls him Pops instead of Grandpa. So cute! My dad has a mustache (he's very handsome!) and when we text, if he uses a smiley face, he inserts a mustaches like this :{) so a mustache label was fitting. The writing isn't perfect, but it's the thought that counts!

For the beer mug, I used yellow icing for the beer, and white icing for the foam.

I think these would be fun for a beer tasting party, bachelor party, Super Bowl party, man's birthday... the possibilities are limitless. And, I think you could get really creative with the beer labels!

The cookies were delicious, and perfectly soft in the centers and lightly crisped on the outside. I've never baked cookies with lemon extract before, and I was a bit worried that the flavor would be too strong, but it created a very nice flavor. Jake sampled the dough before it was cooked, and he thought it tasted a bit nutty. Either way, they were very good!

We had a blast at the brewery, and the cookies were a fun touch. So what do you think, are you going to make beer shaped cookies?

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

 

I love smoothies for breakfast. They are healthy, filling, and very yummy! As I've spoken about before, I used to be a junk-food addict. Sugary breakfasts were my favorite! Donuts, honey buns, lucky charms... all staples of mine. At first I switched to healthy alternatives like eggs, but I would get massive blood sugar drops. When I switched to fruit and juice for breakfast, I felt great all day! I can happily say now I've switched over to smoothies for breakfast at least five days a week, and I sometimes have them on the weekends, too.

 

I used to go to Smoothie King a lot, before I discovered how to make smoothies at home. I love Smoothie King, but they are so expensive! You can blow your budget quick eating there five days a week. One of my favorites there is the Angel Food smoothie, and I liked it so much I would go there, even though I knew I could make smoothies at home. But, I wanted that one! So I experimented some in the kitchen and I found a pretty close substitute. I like this one so much I no longer have the urge to go outside of my kitchen for smoothies.

 

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 heaping cup frozen strawberries and bananas
1/2 cup milk (I use fat-free Mootopia- have you tried this? It has so much more protein)
Optional- sweetener (Sometimes I use Sweet-N-Low, about 2 packets for a very sweet treat!)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a Magic Bullet or a blender. Blend until smooth. Easy peasy! Enjoy!

Calories: 144, Fat: 0, Protein: 13, Fiber: 3, Carbs: 26, Sugar: 21, WW Points: 2, Points+: 4