DIY Projects and Yummy Meals

Two of our favorite things to do are to work on diy projects together and cook great food.  Things have been really busy since our son arrived, so we took time off from these things.  This weekend and last weekend we've enjoyed time together working on some of our favorite things. 

DIY #1 - Recover Dining Room Chairs 

We had a date night and ran some fun errands, including finding a new fabric for our dining room chairs.  We love our current fabric, but it is bright and looks like spring & summer... not so much fall & winter.  We wanted to find a bold fabric that has warmer hues while still coordinating with our current decor, since we have an open concept living, dining and kitchen area.  We found this great fabric at the Printer's Alley in Greensboro.  It doesn't take much fabric to recover seat cushions, only 1 yard for 4 chairs.  We got a little extra because we wanted to incorporate specific parts of the pattern on each chair. 

We were able to use pins to hold the fabric and then we'll remove the pins at the end of the season so that we can return to the brighter fabric.  

We are so pleased with the finished product!  Each chair focuses on different colors within the fabric. Changing fabric can be a quick and inexpensive way to change the look of the entire space! 

Really yummy meal #1 - Orzo with Chicken, Spinach & Feta Cheese (See CookingLight for the recipe)

Yummy Meal #2 - Shrimp & Grits

My (Jes') parents celebrated their 33rd Anniversary last weekend.  To celebrate, we invited them and my grandparents over for dinner.  We love to host meals, and we have learned since having a baby that it is sometimes easier to cook a meal at home than to go to a restaurant for dinner.  What a great excuse to have people over!  

Brett and I made the most amazing meal that night.  We used Tyler Florence's Shrimp & Grits recipe off of Food Network's website.  We didn't use nearly as much milk and cream in the grits, but we stuck to the recipe other than that.  It was so flavorful!  Spicy, tangy, rich and melt in your mouth good!

DIY #2 - Fall Wreath

The other night I was searching online for inspiration for a DIY fall wreath.  We haven't had a fall wreath in years and we needed to find one on a budget, so I found a wreath that I really liked online and it said that it only cost $10 to make.  Click here to see the inspiration wreath.  I love the idea of burlap flowers on a wreath!

We purchased all of the needed items: 

24 in. Grapevine Wreath from Hobby Lobby $6

Wooden "C" from Hobby Lobby $3.50

(Sale price of Hobby Lobby items would have been 1/2 off, but I was too excited and couldn't wait for the sale.)

1/8 yard Burnt Orange Burlap from Hobby Lobby $0.50

1/8 yard Tan Burlap from Walmart $0.50

2 - 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of felt from Walmart $.50

Total Cost: $11.00

Additional items needed and not included in cost:

white / ivory spray paint

hot glue gun & extra glue sticks

The link above has a step-by-step tutorial on how to make this wreath, so we'll be pretty general with what we share.  

We spray painted the wooden "C"... it won't come in the pics until the final reveal.  

We cut the burlap into 2 in. strips. 

We used hot glue to attach the burlap to the felt and make different size rosettes. Small ones used 1/2 the length of burlap and large flowers used the entire length of burlap. . 

We noticed that Brett and I had different techniques, each producing a different type of flower.  Some have rougher edges, I like to call them our "wild flowers" and the others have cleaner edges.  We liked this and wanted each of us to do both colors so that we would be consistently inconsistent with our rosettes.  Each adds character to the wreath!

Can you guess who had the cleaner edges?

We cut out the flowers and laid them on the wreath to determine just the right placement.

Here's the finished product!

We used ivory spray paint for the wooden "C."  To attach it to the wreath, we used a folded strip of burlap, looped it through the wreath, and hot glued it onto the wooden letter.  It is quite sturdy.  

We are so pleased with this finished product!  The inspiration wreath was very pretty, but this is much more us.  We proudly now have our $11.00 wreath on our front door.  Love it!!!