Call me Florist Brittney please

Just finished up doing the bouquets and centerpieces for Crystal and Ryan's wedding this Saturday! Now time for the boutonnières.... all 14 of them! ;)

Spray Paint LOVE

I seriously have a love affair with quick makeovers and spray paints are often my weapon of choice. They are quick drying and super effective at covering almost everything these days which is perfect.
Yesterday, I decided to attack a rocker for Hadley, a large frame and a tray that I had picked up at a garage sale earlier this month-- all together they cost me $7 which was totally worth it since they have so much makeover potential!
The frame went matte white (I'm planning to frame tickets from sports events that Jim and I have attended over the years... more to come ;) soonish). The rocker got a white paint/primer base coat since it was extra crusty then a coat of cheery yellow. The tray got a coat of yellow and seriously looks like a different animal although I also have modge podged a brown and white zebra wrapping paper scrap to the tray portion for an extra pop of fun.

Painted Stripes- A Jute Rug Tutorial

So I have been meaning to post this tutorial for quite some time and figured that this holiday weekend I'll go ahead and get it posted. :)
I was inspired by the chevron rug on thehouseofsmiths.com so they definitely deserve some credit! Here's their project: http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2011/04/chevron-painted-rug-from-ikea.html
For our rug, I started off with an Egeby natural color jute rug from Ikea that is 5'5" x 7' 7" since that perfectly fits our tiny dining nook. At $99, it wasn't super cheap but any nice, similarly heavy duty rug would cost a few hundred at the cheapest so it was a good deal. I taped off the edges with painters tape since it has a nice natural colored cotton border bound on the edges that I wanted to keep perfectly clean. If you use a different jute rug, try to find one with a thick rubber backing or lay it out on thick plastic or a waterproof drop cloth since the paint may bleed through if there isn't a thick backing. That's really a great feature of the Egeby and it really makes it worth the cost!
The next step was to paint the base color. I used something that we already had since I wanted a neutral background color-- Specifically it's Glidden interior latex flat in Ruffled Feathers which is a slightly grey white. Using a small foam roller, I applied a generous coat of paint over the entire surface of the rug then let it dry for two days. It will really suck up the paint so be prepared!
For the stripes, I used Frog Tape to tape off 6-inch sections so that I would be able to get 8 green stripes for a Dash and Albert feel. For the paint, I used a quart of a Martha Stewart kelly green paint (cant't for the life of me remember the name!) and again I applied the paint generously so that I wouldn't need a second coat. I removed the tape while the paint was still wet and left the rug to dry another two days.
If you love the look you could definitely leave the rug as is, but I decided to follow the lead of my inspiration and sand off a bit of the paint for a beachy feel. To get the effect I was going for I used our Dremel multi-tool with the sandpaper attachment and it literally took 10 minutes the sand the entire rug to the point of perfection!
This project was super easy and the results are beautiful. I am now considering painting chevrons onto our smaller kitchen rug but haven't decided on colors yet. I would love to do black and white but the border is more chocolate brown so I'm not sure that would match.

Bubble Up Enchiladas

I found this recipe and it sounds too good so we will try it this weekend hopefully!
Ingredients:
1 pound 99% fat free ground turkey
1 package reduced fat biscuits
1 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can chopped green chilis
Condiments:
Fat free sour cream
Salsa
Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brown and drain the ground turkey. Cut the biscuits into 8ths and combine with sauce, turkey, tomatoes and chilis. In a glass casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray, pour the biscuit/turkey mixture in and bake for 20 minutes. Cover with the cheddar cheese and bake for another 10-15 minutes until biscuits are cooked through.
Serve with fat free sour cream, salsa, black olives, hot sauce, etc.
Yumm! Here's the picture from Pinterest--

Fun at the park

Our anniversary dinner last night at Sea Salt in Minnehaha Falls park was great. Jim had the crab cake basket and I had the soft shell crab sandwich, both DELISH!
It was fun for the whole family since we got to take the baby and the dogs along and we went on a walk right after dinner around the park.

Our Second Anniversary

May 22, 2010, Jim and I got married at the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Paul.
Fast forward two years and here we are with our wonderful 14 month old daughter, Hadley, our second dog, Cooper (we had gotten Lucy in early December 2008) AND an ever improving southwest Minneapolis home.... it's everything this girl could want and more!!
Thanks for all of the fun and memories over the last four years Jim! Love you :)

Map Wall Decals?! YES

Just paged through the newest Pottery Barn catalog while feeding Hadley lunch and found my personal definition of awesome so I thought I'd share...
http://www.potterybarn.com/m/products/west-indies-explorers-map-wallie/

Friday Update

Miss Hads and I have had another great week! Time is flying and it's so hard to believe it is already LATE MAY! Wow :)
Monday we had doc appointments for Hads and her usual physical therapy.
Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum and our little lady had a great time as usual.
Wednesday we went to the Mall of America with Janell and baby Corbin. I bought a super cute green maxi dress that was on clearance at Old Navy to wear to Crystal and Ryan's rehearsal and groom's dinner in 2 weeks!
Thursday we had a long walk in our neighborhood and later went to give my mom and sister gel polish manicures with my gelish uv nails set.
Today we are going to hit up the Children's Museum again and I have to organize and prep for a big Norwex party I'm doing in the morning.
This coming Monday I get to try the rotisserie buffalo chicken dip that I posted the recipe of since Jim has a work potluck... yummy!!
Have a great weekend! :)

Buffalo Rotisserie Chicken Dip

At a friend's bachelorette party this weekend there was a recipe that was recommended for everyone to try making since it was such a hit for a few of the girls.

Buffalo Rotisserie Chicken Dip:
1 Rotisserie chicken, chopped up finely
1 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce
2 bricks low-fat cream cheese
1 cup low-fat cheddar cheese
3/4 cup low-fat ranch dressing

Either put in a crockpot and go -or- mix and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. You can sub 2 cans of chopped canned chicken for the rotisserie if you don't want to chop a chicken up yourself. If you want to use a small crockpot, half the recipe.
Enjoy :)

Mother's Day 2012

I had a great Mother's Day yesterday! I got a really amazing Nike GPS sport band to track my workouts :) AND we got to take Hadley out on the boat with my family for the first time!! So fun and perfect.

Prairie du Chein 5k and Half Marathon

We were able to meet up with Jim's sister and his mom's side of the family in Wisconsin for a run/walk yesterday along the Mississippi river. Hadley rode along in her B.O.B. stroller and we all did really well, beating our goal times!
After the race we checked out the local farmers market which was awesome since it was in such a small town. I picked up some veggies to plant in the garden, artisanal bread and a homemade apricot jam-- yummy!
Now it's time to figure out what our next 5k will be... maybe Red Hot and Boom?

MN Children's Museum Habitot

Yesterday, my sister Mackenzie and I took Hadley to the Children's Museum in St. Paul and it was so fun!! My sister-in-law Amanda and her family gifted Hadley with an annual family membership for her first birthday so it was admittedly a few weeks overdue for us to go check it out but I'm so glad we did.
The Habitot is an area on the 4th floor for kiddos 6-48 months old and Hadley thought it was quite heavenly. There were mini "habitats" representing Minnesotan landscapes which was very fun for us to explore while Hadley cruised around checking things out on her level. There was an ice fishing vignette and a lake/pond area with "nests" that the kids could crawl into and baby-friendly cattails for them to crawl over. They also have a few ramps that are carpeted that Hadley scaled proudly and a slide that she went down with me!
Overall, many of the areas of the museum were more mature than Hadley was ready for but seeing how much she LOVED the Habitot I can tell that she'll be enjoying visits for a long time to come!
In other news-- Yesterday we put together Hadley's Cozy Coupe that the grandparents brought her when they dropped off her baby album on Monday. The smile on her face when she rides is priceless! :)