As is our life, we’ve been still trying to figure out what to do about our living room and that damn door. I got really sick of the huge painting being right above our couch so I decided on a new plan… can you tell what that is? I’ll reveal it soon. To go with the new look of the room and to embrace my new love of colors, the entry table needed to pop a little more.

And then my weekend of painting the entry table three times to completion began.

I started with this crazy idea that I would paint it this totally not-me color, a purple-y pink color. (it’s behr raspberry pudding) What the hell was I thinking?! The second I dropped the paintbrush I knew it wasn’t right. And I wasted $15 and two hours for nothing. GUH.

Then I decided on a coral color. (behr wet coral, the same paint I used on the rast interior) Wow. What a shitty idea. But I was determined to live with my mistake. So I brought it into the living room and stared at it for an hour.

The color is really kinda cool, but it just didn’t work. Remember how I said I was painting our office navy? I decided not to. btw – I have pretty much finished our office. It’s also coming soon.

Oh hey look at that white couch! CUTE!

Anyway, we had bought this last color with the intention of painting the office and I thought it was my only option to save money and a 45th trip to home depot. (behr underwater)

Now you would think I would have to sand this thing like crazy. I repainted it the day I bought it so that makes it four layers of paint at least. And of course I tried. And gave up within 5 minutes. If I paint it again, I will definitely have to get rid of some of the layers because it’s really thick, but you just need paint with primer and you can ignore that.

It’s a pretty good color, way more me but still incorporates a little more color into the room. So whatchu think?

OH MY. Is that a fake plant sitting there? I guess I was serious about that huh…

It basically looks real! Basically. Also, that’s a smock paper box. My most exciting purchase with a coupon at the art store. And a photograph of two children in awesome costumes that I don’t know that has been with me in almost every apartment I’ve lived in.

OH HEY NICE COLOR!

 

I was sitting in my living room during mission incorporate more color pondering on what was missing. Then I thought – WAIT A MINUTE! We haven’t brought a single daisy into the house since our mischievous cats moved in. Seeing as how they mess with everything that exists – I’m positive flowers or plants sitting in a glass vase are not ok yet. And probably not for another year or so. UGH.

So I asked my boyfriend if we could consider getting some FAKE plants and flowers at LEAST!!! He’s not into the idea. But it’s happening. I mean we can’t take care of real plants anyway.

one / two / three / four / five / six

I don’t really have a problem with any of these – I’m sure he would. And yes, the lemon tree is overdoing it but it’s pretty dammit.

And I suppose filling your house with faux plants and silk flowers is not only obnoxiously cheesy, it kinda defeats the purpose of bringing plants (life) into your house. I don’t care. I’m into the idea. Don’t hate.

 

Okay now I’m going to warn you… these are probably the best goddamn cookies I’ve ever baked. Granted – I don’t bake a lot of good cookies, but still.

I made three dozen and I live with one boy and they were gone before I knew it. Don’t make these if you’re not planning on housing them or giving them away basically, they won’t just sit there on your counter.

This cookie is a fudgey mixture of chocolate and ground oreos. If you’re not serious about chocolate then stop considering becoming serious about chocolate by baking these right now. Or whatever.

Cookies + Cream Cookies
(adapted from Picky Palate) 

makes 3 dozen cookies

2 sticks softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup cocoa powder
15 whole Oreo Cookies, finely ground

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet or two with parchment paper. In a food processor or blender, crush up the 15 oreos.

In a mixer, beat butter and sugars until well combined. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until well combined.

Place flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Add to wet ingredients along with cocoa powder, oreos and chocolate chips, slowly mixing until just combined. With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cooked through. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

OK now let me say one thing – I by no means think this looks awesome. I think it’s an improvement but for the first couple hours after I did this, I was like oh ok that’s hideous. It’s grown on me. You might think it looks hideous. And I guess I’m okay with that.

One of the first things I hated when we moved into our house was the fireplace. I have no before pictures, but I immediately painted the brick white. Like the first morning I woke up here. It was this horrible 80s toned brick. I painted it white and was like OK COOL but that tile below it always haunted me. Now keep in mind, we rent. And I’ve spent way too much money on this rental already so anything I can do to spend no real money and still hope to get our deposit back the better.

So I bought some weird marbled contact paper at Rite Aid for $5.

I covered the tile and cut the edges with an exacto. You can clearly see, it’s by no means perfect. It’s actually really really f*cking sloppy. But I am happy to report a friend was over the other day and didn’t realize it wasn’t real marble until she accidentally touched it and said whoa what is this? (I didn’t tell her about my brave DIY)

The marble pattern is really heavy. At some point I might go over it with a white wash to lighten up the pattern but now that cats live here, those projects seem very unrealistic. (also, don’t mind that really obnoxious wire on the wall… that’s the only way we can watch TV without cable.)

So… is it really ugly?

I feel like I buy hair clips and barrettes constantly at drugstores. Because I’m so bad at doing my own hair, maybe this particular hair clip purchase will solve everything. It never does! But my bathroom is filled with these. And if they could look that much cuter, why not?!

NOW – the thing I forgot to do was to go into painting these with a plan. I got some brushes and craft paint and started painting… soon realizing I had pretty much just painted two of them and now they were just painted different colors (the middle barrette I had taped off for a color blocking). So I painted an ombre effect onto one, I fixed up the edge on the taped one with an exact-o, and the third barrette I decided to slice into a halfway point with the blade and cut the rest off. It worked perfectly!

Is this how you even wear a barrette?!! No clue.