BBQ baked potatoes

In honor of the Rodeo going on here, and just because they are delicious, I have a recipe here that I adapted from All Recipes 

4 frozen skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

8 oz. (1 C) bottle barbeque sauce

¼ C. Italian salad dressing

¼ C. chicken broth

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Directions

1. Place chicken in a slow cooker. In a bowl, mix the barbecue sauce, Italian dressing, chicken broth, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Pour over the chicken.

2. Cover, and cook 3 to 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low.

This can easily be adapted to make more or less. And sometimes I don’t even measure the sauce, etc. I just make sure I have enough to cover the chicken. This is delicious. I put it on low in the morning and let it cook all day.

When I get home all I do is throw some baked potatoes into the oven- usually about an hour at 425 degrees. I just poke them with the fork and put them right on to the oven racks, no foil or anything. While that is cooking you can just shred up your chicken and let it continue to marinate in the crock pot with the sauce on “keep warm” until your potatoes are ready. When the potatoes are done, just pop them open and spoon some chicken with the sauce over the potatoes and enjoy!

Happy last weekend of the Rodeo, folks!

We have a rug!!

Well, we broke down and bought a rug. I knew we were only going to be purchasing one right this instance and as much as I really want a new one for the dining room we NEED one in the bedroom to warm it up and make it feel more cozy and inviting. So after lots of research and coming up short finding a cheaper option that was as appealing I bit the bullet and went with the Pottery Barn rug:

I am completely smitten and the best part was- they had it in stock at the PB close to us so I could pick it up there and avoid all of the shipping and handling charges!! NICE

So we decided to go ahead and set it up last night (a bit of an ordeal because of our bed) As P so wisely stated, "we should put the rugs down before we move our furniture in, it's so much easier" HA!
I put him to work instead:

Isn't it lovely??

And for a final shot:

We just love it- the colors, the warmth and mainly the feel under our feet when we wake up in  the morning

And it's just in time to impress our guests coming for the Rodeo this weekend!!

Our wild weekend

WOW! I think I’m still recovering and it’s been like 2 weeks ago! Sorry this is so far behind but things have been crazy around here and I had so many other fun projects, that our little blog got a little back logged! Anyways- We had a whirlwind of a weekend. Starting a little early with a root canal! FUN? Yeah, not so much… anyways- done with that now- but it certainly put me out of commission for a few days. I managed to still have a productive weekend starting with my Altar’d workshop that P bought me for Christmas (so sweet! I was floored that he even remembered it!) OMG It was amazing. Mandie and Colby are seriously the sweetest people ever and so helpful, creative, and just AWESOME. Her workshops have 5 or 6 students and you get to bring your own piece and in the course of ONE day, completely refinish it! Please check her out- she's on facebook tooThe minute P gave it to me; I think we both knew what I would be refinishing. DRUM ROLL please…

Ah the red crackle paint chest. It’s actually pretty cute; it just doesn’t go with ANYTHING in our house. Not that I’m anti-red- I do like red- on clothes, or shoes or a purse but not so much in decorating. This has been in P’s room at his parent’s house forever. I don’t know if it was always painted like this or if it has already been refinished once. We snatched it when we needed more drawers/ storage at the apartment. It was in the closet there so it didn’t really matter, but now that it is out in our guest room I wanted it to be more OURS.  


So I went to Mandie and Colby’s house where they have their workshops. (I’m sorry- side note- how cool is it that I found Altar'd clicking through blog to blog in blogland and they live right here in the metroplex, less than 30 minutes away! It blows my mind) It was seriously amazing. So informative and helpful and at the same time just FUN and sweet and I had a blast meeting everyone in the group and seeing all the cool pieces that they brought to refinish. I didn’t get too many pictures of the workshop- I was busy sanding and priming; painting and glazing! I have a few from early on. This is priming the piece after I sanded it down:

Then voila! DONE-

up close so you can see the distressing and antique glaze

There is actually some of the red showing through where it's distressed, and it's one of  my favorite features!

full body shot

Well almost done- I still needed to put the poly sealer on it and add knobs (pardon the tester knobs). I think I’m going to get crystal looking ones like these. Hobby Lobby has AMAZING knobs and pulls a lot of which look like they are from Anthropologie but SO much cheaper- and they go on sale 50% off one week every 4-6 weeks. So I'll be watching for those this week.


Then… oh you thought I was done. HA! Hardly! So while I was out fixing up our little chest of drawers, P was hard at work too. For Valentine’s Day I gave P an elfa system for his itty bitty closet (best stuff ever, btw) so we finally got around to putting it up. BUT before we could put it up, we P had to take down the flimsy shelf and rod that were currently up, spackle up the wall where they were with drywall mud, and then sand them down to be perfectly even with the wall.

 He did all of this while I was out at Altar’d then Sunday we realized that the crazy people previous homeowners had decided to paint the closet walls the same color as the bedroom. And since we already know I want to paint the bedroom walls, I just HAD to go ahead and paint the closet walls too. Otherwise it would look funny once we finally painted the bedroom. So, I threw up a coat of Sherwin William’s Misty (the current color choice for the bedroom)

Oh my goodness- it is PERFECT! So hard to tell on a computer screen, or even capture it on a camera but I LOVE it- definitely what we will be painting our bedroom. EXCITEMENT PEOPLE!! MAJOR EXCITEMENT!

While it dried, which was super fast by the way, we relaxed- SHORTLY (and stared at the paint color- well that might have just been me....)Then we got to putting in the closet system- which is super easy by the way. Just hold up the top track and make sure it’s level, then mark in all the holes so we know where to drill. Then we P drills pilot holes to see if there is a stud in that spot or if we need a drywall anchor.

Hi P! Can you tell how small this closet is now- this is how close to him I was!

Check out that drywall dust on his arm! SEXY!

Side note- if you put in an elfa system PLEASE use the Container Store’s drywall anchors- they are super heavy duty and the only thing I have ever found to work WELL. Very much worth the money
From there, you just have to put the drywall anchors in place where they are needed then hold up your top track and drill in the screws all the way across.

Check for level:

WOO HOO!!! Perfect! We’ve found that it’s so much easier to level it one time while you mark your holes, then you never have to worry about leveling again!  Then you throw on the hanging standards, but keep them close together to put all the brackets on so you know you are hanging everything at the same level.

 Then pull everything into place, install your shelves and rods and BOOM! You’re done

Well,, Its a little more full now!

BTW- any elfa system also comes with SUPER detailed and easy instructions so you don’t have to go by my quick version. So jealous, now I REALLY want to elfa my closet as well! In time...

And that folks was our weekend! WHEW! Exhausting- but so worth it!  
**UPDATE** the knobs are on sale NOW. I’m off to the Hob Lob! More on the knobs I pick next time J

Gallery wall update

So it's been a busy few weeks but I've been slowly tweaking my gallery wall along the way and I am finally to a point where I think I like it and might let the wall have a rest.
Here is the before:

And the afters:

I moved a few things around and made space for Mr. M! YAY It's really one of those things that just happens over time I think. It's hard to find the PERFECT arrangement the first time around. And, who knows- i might still add a few things- I have been wondering about putting something small on the right side down low by P's childhood picture. . .might throw something up to see.  I might even move Mr. M down there- I still haven't decided if I love him where he is or not. What do you think about Mr M's location? Opinions are always welcome, although not always followed ;)

There is no wrong way to go about it and it is so easy to fix if you decide you don't like it, so there are no excuses! Go try it for yourself!