DIY Framed Bathroom Mirrors

The first DIY we did on our bathrooms was framing our mirrors. The house already had mirrors of good size and in good shape. We felt that framing them would give them a finished, pretty look. And we were right :)

The inspiration came from the girls of Shanty 2 Chic. (Where a lot of my inspiration/ideas come from!) We started by measuring the size of the mirrors. We then added an inch to each measurement so the frame would be a tad larger than the exact mirror measurements. We bought the amount of boards we needed of 1x4 select pine from Home Depot. I'm sure you could use a cheaper option.  I was a little worried about the boards being bent or looking cheap, but I doubt it would make a big difference. We cut 45 degree angles in the boards according to the measurements (long point to long point). I used the Kreg Jig that the Shanty girls always raved about and drilled holes in the short boards to connect to the long boards. 

I gave it a quick and light sand and stained it with Minwax Dark Walnut stain. Once I wiped that, and it dried, I applied 2 coats of a satin polyurethane. 

We removed the larger clips that were holding the mirror in place and found some smaller ones and used some short nails with large heads and nailed those in the wall which helped the mirror to stay in place. * Personal note: my husband (who likes to use 15 methods for securing)- left brain. Me (who uses hot glue for anything feasible)- right brain. EVERY DIY we have done includes a LITTLE overkill because of his need for that sense of security. I love to bitch at the time, BUT I do admit that we are a perfect team and balance for projects. And if that's what it takes for him to DIY with me, I can deal :) 

To hang, the girls recommended using 3M Command picture hanging strips. One set of 4 large strips was perfect. These "click" into each other and are perfect for something you want to fit flush to the wall (or mirror) like these. 

It was such an upgrade and did so much for the bathrooms!  (Sorry for the poor picture quality!)

Pictures of the master bath to come soon :)

DIY Rustic X Console & Coffee Tables!

Hi!

I recently decided to tackle building some tables for our home, including a coffee table and a console table. My new hubby (reluctantly) agreed to help after I begged. I found a table I liked from, of course, Ana White's website. If you aren't familiar with it, she is crazy AWESOME, and you can find plans to build anything on there! HERE are the original plans for the console and HERE are the plans for the coffee table. We modified both so the tables would be perfect for the spaces we had in mind for them. (Of course, I had to be difficult..) We wanted a shorter in length/taller in height console table and a more square/less rectangular coffee table. The console took us about a day. The X's on the sides were the most time consuming part since we changed the dimensions of the table, the angle of the X's had to be changed.. who knew?! My husband, the engineer, did. He, who is completely left-brained, busted out the calculator and started figuring out the cosine or tangent or some crap for the angle. And I, right-brained, criss-crossed the boards in the space and marked where to cut with a pencil.. (and it worked). We also decided to do a slatted bottom, instead of one board, which, of course, made it a little more difficult, but worth it :) After tackling that table, the coffee table was a breeze and took about 4 hours to build. I used Rustoleum Weathered Gray stain on them first and then Rustoleum Dark Walnut stain on top of that. I felt that having the gray underneath it warmed up the dark brown color a bit! The console cost us about $60 total and the coffee table about $35!! Hell yea.  Here are our results:

Clean Eating Etouffee!

I wanted an EASY, healthy, and delicious way to eat one of my fiance's favorite dishes, especially now that it's Lent- we need healthy seafood options! My friend, Kayla, used to make a simple etouffee for us in college. She passed the recipe to me years ago, so I whipped that out and modified it to make it a clean eat! I guess I was SO anxious to try this that I forgot to snap a picture of the final product! But I'll be making it often so that will come :)

The original recipe ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1/4 frozen seasoning blend (optional)
• 1 can of rotel
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 pound of crawfish OR shrimp

MY modified ingredients:

• 1/2 cup low fat butter substitute (my favorite is Brummel and Brown yogurt butter)
• 1/4 Louisiana's Choice creole seasoning mix (in the produce section)
• 1 can Mild Rotel
• 1 can of All Natural Gluten Free Cafe Fresh cream of mushroom soup
• 1 lb shrimp (or crawfish)

First, melt butter in sauce pan and add seasoning mix.

Once the seasoning mix is cooked down, add the can of rotel, and let that simmer several minutes.

Add the can of soup, mix, and let simmer for 10-15 minutes. 

Add your cooked seafood. Serve over whole grain brown rice and ENJOY! :)