Living Room Loving!

Since moving into the house we have been working on a 1000 and 1 projects that seem to be never ending! Rooms are are finally starting to come together and so that is a pretty exciting feeling!

Our living room is finally not feeling like a large void space so I figured I'd share it with you guys, still some pieces to find and some life to add in here but I am pretty happy with it so far!

First off here are the before pictures (sorry they are so tiny I saved them off the mls listing and they were super crappy resolution)

 

This was the ONLY non wallpapered and freshly painted room in the house. But of course it was taupe and blah and I just couldn't live with it so we painted it white along with the rest of the house to start with a fresh slate!

We were able to re use the curtains we had made for our old apartment which I was super happy about cause I still love them.

Yes our whole entire lives are antique and aqua and this is something I have come to accept lol, I can't help it. It's all I ever seem to be drawn too!

Next we had a large empty back wall to the room and it needed a project! I was inspired by this photo I saw online of a re-purposed mantle without a fire place and I went with it!

I found a dirt cheap  used wood mantle on craigs list. I painted random patches in aqua, used a crackle medium over them and then painted over it all in white to get this aged look to it. I also sanded it a bit and added a few coats of varnish to finish it off.

I am slowly working on the back wall behind the couch but it`s a bit tougher. I am hunting down antique ceiling medallions used for lighting and refinishing them all in white to cover to create a textured accent wall. The new ones are insanely over priced so I refuse to give in and buy them (ones the size of the large ones pictured run about 85$ - $125). 4 down a million more to find! Also how magical are our peaked door ways!!

The back wall with the tv and storage are still super lack luster minus our beautifully refinished sideboard which we are using as a tv stand. I am still on the hunt for a piece to use as dvd storage. And we also plan on wall mounting the tv and hiding the boxes away in the side board drawers.

So not fully complete but I am super happy with  how it is coming along! The master bath is SOOOO close to being done as well as the dinning room. So be expecting posts of those rooms soon!

Holiday DIY: Homemade Baileys

The holidays are here and with it comes all the parties come all the boozing! We are big fans of ceasers and baileys for the holidays in our family.

A close family friend has been making his own homemade Baileys for as long as I can remember. Last year I decided to try my hand at it and now I will never go back to buying it! This version is so much creamier and goes down do much smoother, no after bite!

With loads of parties to go to needing a little gift to give and lots of family gatherings coming, it's the perfect time of year for you guys to test out this recipe yourself!

What You'll Need

INGREDIENTS 

-1 cup wild turkey 
-1 cup 1/2 &1/2 
-1/2 tsp coconut extract 
-1/2 tsp almond extract 
-1 tin condensed milk 
-3 eggs 
-3 tbsp choc. syrup

Put it all in an blender, blend for 1 minute and you're ready to go! 1 bottle of wild turkey makes just over 3 batches and each batch fills just about 1 empty wine bottle. I tend to keep empty wine bottles in the fall for when I make this and I have a couple more decorative ones on had for when we have company or to give it as a gift. 

I have also packed them up in mini bottles attached to mason jars with coco mix and marsh mallows like the idea bellow. The hard part is finding mini unlabled bottles so stock up if you see any throughout the year!

And lastly you can set up a super cute little coco station like I did for our party last night. People can make their own coco and add baileys, great for when you have family over. I also make coffee ice cubes to have on hand for those who like to drink it cold. They are stowed away in my frezzer in zip lock bags.

Hope every ones week is off to a great start and let me know what you think of the recipe!