Ashley's Obsessed - Oliver Gal

Recently I have been making a lot of changes around the house. I have been thinking of painting my kitchen, I've been planting a lot of new flowers, and just reorganizing. One of the easiest ways to change up a room is to add a new picture. I have recently become obsessed with Oliver Gal's prints and artwork. I just purchased three for my bedroom and I'm excited to get more for other parts of the house! Take a look below at the three prints that I purchased below and some of the homes that I am interested in getting soon! 

Gold World Map 

 

Chanel No 5 Rose 

 

 

 

More Gold Please

Are there any pieces that you are interested in getting? Let me know in the comments! 

-A

Picnic Essentials

We love outdoor parties and BBQ's. Seriously I think is every party was a day rager we would be thrilled. Below Ashley has rounded up some of her fave items to make any picnic, BBQ, or outdoor party extra special!

Picnic baskets are a great way to transport your items and to bring a classic nod to the event. I love Turkish towels, they are light weight and come in so many great colors. For serving the food I go with mason jars and outdoor plates, recyclable and easy to use! Bamboo cutlery and serving spoons are light weight, perfect when you are carrying stuff to your desired location! I want to make sure that I bring fun to the event so, an outdoor speaker is ideal. Pillows are a great way to make your guests feel comfortable and to bring some extra color to the overall look. Don't forget the wine and corkscrew that you can bring in this adorable watermelon cooler! Lastly, a cutting board is something that almost everyone forgets, it can double for a serving platter as well! 

What do you like to bring to your events? Let us know in the comments! 

-A

 

Peach Pie

For Mother's Day I whipped up this amazing Peach Pie! Peach Pie is my Grandmother's favorite so I told her I would make it for her! Let me tell you, it looks nice but it is a labor of love, as it took a long time to make. I used a recipe that I found on Pinterest from Natasha's Kitchen and adapted it a bit It was a great recipe and Grandma approved!

Peach Pie

Filling

4 lbs of peaches, pitted, peeled, and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Crust

2 cups plus 4 tbsp flour
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
6 oz cold cream cheese cut into cubes
3 tbsp cold heavy whipping cream

To make the crust you will  whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. I stuck my butter and cream cheese into the freezer for 30 min and them cut it into cubes. I then mixed this into the flour mixture until it was coarse and was in little pieces (they looked like peas). Then you want to mix in the cream and mix until it is moist. You will them separate it into 2 flat disks, cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

The filling was a little bit harder. I started by washing the peaches and blanching them. I boiled a large pot of water and boiled them for about a minute. I took them out and placed them in cold water so they would be easier to peal. They were still a little too hard to peal so I placed them back into the boiling water. I kept them in there for about 5-7 mins and they were a lot easier to peel (still pretty hard but easier than before). Once they have been peeled and cut I mixed in the sugar, flour, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.

You will then take the crusts out of the fridge and roll them out to about 12 inch circle. Place one on the inside of your pie pan (I sprayed mine first with cooking spray). You will then fill it with your peach filling and place the other crust on top (I did a lattice which you can learn how to do here).

You will bake it at 425 for 20 minutes and then lower the heat to 375 and bake for another 35-40.

Enjoy!!

-A

Galentine's Day

Galentines Day is almost here! All about ladies celebrating ladies! This year we are getting together with some friends, having cocktails and going to see 50 Shades of Grey! Take a look at some of our Galentines Day inspiration below!

Cocktails for your ladies

Two words: Mimosa Bar! 

Why have we never thought of this before. This is a game changer!

Food to fuel your ladies

Could it be Galentines without waffles?

Gifts for your ladies

These cookies really speak for themselves. Check out all the great single girl gifts here!

Whatever you do for the day have fun and celebrate your friends!

-A&K

Shopping Tips for the Procrastinator!

Happy Tuesday! Can you believe that Christmas is only a few days away? We can't either! We spent this weekend prepping for family gatherings, shopping, and enjoying that last weekend of the holiday season. Foe those of your who put off your shopping until the last minute, below are some clever gift ideas that you can put together quickly (and inexpensively)

Green Thumb

Included: seeds, a pot, gloves, and shovel. All things you can find at your local 

Cocktail Artist 

Included: martini glasses (found at the dollar store!),  a cocktail book, fancy straws 



                             

Friday Night In with a Friend

Included - a "gift" of a Redbox movie, fancy popcorn, a bottle of wine




                         





Cupcake Lover

Included : baking cups, sprinkles, decorating items.

 The Serial Lover 

Included - a print out of all of the documents from the website, a box of cereal, promise of a "let's figure it out day", Mail Kimp t-shirt

Good luck with all of your last minute shopping! 

-A&K



 

Cookie Decorating Party!

This past weekend we hosted a cookie decorating party and invited all of our close girlfriends over.  It was fun to see so many friends from different parts of our life come together and get to know each other. College friends, high school friends, work friends, it was a lot of fun.

We made shortbread cookies and gingerbread cookies the day before so they would be ready to decorate in time for the party.

We also had three different cocktails for people to try; cranberry fizz, hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps, and rum cider - recipes are below!

For munchies we dished out some latkes, caprese bites, a cheese plate, and a fruit platter.

We had some Christmas music going, some festive holiday movies in the  background and a fun spread of frosting and sprinkles to decorate our cookies. We were both impressed by how creative some of our friends got with their cookies!

Cranberry Fizz - cranberry juice, St. Germaine, club soda, and gin. Mix in pitcher and serve over ice.

Spice Rum - 8 cups of apple cider, 4 cups of cranberry juice, 3 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 cup of sugar, and orange with about 24 cloves stuck into it. Let simmer for 2 hours and serve warm with a dark rum.

What holiday festivities are you looking forward to with friends and family? Whatever you do have fun and enjoy your loved ones this season, and all seasons!

-A&K

DIY Gold Ornaments

Think these ornaments are super chic (like Crate and Barrel / Z Gallerie chic?) Us too! Which is why we are so excited to share that they are both easy and cheap to make.

Materials:

Toothpicks
Hot Glue
Twine (string or ribbon will work great too!)
Spray paint (we picked gold but any color would look great)

Decide your shapes and glue!

You will want to put a small drop of glue on the tips of the toothpick and then quickly match it up with the other toothpick. Hold for a couple of seconds and then move to the next!

Once they have dried spray with your spray paint for an expensive finish!

Take your twine and loop it through and there are your ornaments!

We had so much fun making these! Let us know how yours turn out!

-A&K

I Dream of Pretzels

I have always loved pretzels, especially big, warm, soft pretzels, and I never thought I'd be able to make my own. Until this weekend.  

It was fun, a little scary and ultimately delicious! Be brave and try something new!

What you'll need:

• 1½ cup warm water
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp sea salt
• 2¼ tsp instant yeast
• 4½ cups flour
• ½ stick of butter, melted
• brie cheese, sliced
• 8 cups water
• ½ cup baking soda
• Olive oil, for brushing
• Sea salt & Fresh rosemary, for garnish

Directions!

• First gather your salt, water, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Let it sit for about 5 minutes until frothy. Mine never got quite frothy so don't stress if yours doesn't froth either. 
• After the 5 minutes add in the flour and butter and mix it up. I mixed by hand but you can also use a standing mixer if you prefer. Once your dough is actually dough like and pulling away from the sides of your mixing bowl transfer it to an oiled bowl. Once transferred, cover with plastic and let sit for atleast an hour. The goal is for your dough to double in size so you may want to wait more than an hour.
• Once your dough has doubled, dump it onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out a bit and divide it into about 8-10 pieces. Size is really up to you, just depends how large you want your pretzels. Remeber they will grow in the oven so you may want to start smaller. I know next time I make them I will start smaller. 
• Once your dough is divided roll it out into long flat rectangles. Place your brie slices inside and pinch dough closed, safely concealing your brie. 
• Give the dough a nice roll to ensure your brie is all sealed and twist into a pretzel shape. I started from the bottom, brought the ends up like at the top of a heart shape then twist and pinch ends back down.
• Now grab your baking soda and water and bring that mixture to a boil. While that's boiling preheat your oven to 425. Once the water is ready give each pretzel a 30 second bath. Place pretzels on a baking sheet once you remove them from water. 
• After the pretzels take a dip, brush them with olive oil and garnish with fresh rosemary and seasalt, then throw them in the oven for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

And there you go! They are so delicious and fairly easy. Note if you want to make plain pretzels do everything the same just skip the brie and rosemary! Or replace the brie with your fave cheese. Just have fun with it and enjoy these delicious snacks!

Recipe borrowed from Port and Finn

-K

Easy Soup for the Holidays

I recently read Julie Powell's book, Julia and Julia. Such a great read that inspired me to cook! For those of you less interested in reading, it is also a movie! I have always loved the movie - what's not to love Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and delicious food! The book is about Julie Powell, a woman living in New York in the early 2000's who is nearing the big 3-0 and has a job that doesn't really fulfill her. She decides to start a nearly impossible project; completing all 524 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, Masting the Art of French Cooking in 365 days.  She wrote a blog about it, which lead to a book deal, and then a movie. I guess you can say that she was one of the first "big" bloggers and the movie was the first movie ever based on a blog.

The book really inspired me to make some of the recipes from Mastering the Art Of French Cooking. The first I took on is the first recipe in the entire cookbook, and the first recipe that Julie makes - Potato Leek Soup.

This was seriously so easy and inexpensive, perfect for a night during the busy holiday season!

Ashley takes on Julia Child's Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients: 

2 large potatoes, pealed and cut, about 2 cups 

2 leeks, sliced thin, about a cup and a half
4 cups of water 

1 teaspoon of salt

3 tablespoons of butter

Chopped parsley

First simmer the potatoes, leeks, and salt in the water for 40-50 mins until veggies are tender

Next, without removing from heat, mash up the veggies

Remove from heat and stir in the butter. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley.

Seriously that's it and it's fantastic!

Happy Cooking!

-A

Pumpkin Pecan French Toast

This week on the blog we are all about food and fall right before Thanksgiving next week! To kick off the week I have whipped up some pumpkin pecan french toast! Perfect for a fall brunch with friends, but so good you can eat it anytime throughout the year!

Ingredients:

One loaf of good quality bread cut into 10 pieces
2 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

For sauce:

1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup pumpkin butter
2 tablespoons butter (as needed)

First whisk together the eggs, milk, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

Spray and heat the skillet. Dip the pieces of bread on each side in the mixture and cook on skillet until golden brown flipping once.

In a small sauce pan mix together the chopped pecans and pumpkin butter over low heat. If the sauce is too thick add in the butter to thin out the sauce to more of a syrup consistency.

When the sauce and french toast is completed serve with strawberries, a light dusting of powdered sugar, and some maple syrup.

Enjoy!!

-A

Glitter Leaves for Fall

A couple of weekends ago I went to brunch with a friend - if you are ever in Berkeley Cafe M is the place to go, did some shopping, and then felt like doing some crafting. I wanted to creating something fun to put up for fall/Thanksgiving!

I found this awesome branch of fall leaves on sale for $1.50 and thought that by adding some glitter and hanging the leaves from the branch it would create a different look.

What you'll need

- Faux branch with leaves
- Mod Podge
- Twine, string, or ribbon
- Scissors
- Exact-o knife
- Glitter

I first cut the leaves from the branch and used the mod podge to add some gold glitter to the leaves.

Once the leaves were dry I used the exact-o knife to cut a small hop at the top of each leaf and tread the twine through the leaves.

Next I attached the strings of leaves to the branch.

Lastly hang it up for a fun (and glittery) decoration!

What are your favorite fall crafts?

-A

Succulents!

In the last year I've really fallen in love with succulents. Flowers are great but I realize I'm much more drawn to greenery. I love the look of succulents. With their interesting shapes and simplicity of care. Last weekend I put together my own arrangement of succulents and it was pretty easy!

What you'll need: 

Succulent - any plant of your choosing!

Dirt

Rocks

Glass or jar to plant in - I found all my glassware at Goodwill!

Fill your container about half way and then add in your plant. I added rocks to the top partly for decoration and also in the bottom for drainage in the larger container. 

Water sparingly. I recommend using a spray bottle once a week. Just give it a nice spritz and place in a sunny spot. 

-K