B Family Home Tour: Kitchen

Hey y'all!  With all that has been going on in my personal life, I decided I needed something positive to focus my energy on.  And that is going to be making our house everything we want it to be.  We made some updates and changes when we first moved in, but it has been awhile since we have done any major projects.  So for the next couple of days I am going to be giving you the before tour.  It may be awhile before the after tour, but I will try to post some updates as things move along.  We're going to start in one of my favorite rooms, but also the room that needs the most work: the kitchen.

This is one of my favorite parts of the whole house and it is by far the most talked about feature when people come over.  It's our chalkboard wall and I totally love both the practicality of it and the fun it brings to the kitchen.

This is the view of the entire kitchen from the back door.  Try to ignore the cute puppy.

This is the view from the entrance to the kitchen, by the dining room.

This is another one of my favorite things in the house, our bar area.  We have the Liatorp side board from  Ikea holding our booze and all of our glasses.  And we have our awesome wine fridge, which I love and use often.  What I don't like about this area of the kitchen is the big blank wall right above it.  That is on my list of things to change.

Across from the bar area is where the pup's house lives and it is one of my least favorite spots in the whole house (definitely the smelliest spot in the house).  Unfortunately, this is a matter of practicality, but it will be going away soon!

We have some great light coming in from several windows, but they are blocked by these ugly blinds that don't fit the windows.  The blinds were here when we bought the house and we have just never changed them.

In the middle of the windows over the sink is what at one point was a medicine cabinet, but now is just a framed area we painted with chalkboard paint.  I use it mainly for holiday themed messages.  I'm thinking about taking off the handle and painting the trim so it looks more like a framed chalkboard.

It's no secret to those who know me that pink is my signature color, so of course one of my favorite things ever is my pink KitchenAid mixer.  It is the inspiration for my future kitchen decor.  Luckily, I found these adorable kitchen towels that match perfectly.  The towels are serving as my color palette for the kitchen.

One major element of the kitchen standing in my way of my perfect color palette is the backsplash tile on the walls.  Everyone else seems to love it, but I can't stand it!  I am constantly dreaming of a pretty colorful subway tile backsplash.  The tile is definitely the biggest project to work on in the kitchen.

And last but not least, the first of the major changes is going to happen to our pantry.  I actually really like the look of these wooden doors, but they are extremely impractical.  They are hard to open and they get stuck on the door mat by the back door.  It makes it difficult to access the pantry as a whole, and that has got to change.

And there you have it, the B family kitchen!  Some of the changes are already in the works, so keep an eye out for future projects and improvements!

DIY Cute Magnets

Hello lovelies and happy Monday!  Hopefully most of you are able to enjoy a day off today!  I have a super cute, easy, cheap DIY project for you today that will help spruce up your kitchen or office space.

Here's what you need: mini picture frames (I found mine in the dollar bin at Michaels), scissors, cute scrapbook paper, and some magnets.

Take out the insert inside the frame and use it to make a template on the back side of the scrapbook paper.

Cut out the shape and put the scrapbook paper inside the frames.

 Turn the frame over and remove the back piece (the part that would make it stand up on a flat surface).  I was able to just pull the back off pretty easily, didn't even need scissors.

And attach your magnet to the back of the frame.  Voila!

Here is what our fridge looked like pre pretty magnets...

...and here is what it looks like now!

I love the pops of color, plus these look so much more elegant than those random magnets we tend to collect.  All in all, I think this project was under $10 and definitely made a huge difference in the look of the kitchen.  Can't beat that! 

(P.S.  Doesn't Mr. B look cute holding a baby?  Gotta love him!)

Valentine's Day Crush

I have to attribute the idea for this post to the lovely ladies over at Eighteen 25; I saw this on their site yesterday and I had to do it for this special Valentine's Day post.  Since today is all about love and stuff, here are some of the things I am currently loving.  (Click pics for original source.)

Colored kitchen backsplashes:

Wood countertops:

An organized pantry:

Comfy cozy winter fashion:

Instagram and all the fun things you can do with it:

What are some things you are currently loving?  Hope you all have a wonderful day of love!  Don't forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter to see my DIY Valentine's Day sweater in action!

Dark Chocolate Caramel Shortbread

First, I just want to say thank you to those who reached out to me in response to yesterday's post.  Your love and concern, from friends and strangers, means more than you can know.  So your reward for your awesomeness is something sweet and delicious!

Today I have another yummy sweets recipe for you.  I modified this one from the original recipe I found over at Doughmesstic, mostly because I don't have the tools required to make my own caramel.  If you do, by all means, go for it!

The first step in this recipe is to make the shortbread.  Here's what you'll need:

10 tbsp. salted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk, whisked
1  2/3 cups flour

*The original recipe calls for orange zest, but I didn't like how it tasted in the shortbread so the second time I made this recipe, I left it out and it was much better (to me).

1.  Prepare a pan with parchment paper in the bottom, leaving some hanging over the edges.  This will make it much easier to remove the bars when they are all finished.  The first time I made these bars, I used my perfect brownie pan, but I found that the bars came out too big and too thick, so the second time around, I used a regular 9 x 13 pan and that worked much better.

2.  Time to start the shortbread!  Mix together the butter, sugar, and salt with a fork in a medium sized bowl.  Add in the egg yolk and mix well with fork.

3.  Add in the flour in small sections.  Use a wooden spoon to mix at first.  Once you have added in most of the flour, you will need to mix with your hands.

4.  Once thoroughly mixed, spread the dough into the bottom of your prepared pan.  Refrigerate for about thirty minutes.  Then set oven to 350 and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges start to turn a very light brown.  Allow to cool before moving onto the next step.

5.  For the caramel, if you want things to be easy, buy ready-made caramel.  I used the stuff made for dipping apple slices (found it in the fruit section at the market).  It worked well because it is thick enough to harden, but still easy to spread.  Once shortbread is completely cooled, spread caramel on top of shortbread.

6.  Put pan in fridge for at least a half an hour, or until caramel hardens.

7.  For the chocolate, melt 1 cup of dark chocolate chips and 1/2 tsp. of shortening in a microwave safe bowl.  Start off with one minute, then go to thirty second increments, stirring in between.  Once chocolate is nice and melty, pour it on top of the caramel/shortbread.  Put the pan back in the fridge until the chocolate hardens.

8.  The final step is to sprinkle the bars with sea salt and remove them from the pan.  I was scared second time around that the bars would be difficult to cut without the help of the brownie pan, but with a good knife, they actually cut pretty easily.  It was nice to be able to make them more bite size than these ones that are pictured.

These guys are delicious, but I definitely recommend the smaller size.  This size bar was hard to eat and A LOT of sweet.  Still yummy though!

Personal Post: Layin' it All Out

I’m not gonna lie to y’all—this post is not going to be easy for me to write.  But when I started this blog, I meant for it to be a safe place for me to talk about this adventure Mr. B and I are on—an adventure as husband and wife, home owners, artists, and eventually, parents.  I haven’t felt like I can talk to many people about this process of creating a family, and most of that is due to the fact that I have always claimed that I didn’t want to have kids—pretty vehemently (I am nothing if not stubborn and set in my ways).  So as it became more and more clear to me that I do want to have a child, I found it hard to share my thoughts, worries, and anxieties about everything pregnancy/mommy related.  Hence, this blog was born (pun intended). 

At this point, this blog is not as anonymous as I would have once intended, but I have realized in order for me to share with you some experiences that will be coming my way soon, I have to explain my experiences from the past couple months.  Pretty soon you will realize just why I was gone for so long.  I will warn you now, this post is long and personal, and if that’s not your thing, I totally understand.  If you want to turn back now, I promise I won’t be offended (and really, how will I know?).  You’ve been warned.  Here we go…

Mr. B and I started the serious baby talk around August or September of last year.  I think deep down we both knew that kids were going to happen at some point, despite some of our protests to the opposite.  We figured we would start trying some time around March or April, which would give us a perfectly timed baby for our teacher schedules.    In October, I stopped taking birth control to give it some time to get out my system (some of my internet reading led me to believe it could take MONTHS for this to happen).  At the end of December, I started feeling a little weird.  Tired.  Emotional.  And the biggest change?  I no longer wanted alcohol.  Mr. B and I were on our way out to eat at a Mexican restaurant one night right after Christmas and I actually said to him, “Know how I know I’m pregnant?  The idea of a margarita sounds really gross right now.”  (I promise, I’m not an alcoholic.  I am, however, a teacher.)

On December 30^th, I took a pregnancy test.  Then I went out and bought a more expensive one and took that too.  Both of them were very clearly positive.  In my mind, I had visions of doing something super cute to tell Mr. B the good news, but I was so shocked I just walked out into the living room and showed him the pee stick (lovely, I know).  He was even more shocked than I was—not having experienced first-hand the exhaustion, crying, and aversion to alcohol—so it took a little bit of time for the news to sink in.

The next day we left for a New Year’s Eve trip to Vegas (just where you want to be when you just found out you’re expecting, right?).  I have to say, this trip will live in my memories for a long time.  I have never, ever come close to doubting my relationship with Mr. B, but this trip cemented in my mind how amazing he is.  Considering this was something we were not expecting for several more months, he truly rose to the occasion—making sure I had everything I needed (including multiple naps and boxes of Saltines) and coming back to the room with me before midnight each night.  I think on this trip we both started to actually get excited about becoming parents.

We told a few people our good news when we got home from our trip, but we decided to wait to make the big announcement until after our first doctor’s appointment.  Everything seemed peachy at the appointment until we got to the first ultrasound.  The doctor informed us that while things should be seven weeks along, they were only measuring six, and where we should be hearing a heartbeat, none appeared.  He prepared us for the worst, and sent me off for a blood test.  Two days later, I had another one.  Two days later, we found out that the pregnancy was not viable, and I was given my options: wait for a miscarriage to happen naturally, take a pill to induce a miscarriage, or have a surgical procedure to clear out the uterus.  I decided to wait for a few days to see if things would happen on their own, but I didn’t last long with that.  I was constantly worrying about something happening—especially during class.  I finally called my doctor to ask for the drug (that experience might be a whole post on its own).  It was a pretty miserable experience that lasted about five or six hours, but once it was over, it was over—physically anyway.

It has been about two weeks since I took the drug to induce the miscarriage, and physically speaking I am back to normal.  I have had some amazing support from some great friends and family and I am having plenty of good days.  Honestly, sometimes it feels like I was never pregnant in the first place.  Then there are the moments when I still feel pretty empty inside.  Seeing nurseries pinned on Pinterest, or friends posting pics of their baby bumps on Facebook kinda makes me feel depressed.  Or angry.  Or annoyed.  Depends on the day.  But things do seem to be getting better.

One of the reasons I wanted to write this post is because I know so many women have been in this situation, or have had their own struggles with getting pregnant, but it isn’t something that most people talk about.  There have been times over the past couple of weeks that I have felt so alone and like no one understood my struggles, but I know the opposite is true.  Over the next couple of months, as Mr. B and I begin to think about trying to get pregnant again, I want to share my honest experiences and feelings with my readers on this blog—that is one of the main reasons I started Bees Times Three.  I also want anyone who reads this to walk away knowing that there is someone out there who gets it.  I am sure that the next few months are not going to be easy, and I want to be able to share my struggles--for my own sanity and for anyone out there who may be going through the same thing.  I will still be sharing all of my other life adventures, but this would be a pretty big one to ignore.

If you have made it this far, thanks for hanging in there.  I promise there won’t be any (or at least not many) posts this long again!  I appreciate the “listening” ears.

Valentine's Day Sweater

Hello all and happy Monday!  To kick off this Valentine's Day week, I have a super cute and easy tutorial for you.  I wanted to have a sweater I could wear on Valentine's Day, but could wear throughout the year as well.  I think this one fits the bill!  Here's what you will need: a sweater, some colored felt, a shape (I used a heart, but really you could use any shape), fabric scissors, fabric glue and a paint/sponge brush.

Cut out your shape and place it on the sweater about where you want it.  Make sure the size and everything looks good.

Trace your shape onto the felt and cut it out.

Using your paint brush, spread glue all along your shape.  Make sure you use a very thin layer of glue so that it doesn't leak through the felt.  Try to get as close to the edge as possible so there isn't any lifting or separating.

Place your felt shape where you want it on your sweater.  Make sure you put a magazine or some cardboard in between layers of the sweater so nothing leaks through.  Press down firmly making sure all the edges are smoothed out.  Let dry according to the directions on your glue.

And there you have it!  Make sure you are following me on Instagram and Twitter, I'll send out pics of me wearing the sweater on Thursday!

Santa's Beer Sleigh

Okay, so this post is WAY behind schedule, but out of all the gifts I gave this Christmas, this one was my fave so I have to share it with you.  The cousins in my family always do a gift exchange and this year I drew my cousin Travis, and I had absolutely no idea what to get him.  Then I thought to myself, what does Travis love the most?  Well, he's a thirty year old dude, so beer, obviously!  But I couldn't just give beer, so I dressed it up a little.  First, I made beer reindeer (or reinbeer as I like to call them).  I used brown pipe cleaners for the antlers, brown and red fuzzy balls for the noses, and little googly eyes for the eyes.  I wrapped the pipe cleaners and glued on the eyes and noses.

Then I made a beer Santa.  I wrapped red felt around the can, topped with a black ribbon belt.  For the hat, I found this awesome Hershey kiss, shaped and wrapped perfectly!

I used the beer box for the sleigh (this was an 18 pack).  I just cut out the sides in the shape of a sleigh and did some taping with clear packing tape.  In the back of the sleigh, I put the rest of the beer cans with little ribbons on top to be Santa's presents.  (I also enclosed a gift card, couldn't just give beer!)

And then I put it all together!  I used the top of the box to lay out the reinbeer in front of the sleigh.  Here's the whole thing all together, Santa and his reinbeer!

The sleigh was a smashing success.  Tons of fun to make and give!  If I were to do this again (and I totally will), I would use something much sturdier to mount it on.  It was very difficult to travel with this baby and I had to do some reinbeer surgery when we arrived at my aunt's house.  But totally worth it, don't you think?

Blogger Love Shout Out!

I must preface this by saying that when it comes to computers, I don't know much of anything.  I can type.  I figured out how to upload pictures to this blog.  And that's about it.  Seriously.  So I am super proud of myself for finally figuring out how to add some cute social media buttons to my site (look to the right!).  Aren't they adorable?  I could not have done it without two cyber helpers so I wanted to show them some love!  I downloaded these perfectly pink buttons from Carrie Loves Design--for free y'all--how awesome is that?  And the buttons come in tons of different bright, fun colors.  That part was pretty easy.  Installing them and actually connecting them to my social media pages was a wee bit harder, and I would NEVER have figured it out without this tutorial from Adventures as a Small Town Mom.  So thank you ladies!  You have helped make my blog so much prettier and I am extremely grateful for your help!  If you want some cool social media buttons of your own, check out their pages!

Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

Hope y'all are hungry today because this is one of the easiest and tastiest recipes I have ever "baked."  I found this recipe on Pinterest, obv, and it originally comes from the Brown Eyed Baker (go show her some love!).  Literally, when I saw this pin I was like oh man, those look tough, but it's Christmas so I'm going to give it a go.  And seriously, I think I spent like 15 minutes on these babies and they are awesome.

Here's what you need:

1½ cups pretzel pieces
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Here's what you do:

1.  Crush up your pretzel pieces so they are pretty tiny.  This works best by putting the intact pretzels in a baggie and then crushing them.  (The original recipe says use a rolling pin, but I believe it or not, do not have a rolling pin.  I used a bottle of wine instead since I obviously have plenty of those handy.  Whatever works for ya.)

2.  Mix together the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar and salt.  Using a mixer would make this way easier, but if you're in the mood for a little arm workout, go to town.

3.  Once it's all nice and creamy, stir in your pretzel bits (don't use a mixer for this step), and then mix in your powdered sugar.

4.  Using a regular spoon or an (small) ice cream scoop, scoop out the mix and roll into little balls (about an inch each).  Place on a covered cookie sheet.  Once you have formed all of your truffles, put the cookie sheet in the fridge for at least half an hour (longer is better).

 

 5.  When your half hour is up, go ahead and prepare your chocolate for dipping.  Put your chocolate chips and shortening in a microwave safe bowl.  I started out with a minute, and then switched to thirty second increments, stirring in between each round.  Once your chocolate is melty, you've got to dip the truffles pretty quickly or the chocolate will start to harden.  I used a fork to roll the truffles around in the chocolate and scoop them out.  Once they are all covered, put them cookie sheet back in the fridge for at least another half hour.

6.  If you are fancy, which I am not, you can drizzle the truffles with caramel or melted peanut butter, but I decided to just leave these guys plain.  

Here's the finished product.  Super yummy and totally addicting.

These guys are a great way to make it look like you are a super talented pastry chef without having to actually have much skill!  Enjoy!

Favorite Things Party

I know this post is a wee bit late for the holiday season, but this party was so fun and it really doesn't have to be holiday-centered so I'm going to share it with you anyway.  My girlfriends and I decided to have a Favorite Things gift exchange party instead of buying individual gifts for each other.  I got this idea from, of course, Pinterest and it seemed like a fun concept.  The basic idea is that each person brings one item (enough for each individual at the party)--something that costs less than $5, but is something they love.  Then everyone exchanges items and each guest goes home with a few new awesome things to try out.  At our Favorite Things party we had people bring nail polish, a scented candle, a scarf, deep conditioner, a super cute coffee cup, and of course since it was a gathering of teachers--some good cheap wine.

Of course no holiday gathering is complete without the drinks, so I also asked each lady to bring a bottle of wine, which was served in these glasses I decorated just for the occasion.  For the wine tags, I painted little wooden tags with black craft paint, then used a white paint pen to write the initial of each lady.  I used some brown twine to tie them onto each glass.

I also got some black lunch size bags so the girls would have somewhere to gather all of their loot.  I used the white paint pen again to write a little message on the bag.

For my favorite thing, I snagged my most used nail polish, which is the all in one manicure from Sally Hansen (lasts forever).  I used some brown craft tags and again the white paint pen and wrote "For your mistletoes" on each one.

All in all, we had a lovely girls night out.  It was awesome to not have to spend a fortune on individual gifts, and I ended up with a bunch of cool stuff that I have actually been using!  I will definitely consider another Favorite Things party the next time I am hosting a night for the ladies!