September was a good month

Hello my friends! Don’t you love this month? It’s one of my favorites for sure – and that has nothing to do with the fact that my birthday is next week. None at all.

I’m reviewing the projects I worked on or shared last month – just in case you missed something! I kicked off the month of September with some of my favorite fall decorating ideas and crafts:

Tons of easy ideas for both inside and out on that post! I haven’t done much fall decorating yet – it’s seemed so early still! But now that things are getting done in the family room I’ll be pulling some stuff out this weekend.

I was determined to finish up the fireplace last month and I did it! It just took me the entire 30 days. ;) I started by going bold with the paint color – a dark gray:

I added the trim to the sides and front of the built ins and the fireplace as well. It’s just inexpensive lattice wood you can get in the trim aisle at Lowe’s – I use it for all kinds of molding projects. It definitely gives it all a more custom look for sure.

The color was bold and I was a little scared but I LOVE it:

Next up I shared how I removed the center of the cabinet doors and replaced them:

We used standard, unfinished kitchen cabinets and just built them out a bit so they were deep enough to hold the electronics. Problem was I needed to let those electronics breath so they didn’t get overheated. The metal radiator sheeting was the perfect solution:

I love the look – a little modern but also a very traditional feel at the same time. And YES, the remotes work through the metal!

Because my readers are awesome, I shared some of the projects they’ve tackled after seeing some of mine. Tammy’s wall of built ins turned out SO beautifully:

Be sure to check out some of the others!

After I got the paint started on the fireplace and the doors done it was time to attack the biggest project – the tile. There were a few options I was considering:

The herringbone had my heart all along, I was just a little nervous about installing it. At first glance I thought it would take a lot of small cuts.

I soon figured out that wouldn’t be the case at all so I went for it:

I shared the whole process of tiling a fireplace surround here – that post includes some tips if you plan to use a marble tile as well.

We absolutely ADORE the finished product:

SO happy I went for that one!

I stepped away from the DIY for a bit to focus on an area that was in desperate need of some decrapification:

Love that my spell check now recognizes that word. ;) That closet had become my “Monica closet” – a dumping ground for anything that took actual thought to address. :) Go here to see my process for going through all the crap and getting it organized again.

Because the fireplace was looking so good I had to address how filthy it was from all the construction this summer. Did you know you can clean the inside of your gas fireplace glass?:

It’s actually quite easy to do. I like to clean our fireplaces every year at this time before we turn them on for the winter. I also shared how I used high heat paint on the fireplace surround to get it looking good again here.

I was thrilled when I realized that taking down the wall in the family room meant our kitchen would get much bigger too. We were able to move our table to a spot that works SO much better with a lot more space, which meant a much bigger table would work. I shared our new one and thoughts on finishing it here:

Goodness I LOVE this table. I’ll show you what I’ve done with it next week. :)

Next up I gathered some of the prettiest fall printables you ever did see from around blogland – and all are FREE:

They are such an easy and inexpensive way to decorate for the seasons.

I was needing some warmth in the family room so I switched from our summer neutrals to some color for the fall:

If you’ve never sewn a pillow I also shared some quick tips – it’s not that hard, I swear!

I was fed up with some more of the disaster areas in our house of late so I focused on my problem clutter areas. Take a look at them and this space all cleaned up here:

Yowza. That was bad.

I love finding new fun places to shop that don’t break the bank – I took you on a tour of one of my favorites last week:

Last weekend I finally got the fireplace finished! I love it so dang much! I shared how I planked the wall above the fireplace for $13 and a bunch of I’m-so-happy-this-is-done after shots here:

A couple of you suggested painting the crown the same color and I think I’m going to try it. I’m not sure it will work but it’s only paint – I can easily take it back to white if I don’t like it. The total cost to finish up the fireplace was less than $200 – that included the metal sheeting, tile and supplies and the wood for the planked wall. I had the paint leftover from the wall in the bedroom.

Someone commented on the rug earlier this week and yes it does look baby blue in that shot – not sure why. It’s definitely a gray/blue color that works great with that whole wall. (You can see the true color in the pics above.)

I finished up the month sharing a quick tip that saved us a few hundred bucks:

If yours is ever jammed be sure to use this as a resource – most times you can take care of it on your own.

Whew! That’s it for this month! It was a great one – now onto beautiful October. :) Hope you have a lovely weekend!

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Dining room updates

Hello my friends! It’s a lovely rainy fall day here, and what I think will be the last warm day we have in quite some time. I’m actually excited about that. :) I’m tired of sweating – bring on the crisp air, yoga pants and boots!

I finally did something in another part of the house other than the family room…can you believe it?

A while back I took the drapes down that used to hang in the living room:

This was in the pink wall era, so glad that color is gone! (They weren’t really pink but sure photographed that way.)

Anyway, I took those drapes down after I added new trim to the windows up front:

I like them simple like that – so much so that I don’t have any plans to put new drapes up, at least for now.

I got to thinking that our dining room windows could really use something though. I do plan to trim them out the same way but in the meantime they were looking pretty bland:

This was my before picture as I started working – excuse the mess. :)

I took down the drapes that were the dining room years ago moved them to the family room:

When the wall came down those drapes did as well.

Anyway…I’ve had naked windows in the dining room for quite some time – I’ve been wanting to replace them but it hasn’t been a priority. Then I realized a couple weeks back I could use the drapes from the living room that I took down months ago. Are you with me?? ;) We’re coming full circle here. Kinda.

Of course it can never be as simple as just hanging drapes for me. There’s always all kinds of little things that pop up along the way. The first thing I did was move the roman shades back down to inside the window frame. Years ago I mounted them outside just for a little extra light. It’s felt messy looking to me lately though and it only gives a couple extra inches of extra light so back they went.

I had to patch where the shades were hanging:

When I took the brackets down they took chunks of drywall with them. Not sure why that happened – usually you’ll have problems with that if you put them up right after painting but I didn’t do that.

Anyway, I patched those up with spackling – this kind goes on pink and is white when it’s ready to paint/sand:

Love that!!

Hanging drapery hardware isn’t hard, it’s just a matter of hanging the brackets the exact same distance on either side of the window. I like to go out at least five inches from the window and usually at least a few above as well – I couldn’t go too high with these because I didn’t make them long enough.

I just trace where the holes go in the bracket and then drill a pilot hole:

I always drill a hole first before trying to get a screw in the wall – if I hit a stud then I’ll need to predrill anyway. If I don’t hit a stud I know I’ll need to use anchors, so it’s a time saver to just do that first.

I got the hardware up on both sides and then realized the middle piece was going to hit the small molding I had around the window. Sooooo that had to come down…more patching and then painting to cover up the original chocolate brown color underneath:

Remember those days??:

I don’t miss it. :)

So THEN I get the drapes hung up and realize I didn’t like the stripes I added as a leading edge years back. I was using two panels on each side of the windows so the stripes were on either side of each one and it looked circus-esque. Not what I was going for.

So I took them down, cut down the sides quite a bit and hemmed. I just left a bit of the stripes and I quite love the dark on the edges now:

I get asked about his fabric a lot – it’s a P. Kaufman fabric called retreat blue citrine. I’d like something a little simpler in this room eventually but until then these will do nicely. :)

I “trained” the drapes like I showed you here years ago:

Combined with my fake pleat method it makes them hang much prettier!

They add some warmth to the room and make it feel much more finished:

I’m so glad I took some of the stripes off – they look SO much better with just the simple color along the side:

These are two skinny panels together on each side – I cut the fabric down the middle for the other windows. I didn’t sew them together and you can’t tell. :)

I hung these along a full drapery rod so we can close them if needed:

I hear we’re going to get another nasty winter and I like being able to close drapes for some added insulation. It helps!

The colors are lovely – the blue edge matches the background on the built ins almost perfectly. Someday I will add the window trim in here but I will still probably keep drapes up even after that. They definitely add some coziness to a room!:

This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would, but it was free so I can’t complain. :) Another fall nesting project done!

Do you prefer drapes or none? Do you use yours if you have them? We use our bedroom drapes every weekend so the bedroom is crazy dark, love it. If you want your drapes to be full and pretty while closed you’ll want to add to your yardage to make them wider. I don’t spend money on that since they are usually only closed at night and it’s just us who sees them.

OH and we were waffling on keeping a table in this room but now that our kitchen table is plenty big I think we’re going to move ahead with our original idea of comfy chairs and a coffee table. Whoot! I think it will look lovely!

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Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps – Not Exactly P.F. Chang’s, But Close Enough for the Internet

I don’t do a lot of copycat recipes; mostly because I don’t eat at the restaurants people are requesting the recipes from. I mean, unless they're going to throw in a couple bottles of wine, I’m not going to Olive Garden to figure out how they do their breadsticks. These chicken lettuce wraps however, are a delicious exception.

When I go back to visit my mom, we usually make it to P.F. Chang’s at least once, and always start the meal with their very popular chicken lettuce wraps. Off the record, they do a good job with most of the dishes I’ve had, but the wraps are clearly my favorite.

There’s an addictive quality to the contrasting combination of flavors and textures, and since this recipe has been requested many times, I decided I’d give it a go. Fair warning, I did almost no serious corporate espionage to find out what’s actually in these, but regardless, I loved how this came out, and it seems close enough.

One key here is to use a very large, non-stick pan, so the braising liquid/glaze sticks to the bits of food, rather than the bottom of the pan. Other than that, the technique is pretty simple, and not a lot can go wrong…unless you try to use chicken breast. Even if you think you don’t like them, use thighs, because in this you will. I really hope you give this a try soon. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 8 large or 16 smaller lettuce wraps:

Chicken mixture:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped

1/2 cup yellow onion, minced

1/3 cup green onion

1 can (8-oz ) water chestnuts, drained, minced

1 cup diced shiitake mushrooms

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

For the glaze:

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/2 tsp mustard powder

2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp red chili flakes, or to taste

4 garlic cloves, minced

about 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, basil leaves, and green onions to finish

iceberg lettuce leaves as needed