Classic Chocolate Birthday Cake

Today is my husband’s birthday and the day is not complete without something sweet.  For most people, a cupcake or dessert of any sort would be good enough – but not for this guy.  Christian takes his “baked goods” seriously and I knew I had to take it to the next level this year since it’s his first birthday as a married man.  I couldn’t be all, “Happy Birthday!  Here’s a twinkie – oh wait – I think I have a candle somewhere…”

I knew it had to be chocolate.  I knew it had to be big.  I knew it had to be homemade.  And I knew I had to make it the day before his birthday because he will be working at the hospital until about 10pm on his actual birthday (sad face).I followed this recipe for the cake and used my own frosting recipe.

 

For the frosting…

  • 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 6 TB cocoa powder
  • 6 TB room temperature butter
  • 5 TB evaporated milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar and cocoa powder.  In a separate small bowl, cream the butter.  Gradually alternate between beating in the butter and evaporated milk.  Blend in vanilla.  Continue to whisk and beat until light and fluffy.  Feel free to add more sugar or milk if you want to adjust the consistency.

Happy Birthday Christian.  By far and away, the greatest moment of my life was the one when you walked into it.

Oh wait – I just stole that line verbatim from Anne Hathway’s Oscar acceptance speech.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHBoo!

PS  – THANK Y’ALL for entering the earring giveaway and sharing all of your sweet words!!!  Cortney Fish from Missouri is the WINNER!!  Don’t sweat it if you didn’t win this time around — I have another giveaway coming up soon!

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Friday’s Five

1)  Tiffany’s playing cards and a cozy fireplace.
2)  Enjoying my second ceramic stool – I’ve promised the hubs I won’t buy anymore!
3)  Seeing Queen Lula enjoy her diva’s cat bed.
4)  Becoming addicted to incense and trying several new scents.
5)  A Prabal Gurung for Target surprise.

Thanks so much for reading! Have a great weekend – XO –

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Friday’s Five

1)  Using this ice tray to make enormous berry ice cubes in my pomegranate soda – yum!

2)  Lula proof-reading my blog posts.

“It looks good, girl, but you have a typo in the second paragraph.  Do you think that second photo is cute?  It’s not.”

3)  Linen napkins that make me want to be a fancy lady who actually uses linen napkins.

 

4)  Finally being able to use some treasured wedding gifts — Viking pots and pans!

5)  This stunning Nashville engagement session of my best friend and beautiful bride, Kady Truesdale, and her dapper fiancé Ian.  I love these two beyond words!  Just look at these lovebirds — who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?Thanks so much for reading!

Have a beautiful weekend – XO –

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DIY: Vintage Suitcase Cat Bed

 

I’ve had this suitcase for years — a set a bought from Goodwill back in jr. high.  I’ve seen several suitcase-to-cat-beds on pinterest and once I picked up this girlfriend from the parking lot I knew this suitcase was eventually going to turn into a pet bed.  I recently had the urge to make it happen after hearing Christian complain about throw pillows + Kat + Lula = sofa hogs.So for about $30, Miss Lula LaShonda has a cat throne all to herself!

 
 

Stay in there, girlfriend!  My lap (or laptop on lap) is not your bed anymore.

Nap Time!

You’ll need: 

  • old suitcase 
  • 4 salvaged furniture legs or scrap pieces that could be legs
  • 1″ wide painter’s tape
  • white & black spray paint (I also touched up spots with black & white acrylic paint)
  • drill
  • pillow & blanket
  • any additional trinkets you want to use to jazz up the suitcase bed — I made Lula a burlap sign!

Directions:

Once you have your suitcase, it’s up to you if you want to paint it or not.  I chose to paint mine chevron after seeing this tutorial that stole my cat lady heart.

I simply taped off the chevron design and spray painted the design, touching up with acrylic paint afterward (thank goodness for a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders marathon).  Once dry, I made a little Lula banner and hung it to each side of the suitcase.

I wrapped an inexpensive faux sheepskin from eBay around a pillow to make her little cat bed.  My sweet brother-in-law found these salvaged wooden spindles and snagged them for me and the CHBoo used his electric drill and fancy schmancy tools to attach these babies to my cat lady creation.

He then mumbled, “I can’t believe the first time I got to use this thing was to help you make a cat bed.”

I mean…more like you’re welcome for giving you an opportunity to use your awesome drill, right?

What do you think?  Is this cute or 10 degrees of cat lady crazy? Thanks so much for reading – XO –

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Twisted Bun Hair Tutorial

 

 

It’s always nice to have a few bad hair day tricks up your sleeve.  This twisted bun has been a nice addition to my bad hair day/rushed mornings (which is 80% of mornings), along with the top knot (recently updated – those photos were hideous), side braid and voluminous ponytail.

This messy bun is a just a variation of the regular hair bun with a quick extra step at the beginning…twisting! You’ll need:

Directions:

That’s it!  It takes no time and provides a slightly more interesting look than the plain ol’ bun.  Hope you like!

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Christmas in NY, Part II

I’ve given Andy Cohen two shoutouts — one on my honeymoon reading his amaze book (completed in less than 48 hours) and the other holding this Mazel shirt…I’m going to keep tweeting him until I hear back!  Brace yourself Andy.

A quick stop at Georgetown Cupcakes downtown…where I saw a Kitchenaid mixer that belonged in my kitchen.

Birthday truffles for Karen from the always-thoughtful Jennifer Rose!

One of my favorite elements of the Saks window displays is that you can always see the reflection of Rockafeller Center in the background.

* * *

My quick visit to NY was fabulous, as NY always is, and I came home looking forward to the next opportunity I might have to go back.  This two-part post however, would not be complete without sharing my Delta travel experiences…

Top 6 Reasons You Should Never Fly Delta:

1)  Your luggage might get run over by a driver in an SUV who refuses to apologize (true story).  You lecture him until he agrees to be more careful to not run over people’s luggage and feeling that you won, you walk away.  He probably gives you the bird behind your back.

2)  You might have to run through the airport to catch a flight because your initial flight was delayed an hour due to a flight attendant not showing up for work (is a small plastic cup of diet coke and a child’s handful of peanuts worth it?  Not really).

3)  You can’t stop sweating post-airport dash and the flight attendant on your second flight makes you check your Hartmann luggage because there’s no room in the inn….but once your sweaty self enters the plane you realize he was wrong as you stare at the perfect empty spot in the overhead bin and now your luggage is being tossed around like a 40 lb. hot potato below deck.

4)  To apologize for all four of your Delta flights being delayed 40 minutes – 1 hour and 15 minutes, Delta gives you $12 dollars in meal vouchers.  Said vouchers are used for three lattes…but had coffee not have been available, the vouchers would have been used to purchase anything that was available and then would have been thrown in the trash can…because making sure I spent every cent of said voucher helped me sleep at night.

5)  You pay an extra $25 for priority boarding but that doesn’t matter when all of your flights are delayed and you run through the airport to get ON the plane, having to check your luggage because everyone else has already boarded.  Also doesn’t matter when no one even checks the tickets to confirm which zone is boarding.

6)  You have the pleasure of only being able to sit in 1/2 of your seat thanks to your aisle mate and the flight attendant’s cart rams your body each time it comes down the aisle.

What’s your favorite airline?  Continental?  American Airlines?  Southwest? Would love any tips or recs on your favorite airlines! Thanks so much for reading – XO –

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Christmas in NY, Part I

Best Meal:  Papatzul

Best Show:  Newsies

Most Outrageous:  The Forever21 in Times Square is regularly open until 2AM but was open 24/7 for the last two weeks of December.  INSANE (and yes, I was there from 10:30pm – 12:00am, don’t judge).

Checking out the new Sabon salts and soaps — my favorite bath & body products in NY.

Hopped off the plane to meet these fabulous city friends!  Jennifer Rose, Shallon and Molly – all NYC girls living the (or I should say my) dream life.  The highlight of the weekend was getting to see their pretty faces!

Watching these Salvation Army volunteers perform a dance routine while ringing the bell – I can’t even type that without smiling!!  So adorable.

Watching some sketchy guys in SoHo sell fur coats out of a minivan….so fantastically strange.

Handmade finger puppets — maybe the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

Wafles & Dinges – YUM

L’Ecole – a favorite spot in SoHo.  A restaurant catered by students studying at the The International Culinary Center.

My FAVORITE booth in Bryant Park – Studio Manhattan Vintage.  They’re in the same booth space every year and Karen and I always make visiting this Florida native’s creative booth a priority.  She is so beautiful and talented and her unique designs are some of my most interesting pieces of jewelry.

Part II in photos coming next week! Thanks so much for reading – XO –

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Merry Christmas to You & Yours


Wishing you a beautiful holiday weekend filled with family, fun, good wine and good food! Sending lots of love and appreciation to each and every one of you for checking in to CBL and leaving your comments and sending your kind words.

This blog has become one of my absolute favorite hobbies and has been so rewarding and such a blessing in so many ways. Thank you for helping to make it so much fun by tuning in each day – XO –

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How To: Make Your Own Coasters

To continue with crafting with extra wedding paper items, I wanted to make some coasters.  I used a wedding program and this tutorial and got to work!

All you’ll need:
  • Tiles from a hardware store (I bought 12 4″ x 4″ tiles so I could use the whole program…I don’t know when I’ll need 12 coasters…but I just did it.  4-8 should be plenty for a normal person!)
  • Black felt for the bottom of the coasters, cut into squares
  • Scrapbook paper, wedding program/invitation, whatever you want displayed on your coasters
  • Mod Podge (I used glossy)
  • Foam brush
  • Fabric glue
  • Acrylic gloss sealer (making the coasters water resistant)

Measure your coasters and determine the size you want the paper and felt  bottom to be and cut accordingly.  Brush one coat of mod podge on the coaster and place the paper on top.  Let it dry for about 15 minutes.

Once that is dry, brush a coat of mod podge on top of the paper.  Allow it to dry (around 15 minutes) and repeat this step 2-3 more times.

After you have applied several coats and the mod podge has completely dried, spray the tiles with the acrylic sealer, following the instructions on the can.

Once the sealer is dry, use your fabric glue to glue the felt on the bottom of the tile.

It’s that easy!  How fun are these!?

 

Thanks so much for reading! XO –

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What to do with Extra Wedding Paper Items, Part II

 

A few weeks ago I shared a post about making ornaments with extra save the dates and wedding programs.  Since then I’ve been working on another project.

Y’all know I’m weirdly obsessed with wreaths.  I already made these book paper wreaths a while back in addition to my wine cork wreath …so I was hesitant to make yet another one, but I thought a paper rose bud wreath could be a neat way to put these pretty programs to use.

It took a lot of time watching TV with a pair of scissors glued to my cramping hand…but the end result is definitely worth it.

You’ll need:

  • Styrofoam Circle Base
  • Glue gun + LOTS of glue sticks
  • Scissors
  • Wedding Programs/Invitations/whatever you want your paper roses to be made of
  • Ribbon to hang your wreath with

 

I covered my styrofoam base with paper to help the roses stay on better.

 

I also covered the back of the wreath with sheets of the program so the styrofoam wouldn’t flake all over the floor.

With some wine, a few SVU & Criminal Minds marathons, two weeks of patience and a few finger burns from that stupid glue gun…ta da!

 

I love it! Thanks so much for reading – XO –

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What To Do with Extra Wedding Paper Items, Part I

My mother and sister designed our wedding programs and used a twig of cypress from the trees surrounding my parents home on each program – isn’t that so neat?!  Kudos to Karen for coming up with the idea.  We made way too many (especially considering our ceremony + reception was the same venue so guests didn’t take the programs to cars like most weddings) and I knew I had to get creative – I couldn’t just let these beauties sit here until they were eventually tossed.

I also had a few extra save the dates, designed by Rock Paper Dove.

We’ve all seen these ornaments on Pinterest — and they’re just so stinkin’ cute that I had to make some for both of our moms too!

Step One:  Purchase glass or plastic balls at your local craft store (or here or here if you’re in a small town) and cut the paper into thin strips — about 1/3 an inch.

 

Step Two:  Roll the strip around your finger – giving it some shape so it creates a prettier visual in the ornament.  Drop it in the ornament ball.

 

That’s it!  Easy peezy.  I used the ribbon that secured the cypress twig to the program to tie around the top of the ornament and secure a sparkly snowflake, also purchased at the craft store.

 

I’m still working on the part two…stay tuned!  Thanks for reading – XO –

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Rosewood Mayakoba Honeymoon


Honeymooning is what makes all of the wedding preparation stress worth it.  Hands down the best week of my life, spent with the husband (!!!) at the Rosewood Mayakoba.  We were already talking about when we could come back before we hadn’t even left!

Here are some photos from the week, and any engaged gals out there – I can’t recommend this spot enough if you’re considering Mexico.

 

Our ferry ride to our villa…with our butler, Ana, waiting for us.  I think my cheerfulness and excitement took her by surprise…but I mean… clearly I was excited!

 

I was so touched and surprised when Christian surprised me with an extra sparkly band in the car when we left the reception.  Love love love.

There you  have it — the best seven days of my life and a trip that I will cherish for years.  No worries – I only took 800+ photos and videos so I don’t think I’ll forget a minute.  I’m that lady – she crazy.

Already saving for an anniversary trip…in my dreams! Thank you so much for reading – XO –

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