our bar cart, holiday style

when we had a house full of people last week, I offered someone a shot of whiskey and was mortified when I saw the thin little ring of dust around the shot glass. 1. Could I be any less fun? Why am I not enjoying more liquor in my life? And 2. holy shit, I need to clean. So a few mornings back, at approximately 9 am, I jumped out of bed and took apart the whole thing, removed every cork and ever bottle and wiped the whole thing down. I washed all of the glassware, and cleaned it up a bit. So here she is, our bar cart, with a few seasonal accents thrown into the mix. 

I wish I liked whiskey more, but damn I am just a clear liquor girl at heart. Tequila, gin, and especially vodka are my liquors of choice. Luckily, the husband feels the same. I would hate to draw a line down the middle of our cart to separate our spirits. We keep Hendrick's, Tito's, and Cazadores on hand always. St. Germain is another great bar staple that will surely please. It has a sweet but also a subtle sourness to it and gets along pretty well with gin. Not pictured are a few of those plastic lemons and limes in the fridge, full of citrus juice for cocktails. 

tip: Keep your drinkware upside down so that dust and whatever can't get inside. I keep ours on a cutting board, just for extra texture and cleanliness. Three to five types of glassware is ideal. Odd numbers are more appealing. Also, variety of sizes and types (wine glasses, tall glasses, short glasses, champagne flutes, and maybe some shot glasses too!)  

I'm still not sure yet if we are going to put up a tree or not this year, but we had three different people gift us "Newlywed" Christmas ornaments. So here hangs one, proudly. also, that Santa figurine was our ornament we bought last year together for our first Christmas together, hence the "2016" :)  Personal touches like candles and collections will add a little something to your booze cart and make it a lot less stuffy. Especially during the holidays when you can cover the thing in garland and twinkly lights! (I've been collecting matchboxes forever and... I don't know... I just love them on a bar) but just remember, whatever you display, be prepared to dust them too! ha! Cheers! 

oh, also, on that top photo waaay up there- here's how to make your own easy citrus garland. I think it looks super cute on the bar cart. I now wish I had displayed a big bowl of grapefruit and oranges along with the dried garland, but oh well. Maybe next year! 

how to make dried citrus garland

i'm going back and forth this year on whether or not I want to spend the time and money to put up a tree. We don't have kids and we aren't doing gifts. But I have to put a little somethin' around the house or I'll just be a sad Christmas mess. So today I broke out my Christmas trunk and strung a few strands of Christmas lights on my bull skull's horns and I strung them up along our bar cart, too. last year was the first year in a while that I decorated for Christmas. Andrew had either just moved in or was about to, and I kept the tree theme super natural, handmade, and cheap. I loved it! So this year, I wanted to keep the same idea alive and saw a few examples of dried orange garlands. I ran out and bought two oranges and one grapefruit. It ended up being enough garland to go around the bar cart and what I'm affectionately calling my fake fireplace mantel- the piano. So here's how to make your own! The process is long, but the steps are easy!

you'll need: 

// citrus fruits! I used oranges and grapefruit, but limes and lemons are gorgeous , too.

// knife

// sprinkles of sugar or nutmeg (this is optional, I did a few and wasn't in love with the result)

// paper towel

// cookie sheet, wax paper, cooling rack

// needle and thread 

1. start by setting your oven at 200 degrees.

2. while the oven heats, slice your fruits about a 1/4" thick.

3.  blot the juice out with paper towel.  

4. line your cookie sheet with wax paper, and arrange your fruits.

5. bake for one whole freaking hour.

6. flip them over.

7. bake for another whole freaking hour.

8. let cool on cookie sheet for about a day (seriously)

9. once your pieces are done, lay them out to get an idea of how long to cut your string.

10. pierce through the rind of the pieces,where it's thickest/strongest.

11. pierce back through to the other side.

12. slide them down the string, adjust widths however you see fit, and string them up with pride!! 

a couple of bucks well spent! And the house smells pretty dreamy too!! 

a bathroom makeover

a few days ago, one of the light bulbs above my bathroom vanity went out. And as it happened it kinda struck me that I have never replaced or even cleaned the top of my light fixture in there. ew. So naturally, this seemed like most opportune time to replace the entire fixture. Because gimme all the home projects, right? But ... for whatever reason... The fixture was stuck tight onto the wall and it totally bummed me out. (picture in your head the clown portrait that was hanging in Jim Halpert's parent's house on The Office) Andrew quickly pointed out though that if I just switched out my frosted type of bulbs with clear bulbs, I would probably like the entire fixture more. But I wasn't sure. Sometimes, when it comes to home design,  I worry that all of my favorite styles and staple design ideas are actually clashing together horribly. I love silver tones, brass tones, gold tones, copper tones, etc. And I don't know if the home interior rules say whether or not I am allowed to like them all together but I do. I love the mix of an antique gold tone mirror with a sleek and modern silver tone framed mirror neighboring each other on the wall. I love super chic black accent pieces that are topped with naturally woven wooden baskets. Am I alone here? Are we normal? Or are we the bad ass kids smoking cigarettes in the bathroom at home design university? Either way, whatever.

So I've had a beautiful antique mirror hanging over my sink for a little over a year now and decided the shelves next to it looked super cluttered, especially next to that large and delightful wall gallery. So I removed the shelves and replaced the space with a large and very modern wall length mirror. The biggest part of the project was the vanity for sure, though, and it turned out exactly how I wanted it to. Thank you to Andrew for being happy as a clam sitting on the couch watching Top Chef reruns while I jump up and go grab my little black paint can and get to it. I can't help it. I am literally painting everything around me black and charcoal and I can't get enough. In the past 3 months, I have painted an entire piano, a bedroom side table and now- my bathroom vanity. (all with the same pint of black paint, I might add. Someone take it away from me, I dare you.) If you ask me, nothing looks sexier on black than super dramatic brass pull knobs, so I ordered a few and they are perfect. I threw in a matching towel ring because holy shit, I have lived here 7 years and have never had a bathroom hand towel for guests. Sorry y'all.

What's the point of this post? I don't know. Except to say that no life problems couldn't be fixed with some semi gloss black velvety paint and all the brass accents you can find. Throw in a few sexy women's sketches, and you'll have a bathroom you'll never want to leave.

how to: clay ring dish

last week, I was standing in the kitchen doing dishes (does anyone else have a dishwasher but sometimes doing dishes by hand feels therapeutic, but if you didn't have the dishwasher you would be annoyed? OK, me neither) anyway, I'm standing there and I took off my engagement ring and and it sitting on the windowsill. I never took my eyes off it as though it was going to grow legs and run away from me like an apprehensive groom and then Andrew walked up behind me. He mentioned that while he was growing up, he remembered that his mom kept a small dish by her kitchen sink and kept her wedding ring on it while she did the dishes and for whatever reason, I just found that to be such a sweet, simple little anecdote that I wanted to find my own ring dish to keep my newly most prized procession safe from dishwater and danger.

I found a tutorial on the good old internet but as most tutorials go, I crashed and burned and my dish was not great. So I switched around a few things and had much success that I'm sharing with y'all now. yay! There's photos to try and match up the process, but honestly, this is a pretty simple craft. Here we go!

supplies:
--- oven bake clay. (You'll want 2x more black and white clay. It doesn't take much clay to make one dish so I recommend going in on your clay with friends or making a few dishes at a time. I went with maybe 10 different colors but would have bought them all if I could!
--- clear nail polish
--- silver/gold/black nail polish
--- small oven safe dish (this will be used as your mold, so pick whatever size you want)
--- knife & drinking glass (the glass is what I used as a cookie cutter and a rolling pin)

1. pick out your colors and cut small slivers, also cut larger slivers of white and black (then check Google to see if "sliver" is a word)
2. Roll them into a worm-like shape

3. once they're all rolled out, roll them up together, twist into a spiral, and gentle make a ball.
4. Use your glass to roll out the ball. This is where I started making changes from what I found online. This simple rolling will NOT make a marbled look. So roll it out, use your glass cookie cutter, and just start overlapping scrap pieces and rolling them flat. You want your colors to be disconnected and random. The more you roll it out, cut it into pieces, and reconnect them, the better and more unique it will look!

5. Once you have rolled out the piece enough times and you love it, use your drinking glass cookie cutter and make a circle. (this will be your dish so make sure to smooth the edges)
6. Flip over your oven safe dish and lay the circle onto the bottom, gently smoothing the edges down.
7. Bake for 15 minutes at 275 (put it on a cookie sheet) and let it cool. gently remove from your mold.

8. Once cooled, use your preferred nail polish color as a trim color (I went with gold. Because gold) and then use your top coat nail polish as a clear glaze on your dish. (keep in mind they 100% make a glaze you can buy at a craft store but hey, I had 4 bottles of top coat polish just wasting away so I used them and they worked out great for this!

I have now made like 8 of these babies and they're kind of addicting, super simple, and something I'm excited to hand out to a few of my favorite women. yay! Good luck!

our junk room turned into an office last week

hey! life lately has been upside down bananas. planning a wedding has been so much fun but I gotta tell you, it can be mad stressful. We are getting married in November so time is moving fast and it's pretty much my main focus in my spare time. But look at us! in a month, we've gotten pretty much all the big details out of the way so now we just kinda wait? i guess? who knows. this is my first wedding, after all :) but anyway, while planning a wedding has been a ball, there was still some love needing to get put into this apartment, primary the back room. Slowly but surely we've kind of gone room to room giving it a little bit of love. When Jon moved out, it was a sad day. But as much as I was sad to see him move out, I was happy to pull up the disgusting carpet and paint the smoke stained walls. I post many months back that I wanted to paint the back room this gorgeous emerald green and I couldn't have been happier with it. We plan to build a double desk the length of the wall but for now, our little Ikea desk will have to do! I'm a sucker for a good collage wall so we covered it in a mixture of our art pieces. 

the nude woman was a painting I won off of Everything but the House and that abstract piece up there? the one with the black paint strokes throughout? that was made by my precious 4-year-old pseudo neice per my request. I love it so much because she made it with her little baby hands. Like everything else, this room will be a work in progress. I'm on the prowl for a gorgeous rug and an old leather cigar chair for the corner but for now, here are a few photos! yay! office space! 

how to: gold leaf easter eggs

ok so there might not be any kids running around this apartment just yet but whatever. Can't a childless 29 year old enjoy some of this season's festivities? and maybe make herself a fancy egg sandwich out her crafts in a day or two before they rot? can I not live like Beyonce for a day and have everything dipped in gold? ok good, i thought so, too. Anyway, I told Andrew early this morning that I thought it would be fun to make Easter eggs for literally no reason at all and god love that dude for getting me all the supplies needed! scroll down if you would like to create your own speckled gold leaf easter eggs!  

first, boil your eggs! bring your water to a boil and drop them in for about 10 minutes. afterward, allow them to cool for a few minutes. If you want to color the eggs before adding the gold leaf, you'll need:

- 1 cup warm water (for each color)

 - 2 teaspoons of vinegar (for each color)

- food coloring

does that make sense? so like, I did 6 colors meaning I needed 6 glasses each filled with 2 cups water, 2 teaspoons vinegar and my color drops (about 10 drops of each color) 

 drop in each egg for about 5 minutes and pull out gently. 

 allow to drip dry on a paper towel. Don't worry if they aren't perfect, you can cover the blemishes in gold- just the way god intended.

Now for the really fun part!! for adding your gold leaf, you'll need:

 - gold leaf sheets. Andrew picked up this kit at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon from the Michael's app. I hear they also have silver leaf and copper leaf and if that's the case, someone let me know!

- a cheap paint brush

- tweezers

Begin by applying the adhesive to your egg with your paint brush. it doesn't need to be perfect and it doesn't need to be everywhere. In theory, wherever you put the adhesive, expect that section to be gold in the end. Gold leaf is mega thin, sensitive, and will stick to anything.  So feel free to make them as fancy and golden as you like. Use your tweezers to peel off small pieces of gold leaf from the sheet and gently lay the pieces to the adhesive along your egg. Wipe it smooth with your brush. I used my fingers here and there because I have the patience of a toddler but it seemed to work out fine! Gold leaf isn't the most forgivable medium but it's also hard to screw up, in my opinion. It's shiny and pretty so who cares- put it on everything. Repeat this step 200 times on each egg. 

Andrew made one egg (I won't tell you which one!) and I made the rest. My fingers look extra fancy and kind of expensive but I love the final project! (i type this as my fingertips are coated in gold but I aint mad about it!) Some day we'll be stuffing baskets with fake plastic grass, reese cups, and peeps but until then… gimme all the gold!! 

my female nude wall

don't you just love when you have a vision for a project and it turns out exactly how you wanted? I personally do mental backflips in these rare life occurrences. and I don't know if it's from getting older, learning about my style more, or taking my time on project visions, but lately all of these little home makeovers have turned out exactly how I had envisioned (if not better) and it's been the best feeling. I would be rolling my eyes reading this if I were you, but I just have to say that this little apartment has really been getting shaped up lately into a real beauty. every room is now my favorite room of the house. i love the high contrast of black walls and white blankets in the bedroom, the clean and modern aesthetic in the kitchen, and now I love love love my bathroom. I have been excited for weeks to get this project going and finished and it kind of came out of nowhere. I saw a print about a month back that was literally just the words "GET NAKED" in black and I loved it. and then a light bulb went off in my head and I thought this way would be way more fun. 
between women's marches, national women's day, and everything else going on in the world that centers around women and all of their wonder, I couldn't help but work on a project that showcased ladies and all of their parts. So many of my friends from across the country (and even a few across the pond!) contributed pieces to this and I couldn't be more obsessed. Some of them are self-sketches, some are from art classes, and some are just made from memory of no one in particular. Either way, I'm sure that the women in these pieces felt vulnerable and scared and probably didn't like one aspect of the piece or another. But I would like to believe that they were also proud of sitting for the pieces and felt beautiful and confident and knew that their bodies were perfect. Thank you to everyone that contributed to this. My new favorite room. 

a kitchen makeover

for years and years, I've hated my kitchen. granted, it kept my cookie dough safe from danger, but the room gets very little sunlight, the walls are dark, and it was just a totally sad cave-like space. But when Andrew moved in, one thing became very apparent: Jamie would be spending a lot more time in that kitchen. Andrew's favorite thing to do is cook meals for us and so I knew that I wanted to make the space somewhere that was more aesthetically pleasing to hang out in. I've dreamt of finishing this kitchen for literally about 4 months, but we wanted to paint the rest of the apartment first, finish up other projects, and most of all we wanted to enjoy our trip to Vegas without a project being half finished. Soooooo fast forward a few weeks and here we are: The whole kitchen took about $500 and 5 days (that's including a $100 hood range so I'm pretty damn happy about it) and was a pain free experience, mostly (i would be lying if I didn't note a few snippy comments back and forth between us. PSA: if you notice a kind of crooked cabinet knob that your boyfriend installed... just let it go. crooked means character!) I linked at the bottom our paint color, a few accessories, and the wall brackets! I hope you like the kitchen makeover as much as I do! 

Cabinet paint: Glidden 

Wall brackets: Home Depot

Wood stain: Minwax 

Rug: Esales Rugs

Cabinet pulls: Houzz

Hood range: amazon

Clear glassware: Ikea

Toaster: Overstock 

as you could imagine, most everything else is from TJ Maxx, Homegoods, or lucky thrift finds. 

how to make mini heart bath bombs

let me begin this post by saying… i am a beginner in the world of bath bomb making. i learned a lot in the past few days of making these and i'm here to share a little know how with you, my fellow "too broke to afford lush on the daily" friends. all of the mini bombs i made (about 35) cost the fraction of the balls you can get at the mall, but these aren't nearly as fancy. Mine smell amazing and will make your skin baby soft and your bath water pretty but they aren't full of glitter or confetti or flower petals or anything else crazy. They're just a nice, mid week bomb for your average consumer. Hands up! 

my idea was to make a million of these, in all the same colors as those Valentine's day heart candies we all know and hate and pass them out to my girlfriends. They aren't too time consuming except for the waiting part and purple, as it turns out, is the hardest color to make so i'll be perfecting those a little bit BUT we're getting there, people! these were my first trial run and I just thought it would be fun to share in case anyone out there wanted to make some of their own for friends or for yourself this Valentines! 

i like these mini bombs because 1. i think they look cute in a variety of colors and crammed into a jar and 2. i have no patience to wait for amazon to ship me my sphere mold and Michaels had mini heart molds. so there ya go! most of the ingredients that go into these are probably already in your cabinet at home (except citric acid… my god, that stuff was a nightmare to find. Cincinnati people- they have it at Clifton Natural Foods and that was where I found it after searching at Kroger, Target, Meijer and Wal Mart. It was a fun hunt, let me tell you. But the citric acid, I assume, is the star of your show that creates the fizzy goodness soooo it's pretty crucial. 

you will need:

mini heart mold pretty similar to this one

bowl & spatula

D/R/Y

4 oz. baking soda

2 oz. epson salt

2 oz. corn starch

2 oz. citric acid

W/E/T

1 1/2 tsp. water 

1 tsp. essential oil (i've used lavender and sweet orange. both are yum)

1 1/4 tsp. melted coconut oil

a few drops of food coloring, optional but recommended. 

combine all dry ingredients. 

combine all wet ingredients

sssssllloooowwwwlllyyyy add your wet to your dry, stirring with a spatula to combine. if you start to see fizzing, you're pouring too quickly. slow it down. once all of your liquid is in your bowl, continue to mix. you'll get a nice, clumpy texture… think wet sand. you should be able to pick it up, squish it in your hand, and it keep its shape.

add your mix to your molds and pack. them. in. tight. 

let your bomb molds sit for about 15 minutes to set.

then, flip your mold over and gently (like petting a baby butterfly, gently) push the hearts out of the mold. if they don't come out easily, or pieces stick inside of the mold, they aren't ready. give them a few more minutes (this happened to me maybe 15 times. you can just take it out, add a baby bit more of water and try again. or just crush it up and have a nice bath tonight. whatever)

let your mini hearts sit out on the counter over night or for about eight hours to make sure they are completely dry and then yay!! 

some. will. be. ugly. it's cool. they work the same. they smell like a dream and fizz and make your skin soft so it's fine. but just so you're warned, those grey looking ones? they're supposed to be purple… also, they aren't supposed to look like shit. but, i added waaay too much water while i was trying to make purple and they turned out looking like ugly little heart shaped rocks. but ironically they smell the best so what are ya gonna do?

anyway, they're fantastic and cheap and easy and will make great gifts for years to come. i have a sphere mold on its way to me as we speak and i plan on getting pretty brave with trying out scents and what not sooo report back!! 

how to make friends in your late 20's

In less than a week, I'll be in my last year of my glorious 20's. I'm speaking with no experience what so ever, but I have a feeling 29 is going to be a bigger pill to swallow than 30 will be. I'm actually looking forward to 30. truth be told, I think I'll be in my prime around 43, but we'll talk about that another time. the last 9 years brought so much good and bad and confusion and excitement and lots and lots of soul searching. (said every 29-year-old everrrr, right?) When I was in high school, it was embarrassingly important for me to be popular and be friends with everyone and be able to wave to anyone in the hallway. I was a cheerleader, I was in the choir and I was on the student council (I'll blame my busy extracurricular activities list for my C average grades. But oh well, I was all over the yearbook and at the time, that's all I gave a shit about. Priorities.) So at my ripe old age, I've learned a thing or two about friendships. 10 years ago, I absolutely needed to be liked by everyone. Is that an only child thing? Did my dad not hug me enough? Did I watch too many movies? Hell, I don't know. But nowwww, I've trimmed the fat quite a bit on relationships with friends that seemed forced and not as enjoyable anymore. That sounds harsh, but hear me out. 

I had friends from high school and my early twenties that were my entire life. We went to all the parties and hung out all summer and danced on bars. But as the years went by, we all took a different path. They had different views on things that I couldn't understand, I had a schedule that required me to work nights and weekends, and we just didn't have enough in common anymore. It's totally sad and I wish them the best, but that's life I suppose. and now, I would hug them at the grocery store but I wouldn't call them if I had a flat tire. Does that make sense? My thoughts and interests and life didn't match up with theirs and the older I get, the more I realized I needed a way to make new friends with similar likes and lives as mine. Now don't get me wrong, there are still girls that I sat next to in middle school and still text daily. (yes, Maria, I'm referring to you!) But I don't see them as much as I would love to. She doesn't live close enough to go to happy hour or just meet up to bitch and brag about life events. Our schedules conflict. And even though I know she'll be giving a speech at my wedding someday, it's become apparent recently that it's high time to find ways to make new girlfriends in my late 20's. here's are some places and plans on how to make that happen:

1. go to places that you love. Alone. Chances are, there's someone else there alone, too. 

Places include:

dog park (plus, your pups can play together)

regular park

restaurants/bars (sit at the bar and eat your meal. talk to the bartender)

museum 

art museum

thrift store

Sunday morning flea market

farmers market 

concerts 

this is just my list of suggestion because these are the things I love to do, with someone or alone. you could add sporting events, the gym, the grocery store. whatever! two solos make a duo!! (yes, I just came up with that) 

2. host an event

I've done a few of these and they are sooo much fun and only mildly awkward at first. In the digital age, there are so many girls around the city that I follow on Instagram or their blogs but I don't actually know them. So what do I do? I host a party and invite them all! I have literally messaged girls and said "hi! you don't really know me, but I'm hosting a party for girls around the city that seem to be awesome. Would you like to come?" and we have a ball. 

3. join a class. 

around here we have lots of sushi, wine, candy making parties, dance classes, book clubs, and brewery tour events. It's scary, I know. But go solo. You'll be fiiiine! 

4. get to know your coworkers. 

you see them every day and you've probably found some common ground. hit up a happy hour after work and enjoy getting to know them outside of the office!

5. make your family your friends. 

some of my best lady friends are actually relatives. i try and see my cousin a few times a month for thrifting and lunch, plus it allows me to see my niece and nephew. we both love to go to the thrift store and she has to love me no matter what, so it's a win-win for me! 

Obviously, there are plenty of ways to meet friends, but here's just a starting point of how to get out there and meet people! good luck out there! 

how to: make a cheese plate

after a serious and unhappy post (sorry about that! just had to get some stuff off of my chest!) it's always best to write about something that is a sure crowd pleaser. and what makes people happier than cheese? if you think of anything, let me know. but until then, I've got a quick "how to" for ya. HOW TO make the world's easiest, fastest, cheapest (and if i do say so myself, kinda pretty) cheese plate. i always admire seeing beautiful cheese plates at parties or events and after making this one yesterday, i totally get it. this was actually kinda fun to organize. it was like decorating a room from a bird's eye view... except instead of couches and end tables, it's blocks of cheese and crackers. i did not hate it. so anyway, here's a quick guide of how to make a cheeeap cheese plate for your next party!! and just to warn you, this isn't the same kind of HOW TO you're going to find in a fancy food magazine. this is a Jamie Dawn, unfiltered, poor girl version. but it looks pretty so who cares, right? ok, onward...

step one: finding your cheese board. all of these yummy pieces are only going to look as good as what they're being presented on. I've had this slate square for about 5 years and it really only gets to shine for parties. it's got that great rugged look and you can easily write on it with chalk if you wanna. you can buy them from home depot individually for a few bucks (they're meant to be tiled on the floor but we can totally use them for cheese!) or you can make your own with a piece of wood and painting it with chalkboard paint. i usually find that DIY projects cost more than just buying the damn thing, so i recommend the tiles. also, i'm 2000% sure that your local thrift store has a great wooden cutting board that's been beaten to death and would look great covered in cheese. SO in conclusion, thrifted cutting boards and slate floor tiles... these are the prettiest to use in my opinion. 

step two: your cheese choices. you guys, there are two million rules and regulations to follow when it comes to picking out cheeses and what to pair them with. the cheese world is kind of like the wine world. there's a lot of rules about notes and flavors and regions and whatever. but at the end of the day, just like in the wine world, as long as it tastes good, who cares that much, right? i think cheese plates work best when you include the most basic types. they'll satisfy the most people. and there's nothing worse than cutting off a slice of what you think is cheddar and it's something weird and crazy and all you want to do is spit it out into your napkin. for my cheese plates, i went with a super sharp cheddar, a tangy blue, a creamy goat and a simple mozzarella. they're classic and popular and not too stuffy. nobody likes stuffy. 

step three: buying the cheese. this stuff can get expensive, and when you mix in all of the pairing goodies (crackers, pickles, meat) it will go up even higher. when i'm making a cheese plate, i go shopping for my cheese the day of the party and look for manager stickers. i buy the clearance cheese that is marked to expire soon since it's going to be eaten within the day and it will cut your costs in half. and instead of buying a $12 giant block, get two $6 smaller blocks so you can get a variety of cheeses.  

step four: your supporting actors. obviously the cheese is our super star on the plate, but everything that accompanies it is just as important. you'll want to go with thick, strong crackers or toasted bread pieces. Salami, cornichons (those sweet little gherkin pickles), pesto, tomatoes and almonds are all great to add to your cheese plate, too. the more cluttered and full the plate looks, i think, the better. and be sure to have plenty of small cheese plate spoons and knives around. keep your fingers off the plate. ew.

step five: setting up the tray. this part is pretty much up to you and how it appeals to your eye. i like to go with my cheeses spread out with everything else surrounded them. the more effortless it looks, the better. keep your spreads in small jars with spoons ready for scoopin.

just a few quick tips to keep in mind:

- cut your cheese in advance. otherwise, by the end of your night, your tray will look like a murder scene. 

- buy stuff that YOU like. you're the one paying for it, and you'll be the one to have it sitting in your fridge if it goes uneaten. and cheese aint cheap, people.

- when it comes to pickles, nuts and spreads, make life easier: buy generic and buy your pestos/jams premade. 

i hope this gives you a little help in planning to make your very own cheese plate for your next party or just for yourself on a lonely Friday night in front of the tv :) enjoy!! 

tonight, i'm cleanin' out my closet.

i would like to think that eminem's entire point of that song was a good spring cleaning. and now i'm having fun picturing him rapping while throwing his clothes into piles. and if you're like me, you do everything ass backwards so i decided right before fall was a good time to get rid of most every thing i wear. i recently got a new job, one that's on the professional side, and it just seemed like the right time to go into my deep pit of a closet and get rid of all that junk i've accumulated over the years. yes, years. i never clean out my closet. and i've had this wooden rack now for a while and decided to challenge myself. i wanted my entire wardrobe- let me repeat- MY ENTIRE WARDROBE to fit on that rack. with the exception of bras, socks, bathing suits, pajamas and a few bulky winter coats and sweaters… it's all pretty much there. i'm so happy about it i could burst. so here's how i went about the process….

^ my before and after ^

not picture was the first mountain of clothes to get rid of. stained t shirts from high school, jeans i'll never fit into again and sweatpants from a walk of shame that i would prefer to forget. first thing to do? take everything out of your closet. EVERY. SINGLE. THING. you'll see just how much you have and you'll want to cry. but it will be a good, healing cry.

and now, GET RID OF ALL OF YOUR SHIT!

- things you haven't worn in over a year

- things you're holding onto for some weird reason

- things you don't fit into or you don't like how they fit 

(i find that it's just depressing to see those items in my closet anyway)

- things with rips, tears, stains (that aren't intentionally there)

- things you bought for $1 at the thrift store just to have,  you haven't worn, and you aren't gonna

- things you've borrowed from others (make a pile and return them. they'll be stoked)

- things like your 10 year old prom dress

when it comes to getting rid of stuff:

throw away underwear, torn up bras, things that are damaged. basically anything that would make you say "ew" at the thrift store. don't add to that problem, you guys!

donate or sell the rest!

if you're like me, it goes in a box, gets dropped off at the thrift store and never thought of again.

use certain items as decor as well as clothing. hats can hang from nails on the walls. kimonos and sequin tops can be displayed proudly. 

buy yourself some new hangers. i got 2 24-packs from target for $15 each and they make such a difference. they look so much better and they are super sturdy. some people might not like that they're a little thicker and take up a little extra space, but i think it will keep me from buying clothes if i can't fit them on my rack. 

organize your clothes in a way that makes sense to you. some people will say color coding. some organize by season. some go from longest to shortest. i don't know what i did but i like it. i remember in  beauty school i tried to organize my closet once by color. if you know anything about the world of beauty school, you know we have to wear black every single day. so when you're searching for that one specific top in a sea of black tanks, goooood luck. figure out what works for you and your clothes. 

double up your pants on hangers OR fold them. i find that pants take up so much space and if you're like me, you wear the same 4 pairs over and over. i got rid of all of them except for a few good pairs of jeans and some fun slouchier slacks. i'm going thru a dress phase right now so i'm not too worried about my pants drought. 

 

get rid of ugly stuff. with having a rack that's constantly on display, it was easy to see things in good light and up close. i pulled out plenty of shirts and thought oh my godddd why did i buy this?!? it's so ugly!  get it outta here. more room for sequins! sequins and neutrals, apparently. 

not pictured are under garments, sweaters, leggings, pajamas... all of these pieces (the kind that are kinda wrinkle-proof) now live in small, pretty baskets. i'll never be the person that matches up socks or folds leggings so baskets are great for me. i kind of like the look of them just sort of overflowing with intimates, no? oh, and i stack my sweaters. 

i know, i know. girls love their shoes. so i probably stand alone on this. but i wanted to narrow my closet down to 10 pairs. including one pair of tennis shoes that i'm saving for a rainy athletic day. other than that, it's neutral boots, Birkenstocks and booties that pretty much go with everything.  utilize your floor space or those shoe organizers that hang on your closet doors. 

i hope this helps a little bit to give you a little closet piece of mind!