Patio Revamp - How to create a Barn Wood Look

Hey friends! I am back, back with a whole new blog! I am so excited to share my adventures with you as an interior designer, its gonna be fun!

One of my most recent projects as of late:

I told the hubs we needed to revamp the back patio. He is a contractor for a living and he had extra cedar beams left over from a project, lucky us! He drew up a little design and got straight to work. He got on Pinterest and tried a hundred different ways to get a a weathered barn wood look. Nothing was meeting his expectations, he came up with his own little concoction for a barn wood look:

-Dark Walnut Gel Stain - Old Masters

-White tint base wood stain - Minwax

That's it! Mix these babies together and get crazy, I swear it is so beautiful! You can use this for any barn wood look alike project you can think up. ( I used this same remedy to create the arrow wall decor shown in the final project below). 

Other items needed:

- Cedar beams

- 2X4's

- Electric Saw

- Electric Drill

- Screws

Here is a photo of how he positioned the wood to get it into the shape we liked:

You ready for the big finished project?? Drum roll please - dadadadada

Then after I added my own interior decorating touches..

Now off to enjoy the Holiday weekend festivities with my family in this fun backyard folks! Enjoy your 4th of July!!

Secret Sait # 2 {Make your stainless steal look like new}

Hey guys! I have another AMAZING share for you today! Do you remember my last Secret Saint that scrubs the grime out of anything? Well this is JUST AS GOOD. Plus its easy as pie see for yourself. All you need is a little WD-40 and a rag.

Look at this dirty fridge from all of us putting our gross hands all over it.

Ta-da stunning right?? It even got all the water marks off the water filter. Okay now check out the dishwasher.. See how you can see all the streaks from me trying to clean it WITHOUT WD-40?

Now this photo shows after a little WD-40..

Your so welcome! Put it on ANY stainless steal and it will make it look as good as new!

Peaches & Cream {Sweet Business Oppurtunity}

Hey foodies I made this recipe especially for one of my most fav bloggers Bonnie Cribbs. Know him? He blogs over at Beach Money he is the CEO. He helps people who want to work from home and own their own business turn that dream into a reality, so he writes a lot of motivational post, helpful tips, how-to post, etc. he helps me all the time! Oh and he will crack you up he is too cute.  As an Independent Consultant for Rodan + Fields he helps people have beautiful skin. Who doesn't want beautiful skin? I know that it is VERY important to me. So if you want to have beautiful skin or want to work from home or BOTH ya'll need to connect! Now that you heard this SWEET business opportunity, Bonnie wanted a sweet dessert created just for HIM. So this is what he got.. a nice cold, refreshing, sweet, peachy, cream dessert!

 

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Servings: 10

Serving Size: 1 cup

Calories: 193

Fat: 3.7 g

Carbs: 31

Fiber: .3

Protein: 9.25

Points +: 5

Old Points: 4

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Needed:
6 medium peaches {raw}
1 tablespoon Agava nector
1/2 cup coconut milk {canned}
2 cups ice
1 tub vanilla ice cream {I used Haagen-Dazs lowfat}

Create:
Cut up peaches and place them in blender. When they are blended add coconut milk and ice. Blend until there are no large pieces in the mixture. Scoop one scoop of ice cream per cup. Then pour peach mix over the top.
Now you are in for a refreshing treat. Enjoy!

Me a Bikini and a Baby Bump!

Member how back in December I told ya guys I was prego?? Then I had to announce later that I miscarried? Well there is a new word on the street folks! I am pregnant and the doctor says that he/she is a keeper. I couldn't wait to share this BIG news with you guys. I am finally in the boat with some of my other preggy friend bloggers like Glam Hungry Mom,  Never The Same Spice Twice, and Wifessionals! YAY! Obviously babies are just in the air. My due date is Christmas Day. I know poor kid! I feel terrible for her/him. Any pieces of advice on that one to make the kiddo still feel like it is there special day? Or really just any pregnancy advice for that matter. I love tips! I am defiantly going to do a big time gender reveal party. I can't wait! Have any of you had one? Tell me what you did!

Here is that baby bump I was talking about. Thats a 11 week baby bump folks... I know its huge for ONLY 11 weeks haha.

Coconut Coffee Pops {Va-Kay Update}

Calling ALL coffee lovers! This is a throw back from last summer but I thought I would share again just in case you missed it. It is one of my fav summer treats that is just so refreshing for summer. Have any of tried these yet? What did you think?

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Servings: 10

Serving Size: 1 Popsicle

Calories: 46

Fat: 4.6 g

Carbs: 0 g

Fiber: 0 g

Protein: .5 g

Points+: 1

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Here Are Your Ingredients:

2 Cups of Your Fav Brewed Coffee

1 Cup Canned Coconut Milk

5 Tablespoons of Coconut Shredded - no sugar added

10 Small Plastic Cups

10 Sticks (I used kabob sticks)

Brew up your favorite coffee and when it is done place it in refrigerator for 1 hour. When chilled mix it with milk. Pour mixture evenly in cups. Put cups in a baking pan and put them in the freezer. After an hour and a half take out and stick sticks in center of cups. Sprinkle a little shredded coconut on top. Let sit for another hour until completely frozen. When they are done cut a slit in one side of the cup and rip Popsicles out. Now it's time to lick up and chill out!

Now I know I promised you some pictures from our family trip to Florida so here's a few!

We went to two beaches while we were visiting. Clear Water Beach, and Coco Beach. Both were just stunning but we really enjoyed Coco Beach the most.

 

We went to Disney and also Islands of Adventure {Universal Studios}. Our all time fav was Islands of Adventure's Harry Potter land. Have any of you been there? Did you try the Butter Beer? It is pretty much a Cream Soda, Root Beer Float type of mixture and they were simply amazing! We had a great time with our friends Val, Alex, there son Xander and my mom. So happy we had the opportunity to spend quality time together. {I noticed that I used the quote un quote word fav at least a handful of times on this post but apparently it is just my fav so I apologize for that}.

Paleo Cookies

Meet Sarah she blogs over @ Fueled a Flame. Cute Sarah has a very inspiring blog about her weight loss journey, she shares great recipes, oh and today she is having a freakin' awesome giveaway! Want a $50 Visa Gift Card? Yeah me too. Click here to enter! Who doesn't need a little inspiration in  there lifes? I know I do so thats why I follow Sarah and you should too! When I asked Sarah what special recipe she wanted just for her she informed me that she had started to do the Paleo Diet and to make her a recipe that she could munch on. So I came up with these bad boys! Alright they aren't bad they are good! And super duper easy to make. So easy that I have made them 3 times sense creating them for Sarah. The family loves them, I hope you AND Sarah will too!

Blog // Bloglovin' // Instagram // Pinterest

 Here are Sarah's Paleo Cookies!

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Servings: 12

Serving Size: 1 cookie

Calories: 97.5

Fat: 9.6 g

Carbs: 6.3 

Fiber: 1.8

Protein: .6

Points +: 2

Old Points: 2

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Needed:

2 medium bananas

1 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup semi sweet dark chocolate chips

Create:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas. Melt chocolate chips. Mix all ingredients together. Dabble mixture in cupcake tins. Cook for 30 minutes.

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Cinco De Mayo Fresh Salsa

Hi ABpetite readers, it's me again...Stephanie from Never The Same Spice Twice!  I wanted to do something special for my guest post, and thought this was perfect!  I could LITERALLY live on salsa....I'm pretty sure of it!  I love all kinds of salsa - hot, mild, medium, restaurant style, green, fire roasted, jarred, fresh....you name it!!!!  Here is one favorite way that I like to make it fresh at home!  

Ingredients:

5 tomatoes (really ripe*)

A LARGE handful of cilantro

1 1/2 cups of tomato puree

3 Tbsp. of lime juice

1/2 yellow onion

1/4 red onion

1 jalapeño - (seed and ribs removed if you don't want it super spicy)

3 cloves of garlic

1 Tsp. of salt

1 Tsp. of cumin

Directions:

1.  Combine all ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until smooth.

2.  Enjoy for a few days...this makes A LOT!

(*If you can't find really ripe, fresh tomatoes... then use a can of whole peeled tomatoes, and eliminate the tomato puree)

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What a PERFECT Cinco De Mayo recipe right? Totally made THIS this last weekend and it really is just as amazing as it looks with the BEST flavor! Can't wait for you to try it. Share your love with Steph and follow her! Blog //  Twitter // Facebook // Pinterest // 

Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe friend. So happy to have you in my life and so is my belly!