The Bram Fam

Jazzin' Up Some Dressers!

2014-04-07T12:09:00.001-07:00

Welcome back! I hope you have been enjoying this beautiful weather as much as I have! Us in Georgia sure did have a crazy couple of weeks-- ice storms, tornadoes, 70 degree weather, earth quakes...

I have been busy around the house completing some projects and thought I'd post some how-to's and show some before/ after photos since that's what we really love about DIY anyways :)

First up is my Grandmother's old dresser. This thing was COATED in some Poly like no other. I'm talking multiple coats of stripper to get this stuff off plus tons and tons of sanding.

I decided to finish the front with a map. The hardest part is finding the paper map honestly.. luckily my dad had a stash of old maps of Georgia and Tennessee so I chose the map of Nashville.

to do this, I took the map and put a layer of modge podge on the drawer as well as the top of the map. Once covered, we smoothed it over and let it dry. It really doesn't take much more than that! Now to find some knobs...

Next up is our $25 dresser from goodwill!

as you can see, it was a bright white dresser with very ugly handles. I already started the top before I realized I needed a picture! I had a few repairs to make to the structure of the piece (re-attaching some of the trim, fixing the drawer tracks and repairing some broken wood inside).

I decided to go with a mustard color (obviously) and made my own chalk paint for it. If you have used chalk paint before, you know it's pretty much an investment to do a few pieces of furniture. I looked up several recipes and landed one that works really well!

DIY CHALK PAINT

1/3 cup plaster of paris
1/3 cup warm water
mix these together until you don't have any clumps
add in 1 cup of latex paint, any color
stir well!

if you need more, double the recipe. I usually keeps any extra in a cleaned out pickle jar but noticed the more it sits the more it settles. Go ahead and throw out what you don't use since it's so cheap to make :)

I did a few coats since the white was so glossy (no sanding necessary with chalk paint!)

because I didn't want white showing through when I sanded it, I took a sharpie and marked up the edges where I figured I would distress.

I painted all surfaces about 3 times. After it was dry, I did a light sanding to get rid of the rough texture (chalk paint is meant to be dull and a little rough. With a little sanding it becomes nice and smooth!)

I found some $1 hardware on Etsy from China? The old brass pulls were perfect with the mustard color. I also added some brown glaze to the surfaces so it didn't look like literal mustard. Now it's a more... aged mustard.

Voila!

Now for some views around the somewhat-finished room.

This is my first room that I love in this house. I love the wall, the old furniture and accessories, the $30 Nate Burkus curtains (!!!) and the new comforter. Anyone lookin' for a place to stay anytime soon? :)

Thanks for reading!

Creepy Decor Galore!

2013-10-02T09:01:00.001-07:00

Hi there! It is finally the fall season- my favorite time of the year! I have been busy doing some projects around the house preparing for a Halloween party (that I probably won't have but want to pretend I will).

My family has always gone way above and beyond for Halloween decorations and I've always enjoyed coming up with new, fun, creepy decor to put around the house. Traditionally most Halloween decorations have been outside but with the rapid popularity increase in Pinterest I assume many more people are now starting to deck out every flat surface with some pintresty project :)

Here is a look at what I've been doing so far! Some tutorials are written out, others are just photos. If you want to know how I did anything specifically just let me know!

Here is a view of the entire mantle. I draped the "creepy cloth" from the dollar store to give it something different. (yes, my fireplace is always orange, we painted that awhile back and LOVE it)

Here are some closeups of the actual items:

I got an old dictionary from goodwill and am using it just for paper. I tore some out, burned the edges and crinkled it up to stack it up to look like spells or potion recipes!

Also, these labels were hand-drawn on the inside sleeves of the old book's covers (it was a perfect aged, discolored look that is the perfect setting for creepy things!) I drew in pencil and modge-podged over to seal it up.

Here's where the twine-wrapped vase came from--

I took a cheap cylinder vase I had from my wedding and decided to wrap it in some twine I had on hand. I know I can use this for far more than just Halloween so I hot glued it going up. After doing glue all the way around I realized I really only needed a few dots here and there and it stayed pretty well. Just make sure you keep it tight going up!

Here is the finished vase before filling it

I went out back and collected some branches. I cleaned them off a bit and just put them in to create some height to the mantle. I played around with different ones in order to not completely take over my TV but also keep the volume.

Besides the mantle I did a few other things around the house!

Here I took some of those pages from the dictionary again and glued them on cardboard. I took a sharpie and drew out a spider. I started drawing a skull but realized I just can't make those look good... so I went for the easier option :)

I am so excited to have collected some stuff for this table! I have the candle stands from wedding gifts and added the other stuff to them. I found the skill, bat cutouts and crows from the dollar store. My mom found the cool skeleton candelabra, spider vase and pumpkin from Kirklands. The only other thing I might add eventually is more creepy cloth or black lace underneath it all.

Here are more closeups of the cool potion bottles. I simply spray painted them all matted black and added the paper afterwards. Some labels were printed from sites I found on Pinterest- just search halloween labels and there are TONS of ideas!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

A new twist on displaying guitars!

2013-02-09T16:44:00.002-08:00

4. A NEW way to display guitars!

So for this project, there has to be a little bit of a back story. At our old apartment, we hung all of the guitars around the room randomly, filling almost every wall. When we moved, Andrew decided to go ahead and do the same thing. Unfortunately, this room was much smaller and it never really sat right with me.

See what I mean? Kinda blah.. and didn't really fit well in the room with the piano and ridiculously large sofa.

SO... I had this amazing idea kinda pop into my head one day. I thought it would be cool to place them all together in one area in the corner, and create a fun, art piece. I layed out the guitars on the floor and came up with an arrangement I liked, and then traced them onto the wall.

I could have done regular outlines of the guitar shape, but decided to do something a bit more interesting.

Each guitar has it's own "personality". One is melting, one is on fire, one is boxy, the ukelele, my favorite, has some Hawaiian flair, and the others just have interested shapes.

I added the other art things I had- the melted record, the different notes with quotes on them and some other things.

I went with a pop of tangerine on a grey wall.. and black and white accessories/ pillows.

This actually ended up taking forever. I free handed all of the orange, then painted the grey, then had to do all of the outlines of the orange back with grey. It took about an entire weekend to get the lines really crisp and finished.

I think it turned out really neat! What do you think?

Burlap Christmas Stockings

2013-02-09T16:22:00.002-08:00

3. Christmas stockings for the door

I was given one of those door stockings as a wedding gift (3) years ago. I thought to myself...as I usually do with these kinds of gifts.. "I could totally make that myself!" Well, I tried it out that year, made 2 for some friends for Christmas, then this past Christmas I decided to finish up the burlap and paint that I already had and make more for the entire family!

Here is how to make them:

trace out a large stocking pattern with newspaper or poster board.
trace with sharpie onto the burlap, make sure to do 2 per stocking you want to make!
lay them out and paint...I did red spray paint for the body, and white paint (a bucket of oops paint from Home Depot in just flat white). I found that painting with actual paint was A LOT easier than spray painting the white on. Also, for the polka dots (if desired), just spin a cheap paint brush in one spot to create the perfect circle.

make sure you paint the backside as well, and that you do the flip side. I just do solid red and white, no polka dots

4. After all of the paint is dry, bring inside and pair them up!

5. Take a small bottle of black acrylic paint with the fine tip and draw a messy line all the way around.

outline the white areas as well, and add some "stitch" marks in there!

6. Once the black paint is dry, hot glue the bottom toe area and heel and start to stuff with whatever you

have on hand. I used old grocery bags since I always have a million of them...

7. After you stuff it all the way, finish up the edges with more hot glue

8. After everything is set, grab some thick, but bendable wire. Poke holes through in the top corners

leaving excess on both ends. Then just take pliers and twist into a random bundle to "tie" off the ends

Voila!

(Sorry there aren't more pictures, that was the husband's job and he kinda slacked...)

Total project cost: $10 would be more if I had to go get all new materials.

DIY Roman Shades

2013-02-09T16:07:00.004-08:00

2. Simple panel curtains turned into roman shades!

This next project was really one of the first we did here. I have 3 large windows that let in SO much sunlight around 2pm that we really needed to solve the issue. I know roman shades can be quite expensive, and I had 4 panels of striped curtains from our old apartment that we got with wedding money....so why not reuse them?
I decided to make the printed fabric into roman shades.. originally my idea was to do the whole pinterest "roman shades out of cheap walmart blinds" thing, but my mother suggested we do it the real way, and I have to admit, I think she was right :)

I also kept our long brown IKEA curtains which weren't quite long enough for these windows. I added a small panel of gold to the bottom which was from pieces of cheap curtains from Walmart.

The kitchen window also has the roman shade, but instead of doing it the real way, I thought tying it up with jute would look a little better.

I really like the informality of it... the nice thing is if I want it raised, I just have to adjust the knot!

total project cost: $30 for the roman shade kits

Re-Purposed Antique Sewing Table

2013-02-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! (if there's anyone...)
I am finally at the point where I can sit down and show you all of the things I have been working on in the past 6 months or so.
The last post was all about the new house. Well, since then, I have changed/ added/ decorated/ re-purposed/ salvaged/ painted/ etc. MANY things.

Let's have a look... shall we??

1. Antique sewing table turned hall entryway table!

Found this at a local flea market.. someone had painted the top a weird grey color. The first thing I did when I got home was sand it back down and stain it dark. I kinda liked some of the grey still showing, so I went with it!

Next thing I did was polish up the iron legs and pedal

Love it!

Stuffed pork-chops- YUM!

2012-03-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

hello again!

I have been creating a few posts here and there but haven't had the chance to actually upload them and finish 'em up.

Here is tonight's dinner.

enjoy!

and here are a few shots from cooking-

close-up of the stuffing.

...I'd show you a picture of when I plated it....but, I ate it already.

couldn't resist :)

The Long Awaited tour of the house.....

2012-01-08T09:48:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!
I know it has been quite awhile since the last post, but here are a few things that have been going on since we've last spoken

Andrew and I have bought a house!
Kaylee graduated from college with a degree in Music Education
Andrew just got a new job working as a mechanic at a scooter shop (which also works on other small engines)

he loves it btw.. :)

Gnarley is now 1 yrs old and still driving us crazy

Ok, so some of you that are on here are most likely looking for pictures of the new home!

Sorry it has taken so long, but I hope you enjoy!

if you would like to see the house go from a pile of dirt to what it is now, click here!

one of the guest rooms

office space upstairs

looking into the dining room

view to the front door

the dining room

view from the kitchen down to the living room

our bedroom

bathroom

other side of bathroom

the "mudroom"

office space downstairs

music room downstairs

kitchen

living room

There is just a few pictures from around the house. If you would like to see more, let me know! I also posted this link in case you would like to see the full process of the house being built!

Hopefully we'll have more posts coming soon on all of our projects we have done/ working on!

Till next time....

Snowed in= deliciosas sopaipillas

2011-01-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you all have had at least ONE birthday celebration at a mexican restaurant... right?
well, you've most likely recieved the embarassing sobrero allong with the the unknown bready-crispy substance covered in amazing cinnamon sauce with some ice cream and a candle. know what that is? its SOPAPILLAS!

as my husband and I are snowed in our apartment, we got a little tired of watching Bones episodes, so we decided to try something new. We have about 1/2 cup of milk, and one egg. what do to what to do....

Oh! i found a recipe that only uses one egg, and no milk! perfect!

Hello Cream cheese spirals. you remind me a lot of my friend sopapilla, except, rolled up. Delicioso!

so, here is the process it took to end up with this! recipe card to follow, of course :)

started with the sugar, butter, and cream cheese. blended until it made a thick, creamy dough-ish texture.

sifted in the flour

mixed it in more, ended up like this:

split the dough in half to make 2 batches, rolled into balls and pressed onto wax paper.

after this, chill in the fridge for it to harden and thicken up some.

meanwhile, i made the stuff to fill it with. (i chose not to do the nuts)

1 egg white

brown sugar and cinnamon

"like so..." (i hate that phrase)

now take the dough, roll it out to a perfect 11" circle. I eyeballed this one, which turned out perfect, of course. (KIDDING! ha. i rolled it out, and used my plate to cut a perfect circle.)

also, slice it until you have 16 slices.

brushed on the egg mixture, layed down some of the brown sugar/ cinnamon...

then roll up like crescent rolls!

after this, simply place on a pan and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes

"until golden brown"

YUM.

(by the way, if these are hard to read, sometimes clicking on the picture opens a new window and you can see it a little bigger. if it is still too small, holding the shift button while pressing the + sign zooms in)

disfrutar!

(enjoy!)

Delish!

2010-12-21T17:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it's been awhile.
a LONG while.

Besides moving, settling, working, and school(ing), I have finally had some time to sit down and talk to my computer (and whoever is reading this) about what's goin' on!

would you happen to own these few items?

(the spices are oregano and basil)

well, with these simple ingredients plus a couple more..), you can make this!

and here's the fabulous recipe to follow :)

trust me, you'll want to try this.

(that's my "oh my, this is delicious" face..while trying to laugh

while Andrew takes a random picture of me)

so again, you'll want to try it. it literally took about 10 minutes to make. Plus, for two people, we have about a whole 'nother serving for leftovers! yay!

enjoy!

been awhile...

2010-11-22T18:30:00.000-08:00

For a quick update on things:

We have moved into our apartment! (i know, i still haven't taken pictures)
made 72 cupcakes for my senior recital
made birthday cupcakes for my flute professor (i will post those recipes for sure!)
got a cake job coming up in Feb. for Yonder mountain String Band. Heard of them? well, they seem to be quite popular in the "newgrass" crowd. that should be fun!
Andrew will be attending Chatt. Tech in the Spring for motor sports technician (working with motorcycles and such)

that's it for new stuff lately, i will be coming back for recipes and pictures!

stay tuned!

Ugly brass lamps

2010-10-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all have been to goodwill before, if not, you should go! there is so much good stuff! (if you dont mind cleaning things up and giving them a new life!) so, because we are moving soon and are in need of things to make our space a home, I wanted to hop into Goodwill to check out what they had. (I tend to do that often..)

I found some ugly brass lamps, you know, the ones that everyone has at some point and can't wait to get rid of.. maybe something like this?

We paid attention to the shape of the lamps, not worrying about if they matched or not. oh! and make sure that you check the lamps before you buy.. luckily, they set up an outlet at the lamp section with a couple light bulbs. these were good to go!

We ran into walmart and bought some black flat spray paint (I love the flat because it makes it look modern, but not shiny). Also bought some nice lamp shades, they were also pretty modern and a neutral color that goes with the master bedroom idea (in my head).

and voila! new lamps! Andrew even mentioned how he liked that they weren't the same and were unique!

my shopping list:

brass lamps:

one for $7
one for $4

flat spray paint

$2.40

lamp shades

2 for $14 each

TOTAL: about $26 for 2 brand new lamps! and I must say, they look quite nice :)

Must be Magic!

2010-10-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

Finally, here are the long overdue pictures of the magic cake!

now, if there are a few things ive learned from making cupcakes, it would be that I need to stop being so stingy with the batter and really fill the things up.

I planned on taking a picture of how puny my original cupcakes looked to the monstrous peanut butter ones, but forgot. so, imagine a small tiny, barely filled to the rim cupcake next to a spilling over with peanut-buttery goodness cupcake. ya, looks pathetic eh? therefor, i had to redo basically all of them.

the good news is that all the little decorations and icing turned out great!

another thing I've learned- do not try to dye your own icing black. I thought starting with chocolate might make it quicker, plus i needed the chocolate flavor for the icing. well, with my small little jar of gel coloring, i was not able to achieve my goal. so i tried with vanilla. (obviously), took much longer and still didn't turn out black black. I decided to run to publix and pay $4 for a pound of black black butter cream. that really makes things so much easier...

here is the finished product!

if you are wondering how i achieved the top hat, i actually poured chocolate into a cake mold, one that releases with a buckle, and froze it. Surprisingly, it worked out great! Didn't even have to re-do anything! i covered it with the black icing because as mentioned before, i was unable to make chocolate black.

After i was done and let if cool, i added on the words for Brandon's 12 birthday!

For the Oreo cake (SO easy!)

I took a yellow cake mix (helped bring out the oreo flavor), and added in about a cup of crushed up oreo.

if you would like more oreo flavor, keep adding more!

the icing was just vanilla icing, i made mine from scratch. typically you would crush up more cookies and sprinkle on top.

For the peanut butter cake

White cake mix

3/4C peanut butter (i use creamy)

for the icing, just a plain chocolate works great. I used dark chocolate for this one to be more black and it turned out delicious!

any other questions? ask!

oh, and p.s., Andrew is demanding I do a post about him or something at least interesting to him... (which is basically only motorcycles).

...that post will come later.. :)

In progress...

2010-09-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hello again! (I seem to be posting much more than I expected!)

I have another order coming up- a "magic" theme birthday! for this one, 35 cupcakes, and a small cake to feed 10. It will be a top hat with a rabbit coming out, and playing cards/ stars all over and on the cupcakes.
should be good!

I have most of the things done, just waiting to put it all together! pictures to come soon (of course)

one more thing, we have decided to buy an apartment! so, with that i will have more postings on design and home ideas. So excited to get to make my own space! cant wait!!

Check it out!

2010-09-27T13:11:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone! look what i just made!!

Cupcake/ cake order form!

cupcakes, circus cakes, birthdays, Oh My!

2010-09-25T08:53:00.001-07:00

The long wait has finally come to an end.

This is the part where i show you (if there are any of you..) all of the pictures from the latest baking projects.

I did cupcakes with my friends Scocia and Tinsley for my other friend Ashley's b-day!
We decided with peanut butter Reese's and chocolate, cookies and cream, Margarita (obviously a crowd favorite..), and the amazing vanilla cream-cheese strawberry cupcakes.
they all turned out delicious!

next is the circus cake for a friend's son's 1st birthday (happy birthday Julius!!) Let's just say... dying white fondant red has been the death of me, and I would MOST recommend you buy pre-made red fondant or at least pink to reduce the amount of dying and kneading...dying and kneading... dying and kneading... well, you get the point.
To start, i made the wilton butter cream vanilla white icing
in case you would want it:

Ingredients:

4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter/ margarine, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbl. milk

cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. add vanilla. gradually add sugar one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. when all is mixed, icing will appear dry, add milk to make fluffy.
(did not know this!)- when not in use, keep covered with a damp cloth.
this recipe makes about 3 cups.

For this cake, we went with vanilla cake and cream-cheese/ strawberry filling (YUM!) I received the wilton yearbook-mega-magazine that has basically anything you would ever want or need. just so happened the theme for this one was circus! (weird?!) they had the CUTEST little figurines on one of the cakes, and i knew it would be perfect for a 1 year old's bday. so, for julius' big cake, we put both figures on top in front of the circus tent. not going to lie...it was a little scary doing this, they were pretty heavy little fellas and sitting on an uneven surface of a cake was not comforting. by the way, if you ever wanted to make these figurines, i used rice crispy treats which i think would be the easiest. I think wilton was saying to use some decorator balls but I had no clue what they were talking about.
now, don't get the idea that this was easy.. i had a lot of improvising to do and many many hours of standing on hardwood floors with aching feet to accomplish these tiny little characters.

anyway, enough rambling... here's the finished project!

after i took this picture, we decided to add a few more things- a number one on the front, and stars coming out of the cake. (ill update with that pic later).

So, there you have it! A circus cake! if you would want any recipe or what i did, let me know! (everyone must have the cream cheese strawberry vanilla delicious amazing icing.. so ill give you the recipe whether or not you want to see it. i repeat, you must try this.)

ingredients:

1 package of cream cheese (8 ounces) cut into cubes
1/2 stick of butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

combine cream cheese, butter and vanilla in food processor; process just until blended. add powdered sugar; pulse just until sugar is incorporated. (do not over mix or frosting will be too soft to spread).

and by the way, this is basically the fruit dip you get on those fruit trays. so, I might find myself using this ALLLLLLLL the time. because it really is, that... good.

thanks for tuning in! more next time!

Cupcakes and celebrations!

2010-09-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

I'm back, with a new project on deck:

Toga b-day party cupcakes.

later this week, a circus cake for a friend's son's 1st birthday.

Pictures and results will be sure to come soon!

sweet!

2010-08-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

So as most of my friends know, i like to bake. a lot.
and i have gotten into the cupcake craze... much like everyone else.

here are the last bunch that i did for a summer party- everything was made with summer in mind- flavors and all!

The flavors in this wonderful collage are pina colada, pink lemonade, strawberry vanilla, and margarita!

if you want any of the recipes, just ask!

Painting the time away...

2010-08-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on something a friend asked me to do for her wedding in September.

She gave me a HUGE letter 'R' like this:

She wanted it to be painted with paisley-ish designs.

I cut out a few pieces from a piece of paper she gave me, but decided it was much easier to free hand the whole thing and add in my own designs.

using the colors from her "fall" inspired wedding, it turned into this!

I kind of like the crafty brown paper texture as the background instead of painting the entire thing. some of the inside edges are also painted up and fancy-fied.

hope you like it!

2010-08-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

Just a few pics from our most recent trip to Daytona, Florida.

I'd say it was a pretty good time :)

Day One.

2010-08-18T12:42:00.000-07:00

So here is the {first} posting (hopefully of many to come!)

status: trying to figure this website out.

To-do list:

talk with witty sentences
add in more flare
figure out a cohesive topic to talk about that people would actually care to read...

let's begin.