Southern Color

Gone crafting... We'll be back soon!

2013-05-13T11:13:00.001-04:00

Another Monday! How was your weekend?

Did you celebrate with your Mom yesterday for Mother's Day?

Julia and I planned a special day for our Mom. It consisted of girly drinks and pool time! Our Mom wanted a relaxing day, a day we could all catch up and enjoy the outdoors. The sun finally showed up in Atlanta this weekend, just in time for a pool day!

To start, we had a light & refreshing cocktail (recipe at Iowa Girl Eats). It's called a Skinny Sunrise, it contains: orange juice, pineapple juice, homemade strawberry simple syrup, vodka and topped with club soda. We even made our Mom a fun cup to use at the pool - we cut out her initial on the Silhouette using an adhesive vinyl.

For lunch we had chicken salad sandwiches and fresh fruit. All 3 of us love chicken salad, we could eat it almost everyday. Julia made this batch using chicken, mayo, celery, onion, and pecans. It was so good!

(You can check out my chicken salad recipe here.)

We enjoyed the pool for a few hours, then ventured back in for some cold gelato! Honeysuckle Gelato is a local Atlanta company. We had key lime pie and sea-salted caramel. Both were so delicious!

It was a fun day spent with our Mom!

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Julia and I will be taking a short blogging break. We both work full-time and have active social lives. Lately it has been tough to balance life and the blog! We want to always provide you with fun & interesting blog posts and lately we haven't been able to do that. So we'll be taking a break, probably for a just a month. This will give us time to get our creative juices flowing. We'll still be around in the social networking community, so please be sure to follow us on:

Friday Five: Mother's Day Printables

2013-05-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

This Sunday is Mother's Day!! So that means you get to pamper your mommy or you get to relax all day. Since my furry daughter always seems to forget about me on this holiday I've decided to spend the day with my mom. Our day is going to consist of going to church, having lunch at Elizabeth's house and then spending the rest of the day sipping cocktails at the pool (cross your fingers that the weather cooperates). It's going to be a nice relaxing day and I can't wait!!

To celebrate my mom I've framed a piece of subway art to let her know how much I love her. You can download your own subway art by clicking on the links below.

My Fabuless Life

Fox Hollow Cottage

Baca Creative

Holiday Snob

The Daily Dye

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Porch Makeover

2013-05-08T09:23:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again! It's time to move all activities outdoors! That means dinner, game night, reading time....pretty much everything. Which means it's also time to update your porch décor.

Our parents have enlisted our help with their porch makeover this year and we can't wait to get started. We're thinking out with the old and in with the new.

The porch functions great right now. It has plenty of seating for our large family and has a table for food and drinks. The only thing that needs improvement is the shape of the tables. The two tables on the porch right now are round and they don't utilize the space that well - there's a lot of unused space.

The inspiration for the porch makeover colors come from these items that our parents already own. I love all of the bright colors! I also love the flamingo paintings (I painted them when I was in high school...hehe). These items are a great start for the porch makeover but we need more color in this space. Right now you don't even notice these awesome pieces when you look at the space - they disappear.

Here is what we are thinking for the makeover. First and foremost - new furniture. We want to get a long rectangular table that sits at least 8 people so we need a table that is 92in long or longer. Next we want to get a buffet to store outdoor dinner ware and to place food on top of during parties. For the chairs we are thinking 6 chairs that match and two head chairs that are bigger and different. We'll bring in color with pillows, furniture and accessories. And last but not least we'll install a new ceiling fan - we're in Georgia so every room needs a fan :)

We definitely have some challenges with this makeover. The table is a key piece and it has been difficult to find one that is large enough. Pottery Barn seems to be the only place that has extendable outdoor tables and they cost a small fortune. Hopefully we'll be able to find the table at PB Outlet...fingers crossed. I'm hoping to find the buffet at the thrift store; then I can paint it black and cover it in a good quality outdoor poly. I've been looking for this piece for weeks and still haven't found anything though. The last challenge is that we are working with an outdoor space so that means no walls to paint. We'll have to bring in color through the accessories and not just any accessories. All of the accessories will need to be made for the outdoors and water resistant.

We're are really excited to get started on this project and can't wait for our vision to become reality!! Are you planning to redecorate your outdoor space for the summer?

Cinco de Mayo | Stache Dash

2013-05-06T09:49:00.001-04:00

Good morning! How was your weekend? If you're in Atlanta then you know it rained non-stop all weekend, except for a few hours of blue skies yesterday. This was a huge bummber considering my plans took place outside :(

Saturday morning we did the One Love Stache Dash hosted by one of my fave mexican restaurants in Atlanta, Tin Lizzy's! It was a 5k race around Buckhead, then a Cinco de Mayo block party. But man was it wet!

We made cute mustache & sunglass shirts using Silhouette's HTV (tutorial here). Aren't they cute? Unfortunately they hid under our raincoats during the race.

We had a fun group of girls running the race together. There were six of us and we all paired up well with someone else. Lauren's husband was even our personal paparazzi! You can check out all his pics here.

The race was a lot of fun! But we were ready to dry off and get warm after. The rest of our day was pretty lazy and consisted of movie watching, vacation planning and pedicures :)

Sunday I met up with Lauren (@PrettySouthern) for a mexican lunch at Tacos & Tequila. I think I've eaten mexican the last 4 days in a row, ugh! Then we headed over to her house for frozen margaritas, card games and relaxation in the hot tub. It was a pretty nice Cinco de Mayo weekend!

Do you have any 5k races planned?

April in Review

2013-05-03T09:23:00.001-04:00

How is it already May?! This year is flying by!
Do you have big plans this weekend? There's so much going on with the Kentucky Derby this Saturday and Cinco de Mayo on Sunday.

*** Today we're sharing with your our favorite posts from the month of April, enjoy! ***

Guestroom Makeover Reveal

Refinished Sofa Table

Hallway Inspiration Board

Spring Wreath

How to Make a Guestroom Welcoming

Remember the side table we made over for the guestroom last month?!? Maryann at Power of Paint is featuring it on her blog today!! She has an awesome blog so make sure you check it out!
Checkerboard Table

Silhouette Cameo Tutorial: Heat Transfer Vinyl

2013-05-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

Today is Lilly's 4th birthday!

She wanted something fun to wear on her birthday, so I made her another bandanna. But this time I used the Silhouette Cameo to add on Heat Transfer Vinyl!

Julia and I bought our Silhouette back in December, we have loved crafting with it. Overall it's a pretty simple product to use. Like anything new, the first time you do something is a learning experience.

To start, open up your Silhouette program on your computer, the first thing you do should be to adjust the page size to your vinyl. The HTV came in 9 x 36 inches. So adjust the width to 9 inches wide.

Now go into your library and add any shapes or fonts you want to use.

Now create your design.
Keep in mind the size of what you are ironing the HTV on.

Tips: you can ungroup shapes and letters by right-clicking the image and selecting ungroup.

Wording for HTV always needs to be flipped horizontally.

I always like to crowd my words and shapes together - this saves you vinyl. Once the words/shapes are printed, you can cut them apart to space them out.

Now it's time to cut. Always check your cut settings and even do a "test" cut first. For the HTV I selected "Heat Transfer Vinyl" with a blade of 9.

I recommend placing your HTV on your sticky cutting board (clear backing on the bottom).
Then feeding it into the Silhouette. Now cut!

Peel back the extra vinyl, leaving just your words & shapes in place.

This is when I realized I messed up the first time!! Remember, you have to flip your wording horizontally for HTV!

I went back and flipped all the wording and printed again. If you are new to Silhouette, I recommend always purchasing more vinyl than you think you'll need. I mess up and waste vinyl or cardstock on almost every other project - like I said, it's a learning experience ;)

Once you have peeled back the extra vinyl and have layed out your vinyl it's time to iron it on the fabric. ** Keep the colored vinyl attached to the clear backing **

Lay the vinyl on top of your fabric (clear backing on top), lay of dishtowel on top of the HTV, and iron. Your iron should be on it's hottest setting with no steam (always read the HTV instructions first).

Apply pressure to the iron. The instructions say it takes about 1 minute of heat. However, I probably spent at least 6 minutes applying heat. It might have to do with my iron and how hot it gets, I'm not sure. Just apply heat for a minute of two, then check the HTV. Lightly pull back the clear backing, if the HTV is not sticking to the fabric then you need to iron longer.

**Make sure you have a dishtowel on top of the HTV, otherwise you will melt it!**

Peel back all the clear backing and you have a cute Birthday bandanna for your furry friend!

** We have a winner for the Taste Factor giveaway! Chelsee at Southern Beauty Guide has won 1 month free membership to Taste Factor, valued at $60! Chelsee, please email us to claim your prize. Thanks to all our great followers! And please start following us on Bloglovin. **

Restaurant Review: Sun In My Belly

2013-04-29T10:03:00.002-04:00

Good morning!

How was your weekend? Do anything fun?

It has been so rainy in Atlanta! Yesterday it poured all day which meant it was the perfect lazy Sunday. I did exciting grown-up stuff: laundry, clean the apartment, dishes - don't be jealous! The BF and I started watching Iron Man last night, apparently the 3rd ones comes out pretty soon and I haven't seen a single movie. We got about 1/2 way through when the cable went out, boo!!! I've already set up the DVR to record it next time it's on :)

Have you seen any of the Iron Man movies?

------- Restaurant Review -------

A few weekends ago the BF and I went out to dinner at a new-to-us restaurant, Sun In My Belly. They are mostly known for their brunch, but recently started serving dinner as well. I purchased a dinner coupon through Scout Mob - it was $40 for 2 drinks (beer or wine), 1 appetizer, 2 salads, 2 entrees, and 1 dessert.

SIMB is located in the neighborhood of Kirkwood - on the south side of Atlanta. The vibe is very cool - shabby chic / eclectic. There were tons of colored mason jars decorating the space and big paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling.

To start, we each had a salad. Mine was arugula, blue cheese, apples, pecans and a champagne vinaigrette. The BF had a spinach salad with blueberries, oranges, red onion, & almonds.

We shared an appetizer - the pork belly with seasonal puree. It was covered in a delicious balsamic glaze and fresh rosemary with a side of sweet potato puree. I could have just eaten that for dinner.

For our main course, I had salmon on a bed of greens with couscous on the side. The BF had fried chicken, mac n cheese and collards. Everything was great! Our main courses took a while to come out- apparently the first round of fried chicken was not to the chefs liking. It was nice to know the chef took his time with each entree and made something special for every guest.

For dessert we shared a banana pudding creme brulee. It was so good that we forgot to take a picture! But imagine banana pudding with a sugar brulee'd crust on top. Amazing!

Have you tried any new-to-you restaurants lately?
Have you ever purchased a Scout Mob dinner coupon?

Friday Five

2013-04-26T09:34:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday!

I hope y'all have a terrific weekend! Tonight the BF and I are going to dinner at Barcelona in Inman Park - it's a tapas restaurant & wine bar that I have really been wanting to try. And tomorrow I am visiting my Grandparents in Macon, something I don't do often enough.

What are your plans for the weekend?

How to Make a Guestroom Welcoming

2013-04-24T09:49:00.000-04:00

The Guestroom Makeover taught us several things, but one that stands out is: create different spaces your guest can enjoy (reading nook, tv area, comfy bed, game area, dressing area, etc.). You want your guests to feel comfortable and at home during their stay at your place. Here are a few tips to do that:

You want your guests to feel pampered so treat your Guestroom as a luxurious hotel room. The only problem might be is that they'll never want to leave!

Hallway Inspiration Board

2013-04-22T09:57:00.000-04:00

Our client from the Guestroom Reveal has a few more projects for us. He wants a little fine-tuning in his living room and upstairs hallway. The upstairs hallway leads into the Guestroom and he included the hallway when he had hardwood floors installed.

A few weekends ago Julia found a great sofa table at Goodwill. The base was a cream color and the top is a rich wood stain. We thought this would look great in the hallway between a set of windows.

Here's our makeover idea for the hallway.

We would like the do the walls in a bright green, possibly Behr's Dublin Green.

We think the green will look really nice against the rich wood floors and bright white crown molding.

To modernize the space, we would do large horizontal striped curtains, using my technique here. We would choose a more neutral color combination - either grey or tan stripes.

I would recommend a contemporary lamp for the sofa table and a large circle hanging mirror. Ikea is a great place for accessories.

And here is everything pulled together!

What do you think?
Do you like the overall feel of the space?

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Friday Five: Silhouette Projects

2013-04-19T09:34:00.002-04:00

Happy Friday!!

We recently purchased a Silhouette Cameo and have loved it ever since. Seriously, it was one of the best purchases we've made in a long time. So far we've made holiday banners, covered items in vinyl and created gift tags. We have definitely learned a lot along the way.....it's never as easy as we think it's going to be. There's a lot of trial and error when completing a project for the first time. But after that it's easy breazy :)

Although we have already done a lot with our Silhouette there are still tons of projects that we are dying to try. Here are a few of them:

Baby Onesie

Isn't this adorable!!! I will definitely be making one of these for one of my pregnant friends...first we have to figure out which one is having a boy :)

Cocktail Glasses

These are so cute!! The frosted glass vinyl we have will be perfect for this glass. And I have to find my Mr. first...hehe.

Puppy Silhouette

I love any project that involves my dog Lilly! Now I just have to get her to sit still long enough so I can take a picture of her from the side....she always wants to look at me when I take her picture.

Chalkboard Vinly Decal

Chalkboards are all the craze. I love this one because it uses vinyl instead of paint. So when you get sick of the chalkboard you can remove easily and quickly.

Vinyl KitchenAid

I love my Kitchen Aid mixer and this is a great way to turn it into a piece of art! Plus you can add different colored vinyl to it depending on your decor - which is always changing in my house.

Have you jumped on the Silhouette bandwagon? What are your favorite projects to create with it?

Have a great weekend!!

Refinished Sofa Table

2013-04-17T09:42:00.003-04:00

It's spring in Atlanta!! The flowers are blooming and it looks amazing outside. Too bad the pollen is crazy so we can't really enjoy it :(

I was able to get one project done outside before the pollen got too bad. I mean who wouldn't want to work in this space!

I found this sofa table at my local Goodwill for a steal! I didn't know where it was going to go at the time but I knew I had to have it! I love the lattice work and cream color on the bottom of it. This detail turns what could be a boring table into something interesting.

The table was in pretty good shape when I got it except for a few things. The top had a little bit of wear. The stain was faded and the corners of the table were scratched.

Also the legs were really wobbly. This is probably why it was passed over by others at the thrift store but I knew the second I saw it that it just needed to have the screws tightened and it would be fine. Don't we all need our screws tightened (hehe)!

Then it was time to start transforming this table. I grabbed my handy power sander and went to town removing all of the old finish.

Once the table was sanded and dusted off, it was time to stain it. I chose to stain it with Minwax Provencial. I love this color! It's dark but not too dark - the wood grain still shows through. This piece needed to be stained twice so that all of the wood would be the same shade. Keep that in mind when you stain a piece - if the stain looks uneven at first give it another coat to even things out.

After the stain was dry I covered the entire piece with two coats of poly. I like the cream distressed bottom so I decided to leave it that way. It just needed a little cleaning. Then it was all done!

The piece turned out great and it took no time at all to complete - I love projects like this! Plus this baby already found a home which makes me really happy!

Is it spring yet in your neck of the woods? Hmmm...that kind of sounds like something my grandpa would say. But seriously I love spring - it's my favorite time of the year. Best of all, I've already had a chance to lay out at the pool!

Happy Hump Day!

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Pinterest Recipes

2013-04-15T09:23:00.000-04:00

Happy Tax Day!?!!

I hope everyone is done with their taxes and enjoying a little gift from the government!

Pinterest is such a genius idea for people like me who need an efficient way to organize ideas, crafts, recipes, etc. I love looking at all the recipes and getting inspiration. The other month Julia and I hosted book club, so most of the food came from Pinspiration!

1. Crockpot turkey meatballs:

I finally put my crockpot to work and made turkey meatballs with a teriyaki glaze

2. Zucchini pizza:

all you need is zucchini, pizza sauce, cheese & pepperoni

3. Antipasto skewers:

Julia made these with marinated mozzeralla balls, pepperoni and tomatoes

4. Pigs in a Blanket:

traditional recipe using crescent rolls

5. Buffalo Cauliflower:

this recipe didn't turn out great, my caulfiflower was mushy instead of crunchy :(

6. Caramel Cream Cheese Dip with Apples:

Julia made this dip and it was a huge crowd pleaser!

What Pinterest recipes have you tried out lately?

H54F

2013-04-12T09:16:00.000-04:00

Guestroom Makeover: The Reveal

2013-04-10T09:38:00.001-04:00

The Guestroom Makeover is complete!

This past Saturday we had a reveal party with friends and family over at our client's house. We had popcorn to snack on, in honor of the popcorn ceilings ;) Everyone was very complimentary about the makeover, especially the one's who had seen where it started. The client's son was also there for the reveal, this used to be his bedroom year's ago when he lived there - quite a transformation!

Enjoy all the pictures!

Curtains & Cornice Board Tutorial

Checkerboard Side Table: Trash to Treasure

Ombre Quote Board

The "W" pictures are place holders for the client's son to create custom artwork. He is a very talented artist and plans to draw black & white pictures for these frames. We used leftover curtains and printed out a "W" to fill the frames for now. This way the room looks complete and gives the artist time to think of something special for the room.

Client Testimony:

One word describes the guest room makeover that Southern Color did for me – WOW! What started as an empty room with zero personality and ugly popcorn textured ceilings, ended as a beautiful, comfortable guest bedroom worthy of a high-end bed & breakfast inn. Julia & Elizabeth worked hard and very thoughtfully on the design, popcorn removal, painting, furniture selection & refinishing, shopping for furnishings & finding the best deals around, and personal touches tailored to my style – which I didn’t even know I had until after my initial consult meeting with them! They took the time to figure out my tastes, then designed and executed a plan to match, including some very specific touches that were personal and special to me. The creativity they showed in refinishing one “trash to treasure” piece was especially impressive, and the placement of curtains behind the bed was a brilliant idea to disguise an off-center, out-of-place window. Southern Color managed my expectations and consulted with me throughout the process to ensure I was happy with everything they were doing or planning. I am already discussing future makeover projects in my house with Julia & Elizabeth, and I completely trust them to provide excellent, personalized service at a great price.

Rob Whorton, Smyrna, GA

Check out last week's post for a full review of all the projects completed in this room. If you are interested in Southern Color's services and live in the Atlanta area, please contact us at SouthernColor@gmail.com.

Spring Wreath

2013-04-08T09:34:00.000-04:00

Another Monday, these weekends go by way too quickly! My weekend was action-packed: dinner in VaHi on Friday, Color Run Saturday morning, shopping with friends and the Guestroom Reveal party. I took it pretty easy yesterday, slept in and had lunch on Tin Lizzy's patio. Today my parents go out of town for Spring Break, my Mom works at an elementary school. Boy do I wish spring break existed in the corporate world! I would love a trip to the beach - a whole week lounging by the pool and sipping yummy frozen drinks. Maybe I can convince some friends to plan a trip with me ;) At least it is starting to feel like spring in Atlanta, this week it's supposed to get up to 80 degrees!

--------- Speaking of Spring, here's a fun wreath tutorial for you! -----------

My front door was feeling lonely after having a wreath on it for Christmas, Valentine's, and St. Patty's Day.... so I made a Spring Wreath!

I used leftover fabric from the pillows I made for my apartment. So this project only cost me $1.20 for the foam pipe.

At first I attempted to make the foam pipe into a circle, but that didn't work. So I compromised and made a square wreath! Cut 4 pieces of foam pipe the same length, about 10 inches. Tape together at the corners. Before you wrap the foam with your fabric add a hook to hang it on the door. I just tied a loop of twine around the top of the wreath and tapes it down.

Now wrap your wreath in fabric. I used a 2 inch wide by 72 inch long piece of fabric. I had cut this out when I was making cording for my pillows.

To attach the beginning and end pieces of my fabric to the wreath I used a sewing push pin.

The burlap and orange rosettes were made using this technique. The piece of fabric is much wider and longer though, closer to 3 x 18 inches. Attach the rosettes with a sewing push pin. This also allows you to change out the decoration throughout the year.

And there you go, a Spring Wreath! I love how the colors match my apartment. And since nothing was permanently attached, I can change out the fabric color for different holidays throughout the year!

Does your front door have a Spring Wreath?

High Five for Friday: What We've Been Pinning Lately

2013-04-05T09:11:00.001-04:00

It's Friday!! My favorite day of the week! Do you have any big plans this weekend? Elizabeth and I are running in the Color Run tomorrow at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It should be very interesting...during the race colored powder is thrown at you and by the end of the race you're covered in it. I'm sure we'll be posting pictures next week so check back with us.

If you follow me on Pinterest then you are well aware that I'm a little addicted to it. Seriously...I pinned a ton of things! I just love all of the ideas out there! I realize I am never going to have enough time to actually try everything I pin but I just can't stop. Have you ever gone back to look at your pins and noticed that you've pinned the same thing several times. I am definitely guilty of that! But I guess that means I really like the idea...right?

Here are some of my most recent pins. Hopefully I'll actually find time to do these.

Turn a t-shirt into a tank top. I actually did this project last night with my t-shirt for the Color Run. I love how it turned out!

Centsational Girl created custom built ins with billy bookcases from Ikea. I already have the perfect room for this project and have been daydreaming about this for the past couple of days.

Over at I Heart Nap Time they created a towel holder with an old headboard. My parents recently inherited my great great grandfathers bed from the 1800s. It's way too small and fragile to actually use as a bed so we've been trying to think of other uses for it. I think this is a great option! It allows you to display the headboard but it's practical.

I think Shanty 2 Chic has finally convinced me to learn how to use power tools. This chalkboard mail station is awesome and their tutorial makes it seem pretty simple to do it yourself. So far I have only mastered the power sander and cordless drill but I would love to learn how to use a jigsaw and table saw this year. I'm just scared I'm going to cut off a finger :(

If you've been following our blog you've probably heard us mention my puppy Lilly. She's also snuck into a few pictures. Well, she is about to turn 4 years old on May 1 and I think these frozen peanut butter banana pops will be the perfect way to celebrate.

I hope you have a great weekend!!

Guestroom Makeover: Sneak Peak

2013-04-02T20:42:00.000-04:00

If you've been following us you have definitely heard about the guestroom we made over for a friend. This has been a two month project and we're happy to say it's finally complete! We've already shown you some of the projects for the room but I'm sure your dying to see the final project! Well, you're going to have to wait one more week to see the entire room but here's a sneak peak in the meantime.

I am completely in love with this room! Not to toot our own horns but I think it turned out great! I love the mix of old & new and traditional & modern. If I were to describe the room I would say its Contemporary Bed and Breakfast or Bed and Breakfast Chic...hmm both of those have a good ring to it. Remember how this room started out - completely empty. The only piece of furniture that belonged to the homeowner is the antique dresser. This was definitely a blessing. We didn't have to match colors to an existing piece of furniture or existing linens.

In case you missed it here are the projects we completed for the room:

This is what the room looked like when we started.

Popcorn Ceiling Removal

Paint Color

Ombre Quote Board

Checkerboard Dumpster Table

Cornice Board

Come back next week to see pictures of the entire room!!

Kyma: Buckhead Restaurant Week

2013-04-01T09:21:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday! How was your Easter?

I took a few days off from work to spend time with my aunt and uncle who are in town from upstate NY. It was so great spending quality time with them. The weather in Atlanta was absolutely gorgeous this weekend so we spent a ton of time outside: going for walks, planting fresh flowers, just hanging out on the patio :) Yesterday we were at my parents house for Easter lunch. We had some delicious food: potato salad, ham & turkey, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, quinoa salad, pretzel salad and delicious pound cake & berries for dessert!

Speaking of food, how about a restaurant review today?!

A few weeks ago Julia and I (and two of our close friends) dined at Kyma during Buckhead Restaurant Week. Every few months Atlanta highlights a different neighborhood for Restaurant Week, this is a great opportunity to try out new to you restaurants. The participating restaurants off era prix-fixe meal at a set price. This allows you to taste what they are good at! Kyma is a Greek restaurant part of the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group.

Kyma is pretty fancy with white table cloths and a contemporary bar area. To start we had the zucchini and feta cheese fritter. It was crunchy on the outside and cheesy on the inside. I could have eaten an entire basket of these!

Next, we had Santorini Greek Salad: cucumbers, tomato, capers and dill. The salad was refreshing, but honestly, it tasted like something I could make at home.

Next up was the Quinoa Salad: quinoa with pine nuts and herbs. It was a good side dish, but because they brought everything separately we had nothing to eat it with.

The Calamari Pasta was the most unique dish of the night. I'm used to eating calamari when it's fried, this dish served it like pasta. In strips that had been boiled. Mixed in were capers, tomato and mint.

Now for the main dish, fish! We had Lavraki and Turbot. Both were white flaky fish served with capers and kale. The Turbot was my favorite of the two.

Let's save the best for last, dessert!

We each were given a sampler platter that included: orange sponge cake, rice pudding, and baklava. There was a lot of honey and pistachios included in the desserts. The perfect amount of sweetness to finish out a meal.

Overall, the expereince was fun! For $35/each we were given a ton of food. All the dishes (except for dessert) were served family style. What I learned about Greek food is they use a lot of capers, mint & herbs, and fresh ingredients.

Next time you hear of Restaurant Week in Atlanta, you should really try out a restaurant!

This is what you are greeted with when you walk into the restaurant, a bunch of fresh fish on ice! Julia said the lobster was "waving" at her!!

Have you participated in a Restuarant Week?

March 2013 in Review

2013-03-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

March in Review!
Here are our top 5 favorite posts from March, enjoy :)

1. Spring Deco Mesh Wreath

2. Baby Onesie with Velcro Bowties

3. Checkerboard Side Table

4. Crockpot Freezer Meals

5. Guestroom Makeover: Curtains and Cornice Boards

Happy Easter Weekend! This weekend will be filled with lots of family time; our aunt & uncle from upstate NY are in town for a few days. Tomorrow the church we grew up at is doing a community Easter egg hunt, it's always so fun to see the kids excitement and fellowship with all the families. Sunday we are having a big lunch with family and friends at my parents house. Julia's making deviled eggs and I'm making a spring quinoa salad (recipe to come).

How will you be spending this Easter?

Guestroom Makeover: Ombre Quote Board

2013-03-27T09:34:00.000-04:00

Ombre is so in right now! You can ombre almost anything: your clothes, hair, furniture, nails, and even a canvas! We wanted to add personalized artwork to the Guestroom Makeover. We asked the homeowner to send us his favorite quotes and that's what put on the Ombre Quote Board.

The last time I did a quote board we didn't have a Silhouette, so I painstakingly hand-cut every single letter! This time we used the Silhouette and it saved us so much time!! Instead of a traditional stencil, we did a backwards stencil. Meaning we painted the canvas the color of the wording first then laid the letters on top of the blue color. Last we painted the yellow ombre effect on top then peeled off the vinyl letters. Sounds easy right??!

Step 1: Paint the canvas the color you want your letters to be.

We used a blue paint sample we tested out for the room.

Step 2: Add your vinyl letters that you printed on your Silhouette.

The quote we used is pretty long, so we split it into 2 lines. The size of your letters will depend on the size of your canvas & quote. We wanted the quote to fill the entire canvas - so after a little math, we had the perfect size.

Step 3: Paint the blue color over the vinyl.

This will create a fine line for your letters.

Step 4: Ombre the canvas board!

We started with white on the bottom and worked up to a bright/rich yellow on top.

Step 5: Once the paint is dry, peel off the vinyl letters.

You'll most likley have a few imperfections, but these are easy to touch up with a small paint brush.

And there you go! A personalized Ombre Quote Board :)

Here's a picture of it hanging in the Guestroom. I love how it pops against the light blue walls.

This piece of art was a complete surprise to the homeowner. We asked for his favorite quote, but didn't say how we were going to use it in the room. He was really excited to see the canvas go up in the Guestroom, it adds a personalized touch to the Guestroom Makeover!

Painted Bookcases

2013-03-25T09:35:00.001-04:00

Today is our big brother's birthday! Happy Birthday Ben!! Thanks for all the years you tortured us when we were younger. Last night we celebrated his birthday by playing a ton of board games and munching on yummy food!

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One of the best things about blogging is that we get to showcase our work on here. We love painting furniture and we love sharing my passion with all of you. It's amazing how a coat of paint can completely transform a piece of furniture.

Since I've been blogging I've been contacted by a few friends to paint some furniture for them. And several months ago my childhood friend and his wife contacted me to paint some bookshelves for them. They recently bought a new home and had some bookshelves installed on either side of the fireplace.

I love the extra storage the bookcases give them plus they look great. To make them match the rest of the house the homeowners asked me to paint the bookcases white (the same color as their fireplace). That probably sounds pretty easy to do but if you've ever painted wood or furniture you know there are a lot more steps involved.

The first thing I did was sand the bookcases. The builder did a great job making these piece but they weren't completely sanded after they were installed. So I sanded them down and then caulked all of the seams. If you don't caulk the seams you will see a gap between the bookcase and wall -this just gives them a more professional look. I also filled in the nail holes with wood filler.

Once the caulk and wood filler were dry I sanded the piece one more time and then it was ready to be primed. I thought I was only going to need one quart of primer for these bookcases but it ended up needing two quarts.

The next step was to paint the entire thing. Even though I primed the bookcases they still needed two coats of paint. Luckily it only took one gallon of paint.

Here they are all finished! Don't they look awesome?!?

It's always a little nerve racking doing things for friends. I want my clients to really like how the piece turns and I want them to be comfortable giving me their honest opinion. Luckily, I think we're good enough friends so I think they were telling me the truth when they said they liked them :)

Do you ever feel nervous working for your friends?

Taste Factor: Blogger Exclusive

2013-03-22T09:27:00.001-04:00

Happy Friday everyone! We have fun post for you today!

Remember that giveaway we mentioned a few weeks ago?! Well today we can give you all the sweet information.

Southern Color was invited to a mix & mingle with the founders of Taste Factor. We were joined by some other great local bloggers: Katherine at Buckhead Betty and Jewel at Eat Drink Shop Luv.

The scoop: Taste Factor is a monthly wine membership, think Birch Box meets Netflix. Each month you receive 3 bottles of wine at the monthly membership price of $60. You then rates those wine based on your taste. Taste Factor has created a special algorithm that matches your tastes & preferences to certain types of wine.

The first month you'll receive a starter kit with a variety of wine. You then rate those wines on a scale of 1 to 4 (4 being the best). Taste Factor plugs your ratings into their algorithm, this is similar to what Netflix uses when they recommend movies for you.

Here's a fun video that explains how it works:

The next month they'll send you 3 more wines that should be closer to your taste. Then you rate those and the cycle continues.

It's a fun way to try new wines that you wouldn't normally consider.

From left to right: Katherine, Julia, me (Elizabeth), and Jewel.

Julia's first wine at the party was a chardonnay. Typically she is not a chardonnay drinker because of the oaky taste - however, she really enjoyed this one. It had been made in a steel barrel, not oak, so the taste was closer to a sauvignon blanc. Julia discovered a new wine!

Get excited! The founders of Taste Factor have been nice enough to giveaway 1 month free to a Southern Color reader! To be entered into this great prize, become a follower. Once we reach 150 followers, we'll pick a winner*.

* Must be 21 years old. State alcohol laws apply.

For more information on Taste Factor, check out their website and this great article from Thrillist.

Guestroom Makeover: Checkerboard Side Table

2013-03-20T09:19:00.000-04:00

If you haven't noticed we love painting furniture! We love turning someone else's trash into a gorgeous piece of furniture! Usually we find furniture from the thrift store but several months ago we got a side table right out of the trash...literally. Elizabeth found an awesome side table and lamp at the dumpster. As soon as she texted me about them I told her to grab them! I was so excited... I love free stuff! Well, the lamp turned out to be brand new (tags on and everything) and the black side table was pretty much perfect except for some damage on the top (nothing a little TLC couldn't fix).

Here's a picture of the table before and after. It turned out amazing!!

The first thing we did was repair the damage to the top of the table. Just use wood filler or dry wall compound to fill in the hole then sand it down once its dry. The next thing we did was prime the entire table. The table is made out of particle board so we wanted to make sure the paint would adhere and a good primer is your answer. After the primer was dry we painted the table a cream color - it need 2 coats to cover up the original black color.

For the checkerboard we used our Silhouette. Cut the shape out on vinyl and then adhere it to your table. Our checkerboard is inset so I drew some lines on the table to show me where to put the checkerboard.

Once the vinyl checkerboard pattern is on use painters tape to tape of the edges. Then paint the checkerboard in a contrasting color. We didn't want the checkerboard to be too prominent so we use white and cream white for the table. If you want to use a darker color I suggest painting the checkerboard in the same color as the table first and then painting the darker color. This will prevent the darker color from bleeding into the lighter color.

Since we used two light colors for the checkerboard it wasn't very noticeable. So we painted a border around it in the same color we used for the cornice boards.

We wanted to give the table a more distress look so we sanded the edges of the table and then wiped a dark brown glaze over it. The great thing about glazes is that you can make them whatever color you want. I just bought a quart of clear glaze and added dark brown paint to it. When I want a darker glaze I add more brown paint to it or even black paint. I added black paint to the glaze for the sofa table makeover I did a couple of months ago. Once the glaze is dry cover the table in a poly to protect it.

For the checkerboard pieces we used old wine corks. Just cut them in half or thirds depending on how tall you want them. I used a regular kitchen knife to cut them. Then paint the tops of them black and red. You'll need 8 black pieces and 8 red pieces. I used an extra cork to paint the tops. Just dip the extra cork in paint and then dot it on you cork checkerboard piece. The paint doesn't cover the piece entirely but I like that look.

Now you have a fun game table to add to your room! I think the table turned out great and it looks great in the sitting area of the guestroom. It's amazing to think that this table came from the trash!

Are you a dumpster diver?

Don't forget to follow our blog! As soon as we get 150 followers we're going to randomly select one of you for an awesome prize! Check back with us on Friday to find out what the prize is...we can't tell until then :)

Linking up with:

Baby Onesie with Velcro Bowties

2013-03-18T09:17:00.001-04:00

There must be something in the water because it seems like everyone is having babies right now!!!! Between my friends & family and the BF's friends, we've known at least 10 ppl in the last year to get pregnant & have babies. It's so easy to pick something off the registry or get them a gift card, but I wanted to personalize a gift. (Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times I go straight to Target & just pick up something from the registry, quick & easy!)

Ever since I made my nephew a bowtie last year for his Mom & Dad's wedding, I have been obsessed with bowties. They always look so cute & polished. So I decided to turn the Puppy Bowtie into the Baby Bowtie!

I bought a pack of Gerber onesies from Target and used leftover fabric & velcro. I picked fun fabrics and holiday specific fabrics: purple gingham, baby blue plaid, Christmas tartan, green ducks, etc.

Use my Bowtie tutorial here. Once you are complete with all your bowties, add a patch of velcro on the back. Then add another velcro piece to the onesie. For each baby I did 2 onesies and 5 bowties.

Isn't this just the sweetest thing you've ever seen!!

To keep things organized for the new Mom, I also made a carrying case for all the bowties. It's a simple pocket clutch, kind of like Julia's.

It's basically a 20 x 10 inch rectagle. Fold into thirds, this creates a pocket on the bottom and flap to close with. Add velcro to keep the case closed.

Here are some more Baby Shower gift ideas:

Wipe Case

Changing Pad

Carrying Clutch

Baby Andrew's shower was the other weekend. He is already one lucky guy and received tons of great gifts, including several homemade items; a hand-knitted koala bear, personalized GaTech onesies, a hand-crocheted baby blanket that was his fathers, and the velcro bowtie onesies.

Do you like giving your friends homemade gifts or store bought gifts?