hosting: girl's night

this past week i had the opportunity to host a girl's night at my house! i hadn't seen or been able to spend time with all of my girlfriends at one time and it was definitely a much needed night to catch up, laugh, and have fun! everyone came in from different places and out of town and we were able to eat and hang out together. i have always dreamed of having a house one day that i was able to share wonderful memories with my husband, family and friends and this has definitely came true and i couldn't be more thankful. 

the night started with catching up with everyone to see what was new and then we started eating. here is what the menu consisted of:

appetizers-finger foods:

-dijon ham & cheese sandwiches

-bacon pineapple bites

-3 layer mexican dip

-buffalo chicken dip

-salty & sweet bacon crackers

dessert:

-carmel sugar cookies

-chocolate covered strawberries 

-sweet white wine

everything turned out great and we had such a great time! i wanted a simple table setting with cute gray bows for napkins. i gave each gal a take home favor of stationery & a monogram sticker. if you are anything like me, i love love love favors, gifts, and small tokens of happiness to give others :) giving stationery to friends is always fun!!

i hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did. i had girl night and then had my family in town from indiana and memphis all weekend for my dad's birthday! happy birthday again dad, we hope you enjoyed it!! the weekend was full of estate sales, antiques, good food, and good family time. what did you all do this weekend?? i would love to hear about your weekend too!

i have many things coming up soon for dots & details. it's an exciting time for me filled with a lot of new beginnings. i can't wait to see you again soon this week :) as always thank you for coming by!

happy monday!

happy one year to dots & details!

               i can't believe it's already been one year! wow! i have really enjoyed my new hobby of creating and pursuing my own blog. dots & details has been and will be my creative outlet to share my projects, ideas, and inspirations online. this past year has taught me a lot about branding my blog, creating quality photos, the power of social media, and continuing to grow my audience.  

i have a lot of exciting new beginnings in my life right now and i couldn't be happier in how my blog has grown in just one year. i am excited and looking forward to what God has in store for dots & details in year 2! i can't thank my husband enough for putting up with hanging wall decor, home projects, and being my taste tester each week. :) also, to my family and friends for listening to me talk about my blog so much ha! thank you all for your support and challenging me to create something i am passionate about each day! 

home decor: my craft room reveal

i am so excited to share my craft room with you!! i spend several hours a week in this room and i absolutely love it! this is my space where i organize, make crafts, and blog. this room is filled with black & white, polka dots, stripes, and pops of color. i am easily excited by tissue paper, crafting, greeting cards, and boxes-lots & lots of boxes (as you can see they are everywhere). everyone has their weird quirky things they like right!? ha! i know i sure do anyways.

there is a lot to talk about in this room but let me first talk about some of the special pieces in this room. they are:

-merci bag hanging on the wall is my first trip to Paris at an amazing concept store that i fell in love with. i studied abroad in italy for 6 months and this was one of my favorite pieces of my trip

-black hanging picture frame on the wall that has white flowers in the picture, that was a gift from my aunt and those are my wedding flowers

-the golden bunny on the stack of magazines on my sewing table is from my great great aunt as a hand me down

-the gold hanging frame that talks about champagne is a gift from my bachelorette party from my best friend and maid of honor

-my sewing machine was a gift given to me from my grandmother when i was in high school 

-my white computer desk was a desk that i have had my entire life that my dad has re-painted several times and i love it more each time we paint it ha!

-the pearls hanging on the mannequin hand on the book shelf were my great aunts that she wore and i inherited

-the picture of my mother and i at easter several years ago is one of my favorite pictures of us

-my books: some are hand me downs, one is written by my great aunt, others are encouraging words and positive thinking, and words on heaven and jesus

-the curtains that are handmade from my mother-in-law

-the white canvas with lipstick is from my bachelorette weekend with most of my bridesmaids lipstick

all of the pieces that make up my craft room are very special to me and things i am very passionate about. i am fortunate that my wonderful husband allowed me to make our extra room a craft room instead of a boring office or another guest bedroom haha (i promised him the next house he would have a man room) so we agreed! some of the other details of my craft room include some of my favorite cards that i have collected over the years as well as my favorite brittany fuson fashion illustrations. i love her work and i have collected many of her prints the past few years since i discovered her. 

gift wrapping & packaging items are also high on my obsession list. as you can see above with my ribbon holder that my mother got me for Christmas (i absolutely love it). some of the other items i hoard are tissue paper, gift tags, twine, and colorful pens. i love wrapping gifts for others and have always appreciated a pretty package. i believe its always special when the packaging is as good as the gift inside. 

some of the things i am working on this week include putting up the new card shelves that reed made me and firing up my circuit to make some new paper items. i can't wait to share the card shelves with you later this week. they are adorable and as always i admire reed's craftsmanship. he is so talented! anyways, i hope you all enjoyed your weekend and hope you have a great monday. see you again this week :) 

recipe: classic brownies & blondies

happy monday! i made these classic but yummy brownies and blondies for my friend this week and wanted to share the recipes that i used from food network. i use their recipes often, especially when i want to try new things. brownies are a classic dessert and when you find a good recipe you want to use that same one all the time. i love this recipe and i love the blondies recipe as well. this blondies recipe was a new one for me! 

here is the recipe (ingredients & details written together):

classic brownies

-melt 2 sticks of butter with 4 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips

-let cool slightly 

-stir in 2 cups of sugar and 4 eggs

-whisk in 1 1/2 cups of flour

-also add 1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt

-bake these until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

-bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes

-allow these to cool, and then cut and serve 

classic blondies

-melt 2 sticks of butter

-let cool slightly

-whisk in 2 cups of light brown sugar

-add 2 eggs

-add 1 tablespoon of vanilla

-stir in 1 1/2 cups of flour and 1/4 teaspoon each of baking soda and salt

-fold in 1 1/2 cups of butterscotch chips (i used this full measurement and wished i would have used less, because they taste very strong)

-bake until a toothpick inserted into the center, comes out clean

-bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes

-allow these to cool, and then cut and serve

they are so delicious as classic brownies and blondies should be :) if you don't already look at food network magazine and also watch their cooking shows, you should. they have everything you need and more to create your own food masterpieces! i hope you enjoy this lovely day and have a great week. thank you for stopping by and i will see you soon!

home decor: yellow details

hello! i have been a busy gal this past week with traveling for work and attending fun events in memphis and i am just now getting around to sharing my yellow house details with you. right now, i can't get enough of yellow and lemons. i normally like my home decor and house filled with neutrals but this spring i am in love with the color yellow.

i especially love fresh lemons in the kitchen and even on decor pieces. i am in love with my new serving tray from draper james. they have a lemon collection of home items and i couldn't be more obsessed!

i have been playing around with yellow details in the kitchen and changing out my decor in the living room as well. i wanted to incorporate pops of yellow somehow but not over do it. i used simple and small yellow pillows from target on our couch just to add some color. i will probably switch it out soon with a few yellow stitched pillows that i found at hobby lobby ( i am sure you will see those soon). for the kitchen, as you can see i have switched things up over and over using yellow flowers, bowls, lemon & limes, and table pieces. i love switching things up in my home and i am sure i am not the only one that does this a lot ha :) maybe?

anyways, i wanted to share with you my latest obsession. i hope you enjoy my yellow house details and i would love to hear from you, what you are loving this spring and what inspires you? it's always fun to hear from others.i hope you all have had a great weekend. a new fresh week is always good :) have a great week and i will share more with you soon. as always, thank you for stopping by and reading my little corner of dots & details.

here are the stores that i found some of my decor: 

lemon serving tray

www.draperjames.com

turquoise bowl 

www.target.com

white flower vase 

www.kirklands.com

yellow pillows

www.target.com

organization: kitchen cabinets

 before:

after:

 baking cabinet

serving bowl cabinet:

serving & entertaining cabinet:

cooking & baking dishes cabinet:

woo hoo! my kitchen cabinets are organized!! i love projects like this. i love mapping out what items i want to go where and putting it altogether. am i the only one?? haha! organizing is something i love to do. whether i am organizing my craft room, my office at work, or my closet; i love organizing. 

 i cook and bake a lot and it's important to me that i have an organized kitchen space that is constantly clean. i have always been a tidy person at my apartments when i was single or at my college dorm room but i have really discovered after owning my first home with my husband; that i am a organized-neat freak! ha. 

luckily, reed is a tidy and clean freak as well, so it works out great! if we have a weekend at home i always choose saturday or sunday to deep clean the house at some point. well, today was that day! i feel so much better if everything is clean, dusted, laundry done, floors mopped, etc. i hear from many friends and family members that once i have kids someday this will probably change haha! until then, i am enjoying being a neat freak. 

as you can see from the photos above of my before and after it is quite the difference and organized. i have always wanted an entire cabinet dedicated to baking utensils and supplies. i am a happy camper today because i now have that. and if you know me, i get excited, really excited about the little things. the other cabinets are organized with serving pieces and every day dishes. i have a separate side of the kitchen where our oven and refrigerator are and those cabinets have our every day glasses, coffee mugs, dishes, bowls, and silverware. they are pretty organized as well but my baking cabinet is much more fun haha!

i wanted to share a little kitchen cabinet organization for your saturday. i am in the works of a lot of new changes and exciting things coming up to dots & details and i can't wait to share them with you soon. as always, thank you for stopping by and i hope you enjoy this beautiful saturday!

:)