Ultra Creamy, Uber Delectable and Customizable Coffee Creamer

Guten Tag, my friends! If you follow me on instagram, you'll know that since I don't have adorable kiddos to post pictures of everyday, I share pictures of my adorable coffee. Yes, yes I know, some of you may think it's a little lame and sad, but I think it's a little awesome...I love my coffee and I love religiously going to my coffee bar armoire to whip up a delectable drink I enjoy relaxing with it by my (ahem...faux) fire. It is my "me" time.

I wanted to share my favorite, ultra delish, ultra creamy, coffee creamer recipe that you can make from home and is totally customizable. Anytime I serve it to guests, they ask me what it is and 90% of the time they never need to add extra sugar because it is delicious on it's own even through it contains no sugar or sweeteners! Get ready for the most embarrassingly simple recipe ever. On a sidenote, besides my IG photo above, all these shots were taken by my super talented lady friends, Ari and Faye of Ari and Faye Photography! So grateful to have these shots and to share some more with you throughout the next few posts!! 

 To make a batch of this customizable and natural creamer, you simply combine:

~ 2-1/2 Cups unsweetened almond milk (I enjoy the vanilla almond milk)

~ 2 Cups heavy whipping cream

~ 1-2 vanilla bean(s) scraped out into the cream, vanilla extract or any other extract (start with a Tbs. and add more to your liking). If you choose to use the vanilla bean instead of the extract, you can leave it in your cream and it will become deliciously more flavorful over the next couple days. Other extracts that I enjoy are pumpkin pie spice extract, butter and rum. Sometimes I will mix all of the above with pumpkin pie spice (found in your spice section) and it tastes remarkably like egg nog without all the sugar. 

 Mix it up, play around with the recipe and tell me what different variations you come up with! I would love feedback on how you liked this! Now I am off to tear apart all the Fall decor I just set up, because I realize I never shared a post with you on my totally updated loft with my new furniture additions. After I shoot all that, I will be setting all the fall goodies up again. I am tired just thinking about it! Good thing I have coffee to help keep me perked up and peppy!

Espresso Bar Armoire Part Two: Installing DIY Removable Wallpaper Backdrop

When you open your armoire, closet or drawers, does it's blandness get you down?? Do you feel like you are staring into a dark pit of "meh"?? (Don't worry, I am not about to start an advertisement for furniture anti-depressants...) I don't know about you all, but I like to feel a bit jolted and stoked when I open a cupboard door. My faux, fawn hide wallpaper is such a delightful eye treat every morning, I kinda wanna wallpaper or mural every cupboard and closet in my home. It adds the perfect amount of sass to the French armoire I brought home from Europe. 

This is part two to my espresso bar armoire redo, in case you were wondering what I am jabbering about. You can read about it and see some other "before" and "afters" by clicking here.

This is the stink-face I made when I opened my armoire before the redo...

In case you forgot what this armoire looked liked before I adorned it with a gorgeous wall-paper from Walls Republic, check out this photo below...

Madame Brun Armoire was a frumpy lady indeed!

I decided I wanted to wallpaper the back, but I surely didn't want to mess with the integrity of this gorgeous old piece... While this wallpaper is classic and timeless, I change my style on occasion and I didn't want to mess with the wood on the back panels. The best way to do this was to create a removable, pop-in back wall, that I could switch out or replace any time my heart desired. I also want to be able to get other wallpapers from the incredible selection at Walls Republic so I can swap out the backdrop for different purposes or entertaining occasions. I may want this to be a wine bar or hide-away Bier Garten at my next dinner party and can swap the backdrops in and out accordingly! I also wanted it to be able to slide into place and sit still without, nailing, drilling, gluing or screwing a back panel in my armoire. 

Lucky for me, my friendl Drew (a super awesome and talented construction project manager) came to the rescue and helped me figure out a way to accomplish this goal! What a wizard he is indeed! We created this template below, using old bags, and traced the top of the inside of the armoire. 

 We traced that pattern onto a piece of wood that was 4'x8' and 1/16" thick and cut it out with a jig-saw. 

We slid it in and made adjustments till if fit like a glove....

I mounted the wallpaper to the wood with spray adhesive and wrapped it around the back, so that the edges wouldn't lift. I popped it in, slid the shelf in and Bam! Shazaam! Kapow! I now had a gorgeous, wall-papered armoire! 

In case you forgot what it looked like before.....

.....and here it is now!

I am completely IN LOVE!

Next, I will be sharing with you how I installed my chandelier and where I hid all my cords to my espresso machine and light fixture! To read more on the transformation of this armoire, click here!

I want to thank Walls Republic for the fabulous paper and Drew for helping me make it happen! 

Stay tuned my friends! 

My Inspirational Art Has Arrived!

I act as though all of you knew that I had ordered art...Well I have, and here it is!! I got a...

...in the mail a couple days ago from the FABULOUS Lindsay Letters Shop!!! Ahhh, I am seriously over the moon IN LOVE with ALL of Lindsay's inspirational, charming, and quirky pieces. 

 Seriously folks, I will be ordering tons more from her and I think you should too, because it...is...awesome!

I recently have been sooooo blessed with tons of design work, so this has been the first chance I have had to blog again! It feels good to be back.. 

Click here for a tutorial on how to make these gold gilded beasts that are popping up everywhere on Pinterest...

My summer/ spring time updates...

And a post on why I go neutral on the big pieces so I can change the look of my rooms often! Oh yes, I also have a post on the updates I made in my striped hall (before, I do a major update), and my trip to Provence!

I am off to work again my dears! Are you brightening up your home for Spring???

A Fashion Photoshoot I Styled With Photographer Jared Teska

The look was 1960's French girl meets Tim Burton..sweet and yet a bit dark.

"Family Meals" Book

Woohoo!! The book that I was so blessed to be able to work on with such incredible people won the IACP awards in its category (the Grammys for books!!) I'm elated! If you get a chance to check it out, it's a Williams Sonoma cookbook called Family Meals by Maria Sinsky. Assisting with the styling was a blast.

Be blessed and live beautifully!