Fabric Showdown

December 4, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 13 Comments

Now that our fab new rug is in its new home, I’m atwitter with the excitement of choosing a new fabric to recover the antique dining room chairs. But picking fabric is both a blessing and a curse – there are so many amazing options out there, so how is a girl to choose?!?

It’s been tough, but I’ve narrowed the field to 6 finalists, and I think I may have even decided on a winner. My criteria is pretty simple – the fabric has to introduce a new color into the mix (not just olive and chocolate), it has to be patterned (spills are a doozie in the dining room), and it has to be fun.

Here’s a rundown of the finalists:

1. Turquoise Peacock. What’s not to love about a peacock print? The turquoise is a fresh and welcome addition to the existing color palette, but I’m a little worried about introducing yet another animal-inspired print into the room.

2. Fuschia Ikat. Love ikat, love fuschia. Love that it adds in a bit of turquoise, too. But is fuschia in a dining room too much?

3. Confetti Squiggles. I’m smitten with the fact that this fabric introduces a plethora of colors to play with, but I think the pattern is a little too distracting when paired with the rug.

4. Confetti Damask. I think this pattern is gorgeous, and I’m particularly drawn to the traditional design with an updated color palette. But unfortunately, I’ve learned that money doesn’t grow on trees (darn!) and this fabric is wayyy out of my price range.

5. Olive Trellis. The trellis pattern has been a fave of mine for awhile, but for some reason it falls flat for me in this dining room, probably because it doesn’t introduce that all-important third color.

6. Eggplant Ikat. This one is the winner for me – it’s fun and funky, but maybe not as wild as the fuschia ikat. And while I typically don’t like colors in the purple family, I’m really digging the deep eggplant of this fabric.

So now that you’ve checked out the fabrics for yourself, what do you think? Is there a clear winner for you, or do you think I’ve gone off the deep end and need to keep looking?

A Faux Bois Floor

September 30, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

As you may recall, I’ve been intrigued by Flor carpet tiles for awhile – and now I’m obsessed with the new Martha Stewart faux bois tiles. Check these babies out!!

I was seriously contemplating them for our den, and I really do think it would look fabulous. Unfortunately, I did the math and an 8 x 10 made out of these suckers would come to $713.66 (for 34 tiles at $20.99 a pop). Boo. For that much money, I’ll invest in a rug.

Oh well, I’ll still admire them from afar! What do you guys think of them?

Image courtesy of Flor.

A Grown-Up Kid’s Meal . . and Giveaway Winner!

August 21, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

Oh, yummy deliciousness. Now I’m promise I’m not going to bombard you with tales of everything I eat from now on, but last night the hubster and I concocted a meal that was much too fun not to share with you guys. And by fun, I mean this is a meal that would normally be enjoyed by children – juice and Sloppy Joes. Except it’s all been kicked up a bit for those grown-up palates.

We started out with the micheladas – enjoying a frosty beverage while slaving over a hot stove always makes things a bit better, don’t you think? And don’t worry, I didn’t know what micheladas were either (and I’m a Texan!) until I visited my friends Jen and Kyle in San Antonio last weekend. Basically, a traditional michelada is like a Mexican Bloody Mary made with beer instead of vodka – you can learn how to make one here. But these are no traditional micheladas – nope, they’re made with passion fruit juice! Sounds fancy, doesn’t it?

Here’s all you need to make this delicious drink – 2 Mexican beers (I love Dos Equis), some passion fruit juice from the grocery store, and 2 frosty pilsners from Ikea (that last part’s optional):

Here’s a demonstration of my preferred beer to passion fruit juice ratio – my guess is that it’s 3 parts beer to 1 part passion fruit juice. Feel free to keep adding until it tastes right – the fruitier the better, if you ask me!

Trust me, it’s delicious! Even Jason became a huge fan, and he’s one of those guys that feels like beer is best left untouched by anything but a frosty glass. Go try it out tonight!

And while you’re at it, you should definitely give my friend Tessa’s Not-So-Sloppy Joes a try – we were wooed by this grown-up version of the classic many months ago when Tessa invited us over for dinner. It was almost embarrassing how much we liked these sandwiches. And now that we have the recipe, we can make them whenever we want!!

With my michelada in hand, I set out all my ingredients and went to work. You’ll probably already have most of these goodies in your fridge and pantry, which is a total bonus.

The first step was chopping up the onion and red bell pepper and throwing them in a pan along with the garlic and some olive oil to get all sweet and delicious. I used jarred garlic instead of chopping up a clove because chopping garlic is just about my least favorite thing to do in the world – anybody else feel that way? The jarred stuff gets the job done and lets you keep your sanity. And if I were a better person I probably would have chopped both of those veggies a little smaller, but the food police never showed up so I think it was okay.

After the veggies cooked down, I tossed in the ground beef, cinnamon (yes!), chili powder, cumin, salt, pepper, and tomato paste. As you can see, the result is not-so-sloppy as your average Joe.

We piled this tasty goodness on top of toasted Hatch green chili buns that we had on hand from the grocery store and topped it off with shredded dheddar and light sour cream (I’m aware of the irony). We each had 1.5 Joes because they were just that delicious. Along with a side of grilled corn (and our trusty micheladas), these Not-So-Sloppy Joes made for a seriously awesome and fun meal!

I know, I need to work on my food photography skills. Anybody know a good food stylist? But seriously, give this recipe a try tonight:

And it’s one of those recipes where you can totally play with the spices to get the exact taste you want. Next time, I’ll probably add some more chili powder and maybe even some red pepper flakes – this girl likes her spice! If you guys give either of these recipes a whirl, let me know how you like them!!

But enough of that food stuff. Now it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for – the winner of that gorgeous rug from the Gnarly Giveaway!!

As you can see, Random.org picked entry 43 as the winner:

Ellen Price!!!

Congrats, Ellen!! I’ll be in touch to get your info, and you’ll have your beautiful rug in no time!! And thanks to everybody that entered this giveaway, what an awesome turnout!

This post is shared with Hooked on Houses.