Friday Favs 38

Happy Friday!

 I'm so happy for some warm weather this weekend.  It's supposed to be 81 degrees here on Sunday...I can hardly contain my excitement!  Now if I could just get a tan....

The prospect of warm weather really got me thinking about what I need to buy to get my wardrobe and home set for spring.  Online window shopping was in full effect this week.  Here are some favorite finds!

Fav #1

Check out this cool toroise shell from ZGallerie!  How great would this look on the console table in our living room?!  It's half-off right now.....so hurry up if you love it!

Fav #2

I love this anchor sweater for spring.  The weight is perfect for spring weather, and the navy/lime color combo feels so fresh!  Oh, and it's also on sale!

Fav #3

I've shared my love of Dr. Scholl's Fielding flats before. I love ballet flats for their comfort while running around at work, and the comfort of these Dr. Scholl's flats is unsurpassed.  I just discovered this cute red/navy pair and I really want them for spring!  The wedge version is also pretty cute!

(affiliate link)

Fav #4

One of my girlfriends has this gorgeous fringe scarf, and I drool over it every time she wears it.  For less than $9 and with free shipping, I think it's time to pull the trigger.  Don't worry, I'll get a different color!

Clearly, the warm weather has put me in a bit of a shopping mood.  How about you?  What home and wardrobe updates are your eyeing up for spring?!

Have a great weekend!

What We Ate {Oreo Truffles}

You may remember back in December when I told you about our annual Cookie Exchange party at Christmas. Well, hosting this tradition for the past few years has left me with a TON of delicious cookie recipes. Unfortunately I don't bake very often, so most of them go into my recipe box and never see the light of day again.  

But recently, I found myself searching for a recipe that tasted great and looked impressive to take to an event...but I didn't have a lot of time to spend making something that took a lot of work.  Luckily, I remembered that one of my co-workers had shared her recipe for Oreo Truffles at one of our cookie exchange parties.  

They are to-die-for, and I knew they didn't require a lot of time or ingredients.

Sold!

Ingredients

1 package Oreo cookies

1 package cream cheese, softened

1 package chocolate melting wafers

1 tablespoon shortening

Using a food processor, grind cookies into fine crumbs. Reserve 1/4 cup cookie crumbs.  Add cream cheese to the remaining crumbs, and beat cookie crumbs and cream cheese until thoroughly combined.

Roll mixture into approximately 48 one inch balls.

Melt chocolate wafers and shortening using a double boiler.  Or if you don't have a double boiler, just put them in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water, like I did.

Dip each ball into chocolate, using a toothpick.  Place chocolate-coated balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  

Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs, which is helpful in concealing the holes left by the toothpicks.  Place cookie sheet in refrigerator for one hour to allow chocolate to set.  

I made two batches--one with white chocolate coating and the other with a milk chocolate coating.  They looked so cute arranged on a serving tray, and tasted every bit as good as I remembered. 

Needless to say, there weren't any left to bring back home, which was probably a good thing.  

I'm not sure I could be trusted with them in the house!

Linking Up At

Work It Wednesday

Sweet Haute

Link Party Palooza

The DIY'ers

Tutorials and Tips

Baby Shower Baskets

So, I've been holding out on you guys about some pretty major happenings around here....  I'm about to be an aunt to TRIPLETS!

And best of all, the babies are a boy and two girls!  Pretty exciting, right?!!

We're already lucky enough to be blessed with a sweet niece and a cool nephew, but they were born before I met Mr. M....so I missed out on all the fun and anticipation of awaiting their arrival.

Not. This. Time.

My sister-in-law's baby shower was this past weekend, and I had such fun coming up with a cute way to wrap her gifts.  I just love beautifully and creatively wrapped packages. 

The main gift that I bought was too big to tote along to the shower, so I decided to put together three baskets full of baby essentials...

I started with three basic sea grass baskets, which I thought might be useful as storage in the nursery, and added paper Easter grass as basket filler.  

Each basket got a 'stork bundle', which was a pyramid of rolled diapers wrapped in a receiving blanket, and a variety of random baby items from the registry.

I also added some PJ's for the babies to each basket as well.  Triplets are typically born early, so the clothes were SO tiny and adorable!

The girls got some handmade shabby flowered headbands, as well.  If they're anything like their Aunt Emily, they'll love to accessorize.

I just love the sweet details of each basket.

Any advice on being a good aunt to three little bambinos at the same time??  I'm super excited that there will practically always be one that needs to be held and snuggled :)

Linking Up At

Tutorials and Tips

The DIY'ers

Work It Wednesday

Sweet Haute

Link Party Palooza

Friday Favs 37

Holla!  It's my favorite day of the week once again!

Is anyone out there new to blogging or interested in starting a blog??

 When I started House in the Heights last summer, I knew next-to-nothing about blogging and knew even less about the technical side of blogging.

In case you're keeping track, even less than next-to-nothing equals nothing.  I didn't even know what HTML was, let alone how I would need to use it to determine how things look on screen.  

Completely. Clueless.

(About two steps away from 'kind of clueless', which is where my blogging knowledge now clocks in.)

Luckily for me, there are some fantastic tutorials out there that were able to help a total beginner like me get started.  Here are some of my favorite posts that helped me figure it all out...I hope they are helpful to you as there have been to me!

Fav #1

21 Rosemary Lane helped me figure out how to create a blog header and how to insert it my blog template.

Fav #2

A Typical English Home offered free social media icons AND instructions on how to insert the icons into my sidebar.....

Fav #3

....and also helped me figure out how to insert a signature at the end of my blog posts.

A Typical English Home

Fav #4

And finally, Code It Pretty, showed me how to install Pin It buttons on my blog images, allowing readers to pin my posts with a simple mouse-click.  

Hope these help!

What blog tips do you have?  I'm always looking to make things better around here...

Have a great weekend!

March '14 Recap

Why hello there, April!!  So glad to see you again.....

March is not my favorite month of the year.  All of that lion/lamb weather, trying to figure out whether it's still acceptable to wear boots, the dreariness of a yard still plagued by melting snow and brown grass.  Not sorry to see it go.  But April....April is pretty good.  Warmer weather, green grass....plus it's one month closer to summer.

I. Love. Summer.

So with March in the record books, it's time for a recap.  Here's what went down around here in the last  month...

• I showed you my Nate Berkus knock-off tray...

• Shared my plan for updating the family room for Spring...

• ...as well as some Spring Wreath Inspiration.

• Shared my 'Pet Owner Must-Haves' for keeping our floors clean....

• Attempted some DIY Herringbone Artwork...

• Finally styled our console table...

• ...and created a cool DIY Sharpie Mug.

Can't wait to see what April brings!!

DIY Sharpie Mug

Monday already?!  

Mondays call for an even larger than normal dose of coffee, and this Monday morning I'm drinking my second favorite drink (wine wins!) out of a fab new coffee mug.

I've been seeing cool Sharpie mugs all over the place, and have been keeping my eye out for a cheap, white mug so that I could create one of my own.  

Not like white white mugs are hard to find, but I was being really cheap about it.  Even the $3 mugs at Walmart weren't making the cut.  

But last week, I stumbled across a few Starbucks Scales Mugs for the bargain price of $1.25, so I snatched those babies right up.  They are gorgeous as-is, so I certainly won't draw on all of them.  But the triangles seemed like they would make it easy for an artistic failure like myself to create a cool design.

Also, wouldn't they make a great vessel for a small gift for almost anyone?!  I can imagine a ton of cute gifts that could be given in this beautiful mug.....so I bought a few extra for that purpose.

You can find the Starbucks Scales Mug here....but not for $1.25. Sorry.

(Affiliate link)

To create my mug, I just traced and colored in triangles using two different Sharpies--one black and the other gold.  Tracing the triangles wasn't quite as easy as I expected it to be, so the shapes took on a slightly hand-drawn, imperfect look.  Which I kind of dig. 

To make the design permanent and dishwasher safe  (Update-- My mug lasted only a few cycles in the dishwasher before the Sharpie began to wear away.  So if you want to preserve your artwork, hand washing is the way to go.  Me, I  keep putting it in the dishwasher and chalk the wear and tear up to be proof of how much I love my mug!), I baked the mug in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  When baking Sharpie designs on glass or ceramic, it is important to put the object in the oven while it is completely cool, and to allow the oven to cool off completely before removing it from the oven.  This prevents your mug or other object from cracking due to sudden temperature change.  

I found that my gold triangles became much more matte after being baked.  To be honest, I liked the mug better when the gold triangles were shiny...but it still looks good with the matte gold triangles, and there's not much that could be done to prevent that.   

So simple. So cute!

Have a great week!

Linking Up At

Tutorials and Tips

The DIY'ers

Work It Wednesday

Sweet Haute

Link Party Palooza

Share Your Creativity

Friday Favs 36

Hooray for the weekend!  It's supposed to be pretty rainy around here, so it should be the perfect weekend for indoor projects, cooking, and blog reading!  Sounds amazing after a hectic work week.

Every now and then, I love to share some of my favorite blogs with you. And since you might be stuck inside this weekend too,  I'm back this week with a few more that you should definitely check out!  

Fav #1

Inspired by Charm. In a blogging world that seems to be dominated by women, Michael's fantastic blog (and style!) really stands out.  Just check out his dining room (which he put together after planning during a conversation with Nate Berkus!) It's gorgeous!  I love that he's a fellow small-town Pennsylvanian...proof that great style exists outside of city limits.

Fav #2

Homey Oh My!  Amy's penchant for using black, white and gold in her decor sucks me in every time.  I just can't get enough.  Her creative ideas are such a great source of inspiration!  My favorite?  This cool, black and white striped tray...I love her style!

Fav #3

Home Stories A to Z. Beth is kind of a rock star in the DIY/Home blogging world.  She's part of the team that puts the Haven Conference together, and I was so super-excited to realize that she basically lives in my backyard (OK...well like 30 miles from me...but close enough).  I have dream of bumping into her at Target and becoming friends as we roam the decor aisles together.  Not only is her blog (and home) gorgeous, but she also hosts Tutorials and Tips, a great weekly link party where I get a ton of inspiration!  

Want to see some fav blogs I've named in the past?  Here's a few more of my favorite decor blogs, as well as a random list of other blogs that I adore.  Enjoy!

What are your favorite blogs?  Leave links in the comments below....I love to discover new finds!

Have a great weekend!