m.i.a.

So, I’ve been M.I.A. lately and I apologize for that. My new apartment is the reason for that though 🙂 At least it’s an exciting reason right?!?! My place is pretty fantastic though, I’m not gonna lie. It’s some friends of ours mother-in-law suite and it is HUGE!!

Lucky for me, they gave the floors an overhaul before I moved in. It was carpeted before, we’re talking mauve in the bedroom and blue in the living room, I could’ve worked with it but it certainly wasn’t my choice. Originally they had told me they were having new carpet put in, but to my surprise they ended up doing a dark laminate hardwood & let me tell you, it is gorgeous!!! I also go to paint any color I wanted. The kitchen I left navy blue. The living room went from beige with a red wall to gray. And the bedroom went from sage green to aqua with an aqua & white striped wall.

The kitchen also has a antique dresser that I turned into an island complete with a stainless steel top 🙂 It’s gorgeous!! I also now have an antique buffett for my entertainment center (there will be pictures of that at some point) and while I love it in the original finish, I want to paint that too, just not sure what color yet. I have some pretty bold colors in the living room, orange pillows, 2 orange dining chairs, a muted lime(ish) green & off white rug, plus the pop of the lime green from the island that’s currently sitting as a divider between the kitchen & living room with a red stool behind it. I have another stool to paint & I’m trying to pick the color for that as well.

My dad is working on refinishing the top of the dining table, and above that we’re construcing a swag lamp from an antique hanging lamp. I’ll have tons of posts to come just with some of these projects!! Yay!! Along with food posts too!! It’s quite exciting around here right now 🙂 But for now, here’s some before & after pics for you. Enjoy!

Before: (1st two are the bedroom, kitchen, then livingroom)

After:

Ok, well there are more pics to come! I tried putting some on here but they’re just not cooperating at the moment 😦

Hope everyone has a great night!!

~M

new year, new beginnings

Hello all! Sorry I’ve been MIA recently. Things were pretty busy this Christmas/New Year’s and I really couldn’t post my crafts since they were Christmas presents for family.

But, be prepared for great things to come this year!! Between crafts & food, I’m also in the process of painting my apartment which I will moving in to towards the end of the month!! So excited! Can’t wait to share pics of that & of the projects for it 🙂 Think stripes on the wall, a dresser turned kitchen island, and who knows what else…haha..the creative juices are flowing!

New post soon!

~M

making a list

and checking it twice….

I CANNOT, let me repeat, CANNOT believe that Christmas is next week!!! Where did the time go? I still have presents to get & finish making. Finish making my craft for our ugly sweater dinner….sheesh…so much to do & I’m running out of time! Saturday night, we’ll most like be doing our wrapping tradition because Sunday after church we’re heading to my sisters house to spend Christmas. I can’t wait!! However, along with all of that, I have to pack. Needless to say, I’ll be feeling a little stressed in the next few days I’m sure. But it’s all worth it 🙂

Be on the look out soon for craft blogs too. I’d share them now, but since it’s Christmas gifts that my family will be receiving, I can’t put them on here yet. They’re coming though, I promise 🙂

do NOT open until Christmas

Oddly enough, we were never given those instructions haha. I think we would’ve been ok with them though. As we got older, our presents from our parents were kept in their room where we could look at them if we wanted, but we never did. That would have taken all of the fun out of opening presents on Christmas morning.

So here’s a sneak peek of what I’m working on right now. I can’t give any details until Christmas though. We’re spending Christmas at my sisters house this year & we decided to do an ugly sweater dinner. We’re all super excited! The only thing is, we’re not letting each other know what our sweaters look like until dinner, which is making it even more fun. So while I’d love to tell you what I’m making, you’ll have to wait another week before the official reveal since my family reads this blog 🙂

Until then, here’s what I’m using…

Any ideas of what they might be for?

I had the time of my life

and I owe it all to Susan from doughmesstic.com & Paula from bellalimento.com for hosting Mixed Nov. 30th-Dec. 2nd at the beautiful Mountain Lake in Pembroke, VA. If you haven’t guessed by the sneak peek picture, Mountain Lake is where part of Dirty Dancing was filmed. I mean, how can you go wrong with Mountain Lake and a bunch of food bloggers?!? Well, from what I learned, you can’t! It was my first ever blog conference & let me tell you, it WON’T be my last. I LOVED it!! From the classes to the midnight movies and everything in between. (it’s also what gave me the final push to get this blog started)

   

It all started on Friday, with check in. I will say I had the best roommates a girl could ask for, my sister Brandi (you can check out her blog at branappetit.com) and Angie (you can check out her blog at bigbearswife.com). Seriously, we had a blast! From there I got to assist in the kitchen with the dixiecrystals.com cookie bake-off. After that it was time for dinner & then on to the kitchenaid.com mixer out in the barn.  After the mixer, someone, not naming names, thought it’d be a great idea to show The Shining. We did not stay for that but we did go down for the mac & cheese, which was fabulous! The three of us actually came back to our room & watched Something Borrowed while chowing down on candy, all thanks to Hersheys.com.

So now, on to Saturday. The day was filled with classes, which were great! There was Food photography by Bree from bakedbree.com, Food Styling with Tami Hardeman from runningwithtweezers.com, Videography with Denise Woodward & Lenny Ferreira from chezus.com, Secrets of Ebooks with Heidi Larsen of foodiecrush.com, & my two personal favorites Holiday Cookie Decorating with Sweetopia.net and Cake Art with none other than Duff Goldman, you know from Ace of Cakes (duff.com). I mean how awesome is that!! Thanks to Angie for being my partner in crime for our decorating classes! It was a blast! Here are some shots from those classes…

    

   

P.S.~ Duff told Angie and I are cake was “adorable”. I realize he probably told everyone that or something like that, but it’s still pretty awesome.

Yes, that is my sister & I with the man himself 🙂

Saturday ended with a another party in the barn & tons of giveaways! And from there, we went to the ballroom for a midnight showing of Dirty Dancing. There really was no other way to end Saturday. Sunday consisted of breakfast, packing, saying goodbye to my sis & all of my new friends and then the long haul back home.

Thanks to all of the sponsors & helpers! I’d tag you all but I can’t remember everyone who was there, so sorry! Special thanks to oxo.com for a fabulous swag bag! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of that, but believe me, it is some great stuff & I can’t wait to use it all! Thanks again to Susan & Paula for hosting such a fabulous conference!! Until next year…

Well, hello there

and welcome to my blog! Here you will find a mix of crafts & food, which is where the name Arts & fats came from. I have a love of both and can’t wait to share that love with you! A special shouout to my sister Brandi, you should check out her blog branappetit.com (and all of her blog friends that I met at the Mixed conference) for giving me the push I needed to finally get this blog up & running. Thanks for stopping by & stay tuned for tomorrows post. It’ll be highlights from mixedcon.com. I promise you’ll want to come back & check it out.

Here’s a little sneak peek…

Melissa