Hope's Bedroom Makeover

One of our main goals in the new house has been to transform Hope's bedroom from a messy pre-teen explosion to a manageable, tidy room fit for a young teen girl.  She's a collector of itty bitty things, so it was a challenge for her to decide what things stayed in her room and what things would go to the playroom.  Plus, she does a lot of school work in her bedroom (little sister problems), so it was very important for her to have a practical desk setup.

Another goal was to get this girl in a comfortable bed!  She's had a loft bed for most of her life, and she really wasn't feeling it anymore.  We picked a new bed frame together and went online shopping for a mattress.  Eventually, I was lucky enough to get hooked up with a mattress company called Loblolly, thanks to my friend Jess.  They're a new-on-the-scene mattress company that ships directly to your home.  Jess happened to be their lovely model for a day.  Small, small world.

Anyway, here's a peek at Hope's room before we REALLY started to tackle it:


As you can see, Hope had a spring-filled, twin mattress on her new full size frame.  She's a pretty cautious little gal, so she shoved as many blankets and stuffed animals in the void because she was scared of rolling off the mattress in the middle of the night.  :D


Once we finally got her bed all set up, it was time to actually go through all of those boxes.  Oof.  It's taken us quite a little while, but she's extremely pleased with how her bedroom is looking.


I feel so happy for this book-loving, Harry Potter obsessed, Lego-building, gymnast.  She's waited a long time to have a room that reflects her style so perfectly.  xo.

**Things in Hope's room:  bedframe-- WalMart;  mattress-- c/o Loblolly;  rug-- RugsUSA;  desk-- DIY on ABM;  emoji marqui-- DIY on ABM;  stuffed animal chain-- Amazon;  bedding-- Target;  rug in the "before" photo-- Uncommon Goods;  lamp-- Target;  houses jewelry hanger: Shlomit Ofir

Our Little Knitting Group

It's been a long time since I've been a knitter.  Actually, once I found crochet, I sort of just abandoned knitting altogether.  It's a shame, really.  They are both lovely crafts in their own right.  I've been feeling like it was time to get back in the game lately, so I decided to start hosting a knitting night at my place.  I've been to other knitting groups in the past, but everyone worked on their own separate projects and chatted, which is great, but I had a hard time staying on track.  A) I didn't really know what I was doing, and B) I'm often too social when there isn't a lot of structure.  Let's just say I'm quite the Chatty Cathy (or Katie... whatever).  I wanted this group to be different.  Socializing and bonding was still very important to me, but the learning/crafting aspect was the main goal.  I met an incredibly talented lady named Lauren at a local craft show last year and she agreed to be our sweet, patient teacher.  Here's a peek at our very first knitting night:


We even Skyped in my friend, Jess!  So fun.
I seriously adore this new group we have.  There are new people every week and everyone's just so happy to have a reason to carve time out of busy schedules just to gather.  I would highly suggest a group like this to anyone.  Good vibes and laughter filling our house is all a gal could ask for.

**If you're a Springfield, MO local and would like to come over for a knitting night, shoot me an email and I can get you all of the details!

Happy Friday, friends!

Making Bibimbap At Home With Blue Apron

I remember the first time some friends took us out for bibimbap-- it was love at first taste.  I've never felt brave enough to make something like that at home, so when I was choosing my latest Blue Apron box, they had me at Vegetable Bibimbap & Kimchi.  You mean Blue Apron will ship me all the fresh ingredients AND walk me through how to make it??  Yes, please.  Plus, they are working to develop a sustainable food system and offer a recycling program for the packaging, which makes me very happy.  Now, let's take a peek at how my first shot at making veggie bibimbap at home went:


Poesy and I were way too excited over how cute these enoki mushrooms were.  I usually don't love mushrooms, but I was definitely a fan of these.


As you can see, Poesy was in charge of the recipe while I made sure the vegetables were cleaned and cut.  Her instructions were something like, "Step 1-  Chop vegetables.  Step 2- Make me eggs.  Step 3- Do the thing."  It was incredibly specific.  ;)


I love this shot of her smelling the minced ginger.  I'm pretty sure I never even tasted ginger until I was out of high school, so it gets me excited to introduce my kids to these amazing flavors at such young ages.


I left Poesy in charge of the cold ingredients while I moved on to sautéing the mushrooms, boiling the brown rice, and roasting the kohlrabi... which is a vegetable I hadn't previously tried but ended up really enjoying.

 

When the hot ingredients were finished, I layered them into bowls, added the kimchi, and then topped with a fried egg.  My egg game wasn't quite as pretty as the picture on the recipe card, but still tasted so good!


This is honestly my favorite Blue Apron recipe to date!  The ginger mixed with loads of garlic and the crunchiness of the kimchi with the fried enoki mushrooms all worked together in such a flavorful salty/sweet/spicy sort of way.  Plus, this recipe had around 5 different steps before you put all of the ingredients in a bowl together, so I think it would be easy to modify it to make bigger batches for a larger group of people.  Making (veggie) bibimbap at home doesn't intimidate me anymore, so I guess I'm gaining more those cooking skills!  Yay!

If you are interested in trying out Blue Apron for the first time, click here to receive 2 free meals with your first order!  This offer is good for the first 25 readers that sign up!