Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Hope Santa brought everything from your list also hope that you all get to enjoy a wonderful day filled with family, fun and plenty of food :)

And maybe a nice little nap ;)

Big Green Egg Beef Back Ribs Rub and Recipe

Why oh why did we wait so long to get you, Big Green Egg? You are pure BBQ magic ;)

Now for the Beef Back Ribs!!

These ribs were "slap yo' momma" good! They were full of flavor and the thick layer of meat on the bones gave you something to sink your teeth into.

We started these the day before by removing the thick layer of membrane on the bone side of the ribs. Prepared the rub and gave them a coat and then stuck them back in the fridge to absorb the flavors.

Here is the rub I used:

2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp chili powder
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tbspcayenne pepper
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1/2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp course sea salt
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon

These ribs take anywhere from 4-8 hours so plan accordingly.

At around 10 AM we took the ribs out and set them on the counter so they could get to room temp. 

At 11 AM we started up the Big Green Egg to get it holding steady at 250 degrees. This turned out to be quite difficult for us, we didn't get the ribs in until after 12:30 that's how difficult it was. We made the mistake of letting the charcoal get too hot so we spent a lot of time getting the temperature back down again. 

After doing some research we learned we should have stopped (closed the vents up) the heat from going up so high because it takes a while to cool it back down after it burns too hot. Now we know for next time because there WILL be a next time for these ribs.

Finally got it stable at 250 degrees so we added some apple smoke chips and set the grill up to put the ribs in.

Going in...

Now you have to let this smoke for 2 hours before opening the dome. This was especially hard for my husband who is a huge flipper of meats on the grill.

2 hours later we opened 'er up and sprayed a mixture of worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, olive oil and the leftover rub on the ribs.

We also rotated the rack around

Closed the lid and set the timer for another hour when we would need to spray them down again.

We sprayed them down every hour after that initial 2 hour of no opening the egg until the ribs were 30 minutes from being done. We determined they were done but sort of pulling the rib rack apart at the bone, once it pulled easily we knew it was time. 

At the 30 minute until finish mark, we applied some BBQ sauce, we used Bub-ba-Q sweet sauce that we had purchased the first time we ate at Bub-ba-Q, no fear though you can buy it online. Sauce we used

As you can see it's now dark out. These smoked for a total of 6 hours and then an additional 30 minutes after we added the BBQ sauce.

We took them off the grill at the 6 1/2 hour mark and let them sit at room temperature for another 15 minutes before digging in, PURE TORTURE, I tell you ;)

Let's eat!!!

Our next adventure on The Big Green Egg is going to be pizza, Margherita Pizza to be exact. Will let you know how that goes!!

Santa came early! Now we're cooking on the Big Green Egg

The hubby has been asking Mrs Claus for something called a Big Green Egg for 5 years now. 

Mrs Claus finally found an unbelievable deal on one and was able to surprise her hubby with his Christmas wish a few weeks early. 

Now Mrs Claus is free from cooking dinner on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights! 

What a win for Mrs. Claus ;)

What is a Big Green Egg you ask? The answer in their words

Laymans AKA my terms would be: A magic ceramic green egg shaped grill/smoker/oven thingy that makes meats/veggies turn into mouth watering goodness. 

How I know this without owning one, you wonder? Well we've made our way through many a BBQ competition and have dined at numerous BBQ restaurants where so much deliciousness has been devoured, much of it made on the Big Green Egg. I think the hubby was trying to convince me that it should make it to the top of his Christmas list. 
For 5 years.

But hey, I wasn't complaining being forced to dine on some world famous BBQ

First up on the menu?

How about a little Sweet Samantha Sandwich??

No? Need something lower Carbs?

Tasty Thomas Legs?

Not enough Thyme?

OK, OK I've got it!! Hot Dogs?? Specially delivered from Germany.

What?!? You're allergic? 

Well I'm running out of options here, hmmm, what else is in the kitchen? 

We have some Beef Back Ribs?

That'll work? Great! See you tomorrow with the full recipe and finished pictures (this is just 2 hours in)

-Danielle

Ugly Basement Stairs update

The stairs aren't completely finished yet but they sure did look better for company.

The problem with needing to paint stairs is trying to find an entire 24 hours that they won't be walked on.

With company coming and staying in the basement it just wasn't feasible to paint before they arrived so that's my project this week.

BUT I had to share the progress because it's so amazing!!

Okay so here's what I DIDN'T want them to see

Not pretty!!

Look at all the huge gaps

So I went to Lowes and bought a 1/4 in 4'x8' sheet of plywood that was on clearance for $10.77 and a 1/4 in 4'x8' sheet of beadboard for $19.88

I then searched the trim section for a piece of trim that was 1 3/4 inch thick as that was the thickness of  the tread after adding the 1/4" plywood. It was the biggest purchase at $44

I found 1 that would work (talk about L-U-C-K-Y)

Also purchased Stop trim for the bottom piece of trim where the tread meets the riser. Cost for that trim was just under $25

I first attached the beadboard with trim adhesive

Looking better already!!

Next step was to paint the plywood with some gripper paint. I knew that I was going to have to cover the entire staircase in paint so used the clearance paint floor paint I found while shopping. Has an additive in it that makes it rough so it's not slippery.

It was on clearance for $8.00 and already had the gripper mixed in so I was sold ;)

While the new treads were drying I used the miter saw to cut each piece of chair rail and stop trim to fit.

I then applied adhesive to the back side of the plywood, chair rail and stop trim. I used subfloor adhesive for the plywood that was going to be the tread and trim adhesive for the trim pieces.

Using the nail gun I secured the new tread, chair rail trim and the beadboard risers in place. I only used the adhesive on the stop trim as it's so thin I didn't want to risk splitting in anywhere.

I worked my way down from the top but that was just how it happened, I think either way would work just fine.

As you can see there are still gaps.

Nothing a little caulk can't help

Now I still need to paint, add trim to the ledge and a handrail but....

It's so much better than:

Don't you think??

The plan is to paint them all white but then I spied a few pictures recently (on pinterest of course) with a painted runner and now I'm not so sure what to do. 

What do you think? 

All white or add a fun color with a runner??

Total cost so far: $ 107.65

plywood $10.77
beadboard $19.88
chair rail $44
stop trim $25
paint $8

One week until family starts arriving...Crunch time!!

Is everyone else in the final DIY spree of finishing all your current projects? I am and it's been crazy busy!!

When we ripped out the carpet on the main floor stairs we were so happy to find rounded treads and risers. We didn't mind that the treads were pine and I got busy sanding them down to stain them. 

So we tried the same thing with our basement staircase,

NOT so lucky there LOL

So I've been brainstorming ideas on how to defeat this bad luck of major gaps and completely randomly sized basement stairs

I *think* I may have come up with a solution, woohoo!! 

We'll see if it pans out tomorrow and I'll share it with you if it does, okay I'll share it even if it doesn't but let's all cross our fingers it works, I really don't want my sister-in-law and her families first visit to our house be anything less than fantastic and don't think they'd enjoy walking down a staircase that looks like this

Scary and it's even worse coming up!!

I also *may* have taken a sledge hammer to our master shower. I thought the master bathroom was finally finished after spraying painting all the gold fixtures ORB, painting the counters a faux granite and then framing the mirrors. That was until I was admiring all that hard work and noticed some cracked tiles. I was merely going to pry them out and replace them but pulling them out revealed moldy drywall behind the tiles instead of cement board or any kind of waterproofing whatsoever. 

Not good, not good at all! The smell of all that nasty water just hanging out down under that bench was horrible.

We also ripped out the horrible blue carpet in the basement.

N-A-S-T-Y!! Stains upon stains! I guess I can see why the previous owners chose it, it hid it's dirty well (if you don't count the smell) 

I'm still working on finishing the basement, finishing the paint job on the kitchen cabinets, finishing the main level staircase and the basement staircase. I have about 4 different IKEA boxes in the garage waiting for me to take the time to put those furnishings together. 

I'm thinking I won't be sleeping much in the next week but am glad that I've check a few things off the To-be-completed by family arriving deadline :)

Wish me luck I can tackle even a fraction of my 'wish'list as my hubby so sweetly dubbed it ;)

Need to be held accountable...painting the kitchen cabinets white

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! We took it pretty easy because my little man has had this nagging cough for way too long and I was hoping a little rest would help him get better, it's not looking like it worked :(

We did start a pinterest inspired Halloween yard display yesterday though, it's a bit freaky to see at night and not 100% complete yet but I'll share as soon as it is.

I also had grand plans to have each and every cabinet and drawer in my kitchen cabinet makeover sanded. Ask me how that went? Uh, it didn't,,,not even a little bit, like not at all.

I came to an eye opening but not so shocking conclusion recently.

I'm a horrible procrastinator.

I'm also awesome at justifying my procrastination. Do you see how these 2 things could be dangerous to a DIYer??

Which is why I started this blog! Yep, I think that if I say something on here I'll be more apt to follow through and do as I said. Why?!? I'm not sure, probably because I'm a major people pleaser and you are my people ;) That and I need content right?

So here's my post asking you all to hold me accountable. I really, really, really need to get these kitchen cabinets sanded/primed and painted before the husband gets home on Tuesday. Now they don't have to be hung again, they can still be drying (let's not get too crazy here people LOL) but they do need to atleast make it to the paint stage!!

Real quick, let's look at what we started with

 

So far I've moved and painted the island,

 

 

Removed all doors and drawers and primed the frames

 

 

Now I've got some sanding I should be getting too ;) Talk to you all soon! Hopefully with more to share on kitchen progress

 

Front Porch all decorated for Fall

Welcome Friends

 

Yesterday I shared the Pottery Barn placemats I used to make pillows for the front porch and today I'm sharing the entire front porch

My son helped me make the wreaths for the front door. Then had to model them ;)

 

 

 

These chairs were in sad shape when they were given to me but I can't say no to free and the power of paint will never cease to amaze me.

 Before:

 

 

After

 

 

The "throw" is actually a $7.99 tablecloth from HomeGoods. Shhh don't tell anyone ;)

 

 

 

 

The bench is actually one of those entryway organizers that has been broken for some time just hanging out in the garage until I remembered to trash it, thankfully, I've continually forgotten it LOL

 

 

 

Thanks for stoppping by

 

-Danielle

 

 

 

Pottery Barn Placemats to Pillows

DIY Pottery Barn Fall Pillows from placemats for under $7

 

I love shopping Outlet malls for the discounts but when shopping at the Pottery Barn Outlet, swooning over all of the great fall pillow covers, I was a bit shocked that they were still $30 for just the cover and then you had to buy the insert separately.

 

I'm just too cheap for that though so I continued to look around for other great deals and when I came across the table decor and saw the gorgeous fall placemats an idea came to me. I could open up the seams and stuff my own pillows with the placemats!

 

I quickly grabbed a mat and flipped it over to check the price $6.99 each!

Much better than $30 but even better, they were all 20% off!! Now I can get down with that :) I grabbed a few and made my way back to the pillow section to check out the pillow insert prices, ummm yeah, wasn't in the budget, so a trip to Goodwill would be next on the agenda.

 

So after running through Goodwill for some $1 pillows I got to work...

 

I cut open a little seam

 

 

Then cut open the Goodwill pillow and removed the stuffing

 

 

Shoved that stuffing into the opening in the placemat

 

 

Looking good!!

 

 

Now I do know how to sew so I just ran that little corner through the sewing machine, if you however do not have a sewing machine or don't want to sew, you could always buy some steam-a-seam and iron that seam closed.

 

Here they are in all their glory on the front porch

 

 

Not bad for under $7 each pillow!!

 

 

 

 

 See you back tomorrow for the full front porch all decked out for Fall :)

 

 

Linking up with some great parties