A Beautiful Mess

PB & J Thumbprint Cookies

Sometimes when it's cold, raining or snowing, and getting dark at 5:30pm (yikes!), you just need to bake something. I love these little PB&J thumbprint cookies! They are fun to make (especially if you have little ones who might already like to poke at cookie dough. he!) and a fairly healthy cookie, as far as cookies go. I would feel ok eating these for breakfast, but that's me. They also happen to be accidentally gluten free.PB & J Thumbprint Cookies, makes one dozen.

1/2 cup gluten free oat flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped peanuts
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
jelly of choice (I used blackberry)In a food processor coarsely chop the peanuts. In a bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and peanuts. Now stir in the peanut butter and egg. If your batter doesn't stick together well, feel free to add a few more tablespoons of peanut butter. Form into 12 small balls and place on a prepared baking sheet (I love my silpat but parchment paper will work well too). Press your thumb into the center of each cookie, leaving a small crater. Spoon in a dollop of jelly into each cookie. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. These should still be on the soft side (I left mine in for 12 minutes, and I wish I had taken them out at 10).I say these are accidentally gluten free, because I had been planning to use all purpose flour but realized I was nearly out. I happened to have gluten free oat flour, so I used it instead, and the rest of the ingredients were already gluten free. I am NOT a gluten free expert. But I will say that if you plan to make these for a gluten free friend, be sure to check your jelly label and take care not to cross contaminate while working in your kitchen to ensure it's truly gluten free. You can read more here or check out this awesome blogger. Happy Baking! xo. Emma

At Home With Andy Torres

"I love my apartment, because it's the first time I have my own space and the first time I get to decorate a space exactly the way I always wanted to. There are certain features about my apartment that I love and one of those has to be the massive Eiffel Tower artwork on the wall. It gives the room so much more character I believe. I wanted to make my living room space very cozy, so I always try to have an endless number of candles burning and massive pillows on my couches, you know, for the extra coziness effect. ;)""My living room is the place where I get to relax and get cozy after all the traveling—where I get to watch all my favorite series, movies and have endless cups of teas. My dining room is more 'work' oriented. Part of it has been turned into an office." "I have lived here for almost 3 years and can't believe it's gone this quickly! I think the evolution of my space really relies on how much more cluttered it gets with time. It used to be quite spacious, until I turned part of it into my office. I also added the mannequin and the stand full of my favorite bags. I hope to keep it this way. Otherwise by the end of next year, it will be overflowing with stuff!"

Thank you so much, Andy, for sharing your space with us! Be sure to stop by Andy's blog Style Scrapbook and say hello!  xo.

Leather Pillow Project

A few months ago Mallory came to visit Elsie and I and work on a few projects. We had a lot of fun, and one of the things Mallory and Elsie created were these awesome leather pillows! I love the design and materials they used. I'm so excited to move them to my couch later this week (I'm having some painting done in my living room at the moment, so I'm trying to keep pretty items out of harms way). Mallory agreed to share their process of making the pillows:These pillows look really impressive, but they aren’t very hard to make. We used real leather that was left over from other projects, but faux leather will work just as well as long as the backing doesn’t unravel. Since these are for Emma’s living room Elsie was thinking we should make them southwestern themed. I searched online for southwestern patterns and kilim rugs, which have similar patterns, for inspiration. I then drew out four geometric designs based on my findings. Elsie and I decided one of my sketches would be too hard so I redid that one.1. To start these, I used brown kraft paper and a clear ruler to draw the patterns I wanted to sew onto the pillow fronts to scale. Then I carefully cut out the pieces from the paper to use as templates. Keep in mind, you need seam allowance on the big front pieces to sew them to the back eventually.
2. I cut two 12” square pieces of leather and two 16” square pieces of leather to make the pillow fronts. For the backs I cut the same size squares out of thick cotton. I cut the front pieces out of contrasting leather to topstitch on. You can cut leather with a rotary cutter, nice scissors, or an X-acto knife.3. Once all of the pieces were cut out, I used leather glue to glue the pieces down to the pillow fronts.  Rubber cement also works great if you don’t have leather glue.

4. To topstitch the leather down, I used a leather needle and adjusted the tension of my machine with scrap pieces before sewing the project. If your leather sticks to the machine use freezer/wax/parchment paper between the machine and leather. Normally I would use a Teflon foot instead of freezer paper, but I couldn’t find one for Elsie’s machine at the fabric store. I sewed close to the edge all the way around each piece on the front.5. Once all of the pieces are sewn down I sewed the pillow fronts to the backs with the good sides facing each other, leaving a gap of a few inches on one side. I trimmed the corners off, cutting close to the stitch line without getting it.

6. Turn the pillows right side out, stuff it, and sew it closed by topstitching really close. Hand stitching wouldn’t work very well with leather, unless you have practice with it. That’s how to have beautiful, expensive looking pillows.

Here are the finished designs:Thanks so much, Mallory!

FASHION MIXOLOGY: 8 OUTFITS FROM 8 PIECES

Are you ready for a fresh round of Fashion Mixology? If you haven't read our mixology posts before, the concept is this: We take 8 pieces of clothing and make 8 different looks with those pieces. Shoes and accessories don't count. The goal of this feature is to inspire confidence and ideas to stretch your wardrobe farther! It can be easy to wear items the same way every time, so we try to find ways to spice up our wardrobe. For this edition we partnered with Libby Story. They sent Kinsey four pieces to style, and she mixed them with four pieces from her own closet. Enjoy!Look One// Sometimes I want to have a girly look without all the frills and lace. For this look, I paired a patterned skirt with a denim jacket and button up, so the girly vibe of the skirt is toned down a bit. 

Look Two// This look has two of the same elements as the first but much more casual. I turned the skirt into a tube top, paired it with some jeans and threw my hair into a top knot. What I like most about this look is that, while it's casual, it can change drastically with the type of shoes you choose. I might wear some knee high boots with it during the day to run errands, then throw on some heels for a date night.Look Three// Mixing unexpected prints is one of my favorite current trends. I paired this rich, earth toned vest with a girly lace top. This is something I might wear on a photo shoot or client meeting. 

Look Four// This style is my go-to during the week. It's comfy and casual, yet put together enough for really any occasion I might be thrown into.Look Five// This look has "me" written all over it. I'm head over heels for this high-low dress. Plus I can't say no to a good felt hat. If I'm ever having a down day, an outfit like this is always gives me a boost of confidence. 

Look Six// Take a maxi skirt and turn it into a dress! I layered a braided belt over a lace top to complete the look. This would be perfect for a date night, especially Valentine's Day since the main color scheme is maroon and pink!Look Seven// This is a trick I've used the past two winters. Don't think I'm crazy until you've tried it. I took the maxi skirt from look four and six and turned it into a scarf! To do this, simply attach the ends together with a hair band and hide the ends at the back of your neck underneath your hair.

Look Eight// Try adding top layers over a dress, giving yourself a brand new skirt! Didn't get enough? Check out all our past Mixology's in our archives. 

Outfit Details: Patterned skirt, (look 1+2) thrifted. Button up blouse, (look 1,2,8) Love Culture. Denim Jacket, (look 1,4,8). Brown boots, (look 1,3,8) Rack Room Shoes. Ombre Jeans, (look 2,3,7). Clogs (look 2) Lotta. Floral lace top, (look 3) JCPenney. Vest (look 3+5) thrifted. Patterned Scarf, (look 4) street shop in India. Moccasins, (look 4) Minnetonka. Maxi skirt (look 4,6,7) XXI. Lace top, (6+7). Suede wedges, (look 6) Sole Society. High-low dress (look 5+8). Felt hat (look 5) XXI. Studded Boots (look  5+7) Charlotte Russe. Braided belt (look 6) thrifted.