A Beautiful Mess

Make Your Own Peanut Butter

Can we talk peanut butter for a second? I was totally one of those picky-eater kids growing up, I had a major peanut butter and jelly phase. And even though my palette has (I hope) matured since then-I think I was on to something. Because peanut butter is AWESOME! So I thought it would be fun to try and make my own-which was a great success! And then I whipped up a chocolate version... here's how you can make your own:

To make peanut butter at home all you need is: 16 ounces of dry roasted peanuts (more or less depending on how much you want to make at once) a pinch or two of salt and a food processor.

Place all the peanuts in your food processor and blend for 8-10 minutes. Every 2-3 minutes you may need to stop the processor and use a spoon to break up the peanuts/scrap down the sides of the bowl. At first the mixture will get crumbly/powder-y... just keep on processing because it will turn creamy! Depending on the freshness of your peanuts you may need to add a teaspoon or two of oil (canola, vegetable or peanut oil work well) but it usually is not necessary. Once your peanut butter is creamy, taste it and add a bit of salt if you like. Store in an air tight container in your refrigerator for up to a month. If you've ever bought natural peanut butter before you've probably noticed that sometimes a little oil seperation occurs-that's normal, just stir your peanut butter before use if you notice this happens.

Another delicious nutty-spread I adore is Nutella! Here is a homemade chocolate hazelnut spread that is both vegan and gluten free. This recipe is from LookBook CookBook, an awesome blog that has tons of amazing vegan treats.

Needed: 1 1/2 cups raw hazelnuts, 1/2 cup sugar, 5-6 tablespoons cocoa (I used dutch-processed), 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, 1/4 cup oil (I used vegetable) and 2 tablespoons coconut milk.

In your food process blend up the hazel nuts until they begin to get creamy (5-7 minutes) then add the other ingredients and blend for another minute or two until well combined. Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a month. This spread will be a little thicker than the homemade peanut butter-but it's delicious! 

Some recipes that require a food processor can be done in a blender-this is not one of those recipes. Unless you have a really high-end, high-powered blender I highly recommend using a food processor. :)

Happy snacking! xo. Emma and Elsie

Scalloped Cuff DIY

Hi friends! Today I am proud to introduce our newest A Beautiful Mess contributor, Kara of I Just Might Explode. Kara will be sharing ideas for our Project ReStyle section this coming season. (yes, we're revamping Project ReStyle... hooray!) Today she has cooked up a sweet addition to any sweater. These removable cuffs are so cute. Here's how she made them... 

1. You will need a sweater (I picked up mine at at thrift store!), a cute fabric, and coordinating embroidery floss. 2. Begin by tracing the half circle of a lid or other circular object onto paper to make a scallop pattern. I used a spice lid on a newsprint, but any circular object on paper works just fine! Start the new circles immediately next to the one before and keep a certain distance between the top of your circle and the edge of the paper so the scallops are even. My cuffs were 9 inches in width, but you'll have to adjust your width depending on the size of the scallops and the cuff size of the sweater. Again, the dimensions of the height of the cuffs depends on the look you're going for. Mine were 7 inches from tip of scallop to the opposite end. 3. Next, cut out the pattern and pin it to two back-facing pieces of your fabric. 4. Cut out around the pattern. 

5. Next, hand stitch a top stitch around the edges of the scallops. (You could also use Fray Check on the edges of the scallop to keep them from fraying!) 6. Then, with the front-facing pieces touching each other, fold the fabric in half. Pin the edges. 7. Using a sewing machine, sew the edge. 8. Repeats steps 3-7 for the other cuff. Now it's time to stitch onto the sweater! Slide the inside-out cuff into the sweater half-way and fold the cuff upwards to make sure it looks how you want it to. Unfold the cuff and pin the fabric to the sweater and handstitch the cuffs on. I did a quick stitch because I plan on switching out the cuffs for Fall-Winter time. Currently, the floral fabric is perfect for pretending it's Spring!

So fun! I love this look for transitional weather. I don't know about you, but in Missouri we are still slipping on sweaters in the evenings until, like, May! Thanks for the sweet idea, Kara. And T.G.I.F. to everyone! xo. elsie 

A time to unlearn and start fresh...

If you've been reading my blog for a long time you might remember that I used to paint... a whole lot. Painting was actually the biggest part of my business for a few years. Some of my happiest memories from the first year of dating Jeremy are of me making big paintings while he recorded songs in the room beside me. It was a huge part of my life and then one day I stopped. This is a story about that... 

I started making paintings while I still had a full time design job. It became my passion and I spent more and more hours in my little home studio painting new pieces. I gave them to my friends, hung them alllll over my loft and eventually began to sell them in an Etsy shop. When we opened our first Red Velvet online (and local) shop my paintings were a huge part of the inventory. We sold them almost every day, which meant I was painting constantly for a few years. I tried some experimental paintings, but there was a certain style that consistently sold to my customers so I spent a lot of time developing those pieces. Jeremy reminded me recently that in those days I would sometimes pressure myself to stay up all night and finish as many as 10 paintings in a day. It was extreme, but my business was still gaining it's footing and we had bills to pay. 

I was (and still am) proud of my work. It was a good time and I learned a lot. It was a good season to learn how much I could accomplish with good time management and disipline. Eventually the business became more profitable and some new forms of income took a lot of pressure off me to paint. I needed a little break, so I took one. Breaks are good and in the meantime I tried out some other creative opportunities like designing dresses and teaching.

My break lasted more than a year before Emma started to patiently (and sometimes not-so-patiently) remind me that people were still e-mailing and asking about paintings on a weekly basis. I wanted to change up my style, but didn't quite know where to begin. In the past year I tried, many times, to start a new painting only to leave it on the shelf half finished. 

Fast forward to last night when I dropped my husband off for another tour and then drove straight to Michael's to buy new painting supplies. I am making it my personal mission to develop a new painting style that I fully love while he is away. I feel ready. I feel excited. 

I am determined to start painting again, even if it's just for fun! I miss the experience so badly. I just wanted to post this little blog to encourage any of you who feel stuck in a "style rut." Sometimes it's healthy to take some time to unlearn everything and give yourself a fresh start! xo, elsie 

We're Nominated!

We are so thrilled to be nominated for Best D.I.Y. Blog on Apartment Therapy's 2012 "The Homies" Awards. If you would like to vote for us, you can do so right here. ♥ 

(edited- OMG! we're moving up the list really quickly! thank you!)

This is one of my favorite recent home decor D.I.Y. projects (from my Home Tour). Have a great day! Elsie