S+S chow: glittering sandwich cookies

We were not joking when we promised to be back with a recipe worthy of your most sparkling soiree! You're eyes are not playing tricks on you, these are glitter cookies friends. Glitter. Cookies. Does it get any more fabulous? These gems are not only gorgeous and glittery, they are delish. Sure to be the hit of any par-tay. These will certainly be making their way to our nye celebration. We just have one request... can we eat them everyday??

Glittering Sandwich Cookies {via the purl bee}

Makes  approximately 5 dozen cookies.

ingredients



cookies


2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour


1 1/3 cups cornstarch


1/2 teaspoon salt


4 sticks unsalted butter, softened


1 cup confectioners' sugar


1 teaspoon vanilla 


1 teaspoon almond extract

Sanding sugars in various colors



filling


2 cups confectioners' sugar


2 tablespoons almond extract


1/4 cup light corn syrup


1 stick unsalted butter, softened

directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place flour, cornstarch and salt in a bowl, mix togetgher and set aside.

With electric mixer, mix butter, confectioners' sugar, almond extract and vanilla until fluffy.  
Add flour mixture and mix on low until dough forms. 

Place each sanding sugar into a small bowl.
Roll dough into balls, 1/2-inch in diameter, then roll balls in sanding sugar.  Place balls on parchment lined baking sheet, 3/4-inch apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes.  Bottoms should just be turning golden.  Remove and place on cooling racks.



To Make Filling:
With electric mixer, mix all filling ingredients on medium until combined.

Complete Cookies:
With offset spatula place approximately 1/4 teaspoon of filling on half a cookie, sandwich the other half to form a ball.

Cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Happy New Year to you and yours!! May 2012 be your best year yet! Love, L+L

New Year's

So we are pretty lame here this NYE. Nothing extreme planned...yet! All we can say is channel your inner Ke$ha. Do it. When in doubt...throw glitter everywhere. We permit it. Now, if we were having a fancy schmansy soiree, here is how we would proceed with it. 

We would send these:

Glitters and streamers, of course. 

{you are my fave}

We would set the table with these:

{pretty stuff}

Wear these:

Who says we can't wear three dresses at one event? This is New Years people. 

Seat our guests here:

{style me pretty}

Display this:

{pizzazzerie}

Drink this...and more of this:

{mint love social club}

Do this at midnight:

Low key around here, folks. Low key. Tomorrow we will return with a recipe suitable for your glitter filled holiday. Promise. 

Favorite Room Feature: a year in review

For those of you that have been following us for awhile, you know that we started our Favorite Room Feature at the beginning of 2011. Can we say amazing? Truly. When we first started this segment, we thought possibly we would run out of major rooms to share on the blog. EHHHHHHH (sound of a buzzer for an incorrect response). We could not have been more wrong. Here we are, at almost a year in running and there is no shortage of style and creativity here, folks. You keep bringing it, and we keep sharing it. To celebrate the end of a fabulous year and the beginning to an even more fabulous one, we have brought to you...our Favorite Favorite Room Feature. Yes you read that right. We have compiled our favorites over the year of 2011. You will thank us later. 

We have sorted our favorites by type of space. To get us started, we are showcasing our favorite Living Room spaces that you amazingly talented bloggers have so graciously shared with S+S.

Click on the image to see the full FRF

How could we share our favorites without sharing the place we adore most...the kitchen! Hello. Where can we stuff our faces elegantly and stylishly? These spaces. That. Is. Where. 

Where can we lay our head at night and dream only decorative thoughts? These bedrooms are beyond out of control. Serious REM happening here. Serious. 

Of course the darling children's spaces need a shout out too! We have shared some awesome kid spaces this year, but these are the most. The absolute most. We know you will agree. 

If there are any talented bloggers out there who have yet to share their fabulous space on our segment and are interested, please email us at sadieandstella@gmail.com. We would LOVE to hear from you. Here is to another unique and fabulous year of the Favorite Room Feature!

S+S Design: Bachelor Pad

Welcome back readers! We hope you all had a fabulously wonderful holiday weekend. We sure did. A little painful returning to reality, but we will live until the next three day weekend. We have been working on many projects lately, and one of those is a design for the loft of a dear friend of mine, the bachelor. The bachelor, we shall call him, has great taste in all things design, especially art, but just didn't know how to streamline the vision. What he did know, is that he wanted gallery white walls. Done and done. Let's get started.

The bachelor's loft is HUGE. We mean HUGE. Space for days. We decided to fashion a dining area close to the kitchen equipped with all of the accouterments that a space for entertaining would ever dream of. Ahem, bar cart. We die. Anyway, the vision for the dining room included a solid rustic, modern, stacked wood dining table. Amaze. The bachelor actually spotted this on his own shopping excursion. Impressive, we know. Obviously mix and match seating will be appropriate here. To give the space a more modern and manly feel, we knew that some mid-century modern wood chairs would have to be thrown into the mix. He already had a fabulous persian rug that is going to tie any and everything together in the space. Need we discuss the chandelier? Exactly. Its insane. 

On to the living space. The major goal in this space was for us to create a space that he could entertain to the masses. Large seating areas, etc. You get the idea. The first choice for the space was this incredibly large and incredibly major charcoal grey sectional. We figure it is great for game watching/lounging. Sectionals can sometimes lack the style that we are looking to achieve, but this is a major exception to that rule. The material of the seating is almost suit-like, which also continues the manly aesthetic we are going for here. The bachelor also had his eye on some Barcelona chairs. You cannot get more man than that. For real. We decided a seating area with two leather and chrome chairs flanking the sectional would add cool and sophisticated additional seating. All topped off with a cowhide rug (duh!) and a manly chunk of wood as a coffee table. Is that piece of art not insane? Seriously. That is all the color that we needed in the space since the bachelor claims his favorite color is black. Go figure. 

On to the bedroom. I immediately had a vision here. For some reason I had thought the only way there could be lighting in this room is if it entailed two pendants suspended from the ceiling. Flanking both sides of the bed. Obvi. A large, leather bed was in order for the space. I wanted to keep it all white and black, essentially. Except for, the vintage kilim at the foot of the bed. Totally a space for the bachelor to lay his head at night. Totally. 

We cannot wait to show you the before and afters. He is hard at work and the design is underway. Stay. Tuned. 

S+S chow: cranberry + pancetta baked brie

Is anyone as lucky as I am today, and is actually working????? Yeah. Horrid. Buttttttt this is the last hurrah and then a long weekend and Christmas! I am sure you all are traveling for many holiday events that you may be attending, or may even be hosting. Either way, we have a FABULOUS appetizer for you all to contribute to any get together you may be attending. This is out of control. You cannot go wrong with baked brie. Ever. Leave this for Santa. You will get more presents. We promise. Merry Christmas dolls!

cranberry + pancetta baked brie {via how sweet it is}

ingredients:

1 wheel of brie cheese

1/4 cup cranberry relish/sauce

2 tbs chopped fried pancetta

2 tbs crushed spiced pecans

directions: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a skillet on medium-high heat, fry pancetta until crispy. Remove and let drain on paper towel. Crush pecans.

Remove brie from packaging. Top with cranberry relish, cooled pancetta and pecans. Place on large baking sheet. 

Bake at 400 for 5-10 minutes. 

Serve with crackers, chips, fruit and bread. Enjoy! 

S+S Holiday Gift Guide: Mad about Plaid

Is everyone still working like I am??!?! Make it end. If you are already off for the Holiday, please refrain from saying so. Sour grapes over here. On a brighter note, we promised you plaid, and plaid we shall deliver! To feed our obsession with plaid, we have thrown a plaid gift guide together for that plaid fanatic in your life. All things home, dog, you, your man. You name it, we plaid it. 

1. Who would not adore throwing this plaid cape on with a pair of leggings?!? Instant outfit. We are totally into low maintenance style lately. This cape totes fit the bill. Totes. 

2. For the plaid enthused man in your life. A plaid bow-tie. These are super fabulous and there are plenty of different patterns of plaid to choose from. If you live in the South like we do, you will know this is definitely a wardrobe staple for a man. 

3. Ummm get out with this tartan plaid melamine tray. Get out. We would love to put this on display on an oversized upholstered ottoman. Would absolutely be a topic of conversation. 

4. So dogs and plaid...we could not be more overjoyed. This terrier plaid print is everything. Our dogs might be slightly jelly if we put a picture of another dog on display in our house though...hmmm. It might be worth it. 

5. Plaid etched crystal decanter. Adore. This is obviously a great gift for anyone who loves to entertain and also anyone who loves understated plaid. While the texture is there, it is obviously crystal. Thomas O'Brien definitely go it done here. 

6. Hilar, also for that man in your life, a plaid deer head flask. Such a unique gift, as we know that NO ONE else will have this. So festive and so cool. 

7. Everyone needs a lovely tartan throw in their life. This is a great basic for any space. Especially to curl up and get cozy with a fabulous book. This throw is a great gift for all!

8. What would a gift guide be without a little gift for our girls!?!?! This quilted jacket for the girls is absolutely to die for. They are salivating at the thought of wearing Ralph Lauren signature plaid. All we know is that once they wear this baby around, they will be the talk of the dog park. 

9. We love a good Tory flat and this plaid Tory Burch flat definitely does the trick. A unique spin on the widely adored Tory Burch flat. These seem like an amazing staple to a fall or winter wardrobe. 

10. And the plaid of all plaids, this tartan plaid chair. Get it girl. I would love for Santa to roll up in his sleigh with this for me. Best Christmas ever. And tufted?!?! Totally over the top. Totally. 

Favorite Room Feature: Mix and Chic

When we first came across Jessie from Mix And Chic, we were beyond thrilled.  Her blog and designs are filled with bright colors and an eclectic feel. We die! Totally in love. Totes. Jessie is super sweet enough to share her favorite space with us and we know you all will be obsessed!   


Hi Sadie and Stella readers! I am Jessie from Mix And Chic and I am happy to share with you my favorite room today. We just moved from North Carolina to Illinois last year and all the rooms in our home were not decorated at all except for my living room. Naturally, it became my favorite room. Some of you may have caught a glimpse of my home on House Of Fifty but I am going to share some new pictures, something which I haven't even share on my own blog with my readers. Continue reading to find out more.


One of my favorite features about my living room is the charming fireplace below. I have always wanted a stone fireplace and I am so thrilled when we found this home during house hunting last year. I think the irregular stones and textures gave the fireplace a wonderful sense of character.

Most pieces you see in my living room are either on sale or on clearance. For example, the pair of topiary trees I bought from Target a few years ago during their clearance sales at 50% off. They were used to accessorize my previous formal dining room. The picture frame and orchid were on sale, too.

While designing this room, I do not have the luxury of buying all new furniture so I "borrowed" a chair that I got previously from my former home. The same goes with some of the accessories as well. The faux tree and terracotta warrior figure were from my previous guest bedroom and dining room.

Looking at my living room, it is obvious that colors are used everywhere. Colors always bring a smile on my face so I love to incorporate them whenever I can through accessories in my home. 

I am glad to have found a pair of colorful decorative pillows during a clearance sale and later a colorful rug that also picks up the color from the pillows. The colorful rug has a unique design so I bought a clear acrylic coffee table for my living room so the whole rug is visible at all angles. 

I tried styling my coffee table vignette using some of my favorite objects I found around the home for visual interest.


To learn more about the resources from my living room, you can take a look here.

And just for the fun of it, I am going to show you what my living room looks like when we first moved in.

Before

After

More before pictures so you have an idea of what my living room looks like.

The previous owners definitely share our love for colors but they used them in a much different way through bold wall colors and wall mural. 

Thank you for having me over, girls! When you get a chance, come by and visit my blog. I will show you how our home is decorated during Christmas.

Wishing you all a warm and wonderful holiday season!

Jessie

S+S Plaid Christmas Tablescape

To continue our week of plaid, we are sharing our plaid Christmas tablescape with you all! As you all know, we have been completely jazzed on the idea of plaids lately. We thought, what better way to decorate our Christmas dinner table than with a tartan plaid. Let's explore all of the elements. Shall we?

The tablecloth is an amazing piece of duponi silk tartan plaid that I picked up from our favorite local fabric store, 1502 Fabrics. It was on a bargain basement deal for $7.99 a yard, people. Can you believe it?!?! I could not either. I was sold. The tiffany blue rimmed salad plates were a steal at Z. Gallerie...again prepare yourself for the deal here. $4.00 per plate. Serious. 

To give the table a very festive feel I used gold and silver embellished ornaments to adorn the tablescape.  It obviously screams holiday. Not to mention all of the gold and glitter already on the table. Each setting includes a gold ribbon gift. To give each setting a unique feel, I used different gold ribbon wrapped in a different form. 

I had to have the gold glitter tablespoons. They were a major score on Gilt Groupe a few days back. I shall eat off of them at every meal. Overboard?  I think not. That is everyday dining at our house, folks. 

We hope we have left you inspired for your holiday tablescape. We cannot wait to be stuffing our faces over this table, elegantly. Of course readers! Elegantly stuffing our faces. 

monday musings: all clad in plaid

Welcome back all of you lovely lovelies! This week we are focusing on our favorite holiday pattern, plaid. Today we are kicking it off over at SavorNC. We are talking about our unhealthy obsession with plaid in everyday spaces. You name the pattern and hue, we are loving it.  We are showing numerous ways that hints of plaid can be worked into an aesthetic. Head on over here. Here is a little preview of what you might see. 

S+S chow: crab stuffed mushrooms

Happy Friday S+S readers! With a little over a week until Christmas, holiday entertaining is in full swing and we are always on the lookout for tasty new appetizers. After spotting this recipe on the wonder that is Pinterest, I just had to try! I assure you, it did not disappoint. These babies are being added to the list of go-tos for entertaining. Also on that list, bacon blue cheese dip, buffalo chicken bites, pimento cheese and amazing parmesan cheesecake. All this talk of appetizers is making me crave a party dress and a cranberry ginger fizz cocktail! Anyways, on to the reason we are here this am... crab stuffed mushrooms. Serve these with with creamy horseradish dipping sauce and your guests are sure to swoon! 

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms {via neo-homesteading}
ingredients:

Baby Portabella mushrooms- about 12-15

extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

8 ounces crab meat 

2-3 tablespoons diced red bell pepper

2-3 tablespoons chopped chives

1 egg

1 teaspoon mustard

2 tablespoons mayo

1/2-1 teaspoon old bay seasoning

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon salt

*fresh cracked black pepper

directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a bowl combine crab meat, pepper, chives, egg, mustard, mayo, old bay {a generous amount}. Stir to mix and add panko, do not add too much you just want enough for the mixture to bind together. 

Remove stems from the mushrooms, using a spoon hollow out the centers and then toss mushrooms with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Using about 1-2 tablespoons of filling stuff crab filling into the mushrooms. Place on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is golden. You don't want to over cook the mushrooms or they will be too moist and the filling will become soggy.

Horseradish Dipping Sauce

ingredients:

1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream

2-3 tablespoons mayo

1 tablespoon horseradish {or to taste}

1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2-1 teaspoon hot sauce 

directions:

Stir to combine. For a fuller fat version you can use more mayo or substitute the mayo in this recipe for horseradish cream. 

S+S Holiday Gift Guide: For the Fashionista

One more day until the weekend. We are almost there! This week on our Holiday Gift Guide, we are featuring that problematic person in your life to buy for. The fashionista! What do you buy for the gal that literally has it all?!?! Well, we've rounded up a few ideas. Santa, are you reading??

1. Spike the Punch Necklace

2. Travel Bags

3. Camel Coat

4. Kendra Scott Cocktail Ring

5. Michael Kors Watch

6. Neon Wrap Bracelet

7. Glitter Clutch

8. Leopard Bootie

9. Naked Eye Palette

10. Sequin Duffle

Favorite Room Feature: Design Manifest

Well, well, well do we have something in store for you all today. Naomi, aka Queen of Eclectic Chic, is sharing her favorite space with you all today. Her living room. She obviously has great taste and her ability to pull unlike patterns into a cohesive design is truly next to none. We cannot wait for her to get started. Take it away! 


Hi S+S fans!  I'm Naomi from Design Manifest and I'm happy to be giving you a little tour of my favorite room.  Some of you may have caught my sneak peek on Design Sponge, but I'm going to share a little extra today- all the details that make my living room my happy place.

First, I thought I'd give you a little spin around the room.  I live in an open loft, so the "living room" is just one corner of the space.  As a non-recovering furniture hoarder, I'm a firm believer in Auctions, Ikea, and second-hand goods.  The only thing I bought "retail" in this room was the TV, wallpaper and the sofa.  (I don't really pay retail because I get trade discounts... don't hate.)

Creating an edited-maximalist space like my own definitely took time, patience, elbow grease and a whole lot of trial and error.  The coffee table and wood chairs were acquired after a 3-hour stakeout at a vintage auction.  The Ikea Television stand involved a lot of black lacquer paint, brass hardware and my handy carpenter to build the component unit.  Pillows were scavenged fabrics sewed together by yours truly.  (Don't look too closely at the zippers!)  The rug was an un-opened Pottery Barn number found half price on Ebay.  And the gold chairs... lordy, the gold chairs were a project and a half of gold leaf and spray paint applied to Craigslist finds.  The best piece of advice I'll ever give you is DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GOLD-LEAF BERGERE CHAIRS.

The devil is truly in the details and there are just so many I love in this space.  To name a few of the above- my pagoda, the wallpaper, my goddess pillow, touches of gold, Asian hardware, and vintage gifts & scores.  These are all the pieces that make my home feel lived-in-lovely.  And that, my new friends, is why I love the space.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!  Stop by Design Manifest when you get a chance.  I'll be showing some new projects real soon and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

xo

Naomi

DIY: fish scale art

As we have yet to shut up about, we were obsessed with the fish scale art trend. Like woah. When we first saw this tutorial here, we knew this was a diy that we had to try for ourselves. Although we made some minor modifications to the diy, it essentially has the same feel.We are OBSESSED with the result. Honestly this project has got our mind buzzing with possibilities. Other colors. Multi-colored. The possibilities are endless!

 DIY Fish Scale Art Supplies:

1 pre cut piece of particle board. Note: Home Depot/Lowe's have these already cut into various dimensions. Super helpful for us!

Numerous pieces of poster board

Gold Metallic spray paint. We recommend Krylon.

Staple Gun

Any trim of your choosing. I found mine at Lowe's

Step 1:

Cut your all of your circles out of your poster board. I used the top rim of a glass and traced all of my circles from this. Super laborious. Trust. 

Step 2:

After all of my circles were cut, I affixed them on to the board. This is where the staple gun comes in. No lie, particle board is thicker than it appears. My finger still hurts from steading the staple gun. Yowza. Start towards the bottom and continue up securing the scales. It will look like this:

Step 3:

Trim the edges of the scales on the entire piece. Go ahead and secure your trim on the board so you know where the edges will begin and end. After that is complete, get to cutting.

Step 4:

Spray paint that baby on a bed of wood chips. Ummm ok, so maybe not wood chips. However, I am loft living currently and have ZERO outdoor DIY'ing area. It's fine! In my case, rather than discarding a tarp, you just kick around the golden wood chips. They were lucky to get revamped. Off topic. Off topic. 

Find its home and admire your hard work. I have to say, this was somewhat a tedious and laborious DIY but I am more than thrilled with the results.  Love the one of a kind, unique texture it brings to our brick wall. 

 And a shot at night. Thought you would love to see the glitz and glam in the evening. 

Happy Tuesday loves! We hope you all have a FAB day.