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A Girl Named PJ

ABC wall art for all ages

April 9, 2015

Tropical Foliage ABC wall art print by Oleander and Palm

With a new home on the horizon, I can’t stop thinking about different ways I’ll want to decorate. We don’t have a move-in date yet, but I’ve already got my eye on some new decor!

Wherever we end up, we won’t be starting from scratch — we’ll finally get our Omaha furniture out of storage! — but I know I’ll want to add a few smaller pieces and accessories that speak to my ever-evolving aesthetic.

Right now I’m considering ABC wall art for my boys’ future bedrooms or playroom. Thanks to my friend Jeran of Oleander and Palm, I’m fixated on finding a modern alphabet print. She created the unbelievably chic tropical foliage ABC poster in the top photo that I would love to hang in my new home, but sadly, it’s not for sale…yet.

So I did a bit of research and found seven other ABC art prints that would look just as lovely hanging on the wall. My favorite of the bunch might be #1; I really love the Scandanavian-inspired geometric pattern.

However, I had the chance to see The Land of Nod’s A to Z Wall Print in person, and it’s pretty awesome, too. An alphabet poster without any letters? Yes, please!

ABC wall art prints on A Girl Named PJ

  1. ABC Geometric Abstract Print on Etsy
  2. A to Z Wall Print on The Land of Nod
  3. Alphabet Poster on Etsy
  4. Alphabet Print on Poster Cabaret
  5. Alpha Dots on Minted
  6. Alphabet Rainbow Original Watercolor on BRIKA
  7. Alphabet Print on Poster Cabaret

Which ABC art print speaks to your personal style? Do you have a favorite alphabet poster?

 

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How to Frost a Cake

March 25, 2015

How to Frost a Cake Like a Pro on A Girl Named PJ

It started with a non-sensical auto-correct on an Instagram photo. Valentine’s became Cakentine’s, and suddenly, a new holiday was born.

Today, Melissa from Lulu the Baker, MJ from Pars Caeli, and I are all sharing posts related to the classic birthday treat: Cake. Melissa has a citrus cake recipe, MJ is making individual cakes, and I’m going to teach you how to frost a cake a like a pro… READ MORE!

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Gift card giveaway!

March 24, 2015

DelightFulls filled morsels recipe from A Girl Named PJ

You guys were so excited about my chocolate caramel s’mores bars that Nestle Toll House wants you to be able to try their new DelightFulls filled morsels, too… READ MORE!

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Clever houseplants you can’t kill

March 18, 2015

Flora Indoor Japanese Fan Palm print

Perhaps because spring is finally on the horizon, I’ve been actively pinning to my Flowers board on Pinterest. Interestingly, most of my recent pins have been of houseplants. (Maybe it’s time to change the name to Plants and Flowers?)

I say “interestingly” because our house in Omaha was conspicuously void of living plants. I love how fiddle leaf fig trees, snake plants, and potted houseplants of all sizes bring a natural vibe to a space, but I never trusted myself not to kill them.

We actually had two small potted plants on display — one in the living room and one in the basement — but they were both artificial plants from IKEA. Totally cheesy, I know. I just wanted the look of houseplants without any the maintenance or the risk.

Flora Indoor Zanzibar print

Flora Indoor Orbifolia print

When we move into our new place (whenever/wherever that may be), my goal is to transform my brown thumb into a green thumb, or some in-between shade of tan. Until that happens, though, I think I found the perfect compromise between live and artificial houseplants: clean, colorful prints of real plants from Flora.

The Barcelona-based online shop offers “a better way to love plants eternally” with poster-size photos of actual houseplants and flowers. They call their prints “the best thing since plastic flowers,” but I’d call them the next-best thing to live greenery.

Granted, they can’t improve the air quality in your home, but you never have to water them, they take up little space, and they can survive in the shadows.

I’d happily display the Kentia or Zanzibar prints in my kitchen, above my desk, or maybe even a bathroom. I also really like the Roses print, which is surprising because I don’t care much for roses in real life!

Let’s talk about houseplants in the comments below. Have you successfully kept any alive, or do you have a gardening aversion like me? What do you think about these Flora Indoor posters? 

 

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Make this weekend: Chocolate caramel s’mores bars

March 13, 2015

Chocolate caramel s'mores bars made with Nestle Toll House DelightFulls filled baking morsels | A Girl Named PJ

One of Jordan’s college friends came to visit last week, and we took him out to dinner at one of the best Indian restaurants in town. In between bites of the spiciest baingan bharta I’ve ever tasted, our conversation jumped between topics that included vaccinations, education in America, and, for some reason, Rice Krispie treats.

Random, right?

Talking about the kid-friendly marshmallowy cereal bars reminded me of some incredible Golden Grahams s’mores bars we devoured in Buffalo when we visited friends last fall. They quickly became all I could think about, and soon I realized I had no choice but to whip up a pan of them myself.

The s’mores bars from Buffalo were filled with chunks of dark chocolate, but I wanted to try the new DelightFulls filled baking morsels from Nestle Toll House. Specifically, the milk chocolate morsels with caramel filling.

You guys, I may have found my new go-to homemade snack.

They were so easy to make, but here’s one piece of advice: If you ask your husband to start melting the butter for you, it’s best to specify the amount of butter (5 tablespoons) instead of assuming he read the recipe over your shoulder. Otherwise, you’ll end up fishing out a partially melted full stick of butter from a hot pot.

Chocolate caramel s'mores bars made with Nestle Toll House DelightFulls filled baking morsels | A Girl Named PJ

Chocolate caramel s'mores bars made with Nestle Toll House DelightFulls filled baking morsels | A Girl Named PJ

Chocolate Caramel S’mores Bars

adapted from Nestle 

Ingredients
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 bag (10.5 oz) miniature marshmallows
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 bag (9 oz) Nestle Toll House DelightFulls Filled Baking Morsels (milk chocolate morsels with caramel filling)
  • 1 box (12 oz) Golden Grahams cereal
Instructions
  1. Grease 13 x 9-in pan with butter or cooking spray. Pour Golden Grahams into large bowl. Reserve 1 cup of marshmallows.
  2. Melt butter, corn syrup, and the rest of the marshmallows in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla.
  3. Pour marshmallow mixture over Golden Grahams and stir until coated. Stir in Caramel Filled DelightFulls and remaining 1 cup of marshmallows.
  4. Press mixture into greased pan. Cool for one hour or until firm. Cut into bars.
Thanks to Nestle Toll House for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring me to try the new DelightFulls Filled Baking Morsels! And thank you for being supportive of the brands that allow me to create fun content for this blog.

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Shades of grey (paint, that is)

March 4, 2015

Valspar Seashell Gray bedroom makeover | A Girl Named PJ

Since we moved in with my parents last September, Levi has been sleeping in a peach guest room with wall-to-wall carpeting from the 80s. Jordan and I took over my drab green childhood bedroom, complete with patched cracks above the door frames that nobody had ever bothered to repaint.

As a thank you to my folks for letting us crash with them while Jordan searched for his first civilian job, I planned to redecorate both rooms to make them work for us now and for any future houseguests. I had hoped to make over the bedrooms in the fall, but you know what they say about the best-laid plans…

Valspar Seashell Gray bedroom makeover | A Girl Named PJ

Six months later, we’re finally getting started thanks to Valspar!

A fresh coat of paint is the easiest way to dramatically change how a room looks–especially if somebody else is doing the taping, the cutting in, and the rolling. The hardest part, at least for me, is always choosing the color.

I was considering using two different shades of grey–a darker one for Levi’s room and a lighter one for ours. My thought process went something like this: The guest room could be a little bit more masculine in design than my childhood bedroom since it’s where my parents’ three grandsons will sleep when they’re visiting.

Here’s the three-step approach I took to picking the actual paint colors:

  1. Searched “Valspar grey paint” (and “Valspar gray paint“) on Pinterest for inspiration.
  2. Picked up paint chips at Lowes that matched the rooms I liked on Pinterest.
  3. Polled my design-savvy Instagram and Facebook followers to help me narrow the choices.

Step 4 would’ve been to use the Color Connect app for a free consultation with Valspar’s color experts. You can live video chat or submit room photos and receive recommendations by phone or email. Luckily, I was able to pick my two shades of grey paint after the feedback I got from my Facebook and Instagram photos.

(Knowing that Valspar offers a “Love Your Color” guarantee also made it easier to commit to my choices.) Valspar Paint Filtered Shade makeover | A Girl Named PJ

Valspar Paint Filtered Shade makeover | A Girl Named PJ

We went with Seashell Gray for my childhood bedroom (top two photos) and Filtered Shade for Levi’s room (bottom two photos). The peach-tinted trim in both rooms and the unfinished closet doors in Levi’s will be painted with Valspar Dove White, but we had to take a break after the old carpet was removed to have the floors refinished.

I wish I’d been able to start the room makeovers last fall so we’d have more time to enjoy them while living here. I’m still hoping we’re in our own place sooner rather than later. Of course, my mom won’t let us leave until the rooms are finished, so we’d better get back to painting!

Stay tuned for the “after” photos of both rooms.

A big thank you to Valspar for supplying paint for both rooms. As always, words and opinions are my own. I appreciate your support of the sponsors who help me write this blog.

 

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The best tasting K-cup coffee (when you’re too lazy to use a French press)

February 25, 2015

The Best K-Cup Coffee | A Girl Named PJ

It may not come as a surprise that I drink a lot of coffee. Asa has only started sleeping through the night (well, 8pm to 5am) this past week, and Levi has enough stamina to power a colony of Energizer bunnies.

So I’m relieved to learn that drinking three to five cups of coffee each day is now only considered a moderate level of consumption, according to a new report.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, the country’s top nutrition panel, also found health benefits associated with drinking more than a couple of cups every day, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

The Best K-Cup Coffee | A Girl Named PJ

On an average day, I drink at least one oversize mug of French press coffee. Jordan, my personal barista, is all about experimenting with manual coffee brewing methods after we learned how to use a French press and a Chemex last year. By now he can eyeball measurements of beans and water, so the process goes relatively quickly.

The rest of the day, I’m using K-cups to make coffee in the Keurig machine. After touting the deliciousness of manual brewed coffee, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that we still use a Keurig. It’s just such a fast and effective way to brew one cup at a time, even if the taste is noticeably inferior to the French press coffee we enjoy in the mornings. (Jordan often compares it to dishwater.)

The Best K-Cup Coffee | A Girl Named PJ

But maybe we’re just using the wrong K-cups. Thrillist enlisted a “world-class barista” from Austin to conduct a blind taste test of 23 K-cups, each made on the middle setting of a Keurig machine using water from a parallel-activated, carbon-filtered OptiPure system.

I’m assuming that means that even the worst-rated coffee of the group tasted better than what we make at home with water from the kitchen sink.

The five best tasting K-cup coffee:

  1. Green Mountain Kenyan AA
  2. Eight O’Clock Colombian
  3. Green Mountain Nantucket Blend
  4. Donut Shop Extra Bold
  5. Maxwell House House Blend

You should definitely head over to Thrillist to check out the full list, which includes the taste tester’s descriptive reactions to each cup. For example, he says Dunkin’ Donuts K-cup coffee (#6) is “totally drinkable with cream and sugar, but develops a medicinal quality as it cools” and describes Tim Hortons Arabica (#17) as tasting like “chicken-flavored ramen noodles.”

I’ll add that Green Mountain Hazelnut isn’t so bad, especially when it’s made with steamed half-and-half and two scoops of organic sugar.

How do you enjoy your daily cup (cups?) of coffee? Are you a manual brew purist or will you use a Keurig machine for a quick and easy caffeine fix?

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Home tour: A multi purpose nursery for Asa

February 12, 2015

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

It’s time for the last room of our Omaha home tour: Asa’s multi purpose nursery. His room was tricky to decorate because it needed to function as our guest room and my home office in addition to a nursery.

Also, I didn’t want to repaint the pale pink walls. Since we were only going to be in our house for a few more months, painting didn’t seem worth it — especially when the room was already such a pretty color.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

I started by looking for bedding in darker, more “masculine” colors that still complemented the pink walls. At first, this navy and white duvet from Serena and Lily felt like a bold choice, but the large room seemed to call out for a big pattern. I thought it filled the space beautifully.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

And how adorable is that Hello throw pillow from The Land of Nod? Asa sure loved it.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

The crib was a hand-me-down from Levi (you might recognize it from his nursery tour), but we thought Asa deserved new sheets in a pattern of his own. Although my original nursery inspiration board featured a grey crib sheet, I loved how this aqua with navy dots sheet from The Land of Nod added a pop of color.

The coordinating Cloud Castle throw pillow, which sometimes lived on the glider, magically tied the pink, navy, aqua, and white color scheme together.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

You might also remember that I was considering a gallery wall for above Asa’s crib. I even went so far as to pick out some prints from Minted! But then our realtor suggested we keep the walls as empty as possible so that potential buyers would be able to imagine their own art hanging in the space.

Instead, I repurposed the silver garland from this post and hung a small chalk-drawn heart print from Caravan at eye level.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

The glider also came from Levi’s nursery, but we brought in a new blue pouf and white floor lamp, both from The Land of Nod. I had hoped to add a small table where I could rest my phone and a glass of water while nursing Asa, but I couldn’t find one tall enough to be a nightstand that wasn’t too tall to be next to the chair.

The monkey photograph above the glider was actually a gift to me from Jordan a year or two ago. Every nursery needs a Sharon Montrose baby animal print, don’t you think?

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

Opposite the bed was the long brown dresser that — surprise! — also used to be Levi’s. We swapped his old changing pad cover for a Land of Nod polka dot design that matched the room’s color palette and found a gorgeous table lamp from Lamps Plus in almost the exact shade of blue.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

My beloved white Parsons desk served double duty as a nightstand, and that Land of Nod silver geometric lamp produced just the right amount of light for reading in bed. It’s a good thing the desk was so big because when my parents came to visit — which, lucky for us, was almost every month — they’d cover the surface with multiple electronic devices and their corresponding chargers.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

Above the desk I hung small art prints and a giant calendar page with aqua washi tape from my stash of office supplies. My daily notebooks and favorite hand cream were corralled but easily accessible.

A multi-purpose nursery that triples as a guest room and home office | A Girl Named PJ

(Side note: When these photos were taken last August, that I Am Very Busy planner from Ban.do was a recent acquisition. But I ended up never really using it. I have a terrible habit of buying multiple paper planners each year, always convinced that the next one will finally get me organized. Can you relate?)

I should also confess that I sat with my laptop on the living room sofa more often than I did at my desk, but it was still important to me to have corner of the house to store work-related things. A sort-of command center for my blogging and freelance writing career.

When we left Omaha, Asa went straight from one multi-purpose nursery to another. In my parents’ house, he sleeps in their home office, and there wasn’t much we could add to the room other than a crib and our Eames rocker to make it more baby-friendly. One of these days (fingers crossed!), we’ll have a house of our own again, and Asa will have a single-purpose bedroom for the first time!

PS: How to decorate a guest room — that isn’t also an office and nursery!

Disclosure: The Land of Nod, Serena & Lily, and Lamps Plus helped me furnish this room by generously providing product; however, I didn’t receive any compensation from these companies. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that help support A Girl Named PJ.

 

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Home Tour: Levi’s big boy toddler room

February 4, 2015

Levi's big boy toddler room. Click through for room tour. | A Girl Named PJLevi's big boy toddler room. Click through for room tour. | A Girl Named PJ

Last month I took you on a tour of Levi’s nursery, and today I’m excited to show you how we transitioned the space into a toddler room… READ MORE!

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