Category Archives: D+I+Y

New Floors at Casa Color Bee

The freeze in Houston did a number on us! We did have to redo all of the plumbing in our house. With that came floor damage from water and foot traffic. Our floors were in poor shape so we went ahead and took the leap to redo them. We chose a tile that is super durable that has a wood look. We chose this because it is virtually indestructible and the kids literally can’t mess it up. It also gave us an opportunity to get rid of the horrible carpet that was on our stairs and in our upstairs. Enjoy these process photos.

Enjoy Color Bees!

flower shop photo, ikea challenge, lowes challenge, hobby lobby challenge,twa

Photo Inspiration | IKEA Photo Challenge

Before you read any further, it is important for you to know the ALL of these photos were taken inside of Ikea Houston. 🙂 If you’re an IKEA lover like I am, this is soooo for you! If you find walking into Ikea a bit overwhelming (I know it’s a lot of stuff) this may be a way to help take things a little bit at a time. Most of all, this is a little life lesson on working with what you’ve got!

My blogging buddy Pam Del and I hit up Ikea for a different type of inspiration. This time it was all about taking the cute but ordinary displays/models and making it look like I woke up in my ideal patio,coffee shop, living room, and flower market!

The first set of images is on the ground level of Ikea Houston right before you get to the registers. As you can see, it looks like I am enjoying a nice cup of tea on a sunny day. The colors are fun and bright like spring and I have everything I need at my finger tips (Theoretically). In real life Pam had to strategically tuck and hide a lot of red tags to pull this shot off.

The second set of images gives you the illusion of being in a cozy out door coffee shop. Keeping the chill of with a nice pink moto jacket that is perfect for spring and and cool wide brimmed hat. I real life, Pam was hiding red tags left and right.

The third set of photos gives the illusion that I’ve just stumbled up a field of flowers or my neighborhood coffee shop! It’s so beautiful right?!?! Ikea is getting their hands on some really amazing faux flowers there days! Again, I’m wearing the perfect spring floral dress, the sun is shining on me and all is right with the world. Ha ha!

In the final set of photos, I reimagined my floral dress as a comfy robe and put my feet up to relax with a book after a long day. Looking relaxed, comfortable, and “at home” was the main goal of this photo. Pam got the perfect angle to capture this look.

This was so much fun to do because it serves as a blaring reminder to work with what you’ve got. There may be “red tags”(distractions) hanging everywhere and people (haters) staring at you because you are doing something unconventional. You can not let that stop you from taking your shot!

Enjoy!

Want more? My buddy Pam came to shoot my IKEA loving self & I got some awesome shots of her too! So head on over to her blog to see what she shot inside of IKEA!

Red Wine Hot Chocolate with Winc

Everything is better with a splash of wine including holidays! In my case, I get my wine from Winc! A monthly subscription that allows you to taste and explore with wine. It shows up on your door steep hand delivered and you can check out what’s coming ahead of time on your Winc account. Go to Winc.com to get started and use code “authenticallyb” for an amazing discount!

Here’s a fun hot chocolate recipe that can act as a desert or pre-dinner sip. I like this red wine recipe because it’s delicious and super simple. I didn’t even have to go to the store for the ingredients. Even my wine from Winc showed up on my door step. Everything else was already in my pantry. Red wine hot chocolate is super rich so I opted to serve them in miniature cups along with a bite of chocolate. Large servings could be too over powering to the palate. Have fun with this and let me know what you think after you make it! Enjoy!

Thank you Winc for sponsoring this post!

Ingredients 

• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

• 2/3 cup red wine

• 1/2 cup milk

• 2 tablespoons sugar, optional

• Pinch of salt

Directions

1 Combine the chocolate chips, wine, milk, and sugar (if using), in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate chips are melted and the mixture is hot.

2 Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour into mugs and serve.

Easy Head Wrap Tutorial (4 styles)

Raise your hand if you love head wraps!!!! Me! Me! Me! Head wraps are the “icing on the cake” when it comes to style and is the saver of bad/lazy hair days too!

We all stare in amazement when see a beautifully tied head wrap but wrapping your mind around duplicating a style can be daunting. I’ve created this fun quick video to help you learn how to tie four different head wrap styles all under 10 minutes! Yes, by the end of the video you will have some basic technique on how to tie beautiful head wraps. Subscribe to the AuthenticallyB.com youtube channel and share this video with your friends who love head wraps too! Enjoy!

New Year, New Smile | Smile Brilliant

We all have big plans for the new year. Honestly, it can be a bit tough to get started right away especially when it’s a health goal. I love coffee and red wine so my teeth have taken a beating over the years. I’ve partnered with Smile Brilliant to meet a health and beauty goal in just a short time with out completely giving up two of my favorite things to drink.

Smile Brilliant specializes in high quality custom teeth whitening trays. They are made just for you so no need to worry about those generic strips that slide and move around as you use them. Smile Brilliant starts by sending you an amazing fully stocked kit that includes materials to make your custom molds,pre-paid postages, whitening gel, desensitizing gel and a storage case for your trays.

I felt a bit overwhelmed at the thought of making my teeth molds on my own at first, but the detailed directions made me feel like a pro. Once you send in your teeth molds, Smile Brilliant quickly sends back your custom whitening trays and you can start your professional whitening system at home right away.

I love that I can whiten while I cook dinner, do laundry, clean, and even write for my blog. No dentist appointments, time off from work, or inconvenience, yet this system is exactly what you would get at the dentist office.

I remember falling and chipping my tooth as a kid. One of the worse things about that happening was how terribly painful it was to eat or drink cold and hot things afterwards. One of the best things about this kit is the desensitizing gel that it comes with. You don’t have to worry about your teeth being sensitive to hot and cold things after you whiten.

I know you want to know how well it works so here are my real results!!! I can be a bit off a sceptic sometimes so after each session, I would closely inspect my teeth to see if I noticed a change. Putting my before and after pictures side by side made me so giddy! I am so impressed with the results after just 4 short sessions. In those 4 sessions I whitened for 45 mins at a time. You can whiten for up to 3 hours but I wanted to take a slow and cautious approach on this. I can’t wait to see more progress over the next few weeks!

Want a Smile Brilliant system for yourself? Enter my giveaway to win your own right here!  Enter to win a Smile Brilliant system! If you can’t wait until the giveaway is over you can order your own now. Use discount code “authenticallyb” for a 5% discount.

I’ve even included a Youtube video so that you can see how the system works in action 🙂