my summer entertaining fab wishlist!

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One of the big things that I'm super excited about for this summer is outdoor entertaining!  While we had a pretty big yard at our old place, it wasn't very entertaining friendly.  We've already had a couple parties at the new house and it's so great!  I'm hoping for many summer parties in the backyard.  We're still a long way from having our yard the way I want it to be, so window shopping is always a fun way to find inspiration.  Fab is a great place to find such inspiration because they're always rotating in new curated items that are unique.  For our backyard, I'd love to have a permanent seating area for outdoors.
Right now we just drag our kitchen table chairs outside, which is a drag, and then if people want to sit at the table indoors, they're kind of out of luck.  We've got a little fire pit, so having seating set up around that would be ideal.  I don't know if I'm the only one hung up on the idea of a rug outdoors, but I think that idea is so fun.  Instead of having a fancy brick patio, just put an indoor/outdoor rug down and voila!  Instant fanciness.  Also, non-breakable tumblers for outdoor beverage consumption?  Brilliant. Bonus that they are wood!  I've never seen such a thing!  Dan's big into beer, and is brewing a lot of homebrews this summer, so it'd be fun to throw some beer tasting parties, and a little beer flight set up would be perfect.  I'm pretty excited about summer, especially because us Pacific Northwesterners try to soak it up as much as possible before the clouds roll on in again and stick around for months.

*This post is in partnership with fab.com. Thanks for supporting those companies which help keep Delightfully Tacky alive and kicking!

industrial chevron coffee table diy

I've been a big fan of Ariele Alasko's work for some time now.  I love everything she creates, and have long wanted one of her pieces in my home.  I figured, since I can't afford one of her creations (shipping alone has to be crazy expensive!), I'd try my hand at emulating the look of her pieces.  I have plans for a couple more pieces similar to this one (I'm dreaming of making a pretty headboard for our bed), so this was kind of a test run.  I decided to go for a simple chevron design for my first try.  We've had the same Ikea coffee table since 2011, and I wanted something more interesting for our new living room.  
Materials 1x2 (I think I bought 6 8ft 1x2s, but depending on the size of your table you may need more or less)
plywood
stain (I used Varathane ebony + sunbleached)
wood glue
8 floor flanges
4 T's
4 6 in nipples
4 8 in nipples
16 10x 1" wood screws
saw
miter box
power drill
I wanted a similar height and size to our old Ikea coffee table, so I made mine 24 in x 36 in.  I had Home Depot cut my plywood to that size (a nice option, if you don't have a saw).  The plywood is what you'll attach all your small 1x2s to.  For a simple chevron design, you'll just need to cut your pieces at 45 degrees, and then place the angled edge against the center line of the table to measure how long your full length pieces will be.  Once you start getting to the ends of the table, you'll start cutting them shorter to fit into the corners.  Just measure as you go and learn to love your miter box.  If you have a power miter saw, that would be ideal.  I did not, so I cut each one by hand. 


Once all your pieces are cut, you can stain them.  I laid every piece out on the table how I wanted them and then stained pieces according to how I wanted it to look.  I used a black and grey stain, but you can do whatever you like.  Stain them before you glue them down, so you don't have to deal with accidentally staining the strip adjacent.
When your stain is dry, glue your pieces down with wood glue.  I did each one individually, picking it out of it's spot, applying glue to the plywood and the bottom of the strip, and then sticking it down.  Once all of them were glued down I put some heavy books on top to help squish it together.

The legs are the easiest part.  Measure 3in from each edge on each corner and make a mark.  This is where the first screw will go on all our flanges.  Place the flange so you can see that mark through the screw hole and then mark where the other 3 screw holes are, so you can drill the holes where your screws will go (I'm not entirely sure this is necessary, but I didn't want any wood to split when I screwed the flanges on).  Repeat till you've got all your screw holes marked, and then drill them with a bit slightly smaller than your screws, you still want there to be enough wood for your screws to grab.  
Switch to a phillips head bit and screw down all your flanges!  Now all you have to do is assemble the legs.  If you want a shelf beneath the table, like mine, you'll need some T's to hold up the shelf.  If not, just get a pipe the length you want your table's height to be (minus a couple inches to account for the wood and flanges).  I got a 6 in nipple to go below the shelf and an 8 in nipple for above the shelf.  
You can make the shelf a couple ways.  You can measure the distance between the table legs (mine were 15 in apart) and make a sheet of plywood that width by the length of the top of the table minus 2 inches.  Your shelf will sit between the two pipes, resting on the T.  Or, you can do what I did and make your shelf wider than the distance between the legs, and cut notches out.  The former is easier, the latter gives you more shelf space, but is harder to make.  My bottom shelf is 21" x 33"



I was planning on making a nice edge to clean it up a bit with some 1x4, but it took me 3 months to finish to this point, so I'm calling it good for now.  I have the wood to finish the edges so it might happen eventually!  For now, I like how it looks and am happy to finally have it done!

new york sour

Spring this year has been awesome.  Last year at this time I was so over the dreary, wet weather and constantly dreaming about moving somewhere less yucky.  This year?  70 degrees in April?  Yes please and thank you.  The sunny weather has made me excited about concocting fun beverages, because what's better than basking in the sun with an ice cold cocktail?  Dan made me one of these the other day and I loved how pretty the wine looked floating on top so I decided to share the recipe.  A New York Sour is a pretty standard cocktail, so this isn't anything too crazy or special, just a nice, solid cocktail that looks super fancy.  The best part is that it's a rather simple and easy cocktail to make, so you won't have to be at the bar doing a bunch of crazy mixologist stuff while your friends enjoy their cocktails.


New York Sour

2 oz bourbon
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz red wine

In a cocktail shaker 3/4 full of ice, add bourbon, lemon juice and simple syrup.  Shake until frosty. You can either strain into a chilled cocktail glass or a collins or rocks glass with ice.  Over a spoon, pour the wine onto the top of the drink.  This will keep the wine floating on top of the drink and give it that cool gradation, pretty fancy!  You'll probably want to mix the wine in before you drink it, just to mix the flavors, but it's fun to serve it with the wine floating on top.  You can garnish with a cherry and/or lemon/orange slice if you like!  I thought the wine float was fancy enough so I went sans-garnish.  And since I always get asked where the spiral paper straws are from, you can find them on Amazon in tons of different colors.

photos of me by Dan

chipotle whiskey sour

Dan really enjoys smokey drinks, like mezcal and peaty scotches, so we were trying to devise a way to infuse smokiness into a drink without having to go out and get an expensive liquor.  Since I've been having fun infusing simple syrups we figured that'd be a good way to go about it.  So we made a chipotle pepper infused simple syrup!  After making it we were trying to think of what would go well with the smoky flavor of the chipotle, and whisky was an obvious choice.  I love the combination of the chipotle's smoky spiciness paired with the zesty citrus of the lemon in this drink.  And by now you probably know that I love drinks with egg white, so I made this one with egg white, but it's totally optional if it grosses you out.  I just think it adds such a great texture and gravitas to a drink.  A little extra "umph."  This is such a great summer drink.  The last couple days have been so nice here in Tacoma, and sipping on this drink while soaking up some vitamin D was a great way to spend a few quite moments of the afternoon.

Chipotle Simple Syrup: 1/2 cup water 1 cup sugar 3-4 Chipotle Peppers (I used chipotle peppers in adobo sauce)
In a saucepan, bring water to a boil and add sugar.  Simmer until sugar has completely dissolved.  Add chipotle peppers.  I washed the adobo sauce off of my peppers, but if you wanted to add some of that flavor, feel free to keep the sauce!  Remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes to let the pepper flavor infuse.  Strain out the peppers through a fine mesh or cheesecloth and place in a container in the fridge. It should keep for a pretty long time

Chipotle Whiskey Sour: 2 oz whiskey 1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/2 oz chipotle simple syrup 1 egg white (optional)
Fill a cocktail shaker 3/4 full of ice and add all ingredients.  Shake until the shaker is frosty and strain into a glass.  Garnish with a cherry and a little pepper!