Here’s a sample of some of the paper we have in stock  -

Beautiful, right?! And besides being absolutely yummy to look at, it’s also a really heavyweight, high-quality paper. No more of that poking your thumb through the paper as you try to fold a corner. Nope, this paper is top quality.

And there is a lot of paper on a roll. I’m telling you – one roll of this stuff (it’s 24″ x 100′ – that’s 200 square feet!) wraps 40 shirt boxes. That’s a lot of gift-giving goodness!

In addition to these great papers, we also have cute coordinating tulles so that you can really jazz your gifts up.

Stop in and see it for yourself – you’re gonna fall in love!

We know, however, that not many people in this world are so lucky as to find themselves on Heber’s quaint Main Street very often in their lifetimes! That’s why we created our two online outlets: BB Daily Deals, and our new Etsy shop. We wanted a way to share our treasures with the world outside of Heber.

On our daily deals site, we feature limited-time only, great buys on some really cool products from Bungalow Boutique and occasionally from other quality vendors as well. You can sign up to receive an email notice when we post an awesome new deal.

Our new Etsy shop is where we feature some of our handmade treasures and vintage finds. Right now we’ve got some really cool tablet and e-reader covers made from vintage hardcover books.

We love our Bungalow Boutique customers, and have so much fun meeting you in person in our shop. We hope that if your travel plans don’t bring you to our little corner of the world in Heber very often, that you’ll at least be able to enjoy some of our fun products where you live by visiting our online shops!

Have a great day, and hope to see you soon!

We have discovered that this little vegetable right here is a staple of the New Mexican diet:

Green chilies. Hatch green chilies, to be exact. They put them on or in EVERYTHING down here – hamburgers (pretty good), chili cheese bread (from Great Harvest – excellent), eggs (have not tried/will not try), meats (pork especially) and of course Mexican food. A little story here to emphasize my point – after we’d been here about a month, we went out to eat at an Italian restaurant. I ordered ravioli. They were so darn hot I couldn’t even eat them. I asked the waiter what they put in them, and yep – you guessed it – green chilies!

While I’ve never been a big fan of super spicy food, I have to admit that the beloved New Mexican green chili has grown on me (no, not literally). So much so that I willingly add it to several recipes that I would not have added it to pre-New Mexico residency (hamburgers before I grill them, some soups, and it’s a nice addition to a pot of chili.)

I recently found a recipe for queso blanco dip that I really like, and you guessed it, it has green chilies in it. It’s super smooth and creamy, and with the addition of the green chilies  has just a bit of a kick. Perfect, in my book!

The recipe is from Cooking Classy. I followed the recipe almost exactly. The only thing I did differently was added about half a teaspoon of salt (because I’m a salt-a-holic). You’ll probably want to taste it first to see if it meets your saltiness needs before adding any salt to the recipe.

Queso Blanco Dip (yield 2 cups)

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion*
• 1/4 tsp crushed garlic*
• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 cups whole milk (for thicker sauce use lesser portion)
• 8 oz. finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese

• 1 Roma tomato, seeds removed then diced
• 2 Tbsp canned, diced green chilis
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

• Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until soft about 4 minutes, adding garlic during the last 30 seconds of sauteing. Whisk in flour, and cook stirring constantly, about 30 seconds. Slowly pour milk into mixture, while whisking vigorously. Bring mixture just to a gentle bubble stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low. Allow to rest over low heat 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in finely shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until cheese melts. Stir in optional ingredients. Serve warm with tortilla chips (or serve over tacos etc. Note that it will thicken as it rests so reheat to thin if desired).
• *For a smooth cheese sauce without the chunky ingredients, omit the chopped onion and crushed garlic. Replace it with 1/2 tsp onion powder and a generous pinch of garlic powder. Since you won’t need to saute simply melt the butter then add the flour, garlic powder and onion powder and continue as directed and omit the optional ingredients.

Now, that simple little bathroom may not look like anything special to you,  but just you wait until you see what it looked like before we took hammer and chisel and paintbrush to it.

Ugh. So brown, and so depressing. At first I thought I’d get away with painting the cabinets, and just replacing the countertop, but the cabinets were really kind of gross – water had damaged the inside of most of the drawers so they were all warped and didn’t open properly, and we really needed to replace the countertop (can’t tell from the pictures, but they were really worn out and scratched up), and we didn’t want to have to put in double sinks again. Since the cabinet was configured for double sinks, we ended up ripping it out and starting from scratch.

We replaced the worn and stained solid-surface counter with a slab of granite. And let me give you a little tip here – check around at granite fabrication shops for leftovers and broken pieces of stone. The one I found this piece at had a bunch of misfit slabs of granite for super cheap. I just choose one that was big enough for my cabinet, and then had the edges redone since they were a little chipped. Saved a bundle of money that way.

We had the tub refinished since it was a nice, large cast-iron tub (apparently they don’t make those so much anymore, and if they do, they’re pricey). We found a company that specializes in refinishing tubs, and they sanded and painted it, so it now looks shiny and brand new! We also removed the ugly brass sliding doors and replaced the tile surrounding the tub with a white subway tile with beige grout. A new faucet, new wood trim around the mirror, new cabinet hardware, new toilet, new tile floor in place of that lovely carpet, and a new light fixture finished the project. Whew! That’s a lot of newness!

The master bath was also a gem. I’ll let you savor this beauty for a few minutes before I show you the post-renovation pics. (I hope you’re appreciating the carpet that goes up the side of the tub – that’s a nice touch!)

Oh my. I almost forget how yucky this bathroom was. Thank goodness I don’t have to look at all that brown ugliness anymore. Here’s the renovated master bath.

We started by ripping out all the carpet (yes, even on the front of the tub), and replaced it with a nice neutral ceramic tile, accented with a glass tile border. We replaced the tub, along with all the lighting, the cabinets, countertops, faucets, and fixtures. We kept the same mirrors, and framed them with new wood trim painted white.

All in all, these two bathrooms were quite the project! Kind of makes me tired just looking at these pictures and remember all that work, and all that mess. But we’re enjoying our new, bright bathrooms….and taking a breather from renovations for a while.