Sugar & Spice in the land of Balls & Sticks

Built-In Bookcase - Finished

2012-03-05T07:53:00.000-05:00

I know you've been waiting for the final reveal. I've been waiting, too. It doesn't matter how many times CG and I DIY something, I always think we can just bang things out in an afternoon that will actually take a full 3 day weekend. If I plan for a weekend, you better believe it'll take 3 weeks. I am in awe of DIY bloggers like John and Sherry at Young House Love or Justin and Cassity at Remodelaholic who seem to be able to crush projects in their sleep. Here's where we left off last week.

living room side

foyer side

We needed to fill all the cracks and nail holes with some wood putty.

After sanding, and spot priming, we were ready for paint.

I brushed some Minwax wood conditioner onto the top,

and stained it using an old rag. I used one coat of mahogany, followed by one coat of black walnut.

It still needs a coat of poly, but I'm waiting for a nice enough day to do that outside.

The shelves sit on some chamfered cleats along the sides and back. I checked the shelf length against the weight of the books with the online sagulator tool, and no additional bracketing was needed. Here she is all decked out with my home decor and gardening books and the book vases I made here. The top shelf holds a phone, notepad and pen, and the local coupon book for those days when you've spent the entire day painting, staining, moving furniture, and running kids around and would rather check for restaurant coupons than mess around in the kitchen.

I love the detail of the v-groove back paneling.

And here's the foyer side. Love that we decided to add the horizontal battens.

You may have noticed that there was some furniture moving this weekend, too. I felt like the loveseat was crowding the new bookshelves. The wingback chair that I covered here sits in this corner of the room now.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with me and CG. Check out parts 1 &2 of this project here and here.

When I Grow Up...

2012-03-02T08:19:00.001-05:00

...or when my blog grows up to be more specific. I started writing this blog as a way to document all the stuff that I do. We don't live near family, and it's nice for them to be able to check in online and see what changes we've made to our home. It's also nice to be able to have actual documentation that I'm not just sitting in front of Oprah eating bonbons all day. Before I started writing this blog, there may have been some question as to what exactly I do all day as a SAHM. So the question is, how do I want my blog to grow?

Like a Weed. I'd love for it to just grow without all the planting, and feeding, and watering. But I know that that's not how things work. So here are my small goals for my blog.

1. Make it more user friendly and keep my pages updated. If you check out my tabs at the top, I haven't updated them in quite some time. I need to take a couple of days and relabel all my posts and make sure that my tabbed pages have been updated.

2. Finally get a home tour page up. I've shown you snippets of my house in various posts, but never full room tours. I snapped some pics of my soapstone counters to share at the GardenWeb Kitchen forum, and I realize that I've never given you the full tour of the kitchen that I spend so much time in.

3. I'd love for my blog to have enough of a presence so that when I finally get my butt to a blog conference, I'm approached by a stranger(just 1 would make me over the moon happy,) who says, "ohmygosh, I love your blog."

Thanks for popping in and growing with me.

Zucchini Lasagna & Why We're GF

2012-02-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

If you've been coming to my blog for a while(or noticed the blurb on my sidebar,) you know that every recipe I share here is a gluten-free one. I've never talked about why we eat gluten-free. My goofy, impulsive, energetic older child, known here as Whirling Dervish, has ADHD.

WD screwing around on top of a stump during our Christmas tree hunt captured on my camera phone.

Gluten-free diets have been known to be beneficial in all sorts of situations like with autism, and lesser known it can help with the symptoms of ADHD. Let's back up a bit. Being my first child, I had no reason to believe that he was anything but "all boy." I didn't realize that his not being able to sit still or take a nap at the early age of 1 was not "normal." Boys just jump around a lot. No biggie. 4 separate times by the time he was 8, I had to take him to the ER or walk-in clinic for bleeding head wounds for running into walls. Ok, maybe that's not normal. At least that's what the social workers said. Telling hospital social workers, "No, I don't beat my child" is super fun by the way.

Other ADHD symptoms were also apparent. He had a tough time slogging through his schoolwork. Not because he didn't understand the material, but because he couldn't hold his focus for long enough. His 2nd grade teacher(idiot!) kept him in at recess constantly for not finishing assignments in the allotted time and being disruptive. She told me that he needed to shore up his basic math skills. Ummm...no. He could do advanced multiplication and long division at that point and tested in the 99th percentile in math. He was bored. The list of symptoms runs on and on. You may wonder why we didn't put him on the drugs.

WD was a tiny kid - in the 4th percentile in weight for the longest time.

WD and his 7th grade lacrosse team. He's totally a normal sized person now.

The stimulant drugs are all appetite suppressants, and we didn't really want to see him slide off the scale. So we tried behavioral therapies. And when I was at my wit's end, after much internet research, tried a gluten-free diet as a last ditch effort before giving in and turning to the drugs. As it turned out that's all he needed. We can tell when he's had a bit of gluten, because the aimless wandering starts up, and the back talking(impulsivity) becomes an issue.

Alright, if you've slogged this far, you deserve some lasagna.

What does lasagna have to do with any of the above? Sometimes other things can look like gluten. If he's sleep deprived, crankiness will set in, and he may be a bit snappish. The other day he had slept over at a friend's house, and was acting a bit snippy. He claimed to have not eaten anything glutenous. To check to see if it was an ADHD symptom or just tiredness, I gave WD a list of 3 things to buy from the grocery at the bottom of the hill. Ricotta cheese, zucchini, and onions. Organized thought, and the ability to remember a list is a big deal with ADHD. It's also basically the same cognitive function test given to determine concussions and dementia. He came back with all 3 items. I mixed 1 1/2 cups of the ricotta with 1/2 cup milk and set them aside, and the zucchini and onions went into a pan with some mushrooms.

I used ground turkey in my sauce. Lasagna is just layering. For this one I put a layer of meat sauce, followed by 3 cooked gf lasagna noodles, a layer of half the ricotta mix, half the zucchini mix, a handful of shredded mozzarella, and some grated parmesan, more sauce, and continued on layering like this until the last layer of noodles, finishing up with some tomato sauce and parmesan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. It was delicious, and my tired boy ate a large rectangle before crawling into bed.

Thanks for popping in and reading this diatribe about ADHD, that was supposed to be a post about lasagna. I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesdays.

Book 'Em

2012-02-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

I've been sharing our progress on our new bookshelves here and here. We need the new bookshelves, because our book situation has definitely gotten out of hand. I'll be weeding through our books as part of my efforts to get rid of 40 bags in 40 days, but I also used a few of our no longer needed books for a fun craft project, Book Vases.

It'll be fun to decorate the new bookshelves with these. They started as old college texts. It's been quite some time since CG and I were in college, and I doubt they'll be of any use to our boys, since texts change almost yearly(huge money racket, but that's a rant for another day.)

I pulled off the covers. This is easier done with a paperback, but not too difficult with a hardcover either. I sketched a fluid half vase shape, and cut it out. This process would be super easy on a bandsaw, but for those of us without a full wood shop, scissors will do just fine. Just cut a dozen sheets at a time, checking every now and again to make sure that your silhouette hasn't gone too far off course.

A little bit of hot glue

and some finessing of the pages, and you have a fun art piece.

Thanks for popping and and crafting with me.

Built-In Bookcase - Part 2

2012-02-26T23:45:00.000-05:00

I had high hopes that our new bookshelves would be in use by now, but as is often the case with DIY, regular life stuff gets in the way. There were lacrosse & soccer practices & games, party planning, Mardi Gras, and helping some good friends with moving(their new home is so ridiculously gorgeous, that I can't wait to share it with all of you sometime after the official housewarming party.) Here's where we left off last week.

Some luan was added to box in the open 2 x4s.

My Handy, Hunky Computer Genius

Everything gets pre-primed before being attached.

We used some scrap to make some mockups of the molding. I knew I wanted to do a board and batten treatment for the bookcase, and needed to figure out how we would integrate it into the baseboards.

The top and base molding were mitered on the chop saw,

and the battens that wrap around the sides were mitered on the table saw. The battens were ripped from a sheet of mdf to save on cost.

Again, everything was pre-primed before fitted. We haven't really had a real winter at all this year, but it is still NY, so painting was done inside.

After the notches had been cut in the baseboard to accept the battens,

and the battens fitted, everything was glued and nailed into place. The grey wall panels will be painted out white. Please ignore my filthy foyer floors.

And here is where we stand at the moment. The top has been cut, and the vertical battens are in place.

We still need to stain the top, cut and fit horizontal battens, create shelf supports and install shelves, and paint the whole unit.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with us.

Phone Dump

2012-02-25T09:11:00.001-05:00

I have a confession. I'm a bad blogger. I do not carry my giant camera around with me at all times. I don't even always have it on me when life dictates that I should. Last month, we attended a christening, and I whispered to CG's aunt that I'm a bad blogger, I can't believe I don't have my camera. She had me covered and took plenty of pics which she posted here. What I do have with me at all times is my phone, and I find myself snapping pics with my underpowered camera phone quite often. Here's some of what I've captured on my phone recently.

Herringbone marble tile clearanced for next to nothing. Unfortunately there were only 5 sheets of it, so I couldn't even grab it for a future bath remodel.

While flipping through kitchen mags(yes, I did already remodel my kitchen, but I'm addicted to kitchen porn,) I saw this pic and had to snap a pic of it. Why would a magazine take a closeup pic of such an ill fitting apron front sink? Why would the GC be ok with his name being associated with this level of work? The kitchen as a whole was absolutely stunning with this one exception. Am I too much of a perfectionist or would this bother you?

I love this upholstered headboard that I found at HomeGoods the other day. Too bad I'm not redoing any bedrooms right now.

The winter that never was must be just about over, because "Chippy" the chipmunk is back. See his little head poking out of the wall? SB refers to all chipmunks seen in our yard as Chippy, and honestly believes that it's the same animal.

SB & the Princess holding hands while listening to instruction at TAGS(tag, activities, games, & sports.)

What have you captured on your camera phone recently? Feel free to link up your phone pics at this impromptu link party and blog hop.

Creamcheese Cookies w/ Ganache

2012-02-23T07:56:00.001-05:00

I often talk about making what's-in-the-frig soup. But standing in front of an open frig or pantry door can sometimes inspire dessert, too. That's how these Creamcheese Sandwich Cookies w/ Ganache filling were born.

I had some strawberry flavored cream cheese and mascarpone left over from making King's Cake for Mardi Gras the other day.

I also had some Bob's Red Mill all purpose gf flour in the pantry which I wanted to try. If you've checked out my baking recipes, you'll notice that I tend to make my own flour mixes. That's because when we went gluten-free the choices were fairly limited and finding our way meant a lot of experimentation with various gf flours. By the time the big companies came out with gf AP flours, I had already established my own ratio of flour mixes for breads, cookies, cakes, etc. I couldn't imagine that any one mix could do it all. But my SIL had a friend who had recently gone back on gluten, and I inherited all of her gf supplies, including the AP flour.

I started by creaming together a cup of cream cheese with 1 cup of butter, both at room temperature. I added in 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 cup of strawberry flavored agave nectar, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, I whisked together 2 cups of the AP flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soday, 1/4 tsp salt. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet in the mixer.

I dropped the dough by the tsp on a parchment lined cookie sheet and baked for 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are just golden.

I happened to have some ganache sitting in the frig leftover from a truffle making session, too.

These little cookies were begging to be sandwiched.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me. I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursdays.

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Mardi Gras

2012-02-21T18:37:00.000-05:00

Am I the only one who's had a devil of a time trying to post today? Blogger stopped being friendly with IE9. I could write a blogpost on my other computer using IE8, but that's not the computer that holds my pictures. I finally had to download Google Chrome to write this post. Happy Mardi Gras, all! We like to get together with our best friends every Saturday, and this week's theme was Mardi Gras. The kids made masks.

We had shrimp, crab cakes, cajun potatoes, jambalaya, and of course King's Cake.

I shared my gf King's Cake recipe with you all last year.

After dinner, the adults went out into the "man cave" and the kids attacked the cake. WD's friend, The Tank, pulled out his metal detector and found the 2 francs coin that I had hidden in the cake. Score one for brain power.

Mardi Gras marks the last hurrah before the Lenten period. I'm joining in on the 40 bags in 40 days movement this Lent. My home is stuffed to the gills with things we don't need, things that don't enrich our lives, things that should really be donated or put on freecycle. I hope to hit my goal or even give away more than that.

Thanks for popping in and celebrating with me.

Built-In Bookcase - Part 1

2012-02-20T08:16:00.002-05:00

I've spent many an hour at the Barnes & Noble cafe sipping coffee while thumbing through books and magazines. Before SB started school it was our weekly date. We'd go to storytime then while away the morning with a snack and a stack of reading material. We still manage to have a Barnes & Noble "date" on occasion. Consequently, we have a houseful of books.

I've shown our family room wall of books & media here, and of course each of the boys has bookshelves in their bedrooms. But we needed more bookspace, and I was tired of looking at the 70s jail cell bars that were separating my foyer from my living room.

Stupid bars separating my foyer from the LR behind my FIL

So a project was born. I was hoping to have finished this over the weekend, but my brother was visiting with his newly-minted fiance(Yay! Finally!) and all construction work came to a grinding halt. I actually took the recipocating saw to those bars a really long time ago, leaving a blank space over a half wall.

I punched a hole into the wall and shined a flashlight around to make sure that there weren't any wires or anything in there.

Then started the demolition process. The studs were taken out very carefully with an oscillating multi-tool, so as not to damage the wall on the other side.

At first I had only been planning on having a bookcase that was the width of the upper opening, but after staring at that hole for awhile, I decided to take the bookcase all the way to the wall, so as not to have a weird little corner space.

CG jumped in on the rebuilding process. We're a team, and he likes building things. Using construction adhesive, we attached a sheet of v-groove paneling to the existing drywall for the bookshelf back. There were some wires along the left side, and instead of rerouting them, we planned to box them in. For symmetry sake, we built a matching box out of 2x4's for the right side, too.

A 2x4 header attached with our Kreg Pocket Jig, and a sheet of Luan on top are starting to make this half wall look a bit more like a bookcase. I wish I had a "tada!" after photo to share, but we'll try for next week.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with me.

Lemons into Lemonade

2012-02-17T11:23:00.003-05:00

I'm going to let you in on a little secret...I'm not perfect. Ok, it's not really a secret, but I very rarely show you the fails and the messes that occur on a regular basis. I did show you a pic of my living room in an un-gussied-up state here. And today I'm going to share a fail from a little while ago. Except when you roll with the punches, there's no reason to call it a fail. Cake rolls are fun to make, and I often make Buche de Noel at Christmas, and Pumpkin Rolls for Thanksgiving. I had started the day off thinking I'd make a Strawberry Jelly Roll. I bubbled away some strawberries to make the jelly filling,

sifted my flours together, whisked my egg yolks & sugar, mixed it all together, whipped up some egg whites, and folded them in.

Jelly Rolls are made like any other cake roll. The cake comes out of the oven, and you sprinkle the top with powdered sugar, lay a clean kitchen towel on top, invert the pan, sprinkle the other side with more powdered sugar, and roll it up with the towel rolled up, too.

After letting it cool for 20 minutes rolled up, you unroll the cake, and spread it with the filling. In this case, it was a layer of pastry cream, followed by the strawberries.

I rolled the cake back up, this time without the towel, and placed it in the frig to set. Meanwhile, I hopped in the shower to get ready to leave for the party that I was bringing the cake to. The last thing to do was to transfer the cake from the cooling rack onto the pretty cake plate. I didn't do this before the refrigerating step, because my footed cake plate takes up so much room, I'd have to rearrange the frig to put it in. Here comes the fail.

I had set my footed cake plate entirely to close to the edge of my counter, and as I was transfering the cake, I bumped it, and it started falling. I made a quick move to save the crystal cake plate, and dropped my jelly roll on the counter in a big splat. I might have sworn like a sailor, then started sniffling. Without time to make another dessert, I scooped the mess into a trifle dish. It didn't fill up the dish, but I threw some whipped cream swirls on top. Perfect is overrated.

Thanks for popping in and messing up with me.

So Excited

2012-02-15T16:19:00.000-05:00

myDealCompass sponsored a map/compass project contest over at Fireflies & Jellybeans last week, and my Map Wall Art was picked as one of the 3 finalists!

Tutorial here

Can you believe it? There were some really incredible projects in the running, including Suesan's unbelievably gorgeous map covered settee, which would have gotten my vote had it been in the finals. But since it's not in the finals, I'd love it if you popped over to Fireflies & Jellybeans to vote for my project.

In other exciting news, I received this gorgeous print of Fountain's Abbey from Kat at Low Tide High Style. I'm on the hunt for the perfect frame. It'll be going in my new craft room / office space on a wall of inspirational images. Kat is an amazing photographer and has an incredible gallery of images of wildlife, flowers, and architecture. If you're a lover of beautiful photography, you need to check her out.

Thanks for popping in and checking out the excitement around here.

Shirataki Noodles

2012-02-15T10:44:00.001-05:00

I'm going to start this post with an unappetizing announcement that peri-menopause is kicking my tail. I realize that blogposts are supposed to be light & fluffy & positive, but keeping it real here. I have steadily been packing on the pounds the last year and a half with no amount of exercise making a difference. I can still crank out a 5 mile run with no difficulty, but that hasn't made a whit of difference to my waistline. With the exception of the 5lbs lost to the flu a couple weeks ago, the scale refuses to budge. So I've found myself glued to the tv when Dr. Oz announces that he has the "secret" to blasting away belly fat. Sad, I know. One of those secret magical foods is Shirataki Noodles.

These things are made with Tofu and Yam flour. And are only 20 calories per serving while delivering 2grams of fiber and 1 gram of protein. They are packed in water. The first thing you have to do is drain them and rinse them thoroughly. When you open the package the smell is gag worthy, just keep rinsing.

I use these like I would a typical rice noodle. The package says to parboil for 2-3 minutes, so I thought they'd be perfect for a soup dish. There's no real recipe here, this was just some sauteed onion, garlic, and ginger, chicken broth, rice wine vinegar, seseme oil, shredded chicken, celery, bean sprouts, and cilantro. An on the fly what's-in-the-frig type lunch soup.

Used in a noodle soup like this, they were pretty good. The texture was what you would expect from a rice noodle and despite what they smelled like coming out of the package, there was no off-taste. It's too early to report any magical loss of muffintop, but I'd recommend these for anyone willing to try them.

Thanks for popping in and trying something new with me. I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

V-Day 2012

2012-02-14T14:04:00.005-05:00

Valentine's Day started out at my house with heart pancakes. Pancakes are pretty basic, but I added a squirt of raspberry agave nectar in for flavoring, and some raspberry puree for color in 1/3 of the batter to pipe the hearts.

The boys were excited to start their day right.

CG and I exchanged cards. Along with getting me the first season of Downton Abbey(an obsession of mine) on DVD,

CG gifted me with a morning of antiquing. I love to wander around antique shops. I love victorian furniture and this grouping cought my eye.

Tea carts are all the rage right now dressed up as dry bars. This bamboo tea cart was in great shape.

Along with your more typical furniture offerings, you can find some pretty unique items when you go antiquing. I have no idea why anyone would want a vintage doctor's examining table, but I found one.

I love vintage tools, and this booth was full of them. I've never seen a block plane as large as the 28" one here.

My nerdy husband(I say that with the utmost affection,) was so excited to find this basket of Atari games. There were exclamations of, "I remember this one," and "this one was so much fun!"

This is what I ended up coming home with. A serving platter with a silverplate base for $8.

A set of random dishes for $5.

And a couple of bone dishes, perfect for an intimate table setting for 2 for $1 each.

Heading off to school for SB's Valentine's party. Thanks for popping in and checking out my Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-13T20:49:00.000-05:00

Way back, a gazillion years ago, when CG and I were first dating he asked what I'd like for Valentine's Day and I replied that all I wanted was a handmade card. It's nice to know that your man spent an hour with some scissors and glue thinking about you. And every year since, he's made me a card. I have quite the collection going. Every year, I make him a card, too.

This is this year's card. It's hard to see, but one of the m&ms is upside down. His name starts with a W, mine with an M. There's some mushy stuff on the inside, too.

Thanks for popping in and checking out this year's card. Have a Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.

Vintage Chair Redo

2012-02-12T08:47:00.007-05:00

Remember way back in November when I posted a How to Reupholster Tutorial starting with deconstructing a chair here.? I promised a follow up Part 2 Putting the Chair back together post that never happened. My camera had died, and then the hubbub of Christmas took over the house, and I never got the post up. Well here's what she looked like put back together.

Let's rewind a bit. Here's what the chair looked like when I pulled her out of my friend's attic.

After completely stripping her down, and removing springs, horsehair padding, and about a million tiny little nails, I was left with a bare frame,

and some repairs to make. A little bit of wood glue and some clamps tightened things up.

Inspired by some fabulous red-tagged outdoor fabric, I spray painted the frame a hammered metal gun-metal grey.

And then it was just a matter of replacing the upholstery strapping, cutting foam to fit, and using my handy dandy pneumatic gun to blast a couple hundred staples into the fabric. I wish I had more detailed pics of the process, but it's really just pulling the fabric tight and pulling the trigger.

I added some upholstery tacks to hide any visible staples.

This chair will be my new office chair for my planned new closet office space. Look for some future posts about that upcoming project.

Thanks for popping in and upholstering with me.

New Tools

2012-02-10T09:33:00.002-05:00

I love new tools. Give me a new RotoZip or Kreg Pocket Joiner and I'm jumping up and down with excitement. When CG got a reciprocating saw for Christmas one year, I was the one who pulled it out of the box and used it first. New computer tools scare me a bit, though. I think the fact that I've nicknamed the hubs Computer Genius shows that I've abdicated all computer knowledge and responsibilities to him.

When word came out that Google might be doing away with Google Friend Connect, I tried to ignore it. Maybe if I ignore it, it won't happen. That head in the sand thinking is one of the things I lecture WD about. Not good. I've been seeing others in blogland switching to LinkyFollowers, and I've made the jump.

It turns out the jump wasn't so scary. It's easy to sign up, and FREE, too. It turns out that LinkyFollowers has a ton of features that GFC never did, like being able to split your favorite blogs into categories. I now have separate categories for food blogs vs decor blogs, etc. I'm joining in this Blog Hop started by Cheri for Linky Followers. Hope you join in too.

Hundred Days

2012-02-08T21:00:00.002-05:00

New York schools don't start up until after Labor Day. While children all over the country have been celebrating the 100th day of school for the past several weeks, we won't have our Hundred Day celebration until next Thursday. The children were asked to pull together a project using 100 items. The sheet sent home suggested beads, stickers, macaroni, etc. But in this house, Legos are king. Remember the Lego table I made here?

When SB was charged with coming up with 100 things to bring in for the Hundred Day celebration, right away he decided to count out Legos. It was quick work to count them in groups of 5.

He grabbed a Lego plate and after writing on it with a dry erase marker, began placing his bricks.

100 was too many for one layer, so he built the number up, using up all of the counted out bricks. See that tub behind SB? We have 4 of them, all full of Legos.

A printed out label, and his project is ready for school.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with SB.

Tissue Paper Flowers

2012-02-07T11:40:00.003-05:00

For as long as my boys have been in school and sports, I've always been room mom, team mom, etc. One of the duties of a room mom is to organize the class parties. That usually means coming up with a theme, snacks (like the snowmen cookies for the winter party,) book to read, and age appropriate craft. For this year's Valentine's party we'll be having a chocolate fondue with fruit & pretzels, and making bouquets for the kids to give their moms or someone else special.

Tissue Paper Flowers are easy to make and make great decorations that can be brought out every year. You first start by cutting out tissue paper squares.

I stack 3 sheets and begin accordian folding. Stacking more sheets will create a fuller mum-like flower.

Once the sheets have been completely folded,

I take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around the middle, securing it tightly.

Begin pulling apart the layers.

Your rose should look like this.

After accordian folding, you can use scissors

to cut the ends into a point or rounded curve

to create different looking petals.

Tissue paper flowers look great pulled together in a bud vase or en masse on a wreath form.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

PBJ & Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

2012-02-05T13:29:00.005-05:00

Are you ready for some football? I am. After this past week with the flu, I have a little extra room to indulge in Super Bowl snacks. Nothing quite like staying in bed to drop 5 lbs just in time for munchies overload. The Super Bowl is that special game where you don't want to miss any of the game, or any of the commercials either, so that means easy finger food. Instead of another football cake, which would involve cutting, I made football shaped PBJ & Chocolate Sandwich Cookies.

I started by mixing up my basic peanut butter cookie recipe. This same dough can be used to make the traditional fork hashmark peanut butter cookie. These amounts are for a double batch. Whisk together 1 1/4 cups potato starch, 1 cup garbanzo & fava bean flour, 2/3 cup tapioca flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, 1 1/2 tsps baking soda, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In your stand mixer beat together 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, 1 cup shortening, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup + 2 tbsps milk, and 2 tbsps vanilla extract.

Beat in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 - 11"x17" jelly roll pans with non-stick foil.

Spread half the mixture on each lined pan.

Bake at 325 for 18-20 minutes. Moving quickly while the pans are just out of the oven, cut your football shapes.

Cut them as close as you can to not waste too much(not that any of it was really wasted, I nibbled on the scraps while waiting for the cookies to cool.)

Let the cookies cool completely. Flip them over to the flat side and cover half the cookies with some Brownie Dip. I use Alison's recipe, but omit the flour. I spread strawberry preserves on the other half of the cookies.

Sandwich the cookies together and Yum! I added some icing laces for the finishing touch, but even without the piping they still look like footballs.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me. I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursdays.

Sicko

2012-02-04T07:25:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the radio silence the past few days, but I've spent a good chunk of the week curled up in a ball and wanting to die. I've had the flu.

Fever, aches, chills, head-in-a-vise congestion, and never ending cough. Luckily, I had prewritten that waffles post to launch, otherwise it would have been an entire week of silence here. I'm finally on the tail end of this and I feel like some fresh air might do me good. Unfortunately the outdoors here is a nippy 32 that cuts through my lungs like a knife. So I'll just have to imagine I'm enjoying one of these gorgeous lanais.

image via

Can't you just hear the ocean?

I'd love to be stretched out on one of these lounges with just a sea of blue in front of me.

image via

Love these lounges! Can you believe they're Ikea? So affordable at $169. As much as I love the lounges, I'd probably be found in the hammock at the far end of this lanai.

Thanks for popping in and getting some {imagined} fresh air with me.

Banana Maple Waffles

2012-02-01T07:58:00.000-05:00

Waffles are a favorite breakfast around here, and I like to mix things up with different flavors depending on what kind of fruit I have in the house. The other day, I had some bananas nearing the end of their usefulness sitting on my counter and Banana Maple Waffles were born.

I started by whisking together 2/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/3 cup white rice flour, 1/3 cup coconut flour, 1/3 cup tapioca flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt.

In a large mixing bowl, I whisked together 4 egg yolks, 2 1/4 cups milk, 6 tablespoons melted butter, and 1/4 cup maple syrup.

I mixed the dry ingredients into the wet,

then added about a cup of mashed bananas.

I whipped 4 egg whites to a stiff peak and folded them in.

I poured a cup of the mixture into my hot waffle iron and baked for 4 minutes.

These were topped with some caramelized bananas(butter, maple syrup, sliced bananas and a hot skillet,) and some more maple syrup.

You could add nuts to these for a protein boost, but they were delicious as is. Thanks for popping in and cooking with me. I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

Heart it Up

2012-01-30T07:48:00.001-05:00

One of my most popular posts last year was my Valentine's Rag Wreath.

Tutorial here

These wreaths are so simple to make. When I found a wire hanger hiding in the back of my closet during my most recent closet reorganization, a new Valentine's Wreath was born - this one in the shape of a heart.

I grabbed the scrap of silk panne leftover from this year's Halloween costume(I was Little Red Riding Hood,) and cut it up into 3/4" wide strips.

The tying process can be done in front of the tv, it's pretty mindless work.

After an hour or so, the entire hanger is covered in fabric.

And here it is on our door.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

Real Estalker

2012-01-27T22:07:00.000-05:00

We're not moving any time soon. We've put a lot of work into this home and have more planned, just refinanced, and CG is pretty adamant that he has no interest in moving any further from his parents(we live about 2 1/2 hours away.) Still, I like to look at real estate listings. My dad shares that love of Real Estalking, and often sends me MLS listings from around where they live(down in GA.) So for grins and giggles, lets take a look at what 100K will get you both here in NY, and elsewhere.

Just a few miles away in my town, you could buy this 1800 sqft, 2 bedroom, 1 bath ranch built in 1946 in a flood zone,

with this sort of updated kitchen.

Across the river, my cousin is selling this 1325 sqft, 3 bedroom, 1 bath home built in 1930,

with this kitchen.

In Fairburn GA(about 45 minutes from my parents,) you could buy this 3024 sqft, 5bedroom, 3 bath home built in 2006,

with this kitchen. The kitchen is a bit builder's grade, but could be updated with little effort. As a NYer paying over 7K a year in taxes, I can't believe how little the taxes are on this place($80/month.)

In Detroit MI, you could grab this 4200sqft manor built in 1927. It sports a grand staircase, 7 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3 car garage(around back,) and a solarium. Unfortunately there was no picture of the kitchen.

I can't believe that ginormous homes like this don't sell at these low prices, but to give it all some perspective, I looked at where 100K would get you even less space than here in upstate NY - NYC. I couldn't find anything at all in Manhattan, but our 100K play money budget would buy this studio apartment(that's right, no bedroom) in Brooklyn.

It has a beautifully updated kitchen, NYC sized, but quite nice.

Does anyone else like to check out real estate listings, even when they have no intentions of moving? If you could pick up and move, would you?

Thanks for popping in and sharing in my real estate obsession.

Love is in the Air

2012-01-26T12:27:00.005-05:00

I've been slow to decorate for Valentine's Day this year. I think it took me so long to take down Christmas, that I wanted to revel in just winter for a while. You can see my winter mantel here. I left up the ornaments in my front window, because they looked good with my winter decor.

But after seeing the pink explosion across blogland, I'm ready for Valentine's Day. Pam at diy Design Fanatic shared her wax paper heart ornaments the other day, and I remembered how fun these were to make. Do you remember making stained glass sun catchers with wax paper as a kid? I do. So I set about replacing my winter window with a Valentine's one. First I needed crayons and a crayon sharpener.

I made crayon shavings,

and after shaving a good amount(the wax paper doesn't have to be completely covered,)

I folded the wax paper over, sandwiched it between some newspaper, and ironed it. The iron should be on your hot setting without steam.

A quick pass will melt everything together.

I cut out hearts from my sheets of melted wax, and punched holes in the tops of the hearts.

I actually have a heart punch, but I'd have needed to punch it upside down to use it, so I just used a rectangle punch.

I strung them up on some yarn and hung them in the window. I love how they look with the light streaming through.

I also made a Valentine's placemat pillow. For a tutorial, click here.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

Meatloafins

2012-01-24T07:29:00.003-05:00

I'd seen these meatloaf muffins in Cooking Light a few months ago and thought that they were so cute. I filed the pic away for later.

Later came. CG had his wisdom teeth out yesterday. It astounds me that he didn't get them out back in highschool like everyone else, but they were impacted and needed to come out. It was a fairly quick & easy procedure and after stopping for 4(!) prescriptions on the way home, I snapped this pic of him with chipmunk cheeks.

CG was told to eat soft mushy, non-spicy foods so I thought meatloaf would be perfect for dinner and celebrating his newfound space in his mouth would be perfect for the meatloafins. I used my own meatloaf recipe, because WD loves it, but followed the instructions for baking time for the meatloafins. I place 1 lb ground turkey, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1 finely chopped onion, 1/2 cup ketchup, 1 egg, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp worcestshire sauce, black pepper, and garlic powder in a mixing bowl.

I actually used more bread crumbs than usual for an especially soft meatloaf. I realize that the canister says chicken coating, but I've shown you how I use crushed up chips to coat chicken here. These Hol-Grain chicken coating crumbs are perfect for recipes calling for seasoned bread crumbs.

Using my hands, I mixed up all the ingredients.

I greased a muffin pan, and using an icecream scoop for uniformity,

filled the pan.

I mixed together another 1/3 cup ketchup with 1/4 cup brown sugar,

and spread that sauce on top of the meat. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Here's mine served with potato wedges like in the Cooking Light photo.

CG needed soft foods, so his were topped with mashed potatoes.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me and thanks for all the words of encouragement yesterday. I started out the day feeling pretty crummy, but your words lifted me up. I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Wednesdays and these parties below.

Sugar Sheets

2012-01-23T08:14:00.001-05:00

I'd like to start this post by saying that I try not to pay too much attention to the number of followers that I have, but it's hard not to notice when those numbers move. It's hard not to wonder why I might lose followers when it happens. Well, last night I lost a couple and I can only imagine they were 49ers fans. I'm Sorry. I did not mean to offend anyone with the cake I posted at the end of yesterday's post. It was all done tongue-in-cheek and it was a great game. And the cake was a huge hit in real life.

I've shared how to make fondant here. And the heavily NY biased crowd at the party we attended appreciated my depiction of a Justin Tuck sack. But they also were impressed with the Giants logos adorning the sides of the cake.

It all started with a new to me Wilton product - Sugar Sheets.

I printed out multiple logos.

And used a clean exacto knife to cut out the letters.

They just pressed into the icing and stuck.

Thanks for popping in and trying out a new product with me. I'm linking this up to Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursdays.

Finally!

2012-01-22T16:33:00.000-05:00

We have snow, real snow, not just a little dusting that disappears as soon as you step in it.

We spent hours playing in the snow yesterday. The sleds and snowboards were dusted off.

We brought along some friends. SB and the Princess climbed up that hill about a million times.

WD and the Tank got in a good amount of "kid" time, too. I love it when the 15 yr olds act like their still little.

And I did my best to attack the holiday pounds with some cross-country skiing.

I'd like to have gotten out and enjoyed the snow today, too, but I had a playoff cake to make.

That's Justin Tuck knocking the ball out and the helmet off of Alex Smith. Heading to a playoff party. Thanks for popping in playing in the snow with me.

Closet Overhaul

2012-01-20T09:57:00.001-05:00

There's something about a new year that makes me(and most everyone in blogland) think about organizing and purging. I dream of having a gorgeous organized closet like this one that I've seen all over the blogosphere.

I don't know if it's the shoes or the fun, vibrant color used in that closet, but I just love that image. If you remember my shoe closet that I posted about here, you know I love both shoes and color.

my own shoe closet

You can't talk about closets without thinking about Carrie's iconic closet.

How great would it be to have space for a fainting couch and chandelier?

Image via

Or what about this gorgeous quatrefoil pendant and large mirror topped island?

Image via

And wouldn't it be a dream to have all your purses lined up and on display?

Image via

It'd be nice to have one of those giant sized closets that could double as a chichi boutique,

Image via

but the reality is that I have a wall of reach-in closets and it's time to purge. I don't work outside of the home and haven't since SB was born. Why do I need a dozen blazers? It's time to get rid of the just-in-case I lose the weight clothes, too. I will never be a size 0 again, and it's ok to accept that and move on. And yes, even the purses, could use a hard look. Wish me luck, I'm going through my purses next.

Thanks for popping in and purging with me.

Quinoa Sausage Bean Soup

2012-01-18T08:03:00.001-05:00

It's been cold and blustery around here with lots of freezing rain that comes in sideways. Days like this call for soup, and crazy sports schedules and other obligations call for the crockpot. I looked into my pantry for inspiration and saw some red quinoa and Quinoa Sausage Bean Soup was born.

For those unfamiliar, quinoa is a gf protein & fiber rich grain that is a good source of magnesium, manganese, folate, phosphorous, and riboflavin(B2). It can be used in side dishes as a nutrient rich substitute for rice, or I like to use it in soups as a substitute for barley which is glutenous. To make this soup, I picked through 2 cups of great northern beans,

and soaked them for several hours.

I placed the beans in my crockpot with 1 diced medium onion, 7 cups chicken broth, a lb of cut up chicken sausage, 1 cup dry quinoa, 2 bay leaves, and a dash of ground pepper.

I let that simmer away all day on low(about 6 or 7 hours.) Towards the end of the cooking time, I added some spinach leaves, kale would be great, too.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me. I'm linking this up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

Taxi Service

2012-01-17T09:37:00.000-05:00

Looks like a crockpot soup kind of day.

That would be TAGS(Tag, Activities, Games, & Sports at the Y for SB, and lacrosse conditioning training at the Airport Dome followed by a lacrosse game at the Edge Sports Complex for WD. Be back {much} later with a recipe & some pics.

New Pillows

2012-01-15T10:58:00.002-05:00

I'm always one of those shoppers who hits the clearance racks first. 50% off? Pfffft. I don't even consider buying unless it's at least 75. The other day I was at Kohls with coupon in hand and the promise of Kohls cash back when I spied these pretty placemats.

They were part of the St. Nicholas Square holiday collection and were 80% off, but there were only 2 and I never set a table for less than 6(there are only 4 of us, but the dining table looks lonely with only 4 chairs, even with all the leaves out.) Still they were very pretty and marked down to $1.59 each. With my 20% coupon, that brought them down to $1.27 each. They went into the cart and once I got home, I ripped out one of the side seams, and grabbed some Poly-fil from my craft room to stuff the placemats.

A simple slip stitch closed up the open seams.

Voila! Easy throw pillow. I love that the silver ties in with the wingback chair that I covered here.

Easy, peasy new throw pillows.

Thanks for popping in and sewing with me.

Wired

2012-01-12T19:46:00.000-05:00

I told you all about my current obsession with cottage kitchens here. Part of that obsession has me poring over cabinets. I love the look of painted cabinets in a cottage kitchen, and I love the look of chicken wire inserts too.

Image via

Here's another gorgeous hutch with chicken wire inserts featured in French Country Living by Caroline Clifton-Mogg.

This is one of those details that can be duplicated beautifully by a crafty DIYer like Katie at Impatiently Praying for Patience. She found this barrister on the curb and gave it some paint and chicken wire loving. I think painting the inside of the cabinet was the perfect way to showcase the chicken wire.

You can add shirred fabric panels behind to keep out dust or hide messes.

Image via

But if you'd like to keep out dust and show off your dishes, Bendheim Cabinet Glass has just added chicken wire glass to their extensive catalog of cabinet glass.

I receive updates from Bendheim, because I've bought glass from them before. You may recall the wavy glass in the liquor hutch we built. I showed it off here. We also used some reeded glass in our kitchen which I'll show off someday, if I ever declare my kitchen officially finished. I was so excited to see the new chicken wire glass in my e-mail and have designs dancing around in my head for my in-laws' future kitchen.

Thanks for popping in and checking out my current obsession. Bendheim Glass did not pay me or perk me for the mention.

House Goals 2012

2012-01-11T15:09:00.001-05:00

If we look back at my House Goals of 2011, we'll see that I only crossed off a few of the items on my list. So for this year, I'd like to finish the hanging chads of last year, and add a few more goals, too.

I'd like to have a truly organized office space all my own. To that end, I plan on moving out of my shared office space and into the guest room. I can't actually take over the guest room, because we do still need to house guests, but I can create a cloffice(closet office) like this gorgeous one from Country Living.

I'd like to create an organized pantry like this beauty also from Country Living. Right now, I have wire shelving that makes it very easy to knock over jars and boxes, so that it quickly devolves into a jumbled mess.

I'd love a new rug for our dining room. Hunting down something that makes my heart sing, but doesn't make my wallet scream will be on my list for this year.

Our roof and gutters are being replaced this spring by THI Storm Repair. That'll go a long way to making our home look better curbside.

I'd like to make our backyard even more of a party pad. WD is a sophomore this year, and only has another couple of years at home. I'd like him to be hanging at the house with his friends for as much of that time as possible. You've all seen my little backyard waterfall here and here, but it'd be nice if it was incorporated into a much larger hardscaping project with large patio for entertaining like this one.

Image via

Thanks for popping in and sharing in my House Goals for this year. Let's hope I do a better job scratching some of these off the list this year. I'd hate to be back here next year bowing my head in shame. I'm linking these up to Nester's Home Goals linkup.

Empanadas

2012-01-10T10:20:00.005-05:00

We get together with our BFFs every single weekend. We're like family in that we celebrate birthdays and holidays together, even going on our Christmas tree hunt together every year. Every so often we like to do a theme night. Mexican is an easy theme to work with, because it's so gluten-free friendly and the beverage choices are so appealing. If you've never tried Tarantula tequila, run out and buy some. It's not Patron, but it's not $45 a bottle either.

I tend to bring dessert for theme nights and that might be a Black Forest Cake (German,) Macaroons(French,) or Churros (the last Mexican night.) This time I made Empanadas.

I started by whisking together 2/3 cup white rice flour, 2/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup brown rice flour, and 1/3 cup sorghum flour.

In my stand mixer, I creamed together 1 cup softened butter and 8 oz of cream cheese.

I added the dry ingredients and beat until a dough formed. I patted it out into a couple of rectangles and chilled in the frig for several hours. You can chill it in one rectangle, but I find that it's too much dough for rolling and the dough needs to be cold to roll out properly.

I liberally dusted my counter with flour,

and rolled out my dough as thin as I could get it.

Using my 3" biscuit cutter, I cut out several circles,

and topped each circle with a teaspoon of strawberry preserves.

Wet the edges of the circles and pinch together to form crescent shapes. Bake at 375 for 16-18 minutes.

While the empanadas are baking prepare your cinnamon sugar. Use about 1 tbsp of cinnamon for a cup of sugar. I like to line a pie plate with wax paper when dusting cookies with sugar, because it's easy to hold the edges of the paper to roll the cookies.

When the empanadas are lightly browned, remove them from the oven and immediately roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Let cool on a rack and fend off the little hands that will be sure to be drawn to the aroma.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me. I'm linking up to Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

Winter Mantel

2012-01-08T18:09:00.003-05:00

We wait until the Epiphany to take down Christmas. All of the Christmas decorations came down this weekend and the mantel was looking rather bare and lonely.

I scrunched up some warm flannel scarves, and added a trio of candles,

hung up the vintage sheet music wreath that I made last month.

Tutorial here

I placed a few spray painted and glittered branches into a large footed glass filled with moss,

and picked out a snowfort picture from last year to print out. There hasn't been enough snow this year for forts. I hot glued some floral picks to the frame.

And here's my mantel all cozied up for winter.

Thanks for popping in and decorating with me.

Ice, Ice, Baby

2012-01-05T07:25:00.004-05:00

Remember last May when I got that super duper steal of a deal on a Whirlpool Gold french door refrigerator, just because of a missing ice dispenser paddle?

I shared here that we paid $892 for a frig that retails for $2099. I had every intention to replace the paddle, then install the frig, but they didn't sell the part locally so we just installed the frig. We hooked up the icemaker, and would occasionally dump it out into a tray in the freezer below. It wasn't a big deal to open the freezer for ice, but the lack of a paddle befuddled guests and that was never more on display then over Christmas. After my MIL stood with a glass at the dispenser for much too long, I decided enough was enough and went online to order the part.

Yay for Sears PartsDirect! They have pretty much every part you could possibly need for every appliance in your home. Plus handy dandy diagrams just in case you don't know the name of the part(s) you need. It turns out I needed the paddle($4.20) and a chute spring($5.03.) Without the assembly diagram, I probably would have just ordered the paddle, then been kicking myself when I tried to install it.

Here's how I replaced the ice paddle. First I pulled the bottom tray out.

I took out the screws that the tray was hiding.

And pulled off the face.

I called in my assistant(WD) to hold the face while I installed the paddle. I'd like to say that this part was so quick that I forgot to take a pic, but the reality is that there was an awful lot of swearing as I fought with the spring. At one point WD said, "Why don't you just have dad do it?" Because. I. Can. Do. It. Myself. There.

After installing the spring and paddle, push the assembly back in,

and screw the assembly back on. Notice the lockout light is on. If your model doesn't have a lockout, it'd be a good idea to unplug your frig or have some towels handy during the paddle replacement.

Snap the face back on and slide the tray back in.

We have ice,

and water through the door.

For less than $10 in parts, we saved over $1200. And the whole job, even with the swearing, only took 15 minutes. Sears didn't perk me or pay me for this post, but I'll say it again, their PartsDirect website made it really easy to find the parts I needed and their prices were fantastic.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with me.

Cool & Collected

2012-01-04T09:24:00.002-05:00

Alison over at the Polohouse is hosting her monthly Favorites on the First party with this month's theme collections. I collect a lot of things, like the gold plated brass ornaments I just showed you for Christmas here, but one of my favorite collections is my perfume bottle collection.

I love the way that glass plays in the light, so I have them on display under my ridiculously long ranch home windows in my bedroom on top of mirrors. I bought the mirrors then built the shelf to fit 3 of them. Some bottles are handblown and signed by the artisans, picked up at art fairs.

I have a vaseline glass bottle that glows under blacklight, and bavarian pieces picked up at antique shops and flea markets.

Some are Fenton pieces from right around the corner here in upstate NY or Egyptian glass from half way around the world.

Right now I have them displayed ROYGBIV rainbow style, but sometimes I group them by origin or age. I love picking them up and polishing them up, which is weird I know, but I like to think about the trips where I picked each one up. For the older ones, it's fun to think about who might have owned or used them.

Thanks for popping in and sharing my perfume bottle collection. Check out some other fun collections at Alison's party.

That Ugly Vest Party

2012-01-03T08:12:00.000-05:00

I promised pictures of the New Year's Eve Ugly Vest Party that we attended. Get ready to shield your eyes. I sewed my vest using an old t-shirt as the base. The back of the shirt had a crazy godzilla ripping apart the world graphic. I added ugly holiday plaid, ribbons, ornaments, and faux fur. I was sure I had the prize wrapped up.

I was oh so wrong. Only half the guys participated, but Philly Fanatic on the left was the undisputed champion. He took an old painting t-shirt, went nuts with the scissors,

then stapled on some crazy. The kicker, it was a Ralph Lauren t-shirt and still had the RL logo on it.

The competition was mostly between the women who dug deep to find some seriously ugly vests. My BFF wore not 1, but 2, ugly vests.

BFF's mom brought over a handful of possibilities. Her ex apparently bought her a closet full of ugly vests.

You can't tell from this distance, but my newly engaged friend on the left had pheasants, deer, and hunting dogs all over her vest. Her mom's tapestry vest was 2 sizes too big.

Some were too big, and some were too small. My MIL showed up in a holiday sweater vest that was 2 sizes too small. She had to be coaxed into wearing it, but had a great time at the party.

CG and his dad both wore their ugliest sweater vests, which were the nicest looking vests at the party. CG had talked about cutting out the nipples of his vest a la the movie, The Clockwork Orange, but ended up not doing it.

It's not a New Year's Eve party without party hats. WD and my BFF had two of the only party hats to be found in the tri-city area. There seriously wasn't a single party hat or noise maker left in any store.

We set the kids to making some party hats. You can see how excited the boys are about this job.

Party hats didn't happen, but we still had fun without them.

Thanks for stopping by and partying with me.

Sausage Cheese Balls

2011-12-31T10:15:00.002-05:00

I like pulling out the colorful party picks at New Year's and Sausage Cheese Balls are a classic appetizer that looks great with a party pick.

Here's how I make mine. I finely chop 1/4 cup of celery and 1/4 cup of onion.

I add 3/4 lb of ground turkey 2 cups of rice flour, 2 tsps baking powder, 3 cups of shredded cheese, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, and 1/4 tsp ground white pepper.

Mix it all together,

and form into balls.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Throw a party pick in each ball.

I'm bringing these to an ugly vest party tonight. I play to win and my vest is so hideous it'll make your eyes bleed. I'll try to remember to take pics of the party to share.

Thanks for popping in and cooking with me. I'm linking these up to Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap.

A Look Back at 2011

2011-12-28T09:22:00.000-05:00

I had big goals for my home for 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't get as many of those crossed off the list as I'd have liked, but I did have a pretty productive year. I tackled organizing and prettifying my shoe closet.

See the before and after here.

I created this sunburst silverware clock for my dining room from some vintage silverware.

Tutorial here.

We took a couple steps closer to calling the kitchen "finished" by completing the cookbook shelves

Tutorial here.

and installing the drawer microwave.

Retrofitted installation here.

The gallery wall got a makeover with the addition of some shelves to make rotating out artwork easier.

Handy dandy instructions & the awesome hubster here.

I transformed a couple of Craigslist finds. The rec room snack bar dresser got some paint and stain,

See the transformation here.

and my wing back chair got a fun makeover.

See the before here.

Thanks for popping in and looking back with me. Hope you come along for the new year.

Catching up on the Weekend

2011-12-26T10:22:00.000-05:00

The boys were super excited to be on break this past Friday and each invited a friend to sleepover. WD's friend and teammate, Bieber Hair, stayed over. WD & BH spent pretty much the entire day and a half like this:

Sitting together on their laptops. I don't get it, but they are on vacation.

SB and Princess were kept occupied with the making of a gazillion glittered snowflakes. I let small children use spray adhesive and glitter, you can only imagine what my floors look like.

Matching hoodies - "We're twins!"

SB & P also helped make biscuits for all of the dogs we know.

The two took turns with each step. We ended up making 2 kinds of biscuits, Pumpkin Molasses biscuits as well as Peanut Butter biscuits.

They even helped box up and deliver the treats.

Christmas Eve we hosted our friends for our annual "Orphan's Christmas" dinner. They're from Buffalo and we're from Rochester, but we both like to have our kids wake up in their own beds Christmas morning. We've been getting together for 8 years now.

Some of the desserts - ignore the crackers, the packages hadn't been put away yet.

It's such a fun tradition. We always play games like Cranium and the girls always win, though there were some accusations of cheating this year. I can't help it if I know my friend so well that when she puts down a pointy lump of clay, I can shout out mannequin for the win.

After our friends head home, we put out cookies and milk for Santa and the boys go to bed. I try to make it in bed before midnight. The boys were up whispering at 5:30(much later than last year,) and I kept them quiet until almost 6:30 when CG got up. They're allowed to check out their stockings and Santa gifts on their own, but have to wait for CG to be up to unwrap the other gifts. The gift opening started in an orderly fashion.

Both boys were really pleased with their gifts.

By 7:30 this is what my living room looked like. I left that mess for a few hours. Sometimes a mess is a happy thing. We spent the day hanging out, trying out the new games, and building Legos. CG and SB even spent the entire day in their new Christmas pjs. The perfect low-key Christmas day.

Thanks for popping in and sharing my weekend with me.

Christmas Baking

2011-12-22T10:45:00.001-05:00

I've been in go mode for the past week, and haven't had a moment to sit with at my computer and visit with my on-line friends lately. It's just been go, go, go. I hope to carve out some time today and tomorrow to do that. Here's what I've been up to - I was called for jury duty - yuck. I know it's my civic duty, but the week before Christmas? There was a road trip to Wilkes Barre for an elusive item on my BFF's son's Christmas wish list. I'd show it to you, but I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. I've also been baking. I made Gingerbread Stars and Frosted Sugar Cookies for the staff at SB's school.

I also made melted snowman cookies

and snowman heads

for SB's class party.

How did I make it to his party this week when I was called for jury duty? I may have mentioned that I carry a knife with me at all times(a leathermen, because they're useful,) and my firm belief in the right to use deadly force in defense of yourself or others when questioned during voir dire. This was a jury being pulled together for a stabbing case. I know shirking jury duty is horrible, but SB jumped up and gave me a big hug when I walked into his class. He won't always be so excited to see me.

I also made these Cheesecake on a Stick Christmas trees.

I started with my no-crack-never-fail cheesecake recipe that I've shared with you here. Skip the crust, it'll just crumb up the chocolate when you dip them. Bake and let cool. After it's refrigerated for a few hours, I use my cake leveler to slice it up into 12 wedges. You can use a clean piece of wire or dental floss to slice it, too. You'll end up with much cleaner slices than with a knife.

Next place a popsicle stick into each wedge. If you push too close to the surface, it may crack a little, but it'll all be covered in chocolate, so it won't matter. Freeze these overnight.

Melt 24 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, and dip or spoon the chocolate over the frozen cheesecake pops.

The chocolate will set up pretty quickly.

Meanwhile melt yellow candy melts and pipe into stars. Pop them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden.

Melt green candy melts and pipe a squiggle on each chocolate covered cheesecake.

Press a star into the top of the squiggle before it sets up.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me.

More Christmas Decor

2011-12-18T21:26:00.005-05:00

I've shared a few glimpses at this year's Christmas decor around my house like my sheet music wreath and glittered bell wreath here and here. Here's a few more looks at some more Christmas touches around the house. Every year, I decorate a rosemary tree with cookie cutters for my kitchen peninsula.

I like to place garlands over the doorways, and love the way this one frames the view into the great room.

I showed off the ginormous fresh tree here all decked out in silver and gold. Down in the basement rec room, we have a more colorful tree. This little faux tree needs a bit of fluffing to look right, but one tree is all I can remember to keep watered.

It's trimmed with vivid color, sports team ornaments, and storybook characters like little Olivia(the pig.)

This year's mantel got a dose of color, too. Last year I went with a black & white photo wreath.

This year It's all about color.

Thanks for popping in and checking out my Christmas home. I'm linking up to Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday.

Cranberry Almond White Chocolate Truffles

2011-12-17T08:22:00.002-05:00

I love adding truffles to my cookie baskets at Christmas. They're so easy to make, yet never fail to impress. That's the case with these Cranberry Almond White Chocolate Truffles.

I'm sorry so many of these pictures are blown out. Apparently my very old camera that's pinch hitting for me right now doesn't like taking white pictures. I start by chopping 1 cup almonds and 1/2 cup dried cranberries and mixing them together.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, I heat up 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1 tbsp of butter.

When the heavy cream is scalding, I remove it from the heat and add in 12 oz white chocolate chips. Give it a minute then whisk vigorously.

Mix in the almond & cranberries, then add in 2 tbsps GranGala or other orange flavored liqueur. Pour into a shallow baking dish and refrigerate for several hours.

When the truffle mix has set, cut the mixture into 30-35 squares. This keeps your truffles evenly sized.

Roll each square into a ball and freeze for an hour.

Meanwhile melt 12 oz of white chocolate in a double boiler or a bowl set over simmering water.

Dip the frozen truffles into the melted white chocolate, and allow to harden. I like to present these individually in mini-cupcake wrappers.

Thanks for popping in and indulging with me. I'm linking this up to The Girl Creative's Something I Whipped Up Party and Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

This Year's Tree

2011-12-14T19:41:00.002-05:00

2 weekends ago, we trekked out to Kretzmer's tree farm to bag ourselves the perfect tree. I shared pics of our tree hunt last year here. This year we had warmer weather(no snow,) so the kids weren't as bundled, and my camera went on strike, so you'll get this pic of WD(whose arm is not in a sling this year) horsing around on a tree stump karate kid style.

And this pic of my BFF in front of the barn, both taken with my camera phone. Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. That sign is right. $20 for any tree, even the ginormous one we bring home every year.

Our tree sat naked for much longer than usual, because our lives got in the way, but tonight we carved out the time to decorate it. For reference on height, that's an 8 ft ladder that SB is on.

We collect gold plated brass ornaments everywhere we go. Cinderella's coach at Disneyland, the space shuttle at the Smithsonian, etc.

This means that every year gold appears on our tree. Last year our tree was red and gold with popcorn and cranberry garland.

And this year, it's silver and gold.

And here it is all lit up.

Thanks for popping in and checking out our tree. I'm linking this up to Thrifty Decor Chick's Christmas Tree Party.

Blonde Ambition

2011-12-14T10:54:00.002-05:00

I love chocolate. Chocolate cake, chocolate cookies, chocolate pie, hot cocoa and brownies - love them all. CG, however, really just tolerates my chocolate addiction. I love chocolate, but I love CG, too. These Ultimate Blondies are one of his favorite treats.

I start by mixing together 2/3 cup white chocolate chips, 2/3 cup butterscotch chips, 2/3 cup toffee bits, and 1 cup chopped almonds. I accidentally bought the Heath toffee bits that are chocolate and toffee, but usually I use just the toffee bits. Set this aside.

I whisked together 3/4 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt.

In my stand mixer, I cream together 2/3 cup of butter and 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, before adding 2 eggs and 2 tsps vanilla.

Beat in the dry ingredients.

Then mix in 1 cup of the nuts and chips mixture by hand. Spread into a 9x13 pan that has been greased and lined with parchment paper.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Add the rest of the chips mixture to the top, pressing into the batter.

Bake for another 20 minutes.

Let cool in the pan before removing(done easily with the parchment sling,) and cutting up into bars.

These are so good with both crunch and chewiness.

Thanks for popping in and baking with me. I'm linking this up to Remodelaholic's Anonymous' Recipe Swap and Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesdays.

Cookie Swap Parties

2011-12-13T09:14:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There's no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! http://www.duncanhines.com/.

December is a time for parties and entertaining. There are class parties, office parties, and holiday open houses. We always host an "Orphan's Christmas" on Christmas Eve for our friends whose extended families live elsewhere. There's no secret that I love to bake(and eat) cookies, and one of my favorite types of December gatherings is the cookie swap.

image via

You'll want your invitations to go out early in the month, because December social calendars fill up fast. It's a little late in the game, but you can right click on these to print them from your browser. You can slip these in an envelope or send them postcard style to save on postage.

The way a cookie swap works best is with 6-12 guests. Each guest brings one type of cookie, a dozen per guest. One dozen is unwrapped and set out for sampling and each guest leaves with one dozen of each cookie brought. I think it's nice for the host to provide pretty containers to bring the cookies home in. You can grab takeout containers for very little and personalize them with pretty paper or ribbons. For those of you with a Silhouette, I'm pretty sure there's a takeout box template.

What's a cookie swap without some cookie inspired cocktails? How about a Naughty Girl Scout(thin mint flavor in a cocktail glass,) or a Peppermint Bark Cocktail? Rim the glass with some colored sugar and mix together 1 oz vanilla vodka, 1 oz Godiva's white chocolate liqueur, 1/2 oz peppermint schnapps or white creme de menthe, and drop a piece of peppermint bark in the bottom of the glass. Use a candy cane as a stir stick.

Thanks for popping in and partying with me.

Remember to check out Duncan Hines' website http://www.duncanhines.com/ to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

Fa La La La La

2011-12-12T19:09:00.002-05:00

I love to fill my home with music at Christmas. I'm one of those people with a zillion Christmas albums. That's right, I said albums, not 400 songs on my iPod. With that in mind, I thought I'd make a sheet music wreath.

These are so simple to make, that I'm thinking about putting one in each window. I started with some old sheet music. I'm lucky enough to have an enormous stash(3 suitcases full) of very old sheet music with yellowing edges, but you could use new and tea stain them.

I rolled each sheet into a cone and hot glued the edge. This can be done in front of the tv.

I glued some sheet music to a cardboard circle,

and glued the cones around the circle adding a layer on top of the base layer, and another layer of half sheet cones on top of that. I made a ruffled circle to cover up the center of the wreath with some more sheet music and hung the whole thing by hot gluing a ribbon to the back.

I'm debating on whether or not to glitter the edges of the cones. It is Christmas after all, and who doesn't like some sparkle.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

Stenciled Foyer

2011-12-10T08:24:00.000-05:00

Before my camera went on strike, I showed you a bunch of sneak peeks and starts to several projects. We decided that Santa just didn't have the budget for the camera on my wishlist, so I'm making do with an old camera until our mad money account is replenished. One of my absolute favorite projects that the dead camera ate was this stenciling project. I had won a Cutting Edge Stencil from Lisa at Vintage Vine.

I was so excited to make over my foyer. I was tired of the pinkish foyer walls and needed a change. The camera ate my before pictures. This is the only pic I could find showing the before color.

I rolled on a base coat of Glidden Warm Grey Flannel.

Love the color! It's a very warm grey with a violet undertone. I wanted a subtle tone on tone look to the stenciling, so instead of picking another color for the stencil, I mixed the paint with a clear glaze so that the poppies would have a different sheen level. It's a tough effect to get on camera(particularly with my very old camera,) but it's absolutely gorgeous in person.

With the overhead light off. This is a truer color representation, but the flash blew away the stenciling above the shelf.

The Cutting Edge Stencil was so easy to use. I gave it a good wipe down and have it stored in my craft closet should I ever decide on a less subtle look.

Thanks for popping in and painting with me.

Bleached Silhouettes

2011-12-09T08:57:00.001-05:00

I like to stock up on plain t-shirts when A.C.Moore has them on sale for 5 for $10. They make the ideal rainy/snowy day craft project. They can be used for tie-dye, stamping, fabric markers, and bleached silhouettes. During the fall, I like to combine a hike through the woods for leaf peeping with this fun t-shirt craft. This one was made by SB when he was 5.

Nothing could be simpler. Gather leaves(extra points if you can name the trees,) arrange on your shirts, place some cardboard inside the shirt, and hit it with some bleach. I like the Clorox spray for this because it's already in a spray bottle.

Leave the shirt for 10-15 minutes outside in the sun, then dunk and swish in a bucket of cool water. These make great kid-made gifts, too. You know those hand print reindeer that you see all the time at Christmas? How about tracing out hand silhouettes and using those for a bleached silhouette?

Image via

All the charm of the hand silhouette reindeer without the need to clean paint off your doorknobs, vanity, faucet, etc. What? Just my house?

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment/craft fail/bleach project for the chance to win prizes from Tatertots & Jello and Clorox. You can find out more information about this campaign – www.BleachItAway.com. If you share YOUR messy moment story, you can enter to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can get a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

Chocolate + Peanut Butter = Yum

2011-12-07T20:39:00.004-05:00

Is there any more satisfying combination than chocolate & peanut butter? There's a reason why it's always used as a temptation on shows like Survivor and The Biggest Loser. Even with big money on the line, people always end up caving when there's chocolate & peanut butter on a plate.

If there ever were an occasion to chuck your diet out the window, these Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cookies would be it.

I started by whisking together 1/2 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt.

In my stand mixer fitted with the scraper beater, I creamed 1 stick butter with 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar. I added an egg, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1 tbsp almond milk, and 1 tsp vanilla.

I beat in the dry ingredients,

and flattened spoonfuls of the batter.

I've shared peanut butter eyeballs for Halloween. For this recipe mix together 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup peanut butter, and 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, and shape into balls. I placed 1/2 inch sized peanut butter balls on the center of the dough disks.

Wrap the dough around the peanut butter ball, and flatten.

You can dip these in sugar if you think more is more.

Bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes.

And since I really like to pile on, I piped some ganache on top.

Seriously, Yummo!

Thanks for popping in and baking with me. I'm ever so slowly getting with the times and am on twitter now and would love it if you followed me. You can find the twitter button on my sidebar. I'm linking this up to House of Grace's Best of 2011.

A Case of the Gimmeees

2011-12-06T09:51:00.000-05:00

How do you keep Christmas from becoming a commercialistic romp? Every year the toy pundits come out with their hot toys list and people trample each other for this year's Tickle Me Elmo or Cabbage Patch Doll. Remember the scene from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Jingle All the Way?

I never wanted to succomb to the ad driven need for the "it" toy. My kids could be happy with the bounty of toys beneath the tree. They didn't need the hot toy of the moment. But that was before Skylanders and the little hot mama known as Stealth Elf.

SB received a Skylanders starter pack for his birthday last month. He and his best friend, the Princess, have been playing it non-stop. They play with the game itself, and they play with the actual action figures outside of the game. As the weeks have passed they've each received new figures, and have collected a fair amount of skylanders, but not the elusive Stealth Elf. I've found myself stopping at Target twice a day to check for her. Walmart, Best Buy, and Toys R Us, too. CG actually saw one in a woman's hand last night at Target, but none on the shelf.

To balance out the rampant commercialism that has descended upon our home, we've adopted a family for Christmas through the Family Enrichment Network. This is a local program that allows us to purchase Christmas gifts for children in need. Our adopted family has 2 boys, aged 4 & 6. Each boy has a list of wants and needs. The boys need snowpants, hats, and gloves, and listed under wants are crayons, markers, coloring books, Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, and Wolverine and Spiderman action figures.

Contrast that to my boys' lists that included a Nintendo 3DS, an iTouch, Nookreader, and other items that cost a couple hundred each. When I discussed the adopted family's wish lists with the boys, SB piped up and said, "I have a Wolverine in the car, maybe we could add that to the top." So we'll tie it on with ribbon to decorate the top of one of the boxes. I love that we're teaching our boys about giving, and that they're truly getting the message.

How do you all balance commercialism and the true meaning of Christmas at your house?

Thanks for popping in and shopping with me. I'm still trying to get my dead camera situation squared away. Hopefully I'll have some project pictures to share with you soon.

Christmas Copycat & a Stencil Sneakpeek

2011-12-04T20:15:00.002-05:00

I know you all want to see the stencil project reveal, but Debbie is hosting her Copycat Challenge party, and I had to get in on the action having missed the last one because of Halloween craziness. I flagged so many fantastic magazine ideas for this party, but the one that won out was this one from Family Circle magazine.

How simple and pretty is that? I love the contrast of the shiny ornaments against the nubby sweater texture. First things first, I needed to create the warm sweater bowl. Not wanting to cut up my one white sweater, I found an old thermal in the back of my closet. It had a nice texture to it, so I cut off the bottom part of the sleeve. It's now a 3/4 length thermal. I'm sorry about the bad pictures, but my camera's flash stopped working so it looks like there's an unexpected item on Santa's list.

I just needed to fill the bowl with some ornaments and a blinged out pine cone, and here's my version.

Love this. It's sitting on my coffee table now. And how about that stenciling sneakpeek?

Thanks for popping in and checking out my Christmas Copycat.

Changing Things Up

2011-12-03T19:27:00.000-05:00

There are all sorts of changes going on with my home that aren't Christmas related. It's an unusual time of year to be starting projects, but I'm weird like that.

I was so excited to receive my Cutting Edge Stencil from Lisa at A Vintage Vine that it killed me to have to wait to use it. It took me a little while to carve out the time to paint, but this morning after pancakes were served, I pulled out the blue tape. I'd been planning on repainting the foyer ever since I made over the foyer closet here, so it was especially nice to be rolling on the base coat this morning.

As I was cutting in, CG asked why I was painting the foyer when I had just painted it not too long ago. I don't know if it's a man/woman thing like I pointed out in one of my most popular posts, How Men and Women See Color, but there is definitely a divide in my house on how long it takes for a decor decision to become stale. The fact of the matter is that I last painted the foyer, just after tiling the floors 9 years ago. I'm loving the new color. It's such a warm grey. You'll have to wait for the reveal, because after applying 2 coats of color, I'd like to give it overnight to cure a bit before stenciling.

I'm really excited about this other big change. We just picked out our new roofing shingles with our contractors, THI - Total Home Improvements. Remember way back in May when we had that big hailstorm that shredded my hostas? Turns out it did some major roof damage. We didn't realize how bad the situation was, since our roof wasn't leaking, but they pointed out all the spots where the hail had knocked the granules off our shingles. The folks at THI have been amazing with meeting with our insurance adjustor and making sure that we get a new roof.

They will be using GAF 30yr architectural shingles. We picked the color slate, and even got to pick the color of the flashing material from a giant fandeck. By we, I mean I, because I'm a chick and see color in a completely different way than CG(if you haven't checked out the men/women color post, you should.) If the weather cooperates, we might get our new roof before Christmas, but a more likely scenario for the NY/PA area is that we'll be looking at a new roof in the spring. For all my local readers who saw that hailstorm, followed by Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee, I highly recommend that you call THI for a free estimate. They're storm remediation experts.

I was not paid or perked in any way for this endorsement. We're paying for our roof(technically our insurance company is paying for our roof, but we're paying the deductible.) I'm just really happy with the service we've received so far from everyone at THI.

Favorite Things - Budget Version

2011-12-01T10:20:00.000-05:00

It's gift giving season, and all of the kids' gifts have been purchased and wrapped. Their wants leaned heavily towards electronics, so it was pretty boring crossing off items from their wishlists. I thought I'd share some fun gift ideas that I've seen around that won't bust a hole in your Christmas budgets(under $30 each,) should you find yourself looking for just a few more stocking stuffers.

For your girlfriends: A Lily Puliltzer iPhone cover from See Jane Work.

For your favorite baker: A HomeMade Cookie Stamp from fredflare.com.

Or a fantastic Pink Ribbon Retro Style Apron from the etsy seller ApronQueen. She has some amazing designs.

For the guy in your life who's just a big kid: A Hand Grenade USB

Or Salt & Pepper Robots. Both of these are from Think Geek. I love going there for really unusual items at great prices.

And what's this baker's favorite budget gift to give? Cookies of course. Here's one of last year's baskets. Find the ornament gift tag tutorial here.

I have no affiliation with any of the mentioned shops and have not been perked or paid for the mentions. I just think there stuff is really cool. Thanks for popping in and shopping with me. I'm linking this up to Nester's Favorite Things and Polohouse's Favorites on the First.