February 18, 2011

Yum

My husband has a interesting great relationship with Nutella.  Even though he is a 6'4" man he eats his waffle with Nutella on it almost every morning like any 5 year old man would.  When I found this recipe for Nutella-Raspberry Crescents I just knew he would love them. 

Source
                                     
It was so easy to make these.  It took a whole of like 3 minutes and then I put them in the oven for 10 minutes.  You just need a package of crescent rolls, Nutella, and raspberry jam (except I used real raspberries). 

Instructions:
1. Unroll the dough onto your baking sheet (I used my Pampered Chef stone)
2. Spread some Nutella on the inside of the triangle.
3. Place your jam (or fresh raspberries) on top of the Nutella
4. Roll up your crescents (make sure you seal all the goey stuff inside so it does not leak out)
5. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes

YUM-O!

P.S. The weather here is giving me major spring fever...I just might be wearing a sun dress and flip-flops today

February 10, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award

I feel so very honored to have been awarded the stylish blogger award by  Dwellings By DeVore  Thanks so much for the award!  I feel so special.


1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 10 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!
I'm now required (like I'm being held at gun point or something) to share 7 things about myself that you may not know.  You all know I try to get creative every now and then but did you know...
 
1.  I am a boring ol' Insurance Agent.  Not much I could say here to even try and make it interesting.  I enjoy my job quite a bit but it would be hard to make it sound glamorous.  The good part about this job is that even though I go to the same place everyday and sit at the same desk I get to talk to lots of different people and I really enjoy that.
 
2.  I used to be a super interesting hair dresser.  I miss it.  The part I do not miss is the catty environment it sometimes presesnts.  My favorite thing to do was updos for special occasions.  

Brides were always the most fun.  They are actually less picky then the high school prom girls!

3.  One day I would like to enter a figure competition.  Yup...a figure competition.  Not the body building ones where you start to look like the opposite gender, just one where you are super-de-duper toned.  It is on my bucket list.
 
4.  I married my high school sweetheart.  

5.  I absolutely love to travel.  I have been to 12 states (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, and California), Haiti, Mexico, Jamacia, Cayman Islands, and Kenya.  
This is one of my favorite pictures from when I was on a mission trip in Kenya.  Such beautiful people!
I hope to go to many more states and countries.  I think it would be amazing to go to all 50 states and every continent.

6.  My dream job was to be an Olympic Gold Medalist Figure Skater.  I wanted to do that ever since I was 5 years old.  I did take ice skating lessons but they were expensive and I was 1 of 4 kids.  It does make me sad because I am a pretty compact person and feel like I could have totally done all the jumps.

7.  I love working outside.  Planting things is so theraputic for me.  I am so happy that we bought a house and now I can plant away!  It is such a stress releiver for me.  I also love to water plants just so I can see them grow.

These are rose bushes I planted that I got for an absolute steal.  There was a drought here that year and nobody wanted to spend $40 on a rose bush so I got it on clearence for $4!!!  I actually bought 3 of them and TONS of other plants.  Hopefully I'll find some amazing deals like that this summer!

Since it is super late and I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow (not to mention I took Nyquil an hour ago and I now feel a little loopy) I will award some people with this award on a seperate post tomorrow.

February 09, 2011

For the Birds...

I have this amazing friend.  Some people know her as Mrs. DeVore and she has an amazing blog.  She's so cool that she evens sells some of her creations here.  She knew I was looking for a sweet little birdie to go with the bird cage I just redid.  I have been sooooooo busy lately and I have not had much time to do any thrifting and she was kind enough to keep her eye out for me.  This past Sunday she brought me a wonderfully perfect little birdie for my cage!  Here he is:
Isn't he adorable?
On a side note: WE BOUGHT A HOUSE this week!  We are no longer "property virgins"!  Is it bad that the thing I am most excited about it putting paint on the walls?  My mind is spinning with ideas on how to decorate this empty palate.  Look out for some great blog posts to come in the future!

February 03, 2011

Bench

I bought this bench about 5 years ago at Linens-N-Things for about $40.  It was originally over $80 but since it was the floor model they knocked quite a bit off the price.  It matched my bedroom back in the day but not anymore...
Notice my lack of garage and having to do this all outside(bleh).  It hindered the painting process quite a bit.  I quickly learned that the temperature where you are spray painting is crucial.  It was too cold outside and the paint would freeze before it would completely dry.  So, I had to resand, reprime, and repaint.  Therefore this project took way longer than what it should have.  I first primed and then went through about 3 1/2 cans of dark brown satin spray paint.  I ordered a long strip of nailhead trim off of ebay to go on the edges.  I also found some remnant fabric at Hobby Lobby for only $5.  Here is the finally finished project:


Now instead of being tucked away in a bedroom the bench has found a home in our living room in the bay windows.

February 01, 2011

Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies

No finished projects for today.  The weather has been too cold to do anything outside, especially anything involving spray paint.  I learned my lesson the hard way with that!  Therefore, I have been stuck inside and here is the project I did for today.  Paula Deen's Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies.  Mine are a lot darker and chocolatiar(is that even a word) than hers because I used fudge cake mix instead of just plain ol' chocolate. 
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

  • 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 stick butter, at room temperature
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 (18-ounce) box moist chocolate cake mix
  • Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the cake mix. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up so that you can roll the batter into balls. Roll the chilled batter into tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in confectioner's sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake 12 minutes. The cookies will remain soft and "gooey." Cool completely and sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar, if desired.

They go wonderfully with a cold glass of milk.  Hopefully you don't have an "Izzy" that jumps up on the counters when you aren't in the room that eats 4 of your cookies!!!  


Boy did she get it!  I tried to tell my husband that she takes after her mom and has a sweet tooth!