Chalk Paint!

So I've fallen in love with chalk paint! No room is safe, no furniture off limits!

 Paris Gray, French Linen and Duck Egg blue. The stuff  IS gorgeous!

 

The picture below inspired me to paint my baskets in Annie Sloan's French Linen.  

http://maisondecor8.blogspot.com/2012/03/bathroom-latest-baskets-vanity-and.html

 

 



 

image from

 http://www.freckledlaundry.com/2011/10/hutch-again-new-chalk-paint-colors.html

I came across this color swatch on Pinterest and experimented with the Pure White + French Linen + Coco

and combined it with a chalk paint and sanding technique I saw here on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBYEaCT3jWU

 

 

 

I was thrilled with the final result. I thought it resembled the pricey 'Restoration Hardware look'

but without the price!

 

 

 

 

 

Just below is an image and link to Restoration Hardware where their weathered frames range from $60 - $90 each. Yikes! 

 http://www.restorationhardware.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1860571&categoryId=cat2400020

 

 

I love still life photography and would love to take a class sometime when the schedule allows.

 

 I picked this piece up at a consignment store a couple weeks ago. It was in need of a little love and a fresh coat of paint, so I used the Duck Egg blue.

 

 

 Isn't this color so tranquil and dreamy? I went over it with just one coat. I like the way the cream color peeks through. I do think I'll sand and distress it then try to post an updated picture.

 

 

Look how pretty she is now:)

 



Carry Grant and Irene Dunne in "My Favorite Wife" 1940. Such a great movie. I watched it a couple nights ago. By myself:)

 

 

 

Did I mention we've cancelled cable! It's been great. I no longer have that negative pull to unwind to one

of my guilty pleasure DVR shows and neither does the hubs. I feel as though it's really improved our relationship. For example, now I just make him watch old romantic movies with me;) Ha! I'm kidding.. but I do think in someway it's brought us closer together and the kids aren't watching as much T.V. either. Win, Win.

 

My bestie gave me this Cary Grant collection a couple Christmas's back. I love it!

You can find it on Amazon.

 

 

What's your favorite Cary Grant movie?

 

Have a wonderful day!

So long summer

Don't get me wrong you were swell and all, but I'm a Fall girl at heart.

 



 

 

 

 

 



Pssst...

I spy Fall!!!

 

Cookies,Cakes and Pie Oh My!

Since I've been breastfeeding I've had an intense sweet tooth that's inspired me to do more baking than normal. Late night feedings have had me up scrolling through recipes on Pinterest and food blogs. Here are a few recipes I wanted to share with you, the cookies and pie I've posted are two new recipes I've tried
and the dump cake an old favorite of ours. I was thinking of doing something like an under 'Five Ingredient Sweet Tooth Fix' to blog about? A challenge with a sweet reward. So far I have two recipes that would fall under that category, take a peek.    

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

 We baked and decorated cookies for Easter. The recipe is linked below, just something fun and easy to do with the kids plus they enjoyed delivering them to our neighbors and friends.

 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cream-Cheese-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx?src=rss











 

Peach Dump Cake

 

This is one of my very favorite in a pinch and need something sweet now recipes. While it does take some time to bake, it takes no time to throw together.

Ingredients:

1 29 ounce can of peaches

1 box of yellow cake mix

1 stick of butter (melted)

Cinnamon to taste

 

Directions:

Pour peaches with syrup into a greased 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle yellow cake mix evenly over the top of peaches. Sprinkle cinnamon over the cake mix and peaches. Pour melted butter evenly over cake mix. Do not mix! Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until light golden brown and bubbly.

 

I didn't have the large 29 ounce can of peaches the recipe called for, just a small one in the pantry but got lucky scoring 1 of the kids peach fruit cups. I combined the two together and it worked perfectly.  

Two Ingredient Cookie Pie

 

 

Ingredients:

1 roll of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough

1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

Directions:

 Press half the cookie dough into the bottom of a pie dish, sprinkle chocolate chips over the cookie dough, then crumble the rest of your cookie dough over the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

 



If you have a craving for a warm fresh out of the oven chocolatey gooey centered melt in your mouth cookie, this recipe is for you!
 

Feeling Springy

Spring is in the air and has been cheerfully popping up in the corners of home since.

 

Here's a garland I made using paper doilies I purchased for a V-Day craft I didn't get around to using up. I cut my flowers using a die cutter and pasted two to each doily. A good friend let me borrow her Cricut and that's what I used to cut the word spring with. (I'm hooked! I'm in trouble!)

 

 

 We planted dwarf Sunflowers with the kids, they're such happy flowers I hope they grow. We're also trying Feverfew which I'm excited about. I came across it for the first time at our farmers market last summer and simply fell in love, they smell just like honey.

Strawberry lemonade anyone? :)

 

A pretty tree I spotted in the park

 

 

Here's to many...

 

 blessings!

Baklava Muffins

These are amazing! They remind me slightly of a coffee cake muffin recipe I have, only better! Try them, love them, then bake them again and give them to someone you love! (Or double the recipe because you won't want to share the first batch, there's only 12!) 

 

My only suggestion would be to change the 1/2 cup of honey the recipe calls for to 1/4 cup or a little less, but that's just my personal preference. If you're familiar with Nigella Lawson's recipes you'll know she isn't at all shy about her indulgent use of rich ingredients. Which is funny because it's what typically draws me into a recipe yet I find those ingredients butter, sugar, etc. can be easily substituted or modified to taste. They are still a decadent treat even with the reduced amount of sticky sweetness drizzled on top, plus I don't feel as bad when my kids both eat two in a sitting:) 

 

 

 

 Baklava Muffins

slightly adapted

from the cookbook 

How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

 

 

For the Muffin Filling:

1/2 cup walnuts

1/3 cup of sugar

1 3/4 teaspoons cinnamon

 ( I always add extra cinnamon. This is where I'd like to get creative adding a mix of nutmeg, apple pie spice or pumpkin pie spice. I think a spiced glaze would work really well with this muffin in place of the honey too.)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

 

 

 For the Muffins:

1 cup plus 7 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup of sugar

1 egg

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice (Let mixture sit in measuring cup for 2 minutes and you'll have buttermilk, it's something I don't normally have on hand but milk and lemons I do, this recipe always works for me)

http://joythebaker.com/2009/10/the-best-buttermilk-substitutions/

 

 

For the Topping:

1/4 cup honey

 

Directions:

1. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.

2. Mix your filling ingredients together in a small bowl.

3 In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar, whisk ingredients together.

4. Whisk egg, melted butter and buttermilk together in a small bowl or a wide mouth measuring cup.

5. Make a well in dry ingredients and gently combine your egg mixture mixing lightly. Batter should be more on the lumpy side.

6.  Fill each liner with 1/3 cup muffin batter then add about 1 tablespoon of filling and cover with more muffin batter until muffin cups are two thirds full.

7. Bake about 15 minutes or until golden brown, remove muffins from pan and place on a cooling rack and drizzle with desired about of honey, Enjoy!  

 

Here's a link to her delightful website

 http://www.nigella.com/books/view/how-to-be-a-domestic-goddess-12

 

 

 

A reminder I need for myself from time to time

find your free printable download linked here below

 

 

http://www.sweetcoconutlime.com/search/label/freebie

 

Bits of Pretty

   With my due date approaching in March I'm really excited to be welcoming our newest little girl Vivienne into our family! Feeling constantly scatter brained, unable to focus or hold a thought, I'll leave you with just bits of pretty I've been working on.  

 

 

 

 

 

Lily loves craft projects of any kind, she is so fun to sit beside and create with. We made fun tissue paper stained glass hearts a couple weeks ago.
http://www.marinmommies.com/valentines-day-tissue-paper-suncatchers  

 

 My ruffled felt heart wreath for V-Day, I figured I could hang it in the girls room somewhere when the holiday was over.

I planted a few Primroses in pots around the house because I needed to see something blooming. This spring I want to try to grow Cosmos or some kind of pretty wild flowers from seeds, I've never tried it before so wish me luck.

 

 

We made silhouettes of our kids at our moms group a while back, I love how timeless they look. Here's where I found the tutorial to share with our group.

http://scissorsandspatulas.com/2011/05/framed-hanging-silhouette-plaques.html