Ready for the Weekend!

I'm so excited for the weekend!!  It's supposed to be SUNNY, cooler, lower humidity, and 0% chance of rain!!! WOOO!!!! :)  Maybe I'll get to be in my 1/4 of the way done sewing/craft room with the windows open!!  PLUS, Adam is off on Sunday!!! Yippeeee!!! :)

I suspect our weekend will involved some sewing for me!

lots of YARN for new scarves

Source: None via Beth on Pinterest

lots of felt/fabric for new flower pins

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lots of fabric for new scarves and flower pins

Photo found here

and I hope I get around to doing some re-upholstering ;)

(I got something FUN at the last Olde Mobile Antique Gallery Monthly Estate Sale!!  I can't wait to show it off!!)

Source: designsponge.com via Beth on Pinterest

and possibly making one of these; ours is kind of sad looking after being used for almost 9 years

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Oh and one more thing, I'll probably be going through the mound of library books I checked out about sewing, crafting, felting, and all kinds of fun things!! :)  The pile looks something like this:

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I have LOTS to read!!!! WOO!!

What kind of plans do y'all have for the weekend? :)  I like comments so leave me some to read, and I promise I'll respond!! ;)

D. Reyne's Pick Your Pumpkin Giveaway at Freckled Laundry!

I've been drooling over D. Reyne's burlap pumpkins since she listed them last week in her etsy shop!!  They are ADORABLE!!!!  And look at how well made they are!!!  LOVE THEM! 

Photo from D. Reyne

And if you aren't already following D. Reyne at Everyday Elegance, then what are you waiting for!  Check it out NOW!  Her Tinker House is so FUN!!  And she and her husband are completely renovating their house, and she posts updates about that regularly!!

Photo from D. Reyne

If you want to WIN one, be sure to head over to Freckled Laundry today and enter her Pick your Pumpkin giveaway!!!  I DID! :)  And if you aren't following Freckled Laundry's blog, you SHOULD BE!!

Photo from D. Reyne

Fall Pinspiration!

I AM SO READY FOR FALL!!!  I love everything about this time of year.  Most importantly, the weather; but I also LOVE the smells, decor, clothes, holidays.  It's my absolute favorite time of the year!! :)  It kicks off with Adam's birthday in September, then Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November (this year is special because I'll be an AUNTIE this November! WOO!), and then Christmas and the Mom's birthdays are in December.  Something FUN every single month!!  Plus Adam and I will probably be taking at least 2 short vacations before the end of the year too.  Don't know where yet (even though I like to remind him just how much I looooove Harry Potter World and Halloween Horror Nights is going on at Universal too!). ;)  hehe  We'll see where we end up going!

Anywhoooo, here are a few Pinteresty things I've been pinning lately to hold me over until Fall actually decides to arrive.

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WOO I've got my patterns all ready for these!! Just gotta get some wood and cut em out!  And yes, I found these last year, but just didn't have the time energy to get them done. ;)

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I ♥ these!! YUM!! We'll have to make them gluten-free so you can eat some too Mom! :)

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I have the PERFECT faux acorns from Pottery Barn I got last year!!  You can read about it here. LOVE me some SALES!!

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I LOVE the leaves strewn about!  I could just put some in a pile, and my cats would spread them out for me! ;)  I got 2 or 3 bags of leaves from the Dollar Tree last year!  I'll be incorporating them into some Fall decor somehow this year!  And.....who doesn't LOVE baby pumpkins?? :)

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LOVE Cinnamon!!  It always reminds me of Christmas!!!

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Wreaths are usually not my fav, but THIS ONE is adorable!!!! :)

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FREE Printables!! YES PLEASE!!

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SO CUTE!!! Mom, you could do your orange door as a pumpkin!!!!! :)

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Crows for Halloween, then take em away for Thanksgiving!! Easy Transition!! :)

Hopefully our weather will stay as NICE as it has been lately!!  Low 60s this week!! YAY!! I'll for sure be making up some Fall goodies this weekend to get us even more ready for Fall!  Maybe I'll start some decorating too!!  Happy Thursday all!!

We've been busy!!

It's been over a month since my last post!  Yikes!  Time flies!! :)  We've been busy though!!

I washed both of my cars!  I thought keeping the mustang clean was difficult, um no.  I have to use the big ladder to wash the tahoe, and even with that I have to lay across the top of it to get to the center.  And the windshield, oh geez.  It's still smeary.  haha  Even with the ladder, I have to stand on the tire, and REEEEACH across to try to scrape all the bug guts off of it.  But it's totally worth it, because I can put BIG things in it.  (Like my hoard of furniture that is growing in the garage and in our house.) ;)  BUT, we can still  park both mustangs in our garage, so until we're unable to park in there, I think my hoard is quite small. 

Back to the Tahoe.  I also LOVE it because when it's raining out, and I'm just leaving Publix (or wherever) I can run like crazy through the parking lot to my lovely Tahoe that's waiting for me with the hatch already open.  Built in "canopy", LOVE IT!  That power liftgate is SO WORTH IT! :)  So I'll continue to wash her and keep her pretty since I love her so much. lol

Next up, I did a little thrifting with Mom and Adam the past few weekends!  We've been to several estate sales and a few thrifty places around town.  We've found so much stuff, I'm going to do another whole post about that! ;)

A Note about estate sales:  Some estate sales just STINK. haha  Either the prices are WAY TOO HIGH or they just don't have anything fun at all. :(  So SAD!  But when we do actually find treasures, it makes them that much more special!!  You just have to keep looking!

What else, what else?? Oh YEAH!!  Mom and I have been working on some new team scarves and bracelets for our etsy shop!

Here are a few photos of those!!  They are all available right now, except the Ohio State and Alabama scarves have already SOLD!  WOO!! :)  Right now I'm working on some snazzy new felt flower pins and incorporating yarn and fabric into them! :)  PLUS, we got a request from Megan (she bought the Ohio State scarf), for a Notre Dame scarf.  OH I AM SO EXCITED!!  Another Irish fan! :)  YAY!!  We have been collecting fabric and yarn to make me a Notre Dame scarf for awhile now, and now we get to make 2!!! :)  Can't wait!!

Skinny Scrappy Scarf Alabama Crimson Tide - $30

Skinny Scrappy Scarf Ohio State Buckeyes - $30

Mom has been working hard on creating these fabulous bracelets too!! :) Aren't they CUTE?? :) I LOVE them and I can't wait to get a Notre Dame one made for me. hehe (Yes, I try to keep everything we make, but I've only been successful in keeping 1 pin and 2 or 3 scarves.) :)

Scrappy Team Bracelet FSU Seminoles - $20

Scrappy Team Bracelet LSU Tigers - $20

Scrappy Team Bracelet Ohio State Buckeyes - $20

Ok, back to what we've been doing at home the past few weeks.
 

Poor Bella decided to give us a scare.  We woke up the day of the Olde Mobile Estate Sale, August 6 to find lots of piles of cat drool everywhere.  Poor Bella was sitting on top of their cat condo, and she looked like Santa, because had a beard of white spit/foam on her chin.  Poor thing had a hairball, and I guess it stressed her out so much she was kind of catatonic. :) No pun intended. haha  So I stayed home, and Mom came over to our house to keep an eye on her.  By that afternoon, she was feeling a little better and actually drank some water.  I knew she wasn't feeling well because she wouldn't even eat treats.  And she is usually gobbling up the other cat's treats because she eats her own pile so fast.  Poor Bella.  She's feeling much better now.  Here is our sweet girl. :) We love her. :)

Since Bella was sick, Mom and I weren't able to go over to Mobile for the sale, but Adam and I went to Bass Pro Shop which is just outside of Mobile that Sunday, and decided to run over to the last day of the sale.  I'm so glad we did, becaues we scored lots of goodies!! :)  I'll include our treasures in the post I'm doing next about all my recent thrifty finds!!

The day Bella was sick, Adam and his Dad had planned to go paddleboarding.  By the time they got there though, they were out of boards.  So they went kayaking instead.  I wish I had been a mouse in one of those kayaks so I could have seen them.  Needless to say, they didn't fit into them very well, and forgot sunscreen.  So Adam ended up a lobster. (I think he has peeled 3 times now.)  And they spent a lot of time floating. :) haha  (Correction: I would not have wanted to be in Adam's Dad's kayak, because he fell out. Enough said.) :) hehe

A couple weeks back, I got to meet some of my best girlfriends for breakast and a little antiquing one day!! :)  It was nice to see them and catch up!!  And a little cracker barrel and antiquing was fun too! ;)  I've known Laura and Leigh since elementary school (22 years people!), and Michelle since 6th grade (18 years!) and I'm so thankful we've stayed in touch all these years!

I, of course, don't have any pictures from that day.  I always have plans to get a picture of all of us together, and always forget!!  We met a few weeks back for our own little high school reunion, since we decided not to go to the real one.  And of course, I none of us took any pictures then either!! BOO!  We have to get better about that!!

Let's see....What else have we been up to???  Oh yeah, I planted some things (poor plants, they have been begging to be planted for a year or two now) and Adam and I did a lil yard work.  (Adam did not do this willingly, I had to force him.  But our yard looked like a field, so it was necessary.  No tall grass = no snakes hiding ready to bite me.  I prefer to see them before they attack.) ;)  We should have waited a day, because it's been so nice and much cooler the past 2 days.  We about sweated to death the night we worked on the yard, and we didn't even start until 7PM!!

I've also been cooking lots of fun stuff lately.  I'll post some recipes later today or tomorrow!!  I made Turkey chili that is SOOOO EASY!!  Plus Turkey Meatloaf.  YUM! I posted about that here if you want the recipe! :)  We actually took Adam's Dad a home-cooked meal earlier this week.  Adam's Mom is out of townin Belgium, (actually she just got home last night) so we wanted to make sure his Dad was eating more than peanut butter. :) hehe  I think he liked it, well he ate everything so I guess it wasn't too bad. ;)

I'm excited to find out if his Mom found us some white chocolate Nutella.  We heard it was available in Europe, so we've been wanting to try it.  Take that back, Adam wants to try it, I'm not a chocolate fan! :/

I know we've done TONS of other things, but I can't think of them right now. I'm getting old people. ;)  I'm back in blogging mode so I'm going to try to keep updating this thing more regularly!!  There's just too much going on not to blog about it!! :)

Hope y'all are having a great week so far!!!

Nifty Thrifty Weekend!

Mom and I were busy busy this past Saturday! We hit up 3 estate sales and our local Waterfront Rescue Mission. We didn't find a ton of things, but we did score a few fun items! :)

At the first estate sale, I scored 2 ceramic owls. They were hidden on the back porch on a wall behind a pile of junk. They were actually attached to some nasty dry rotted macrame, which I quickly cut off with a handy knife I found in the kitchen at that home. haha :) They weren't priced, but they let me have them for $1 each. SOLD! :)

I also got this cute little brass "thing". I'm not really sure what to call it. It's so tiny (about 3 inches tall),  and I don't really know what it would be used for. It looks like it has India on the bottom of it, which is cool. And it was only 25 cents, so I knew I had to have it. :)

We also scored this cute milk glass ashtray for only $2. It would be really cute as a jewelry dish by the sink, or even for pins in a sewing room.

This house was super cute, and fixed up, it would be such a wonderful little home. It just needs a lot of love and clorox!! ;) But honestly, the junkiest/dirtiest houses are the ones I always find the best treasures in!!  I almost bought this piece of furniture for only $45, but ended up changing my mind because I'm not really sure where I would put it.  It would be so cute painted a bright color and then glazed!!

The next sale was in the same neighborhood, and they had basically already sold most everything. So we did a quick scan and moved onto the next place. They had some nice stuff there so that's why most of it sold Friday and then early Saturday morning.

The last sale we hit was in downtown Pensacola in this CUTE little house. The blue retro kitchen looked original to the house, and the vintage double oven in the wall was ADORABLE! I LOVED this house. :) It only had one bathroom though! ha   But it had a great backyard, and was on a corner lot, so for downtown, they had a TON of space. We scored a sewing basket full of various goodies for only $5. Everything was originally marked separately, but I guess they put it all together on the last day, so we snatched that up first thing. The basket had 3 vintage patterns, lace trim, 2 full baggie of buttons, an old measuring tape, lots of crochet hooks, a few thimbles, and lots of other notions.  Plus, the basket itself is cute too!

I also found a little plastic box full of wooden spools that wasn't priced. They let me have it for $1. YAY! :) More to add to my collection!  There were about 22 spools of thread in there!

 And the last thing I found was a cute set of 4 dinner napkins or handkerchiefs for $1. Mom says they are handkerchiefs and I say they are napkins, but I'm not really sure what they are. But they are super soft and so colorful. They were hidden in the bottom of a basket filled with ugly things. haha :) I'm glad I dug them out.

I also loved these 2 pieces of furniture, but by the time we got there the larger chest was already gone, and the smaller chest had a sold sign on it!

Mom laughs about the fact that I dig through houses the way I do.  Some of the houses aren't exactly clean, and she said she's waiting on something to crawl out on me one day.  haha :)  But that's ok, I don't mind creepy crawlies as long as I find a treasure!!

So overall we spent $12.09 and got 2 ceramic owls, 1 brass "thingy", milk glass ash tray, sewing basket full of sewing notions/patterns/buttons, box of wooden spools, and 4 dinner napkins/handkerchiefs.  I think we did pretty good.

Our last stop was to Waterfront Mission (after yummy lunch at Ruby Tuesday).  We didn't find anything there, but honestly they are hit or miss.  You never know what you'll find there.  And you really need to go several times a week, if not everyday, to find something.  We think they were probably low on furniture right now because all the college kids have been scooping up the deals for their apartments and dorms. :) But I'll keep checking back.

Did y'all do anything thrifting this weekend? If so I'd love to see what treasures you found?

This weekend, we're off to Moible for the Olde Mobile Antiques Gallergy August Sale! :) I can't wait to see what treasures we find there!!  I'll post Sunday about our adventures there!

I'm linking up at:

Nutella Cheesecake was a HIT!

Last night we took the Nutella cheesecake over to Adam's parent's house and it was an instant hit!  It only got to cool in the fridge for about 2 hours though, so it was actually better tonight than it was yesterday!

I forgot to get any pictures of it before everyone dug in. haha  But here is all that was left after we ate and Adam's Mom kept a big chunk. (I think they liked it.) :)  Adam did a great job on it, but there are a few things we decided we would do differently the next time we make it.

So here is the recipe again, but this time with our changes noted. :) Enjoy!!

Nutella Cheesecake Layer Bars
Modified receipe from The Moonlight Baker

Ingredients:

- 8 Chocolate Graham Crackers
- ½ Stick Unsalted Butter, melted
- 16 oz. Cream Cheese, at room temperature
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- ½ C. Granulated Sugar
- ¼ + 1 Tbsp. Heavy Cream
- 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
- ¼ C. Nutella (next time we'll use at least 1 cup)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Butter an 8 x 8 baking pan and line with parchment paper, making sure that the parchment is well pressed in the corners. Set aside. (We won't butter the pan the next time, it made the parchment paper nasty and greasy underneath everything.)

In a food processor, pulse chocolate graham crackers until they become crumbs (like bread crumbs). Add in melted butter and pulse until moistened. Press graham cracker mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake crust in the center of the oven until set, about 12 minutes. Set aside and cool.

Clean out the food processor. Add cream cheese, eggs, sugar, ¼ C. heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Pulse until smooth. Put 2/3 (Next time we will half it) of the cream cheese mixture in a bowl and set aside. Add Nutella and 1 Tbsp. of heavy cream to remaining 1/3 (Next time we will half it) of the cream cheese mixture in the processor. Pulse until smooth. (We didn't use a food processor for this.  Adam used our hand mixer and it mixed up just fine.  Also, we will use WAY MORE Nutella next time.  The regular cheesecake layer was kind of strong and overpowered the chocolate portion.  So we'll probably use a cup of Nutella next time, maybe more! And we'll split the cream cheese mixture evenly too!)

To assemble, spread the vanilla cheesecake mixture over the cooled graham cracker base, being careful not to disturb the crust. Pour Nutella cheesecake layer on top of vanilla layer and spread evenly. Bake on the center rack of the oven for about 35 minutes (Adam baked the one we made maybe 5-10 minutes longer, not sure if this made any difference or not), or until the center jiggles slightly. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (It needs to sit longer than 3 hours for the flavors to come out. It was SO MUCH better tonight!)

When ready to serve, lift bars out of the pan by lifting up the parchment paper (it should release easily). Slice into 16 squares and serve. (It really did make 16 cute little squares, which was nice so that everyone had several pieces to enjoy.)

I actually don't care for cheesecake, but I liked the crust and the Nutella portion of it.  Everyone else (who enjoys cheesecake) liked all of it.  But we all agreed more Nutella wouldn't hurt. :) You can see in the picture below that the regular cheesecake layer was bigger than the Nutella layer, so next time we'll make sure it's even, and adding more Nutella should give it a more chocolately flavor. :)

What's for dinner this week? 8/1/2011

Since we didn't get to go over to Adam's parent's house last week to celebrate his Dad's birthday, we're going over tonight!!  Adam is off today, so he volunteered to make the Nutella cheesecake!  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I'll make sure to post tomorrow with the results!! :)

Anyways, so this week we're eating lots of veggies and lean proteins to get back into cooking every night again. The easiest meals for me are ones that include some kind of chicken, turkey or pork and then veggies. When we're in a rush we use Birds Eye SteamFresh Veggies. (They even have plain brown rice that can be steamed!) Publix has them 50% off quite often, and they don't have hardly any sodium in them, if any, so these are our go to quick meal items. Our favorites are the Asparagus, Gold & White Corn, Baby Carrots Mix, the Whole Grain Brown Rice, and Broccoli Florets and the Brown and Wild Rice with Broccoli and Carrots. The photo below will take you right to their site so you can see all the great products!!

Photo from Birds Eye Foods website.

Ok, onto the food for this week! :)

Monday: Leftovers from the weekend (Since we're going to Adam's parent's house we ate quick!) :)

Tuesday:  Oven Baked Salmon, Asparagus, and Brown Rice

Wednesday:  BBQ Chicken, Corn on the Cob, and Salad

Thursday:  Extra lean Ground Turkey Tacos with black beans for me and homemade salsa for us both

Friday:  Steaks on the grill, Baked Sweet Potato Fries, and Grilled Asparagus wrapped in Prosciutto

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