Happy Howlidays!

In my rush to get ready for Christmas, I can't forget my sweet little dogs.  Gift giving to dogs may seem odd to some, but they are a part of the family.  I can't forget a gift for a family member!  

They don't need another toy.  They are kinda funny in that they are each a one toy dog.  Gingersnap loves her ball and Cinnabar loves his stuffed elephant.  I could spend an entire blog post just telling you about their funny toy stories...but I won't.  Yeah...I just spared you.  Whew!

However, they both are chowhounds!  Seriously, in retrospect, I should have named them Hoover and Dyson.  So what to get two doggies who love to eat and save some money while I am at it?  

Doggie cookies!

I came across this recipe for Doggie cookies from my bestie who first introduced them to my dogs a couple of years ago.  I modified the recipe a little bit since the original recipe called for milk and one of our dogs is milk intolerant.  Most importantly, I had all the ingredients already on hand...so there was no added cost or shopping for "special" ingredients.

Oatmeal Cookies with Peanut Butter

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup uncooked rolled oats

2 t baking powder

1 3/4 c fat free reduced sodium chicken broth

1 T molasses

1 1/4 creamy peanut butter

1.  Combine all ingredients until well mixed.

2.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured flat surface roll out to 1/4 inch thick.  

3.  Cut out as many cookies as you can.

4.  Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.  

5.  Remove trays from oven and cool to room temperature.  Turn off the oven.

6.  When cookies have cooled, put them back into the cooling oven.  Leave them undisturbed, without opening the oven door for 8-16 hours.  

7.  Store cookies in an airtight container.

My dogs love, love, love these cookies.  Cinnabar kept going to the oven and sniffing the air.  He then would look at me and "ruff".  As if to say..."Are they done yet?"  

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas season!  

Happy Howlidays!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Are you done with your Christmas Shopping yet? 

I finally finished last night!  

I did a little happy dance and a celebratory jig. 

Right there in the store.

Not really...but in my head I did.

As I was humming carols to my car, I realized that although my gift quest was over there were still gifts to acquire.

There are gifts to people that I always give to...neighbors, the mail carrier, the gardener...

Ahhh!  Christmas is about showing others how you appreciate them...not being sent to the poor house! 

I came across this idea from my 1st grade buddies at my school.  I sure would like to take credit for this fabulous idea, but I can't.  Teachers are the some of the most frugal creative people I know.  

That's said with the utmost awe and admiration.   

Isn't it ca-ute???
Wait...you don't know what it is.
Just sit back and be amazed!

You just open it up and there are 4 little sleeves to put "little" gifts into.  

My mind is racing with ideas of what to fill this wonderful little gift!  

You could fill the sleeves with little "love coupons" for the receiver...such as..."I will wash the car for you"..."I will do the dishes for you"...you get the idea.  
You could also fill the sleeves with little scriptures or prayers for the receiver.  
You could put little notes in the sleeves about what you admire or like about the receiver.
You could put little candies in the sleeves.
You could put gift cards in the sleeves.  

The ideas are limitless.  It could be as inexpensive as you like or as costly as you want!

Here is a little tutorial on how to create this little idea:

1.  First you will need lunch bags. You will need 4 of them.  Easy huh?

2.  Next lay out the bags like shown with the open end on the outside.  Glue the ends together with hot glue.  Easy smeasy!

3.  The next step is the most fun part! You get to decorate.  Decorating can be as elaborate as you want.  On this one,  I used an old birthday card
for the center and some scrapbook paper supplies.  

4.  Decorate all sides of the sleeves,front and back.  You can use scrapbook paper, wrapping paper
or old cards.  For my Christmas one, I used scrapbook paper and clip art images I got off of the
internet.  Cost to me so far...zilch..zip...big fat ZERO!  

5.  Fold it together and add a little button to the front. Add  a ribbon to the back to tie the booklet together.  

Isn't it cute? 

I have made two already.  A Christmas and a birthday version. 

I think that the idea would lend itself beautifully to a little scrapbook.  Every sleeve could have a photo on it and the inside of the sleeve could have the journaling.  

I also think this could be a great way to give gift cards to a grad.  Each sleeve could have a gift card in it to various fast food places and stores to ready a dorm room.

Oh my mind is racing! 

Have a Merry Christmas!

Have A Sweet Christmas!

It's my favorite time of year!  I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season as well!

I have put away all of my DIY tools and all my projects are on hold during the season.  Trust me, it was hard!  Very hard!  I think I started to have some withdrawals.  But the thought of sawdust and power tools amongst the Christmas decorations was a bit much...

even for me.

But of course, I just can not do nothing! 

So, I thought of a inexpensive, easy wreath.  I was inspired by some of the wreaths I have been seeing using candies.  I have seen them made out of candy corn and recently saw one made out of mini candy canes.  Here is my version of the wreath:

Isn't it sweet?!

It was so easy too!  I just took a green styrofoam floral wreath that I found at the Dollar Tree for a...what for it...dollar!  Then I wrapped it with white duct tape.

After that, I just hot glued the starburst candies on the wreath!  Easy, smeasy!  

Then, a ribbon around it to hang it up and viola!  A sweet little wreath!

The wreath was inexpensive to make.  It was $1.00 for the wreath form, $2.50 for the candies and I used a ribbon I already had.  So the final cost was $3.50!   Sweet!

I hope that all you have a wonderful sweet Christmas!

It's all about the pumpkin

For me, there is nothing that screams fall to me more than pumpkin.  I love the look of them.  They are so cute and colorful.  I especially like eating pumpkin!  Pumpkin soup, pumpkin butter, pumpkin pie...really anything with pumpkin!  I also make a mean pumpkin chocolate bread!


My love of pumpkin put me on a quest to discover another tasty way to enjoy my favorite fall flavor.  I found a recipe for pumpkin cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing.  The recipe is a little time consuming, but I hope you will agree...it's worth it!

Doesn't it look delish!
Trust me...it is!

For the dough:
Dissolve 1 pkg yeast in 1/4 cup warm water.  Let it rest for 5 minutes.
Add 1/3 cup warm milk, 1 egg, 3/4 cup pumpkin puree, 1 T melted butter, 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 t salt, 3/4 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ginger, 1/4 t cardamon.
Beat for 2 minutes.


Slowly add 1 1/2 c of all purpose flour (You can add more if needed.  The dough needs to be stiff enough to knead.)


Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.


Place dough into a greased bowl and cover.  Let dough rise until doubled.  (This takes about an hour...maybe more)


After it has doubled, pat the dough into a 16" x 12" rectangle.  Spread softened butter on top. (about 4 oz.).  Sprinkle the sugar mixture on top.


Sugar Mixture:
2/3 c white sugar, 1/4 c brown sugar, 2 t. cinnamon, 1/2 t ginger, 1/2 t  allspice, 1/4 t nutmeg, 1/8 t cloves.  Mix well.


Roll the dough into a log the long way.  Slice the log into about 15 slices.  .  Place into a greased baking dish and cover.  Let rise until doubled (about an hour).


Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  They should be golden brown when done.


Frost with cream cheese icing and enjoy!


Cream cheese icing:
Blend together 4 oz. cream cheese, 4 oz. butter, 1 t. vanilla and 2-3 cups of powdered sugar.  


There it is!  I think they are very yummy.  I will definitely make these again.  


So what are your favorite pumpkin recipes?

Kitchen Mini-Makeover

My journey brought me to my kitchen.  It's a room that I basically haven't touched in about 10 years.  We did a complete renovation of the room 10 years ago and it is something I never want to go through again. Ever.  It was turmoil. It's a story of a contractor who stole thousands of dollars from us and left us without a kitchen for 18 months.  When I say no kitchen, that's exactly what I mean...there was only 2x4s to look at.  I don't ever want to repeat that again...trust me.

So here I am in my kitchen, that is now starting to look a little dated...10 years exactly.  It's almost like a time capsule.  So a plan started to hatch on giving the kitchen a little update.  

I did have a little help or push in that direction.  It started about a year ago when we came home from a week long vacation to a flooded kitchen.  Let's just say that wood flooring under water for a week is not a good thing.  It never recovers...no matter how much you hope it does.  It dies.  My flooring died.  (Insert the sound of a faint bugle here)

This past weekend I started with my mini kitchen make-over.  Flooring was a must.  It was not going to be wood this time!  And since I was not going to do any changes to cabinetry or appliances that left only one other option:  painting the walls.  


So here are the pictures of the finished mini-makeover.  There are no before pictures.  The previous floor was so scary that I didn't want to frighten you.  

No more scary looking floor!  Yay!

Another view of the pretty new floor!

And another!  I am really surprised that the floor space looks so much bigger now.  Big plus for me!

And for the big surprise!  My new wall color!  Yes, not everyone will paint their kitchen walls red, but I did!  Hehehe!  And I love it!

As you can tell, there is not a lot of wall space in the kitchen.  It's mostly cabinetry and tile.  So I think  a big bold splash of color is amazing in this space.  

   So after this little makeover, I have decided that sometimes little changes can have huge impact!  

Finally Done!!!!

What has the smallest square footage in my house?  Yep...you've guessed it.  My hallway.  Yet, it is one of the busiest areas and has the most doors;  seven of them!  


So of course, I decide to give this small space a make-over.  Go figure.  You'd think I'd go for a bigger space and get more bang for my buck.  Not me, I choose the hallway.  So thinking that this would be a somewhat quick project, I embarked on giving the space a make-over.  That was two months ago.  


I am pleased to finally announce that I am done with it! Yay!  Queue the confetti...on second thought...no, I'd have to clean it up.  


The entire hallway make-over began because of my dogs.  They had the opinion that the hallway carpeting was a great place to go potty.  I disagreed.  


The carpeting was ripped out and then the hubster put in the wood flooring for me.  I wanted to put wood flooring in there years ago.  The carpeting guy talked me out of it.  I should have known that he was just trying to sell more carpet.  He said that it would echo too much in there.  Made sense at the time, but upon reflecting on his logic, I had an epiphany.  Who cares if it echos?  Its not as if I am having a party in there!


I love the new flooring.  I love that it looks clean all the time and there are no doggie stains!

I just couldn't stop at the floor.  I had to make changes to the walls and cabinetry.  I guess, I just like to make work for myself!  LOL

The cabinetry before.

And now after.

I re-used the previous knobs and spray painted them ORB.  I was going to buy new ones, but every knob I liked looked like the shape of these.  It was huge savings to re-use the old ones!

Paneling the cabinetry took so much longer than I ever thought it would.  I am in love with the results!  Best of all, it looks like new cabinets and it only cost the fraction of new cabinetry!  

The next part of the make-over were the walls.  Besides a fresh coat of paint, I did a paneled wainscoting treatment over the lower third of the walls. 

Another view of the paneling.

Another change was new door frames.  Yikes!  There were seven of them!

My art work.   Done for $1.00!  I love it!

One final look of the hallway.  I am so glad I am done!!!

Crushed

I know I haven't posted, in.  like.  forever. 

At least it feels like that way.  

It's the start of a new school year and it always seems that my thoughts and attention at the end of every August and at the beginning of September are consumed with getting ready for school.


I tried to keep some of my evenings focused on some sort of DIY project...I really did.  Really.


I've been working on my hallway and trying to update it.   (More on that in another post...I've got pictures too.)  


But, I have come to a screeching halt.  The other night one of my BFTs (best friend tools) died.  My compound mitre saw started sparking, making strange noises, and had a horrible burning smell.  I was crushed...practically inconsolable.  


The hubster thought that maybe it could be revived and tore it apart.  It was so sweet of him to realize how important that saw is to me.  He says the bushings are shot and can not be repaired.   Such a sad prognosis.   sniff, sniff.


So now I am shopping for a new saw.  I just can't live without one!  


I am thinking of getting one that has a laser (ohhh) and has a sliding arm (ahhh).  

Doesn't it look totally amazing?

In the meantime, I  am still trying to update my hallway and I really tried to go old school and use a hand saw and mitre box but I just can't get the same accurate cuts that I can get from the power saw.  

The other day the hubster was talking our wonderful neighbor and he has lent me his mitre saw!  I really did do a little happy dance when he did that!  So I am back in business and the goal is to finally finish the hallway in the next week or two!  Yay!!!

A Young Man's Room: The Make-over

This post is going to have a lot of pictures...a lot...so be prepared!

My son has been away for the summer and I thought it would be a perfect time to give his room a make-over.  It's funny how his room has had the most changes through the years.  But then again, he has had the most changes.  First it was the nursery room, then the little boy's room.  The next transformation was the 'tween to teen room.  Now it is time to make it the young man's room.  

First, I needed to have an inspiration for the room.  A couple of years ago, we went on a family vacation to San Felipe Mexico.  It was one of the best vacations we ever had.  We spent a lot of time collecting shells and my son has always treasured those shells.  I decided that the shells would be my inspiration.  

I loved the white, grey and tan shells.  He also loves teal so I knew I had to have that color as well.

Now for the best part!  Before and After Pictures!!!  Yay!

BEFORE:  As you enter the room

AFTER:  As you enter the room now.

BEFORE

AFTER

I painted the walls a grey color, called Old Driftwood by Better Homes and Garden paint.  The paneled wall and all trim I painted Swiss Coffee by Behr paint.  Let me just say, primer makes painting a much less painful task!  

I updated the ceiling fan by taking it down, tearing it apart and spray painting all the shiny brass oil rubbed bronze.  I then changed out the light kit.  I love, love, love it now.  

BEFORE:  The ceiling fan ...well...actually this is in another room but it looked the same.

AFTER:  The ceiling fan now!

I made new curtains by re-purposing the existing curtains.

BEFORE:  The window and curtains.  

AFTER:  The window and curtains now!

I also decided to put a little detail in the room by adding a paneled wall.  I used a plywood sheet of 1/2" thick MDF and cut it into 4" strips.  Then with some measuring and cutting I used my new favorite tool (the nail gun) and installed a board and batten panel wall.  I think it adds a nice detail to the room.  

His closet needed so much needed attention.  He had a broken door, broken handles and it was very unorganized.  So I repaired the door, replaced the handles, built new shelving, and repainted.  I also added some detail around the closet.  I think it looks much better now.

I think I am going to do this to all the closets now! I am in love!

Close-up of the detail I added to the closet.

Hopefully he can't break these handles now!

To complete the make-over, I added new bedding.  It was a Wal-Mart find and comes from their Homestays collection.  It was very very reasonably priced.  

It was a lot of fun doing this make-over and I am very excited to see his reaction when he comes home.  I hope he loves it as much as I do!

I can do it!

Just look at her!  She looks feminine but yet tough as nails! I love it!

Women in my family have always been strong and tough.    My grandmother was a "Rosie" during the war.  My own mother was the strongest woman I have ever known.  I never have felt as strong as them, but then something happened in my little noodle head last year...I realized I can do it!  

So guess what I did?  I'm so excited!  I laid a tile floor. all. by. myself!  Yep...all by myself!  Do you see me flexing my muscle like "Rosie"?  I can do it!  And it wasn't really all that hard!  

Here is the picture of my finished floor.  Now, admittedly it isn't that big of a space, but I still did it!  

So if you are going to lay a tile floor here are some of my tips:
1.  Make sure the surface is prepped and ready for tile.  You will have to do a little research to find out what you need to do to prep.  Most likely you just need a clean smooth surface.  
2.  You will need "thin set" to use as the glue to attach the tile to the floor.  There are different kinds out there depending on what surface you are tiling.  Just do a little research to see what you need.  I discovered that I needed one with polymers in it...most flooring surfaces do.  
3.  When mixing thin set or grout make sure the mixture is about the consistency of peanut butter.  And mix only what you can use in about 20-30 minutes.  

Spreading the thin set isn't all that difficult.  First you just spread it around, as if spreading butter.  Then use the grooved part of the spreader and hold it at a 35 degree angle and make the grooves.  Use spacers to ensure the tiles are nice and straight.  Thin set must cure for 24 hours...and no walking on it!

When you tile, you will have to use a tile saw.  You can rent one if you don't already have one or can borrow one from someone.  Cutting tile is fun.  Just remember to make sure the saw tub has plenty of water in it.  Also, slow and steady wins the race when cutting tile.  

Spread the grout into all the grooves using a float.  Makes sure all the grooves  are filled in well.  After  20-30 minutes you can use a tile sponge to clean up all the loose grout.  This is where the "magic" happens!  It will look so wonderful!  After an hour, you can wipe down the tile again to get all the haze off.  Stay off of the floor for another 24 hours since the grout needs time to cure.

I am so excited that I did this!  Now on to the kitchen floor!