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I won a giveaway!!!

Friday, August 20, 2010

It's true and I couldn't believe it! I won a $20 dollar gift certificate to the Etsy shop Simple Serendipity, hosted by seven thirty three blog!!

Trying to decide which earrings I wanted was a hard decision. She has the darling-est earrings in her shop! If you haven't visited this adorable shop yet, then by all means go take a look! All her sweet little creations are priced from $2.00 up to $5.00! Nothing over $5!! And even the cost of shipping is pretty reasonable. You can barely come out of store with a pair of earrings for that total price!
Well, I was finally able to become decisive over some earrings, and here are the ones I fell most in love with..

Simple Marshmallow


Simple Dew Drops in Mauve


Simple Groovy Blue


Simple Lovely Red

4 pairs of earrings for under $20!!! ( free for me!! ) If I was paying, the total (including shipping to Canada) would come to $18.30!! Not bad!

Aren't they just simply gorgeous!? I'm so excited to wear these!! .. only thing is, I wasn't sure how long it would take for them to arrive so I put our New Brunswick address on the order. Sadly, I won't get to see them for another month. We'll be home the 16th .. AND the 17th is my birthday!! I'll get to wear a pair of these brand new beauties for my birthday! {giggles} A girl always wants to look the cutest on her birthday.. even is she's over 16 and more like turning 26!!

Thank you Simple Serendipity for these darling creations! 
And thank you 733 blog for hosting this fun giveaway! 

.. I shall forever remember this.. the day I actually won something! haha!


Little birthday things

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Today is my friend's birthday and we did a little get-together for her at our place tonight. Here are some of the little things I did to try and make it a little more special for her. 


"Happy Birthday" banner made from construction paper.
 I printed letters in different fonts, cut them out then used them as stencils to cut out the letters from different patterned and colored scrapbook paper. It's hung up by yarn through holes punched through each paper.


It was nothing too fancy...


I made little scripture cards...


.. and placed them on each plate.

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will be glad and rejoice in it"
Psalm 118:24



I love using mason jars for random things...


The forks were for dessert since dinner was pizza.

A homemade bouquet of flowers! 


I made these cutie flowers from coffee filters and pipe cleaner!
The stems are two pipe cleaners twisted together because one wasn't sturdy enough to hold the big flower head. I used my hot glue gun to attach the stem and the yellow middle to the filter.
I filled a mason jar with rice to hold the flower stems still and covered the jar with brown paper.


For dessert I made an oreo mint ice cream cake.
Find out how here!


... it was very yummy.

That's pretty much it. It's nothing huge, but I like to try {as best I can} to make things fun and special. I love dinner get-togethers and always try to make them fun in small ways. It was a fun day for me doing my little plannings.


Oreo mint ice cream cake!

Anyone else in the audience as big a fan of ice cream as me?!?! Its my FAVE-orite sweet and I could be in the mood for it anytime! A few months ago I put my status on facebook as "craving ice cream..." (something on those lines), and you would not believe the comments I got back on that! The majority of the comments went like this, "YOU'RE PREGNANT!!" ... Comments such as that are a SURE sign that you don't know me very well at all. Of course it took my BFF to comment also and say something like, "HELLO! Saying she has a craving for ice cream is SO totally normal for her!!" 

So, in honor of my love for ice cream I thought I would share what I made for my friend's birthday today. 
Oreo mint ice cream cake!!

Here are the ingredients I used for my cake. 
No recipe!! 


oreo cookies
mint chocolate chip ice cream 
cool whip
vanilla instant pudding mix

1. I crushed up more than half the bag of oreo cookies and mixed that with some melted butter, then spread it all over the bottom of the dish for the crust layer. 
2. Mixed vanilla pudding mix according to instructions on the box then mixed in the cool whip with it and spread all of it on top of the cookie crust. 
3. Softened the ice cream by dumping the carton into a large bowl and stirred it around like crazy until it was soft and smooth (didn't want to mess up the pudding/cool whip layer). Then spread all of it on top of the pudding/cool whip layer. 
4. Topped it with more crushed cookies 

ta-da!



T'was very yumalicious and everyone else loved it too! 


Master bedroom dreaming

Monday, August 16, 2010

It's so much fun to dream! I'm currently dreaming about a beautiful master bedroom.
 Here's our master bedroom so far.


We bought a brand new queen size bed when we moved into our apartment in November of 2009. This comforter set was given to us for Christmas. I found our cute little bedside lamps at Walmart for cheap. And don't you love our nightstands?? The room is pretty big, I just never have taken a picture of the whole thing. 

My mom had been working on a quilt for us the summer before we got married and finally finished it a couple of months after Christmas and sent it to us. Didn't she do a great job?! I was really wanting to do our room in browns and greens, like the quilt (I love brown), but now I'm wanting to do more bold and a little brighter of colors.


As you can probably figure, I can't wait to put together a beautiful room for us. For curtains we have a bed sheet pinned up over our mini blinds, and there's absolutely nothing on the walls yet. 

Searching through blogs and other online decor sites, I have found so many inspiring photos of beautiful master bedrooms. Thought I would share what I've found! (Some of the photos I don't remember where I found them. If they're yours, let me know so I can give you credit!)

Here's a comfortable looking room. I love the matching lamps. And notice the nightstands don't match? Very cute and creative to use a stack of books to higher the lamp up to match the height of the other one. My favorite aspect of this room would be the lamps.


Love the headboard here. Dark wood is my favorite look. This room looks real comfy.


The Thriftress 
Not sure if it's just this main wall painted blue, but this photo gives me the idea for it!
 
What an A-dor-able headboard made from painted boards!!!


Centsational Girl 
Okay, this room is a just a little too perfect and clean for my taste, but it's still gorgeous! It's like a haven, and I want our room to have that feeling. I've been spotting lately the two different night stands look, and I'm liking it!


Design Sponge
How unique is this idea?! A folding screen turned into a headboard! .. Is it obvious I'm ranting over headboards a bit? Ya, we don't have one. So I'm practically drooling over every other headboard idea I see! Totally love this one by the way!


All Things Thrifty
Interesting headboard idea. DIY cloth covered canvases. Again love the main wall painted (not sure if that's the case here, but again, gives me the idea). The colors are so fun!
 
LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE this  headboard! This must be my favorite one. Ooh, and adding some decorative ribbon to plain white sheets is a fantastic idea! 

Here are a couple of bedding sets that I randomly came across.. and totally fell in love with! Aren't they beautiful?! Hubby just said he would rather the gray design set over the other. He should be more careful of what he says because if I ever "run into" that set I'm definitely buying it! It would actually go great (I think) with the colors I'd like to do our room in. Black, white and turquoise-ish.



This room is like a cave! Love the wall space for the photos! (for sure I want photos up framed in our room). The bamboo blinds and chandelier give a cozy, romantic, and unique feel.

Nice curtains!


Great idea for an area rug under the bed! The carpeting in our apartment is just hideous! Seriously, a greenish blue! YUCK! ...*ding* I shall buy a rug.



Lovely! A comfy chair in a cozy corner is a must! I just love the idea of "hanging out" in the bedroom. So I want our room to be a room we can just sit and spend time together or just "be" in.


How romantic and pretty! This is made from curtains rods attached to the ceiling. It goes ALL the way around! So super creative!



I pretty much am in love with HIGH beds and this is a perfect example. We don't even have a bed frame yet! But I would love for something like this! This is a nice headboard/footboard set too. I think I would paint it black!


Great example of the colors I might be going for sometime. Maybe not as extreme as this, but those are the colors. I really like those curtains too! I want to find some matching lamps and fix them up and repaint them the turquoise color. FUN! 


A bench at the end of the bed is a pretty sweet aspect.


And just one more idea...
A church pew headboard!! HAHA! I died when I saw this! I wouldn't do it, but I think it's awesome!!

I must needs take a 
break from daydreaming... 

ta ta!

Yeast Doughnuts

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Here's a recipe for yeast doughnuts I made a while back. They were a lot of fun to make up.

Ingredients you need:
1 packages of instant yeast (they're like 1 Tbsp. each I think.. )
1 cup warm water (I used very very warm water)
4 1/2 cups flour
10 tsp unsalted butter (room temp.)
2/3 sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
Oil for frying-- (it takes alot of oil... because if the doughnuts are able to float in the oil then they won't get dark too fast by touching the bottom of the pan)
 
How to make them:
1. Combine the yeast packages and the warm water in a bowl.
2. Add 1 of the 4 1/2 cups of flour to the yeast and water mixture- stir it in with a spoon and let sit for about 30 minutes (I never wait that long!).
3. In separate bowl mix butter and sugar together, then add and mix 1 egg at a time.
4. Add salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg to butter/sugar mixture.
5. (after those 30 minutes are up) add the yeast and water mixture to the butter/sugar/spices mixture, along with the remaining flour. (start mixer on slow then work it up).
6. Grease a large bowl with butter or oil and transfer dough to that bowl. (hehe, I only have one random mixing bowl and I had to use both my large glass measuring cups and that mixing bowl, .. took the dough out of the big bowl and washed it and sprayed it with butter then put the dough back in.. just thought I would share that random piece of info)
7. Cover the dough bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour. (I find that putting my dough on top of the fridge helps it to rise fast. Or if you have an electric oven/stove you can turn on the oven and put your bowl on top of the stove.)
8. When dough is ready (don't worry, it will be sticky and it's okay) roll it or pat it until it is around 1/2-1/4 inch thick.
9. Cut out doughnuts with cutters (I used a little plastic tupperwear food container for the doughnut and the lid from the maple syrup bottle for the doughnut holes).



10. Put the cut out doughnuts on cookies sheets and let rise (put them on the fridge or on the stovetop with oven on..stovetop worked best for me- WORKS, I promise!)
11. Add oil to a pan or wok and preheat to 360* F. (I don't have a thermometer, so I just heated the oil on like medium-ish. I thought the oil had to be on like high heat and super hot, and the first few doughnuts came out super dark and not cooked through as good.. yah don't do that.)
12. Add doughnuts to oil and cook for like a minute on each side. (when you put them in the oil, watch them get big! It's really cool.)  

I held the pan  up a little bit to make a deeper pool of oil so I wouldn't have to use as much oil. The doughnuts shouldn't be touching the bottom of the pan or they'll burn.


 13. Recipe says to remove them with a slotted spoon. I have metal tong type things and they work great.
14. I used a bowl of sugar and a bowl of cinnamon/sugar to roll them in, and I also made a glaze for some.

Glaze:
1/4 cup whole milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Heat milk and vanilla in a pot on medium and then add the powdered sugar, stirring in well. Remove from heat. I did mine wrong (I used a mixer). I also added more powered sugar, but don't do that! I don't think it's suppose to be as thick as what my photo shows) I just dipped each doughnut right inside the pot of glaze.. after it cooled some.

Admire your little beauties then take a bite! 


mmmm.. They were really good! 

Don't they look so pretty in this cake stand?


Enjoy!