Starburst mirror update!

Hi. I cant believe it has been so long since i posted! Ahh I totally missed November! I have been really busy with making dinosaur hoodies. I should be back to posting a little more now that I am caught up on holiday orders.

We bought a new couch this week so I am working on updating our living room.We are also expecting some guests tomorrow for an early Christmas celebration!  I have my first pie in the oven right now! I decided to go with pumpkin because it is my favorite and I already had all the ingredients. I am making fajitas for dinner tomorrow which is also one of my favorites! I hope to post about that this coming week with some new recipes.

I needed a piece of artwork or something to hang above our new couch so I decided to move the starburst mirror I made from the back porch. I also updated it by adding more little mirrors to it. I love the way it sparkles with the christmas tree in lit! ( I couldn't really get a good picture to do it justice but it really brings a lot of light into the room.) You may remember seeing it before in this post.  

I have a few other projects I want to complete for this room. I am hoping to make dye and stencil the existing white curtains, paint the room grey, stencil an area rug and paint the steamer trunk white. I know that is a lot but that's kind of how my brain works so we will see how it goes!  And I will post updates as I complete projects!
Here is some fun pinspiration for you!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Finding My Style

The past several years I feel I have lost my sense of fashion or style. Whatever you want to call it at 24 I find my self feeling uncool a little early in life. I think it started when I felt I needed to transition out of juniors into....womens? I find I am not quite ready for womens at this point either....thus the loss of style and sense of confusion. So I have made it my goal to find my style and build up my wardrobe once again. I would love to not have to stress out about what I am going to wear when we go out places! I also am not particularly wealthy at this point in my life either so I took the next two days off work and I am heading to Columbus to do some thrifting with my sister!! (Its 50% off day!) Yay. I am so excited. So here is some pinspiration for my new found adult style!

So with these photos as my inspiration hopefully I will be able to find some awesome stuff! I will report back with my finds! As long as they are good! =)

Thanks for stopping by!

New shop listing!! Girls Dino Hoodie!

Hi there! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!! I have been busy already. I am hoping to get a lot done this weekend....Although I always hope to get a lot done on the weekends. I hope my motivation stays the whole weekend. Anyway I listed a new item in my etsy shop! And I am so excited about it. (Hence all the exclamation points I am using! haha) I have been working on a dinosaur hoodie for little girls and I finally got it the way I want it. So here it is!! You can also check out the original dinosaur hoodie here.

The girls dino hoodie is available in my etsy shop. It is a custom order item so you can choose from a variety of colors and sizes. I am taking Christmas orders through December 15th so be sure to get them in to me as soon as possible.

As always thanks so much for stopping by!

Black Bean & Salsa Chicken

I didn't take a picture of this one! Boo. I was so excited to eat I totally forgot about taking the picture! This recipe is amazing and super duper simple (yea I just said super duper). Ok here it goes.....

Black Bean & Salsa Chicken

Ingredients

-1 small bag frozen corn

- 1 large jar of salsa (mild, medium, hot, melt your face off hot...whatever you like)

-2 cans black beans

-1 lb of boneless skinless chicken breast (approx. 3-4 breasts depending on size)

Directions

-This part is tricky so stay with me!

-Place chicken in the bottom of crock pot and dump all remaining ingredients on top of it. Put the lid on and cook on LOW for 4-5 hours.  (I like to dump the ingredients in this order although I am not sure it matters...Chicken, Salsa, Black Beans then Corn)

-Easiest crock pot recipe ever! And oh so delicious!

This is great served over brown rice and topped with shredded cheese! I always look forward to taking the leftover to lunch the next day! Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a good week so far!

ZZ Plant

The ZZ plant also known as the Zamioculas Zamiifolia. This plant is simply amazing! I love the dark green glossy leaves and the tall shoots that grow. Not to mention you only have to water it every 4-6 weeks. So if you have the opposite of a green thumb this plant is for you! Bonus. You can literally forget about this plant and it will be just fine. It has large bulb like roots that store water for months. I have seen them at home depot and lowes but I picked mine up at Ikea. I think it was $8 and it had totally outgrown the pot it was in and was literally bulging out of the container (unfortunately I forgot to take before and during process pictures). So I took a large sharp knife and cut the plant in half right down the middle and replanted the two sections in different pots. I did it about a month ago and the plants are both doing great and even growing some new shoots! Two great houseplants for $8 not bad!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a good week! =)

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Hi! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I know I sure did. I had some much needed time to catch up on house work and crafty things.

I have been dying to make something pumpkin! So today I finally did...I made yummy pumpkin spice bread. In case you haven't noticed I really like breads! Remember the Zucchini Spice Bread and Banana Nut Bread.
This was the first time I have made pumpkin bread but I must say I think it turned out quite perfect! I used part of my zucchini bread recipe and part of a recipe I found on allrecipes.com.

Here is the recipe. I hope you will try it and enjoy it as much as I am!

Pumpkin Spice Bread

Ingredients

3 C sugar

1 C vegetable oil

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 (16oz) can solid packed pumpkin

3 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1 1/2 t salt

1 t vanilla

1 T ground cinnamon

1 1/2 t ground nutmeg

1/2 t ground ginger

1/4 t cloves

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat two 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan with cooking spray, and set aside.

2. In large bowl or stand mixer combine sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs. Add pumpkin and mix well. In separate large bowl combine dry ingredients and whisk until smooth (no clumps). Add flour mix about 1 cup at a time. Continue until all flour is mixed in well.

3. Pour evenly into loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.


Enjoy and leave me a comment if you have any questions!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to come back soon for more new posts!

Linking up to....  skiptomylou

Busy, busy, busy!

Eeeek! I can't believe it is October 10th and I haven't posted anything this month!! I am working on some things right now and plan on doing some posting this weekend. I have gone to Columbus the past two weekends to visit family which is always fun. But now I am way behind! I also started an etsy shop and a facebook page! So take a minute and check it all out and be sure to stop back by this weekend to see some new posts!!

Pinterest Obsession

I feel like a lot of people in blogland have been talking lately about their obsession with pinterest so I am going to join right in. I seriously LOVE pinterest! I also love my new iphone which I have the pinterest app downloaded on further fueling my pinterest obsession. For those of you that are unfamiliar with pinterest it is basically like an online bulletin board. You can have as many boards as you want about whatever topics you are interested in. It's AWESOME. So if you are redecorating or just decorating for an upcoming holiday you can pin images you like to your pin boards. So just for fun I am going to share some images from my fall pin board.

Feeling inspired? Great! 

If you haven't joined pinterest yet you should really think about it! It is a lot of fun and a great waste use of your spare time. ;-) You should also follow me on pinterest!

*Original links for images can be found on my pinterest board.

{Before & After}: Patio Furniture

 As part of my screened porch makeover project i decided to update our old patio furniture instead of buying new. Sometimes its best to work with what you've got!

We've had our patio chairs for about 4 years now. And before they were given to us they were my mother in laws for quite some time. They are really sturdy and comfy they just needed a little TLC. So I got to work and cleaned, sanded and spray painted them. Inspired by the lovely couple at young house love I decided to go with oil rubbed bronze or "ORB".

And just for fun...another before and after with different table decor!

I also made these cute little fabric pumpkins. I followed the tutorial on thompson family blog. I had plans to make a whole bunch of these and use up some of my scraps but so far I've only done two. Maybe I will get to them later....maybe not. I have a lot of things I am working on right now!

I am so happy with the way the chairs look now. I was worried about painting the fabric area but it turned out just fine. It is a little late on the year to be updating outdoor furniture but we moved at the end of June so I didn't really get a chance to do it earlier. And now our chairs will be fresh and new when we get them out in the spring!

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to.....
craftaholicsanonymous

Crayon Wreath

Hi. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. I know I am. I love the time I have to work on crafts/projects around the house on the weekend.

I had a request from a friend and super cool teacher to make a crayon wreath for her classroom. And the crayons were on clearance for .40 cents a box! Bonus! I also picked up an 8" and 12" embroidery hoop and some ribbon. All together I only spent about $6.

 Project List

-2 1/2 to 3 boxes 24 count crayons

-8" embroidery hoop

-12" embroidery hoop

 -ribbon

-hot glue gun & extra glue sticks (I used 2)

-I started by placing the smaller hoop inside the larger one. Making sure it was an equal distance away on all sides and the adjustable part of the hoops were at the top.
-Then start gluing the crayons on. Using my hot glue gun I placed a dot of glue on the smaller hoop then a dot on the larger hoop and placed crayon on top.
-Push the crayon into the glue lightly to make sure it is secure. *You do not need a lot of glue just a dot about the size of a pea is fine.
-You can lay the crayons out ahead of time to make sure your spacing is correct. Or (what I did) just space them as you go. I glued them so the ends of the crayons were touching and the tops were about 1/4" apart. (If you make a mistake don't be afraid to pull the crayons off and reglue them. I had to do this a couple times when I first started.)
-Tie ribbon to larger hoop on the adjustable metal part. Feed back through crayons in between the two hoops and tie bow. (Sorry I didn't take a picture of this part hopefully you can tell in the pictures what I did)

 And because my pictures are giving away all my secrets....I bought about 9 boxes of crayons too many. They were only .40 cents a piece and I temporarily lost my mind because I had no idea how many I would need and I didn't want to have to pay full price for them in the event I didn't buy enough and they weren't on after back to school clearance anymore.

*Also when I do any kind of hot gluing project I work on top of a lawn and leaf bag it makes for a super easy clean up. I just keep the same one folded up in my sewing room and use it again and again.

I hope that all makes sense. If you have questions just comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I get the chance.

Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to.....
skiptomylou, makingtheworldcuter

Banana Nut Bread

I had some bananas that were very very brown and in serious need of becoming banana bread. So banana bread they now are. I have tried a few different banana bread recipes in the past and this one is definitely my favorite. Moist and delicious and just the right amount of banana! It is a starbucks recipe...sometimes they pass out little recipe cards telling you how to make the breads and muffins they serve there! Isn't that nice of them.

Where is the recipe? Over at my sisters blog...waughtivebeenupto. Go check it out and see "waught" she has been up to! hehe

Linking up to...
somedaycrafts, 

Fluffy Fall Wreath Fun

I tackled a serious beast of a project this weekend. You might not think a wreath would take all that long to make but this thing is made up of about 400 felt circles. I am so glad I did it though! I love the way it looks hanging on the front door (which I want to paint a fun color now that I have drawn attention to it). This wreath is not an original idea I have seen lots of pictures of them floating around blogland and pinterest. I love the way this wreath looks and in my opinion it is totally worth all the time I put into it.

I used the fluffy felt wreath tutorial from Kristen @ Domestifluff found here.

Hope this inspires you to create some fall decor of your own. I have lots more fall projects in the works and will be posting them when they are finished!

Linking up to...
skiptomylou, makingtheworldcuter, dittledattle, sumossweetstuff, craftomaniac,  sewchatty,   craftaholicsanonymous

Like this project....
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Simple & Hearty Chili

Just in time for football season and those wonderful chilly fall days here is our favorite chili recipe. There are tons of variations when it comes to chili. This one just happens to be our favorite and it is super simple too! We happened upon this recipe through a friends mom who made this chili many times for all of our friends during Ohio State games. Hope you like it! It is not an original it is a Bob Evans recipe.

via

Hearty Chili 

You will need...

-2 lbs Bob Evans Original Roll Sausage (you could substitute the Hot to add a little more kick)

-1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion

-1 package chili seasoning (I use Kroger brand)

-3 cups tomato sauce

-3 cups tomato juice

-1 30oz can kidney or chili beans

Crumble sausage into large dutch oven. Add onions. Cook over medium heat until sausage is browned, stirring occasionally. Drain off any drippings. Stir in seasonings and then remaining ingredients. Bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. 

Or..... You could brown sausage and onions in dutch oven and then add everything to a crock pot, stir and let cook for a few hours (2-4 hours) before serving. I like to do this on the weekends because I can do other things while it is cooking and the flavors are all coming together. Plus it makes the house smell soooo good. 

Enjoy. We like to eat our chili with cheese, oyster crackers and a dollop of sour cream! Yum.