Dare to DIY: Easy Fudge Recipe

This week for Dare to DIY we are sharing our favorite Christmas cookie recipe. What are my favorite Christmas cookies? Well, they're not cookies at all. They're fudge. I love fudge with a passion, and two years ago I set out to learn how to make it so I could gain 10lbs over the Christmas season enjoy the fruit of my labor. I first tried a recipe that was a lot more complicated, and it used marshmallow fluff, which I am not a fan of. It also required watching the temperature of the fudge and yada yada, other complicated things. Not my cup of tea. So last year I did some research and found this amazing fudge recipe from Carnation that is the simplest recipe you ever did see. It's oh so chocolate-y, light, smooth and creamy.

credit

Carnation Famous Fudge Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup (5 fl.-oz. can) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Milk
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups (9 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

LINE 8-inch-square baking pan with foil.

COMBINE sugar, evaporated milk, butter and salt in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

STIR in marshmallows, morsels, nuts and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until marshmallows are melted. Pour into prepared baking pan; refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces.

The best part about this fudge recipe is that it can easily be modified for different flavors. There are so many great flavored chips out there, You can easily sub in a cup of peanut butter/chocolate swirls, or peppermint, or white chocolate and dark chocolate. Then you can give a variety of fudge flavors with your Christmas cookies! That is, of course, if you haven't eaten it all by then. :-)

Enjoy! Be sure to check out all the other yummy cookie recipes over at Kim's!

Linked to DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Original recipe here

Summer Goals Revisited

Well, it looks like despite the fact that we had a very busy summer, we actually managed to accomplish quite a bit!

Our to do list for the summer was as follows:

1. Turn up the curb appeal
2. Refinish a dresser
3. Refinish floors in living and dining room
4. Paint kitchen walls, possibly cabinets too.
5. Finish guest room, living room and master bedroom
6. Begin next four big projects: front entryway, back entryway, office and basement

At the end of the summer, here is where we stand.

Turn up the curb appeal. CHECK

Refinish this dresser. DONE

Finish the living room, master bedroom and guest room

Read all about it here

and here

and here.

Begin next four big projects:

The entryway, which we began and finished this summer.

and also the back entryway (which is in progress), the basement (also in progress) and the office (never started that one)

Refinish floors in living and dining room POSTPONED (due to basement renovation) We decided we didn't want to be tracking dust and renovation garbage all over our newly refinished floors. This one got pushed out indefinitely.

Paint kitchen walls, possibly cabinets too. Painting the walls was relatively easy, and I can't believe I haven't shown you pictures yet! The walls are all done, and my plan is to paint the cabinets slowly, throughout the winter.

All in all, I'd say we did a pretty good job with our goals. I'm happy with what we got accomplished, and I am looking forward to getting even more done!

Dare to DIY: A Creative and Simple Table Setting

It's time for another Dare to DIY party! I am having so much fun creating stuff for these parties! Too bad there are only four left! This week's dare was... Dare to Entertain!

I could have set up the whole table for a big Thanksgiving dinner, but instead I made a pretty little setting for two. Lover and I love to have romantic dinners together, so I thought I'd set the scene for dinner. Lover will probably cook for this dinner, as he is the gourmet chef, I am just the regular chef who subs in every once in a while :-)

I purposely went for rich, saturated colors, as our everyday dishes are a smooth creamy color and I use a lot of neutral colors. Every once in a while I get in the mood for color and today was one of those days. :-) So we have big red dinner plates, mustard colored salad plates, and little fall colored bowls for soup.

The star of this table is the happy little centerpiece. Obviously, this is the time of year we focus on giving thanks, but you could easily adapt this idea for any time of year! The back row (Give) is held up with large pinecones, and it was super easy to slip the letters for Thanks into slits I cut into the apples. The apples are resting on split green peas on a tray that I made over about a month ago. I made the letters by printing out the words in MS Word, in the first font that caught my eye. I printed them on cardstock so they'd be a little sturdier.

Speaking of being thankful, as I looked at this table setting, I realized that almost everything there was a gift to us! The placemats were a Christmas gift from Lover's grandma, the plates from some dear friends of ours, the bowls and silverware were from my mom. The napkins were a wedding gift, and the little wine glasses were from Lover's mom. Isn't that neat? We are so blessed.

There are a couple of details that really make a table, in my opinion.

Real dishes. There's just no substitute for real dishes, glasses and silverware, and it really classes things up.

Real napkins. I usually just roll them up and slip them through napkin rings, but if you are feeling fancy (like I was today!) you can fold them in a pretty pattern. I found this site online with tons of ways to fold napkins.

Candles. Candles are indispensable, at least to me! These little amber glasses are holding tea lights, and they're doing a great job of bringing the ambiance and romance!

So there you have it. A simple yet creative table setting for two. Obviously you could adapt this for a whole table if you needed to. Now that you are done reading about my fun this week, go check out the other creative table settings!

Linked to the Dare to DIY Party @ Newlywoodwards

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Friday Favs: The Lettered Cottage

Do you know about The Lettered Cottage? No? Well, is it one of my favorite blogs. This is Layla and her husband Kevin,

and they live at the Lettered Cottage.

Layla's vision for their basic old home is amazing, and it is so fun to watch as they slowly transform each room into something truly spectacular.

Take the dining room, for example. It used to look like this:

and now it looks like this:

Isn't that beautiful? I love that picture ledge, and all of the soft textures and neutrals that work together.

They also carved out a little reading room, so pretty!

Their kitchen is beautiful, and those are just builder's grade cabinets that they made over with some black paint and extra moulding!

You can practically hear the ocean outside of the guest room,

and they just finished their hallway transformation. How lucky were they to have all that great wood underneath drywall?

They're currently working on renovating the guest bathroom, and I am really looking forward to yet another fabulous before and after! Go ahead, head on over to their fun blog, I'll still be here when you're done. :-)

To Be My Husband's Wife: Part 6

For the rest of the posts in this series, click here.

It's now November of 2009, which means that I am just one month away from my two year anniversary at this "job." And I have to say that I've never been happier. Staying at home allows me so much freedom and flexibility. I can work on my photography, schedule shoots at my convenience, and I have the time to do a good job for my clients. I can pursue any number of creative ventures, like finally learning to play piano, paint watercolors, and refinish furniture. I can keep my home the way I like it, clean, organized and welcoming.

We bought quite the fixer-upper when we got this castle, and being home means that I can put a lot of hours into transforming this house. If I was working fulltime, we'd either live and breathe renovations on the weekends, or the renovations would last for decades. This way we can get the bulk of the hard work done together, and then I can take over with the spackling, sanding, priming, painting, staining, etc. We've only been in the house for 19 months, but we've accomplished so much in that time.

And of course, I have the time to devote to this blog. :-) I've always loved writing, and this is the perfect outlet for me to do that, as well as document the transformation our house is going through.

I also mentioned that Lover's new job has him traveling quite a bit. When he was hired he was told it would be 25%, but in reality it's been closer to 30-35% travel. He goes all over the country, sometimes with lots of notice, and sometimes he literally comes home in the middle of the day, packs his bags and catches a plane an hour later. The fact that I am at home means that I can see him whenever he is free, and I can fit my schedule around his. If he's going in late that day, I can spend the morning with him. If he's going on a long road trip for a minimal amount of work, I'll tag along. We spend the trip hanging out and talking, then he'll drop me off at a coffee shop or a mall, do his work, then pick me up. That way I get to see him even when he puts in 12 hour days.

When his trips are more that a week or so, I usually get to tag along. The first year we went to New York City for two weeks, and had the time of our lives. Our dream is to move there someday, so that trip was a ton of fun. This year we went to Tampa Bay, and spent two weeks down in sunny Florida. The extra travel is perfect for me, as I grew up traveling all around, and I get bored staying in one place for too long.

Of course, there are still the people that make silly remarks. Just the other day I got "I could never just sit around at home all day, I'd be so bored." And yes, if I just sat around all day, I'd be bored too! Some people have an idyllic view of what I must do all day. The reality is that I work hard, but I also play hard too. And I think that balance is one of the reasons that I am so happy.

I also appreciate my husband more. Obviously, this would not be possible for me if he did not work hard to provide. Now I can appreciate the gift he's given me, and I can work hard to make his hard earned money go as far as possible.

But the most important reason, I think, that I stay home, is because of the benefit that it is to our marriage. Remember when I talked about how all I wanted was to be successful? Now I want a successful marriage. I've certainly got my work cut out for me. The National Center for Health Statistics recently released a report which found that 43% of first marriages end in separation or divorce within 15 years. This means that four out of every ten couples decide to call it quits before they reach their "crystal" anniversary.

Unfortunately, there are no statistics for the remaining 57% of couples who do not divorce within those 15 years. Are they happy? Are they still in love? Are they enduring this thing called marriage, or are they still wild about each other?

In this day and age, couples who enter into a marriage have a difficult time ahead of them. The statistics are apalling, making you wonder if anyone can succeed. A good friend of mine who is also a counselor once told me that she sits at weddings and wonders to herself how long it will be before that couple comes to her in the counseling room. Isn't that sad?

I now have the availability to be with my husband when he is free. I have the time to plan special events, to make our home our "nest", to know if there's something that needs to be improved in our marriage. I'm not exhausted from a long day at the office, nor am I too wrapped up in my own life to notice and appreciate him. And our marriage is better because of it.

My goal is to be able to say, now, and much, much later, that we have had a "successful" marriage. That we will reach the fifteen year mark and say "Here's to another blissful 15 years!" That people will remark that we look so in love, and ask if we are newlyweds. And that our answer will be, no matter how long it's been,

Yes.

Stare at My Staircase Party

I'm joining up to Stare at My Staircase Party over at The Stories of A to Z. Beth did a fabulous job revamping her staircase, and I thought I'd join in and share our little stairway's transformation!

We started with this yucky picture, with the stained stair treads but unfinished risers. Boring white walls just added to the dreariness.

Then I saw a picture where someone had glued wallpaper border to the risers of their stairs, and I thought, hey, I bet that would work for our stairs! So I found some for a few bucks, and after about an hour's worth of work, the stairs were definitely looking better.

The walls have a bluish cast to them in the picture, which is ironic because just a few months later we painted the stairway a lovely blue-gray. The color is perfect for the area, and I am so in love with it. And then, because our house is a castle, we added pictures of castles all along the wide stairs. They are all castles from Spain, and Lover and I have been to all but one of them.

So what do you think? A pretty decent transformation, no? I think it's pretty awesome. The other stairway transformations are just as fab, so head over to the party to check them out!

The Real Edward Cullen

My brothers and soon to be sister in law were over last night and we somehow got on the topic of the New Moon premiere. I'm not a Twilight fan, but Steph is, and she is super excited to see the new film. We were talking about the idea of vampires, etc. and my brother said something so hilarious I had to share;

So, Edward Cullen doesn't bite people like a vampire, right? Right.

And he lives in the forest, right? Right.

And he sparkles in the sunlight right? Right.

And practically flies, right? Right.

So, he's actually not a vampire. He's not?

Nope, he's a fairy.

Image credit

Dare to DIY: A Thanksgiving Project

I'm participating in Kim at Newlywoodward's Dare to DIY Blog Party. This week our challenge was to Dare to be Thankful! Here's my contribution to the party.

I've had a Thanksgiving tradition for the last few years where I find some time to sit down and make a list of the things in my life that I am thankful for. It's always such a refreshing time as I realize just how blessed I am, and how very much I have to be thankful for.

This year I wanted to make a little frame that we could use each Thanksgiving to list the things that we are thankful for. Jen from A Thousand Words made a menu plan a while back that she did by repurposing a picture frame, and I adapted that idea for this project.

I went to my favorite store, Goodwill, and found a great tabletop frame that would work for the project. Sadly, it was not 50% off, and it definitely needed a makeover! I actually liked the border, but the whole frame was a little too 80's. :-)

I first painted the frame with a warm brown color that I made by mixing two of my brown craft paints together.

It took two coats to cover the shiny black and gold, but once they were dry, the frame had a whole new look. I took a wet paper towel and rubbed little parts of the brown off to show the gold on the edges again, just to give the color some dimension.

I had fun painting little fall colored leaves over the frame, and I even attempted painting some letters onto the bottom to spell out Thanksgiving.

To finish it up, I just popped some pretty paper inside the frame, and cleaned the glass. Then, with a wet erase marker I could just write the things I am thankful for over the next week or so leading up to Thanksgiving. Then, when the holiday is over, I can wipe it clean and save it for next year!

I thought the frame looked a little lonely on its own, so I set it with a vase of fall colored mums and an origami turkey that I made following this set of instructions.

Hope you enjoyed my little Thanksgiving project. Be sure to check back next week to see what Kim is challenging us to DIY!

Also linked to Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri

Made It Mondays @ Persimmon Perch

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

Friday Favs: Country Music

I don't believe I had ever heard a country song in my life before I moved back to the States when I was 19. I had a vague notion that there was an entire genre of music labeled "country" and I even told a joke about it.

What happens when you play a country song backwards?

-You get your truck, your girl and your dog back.

Funny, and oftentimes true. I discovered, however, that I really liked country music. I remember that first year back in the States, listening to Brad Paisley's Mud On the Tires, and Andy Griggs' She Thinks She Needs Me. Lover introduced me to George Strait, Tim McGraw and Garth Brooks.

I like the corny country songs like She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy, or Sold! They're fun to sing along to, and they usually make me laugh and put me in a good mood. But the reason I love country music is the love songs. I could list dozens and dozens of songs that make me happy, make me cry, remind me of the love I have, remind me why I love Lover. I'll suffer through the silly cliche songs just to hear Love Story again. It's currently my favorite love song.

And then there's my all time favorite duo, Tim and Faith, and their latest duet I Need You.

And who can forget the iconic George Strait, and one of his many #1 hits, Check Yes or No?

This is the song that Lover used to ask me out, and it made my heart melt, just a little. :-)

And that's just a sampling of my favorites. I have dozens on CD and on my computer. What about you? Do you like country music?

What's your favorite song right now, and what's your favorite all time song?

To Be My Husband's Wife: Part 5

For all the posts in this series, click here

The mortgage company strung me along for the next two months, promising me that "next week" they would have news about when I could start. We were fine financially, because from the beginning we had chosen to live off of Lover's income, and we only used mine for extras. So money wasn't a problem. How to occupy myself, however, was. We lived in a little apartment that I could clean in two hours, and the two of us didn't make much laundry. In other words, I didn't have a lot to occupy my time. I began to focus on my photography, and did several shoots over those two months. I also lined up a few clients that I would be doing regular shoots with over the next year.

In August I got a job at the mall, selling men's suits. The pay was terrible, but they offered health insurance, and my college insurance had just run out. The insurance that was offered at Lover's job was ridiculously expensive, so we figured this was the best idea. I put in about twenty hours a week at the mall, and the job was very low stress and quite fun actually.

Then in October, Lover got a new job, where he is now. The pay rate increased significantly, and they offered insurance. We began to discuss the idea of me quitting my part time job when his insurance kicked in. I was getting busier with photography, and it was starting to interfere with the hours I was working at the mall, especially on weekends. Lover's new job also required at least 25% travel, and there was a possibility that I would be able to travel with him at times. Obviously, I would not be able to go with him if I was holding down a regular job.

Lover encouraged me to take the leap to quit the mall job at the end of December. We were looking at buying a house, my photography was keeping me busy, and we now had insurance through his new job. Plus, they were cutting my hours and responsibilities, so there was really no reason to stay. We put in an offer on Wendhurst Castle, and it was accepted.

Looking at the upcoming year, I knew that my photography would keep me as busy as I wanted, there was the possibility of traveling with Lover, and we had just purchased an old home that was going to need a LOT of work to become liveable. With all of that in mind, we made the decision that I would quit my job and stay at home. This is definitely one of the scariest decisions I have ever made. I was afraid that I would become insanely bored, that I would be judged by peers, family and friends, that I would become a "boring housewife."

Next week I'll wrap up this series and tell you how things have worked out so far with my little adventure of becoming a stay at home wife.

Dare To DIY

Kim over at Newlywoodwards has invited me to be a part of her Dare To DIY party extravaganza. Over the next six weeks she's daring us to do a bunch of different projects, and share them all through a very fun party! I am so excited. Head on over to her blog to get all the details, and then start your planning! The first week's theme is Dare to BE THANKFUL, so I am trying to come up with a fun project. What do you think I should do?

Project Curb Appeal - The Final Reveal!

The day has finally come to reveal our finished Project Curb Appeal. It is hard to believe that we started this project four months ago, and we are just finishing up now. I really expected to have this done a lot sooner. However, time and money crunches meant that we finished it up just in the nick of time, before winter reared its ugly head. Here's where we started,

And here's Wendhurst Castle's new look.

If you recall, in this post I laid out the grand plan for amping up our exterior's appeal, and doing it on a dime. I even did a little Photoshop mockup of what the house would look like once everything was repaired, painted and restored, and the plants had matured.

We worked on each part of the project as we got a chance over the summer, and into fall. Of course, we had the rainiest summer I can remember in a long time, so that made the painting projects difficult. It was great for all the new plants though, I have to say. I hardly had to water.

The first thing we did was tear out the old bushes, which I showed you here. We talked about finding a great deal on Ebay for the boxwoods that we wanted, and picking up a few daylilies for color. I also showed you how I made over the little garden area by the stairs, with some free plants, some annuals and a happy mum.

I also wanted big, showy baskets of petunias hanging from the porch roof. While you won't see them in the final after, they hung on the porch for most of the summer, and looked beautiful. :-) Here's a little mosaic of the various plants we put in throughout the summer.

The bushes really took off once summer started cooling down. There are a couple that are looking decidedly less stick-ish, and much more bushy.

In July I painted the front door and the trim around it. I am so in love with the colors that we chose, and the door looks fantastic now. Quite a difference from the way it looked when we first moved in!

Also in July, Lover and I tackled the broken down, falling apart porch stairs. We had never worked with concrete before, so there was definitely a learning curve, but they turned out fantastic. They're so much safer, and they look great! I have to give credit where credit is due here, and say that Lover did 99% of this project. My handsome hubby has got mad skillz!

In August I blogged about the fantastic deal we got on a hanging, craftsman style pendant. This lovely light only set us back 30 buckaroos, but what it did for the house's looks is priceless. I am seriously so in love with this light. :-)

Painting the windowsills and the porch floor was easy enough, other than trying to find a time when it wasn't raining. The sills all got a couple of coats of Valspar's Native Henna (the color of the trim around the door)

and the floor is Kilz' Antique Spice (matched to Glidden's Porch and Floor paint). It's such a rich, warm brown, I love it.

I found two plastic pots at Big Lots that I transformed into cool metal looking planters with a bunch of spray paint. Then I scored big time at Home Depot with their 50% perennial sale (end of season) and picked up two Dwarf Arborvitae. These bright little evergreens will grow to be about three feet tall, just the right height to the give the door an extra special touch. I'm planning on weaving little white lights through them for Christmas.

And did you see the awesome, fabulous mailbox hanging on the wall next to the door? Lover made it for me. Yep, that's right, he made it. Because he is awesome like that. This was the picture I showed him, when I asked him to make it for me.

And this is what he created for me.

Isn't he awesome? Previously we had a sorry, rusted metal mailbox that just wasn't cutting it. Last summer I quickly sprayed it black to hide the rust, but it was still ugly. This wooden one is so much prettier, and the mail actually fits into it. Novel concept, I know.

So there you have it. A house's transformation from blah to gorgeous that was relatively easy on manpower hours and the wallet. Here's a breakdown of the cost:

• Paint for door, trim, and floor $60
• Plants for landscaping (including two kinds of boxwoods, daylilies, mums, and clematis, and evergreens for porch) $72
• Porch Light $30
• Supplies for stair repair $75
• Chairs for porch $45
• Table for porch $1
• Pots for evergreens and daylilies $40
• Planter for stairs $7

Grand Total: $330

Not bad overall. There are still some little items on our to-do list, as always. I had originally intended to replace the house numbers, but I haven't decided where they should move to yet, and we need to come up with a solution for seeing them at night. We also want to install spotlights on the large trees that flank the porch, but we haven't found the right solution for that either. We can't run electrical because there's a sidewalk in the way, and we haven't found a strong enough solar light yet. And, we have to add the ceiling medallion to the light fixture to cover up the hole the previous light left. But I have to say, I love coming home now, and the sight of our house makes me smile every time. :-)

Linked to:

It's So Very Creative @ It's So Very Cheri

Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on The Porch

Room a Month @ Shades of Pink

Fall festival @ DIY Showoff

Made It Monday @ Persimmon Perch

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land