Ice Cream Ornaments

Oh man, the mother of all snow storms is hitting us. Yesterday, not a flake of snow on the ground.

This is what I woke up to this morning:

This blizzard is supposed to drop an entire 14 inches on us. Oh well, that's what you get for living in the U.P.

In honor of the area starting to FINALLY look festive, I have a fun, festive treat to share with you.

Ice Cream Ornaments

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This one's perfect if you have kiddos.

Supplies

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-Ice cream (I used vanilla)

-Sprinkles

-Twizzlers Pull N Peel

-Mini Resses peanut butter cups

-Wax paper

-Cookie sheet

Directions

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1. Lay out a sheet of wax paper on your cookie sheet.

2. Scoop some ice cream into a ball and place on your cookie sheet (try to make it as round as possible!)

3. Stick it in the freezer while you are getting the other parts ready.
4. Start making the tops. Unwrap a peanut butter cup and turn it upside down.
5. Make two holes on the top with a skewer.
6. Break off a piece of Twizzler and shove each end into the holes.
7. Pop those into the freezer also, to harden.
8. Once you have waited about 30 minutes, get the sprinkles set for your kids (or yourself!). Bring out the cookie sheet.

9. Let them go nuts!

10. Refreeze if you are using them for a party, or let everyone dig in right away! This is what ours looked like in the end:
Festive, right?

Now I'm about to throw on my shoes (because for some reason I haven't owned boots since I was 10........dumb......) and I'm going out to shovel the porches and driveway for a free workout! Toodles!

What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

What wouldn't I do for something free?!

At work last night, we were promoting our Karen Neuberger line of intimates. Buy a pair of pajamas or socks, you get a free gift.

The deal was that if I wear the pajamas to promote them, I got to keep them.

5 hours of humiliation for expensive ($72 to be exact) pajamas? Where do I sign up?!

This is me working. Sorry for the quality. Can't complain when I only had a camera phone with me.

The best part was that I originally came to work in high heeled boots (of course not knowing about the promotion).

Yep, I got strange looks, some giggles, and a whole lot of stares, but as I type this, still wearing my Karen Neuberger pajamas, I can honestly say: TOTALLY WORTH IT! lol

So what would you do for some free loot?

Wedding Photography

I've been breaking my back (almost literally) on my newest reveal, so I have nothing new and exciting to show you.
BUT
I wanted to show you my wedding photo's new home: above the entertainment center.

If you live in my Wisconsin/U.P area, then you MUST check out my wedding photographer's website.
http://www.jennphotodesign.com/
Even if you don't live in my area, check out the site anyways.
You will find more pictures of me (my engagement photos), you can check out her blog, or at least get ideas on how to take awesome photos! She does great work!
Now go check it out!
And tell Jenn that I say hi ;)

Thanksgiving; Whimsical Alphabet

First off, happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Today I'm going to share a fun activity that you can do with your kids after you get done with all your festivities.

Whimsical Alphabet

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I had those fridge alphabets. I'm not a big fan of having my house look like a circus tent. BUT my son's learning his alphabet, so I thought it would be a good idea to get them. Let's make them look better, though, shall we?

Supplies

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-alphabet magnets (I picked mine up at Walmart for only $1)

-spray paint (I picked white to match my fridge. Pick whatever color matches your fridge)

-Xacto knife

-Scrapbook paper

-glue

-spray poly

Directions

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1. Lay out your magnets on a protected surface.

2. Spray paint all your pieces. It will take a few coats. Make sure you use something made for plastic, like Krylon Fusion.
3. Pick out your card stock. I liked this print.
4. Apply glue to the faces of the letters, then press them on your paper, face down.
5. Carefully cut around your letters with an Xacto knife. Then place them on a protected surface, face up. Give them a really good coat of spray poly.
6. Let dry, then place them on your fridge. Sorry, I just had to give myself a shameless plug

Have a great holiday, and remember: stay safe if you are going out shopping tomorrow! Even the nicest people turn ugly tomorrow!

Coming up Next...

Oh my, oh my. I'm breaking tons of promises lately.
Where to start?

First, I promised to show off a bunch of rooms of my mother's gorgeous renovations, but we were able to come back to our house sooner than I thought. Yesterday, actually. But I did manage to snap a photo on my way out. She has this awesome 4 pillared porch. I would LOVE to have that at my house, but it would mean a crazy construction project.
So here's a sampling of her porch.

And I also promised to show off my dressed table with my nice china. Monday was my only day I could have done it this week, and of course I was at my mother's.
But I won't disappoint you! I'll be doing them for an early Christmas dinner. So look for that in the next few days!


So, let's talk about what we have coming up.

Whimsical Alphabet, Two creative wreaths (don't miss these, they are the coolest things ever!), tons and tons of ornaments I will be showing you how to make, sneak peeks of the newest reveal (it's coming along faster than expected!), highlights of our annual Festival of Lights, fun Christmas recipes, and more. Stick around, I have a full agenda for you guys!

When it rains, it pours

Oh my poor neglected blog.
I won't be able to show you any new projects for a while. The breaker at my house is toast. The part is shipping from California and should arrive by this Friday.
I have no heat or electricity, so for the meantime I am staying at Casa De Mom's ;)

So, since I don't want you to get bored for the next week, I will be highlighting some of my mother's rooms.
She has a gorgeous 2-story house. She has been tirelessly working to remodel it. So I will be showing you all of her beautiful remodels.
And maybe I'll show off some of my step-dad's "toys" as well.

You don't want to miss this. This woman can seriously decorate. Plus you may get a little glimpse of my childhood.

Overall, I think it should be a fun time.

Peek-a-boo!

I busted through that "roadblock" on my BIG REVEAL!

So now I'm just doing a few minor touch-ups, and it will be done!

Unfortunately, I don't have much time to do it today.

I'm going to try REALLY hard to get this posted by the weekend. But don't hate me if it's later!

I'm not even going to explain how busy this coming week is. It's brutal.

BUT I will give you a peek!

Mountains? I don't know....

Almost!

The staircase is completely done!

I was going to show you it tonight, but I'm pooped.

Plus I have a crazy hard exam tomorrow morning that I need to study for.

And I need to make supper soon.

So.....yeah, you're waiting one more day.

But I'll give you a little peek:

And here's a little quirk of mine:
I like to work out in the workshop in my husband's shoes.
I don't like dragging sawdust all over my house, and his shoes are easier to quick slip on since I make 1,000 trips from the house to the workshop every day.
He thinks I'm weird ;)

Fridges, washers, and headaches

I told you that I was getting two major purchases soon. Well, it's a new fridge and washer.

Here's my new fridge:

Yes, there's already all of my junk all over it.

Two problems: 1. I didn't have a water hook-up for the water and ice dispensers , but I installed the plumbing ALL BY MYSELF!!! 2. The outlet is on the side of this "fridge cubby" in my walls. The cords get in the way of moving this all the way back, so now it's sticking halfway out into my kitchen. My step dad is re-wiring that this Sunday, THANK GOODNESS!

But it wasn't easy going to get this fridge. I had to learn a very useful Craigslist lesson. Don't buy anything electrical if it's far away! I asked this guy 5,000 times if the fridge I was purchasing worked well. He assured me that it did. I get there, it doesn't work. I'm so pissed that he says he'll give it to me for free. My brain fogged over with the word free.

Did anyone else know that it costs money to drain the freon in order for a fridge to go to the dump? I forgot =P So now I'm paying $30 for a fridge that I got swindled into taking:

There it is hanging out in my driveway waiting to be taken away.


And you all saw my Yooper fridge. It's still hanging out on my back deck waiting to be delivered to my in-laws' house. Their garage fridge tanked on them.

So with the two fridges that I'm getting rid of, my new fridge, plus my garage (beer) fridge, there are FOUR fridges here! It's looking pretty white trash around here.....lol.

Anyways, so with that headache done, I finally got my new washer. I'm so excited because my laundry is piled to the rafters.

We run the first load......and OF COURSE my pipes are clogged. Luckily, my mom has a crazy heavy duty snake, so she's coming to snake out my drains tonight.

Do you ever have one of those days (or 2 weeks....) where it seems nothing can come easily? Or go right?

Stick around for some awesome things I have brewing.

Energy Efficient Yooper Fridge

I have this awesome energy efficient Yooper fridge. Your fridge may use very little electricity, but mine uses NO electricity. Only works well in late fall through winter in the northern states.
There's my husband grabbing a beer from our new Yooper (upper peninsula of Michigan) deck fridge.





Alright, seriously, we were just moving our old fridge out. I have a new white side by side that we just installed, and we found our Yooper fridge to be quite comical. I hope you did, too! =D

Life Lessons

I have learned many life lessons from friends and family. Some are good, some not so good, but all are important.

I'm going to share with you one of my favorite life lessons that my Aunt Cathy (unknowingly) taught me:
Don't take life too seriously.

Simple!

Do you want proof that this woman's living the life?

Aunt Cathy's husband, Tom, has a trail cam set up in their yard to watch the deer stealing apples from their apple tree. One day, Tom checked his trail cam, and this is what he found was stealing those apples.....

Sasquatch!!!!

Then Sasquatch started doing the gangsta dance...

=D Cracks me up every time.

The moral of this story: Don't take everything so seriously! Whether it be in decorating, cooking, creating, or just life in general, just have fun with it!

Thank you Aunt Cathy for being the goofy person you are! ;)

Alright, one last sneak peek until the big reveal tomorrow!

Ooo, that's dusty....darn it.

Coming up: BIG REVEAL, tiered topiaries, wall vase, ANOTHER BIG PROJECT (I had an amazing day thrift shopping...), and starting Nov. 1st, I will be sharing my chronicles from Nesting Place's "31 Days To A Better Dressed Nest"

eBay rocks!

I want everyone to know the importance of always checking eBay before you commit to buying anything.

Ya know how I haven't been posting any pictures? Well, not only is my SD card at my ma's, but my camera battery went dead, and I'm almost positive that I left the charger in a hotel 3 hours away. So I went to Walmart to look at a universal charger. $50. Ouch. So I told the associate that I was going to check my manufacturer's website first before committing to buy theirs. The manufacturer's price? $67. Double ouch. I really can't afford that right now.

So I check eBay. Almost instantly I find the one I need. $7.75. Nice! But what's the catch? I read everything thoroughly, and I couldn't find one. It came from a reputable seller, there was a 30 day money back guarantee, AND a 1 year warranty. And it's a two-way charger: a regular plug and a car charger! And here's the kicker: free shipping!! I ended up paying $8.75 because I wanted the shipping insurance, but still!

Did I score a deal or what?

So, the whole reason for this post is to mainly tell you that you're still going to wait for all my projects. It'll give me time to perfect everything, plus maybe start another one. But I promise, as soon as the charger comes in, I'll be posting some awesome things for you!

Busy Bee

Alright, so here's my excuses for my absence:


1. I made some awesome cupcakes. No recipes. I just used the boxed stuff. They didn't last long. I left the house for a while, and my "garbage disposal" took the liberty of eating most of them.

2. We went to my cousin's wedding. It was by far the most gorgeous wedding I've ever attended. I'm so glad to have welcomed a lovely lady to our family. Pictured left to right: Elisa (my sister-in-law), Ethan (my nephew), Will, John, Hailey (my kids), Joe (my husband), and me!

3. The morning after the wedding, we brought my family to the zoo!

4. I've been staining parts of my railings. I did this on my front porch earlier this summer. It's a very tedious, annoying job, so I've put off doing my back deck. But since I had the stain out for my faux french door, I decided to start the railings again.

5 & 6. A before and after of a pot that I spray painted an aged gold. It looks much better in my kitchen. I've also re-potted 4 other plants in my house. The poor buggers were choking themselves in their roots. It seems like all I do is re-pot when I have 28 house plants. (Jungle?)

So there's a little recap. Today I'm working on a very small project, and I'll give you a how-to on how to do this simple procedure flawlessly tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Work hard, Play harder

I almost fell asleep at the wheel today. That was pretty scary.
I've just been so busy. Like today:
-Made a trellis
-Made a room divider
-Mowed the lawn
-Weed-wacked
-Painted a table to carry the drink tub
-Wrapped up 30 spoons/forks/knives into cute little festive napkins
-Unclogged the gutters
-Installed more gutter screens
-Swept the deck and washed the wicker cushions
-Commuted to school, took a test
-Went shopping for the party
-Painted the porch railings
-Hung all my plants.
-Potted a butt-load of flowers
-Began cleaning the house
-Helped my husband install our new digital antennae
-Filled all the bird feeders

I didn't know I could do so much within a day. I'm so exhausted, but yet I still have to give one more coat of paint to my bathroom remodel before it's done. So up and coming posts:
Bathroom remodel
How-To screen room divider
How-To Trellis
Update pics of the patio
4th of July recipes and decor

Stay tuned!

Up and Coming Party

It's that time of year again! Our 3rd annual 4th of July bash!

It's the one holiday that I get to host all by myself! It's becoming quite the friends and family event (to the point that people that I generally don't see make appearances).

I can't give away my party plans as of yet. I like to suprise everyone with decor and food, but it will be amazing!

BUT I will be making a fun themed desert that I will be posting a recipe for. So stay tuned for that!

So now I just have to finish up the 23 random unfinished projects (bathroom reno and patio come to mind?) around the house and everything will be all set!

And a special thanks to Cindy & Troy. This party will definately be the best yet thanks to your help with the concrete patio! I appreciate it a million times over!

Father's Day

Sorry I haven't done much on here for the past few days.

Father's Day:
-Woke up to pain that actually made me deaf in my left ear. I either pulled a muscle or moved a disk. All I know is that my head won't turn left.
-Grumpy for reasons unmentionable
-Sad b/c I miss my dad terribly and wishing that I could still celebrate this day with him.
-Proud of myself for suprising my husband with a trip that he LOVED with the kids.
-Annoyed that I got a speeding ticket for going 60 in a 55. Must be the end of the month =P
-Happy that my step-dad enjoyed his father's day gift
-Heart-broken to see my cat dieing. Poor guy couldn't even lift his head....18 years was a good run though.

So Father's Day wasn't the best we've ever had.


My dearly departed----