I won!!!

WooHew!!! I won my first giveaway today! I was speechless this morning when I pulled up my dashboard...almost dropped my bowl of oatmeal!! The sweet Ms. Kathy is sending me all the goodies soon. She is a very creative gal!! Click on the picture above to visit her blog.

Too Happy for words!!

A Cool Thing

Holy Moly...what a time I've been having here lately. Can't get motivated to do much of anything! I have all these ideas but no spunk! Take this sweet thing I found in the latest PBteen catalog.


This is so what I need in my craft room and my kitchen and my step-daughters room. Goodness maybe I need one of these in every room!! LOL No seriously, this looks to be an easy project....trim, left over piece of pegboard, fabric, 1/4" plywood, chalkboard paint, thin dry erase board...all left over stuff we have lying around the house right? Ahha who am I fooling, it would definitely take some work but I bet I could make it for a whole lot less than $299!!! Oh well guess I'll add this to my ever-growing TO-DO LIST!


Well got to get going on that list and soon. Someone please build a fire under me! :)

Talk to ya soon!

Decking the walls...

I have been so busy this week that my art room has been put on the back burner. It is so annoying because I have no place to work. I'm seeing all these wonderful ideas in blogland and can't even try anything. Well I could spread everything out on the dining room table and work...that is until little man (my 5yr old) realizes that Mommy has her fun stuff out! OH BOY!!

Even though I've been busy, I've managed to take a few pictures of my baseboard installation. If any of you have ever tried to install baseboard, you know it can be very tricky getting the inside corners to match up without leaving a large gap especially if your walls aren't straight. I'd like to show you a little technique to help alleviate gaps in your trim.

Start in the corner of the room and place the straight edge of the baseboard against the corner wall. Don't forget to mitter the opposite end of the trim (see picture at the bottom of this post). I'll explain why in a moment.

So once you have this corner piece installed, you are going to mitter the joining piece of trim that will be installed on the opposite wall. When you mitter the end make sure to cut the 45 degree angle to where the inside of the trim is exposed (see above picture).

Next you will be using a coping saw to remove the exposed wood edge. Be careful and trim the exposed wood making sure to stay on the outside edge of the trim face. If you look close, you can see that the outside edge of my trim is white. By the way...I'm right handed and its very difficult to pretend I'm cutting a piece of wood with my left hand...while my right hand is attempting to take a picture!!! Hubby was simply looking at me mumbling "you're not right!!" A little help here!!! :)

I know your probably scratching your head right now wondering why I just went through all that trouble cutting off that little chunk of wood...Well this is why....

Isn't it SWEET!!! A perfectly matched corner with little gap. This makes caulking much easier!!

Earlier in this post I had said not forget to mitter the opposite end of the trim. The reasons for this little step:

#1: it helps to disguise the seam when two pieces of trim are matched up and

#2: because it allows for movement due to settling. Have you ever seen a house where someone had placed two straight cut trim pieces up together and there was a huge gap between them? Yap I think we've all seen that at one point. Mittering helps give the trim a way to move without creating a large noticeable gap.

Well I hope this helped. I know I didn't use all the professional terminology...but hey I showed you the technique. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Talk to ya soon!

Sweet Halloween Ideas!!

I found these cute Halloween receipts this morning and thought I'd share some of them. Enjoy!!

Frankenstein Brownies

1 box Betty Crocker® Original Supreme brownie mix (with chocolate syrup pouch)
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on brownie mix box
1 container (1 lb) Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
3 drops neon green food color
3 drops neon purple food color
36 candy corn
36 miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits
Betty Crocker® black decorating gel (from 0.68-oz tube)

1.Heat oven to 350°F. Make and bake brownies in 13x9-inch pan as directed on box, using water, oil and eggs. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Cut into 6 rows by 3 rows to make 18 brownies.
2.Divide frosting between 2 small bowls. Add green food color 1 bowl and purple food color to second bowl; mix both until blended. Frost 12 brownies with about 1 tablespoon green frosting; frost remaining brownies with purple frosting.
3.Decorate each brownie with 2 candy corns for neck "bolts" and 2 candy-coated baking bits for eyes. Use decorating gel to add pupils to eyes and draw mouth and hair.

Peanut Butter Spider Cookies

1 pouch Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
36 chewy caramels in milk chocolate
Black or red string licorice
1/3 cup (72) miniature candy-coated chocolate baking bits
Betty Crocker® black decorating gel (from 0.68-oz tube)

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water and egg until dough forms.
2. Shape dough into 36 (1-inch) balls. On ungreased cookie sheets, place 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press 1 chewy caramel in center of each cookie. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.
4. Cut licorice into 8 (2-inch) pieces for each spider. Attach legs by sticking into chewy caramel. Use baking bits for eyes and black gel to make pupils in eyes.

Candy Corn Cookies

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 egg
Orange paste food color
2 oz semisweet chocolate, melted, cooled

1. Line 8x4-inch loaf pan with waxed paper, extending paper over sides of pan. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter and egg until soft dough forms.
2. On work surface, place 3/4 cup dough. Knead desired amount of food color into dough until color is uniform. Press dough evenly in bottom of pan.
3. Divide remaining dough in half. Gently press one half of remaining dough into pan on top of orange dough. On work surface, knead chocolate into remaining dough until color is uniform. Press over plain dough in pan, pressing gently to edge of pan. Refrigerate 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until firm.
4. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove dough from pan. Cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Cut each slice into 5 wedges. On ungreased cookie sheet, place wedges 1 inch apart.
5. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are set and edges are very light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container.

If you would like to see more great Halloween receipt ideas head on over HERE to Miss Betty's.

Talk to ya soon!

Easy Peasy Little Girls Mural

We painted our baby girls room in a medium violet color. Sorry I can't remember the color name off hand...I know its by Valspar! Anyway...I wanted to paint a cute mural above her crib. Me being so indecisive as I am, I decided to do a cute and quick version. A mural that wouldn't take me long to paint but was easy to remove when I change my mind.

I used the crib as a guide. I used a pencil and made a small mark where I wanted the bottom of the mural to be (about eight inches above the top of the crib). Next I painted a large freehand oval with some left over Valspar sample paint. It doesn't matter if the oval is not perfect. You will be adding foliage around the outside that will cover up any imperfections.

I used a two colors of green (lime and forest) and a sunshine yellow to paint the foliage. Starting at the bottom, I worked my way around the oval with strokes of green with yellow highlights. After I was satisfied with my foliage, I applied these sticky back decals to the mural. "Sticky back"...can ya tell I live with a five year old!!! I digress...these decals were purchased at Walmart for $10.

I applied the flowers in such a way that it looked like they were growing out of the painted foliage. I placed the little bird and the butterfly on a blade of grass. The fairies were applied last. Once everything was in place, I noticed that the fairies had glitter on their wings. So I grabbed some Tee shirt glitter paint and brushed it on the background. Hey every fairy need pixie dust!!!

I was please with how it turned out and my daughter loves to look up at it when she's in her crib. It was easy to do and will be easy to change! I like those kind of projects!!

I'm linking up with Met Mondays at BNOTP.

Talk to ya soon!

What a gloomy blah day! Ya ever have those days that ya wish ya could go back to bed? Well that's me today. Hubby was up all last night with the stomach flu and the baby thought it would be cute to wake up and babble for 2 hours. Oh she was very precious babbling away...little stinker!! Those late nights make for long days.

I'm hoping to complete my craft/art studio this weekend so I can share it with you all. All I lack is the trim work and Sheetrock/paint touch ups. I'll try to take lots of pictures of the trim installation...keep ya posted! Well I hope everyone has a blessed weekend.

Talk to ya soon!

Granite countertops

Who doesn't love granite countertops? They give your kitchen a refined, upper end look as well as increasing the value of your home. Who could go wrong installing granite in their kitchen...that is until you go into convulsions looking at the price per a square foot! It's really unbelievable that a slab of granite sales anywhere from $39.00 sq ft to $100.00 sq ft. (supply and demand at its finest people). Now if I had some extra cash, I might could talk myself into $39-$49 a sq ft....but $100 sq ft....don't think so! Pigs would be flying over my house first!

After some Internet research, I found a less expensive option to solid granite slab countertops...granite tiles. You get the same look but for less and hey isn't that what we're all working towards? Take a look at the below picture. You can barely tell its tile. (Look closely to the left side of the picture). Using minimal to no grout lines and a grout that blends with the granite, one can hardly tell the countertops are not solid granite.
(Photo taken from www.easygranitetiles.com)
To see how to's on installing granite tile countertops:

DIY Network's Amy Mathews tutorial on installing granite tile CLICK HERE

OR



The Family Handyman's tutorial CLICK HERE






Hope this give you some new project ideas...I know its got me to thinking!

Have a great week!! Talk to ya soon!