Project Halloween Tree

A few weeks ago I decided I needed a Halloween tree on my front porch this year that I can hook up to my light timer to light up a dusk every day, why because it makes me happy that's why:) So here's what I did. I took an old small Christmas tree and 2 cans of black spray paint and went to town

Ta Da!!! Then I put some orange lights on it along with some cheap Halloween trinkets from Walmart and  trick or treat sign that I had from my own decorations

 Then I stuck in in one of my flower pots and filled it in with dirt and rocks so it wont blow over in the crazy saratoga springs wind and here is what it looks like on my front porch

 I just love how it turned out! It makes me happy, especially when I drive up at night and its all lit up and cute. I have also been working on another Halloween decoration with my cricket. I'll post it soon hopefully unless I get lazy and don't finish it which is a very good possibility:)

 

Remember that Laundry Room Re Do......

Yeah.... I didn't give up on it but it has just been going really really really slow! So far we have put up bead board, Painted, put up shelf's, hung a drying rack, bought a new 3 bin cloths hamper, bought new storage stuff, ect.  I can't wait to finally finish this room! Here is a sneak peek at a few things I have been working on....
 This is a little yarn letter I made that I saw on pintrist 

 



Recognize that Home Sweet Home print from the Bijou Market?

                       Here is a wood box I bought and painted striped and put my dryer sheets in

Love it , and it is sooo handy!  I also hung up my antique wash board I bought at a flee market way back when I lived in Cali.

                                                  and here is the new 3 bin laundry hamper

Perfect for my lights, whites, and darks! Makes doing laundry so much easier because I don't have to sort them anymore.  Here is a little tutorial of how I made the yarn letter. First I glued 2 cardboard letters together because I couldn't find one that was thick enough

                                  Then I painted them the same color of the yarn I was going to use

                                       Then just wrap and wrap and wrap and WRAP with yarn.

                                                                       and that's it my friend!

Elmers Glue Crackle Paint

Have you ever seen people crackle paint with Elmer's glue? I saw it on a blog and wanted to try it on this big mirror I bought for my bedroom last year. It has been hanging out in the garage all year and this summer I finally pulled it out to paint it. First thing I did was tape it off and spray paint it blue

When that was dry I painted on a thick layer of Elmer's glue. When it was not dry but tacky I painted on a layer of the green paint

Sure enough it started to crackle!

 So Fun! I decided to add some stain and wipe it off just because it drives me crazy when things look too new, I don't know why but then it looked like this

 Then I hung it on my wall in my bedroom right between my closet and bathroom

 Here it is up close

 Sorry the pictures are not that great but I really liked how it turned out and now I know a cheap way to crackle finish stuff.

Snickers Salad

Thought I would share a yummy recipe I made for our book club dessert this month. Its called Snickers salad and it is the perfect fall treat! Here is what you need to do

Cut up 6 Snickers bars into bite size pieces ( I never said this was healthy)

Mix 1/2 cup Powder Sugar, 8 Oz Cream Cheese, and 8 Oz Cool Whip till creamy

Chop 4-6 Granny Smith Apples in bite size pieces add to mixture and stir

Stir in cut up Snickers and sprinkle a few on the top of the mixture, Enjoy!
Its like a delicious creamy caramel apple, So go try it, its good I promise:)

Awkward.....

You know whats awkward, trying to explain what the book "The Help" is all about to your black visiting teacher....very awkward

My BCB's

What does that stand for.... My Book Club Bitches of course! We are not your average book club. I Love getting together with these ladies once a month for some good ol fashion fun:) We always have a blast even if we only talk about the book for oh I don't know, 10 seconds and then its on to eating yummy food, telling funny stories, laughing hysterically and some times putting people with the mouths of a sailor to shame. If people could hear some of our conversations they may be a little shocked to say the least but that is what I love the mostest! Yes the mostest, I didn't miss spell that on accident :) The month of  May book club was at my house and here are a few pic.s from the end of the night 

 Top Row:Amanda, Jeanette, Me Bottom: Cheryl, Nichole & Evie, Dari & Owen

I really love this one because cute lil Jeanette is doing an awesome pose from the movie Bridesmaids

If you haven't seen it, Go! Its seriously the best movie ever! I think I was trying to do it too but didn't get the one winking eye on time ha ha. We were missing Brittney, Whitney, and Kim that night, its always so fun when all of us are there though. We just had our June session up in Salt Lake with the lovley Cheryl as our host. We had it outside at a park by a streem and it was such a pretty night. After we all headed over to the Gateway for some shopping. Gap had an awesome sale, 50% more off clearance items SCORE! I picked up 3 shirts for $28.00, I love a good deal!
I was just looking through my files and found a picture of the set up I did for the last one I did at my house

I have no idea where the pictures of us here are though haha, must be on someone Else's camera. Looking forward to our next meeting at the cheese cake factory on July 19th, we are reading the book "The Help" which reminds me, I gotta go down load it! Happy Reading!

 

Where the heck have I been?

Well I'll tell ya, May was pretty much a blur to me. Work was absolutely insane and crazy with proms, Mothers Day, Memorial Day, Weddings, ect. ect. ect. One of my paychecks from a two week pay period was 95 hours and that made me feel better for being so freaking tired! On top of all of that we have had lots of family in town and nieces birthday parties, oh and I turned 28!!! Yeah not sure how I feel about getting older but I guess I have no choice in that matter:) I did go out to dinner and a movie with my girlfriends for it though here are some pictures from dinner

                     Brittney (and her cheese balls), Jeanette, and Cheryl

    Dari, Me, and Amanda

      Oh and they sang Brazilian happy birthday because we were at a Brazilian steak house and they made me play a tambourine while they sang....it wasn't pretty. I can't believe I am going to post this picture but I can't help but laugh and share it because I look like Chris Farley hahahaha

                              and here are the girls laughing at me

over all I had a great birthday and was way too spoiled! James bought me a pink cricut machine with cartridges and scrapbook paper, a sweet i tunes gift card and a NICE shopping trip for some new cloths and such, which was my favorite of all:) I am looking forward to creating awesome stuff with the cricut as soon as I learn all about the dang machine, my boss bought me a bunch of stuff for it and the program sure cuts a lot which is amazing but again I need to learn how to use it.  Oh and James made me this cute birthday cake

I just like the fact that he actually took the time to go to the store and get all the stuff and bake and decorate it for me. Now that's love right there!  Oh ya, I almost forgot, right before my month of craziness We got a new car. James car was having problems again so we decided to get rid of it and buy this little baby which I refer to as my "Mom" car

 I refer to it as this because it would fit 2 kids nicely and all the crap that goes along with them in the back, also because it is my first marriage car. When we got married we both came in with our cars we had when we were single and dating until now. Oh and the 100 thousand mile warranty wasn't too shabby either;) 

    On the home front the tulips are gone and the peony's are out and they are sooo pretty.

Have to be one of my favorite flowers ever! I hope next year they come up bigger and better, fingers crossed.

Well that's all I have time for at the moment but I have another post from my book club that also happened in May that I will post next time, so stay tuned!

My Religious Entry

Today we went here

and it was great to be there. I received my endowments here almost 7 years ago and it was so nice to get to go there with my husband today. It was honestly the most at peace I have felt in a long time, I wish I could feel the peace I feel there every day. It is so nice to remember what life is really about sometimes, we get so caught up in the every day hustle and bustle its good to remember why we are here. I know, I know, I am getting all spiritual on you but this is just how I feel right now. I am so overwhelmed with feelings of thankfulness and I have been so blessed. I am so thankful for an amazing Husband, Family, and friends. I am thankful for all that I have been given. Sometimes I think it cant be fair because so many go with out. I feel like I really have had it pretty easy compared to some. When I was younger The teachings of the church seemed to me to feel restricting at times but as I have grown and made choices trying to follow those teachings I have realized it is those teachings that have set me free. I really have no drama in my life and have been free of a lot of hard ships. So there you go, this is my religious entry:) just felt like I needed to get it out.

Little Brothers

My little brothers came for a visit this week and we all had a nice time. It was hard for me to think of things for them to do, I am used to girls, we go to lunch and go shopping and we are satisfied:) Boys want activities so one of the things we did was go to Jack and Jill's in Lehi. They have bowling, arcade games, and we did unlimited laser tag. I'll have everyone know I won all the boys on the last round, it made me so happy! I lost at bowling but we wont talk about that.  Jamie won this one game twice, you only have a few chances to hit the 250 ticket mark and he did it twice. We gathered our tickets and got these awesome glasses

Then we were off to I Hop for a way too late dinner. We were in separate cars so on the way there we got some good pictures of the boys in the sexy red echo

when we got home we were still all hopped up on the I Hop and decided we needed another photo shoot with those amazing glasses

don't mind that large empty wall behind my kitchen table, I'm working on it.....well kinda. I just haven't found the right thing to go there:) I have found lots of things I would love to go there but I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars which is what all the things I find to go there cost. Wow that was a long tangent about my wall, sorry. Anyway last night we went out to eat and went to that movie Arthur with Russell Brand. It was a really cute movie and had lots of little funny things through out, we all really liked it. Over all we all had a good visit and are so happy they were able to come stay with us. Love you guys!

Easter Treats!

So I have been baking some Easter goodies to take over to James' Dads house tomorrow and thought I would share them with ya. The first one is called Monkey "Peep Peep" Bread the main ingredients

weird right? I am not all that fond of peeps, I had a severe overdose not to long ago....but we wont talk about that:) So I wasn't sure I could ever eat a peep again until this recipe, so if you hate peeps no worries, you cant even taste them. Here is what you need for the recipe
  INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cans (16.3 ounces) reduced fat buttermilk biscuits (or homemade recipe)
• 3/4 cup pink granulated sugar*
• 16 pink marshmallow Peep bunnies 
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Lightly spray a 9″ circular pan, bread pan, bunt pan, or other pan of choice.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Open both cans of biscuits.  Cut each biscuit into fourths.  Set aside.

 With a pair of tweezers or scissors, gently remove Peep bunny's’ eyes and noses.*I just used my fingers and ripped them off*
In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave marshmallow Peeps, butter, and vanilla extract on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.  Whisk until smooth.

Lightly dip each biscuit fourth into marshmallow mixture, letting excess syrup drip off.  Roll lightly in pink sugar and place in prepared pan.

                                                 Repeat with all remaining biscuit fourths.

 Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through.

                                       Let cool for 10 minutes and turn out of pan on to a plate
  
* Note: To make pink sugar, combined 3/4 cup sugar and 1-3 drops red food coloring in a Ziploc bag.  Shake, occasionally squishing any red sugar clumps that form, until a light pink hue is reached. 

 Its so yummy, and it pulls apart in perfect eating pieces!
The Other thing I made is a vanilla pudding cake, why a vanilla pudding cake because I have a super picky Brother in law who wont eat any good stuff like chocolate, peanut butter, fruit ect. and normally I would just make what I want and he is S.O.L. but I was feeling nice this holiday and thought I would try to make stuff everyone would enjoy:)
Ingredients:

• 1 Large package of white oreo cookies
• 8 oz. package cream cheese
• 16 oz. cool whip
• 1 Large box or 2 small boxes of vanilla pudding
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3 cups milk 
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• graham crackers

crush cookies and graham crackers

 mix butter, powder sugar, and cream cheese till creamy

in a seperate bowl mix pudding, milk and cool whip

Then combine both bowls and mix together

layer cookies and a layer of graham cracker on bottom of baking pan

spread creamy mixture over top

top with the rest of the crushed cookies and graham crackers

cover and refrigerate for a few hours before serving, store in in the fridge.
It really is an EASY and yummy cake. In my family growing up we made it for our cats birthday, yes you heard me right our cats birthday! You put it in a brand new kitty litter pan and  put tootsie rolls on top and serve with a brand new cat pooper scooper, gross right, that was the point, kinda like those dirt cakes with gummy worms. I made a kitty litter cake for a Halloween party where every one had to bring dishes that looked gross and mine was the winner! But it tastes so good you can serve it this way in a glass dish and no one is the wiser haha. Yes Mom I am taking the kitty litter cake to Easter dinner :) Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!