Friday Inspiration File #156

Friday Inspiration File #156

 

Hello and Happy Friday!

We've had a bit f a warm up at the end of the week and I couldn't be happier.

It's still barely reached 50 degrees, but I'll take it.

We even saw the sun yesterday!

 

We have begun work on one of the bathrooms upstairs.  Finally, after almost 9 years of living in this house, we are getting rid of the 1960's powder blue tile.  The room has been totally gutted and we are starting from scratch. 

Our master bath is very small, just a shower, toilet, and sink. 

In the end we hope to have something like this:

 

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I love the subway tile and the octagons on the floor.

And when this one's done, it's on to the guest bath.

That one currently has pink sinks and a pink tub!

 

My Favorite Place

Just a little peek inside my craft room!  I took them with my iPhone so they are a little grainy.  I love my new space.  It still needs some more things on the walls and I want to refinish the tabletop on my work surface, but I love it.  I love just being in there even if I am just writing out bills or checking email on my phone!  To the left of my desk is a huge double window that looks out at the front of the house.  I can watch *my* birds fly into the tree and the neighborhood kids playing. 

Thanks for coming by today!

Transformation

Ryan is really working hard to make my space beautiful!! 

It's getting there:)

The Kitchen is Done

It went from this.....

to this............

To this!

It still needs some finishing touches and a table and chairs, but basically we are done. It was a lot of work and it took us 2 months, but it was worth it.

To christen the new kitchen, we made pizzas. We used a pizza stone my mom had given us and they came out delicious!

Winter Break

Winter break has officially begun. The kids at school have been so excited these last few days. It has been almost impossible to get them to sit in their seats long enough to get anything done. It is so nice to have this time off. Tomorrow we will be going to visit my nephews and help them make cookies for Santa and give them their gifts.

Oh yeah, did I mention the cabinets are in? Ryan, his dad, and his brother installed them this weekend. We still have some work to do, like the molding and kick plate. We will be ordering our counter top on the day after Christmas because they are running a sale.

We are getting there. I tried another cookie recipe that went over well. I tried two actually, but Ryan said the other ones tasted like dog treats!:) I think I used too much flour. I didn't realize until after that the recipe said to spoon the flour into the measuring cup rather than pack it in. Oh well, they looked cute.

The other cookies turned out delicious. They are Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from Cooking Light. They are not too peanut buttery, which I like. Ryan liked them a lot too. The favorite so far is still the Molasses cookies though. I'm making more tomorrow.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies:

Yield

3 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 2/3 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate mini chips

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Combine first 8 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.

3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture, stirring just until combined. Stir in mini chips. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

128 (32% from fat)

Fat:

4.5g (sat 1.1g,mono 2.2g,poly 1g)

Protein:

2.3g

Carbohydrate:

20.5g

Fiber:

0.6g

Cholesterol:

6mg

Iron:

0.8mg

Sodium:

106mg

Calcium:

16mg

Kathy Farrell-Kingsley, Cooking Light, DECEMBER 2008

It's Beginning...

...to look a lot like Christmas.

I got a surprise in the mail yesterday. Thanks to Robin..........

.........he's mine

The cabinets also arrived this morning. Guess what we'll be doing this weekend:)

One more (beautiful) thing before I go. Check out Yulia Brodskaya's work.

photo from here

Have a great weekend!

Bad Dog

The floors are in and sanding and finishing them tomorrow. They look awesome. Ryan blended them into the hallway and did such a good job.

This is what I came home to this afternoon. Ryan had left a bag of peanuts out and Lady thought that meant they were for her:) I really can't complain though, she is such a good dog.

First Snow

We worked on the floors all day yesterday. We hit a snag that held us up a bit, but we finally came up with a plan that worked perfectly. All I'll say is that nothing in this house is level, plum, or square:) (you can see the paint color here too) Ryan's dad came to help today which gives me some time to get some laundry done and try the molasses cookie recipe. The dough is in the freezer now.

By the time we stopped working, last night, it was snowing! Lady really needed her walk since we had sort of neglected her all day. Sometimes she is so puppy-like. She loves to hop around in the snow.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Oh Joy!

It has been raining here all day. I did some grocery shopping and then I spent the rest of the afternoon in my craft room. Rainy days are the best for staying in and crafting. Even my husband has been working on his model airplanes and making a big pot of soup.

I have a few projects to share today. All use Cosmo Cricket's Oh Joy paper. First is a gift box made out of a used wine bottle cylinder. Super easy, just covered with a 12x12 sheet of paper using Tacky Tape.

Then I made a box set of Christmas cards. The box is really easy to make using this video tutorial. Angie's blog is full of video tutorials for all sorts of great projects. So glad I found it.

Then to fill the it, I made 6 cards that measure 4.5x5.5 inches and fit perfectly inside the box.

The kitchen is coming along. Renovations always get worse before they get better. Everything is torn apart and you think to yourself, "Oh no, What have we done?" Then you start putting it back together and you can start to see how it will look when it is finished. We got the drywall in this weekend and started thinking about paint colors. So far I like Wild Artichoke by Valspar.

We still have a lot to do, but from here on out it will look better and better:) I'm excited!