I promised you pics. . . .

It's not totally finished, but I did promise you I'd share photos of Kristen's room makeover this week. I'm joining in with Marla again for a wonderful Woo Hoo Wednesday Party!

First off, when we moved in this house 3 years ago, Kristen's room was one of the first ones I decorated. She was only 6 at the time and decided on a jungle theme. Here's a picture of how the room turned out. It's really tricky getting a good photo of bedrooms, you can never stand far enough back to get it all in the shot!

Kristen was thrilled the night I finally revealed the room to her, complete with a cd playing jungle animal noises, and sparkling lights in the trees.

She couldn't stop jumping for joy on her new tiger rug :-)

So, fast forward 3 years to a 9 yr old who no longer wants a jungle in her room but a wolf den! Don't ask me why, but this girl of mine has a passion for wolves! She loves everything about them, brings library books home from school every week and reads more about them. . . . So, a wolf theme is what we did (and a change around of the furniture).

First you'll notice her bookshelves (from Ikea) in this corner. My plan is to move them to where the bed is, but first I had to paint that wall.

I left the top half blue and painted the bottom a color called 'painted turtle' by Olympic Paints.

Then I added a wolf border.

We moved the shelves to this wall and put back all the toys and books.

Next, it was time to paint the other side. This is where we would place the bed, only Kristen didn't want her bed (she's been sleeping on the floor with her wolves for weeks now!), she wants to sleep in a cave with her wolves! I still needed to put the border on but that night I put the mattress down ready for her to sleep on and try to 'arrange' some kind of canopy for her!

Not exactly how I wanted it, but she loved it :-)

Yesterday I re-did the canopy and added the border. The comforter on the floor is one I got for her bed but we've decided to use it as a rug for now. Look at all of those wolves, and of course she's named every one of them!

The post keeping the canopy up is a speaker stand! I will add some greenery around it to make it blend in better. I still need to add a wolf poster that I have (have to get a frame) and I plan on buying a 'dream catcher' to hang on the wall above the bed.

This is Kristen's little 'wolf display' she set up on one of her shelves!


WOO HOO - SHE LOVES WOLVES!

PW's Cinnamon Rolls

It's time for a PW recipe :-) Melanie picked Cinnamon Rolls for this week. I don't know why but I was rather nervous about this recipe, it was one of the recipes that I couldn't wait to try when I got the book and yet I found myself putting off making it. Not sure what it is about the flour and yeast thing, perhaps because I've never really tried doing it, the only time I've used yeast is in a bread machine, and that does all the work for you! Well that's the fun challenge of working our way through this cookbook, so I knew I would have to give them a try.

The hardest part about this recipe is the waiting! First you have to 'scald' the milk, meaning you heat it up with the sugar and oil on the stove top (don't boil) then you have to let it cool back down to 'warm' then sprinkle on your yeast. Let this sit for a minute and then add your flour. . .

at this point it is looking rather gooey, and yes I'm getting a little more nervous! You then have to put it in a warm spot to rise for an hour. My oven was on so I sat the bowl right next to it in the hopes it was a warm enough place.

an hour later I was even more nervous when it looked even more Gooey!!!

but, I added more flour like it said and was happy to see that it all came together in a nice soft round dough ball :-) BIG sigh of relief here . . . now to roll this thing out to 30"

Pour on melted butter (the recipe calls for 1 cup, but I didn't use all of it, more like 3/4 cup) spread it all around then sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on top. . . .

then you roll it! And apparently it's ok if all the sugar and butter squeezes out as you do!

I got 3 batches out of this, (I actually halved the recipe by the way). Here's two of the pans above, the third pan only had 6 in it, the other 2 had 7. This is an 8" round pan and 7 fit perfectly not touching the sides, so this gives them room to grow as they bake.

First batch out of the oven. I only put one batch in first because I was still cutting the other ones and then I was chatting to Mel on the phone telling her how things were going as I was making them :-) I was getting excited at this point, because they looked and smelled like real yummy cinnamon rolls!

I made the icing like PW says, which is powdered sugar, milk, butter and maple extract, only I didn't have the maple flavoring (I thought I had it otherwise I would have bought some as I wanted to try these exactly as she made them) so I used orange extract instead. - still delicious. Went a bit overboard with the icing on the first batch I think ;-)

Here's the 2 other pans with a little less icing on (because I was running short, having put too much on the first pan!)

And here is my very first ((ever) home made cinnamon roll. Does that not look absolutely delicious? Let me tell you, it was every bit as good as the picture looks - I was in heaven after my first bite!

Verdict: By far THE BEST RECIPE I've made so far from this cookbook, and man I wish I'd made the whole recipe and not just half. I gave one pan of rolls to my neighbor and the two we had left were gone in two days!!!

Notes: The recipe says to not let the rolls get t0o brown, so I took the first batch out after 20 minutes like it says to do. The two other pans (which I baked together) came out a few minutes after 20 minutes (cos I was on the phone to Mel again!) and in hindsight these two pans, being a little browner around the edges tasted even better to me. I think it was the texture, that slight crispness to the edge then sinking your teeth in to doughy, sugary goodness that did it. I am in love with these rolls and will definitely be making another BIG batch soon (well, not too soon, or my waistline will complain!).

YOU HAVE TO TRY THESE!

I'm linking to TMTT and Tasty Tuesday today. Thanks for stopping by. I'd love to return the visit, leave a comment so I can come say hi :-)

Little Project. . . .

Good Morning every body, I hope the sun is shining in your little corner of the world this morning. It's a gorgeous day here in Central Texas, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and it's gonna be a high of 86! They forecast 90 degrees by the end of the week. . . looks like Spring is over in TX!

I had a super busy weekend painting Kristen's bedroom so everything else around the house is a mess (isn't that always the case). I'm about to go out in a few minutes and get a morning walk in before I start on the housework, but first I wanted to share a quick little project I did last Friday.


Remember the lamp project I did recently (above) and I said I had two other smaller table lamps that I needed to do something with too but it wouldn't be the same... well I worked on one this past week and it took me all of 15 minutes :-)

Here's a before picture above (sorry, forgot to get a close up) where you can see the table lamp on the right, just a plain white shade. . . and here it is after a little 'prettying up' . . .

Can you tell what I did to it?

Tea stain! I got the idea from my friend Sadie when she mentioned tea staining some lace recently. I wondered if I could get the same effect on the lamp by simply dabbing it with a wet tea bag, and that's exactly what I did. . . 3 tea bags to be exact!

I simply soaked some teabags in hot water, first tried dipping a cloth in the water and dabbing it on the lamp but it didn't stain much, so then I just squeezed out the tea bag a little and used that... much better effect. Then I added some beads to it . . .

and finally a little tassel I got from Hobby Lobby for just $1.79! I like that the tassel tells me where the switch is (because it's hanging from it) so I'm not fumbling around trying to find it when I turn the lamp on :-)

So, that's my little project. Later this week I'll show pictures of Kristen's finished room. Right now I'm itching to get outside and walk in that beautiful weather. Have a great start to your week.

Linking to Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Thanks everyone for stopping by.

Sunday Musings . . . . April 25

Good Sunday morning to you all :-) I hope you've had a great week and are enjoying a relaxing Sunday. I wish I could say I was, but I decided to paint Kristen's room yesterday and I'm still finishing it off today! So, while I wait for paint to dry (literally), I thought I'd start my Sunday post and look back at the week we've had.

Sad news to start with... Kristen's little hamster Pikachu died on Tuesday :-( Remember a while back I took it to the vet because it was losing it's fur and I had to spend $70 on the visit plus meds - well she seemed to gain some of her fur back and was doing ok, but I'm guessing it was just old age that took her in the end. Kristen was sad when I told her and had a few tears later on, but she hasn't mentioned her since, even though we said we'd bury her but we still haven't gotten round to it because I've been so busy painting her room, and the poor little thing is still in a plastic bag in the garage!!

On to brighter news.... it was 'take your child to work day' on Thursday so at 1pm I picked Kristen up at school and drove her to her Daddy's office where she got to spend the afternoon learning about radars and having snacks with other kids and playing games. They had their fingerprints taken, a special security badge made (just like Daddy wears) and they didn't come home til nearly 6pm! Suffice to say she really enjoyed the afternoon and now can't wait to go again next year.... although she informs me she still wants to be a dog trainer when she grows up and not an 'engineer' ;-)

What's up with me? Well, I have a sinus infection yet again! I won't bore you with all the details but I've been to my ENT and am back on meds so I'm feeling fine, just have a lot of congestion on my chest etc! It hasn't kept me down this week though, so as I mentioned earlier, I started painting Kristen's room yesterday and am finishing that off today. I will share pictures some time next week - and if you're wondering... it's a 'Wolf' theme ;-)

See this? This is our brand new Farmer's Market that opened a few weeks ago (about 10 minutes from us) and that I only found out about last week. So guess where I was on Saturday morning?! I have always wished I could visit a farmer's market on a regular basis, but the closest one to us was about a 50 minute drive away and we've only been once. I was thrilled when I learned about this one. It's held in the parking lot behind our newest cinema from 9am til 1pm. I was told you have to get there early because by even 10.30am a lot of fresh stuff has been sold already.

Now I know we're growing our own veg again this year (or trying to!) but only the lettuce is ready right now so I went along to this to see what the farmers are bringing in right now. I got some fresh broccoli and cauliflower and tomatoes, and snapped a couple of photos on my phone while I was there. The place was crowded and I got there at 9.20am! I didn't stay long but I'll certainly go back again next week. There were other booths selling home made salsas and dips, goats milk soaps, flowers and herbs. There was even live music playing and a lot of people have their dogs with them. One lady was selling flowers in antique kettles and pots. I wanted to snap a picture but I thought she might think I was trying to capture her ideas so I could copy them later! It was a really nice place to wander around.

Well, I think the paint should be dry by now, ready for a second coat. You might not know this, but I actually hate painting... I like the part where I'm putting the room back together best, when I can 'pretty it up' and accessorize ;-) Hopefully I'll be doing that soon. Then I might get out in the garden later this afternoon and do a weekly update post on that too.

Have a wonderfully blessed day, and thanks for stopping by. I appreciate all of you who stop by to read and leave comments, you guys are the best and you make my day.

The Winner.....

Sorry for the delay in announcing a winner. I meant to do it last night but got busy then I did a crazy thing this morning. . . . . . started painting Kristen's bedroom! And I'm still doing it as I type this at 5.50pm on a Saturday evening. It's 80 degrees here today, what was I thinking?

Anyway, I asked Kristen to pick a number between 1 and 14, (14 being the number of comments left on the 'giveaway' post) and she picked. . . . . . drum roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

#7 (her favorite number!)
Congratulations Melody (Cinnamon & Spice)
Email me your address so I can pass it on to Yoplait and have your Spa Gift Pack sent out to you.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to enter. I wish you could all win.

Now I must get back to painting!

It's Friday!

There's still time to enter the Yoplait Spa Pack Giveaway. CLICK HERE to go to the post and leave a comment for a chance to win. I'll be picking a winner later night.

I know I've just shown a lot of pictures that included the flowers on the front porch, but it's Fertilizer Friday, a day to really flaunt our flowers, so I'm joining in again and will show you a few 'up close and personal' shots of what's flowering right now.

My dianthus is looking lovely and really spreading, it seems to get a little bigger each year.

The petunias in the basket have grown and are looking beautiful.

A close up of the pots on the front porch with those pretty new tulip votive holders.

These roses are in my next door neighbors front window. . . lucky me gets to enjoy their beauty too :-)

Trying to add a splash of color out on the back porch I planted some flowers in the pots this week.

Notice the basil in the pot above. I have some in my herb garden but it's not looking too good yet. I couldn't resist this lovely thing, I just love the smell of basil and herbs go great in flower pots for that added scent.

I added a little pot of petunias to the column.

Our blackberry bush is flowering!

The flowers are so pretty and delicate.

And this is our blueberry bush!

Head over to Tootsie Time to visit some other wonderful participants.