Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Wishes Fulfilled


And so it was Christmas.....

And I'm happy to report it was a good one! My Christmas Eve gathering of family was a success, and everyone LOVED my renovations. My mom had a great Christmas Eve and Day, and I'm glad she had a good time, I worked hard to ensure that, Just in case it is her last Christmas. I surely hope not!

Christmas Breakfast was fantastic, with delicious Mimosas, great company and a excellent breakfast casserole and fruit platter cooked by Chef Aunt Juli! Christmas Dinner was spent at Aunt Sandy's, complete with great game of Texas Hold'Em. Best part - me not cooking!

Plus I got lots of great gifts, including everything I listed on my previous post! Chocolate Brown Uggs, The Dream A Little Necklace, Wii Mario All Stars and Scrapbooking tools.

My amazing thoughtful mom got me a very special gift from Tiffany & Co. It is the beautiful porcelain ornament in the picture above. It is the traditional Tiffany Blue Box, and she said this way I would always have box from Tiffany's on Christmas from her, no matter what happens.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Broadway In Detroit


Yes, I am aware that this is my 3rd blog post in one day. It is the last day of work before the holiday vacation and my stuff is done and I'm anxious to get out!

I have failed to mention that I am an avid theater-goer (turns nose up). I have seen many wonderful plays in Detroit including The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, White Christmas, The Nutcracker, Riverdance, The Sound Of Music, The King and I, and my favorite, Wicked.

I am also proud Oakland University Alumni (no nose turning necessary here), and as an alumni and part of the OU community I am able to score amazing deals on theater tickets - up to half off in some cases. Just last saturday my theater-going buddy, Aunt Juli, and I saw Mary Poppins for just $20, and it was excellent.

So far this year we have been to 3 plays, and we already have 3 planned for early next year: Chicago, Burn The Floor & Mamma Mia. Normally with the high price of tickets, we could only do maybe one or two per year, but this is spectacular.

Silver Lining

There's always a silver lining....or at least I hope. I spent some downtime at work today creating this image of a few pieces I want (and can actually afford) from Tiffany & Co, my favorite store. I'd hate to list all that I want, but can't afford. I am a huge fan of the silver pieces and one day I hope to add these fun, classic pieces to my jewelry box!


Harvest Loaf


If you are looking for a great last minute holiday gift for your neighbors or co-workers, try this delicious Harvest Loaf Cake! It can be made for any winter holiday and is sure to warm the hearts of your family and friends on cold winter days. Homemade baked goods are truly a gift anyone will appreciate. Besides, since most people give cookies or candy for Christmas, this Harvest Loaf is a nice change.

I made 8 mini loaves last night and it only took about 1.5 hours from start to finish! I tripled the recipe and filled 8 mini disposable loaf tins. (6 are gifts, 2 are for our Christmas Morning Breakfast)

Here is the recipe, I got it from one of the personalities on my favorite radio station!

HARVEST LOAF CAKE

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
½ t salt
½ t nutmeg
¼ t ginger
¼ t cloves
¾ cup canned pumpkin
1 pkg (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts, DIVIDED

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beating well. Stir together flour, soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Add to butter mixture alternately with pumpkin, beginning and ending with dry ingredients, beating well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and ¾ cup of the chopped walnuts.

Pour batter into greased 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle with remaining ¼ cup of chopped walnuts. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 65 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool cake. Drizzle glaze over cake. (Note: recipe will easily double, triple or quadruple to make more cakes)

GLAZE
½ cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 T light cream
Dash each of nutmeg and cinnamon

Stir together sugar, cream, nutmeg and cinnamon. Drizzle over cooled Harvest Loaf Cake.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Dear Santa



Christmas is right around the corner, so I thought I would picture some of the few items on my Christmas Gift List. I hope Santa brings me all the goodies I asked for! (I have been really good this year, honest)


Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Ice Cold


Well, winter has officially arrived here in Michigan. The first winter storm of the season blasted the area with 4-6 inches of snow Sunday. It was wet, heavy snow that turned into ice when the temperatures plummeted to 14 degrees that evening. These low tempurature have been hanging around all week, causing roadways to be solid sheets of ice, as salt does not work when it's this frigid.

These past 2 morning drives have been slippery ones, which reminded me of the first time I ever drove on ice...

I was just about 10 or 12 years old and I was up north at my uncle's cottage one winter weekend. The lake was completely frozen and my dad was ice fishing and I was using my new ice skates. My dad frequently let me drive the car up there on the dirt roads, and this time he asked me if I would like to drive on the lake. I didn't know you could do such a thing, but agreed.

I took our minivan out for a ride on the frozen lake to check on our fishing holes, and my dad even taught me how to do wheelies in the car. When we drove by the cottage on the lake, my mom noticed though the kitchen window and was apparently yelling many bad words, and my dad got an earful when we arrived home about how insurance doesn't cover the vehicle when it's not on LAND! We had a great time, so it was worth the trouble.

Needless to say, I'm quite accustomed to driving on ice. I've been doing it for about 10 years or so now.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Holiday Baking


Since I put up my decorations in November, one can only assume that my holiday shopping was complete by the first weekend in December, and you would have assumed right!

Not only are all my presents purchased, but they are wrapped and looking beautiful under the tree. Now the only task is to complete the holiday baking.

I spent the entire weekend baking delicious cookies from scratch for family and friends! I have been helping my mom bake Christmas cookies and fudge every year since I can remember. This year I braved the baking alone, due to my mom's handicap she can no longer help in the kitchen. I missed sharing poorly sung holiday tunes with her as we made all types of Christmas cookies from chocolate chip, peanut butter, Russian teacakes and sugar cookies in holiday shapes. I did her proud, baking all day until I literally ran out of stick butter. I brought her warm cookies from the oven, shared the fudge pot with her, and of course let her roll the Russian Teacakes in powered sugar.

I still have another whole day of baking ahead. Tonight I'll be heading out for more stick butter and baking ingredients! I'm also considering buying a Gingerbread house kit. I have never made one, but I think it might be fun to try, and it would be a cute centerpiece for the Christmas Eve food buffet!

Monday, November 22, 2010

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Now that I have finished my living room, I decided it was time to get decorating for the holidays! I wanted all the decorating and work to be done early so I can spend more time enjoying the holiday ambience.

2 weeks ago I put up the tree, decked out in red, green, gold and silver ornaments only. I love going through the ornaments each year, especially the ones I made as a child, or ones purchased to commemorate a significant life event. This year I decided it was time to add 6 more ornaments to the tree - one for each of my past and present pets! Bronner's Christmas Wonderland is a great place to get personalized ornaments, they hand-paint names, exc for no charge on select ornaments! Living in Michigan, this store is a staple, and pretty much everyone you know has a few ornaments from Bronner's.



On a recent venture to Bronner's I saw they had these beautiful dog bone shaped glass ornaments and you could have your pet's name painted on. I got one for my current dog, Snickers. Then I realized that I should get one for all the dogs i've had in my lifetime and ordered 3 more online. This was wonderful, but I couldn't leave out my kitties, so I got 2 cat ornaments as well.

Also, as we got a new electric fireplace as part of living room re-model, I realized that we needed new Stockings! They are not in this photo, but I have placed an order and soon I'll have Christmas Stockings on a fireplace for the first time in my life! Normally, the stockings were hung on door knobs as we never had a fireplace.

This past weekend, I also managed to put up my outdoor lights and write out my Christmas Cards! The cards are set to mail December 1, and the lights won't be turned on until after Thanksgiving. Scrooges, don't hate!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Recommended Reading


Over the past couple years, now that I am no longer forced to read boring and irrelevant college texts, I am able to get back into reading! The only type of book I generally like to read is murder mysteries with a little romance thrown in, and so far author James Patterson has not let me down. I can get through one of his fast paced books in about 4 hours.

I'm currently in the middle of an ongoing series of books surrounding "The Women's Murder Club" in San Francisco. The fictional Women's Murder Club was founded by SFPD Police Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer and her 3 friends, a reporter, lawyer and medical examiner where they put their heads together to solve tough cases.

The series has 9 books so far, with a 10th due out in 2011. I just finished book 6, which I completed in just 2 days! I'll be reading book 7 this weekend as I venture up north.

If you are in the mood for a good book, check out this series, and be sure to start with book 1, as they sort of build loosely on one another - you won't be disappointed. I've even gotten my mom and neighbor hooked on this series and they are reading the books as I finish and then we discuss them - so I guess you could say I started my own little "Women's Murder Club".

Friday, October 22, 2010

MMM Chili


I'm sitting here at work, super full! Why? Because today our office held the our very own Chili Taste Fest! I got to sample 5 delicious kinds of chili for lunch! It was a great way to reward ourselves for all of our hard work lately, plus enjoy the taste of the season and each other's company!

MMMM Chili!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Modern Living Room

This year I have volunteered to host the family Christmas festivities, for the first time entirely on my own. This endeavor has really inspired me to fast track my home renovations to be completed by the holidays.

I have already completed both bathrooms and the outdoors but biggest undertaking is the living room. My home is a tri-level and the living room was originally a basement. It has been a good 10-12 years since the living room was last painted, decorated or given new furniture.

The blue living room (yes, blue) had to go. Luckily I had a few elements working in my favor. The blue carpet had been replaced with beige carpet 2 years ago, and we have wood paneling and new brown lazy-boy recliner. I had also recently purchased those great dark brown lamps I mentioned in a previous post.


So really, while this room is large in area, it simply needed paint, furniture and a few new accessories. I had already been saving for new furniture so I simply needed to find a set I liked and the accessories to go along with it.

After 3 trips to the furniture store and handfuls of paint samples, the furniture was ordered and I now had a two week window to get the painting done and the old furniture out! The last time the living room was painted, we hired someone, and it took them an entire weekend. Making a time estimate based on the previous time, I was anticipating at least one whole weekend for painting, but it only took me 6 hours. I rock!

Once the furniture was in, I spent several lunch hours at Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and JC Penny's searching for the perfect throw pillows to accent my decor. I ended getting the 2 brown pillows at Pennys, the red ones at Target and the purple ones at Bed Bath & Beyond. The toss pillows that came with the furniture were infused with blue, so clearly they could not be used.

The other decor items consist of framed family photos in great new wrought iron frames displayed on a new bookshelf with other vacation souvenirs. The walls will be decorated with artwork I purchased in Paris on vacation several years ago. I need to purchase one additional piece of wall art and a new HDTV, and that is it!

Everything is complete, except of course hanging the art on the walls and installing that new TV!


Friday, October 15, 2010

A Bathroom On The Beach Part 2

As indicated in a previous post, I transformed my bathroom into a beachy retreat for just $48. Well the cost of my re-model has increased by $150, but well worth it. I decided to ditch the ugly black and white linoleum floor for a neutral, modern ceramic tile matching tile molding, instead of that wood.



The room was about 40 square feet, and the tile was inexpensive at only $0.88 a square foot, but the molding tile was almost $3 for each section! The $150 also included the grout, mortar and grout sealer.



I am very happy with the end result; this tile looks great, and also increased the value of my home! Plus the overall cost of the room still comes in at under $200!


Friday, September 17, 2010

A Tuscan Shed

In order to prolong the life of my shed, and improve the appearance of my backyard, I gave my shed an inexpensive face lift with some rust-olem.


I don't have a before photo, but just picture this shed with gray walls and a black rusted roof and doors.

When I went shopping for Rust-Olem, there were not many colors to choose from in the non-spray variety. I began with the professional rusty metal primer, because the roof of the shed was severely rusted. Then I choose the Gloss Almond color for the shed walls and Leather Brown for the roof and doors.

In just a couple hours my shed went from rusted to looking brand new and I won't have to invest in a new one for several more years. I got many compliments on it from our neighbors. Amazing what a new coat of paint can do! (The picture above is a monarch on the butterfly bush in front of the shed)

A Manicured Landscape

In front of my tuscan-colored home, we have a beautiful lawn and a bricked in garden area. For as many years as I can remember our garden area was occupied by ground-cover with a few shrubs for accent. It was overall to green, with not much color.

I learned earlier in the year when I was told to cut back the ground cover, as you must from time to time, I was allergic. I broke out in hives after touching it. All the more reason to rip it out and beautify the space with mulch and perennials.

This year, I got the first 2 steps complete. Over the course of a few hours here and there I had removed all the ground cover (wearing gloves to prevent the hives of course). I then raked the soil evenly and filled it in with mulch. Next year, I plan to accent the shrubs we have with pot of annuals, in a red/orange/yellow color scheme to compliment the butter color of our brick.


On the right side of the house (pictured above), I was able to get some perennials (mums) in the ground and a new red rhododendron planted. The rhododendron will have red flowers in the spring/summer, while the mums will remain green until late summer/fall. This will provide a great burst of color to this side of the house throughout the year and will compliment our existing japanese maple nicely. I had intended to plant an annual where the white alyssum is now this year, but the alyssum came back from the previous year even though it wasn't supposed to. Next year it will be an annual in red, orange or yellow.




This year, I will plant some tulip and daffodil bulbs on the left side (pictured above) of the house to provide spring color before the pots are completed for the year. 1-2 dark red mums may also still be planted on the left.

I am very excited about the clean look of my front yard and was even more thrilled when my aunt, a master gardener, complimented the "groomed, manicured" look of my yard!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

A Bathroom In The Tropics

While the beach and the tropics may be related, when it comes to decor styles, they can be very different. When someone says beachy to me, I see blues, seashells, exc. As illustrated from my previous post, my half bath is the epitome of beachy.

This post, however is about my first home improvement project - the upstairs bathroom, which is done in a fun tropical style. Until recently, my upstairs bathroom was dark blue - my parents favorite color, practically everything we had was blue. (Now I only have one beachy bathroom. That is of my blue home decor, unless a guest room is done to match the beachy bathroom). So the bathroom had one wall that was dark blue, with white sponge painting. The other walls were white with blue sponge painting. Outdated brass fixtures, and a dingy white medicine cabinet completed the room.


I was tired of this blue bathroom, so my mother asked me what color I would like it to be. Anything but blue really. She suggested mauve. Ok this is not 1950. Mauve, that could be worse than blue. And seriously, the bathroom was pink before my parents re-did it blue.

I suggested green. She agreed. I brought home several paint samples and she kept insisting that it had to be this light green. Well number one, I don't want hospital green. And this blue paint is very dark, hence a darker color needed to be selected. Plus, only a select number of colors would coordinate with the gray counter top, which was not in the budget to be replaced. I choose Behr Herbal Green. She didn't like the color, but I went ahead and bought it anyway. The ceiling was painted Polar Bear White.

I also choose all brushed nickel fixtures, including a new faucet and light fixture. I also knew the decor would be palm trees, because hello - green. I found the perfect palm tree shower curtain and matching window curtains at Bed Bath and Beyond, on clearance! Then I got new towels and shagged bath rugs at Kohls, along with tropical bath accessories such as the waste basket and soap dispenser!

I completed the room by painting the medicine cabinet frame with a brown matching the palm tree bark on the shower curtain. I took the same green wall paint and went over the design with a q-tip. Now that cabinet looks brand new! I also hung a framed painting of a palm tree that we already had in the house.


So downstairs we have the beach, and upstairs the tropics!

Monday, September 13, 2010

A Bathroom On The Beach

Feeling motivated, I decided to take on Sunday morning's project late Saturday night. With only a gallon of paint and a bit of effort and creativity, I transformed my half bath from yellow ugliness (really, who paints a bathroom YELLOW) into a coastal paradise.


Wanting an inexpensive upgrade to my bathroom, I choose a beautiful blue paint to coordinate with my white and chrome fixtures, and the white closet doors. Plus I already had many beach inspired wall plaques that I had collected here and there on clearance, knowing one day I would use them. All I had to buy was the paint, new bath rugs and a new soap dispenser!


With the walls decorated, the shelf was the only place needing something. I put my creative ingenuity to good use to create a great centerpiece. Using shells that I had collected during many Florida vacations, plus a box of polished shells from my cousins in the Kwajalein Islands that was just sitting around and an old unused vase, my centerpiece was born. For the finishing touch, I got a piece of twine, and tied it around the vase, attaching 2 sand dollars to the twine ends. I accented the vase on the shelf using the 2 seahorse candle holders I scored at Kohl's for $3 on clearance!



Total Cost For This Project: $48

Paint: $22 Behr Horizon Haze - the photos don't do the color justice!
New Rug: $14
Soap Container: $12

Friday, September 10, 2010

Snippets From Summer

I have been extremely busy lately, hence the lack of updating! So I figured I would put together this one post with small snippets of what I have been up to lately.

My mom and I took a short, but much needed vacation to Traverse City & Mackinaw City, MI. We had a great time touring wineries, visiting lighthouses - including light spotted on Shepler's Lighthouse Cruise out of Mackinaw. My favorite part of the trip was my parasailing adventure. Thanks to the Traverse Bay Parasailing Co. I got to soar 1200 ft. in the air, taking in a breathtaking view of the Grand Traverse Bay.

After that short summer vacation, I have been extremely busy working on the yard every weekend! My hard work has paid off and my yard is looking beautiful! There is only one side that will need updates next year, along with garden art shopping. I'll be writing up more of my Gardening Adventures series with these changes to come.

September has brought on even more craziness to my busy life, as I take on another dance class and the Dale Carnegie Course! So far I'm having a great time at both classes.

The first weekend (Labor Day) in September was also spent doing lots of fun activities. Each Labor Day the Mackinac Bridge is open to walkers, usually some 50K people walk the 5.6 mile journey across the 3rd largest suspension bridge in the world, right her in our great state of Michigan. I have walked the bridge several times, and not only did I walk the bridge, but I pushed my mom in her wheelchair the entire way! I'm glad I she could enjoy it without walking as she could in the past!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Cleatus The Robot


With my summer gardening projects almost complete and the 50 degree temperatures that blanketed metro Detroit last night, it's safe to say that fall is almost upon us. I'm not quite ready to give up the warm temperatures, but I'm definable ready to watch some football!

As I countdown to the NFL Kickoff, I think it's fitting to offer my own commentary about the robot mascot for The NFL On FOX. I recently discovered that this Robot has a name, Cleatus, as chosen by a viewer. Cleatus action figures are now also for sale from each NFL team in their online stores, as I also recently discovered. Thank gosh for the internet!

Anyway, My father and I spent countless hours making fun of this robot and his movements throughout the game breaks. A robot dressed in football pads showing off terrible dance moves was not our idea of a great football mascot, but alas we are not only stuck with this robot but the Lions as well. We watched as Cleatus went from awful dance moves to swinging baseball bats during the world series, playing guitar and even breaking a wishbone with the Burger King Macsot on Thanksgiving (seriously). Cleatus did however get beaten by The Terminator once. My dad and I always wondered what Cleatus would do next.

I wish this were more to this fascinating story, but really my dad and I simply enjoyed making fun of this robot almost as much as we enjoyed yelling at the Lions' ridiculous play calling.

Even though my dad is no longer watching the games with me, whenever I see Cleatus do something stupid, I know that I would be able to tell him and he would laugh.

So here's to football season! LET'S GO LIONS! Ok that was going a bit too far...

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Tornado!


Last Thursday at about 7:30pm in Macomb County, Michigan 2 tornados touched down. I just happened to be right in them middle of one.

I was at a local restaurant finishing dinner with my best friend. Outside the sun was shining, but we heard a couple rumbles of thunder and decided to leave and get home before the rain. Little did we know, we drove right into a Tornado!

By the time I got in my car and drove to the restaurant driveway, it was pouring rain and my car was shaking back and forth. I slowly turned out onto the roadway, barley able to see the vehicle in front of me. Within a few seconds I was at a complete stop as hail battered my car, and all I could see was pure white. I was terrified, waiting for some news on the radio as to what was going on, but no warnings were forth coming. As the hail lessened and I could move forward, cars were moving out of the way due to a tree in the middle of the now flooded street. And just as soon as it hit, it stopped. I drove slowly the 2 miles home with shaking hands, dodging stray shopping carts, signs and other debris. As I walked in my front door, the sirens went off. A little late for that.

Upon arriving home, the local weather man informed me that in fact it was a Tornado that I drove though. Crazy!

Gardening Adventures

Lou Erickson once said "Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration."

As a recent graduate from the school of gardening, this quote couldn't be more true. Until recently, I never realized how challenging and time consuming maintaining our outdoor space was. And, as it turns out, I have discovered that I have quite the green thumb. In my "Gardening Adventures" posts, follow my journey as I transform my yard into a much more beautiful space.

My gardening lessons began out of necessity this year. I've had to take on the challenging role of "the family gardener," and it has been quite the job. Having the mastered keeping the grass cut and fertilized last summer, my first challenge was presented after we removed out pool: Growing New Grass. Last summer when a storm blew through, we simply bought some sod to replace a large area of grass. This summer sod was not in the budget, so grass seed it was. I assumed this would be a piece of cake: buy some grass seed, put it down, watch it grow. Wrong. After putting the grass seed down, the birds quickly ate at most of it and weeds quickly filled my newly laid topsoil. I had to spend 2 weekends weeding the area and laying Patchmaster. I learned that this had to be watered twice a day for about 2 months now for beautiful grass to fill in. (I'm also still weeding it weekly.)

Our vegetable garden was my next backyard challenge, which resulted in a 50% success. I began by planting tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and green beans. My tomato plants and green pepper plants flourished - there have been many stir-frys and tomato salads for dinner! However my cucumber plants and green beans didn't fare as well. The cucumbers fell victim to garden rabbits who promptly dug them up after I had planted them. My green bean plants were producing tons of green beans, enough for several dinners, until my dog Snickers ate the beans from the plant. in the process she had chewed the plant down so badly, it died. Lesson learned: place all plants in cages to protect from backyard pests!

Stay tuned for more of my Gardening Adventures!