a few things i am working on....

i am notorious for not finishing projects. or buying craft supplies for a project and then not even starting it. i think my husband is this way too, except it concerns house projects and not craft projects. put us together and things get put off. we ripped up the carpet in our dining/sitting room a few months back and have yet to fill all the holes around the outside. it took us months to smooth out our front yard after getting a new sewer line put in. our garage currently houses five projects that have yet to be finished (or even started) which means that both our cars are sitting in the driveway.

siiiigh...i have tried to change this trait about myself for quite sometime. but no luck. i have come to accept the fact that i am definitely a Project Starter and very rarely a Project Finish-er. and i am okay with that:)

here are a few projects i am working on right now:

1. creating my own jewelry frame, a la this. mine will look a little different, but will have the same vibe. i have all the pieces and parts, just gotta get it done!

2. a sunburst mirror for my living room. inspiration found here. status: the wooden dowels have been glued and glued and glued, but the whole shebang needs spray painted. pictures to come! (hopefully)

3. refinishing an old dresser that brandon and i snagged at an estate sale....for 15 bucks! we have been needing a new dresser since, well....forever, and this one was perfect! i need to slap a few coats of paint on it and add some new hardware and it will be fab. my plan is to get some paint today (!) and start working on it.

4. refinishing an old side table found at the same estate sale. the table was $10 and it was screaming for some love and a makeover. it has now been sanded and is ready for a pop of color.

these are just a few. BUT, three out of four of these will be done by the weekend. why the rush? it's Operation Make Over My Bedroom Weekend. my mom is coming over and we are going to hack out as much as we can. walls are getting painted, curtain rods will be hung (dad, wanna help?) and refinished furniture will be brought in. brandon will be at a golf tournament and will come home to an entirely different room to sleep in. lucky guy, eh? i'm calling it his Father's Day present this year:)

let's hope that by next week, i will have many pictures to show you all. and if i don't, maybe in a few months:)

happy wednesday!

ps.....can you believe it's june already?! the older i get, the faster the time flies. and to think that i was just complaining that it was january.....

Memorial Day Gooey Goody

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

I don't know about you, but it's been a great weekend filled with family, food, and fun. I think I'm pretty pooped, and so is Hurley as he's passed out while I'm typing this.

I forgot to tell you guys that Hurley turned one on the 26th! I can't believe my baby is already one! Seriously, if I get this sentimental about my puppy, what in the world kind of wreck am I going to be when I am a mom to human babies! 

Anyway, I know that Maggie just posted a cookie recipe (which I am dying to try-aren't you?! I mean come on...how can you get much better than Nutella cookies?!), but I have to give you a recipe that has just made it's way into my family's heart and is going to stay for a while!

Maggie actually made them for the dessert portion of our house tour, and that's when my sister, mom, and I fell in love. She got them originally from Iowa Girl Eats website, and it's also posted on our good friend's blog Eating, Exploring & Enjoying. Both have awesome pictures (sorry, I didn't take the time to take pics), so please head on over to one of those sites to check out the pics!

Anyway, I decided to make them for an extended family get together this weekend, and I kid you not they were gone in like seconds. I was glad I had doubled the recipe!

Here's the recipe (taken from Iowa Girl Eats) with my added comments:

Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies 

Yield: 24 cookies (I would recommend at least doubling the recipe, if not more!)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
24 rolos
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter and sugars until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla then mix until combined.
2. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt & cocoa powder. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three batches, mixing well between each batch. Chill dough for 1 hour in the fridge or 20-30 minutes in the freezer. (I had to keep my dough longer in the freezer...basically you just need to get it cold enough so that it's easy to work with, otherwise it's so sticky it's impossible to wrap around the Rolos!)
3. Scoop out ~1 Tablespoon dough and wrap it around a Rolo candy (I rolled it again to work it back into a ball, which kept it together nicely and made rolling in the sugar easier). Roll dough in sugar and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, rotating pan half way through. Enjoy!


Seriously, this recipe is so simple, yet you feel like you've really made something fancy with the gooey caramel on the inside! Let me know if you decide to try them (you should).    :)

cookies for breakfast. why not?

i have been eating cookies for breakfast for the past week. no, i'm not pregnant:) but that's how good these cookies are!! i originally fell upon this cookie recipe while browsing pinterest.com and my life hasn't been the same since:) the recipe originated from the blog, Lovin' From the Oven and can be found here.

image found here

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temp.
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar (i didn't have light, so i used regular and they were still awesome!)
• 2/3 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (didn't have semisweet, but milk works just as well)

Directions

1. Mix together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.
2. Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg.
3. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips.
4. Chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 11 minutes until the edges look set. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully remove to cooling racks.

i really loved the texture and the combination of the cinnamon and Nutella...let me know if you try these!

A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Yesterday was so beautiful and it was the first time in a long while that Eric and I did not have any plans! So...we decided to do something we've been wanting to do for a while, and since you've already seen both Maggie's and Rachel's lovely flowers, I thought I would show you the work Eric and I are proud of!

It's no secret that I adore flowers and love the idea of somehow making a living by working with them. I really have no skills, but it's a passion that I would love to pursue and so what better place to start than in my own back yard?!

Off to HyVee we went to pick out all of our goodies!! Here is what came of our hard work yesterday afternoon (p.s. I LOVE that I have a husband that will do yard work with me!)

We loved these colors and the fact that they looked kinda tropical!

 It's kinda hard to see in this pic, but this pot color is one of my favorites! I was so excited when I saw this color at HyVee. By the way, HyVee has decently priced pots (which is very hard to come by!)

 Home sweet home :)

A closer view of the two pots (still hard to see the pretty blue). They didn't have two in the same style, but we thought it would still turn out ok, which it did--we were pleased!

 Anyone guess what we are growing here?!

If you guessed JALAPENOS, then you are RIGHT!

 Cilantro...mmmm....we loooove cilantro. It just makes everything better.

Anyone notice the cute buddy in the background? :)

 Cherry tomatoes.

 One of the other flowers we planted in a small pot on our outdoor table. I loved the looks of these guys, and I guess they are pretty hearty.

One of my co-workers gave me some Cana Bulbs to plant...we'll see how it goes. I hope they actually grow...I would be so happy! I'll let you know how that goes :)

So, this is really our first try with any of this stuff. I would be thrilled if everything survives!

What have you planted this year?

P.S. Any words of wisdom from our seasoned growers out there?!

We all have a story...

So, I know you've heard about the Women of Faith conference this weekend and how much we loved it.  It was definitely wonderful to be there with some of the most important people in my life.

 My mother-in-law and I.

Smile pretty!

Like the good ol' days.

There were many speakers but the one I was most excited about was Angie Smith.  I was like a teenage girl at a Justin Beiber concert as I waited for her to go on stage.  She is an amazing woman of God that I have loved for the past three years after hearing the story of her daughter that was "incompatible with life".  If you haven't done so already, you should check out her story (under the tab "Audrey's Story").  INCREDIBLE.

She's so raw and real and is the epitome of what it means to lean on Christ during the storm.  She is open about her struggles and you feel her pain along with her.  I feel like I know her, as do many other woman across the country.

The best picture I could get of Angie, down by the ledge signing a book with her husband (Todd Smith of Selah). 

Besides Angie's portion of the conference, each speaker touched me in one way or another.  Luci Swindoll talked about her life and the adventure it's been.  She never married or had children but that has NOT held her back from God's blessings.  She talked about how we should pursue our God-given dreams and when someone asks us why we did, we can simply say, "Because no one told me I couldn't".  It was a beautiful story of a rich and abundant life, of living in the moment and appreciating every step along the way.  I hope that when I am her age, I can be even a little like her and look back on my life with pride and contentment.

Luci speaking.

Wells Fargo was packed!

The amazing worship team.

There was story after story of God's power in the midst of hardship, His love in the midst of pain and His redemption of tragedy.  I tell you what, if I was given the chance to stand in front of 5,000 women and talk about my Lord and Savior, I would make sure they know all that He has brought me OUT of, and the abundant life He has lead me IN to.

My relationship with Him is not a figment of my imagination and I could share time after time of His unfailing love just in my own life.  If you knew me before I became a Christian in high school, you will know I am a different person than I used to be.  He has brought me out of such dark places that I never could have walked alone.  Of course, I still have struggles like everyone else, but they aren't the same as they used to be. I am fulfilling my purpose in this World and have a life better than I could have ever dreamed.

Maybe someday soon, I will share my story more in depth with you.  But watching all these amazing women at WOF talk about the highs and lows of their faith-walk was so inspiring and encouraging to me. I could relate to so many of them.  I too, have a story to tell, that has shaped who I am and has brought such joy and fulfillment to my life.

Sweet Deal on Amazon

My awesome bro clued me in on the fact that Brett Dennen's newest album is Amazon's MP3 of the day for $3.99! Click here for the link.

If you don't know Brett Dennen (or if you do), either way...you HAVE to take advantage of this album!

Enjoy :)

wordless wednesday.