Dinning Room

One of the ways I like to change up the look of a room for pennies, besides paint, is throw pillows.  I usually always sew my own pillow covers because it's much cheaper that way.  Even if you find some fabric that is a little on the pricey side per yard, you can always just buy a half a yard to cut the price.  And really, that is all you need anyway.  I like to use plain canvas for the backs of my pillows and the pretty fabric for the front.  That may seem like an obvious thing to do but actually,  I didn't figure that out till this past year.  :) Lately, I've been making some small pillow changes in our living room mainly to give it a little more color.  If you follow us on Facebook, you know that we purchased these new bamboo blinds from Lowe's several months ago.  Previously, we had sheers on the windows and I was beginning to hate how they really absorb dirt and dust.  For a family with allergies, that's not so good.  So, we ditched them and purchased the bamb

With blueberries in abundance right now, not to mention affordable, I've been having fun making some of our favorite summer sweets.  One of those is blueberry scones.  But with the heat of the summer, the last thing I really want to do is roll out dough.   And sometimes I'm lazy.   That's why I love this recipe.   You throw the dough together and drop it in heaps on the baking sheet.   Simple.   And no chilling, rolling and cutting dough into triangles. Let me tell ya, the star here is definitely the orange glaze.  Without it, these are just ordinary scones.  With it, they are really something special.   Trust me.   As far as a glaze is concerned,  you just can't go wrong with melted butter, fresh squeezed orange juice and powdered sugar.   I could drink it. You can find the recipe here . I may or may not have eaten 4 of these just while taking the photos. Tip:  To make the glaze super easy to drizzle on your scones, as well as super cute, I like to use those plastic ca

Hey there!  I hope you are all having a good day. I was so excited after reading the comments on this post because thanks to readers Michelle and Marci, I learned what these were. My hubby found just these few in a storage shed he bought the contents of.   So, because of their help, I was able to purchase a full set. Which means that now I can engrave my bread boards!  Yay!  I'm so excited about doing this because I think being able to personalize them for you makes them extra special. I practiced on a few to show you how they look.  The letters punched are 1/4 inch and  fit the side of the board perfectly.  Engraving will only be done on one side. Here's a look at how they look on the maple and walnut boards. I just used the word EAT as an example.  You can have anything put on the boards that you'd like, up to 10 characters.  For FREE.  There will be no extra charge for adding the engraving to the side of the board. We came across a piece of cherry wood in among all the

My hubby and I have been married for 20 years and for 20 of those years, I have longed for an old hutch, just like the one in my grandma's kitchen.  Every time we would come across one, it was too expensive or just wasn't exactly what we wanted.  My luck was about to change. While visiting a local flea market on Saturday, I walked to the back of the store and saw this. One look and I was immediately transported back to my grandma's kitchen.  The sounds, smells, and all the things I loved about her and her kitchen immediately came to mind.  When the owner came over to talk to me, all I could manage to say was, "I want this."   I called my hubby and he came down to check it out.  We worked out a deal with the owners, packed it up and brought it home.  I was a happy girl.  :) Of course, it needed some work, but that's what I liked about it.  Although I liked the sunny yellow paint, it wouldn't really fit in with the decor in our home so I had to paint it whit

Hey there!  Happy Friday to you all! The random number generator chose number 7 as the winner of the bread board giveaway.   Comment number 7 belonged to: Laura Sun Jul 08, 08:19:00 PM CDT I've been experimenting (and loving) with "Artisan Bread ..." this summer. I'd love to have a set of these boards! Thanks for the opportunity to win! Congratulations Laura!  Please email me your address via the contact page.  Thank you! Thank you again for all the comments about your favorite bread.  I had so much fun reading them and getting some great ideas for some new breads to try.  :)

Hey there!  Hope everyone is having a good summer week.  I've been working like crazy to get more bread boards in my shop.  I've gotten kinda lazy about it and started receiving many emails asking if more were coming.  So, I've come up with something that I'm really proud of. Now let me back up a bit.  Several months ago a friend of ours gave us a truck load full of walnut from trees that were on his property.  It was gorgeous but at the time I was so busy, I just put it in storage and kinda forgot about it.  Around that same time my hubby came home with these. I really didn't know what they were but from the looks of them, they were what I had been looking for as far as my bread boards were concerned.  They seem to be some type of branding iron tool, alphabet punch thingamajig.  Only problem was this was all there was.  Only a few letters. Fast forward to now.  During the time that I've been making these bread boards, I've had lots of people request them to

I have absolutely enjoyed reading about your favorite breads on my giveaway post and how they evoke cooking memories with your family.  Making memories in the kitchen is so much fun and it's amazing how much the smell of baking bread can bring back those memories.   That said, all the bread talk made me seriously hungry and gave me a mad craving for some.  One of you mentioned a white chocolate cherry bread and the sound of that had me running to the nearest grocery store for the ingredients to make one for myself. Only I didn't use cherries, I used dried apricots because I love their texture in bread.  I used the Better Homes and Garden recipe and left out the nuts as my family doesn't like them.   I can't even begin to tell you how good this bread is.  Besides the chewy sweet tart apricots, there are little pockets of lovely melted white chocolate that pairs perfectly with the chewy apricots and the sweet bread.  But it isn't too sweet, it's perfect, I promi

*******COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED******* Greetings!  It's been a while since I've had a giveaway so I thought it was definitely time for another.  So, because I love my readers so much and appreciate you taking the time to visit, I've got a special bag of goodies picked out for one lucky reader.   I have to tell you, this was so much fun!  I love gift giving!   This is what is included in the giveaway. I've been experimenting with my mini bread board sets again and mixed and matched from both my mini bread board sets to come up with this set.  It's also in walnut, which I really love.  If you read my blog, you know how much my bread boards mean to me. Hopefully, these will be offered in my shop soon. First up, a set of 4 mini bread boards. I love how the dark walnut pops against white plates. (table props - dishes, napkins, glasses, pitchers of flowers - NOT included in giveaway) Of course, you can't have a set of mini bread boards without having a  large walnut b

Greetings!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend.  I've said this before but anytime I make a special change in a room, it always seems to inspire other changes, as well.  This past week I finally got around to changing out our master bedroom and bath door knobs and plates to the match the porcelain door knobs I put on our pocket door .  I got lucky and found just what I needed in my hubby's collection.  I was planning to just change them and be done with it but I was so happy with the results that I put a fresh coat of paint on the doors and then decided to also paint our bedroom Classic Gray by Benjamin Moore.  I love it so much in our dining room and since our master bedroom is right off the dining room, I thought it was a logical choice.  I just wasn't happy with the dark paint in our bedroom anymore.  Well, this led to me wanting to improve the art work in our room, as well.  Besides the barn door behind our bed , there really isn't much on our walls in the bedroom