New Year Cookie Excitement and More!

Happy 2012! May God bless you abundantly this year!

As we settle in to the new year, I am really focusing on being thankful. Thankful for who I have in my life, and thankful for the things that I am blessed with. I have spent (wasted)so much time on the other side of that fence. It is not easy!

Each day is a gift. Every breath, every moment, every experience. I will change how I live my life. That change is starting now. I have always appreciated "simple". I desire a simple life. I am going to take time, each day, to appreciate the small things, that so many times I have been too busy to even notice! Are you with me?

So today, I stared at the five lemons on my counter, and realized how thankful I am that i have an abundance of lemons on my tree! It is January. Most of our country is frozen and gray. It was 80 all week here in Sunny California. I am thankful for those lemons! I needed to do something with them!

LEMON CRINKLES! I had pinned a recipe a few days back that I saw on Pinterest. I pulled it up, gathered all the ingredients (not even needing a trip to the store) and joyfully made some cookies. Here is the link to the recipe:

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/lemon-crinkle-cookies/

They are so yummy! Make them today, and share them with someone you love. You will be glad you did.

Kathy

The great art above was found at:

http://www.restoredstyle.com/grateful/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RestoredStyle+%28restored+style%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

P.S. I love subway art.

Bunco day!

Well it's the first Wednesday of the month and i am about off to Bunco!  Yeah!  

This month, we are all bringing 3 dozen cookies. Now, that probably means 3 dozen of the same cookie, right? Or does it mean 3 different cookies, one dozen each?  Does anyone else overthink stuff like I do? I am a rule follower/pleaser I guess.  Anyways, of course I made two cookies that I found on Pinterest, lol, and for the third, i dipped Oreos in white chocolate and added some sprinkles.  Two out of three homemade isn't bad!  Of course, today, after making cookies for the last two days that actually look boring, I stumbled upon this great blog http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/ that has the most gorgeous desserts (of which I only really look at the cookies and cupcakes :)))))!  You should check it out!

Gotta run---I know I am going to win most buncos tonight---I can feel it!!!

DIY Christmas Art

 Happy Tuesday!

I don't know about you, but I am a Pinterest addict.  Can't help it. It's on my desktop, my laptop, my IPAD. I have no shame, I honestly get joy from searching the pins.  I can honestly say that I do make the recipes, and try the DIY projects that I am so obsessed with.  So, here is one that I tweaked a little bit...
I have a weird sized wall in my kitchen that I always have trouble with.  It has windows on both sides, but can be a focal point if you are standing in the kitchen.  I wanted to do something with all the cool subway art that I keep seeing everywhere.  I found these prints at this great blog:
L♥ve From Home: 'Tis the Season!
So, I sent them off to Costco and had them made in 5 x 7 (for a whopping $.39 each).  I had some old 8 x 10 frames that were stacked in my hall closet ( from Ikea, Ribba frame )

 I had painted over the original black frame with brown paint in their former life, so I set up shop and thought I should sand them before repainting them white.

I used my handy dandy "sham wow" to wipe them down and get all the sanding stuff off of them.  Then, I broke out some left over white spray paint that I had from another project.

Well, I ran out of spray paint.  So then, I opened up my craft box, and pulled out some white acrylic paint (which I thought would work better than the water based craft paint--it just sounded more official...."acrylic"....)

I finished painting them, and while they were drying, I traced the old matting (is that the right word?) from the frames onto green 12 x12 scrapbook paper that I had to make a contrasting border around the photos.

As  I stood at my kitchen counter, cutting butchering the traced picture border with my kitchen shears, my handsome and brilliant husband suggested that I just attach the picture to the top of the paper, and then just trace the outside border of the matting to size it.  Since Costco cuts their pictures a lot straighter than i can cut with scissors, I decided to go with his plan. (see photo above).
Once the paint was dry, I put it all together-and it came out pretty darn good!

I hung the three on my wall---I probably could have done them larger, maybe 11x14 so the scale was better, but I already had the frames.

Grand total for project $1.56 + tax.  :)

If I can do it-you can do it!

Kathy

Design Seeds: morning neutrals

Design Seeds: morning neutrals: {morning neutrals}
I am in love with these colors that I found on this site: www.design-seeds.com

The Sunday Before Cyber Monday

I feel like I should be planning my online shopping strategy. Honestly, I think that I have received at least 200 emails since last Wednesday telling me that I should be shopping! I strategically avoided all Black Friday shopping (as a former career retail person, I promised myself to never go there again). I love the idea of free shipping, great deals and lots of coupons-all advertised for tomorrow. But I just cannot bring myself to even look.  I spent my whole time online this weekend looking up DIY projects, recipes, and drinks that I can make on Pinterest!!! Am I going to hate myself on Tuesday if I skip the whole online frenzy?  I still have time to shop, right?  There will still be sales next week, right? We shall see......