The Blooming Hydrangea

Another Once A Month Cooking Post & Updates to the previous one

October 5, 2013

I am not blogging again except to come on here and post my Once A Month Meal plans to share with friends and family. I posted last month’s meal plan here and just wanted to add a few thoughts, notes, etc.

We have not used all our meals, I cooked them in two batches, the ground beef ones on Sat. Sept. 7th and chicken on Sept. 9th with a friend. It was definitely more fun to do with a friend! I ended up making 23 meals all together which is a lot. I spent about $260 total but used Organic Chicken from Costco which added quite a bit to my bill. I am trying to balance eating healthy yet also not blowing our food budget.

This month I am only making 14 meals and most of them are chicken. What we have left from September is mostly ground beef meals so it will balance out nicely for October. I also have a few meals that are quick to throw together in case I forget to take out a meal for the day. Spaghetti, breakfast for dinner, tacos and frozen fish are some of my favorite quick meals. One of the biggest things I’ve struggled with is forgetting to take a meal out of the freezer the night before so maybe set a reminder on your phone until you get used to doing this.

Last month I put my chicken in the crock pot before I went to bed so the next morning all the chicken I needed pre-cooked was ready to go. This month I am going to do the same and maybe even cook some extra to have on hand for any meals I may want to just throw together without freezing. I did this with ground beef a lot a few years ago too and it was great to pull out of the freezer to throw in soups, casseroles or for tacos.

This month here is my meal plan, I am not including a grocery list this month, it was just too confusing last time. So while I did some of the work for you, you will need to figure out what you need to buy at the store. Another option for some of the meals that are not technically freezer meals is that you could cook your chicken/ground beef or whatever beforehand and freeze it, then assemble the rest of the meal on the day you plan to eat it.

The kids have been asking for WEEKS to have Stromboli.

Stromboli x2 – My plan is to bake two for that day and freeze two. I think I froze them before and they turned out ok but I cooked them first before freezing them so they just needed to be reheated. Remember you can make these your own by adding in different fillings, I have even done one that was buffalo chicken.

Ham Balls x3- with baked potatoes. These are a favorite of mine but I don’t make them very often. I found ground ham at the grocery store the other day and was so excited! I will be freezing these into probably 3 meals.

White Chicken Chili – I’ve never frozen this before so hopefully it works ok. I am cooking the chicken before hand and will add the cream of chicken soup at the end.

Potato Soup – New Recipe, sounds delicious, I love a good potato soup. Hoping the potatoes freeze well, I read somewhere to use yukon gold as they freeze the best so going to try that out.

Chicken Pot Pie in the crock pot – I alter this recipe a tad and use a bag of mixed frozen veggies instead of using the fresh carrots and the frozen peas the recipe calls for. You can do whatever you like. I usually have frozen buttermilk biscuits ready to bake up and then we cut them open and put the chicken pot pie on top of it. I will be adding the potatoes on the day I make this and not freezing them and using already cooked chicken.

Three Cheese Chicken Alfredo Bake – This is not a freezer meal but it looks so yummy I am going to attempt to freeze it. So maybe don’t make this until after I have and I’ll let you know if it’s a fail? Or you can just make it and eat it without freezing it.

Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole x2 – Another new recipe but looks yummy to me!

Lasagna Soup – I will throw everything in a freezer bag minus the pasta, ricotta and mozzarella cheese. Even after I make the pasta I will keep it in a seperate container from the soup if there are leftovers.

Chili – A Pioneer Woman Recipe, hoping by adding Fritos my kids will eat it. Will brown my meat before I freeze it.

Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches – This is an easy one, a frozen roast and a jar of pepperoncinis. I always like to add provolone cheese because isn’t almost everything better with cheese on it?

If you have any questions about anything, please email me!

You can find more tips, recipes and even spreadsheets on my Pinterest Board Once a Month Cooking. Happy Cooking and Freezing Friends!

By ange 1 Comment Filed Under: Uncategorized

My Stitch Fix Experiences

October 3, 2013

Every fall I feel the need for new clothes. This is for a variety of reasons but mostly because I never take the time to buy “classic” pieces, instead I feel bad for spending money on clothes so I shop the clearance racks, buy things that are just ok and then end up hating them or they fall apart. So I’ve been a pinning fool lately, studying what I really like, how to dress for my body shape which is pretty much a rectangle with a muffin top. I don’t have a defined waist, when I gain weight I gain it all over my body. Cameron Diaz is a rectangle or boyish figure who obviously hasn’t birthed four children so I am similar to her body shape, just add on a muffin top.

A few months ago I heard about Stitch fix, a service that has stylists pick out clothes for you from designers. You fill out an extensive questionairre on your likes, dislikes, etc. and can even link up a pinterest board so they can get a better idea of your style. To receive a stitch fix you pay $20, they send you five items which could include accessories and it comes all styled in a box for you. The clothes even have a tag that shows you two ways to style your items.

They suggest you try them on and style them to get the full effect. You have three days to decide if you want to keep some or all of it. If you keep all 5 items you receive a 25% discount and the $20 is credited as well. If you want less than 5 items, your $20 is credited towards the total. If you want nothing, you lose out on your $20 and ship it all back in a nice little bag that comes in the box. The return shipping on items is free. When you send clothing back, they want to hear from you about why you sent it back. You have a chance to give your feedback about the fit, price, color, etc. which is nice. You can get a stitchfix scheduled for once a month or whenever you want one you just go and order it up. I have not scheduled mine every month as I really don’t have a ton of money to spending on clothes but it is fun to try out and see!

My first stitch fix came in August and I just took some bad camera phone pics in my closet so these are definitely not quality shots. I have yet to master the art of taking pics of myself with this thing. The only thing I kept out of this one was the beautiful gold and mint necklace I am wearing for most of the shots.

I really loved the raspberry shirt but it was too big, the blue shirt with white polka dots didn’t fit right and even the black and white chevron wrap was fun but it was too big as well. The only thing I didn’t like was this last shirt with the peter pan collar, just not my style although the navy and white stripes were great!

I signed up for another stitch fix but this one didn’t arrive until today! I had to wait a month which was a long time for me as my birthday is fast approaching and I plan to shop with some birthday money. Here’s what came in this month’s box and I had my hubby take some pics but again, these are not optimal photos, I am not a clothes blogger, I am sick and I have no makeup on and didn’t put much effort into my hair today either as evidence in some of the photos with a rooster tail. This month was all clothes, no jewelry which I was kind of bummed about. I am pretty sure I asked for layering shirts and this is what I got.

This shirt I really like. It suggest a light blue cardigan over it but I don’t own one in that color. I am still undecided on this shirt because it’s $48, it kind of hugs the gut and I could do a lot of damage at H&M or even Target for that price.

This chambray shirt was ok but I already have two so I don’t really need another one. This was a weighty shirt and the back is longer than the front so that was different but not worth it for me to keep it. Plus it makes me look shapeless.

This red, black and white striped shirt is fun. It didn’t fit me right, can you say gut hugger? I tried adding a blazer to it but still no dice. It suggested a light blue cardigan and scarf which I don’t own. Maybe that’s why I look unhappy in the second pic? Either way this shirt was just not flattering to my muffin top.

I wasn’t sure about this cardigan and I think it’s a no. They suggested it with an orange t-shirt but I don’t own any t-shirts so I went with my coral tank which is more tight fitting than the t-shirt.

This shirt I LOVE! I want to keep it, it fits great, it looks great on me which is a definite plus and it’s navy. What else can I say? Well ok, it’s $68.

They suggested a coral sweater, I went with my favorite mustard/gold one from Target. Although I really like the tulip sleeves so not sure I would wear anything over it but switch out to coral pants? Or maybe a gold/mustard patterened scarf instead?

So there you have it, my two stitch fix experiences. It is fun and I think worth a try if you are stuck in a rut, hate shopping for clothes or just want something different that maybe you wouldn’t pick for yourself or isn’t available at the mall or Target.

If you sign up for stitchfix, please click here to sign up soI will receive a $25 credit for referring you. If you have used stitch fix before I’d love to hear what you thought about it. And as I prepare my closet for some must have basics, what are your must haves in your closet?

By ange 3 Comments Filed Under: clothes

Meatball Subs

September 7, 2013

I came across this meatball recipe a few years ago and LOVE it! I make large amounts of meatballs and then freeze them so when I’m in a time crunch for dinner, I can add some to spaghetti or make some meatball subs. I add some basil, sub milk for water in the recipe and also replace the 1/2 pound veal with a 1/2 pound of pork. Ok, so I guess I loosely use the recipe above to make it my own.

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

2 cloves garlic minced

2 eggs

1 tsp dry parsley You can use fresh and then it would be 1 1/2 tbsp fresh parsley chopped

2 tsp dry basil

2 cups italian seasoned bread crumbs

1 1/4 c milk

Mix all together really well.

Then create lovely little balls of meat goodness in your hand like this:

Line up all your little balls of meaty goodness on the pan and bake! I do not cover mine in Olive Oil but you could.

A little while later, you will have this:

There are many ways to make these subs, sometimes I cheat and buy the loaf of garlic bread from the bakery section at the grocery store. You know, the one that is in a foil wrapper and smells weird when you bake it because you forgot to take off the paper on the outside of the foil bag? When I’m feeling really crafty in the kitchen, I buy a loaf of french bread, slice ‘er open, take a stick or two of butter, throw ~~some~~ lots of crushed garlic in there, a dash of garlic salt or three and melt it in the microwave. Then I drizzle, drench and spread it all over the halves of the french bread. I prefer this way, my family probably doesn’t. I have a garlic problem. Anyways, I always find that cheese makes pretty much everything better. Maybe because I lived in the land of cheese for 12 years, maybe because it is just truth. I always sprinkle a good amount of mozzarella on the bread when it’s almost done baking and then set it on broil so it can bubble up and be all melty and yummy. After it’s out of the oven, add meatballs, marinara sauce and voila, yummy meatball subs!

meatballs, meatball subs

By ange Leave a Comment Filed Under: recipes, Uncategorized

Once a Month Cooking Freezer & Crock Pot Meals

September 6, 2013

I’m back! Ok, not really but I needed somewhere to post my once a month cooking plan I have come up with so that friends could use it as well and the blog seemed like the best vehicle to do this. I mixed it up with recipes I know are good with some new recipes so hopefully these turn out ok. Some of the recipes are freezer to oven or grill while others go straight into the crock pot. The nice thing about having a few meals in the freezer is that if I need to bring a meal to someone and my life is crazy busy, I can pull a homemade meal out of the freezer. So, here is my plan, grocery list and websites with the recipes. Feel free to pin, bookmark, download, whatever.

The Meals:

Crock Pot Taco Soup

This makes a large amount so my plan is to actually make this the day of my big cooking/assembling day and then freeze the leftovers for another meal. If you don’t want to eat the day of, then I would brown the ground beef, drain all the beans and rinse, mix everything together in a freezer bag and thaw the night before in the fridge. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, crushed up tortilla chips, over rice or whatever else you like!

Chicken Enchiladas x2 freezer

Bake at 350 for 25-30 min. Top with sour cream, lettuce, rice, etc. I added green chiles, onions and some spices to my chicken meat so feel free to make this your own.

Slow Cooker French Dip Sandwiches serve with french fries

My plan is to just add the cans of beef consumme when I throw the roast in the crock pot

Meatballs Freezer Recipe – x2 meals – For Spaghetti and Meatball Subs

I mix milk into my meatballs instead of water and also replace the 1/2lb veal with more pork. I also cook my meatballs in the oven but you can do either one. Then I cool the meatballs and freeze them on a cookie sheet for a bit then put into freezer bags so you can just grab how many you need for the recipe. Defrost in the microwave with a little bit of water.

Easy Crock Pot Ribs with french fries

I plan to rub the ribs before I freeze them.

Beef Stroganoff Freezer to Slow Cooker x2

Mixing it all together in a freezer bag minus the egg noodles, defrost the night before then throw in the crock pot. ******* Next time I will not add the sour cream before I freeze it, it curdled up and didn’t look the best, taste was fine though.

Crock Pot Pasta Fagioli

‘Brown the beef before freezing. Add it all to a freezer bag except for the beef broth. Add that on crock pot day. I also keep the noodles entirely separate, I do not add them to the crock pot as they get soggy and soak up the juice. I keep the noodles in a separate container when we have leftovers and add them when we heat it up again.

Cilantro Lime Chicken with Corn & Black Beans Crock pot

Assemble all together in a bag, when ready to cook make sure it has thawed in the fridge first. Serve with tortillas, rice, sour cream, salsa, whatever you like!

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

Combine all ingredients in a freezer bag minus the cream cheese or sour cream if you use those instead of the cream of chx soup. Top with sour cream, cheese, put in tortilla shells, make it your own!

Slow Cooker Chicken Lemon Orzo Soup

Combine all ingredients except the chicken broth, bay leaf and orzo in a bag. Add to slow cooker after thawing in the fridge overnight and throw in the bay leaf and chicken broth. Cook orzo separately and add to your bowl when ready to eat. Again, I would leave the orzo in a separate container if you have leftovers so they don’t soak up all the broth.

Beef Stew Crock Pot

So this recipe will take a little more time to put together so it would be perfect for a morning when you have some time to chop potatoes and onions. The only thing you will be freezing is your beef stew meat. Thaw out the night before then follow the recipe from the beginning.

Beef Taco Lasagna Freezer x2

You will need to brown your ground beef and cook the noodles for this one. Also, thaw the night before baking. Bake at 350 for 30-40 min. uncovered.

Burgers – Freezer x2 Probably serve with potato wedges, baked beans. This looked like a fun recipe if you want one: Cheddar Ranch Burgers

Pulled Pork Crock Pot make sandwiches, maybe serve with baked potatoes or french fries

Greek Chicken Salad Freezer (Double the dressing)

Mix a batch of the dressing up, pour into a freezer bag with the chicken breasts and freeze. Thaw in the fridge the night before you are ready to grill the chicken. The day you are ready to make your salad, mix up another batch of dressing for your salad. I have used frozen corn instead of ears of corn for this salad and just add some dressing before I microwave the corn. I LOVE this salad!

Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas Freezer

Throw all the ingredients in one bag, thaw the night before baking. We ate this with rice in tortillas, top with sour cream, cheese, etc.

Meatloaf freezer x2 serve with mashed potatoes

Make meatloaf and then place in freezer bag. Thaw the night before in the fridge, mix up the sauce and bake at 350 for one hour or until done in the middle. I also like making these as muffin cup size bites. Here is a nice trick from Southern Plate on freezing meatloaf:

great hint when freezing meatloaves is to line your pan with aluminum foil. When the loaf is frozen remove it from the pan and wrap tightly in foil or place it in a zipper bag and return it to the freezer, leaving your pan free to use. When its time to bake your meatloaf, pop it out and put it back in the original pan – it fits perfectly!

Pizza Casserole freezer x2

Brown the ground beef before assembling. Don’t forget you can customize this by adding in whatever pizza toppings you enjoy. You could even do half of the pan with some toppings and half without if you have picky kids, which I do! Remember to thaw the night before in the fridge, bake at 350 for 30-40 min. until done. *****We all thought this needed more cheese and my kids were not big fans. They are picky.

Now, onto the Grocery List. I have tried to list every single ingredient needed for the recipes. You can print out the spreadsheet here and then customize it according to what you need. Please don’t customize the list on google docs as I’m not sure what will happen.

There are some great websites that give you an idea of how to assemble, label and store your freezer meals. You can check out this post and also this one, that I thought were very informative.

Some Great websites are out there and this girl seems to have pinned a lot of them already! Check out her Pinterest board and also you can look under my recipes and crockpot boards for some more pins.

If you have any questions you can feel free to email me at ange@thebloominghydrangea.com Also a BIG thank you to my hubby for working the google doc spreadsheet for me. I was about to throw the computer out the window but he saved the day with his spreadsheet knowledge.

I hope you find this helpful! I’m off to get my grocery shop on!

By ange 1 Comment Filed Under: Crock Pot, meal plans, recipes, Uncategorized

The End of Blogging

May 8, 2013

Hello friends. Today I’m going to share my heart with you all about my decision to be done blogging. Five years ago I had a little family blog and it was great fun, random posts about our life, pictures of fun family times, nothing exciting for anyone really but me. Then I decided maybe I could blog about recipes as I was always being asked to share and that’s how my first real blog “Love From My Kitchen” was born. After doing that for a while, I then moved into the home project/DIY realm of blogging. The first cloffice was a big hit and after that I decided to change the name of my blog to “The Blooming Hydrangea.” It’s been fun sharing projects, recipes and life with you. I’ve made so many great friends in the blog world, even attended my first blogging conference last summer and met some great people in person!

But there is the downside for me of blogging which is the pressure I and only I put on myself. I may have a bit of perfectionist in me. The blog world is a great place full of so many supportive people, it’s amazing. That is definitely one thing I will miss but I won’t miss the time spent writing up posts, pinning, fb’ing, tweeting, hometalking, etc. It was getting way overwhelming in the social media department, once again, all pressure I put on myself. Which then lead me to put pressure on myself in other areas of my life and it just wasn’t good.

Back in October I took a mini blogging break and it was good. I decided to blog again but it’s definitely been sporadic. Lately I’ve just not been feeling it and really now that the house is almost complete, what would I even blog about? So, I know that all bloggers go through these spurts of wanting to throw in the towel and call it a day but usually we power through those and are good to go again. While that may have been the case in the past for me, the decision was definitely made for me today when my little guy brought home a sheet for Mothers Day and one of the statements was: My mom likes to___________________________ His answer was “be on the computer.” My heart dropped, it hurt, I am sad for him. The pull of the blog world, pinterest, etc. is too great and I am not a disciplined person. Something I should work on regardless of blogging. Anyways, I just knew that my decision was the right one. I blogged about something like this once, almost two years ago, which you can read here, What’s the real cost? Blogging, Home Improvements and Children. Here’s an excerpt from that post: “If I knew I only had 2 weeks to live, would I spend it on blogger, pinterest, fb or google? No, I would be trying to fill every moment spending time with those I love, soaking in my children and what they have to say, making sure they know how much I love them, making sure my husband knows he is respected and loved, that I couldn’t have asked for a better man to marry. Because the truth is, we really don’t know how much time we have on Earth, we like to think we’ll live to be 85 but we don’t really know what our future holds. “

So there you have it, my children and my husband need me. It’s been fun, I’m so grateful for those who took time to read my blog, comment, pin, fb, etc. It’s been a great ride but it’s time for me to get off the ride and walk into the sunset.

God Bless!

ange

By ange 14 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

Winner of S&D giveaway

May 8, 2013

The winner of the Stella & Dot gift certificate is Rae Pavey! Congrats Rae! Thanks to all who entered to win. Please head over to my friend Suzi’s facebook page and give her some more love! I’ll be back tomorrow with an announcement!

By ange Leave a Comment Filed Under: Uncategorized

Another fun Giveaway, Stella & Dot!

May 1, 2013

The winner of the Target gift card is Rebecca Porter, Congrats Rebecca and have fun shopping! Thank you to all who entered.

Today we have another great giveaway, a $35 gift certificate to Stella & Dot! If you have never heard of Stella & Dot, you are in for a treat. They have amazing jewelry and awesome bags that I love! Like these cute Aqua Serenity Small Stone Earrings for $34.

Head over to my friend Suzy’s Stella & Dot website where you can oogle some more jewelry and decide what you would spend your $$$ on.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

By ange 20 Comments Filed Under: Blogging Fun, giveaways

Black Interior Doors

April 26, 2013

The other day when I looked at my powder room door and so how gross, dirty and blah it looked, I grabbed my paint brush, some black ACE Cabinet, Door & Trim paint and decided I’d had enough. I already have a few black doors in our home, the french doors and also the insides of our exterior doors are black.

There are only two doors on the main floor besides the french doors so the pantry door now has black paint on it as well. I’m not completely sold on the pantry door but it works for now and ties in the chalkboard backsplash.

I was a little worried the chalkboard wall might be too much black with the pantry door but I think it’s ok.

Here you can see the black doors all tied together. This is when I like my pantry door black, consistency, flow, oneness.

This shot ties in the french doors from the dining room with the pantry and the powder room door.

Here’s when we first moved in just to give you an idea of how far the kitchen and also my photography skills have come in almost two years:

The bathroom door is perfect in the hall, I was worried it might be too dark but it works and makes the zebra walls look lovely.

Then while taking photos, I was bombed by my hubby on his way up to shower on his lunch break. I told him it was going on the blog, him unshowered and in his glory, so here it is honey.

Have I ever told you how much I love this view? It makes me happy, every. single. time. LOVE my chalkboard back splash!

Let’s see a before just to remind us how far it’s come. This is when we were first looking at the house, one of the only pictures I have from this view before I changed the trim and added our coat shelf.

Then we added white trim, the coat shelf and the white door for the powder room.

And here we are today, gray owl on the walls, painted cabinets and now a black powder room door.

So there you have it, a few hours on Sunday and I totally changed the look of my home for free! Do you have black doors in your home? Would you ever try it?

By ange 15 Comments Filed Under: kitchen, painting

25 Things About Me

April 22, 2013

I thought it might be fun today to post 25 random things about me. Or maybe it will be rather boring and you’ll have a nice mid-afternoon nap. Either way, enjoy!!!

1. When I say my name, it feels like I’m talking about someone else. I don’t usually go by Angela. Although when I introduce myself to people and they ask what I prefer to be called, Ange, Angie or Angela, I don’t have a preference.

2. My sister-in-law is also named Angela. She has a brother named Christopher and a husband named Christopher. We like to confuse people in this family, especially nieces and nephews who have two Auntie Angie’s and two Uncle Chris’s. I won’t even tell you about the weirdness of two people named Audrey.

3. I’m left handed. I like being left handed. Three out of our four children are left handed.

4. I hate spiral notebooks because of being left handed and I like fine point pens because of left handedness.

5. I have one brother but always wished for a sister.

6. My favorite book is Gone with the Wind. I read it in one day during high school.

7. I’m a fast reader and that also lead to me being a fast talker when I was younger. I love to read and will stay up way past bedtime reading.

8. When I was young I wanted to be a Ballerina, Veterinarian and also an auto mechanic. The last one is kind of random but I really like the smell of the garage at the auto repair place.

9. I suck at math. In elementary school I had to go to a math class with the special ed students. I still suck at fractions, division and percentages.

10. I like to give my pets human names. My dogs are Heidi and Ruby, we also had a Lindsey and Bailey. Our cats have been Molly, Jake, Howard, Ginger & Milton. We are allergic to cats at our home so no more kitties for us.

11. My family took a trip to Washington DC for Spring Break when I was in the 5th grade. Our van was stolen from the hotel parking lot and we had to rent a van to drive home. I was traumatized, my jean purse with all my markers was in there. Seriously though, I’m guessing this probably contributed to my anxiety. Not the best family trip.

12. Our honeymoon was spent in the Pocono Mountains at a Ceasar’s Resort. It was a lot of fun but kind of cheesy with a heart shaped hot tub and mirrored ceiling.

13. Our family is trying to visit all 48 states before the kids graduate. So far we’ve done 13 states.

14. I had my tonsils removed when I was 4 years old. I remember watching Bob Ross painting on Public Television while I was in the hospital and eating banana and root beer popsicles.

15. I dream of moving, I think I have wanderlust. I am ok for about two years and then it starts in. We are fast approaching two years this June and I already have dreams of living in the Carolinas.

16. I lived in the same house my entire life until I was 18. This may contribute to #15.

17. I always wanted to live in a two story home growing up and that is still true today. I love two story homes, ranches seem so one dimensional to me.

18. I had an imaginary friend growing up named Stephanie.

19. My favorite foods are things with Buffalo Wing Sauce, Jalepenos and lemon. I didn’t like spicy food or lemon growing up but now I love it!

20. Mustard is my favorite condiment, ever! Mustard spread on white bread was my favorite snack when I was younger.

21. I ate my first grilled cheese when I was in high school.

22. I met my husband when I was just 16 years old and knew the day I met him that we were going to get married.

23. I have never been on an airplane that has left the ground and I don’t plan on doing so either.

24. I haven’t been in an elevator since our trip to Washington DC when I had a panic attack on our way up the FBI building. See #11.

25. I have a butterfly tattoo on my shoulder and once had my belly button pierced by our friends who had lidocaine and an iv needle or something, I didn’t watch but we did it in their basement.

There you go, some facts about me you may not have known. Anything surprise you? What’s one random fact about you?

By ange 5 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

1,000 FB Likes + Big Thanks = Fun Giveaways!

April 19, 2013

Hey, Hey, Hey! How are you all? The weather has been super dee duper yucky around here lately, 30,s & 40′s for temps and lots of rain, slush, sleet and even snow which hasn’t been very motivating to me. I was hoping by posting about my plans for our back deck and calling it the Spring Project List that the weather would cooperate but so far, no go. Maybe this year we are skipping into an early summer, one can hope, right?

I so appreciate all you who take time out of your busy lives to come visit me in my little blog corner of the world. You stop by and leave a comment, ask questions, follow me on fb, pinterest, etc. You cheer me on! I love doing projects around my home, it’s true but my favorite part is inspiring you!!! When I receive an email telling me you tried something because you saw it here or you thought you could do it if I could, well that makes my heart happy. :) I want this to be a place where you walk away feeling encouraged and inspired, ready to paint furniture or cabinets, plan a date with your hubby or make a banana cake and some stromboli to share with your friends. My home gets messy, my life is messy, nothing on this blog is perfect, including me, remember, the girl who struggles with anxiety? So all this to say, thanks for coming here, I so appreciate YOU!

In the meantime, while I wait for warmth and sunshine, I thought we could celebrate the fb page hitting 1,000 likes with a few giveaways over the next week! Let’s kick this thing off, shall we?

You know how much I love Target, right? They have been hitting home runs in the home department with Nate Berkus, Threshold and all their other amazing goodness recently, like my dining room curtains which my 10 year old say makes it look like a nursing home in our dining room. You win some, you lose some, what can I say?