You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for March 2011

Welcome to the Blooming Hydrangea

March 30, 2011

Welcome and thanks for joining me at The Blooming Hydrangea! If you are joining me from my previous blog Love From My Kitchen, some things will look familiar to you and of course, some things are brand new. If this is your first time here, I’m glad you stopped by! Take a peak at some of my feature rooms, maybe check out the recipes and just have a look around. I hope you’ll come back often and maybe even bring a friend or two with you! There will be some great giveaways starting on Sunday so be on the lookout for those because who doesn’t love a giveaway?
At my new blog you will also find new recipes, a monthly Blooming Blog link up party, a featured Blooming Blogger each month and also a new feature called Love & Life. So I hope you’ll stop back and see what’s happening at The Blooming Hydrangea!

By 18 Comments Filed Under: Blogging Fun, life and love

Conference Weekend

March 24, 2011

Well the big event is almost here, tomorrow evening I will be standing on a stage with my husband and trying not to pass out. My husband and I are coordinators for a Love & Respect Marriage Conference this weekend in our community. We are so excited for the people that are attending to hear the message of Love & Respect. It was a marriage changing message for us and I know it has been for others as well.
Unfortunately, I really don’t like being front and center, all attention on me and then on top of that, having to speak! People that know me personally are always amazed when I tell them I don’t like being on stage or speaking in front of large groups of people. They always assume because I am outgoing that I would have no problem with speaking in front of people. Thankfully, God has really been doing a work in me and I’m a lot better than I used to be. In fact, last time I had to speak I actually almost enjoyed it! So I’m not even worrying about it for this weekend and I am just going to trust my worries to the Lord!
If you are struggling in your marriage and even if you aren’t, I highly recommend that you read the book Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggrichs or check out the Love & Respect website for more information and also to find a conference near you!  Communication in marriage is key and they have the key you and your spouse need to communicate!  I posted a testimony on my blog last month from a couple that were already in the divorce process, you can read about that here.
I won’t be posting much for the next few days as we host a conference and then just take a few days to unwind from a busy but awesome weekend!  I’m also working on something big for the blog, so stay tuned for that!
I will be busy this weekend working on something other than my home,  what are you going to do this weekend? 

By 6 Comments Filed Under: marriage

Kit Kat Bars

March 22, 2011

This recipe is from my mom.  They are a big hit whenever I make them, I wouldn’t say they taste like a Kit Kat Bar but whatever they taste like, it’s delicious!

Ingredients:

2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 c. butter (softened)
1/3 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 c. chocolate chips
2/3 c. peanut butter
Box of club crackers

For some reason I added the butterscotch chips to this picture, you don’t need them for this recipe. Sometimes it gets a little crazy around here and things like this happen.  So just to clarify, you don’t need butterscotch chips.

Directions:
Place crackers in the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Have enough crackers available for 2 more layers. I usually open two packages so they are ready to go because you need to get them on quickly.

In a medium saucepan combine butter, graham cracker crumbs, white and brown sugar and milk. Stir constantly for 5 minutes at a boil.

Spread 1/2 of this mixture over the club crackers, add another layer of crackers and spread the remaining mixture over the crackers and then top with a layer of club crackers.

In a small saucepan or in the microwave, melt together the chocolate chips and peanut butter.

Spread over the top of the crackers, then refrigerate to set. Keep refrigerated.

Serve and ENJOY! These bars are hard to photograph, mainly because as soon as I tried cutting into the pan I had children surrounding me like a pack of wolves.  I had to quickly photograph the bars before they disappeared!

I’m linking up here:

Stuff and Nonsense

By 9 Comments Filed Under: dessert, recipes

The Playroom Makeover, FINALLY!

March 16, 2011

Just to refresh your memory, here are the most recent pictures of our playroom area.  There are two nice size closets in this room and in between the closets there is a built in desk.  The room has carpeting which our dog thinks is also her potty area, pleasant I know.  For some reason I only have a few pictures of this room, I either didn’t take anymore or the rest are hiding because even they are embarrassed of the state this room was in.

 

We are hoping to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the playroom next summer but we’ll see if I can bear to tear down the cloffice and the now fun and functional playroom.  Our goals for this makeover are to get rid of the carpeting and replace it with flooring that dog pee doesn’t ruin, organize the games and toys so that the kids can find them and might actually want to play with them, make it kid friendly, bright and fun all while not spending a lot of cash.  I think we did a decent job in accomplishing our goals.  We used black and white alternating peel and stick tiles because they were cheap, fairly easy to install, if the dog pees on it we can always peel it up and replace it and it was a fun pattern for the playroom.   Two years ago we paid $1200 for carpeting in the playroom and the hallway.  For the tile we spent $135 for the playroom and the hallway.

I really wanted my kitchen floor painted like this but I was too chicken to do it.  I love it and so far it’s held up really well.  It is cold on the feet but we bought a rug from Wal-mart for $20 to put in the middle of the floor so the bubs can sit somewhere and play cars without freezing his poor little piggies off.
I painted the closets a lime green color, installed shelving and organized their toys in bins.  You can read more about that in this post.  I painted the walls a fun Crayola Collection color called Shy Turquoise, it’s kind of bright but I love it with the flooring.  One closet is for the bubs and the three girls all have the other closet.

 

We did rip out the desk and for now I have my white dresser that used to be in the living room in here.  I have the crayons, coloring book, markers and various other art supplies in the two big drawers.  I like that the drawers aren’t easy to open so the bubs can’t be digging out the markers and coloring the walls, dolls and floors.  I don’t have a window treatment up in this window yet and I don’t  know if I will put one up.

I really wanted a colorful map for the wall and found this one at a local store for $17.  The kids love having a map and they often use it when playing American Girls.  They will pick a state or city that they are going to travel to and then talk about staying overnight in a place along the way.  So fun and a great way for them to learn some geography too!

I was hoping to find a kid size table and chairs for the playroom but when one child is 10 years old and the baby is almost 2, it was hard to find something to fit everyone.  So we traveled to IKEA and ended up coming home with this table and chairs.  The little table and chairs were too little for the bigger kids and I figured everyone is only going to keep growing so we went with the big table and chairs.  I love that they can now use Play-Doh and it isn’t stuck in my rug under the kitchen table, they can use markers on here, they play school, restaurant and we have also occasionally used it with company for eating on!  Best investment by far was this set for $100.   I hung the chalkboard I made right near the table so they could play school, the post on how I made the chalkboard is here.  I found that cute little bucket in the dollar section at Target, I thought it would be perfect for holding chalk and the eraser.   I stuck a Command hook on the wall and voila!

I fell in love with the rain gutter bookshelves a few months ago and was hoping to be able to add them to our room.  This past weekend we managed to buy the gutter for $1 but the brackets and end caps were $15 total.  At least the gutter part was cheap!  All we did was measure the length we wanted for the gutters, hubs used a hacksaw to cut the gutters to the correct length.  He then just used the brackets to screw the gutters to the wall and placed the end caps on each end.  That easy!  The bubs has been loving his books in the new bookshelves, he is so cute, he’ll just pick out a book and sit and look at it.

I wanted a way to display the 20 million pieces of artwork we receive from our children each day.  I purchased the last three giant wooden clothespins at Hobby Lobby and have been on the lookout for a fourth one but they are sold out every time I go!  I was going to string them up but I thought they would look cute on a picture frame with some cute scrapping paper.  I think I might switch them out to bigger frames but for now it works.  I am also hoping to find giant letters that spell READ and put those above the bookshelves and move the artwork above the chalkboard.  Anyone have any big letters for me?

Finally, in November we decided to make a kitchen for our children, we found some furniture, a dog bowl, a board and various pieces of plumbing and came up with this.  Here is what it looked like originally:

I painted it white, added a cute little skirt made out of some fun material, a fun little rug and garbage can from the dollar section at Target and she looks so much better now!

I also managed to find some fun striped curtains for this window at Target on clearance for only $7.50 each.  They were originally shower curtains but after folding over the top part of the shower curtain and some curtain clips from IKEA, you would never know they were shower curtains!
I  also hung those three red mirrors for fun, another Target deal, only $1.24 each!  So there it is, the playroom makeover!  Here are a few before and afters of the playroom just in case you haven’t had enough!

 
 

And just to keep it real, here is what it looked like a few days ago when I was painting chairs and my children were making forts on Spring Break:

They were doing what this room was made for, Playing in!

Feel free to check out our Closet Turned Office or Cloffice and also Our Kitchen Remodel.
Thanks for stopping by!

I’m linking up at the following places:

HookingupwithHoH

The House Creative

Stuff and Nonsense

Join us Saturdays at tatertotsandjello.com for the weekend wrap up party!

By 46 Comments Filed Under: Before and After, colonial, playroom, projects

Your Bedroom, it’s not just for sleeping in……

March 15, 2011

I’ve posted a few times on the Master Bedroom in the past two weeks, Getting Your Bed Dressed and Is Your Master Bedroom a Sanctuary or Storage Room?

I thought about not blogging on this subject but it’s something I feel pretty passionate (wink, wink) about so I’m going to do it and hope you all don’t stop reading my blog. Or maybe it will become widely popular, at least with men!  Ha!

Sex is a hard topic to blog about because there are so many different aspects that are involved in it. I am going to be blogging today specifically about married sex and more specifically for women who are struggling in this area. They usually find it is just one more thing to add to their list of things to do, they are exhausted and tired of people (mostly the little kind)  hanging on them all day. Maybe the husband isn’t meeting their needs so they don’t want to meet his. So many factors go into this I thought I’d just touch on a few things we can do to help get us in the mood!

Remember back when you first dated your spouse, how his touch sent tingles through your body? How you couldn’t wait to hold hands, for him to hug and kiss you? You wanted to be with him all the time?

Fast forward a few years, you are married, you have jobs, children, responsibilities, bills and a home. You stop looking forward to kissing your husband and sometimes maybe you are more annoyed by it than anything. You are tired, you have had kids touching and hanging on you all day, the last thing you want is for your husband to do the same thing.
Why do we do this ladies? Maybe not all of you do but I know that a lot of women feel this way. They stop looking forward to those intimate times with their mate and start to dread them. The “Not tonight honey, I have a headache” joke isn’t really a joke, is it?

Yet we still want our husband’s to only have eyes for us, to help us with housework, the kids, bring us flowers and romance us.
So what’s a girl to do? How do we ignite that passion again? After talking with some friends, my husband and reading a few good articles, here are some tips that might just help heat things up in your bedroom!

First we need to understand our husband’s need for sex is a need and that’s his way of connecting with his wife.  It’s just like a woman’s need for talking and sharing to connect with her husband.  The ironic thing is that most women don’t want to be intimate until they’ve talked and connected while the man doesn’t want to talk and share until they’ve had sex.  Here is a great article on this if you want to read more.  So maybe instead of expecting him to talk and connect with you and then you’ll think about his needs, switch it up and let his needs be met first and you can talk and snuggle afterwards!

Secondly,we need to remember that men are visual and they like to look at our naked bodies!  Crazy, I know! We need to realize that most men don’t care that we don’t look like a supermodel, that we have stretch marks and love handles. We too often let our own issues with our body get in the way.  Girls, it’s time to pull out that lingerie, wear it, your husband will love it, he’s not going to be looking at your stretchmarks or love handles, trust me and while you’re at it, maybe even leave the light on! He married you, he loves you and than includes your body!!!

Thirdly, how do you feel when you wear sweatpants or pajamas all day and don’t do your hair or makeup or even take a shower? At least for me, I feel kind of blah, unattractive and definitely not sexy.

When we get dressed, do our hair and makeup and maybe even put on some earrings, don’t we feel good?  I’m not saying you need to dress to the nines everyday but lets dress to feel good about ourselves. Don’t save your good outfits for just a night out on the town or for church on Sunday, wear what makes you feel good. When we do this we feel more confident,sexy and attractive and that helps our mindset about ourselves. Not that wearing pajamas or sweats once in a while is a bad thing, we all have those kind of days and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Fourth, how often do you think, “Oh I really don’t want to do this tonight.”  But then you start and when you’re done you think to yourself, “Wow! That was great! I’m glad I didn’t say no. ” We need to remember that!  Say yes more often, trust me, you’ll be glad you did!  So maybe tonight you could even initiate and really throw him for a loop!!!

It seems the longer we go without having sex with our husband, the longer we’re ok letting it go.  But when we start to enjoy each other more often, the desire seems to grow as well!  So shoot for 2 to 3 times a week instead of 3 times a month and see what happens!  Maybe even put it on your calendar!

Here are a few more ideas:
Weekly date nights.  You don’t have to leave the house to have a date.  Turn off the tv, put away the computer, stop cleaning and play a game together, dance in the living room, watch a movie, read your old love letters/cards or notes from when you were first dating, read a book together, talk, cuddle or eat a candlelight dinner after the kids are in bed.

Flirt with your spouse again!  Slip a little love note in his lunch, briefcase or jacket.  Send him a text message, email or call him at work if you can.

When he leaves for work and you kiss, give him a kiss!  Not a little peck on the cheek or lips but a kiss that you used to give back when you were dating and hated to say goodbye for any amount of time.


Our minds are very powerful, if you sit and think about all the things your husband does that annoy you or how he didn’t put his socks in the dirty laundry, you will not have good feelings towards him and being intimate with him will be the furthest thing from your mind.  Think instead of all he does do for you and what made you fall in love with him in the first place. We need to remember that we can be annoying and irritating as well,  we aren’t perfect either!  Darn, that was hard to type, barely finished that last sentence.

Here are some great books and other resources if you need help in this area!

BOOKS:
Is There Really Sex After Kids? by Jill Savage
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Sheet Music: Uncovering the Secrets of Sexual Intimacy in Marriage by Kevin Leman
.

MP3 DOWNLOAD OR PDF:
Igniting Passion in Your Marriage

I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this topic as well!  Maybe you have some more great ideas to add to this, comment below!

 

I’m linking up here:

By 10 Comments Filed Under: life and love, marriage, Master Bedroom Series

Made it for Free Monogrammed Picture

March 10, 2011

Monogrammed stuff is everywhere these days, so I decided to jump on the Monogramming band wagon and get branded! I am making a gallery wall for over the sofa and I wanted to add something different. I was thinking a Monogrammed letter would be cool. Ok, first I have a confession,  I originally had a cool letter N from Hobby Lobby that I was going to paint black and put on the wall but in a horrible moment of anger I threw it on the ground and it broke. Sigh. I know. Bad me. I’m working on that and also just trying to keep it real around here.  So after I broke the letter I figured I better find a cheap and easy way to make the N.   I opened up Google Docs because we don’t have Microsoft word and Google Docs is free.  I did it as a drawing instead of a document and I found the font I wanted and made a big letter N to print out. It didn’t print out all nice and colored in, darn.

In a light bulb moment, I grabbed a black Sharpie marker and colored in the N and then cut it out.  It actually doesn’t look half bad.  

My husband is a big music kind of guy, he plays about 70 different instruments and also plays by ear.  You know the person that everyone is jealous of their musical ear?  That’s my husband!  I love listening to him play and hope that some of our children inherit his musical talent!  I found a great printable at Graphics Fairy Queen . 

So here’s my monogrammed picture for the gallery wall, one 8×10 frame that I already had at home, a printed off sheet of music and a sharpie colored black N.  Can’t wait to get the wall done!  Not bad, huh?

I’m linking up here:

Transformation Thursday

Join us Saturdays at tatertotsandjello.com for the weekend wrap up party!

By 9 Comments Filed Under: projects

Living Room Then & Now

March 8, 2011

Back when we first moved into this house my main focus was redoing a horrible no good very bad kitchen, you can check out photos of the kitchen remodel here.  Back when we first moved in we didn’t have a rug for the living room, we had dark curtains and ugly flesh colored walls.  They don’t look to bad in these photos but I promise you, it was like Silence of the Lambs on the walls.

I finally painted the brown brick on the fireplace. I am also hoping to paint over the sassy brassy parts soon with high heat paint in black.

The back wall is not my least favorite part of this living room. It looks like someone forgot to finish the bookshelves. For now the TV is there but I am hoping to convince Mr.A to build some built-ins and move the TV over the fireplace to make one focal wall instead of two. Then we can tear down the half finished bookshelves and do something else, like board and batten so we don’t have to drywall.  Good thing we have Ms. A in the picture, otherwise there wouldn’t be anything cute about that picture above!

If I could paint my living room again I wouldn’t choose such a bright color,  I’d go for something softer but still an aqua/turquoise type color.  I think if I told my husband I wanted to paint the living room he would cry.  He read this last sentence and said it would be more like weeping. Good thing he thinks I’m so cute!
I am hoping to get our gallery wall over the couch done this week but with the kids on Spring Break it might just be too much for this week, seeing as I’m already redoing the dining room chairs and table.  have I ever mentioned that I think I have project ADD? Does anyone else do that?

I’m linking up at:

By 13 Comments Filed Under: colonial, living room

What I"m working on right now

March 7, 2011

I have 2 coats of primer on the chairs, sanded in between the coats, two coats of paint on and also put the fabric on the seat cushions! Just waiting to see if they need yet another coat and also trying to decide if I’m going to distress the chairs or not. Here is one chair, she’s sitting pretty now:

Remember the before, well technically this isn’t her before picture but it’s a picture of her and her friends gathered around the table:

While I was busy with painting the chairs, my children were busy doing this:

and this:

They actually built a fort under the table yesterday and two of the three girls slept under it last night. We are on Spring Break and so they’ve been playing together all day really well which is awesome! The side effect of that is a tornado like aftermath in the playroom. Which isn’t that what a playroom is for? But when you can’t play in the playroom because there is no space, it then spills out into other rooms. They have a lot of cleaning to do today!
We are surprising our children tomorrow with a waterpark getaway, I can’t wait! They have no idea so this will be so fun! Hopefully the dining room will be finished soon! What are you working on this week?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
By 4 Comments Filed Under: dining room, painting