Friday, October 14, 2011

Halloween Decorating, Country Living Way


Ohhh Halloween makes me so happy! Not only can you dress up as whatever you want, eat slimy, gooey, gross looking stuff, carve pumpkins, go trick-o-treating, you can also decorate your house and yard creepy for a month and it's OKAY! This year I didn't decorate the yard.. but I did decorate the house! I will post pictures within the next couple of days! I wish I could decorate like the pictures below, just wait, one day I will!










Have you decorated for Halloween?

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Looks like it's almost time for a Giveaway!

I wanted to let you all know that I'm doing a giveaway really really realllllly soon -Yaaaay!
 It's going to be my first giveaway, and I'm pretty excited about it!
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This giveaway is coming from HandyMaiden, well it's coming from me, but that little 'somethin' somethin' came from HandyMaiden! -And let me just say, it's cute, like super cute!
I'll give you all a "hint", it is a necklace.
Getting excited yet???

You can check her Etsy Store out here.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Before & afters

As most of you know, my boyfriend and I have been looking for a house.
(It's hard work trying to find something we both like). I don't consider myself picky when it comes to the inside of a house, cause everything can be redone. But for the outside.. not so much. The outside is very difficult and quite costly to redo. I have to find a house I like on the outside, at least somewhat. I do not want to pull up to my house and say 'ew' but walk inside and say 'ohh-ahh'. -It's just not happening. I have liked three out of the fifteen we've looked at. But all the ones I like are either too expensive (and wont go down on the price), or they have major problems. All I want is something small; two-three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a living room possibly big enough for a table so we wont have to have a dining room, and a small kitchen, and a laundry room that is not in a creepy ass basement would be really really really nice! I don't care if the walls are hideous panels, or brick, I don't care if there is carpet, I don't even care if the walls are crazy colors, you know why? Cause all that is going to be gone in a matters of weeks! I would love to find a Cape Cod style home, I love that cottage look. I don't mind brick, nor vinyl siding as long as it's done right, but then again I looooove wood homes, and I'm hoping that's what we will end up getting! The right house is out there .. somewhere!
Anyways, I was looking through some old blogs and came across a post I liked. It's before and afters, this is perfect; this is what I want to show my boyfriend. That the inside of a hideous house, can be turned into the inside of a beautiful house! I got these pictures from Young House Love.
Go check out their other before and afters and their new home as well!











What do you think?
This house definitely belong in a magazine!
I hope whatever house we find, turns out looking as great at this one!

Monday, October 10, 2011

$20 can feed two lives

When you read the title of this post,
you probably thought...
 "what is she talking about"..
well what I'm talking about is giving a little something to not only man, but to mans best friend.
Here's a little story I have to share with you all:
Yesterday, I drove out of town with my parents so my brother could look for a truck. (He's about to be seventeen, and wants his own vehicle). Well we were driving through a small town, when we stopped at an intersection, I noticed a man walking a black dog with blue eyes, the man wan homeless; he had a huge backpack, he was holding a small cooler, an umbrella (it was getting ready to rain), and a dog leash. He looked at me and I smiled, he didn't seem to happy. When he turned around I noticed he had a sign latched on to his backpack that said "will work for food". At that moment in time, I was literally heart broken.. here I was with my family going to go look for a truck that is clearly over fifteen grand or more, and this homeless man had nothing but his best friend and a backpack. When we pulled into the Sales Lot of Ford, I kept looking at the man walking down the road. I told my parents I wanted to give him money. My dad was like yeah whatever but my mum knew that I did, she is just as kind hearted as me. She told my dad that I really did want to give money to him. So My dad ended up pulling up next to the man, I gave my mum $20, "$20 really?" she asked, "yes", I replied. She rolled down here window, and gave the man the money, and said to him "now you go feed that dog, and yourself", this is the best part of my story.. ..
the man just lit up! He smiled with his kind blue eyes. He said "thank you very much"! And at that time in my life, I felt better then ever!
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 I have a job, I have a roof over my head, I have many animals that have beds they sleep in every night, I can eat whatever, whenever I want.. I have such a great life, I don't need anything else, I have everything I need right here.
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Money to me is just money; $20 isn't a whole lot to me, I would have give him more truthfully. My brother made a joke about how he was probably going to go buy a case of beer, but you know what, I really don't care. The point is, I did my part, and for that I feel soo much better about myself as a person helping another person in need.
 And if your one of those people that are just like ... "oh homeless people, they can get jobs if they want, blah blah blah". Look at the news, no, no they can't, so many people are out of work, if they could.. do you really think all of them would choose to be sleeping out on the streets every night? Yes, I'm sure most of them could try but how do you pick yourself up in this kind of economy right now, everyone is in need of some help. Just please consider how great you have it, and just give a little something. Please care, these people aren't just people, they are apart of this world like you and me, we are all one. All I ask is instead of making fun, do a little something better, and lend a little something. You might just feel better about yourself.
And wanna know a secret?
It will come back to you somewhere in your life.
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These men might have lost everything, but the one thing they didn't loose, is their best friend.







Have you ever done anything nice for someone?
I hope you all have a lovely Monday!

Friday, October 7, 2011

$3 Chic Spiders

That's right, only $3
 I can't tell you where I got them just yet..
(it's my little secret)!
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Don't you just love how elegant they look? 
 I can't wait to where them with my Little Black Dress!
Actually, I think I'm going to start wearing them now.. it is October after all..


Could you guess where I got them from??? 
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If you said Wal-Mart, then you were sooo right!
Happy Friday you guys!
What are your plans for this lovely weekend?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Key Lime Pie


Nothing like my first homemade Key Lime Pie!

I know it's fall time, and I should be baking more fall-ish pies, but I have always wanted to make homemade Key Lime Pie, but for some reason I thought it was always too difficult to make, boy was I wrong! It's actually very simple, and quite easy! This is how I made mine, you can follow along if you'd like. But as you all know, there are soo many different recipes for Key Lime Pie. I don't know if 'mine' is the best one or not.. but you can try it out for yourselves, and get back to me!

Kermit's Key Lime Pie:
1 - 9" Graham Cracker Pie Crust (I made mine out of real  crushed Graham Crackers, and Butter)
2 - 14oz. Cans of Sweetened Condensed Milk
6 - Egg Yolks (Save the whites for Meringue Topping)
1/2 Cup of Lime Juice

Blend Milk and Egg Yolks at low speed until smooth. Add Key Lime Juice and finish blending. Pour into pie crust and bake in preheated 300 degree oven for 15 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before refrigerating. Serve ice cold topped with fresh whip cream.

Now if you would like to add Meringue Topping:
 All you need to do is blend your 6 Egg Whites, while your blending add 6 spoonfuls of sugar until it starts to get fluffy and starts to peak. Once it starts to peak, (which usually takes about 5 minutes on high), then you can add it to the top of you Key Lime Pie. You will be baking both the Meringue Topping and Key Lime Pie at the same time.  

And there you have it!
Super easy, and quite tasty!
Reminds me of being in Key West...

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Real men give flowers

It was just another one of those perfect gifts that put a
 smile on my face...

 It's days like this that make me want to squeeze him, kiss him, and tell him he is the greatest!
If only he weren't twelve hours away...









I hope your other half is as good to you as mine is to me!
I hope you all have a lovely Tuesday !

Monday, October 3, 2011

DIY Halloween Pumpkin Jar Candle Holders

 Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday!
I love doing creepy, fun, easy crafts for the spooky occasion!
This is the first Halloween / fall craft of the season-
They are called Fright Lights; the idea came from Family Circle Magazine.
In the magazine it says you need all these different materials.. I don't have time to go out and get all the stuff it calls for, so I had to make do with what I had around the house. The one thing I surprisingly had to buy, was black and orange tissue paper, (usually my mum has tons of different colored tissue paper, but for some reason she didn't have those two colors). Thankfully Target has them each (20 sheets for under $1.99).

Anyways, here's the materials I used:
-Black tissue paper
-Orange tissue paper
-Pencil
-Plastic or glass bowl
-Elmer's Glue
-Paint brush or 1" foam brush
-Scissors
-three or more Glass Jars (mason jars, pickle jars, olive jars, sauce jars..etc).
-And some water
-Candles

First Step: Once the jars are clean, you are going to cut Orange tissue paper into 1 1/2 wide strips as long as the jar.
Second Step: Take a glob of Elmer's Glue, and a little bit of water, mix with paintbrush until it's watered down. Brush the glue on to the jar.
Step Three: Add strips of Orange tissue paper onto the jar, overlapping the paper is perfectly fine.
Step Four: Brush glue over the Orange tisse paper; let it dry for a few hours.
Step Five: Once the paper is dry, you can cut out faces or letters that you are going to add on your jar using a pencil and Black tissue paper.
Step Six: Glue on Black tissue paper (faces, letters, etc) on to the jar. Brush the glue on all of the Black tissue paper, let the paper dry, add candles in the jars, and ta da!
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Friday, September 30, 2011

Charleston Thrifting

i love thrift stores

Yesterday my mum wanted to go to Charleston, and do a little shopping. Something kept telling me to go to this one Thrift Store; the last time I was in Charleston (dropping the boyfriend off at the airport), something told me to go in the thrift store, but it said not until your with your mum. And when I say "something told me", I'm referring to my gut.. I guess it's my gut talking to me.
Anyways yesterday we were running late, we were near the Outlets which is in one direction, and the Thrift Store I wanted to go to, was in the completely opposite direction. We hit traffic.. and the time was clicking. But I wasn't in any rush, which is unusual. I just said to myself, if it's meant to be there, it will be. Well luckily we got there and had thirty minutes to look around. As we walked to the back of the store, my mum spotted these Vintage bowls that she loves, a set of three, (in Pennsylvania, each one of those bowls go for $22- and up)! She got hers all for under $7! Great deal, huh?
Well she picked her bowls up, moved a few more feet, and found an old Vintage dog, a few more feet, she found an even bigger one! She has a few in her bedroom, she likes to put her pearls all over them, they look so French! I think each one was under $2.. they are pretty cute!
I guess that feeling I got was right, it wanted my mum there so she could find her bowls and doggies!








Thank goodness it's Friday!
And I am definitely enjoying it!
I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend!



Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Let's indulge shall we

Why is when your trying to loose weight, unhealthy food, bad food, fattening food, somehow appears in the kitchen? I have only been eating fruit and veggies, the only bad food I have eaten is .. 1. Two handfuls of Candy Corn, 2. A bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal (at 10pm! eeek! Tv food binge time), and 3. A handful of Jalapeno Sun Chips driving home one night, didn't eat dinner, so I ate chips instead. Other then that, I have been good...
Until...
Yesterday, I went with my mum to run some errands, we went grocery shopping, she bought the guys chips, and my brother ice cream (but for some reason, I wont go after ice cream anymore). Even the chips I'm like ehh, I'll stay healthy an eat a juicy Apple instead. But on the way home, she was like "let's get some ice creams at Dairy Queen!" ... Nah mum, "yes yes yes!" she replied.. " okay fine let's do it", I said! .. so we both got medium size ice creams, hers was dipped in chocolate, mine was covered in sprinkles. I decided to take pictures to show you all just how big, beautiful, tasty, and fattening this ice cream was, until I noticed something on my hand, it was my ice cream dripping away thanks to this 90 degree weather! Let's just say, I have never licked anything that fast! (Okay did that sound perverted or ... yeah). It was really really really good! Sometimes, you just have to indulge don't you? You can't always deprive yourself..
So thanks mum for that huge Ice Cream Cone!

What's your weakness when it comes to food?