Tollhouse Cookies with a Twist

In my effort to eat healthier and organically, my brother in law sent me a recipe that he came across for a healthier version of Nestle's Tollhouse cookies. Since Doodlebug and I love to bake cookies together I was really excited to give this recipe a try. The main difference is the use of Whole Wheat Pastry flour. The other ingredients changed is unsalted butter and most of the other ingredients are cut in half with the addition of rolled oats. They taste exactly the same and were very delicious. The only thing is they came out a little on the flat side. Not sure if I did something wrong, which is a possibility, but still they are fantastic! We'll see when I make them next time if I can get them to not be so flat!

Very First Tiling Job

I have had this wild hair to do something with the window seats in our house. I love the window seats but they need some work. I was visiting a neighbor and they had tiled their window seats. Hmmm....peaked my interest so inquiring minds had to know more. I talked hubby into giving it a try. Mind you we have never done any kind of tiling. When we moved in and began replacing the pink, and oh my were they pink, carpets we had experts come in and lay the tile! I figured this was such a small job we could do our research and plow forward. Here is the documentation of this venture! And just a small point to add, we will be doing more!

We of course needed some tools so we rented a wet saw for the cutting.

I couldn't let the hubby have all the fun!

I have to say we were pretty impressed with ourselves on our template making and cuts. Not to shabby for having no idea what we were doing!

Mixing the mortar. This was a bit difficult since we didn't have the right tool to go on the end of the drill but we improvised and it worked out just fine! It looks a little like vanilla pudding!
Ready to go!

The next day it was time to tackle the grouting! I think it looks like chocolate pudding! All my images are of food type items. Wonder what that means? LOL

Grouting the tile! This was actually really fun!

Wiping the grout! Messy but still fun!

I changed to a different glove. The big orange gloves were way to big and bulky!

The finished product!

The tile with the molding!

I have to say, we are pretty proud of ourselves for jumping in and tackling this project! I'm so happy with the final product that we are looking to hit the two bathroom window seats next summer! It is so funny because I have to say that when I told people what we had done they asked if we were still married! I guess tiling projects have been known to test even the strongest of marriages! LOL!

Sewing....

While my in-laws were here I took advantage of my mother in laws amazing sewing talents and had her help me with a few projects that I have been working on. Yes, I sewed. Every time she comes to visit I try to have a sewing project so I can learn. Not to mention that she brings her fabulous serger with her. What an amazing machine that is! One of my many goals is to sew a dress from a pattern and know what I'm doing. I have a pattern for a girls jumper that I want to try for my Doodlebug. I have made a date with my sewing machine and I'm going to give it a try solo! I will let you know how it goes! Send happy thoughts if you think about it! :-)

First I used the serger and sewed up 3 new dresses for Doodles. Doodlebug and I went to the fabric store and she picked out the fabric. I still have to sew the straps on but I'm really happy with how they turned out! As you can she, the Doodlebug was not too happy about posing for the camera.

She was very happy to pose once the mirror was involved! :-)

I think this one may need to be hemmed up a little more. I was just trying not to lose the cherry design on the bottom.

I have declared this coming Christmas a homemade Christmas. My intention is to make 80% of the Christmas gifts this year. This includes the wrapping as well. I had a ton of Christmas fabric for projects that I had intended on but never got to. So in line with my homemade Christmas I made 53 gift bags of different sizes and shaped. I will use ribbon to tie them off and make gift tags.

One of my big projects was to make a skirt to go around my desk. I didn't like seeing the computer equipment and scrap booking storage even when it is neat and tidy!

Last but certainly not the least was the most important project. Making curtains for my front windows. When we moved in the window treatments were those yucky metal blinds that had been put in when the house had been originally built! They were cracking and rusting and I just couldn't stand them. It was a glorious moment when I finished the curtains (with much help from my MIL) and got to take those blinds down! They are a sage green which matches my grandmothers furniture in the dining room. This is Doodlebug's craft area!

This is the front sitting area. I want to eventually sew an additional brown strip across the top to match the brown in the couches and chairs. It is so nice because I can still open them but can take them down and wash them when they need it!

It feels so good to have some projects done that I can cross off the list. I really do like to sew, I just get frustrated at times because I just don't know as much as I want. But like they say, practice makes perfect! I'll keep working on it! :-)

Book Reviews

Ok, so I have another new item that I'm working on.   A self project if you will.  I love to read, but I have allowed schedules to get in the way of reading.  So, to help me get back into the swing and habit of reading I have decided to write short and sweet reviews on the books I have read off my list.  Giving myself a loose timeline will help me read more and turn the TV on late at night less.  I have quite a list of books that I want to read.  Some short, some long, novels, autobiographies, fluff books, nutrition.....you get the idea.  So, in honor of my new self project I have added a book review area to my blog.  I have my first short and sweet review on "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch.  It's not New York Times worthy but it will just give you a little insight into the book and what I thought.  Enjoy!  Oh, and if you have any good books you have read lately let me know.  I'm always looking for a new good read! :-)

A New Get To Know You Meme!

I haven't been blogging in quite some time.  We have had a very busy month of July.  I saw this get to know you meme on another blog that I follow and thought it would be a great way to get back in the swing of things and would be fun!  Join in the fun! 

A - Age: 42

B - Bed size: Queen

C - Chore you hate: Cleaning the toilet!

D - Dog's name: Ellington

E - Essential start your day item: Taking a shower

F - Favorite color: Pink....I also love earth tones!

G - Gold or Silver or Platinum: Silver

H - Height: 5'5 and a 1/2

I - Instruments you play: Played Cornet and French Horn in high school.  Wish I had kept playing!

J - Job title: Teacher........Home Chief Operating Officer LOL :-)

K - Kid(s): One highly spirited, imaginative, full of energy 4-year-old that I just adore!

L - Living arrangements: House on a cul-de-sac, 4 bedrooms

M - Mom's name: Jacqueline Lee Marie Julia Holley aka. Nana

N - Nicknames: Kimbo, Kimmi, Super Bananna, Ethel

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Yes....Food Poisoning

P - Pet Peeve: I have a few.  They deal mostly with stupidity.

Q - Quote from a movie: Oh, there are so many...."Put the Candle Back!"

R - Right handed or left handed: Right

S - Siblings: One younger brother!

T - Time you wake up: Between 6:30a and 7:00a.

U- Underwear: Yes

V - Vegetable you dislike: Brussel Sprouts

W - Ways you run late: Not preparing the night before, getting sidetracked by other activities.

X - X-rays you've had: Too many to mention.

Y - Yummy food you make: Enchiladas, stuffed mushrooms, turkey meatloaf, apricot brandy pound cake, just to name a few of the family favorites!

Z - Zoo favorite: I don't like zoo's but Disney's Animal Kingdom has done great things in regards to conservation and educational programs.

Houston, We Finally Had Some Progress

June 12

I finally had some major de-cluttering progress in our office! Yeah! Now, I'm not done in the office but I wanted to share some pictures of the progress.

Desk Area! It is so lovely to have a clean and clear work space!

The Desk Shelves! Dusted, downsized and de-cluttered!

The CD cabinet! All CD's have been categorized, dusted and organized! We can now find something when we look for it! What a novel concept! :-)

The corner book cases have been gone through and any unwanted Books, DVD's and VHS tapes have been donated to our library! All shelves and books dusted!

Just so you didn't think I was cheating and shoving stuff into the bottom of the cabinets, I hit those as well!


The smaller book shelf has been dusted all books gone through and binders labeled!

The computer cabinet! Dusted, de-cluttered and cleared!

Now, there is still quite a bit left to do! Here is the list:

1. The right hand side drawers of the desk.

2. Clean up all the wiring for the computer. Bundle them up and tie wrap so they are organized.

3. Clearing the Xylophone. Lots of stuff to deal with that is cluttering its top!

4. The closet filing cabinet. All of those files need to be gone through.

5. Painting projects. Touch up the walls, the window sills.

6. The valence has been washed and I just need to get it ironed and hung back up.

7. Take down the old blinds! They will be replaced with a spring rod and some sheers so they can be easily taken down and washed in the future.

8. The Rug.......we'll that is a future project. It is a huge job that unfortunately needs to be postponed for a bit. We need some extra hands to help with the furniture move so for now I'm going to use our steam cleaner and just clean the rug as best as we can. Then when we actually get to pull the rug we will paint the floor and baseboards.

So, as you can see there is still quite a bit to be done, but for now I'm really happy with the progress and I hope to have the above done by the end of the weekend! We'll keep you posted!

De-Railed by Robots!!!!!

This past weekend I had planned on making great strides in the office de-clutter project, but I got de-railed by a project for Doodlebugs school.  As you may or may not know Doodlebugs school is a perochial school that goes from pre-school through 8th grade.  In the summer for those kids 5 and up they have a vacation bible school.  We'll some how on the grape vine the VBS organizers heard that I was a great decorator due to the pre-school's scholastic book fair.  They called me and asked if I would make them two robots for their Gadget Garage VBS theme this year.  Since I haven't learned how to say no hubby and I went to work on building the Robots.  

Here they are in all their glory!  We has some specifics that we needed to have.  They needed detachable parts.  The head, heart, eyes/goggles, ears, and antenna needed to be able to be removed and later added.  One word assisted in that endeavor......Velcro!!!

I'm really happy with how they turned out and they are really sturdy as well so that is a good thing.

We dropped them off to the church on Monday and the VBS organizers loved them so mission accomplished.  Now back to the office!

De-Cluttering 101

A good friend of mine and I having been discussing, via e-mail, our challenges in de-cluttering our houses!  She came up with the fantastic idea of becoming de-clutter buddies.  Like workout buddies only our work out will be working out the clutter in our homes.  I love this idea giving us someone to cheer us on when we make progress and also the kick in the tush to get back on the wagon when we fall!  

So to commemorate our new journey we began working in our home offices.  Now, I had already begun the process before we began our new partnership so I have a couple of things done but I have quite a way to go.  I have broken the office up into zones and I hope to have this all done by Sunday the 7th.  I'm giving myself a week since we are going to rip out carpet.  Here is the plan.........

Zone 1 was the Closet.  I don't have a before picture, but this is what I have completed thus far.  Now, this progress hasn't included the file cabinet.  That is a project all on it's own.

Zone 2 is the CD/DVD/VHS cabinet.  Needs: go through, label, recycle, or donate to the library.  

Zone 2:  Corner book shelves and printer cabinet.  I don't have any idea as to what is in the bottom of these cabinets.  I need to go through the books and make sure everything has a home.

Zone 3:  Bookshelf and desk.  This includes the desk drawers.

We have 6 drawers in our desk.  These three are supposed to be the supply drawers.  

These two don't have a purpose but what I'm working toward is to have the top drawer be any electronic adapters that we need for the computer as well as disc's that are needed.  The file drawer will be for projects that are currently in progress.

Zone 4 is the shelves above the desk.  I'm devoting a zone just for them since there is a lot of stuff to go through.  Books, nic nacs, misc. doo dads, that just needs to find a proper home.

Zone 6 is the cleaning zone.  The office, as you will see from the picture below, is incredibly dusty.  Everything needs to be dusted including the fan.  The picture above shows a partial carpet rip out.  Last year we experienced some flooding from Tropical Storm Fay.  We had to rip out a portion of the rug to deal with the water.  What I want to do is rip out all the carpet, clean the floor and then paint it like we did to our dining room.  It worked so well in there I want to continue in the office.  I hate carpet and eventually want to put in laminate flooring but that is a future project when the funds have been saved. 

Along with the floor and cleaning I also want to paint the baseboards, trim, and door as well as any paint touch ups to the walls.

Whew, that is a lot of work ahead but I'm so excited to get it done and just feel like I have the motivation and motivator to get it done!!!! Yeah!

Sunflowers

I love flowers!  I have always wanted to have a beautiful English garden full of flowers but I don't have a green thumb.  In fact I don't have any kind of shade of green thumb.  I have tried on  occasion to have growing things around but something always goes wrong.  So, imagine my surprise when I discovered we had 4 sunflowers growing in our backyard.  I was so excited!  Doodlebug and I have been watering them and just having a blast at learning all about sunflowers.  There is even a national association of sunflowers online that we have been checking out and reading the history of the sunflower. What has transpired is these sunflowers have inspired me to go ahead and have my garden, but instead of an English garden I'm going to work on a butterfly garden!  I have chosen a place in our backyard and I'm going to slowly but surely get a garden growing!  I will post updates as I move through this new venture!

For now enjoy some pictures of my inspiration! :-) 

The Turn off Your TV Challenge

National Turn Off Your TV Week

April 20-26 was the National Turn off your TV Week!  I was so excited to participate in this challenge since we have been working very hard on limiting our TV and computer usage not just for our brains but for our electricity output!  I wanted a challenge to see just how well we were really doing!

We didn't do as well as I wanted.  I would give us a D for the week if we were getting grades. My goal was to have the TV off the entire week.  A very lofty goal but I figured it wouldn't be that difficult since we have been working toward this for quite sometime.  We'll we weren't all on the same page.  Myself included.   This wasn't just for the TV but the computer as well.

We had a really bad day on Monday.  Doodlebug was extremely crabby and whinny.  As the day wore on she wore me down and she watched quite a bit more TV then we even do normally. She just wasn't into playing, reading, marble run, not one thing.  No matter what I had planned she wanted nothing to do with it, which meant that for sanity to prevail we watched more TV.  We did only watch PBS so that wasn't as bad, but as the week went on we got better and better.   I have to admit that the timing of the challenge was a bit rough since we had two weeks of routine busting activities with Spring Break and out of state friends visiting, so I think that it really took us the whole week to get back into routine.  I myself played on Facebook way more than I should have.  Those darn quizzes get me every time! :-)

Now, don't get me wrong, I like TV and frankly I would be lost without a computer.  I have several TV programs that I love to watch and Doodlebug has some favorites as well.  I love the programming on PBS, Doodlebug and I love to watch the shows together and there is an educational value.  With my family and friends being spread out all over the US and abroad the computer is the best way to stay in contact!  Although I could write a snail mail letter once in a while!  What I don't want is the TV and computer to be our only source of entertainment or learning.  It is just too easy to plunk down and watch the TV or stare at the computer when there is so much more that we can do and enjoy as well as helping the earth! 

What I got out of this challenge is that we really don't do too bad on a regular basis.  We are going to have routine busting days and that is OK as long as we remember our goal: to do more as a family, to get outside, play and try to help be as green as we can!  I think that is doable! :-) 

Failing the Birthday Test

Last week I went for my yearly eye exam.  We are very blessed that we have a fantastic optometrist so it's a no biggy, go every year.  We'll wouldn't you know this year would be a bit different.  I had been noticing that when I read my eyes were getting tired quicker and that I was having to pull the book closer.  So, in doing my eye check I failed the "Birthday Test."  My optometrist told me that between the ages of 38 and 45 your ability to view things up close changes.  Now, for some lucky individuals that can happen much later but for most you begin to see a difference between those ages.  Hence the Birthday Test.   I tell you, after 40 and it's not only the girls that begin to droop to the southern hemisphere!   In my test there was not only a difference but a deficit!  I am being "up-graded" to progressive lens's.  Instead of the old fashioned bi-focals they have a progressive lens that have no lines with three different fields of vision.  

On Monday, I get to go and have the lens fit to my frames and see how they work!  One of my doc's assistants told me they can take some getting used to, but for most they work just fine. Other options are a separate pair of reading glasses or some have opted for Lasik surgery.  I have never had a problem with my glasses, in fact I rather like them.  I tried contacts once and it was a disaster so come Monday I open a new chapter in my glasses history.  I have a very positive outlook on the whole thing. If it means I can read longer then that is a huge bonus for me since I have so many books on my shelf that I want to read!  Not to mention the scrap booking I need to get caught up on!!!!  I'm excited, but as always a bit apprehensive since I don't know what to expect.  Getting older has it's perks such as wisdom and age discounts but it also has it's darkside! :-)

I will let you know how it goes!  Wish me luck!

Meditation = Peace

I have been working on teaching myself how to meditate.  One of the things that I have read about in my Fibromyalgia research is that using relaxation techniques are key to dealing with the pain and fatigue.  So, I have been learning how to meditate.  It is a skill and not easy.  I have discovered that quieting the mind is much harder than you think.  My thoughts and to-do lists always keep racing through my mind.  I guess that is why I really need to keep working on this. While doing my research I came across this picture.  Isn't it just the epitome of peace?  I just love the moment.  It will be my inspiration.   I'm going to think of this picture as I work toward my understanding and practice of meditation.  

String of Inspiration

I have discovered a blog that I just love. It is the Healthy Living Lounge. http://thehealthylivinglounge.com. (I have not yet figured out how to put a link in a post. If anyone knows how to do this please fill me in.)

This blog is really awesome. The author has some wonderful thoughts on living to your fullest, living naturally, staying grounded...etc. One of the things she talked about in post was the String of Inspiration. It is along the lines of a Dream Board. The difference is with the board your photos and other items were permanently glued. With the string you can change up your photos and such as your thoughts, dreams, wishes, motivations change. I love this idea, but of course had yet to put it into play. We'll today was the day and I finally took some time and put my string together. I had a hard time deciding on the best hanging place. I wanted it to be somewhere that I would see it multiple times during the day but also a place of quiet for peaceful reflection. I know your all saying "good luck" on that with a 4 year old. But I knew it was feasible. I finally chose above my bookcase in my bedroom. It is the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night. My umph in the morning and my aaaahhhh at night!!!!!

I chose my various images as reminders, motivations, goals, ah ha's, etc. In life's hustle and bustle and with the stresses on the personal burners I just felt like I needed a touch stone. So, here it is...my String of Inspiration!

Happy 4th Birthday Doodlebug!

To My Precious Doodlebug on her 4th Birthday

What I Wish For You

When you are lonely, I wish you love;

When you are sad, I wish you joy;

When you are discouraged, I wish you hope;

When your spirit is low, I wish you beauty;

When you are troubled, I wish you peace.

I wish you all these things and so much more!  These past 4 years have been a blessing and joy and I so look forward to the years ahead and being a part of this amazing journey that we began on March 23, 2005 at 10:47pm.  

A Flooring Option

I am a floundering at going green in my house.  I'm no where near where I want to be but I know that slowly but surely I will get there.  So, in my quest to go green I have been doing research on green flooring options.  I hate carpet.  I have always hated carpet and when we moved into our house I compromised with my husband on carpet.  After almost 5 years in the house he has converted to the no carpet land I want to live in.  

Now, given the economical times we live in replacing our carpet with tile or bamboo is not in the budget and won't be for some time.  About a month ago I decided that the family room carpet had to go.  It was so awful! In my desperation I decided to just rip up the carpet and we would live on the cement until another option was affordable.  In doing some research I found that this is a wonderful green option.   I planned for this to occur over my husbands spring break. So, last week we went to work and I'm so happy with the results that we just may tackle the bedrooms as well.  Below are our results.

Ripping up carpet is not historically a fun job.  But because of the goal that we were working toward it was fun.  An extra bonus....ripping up carpet can actually be quite a good frustration release! :-)

Now, the cement floor doesn't look so great once everything is ripped up.  We went to work cleaning the floor and once that was dry added 2 coats of cement paint.  Now, the cement paint is quite stinky but it dried beautifully!

Once it was dried we moved in the furniture. We decided to move the family room and make this room a dining room.  Now we still have some work to do like putting the chair covers on, getting pictures up, and moving in my desk belongings but I couldn't be happier with the result.

Here is another view!  Some other thoughts that I have on this choice.  It will be cleaner, easier to clean and lower on allergens.  Like I said, I am so happy with the result that I think we will tackle the bedrooms as well.  I know that if we ever have to move we will have to put something in since not everyone will see my vision, but for now this is a wonderful choice and I'm so glad that we did it.