This old House - looking better with age!

Here's one old lady ready to help me and my house celebrate!

Well, I can't believe it, this weekend marks my 1 year anniversary in my house! Crazy how fast a year can fly by! I moved in the week before my b-day last year so it's kind of fun, every year I get older my house grows older with me! So in honor of my house turning 93 and me turning 27 (ugh) I thought I'd show some before and after photos from the time I moved in till now! Is it bad that I'd love to scrap it all and redecorate from the ground up!!! One can always dream!

House Front:

House Front Before

House front after

At night!

The shrubs my parents and I spent hours planting!

Now on to the Family Room:

Family Room After

Family Room from the Stairs View

Front Porch (no before)

Outside Dining Table

Swing I love to sit and read on!

Dining Room:

My dad hates this light fixture...don't worry it's changed!

Fireplace mantle - just need to build it out to make it look more real!

Kitchen:

Kitchen Before

Not much has changed in here!

Breakfast Nook Before

Breakfast nook After

Bedroom:

Bedroom before - window on far right leads to Wine Porch out front.

Bedroom after - headboard is two old closet doors painted!

From the Bed side view

Master Bedroom walkway leading to "Back Reading Porch"

Back reading porch off master - l ove this space!

Wine porch out the second floor bedroom window!

Wine Porch view from the street!

Studio:

Studio Before

Studio After (I do all my glass cutting inside that white doored closet!)

Studio Desk Side

Alright - well the only part of my place I dont have an after pic of is the Bathroom here is the before:

Gotta love the toilet on an angle! :)

ME:

Erin Before ( 2 years)

And after 27 - lucky number baby! :)

Happy Birthday house....it's been a busy year but a great one! Here's to getting old...but looking great with age! :)

Spring Wreath Tutorial

Finally got around to dressing up my front door this past weekend!  It took the neighbors asking me if "Christmas was over" for me to realize it might be time to take down my holiday wreath I still had up! Ha. It was cute - what can I say!?

Alright so here's the down and dirty. This is a messy project but it's mildly quick, pretty cheap compared to buying one at the store, and if you're good at it you can make one for every season...eliminating the chance of an embarrassing encounter with the neighbors!

Materials Needed:

(2) Grapevine Wreaths $3.99 a piece.....$8.00
(20) Varying Strands of flowers from Michaels - Hopefully 50% off like I got them..... $26.00
(1) Super cute bird with feather tail....$2.99
Green Floral Wire......$1.99
Scissors
Hot Glue & Gun (optional)

So for around $40.00 you can make this wreath on your own and save yourself from spending a ton on a pre-made wreath that's only half as cute from the craft store! Let's get started.

I chose to buy 2 grapevine wreaths because just one seemed a little small.  I wanted my wreath to really stand out once it hit the front door! Notice how plain my red front door is with nothing on it....UGH! Once you have your 2 wreaths picked out make sure they match up in shape... you don't want one oval and one circle because when you stack them it will just look goofy.  Wire the 2 wreaths together with green floral wire in 3 to 4 spots around the wreaths. Tuck the wire ends into the grape vines when finished wrapping...hint, twist the wire like you're putting a twist tie on a garbage sack - it's that easy!

Now that I had the "Meaty" wreath look I was going for it was time to start in with the flowers.  Let me give you a little tip...when shopping for flowers always look for ones THAT DON'T LOOK FAKE. I detest fake flowers, and always have live beautiful ones around my house, but for the outdoors you want fake ones that will last...AND LOOK REAL.  The way to do this is find flowers that have ragged edges, look a bit torn, have leafy flowing branches that move in the wind.  The more it looks real next to fake plastic ones, the better it is.  Also buy filler flowers, plastic grasses and berries pass as real all the time, along with moss and branches! So let's get into applying the flowers.

I like to start slow, build up a background for my "Feature" flowers. I chose a pallet of yellow, orange, red and white for a pop in order for the wreath to stand out against the door.  Take the color of the flowers and also the season into consideration when picking wreath items. I stuck this yellow grass like sprig in between the two wreaths and ran some wire through it to hold it in place.

Each time I add flowers, I will set the wreath back away from me and make sure it looks balanced and full. You want the flowers to look as if they're growing up the side of the grapevine...it should follow the curve of the wreath and have a central focus at the bottom center where the "feature flowers" are placed at the end.  The two photos above took about 25 minutes to add all of these flowers...once you get going its a cinch! For the flowers wrapping all the way up the side of the wreath I just wired the entire branch in.  For the white tulip and yellow flower in the front I cut them off of the wire stuck them in the wreath and added a dab of hot glue to secure them in place.

After taking this image I felt like it was almost finished but it needed just a bit more green in the center where the white tulip juts out and the orange berries are a bit overwhelming.

Adding a few tulip leaves fanned out and a couple sprigs of yellow flowers it finally felt finished! See below for images of the wreath happily hung outside! Nothing like a spring wreath to warm up the front of my home...now if only the temperature would do the same!

Doin a Snookie on the Oreo Cookie...

So I'll admit the title is a bit misleading....not even sure what "doin a snookie on an oreo cookie" would turn out looking like but Jersey Shore is a guilty pleasure of mine so I had to throw it in, and NOTHING rhymes with OREO so deal with it :)!

One of my weekend projects was to make a dessert. I finished my wreath as well and I'll post that later this week, but let's get to the sweet stuff! My friend gave me this recipe about a year ago and it is about the easiest thing I've ever made and it tastes great! People always ask for the recipe wherever I take it so here ya go.

The nice thing about this version is it doesn't use butter or cream cheese like other recipes online do, so there is a TON less fat! Let's get started.

Here are the ingredients, they include:
Mixing Bowl
Spatula
Whisk
Glass Container to layer dessert in
(1) package of Oreo cookies
(1) container of Light Coolwhip
(2) packages Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
3.5 cups of Skim Milk
And food coloring is optional

Dump (2) packages of instant pudding mix into bowl, add 3.5 cups of skim milk and stir with whisk till mixed. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow the pudding to set up.

While the pudding is setting up, put the Light coolwhip in the microwave to thaw it out. When thawed, dump the entire container of coolwhip into the pudding and mix with a spatula until well blended.

Now the fun part. Add food coloring whatever strikes your fancy and stir into the pudding until it reaches the right color.  I couldn't help myself - it seemed like a great time to draw a dinosaur face! :)

Place oreo cookies in a ziplock bag and mash or if you're too cheap to buy ziploc bags and you don't want the world to see you smash oreo's in a target sack, place the cookies into a tupperware and smash with a large spoon.

Now the tricky part. Once the entire package of oreos are smashed start layering the mixture in a clear glass container.  I chose a skinny flower vase I'd just purchased because I wanted to try something different.  Look around the kitchen and use something fun! I didn't have a ton of oreos because I'd eaten quite a few while working....so my layers are a bit messy but you can do it better yourself! Layer pudding, oreos, pudding, oreos, etc. until the whole thing is full. Finish with pudding on top and place an oreo in the center!

Take any leftover pudding and place in a glass dish and sprinkle with oreo crumbs. Place your "doing a snookie on the oreo cookie" in the fridge for 4 hours and you're ready to serve! While it chills clean up the mess you've made....Yikes my kitchen WAS clean.

Check out the pics below of my artsy green and black dessert, the whole thing only has around 10 grams of fat if you take out the oreos! Try this recipe and substitute fruit layers like strawberries or lowfat vanilla wafers to make it a healthy snack!  For more ideas of healthy cooking, and how to save while you shop visit my sister's blog @ wlstrusttheprocess.blogspot.com . Check back later this week for my Spring flower wreath project I did this past weekend!