Dining Room Makeover!

It's time for another installment of

***Before & After***

Cozy Cottage style!

Welcome to our dining room!

Here is the "before"....

and here is the "after".

We painted all the wood trim white,

wall-papered the walls with textured wall paper to try to conceal bumps,

then painted it all AQUA in memory of our wedding.  :)

Before:

After:

Joel bought an old dining room set for $50.

He didn't like the tabletop, so he made a new one and then refinished the chairs to match!

He even recovered the cushions!

Pretty impressive, right?

This is a pretty big room to just eat in, so it also serves as the music room!

Joel is usually the only one who plays, except for the rare occassion when I sit down and wow him with my one memorized piece.  If only you could hear it!  haha!



Now you have seen the

YELLOW kitchen & the

AQUA dining room.

Which room will be next?

And what color will it be?

Recovering of the Cushions

My parents gave us their wicker furniture when we moved into our house.

It is perfect for our porch, but the cushions were very faded.

At craft night, I covered the cushions with fabric to match our red door.

Ahh, much better!

Craft Night!

Thursday has now become "craft night" at my house.

Everyone brings whatever projects they are wanting to work on, and we just hang out and craft together. 

It's quite fun!

There was some doodling and sewing going on...

some reading, studying and note writing...

and even some toenail painting!

Jessica, the most enthusiastic of all crafters, made these super cute shirts!

Everyone was impressed with her skills!

Stay tuned to see what I did!

A Circus Adventure!

A couple weeks ago, I got the grand idea to take Josiah to a local circus.

The word spread, and soon it became a family affair.

(My parents were also there.)

We were all so excited and looking forward to an exciting show.

Much to our dismay, this was the opening act...a monkey jumping from stool to stool.

Also, pictured above is the one and only clown that was at the circus.

I think there were a total of 7 or 8 running and performing in the whole circus.

There was one monkey, four dogs, and a miniature horse.

It was quite the experience!

There were two girls who did pretty cool tricks hanging from ropes or from their hair!

It was overall quite a hilarious performance!

As we were leaving, Josiah said, "well, I liked the circus, but where was the elephant?"  ha!

Peanut Butter Pie

Time for another recipe!

This is what we had for our Valentine's Day dessert:

Peanut Butter Pie!

All you need is:

1 pre-baked pie crust

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding (5.4 oz)

2 1/2 cup milk

1 container whipped topping (8 oz)

Blend powdered sugar and peanut butter together with a fork until it is crumbly.  Sprinkle 3/4 of the peanut butter mixture on the bottom of the pie crust.  Whisk together pudding mix and milk and pour over peanut butter mixture.  Refrigerate for a few minutes until pudding is set.  When set, spread entire container of whipped topping on top of pudding.  Sprinkle the remaining peanut butter crumbles on top of the whipped topping.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

This recipe is so easy and so, so delicious! 

Mmmm!  It makes me want to make one right this instant!

Valentine's Day!

We had a wonderful first Valentine's Day as a married couple!

We ate a delicious dinner at home,

exchanged presents,

(Joel to Jenn: crockpot cookbook

Jenn to Joel: the game Spill & Spell)

and I even redecorated the shelf in the dining room,

which was fun to do & fun to look at!

Pumpkin Bread!

I'm back!  It's been a while....that's for sure!  My excuse for my long absence is that my computer has been broken.  The good news is, it's fixed!  I have so many wonderful things to catch you up on!  I'll start with a delicious recipe!

Do you see the fish on the bread?  Pretty cool, huh?

On to the recipe!

Pumpkin Bread

1 2/3 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup salad oil

1 cup canned pumpkin

Mix dry ingredients.  Combine wet ingredients, then add to dry ingredients. 

Mix.  Pour into greased and floured loaf pan. 

Bake at 350 for 60-75 minutes.

I know it's not the season for pumpkin bread, but I had a couple of cans of pumpkin left over from Thanksgiving for some reason.  Turns out that pumpkin bread is delicious any time of the year!  Enjoy!