Cake Mix Cookies

I absolutely love cookies but I am not a big fan of making a mess of my already not-as-clean-as-I-would-like-it-to-be kitchen. Here is a recipe that is super easy with no heavy lifting of the Kitchen-Aid mixer.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 Cake Mix
  
• 1/3 c. Flour
• 1/4 c. Water
• 1/2 c. Oil
• 1 Egg
  

You just mix those ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. The best part is you can do whatever cake mix you want with whatever add ins you would like. (Chocolate mix w/M&Ms, peanut butter chips, or chocolate chips; Strawberry mix w/white chocolate chips; Funfetti mix is also a great mix!) Form into balls and drop on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes.

Here are the results. These will be a perfect treat to eat while watching The Biggest Loser. Go Green, Black, and Yellow Teams!One day I will get a better camera so that I can take more delicious-looking pictures. This picture just doesn't do these cookies justice! Enjoy!!

Working downstairs

Our upstairs furniture is all stuffed into Bubba's room because our flooring's finishing touches won't be done until Monday (It was supposed to be today but the end pieces aren't in yet). Therefore, there really is no place to sit except on the floor. So this past week Hubby and I have been finishing our basement. We already have put in a full bathroom down there and are now working simultaneously on a family room and another bedroom. We still have quite a bit of work to do on each room but the hard parts are mostly done.

Here are a few pictures of our progress thus far:

Here is the bedroom. It has been framed and we just finished the drywall last night. Now we need to tape the drywall joints, texture the walls, PAINT!, put on trim, carpet, and furnish! Yay! We are basically done right?

Here is the downstairs family room. It already had the walls and was painted when we moved in. The ceiling was also half done. So we have finished the wood planked ceiling and patched the holes in the walls. Now we just need to finish drywalling the window boxes, paint, add molding, carpet, and then we get to shop for furniture! There are some ideas of what I want at the bottom of this post.

Sorry about this picture. I should have dimmed the lights but I wanted to show off the completed ceiling.

I really like this sectional. I am not a huge fan of the pillows though. I bet I could add a little of my own zing with the help of the fabric store.
I also like this one. It is about the same as the previous one but it looks more comfy for some reason.
No matter what couch we get I definately want this ottoman! I love ho great is all the storage it provides?!

Crepes!

Since it was our family's first time making crepes I thought I would share the amazing crepe recipe that we found on Allrecipes.com. Since you can't just eat a crepe plain, I also was able to find a Cream Cheese Filling recipe. I didn't get a chance to take even one picture because they were eaten so quickly by the family but here are the recipes in case you want to try them for yourself.

Basic Crepes

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla
  

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and water. Add the flour, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Cream Cheese Crepe Filling Recipe

Ingredients

4	ounces fat free cream cheese
2	tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
1	teaspoon powdered sugar, for garnish
2	teaspoons vanilla extract
8	strawberries, hulled and sliced

DirectionsIn a mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese until smooth using an electric mixer. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, mix well.

Almost...

The floor is in but the install won't officially be done until Thursday because they needed to order more end pieces. So far it looks great and the little guy Loves to push his cars on the smooth flat surface. I will have pictures as soon as it's complete so check back soon!

Wow Me Wednesday!

I have my own wow factor going on in my house today, only it's not a happy wow just yet. Our house is in the middle of getting a makeover. We are three weeks into it and hopefully will be done this Saturday. This is what I am looking at right now.

All the carpet is gone! The only things on the floor are various toys, tools, and knickknacks that have been strewn about by Hubby and Bubba (a.k.a. my messy boys). I feel no need to clean it up because more carpet removal will happen tonight. Then we will have our new flooring installed over the next two days. I can hardly wait!
But until then, I live vicariously through other peoples' homes that I am wow'd by.
Here are a few pictures that Wow'd me today. These are all from Better Homes and Gardens

The Basics Done Right
An entry way that is clean and makes you happy to answer the door.

Thoughtful Artwork
I like how the TV becomes a piece of art with this collection and I love the silhouette artwork.

Roundly Stated
The wall treatment in this bathroom has inspired me to do a remodel of my own bathroom. I love the cool colors and the way the black round mirror and side chair pop in contrast.

Where do you go to get inspired?

The Makings of a Wreath

Ever since I took the Christmas wreath off of my door it's looked naked. This is a hard time of year for me because I don't have "winter" decorations. I have snowmen stuff but it all gets packed away with our Christmas decor deep under our stairs. So now what do I decorate my home with? It's a little too early for Valentines and I don't want to invest in President's Day decorations. So even though the inside of my home will be left decoratively barren, my front door still needs a little something. So here are the makings of my wreath...may they inspire you to make something better.
First I gathered some materials:

• Garland-I bought a few of these at Hobby Lobby last year sometime because they were on sale and I liked them but at the time I had absolutely no use for them.
  
• Ribbon-I save all ribbon that is at least 6" long for little touches.
  
• Grapevine wreath (not pictured)
• Twist ties-I used twist ties because I wanted to make something tonight and I didn't have floral wire and I didn't want to use my glue gun to make it permanent. Thenonce I get sick of this wreath I can take it apart and start over.

I started with laying down the grapevine wreath and laid the garland on top. The first garland I put on the outer rim of the wreath and the second garland was put on more of the middle of the wreath. I only used about 8 twist ties to secure the garland to the larger branches on the wreath.

Here is what I have so far. I have spread out the "branches" on the outer garland for a more airy look. For the inner garland I spread out the "branches" and then lightly scrunched them like pom poms. I left space at the bottom for a ribbon to be tied.







Here is the wreath in Hubby's hand with the ribbon attached. I am not crazy about the way I tied the bow but I will fix it. If you know how to tie a better bow, by all means come and re-tie it if you happen to drive by my house. At least the door doesn't look as naked as it did with nothing on it.

One Day...

I was going through the pictures on my computer trying to organize them so that I can get them into scrapbooks or something tangible so that they aren't taking up space on my hard drive. Well, look what I found. Two pictures of Hubby and me.

The first one is us during the summer of 2004 (hence the insane tan faces). We were still just dating and attending one of our really good friend's baptism. I remember that being a good day.

The next one was taken January 2007. We were married and I am standing with some medals from WAC Indoor track championship.

Now you are probably wondering why I chose these two pictures...Look at my hair!! How long it is! One of my New Year's Resolutions was to make sure I get my long hair back.

This is where my applesauce comes in...I have started brushing through my hair 100 times at night to help it grow faster. Apparently, combing your hair stimulates blood flow to your scalp, which helps to energize your hair follicles and thus longer hair. Now I could actually go on the internet and find some study that proves or disproves this, but I just realized that it is pretty late and it feels good to comb your hair and give yourself a little scalp massage anyway. So who cares if it isn't true...it still feels good.

Not-Quite-Spring Cleaning

I know it's not time to even think of Spring because Winter isn't even half over, but ever since I cleaned up all the Christmas decor, I have wanted to get down and get clean. So I started with my windows. I was just going to spray a little Windex and call it good but then I saw this...
Are you kidding me!? How could I have let the inside of my windows get that bad? Probably because my curtains are drawn so that the heat stays in. Once I saw this something had to be done to remedy the horrid situation. So, I put the Windex down, put on my yellow rubber gloves, grabbed my scrubby and washcloth, a bucket of warm water, and mildew/soap scum remover and went to work. Now I know why I don't clean my windows that often because it was gross!! After scrubbing one window I couldn't stop. I traveled from window to window to get it all clean. M was unhappy that I wasn't playing with him but I had a job to do.

So here is what my windows look like now. Sorry I got little too close and blurry with the camera but I wanted to see my reflection.
I was so inspired by the nice looking windows that I scrubbed out my fridge. It's not fair though because that will only stay clean for about a week (fingers crossed).

What is the first thing you clean when Spring Cleaning Season starts?

Christmas Finds!

I am one of those people who likes to clean up Christmas right after the holiday. I don't wait until after New Years because I start going nuts. I just don't feel as though my house is clean until all decorations are packed away in their Tupperware bins. Ahh, just saying that makes me feel good and organized.

I also want to point out that my favorite part of Christmas is not exactly Christmas Day. Is that bad? I hope not. Don't get me wrong...I like being with family, unwrapping gifts, and giving gifts that I have had hidden for over a month and have wanted to give them away the day I bought them. All that is great and grand, but what I love is the after Christmas Sales!

Oh, how I love the Week after Christmas. Everything Christmas/Holiday related is at least 70% off in every store. So of course, I went shopping right after Christmas. Now I didn't go the 26th of December because that's shopping suicide but I went soon after that. And here is what I got... Isn't it great! I got all of that and a little more for about $30.00 instead of paying full price totaling over $80.00. And do you know what the best part is? When I get out my Christmas decor next year, it will be like opening Christmas decor presents because it's all new and ready to use. Ahh, a big sigh of happiness escapes me. Happy Sale Shopping.

Getting Started...

Well, I decided that I needed a place away from the little family blog where I can write down my own thoughts and ideas. I need a central place to put all my randomness to help me get organized this year. So here goes, I hope whomever stumbles across this blog will get some type of inspiration from all my Applesauce.