Creative Do-It-Yourself Ideas and Inspiration for Your House and Family. Currently making _______________.
Alright, I owe you guys some more chocolate. And if you can’t eat it, you can at least look at it, right? I guess I have a thing for weird cupcakes. If I’m going to eat something unhealthy, I make it count! Since I’m not allowed to bake anything in the kitchen right now, I’ll just pretend I’m able to.
Yep. We are dreaming big and relocating. The idea has been brewing for a year or so, and the planning has happened behind the scenes. But everything kind of came together in the last few days, so no matter how much planning you do, you can never be 100% ready for any big decision in life. That’s what I’m telling myself at least! We put in an offer. And they accepted. Contingent upon Joe’s current house selling. Cross your fingers!
“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” – Nelson Mandela
Most people, like it or not, will get a homemade craft from me at some point. I love giving birthday presents! If you’re in a pinch to make a friend a fun birthday gift too, this might be a neat idea for you.
I sincerely hope you didn’t give up sweets for Lent, because I have a bunch of chocolate recipes to share. There’s an amazing new truffle place in the skyway where I work called Legacy Chocolates. Ah.Maz.Ing. At $3 a piece, they are worth every cent. They make 99% dark cocoa truffles, and experiment with new flavors each week. What’s not to love, right? The trouble is, I was becoming a regular. For a couple months, I would get a truffle every week. So I thought, hmmm I could totally make something like this.
I found this recipe for truffles on Pinterest, and it spoke to me:
Guilt-free chocolate truffles: “Greek yogurt chocolate truffles. Great recipes for fitness lovers with a sweet tooth.” From MayIHaveThisRecipe.com.
While we’re not huge fans of Hallmark holidays, we do like to celebrate special occasions in our own way. I’m big on spending quality time together, so I figured there was no better time to sign Joe up for some volunteer activities. Hey, that was my Valentine’s Day wish.
There’s just nothing like that new paint smell. Ahhhh. I hate the new car smell, but paint I can handle. We painted the main-level bathroom. We felt like this was just the thing the room needed. Something inside me said, “Silver.” And so it was. I have an unusual infatuation with the color gray. I wanted to find just the right one and ended on this Pittsburg version called “Antique Silver.” Come have a look!
Much deliberation took place. Actually, we just looked at the options and went with our gut. Joe was worried that it wouldn’t match the brown hardware and counter, but this particular shade of silver had some brown tones to it.
Are you like Joe and hate popcorn ceiling with a passion? It never bothered me much, until I realized how many alternatives are out there! Joe has always wanted to try doing a knockdown ceiling treatment, so we decided to pick a sample room and try our hand. Since Steve’s bathroom is basically unoccupied now, we figured it was the perfect small space for a test run!
You’ll need to buy a few things before attempting this yourself.
All things considered, I think it’s been a pretty fun and eventful winter so far! I’m 100% happy with being in MN for the season. (I’ll get back to you around March). I’m equally thankful we don’t live on the east coast right now! So Minnesota isn’t really so bad. In fact, MN is the best kept secret in the US. This article pretty much sums up what we already know.
Anyway, we’ve been out and about these last couple weekends exploring MN and WI and have many adventures to share.
Joe won an all-inclusive, luxury one night stay at his company fish house on Lake Mille Lacs last Friday, so we figured we better use it or lose it 🙂
I think this post is actually my New Year’s Resolution coming together. I like to take my time with these things. 🙂 “Celebrate” is definitely my word for 2015.
Let’s take a step back for a second. We live in such a crazy world at a crazy pace that we rarely celebrate our accomplishments along the way. Who has the time to stop and celebrate? If you’re like me, you’re probably your own biggest critic. I don’t take time to sit back and look at all the things that have gone right. Always looking forward, I find myself cruising right through the good stuff.
My initial thoughts around my New Year’s Resolutions were this: To not be so hard on myself and others. To give myself a little grace. And by extension, others around me. I think that resolution has expanded a little bit…
Two out of three ain’t so bad for a Minnesota winter. We’re still pretty sad that Steve and Shila Bear moved out, but on the bright side, there’s a new room in Joe’s house. What was once a porch addition, because a four-season bedroom. Now it’s restored to a four-season porch! Or “sun room” as we’ve been affectionately calling it.
Come take a peek inside!
