Round two of project light and bright...

...and a Craig's list find.  

Back to the huge dark room makeover.  Since our family has grown by leaps and bounds.  Five grands in under three years is wonderful, don't get me wrong.  But, when we have family over for an afternoon or evening meal, wow the kitchen gets really crowded fast and I get a little overwhelmed.  Get out of my space, I am trying to get supper ready!!!

I wanted to divert folks aways from my work space and I knew moving the appetizer and food placement location to the front huge room would help. I saw these heavenly buffets on Pinterest!

How do I  choose?  Which would you choose?  1, 2 or 3?
1. Pinned from Refresh Style

2. Barron Furniture

3. Less than Perfect Life of Bliss

Is it the hardware that pulls you in? (pardon the pun)  Is it the skinny legs? Is it the extra storage? Color?

My wish list
Very long
19 inch depth
counter height
drawers for storage

And I have found my Craig's list beauty to paint!
So which is your favorite... 1 - 2 - or 3?
Let's see if we have the same taste.

Happy Valentine's Day !

Just a girl and a balloon.  It doesn't take much to make us happy!

Enjoy your weekend.

Grands just a growin...

They just won't stop growing and of course we don't want them too.  MissAllyAnn is just too precious for words.

 MrHayes is 4 months and is not shy.  Well, maybe he would like a little privacy during his bath.

 MissHadley is adorable with her new bob haircut and MissLayton still has those curls going on and on for days.

 MissRaylyn is working on her fine motor skills with Valentine making and loving this Texas warm springlike winter.  Doesn't every little southern belle run around the playground in a monogrammed dress?! 

Dark Giant Room

Our front room in the house is huge.  It is a combo living room ~ dining room.  Originally we had the dining table and chairs closes to the kitchen, but it was cramped.  So, I moved the dining table toward the front windows.  

Problem 

Lots of dark wood antique pieces, dark antique oriental rugs, dark walnut stained wood floors and a red couch.  Get the picture?  If not see below.  Check out the red couch and dark floors here.

Solution One....chair covers changed.

 They went from brown to a light grey/green, depending on the light.

 Took me a couple hours and two and half yards of fabric.  Cutting Corners had their annual Janaury sale and it cost me $10 bucks to change out the covers.  

Next up... the dark curtains with heavy lining need to go too!

Sharing with
Poofing the Pillows

Mardi Gras King Cake

Pecan Praline Monkey Bread!  Perfect, for when I had the family over for brunch the Sunday before Fat Tuesday.

I know it looks like a lot, but your probably have everything but the canned biscuits.

 Napkins I am using, very Frenchy, perfect for Mardi Gras!  Love my new Williams-Sonoma measuring cup.

 Looks like regular Monkey Bread out of the oven.  Flip it over and you see the praline gooeyness.

 Found the recipe here on Pinterest at Spicey Southern Kitchen.

You know you want some of this for tomorrow!  Happy Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras Monkey Bread

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

This delicious Monkey bread is decked out with Mardi Gras colored sprinkles and is simple to make using refrigerated biscuits.

Recipe type: Bread

Ingredients

• 4 tubes refrigerated Homestyle Biscuits (not the Grands)
• 1¾ cup sugar, separated
• ½ cup finely chopped pecans
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup evaporated milk
• ¾ cup butter
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• ⅓ cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces.
3. In a medium bowl, combine ¾ cup sugar, pecan pieces, and cinnamon. Roll each biscuit piece in sugar mixture and then place in a Bundt pan. You should use most of the sugar mixture up, but it's ok to have some left over.
4. In a saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, and butter. Heat stirring occasionally, until butter melts. Pour over biscuit pieces.
5. Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes and then invert onto a cake stand or large plate.
6. For Icing, whisk together powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Spread on top of Monkey Bread.

More Ice scream, you scream, we all scream...

for ice cream...

 Not sure who is having more fun.  Great Grandmother - Nanny or MissLayton and MissHadley. (Sorry Ann Marie, Lala does not keep up with brushing hair when they spend the night!)

 Sip..

 sip... chug...

 I think it is gone?  Yep, I got it all!

 Run now and get your own ZOKU ice cream maker!  

Little cute ice cream dishes... (Goodwill, 50 cents)

Because it was 78 degrees in Texas...

We made ice cream!  Also, because ZOKU makes it so easy. MissRaylyn volunteered to taste test.  She loved it, we all did.  I purchased mine from Williams-Sonoma.

They also have popsicle and milk shake makers too.

 

  You freeze the inside metal container overnight.  Pour in 5 ounces of your ice cream recipe and start scraping.  A child really needs to be about 7 or 8 to have the strength to scrape the sides.  But my Grands had fun swirling the wisk in the milk and cream, as I added the sugar and vanilla flavoring.

 You use the little plastic paddle to swirl and scrape the ice cream mix.  In about 5-7 minutes you have fresh homemade soft serve ice cream. One Zoku recipe fills two containers.  Each container can fill two small ice cream dishes.

 We have used a vanilla flavored base and added our choice of strawberries, sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, caramel, pecans and even some Starbucks Macchiato. There has never been any leftovers!

We highly recommend this fun yummy family activity.

I'm back!

Finally, I real person with Apple Help was able to talk me through updating my browser!  For the past month I have been trying to update my Safari application.  When I finally saw a link to acutally call someone with Apple, it then only took two calls, three representatives and over an hour to load the new application.  If you need the phone number let me know.

Now, I need to read the tutorial for El Capitan and figure out how to load photos and get ready to be bombarded with new posts.  I have been busy.

Thanks, for sticking around.  Lori