Junk-y Goodness...

Check out all the fun antique crap we inherited along with the house, a "cabin", and four acres....

This cabin was supposedly the first residence on this property. It had been in the family for four generations. It's a bit sad that out of four kids, no one wanted to keep such a unique home.

This is just the stuff outside, in the woods. It doesn't include all the loveliness that was hiding in here:

This toolshed was jam-packed with rusty, rotting, and otherwise useless "treasures". Isn't it amazing how people can work up the energy to take all their good stuff with them, but cannot be bothered to clean up after themselves? I suppose we could have written junk clean-out into the contract, but Mr. was convinced he would find some great shining gem in the piles of decaying debris. Nope.

Flowers

I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home from work and I picked up a bouquet for literally the first time ever. I was inspired by the beautiful flowers Kim at NewlyWoodwards is growing with her super green thumb!I wanted to brighten up my yucky, in-progress house. Well she was definitely right in saying it is much easier to put just a couple flowers in each vase than to arrange an entire tableau. Here is my first attempt at flower arranging:



Pretty sad, no? Makes me wish I had the rest of my vases to spread them out a bit more. Martha Stewart I am not...

Slacker

The title of this post describes me to a T. (Why do people say that? Why not "to an X"? I am sure there is an explanation. If you know it, please, do tell!) We have had our house since the 2nd of July and all I have managed to do is pick the paint for the ceilings/radiators, the living room, and for the dining room. Pick them, not start painting them. That would involve actual work and there is always an excuse to put off actual work. Last Saturday my excuse involved driving to my parents house to pick up the drop cloths, the Wagner power painter (for aforementioned radiators), and to let the dog get some energy out, then going to Lowe's for ferns and Home Depot for paint. I still have not used the dropcloths or the Wagner. Or the paint. The ferns are hung on my front porch, though! Yay for the little things. So, my goal for this weekend is to paint the hallway connecting the dining and living rooms and to paint the ceiling in the dining room. Any more than that and I will feel overwhelmed. But hopefully I will be productive and get more done than that.

Hmmm...

Well, I had a post planned with lots of pics of the new house, but blogger won't upload my photos.... bastards...

Etsy Find

How absolutely beautiful are these pillows by missmosh on etsy.com?

I love, love, love that she focuses on eco-friendly fabrics, too! There are other

options besides the rosettes, but I am completely taken with them...

Click on the pics for links to each listings. She has better quality photos in her shop!

New Recipe

My boss made this Amish Friendship Bread and brought it in to work with the extra starters. I tried it and thought it was simply OK, but I took a starter anyway. The dough takes ten days to ferment, or whatever it does, and of course that tenth day we were staying at the new house. We still don't have everything moved and I had to run to the grocery store for the things I had forgotten to bring. I even had to buy new baking pans! But it was totally worth it. It turned our great! I chose Vanilla Pudding and I added pecans to the mix and on top. I also used McCormicks Cinnamon Sugar instead of just cinnamon in the mix and as the cinnamon sugar combination they say is optional. I also mixed it all in a metal bowl with a metal spoon(*gasp*) which apparently is a no-no, but it didn't catch fire or anything dramatic. I kept one of the starters for myself and I think next time I will try Banana Pudding with pecans and see how that tastes. I also did not use the 1/2 tsp. of salt they call for.

Amish Friendship Bread

Do not use any type of metal bowl or spoon for mixing.
Do not refrigerate; it is normal for the batter to bubble, rise, and ferment.

Day 1 – Do nothing. (This is the day you receive your starter.)
Day 2 – Mush the bag.
Day 3 – Mush the bag.

Day 4 – Mush the bag.
Day 5 – Mush the bag.
Day 6 – Add to bag: 1 c. flour, 1 c. sugar, 1 c. milk. Mush the bag.
Day 7 – Mush the bag.
Day 8 – Mush the bag.
Day 9 – Mush the bag.
Day 10 – Pour batter out of bag into a non-metal bowl.
Add 1 ½ c. each of milk, flour, and sugar. Mix well.
Measure 1 c. batter into 4 separate gallon size zipper bags.
Give starter bags to friends along with a revised copy of this recipe.

Preheat oven to 325°.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 c. sugar, 2 c. flour, ½ tsp. baking powder, 1 large (5.1 oz.) box of instant pudding (pudding flavor will determine flavor of bread), ½ tsp. salt, and 2 tsp. cinnamon (optional). Mix well.

In the bowl with the starter batter add 3 eggs, 1 c. oil, ½ c. milk, 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix well.

Optional: In a small bowl, mix ½ c. sugar and 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon to dust pans and top of bread.

Grease pans (2 large loaf or 3 smaller pans). Use above mixture to coat pans. Pour batter into pans, adding remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.

Bake 1 hour at 325°.

Try getting creative with your mix! Add raisins, chocolate, Heath chunks, toffee, even marshmallows for a taste and a recipe that's all your own! Yum!

Here is the recipe for the starter (from allrecipes.com), in case you don't have any friends passing them around.

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups white sugar, divided
3 cups milk

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes.
In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar.
Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added.
Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture.
Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly.
Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.
On days 2 through 4; stir starter with a spoon.
Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.
Days 6 through 9; stir only.
Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.
Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).

Weekend Update

I signed up for Internet service that was supposed to start on Friday. Unfortunately, the representative neglected to tell me I would need a "dummy" log-in code to set up my modem and did not give me a 24/7 customer service #. So I am still without home internet service. Lovely. One of these days everything will fall into place.

I started deciding on colors for the dining room and living room this weekend. I know I want a pale yellow in the dining room and a tan that will coordinate in the living room, but there are soooo many options!! In our old house I just picked some colors, bought the paint and went to town, but I ended up hating the colors in both bedrooms. So this time I bought those fancy-schmancy tester cans. Good thing too... The color I picked out of this book, Sherwin-Williams Bagel, was seriously pink and yucky on the wall.

The pictures not great, it actually doesn't look to bad in this pic., but that may be the flash. It is really a pinky beige and I need something to coordinate with the yellowy-cream in the dining room.

An older man that I work with recommended Valspar Churchill Hotel Wheat, so I went and bought a tester. I love it! It is very creamy and neutral. I may decide that it is too pale once I get the rooms done, but it is perfect for now.

They almost look like the same color in the separate photos, but the wall shot with the paint smudges on the large blog shows the variation in better contrast. The walls in both the dining and the living room were a dull gray. Yuck! The house is sooo dark, it's surrounded by trees, and this bland color was not helping brighten things up at all. The funny thing is, when my grandparents came to see the house, my grandpa says "This is such a friendly color!". Really? Gray is friendly? I like a nice gray for a bedroom or a light-filled bathroom, but not for a dark living space. I need to bring some light into the space!