S'mores in a Cup

Over the Christmas holidays, my cousins came and spent the night at our new home, and we had a blast! I had found this delectable hot chocolate recipe on Our Best Bites and I knew I had to make it. Here is the recipe:

serves 4

4 cups whole milk

2, 4oz Hershey’s chocolate bars

2 Tbs butter, melted

2 graham crackers, crushed

8 large marshmallows

Chocolate syrup

4 mugs or 8 espresso sized mugs 

Place melted butter in a small, shallow dish that’s as large around as your mug. Place crushed graham crackers in another dish of the same size. Flip your mugs upside-down and dip the rim first in melted butter and then in the crushed graham crackers.

Break the chocolate into pieces and place one half bar in each mug. Heat milk to a simmer and then pour one cup into each mug over the chocolate. Set aside.

Place marshmallows on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place under the broiler in the oven on low heat. Watch constantly and remove from oven when toasted and browned.

Stir hot milk mixture to distribute melted chocolate. Top each mug with 2-3 toasted marshmallows and drizzle with chocolate syrup.

Amazing!!

 

Peace, Love and Shutterfly!

This season, Shutterfly is having a great Christmas Card promo deal for bloggers! Get in on this, they have GREAT selection! Christmas cards have been really fun since we send them as a family now :) This year, we'll be including the dog in the mix...he can't wait.

I'll be getting them through Shutterfly because they literally have hundreds of choices, and I know they'll be great quality. It's hard to choose because of all the options though! I may even make calendars for family this year!

Here are the three cards I'm down to...I just can't decide!

Peace & Love 

Peace 2010

Peace & Joy (I guess I'm all about the peace, huh?)

Bloggers, if you want to get 50 free Christmas cards, enter here!

Our New Kitchen!

Major update!!

We just moved into our new home in Suwanee 2 weeks ago, and we have been hard at work! There isn't a whole lot to change about this house, it's in great shape. Our biggest urge, though, was to do something about the outdated kitchen. So we did!

Here is a before shot of one side:

And with the cabinets painted:

Also, my husband/my project hero installed new counter tops from IKEA (VERY cost efficient!)
AND I got a farmstyle sink from IKEA for HALF OFF in the As-Is room! Swoon.

Here is the final project! I LOVE it!

I'll post some more from the rest of our house this week...

Life is Crazy

Wow, what a crazy month this has been! We're still in a whirlwind, so I haven't been around in a while...

Our biggest project this month has been buying a house in Suwanee, GA! We're excited to move and everything has been going smoothly until this past week. We've had a minor setback with our loan, but we only had to move the closing date back by a week. Whew. I can't wait to live across the street from one of my closest friends Beth!

Unfortunately, the toughest part of the month was losing my cousin, Tammy. She has had a tough journey suffering from a brain aneurism and then ultimately dying of cancer that they found a month ago. Her funeral this week was really hard, but we know she is where we all want to be :)

Also, I had surgery yesterday! I got my gall bladder removed, and I should feel much better after the soreness is gone. I'm up walking around, but it still hurts.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving week because all will have settled down by then and we get to just visit with family. Sigh :) Talk about a tornado of a month!

Free Project!

If you know me, you know that I'm frugal. So that's why a free project makes me feel really good! If you've followed by blog for a while, you may remember this:

I figured the tulips are pretty summery, so I decided to change them out for another look. The new accent is still just as bright, but it adds a little taste of fall. I already had some spray paint, so all I needed were some branches from outside!

 I'll probably change the apples out at some point for some pine cones or maybe something a little more "fall like". Then at Christmas I can do cranberries! So easy!

My Latest Inspirations...

I. Love. IKEA.

I'm sure many of you do. We went to browse a few weeks ago, and it really got my senses stirring. I love tearing out pages in magazines for home inspiration, so I went through the IKEA catalog and tore out plenty. I'm mainly fascinated with their kitchen designs. Here is a taste of what has lately been running through my head:

I like the brightness of this kitchen. One day, I would love one of those hanging utensil racks (Only $25 at IKEA!) If this kitchen were mine, I would redo the counters with the amazing chopping block wooden counter tops from IKEA. I adore that type of surface.

I also LOVE the look of these shelves instead of cabinets! It really opens up the space.

 

I really just like the back wall again with the shelves. I've always wanted a sink by a window so I can put plant life on the windowsill.

And I just like this look from Pottery Barn

Inspiration abounds!!

Dog Toys Don't Match

So as you may know from a previous post, Daniel and I have a lab/boxer puppy named Duncan. He's 8 months old now, and is still just as precious! We, unfortunately, are going through a phase of getting him new toys where he destroys them in 10 minutes flat. Hard to be mad, when it's just impressive...

I hated how his toys were sprawled all over the house and in the couch cushions, so I came up with a happy medium. I've always loved galvanized metal, so I got him his own bucket from Lowe's! Not only can he grab a toy out of it himself, but it actually looks decent.

So for all you dog lovers out there, it can be an organized, simple and cheap fix!