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Windy City Bound

May 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well friends, after work today, me and three friends are headed to the windy city of Chicago for the long Memorial Day weekend.

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I’m excited for a little mini vacation and some fun with friends. I have been to Chicago two other times. Once with my family when I was younger, and once to visit a college friend who was living there at the time. I’m excited to go back and see some of the sights I’ve seen before, but also do and see some things I haven’t yet.

Here are just a few of the things I’m excited about doing while we’re there::

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{Eating some delicious deep dish pizza from Giordano’s}

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{Catching a Cubs game at the famous Wrigley Field}

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{Eating white chocolate & 4 berry cheesecake pancakes from Bongo Room}

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{And of course doing a little shopping}

Have any of you been to Chicago? Any sights or places we need to be sure and visit?

I’ll be sure and post pictures and do a quick recap of the trip next week!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

With Love,

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Summer Dessert and The Bachelorette

May 24, 2011 By 4 Comments

Summer is right around the corner and so are outdoor BBQs, picnics and pool parties.

So in honor of summer, I wanted to share one of my favorite summertime, well really any time, desserts. It’s chocolate pudding. No this isn’t the jello type pudding, but the alternative to banana pudding with the wafers. My grandmother makes the best chocolate pies and she adapted her recipe for pies and started making a chocolate pudding. It is soo good ya’ll!

As us grandchildren have gotten older and started cooking, we’ve asked her for recipes for some of our favorite meals/desserts. Chocolate pudding is one that I asked her for. Being the good cook/typical grandmother she is, she doesn’t really measure her ingredients when she cooks. While that’s great for her, it’s not so great for someone like me who really has to stick to measurements. So the next time she made it she measured all the ingredients she used and wrote it down for us.
So here’s what you’ll need::

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For the filling::
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 heaping spoons Hershey’s cocoa (*heaping spoons is the best measurement she could give)
- 2 heaping spoons flour (self-rising)
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 cups of milk
- 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp. butter
- 1 box of vanilla wafters

For the meringue::
- 1/2 tbsp. sugar
- 2 egg whites

Combine the sugar, Hershey’s cocoa, and flour in a skillet.

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Separate 2 eggs putting the yolks in a small bowl and the egg whites in a medium size mixing bowl and set aside. Add the 2 cups of milk to the egg yolks, stir, and add to the skillet.

Turn skillet to medium heat and stir continuously until desired thickness. Reduce heat once it’s reached the desired thickness. Add 1 tbsp. of vanilla and the 4 tbsp. of butter. Continue stirring until it’s throughly mixed.

Line bottom of baking dish with a layer of vanilla wafers.

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Pour layer of chocolate over wafers and spread. Add another layer of wafters then pour more chocolate on top. (Be sure and scrap the skillet once you’re done layering in your pan. It’s my favorite part! The chocolate is still warm and it’s sooo good.)

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In the bowl with the 2 egg whites, mix on high speed until stiff peaks. Add 1/2 tbsp. sugar and continue mixing until thick. Add to the top layer of your mixture.

Broil at 500 degrees until browned (which won’t take long at all).

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I actually made this for our Bachelorette viewing party last night. Did anyone else watch?

I thought Ashley was annoying on last season’s The Bachelor, but I’m hoping she’ll win me over this season. Regardless, it’s an excuse to get together with your friends each week :) I won’t spoil too much in case you haven’t seen it yet, but let’s just say there is a drunk guy who passes out, a guy who wears a mask, a guy who my friends say was accused of murdering his wife (I don’t fully believe that just yet) and a guy who has a daughter named Cozy. It’s going to be an entertaining season that’s for sure!

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Also, this past weekend my mom and I went to an antique store in Franklin, TN called Rooster Tails. They had tons of old windows for sale for only $12 and tons of other really cool pieces of furniture. I ended up buying a shutter and window to hopefully paint and use for our deck.

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The guy who owns the place also gave us tips on how they paint and distress the shutters/windows they sell and were super nice. I highly recommend them if you’re looking for antique items.

Here’s a picture of all the windows they have to choose from.

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Soo many!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Did you do anything fun?

P.S. I’m sharing this recipe on Southern Hospitality, Home Stories A2Z and Kelly’s Korner. Be sure and check out other fun summer recipes and tutorials on these blogs!

With Love,

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Weekend Plans and Deck Inspiration

May 20, 2011 By 4 Comments

Nashville weather has been crazy lately. Last weekend and for most of this week the temperatures have been in the 50s. Doesn’t Nashville know that it’s almost summer?! I’m hoping that the weather will be nicer this weekend and that maybe we can squeeze in a pool day :-)

I’m also hoping to get a lot of the projects done for our deck this weekend along with going to an antique store to see if I can find some treasures to help spruce it up even more.

My plan was to spray paint the table and chairs black. While that’s still the plan, I’ve run into a bit of a snag. So far, we can’t get the legs to come off to spray paint. Without being able to do that, the part of the leg that’s up under the glass would remain green and since the top is glass, you would be able to see the green through it. So, I mentioned this to my roommate, Kelsey, last night and she jokingly suggested I cover it in burlap (since she knows I love that stuff). The lightbulb went off, I actually could cover it in burlap. Why didn’t I think of that?

I immediately started searching online for ideas/images for inspiration.

I could use burlap fabric and make a tablecloth of sorts, but instead of it touching the ground, I’m thinking about gathering it at the base of the table and allowing a bit of the legs to show at the bottom.

I wasn’t sure what to do for chair cushions, but stumbled upon this image online.

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via Cottage In The Oaks

Several months ago when I was visiting an old college roommate in Memphis, she took me to an antique store that sold burlap coffee bags. I loved them and bought one, not sure what I would use it for. Well, now I might have a use! I’m hoping the bag is big enough to make two cushions.

I also really love the idea of hanging mason jars with tealights from the deck.

This all might be a little too ambitious but let’s go with it for now!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Does anyone have any fun weekend plans?

With Love,

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Deck Makeover Part 1

May 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Like I mentioned, this past weekend I decided to start the process of sprucing up our little outdoor deck. Let me just show you why it needs sprucing…

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I think these pictures are proof that it is currently pit-i-ful. And yes, that brown plant in the background was my attempt last summer at gardening. Clearly I failed. I’m hoping this summer to have more of a green thumb. Here’s the flowers I bought over the weekend. Fingers crossed I can keep them alive!

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Before I can really spruce up the deck, my first task is to remove this.

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Yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. This is spray paint. And I may or may not have forgotten to put anything under the object I was spray painting. I had a temporary lapse in judgement, oops!

I think I may have found the solution to removing this and have been working on getting it up all week. Hopefully by this weekend it will be long gone!

If anyone has experience in spray paint removal, please let me know!

Here’s to being halfway through the week and halfway to the weekend :-)

With Love,

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I’ve Fallen In Love

May 16, 2011 By 1 Comment

I’ve fallen in love….with Pinterest! Again, I know I’m behind the curve. I mentioned this on twitter not too long ago, but I am now obsessed. Pinterest is a place where you can ‘pin’ images you see on the webisphere and blogisphere. It’s a lot like twitter and facebook, in that you can follow people’s boards and can also ‘re-pin’ (similar to ‘Like’ on facebook) images that you would like to add to your own pin boards. Did any of that make sense?

For me, I’m always seeing ideas or images online that I would like to reference in the future. This is a great way to store those images and also share them with your friends.

Here are some images from Pinterest that I’m currently swooning over::

{I love this idea of repurposing old pallet shelves into wall art}

Source: None via Megan on Pinterest

{I’ve recently become a little obsessed (my roommate might describe it as really obsessed) with decorating with burlap. Love this diy lamp with burlap and felt flowers to spice up something that might need an update}

{My goal this fall is to participate in a craft fair for the first time. I love this idea of using chicken wire and some painted frames to help display some of my cards}

{I’m dying to have my own craft room. Currently all my shop supplies and other craft projects are shoved into every available corner in our apartment. Again, I’m sure my roommate loves me, ha!}

Source: google.com via Megan on Pinterest

Hopefully this gives you a taste of the loveliness that is Pinterest.

On another note, my goal within the next few weeks is to spruce up our little apartment deck. I started this process a bit this past weekend. Stay tuned for an update on that!

With Love,

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Filed Under: inspiration, pinterest