A Failure Friday

Welcome back to A Failure Friday! Only today, it's a different kind of failure. It's a diet failure. If you like caramel corn - you will LOVE this recipe. And actually, even if you don't, the cooking site I got this recipe from will be sure to have some sort of diet-busting recipe. (And probably have some diet friendly recipes if you're in to that sort of thing.)

Anyway, have you seen Our Best Bites? One of the authors is my best friend's neighbor and she introduced me to this blog last year. It is published by two real moms that give you some great tutorials for the kitchen. (Tutorials like how to peel garlic, cut a watermelon or mango, or even grill a pizza!)

It's September, so I'm feeling all fall-ish and I love caramel corn and it just seems like a fall recipe to me. (Although I ate it all summer long, so I really have no excuse. It's just. that. good.)

Anyway, here is the recipe, courtesy of Our Best Bites. They make their recipes so easy to follow (these are their instructions, so see below for how easy their stuff is)! Really, you must check them out!

P.S. The recipe is easily halved if it's just two or three of you eating, although I would always err on the side of having leftovers. You usually won't.

Caramel Corn

2 bags microwave popcorn (if possiple, use natural flavor, not buttered)
1 C brown sugar
1/4 C white Karo syrup
1/2 t salt (if you are using salted popcorn then omit salt here)
1 cube real butter
1/2 t baking soda
1 t vanilla

Pop popcorn and set aside. Place brown sugar, Karo syrup, salt, and butter in a microwave safe dish. I cut up the butter into chunks so it melts better. No need to stir, just toss everything in there.

Are you ready for the directions? I'm warning you, it's complicated. You might want to take notes. Here we go. Microwave on high for 2 minutes. Take it out and stir it together. Microwave for 2 more minutes.

Told you it was complicated.

While the caramel is cooking, put the popcorn in a big bowl. Use one that is way bigger than you think you'll need. Just trust me. Also, try to get any un-popped kernels out so you don't break a tooth and try to sue me.

When the caramel beeps the second time, take out of microwave and add baking soda and vanilla. Sit back and watch it do cool things like bubble and foam.

At this point you'll probably want to stick your finger in there and lick it. Don't do it. You are mesmerized by the caramely goodness and are forgetting how hot boiling sugar is. Especially on your tongue. It's hot. Really hot. Don't ask me how I know.

Stir it well and then pour it over the popcorn. Mix it up well with a big spoon. I usually spread it all out on a piece of foil and let it cool for a minute so it doesn't get stuck in one big clump. The longer it sits out, the firmer it will get, but it won't ever get crunchy-hard unless you bake it.

For crunchy caramel corn: spread out on a cookie sheet (you'll probably need 2) and bake at 200 degrees for one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. The other day I made it this way and then drizzled it with chocolate when it was done. Ummm....good.

A Dining Room Re-Do

So, while we were on vacation, I still did a little decorating and I thought to take some before and after pics to share!

I've sort of stayed with the paint/re-arranging things side of my home and haven't forayed into the fabric/window treatment side of things. I just needed to take the plunge and what better place to try it out that on my parent's unsuspecting dining area???

My parents have been gradually updating their home and it looks great - but I spotted this awesome window treatment post on Young House Love (Have you seen this blog? If you haven't read their story, check them out!) and when I saw it, I had the motivation I needed!

So, here's the before:



I'm not sure why the walls look peach in these photos - they are actually a nice warm taupe shade. Taking photos of this room was a challenge for a photography-newbie like myself. All of the light coming in through the windows makes for a beautiful room - and hard for pictures. OK...moving on.....

Those valances were on all three windows, I just forgot to take the before pictures so we threw one back on. Ha ha.


Now, the spray-painter in me wanted so badly to spray paint those wooden dowels and finials with some oil-rubbed bronze or metallic spray paint! But, I really wanted the rods to look as if they were one solid bay-window rod. (Which I know they sell but I couldn't find any available THAT weekend and the Ikea rods we used were maybe 6 bucks a pop??!?)


So, we took down all of the existing stuff, figured out where we wanted to hang the rods. We chose a spot about halfway between the tops of the window and the ceiling and just got them up there!


Next we got some crown moulding (or is molding? Google isn't sure...) and painted it white (to match the baseboards and windows) to add some definition to the tops of the windows. This was inspired by a photo in the post I linked to above at Young House Love. It was the simplest thing to do - they cut it to length for me at the store - and made the biggest difference! (Well, see below for yourself!)


We got four panels (two packs of two) of Vivan sheer panel curtains at Ikea. And the curtain rings to match our rod, all purchased at Ikea. Then, the difficult part - getting the curtains the right length.

I'm sure this comes easier to MOST people (most things do!) but the hemming tape and I had...issues. But, after a lot of measuring and remeasuring (we wanted the curtains to barely reach the floor), the iron and I reached an agreement and somehow got the seams to hem.

For those of you (like me) who don't know what hemming tape is - the curtains from Ikea came in a standard length. You then measure how long you REALLY need them, fold the curtains to that length, and then insert this nifty tape:


in the fold and iron. Now, I'm totally guessing, but the heat from the iron kind of melts this tape and it forms a sort of no-sew hem.

I think I was afraid I was going to melt the fabric (not that I've ever done that ironing before *ahem*) so I didn't apply quite as much heat for as long as I needed to. But, we got it figured out and got the curtains up.

So, here's the AFTER!






We also cleared off the vinyl tablecloth to show the beautiful wood underneath, and left just one pot of sunflowers for some color.

Now, mom, the one thing we talked about but never did was get you a new dining room light fixture!!!!!!! Let me know when you get one so I can post a true after picture. Thanks for letting me experiment!!!

Working with fabric and window treatments was actually so FUN. I may even do it again.....

I'm linking this project up to Kimba's DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land. Go check out what other DIY-ers here in blogland have been working on!

A Quick Change

Does anybody else just hate having to decorate that awkward space between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling in your kitchen? Confession...this is what that space looked like in my kitchen for the first, oh, nine months we were in this house.


Yikes. It was a convenient place to store those nice, big mixing bowls that I only seem to use every year around the holidays. But I didn't LOVE the way it looked. So...my mom came to visit, took me to Hobby Lobby and we came up with this:


Much better!!!! The red vase on the left I already had in my basement, the key-shaped candleholder was on clearance at HobLob for 3 smack-a-roos, and the four plates are actually chargers that were less than 2 bucks a piece.

I have loved having something nice in the area where I spend a LOT of my time during the day! Lately, though, I've just been getting the itch to spray paint SOMETHING (you all know how that feels, right? Right???) and I just wasn't feeling the red of the plates. Too much color, maybe? (Sorry, mom.)

Considering they were $1.75 plastic chargers from Hobby Lobby, I thought "Why not?" and broke out the Rustoleum.



And I have to say, I LOVE the results!!!! Now it looks all white and creamy (much more my style lately) and like nice pieces of china. Extra credit for the Curious George white board on the fridge. Gotta love having toddlers in the house - they have their own decorating style, don't they????

What have you spray painted lately?

And.....we're back!

So sorry for the extended absence!!!! Did you miss me?? **crickets**

I'm sure all of you are going through the same end of August rush to get kids (or in my case, a husband!) back to school and get a new routine in place. Special thanks to those of you who kept faithfully checking in with nothing new to see! Thank you for sticking with me. I'm so excited about the next several posts to share with all of you. And I hope to get a few great home/recipe submissions from some of you!

Anyway, here's what's coming up this week:

A little spray paint:
And some fabric:


And maybe even a little of this:


So do your sit-ups (believe me, the caramel corn is WORTH it!), get your spray-paint trigger ready and meet me back here tomorrow!!!

Ode to Craigslist

The best bet for building your own home in progress is to look for home decor steals. Check out some of the blogs I have listed to the right for some inspiration. In honor of Thrifty Decor Chick's latest blog post on "de-crappifying" (her term, I LOVE it) her garage, I decided to show what happened when a Craigslist find met my frustration with my basement/playroom. My kids toys were kept in this bin storage set from Target for the past year. I love it, but the openness of it all was killing me.


Then, while browsing through Craigslist one night I found a great deal. A lady wanted to get rid of her pantry cabinet/armoire for $30! We picked it up the next day. It needs some new paint and shelve liners, for sure, but I was so anxious to get out with the old, in with the new we just brought her in as-is.




I love that it is a versatile piece that (hopefully) will be used for a while.

So, what are your favorite Craigslist/thrifty finds for your home in progress???

Pardon the Break.....

I'm here! I'm here! I'm in the middle of three-week road trip to visit dear friends and family out west while we have a break from school. So we've been having lots of this

and this.


But I'm also working on updating a dining room for less than $50, reaffirming my love for Craigslist, and loving checking all of your blogs for those of you who left comments or are new followers. I'm even starting to plan a giveaway to thank all of you for showing me some love! I hope all of you are enjoying the last few weeks of summer.

Stay tuned...I can't wait to show you all of the new projects!

And I can't wait to show everybody yours! If you have a recent project success (or disaster) or recipe that your family loved, I would LOVE to hear from you and post it. I've got some great readers that give fantastic feedback! (wink, wink)

Functional Meets...well, Functional

I first saw this idea on the fabulous blog (linked here for your stalking pleasure) How About Orange. I knew I needed a file cabinet - the one little Rubbermaid tote I had been using for all of our personal files/papers since we were a family of two was just not cutting it anymore.

First, I found a DEAL on Craigslist (how much do you love Craigslist? A post devoted to Craigslist/random thrifty finds is forthcoming) for a 4-drawer metal filing cabinet. **THRIFTY TIP ALERT**: A local University was getting rid of surplus office supply-type furniture and had a BUNCH of these cabinets for 10 BUCKS each. Score....

(Full disclosure: I didn't take a before shot of MY actual cabinet, but this is a pretty close idea of what it looked like.)

But it was too....metal. Office-y. So...I got to work.

First, I detached the hardware and sanded that sucker with my trusty hand sander.

Second, it got a nice coat of primer.

Because this filing cabinet would share space with the kids' playroom in the basement, I decided to go a little crazy. I painted the sides of the cabinet with, you guessed it, chalkboard paint.


And since the sides got chalkboard paint, why not do chalkboard labels on the drawers??? (LOVE it...it works perfectly!)


The top, front drawers and back of the cabinet got two nice coats of Rustoleum American Accents Heirloom White.
I also wanted to get rid of that shiny metal look that is standard with most office filing cabinets. I couldn't find the Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint that many of my blogging idols swear by, but I did like what I ended up using. It is Krylon Brushed Metallic spray paint and it worked like a charm.

(I was a little antsy to take the tape off around the hardware that couldn't be removed, so it's not perfect - but neither am I and a little touch of imperfection helps it fit right in at my house!)

I am so excited about how this turned out - it's totally functional for our family as a place to keep track of all of our important stuff and it's totally functional as a play piece for my kids as it resides in the basement with the rest of the toys.


Linked up to Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place to Land. If you've never visited her, you must! And take a look at other great DIY projects!