More Addiction....

So here is a table I finished, and it is going to be a gift. Hopefully she likes it and is able to use it the way that I hope :) Oh and did I mention that they are twins ( I named them Mia and Tia, we watch a lot of Cars around here), not completely sure what is going to happen to the sister :) But here is Mia finished with Krylon Glossy Almond.

Before:
The corners are what sold me on this piece:
All finished and glazed

Next on the list is a console for the TV my brother got for Christmas and he wants me to finish a piece for it to sit on.

HMMM I think I have an addiction

Hi my name is Cari, and I am addicted to spray paint and old furniture. It all started when my friend Stacey (give her some love here), refinished a pie safe that was super old. So I refinished a hutch for my kitchen. The whole time I was working on it I was thinking to myself what else can I refinish? I started plotting ways to get Lance to let me buy furniture to refinish. When I came to realize that currently in my basement I have an old night stand, a rocking chair that belonged to my husbands great great grandmother, an hand me down table that we dont use anymore. So while yes I am going to get to those eventually :), I decided to refinish a piece of furniture for each of my sisters for Christmas. I havent given one of those pieces away yet because I havent seen one of my sisters since before Christmas. Also in my hurriedness I forgot to take a picture of one of them when it was finished but I am going to see if she will take a picture and send it to me :). Everything I have learned about spray paint I learned from my new friend (but she doesn't know it) Brooke at allthingsthrifty.com. I dont think this is an addiction that I will be getting over anytime soon........

My hutch

Primed

Its a little boring right now because I just took all the Christmas decorations off of it and need to come up with something either Valentines or everyday to put on there.

I forgot to take a picture before I started priming it oops...

Jana's table that I did in Lime Green that I forgot to take pics of before I gave it to her.

Super Easy and Delish Marinara

I grew up in a home where we never had spaghetti from a jar. I think it is because my mom didn't like all the veggies in it. As a matter of fact there were very few veggies that we were forced to eat as kids, mostly because my mom couldn't stand them! So as adults my siblings and I all eat a large variety of veggies and really like them. So in comes my sauce. My mom would just open up a couple of cans of tomato sauce and season it with your basic italian seasonings and some onion and garlic salts. When Lance and I got married this is basically what I made for him, he was okay with it. One day I decided to use diced onions in it. MMM tasted pretty good, so after a little while of that I decided to start adding diced tomatoes. You can probably see where this is going. So eventually I ended up with what is my marinara sauce today. I am going to toot my own horn here for a second, anytime we are having a family function where my mom is making Lasagne she asks me to make the sauce (TOOT TOOT). The sad part is there really is no recipe, there are the basic ingredients that I use and then I will finely shred or puree whatever veggies I have in the house and hide them in the sauce. So here is what I do.

I start by dicing onions and throwing them in the pot with a little EVOO,

I add a couple of cloves of pressed garlic.

After about 3-5 minutes I add a can of diced tomatoes and any other veggies I am smuggling into the sauce

Then I add 2-3 cans of tomato sauce.

Then comes the wheel, Lance used to ask how do I make this, this was the way that I came up with to show him what to do.
That is my wheel or flower of herbs. I use oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil and parsley. I also season it with salt and pepper. Use as much or as little as you like.
While this is going you should have been cooking your noodles. These are my favorite and wished they came in more varieties. They are a multigrain pasta that tastes like regular pasta.
This literally takes about 25 minutes to prepare and it tastes fantastic! No preservatives and it tastes fresh! This is the bowl that I scooped up quickly for myself as I was headed out the door to a YW Volleyball game.

Free Personal signatures - cool!

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Is anybody still there?

Buehler, Buehler..... I have been absent for a while due to some technical difficulties with the camera, I have several projects and post to put up now that I have a found a chord to load pictures we are set! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
Love,
Cari

Candy part 2

So today totally lived up to my expectations! I really had a blast with my mom, sisters and for a few minutes my 2 of my brothers were there. I am officially an adult! I got to beat the fudge!

Please ignore that the picture of me isn't so great. But I am doing it, as a matter of fact I beat it a little to well and 3 of us had to drop it really fast!!! We made caramel pretzel bites, almond bark, cranberry almond bark, fudge, caramel, pretzel mint patties, cashew cranberry clusters, english toffee, cashew turtles. There was were a few casualties today however, my finger got popped with some extremely hot fudge and it still hurts. Also my mom in her effort to be helping and guiding us on what to do burned 2 batches of chocolate, first one wasn't to bad but the second one there was smoke pouring out of the microwave and the bowl had to be thrown away. We laughed and joked, we talked, What a wonderful day!!!!

My sister Melissa working on the toffee

my Mom tempering the chocolate for the caramel pretzel bites

My darling nephew Renn chilling in his chair while we cooked.

Our taste testers

Lick it Jana I dare you!!!

Almond Bark

Caramel, it took foorrrreeeevvvveeeeerrrrr to cook! Plus I almost ruined it :0/, but it turned out ok in the end :)

I know you are all now jealous of the delish treats that we made today and maybe if you are nice to me I just might share some :)

CANDY!!!!

So this time of year brings memories some good, some bad. It is a time of year when we reflect on the things that have happened in the last year and farther back. I am so very blessed to have a wonderful Mother and Father and 5 siblings. I am eternally grateful that I come from a large forever family. I digress, let me get to what this post is really all about. I had a grandmother who was so special in so many ways (I know you are thinking that everyone has such a grandmother). While I was blessed to know 3 of my grandmothers in this life all wonderful amazing ladies, today I would like to tell you about my Grandma Punkin.

When she was born she was extremely ill. The doctors told my Great Grandmother that she would not live. For the first year of her life her mother and sisters would carry her around on a pillow that she laid on all the time (if I have the story correctly). Little did they know that not only would she live but would go on to be one of the kindest most genrous women to ever walk this earth.

She grew up and got married, and had 4 kids. She raised them and taught them the gospel of Jesus Christ and instilled the values that her children needed to be good people. She had one daughter and that is my Mom. She also taught her daughter to know her way around the kitchen. My mom in turn had 3 daughters. She also taught her daughters to know their way around the kitchen, and oh how grateful I am that she did! Lance is pretty grateful too!

My grandmother was an expert candy maker. Especially fudge. This isn't no fantasy fudge with marshmallow cream, this is 2 days to make fudge. I remember being at Grandmas house and her boxing up fudge to give to neighbors and friends. She even had her own labels printed that identified who made the fudge. I also remember as a child sitting on the living room floor watching my mom beat the fudge. No it wasn't naughty, and I am not sure why we beat the fudge. I remember watching the fudge ripple like candy as it cascaded down from the paddle and back into the pot. I always wanted to stick my tongue in and let it drizzle into my mouth. Maybe someday I will let my girls do that :).

So why this memory? Well my grandmother died about 9 years ago, and oh how I miss her!!! But today we get to celebrate her and the legacy she left us, not only do I get to spend the day with my Mom and sisters (that includes you Jana), but we are going to be making the candies that she made and do things that remind me of her. I hope that this holiday season that you get to share in the Joy and love that Christmas time brings. Might be fudge and it might be something else.

I hope to have some pics of my day to post later.

Merry Christmas