Coffee, Caramel & Cream

Sorry for the delay in blogging. In January I enrolled in interior design school and have been busy immersing myself the the amazing theories of design and history of architecture. I LOVE my classes and the work doesn't feel like work at all :-)

Back to blogging world....

Last Sunday was my husband's birthday. He's not a huge fan of cake. I'll pause here to let that last sentence sink in.

Yes, I said he is not a fan of cake. He doesn't fit in at all with our family. Just kidding :-)

What he does love is ice cream cake. So each year on his birthday his family has gotten him an ice cream cake (and sometimes even a regular cake for the rest of us ...... his family is pretty awesome like that).

Over the last few years I have experimented with different forms of homemade ice cream cakes, and after testing and tweaking many, I have come up with the winner. It's so easy to make. It will take you all of 20 minutes.


What you need:

• 24 ice cream sandwiches
• 3 snickers bars
• 1 cup salted peanuts
• hot fudge topping
• caramel topping
• 8 oz cool whip topping

Place the snickers in a food processor and pulverize!

                                        
Set the snickers crumbles aside and pulverize the peanuts.

                                         

Spread your fudge on top of the sandwiches and follow with the caramel.

                                     
Lick the jars clean even if it is right before dinner time.

Spread all of the snickers crumbles down, then MOST of the peanut crumbs. (Save some for the garnish).

                                   
Place another layer of sandwiches on top.

                                      

And boy are we tired and in need of a shower. We are thrilled to say that the master bathroom is done. Jared and I have never had our own bathroom, so this is going to be hard and wonderful to get used to. I have to keep reminding myself to go there instead of the hall bath.

So to catch up anyone who missed it a few months ago, we started with a nook in our bedroom that was always meant to be a bathroom but for whatever reason the original owners elected not to put it in. Remember that when we ripped up the carpet we found all the lines laid out and saw that the framing was ripped down? Crazy town.

Here is what we started with...

                     
And after my carpenter husband worked long weekend hours....

                                                      
                                           
Sigh........isn't he amazing and dreamy?

Ok, ok, back to the bathroom.......... here it is!!!!

                         
                                                  

                                         
I love the cool watery feeling of the paint (Olympic's Oasis at 75%) . The bamboo blinds and woven waste basket help to add texture to a room filled with mostly hard surfaces.

What's my favorite part?   The floor. Hands down, the floor.  
                  


If you remember when we started this project I was in love with the small glass clear penny tile we found and I had plans to add it around the sink as a back splash. However once we had all the elements in, I thought the penny tile would be too much. The floor is now the star of this show.


This morning I was doing my hair in our new bathroom and I hear Sadie come in behind me. She had carried her potty seat in and wanted to go potty in "our" bathroom.   :-)  The girl has good taste.

Thanks to everyone who has been following us along on this adventure. Please let us know what you think, we'd love to hear from you.

Have a great day!

                                                           

                                   

Sorry for the dark "before" pictures. At the time Jared had the power turned off because he was switching all our outlets from almond to white. PS- I LOVE him for that  :-)

I started by removing the knobs and giving the cabinet a good sanding with a sanding wedge.

So throughout this whole time of creating a master bathroom in our weird bedroom nook , we also have been sprucing up the actual bedroom. I wish I had more before pictures, but this started about last June BTB (before the blog).



This is our room about June-ish. We had gotten our bedroom set from a huge furniture clearance. The set included a headboard, 2 night tables, and huge dresser with mirror (not pictured because we are donating to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore) only cost us $600! I wasn't crazy about the color of the wood (honey oak and I have our issues)  but I knew down the road I would give them a makeover.

When we bought the house the walls and ceiling in our room had been painted a blue. It was fine, just not for us. Especially not a ceiling painted anything other than white. I know many designers are all about painting ceilings radical colors, but that is one train that I don't think I could ever hop aboard. I like ceilings white, to me they look crisp, clean, and open.

Oh yeah, and the carpet was blue too. Well at least it MUST have been blue when they installed it in 1996. Now it was a combination of brown/grey/blue and was worn so bad it felt like we were walking right on the wood sub floor.

Also, let me remind you that I work from home and since my "office" (the nook in the bedroom) is now a bathroom (the reveal on that soon!) I had my desk shoved in the main part of the room. Experts always say to NOT work out of your bedroom because it hinders your rest since you are always face to face with a mountain of paperwork. I'm here to tell you all that they are 100% correct.

When we moved in we jumped into projects all over the house, and our bedroom has been last on the list.

I wouldn't say the room is done, per say ....... but only because I never feel like a room is done. It's just always evolving and I can't help myself from making little tweaks here and there.

Hope you are having a great day!!

                              

Happy 2013!

I hope everyone had an amazing month filled with family, friends, and so much love your body ran out of hugs and kisses.

On to the new year!

I was never one to make New Year's resolutions, but I'm going to make one this year. What I have in mind is going to be difficult, I know .... but so important to me, especially since it involves my 2 daughters ( ages 2 and 4). So here it is....

This year I will try my very hardest to do "less yelling, more teaching."

Let me explain...

I work from home. And my girls are not in daycare. So that means that I am a full time stay at home mom, while I work from home 25-30 hours a week (not including this blog). Now when a lot of people hear that phrase they probably picture me in my jammies all day drinking coffee, talking to friends on the phone with daytime TV blasting in the background. Let me assure you, that is far from my day. Being at home all day with a 2 and 4- year- old is like running in a hamster wheel. You run, run, run, and never seem to make much of a dent in anything. (Didn't I just clean up the living room 20 minutes ago? Where are your pants?)

 I need to work at my desk (which is currently in my bedroom) usually when my girls are napping. It's impossible to get any paperwork done while they are awake and running around. If they don't nap long enough I need to wait until after dinner when my husband is at home, to go upstairs and work at my desk more. If I don't get done, then I work through my weekends since my husband is home. Top that off with keeping my house clean/ picked up/ laundry done and put away/ healthy meals 3 times a day and you have yourself a very crazed Angela.

Please don't get me wrong, I am eternally grateful to have the job I do and really like it! But most days I feel like there just needs to be way more than 24 hours in a day. I'm overwhelmed.

My fuse has become short with my precious girls.

I recognize this and HATE it. I don't want to yell at them. I want to teach them. I've always said that my main goal with my daughters is to guide them to be good people. I don't mind if they don't get straight "A"s in school. I care more about their interactions with their teachers and classmates. I want them to be polite, compassionate, kind, grateful and respectful. Admittedly this is no easy task when dealing with children. I had a hard time getting my very tired 4-year-old to even say "thank you" to my aunt for having us over for dinner on New Years.

This is crucial to me. I want them to be kind and respectful. They only way they will learn that is for me to be kind and respectful to them. Right now I am ashamed to say that I don't think I always am. When it takes me asking Hailey 15 times to go brush her teeth,  or asking Sadie for the 20th time to come over to me so I can wipe her runny nose, I wish I could say that I stay calm and firm.

I don't.

I yell, I get aggravated, and even whiny (great example for them, right?) 

                                                 

So this year, I resolve to keep my cool with my girls. I will remember that they are only tiny humans.  I can be firm without yelling. I can do this. I will be a good example for them.

They are my gifts from God and I love them with every breath I have in me. They deserve more from me.

Less YELLING, more teaching.... got that, Angela?



Did you make a New Year's resolution? I'd love to hear it  :-)