Before and After

Friday, October 19, 2012

Christmas Theme: Kids Special!!

Christmas is a wonderful time to display new craft and ideas. You can choose a theme and color inspiration, there are amazing number of beautiful variations! Ring in the holiday mood with a little planning and search for ideas no more! It gets really easy when you know what you are looking for,pin the idea that inspire, get ready to create and collect :-)

Christmas decoration with kids in mind, its bright, colorful and absolutely cute! Lot of diy ideas and upcycle too. Enjoy crafting and decorating this holiday season.

White Christmas tree with lovely bubblegum colored decoration. Super easy holiday cards on a ribbon, tacked to the wall with a glitter snowflake!

Lovely swag for mantel, little gifts hung on a ribbon. Make the most of what you already have.

Unconventional Pink and Purple Christmas tree! Really simple decoration but it looks absolutely decked up and perfect for a little darling. White background makes the color pop. Sweet and simple!

Kid's bedroom all setup for Christmas! A little tree with their choice of ornaments. Let them punch paper circles and make a garland.

Recycle old tinsel wreath (cardboard circle + tinsel garland), add new baubles, holiday cards. Its fun and its frugal!

How adorable is this! Make a felt ball/pom pom garland. A no fuss banner and a lovingly made advent calendar quilt. Cozy and perfect for apartment too.

What caught my eyes are the handmade pom pom decorations, and felt/card stock reindeer. These are perfectly safe for kids to handle and they will have a ball decorating the tree! Super cute :)

Convert a spiral wire Christmas tree into a personalized one for your little one's room. A little bit of floral wire, and an assortment of embellishments! Do it up differently every year, oh the possibilities..

Beautiful Christmas colors and a rustic sophistication. Decorate with a swag and some elegant embellishments for a special Christmassy effect. A perfect diy surprise!

In true holiday colors, Hanukkah decoration for a festive window. Paper craft, cricut embellishment and little cones to hold peppermint candy. The whole combination is so serene and chic.

Love all the details in here! A simple fir branch, hanging over the table with an assortment of decorations. A new twist to traditional tablescape. Its natural and unique!

Bright and perky! Cute little santa and snowman, with so many cheerful colors are sure to brighten up the holiday mood. Love the gorgeous table setting, happy and festive. :)

SWEET POTATO CAKE

We have another amazing contributor with us today! I am seriously loving this recipe and pics! We have Jessie, from Optimal Living, here to share this deliciously, divine cake. Jessie is a wife and mother and excellent cook!!

SWEET POTATO CAKE

I have been having some serious cake dreams lately. As you may already know…I LOVE me some cake. I also LOVE making them! So it was no real surprise that my daily power walks were being corrupted by visions of moist delicious cakes. Kind of ironic…but that is my thinking time.

With Thanksgiving coming up, I wanted to create a festive cake. And what is more festive than sweet potatoes…well maybe turkey, but I am not going there. I also remembered that I had a can of organic sweet potato purée in my pantry just begging to be used. Perfect.

Here is my latest creation…

(and before you go thinking that I totally copied the Epicurious concept…I actually had the complete cake idea in my head before I did any research. It just turns out that my idea wasn't that original…Just had to get that off my chest;)

The Recipe:

2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups canola oil (NON-GMO!!!)
2 cup puréed sweet potatoes (or 1-15oz can of sweet potato purée)
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder (aluminum free)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

You will also need 1-2 cups of Sugared Pecans…I used this recipe. And this recipe for Caramel Frosting.

The Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Gather the ingredients.

Butter and flour a bundt pan, or 13x9 inch cake pan. Personally, I really LOVE my bundt pan…I think I discussed this in my German Apple Cake post. It makes the cake look extra classy, especially if it is for a special occasion, or you are entertaining. OK…I’ve said my bundt pan peace…you will never have to hear it again (yeah, right).

You should always use room temperature eggs when baking. Most of the time I use this little trick to quickly bring my eggs to room temp…Place the eggs in warm (not hot, or they will start cooking) water for a 5 or 10 minutes. This is a very useful tip if you are like me, and decide you are going to bake something on a whim, or just lack the attention span and patience to wait…HAHA!

This is the can of the sweet potatoes that gave me the inspiration for the recipe. I bet you could use the baby food sweet potatoes instead…but you would need A LOT of jars.

Combine the sugar, oil, sweet potatoes and vanilla in a large mixing bowl…or the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix at medium speed until well combined.

Add eggs one at a time…

scraping down the side of the bowl with each addition.

Tip:

Cracking the eggs into a small dish before adding to the batter ensures that you will not be eating pieces of shell (or fishing them out of the batter), and that if an egg is rotten it will not ruin your ingredients.

Next stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg). I do this with a fork…or you could sift them. I only sift ingredients together when I am making a yellow or white cake. I know…professional pastry chef I am not.)

Add to the batter.

Mix on the lowest speed until combined and only a few lumps remain.

Do not over mix.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake for 45 minutes…or 30 minutes, if you are boring and using a 13x9 inch pan;)

Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for ten minutes.

Flip the slightly cooled cake out onto the same rack. (You will need oven mitts or potholders, as the cake will still be hot!)
Let the cake cool completely for about an hour.

This part is optional…I like to trim the bottom of the cake off, and even the cake up with a serrated knife. But I am a crazy, perfectionist freak when it comes to stuff like this…so it is really up to you. Plus, I really like to eat the scraps;)

Transfer to a cake plate, or whatever you will be using to serve your cake on.

Time to prepare the frosting.

It is a bit richer than the one I used for my German Apple Cake.

It poured onto the cake like a dream.

Immediately after I frosted, I covered the top of my cake with the sugared pecans.

Look at all of that gooey caramel frosting!

I hope you will consider taking this beauty to your Thanksgiving gatherings. This was a huge hit with my family. We had this sucker polished off in a day and a half.

Enjoy!

Jessie

Thank you so much Jessie! :)

What is your favorite cake?

Bonnie :)

Declutter in 5 Minutes {guest post}

Hello! :) I am so, so, so excited to share this new blogger and personal friend with you. Michelle is here today to share her story how she saved on the grocery bill! She is a very passionate and loving wife and Mama! She is a hard worker with lots of talent and wants to share all of it with you on her blog.

As a full-time working mommy, who is also markets health and wellness products part-time in the nooks and crannies of our life, I need a home that is clutter-free. It's especially important because I work both jobs out of my home and have a less than 1100 sq ft home! And I might be a bit of a neat freak...but my husband is NOT, nor do I expect him to change on account of my likes :) This was a HUGE undertaking for me to commit to 31 days because I work days, my husband works evenings, so I really don't have much time to clean. However, I promise you that even thought it seems overwhelming at first, now that I'm on my third day I feel like my whole house is completely doable to become decluttered!! And it's much easier to keep a decluttered space clean, as long as you have proper organizing materials and tools.

Whether you work full-time, part-time, are a full-time student or a stay at home mommy, follow my series and I can help you with with your decluttering needs! In addition, everyone has financial clutter. I can help you with that too!

~Enjoy~

I don't think I realized until today that this whole area was a problem area! It took up three days of decluttering, but that is what 31 Days of Declutter is all about-taking just five to twenty-some minutes a day to declutter your home in baby steps. So, without even realizing it, I took one whole area, broke it down to smaller areas, and tackled them one at a time. And today was the final smaller area. You will see the total area below!

Remember the boxes I used yesterday for the magazines and books?

I used the middle box to store our wedding and baby cards that I previously had just sitting in gift bags, which are not very cute when used as home decor.

I put my paper shredder back over by my full-time job working space where it belongs. Then I hid the lampshade behind my plant stand. If you look closely, you can still see it. But, I really have no place to put it right now, and it's pretty well hidden. Sometimes you just have to be creative for the time being ha ha! And then I put the dog bed on top of his kennel for storage, and then if he wants ot lay on it, I will lay it back down on the ground for him. I like his doggy bed, I purposely picked out colors that would look good with our decor.

So here it is! The final decluttering done.

While decluttering this space, I found a safety pin.

If you didn't catch my Organizing a Small Laundry Room/Space blog, click here. Then it will make sense that I had this to put the safety pin in!

Reusing glass jars is a GREAT way to create functional decor! And keep your home decluttered at the same time.

Here is the entire area that I have now decluttered in three days.

Well...almost decluttered...

Until I tackle decluttering the decor on my walls, those will stay for the time being. Well actually, it could use some straightening, and perhaps I could find a cute way to cover them for now...hmm...see what else you accomplish by doing 31 days to declutter??? You find more areas you can declutter and straighten that you overlooked every day :)

Happy decluttering!

And if you are just starting, here is Day One and here is Day Two. You can also follow along on my menu on the right. Just click what day you are on to get some great tips and ideas, pick your cluttered area, and get started!

What are you going to declutter today?

Thanks so much for sharing Michelle!! Isn't she great? What did you like about this?

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Moving soon

It's almost midnight but I want to update you with our moving plans!

We are moving this Saturday!!!

I can't believe it!!!

We sold our house after being on the market for 2 months.

I want to share the whole story with you but I can't right now... but basically, the house we are buying is not ready yet so we need to move into a rental home for a while.... Not ideal.... But it will be worth it! Scott and I laugh at ourselves sometimes because we do the craziest things sometimes and we know it, but our dreams are huge!!!

Did you ever have to do a double move? With a baby and 3 other kids, I am hoping the transition will be okay for them but all the kids are excited and they really feel included in this move.

Here are some pictures of us packing and getting ready for the big day!

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

{oh, I am looking for a new washer and dryer! I asked on Facebook and got a ton of opinions but I am still not sure which ones are the best! Which set do you have? What do you like/dislike about it? Thanks}

Home Tour: Living Room

Happy Monday!!!

I am so glad that you are loving my home tour. Thank you for all your comments. :) It's about time I did this. I figured I would show you before we move, lol!

Today is our living room!

This is another very simple room! (That seems to be theme around here.) I really wanted a perfectly detailed and decorated home but it was taking more time than I wanted to spend so simple it is!! Plus, we always have so much "stuff" out that we use on a regular