Painting

In case you've been wondering where I've gone off too...I've been painting. Yes, painting. The kind of painting that's non-stop, shoulder aching, sweat dripping, all day painting. I'm using the fact that family is coming into town next weekend to help me stay motivated. I literally painted all last week! And for those of you who are questioning me- yes, we have a lot of white walls! Or...had. When we first moved into our place it was covered in primer. The entire place.... it's been a long process painting all these walls. I'm sure we could have hired someone to do it- but that's so easy. Where's the fun in that? I finally am finished with most of the painting so I can turn my focus to cleaning and crafting. Here's the before and after of my son's room. He was so excited - it was awesome to see his face light up when I told him it was time to paint his room :)

Before:

During:

With help:

After:

Bananas Fosters Cupcakes

Ever since I did these cupcakes for my hubby's birthday they've been very popular with customers. It's a banana cupcake base topped with a rum (yes rum)/brown sugar/butter glaze. And then they are topped with a double vanilla buttercream. They are delicious! 

 Anyway... I had an order due today and I thought I'd share a basic secret: It's all about the tools. You do need to have some skills, but in order to get beautiful cupcakes you also need the right tools. If you use canned frosting and are trying to make a cupcake look pretty by using a butter knife- that is hard! And if you can achieve beauty from canned frosting and a butter knife... then you have skills!! It really helps to have your frosting be the right consistancy. I make mine from scratch and I also pipe when it is at room temperature. If it's too cold it won't pipe properly. If you don't have a piping bag (you should get one if you bake frequently) you can use a ziplock bag. Fill the bag and cut off a little bit of the corner. But it is essential to purchase the proper piping tips. Feel free to e-mail me questions because I could go on forever :) Anyway- with proper tools your cupcakes can look identical to these.

Evicting old "tenants"

We have some big events coming up in my house and lots of family coming to visit. I'm guessing if this year is anything like the previous years I'm going to be one crazed mama come the 4th of July. So I'm preparing super early this year. Starting with taking a deep breath.... breathe in.... and out.. Last week I managed to kick out some "tenants" from my upstairs cabinets. They haven't paid rent or been seen in over 2 years. So they are gone. Which made room for....space. I managed to shift some of my other "tenants" around and now they are all nicely categorized and folded. It's such a wonderful feeling -  proper management - or what I like call organization. I refrained from taking pictures of the eviction process, it wasn't pretty. I had no idea how many past due "tenants" there were hiding in those cabinets. It's slightly embarrassing considering that I'm the property manager. I vow to never let that happen again! 

I Love too much!

I realized that this new posting series was becoming challenging for me to pick something to write about. I just have too many things and places and people, etc. that I love. Ultimately this posting series would have gone on forever. So it's now done. But before it's completely gone....I must say that I love my family more than anything in the world. They are the reason for everything I do. They are amazing and the best. I feel very lucky to have such a great family. I love my family

♥

I Love....

Where else can you buy amazing furniture and stock up on Lingonberry preserves?? I love walking through the showroom that has been perfectly laid out by professionals. It makes me think I need to buy everything in the room because if I just buy one piece it will never look that good in my house. But alas, I find a great piece, without feeling like I had to purchase the entire room. And the best part about IKEA is the price. Always affordable! Then as we're leaving the showroom they have the cafe... and it just happens to be super cheap too. To make it better, kids eat free at IKEA now through July 4th.

But one of my favorite things at IKEA is stocking up on all the yummy swedish food. My husband has Swedish in his family line and we try to honor some of the traditions and IKEA makes it soooo much easier for me. Now I'm off to go make some Lingonberry bread

♥

I Love....

Art...

  I'm an artist myself and love to surround myself with artwork. Recently my husband and I acquired a very unique piece. It's a collage of wine labels. The artist who does these pieces is a local artist named 

Jeff Adamoff.

 His pieces are displayed throughout the nearby cities. He also does collages for triathlon participants using color copies of their medals in the collages. Each pieces are truly unique. And I must say I love my 

wine label collage

♥

I Love....

Weekends...

Ahhh....time to kick up your heels... or better yet- take off your work heels and put on some dancing heels. It's a time for sleeping in and looooong mornings spent ignoring the sun and staying in pajamas. It's coffee with your sweetheart while not rushing. Leisurely scanning the paper. Time spent with family and friends. I love the weekends. Hope you have a great weekend... maybe even a weekend you love

♥