Extreme Makeover! (well not that extreme)

My house has been for sale for at least 6 months and I haven't had a single person want to look at it.  There are so many houses around mine for sale and they are just not selling either.  So I have accepted that for now I am going to have to stay here but needed to make some changes so that I don't hate it.  I hate clutter but definitely have hoarding tendencies (I'll be on the show in 20 years for sure).  I also REALLY hate cleaning.  Now my house was not a pigsty or anything but it needs some sprucing up and updating.  Some of my furniture and stuff is from my freshman year in college..which was..well...a while ago.  My mom came down to help me today because I have a tendency to procrastinate, wander off task, and/or have complete meltdowns.  Mom keeps me focused...for the most part.  Our first mission was to recover my dining rooms chairs which were a light beige that showed all sorts of stains (like the big one where a cat threw up).  Here is the before and after.  I had never used a staple gun before so that was fun.                                    

We also got new placemats, napkins, napkin rings, and put some lights in my tree.  Here is my new (and a bit Christmasy) dining room!

We also found this super cute fabric and I am going to recover this bench seat.  Right now it is just folded because neither me nor my mom can sew at all.  Mary- this is your project.



In between stapling I was tying knots for my new wreath.  I want to start making lots of wreaths but figured I should start with an extremely easy kind as I am not very crafty (although I really want to be, darn it).  It turned out ok for a first attempt.  I stole the idea from this blog: Ribbon wreath.  I think it might be a little small but that was the only size wreath mold the store had and it could be a little neater  My next wreath is going to be one where you loop lots of different ribbon together. 



While we were out shopping I stumbled across a few other fun things like this adorable pillow from Pier 1 which was 50% off.  It was meant to be on my bed!  I also got a cool fluffy purple one for my couch downstairs. 

And then there was this.  I have no explanation other than I needed it. 

Zucchini!!

It is zucchini season and I have been getting a lot in my Produce Box (see previous blog for Produce Box info).  What I love about my Produce Box is that is challenges me to find new recipes to cook stuff I may not normally buy at the store.  The other week I got some very large zucchini and made zucchini parmesan which was quite delicious.  Will considers himself a carnivore and was a little skeptical because there was no meat but he really liked it.  I got the recipe from the allrecipes app which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!  Here is the link to the recipe I used although I made some small changes.  Zucchini Parmesan

Last week I got like 6 more zucchini and groaned a little.  What was I going to do with MORE zucchini?  Zucchini bread!  I have had zucchini bread before but never tried to make it.  I found a recipe (on allrecipes of course: Zucchini Bread ) and made a couple small changes based on some of the reviewers comments and personal preferences.  Here is my recipe:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsps ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsps vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini (grating the zucchini was not nearly as hard as I though it would be)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon together in a large bowl
3. Beat eggs, oil, applesauce, vanilla, and sugars together in large bowl. Add sifted ingredients and beat well.  Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined.  Pour into 2 greased and floured (or spray with PAM with flour) bread loaf pans
4. Bake for 40-60 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes our clean

Someone (thanks for the tip Lauren John Russell) suggested I put blueberries in it so I tried this in one of the loaves.  I had some blueberries from my Produce Box so I threw those in before putting the batter in the pan.  About 1/4-1/2 cup. This is the one that I tried and it is delicious!  I put the other one in the freezer.  Here they are cooling. My sizes were not so even.  The small one took about 45 minutes to cook and the bigger one took closer to 60.

YUMMMM

Easy curled hair!

If you are not using Pinterest you need to be! It's kinda like one giant public blog where people post or "pin" up their favorite things. It's things like pictures, clothes, crafts, decorating ideas, recipes, and much more. It then links you to the original source. I am pretty new at it so there are probably lots of other things it can do too.

 Anyway, I couldnt sleep (probably due to the fact I slept until 10 am and then took a 2 hour nap later) and was looking at Pinterest about 1:30 am when I saw this crazy technique to curl your hair.  All you need is a large elastic headband. I watched the video tutorial and had to get up right away and try it. It was so easy...took like maybe 5-7 minutes and then I just slept on it all night and when I woke up here is what had!    I didn't use any product and didn't wrap very tightly (that will make sense after you watch the video). I just got up so excuse the no makeup.

Here is the video tutorial.