Night Owl

What do a FREE Sonic Route 44 Iced Tea, $2 Starbucks Grande Raspberry Mocha Frappucino (sp?), and a can of Coke have in common?? Oh, that's right, caffeine!

Guess who will be staying up late tonight?!?

TV Stand Makeover

Before:

This TV stand was a wedding gift that we registered for and it has been great! However, 4 years later, it's not really my style. So, I decided it needed a makeover! A few things that have been bugging me about it: looks cluttered, buttons to accessible for curious little ones, hard lines, kinda blah.

So, I purchased 4 sheets of scrapbook paper and some fabric at Hobby Lobby....






I taped the scrapbook paper onto the glass doors, so it's not too permanent! Sewed a little curtain out of that fabulous (and cheap) fabric!!

And VOILA! A fun and whimsical TV stand!

Blogger Bash!!!

I am gearing up for Summer's fun Blogger Bash!! I am getting some frames, clipboards, footstools, bulletin boards (and more!!) ready for this fun event! There will be some new items available for purchase! I hope to see you there!!!! I am planning on a giveaway or two, too!

For more information, please view Summer's blog entry:
http://theundomesticgoddess1.blogspot.com/2008/07/blogger-bash-where-all-cool-people-will.html

As an extra incentive, print out THIS BLOG ENTRY and receive 15% off one Blessings and Bows item (one coupon per person)! Yes, tonight's blog is actually a coupon!! Just bring it with you to the party on August 7th and pick out or order something for yourself or for a gift! This offer is only good on August 7th during the Blogger Bash, may not be combined with other discounts/offers, must be presented in person and can only be used once.

I will try to remember to send out a reminder about the bash and the coupon next week before the event!!

Trial and Success!

I've fallen in love with iced coffee this summer! However, I don't like the price tag (even at McDonald's) or the gas$ it takes to get one! Plus, some days it's more fun to work in PJs until noon!!

Today I decided to try to make my own iced coffee with what I had on hand. If you've read this blog even once, you know that I like things done easily, cheap and fast!! I am, as the Nester (fabulous blog, btw) says, a "lazy perfectionist". I LOVE that term! It describes me perfectly!!

Fat-Free Vanilla Caramel Iced Coffee-1 serving
3 c. water
5 heaping Tbsp coffee (I use Target's Market Pantry Classic Roast Ground Coffee)
Ice
Liquid Coffee Creamer (I use Coffee Mate's Fat-Free Vanilla Caramel Creamer)

-Brew strong coffee, using the 3 c. of water and 5 Tbsp. coffee. Adjust as necessary for desired strength. However, for iced coffee, the stronger, the better!
-Fill a tall glass with ice
-Fill the glass with 1 part creamer to 2 parts coffee
-Stir and sip to your heart's content!!

Mix it up with different creamers! I accidentally purchased fat-free. I prefer the full-fat stuff, but now I can brag to myself that I'm drinking a fat-free coffee drink that I actually like! Josh came home from work and I made him try it. He liked it, but definitely thought it was strong!

It should get me through the rest of my afternoon work!

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

I have had this recipe hanging on my fridge since I first saw it here last month! Mine wasn't nearly as cute as Bakerella's, but it still turned out yummy! I made it on Saturday night and I'm still in the process of eating it (don't worry, I've had some help!)!

Just a little note....after only 24 minutes, the cakes were beginning to almost brown. So, be sure to check on your cakes. They don't necessarily take the full 34 minutes to bake.

Peanut Butter Fudge Cake courtesy of parents.com

Makes: 16 servings
Prep: 15 minutes Chill: 1 hour Bake: at 350 degrees F for 34 minutes

Ingredients
1 box (18.25 ounces) devil's food
cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped chocolate-covered peanut butter cups (about 8 ounces---about 30 Reese's Miniatures), plus more to garnish
8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (I just used chocolate chips)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Line with waxed paper; coat paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high; beat for 2 minutes, scraping down side of the bowl after 1 minute. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.
3. Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 34 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let layers cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto wire racks and cool completely.
4. Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium-size bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.
5. Trim top of cake layers flat with a serrated knife. Put 1 cake layer on cooling rack and place on a baking sheet. Pour 1 cup frosting on top; spread evenly with a spatula. Top with remaining cake layer. Pour remaining frosting over the top, allowing it to spill over the sides. Smooth top and sides with spatula. Refrigerate 1 hour to set. Transfer cake to serving plate and garnish with chopped candy, if desired.

Peach Cookies

I was excited to use 2 of my 20 peaches to make some peach cookies that I saw on http://www.marthastewart.com/ . They aren't the cutest cookies I've ever made....VERY flat (and super hard to get off of the pan)! But, they did taste really good! They basically taste like snickerdoodles with chunks of fresh peaches scattered throughout. Quite tasty! The recipe calls for peach jam, so I used Mandy's delicious jam of course! But, was sad that I ended up finishing off the jar for the cookies!

Fresh Peach Drop Cookies courtesy of marthastewart.com
Ingredients Makes about 4 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/4-inch dice (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/3 cup peach jam or preserves
2 tablespoons fine sanding sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.
Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Add peaches and jam, and beat until just combined.
Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing about 2 inches apart. (If not baking all of the cookies at once, refrigerate dough between batches; dough can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days.) Combine sanding sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle each cookie with 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 11 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, and then transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Porter Peaches

My parents went to the Porter Peach Festival in Porter, OK this weekend. The best part is that they brought me about 20 DELICIOUS peaches!!! They are the biggest and juiciest peaches ever! I already have big dreams for them! Peach cookies, peach cobbler, peach smoothies, etc.!

8 cups of frozen peaches.....you have to savor that yummy goodness!!

Oh, and here is a shout-out to another favorite product: Veggie Wash!!! You can purchase it in the produce section of your local grocery store. You can truly tell a difference when you use this and you feel like you're actually getting your fruit clean versus just rinsing it with water alone! I highly recommend it!

Grape Salad

I founds some grapes on sale the other day and knew that I wanted to have them for the entertaining I was doing this weekend, but didn't really just want to stick out a bowl of grapes. So, I remembered a recipe for grape salad. It basically tastes like grapes smothered in fruit dip! I had everything to make it and it is super yummy and easy!! I'm all about easy!

Grape Salad
2 lbs red seedless grapes (washed and stems removed)
1 8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 container frozen whipped topping, thawed
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer, add whipped topping, sugar and vanilla and whip until creamy. Fold in the grapes. Chill and serve!

I will hopefully have some recipe links up in a few days for some things I made for company this weekend!

A chance to win!

If you are coming here from Tip Junkie, welcome!! I hope you'll stay and look around! You'll find recipes, decorating projects and other interesting tidbits on this blog!

If you are a regular visitor to Kingcade Kitchen, welcome back! Today I am giving away my new legal sized clipboard at Tip Junkie for the huge birthday giveaway! Check out Tip Junkie for your chance to win!!!

Thanks for dropping by! Come back soon! Have a fabulous Friday!!!

Vote:)

I am in the 2008 Designer Chick Contest at The Chick Adventures.
http://themommydesigner.blogspot.com/2008/07/well-it-is-about-that-time.html

My hot pink damask clipboard is featured in the "for mom" category. Please drop by and vote (for #2) if you get a chance!

Voting ends Sunday night!!!

Thanks!!!

The look I was going for

I saw this picture on Southern Hospitality. Isn't it cute?!?! This is actually the overall look I was going for in my living room. However, I can only add the green in small increments and work with clearance items. But, I do love the look of the red, black and green!!

EDIT NOTE: I appologize for the offensive blog link that I accidentally posted. Obviously it was for the wrong Southern Hospitality blog! Thank you, Tara for letting me know of my mistake! How awful! Anyway, here is the correct link.

Tip Junkie Birthday Bash Giveaway

Please check Tip Junkie on Friday for a special Blessings and Bows giveaway!! We will be giving away one of our custom monogram chocolate brown and pink Boutique Clipboards!! This clipboard will be one of our new legal sized boards! They will be for sell very soon!! Be sure to spread the word about the great daily Tip Junkie giveaway!!

Highlights of the past few weeks in pictures and a few blurbs

July 4th pool party at our house....these are the only pics I have. I completely forgot to take pics of the fun activities of the day!

Painting Josh's office~Josh's office was originally a slate blue type of color. This is the walls with the primer.

Josh busy painting. We stayed up one night until 1am painting!

The finished color! Mocha Accent

I will take pictures of the "final product" of Josh's office complete with furniture. I'll post them soon!

Lots of business painting lately!

Added soft lime green accents throughout living and dining areas

Over the past several weeks, we also had 2 weeks of VBS, the Matt Stansberry Band concert, dinner with friends, and a fun weekend trip to Dallas! It has been busy, but very fun!

Saturday we finished our first block of the 27 hours of training that we will be doing over the next 5 weeks to become foster parents! We are going to be fostering infants through Oklahoma Christian Services. We are super excited to start!

Josh's parents brought down Josh's old baby crib last week for us to use with our foster babies. We are going to put on a fresh coat of white paint and it will be ready to go! A few weeks ago I found some fun polkadot and gingham bedding at Ikea that will be cute and gender neutral! I'm excited to start putting the room together over the next several weeks!

Master Bedroom Makeover

Last weekend we headed to Dallas for a fun weekend getaway! This included a fun trip to Ikea where we purchased on a whim a new duvet, curtains, dust ruffle, throw pillow and other fun stuff! The purchase of a new duvet meant a total re-do for our master bedroom. I used my sewing machine for the first time to make a valance for the bathroom, 2 curtains for our bedside tables/bookcases, and 2 throw pillows! My first attempt actually went quite well! I also had to get a new shower curtain, make some art for our wall, make a new frame to tie everything in, buy a new lampshade, etc. But, I'm super excited and love the way it has turned out! I still have some work to do on the Ikea curtains which includes ironing them and adding some paisley fabric-covered buttons to the top, just for fun! Enjoy the before and after pics!



Before-reds and golds
After....please excuse the mess on the floor, etc.:

completed after w/curtains in bookcases and 2 pillows:

Bathroom window before:

Bathroom window after:

Corner of our room (we were able to incorporate both blacks and browns in this room, thanks to the great paisley that features both)

Wall Art Before:

This was a clearance graduation frame from Target that was originally $12 or $13 and I got 2 of them for $4.24 each. Thease had been sitting there for a long time and I realized that if I removed the mat, it would be a great cheap frame. I would have preferred the framing to be larger, but at $4 instead of $20, I had to take the bargain!)

Wall Art After (thank you scrapbook paper!)

New lampshade, newly painted frame to match, curtain tie-back re-purposed as a knot on the lamp.

Easy-Freezy!

After a long week of VBS every night, I knew I wouldn't have time to bake for the 4th of July weekend, nor would I want a hot kitchen. So, here is what we had.....

Ice Cream Sandwich Cake

1 package ice cream sandwiches (pkg of 12)
1 container of frozen whipped topping, thawed (aka Cool Whip)
1 Butterfinger, crushed

Line an 8x8 baking dish with 6 of the sandwiches, cutting to fit as necessary. Spread on half of the Cool Whip. Layer the remaining 6 sandiches. Spread on remaining Cool Whip and sprinkle the Butterfinger. Freeze for 2 hours, slice and serve.

Super simple and yummy!!

$5 and 15 minutes later

Where have I been?? Well, I'll save that for another post! I just want to share my quick, cheap and painless living room curtain makeover!



I have been working on adding punches of creamy lime green to my red and black living room just for fun! I didn't want to sew anything additional to my plain red target curtain panels, at the off-chance that I didn't like it! So, I found fun ball fringe at Hobby Lobby in the perfect creamy lime green. I purchased 2 yards (paid about $2.87) I already had on hand a roll of 1/2" wide black/white polka dot ribbon ($3.99 @ Hobby Lobby OR $2 when they run their 50% off sale!). Those 2 things, plus a box of straight pins, and I have new curtains!!


Stay tuned for more decorating fun I've had lately that include, our master bedroom/bathroom makeover, baby nursery (for foster babies), and more additions of creamy lime green throughout the living room and dining room!




Curtains BEFORE:

A few items to add some whimsy: The final product!: