Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Love,
John & Jackie

What a Week!

This week turned out nothing like I had planned. For those that know me well, you're probably laughing since I really prefer things to go as planned. But God had other plans for me this week -- REST. Saturday night I worked the service at church, covered for another guy that couldn't make it. It was a pretty normal evening working the graphics and chatting on the headset. I went home to an empty house. John was out at the movies with his friends and I wasn't that interested in seeing Tron, so home I went. As I sat on the couch watching tv, I started getting really warm and achy. Uh oh, I thought. I just need some sleep and I'll be fine. I went to bed and awoke Sunday morning in misery.

I was sweating and I had a sore throat. Uh oh. This was not in the plan. I dragged myself out onto the couch and fell asleep for a few more hours. By then, John was on his way home from church and offering to stop by the store to get medicine and Ginger Ale. By noon I was filled with Day-quil and throat lozenges. The worst part was the fever - one minute I'm sweating and the next minute I'm shivering cold. Sunday night I wasn't feeling any better, so I loaded up on Ny-quil and advil and fell asleep, hoping to be well enough to go to work the next morning.

Monday morning came all too quick. I got up with my alarm and went in to take a shower. Just as I was about to get out, the room started spinning and I felt lightheaded. Then things started going black. I knew I didn't want to be in the shower if I passed out, so I quickly turned off the water, got out and fell onto the bed next to John. I was so scared and it was obvious I wasn't in any condition to drive. So I called work and told them the grim news. Monday went pretty similar to Sunday. I made my way to the couch and didn't move the entire day. Hot, cold, sweating, shivering, Day-quil, advil. Repeat & repeat.

Then came Tuesday. Tuesday morning I woke up even more miserable than the days before. My throat was on fire and I could barely swallow. The pain was unbearable. I woke up John and declared it was time to go see a doctor. This was more than Ny-quil and Advil could handle. We visited our nearest Urgent Care center and saw a very nice Dr. Lopez. He took one look in my mouth and said "It's Strep Throat." He didn't even order the test because it was so obvious. So this is what strep throat feels like. It's awful! It's also my first time. Dr. Lopez prescribed antibiotics and steroids (the good kind, not the illegal kind). The antibiotics to fight the infection and the steroids to reduce the swelling in my throat and reduce pain. Let's just say things started going a bit better after I got the "good stuff." By dinner I was able to get down a bowl of soup and some crackers - progress! And by Wednesday I was feeling much more like myself.

Now it's Thursday night, the night before Christmas Eve. All the cookies are made...


and all the presents are wrapped.



Things are good. And Christmas is almost here, just as planned. :)

Christmas DIY Wreath

John and I had a great Thanksgiving at John's parents house with lots of family and friends. There was so much wonderful food and of course I ate 'til my tummy was full. After the feast we had a ton of fun playing Kinect. That's that new game for Xbox where your body is the controller. We bowled, threw a javelin, and hit volleyballs with our head, feet and hands. Kinect is so fun and quite a workout. Some of the boys were really sore the next day. I'm tellin' you, it'll get your heart pumpin', that's for sure!

The day after Thanksgiving, I convinced John to help me get the Christmas decorations out of the attic. I just love putting up the tree and decorating the mantle. We had some garland in the box that I used last year on the tree. I wasn't feeling the gold on the tree this year, so instead I wrapped the garland around the clock that hangs above the mantle and created a do-it-yourself wreath. I really like the way it came out.


Have you started decorating yet?

Dining Room Update

After giving away our dining set, I was super anxious to find a new table and chairs for our dining room. So I started scouring Craigslist and on Tuesday I found a great deal. The set came with 6 chairs! 6 chairs! The table even expands to seat 8. I am thrilled! And I think it looks great :)

Whole Wheat Bread / Rolls

Last weekend I found this recipe for whole wheat bread on allrecipes.com. What drew me to this particular recipe was that it substituted honey for sugar, something I had been wanting to try for a while. The original recipe yielded 3 loaves of bread. Well, that's just too much for John and I all at one time so I decided to cut the recipe in half. The great thing about using allrecipes.com is that the website will do the calculations for you! You can reduce the number of servings in the recipe and the website will recalculate the amounts. It's genious, I tell ya.

Since I cut the recipe in half, I essentially had enough dough for 1 and a half loaves. So I filled my bread pan with enough dough to make one loaf. Then I broke apart the rest of the dough into small balls to make rolls. I read about doing this in one of the reviews for this recipe and I thought it was a great idea. I baked the loaf of bread as the recipe said. But for the rolls, I reduced the bake time to 15 minutes.

THIS RECIPE MADE THE BEST ROLLS!!

I would have never thought I'd find a great roll recipe using bread dough. Absolutely incredible! I'm making a batch of these rolls for Thanksgiving and I'm so excited!!!

Whole Wheat Bread

(yields 1 1/2 loaves)

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

1 package (or 2 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast

2 tablespoons + 2 tsp honey

2 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon + 1 1/2 tsp butter, melted

2 tablespoons + 2 tsp honey

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

All-Purpose Flour, enough to flour surface

1 tablespoon butter, melted

In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast and 2 Tb + 2 tsp honey. (Let stand for 5 minutes.)

Add bread flour, stir to combine. (I use my kitchen aid mixer for this part.) Let stand for 30 minutes until big and bubbly.

Mix in 1 Tbs + 1 1/2 tsp melted butter, 2 Tbs + 2 tsp honey and salt. Stir in whole wheat flour. (Again, I use my kitchen aid mixer for this. Mix until dough is not sticking to sides of bowl. This took about 7-10 minutes on speed 2 using the dough hook.)

Turn dough out onto surface lightly sprinkled with all-purpose flour. Roll into a ball and place in a well greased bowl. Turn the dough once to coat the surface. (I use oilve oil or Pam to grease my bowl. Both work fine.)

Cover with a dish towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. (I place my bowl on top of the stove and turn the oven on to 200 degrees. This heats the stove top just enough to help the dough rise. It takes about 1 and a half hours for my dough to rise.)

Punch down dough and divide. Place about 3/4 of the dough in a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Break apart the remaining dough into 9-12 small sized balls and place in a greased 8 inch round cake pan. Allow the dough to rise again until the the dough has topped the pans by one inch. (It is ok if the rolls are touching after they have risen. This won't affect the baking process and they will be very easy to pull apart once they are done.)

Bake the bread loaf at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Do not overbake. (The bread should be firm to the touch.)

Bake the rolls at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. (The rolls should not be as firm as the bread.)

Lightly brush the tops with the remaining melted butter. This helps prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely on a wire rack. (Or eat the rolls right out of the pan while still warm. They are delicious!!!)

**Note: The picture above was taken from the allrecipes.com website. I didn't snap a picture of my bread or rolls when I made them because my camera was out of battery. But I'll take a picture of the rolls when I make them for Thanksgiving. Also, I didn't sprinkle oats on top of my bread as shown in the picture above. I only brushed melted butter on top after baking.

Good Bye Dining Set

Our dining set is getting ready to go to it's new home. I wish we had many dining sets to give away because apparently there are quite a few of you in need of tables and chairs. But alas we only had one set and we're pleased that it's going to a good home.

Now that the old dining set is on it's way out, I get to focus on what's coming in to take it's place. My main desire in a new dining table is that it be regular height, not counter height. I'm not that tall and I've learned that counter height chairs are not that comfortable for me, so moving to a regular height table is a must. Also, I would like the table to seat at least 6 people, more if needed. This means I'd like a rectangular table and it would be ideal if it had a leaf to expand the table. But that's not a necessity. With a regular height table we can always pull up more chairs and squeeze another guest at the table. We couldn't do that with our counter height table because our extra chairs were regular height and they weren't tall enough to pull up to the table.

So the search is on for a new dining table and some chairs. I'm scouring Craigslist and thrift stores to find a table with good bones that we can sand down and paint or refinish. That's my first priority - to find a good, cheap table that we can makeover and will fit our needs. Then I'll be on the hunt for some chairs. John and I are thinking that getting a bench for one side of the table would be a fun addition too. So maybe 4 chairs and a bench...or 6 chairs...or 2 head chairs and 4 side chairs. There are so many different ways we can go with the chairs that I still haven't made up my mind yet.

Here are some tables that I'm admiring right now. I'd love to find one of these at my local thrift store :) Which one do you like?

Crate and Barrel - Basque Honey

Pier One - Carmichael

World Market - Sourav

Another Fabulous Freebie

Are you in need of a dining table and chairs? Do you know someone who needs a dining table and chairs? Then this is the post for you!

John and I were so blessed when our friends gave us this counter-height dining set as a wedding gift. They were upgrading their dining room and excitedly passed this set along to us. And we were just as excited to receive it. The table has a black finish and a frosted glass insert for visual interest. And the neutral fabric on the chairs gives this set a really modern feel.

As much as we've enjoyed this dining set for the past year and a half, it's time for us to move on to something different. Which could be good news for you, if you need a dining table. :)

John and I are giving this dining set away for free. We were blessed when it was given to us and now it's time to pass the blessing on to someone else.

If you are interested in the dining table and chairs, please contact me at jackiedodson24@gmail.com or leave me a comment here or on facebook.

October Madness

I just realized that my last post was way back on October 8th! I can't believe it's been that long. You might say that life has been a little crazy lately....madness!

For the past 12 months I've been engrossed in the journey towards obtaining my CPA license. This journey included lots of grad classes as well as taking the CPA exam. The CPA exam is now 4 separate tests, each of which must be passed with a grade of at least 75. I took my first test in November 2009, my second test in May 2010 (after tax season), and my third test in August 2010. And I've passed each of these sections. I took my last test on October 11, 2010, just a few weeks ago. I think it went ok, but I'm nervous. I'm nervous because this is the final test and I really don't want to have to take it over. It takes approximately 6-8 weeks from the day I took my test to receive the score. So I'm hoping to find out my score by the end of November. Oh the anxiety!!

The weekend after I took my final test was a fantastic weekend for us to get out and play! :) We went with John's entire family, plus some cousins, to a Corn Maze in Zellwood. It was pretty awesome. We had to wait over an hour in line in the hot, hot sun, but it was worth it. When we finally made it to the entrance of the maze, they gave us a flag in case we got lost and needed help finding our way out. John was in charge of our flag. We broke up into 3 teams and headed in. Our team was me, John, Daniel, Joanna, Amy, Kaleigh, and Kelli. And we dominated that corn maze.





The next weekend in October was the perfect time for us to take a vacation. John and I originally planned a weekend getaway to Tennessee, but unfortunately an unexpected meeting came up that John had to attend and our plans had to change. Instead, I took 2 days off from work and John and I had a "stay-cation." John's parents took Layla for those 2 nights and John and I just relaxed. It was absolutely marvelous....just what the doctor ordered.

In the next few weeks, John and I will be posting more recipes that we've successfully made and loved and want to share with you. Also, we will be starting our first blog series called "Eat Around Orlando." Every other week, John and I are going to try a new-to-us restaurant in Orlando and blog about the food. We've started compiling our list and I'm super excited to try some local, hole-in-the-wall restaurants around our house. Stay tuned for our reviews and recommendations. And if you'd like to join us for dinner, we'd love to have you! Let us know and we'll keep you posted about dates, times and locations.

How was your October?

Alfredo Sauce To Die For

My favorite place to order fettuccine alfredo is Olive Garden. Well actually, I just really like dipping the breadsticks into my alfredo sauce...oh that's a little slice of heaven! But back to the point. I scoured the internet for an alfredo sauce worthy of my Olive Garden standards and came across this quick alfredo recipe on allrecipes.com. It's creamy and flavorful and delicious! And dare I say...better than Olive Garden?! Well, you'll have to try it to find out :)

Alfredo Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp garlic garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cups half & half
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk the flour and garlic salt into the melted butter until mixture is smooth. Slowly beat the half & half into the sauce until completely incorporated. I pour a 1/4 cup of half & half into the saucepan at a time, stirring completely before pouring the next 1/4 cup in. Stir the garlic, parsley and parmesan cheese into the sauce, whisking continually. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Cook, stirring regularly, until the sauce has thickened (4-5 minutes). Use immediately or refrigerate. [This sauce reheats in the microwave very well! It's just as good the next day!]

Sausage Stuffed Stromboli

John and I have been enjoying home-made pizza about once a week since I found this pizza dough recipe. I wrote about our Chicken Alfredo Pizza a few weeks ago. This week I wanted to try something similar but different. So I went with Stromboli.

I realize that the above picture does not show you all the yummy, goodness inside. And for that I am extremely sorry. It was so delicious I didn't even spare one second to take a picture! Inside, I spread a very minimal amount of pasta sauce on the dough, then piled ground sausage, deli ham, onions and mozzarella cheese on top. It wasn't super fancy and I just used stuff that we had in the fridge. Then I rolled up the dough and tucked in the ends. I placed on my Pampered Chef pizza stone and baked for about 20 minutes. John dipped his in pasta sauce and I dipped mine in ranch dressing. Yum!!

I love making pizza at home. It's so much more versatile and we love being able to personalize our pizza with our favorite toppings. Ham and pineapple, BBQ chicken, chicken alfredo, sausage and onions...whatever your hearts desire!

What do you like on your pizza?

Pizza Dough
1 package (2 1/2 tsp) active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 tsp sugar
2 cups bread flour (I use 1 cup white & 1 cup wheat)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp salt

In a large electric mixer bowl, mix yeast, water and sugar. Let stand until creamy (about 10 minutes). Mix in oil, salt and bread flour using dough hook. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. You may have to add more or less flour based on the consistency of the dough. You don't want it to be sticky. It should pull away from the sides of the bowl while mixing. I usually mix it 95% of the way with the mixer and then turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead the last 5% by hand. Place dough in a well oiled bowl. Cover and rise until doubled in volume. This takes about an hour in our condo. I place to bowl on top of the oven and set the oven on warm (about 150 degrees). Turn dough out onto floured surface again. Form dough into a pizza crust shape. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees without any toppings. This allows the dough to set and it doesn't become soggy in the middle. Cover with your favorite sauce and toppings. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

For Stromboli - You don't need to bake dough without any toppings for 10 minutes. Instead, cover with sauce and toppings directly onto uncooked dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Broccoli-Cheese Soup in a Breadbowl

It isn't exactly fall weather quite yet, but John and I were craving soup so we said "Heck with it! Who cares if it's not fall!" John found this recipe for Broccoli-Cheese soup in the Martha Stewart Cookbook that we got as a wedding gift. This is actually the first recipe of Martha's that I have tried. And I would have been extremely disappointed if it had turned out anything but amazing...this is Martha Stewart we're talking about. John and I give this soup 2 thumbs up! But my favorite part was the breadbowl. :)


The bread recipe is from a cooking class that John took years ago. I found the packet of recipes when I was cleaning out a box of John's "really important stuff" that sat in our closet, untouched, for more than a year. It's called Peasant Bread and it's actually surprisingly easy to make. I've made it two times in the past few weeks, because it's that good! I can't wait to fill these breadbowls with all types of soup as the weather turns cooler.



Peasant Bread
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons active yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 cups bread flour (extra for kneading)

In a large bowl of the electric mixer, combine water, yeast, sugar and salt. Stir until yeast dissolves. Slowly add bread flour and mix with dough hook until thoroughly combined. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until thumb punched in center rises back immediately. (This won't take long. Don't over knead.) Place dough in well oiled bowl and allow to double in size.

Cover baking sheet with parchment paper. If making bread bowls, divide risen dough into 4 loaves and place on covered baking sheet. If not, dividing the dough into 2 makes good sized loaves.

Place the bread in an oven set at 135 degrees and allow to rise for a second time for 10 minutes. Take bread out and turn up the oven to 425 degrees. Bake bread at 425 for 10 minutes. Keep bread in the oven and turn down to 375 degrees. Bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Remove bread from oven. While still hot, brush the top with melted butter. Allow to cool slightly before slicing. [John and I prefer to spread butter on the slice of bread rather than brushing melted butter on top.] Eat and enjoy!!


Broccoli-Cheese Soup
2 1/2 cups fat-free chicken broth
6 ounces chopped fresh broccoli -or- 10 ounce package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1 medium carrot, chopped (optional)
1 medium rib of celery, chopped (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup fat-free half & half
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 slices low-fat cheddar cheese -or- 1/2 cup shredded low-fat cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, stir together the broth, broccoli, carrot, celery, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 6-8 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. In a small bowl, whisk together the half & half and flour. Stir into the saucepan. Simmer for 1-2 minutes, or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Add the cheese. Remove from the heat. Stir until the cheese is melted.

Before & After: Thrift Store Chairs

A few weeks ago, I got these

at a local thrift store,

for this much

I used some white paint leftover from another project
("Swiss Coffee" by Behr) and went to town.

Then used some random fabric from the closet,

along with our new staple gun,
to get this

They're nice and simple. I don't have a picture of the second one,

but it looks identical to the one above.

I imagine them around my new dining table (that I don't have, yet).

Looking splendid and fabulous.

Overall, my first chair makeover gets an A.

Yeast Rolls #1

I've been on a cooking quest recently. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there's been a lot more "homemade" cookin' going on in the Dodson house. It started a few months ago when I was realized how much money we were spending on bread, biscuits, rolls, buns, tortillas, and frozen pizza. I thought, "how hard can it be to make these things at home and save some moo-lah at the same time?" So I started researching and learning through online cooking websites and blogs. I was so excited to get started!

John and I headed to the store and purchased three different types of flour, sugar, and butter. I think it cost us less than 1 frozen pizza. I was so pumped for the potential savings in our future! My first experiment was homemade bread loaves...which turned out fantastic! Then I tried homemade biscuits and they turned out even better! That's when things started heating up. I tackled flour tortillas, naan (Indian bread), pizza dough and peasant bread (Italian bread). And everything has turned out delicious...way better than store-bought! Yes, it takes a little bit more time, but it's totally worth it!

Next on our list was yeast rolls. John asked if I could try and master a recipe for rolls by Thanksgiving so we could wow everyone :) I decided to give it a go this past weekend. I found this recipe by typing "yeast rolls" into the Google search engine. Then I scoured the internet for the best looking rolls I could find. Because let's be honest, why would I want to make something that doesn't look divine? I came across this recipe on a blog called A Hens Nest. The rolls looked absolutely amazing and the recipe seemed simple enough. In fact, she said that this was her go-to recipe when she's short on time, which sounded awesome to me! She also gave some helpful instructions on how to freeze some of the rolls if you don't want to make a whole batch.

The recipe yielded 24 rolls and I ended up making 15 and freezing 9 (that's just how it worked out with the pans). I didn't use my Kitchenaid for these rolls, I did the old fashioned way...with elbow grease. The dough was easy to work with and only needed about 5-8 minutes of kneading. When the balls are placed in the cake pans, it's ok if they end up touching after they rise for the second time. This won't affect them in the oven and they are easy to pull apart once they are done. I was able to fit about 7-8 rolls in each of my round cake pans, and 9 rolls in my square pan. I baked the rolls for 13 minutes in my 350 degree, preheated oven, and they came out golden brown, light and fluffy. They were just as I imagined....fabulous!

I'm planning on trying another yeast roll recipe in the next few weeks...one without eggs. This was the first time making bread dough with eggs and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. These rolls kept really well in a ziploc bag on the counter for a few days. And they actually got sweeter as time passed. They started to taste more like Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, which was great for John and not-so-great for me. I'm not a huge fan of Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. And I think that taste may have come from the eggs, although I'm not entriely sure. I'm not an expert chef or anything, I'm just learning as I go. So the next batch will be a yeast roll recipe, san (without) eggs. And we will compare roll to roll.

Yeast Rolls
1/3 c canola or olive oil
1 c hot water
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 c sugar
1 pkg (or 2 1/2 tsp) yeast
2 eggs
3 1/2 – 4 c all purpose flour

Mix oil, hot water, salt, sugar, yeast and eggs well. Stir in flour 1 cup at a time until a kneadable dough forms. Dump dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise in warm place for 1 hour, or until double in size. Punch down dough and dump onto lightly floured surface. Cut dough in half, form each half into 12 rolls. Place in 2 greased round cake pans or on 1 greased cookie sheet, spacing evenly. Cover let rise again for 20-30 minutes, until about double. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 10-18 minutes until golden. Brush tops with real butter hot from the oven and serve!

You can serve one cake pan for dinner and freeze the second one. To do this, place the formed dough into the greased pan, spray tops lightly with cooking spray and cover tightly with plastic wrap then aluminum foil. Freeze for up to a week. To bake, thaw at room temp for several hours until doubled then bake as usual.

Laundry Made Easier

And all we did was add a simple, wire shelf. We needed a quick fix in the laundry room and the answer was a shelf. We already had this wire shelf, except that it was three times longer than what we needed. So John just used wire cutters and cut it to out desired length. I added one of the baskets that we recently bought from Ikea to hold the detergent and dryer sheets. And now there's also a place for the iron and some hand towels. Perfect!

Molly & Scott's Wedding

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a wedding! And we were so excited to be celebrating with Molly and Scott as they exchanged vows and committed their lives to each other. It was really a special day and the weather was absolutely gorgeous...just like the bride! :) Since pictures speak a thousand words (and I'm too tired to write even 10 more words), enjoy these snapshots!

Lovely to Look At On Friday

Source: Shoebox Decor

FREE Malm Dresser

Anyone in need of a dresser?

It's FREE!

Since we recently bought an Expedit shelving unit for our closet,
we are no longer in need of this 4 drawer Malm dresser, originally from Ikea.

We inherited this dresser from a friend of ours about a year ago.
It has been such a blessing to us and we hope to pass the blessing on to someone else.

Email me at jackiedodson24@gmail.com if you're interested.

If you're in Orlando,
John and I would be happy to deliver this dresser straight to your front door.

Please don't be shy! We'd like to find this dresser a new home soon!

Closet Addition

Do you remember last week when I blogged about Google Sketch Up? Well it really worked! During this past Labor Day weekend, John and I made a trip to Ikea to buy an Expedit shelf. Originally, we thought that using multiple shelving units hung together would be a better option for us just in case we wanted to move things around later. But when we started thinking about hanging the shelves on the wall, we realized that it would be much easier if we were only working with one solid piece, instead of separate pieces. To be honest, the thought of getting the shelves to hang exactly level was too overwhelming. So instead we picked out a 2 x 4 shelving unit and hauled it home. This was probably one of the easiest Ikea pieces that we have put together (and by we, I mean John). It only took him about 30 minutes and the whole thing was together and in the closet!

I love white against our gray walls. And I haven't regretted our gray wall color for even a moment since it went up! It's perfect! I also love the substantial-ness of this Expedit shelving unit. It's weighty and strong and has presence. And I love that it's going to live in our closet. Our closet needed a little bit of sass, and this shelf is the perfect amount of sass.

Anyway, as you can see, we haven't hung it yet. Baby steps, people. But I have started using it since before this my clothes were piled up on the floor along with the shoes.

Since I took this picture, John has moved his clothes out of the dresser and into the empty boxes above. We only purchased one Expedit shelf this weekend because that was all we could afford this month. Although, I did manage to pick up a few baskets while we were at Ikea as well. I picked out a set of 4 baskets for $9.99. They were all different sizes but the price was better than the alternatives. The basket in the photo is being used to hold my undies :) No one needs to see those all strewn about. I'll show you what we did with the other 3 baskets over the next few weeks.

I'm really happy that we took some time to think outside of the "box" and found a non-traditional way to make our closet more functional. Using Google Sketch Up was one of the best things we did. We knew that the shelf would fit inside our closet and we knew that we would love the way it looked, all before actually purchasing the unit. Now that's fabulous!

Google Sketch Up

Last week we were hanging out with our friend Damien and he told us about this super neat program called Google Sketch Up. Since John and I are big Google fans, we went right home and started playing around. Let me tell you, this program is pretty dang cool. It's pretty user friendly, although it does take a little getting used to. For our first sketch....our master closet.

For months now, we have been living with half a closet. Our master closet is a pretty substantial walk in. We took down the wire shelves when we moved in so I could paint. Then we hung two of the shelves back up on the left wall and it turned out that all of our hanging clothes fit on those two shelves. But we still have the whole right side with nothing. No place for shoes, no mirror, no hooks, no nothing.

One of the hardest things for John and I is trying to figure out what will be most useful in the closet and then picturing what it's going to look like. That's where Google Sketch Up comes in. We took some quick measurements of the walls on the right side of the closet and started sketching. Then we started brainstorming different options. We don't need any more hanging space, so we started thinking about shelves. I didn't want to use dressers and I really wanted to utilize the vertical space in the closet. That led me to Expedit from Ikea. Now here's the cool part...Google Sketch Up allows you to search for an item and then import in into your sketch. It was so easy! We imported different Expedit shelves into our sketch and started playing around. Since the Expedit shelves were imported to size, we could move them around the space and see what fit and what we liked.

After many different scenarios, we decided upon 4 Expedit shelves with four boxes each. We are going to mount them to the wall so we can utilize the space underneath for our shoes. Some of the shelves will hold baskets and some will hold folded shirts and pants. We are going to hang a mirror on the wall to the left of the shelves and hooks on the small wall to the right. It turned out pretty simple but I think it will be just what we need. We decided to go with 4, 2x2 shelves instead of 2, 2x4 shelves because we think they will be more versatile in the future. If we ever move, we could use them in other rooms for other functions.

Now we just need to go get the shelves, put them together and hang them on the wall :)

Coming Soon to Orlando...

It opens September 10th! Woo Hoo! So exciting!

Anyone want to come check it out with me?

Banana Bread Muffins

This is the perfect solution for those mushy, ripe bananas sitting on the counter. Delicious!

Banana Bread Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 mashed, overripe bananas (5-6 large bananas)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into muffin tin. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the muffins comes out clean. Let muffins cool for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack. Yields 12 large muffins.

John and I added a bit of sweetness to the top of the muffins after we took them out of the oven. Mix 1 tablespoon water and 3 tablespoons brown sugar in a small bowl. Brush on top of the muffins for a sweet crunch!

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

Last week, John and I took on home-made chicken alfredo pizza. We were craving the creamy alfredo sauce but wanted to make something new and fresh. This pizza absolutely satisfied our craving! I made the dough with wheat flour and it turned out good. However it was a little too much wheat for my taste, so next time I'm going to do half wheat flour and half white flour. We added red peppers and green onions to the chicken and it gave this pizza just the right amount of color and flavor. We hope you enjoy this pizza just as much as we did!

Pizza Dough
1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 tsp)
1 cup warm water
2 tsp white sugar
2 cups bread flour (or 2 cups wheat flour, or 1 cup bread flour and 1 cup wheat flour)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp salt

Alfredo Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 dash ground black pepper
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup grated Romano (or parmesan or Mozarella) cheese

Toppings
2 boneless chicken breasts, cooked
1/4 tsp rosemary
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 red pepper, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, chopped


1. To make pizza dough: In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and white sugar in warm water. Let stand for 5-10 minutes until creamy. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, olive oil, salt and yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough is formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume (about 30 min - 1 hour). Turn dough out onto a well floured surface. Roll out into a pizza crust shape. (Dough will make 1 extra large pizza or 2 medium pizzas if split in half.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake pizza dough only for 6-8 minutes to help set crust.

2. To make alfredo: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Blend salt, pepper and flour, then stir in the milk and the cheese. Simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat, cover and set aside. (Note: This sauce should be thicker than regular alfredo sauce. If you'd prefer your sauce to be a bit thinner, add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time.)

3. To make topping: Shred cooked chicken into small bite sized pieces. Mix chicken, chopped pepper and green onions and spices in a small bowl.

4. Spread alfredo sauce onto the pizza crust. Sprinkle chicken mixture on top of the sauce. Optional: Sprinkle additional cheese on top of chicken mixture.

5. Bake pizza until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Snug as a Bug

Much Needed Wall Decor

Ribba frames from Ikea + pictures taken on our 1 year anniversary trips = fabulous decor in our bedroom!

San Diego, CA

Atlanta, GA

Hilton Head, SC

Ball Ground, GA