Even Fitz likes to get in on the projects once in a while.

b is for brownies

It's my unofficial goal to find recipes that replace the boxed cake and brownie mixes that I hold to so dearly.

(Q- does anything taste better than Funfetti cake? A - no.)

By chance yesterday I found two different recommendations for Hershey's brownie recipe and seeing that I had all the ingredients in my cupboard decided it was worth a shot.

They were spectacular. Better than a box mix. Fudge-y, not cake-y. And there are only two left this morning.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat over to 350*.

In one bowl, stir together melted butter, vanilla, and sugar. Add eggs and beat well. In another bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet and stir until combined. Pour into greased 9x9 pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges start to pull away from pan.

Yields:
9 squares

Source:
Hershey's Best Bite Brownies

casa fitz exploded

Almost literally.

We went yard sale-ing today and brought home half the town. Then I decided it would be a fabulous idea to launch into a marathon furniture painting session. Then we had to go to church so I made a small path through the living room and left it.

Today's haul included (but was not limited to):
- an old yellow lamp, $2
- navy blue curtains, free because I bought the lamp
- a lantern, $1
- a shelf, $0.50
- 2+ meters of canvas fabric, $2
- Marvel Scene It game, $3
- 2 plant pots, $0.50
- 2 French White dishes, $1
- 24 kitchen drawer/door pulls, $5

Now it's on to craft time! With company coming in August I'm feeling the push to tie up some of the lose ends around here, namely, my chair-less kitchen table.

Sneak peaks of what is to come...

The table now has chairs and I'm half way through painting. 

Amazing yellow lamp and crazy bird fabric from Ikea I bought went we visited Lou in March.

New drawer pulls. The silver, obviously. No one wants the 80's spray painted black in their kitchen. I'm contemplating an entire paint job for the cupboards if the landlord has some extra in his garage. They could use a facelift. 

Dresser not acquired today, but since I haven't mentioned or shown her off yet - here is the solid mahogany, antique, dresser worth $700 that we got for FREE. I debated selling it because I want a new couch and that money could go far, but in the end her charm won me over so she's staying. Eventually she'll get painted, but I'm going to wait a month or two and get my ideas together before doing anything too drastic. 

Also, that is the door to our storage room. It's bigger than our bedroom! Fantastic for hiding all of those unsightly, but necessary items like off-season tires and suitcases and the piles of crap I haul home in the name of crafting, but it's such a waste of valuable living space. The landlord and I have plans to finish it off and create a den eventually. He's game for anything that will give us the space to grow and live here longer. Three cheers for an awesome landlord!

And that pile in the tote is my dirty laundry. Believe it or not everything was washed on Thursday. I will never understand how the two of us create such a mountain in 48 hours. 

home again, home again

After 22 days and 22 nights of dog/house sitting - WE ARE HOME. I could not be happier. 

Let me give you three reasons why I love my house...

1) I know where everything is.

2) It's much smaller, thus reducing how many steps I must take between my bed, the couch, and the fridge. 

3) My knives are sharp and my can opener works. 

and, bonus, 

4) We have a new (to us) grill!

Fitz was really excited to try it out. And this means I can scam him into cooking supper more often!

in other news

1) We were supposed to be home two days ago, but this is the stay-cation that keeps on going and going. Now we're thinking maybe Sunday... or next Tuesday? We're waiting on travel plans from the other end and then we'll know. Regardless, I'm so excited to actually move home again, whenever that may be.

2) Our garden won best in category! The six of us are invited to an event at the end of July to meet other winners and maybe learn more about the program? I honestly have no idea what it entails, we're just super excited to have won especially since it's our first year.

3) My furniture rehab pile is almost as deep at my sewing pile. I think I like furniture rehab better.

4) August is shaping up to be full of visitors! Lou is coming from the other side of the mountains and then a week later my friend, Kait, is flying in from South Carolina. I can't wait to have a house full of people!

5) Fitz is currently standing in line waiting for the midnight opening of Harry Potter 7.2. I'm glad Q loves him and HP enough to stand there too. And this just in - he is eating pachos. Pachos are quite possibly the only thing that would entice me out of bed and into a movie theater at 12:00am.

This is a post about my failures as a very amateur photographer.

I love using our DSLR, but I fail in almost every way when using my point in shoot.

Case in point - our cartoonish adventures on the lake, which I have entitled -

Q and Fitz learning to wake surf...

 and smiling because they've yet to feel the wrath of the water when they fall.

Q.

Hotel Eldorado. 

Fitz. 

I actually love these pictures even though I wasn't going for the white washed look. It was fun to watch the boys try a new sport and then to totally get shown up by a girl when K got on the board. Maybe with a little more practice they'll be able to sit down and ride the wave just like she does. 

fitz found himself a new bff

She lives in the shed. He named her Tenga. 

Also, check out my beautiful new chair.

Also also, we will be home in two days! 

stay-cation

We're vacationing in the next town over. And by 'vacation' I mean dog sitting. My life has been reduced to early morning potty breaks and 3:00 pm puppy suppers with a few more potty breaks and a walk thrown in there somewhere. It's glamorous, let me assure you.

One more week and we'll be home again. Back to real life, back to semi-interesting human adventures.