just a little something fun

Back when we were in Dallas a group of women from my church and I helped host a dinner.

Maybe you need a simple, inexpensive dessert sometime soon but want it to appear fancy.

Here's what we did:

Start with a fun clear plastic rectangular plate (we got ours at Party City). Of course you can use any kind of plate, this is just what we chose.

Bake triple chocolate brownies from the boxed Ghiradelli mix from Costco but before you put them on the plates . . .

Grab a bottle of chocolate syrup (or even another flavor if you like) and make a fun little swirly.

It was so much fun to do these on all the plates and kind of made me feel like a pastry chef.

Plop your brownies on next.

And in my humble opinion, you can never go wrong with some of this added to virtually any dessert.

Add a strawberry or some other type of garnish and

ta da

simple, fancy, yummy dessert!

Happy cooking!

Do you have any occasion coming up that you could use this idea for?

Kelly

nine

We have NINE stoves!!!

Thanks sooo much you guys!

This is so fun!

Just think of ALL of the lives being changed!

God is good.

Kelly

seven

We have SEVEN stoves!

THANK YOU!!!

This fundraising campaign runs through the end of the month so it's not too late if you've wanted to donate but haven't yet.

Kelly

the stripes

the stripes . . .

ARE

DONE!!!

(photos taken pre-touch ups)

Plus we have baseboard, trim on all windows and doors, cabinets installed (but still need drawers and doors), bookshelves installed, etc.

We're coming along!

Oh and I went with the bottom color contrary to popular opinion.

It is called "crumb cookie".

The top color was "country beige".

Believe me, it really does look good and the people I got to ask in person liked it so I think the lighting in the photo just wasn't the best.

Okay, I need to go wash brushes . . . not my favorite part.

Kelly

stoves, crockpots and such

So this morning's blogpost was completely auto-scheduled to post today and I'd done it before I did the stove thing and somehow it was ironic to me that my "follow-up" post to the stoves was about a crockpot.

Made me realize that I have at least seven heat producing, cooking appliances in my kitchen . . .

a stovetop, an oven, a waffle maker, two crockpots, an electric griddle, a rice cooker . . .

oh eight, a toaster . . .

It's okay to have those but it does shed a bit of perspective for me somehow.

I am thrilled with the six stoves (seven counting mine that is on someone else's fundraising page) that we have collectively made possible for families in Haiti!

This is exciting stuff you guys.

If you'd like to read a little more about the stoves check out this post.

happy weekend!

Kelly

smart idea

I took this photo nearly a year ago and I don't think I ever remembered to blog it.

Isn't this smart?!

I can take absolutely no credit.

This is my Sweetie's (my grandma's) crockpot and she had this great idea for keeping the cord neatly with it. I love it and had forgotten about it until I was just looking through photos. I need to go and do it to mine right now since the cord is always stretching out and getting caught under other appliances in the cabinet, etc. making taking it out of the cabinet difficult without moving ever single thing.

Do you have any favorite kitchen or storage tips lately?

Kelly

six

We have SIX stoves!

This is so wonderful!

I am so excited thinking of the lives that are being changed.

God is good.

It's exciting to see how he uses us in His grand plan.

Kelly

FOUR!!!

We have FOUR stoves!!!

Hooray!

Thank you!!!

Kelly

two

We have TWO stoves!

Yippee!

Thank you!

Kelly

one

We have one stove!

Thank you!!

Kelly

two friends

You know what?

I'd like to ask you for something today.

I'd like to ask you to consider something.

January 12th marked the second anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti.

I'll be honest, I don't think about Haiti a whole lot.

I am so thankful for a couple of my blogging friends who keep me on my toes and open up my eyes.

When I began reading blogs on the 12th late (really late) in the evening. I was excited to see this fundraiser that The Adventure Project is doing.

It's called You+Me.

It's all about the ripple effect.

"We want to turn the second anniversary of the Haiti earthquake into a day of record-breaking impact.

It's a simple idea. We are each finding 2 friends. Two friends who will recognize the anniversary by sponsoring a $20 charcoal-efficient stove for a family in Haiti. And the movement begins when those two friends reach out to their 2 friends.

These stoves are revolutionary, allowing families to breathe easier, cook faster, and increase their income by saving on fuel costs. The money saved is money used to send their kids to school, start small businesses, and eat more nutritious food. The stoves are produced locally in Port au Prince and sold by women entrepreneurs. It's a sustainable business model providing a life-saving product.



So we are marking this anniversary with a ripple movement of friends.
2 years, 2 friends, 2 stoves.

Buy your stove. And find your two friends."

So back to what I'd like to ask you.

Will you please consider finding $20 this month to use to buy a stove for a family in Haiti?

I would really appreciate it.

I have already bought my stove by being one of another fundraisers "two friends".

I really believe in these stoves. They are saving the lives of babies who will not be dying from the toxic smoke of the fires that are their other cooking alternative.

I would love for you to check out this post that really explains a lot about the stoves from Jody who has seen them in use with her own two eyes.

Technically the goal is to each find two friends so I'll be REALLY happy if I have two friends who take the challenge.

I set my sights kind of high though.

Last week 164 of you visited my blog. 70% of you were returning visitors - my friends, either in real life or just here in this space.

If just 50 of you will buy a stove for Haiti then I will reach my goal.

(told you I set my sights high)

But 70% of 164 visitors in a week is 114 people, 114 stoves . . . I think we can reach 50, don't you?!

You can make your donation for a stove for Haiti through the Adventure Project by clicking HERE

This is exciting! We are going to change lives!

THANK YOU!!!

Kelly

is it crazy?

to not want to choose a paint color because of it's name?

"Country Beige" . . .

It just sends 80s shivers up and down my spine.

So, not telling you which is which, do you think I should use the top color (two stripes) or the bottom color (two stripes) to stripe the wall in my family room?

(I realize the lighting's not the greatest.)

Thanks for your input!

Kelly

progress of the day

Today has been a good and full day!

We have worked hard on our remodel and it will eventually get done!

This DIY stuff is a lot of work. :)

We congratulated ourselves on all that is already done with a trip to Josh and John's Ice Cream downtown. Always fun!

My very talented husband built the window casings, sills and trim from scratch, just exactly the way I wanted it to look. I am thrilled with it!

I used my handy dandy laser tool to tape and tape and tape!

Tomorrow I paint stripes!

I hope you've had a great day!

I would love to hear what you've been up to.

Kelly

warm lunch for cold days

roasted tomato soup with grilled cheese croutons

We highly recommend it!

What are you enjoying eating for lunch during these winter months?

Kelly

what can we do?

Today's blogpost is not light and fluffy.

It's hard.

Really hard stuff but I pray that you will read anyway.

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

A year and a day ago I had no idea what human trafficking was.

I was reading blogs just enjoying some computer time.

I read Emily's post.

Now I am no longer ignorant.

And I am glad.

Sometimes I'll admit, I wish I didn't know. I wish I lived in a happy little bubble of pretty things and cheerful feelings but that is not reality, not sustainable and not what God has for me.

He has bigger responsibilities and bigger blessings.

This year I read this article by Tally Flint.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to read it. It is very well written and sheds a lot of light on this problem.

One of the things that struck me was the simplicity of helping with this problem.

If you are like me so many issues and problems that I learn about in the world seem insurmountable. I don't know what to do or where to start of if I will make a difference.

There is a quote in the article that I think is very important and empowering.

" . . . talk about it [human trafficking]. We were not put on earth to think comfortably or ignorantly. It’s going to be hard, but it’s worth fighting for, and the more knowledge you have about something, the more power you feel you have to work with.” Kristen Muche

If you do nothing else after reading this post please just acknowledge in your own mind that this is something real and something horrible. Take a moment out of your day to feel for someone else - someone who does not have the advantages, the comforts and the security you have.

If you're willing to do more, please take a look at the article and especially read the last several paragraphs about how we can help. It probably won't be as hard as you think!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I would love to hear your comments and thoughts.

Kelly

ten on ten - January 2012

ten on ten

being oh so silly

shoes on, bye bye

Nana came to music class with us

big boy

silly cousin

searching for the missing shoe

enjoying this feature on our new car!

will we ever leave Lowe's?

high class dinner!

bedtime after a day with no nap

--------------------------------------------------

did you do anything silly today?

go anywhere fun?

make any music?

lose something?

enjoy something new?

eat a yummy dinner?

I'd love to hear about it.

Happy 10th of January.

Kelly

reminder

If you'd like to participate in Ten on Ten, tomorrow's the day!

Kelly

happy 2012

I started this post about 10 p.m. on the 31st but things have been moving along over here and I am just now getting it finished.

We had our party and it was a lot of fun!

We ended up "counting down" at about 6:55 our time. We were trying for 7:00 to celebrate when it turned midnight in Rio de Janiero but the kids were ready so we just went ahead!

More pics from the party to come but I wanted to mention a couple things for the new year before too much more time gets away.

I'm going to try out this decluttering calendar for the new year. Anyone want to do it with me? Nothing formal and I'm not gonna promise to do every day but a little is better than nothing, right? Leave me a comment or e-mail me if you want to do it together. It would be more fun that way for sure.

Also, last year at the wonderful encouragement of a dear friend, I intentionally memorized scripture for the first time in years. This is such a good thing for me but I had not exhibited the discipline to do it in so long.

We did it along with Beth Moore and thousands of other women through the Living Proof Ministries blog.

It was really good and I am so glad that I bit the bullet and did it. At the same time though, my year has been full, my brain has been full and while I am so thankful that I kept it up I still don't feel like I have those 20 some odd verses really truly rolling off the tongue of my mind/heart.

Rather than trying to memorize new ones right now I am going to work on really solidifying those so that I can say them anytime, anywhere to myself, to my family, to friends or strangers to bring a word of encouragement or peace.

I think the thing to do will be to put the verse reference and the first word or two of each scripture on a list on my mirror and just work on them from there. Do you think that will work?

Are any of you memorizing scripture? Do you have any ideas of things that are helpful to really have these truths of God's word written on your heart and mind?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on scripture, decluttering, what you ate for lunch . . . oh just anything.

Happy Tuesday!

Kelly