Pumpkin Cheesecake

          

                

         I love the pumpkin  cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, but I have to tell ya that Paula Deen’s pumpkin cheesecake recipe is nearly as good as Cheesecake Factory’s.  You can get the recipe here.  After making one over the weekend, I made one more today for another get-together.  The best part is that the entire cake cost me just as much to make as buying one slice of cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory, since I had most of the ingredients on hand.  Once you’ve tried this recipe, you’ll never want pumpkin pie again.  You’ll find pumpkin cheesecake to be a must-have for all  your Thanksgiving festivities.

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A Holiday Tradition....a few days early...

Traditions….we all have them, especially this time of year.  Typically, we put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but this year we put it up a few days early as we decked the halls this past Saturday night. 

When we decorate our home for Christmas, Matt puts the tree together and puts the lights on the tree, while I decorate the rest of the house.

Once he’s finished, I give him a plate of cookies while I take over the Christmas tree duty and strategically place every ornament on the tree.

Matt thinks I’m kind of freakishly controlling about every detail of the tree, and for once, I actually agree with him;) I don't think he really cares though, becasue he is too busy indulging in a fresh batch of no-bake-fudge cookies, while I am carefully placing each ornament in it's perfect little place.

Lastly, Matt puts the star on top of our tree, and we step back, turn the lights out, and plug in the Christmas tree....

.....and then we wait for Chloe to nearly knock over the tree before eating the pine needles, which she will inevitably throw up all over the carpet later on in the evening.  What is it with cats and Christmas trees?  This is certainly a part of the tradition that I wish we could get rid of.

Once the house is all decked out for the holidays, we pop up a bowl of fresh kettle corn, make a batch of my mom’s hot cocoa and watch Miracle on

34^th Street. 





And that’s it….that’s our tradition.  There’s just something about the simple traditions of the holiday season that bring such warmth and comfort.  I hope you all enjoy your holiday traditions over the upcoming weeks as much as we enjoy ours.

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Buttery Crab Pot Pie

I got this recipe from a Paula Deen cookbook, and I really like it this time of year.  What could be better than a butter crab pot pie on a cool November night.  Give it try and see if you like it too:)

INGREDIENTS

8 tbsp. butter

1 small yellow onion (chopped)

1 c. mushrooms (sliced)

salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp. flour ( and more for dusting)

1 1/2 c. milk

1/4 c. clam juice

1/4 cup medium-dry sherry

1/2 lb. crabmeat (drained and picked clean of shells)

1 c. frozen peas

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed

1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water, to brush pastry

DIRECTIONS

Melt the butter over medium heat. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until softened.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly for 1 minute.  Add milk, clam juice, and sherry.  Bring to a boil and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes.  Add the crabmeat and peas.  Remove from the heat and transfer to the refrigerator to cool.  Unfold the pastry sheets on a lightly floured surface. Place 4 (8-oz) ovenproof bowls rim down on the pastry and cut out 4 circles a bit larger than the bowls. Brush the circles with the egg wash.  Divide it among the 4 bowls.  Brush the rims of the bowls with the egg wash, lay a pastry circle over each, and seal the edges.  Cut steam vents in the pastry and brush with the egg mixture.  Place the bowls on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until the pastry is puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.  Serve hot.

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DIY Dollar Store Autumn Candle Holders

         One the great things about having a blog, is keeping up with all of the other blogs that I follow.  I love being inspired by other bloggers and feeding off of their creativity.  Once in awhile, I see something that another blogger has created and I say to myself, “I love that, and I have to try to make that!”  This is one of those times, folks. 

            The other day I came across a post entitled, “Dollar Store Version of the WS Glass Hurricane” over at 320 Sycamore where two look-alike $80 WS Hurricanes were created for only $3 a piece by shopping at the local Dollar Store.  You can go here for her tutorial.   I loved her version so much that I went to my local Dollar Store and got the supplies to make one for my entry table. The only thing that I did different was my adhesive choice.  Epoxy glue is usually my choice of adhesive when working with glass, so I used that instead of hot glue.   Here are the results of my $3 project.

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The First Saturday of the Month at Goodwill

                  It’s the first Saturday of the month, and do you know what that means?  Well, if you ever shop at Goodwill,you know that means that today everything in the store is 50% off.  Now that the cold weather is here, much of the time and energy that I spent on garage sales in the warmer months is spent thrifting in other ways during the colder months.  This weekend is a perfect example of that.  You see, there are six Goodwill stores 10-15 minutes from our house.  Yesterday, I scouted all of them out, and today I woke up early and hit up the ones that looked promising from yesterday’s searching.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything big at the stores that we are need of….at least not this month.  I did see a few smaller things, such as lamps, that I went back for today.  I didn’t really intend on shopping for clothes today, but at the last Goodwill I stopped at, I allowed myself to look at the clothing rack and ended up getting a few nice things for winter.  Overall, it was a good Goodwill day. J

A 20 dollar bill paid for all of the these clothes, and I even got some change back:)

$2 Gap jean skirt, $2 Kohl’s skirt, $2 red Charlotte Russe shirt, $2 Kohl’s zip-up sweater/hoodie

$2 Target short sleeve black sweater, $2 Kohl’s grey sweater/cardigan

$3 Target sundress that would be adorable in the summer with a pair of sandals......or in the spring with a light pink cardigan and black ballerina flats........ or in the fall and winter with a pair of black boots, a black cardigan or my new $2 red Target cardigan:)

For the guest room, I purchased a coffee table for $2 that I am going to transform into a bench for the end of the bed with a little bit of foam, batting and fabric.  I also got the purple basket for $2.50 and the lamps, which are really nice looking lamps, for $7 each.  $7 is kind of high for a Goodwill lamp, but they are really nice and I sort of fell in love with them:)

This floor lamp was $6.....

.....and the lampshade was $2.  I have plans for both the lamp and the lampshade.  Can't wait to get started on it:)

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A Little Bit of Clearance Bling

        

         I’m not exactly sure what these little pendant things are called, but I got a two-pack on clearance at Hobby Lobby for only $2.  They go with our bedroom perfectly, and I used them to add a little bling to some accent pieces in our room.  While I don’t know what they are called, the package did say that the purpose of them is to decorate candles, candle holders ect.  Using my trusty hot glue gun, I attached one to my garage sale lamp that previously added trim to and told you about here, and I put the other one on a votive holder on our fireplace.  In this case, $2 bling is a good thing. J

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Craigslist Armoire Refinished - FINALLY!



The $75 Craigslist solid wood armoire is FINALLY finished!!!



If you recall, we furnished much of our master bedroom from Craigslist back in March.  You can read more about those purchases here. 

For several months, the armoire sat in the garage, because Matt and I couldn't move it on our own:( 

It was finally moved upstairs Labor Day weekend when we had some extra man-power:)

 But upstairs it sat for several weeks until I got around to sanding, priming and painting the beast!

I refinished the armoire just like I did this piece of furniture (the free trash from my neighbor).  Luckily, I didn't have to spend any money on supplies for this project, since I had plenty leftover from the last one. 

You can find the tutorial here.  Refer to it to see the list of supplies I used for this project.

This past weekend, I added hardware for $1.50 a knob from Hobby Lobby (half off of course).

I realy like the way this piece turned out.  Not bad for $75:)  It sure beats my $400 inspiration piece from Ikea and the $800 pieces I've seen elsewhere.   

Now we just need a T.V to put in the armoire......I think Santa may be taking care of that for us this Christmas;) 

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