One. night. stand.

The search ends! I have found a nightstand! I've been on the prowl for one more for my guest room. I mean Hello, you need one on each side. I had given myself a limit of $25 for it because I bought my nightstand (actually a drop leaf table) for $20, my husband's nightstand (a small desk) for $15, and the other nightstand in the guest room for $22. 

This sucker was $8 at Goodwill. Can you believe I was trying to talk myself out of stopping there?? (I really needed to get home and put my son down for a nap.)

 

I saw it. And there were a couple of gals were looking at it and saying "oh, this would be fun to re-do." They walked away. I checked the price tag. $7.99. I wandered around the store checking for other pieces. None. 

The gals were on the other side of the store. 

I grabbed it.





I had some lovely pale muted blue leftover just sitting in its little paint sample can. Oh, yeah. Much better.


Next project- Decorate this boring room. But hey, I have nightstands!

baby's 1st birthday!

My world traveler's first birthday. He spent his actual birthday in Madrid and I was really in love with the idea. Maybe why his bedroom is traveled themed also. 

French Vanilla Cupcakes and Whipped Cream Frosting. Stickers from Hobby Lobby.

 Deliciousness. Fruit, Veggies, and Airplane food- Pretzels and Peanuts. 

 Barf Bags. Just kidding, so they have a little bag of pretzels, M&Ms, Passport Sticker Books, and Juice boxes. 

I found these Earth paper lanterns, so cute! On the table are little clothespin airplanes that the kids got to paint and take home. And of course little foam ornaments.

I am really glad I bought the flag banner too. 

The Pantry Panic~ what a relief.

I was going insane. The Pantry was driving me nuts. When we moved in- a little over a year ago. I just started stuffing things in... I kind of had a plan. Random small appliances on the right. Food on the left. Piece of cake. Then it started to look like this.

Food items were falling off the shelves. I couldn't find things. It was just chaos!



Sunday morning at 6:30am I was fighting off the cleaning bug. I was not ready to be awake. Or wake up my men.

With breakfast done, I started pulling stuff off the shelves. Breakfast items grouped together.
Canned goods together.
Pasta together.
You get the idea .
Then my table looked like this!

This mess stayed until I arrived home with some baskets from Michaels (50%off- cha-ching) Monday afternoon and got to work.

I lose things in these back corners. So the baskets were my solution. They were the closest to the perfect size for my corners!! Yes!
The top basket holds baking goods.
The second basket holds drinks- coffee, hot chocolate, tea, etc.
The third basket holds my leftover containers (and lids- sigh). 
The bottom basket holds snack stuff.

Finally it was done!

Sanity has returned. I can see into my pantry more then I have in the last  9  3 months.

I was giving my son a bath. I heard a "Whoa! Holy smokes!" The Hubby found my pantry. He said he'd hire me to do his office and the garage.

Dude, you can't afford me.

Pork Tenderloin (Bourbon Maple Sauce!)

This was a cheater recipe... but hey, we all have them! and we all have those days!
My hubby had decided we should have pork more since I keep cooking chicken even though he'd rather not have it as often as I cook it. So I was looking over the Pork selections at the store and the fresh meat seemed really fatty, so I took a closer look at the pre-packaged selection. There were a few different "flavors" and the Bourbon Maple caught my eye. This I can do! 

6 slices of bacon (8 depending on the size)
1-2 cups of Bourbon*
1/4 cup of maple syrup (keep the bottle handy)
1/4 brown sugar
1-2 cups of water*
salt
pepper

mushrooms
onions
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp flour

In a slow cooker mix bourbon, maple syrup, brown sugar and water Add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Wrap the bacon around the pork. (I overlapped them at an angle and then set the pork on them and then wrapped them around.) Place in slow cooker. Drizzle some syrup on top of the bacon. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

Saute mushrooms and onions in oil on medium heat until they soften. Stir in flour and allow the flour to soak up the oil on low heat. Stir in the bourbon-maple mixture from the slow cooker. Simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens. Move pork onto serving plate and pour sauce on top. Serve!

*These depend on the size of your slow cooker/crockpot and the size of your tenderloin. I wanted the liquids to cover the bottom of the pot and come up the sides of the tenderloin a little. The water will evaporate a little and leave behind the taste anyway.