Vintage Market Treasures

We have been living in our home just shy of 7 years, I finally have all the walls filled and all the spaces pretty much how I wanted them. After 7 years of staring at them, I want to change everything. Isn't that funny how we go through these phases. Maybe it's just me, but I am ready for some changes!

Well thank goodness for the Vintage Market! In Texas we had lovely Canton, First Mondays every month, but in good old CO, for all the years I have been living here, there has been nada tostada of anything like it. Until this year! My sweet friend, mother in law and sister in law have discovered the Vintage Market!

Every month they seem to be popping up around the area and have all kinds of Canton-esque treasures!

This summer we attended Market in the Meadow. It was literally a field in Bennett full of tents with people peddling their wares. I found a few goodies on my list including windmill blades and a blanket ladder!

Its covered in rust and cobwebs, so you know it's the real deal! Actually the vendor said they came from a farm in Kansas, so I thought that was pretty fun. It was also a bargain, because it's huge and other booths were selling them anywhere from $50-$100. The booth I found was selling hers for $10 a blade, so $30 later and I can check this off my list!

I love my little blanket ladder SO much! It's perfect, because my family sucks at putting blankets away. I saw oodles of these things and they were going for like $10 buck a rung, this little ladder was only 40 and it's solid and has not a darn thing wrong with it!

This last round was at the county fairgrounds and it did not disappoint! My mother in law and he sister and my sweet friend and Callie all had such a fun day hanging out and buying old junk! There were so many fun things and I could have gone a little wild and crazy buying new oldish things for our house, but I refrained...

I found this beauty! I have been wanting to make one forever, but I have not had the time/resources to get it done. This sweet guy and wife make all of these fun farm house signs and it was only $50, it's huge and I love it!

I have no idea what these are actually called. If anyone knows, could they please tell me! I thought they were lights of some kind. I know they come from barns and they might have to do with feeding chickens or something...I have plans, just kidding, Brien has plans, to make these into some kind of pendant light for the farmhouse!

So this little jacket is neither vintage nor for my home, but it was calling to me! I know, I know, I already have one, but this one is thicker and way more cozy than my wal-mart version. I know that my husband keeps calling me a sheep, but I am in love and I don't care who knows it!

That's all for the Vintage Market finds, but good news, my sweet friend emailed me and said there is another one in March! Who knows what treasures we will find. Maybe I will break down and get some bigger things on my list, stay tuned!

Peanut Butter Bars

Do you love Reese's cups/anything with chocolate and peanut butter? Well then, this is the recipe for you!

I was going through and cleaning out some of my pinterest boards, they were out of control and I couldn't find anything, when I stumbled across this yummy recipe for "Buck Eye Bars". I am not an Ohioan or whatever they call people from the Buck Eye state, but I can get down with a good old dessert.

I forgot to take pictures as I went, but my food photographer captured the afters and they are as good as they look!

You need: 

For the peanut butter filling:

2  cups of powdered sugar

1 cup of creamy peanut butter

1/2 or 1 stick of melted butter

1/2 cup of brown sugar

For the chocolate topping:

1 bag of milk chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsps melted butter

First, grease up a 9x13 pan with cooking spray or butter, we went with butter. In retrospect, I think I would use a cookie sheet so that peanut butter to chocolate ratio was closer, but...live and learn.

Next mix up the ingredients for the filling. Mix the peanut butter, butter and brown sugar first, then add in the powdered sugar gradually. I just used my good old hand mixer, but I think the Kitchen Aid would have been better.

The filling is pretty dense and doughy, but they should easily roll into balls and not fall apart, thus, adding in the powdered sugar a little at a time until you get the right consistency.

Next press the mixture into your greased up pan. 

Then melt the chocolate for the topping. I just dumped everything in a bowl and went with the microwave at 30 second increments, until it was smooth and creamy. Then pour over the peanut butter. After a quick trip the fridge to harden up, we dusted it with powdered sugar to pretty things up! We ate them at room temp, I don't enjoy cold chocolate, but it's what you prefer!

They came out so yummy and pretty. I can't wait to try them again with some adjustments. They are SO much easier than rolling up the dough and dipping them! Give it a try, they will not disappoint!

All the Cozy things...

Well we finally got our first "real" snow of the season and mama busted out the warm clothes! I am finally getting around to getting out all of the fun sweaters and coats and such that I got or bought for in December and I am super excited about it! You know how fun clothes get me...

I have been eyeing this little wrap sweater for YEARS, on Jane and on New Year's it was cold and I was shopping online and this somehow ended up in basket and voila! It is so cute and super duper cozy, but it left my leggings all fuzzy by the end of the day!

My sister in law got me this super cute flannel for Christmas and I have no idea how, but in this picture my bedroom door seemed to disappear and I have NO idea how it happened or what I did to make it happen! Nevertheless, it is super fun and cute and cozy to throw on any time!

My sweet mama got me this gorgeous coat for Christmas and it is everything I thought it would be and more! It is super warm, covers my heiney and it's cute on top of all that!

Y'all know how fleecy pull overs are all the rage this winter? I have seen them all over my favorite bloggers and insta-people, but I was not willing to pay for the pricey Nordstroms/Patagonia version. Then one day I was the Walmarts getting Kellen a new booster seat and I saw this awesomeness for $7. So far it has been worth every penny. Now if I could just get my husband to stop making "Baaa" sounds when I wear it... I get it mister I look like a sheep, but I am warm, so stop!

Statement sleeves have also been everywhere on everyone, so when I found this cute little top at Target for $10, I decided to give it a go. My precious daughter also got a similar one for Christmas from her aunt so she wanted to twin one day. Y'all I am not gonna lie, it is just not flattering on me! I don't know if it is because of the way it's cut or the way it falls but I had the hardest time pulling it off. Any and all suggestions are welcome...

Velvet flats! I scored these at Target right after Christmas for like $10! I have been waiting all fall for them to go on sale and alas, there they were, beckoning to me! They are so cute and comfy and the perfect color and texture for winter!

These little flats were not on sale at Target, but they are so stinking cute and I decided it had been awhile since I bought shoes, so what the heck! I do not regret my decision, they are fabulous.

These super adorable earring also magically found their way into my Jane.com cart. On a side note, I have gotten all of teammates, our assistant principal and counselor addicted to Jane. If you have not taken a peak, I would highly encourage it. It's like  party in my mailbox once a week!

That's all for the cozy and cute things for now! I promised to put myself on a shopping hiatus for the next few weeks, but when shopping calls, sometimes I answer! Happy Tuesday!

Land Barons

This is another one of the posts that I meant to put up ages ago and I am just getting around to doing it, because I am a slacker and life is busy! But I am sticking to my resolutions to simplify, turn off my school brain when I get home and spend more time relaxing with my family, so there's that...

Back during the summer Brien and I decided to pull the trigger on refinancing our home and using the equity to buy some land, an idea that we should have moved on years ago, but we just kept putting things off. I will never forget the first day back to school walking out of Hinkley High School on the phone with the bank, putting the Kibosh on everything and saying, "Let's just wait." But alas my amazing husband stepped in and took over and it was all settled within a few weeks!

With the financial stuff taken care of, we could start looking at property! Hurray! It's been our dream for years to move to the country, we even got so far a few years ago, as to call our real estate lady that found us our current house, to start searching for homes in the some of the small towns east of here. After years of being sent listings we came to the conclusion that, that our options were super limited.

It was either get a beautiful house on 1 acre, wah-wah, that's not country living if I am 40 miles away from Target but still sharing a fence with my neighbors, while looking into their kitchen...No thank you. OR live in a double wide on 40 acres, so that's real country, however, with my irrational fear of tornadoes, I did't want my house to have seams or get blowed away. So back to the drawing board.

One night we had an epiphany... Get land, get plans, build house on land, move there, live in country on acreage and have a house that could withstand a storm. Seems easy right?

Wrong. By the time we had our act together, there was NO land available to buy. It seems everyone is having this idea to move the country, therefore depleting the available properties. In a few months it went from 50 to like 4 plots of land. So we looked at ALL 4. It was slim pickin's let me tell you... 

One was land locked by 2 other properties and we would have to make a road and run electric poles to, yeah, there goes like 50k right there. The next one was across the road from a pot farm, with the sweet smell of marijuana wafting across the street. The next one had a little slice taken out of it with someone living in a trailer house on the corner of it. Weird huh? 

The last one we looked at, we hit the jackpot! Tucked away, marginally flat, only one visible neighbor and all of the soil samples, septic plans, well plans and electric plans were already done... HOW on earth did we get so lucky? We put in a random offer the next morning and by lunch time we were under contract, say what?! 

We closed a few weeks later and TA-DA! We are now officially land barons, well as much of baron as you can be with 43.5 acres. We are SO exciting, I am getting all the feelings just typing about it right now. While there are no trees (okay there is one that's about 4 feet tall), there are also no neighbors or their children screaming in the back yard or parking their RV in front of your house, I think we will make it work somehow...

It is perfection. Endless blue skies, the mountains on a clear day and the only sounds you can hear are from the cows on the hill and the neighbors' goats and horses. The kids love it, riding their bikes, hiking through the middle or on the trails that run the edges, playing in the dirt. I think they will do just fine being country kids. They already have a list of all the critters they want to have and I think that if they get their way we will end up with some kind of crazy farm! I can't wait to get started and to be living in our new favorite spot. Hopefully in the spring when the weather warms up we can get going with building and enjoying our little slice of heaven!

These are a Few of Our Favorite Things!

Have you ever attended a favorite things party? If you have not, I would highly encourage it! Last year this was all the rage with my teammates at school and girlfriends at church.

So here is how it has worked, you set a spending limit, ours was $10 and then choose your favorite thing to share with people who are attending the party. Thankfully these gatherings have been smaller, but once we had a larger group and just brought three things to share and then you write your name on three pieces of paper and then the gift giver draws names to share their favorite item.


Last Friday, before we headed back to school, my 2nd grade team and I had a favorite things party at my house. It was SO much fun and they had some amazing things to share!

Favorite things stress me out slightly, but it never ends up being a big deal. I always worry, "what if my favorite thing is dumb or no one likes it too?" and shopping for it can be stressful as well... I seriously traded my favorite thing out like 4 times before I finally decided on something! I shared pop sockets, they are pretty cool. I failed to take a picture though... But they keep you from dropping your phone, help take selfies and prop it up when your hands are tied. It went over pretty well!

Here was everyone else's favorite things!

Charmaine: She is our au natural girl, who loves all things skin care related!

This tiny little Vaseline with shea butter, packs a punch. I have been putting it on everything, not just my lips. "Oh Kellen you have a red bumpy rash on your leg? Put this on it."  I haven't used the olive oil scrub yet, but it smells amazing and I can't wait to try it!

Courtney: She is our kitchen guru. Last she brought those super cute nesting bowl that we all loved! 

                                                     

This year she brought tiny strainers for washing fruit. It is the prettiest color and as handy as a pocket on a shirt, so I don't have to dirty up my huge colander!  She also brought this cook warming/cooling plate that you put in the freezer if you are serving something cold, like cheese or something warm like an appetizer. She also threw in the little baby whisk from World Market because her kids use them to stir up their hot cocoa, genius right?

Lisa: She is our sweet one! She always has all the best treats in her class room and brings the yummy desserts to share!

We had some bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt cakes. They are seriously the BEST! Whenever we have a birthday or just a random day when we need something delicious! They come in a bunch of flavors. Mine is red velvet. It has big chunks of chocolate and the yummiest cream cheese frosting you ever did taste. She also brought some super yummy Euro candy that Callie keeps making me share, an EOS ball and toe warmers because we are always freezing! I have never used one of the EOS balls, but they are pretty brilliant. I can't stop putting it on! I am planning on using the toe warmers when we head to the mountains in February. So score all around!

So that was everyone's favorite and now I have a few new favorites! Gather up your girls, gather up your favorites and throw a bash, it is too fun to pass up!

Wine Night

I had been meaning to post a loonnngg time ago about the gloriousness that is wine night! It is maybe one of my favorite nights of the year, fun times with the ladies in our family, yummy food and wine, and raging rounds of board games! It is THE best!

This year was especially fun, as my lovely husband was everyone's uber driver home, so we were able to cut loose. Everyone brings a bottle or two of their favorite wine and something yummy to eat. We are not a super sophisticated group of wine drinkers and we usually end up with lots of moscato and champaign-y like wines!

This was the favorite of the night! Stella Rose! It was not our typical white sparkly wine, but a redish one, instead. Still sparkly though and super tasty!

The gang had a blast playing Obama llama, telastrations and our favorite--Taboo.

I love these ladies and I love the times we are able together and enjoy each other! Happy Wine Night!

Happy "no" Year

It's a new fresh year and I am so jazzzed! That's jazz with 3 z's, so you know that means fun! I love a New Year and all the freshness that comes with it! We rang in 2018 with a cozy night at home, with no make up, pajamas and a plate of shrimp, because when you have a cold and it's 9 degrees outside, you keep yourself and your germs at home. So, we introduced Callie to the world of Friends and watch the New Years episode with the "routine" and "Happy No Year".

Now that Christmas is put away, the whole house is decluttered, we are ready to start this thing! On Monday night in a sleepy haze we made our resolutions. Another favorite part of New Year, new things to focus on! Callie's resolution is to kick off her bath bomb business and thanks to her "investor" (thanks Aunt P) she is off to a solid start! 

I am hoping this year will be productive and I am resolving to say no more, to things that I don't want to do (like taking on extra responsibilities or going to things that I don't have time for) and yes to adventures and quiet time without technology and distractions, to be a better planner and be more balanced. Callie pointed out that we literally start the year by saying "Happy",  we need more happy in our lives! Brien and I had a long talk this weekend about how the things we love the most in life--IE: our kids and each other and things we love to do the most--IE: hang out with our families and do fun things, are somehow the things that we do the least and make the least time for, if that makes sense...So let's change that, this year!

 2017, peace out and bring it on 2018, we are ready for a fun and happy year!