Chocolate Decadence Bars

Please, come and indulge yourself in a little decadence...

These bars include every classic staple for delicious baked items (at least according to me!): chocolate, peanut butter and oreos!

I have spent the last hour looking for the recipe I used for these.... I can't find it. Smart of me not to save it, right?

I can at least explain to you how to make them....

1) Use your favorite brownie recipe and half way through the cooking time, press oreos down into the batter.

2) In the last 5 minutes of cooking time, take the brownies out of the oven and top with chocolate chips and crumbled up nutter butters. Bake for the remaining time.

3) Mix chocolate chips (about 1 cup) and peanut butter (3/4-1 cup) in a microwave safe bowl until smooth. You can add a little butter or oil (not OVOO) if you think the mixture isn't  thin enough.

4) Pour the mixture over the baked brownies. Cool until ready to serve.

TA DA. Perfection! And ohhhhh so delish!

Living Room Makeover- In Progress

It's a lovely fall (almost) Saturday night and I'm blogging while enjoying the aromas of my new Caramel Ginger Strudel candle from Gold Canyon. Anyone that loves candles-----> you HAVE to try these. They make the house smell delish in no time!

Now, on to my post... 

                                                                                  #1

This is our living room before. I was not a fan. We basically just took everything from our living room in the apartment and made it work in our living room, for the time being. 

                             #2                                                                                 #3

However, NOW I get to do the living room the way I want. YAY! My husband came up with the great idea of making this more of a "den" and entertaining space than a living room. Right now we have the basement set up with a nice big TV and comfy couch. All of the entertainment is in the basement so that's where we spend most of our time- thus the basement equals our living room.

It has been a month long project so far and all we've done is get rid of most of the furniture (we're keeping the couch). As you can see the theme previously was deep, warm colors. This was the theme of our apartment. The theme of our house has taken on a much more sleek, clean look. Not quite modern, but has cooler tones (like the walls in the pictures above).

We were able to get an awesome piece for under the TV- which will now be hanging on the wall in the first pictures (where our wedding picture is hanging in picture #2). You'll learn all about that in another post :)

I think my biggest challenge for this space is going to be wall coverings. The couch is now along the wall where the ottoman is (in picture #1). The space is taken care of. I used the picture rail from above the TV in the picture above and plan on filling the space with framed pictures and other random pieces. Kind of like in the picture below.

unstitchedblog.com

I love the picture of framed photos with the different frames, the plaques with numbers and words and the letter. I'll probably add some little mirrors to my wall for a little reflection of light. The problem is the the other three large wall spaces I need to fill. Any ideas are welcome!!

We still have a couple of chairs to buy as well as table lamps, and a laptop table. Then comes the really fun part- decorating!

That's all for now, I'll keep posting pictures as the project progresses!

Fall Inspiration

inspirationfordecoration.blogspot.com

polyvore.com

lifeisasunset.blogspot.com

mycottageofbliss.blogspot.com

everythingetsy.com

polyvore.com

parents.com

cjaneblog.blogspot.com

bhg.com

Caramel Cashew Cookies

 I made these lovey little nutty cookies with my husband in mind. He likes chocolate, but prefers his dessert not quite as decadent. These cookies are absolutely delicious- they were the perfect find to please his taste buds! They're a little bit sweet and a little bit salty. I'm not going to lie, they're not quick or easy to make. But they're well worth it. They don't take hours, but they're not as quick as throwing chocolate chips in dough and throwing them in the oven! On the bright side, I learned how to make cashew butter which is delish!

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups roasted salted cashews
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 24 cubes soft caramel candy (7 ounces)
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour and salt together. Coarsely chop 1 cup cashews; set aside. Process remaining 1 1/2 cups cashews in a food processor until finely chopped. Pour in oil. Process until mixture is creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Put cashew mixture, butter, and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; gradually add flour mixture. Mix in reserved chopped cashews.
3. Shape dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; space 2 inches apart on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 6 minutes; gently flatten with a spatula. Bake until bottoms are just golden, 6 to 7 minutes more. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
4. Melt caramels with cream in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring. Let cool. Using a spoon, drizzle caramel over cookies; let set. Store airtight in single layers.
   SOURCE: marthastewart.com
   
   
   
   
   

 I do adore Martha... she can't go wrong with anything!

A Little Cubicle Inspiration

That little space you see above is where I spend four days of my week. They did some rearranging at work. I used to have two walls and the rest of my space was wide open and was located next to the nice large windows you see in picture. Now, I have a cozy closed in space, still in the same spot, and with my nice large windows. However, I was tired of looking at drab, office cubicle walls. If I was going to be closed in, I needed some color!

So, I decided to do what I do best. Use my favorite fabrics in an unconventional way! I decided to use some fabric I had laying around to brighten up my space.

As you can see from the picture below I added fabric to the bulletin board to the left of my workspace. This was really simple. This actually is a detachable board so it makes hiding the pins super easy. I just wrapped the board in fabric and used dress pins to secure the fabric on the back of the board. I suggest pinning once on all four sides of the board  (in the middle) and then working your way out, pulling securely before placing each pin. Then just attach the board back to the rails and TA DA... wonderful color and pattern!

The board to the right of my workspace was a little more tricky, but not too hard at all. I simply made the fabric fit to the same dimensions as the wall that was there. I folded the fabric over to make a nice clean edge and then simply pinned along the hem line. You can see the pins, but luckily I have cute metallic pastel pins so it actually gives it some nice detail! I added a ribbon on the bottom because I had to add another piece of fabric (the same that I used on the other bulletin board) since the piece I was using for this side wasn't quite long enough for the space.

There you have it. A simple (and easily removable) cubicle decoration. Hopefully this inspires you to brighten up your workplace!

Have a great weekend!

Cottage Love

adiaryoflovely.blogspot.com

lakejane.com

thedrifterandthegypsy.blogspot.com

countryliving.com

decorology.blogspot.com

bhg.com

janecoslick.com

lilisinhamachado.blogspot.com

I came across these little muffins when I made an impulse buy at Homegoods. I bought a little cookbook called, Perfect Muffins & Bakes: a collection of over 100 essential recipes.

The first recipe I tried was for doughnut muffins. These are a great little gift for the man in your life. They're also good for anyone that likes cake doughnuts. These muffins taste almost exactly like them! They are delicious. very moist and the flavor is great.

Doughnut Muffins 

1/4 c. + 1/2 Tbsp butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 c. flour

2 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 c. milk

Topping:

1/4 c. sugar/cinnamon (mix ratio to your taste)

melted butter

1. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the eggs, a little at a time, beating well between additions.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg together. (I usually don't sift dry ingredients together, I just mix them around to disperse everything evenly). Add half to the creamed mixture with half of the milk. Gently fold the ingredients together before incorporating the remaining flour and milk. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan, filling each cup to about 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees, for 15-20 minutes, or until the muffins are lightly brown and firm to the touch.

3. For the topping, mix the sugar and cinnamon together. While the muffins are still warm from the oven, brush lightly with melted butter, and sprinkle over the cinnamon and sugar mixture. 

P.S. These are amazing with a tall glass of cold milk for breakfast!! ;)

How-To- The Lazy Girl's Way to Cover Lampshades

For those of you who know me, you may know I tend to be quite impatient at times. I wanted a quick way to recover some lampshades I had for our lamps in the basement. Here is a how to on how to cover lampshades- the lazy girls way...

1) Buy lampshade and desired material.

2) Measure your lampshade and cut the appropriate size fabric. Make sure to allow enough extra for the hem. I allowed 1" for my hems. So, I cut my piece of fabric to 12".

3) Measure and iron your hem down. Again, I used 1" hems.

4) Break out your hot glue gun and start gluing the fabric along the inside rim of the lampshade, making sure you pull your fabric taught. Because my lampshades are a bit smaller at the top, I had to fold my fabric when stretching it along the shade. It actually ended up adding a nice pleat detail

5) Ta Da!  A quick and easy lampshade cover!!

Some tips and tricks:

To get around the wire on the top of the shade I simply cut a slit in the fabric and glued it around the wire.

Some of the pleats I decided to glue down so the look of the shade was more sleek.

Hope I've inspired some of you to recover your boring white lampshades!! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!