I want to hide...

by climbing back in bed and hoping all of the work I need to get done will just evaporate. I don't want to go to the dentist tomorrow, either!

Paint, Paint, Paint

Everywhere!

I am absolutely up to my elbows in paint these days. One thing holding up my progress is drying right now. This is the train/activity table I picked up this past week at the thrift store. The original finish was in bad shape and I didn't care for the blond color of the wood. The table itself was good and sturdy and just about the perfect height.

My youngest son begged to be allowed to choose the paint color. I figured he'd choose a dark grapey purple, which is his favorite color at the moment. I suggested several colors, like grass green, admiral blue and even red. He had no taste for any of those colors. His choice was ultimately black. He said "so it will match with our other furniture, right, mom?" Sure! Why not?

This is what we've been up to...

I know it's been several days since my last post but I wanted to be sure I had something to show for my offline efforts. I've been busy with the small bedroom. Actually, busy doesn't even begin to cover the ordeal this room turned out to be. All I wanted to do was paint over the crayon marks on the wall. Simple, right? Um, No. Not so much.

First off, we had issues with the paint color not matching from one can to the other. Now, these cans were mixed at the same time and were not a color matching job. Nope, this was a color chosen straight off of a paint chip. At any rate, I ended up going to a different store and choosing a completely different color, which does match from one can to the other. I got everything covered in primer so it didn't bleed through. That worked fine, which was a relief! Then, I painted the room while the kids were otherwise occupied. That actually worked, too! It took me an hour with a roller to get all the way around the room. My husband came home that night and sprayed the ceiling for me with the power sprayer. That worked out better than I could have imagined! Finally, the major part of the painting was done. Whew. I've still got the trim to do but my hubby has volunteered to that job for me. Yay! I took a pic so you can kind of see what it looks like at the moment. I still have a couple of projects in the works to finish before I'll have a cool playroom for the boys.

In the pic of the room you can see that I still haven't gotten the switch plates and outlet covers put back. I'll get to it, really, I will.

Chilly day comfort: Aromatic Spiced Milk And Slow Cooker Apple Oatmeal

Are you freezing?? Need some comforting? Have a cold and sore throat, like me??

I have 2 suggestions for you all to try. The first is aromatic spiced milk which is good for adding to oatmeal or hot coco. I'm even toying with the idea of making this into a creamy homemade ice cream.

You will need:

Whole cloves

Cinnamon sticks

Star anise

Heck, if you want to toss in some vanilla from the bean, that's good too! Just add to a sauce pan with milk and heat on low until the milk simmers. Remove it from the heat and allow to steep up to 30 minutes or until the desired spice is achieved. Less spice? Just don't steep as long. Easy peasy.

My plan is to use this in conjunction with a recipe from the Fix It And Forget It Big Cookbook. Phyllis Pellman Good has a couple of recipes in here that incorporate walnuts, brown sugar and/or apples with oatmeal cooked overnight in the crock pot or slow cooker. Cinnamon apple oatmeal with aromatic milk sounds cozy to me!

Below is the recipe I plan to try. This is from the cookbook I referenced above. My suggestions are in ( ). BTW, I've not yet tried this recipe so I'm trusting that the author got it right.



Slow Cooker Oatmeal by Phyllis Pellman Good


2 cups dry rolled oats ( or steel cut oats maybe?)

4 cups of water

1 large apple, peeled and chopped

1 cup raisins ( I would imagine these are optional, I'd use blueberries, myself)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1-2 TBS. orange zest


1.) Combine all ingredients in your slow cooker.

2.) Cover and cook on low 8-9 hours.

3.)Serve topped with brown sugar, if you wish, and milk.

Project Delay...

I've put my plans on hold for a few days. I am under the weather and need to recuperate. I also need to make up my mind about what color to go with for the bedroom. I'm leaning toward Indian Moccasin. I think it's going to be a nice warm color once I get it tossed up on the walls. The other paint color I was considering was Nutmeg Brown, but I think it's too drastic a departure from what I have right now. I think it would be just too dark all the way around.

I did manage to make some egg salad today. The eggs in the bowl just looked so pretty I had to snap a few pics.