My Instagrammed Life

Good morning!

Hope all has been well! I wanted to share a few things that have been going on lately. Although, I did not capture everything on Instagram. About three weeks ago I caught the flu followed by a serious case of bronchitis which is just now starting to fade. For those of you who got the flu, I feel your pain. For those of you that haven't, pray that you don't get it. I was in bed for a week with at least 100F fever with chills, aches, etc. It was miserable to say the least. Most of my team members at work got it and we were slowly passing it around to each other. It is only in these past few days I am finally starting feel like a normal human being again.With that said, I decided not to capture my lovely flu moments and share them on Instagram. I thought you might only want to see the good moments.

1. Almost every night we have dinner Ellie sits up and begs. She gives us the most pitiful looks. I can't help but give her just a few little bites...

2. My dear sweet husband took me to see Swan Lake when the Russian Ballet was in town. This was the theater. It was gorgeous.

3. We recently celebrated our two year wedding anniversary. We were married on February 10.

4. This Thursday we got a 12 inches of snow. I stepped outside and took this photo after a few hours of the snow falling.

5. My parents gave me a Roomba (whom I named Ruby) for Christmas to help me keep up with the dust bunnies that develop only after a few days of me sweeping. Ruby often will clean Charles and he doesn't like it very much. Although, he makes no attempt to move out of Ruby's way.

6. This is part of a project I am working on. Hint: It involves a stairwell and pictures.

7.  For our anniversary I bought live Maine lobsters. My husband kept trying to guess what was in the box when it came in the mail. He guessed that it was some of his favorite beer. He was pleasantly surprised and had lots of fun with the lobsters. I have some funny photos to share from that night. Also, I will show you soon what he got me but it is not yet complete. It is awesome.

8. Poor little Ellie can barely get around in this snow. She HATES it. She does her business and then sprints back to the house so she can go in and get warm. Yesterday her little paws got so cold that she was trying to do what looked like a handstand and walk with her front feet. It was so pitiful. I am considering buying her snow booties. It doesn't normally snow this much so I am not sure if it is worth it.

9. This was just too cute not to take a photo

That's all folks. As you can tell I mostly spend time taking photos of the dogs doing cute/funny things. It's what I do when I am sick and it is too cold to go anywhere.

If you want to follow me on Instagram, search for mbcooper17. I have to approve it so give me a day to accept.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Seasoned Crackers

Hi!

Hope you are having a great day! I wanted to share a quick, easy and delicious snack recipe with you. My dear friend at work brought in some crackers one day and kindly shared a few with me (Thanks Jen!). They were so good that I asked for the recipe and whipped them up just a few days ago. Enjoy!

Sidenote: Jen just found out she is having a baby boy!!! Congrats!

Seasoned Crackers (Double Batch Recipe) For the Single Recipe simply half all of the ingredients

Ingredients
2 (1 oz) packages of Ranch Dressing mix
1 tsp dried dillweed
1/2 tsp lemonpepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup canola oil (vegetable oil works too)
10 cups (2 10 oz. bags) of oyster crackers

Directions
Preheat oven to 250F
Combine all dry spices with oil. Add crackers and toss well to completely coat the crackers. Spread evenly onto a couple of large cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, stir gently and bake an additional 5-10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving or storing.

Notes: If you would like the crackers to be less "dry" you can increase the amount of oil to 3/4 cup. Also, the recommended brand of ranch mix is Hidden Valley. This one has the best flavor.

Have a wonderful day!

Sunroom

Good morning!

My husband and I have been busy trying to find furniture to fill our house. We want to have the basics in each room. The accessories are going to have to wait. So, no rugs, fun little trinkets or accent furniture pieces right now. Luckily, we have been able to add furniture to each room to make them comfortable and functional.

Today, I am going to share our sunroom with you. This room is MY room. I share with my husband and guests of course but this is my reading/lounging room. It is so cozy at night and light and bright in the mornings. This is the only room where I will be able to have my pretty white furniture. Between my husband, the dogs and .... me the white furniture just isn’t practical for our everyday life. Plus, when kiddos are in the picture it would be even more difficult to keep white furniture looking clean. I know there are slipcover pieces out there that I could use in other rooms but I would be ripping that cover off and cleaning it constantly. I just don’t want to do that because it would drive me crazy.

Where was I? Oh yeah, my special room J My husband and I had been thinking about the best setup for the room. What furniture would be best? Chair, couch, coffee table? It is hard because this room is so little. We also wanted to provide as much seating space as possible in order to create a spot for intimate area where guests can chat.  We measured and taped out options on the floor. We decided a sofa a small chair would work well. No coffee table but rather a side table. After that decision had been made we hit the furniture stores and found a floor model about 50% off. It had a few little smudges but nothing professional cleaners couldn’t get off (followed by a good dose of scotch guard). So, we took the plunge and bought the sofa and chair. Aren’t they pretty?

So...because this room has such pretty white couches we decided to add a little something to keep the pups out. I came home one day to find muddy paw prints all over the chair and sofa. As you can probably guess I was kinda annoyed. To remedy this problem my husband ordered a baby gate. Eventually we want to get a glass paneled door to go there but since we would have to have the the door custom made (since all of our walls and doorways are crooked) we went with the cheaper option. It isn't the worst looking thing ever and we decided we would need it someday in the future anyway.

To fill in the rest of the of the room we took an old brass lamp and sprayed it a light gold to tone down the color and put on a drum shade. I am thinking this shade could use a face lift and a splash of color. This is on the list of future projects.

We had a little side table we inherited from family. It was the perfect size and is made of bamboo so it works in the sunroom. The color was a peachy white-washed  color though. So, we decided to add a pop of color and painted it green. I think it works perfectly and compliments the room.

 I love snuggling up in a blanket when I am reading, even in the summer, and I needed a place to hold all of our throws.  So, I checked out my little stack of gift cards left over from our wedding and hit up a few stores. While browsing around Pottery Barn I found the perfect Big Basket to hold the blankets. The price was also mismarked to a lower price and after talking with the manager we were able to get it at the discounted price. Awesome! With the gift card and the lower price we only had to pay $20 out-of-pocket. Not too shabby if you ask me. When we were walking back to our car with the basket, my husband kept having people make comments to him about the basket. “Is there a snake in there?”, “That’s a big basket, did your wife pick that one out?” “What is that for?”. It was pretty funny.

My husband had the idea of putting my drafting table in here for drawing, painting, crafts, etc. I plan on painting the legs sometime soon. I am debating on what color I want to do though. Gray, blue, green to match the table??

I absolutely love this room!

There are a few "odd" areas of this room though.

Like this random space. I am not sure what I am going to do with it. Shelves? Pictures? Who knows.

Another issue is this wall. This is what you look at when you sit down on the sofa. Not a nice view. Like I mentioned earlier this was the best configuration for the room. We did try having the sofa pushed up against this wall but it hung over into that nook on right side of this photo where the drafting table is located. Also, we got a lovely view of the neighbor's garage and driveway which gave us no privacy. I would prefer not to read my book and wave at our neighbors every time they pulled into their driveway. I have a few ideas in mind of what I might do here. I am thinking art, maybe a tapestry,etc. Only time will tell.

That is it for now.

Before

After

It is a work in progress but I am so pleased with the furniture in here.


Have a wonderful day!

Formal Room Sofa and Announcement

Good morning!


I hope you are having a wonderful week. I have some fun stuff to share with you. During my blogging hiatus my husband and I were busy buying furniture to fill the house. Today I am going to share one of our consignment store finds.

Since we live in an older home with a formal sitting room I wanted to stay true to it's intended purpose. The room already has a baby grand and a wingback chair we inherited from my husband's parents. My husband and I really wanted an old formal sofa with a low profile. We tried searching on Craigslist and couldn't find one that we wanted. So, we hit up our favorite consignment store and saw a really unique hand carved sofa.

Isn't it lovely??

Pardon the photos, they were taken with my phone.

As you can probably guess, we weren't too fond of the floral, fruity fabric. I call it "flower basket". The store offered reupholstering and after getting a quote and seeing other pieces they reupholstered we took the plunge. We found some fabric we thought would look good on the sofa and waited patiently for the end result.

  

Here she is in all her purple glory. Now we need accessories (rug, table, lamp, etc.) to really tie this sofa in with the room. Previously the sofa did not have the diamond tufting and we had that added. One of the things I love about this piece is the hand carved details. One other bonus is that it is actually pretty comfy to sit on. I sit in here and read with the fireplace going on chilly evenings. 

Here is what it looks like in the room. I have taken the Christmas decorations down since this photo and the wingback chair has moved into the spot where the Christmas tree is below.

Now, time for the big announcement.

Ready for this?

Ellie has a new brother! His name Charles after Jamaal Charles, the Kansas City Chiefs running back... I am sure you can conclude that my husband picked the name. He was our Christmas present to each other this year. We found this 1 year old chocolate lab at the local SPCA. He was half off the price because the SPCA was having a grand opening of their new facility. I would like to add that we did not get him just because he was half off. We got him because he is a sweetheart and Ellie gets along with him really well. He still has some weight to gain since his ribs are showing even though you can't tell in this photo and he needs training. It is certainly going to be an adventure with this one since lab puppies are notorious for getting into trouble.. I will keep you posted on his progress.

Have a wonderful day!

Mallow Action!

Hello! Hope you had a nice weekend! Mine was good but super cold. Actually, it IS super cold. I am writing this on Sunday, so in "real time" the temperature is 13F but feels like 2F, according to my handy dandy weather app. With that said, I have been staying inside to keep warm. What is the best way to stay warm and cozy on a cold winters day? Homemade hot chocolate and marshmallows!

I recently received an email from a friend with a marshmallow recipe she found over at Smitten Kitchen (Thanks Tiner!) She kept raving about how wonderful the mallows were and how she has been forever spoiled. So, I got the ingredients and got down to business.

I have to admit, my friend is right. I will never be able to have store bought marshmallows again without wishing I had these instead. Homemade all the way!

Enjoy!


Marshmallows

Ingredients1 cup confectioners' sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water (about 115°F.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners' sugar.

In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, hot water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F., about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about 6 minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. In a large bowl with cleaned beaters beat whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and sift 1/4 cup confectioners― sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up 1 corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and let drop onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly 1-inch cubes. Sift remaining confectioners' sugar into a large bowl and add marshmallows in batches, tossing to evenly coat. Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.

Hot Chocolate

(Single serving)

Ingredients

1 Cup Milk

3 TB Sugar

2 TB Unsweetened Cocoa

dash of salt

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract (or any other extract flavor you want!)

Directions

In a small saucepan combine milk and sugar and cook over medium heat. Try to not let the milk boil. You don't want to deal with that scalded milk film.When sugar is melted add the cocoa, salt and vanilla. Stir until the cocoa has dissolved. At this point you might want to do a taste test and see how you like the flavor. I sometimes add a bit more cocoa to make mine have a stronger flavor. You might want it sweeter so just add a little bit more sugar.