August 1st, 2010 / 5 Comments » / by admin
Oh My… can it really be August already?
We have been busy here at The little brown house – and last week was particularly so.
By the way, something seems to be missing from the above picture.. now what could it be?
There it is! The little guy in the hat to the left!
These are my four grandchildren -
Matthias is currently my youngest grandchild and he turned 4 in July.
And for his birthday cake, he wanted a super hero. Not Spiderman or Batman,
not Ironman or The Incredible Hulk. Not even a Transformer..
His superman of choice is Moses.. he thinks Moses is the best thing since sliced bread.
(Is that even an expression anymore? There has always been sliced bread in my lifetime, and I’m old!)
So his parents had to plan a cake based on Moses – so the options ranged from
Charlton Heston to a floating Longaberger Basket.
(by the way, it cracks me up that my spell check would prefer I change that word to Longshoreman!)
They ended up going with the Ten Commandments – two tablets of stone.
Now what 4 year old could resist that!
Side note – my daughter bought some black food coloring jel and tinted the frosting gray.
By the time it got to my house is was green. We have no idea why!
Yes, we only had two candles…
But he had a good time blowing them out anyway!
And we all enjoyed our piece of the ten commandments..
Then it was time for opening presents! The best part!
Grandma got him some cool shades
And a monkey that laughs hysterically and rolls over.
His parents were so thankful for that gift..
And his Auntie got him a firetruck – now if he could only find a burning bush…
And speaking of Auntie -
Two days after the party our whole family got together again at my oldest daughters home
to help them load up the U-haul for their move to Tennessee… which is at least two oceans away from Idaho..
I know, I have mentioned this before. I will try and find it on a map so I can be more realistic next time.
If I can find a map that big…
Here is my daughters handsome husband and adorable kids, with grand-baby number 6 soon to make an appearance.
My son-in-law got an amazing position at a church, and I know he will do a great job there.
But for some reason he decided he wanted his family to go with him..
I kid!! I jest!
But, I did not load one item into the U-haul.
That’s my handsome plumber husband in the white t-shirt. At least he was helpful!
I had to say good-bye to two of my precious grandchildren – and this horse…
But you had better believe I am flying in to Nashville the first week of October to see the
arrival of their new baby boy!
And before that – we have a new baby girl arriving here in 4 weeks!
Because my younger daughter, who lives here with her husband and
two children, is expecting too!
Melissa and her family left last Sunday – and arrived last Thursday.
(I told you it was a long way away!)
They received an amazing welcome from the people there.
I am going to miss them so much! But I do believe they will make great friends and memories there -
And I am so thankful for things like Skipe – so that I can be sure those kids remember their grandma!
Posted in: Just Life, Storytime, Uncategorized
Tags: life, Storytime
July 29th, 2010 / 33 Comments » / by admin
When pigs fly – meaning, it will never happen.
This post, as is true of most of my life, comes with a story.
(steps up to podium and taps mic)
Hello?
My name is Sharyl Little Brown House, and I am an Ex-Longaberger Consultant..
People used to consult with me about their basket needs.
For those of you who are new to this strange word, Longaberger is a company
that makes hand made hardwood maple baskets, in around 5,000 different
shapes, sizes, and forms. And they are a little pricey…
I sold them for 10 years, which means I have over 200 of them in my home.
Because Longaberger is like a drug, and I was a pusher.
I went to Ohio 3 times for the national convention.
5,000 women fighting each other like animals to buy anything and
everything with baskets on it.
Earings, purses, shirts, vests, towels, dishes…..
And large basket plant holders…
Yes, that is me – in Ohio – in a basket – about 10 years ago.
And yes, my legs are still that white..
All of that intro to say – as a LB Consultant, I was aghast if anyone so much as
mentioned to thought of painting one of those baskets. It was like the cardinal
sin of Basketdom.. Pigs would fly before any of us painted a basket.
Well – those pigs flew today my friends… they flew today…..
This is the Longaberger Medium Vegetable Basket -
And this is another one of my addictions – Heirloom White spray paint.
I put the two together and dreams came true…
I sprayed several light coats like a good girl.
It is so hard for me to be patient with paint!
But when you are spraying it onto a $60 plus dollar basket, you want to take your time.
I will pause as those of you not familiar with Longaberger get back up on your chairs..
I wanted to use the basket in my 9 month bathroom remodel that isn’t done yet..
(Ok, it hasn’t taken that long… and at least I am not bitter.)
So I wanted it to be kind of shabby chic/beachy looking.
Here it is finished, and carefully photographed so as not to reveal the
‘oh so close to being finished’ bathroom.
Disclaimer:
I know the white candle looks weird. I want to find a brown or tan one, but that was the
only candle in my house that would fit. And of course, I have no patience and needed to
finish this post Now!!!
Here is another way I may use this basket -
Tell me which way you like best!
Thank you so much for listening to me prattle on and on,
and looking at my pictures! I love you guys more than chocolate -
and that’s the truth.. mostly…
Posted in: Frugal Friday, Home Decor, Uncategorized
Tags: craft, Decor, diy, easy, Frugal Friday, furnishing, furniture redo, Home Decor, redo
July 26th, 2010 / 12 Comments » / by admin
Yep, once again I am sharing a recipe that is not really light on calories..
Remember back when I said I would be sharing more Weight Watchers recipes
because I was going to be trying to eat healthier?
WW Friendly Minestrone
Umm, well that wasn’t me. Yep, that’s right, it was my evil twin…
No, even better, it was actually a dream you had.. in fact you may still be dreaming..
Yes, I just got back from seeing the movie Inception.. which is an amazing movie!!
And no, I did not consume a bucket of Junior Mints, and I resent the implication.
Now stop distracting me so I can get back to the recipe.. geez…
This - is not a Muddy Buddy.. This is my beautiful granddaughter
Kelsi Lou Who.
No, that is not her real middle name – but we have all called her that from birth.
Anyway, it has come to her parents attention that she may have an allergy to gluten.
So they have taken all gluten out of her diet to see if it makes a difference.
She is understandably not thrilled with this, as it means she doesn’t get to eat
some of the fun things everyone else is eating.
Last week when the family was coming over for a BBQ I decided to make
something special for her that was gluten free – I found these Muddy Buddy’s at
Pioneer Womans’s recipe site, the Tasty Kitchen, and decided to try them.
Here are the ingredients – be sure you get gluten free cereal.
Start by putting 9 cups of Rice Chex into a large mixing bowl
Then, put 1 cup chocolate chips in a microwave safe mixing bowl.
Add to chips
1/2 cups peanut butter ( I used chunky)
and 1/4 cups butter
Microwave on high 1 minute, then take out and stir.
Put back in microwave for another 30 seconds, then mix well and add 2 Tbls. vanilla
Now comes the fun part -
Pour the chocolate mixture into the cereal
Then begin stirring it together.
Then just throw caution to the wind and dive right in with your hands to mix it thoroughly!!
I would definitely wash them first though..but that’s just me…
Now you need some gallon size zip lock bags.
Put about 1/2 of the mixture into one of the bags.
Add 3/4 cups powdered sugar to the bag, and shake to coat the cereal.
Repeat this until all the cereal is coated, I used a new bag for each batch.
Then spread it all out onto waxed paper to dry.
Oh yeah – it looks yummy huh! Well, it is! I put another piece of wax
paper over the top and left it out all night. It was all dry by morning.
I set out a little crock filled with Muddy Buddy’s to have that evening for the BBQ -
for some reason I had to keep re-filling it…
They went over well with everyone – all of the kids loved them and didn’t even
know they were missing gluten.. of course they don’t even know what that is anyway!
The important thing is K-Lou loved it -
In fact, it almost seemed in some strange way to bring her peace……
Well, that’s my story..And the recipe
Thanks for coming by, and for being my Blogging Buddy’s!
You know Pioneer Woman loves her readers more than her luggage..
I will go a step further for you -
I love you more than my chocolate……
Now that, dear buddy’s, is true love..
Muddy Buddy’s
Ingredients
- 9 cups Corn Rice Wheat Chex Cereal
- 1 cup Chocolate Chips
- ½ cups Peanut Butter
- ¼ cups Butter
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
Preparation Instructions
Place cereal in a large bowl and set aside. In a medium microwavable bowl, add chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter. Microwave on high for 1 minute and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds longer and stir mixture until smooth. Stir in vanilla.
Pour sauce over cereal and stir until evenly coated. Spoon half of the mixture in each 1-gallon re-sealable Ziploc bag. Add 3/4 cup powdered sugar to each bag, and seal. Shake the bag until everything is coated. Spread on waxed/parchment paper to cool. Store in airtight containers in refrigerator
Posted in: Chocolate, Tasty Tuesday, Uncategorized, recipe
Tags: Chocolate, cooking, dessert, easy, food, kids, recipe, Tasty Tuesday
July 22nd, 2010 / 11 Comments » / by admin
Hi! Welcome to The little brown house!
This week I want to show you a couple of things I did to update
our back patio. It started when I got the Pottery Barn catalog, and
realized I would have to get a 2nd (3rd) mortgage to get everything I wanted!
I saw these copper chargers, and really wished I had something like them.
I have a dozen gold chargers that I got at an after Christmas sale one year for $1 apiece.
I decided to take some ORB (oil rubbed bronze) to a couple of them.
Yeah that’s pretty gold huh!
Anyway – I sprayed it and set it out to dry while I sprayed another one -
Then all of a sudden the can of paint went postal on me.
Nice nails don’t you think? – It just spit paint all over the charger, big globs of it.
And obviously also all over my hand!
Now – Quick Topic Change-
A week ago my daughter called and told me she had seen some outdoor chairs
at the thrift store by my office. They were out in the back of the store and had just
been donated. She thought I might like them. She was right….
There were 4 of them – and I really liked the color.
I got them for $4 apiece.
I already had patio furniture that was brown, so I decided I needed to see if I could
find something that would tie the blue and brown together.
I went looking for outdoor chair pads, and there was no summer stuff
left in our town! There was, however, an abundant stock of school supplies..
which was not helpful.. but I was able to find
some pillow shams in the home section that did the trick!
I decided to put them over some old chair pads I had -
What do you think?
Now back to the charger redo!
Gotta love that ORB – when it works right anyway! With the sun shining right
on it, it even looks a little coppery!
I really like it! And yes, there is still gold around the edge – I kind of liked that too!
I bought some more ORB but haven’t had time to do more chargers
So here is my photo shoot of the patio with just one place setting out there-
But it would be a nice soothing lunch spot for one, and sometimes that is just what I need!
That is my favorite water bottle in the shot – I just thought it matched so well I should include it!
And this is the charger that the ORB went crazy on -
And sitting on it is one of my Blue Bottle Jar expeirments
You can check that out here:
Blue Bottle Jar
We are still adding more of the gray bricks to the patio to expand it. Well, I should
say my husband, not we.. although I can always be counted on to sit back with
my ice tea and watch him use his muscles!! I am really helpful like that!
So with some paint and fabric and a couple of thrift store items,
I freshened up a whole area for hardly any money. Oh, and the woven placemats
are from the dollar store!
Hope you liked it – And thanks so much for stopping by!
Come back on Tuesday when I will do a gluten-free sweet treat recipe, I promise loads more exclamation points!!
Posted in: Frugal Friday, Home Decor, Uncategorized
Tags: Decor, diy, easy, Frugal, Frugal Friday, furnishing, furniture redo, home, Home Decor, redo, Thrifty
July 20th, 2010 / 9 Comments » / by admin
I thought I would do a post where I ask you some questions. And you answer them..
Sounds like fun huh? Actually, some of the questions may be rhetorical,
but feel free to answer anyway!
There is no link between the above picture and any of my questions,
but isn’t it pretty?
Question # 1
What is my dog thinking when he see’s me come out of the shower?
What if he tells the other dogs in the neighborhood how much I weigh?
What if we get to heaven and find out what all the animals have been saying about us?
Question # 2
Where did all those lines come from?
Does anyone else remember being told not to make a silly face because it
would freeze that way? Why did I not believe that when there was still time!!
Question # 3
Will we ever finish our bathroom remodel?
Will we ever “finish” fixing up this “fixer upper” we have lived in for 20 years now?
Does anyone ever really feel “done” with their home????
Question # B
Will big hair ever come back into style?
Because it is the one thing that I was really good at..
I mean I totally excelled at big hair – totally…
Totally – like – gag me with a spoon..
Question # 5
Do I see a possible future where I could do this without Depends?
Please consider this a rhetorical question…
Question # 6
What if I am wearing Mom jeans and everyone is afraid to tell me..
Worst. Nightmare..Ever..
Question #7
When do we lose the belief that we can indeed be Super Woman?
Question # 8
Will my craft room every be organized or is that an oxymoron?
Question # 9
What would make a good can of Oil Rubbed Bronze turn on someone?
Question # 10
Why does chocolate make everything better?
And last but not least -
Question # 11
What is that spot on my picture?
No really, what is that?
Holy cow – it is on the inside of the glass!
And it is dead. How the heck did it get in there???
I can only assume that the ugly bug was reaching beyond his realm
to try and hit it off with the wooden dragonfly..
Who was way out of his league…..
He died trying to reach the object of his greatest desire..
Either that or he was just to embarrassed to stop and ask directions……..
Posted in: Just Life, Just for fun, Storytime, Uncategorized
Tags: humor, Just for fun, life, Storytime
