Butterscotch Breakfast Ring

A friend gave me this recipe several years ago. It has been a while since I have made it, so I decided it was time to try it again.

Ingredients:

20 Rhodes frozen Dinner Roll dough balls

1/2 package Cook 'n Serve Butterscotch Pudding mix (about 4 TBS)

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

raisins (optional)

Directions: **put together night before**

prep-time: 15 mins      Serves: 6-8

Place the frozen dinner rolls in an ungreased bundt pan

Sprinkle pudding mix and cinnamon over rolls

Add raisins and nuts over rolls

Combine melted butter and brown sugar

Pour brown sugar and butter mixture over the rolls.

Cover pan with a towel

Let rise for about 8 hours or overnight

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Cover with aluminum foil lightly

Bake for 25 mins

Remove foil and bake for another 10 mins or until top is golden brown

Turn pan over onto serving plate and remove from pan immediately.

My next goal/project!!

So I have been trying to decide what goal I should start working on next. It is summer and I have a little more time on my hands. So this is what I am hoping to do in the next month or two, before school starts and I will hopefully have a teaching job or at least be staying busy subbing  (keeping my fingers crossed).

Project 1: Recover the cushions on my patio chairs and repaint the table and chairs. (Goal 17)
Its not that I don't like my table and chairs, they were giving to me by someone who had them in their shed for years and never opened them (can't beat something free) but they aren't my style. And my husband doesn't like flower patterns. So I thought I would try recovering the cushions and painting the metal to more match us and what we like. We will see how they turn out.

Project 2: Create a Calander (Goal 25)
I want to pull together some of my scenic pictures from different months of the year (1 from each month of places in Idaho) and put together a calendar. I have enough pictures to do it, its just sitting down and doing it. I also want to do this for diffrent places I have been through out the US and Mexico (and hopefully Canada this summer, Goal 42 and 44).

Project 3: Decorate Aubrey's room. (Goal 10)
She has been asking me for a few years now if we could re-paint her room from how we had it as her baby room. Instead of re-painting her room we baught a new house. However now her walls are a light brown and she wants to decorate them to match her bedding. Brown is too boring for her appearntly, she must take after her mother. So she picked out some paint colors and now wants to paint big flowers on her walls. Her idea is actually pretty cute. I have quite a creative 7 year old.

Project 4: Finish some old projects I started years ago that I have yet to finish (Goal 17 & 22)
This is includes a Creative Tile Tray (see Crafty Creations link for directions), a quilt for my living room, and a baby blanket I started to knit when I was pregnant (thats going on 8 years now)

So I think this will give me plenty to do while I am sitting around waiting for a job and school to start. Lets see if I can actually get them done (or at least a couple of them done and the others started).

**See 75 'n 930 for list of goals**

Crafty Creations 5: Memo Board

Needed Items:
Old baking sheet you no longer use (with a hole in the handle on at least one end)
Acrylic paint
Scrapbook paper
Scrapbook embellishments
Craft glue
Ribbon
Magnets



Directions:
Clean old baking sheet
Paint baking sheet
Let baking sheet dry completely
Cut papers down to fit size of inside of backing sheet
Glue paper to backing sheet let dry
Add embellishments and ribbons to backing sheet
Thread ribbon through hold in baking sheet. create a loop and bow to hang memo board.
Use magnets to hold notes, pictures and other things to memo board.

Recipe 5: Snicker-doodle Cinnamon Apple Crisp

Ingredients:
No-stick Cooking spray
2 (21 oz) cans of apple pie filling
1 (17.5 oz.) package Pillsbury Snicker-doodle Cookie Mix
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
10 tbs butter, melted
1/2 cup finally chopped pecans or walnuts

prior to baking

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Coat backing pan with no -stick cooking spray (recipe calls for 9x9 pan but fits better in a 13X9 pan)
Spread apple pie filling evenly in prepared pan
Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cinnamon -sugar mix from box of cookie mix. Mix together with nuts and set aside.
Combine cookie mix, oats and remaining cinnamon sugar mix together in a large bowl.
Stir in melted butter with a fork, until evenly moistened.
Crumble over apple filling
Sprinkle cinnamon-sugar nut mix over crumble mixture and apples
Back 45-48 minutes or until golden brown and filling bubbles on sides of pan.
Cool 15 minutes before serving.
Serve alone or with French Vanilla Ice Cream

Makes 9 servings

* I found this recipe on the back of a box of Pillsbury Snicker-doodle Cookie Mix.

My new house

So for the last few years we had gone back and forth about getting a new house.  And if we got a new house if we should sell our house in Kuna or rent it out. I was scared about having two house payments if we had to go a period of time with no renters or if they just didn't pay. Also terrified of someone else living in my house that I had lived in for several years, we were there 9 years. After trying to sell it a couple of times we decided that we would rent it, since we can ask for more than what the house payment is, Thankfully!! I know a few people that have larger house payments than they can get for rent, I didn't want to be in that same boat. 

Our Home!!

Over the last year or so we found a few houses that we really liked and made offers on them. But something always went wrong: wouldn't accept any of our offers, inspection issues, appraisal came in to low.. you get the idea. Well after this happening several times I was ready to give up and just stay in the house we had. I liked the area, Aubrey was at an awesome school (would love to get a teaching job there) neighbors were great, etc. 

Living room
our furniture doesn't look so huge and out of place now

Well after I decided I was done looking, I was tired of getting my hopes up and then it not happening, our awesome real-estate agent sent us yet another listing, it was a short sale - big red flag went up, ya it was a great price but what was wrong with it and how much money would we have to put into before we could live in it, I have seen and heard stories about how bad short sale, REO and foreclosed homes can be, I didn't want to have to deal with that. But I agreed to go look at it. And I fell in love with it after seeing it just once. It was my favorite house out of all the ones we looked at, even the ones we made previous offers on. And since it was a short sale the price was even better (little less stressed about 2 house payments, especially since I am not working yet). Even better... it was move in ready, we didn't need to do anything (other than put in a fence for the dog). 

Sitting room/reading room

My husband even surprised me with it. He made an offer on it and told me after it was accepted and he knew we would be closing on it that we bought it, thankfully,  cause if I don't think I could have handled another let down. And it even only took 2 months to close on, not the 6 months we were told it normally takes. every thing was working out great for this house, it is in a nice neighbor hood, really nice neighbors, and it is only 5 minutes from my husbands work instead of 20. Lets just say this house was meant to be ours. Every thing happens for a reason right? ABSOLUTELY!@!@!

Office

So we closed at the beginning of May, found a really nice family to rent out our house, talk about weird feeling handing over the keys to your house to people you don't know and leaving them in your house with out you. After 2 months of being in the new house it is finally coming together and feeling like home and that we aren't in the wrong place. (I will admit that when I was headed home there were several times I started to go to the Kuna house.. lol).

Even enough wall space in the office
to hang both of our diplomas

I love this house, and am thrilled to be here. Next project we are doing (besides the fence for the dog, poor thing has to be tied up right now when we put her out because I am terrified she will run away not thinking that this is her home now. she is a funny dog, she will only go potty at her house even when we are gone for a few days she will hold it till she gets home. she didn't go potty for about a week before she realized we weren't going back to the old house. So glad she got over that pretty fast Yes we actually would take her with us when we went back to the other house before the renters moved in so she could go potty cause I was worried she would get sick since she would go at the new house.) 

kitchen

Well anyway.. my next project is to decorate Aubrey's room and make it a fun little/big girl room instead of the baby room she still had at the other house, because I kept putting off re-painting it for her. She is very excited to get tohelp me decide what we are going to do in it and actually help do it since it is her room.  

Dining Room

Crafty Creations 4: Glass Cube Night Light

I love these! They are great for decorations and practical for little kids rooms where they want a night light. But then when they grow out of it you can still use them for decoration in your home or pass them on to someone else. 

materials:

• Clear Glass block window cube with hole in one side. 
• mini string lights (think Christmas lights but the mini ones)
• pearl iridescent paint
• paint brush
• vinyl rub-ons (1 decal &/or 1 word)
• wide ribbon with wire edges (enough to go around cube and possibly a bow on top. if for boy may not want to include the bow. 
• hot glue and glue gun

directions:

* Paint glass cube with one thin layer of pearl iridescent paint. you want it thin enough to see the lights shine though.

* let completely dry

* once dry, rub on the vinyl decals on the front of the cube.

* insert mini light strand into hole in cube, letting the cord hang out of cube. 

* wrap ribbon around the edge of cube leaving the whole for the cord open. adhere using hot glue

* if adding bow adhere to with hot glue. 

* let glue dry before plugging in

* plug in and enjoy or give as gift.