Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle - a little bit of heaven for the Christmas Holidays or just whenever.

Peanut Butter + Chocolate - what more could you wish for?

This is one of my absolute favorite desserts from Taste of Home
It looks amazing, tastes amazing and it's easy peasy to make. 
And it serves 20 (or less, depending on how hungry you are).

Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle
1 Brownie Mix (13 x 9 pan size) (+ eggs & oil)
1 Peanut Butter Chips (10 ounces)
3-4 C Tiny Peanut Butter Cups
4 C Milk
2 Vanilla Pudding (5.1 ounces each, instant) 
1 C Creamy Peanut Butter
4 t Vanilla Extract
3 Cartons Cool Whip (8 ounces, thawed)

  Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare brownie batter according to directions; stir in peanut butter chips.
(Don't forget to stir in the chips - this is the part I always seem to forget
and have to quickly pull the pan out of the oven to add them in.)
 
Bake in 13x9 baking pan 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center
comes out with moist crumbs (do not overbake). Cool & cut into 3/4-inch pieces.

Cut peanut butter cups in half; set aside 1/2 C for garnish. 

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mixes for 2 minutes (mixture will be thick).
Add peanut butter and vanilla; mix well.
Fold in 1-1/2 cartons Cool Whip.

In a large Glass Bowl - three layers: Brownies, Peanut Butter Cups, Pudding Mixture (repeat twice). Cover with remaining Cool Whip and garnish with reserved peanut butter cups.

Refrigerate until chilled. 
YUM
YUM
YUM

Happy Sugar Coma!
Love, Steph
 

5 Quick Organizing Projects for Your Home

Quick.
Simple.
Not overwhelming.
Sounds good, huh?
Here are a few projects to help you focus on one area in your home that needs to be organized.
Sometimes tunnel vision is a good thing. 
Focusing on one small area helps us to not start hyperventilating over the BIG picture.

And how good will you feel to cross something off your list?










Happy Organizing (remember to take baby steps)

Love, Steph


Love, Loss & Remembrance - I Carry You In My Heart.

Last week I lost my sister. 
It was so sudden. 
It's always so sudden. 
I thought we'd have more time. 
We all think we'll have more time.

I Carry You In My Heart. 



Treasure each day and each moment. 
Create memories that you can carry in your heart.

Love, Steph

Sweat, Tears and The Sea - an art piece full of hope.

The cure for everything is Salt Water: Tears, Sweat or the Sea.

This quote is from Isak Dinesen. When I started on this piece, I was intrigued with the person who wrote this quote. I did some research and discovered this name was a pseudonym for Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke who wrote the autobiographical book Out of Africa in 1937 which later became a movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.

This piece was commissioned by someone I admire deeply. I see how this is the perfect quote for her life - through thick and thin, good times and bad, her inner strength and positive spirit is readily apparent.
 




Here are a few more quotes from Isak....

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.
   
Who tells a finer tale than any of us. Silence does.

A great artist is never poor.

I think it will be truly glorious when women become real people and have the whole world open to them.

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.

All sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them.


Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich
and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about
are of no importance whatsoever...

Hoping you're having an infinitely rich and beautiful life this week.
Love, Steph


DIY Custom & Personalized Journals


I love blank notebooks and journals and have all sorts of them. I use them to sketch out art ideas, to track what I plant in the garden, to organize items for my house, class notes, favorite quotes, etc. However, they can get a bit pricey so I decided to create my own.

Supplies

Composition Notebooks
 Back-to-school time typically has the best price so I stocked up.

Paper
I used 4 sheets of coordinating paper (2 of one pattern and 2 of another). Depending upon the size of your book, you can use 12x12 or 8 1/2 x 11 scrapbook paper or decorative wrapping paper. For best results use a heavier paper.

Glue & Paint Brush or Foam Brush (1 inch)
You can use rubber cement, Mod Podge or tacky glue. I found the easiest to use was Mod Podge.
Just put it on thinly so it doesn't buckle the paper. If it does, just wait till it dries to continue - it usually flattens itself out then.


 

1. Measure Your Notebook

Height and Width of front cover.

2. Cut Your Paper

Outside Pieces - add 2-3 inches to your width and height and cut two (2) pieces.

Inside Pieces - for the inside of each cover. Subtract 1 inch from your width and height and cut two (2) pieces.

Spine - Cut one piece 3 inches wide and the height of the notebook.

My measurements were: Outside 9x11, Inside 9x7, Spine 3x9 3/4

3. Outside Cover

Using Mod Podge and paintbrush, glue paper to front cover. Align one side of the paper to the edge of the spine and smooth out (make sure to have overlap on the three remaining sides - you will fold these over). Repeat for back cover.

4. Inside Edge


Turn over book, fold in the edges of paper on the top and bottom. Glue down. Then fold over the paper on the sides of the book and glue down. (This will create a square edge)

5. Inside Covers

Align your inside piece so it covers the edges of folded over paper on the inside cover. Glue and smooth. Repeat.

6. Spine

Center the piece to cover the spine of the book. Glue down and then close up the book smoothing down the paper on the spine. (don't let the spine dry when the book is opened flat as you need a little wiggle room to close the book)

Hint: To help the paper lay flat as it's drying, you can place something heavy (I used a covered brick) to weigh it down and keep it flat.

Optional - you can gently brush Mod Podge over all the sides and edges for some additional strength. Do it in sections and let it dry thoroughly in between.

7. Decorate




This is where you can have fun and be all sorts of creative! You can leave them plain or decorate them with layered paper, ribbon, buttons, flowers or other embellishments. You can also add a label or your favorite verse.

Happy Creativity!
Love, Steph



DIY Tissue Box Covers - make functional cute, not boring!



Customize your home decor with a little DIY and make your own Tissue Box Covers.  There are all sorts of options to choose from - wood, paper, material... I'll show you how I made one with scrapbook paper and I've included several other creative ideas to help inspire you.

 I chose some metallic scrapbook paper to make a cover to match my powder room colors and used an old clear tissue box cover as the base. You can find inexpensive ones at thrift or dollar stores.

 Measured and cut out the sides and the top.

Four individual sides. One top (with the opening traced) and a bunch of decorative circles.

 Used Mod Podge to glue down the sides first. While that was drying, got started on the top.

For the top I carefully cut out the middle of the opening leaving enough to cut and fold back individual tabs to cover the entire inner edge and Mod Podged them down. You can use clothespins to hold the tabs down while it dries. Note: If you want to just trace and cut out the circle opening, make sure to use a little extra Mod Podge so it doesn't lift up when you pull out a tissue.

Mod Podged the circles onto the sides.
You can also decorate with labels, flowers, accents, embellishments, etc.



More IDEAS!

Book Pages and a Chalkboard Sign via Make the Best of Things

Wooden Mod Box Cover via Crafty Nest

 Sew a Decorative Cover via Make it and Love it

 Lego Box Cover for the little ones via Dream a Little Bigger

Tutorial for Cardstock or thin Cardboard for ultimate customization via Split Coast Stampers

Happy Creating this week!
Love, Steph

DIY for the Office - Transform Magazine Holders into Recycle & Shred Boxes

I love to recycle, but I don't necessary love the blue plastic bins for recycling.  NOT. CUTE.

I made a cheery recycling box for under my kitchen sink here and that made me realize I needed to create something for my office. Throwing paper into piles on the floor wasn't really working very well any more.

I spend quite a bit of time at my office desk and typically have a ginormous pile of paper that needs my attention. I wanted a quick (and stylish) way to sort papers. A place to put papers to recycle and a place to put items to shred. At my fingertips. 




Supplies
Two wooden magazine holders (got mine at Ikea)
Spray Paint
Scrapbook or Decorative Paper
Bookplates or something to hold labels
Mod Podge

Primed and Sprayed wood magazine holders.



Cut paper to fit the front of each of the holders and Mod Podged it. (used a few coats)


Printed up labels onto scrapbook paper.


Attached Bookplates.
These were adhesive but you could also use screw on label holders, etc.


 Let the recycling and shredding begin.

What a great feeling to get RID OF PAPER.

Happy Organizing!

Love, Steph

Easy Craft Room Organization: Button Storage

You know I love buttons. I use them in all sorts of art and decorating projects and over the years I've accumulated a few (OK, more like thousands) of them. And they seemed to expand exponentially when I am looking for a particular color. So after too much digging through bags, I decided to organize them so they're easy to find and pretty to look at.


 Found an old spice rack at the Salvation Army.
Spray painted it black (three coats).

After cleaning out my parent's spice cabinet (there wasn't a spice they didn't have and most of them were waaayyyy old), I had a bunch of leftover spice jars. Originally found them at World Market.

The biggest part of the job was sorting the buttons. I ended up pouring them all out on my dining room table and watched movies while I put them in piles. Yes, the excitement never ends in my house.


Loaded up the jars and colorized them. I learned to colorize when I worked retail in college and it has stuck for all these years - even my closet is colorized from light to dark.  #loveOCD

This particular spice rack holds 18 jars and I was able to pretty much fit all the buttons into it. I did need an additional large jar to hold my black buttons (seem to have a million of them).

Voila!

One part of my Craft Room is organized - yay!

Happy Organizing!
Love, Steph