introducing: Burlap JunKtion

i have participated in the cure of ars catholic church gift gallery for three years. my dear friend joan has also participated in this same sale with her beautiful beaded serving pieces. we have decided to combine our space this year and bring something new to the gift gallery.
:
we both enjoy making our homes beautiful by using what we have, and purchasing new items for our homes through junking. we also love to paint, and re purpose furniture pieces, another frugal option for decorating your home.




i am still enjoying tray bella and will have a new line of trays debuting at the gift gallery. joan will also have turtle soup pieces. but we will also have lots of other new, fun, and fabulous home decor items to mix in with what you might already have at home. sometimes just adding one new piece to your mix is all you need. we will be there to help you with your choices, whether for yourself or for a friend.
:
we will also have a drawing for one lucky winner..... 2 hours of home staging services!
:
Look for us under Burlap JunKtion! coming up with a new name was a challenge and we think we've come up with a name that fits us. the dictionary definition of junction is the act of joining; combining....which is what we are doing; joining tray bella and turtle soup. the spelling of junction was changed to JunKtion to reflect our love of junking and the capital J is for joan and the capital K is for kathi. we felt we needed something to go with JunKtion and burlap popped into joans head. we love the simple look of burlap and it's natural texture, it is fitting to how we both decorate.
:
i am so excited to start this new adventure with such a dear friend. equally excited to bring you something new, fun and fabulous! stop by our booth at the gift gallery and enter our drawing!

terrific toffee popcorn

movie night? happy hour? family gathering? bake sale? super yummy snack?
if you are in need of something addictingly (is that a word?) good this recipe is for you.
:
it calls for cheerios, but i think the next time i make it i will just use five cups of crispix cereal. you can also use corn or rice chex cereal.
:
and when you gain 5 lbs from not being able to stop eating this....i do not want to hear about it. ;)

TOFFEE POPCORN MIX

3 cups crispix
2 cups cheerios
1 bag of popped microwave popcorn (any style/flavor)
1 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts (sometimes i use almonds instead)
1 1/4 cup pecans (or if you don't like pecans, double up on the peanuts or almonds)

1 cup butter (not margarine!)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

grease a roasting pan.
combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup on stove top. bring to boil for 5 minutes.
remove from heat, add vanilla and baking soda. stir for a minute. it should get foamy/bubbly.
pour over cereal mix and toss together.
bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour. toss every 15-20 minutes during baking.
let cool.

last of the garden

i cleaned out the garden this past weekend. what a job that is. my rosemary and thyme plants were still looking really good so i just clipped the heck out of them. i then placed them in small bundles, wrapped them with twine and gave a few away to friends. i have some hanging in my kitchen window, drying and the smell reminds me of summer.
:
we had good luck with our garden this year. i am excited for spring to get planting again. i will spend the winter digging through books at the library on ways to make my garden better. i am anxiously awaiting those summer garden days....sigh....oh how i dread the cold winter.

carrot pineapple cake recipe

a super yummy cake recipe for any fall gathering you might be attending or just because.
:
CARROT PINEAPPLE CAKE
2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup oil
3 eggs
beat well in a mixer and then add:
2 cups shredded carrots
14 oz. crushed pineapple (juice and all)
2 teaspoons vanilla
then add:
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
bake in a large bundt pan at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

ICING:
4 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup margarine
2 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
beat in a mixer until fluffy.

ice cake once cool and enjoy!

chair redo

these are some old dining room chairs that we have had. they now sit in their new home around our game table in our newly finished basement. we have a few ends to wrap up today in the basement, i will get some photos out this week. until then, an easy project to update these chairs.
for those of you that might have chairs like this at home, and have no idea how to recover them, you will not believe how simple this project is.
:
you will need your outdated chair,

your new fabric. i found this last week at a fabric sale. $5 for a piece big enough to redo all four of my chairs...what a deal!

you will also need for this project a screwdriver, scissors and a staple gun. if you do not have a staple gun RUN to your nearest home improvement store. you will be able to do many projects if you have a staple gun available.
:

first you will need to flip your chair over and unscrew the four screws that hold the seat on. you can rip off the old cover and use it for your pattern, or simply cut out a new piece by laying your seat on top of your new fabric and cutting, leaving enough of an allowance to wrap around.

then all you have to do is pull it tight and staple in place. screw your seat back on and you are done. so easy! now that i have these done i am wondering if i might like the chair painted white? hmmm...another project on the project list. i will save that for a rainy day.

:

piece of cake project! and speaking of cake.....

we went to the neighbors on friday night for dinner and i made this cake for dessert. it is a carrot pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting. so easy to make and soooo yummy! i will post the recipe later this afternoon. for now my 3 year old needs some attention.

and the winner is.....

PAULA!! send me your address so that i can get this in the mail to you today please.
:
thanks to all of you that left comments and read my blog.
:
have a good weekend!

a little thank you giveaway

in september i hit my two year blog anniversary. i am amazed every day that there are people out there that actually enjoy reading what i have to write. this started out as a creative outlet for me and a way to stay in touch with long distant friends. i had no idea i would meet so many lovely people. and how strange it is that even though i have not met you all personally, i feel like i have known you forever.
:
it is a joy to see my 'regulars' leave comments, and to hear from new and old viewers that i have in some way inspired them. hello to all you stalkers out there too! ;)
:
so it is time for a giveaway! with halloween coming up i have chosen to give away this cute halloween tray. the tray is black with orange polka dot paper. it also includes two black kitchen towels and a cute halloween decoration.




leave a comment here to enter your name for the drawing. post this giveaway on your blog and i will add your name twice! i will take comments until thursday night at 10:00pm cst. the winner will be announced friday morning. my hope is to get this in the mail on friday so that the winner can have it in time for halloween.
:
i thank each and every one of you for your comments, support and friendship!
:
Good luck!

MIA

i have been missing in action lately when it comes to blogging. but i am still here. we are still working on the basement remodel and i had to unplug the computer things to get my paint job done. i have hopes of the basement being completed and plugged back in by the end of the weekend. i will then post photos from the friends of a feather sale (huge success, despite the rainy cold weather), some photos of the finished basement, trick or treats that i have been working on, and tell you about a giveaway that i even won from Paula at Oliver's!
:
be back soon!

rain or shine

it rained so much here today in kansas city. setting up for the friends of a feather sale was a bit of a challenge but we will be ready to go by 9am. rain or shine! hope to see you there!

loss

Grief that is expressed and experienced has a potential for healing that eventually can strengthen and enrich life.

:

saying goodbye is never easy. but when a situation contaminates your life, sometimes it is the only thing to do.

weekend work

i worked hard this weekend on a batch of trays that i will have at this weekends friends of a feather sale. these photos only show a small amount of them. now to get them tagged, priced and packed up. in addition to my trays, i still have high hopes of getting a few pillows made out of some coffee bean bags that i found. looks like i will be up late tonight. back to the studio.....

big fun sale

if you are in the kansas city area, mark your calendars for this fun event! and if you are a blog reader of mine be sure and find me to say hello. back to the studio, i have lots of fun finds to finish up before next week!

outdoor movie night

this past weekend it was our turn to host dinner club. with the weather being so beautiful lately we decided on an outdoor movie night.

we kept the menu super simple by buying and baking a couple of pizzas. i threw together a really yummy salad and dessert was served during the movie....popcorn and your choice of candy.

we tested 'our system' friday night with a kids movie night. they had a blast watching Bolt. all you will need is a white sheet (we clipped ours to the gutter), a projector and then ran the movie through the laptop. my husband brought out 4 speakers to add the surround sound theatre feel.

both nights were really fun and we will for sure repeat this kind of entertaining.