Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice-Hacked!

Think of this post as your Halloween treat!  If you love Starbucks Caramel Apple Spice as much as me you will thank me later!!!

I try every year to fix these myself because Will and I love them and they are the perfect fall treat.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!  I found perfect recipe.

You just need the right ingredients. 

Apple Juice not cider

Whipped Cream

Caramel Sauce

and the one that makes it perfect…

Cinnamon Dolce Syrup from Starbucks

It’s pretty simple to make.

Pour a cup of apple juice, mix in 3 tablespoons of the syrup.  Heat to desired temperature in microwave.  Add whipped cream on top and drizzle on the caramel sauce. 

Big THANK YOU to this PIN

Source A Law Student’s Journey

Thanks to Kitty over at A Law Student's Journey for posting this!  You should check out her blog if you are a Starbucks fan, turns out she is an ex-barista so she knows the deal. 

I was happy to learn you could buy the syrup in store, for a little over $8.  Not bad consider one small cup is about $4.

I hope you all enjoy as much as I did, I see many more in my future, that syrup should last a while. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

to you all

Wishing you lots of Tricks and Treats

April

Living Quarters

I need a house ya’ll, my own house.  These days I feel like I am going stir crazy.  I yearn to decorate to move little trinkets around the house and rearrange.  I miss my stuff!  It has been especially hard this time of year as my favorite holiday rolls by unnoticed and undecorated….BOO!

We all have our challenges, mine are insignificant. 

It has been nice not having a lot of cleaning and living with family has its benefits but I miss the stuff, my stuff.  I miss piddling=working on furniture painting, crafty things, changing accessories, seasonal decorating and organizing cabinets.  

The point is I bore easily and change things in my home often.  I would have brought way more stuff on this move to decorate with but that would have been unnecessary.  It’s only a few months and I can make it.   So here is a look into our current living quarters.

We are very lucky to have our own space.  My Mother and Father in law have graciously allowed us to live with them temporarily while we build a new house in the neighborhood.  If we sell that house we will get out of their hair and rent something for a while. 

Here is a look at our bedroom.  Very cozy…mainly the bed, it’s a full size.  I’m pretty sure I want a king size bed after this!

This room is an L shape and what used to be a sitting room is now our walk in closet.

We have our own bath and it’s pretty big but…

 

we have a pedestal sink to share and…

we are sharing with our two cats and I am ready for them to have their own space again too. 

The bathroom is in between two bedrooms, ours and the other seen here.

See that couch, well in front is our very own TV, so we have a little living room and just beside that couch is our office nook.

This bedroom has a small closet which we have stored odds and ends and the rest of Will’s clothes.

At the top of the stairs is a nice little landing which gives us space for a small table to throw keys, purse etc. when coming home from work and it also give the cats another little space for toys.

It is a great space and it gives us room to spread out and allows us some privacy. 

So there you have it that’s where we are now and that is why decorating post have gone way down.  It’s life moving forward, hopefully after the New Year we will be in our own space. 

Oh, I almost forgot the best part….

The view

I could sit there for a long while…wish it was still Summer.

 

April

Land Development News

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time or if you are friends or family followers you know we are developing a subdivision.  I decided to start a little series to keep you all updated.  This is a home and garden blog after all and currently I am without a home of my own. 

To catch new readers up…

We purchased land years ago to develop into a subdivision in an area near by us that has the potential for strong growth.

With the housing economy being slower than we would like we pushed forward and started construction on the first house in the neighborhood last fall.  You can see that house HERE.

In June we sold OUR HOUSE and moved in that NEW HOUSE because it was still on the market.  We received an offer on it after we’d been living there a month, so we MOVED again in August.   Needless to say it was a crazy Summer. We are out of sorts when it comes to housing, we seriously can’t remember our address most days.  We are temporarily living with my husbands parents. 

Fast forward to today…

We sold two additional lots in the first phase of the neighborhood to a new builder and he has started construction on one of the two.

He will be starting on his second lot soon.

We again contracted with the same builder that built the first home to build another house in an effort to keep building going. Construction has started on that house and it will go on the market as well.  If it does not sell before it’s completed the plan will again be that we will move in temporarily until it does sell. 

We are so thrilled that we have sold a couple lots and we have new builds going in, but we know it is still going to be a long road to finishing this neighborhood out.  We have 39 lots remaining to sell.

The good news is that the housing market is recovering in our area and the location is great.  We are looking forward to seeing all the progress.  It’s so beautiful out there!

We hope to sell some more lots real soon and start the next phase.

If you want to read more look at the Label Land Development to see previous post or click HERE.

 

April

Jewelry Box Makeover

A long time ago I stopped by an antique shop in Mount Pleasant, SC and picked up a jewelry box for $10.  It was supposed to be part of my planned closet makeover for my jewelry and accessory area.  Well I’ve since moved twice and it’s just been sitting around.  I finally gave it a make-over. 

Here are the before pictures.  I had already started to paint when I took these. Oops!  I just realized when posting pictures I was holding the top on, upside down!


I thought about painting it all white and only adding an initial but it was too boring.

Now I think it has more flair and I am really happy with the way it turned out. 

In case you are wondering about HOW I did this…I painted the box with two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and the chevron pattern is in Annie Sloan Graphite, the “L” in Annie Sloan Arles. 
I also painted the inside, the red was just too much for me.  It took THREE coats of Annie Sloan Old White to turn the red pale pink (happy mistake)

To achieve the chevron pattern I simply printed a pattern that I found online and transferred it to the top with graphite transfer paper.  I used the same technique with the “L”
I love the way it turned out!

Now if I just had that closet to put it in….

April

Southern Bloggers Conference

Hey Ya’ll!  I had an amazing weekend at the Southern Bloggers Conference in Raleigh, NC.  I met so many wonderful ladies and felt like I was surrounded by talent everywhere.  I am so glad I made the decision to attend.  I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, for many reasons.  If you know me you know I am not that social, I’m a homebody and being in an room full of strangers is way out of my comfort zone.  I also struggle with where I want this blog to go.  It was in Raleigh so I made myself go since it was so close to me and I’m so glad I did! I meet so many talented like minded people that live near me.

I am inspired and re-charged about blogging.   I am excited about all the things that I learned and look forward to putting some of those things in action and changing little things here and there to make this blog better for you, my readers,  and hope to attract new readers along the way.

We had awesome speakers. 

Rhoda with Southern Hospitality

Rhoda shared her blog journey with us and it was so inspiring to hear her talk about how life happens and how you can keep doing what you love regardless of obstacles in your life.

Kari Anne with Thistlewood Farms

Kari Anne is HILAROUS, she has the most fun personality.  She has had great success with her blog in a short amount of time and was happy to share her tips with us.

Kelly with Eclectically Vintage

Kelly was great at explaining mistakes to correct and gave us good tips on using social media to keep in touch with readers.

Heather from At The Picket Fence

Heather gave us lots of insight on ways to advertise on your blog.  I have been on the fence about advertising here for a while but I learned a lot and know how to start slow.

Brittany at Pretty Handy Girl

Brittany (who lives in Raleigh) inspired us all to “go for it” to do what you love and challenge yourself to do what you are afraid of too.  She also took a group thrifting today in Raleigh.  I skipped out since I can go shopping around Raleigh anytime but I know the girls had fun!

These gals were so inspiring and I look forward to following them on their continued journey in blogging.  If you have not seen them before you should check them out!

We also had a special treat having Annie from Maison Blanche Paint Company present her line of Le Craie Paints and products which blew my mind.  I was so excited to see a different chalk paint line.  I can’t wait to get my hands on some of her paint.  She offers other great products to add a little extra to paint projects which we had the chance to see.

She really is that adorable!

Here are a few techniques and products we saw.

This is a stencil that is applied and then you add the Glacage product to create a look that appears to be part of the wood.  Really awesome stuff.

Le Dirt is a product that looks like dirt but gives you a great aged patina, this would be great on any piece with lots of detail.

I am pretty giddy about this paint chart, it’s REAL paint! So ACTUAL color.

Kristen with Sophia’s Décor and Amy at Atta Girl Says showed us how Miss Mustard Seed’s paint works and I was happy to be able to try this out as well. 

picture from Atta Girl Says

The ladies that put this conference together did a phenomenal job! They pulled this sold out event together in weeks! WEEKS!  It was amazing!

Please click on the link below to check them out too.

Committee Members and Fabulous Blogs 

On a final note, check out all this great swag I took home!

If you look close you will see there is a sample of La Craie Paint as well as Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint and a brand new paint brush!

I look forward to incorporating a few changes around here that you will notice, nothing major but a few things to spice up the blog and keep readers coming.  I also am thinking of starting a series of post about our journey in land development to keep interested readers up to date more on that process.  So stay tuned!

April