I’m sorry I’m just now getting this post up with the Lily Pottery Giveaway winner from yesterday!  I’m so tired!  I think all of the adrenaline from the days prior that I needed to get my house decorated and cleaned for the show last night must have gone straight out the door with Lily as she left last night.  Yes friends…the adrenaline rush is over and the low has definitely hit…which mainly just means that I’m beat!  (That… and I’ve ended up running around with my mom who was here from out-of-town to help with the show, had to take the littlest guy to the pediatrician for an ear infection, met with the cabinet man for my laundry room this morning, and the list goes on.  You know how it goes…busy, busy day!)

I’m going to try to get some pictures taken of my house in the next day or so while it’s all clean and Christmas decoratey to show you. (And yes…I wrote decorateY…that wasn’t a typo…it’s a real word in my real vocabulary…that I’m pretty sure I really made up.)

And it’s a good thing that it’s all decoratey already because I’m so tired now, that I’m pretty sure were it not all finished, I’d be swaying towards the kind of decorating exhibited in this last home pictured below….

Hilarious huh?  No idea whose home this is because I saw it on Facebook, but I just have to say to that family…”If not the most decoratey, you are definitely the funniest person on your street!”

Ok…so I know what you all really want to know is who won the amazing Lily Pottery giveaway from yesterday.

And the winner of any one item from Lily’s shop valued up to $100 is….

Comment #43 Debbie W  who said…

I am a follower of your feed. Look forward to your posts!

 

Thanks Debbie, and I hope you’re reading from your feed now, because you have 48 hours from this post’s timestamp (4:30pm EST)  to claim your prize (or bummer of all bummers for you, I’ll have to pick another winner!)  Congratulations!  Looks like you will just have to decide between all of your favorites now!

Thanks to all of you who came to the show as well!  You were each entered to win a $25 Lily Pottery gift certificate just for coming, and the winner of that gift card is….

Lisa Fricke!

Congratulations Lisa!  See ya’ll….it literally pays to show up!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and don’t forget that you can still save if you order from Lily Pottery online by December 1st.  Lily is offering FREE Holiday giftwrap AND FREE Shipping when you enter the code LIFEFORDESSERT at the checkout!  Happy gifting!

I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend wherever you were.  We headed up to the mountains (where I got to enjoy my favorite kind of coffee several times) with my parents, sister and brother in-law.  My actual brother is still on the aircraft carrier, and thankfully he’s finally headed homeward after 8 long months.  I cannot wait to see him!  My brood headed home on Friday and I spent the rest of the weekend decorating my house for Christmas and getting it ready for the Lily Pottery show that I’m hosting TONIGHT!!! (Once my house is completely clean and the show is over, I’ll give you a photo tour of it later this week all decorated for Christmas.)

To celebrate the show and the Christmas season, Lily is offering a giveaway of any item from her shop valued up to $100 on Life for Dessert today!  Go to Lily Pottery’s shop and select your favorite item.  To enter, come back here and leave a comment with your pick!  For extra entries you can do the following (leave a separate comment letting me know for each additional action that you take):

• Like Lily Pottery on Facebook
• Subscribe to receive the Life for Dessert feed (there’s a box on the right hand side of the blog where you can enter to do that)
• Like Life for Dessert on Facebook
• Follow Life for Dessert on Twitter
• Share this giveaway on your Facebook wall and Retweet the link to your Twitter followers as well!

The contest will end at midnight tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 29th)

Lily is also offering a coupon code for Life for Dessert readers until December 1st.  Enter the code LIFEFORDESSERT at the checkout when you purchase from Lily Pottery online to get FREE Holiday giftwrap AND FREE Shipping!  

If you’re in town (Greenville, SC), and would like to come to tonight’s show then shoot an email to Logan @LifeForDessert dot com, and I’ll send you the address.  Bring your sister, a friend, a neighbor…and I’ll look forward to seeing ya’ll drop in anytime TONIGHT, Tuesday, November 29th between 6-9pm.  You’ll also be entered to win a Lily Pottery gift certificate just for showing up! And as a super special thank you for coming, this amazing Vintage Garden Necklace pictured above (my personal favorite, but in your color of choice) will be on sale ONLY at the show…just because it’s my favorite and just to give those of you who come another little bit of love!

And, while you’re here, I hope you’ll stay for a glass of wine or cup of coffee with Lily and me.  Oh, and even if you are one of those crazy people who does the whole midnight on Black Friday deal and are now done Christmas shopping for the free world… but may still want to look for yourself, come on!  Lily has wish list forms you can fill out and I will personally be delighted to give your favorite Santa a call on your behalf.  And if that clever Santa takes the not-so-subtle hint and jumps at the chance to score you something you already want without you standing right there, Lily said she’ll even giftwrap and ship the item to the aforementioned Santa to help lighten the Christmas-gift-finding load.

Happy shopping!  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway by leaving your comments below!

 

You know if you’ve been here for any length of time that a laundry room overhaul has been on my brain for awhile.  Remember when I bought THE boots with my birthday money instead of putting it towards the laundry room?  Yeah…it’s been partly my own fault, but this project has seemed forever away.

Not anymore!!!

The Hubs and I talked about it, and we have decided that instead of doing Christmas presents for one another this year, we’re going to finally do the laundry room project.  I’m so stinking excited I can hardly stand it!  The cabinet people are coming next week to see what I want.  My job now of course is to get together my pictures to show them.  Since I sketched the whole thing over a year ago, and have been dreaming about it since we bought this house 3 1/2 years ago…I’m pretty sure I do know what I want.

Here’s what I’m dealing with now…in all of it’s horrid, messy glory.  And no…if you’re from my 31 Days to Clean Bible/Book study…I hadn’t done the laundry room part of the study yet.  Busted in the very worst way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I’m being honest too….unfortunately, even when I clean it…it doesn’t stay that way long.  That stupid craft cabinet on the right is a disaster and my kids pull stuff out all the time…knocking everything in their way over as they go.  It’s one of those places that I hate to be.  It’s really no wonder that laundry remains my nemesis.

There’s a lot of great space in the room, but as you can see on the right hand side, it’s horribly utilized.  Mostly I’m sure it’s because of the big gray main electrical panel on the wall.  I’m going to put a cabinet over it to keep it accessible, but we’re doing SOMETHING to at the very least make use of all the rest of the space.  We’ll see what we can get away with there in terms of code and working our way around it.

I’ve been looking at pictures, and this one is the closest to what I think that I want.

I love the glass cabinets on the very top…they add a real airy-ness to the space.  I’m not probably tidy enough to have plain glass, but even a frosted look would conceal the cabinet contents and lend to the illusion of that open look of a standard glass front.  Also, instead of a lower cabinet on the right hand side, I want more floor to ceiling storage going on like at the end of that right hand side.  Also, my washer and dryer on the left are separated by a sink so it’ll be similar to what you see there with just appliances on either side of the sink.  White cabinets are a must for me…but I’m planning to go with a more plain shaker style cabinet to achieve really clean lines.  I do LOVE that light fixture in there…or maybe the blown glass Edison bulb looking style.  I really like the look of wood floors too, but there’s tile in there now, and really, for durability sake…it’s probably the best choice for us.

Check out these other pictures I found though that I love.  Pretty much all of these were found on google images and several occurred multiple places…so I have no idea of the original origin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Um…I’m seeing a trend here.  You?

When I think of the whole room, I just keep thinking…CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.  White, beadboard, cup pulls, and farm sink.  And the best part of all…LOADS AND LOADS of storage.  Everything from pantry items, to craft supplies, tools, lightbulbs, batteries…you know, all the random indoor stuff too.

These cabinets here to the left are pretty much the exact styling that I want…only in white.  Ahhh….so pretty.

We’ll see what it all comes down to in the end…but this is my general direction.  What do ya think?

And…if it were your laundry room…what thing do you think I should make sure I have in there? If we’re gonna spring for it and get it done, I want to make sure I dot all my i’s and cross my t’s!

Suggest away friends!

 

It’s cold and rainy here.  The kind of day where all you want to make or eat is some flavorful, hearty, simple-to-make soup.  I posted this one back months ago, but honestly…it’s worth posting again.  When the season begs for the flavor of sweet potatoes, and savory sausage…trust me…this one is worth making over and over again.

This soup is probably one of my all-time favorites.  I love hearty and flavorful soups and this one meets both of those requirements.  It is also one of those that is even better the next day!  The original recipe says to cut the sausage into rounds, but I cut the sausage lengthwise and then crosswise to make half-rounds because I like to have bites that have a little bit of everything each time!  It’s also really gorgeous…look at this picture.  This is the one that originally snagged me because it was on the cover of Bon Appetit Magazine several years ago.  So if you don’t know yet if you trust me when it comes to recipes, then for this one, trust Bon Appetit.

And just in case you’re wondering when you get to the part where you can choose linguica or chorizo sausage…that will depend on your ability to tolerate a little spicy heat.  My personal preference is the chorizo, but that tends to be on the spicy side for my kids, so I go with the Linguica because it is more mild.  Best case scenario I think for the whole family though is to mix the two, but that means you are buying a package of both and dividing them which gets pricey for the first time you make this. (You can totally freeze the extra for another time though.)

The cook times on this are pretty exact too which is nice.  You can serve this up in less than an hour from when you start it.  I’d recommend doing all the prep work earlier in the day though because chopping everything takes about as long as cooking it all.

 

 

 

 

I cut enough potatoes to fill a gallon size ziplock bag. Also, this Gaspar’s brand is the linguica & chorizo that I really like!

I just realized that since the day I posted this turned out to be a crazy one, these are the only pictures I took of the process!  Sorry!

If you read the post on how to make your own chicken stock then this is the perfect place to use it!

And now, I give you…the recipe!

 

 

SWEET POTATO AND SAUSAGE SOUP
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 10- to 11-ounce fully cooked smoked Portuguese linguiça sausage or chorizo sausage, cut in half lengthwise and then crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 2 large), peeled, quartered lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 pound white-skinned potatoes, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
6 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 9-ounce bag fresh spinach

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook until brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Transfer sausage to paper towels to drain. Add onions and garlic to pot and cook until translucent, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add all potatoes and cook until beginning to soften, stirring often, about 12 minutes. Add broth; bring to boil, scraping up browned bits. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Using potato masher, mash some of potatoes in pot. Add browned sausage to soup. Stir in spinach and simmer just until wilted, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Season with salt and pepper. Divide among bowls and serve.

When we were in the mountains about a month ago with some of our friends, my gal pal Lisa made this recipe for Blueberry French Toast Casserole for breakfast one morning.  It was so amazing, and I’ve been looking forward to making it again.  Let’s be honest though, when you put cream cheese, and bread, and blueberries all together….what’s not to love?!

One thing that I particularly liked about this recipe was that it wasn’t too too sweet.  Some french toasty recipes can load on the sugar, and this one really didn’t.  There’s a little bit of maple syrup in the mixture that you pour over the bread to soak, but other than that, it’s the blueberry simple syrup that really adds the extra sweetness.  I’m thinking this is what I’m going to be making on Christmas morning for our family this year as well.  It is a beautiful dish and felt festive the first time I had it (even though we were eating it in our jammies with a cup of stove-top percolated coffee and a bunch of kids yelling in the background.)

I made some up yesterday to send with my Hubs to work this morning…just for fun.  Rest assured I’ll be carving out a slice before I send it along though!

So here you go (oh…this is a make-ahead recipe…night before sort of thing):

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

Enjoy ya’ll!

Several of you have expressed interest in a lower fat version of this and just fyi, I used low fat cream cheese and skim milk when I made it.  I see no reason why you couldn’t use egg beaters (which are still eggs, just with a lower yolk to white ratio) and splenda to make the simple syrup. 

I’m linking up too at Women Living Well and Tasty Tuesday

I got this in an email from my mom.  Yes…it’s pretty awful….but it’s also really, really funny…

It’s that awkward moment…..

Seriously….how awful….who’s the streaker?!  No wonder the guy in the background is smiling so big….there’s a naked girl standing in front of him at the office Christmas party….

No….

Wait….

Is that?….

Oh my words….

Yes it is….

It’s that awkward moment when you realize….

that your friend’s “fat arm” makes you look naked at the office Christmas party.

Oh yeah….scroll back up now. You know you want to.  Yep….that’s it alright.  What a relief….I think.

It’s 4:25 in the morning and I’m sorry to say that I’ve been wide awake for the past 2 hours.  It’s the kind of awake where I know I’m so tired now that I have that sick feeling in the back of my throat…the headache starting somewhere behind my eyelids….but nothing.  Sleep will not come.

First I woke up to pee at 2:20am.  That’s how it usually starts you know…these random times where sleeplessness grabs hold of me….a simple 12 step walk to the bathroom.  And I can do it in the dark too…but for some reason, I flipped on a light this time.  Maybe that’s what did me in.

I waddled back to bed and snuggled down in the fresh sheets willing myself to fall back to sleep.  Maybe it was the willing myself that used enough brain power to wake me up completely.

Or maybe it was the dry patch on my right middle finger…cracking open with eczema…asking for lotion in the middle of the night that I didn’t want to get because I didn’t want the action to wake me up more.  But eventually I gave in, opened the drawer that always sticks and put the heavy cream on…I even put the moisture glove over it to really make the effects last so that I’d fall back to sleep in peace.  That glove needs to be washed again….all that cream is making it greasy.

Speaking of greasy…my hair is getting that way.  Note to self…wash it in the morning.  And while we’re thinking on morning here self…don’t forget to prepare more for the Bible study you’re leading at 9:30.  Yeah…the one you’re frustrated about because people keep dropping out of since they haven’t kept up with the homework.  I think I should wake the Hubs to pray with me about it…that frustration is keeping me awake now.  He prays with me…assures me it’s not me…it’s them.  Surely I’ll fall back asleep now.

That sweet Hubs of mine.  I really need to take his 18 volt cordless drill to that place all the way across town to drop it off to have it serviced.  Dang…I hate those kinds of errands…the ones where you’re in the car for ages just to drop something off….because then eventually you have to do it all over again to go back and pick up the thing you dropped off.  And speaking of dropping things off self, you really need to take your nice digital camera, the one that broke when you were in Montana this summer, to that camera shop in the next town over.  Yeah…the one that’ll take 45 minutes just to get there to drop it off.  Stinks that Nikon won’t fix it.  I didn’t know it was “gray” market when I bought it.  Another note to self…don’t ever buy a gray market camera on accident again.  Stupid, stupid.

Oh and self, while you’re making mental notes…you really need to get that evite out about the Lily Pottery show on the 29th.  And make sure you get together that blog post about her soon too….people need to know she makes amazing pottery jewelry…not mugs and vases.  Oh yeah….and self, that dry finger is getting really dry again….how about another lotion application since you’re already up?

Hmmm….this year I’m definitely having a Christmas party.  Yep…I’ve wanted to have one the past 2 years but haven’t wanted to step on anyone else’s toes who might be having one.  Well ya’ll…this year I’m having one.  Yep…it’s on my calendar too.  Hmmm though….big party or small one?  First thought…small.  Nope….big….it needs to be big.  With Christmas decorations everywhere, and people can dress nice, and have a night without their kids, and eat good food and have a glass of wine.  Yep….I want it to be big.  Oh…and that weekend you want to do it self, make sure to call Mom to see if they will have their Christmas weekend where they take the kids THAT weekend…the weekend of the party.

You know what self….why don’t you just flip the light on and write all this stuff down?  There are too many thoughts rolling around in there to let you go back to sleep….write it all down and then this sleepless problem will be solved.  Then you’ll be free of all this mind wandering and you’ll fall right back to sleep.  Good idea….I think I will.

Crud….It’s just 3:45…and I’m still awake.  Hmmm….try a new position…shift around a bit, fluff the pillow, rub your feet together.

“Babe….what’s going on?  Why are you up?” – the Hubs

“No idea…still thinking too much. Sorry. I’ll be still.”

Ok….so the shifting to get comfortable thing isn’t going to work.

I should really write a blog post about this in the morning.  Speaking of which I really should get up about 5:30 so that I have time for a good quiet time with the Lord, have time to think some more about this Bible study in the morning…oh yeah…don’t forget self, you HAVE to wash that greasy hair in the morning.  Man it’s greasy….seriously, go look in the mirror…and pee again while you’re at it, maybe there’s still some left in there and it’s the reason you can’t fall asleep.

Done and done.  Seriously, it’s 4:15…make some good notes self… about all these feelings you have when you can’t sleep so you can write about it in the morning when you wake up.  The sick to your stomachness, the whole thought of “should I even keep trying to go back to sleep if I’m just waking up in a little over an hour?”  Yes you crazy fool…you should go to sleep…because if not, then that means you have been awake…wide freaking awake since 2:20 and only asleep before that since 10.  You cannot function well on 4 hours of sleep…who are you kidding?!

Just get up self…write the post now.  Go sit on the bathroom floor so you don’t wake up the Hubs.  Man, I miss the days where I had a sitting room off of my bedroom….hmmm….I can ly here instead and imagine doing some cool renovations to this house one day.  Yes….the things I can imagine…if I just bump a wall out here….or wait…would I bump it out over there?  You know, if I was gonna bump out a wall there, then it’d make just as much sense to add another space right over there beyond it.  Logan…get a grip….this imaginating of home improvements is probably about $400 thousand dollars worth of real life money that you don’t have.  Oh yeah…good thought self…stop thinking about that and go back to sleep.

Ok…go back to sleep.  Sleep….sleep….sleep.  One sheep, two sheep, three sheep….seriously, does anyone ever fall asleep counting?  Forget this…it’s the pits.  You’re never gonna have the same stream of consciousness going on when you try to get up and remember it all to write it.  Just get up and write it now…and then maybe you’ll go back to sleep afterwards.

Ok self….It’s now 4:56 and i just did it.  I wrote the post.  Now can I go back to sleep?

Wait…it’s 4:56….I have to be up in just half an hour….do I even go back to bed or do I just recognize that I’ve been up since 2 freaking 20 in the morning?!

UGH!  Maybe I can squeeze in just 30 minutes….

You’re totally all going to be singing Cher the rest of the day! HA!  You can thank me later! 🙂

I am absolutely giddy right now.  A great place to be…giddy!  Here’s why I’m giddy….

Yes friends…they’re here!  The Yesterville pictures that my unbelievably talented friend and photographer, Kim Deloach, took of my family to give you a taste of what you can expect for your family photo session in Yesterville!  Now, not everyone will want to go all out and try to find semi-period clothing like I did….but I do love a good a good opportunity to play dress up!  Besides, I thought it’d be more fun for ya’ll to look through them that way too!  I have to be honest and say that I cannot get enough of my little fellas dressed in those hats!  Wanna buy a newspaper anyone?

I’ll post a few of the pictures here for you to see, and then I’ll give you the link at the end to see the whole slide show that she put together too.  It’s amazing.  And you have to watch it with the sound turned on….the music she put it to makes you want to just dance and be happy.

Lucky for those of you who’ve already signed up for the November 19th shoot day…now you’ll know what you’re in for as far as what the property offers when you pick the spots you want.  And for the rest of you out there who are really itching to FINALLY take some family photos…we’ve still got a couple of slots available.  For more information about pricing and details, go HERE to read more and then email me ASAP if you’re interested.

For now though…a little old-fashioned photographic fun!

And if you really want to get a feel for the MASSIVE amount of fun we had at Yesterville, and the unbelievable variety of things you can do there, don’t forget to check out this most happy slide show HERE!

Seriously…what do you have on Saturday, November the 19th that is better than making memories like these?!  Nothing?  Oh…I thought you’d say that!  Email me ya’ll… Logan @ LifeForDessert dot com to reserve your slot today!