World's Tastiest Buttermilk Pancake Recipe

Do you have kids in your house that, like mine, LOVE themselves a good buttermilk pancake in the morning for breakfast? My son loves pancakes and I have a recipe that is always popular for breakfast time. It's not too hard to make and the pancakes are thick and rich and filling, so you don't need too many.

Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Wet Ingredients:
2 cups buttermilk
4 tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 beaten eggs

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients together.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix gently just enough to combine the two. Don't over mix or your pancakes won't be light and fluffy.

Heat a non stick skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray.

Cook like you would any other pancake, but NOTE that these are really thick pancakes, so only about 1/2 cup of batter per pancake is needed and be sure that it's cooked all the way through before serving (I say this from experience...these are THICK and should be cooked on low heat for a bit longer).

I think you'll have some pleased little faces in the morning with these pancakes...especially if you add a few white chocolate chips to the mixture for them specially.

It's even a fun thing to do with your kids in the morning! My son LOVES to help me bake and cook.

He enjoyed them :) And that's only ONE pancake on his plate...these puppies are thick and soft and flavorful! ENJOY!!!!

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Cane Chair Makeover & Craft Room Sneak Peek!

So do you guys remember WAY LONG ago when I purchased a cane chair off a Craigslist vendor for $45? No? You don't remember??...yeah, it was back in September (hanging head in shame). It took me EIGHT MONTHS to get my act together and finish this chair. Part of it was being unable to make a decision on the fabric and part of it was sheer laziness...well, maybe not laziness as much as lack of motivation. I work full time, after all, so finding time can be difficult sometimes. BUT these past few weeks I have found the motivation to finish my chair BECAUSE I'm ALMOST finished with my craft room. I'm well aware I've said that for about 9-10 months so far, but I'm being honest...I'm down to punch list items!!

SO let's take a look back at the cane chair BEFORE it's makeover in all it's poop brown glory....

And the sad thing?? The previous owners HAD made over this chair...GAH! In case you were wondering, that is straw rope wrapped around the chair as cording. It really was a glorious sight.

Here's the AFTER!! (with my new camera...you can 100% see the difference in the photos, no?!)

 

Fabric was purchased on Etsy, but my seller doesn't carry it anymore. Here's where you can find it now (Yellow/White Suzani Slub fabric)

So do you guys love it as much as I do?! And I'll tell you what, it's kind of perfect in my craft room... maybe you'd like a little sneak peak?????

 Here's my finished chair with the Urban Outfitters rug I purchased several months ago with the help of you guys and the overwhelming vote for the yellow (thanks for that!).

What are your thoughts?! I can't wait to show you the finished room! I'm SOOOO close to being able to debut it! :)

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Summer Beauty Trends

Thanks to Walgreens for underwriting this post. I was paid as a member of the Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all mine. Visit http://www.discoverbeautywithin.com/.

I don't often get too personal on here about products I use or beauty rituals because I tend to keep things pretty simple and low maintenance for myself, but when I saw the opportunity to chat with you guys about Summer Beauty trends, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I use most during the summer!!

Being that summer is right around the corner, I'm guessing I'm not the only one changing up the products I use on my hair and skin to adjust for the heat and humidity! Living only a few hours from Lake Erie, we like to spend our weekends waterside during the summer and there are always some key products I need to make my weekends fun and stylish at the same time.

This season, I'm REALLY into the coral color, so a must have right now for me is Essie's coral toned nail polish, which I found at Walgreen's .

A close second would be Essie's teal colored nail polish, so maybe I'd paint my hands with one and feet with the other for some variety...because I have to have my nails painted before I spend any time at the beach!

Gel nails seem to be all the rage this year, but the price tag at your local nail salon can be a little tricky depending on your budget. I thought it was a really great idea that Nutra Nail came out with a DIY Gel Nail kit for a great price available at Walgreens. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm willing to give it a shot to see if I can get longer lasting nail color with their product!

 
 Now one of the most important products for me, if not the most important, is a good sunless tanner. I'm a red head so I'm extremely fair skinned and I do my best not to blind people at the beach with my transparency, so I often enlist in the help of a good sunless tanner that doesn't necessarily make me "tan", but makes me "not albino" during weekends at the beach. I'm a big fan of Nivea's products and the fact that you can gradually build it up...

Before I apply self tanners, I really like to use some kind of scrub to get my skin smooth and moisturized, so I turn to St. Ives for their Green Tea Facial scrub for my face and their apricot scrub for my body. My skin always feels so much smoother after I use a scrub and with the harsh sun and sand on my feet, my skin usually needs it regularly after weekends at the beach!

For the weekends in the water, I insist on Waterproof Mascara and for years I have been using CoverGirl for all of my mascara needs. I like that it's affordable and it stays on pretty well for weekends at the lake (you don't want to see what I look like WITHOUT mascara!!).

Lastly, to deal with the issues I have with humidity and it's terrible effects on my hair, I LOVE to use It's a 10 shine spray! I bought it just a few weeks ago and really like the product!

I think the best thing for me is that I can find all of these products at my local drugstore and they don't break the bank when I need to use them frequently throughout the summer. So there you have it! There's MY personal summer beauty products and trends, what do you like to use during the summer time? Pin It

Feta Chicken Tortellini over Spinach

HEY-LO everyone! Well, my husband's baseball coaching season has ended finally and I'm back to having a little more free time in the evenings again to try to cook. It seemed silly the last few months cooking for just my son and I and making big elaborate meals, so our food has been pretty boring. But finally tonight I had the time to make a dish I really enjoy and that's pretty easy to make. AND it's SOOOO good (but I love anything with garlic, pasta, and feta cheese in it so I'm a bit biased).

Here's what you need for this dish:
One bag of frozen tortellini
Frozen spinach (optional--amount as desired)
1 lb. chicken
One can diced tomatoes (I prefer Rotel because it adds a little kick)
One package of feta cheese
Minced garlic
Olive Oil

Cooking Time: about 15 minutes
Serving Size: feeds 4 easily

 

 Start by cutting up all your chicken and placing it in a skillet with some olive oil and about 2 teaspoons of minced garlic to cook (I LOVE garlic, so I just add it to taste...in my cooking there really can't be enough garlic).

While your chicken is cooking, start another pot with water to boil your tortellini noodles and get them dethawed. You can also prepare your spinach at this time too. I just bought a package of green giant frozen spinach, so this requires about 5 minutes being microwaved, but you could buy fresh spinach and cook it on the stove during this time too. It's really up to you, which is what's great about this recipe--you can make it as easy or as hard as you want to.

When your chicken is done, add a can of diced tomatoes and a container of feta cheese and turn the heat down to low. From there, combine the cooked tortellini  and chicken into one skillet and cook it all together for a few minutes until the feta has melted. 

Serve pasta and chicken mixture over a bed of spinach (if desired). It's really good without the spinach too though.

And because I was being silly and wanted to play with PicMonkey (Picnik's replacement) here's what the meal has to say to you itself...

So there you have it...a fun, semi-healthy meal that allows some ease of cooking depending on how fresh and complicated you want it to be. And for us working saps, it's a large meal, so there's plenty left over for a nice sized lunch for me tomorrow! YUM!! Hope you guys have a great week!

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When baseball coaching ends and running begins!

A little known fact about my family...baseball runs our lives from about March through August of every year. My husband is a former minor league baseball player who played eight seasons in the AA and AAA leagues with the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves until he retired in 2006. He's played baseball since he was a wee little one. He even made it up to the big league exhibition game at one point in Florida and got to pitch against AND STRUCK OUT Jim Thome (and yes, maybe I'm bragging about him just a little...I'm allowed to, he's my husband and I'm super proud of him).

Since then, he still has an extreme love of the game and plays and coaches as much as he possibly can. Casey has more passion for baseball in his left pinky finger than I do in my entire body about ANY of my hobbies period. So needless to say, baseball definitely tends to take priority in our family between his coaching schedule with a local high school and his playing schedule with his men's team. Sometimes it can be hard to find any time to accomplish anything with how little he is home during the spring--hence why I have so many unfinished projects currently lined up.

Anyways, this spring we decided to sign up for the Color Run that is coming to Columbus in July. Ever heard of the Color Run?

I saw it on Pinterest actually a few months ago and it's a 5K where every 1K you reach you get doused in a different color powder. It's totally safe and you have to wear white so at the end you're all happy and colorful. :) I've been wanting to do this and I really would like to start running again (I did a half marathon several years ago and then never ran again..oy), so we signed up. But we haven't had time to start running yet because of Casey's baseball schedule. So baseball coaching ends this week and next week sounds like the perfect chance to start up with some running.

I'm both excited to start running again and not so excited at the same time because I know I'm pretty out of shape and where a 5K was NOTHING to me 3 years ago, a 5K seems pretty daunting to me now. So it'll be interesting to see how all this goes, but in the end I'm just excited to participate in something fun and different in July with my hubby and little brother and maybe get back in shape a little bit and maybe lose some weight too?? (fingers crossed)

What summer sports/activities are you guys up to this year?! Anyone else doing the Color Run!?
Happy Friday, my friends! Pin It

Poppyseed Projects Sign + GIVEAWAY!

When we were at SNAP last week, we had the opportunity to try our hands at making a sign using Texturizing Cream from Poppyseed Projects. 

I showed up to this class 10 minutes early and it was already jam packed full with women sitting around tables with paint brushes, newspaper, and tons of different signs to choose from...ready to create. I was too late to get a seat, so I sat in the back and observed and grabbed a sign to take home with me to finish myself.

The ladies of Poppyseed Projects are based out of Utah and started up in 2007. Today, they sell kits and other crafts online that you can purchase and make your own. They give you step by step instructions and you do the rest. You choose the colors, style, patterns, and what will work in your home, which is what I did this week!

I'm kind of smitten with the end result and love that I was able to create a unique, one of a kind sign for my home that has that vintage, distressed look to it at the same time. 

 They gave us these signs with the vinyl on them to take home. They did the steps of painting the first layer of paint on them, which is the layer that will show through when you sand at the end. Then they painted texturizing cream over top of the black paint, which helps give the end result of the textured and distressed look.

After I applied my vinyl to the board, I got my preferred paint color and a sponge brush to apply the paint lightly and evenly to the sign. I applied two thin layers to the sign.

And then I let it dry for several hours (they recommend 24 hours, but I couldn't wait that long).

After it dried, I slowly peeled off my vinyl to reveal the white below it...and it's honestly already pretty great at this point, but wait until you get to sanding it!

I started gently sanding the edges of the sign and then worked my way into the inside to give it a nice lightly distressed look. I love it!! My house is pretty neutral and this will go just about anywhere.

SUCH an easy project and I was so thrilled with the end results!! Poppyseed Projects has tons of different kits and frames available to do the same thing to, as well!!

Want to win one?! Well...I've got amazing news for you! Poppyseed Projects, being their gracious, amazing selves, offered one of my readers an 8x10 frame in either the Carson or Eleanor variety! Your choice of one of them!! Whoooooo hoooo! I'm so excited for you guys!

AND to make the deal even sweeter, even if you don't win they're offering you a discount of $10 off a purchase of $50 or more by using the code THECARDS. Aren't they awesome?! So get to entering. The giveaway ends May 9th and the winner will have two days to respond to email before a new winner is chosen. Winner must be within the United States, sorry all non-U.S. friends. Enter below using Rafflecopter.

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SNAP Part Two--Food, Swag, Queen Bee Market

If you didn't see my recap, HERE you can find my post about SNAP and the overall lessons I learned from it. Today I thought I'd show you some of the fun parts like our Velata sponsored dinner the first night, the great food we had the other two nights, the swag and goodies we got and made, the Queen Bee Market and more!!

First up, the food! You never know if going into a conference if the food will be good or not. The ticket price for this conference wasn't too expensive and it's not like 1,000's of us were gathering, so let's just say I was hesitant to see how good the food was going to be. BUT, I was not disappointed. I ate everything put in front of me...it was tasty, good quality, and interesting! The first night Velata, a new product from Scentsy, hosted our first dinner, a plated meal, and it was super tasty. We're talking chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and more. For dessert, we got to try out new Velata chocolate dipping warmers and let me tell you...it was a mad rush of 300 women trying to get to the chocolate haha.

 

Each day they served us box lunches that had a huge sandwich in them with chips, an apple, an ENORMOUS chocolate chip cookie, and a piece of candy with a drink. They even labeled them super cute....let's just say, I never walked away from any meal full.

(photo via)

 They also had candy all over the place...in our swag, in the lunch/sponsor area they had a candy bar, in the classes they handed out candy...I came home with tons of treats for my little one (and a lot for me too). 

And then there's the gals that made treats to hand out while they were there....

(Cookies from Bee in Our Bonnet)

Next up...the SWAG! Wow. When I first walked into the conference and met Shelley, from House of Smiths, I commented to her about how heavy our swag bags were and how I couldn't get over how much hard work they had done...already, just walking in! Shelley said to me, in her uber-funny hilarious way...You know, when we were planning this we were like.....we don't want a ton of paper and stuff in our conference bags like every other conference you go to! We want stuff! So...we all started asking our vendors and contacts for stuff for the bags and I think we did pretty well. That's totally paraphrasing her, but you get the jist. The gals in charge of this wanted STUFF and products and that's what they got.

 Amy Cornwell Designs gave us all a "Just Be You" necklace, which was the theme of this year's conference. Not only was this an amazing surprise the first night, but check out the swag bag!!

There were loads of goodies from Poppyseed Projects frames, to Lions Brand yarn and crochet needles, to vinyl sheets, cupcake liners, a sticker maker, a SNAP water bottle, a bag full of Scentsy products, scrapbooking paper, hair flowers, discount cards, coupons, and gift cards, minwax pencils, and much much more. I just got through sorting through all of it yesterday and finally putting it away. There was also a SLEW of giveaways throughout the event in classes, as well as at the end of the conference. 

There's the table full of big time giveaways at the conference. They gave away two Silhouette Cameo's, a singer sewing machine, JoTotes camera bags, and much more. We went through a good 30 minutes of giveaways at the end of the conference, but alas I won nothing. I did win a cookbook the second day for being one of the first 20 to a class. 

Last topic of the day, the Queen Bee Market. Fantastic! I've never experienced anything like it before. These are items you can't find just anywhere! They are vendors you'll most likely never meet in person and we had the opportunity to shop til we dropped Friday night and Saturday morning. I definitely left with some goodies, that's for sure. The line was long to check out, but we were in good company and I enjoyed watching all the gals shopping and seeing their cool finds. I only wish I lived closer because some of the times I liked were a bit too large to fly home with me.

So there's Part Two of my Wrap Up. There's so much more fun stuff to tell you about the sweet ladies I met, some of the stuff I learned in the classes I took, and to show you some fun pics from the Tulip Festival and Thanksgiving Point, which was such a gorgeous venue. :) Enjoy your Sunday!

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