Dreaming..........

What do I want out of life?  Many things....  Dreaming big and dreaming small...regardless of which one you do, dreaming and aspiring is so important.  Is it a bucket list or is it just a want list?  Is it tied up in who I am?  Does it give you joy to dream or does it make you melancholy for what you don't have now?  Do I have the gumption to think big and to not just assume it is outside my reach?  Do you just settle for what is there or do you keep reaching or pushing yourself to the next step?  Do the everyday stresses of life, spill over into your dreams and prevent you from pursuing them?  How do you find the balance and the reality to make your dreams come true? 

In my opinion, dreams keep us engaged in life and keep us looking for the next step.  Till the day I die, I want to be dreaming and thinking about what I can do next.  I don't want to have a bucket list that isn't continously full.   But the difficulty is finding the balance to live your everyday the way you need to and weaving the dreams and the steps to make those dreams come true into your everyday life.  

This blog was one of those wants, it has been slow to progress, but thats ok, its ultimately for me and anyone that wants to join this journey. 

Back a couple months ago, my family and I drove to Charlottesville, Va. which is the home of the University of Virginia.  Our intent was to leave and stay at a lake close by but the weather prevented us from getting away like we wanted to...traffic was a nightmare and when you have a husband that fishes for a living, you have to take care of boats, in our case 2 that particular day.  Anyway, so we arrived in Charlottesville late on our first vacation day and decided to skip the lake.  On our second day, we drove up to Monticello for a tour.  Oh what a glorious spot, it is so beautiful up there.  For those of you that don't know...with my following of 2..I am sure you do...anyway, Monticello was home to Thomas Jefferson.  He was a true visionary and I can only imagine what his bucket list contained until the day he died.  His home is full of inventions or ideas he took from visits overseas and he weaved them into his home.   The amount of "things" he did everyday would blow you away.  His writings alone were incredible. He had a chair he would write in and on the arms he attached candle holders so that he could see better.  He didn't have a copy machine but  he had this gadget (my word) that essentially attached 2 pencils together, one he wrote with and the other one wrote at the same time he did so that he would have 2 versions of everything he wrote.  He was so full of life and seemed to cram everything he possibly could into his life, in my opinion, no grass grew under his feet.  That's what I want to figure out how to do, cram the fun stuff into my life and let go of some of the less fun stuff that brings me down.

Now, how do I do that????

 

Blossom's Cheater Cobbler

Are you ever sitting there watching a good TV show, and someone in the family says..."I want something sweet.  What do we have?"  and you as the mom, think "Well I don't have anything because I am on a diet and have purged all sweet things from the house."....almost all sweet things. 

Well the below picture is of a dessert I have developed, redeveloped, repurposed, changed and made it from just about anything in the house.  What is it?  My cheater cobbler. 

This is the start of some blogs I will share periodically called Blossom's Cheater Recipes.  I very seldom follow a recipe...my daughter gave me a recipe the other day and said, "mom, please follow the recipe...it sounds really good".  I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't follow it...but she liked it anyway!

Sometimes my Cheater Recipes are just a solution to a need for something quick and easy but yummy or to go to someones house like my Cheater Cake that I bought at the store on the way to her house then made it in 5 minutes using her microwave.  And then there is the full fledged Cheater Meals.  Cheater recipes are always about what do I have in the house that I can make yippee skippee!  So, visit periodically for a new or old Cheater Recipe concoction.

Anyway, back to the cobbler.  How do you make it?  Simple.  Start with Bisquick.  I ALWAYS have Bisquick in the house.  If you don't know what it is, buy a box at the store and start with the recipes on the back.  I have a friend...you know who you are...who had never used Bisquick. 

Here's the recipe:   take 1 and 1/4 cup of Bisquick and 1 Cup of milk, I use 2% milk.  Whisk/Stir the 2 ingredients.  Once mixed add in some sugar, heck if I know how much to  tell you maybe 2/3 of a cup.  I don't measure the sugar.  My husband likes it sweet so I add quite a bit of sugar.  Now set that aside.

In a skillet put some butter (you got it...i don't measure) maybe 3 tablespoons, sliced apple (4 small apples that weren't ones anyone would eat) with the skin removed and fresh blueberries,  a little vanilla extract, some sugar mixed with some cinnamon.  Cook until tender and bubbly, I don't like alot of liquid, and I don't like the apples real crunchy, so I cooked it down some.  Then you dump the apple/blueberry mix into the Bisquick bowl and stir slightly, don't mix completely, you want the batter to stay a little white when it cooks.

Dump this into a glass cooking dish sprayed with Pam.   Place the dish in the oven at 350 degrees.  I would say cook for about 20 minutes then go into it with a spoon and see it is still shows alot of batter.  If it does keep it cooking until it is more like cobbler when you go to the bottom.  My husband likes it with ice cream but I very seldom have ice cream in the house. 

Options if you don't have apples and blueberries.  You could pretty much use any fresh fruit.  Might need to cook it down a little and get some of the juiciness cooked out.  I want to try peaches sometime, haven't had a chance but I bet they are good!

Another option and this one is the original recipe and really, really easy.  I had a can of cherry pie filling.  So make this slightly different.  Spray the baking dish with Pam.  Dump the can of pie filling (any kind) into the dish, then pour the same Bisquick mixture (Bisquick, milk and sugar) as above over the top of the filling.  Stick it in the oven and bake.  Easy smeasy!!!   Sometimes I add a pat of butter to the top while it is cooking and sprinkle some sugar across the top.

I have yet to try this recipe with something chocolatey like Cocoa Powder which I always have in the house...but I have an idea starting in my head that I will have to try.


Lastly, serve it in a pretty dish like I did above with some  old real silver (well silverplated).  By the way, all my silver pieces were picked up at yardsales.

Green: Re-purposed Baby Dresser

The picture below is of a cabinet I bought a couple years ago at a thrift store for $40.00.  It sat in my storage area for a year before I decided where I wanted to put it.  This has been a bare spot since we built the house and the cabinet fell right into place in this spot.


This sits near my kitchen and now contains my tableclothes, napkins, paper plates, etc in the drawers.  Before this cabinet, my tablecloths etc. were stored in a variety of places.  Now they are in one location which makes accessing how I want to set up a table so much easier.

 

The door area which is where baby clothes would hang,  I keep doggie treats and hide candy from the family in this section...guess they will know where the candy is now....
















I haven't maximized this space yet, but when I find a shelving unit with a couple of shelves, my plan is to make this space even more useable. But I like to organize and decorate in stages and over time you will see how I BlossomStyle my life and my families life!

The only negative about this cabinet which sits at my back door, is that it is a landing point for keys, mail....chewing gum....oh my stars you name it, I have found it laying here by either my hubby or daughter and OK...I confess.. me as well.  So that is the next yard sale or thrift store find I am looking for, something that looks nice but that can sit here and collect some of the junk of everyday life.

Watch for my next posting....I'll give you some better shots of the pretties on top of this dresser and tell you a little about them.

Going Green...Re-do It or Repurpose with Style!!

My good friend Laurie and I went on a green journey a couple years back.  We both had a desire to understand the green world  and oh my did we learn alot, to this day we amaze ourselves at the amount of information and knowledge we gained.  Can you imagine... we even researched how fast bamboo grows....it grows pretty dang fast by the way....

What I found during that journey is something I have been doing for years and years that was green which was re-purposing or re-doing something that was from the past or a yard sale find.

Something else Laurie and I are good at is organizing so this first blog co-post (is co-post a real word?)  is us sharing an aspect of our green journey together.  The next couple of blogs are about buying  or receiving something and re-using it and then integrating it into your life and then using it as a place to organize.

Here's Lauries co-post first...I'll post mine later this week.  FYI....bureau for those who don't recognize a New Yorker's word is the same as a dresser...love my New Yorker buddies accent!!

We needed to replace our dining room china closet. The one we had was too large for the space and did not have the the type of storage we needed. Evelyn gave me the idea to use a bureau instead of a conventional dining room piece. We had a bureau (1930's with original hardware) that worked perfectly. We painted it gloss white and sprayed the hardware with brushed nickel. The piece came out beautifully. 

The two top smaller drawers are used for serving utensils and I have used the larger drawers for our tablecloths, place mats and other linens. The room feels much more roomier and I am thinking of finding a piece of granite to set on top of the bureau for some color.

The following are a great couple of pics of the the hardware.  Laurie & Jim did a great job!



Thanks Laurie for sharing, join us later this week for another posting in this series...Hope you enjoyed!

Three day MLK Weekend Purging

Well, my 3 day weekend from my regular job was fabulous...well fabulous if you like purging.  It started with my daughters room where we cleaned closets and drawers. She had 3 years of clothes and toys that she has outgrown, as she has now reached the teens.  I then moved to my room and purged the same and then moved to the spare room, living room closet and the kitchen.  It was liberating...I had been accumulating 30 years worth of odds and ends.  I was surprised to find my original comforter from my first apartment years and years ago.    To give you a perception of how much "stuff" I let go, I have an Escape....took 2 trips with the back seat and trunk jam packed to the thrift store, 1 large box to ship to mom with a tea set and stuffed animals for friends who play Santa at Xmas and I set aside some items for my booth...who would have known a mirror and pictures that I will never use were in the closet and under the bed....I had completely forgotten they even existed!   I still have a large mound of jewelry to assess that was my daughters.  Time to let go....and make room for new treasures.  

Now I know today's post isn't beautiful with pics and full of knowledge about repainting or repurposing yet, but sometimes, you have to take time out and eliminate, re-adjust, make room and organize for the next steps.  That is what I am doing, putting the next steps in place in building this blog...seems weird that purging is part of that but it is...sometimes, clearing the mind isn't just about refreshing the mind but it's also about moving the clutter out of your life.  Thats what I did this weekend, de-clutterd my home and my mind....

Let me share a picture of another purchase back in the  summer of a 40's buffet for yes....a whopping $10.00, gosh I love a good deal!   I chose not to paint as I love the old bakelite handles....I put this in my living room just before Thanksgiving and have really been enjoying the patina of old stain and the two tones.  It is just the right height.  My living room has become more focused on antiques without being painted.  As you start to see my house, you will see, I love it all, I have determined that I am very eclectic anymore.  I used to lean more towards one style but as I grow older, I love the diversity in the home....seems like you always have something different to look at.   We inherited the TV from my husbands uncle and the old TV cabinet was too small so I started lookin over some of my purchases from this year and said, nope this one isn't leaving, its staying and in my opinion is just perfect!

Notice I pulled out a drawer and set it on the floor underneath and it has magazines in it and I stained the shelf  where the drawer was and it now houses the the cable box and DVD player.  I am still working on some of the pretties to sit underneath to give it a more finished look.  When that is complete, I will share.  You know a home is never complete...you just keep adding and layering and make it even more beautiful and homey!



Well, I hope you all have a fabulous week, I will be posting again soon... I haven't decided yet on what yet....but I will keep it interesting and different....Thanks for checking in at BlossomStyled!!!

Lamps Revamped...redone...

Picked up these 2 beaut's back in the summer at a yard sale.  Revamped them for future use or might sell them to someone who is looking for a change...just depends on whether I can part with them!  The wood tones were 80's style...see for yourself below.

Sorry, for the window reflection,my kitchen counter and the whatnot around...note to self--goal for future blogs is better picture taking!   LOL...all in the fun of learning the blog world.  Now this was nice pre-fixed up but with some cream colored paint and some AS wax, it prettied up quite nicely for those of us that love Shabby Chic. 

It didn't take me very long to paint with my handy dandy sprayer, then I used some fine steel wool to smooth her out, applied the AS wax and lickedty split with maybe 30 minutes work, I had my 2 new beauties.  The shades were picked up separately at another yard sale for 50 cents a piece.  What a steal they were!

Hope you enjoyed this blog!  At least my one follower...which is my daughter and my friend in NY who can't figure out how to add herself as a follower....you know who you are...have the boys figured it out for you yet.  LOL!!!

It's A New Year and New Beginnings

It is a New Year and I decided to get started with a Blog on the things I love.  Last year at this time my Dad found out he had cancer.  It was a devastating time but, something Dad said to me during that time keeps coming back to me.  Evelyn, do what you love now, don't wait till you are retired or when you have the time, to do something you love or want to do because then it may be to late.  Live for now.  Dad not a day goes by I don't miss you terribly, even now, typing this, brings tears that I have to brush away, but Dad this first post is for you and remembering what you said because I won't ever forget you.

Friends I hope a year from now we can look back on this blog and remember that it is about living life and following your passion and dreams.....more to come on that...  For now, this posting is simple as is this blog design but by this time next year, I hope it has more energy, pizazz, life, love and we are all experiencing and living our dreams.  

More to come in the days that follow....and be patient as I figure out how to make this blog even better and fun to look at!!!   Happy New Year!!!