On a non-decorating note...

Belated Merry Christmas (and early happy New Year!)!

I have a sister-in-law with a great sense of humor. She's a fan of this link, and I thought I'd share it with you all. There are thousands of hilarious pictures- brows around a bit :) I'm sure we all have a few we could add.

Hopefully a more house project-ish post will follow tomorrow. Between Christmas, cooking, and a bad cold, this blog has been a tad neglected. Yikes!

Burlap Bulletin Board

I've been seeing these burlap bulletin boards all over blogdom recently, and wanted to give one a try. It's currently hanging at the bottom of our stairs, but I'm thinking it'd look better in the office. This project is so easy. If you can staple, then you're set. Here's what you need:

• Bulletin board
• 1-2 yards of burlap (I used two, since the burlap's weave was so loose you could see through only one layer)
• Stapler

Lay the board face down in the center of the fabric. Fold each edge over, pull taught, and staple. And keep stapling. I actually used a regular staples, not a gun, since the back of my board was cork. That's it! So easy.

I love Pottery Barn's use of a bulletin board as an Advent calendar (there's uses linen):

 

Happy decorating!

Wild Rice Bread with Whipped Almond Cranberry Butter

I realize this isn't decorating related. But food is just as exciting as decorating, so I suppose it's okay :) To celebrate our first anniversary this summer, my husband and I spend a long weekend at Larsmont Cottages on the North Shore. They've got this fabulous restaurant connected to it called The Ledge Rock Grille- I'd highly recommend it! Anyway, before the meal, our server brought out bread- wild rice bread with lingonberry butter. YUM! I found these two recipes online and tweaked them to my liking. Here they are:

Wild Rice Bread

• 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1 cup + 2 tbsp warm water
• 2 tbsp sugar, divided
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cups cooked wild rice
• 3 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve the yeast in water. Add in 1 tbsp sugar and let sit for 5 minutes. Add in molasses, oil, salt, wild rice, and remaining sugar. Mix well and add in flour. Kneed for one minute. Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough, cover, and let rise again for another hour. Shape into a large ball and bake on parchment lined cookie sheet for approximately 35 minutes at 375 degrees.

Whipped Almond Cranberry Butter

• 1 stick butter, ( at room temperature)
• 1/4 cup canned cranberries
• dash almond extract

Place ingredients in medium sized bowl and beat together until well mixed and fluffy, 1 - 2 minutes.

                                                     Hah, looks a bit like raw ground beef- I promise you it's not.

I'm not a big "butter on bread" type of girl, but I must admit I've been slathering my wild rice bread with this butter concoction. Since it's mixed with fruit, it must not be THAT bad for me... right? :)

Recipe credits: wild rice bread, cranberry butter

Christmas (Tree) Leftovers

And I don't mean food- however, it's great too. We picked out and set up our Christmas tree on Saturday afternoon, and my husband sawed off the bottom few branches so that the tree could fit into our stand. Before he could throw them in the trash, I whisked them away to turn into more Christmas decor. What do you think?

I promise that this is the same bathroom- isn't it weird how wonky flash can make a paint color look?

There's still a couple of branches left in the garage. I'm thinking I might attempt to make my own wreath- we'll see if how it turns out.