marital disputes & jelly doughnuts

i'm not gonna lie, the biggest thing josh and i fight about is food. it's sad, i know. like, knock-down, drag-out, i'm-giving-you-the-silent-treatment-for-the-rest-of-the-night, over a choco taco. if you've never had one, you might not understand.

do any of you grocery shop with your husband? josh often asks if he can accompany me to the store, and how am i going to decline such a sweet request? also, i can get out of there in half the time with his help. but an ongoing dispute of ours has been josh's never ending grocery store requests for doughnuts. if he just wanted one solitary glazed doughnut out of the glass case, we'd be fine. but he wants the bags, rather, boxes of doughnut holes. herein lies the problem: we are terrible at sharing food. junk food, that is. we could share a salad all day long. either he will eat them all and then i'll be mad that i didn't get any (this is typically the case, ie: choco taco), or i'll take three-quarters the bag/box/whatever the case may be and hoard it at work.

I can hear all of your great resolutions now, "Just buy more", "Split it evenly right off the bat", "Don't buy junk food"(ha). Those are all good thoughts, my friends. But it's not that easy. Part of the problem is that we truly do try to eat healthy for the most part, so when we do succumb to buying junk food, like doughnuts, it's a battle.

So, when I saw this recipe for jelly doughnut holes in my eat well magazine, I decided it was high time I made up for all the times his box of doughnuts request was denied. how can it be bad for you if it's in eat well magazine? it's an oxymoron, right? plus there's something about making doughnuts yourself that makes them not feel as bad for you. well, that's what i'm telling myself. please don't try to convince me otherwise.

jelly doughnut holes
all you need for this recipe is 1/2 C sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 can pillsbury grands, 2 C canola oil, and jelly.


Prep: In a bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon; set aside. Heat the oil in a 10 in. skillet over medium-low heat.

While oil is heating, form the doughnuts. Separate dough into 8 biscuits and flatten them into 3 1/4 in. rounds. Using a 1 1/2 in. round cookie cutter*, cut 3 circles from each round.
*We didn't have this kind of cookie cutter, so I just used the top of the cinnamon jar. Worked fine.


With a sharp knife, slice horizontally (parallel to cutting board) through centers - do not cut all the way through - and open like a book. Spoon 1/4 tsp. jelly onto one side, fold dough over and pinch edges to seal.


As you can see above, I tried following the recipe's instructions, but have you ever tried to cut dough in a parallel motion and open it like a book? Not the easiest task. Plus, the jelly got everywhere. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands, and make the job much easier. All I did was stretch out the cutout round even more, and then put a dab of jelly in the center and fold all the sides up to meet in the center, forming a perfect ball. Do your best to press the dough together so the jelly doesn't leak out.


Makes 24 dough balls.


After assembling holes, test the oil with a scrap of dough. When the oil is hot enough, bubbles will appear around the dough's edge.

Working in batches (we did three batches of 8), fry holes until golden brown, about 1 minute per side; transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.


While doughnuts are still warm, toss them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.





Serve warm or at room temperature.


Indulge in the sugary goodness.
We were so proud of ourselves, because honestly, the doughnuts were phenomenal. Way better than store-bought.



we made these on sunday morning, today is monday, and there are no more doughnuts. Shelby = 8, Josh=16. we only had a small tiff about who ate the last of them. i think we're gaining ground here.

tangible memories

let's be honest, how many times have you printed pictures since your first digital camera? if you're like me, it's very few. occasionally to fill a frame or give as a gift, that's about it. now, don't get me wrong - i love the digital camera. the sheer convenience of being able to  store your pictures digitally and delete the ones you don't want is unbeatable. and nowadays, facebooks and blogs are a digital scrapbook of sorts. but there is just something about making a tangible scrapbook that keeps me doing it. maybe it's my love of beautiful paper and embellishments? maybe it's because josh proposed to me using a scrapbook?* but really, i think it's because scrapbooks and photo albums are what i looked through to see old pictures of my parents and grandparents, and somewhere in my imagination i can picture my grandkids with my scrapbook on their laps saying, 'i can't believe how young grandma and grandpa are in this picture'.



so, this is what I do. every year, when it nears our anniversary, i sit down and look through my digital picture folder for that year. i pick out pictures I love of different stuff we did and write down memories and highlights of the past year. I print out the pictures and type our highlights.





and then i make a page for that year.







i don't do mine super elaborate, because if I only use one page a year, I will be able to have our first 25 years together in this one single book.

so, this is my challenge to you. take at least one day out of the year and document your life in a tangible way. print out those pictures - your grandkids will thank you.




* for our one year dating anniversary, I made Josh this huge elaborate scrapbook, i'm talking, it took me three months of consistently working on it to make.


so, for our two year dating anniversary, Josh presented me with a scrapbook that he had made that documented month by month of our second year together - it meant the world to me that he would take the time to do that.


and when I got to the last page, there was a ring box stuck down inside the last 20-or-so pages. and then he asked me to marry him. i said yes.

mantle transition

Having a mantle to decorate was one of the features i was most excited about when moving into our new house.  It is something that i can easily decorate and redecorate with the seasons or when i feel the need for change. Controlled change - i like that.

This is how i decorated it when we first moved in - I was so excited to have a place of honor of my white pottery collection.


Then came Christmas - finally a place to hang my stockings!


And now I'm all ready for spring to come...


What is spring without birds, baby bunnies, and doe eyes?

my apartment therapy

there are very few things i miss about living in an apartment - besides the fact that repairs came out of someone else's wallet. one thing i have always admired about apartments is the number/letter aesthetic on the doors. i blame it on my love of fonts. so, i thought it might be fun to bring a little apartment-style into my homeownership.



This letter/wreath combo graces the door of our master bedroom, and believe it or not, Josh likes it! He pretty much goes with the flow with my decorating/redecorating bouts, but when he takes the time to tell me he likes something I've done, it makes my heart swell a little.


I made this wreath after learning how to make fabric flowers. It's just a regular wreath form, covered with yarn with flowers and a ruffle (the ruffle is from a cardigan that i disassembled).

anyone else bring a little apartment-style into their home?

it's all in the details

what little details do you love about your house?

Reuse & Recycle

Lately, I've been thinking twice before I throw something away or donate it. Maybe Real Simples' "New Uses for Old Things" section has finally gotten to me (I am a Real Simple devotee). Could I use this for something else? Can I give this another life? What can I make this into?

Because of this, I have been able to repurpose some stuff that was otherwise dead to me. I'm afraid my husband is not completely on board with me - yeah, he's down with the whole reuse and recycle and being green, he gets it. But secretly, I think he fears that I will become a hoarder. That show has him scared. So when he sees me hesitating to throw out junk mail, horrific visions ensue. And while I don't ever see myself getting to the hoarder level, I am glad to have him to keep me in check.

Without further ado, reused and recycled projects:

Thinking of getting rid of that old Scrabble game? 

Give it new life as refrigerator magnets.

Your husband's holey and stained clothes going in the trash?

Cut them up and add them to your rag bucket. Free rags!

See crafting potential in your junk mail?



Security envelope patterns can be quite pretty.

Think twice about that bag of clothes headed to goodwill...

...could any of the fabric be used to, say, cover a pillow?


And I hope you remember this great use for an old book:



Or even this:



Do you have any ideas for something that could be reused or recycled? If so, please share!

inspired by: knack studios

Josh and I have been loving the table and putting it to use as much as possible. We have even enjoyed eating dinner king and queen style at opposite ends. :) One thing we knew we'd need if we were going to continue to entertain using our new table, was a sideboard/buffet of sorts to hold beverages and extra food.

One thing I try to do when I have a new idea or am inspired by something is to shop within my own home and do my best to 'make it work' as Tim Gunn would say. 

This piece is something we picked up for 60 bones on craigslist when we moved into our first apartment in 2008 and needed a piece of furniture for our kitchen. It was the same color as our cabinets and fit perfectly in the empty space we were looking to fill.

Sadly, the kitchen in our new house isn't quite so spacious and there was no room for it. But, we couldn't bear to part with it because we love the functionality of it and how solidly built it is. So, for the past several months we had been using it as a sort of entry way piece for our mud room entrance, but it was never ideal because of the built-in wine rack. So, when the table was built and we saw the need for a buffet, moving this piece downstairs was ideal except for the fact that it completely clashed with the table. But that was nothing a little whit paint couldn't fix.

I love following knack studios and seeing the way she transforms furniture, so when it came time to give this newly painted piece some flair, I looked to knack for inspiration. A couple things that she does that I love are the way she distresses furniture and the way she uses wallpaper to add a unique look to drawers.

knack

knack

knack

see what i mean? she's definitely got a knack for re-doing furniture. hey, what a clever name. :)

so, we took a little sandpaper to the corners and edges.

and I didn't have any wallpaper on hand, but keeping in line with shopping in my own house, I looked through my gift wrap collection and found this paper that was thicker than all the rest and that I thought could hold up to mod podge. it worked out perfectly and, bonus, i love the pattern!

the table is loving its new companion and so are we.

linked up here: