oatmeal pancakes

I had to share this yummy recipe! James and I went running yesterday morning and when we got back I was craving pancakes (but didn't want to defeat the run we just did). We just got our September Cooking Light and there was a recipe for oatmeal pancakes! I personally LOVE oatmeal, so I thought they were wonderful!

(photo and recipe courtesy of Cooking Light)

Ingredients

• 1.1 ounces all-purpose flour (1/4 cup)
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup nonfat buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine the first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.

2. Combine buttermilk, butter, and egg in a small bowl. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist.

3. Heat a nonstick griddle over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Spoon about 2 1/2 tablespoons batter per pancake onto griddle. Turn pancakes over when tops are covered with bubbles; cook until bottoms are lightly browned.

I also made a skirt today! I am really happy with how it turned out! Pictures will be coming soon...

creations

I have really enjoyed the extra time I had this summer to start working with my new sewing machine. As I have said earlier, I have not taken any classes yet. There are definitely loose threads and areas of improvement, but I have made some fun projects for the time being.

Project #1

Kitchen Towel Embellishment

I took a white kitchen towel that we already had and added some of the leftover fabric from covering our chairs.

Project #2

Towel Apron

I love towel aprons because you can wipe your hands while cooking! This project was fun to make and simple because of the straight lines. I also love the fabric!

folded in half...

ta-da...in my new apron

These are just a few fun projects I have been working on! I can't wait to take my lessons and start making more!

Can't believe school starts Monday! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

life.

James and I are so excited because the Lord is doing such wonderful things in our lives right now. I just headed back to school and will be teaching 2nd grade this year, and he just got a job with Saxon Mortgages. It will definitely be an adjustment because his schedule will be pretty different than mine, but we are looking forward to seeing what the Lord will teach us during this season of our lives.

I also can't believe summer is over (goodbye Good Morning America with a leisure cup of coffee)! This summer was wonderful! It was full of building relationships, relaxing, and fun times with friends and family! Although, I will miss summer... it is kind of nice to go back to a schedule!

I have also been working on some sewing projects (still have not taken my formal lessons). I think I am doing pretty good figuring this sewing thing out! I will be posting some things I have done on the blog later this week (when I get a picture and take time to post it).

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

kitchen table redesign

My inner shabby chic attraction mixed with our love for "do it yourself" projects resulted in this wonderful kitchen table redesign.

Back in October I found an adorable table with 2 chairs for $100 in Canton. I thought it was a great buy because it was exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I wanted to spend (although I hoped I could get more than 2 chairs!) A couple of months later our wonderful friends Kerry and Logan decided they did not want the chairs his mom had found at a garage sale (that were lime green). So we acquired 4 chairs to add to our table for FREE! With me being indecisive on what I wanted to do with the table and not having very many of the same days off this summer we had not gotten around to painting it...until this weekend!

We grabbed two buckets of paint AND a can of Kilz (to prime the lime green chairs) ALLLL in the "oops" section at Home Depot for a mere $11 (with lots of paint to spare for our next project!). We bought white for the table and a slight off white for the chairs. James does not see the different...but I assure you there is a difference! I also used an old table cloth to cover 2 of the chairs ( I even had some extra fabric that I sewed onto the end of a kitchen towel!)

Here are some pics from the redo...

Before-

half of the table before (we started painting

THEN remembered to take pics!)

the chairs before...

After-

The finished product!

Overall cost of the kitchen table-

Table with 2 chairs- $100

4 lime green chairs- FREE

2 buckets of "oops" paint- $10

1 can of Kilz (oops section)- $1

Tablecloth used to recover chairs- Already had (FREE)!

Total cost of Kitchen table- $111

I happen to think that is pretty good for a table and 6 chairs! It is definitely perfect for being in an apartment and still being able to have people over!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and getting those last few projects done before it is time for back to school!