The {P} Family

Remember that free wood I told you about? Well, I finally got around to using some of it for a project. It's nothing spectacularly unique or special, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Very quick & easy...once the weather warmed up for me. First I {poached} a board from the stack, hit it with the sander and gave it a couple of coats of spray paint (Rustoleum Espresso in Satin). Then I used my Silhouette to cut out a large {P} and the words I wanted for the bottom. I measured the board for placement and used ModPodge to adhere the {P} first.

Next, I moved on to placing "The Petrie Family" across the bottom of the board. I used a very high-tech and {sophisticated} tool to help me keep the letters as straight as possible. This tool is easily found, for free, at your local home-improvement store. It's called a paint stir stick. ;) I know...fancy, right?

A quick coat of ModPodge over the top finished it off, sealing the piece and making the finish look more uniform.


You might be wondering about the little decorative {doo-hickey} there. I hadn't intended to put that there, but I was so worried about the words not fitting that I placed them too close together, so I had to do something to fill out the left over space at the end. Ooops.

So, there you have it! A happy little greeting next to my front door....at least for now. I'm apprehensive about how it will handle the weather, so we'll have to see if it stays put.

Linking up my project at the Fabulous Weekend Wrap-Up Party over at Tatertots & Jello!

Cin-Fully Good Cinnamon Muffins

Ahhhh, Spring Break. A week off to enjoy the warm weather, bright sunshine, blue skies and green grass. Unless, of course, you live in Michigan. Our weekend was filled with a visit from my mom, a birthday party for a friend on Saturday, and the tinier of the tiny people's birthday party on Sunday. The weather wasn't so great over the weekend...but I held out hope that, Monday, our first day of no-plans, would be better. No such luck. It snowed. Actual accumulated white stuff on the ground...snow. UGH.

I don't know about anyone else, but when it's gloomy, grey and gross outside, baking something that makes my house smell {cozy} just makes me feel better. So late on Monday night, I decided to bake some cinnamon muffins. Just to warn you...they're not all that pretty...but they are soooooo good...

What you'll need:

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup Hershey's cinnamon chips

1/2 cup milk

Mix together the butter, egg & sugar...

Dump flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon & cinnamon chips in seperate bowl & stir it all together (I used a fork).

Okay, now you're gonna add the dry ingredients, a little bit at a time - alternating with the milk, also a little bit at a time - to the wet ingredients, and mix.

Lie and tell me you wouldn't eat a big ole' spoonful of that dough. Right!?!?!

Fill muffin tins about 2/3 of the way full and bake for 20-25 min. and 350°. Check for doneness with a toothpick. You're a smartie, you've done that before.

I overfilled the cups and had to bake longer...but they turned out {cin-fully} good. ;)

You can feel free to brush the tops of these babies with a little melted butter and roll them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture if you want to. I skipped that step and I can tell you, no one noticed.