Thanksgiving Day Hit

This year I didn't have to cook the full on meal for Thanksgiving. Instead we went to my Mother in laws and she cooked everything, but requested that I bring a dessert. I didn't want to bring a pumpkin pie or a pecan pie, though I love both, I knew both would probably already be there.

That's when I though of chocolate! Everyone loves chocolate right? I know I sure do! Anyway, I made a Chocolate Thunder Cake. It was a HUGE hit! The whole thing was gone and the only thing I brought home was the empty pan.

So I would like to share the recipe with you. It's very, very yummy.



Chocolate Thunder Cake

1 box German Chocolate cake mix
1 14 oz. Eagle Brand Low Fat Sweetened condensed milk
1 16 oz. Cool whip(can use low fat or no fat, it's still good)
2 8oz. Heath or Hershey Candy bars crushed
1 8oz. jar fudge ice cream topping

Bake cake in 9x13 pan as directed on the package. Let cool 25-30 mins. Poke hole in cake with wooden spoon handle. Pour sweetened condensed milk: spread evenly. Wait 5 mins. Spread fudge topping over that. Wait 5 mins. Spread cool whip over the cake then sprinkle with crushed candy bars. Chill thoroughly before serving

Makes 16 servings.

P.S. I've been digging out my Christmas stuff and will start doing post on those soon. I LOVE Christmas and decorating for it so I can't wait to show you some stuff.

Borrowing an Idea and the Dollar Tree

While cruising around my bookmarks I came upon this post at 320 Sycomore. I have only recently found this site and I'm in heaven. Melissa has so many good ideas! She recently was inspired by some beautiful pieces she saw in a cataloge. With that inspiration she made her own version. When I saw them I wanted some too! She got all her supplies at Dollar Tree. I love Dollar Tree! So as soon as I could I headed there.

Here's my version.

I got the candle and the hurricane thingy at Dollar Tree. I already had the candle holder.

I, just like Melissa hot glued the candle holder to the hurricane thingy and then the white candle inside it. I just have to add when you glue it together you have to pay attention in order to get it centered. You can't be telling one of your three year old's to get off the counter, because if you do one of your beautiful creations might be a little off center. I'm just saying.

 

I used some fall looking leaves and berries that I cut off a dollar store vine and just dropped them in.

Pardon the crooked picture. The fireplace and the surrounding book shelves are a work in progress. I put most of that stuff up there a year ago right after we moved in and right before my boys 2nd birthday party.

So a visit the the Dollar Tree and only $4. I got some new pretties.

I can't wait to decorate my new pretties for Christmas!

Have you already started decorating for Christmas?

Protect Me

When I noticed that my ugly desk was making an ugly mark on my pretty wall, I knew I had to do something about it. First I tried pulling the desk away from the wall a bit, but it's sitting on laminate flooring and bumped into by two 3 year olds daily. It wasn't working. So on to something new.

While shopping at the DT(dollar tree) I saw these little cuties. Well, they are not really cute, but they would do the job I needed and no one would see them but me and the back of my ugly desk.

I just pulled the backing off and stuck it to the desk. Presto!!! No more ugly desk scratching my pretty walls. These work great for all kinds of things. You can put them on the back of pictures or decrative items that may scratch your wall or tables. I've believe you can get them anywhere. I've seen them at Lowes and Wal-Mart, but what to use them for never hit me until I had the little desk problem.

 

 

Have you used these before? What did you use them on?

Tables by Daddy

I've wanted to get the boys tables for months, but didn't want to pay the high price for them. While browsing in Pottery Barn one day, the hubster said he could make one for way cheaper, so that's what he did.

This was the inspiration table. You can see it and the price it's selling for here.

I liked the table because of the lip around the top, I figured it would stop play-doh and moon sand from falling on the floor. The boys would be able to play with their cars on it and they wouldn't just roll off.

I love Pottery Barn, but I don't love their prices. I like to get the catalogs and get ideas so I can try to recreate my own version of them for much lower prices.

The hubster was able to make both tables for about 100 bucks! That's a deal in my book.

Boy #2's table, including moon sand and crayons.

Boy #1's table including water paints.

What have you seen that has inspired you to recreate it? Do tell! I love to be inspired!

My Version of the Chalkboard

Over the Summer I made chalkboards for each of my boys rooms. For several months they sat mostly unused in a corner of their rooms. That is until I actually hung them on the wall this past weekend.

These were soooo easy to make and pretty cheap too. Since hanging them, both boys have used them at least once a day. Be warned though, once you use chalkboard paint, you will be looking for any and everything in your house that you can paint. I know I've done it.

Before you look at the picture let me just tell you something. I have not painted Boy #2's room yet. Since we've only been here a year I've worked on other things first. Boy #1 has one wall painted in his room, which was actually the room the boy's shared when we first moved in, but that only lasted a month or so. Anywho, long story to say boy#2's room is still builder beige.

This is the chalkboard paint I used. I'm a little lazy and so I like the spray can version, but I understand they do have it in the kind you actually paint on. Just follow the directions on the back of the can. You can paint over anything, paper plastic, metal, just follow the can directions.

For the frame I used an old poster frame I had laying around. I actually had two of these. You know the frames I'm talking about right? The ones that you used to hang your Dirty Dancing poster in or you New Kids on the Block poster in. Yeah, I was into both of those things. So sad about Patrick Swayze and the New Kids whom are Older Kids now have recently ended a year tour after being apart for like ever. Totally. Anyway just get one of those frames.

I ruffed up the plastic surfuce with a little sandpaper first and then I just painted onto the plastic front. I put on several coats. It dries pretty fast. One of my frames is plastic the other was an ugly wood color, so I just spray painted it black.

Presto!

Two chalk boards for two little boys, or girls or yourself, whatever.

I used some picture hanging device that I can't remember the name of right now for the little bucket to hold the chalk. However, you could use a cup hanger, it would work too.

What's your color?

Sun-Kissed

13-10 Indian Buff

25-14 Monsoon

13-11 Golden Burma

16-9 Spark of Youth

7-16 Red Orange

12-15 Deluxe

20-22 Fern Lane

14-9 Golden Glimmer

8-15 Orange Berry

18-11 Herbal Garden

14-16 Yellow Strength

9-13 Gold Maize

These colors have all the elements of energy, friendliness and ease. They create a warm and cozy environment. The person who chooses this palette is generous and wants their home to be welcoming and friendly. Comfortable and casual furnishing reflect their desire to entertain and spend more time at home with their family and

Found this quiz at Hooked on Houses. I would tend to agree with it because even though I love light colors I tend to lean and paint my rooms in these types of colors. It's a fun little quiz to take.

Starting at the Beginning

Since I introduced myself yesterday, today I thought I would introduce you to my home. In June 2008 we, being my husband and toddler twin boys, moved from a small home in a small town, to a larger home in a smaller town. The market was not doing well, but we needed more space and my husband wanted to live closer to his work so that he could cut down his hour and fifteen minuet drive two and from work. We put our house on the market in May 2007, the house began showing immediately, which was all kinds of stressful. I not only had two small children, but I was watching my nephew who was an infant and we had 3 dogs and 3 cats all of which I had to contain when people came to view it. I also had to not be there when they came and sometimes we only got a 30 minuet notice. We naively figures the house would sell soon because it was a great house we had lived there nine years and our realtor told us it would. We learned don't believe everything or most of what your realtor says. Not that I think realtor are bad, they are not, but sometimes they are out of the loop on what helps a house sell and not so good at getting information or feed back to you, at least ours was.

So, we waited a few weeks and began looking for a new home. I want to tell you both times we have bought a home we ended up buying the first one we saw. Sure we looked at others, but it was the first one that always stuck out to us. Funny I know, because most of the time it's the first one you forget and some of the later ones you remember.

To make a long and stressful story shorter, it took us a month short of a year to sell our old home. We had been paying double mortgages for 9 months and we also had an empty rent house on the market, that was unoccupied at the time. So basically we were paying 3 house payments a month and we aren't rich. We had put some money back in anticipation that this might happen but it was really, really starting to strain everything in our lives. Our account, our relationship and or mental state. Thankfully just when we needed it the most we got an offer, not a very good one, but one we could live with and we accepted it. We were in a much better situation and I could finally began to work on making my new house a home.

This was our old 1459sqft 30 year old home. We lived here for 9 years. We brought our babies home here.

To this 2 year old never lived in before home with 2585sqft. This picture was taken by the county assessors office. I have of course added some things on the front porch, but is is basically what it looks like. It looks lovely in the summer but unfortunately I either don't have or can't find any pictures of it. That would be my mom's truck in the photo.

Allow Me To Introduce Myself

Hi I'm Brandy or Thrifty Rambler. I've started this blog for several reasons. Firstly, I love all things decor, I love to look through magazines, photos, watch shows about decorating and I LOVE to see inside other people's homes. I love to see what they have done with their spaces, to see how they have made their house a home.

My love for wanting to see in other people's homes led me to search the internet for such things, that's when the decor world really opened up for me. I found so many great sites with photo's of others homes, tutorials on how to do certain things, paint colors, quirky stuff, ugly stuff, beautiful stuff. I loved it all! Being that we had just moved into a new home, and also being that we had NO money for the more exspensive things, I started trying to do some of the things I saw on other blogs on my own.

So I figure if I love to look in other people's homes, so do a lot of you and if I love do it yourself stuff so do a lot of you. Here is where the blog comes in, I can post pictures of my home and things I love, for all of you out there to see. Yay! Sounds fun doesn't it? I can't wait to get started and I can't wait to see some of your things.

I did say I started this for several reason's though didn't I? Another reason I started this is because I am proud of what I have been able to do in my home on a limited budget. Although I can walk around my home and look at each room, I wanted to have a place that I could document each change not only with pictures but with words as well.

I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to hearing from some of you!