Monster Cookies

Oh me. These are good... 

A friend of mine introduced me to the concept (hey, Beth!)

My recipe is a conglomeration of about 4 others and what I ended up with was a dense, heavily textured, crunchy, chewy, yummy mother-load cookie. 


Ingredients: 
2 sticks butter, softened 
1 1/2 cups sucanat* 
3 large eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups sunflower butter (almond butter works too)
4 1/2 cups gluten-free rolled oats 
2 cups chocolate chips 
2 cups plain M&Ms 

*A note on the sucanat... You can use normal sugar, you can use raw sugar, you can use whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. I just like irony and I felt very ironic blending organic sucanat with straight up butter. I have this gut instinct that sucanat should be paired with applesauce and organic cotton and that the butter would make some hempadrille wearing hippie very disappointed in me. 

Ever heard of a hempadrille? Allow me to educate you...

Back to the cookies.  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs, one at a time and mixing between each addition, the vanilla, baking soda, and whatever nut butter you choose to use. Say nut butter 5 times fast. 

Sorry. 

Anyway... mix well until smooth.

3. Add the oats and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl. Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Then add the M&Ms and mix well.

4. Roll the batter into balls about 1 tablespoon each, and place 2 inches apart onto baking sheets, I greased mine but I don't think it's imperative. 

5. Bake until the edges are golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes.

6. Let cool on baking sheets for about 2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks, unless of course - you too are just now realizing that the Keebler Elf isn't the only person allowed to own those. Who knew they were even available to the mortal bakers, not me. 

Cooling rack or plate, whatever teeters your totter, these things are great. 

Makes: 6 dozen cookies

Sorry, it would appear the sugar buzz not only effected my vision but the vision of my cell phone as well. Oopsie. 

Enjoy!

Rachael 

Seasons

This is introspective and a bit thoughtful.

You've been warned, prepare yourself...

I get this way when the weather starts changing, I'm basically a human mood ring. Temperature has a lot to do with my state of mind.

So, when it starts getting cool and I feel that fall feeling I always come back to the realization of how seasons work. They come, they go - they shift and the one thing you can count on is that they will begin and they will end.

Fall is my favorite time of year, but it holds that position because of much more than the cool nights and changing leaves.

Only God knows the full extent of the issues I struggle with, they are numerous and I'm sure I haven't even discovered half of them...

One thing the Lord consistently points out in me is fear. Surprised? Me either...

I have this deep seated fear of things ending, of death and of transitions.

I have a fear of seasons changing, shifting into a new stage of life is a monumentally difficult task for me because I avoid change like the plague.

This is the reason I need this time of the year and this is also the reason I believe God has hardwired me to respond this way to this particular season.

Fall comforts me because the seasonal shift, the shift from hot summer days to cool crisp nights, showcases the death of one season for the purpose of giving life to another.

It shows that moving into a new stage is good. It's better than good, it's natural and right.

Fall is the most beautiful object lesson I have ever been given.

God uses this time of year to move me, to remind me that there is peace in the midst of changes and that when I fight change I taint the blessings therein.

The Lord uses this time of year to reassure me that new seasons will come. That they will come whether I open my arms to them or not, and that they will go whether I'm ready to relinquish them or not. He reminds me that it's a better thing to soak up every minute of the season I'm in rather than looking ahead or behind wishing for a season that hasn't come yet or that has already passed.

These are some of the reasons I love fall, sometimes I just feel like it was made for me - God knew how best to show me the beauty and goodness of seasons and change...

Robbinsville, NC

Just for kicks, here are 5 more reasons I love fall:

#1 I love comfy sweaters. Probably not the most flattering thing I could wear, but I have certain vices.

#2 I like feeling obligated to drink hot chocolate, apple cider, pumpkin lattes, and all manner of fattening arterial clogging beverages.

3) Football games, mainly because I feel even more obligated to take advantage of #2 when I'm cold and confused.

4) Pumpkin carving

5) Camping

Fall camping is the best camping. If you've never done it, you should.

 It will change your life. 

See?

Please don't quote me on that changing your life thing... I just get this high on life feeling during this season and start making outrageous claims. I can't really take any responsibility for things I may say.



 Love,

Rae

Drugstore Cosmetics/Products Summer Review

Favorite Eye Shadow: Wet & Wild, Sweet As Candy - this is an awesome, awesome palette. 

It's good stuff...super high quality for less than $3.00 

Wet & Wild isn't typically my favorite brand but this stuff is great. 

Teamine! This stuff is the bomb, it really is. It's pricey but if you look on Amazon you can find it for 1/4 of what they charge at the dermatologist. Check it out here.

CHANEL Mademoiselle, it's an amazing scent, sweet and subtle. Go and smell some. 

Shine control, this stuff is fantastic. It is a must have in my makeup kit for weddings. It clears away shine without drawing attention to fine lines and gives a great matte finish - no shine face photos at weddings or proms. This is my favorite finishing powder to date... 

Milani nail polish in, you guessed it...gold. This stuff is perfect for an accent nail. 

Good old Burt's Bees, it's a favorite and always will be. Works great as a base for a nude lip. I also occasionally line the lip and then apply this stuff to allow for blotting and blending.  

There's a bedhead in all of us and this stuff keeps it from getting too gross. Especially for us short haired ladies, this is a bit of a life saver. It smells nice to boot!

$8.00 from Sally's, favorite hairspray to date. Lightweight, smells awesome - give it a shot if you're in the market for some new hairspray. It doesn't leave the hair crunchy, shiny or greasy.  

My favorite shampoo so far for my poor hair...it's trying so hard to grow and this stuff is so gentle that I do believe there might be hope. 

Elf matte lipstick, the color is lovely and this stuff has a great texture. Not as great as the Burt's Bees stuff, but pretty darn close.  

A note on this brand, I have to make a little plug for their brushes. If you're looking into trying out make-up brushes for the first time and want to get a feel for them without dropping a load of cash - Elf is the way to go. Not the best you can buy but definitely high quality enough to set you up as a beginner. 

Fit Me by Maybelline

I really don't care much for heavy foundations, I prefer spot concealer - but these are so lightweight and go on so smoothly that I actually like them a lot. I blend the two colors for a more accurate match and a little goes a long way. Each one comes in under $10.00  

So that's all for now, your turn - what were your favorite summer products? Share! 

xoxo,

Rae 

Distressing Furniture *DIY*

I almost wrote that I have a love/hate relationship with stained wood furniture.

In fact, I did write that and then my conscience started bothering me because I feel like I probably need to be truthful. Honesty is the best policy and what-not.

I hate glossy wood furniture.

It just looks humiliated to me.

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, I have plenty of stained and sealed furniture in my home - it's just really not my favorite. It's at the very bottom of the list of things that didn't make the cut on my favorite list, somewhere between cold showers and canned asparagus.

Just let it be rough and natural or paint the stuff.

Anyway, our bedroom (which is still a major work in progress) was filled with nothing but shiny stained wood furniture and this weekend we did something about it.

We ended up sanding, priming, painting, distressing and staining the living daylights out of three pieces over the weekend including a small bedside stand/thingy, a desk, and our bed. We still have a dresser to do but since Brad left me alone this morning (he said it had something to do with providing for our family...?) and since I'm not strong enough to haul the 500 lb monster downstairs to the garage alone (I know... it's a real shock) that thing will have to deal with me another day.

Here is the only picture I had the presence of mind to take before we tackled the bed. 

Let's go ahead and make a best friend pact that you're going to ignore the mass pandemonium in the dark recesses of our garage captured in this picture and several more coming up. 

Pinky promise and cross your heart and junk. 

Here's a tiny peek at the end result: 

Ah, the desk. 

Before:

After: 

Last but not least, this...thing. Not sure what to call it. Truth be told, I debated leaving this the way it was, it didn't have any stain or sealer on it at all and I really liked the rough wood. I needed to practice distressing something though and this was the guinea pig. 

Before:

After:

I really like the way all three pieces turned out, the bed is my favorite for sure but you'll have to wait to see more of that until a little later... 

So how does one distress furniture? Well, as a totally amateur painter and do it yourself kinda girl, this was my method - it has its flaws I'm sure so feel free to tweak it and make it your own. 

1. Sand The Stuff  - Sand down your furniture if it's been stained and sealed so that it will accept a new coat of paint, some people sand it down totally but really you just need to rough up the surface enough to grip the new coat of paint. 

2. Prime - You need an oil based primer - again this is only necessary if you're working on a piece that's been stained before...

Prime the furniture and let it dry - be prepared to throw away your paint brush unless you enjoy tedious cleaning jobs. I don't, so I just used a cheap brush and tossed it. 

3. Paint - Choose your paint color and go to town! You can use latex or oil-based if you've primed the furniture with an oil-based primer. I picked a cream for my bed and that other piece of furniture that I simply can't find a name for - can anyone help me there? What is that thing called? 

Anyway, I picked a Behr paint, the color is Moon Beam and it covered really well. 

The color I chose for the desk is Hosta (I think?) and it's a Behr color as well. It's just a basic teal.

4. DISTRESS! This is the fun part, this is when you really make the piece your own. There are a lot of methods used to distress and antique furniture so you have a lot of flexibility there in how your furniture turns out. 

Sanding - yep, you get to sand again. Hit the edges, areas where your furniture would wear out naturally. Use a finer grit sand paper for this portion and make sure you've allowed the furniture time to dry completely, it may even take a few days. 

Beat it up - ok, this is where I deviated from the typical distressing method. I beat up a small portion of my bed (a side board) with a chain, hit the edges a few times with a pair of pliers and honestly it's just a bit too much for me. I think it would look better like that on my dresser but since the lines on my bed are very feminine I didn't want to overwhelm it with the amount of distressing I did. 

Use your own judgement there but remember that less is better with distressing - you can always beat it up more later but once you take a chunk out of the wood with a chain you can't do a whole lot to repair the damage. 

Stain - I used this... 

I used two rags, one to put the stain on, one to take it back off (wax on, wax off...) and I coated the furniture completely. I did it one portion at a time though so that the color would be even and one part wouldn't be more stained than another. The stain wiped almost entirely off of the cream paint -  but it made the sanded edges and distressed areas in the wood stand out much more. Make sure you give those areas a chance to pick it up before wiping it away. 

The desk isn't entirely natural wood, there are portions of particle board so the sanding and staining process didn't work as well which was no big surprise. It still turned out nicely though. 

This is lots of fun, and is a great weekend project - I know I said you may have to let the paint set up for a few days but if you aren't dealing with super high humidity you should be able to do the whole process in a day. 

xo,

Rae