Creative Juices Decor

Hey Friends! Are you ready for some Valentine baking fun!? These stain glass cookies I made are a LOT of fun!  If you get a bag of suckers or Jolly Ranchers you can make the "glass" part look like a work of art. :-)  Kids LOVE making these! Click on the Candy "Stained Glass" Valentine Cookie link to see full recipe. We call the next set of cookies "Pink Cookies" at our house.  They are a delicious and somewhat chewy (if you don't overcook them!) meringue cookies.  They are made with egg whites so they just happen to be fat free.  (Full of sugar, but fat free - ha!) You will NOT be disappointed!  Promise :-) I have it on my "To Do" list to make these type of mini (or regular size) candy cane hearts.  I bought lots of extra boxes at the end of December when they were 75% off.   It's PERFECT for Valentine's Day! Peppermint Bark Hearts I love the idea of putting them on a stick and...

 Hey Friends! This month is the 4 year anniversary of moving into our new home and our 18th anniversary of our marriage.  Yay :-) We've had 6 homes in those years, 2 of them we got to build completely from scratch and 1 partially from scratch. I've learned quite a few things about building a home.  Of course if I put everything I learned on one post it would become a novel, so today, I thought I would just cover a few little items that we did that I have REALLY ENJOYED. (-: My hope is that you can save this post as reference if you ever have a chance to build your own home. :-) First Fun Plan Ahead Item: We added electrical sockets to the eaves of our roof rafters.  This was quite simple to do, we just had to plan ahead.  It makes Christmas lights a lot cleaner and simpler. We also added a socket right next to the pergola for string lights .  This has been AWESOME!!!!!! It looks so clean. Adding string lights to my backyard has bee...

Hey Friends! OK, right now I'm listening to Girl From Ipanema from my Island Girl Playlist. (Yes, I do have an Island Girl list) ;-) Is there anyone else who is ready for WARMTH??!!!! We still have SNOW in our forecast.  :-/ I really enjoyed the snow December 20 - 27th LOL, but now it's nearly February and I'm ready to move on to the warmth and sunshine. So, I'm doing an virtual mid week warm travel post for us :-) "VIR-TU-AL:  Not physically existing as such, but made by software to appear to do so ."  Hee,hee.....that is my mission for this post ;-) Really, all I want to be able to do is....... Read on the beach: Put pineapples on my head: And flowers on my eyes: Is that too much to ask for?  ;-)  I have my 40th birthday this year (shhhhhhhhh!!!!) My husband promised to take me somewhere tropical though.....probably to take the sting off. ;-) On our last trip to Mexico! This place in Thailand looked...

Hey Friends! In my last post, I showed you how I used birch logs in my own home decor .  (I LOVE birch logs!) I had fun looking around seeing how other people used logs in their home. What about using the logs to fill an ENTIRE unused fireplace.  What a wonderful and warm statement it creates!  It brings life back into a very white surrounding. Source I love how they played up the fact that the birch logs are white and put them against the red poinsettias. A very fun winter decor idea! You can use these birch logs as table decor - vases, centerpieces anything! Source My friend just send me a picture of a gift she got. She said the log was simply hollowed out and a pretty plant put in.  :-)  She mentioned that the "pot" is porous but it's stayed alive and she LOVES it!  Isn't that a fun gift idea! This is her friends centerpiece in her own home that she made. :-) This is a very tradit...

Hi Friends! So, how is the New Year's resolution eating going? :-) I have some friends that REFUSE to make any New Year's Resolutions and others that have every list on their mirror ready to achieve! I think I'm somewhere in the middle, I like using January to re-set goals and focus again but I don't go "crazy".  Honestly, trying to eat well during the holidays for me is like trying to take a nap while my son is practicing his saxophone.  (LOL, I just had that happen, I had the most disturbing dreams ever....in my 1/2 state of saxophone sleeping) It doesn't work! ;-) Anyway, I wanted to help those who have set their New Year's eating expectations high by giving you this AMAZING recipe that is incredibly healthy , has great macronutrients AND will satisfy that crazy sweet tooth without being "bad"! CHOCOLATE MOLTEN LAVA PROTEIN BROWNIE (done in the microwave!) I have to say, this is a CRAZY tasting chocolate tr...

Hey Friends! Is there anyone else out there who will see a birch tree and want to chop off a limb just so they can place the logs in their home? :-) You see, I ADORE texture and I ADORE barked trees.  Honestly is there anything more beautiful than rippling crumbling bark full of white, tan and black?  OK, no need to answer that question ;-) I guess I just have this strange passion towards logs - ha! I had a landscape friend that collected a bunch of logs for me.  It was awesome. Here are a few pictures of what I did with the birch logs for my decor. I picked up that iron log holder for 2 bucks at....you guessed it, the thrift store. My fireplace isn't even real, it's gas.....but I just like to trick people that it's real - hee,hee. I also put a few log settings on my front porch.  Can you see why I love them so much??? They are just full of amazing character. As far as CRAFTS rela...

 Welcome to 2016!! Due to some unfortunate puppy events - I had to buy new living room furniture. (and replace a few eaten Christmas presents - ha!) All I can say, is I must REALLY love my daughter, not the dog, my daughter, to put up with everything that that puppy has chewed and eaten. See, it's HER puppy......we definitely didn't get another dog so that I could care for just ONE.....MORE.....THING.  (ha, I sound like a puppy scrooge, I'm not, promise, it's just I can only handle SO much ruin) :-) I am not joking when I say she is probably on her 15th pair of eaten shoes (if you include this summer's flip flops it's more like 20!) It's like she has this stinky feet fetish .....it's actually quite bothersome - LEAVE OUR SHOES ALONE! ;-) But it was coming home to THIS that really made me have to apply my de-stressing breathing techniques. (ha, I know there is such a thing like that but I'm not sure I know how to do it)  It's ...