"Absolutely Delicious Blueberry Cake"

Soooo, I'm not much of a cook, but I don't mind baking on the occasion and I wanted to share a couple of new recipes I tried...

I was throwing a little "shin-dig", and wanted to try something different with the blueberry muffins- I used 2 boxes of mix with real blueberries and sprayed vegetable oil inside of a bunt cake pan...there were no instructions on how to do this, so I estimated about 10 minutes longer than the longest cooking time, and let me tell you- IT WAS SO GOOD!! Moist beyond belief! and I added a small amount of drizzled icing- by mixing 2 Tbsp of margarine and some confectionery sugar...! Here's a pic before the icing!

Here's the other- a turn on "No-Bake Cheesecake"- my husband loves this stuff...this was a suggestion from the box.  Instead of putting it into two round pans, make individual cheesecakes in muffin cups!  And although it took a little longer, it was worth it!  They are also easier to keep from getting dried out as quickly.  One scoop of strawberry preserves on top and you're done!  I recommend this one with 5 stars! Easy and good!!

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know if you try one of these!! Thanks! =)

"Our Dining Room Table Re-do" (actually it's just the chairs)!

Last year, we put our 4 person dining table on the sunporch and got quite a bit of use out of it...HOWEVER- the oldest dog did, too..! She scratched her face on the seats and wore them out and made them smell...Here's what the chairs looked like a week ago...

I wanted to recover them inexpensively and also keep the exposure of the seats to a minimum... so of course I looked for material and found a great mix packaged altogether (mostly for quilters) at Wal-mart!!  I also found clear plastic material there for 97 cents a yard that is made especially for covering tables, picnics, and this type of furniture... Here's how I went about it...

Removed the screws and the seat...

I used the can of spray adhesive to initially attach the material...(and no, I did not do this on the carpet- this is an after shot) 

Cut the clear cover and stapled it over the material onto the back of the seat!  Notice I chose a DIFFERENT but compatible fabric for each seat, instead of making them all the same!! :)
Here is a picture of a couple of the completed chairs! I'm very pleased with the way they turned out...

 screwing the seats back on was the hardest part ironically!

And here is a couple pics of the finished product!  Hope this helps somebody with their decorating issues!   The dog is going to hate these- they are way too slick for her to scratch her face- she'll have to move onto the fence ;)

Happy, happy, happy for now!

                                                      

"The Metal Bucket...2,3, and 4"

When my last free metal bucket make over turned out so well, my son's friend offered to get me more...guess he's got a lot from an uncle...here's how they turned out!

really love the way the red one pops! But it took a lot of coats of paint!

Mark helped pick out this contrast- large daisies from scrap booking paper- he has good taste! (That's why we're married ;)

This last one is my favorite! Each one is doubly sealed with spray polyurethane coats, and are already being used...couple to hold my paint cans, and a couple more to cover ugly flower planters :)