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Birthday Wishes

He listens to me talk for hours about lighting and photo techniques.  He’s never surprised to come home and find me on a ladder or with my hand in a paint can.  When I e-mail him and say “Hun, can you swing by this guy’s house in York?  I just bought some lumber from him on craigslist.” He doesn’t ask why we need lumber from a guy in York, he just says, “Sure, I’ll do it this afternoon.”  When we go on vacation he willingly poses with graffiti smiley faces or a slice of pizza and never questions my need to take a photo of our feet in the sand.  He loves me with his whole heart and tells me at least twice a day.  He supports my goals and dreams 100%.  He prays for me daily and encourages me constantly.

I don’t know what I’d do without this man in my life, and today, on his birthday, I’m so grateful for everything he is to me and our marriage.  Happy Birthday to the best guy a girl could hope for!  I love you Hun!

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Strawberry Pie

My Mother gave me a gallon of freshly picked strawberries last week so I decided to take a shot at making my Grandmother’s famous Strawberry Pie.  Mama Sue’s definitely turned out better than mine, but the taste was spot on.

To start with, you dissolve 2 Tablespoons of corn starch in 1 cup of water.  When Mother was telling me how to make this pie I said, “I don’t have corn starch, will baking powder work?”  Obviously, I’m not a baker. ;-)  She said, “No Kelli. Corn starch is cheap, buy some.”  Sometimes I imagine that when I ask questions like that about cooking she just takes a deep breath, counts to 10 and thinks to herself, “Where did I go wrong with this one?”  I know exactly where she went wrong!  She and Mama Sue were awesome cooks and I grew up loving to EAT good food that someone else made! ;-)  But I’m thankful for her patience when I ask questions that would probably make any other cook start twitching and break out in hives.

Back to the pie… :-) Take the cup of water with dissolved cornstarch and add 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  Bring it to a boil until it’s clear and starts to thicken.  Here’s where I think I messed up.  I was probably not patient enough with this boiling/clear process and pulled it off the heat a bit too soon.  You should be more patient than I was – and when you pull it off the heat, add in a packet of sugar free strawberry Jello.

While your liquid has been boiling, you’ve been browning your pie crust in the oven.  Once that’s browned, take it out and add enough strawberries to cover the bottom of the shell.  you can slice them or keep them whole.

Then pour the red jello/sugar/water mixture over the top of the strawberries and pop it in the fridge for at least 12 hours, overnight if possible.

I was a bit impatient and decided to have a slice for breakfast the next morning (don’t judge, it’s fruit).  It had set up pretty good, but not quite 100%.  But the taste, yeah, that was spot on.  I think Mama Sue called this her “Shoney’s Strawberry Pie”, and for those of you that remember Shoney’s Strawberry Pie that should give you a good reference for the final product.  I just call it awesome.

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Book Review: Unclutter Your Life in One Week

This book was recommended to me by Amazon about a year ago based on another book I read.  I put it on my “to read” list, but it was just constantly shuffled to the bottom.  Well, as part of my “read 5 books that can help my business” goal on my 101 in 1,001 list I decided to move it to the top and make it happen, and I’m so glad I did.  Just to keep things real though, I have to say, I wasn’t sure I needed to read this book because I’m actually a little obsessed with de-cluttering.  I’m constantly selling things on Craigslist, organizing and reorganizing and gathering things to take to Goodwill.  I just can’t stand clutter.  I like things to be neat, orderly and in it’s proper place. (Here’s the point in the blog post where you should all feel sorry for my husband. ;-))

But anywho, so I decided to read the book.  I went to pick it up at the library. The librarian scanned the barcode, looked at the cover, looked up at me and said, “Ha, well good luck.”  I felt a bit judged, but honestly if the book could feel it would’ve felt worse than me!  That was possibly the best thing she could’ve said because I’m so stubborn that her comment just made me want to come home, read the book, and prove her wrong.  So, I dedicate this blog post to my local librarian at the Indian Land library.  You were wrong.  Shame on you for judging a book by it’s cover!

If you happen to be someone that is plagued by physical clutter this book is a must read for you.  The book really is a simple, step-by-step resource for getting rid of all clutter (physical and mental), but if you’re a physical clutter person then I think you’ll see the most change from the 7 day plan.  The author takes you room by room and talks about ways to efficiently organize your bathroom, kitchen, and closets and cut the clutter you don’t need.  She also talks about how to tackle your inbox and manage your e-mail and calendar.  We’re not just talking about taking shirts to Goodwill, this book really does cover all aspects of clutter in your life.

My biggest take away from the book is when she talks about creating a reception zone in your house.  The idea is simple – we all have a place in our house that gathers our “entry clutter” – mail, keys, purse, coats, etc.  When you enter your house after a long day at work, you want to leave the physical clutter (keys, purse, mail), as well as the emotional and mental clutter at the door.  Dropping this physical clutter at the door will allow you to enter your house relaxed and ready to focus on your home life without thinking about the burdens of your day.

In our house this entry clutter lives on our kitchen counter and it drives me CRAZY.  But honestly, I just didn’t know what to do with it.  We typically enter through the garage, and there’s really only a small hallway there.  No closet or space for mail, keys, purse, etc.  But I really bought into her idea of a reception zone and decided to make it happen.

Here’s our small hallway before (note the monstrosity of an ADT keypad right in the middle).  I actually called ADT to see about moving it but it was cost prohibitive so I worked around it!  This thing is 8 inches wide and 8 inches tall and sticks out 2.5 inches from the wall. It’s the largest keypad ever made, I’m sure of it.

I saw this post on pinterest, and it got my creative juices flowing. I decided to go with a “beachy” feel to the zone because we both feel most relaxed when there’s sand and an ocean in our lives. ;-)  For our reception zone we decided that we needed coat/bag hangers, a mail slot and key holders.  The main goal was to keep everything no more than 3 inches from the wall because we didn’t want it to interfere with the traffic in the hallway.  Also – we wanted to put something on the wall so they wouldn’t get scuffed easily.  Here’s how it turned out:

My favorite detail is easily our “ALOHA” letters – cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby that I spray painted yellow. :-)  Since Aloha means both Hello and Goodbye it’s really perfect for our beachy reception zone.  I also really love that little shelf that the letters are sitting on.  And guess what, it was FREE!  Scrap wood at Lowe’s with a perfect little groove down the middle!

My other 2 favorite details are our key holder ($6 at Lowe’s), and our mail slot.  The mail slot was actually the most challenging feature.  All of the mail boxes I could find that were ready to mount were typically 3-4 inches deep, so they’d stick out of our zone way too far and I was convinced we’d bump our shoulders on it every day.  I ended up buying a simple piece of sheet metal from Lowe’s and just nailing it to the boards.  It holds the mail in tightly and looks awesome with our rustic beach wood.
This project cost about $50 and we’re both totally in love with how it turned out.  I highly recommend Unclutter Your Life in One Week, and one more shout out to my favorite local librarian – you were wrong! :-D

Here’s a breakdown on the costs for the project:
Lumber – $20 (bought from craigslist)
Sheet metal mail slot – $9
Key hook – $6
ALOHA letters – $2 each
Coat/bag hooks – $2 each
(All paint and supplies used were left over from other projects.)

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