{Giveaway} Blue Ribbon Fudge

I am excited for our giveaway today!  My friend and co-worker, Diane, has agreed to give away 6 oz of her Blue Ribbon Fudge to two lucky Design Your Dwelling readers! 

This fudge has won the Iowa State Fair fudge contest every time Diane has entered it into the contest since 2009. (She is 3 for 3!)  Since then, she has developed quite the fan base ranging from her family and friends to her co-workers and it has resulted in a small fudge business over the holidays complete with beautiful packaging and shipping.

Check out how yummy this looks! :)

Judges Comments: "Creamy, Smooth and Excellent Flavor!"

The finished product!
Judges Comments: "Lots of nuts"

Beautiful Holiday Packaging!

This fudge is so good!  (She already let me try some)

If you are looking for a great holiday gift, or a sweet treat for yourself, Diane will take orders via email (diane_mussell@hotmail.com).  The fudge is $1/ounce - What a SWEET deal! :)

Here is how you get entered for a chance to win the fudge:

1. Become a follower of Design Your Dwelling - post a comment letting me know you did (+1 entry)

2. "Like" Design Your Dwelling on Facebook - post a comment letting me know (+1 entry)

3. Leave a comment to tell us what your favorite kind of fudge is! (+1 entry)

The winners will be chosen radomly and announced on Monday November 21!

P.S. She doesn't give out this recipe to anyone... :)

Thanksgiving Hosting Ideas

Thanksgiving is almost here!  For those of you that are hosting Thanksgiving, I'm sure you are already thinking about how you can get creative when it comes to decorating and entertaining your guests.  This weekend I worked on a few simple Thanksgiving hosting ideas for you to incorporate next Thursday!

To make these cute ideas happen, all you really need to do is make a stop at your local office supply store.  For some reason my imagination runs wild in these places and I come up with a few DIY projects and go home with more office "stuff" than I really needed. :)

Wine Charms

Wine always shows up at Thanksgiving celebrations!  Here is a quick DIY idea for wine glass markers.

DIY Wine Charms

Supplies:

Rubber stamps

Stamping ink

Metal-rim tags

Glass Marker

I love this idea for serving mixed drinks - it is so easy!

Glass Marker

Supplies:

Brown tags

Rubber stamps & ink (optional)

Sharpie marker

Rubber band



Dinner Menu

If you are having a well thought-out menu, this idea will work well!

I hope these simple ideas help you create a beautiful celebration!

Beth

P.S. I just built a Facebook page for Design Your Dwelling!  Check it out - I hope you "LIKE" it! :)

Fall Bread Recipes

Hello friends and followers!  Sorry for the blogging hiatus over the past week.  I have been traveling quite a bit for my real job as a training manager and actually just got back from Orlando, Florida last night.  I would love to be writing a post about the "Magical Kingdom" and sharing pictures of me with Mickey and Minnie Mouse but the work conference I was at kept me indoors.  :(

However, I did get a chance to do a little fall baking last weekend. I found two awesome recipes for bread that I thought I would try out before Thanksgiving rolled around (just in case I was asked to bring something.) 

Here they are:  Cranberry-Hazelnut Bread and Milk Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake.



Cranberry-Hazelnut Bread and Marble Loaf Cake

 Both of these bread recipes are very easy, but a little time consuming because of how long they take to bake.  Below are links to the recipes.  (Sorry I didn't type them out for you, but it's a lot to type in a blog post)

I found the cranberry-hazelnut bread recipe in the November 2011 edition of  Real Simple.  Click here for the recipe.

A quick note for the hazelnut bread.  If you haven't toasted nuts before, watch them closely.  10-12 minutes was entirely too long for the hazelnuts in my oven so the bread actually turned into cranberry-walnut bread.  Haha - oops! :)  Also - fresh cranberries work better than frozen cranberries. 

The recipe for the Marble Loaf Cake cake came from the November 2011 edition of Better Homes & Gardens.  Click here for the recipe.

Last night when I came home there was still some bread left so I took some for breakfast.  It was still moist and tasted fresh so the good news is they keep at least 5 days in case you wanted to make these ahead of time. 

NEXT WEEK I will introduce you to Blue Ribbon Fudge made by my co-worker!  This post will include a fudge give-away!  Ummmm.... :)

Happy Baking - BETH

New Window Treatments

I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself because I finally made progress on my living room plan list that I shared with you in this post!  This weekend I (actually Adam) hung our new curtains.  The part that I am most proud of is that I sewed these curtains myself.  If only you knew about my 4-H sewing days, you would be proud of me too... my sewing projects were nothing short of a disaster, just ask my mom!  Haha!

Here they are!

New Window Treatments

I found the material on the Calico Corners website.  It is called Kalah Blue.



84" Panel Curtains



Here is a reminder of what the living room looked like before.

This is where my curtain inspiration came from.

Remember I said I made the curtains myself?  They were easy as pie to make - if you can sew a straight line, you can make panel curtains!

I made three 84" curtain panels so I ordered 7 yards of material. 

I cut the material into 84" long pieces of fabric and finshed the rough edges with a straight stitch.

After I was done sewing, I ironed each panel to make them look crisp and new.

The curtain rods are from my all-time favorite store, Target, and so are the curtain hooks.

Last, I had my personal handy-man (Adam) help me hang up the curtain rods.

Ta-Da - the new curtains are hung!

Curtains are the first item I can cross of my living room to-do list!  My next project will be to re-cover the throw pillows on the couch.  In fact, I just go the material in the mail today! :)  Below is what is left on the list. 

1. New window treatments, add curtains

2. Re-cover throw pillows

3. New wall hangings

4. Add accessories

5. Replace rug? 

I admit that I have a little bit of work yet to make it all come together, but it will.   

*BETH