Go Team Ghana!

"GO TEAM GHANA!" is a group of "designers, dreamers, moon watchers, doers and vagabonds."  They're former designers from ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition", who are "taking our (their) skills and passion for designing with a purpose and spreading it like wild flower over seas. This time all the way to Ghana, West Africa."
Their goal is to build  the "Connor's Creative Art Center" in Ghana, West Africa. Here's a bit I've taken from the website to explain what "Go Team Ghana" is all about & how we can help"
 
"THE BAD NEWS: Modern day slavery exists.Nearly 7,000 children are being trafficked in the fishing industry of Lake Volta, Ghana. They are sold for the equivalent of $20.
THE GOOD NEWS: People care.
A Touch of LIfe (one of the organizations they're working with) has rescued nearly 100 of the 7,000 children. They have outgrown their facilities, and are building bigger, in order to help more kids.

Connor’s Song, inspired by the creativity and imagination of Connor Deal who passed at the age of 12, is working to bring healing to hurting children. The “Connor’s Creative Art Center” will be built in honor of Connor, and will help restore these children through art therapy and creative healing.

Why ART? Why for these kids?
Glad you asked.

BECAUSE ART = FREEDOM.
These children are being empowered through the freedom of expression. They are learning, some for the first time, how to be kids and dream big. At one point in their lives, they were sold for the amount we pay for a few cups of coffee.

Please help us show these kids they are worth it!
All funds raised will go towards the following:
1) Fill a shipping container with furniture + supplies for the Art Center
2) Ship the 40' container with the supplies overseas to Ghana
3) Send the Design Team back to Ghana to help bring the Art Center to life
Thank you a million times over for showing your support.
We believe good design can change the world. "

I feel the same way about design & art being able to change the world.  Good "Design" is often thought of as a luxury or something "extra" that some people have...  But I believe it has the power to make people happy & to change their lives.  Our environments affect us in so many ways- they change our moods, our ideas of self-worth, they can encourage or discourage creativity, they can make us feel good or bad.  Giving these kids a place to go that gets them excited about creating things & dreaming is really special & affects them in so many more ways than just encouraging the arts.  I think it's a really special cause & if you have any time and/or want to help, go here:
http://www.stayclassy.org/events/go-team-ghana/e18912

They are at a little over $13,000 now and need $35,000.  Today's the last day if you have a moment.




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Home Sweet Home #82

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  I am always trying to find the best way to reach an audience and it occurred to me that most of you probably only stop by my blog each week for this party.  So, I am going to start doing a review of what I have been doing all week.   First up, is this book page oak leaf wreath I made for fall.

Always creating vignettes for the camera, I created this back-to-school scene.

If you have recipes on your blog, please don't miss this post where I show you how to create a virtual recipe box right on your blog.

And adding to my Recession-Era Recipe file, I made some Manicotti to feed a crowd on a budget.

Now I would like to highlight some of the posts that caught my eye last week.

Silvina at Tazas & Cuentos really had an amazing vintage kitchen remodel.   She lives in Argentina and a lot of the building materials (like subway tile) weren't available there so she had them cut to size.  There is so much detail in this remodel made to specifically show off her vintage collections.  It was just fantastic!

Penny at Penny's Vintage Home showed off her lovely potting shed made of collected doors and windows.

Judy at Gold Country Cottage showed off her beautiful kitchen.  I could move right in here!

Anne of Fiona and Twig  showed off her newly styled farmhouse mantel.

Jody and Stan at Rooted in Thyme  showed off their Gnome cookies.  I have so wanted to make these!  I really have to find one of these cookie cutters!

There are many great links each week!  Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!

 Sherry

I will join these ladies today:
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 

Creative Things Thursday  at The Vintage Farmhouse

Potpourri Friday at 2805

G'Day Saturday  at Natasha in Oz

Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link.  

Link up anything in your home or garden.  I love seeing neat shops too!

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower. Please don't link up more than two posts.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!

Instagram Room Reveals & Closing on Our New House!!

I was recently introduced to Instagram & am crazy about it!!!  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's an app that you can use on your phone where you take pictures with your phone and then upload them into instagram.  People "follow" you and you "follow" others to share the photos. 

I've been posting a bunch of photos on instagram, which has been so much fun...  I try to take pics whenever I come across something that's interesting or pretty to me, and lately I've been taking photos of some of our clients' projects on installation days as they come together & the room is revelaed picture by picture...  (I will usually save the full "after" for later though! :)

To follow me on instagram, go here or go to instagram and find me (I'm @LaurenLiess)  (Or check to the right sidebar of this blog and click on the little instagram icon (which is the little camera logo)& you should be able to see pics.)

{Our client's living room, midstage}

Also, we're closing on our new house today & we're sooooooo excited!!!!   We love love LOVE the house and I can't believe how quickly the time's flow by!!  Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly for us today.  We're so thankful to the homeowners for letting us buy their home!!  I'll keep you posted!!

{our future living room!!! }

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Manicotti

I have been sorting through recipes trying to come up with some very hearty dishes to feed the guys that are budget friendly and fit into my use less meat formula.  This is one that fit that criteria.  I believe I got this out of one of Lidia Bastianich's recipe books.  I check things like this out of the library.  If your family loves Italian Lidia is a great resource to go to for Italian cuisine that can feed a crowd.  

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh ricotta cheese
26 ounce Tomato sauce 
8 ounce Manicotti
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
6 oz. (1 1/2 cups) fresh mozzarella (cubed)
1 cup fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano (grated)
1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley
1/4 teaspoon white pepper freshly ground)

pinch freshly grated nutmeg

4 oz. fresh mozzarella cheese (grated)

Spoon ricotta into a large colander lined with a coffee filter and drain for at least a 1/2 hour.

(If you are using a standard container of ricotta from your dairy section you can skip this step)  I did it and the regular ricotta doesn't drain much liquid out. 

*You don't need to precook manicotti shells.

Whisk the eggs and salt together in a large bowl until foamy.  Add the ricotta, the mozarella cubes, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, parsley, pepper, and nutmeg.  (Also, with the spices I just used regular dried parsley, ground nutmeg, and black pepper here to save money.)  Stir until well blended.   Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Coat bottom of 13x9 pan with 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.  Spoon 3 tbsp. of ricotta filling into the manicotti. (To stuff manicotti the easiest way is to put the filling into a zip lock bag and snip the corner off and squeeze.)  Put the filled shells into the pan.  Spoon remaining sauce over shells.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  Cover and bake with loose foil for 20 minutes.  Uncover and spread the rest of the mozzarella and parmesan over the manicotti and bake for 20 minutes more.

* Note: (Now everywhere it says fresh, although that would be wonderful, I just used what is standard in American groceries.  That saves a lot of money not buying the fresh gourmet versions of the cheese.)

For the tomato sauce I used a can of the most inexpensive spaghetti sauce, it is only 99 cents.  That also made this a more thrifty dish.  I used what I had, like eggs, to make this but, you will have to buy the special cheeses and pasta.
So how did the cost per serving come out?
Ricotta $2.29
Manicotti shells 1.98
Mozzarella $2.38
Parmesan $2.29 (with a coupon)  
sauce $.99
Total $9.93 
Comes out to $1.66 per serving
serves 6/ makes 18 manicotti
So there you have an Italian dish that can serve a crowd inexpensively.  My kids just love it with all that cheesy goodness.
Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Friday Food at Mom Trends

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity
On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
Food on Friday at Carole's Chatter

My Little Lovey Guys...

The smallest one is growing big waaaaaaay too quickly.  If I can get some time, I'll take some pictures of his nurery before we say goodbye to it next week.  I really love it in there & I don't know how but we've somehow managed to keep it clean & organized these past few months, which has made it such relaxing space to hang.  (It could be that all of the laundry is in the mound in our bedroom?? ;)

The past couple of weeks have been sort of the-calm-before-the-storm part of the moving process, and so we've been trying to take advantage of it...

{Dave, reading with the boys}

 

{me, snuggling with the baby}

 

We're trying really hard to remind ourselves that it's these momemts that are still the most important, even in the midst of all of the house deadlines, paperwork & packing.  I don't want to rush any of this goodness away.  We'll forget the messy jumble of moving memories but these are the ones I want more of.   

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Apples & ABC's

One more picture for back-to-school.  I love taking pictures of something in this little chair.

Photos altered with Kim Klassen's textures.
Here are the recipes:
1. Urban with linear burn at 68%
2. Urban with linear burn at 40%
3. Urban with linear burn at 60%

 Sherry

  I will join:

Texture Tuesday at Kim Klassen Cafe

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Virtual Recipe Box

Do you blog and have a ton of recipes you have posted to your blog that disappear into the archives?  Here is how I have made a virtual recipe box I added to the top of my blog to solve the problem.  First, go through your blog and pin all of your recipes to a board of your own.  I just labeled mine "My Recipes."  *Note:  What made it easy to go through and pin all of my recipes this morning was that I had them all under one label on the blog so, I went to that label and scrolled through every post pining as I went.

This is my virtual recipe box now for The Charm of Home.  Every recipe with a picture just a click away!

Now, go to the top of your blog and create a page that leads people to your recipes.  

Create the page and use the option of directing readers to a website.  Cut and paste your new virtual recipe box link from your Pinterest boards to this page set-up and that's it!

My page is labeled simply "My Recipes."  You now can click on this page and it takes you directly to the Pinterest page that is my virtual recipe box.  

Doesn't Pinterest just make your life easier!  I see no end to the uses for this virtual pin board!

Sherry

Tweak It Tuesday  at Cozy Little House