I'm starting to like our guest bedroom more than our room. LAME. :( So here's the thing. I LOVE decorating rooms and I love super simple non-flashy things. And we LOVE finding cool things at thrift stores (such as desks and end tables) and fixing them up.

So, when we moved in--we didn't have a bed for the guest room for a while. It was starting to turn into our "storage" room which is not good at all for wanting to have guests come stay. Enough was enough, we decided. However, not much was going to change until we got a bed in there to spur on some craftiness.

I digress. We got a bed. Also, I wanted it to be my "crafty/studying" room when it isn't in use (isn't my hubby the best...) so I wanted it to be simple enough and uncluttered so it doesn't explode into what my room looked like for the majority of my childhood (sorry, Mom. Believe it or not...I can't get much work done with things cluttered everywhere anymore.) The point is, now it's basically done. And it's so simple and so pretty and I find myself just sitting in there for the heck of it sometimes wondering what Chris would say if I asked him if we could switch rooms. Ha!

If only we could paint, it'd be ten times better, but I found a way to work with the stupid yellow that it is. Oh well.




SWEET desk we found at a consignment shop--perfect size. And the top is now chalkboard to match the chair. (surprise surprise...)



He doesn't come with the room. But he's always lookin' mischievous.




Bed, and my favorite part--the love notes on the walls. :) I strung them up and put my favorite bible verses on each one...I'm kind of obsessed with it. (And there's Pax in the corner bein' sketchy as usual.)



And let's just talk about this for a minute. I FINALLY DID A PINTEREST PROJECT THAT I LOVE-but I did it for the guest room. Maybe this is why I love this room so much. It's the little things. I stinkin' love these book mobiles.

See, nothin' too fancy. I just love the colors and the hanging books and the wall of love. I better find a pinterest project for OUR room pretty soon so I can stop hatin' on it.

What could you give up to help eradicate extreme poverty all over the world?

58: Intro Video from LIVE58NOW on Vimeo.

My brother recently went on a trip to visit an organization in Charleston, SC that promotes and provides clean water in developing countries. He told me when he got back a story that put knots in my stomach. He went to businesses trying to raise awareness and support for them. He finds one lady working in a shop and asks, "Would you be willing to display any information or flyers about this organization that provides safe drinking water for the developing world?" She responds, "I'm not sure, the owner isn't here and I can't make that decision. But anyways, shouldn't we be trying to help the people in our OWN country first?" I don't have anything nice to say about this, so I'm going to move on to the cause.

This may have been founded by Christians, but this is not just for Christians. It is for EVERYBODY who cares about the extremely impoverished and hungry. It is for those who wished no child would ever die of unsafe water, lack of food, or illnesses that should never kill. Create a team, invite your friends, see who you can impact together. If you'd rather join a team that's already established, feel free to join the one my husband and I are on called "DCF Mission Team."

I know this sweet girl named Emily McCanless who wanted this cookie recipe-so here it is :)

I NEVER bake. I seriously don't know why. I have a wonderful kitchenaid that we got from our wedding that I don't even use for baking. I use it for more extravagant things-like butterbeer (see post below). Bahaha. No, I use it a lot in just general cooking, but for some reason I always get frustrated when I try to bake. Needless to say, the "urge to bake" never hits this girl.

Well yesterday it did. It was possibly influenced by wanting to take some sort of treat to our bible study...or maybe I was doing some SERIOUS procrastinating. Either way--the one time I do try to bake, I realize I don't have butter. Boo.

I was an unstoppable force by this point--I had the rest of the ingredients out. So I looked up no-butter recipes and found one, and then changed it a little! It was pretty good, I missed the buttery flavor but I LOADED those suckers with chocolate chips...so all was well. Plus they're healthier, right!?

Here it is:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
little less than 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Stir together flour, soda and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together both types of sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture to oil mixture and stir just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon measure, scoop up dough and shape into tight rounds of about ¾ to 1 inch. Space them about 2 inches apart on two ungreased cookie sheets. The mounds should be bursting with chips. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.


Enjoyyy the non-buttered goodness. Holla, Emily M! You'da best.