Easy peasy banana bread

Helloooo there! I’m back today with a very quick, YUMMY, very easy recipe – and I just had to share it because for years I thought it was way harder than this.

I love when I think something is difficult for so long and then do a quick search on the net and realize it’s not hard at all. Or maybe I hate when that happens, because I’ve denied myself of awesome all that time.

Whatever. This one is scrumptious and easy.

I had some bananas that were overripe, so before I threw them out I grabbed my phone and searched “easy banana bread recipe.” This one on Simply Recipes popped right up and I just had to share!

Can you believe I’ve never made banana bread? Ever??

It seriously took five minutes to mix everything:

(I took this after I had already mashed the bananas, these are not quite ripe yet.)

You’ll need:

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed (I used four)
  1/3 cup melted butter
  1 cup sugar (they say you can easily use 3/4 cup, I went with a cup)
  1 egg, beaten
  1 teaspoon vanilla
  1 teaspoon baking soda
  Pinch of salt
  1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

I love that the ingredients are so basic – I had everything I needed on hand. How often does that happen when you want something specific?

First mash up the bananas (I used a potato masher), and then add the melted butter:

YUM, banana goo!

Then mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla:

On a side note, I’m a put-away-as I-go kind of cook. Do you put ingredients right away or wait till the whole shebang is done at the end? Leaving them out kind of gives me hives. :)

Add the baking soda and salt and mix:

Add the flour last, bake at 350 in a preheated oven for one hour and you’re done!

I added a bit of cinnamon at the end too, just because cinnamon is good in just about any baked item. In my opinion.

I don’t care for nuts in banana bread, so this recipe was perfect for me. If you like them in your nanner bread, I’m guessing about half a cup would be perfect.

The recipe specifies an 8” by 4” loaf pan, but all we have is a 9 by 5. Because of that I baked it for about 50 minutes instead of an hour.

It came out perfect:

I may or may not have eaten about five a couple pieces by the time I took this picture. :)

It is SO good. Especially yummy warm from the oven, with a little butter…  Ohhhh…um, what was I saying? I may add a few raisins in my next loaf – I think that would be amahzing.

I thought banana bread was much more complicated than this, and when I realized it wasn’t (and it was GOOD), I just had to share! Have you discovered an easy recipe you thought would be more difficult?

Now go forth and bake!!

**Check out my other easy recipes here, including my peanut butter pie, easy crockpot applesauce and avocado banana ice cream. (It’s incredible, I promise!)

Privet House at Target

**This giveaway is now closed.

Congrats to the winners!:

1. Kristina A at janhander(at)yahoo(dot)com
2. Lisa at A Cottage to Me
3. Jen at Lily Atlantic
4. Kelly at hargrave1695(at)yahoo(dot)com

Please email me at simplehomeinteriordesign(at)gmail(dot)com so I can get you connected with your goodies!

Hey all! WOW – more than 400 projects linked up already at this month’s before and after party! Check it out here!

Well…you know how much I love Target. I’ve expressed it in words here and I express it with my wallet waaaaay too much. I mean, really. Ask my husband.

Imagine my delight when they wrote and asked if I wanted to give away some of their new goodies to YOU.

Oh. yeah.

If you’ve been in a Target or seen the commercials lately, you know about their new initiative, The Shops at Target. I absolutely LOVE this concept -- Target will partner directly with the shop owners of specialty stores and boutiques around the country to co-create affordable, limited-edition collections for customers.

And today I get to share more about the home decor shop that is in stores now:

Privet House opened in 2008 in Connecticut and boasts an international collection of antique and vintage furniture, artwork and mirrors for the home and garden.

Their site is FULL of gorgeous eye candy:

The Privet House at Target line features a signature line of décor and accessories for the home, garden and table reminiscent of the shop’s charming aesthetic. I checked out some of the items at my Target this week and fell in love!

To celebrate The Shops at Target kick off, they are offering some of the new goodies to you!

FOUR lucky readers will get one of each of the following:

Privet House at Target Stationery and Rubber Stamp Set ($12.99)
Privet House at Target Apothecary Jar Scented Candle ($15.99, not pictured)
Privet House at Target Canvas Tote Bag in Coral ($19.99)
Privet House at Target Wire House ($24.99)

    That’s $75 worth of Target goodness people! WHOO! Are you excited? I’m excited!

Entering this one is pretty simple – leave a comment here and tell us what you love most about Target. The clothes? The home decor? The popcorn? (That’s one of mine. Yum.)

This giveaway will be open through this Thursday the 10th at 5 p.m. and is only open to US residents. Good luck and have fun! :)

May before and after party!

It’s that time again! It’s almost summer, can you even BELIEVE it?? I can’t. Today we kick off May (I know it’s already been around for a week, whatever) with this month’s before and after party!

First, some of the awesome projects linked up last month!

Rasha updated her IKEA sofa with a little somethin’ and it looks fantastic!:

I’ve had the supplies to the do the same and this has inspired me! Check out her post here.

Christina came up with a way to hang her plates and it is brilliant!:

Go here to see more. (Totally a DUH moment over here – wish I would have thought of that.)

I loved Alicia’s art project and what she used to make it!:

 

I planned on using those exact napkins from Cost Market for a project and then they sold out! I LOVE them.

I love how Kelly transformed dollar store plates into something pretty and special:

Go to this post to see how she did it!

Lori’s huge Pottery Barn knock off mirror is spectacular!:

And so is the price -- check out her great step-by-step instructions on how she did it here!

Lynda is a girl after my own heart. She loves NYC as much as I do and I remember drooling over her awesome spaces years ago (before blogging) over at the Rate My Space page. That’s where all of us bloggers hung out pre-blogs. ;)

She recently moved and wanted to dress up their rental bathroom. Check out how she created a beautiful space here:

 

Isn’t that amazing? It’s gorgeous!

And I’ll wrap it up with Megan’s living room because it’s such a fun, pretty, bright space!:

I LOVE the pops of orange she has in there – check out this post to see more.

OK! It’s time to see what you’ve been up to! Like always, please don’t link up a post you’ve linked before and I’d LOVE a link back, especially if you’d like to be highlighted like these lovely ladies.

You can use this button to do so:

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.simplehomeinteriordesign.blogspot.com/" title="TDC Before and After" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/beforeAndAfterButton_thumb1.gif" alt="TDC Before and After" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Alright! Link it up! Can’t wait to see what you’ve created this month!

How to make a succulent terrarium

Hey hey! Happy end-of-weekend to ya! I hope you had a great one. I got a TON done outside – I worked my tail off and sweat off about five pounds. (I hope.)

There’s something about working in the yard – it’s a feeling of accomplishment like nothing else. I fall even more in love with our home when I work in the yard too. :)

Today I’m sharing a little project I worked on weeks ago. I’ve been wanting to create a little terrarium for years now. Every time I see the little succulent plants at Lowe’s I just DIE at their miniature-ness:

Last year I got some and planted them separately into little pots, but they didn’t have much impact all by their lonesome.

This time I wanted to create a terrarium that would have a little more oomph. I’ve seen them done a few times in blogland, but couldn't remember where. So I just searched “how to make a terrarium” and it was super easy.

I have a bunch of empty apothecary jars so I knew they would be perfect:

You want to use glass so the light can get to the plants.

The first step is a layer of small rocks, the second is a layer of soil:

I hear there is soil just for terrariums but I was using what I had, and so far so good. (I read you can use either.) I’ve also seen a sand/soil combo used, but they come in regular soil so I’ve always figured that works just fine. (And it has for me.)

I later found out that it’s not a bad idea to add bits of charcoal as well, to help with moisture issues.

And that’s it! Really, I had no idea it was this simple. I thought you had to use very specific “ingredients” and you so do not.

I planted my little succulents in the soil, then filled the top with some moss:

Only because it’s pretty. :) A local nursery gave me some – awesome!

I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I did another one as well because I had some extra plants. Some of the succulents looked like they were one plant but were really three or four, so you really get a bang for your buck with those:

I love all of the colors – the minty green and purple tones are my favorite. :)

You barely have to water these – actually too much water will kill them. Did you see that perfect little water droplet?:

I haven’t watered them in at least a week so it must have been there all this time. Wild! I spray them so they don’t get too much water and just kind of watch to see when they need it.

Succulents need dry air, not humid. So I go half and half with the glass lids – sometimes on, sometimes off:

I left them on too long at one point and there was a small bit of mold growing. I read online that cinnamon helps with that, so we’ll see. So far so good!

If anything, they smell scrumptious!! ;)

I loved them so much, I got another plant for a mini-terrarium in one of my mason jars:

This one was one of those that actually broke down into three plants, so I was able to make two mason jar terrariums. So fun!

I think they are too cool and if you have a brown thumb, this may be the plant for you. It’s hard to kill them, in my opinion. I had one at one point that I SWEAR went months without water.

The cost isn’t bad at all – you could gather rocks out of your yard for the bottom layer. The succulents themselves run about $3 (for smaller plants) and $4 (larger) each.

Not bad for some easy plants and bringing some green indoors! These have been going strong for a few weeks now. LOVE. Have you created a terrarium? Any tips I missed?

**The May Before and After Party will go up Monday evening!

Weekend ramblings

Bear with me folks, it’s one of those posts with no real point and not much focus. ;)

Excuse me while I ramble a bit.

You know the list? The one with a meeeellion projects I want to get done in less than 30 days? Well, I’ve been SUPER busy.

I’ve accomplished three things on the list and about ten that aren’t. That is how I roll. :)

I’m gearing up for a TON of painting and need to figure out the direction I’m going in the dining room. I have been meaning to go to the fabric store and just take some time checking out potential drapery fabrics that can serve as inspiration.

I was leaning toward a blue/grey color for the back of the built ins (the someday built ins) and it’s an awesome color. But then I saw this in House Beautiful:

And I can’t get that combo of colors out of my mind! I think the pink color is actually a little more red in the magazine. I can’t stop thinking about it and think it could be gorgeous as the background color for the bookshelves. (Here, let me say “think” one more time…think.)

I don’t want it to go girly, and I don’t want red, but I love the idea of an in between color like that. I just love that combo of cream, greys, brown and pinky red. It’s beautiful!

Speaking of paint, remember how much I loved the Sherwin Williams paint on the kitchen island? Well their paints are 30 percent off through the weekend if you are a preferred customer. (At least at my store.) All you have to do to become a preferred customer is give an email address! (I’m pretty sure anyway. I may know nothing.)

You bet I will be stocking up on the basement paint! Yay for deals!! Nay for painting the basement!!

And speaking of girly, did you hear Jessica Simpson had her baby girl this week? Did it feel like she was pregnant for 30 months to anyone else or was it just me? Congrats to her!

On a totally different note, I picked up two new-to-me books today, and I’m really looking forward to reading this one:

I’ve heard it’s excellent. Have you read it? I’m not big into non-fiction but every once and a while I find them very worthwhile. My hubby, on the other hand, only reads non-fiction! (I’m trying to get him to read Hunger Games to no avail.)

Thanks to you all, I have learned a TON about hydrangeas over the past 24 hours! (Check out this post for more info.) Today, thanks to the very helpful folks at a local nursery, I picked up a couple new hydrangea bushes and learned a bit more:

The staff at Andrea’s Garden Center (at 65 and Binford for you Indy folks) were super helpful. (Hey Mari! Waving wildly!) I replanted three of my sad, pathetic bushes today and have the two new ones in a spot where I think they will do well. I’ll be sure to give you an update on those soon! Cross your fingers! And toes.

Do you have any Cinco de Mayo plans? After the hubs and I are done at a high school function he has to attend, we are planning to get out for at least one margarita. It just wouldn’t be right if we didn’t -- gotta stay true to his heritage. :) (My father-in-law was from Mexico.)

I found this recipe the other day for margarita cupcakes and am gathering the ingredients and making them tomorrow:

Oh my goodNESS. I’m a marg girl so these sound divine to me. I’ll be sure to report back and let you know how they turn out. It’s my civic duty as a blogger you know. It’s rough, but someone’s gotta do it.

So, have you painted a wall pinkish? Tried the margarita cupcakes? Got a good non-fiction book you loved? Fun plans for the weekend? I’d love to hear!

If I don’t talk to you before then, have a fabulous weekend! Adios amigos! ;)

Hydrangeas hate me

They do. They really, really do. I’ve mentioned this a few times over the years and this year I am determined to do something about it.

Oh yes.

Hydrangeas, of course, are one of my very favorite flowers. And of course, I can’t grow them to save my life.

Of. course.

This is the primary reason I love Trader Joes. Cheap, fluffy hydrangeas. And their salads. I like their salads too.

But I digress. I can grow some things. Cukes and tomatoes like mad. Lilies love me. Azaleas and I are likethis.

SEE?:

 

I actually need to replant or split the lilies because they are being eaten alive by the azaleas. I don’t prune my azaleas – haven’t wanted to. The one on the end there is five feet wide and at least three feet tall.

I LOVE THEM. And they love me, which is funny because I’ve heard they can be very hard to grow.  So look at me, not touching them and they are awesome. Of course.

So I can grow plants, it’s just the hydrangea bush that hates me. I’ve now tried three versions and only one has done fairly (and fairly is subjective) well. I dream of bushes like this:

Or holy cats, pick me up off the floor, these:

I have six hydrangea bushes planted around our house. I’ve tried them in all different areas over the years because I can’t find the right mix of sun/shade to make them thrive.

I have three Endless Summer varieties and most should look like this by now:

(source)

But instead they look like this:

   

SEE? Pathetic I tell you!!

(And sorry about the weeds, we’re addressing this soon. I prefer to call them ground cover.)

The first one has been there for YEARS. Yes. Years people. It’s about five inches wide. It’s in afternoon and late afternoon sun which obviously is the worst for them.

The second one is in morning sun and I got it last year. It never bloomed but was a bit bigger than this.

The third one is doing the best, actually all the sudden. It’s been there for years as well, and has never bloomed. It’s in afternoon sun.

Do I need to mention that every. single. one. of these was a beautiful, full plant when I put it in the ground???

So I’ve tried everything but shade, and nothing has worked well for this variety.

Next up are the PeeGee trees that I got at the end of the season last year. They should look like this:

(source)

Well. Eventually.

They were blooming when I put them in the ground and did OK last fall.

Now?:

Sad sad SAD. One is doing OK, I guess. One barely has any leaves on it.

They look like they need to be pruned? Do I prune them?

Help.

The only version that has done OK is the only one I’m not as excited about.

Of course.

I got a Limelight variety late last summer on HUGE clearance and it did better than the others. I got a few cuttings off of it, but it wasn’t anything to write home about:

Now this one is coming back really well, and although there are no signs of blooms yet, I’m OK with it because that just means it will get bigger:

That big plant behind it is a sunflower that came up last year (I’m assuming from our bird seed) and it’s coming back. I LOVE it so it’s staying there. :)

The Limelights are beautiful for sure, just not my favorite hydrangea:

(source)

I prefer the blue or purpley blooms and I’ve heard the color will depend on the soil ph. I can’t even determine that because I’ve yet to get ONE bloom from my Endless Summer bushes. After at least five years of trying.

Sooo…you know I need your help. :) We are in Indiana and yes, hydrangea can grow like MAD here. I see them do well all over the place, just not at my house. I swear, last summer I went through the Arby’s drive through near us and about lost it cause they had a bajillion gorgeous fluffy hydrangea bushes that were amazing.

Argh.

I see them in front of businesses, in all day sun, and they are fantastic. I see them at friend’s houses in complete shade and they are FANTASTIC.

What gives? Any suggestions? Hydrangea tricks I don’t know about? I’m trying the shady areas next. Should I prune them, cut down the old stalks? Do I prune the PeeGee trees as well?

What am I doing to make them hate me so? I am determined to make them work this summer. I will conquer the hydrangea and make them like me. Even if they hate me for it.