The new things.

Just thought I would share some of the new items/custom orders I've had lately! These are available through my Etsy shop. Which you are always welcome to browse around, and tell your friends about! :)

 I also have a Facebook page, too! I do giveaways on there, so go "like" it to make sure you get in on the free stuff!

Random Update!

Well it's been busy here per usual, so I thought I would update you on the recent happenings- with pictures and everything. 

Here's the cutest little child, Nadine. One of our bus kids. She drew that picture. Does it look familiar to you? (It's ME. Can't you see the similarities?) What a doll.

Our church bus kids typically come from some pretty low income areas. Not all of them. But a good majority. Anyway. We had "Missions May" and encouraged them to bring as many pennies as they could (it was a competition between all three bus routes, and whichever bus had the most weight in their bottle would win a pizza party.) We totally won. The bus workers helped a bit, but I am so proud of our kids for bringing their little zippy bags full of pennies!

In other news, you've seen our fire pit. And we have been putting it to good use lately. Here, we Josh's brothers, their wives, and my sister over. And Josh sat in his Kool-aid. 

Food cooked over a fire is always better in my book!

Also. I love s'mores. Did you know I had them at my wedding? *thinks back... have I even posted wedding photos on here?!*

In other news, my little sister graduated from our Christian School at church. This is my mom and I listening intently to the service.

Josh and I also listening intently.

These are the newest addition to my Etsy shop. I love these babies. You can find them here!

That's it for now! A whole lot of everything going on. Love it. :)

High Five for Friday!

Long time no blog!

I know. I know. Life has been crazy! Anyway...

I am linking up for the first time ever to Lauren at From My Grey Desk! Love her blog!

This has been a great week, as far as high-fives and such go. It's been a draining week, too. And I'm rather glad it's over! I must say, the mail has made this week fun. I never get mail. But this was a fun mail week. And also, Josh just makes everything awesome.

One: I got my first Birchbox! I was sooo excited to open it!

Pretty fun stuff! You should try it!

I came home from work one day to a painted bathroom! Josh is so sweet. He's on a short break before summer school starts, and he chooses to spoil me! We still have decorating to do, obviously, but I am LOVING the grey!

And he also made this one day! We have a huge backyard and we have tons of plans for it. One of them was a fire pit. Well, my handsome man made it happen this week! Isn't he awesome? We'll eventually lay bricks all around it, but for now, I'm just really excited to go make a s'more. :)

Ok. This wasn't THIS week. I am a bloggy failure. But I wanted to show you my new mug that I got from the coffee mug swap over at Suzelz Says! 

Leslie at Peace, Love & Everything Pink sent this one to me. I love it! I have been using it so much this week! Isn't it adorable? And very me. :) 

And my far-away friend Melissa sent us the pretty green throw on our couch for a wedding gift!! I had mentioned to her that I was looking for a throw, and viola, it came in the mail! :) I love it so much. She is too sweet!

Pretty good week overall! :)

Baked Chimichangas

This is one of Josh's favorite meals, and I love it cause it's super duper easy peasy. 

Sometimes I just feel like rhyming twice in a row, ya know? 

What you'll need:

1lb ground beef

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp oregano

1/2 cup green chilies

1/2 cup taco sauce

1/2 cup sour cream

1 Tbs. cider vinegar

Flour tortillas

Cheese

Brown the ground beef:

While it's browning, throw the sour cream, chilies, taco sauce and cider vinegar into a bowl:

Like so:

Add the spices and garlic. If we have salsa, I usually dump about 1/4 cup of that in there too. But it's good without it, too. 

Then add the ground beef. Drain it, first!

Mix it up!

Put about this much onto a flour tortilla: As you can see, I'm very technical with my measurements.

Put them into a pan...

Brush them with butter. Go all Paula Deen on those babies.

Well actually don't. That's unhealthy. But a little butter won't kill ya.

Put them in the oven at 400* for about 10 minutes, til golden. Then top with cheese. (We do half and half, cause I shouldn't really eat cheese.)

Stick them back in for about 5 minutes or so. (I usually turn the oven off and clean up the kitchen and to me, that means they are done then. :)

And there you go! Easy, yet yummy, dinner. :)

Enjoy!

Handsome Chef + Thrift Store Find!

He's Handsome...

AND he grilled some tasty eats!

YUM. Grilled Chicken Blitz. I'm pretty sure that's what it was called.

And. How stinking adorable is this table I found at Savers? I got two of them. We're painting them this weekend. :)

Also. This weekend I dropped my compact powder into my coffee, spilling it everywhere, spilled water on myself, broken the Brita, shattered the front lawn lamp, tripped UP the stairs, getting a rugburn, and gotten sunburnt. Pretty darn productive, right? 

Ha.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Actually. Earrings. This giveaway has nothing to do with a dinner of chicken.

Anyways. Are you wondering who the winner is?!

ME TOO.



Thanks to Random.org for picking:  Alycia from Crowley Party as the big winner of the earrings! (She got in just in the nick of time, too!) Congrats, Alycia! Shoot me an email with your info and I will mail your earrings next week! :)

Thank you to everyone for entering! I will do more giveaways in the future, so keep a lookout for them!

That's pretty cool!

My DIY Milk Glass (but not) was a featured blog! That makes this girl pretty excited!

You can see the blog I was featured on by clicking the shiny button. :) Apparently, I'm a genius. Who knew?

Giveaway!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!!!

Because I'm feeling nice today.

And also because it's Friday. (Those two things have alot in common!)

Anyway! I will be having a giveaway for these earrings from My Etsy Shop! Handmade by yours truly. I love these things! I made myself a pair, in fact, and have been wearing them every day since! You can click here to purchase them, if you'd like.

Aren't they so cute? :)

::TO ENTER::

It's easy peasy. Here are your options: (You can do one or all!)

1. Join this site. Leave a comment telling me you did! (If you are already a member, leave a comment saying so!) 

2. "Like" Melissa Rae Murphy Designs on Facebook. Leave a comment telling me you did- or, like the above, if you are already a "liker" then just leave me a comment on here! 

3. "Share" this blog post on your Facebook page. (click the little Facebook icon at the bottom to do this.) Don't forget to leave a comment saying you did! 

4. Grab my button! You can find it over there on your right. Once again, leave a comment! 

*INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS* Feel free to enter! I'll ship them to you free, if you win, 'cause I'm just that cool! =)

Simple as that!

{I will pick a winner using random.org on Thursday evening, April 19th!}

Thrift Store Finds/Before & After

These aren't going to be huge, extravagant before & afters by any means, but I like them. :)

This "thing" ... I have no idea what it really is. I just saw it and loved the design on it. It was $1.25.

We just covered it in white spray paint, easy peasy, and it looks way better. The before picture doesn't really show how dirty and dingy it looked. Anyway, it looks great now!

Before                                                           After

These wall hanging candle holders were $5.00 each at Savers. (My goodness, I love that place.) I love the design on them so much! Josh actually found these, and just knew I'd like them. He's just good like that. :)

I love this design!

Anyway, we painted two of these black, and one of them white. The white one still doesn't have a home yet. But I had a plan for these ones. :)

 So here's our really sad beige-and-white-and-tan living room.

Before:

After!

You can see the candle holders hanging on either side of our finally-framed wedding photo. We also got a floating wall shelf at Savers for $5, and got the longer one at Home Depot to go with it.

You can see the "thing" tucked away behind a picture on the smaller shelf. I like it so much. I don't know why. :)

And I just got filler for that awesome green vase today. No picture of that yet. :)

So much more inviting now, don't you think?

Goodness knows, I'm not done yet. I definitely want to paint and do a few more things in this room. The thing is, all that costs money! So, until we have some of that, this works! :)