Good morning! Are you ready for GOOD things on my radar …along with Annie’s and Cindy’s? Today I’m addressing a reader’s Decorating Dilemma: Wall Niches. I also have some great face products, and my Weight Watchers “progress.”
Sneakers and Scarves for Everyday
This time of year, a wool scarf can add a little color and warmth to your everyday attire even if you aren’t going anywhere (like me below).
Wool Unlined Jacket and Scarf (old) • Leggings • sneakers
Face Products I’m Loving
My cousin, Patricia has the most beautiful complexion and she gave me her favorite cream as a gift. I love it. Also, my eyebrows are becoming invisible, and although I like Benefit Eyebrow Goof Proof Pencil…I go through it too quickly. This new less expensive one from Maybelline works well (I use the brush from the Benefit pencil and fill it in with more precision if necessary).
Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream • Maybelline Eyebrow Extension Pencil I am using the Blonde shade, not Light Blonde • Milk Lip + Cheek in Werk Shade. I have the mini size… a pretty shade for blush.
WW Update and Blueberry Packed Muffins
Well, it’s been four weeks on Weight Watchers and my progress is gradual. As in I’ve only lost a little over 4 lbs (I’m 5’1″). At this rate, it’s going to take a while but hopefully, it will stay off. If you are doing WW with us…how is it going?
I made the delicious WW Ginger and Lemongrass soup that Cindy recommended (with chicken this time instead of shrimp). Have any other advice that works for you? A reader told me that she put some of the gazpacho that I like to make on salmon and baked it in foil…and it was delicious. I might try that!
Howard doesn’t really eat sweets but he requested that I make another batch of these healthy blueberry muffins (they aren’t that sweet but are satisfying with coffee in the morning). I adjusted the recipe from Cookie and Kate, basically adding more blueberries since they are zero points and an egg white for more protein. I like to have them on hand in the freezer.
I’m estimating that these are around 4-5 points…what do you think?
- 1 ¾ cups plus 1 teaspoon white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 eggs, preferably at room temperature
- 1 egg white
- 1 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1.5 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
- 1 tbsp raw sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease all 12 cups of your muffin tin with cooking spray.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ¾ cups of the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix them together with a whisk.
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In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oil and honey and beat together with a whisk. Add the eggs and egg white and beat well, then add the yogurt and vanilla. Mix well. (If the coconut oil solidifies in contact with cold ingredients, gently warm the mixture in the microwave in 30 second bursts.)
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Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a big spoon, just until combined (a few lumps are ok). In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with the remaining 1 teaspoon flour (this helps prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom). Gently fold the blueberries into the batter. The mixture will be thick.
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Divide the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with raw sugar. Bake the muffins for 16 to 19 minutes, or until the muffins are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean
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Place the muffin tin on a cooling rack to cool. You might need to run a butter knife along the outer edge of the muffins to loosen them from the pan. If you have leftover muffins, store them, covered, at room temperature for 2 days, or freeze leftover muffins.
Reader Decorating Dilemma – What To Do With Wall Niches?
Builders can go crazy with these wall niches. The worst is when they are up really high…what can you put in them that won’t need dusting? Here is an email subscriber’s dilemma. By the way, if you subscribe…I may answer your specific dilemma, too.
My first choice would be to get rid of the niches and make the opening arch larger…but what a mess, $$$, and you have to patch the floor. So, I think it’s best to minimize them (probably paint the niche bases the same trim color)and draw your eyes to the other foyer walls as below. Oh, and I’d also get a rug. This could be done in stages.
I think I would do a combo of the high and low and add a rug. Here is a little video that you can skip if you like!
And that’s a reader’s decorating dilemma: Wall Niches, Beneficial Face Products, and my Blueberry Packed Muffin recipe.
Let’s check out what Annie and Cindy have found…
Most Lovely Things
Cindy Hattersley Design
Thanks for visiting!
Loving your high/low end decorating dilemma solutions! Keep em comin!
I’ve heard good things about that face cream. I think those are great ideas to make the foyer more welcoming with furniture and to keep the niches simple with elegant ginger jars.
Thanks for this post!
Hi Mary Ann,
A niche would be a challenge, but your suggestion is spot on. I do remember seeing homes that had the niche high on the wall where you couldn’t keep it dusted easily. I’ll have to try the Maybelline eyebrow pencil. The L’Oreal brow pencil is pretty good and I love the brush attached to the pencil.
Great post as usual.
Karen
I love when you show options for solving a reader’s decorating dilemma. I hope you continue to show us more. Thanks for the review of the Maybelline eyebrow pencil. I’m blonde and my eyebrows are getting lighter (or should I say whiter) and need some color. I will definitely try this.
Thanks, Val. I think you will like the eyebrow pencil.
The room with the niches looks like an unused dining room. If it is a dinning room, I’d put taller faux orchids in them for the height.
I do not particularly like the ginger jars as they remind me of urns and that saddens me. If there are children in the house, I’d stick with faux orchids in the niches. If they have all adults living there, maybe place tall statues instead. When I lived in Texas, niches seemed to be what those builders like to do. I placed an expensive music box in mine and played it from time to time as it echoed with the tile floors in the next room.
It’s a foyer. Thanks for commenting.
You can use the microphone on the WW app the add a recipe and it will calculate the points.
wow…I will try!
Thank you for your positive attitude – that is my favorite thing about reading your blog! Now, as to those niches – I would embrace them. I like the Contessa’s suggestion (she has such good taste!) of finding two complementary garden statues. In fact, I have a pair that would be perfect; it is a tall, slender Asian couple that I have in my woodland garden. I would emphasize the niches, rather than try and make them go away, by painting the background a dark color, deep navy blue or flat black. Alternatively, a tall plant would work on either side, depending on light. I have seen a topiary-type ficus tree that would look splendid in there. Or, get a short decorative column and place a trailing pothos plant on top. Or, go to Home Goods and look for a sculptural object or tall thin vase for either side. (I did not care for the ginger jars there, sorry.) Finally, a sculptured head or mask could be mounted inside the niches. Like the Contessa, I would love to have this dilemma! Thanks so much for letting us chime in.
This is what makes the world go round…different opinions. I appreciate your taking the time to comment, Judith.
Another great post – and another click on Target website to order beautiful things, reasonably priced. I love the ginger jar option. Ginger jars are classic and beautiful and can always be relocated anywhere – ask my husband, they appear all over our house and enjoy mysteriously relocating. Those niches! Our builder kept trying to insert them here and there on our custom build. Maybe not a true niche like your post, but indenting stuff with a curve on top here and there. I finally said “I ban all curved lines!”. I didn’t want curved doorways, curved niches, none of it. I guess I’m a straight line person. On another topic, I fill my eyebrows with the brow shaper powder from Clinique in a soft brown color. You don’t have to draw individual strokes and it creates a fool proof soft look. I
Ha! You are so funny! I do like some arches but I am more of a straight line person, too.
I live in NO CA and builders went CRAZY with those niches! We bought a home and promptly filled in a giant one in the entry. The other one outside the master I had glass shelves installed along with custom molding surround to display a silver box collection. The one by the kitchen I had the cabinet maker make a cabinet with wire inserts and it was used for glassware and that turned out to be the best solution of all! I had a real estate client who had them even in the powder room (!!!) and she did a cabinet too with the wire front. They are pretty shallow so she did some rolled up hand towels interspersed with blue and white porcelain pieces and glass shelves.
At my sister’s house, we put art into her niches…but they are little like these.
If you want faster results than what you are getting on WW you might want to investigate “Wheat Belly Total Health” by Dr. Wm. Davis. Grains and sugar are the big problems in the typical American diet because they spike our blood sugar and put our bodies on a perpetual roller coaster and lead to insulin resistance. Dr. Davis is a cardiologist who realized after many years of surgery and follow up care with patients that our food pyramid that promotes 5-9 servings of “healthy whole grains” was a huge contributor to all of the health problems in our country. There is a great online support group to help with this way of eating. The book is so informative and a real eye opener.
I enjoy following all of your decorating projects.
Thanks for the tip, Linda!
I’m really enjoying your suggestions for readers decorating dilemmas especially the budget
friendly and easily accessible suggestions. It’s such a challenge ordering furniture items now
taking forever for shipping etc .
Congratulations on your WW success I ‘m vertically challenged and it seems weight loss takes
longer and goes slower for us then those ladies gifted with legs .
Ha! Yes, it is harder for us “vertically challenged!”
Here’s what we did with our niches when we were in Houston, we picked up handcrafted panels from Laredo and my husband used wall mounting brackets to suspend them as though they were floating. Trying to get the picture to you?
That could work.
I agree, opening up archway best but priciest. Second best…making them disappear. How much is drywall patching?
I’ve liked those shoes since I first saw them on you. Hitting Zappos.
Mary Ann,
I am your age and also have the problem of less eyebrow hairs however, I found a product that has really made a difference. It’s called UKBROW and after 4 weeks of using it every night – one application covers both brows – my brows have really filled in. I know there are other similar products out there but this one was recommended.
Thanks for the beauty product recommendations. I ordered the Tatcha moisturizer.
My problem is that they are also white hairs in addition to being sparse.
LOVE THE WALL NICHES!
TWO SMALL CEMENT GARDEN STATUES is what is speaking to me!
WHAT A DILEMMA to have!I would give anything for wall niches…………
I think we are along the same lines with simplicity.
Def paint out the trim so your eyes don’t go there first. Even take the trim off.
I’d probably try to find framed simple art to cover the space. Custom framing could work wonders to adjust the size appropriately.
I’d also select one of the options you’ve shown on the longer walls.
I thought of that or something to go over them…but it could just get too busy with the other things in the room on the walls.
The ginger jars look perfect there! I agree simple is best. We had one in the hallway when we bought our house(remember the ones for the telephone?) …our house is old, 1948. My husband filled it in.
My girlfriend and her husband were on weight watches for awhile and she was raving about their great recipes. You do not look like you need to be on it though!
Linda
Thanks so much for commenting, Linda!
I like your idea of painting out the trim to match walls, the blue and white urns and adding a rug to draw eye into the next room. However, when I saw your mirror as option, what about hanging matching mirrors over the niche? Would that work?
I thought of that…but with art and mirror on the larger walls…I think it may be too much.