Boy do I feel you on cookie-cutter style homes. My husband and I just purchased a cookie-cutter 3 years ago, something I swore I'd never do. I grew up in the nyc, and one of the things I've always hated are neighbors. When I say hate, I mean hate the with fury of a thousand demons. I don't want to look at them, I don't want to hear them, I don't want to see their dogs and kids running around anywhere I could see them. Yes, I'm probably the one with the problem, but it doesn't change the fact of how I feel. When we moved out of NJ where we temporarily lived after we got married...I will refrain from making Jersey jokes.. we knew we wanted to live in a small wood or stone house in the country, something with age and originality, but land and seclusion was more important to us than anything else. There were so many homes we saw within our price range that were exactly what I've always dreamed of, but they always seemed to have neighbors right there, right where you could see them! or hear them, with views of their pools, views of their back yards and decks. I'm sorry, but no. After 5 years of renting and searching we finally came upon this house on a beautiful 8 acre lot abutting a forest, totally secluded, in a quaint little sleepy town in CT with a covered bridge. At that point we realized, it's either land or house, and again, land was much more important to us. You can have the most beautiful quaint little house, but you move next to the wrong people, and that cute little house can become your worst nightmare. Till this day I don't understand how people are able to live so close to one another and not kill each other. We took the leap, were very excited about it, and about a month into this cookie-cutter we realized what a mistake we'd made. We had the worst case of buyers remorse that lasted about a year. But we started fixing up the place, getting new furniture, replacing fixtures, painting the walls some nice neutral colors, bought new modern furniture for the deck, and lo and behold, we're actually falling in love with this place. We were lucky in a few aspects about this house that didn't render it totally hopeless, and one of the things is that the previous owners didn't chintz out on the windows or sliding doors. All Anderson double hung wood windows. Not those horrible white plastic windows, not sure what you call them, and the porch deck is all cedar..that was a start. The roof color is horrendous, but it can be changed, and the siding is vinyl, disgusting soul.killing.vinyl.. but you know what? if I hate it that much, that can be changed too. The thing that you can't change is beautiful natural landscape. I guess you could if you bulldozed it, but I love the feeling of waking up in the morning to the sound of birds, or going to bed at night to the sound of owls or coyotes. Sitting on our deck and not hearing anything or anyone but nature. We've now become quite attached to this house. Tuesday if all goes well we have new granite being installed, and a nice sink, with an old school industrial yet modern looking faucet. I'm playing up the "farmhouse" look now. Yeah, I bought a couple things from pottery barn, and RH, but I also haunt the many of the local antique shops, and mix it up quite nicely ( you should see the amazing hutch I got for only at half price!). I too hate that catalog look. I don't want everything to be so perfect and just so. I want our house to have an approachable warmth to it. When people come visit us, I want them to feel they're visiting a home, and not entering a staged model sub-division house. Sure it was cookie-cutter when we bought it, but it doesn't have to be cookie cutter while we live in it.

Tami, I just came back on your post. Here's mother's recipe. Mind you, it makes a lot of pie crust. Probably enough for 2 double-crust pies and 1 one-crust pie. 1 egg 5-1/2 c. flour 2-1/2 tsp. salt 1 lb. lard Mix 1/2 the lard with flour and salt until crumbly. Add the other 1/2 lard and mix. Mix slightly beaten egg in 1 c. measuring and fill with ice water. Add ice water/egg mixture. Mix well and chill. (You may need to add a little more flour.)

The point is to repeat the same color so that together you get a bigger dramatic effect rather than something hodgepodgy. I agree painting your door, storm door, and side lights the same as the shutters will help. As others have noted, a magnetic wreath hanger (2 piece) or large command hook will hold your wreath to the glass. Make sure to get one that can hold at least 6 lbs. As shown above, sweet potato vine "marguerite" (the lime green one) always adds drama and it gets very large if you don't cut it back, adding more drama! It's ubiquitous but very effective, especially if you plant it with purples, black, and whites. The key with plants is OVER SIZE and overplant in the containers or you lose the street effect. Don't think about what looks good to you while standing 5 feet away from it on your porch, or looking down on it--go down to the street and see it from 20 or 30 feet away, and looking UP to it. Does it register from the street? Can you see it driving down the road? Yes! If not, it isn't eye catching enough yet and you need more and bigger. Don't be afraid to go huge as long as it's natural and elegant. Instead of 1 pumpkin on a box, you could do something like this: It doesn't all have to be about plants and pots. You can get super creative. My neighbor has a dress form on her porch (which is no bigger than yours). This isn't hers, but she does similar things to it seasonally: Kind of the same idea as decorating an old bicycle with flowers. As long as you're the first in your neighborhood to do it, it's interesting. Also PS: Don't use iron planters if you get a lot of sun there--your roots will fry. You can get fiberglass ones that look like the iron ones though (and they'll probably be cheaper too.)

I've used it for eggs and for making guacamole. Also to quickly mash bananas for banana bread/cake.