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New obsession

2011-11-12T09:07:00.003-05:00

I do not like coffee. But I DO like foo-foo goodness from Starbucks that has a teeny coffee taste. Right now, I love the Salted Caramel Mocha from Starbucks....YUM!

But it gets expensive, and it's a lot of calories.

So now I make this! It's like a vanilla/caramel latte.

6oz hot water

4 teaspoons of vanilla caramel mix

2 tablespoons skinny caramel macchiato creamer

and sometimes a little bit of chocolate syrup!

So good! And I'm saving so much money....and it's only 120 calories without the chocolate syrup!

YES! I want to try other combinations asap!

Products I love right now!

2011-11-01T21:43:00.001-04:00

I have lots of posts to share...I'm trying to spread them out over the next couple of weeks! But I've been obsessed with buying all sorts of random beauty products in the last couple months so I thought I'd share my favorites! Can't wait to get my birch box this month so I can find more stuff to love :) A little more on that here.

First....hair! I feel like I've been having a lot of good hair days lately. Here is the combination of things I use and I love, love them all!

Love this shampoo/conditioner...LOVE.

As soon as I get out of the shower I put this coconut oil on the ends of my hair

Then I spray in my "miracle leave in product"....I love this stuff! I think it's why my hair has been extra awesome lately.

Then I blowdry my hair always now. I rarely let my hair air dry. I know the heat probably isn't good but my hair always feels much better when I blow dry it. And I always use my awesome nylon/boar barrel brush.

Hmmm ...I have some face lotions/toners, etc. that I'm trying out right now but we'll see! Didn't want to share if I'm not even sure I like them yet. But for some reason my skin has been a little more oily than normal so I've been using these awesome things when needed!

LOVE this face mask!! The only downside is that they don't have a Lush in the mall right next to me so it's annoying to go to the other mall every couple weeks to pick up a new one. I don't really like going to the mall all that much! Since it's a fresh face mask, it only has a shelf life of about two weeks. Worth the trip though! :) I may try the chocolate one next!

Anyone who is around me enough already knows about this obsession.....VITAMIN SCHTICK! (yes, SCHTICK...I love saying it too) Love these...they are cute, smell great and I just love them! I have the strawberry kiwi and fruit punch ones!

Great lotion! Though I don't like the smell as much as I did at first....but it keeps my hands nice and soft!

Best mascara!! The point at the end makes such a difference!!

Most favorite perfume ever! I love it soo much! Smells so yummy!

Birchbox

2011-10-15T09:57:00.003-04:00

I KNOW! I've been avoiding the blog like the plague!! I just haven't had much to post and haven't done anything crafty! But don't worry, I'll have a few posts in the next few days. But in the meantime I just wanted to share that I started a monthly subscription to Birchbox..... it's a cute box that comes in the mail the middle of every month with a few samples of makeup, hair care products, etc. SO excited! And at $10 a month, done! Can't wait to see what's in mine next month!!!!

I found heaven, in cupcake form

2011-08-14T16:33:00.003-04:00

I haven't been to Georgetown Cupcake since my sister was here but the August flavors sounded yum this month so I wanted to go. One is Blueberry Cheesecake the other is Banana split which I've had. But I didn't expect the Blueberry Cheesecake would be so amazing or else I would have got nothing but that flavor. I just had to spread the word about the best cupcake in the entire universe. SO GOOD!

Skins game!

2011-08-14T16:27:00.007-04:00

We got tickets on Friday night to the Skins/Steelers game. We had a great time!!! Great seats too! We got there 40 minutes late which didn't turn out to be a big of a deal as I thought it would on the way there! And the skins won! woo

Hardwood floors

2011-08-14T16:21:00.003-04:00

I won't say this was the BEST decision....

After we moved in we did realize there was hardwood floors underneath the NEW carpet. We wanted to know what they looked like and would peek at corners here and there but two weekends ago I begged Chance to help me pull it up. We only pulled up the living/dining room and the hallway. Not the bedrooms.

I'm still excited despite spending two weekends in a row pulling staples/nails out of the floor.

They DEFINITELY need to be refinished, and repaired. Let me share the horror:

For some reason just in front of the door, there was liquid nail all over the floor, they must have put tiles there or something at one time. Silly people. I'm just thankful this isn't everywhere.

Oh wait, cute Kallie! :)

Yep, rotted pieces. Not good.

Yep, there is two big cracks also.

Any recommendations for floor people? :)

More ugly curtains

2011-08-14T16:06:00.003-04:00

I've had this ugly "window covering" since the townhouse and it's so sloppy looking. I hate it!

So when we were off for our anniversary we picked up a couple things and THIS was one of them.....Ahhh MUCH better :)

2nd Anniversary

2011-08-14T15:51:00.006-04:00

Yeesh, this was a MONTH ago and I'm just posting about it now. Oops....we still don't have the pictures from the waterproof camera...soon!

We took off the whole week of our anniversary and just did random things....we really only did something on the day of our anniversary, the next day was less successful and I went to the beach with my friends later that week.

On the morning of our anniversary, we exchanged cards....no presents (we'd rather spend a little money on doing things & dinner than anything else).

Then we went to cracker barrel and had a yummy breakfast. Next we headed to Harpers Ferry (only about an hour from us) to go river tubing. We were the only two in the group so it was awkward a little but it ended up being great! Afterwards we headed to old town harpers ferry but it was SO hot that we didn't stay long at all. Definitely going back in the fall...I bet it's amazing in the fall!

We did stop by this little produce stand to get peaches and cantaloupe... later I ended up making this pie with the peaches...AMAZING - I used strawberries)

About to go tubing

Downtown/Old Town Harpers Ferry:

This little place we stopped to get something quick to eat

We went home and took showers and got ready for dinner and ended up going to the melting pot which is always yum! Chance even let me get the cheese with the spinach in it....very unlike him but SO GOOD.

Outside the Melting Pot

Blurry pictures but you get the point!

Garden update

2011-08-14T15:44:00.003-04:00

SO I'm not the BEST gardener.....I should have been watering it MUCH more than I did. I got one good cucumber and let the rest stay on the vine too long. Now it's so hot, they are starting to die. None of my strawberries got big enough to pick. And I have one good pepper that I should probably go out and pick NOW. Otherwise that's kind of it! I'll do better next year!!!

Two months ago:

Couple of weeks ago: Starting to look bad!

I also tried a little indoor kitchen garden! I went to Whole Foods and bought Basil, Dill and Lavender. Not such a great idea but tell me it doesn't look pretty? And the basil (even though I don't like fresh basil) smelled amazing.

Obviously, as probably most of the world would know (and my husband pointed out)...it didn't live. I tried to transfer it all outside and the lavender is the only thing that made it.

Evolution of a coffee table

2011-08-14T15:23:00.006-04:00

This table started off with a pine finish. Then when we were in the apartment I painted it black and then brown. When we were in the townhouse I painted it back to black. And then a month or so ago I thought maybe it needed a chance to be white. I also cut off the little bars on the sides. So far so good but eventually I need a new coffee table!

Okay I couldn't find the original picture or when I first painted it black but here's what we got....

Original color bought from Target (we knew we'd paint it right away, and we did)

We got a new coffee table so I painted it brown to match the bedroom and put it in there....yeah once upon a time we had a coffee table in the bedroom....and space to PUT a coffee table in the bedroom...haha

Then when we moved in the townhouse we had space for 2nd coffee table in the basement....so I was glad I didn't throw it away and painted it black again for the living room.....

Next we had it at our new house in the living room, still black.

Until the day I got tired of it and decided it needed a new color! I sawed (actually Chance did) off the bars on the sides and then started painting away! I painted it bright white then decided it needed a little tint and then mixed some brown/tan paint in.

And there you go, evolution of a table...I'm pretty sure I won't be altering this anymore because I would just like a new one all together.

Oh, and don't forget the matching console table which unfortunately hasn't gone through quite a transformation....just pine to black to blue!

Sister time!

2011-08-14T15:13:00.004-04:00

I know, I know....I hope that I can promise to blog more than every two months after the next few posts but I'm not sure that I can! I haven't been doing much of anything lately, especially not anything crafty! I really want to do more things. Though, I do have a few things to share....I guess lets start here......

When I posted last it was the guest room I made over because my sister was on her way to visit! We had a fantastic weekend and it was SO great to spend time with her just doing whatever. (Sadly, this was two months ago! I know, I'm a hooligan)

She got in on a Friday night and we just sat around and talked. At around 11pm it seemed like all of Montgomery County police showed up outside of our house!! It was insane, and embarrassing...we live in a pretty safe, good neighborhood. The next day we went to HonFest in Baltimore. I'd never been and it was super fun to see all the people dressed up. And we stopped by the Inner Harbor really quick because she's never been to Baltimore and the HonFest wasn't in downtown Baltimore. Later than night we went to Bertucci's for dinner (Which is my FAV place! Maybe because I used to work there....or maybe because I just love their food!) I also took her to get Georgetown Cupcakes because she's never been! And then she left on Sunday. I always have the best time with my sister and miss her so much all the time! Here are some pictures....

Crabcake sandwiches of course!

Guest Room

2011-06-11T07:18:00.004-04:00

I can decorate a room in one day. No big deal.

We had wanted to put together the guest room but since my sister was coming this weekend it pushed us to go ahead and finally do it. I went out and got the paint and was all done painting by noon....then we went and bought the futon and accessories (curtains, pillows) and ....DONE!

Obviously we'll eventually get nicer things in here....this definitely works for now....I love it but I guess it does look a little dormish? haha. I want a nice old dresser in here that I can paint a funky color. :) I want an awesome light.....maybe a real bed? :)

Maybe more pictures later, I did forget to take a picture in sofa form.....

p.s. I really love my throw blanket.....it's ruffly and big and teal....and $20 at home goods...yes!

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More yard stuff

2011-05-30T18:59:00.006-04:00

Today was so great, I'm so sad to go back to work tomorrow. It was relaxing and productive!

Nothing too exciting but I spent some time outside weeding and cleaning up the yard.

I bought a hummingbird feeder, two actually. I hope they attract some hummingbirds, that would be so great!

I put some more dirt (all the same kind this time) in my veggie garden so it didn't look quite so terrible (like my last post). My cucumbers/green peppers were wilting but they just needed some water! :)

I moved the grill over and put my hanging basket to the right of the veggie garden. I also moved the rose bush to right below the hanging basket. It wasn't doing well in the other spot. Not enough sun.

Then I moved the trash can/recycling to the side of the backyard and we had some space for some chairs. I bought something pretty similar (almost identical) to what we have up front.

Oops I realized I never posted about the table and chairs we got for the front porch. Here's a picture I took before we got the table, but it's very similiar to the one above.

Chairs in the backyard are from Home Depot, the ones on the front porch are from Lowes. Both about $20 each.

Veggie/Herb Garden

2011-05-27T22:09:00.005-04:00

Yipee! I've been wanting to do this for awhile so we went out to get a few things so we could....I wasn't sure if I wanted to put these in the ground or if I wanted to do a raised box but in the end we decided the ground was best. I bought two bags of dirt, obviously it got mixed up with the ground dirt and I should have bought more. Oh well, dirt is dirt even if it's not pretty dirt.

I bought two green pepper plants, two cucumber, one strawberry, one cilantro, one chives and one mint (just because it smelled so yummy).

I didn't think about garden signs until on my way home so I was kind of panicking because I had to have something and of course it had to be cute. But then I remembered I had a few little stones left from the zillion that had been left in our yard and the ones that were left were perfect because they were all thin and little. I wrote on them with a Sharpie and hopefully that works out. It rained something crazy here tonight (broke a couple more small tree limbs, grumble grumble) so we'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

Oh! And I lined it with these wood pieces also found in our yard! I think we are done with free yard supplies for now though. We've used all the randomness that we could find.

....Except for the basketball hoop pole (sans hoop) that is randomly in our backyard. We have yet to tackle getting that out of the ground but I'm sure we won't have any use for it.

lol, apologies for the picture...it looks pathetic but it really is cute (why do I feel like I say that too much). And do you see all of the weeeeeeeds in front? Gah, too many weeds in my grass....Need lawn makeover.

Ugly got a little less ugly

2011-05-27T19:55:00.004-04:00

I have some ugly curtains in my house...I'll get to replacing all of them eventually but for right now all I care about is that no one sees my business at night. But the kitchen curtain's are agonizingly (a word? Maybe...didn't give me the little red line) UGLY.

And I open them often and it always gets stuck on the little "rod connecter" or whatever. And they look ugly from the outside and in.

So we picked up some blinds today for just this window! I just got some plain white ones....I want some bamboo shades....maybe eventually. First blinds, then kitchen valance. I want some cute ones, nothing with chickens on it. My mother in law has cute bead-y ones and maybe I'll try to find something similar.

See valances from MIL's house....

Happy Day!

2011-05-27T19:49:00.002-04:00

This post is completely random.

I had a GREAT day and I wanted to share some things from it......

You'll have to excuse all the pictures from last post, this one and the next two....I did not use my good camera today.

I went to the store and got some pretty peonies, watermelon, kabobs (terrible & overpriced by the way but the idea was nice) and corn on the cob....I wishhhh we had a patio out back and some outdoor furniture, would have been great to eat outside :)

I got Trixie a new collar, you can't see it too well but it's pink zebra! she's so cute

And I got Tonka a new toy (excuse blurry photo, he wouldn't sit still + bad camera = blurry photo)

It's a little blanket/stuffed animal like the little human babies have! lol love it

$5 Goodwill Chair!

2011-05-27T19:37:00.005-04:00

Today was the first day I've taken off sine NOVEMBER! It was much needed and I was so productive! Last night I went to the store and decided to stop by goodwill too to see if there was any chairs I could re-do...I've been wanting to for quite awhile. Right when I walk in I see a chair I like...no price. I'm looking all over it for about 30 seconds when the guy who works there asks me if I want it and I asked how much is it....he said $5. Done.

Woo hoo! I went right to Joann's and picked up some fabric, already had some paint. And started reupholstering last night! First thing this morning I started spray painting. It looked great...the I tried to "glaze" it...bad idea...then I tried to sandpaper it to make it look "rustic"....bad idea. I just left it, not in the mood to repaint, it's not horrible....people will just think I'm lazy and maybe didn't finish painting it or something? Which I am, I am lazy.

Love! I'm slowly trying to bring in brighter things! Too much dark stuff in my living/dining room!

See Trixie being a hooligan walking on top of the cushion. Took her two seconds to lay down on it once I set it down. I yelled at her to get off and she didn't run away, she just stood there staring at me.

West Elm!

2011-05-23T21:40:00.004-04:00

I had never been to a West Elm! So I was giddy to drive to Tysons Corner (never been there either) two weeks ago! I had $40 in visa gift cards and I decided I wanted to spend them there.

I got there and right across from West Elm was a ZGallerie! Yippee, I didn't know which to go in first. So much good stuff....and Chance was a trooper walking around so I could look at everything!

I ended up with a big tray for the coffee table (on sale for $23) which I love (Chance hates because he has to move it when we eat dinner in front of the tv).....and a little mecury glass vase. Love it. But now I need a brighter, more awesome coffee table :)

I got the small one....though this picture makes it look REALLY small :)

I also really wanted this little guy (the one on the right) from ZGallerie for $9.95....buuuut not this trip

I did stop by CakeLove (never been before) to get an almond cupcake...yum

Chili Sauce Jar Soap Dispenser

2011-05-23T21:16:00.003-04:00

Awful picture, I know. I just made this...like tonight. I had a Bath & Body works soap that was running out (antibacterial, not foaming like my last one)...so I needed more soap but I didn't want to wait to buy a new dispenser and I had planned on making another DIY one any way. And I looked under my bathroom sink and I had a costco size thing of hand soap (milk and honey...mmmm, my favorite). So I figured it would be free and easy enough to do tonight. I had already put some jars under my kitchen sink to save for some projects. I have a cherry jar, spaghetti jar, a wine bottle and this chili sauce jar. I thought this was the best one for the soap.

So here is what I did:

Chance cut the hole for the pump (I just used the one from the almost empty Bath and Body works container)

Then I spray painted the lid

Then I cleaned off the jar with my Mr. Clean Magic eraser

After the lid was dry Chance hot glued the pump to the lid for me

I wrapped some twine I had around the bottle and tied it in a bow

Filled it with soap

All done! :)

I did another one similar here for my kitchen....but with foaming soap.

Note I've since tied a pretty green ribbon around it...looks perfect :)

http://chanceamypearce.blogspot.com/2011/01/mason-jar-soap.html

More car stuff

2011-05-23T20:45:00.003-04:00

I really love our new car....it's so nice to not worry anymore....I want to drive every where, I want to drive everyone....it's exciting. I just never got to post a picture of my old (and first and only) car and a picture of our new one (my own picture anyway....the other picture was from the ford website...our car, their picture)

Old car! I'll miss you, a little.... but not really.

New car...lovee

It's been awhile

2011-05-23T20:17:00.006-04:00

I really have not posted in forever....I really haven't had much to post about but I've been avoiding....so I'll make up with a couple new posts! :)

First....spring stuff! I didn't realize my two bushes outside were so colorful....they were amazing for a couple weeks....the big one now looks gross because the flowers are all dying. The other one still looks okay but it's getting there. Hostas are huge....I was going to rip them out, but they look so great right now.

When the bush started to get flowers....

When it looked it's best...

Other bush (smaller) that is in a random place...has darker pink flowers....it's really pretty. I don't want to move it now!

See random bush placement (this is maybe march? before the hostas grew out)

And now....hostas are growing over daffodils....bush still in random spot but it's pretty! :)

We also planted in the back corner of our yard. Hopefully everything will grow big and fast so it can cover ugly fence and ugly stuff in neighbors yard. Hard to take a picture of it but it really looks great. Much better than a big stretch of dirt.

And done....it's pretty but you'll just have to look past ugly neighbor yard, ugly fence and ugly grassless area in front of the rocks (p.s. can you believe we STILL had enough rocks to do this even after going around our big tree....I would love to know what the previous owners did with all of these rocks)

Bought a car!

2011-04-26T00:12:00.006-04:00

Isn't it pretty?

Big day! Long night! My neon...who sadly has been dying for quite some time now, did this weird not shifting into gear, couldn't go much over 30-35mph about a month and a half ago but it went away.....today it came back with a vengeance and wouldn't go away. It's 9 years old, it was my first car and only car so far. So we knew it was time to buy a new car! lol and trade in was only $500....ohhhh well :)

We looked around this afternoon, being risky and still driving the neon. We first went to the Hyundai dealership, they were much pricier than the website and very unhelpful too. So we went over to the Ford dealership, since we were trying to keep a low price, we thought they would have some good deals.

They did.

New car is a 2011 used Ford Focus...yes used....It was a rental so it has 16,000 miles on it already but we are ok with that because my work is literally two miles away. So I'll be putting 4 miles a day on it generally, lol. Didn't think I would get a focus but the price was right and it just looked pretty.

I really didn't want red....I wanted black, white or gray. They had black and gray but it didn't look as good as this one....maaaybe because this one was all prettified in the showroom instead of on the lot? I did test drive the gray one....but still, despite my fear of our house looking like Christmas (and it does....hubby has bright green car).....I do love it, red and all.

This is the first car we've ever bought on our own and together! So excited...big deal....and I also feel like going on a road trip. I won't have to be anxious about breaking down anymore! Woooo

Now I need sleep, we were at the dealership from 6:30 to about 11:30....OMG so tired....everyone was exhausted...we even forgot to pay the down payment, they forgot to ask....while we were sitting outside I wrote the check on the hood of the car...lol

Bridal Shower

2011-04-24T10:54:00.006-04:00

I heart parties....I love decorating...so I had lots of fun doing a bridal shower for a friend at work. We had it at That's Amore and I made the flower arrangements, favors, and picked out the super cute themed cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes.

Flower arrangements at my house....I wrapped the twine around the tall vase and wrapped and glued the twine around the small vases. Vases were $1 each at the Dollar tree (the small two, the big one is one I already owned), twine was $4.99 at Michaels. Got the flowers from Giant & Safeway...Flower total was only $20

Favors....got a bunch of different kinds of candy, made the image on picnik, printed on full page sticker paper then put on cut pink card stock.....hole punched and wrapped with some leftover twine and ribbon. Bags for $4.99 for 100 at Michaels.
Picked up two dozen red velvet cupcakes from Georgetown cupcake, they made pink birds on the top to match the theme of the shower...so cute, so yummy.

Another picture of the favor

Balloons & tall arrangement

I also cut out a bird on a tree branch on my cricut and tied it around the two small vases...

The table at That's Amore

Repainted Craft room

2011-04-10T21:52:00.005-04:00

Hopefully this is the last time I paint this room......table is nailed to the wall, and it took forever. Also I painted the trim white so that took awhile too. I still need to get trim for the wall Chance built....and I DEFINITELY need a new, awesome light for this room. I wish I could get rid of the popcorn ceiling but that stuff is THICK. Gross.

So with the combination of the dim light and dark walls and no window, this room needed to be repainted. I quickly picked out 'Meadow Light' from Behr...I did joke it should be called 'Meadow White' when I was putting it on but now you can see the color, it's like a light blue/green...I probably could have gone a shade darker.

It also needs more furniture but you won't find that in these pictures.....remember this is a work in progress and we have more important things to pay for besides craft room furniture :)

Here's what it did look like

Now here's what it does look like....pay attention to the color, not my mess. Don't judge...told you I need storage furniture...

See my pink canvas painting art thing?

I also did a mini picture frame wall. Which included an awesome quote...cute picture of Chance and I, awesome picture I found...little shadow frame where I put Chance's wedding day note to me and our cake topper, and lastly the little one has a bermuda flag with some postage and money from our honeymoon (don't rob me and steal it off my wall, it's only $3)

When I was looking for things to print I found the greatest thing I've ever, ever seen........

How fitting is this for me? Well those of you who don't know....IT IS! Get excited! Green wasn't my color so luckily the Blah, Blah, Blahg had download-ables in just the right colors....

http://www.leblahg.com/2009/04/get-excited-and-make-things.html

Hopefully I will get furniture sometime soon and I'll update with more pictures....I'm looking at getting one of these with some cute baskets and bins, a comfy arm chair and a storage cabinet.....and of course an awesome new light.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40047675

"Landscaping" and some bad pictures

2011-04-10T21:35:00.003-04:00

I really can't wait to do lots of things with our front and back yard....so excited. But we at least did one thing! One weird, random thing but still something....lol

This was our backyard the first time we ever saw the house

and the day before we made our offer.

See tree to the left in neighbors yard? And tree in neighbors backyard to the right?

No longer there.....well sorta, they are halfway chopped.....

yea

We also don't have full on grass like that any more either.....boo

The day of our inspection......

This happened.....

And tree didn't get picked up until a month or so later (1 week after we moved in)

It runied a lot of our grass and caused lots of weeds...though it did make us get our tree trimmed so this would not be repeated.

Until tree was trimmed I would have mini panic attacks when it stormed.

So far, so good (knock on wood)

Now I leave you with a bad picture but I promise better ones when we start planting, etc.

We had this random pile of rocks in the back corner of our yard (little afraid we'd find 'Skippy 1995-2007' on one of them because it was just weird).

Since we are trying to make our yard a little nicer, we decided to just place the rocks around the tree last weekend....thennnn fill with mulch yesterday.

Was this a good decision? Who knows.....but it looks good so far and it get's me excited to do other things in our yard to make it look more cleaned up and pretty :)

Do you really see ALL of those rocks? They were in a PILE in the corner of the yard....weird.

Also, how much do you hate seeing neighbors junk? May need to plant bushes back there so said junk is unseen.

Oh, and we planted grass seed last weekend, and had plenty of rain this week....grow grass grow!

I made a painting....err something on a canvas

2011-04-10T21:24:00.003-04:00

I wanted something fun to hang in my craft room since I randomly decided to repaint it this weekend (post coming). The decision to paint wasn't random, I decided the color I picked was too dark for the room a long time ago but I hadn't planned on painting this weekend....just felt like a reasonable thing to do yesterday.

So back to the "art"...I had another canvas leftover from a failed project that I never shared awhile back. And since I'm loving the chevron pattern right now and I had some pink paint that would go great with the new color that I just painted my craft room.....tada! Free project.

So I used some skinnier painters tape that I had and taped it off...using no method but my eyes....which luckily worked....this could have been more disastrous and ugly.

I mixed my dark neon pink paint with a little white paint. Fearing that this would end up being light pink I didn't put too much in but I still could have toned it down some.

It's cute, I like the way it turned out. And most importantly....it looks good in my room.

Cherry Blossom Festival 4/2/11

2011-04-10T20:55:00.005-04:00

Oook, I've been so behind on posting...there's a few posts that I've been wanting to get up, but I've been mimicking a 5 year old's life lately. Two nights this week I went to sleep at 7:30 & 8:00....I feel like I should probably hide a carpet square underneath my desk at work for a mid afternoon nap. I think I need vitamins. Anyhoo......

Last weekend, Chance & I went to the Cherry Blossom festival. It was fun, I've been trying to go for the last few years but we never have gone. So even thought it was supposed to rain (and ended up raining on the way back from the metro) we still went.

It was funny, everyone was nice and wanted to help you take your picture. If we wanted we probably could have lingered and had a lot more people take our pictures in exchange for taking theirs. Though one man (with family, not some weirdo) asked if he could take our picture but didn't want a picture in return, he was just being friendly because someone had just done that for him. So we decided to do that for someone else without asking them to take our picture. It's like the pay it forward drive through thing but with picture taking, lol.

Anyway here are some pictures from our adventure from last weekend......

Keeping flowers a little longer

2011-03-27T19:32:00.008-04:00

Struggled with the title of this one. Can you tell? Really lame.....maybe I'll think of something better and when you come back again, things will be different.

I always try to get my money's worth when I buy flower arrangements, especially if it's a random assortment of flowers.....If it's a dozen roses then you're probably out of luck.

When the bouquet is on it's last limb, looking ugly and time to throw out I always pick through and see what I can find that's still good, sometimes it's not much but usually it's worth picking through the dead flowers :)

Arrangement I bought on March 13th.....

Flowers I was able to save from it 13 days later.....

I think I love the smaller one more! :)

And you remember this picture from my post about Valentine's day.....this little rose was going strong 10 days after Valentine's day.....so I put it in a tiny vase and I got a few more days of it by it's self even though the rest of the arrangement was dead.

I'm probably not the only one to do this but if you're not doing this...you should be!

Reupholstered Bench

2011-03-27T19:12:00.006-04:00

I need a place to do my makeup...BAD. My bathroom has no plug and the counter top isn't that big any way.

I've been doing my hair and make up on my pretty blue table and there are spots on the table now where I've been putting my straightener....time to retouch the top with some more paint....boo

So this afternoon I decided to completely clear out the "dog room" (except for their cages) and keep the "cold room" as the storage room. I moved in an old console table which I thought would be the perfect height...it is.

I also had this bench that I bought a while back from ross (they still have these) for $30....I really have no place for it and I had wanted to re-upholster it anyway. So this seemed like a good time to do it! I need a CUTE space to do hair and make up of course! I have plenty of this purple fabric so it worked perfect.

Here's where we started......

I removed the black backing, cut the purple fabric and started stapling away. Then I restapled the black backing.

Trixie was my little helper...... :)

Love it....very excited to do my hair & make up here tomorrow morning.

Of course this is temporary, this room will eventually be our guest room but I needed something for now! :)

I'm linking up to Texas Monkey

Hummingbird Cupcakes

2011-03-27T19:02:00.003-04:00

First....I've become cupcake obsessed!!

Mainly right now with Georgetown Cupcakes, it's so easy to go to the Bethesda location...and now that they are giving away a free cupcake every day (if you follow them on twitter and/or facebook you can find that info)....I've been waiting for the day that they give away the banana split cupcake so I can go there again. Otherwise I'll have to wait until August! That's the next time they serve them, boo!

So another one I wanted to try is their Hummingbird cupcakes.....banana, pineapple, cinnamon, pecans? YUM! They don't serve those until April....but that's sooooon! But by following them on twitter I found out they posted their recipe for the Hummingbird cupcakes! I tried to make them last weekend....they turned out good and were super yummy but I'm not the best baker and I bet when they make it, it's way better.....so I long for a Saturday in April so I can get a salted caramel (SO GOOD), hummingbird, and the banana split! At least if they giveaway the banana split on a sunday I can still get the hummingbird but not the salted caramel....I've got this down.

Here is the link & video for the Georgetown Cupcakes Hummingbird Cupcakes on Martha Stewart!

http://www.marthastewart.com/333253/hummingbird-cupcakes

Pasta Salad

2011-03-27T18:54:00.003-04:00

I thought I'd post the recipe of the pasta salad that I made yesterday....it's a quick and easy thing to make and it's filling so I've made it for work stuff a lot before.

I always use:

1 box tri color rotini

1/2 - 3/4 bottle of italian dressing

chopped up cucumber

Sometimes I add:

pepperoni

shredded cheddar cheese

tomatoes

red pepper

This time, I added red pepper and pepperoni. I've never done the red pepper before and I'm glad I did, it was so yum. I usually don't do cheese because I don't think it adds much to it except for calories. And I don't like tomatoes so I usually only do that when I'm making for someone else.

The red pepper really added something extra.....yum.

You just cook the pasta, run cold water over it after/while draining. Put in bowl, add ingredients, mix well. If you are making ahead of time, make sure to mix again before serving.

Celebrating hubby's 26th bday

2011-03-27T18:34:00.006-04:00

We celebrated my husband's 26th birthday yesterday with his family. It was really nice! His actual birthday is on Tuesday. It was really fun to actually have some people over (besides one or two here and there)....we never did do a housewarming so this was exciting :)

Here are some pictures from yesterday.....I barely took any pictures

I made an unnecessary amount of food considering we only had 4 people over, lol

Pasta salad

meatballs

chips & salsa

fruit dip

brownies

And from the Amish market I got:

That awesome fruit watermelon bowl

potato salad

broccoli salad

sour cream & chive cream cheese w/bagel chips

I also got my fav chicken salad (but that was just for me...YUM)

And his mom brought stuff too. Yeah, way too much food but there was a chance that maybe more people could have come so I wanted to make sure we had enough and you can never have too many yummy leftovers, lol

P.s. Since my husband doesn't like sweets too much, we did brownies instead of a cake so I needed a home for the candles I bought....candles + skewers + bowl of fruit = awesome

Look at my great little utensil basket I got! Party City $9.99 and my carefully picked out, not overly girly napkins & plates :)

My love!

And his super cute Mom mom loving on Trixie...

Throwback Recipe: BBQ Shrimp

2011-03-19T14:31:00.003-04:00

Continuing with my search of old photos, I decided to post a throwback recipe :)

Hmm two BBQ Recipes back to back....maybe someone is in the mood for summer?

This picture is from last Memorial Day weekend.....we cut up watermelon (I am a watermelon CRAZY! I buy an unnecessary yet oh so necessary amount of watermelon in the summer), made some kabobs and did some BBQ shrimp.

I love BBQ Shrimp, it's so good, so easy.

Just put some raw peeled shrimp on a stick, brush with your favorite BBQ sauce (As I've said before, we use Sweet Baby Ray's Honey BBQ) and grill until done! SO good....and you can go as far as to wrap with bacon...even betterrrr. But without bacon, it's actually not too unhealthy for you. You use such a minimal amount of BBQ sauce and shrimp is great for you.

See, not everything I post is totally fattening :)

Throwback Project "SC Moving Kit"

2011-03-19T13:10:00.006-04:00

Continuing to find old pictures and projects before I started my blog.....here's another "throwback project"

A friend and co worker left us a couple years ago to move with her family to South Carolina! We miss her enormously! :)

So we collected some money and put together a 'Move to South Carolina' Kit...

It included some yummy snacks, awesome road games...emergency chocolate, old bay (you CAN'T leave MD without some Old Bay!!), a SC travel guide, "Home Sweet Home' Yankee Candle car freshener, Tylenol, stress relieve lotion....and other fun things.

Oh how I love making themed baskets.....remember my "first apartment basket" I made for my brother?

Some throwback projects....

2011-03-19T10:02:00.012-04:00

I have a usb drive with all our old pictures and I'm having a great time looking through them! :) I uploaded the pictures years ago when we got a new computer and haven't looked back. Found some cute pictures of us and some friend pictures but I also found some blog worthy pictures so I thought I would do a few "throwback" picture posts with some projects & ideas.

Here are some cute pictures of Chance and I that I found....

This one is from 2004....lol we were dating about 6 months..

This was from 2006, we were dating about 2 1/2 years.....what was I think with that hair color?!

This was in 2008, we were dating for 4 1/2 years, right after we got engaged

And a picture of Christina and me that I don't think I ever posted on fb! lol from my 21st birthday almost 5 years agoooo!

And look at my little Trixie when we brought her home....she was freaking CAUUUUTE

Anyhooooo, back to the project I mentioned.....I found pictures I took of a little coat hanger thing I bought from Ross for like $8 and re-did....

For the life of me, I don't know why this picture is turned......it's not turned on my computer and I can't fix....so just tilt your head :)

So I painted black.....

And hung it here at our townhouse :)

But here it is now at our new house, sort of in my dining room :)

ps....like my new signature? I'm trying it out.....

I love Safeway

2011-03-18T19:41:00.005-04:00

Yea...I said Safeway. They always have the cutest vases and such. I went there today to get lunch but I always check the floral dept first.

Today they had this super adorable planter for $3.99!!! It was from Valentine's day I guess and it was marked down from $12.99...yes please! Had to get it....

They had other cute things too....maybe next time...loving those teal glass vases

They also had this super yummy little snack pack that I got for like $2.19....grapes, carrots, cheese and pretzels?! Yes!

p.s. I shop at Giant so this post about Safeway is completely random (/weird/hopefully still relevant), but you still should go check out their awesome vases and such :)

BBQ Fajitas

2011-03-16T22:02:00.003-04:00

Nom.

So I found this link over at the 'Eat at Home Cooks' blog and planned to make these BBQ fajitas ASAP.

I saved the link, bought the stuff and then made it tonight without ever looking back at the recipe....it's super simple, you really don't need a recipe. I didn't grill mine like she did, I bet that would have been better. But I just battled a 4+ hour meeting this afternoon and I'm surprised I even worked up enough courage to cook when I got home at 7!! Though hubby helped.

Anyhoo....I cooked 4 chicken breasts in a skillet. Sliced some onion & green pepper in another skillet. Once the chicken was cooked, I took it out of the pan, sliced it and then put it back in the pan with a little barbeque sauce on it and let it cook for a couple minutes. Then I put some chicken, green pepper, onion and some cheddar cheese in a tortilla....YUM!

I was surprised to see that she also suggested to use Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce....that's all we use, so good...but we get the honey bbq sauce.

You can make this, you will make this....because it's easy & yummmmy

40 fabric flowers

2011-03-13T18:11:00.005-04:00

So I was dying for a project to do, but this week, it needed it to be free.

I got the idea to make a pillow and I wanted to cover it with fabric flowers. I had all of the materials here. So I made a pillow, one side white fabric, one side left over curtain.

Then I started making the fabric flowers. I made 40.....FORTY.

In the end, I probably should have done 50. I like it, but not very much. I would have looked MUCH better with more flowers tightly together.

Oh well, still sorta cute.

I tried it in a couple places, I think I'll leave it with the blue pillow...

So you can see both sides....sort of.

I'm linking up at Tatertots and Jello and Be Different, Act Normal

Mini pitcher

2011-03-13T18:06:00.002-04:00

I heart my new pitcher so much.....here it is with some fresh Irish themed flowers from Trader Joes......

I was at Michaels and couldn't help my self when I saw this little guy for $3.50! woooo

I thought it would be perfect for my dish brush...only downfall is I had a spongy dish brush and it was getting gross so I went to find a new one that wasn't spongy....no luck. So right now this little guy is housing the sponge, waiting for a new dish brush.

$12 Hairspray

2011-03-13T17:42:00.003-04:00

I bought $12 hairspray.

I don't really know where I'm going to go with this, but I know I wanted to blog about it.

My hair has been so staticy....SO staticy....I posted on facebook and my friend Amy told me to get a boar brush (the word boar concerned me at first) and some bumble and bumble hairspray. Well....I went to Ulta last weekend, and I know they don't have bumble and bumble but I thought I'd look around at what they DO have.....though I would like to meander (yea, I think I just used that word) over to Sephora and get some of this awesome bumble and bumble stuff to try. Anyhoo....back to my adventure at Ulta......so leaving hubby in the car, I spent forever trying to find the perfect, yet inexpensive boar brush. I bought one that was half boar/half ...normal, and it was pink, and once I got to the register turns out it was on sale too. Woo.....Then I stared at a million different hairsprays.....

In my life, the most expensive hairspray I've ever bought was probably ....$3.99? I don't use hairspray that often because I don't like it....well turns out there's a reason I don't like it....the stuff I've been buying was crap!

But overwhelmed with the amount of hairsprays and concerned to go from a $3.99 bottle to a $25 bottle, I settled on a rando bottle of Iso Daily Finish Hair Spray for $12.

My hair was fluffy!!! :)

This hairspray has been life changing! lol.....maybe it's because I grew up with just my dad and my brother and even though I think I'm girly, there are things I.just.don't.get.

I love this hairspray but it brings up so many questions.....why have I been wasting my money on cheapo products? What other awesomeness is out there (well apparently bumble and bumble)? What other cheapo products can I switch out to awesomeness? What other girly secrets don't I know because I guarantee that most girls/women know this kind of awesomeness....

Anyway, put me in the mood to go shopping....for something cute....something else I don't worry about too much but I NEED TO!

I heart my new dress, I want to wear it everydayyy

Other new outfit!

Sigh of relief

2011-03-13T17:34:00.004-04:00

Springgggggggggggggg......almost...still a little chilly but my flowers have finally bloomed. I'll let them live for a couple weeks that they do live and then we're digging everything up, mulching, planting....CAN'T WAIT! See the pretty blooms that I snuck out in my pj's to take this morning.......(will get better pics when they bloom a little more and i'm not in my pj's)

And see the row of them with the random bush that we plan to rip out in the coming weeks.....what a weird placement of a bush right??

And look, the hostas that we chopped down are trying to grow back. But we are definitely digging those up, they look like death by late summer.

Can't wait to landscape...considering we have no idea what we are doing, should be interesting! Since we've only rented before now I'm really excited to plant something IN the ground as opposed to some planter. :)

Hopeful

2011-03-06T08:43:00.004-05:00

I'm gettting excited...today is March 6th....and exactly two weeks from now last year I was posting this exciting post about Spring!

I just snapped this picture outside in the rain, if it wasn't raining I would have shown you the whole row of tulips (or maybe daffodils, I can't tell) that are sprouting in our yard!

But here's at least a sneak peek. And day light savings is next Sunday! Not that I'm particularly excited to be waking up an hour earlier but that does mean darker later and that warm weather is coming!

Will keep you updated with these hopefully pretty little sprouts in our yard! :)

Mail Sorter

2011-03-06T08:04:00.004-05:00

Like I had said in the previous post, I bought a mail sorter from goodwill for $2.96...it was a little scuffed so I quickly went over it with some white spray paint I already had. I printed incoming and outgoing with my SCAL and Cricut. I started to cut this little design and a P (for our last name) for the middle (for random stuff) but it just didn't look good.

Then I remembered Graphic's Fairy would definitely have something mail related so I searched her blog for something that I could use and found a perfect vintage postcard. I was going to print and mod podge but then I was searching everywhere HOPING I had some full page sticker paper (LOVE THAT STUFF!!) leftover from my wedding. I found ONE sheet and I already had printed on half the paper. So I worked around in paint trying to print on the "good side" and it took a couple tries but I got it!! lol and the postcard looks great on this.

Only downfall to this whole thing it's the netflix envelope doesn't fit...sad face.

Goodwill treasures

2011-03-06T07:56:00.003-05:00

Went a brought a ton of stuff to goodwill yesterday and decided to stop in to see if there was anything good! And it turned out to be a good trip. You've already seen my ugly gold lamp. Sometimes I wonder if the cashier realizes that I'm going to paint the lamp or if she thinks I'm just going to use it like it is, shadeless and all.

I also got this great red candlestick, it's a little chipped but I love the bright red!! 96 cents

I got this great green glass! I love this!! $2.96

I got this little silver tray which I decided to spray white for now....$2.96

And lastly, I got this mail sorter...You have no idea how long I've wanted want of these....you can see what I did with it in my next post! Nothing fancy but I love! $2.96

Lamp Makeovers

2011-03-06T07:49:00.003-05:00

I love a good lamp makeover, lol cheesy but true.

I had bought this lamp from Home goods and I really like it but I thought it would look better white, so I decided to paint it white! I love it but I don't think the shade goes as well now....I think I may just try to cover the brown ribbon white a lighter ribbon and that will help.

Second lamp makeover I really like! I bought this ugly, ugly gold lamp from Goodwill yesterday....$8. Painted it with Rustoleum Sage Green and picked up a $15 shade from target....it looks perfect, I love it! And now I have light in a much needed corner in the living room!

Shoe Box Storage

2011-03-06T07:33:00.003-05:00

After finishing my table Friday, I was desperate to not put all my junk back on the bottom shelf....reason why I hate that table because there is no storage. So I decided I need some sort of basket and it was too late to go get one and I'm an instant gratification type of person so I remembered seeing some posts where people were making baskets/bins out of diaper boxes. Well no diapers for me yet but I remembered I had an old shoe box of Chance's. Then I was at a stand still because all of my fabric that I have was not cute to put in my living room! But THEN I remembered I had leftovers from my Ikea curtains that I hemmed.....turns out it was the PERFECT amount to cover this box. Then I cut out a white square from some fabric I had for the inside bottom. Wrapped it with the burlap roll and finally used this little fabric flower, which happens to be the first fabric flower I made (didn't turn out like it should, reason why it's been sitting around for months, but it was perfect for this)

Not many pictures, not good pictures but here you go! Completely free, completely cute, completely useful....yay!

Snapped this right before I came down to post so you can see I left the box uncovered at the bottom

Here is a tutorial from 'My Pink Life' that will be much more helpful than my non-existent one! :)

http://aimee-weaver.blogspot.com/2011/02/burlap-covered-storage-box-tutorial.html

P.s. look at my cat....she does this every morning...am I the only one this happens to? :-\

Blue Table

2011-03-06T07:11:00.013-05:00

So first off....I hate this table....no storage, but I decided to give it a second chance...

We first bought this table like 6 years ago when we were in the apartment...it was pine colored, we painted it black right away and put the fish tank on it, behind the couch (not the smartest idea)...we were lucky it didn't fall and flood the apartment below....

I hate this table because it doesn't provide me any storage and I need it!! So I've been searching and searching for a buffet table, dresser, console with storage to redo....but I have been searching and not found it yet. So after seeing multiple people paint many different furniture pieces different colors and thinking I would never do that...to me, furniture should be black, brown or white.....omg I'm a furniture racist.....well not anymore! I've seen the error in my ways! :) I was watching Parenthood the other night (btw, best show ever......love love, yeah I even linked to it to make sure you click on it and see the awesomeness).....and they had a blue/teal console/buffet like table and a red bookshelf in the same room and as crazy as all the color combos were, it looked so amazing.....so Friday I decided that I wanted to paint my horrible little table blue and then maybe i'd let it stick around longer.....

I went to Home Depot on my lunch break hoping to find the perfect blue already premade but no such luck so I picked out a quart of Behr's 'Gulf Winds' and started painting the second I got home. p.s. I could have literally painted this table with a sample instead of a quart, i barely dug into that paint....wonder what else I can paint blue?! :)

I looooove it.

Before

After

Now I'm trying every opportunity to make the rest of the room brighter in other ways because this area is so bright it makes the rest of the room look dark. I think a good balance would be to get either lighter chair covers for the dining room or new chairs...hmmm

Oh, and a used sandpaper to scuff up the sides a little to make it look more...rustic? :)

*P.s. little do you know, you are also looking at two future posts in one picture above! Spoiler alert! ;)

I'm Linking up to I Heart Nap Time , Under the Table and Dreaming, Frugalicious Friday , Just a Girl, Craft O' Maniac, Tatertots and Jello, Sarahndipities, KISS Blog Bash at the Tattered Tag and Thrifty Decor Chick

Baby Gift

2011-02-26T20:53:00.005-05:00

My friend Christina just had her baby shower a week ago and then her adorable baby Kylie just a couple days later!

For her shower I made some burp cloths (or tried, crossing my fingers that they hold up after several washes!) I used fleece/cotton and some pink terry cloth.

Attempted to follow this tutorial and they turned out okay! Mine did not turn out as pretty as theirs....

I also took some baby wash cloths and made little lollipops, cupcakes (to fit the theme of the shower) and little candies....

I put those and a few other gifts in a basket...

I also got a few other outfits & a Bumbo. I got this adorable black onesie with screen printed necklaces on it and hot pink tutu to go with it....so cute, wish it came in my size! :)

Anyway, so excited to celebrate this super cute little girl! Can't wait to continue buying adorable outfits as she gets bigger and bigger! :) Congratulations Christina!!

Valentine's Day

2011-02-26T20:44:00.002-05:00

So I never did post about Valentine's day but it wasn't super fantastic or anything....just a quiet, nice night with my hunny....I had rules...I had wanted to go out somewhere we hadn't been before but by the time we got home, we were tired and hungry and settled for red lobster.....but it was SO YUM, it's been forever since we've been there so it was perfect.

My flowers have died, all but the rose! Isn't that weird? Usually the first to go....so I put it by itself today in a separate vase so hopefully it will still last a few more days.

My productive day

2011-02-26T19:58:00.006-05:00

I started today by cleaning the "cold room" which is what we've started calling our 3rd bedroom, which is actually probably our biggest but it was too awkward for the master, but should be just right for a kiddie room one day....right now it's the "cold room" meaning we just store everything in there (mass amounts of junk) shut the door, don't turn on the heat in there and put a towel in in front of the door so the freezing temperature doesn't seep into the rest of the house. No need to pay to heat our unnecessary storage items. I'm looking forward to it being warm again so we can leave the door open and it doesn't feel like we are hiding something scary behind the door. I threw away a lot of stuff that for some reason I thought I needed when we were moving, made a big pile for goodwill (though I wish it was warm enough for a yard sale, I just don't want it to sit around any longer & it will be nice to give to good will anyway).

So the "cold room" went from looking like this early this morning....

to this....still a little messy but most of that on the left is trash to be taken out tuesday! Ahh feels good to get rid of stuff. (I know, the curtains are AWFUL....I need new curtains everywhere in my house...)

Though the other bedroom, what we call "dog room" is now filled with the boxes to be moved into the attic, and the boxes to take to good will..... :-\ at least it will all be moved soon...(again, I know curtains are terrible!)

This is why we call it the "dog room"....our little lovelies sleep here....

Speaking of dog....we went to costco tonight and got them a ginormous (well at least for their size) bed! My friend Christina let me know that Costco has them for a good price.....$18!!!

As I was cleaning I found some knobs that I had bought a long time ago for the townhouse that I never used....I took the chance to replace the ugly gold knobs on our closet in the living room...much better! Hubby helped here while I continued cleaning....

I also found my old key thing that I bought at Walmart long ago and painted. I put it up too.

I also found my betta fish tank Chance got for me a few years ago so I went and bought a fish today.....as I was taking these pictures, I realized it was dead...Fail

I found a few other accessories & pictures frames & such and put things around....Thought I would put some updated pictures of the living room & dining room

Dining room: (Can't wait to find blinds or curtains for that door!!)

Looking into the kitchen...

Living Room...

The whole room....

And the closest thing we have to a "foyer".....dying to find a dresser/buffet to redo and put here....

Oh do you love my pitcher? Thrifty Decor Chick posted about her pitcher the other day and I loved it so much I had to go buy one ASAP....got mine at Target like she did for 9.99 (marked down because it was scuffed a little but a little elbow grease later and you can't really tell!)...though I cut the flowers a little low, oops.

"Bubble Gum Machine"

2011-02-13T18:19:00.005-05:00

Yayyy! So excited to finally do this...I got the stuff to do this two months ago or maybe more THINKING I had the perfect vase at home but turns out I only had ones like these...

I've been checking out Micheals, thrift stores, walmart even...and I couldn't find the right one. When I was over my friend Christina's helping her paint a frame yesterday, she had the perfect vase and let me have it!! Yipee!! Thanks Christina!

And just in time for Valentine's day....It turned out super cute but would have been MUCH cuter had I had white vinyl...oh well, still fun! I'm going to bring it to work tomorrow to put on my desk. Wish I had taken pictures of the cute little flower lollipops I made last year for valentine's day. That took me forever and I was looking for something a little lower matience this year.

So I bought a terra cotta pot, a terra cotta water catcher (not sure if that's actually what they are called) and a little wooden knob all from Michaels and some e-6000 glue.

Once Christina awesomely provided me the vase I painted the pot, the "water catcher" and the knob white. And then I glued the knob the the bottom of the "water catcher" and the bottom of the vase to the bottom of the pot.

Then I cut the word candy & a ribbon on my cricut on some brown vinyl and put it on the vase...I need to order some white vinyl, though I probably would not have painted this white if I had white vinyl.

Oh and I forgot to add that I put some felt around the inside so it didn't make that awful noise when I put the lid back on...

Then I filled with candy.

I love it, can't wait to put the cuteness on my desk tomorrow.

Woo hoo

Whoops, forgot to add the button! Linking up to....

Dying to Decorate

2011-02-06T18:20:00.003-05:00

I really want to decorate our guest bedroom....it's teeny....it'll probably fit a bed, barely a queen. I'm hoping we can buy a new bed a put our current bed in there. And then a dresser in the corner which I currently have no picture of.

Anyway, found this site last weekend...of course I'm the last to find anything so most of you might have seen this but I love love it!! It's houzz.com and you can create idea books. Well I've started one for the guest room....I want something funky and fun. I'm thinking gray and yellow but I don't want to decide anything just yet. I want something not too girly but then again who cares, any man could live with a little girly for a night! :) No, we don't have anyone really come and stay with us but if we did, we have more than enough space now and we should have somewhere for them to sleep!

Hopefully this link works....here is my Houzz Guest Room Ideas

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/230645/list/Guest-Room-Ideas

Ikea Chandelier- love

2011-01-30T19:47:00.005-05:00

I bought this pretty thing two weeks after we moved in, it was crazy I had wanted it but they didn't have it and I went up there as soon as they had them available at 4:30...on the beltway (should have known better)....it was a big ordeal. But husband just finally put it up today...there was no begging or pleading just a big please put my light up!! And right timing I guess! :)

I love it! I hated the little dome thing that was there before and is installed in every room in our house...they're also very dim. See....

So not only does the chandelier look great, I can see so much better. But there will be no sneakily turning on the light while Chance is sleeping in the morning because it's so dim it won't wake him. But that's okay, we'll figure it out! :)

Oh, I also found homes for my goodwill treasures from a few weeks ago...

This chandelier is around $40, awesome deal! Love it.

Meh, I reeeeeally need some new curtains, they look like giant brown potato sacks, but you really can't see anything.

Wondering what happened to our awesome bedspread from this picture?.....

Cat threw up on it when we left all day...nice...I've washed it like 6 or 7 times and it won't come out...boo.

p.s. how cute are my puppies?

Georgetown Cupcakes

2011-01-28T21:09:00.003-05:00

I convinced my hubby to go with me to Georgetown cupcakes last weekend, the one in Bethesda because it's closer to us. I was so excited I could barely stand it....I've been wanting cupcakes so bad. I can't wait until Sprinkles opens next month! woo!

Anyway here are some pictures from our adventure....we got a 1/2 dozen but the chocolate salted caramel one.....to die for!

Sauteed Shrimp

2011-01-28T20:58:00.004-05:00

This is so yum, sometimes I put it in brown rice or I guess you could put it in a salad. But just by itself really isn't enough, you'll need to make something else with it...vegetables, whatever.

I buy a pound of medium raw shrimp and cook it in olive oil & sprinkle some of this McCormick's Perfect Pinch Garlic Pepper seasoning....it takes less than 10 minutes and it's sooo yummy.

Snow

2011-01-28T20:46:00.004-05:00

We got some snow on Wednesday, not enough to miss a whole day of work but luckily we didn't lose power so that was good. It was a pretty snow, the kind where it stuck to trees...wish I got some more & better pictures....

Work, after I finally made it Thursday morning!

Painted Living Room - Yeeey!

2011-01-16T15:48:00.006-05:00

Finally, that's all I can say! I've been dying to do this since we moved in and FINALLY I've started. It's not a huge difference but I do love it! I wanted a brown gray and sometimes it looks like that and then sometimes it looks really tan, but either way it really does look great and it feels so much better. Though I gotta say it doesn't look as good in the pictures as it feels (sad face)! Instead of using SW Foothills, we decided on Martha's Natural Twine....she has great paint...we bought two gallons thinking this big room needed it and we only ended up using one! Ahh now we are stuck with a second gallon, but that's okay, I may end up painting the hallway....more on that in a minute!

I bought a cheapo bookshelf from target until I get a better one. And some new accessories from target & home goods. Oh and some extra curtains from ikea. The brown ones baaaarely fit all the way across so it was a pain to open and shut them every night. Now I think I'll just get two little pull backs so I can pull back just the tan ones.

Here's before the paint:

Here's after:

Now I didn't paint the hallway coming out into the room....plus it matches the color well so I figured why do it but sometimes when we look at it, both colors look the same. See....

Flash:

No flash:

I mean you can't even tell I painted in the picture with no flash!! :) But I promise it looks good.

Here's the accessories I bought:

Lamp $23 from home goods...still contemplating on painting the base white....

Two candle holders on clearance from target! One was $5, one was $4 (Oh and the picture frame from home goods for 5.99 too)

A big old jug from home goods...$9....yesss

And this awesomeness to hang on the wall $19....

which I felt like needed a little touching up (at 9am in my pajamas in the cold, snowy backyard)...

I'm excited and definitely enjoying the start of my "new" living room....still lots left to buy....new console table, rug, chairs, blinds for the back door, etc. etc. etc ......but we'll get there! :)

Mason Jar Soap

2011-01-08T22:25:00.003-05:00

When I first saw this project, I couldn't WAIT to do it...it just so happens that I was out of soap in my kitchen, good timing.....and I keep seeing this project more and more...probably because of it's cuteness...

First I needed a mason jar....I thought this things were all over thrift stores? Not mine, couldn't find one....I had plans today to run to another thrift store (yes I know I can go to the grocery store and buy the pack but I just needed one!) but they didn't have any either! But they were selling jams and applesauce, etc. So I bought an applesauce jar, poured it into some tupperware and rinsed out the jar and lid so I could get started.

Bath and body works was a little disappointing....I only wanted two things of foaming soap....you know their sale was 4 for $15....but they also had the old bottles (with the old dispensers!) for $2.50, so I got two of those, but of course I couldn't find a matching one so I could fill my jar all the way up when I was done. Oh well...at least I got one of the good dispensers!

So my hubby had a little drill bit that was the perfect size, he cut it quickly for me and even helped me get the sticker off the jar while I went and sprayed the lid black. Love him! :)

Once the lid was dry I hot glued the dispenser top in there, even though it was super snug anyway....filled the jar, snipped just a little bit of the tube going into the jar (is there a better name for that or am I totally blanking...I couldn't think of anything better to say!) so it fit. Then I screwed the top back on and all done! Love it...so cute! I still feel like it might need something but for now, it's perfect just plain and simple! :)

My 100th post!

2011-01-08T21:49:00.004-05:00

No pressure to say anything important....I can't believe it's been 100 posts, and at the same time, I've had this blog for a year and a half so compared to some, I'm way behind! :)

I thought I'd take my 100th post to share whats been making me crazy for the last 4 months....and what I plan to do about it...starting next weekend!

Oh yeah, mess, bad pictures, Christmas still up and everything...don't judge :)

This room is frustrating. It's big but it's small, very small...it's hard to fit two rooms in here especially with the back door and the front door all in the way. Then in the living room side of it, I only have two walls, so trying to set it up is a nightmare.....at first I had it like this

.....husband did not like it so we moved it, feels a little more cramped but I get it, at least he hangs out more now! :)

The first week we moved in I knew exactly what colors I wanted to paint the bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen, we even did the basement and I eventually did my craft room (though that is the only room I wish I had done a different color).....but the living room/dining room I just haven't been able to figure it out.....mostly because there's no turning back after I've done this big room, I realize it's still small but that's still going to be a lot of painting....and because of the hallway that comes out....do I paint the hallway? I really don't want to....but it will probably look weird? Hmmm that I have not decided yet.

What I have decided is that I want to paint the living room a taupe color....and I think I found a good one....Sherwin Williams "Foothills". I have a long weekend next week so I plan to get out the roller and some ugly painting clothes and go to town...er the living room!

Next I want to do crown molding....I want to do it soon but I may wait just a little bit. I've already priced it out but we may replace our shower head/tub faucet in our bathroom first....it's old and leaking a teeny bit too....anyway back to crown molding... First I want to do the regular crown molding then do this technique a la Bower Power to make it look aaamazing! I just don't know if I should continue into the hallway! .....Stupid hallway

Next on my list...hmmm well I don't know what comes first, a chair so we can have more seating or a new console table for our "entryway"...I need something chunkier and with more storage to fill up the space, hating the look right now. I keep scoping out craiglist for dressers, buffets, console tables, etc. too but I did find this one at Walmart that isn't too bad!

The chair I want is from Ikea...though I can't seem to find it on their website now! Ahh, hopefully that means they aren't discontinuing.....

I want to get a big nice rug for the living room side but I just haven't found the right one for the right price yet.

Speaking of rugs, eventually we want to rip up all of the carpet up....we found that there is hardwood floors underneath but I imagine they need to be redone! I'm dying to rip it up and see but with no plan b, I don't think that's a good idea yet.

Then I need an ugly lamp for my console table....really trying to find a lamp I can redo! I was drooling over shades at target today...p.s. their decorative section is sooo awesome right now...could have bought everything in that aisle, all of the purples, teals, black....looooove.

Oh oh ...the curtains! I might do these soon....I plan on keeping the brown but leaving them open all of the time, as you can see they barely fit and there's always a crack somewhere in the curtain....so I think it would look great with them all open and then I can buy the white ikea curtains, several of them and fill the space in the middle so light comes in through the day but hopefully it's enough to keep the peepers out at night! :) And you may notice that the curtains for the other window and the door are awful....not sure what to put there but I must find something better than that! Working on it!

And of course, many, many more decorations,...I need to get rid of that collage on the wall I tried to do....it didn't work out but I was so exhausted that day and it wasn't THAT terrible, that I just never took it down....better than nothing up there....but it's gotta go.

Eventually I want to get a new dining room table, not that I can get something bigger but I was thinking of something round.

The storage bench isn't staying as the coffee table, I just disliked my coffee table so much that I moved this here temporarily....so I'm looking to replace that too.

Those are my immediate plans, who knows if I'll keep it in order and I do know I'll add another 20 things to this list before I feel like it's mostly done :)

Happy 100th post!

Twine wrapped Baileys bottle

2011-01-08T07:25:00.007-05:00

Like I've said, I'm looking for little decorative things to start filling up the house with...and I really wanted a twine wrapped vase but I was in the mood to do it and not in the mood to go to the store to get the materials. I had just a little bit of twine left so I went to look for a bottle I could use. I found this Baileys bottle still in the refrigerator when I tried to make Irish cream ice cream once....didn't turn out so great if you were wondering...need to figure out how to make it without alcohol! :)

So I cleaned off the label with the help of my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (a miracle worker I tell you) and it's actually a cute little bottle, it has a little celtic type knot on it.

Then I went to town smearing elmers glue all over the bottle and wrapping twin around it until I ran out. It was messy but I think it turned out cute! :) You want the glue to be all messy and thick, don't worry, it dries clear! I could have done a better job at smushing the twine together so there were no gaps, oh well!

p.s. this is my 99th post! Sure hope I can come up with something creative for my 100th!

I'm linking up to Be Different Act Normal and Just a Girl

Goodwill treasure

2011-01-07T20:04:00.005-05:00

There is a goodwill down the road and I always pass it but I've never stopped in....wanting desperately to start filling up the rooms in our house and hoping to find a crafty project, I stopped in at lunch today finally. It was a little disappointing...I swear every time I see other bloggers go to the thrift stores & goodwill, I'm always envious of their gold mine thrift stores....although I didn't find a ton of awesomeness...I DID find some awesomeness that I had to share!

I did want to find a lamp to re-do, I need one for the living room....they didn't have any lamps that I thought I could redo that stuck out, I think I can find one at TJ Maxx....BUT they did have this awesome lamp! I couldn't believe what good condition it was in. They had these ugly lamps without shades for $10 and this lamp was $6.96! I thought for sure it wasn't going to work when I got home! lol....I don't know why it was priced so cheap but I love it!

Next I found this little silver tray....so cute. I think it would be perfect in the bathroom, maybe with some candles or something? Anyway, had to get it...only $2.96, and it's heavy, I could knock someone out with it! But I won't! :)

Yay goodwill treasure!

I made a pillow

2011-01-07T19:45:00.003-05:00

Remember I got my sewing machine for Christmas? I went to Hancock Fabrics which happens to be very close, determined to get some fabric for my kitchen windows....it was a sad trip. The fabric I loved was $30 a yard...no, I'm not ready for that just yet....I was thinking $7.99, maybe...even hoping to catch a sale.

So I picked up some thread and then saw a few pre-cut pieces of fabric, they were 3 yards each, nothing I could use for the kitchen windows but it was so cheap, $3.99 for 3 yards, so I got 3 of them! One of them was this cute purple fabric, I wasn't sure what to do with it but the next day I decided to make a pillow! And use some white fabric for the back. I also had a bag left of stuffing....I had made some dog beds once upon a time....I'm planning to make new ones soon!

So I just cut an 18x18 square of both fabrics, turned the right side facing each other and sewed around 3 of the edges, leaving one side mostly open to stuff. Stuffed the pillow, then this is where I got all "beginner sewer" (which I am, I won't deny)....and instead of making it look complete I just ran it through and sewed the one side shut, soooo the bottom looks kind of goofy....Oh well!

I made two fabric flowers, one using the white fabric, one using the purple (just turned inside out).

So this pillow cost me $3.99 and I still have a LOT of fabric left! woo!

Yeah, I changed the name of my blog....

2011-01-07T19:27:00.003-05:00

I've been wanting to...it's one of my resolutions, I have a long list that I have yet to post....(note: one of my resolutions is to blog more instead of blogging all at once....7 days into the new year, I'm not doing so good)....I couldn't think of anything creative when I first started this thing, in fact I don't believe that it's still too creative, but it's better than our names. I wanted it to be significant but I couldn't think of anything bizarre/awesome like some other bloggers do. I figured I started this blog to talk about me and my hubby....but it's become more of a crafty/decorating/random nonsense blog....but with full intentions to continue to talk about my life...with my hubby....and 'Home to you' by JMM is the last song we danced to at our wedding, it's very fitting. So this is what my blog is about....life with my hubby, at our home. The name works, okay? :)

...and of course I had to spice up the blog a little by taking it down a couple notches....like the header? me too :)

DIY Calendar

2010-12-31T13:08:00.005-05:00

I decided to do a cute calendar a la YHL and a few other personalized, printable ones I had seen. Now that I have this great, (working) printer....I must use it! YHL used words, I am not that creative to come up with meaningful words for every month...so I decided to find meaningful or cute clipart which for me is much more fun......here are just a few of my favorite's I did.....

I did these in wordpad!! haha I don't even have office on my computer, so it was really difficult, not easy and not perfect. I found the font 'Idolwild' on font squirrel. It was a fun & easy (would have been even easier if I had microsoft office!) project, but I think the most fun was be able to use my super awesome new printer :)

Teriyaki Chicken

2010-12-31T12:45:00.005-05:00

Okay, I know I've been slacking...I'm trying to catch up with somethings that I've wanted to post but also...I've been doing a whole lot of nothing so I need to find some things to post about!

I made teriyaki chicken last week which I do as a filler a lot, it's so so so easy and it's yummy.....the worst part about this is defrosting the chicken, I hate waiting.

I usually make it and then do it with veggies, or sometimes I just make rice, or add rolls, this one night I made potatoes which turned the thing complicated, yes...I think potatoes are complicated....it's very involved and takes too long :)

Anyhoo...you take teriyaki sauce....I use this stuff....

Put like 4 or 5 chicken breasts in a small baking dish (ungreased) and pour about half the bottle on the chicken breasts and mix it around a little so the chicken breasts are all covered.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes uncovered

I usually flip halfway through.

That's it.

yum! Though doesn't my plate look kind of boring, I guess I could have added something else....but it was still yummy :)

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T14:12:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I was a little under the weather but still, had a wonderful time with my husband & our families!!

Christmas eve we did our usual and went to Chance's moms for dinner and my dad came. It was a good night.

Christmas morning Chance & I exchanged presents at our house and it snowed a little, enough to make it look nice on Christmas morning but was more of a dusting and quickly stopped and melted. We drove back to his moms for breakfast and then had dinner at my dads. So grateful to be able to spend some time with family! And today is our "dating anniversary", 7 years! 7 wonderful years :) And we're hoping it's going to snow!

But now I want to share all the goodies!

My hubby got me this great decorating book that I can't seem to set down. I've been desperately trying to figure out what color and how to set up my living room and so I'm trying to get as many ideas as I can! Love this book!

He also got me this awesome printer, I needed one so bad. I have a great one but it eats ink like crazy. I've already used this printer a few times last night and today and my ink levels haven't changed, woo! And it's wireless, yesss! Can't wait to do fun projects! It's an HP Photosmart Premium C310a Wireless...love

He also got me this super cute Kathy purse, love it! and a few other things too....he's a good hubby!

My mother in law got me two Scentsy warmers and some scents! Yaaay! I got Lisbon & Cyprus. And got several scents but my fav is Mochadoodle!

My dad got me this super great sewing machine since my cheaptastic one died after one bobbin run through! It does a ton of stitches and even has lettering and it has pink on the front of it too....can't wait to sew some kitchen curtains!! It's a Brother SQ-9000

My brother got me this great storage bench I've been wanting! Yay!

oh and he also got me Apples to Apples, woo hoo!

I'm very excited about everything I got, woo I also got a bunch of girly things from my sister & SIL ... :)

Now bring on the snow!

Not my best judgement...

2010-12-19T10:47:00.003-05:00

Finally sending out my Christmas Cards tomorrow after a couple weeks of debating on whether to reorder new ones. So to everyone reading my blog who knows they'll get a card, sorry...spoiler alert!! :)

Every year we do Christmas cards...for the last two years I've been doing photo cards and I'm always in such a hurry to take the picture once the tree is up so I can play around with what I want and then order them, then address them and get them out before Christmas....why am I in such a hurry? I always have enough time. My impatient husband who never wants to take the photograph and thinks 3 takes should be enough doesn't help...love him to pieces but why isn't it realistic to ask for an hour?! ;) haha...I get that it's not fun but when I hurry and don't think....we end up with Christmas cards like this.....

Oh the awfulness.....it's too dark....of course I had to get our new house in there somewhere because we it's our first Christmas in it! But look how awful the blue sky looks, I could have worried more about the pictures and less about what the neighbors thought I was doing....the dogs look a little blurry but honestly, I think their picture is the best...and that's sad. :(

Next year I promise to plan, not rush, and I think I may take the picture outside to make sure it's for sure bright enough. I'll include the tree in a separate picture of it's own. And just relax....next year is sure to be the best picture yet....*crossing fingers*

Though the christmas card itself, excluding pictures is quite cute don't you think?

Here's past disasters.....2009 was blurry but it was the cutest photo we took so we settled...

2008 was an awful one of me but we settled because both of the dogs were looking forward

Here's to hoping I get better at this! :)

Gift Tags

2010-12-18T16:10:00.004-05:00

Not feeling well today so I'm trying to catch up on things on my to do list that are manageable! I ordered christmas gifts online last week and some of them came in this week. So I need to wrap them and I wanted to make my own tags.

I used my cricut to cut out the tags and the little trees. I used distress ink with a foam brush to darken the edges. Glued the christmas tree on. And stamped 'To' and 'From' on it! Easy peasy!

Spaghetti Jar Vase

2010-12-12T14:41:00.004-05:00

I wanted a mason jar to put flowers in but I didn't see any reason to go and buy another one when I already buy them all the time!

I love this spaghetti sauce, it's my favorite.

After I made lasagna last week, I rinsed two of these out and I washed them in the dishwasher two different times. The first time, I peeled what I could off but didn't stress about getting every bit off, it was still flat white when I stuck it into the dishwasher the second time. Then I took my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to get what was left off the jar when it came out of the dishwasher the second time (including the expiration date for the sauce). Easy and painless.

I wrapped a little burlap around it and bought some flowers at the store. Cute :)

Painted Laundry Room

2010-12-05T17:43:00.005-05:00

We recently got a new washer & dryer set (but you heard about that here). I don't have the best laundry room, it's small and unfortunately the water heater isn't tucked away in some closet somewhere, it's right there in the laundry room so I've got to work with what I've got and that's what I've been doing. Though, I'm fortunate to have a room at all. This entire house was painted in this very light tan/yellow color and so was the laundry room. I had left over small cans that I bought and never used to touch up the paint that I used in my old kitchen and living room at our townhouse. So I thought it would be a perfect (and completely free) way to take another step on working on the laundry room. So about 3:30 yesterday I just decided that it was the day I was going to paint! I decided to use the lighter color I had for the stripes, and to leave the existing color on the wall as the opposite stripe. Then the back wall is cinder blocks and I thought I would use the darker tan to paint that wall. Who knew that already painted cinder blocks would be such a pain to paint??

We also have this built in shelf which I love, it's behind the door, and it was also the color of the wall, everything in this house is this color, yuck. So I decided to paint it white.

It's still a work in progress, you might think it looks good but here's the stuff you don't see (warning: ugliness ahead)..

Neeeeeed a new mop sink, whatttt an eye sore now!!

Already working on replacing the ceiling tiles.....see.....

Now the ones we haven't replaced.....shudder....maybe water damage once upon a time..

I also wanted to share a funny story....see this unpainted piece of wall.....there was a pipe there....I painted around it. My husband came in and started laughing quite hard at me and couldn't figure out why I would paint around this pipe. I was confused. Apparently the pipe wasn't attached to anything like I thought it was, it was just resting in between the wall and the sink. I felt like an idiot, painted it and then started to wonder why, if he knew that, didn't he throw the stupid thing away?! :)