Crafty

Eddie and I are trying to eat healthier.  Less potatoes and more veggies.  Less candy and more fruit.  I don't know how I would do it without pinterest!  Such great ideas!  We are both OBSESSED with potatoes.  One of the best substitutions is cauliflower.  Once steamed it takes on any flavor you mix with it.

Here is a new favorite recipe:

Loaded cauliflower (I use less cheese, bacon, & sour cream.  I used extra green onions)

http://www.food.com/recipe/just-like-loaded-baked-potatoes-cauliflower-low-carb-95068

While waiting for Tuesday nights snow fall we tried spaghetti squash.  Ed wasn't too pleased, but I liked it.  I always like some warm comfort food when it snows.  We hardly ever get snow, but this week was crazy.

 

Another great thing about the snow is I get to craft.  I love scrap booking.  Sure we have facebook, old myspace accounts, email, etc holding thousands of pictures, but it isn't the same.  As quickly as technology is developing it is also becoming obsolete.   Our kids will have the newest version of our generations social media then what?  

Scrapbooks can be passed down.  It shows your family something about your life.  We all wish we new more about our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc in their younger years.  This way we can leave some of that behind.  Not every photo you own belongs on the internet.  Once kids are in the picture I plan to sensor a lot more of what I post.  No matter how "strict" your security settings are a creeper is a creeper and they know how to creep.  The world doesn't need to see the first photos of my child nor every major or minor milestone.  Scrapbooks allow us to go crazy and still keep life safe.  What if your kid runs for president one day?  Do you really want his opponent to be able to bring up the picture of their first time on the potty or your post about them as teenager doing something wrong?  I can leave notes in scrapbooks and keep track of history.  Its fun to sit and look at adventures Eddie and I had when we first started dating and reminisce with friends about old college parties while looking through the books.

I stole an idea from pinterest and hang them on the wall.  It allows them to be seen more and adds pops of color and print to a room! 

House Warming gifts!

We have been steady home improving and unpacking little by little.  It is so different trying to unpack a whole house as opposed to a tiny apartment.  Add the fact that we are changing the house while we unpack & all our wedding gifts we just got from storage and it equals a huge project.

That's why we were so happy to have it all almost done in time for Ed's Dad and step mom to come up form Florida and see it.  We had a great family BBQ and got to eat on THOR (what my mom named our new dining room table).  We made crab legs & shrimp!  Yum!  We learned a new way to cook them by just placing them on the grill instead of steaming them.  Also, a little olive oil on the shrimp (still in their shells) and you can put them in a pan on the grill too!  Quick and easy.  My mom made her BLTS no bread.  You take tomatoes (the oval shaped ones) scoop them out and fill with lettuce and bacon and top with a yummy sauce that is slightly like thousand island. 

Our nieces had never tried crab and assumed they'd hate it so we made them chicken.  Our youngest niece requested "plain white chicken not made of crab" hahah.  Our 2 oldest nieces tried the crab and the shrimp and are now hooked! woohoo!

Ed's dad and step mom gave use a wonderful housewarming gift! We are using it for our fire pit & chairs and our back splash for the kitchen (we had another gift card as a rebate from when my aunt purchased our washer/dryer).  This back splash is no grout needed which makes the job so simple. We chose a stainless steel one for above the sink to add a little pop, but still match the stainless steel behind the stove.

                                   Ed is setting up our fire pit tomorrow.  Smores here we come!

We have had fun additions popping up in our home this week!  We got a new laundry mat & our canvas prints came in. We were really excited to use one to cover the ugly old "weather station" we had in the house.  Now no one is the wiser.

Only a few more weeks until our big housewarming with all of our family and friends.  It should be a wonderfully fun time!  One of our #1 "must haves" when searching for a home was one that we could entertain everyone in.  This house meets that criteria and now we are ready to put it to use!

Stick Stick Stuck

Good-Bye horrible green bathroom floor!  We plan on eventually gutting the master bath for a tub, better vanity, and floors, but until then we simply had to get rid of the gross floor.  I know people have differing tastes, but YUCK!

A very inexpensive quick fixer-upper is stick on tiles.  They look nice, are easy to install, and work well as a temporary solution.  They are also great for first time apartments or college dorms.  Ollie's has a bunch and so does Lowe's.  We have become regulars at Lowe's since buying the house.  I can even "kind of" find my way around now.

The adhesive backing can become a hazard.  A few tiles stuck to our feet and the sticky residue stayed on our hands.  Thank goodness for Goo-be-gone.  If you don't have any you have to invest.  This stuff is amazing and is so useful for everything.

 The green floor that didn't match anything in the bathroom.

NEW FLOOR!!!

A few of my favorite things!

Wow!  We have been so busy moving and home improving that I haven't kept this up at all!  Everything is moved in and the unpacking is almost done.

We decided to take our time unpacking boxes so that we could decide where everything would/could go.  We didn't want to unpack everything and then be stuck playing a big game of Jenga to get it all in functional spaces.  With our kitchen I wanted it to be convenient for use.  Dishes near the dishwasher for easy unloading and pots near the stove for easy cooking.  We still have some more glasses to unpack & once our china hutch is here we can unpack all our china and spare silverware into it.

 I love the fun kitchen organizers that came with the house!  Pulling out the shelves to get to pots & pans saves so much frustration.

Next step for the kitchen is a back splash around the counters! 

Sunday Funday

We took a break from home improving, but it was time to get back to it.  We move in a few weeks.  Once we move it we will still have things such as a back splash to add and a fire pit to dig.  In a few years I really want to redo the master bathroom!

There are somethings such as the floors and painting we want done for move in.  We are giving all the closets a fresh coat of paint and today we painted our spare room.  We are using it as a kid play room until we have a kid and need a room for them.  There are 13 kids in our family and this way there is a place for them to play and be loud and we can put all our old childhood stuff in the room.

We were going to paint a chalk board on the wall, but then Ed decided to just have us paint one whole wall.  After painting we realized the other wall had been chalk board painted previously so now they have a whole room.  However,  the chalk flows onto the floor so Eddie will be building something around the base boards to catch it all.

 

Mix unsanded tile grout in with paint!

Turns out this wall was already painted in chalkboard paint!

Afterwards we decided to do a little yard work while we waited on pizza.  Gigi calls it "lab" work.  We wanted to remove the dead shrubs.  We will plant a little for this summer, but in the fall we are killing the yard and restarting since it hasn't been taken care of.  Ed's mom was lining all of our cabinets while we were doing all of this.  I am so excited because I hate lining stuff.

OBSESSED

IN LOVE WITH OUR NEW FLOORS!!!  We had them installed today and the house looks so amazingly different.

Riping up the new floor showed some floors underneath we didn't know about









The finished products are awesome!  It's worth investing in good flooring and never by the cheapest padding.  You want at least a step up and one with a moisture barrier.  You may get the spill up on the surface, but without a moisture barrier you could get growth underneath from it leaking through.

We put dark Walnut laminate downstairs and carpet in the hall and master bedroom!  Love how soft the carpet is!

I highly recommend this tiny paint roller form DOLLAR TREE.  It saved us painting around the banister on the stairs.  One of the best tools we had.

Eddie sure is getting his workout from his "honey-do" list.  He creates half for himself.  Family is helping so much!

Sometimes you can't scrub all the paint off

We have almost finished all the painting!  We just have to finish the edges and painting the hallway.  It used to be an ugly pink/tan color so we are painting it a clay color a tad darker than the apricot accent wall in the family room.

 

Eddie painted the living room ceiling and I am painting the closets to brighten up the white.  The KILZ white paint is the hardest to remove from your clothes and skin.