Rehab’ing furniture…have you done it? August 27, 2008

With us preparing to move next weekend, I’ve been doing a LOT of thinking about how I want our new house to look…they style I mean.  Well, I want it to be a bit different from what we have now.  So, I’m considering painting our dining room furniture.  I think I’ll like the table and the china cabinet once I get them painted black, but I’m not sure about the chairs…they’re a little too “country” looking, and I want something more streamlined.  I’ll possibly keep the chairs and cabinet and just buy new chairs.  I don’t know.  I’ll post pics of everything tonight and you tell me what you think, okay?

Be back after church!

Mudroom - Organizing RoundUp… August 26, 2008

Yet another great thing started over at Organizied Junkie’s Blog - A monthly organizing roundup.  Being the organizational freak that I am (I have even organized stuff for a yard sale for this weekend!  I’m talking quilts, sheets, etc. tied up with ribbon, tablecloths, napkins, etc in ziplock baggies and labeled….), well, I just love this monthly organizing idea!  I’m already becoming addicted to her blog!

So this month’s ‘challenge’ is the Mudroom.  Well, we don’t officially HAVE a mudroom.  We have a split level home, and so the layout it kinda funky.  But ther is an entryway right off the garage (downstairs) which is where the majority of the ’stuff’ that comes into the house gets dropped.  Backpacks, shoes, jackets, you name it.  Well, I finally cleaned that area up last week when we listed our hosue for sale…here is it all clean…

Then after reading about the monthly roundup, and this month being the mudroom, I thought “Hey!  This would be a great place to create a “mock mudroom”!”  So, I walked around the house until I found something I could use to create this whole mudroom thing…a black wire shelf I was using in my scrapbook room, but it had a lot of unused space, so out to the entryway it went.

After an hour or so of organizing…here’s the end result:

 

 

 

On the top shelf is our “Box O Fun” for traveling - it has dvd’s the portable dvd player and some car toys (Mr potato head, magnadoodles, etc)

The next to the top shelf has baskets with scarves, taboggins (sp??) and a place for my purse:

 

The next shelf down has a basket for hats, and a small basket for keys, cell phone and other small items you need to grab as you’re going out the door:

 

And on the bottom (didn’t get a closeup pic) - room for jackets, a couple baskets, labeled with my kids’ names so they can drop in any items they bring in and easily carry the whole thing up when it needs to be unloaded.  Under this shelf is a place for shoes.

On the side, my dh made me a couple hooks to hang for the backpacks:

 

 

 

I did this on Sunday night and it’s Tuesday morning and so far, so good!  The kids are using it just like they should!

Menu Plan Monday August 25, 2008

I recently discovered a GREAT blog called “Organizing Junkie“…being the organizing freak that I am…I fell it love with it immediately!  In addition to organizing, she also does this thing called “Menu Plan Monday” where she (and hundreds of others) post their weekly menu plan each Monday - many including recipes!  I totally love this idea b/c I have been thinking about doing a weekly menu plan to try and streamline dinner.  So, I’m giving it a shot! 

ETA:  I changed up a couple of days and added a day that I had dedicated to leftovers.  I realized I had some homemade bread that needed to be used, so I’m going to make croutons with it, and have soup to put the croutons on.

Here’s my plan for this week - CLICK HERE FOR RECIPES or click on any of the links:

Monday:  Grilled Pork Chops, Curly Cheese Potatoes, Steamed Broccolli

Tuesday:  Easy Meatloaf, Green Beans, Corn (any leftover meat loaf will be crumbled and frozen to be used later)

Wednesday:  Wild Rice Soup with homemade croutons (made from ’stale’ homemade bread)

Thursday:  Bourbon Chicken, Rice Pilaf

Friday:  Homemade Pizza, Salad

Saturday: Lasagna Pinwheels (using any meat left over from the meatloaf), Garlic Muffins

 

We usually have a little ‘treat’ in the evening after dinner as well…either a fruit smoothie or a “No-Ice Cream Milkshake“ 

Grrr…this whole house thing… August 21, 2008

Is driving me crazy.  The owner of the house we’re buying is really frustrating us!  I won’t go into great detail, but he wanted to make this go so quickly so he could just get out and move out of state to be with his family, and now he’s telling us he needs THREE weeks after the closing date to move out.  Um, no.  It states on our agreement that we get posession at the time of closing.  We are willing to give him a week, and think that is reasonable.  I am just so frustrated with him right now!

Anyway, I just needed to vent!

Wow…long time, no blog! ;) August 19, 2008

It’s been crazy busy around here lately.  We went on vacation to TX for two weeks.  One week later, school started.  One week later, we started the process of buying a new house.  So, right now, we’re in the chaotic state of trying to get our house in order to be sold and start packing to move our things into the new (smaller) house.  Whew!  And of course, there are wrestling practices for son, MOPS meetings for me (of which, I am the publicity coordinator, so I have things I have to do for that), and a few cake orders.  I’m tired just thinking about all of that!

We THINK we’ll be closing on the new house this Friday, but we’re not sure if the current owner will be able to have all his things out at that time, so we may not be able to move right away. 

Anyway…Here are some pics of the house…I’m so excited…I’ve spent days planning the furniture and decorating in my head!

I’ll post new pics once we get moved in!

Sparkler Art July 21, 2008

Sorry I didn’t get these posted before…kinda forgot about them!  This year was the first time my kids had ever played with sparklers and they had a blast.  I had my DH write the kids names for the last two shots…thought those turned out pretty cool.

 

I’ve got to get off here and work on a baby shower cake.  I’ll post pics of that later in the week.

Have a great day!

A new shooting location…with my 2 favorite models! July 20, 2008

Yep, that’s right…they’re my kids!  Although they don’t always cooperate with me during photo shoots…like this day, for example.  I took my kids to a new place to scope it out and get some shots - a park that’s about 15-20 minutes from my house that I had never been to!  My daughter did pretty well, but the boy wasn’t in the mood.  And it was HOT.  And they would rather play on the playground. 

It is an AWESOME place for shooting!  Some cool old buildings on the premises, a train caboose that sits on a little section of track, lots of trees and nature.  I can’t wait to take some clients out there!   Get ready for photo overload!

Some on/around the caboose:

And some around the old buildings:

I don’t know what this building was…maybe just a shed. But I loved the feel of it. 

The door had fallen off and was laying on the ground so I had her sit on it…

At this point my kids were hot and done with photos.  I got some shots of the other buildings and such, but it’s taking forever for the photos to load, so I’ll do that another day.

As promised…the Eggs Goldenrod Recipe July 16, 2008

I don’t have much time today for posting, so I’m gonna quickly give you the recipe for the Eggs Goldenrod that I posted about yesterday.  Hope you try it and like it as much as we do!

 

6 hard cooked eggs

2 tsbp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1 cup milk

1/4 tsp. salt

6 slices of bread

 

Cut the edges off the bread, butter both side and place in muffin pan to form ‘cups’.  Toast in the oven until golden brown.

To make the ‘white sauce’, melt butter in small saucepan over low heat.  Add flour, blend well.  Add milk slowly, stirring constantly.   Add salt and cook until thick and smooth, stirring constantly. 

Cut eggs in half, remove yolk.  Chop the whites and add to the white sauce, stir well. 

Remove toast cups from pan and place on serving dish.  Divide white sauce between cups and top with crumbled egg yolk.

 

That’s it!  It’s delish, let me tell you!  We first had this dish on our honemoon at the bed & breakfast we were staying in (Beautiful Dreamer B&B in Bardstown, KY…if you’re ever in Bardstown, the Beautiful Dreamer is *THE* place to stay!!!) and I absolutely loved it.  She gave me the recipe and I’ve made it numerous times since then!

 

Have a great day…I’ll be back tomorrow to show you our “Sparkler Art”!

Tinkertoy Mansion…and a yummy dinner! July 16, 2008

This weekend we were at my in-laws, and she has kept ALL of her kids’ toys & games, so our kids have tons of stuff to play with when they’re there.  So, one day my daughter and I pulled out the Tinkertoys and made a Mansion!  Complete with stairs to the front door and a built in pool!  :)  Well, my daughter said “Let’s build a house” and I said, no, we’ll build a MANSION! And she was like “NO!!  I want a HOUSE!”  And I explained that a mansion was a really big house, and she said “Oh.  Okay!”  So, here’s our fabulous Tinkertoy Mansion… 

From the back

And from the front

And just for fun (as if a tinkertoy mansion wasn’t fun!) here’s our dinner from tonight…Eggs Goldenrod with bacon.

The recipe will be coming tomorrow!

More logos are up… July 6, 2008

These are some that I did for others as trial versions and they decided not to use.  So, they’re up for grabs!

Because they’re premade, they are only $15 for me to make basic changes (font, add  your name, etc).  If you want major changes, it might be a bit more ( but the max is $25 for a custom logo).  As always, once a logo is purchased, that design is no longer available, so snag them up while you can!  (One has already been sold!)

Anyway, here are the new ones:

Happy Shopping!