the next food network star?!?

i dont know if you know this about me buuuuuuuuuuut i love blogs. i love checking my favorite ones every day or so to see their new updates. i love getting ideas about decorating our house and well just information in general. like i said before, i have a few favorites. in different categories. home improvements, DIY, photography and cooking.

recently we have started to try these new recipes. i found the recipe for smores bars in a magazine. and this past weekend we tried some southwestern crispy wontons. after searching a few different grocery stores we actually found the wonton wrappers. NOT in the "ethnic" aisle...but actually in the produce section. who knew? not me.

nothing like a heart healthy meal eh? just ensuring the nurses of the future will have a job :) i think next time we will bake them, just to try it out. also, please note the cooking attire of the chef. no apron for this guy. how about a karate suit?

we also attempted something called "chicken spaghetti" another heart healthy meal due to the cream of mushroom soup needed. no pictures for this one though. it was a bit soupy. better luck next time.

its about time...

please say hello to my new friends: flagstone, olivia, pip and goodwill. you might better know them as the paint color, drapes, carpeting and chair/side table. want to see what they look like?

oh pip. how we have waited and waited and waited for you to come. i love it. and its super soft. who knew martha stewart could make good carpet?

we found this chair & side table at goodwill. its currently in the process of being reupholstered. you shoulda seen me at the fabric store, i think i had officially decided on THE fabric about 8 different times. whoops. you know me and my lack of decision making skills.

we probably also forgot to mention our new blinds. actually i think they are called cellular shades. i really like these. the hubs installed them in no time. they are really good at keeping the room dark; especially important when working nights. and check out that new lampshade. that project was a bit more time consuming than the shades but the hubs didnt have any problems with that. besides a wife who was really overly nervous about her hubs getting shocked and worrying about what his heart rhythm could end up being...oh the life of a cardiac nurse. worrying about the silliest things.

also of note...we are actually living in our bedroom now! :) we spent the last week getting everything moved back in, putting our closet organizers back in, moving clothes and so much more. we have yet to hang stuff on the wall but that wont take long to do. AAAAAAAAAAAAND we finally get to use the bedding from our wedding registry. wahoo! only 9 months late.

all trimmed out

while we were waiting for the carpet to be installed i filled my time with trim. lots and lots of trim. an easy enough job but boy oh boy there is a lot of trim. check some of it out: 

so you are probably saying, thats not a lot of trim. well it is. if you add in the trim in the upstairs hallway, the trim around the windows & sliding glass door too. plus all the baseboards. i am gonna be so relieved when i can paint something that isnt semi gloss white.

aaaaaaaaaaaand we're back...

back to mn and back to blogging. sorta.

this past weekend we made a lil trip to "gods country" at least thats what some people call it. i call it "by hour 2 of 5 in the car kelsey goes crazy country" sorta. sometimes i feel like a little kid making the trip there, constantly asking "are we there yet" and just plain getting antsy from all the excitement to see everyone again.

and this time there was MORE excitement than before. why? cuz of this lil 7 pound cutie.

so we got back monday evening from that and GUESS WHAT!!!! after some complaining to the company about the delay on the carpet by the hubs, our carpet was FINALLY installed. wahoo! super excited. so we havent done a lot of blogging. but we've been taking pictures on all the progress in the master bedroom. bed is in, bedding we got from the wedding is finally in use; closets are filling up...so much to do...but yet so exciting cuz we can finally CONTINUE our renovations to the rest of the house :) have i mentioned im pumped yet? cuz i am. just throwin that out there. so have no fear, there will be better posts and pictures. maybe this weekend? since we can't travel cuz im working...so who knows...

happy birthday!

just wanted to wish a happy, happy birthday to our new niece!!!
we are so excited to get to meet her this weekend!

man, isnt it odd that may's resolution just happens to be "a trip to wisconsin to meet a new baby" ?!?! funny how things work out :)

ask the readers...

alright folks. we are asking you for some input. we have a little extra "nook" area in our master bedroom that we arent 100% sure what to do with. right now it looks like this:

its about 6ft long & a little over 2ft deep.

so do you think we should:
a) center a dresser (not too tall) for extra storage
b) create a little reading area with a chair & little side table
c) put a small loveseat/couch  or
d) make a built in "window seat" (minus the window) something with storage underneath and a cushion on top with pillows?

this is one of the last decisions/projects in the bedroom and we (more so me but still) are anxious & excited to have a WHOLE room complete. as soon as the carpet comes of course...so PLEASE help! we would love to hear your opinion!!!

small changes...

as we are patiently waiting for our carpet to be installed we have accomplished a few smaller projects. these were pretty inexpensive but they also made a big impact. at least in my book.

the first project is the master bedroom ceiling fan. it was brass. our curtain rods were more silver. the hubs thought we should look into getting a new one. i thought about googling. and i won. a simple coat or two of spray paint made it look a lot newer and fit right in with our curtain rods. i didnt take a before shot (i know shame on me) but i took a picture of our dining room fan which looks pretty much the same to show you a comparison. check em out:

our second project was even cheaper. just needed some manual labor. provided of course by the handy hubs.

have no fear. that shelf was repurposed into the garage. and whenever we decide to tackle the kitchen our thoughts right now would be some floating shelves. to display things. to be determined things. thankfully we have a few more projects lined up before the kitchen so we have some time to figure it out.

the hubs is happy...

dare i say its finally spring? the weather (for the most part) was beautiful this past weekend. the hubs and his friend rhode decided saturday was the perfect day to start projects out in our yard. (im just thankful he didnt have to force me out to help)

im not going to even pretend that i know exactly what they did and why. but from my understanding they de-thatched the yard and then re-seeded and fertilized it.

unfortunately rhode will be moving this upcoming week so he wont be around to help the hubs in the yard anymore. any other volunteers out there so i dont have to?!?!

stop the presses!

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG NEWS!

i rode bike to the grocery store today! with the hubs of course. why stop the presses? cuz i typically hate any sort of exercise. so this is definitely newsworthy information.

ok...ok...ill fess up. why bike to the grocery store? i may or may not have had an ulterior motive...you see i reeeeeeeeeeally wanted to try this new recipe. but we were out of 2 of the main ingredients.

you see im a sucker for all things smores related. so i just had to try this new smores cookie bar recipe. and i think it turned out great. and i think the hubs and rhode agree. so i guess the bike ride wasnt too bad. burn off some of the calories from eating a pan of smores. not a bad combination!

and the curtains are hung...

we found curtains for our master bedroom! and id say the hubs is pretty excited. mainly because when my mom and i originally went fabric shopping i found a fabric i really liked for a mere $75 a yard. and we figured we would need about 12 yards of fabric. 75 x 12 = a nervous hubs. buuuuuuuuuuut dont worry, we did NOT go down that route.

thankfully we found curtain panels already ready so less work for us and less money!

and heres a close up of the actual material for the curtains on the windows:

and a change of pace for my the walk-in closet:

so instead of spending $900 for that original fabric; we paid less than $200. not too shabby. now if only we could use that $700 we "saved" to buy something else. you know that rhymes with shamera...

family bonding...

what better way to have some "family bonding time" than randomly stopping at a casino?!?!

no big winnings. but a few smaller ones...which were then gambled away a few minutes later...but thats all part of the game right?! all in all we had a lot of fun just hanging out with my parents and sister this weekend. we were able to relax, catch up, and potentially plan some new updates/projects for the house.