Friday, October 30, 2009
Party Preparations!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Trick or Treat!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Birthday Perfection!
I also went for a relaxing 4 mile run yesterday, followed by a pedicure, a fabulous (and wine filled) lunch with my mom and then a long walk with Jake and Spencer at the park by our house to see the fall leaves! Basically my perfect day!
Jake's 30th birthday is SATURDAY!! Woo hoo! We're having about 20ish people over to the house for a small, laid back party. I'm so excited - but I just realized that I need to get my butt in gear and start planning the food/drinks/decor! Busy busy week!!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Finally Friday!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Traylor Papers!
They have SUCH cute stuff - I will definitely be ordering from them in the future! I've been on the hunt for cute Christmas cards!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Super Thrifty
But then I found this:
SHUT UP!! Randomly I googled "entry way bench" and this came up at JCPenney - yes, for real! I have never really shopped at JCPenney before, especially for furniture. My mouth literally fell open when I saw this...and then I saw the pricetag - $199! Seriously, I about died. And that price INCLUDES all 6 baskets AND the cushions for the bench. I was still a little bit nervous, but the website had like 85 reviews of the product (and yes, I read every single one of them) and they were all positive. People said the quality was really nice and that it's basically the exact same as the Pottery Barn one.You better believe I clicked "order now" as fast as possible. Oh yeah, and then I got FREE SHIPPING. I really think it might have been my lucky day. The only bummer - it's backordered until November...but we got such a good deal, I don't mind waiting. Once it's here, I will take pictures and post MY review of it! LOVE!!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Chicken Pot Pie
1/2 cup chicken broth
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 pkg. (10 oz. each) frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (I only used one bag of veggies and it was MORE than enough, I don't even think I would have been able to fit any more veggies into the pot pie)
1 env. GOOD SEASONS Italian Dressing Mix
1 refrigerated ready-to-use refrigerated pie crust (1/2 of 15-oz. pkg.)
Friday, October 16, 2009
HAPPY Friday!!
HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY!!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Things I love: Fall Edition
Decorating our house for Halloween! Yes, I'm a little bit late in doing this, but oh well. We're getting mums and pumpkins this weekend and I can't wait to turn our front porch into Halloween central! (even though it won't be anywhere near as good as Martha's!)
We got a wedding gift last week in the mail - a fire pit! I'm so excited about using it. We already decided we're going to brick out an area in our backyard to put it. We also got a wonderful housewarming gift from my godparents a few weeks ago - adirondack chairs! They will be perfect to use with the fire pit!
I guess I really am getting old - this is the ONLY thing on my birthday list this year (bday countdown = 11 days!!). Such a practical and somewhat boring present, but it's definitely what I want/need. Our fireplace doesn't have any sort of a screen, so we really can't use it until we get one. Love this one from Pottery Barn because it has the doors you can open while you tend to the fire...much easier than moving the screen every time you have to add a log to the fire.What do you love or want for fall??
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Holy Yum!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Weekend Project!
No mantle at all, just ugly old pieces of trim around the brick. We are also rocking the ghetto cable wire over the fireplace, compliments of the cable guy's "installation" when we moved in. Stapling cable to my wall does not count as installation in my book.
The After:
Friday, October 9, 2009
An Award
Shiny and New!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of our old awful dishwasher. This was after J had already pulled the old one out. Just use your imagination to think of the ugliest, oldest beige dishwasher EVER!
The hole - new dishwasher about go to in! Please don't judge my ugly and outdated kitchen - YUCK! Hate the counters, cabinets, sink - pretty much the whole thing!!
And the nice new beautiful dishwasher! AHHHH so pretty!
I really never knew I would get so excited about a kitchen appliance!
My cute husband after completing his handiwork! I love him!
Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a nice relaxing weekend!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Lobster Mac and Cheese
So here's the recipe, courtesey of Barefoot Contessa (found on http://www.foodnetwork.com/)
LOBSTER MAC AND CHEESE
Vegetable oil
1 pound cavatappi or elbow macaroni (I used Rotini because I think it's prettier!)
1 quart milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
12 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated (4 cups)
8 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated (2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I only used 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg because some of the comments on the recipe said 1/2 teaspoon was too much)
1 1/2 pounds cooked lobster meat
1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crusts removed) (I used Panko Bread Crumbs because I'm super lazy and didn't feel like making my own breadcrumbs. The panko was nice and light and worked perfectly)
Of course, I took pictures of my masterpiece!
My plate - we just ate ours with arugula salad because I didn't feel like making any sides!
The table! Nice romantic dinner!
Definitely not a diet meal in anyway since it does have 6 cups of shredded cheese, a stick of butter and an entire quart of whole milk! whoops! But definitely good for a special occasion or celebration. Highly recommended!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Obsession
(photo found on The Nest)
My favorite part - the letters over the bed! They must be mine!! This whole room is actually a pretty perfect interpretation of what I'd like for our room. We painted our walls a very light blue and I want to accessorize with tan and chocolate brown accents. I just love how clean and tailored it is.
So if anyone has any ideas where I can find letter prints that I can frame to put over our bed, let me know!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Interesting
Monday, October 5, 2009
Happy 1 Month!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Yay October!
This coat (the color is amazing!)This dress...perfect for work or dinner out!
I would also take a gift card to J.Crew so I could pick everything out on my own as well - ha! I love my birthday! (yes, I'm almost 28 years old and still obsessed with my birthday!)
So I just looked at my October schedule and the month isn't shaping up to be too bad! I actually have two FULL weekends OFF! OMG - that hasn't happened in...forever! J is turning the BIG 3-0 on Halloween, so I have that entire weekend off and we are having our first big party at our house! I'm so excited! I'll have to do a post on party plans soon - I just put the invites to the party in the mail today...yes, I'm a nerd and sent out real paper invites, I was just TOO excited!
We have some major house plans on the horizon for this month too ---- soooo happy about that. We bought a new dishwasher this past weekend and J is installing it tonight! We are slowly working on replacing all our kitchen appliances. The stove and dishwasher are done...now just the fridge and a new over-the-stove microwave! We're taking our time with it and budgeting everything...slow process but we will finish! We're planning a full kitchen upgrade (cabinets, counters, etc.) for early next year...I've started collecting ideas already!
J has also FINALLY agreed to let me spend some of our wedding money. We put it ALL in savings, but it's literally burning a whole in my pocket! We're not going to spend all of it, but we are going to replace both sliding doors (living room and basement), as well as put in a new glass storm door in at our front door. We are also planning on installing a shelving unit in our basement, to create sort of a shelving/bar type of set up. J is dying for a "man-cave" type of space down there with a small bar area and I'm allowing it, with some provisions. We found this as C&B and I think it's a great compromise on a "bar" but still really nice looking and organized:
They actually carry this at our C&B store, so we're going to go look at it this weekend and hopefully spend our wedding C&B gift cards to put towards it! Love!
Sorry this is such a boring and random post! Yay October!