Thanksgiving!

So I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the first time "dun dun dunnnn." I guess that kind of gives my overall feeling about it. The thought of cooking a turkey 1. Grosses me out and 2. Makes me nervous I'm going to take the thing out and it's still going to be frozen. But, aside from my fear, I'm excited to have my family over and see everyone. So here is my menu as of now, but things could/might change depending on how I see fit.
Turkey

Rolls


Cream Cheese Spread With Crackers

Greenbean Casserole


Butternut Bisque


Spinach Puff Pastry

My Grandma's Apple Pie

I may revise (add/remove) things, but whatever I make I will definitely take pictures of. Hopefully it goes better than what I'm seeing in my head!

Round 1

So round one of organizing went fairly well. I concentrated mostly on storage areas such as the linen closet in the hallway and the under the sink storage. I bought these cute baskets at Deal$. They look like this:


The best part is that they were $1. I love the dollar store. The amount of things I can buy for $1 is almost a little overwhelming.

I used these baskets first to clean up my mess of a linen closet. I am not exaggerating here. ***Disclaimer- I am messy.
Before:




After:





I put things that we don't use as much such as light bulbs and bug spray up higher so it isn't taking room up that would be put to better use. I tried to group like items together so I know where things basically are, such as my bars for my Scentsy, toiletries, dog things, etc. It's worked out great so far. I love the feeling that everything has it's place. Now it's just about keeping it there.

A little organization...

I've decided to start to organize my house one room at a time. Baby steps. One thing that this house lacks is storage space! Tiny closets, no pantry, etc...pictures to come. So, I've decided to start one room (space) at a time. So in essence, this will be a series of blogs. There are a TON of free printable websites out there, which I hope will help me to become more organized. I consider myself one of the most disorganized, organized people I know. I know where things are, but could anyone else find the thing if I wasn't present, probably not, definitely not. I decided to start small by going with the hall closet. We keep our linens and bathroom things in there, as well as things such as the dogs heart guard and frontline and whatever else he has in there. So, I will post some before and after pictures in the coming weeks, along with where I find my materials. Hope you enjoy!
Until then,
Kirstie

First I will start by saying I SUCK. I'm not very good at keeping this updated. Honestly, I haven't really done much as far as projects recently, but I did a couple of projects about a month ago at a craft day I had with some friends. If you go back to this post about my upcoming projects, I did do the one where you put lyrics on a painted canvas, spray paint it, and the lyrics show through. Now, I had ALOT of problems trying to come up with lyrics for this project. I bought two packs of vinyl letters (purchased from Michael's), which I clearly thought was enough. Turns out there are A LOT of E's and I's within the words of the English language, so I had to come up with something pretty basic.If someone would want to try this, I would recommend measuring the spacing BEFORE adhering the lettering to the canvas. If you're like me and slightly OCD it WILL drive you crazy that the letters aren't evenly spaced. This is what it looked like before spray paint:


And this is what it looked like after spray paint:


I'm still not exactly sure where I would like to put it in the house, so it's sitting in the unfinished office area (which will hopefully be finished soon).

I also made the soup which I referred to in this blog post.
It turned out well, but unfortunately I did not like it much after it was frozen. The pasta was kind of soggy and blah and in hindsight I would have used more chicken. But if you need a big pot of soup for something, and most of it will be eaten or can be refrigerated for just a couple of days, I'd recommend this one. Here is a picture of the finished product:

And this is the website where I originally found he recipe, which has very detailed instructions. Disclaimer: If you make this, you do need to buy a small chicken (which looks like a chicken), and take its' insides out! Yuck!

This isn't just about the house anymore...

So in effort to stop eating out so much, I am going to make larger quantities of meals to guarantee leftovers. I've never been one to brown bag it so to speak so this will be interesting. It would be much easier if I were not so picky tasteful. So I'm going to make lasagna tomorrow night, but since I am done for the day at 3:15 (which is the only day of the week I'm done before 7) I am also going to attack this soup to freeze for lunches. It seems like there are many parts but I like to chop veggies so what the heck. In other news, this weekend is craft weekend. So I'm excited to see what projects I end up finishing. To see projects I plan to do/like check out this link. So hopefully, tomorrow I will have some soup pictures for all of my millions, I mean 3 readers out there. Enjoy.

PS I've made a new pact with myself that I am going to post one post per week (minimum). Now since I only have myself to keep myself accountable, we will see what happens.

Upcoming Projects

So, I have many ideas running around in my head for things I'd like to do. I have a very lonely wall in my living room in which I would like to decorate. My idea for this is find (for super cheap), 3 16x20 picture frames. Matching or not, doesn't matter since I want to spray them a light blue color. Then I would like to put silhouettes of birds inside the frames (in black) on a white matting. I don't have an exact idea of what I want to do, but I think it's played out pretty well in my head. Executing however, different story. I need to set aside some time to plan and do this because if I don't it will never get done.

Also, a friend of mine showed me this, which is also linking you to my pinterest account which means you should follow me because that website is AWESOME! Anyway, that was off topic. I think this is a really cute idea, I just don't know what lyrics, or phrase I would do yet.

My next focus will be our bedroom, because as of now to be honest it's quite boring. I get really excited about one thing, and then it takes me awhile to get started on another. I think I want to do some candle sconces on the wall, and I like this one with the mirror because it will make the room seem bigger, and that is definitely what we need.

It's been forever I know! I have finished one of the guest rooms, the Parisian inspired room. At least finished for now. I'd like to get an armoire for that room, or a nice piece of furniture. I'll know when I see it. Now I'd like to start focusing on the other two bedrooms, the master and second guest room. I like the idea of putting many mirrors in a room to create a larger space, like this... For the second guest room I want to do a mural on the wall, or rather have my aunt do a mural on the wall, I've been coming up with a few ideas, I like the idea of doing almost a window into a landscape like the second picture on this website. Let me know what you guys think, I definitely am up for suggestions. I will put more pictures up soon. I have yet to find a adapter for my computer to use with my camera. I may be able to put some more pictures up on Wednesday, but for now any suggestions are appreciated!

More Pictures

I have some more pictures! Here is a picture of a painting I bought at Poor Man's Art Gallery in St. Charles. They had a good selection of painting, and I got this large painting for only $96 with their 40% discount. I struggled to find something I really liked and jumped on the opportunity to buy this abstract. It was a good size and I really liked the colors used in the painting.


I also have nearly finished the guest room. I definitely have enough art in there. The only thing I would really like to find an inexpensive piece of furniture for that room and refinish it to go with the room. I'll be referring to Craigslist for that. But here are some pictures of what I've done so far.




I also purchased the 3 smaller paintings at Poor Man's Art Gallery. The prices made them irresistible, even though I had enough art for that room anyway!

My friend Kristin and I put together a rack to hang pots and pans tonight. What a task! I thought it was going to be really easy, but it was definitely not as easy as I was assuming it would be. I can say I am becoming quite proficient with a drill within the last week. Here is a picture of the rack for the pots and pans, not very exciting, but I am patting Kristin and I on the back for the accomplishment.

I have some pictures of the house! People have been asking to see some so here are some pictures. It's definitely not finished, and I am not posting pics of the basement or the guest rooms yet because they are a disaster!
Right now my favorite room happens to be the bathroom, but I am pretty sure that is only because it's the most complete room. The halfway finished rooms do not sit well with me!






I was originally going to paint the bathroom a lilac as well (the light purple in the shower curtain), but I changed my mind, naturally. I'm very happy with the yellow color, I think it's a nice contrast!

The living room, I must say, I love the living room! Green is my favorite, and it makes me happy so it's awesome. It will be better when we find something to put on the wall over the couch. The walls have taken a backseat to most everything else. There are so many things that need to be done first! But here is the living room so far.





Now for the kitchen and dining room. This room was the biggest pain to paint! I will definitely not be changing the color of this room anytime soon!







So there it is, pictures. I will post pictures of the other rooms once I start putting things in them. Right now they are basically just storage cells for all of the unpacked boxes which is less than desirable to post for everyone to see. So as soon as they look cute there will be more pictures. Hope everyone enjoys :)

CLOSING DAY! We are homeowners! It feels like we have been going through this process forever, but it was not difficult(just feels like it)! But we had a GREAT realtor ,which I think really helps, and in reality it did not take that long at all. If you need a referral let me know! I've been shopping ALL weekend for stuff for the house, and my personal favorite thing we bought is this chair. I loved it and had to have, so it became the inspiration for the living room. Brian also went to some garage sales this weekend and picked up a few things. My favorite was a set of bookshelves he bought for $10 each. I had to do quite a bit of work on them, and am still not finished. But thanks to some neighbors and Brian's mom they are close to finished. When I can get my camera to work with my computer I will post a before pic. But here is one of the bookshelves (they are identical)




I had to strip the original blue paint, sand them , and paint them. The bookshelves just need a couple coats of polyurethane and the new hardware I purchased and they will look great!




I will update pics of these as soon as I take them. Other projects that I have done include refinishing a nightstand, which still needs new hardware and a new pic!
Also, a couple of friends, Phil and Chris, came over and stained a trunk I bought of off craigslist and plan to use as a coffee table. It looks great and now matches my other living room tables.Over the last few days I have been so overwhelmed with all of the details in the process, but I know as soon as we get everything painted and moved in it will be great! I will post more pics as I take them and I will try to do so sooner than later.

The Process

So in February we decided to start thinking about purchasing a house. We were pre-approved by the bank that month and by March we had found a real estate agent who is great! We found the first home that we liked, and after following our real estate agent's advice to have the garage tested for mold,then soon found out it indeed did have mold :( . So again, our search began continued. In April we finally (well what seemed like finally to my impatient self) found a house that seemed promising, so we went ahead with it. We did some back and forth with the negotiations and finally came to an agreement. The came the (dun dun dun) INSPECTION! Well turns out there was water in the basement and our promising home suddenly seemed not so promising. Water in home=BIG problem. We hired someone to go take a look at the home and found 3 foundation cracks, which is bad news. However, we FINALLY, (and I actually do mean finally this time) negotiated a deal which resulted in the seller paying for the repairs. So we are now on track to buying this home, and our closing date is June 1st. I promise my next posts will be much more interesting, but this was kind of the low down on my personal hell for the last 3 months (exaggerating, it wasn't really that bad just a bit stressful). The next posts will contain pics and projects that I do to make this home mine ours!