{Love our Realtor}

I just posted my last post a few minutes ago and mentioned that I didn't have any pictures of the house prior to us moving in... well, I got an email from our realtor just minutes later with a link to the MLS listing with that information. I love her! So thank you to Allison for providing me with that, now I can post them to the blog for everyone and you guys can get the full affect.

Side note, if you need a realtor or just want to talk to someone about potentially buying, contact her. She was amazing to work with and made the horrible house buying process so much easier for us. We loved her.

Check out Platinum Realty and Check out Allison Oaks

Living Room: Before & After

Who doesn't love a little before and after? I certainly do! I turn into stalker mode full force when I see before and after. I may or may not even post these to Pinterest. That, my friends, is God's gift to use... my never ending idea board. :) I just love seeing the transformation and creativity that someone else does. So here's a little living room before and after for you.

Before:

After:

The color in the picture is a little off from the real thing, but it's Sisal from Ralph Lauren. I fell in love with it over at Thrifty Decor Chick. She used this through her entire house. I got into DIY mode and decided one weekend I was using this in the living room. Spend the entire weekend, but I got the living room, hallway and hall bath all in this color. It's a great neutral color that you can accent quite well with. 

I recently made the curtains hanging up over there on the left and made custom curtain rods for the baby window. You can see that little post here. 

{Apple Red Themed Wedding}

The day finally came, my oldest brother got married! I still can't believe it, it still feels like yesterday I was walking him to the school bus and then class to "show him the ropes". I definitely miss those days. Now, he's turned into a spectacular man that I couldn't be more proud of. He married a wonderful girl who is by far the best sister-in-law ever : ). She asked me to be her Matron of Honor so we had a lot of planning to do. Might I add... I love weddings!! My dream job growing up was to be a wedding planner so I definitely enjoyed the experience. I thought I would share a little of the wedding in case anyone else would also enjoy the ideas.

Wish I had some better pictures, but I'm working with what I got : )

                                                     {Bride's Bouquet}

{Programs that I created less than 12 hours before the wedding!}

 {Bridesmaids Bouquets}

 {Groom's Bout}

 {Headpiece - She was ABSOLUTELY beautiful}

 {This cake was to DIE for. 3 different fillings with chocolate drizzle on each layer}

{Extra lighting down the aisle}

 {Yep... they did it. Chuck Taylors}

{Finally Married!}



{Fireplace Repainted}

One feature I love about the house is the gas fireplace. The only thing, it had a brass finish. What were people thinking! lol... I wasn't going to opt out for getting a new one, I'd be nuts so I researched painting it. I found that I could spray paint it (with good ventilation!) fairly easily. If you plan on doing this, make sure you purchase the high heat (pictured below).

Our fireplace hadn't been used in quite awhile so I wanted to make sure all dirt was removed and the paint would stick. I would advice roughing the surface up a little with some sanding and then cleaning up a bit so you're working with a fresh surface. Of course, be sure to tape off ALL areas around the painting surface. And this stuff DOES travel. I had some on the floor, but my steam mop got it right up.

I let the paint sit and dry before I started removing any of the tape and paper. I did NOT want black all over my walls... accidents do happen. Here's the before and after pictures. We've gotten a mantle for it recently and I'll post those up soon.



Don't mind the shadow on the bottom : )



{Half Wall Makeover}

When we moved in, there was this fantastic "in the way" half wall as you walk in the front door... hehe. I prefered not to have it there, it added dead space to the living room so when we decided to remove it, started with the baseboards and turns out the hard wood was only put down to the halfwall, so guess what.....  you got it, it stayed.

It had a wooden ledge on top which of course was the wooden finish and was just an eye sore to me. It was the first mismatched thing you saw when you walked in the room. Well maybe it was just me : ), but that counts right? 

It didn't blend in with the room so I wanted to do something. Here is how it looked before...

So I used the color of the trim to match it up and here's how it looks after...

I love it!! It looks so much better and I don't have this big mismatched wall staring at me every time I walk in the room.

Give yourself a pat on the back Ashley.... : ). It's a miracle how just some touch up paint can make something look 10 times better.

What do you all think?

{5 Minute Cabinet Makeover}

Don't believe me? I promise it's really not that hard. All I did was pick a cabinet, undo the screws and then strategically placed a few things. : )

I've always liked the idea of the open cubies with cute baskets; didn't matter where, the kitchen, office, living room, anywhere. Normally kitchen cabinets are a little too wide for this, but I've got this one weird kitchen cabinet over in the corner that hasn't been used ONCE since the day we've moved in.... wait, that's a lie, I did store stuff in it the day we moved in and it's been there ever since. : )

So here's the picture of the cabinet before...

I don't know about you guys, but we've got a Keurig coffee maker and having thousands of those little K-cups lingering around drives me mad. For Christmas we got a 60 variety pack.... what!? 60!, yes!.... and I don't know what on earth to do with them all. The box just takes up space in my pantry so this new little idea I have is coming quite handy. One cute basket please!

Big box to a cute basket get up... hehe

So I decided instead of having my loose recipe books, cards and print offs scattered around on my countertops or end up getting misplaced somewhere else, my new little cubbies would be peeeeeerfect. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. Just trying to decide if I should paint the inside of the "cabinet". Here's the after picture, let me know if you like it!

Thanks for visiting!

{DIY Curtain Rods}

Let me first start with.... Bay Windows are the devil! : ) If you've had to find or make curtains for them, you know it's a hassle to deal with. When we moved I thought, "Awww how cute and comfy it makes the living room feel".... and I thought that up until I had to put curtains up. Ok... done with my ranting : )

All bay windows are a little different so for some of you it may not be that difficult, but mine, the windows were pretty close together leaving no room for the ends of a curtain rod (#1). My other option was to do the connecting rod system (#2) for all 3 windows but they're hard to come by and can be expensive when you find what you want, especially the type I wanted (wooden). And again, the spaces between my windows were so minimal, the curtains would have blocked a lot of the light. And being the pale ghost that I am.... I need my sunlight : )

So my final option and choice I decided on.... framing curtains outside of the bay window. A little scary and different, yes it was, but I did a little googling and found some pictures that looked really good. Now, this decision brought on it's own challenges, of course... shucks, I never think things through : )... The curtains would be more of a decoration piece instead of a privacy detail. So there was no need to put a 10 foot curtain rod across the entire window.

Since I wanted wood, my plan was to purchase a 4 foot wooden rod and measure (#1) to 2 feet then cut in half.(#2)  I owe a BIG thanks to my handy-dandy dremel for quickly cutting the pole in half - maybe not even but that was an operater error : ). These would be placed on both sides of the window.

Now, since the holes for the finials didn't go all the way through.... can you guess? ..... yep, I had to drill those at the ends I cut too (#3). Not hard at all and just gave me another reason to play with a power tool. Then I just put up the brackets, slipped on the rings and screwed in the finials (#4).

Now that those are done... I ran into another problem with finding curtains wtih the correct length, so it was a simple decision to find material I liked and just make them. I'm sure I've said enough already, so I'll leave that post for another day. But for now, take a look at the before and after pictures.

Recipe: Santa Fe Chicken & Rice

A lot of you ask about the recipes I make when I post comments on facebook so I thought I'd blog them too so that everyone can get the ingredients and directions. Let me know if you try them out and what you think about them. Yay or nah... if they need anything else.

This is the recipe I made for dinner last night. I modified it a little from the original Kraft recipe so spice it up a little.

Ingredients:

1 pkg OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Southwestern Seasoned Chicken Breast Strips

1 can  of Green Giant? mixed corn and black beans

3/4 cup  Taco Bell Thick 'N Chunky Salsa

1 cups hot cooked rice (I added taco seasoning to add a little spice to it - you can always use spanish rice)

Chili Powder

Directions:

1. Grill chicken, chili powder, corn, black beans and salsa together in saucepan until heated.

2. Cook rice until done.

I just used it all to make taco/burrito mix so add a little more filling to the meal. If anyone knows Steven, he eats more than a teenage boy so it takes everything I have to keep him full. : )

Let me know what you think.