Say Hello

To our beautiful new, shiny kitchen appliances! They are finally installed and ready to be used photographed and admired. :)

Click here to see the befores.

(all photos are taken with the new camera, of course :)

The amazing fridge I am in LOVE with.

Happy Wednesday all!

Cooking Shows Are Not My Style

Cooking shows are so overrated. Anyone else with me? This weekend I actually fell asleep watching one. Food channels really bore the crap out of me.

*I need to be entertained*. Yelling BAM! at your salt doesn't do it for me. Cussing out your chefs-in-training doesn't humor me at all. And describing your ingredients as textures like they're wallpaper or something doesn't make me hungry.

I mean, if you possess the skills to cook/bake/some-other-cooking-adjective-here then I'm sure these shows are super helpful with their fancy, gourmet recipes chock-full of ingredients I've never heard of, let alone own. But for the more... novice chef like myself, watching these chefs chop/dice/some-other-cutting-adjective-here is totally a bore.

You can't smell the food, they don't even cook in real-time (ingredients into the pot to simmer and WHAM! they pull out an already simmered sauce to fit the 30 minutes time slot) and worst of all, you can't taste any of it. WHAT'S THE POINT?

I know, I know. Who am I to criticize world-renowned chefs when, no, I can't cook but my apron is fabulous... BUT i CAN do something they can't! I can start a mean kitchen fire, make a terrific mess, explode various meals with such force they leave holes in the ceiling and grind up a fork in the garbage disposal like it's my job. That my friends is *talent*.

And while my meals might not always ever turn out, there is at least some action! and drama! and often, comedy! happening in MY kitchen.

Anyone want to come over for Thankgiving dinner? I won't even charge you admission to see my cooking in action. :)

Random Thoughts!

Since my brain is still in post-vacation mush right now, today's post will be a hodge podge of all of my loves & hates currently.. Enjoy and share with me some of yours! :)

Love: Went out with my girlfriends last night for drinks and dancin'. The reason why I heart bachelorette parties is that they are always a guaranteed good time. We had très fun!
Hate: Dare I out myself as a boring old lady and admit to my headache this morning after only a couple drinks...

Love: vacation!
Hate: that my vacation ended last week.

Love: eating ice cream for breakfast
Hate: feeling sick 30 minutes later

Love: The house and all the work we have done to it.
Hate: The thing that starts with an “mmmm” and ends with an “ortgage.”

Love: This glorious sunshine!
Hate: The beautiful weather comes on workdays, and the rain comes on the weekends.

Love: The new recipes I have been trying out.
Hate: That I haven’t posted any of my recipes! I suck!

Love: Reality T.V.
Hate: The new season of the Real World.

Love: Having friends of every phase of my life
Hate: friends being far away

Love: My husband for rubbing my feet every night without complaint. And I’m not even pregnant or anything! He is just nice like that.
Hate: That I have been putting off scheduling my pedi and it's already mid-July!

Love: My fabulous and thoughtful and nice and gorgeous blog readers. I know I don’t reply to all your comments these days but just know that you are way too nice to me and I totally plan on keeping you around :)
Hate: That it is already Sunday night... It simply can’t be, because my gigantic laundry pile is still teasing me from the other room: “Wash me…or go to work without underwear tomorrow!”

Now tell me your loves & hates, dolls!

Bedroom Makeover

So if you remember a while back I mentioned that hubs and I were completely re-doing our bedroom. I finally have pictures for you! Our renovations included painting the walls, staining/painting the closet doors, a new duvet cover, new painting and shelves.

Overall, I love the final result! I have been wanting a blue bedroom for a while and am so excited about how it turned out. The new paint color definitely created a more tranquil setting for sleep and relaxation. And it's crazy to think what a big difference a can of paint and a little bit of hard work can make!

BEFORE
The room was yellow when we bought the house last year.



AFTER:
Color- Benjamin Moore, Nantucket Blue
I love how the new wall color makes everything pop!

It's past midnight and I am officially pooped and going to bed. Only 8 more hours of work stand between me and one crazy weekend! I can't wait!

Edited To Add
These pics really don't do the room justice! I had a hard time with figuring out the lighting on my camera, but the blue is a little more vibrant in real life :)

SPECIAL OFFER: - Limited Time Only!

I just found this fantastic deal and I have to share. Better Homes and Gardens is currently offering a 12-month subscription for only $5! Nope, that is not a typo. You will receive 12 issues for just five bucks!

This special is only good for a limited time, so I would suggest ordering as soon as possible. BHG is a great magazine if you are looking for ideas to update your home, try out new recipes, or even gardening. The articles are well written and every issue has new, fresh and fabulous ideas for house decorating and entertaining. It's a must for every domestic diva!

To order, click here. The only caveat is that the billing and delivery name cannot be the same. So I listed myself as the delivery name and hubs as the billing name. It all works out :)

Happy happy weekend!

Call Me Martha

That’s it. February has been insanely busy and is almost over. Starting in March, I made a promise to myself that I would be getting back on track towards becoming a Superhuman Stepford Wife Culinary Wizard. In a sexy pink apron, of course.

So, I need your help. More specifically, I need good recipes! Could you share with me some of your domestic goddessness and tell me your favorite?

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. You all rock!

(p.s. My husband thanks you in advance.)

Notes From the Construction Zone

Our House is a construction zone- again. Just when I swore that the cabinets would be the last house related project this year in a while, my husband proves me wrong.

Being the workaholic that he is, we he has currently undertaken yet another tiny ginormous project- Tearing out the carpet in our living room and replacing it with Pergo flooring. By himself!

Now I understand putting in a door yourself, swaping out that toilet yourself and even welding that new plumbing yourself. But tearing out the carpet and cutting/putting/installing the floors? Kinda crazy if you ask me, but I am trying to be a good moral supporter. We are saving a lot of money by installing it ourselves himself. I am just hoping we can get our living room back relatively soon because I am not sure how much longer I can handle watching TV on our tiny 19” upstairs tv.

On the plus side, this whole our house is a construction zone thing= Chinese takeout tonight! Yippie!

Happy Tuesday!

p.s. Can this weather get any better? 55 degrees. in Ohio. in February. I am NOT complaining.

So excited!

Two things this morning:

1.) My unhealthy obsession with damask continues… Hubby and I, I am considering redecorating our bedroom. Above is the look that we I absolutely adoreee and just must have! Don't you love it? The answer is yes.

However, husband thinks "it’s too expensive." We're dealing with completely different shopping habits than my own here. But, he is starting to slowly come around.

His exact words last night were, “I've learned I can't go wrong if I just let you decorate.”

Good man :)

2.) On another note, thank you so much to a fabulous blogger [and mommy-to-be!], Newlywed Stilettos, for introducing me on her blog. It totally made my day! :) If you found your way here from her wonderful blog, welcome and thanks for stopping by!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day :)

Finally

I promised to show you our finished cabinets. It’s taken an entire month week, a lot of patience and the last remaining piece of our sanity, but at last - we have fully functional, freshly painted kitchen cabinets.

And now I have to give credit where credit is due. Mad props to my husband for his mad cabinet painting skillz… Me on the other hand, I helped a lot little. But, I did go shopping while part of this went on, of course. So I can take only take a little bit of credit for what’s happened with our kitchen this week, but I am happy to report that I DO have a really nice new purse :)

Well, since I know that you all have been losing sleep wondering how they turned out...here you go! (for befores, scroll down or click here)

(notice the new cabinet hardware!)

the first time I ever operated a drill

the look of determination

while I drilled, he measured

and, Ta Da!

The kitchen is now complete. And I promise that this is the last post you will have to read about my house decorating woes for … oh, how about forever? Because that sounds good to me right about now :)