Operation Home Make Over: Kitchen

Being that we are knee deep in a bathroom make over, I thought I'd look back on how far we have come in our kitchen and remember the hard work it took and the time spent to get it just the way I had pictured it in my head.

*This was my inspiration 

* Here is our before 

* add counters, and then a back splash

*Add appliances and VOILA!

My Kitchen is complete!

This is our main view of the kitchen, We also have a little bar, I made a chalk board and painted come corner shelves.

      

All that is missing from being 100% complete is a microwave cart. Let me tell you we have searched High and LOW and I cant settle unless I am in love so the search goes on!

First 4th as a Family of Four

July 3rd this lovely lady cuddled her way into our home and hearts!

We are now a family of four

Such a cutie pie!

Welcome to the family Gwendolyn!

Pinning!

Today I am linking up with a great friend Nicole - She has been sharing all her pinterest projects and I wanted to join the party!

As with just about every avenue of Social Media I was reluctantto join at first but quickly became slightly (ok TOTALLY) obsessed with pinterest. I could totally make pinterst projects a full time job!

I wont bore you with the details and if you love the site as much as I do not further explanation is needed.

I'll limit my post today to our home projects and I admit i use the term "our" quite liberally as truthfully I find the picture of what I want and turn to my husband and say "You can do this right?" He in turn has never let me down!

Bedroom
I saw this and HAD to do it! I'd been pricing out bed sets and they are SO expensive so this turned out to be a budget friendly alternative! I give the HUB's all the credit for this! It came out even better than I imagined. I am still combing thru more ideas for what to hang above the head board . . . hummm decisions decisions!

We then used the left over stain to turn a blanket rack into a matching piece.

I then needed a jewelry organization piece and after looking thru tons of pictures decided I would not go buy one more thing and deciding instead to mesh all the ideas i'd seen together and use left over scraps from our head board. All I did was screw in some cup hooks to hang the necklaces from and strung some lace into the wood frame for the earrings

All while the Hubs was creating our bedroom master pieces - I got to work on my own side project a kitchen chalk board I'd seen here. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. Its great to leave notes on, post the weekly menu or as seen here set an inspirational reminder to look at every day.

What have YOU been pinning?
Interested in more of my pins? Follow me! http://pinterest.com/amieleaf/

If you give a Wife a week alone

I had all intentions to try and write a post similar to "if you give a mouse a cookie" but when push comes to shove my week just has not turned out that cute.

The hubs left last monday for a 10 business trip - this after a weekend of semi-flooding in our guest room. Let me give you a run down of my week.

Monday -

 work and a happy hour pedi with a bestie and the start of a crash diet

Tuesday - 

Day 2 of crash diet which failed at 8pm that night

Wednesday - 

Roofers come to fix tear on roof thought to be causing the semi flooding followed by a near fatal spill in the grocery store parking resulting in a chipped pedi among other wounds!

Thursday - 

Woke up to water coming from the wall - Roofers. . . FAIL (notice the missing dry wall where the hubs investigated the mysterious leak)

Friday -

 Friend comes and finds source of leak - Busted hose in the dish washer . . . sweet

Saturday - 

No hot water in the kitchen - total veg day culminating with dinner and a GG marathon with friends

Sunday - 

Debbie HITS, bringing slugs, wind, rain and the loudest frog outside my window that had me convinced for hours he was in the house with me!

Monday -

 Dishes are piling up due to no hot water in the kitchen

 and the bathroom sink? Too small to function as a kitchen sink! 

So the dishes sit, The house is a mess  . . . . 

And I'm convinced I'M FALLING APART with out my MAN.

**Thankfully he comes home TOMORROW!**

Hope I can survive these final hours!

Wish me luck!

NEW

I know I have been back and forth on this whole blog. Diligent and constant for a while, then a vanishing act followed by an apology and a promise to return. Its been a back and forth battle. I've done some blogging  that I just haven't published  and will work on getting those out to my limited readers.

There's been an inner turmoil that I've voiced before, not having direction and purpose for my little site here. It is hard since I had a goal in mind when I created this but as life moved me beyond the kitchen I feel like there is so much more to write about.

I finally sat decided that I needed a revamp. New name, New template, New direction. While trying to come up with some thing clever and catchy like so many of the blogs I stalk read I decided to go back to what I know.

Here is the back story:

My love introduced me to this wonderful band while we were dating. I fell in love with their music while falling in love with my man.There was a song that captured my feelings while experiencing the greatest LOVE I never knew possible. When we started planning our wedding I knew I wanted to walk down the isle to some thing that had special meaning and this song just kept playing in my head and I KNEW it was THE song.

Listen while you read

I'm so glad I didn't run when it looked like love - especially because it looked like love from the very beginning and to be honest it scared me a little but in the midst of fear there was a peace that I knew I'd regret not seeing where this would lead. BEST decision of my LIFE!

Falling in Love opened my eyes to a new level of LOVE, the beauty, depth and vastness of it all. I now see LOVE all around me, its so much more than chocolates, flowers, diamonds and wedding dresses. While love is waiting to be found it is something you have to choose to see. Its a daily choice that you make.

So while I take the advice of all my blogging friends, I'll write about life - no limits, no organized topics.

Welcome to my life!

Menu Monday

Hard to believe its Monday again and time to link up with Orgjunkie! I was off yesterday and got a grocery shopping trip worked into my day and was able to really feel prepared for the week ahead. Sticking to a budget has been easier than expected. Last night I spent $50 for the week. I know I know - how much do I think it takes to feed 2 people but really it can add up fast. Also when you shop at random you spend more and always end up heading back to the store for that forgotten ingredient or what ever is missing to complete the entire meal. Here's what I bought and what our menu looks like this week.

Monday - Chicken ($5) I marinated it with left over marinade from last weeks pork chops. I had a can or corn and a package of yellow rice in the cupboard.

Tuesday - Pasta ($2). I have a jar of vodka sauce in the cupboard. I'm adding in Ham ($5) and frozen peas ($2)

Wednesday - Turkey meat loaf- ground turkey ($5) paired with boxed scalloped potatoes from the cupboard.

Thursday will be a late night at work so the Hub's will be on his own or eating left overs.

Friday - I'll be headed out with the girls for a friends bachelorette party! Cant wait to dance the night away and celebrate this exciting time!

No exactly the most healthy or freshest meals but they will fill the belly and maintain our calorie conscious diet. As you can see we have lots of food in the cupboards which is funny because when I don't meal plan I open them up and think that "we don't have anything for dinner!" turns out there was food there all along!

What do you have in your cupboard? Bet with a little planning you could put the stuff in there to use and create a simple yet delicious and cost friendly meal or two.

Menu Monday

Another week is here I don't know about you but last week flew by! I'm linking up again with I'm an Organizing Junkie to post our weekly menu. Here is what we are planning this week.

Monday - Jennie O burgers, Corn on the cob and french fries (left over from Friday when the hubs surprised me with a movie & Dinner date)

Tuesday - Taco Tuesday, a tradition we started a while ago but have not been to lately because we have a connect group we go to from church but this week we had a Sunday brunch. Check them out and see if you have a location near you. We love it and $4.99 for two tacos, chips and a drink? Cant beat it!

Wednesday - Mom's Chicken pot pie, a childhood favorite that I've been craving. Give it a try and I guarantee you'll love it too!

Thursday - We've been invited to dinner at a friends - cant wait!

Friday - I'm closing at work so the hubs will be on his own.

This week breakfast is bagels and lunch is cold cuts, yogurt and rice cakes.

Not too much cooking but seeing as I have a busy week ahead of me its nice to know that the meals are planned. I also find it less stressful to plan ahead so the Hubs can help out too! I've been faithfully logging my meals and keeping track of my calories. Meal planning is definitely helping track $$ and lbs!

Whats your menu look like this week?