Lost in Tarnation

Garlic Shrimp Quesadilla

2010-03-13T22:52:00.002-07:00

So this last week involved hospital trips, IV fluids, a lot of steroids, painkillers and of course magical lollypops. Oh, and a pretty hectic work week. I feel like I've been walking around in a daze just waiting for today so that I could start working on some projects.

That coffee table has been smirking at me from the garage for a couple of weeks now, and I finally got around to getting her done today. Pictures to come tomorrow once I put the poly coat's on. It looks fantastic. I'm super excited about it.

Of course, in the last two weeks I have refinished a mirror, coffee table (yay!), two lampshades, two chairs and an oversized frame which will go above the bed frame that I'm close to giving up on Kevan ever finishing and doing it myself (stay tuned for nail gun horror stories...) And then I rearranged our covered patio with the new (to me) Ethan Allen wooden couches which I'll be refinishing in the upcoming weeks.

But the pictures of all of those projects are on my other camera, and Kevan has my kitchen all ripped up and so I'm going through cooking withdrawals. Hopefully the new granite counter tops will be installed tomorrow with my new oil-rubbed bronze faucet that I've been dreaming about for two years. So to hold me over until *fingers crossed* tomorrow, here is the garlic shrimp quesadilla that I made a couple of weeks ago. It was so freaking good.

Garlic Shrimp Quesadilla
I started out my sauteing up some garlic in some butter. Then I tossed in some shrimp and cooked that up nice and easy.

Once the meet was done, I transferred it to another pan and put just a smidge of butter back in that pan and added a tortilla to cook. I didn't put any of the goods into the pan on top of the single tortilla to try and speed things up. Once that one was done, I removed it and did the same thing with the other. But I put the cheese and garlic shrimp in and added that first cooked tortilla back in.

Then I threw the whole thing into the oven on some tin foil at 350 (the magical cooking number) for about 5 minutes to finish melting the cheeses.

I happen to think that salsa makes the world go around, but not just also salsa. It has to have sour cream in it. Mmmmm creamy deliciousness...

Makes you want to get up and start cooking... doesn't it.

Chicken Parm-alarm

2010-03-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

Oh man, it's been a busy week. We had my in-laws pass through town last week and then we went out of town for Kevan's cousin's wedding which both of my kids were in.

Except for the part where I came down with the plague and have been in excruciating pain since last Friday. Like swallowing razorblades kinda pain...

So I held out as long as possible and ended up in the ER yesterday. They drugged me up and ran tests, and found... nothing.

So home I went. In just as much pain, and feeling like I had just wasted time.

So today I went into the ENT and got the utter luck of having a camera tube shoved down my nose. A blast, really... But the best part was that he figured out what was wrong with me!!! After 5 days of pain, I have an answer. I have ulcers and lacerations on my tonsils. They want to have one more documented case and then I'll get those suckers out.

But he gave me a lollypop that has changed my life. Demeral, Vicodin, Morphine, Percoset... all of these drugs have done NOTHING to soothe my pain... This lollypop... wow... I've finally stopped crying!!! It's a miracle.

So since I have zero desire to eat (still... this could be a great diet...) I have been craving the Chicken Parm that I cooked for dinner last week. I think that I might need to cook this once I'm feeling better...

Chicken Parm-Alarm
rack an egg in 1 bowl and throw some flour in another. Add some sea salt, dried basil, oregano, parsley and pepper in with the flour.

Stick your chicken with a fork and shove it into the egg and smoosh it around. Once you have a nice little coating, plop it into the flour and spin it around. Once you have it nice and coated you're ready to get your cook on.

I like to heat up some butter and chop up some fresh garlic and add it in. Then once that is smelling scrumptious, add in the chicken breasts to cook up. I had some mushrooms that I needed to use in the fridge, so once the chicken was cooked, I added those into the pan.

I wish that I had some fresh basil to add in with the mushrooms, but I didn't...

Once the mushrooms are all cooked down, throw them into a cooking dish and add some tomato sauce over it.

In another pot, start boiling some water for your pasta. Now. Here is a super important part that I ALWAYS forget about. Start another small pot and put the rest of the tomato sauce on low-medium for some SIDE SAUCE... So important. And yet, I never remember until too late.

Add some shredded mozzarella and throw it into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or until your cheese is melted.

Behold the cheezy deliciousnesss.....

Of my Chicken Parm-alarm

And that is what I wish that I had for dinner... instead of this $35 lollypop that makes me sleepy... :)

I have a ton of projects to share, so hopefully I'll start feeling better soon. That coffee table is still in progress in the garage. I'm really looking forward to getting some sleep so that I can get that finished and into my family room!!

Zebra-riffic!!

2010-02-28T18:20:00.006-07:00

I hope that everyone has had a great weekend! We've been super busy this weekend getting a lot of projects done. While Kevan has been working on laying the countertops and backsplash in our kitchen, I have been a spray painting SOB.

One of the many projects that I worked on this weekend was a pair of thrift store chairs that I picked up for my Office Decorating Project. I wanted something more interested for people to sit on when they came to my office instead of those cheezy metal office chairs.

I found these last weekend for $2.99 each and knew that they would be absolutely perfect.

Tip: If you have a stubborn pricetag that just won't come off, use vinegar to remove the adhesive. I use white vinegar any time that I'm removing stickers (or wallpaper).

After I removed the price tags, I turned the chairs over to take off the seat. They're attached with one screw in each corner as seen in the picture below.

Then I applied a layer of spray paint primer to help the paint stick.

I let that dry for about an hour and then it was time for the good stuff.

I decided that I wanted to go wild... and I've been dying to do a metallic piece after seeing the pictures that are all over the blogosphere of people doing them. I went with metallic spray paint in Chrome.

Then it was time to add some fabric. To keep with the wild look of the chair, I wanted a dramatic black and white fabric. I was looking for something with black, white and pink stripes, but fell in love with the fabric below. I started by laying out the fabric on top of the seat and tucking it under to get the layout that I wanted. Then, once I knew that it was good, I pulled the fabric out and cut it using the seat itself as a template. It's important to leave enough extra fabric when you cut so that you can staple gun your fabric to your seat.

I like to staple the the edge of the fabric first so that I have room to pull the fabric tight as needed. I'll usually do one staple in two opposite sides first and then work my way around. If there is any loose fabric spots, that's where it comes in handy to have a little room you can pull the fabric tight as needed.

I could have left it as it was, but wanted a little more pop...

Bring on the fringe

Adding the fringe was so easy, and really takes it up a notch. To put it on, I flipped my seat back over and used my staple gun to attach it to the edges making sure that the edging would be hidden once it was flipped over.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for... Here are my Wild Chairs!

I love the entire chair, but have to admit that I'm completely shocked at how amazing the metallic spraypaint came out! Here's a closeup showing just how gorgeous it is:

Here it is again the way that I found it:

I'd say that this project deserves the tag of Shabby to Chic, wouldn't you?? I am now wondering whether these chairs will stay in my office or whether I'll be trying to see them on craigslist because they are just too cool.

Total for BOTH Chairs: $22

Chairs: $6

Spray Paint: $4

Primer: $3

Fabric: $6

Trim: $3

I'm sharing this with:

Thrift Decor Chick - Before and After Party

Domestically Speaking - The Power of Paint Party

Reinvented KB - Trash To Treasure Tuesday

The DIY Showoff - DIY Project Parade

Light it Up, Baby!

2010-02-25T21:17:00.001-07:00

When I first looked at our house, I knew that it was an amazing deal. I knew that it was a foreclosure and that I need to keep my mind open (and my nose closed) to the potential.
This chandelier is the perfect example of this house. It was dated, and ugly (and if brass could stink... well, you get the picture) and needed a little help.

But I fell madly in love with the whole house, including this ugly brass chandelier as soon as I walked in the front door. By that time, we knew that we were having a little girl and that I wanted to give her a princess room. Since we had been renting up until that point, I didn't get to really decorate a nursery for Colton. I was going all out with the new house.I told everyone who walked in the door my plans for this and they all just nodded and smiled... My enthusiasm was not catching :)

Here is the chandelier in our living room a couple of days after we moved in. We had everything stockpiled in the dining room which should explain the bed... (and don't worry. the walls are NOT poop colored anymore)

So I brought it outside, hung it up, and pulled out that trusty spray paint.

And wound up with this -

It's the perfect finish to a princess room.

And what princess doesn't sob when she doesn't get her way.

And here's my prince so he doesn't feel left out -

Thanks for stopping by!

Come back soon to see me tackle a $9.99 coffee table, nightstand and two chairs! And be sure to Follow Me to stay posted on all of my projects!

Get Porked: Cranberry Pork

2010-02-24T23:55:00.000-07:00

I fully intended on showing off the gorgeous crystal chandelier in my daughters bedroom tonight, but I got home late, and then I cooked dinner and then time just got away and I didn't get a chance to get a picture before she went to bed. I thought that I had some already, which I do, but after I looked at them I realized that they were obviously taken on a cell phone and wouldn't show off anything. So I promise to show you tomorrow what I did with the ugly brass chandelier from my formal dining room.

Tonight, I want to share one of my current favorite recipes.

This is one of those recipes where the first time that I was going to make it, I read the instructions from allrecipes and just couldn't believe that it was possible for this to taste good. Buuuut shoooo' 'nuff... it does.

Cranberry Pork

I make everyone I know cook this. From my co-workers to my sister, to the gal at the grocery store Starbucks (true story), everyone hears about this Cranberry Pork. The original recipe called for it to be made in the crock pot, but I rarely listen to directions and wasn't about to start with this pork. Well, to be honest, I just am lazy and didn't get it started in time. What's a slacker supposed to do when she doesn't remember to throw ingredients into the crockpot??

She throws them into the oven.

I have since made it in the crockpot and it was awful. My beloved sauce was so watered down and unrecognizable that I made more in the oven because it just wouldn't have been the same without it. I also have shredded up the pork for pulled pork sandwiches with the leftovers and can't tell you how much I love it

Tonight, I had the largest pork loin in the world sitting in my kitchen because it was on sale, and I'm not the type of girl to walk away from a sale. I cut it in half and would have cooked it in a log if I hadn't of been a lazy procrastinator who didn't give it enough time to cook. So to try and speed things up, I cut it up into individual chops. Honestly, I'll stick with cooking it up in a log next time. I think that it makes the meat more tender. And it ilets the sauce get thicker because it has more room in the dish. So I guess you could just get a bigger dish, that would work too :)

Right before I dumped almost half of the French Dressing into a bowl, I remembered that I already had 1/2 of an open bottle in the fridge. So I used that. It was not Walmart brand.

So dump about half of the French Salad Dressing and the Jellied Sauce into a bowl. Trust me. Shhhh... I know, I know. It doesn't sound good. Trust me. I like to use a potato masher to mix it all together and if I have red onions, I'll throw half of a small red onion into the mix.

Once you have your sauce all mixed up, it should look like this:

If you're keeping your pork loin in a log, just plop it into a cooking dish and put this sauce surrounding it. You don't want to put the sauce on top of the meat because that will take longer to cook. I had a harder time when I cut the meat up into smaller pieces because I just didn't have that much room. I cook it uncovered on 350 for an hour. After about 50 minutes, I'll pull it out and see how my meat is looking. If it's done, I'll grab some of the sauce from the sides and put it on top of the meat. This makes the most amazing BBQ sauce. It's just perfection. Seriously. After I've put the sauce on top, I'll let it cook for about another 10 minutes just to firm the sauce up a little bit.

Tonight, I had hungry kids and couldn't do that so the sauce wasn't as thick as I like it. I could blame the wine, but I completey forgot to take a picture of the finished dish. Instead I can only show you the small piece of meat that was left over after my husband and kids got a hold of it.

Cook this. The pork is so moist and just scrumptious. But the sauce. Ooooh the sauce. I always have too much and I can't ever bear to just toss it. It's just that good.

Cranberry Pork

Pork Loin
1/2 red onion(diced)
1 can jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 container French Salad Dressing

Put Pork Loin in center of baking dish
In side bowl, drop jellied log of cranberry, 1/2 French Salad Dressing and 1/2 red onion and mix up with a potato masher. Once all mixed together, place on either side of your meat in the baking dish.
Cook 50 minutes uncovered at 350. Check meat and if it looks like it's done, pull it out and put some of the sauce on top to further thicken the sauce.
Serve and enjoy!!!

Sidenote: If you look at the picture showing the cranberry can and French Dressing bottle, you can see the new green granite tile counter-top that Kevan is in the process of installing. My beloved husband is so excited that I've asked him to learn how to install granite counter-tops. Because once he learned how to lay hardwood floors, seriously, what can't he tackle. Also, the back-splash showing in that picture is the old one. The new tumbled travertine is going up section by section and is just gorgeous. /sidenote

Part 2 of "Holy Crap, I can't believe I did that..."

2010-02-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the other dresser that I've been slaving over recently.

Here she is before I started work on her. A little worse for the wear... There were thumbtacks embedded and gashes and mismatched hardware.. .It was a nightmare. So I conveniently bargained down to $12 for this beauty at my local thriftstore. I had them convinced I was doing THEM a favor by taking this gal off of their hands. I'm sure you can all imagine Kevan's reaction when I asked him to unload this from my car. There might have been some dirty looks. There also might have been some questioning of my sanity and some choice words.

And here we go all finished sitting in my bedroom. It fits in that corner like it was built to go there. I have a couple of ideas of what's going on the wall above it. So that won't stay empty for long.

I finally put knobs on this beauty yesterday. And while I love the knobs, I think that these are getting returned. The problem is that without realizing it I purchased three completely different styles and finishes for the knobs/pulls on the three dressers for the bedroom. But for now, it absolutely works.

So there you go!! A sneak peak into the soon to be finished master bedroom, but more importantly two dressers that I've put so much work into lately. I love looking at a piece that I've refinished and clearly seeing my hard work paying off. It's that "Holy Crap, I can't believe I did that..." that just makes me swoon.Especially when I can do it for under $25!!

I'd love to hear your comments about this dresser. I can't nag Kevan to finish my headboard until he finishes the kitchen cabinets. Man, my husband works harder than I do!! Poor Guy. But hopefully soon I can show off the stunning bedroom that I've been working on.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing the most amazing Cranberry Pork recipe and showing how I turned the most atrocious brass and crystal chandelier into the most perfect princess room accessory.

I'd love to see some pieces that you have all done!

Thanks so much for looking.

I'm linking this to Reinvented: Trash to Treasure Tuesday
and Beyond the Picket Fence:Under$100 Linky Day

Part 1 of "Holy Crap, I can't believe I did that..."

2010-02-22T23:13:00.001-07:00

Shhhhhh don't tell anyone, but here's a little sneak peak of our still in progress master bedroom. It's getting really close. The to do list is down to Kevan installing my stunning headboard (a little bit of horn tooting right there...), me finding and refinishing a nightstand and me decorating the walls...

But just because it's really nice to actually see a finished product once in a while. Here is one of the two Shabby to Chic redo's that were completed yesterday.

We'll start with this gem found on craigslist for $30

And here it is tonight. I ran into an issue with finding knobs for this beauty. The holes were drilled at such an odd length that I went through three sets of pulls before throwing my arms up and just going with other knobs that I had purchased for the buffet from yesterday and didn't like.

You might recognize the chair from the corner as being the $11 Chair Redo from this post.

That Crystal 5x7 (empty) frame on the dresser was an awesome find. Although I had second thoughts about buying it because it was so expensive... 99 cents... For a HANDCUT crystal frame... That was a tough decision right there.

Tomorrow I'll show you the drastic transformation on this piece!! You're not going to believe how gorgeous it is . (Update: See this finished piece here )

I'm linking this to A Soft Place To Land, DIY Day

and

Before & After: Dining Room Buffet

2010-02-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

I found this dresser at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday and was delighted to find it was one of the half-off colors. For $40 I thought that it would be a great dresser for our bedroom. I don't usually like to spend more than $25 on something there, but hey, rules are made to be broken.

I decided that I didn't like the center cabinet and wanted that to be open for visible storage.

These knobs won't be staying on the piece, I'll be switching them out with some acrylic ones but they aren't here yet. I'm not done tablescaping yet, but it's a start at least. I'll probably play around for months until I'm happy. I'll be moving some of the pieces around the house once other projects are done so it won't be so cluttered. I have a crystal lamp sitting outside right now drying after I spray painted the base black. That will go on one of the corners. I'm excited for that.

Here are some of my crystal wine glasses courtesy of thrift stores. They are sitting on a silver tray that I also picked up at the thrift store.

This is the bottle of champagne that we popped after Kevan got down on one knee and asked me to spend the rest of my life with him. I think that it looks beautiful in my new champagne bucket cooler from last week. The coasters and champagne glasses are also from last week's thrifting.

How Pottery Barn does this look!! Wait until you see the before on it. Yet another piece that Kevan questioned my sanity for buying.

I'm super thrilled with how this turned out, it took a lot of priming, painting, sealing and time... but the end result is well worth it. It looks like a high end furniture piece in my formal dining room now. Once the kitchen is done and I can move everything off of my formal dining room table, I can show the before and after on that room.

This week I'll be posting another Before and After on a dresser in my bedroom, be sure to come back and check it out!

Thanks for checking out my latest Before and After! I'd love to hear your comments on it!

all because two people fell in love.

2010-02-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

Four years ago this afternoon I walked down the aisle towards my future husband and into the rest of my life.

So many things went wrong that day. From my four week old niece going into the hospital with RSV, my sister not being able to make it because her baby was so sick, the dj canceling on us at the last minute, the limo driver pulling me out of the limo and ripping the tulle straps of my dress so I walked into the church to get married with my dress hanging off (who thought tulle was a good thing to make a strap out of anyway)... I could go on.

But I firmly believe those were all amazing things. Because so many things went wrong that the marriage could only go up from there.

We got another DJ, my mom sewed my dress (which lasted until about 1/2 way through the reception and then broke again...), my niece ended up being just fine, everything worked out. And I ended up with an amazing marriage to an amazing man. I couldn't be luckier.

Since that day, our lives have changed so much. We became parents for the first time when Colton was born.

We moved from Virginia back to Colorado to be closer to friends and family.

We learned what it was to love someone more than yourself and to actually be a parent.

We bought our first house... The "Crapsandwich" as Kevan dubbed it... Renovations started the night we closed and continue still... One day it will be the most beautiful home, but until then... The Crapsandwich it is...

Our family was perfect. But it was missing something...

Ooooh yes... It was missing Miss Lillian Grace.

And now our family is complete.

And we still don't take life too seriously.

(and I still catch more fish than he does)

Life is perfect. I can't wait to see what the next 80 years hold for us and our family. The last 8 years of having Kevan in my life has been amazing, we've had 4 years of wedded bliss. We have two amazing kids and I'm just the luckiest girl in the world.

And it's all because two people fell in love...

$11 Redo - Faux Seal Chair

2010-02-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen this chair before, but I wanted to give it its own post...

I found this chair for $4.99 at the thrift store one morning and just had to have it. I knew that it was hideous, but still... for $4.99, I felt that I could redo it and it would be perfect in our currently-in-progress master bedroom.

When I brought this thing into the garage, Kevan looked at me as if I were crazy and with a disgusted voice questioned whether I had actually paid money for something so hideous...

Oops... At least it was only $4.99

Then once I started digging it apart I was getting worried that I was in over my head. It was the first that I had reupholstered anything. I started to think that this chair would be destined to sit in my garage and just whine at me when I walked past it.

But I stuck with it...

And after a lot of gray primer, black paint, fabric cutting, staple gunning ... I wound up with this

Cost Breakdown
Chair $4.99 Thrift Store find
Primer and paint $0. Previously owned
Faux Seal Fabric $6 (and it might be the softest, most comfortable fabric ever...)

I'm sharing this post with Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday, Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous and My Romantic Home's Show and Tell Friday

Portobello Mushroom Dijon Chicken

2010-02-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't cooked all week. I have, but it's just been such a busy week between work and home that I haven't had that night where I get lost in my kitchen. It doesn't help that my kitchen is covered with work materials and getting space on the counter to cook is a feat to accomplish at the moment.

But tonight, I needed to cook. I've been wanting to dice some garlic all week and tonight I finally got my chance.

Kevan has been working really hard on the kitchen and he has the crown molding installed on over half of the cabinets! I walked in the door tonight and just about started crying. We've been working on this kitchen (along with a million other projects at the same time - that's how we roll...) for a year at this point. Just about to the day. But you know the story, two overachievers, two kids, two careers, 1 dog and a million projects... doesn't let projects happen very fast. I can't wait to show it to you! We're hoping to have it done in the next two weeks before Kevan goes back to work. We're down to the final stages so hopefully that happens.

Here's a preview of what we've been slaving over...

So tonight, I pushed aside paint cans, levels, nail guns, crayons, artwork sent home from school and god knows what else and I got to cooking.

I like to buy the split chicken breasts because I have to work a little harder to get the meat off of the bone and that makes me feel like I deserve a good meal just a little bit more. I also like that it's cheaper. A lot cheaper. But I started thinking tonight that maybe it really isn't cheaper considering the weight of the bone and skin that you pay for. Who knows. I'll keep buying my split chicken breasts because it makes me happy. The end.

Once the breasts were ready, I put them in a pan with some Pam on low/medium heat and let them cook.

Then I diced up a yellow onion, a large portobello mushroom and a nice clove of garlic and dropped that into a pan and drizzled some Extra Virgin Olive Oil over it and set it up on just under medium heat.

While I had a minute there, I grabbed a loaf of light rye bread and split it in half. I cook 1/2 at a time, so the other 1/2 went into the freezer for another night. On the side that I was working with, I added another glove of garlic (but I love garlic. 1/2 a clove would have worked just fine), dried oregano, dried parsley, dried basil and then put some Parmesan cheese on top and plopped that into the oven to brown.

Going back to the pan with my onion/mushroom/garlic mixture, I added in about 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and a couple of squirts of dijon mustard. I've used both generic and Greeeeey Poooouuupooooon and honestly think that it turns out the same regardless of the cost of the mustard. Score 1 for the cheap guys. I love a rich dijon flavor, so I stir about 3 - 4 squirts of mustard to my mixture.

The chicken could easily be chopped up and added into the sauce and the whole dish could be served over some brown rice or some pasta depending on whether you have a rockin' side dish to serve with it or not.

Voila.

Portobello Mushroom Dijon Chicken

Chicken Breasts
1 onion
1 large portobello mushroom
3-4 squirts of dijon mustard (I'm pretty technical)
2 gloves garlic (1 sauce and 1 bread)
rye or french or italian or any bread
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

In first pan, cook chicken breasts in lightly oiled pan.
In second pan, saute portobello mushroom, onion and garlic in Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or butter if you'd prefer that)
Add butter, dried oregano/basil/parsley, Parmesan cheese and garlic to bread and stick into oven.
Once ingredients in second pan are fully sauteed, add in 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (you could probably use 1/2 and 1/2 or milk for a lighter version) and squirts of dijon mustard. Let liquid reduce by 1/2 or to a consistency that works for you.
Serve over chicken once that's fully cooked and chuck some bread on the side.

mmmmmmmmm...... I love cooking.

A Giveaway from Centensational Girl

2010-02-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

So one of my favorite blogs, Centsational Girl is having a giveaway that everyone should be entering in!

The Vintage Pearl has donated a $50 gift card for a random winner from a comment posted at Centsational Girl's blog.

I looked through all of the gorgeous jewelry on The Vintage Pearl and man was it hard to choose one! I want the entire collection!!

Click here for details about the giveaway and to enter yourself.

Tequila Shrimp

2010-02-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today was a day of really hard work at our house. The kids played hard at school and Kevan and I worked nonstop.

Poor Kevan really has it hard. He has a wife who has really lofty ideas for the house which he gets to make a reality.

Two of those ideas are just about complete in the kitchen which I'll be able to show pictures of hopefully next week (depending on how fast Kevan can get the countertops and backsplash laid).

I spent 8 hours today painting. Which means that I'm pretty much crippled right now thanks to my absurdly bad back. But I made a lot of progress and should be able to finish up with just a little work before our Day of Dates begins tomorrow.

So here is a fantastic recipe for Tequila Shrimp that Kevan made for dinner tonight. That guy... he's a keeper.

Tequila Shrimp
- 1 cup Tequila
- 2 cups raw Shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 1/2 cup Cilantro
- Lime juice to taste
- 2 cups Brown Rice
- 1 can Black Beans
- Tortillas
- Sour Cream
- Mexican Shredded Cheese
- 1 can Black Olives

1. Throw some deveined and peeled raw shrimp in 1 cup of tequila to marinate for 1/2 hour. Chop up 1 clove of fresh garlic and toss in with the shrimp. I like to add in a couple of squirts of lime juice and the cilantro at this point. Once the shrimp have marinated, throw the entire mixture into a pan on med/high heat. Let the the tequila reduce by about 1/2 to let the alcohol cook off so those kids can eat some also. We don't need to give them any excuses to not eat their dinner. :) Cook the shrimp until they're nice and pink. Add Salt/Pepper to taste.

2. I love using the bags of frozen peppers. I get them for $2.25 at Target and can get two meals out of them. So if you have those frozen peppers toss them into a strainer and defrost them in the sink under some cold water (otherwise use some fresh yellow, red, and/ or green peppers) and then toss them into a pan to cook with the shrimp. I love garlic, so I'd toss another clove into my pan at this point.

3. Cook up some rice. We used brown rice tonight and it was fabulous. I've made the switch from white rice to brown rice for my daily cooking.

4. Throw some black beans into a pan over low-medium heat.

5. Toss into a bowl or tortilla and throw some sour cream, salsa, black olives, mexican cheese (or cheddar if you have that) and serve!

It's delish and I love the tequila flavor of the shrimp and the kids go crazy for it which works for me!

Enjoy! I'm off to put kids to bed and then find a heating pad to lay on.

My love affair with Silver continues...

2010-02-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

I just can't get enough of Silver and Crystal. I'm utterly and completely obsessed. There just might be an intervention at some point in the near future. Damn you Centsational Girl!!!

So today I continued my quest for the perfect dresser and nightstand for our bedroom at the thrift stores. I found the dresser and a temporary nightstand and will be converting them to Tarnation style hopefully over the next couple of days.

But I found more than just that.

I hit the motherload. Well, the motherload for a silver and crystal obsessed person like myself.

Today was the most random day ever. I started off at one thrift store and found three silver/crystal coasters that I couldn't live without. Here they are after a little lovin' from my trusty silver polish. ($2.99 for the set)

Then I found three beautiful crystal wineglasses at $2 a piece.

Then I ran over to another thrift store close by and couldn't believe it when I found 6 more of the matching coasters (which were also $2.99!!) and the fourth matching wine glass!! I was giggling like a maniac and there might have been some awkward glances in my direction.

In my euphoria, I almost missed my next find.

It's just a beautiful little ashtray. The top of the globe flips back to reveal the frosted ashtray inside. I think that it will be perfect on my desk at the office holding paperclips. Oh, and did I mention that it was $4.99??

Here is that ashtray after some much needed beautification. It's got a silver engraving on the bottom saying that it's William Adams, Made in England. It's Copper Plated Silver and I haven't had time to do a lot of research yet.

I just about called it at day at this point. Because after the insane find on the dresser, nightstand, coaster, wine glass and ashtray I figured that there was just no way that I would find anything else and I would be wasting my time even trying.

But I'm addicted. I couldn't just walk out at this point. I was committed. I just knew that there was another treasure waiting for me to unearth it.

I almost missed it.

In case you can't tell, it's a wine / champagne bottle cooler with a liner to keep your special bottle cold. How freaking amazing is that. For $8.99. Seriously. I kid you not. Unbelievable. $9 dollars. I love thrift stores.

Here it is after some polish

This piece is marked as Sheffield Silver Co., which is out of Brooklyn, NY and is just gorgeous. I'll be doing some research on this piece to see whether or not it stays with me as one of my most treasured possessions or whether it will go up for sale. It looks a little small in these pictures, but it is a full sized bottle cooler.

I couldn't boil the silver to remove the tarnish on the coasters or the wine cooler due to the glass on the coasters or the liner on the cooler. So it involved some elbow grease, but was well worth it.

Tomorrow, the kids go to school and I have a lot of painting to do. I've got a buffet table, dresser and side table to beautify... wish me luck.

Welcome Gift for the Twins

2010-02-13T20:30:00.000-07:00

So my boss gave birth to twins two weeks ago and I brought them dinner and a gift basket tonight.

I had so much fun putting this together!!

Check out the adorable onsies that I made thanks to some awesome Iron-on transfers from Hobby Lobby

And I'm so bummed. I took out the card to take a picture of it and then forgot to put it back into the basket!!

I brought them my new favorite dish, Artichoke Sun Dried Tomato Caper Chicken Pasta and so I remembered to take pictures of it to add to the recipe post. I hope that they enjoyed it as much as we did in our house tonight! I am so happy for them and so happy that I got to have a little baby holding time tonight!!

The Family Room... Before and After

2010-02-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

After 2 years I have another room done!

Well, almost...

Here is what it looked like the day that we moved in. You can't tell, but the previous owner had peed all over the walls and floors of pretty much the entire house. This was one of the rooms that they "marked" on their way out the door.

Here it is after we started work

The walls had textured wallpaper over faux wood paneling. They were awful. Kevan did a great job (as usual...)

And here it is tonight.

Notice the beautiful hardwood floors that my amazing husband and our friend Adam put down? Looks fantastic guys!!

I was very eager to rip out that hideous brass fireplace insert and man am I happy that I did!! it took about 5 minutes to remove and opens the room up and just makes it look current. I absolutely love the moss rock fireplace. It was one of my main reasons for wanting to buy the house. Once we got the mirror up and removed that brass, it became one of my favorite parts of the house!

If you notice the blue painters tape in the picture below, that's thanks to Kevan. He still has to finish framing out the window and we had quite the feud over this window and the window treatment. I finally put my foot down about 6 months ago and exclaimed that I didn't give a rats ass that the window wasn't done, but the curtain rod would be hung. One day my darling husband will get to the window, but until then I can smile and pretend that it's finished. We (okay fine, Kevan) painted the wood beams white and they still need another coat, but it's much better now. Kevan also removed the popcorn ceiling in this room and put up 1 million coats of paint to have the ceiling look pretty.

The coffee table is from Target and probably the biggest piece of crap we own. It rocks more than Lillian doing the monkey dance. But I haven't found one that I like enough to replace it with yet. So stay tuned as I create my own by following the plans from Knock Off Wood one of these days....

See that beautiful Tiffany-style lamp in this picture??? Guess where I got it.... Goodwill.... for $12.99. SCORE!!!

You can see the kitchen from this picture and that's another room which is still in progress. I've refinished and glazed the kitchen cabinets and hopefully we'll have the new countertop and backsplash we picked up today soon!!! Hopefully one day I can post the finished kitchen with it's gorgeous crown molding and up and down lighting and stunning backsplash with small copper tile pieces. One day... but back to the family room...

This is the motto of this house and my family. All because two people fell in love. I'll come back to this later on this week.

And I want to back up to one of the pictures from above real quick

See that black beauty media center that looks fantastic there under that beautiful TV (Thanks Dad!!). That was one of my thrift store finds that Kevan yelled at me for. Anyone notice a pattern?? Kevan yells at just about all of my thrift store finds. I swoon and he yells. But the great thing is that once I'm all done with it. His amazement with the finished product makes my heart melt.

So here is that gorgeous piece when I brought it home from the thrift store after paying $4 for it.

I think I needed a reminder that I can't do it all

2010-02-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow the kids have their Valentine's Day Party at school and have to bring in cards to pass out.

Well I could have just gone and found some cute little cards for them to pass out for a couple of bucks and called it a happy day.

But that's just not my style.

I had visions of these amazing cards that I was going to create for them.

They were going to be amazing.

But then today was a bit stressful at work. Just a bit...

So I ran into Hobby Lobby after work and found some stamps and was so excited to get home and get started.

Then I get home and poor Kevan has been dealing with kids by himself for hours and has lost his mind. And I sit down with my lofty intentions of making those amazing cards.

My plan was to stamp a message, an image and then stamp out each child's name on the front, then another stamp image on the reverse with my child's name. Then since it was white cardstock, my kids could color and make them pretty!!!Well, do you know how exciting stamps are to 3 and a half year old boys? And do you know how uninterested a 21 month old little girl was in coloring tonight?

Nothing was working. I have lost my mind.

I think that the root of the problem is that I'm a working mom. So that means I have to make sacrifices. One of those sacrifices is that I just can't put together 28 amazing valentines cards when I get home at 7pm after having a crazy day at the office. It's just not humanly possible. But there I go putting insanely high expectations on myself. Again.

So I sat there, and kept Colton out of the ink but don't you know that sweet little boy was ruining each and every one of those sweet Valentines as soon as I'd finish with them? And then I would get mad at him and then even more mad at myself. Because all he wanted to do was help. And all I wanted to do was make something amazing. Sometimes it's just not possible. I tried looking at the cards that he "worked" on as precious pieces of art from my adorable child. But it failed.

I finally gave up and decided that either I could cry or I could just let Colton absolutely destroy those cards. Well, I wasn't going to let this day get the best of me. So I let him go to town. It's a good thing that I bought the 100 pack of cardstock ;)

Once Colton went to bed, I started all over again determined to make those damned cards.

I have learned my lesson. Next year I'm buying those prepackaged cards and just accepting that I just don't have the time or energy or ability to do everything! And that's okay! I don't have to do everything. I'll drive myself crazy that way. So I'm going to work on just being happy with what I can do and be proud of the things that I accomplish.

I worked through the pain and finished the cards, but am tempted to have Kevan buy some cards tomorrow and drop them off. He says they look great. But I know better. I can't even convince myself to take a picture of them.

So my lesson of the day. Accept what I can do and get over what I can't.

Or drink more coffee...

Sun dried Tomato Artichoke Caper Chicken

2010-02-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

So if you're looking for a blah chicken recipe, this ain't it.

We had a friend come into town for the night last night and I wanted to cook up something truly spectacular to make up for the fact that I still can't remember what the bleu cheese recipe that I've been meaning to whip up is. So I searched around on all recipes and found a good starting point and then I embellished.

It wasn't necessarily that I meant to embellish. It was more that I just wasn't paying attention to directions (I rarely do) and ended up just winging it.

Man. It turned out.

I would have taken a picture but that would have entailed using my hands for something other than shoving food into my mouth, and that wouldn't have been polite to my dinner guests.

So here's how it all started......

I grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and cracked an egg into one and dropped some flour, basil, oregano, sea salt and then pepper into the other.

Then I breaded up the chicken. I've heard people say the best way to do that is to just use one hand for the egg part and then one hand for the flour part so that you don't mix the two. That doesn't make sense to me because it seems so much easier to just stick a fork into my breasts and plop them into the egg and then the flour. Easy Peasy.

Then I took those boobs and plopped them into a frying pan. I started off just using Pam but then decided against it and so I dumped a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the pan and sauteed them.

Once the chicken breasts were done cooking, I dumped some chicken broth in (literally... I rarely measure), squeezed 1 lemon into the pan also and turned up the stove to get a nice boil going.

At this point I had a knock out-drag down fight with Colton over the other lemon. I won. And by winning, I mean that I didn't end up with lemon squeezed all over my kitchen or nice living room couch. 1 small step for mothers everywhere.

I let the chicken soak in the lemon/broth mixture for about a minute completely by accident because I wasn't thinking clearly. I was supposed to take them out first, but I actually think that by letting them cook for a little while in that juice it really locked in a lot of great flavor and moisture. It's a mistake that I'll make again!!

After about a minute, I took the chicken out of the pot and set it aside. This gave me time to have a couple sips of my beer and strain all of the lemon seeds out of my broth. Then I dropped in a can of drained un-marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and a lot of capers.

I kept that mixture boiling to cook down some of the liquid and started another pot to cook up some campanelle pasta (my all time favorite pasta) because at this point, I realized that this would make an amazing pasta sauce. And as a carb addict, I just can't say no to pasta. It's just not humanely possible. I can quit smoking, but I can not quit carbs. Not even going to try. (This might hinder my size 2 hopes for my Miami trip in May...maybe)

It was at this point that I realized I hadn't put any fresh garlic into my pasta. And considering I had just purchased a 5 gallon bag of garlic (m'kay, maybe not really 5 gallons, but large regardless) to cook with that was just unacceptable. So I smooshed all the fixin's of my sauce over to one side of the frying pan to make some room for some quick garlic. I read on Pioneer Woman that the best way to get a garlic clove out of it's shell is to smash it under some canned goods and I couldn't agree more.

The garlic went right into that empty corner of the pan and cooked up for about a minute and then I mixed it up with the rest of the dish.

Voila. Mix it all together with the pasta. Serve it up with a nice Caesar Salad on the side and some fresh Parmesan cheese and just enjoy.

This is going to be a regular dish in our family because it was fun to make and tasted amazing. I love that there was 1 pan to clean up and then the pasta pot. Super easy. But honestly, one of my favorite things about this dish was that it was super easy to make and it's the type of dish that you can make while you're chasing a child in circles around your house trying to take back a lemon and you don't have to worry about it. I love meals that don't require constant attention.

Here's the simple Breakdown, I promise it's super easy:

Sun dried Tomato Artichoke Caper Chicken
-1 egg
-flour
-basil
-oregano
-sea salt
-pepper
-chicken breasts
-chicken broth
-fresh lemon
-can of artichoke hearts
-sun dried tomato (the ones that are in liquid, not the dried ones)
-fresh garlic clove
-chicken broth
-capers

1. Crack egg into a bowl and beat
2. Mix enough flour to coat your chicken with a couple of shakes of sea salt, pepper, basil, oregano in another bowl.
3. Heat up your frying pan and start dippin the chicken boobs.
4. Once the chicken is seared on one side, flip over and sear the other side.
5. Add in enough olive oil to slightly coat the bottom of the pan and cook chicken until done.
6. Pour chicken broth into pan until chicken is 1/2 covered, squeeze a lemon in on top and turn up to medium high heat. Let chicken soak while it starts to boil.
7. Set chicken aside and add artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and capers into frying pan. Let the liquid reduce by half.
8. Start boiling the water for your pasta in a pasta pot. Once you have a nice rolling boil, add your pasta in. Cook desired length.
9. Once liquid is reduced, push artichoke, sun dried tomatoes and capers over to one side and throw some fresh garlic to cook in the sauce for about a minute. This gets rid of the strong raw garlic flavor. Once the garlic looks browned, mix sauce all together.
10. Serve it.... Eat it and Weep baby... Eat it and weep.

And I have to say Thank You to my amazing friend Kat for doing the dishes!!!

Chicken Taco Quesadilla

2010-02-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted tonight after all of the heavy eating yesterday. It takes some serious effort and willpower to remove yourself from the amazing Chili Cream Cheese dip (scroll down for this recipe) and steer yourself to the veggie platter so that you could graze with a tad bit less guilt.

Plus it doesn't help that I've purchased all of the ingredients for an amazing dinner for about a month now, and then once it comes time to cook said dinner... I can't remember what it was supposed to be.

I know that it involves heavy cream, bleu cheese, onions, chicken, chives but I just can't remember exactly what it was. It's like that annoying name on the tip of your mouth that just hangs out on your tongue for about a month. It will come to me.

But until it does. I've got to improvise.

Going grocery shopping would also help make cooking dinner easier.

But alas, that hasn't happened either. Our fridge is so empty that Kevan was thinking about sending out an S.O.S.

So tonight I went for the easy way out.

Chicken Taco Quesadilla

Cook up some chicken in a pan and then shred or chop up
Add some taco seasoning to the chicken and add a little water
Combine Mexican Cheese, refried beans, black olives and your fabulous Taco Chicken together. I didn't have the energy to make some Mexican Rice but it would have been much better. (Here is the recipe I use for Mexican Rice It happens to be another amazing dish that I made last week. Mexican Lasagne)
Throw into the microwave for 1 minute per quesadilla to melt the cheese
Put in a preheated oven set at 350 for 10 minutes until the quesadilla is just the way that you like it. I love it reaaalllly crispy. I like to put tin foil down on the racks and add my quesadilla on top.
Once your your 'dilla is done cooking, take it out and slice that baby up.
Now it's time for the fixin's. I'm a huge fan of salsa and sour cream combined. It makes me a happy person. So my quesadillas are usually soaked in those. You could probably say that I have Salsa Sour Cream for dinner with a side of Quesadilla.

The best part about this meal is that the kids absolutely love it and cleaning up after I'm done cooking is as easy as tossing the tin foil and popping our plates in the dishwasher. Fantastic.

Chili Cream Cheese Dip
This is a really hard one to make, so bear with me. Our friend Candace brought this to the super bore yesterday and it was hard to not just in and start swimming in it.

Pop the top on a can of store bought chili and drop it into a crockpot
Toss in 8 oz of cream cheese. I like the Neufunzichichihavenocluewhatit'sreallycalled cheese because it's got less fat in it and still manages to taste good.
stir serve with some chips.

We have Stripes!!

2010-02-07T21:16:00.001-07:00

So today was kind of a big deal for my football obsessed husband. And I'm not going to lie, for me also.

For a much different reason though. For him, it apparently was some big game. For me, it marks the end of football season!! Which means that I get my husband back!!!!

But before we headed over to a friend's house to watch the game I was going to make up for the fact that I had slacked off on my projects all weekend.

So that meant taping up our bathroom for some stripes.

I'll back up and show you what our dressing room looked like two weeks ago when it was painted a pale yellow.

When I painted our master bedroom two shades of gray, I painted the dressing room entirely in the lighter gray. Then this morning I taped off my stripes with frog tape.

and here it is after the darker gray was added in the vertical stripe:

It looks fantastic and I'm so excited by it!!

But I need to remember to not get ahead of myself. I still have a lot of work before I'm done with the dressing room.

Just to give you an idea of how much work still needs to be done:
- Prime and Paint the Cabinets to be... drum roll please... high gloss black
- Replace countertops with slate tiles
- Get another mirror for the far wall
- Replace burnt out lightbulbs :)
- Paint the light fixture black. I got those on clearance from Lowes for $5 a piece, so I'm completely alright with painting them. I'm also looking into swapping out the glass pieces.
- Add hand towel hanger
- Replace Sink
- Replace Faucet
- Touch up on stripes. I used frog tape which would have been fantastic, but the previous owners had put that home-made sand texture on the walls and to expect frog tape to work perfect on that would be a little much. I have another project coming up where I'll be needing razor sharp lines and I'll be trusting that again to the frog tape.
- Boil my silver tray to get rid of tarnish like my candelabra
- Replace the switch plates and outlet covers.
- I'm toying with an another idea for the wall.
- Add window covering

Work still needed for bath (toilet/stall shower area):
- Basket for corner behind toilet to fill with toilet paper
- Basket for other corner behind toilet for plunger and toilet brush to reside
- Hang Picture above toilet
- Add small shelf on inside wall of room for candles, fragrant spray, and most likely a glass piece with stones in it for decoration to get that spa feeling.
- New tile on the floors and showers
- Rip out old glass shower door

But hey, if I start thinking about the million projects we have running around this house, I'll never take any joy in getting any of them complete. So tonight, I'm going back up to my bedroom to stand in my new dressing room and smile. There just might be some back patting.

The master bedroom took a huge leap forward today to being complete.

Do you Swagbuck?

2010-02-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

I heard about Swagbucks a couple of weeks ago and have been using it faithfully ever since. It is a search engine that makes me feel like I'm sitting at a slots machine. Only, I actually win with swagbucks and me going to the casino rarely involves winning.

I installed the toolbar and use it as my default search. It runs off of google and ask, so I get great results and get to feed my google addiction at the same time. I love that I can use the same account on two computers, letting me use it at work and at home.

In the 2 months since I've started using it, I've accumulated... drumroll please.... 286 swagbucks!!

And just for a translation for anyone who doesn't swagbuck, that equals:

$30 Amazon Gift Card

or

$20 Starbucks Gift Card (mmm a Venti Caramel Macchiato is calling my name)

or

$20 Target Gift Card AND a $5 Amazon Gift Card

I love it. I'm getting paid to search. Does life get any better?

If you haven't signed up for Swagbucks yet, click the button below and get yourself signed up so that you can start earning your bucks!!

Art-tastic

2010-02-06T11:55:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to figure out what to do with art in our bedroom and since I'm really trying to redo on a major budget I'm looking for prints that are free or close to it.

Well, they can be found on Vintage Printables which just might be my new favorite website.

All of the images on Vintage Printables are believed to be in the public domain and free to use in the US without restrictions.

I'm thinking about having these printed above our bed in 8x10 prints or larger with beautiful black frames.

Then on one of the walls I am thinking about hanging these vertically:

Or maybe something like these on either side of our window:

But I'm still debating whether they are going to be too busy and whether it would be best to go with simple like this:

The reason that I'm going with the flowers is because I stumbled upon this fabulous print for $6.99 at La Boutique which will be hung in our bathroom. Since the bedroom is very masculine, I want to have the artwork to add some femininity to soften the space up.

Tonight I went to family dinner and heard all about my cousin's first house! He got a smokin' deal and I'm so proud of him. So obviously I had to tell him about Vintage Printable for him to look for artwork.

I was looking around tonight to see what might work for him and I found these. Man, if he's not interested in using them I think that maybe I'll print them out and hang them in my formal living room. I have a huge empty space that I've been planning on hanging a family portrait for the 2 years that we have lived in the house. But I don't want to take a family portrait until I've lost the weight that I want to feel comfortable in my skin. So there's a huge star hanging as a place holder. How awesome are these!!

A Bigger Slice of Heaven

2010-02-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

Oh that Kevan... I love when he just whips something out of his belt to surprise me. Like tonight when he did the dishes AND stuck the kids into the bath.

Man, I knew I married him for a reason. And it wasn't just because I was dying to change poopy butts and clean off crayon covered walls...

A Little Slice of Heaven...

2010-02-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night is our birthday. My husband and I have the same birthday, only I am very quick to point out that he is two whole years older. That is 730 days for anyone who has a calculator nearby or who speaks math (which I most certainly do not).

So tomorrow night we're having a small gathering of friends at the house, Saturday is our family birthday party, Sunday is Superbowl. And for a football obsessed husband that's kind of a big day. Having a birthday so close to the Super-fantastic-Bowl means that every couple of years I have the joy, no, the ultimate rapture of having to share my birthday with a football. Aren't I just the luckiest?? Really..

But thank goodness, this year is not one of those years.

So since tonight was the night that I get to celebrate my (okay, our... it's a little bit of a fight around here about who's birthday it is) birthday, I stopped off on the way home from work and picked up a bottle of champagne (which my my mind is only known as cham=pag=ne. Classy is how I roll) and came home to my darling husband and children.

And started cooking.

Man, do I love a good meal. Not sure how I'm going to become a size two in time for a work trip to Miami (because I'm convinced they don't let you leave the airport in Miami unless you're a size 2 ;) ) with the way that I cook. But I just can't help myself. I love to cook.

Tonight it was a cheap "gourmet" meal that knocked our socks off.

Roasted Garlic Scallop Campanelle Alfredo

I started with some garlic cloves I had in the fridge and put them on a cutting board and smashed them with a can. Not just get out some aggression, but because that is the easiest, fastest way to get that amazing garlic clove out of it's shell.

Then I sauteed said heavenly garlic up in some (light) margarine.

Once it was making me want to find a loaf of bread and just start dipping, I restrained myself and instead tossed in the defrosted scallops. Stirring them around in that glorious garlic and melted butter mixture so they were fully coated.

While the scallops cooked, I started boiling the water and then tossed in the pasta. I love funky pasta, it's the New Yorker in me I can't help it, and when I saw Campanelle pasta on sale for $1.50 yesterday I obviously grabbed some.

After the Garlic coated Bay Scallops were ready, I threw some low-fat Alfredo sauce in on low heat. I threw in some basil, oregano and garlic salt. And let's not forget the frozen chopped spinach. Bless my beating heart. I swoon at spinach. I was a little nervous about throwing that in with while frozen, lest it become a little watery... but it was perfection.

I stock up on bread at Walmart whenever I'm there since it might be the most amazing bread ever for $1.50 a loaf.It freezes beautifully and defrosts in just a minute without tasting like it was ever frozen. I cut that up, threw some butter, garlic, oregano and basil on it and tossed it in the oven. After a couple of minutes, I added some mozzarella cheese. Aaaand since I already had it out and was standing over the oven with it, I threw some into my sauce. Just for good measure... Not because I'm addicted to cheese.

Voila.

The most amazing dinner for ridiculously cheap. Put on some opera while you cook, a glass of red wine (preferably a Cab Merlot mix) in your hand and it's perfection.

And Happy Birthday to us.

Tarnish be gone...

2010-02-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

I bought the most amazing candelabra from a thrift store the other day for $2.99.. I knew that there was silver somewhere under the black tarnish but man was it hard to see.

Of course I was so excited to get started on it that I didn't think to get a picture beforehand. I just went ahead and grabbed that bottle of sterling silver beautifier and started working. But after about 15 minutes, I had a teeny little spot uncovered.

This was not going to work.

So I turned to my trusty google and came up with a promising answer...

It involved tin foil, baking soda, water and a big pot.

I put the tin foil down, on the bottom of the pot, covered the candelabra with water and then slowly added the baking soda.

The secret is 1 cup of baking soda per every gallon of water used.

Here is where the light bulb clicked and I realized that I should be taking pictures...

Here is after about 20 minutes in the pot. I didn't have a full cup of baking soda so I'm sure that it would have been faster and better if I had. I've read that you want to add it really slow so that it doesn't spill over.

As you can see, when I pulled it out, there was a thin film over it so I grabbed that trusty silver beautifier and buffed my little heart out... After a couple of minutes, here was my end result:

Silver Candelabra
Thrift Store - $2.99

It's now got some beautiful red candle's in it and it's adding some glam to my dining room and I'll be on the look out for some more beautiful silver pieces to boil up. I've been scooping up crystal and silver and I'm excited that now I can stop using elbow grease to banish tarnish.

And I've heard from Missives from Suburbia that 3M makes anti-tarnish strips that sit under the piece to keep it from becoming tarnished which I'll be picking up when I get some more baking soda.

The very beginning - Master Bedroom Redo

2010-01-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to start a blog to chronicle all of the fun projects that I've been working on lately so this is the very beginning of Lost in Tarnation. I'm thinking about importing some of the posts from my previous blog used to keep family updated on our little rascals to show some of the previous things that I've been doing to keep busy on the house.

As I was explaining in my quick post last night, we are in the middle of renovating our very first house which happens to need work on every single square foot. The kitchen has been in progress for over a year. Between both my husband and me working full time and having two kidlets, there isn't a lot of renovation time. We have done just about everything ourselves with the exception of some plumbing work during our first month. From laying hardwood floors, to removing kitchen soffits, to turning our basement into a Pub, to well, you get it. We've been really busy.

And throughout it all, the bedroom has been an embarrassment to someone who loves to decorate and create. I try and avoid bringing people through because things are just thrown up on the walls and it just isn't well... put together. So after two years of living in this house, I decided that enough was enough and started brainstorming what I wanted to do in the bedroom.

It involves two colors of paint, chair rail, vertical stripes, stalking craigslist and local thrift stores for dressers and nightstands and crystal lamps, refinishing those dressers, nightstands and crystal lamps. All of that is in phase one. Once we finish the kitchen and another small project of laying slate tile on our wet bar counter top and wall, we will be moving up into the master bathroom and conquering the nasty old tile that is in the bathroom and putting my favorite slate tile down on the counter tops in the dressing room with our sink. The plan is to get all of those projects done this winter so that come hell or high water (or spring, whichever comes first) we can work on turning the exterior of our house from being another source of embarrassment to something that we are proud of. So you're joining us just in the nick of time to tag along on the rest of our project of turning a destroyed foreclosure into our family home.

I got the idea of refurbishing crystal lamps from this post on the amazing Centsational Girl blog and have been scouring thrift store's for them. I've been lucky and keep finding ones that I like more and more so now I'm going to use the leftover for my next-next-next project, converting my work office to something beautiful and feminine. Here is the lamp that will be on Kevan's nightstand (the lamp for my nightstand doesn't have godawful brass on it so I don't need to refinish it).

Crystal Lamp
Thrift Store - $2.99

I've become obsessed with dressers. O-b-sess-ed with them. Scouring thrift store's and Craigslist for them constantly. I want beautiful pieces that I can refinish in my favorite, high gloss black paint. Here are the dressers that I've picked up so far. Kevan has to pick up another one from the thrift store this week which I'll refinish next because it turns out the two that I have so far don't have enough storage. The second one might end up in Colton's room.

Dresser 1
Craigslist - $25

Before: Pretty, but not what I'm looking for:

After: I made a rookie mistake of being so excited to get it in place that I didn't think to paint the sides or tops of the drawers... soooo that will have to happen at some point.

Dresser 2
Craigslist $30
Before:

After: same rookie mistake on this dresser. Excuse the mess, not having enough dresser space means not enough places to put all of our clothes. I haven't found the glass knobs that I want to use on this yet either. But I have a vision.

Nightstand 1
Craligslist - $30

Each thing I refinish for the bedroom becomes my new favorite, but I think that this chair will be my favorite piece for a long time.

Chair
Thrift Store - $4.99

I painted it with (surprise, surprise) high gloss black and reupholstered the fabric with faux seal fur. It was $12 a yard at my local fabric store and I used half a yard for this chair and the next one. I recovered the buttons and sewed them back on, but think that they disappear right now so I might see what I think over the next couple of days and try and find a fabulous black button to put on instead. I'm so proud of this chair! It's my first attempt at reupholstering and after I bought it last week, I was concerned that I had bitten off more than I could chew and that it wasn't going to get finished or that I wasn't going to be ABLE to do it. I was and it was so easy. It took more time to remove the previous hideous fabric than it did to cut, staple gun and replace the cushions.

Dressing Table Chair. There is dressing table in my dressing room (how fitting.. har har har) and this little chair will go perfect there. It's been spray painted black and recovered with the same faux seal fabric as the previous chair. It's so soft and amazing that I'm thinking about making a small throw blanket out of the same material in black for the bed depending on the sheets I go with
Thrift Store - $4.99

I'm getting closer and closer on the bedroom and am really hoping to have it just about complete by Friday when we have our annual Big Birthday Bash. It would be really nice to be able to walk people through our bedroom with pride for once. Stay tuned as I paint stripes in our dressing room, Kevan installs chair rail, I refinish nightstands and another dresser and of course, all of the rest of the projects we're working on.

I'm officially Lost in Tarnation

2010-01-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been meaning to blog about life again for a while but finding the time to get it all set up has been a bit difficult. Between the kids, the job, the dog, football season, the kitchen remodel, the bedroom remodel and life in general... it's been hectic.

So let's start with the house. We bought our first house smack dab in the middle of my second pregnancy and learned a very important lesson. Never again will I purchase a house while I cannot have a cocktail to calm the nerves. Our house was a foreclosure which means it was the ultimate bargain, but that it was the ultimate fix up. The previous owners absolutely destroyed the house before they moved out and we have had to work on every room of the house.

Since we have been doing so much work on the house, I haven't taken the time to decorate the way that I would like, things are just up so that the walls aren't blank. Well, after two years I'm finally getting around to decorating.

I'm getting some experience in refinishing furniture right now for our bedroom and I'm absolutely loving it!! Kevan is out of town on a 4 day ice fishing boys trip, and I've got the kids in bed, a glass of wine, bridezilla's on tv, a gallon of gray primer and a gallon of high gloss black paint. Life... is perfect.