Well we are officially moved into our new home. Week one is down and we finally have internet back so hopefully I can fill you all in with some great pictures soon. I have a busy work week that will keep me from settling in a bit more but things are looking great around here and I have a lot of plans I want to share to make things even better!
Hope everyone else is having a great week!
April
This is not my typical blog post but I thought I would share since Will and I have had a lot of questions in our new interest of juicing. Since New Year’s we have been juicing up fruits and veggies for breakfast and we are really enjoying!
We watched a documentary last year, “Fat Sick & Nearly Dead” and we wanted to run out and buy a juicer! It is an amazing story and I highly recommend watching the movie. We held off on the juicer because they are pretty expensive and we were afraid we wouldn’t like the juicies. We tried a few in the blender and they were ok but a little too pulpy for me. A few weeks ago we watched “Hungry for Change” and it focused on the benefits of juicing some so we decided to take our Christmas money and gift cards and give it a try.
I had a couple recommendations for the Breville brand juicer so I went with the Breville Juice Plus. (I just realized when I added the link, it was the juicer in the movie “Fat Sick & Nearly Dead”. ) It was a more reasonable $149 and I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% coupon and I had a $20 gift card so only $100 out of pocket. So far I have been very impressed.
We have tried a few recipes and are really liking everything we try. It takes a lot of veggies for just a little juice and we both wanted one drink each morning (about 10-12 oz. each). To streamline the process I buy a lot of veggies at the beginning of each week and when I get home from the store I go ahead and wash them.
Then I divide them and bag them. Labeled by the drink name so I can just grab and juice in the mornings.
We are mostly drinking green smoothies which have a lot of kale or spinach with watery veggies like celery or cucumber. Green apples and/or pineapple make them a bit sweeter. So far we have not combined anything we didn’t like.
This is the Green Machine, recipe found HERE. The Whole Living website is awesome for any healthy food. I leave out the water since I am juicing and not blending.
This orange beauty is an April invention. It’s 4 carrots, 2 mangos, 1/2 lemon, 1 inch ginger root.
A few of the other juices we like are listed here.
Dr. Oz Green Drink (click on link)
I omit mint, orange, lime, and carrots
Kale Cleanse
3 kale leaves
parsley
1/2 lemon
1” ginger root
1/2 cup pineapple
3 stalks celery
Additional Recipe Info
We sometimes add carrot or pineapple to any of these. Sometimes we omit the lemon. My advice is combine leafy greens, watery veggies, fruit like pineapple or green apple, and antioxidant rich veggies like beets or carrots.
Will swears he has lost weight after two weeks of one meal substituted for juice (he didn’t eat breakfast before). I don’t know that I’ve lost any weight but have less cravings for greasy food.
Do any of you juice? If so what is your favorite recipe?
April
**I was not paid in any way to write this post by Breville or Bed Bath & Beyond
Happy Sunday Everyone. I hope you have all had a great weekend. I was able to get out to the new house we’ve built in the neighborhood we are developing and I wanted to share some photos of the finished product with you.
We decided to build this house on one of the more awkward lots in the neighborhood because we would have some control over fencing being added and landscaping to reshape this lot. It turned out nicely leaving a nice big fenced in backyard.
This house is two stories but the upstairs is currently unfinished. The back has a small screened in porch that will be nice for sipping sweet tea untouched by bugs in the Summer! The garage is detached with a nice walkway to and from the porch into the house.
Here is a quick little look at the floor plan to give you an idea of the space. The stairs in this house are closed off and the upstairs is completely unfinished, it would make a great bonus or game room or keep it like it is for lots of storage.
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Here are some shots of the main floor interior.
The living room, kitchen and dining area are all open to each other. It feels like a nice big space. The hardwood floors are one of my favorite features. They are wide plank pine, stained dark and they feel so warm and inviting.
The next area is a short hallway area that leads to all the bedrooms, the guest bath, and laundry room in the back of the house.
The master bedroom and bathroom attached are nice big spaces. The master bath features a big walk in tile shower with a double vanity sink. My second favorite part of this house is the big walk in closet.
Quick little tour, cute little house. We are expected to close on this house January 14th. We have had some recent interest from a buyer but are a little unsure if things will work out. As of now, unless things change quickly we are planning to move in after closing.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
April
I’m so excited to show you all an actual decorating post today! It’s one I am very proud of!!
My Mom and Dad had a little problem back in August that turned into a pretty big redo. The refrigerator they had broke and needed to be replaced immediately. The problem was that the fridge was inset in the wall surrounded by cabinets on both sides and when the house was built in the early 80’s refrigerators were a lot smaller! Once I stopped by to look at the options I suggested a few more cabinet tear outs that turned into a pretty big deal! Sorry Dad!! I know it was pricey. Your welcome Mom!!
The kitchen was stuck in a bit of an 80’s time warp. Here are some of the before pictures.
You can in the top two photos how the fridge was sandwiched between cabinets on the right and a wall & desk area on the left. The easiest solution was to bump out the wall and loose the desk and cabinets on the left side and since there would demo work I suggested that the upper cabinets over the bar area be taken down to open the kitchen up. It meant losing some cabinet space, but it would make the room feel bigger. My Mom wanted to paint the cabinets anyway so now was the time.
Once they bought that I really got going and suggested that since the bar cabinets would come down pendant lights were necessary, and if you are going to add lights you should replace that fluorescent light and add a light over the sink as well. And then of course since the ceiling was a popcorn ceiling we all thought that should be scraped and repainted. Of course with all these changes new wall paint would be in order and maybe just maybe new countertops, which lead to a tile backsplash, and a new sink. It was all worth it! Check out the after photos!
Wow! What a difference! Lighter, brighter and bigger. I love it, the colors, the tile and I really LOVE the granite. Oh and that new refrigerator is HUGE! It is truly a transformed kitchen.
My Mom and Dad did most of the painting themselves and they had some help with the cabinetry work and installation of the lighting. It was a long process but worth it, they got it all finished just before Christmas.
Take a closer look at the changes.
Over the sink the cut out at the top of the window was removed and replaced with a more modern look.
Obviously they bought a new fridge in stainless steel and added an over the stove microwave since the last one sat on the countertop, freeing more space.
New lighting to replace the fluorescent light as well as adding pendant lights over the bar and sink.
And notice that beautifully scraped ceiling…Why on earth was sprayed popcorn ceiling ever popular? Why?!?
My Mom was 100% sure about two things throughout this process. She wanted blue/aqua colored cabinets on the bottom and she loved the glass tile as soon as she saw it. Everything else took some convincing ;)
New cabinet hardware was added to match the finish on the new lights.
For the new tile backsplash this area is where they now use the coffee maker. It is a good space for a bar area, buffet, or coffee station for everyday and we wanted to do something special with the tile and show more of the glass here.
For the majority of the backsplash we used a white 3x6 with glass as the accent.
Check out that granite! It is called Vintage and it is gorgeous!
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We also painted some furniture for the new space. They have a bakers rack and we thought it would look better to update it with a new coat of spray paint and some chalk paint.
The contractor made some wood shelves to replace the glass shelves they had and we stained these a dark walnut. The paint used was ASCP in Duck Egg.
We also painted a table my Mom found at a thrift store that had been used as a work table we think, it was pretty beat up but after she applied Bondo it was ready to paint.
We used ASCP in Old White for the base and Graphite (with dark wax) for the top.
Just this past weekend she scored a deal at Marshalls on some chairs and so now the set is complete.
I didn’t really take a good picture on the before and after of the breakfast nook but it looks a lot different too. They added bead board wallpaper and chair rail molding in the whole kitchen and you can really see a big chunk in this space.
It was really fun to see my childhood kitchen change. It looks so great and I can’t wait to see all the final touches my Mom puts into it. She has some pictures to hang and is planning on new bar stools eventually but it really has come a long way! Bravo!!
Material Sources:
Lighting: Lowes Home Improvement, Allen & Roth
Cabinet Paint: Top, Behr Swiss Coffee Bottom, Benjamin Moore Gossamer Blue
Cabinet Hardware: Lowes Home Improvement, Allen & Roth
Wall Color: Benjamin Moore Bleeker Beige
Trim Paint: Behr Swiss Coffee
Bead Board Wallpaper: Lowes Home Improvement, Allen & Roth
Granite: Cosmos Granite, color Vintage
Backsplash Tile: Best Tile, 3x6 white crackle subway & Martini Glass in Matte Finish
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How do you like these lighter colors? What have you done to update your kitchens?
April
I love the New Year! It always feels like a great fresh start and it is invigorating to think about the changes that I want to make in the new year and the hopes of what it will bring.
2012 has been a really great year but an interesting one none the less. In 2011 I started this blog and a new job and we put our first house on the market. We also built the first house in the neighborhood we are developing.
Last year for New Year’s in THIS POST I stated that in 2012 I wanted to live more simply and my two big resolutions goals were to become more physically and financially fit. Well a lot happened this year!!!
January I started off with a lot of furniture painting and completed many projects.
I took you on a tour of the house we built to sell in the neighborhood.
In February this blog turned 1!
In March, I turned a year older and we got an offer on our house.
I welcomed Spring.
I posted one of my most popular posts to date. I made these great bird nest for my apothecary jars and it was a hit. P.S. they still look exactly the same!
In April the blog started to suffer. I had a yard sale to get rid of all those things we didn’t want to move and in May we really started to pack.
In June we went to the Bahamas.
As soon as we got home, we moved, as in the day after we returned!! Crazy! We moved into the new home we built since it was still on the market. Just in time for me to decorate a Summer Mantle.
In July we started to settle into the new home and I decided the green front door had to go, so I painted that a calmer blue.
I received a free kitchen island and I gave it a face lift. This post gained a lot of attention, since I was featured over at Southern Hospitality!!
Then we received an offer to purchase this house! One month later!!
So on August 10th (exactly 2 months from when we moved in), we moved again…this time we moved in with family and we have been with them since.
I caught you up on a furniture project I did just before the move.
And I showed you a small makeover.
In September we stayed really busy and went to Atlanta, GA where I finally got to go to a Pottery Barn Outlet and then we went to Charleston, SC where I found some pretty neat stores and dream homes too.
In October I shared with you our simple living quarters and we started construction on another house in the neighborhood.
I also painted a little jewelry box.
I attended the first annual Southern Bloggers conference and met some really great ladies and found some really cool blogs!
In November I helped my friend paint her dining room hutch and table.
The house building continued.
In December I was super busy with Christmas festivities and I did not get a lot accomplished that was blog worthy except this table décor.
Whew! That was a busy 2012!
As for my 2012 resolutions goals, we did wake up and start paying attention to our spending habits more. We were forced to pay more attention with two houses on the market over the 1st half of the year and we realized we needed to cut back. We still have a long way to go in being billionaires, but we are going to make it :) Sadly I failed miserably on the physically fit goal. I pretty much stopped exercising after we went to the Bahamas and through the two moves. Living with my family has wrecked my eating routine. Great excuses, I know…I’ve practiced saying those a lot and I put on weight by using them as excuses :(
The blog definitely suffered this year, my post count was chopped in half. I am really sad about that but there was no way I could continue to rehab a lot of furniture projects during packing and moving and now not having a work space.
Selling two houses in 2012 was a huge blessing and we are so very grateful for that!
Looking forward to 2013, we are excited about what the year will bring. First up will be moving again. We can’t live with Family forever…even though they are great helpers in our busy life!! We have completed a new home build in the neighborhood and have it on the market to sale as well. We having a closing date set and will move into the home if it does not sell first, when it sells we will most likely rent for a while. I do look forward to having my furniture back and a space we can call our own.
As for those New Year’s Resolutions for 2013…..well, I am very serious about losing the weight I have gained! I am going to join the thousands of others that know they need to be better. I bought a juicer today and I am very excited about adding in more fruits and vegetables into my busy lifestyle. Meal planning will become a habit I hope and I am slowly going to add in the excersing again too.
My other resolutions will be to continue down a good financial path and spend less. I still follow some of Dave Ramsey's Principles. Read more of the bible daily and lastly, stop playing so many games on my phone!!
What are your resolutions for the New Year??
April
