Four Years

When I first saw you I fell in love.
And you smiled because...you knew.

Four years ago today I married the man of my dreams.

Four years ago, we were so young. We're still young, but looking back we were SO young.



We had purchased the cheapest house in town (ie. the "Crack house") and we madly renovating it with every spare penny we had. I worked as a nanny, and the Mister worked in insurance. I think our combined income then was about equal to one of our wages now.


We had nothing. Well, ok we had a little teal colored Pontiac Sunfire, with a broken driver's door handle. We had a cat. We had some hand-me-down furniture and a mattress. I think we had a stereo system.


We didn't have a tv until a few months after our wedding. We didn't have a computer for a while either. We had no bedroom furniture. Looking back, I have no idea how we got by. I remember going to the store and buying groceries...only what we needed and no more. Meat was a luxury, and we ate a lot of rice and hamburger helper.


But somehow we scraped together enough extra cash to renovate that house. And renovate we did. We painted, replaced the light fixtures, gutted the bathroom down to the studs. Replaced most of the floors. Painted the cabinets, new backsplash and countertops. Painted the exterior. Sewed curtains and made a duvet cover out of some sheets. And that little crack house became a home.




We both got better jobs, and bought a new car. Then the Mister got a job with a long commute, and we got a second car. We bought a newer, bigger house and moved. We got a second cat. We got new furniture, a flat screen tv, and a laptop. We had money to spend on clothes and going out to the movies.


We forgot.


Every year on our anniversary I think back to what our first year was like. How different our lives were than they are now. How little we had, and how poorly we were living. And we were so happy, even then. It makes me realize how far we truly have come.


I get so wrapped up in life as it is now. I am always wishing we could afford to replace the closet doors, or buy a new carpet for the living room. My ugly countertops bother me so much that I am asking for new ones in place of any birthday or Christmas presents this year.


But every year on our anniversary I get a reality check. In four years, we have accomplished so much. We have so many blessings and so much to be thankful for. I really have nothing to complain about! Four years ago we had nothing but a crumbling 800 square foot shack, and a broken down Sunfire in the yard.


Every year gets better and better. Not just that we are becoming more financially stable and aquiring more "stuff." But we are accomplishing our dreams and goals, and much faster than we ever imagined. Every year brings new changes; every year brings us closer together. And each year gets better.


This will be our last anniversary before becoming parents. I hope that four years from now, we will look back and be amazed again at how far we've come, and how much closer we've become.


It just keeps getting better and better.

Oven Puff Pancake!

I'm usually wiped by the time the work day is over, and then it's time to start dinner. Never mind the fact that I ALWAYS forget to take meat out to defrost.

This is one of those recipes that takes only a few minutes to make, and it's yummy! Plus it's also one of those recipes that you can usually still make even when your cupboards are completely bare and you're too broke to buy more groceries.

Plus...it just looks cool.

Oven Puff Pancake
3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 tablespoons melted butter

Beat eggs. Add flour, stirring constantly. Add milk, salt and melted butter and stir until just combined. Pour into a well greased pie pan and bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

*the puff will deflate shortly after coming out of the oven. Never fear, it still tastes great!

recipe originally from HERE




We like it with bacon or sausage on the side, but even on it's own it is filling enough for a light dinner. Fresh fruit and powdered sugar are amazing on top, but we usually just eat it with syrup (usually because there is no fruit in the house when we make it since it's our "There's no food in the house" meal)

Enjoy!!

An empty room...and no ideas

I promise I won't let my baby brain completely take over this blog....

But I have to let a FEW posts sneak in....come on, I'm excited!


I've been brainstorming ideas for the nursery and really coming up empty. Everything I look at is really contemporary or modern, or too many bright colors for my taste. I want something that will flow with the rest of the house, not look like you open the door and suddenly walked into a scene from Willy Wonka.

I had my heart set on white crib furniture..I even found a white crib that had wainscotting on the back! Be still my heart..it was perfect! I suddenly started imagining the nursery with soft blue walls, white billowy curtains and a white crib layered with all white bedding in various textures, with a ruffly skirt. I could find an old dresser and paint it white.....I could see the whole thing in my mind.

Sort of like this.....


But then we looked at the crib in person, and I was crushed. The white crib was completely dinged up and scratched. When the Mister was exploring it, he accidentally left a huge black mark on it from his wedding ring. And the identical crib beside it in a wood finish looked perfect.

Photo from Sears.ca

So now we're back to square one. I have no idea where I am going with the nursery. Do I want to use my favorite Grey Wisp paint color on the walls? But wouldn't that be weird to have the nursery painted the same color as the kitchen(And half of the rest of the house)? I thought about doing white walls, but I know with two cats, a baby, and a clumsy husband that they would be dingy in a week. What about tan, or a soft grey?

I really have no idea. And it's driving my mom and mother-in-law nuts, as they are chomping at the bit to get the nursery started and go furniture shopping.

But I do think that we'll include a tree mural in the nursery! I've been saving pics from Rate My Space for a while, and the more photos I see the more I like the idea.



Above photos from Rate my Space

It works!

Remember back when I posted about Swagbucks??


Well, a few weeks back I decided to redeem some of my bucks. I was a little skeptical, even after hearing success stories from friends. But it worked!!!

I was able to get This


For only 3 dollars plus shipping, because I had earned $10 in Amazon giftcards! It really works!

I'm Ba-a-ack!!!

I've been MIA for the last while.....



But I hope you'll forgive me, seeing as I had a good reason for it











Now the the majority of the sickness and falling asleep immediately after dinner is over, I'll be back to posting more regularly.

Painting The Office

This isn't one of those amazing makeover posts, so don't get your hopes too high.



I don't have money for makeovers right now :( but I could not work/function in that awful cave I call my office any longer the way it was.

This is what my office looked like...


Loaded to the hilt with stuff; toys, books, art supplies, paperwork and files, catalogs, etc.



I emptied out the entire office. It was scary.

Very, very scary.

It filled the entire daycare floor.


I went to grab my Grey Wisp paint (of which I was SURE I still had at least a gallon) off the shelf and realized it was all gone. Instead of putting everything back into the office and admitting defeat, I decided to improvise.

I mixed together what I had left of our bedroom color (Piedmont Grey) and our boot room color (November Rain) until I got a soft blue that I liked.


And it definitely brightened up the space! Getting rid of that baby blue ceiling was a big help too! Next I plan to add a curtain over the closet area to get rid of all the clutter and hang some things on the walls.

May Goals

It's a bit late, but here I am with my new May goals and my results for April.

April Goals

1. Defrost and clean out the freezer. I know I neglected this last month, but now we're in dire straights with that giant ice chunk taking up a lot of room so it MUST be done. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA. Yeah...the ice chunk is still there, taunting me.

1. Paint either my office or the upstairs bathroom. My office needs to be done badly (blood red walls and a baby blue ceiling. I wish I was kidding.) but it will be a lot of work to empty out, so I am betting that I will do the bathroom instead. I buckled down and actually accomplished this goal! The office was completely emptied out and painted. It's still a fugly cave, but definitely not quite so horror movie esque as it was.
2. Get more freezer meals done! I did make a few, but they have already been used up again.
   
3. Get at least ONE project done in that stupid boot room. See, I'm setting much more realistic goals this month, lol. Surprise! The boot room got completely finished! I was as shocked as you probably are...seeing as this project has been going on since December and wasn't even that big of a project to begin with.
   
4. Keep looking for blinds for the upstairs windows. If I can't find any AGAIN I decided I would treat myself to a new light fixture, either a pendant one for the stairwell or one for the boot room. Got a new light for the boot room....still no blinds :( Where do people buy blinds that aren't crappy dollar store matchstick ones that shred apart when you touch them, or that cost my entire month's wages?
   
5. Organize and de-clutter the office. You would not BELIEVE what it looks like. I have photos but I am afraid to post them for fear that everyone will run screaming from my blog....maybe once I have an "After" to show... It's still not great, but it's definitely more organized.

May Goals

1. Get closet doors for the office
2. I would say defrost the freezer for this one but...who am I kidding?
3. Stock up on freezer baking before the weather gets too hot to have the oven going.
   
4. Stain the back deck
5. Fill in the giant hole in the front yard that was left when we took out the broken and disgusting fish pond last fall, and start grass seed
6. Continue the search for blinds. I'm thinking I might have to settle for some white faux-wood ones from Sears instead of my dark wood matchstick ones that seem not to exist in the right sizes or price points.
   

Bench Redo!

When we moved into our house over a year ago, the previous owners left a bunch of old junk behind in the shed.When I found this bench that had been cobbled together from old scraps of wood in among the junk, I didn't even give it a second glance; we just tossed our tires, wheelbarrow, and shovels into the shed and closed the door.


Then for some reason last week I remembered it.


I went out and found it, and the wheels started turning in my head. When the Mister saw me dragging it into the house, he just laughed. I had no idea where I was going to put it, or what I would use it for but I knew I wanted to do something fun with it!



So the Mister sanded it down for me on the back porch...





And I gave it two coats of creamy white paint (Cloud White by Benjamin Moore).

After it dried, I took some brown paint (I had a quart of brown paint I had purchased as a sample when deciding on our living room paint color and never used it) and thinned it with water. Then I brushed it onto the bench in small sections, making swirling motions to really get the paint into the cracks and dents.


As soon as I covered a small section of the bench, I used a damp rag to wipe the paint back off. This left some brown paint in the grooves and cuts of the bench, as well as toning down the white a little.


For areas I wanted to really "Age," I went over them a second time.


Applying the watered-down paint, making sure to really work it into the cracks....



And then wiping it with the damp rag.


Once I liked how the bench looked, I let it dry again and then flipped it on it's side.


I found some bird clip art I liked, printed it off the computer and cut it out. Using the clip art as a stencil, I outlined it with a fine tip marker onto the apron of the bench.





Then I took some more of the brown paint ( not thinned out this time) and added some Cloud White paint to it until I liked the color.

I used a tiny artist's brush to fill in my stencil, being careful to cover up my marker lines.



And when it was done, I was thrilled!!!


And guess what?

It looks perfect at the foot of our bed!

(ignore the wrinkled bedding...it's the one thing I hate to iron)


Total cost for this project....

$0!

Shed Treasures

I found this little bench in the back of our shed! It must have been left by the previous owners.

I think it has potential...I'm thinking of painting it white or (Surprise surprise) a soft blue, with lots of distressing. And possibly some sort of stencil in the front.

The only problem is, I don't have anywhere to put it! It doesn't fit anywhere in the house.......
I'm thinking it MIGHT work at the foot of our bed...

But regardless of whether I have a spot to put it, I'm hoping to do a little transformation on this cutie this weekend!

A Pop Of Blue

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of robin's egg blue. I love Love LOVE it!


My favorite way to use it is in moderation - one piece in a pale blue (the trick is not to go TOO pale...it still needs to have some punch) can much such an impact in a room!


I recently took the Ikea bench from my dining area and moved it to the mud room downstairs....


and yup, you guessed it.....


painted it blue!


I love having that little pop of color in an otherwise completely neutral room.



The flash on my camera washed this photo out but it's a great pale blue that really stands out against the cream walls in real life!



I gathered together all the photos from my inspiration folder to further illustrate my point...I love how unexpected many of the blue pieces are in these photos....

image from Morgan Harrison Home

image from Morgan Harrison Home

image from llbean

image from House Beautiful

image from Coastal Living

Do you have a pop of blue in your home??? If so, leave a comment; I'd love to hear about it!