Craftiness

I am not a very creative, crafty person. I really wish that I was, but this is just not something that comes naturally to me. Ever since becoming a homeowner a year or so ago, I have become slightly obsessed with HGTV, and thumbing through the pages of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, Pottery Barn and Ikea catalogs has become a favorite of mine. I see rooms and houses that I love, I know exactly what I like and don't like, but have come to accept the fact that creatively decorating does not come naturally to me, as much as I wish that it did. This being said, I sometimes get into crafty moods where I really have a vision and I just want to sit around and make something. This does not always end in a product as beautifully as I had imagined, but I try anyways. Last week/weekend, I was in one of these such moods, and I must admit, I am pretty happy with the results. First off, I have been begging husband to let me paint the office for a while now. Our whole house was the standard builder's tan when we moved in, and slowly but surely I have been making each room feel like ours by adding color. We hired painters to paint the living room, kitchen and hallway last summer, and it really makes a world of difference in making our house feel like home! Well, hubs finally agreed -- actually, he brought it up out of the blue and offered to help me one night, which was quite the pleasant surprise :) -- so I hurriedly rushed out and bought a color. I get so excited when it's time to paint that I don't really do my due-diligence like I should. I grabbed a paint chip, held it up to a pillow and bought the first color that looked like it somewhat matched. Hmm..perhaps this was where I went wrong. I was looking for a grayish-purple color, mainly gray with just a slight slight hint of purple. This was just what the paint chip looked like, but I know from past experience that there are often undertones and shades in paint colors that make the color look different on a large scale than on the little chip sample. I asked the paint salesman if this was the case with the "glistening gray" that I selected, and the ever-so-friendly associate (I say sarcastically) informed me that the color would be the same on large scale as it was on the chip. I told him that I understood that the color would indeed be the same, but would different tones show through that make it look different? I really feel like I was asking reasonable questions here, but again he replied with, "The color will be the same on the wall as it looks on the chip." Well, thank you. So I went ahead and purchased my glistening gray, only to go home and paint a big stripe on the wall that turns out not to be glistening gray, but more of a lilac. Really. In fact, hubs refers to the color as "Easter egg purple." Grr. Another home decorating fail that just reminds me of my lack of design sense. We ended up finishing the room in glistening gray, and while it certainly isn't the grayish-purple that I had initially hoped for, it actually doesn't look too terrible once we moved all of our stuff back in, so maybe I'll mark this down as more of a half-fail :) You be the judge for yourself:

  

Before

Before

After

After

After

I also have been pining to make some "EAT" letters for my kitchen. I saw some in a Better Homes and Gardens and thought it looked pretty cute. We have a whole wall above our kitchen table with absolutely no decorations, so I thought that it would look perfect there. I decided that I wanted colorful, cutesy letters instead of just plain ones and thought that scrapbook paper would do just the trick. When I googled this, I realized that Courtney Cox's kitchen on the show "Cougar Town" on ABC has "EAT" letters exactly like what I wanted! Maybe my idea wasn't so original after all, but I decided to give it a go anyhow! :) I bought cheap chip decor letters from Hobby Lobby for $1.77 each. They are slightly different than the ones on the show, but I thought they would work nonetheless. I then picked out 3 different pages of scrapbook paper that I thought would look cute with the tealish-blue that our kitchen is. I got 3 pages for a $1.00. A little Mod Podge and some scissors and I was ready-to-go. 

All my supplies laid out - Mod Podge, scissors, pencil, letters, brush and scrapbook pages.

I just traced around the letters on the scrapbook paper and then cut about a half-an-inch wider than that. Then I wrapped each letter like a present and glued down with the Mod Podge.

It was definitely trickier than I thought, but I am quite pleased with the finished product. And all-in-all, it only cost about $10 and an hour of my time...you can't beat that! :)

So, if that's not enough, I also had a hankering to make a wreath for my front door. I still had my one up from Christmas, which I couldn't make myself throw away because it still looked so daggone-good! But I figured the time had come and I need to replace it with a more seasonal wreath. My mom was in town this past weekend, and she is a bow-making genius. Seriously, she makes the prettiest bows for wreaths that I have ever seen, and I didn't know how to do it, so I asked her to share her knowledge with me! I had an old grapevine wreath, and decided I just wanted a simple Valentine's wreath. We went to Hobby Lobby and bought a cheap ($2 "LOVE" sign) and a roll of red ribbon. Ta-da! So simple and so cheap. Nothing fancy for me here...and the best part is I can just replace the bow with one that I make with my newly-acquired knowledge and I can have a different wreath for every season for the rest of year! How great! :)

Lindsey, Buck & Phoenix come to visit :)

Well, I am slightly behind on my blogging. I really am enjoying writing out my thoughts and other random things, but I haven't quite gotten into the swing of blogging regularly. So now, I am going to play a little catch-up...

My dear dear friend Lindsey and her husband and puppy came to visit Josh and I last weekend. It was so great to get to spend some quality time with Lindz! To be honest, that's been one of the hardest things for me about this whole getting married, growing up, moving away thing - leaving friendships that are so well-established and vulnerable that you know that they are God-ordained. I know that this is a normal part of life, but there's a part of me that wishes that I could keep and strongly maintain all those friendships that I made in high school and college. Well, Lindsey is one of those friendships that I wish I could maintain at the intensity that it was when we were in high school...she is one of my closest and dearest friends in the world, and now that we are both married and living a hundred some-odd miles apart, I cherish any time that we get to spend together. Needless to say, I was quite excited when they arrived, as I hadn't seen her since November, and before that...June! She also has a puppy, a golden retriever named Phoenix who was in tow so that him and our goldendoodle could have a little puppy play-date. Also, Lindsey was the one who was in cahoots with me when I got scammed into getting a puppy double, potentially even triple, the size that I originally wanted, so I wanted her to be able to see exactly what she had gotten me into. :)

Needless to say, Roscoe and Phoenix were quite hilarious to watch. Two 50-lb., slightly awkward puppies lumbering around the house together was quite the sight.

We captured a rare calm moment for a quick shot. Notice that Ross (left) is the same size as his 2-month older friend, Phoenix, and that his paws are double the size of Phoenix. Eek.

Lindsey and I decided to leave the guys at home on Saturday and we had a much-needed afternoon of girl-talk and artsiness. We visited the Mad Potter and explored our crafty side a little bit. I'm not super crafty, but I must say I'm pretty proud of my vase (pronounced vahz, because it turned out so fancy! :) Hehe).

Lindsey working hard on her coasters. They look great!

Our work station.

Friends working on some art :)

I'm so thankful that we got to hang out and catch up, if only for a day or so. I feel very blessed to have this sweet friend in my life! Many more weekend trips to visit each other to come! :)

Thought I'd Share...

I thought I'd share this wonderful recipe with ya'll. This has always been one of mine and Josh's favorite recipes, but I have a whole new appreciation for it since I have discovered that I can make it (pretty much) fit into our current detox plan. It certainly would make a perfect dinner for a snowy cold night such as this! --

Aunt Vickie's Turkey Chili
prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 20 minutes

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb. lean ground turkey breast
1 package (1 oz.) reduced-sodium taco seasoning - (I use the McCormick brand because it is the closest to being all natural)
1 cup corn - (I usually put this in, but for our detox month I omitted it)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained - (Kroger and Whole Foods have a nice variety of organic beans, which I have been using while we've been doing our detox)
1 can (15 oz) northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 oz) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (16 oz) reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cans (14.5 oz each) tomatoes with green chiles, with juice

Warm the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil's hot, add the turkey and cook until no longer pink. Add the taco seasoning and stir until the meat is well coated. Rinse and drain the beans. (Putting them all in a colander to rinse and drain works really well!) Combine all ingredients in large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes.

Makes 8 servings. 267 calories per serving.

ENJOY! :)

My Favorite Thing(s)

So I have stumbled upon 2 things recently that I am mildly obsessed with. The first is this wonderful tea called Sweet and Spicy by Good Earth. Giving up coffee has been somewhat challenging for me during this detox, especially with my beautiful new shiny Keurig that just sits on my counter and taunts me every morning. I must admit, however, that I am very much starting to look forward to my warm delicious cup of cinnamon-y tea every morning. In fact, I think today I may have had 4 cups of it already. It is delicious. And I am not normally a hot tea drinker, and if I am, I require about 6 packets of Sweet'N Low for me to even tolerate it. But with this tea, I require no sugar...it is sweet and spicy all on its own! You should try it :)

Sweet and Spicy Tea = wonderful :)

The second thing that I have become mildly obsessed with is something called nail shellac. I have become slightly obsessed with painting my nails over the past year or so, but I get so frustrated because it only lasts for a few days before I have to take it all off and start all over again. Well, not with nail shellac - it lasts for a whole 3 weeks. Seriously! I got French shellac done on my nails right before Christmas and it really did last for 3 weeks. I am impressed. Now, one downside is that you have to get it done at a salon, so it really is no cheaper than having acrylics, but at least this doesn't ruin your nails. I won't be getting it done too often, but it is certainly nice as a little splurge here and there. :)

I really wish you could see how great this looks in real life! I opted for a more neutral color, because one downside is that you can see when your nails start to grow out. I was hoping with a more subtle color, that would be less noticeable.

Happiness

The hubs brought home some flowers for me. Hope these brighten your day like they have mine :)

5 Days Down

We are almost a quarter of the way through our detox! WOOHOO. Well, not quite a quarter, but we are 5 days done out of 28. So we're close. And we are doing it! That's the big news. I didn't really think that it would be this hard, but it has definitely been a challenge for me. I didn't realize how much of a snacker I am, but there have been numerous times over the past few days that I have opened up the pantry and gone to grab some kind of snack, only to remember that I can't eat anything in the cabinet! Brown rice cakes with almond butter have become my staple. Surprisingly, though, they are tasting better and better to me. Probably the hungrier I get, the less picky I get. :) In all reality though, I am completely full right now. I am eating less and waaaayyy more healthy than I ever have, but I am eating filling foods, so I'm really not hungry. Tonight, Josh made us venison filets, spinach and brown rice with agave nectar. And everything was delicious! I am experimenting with new foods that I never would have touched before. In fact, last night I made spaghetti squash --

I popped it in the oven for 45 minutes...

...until it was soft enough to cut through...

...then we pulled out all these delicious strands! I sauteed onions and garlic and mixed it in and it was delicious.

I really am hopeful that after these 28 days are over, my habits will have changed, or at least have been modified to where I make some of these changes that I am making now, permanent. Coffee and chocolate will be added back to the diet on day 29 though, I can tell you that right now!

Hello 2011

Wow, okay. So clearly I am pretty terrible at this whole blogging thing. More than one year to write again is pretty pathetic. I have been thinking for the past few months about starting up again, and the new year seems like an appropriate time to begin. I'm not making any promises, though, because who knows how long until I'm bored with this? Also, who knows if I even tell anyone how to find this lovely little blog...I may just be writing it for my own peace of mind! :)

Well, it's hard to believe its 2011. Geez. We've been in our house for a whole year now! Crazy. The big news is that today was Axis's big move to the movies. We've been in a Learning Center thus far which was a great space for us, but it was time for Axis to move, so we went to the movies! We officially begin meeting at Rave Motion Pictures near King's Island next Sunday, January 9th, 2011. Our preview service was today and it was pretty cool. I must say that personally I love the new space. I volunteer in the preschool area and I was pretty curious to see how it would be to have our classroom set up in the middle of the party area, but it worked out really great. We got a lot of furniture from IKEA and really strived to make an environment for the preschoolers, which I feel like we really achieved. More to come about this big move later!

Another big change coming in 2011 is...Josh and I being healthy! I know, it's crazy really, but I am actually really excited about it. Tomorrow, we are starting a 28-day detox. Nothing crazy like only drink juice for 28-days or anything like that, we are just eating what we should probably eat every other day of the year. Basically, we are eliminating anything unnatural or unhealthy from our diet - no gluten, no sugar, no dairy, no artificial sweeteners, no caffeine. I've been reading up on this plan, and it's interesting how much toxic stuff we put into our bodies - even when we try to eat healthy, there are typically preservatives and hormones in our food. In fact, a lot of times we feel groggy and foggy because of the foods we eat. I know for me personally I have minor headaches probably 3 or 4 days of the week, and my stomach always feels unsettled, and I have to believe that it is because of what I eat. Also, interestingly, a lot of us have food allergies that we never know about - they are minor enough that they only cause slight problems and go undiagnosed. By doing this detox for 28 days, we are completely ridding our bodies of anything that we may be allergic to, so at the end of the detox when we slowly introduce things back into our diet, we can tell what it is we are allergic to or what upsets us, if anything.

I'm excited to start this! Josh and I don't want to necessarily lose weight, but we want to start making lifestyle changes towards being healthier eaters. It is an effort for both of us to eat healthy, and we want to start making it enjoyable to eat what is "close to the earth," making changes that we can keep up after the 28 days are over. I know someone who has done this detox, and she doesn't crave any of the foods she craved before, and really enjoys eating fruits and vegetables now, so I am hoping the same is true for us. If anything, I will just use this blog to record how this goes for us. Even if no one cares to read my blog and what I write about, which is very possible, I will at least have a record of our 28-day journey! :) More about this tomorrow.