Migonis Home

Move It: Rundown for Friday

2012-02-17T20:39:00.000-05:00

Good grief is it hard to eat healthily... I hate those hunger pains when you realize the only thing in your house you can eat are carrots. And you know what else I hate? When your sister shows up at your house with a cookie sheet full of the most amazing looking cupcakes. Vanilla with chocolate pudding in the middle... mmm... AND I DIDN'T HAVE ONE. Remember my image this morning about that we'll always regret the cookie and we will never regret that mile we ran... yeah, it's true.

Food intake for today (I'm writing this as we are sitting here watching Shark Tank, AJ's obsessed with this show!):
Breakfast
Homemade oatmeal with half the sugar, apples, blueberries and craisins
1 oz of OJ to take pill
2 Cherrios my little guy fed to me. The calorie intake in these just about put me over the edge. :)
Snack
2.5 eggs with sea salt, pepper, green peppers and onions for a snack
Lunch
Bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats and Almonds
Carrots and hummus while watching Temple Grandin with Meredith. AMAZING movie.
Dinner
A few craisins while making dinner
A slice and a half of homemade chicken pot pie (carrots, onions, celery, green beans and peas)
A glass of wine

Exercise:
3 miles with a jogging stroller and 10 minute miles

Move It!

2012-02-17T09:26:00.002-05:00

I've been noticing I'm not as disciplined as I used to be... in High School I ran nearly every single day around three miles (or more) and wasn't quite as addicted to brownies and cookies as I am now. But, in full disclosure, I would sometimes run down to the penny candy store, buy a bag of 100 Sour Patch Kids and eat them as I ran home. I'm not sure if three miles made up for that. :)

But now... post baby and pushing a jogging stroller my motivation has waned and I'm SICK OF IT. I need to get back to my disciplined self and log those miles and eat far fewer junk foods. I've mentioned before that my mid-section doesn't look like it used to, well, Jen, it's no ones fault but your own. Okay, well, and Drew's. :) Here is my challenge for myself, and you, if you want to take it:
I've heard habits are built in two weeks so let's build some healthy habits. I'm going to log my food intake and exercise for two weeks and put them at the bottom of every post. I'm realizing that I need more accountability than I used to and I'm going to use you, Fabulous Blog Readers, as this inspiration and accountability.

Thus far I've made this amazing oatmeal, but cut the sugar in half. Half of the recipe I'll eat tomorrow morning. You've got to try it, it's delish and sticks by you! And Drew and I just got back from running the loop around the Essex County Club, it's a three miler and it took me 30 minutes pushing my little Tank. :) It's amazing how much faster I am (not fast like AJ, though) when I run sans stroller.

I'll post tonight after dinner about my menu for the day. I know, super exciting, right? :)

Too Much Chocolate Cake

2012-02-16T13:24:00.000-05:00

I went to a Women's Prayer Group luncheon at work today and made Too Much Chocolate Cake (... as if there could be too much chocolate...) and it was fabulous. This is, without a doubt, the best chocolate cake recipe I've ever made. Or eaten for that matter. And the best part? Seven ingredients. I'm pretty sure it took me about seven minutes (or less) to make it. I just popped some confectioner sugar on the top of it (see photo).

Ingredients

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.
3.Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

*** I'm sitting on the couch with AJ snuggled next to me. He's yelling at the TV and I'm getting stressed out... we are watching a show I hate: Minute to Win It.***

Organized? Pish-Posh.

2012-02-16T12:57:00.000-05:00

My day thus far in Facebook status updates:

6:45am Diaper up the back. Love starting the day like this... well, actually I do if it means Drew is bathed and in his outfit first thing in the a.m...

9:30am Kept telling Meredith we will leave for Kohl's after I do this one last thing... but I was on a roll cleaning this house... and boy did it need it... Kitchen, bathroom and living room cleaned. Phew. Thank goodness for a son who miraculously didn't mess it all up immediately after I did it. (Photos of my cleaned and decluttered console table.)

10:15am In Kohl's dressing room to give Meredith my opinion on new pants. Looked in the mirror and saw the Grim Reaper. Whipped out my make-up and committed to run 25 miles today. Drew happily started at the older lady in the stall across from us as she went in and out.

11am At my Mom and Dad's. Trimmed off the mullet that had grown out since Meredith's last haircut. Boy do I love taking scissors to hair... For some reason AJ won't let me touch his...

11:30am Jelly stick donut at Dunkin Donuts. Guilty pleasure.

12:15pm Reading an email from Kate Pruitt, Sr. Editor at Design Sponge. I submitted my Azores dresser makeover. We'll see if she likes it enough to feature it, I'll hear back if she does, but if not, I'll just cry and move on with another dresser makeover. :)

And now I'm home, sitting in my winter coat typing. I don't have any DIY projects finished because, well, I'll be honest, I watched Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men with Meredith yesterday when Drew napped and after he went to bed at night and died laughing and didn't do one ounce of painting or sanding.

One thing I did want to say today is to Renie, a friend from church. She mentioned to Danielle (my BF since 6th grade) that her house isn't as organized as mine. Danielle set her straight pretty quickly (don't you love a BF who can do that?). She said "Jen's house doesn't always look as perfect as it does on the blog" and she's soooo right. Hence my cleaning spree this morning. Renie, I clean before shooting photos. I fluff the pillows in my couch. I wash the floor around the dressers I've just redone before taking pics. I'm no superwoman. And I hope the blog shows that... my house is at times chaotic. AJ and I are really trying to juggle a million things at once but things fall. We have half our kitchen ceiling ripped up.

Our master bedroom is half done. We don't have insulation in 3/4 of our house. My closet looks like I just threw stuff in it (maybe because I did). Our basement has furniture that I'm in the middle of painting all over the floor. BUT that is the glory of this blog... we get some accountability to making our house work smarter and more beautifully. Because we have had to do so much construction we don't have access to a lot of the storage we normally would have and because of that areas of our house look a little out. of. control. And we are mostly okay with that. All right, we are exhausted from construction and feeling like our toilet is falling through the floor, let's be honest. But you know what, we'll do it again. We'll buy another fixer upper because there is something in us that loves this little bit of insanity. :) So, Renie (and others who have asked me this), our house and life is not perfect. It's crazy and fun. And disorganized at times. But we love doing the projects, and doing them together (so cliche but true).

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2012-02-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

I found this recipe off of All Recipes.com and have absolutely loved it. AJ and I eat a few too many of them... maybe this is why I feel like I have to run a few extra miles lately. And scroll to the bottom... you'll see a little guy who loves eating his raisins. :)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3.Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container. Make sure you get some, because they don't last long!

Even my little guy loved the raisins!

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T12:42:00.000-05:00

Meredith was discharged from the hospital yesterday and she'll be staying with us for a few weeks. It was bad timing when Drew woke up around four and wouldn't go back to sleep right away (his bedroom is right next to her's) and we didn't want to keep her awake forever so we took him into bed with us for the first time... he fell right back to sleep almost immediately... and then slept till 7:30am.

I made a little special Valentine's Day breakfast for AJ, Meredith and I. Trust me, normally weekday breakfasts are bagels and cereal... this is a special day.

Made this card for AJ at Kim's Valentine's Day card making party.

I made this for Drew from AJ and me. It says "Bee Mine". I don't think he really cared about it. :)

This morning I got a nice vase full of lillies from my main men and these two great cards.

I made a few little notes that I posted around the house and in AJ's lunch for him... like this one that reminds him that he's a great provider on the door he uses to leave for work. This was another of the creations at the card making party...

After Meredith finished her waffle we did picture time. Drew is wearing the closest thing he had to Valentine's Day PJs.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Monday Mini Makeover: Nightstands

2012-02-13T21:46:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure you won't be wowed by this makeover. That statement just really made you want to read the rest of the post, didn't it? :) I say this because it's really hard to picture what the room will look like after it completely comes together but I'll give you the best idea that I can.

I found these end tables for $7.99 each at Savers in Danvers recently. I thought they would look pretty cool in a dark stain but honestly, I didn't have the energy to sand them... all I could think about was the process of sanding our kitchen table.

I decided to paint them Silver Sage (bottom right color), the color of our bedding from Restoration Hardware. It's a lot of silver sage in a small spot but I'm pretty sure once there is a better wall color, lamp and rug it'll be okay... at least I hope so. :)

Aren't you loving the teal rug in here? It's almost once a week that I think about the line from The Wedding Planner where Jennifer Lopez says that "teal is the color of gangrene". Hmmm my rug is the color of gangrene... thankfully it came with the house and I didn't spend my hard earned money on it...

This is a view from the door into the room. See that silver sage stripe on the wall behind the mirror? There was one final stripe of wallpaper still showing from where a chest had been before and after Drew knocked my can of paint all over the basement floor this morning I ran upstairs and painted over the last bit of wallpaper... I didn't realize that Silver Sage was so drastically different than RH's Eucalyptus... I'm going to have to rectify that ASAP.

Here it is up close! What wall color do you think would go with the bedding and the Silver Sage?

I love that I'm showing you our hideously painted trim in this room. The only person I have to blame for that is me... I went a little out of control while using the roller painting the floor. Opps.

Valentine's Day Card Making Party

2012-02-13T09:12:00.000-05:00

Makeover Monday may be delayed a little bit... we had a sick little guy on our hands this weekend so things were slower than expected here... although that's not always a bad thing when he's Mr. Cuddly. :)

My sister, Kim, hosted her second annual Valentine's Day card making party on Saturday. She does such a cute job with it and had all our supplies and paper ready to go!

She had tons of scrapbooking paper and Valentine's Day wrapping paper.

Her goodies were delish and I ate more than my fair share... oops. For every card I designed I had two plates of food... but to be fair, a lot of that was veggies and fruit (with a little dip).

A close up of the amazing fruit salad her friend Mel made, the veggies and the cupcakes I whipped up from a boxed mix Saturday afternoon.

I made butter cream frosting and put it on top of each white cupcake, half of them just had a coconut topping, but the other half had a heart shape cutout with red sprinkles... can you tell?

Kim and Mel decorated the stairs with hearts.

And the mantle with hearts, red candles and some fresh flowers.

Here is the party planner and her amazing helper, Mel.

Last but not least, everyone is craftily making their cards below.
I'll show you what I made tomorrow in my Valentine's Day post. I know, you are just so excited.

Has anyone decorated their house for Valentine's Day? If so, send me some pics (jen.migonis@gmail.com). I'd love to feature it on the blog tomorrow!

Friday Snuggles to Days of Our Lives

2012-02-10T14:14:00.002-05:00

Let me start off by saying, I NEVER watch TV in the middle of the day unless I'm sick... But things have changed today... Drew is sick. I think AJ and I were up at least six times in the middle of the night and we thought it was just teething, until Drew woke up this morning and whined or cried constantly. Nothing could be more different from his normal personality. And then he would just wail when I tried to put him down, this is coming from a little boy who is sooo happy to be independent and run everywhere.
First thing this morning I knew I was going to have to let go of my to do list and simply love on Drew today. And I've loved it. He never snuggles with me, but we have been snuggling for two hours on the couch. I watched my first, and probably only, episode of Days of Our Lives (ummm talk about DRAMA!) and now I'm watching The Chew with hair still wet from my shower and drying like crazy... I'm dreading AJ walking in the door and seeing me looking so frizzy, but he always tells me he doesn't care. And my stomach growling like crazy. Its hard to get lunch when Baby loses it when I put him down. Of course, on The Chew they just showed the most delish looking pizza....
Off the peruse some websites while Drew sleeps in my arms. :)

Hopefully the Friday recipe

Choosing a Paint Color

2012-02-09T14:18:00.000-05:00

Do you ever have trouble choosing a paint color? Drew and I just went to Ben's Wallpaper and Paint in Gloucester and I pretty much pulled out nearly every shade of gray they had to compare it with the curtains I bought at West Elm the other day (for the master bedroom). Needless to say, I didn't make a decision because Drew ran around like a man on a mission to touch EVERYTHING. So I came home with nearly forty color choices and a couple other paint chips that I thought would be fun to do a piece of furniture in. I'm going to leave the color for the bedroom up to AJ and I, but, I would like your opinion on this... I'm painting an armoire this weekend and can't decide which paint color I like best for the piece. It needs to go with these knobs. Your thoughts? Weigh in... even if I don't know you. :)

Blog Awards

2012-02-09T08:53:00.002-05:00

Recently I was awarded two blogging awards, the Liebner Award and the 7x7 Blogging Award. Don't get excited. "Award" is a loose term... basically it means two people liked Migonis Home and talked about it on their blogs. My assignment is to answer some fun questions, thank the gracious ladies who nominated me and recommend some other fun blog reading for you, and in turn, those ladies should do the same on their blogs. :)

Thank the people who nominated you:
First, let me tell you about Harrison Home blog. Jen has great style and she a Pinterest lover, just like myself... you really should check out her fun decorating ideas:

And, Jenna, she's got a fun life change in front of her... she's moving from Kenya with her hubby and little guy Kyalo to New Jersey for her husband's dental schooling. Seriously, could you have a bigger switch of places? Kenya to New Jersey?!?! Check out her blog here.

Tell you about other fun blogs I love reading:
Check out both of their blogs (above), I think you'll have fun... and you must check out a couple of my other fave blogs (in all your free time. :)). These ladies are doing a great job blogging and I always have fun checking in with them... click on their blog header below to be taken to their site.

First off, my newest find, as in, THIS MORNING. I've been stalker-ish and reading every post. :) Courtney found the gray dresser on Craigslist and did a Google search for Migonis Home... love when random things like that happen:

This blog is actually written by Kim's best friend, Allison. You'll have fun keeping up with her reading and sewing (and everything in between) adventures.

Jessica from Running to be Skinny = hysterical and fun. Check her out.

Brooke is creative and fun. She has a good sense of style... you should check her out!

Next on the 7x7 list of what I'm supposed to do... share 7 things about myself:

My newest obsession is Whole Foods Salted Chocolate Covered Caramels. Heavenly. Seriously. I didn't tell AJ how much I spent on that little tiny box of them. He doesn't need to know, right?
I love love love when you leave comments on the blog. Or send me emails. I can't tell you how encouraging that is. Like yesterday when I got two random emails from people who saw the gray dresser on Craigslist. Happiness.
My favorite movie star is Reese Witherspoon. She pretty much always looks fabulous.
I think Warren Buffet is adorable. And modest. Just watched him on Person to Person. He mentioned that he didn't want to be confused with George Clooney who was featured right before him. :)
Riding an elephant would be pretty fabulous.
I lose every pair of gloves. Or at least one of every pair of gloves. That's why I told AJ to only buy me the $1 pair gloves at Target for the running gloves I asked for for Christmas.
My favorite run ever was when my family was stuck in a traffic jam in Maine (this was probably early high school) and my Dad and I just got out of the car and ran the three miles back to our cottage. It was like we were racing against Mom and Kim, only they had to sit in the hot car in traffic and we got to run past everyone on the highway. :)

Share seven of your blog posts, in the following categories:

Most Beautiful:
I think I'd direct you to our house tour page, because it shows both our kitchen and Drew's nursery. Two parts of our house, in all of the construction craziness, that I just love.
Most Helpful:
I have no idea... is anything I post helpful? Or is it just an online journal for me just to record what is going through my mind? If I had to guess something I'd say it was this post, when I wrote about how Drew was a surprise baby.

Most Popular:
I'm going to post two here... the first is a post I did on White Kitchens and Butcher Block counters... at this point it's had just under 1000 page views. The second most popular post of all time was about Drew's first birthday party with 638 page views and 14 comments.

Most Controversial:
Uhhhh... I'm pretty sure I shy away from anything controversial.

Most Surprisingly Successful:
I'd have to say that when AJ suggested I open up a shop and redo furniture I wasn't so sure. I didn't really think I could do it well and make us some money, but I have. And I've been paying our car payment and helping with other bills each month (by redoing furniture and other gigs). And that feels good. :) Check out some makeovers here.

The other thing that I tried recently was involving more people in the blog, this past Christmas I did a Twelve Days of Christmas and featured others on the blog. It was so fun and great to show off other people's Christmas traditions. I linked up to the first day of the series so that you could scroll through each day.

Most Underrated:
I think the recipes are underrated. I really think people should try the Hollywood Squares and Swedish Brownies. Or maybe you shouldn't if you are happy at your current weight. :)

Most Pride Worthy:
Probably this moment. :) Or maybe any of the other millions of posts I've written about him.

Last off, a photo.
Okay, I'll give you two... we had fun collecting rocks in the woods yesterday... and then not so much fun when I wanted to do an impromptu photo shoot with a baby who desperately needed a nap.

This was fun to go back through some blog posts... Thanks for sticking with me till the end!

Wednesday Loves: Master Bedroom Edition

2012-02-08T06:24:00.000-05:00

We are making headway in our decisions for the master bedroom... I'll recap briefly what I bought yesterday... two of these shower curtains from West Elm for our under the eves closets.

Don't you think a headboard like this would go nicely? I'm going to make it with the tutorial found here.

via

As for the bed linens... My parents got us this amazing set from Restoration Hardware for our wedding but I think we will keep that in the guest bedroom because I have already painted those walls a RH color to match the bedding SO I'm brainstorming something else for the master... maybe like this, but picture a white coverlet and a quilt, like this one from the Home Decorators Collection, folded at the end of the bed.

via

My excitement about having the room in varying shades of gray came from my total love of Cararra marble. I am going to refinish this dresser in a gleaming white. It'll be our mini double sink console. Pretty good for a $20 thrift store find, right? I'm thinking my fave marble on top and two undermount white bowl sinks that I found at the unbelievable Building Supply Outlet in Peabody. Sidenote: oh my goodness, is it hard to take decent photos in our poorly lit basement...

When I'm looking at the darker finish these photos will be good inspiration for me of what it will look like... with those fun towel racks:

This Old House

Country Living

And you know what else I'm excited about? The fun accent colors we can play with... I just love pink and yellow with gray and I'm already picturing some pink peonies on our nightstands...:)

via

And I nearly forgot... the other DIY project I want to complete: a bench for the end of the bed, like pictured:

via

That's all for now! Anyone else dreaming of creating a room from scratch?

Tuesday, Tables, Teething

2012-02-07T15:41:00.001-05:00

Does anyone else out there have a child who is teething now? And I don't mean one tooth here or there... I mean one giant mouth of teeth coming in at the same time. I pretty sure the molar Drew got two days ago is the same size as AJ's. No wonder he's keeping us up at night, and last night, we were up three times with him. UGG teething is worse than a newborn, at least for us it is...

Playing Magic Carpet. :)

I got this vase / apothecary jar from a friend at church, she said it didn't really go with their style. Good news for me! I'm challenging myself to use it five different ways this week and next... here is the first way. I made a list while in bed the other night of the other ideas I had.

I got these cute little skeleton keys at the hardware store in the center of town and wrote "you are the key to my heart" and placed it on a paint chip.

On a totally different topic, I find that one of my keys to success for making it through the day without dying of exhaustion is to run an errand with Drew in the morning and afternoon... I was so excited about today's errand because we were buying the thing that we'll base the master bedroom around... See this shower curtain? We are going to put them on the doors in the under the eves closets and we'll pick a paint color this weekend that'll coordinate with the gray. I. Am. So. Excited.

Oh, and a note, if Pottery Barn / West Elm's website ever tells you something is on back order till May 12 (which they did for this) then just call them up and ask if a local store has it. And maybe they'll have 21 shower curtains like they did at the Burlington, MA store.

And I'm showing you this photo just because I love the styling. :)

I'm linking up to:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2012/02/valentines-day-tablescape-table-setting.html

Makeover Monday: Stonington Gray Dresser

2012-02-06T11:14:00.002-05:00

What if you saw this dresser at a thrift store... would you pick it up? (Sorry for the blurry before photos I was having problems with the lighting in the basement... I promise the afters will make up for it.)

It was the dark stained wood everywhere but the top and on the drawer fronts. It was hideous if you had to choose one word.

I thought it would be the perfect little nursery dresser in a light pink... and then I tried Stonington Gray on it that I used when we cut the table in half to make desks and I fell in love. The pink paint stayed in the can for another makeover.

Before the fun reveal... let me show you some of the not so fun stuff. The amazing amount of wood filler that I had to use and sand off. It was frustrating, and that's the nice way of putting it.

I'm sort of blowing my "after" photo with this next one, but after I'd painted the whole thing I was still annoyed at the wood decorative piece in the middle. It was just too frou frou for me. Off it came with a hammer gently pounding my flat head screwdriver. My little guy was helping out for this and pulled it right off for me. Four hands are better than two... even if two of the hands are tiny!

Now, for the official after, without the wood piece and with the finishing touches put on it. Keep in mind while looking at these photos that I had something on my lens when I took them and didn't realize from now... there isn't a gray mark randomly on parts of the dresser.

I just love the yellow and gray combo and decided to use my forced forcythia branches and a leftover daffodil to enforce that. And some heavy reading (Tuesdays with Morrie). :)

I love how the dots on the knobs echo the dots on the top drawers. The knobs are from Hobby Lobby.

Did you makeover anything this weekend?

I'm linking this up to Between Naps on the Porch link party.

Swedish Brownies

2012-02-02T21:43:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite recipes that my mom made growing up: Swedish Brownies...
I have such a thing for the amazing flavor of almond extract that is prominent in these brownies (or should I call them blondies)? This recipe is so easy and as my BF Danielle says "I just kept walking over to the pan and taking a little more and then walking back and taking a little more". :) Well said, D. I do the same thing!

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening, melted

2 eggs, well beaten

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 cup flour

1 tsp almond extract

Cream sugar and shortening. Add eggs, flour, baking powder and mix well. Add extract. Pour into 8 x 8 greased pan. Sprinkle with almond slices and sugar. Press lightly into batter.

Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

An Atlas and a Trivet

2012-02-02T13:52:00.000-05:00

A friend of a friend gave AJ this trivet that she had found at a yard sale... and no, it wasn't because she thought it was AJ's style...

it was because she saw this on the back and thought he had to have it. :)

Well, the flowers don't go with our decor, but we had been thinking of ways to use an old atlas AJ's aunt had given him. So while Drew slept I quickly grabbed the atlas, some modge podge and some scissors and got to work cutting along the outline of the trivet.

I made sure to include Hamilton, New York where AJ grew up... see, it's right there in the center of the picture:

I just put a layer of Modge Podge over the trivet, secured the piece of map I cut out and then put two more layers of Modge Podge over the map once the bottom layer had dried (15 minutes after I applied it). I think I'll cover it with some polyurthane (that was AJ's suggestion) to protect it but it's pretty much done. A Thursday easy and free craft for you! :)

Wednesday Loves: Gender Neutral Baby Shower

2012-02-01T07:01:00.000-05:00

I was asked by a friend recently for some inspiration for a gender neutral baby shower... here are my ideas (and can we say how much I wish I thought of and planned these parties?):

This first one is taken from a Potty Training Party (mmm hmmm strange but great looking!). I love the blue and the pink together:

I would do this one in a yellow or a light green, but I love the banner, the fabric and using the monkeys:

Both images via

I am absolutely gaga for this next party with the theme being "little lambs"...

Images via

I absolutely love the book The Velveteen Rabbit so naturally I think this shower is completely adorable:

What about a little owl theme? Maybe in different colors but it's super cute nevertheless:

via

I'm just in love with yellow and gray and birds in decorating so here we go:

via

A bee shower would be completely adorable:

via

Thank you, Hostess Blog, for letting me snag some fabulous inspiration!

A Weekend in Review

2012-01-31T11:09:00.000-05:00

Friday night started off with me going to Gloucester to paint the kitchen floor at a rental there and then came home to find out that AJ ordered Chicken Kabob salads for us with a plain pizza. So, our Friday night was salad, a glass of wine, the movie Larry Crowne with Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks and the new Pottery Barn catalog. We live adventurously. :)

Drew gnawing on the pizza crust. :)

On Saturday morning AJ and Drew did a dump run while I went up to Gloucester and polyurthaned the kitchen and dining room floors.

AJ finished the trim around the windows outside with his little helper Saturday afternoon.

Then we walked down the street to the elementary school and played on the playground and on the turf field... I think the field is Drew's new fave place.

After playing we drove to Danvers, dropped Drew off with my parents and went out to dinner at a swanky restaurant in Wellesley. Matt and Alison gave us a gift card there for Christmas. Last year. :) I told AJ we should dress up because the menu prices were high, I just pictured us showing up in jeans and looking WAY under dressed. Here's us dressed up, and luckily nearly everyone else in the restaurant was dressed to the same caliber. We were cheap and pretty much bought the most inexpensive things on the menu.

Dress: Calvin Klein (TJ Maxx), Necklace: Stella and Dot, Boots: Ralph Lauren (Macy's)

AJ's vest: J. Crew, major sale. Can't remember anything else. :)

Our meals were good, I'd describe it as Asian Fusion... even though I'm not 100% sure what that means. I got the Coconut Shrimp, Asian Veggies and Noodles in a Peanut Sauce.

And on Sunday we went to an open house in Beverly for one of AJ's real estate clients after church and then I went up to Gloucester to put the finishing touches on this rental before the new tenants move in today!

Makeover Monday: New Duvet

2012-01-30T12:20:00.001-05:00

For a while I've been wanting to make a duvet cover or a quilt for Drew. You can imagine that this was intimidating for me as I am the world's worst sewer. If I could have stapled Drew's duvet and had it look okay and not cut him I probably would have done that. But alas, I knew I had to bite the bullet because I didn't think this pink flowered, but super comfy, blanket was working well with his decor... it wasn't uber masculine. :)

So Drew and I went off to Joann Fabrics on Friday armed with a coupon and his crib sheet so we'd know what would work well for his color scheme. We came away with a fabric on clearance (bought almost three yards). I washed and dried it so it would be softer and not shrink after sewing it up... My edges frayed even though I used pinking shears on them, but no biggie, I just sewed them up inside out, like I was making a pillow:

After I sewed mostly straight lines up the sides I turned the fabric inside out and binder clipped it together on the stripes. I couldn't find my pins, can you tell how often I sew? :) After making sure that I was keeping the ends together and straight (which I'd give myself a B average at) I finished the last stitch... the pink flowered duvet was officially hidden and I loved how it looked... although I was worried about the duvet bunching in the fabric and Drew getting suffocated with it, so I binder clipped the duvet's four corners and then stitched them up on the diagonal so that the duvet and the blanket were attached to each other.

There she is, all stretched out. It's a very strippy room, if I do say so... but once Drew is in a toddler bed the duvet will just be at the end of his bed and he'll have a solid colored blanket so it'll break up the stripes.

As soon as AJ and Drew got home from running (I did this project as quick as I could before church yesterday when they went for an hour run) I put Drew into the crib so he could enjoy his new duvet. For some reason he didn't seem to understand that he was supposed to snuggle with it and love it. :)

But here he is last night, all snuggled up. I'd say the project was a success!

Are any of you doing something fun today? Drew and I are heading up to New Hampshire to go to the closest Hobby Lobby to get drawer pulls for new weeks makeover project... and while there we are meeting my friend Laura at Starbucks! Whoo Hooo for fun afternoons!

I am submitting this to Between Naps on the Porch.

Butternut Squash and Carmelized Onion Pizza

2012-01-27T08:02:00.001-05:00

This is a major variation on a recipe I found years ago in Real Simple. That recipe took forever and didn't taste that great, so after some tweaks from the lovely Kim Thorburn (mi hermana) and myself, here is what we came up with, it's pretty healthy and I love it!

INGREDIENTS
Bag of frozen butternut squash
1 onion
1 large pizza crust or 3 individually sized ones
Feta cheese (eyeball it)
Parmesan cheese (eyeball it, but not too much)
Olive oil, salt, pepper

DIRECTIONS
Place the butternut squash on a cookie sheet, coat lightly olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast until you can pierce it with a fork.
Slice up your onion and cook till tender in the frying pan.
Toss butternut squash, onions and cheeses together.
Put a tad of olive oil on the pizza crust and put the topping mixture on top. Cook according to the directions on your pizza crust.
Top with a little bit of sea salt right before eating... just to bring out the flavor, not to send you to the ER.

Wishing I was the Perfect Mother / A Day in the Life

2012-01-26T07:31:00.001-05:00

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I've had some people say to me "how do you do it all?" and I'm not totally sure what they mean... do they really think my house is as clean all the time as it appears in my photos on the blog? Trust me, I say this sitting looking at a bunch of crumbs on the floor, its not. I clean it constantly but it is not perfect. After all, I've got a baby that throws everything out of every cabinet constantly. Or how do I get projects done? Frantically, would be the easiest answer. :)

Well, I figure I'll give you a sampling of this week so far so you get a real picture of how it works around here. I'm warning you, there aren't a lot photos... Maybe you'll be bored out of your gourd reading this... but I figured I'd better answer a question that was asked. :)

A Day in the Life: Wednesday
6:10am Woke up (no alarm), went downstairs and turned up heat (first priority!). Read the Bible for a little bit... am reading through the book of Mark now. When I finished reading I worked on the blog because I was way too exhausted to do it last night.

8:10am Met the electrician at at a rental we own in Gloucester. Hoped he didn't think I was too stupid for never having been in the basement before because I was feeling like an idiot that I didn't know exactly where things were.

8:30am Drove to Beverly to get my blood taken for my annual physical (a week from today). Fed Drew a banana to keep him happy sitting in his stroller. Fasted for twelve hours up until this point hence wanting to get this done first thing in the morning.

9:15am Get back home and get a call that the fridge we ordered will be delivered to the same place in Gloucester. Drive back up with Drew. He was a complete champ... I credit a couple of things: one, an amazing baby and two: his little green ball that makes him wildly happy. Especially when I put it in my mouth, for some reason he loves that.

Went home after it took the moving guys a while to fit the fridge up the stairs and after they amazingly took out the old gas range without me even asking them too! Drew and I cleaned, ate a snack and vacuumed. I gave him a bath and he went down for a nap at about noon. Basically the second he went down I ran downstairs and popped some Butternut Squash Pizzas in the oven (made the toppings for it yesterday), made some hot chocolate and got to work writing this post. Once the pizzas were done I photographed them for the blog entry on Friday for my new recipes section. Drew woke up almost exactly at 1pm.

1pm : Got Drew ready to go and we drove to Savers and Salvation Army to scout out some deals for makeovers. We got nuthin'. Zip. I could find cheaper deals at IKEA than I could at Salvation Army, and I'm not being sarcastic. I brought milk and an organic fruit pack for Drew and they held him over until we got home.

3:00ish: Woke Drew up so that I could give him a snack and take him running. He loves the jogging stroller because he is Mr. Curiosity and it allows him to spy on everything. We ran downtown and I mailed my phone back to Verizon (good riddance) and deposited a check for the church offering that I forgot about the other day (oops). Kept running to the beach, totally gorg. Drew fell asleep as we were almost home, AJ ran to meet us and then took Drew running for a while longer.

4:10pm Left for Gloucester (again!) to show an apartment we are renting out. Met a nice guy and then was stood up by my next appointment.

5pm Came home and made Chicken and Wild Rice Soup with AJ while Drew played in the kitchen with us.

6:30pm After eating dinner AJ left for the hospital to visit Meredith and came home at 9:30.

Drew with Mern the day she went into the hospital, 19 days ago.

7pm I finished cleaning up and played with Drew for 40 minutes then changed his diaper, gave him a small bottle and put him to bed at 8.

I've been on Pinterest since then (it's 9:41pm now) cataloging ideas for Nancy Mering's house spruce up initiative (Nancy was my former boss). She hired me as her consultant yesterday. I was basically jumping for joy. :)

You must think that I make Drew go and go and go. Today was not what every day is like, for sure. Some days, like Monday, we barely leave the house.

I was struggling after AJ left for the hospital and just feeling so overwhelmed. I felt like the house needed a cleaning overhaul, like I needed to get to work finding ideas for Nancy, like I needed to refinish some furniture to sell and then work on the blog. And then AJ called and talked some sense into me. He told me to play with Drew till he went to bed and then sit on the couch with the iPad and relax because nothing needed to be done today. He's right. So I'm sitting here with my laptop and am watching NCIS and getting scared out of my mind. But before that I just played with Drew, I told myself to not try and get anything done until he was in bed... it's so hard for me to be a person who is "being" instead of "doing". I want to not worry about the dishes, the crumbs on the floor or making a piece of furniture over. I want to be able to show Drew at all times that I'm wild about him. I don't want regrets when he's older. I never want him to think that my projects or a clean house were more important than him. I want to make sure that I'm loving on Drew even while doing dishes and sweeping the floor. And I definitely DO try to do that, but I want to be more conscious of it and even more than that, I want to make a conscious effort to just play with Drew. Even when I have a lot to do. Especially when I have a lot to do.

I wish I was a perfect mother who could do it all, but I suppose there is no such thing.

Wednesday Loves: Cape Cod House and Gardens

2012-01-25T06:57:00.000-05:00

I've got probably the shortest Wednesday Loves post ever today... just a few pictures. But they represent a lot of what we hope our house will eventually look like... I was looking for photos to "pin" the other day that would help AJ and I picture what our house would look like with a front porch. I wanted to make sure we would like how it turned out...did we even want to do it or would it look odd on a little Cape Cod house? Here is the little Cape Cod house... although it doesn't look quite like this with frost on the dead grass now.

Then I found this amazing photo. It represents so much of what AJ and I have talked about. Granted this house is far nicer than ours... we need to finish our windows so ours don't look miniature on the front of the house and we love the idea of doing an addition to either the side or the back of the house.

This is what the first floor looks like, it is really similar in the set up to ours with a center mini foyer and then a room off each side. We would love to have a garage eventually, although not in our back yard. We love the idea of a terrace like this and think the mudroom / laundry facilities are amazing connecting the house and the garage.

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Would I love to have big fat hydrangea bushes lining our one-day porch? Why yes, I would.

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AJ has a goal of making our backyard "manicured". Wonder what that means? Let me show you our inspiration... :)

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Doesn't this one look fun and kid-friendly? :) We'd never have the backyard look like this but we love the simplicity of the few colors:

That's all for today... Drew just woke up and we've got to go meet the electrician! Have a great day!

pink dessert party

2012-01-24T05:00:00.002-05:00

Did you know that March is International Women's Month? I'm doing double duty with this tablescape because it is both springy and feminine. I've been looking forward to staging this for a while but it's a little hard to stage a spring tablescape when all I have are twigs and pine branches. And then enter the Carlsons, an amazing couple at our church who brought AJ and I dinner, dessert, wine and these gorgeous white tulips because they knew we had a lot on our plates last weekend (with AJ's mom and stepdad coming out to visit Meredith and church responsibilities).

I went back to my horrible days of working at Pleasant Valley Country Club and folded the napkins like we did every day for lunch and put them in the water glass. My napkins are from Target and I desperately need to pick up some new ones... you know how white ones show every stain...

I found these adorable plates at Target probably about six years ago for a song. They came to under $5 for a set of twelve. I love Target's clearance. Or maybe I just love it when a Target employee doesn't know what he's doing and marks everything ridiculously low by accident.

Here are the flowers Dave and Linda brought us, gorgeous, right? I just love love love white flowers. Don't you think it is such a luxury to have fresh flowers in your house? I found the urn for 50 cents at a yard sale and use it constantly.

I spent a while making these this morning, it is the first time I've ever made meringues. After the mini incident where the entire house was filled with smoke because of an ultra stupid decision where I put meringes in the toaster oven and the tops turned a ridiculous shade of black, Drew and I managed to make some pretty good meringue cookies. I like to pretend I'm a TV celebrity chef when cooking and I tell Drew exactly what I'm doing. I'm pretty sure he doesn't care a lick unless I give him a lick. :)

A couple of views from our stairway:

I'm brainstorming a Valentine's Day breakfast tablescape... are you doing anything fun for Valentine's Day? AJ told me it was too early to start thinking about it, I told him if he even knew who he was talking to and then he asked me if I already had Drew's 2nd birthday planned. I said: Mostly, I know the entire color scheme... :)

Meringue Cookies

2012-01-23T21:09:00.001-05:00

Have you ever baked something and thought... Wow... I nailed this recipe? That was me today. But I don't think I realized that till I ate about half of the cookies. Darn. I wish I could take an iota of credit for the recipe but I followed it step by step from Joy of Baking.

Yep, these are the only ingredients you need. Easy peasy.

3 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3/4 cup superfine sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

chocolate chips

Follow the Joy of Baking link above... it gives the easiest, but most through directions ever. I did alter it slightly and put four-ish chocolate chips into each bit of batter, because, really, what isn't made a little better by chocolate? Maybe chicken. Or tacos. But that's about it. :)

Makeover Monday: A Table Sawed in Two

2012-01-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

I was weary about this post... like every day this week "ahh I've got to start my Makeover Monday project"... but it required sawing a table in half. Yep. I found this table for $5 at the White Elephant Outlet in Essex. AJ and I are sort of obsessed with this place and make regular trips to their $5 pile or their Buck Hut (which is conveniently next to their dumpster... I guess we know where the things go if they've been in the Buck Hut a little too long).

And yes, I did paint frames and vases on top of this table... what made you ask? :)

After I measured the size I wanted, a depth that was shorter than where the door's molding starts, I hired my help. Here is my hottie husband cutting it in half. And no, he doesn't normally do his construction work in his tie and sweater. And yes, our yard looks a little trailer park right now with some construction stuff out by our chickens and spray paint marks on the grass where I did my painting for Drew's party. :)

I had to do some serious sanding and filling in holes with my trusty wood putty. This table had seen better days, let me tell you... I did all the work in the basement which meant that I could barely see what I was doing with the lighting down there. It is amazing how many little things I missed and am just seeing now in the natural light upstairs.

Eventually we would like to do proper built ins with hidden filing systems and all that jazz but that's the low man on the totem pole. Behind basically just about everything else in the house. We chose Benjamin Moore's Stonington Gray for the desks because it matched well with the stripes on our couch... although, the color looks significantly different than the paint chip... it seems to blend more into the wall than I had anticipated.

Here is the finished product with the table cut into half... making use of the awkward other end of our living room!

I've decided to make His and Hers desks so we each have a place to put our stuff. I haven't made a cleat to hold the table up yet so nothing heavy, like a laptop, is sitting on it yet. Here is my desk, with a plant conveniently hiding the plug so Drew Baby can't stick his fingers in the outlet.

I had to put risers under the table legs because the table was too short for anyone to sit there in a normal sized chair. I'm not in love with these but they were sitting in the basement so they will do for now.

Here is AJ's desk... I set up the photo so that you can see the view into the entryway and picture how it looks all put together. See how desperately our tiled entryway needs to be scrubbed after the snow we had this weekend? :)

A view from the entryway:

I created this photo so that I could "pin" it to Pinterest.

This makeover is submitted to Between Naps on the Porch for their Metamorphosis Monday.