Craigslisting & House Progress

Good day, all!

I can not believe it has been over a month since we moved into our house. Time has flown by, and B and I are loving being home owners. After work this evening we are marking a few other things off our to-do list. We are purchasing a black L shaped desk from Craigslist, and then looking at a couch for our bar/loft area. I am so excited to purchase these pieces, and finally finish our office. This room is very modern, and I chose to do it in black, white and bright green accents. Our loft, on the other hand, is a Mad Men 50's inspired theme. We have a large tv in there for B's "man cave," and we are purchasing a bar cart (hopefully for $35 from craigstlist!). I also purchased the below painting for B for Valentine's Day. He loved it, and it went perfectly with our theme.



Here are a few more photos of our humble abode in progress:

The Front Entrance (the 4 frames were hand painted/antiqued by me, & i placed animal related quotes inside)


First Half of Kitchen (our walls are painted a sonoma red-orange & it surprisingly accents nicely with our cherry cabinetry & black appliances)


Sink Area


Second Half of Kitchen (i am still in love with all of our new lighting!)


First Half of Master Bedroom (this room is almost too big to work with. the other half of our room has a dresser, & we may purchase a chaise lounge to complete the look. for now, i am on the hunt for a flokati rug to place at the end of our bed.)


Well, that concludes my sneak peek into our house. Stop by in a few days for more!

House Projects & Recipe

Goooood morning, all!

I have been busy catching up on emails and assignments at work, and preparing to move offices in March. I am also working on a number of projects at home, which I have compiled into the following list:

Hang shell chandelier in master bath.

Purchase/hang crystal chandelier in my master closet.

Purchase black leather couch & portable bar for loft.

Hang canopy in guest bedroom.

Install garage blinds.

Spackle and sand small holes on living room wall.

Set up front and back porch for spring.

Purchase new porch lights.

Set up firepit in backyard.

Besides running around cleaning or organizing our house, I have been cooking...a lot. Last Friday I wanted to whip up something fun and slightly indulgent for our move night. I saw a few recipes on pinterest for Taco Pizza, and thought it sounded intriguing. I looked over the recipes, but wasn't overly impressed with what I found. So, I came up with the folllowing:

Taco Pizza

Ingredients:

Fresh Pizza Dough (Trader Joe's is awesome!)
1/2 Can Low-Fat Refried Beans
Extra-Lean Ground Turkey
Taco Seasonings
1/2 Cup Taco Sauce (I love Ortega's)
Mixed Bag of Cheddar Cheeses
Lettuce, Chopped
Tomatoes, Chopped
Cilantro, Chopped
Green Onions, Chopped
Cooler Ranch Doritos
1/2 Cup Sour Cream
2 Tablespoons Hot Sauce (Optional)

Directions:

-Mold pizza dough onto pizza stone. Bake at 400 degrees for 4 minutes. Remove from oven. By slightly pre-cooking your dough, when your toppings are added and your pizza is cooked, your dough will come out fully cooked and not overly doughy. Meanwhile, brown ground turkey and add in taco seasonings. Set aside. Mix together 1/2 can of refried beans and 1/4 cup of taco sauce. Set aside. Remove pizza dough from oven and top with refried beans and taco sauce mixture. Add cheese on top. You can use as much or as little as you'd like. Top cheese with ground turkey. Bake in 400 degree oven for 9-12 minutes, or when cheese is fully melted. Remove from pizza from oven and let sit for a 3 minutes. Top with lettuce, tomato, cilantro, green onions and doritos. Curb the amounts to suit your preferences.

*Although it is not pictured, I also made a sour cream/hot sauce mixture to top our pizza with. You do not have to add hot sauce to your sour cream, but if you like a little spice, you can mix 1/2 cup sour cream with about 2 tablespoons of hot sauce.

This was an easy and fun meal that was perfect for a Friday night at home.

Happy cooking!

My Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day to all of my blog followers!

I am in love with the song "My Valentine" by Paul McCartney. It has beautiful lyrics, and is obviously appropriate for the day. If you haven't heard it, check it out soon.

I'd also like to send some extra love to my valentine, whom is a little under the weather today.


Despite B's coughing and sniffling, I am still planning on putting together a seafood feast for him to enjoy this evening.

On Tonight's Menu:
Salad Course: Wedge salad w/ crumbled blue cheese & bacon
Soup Course: Lobster bisque w/ garlic crustinis
Main Course: Crab cakes, tomato & garlic mussels, salted baked potatoes, & herb roasted carrots
Dessert Course: Chocolate orange mousse

On a side note, this is what I woke up to this morning...


The 4 inches on the right and left side of the bed are where B and I sleep. Those dogs have taken over our bed!

Enjoy the day!

Settling In...

Well, we have officially lived in our house for 12 days, and I am absolutely in love with it. Although we were unpacked and organized in 2 short days, I took last week off from work (my first full 5 days away from work EVER!) and had a staycation. It was such a wonderful week, but now I am craving a vacation to a sunny destination. My week went something like this:

Monday: Searched for the perfect color of turquoise pillows to accent our master bedroom comforter. I ended up finding them at Pier 1. They were marked at 20% off, and I was able to use my 20% off coupon on top of that, making them a great price overall. They were exactly what I was looking for :)

Tuesday: Headed out by myself for a day of shopping. I went to the Christmas Tree Store, Garden Ridge & Old Time Pottery. Words can not express my love for OTP. Everything is so inexpensive, and they have a wide variety of styles to suit any one's tastes. For dinner I decided to make up a recipe in order to get rid of the eggplant I had sitting in my fridge. I coated the eggplant in flour, pan fried it in olive oil, and served it on top of penne rigate with homemade tomato sauce. It was easy, healthy, and very tasty!

Wednesday: Spent the morning at the gym with my mom, then treated her to a light lunch. We spent the rest of the day cleaning around the house, taking the dogs for a run, and talking about anything & everything. I love her.

Thursday: Ran some errands with B's Aunt. Later, she and her partner came over for dinner, and I made a 4 course meal. We had fondue as an appetizer, followed by a Ceasar salad, creamy chicken & mushrooms with angel hair pasta & garlic green beans, and finished with chocolate bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream & an orange sauce. It was all delicious, if I do say so myself, and they stayed until midnight dancing in our kitchen and playing scrabble. They are a riot!

Friday: I treated my Dad to lunch in exchange for his assistance hanging up hooks and shelves. Two of my girlfriends then came over that evening for a few cocktails, followed by sushi at our favorite restaurant. We were supposed to go out afterwards, but we decided to stay in and relax at my house. Lame, I know ;)

Saturday: B and I headed downtown Indy to explore the Superbowl festivities. It was insane. There were so many people, lots of great food, and even better entertainment. We had a blast!

We followed up our evening by eating at a fabulous restaurant where I experienced the best sweet potatoes of my life. I have a weird obsession with sweet potatoes, and these made me very, very happy!

Sunday: SUPERBOWL! Not that I am a huge sports fan, and I definitely didn't care about either of the teams, but I am always ready to cook/entertain for my family and friends. We had 3 couples over that evening, and the menu was as follows:

• Cream Cheese Wontons


• Stuffed Baked Potatoes


• Hooters Wings w/ Blue Cheese


• Queso & Tortilla Chips


• Baked Macaroni Bites


• Vegetable Platter


• Chocolate Chip Chunks

Now that my vacation is over, I am catching up on things at work, and already looking forward to the weekend. Hope everyone has a happy Thursday!

Closing Time

Well, we are officially homeowners! Our closing went great and even though we were supposed to receive the keys on Monday, we got them on Saturday at 1:30 PM. The first walk into the house was surreal. I couldn't believe that this was OUR house. Ever since then, each time I open the garage door, I remind myself to be grateful, and to enjoy every minute of it!

Our big move with all of our furniture isn't until this Saturday, so we have been moving small boxes, painting, installing new light fixtures, and got our carpets steam cleaned yesterday. My parents surprised us and bought a brand new, energy efficient washer and dryer, so we were SO excited/thankful. Our realtor (B's Aunt), also surprised us and purchased some of the new light fixtures for us. Here is the chandelier we picked out to hang over the kitchen table...

And we chose this light to put at the top of our staircase... Tonight we will be doing some more painting, and then tomorrow I am cooking our first meal at the house, and we are introducing the pups to their first house together!

This is normally how our time with the dogs goes...

Tink is being the perfect gentleman, while Bucky is outta control crazy, haha. You've got to love them, though! P.S. Please ignore me looking like a hot mess. It was Tink's 3rd birthday party, and I was the party planner for our celebration at that park! :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the week!

BINGO!

B sent me this yesterday, and I was cracking up! It is oh so true.



Next time we do some shopping at Walmart, we will definitely be playing along. You should too! :)