Finally....

I have been waiting to replace our 37 (!!!) year old doorknobs ever since the day I moved in our house. Finally, I found some on Overstock.com that were perfect, and very inexpensive. I have always avoided taking pics of the old ones because they were HORRIBLE- but since they are now gone:

Check out the brass and the black speckled paint. Yuck! Now, after much hard work from Joel, we have new doorknobs! Doesn't it make the door look so much cleaner and much more updated? I love them, and thankfully they didn't cost an arm and a leg. I had to buy 10 after all!

Stella is Famous!

So Burger over at Hamburger's House is running a Bachelor Contest. He is the baby boy of Sherry and John from my favorite blog, Young House Love. You had to enter your dog in the contest with a brief description of the pup, and our little Stella made the cut into the Semi-Finalists!! See it here on his blog.

She's the #11 spot, looking oh so cute! And here she is taking a nap to rest up for the next round of eliminations....And here she is drinking some water to get ready for round 2....I think Cooper is giving her hints on how to play hard to get :) We are so proud of our little girl! Wish her luck! And make sure to check out Burger and his Parents' blogs to see what they're up to!

New Master Bedding

I have been looking for Master Bedding FOREVER. Over a year actually. I finally decided to go to Target and see if they had anything that matched our blue walls....Sure enough, Target did not disappoint (they never do!). I found the perfect comforter, shams, and 2 throw pillows- and on Clearance! Check out the before....And now the much more sophisticated after!

The colors go so well with the walls and the furniture! Here's a closer look....

It is so comfy too! I cannot believe that I got a comforter, TWO sets of shams, a bedskirt and 2 throw pillows for only $39! What a deal. And we even shared the love with the love seat to tie the whole ensemble together :)

Frosted Glasses

We hosted a Chili Cook Off last weekend at our place and I wanted to make some kind of party favors for people to bring home and remember the day. I thought Pint Glasses would be perfect, but they were REALLY expensive! Instead, I invested in this stuff: Rustoleum Frosted Glass Spray Paint. It was only a few bucks at Home Depot!I looked into the etching creams at the craft store and they looked like a lot of work and a big mess. This was soo easy! I bought Ikea beer glasses ( I think I got 48 of them for $70!) and I used contact paper, cut a little chili pepper into it, and covered the glass. Then I just sprayed into the opening and voila! I know it's a little hard to see the frosted glass....so here is another angle:
Then, with leftover cut-outs of little chili peppers that I had laying around, I decorated the other glasses. I put the chili pepper sticker on the glasses, and then sprayed around them....

Here's another look:

Cute huh? I will admit, it took me all night after work, but it was worth it. They turned out pretty good and were just waiting for our guests to pick up on the way out!

We got a NEW bed!

Thank god for Overstock.com! I am ashamed to say it, but Jeff and I bought a new mattress last year, and have been using the same exact bed frame that I have slept on since 1992- and it is supposed to be a water bed frame! 17 years later, we decided it was time to splurge. Here is our crazy old bed frame with plywood somewhat exposed (and some really cute models!)....Aren't those Little babies ADORABLE! Okay sorry, I digress.....once I started to clean out the drawers underneath the bed, I realized we should go ahead and clean out the whole room, and give it a little makeover too! I moved the huge pic above the couch, and then slid the bed onto that wall. the whole room looks so big now!What do you think? I really like an inexpensive makeover, and the room feels so fresh and open now! Here is the bed close up (ignore the bedding, it's too hot for our down comforter yet)

My New Workstation

Our office serves 4 purposes. It is Jeff's official office where he works and uses the desktop computer. It is our library and hold tons and tons of books and magazines, it is my workstation for crafts and sewing, and lastly, it is where we run on the treadmill.

I know, that's a lot of purposes for one room to serve. Too much. So, I wanted to make the room a little less cluttered and move my workstation (which is pretty much an eye sore with my plastic shelves that hold my crafts). The closet in this room is ENORMOUS. It is about 10 ft long by 3 ft wide- and it has a light in it...so I thought, why not move my workstation into the closet?

I've been inspired from a few designing shows and photos like this one:But I really didn't need anything that elaborate. After all, it still has to store our luggage and a few of my sisters things. I just needed a place to hem, work on holiday crafts, curtains, and store all my junk. I wish I had taken a before pic, but here is what I am working with now:Not bad for a free makeover huh? I have plenty of room and actually better light than I had when it was next to the treadmill! Here is a closer look....Now, In the future I hope to update my "desk" but for now, this table does fine. I think this makes the office seem so much bigger too. Here is how it looks after my stuff was moved.

Congrats Dinner for Jeff

I cook every night, but Jeff just got a new job a little over a month ago, so it was time for a celebratory dinner! A couple Fridays ago, I made Jeff a very special one. Filet topped with crab meat and mushroom gravy, green beans with bacon, and king crab mac n' cheese. YUM! Just had to share the king crab mac n' cheese photos.....it's BY FAR the most expensive side dish I've ever made! Jeff ate leftovers for 3 days....

First I bought a pound and a half of Alaskan King Crab Legs. I separated these into the meat in the body part (to top the Filets) and then the leg and claw meat with the reddish outer layer to use for the macaroni. Next I grated my cheeses. I used half Gruyere (my absolute favorite!) and half extra sharp white cheddar- there are the same cheeses that are used in Auntie's famous mac- which is the best I've ever had!Next I made the cheese sauce while the pasta cooked. Just made a simple rue with butter and flour, and then I added milk until it thickened up- then added the cheese. Pretty typical from every other cheese sauce! After that, I just mixed the sauce, noodles, and crab meat and put them in a casserole dish and sprinkled buttery breadcrumbs on top and baked it all together. DELISH!Doesn't that look yummy? Here is a pic of the beautiful Filets with crab meat and mushroom gravy.... MMMM....That is just a perfect steak isn't it? Can't get much better than that meal!