Getting to be Fall...

What a wonderfully crisp fall morning today!!  I stepped outside with my dog and didn't want to come in. I threw on a sweatshirt and enjoyed the weather for a minute. 

This also makes me realize moreso that we need to finish to house so I can decorate it.  AND decorate for fall and the upcoming winter. I've always wanted to have a cute fall setup on the doorstep, too. Something like a nice big planter with mums and a cute pumpkin or 2.  Hmm... I think I'm gonna have to do that soon. And maybe bake something with pumpkin, too. YUMMM!! Nothing beats the smell of fresh baked pumpkin in the fall. 

Any fun fall decorating or baking plans in your future?I love hearing all the ideas. 

Design Board - Office

Unlike the living and dining rooms, I haven't even started the office. However, I do still have tons of ideas and created a design board based on them. Right now I figured it was best to get the downstairs in order before addressing the upstairs rooms and bathrooms. If I only had more time and money, I'd have it all done ASAP. Oh well...slowly but surely, right? :)

As for the office, my biggest goal is to have TWO desks. My husband stole the only desk we have since we works from home. I've always liked having a desk to pay bills and write blogs, or just to have a space to do crafts upstairs. Unfortunately we haven't had the space (until now) to even consider that option. 

Ideally what I want to do is to use two tables as desks. I've seen a couple that have been fancied up with some woodwork and think that would be a good idea. Then for storage, I'm going to get an Expedit shelf from Ikea. I've been wanting one for years and haven't had the space, so I'm pretty excited for the possibility. Plus the great thing about the desk is the organization!!  I love that it gives a room so much storage and can easily hide all the "stuff" with cute baskets and bins, and you all know organization is key in my household. LOL!

Other than the desks and Expedit shelf, I'd like to put up a floating shelf above each desk with a bulletin board or something fun hung below it. Then I may possibly add some floating corner shelves if space allows for it. 

Overall, tons of great ideas (probably too many), really, just have to find the tables to get the room essentials started. 

I'm contemplating a fun color for my desk. Pink? Turquoise? Grey?  What are your thoughts?

Morning Moon Pictures

Check out my photo blog for some pictures of a morning moon I shot the other day.

Love!!!! 

Design Board - Dining Room

As I mentioned before, I have created or am working on design boards for each room in the house that I  plan to make changes to. Below is the design board for the dining room.

The one thing I knew I wanted was striped walls, so that was the first thing we did.  Since there was already a chair rail on the wall, we didn't want to remove it for fear of damaging the wall, we decided to do framing on the bottom half of the wall.  Now, we've had a hundred projects going on so the framing just got started last weekend, thanks to my dad.  We have a couple left to do, then hopefully, I can post a tutorial and before/afters. 

The other hold up on completing the dining room is the lack of a dining room table.  My grandpa recently sold his house and downsized. When he did, the one thing my dad said he wanted was his childhood dining room table. It's the only table he remembers having throughout his childhood. It's a super sturdy large wooden table. Now... My dad was one of eight kids,so the tablet is HUGE and expands up to 10 feet long. Seems like I can have a huge family gathering anytime. Lol!!  Anyways, my dad is currently sanding it down and reinforcing some things so it will last me another 60+ years. I can't wait to get it and have it in our house!!!

As with the living room, there have been some minor changes in the grand plan, which you will see in the finished room. Can't wait for it to be done!!!! :))

Design Board - Living Room

Below is the design board I created for our living room. I've been searching like crazy to find good deals, and still get fun and modern stuff. I'd say I did a darn good job. Once we get everything put together and decorated, I'll post some before/after pics. 

Overall, I wanted clean, yet comfy. I think this board encompasses my ideas... Though I have been seeing some great beach themed stuff on Pinterest lately and have always loved that too, so I may add some beach textures to the room. I cant wait to be finished!!! :))

SOLD!!

As of a couple weeks ago, we closed on the new house and moved in. We have been so extremely busy that I haven't had enough time to sleep, let alone write blog posts. Sorry, y'all!  But I'm sure you can understand.

We have been busy trying to get the hardwoods down, floors painted, and general maintenance done. Then add to that, moving and unpacking. One thing I can say for sure, I definitely wouldn't recommend living in a construction zone. Boy, it's been rough, especially since we have only been able to live in the kitchen and our bedroom. Everything else is chaos.

I'll have pictures coming soon of the design boards and before/after.

I Know... I've Been MIA. There's a Reason....

Horrible picture, compliments of the MLS site listing ;)

Wow, have things been busy lately!  So sorry, folks!  Those of you who I’m friends with on Facebook probably already know…. We’re under contract and buying our first house!  Oh yes… the day is almost here!!!  We close next week.  Is this for real?!  Someone pinch me.  I couldn’t be any happier!! : )))))))

Of course this means our time has been consumed with dealing with sellers and realtors, shopping for flooring, making general house decisions etc.

Once we get into the house, I’ll post some pictures.  And of COURSE, I’ll put the before and after pictures up once we start working on the house.  We have tons of plans for the house.

Check back often for updates….

 

Homemade Almond Butter

Typically, I don't eat much meat, so I'm always looking for other food options that contain a lot of protein.  I really like peanut butter, but it gets old eating it nearly every day on apples, bananas and other foods.  So I decided to try almond butter.  I looked around at a few different stores, but the cheapest one I found was $5 or $6.  So... per typical cheapo mentality, I decided to make it myself at home.  According to my Vitamix recipe for peanut butter, you just add a couple cups of peanuts and grind... and grind.... then grind some more.  After 15 minutes, if it's still not creamy enough, you can add a little bit of olive oil to help it get creamier.  

I decided to try making almond butter with the Vitamix peanut butter recipe.....which as I said, is as simple as a couple cups of nuts and mix, mix, mix... then add a bit of olive oil to help it be extra creamy (but you don't have to).

Once done mixing, just spoon it into a container and stick in the fridge to cool off.

Of course nothing goes better than nut butter and apple, especially knowing that the only ingredients in it are nuts and a bit of olive oil.  Nothing else.  No preservatives.

Mmmm yum!!!

Have you tried making any kind of nut butters?  If so, what kind?

Easy, Cheap, DIY Upholstered Headboard

Oops, didn't realize the pillows weren't centered.

My husband and I have been eyeing upholstered headboards for quite some time, and have been searching for something in a reasonable price range.  Unfortunately we haven't found anything worth spending our hard earned money on....

So where does that lead us?

We decided to make our own.

Once we decided to make one, I started keeping an eye out on Pinterest (follow me) and searching online for the best DIY version.  I found a few I liked bits and pieces of, but more so just decided to make it my own way.  

Here's the how to......

Since we have a queen size bed, we decided to get a piece of plywood that's 60"x32", which is the same width as the bed and gave us the height that we wanted.

Once I sanded off the rough edges (so we didn't get splinters why we did our project), we covered the front with a layer of foam --- now, let me tell you my SECRET.... I used a twin size foam mattress pad.  Oh yes.. It was $10 compared to a whopping $40!!  I about had a heart attack when the craft store priced theirs at $17.99/yard.

We used some tacky glue (the only kind of glue we had other than hot glue that didn't stick) and then pressed the foam down on the board.  Hense, the hilarious picture of us pressing it :) 

After the foam, we covered it with a double layer of batting.  We secured this to the back with a staple gun, being sure to secure it tightly all the way around, then trimmed the edges up since there was a lot of spillover.

Next, we secured the fabric.  We decided we wanted a linen/tweed type fabric, which is super popular right now and easy to find at Hobby Lobby or Joann Fabrics (don't forget your 40% off coupon with that!).  We secured the fabric with the staple gun as well.  Since the linen/tweed fabric is so thin, we wanted to be sure the staples didn't pull right out, so we folded the edges over.  Plus, this gave it a much smoother look.

Lastly, we folded all the corners nicely and trimmed excess fabric to make it look much nicer on the backside.

Once we had the actual headboard built, we decided to add some nail head trim.  Love, love, love the lock of this!!
After we completed the entire headboard, we built the stand out of leftover plywood.  Just made an upsidedown double "T," so it secures to the metal frame and attaches to the back of the headboard.  

I'm sure you're wondering how much all this cost.....

Here's the breakdown:
-Plywood (purchased 4'8' and cut at Home Depot for FREE) $25
-Foam $10
-Batting from Joann's with a 40% off coupon $15
-2 yd fabric from Joann's on sale for $2.99/yard
    -Nail head trim from Joann's with 40% off coupon    
      $12

                         Total Spent: only $68.

Compare that to the $1000+ Pottery Barn style or the $200 Target one (which is the cheapest I could find online)

I'm usually cheap, but not all the time....

The majority of the time, I'm a huge cheapass.  How do you ask?  Well, when it comes to clothes I very rarely pay full price for them unless it's a "gotta have it" kind of thing.  I pretty much shop the sales, and/or TJMaxx, and always try to get it for 70% off.  Yes, that's my goal.  I know it's crazy, but if you shop often enough, you'd be surprised what you can save.  For example, at Christmas, I got my husband a $25 hat from Banana Republic for only $2.  Yes.  It was on sale, plus an additional percentage off of sale, then I used some rewards I had from my credit card.  Out of pocket, I only spent $2.  Now THAT is my favorite kind of deal.

I may be the best at getting great deals on clothes, but you can get just as good of deals on home goods and groceries.  Whenever I have a coupon for something I know that I will use in the future, I hang on to it and keep an eye out for the product to go on sale before the coupon expires.  The other great thing is that you can double up many store coupons with manufacturer coupons.  I try to stick to the groceries that are on sale when shopping, especially produce since we eat so much of it.  We tend to stock up on whatever we can, though we do have very minimal space to stock up on goods.  The biggest thing we stock up on is laundry soap, since it goes on sale for $1.88 per container back home.  So we bribe my parents to get it for us, or stock up whenever we're home.  It's too big of a cost savings not to take advantage of it.  When there are big sales on produce, we try to buy as much as we have space for in our freezer, and freeze whatever we can.  Which works out to be cheaper and healthier for smoothies.

I save and pinch where I can.  Partially because right now nearly every extra penny is going into savings for our house, but also because why not take a little bit of time to research and clip coupons to save quite a bit of money in the long run.  I keep saying that once I'm rich and famous, I won't be lazy and just go out and buy whatever just because I have the money, but I still plan to shop smart.

So even though I do pinch and spend smart 95% of the time..... there was this absolutely "just gotta have it" kinda purse at TJ Maxx a couple months ago.  I carried it around the store for awhile, while I was deciding on whether or not to buy it... since it was more than I typically like to spend on a purse.  It was an originally priced $400 purse.... and gorgeous!  So.... I had to buy it.  I just love, love, love it.  And apparently others do too, since I get compliments on it wherever I go.  :))

Moral of the story:  If you spend smart most of the time, it allows for more smart "splurges."

Do you save where you can, so you have the capability to splurge when you want to?

Cleanse Update - Final Days

Source

So at this point, I'm sure you all are wondering how everything went with the last week or so of the cleanse.  Rather than bore you with the details of what I ate each day, since it's pretty much the same as the previous couple of posts, I thought I'd just go over the cleanse itself.

As I mentioned before, the idea behind the cleanse was to rid our bodies of the sugar, flour, gluten, and animal by products.  From the first few days, I felt tremendously better.  I felt less bloated, and had a lot more energy.  Overall, I just felt way better.  My skin started clearing up a lot more, too.

We cheated a couple of times with pizza and Mexican, and I will say that the day after I ate bad, I felt like crap!  Workouts were rough the day after we cheated.  You know.... the more I ate the "correct" way during the cleanse, the better I felt, and the more I kept thinking, "there must be something to this Vegan and gluten free thing."  

Here I am, a couple of days after the cleanse, and I've now eaten some cheese and my body is already rejecting it.  My hands are swollen, my stomach is grumbling and I'm sure in about 3 days, my face will start breaking out again.

The biggest struggle I believe we had was the lack of planning and scheduling meals.  Since we didn't plan well, we ended up eating a lot of the same stuff, which of course got boring.  Being bored led to the cheating.

All in all, I'd say the cleanse was successful and a really good experience.  I didn't have a lot of cravings for bad food during the cleanse.  Though my husband wasn't so lucky.  Since he gave up coffee and caffeine, he was pretty miserable the first week.  He was going through some major caffeine withdrawals without his daily cup of java, so decided to try decaf, but hated that more than not having any coffee.  I plan to continue eating mostly gluten free and vegan as much as possible since I'm still continuing on my weight loss journey and I feel it's the next step for me.

Has anyone else out there tried a cleanse?  Has it worked for you?  I'm always open to trying new things.

Follow the entire cleanse series below....
          Days 1-4 - The Beginning
          Days 5-7 - Trying to Eat Right While Eating Out
          Days 8-11 - Getting Bored with food

Cleanse Update - Days 8-11

Follow the the cleanse from the beginning here.

All days --Basically I'm getting bored with the same kinds of foods.  Planning on searching for new ideas for next week.  Hopefully we can find something new and delicious... and exciting to make. 

What I ate....

Day 8 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie -- Kale, strawberries, kiwi, banana

         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; hummus and tortilla chips

         -- Dinner --Fancy red potatoes :)

         -- Snacks -- Peanut butter and banana; no bake energy bites

Day 9 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie

         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; hummus and tortilla chips

         -- Dinner --Grilled zucchini; popcorn

         -- Snacks -- No bake energy bites; Naval orange

Day 10 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie

         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; leftover red potatoes

         -- Dinner -- Veggie Thai Spring Roll (SOOOO GOOD!!!); popcorn

         -- Snacks -- Peanut butter and banana

Day 11 -- Breakfast --Homemade oatmeal with apple, cinnamon and light agave nectar

         -- Lunch -- Romaine salad with mushrooms, tomato and Italian dressing; Strawberry/blackberry fruit salad

         -- Dinner -- **Cheat day** Slice of pizza

         -- Snacks -- Spoonful of peanut butter

Cleanse Update - Days 5-7 - Trying To Eat Right While Eating Out.

Pho Soup

Vegan Taco Salad

Rice Chex

Read from the beginning here. 

Days 5 though 7 were Friday, Saturday, Sunday.... of course the hardest days of the week in my book.  We always tend to run around more on the weekends or have no desire to cook after the long week, therefore tend to eat out more on the weekends.

Here's how it went:

Day 5 -Felt pretty good, but starting to wish I could have a bit of junk food in my life

Day 6 - Caved in and cheated a little bit with some Gluten Free pizza with cheese on it.... agh

Day 7 - Back on track again, but super bad munchies.  A result of yesterdays slip up?  Hmm... perhaps.

What I ate....

Day 5 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie -- Kale, strawberries, kiwi, banana

         -- Lunch -- Leftover spaghetti squash from previous day, Hummus and rice crackers

         -- Dinner -- Ate at this place called Wild Cow in East Nashville.  Got a vegan taco salad.

             Looks great, and tasted pretty good too.

         -- Snacks -- No bake energy bites. These are homemade GF bites made from oatmeal,

             peanut butter etc.  Recipe to come.

Day 6 -- Breakfast -- Green smoothie

         -- Lunch -- Fajitas from Mexican restaurant

         -- Dinner -- Gluten free pizza crust with tomato and basil and cheese. *gasp* this is where we cheated.

         -- Snacks -- No bake energy bites; dried fruit bar from Trader Joes (these are AMAZING,

             healthy, updated version of fruit roll ups.  So good!!)

Day 7 -- Breakfast -- Rice Chex with Almond Milk

         -- Lunch -- Homemade veggie pho soup again.  YUM!!

         -- Dinner -- popcorn (typical Sunday night meal)

         -- Snacks -- Banana with peanut butter; energy bites; dried fruit bar.

21 Day Quantum Wellness Cleanse

source

My hubby and I have decided to do a 21 day cleanse in order to rid ourselves of the crap we tend to eat - gluten and animal byproducts.  The idea behind the cleanse is that it will clean our your system and break your desire to eat the bad flour, caffeine, animal products.  After all, those are the products that slow us down, make us feel like crap and overall, make us hungry all the time and fat.  And did I mention those products, particularly the gluten laced products, sugar, and animal products are typically what cause CANCER and early death?

That makes me NEVER want to eat animal products again......

Now, I know this sounds completely crazy to try and go vegan AND gluten free, but it's been surprisingly easy thus far and we're just starting day 5.

The general idea?  Eat FRESH.  

We've been eating mostly fresh veggies, salads, fruits, nuts, etc.  I love most of this stuff anyways!!  And So far with 4 complete days these are the current results:

-Days 1 and 2 - felt bloated from extra fiber from veggies and thought I was hungry constantly.
-Day 3 - munchies are GONE!  I no longer felt the need to eat excessively, eat sugar, etc.  Also cannot get enough water, I've been drinking almost double what I typically drink.  I guess due to the "detox" process of ridding the body of the crap.  Also, super tired.  Not sure if this is due to stress from work and/or a double workout on day 2.  Time will tell.
-Day 4 -  Feeling GREAT!  Realized I don't need as much to eat as I typically do consume.  Skin is starting to rid of the crap, too!!  They say a cleanse can be really good for people with acne and stomach problems, which is what me and my husband both have issues with.

What have I been eating, you ask.... FAN-TASTIC QUESTION!!
Day 1 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie made from Kale, Grapes, Banana, and Strawberry
          -- Lunch -- Salad with mushrooms and cabbage and balsamic dressing;
              Hummus with GF rice crax.
          -- Dinner -- Popcorn (yes, it's gluten free if you don't make the nasty bagged kind)
          -- Snacks -- Apple

Day 2 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie (same)
          -- Lunch -- Salad with mushrooms and cabbage and balsamic dressing;
              Hummus with GF rice crax.
          -- Dinner -- Homemade Chinese Pho soup (recipe coming soon!!)
          -- Snacks -- Apple and handful popcorn

Day 3 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie (same)
          -- Lunch -- Steamed broccoli and rice
          -- Dinner -- Tons and tons of green beans and a small batch of popcorn
          -- Snacks -- Banana and peanut butter

Day 4 -- Breakfast -- Green Smoothie (same)
          -- Lunch -- Sauteed zuchinni and mushrooms with brown rice
          -- Dinner -- Spaghetti squash with garlic, spinach, tomato and basil. YUMM!
          -- Snacks -- Apple and peanut butter

At this point, I'm really excited to see what happens with my body in the next few days, especially now that cravings are gone.

And yes, I KNOW I have a small addiction to popcorn.  it's a super quick meal for me when I don't have a lot of time. Don't judge. :)

Spaghetti Squash 3 Ways

There have been a ton of spaghetti squash recipes on Pinterest lately and every time I see them, I contemplate making something.  The hubbs made some spaghetti with spaghetti squash awhile back, but I wasn't a big fan of it myself.  So this week while my husband's away I figured I'd try it a couple of different ways by cooking it myself.  After all, it's a fairly inexpensive and healthy meal.  I'm determined to like it, so here are the first 3 recipes I've tried, and I'm sure there will be 1,000 recipe trials, too.

Version 1 - Garlic and Parmesan Cheese
Cooked spaghetti in oven according to directions on label, then added a bit of parmesan cheese, garlic and seasoning.  This was OK, however trying it for the first time, it was a bit different than what I expected.

Version 2 - Sauteed Garlic and Spinach

For this version I followed different cooking directions for the spaghetti squash.  The previous version says to cut the squash in half and cook for 45 mins, but doesn't specify to turn it upside down.  This one stated to turn it upside down, and BOY, does it make a difference.  The squash was more moist, more cooked and less crispy.  So much better!!  While I waited for the spag squash to cool a bit, I sauteed up some garlic and spinach and then tossed it into the spag squash.  DELISH!

Version 3 - Pesto, Tomato, Basil and Mushroom

As I mentioned before in my mushroom risotto post, I love mushrooms with anything and everything, so of course I put them in this version, too.  This one has sauteed tomato, basil, mushrooms and pesto added to the spaghetti squash.  I really wasn't a huge fan of the pesto with this, so if I make it again, I'll definitely tweak the recipe.

Are there are good recipes you've tried that you want to share?  I'm always open to more suggestions.