House Update

I apologize for my lack of posting recently.  Moving is a pain in the a$$ let me tell you.  Especially since we painted so much of our new place, it has been taking awhile but we are LOVING the results.  I wanted to share with you some before and after pictures of what we have been hard at work on.  More will be to come once we get everything in place in some of the other rooms.

Kitchen (this was our biggest project):

Original kitchen

Work in progress

Cabinets off for sanding and painting

Finished product

Our red beautiful kitchen!

Dinning Room:

Original dinning room

In progress

Finished product with red stripped trim

Hall Bathroom:

Blue original bathroom

Tan and blue bathroom - after

More pictures to come as the week progresses! Then I can finally get to house projects...yay!

Runaway Dog

Yesterday I had a very scary experience...Toby got out of our fenced yard at our new house.  At the new place we have a doggie door that Toby has gotten used to going in and out over the past couple of days we have been over there working.  He always goes out to play in the yard for awhile but comes back in.  The whole yard is fenced, however, there are some areas with small gaps between the bottom of the fence and the yard.  I never thought he would be able to get through there though...the spaces seemed too small.  Well I was wrong.

I went over to the house after work to clean up some of the rooms so we could start moving furniture up this weekend.  I was in the bedroom cleaning the windows and mirrors and noticed that I hadn't seen Toby in awhile.  I looked outside from the window and couldn't see him in the backyard so I went to the deck and looked...still nothing.  I thought maybe he came inside and cooled off so I checked all the rooms and the basement...still no Toby.  I started to panic a little and walked out to the backyard and called his name...nothing!  Then it hit me...he got out!  I wasn't giving him attention and since Casey had been gone all day at work he was ready for someone to play with him...since I was cleaning he decided to go on a little "adventure" outside. 

I looked around the back and front yard calling his name but he didn't come running.  I started to panic so I called Casey - he didn't answer.  Called my mom and dad...they both said to keep calling his name, notify the neighbors, walk up and down the streets, or get in my car and drive around and call his name.  I was so scared!! I thought of every worst possible situation: he was lost in this new neighborhood that he wasn't familiar with, someone has him, he got in a confrontation with a bigger dog and could be hurt, etc.  The worst thing was that I knew he didn't have a name tag on...his last one recently fell off - the circular clasp snapped and we hadn't gotten a new one.  Now if anyone found our dog, they wouldn't know who he is, where he was from, or who to call.  AWFUL!!!

I started to feel tears rush to my eyes as the time passed and Toby didn't appear.  I asked neighbors if they had seen him...no luck.  I asked the ice cream man if he had seen him...he hadn't.  I thought he may have gone to the wooded area behind our house where there is a creek and lots of land.  I tried to look back there but it was so wooded I couldn't navigate my way through. 

I called my parents again crying and panicking.  My dad said he would come over and help me look and so did my mom.  Casey couldn't get out of work - they were pretty busy.  He said that Toby would find his way back...he is a smart dog and he wouldn't leave us for good.  I was worried because it is a new place - he hasn't been here that many times so how would he know where we live in this BIG neighborhood. 

I called around the house for him and I got in my car and drove up and down the streets a couple more times.  I was starting to think I wouldn't find him and I would have to make fliers or something.  By this time, 30 or so minutes had passed but it seemed like an eternity!  I went on one last car ride around the block yelling his name out the windows...still no luck.  I came back to the house and searched around the front yard yelling his name.  I went into the backyard and yelled for him some more.  I looked back at the woods and there he was!!! He was standing on the other side of the fence like he was there the whole time waiting to be let in.  I felt a RUSH of relief!  He found his way back thank goodness!! I was so happy to see him, but SO mad at the same time.

It seemed like he was a little kid who went out to explore our new area and came right back...acting like it was no big deal.  Gave me a freaking heart attack but I am so grateful that he knew to come back. 

Casey is going to do a yard fix-up today and secure the gaps between the fencing and the ground so we don't have this issue again.  Even if he knows to come back, I don't want to take the risk of testing it out. 

Toby is like our child...I felt so irresponsible and like I had lost our baby.  I thought about holding him, snuggling at night, playing...all the good times and why we loved this dog when he was gone.  I would have been CRUSHED if we was missing longer than he was...even worse, if we never found him.  Boys will be boys and stuff happens...I am just glad he is home and safe!

First things first, we are getting him a tag TODAY (they were closed last night by the time I got there).  That was the worst...knowing that he was out there without any ID.  Who knows who would have taken him and kept him as their own. 

So now on top of painting and moving and cleaning at the new house, we had our first major scare!  Let's hope that we got that out of the way early and don't have another one like that for awhile...or ever!

Amy Cornwell Designs

The other day I came across this GREAT giveaway going on with Jen at Tatertots and Jello.  Amy Cornwell makes some of the most beautiful personalized jewelry I have seen.  You can make any order completely customized from the stamping down to the exact charms you want.  You can get a few charms now and say down the road you want a charm for a recent addition to your family, you can get one made and add it to a necklace or bracelet. 

Here are some of my favorites:

 They even have customizable things for men like cuffs, key chains, and dog tags.

Check out Amy's store and enter the giveaway over at Tatertots and Jello!



Happy 21st Sissy!

Today is my sissy's 21st birthday!  I can't believe she is already 21!  Seems like yesterday it was y 21st birthday down at MU...now it's her turn.

My sister is an amazingly beautiful young lady - she is independent, strong, and has a great heart.  She is my best friend and always has been since we were little.  Some people find that hard to believe - usually when you are younger you fight with your siblings...not us!  We would cry when we couldn't play together...we loved each other and still have as much fun now as we did back then!


pretty face

 



my 21st birthday

Tonight my family and I are going to MU to celebrate with Abby and her friends.  Should be a GOOD time! 

Love you Sissy!  Happy Birthday!

Sore and Tired Monday

This weekend was FULL of packing, moving, lifting, and painting.  I am worn out!  I thought painting would be fun and go pretty fast...well I was wrong.  It was fun because of the great company we had over the weekend helping us, but it didn't go so fast. 

Progress....

We have moved most of our stuff to the new house and it is just sitting in the garage waiting for us to finish painting and cleaning before it is put in its proper place.  I think I gained some muscle this weekend lifting all that stuff!  Luckily one of our friends was kind enough to left us use his U-Hale truck which made it a lot easier. 

As for painting...we have our bedroom, living room and dinning room complete (except for the trim and touch ups).  We have the kitchen left - which is a BIG project - as well as the hall bathroom and basement.  The basement has one coat on it, so it just requires some touch up.  The entryway is mostly complete, however, the ceilings are SUPER high, so we are waiting for my dad to bring over a super tall ladder to help us get those tall spots.  As you will see, everything is being painted white.  We wanted to do something easy and all one color for sake of saving on buying paint.  Also, we figured that we cover the walls with decorations anyways, and white looks good with just about everything.  It will make the place look nice fresh and crisp!

before painting...notice the pink wall to the left and the lower half of the wall straight ahead

living room painted white



dining room - these walls had some sponging work around the lower half as well like the living room



dining room painted white



momma hard at work

The paint sticks have been GREAT!  Painting has flown by with those!  Pretty much half of the house painted with 1/2 completely finished in one weekend isn't too shabby.  We have been working around the clock trying to get as much done as possible.

The kitchen is put on hold until we can get a paint sprayer for the insides.  Then once we start moving furniture in our garage will be free for us to spray the doors of the cabinets (dad's suggestion which is a good one). 


All the cabinets from the kitchen - Casey is taking off the hardware and numbering them



empty kitchen!



my dad sanding down the cabinets and drawers

 Our next steps are finishing up the main painting of the downstairs, hallway, and bathroom...paint the trim and touch up any windows/doors that need it...clean everything REAL well...move in our stuff. 

Seems like a lot, but hopefully in this next weekend we can knock it out like we did this past one. 

Our friends and family helped tremendously....thank you to all that came over and painted with us!

The next couple of days we get a nice break and get to go down to Columbia for my sissy's 21st! I'm really glad we will have a nice relaxing couple of days, but then it's back to work!

Cleaning, Painting, Packing...

Cleaning, painting and packing have become my new life these past couple of weeks and will continue to be now that we have OUR NEW PLACE!  This weekend we are having a painting party to give the house a fresh new look.  Then we will be cleaning and moving stuff over gradually before the first of August.  But it doesn't stop there...then we have to clean our OLD place...ugh! 

Casey and I don't paint a whole lot, so I did some research on some "tips and tricks" before we get started.  Here are some great tips that I found and thought I would pass along to you all:

1. Don't spend tons of money on nice drop cloths from the hardware store.  Head of to Goodwill and buy sheets for $2.  Then you can re-use them for future painting/art projects.  I did this yesterday...such a GREAT idea!

2. When you are finished painting for the night and plan on continuing the next day with the same color, wrap your brushes in a plastic bag or saran wrap and place them in the fridge.  This way, you can pick up where you left off the next day and not have to worry about washes your brushes every night.  Place the brushes in the freezer if you don't plan on painting for the next few days.

3. Paintsticks!! This things look SO cool!  They have a syringes on them so you can suck up the paint and roll it onto the walls.  This allows you to paint continuously without having to dip your roller in the paint every 5 minutes.  It is also a HUGE time saver...so I hear - I will let you know how it goes when we test it out this weekend.

4. Don't worry about using painters tap on EVERYTHING.  If you are painting around trim or the windows, keep a wet cloth near buy and use this to wipe off your "oops".

5. This is the most important TIP...HAVE FUN!  Make painting a party!! Play music, invite your friends over, mix a few cocktails and get down to business.  This will help the tedious task of panting fly by and before you know it your walls will be painted!



I can't wait to show you all our new home once we get it painted and everything moved in!!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Mom's Surprise Party - Part 2

Yesterday I posted a couple projects that I made for my mom's surprise party this past Saturday.  However, the BIG hit of the party was the cake pops....everyone LOVED them, passer-by-ers asked what they were, and people asked to take some home.  They were DELICIOSO!

CAKE POPS:

Ingredients:

box of cake mix

icing

3 bags of chocolate chips (white or chocolate)

sprinkles

lollipop sticks

styrofoam

basket

This my first attempt at cake pops so I didn't really know what to expect going into it.  Two things I took away from it:

1. It is time consuming, so allocate PLENTY of time for the project

2. Let the cake/icing mixture sit in the fridge longer

First step is to bake the cake.  I started at about 8:30 am Saturday morning and put the cake in the oven for 30 minutes. I used a Devil's Food cake mix and baked it in a regular cake pan. 

While the cake was cooking, I used the time to decorate my basket where the cake pops will be displayed.  I wanted to use ALL my time wisely knowing that I had to get it all done that day.  I had gotten a teal basket from Michaels and paired it with yellow ribbon as an accent.  The color scheme for all my decorations were blue, pink, yellow, and green - everything from the sign down to the sprinkles coordinated :)

By this time, the cake is finished baking.  Take it out and let it cool for about 20-30 minutes.  I got a little anxious during this phase and think I could have let it sit for 10 more minutes.

After the cake is cool, you are going to take a fork and crumble it up.  Yes that's right - the cake you spend an hour on baking, cooking, and cooling will be a crumbled mess!



Pour the cake crumbs into a large bowl.  Next add 1/2 can of icing.  I used Chocolate Whipped icing. 

** Side Note:  While looking up recipes for Cake Pops, there are a couple different ways to add this "sticking" agent to the cake.  Some people just use icing, some use cream cheese, and some combine both.  If you feel adventurous, try out the cream cheese/icing mixture - I think I am next time around.

In order to combine the cake and icing, it calls for some "down and dirty" time.  Use your hands to get in there and distribute the icing throughout the cake.  It should form into a moist ball when you are finished.

Now it's time to make the cake balls.  Take a cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper.  Form 1" balls from the mixture and set onto the paper.  1 box of cake should form around 40-50 cake balls, depending on the size you make them.

Now it is time to wait again...the cake balls need to cool and harden in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  I would say by this time it was 10 am (an hour and a half had passed, just to give you an idea of how long these things take).

While the cake balls are in the fridge, prep your next station.  Get out a couple bowls for melting the chocolate chips/dipping, lay out your lollipop sticks, get your styrofoam near by, and set up some small bowls for sprinkle decorating.

Pour a bag of the white chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and cook for 1 minute 10 seconds.  This should be just enough to melt the chocolate without over-doing it.  Mix the white chocolate until you get a smooth texture.

Once your chocolate is melted you are ready to start the decorating process.  This next step was learned from some trail and error - putting the sticks into the pops.  I first just stuck them in, but quickly found that the density of the white chocolate seemed to pull the cake right off the stick.  In order to help make the sticks "stick" in the cake, I used the chocolate as "glue".  I dipped each stick into the white chocolate and then stuck it into the cake.  I let the cake pops sit a little while so the chocolate could get hard and serve its true purpose as "glue".  This helped TREMENDOUSLY!

Now it's time to dip and decorate!  This takes the longest...probably took me about an hour.  Since the white chocolate I used was so dense, I couldn't really dip the whole pop into the chocolate.  I held the pop at an angle and used a spoon to cover the cake.  Make sure to let it hang over the bowl while the access drips off - this will help you get a smooth round finish.  As soon as I was done covering them, I stuck the stick into the styrofoam to let them harden.  I covered about half in just plain white chocolate, and the others I used my colored sugar sprinkles.  To add the sprinkles, I covered the cake in white chocolate and then held it over a small bowl while I sprinkled the sugar over top. 

Once the decorating is done and all the pops are in the styrofoam, but them in the fridge to allow the chocolate to harden.  I left them in there until the party that night.

Right before I left for the party, I took the pops out and arranged them for the basket display.  I used two styrofoam blocks, so I made sure that an equal amount of sprinkle vs. plain white chocolate were in both blocks.  I filled these up IN the basket (when all the pops are in the styrofoam, it gets heavy!  Take out your pops and put the styrofoam into the basket before you start re-arranging the pops the way you like them). 

Once all the pops were in place, I used a pink colored confetti "grass" to cover up the white styrofoam that was showing through.

While my cake pops didn't have the smoothest finish, they were VERY yummy!  They stayed SO moist the entire night and were enjoyed by everyone.  Even though it was time consuming, the end result was well worth it! 

The party was great!  My mom had such a good time, and that was all that mattered to me.  Here are some pictures from the night:

SUPRISE!

She was surprised...



making the rounds to say hello

 

3 beautiful ladies...mom and her daughters!



sisters, sisters!

me, sissy, and our besties!

the bf with another one of my besties!



yummy food!

 

Overall it was a great success!  Happy Birthday to you MOM!