Home Sweet Home

So sorry it's been so long since I posted :( I started a new job and I've been pretty consumed! Here's a little bit of my life lately! haha Charles and I decided to do some early spring cleaning!  Our house is super small and our kitchen is super, super small. Having been married for a little over 3 years, we noticed we were accumulating way too much stuff in our little house, see pictures below.

Yep, emptied out all the drawers and cabinets...

Yikes! That's a lot of stuff!

We had items on the counter, that needed to be hidden ...

Here she is, all neat a tidy!

Organized!

Cleaned up corner

This looks so much better and it's so much easier to find things!

These were full, now there's room to spare!

Home Sweet Home : Over 2 year old, $1 Wilton Gingerbread House

Oh my ... Can I just say, again, how much I adore my husband! He is hilarious and truly a gem! What other husband says, "okay, instead of watching football or studying for one of my grad school final exams tonight, I'll go to with you to Ihop to get your free birthday meal ecoupon and then come home and waste 2 hours making an old, stale gingerbread house!" hahahaha

So I got off work, met Charles at an investment property we may be purchasing (I really liked it).  Then we headed home, got changed ... into sweatpants a hoodie, because we were headed out to dinner.  You know that is the proper attire for Ihop :) We split a bacon cheeseburger, and both got waters. Went up to the register with a smile on our face and the email print out and left ... yep, almost $9 in free food and sadly the last of my free birthday ecoupons.  (no worries, we did tip our waitress eventhough she was ... well, once again y'all ... it was Ihop)

So on our way home, Charles said "Kim, I don't have much school work tonight.  Do you have any of those trashy shows you watch coming on? "  I then checked tvguide on my phone and sadly saw there was once again no Grey's or Private Practice.  So, what to do ?  Duh, decorate an over 2 year old Wilton Gingerbread house we bought at AC Moore for $1 that has been taking up room in my craft area!!!  And yes, Charles agreed upon those plans :) Not only did he agree, he took over the role of construction manager and entertainment specialist, i.e. brought his phone over and found an awesome Detriot, MI radio station on the internet that played great Christmas music.  We have made a gingerbread house before ... I think we were engaged, probably right before Christmas of '08, see picture below... haha.


Our first gingerbread house!


NC ...



SU ...





Wolfpack! I know ... Typical us :)






Icing fight !

Well, we wanted to see if we could make this house a little more sophisticated.  I'm just going to put some pictures up and you can see how the evening went!  haha we had so much fun! And once again ... I love that dear, sweet man with all my heart! I smile just thinking about him ! Praise God for my amazing husband and Christmas time :)

Charles holding the Gingerbread house kit

haha his genius plan to hold the walls in place

Me having fun decorating! Until my cheap plastic bag they gave me popped at the seam :(

CG putting the "snow" on the lawn

Paving the front walkway ...

A Barrett Gingerbread house isn't complete without a little icing fight :)

Icing tear ...

Our finished product !

It looks just like the box ! haha take the Wilton :)

I mean, I'd live there :)

Home Sweet Home : Now that's a toilet!

I few months ago I had the pleasure of toilet shopping with my mom for a new "throne" for her master bathroom, who knew there were so many choices !?  Tall, short, oval, round, energy efficient, bone, white, black, and on and on and on.  They toilets ranged anywhere from $77 to $700, yeah really who wants to own a piece of high end furniture to relieve themselves in ?  Well, my husband would :) He takes that time very seriously ... TMI ? 

yep, that's a commode

Well I was browsing the web and saw this ... Kohler Numi no really, click on it... it's a high end commode! I have know idea how much it retails for but wow ! I mean this thing looks amazing :) KOhler, feel free to send one to me, we would be wonderful product testers :) Yeah, did I just say that ?!



There it is !



oh yes and the remote

Maybe one day ... shoot and if it could clean itself !!! I'd be one happy lady :) Good job Kohler !

Home Sweet Home : Compact Multi-Use Furniture



From this plain ole couch ...



To a bunkbed in a matter of seconds !? WHAT !?

 Okay, I've seen this "system" on Pinterest a lot but I didn't know where you could find it.  Wait wait wait, not that we are getting this furniture or will ever be, but what an amazing space saving concept !? Someone in the US needs to retail these... because I think they are awesome !!!

oh yeah go here :) Bonbon Compact Living Solutions  AMAZING !!! Hey Bonbon, send me something pleaaseeeeee, anything will do... I love your stuff !


Love this ... just watch ...

 

yep, amazing ...

Back to this, say it ain't so :)

Tons of amazing designs with oodles of color choices ! Come on IKEA ... You need these :) and you need to send me one ! Thanks ! haha

Home Sweet Home : A Merry Little Christmas

Oh my gracious ! It's been so long since I've blogged ! I've been very very busy and I haven't found the time and well just to warn you ... this post is going to be pretty short. 

Charles and I have a fairly small house so we try not to fill it with a lot of junk. That being said, our Christmas tree was a fun challenge.  I saw a few years ago an idea that my aunt made and I fell in love ! 

Any idea what this precious little tree is made from ?

Here's a hint ... tomato

 Here we are with our precious little tree !

 The perfect height/size to put out and decorate in about 15 mins and enjoy for years to come !

 Charles likes decorating because every ornament is NCSU related :)

Here she is all shiny and bright ! 

I tried to find a blog/tutorial to make one but no one had one like this and I made mine last year.  Okay it's really really easy.  Easy enough to make themed kids/kitchen/outdoor trees and a lot of them !

Supplies
Tomato Cage - home improvement store
Garland - dollar tree/target/walmart.  I think I used 4 strands(buy extra, you can return it later)
One strand of lights - we had/you can purchase anywhere
One rubber band or other fastener

How to
1. Join 4 metal points of tomato cage with rubber band or other fastener. 
2. Start at the top of the "tree" wrapping the structure with garland to fill in all holes.
3. Secure garland at the bottom.
4. Wrap strand of lights around the tree.
5. Decorate !!!

Seriously it's that easy ! And mine cost about $8 !!! It's so easy to put up each year ... we keep the lights on and pop it out whenever we're ready to decorate :) and remember to light your Evergreen or Mistletoe candle to add a refreshing pine fragrance to the house !

Home Sweet Home : Our little Christmas preview

We love the Wolfpack !

And red and white

And left over wedding decorations (our wedding was 12/20/2008)

Silver Bells

Gotta have Mr. Wuf !

Hard to read but "Our First Christmas Together" 2008 married ornament :)

Yay Christmas time ! Charles and I were decorating our tree last night and he reminded me this is our 3rd Christmas together (married) I was like whaaatt we've only been married for almost 2 years ... christmas of 2008,2009, and now 2010 how special !

We don't go "all out" decorating for Christmas ... but there are a few little things we bring out every year.  More to come ...

Home Sweet Home : The joys of homeownership

Homeownership ? Is that a word !? Oh well :)  Charles and I own 2 houses.  We live in one (smaller house 2 bed 2 bath) and we rent out the larger one (3 bed 2 bath and bonus room) which we will move into once we have a family (and then rent out the smaller one).  haha Hope I didn't confuse you too much on that !


                                       Here's our house :) Isn't it precious !?

 But you know what's not precious ... sunfaded faux shutters and front door :(  We adore the sunlight that covers our home but it often puts a toll on your property.  Our neighbor is trying to sell his home and it's the exact same color as ours.  While over at his home this weekend I complimented his shutters and door.  He then said "well I've still got almost a full gallon of the paint, would you like to borrow it ?"   Free paint !? Yes please :)  Then I went on and said some silly comment like "if our property looks nice on the outside too, I'm sure it will help yours sell faster !"  Yeah, Kim "the dork" comes out ... So I went to Walmart, got some supplies and went to work !

                                             Freshly painted vs Sun faded

       Welcome to our home :)

  Much better :) Thanks for the paint neighbor !