August 2009 Recap

We're more than halfway through the year, so I thought I would make a list of accomplished goals so far for 2009.

• Increase emergency savings by 2009
• Have garage sale-ing fund up to $100 by start of summer
• Have one month's worth of meat in the freezer.
• Go camping
• Go to the Renaissance Festival
• Throw 2-3 good parties (Culoare Zi and Paul and Mandy's party)
• Finish painting rooms in house
• Plant a vegetable garden
• Go to Wisconsin
• Get together with family (both sides) about once a week

Accomplished goals of goals set for the year: 31%

Goals we are still making progress on:

• Have one month's worth of expenses saved up
• Learn canning: I am waiting for apple season to get in full swing so that I can make some applesauce.
• Go to California: I'll be flying out within a week or two, depending on when this little baby decides to come!
• Read twelve non-fiction books this year Books read to date: 5

Other things we accomplished this month:

• Painted the windowsills outside in the front
• Painted the paneling in the kitchen
• Flew my mom home for two weeks
• Continued with basement demolition
• Planted a garden by the stairs

Summer is almost over but I think we've really lived it up this year!

Makeover on a Dime, I mean, Penny.

I am in the middle of updating my kitchen for as little moolah as possible. The goal is to fix up the current fixtures, walls and cabinets so that the room is a little prettier, but not spend any significant money that would be better saved for the total remodel (a few years in the future).

Yesterday I started painting the paneling. Well, to be accurate, I primed the paneling. It took me two hours to sand it down and then clean up all the dust, and then another two hours to put a coat of primer on. That about did me in, so I decided to call it a day.

Today I'm not home, so instead of working on the kitchen, I've been browsing through Better Homes and Gardens' website in search of projects on the cheap that I could incorporate into our kitchen. I came across this backsplash and figured it could be replicated pretty easily.

These tiles from Lowes are $0.28 each,

These are about 6 inches wide, and I would need about 40 of them. ($11.20) Then one of these sheets,

at about ten dollars for the square foot, would provide me with the accent tiles.

Twenty dollars for a backsplash isn't bad, don't you think?

Linked to It's Great to Be Home's Inspiration Tuesday

Pretty Little Box

I recently transformed this little guy, found at a Goodwill for a couple bucks,

into this pretty piece for our living room.

I had been looking for a pretty little box to keep on our coffee table in the living room to provide a home for the little bits of clutter that naturally accumulate there like pens and paper and such. When I saw this box at Goodwill, I knew it could be transformed into something much nicer, and it would serve my purposes perfectly.

This little box's transformation was fraught with trial and error though, and it took quite a while to achieve the look I was going for. I had picked up a couple of metallic craft paints at Hobby Lobby that I thought would work but they turned out to be terrible. So I let it sit for a while and thought about what other options I could do for this little box.

The first thing I did was remove the plastic photo insert on the top part. It came out without a struggle, as did the glass top where you are supposed to insert a photo.

Then, as I mentioned, I first painted it a metallic taupe, but the coverage wasn't good, nor was the color. Than I tried a warm silver color, but that didn't work either.

Finally I settled on painting the whole thing white and using the metallic taupe paint to add in some pretty accents. My BFF, white spray paint, stepped in again, and worked her magic.

Then I painted some pretty little accents over the white to give it some interest, and tie it into the rest of the colors in the living room.

When all the paint was dry, I re glued the little knob on the drawer, and cut scrapbook paper to fit in the photo insert for the top, and to line the bottom of the drawer.

This little box now sits on my coffee table next to the laptop and holds pens in the little drawer,

and stamps, sticky notes and a small notebook for jotting things down under the lid.

It is now so much prettier and so very useful! Most of all I love that it is one of a kind. What did you work on over the weekend?

Linked to Thrifty Treasures and Metamorphosis Monday.

Hooked On Gossip Girl

image taken from here

Let me just say that I was skeptical about this show when it first came out. I didn't think it could be all that great. I've been sucked in along with the masses though. I love shows that have intricate relationship arcs that you have to keep track of, and Gossip Girl is full of them. Plus, I am a sucker for a great love story, and the development of Chuck and Blair's relationship throughout season 2 had me swooning. Leighton Meester is a great actress, but Ed Westwick does a superb job playing the "Basstard" that actually has a redeemeable soul. I haven't seen acting of this calibre in a long, long time. He is capable of translating an emotion with a single look, and boy, can he deliver a line! This gives his character so much depth and really draws you into the story.

And can I just say that I waited all season for this moment? Along with a million other fans, I am sure.

gossipgirlfan.org

Gossip Girl returns on September 14, and you can be sure I'll be watching!

xoxo,

Gossip Girl

Linked to Hooked On Houses

Making Some Room

I've mentioned a few times that we've started demolition in the basement. We're kind of overwhelmed by the amount of garbage that this demo is generating. There isn't really anything that can be done about it, but it is slowing the process down as we're making garbage faster than we can get rid of it each week.

However, we are making progress, and here is some proof. Last weekend we worked on the stairwell, as someone had decided to actually narrow the stairwell by about a foot and a half. The stairwells to the upstairs and the attic are about four feet wide, and the basement stairs had been narrowed to about 2 1/2 feet. They also lowered the ceiling at the base of the stairs. Although Lover and I are both on the short side, we do frequently have people over that are a bit taller. We thought they would appreciate being able to stand up straight at the bottom of the stairs.

Here's what the stairs looked like before:

And here's a "during" picture:

It really feels a lot more open already. I'm looking forward to having this project done!

Linked to Do It Yourself Thursday and Transformation Thursday

How to make Weekly Meal Plans

Image taken from here

If you're anything like me, figuring out what to make for dinner each night can be quite the struggle. After a few years of "fulltime" cooking, I've come up with a pretty foolproof plan that eliminates the 4pm meltdown of "what's for dinner?"

There are a few things that make meal planning easier:

• Stocked pantry (items you regularly use in meals, such as cream of mushroom soup)


• Freezer large enough to stock up on meat (when meats go on sale)


• Crockpot (for those days when it is just too busy or too hot to cook)


• Grocery Database (to track sales and prices... it'll save you money!)

First, look at your calendar and determine how many meals you will need to make this week, as well as any notes about what those meals should be.

Image taken from here

For us, this week is a little busy, but we don't have anything major going on. Monday thru Wednesday we have an event at church every evening, so meals need to be quick and simple in order to make it on time. Thursday, Lover has a meeting over dinner, so he won't be home, and we may be going camping next weekend, which means that meals need to be campfire appropriate.

If we were having someone over for dinner, I would make a note of that, and if we had plans to go out to eat I'd put that into the plan as well.

Usually, I end up with 4-5 meals over a week's time, or 8-10 meals over a two week period. (which is how I usually make my meal plans)

Now I am going to take a look at my stocked meats and frozen foods. Do I have anything that needs to be used up? There's some beef in there that is nearing its expiration date, so I'll put that on the menu. Nothing else is reaching its past due point, so anything is fair game. (Get it? Fair game? Tee hee) I'll also look at sales this week for meat. Chicken is on sale for $1.79/lb at my local store, so I know I'll be stocking up on chicken. I make a note to include several chicken meals this week.

Next I will go through my recipes, noting any favorites that look appealing, as well as any new recipes that I've been wanting to give a try. This is where I also ask Lover if he has any "cravings" for the week. He usually answers "Mexican" so I'll include fajitas on one of my days this week.

Next I make up my grocery list, while consulting my pantry, freezer and fridge to determine what ingredients I'll need to make the meals this week. This is when I also write down items needed for lunches throughout the week.

Instead of assigning a meal to each specific day, I simply post a list of the "weekly meals" somewhere on the fridge. This allows me to choose whatever meal I am in the mood for on a particular day. My meals for this week are:

• Chicken Caesar Salad


• Fajitas


• Beef Burgandy (in the crockpot)


• Barbecue Chicken and Grilled Veggies


• Chicken Pasta Salad (my new recipe to try this week)

So, in conclusion, our steps are:

1. Check your calendar to see how your social activities will affect your meal plan.


2. Determine how many meals you will need to make.


3. Check stocked meats for expiration, and sales for bargain meat.


4. Go through recipes and decide on your required number of meals for the week.


5. Make shopping list, after checking pantry, fridge and freezer for supplies.


6. Go shopping


7. Assign a meal to each day, if you prefer.

When I said adventures in remodeling, I didn't sign up for this...

We're working on our basement (remember how it flooded a few months ago?) and the demolition is unreal. We have such a huge pile at the bottom of the stairs that I doubt we'll ever get it all out of there. This past weekend we were working on re-widening the stairs (the previous owners had brought the four foot wide stairwell down to about three feet, for some unknown reason) and we found some "treasures."

Two dirty publications and some unmarked VHS tapes. I'm not even going to guess what is on those tapes. Eww.

The best part, if you can say that, is that they were totally inaccessible unless you were doing what we were, tearing out the stairs. So,how did that line of reasoning go? "I'll get to enjoy these next time we remodel the stairs."??? Brilliant, if I do say so. My other theory? The wife found out about his secret stash and got even, placing them somewhere he'd never be able to get to them again. Can you imagine that conversation?

Husband: Wife, have you seen my, um, "reading" material?

Wife: Yes, dear, I have. They were in a terrible location though, so I moved them.

Husband: To where?

Wife: Under the builtin stairs. Thought that might be more convenient.

:-)