The One Year Celebration!

Remember last week when I mentioned we were anniversarying?  I figured it was high time I told you what we were up to!!

We were originally planning to head to Charleston for our 1 year anniversary…as luck would have it (and as you may recall) we ended up having to replace our 2 front windows…definitely an unplanned expense.  As we were revisiting the ol’ budget, and looking at reservations, we realized that we could still go on our trip, but we both agreed we probably wouldn’t enjoy it very much because we would be very conscious of what we were spending which is NOT my idea of a vacation.  We had booked tickets with Southwest, so we were able to cancel them and get a credit for their amount for a future flight.  Since we’re on the go, we know that we’ll have no problem using them within the next 12 months.

With our flights cancelled, we were left with an open slate for the week.  We decided to partake in a little town exploring since we haven’t really done much of that since moving here.

First up?  We headed to the winery…now I know we’re in Omaha, NE and I didn’t have really high expectations for the winery, but it was really pretty and the wine was pretty good to.

Being from the midwest, it’s easy to take for granted the luxury of wide open sky where you can see for miles and miles…it’s one of my favorite views!

How many years you ask??  Yep, 1!

Tuesday we decided to head down to Nebraska City.  I bet you didn’t know that Nebraska City is the home of Arbor Day did you??  It’s true!  We had heard of the arbor day farm and decided to go see what it was all about.  Before we could get there though, we needed some fuel, cue delicious small town, hole in the wall cafe.

…and no, Steve’s jacket is not dirty, that’s the steam from the biscuits and gravy!

My omelet was the size of my head.  It was delicious and I clearly only ate about a third of it….

Once we were full, we were ready for our tree adventure…oh look, here comes a tree adventure now!

Steve is ready to commence our tour de tree.

You didn’t think I’d just walk by the opportunity to take my picture with a real scarecrow did ya??

Us in a giant spider web we’re DEFINITELY too big to be climbing in.

We ended our day with a trip around the farm in the covered wagon.  All in all, I would say it’s a success and highly recommend it.  After the Arbor Day farm, I talked Steve into heading downtown Nebraska City to check out their many MANY thrift stores and antique shops. Somehow, we managed to not walk out with anything and started our drive home.

Wednesday we had a few plans, that included various fun activities like take the load of stuff to the ReStore..seriously, we’ve been tripping over things for months now, so we loaded the car and off it went.  Stuff dropped off, we then headed to the Lauritzen Gardens.  We are members and had yet to get there to see what it’s about…I knew they had a model train garden and since I’m married to a big kid at heart, we headed in to check it out.  I’ve been to a LOT of model train displays since we started dating, and I have to say, this one impressed me.  They put so much work into setting it up!

Yep, loves trains.

From the gardens, we then headed to the zoo to take in the Caves IMAX movie…we had a bit of time before the movie started and we were starving…a quick stop to McDonald’s to get a McRib and we were set.

I love them.  They are so delicious.

You mean it’s not normal to take your picture in the theater before the movie starts??  It’s also not normal to go to an IMAX movie for your anniversary?  It’s the random things people…I go for random.

The rest of Wednesday we broke our rule and did some odds and ends around the house.  It felt good to get those misc. things done.

Thursday, our final day of vacation, we headed to the Strategic Air & Space Museum.  Steve has wanted to go there since before we moved so I figured it was high time we did so.  He loves planes slightly more than trains…

There were a LOT of planes inside…I really wasn’t expecting to see 3 hangers full of them!  We walked around, read the signs, learned some stuff, and of course, I took pictures.

Flying my fighter plane

The secret to a good self photo is to make sure you are always standing in front of something that still looks cool even if you only get to see a small part of it.

Pilot Steve is taking off in his mini plane

Conversation for this picture went as follows:
Steve-  Okay, look smart and sophisticated for this one, there’s a lot of buttons up there.
Me- Pose like this
Steve- Takes picture
Me- well, do I look smart and sophisticated?
Steve- Yep!…yeah.  Just called me America’s Next Top Model!

So there you have it…our random tour to various attractions around the Omaha area.  Anyone else like to take trips around your home town but hate the word “staycation”??  Do you have a good smart and sophisticated look for photos?  Does your spouse love to read informational signs as much as mine?!  Do tell…

Magic Coils

When we getting ready to move here from St. Louis, we had 2 queen beds.  Sadly, our moving truck did not have room for one of the queen beds, so it got left behind (don’t worry, not in a landfill but gifted to a friend’s brother who was just starting out).  Since then, any guests we may have make use of our assortment of air mattresses.  We decided that it was time to commit to being “grownups” and buy a new bed for ourselves so that our old bed could move to the guest room.  The “old bed” is mine that I bought when I first set out on my own 4 years ago, so it’s still in great shape, we were just ready for a bit more room and wanted a king size.  Plus, I love soft and squishy beds while Steve prefers a firmer mattress, so we were looking for something that was a bit more “middle ground” for us.

After browsing the main show room of Nebraska Furniture Mart (we always do that first to learn about what they have and then high tail it to the clearance center to see what deals we can find) and test driving several mattress we were on our way to the clearance center.  We walked to the back and found a GIANT mattress pile (I wish I had taken a picture, it’s a bit “princess and the pea” since everything is stacked so high).  We found a few that seemed like they might work.  The problem?  They were in the bottom of the stack and we weren’t sure if we were just supposed to push the one’s on top off to get to the one we wanted or what the “mattress pile process” was.  In our obvious confusion, a helpful guy named Leo happened to be loading up a newly purchased mattress for someone and he got our mattress pick out.

There was no magic happening, it was a mattress dud.  After trying 3 more mattresses, Leo recommended that we try the mattress he sleeps on, a Simmon’s BeautyRest NXG.  We laid down and it was HEAVEN.  We then proceeded to lay on the mattress on the floor smack in the middle of the store for at least 10 minutes.  Since we were ready to sleep right there in the middle of the store, we decided it was probably a mattress match made in heaven.  We had completely by-passed this mattress in the “real” section of the store because it was priced so ridiculously high we didn’t want to even entertain it…but here it was in the clearance center marked at $1049.  Still not cheap by any means, but less than the $2700 it was selling for next door.

We were talking about what to do when Leo (who is not actually a salesman but the stocker) offered that he would 1) go get a salesman and 2) told us to ask for a break because they have some room to negotiate the prices in the clearance center.  Well done Leo, that is how you sell a mattress.  So, the sales guy came back and as it would turn out, Leo already told him that we needed it to be cheaper.  After a mysterious call on his walkie talkie, we got them down another $100 to $949.  We were sold.  After a quick trip to Uhaul to rent a $20.00 truck we were on our way.  So what makes this mattress the greatest mattress we’ve ever touched?

It starts with a base of individually wrapped coils.  What that means is that instead of the mattress being all joined together like a normal mattress, they are all separate giving you better back support and “motion separation” (so that if the person on one side of the bed rolls around, the person on the other side doesn’t feel it).  These coils also give Steve the “firm support” feeling that he is looking for while somehow also giving me the squishy support feeling that I love.  They are for sure magic coils.

On top of the magic coils is a lovely layer of memory foam so you get the continued cozy and body conforming feeling that you would experience with a traditional foam mattress.  The mattress is also designed not to conduct heat.  I’m a hot sleeper and most “foam top” mattresses have a reputation of retaining the body heat of “hot sleepers”.  My old bed was a bit like this, so I personally was looking for a cooler night sleep.

On top of that, it has a 20 year warranty AND it’s cute!  What?  A cute mattress??  Seriously, I was a bit sad to cover it up.

After 2 nights of sleeping on it, we can’t imagine how we slept on anything else.  I routinely had to have Steve pop my back and since the new mattress, my shoulders and back have felt loose and comfy.  I was actually cold last night and slept with all the covers on ALL night (rare) and Steve apparently wasn’t feeling well and got up quite a bit and I didn’t even feel him get out of bed once.  All in all, we’re more smitten with a mattress than we ever thought possible…

Anybody else experiencing the joy of a new mattress??  Or do you know why mattresses are usually so ugly?  Does an ugly mattress sell better than a cute one?  Can you believe I just type 898 words about a mattress??  Me either….

The Entry Way Facelift

Sunday was Steve and my 1 year anniversary (yay!) so we’re celebrating all this week (double yay!).  Our one rule is that our celebrations could not involve any house “stuff” because we are on vacation.  Well, late last week, our painters called.  See, we had them bid to paint our inside — Entry way, ceiling, front room, ceiling, hallway, ceiling, and the living room/kitchen ceiling.  Since the weather was so nice here last week, they asked if we minded if they did it a week later.  Fine by us, so they showed up Monday to give us a belated anniversary present….a clean and fresh 1st floor!!!

Since we haven’t talked about those rooms lately, here is the foyer (from the top of the stairs) before.

After

I painted the trim on the upper window white before the painters came so I wouldn’t have to worry about being on the ladder and balancing myself.  I’m working on the trim in the rest of the 1st floor to get the same clean look.  Also, I’m seeking a replacement light fixture for our entryway….because the fresh paint makes this one look even worse!  :-)

Here was our front “sitting room” (our game room) before paint.  The color wasn’t bad, but with zero overhead lighting in this room, it was just a really really dark box.  Plus the paint was incredibly beat up.

We decided to go with the washed khaki for a uniform look for now.

View from the living room before

and after

and my favorite…the upper hallway before

and after (I also love that the dog changed….Lucy is modelling the after for you)

It was amazing to come home to this…we’re going to be back to painting our own rooms now to save $, but getting such a large chunk of our house feeling like home is truly priceless (and we didn’t want to be precariously perched trying to do the entryway ourselves anyway).  We went with the Baer Washed Kahki (that we used in our living room as well).  Is the perfect neutral for our space and really gives us that “clean slate” feeling that we’ve been going for.  I am still amazed by how much a fresh coat of paint can really do for a space!

How about you?  What’s your favorite color make-over?  I’m thinking about tackling our bedroom next and without some intervention, it’s probably going to be gray…

Halloween Treats

I mentioned yesterday that I had some treats up my sleeve as well.  Now, I know you know my views on cooking…if not, lets recap (cooking = no).  This does not, however, apply to baking.  I love to bake!  It was my manager’s birthday last week and I volunteered to bring the treats.  She loves chocolate and peanut butter and I knew I had the perfect recipe for her.  Reese’s Cheesecake Brownies.

I found the recipe here and pretty much followed it (as much as I follow any sort of instruction) and they came out marvelously.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.

Prepare a 19.5-oz. box of chocolate fudge brownie mix according to package directions. Spread the batter in the pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat one 8-ounce package of softened cream cheese with a hand-held mixer until fluffy.

Add:
One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Beat until smooth

Stir in a 12-ounce package of Reese’s Pieces candies
Spoon the mixture over the brownie batter and spread evenly.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the cheesecake layer is set and the edges are golden brown. Cool for 30 minutes and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

It will look something like this:

Add the following ingredients to a small microwaveable bowl:
One 12-ounce bag milk chocolate chips
3 tablespoons whipping cream
Microwave on high for 1 minute, or until the chips are melted. Stir until smooth. Spread over the cheesecake layer.

Sprinkle 12 large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (chopped) over the top. Store covered in the refrigerator.

It was an amazing and delicious masterpiece.  It tasted exactly like a large Reese’s peanut butter cup and had the texture and everything.  If they weren’t so ridiculously bad for you, I’d seriously eat them every day for the rest of my life.

You better stop drooling on your keyboard and get to work baking up some treats!  :-)  I want to go check the fridge again even though I know they are all gone…ya know, just in case the dessert fairy took pity on me and made some reappear!

Baked anything delicious lately?  Does it involve cheesecake?  I eat anything that promises to be even a little bit cheesecake….

(and yes, if you’re wondering, we TOTALLY crepe papered her office.  If only we would have thought to put something in jello…)

I love birthdays.

Linked up with: A bowl full of lemons

Feelin’ a little batty

Good news!  This month’s craft night was a smashing success!

On the agenda?  A wreath for Halloween.  This is my first “holiday” in the house (other than Easter but I hadn’t lived here that long yet, so we didn’t have any decorations).  I have been pinning up a storm for some awesome Halloween decorating.  I probably won’t put up too much this year since I hate paying full price for seasonal items, but you better believe I’ll be at the 75% off sales!!  One of my favorite wreath pins?  A yarn wreath with some foam bats.

I had a wreath form left from a failed wedding project, so I jumped at the chance to repurpose it.  I grabbed some $2.00 yarn at Hobby Lobby, a $2.00 spool of ribbon and a $.38 piece of craft foam and I was in business.  Super simple …wrap the wreath with yarn, really really tight together, print out bat template, cut out foam, hang on door.

And yes, at this point, we were fixing our lights, which is a long boring story that I’m not even going to write about.  Basically, the wire for our exterior lights got cut in the process of our exterior fixing and Steve had to rerun a new wire all through the dining room.  Good thing we haven’t fixed the wall in there yet.

Thought I’d show you closer up too.  I used plain pins to attach my bats and I disguised my pins as bat eyes.  This way, I can remove the bats and ribbon once Halloween is over and re-use my gray wreath with something different attached.

Here it is with the lights up….we still need to reattach the storm door, but we’re at present (literally, as I type this) trying to remember how to put it back together…Once we get that done, the storm door will be up and our outside will be done-zo!

The other craft?  Metallic pumpkins!  I got some cheap baby pumpkins and metallic spray paint at True Value and set to work.  The vase is from the Ikea trip of a month ago, and I still need about 8 more to actually fill up the vase, but I keep forgetting to grab some when I’m at the store.  I love the shimmer they have and copper spray paint might be my new fav…

Anybody else loving the yarn wreath trend?  Did you have higher expectations for my decorating than some pumpkins and a wreath?  Don’t worry…I have more Tricks (and treats) up my sleeve.  I see the seasonal decorating wagon and I’m jumping on!!

Linked up with: Eighteen25, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Nifty Thrifty Things

Happy Dance

We’re doing a happy dance over here and we can’t stop!  Why?

Our house is painted!!!  That’s right, 2+ months of blood, sweat, frustration and tears, all for our brand spankin’ new gorgeous house.  Enough talk.  More pictures.

In case you forgot…day we closed.

BAM!  There’s my gorgeous house now.  Hey hot stuff.

Want to see more?

Hum drum blah back of house before

Dis-regard the “need to be reattached fence” and the pile o’ pavers.  They are next up on the project list (as is the planting of a bigger tree than this stick).

We got some new white peaks, fresh white columns, brand new windows, and painted over the weird “fan” thing over the bedroom window.

Seriously, it so beautiful I can’t stop staring at it.  Love x 1000.

House body — Eagle Rock by Benjamin Moore
White color — I swung by the window store and got a piece of the vinyl to have color matched so all our white is the same.
Door color — Pacific Sea Teal by Baer

I am so glad it turned out!  We’re going to sleep GOOD tonight, it’s done-zo!  Next up, landscaping.   Anybody else have a gorgeous paint makeover you love?  I’m obsessed with what a good ol’ coat of paint can do!  Back out to the patio I go…more house staring for me.

Dining Room Delight

Our Dining Room was on the wait list for updating until the end of our house updates since it wasn’t too offensive.  That all changed when we had to remove part of the wall during the exterior remodel of 2011..so I’m now amusing myself with what our dining room should look like “some day”.  Admittedly, I’m all over the place, especially since it’s one of the first rooms you see when you walk in, so I want it to go with the rest of the house (which isn’t hard since we don’t have much going on in here yet).

First up, I’m planning to paint that chandelier, I’m thinking  a glossy white with some round bulbs, similar to this one (I know it doesn’t have round bulbs, so just pretend it does):

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I’m thinking we’re going to go with some beadboard/wainscotting around the room to hide most of the wall paper parts.
Something like this (though not the ceiling obviously…only because our ceiling does not look anything like this now )

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There hasn’t really been a color that’s called our name (other than the gray which we always love)….so we’ll see where we end up on that front.

I have a thing for collecting mismatched china dishes, so I’d love to get a china cabinet or a buffet to display my “precious” finds (remind me to show you my collection thus far some day soon).  I hope to score one on Craigslist for a steal and give it a new life, similar to this guy:

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Our dining room is really square, so we’re thinking either a square tall table or a giant round table.  They both have their merits, but I’m thinking a round table might be a nice contrast to our tray ceilings.

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I’m thinking we’ll do a mismatch of chairs (based on what I can find around) and paint them all the same color for a consistent look to the room.

I also found out yesterday that I won a wall stencil in a give away from Better After (that girl has a cool blog, it’s all the best part of home updating…the befores and the afters!).  It was sponsored by Cutting Edge Stencils.  They were nice enough to give away a stencil of my choice.  After a lot of deliberation, I picked this one:

I’m torn between stenciling it on the walls above the wainscotting or putting it on the ceiling in the tray ceiling.  The funny part about this?  Several months ago, I pinned this picture because I was in LOVE with the ceiling.

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That’s right, the exact same pattern, it was clearly fate in action  I’m hoping I can reuse it in more than one place (no, I’m not going to do every wall) in subtle ways — on curtains/furniture, etc.  I’m so excited and I can’t wait to show you what I drum up!

All in all, I’m excited about our dining room possibilities.  We’re definitely going to take a break before we start in again…though not too long of one because winter is coming and we have no insulation or sheet rock!!

Why is it so hard to stop dreaming up my next makeover?!?!  Whatta ya think?  Any suggestions for an awesome paint color to get us out of the gray doldrums??

Just call me a Sneaky Sneakster

Steve went out of town on Thursday to go mountain biking with some friends for the weekend.  I have been thinking for several weeks about what I could do while he was gone to surprise him.  He’s been working SO HARD on the outside of the house and I know it’s been stressing him out, so now that the outside is done and the painters are in action, I decided to tackle the garage.  We have a nice large garage that was completely full and we have been parking outside.  Want to see how bad it is??

Old windows, tools everywhere and SO MUCH SAWDUST.

A big ol’ mess over there.

And now, a little bit of progress being made.  Hurray!

I decided to paint it a nice gray color.  How’d I pick it?  Well, I went to Home Depot, picked a color from the Oops section for $7.00 and went with it.  It is Baer exterior flat paint.  I had read online that exterior paint was more durable for the garage since it’s exposed to the elements a lot more than the interior.  I opted for flat since it’s the easiest paint to do touchups on and I know the walls will take a lot of abuse.  I grossly underestimated the amount of paint I would need and had to go have them color match another gallon for me.  All told, I probably used a gallon and a half out here.

I decided to paint the stairs Oil Rubbed Bronze.  That’s right, I found my favorite spray paint also comes in a can.  It has a nice glossy sheen (without being slippery) and I think it made the stairs awesome.  I primed the stairs first with some tinted primer I also bought in the oops section (1 gal for $5.00).  The Rustoleum was $8.00 for a can.

Here it is (not done by any means, but a definite improvment).  I’m going to paint the workbench the red color you see on the swatch and we’re going to build some more shelves to house our stuff, but that was all too much to do in one weekend by myself!

I’ll be sure to share the eye candy with you as I make more process on my garage make-over, but for 3 days and $40, I think it’s a significant improvement!  Most importantly Steve was really surprised and loves it.  Also, as a direct quote, “I can’t believe you moved all that heavy stuff by yourself.”  Me either hub…me either.

Am I the only one who loves surprise makeovers?  Have you painted or organized something while your spouse was out of the house?  How on earth do you organize your scrap wood??

Barn Light Electric Giveaway

I was doing some blog reading up today when I stumbled upon this awesome giveaway!  Barn Light Electric is giving away 2 prizes to their online store, a $1,000 gift card and a $500 gift card.

Since you all know my obsession with swapping out lights (here, here, and here), it will come as no surprise to you that I have a LOONG way to go before our lighting situation is updated to my liking.  So…it would be SUPER awesome win a gift certificate and then I can really make some of my lighting dreams come true.

I love to dream and virtual shop, and one of the requirements to enter the contest is to pick out some things from their website that I can’t resist, perfect fit!  I headed to their website to pre-spend my non-won winnings.  I found so much great stuff!  $1,000 would be gone in two seconds…

I have an obsession with pendant lights and I only have one light in my entire house that I could swap out for a pendant and it’s over the sink. I think it would bring something visually interesting to the pretty boring kitchen and liven things up a bit.

I couldn’t pick between this one:

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and this one:

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I would also love something to go over our kitchen table.  Our current “weathered copper” shade is really not doing it for me any more.

I think this would look MUCH better (and it MUCH more modern and our taste).

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How awesome would these look in our garage??

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They also have modern ceiling fans (which we need 4 of them!) that I’m loving…

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I would also love some landscape lighting for our back yard.

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Do you want to be entered in the give-away too?  It’s super simple, just follow the rules below!  But hurry….contest ends soon!

How to Enter:

1. Look around online at Barn Light Electric and pick lights you’d love to own
2. Feature your lighting picks on your personal blog, and link to the lights if you can!
3. Copy/Paste these rules at the bottom of your blog article so others can enter
4. Once your personal article is up, you must email your blog link to: contest@barnlightelectric.com to be qualified to win. The contest ends Wednesday, October 12, 2011
5. Don’t have a blog? Find out how you can enter by visiting the Barn Electric homepage.

Are you going to enter???  What are you dreaming about this gorgeous Sunday morning??