Photo Friday #31

I cannot get over how cute this little guy is. Meet Alek, my very good friend's son. He's decked out in Iowa gear (Joe loves it) and is watching soccer (Joe is now jealous of him). Does anyone else just want to squeeze those chubby cheeks? Cue the collective "awwwwww." Thanks Andrea and Drago for letting me post this.

No-Sew Curtains

Sometimes I wish I had a sewing machine. Sometimes I think, if I bought one, I'd use it. Sometimes I also think if I bought one it might sit in the corner untouched. Baby steps, Sara, baby steps. Joe and I got crafty (san sewing machine) and decided to make no-sew curtains for the bonus room. Ahem, I mean our Hawk Cave.

We bought simple black fabric from Wal-Mart and also picked up one roll of stitch witchery.

First step was to iron out the fabric completely.It had been folded and sitting around creating creases for a while so this was a no-skip step. Oh and see the don't-know-what-to-do-with-it-but-it-only-cost-us-$11 mirror leaning against the wall? He's still a work in progress.

Look there's Joe ironing... I'm the picture taker, he irons.

Then we rolled out the stitch-witchery and cut it to the width of our fabric.Oh and please don't be critical of the fabric that appears to be cut at an angle. I blame the lady at Wal-Mart. We adjusted to make sure the hem would be straight across and pretty.

The directions said to place damp cloths over the hem and hold the iron on for 10 seconds. After we did this for the whole length we checked to make sure it was securely holding the fabric. In some cases we ironed a little more to be sure.

We bought curtain rings with clips on them at Target that matched the curtain rod already in the room. This makes it easy to adjust and move the curtains if need be. Also, these are considered pull-away curtains. It's a safety measure in case a small human being grabs the curtains, the rod won't fall off, the curtains will just pull away.

We made 4 panels to cover the wall of windows.

 Here's the corner angle.

And just for fun, here's another view of the room.

These were so easy, I bet my mom is proud of me.

My New Best Bread Friend

Thanks to an incentive at work I got to pick out a "me" present. The website we can choose to redeem our points has everything from jewelry to bicycles to kitchen gadgets to hot tubs. Seriously, you can get a hot tub, although I'm pretty sure you'd have to work your entire life before you accrue enough points to actually be able to purchase it. You could really spend so much time on that site just trying to decide what you want. Luckily you can also create a wishlist so I've been saving up my points for a while to purchase this...drum roll please... bread machine.

This Cuisinart bread machine has 16 different settings along with 3 loaf sizes and 3 crust colors (or doneness if you will). Of course we had to give it a whirl right away so this last weekend we picked out the first bread that sounded delicious and bought the ingredients. The recipe was for 100% Whole What Bread. Sounds relatively healthy, right? We only had to purchase the whole wheat flour and the vital wheat gluten. Tell me, have you ever bought vital wheat gluten??? We actually had to Google it to find out first what it was, and second what the heck it does! After searching Wal-Mart twice over we finally found it hiding on the top self at the very end of the aisle. Talk about never having to restock this item. Glad we found it though.

Here is the finished product in all her glory. The bread was delicious. We have toasted it and spread peanut butter and Nutella on it. Or last night I dipped it in my soup. Ahhh, I can't wait to try out more recipes!

Musical Mantle Mirrors

This is what our living room looked like when the previous owners lived in it. A lot of times I have looked back to how they positioned their furniture or what they had where. It helps when trying to furnish an entire house for the first time.

We liked the circular mirror above the fireplace so much we went to Target and bought one shortly after moving in. It was actually my birthday present from Joe back in May. I slowly added a few odds and ends on the mantle to add height and depth. Keep in mind nothing on the mantle is ever permanent and yea, I have pheasant feathers on my mantle. As the seasons change and holidays come along I'll definitely change it up a bit.

During another phase of auctions after the hotel's renovation, I bought this mirror from the hotel for only $11. I didn't have a clear idea of where to put it so naturally it sat in the living room for a week or two before I decided to try it above the fireplace in place of the other mirror. We made the switcheroo and sat back to examine. The more I sat and moved around the living room/kitchen, the more I didn't care for it. With the larger mirror I saw myself or movement in the mirror way too often. It got distracting.

Ultimately we ended up putting the circular mirror back up. I think we'll stick to that for the time being. Now my challenge is to find a spot for Mr. Rectangular Mirror. No worries, remember, it only cost me $11!

While we're talking about the living room, I should show you our new TV stand. We researched one of these for a while too. Measuring the corner, comfortable height of the TV so that watching won't strain your neck, etc. Finally we decided on this one from Target and I love it. It's sturdy and solid for the heavy TV. Joe might like it now, but he'll tell you that putting it together was no easy task. It literally came in probably a thousand pieces.

Photo Friday #30

This is Joe's little friend Isaac. He's our neighbor boy and every time he see one of us outside he walks right over to say hi. I snapped this picture from inside our garage when Joe was going to get the mail. Isaac is 3 1/2 years old and likes dinosaurs. He also likes to run fast. We enjoy our friend.

Quesadilla Casserole (Freezer Meal)

I might not be the typical person you would expect to stock the fridge with freeze meals. I'm not a mother of 5 children trying to juggle work and family. On the flip side, I do get home from work around 7:00 PM which leaves little time to prepare much of a meal for myself and Joe. I decided it would be fun to try out some freezer meals (found on Pinterest of course). We never ended up actually freezing this recipe. Instead we put it in the fridge on Sunday to have it on Monday. It was great because we could bake it Monday night after work (it only bakes for 15-20 minutes) and then we could eat it for dinner the rest of the week. Meal planning doesn't get much easier than that.

Sorry for the yellowy orangey picture. The wood color of our island in the background doesn't do a lot of good for the cheese, but trust me, this meal was delicious.

Quesadilla Casserole

adapted from here 

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef

1 chopped onion

1/2 packet of taco seasoning

16 oz tomato sauce

1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (8 3/4 oz) whole kernel corn, drained

4-6 flour tortillas (8 inch size)

2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions

Brown beef and onion in a large skillet on medium-high. Add tomato sauce, beans and corn. Mix well. Stir in the taco seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce heat low and simmer 5 minutes.

Spread 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom of 9X13 pan. Top with 2 or 3 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed. Sprinkle 1/2 the cheese on top. Layer with remaining beef mixture and more tortillas. Sprinkle rest of cheese.

If freezing - double wrap with heavy duty foil and label. Let thaw before baking.

Cooking Instructions: bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until heated through.

App Appreciation - moreBeaute2

I have an iPhone and I love it. For so long I had been a Blackberry or non-smart phone user. I never really appreciated what the iPhone is capable of until I got to own one. There's plenty I could say about why I like my phone, but that's not the point of this post. I realized there are some pretty cool apps out there and I wanted to share. What better way to share info about technology (iPhone and app store) than on another form of technology (the blog and internet).

I just came across moreBeaute2 and downloaded it last week. This app is great to edit pictures of people. It really smooths out skin which is really what every woman wants, right?

Check out some pictures I edited with moreBeaute2.

Here's a before and after to show the difference.

I could play around with this app for hours. It allows you to adjust the brightness, smoothness, detail of the picture and the tone. You can either take a picture while in this app and have it edited right away or use a picture saved on your phone to adjust.

Best part about this app? It's free! Download it and give her a try!

Anniversary In Asheville

There tends to be a theme starting here... I post about our weekend over a week after it passes. This time I don't have the Olympics to blame. Oh well, you'll forgive me, right?

Joe and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in Asheville, NC. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we had a lot of fun. That's what matters, right? Sometimes I come back from vacation feeling like I took way too many pictures. Other times I decide just to kick back and enjoy the trip and not worry about capturing every moment on film.

We took off Saturday morning to check out the Blue Ridge Parkway.

It was fun stopping at a few overlooks on the way up Mount Pisgah. Unfortunately it was raining a bit on our drive and you can tell that the higher we drove the less you could see.

We did have a little fun at the top of Mount Pisgah with a little trail hiking. Trust me, not much, we were both in flip flops and it was kind of cold up in the clouds.

Joe volunteered to be my model. He is basically looking at nothing...

Then he almost got attacked by butterfly. See it to his right?

Then we realized there were probably 20-30 butterflies all over. I'm pretty sure this one was dead, but that just meant it didn't fly away when I got close to get a picture.

I don't know where we took this picture (probably on the way down after the clouds moved out), but you can see why they call them the Blue Ridge Mountains!

After our trip up the mountain I really just have a bunch of random pictures. There no rhyme or reason to most, but I thought I'd still share.

We commemorated our honeymoon trip we took to Jamaica 4 years ago by ordering a couple of Red Stripes. Other than watching Usain Bolt win gold at the Olympics, Red Stripe made us feel like we were back on the island. Not really, please don't believe that.

Later on we also enjoyed some local beer. Highland Brewing Company is out of Asheville and their beer is really good!

I snapped this picture while waiting in line for some ice cream. Every time I see Limoncello I think of my mom. Is that wrong? I bet she would order this if she was there!

We walked through some sort of artist emporium in downtown Asheville. They had multiple artists and vendors which a wide range of fun stuff. I liked these mason jars on pedestals, they would look cool with different colored candles inside.

Here's another one from the emporium. This one's for you, Deb!

I requested Joe pack one polo for our trip so we could go out for one nice dinner. The place was great (somewhat empty for us early eaters) and the food was delicious (I actually got a vegetarian entree and loved it.) We walked back to the hotel for another drink in the lobby and watched some pre-season football and the Olympics. I wish this picture didn't turn out so grainy.

We ended out trip with breakfast at Tupelo Honey Cafe. It was a suggestion from a co-worker and was packed when we arrived 7 minutes after the place opened! Luckily finding a table for one 2 people is easy and we sat outside. It was a bit chilly, but we warmed ourselves with coffee and cornbread.

You might notice the different edits and affects on some of the pictures. I used my Instagram app for lots of pictures over the weekend. The app is fun to create unique borders or color effects.

Darn HOA... Darn Weeds

We got the dreaded letter in the mail... the letter from our HOA (Homeowners Association) telling us that our house wasn't good enough. It specifically said we were not being fined, but if the problem was not fixed the penalty would be $5. Are you kidding me, five whole dollars?!

Ok so the HOA doesn't really expect our house to be perfect, but within reason each house in the development needs to look presentable. The letter was really pointing out the weeds growing in our front yard. More specifically the driveway cracks. There wasn't a ton of them, but these bad boys were very hard to pull. We decided our best plan on action would be to spray them.

When my parents had visited way back in May they bought us some weed killer along with other yard items (shovel, garden utensils, bird feeder, etc). They probably knew the weed killer would eventually come in handy.

On a side note, I really can't help but laugh when I think of weed killer. I know that probably sounds weird, but once you watch this video you won't be able to either. Just remember "awww no, Round Up to the rescue."

While we had the weed killer out we figured we might as well do some work in the backyard too. Here's what our back patio looked like. These weeds got out of control fast. When we first noticed them popping up we were hesitant to spray them because the bricks also have a nice moss layer in between that we didn't want to kill also.

On another side note we were a tiny bit glad to see the HOA letter was an easy fix. When we had our DirectTV satellite installed we weren't sure if it followed the HOA guidelines. Now we figure if someone took the time to report the weeds in our driveway cracks, no one is going to notice (or care) about the satellite.

Also, I just want to say that having the HOA monitor these things around the neighborhood is really a good thing. It helps our home keep it's value, but it also just keep the neighborhood look nicer and well kept. I am really not complaining about the letter we received, I just wanted to share it.

West Virginia

I realize I've been neglecting you, the blog and the internet in general. Let me just use the Olympics as an excuse. Having the Olympics on TV constantly for the past two weeks has really thrown off my schedule. Not only did I not blog, I also didn't really work out or get much done around the house. On top of that throw in back to back 12 hour work days last week and I might have deserved a quiet night at home.

We visisted Scott and Amy in West Virgina two weekends ago (that's a sure sign of blog neglect, I'm still blogging about things from two weeks ago!) It was great to see them and their new home. Of course I can't forget their little guy, Kirby too. Although the drive wasn't short, it was so worth it.

Saturday we drove to Baltimore for a day on the Inner Harbor. We had lunch and walked around. This area made for some great people watching. If it wasn't so hot out I would have sat and watched people for a while. Oh and it was windy too, very windy. I can prove it by my hair in the picture below.

The boys noticed lots of people walking by in their Baltimore Ravens apparel on. Finally Scott asked someone what was going on. It was free practice day where fans could watch the team. Boys will be boys and they had to follow the crowd into the stadium. They even both got free t-shirts and posters. They never actually watched the team practice (they got to the stadium an hour before the team was going to take the field). We had a rendezvous time of 5:00 sharp so they didn't stick around. Plus it was hot outside.

The girls took this time alone to go shopping. Baltimore Inner Harbor has a few cool shops to roam through. I bought a bright pink blazer to wear to work (I did get lots of compliments on the jacket the first day I wore it too!) Amy and I also got some ice cream. Did I mention it was incredibly hot that day?

On Sunday morning we walked through historic Harpers Ferry where John Brown's fort stands today. I can't remember how many times this fort has been moved, but it's definitely not in the original location. I also don't remember much of the history on this place. You'll have to Google it. Oh and when you do, report back and let me know what you found.

We walked across the bridge and were in Maryland. The Appalachian Trail goes right along there. It was busy with bikers, hikers and lazy Sunday walkers like us. The river was full of kayakers and lazy tubers on Saturday. Is it correct to call them kayakers and tubers? How about people on kayaks and inner tubes? You get what I'm trying to say.

On our way back to Scott and Amy's place we stopped at a mom and pop little restaurant for lunch. I think it was called Betty's or something like that. We meant to take a picture on the outside of the cute restaurant, but forgot. It was nice to sit down for one last meal with Scott and Amy before making the 6 hour trip back to Charlotte.

Do you like how Scott and Amy match in their polos while Joe and I match in our black tops? It must be a couple thing.

Thank you both for such a fun weekend! Now it's time for you to visit us!