First Floor Before & After!

Are you ready for a photo heavy post?! This post has been almost five years in the making! I can't even believe that. A lot of the work was finished just months after we moved in, but it's taken a while to get some finishing touches done and I didn't want to post after pictures with all those unfinishes....

So here is the main half of our first floor. What a trip it has been looking back at these before pictures - eek! Makes me wonder why we picked this house!

Entrance before:

Entrance after: We knocked out a part of the wall to open it up a little more.

And one from the other angle!

Front room before:

Front room after:

Full view before: This is a really awful shot, but it's the only one I have!

Full view after: We knocked out the main wall (load bearing, so we had to put up the beam), replaced all the flooring, installed recessed lighting, and basically changed everything...!

Dining room before:

Dining room after:

Front room corner before:

Front room corner after:

Front room corner before:

Front room corner after:

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after: We still have some things to do in the kitchen, but here it is so far.

And one more after just for good measure!

If you have any questions on specifics, let me know and I'll try to answer them...if I remember!

Food Face Plates

How fun are these?

I followed this tutorial to make these plates for a friend. Dinner time will never be the same again. I want to make a set for our family as well. Maybe I should make 3 or 4 sets. Then I don't have to do dishes as often! The marker is a porcelain paint marker that hardens when you heat it up and is completely food safe. So you draw on the plate, wait 24 hours for it to dry and then bake at 300 for 35 minutes. The directions are all on the packaging! I used the same marker that Kalleen used in her tutorial linked above, Pebeo Porcelaine Markers (found at Michaels).

These plates were made for Michele as one of my Facebook crafts. At the beginning of the year I saw someone's status that said something like "if you comment, I will make you something homemade this year as long as you put this in your status and make something for the first five people who comment." So...this is for Michele...Happy Facebook! Hopefully I'll be finishing up my other 4 Facebook crafts very soon! This also lets me cross 1/5 of one of the items on my 2011 Craft Bucket List.

I've used this technique for a couple of different plates as well. This one is for our recently released Relief Society President as a thank you for her years of serving us.

And this one I made for my mom last Christmas. She signs all of her cards to the kids with these little faces so they know who it is from. I think it turned out so cute! She has it set up in her kitchen. She of course wants to know why her face is wider than Boompa's. Aye.

Adventures in Pantry Cleaning

It's like Mary Poppins always says, "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You must find the fun and (snap) the job's a game." A few weeks ago (actually back in February) I thought to myself, let's play a game of tidy up the pantry. And I did.

We'll start with a before, during, after shot. I don't mind spoiling surprises. It's not a spectacular transformation by any means, but I'll tell you that this was the most fun I have ever had cleaning up the pantry.

I don't clean out the pantry very often. And when I say "not very often" I really mean...just when a moving truck is involved! This EXPIRED 6 short months after we moved in. I'm not even really sure what Bakin' Miracle is or why I ever bought it in the first place. Maybe Jason bought it, hehe!

That was my first "game." I had so much finding my oldest item that I decided to play a few more games. Jason only rolled his eyes (at least) 15 times as I staged our food and photographed it. Not bad.

I'm a big fan of the top ten lists, so here goes...

Top Ten Worst Things Found in My Pantry

1. Cub Scout Popcorn - I'm sure I'm going to incur the wrath of just about everyone I know for this, but I don't care. We've had this popcorn FOREVER. We don't eat popcorn very often, but we feel like we have to buy it to support the Cub Scouts. And I suppose we do. One day our boys will be selling that annoying Cub Scout Popcorn.

2. At least 6 cans of Nacho Cheese - So we may have had a family party once where we ran out of food. So now when we buy for parties...let's just say we don't usually run out anymore. What am I going to do with 6 cans of Nacho Cheese?

3. Gerber Biter Biscuits - They should really be called Gerber Gooey Messy Gross in a Biscuit (not quite the same ring...)

4. Regular Lasagna Noodles - I have since come to know the wonder of no-cook lasagna noodles. Yay.

5. Sugar Free Calorie Free Strawberry Preserves - Too good to be true I think. I never even opened it. I was a little afraid of how it would actually taste and what would happen if I took a bite. Almost like a poisoned apple or something. It went in the trash right after it's 15 seconds of pantry picture fame.

6. Chunk Chicken in a Can - Yuck. I cannot handle the smell of this stuff. I sent this off to the food pantry as it was still within its shelf life.

7. Tuna - Just because it's tuna. Blech.

8. Honey Nut Cheerios Cereal Bars - I'm a big fan of cold cereal. So when I saw cereal bars that were like my favorite bowl on the go, I was very excited. Until I tasted it. Another Yuck.

9. Dole Pineapple Cans - Seriously, Dole? Can't you make your cans so they can stack on top of one another properly? drives. me. crazy.

10. Heinz Ketchup - This is our ketchup of choice. It only made the list because if I had cleaned out the pantry BEFORE I went to the grocery store, I wouldn't have stocked up on more.

And now...

Top Ten Best Things Found in My Pantry

1. Girl Scout Cookies - Those girls have got it right. They don't sell stinky popcorn, they sell cookies. When you see a Girl Scout coming with her order form, you run to her. When you see the Cub Scout, you run away. Just sayin'.

2. Cold Cereal - I've already admitted my love of cold cereal. I'd eat it for every meal if I could.

3. Bisquick - I love this stuff for two reasons - dumplings and pancakes. The Bisquick Melt In Your Mouth Pancakes are sooooo good. And dumplings in Chicken Noodle Soup - nothing can beat that.

4. Gerber Puffs - They might stick to everything under the sun, but give a kid some puffs and you can finally get something done for once!

5. Cookie Monster Treat Jar - No explanation necessary!

6. Bishop's Storehouse Hot Cocoa - If it is one thing that Mormons know it is hot chocolate! The best stuff on earth.

7. Emerald Pecan Pie Pecans - These will rock your sweet potato casserole. Without them, they're just yams. Click here for my recipe.

8. Kraft Cheese and Macaroni - It's the cheesiest. And  best when made with real butter and whole milk. Yum-O!

9. Kikkoman Stir Fry Sauce - We tried a lot of different stir fry sauces before we settled on this one. This is my favorite and makes Stir Fry a SUPER easy and quick meal. Click here for our recipe (and 6 others).

10. Solo Raspberry Pie & Pastry Filling - Without this, there wouldn't be any ice cream kolachky. Forgive my American-ized spelling! Click here for my recipe.

And there you have it...more than you've ever wanted to know about what's in my pantry.

So...what's in your pantry?

Grocery List Tear Off Pad

OK...we all know my addiction to lists, right? Well, when I saw this post on Infarrantly Creative I knew that I needed one. She even has a free download for the template so you can completely customize this without too much effort!

Previously I was using a spreadsheet for my grocery list (thanks Beth!) - I may have a slight addiction to spreadsheets too. But I would procrastinate printing the spreadsheet and then it was two pages long, so I would be fumbling through my pages...blah, blah, blah...

So I decided to make this handy grocery list tear off pad and we'll see if it makes things a bit easier.

When I brought my materials to craft group this morning, some of them snickered (you know who you are Michele). And I brought the wrong drill bit which made things difficult. (more snickering) But I kept on going and I'm very happy I did. I have a lovely tear off pad for my grocery list now. (snicker, snicker) I just need to add magnets to the  back and hang on the fridge.

 And I've decided that I deserve something special on my list...

What else should I buy?

Finally!

We're finally back in business...! Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks. Melissa, you asked for a belly picture-now you have it: "My two tons of fun fat keep me plenty warm." This was from a trip to the Brookfield Zoo.
Cameron's favorite animal: Snakes. Nothing is quite as interesting as snakes and spiders for this kid. We spent the most time in the reptile house which was very interesting for him..."Uncle Jason I have to show you something..."
Josh started T-Ball. He loves it! We went to watch them on their first day. There is only one team out on the field at a time, everyone hits, everyone runs the bases. That's the tricky part-running the bases. Most of the kids run for the ball or run to their parents or run backwards.

Moving Day! Leaving Gaylord for the last time. I don't think we're too sad about it. We've got such a project ahead of us that we have no time to miss the old place. The move went really well and we have begun frequenting Home Depot more often than we go to the bathroom-that's saying a lot for a prego lady.

Here are a few pictures of the demolition. I didn't get really great before pictures because it just happened too fast. They weren't moved out and we were halfway moved in. You get the idea though. We are taking down the wall between the kitchen and dining room as well as the wall between the kitchen and the living room. The catch: It's a load bearing wall, so we had a structural engineer come take a look to give us some pointers on the beam that we will need to replace the wall. Demolition comes easy-its the putting it back together that can be a little trickier.

Pigs Can Fly!

It is so amazing that we actually can finish a project that we started! It's a cold day, where? The kitchen is finished including a new table and chairs set that is actually too big, but I'm forward thinking! I love the new leather chairs. Now if only we could get hardwood floors...forward thinking....

Still working on the kitchen...

I thought I would put a few updated pictures of the kitchen. Jason has finished building the pantry, shelves and cabinet near the washer/dryer. I love the pantry door that Jason made. I think it might be my favorite part of the kitchen. Besides He-Man and Skeletor on the top shelf. Make sure you take a look at those!

Under Construction

Here are some highlights from the past few weeks. Sanding, tearing down, building, tiling, staining, painting, and the list goes on and on and on. I think it is looking great! And check out my dishwasher!!!

Kitchen Remodel: Before Pictures

Well, I haven't posted in a while because I haven't really been able to get to the office. Our house is in complete disarray while we remodel the kitchen. It all began with a new dishwasher which meant that we needed to build a pantry which meant that we needed to reconfigure the cabinets which meant we needed to get a microwave hood combo which meant we needed to stain the cabinets and change the hardware which meant that we needed to tile a backsplash which meant that we needed to paint the kitchen which meant the whole thing needed to be redone! Here are some before pictures...wait until you see the transformation!