A sneak peak....

We've been in our house for about 8 months now, but the first 3 months were spent renovating/cleaning. We bought a foreclosure and it has beautiful bones, and was only 20 years old!  Owning a home has been quite the adventure, but I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every minute of it and wouldn't trade anything for it (OK, maybe not the nights up till 2am painting and cleaning...). Here is a sneak peak of what we first saw when we walked in our house for the first time...

 WOAH.

That's a lot of pink. Is that really textured wallpaper? Cool?? But that staircase is...amazing. And we could get a ladder to paint...right?  That's what went through my head. You can see our dining room, which would turn out to be a room I spent the most time painting.

Fast forward two months of closing, a lot of packing, and more hard work than I thought I was capable of, we have our dream home.  

         

This week I will post pictures of the interior before and afters, which include lots and lots of paint (turns out pink is a VERY stubborn color), flooring, gallons of 409 and bleach, and of course magic erasers.

Never the less, pink or not, this is our home, our nest, and we love it.

Product Review

I have been a pretty loyal fan of Clinique's pressed poweders, they always worked very well for me, but I decided that i should try something a little different

So a couple of months ago I tried the Bare Escentuals line for foundation, and the first few times, i loved it. But since my face is prone to breakouts, I found that the powder didnt cover the breakouts very well, and if it did, it faded very quickly.

Back to the Clinique counter I went. Except this time, they have a new(er) product. Perfectly Real Compact Makeup. This makeup is amazing. The coverage is flawless (and covers your flaws!), it has great bulidable coverge, so if i just want to put a little bit on in the morning, I can; or you can give your self more coverage if you're going out, or maybe having a bad skin day.  Another thing I feel like i should point out is the color match. I have never had a makeup match my natural skintone so well! I used to use their double face poweder, and most other clinique lines have color "names", but the Perfectly Real Compact Makeup uses a number system, and any Clinique specialist can help you find the perfect color.

Whats your favorite foundation/powder?

Craft Friday!

Well before Halloween comes and goes...I thought I would share some fun that i've been having!

I found the inspiration for the first project here
What you need:
Yarn
Stryofoam cones, different shapes

Glue Dots

The total cost of the project was $10, and i have more than enough yarn to make probably 5 or 6 more of these.



Its really really simple, all you have to do is wrap the string around the cone! Put a glue dot when you start and finish each color and make sure its nice and tight.

                     This is how they turned out, not bad for a first try?



And here is another project I recently finished, this one only cost $5!

                             Insulation tubing ($.97), Tulle ($3.97)
                      Cut tulle into strips and then tie around tubing, voila!


I have really been enjoying decorating our house for Halloween (we're going to be a Roman Empress and Sparticus), even thought its not my favorite holiday. Its so nice to have a place we can call "home" and knowing we dont have to move in 18 months or a year again. As much as I loved our last apartment, I'm pretty stoked to not have to start packing up again or pay rent. We're having a Halloween party tomorrow, but maybe I will do a house tour with some before and after's?







Carmel Apples..Inside Out

Its Recipe Tuesday!

My family had a potluck this weekend...I made chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie tarts, and inside out Carmel apples.

The Caramel Apples were delicious and easy to make.!
Here was my inspiration: Inside out caramel Apples, I think this was a pretty good attempt for my first try!

Ingredients:
3 cans Condensed Milk
8 Granny Smith Apples
1 Cup crushed walnuts
1 Can of Sprite

Start with 3 cans of condensed milk, take the labels off, and put them in the crock pot submerged in water. Turn the crock pot on low and leave over night (around 10 hours).

Take the cans out and let them cool, while your doing that you can prepare your apples.

Clean your fruit, and cut in half

Take out about 5-6 small apple bites using a melon baller, so there is still a decent amount of apple, but enough that there is a "bowl"

Pour sprite inside and around the edges, this prevents browning!

Keep going until you have all your apples cut and cored out. I kept my apples on the counter to dry while i did the rest so they had a chance to dry from the sprite

(Notice the caramel is still in the milk can, this is seriously the easiest thing ever to make!)

I wish i had a picture of this part, but its pretty self explanatory, just take a spoon and fill the middle with caramel, be careful that the apple is pretty dry inside, otherwise the caramel wont stick.

Top the apples with crushed walnuts or any other nut of your choice and pop in the fridge for about 3-4 hours!

You can slice each half in half, or quarters for smaller slices depending on how many people you want to serve!!

Everyone enjoyed these, and it was a quick recipe, the entire thing only took about an hour to assemble!

Would you like to mini-size that?

So I'm not going to lie, I'm a chronic pinner on Pinterest lately. And the latest object of my affection is anything made muffin tins. I just love them. And they are so practical! Not only does it help you control your portion, they are easy to store as leftover, and even freeze! The possibilities are truely endless....and I'm thrilled!

First up I tried...

Eggs. It seemed like the easiest thing to try. Just spray some cooking spray and then fill the cups up!

Cook them at about 350 for like 25 minutes

Voila! This was so easy, and left nearly no mess at all. We stuck these puppies in the fridge and have been enjoying a quick healthy breakfast all week.

Some other things i cant wait to try....

Breakfast Cups

Muffin Tin Tacos

Breakfast Casserole

And on those cold sundays when you make a giant pot of soup? Pour the leftovers in a muffin tin, pop them in the freezer and then store. Put one or two of them in a mug for a quick meal on a cold winter day.

I have lots of posts coming up...including our Master Bedroom reveal, Holiday decorating, and some baking suprises!

Who plays piano??

Thats the question everyone asks when I told them we were getting a piano. The answer? Neither of us really, but I think its something really nice to have, and our living room was made for a piano, this im sure of. But how do you transport a piano? The answer, very carefully.

Step one: Find 4 strong men, honestly we probably could have used some more

Step two: VERY carefully and very slowly move said piano into house.

Beautiful.

All in all, our piano traveled 40 miles to get to us, and we couldnt be happier. I'm excited to learn to play, but thats going to have to wait since all I have been doing in my spare time is writing thank-you cards from our wedding.

Sunday Funday

So we are finally decorating our house! Here's what I managed to get into today....

Love this picture, my mom bought it for our wedding shower.

Made this Fall Decoration with decorations from the dollar store, and votives we had leftover from the wedding, and some Partylite votives.

And this little guy, just for fun, is our kitten, Gandolf. he loves to cuddle.

Happy Sunday!

Holiday Crafting

Well, I'm settling in in our house, which sounds weird since we have lived here over 4 months now, but since we moved in, it was constant wedding for 3 months! I've been busy going through our clothes and organizing our closet as part of our master bedroom overhaul! I hope to post pictures next week. But today, I thought that i would share some quick, easy Halloween decorations that I made this weekend!

 

I found this craft here:
Then She Made Blog

 

I bought the supplies at Pat Catans, all you need is:
2 12x12 sheets of Halloween paper
Paper Mache Letters
Ribbon
Glue Dots

 

1. First, I traced the letters; so that while the paint dried, so that i could cut them out
2. Next, I painted the insides and back of the letters black, for a more finished look!
3. Then, I cut out the letters, and applied glue dots to the backs of the paper
4. Then all you have to do is use some orange ribbon, and hang someplace fantastic!!

 

We're going to be hanging this in our kitchen

 

What Holiday Crafts are you planning for this Halloween?

Healthy Honey, Hungry Hubby

While I am trying to eat healthier, my husband might not appreciate the lack of carbs and multipled vegetables and proteins.. As I begin my fitness challenge, I have another type of challenge: my husband hates vegetables.

This is what we had for dinner one quick night after work:

Stuffed Chicken breasts with whole wheat pasta and peas. Hubby added cheese to his noodles, where i added more peas to my plate!

Hopefully in the future Iwill come up with some better meals, if you have any suggestions, websites, or pictures I'm always up for new ideas!

In other news:

My new phone is finally arriving today!! I got a Samsung Charge, its 4G, has a 8 megapixel camera and a 1080 screen. yesss.

Things I'm lovin'

I finally feel like its Fall!! I've been busy planning our first married life party, for Halloween I am  very excited.  I dont have a ton of time right now, but i wanted to share something quick. I went to Target yesterday looking for a new nail polish, maybe a nice mauve, or deep purple..but instead i found this:

Essie's new fall line! This color is called Power clutch and is a rich dark gray color, you can buy it here. Who would have ever though gray would be a great nail polis color?! I really like it because it still has the dark richness of the color, but isnt going to really clash, with anything!


What do you think?

Sunday Funday

Well the bedroom re-do/reorganize is taking MUCH longer than anticipated :( I never realized how many clothes we have! But we are trying to go through, and if we dont wear it, we are donating it. Plus that will leave more room for purchases in the future! And as much as i tell myself i'm going to, i am NEVER going to wear those shirts from aeropostle 5 years ago (But they are THIS close to fitting again!). I hope to have pictures up in the next week. Stuff we still have to complete:

• Finish sorting clothes
• Buy and sew curtains
• Hang curtains, and wall decor

We are getting close!!
Other things im working on this sunday:

• Grocery list and couponing
• Buying new workout shoes
• New shoe shelving and sweater storage
• Enjoying this FABULOUS fall weather
• Trying out a NEW cake recipe...more to follow!

What do you typically do on sundays?

My first post! (eek!)

Ok, so im starting a blog, what?

 

I'm a twenty-something just-newlywed, trying to navigate my way through life. I hope this blog will help people..with their house, with crafts, cooking and whereever else this leads me! Things i would like to do with this blog:

• DIY house renovations/decorating
• I love to craft.
• I need to learn to cook (real food...)
• Fashion, makeup and great products

If your still interested....a little about me:

• I'm Heather, and my husband is J, he's my high school sweetie <3

• I am completely obsessed with weddings, i hope one day i can be a wedding planner
• We bought a house in April, its our dream house, but it needed lots and lots of love
• My dream is to be a stay at home mom
• I love my friends and family they are my world!

 

Those are the "hey its me" points...but why am i starting a blog? Probably to stop annoying my friends ;) But I hope they will join me on here. I've found tons of inspirations on blogs the past couple of months, and maybe someone out there will find inspiration from me too. So where does that leave us?  A new start.

 

Find me on pinterest!