Making Decisions

Good evening! I'm here and doing much better than I was before. I was SHOCKED to call the doctor's office at 11:30 and get a 2:15 appointment for this afternoon. So, I was in and out of the office in under an hour and the meds she prescribed are doing their thing! My back is feeling much better and I'm feeling pretty happy. On a related note, I'm so happy that I cannot be held responsible for what ends up in this blog! Lol!!

So, we finally made some concrete decisions on the kitchen besides the paint colors. Here is our kitchen a few days before we closed on the house.






Note the BLACK trim and the fabulous Coca-Cola wallpaper border. We have since pulled down the border, primed and painted the trim and painted the walls an avocado/olive green. You may remember all of this from my first post.

Well, the paint colors have been nailed down for a while. I believe the True value idea card has been hanging in the kitchen for over a month. The walls will be re-primed and painted Chamois. The cabinets will be painted Rojo. We'll be using the green in a limited way for accents.




Picture: True Value

So, while in Midland, we stopped by Home Depot to pick up some Christmas gift cards and took advantage of the trip to look at things for the house. I picked up some samples for counter surfaces and Jason and I looked at them and agreed on the same one!! I wanted to be SURE that this was the way we're going to go, so I ordered an additional 15 samples from the manufacturer. They came in today and Jason and I again picked the original sample. We're going with WilsonArt HD laminate counters in Sedona Bluff. I know, I know. Laminate?! Yes, laminate. This is going to be a budget remodel on an average home in a very slow market. Going with a natural surface just wouldn't be worth it here. I'm still planning on putting a butcher block island in the center of the kitchen, so I'll still get my preferred counter-top surface in the room. So, here's the sample:




Photo: WilsonArt.com

I've seen the commercial for this stuff several times and doubted that it would look great in person, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'm excited to get started on the kitchen redo! I'm hoping to start priming right after Christmas!!

Gallery Night is this weekend in Alpine and I'm hoping that I feel up to going tomorrow night. This year I'll be shopping for a cut glass dish to hold my dish sponge on the kitchen window sill, art for anywhere in the house and a cottage-y side table for either the living room, master bedroom or guest room, or all three!

Well, it's been a long day and the second round of muscle relaxers feels like it's starting to kick in.

Thanks for reading and many blessings!

Shopping Favorites

I was unable to post my favorites of the week this past Saturday because we were out shopping, so what better theme to focus on than that?! Here's my shopping-related handmade items for last week!


First is the Recycled Sail Tote from reiter8 on etsy. I LOVE the idea of recycling a sail and being able to carry the product all day! This would make a shopping excursion a lot more exciting!




The next item is this great Market Tote and Coupon Holder Set from speckimage at etsy. I love that the set is coordinated and I love the fabric that was used. I am a coupon hoarder, so having a place to organize and keep them would be great!!



I love the Asian-inspired fabric that sweetirie used on this Wrist Key Chain and Coin Purse set. I always find piles of loose change at the bottom of my purse, so this would be perfect to keep it organized. I'm also thinking that this would be the perfect size to hold your ID and some cash for quick trips that don't require a purse.



Add a favorite pair of jeans and a plain tee to these Handpainted Canvas Shoes by palenque and you've got the perfect all-day shopping outfit. I love that these are artsy in such an understated way!




Finally, my baked goods favorite for the week are these adorable handbag cookies by Wonderland Bakery. Aren't they adorable!?



Well, that's it for this week's edition of handmade favorites. I don't have anything planned for this Saturday, but just in case, I'm going to start working on the next theme right away!

The Perfect Day of Shopping

Is that an oxymoron? It can't be because it just happened for us! We had the greatest day of shopping we've had in a long, long time. This morning started off with a bran muffin, hot chocolate and some fried apples at Cracker Barrel. I ate light but trust me, Jason made up for that. After that we went directly across the street to Academy where Jason bought me a mini trampoline and a pair of boxing gloves for my workouts. I was also able to find the cutest shirt and sweater set and a much-needed pair of workout pants. Jason got plenty of gear as well. We also picked up a few of our Christmas gifts for the family. After that we headed back to the hotel for a bit of rest. We left again to head to Sam's Club to get my new membership card and ended up buying TONS of bulk stuff; Slim Fast (less than half the price of what it is back home), Ibuprofen, oatmeal, hot chocolate and whey powder for Jason. All in all, much better than we expected to do there! We then headed to the mall to pick up a few more gifts and ate lunch at Chick-fil-a. We kind of struck out on gifts; only found one present and some new nose rings for me, but it was fun to look around. After that we headed to Mervyn's where we really got things moving! I found two more really cute shirts and found gifts for more family. After that we went to Barnes and Noble (for ourselves) and then to Hobby Lobby (again for stuff for us).

We ended the day with naps in our hotel room until it was time to go to dinner. We had a great meal at Olive Garden. I had a great meal. The Chicken and Gnocchi soup there is so delicious! Jason had his usual Chicken Parmesan and loved it as usual! We've been back at the hotel room relaxing ever since.

I picked up two great books at Barnes and Noble. I got The Big-Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano and The Confetti Cakes Cookbook by Elisa Straus. I've browsed through both of them, and I know I love them already!! There are some great crafts in the craft book that I know I want to try.

Well, I'm off to read until I pass out! This is by far one of the best days in a long time!

Any post that begins with a Cinnabon has to be a good one right? Jason and I pulled into our wonderful hotel at about 6:30 p.m. So here we are in Midland and nothing to eat. We headed to where we know the restaurants are and he spotted a Schlotzsky's. So, since he's agreed to Chick-fil-a at the mall tomorrow, I agreed to eat there tonight. It's not a place that I hate, it's just not my favorite. Anyhow. I do my best to be conservative by buying a wrap and a diet coke. Well, there that went when I saw the Cinnabon. These things are HUGE and I could only eat a few bites for the sweetness, but it was soooo yummy and worth the extra exercise I'll have to do to work it off!

Tomorrow is our big day of "how many stores can you go to in your waking hours?" I know we're going to head to Sam's Club, Academy, Home Depot, Zales, Barnes & Noble, Mervyn's (they're having a huge going out of business sale!), Bath & Body Works, GNC and numerous others. I'd also like to find a Starbucks, but that might not be the best idea after the Cinnabon, huh? ;)

Well, I've finally started Transgressions by Sarah Dunant, so I'm going to get into bed and get to reading. I'm hoping that it turns out as well as the last one by her that I read. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow sometime. We'll see if I have enough energy after we get back from our fancy Olive Garden dinner!