Home Trends

While we are still moving some things in I do have a few projects up my sleeve. A few months ago we bought a "new" dining room table from Habitat for $75 but it had no chairs. I didn't like the windsor chairs that our previous table included so I knew I wasn't going to reuse them. We discussed using different chairs for  an eclectic feel. I was all on board with that until I went out to our building at our former house. Our landlord had cleaned it out and left what she didn't want, Chris was going to haul off the leftover stash but he hadn't had a chance to do so. I found 4 chairs that were probably from the 70's and have a little modern feel..but they are UGGGGGGGGLLLLYYY. The chrome is rusted, the padding is orange vinyl and the seats were cream. I looked at them and thought...HEYYYY these would be cute with our rustic table (of course remodeled). I knew to get Chris on board I would have to show him a visual so off to Pinterest I go!

Our table <3

I found a few ideas, he agreed, we dug one chair out and brought it to our table and I knew it would be perfect.

inspiration  

 I do not have a picture of our actual chairs but I plan on changing the fabric to gray....painting the plastic white and the legs I am changing to Oil Rubbed Bronze(ORB). I will post pics as soon as I start working on the project.

Speaking of pinterest...I have already done several projects from there and I did another when we started decorating the livingroom. I had two midsize bookcases that I had NO clue where to put them, because of their size, they were awkward to place. While perusing on pinterest I saw something I knew I  could easily do. It was a couch encased with bookshelves!  Here is my version :)

bookcases :)

 

 

Stay tuned for more photos!  XOXO~Jess

PSST: The green sailboat painting is down and replaced with our photo collage.
Table Inspiration link here

Beetlegeuse Beetlegeuse Beetlegeuse

Our new curtains looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie...which makes me super happy! I just realized a few weeks ago that our kitchen color is actually almost identical of The Maitland's kitchen in Beetlejuice. Anyways...I got the idea for our curtains from pinterest- the most awesome site that ever existed. Seriously. First I tried paint...and failed miserably  so this afternoon I bought fresh curtains, two yards of fabric and heat bond. For under $25 I made some uber fabulous curtains...if I do say so myself. Take a look!

I die. I love them so much....and it makes me love this picture even more that Chris is sitting in front of them. <3
Back to the curtains....I only used two narrow panels because the windows are so gorgeous I do not want to hide them and we live off the road so its not like people will be peeping in here. Have you guys made anything from pinterest? Share!! :) Till next time XOXOXO ~Jess :)

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

I am working on our curtains for the living room and it is a looong process of painting.. one panel down...one to go *sigh*

Inspiration

Tomorrow I will post photos of what I did. Till then XOXOX ~Jess

Working on no sleep..

Chris and I moved a few more things into the house last night and actually stayed there. I am so glad we are finally able to enjoy the house instead of laboring in it. We had originally planned to move a little more tonight and then Wednesday move the remainder but mama called to tell me it is suppose to rain alll day Wednesday, so her and The Captain will be helping us tonight to get it ALL.. YAY for help! :) 

I did get a little bit done last night...I have the bathroom kinda cleaned up and I have started to decorate it. It is coming along nicely. I was digging in my linens box and came across a shower curtain I had kinda forgot about haha. I had bought it at Goodwill(shocker) and put it up to go into our bathroom...I think it goes nicely in there and it ties everything together. :) 

I am still going to bring in some vintage nautical prints and other things to bring the room together. The bathroom is really my favorite room in the house. 

Till next time XOXOX ~Jess

I'm Moving On....and other ramblings

Reader Beware: This is a long and pointless blog just to let me brag about our new house....hehe

Yep...I'm moving on to our new house! Woohoo! I really should say we're moving on but with Chris working 60+ hours a week he doesn't have time or the energy to move us so I have stepped up and finished doing the touch ups in the house and actually started our moving process Saturday. Let me tell ya...moving alone sucks! Especially since I was driving his F350.....most of you probably know I'm short(5'4")...so when I have to climb up in to the truck bed...I basically have to jump to get up, which makes it super hard to load the truck up. He told me not to get anything I could know pick up over my head which I wouldn't attempt to any ways, but it even though I could pick up the items it was still super hard to get on the truck. Most of you might not know this but I live at the top of a bad neighborhood. They mainly keep to themselves but it's still not the best situation, so I had to keep my front door open and carry my belongings out to our yard and just prayed no crack head came walking up to steal anything(such as our dvd collection) or walk in on me.  Anyways I got everything on to the truck then hauled my butt up in the bed and rearranged so nothing would fly off as I was driving...I am not the best mover I am positive Chris could have gotten tons more on but I was not taking any chances. I got to the new house and started moving our stuff in...not worried a bit about our things being stolen this time....I adore our new neighborhood!  We(together) will be moving more of our stuff in  the upcoming week and hopefully get to take pictures of the train wreck of a house along the way.


I have been posting mobile photos of before and afters on facebook but my favorite room in the entire house is also the room that was almost a deal breaker...the bathroom. The before picture really does not do the bathroom justice on just how bad it was compared to the rest of the house. The house was built in the 1950's and besides painting and some carpet the house had not been updated...at all. But in all fairness the bathroom wasn't THAT horrible, I have seen far worse in houses much newer than ours. I just really had no clue what I was gonna do with powder blue tile. To our relief Chris' dad, uncles and aunt said they would pay to have it updated...whew...I knew they had good tastes and I was not worried one bit about what they would pick for us...they did one better....they left the choices to us! They did pick out the counter and the vinyl flooring because it was cheap but very good quality...neither of which I had a problem with...I had actually seen the flooring(at habitat) and liked it before it was even bought(great minds think alike I suppose). So with the handy men in place the basically tore out the old fake tile and replace it with new(fake..shh that's our secret) tile around the tub and repaired the drywall in the rest of the room so it could be painted. I am avid follower of Younghouselove.com (seriously they are amazing) and they had posted a photo of a photo a while back that just stuck with me...and I decided to take that image and draw inspiration( I really LOVED the color). I talked to Christopher about painting our tiny(but bigger than our current) bathroom a BOLD color....let me tell you he was not on board with this idea AT ALL. I even showed him the photo...he was still not impressed...I talked and talked and talked some more about this awesome bathroom until he was like OK enough...(we have an agreement if we both do not agree it does not go into our house...actually the same one YHL has but I did not know until later..ha!) He finally agreed to look at paint swatches in the space (one small step for jess.....one giant leap for chris..hehe pun was completely intended..). I stole gathered up a bunch of paint chips from Lowes and we both were really attracted to all three colors on one chip...I had first thought lets do the lighter one....he agreed...but I got to thinking....if we want to go bold....lets go BOLD. So we came to the conclusion just go with the second one...the one we really really loved. Which I am SOOOOO glad we did.

The Inspiration

Before

Progress

 

 

 

 

 

I plan on making it vintage nautical themed ...since, you know, I love all things ocean and of course vintage. :)...BTW I know the progress photo it was still unfinished but we are finished with this room...the only room that needs to be worked on is the kitchen .

I think I have rambled on enough I will leave you for now..until next time XOXO ~Jess

Living on Pizza and Beer Budget

The problem with living on a "pizza and beer budget" is...I have "caviar and champagne" tastes. But through thrift I have learned over the years I can have both!  Which makes me smile ear to ear. Over the last few weeks Chris and I have went thrifting (shocker!).  Instead of my normal layout with details over what we bought I thought I would just give you the cliffs notes. I am not familiar with men's really expensive name brands but I know an expensive piece when I see one. Example: Last weekend Chris and I went to Value Village in Gastionia...I love that place! The first thing I spot just happened to be for Chris, which were a black square toe shoe by Gordon Rush. They were BRAND FRIGGIN NEW...not knowing the name brand I know they were a quality shoe. So we bought them because they just happened to be in his size, a size 13(!) . When we got back to the truck I looked the shoes up on my phone and sure enough the brand starts off at $175. WHAT?! Yeah that was so worth the mere $14 we splurged(ha!)

Example I found from google

Another example of the champagne lifestyle on a beer budget: Just Wednesday night we were thrifting at Goodwill and Chris found the most beautiful Banana Republic LEATHER jacket for 8 bucks! And it just happened to be in my size....w00t w00t! :)  We also bought some other odds and ends during this trip for our new house including a bee ($0.99) that reminds me of younghouselove.com, if you do not already follow their blog...it is a MUST read! I love their style and taste. They were actually the inspiration for our new house. :) Speaking of our new house it is almost ready! We went to pick our laminate flooring for our master bedroom, dining room/hall, and my craft room from a local home improvement salvage store...we got 513 sq ft for a $1 sq ft annnnnnnd he even threw in free padding! SCORE! I do recommend Earthwise Building Supply in downtown Rutherfordton to all of my local people. It is amazing! We will def. be making another trip to look a little longer! :) I can not wait to share our house when we get everything set up! :) 

Til next time XOXO ~Jess

Under $20

Two meals for three people under $20. Mom has been out of town for a few days and I am keeping my sister. I had no plans on what to feed the child but snooping around the internet I found two easy pasta recipes (she loves pasta...who doesn't tho?). The first dinner I made was Lemon Garlic Spaghetti, the recipe serves two but just double it and its EASY. Most of the items you may already have in your pantry.

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti 
4 oz dry spaghetti
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic-minced 
1/2 lemon- juice
5-6 basil leaves- chopped


Start boiling water for the spaghetti noodles.
Heat olive oil in small pan on low, add garlic, cook until edges are brown-set aside. 
Once water boils, add noodles, cook until tender.
In a large bowl add basil leaves and cheese then toss with noodles, add in the garlic oil and lemon juice...toss. Serve. 


The original recipe can be found here. You can add whatever you would like like sauteed mushrooms or like the original recipe called for...pine nuts. 





The second is Fettuccine Alfredo. Home Made. Easy peasy.  I'm sure this can easily feed 6. We still have a ton left over lol 


Fettuccine Alfredo
2 Sticks of butter (yes glorious, fattening butter)
1/2lb Parmesan- grated (i had just enough from the recipe before)
Salt
1 lb Fettuccine Noodle


Using an electric mixer beat the butter and cheese together until creamy.
Boil salt water, add noodles, cook until al dente
Save 1/2 cup of noodle water
Mix noodles with cheesey butter and 1/4 cup noodle water. If too think add more water.
Serve.