What a Beautiful Morning!

Today was such a beautiful day! I got to sleep in and was awoken by my Honey! He brought me up breakfast in bed, some pancakes and bacon! But he hadn't made his breakfast yet so I brought my plate downstairs and ate with him :-) Then we read the paper and I finally got my butt in the shower!

I knew I wanted to take Roxy for an hour long walk because I didn't get to yesterday, so after I got out of the shower I put on my baseball cap, grabbed my ipod and headed out! It was so BEAUTIFUL outside!!

I think she was enjoying it too!!!

After we got home from our walk Roxy pooped out!! And then later we took Buster to Camp Bow Wow for about 3 hours! And now he and Roxy are sleeping next to me!! I love when my dogs are happy!!

Scrap-A-Thon!!!

This past Saturday my Mom and I attended a 12-Hour Crop Fundraiser for a school!! It was the 4th Annual one they've had!! And it's always so much fun! This year my Mom's two friends Marie and Salley come with us as well!

When we got to our table we found these amazing goodie bags with some paper and stamps and other scrapbooking items! The ladies who organized the crop are so cute and crafty and did a custom made label on the bottled water!

And a custom made label for a candy bar! It was adorable, it had custom made ingredients list tht was just so cute!

The table space for my Mom and I and her two friends! Notice the cushion on the chair...I forgot to pack one when I left the house so I went to Wal-Mart and picked one up and I am so HAPPY that I did!

A shot of just my Mom and I's workspace! It was so much ROOM!! And I was able to use three milk crates they had lying over there as mini tables to have even more room! It made it so much easier to access things without having to hunt around!

Here is the raffle prize table! We bought some raffle tickets and entered a few. And Mom WON!! She wins every year but she got herself a nice basket that Beverly's had donated with some scrapbooking goodies!!!

We had a BLAST as usual at this crop and we both got quite a bit done. I made a decent size start into the dogs Scrapbook albums. I did a few spreads for them and then started a spread with the cats! My Mom did a couple great Disneyland pages and a cool one of my Paps with his quad!! We both had a great time!! I just wish there were more crops like this around. I wouldn't even care if there was no goodie bag or raffle. I just love coming and scrapbooking all day with other scrapbookers and spending time with my Mom!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Last week on Monday Chuck and I went to his doctor's appointment and then we decided to go out to dinner. On our way to the restaurant the weather started acting funky. It was freezing, but the sign was shining very brightly, and then it started to POUR and the sun was still shining brightly!! Then it started to hail and continued to pour rain! It was so odd and as we were going over the overpass I look in the side mirror and see an AMAZING rainbow!

This wasn't just any ordinary rainbow that I've seen, it was a FULL rainbow!! I have never in my life seen a rainbow that was so full! I've seen plenty of half rainbows but never a FULL rainbow! And being the scrapbooker that I am I of course had my camera with me!

One side of the rainbow!

The middle! Yes it's all there!

And the other side!

It was gorgeous and so amazing to see it! I can't even describe how excited I was!!!

In Case of Emergency

With all the Earthquakes occurring recently in Haiti, Taiwan and Chile we decided to get ourselves prepared. Living in California we could easily be the next to experience a massive Earthquake and needless to say we don't want to be caught without a game plan! We ordered our emergency supplies from the amazing website http:///www.iprepare.com.

We got the first part of our order on Thursday and it was our 2 Person Essentials Kit.

Nice Huh??

This kit comes with everything you could imagine you would need!

We both feel more prepared now and a little relieved. Along with this we also have a tub of supplies for the pets and everything is in the closet by the door and now we just need to get our emergency cash.

I hope we don't experience an Earthquake but if we do I feel at ease that Chuck and I are prepared and we have laid out a game plan! Are you prepared for a Natural Disaster?

To Rug or Not to Rug?

Another steal of deal? YES!!! I am so proud of the fact that I am CHEAP!! Yup I won't try and make it better than it is, I'm not frugal I am CHEAP! And you would be too if you were able to find some of the deals I've been able to find since we've moved into this condo.

Sunday is usually the day where we stay home all day, hang out in sweats, and just relax. But with Chuck's new work schedule Sundays have turned into our days of running errands and getting things done around the house. Honestly it doesn't bother me I am trying to be more active and I am okay with doing a few things, as long as I can spend the early evening and night doing our usual big Sunday Dinner and Movie night :)

This Sunday we went to K-Mart, originally just to pick up another matching dresser but we stumbled upon the pillow aisle. I'll admit it wasn't an accident, I've been dying to get new pillows since we picked the color scheme. While they didn't have the red or orange I wanted, we did find these nice cream colored pillows that I thought would be perfect to tone down the brightness of the pillows I just knew I would find.

$12.99 for two pillows :-)
And as we turned the corner to head to the furniture section we found ourselves staring right at some clearance room sized area rugs! While I was still unsure about wanting an area rug I knew Chuck had his heart set on one. And I was more than willing to compromise as he let me put up girlie flowers and candles :-) We found this HUGE area rug for only $35 and it matches the pillows above :-) Could this get any better!

A close up of the rug. It's simple which I really like. I just wasn't sold on the idea of getting a really patterned or bright rug. I want people to notice the decor on the TV Stand and the pictures on the wall rather than our floor.

Here is a shot of our living room with the rug in place. I'll be happy when those little bumps work themselves out and flatten to the floor. Right now they bug me a little but I know they will soon flatten. Not too bad right? Something just wasn't right with me. I hated that we had the brown pillows out still. It just didn't look right with my flowers and I really wanted our living room to have more life to it.

Chuck was such a great sport and he agreed to come with me to Big Lots as my last attempt to find pillows for the day! I grabbed a few leftover flowers to have a color match with us and we hopped in the car!

It was worth the trip! We found AMAZING pillows that not only bring in the red from the flowers but also the two shades of yellow. While at the store I was a little unsure. They weren't our normal safety solids, but I refuse to be safe anymore. I want to expand my decorating and take a chance! Aren't these so fun?

The new pillows are really amazing. They go great with the cream colored rug and pillows and they really bring out the flowers more!!!

Here is a shot of the love seat and TV stand area!

The couch! The sun was shining to brightly but the multicolored pillow is sitting on the right.

And another shot of the pillows to see how they look with the color of the couches.

And here is a shot of the whole room. Looking at pictures of our living room reminds me of how small it is, but who says small spaces can't have some fun bright colors?

We both are so happy with all the updates done on Sunday. I know Chuck loves to rug and I'm not going to lie, as much as I was against it, it does feel better on the feet than walking on the laminate flooring. Plus now the dogs and the cats sprawl out on the rug rather than on the couch hanging all over us!

Now I cannot wait to build the mantel so I can bring more red, orange and yellow into the room!! And other than the mantel we need to get our nice picture reframed and then hung above the fireplace, move the mirror to above the love seat, and paint the fireplace wall an accent color. I cannot wait for the living room to be finished....Slowly but surely we are getting there :-)

I hope everyone had a productive and GREAT weekend!

Most Important Part of the Bedroom????

While I understand most woman believe the closet to be the most important area of a bedroom I must disagree. Not to say I don't love my clothes and feel they need to be hung in a beatiful walk in closet but to be realistic it really isn't necessary and we really don't have the walk in anyways. And I don't see spending a large amount of money on a closet when I would prefer to put it towards other aspects of the house.

Now I'm not in denial, we definitely needed to do something with our closet situation. I was occupying the entire closet in our Master and Chuck took a "Dresser" and the closet in his mancave. Needless to say I missed having his clothes with mine. I just felt it was unfair for one of us not to be able to dress in our room. So while we were anticipating a long search ahead of us for the perfect closet organizer....we were pleasantly suprised at a visit to the local Wal-Mart :-)

Originally $65, we picked up this simple closet organizer on clearance for $30!

All I really cared about was having double bars to hang more clothes, while Chuck really wanted the extra shelving for his t-shirts. It was a homerun for both of us! And a t$30 we couldn't ask for better!

After emptying the closet and piling ALL of my hanging clothes on our bed!

And taking out the two plastic set of drawers for my purses, my "skinny" jeans, and scarves, you could barely see the floor or the bed! My side of the closet with just my shoes...it looks so organized and clean!

Chuck's side of the closet, well what would become his side of the closet!

It only took Chuck about 20 minutes to get the closet organizer put together and functioning! It then took us about 20 minutes to hang up our clothes and find some better solutions for misc items. I am still not finished cleaning out one 3 drawer organizer, but I'm getting there!

Here is Chuck's side, not pictured is that we placed his "unmentionables" :-) into baskets that sit on the middle shelf. And I've removed the back pack up at the top. It will not find its home in the Mancave/Office room. And down at the bottom to provide him with extra shelving we are just using an old tv cart that barely got used but fit perfectly underneath his shirts!

And my lovely side of the closet! Yes it does appear Chuck has more room on his side, but I have a dresser and now a lingerie chest (Chuck set it up for me last night) that are overflowing with clothes as well. I couldnt' be happier with this simple cheap solution and I am so happy to have Chuck back in the room.

I would say though, that now is the time for me to go through my clothes and create a donation bag. I already have a bunch of donation items in the garage and need to get them out. So each night this week I am going to go through one area/drawer of clothes and put anything I haven't worn in 6 months into a donation pile.

Color Palette Has Been Picked!!

We have finally chosen the colors for our living room!!! And I could not be happier! We get the brightness that I wanted but we also get the warmth that Chuck was looking for!!

At first we were planning on just incorporating a warm, bright orange from a painting (that I scored at a 2nd hand store for $8) but then I realized we could incorporate more than just the orange. I took apart a fall floral arrangement I made to work on bringing these fabulous colors into our living room!!


Look at how vibrant these are!
I chose to do 2 of the bigger size Hurricane vases. They were $2 a piece from Wal-Mart...what a score and I already had the marbles and flowers!

I chose 3 smaller hurricane vases, $1 a piece, and put a smaller candle in them. You can never have too many candles, at least in my mind.

Here is a shot of the 2 bigger vases and one of the smaller ones. The colors are so amazing with the dark espresso furniture. They really pop!!

And here is a shot of the whole entertainment stand. I was so happy to get rid of the pictures and the small candle holders I had as placeholders. I just wanted to make it more decorative and I love flowers and candles!

Overall I could not be happier with the way they vases turned out. Even Chuck likes them. Now to work on finishing the living room. I cannot wait to have our living room completely done.

Next steps:

Paint one accent wall

Move coffee table out of living, waiting on some help since Chuck is still down and out from his work injury.

Find new decorative pillows to match the color scheme

Find two new throw blankets to match the color scheme

Redo one candle holder to match the color scheme

And possibly find an area rug. Chuck really wants one and I'm starting to warm up to the idea, but we are now limited because we chose the colors we wanted for the living room. So wish us luck hunting for a rug that will match!

Mini Pumpkin Pies

A coworker of mine has been hinting that he wants some baked goods, as I used to bring in Baked Goods all the time! He was in luck!! I had stocked up on pumpkin back around Thanksgiving when their was the pumpkin shortage scare and I've been wanting to use some up but wasn't sure if I wanted to make a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin spice cake, pumpkin muffins, or pumpkin cheesecake. What I knew for sure was that I didn't want the item to stay in the house.

After cruising the web for pumpkin recipes I found Individual Mini Pumpkin Pies!!! They seemed perfect...I already had 90% of the ingredients which was a plus!! After stopping at the grocery store to pick up half and half.

These were the first set up pie crusts....unfortunately these ones didn't turn out well. The crusts shrunk up to small and I couldn't fill them.

Here is the filling before being mixed. It does not look very appealing!

Take two of the pie crusts! These ones aren't pretty but they worked. I need to practice/learn again how make the pie crusts even and the edges of the crust prettier....but for now these work!

Now that's better!!! The filling was so creamy and beautiful! I just love pumpkin!

Before I popped them in the oven!

Aren't they pretty??? While waiting for the oven to cool down before baking off the pies I cut out these cute little flowers from the crust to add a little extra something to the pies :-)

Needless to say the pies were a hit at work!! And this is another recipe to add to the We Love Recipe book :-) Happy Fall in March!!

Meatloaf Muffins Anyone????

I've gone MIA again!! To be honest I haven't had much to blog about...once I realized that I had to do something fun!! So I tried out a new recipe for dinner Wednesday night!! And since Chuck dislikes Meatloaf it was perfect that he was at his Mom's for dinner!

A line up of the ingredients:
1lb ground beef
Bar-B-Que Sauce
Chicken Stuffing
Garlic Salt
You mix together the ground beef, garlic salt and the stuffing into a bowl. Then form small muffin size balls. And drop them into ungreased muffin tins.

With a spoon make an indent in the muffin patties and put as little or as much Bar-B-Que sauce that you want! I chose to put a decent amount cause I love Bar-B-Que sauce!

Bake for 20-30 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees. And then you can put cheese on top if you want or enjoy them after the 30 minutes. I chose to put cheese on half to see if I liked it better with cheese! Pop them back into the oven for 5 minutes and then let cool for about 10 minutes.

Then it's just time to enjoy!! I decided to make mashed potatoes & peas and carrots to go with the meatloaf!!

And boy were those meatloaf muffins YUMMY!! I liked it with both the cheese and without the cheese! Granted the potatoes could have been better but what can you do with Instant, oh yes I said instant :-(....I just didn't feel like making real mashed potatoes. I only ended up eating part of that plate, as that was A LOT of food!

For those meatloaf lovers I highly recommend these easy meatloaf muffins. And if you are the type of meatloaf eater who loves the ends where they are crispier these are the muffins for you!!! And the best part, you can substitutes out the garlic salt and bar-b-que with other items to make them a little different. And don't you worry I'll be back with those different variations of meatloaf muffins!!!