House tour: Dining room

I owe this little blog some updates. I apologize - everything comes along so slowly and I wanted to have amazing "after" pictures to share... but that clearly won't be for a while! So my goal in the near future is to give you an "in progress" house tour. Starting with the dining room. First, here's a reminder of the dining room when we bought the house:

And here it is today:

What we've done so far:

• Painted the walls
• Added the bamboo roman shade to the window
• Bought a new dining set

Upcoming plans for this room:

• Add art on the walls
• Buy a buffet/sideboard for under the window
• Stain the supports under the granite bar to match the cabinets
• Add curtains for both the window and the sliding glass door
• Replace the carpet with tile flooring
• I want to do something to make the back of the kitchen cabinets less of an eyesore - I just don't know what!

Meal Plan Monday 10/17

FYI I rarely stick to these, but it helps give me ideas at least :)

Monday: Thai chicken satay & mango avocado salad

Tuesday: Caprese quinoa

Wednesday: Honey mustard grilled chicken & spicy green beans

Thursday: Turkey burgers

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: Chicken spaghetti (never made this last week)

Sunday: Pepperoncini beef sandwiches

Meal Plan Monday 10/10

Monday: Chipotle-esque burrito bowls with cilantro lime rice, Cuban black beans and salsa chicken

Tuesday: Beer cheese soup

Wednesday: Pasta with meatballs left over from our housewarming party

Thursday: Pulled pork left over from our housewarming party

Friday: Chicken spaghetti

Saturday: Chili

Sunday: Out with friends

Family photo wall

I've wanted a collage/family photo wall for years and I'm so happy that I now have one! Check out this fabulousness:

1. Little husband as a baby, circa 1979/80
2. The only frame left to fill...
3. My family at Volcano National Park in Hawaii, 2008
4. Wedding photo, 2010
5. James and one of his nieces
6. James and his other niece
7. My dad (the youngest), aunts and uncle, circa 1957
8. Baby husband and his mom, circa 1981
9. Another of our favorite wedding photos, 2010
10. Baby me, circa 1988

To find the arrangement I wanted, I laid out all the frames on the floor before beginning anything. It took a few days of changing things around (Actually the idea started out being a mix of black and white photography/art and B/W family photos. Then it evolved into a combo of B/W and color family photos only).

I got this little tip from Young House Love - cut out newspaper in the sizes of the frames and tape them to the wall to help gauge where things should be positioned.

That helped to avoid putting too many holes in the wall, deciding a frame was in the wrong place, and having to make another hole. There was at least one or two of those, but instances were severely limited thanks to this handy dandy idea! Many of them I actually nailed right through the newspaper that was still on the wall, then just tore it away.

Here's what the wall looked like at first. You can see that most of the frames were empty and some were mismatched.

I thought about painting all the frames one color, but it turned out that I didn't mind the variation. I just wanted them to be a little more unified, so it was decided that they'd all be black, metallic or very dark brown.

This only required me to paint three of the lighter wood tone ones black. I just spray painted out back, over a box so I didn't get the grass. Easy peasy :)

I had the remaining photos printed by Walgreens and Shutterfly. I still have one more small one to get enlarged so it can go in frame 2. Here's how the wall looks today...

It's in the hallway between all the bedrooms and bathrooms. Here's the view from the living room...

I love how this turned out! I spent very little money on it because I'd been collecting the frames for a while - most were gifts and some were repurposed. The biggest expense was getting the larger images printed (The most expensive was image 9, around $12. Number 4 was included in our wedding photography package).

Housewarming party menu

Our housewarming party was a success! Unfortch, I was too busy hosting and having fun to take any photos, but it was great. We had over 20 guests check out our casa, including my family, hubby's family, our friends and a neighbor! Here's what I served.

• Pulled pork (in a crock pot) with buns. I made almost 8 lbs. and 2 or 3 lbs. were left over at the end of the night. I don't mind though - it freezes great and is still delish next time I want some :)
• Meatballs (in a crock pot). I used this recipe but with 3 lbs. of frozen meatballs.
• Cheese and meat tray with pepperoni, salami, chipotle jack, gouda and smoked cheeses.
• Veggie tray with olives, broccoli, carrots, cucumber and hummus.
• Spinach dip in a sourdough bread bowl.
• Tortellini salad (the bag mix from Costco).
• Mini cheesecakes - adorable with cherries on top! I made waaaay too many though.
• Death by chocolate cookies - my mom provided these!
• Magic cookie bars
• Soda, water bottles, red wine, beer and champagne punch.

I'm so glad that we held this celebration because I just love planning and hosting parties! Next one will be either Thanksgiving or our second annual tacky holiday sweater party!!

Meal Plan Monday 9/26

I finally have time to plan meals around our Farm Fresh To You delivery, which is nice. I'm sad to say that some items have gone to waste in past weeks when I just didn't have time to cook a new meal, but I have plans for each item we received on Friday.

Sunday (Last night - I'm including it because it was super yummy): Goat cheese & arugula over penne

Monday: Homemade pizza

Tuesday: Turkey burgers & rosemary zucchini sticks

Wednesday: Tilapia & Moroccan carrots

Thursday: Out with friends at Chicago Fire

Friday: Not sure yet

Saturday: Family BBQ

Sunday: Housewarming party!

In the past month...

1. James' sister and nieces came to visit from Washington. We had a lot of family visiting time with them and others from our area - very fun!

2. We had new counters installed in our kitchen and both bathrooms! I really, really need to get around to doing an updated house tour.

3. We went to two Giants games - one with my family and one with my coworkers.

4. I finally completed our wedding album and ordered it from Shutterfly, just in time for our anniversary! I'm a little disappointed in the quality, but not sure that I care enough to do anything about it.

5. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in Santa Cruz. It was lovely - the best part was our sailing trip on the Chardonnay II. We saw a whale and dolphins, drank wine (chardonnay, naturally) and met another couple that was also celebrating their anniversary and also got married at Lighthouse Point - just a year earlier than us! I told the captain my name and he said I was the first passenger named Chardonnay that he'd had :)

Free anniversary cake from Hoffman's Bakery

The view from our private balcony at the Babbling Brook Inn

6. I've been busy planning our housewarming party, which is October 2. Should be a good time!

7. Finally, BIG NEWS: I quit my job!! This was a huge decision and something I had never done... I quit without having another job lined up (Other than the time I quit my high school job to move away to college, of course). I had not been unemployed for a single day since the age of 18. I'm lucky to have a husband with a job, so I was able to do this. It was the best decision for me. I didn't like the work, I didn't like the way I was treated, so what's the point? It's a strange position for me to be in - one that I'm not used to. But I know that it was the best decision for me.

I'm going to try to get a house tour put together in the near future, and pick up blogging in general. Trouble is that lately I do NOT feel like sitting in front of a computer, and have no motivation to blog about life... I hope I get inspired soon!