Color Conundrum

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My cute husband and I began discussing paint colors and such for this new house before we moved in. We even picked up a bunch of paint chips at a home improvement store while we were scouting out fun things like new fridges and washers and dryers.

Right away, we noticed a difference of opinions when it came to paint colors. I was all over the "tan is neutral, and you can add color with accessories" argument, while my husband (who by the way, on multiple occasions has told me that brown is not a color, silly boy) said tan is boring, and why don't we paint the walls colors like blue, green and red?

I tried to tell him that the main reason was to avoid having our house look like the inside of a circus tent (or something to that effect--probably more like "we don't want it to look like crazy people live here") etc, etc.

Anyway, we ended up choosing to paint the living room and adjoining family room/dining area a couple of nice neutral tans. Just like I wanted, and still what I think is the best choice for these areas. So I moved on and started thinking about what to do with our bedroom. And all I could think of was TAN. Same for our master bathroom. And even I started to think that that would just be too much tan!

Anyway, it got me wondering, was I choosing tan because I really thought it was a great design choice (ya know, since I know so much about that and all...) or if it was just because I was afraid of choosing the wrong colors. Yes, friends, it turns out that the reason I was afraid painting colors other than tan is that, though I have seen lots of design shows and blogs, I don't really know what I'm doing (and chances are good that it would look like a circus in here).

And if you're still reading what has turned into a long boring post about nothing of consequence, I will tell you, I still feel that tan is a wise color choice, but maybe not in every room of the house. So we'll be painting mostly tan in the main living spaces with a little green, blue/aqua, and maybe yellow and grey (the last two being kids' rooms) thrown into the mix.

Whether or not it ends up looking a little too circus-y is yet to be seen. I hope not.

What's your opinion on using color on your walls? Would you play it safe with tan or add some punch with color?

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I'm Alive! (In case you were worried...)

Well, we survived the move. It was actually a little over a month ago, now, but I'm sure glad it's over. I'm not gonna lie, I had a little meltdown when I was stranded at the gas station with a dead car battery and neither my husband or father-in-law (who was driving our other car--thank you!) answered their phones. I think they were talking to each other... It all turned out fine, thanks to some friendly strangers, and of course my great FIL who came back and took care of it all while I entertained my little boy. Anyway, after that it was smooth sailing!

We got here, unpacked the essentials and went on vacation!


And now while my husband is at school, I am busy taking care of this crazy kid, and working on putting our house together. It's been going super slow so far. Remember this present from my husband?

Yeah, that's the only thing hanging on the walls of our house. Not a single other thing is up. I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to do at first, as far as decorating goes (more on that later). But I think I've got it just about all figured out now, so it's on to the hard part...ya know, actually doing it. For now I am focusing on this room:


I hope I can get some of my readers back and interested in seeing the rest of the house, it's little makeover, some more recipes, and other little tidbits that I hope to post in the near future! I've even got a great guest blogger lined up next month that I'm super excited about, and you should be too!

Thanks for reading!

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Another Makeover and a Friday Fave

Ta Da!

Do you love my blog's new look?? I do. I love the bright colors so much! I wasn't going to make it over just yet, but I started playing around with the design, just for fun, and loved it so much I had to go ahead and do it!
There are still a few things I want to change, though. I want to figure out how to make that header a little less "large and in charge".... just shrink it down a bit so it doesn't fill your whole computer screen! And the sidebars need work, but I guess I'll get around to that later. When I figure out how.

But mostly, I love it! It is cheerful, which is exactly what I wanted.
I got the cute digital scrapbooking kit FREE from one of my new favorite blogs (this week's Friday Fave): Craftastical!

The kit I used is called A Hoot and a Half and I'm pretty sure I love everything about it. I just used a few of the elements, but here's a peak at the whole kit:
She's also got a ton more free digital scrapbooking kits here.

AND there's SO much more to her blog than freebie kits... She's a major crafter, and is currently updating a home they recently bought. I really look forward to the posts about her home makeover. I just love before and after pictures!

Craftastical is honestly one of my new favorite blogs, so I highly recommend it!

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Thrifty Finds: Neighborhood Garage Sale!

This post almost started like this:
THE DISASTER: I cannot find my camera cord....

And then, right after I typed that, I got up, walked right over to where the camera cord had most definitely been sitting the entire time I looked all over the house for it. "It's this brain of mine..it's got a mind of its own!" (If you can name that movie, I will think you are SO cool!)

Sorry, I realize this is a strange start to a post about garage saling, but it's my blog and I'll start the post how I want! :)
Anyway, you may or may not know that I am a thrifty girl. Yes, I did mention my Trying to Save a Buck Series (which *cough* has still yet to appear on this blog...), but my love for thrifty finds goes much beyond cheap groceries and meals.


I will admit I really enjoy shopping in thrift stores (GASP!). In fact, just this morning, when Bitty and I wanted to get out of the house, where did we go? Salvation Army. True story. It wasn't always this way... My mom and sister have been a thrifters for years, but in all honestly I use to think it was kind of gross. Maybe some of you can relate to that feeling.


Even when I was in college and single. I remember one particular incidence, where I was wearing a grey fleece Gap sweatshirt my mom had bought me at Goodwill. I was in front one of the groups of lab students I was TA-ing , and this cute girl said, "Oh, I have that same sweater in cream! It is SOOOOO OLD, but very comfortable!" (in her defense she was a very sweet girl, and didn't mean anything by the SOOOOO OLD part, except for the fact that she had gotten it several years previous).

And I just said, "Mmm-hmmmm...it is comfy" instead of "Yeah, it probably is old, but I wouldn't know, because my mom got mine at Goodwill." I loved that sweater by the way, and I still wear it in the winter.


Anyway, then I got married, graduated college, had a baby, started reading blogs, and started going to the thrift store for fun while my husband was at school or work, and the rest is history.

Oh my, this post is so long already! Can you tell I sort of struggle with finding the balance between making this blog personal enough to be interesting and succinct enough for people to read without falling asleep? I do. And this post is erring on the "personal" side. Oh well.

And finally: the purpose of this post: Garage Sale Finds!! I went out with my sister Caroline this weekend to her neighborhood garage sales and we had so much fun, and bought so much stuff! Here's the proof:

Here's our Nester-inspired view-from-the-trunk shot:

Caroline's loot:

She got so much stuff, all for under $30! The big highlight was that big brassy chandelier! She's been looking for new (cheap) lighting for her entryway for a year or two, and it was so worth the wait...that soon-to-be beauty was only $2!! I also love the giant candle sticks! If I wasn't already out of money by that time I may have fought her for them!

She also hit the jackpot with children's books (we found a sale of a former elementary teacher cleaning out her book stash!), some kids clothes and shoes, that big plastic storage thing, and other cute whatnots.

My Goodies:

I spent just over $20 on all of my finds combined. Most of the things I found were for my little boy. Here's the rundown (left to right):

tricycle: $3
green Gap tent (in the bag-like new): $5--a splurge, put away for his 2nd birthday this fall!
Scattergories: $1
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 AND Premiere Elements 2.0: $2--I know those aren't the newest versions, but for $2 I'm okay with that!
dark red necklace: $1necklace display: $0.75--ya know... in case I decide to start selling jewelry...
toddler bed rail: $3 (saw one at the Salvation army today for $8!)
3 square hanging picture frames: $0.25
tension rod: $1
brown baby sandals: $0.50
toy cars: $0.10/each
toy dinosaurs: 3/$1small basket: $0.50
shower curtain hooks: $0.50
small hammer: $1 (I think...)
elephant flashlight (that makes an elephant noise when you turn it on!): $0.10toddler camp chair: $2

Ta-da! It was so fun.

What thrifty finds have you found lately??

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"Beauty and Motherhood are one..."

I love this video. If you haven't seen it already you should watch it. It's about the blogger NieNie, and the things she's gone through and her wise perspective on life, including motherhood, so I thought it was perfect for today. One of my favorite parts is around minute 5, when she says "Beauty and motherhood are one; they're the same thing."

Happy Mother's Day! Love you!

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I want this.

Mmmmm...Avocado, anyone? Michael Miller Laminated Cotton Dandy Damask in Avocado, that is. I painted my dining room table black a while back (sorry, never got around to posting about it), but I think after we move this summer I want to paint the chairs black too, and recover the seats {again}.

And I think this fabric would be perfect! It's laminated, so we could wipe them off easily, which I think would be a great improvement. Not gonna lie, the fabric on the seats now is covered in unidentifiable spots. Liquids of some sort, mostly, and a little bit of dry erase marker from a recent incident.

What do you think? Would laminated fabric look too cheesy? I love the green damask either way.

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The easiest homemade cinnamon rolls I've ever made!

I love cinnamon rolls, but I've never been that great at making them. Sure, they've always turned out pretty good, but the process... not good.

Let's just say there have been tears shed over the making of cinnamon rolls at my house, and they were mine. I don't have a fancy mixer or anything, so I've always mixed them by hand, and ended up with sticky dough that stuck to everything when I was trying to roll it up. Kinda drove me crazy.

But last week one day, I was making scrambled eggs with ham for dinner, and just had the idea "I should see if I can find a cinnamon roll recipe that will work in the breadmaker.", you know...to beef up my breakfast for dinner. Well, I found one! So we ended up having breakfast for dinner/dessert!

I love using my bread machine to make pizza dough (because let's just face it, I don't love handling dough). It's so easy to throw the ingredients on and turn it on the dough cycle. Granted, you do have to do that step an hour in advance of when you might have started making it by hand, but to me it is SO worth it to have the bread machine do all the work. I don't know why I didn't think of doing cinnamon rolls in there sooner!

I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com.

The website calls them "Clone of a Cinnabon". I call them Delicious. And Easy. Or maybe... So Delicious and Easy That I've Already Made Them Twice in the Last Four Days. But whatever you choose to call them, I hope you try it and enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup margarine, melted
• 4 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
  

**I just used the leftover portion of the stick of butter from the first part of the recipe, which ends up being less than 1/3 cup, but it is more than enough. I also didn't measure the cinnamon and sugar, i just sprinkled it on till it looked good.

• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
  
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

**I didn't have any cream cheese, so I just made some standard powdered sugar icing, and they were still delicious! Normally I'm all for cream cheese frosting, but you could easily save yourself the calories and they will still be so delicious!

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
2. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
3. Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

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