New House!

Wow! I can't believe it has been 4 months since my last post. We have been so busy and have had so much going on. A couple of months ago we decided to sell our townhouse on a whim. We put it up for sale, and it sold the first day! We weren't expecting it to sell that fast, so we were really excited. Then came the house hunting. We found the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood that is on a cul de sac and we absolutely love it! The house is a little outdated, so we have started remodeling and I will be posting all of our updates on our blog. In other news, tomorrow my little girl is turning 2! Time is flying by way too fast. I don't even know where these last two years went, but she is growing and learning new things every day. She is a little smarty pants, and is talking so much. We are taking the next two days off from remodeling and just going to have tons of fun for her birthday!

 

Fabric Covered Cork Boards

I was roaming through Ikea one day and found these heat trivets that I thought would be perfect as cork boards for my office makeover that I am doing. The hubby started his own company, so I wanted to redo the office for him so he would enjoy doing work in there(post on the office makeover will be coming soon!). I hung them up and they looked perfect for what I was going for. A couple of weeks later, I was thinking how much I liked them better than my plain old square cork board that I have had for years in my craft area. I decided that they would look even cuter covered in fabric, so I made my way to Hobby Lobby to get some cute stuff. All you need to do is cut a circle about 2 inches wider than the cork and use a hand stapler to secure the fabric on the back. Then I cut the extra fabric off. You can use a hot glue gun, but I didn't want to burn my fingers and thought the stapler would hold the fabric better. I used 3m strips to hold them onto the wall.

   

 

Painted Faux Granite CounterTop

We have laminate counters throughout our home that are out of date and ugly! When we moved in 4 years ago, we decided to re-do our kitchen counters right away and instead of going with granite, we decided to use travertine tile. It looks awesome and has held up perfectly, but we never got around to doing our bathroom counter tops. We just didn't want to spend the money to do them, because we are hoping to be moving soon. I got so sick of them, that one day I decided there should be an easy, cheap way to re-do them. I thought about painting them, and then came across some videos of doing them as faux granite. I was so excited because it would be a cheaper way to do them, but also looked pretty good!  So we got started, and it ended up being super easy. Here is the step by step:

~ First you will want to sand the counter top to get any dirt or anything off
~ Tape off the wall and around the sink
~ Next you will take a sea foam sponge and start to sponge the first color on
~ Wait for it to dry, and then sponge on your second color (Repeat each step for each color until you get the desired look you are going for)
~ Once finished, you will then roll on your poly (After first coat, lightly sand to get any of the bumps from the paint drying)
~ I would recommend doing two coats of poly on a bathroom counter top, and maybe three on a kitchen
~ Let dry a couple of days before using the counter top to make sure everything has settled
~ The colors I used and in the order of sponging: Tan, Black, Tan again, and then a little Black again to fill in. I took Metallic Gold and did a little bit of it through out the counter top. If you mess up and do too much of one color, just lightly sponge another color over it until you get the look you want. 

*Please note: This is how we did our counter tops, and I am not an expert. Our counter tops are still in the same shape from the day we did them, but they do get little traffic.*

 

 

 

All supplies I used were purchased at Wal-Mart. The paint I used was Acrylic Craft Paint. I debated between using that or real paint, and from my experience, I feel the craft paint seemed stronger on the counter top. They have a small package of Martha Stewart sea foam sponges that I used. But if you are doing a kitchen counter top, I recommend going to Home Depot to buy a couple of large sea foam sponges. It will be a lot faster! 

My hubby does home remodels and I have gone in and done the counter tops and all of them have turned out awesome. Here are a couple of different ones that I have done:

And I couldn't forget this cute little helper of mine! She came with me to take the AFTER pictures. I wouldn't recommend having children around when doing the poly. It has really strong fumes. 

 

Yummy HomeMade Chili

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We flew down to Arizona to spend Christmas with my sister and her family. It was a lot of fun, and little R loved waking up and playing with her cousins all day. Unfortunately we had to come back to snowy, cold Utah and get back to real life. But it was nice to get away for a week.

 

 Christmas Eve 2012

 Whenever it is cold outside, I love making soup or chili. Usually I am lazy and use canned chili and cut up hot dogs in it. That is one of the hubby's favorite meals, but sometimes I love busting out the crock pot and making homemade chili. A couple of years ago I came across this recipe, but I just use it as a guidline and add my own things to it as well.

CHILI

2 lbs. Ground Beef

1 Cup Chopped Onion

1 Green Pepper, Chopped

2 to 3 Ribs Celery, Chopped

1 Large (28 oz) Can Crushed Tomatoes

1 (8oz) Can Tomato Sauce

1 Can Kidney Beans, Drained

1-2 Cans Pinto Beans, Drained

1 tsp. Pepper

3 tsp. Chili Powder

1 tsp. Garlic Salt

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain well. Combine ground beef and all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook for 7 to 8 hours on LOW, or until done. 

Extra ingredients that I add: 

Chopped Cilantro

1 Can Rotel Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies

1 (4oz) Can Green Chilies

1 Habenero Pepper Finely Chopped (This is a really hot pepper, so I wouldn't use it if you don't like your chili spicy)

You can play around with the ingredients to your liking and can also add anything else that you like. Hope you enjoy!