The New Office/Music Room in Progress

So, the other project in our lives right now is Frank's new music room/office. It's almost finished....almost. And it looks better and better every weekend. We're going for a more contemporary/modern vibe in here. We ordered a desk from Crate and Barrel that is currently still in the box, two months later, waiting for his room to be finished. Hope we like it because now we missed the 30 day limit to return items. We're going to put Frank's framed albums around the top of the room on the red, which I think will look pretty cool. We'll hang some of Frank's guitars on the wall and his miscellaneous framed music art. I can't wait! I like to pretend that I am an interior designer....maybe someday I will be.

The Hard Part is Finished

It's been awhile...I know. Empty promises....I know. I promised I would write on the blog more often, then my whole house turned upside down. We currently have two projects going on at the same time, which means that currently our dining room is filled will all the furniture from those two rooms plus the dining room furniture. Those who know me know that I like to have things in their place and nice and orderly. Well for the past two months I have had to let that all go. Our desktop computer, that was in the old office-now nursery, is dismantled in the dining room. That means that I can only get online and use the computer when Frank gets home from work and I can use his laptop.

I do, however, see an end in sight. Frank's new office, the old sun porch, is now painted, fan is up, and the new wood floors are supposed to go in this weekend. I'll believe that when I see it, though. (That last comment was a test to see if Frank reads my blog...think I know the answer to that question!) Once the office is done, then we can move all of that office furniture out of the dining room....YAY!!!

The nursery project was a thorn in my side and I thank God everyday that the hard part is over. The pictures above document the tearing off of the wallpaper. Mark my words...I will NEVER AGAIN strip wallpaper from an old house. Never!!! It had to be done, unfortunately, as you can see from the before picture. The painted over wallpaper was disconnecting from the wall. After we pulled the wallpaper off, we put a texture on the wall and it looks AWESOME!! One coat of primer, two coats of paint later it was almost finished. Then I pulled off the tape from the molding and lo and behold, the tape took off all of the molding paint. I cried for about 15 minutes about that, no lie, right when Frank came home from work. (I hate you hormones!) Another weekend later and Frank put up the curtain rods and the chandelier (a 4 hour project due to the nice 1939 house we live in).

So......the hard part is over. Now we're just waiting for the crib and dresser, the glider chair, and the bedding to come in, then it'll be almost finished. I can't wait. I think it's going to be the cutest nursery ever!!! More pictures coming soon!!!

You know you're pregnant when....

-You know you're pregnant when you cut out the draw string in your fat pants!

-You know you're pregnant when you wake up in the middle of the night STARVING!

-You know you're pregnant when you eat a huge meal and two hours later you're hungry again!

-You know you're pregnant when your husband, who can't stand the down comforter, throws it off of him and it makes you cry!

-You know you're pregnant when you have crumbs in your bed!

-You know you're pregnant when you have a whole medicine cabinet in your purse along with the list of approved medications during pregnancy.

-You know you're pregnant when you never liked orange juice before and now it's all you can think about!

I could go on and on....feel free to add some of your own! :)

-Caryn

It's a GIRL!!!

It's official...Frank and I are going to have a baby girl! It still doesn't feel real, this whole pregnancy thing...I wonder when it will? Maybe when we actually have something in our house that says "baby"??? Right now, the only thing that's in our house that says we're having a baby is the ridiculous amount of free, hand-me-down maternity clothes I've been given. It's pretty awesome. I really don't have to buy a single thing. In fact, I've been given so many maternity clothes that I had to do a switch out with my regular clothes so they would fit. Not a bad problem to have, believe me. (Although a bigger closet would be nice!) So, I'm going to New York tomorrow for some R & R at my grandma's house. When I come back I'm going to start on the nursery. Wait until you see my nursery ideas...I'm so excited about them! So, a baby girl...I kind of always imagined Frank as a dad with all girls, I don't know why. He would cringe at that thought. He just found out how much I paid for my wedding dress the other day and wished for all boys. Oops...oh well. I shouldn't have told him. Maybe ignorance is bliss....too late!

Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

Oh my...these were DELICIOUS! I got the recipe from foodnetwork.com and it's an Emeril Lagasse recipe. They were probably the best blueberry muffins I've ever made. Frank agrees with me on this one too. So here's the recipe:

Topping:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp butter softened

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 tsp finely grated lemon peel

Muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 stick of butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk add 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk and mix...I did this today)

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Either line or spray 12 muffin tins.

To make the topping, in a medium bowl, mix together the topping ingredients until crumbly. Set aside. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the melted butter. Add the buttermilk and lemon zest and whisk to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir just to combine. Gently fold in the blueberries and try not to break them open and pour into the muffin tins. Crumble the streusel topping over the muffins and bake until golden brown....about 20 minutes.

Let cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.

ENJOY!!!

Back to the Blog

I know it's been awhile since my last post....almost a month now. Shame on me! In my defense, I was in Tennessee for ten days. AND, when I got back I got a stupid pregnancy rash that has made me not want to do anything. Boo. The funny thing about my pregnancy is that I had very few pregnancy symptoms at the beginning. I did occasionally get a sick to my stomach feeling when I was hungry the first few weeks. But, other than that, I've been really lucky so far. That didn't last long and the past two months or so I've felt great. However, I'm having all of these weird pregnancy symptoms like bleeding gums, rashes, and pains in my butt...literally. I guess no one has a "normal" pregnancy. According to all the books I've been reading all of my complaints are normal, but leave it to me to get all the weird side effects of pregnancy. Oh well. The baby seems to be doing great, and that's all that really matters. I'll take an annoying rash any day as long as the baby is okay. We go on July 6th to get our second ultrasound and find out the sex!! I cannot wait. According to a highly scientific poll among friends and family it seems that most think it's a girl. We shall see! I just hope everything is normal and okay. I wish we could have ultrasounds at every appointment just to make sure everything is fine. My doctor said that for normal, healthy pregnancies, just the two ultrasounds at 8 weeks and 20 weeks is all that you need. I guess I should trust her, she is a doctor after all.

So, I'm back to my blog...I promise. In fact, I have a batch of homemade blueberry muffins in the oven as we speak. Depending on the outcome, I'll post the recipe shortly!

Homemade Wedding Centerpieces! That's all you gotta do?

Jesseca's wedding colors were black, white, and yellow. All of her centerpieces and favors were homemade and they didn't look like it at all! I'm convinced that you can have a beautiful wedding on a budget by making a lot of your own stuff. It's really not that hard to do, and I'm not just saying that! Both Jesseca's and my total flower cost for our weddings were under $1000. To those of you not planning a wedding, that probably sounds like a lot of money. But those of you that are or have planned a wedding recently, you know how expensive flowers can be. Jesseca had two different centerpieces....a taller option and a shorter option. For the taller option she used tall glass square vases and filled them with full lemons, branches, flowers and topped it off with a bow. For her shorter option she used mason jars filled with cut lemons and fresh flowers and also topped them with a bow. They were really beautiful and all made by Jesseca and her bridesmaids before the wedding in just a couple of hours. Her favors were smaller mason jars filled with Lemonheads and a bow. She also had custom made stickers to put on the tops of the lids. Etsy.com is every bride's favorite website! That's where she got her stickers (and where I got mine also, but it's not about me right now!) ha ha! Enjoy the photos!