Books of 2015

I am doing the Goodreads book challenge of 2015. My goal is to read 112 books this year! (Weird number, i know, my husband picked it) :)

Anyone else doing a book challenge?

Pregnancy Problems

This is so true for me right now. I feel like I should wear a shirt that says "I am not fat, I am pregnant". 

Chicken Stir Fry

Easy, Delicious Weeknight meal.

Ingredients: 

Chicken, cut into chunks

Green Pepper, cut into chunks

1 Jar of Roasted Red Peppers

1 Can Pineapple Chunks

Broccoli

Mushrooms

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Directions:

Cook chicken in pineapple juice. Add all vegetables, pineapple and sweet and sour sauce. Cook on medium for about 20 minutes.  

Serve over Rice.

Wallpaper Border Removal

Our upstairs bathroom had this hideous wallpaper border, which I despise. NOT a fan of wallpaper. It is in our kitchen too, but that's a big project for a later date. lol

This is the border that was in the bathroom:

See? Ugly!

So I removed it.

What I used:

Fabric softener (from the dollar store)

Spray Bottle

Scraping tool

Fill the Spray bottle with water and fabric softener,  I put quite a bit of softener in.

Spray Wallpaper & Scrape.

And it worked! 

Thank God we are paiting these walls, removing the border showed the color the walls used to be!!

Binder Organization

When we moved into our new house I decided I wanted something to keep track of all our bills, important papers, etc.. Something accessible, because I do keep a file cabinet but it's upstairs and it's really more for things that I do not need very often.

So I implemented the Home Management Binder.

                            Inside I have 5 sections.  These sections also include sub-sections.

1. Finances 

• Savings and Expenses
• Bills/Account Info
• Website Username and Password Info

2. Medical

• Insurance Info
• Health Care Proxy for both me and my husband

3. House

• Projects to be done and Paint colors
• Cleaning
• Household Inventory (for insurance)

4. Meal Planning

• Recipes
• Planning
• Pantry Inventory

5. Contacts

• Family
• Friends
• Emergency
• Other (garage, vet, groomers, take-out, etc...)

This is the first thing you see when I open my binder. A folder that I keep envelopes, stamps and other misc. things.

And this is my Home Management Binder. It works out really well for me, I like having everything in one place and easy to get to. :)

The second binder I have is a Pregnancy Binder.

This one is too keep track of everything from doctors appointments to things we need to buy...

This one also has five sections.

1. Planning

• Calender for appointments
• Baby Name Ideas
• Registry List, What we need to Buy
• Things to be done before Baby arrives

2. Nursery (includes [paint colors we used, decor ideas, etc..)

3. Baby Shower (includes ideas, guest list, etc...)

4. Medical

• Any info I get from the doctor
• Birth Plan
• Insurance Info 

5. Contacts (doctors,hospital, family to be called when the time comes!)

The 3rd binder I have is for Coupons. I am serious about my coupons!! and organizing them is easy and keeps me up to date on what ones I have and they are easy to see and get to. I use plastic sleeves to keep the coupons separated.  I use baseball card holders and some picture album sleeves. They work really well.

This binder has 5 sections.

1. Personal Care

2. Cleaning and paper products

3.Pet

4. Food

5. Baby

I also have a Recipe Binder. This one is self explanatory - all my printed recipes divided into sections for easy access.

And that concludes my Home Management Binder System!! 

Bedroom Re-do!

When we moved in this house I knew that the whole upstairs was going to have to be painted. The bedroom was this weird grey/green color and it had to go!  We also moved in with a collection of crappy furniture that each of us had acquired over the years.  That had to go to.  So began the makeover...

before

before

First we moved most of the furniture out and got rid of it!! For me that was awesome because I have had that dresser for about 10 years. it had to go. And As you can see our "bed" was simply a box spring and mattress on the floor. Awful!

So next step - the wall color had to go.  Notice a pattern here? A lot of things "had to go"!! 

So we chose a very dark Grey called charcoal troubled sky. I always start a paint job with the edges,  taping everything NOT to be painted with blue painters tape. Then I work my way around the ceiling, windows, doors and floors first using a small brush.    

Next comes the easy part rolling the rest on.  (I don't have pics of me rolling. The hubby wasn't home and I was on a roll (ha ha ha) and didn't want to stop to take pics)

So here is the finished result.  I absolutely love this color!  We wanted a bedroom that was dark and relaxing and I think we achieved that with this color and our new furniture.

Cheesy Sausage Casserole

It looks like a big gooey mess in this picture! lol But I swear it's delicious.

Ingredients:

Polish Sausage, cut into chunks

Potatoes, peeled and cooked, cut into pieces

Green Beans (I used frozen, thawed and drained first)

1 Can of Cheddar Cheese Soup

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and put shredded cheese on top.

Bake for about 25 minutes at  350 degrees.

ENJOY!

DIY Canvas Sign with Wood Letters

I painted the canvas black and the letters white. I used mod podge to glue the letters to the canvas.

DIY STENCIL CANVAS SIGN

I made a new canvas sign today. This is the first time I have used stencils to make a canvas sign.  I stenciled in pencil first and then painted the letters.  It was easier than trying to paint directly on the stencils.  I think it came out pretty good for my first try.