Living Room Reveal!

Here it is folks!  In the past two or three months, I've posted about different finds I had for the living room. Now I finally feel like I can show it off to you!

{i love these pillows, a wedding present from Debbie! thank you!}

{the most recent addition to the room are these fantastic oil paintings of Venice.. }

{some great accents!  The candle holders are from Target and were a great gift from Tanya, and the lamp is a redo that i did from a Salvation Army Store find!}

So excited to be done with the room!  What do you think?

Memorial Day: We will always remember.

Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and their families make sacrifices everyday to help protect our country. Whether it is going on a patrol in a remote village, or raising children as a sometimes-single parent, they persevere so that you can carry on your normal day to day. Please take a moment to remember the reason behind the holiday as you celebrate.

I especially want to take a moment to honor those who gave their all, 

who have been a personal influence on my life:

CPT James Blackshire

 January 5, 1945

PFC Bryan Spry 

Iraq, February 13, 2004

SFC Clint Ferrin

Iraq, March 13, 2004

SGT Daniel Londono

Iraq, March 13, 2004

PFC Joel Brattain

Iraq, March 13, 2004

PFC Sonny Soto

July 2, 2006

SPC Jeremy Woods

August 27, 2010

You will never be forgotten.

Blessed... Stumbling Mumbling Monday

This week, I stumbled upon a reminder of how blessed we are...

Enjoy your week!

The Pantry

Moving right along in getting this house put together in some semblance of organization..  I present to you #7 of the 21 Day Organization Challenge!  The Pantry!

Just to give you a baseline, here's what I started out with:

I probably should have taken some more "before" pictures... eh, it wasn't anything super cute, or super organized for sure...

Our pantry is actually a pantry/laundry room combo.. not ideal really, but hey, cookie cutter houses are funny like that.

Sooo... I added some really cute glass jars to hold our pasta, grains, sugar and flour...

And I moved all of my canned goods to eye level, and put them on a riser shelf so I could see all the labels...

Added some super cute baskets to hide all those ugly packages from cereal and chips and all that..

So, in the end, it looks pretty good! {i am partial to it though..}

  I'd like to add some color in here, maybe a happy yellow or a fresh green color.  In the mean time, at least it looks like I keep a decently organized space haha!

Bathroom Brainstorming

I don't know if anyone else has had a hard time decorating a bathroom without using a shower curtain.. but our downstairs bathroom presented me with just this problem. 

I didn't want to paint in there yet.. but wanted to add some color and freshness..

Plus I thought maybe it would be a good summer home for my deer.. until he finds his way back to the christmas decorations of course...

So, does the curtain fool you? 

Does it look like a full bath, instead of a half?

I am thinking about putting up beadboard and chair rail and painting the top half a light blue or maybe even a turquoise color?  Ugh.. if it isn't neutral we have to paint it back!  Oh, the joys of renting!

Restaurant Replicas.. Stumbling Mumbling Monday!

Yum Alert!!  This weeks stumbling adventures took me to a delicious website!  The Culinary Arts College has a blog post with links to all sorts of Restaurant Replica Recipes!

There are appetizers....

And main courses....

And of course desserts!!

So, in looking for more recipes for my 30 Meal Plan,  this is definitely going to help!!

Enjoy!

Learning to Ride!

This week, I got the opportunity to take the Basic Motorcycle Safety Course!

As a Soldier, I have to take this in order to ride a motorcycle.. and Washington State recognizes it so I wont have to take a test at the licensing office!  {bonus!}  And my unit paid for it! {extra bonus!}

The first day was beautiful outside as we learned braking, turning, and shifting skills.

I basically fell in love with riding!

Unfortunately, the second day was much, much wetter!!

We did some tight turns, quick stops, swerving and obstacles the second day!

Followed by a test of course {booo!}  which I passed {yay!}

Even with being soaking wet, and freezing cold, I still think it's pretty awesome..  who knows maybe I'll convince hubby to get me a bike of my own ;)

Check this one off of the bucket list!

We've Got Sprouts!

All that rain yesterday must have done some good!

{broccoli}

 They're tiny, but coming in strong!

The Big 1-0!!

Whooo whooo!  We hit TEN followers!!  

So excited!  

Probably more excited than I should be really haha.. but hey, it's the little things in life y'all!

{oh, and when we hit 25, we're going to have our first giveaway!!}

Decorating the Bedroom

Our bedroom has been waiting to be given some TLC for a while now..  When we moved in I started focusing on other rooms first like the living room (it's almost done!)  and just figured that I would get to it eventually.  Here is my inspiration room..  i love this room from the HGTV Dream Home 2009!

I love the white bed with bright colors, the cheery walls and the open but cozy feeling of it!

Well, This past weekend I finally got around to giving our bedroom a bit more love.  We had painted an accent wall about a week or two after we moved in, but that was pretty much all that had been done.  It is a really pretty geen color called "Bamboo Shoot" from Lowe's Valspar line.

Over the past week I have been slowly working towards getting more done in there!

I painted some picture frames from our wedding a really pretty glossy white....

I hung up some cubes... {instead of doing a wall of pictures like the inspiration room}

Added some cute chachkies.. {i love how the white accents pop against the green wall}

Hung up some curtains... {i opted for green instead of white, since the main walls in the room are white}

And some adorable bedding...  {i definitely wanted to have some pops of bright color}

And...Tada!

Obviously much, much different than the inspiration room.. but I think it has some of the same feel to it.  I wanted it to feel relaxed, like you could curl up and read a book in there all day.

The other half of the room isn't really done yet.. still trying to find the perfect chair to add to our nook!

What do ya think?

The Tupperware Cabinet

This is #3  of the 21 Day Organization Challenge!

Ok, and I will admit that once upon a time, I was a Tupperware Saleslady.  I love Tupperware.  I just wish I could afford more of it.  This is actually only half of what I once had, having split the collection up during a breakup.. long story.. Anyways..

Here is the before picture:

Yowza!  I took everything out of the cabinet and put it up on the counter.

Wiped out the cabinet and made it spick and span again.

Then I worked on matching up all the containers with their lids.  This took longer than I thought it would.  And I ended up with some lonely lids.  Sad day.  I thought I was going to end up with containers without lids, not the other way around... strange...

Then I tucked everything back in, nice and neat.  :)

How is your organizing going?

The Next Step... Stumbling Mumbling Monday

Alright Folks, just to warn you.. this little stumble is pretty darn boring.. just to warn you.

So, if you've been paying attention the past couple of weeks, you would know that I finished my very first half marathon!  Whoot whoot!

With all this running going on, i've taken it upon myself to eat.. well.. whatever I want.  haha.  But no more!  I am buckling down and learning more about what I've got to do to get the other half of the puzzle in the right place.

So, who else to ask than Harvard?

Bearing in mind that I found this site about ten minutes before heading off to bed.. I will explore more later..

But it looks like this could be a decent starting place.  That, and the Nutrition for Dummies book I was thinking of getting!  

Here's to gettin' healthy y'all!

www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-weight/healthy-weight-full-story/index.html

Another trip to Alaska!

Hello friends!

This week I ventured to Anchorage, Alaska for one last planning meeting for my big trip this summer!  We sate down with all the units participating and worked out the last details for our humanitarian mission.

It wasn't all work though..  I found a great Sushi restaurant called Sushi & Sushi, which I highly recommend if you're ever in the area.  When we drove up we had some doubts, because the outside looks like a super shady strip mall, but when you walk inside it's like bam!  Really nice.  I meant to take pictures of the food, but it was so good I totally forgot until after.  Yum!

I found some amazing wooden carvings at a local shop.  There were so many to choose from!

 I have been thinking about getting a totem pole every time I have been up here during the mission planning process.  Many of them are very expensive, and I have a hard time spending too much on curios.

But, with this possibly being my last time in Anchorage, I decided that if I was going to get one, I needed to go ahead and bite the bullet.

This hand carved whale has a new home on our travel shelves!  It ended up being a bit larger than most of the totem poles they offer, and a lower price, and made in Alaska.  You would be surprised how many they sell that are made in China.  And that kinda defeats the purpose of buying local crafts.



I also really love the quirky decorations on the street.  This blue moose caught my eye...

I also got to get a look at the Captain Cook statue this time...

I found out that I'll be spending about a month in the remote town of Bethel, Alaska this summer in support of our humanitarian mission in the area.  So it looks like I'll get to see the midnight sun this year! This trip, the sun started setting around 10:00pm!

And of course one of the best parts of staying in a swanky hotel on the Army's dime is... room service!  Ok, just kidding, the cake was on my dime, but it was delivered!  whoot whoot!