Home tour

Where does the time go? It's hard to believe that summer is over and the kids are back in school. My son is a sophomore this year and my girls are both in middle school 8th and 6th grade (yes my baby started middle school this year). Now that school is back in session it means I am babysitting again and chasing around a super fast crawling 13 month old cutie pie. I only babysit three days a week so I'm hoping to find time to squeeze in some projects!

One thing I've been wanting to do for awhile is put together an updated home tour and answer some common asked questions about my home. Feel free to scold me now, I'm a terrible blogger and sometimes I get too busy or forget to answer some of your questions (I am sorry). I thought this would make it easier for readers to get those answers.

Let's get started...

foyer

The paint colors are Valspar barnwood (darker) and Valspar Khaki (lighter)

You can read more about my foyer below

striped foyer reveal, how to paint stripes, staircase gallery wall, black interior doors

Craft room/office

My desk and bookcases are all from the expedit series at Ikea. I painted the striped curtains and patterned wall.

You can read more about this room below

rearranged craft room, formal living room becomes craft room, living room, painted stripe curtains

Dining room

More on my dining room here.

Kitchen

The most common question I get asked about our kitchen is the size of our pantry, it is 42" x 45"

You can read all about our kitchen remodel below

kitchen reveal, my baking cabinet, new pantry

half bathroom

family room

You can find my diy wood sign tutorial here.

Family room before here.

mudroom

Our mudroom is my favorite makeover simply because this room didn't exist when we bought our home, it was part of our garage. 

The mudroom is roughly 9 feet x 4 feet

the shoe cubbie/bench is 16" deep

To see the entire room being built you can check out part 1, part 2, or skip to the big reveal.

basement

Paint color is Glidden wood smoke

Our basement is the perfect place for our family to relax together and watch a movie. It is also great for when the kids have friends over!

Before it became strictly a game/theatre room it also doubled as my scrapbooking space.

You can see all my basement posts here.

kid's bathroom

You can find more about their bathroom below

bathroom reveal, pallet clock, original brown and blue bathroom.

boy bedroom

The room color Behr retro avocado.

Yes I painted his fan and I still love it

For more room details and pics go here.

girl bedroom

This girl has loved pink since... FOREVER! Now that she is getting older she has decided for her next birthday we should makeover her room! Yeah she is my mini me. Even though her birthday is a whole nine months away we've already been talking about colors and bedding etc. 

You can see her entire room here, and her zebra desk makeover here.

Chevron girl bedroom

Her room is Olympic secret passage and the dark in the chevron and on dresser is Behr elephant skin (same as master bedroom).

You can see more of her completed room here along with a detailed price breakdown. 

master bedroom

Paint color is Behr elephant skin.

Our master bedroom was completed on a tight budget of $3oo. You can see before photos and price breakdown here.

master bathroom

Paint color is Behr graceful gray.

Patterned towels were purchased at Meijer.

View bathroom reveal here along with the before pictures.

laundry room

Laundry room reveal here.

Thanks for checking out my home tour!

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Linking up to the following

creativecollectionlinkyparty, tatertotsandjello, homestoriesatoz, thewinthropchronicles,

notjustahousewife, themakers, thediy'ers, hitmewithyourbestshot, whimsywednesday,

theseptemberinspirationexchange, workitwednesday, housewivesofriverton, serenitynow,

mondayfunday, polkadotsonparade, prettypreppylinkparty, creativeinspirationslinkyparty

Freezer meals to the rescue

Welcome back! Today I'm sharing something different...no crafting or decorating projects! Today I'm talking food!

I'll let you in on a little secret...I dislike cooking A LOT! It's just not something I enjoy doing, which isn't a good thing since I'm a stay at home mom and housewife. I do 100% of the grocery shopping and meal planning at our house and about 95% of the cooking. My husband likes cooking and is a great chef but unfortunately he has to work full time (bummer). I also babysit a few days a week which keeps me busy.

To keep things less stressful at dinnertime I decided to try my hand at freezer meals. 

First I did my research (on pinterest of course). I pinned lot's of freezer meal recipes and read all of the instructions. I stocked up on foil baking pans (from the dollar store) and large freezer bags. I decided to start off with six different recipes and doubled each of them to make twelve meals. I made a detailed shopping list and hit the grocery store.

Friday was my cooking day since I wasn't babysitting and all the kids were at school. I was actually excited to get started because I knew how much time this was going to save me in the following weeks. I started my cooking marathon at 7:30 and finished at 4:30. I was exhausted and my kitchen was wiped out.

Here is a glimpse into my day...

Here are the meals I made.

Cilantro lime chicken tacos

cafe rio shredded pork

cilantro lime chicken

twice baked potatoes

honey lime chicken

pepperoni lasagna

I've had this recipe for years and it is our favorite lasagna.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef

1 small onion

2 1/2 cups water

1 can (8oz.) tomato sauce

1 can (6oz.) tomato paste

1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules

1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garlic salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups cottage cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

8 lasagna noodles cooked

1 package (3.5 oz) pepperoni

2 cups mozzarella cheese

Instructions:

cook beef and onion then drain

add water, tomato sauce, tomato paste, bouillon and seasoning bring to boil reduce heat and simmer for 30 min.

in small bowl combine eggs, cottage cheese and sour cream 

spread 1/2 cup meat sauce into greased 13x9 baking dish

layer with 4 noodles, cottage cheese mixture and pepperoni

top with remaining noodles and meat sauce

sprinkle with mozzarella cheese

cover and bake at 350 for 35 min. 

uncover bake 10 min longer

let stand 15 min.

Even though it was a long long day, it was worth all the work!

Dinner time this week has been so easy and no frozen pizzas or chicken nuggets!

I plan on making this a bi-weekly event. I've even started planning out my next round of freezer meals.

Have you ever made freezer meals? Do you have one you would recommend? I would love to hear from you.

Rearranged craft room

I promise I'm not crazy...I just like to change things up once and awhile!

My craft room also known as the family office has been bugging me lately. The room felt crowded and I was ready for a change.
Here is what the room looked like before.

Here is what it looks like now.

(free printable source).

(free printable source)

(favorite decorating and scrapbooking reads)

(button, ribbon, and stamp storage)

(my favorite pics of my kiddos when they were little)

All I did was move the furniture around and grab some items from other areas of the house.

I eliminated the coffee table and one of the end tables which makes the room feel larger. I'm enjoying having the couch in front of the windows (I'm actually writing this post from that very spot)! The large corkboard and hanging file system were previously in our mudroom but it wasn't getting much use out there. 

I'm loving the new arrangement and look of the room and I didn't have to spend a dime!

I'm itching to move some more furniture around so stay posted!

Amy

linking up this week to...

embracingchange, featherednestfriday, I'mnotatrophywife, jenniferrizzo,

serenitynow, the36thavenue, classyclutter, tatertotsandjello, homestoriesatoz, 

thediy'ers, elizabeth&co, winthropchronicles, abowlfulloflemons, themakers,

whimsywednesdays