Labor filled Labor Day Weekend

Don't you just LOVE three day weekends? That extra day makes such a difference! If I had the choice, I would work four 10-hour days to always have a three day weekend.

Tim and I didn't really have too much on the agenda for the weekend. Friday night we had an impromptu date night and went to our favorite sushi restaurant: Mikes Sushi and Sake Bar. We then went to Macy's to shop for the husband. He has lost close to 20 pounds over the summer and needed some smaller pants. Macy's had an awesome Labor Day Sale where the men's dress pants were buy one get one free. Between the sale and my Macy's coupons, we got 5 pairs of pants for under $100.

Saturday we made a list of all the projects that needed to be finished up over the weekend. I did the laundry, Tim did the lawn. I weeded and... we FINISHED the backsplash. I also made an awesome dinner of homemade Bang Bang Shrimp and roasted brussel sprouts.

Sunday was the errand day: church, Target, Publix and shoe shopping. After coming home, unpacking everything and having lunch, we decided to go look at a couple of thrift stores nearby. Two out of the three were closed so we headed over to a large Goodwill that we have had a lot of luck at in the past. We left empty handed..nothing stood out to us this time. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning out drawers and closets.

Today was super productive. I was at Lowe's by 7 am picking up a few items to finish off two projects. I chopped fruit for the week, made a homemade soup and rearranged some things around the house. I swore to myself I would tackle my embarrassingly large "to be ironed pile" but I am slowly losing momentum!

Tuesdays are the longest day of the week for me due to a late standing appointment with a client. I plan to made Beef Fajitas in the crock-pot so that dinner is ready when I get home.

Backsplash Dilemma

Within the past few months, I realized I really wanted a backsplash in our kitchen. I feel very blessed to have an updated kitchen. We had granite, new cabinets and brand new appliances when we moved in. None of it I would have picked out, if given the opportunity, but everything is nice and I really have no complaints.

As soon as I started thinking about adding a backsplash, I was on the look out for something I loved. I really love the mosaic glass tiles (and I love the price even more). However, we have Santa Cecilia granite in our kitchen which looks too "busy" with the mosaics. I decided I needed something monotone to balance the granite but didn't want boring.

Luckily, this is a popular granite which means most stores had a sample out for me to test different backsplashes. I think I tried every tile in both Home Depot and Lowe's and couldn't find anything that would go with the granite. Well, I should say anything that would go with the granite that I liked.  

This weekend I headed over to Floor & Decor to check out what they had.I was shocked to find out that HALF their huge warehouse is backsplash tiles! I snapped lots of pictures at their Santa Cecilia style center before getting the help of their designer, Stacy. Here are some of the no go options:

She was super helpful and recommended a tile I loved. I bought a broken clearance piece to take home and show the husband. Here it is in our kitchen: 

The husband was not a fan. It's hard to tell in the picture but the tile has a lot of sheen to it. It looked amazing in the store with cappuccino grout and trim. 

At this point, we ran to Home Depot for some painters tape. We walked by the cabinetry section and spotted a stainless steel tile we both loved. Turns out it is Apect Tile which is a peel and stick option. We decided to take home a box to play around with different designs and to see what we liked. At this point I was leaning toward the vertical design but once I got home I feel in LOVE with the subway tile design. 

So after reading a lot about the product, we are going for it! I am excited and nervous. The install is supposed to be easy based on the reviews. We have to decided against using the peel and stick and opted for the adhesive method. 

With Issac on his way to the area and an extra day off tomorrow, the project may get underway( dare I say finished?) before the labor day weekend!

Primer, Primer, Primer

We have been working away on the garage clean up. In between coats of paint, I decided I would finally tackle painting the front door. When we moved in, we had to replace the front entry door as the existing door did not fit correctly. It was a simplye pre-primed white steel door (unfortunately, something fancy was not in the budget)!

I decided to use exterior white and interior white based on the side. I also painted all the trim. I set to work cleaning the door and then loosely sanding the surface of the door. I painted all the trim first. Since the door was already primed, I started rolling the door with exterior white (to match our trim) with a small foam door &cabinet roller. The first coat went on great. While waiting for it to dry, something bizarre started happening: I was getting debris when I was rolling. So, I switched to a new roller thinking maybe it was the foam from the roller. No luck.

So I stopped. As time went on... this occurred:

The paint did not adhere to the door AT ALL while the trim looked fantastic. I was frustrated and annoyed! So I turned to google for answers. I read that this is a common problem. Supposedly, pre-primed doors that have been exposed to the elements for more than 30-days need additional primer before paint. Unfortunately, this meant that I have to remove all the paint before I could reprime the door.

Luckily we were able to peel off the majority of the paint but the primer did it's job in other areas and the paint STUCK!

At this point, I decided a trip to Lowe's was in order. I purchased a spray can of Goo Gone and an amazing little 5 in 1 painters tool. We spent about an hour scraping the remaining paint off the door.

The primer did the trick. It still needed two coats of paint to get the job done but things are looking much cleaner and brighter!

On a side note: this weekend we purchased some preprimed MDF from Lowe's to use as a baseboard in our garage. We purchased and immediately came home to paint it. Even with no exposure to the elements, we still experienced an issue with peeling on one of the three baseboards! My new mantra is PRIMER, PRIMER, PRIMER(regardless)!

Absent blogger (with a project).

Where has August gone? Seriously, this month has been a bit of a whirlwind! The first three days of the month were crazy busy with our accreditation audit at work. Last week I took two days off with the hubs since he started back at work this past Monday. We spend a four day weekend tackling our garage (post to come soon). And somehow it is already the 18th? Time is going by too fast!!

To get myself back in the blog routine, I wanted to share a project I finished up a few weeks ago. At the end of July, we went to a local third Friday street festival. They had a vendor there selling letter art comprised of pictures of different letters. Well, my married last name is kind of lengthy which made the price close to $50. Being the cheap-o that I am, I decided that I could make it for far less.

First, I went to the Dollar Tree and purchased 8 3.5X5 inch frames. They only had black or brown so I picked up the black ones and spray painted them white.

Next stop was a trip to Lowe's where I purchased a  piece of wood. I used a 2x6x8 which I had cut down to the appropriate length (mine was 36 inches). I already had stain and poly at home so this trip cost around $5.


I applied three coats of stain because I wanted the wood dark enough to match our bedroom furniture. I also really wanted the white frames to pop on the dark surface. I let the stain dry overnight, then applied a coat of poly.

The next day, I found the letters I wanted to use on this Flickr site (its FREE). I used my home printer and just printed them to size on photo paper. After putting all the letters in the white frames, I used hot glue to adhere them to my wooden frame.

Here is the final product:

I LOVE the way it turned out. Total cost was under $14! I must admit though, it is still sitting in the guest room. I know where I want to hang it but am unsure about the placement until we install the new light in the master bedroom. I will update once its is actually on the wall!

Midweek Confessions

                              

+ Work has been crazy lately with a big accreditation coming up. I have really been feeling it these past few weeks and today my boss surprised me with a gift card and a "don't think everything you have been doing has gone unnoticed". While I love the gift card, the acknowledgement means the most!

+ This is the first week both Tim and I have been home together in three weeks. I must say it has been a little odd having both of us home in the mornings.

+ I made a large purchase earlier this week. I have been eyeing a new area rug for the living room, something larger that will go under the sectional.  I found this guy on Overstock for $100 less than Home Depot.

When they emailed me a 10 % off coupon the next day, I knew it was meant to be. I ended up scoring this 10X 8'6 rug for under $300. It shipped today and I am excited to see what it looks like in the living room.

+ Last night I made Fajita from 100 Days of Real Food. AWESOME and super easy...my favorite kind of meal.

+ I didn't have it in me to cook dinner tonight. I mentioned this to my mom and she delivered a hot plate of chicken cutlets. LOVE that woman!

+ I have been off my exercise game this week. I have consistently been working out 5-6 days per week for the past several months now. This week I have only gone twice so far and the couch is calling my name again tonight. I am not sure where this laziness is coming from...

Vacation Recap

Tim and I left last Monday around 8:30 am for our drive down to Miami. Everything was going well until we entered into the Miami-Dade area then the traffic became horrendous! Luckily, we made it to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

We checked our luggage and I tipped the man well, hoping that my luggage would be one of the first to arrive at our cabin (Seinfeld anyone?). This was our first time cruising with Royal Caribbean. Since we JUST booked the cruise about 10-days ago, we opted for an interior room to save money, another first for this girl! The room was smaller than what I am used to but was comfortable enough for 2 people! As soon as we got to our cabin, we took a Bonine, just to make sure we wouldn't get sick. I then realized I left my camera in the car. Since we were not allowed off the ship, we decided IPhone pictures would have to suffice!

Tim's luggage arrived right away but my bag was no where to be found. Tim and I went up on deck to enjoy the sun and a fruity beverage but frequently came back to the room to see if my bag had made an appearance.

 When no bag showed up by 7pm, I checked with our room attendant who stated all bags had been delivered and sent me to guest services. My bag was located in a locked glass room and I was told I needed to wait for security. Turns out my bag was searched and flagged for "containing a rice cooker". I love rice as much as the next person but I can assure you that I did not feel the needed to bring a rice cooker on a 4-day cruise. When the security officer asked me to open up my bag to she could confirm this, she spotted my travel coffee pot and confiscated it. I love cruises by the coffee is AWFUL! Tim and I have been on numerous cruises and ALWAYS bring a coffee pot and Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla coffee. It was never an issue but apparently this a big NO with Royal Caribbean.

Between the stress of the lost luggage, the motion sickness medication, the fruity drinks and the dark cabin...Tim and I fell asleep at 7:30pm in our regular clothes and did not wake up till 8 am the next morning!

Tuesday we were docked in Nassau, Bahamas. Tim and I had been there before but noted that things were much cleaner then out last trip there in 2007! We shopped, went to the Atlantis Resort and ate at a fabulous little Greek restaurant in the main downtown area. Yes, we ate Greek in the Bahamas. There were Greek restaurants EVERYWHERE. Apparently, a high population of Greeks immigrated to the Bahamas in the early 1900's...who knew? We boarded the ship around 4pm....worked out and relaxed on the main deck.

For some odd reason, we were assigned to 9pm dinner...Who eats that late? Tim and I typically eat around 6pm so this was not feasible for us! We were only able to get into the 7pm dinner one night so we skipped formal dining and opted for the buffets at a more reasonable time.

Wednesday was spent at CocoCay, Royal Carribeans' private island. It was gorgeous but they nickle- and- dimed you for EVERYTHING. We rented a paddle board and a floating beach mat and enjoyed the shallow, crystal blue waters! They ran out of food this day so no lunch for us until we returned to the ship. We both got a little too much sun this day!

That night, Tim tried out the rock climbing wall on board!

Thursday we docked in Key West. This was the best port day in my opinion! I had never been to Key West but there is SO much to do! You can walk/bike to just about anything. I would love to visit the Keys for a vacation! We walked Duval street, shopped, visited all the popular bars for their trademark drinks, and ate at a fabulous little outdoor restaurant, Fogarty's.

Tim at Fat Tuesdays!

We stopped by a little shop called Key West Tea & Spice Trading Company owned by a husband and wife. She gave my a sample of her Organic Sweet Tea and it was easily the best tea I ever had! I bought a glass to walk around with and ultimately had to come back to the store to buy some loose leaf tea to take home. She shared her recipe with me and I am seriously hooked!

Friday we walked off the ship with our luggage around 7:30 am. We were then sent to security to obtain my contraband ( aka: coffee pot). Then headed out of Miami. We made a quick stop by the Miramar Outlets in Naples then headed home to pick up our girls from Grandma's house. It's strange how much we missed them!

Easy Pre- Vacation Dinner

This weekend went by so quickly! It consisted of the gym, laundry, giving the dogs a bath and finishing up some work stuff in preparation for my week off. Tim and I are leaving tomorrow for a 4- night cruise so I didn’t have all the typical “prepare for the week errands”. Meaning, I got to skip the grocery store! Not wanting to overindulge BEFORE the cruise, I wanted to whip up a simple yet healthy dinner at home. I turned to an oldie but a goodie, Vegetable Tortellini Soup. It is SO simple yet so delicious! Not to mention it is one of the husbands' favorites!

Ingredients:

      1   Large can crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce (I use whatever I have on hand)

5 cups stock ( I used my homemade)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 crushed garlic cloves

Green Veggies- 1 zucchini, chopped, a handful of kale, a handful of spinach ( I use whatever is in the veggie bin)

1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

1 tbsp basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 package fresh whole wheat tortellini

1 tsp oregano

2 Bay leaves

1     1)  Heat the oil. Add all your veggies. Sautee until soft.

2    2)  Add the stock, basil, bay leaf, tomato base. Bring to a boil until blended. Add the tortellini. Bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and let it summer for 5-6 minutes or longer. Add the pepper and salt to taste.

This soup is filling on its own but I decided to made a small batch of Garlic Knots on the side. For an experimental recipe, it turned out delicious! 

 I used a can of mini biscuits I had in the fridge ( A 4 pack is only $1.94 @ Walmart).

I rolled the biscuits out until 3-4 inches in length.

 Roped two of the biscuits together, forming into “knots” tucking the ends under. Repeat with the rest of the biscuits.

 Sprinkle with garlic powder and bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes.

 In the mean time mix, 1/3 cup oil, 3 tbsp fresh grated Romano, 1 tsp each of garlic, oregano and parsley. 

When the knots are done, coat them in the mixture.

Believe me, they taste as good as they look! :) And I was so proud of myself for not taking the easy road and ordering out! 

I am off to finish packing. Here is our itinerary for the week! I am pretty excited, I have never been to the Keys!