home project dining room

As promised here are (finally) some pictures of lovely BESTA storage from Ikea on our dining room wall. 

We love how it turned out and even though it still looks bare it has soooo much potential. We got the white high gloss doors for everything and threw in some glass to break it up a little. Our kitchen island uses the same high gloss finish so it ties in nicely. We also varied the heights to give it more visual interest. There are two drawers and everything else is just a door. As you can see it came with a lot of extra shelves which I haven't all put in yet. Gotta figure out what to put in there first. BESTA is not the cheapest solution, especially not when you go with the high gloss or glass doors but there are tons of color options and even glass doors that you can add your own fabric panels to. The hubby managed to hang all the cabinets by himself I only had to make marks for him. I put together all the drawers and hardware on the doors. Definitely no fun when you're 32 weeks preggers. 

blogger problems :(

Well, I wrote this nice little post about the dining room storage and I can't add any pictures. I've been having problems with blogger for maybe 2 weeks now. It's been awfully slow when uploading pictures and now it has come to the point where I can't upload anything. I also can't upload to Photobucket or my email anymore so I don't know what's going on but it may be a bigger problem. I have even tried using a different computer and it's the same. I cleaned out the cache and the cookies but it hasn't changed anything... So much time wasted today in order to figure this out and I am at the point now where I'll just have to let it go for today. So sorry there are no pics, hopefully I can get it taken care of. 

another feature and a target goodie bag

Hey everyone, today I am being featured by Jessie over at Imperfectly Polished. She is also offering a coupon code for 20% off your purchase at my Etsy shop so hop on over there, grab that code and leave her some comment love :) 

I also told you guys I was going to post about a free goodie bag I got from Target the other day. Well here it is...

They have unfortunately run out of free bags since I ordered it but I still think it's pretty nice for just answering 5 quick questions about my beauty shopping habits. The bag is so cute and the free Neutrogena lip balm alone is worth it. It also took less than 2 weeks to get here which is pretty fast considering they said it may take up to 8 weeks. 

I heard about this through Amber at Dragonfly Sweetnest blog so go on over there and check out some of the great deals and coupons she provides you with. Thanks Amber :) 

change of plans and more on the nursery

Wow, did we have a change of plans today! I was editing pictures to write this post when my husband calls me to let me know my neighbor and friend had to go to the hospital (she has heart issues and it's pretty bad), straight from work and her husband who is staying home with their 8 months old baby was asking if I could watch her. We have watched her numerous times and she is one precious little girl. My heart breaks for them each time her mom has to go to the hospital with yet another heart related issue. So of course I went next door so that he could go to the hospital. The hubs was running some errands and then joined me and we played and fed her. We ended up coming back over here with the little one since we don't know when and if they'll be back yet. I just put her down in our little man's crib and she had a hard time falling asleep :( She kept waking up and crying a little just to go back to sleep 10 seconds later. It's hard just to sit there and watch and try to comfort her without picking her back up out of the crib. This has seriously been such good practice for the both of us. I wish her mom weren't so sick, but watching her so much has given us so much good experience taking care of an infant. I am hoping and praying that her mommy will be back home soon. 

So now that I have a little free time I am finally going to upload those pictures I promised you all.

Here is the nursery, still in progress, but now with some more shelving and the frames hung on the wall. I love my handyman hubby :) The shelving is from Ikea. The frames are from Target. The artwork in the frames is by Katie Daisy (love her). The mural is painted by me (more here). The animal print pillow is made by me, the other two I bought at TJ Maxx. The bear is from Pottery Bran Kids. Quilt is also made by me. The tiger print bear on the shelf is a children's book character from my childhood. If you're interested you can find out more about the author Janosch here. I also managed to get a brand new Baby Bjorn carrier at the consignment sale last weekend for only $25!!! Such a great deal :) 

source

Enjoy the rest of your night. Hubby made some pasta for dinner and me and the little man in the belly are starving :) 

Did you go over to Ma Nouvelle Mode today for the feature? I have another feature coming up tomorrow so stay tuned for that and a post about some freebies Target sent me :) 

feature

Hey friends! 

Today the lovely Natalia over at Ma Nouvelle Mode is doing a feature on my blog and Etsy shop :)

You should totally hop on over there and grab yourself her lovely 20% off coupon code.

While you're there make sure to leave her some comment love and follow that lovely blog of hers. She currently lives in France!!! How cool is that? 

In other news, the hubby and I watched a really great documentary last night called - Waiting for "Superman" It's all about how the US public school system is broken and focuses on the Washington D.C. area, as well as other bigger cities. When I saw the preview for it a couple of weeks ago it really touched my heart and I am so glad we watched it. Kids should not have to enter into a lottery to get a spot at a school that can provide them with a chance to get a college education down the road! So if you are interested in learning more about what's wrong with our school system then you should really watch this film. You can order it from Netflix (long wait) or get it from a Redbox (like we did). 

After watching the documentary we also worked on installing some shelves in the nursery and I finally hemmed the curtains ;) I will post some more on that later and get some pictures up. 

absence makes the heart grow fonder... ;)

Sorry my lovely readers for being absent and ignoring this blog for a couple of days. The hubby was gone for a few days on a business trip and so we had to make up for some lost cuddle time ;) I should be used to him being gone a lot but since it's only during baseball season it is hard to get back into the awful grind. So we spent Sunday night cuddling on the couch with a movie and yesterday we went out to Ikea to shop for some furniture for our dining room and the nursery. We moved into this house almost 3 years ago but still have so many bare walls and things that need finished or already fixed again. We also had an early dinner at IHOP ;) yes, we love us some breakfast for dinner... 

So today I will be busy helping the hubs put most of this stuff together. We are hanging shelving units on the wall but Ikea didn't have the suspension rails that are needed. So for now we will put everything together and since the hubs is leaving on business again soon, the hanging part will have to wait until next week. Sorry there aren't any pictures today, I will make it up to you, I promise :) 

Have a lovely and productive day everyone! 

fresh pineapple and hawaiian toast :)

Today I am going to a consignment sale for baby and kids stuff with my neighbor and friend. I remember going to these kinds of sales with my mom back when I was little. She volunteered there and we were always allowed to get the first pick on items the night before the sale started. This sale is several days long and seems to be pretty huge. My neighbor just had her first child last July so we both will be looking for some good deals. My baby shower is coming up in April so I am going to have to pace myself a little ;) 

So since I won't be here today I will leave you with what I made for dinner last night. It's called Hawaiian Toast and it is something my mom made a lot when me and my brothers were little. It is the equivalent to a US kid's grilled cheese. So easy and yummy, you will love it. 

I had fresh pineapple on hand but you can just get a can. I love using our pineapple corer that I got from WMF in Germany before I moved here. It makes cutting up pineapple a breeze. 

 It removes the core and leaves you with a perfect pineapple spiral :) 

Then, for the Hawaiian Toast all you need is bread that you butter lightly on both sides, some sort of lunch meat like ham, turkey or hard salami, some cheese (I like swiss) and of course pineapple slices. 

Simply layer the meat and pineapple and top it off with your cheese. Then put it in the oven at around 350 degrees until the cheese has melted. Voila! 

 Serve it with some ketchup or any other sauce of your liking. It is so easy to make and perfect when you don't really feel like cooking a meal. If you try this let me know how you liked it or even link back your post.