Friday, August 29, 2014

Dollar Store Sunglasses Case!

I don't buy expensive sunglasses. For me, it's just like that old Jeff Foxworthy joke. I could buy a pair of expensive sunglasses and 5 minutes after I walked out of the store I would lose them or destroy them. But a pair from the Dollar Tree I couldn't lose if I was trying. I believe he says that you could be on an ocean cruise and lean over the railing and your cheapo's fall off your face and a random scuba diver would pop up with them in his hand asking "hey did somebody lose a pair of sunglasses??" Yes. (I think he mentions this joke in his "Totally Commited" video but I cannot be sure, and I had no luck finding this specific joke on YouTube, but trust me, it's the truth and it's so funny!)

But the stinky part about buying inexpensive sunglasses is the fact that you don't get a case with them. And I throw mine in my purse and Heaven only knows what might happen inside that Mary Poppins bag! I carry a large Vera Bradley tote bag (I couldn't tell you the style.... but I do know that it is part of the "tote" bag genre) and it has 4 huge pockets on the outside, I've gotten into the habit of stuffing my shades into one of those pockets to try and protect them from getting scratched up. But still... they're not really protected. I could very easily squish them since they're in  a pocket on the outside of my bag.


These are my shades. I freaking love them!


I got them about a couple of years ago at Kohl's for like $12 and I have worn the heck out of them. I love aviator sunglasses so much! I feel so cool when I wear them. Like I look like I just stepped out of Top Gun and I'm doing the slow motion walk with my hair in the breeze and the fighter planes behind me...... there, that's my confession for the day. So embarrassing/

As you can tell, they are gold with rose colored lenses (...these roooose coooolored glasses... teeheehee) and they have a cute little circular design on the arms, or earpieces. I have several more pairs of shades, but these are my favorite and the ones I'm always reaching for.

A few weeks ago I was in the Dollar General store and I was wandering, killing time, checking the merchandise, checking if they had anything new, and I slipped into the clothing/accessories isle. Have y'all noticed that recently the dollar stores (Dollar General and Family Dollar, specifically) are starting to get some super amazing clothes?? Back in July I bought a boat load of clothes at the Family Dollar for just $30. Anyway, I was in "DG" as my Mom and I call it, and looking at the clothes and turned around to where they have like wallets and purses and things like that, and tucked way back into the far side was an entire box brightly labeled SUNGLASSES CASES!

For $4! Yes.... $4!

I was so excited. They had a ton of fun colors, and I picked up a pink leopard print one and was about to walk away with it when I saw my color peeking out at me from way in the back.


This is a super good quality case! I was afraid it wouldn't fit my aviators, my main pair, so I dug them out of my purse and checked it, right there in the middle of the store, and they fit, with room to spare!


It is such a pretty color blue. One side is blue and white stripes and the other is blue with white polka dots and it has a really adorable little set of baby pink "purse style" straps.



I am really loving this case. It slides into my outside purse pocket super easy, and if I want to stick it inside my zipper pocket in my purse, I can! And for $4 you cannot go wrong with this! It's giving me the protection I need for my favorite sunglasses.

I thought I'd share that with you all, and hopefully you, like me, will be able to save yourself a lot of broken/lost sunglasses grief!


Dollar General, you've done it again! Thanks for being on top of things!

I do not receive any compensation from DOLLAR GENERAL for discussing their products. 

Thursday, August 28, 2014

SIMPLE LIFE TV!

Well, guys and gals, I finally did it! I uploaded a video to my sad, lonely little YouTube channel!

It's not much, just a little quick intro video saying "hey, this is what's coming!" but it's something!


So go check it out!

You can subscribe to this blog, follow it with email updates and, of course, you can subscribe to The Simple Life Youtube channel, I'm affectionately calling it "Simple Life TV!"


I'm planning - ahem - planning to actually sit down and "film a video" (baaaah) tomorrow, kind of introducing myself to the wide YouTube world, but who knows if that will actually happen!

Thank you to everyone that says to me, "Missy, I read your blog," you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that! Or the times I hear "I tried that tip you posted about and it really works!" That makes my day! I love being able to help people out like that! I love getting emails telling me that so-and-so has commented on my post, and I love seeing the amount of views my posts get; it makes me feel like this blog is making a difference in some tiny way! All I want to do is help!

It only takes a second to subscribe to both the blog and the YouTube channel, and I'd really appreciate it if you would do both!

Thanks again!


Monday, August 25, 2014

Let's Talk Kitchen Renovation!

CHEAP kitchen renovation. Fake Renovation. CHEAP FAKE kitchen renovation!


So tomorrow I will actually begin the process of renovating my kitchen and thought it might be nice (helpful? informative?) to lay all my definitives out in a blog post so that when it's all finished we can all look back and see how the ideas and specific items all came together to create my "new" kitchen!


First off - PAINT. A trip to Lowe's Friday night was super successful. We settled on a color called "Classy" by Allen+Roth (Lowe's in-house brand).  I basically went up to the display (I had a color swatch for my cabinets with me so I could match it up) and grabbed every light beige swatch that I could find and held them up, in a bunch, against the cabinet swatch. I illiminated a ton in that first go round. It was like American Idol auditions in the paint section at Lowe's. Missy's Kitchen Idol. Ha! Some were too grey, some too yellow, some too pink. We had it narrowed down to 3 and Aaron ended up being the decider, the choice-maker. "Classy!"


A gallon of Allen+Roth Valspar "Classy" in an eggshell finish (my go-to finish) with primer mixed in (the only way to go these days y'all) and in the Signature line (recommended by the sales guy for the kitchen) cost me $32.98. Here's the best part. Lowe's is running a sale right now where you buy a qualifying gallon of paint and you get a rebate back! I definitely wanted to take advantage of that deal. I sent our rebate info in online just a few minutes ago. From what I'm understanding it will be about a $10 rebate. I think the rebate offer runs until 9/3, so if you need to paint something but can't afford paint, give this a shot. I'm really pleased with my Allen+Roth paint in the bathroom and from the swatch I rushed home and painted on my kitchen wall Friday night I will be very pleased with it in the kitchen too!

I didn't want my kitchen, or my house, really, to be a Beige Palace, so it was important to choose something on the whiter side (it's showing up SO YELLOW on the online swatch) and to be very set about my choice of accent color! AQUA BLUE! Heller! 


Next, we decided on our countertops. No way in this world could we afford $3000 to replace the counters again so we decided to do a contact paper resurfacing. I showed you the screen cap in The Plan post of the "granite" we were looking at. If you didn't see the screen shot, go check out that post. We finally purchased it and I went ahead and set it for one day shipping. It will be here on Tuesday and I can finish the job then. It cost exactly $36.02 with the rush shipping. 

Current total: $69.00


This afternoon we spent time at my Mom's house where I recruited a LARGE cardboard box to help me along in my quest for a giant "EAT" sign in my kitchen. I am debating as to whether to have it go horizontal (on the wall behind my table) or vertical (on the small wall between the utility room door and the window, where the shelves had been). Any suggestions there?

Art Decor: FREE


Last night I dipped into my blue paint and painted a few items to go over my cabinets and collected a couple of photos as well. And I am about to dive into my curtain stash to see what I have that may work on the off chance I don't think the kitchen curtains will cut it for me.

Like I said, I'm planning this out for a two day transformation and not a one day. I could probably do it all in one day, but I just don't think I can physically do it at the present. In fact, as I type this I feel one of my famous headaches coming on, so I will be running on low energy - high caffeine all day long tomorrow.

Tomorrow - Day 1
  • CLEAN ROOM VERY WELL
    • under fridge
    • on top of cabinets
    • pantry
    • Wipe down counters and cabinets with white vinegar/water mix
  • Remove all decor items from walls/cabinets
  • Fill in any screw/nail holes (of which there are MANY) with spackle
  • Disassemble room ( I will have to shove my kitchen table up against my cabinets, move all my chairs into my office put all my pantry and decor items on the table, etc.)
  • Trim out all walls
  • Make artwork (EAT sign) 
  • Decide on curtains and alter them
Tuesday - Day 2
  • Finish painting walls
  • Resurface counter tops and back splash with contact paper
  • Reassemble room 
    • Hang artwork 
    • Hang "new" curtains
  • Cook a fabulous supper in a "brand new" kitchen
  • Sleep like a dog-gone baby after 2 days of such hard work!
I will have to be sure to have an iTunes Playlist/Pandora Station/Movie or TV show on Netflix blasting to keep me motivated! Worry not, precious followers, I will photograph every step of the way!


Renovating a kitchen DOES NOT have to cost a ton of money. $70. That's all I've spent for this project. That's it. And that's all I intend to spend, period. ;)


Ok, I can't stand it anymore! I'm gonna go start pulling things off of the walls and prying a few stubborn mollies out of the drywall!

I'm so excited! I'll check in with everyone later in the week and show you how things are going!

Love y'all!



Friday, August 22, 2014

The Plan

Good Afternoon my few and faithful! 

Today I want to share with you my planning/thought process when I'm planning out a home "redesign" project.

The room I'm working hard on at present is the Kitchen. I recently finished - pretty much - my home office and am just waiting for a final touch or two to finally share it with you. I need a handful more of little items to be able to call it a wrap on that room. But now I'm turning my near full attention to the kitchen.

If you read my Kitchen Evolution post you will know it's been through it's ups and downs. When we first "took possession" of the house and started renovating we painted the cabinets a dark chocolate brown with a very expensive oil based paint. The cabinets are old, from the 1960's, and are a flat panel door. I don't particularly care for flat panel doors, period, but this house is full of them, so I'm living with them. We also chose to paint the walls a sage green color. A very pretty color, but as my home evolves, it's becoming the odd man out. We even went ahead and had the counter tops replaced.

I ended up going with our dark counter tops because granite was unavailable at the time, because of money, and there was nothing else in the store that I liked, even remotely. Plus is went with dark cabinets and green walls. It was the most evasive thing we did when working on this house, and I'm still glad we went ahead and did it. 

As these 5 years have worn on, my house has undergone some big changes and for the most part, the kitchen has always felt ok to me. The decor started leaning more toward the country style, with floral curtains and floral china pieces being displayed over the cabinets, and then we introduced the big new table into the room and that pushed it even further country. But as the house turned blue around it (comment below if you would like to see a tour of everything aqua in my home) the green kitchen started feeling like the loner kid on the playground. 

So, what do I do? I start by thinking about it. For the longest time, I felt the fault was with the cabinets, so I started thinking of ways to lighten up the cabinets, and had even settled on buying white contact paper and covering them, in their entirety. But one afternoon I was cruising Pinterest, like I do, and saw a photo of dark cabinets against a light beige wall. And the light bulb in my head not only came on, but it started flashing.

You're doing it wrong! Don't paint the cabinets! DON'T contact paper the cabinets! Paint the walls!

It was pretty clear the direction I needed to go after that realization, so I had to start to hatch my plan, by listing what is important to me in the project.
  • It cannot cost a whole lot of money - and I must unload some of my "sellables" in order to fund such a project. Perhaps the "Bank of Husband" would work finance a loan haha!
  • I'd like the walls to be a light beige color, to flow with the rest of the house and to work well with my aqua accent color. I would definitely be going with a paint color from Lowe's Allen+Roth line because it is only $30 per gallon.
  • (as with the office) Paint, or DIY as many accessories as possible to save money.
  • Contact paper the nearly black counter tops.
After making out the list (it's usually a mental list) of the things I want to accomplish in the room, I go to Pinterest and create an inspiration board to help me visualize how it will turn out. Check out my "Kitchen Spruce Up" board HERE. I determine, from there, the style I'm going for and what will work in my space and what won't. It always helps that I have a creative mind.

Then I add the things that "speak to me" from Pinterest onto my list. 


  • New curtains (or re-purpose some I already have) for both windows. (One set will go to the floor)
  • new artwork - DIY I love this giant "EAT" from sweetpickinsfurniture.com.
    I like the mix between old & new here. Cupboard, light, wood, letters. I can even see adding some girly features (ie. Sparkly backsplash, fresh flowers) and a chunky farmhouse table.
    This could be accomplished by either buying the letters from Michaels (around $2 a letter I think) or I could have my father in law, wood craftsman that he is, cut them out for me, but then I decided that cardboard would be the easiest route to go. A little cardboard, some paper mache and a little aqua paint and we are in business. Completely free because of my left over aqua paint from my Front Door Makeover!
    I also like the idea of simple kitchen art, like this Mason Jar print from printabledecor.net
I find I am much more satisfied, and proud, of my end results when I do things myself. 


 I know that I want whatever the end result to be to work well with Aqua accessories. So I find photos like the one above to help me visualize how much aqua is too much or not enough. BTW, if my kitchen was this size, I'd never leave it. Are you kidding me? I love it!  Plus, if you go into Kohl's now they are offering so many fun, bright colored kitchen products. They will probably be going on sale soon to make way for Christmas things! I can't wait for that! (I want the aqua blue little cow shaped figurine so bad!)

After I've got my Pinterest board set up, I head over to Amazon, to check out their selection to see if I want to buy, or to DIY and re-purpose. In this case, I already know I want a counter-top looking contact paper to cover my counters. Originally I thought I would go with something just for the back splash, but after I started looking, I found this.
And yes, I screen-shot this for ya'll to see. (My pink polka dot theme came from Firefox's add-ons page, in case you were wondering.) Here's a link to the Amazon Listing. As soon as I saw it, my brain shot to an image of my brown cabinets, beige-y walls and aqua goodness sitting on top. I knew it was the one. I ultimately decided it'd be safest to go with the 75ft roll for $30 to be on the safe side.

The only other thing I knew I might want to spend a little cash on was some curtains, and I've been lucky on finding inexpensive sheer curtains (my favorite style) on Amazon for about $8 for 2 panels. But what color did I want? I was afraid if I went with an aqua color I'd end up getting this insane bright neon blue color, and I didn't want that, at all. Best to stick with a neutral if you ask me. I could do with a set of "ivory" sheers for $8 per 2 panels, as I'd expected. But after thinking about it for a while, I decided against buying new curtains. I got creative again. The sheer curtains on our big living room window were just hanging there, and we already had a set of drapes hanging there, so the sheers were just adding bulk to the window coverings. And that window is huge, I mean huge. So I thought about it, and decided to re-purpose those sheers. It will save that $8, and I can put it toward the paint and/or contact paper. The windows in this house (except for the big window in the living room) aren't exactly "pretty" but my "cover it up" attitude from 5 years ago really sucks now because of the lack of any natural lighting. I'll clean the fire out of the windows and the ledges and deal with the cracks if it means I can have a light and bright room to hang out in,


A lot of this project will be the de-clutter of my over the counter shelf, using the bare bones of decor - my large dark brown "R" will stay, for sure, my "Blessed" from Hobby Lobby will stay and a few other little knick knacks will stay. I will add in a few items - I have a gold basket weave star shaped box my Dad got me years and years ago (I love stars) that I am planning on slapping a little aqua paint on. I also have a star shaped box that has the world "believe" written on it that I will probably add as well as some other things I have laying around the house. My floral china pieces I think I will tuck away in a box for now, because until I have a proper china cabinet, I just don't feel like they will 'go' with the new look. I also really like the idea of a few photos up there. I've got some cute ones of me when I was a baby "cooking" with my Mama, and then a couple of cute ones of Aaron when he was a lil' tyke... especially the one of him with his face covered, ear to ear, with chocolate pudding. Adorbs. So that's an idea too.




OK. After I decide for sure what I want to do, I go to Lowe's and look at my paint options - we are going tonight. If I am dead set, I'll go ahead and purchase it, but if not, I'll take a sample home and check it out with the surroundings to see if i like it, I would specifically check to see if it "went" with our counters. But since I am changing the counters too, I will probably just go for it and buy tonight.

The middle of September will start to be super busy for me (I'm doing another play!) and so I won't have that much time to devote to home redesign. So I want to get this project done soon, very very soon. Like, next week soon. I'd like to start it tomorrow but I don't have my contact paper (unless I miraculously find it at Lowe's tonight!), and I'm the type of person that likes 1 day transformations.  Pretty much all my redesigns are done in a single day.

So now that I've got my plan pretty much in place, I clean the room, thoroughly, and get it ready for it's makeover!


In short (too late), here's The Plan!
  • paint the walls
  • contact paper the counter tops
  • paint accessories
  • diy some art
  • diy "new" curtains 
  • redesign over the cabinet decor 

I'll update you all when the project is finished. I will also post photos of the office as soon as those final touches are in place!


Here I go, again!

Thanks for stopping by again today! I love you all! 




 

Monday, August 18, 2014

Homemade Tacos

This is such an easy supper to make! It's one of Aaron's favorite and he would, literally, eat it every night if I would cook it for him.

We have a "tradition" of sorts in our house. Whenever we go to the grocery store, we have homemade tacos that night. It's something we do then, and usually only then, because we don't keep shredded lettuce and taco blend shredded cheese in the house at all times....

All you need is:
  • a pound of hamburger meat
  • a taco seasoning packet
  • 2/3 cup of water
  • shredded lettuce
  • shredded cheese
  • tomatoes (we omit. I hate tomatoes.)
  • taco sauce 
  • sour cream
Gosh this pic is so old. We'd only be married a little over a month at this point! No more canisters on the kitchen counter! :) Do you see the ancient coffee pot there in the corner??



 And then you can use either
  • tortilla chips
  • soft tortilla shells
  • crunchy taco shells
  •  gordita shells (my favorite)

Ok, let's get started. Now, as a disclaimer, we had this tonight for supper, and had I thought about it before hand, I would have taken pictures (I turned mine into a salad tonight, actually) but I was so hungry I completely forgot. These photos were taken years ago, but the process remains the same!


Brown your burger and drain off all the grease.

 



 Then stir in your taco seasoning and 2/3 cup of water.

Let that boil for about 4 minutes. (You can stick your crunchy taco shells in the oven to bake at this point. They usually take about 3 minutes.)

After that you're done! I know right? So super easy!

Here's the way my Aaron likes to make his.
 

That is one gigantic dollop of Daisy on top!  He likes to crunch up his tortilla chips and then layer his toppings on top. I usually spoon mine into gordita shells. Sometimes I'll put some cheese on my shell and stick it in the still hot oven for a bit until the cheese melts, then put my crunchy shell on top of that, like a Taco Bell Cheesy Gordita Crunch (my favorite)! The possibilities are pretty much endless.


It takes 15 minutes to do, at most, and you are good to go. This is so super filling and so yummy. Aaron always looks so forward to me making this supper that he's like a kid when he comes home from work. "Are they done yet? Are they done yet??" He always goes back for seconds!


Give this meal a shot. We love it!


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Home Style Evolution: The Kitchen

They call it the heart of the home for a reason. It is. It truly is. I can't tell you how many times we have people over, and we never leave the kitchen. My best friend and her husband were up earlier in the year and I had to practically drag them into my living room. There's something about a kitchen...

So it's imperative that your kitchen be stylish, that it is clean (please, God, please, ya'll clean your kitchens!), clutter free, and that it be inviting to your family and any guests you may have.


BLOGGERS NOTE: After putting this post off for waaaay longer than I ever intended, I decided to go ahead and post it, but however I want to let everyone know, right now, that the kitchen is about to undergo another big change, probably, so I am not posting any current shots of the room, because there will be a post about the changes I make


When I first saw this kitchen, I kind of wanted to cry. I had all these ideas built up in my head about what the house looked like (someone else had been living here for all of our engagement up until 4 months before the big day), and, sadly, not a single one of those ideas turned out to be true. I was so disappointed with this room, in particular. Even the pink tile in the bathroom was easier to swallow for me than the kitchen. I don't say that to sound spoiled, but, I was expecting a bit of an update...

The cabinets are original to the house and, turns out, are a custom width and depth. So they're in pretty awesome shape considering how old the house is.  However the green sink (and twin range hood) were god-awful and had to go, pronto! I'm pretty sure a new stainless steel sink was my first purchase for the house, even if it did sit in the box in the middle of the living room floor for months before it was installed.

When my sister in law and her family lived here a few years ago (back in the early 2000's) they put up this border. It's not exactly my style and it was the first thing to get the axe.

 We also knew right away we would have to get all new kitchen appliances. I was used to cooking on my Mom's glass top stove, so we decided we'd spring for one of those!  On a side note, the pink snake skin purse seen in the above picture went missing. It hasn't been seen since. Sad.  I liked that purse.



 I love this shot, cause it's US working on OUR FIRST HOUSE together. Look.how.short.my.hair.was. Why?!

A couple of weeks later, this was how the kitchen looked. We took off all the doors and removed all the drawers to get them ready to be primed and painted! You can kind of see how deep the floor cabinets are!

 We are so ghetto, we used coffee cans as paint buckets. But you know what, they worked so much better than the ones you get from the store! They held more paint and were easier to hold, and after we were done, we could just toss them! OH! I'd forgotten about the thermometer outside the kitchen window! Ha!

 My cousin and I primed the paneling over the cabinets one night while our husbands removed that old nasty green range hood!

This refrigerator door didn't even close all the way! But we put it to good use keeping our snacks and drinks cold, even though we had to kick the bottom corner to get it to stay closed. Not sure where they took it, but the day Aaron and his Dad moved it out I was practically dancing for joy, cause that meant the new stuff could be delivered!

 We've got all our gear laid out and ready to go! We'd already been working for a month on the house at this point. The cabinets quickly became the place to store all our necessities.

We got the cabinet base sanded down and were ready to prime and paint! I can't thank my cousin and her husband enough for coming by every night to help us! We had so much fun! I have great memories of my late Uncle coming by to help out too!

 12 days later, Aaron was hard at work painting the cabinets with a dark brown, oil based paint. (He's standing where the fridge is now.)

 1 coat done! Looking pretty snazzy!

This was one of the nights, however, that the stress got to us and we nearly called the whole thing off. It happens to every couple, no couple's relationship is perfect. Ours certainly isn't. I'm pretty sure this was the night I threw my engagement ring out in the yard, in the middle of the night, and told him I was done! But as you can see, we made up, miraculously found my ring in the yard, and finished up painting the rest of our cabinets.... and I never once chipped a nail. :)



When we finally came back from our honeymoon and moved in, our kitchen looked like this, thanks to the hard work our parents and friends put in while we were gone for the week!

I'm obsessed with teacups and fell in love with this rug. It doesn't match my kitchen anymore, but I've still got it, rolled up in storage, and am determined that in our next house I will find a place for this rug! (possibly in my fabulous dream walk in pantry!)


We chose a high top round table as our kitchen table. No dining room in this house, alas, alas. Functionally this is the best table we've ever had. But aesthetically, I like our current table the best. But anyway, here it is. We added the "The best memories are made when gathered around the table," quote there at the table (my sister in law loved it so much we bought her one for her dining room... which is painted this exact same sage green color!

We chose the brown on brown color scheme for our curtains. It worked with the theme of the house, but got old very very quickly and kept the room dark, even on the brightest days.



I was so super pleased with how our cabinets turned out, and very happy with our new counter tops. We'd considered, for about 30 seconds, keeping the old counter tops but after 4 months of renovations, we'd gotten tired of the old 1970's mobile home counter tops, so we sprung and got these lovely ones from Lowe's. (Have I ever mentioned that I love Lowe's!) Turns out, our cabinets were actually extra deep, so when the installer from Lowe's came out to put these new counter tops on, he had to leave to go get some wood so that he could "build out" the wall so that he could install standard size counters! The joys of an old house! But I am so pleased with how it turned out. (Funny side note, the counter tops in my Mom's house are what I wanted in ours, but it was unavailable at the time. Now that she's been in her new house for a couple of years, she wants my counter tops instead of what she has!)

We got all new stainless steel appliances for an absolute steal from Sears one afternoon. We love them. Our fridge was $1600 marked down to... wait for it... $300. It has a scratch on the front and a ding on the side. We snatched it up in a hurry because that was ALL that was wrong with it, we keep it stuffed full at all times. (It will make a dazzling 2nd fridge one day when we move.)



After a couple of years, Aaron and I got tired of our cute little round table. We'd actually purchased a rectangle table when we got engaged but ended up never using. We couldn't afford to go buy a new kitchen table, so I pulled out my BFF, a can of spray paint, and went to town on our old table... and this was the result. We were thrilled with it! If you look way way back in The Simple Life archives, you will find the post where I painted this table and chairs.


Having the old farmhouse looking table in the kitchen caused us - ok, caused me- to reconsider some of my decor choices. So, after the bottom in my glass sugar canister fell completely out one afternoon - what a mess -  I hit up Amazon.com and found these beauties, and it all kind of snowballed from there.

We also bought some new curtains from... can you guess... Lowe's. I am obsessed with all fabrics from Waverly and these were my first Waverly purchases. They started my obsession. My mother was never a huge floral type woman, her country style was always more solid colors etc. I, however, love a good floral.  We added the chalkboard (Family Dollar) and the old TV stand that had once been in our living room to act as a kind of a buffet. It was a lot of furniture in the room, but it worked because the table was just small enough that it all worked out.

I even started adding some nick-knacks on the  ledge above our cabinets. It's not very wide, so I can't put anything real thick up there for display, but I can add plates and cups and little teapots and glass jars... it adds to the country feel of the room I think.


Soon enough, I felt like change was in the air. I need a decor change every few weeks or so, otherwise I get bored. Especially considering I spent 98% of my time inside this house looking at it all the time.


I decided I wanted some place to display all of my Mama's glassware pieces. So after a $20 trip to Lowe's, this was the newest edition to my kitchen. I've always wanted a China Cabinet but obviously have no room for it in this house, so I improvised.

While we had our little black table everything worked perfectly fine. I even decided to change the position of the table.

BEFORE


AFTER

This way gave us the most space in the kitchen and I really liked having it this way.


But then, wouldn't you know it, my sweetheart goes and surprises me with our dream table! We'd been looking at tables like this forever but never could afford any of them. We just happen to have a friend in the consignment business and she sold us this very expensive table for peanuts!
It is huge, but it seats 6 people - and we have a huge family- and I think it really lightens up the room. We find ourselves eating at the table a lot more these days than we did before.

We did have to remove the black cabinet because it was just too much, but we left the shelves...

... for a while.

We replaced the small light fixture over the table with a pretty chandelier that Aaron got for a steal at Lowe's about a month ago, and between it hanging so low (too low, we have to raise it about 6 more inches I think) and the table being so big, the shelves weren't functionally working anymore. Plus, we kept knocking our heads against the shelves. Pretty painful.

There were also a ton of nasty drill holes in the wall, so I had to cover it up with something.

I'm all about saving some $$. I love all the cool, funky kitchen art pieces you find on Etsy, and who knows, maybe one day I'll spring for one, but I needed something NOW (#spurofthemomentDIYproblems) and didn't want to wait for whatever I'd ordered to come in before I removed my shelves. And because I throw no piece of decor away, I went rummaging through my office closet and found an old big square flower print from Dollar General that didn't go with the theme of our house anymore. Take that, a few cans of spray paint and some black acrylic paint, and I was off. Ha! I wish it had been that simple. I went through two other project ideas before I landed on this one.



It looked corny, and super cheesy, and it only lasted a week.

 

 I had never actually seen anyone, personally, have a cork bulletin board in their kitchen. I'd seen it on Pinterest, but I don't know a soul that's actually done it.  But I thought I'd give it a shot with this Martha Stewart board I'd bought a while ago for my office and wasn't using. I added the "sunshine" canvas on top because of the bad holes in the wall leftover from the shelves. Some days I like it, and some days I don't.


And so for the past few weeks, all has been quiet on the kitchen front. Until recently, when I was looking at my cabinets, and the pretty chocolate brown paint job on them, and I realized I should have painted them a lighter color. I don't even think it was an option when I was originally designing out what I wanted. But now, I want lighter cabinets. Badly. And I can't afford the price of a few gallons of paint, nor do I want to go through the absolute hassle of painting them again. I will not be able to have any help, Aaron and my Mom (my two usual helpers) have to work during the day, and I can't be trusted not to hurt myself trying to do it alone. I'd thought about spray painting them, but the over-spray would cover everything else in the house. So I'm looking into temporary fixes, such as contact paper, which is apparently huge amongst the renting community. If we decide we like the look, then we can save up for some paint, or leave it. We already know that we will move, one day, maybe sooner rather than later, and so spending a ton on a kitchen reno just doesn't seem smart.

I blame Pinterest for this. This is all Pinterest's fault. I see the pictures of the pretty, perfect white kitchens and I'm sucked in, like Alice down the rabbit hole. However, I think it's worth a shot. I will only be out about 30 bucks or so for all of my contact paper (I searched high and low for a super great deal and found it on Amazon) and I can't imagine not taking the chance, especially when the solution to disliking it is peeling it off and throwing it away. No harm, no foul, back to square one.

This change may come as soon as late next week. I'm still mulling this over, intensely, in my mind as to whether I truly want to go through with this or not. I desperately want the change, but there is truly nothing wrong with our current cabinets.



So I'm off to ponder the fate of my kitchen cabinets. I hope you all enjoyed this look at the past lives of my kitchen and are as excited as I am to see what's next!

Thanks for hanging in there with me! See you soon!



Saturday, August 9, 2014

App Love! -- Retail Me Not --

Being frugal is a way of life. It isn't a hobby. Getting the occasional deal on something, or using a coupon every once in a while doesn't make you frugal. The constant search for "the most for the least" is what makes you frugal. Not going into a store unless there is a sale or you have a coupon makes you frugal, and even then, using your calculator to keep on budget. Shopping at the Save-A-Lot is being frugal. Shopping what you've already got when you want to redecorate a space and using a can of spray paint to breathe new life into it is what makes you frugal. I'm proud to say that Aaron and I work hard to be sure we get the best price on everything.

I don't set foot into a store unless I know there is either a sale or I have a coupon for it. I'm not a 'crazy coupon lady' however, I see the potential in such a lifestyle and I wouldn't put it past myself to one day cross that line. However, if I am looking to go to a specific store for something, a lot of the time I will wait until there is a sale, or a coupon becomes available.

Michael's is one store that I don't go to unless I have a coupon. That is a store that I very easily get in trouble in. But the good thing is, Michael's often, very often, has coupons available online. You can pull it up on your phone, show it to the girl (or guy, but at our store it's always a girl) at the register, and she scans it right from your phone screen. I check for Michael's coupons every weekend, cause that's usually when this country girl heads to the big city. ;)

I take my Kohls coupons pretty seriously too. Date nights are also much nicer when I have a coupon at a restaurant! Pizza night? Coupon!


But, Missy has no printer. Well... I have one, but it hates me and decided it didn't want to work anymore. So I have to have coupons on my phone, or not at all.

My Mom actually turned me onto this app a while ago. I had it on my iPhone 4s but I had never opened it, not even once. When I upgraded to my 5s, one of the first apps I downloaded from the Apple App Store was "Retail Me Not." (Free)

Just prepare yourself. You will LOVE this app.

When you set up your account it asks you what stores you like to shop at the most, and it lists a ton for you to choose from. But you can also search for stores/restaurants and add them to your favorite stores. Once you have a list of stores, you can fix it in your settings to where Retail Me Not will alert you when there are any good deals in stores nearby. It will give you a happy little alert noise letting you know that you have coupons for (ex.) 12 stores nearby! It did it to me tonight! I got all excited when I heard the happy little alert!

You can also save coupons. If there is a sale coming up in a few days and you want to be sure you get your coupon, you can tap the little star to the side and save your coupon. Don't worry if you forget about it, Retail Me Not will alert you before it expires!

So what stores are available on Retail Me Not? Ha! You name it! Wal-Mart? Yup. Macy's? Uh-huh. Old Navy? You bet! Kohl's? Why yes! Bath & Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, Anthropologie (I've never shopped there, but it's in my favorite stores list because one day I will buy something!), Ebay, AutoZone (for muh Aaron), Etsy...  Even Amazon.com (which makes me soooo happy)! There is an "In-Store" or "Online Sale" option for every store too, which is awesome because sometimes stores offer sales online and not in the store and vice versa! Double the chance to save some cash!!

The last time Aaron and I went to Kohls, I used 3 coupons from Retail Me Not and it brought our total from around $140something to $100even. That's a big deal! It was major success on our part and we both practically skipped out of the store, because our total savings (we did take advantage of everything being on sale, but even with that the total was still at $140) were $158!! YES!!! We celebrated with milkshakes and slushes from Sonic! :)

I check retailmenot.com all the time, because if you log into your account on your computer, on your main page it will list all the deals of the day/week/etc. It helps me determine when to buy the things I want/need. 


So, go download this app and give it a whirl. Your wallet will thank you! 

Let me know in the comments, below, if you get this app and if you love it as much as I do! It's so funny, whenever we go to town, Aaron always asks me if I have any coupons on "that app thingy." And the answer is usually, always "yes!"






I am not being perked in any way by Retail Me Not. I just love this app and am sooo happy I found it! It has helped us so much with our shopping and spending!



P.S. HI JESSICA!!! :) (old college buddy who recently revealed she's a Simple Lifer!)