Where there's smoke...

The other night, I made this recipe of pineapple and shrimp skewers.  Yum.  If you look at the recipe, you'll notice you use a broiler, and you can also use a broiler to cook french bread, which is what we decided to do for a side.  In the interest of just using one dish laziness, I laid foil on top of the rack and placed the bread on top instead of removing the rack and putting the bread down in the pan.

Unfortunately, this led to the bread being WAY to close to the flame and yes, the bread caught on fire.  I had flaming bread.  Fail.  In the theme of "waste not, want not", I cut off the burnt part and heated the rest up in our toaster oven.  For those of you that have never tried smoked bread, you shouldn't.  But we ate every bit.

But really, the pineapple and shrimp skewers were fabulous.

Gallery wall pondering...

In my quest to continue decorating our first home, I have a decided to attempt a gallery wall in a little space in our living room.  I was already thinking about this, inspired by a few different house blogs, and then, my favorite house blog- Young House Love, did this in their home, which you can see here.  

I'm taking it as a sign. 

Right now our old entertainment console is housed in this space, and there is a large expanse of open wall above it.  I have debated if I want to do a conglomeration of family wedding photos, or images from trips we've taken, if I should do all the same frames or a mix of different frames in the same color, or different frames in different colors. 

I think I've decided to do different frames in the same color, and as for the images that will fill the frames, right now I'm thinking it will be some wedding, some travel, and some others I have in mind.  I still need to collect more frames, and decide how to get them all the same color (I'm thinking brown spray paint of some kind), so this won't be a Here's-what-I'm-going-to-do-and-now-it's-done post.  Instead, this is a I-will-post-it-so-then-I-have-to-do-something.

I'll keep you updated.

A fun little quiz

Borrowed from Glamorous Housewife:)

A. Age: Twenty-Six

B. Bed size: Queen

C. Chore you dislike: Mopping.  It used to be ironing, but I just don't iron anymore so there's nothing to dislike:)

D. Dogs: Ellie, our 8lb Maltese, and Gus, our 108 lb Chocolate Lab (who thinks he's a lapdog)

E. Essential start to your day: a kiss from my hubby

F. Favorite color: Hmm I have quite a few- probably teal.

G. Gold or silver: White gold

H. Height: 5' 5"

I. Instruments you play(ed): I took piano for seven years, but no longer play

J. Job title: Communications Specialist, Photographer

K. Kids: Just the puppies

L. Live: Broken Arrow

M. Mom’s name: Carol

N. Nicknames: Lori doesn't really lend itself to nicknames, but Blake calls me George-ous.

O. Overnight hospital stays: When I was born, and my appendectomy

P. Pet peeves: People that don't use their turn signal, the stupid copier at work that hates me, and internet that doesn't' always work, even though we always pay for it.

Q. Quote from a movie: "Inconceivable!"

S. Siblings: 2 older brothers, plus all my in-law siblings:)

T. Time you wake up: 6:30 on weekdays, around 8 on weekends

U. Underwear: Yes, I wear it.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: Lima Beans, beets.  Yuck.

W. What makes you run late: The snooze button.

X. X-rays you’ve had: Too many to name.

Y. Yummy food you make: Marchetti (my momma's recipe), Chicken enchiladas (my MIL's recipe), and Meatloaf (The Pioneer Woman's recipe).

Z. Zoo animal favorites: Sea Otters.

Welcoming baby Kyla

A few weekends ago, some friends and I threw a baby shower for an expectant couple in our small group.  April and Sean will welcome baby Kyla this Tuesday, and I am so excited to meet her!  Everyone really pitched in and the shower was a great success!

I got the cake from my friend Erin over at Caked by Erin!  She did a great job of making the cake match our theme (Kyla's room decor), and it was not only gorgeous, but delicious too! I definitely recommend her for your next special occasion!

We played some fun games...

And opened presents, including Dr Pepper Marinade for baby Daddy...

My friend Jamie made the diaper cake.

 Now just waiting on Kyla to make an appearance!  Pray for a safe delivery and a healthy baby!

Finally Friday!

It is gloomy and cold outdoors, and I'm having a bit of a Nancy day (Negative Nancy, that is), but the thought of the weekend ahead has me smiling!  First up, my parents are coming to town!  For Christmas, all of us kiddos went in together to buy them Cirque du Soleil Allegria tickets here in Tulsa.  When I went to purchase their tickets, it was Cyber Monday, and tickets were half price, so of course, I snatched some up for hubby and me as well.  The big event is tomorrow evening, but tonight we have Cultural Night at Blake's school!  We attended last year and it was a lot of fun to see different performances, and especially to taste different foods.  I had tabouleh for the first time (yum), and I'm excited to see what this year's evening has to offer. 

What are your plans for the weekend?

Chicago... shopping, food, and public transportation!

In the midst of the snow Armageddon that was Tulsa, I hoped on a plane for a long weekend in Chicago!  Two of my sorority sisters, Susan and Heather, live up there and I've been planning on visiting for the last ummm, 4 years.  So, when a great deal on plane tickets came up, I pounced on them, along with two of our other sorority sisters.  Unfortunately, due to the snow, one of the girls had to cancel, but Dee and I still made it up there! 

She and I met up on my second flight, so my flight from Tulsa to STL was my very first solo plane ride.  I was really nervous, as I normally self medicate with Dramamine for flights, due to a weak stomach.  However, this tends to knock me out, and I didn't think it would be in a good idea to be in a fog while looking for my connecting gate, and I didn't want to miss out on any of my time in Chi Town!  I handled the flight fairly well, and, after purchasing a 3 day pass for public transportations, we met up with Susan.

Our big plans for the weekend were food, shopping, and girl time, so after seeing Susan's adorable apartment, we got ready for dinner out at a yummy sushi place.  SO GOOD!  After our rolls, Susan told us we had to try Mochi Ice Cream, and I also had some Bubble tea.  The sushi was definitly better than the Mochi and Bubble tea, but I'm glad we tried them!

For day two, we started with something that Susan had always wanted to do in the four years she's lived in Chicago- we went ice skating in Millennium Park.  We didn't last long, but we met Susan's goal! 

We then took some photos with the nearby "Cloud Gate", more commonly referred to as "The Bean".  The last set of photos was all my idea and both girls were actually making fun of me until they saw the picture, then they joined in!  See guys, not all of my ideas are crazy!

The rest of the day was filled with cupcakes, shopping on Michigan Ave, and site seeing.  Then we ate some yummy Mexican for dinner.  I am not normally a fan of rice- unless it's surrounding fish, but I had the most delicious Cilantro Lime rice at this place that I immediately tried to replicate upon my return to OK.  I've gotten pretty close!

Day three was Superbowl Sunday, and our chance to meet up with Heather, who had been in Vegas for the weekend!  Fabulous trip with fabulous friends!

Dining room redo!

While all the snow was falling here in Oklahoma, we were making a big change in our dining area. We had a pretty clean slate to start with:

Boring, neutral, blah blah blah.  The table and chairs were actually purchased from a college roommate, and while they have been perfect for hosting friends and family, it was time for a bit of an update.  And so, I announced to Blake that I was going to paint them white.  I googled how to paint wood furniture, he laid down a tarp (no way was I painting out in the freezing cold garage), and I started on step one: sanding.

 Sanding= boring.  And tedious, and boring some more.  So, as I finished up the table and side table, I decided the chair didn't really need to be sanded.  Now, some sites had said sanding wasn't always necessary, so I wasn't too worried about skipping this step on the chairs.

Then came step two: primer.  Except we didn't have any primer.  And there was over 14 inches of snow on the ground, so a quick trip to Walmart wasn't an option.  So, I pulled on my non waterproof suede boots, and trudged over to our nice neighbors house to ask to borrow some.  Some neighbors borrow an egg, or a cup of sugar, but I go for Kilz water based primer.

 So then once everything was primed, I got to painting.  Just joking.  By the time everything was sanded and primed, I had been working on this stuff for about 7 hours and I was dunzo for the day.  I was also kind of regretting my decision to start this massive project.  I mean really, what's wrong with neutral and boring?

However, apparently primer is not an acceptable final look so the next morning I started the first coat of paint.  The first of four coats.  Five in some areas.  And somewhere between coat two and three I started thinking very not nice thoughts about all of my favorite home improvement blogs.  Blogs that had led me to believe that it's easy to paint wood furniture.  That the money you save is worth the time and energy you pour into the project.  I started to think they were all a bunch of LIARS.  Nice liars, but liars nonetheless.

Midway through the second day, we ventured out to pick up some paint for our accent wall.  We had gotten curtain material (score!) from Blake's grandma, from some old curtains she didn't use anymore, and when we put them up we realized they didn't exactly "pop" against our neutral wall.  You can see the beginnings of the blue we chose in the background of the above image.  Blake actually painted that whole wall while I was in Chicago for my birthday, and when I got back we finished up the rest of the furniture.  We also bought a bench for our dining set and Blake hung the rest of the curtains this past week.  Without further adieu, here's the finished product:

We're really happy with how it turned out!  I still need to work on some different artwork, and I bought a vintage Pottery Barn table runner on ebay I'm still waiting on, but this is what the room currently looks like.  Definitely a big improvement!  What do you think?

Snow-klahoma!

This post is a bit delayed, but I didn't want to let the blizzard of 2011 completely pass without mentioning it here on the blog.  My 26th birthday was February 1st, and that was also the day we got 14 inches of SNOW!!!  Blake's classes were canceled, my work closed, and I got 4 snow days for a birthday present:)  We never lost power, so I actually really enjoyed the time off.  I noticed over on Facebook a lot of people complaining about cabin fever a day or so in and personally, I thought they were all crazy!  Everyone always talks about never having the opportunity to slow down, or having enough time at home with loved ones, and then it was dropped in our laps and they were all complaining!  We took the snow days as a little stay-cation, filled with sleeping late, snuggling, watching movies, and eating way too much food!

The view out our front door- still snowing!

Blake and Gus playing in the snow- Gus LOVES the snow!

But of course I couldn't be completely lazy for long- Wednesday I started in on redoing our dining room.  But that's a story for another blog post- don't worry, I've been taking photos!  If you're in Oklahoma, how did you spend your snow vacation?

Meal planning

I have always liked the idea of meal planning.  It seems to be one of those things that very organized people do that results in meals being eaten before 9pm, and also, allows them to shop for deals and save money.  Who doesn't like that? 

However, if I'm being honest, I suck at meal planning.  I mean, I can totally write out meals for a few weeks at a time, and compile a grocery list, and have the best of intentions.  But then I forget to make sure my meat is thawing at the right time, or, more often, I'm not hungry for what's on the menu.  Granted, what I'm usually hungry for is sushi, but there's usually something else I CAN make at home that I would rather have than what I had planned. 

Blake and I are busy people, and we're always looking for ways to cut our grocery bill, so I am again going to give menu planning a shot.  This time around, I'd like to put together some freezer meals that we can use as backup, and also give ourselves a few days a week to either eat out, or put together something that wasn't exactly planned.   I'm also asking my sister-in-law, Jeni, to do some meal planning with me, so we can help keep each other accountable and also trade recipes.  Do any of you have any suggestions of how to make it easier to stick to a meal plan?  Any amazing recipes I have to include that I won't decide it's not what I want that night?  Any fun meal planning excel templates that would make meal planning more interesting to my list happy self?