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?