Just some things

Our puppy dawg......Lunchbox

The Ol' man.......Gus

And Logan's wonderful grades!!!

Kitchen Makeover

Our kitchen makeover has been coming along slow, which is okay for us. It gives us time to save, shop and think about all the different things we can do and what we want to do. Last time we posted work we did to the kitchen was when we took down that very large, in the way, overhead cabinet. Since then we have painted the walls....

The curtains I found that matched the kitchen!

We painted the cabinets......

We put our things back up.

I found a shelf to put above the stove. Also found a wall spice rack at a thrift store.

Then it took us awhile before we finally decided on the counters. We couldn't take the large white counters anymore, plus we didn't like how they looked with the new painted walls and cabinets. Here are the large white countertops.

So we thought about painting them....nope - didn't want to mess with painting. Thought about tiling....nope - didn't want to mess with the surface of tiling. Finally we decided to use the peel and stick tile. It worked perfect! We love how it turned out. We got two boxes of tile and a sealer.

We put on 3 coats of the sealer. Shiny! But it didn't stay that shiny.

Here it is all done.

Sink finally back in.....YEA!!

It took about 3 days before we could use our kitchen again. That was a bitch but we really do like the outcome. The sealer had to sit 4 hours between each coat (we did 3 coats), then it had to sit for a full 24 hours before total use. It was worth the wait! Here are some side-by-sides.

Much better! We really like our countertops now! I also turned my curtains into half curtains by just folding them in half (ha). Anywho, there it is.

A few pictures

The other morning there was fog on the lake/pond (whatever it is called). It was really pretty. Then I saw these spider webs. I tried to take a picture but they were much prettier in person.

Also, Nori was at a friends house doing the bonfire thing (lucky). She took a picture and sent it to me. I miss our bonfires! We'll be able to have a fire again, just not a large bonfire.

Thrift Store Shopping

I love shopping at the thrift stores in my area! I find things to help us do our fix-me-upper home our way. Or for things that I like when I come across them. Like today. 

I found these awesome small drinking glasses at 50 cents each! I love them! So I bought 4 of them, they had 10 but I didn't need more than 4.

I also found this strainer gadget. I have been wanting one but refuse to pay the store price! Ridiculous. This one was still in the box, wrapped in plastic and with it's paperwork. So for $3 I got it. When I got home and took it out of the box it was bigger than I thought it would be. Very good though because it fits perfectly in my dutch oven sized pot. And an extra set of measuring cups for 50 cents. We have been needing extra but I didn't want to buy strays here and there. So when I came across this set I grabbed it.

Then on my way to check out I came across some books. I always try to find books for Logan while I am in the thrift stores. A few weeks ago I found some good ones for him. This time I think was another good find of books also. I am kinda excited to see his reaction to the last book, The Second World War. He is really into the wars back then so when I saw this book I had to get it. And another Mark Twain book. One of the books from last time was a Mark Twain book and he liked that. So we'll see.

Oh, and each book was 50 cents. 

So my whole big spending day totaled an even (okay odd) $7!!

David always says I'm a big spender!! (hahaha)

Halloween

We didn't do the dress up and go out for candy this year. Instead we bought some candy and did the candy giving to trick-or-treaters. We found out how much times have changed! There were a few little ones all dressed up and cute saying - Trick or Treat, Happy Halloween and Thank You. But there were a lot more grown people!! Most were 15 years old and up. We actually had a couple in their 30's going around for candy!! We have spent so many years with our children while they were little trick-or-treating that we didn't know it wasn't for the little ones anymore. It was our first Halloween passing out candy and is also our last. I will not pass out candy to teenagers and adults!! It is a shame how they ruined it for the little ones.

Anywho, because we weren't going out ourselves this year I decided to make a Halloween dinner. I got an email from Campbell's Kitchen with some cool ideas. I liked their eyeball casserole but had to substitute some of the ingredients. One ingredient they called for was ricotta cheese. I don't buy this so I used cottage cheese in it's place. Also, they used bow-tie pasta. I was out, but had spiral pasta. So, of course, that is what I used. Then I needed to think of something to go with it. I like soup so I created my own Halloween dish using tomato soup. While I was making my list of ideas I noticed that I needed a dessert. I searched pictures of Halloween desserts and saw a picture I could figure out how to make something similar to. It was a cat litter dessert. Yep. So here is what I made and fed my hubby, my son, and myself.

Okay, I've decided to call this creation - Bloody Brain Soup. You cook tomato soup with cauliflower and spaghetti squash. I just seasoned it with salt and pepper.

This was my version of Campbell's Kitchen recipe. Just a little different. 

Eye-Ball Casserole: Cook pasta; add pasta sauce, 2 cups cottage cheese, 1/4 to 1/2 cup parmesan cheese. Top it with cheese - it called for mozzarella balls but they were more expensive than goat cheese, so I used goat cheese. Top the cheese with slices of olive. I decided to sprinkle a little paprika to give the blood shot eye look.

And here was dessert! Cat Litter Cake!

I baked a cake and topped with frosting. I don't keep frosting on hand so I had to make it homemade. I decided on a peanut butter frosting. After spreading the frosting on the cake sprinkle it with crushed graham crackers. I then went through my baking items and made the turds using left over chocolate chips and marshmallows. Melted them together in the microwave and shaped. Done!

Hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween!!

Taz

Logan's tasmanian devil shirt.

He was playing with our photo booth on our Mac.

I think it looks cool.

Free Cake!

We have a brand new Publix that opened down the street from where we live! Yea!! So the day after they opened we finally got to go and check it out and do a little shopping. It was very nice! While we were about ready to go check out a man from the bakery was calling to us. He came up to us with this cake and asked if we would like to have it at no charge. They were cleaning up for closing and didn't want to toss it out. Uh.......Yeah!! I'll take it. When we got home we found the price tag under the cake board. Wait till you see how much this cake was going for! 

They say - "Where Shopping is a Pleasure".

My hubby always says - "Where Shopping is a God Damn Pleasure!"