Home Makeover Edition

First off, I'm excited for the weekend just to see who the winner will be for the giveaway! Keep those followers/comments coming! However, on to the real post for the day...

Like I mentioned on Monday, we've been busy down here in Florida. The good kind of busy. Getting things done and seeing the result. Kind of like vaccuming. Instant satisfaction. We started with the nursery. We had to make a room that for the last 2 years has been 1 little man's room and has now become a room for 2 little boys. It is pretty darn cute! When the room was just for little man, Sis splurged and bought those really cute metal Anthropologie letters and spelled out his name over the crib. Well we decided to save the $$$ and make our own letters for Baby O. We got a cool leather mirror made out of a saddle on Etsy. And we're making new curtains for the window. Here's the before,process, and after...

Now for two little guys

Here is the before picture of the letters. They are just paper/cardboard craft letters from JoAnn fabric.

There were more complicated tutorials out there on the internet on how to copy the Anthro letters but we went with our own easy fast method. It's called match the color with spray paint. We used RustOleum's Silver Hammered Spray paint. It worked perfectly and matched better than we could have hoped.

Here is the final product. The letters look a bit off but that's only due to the sun hitting that side of the room.

Giveaway Time

So I've talked about this for months now and I am finally going to follow through. It's GIVEAWAY time. Just leave a comment on this post. You also have to be an actual follower of the blog. I'll randomly pick the winner this coming Saturday! I'm so excited to finally start having giveaways. So stayed tuned after this one!

Lately

The past few days down in Florida have been wonderful! The weather is perfect. Little Baby O is perfect. Playing with Little Man is perfect. And being with my Sis and Bro-in-law is, yes - perfect. So I guess I'm glad to be down here. :)

We've also been quite busy. We've done so much that I feel like it's had to be more than 3 days since I arrived. We've been working on a ton of home improvement/decorating projects - which I love! On top of playing and taking care of the little ones. Luckily, we're woken up bright and early by a little someone, so we have plenty of time during the day to complete our projects. The only thing is that I haven't had time to take any of the "after" pictures yet so those will be coming later this week. However, I've taken pics of other things going on these past few days and they're pretty fun, as well. I hope you all had a great weekend!

One more thing, tomorrow I will be doing a giveaway BUT you have to be a "follower" of the blog to participate. So if you're not a follower then you should sign up!! Details coming tomorrow...

So Much Food

Today is the day! I'm leaving in a few hours on a jet plane to meet my new little nephew, baby O! I couldn't be more excited to see my family, little man, Florida's weather, and Chick-fil-A. I'll be gone for two whopping weeks. Hubs is going to join me next weekend which will be awesome! But until then we'll be apart and so that is why I spent a lot of yesterday cooking up meals to freeze for him for the next week. Just a little gesture to show him I love him even from far away. Of course, these recipes were easy and somewhat fast. Is this starting to sound familiar? I think I say that during every recipe post. I guess that means I'm not Ina Garten. :) However, they're still tasty so I'll pass them along...non-Ina style. Enjoy!

Also, since I'll most likely be playing on the floor tomorrow morning with little man or holding baby O - I hope yall have a great weekend!

Creamy Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup-

Melt 1/4 cup butter in a pan with 1/2 white onion, chopped.

Meanwhile, chop 4 stalks of celery and 2 large carrots
After melting butter and cooking onion add 1/4 cup of flour until smooth. Gradually stir in 3 cups of water, carrots, celery, 1 tbls garlic, salt and pepper. I added a couple of chicken bouillon cubes. Heat through.
Chop 3 lbs of potatoes and place in slow cooker and pour liquid mixture over potatoes. Cover and cook for 5 hours. During the last hour put in 6 slices of bacon or pancetta (I used half the container) and about 1 cup of milk (more or less depending on how thick it's looking) After 5 hours, use a hand mixer to blend about 4 cups of the soup. Add 1-2 cups of cheddar cheese. Done!
I took a picture of the finally outcome but the picture looked unappetizing to say the least! So we'll move on to lasagna.

Easy Lasagna-

Brown 1 lbs of ground beef. Drain and add a couple of minced garlic cloves and a 32oz of pasta sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes
In separate bowl, mix 32oz of cottage cheese, 2 eggs, 2 cups mozzarella cheese, and 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.
Now assemble. Spread 3/4 cup of sauce mixture on bottom of 9x13 pan. Top with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, 1 3/4 cup cheese mixture. Repeat a couple of times. End with 3 noodles, remaining sauce (if you have any) 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 Parmesan cheese. Add some water around the edges of pan and cover with foil. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.
Ta Da
Box Brownies - no directions necessary. :) We ate some tonight.