The Plan: Mini Bathroom Makeover

I've been totally into planning updates for our house lately. I've been checking out a lot of home decorating/renovating blogs, and I've found it to be very inspirational. My favorite is a blog called Young House Love. It's a young couple blogging about all the updates they've done to their home. Since starting the blog, they've owned three homes and they've done SO much work in all of them. I am totally in awe of the vision they have. They can look at a room and just know what would make it look 10x better. I wish I had that.

Anyhoo, like I said, it's been very inspirational for me, and now I have a long list of things I want to get done around the house. But making a list is infinitely easier than actually doing the things on that list. So this coming week, I'm going to start doing. And I'm starting with the bathroom.

 

Ok, so it doesn't look that bad in the picture. But I think it really needs a facelift. At first, I just wanted to paint it. We decided on a color called Upward by Sherwin Williams.We need a light color because we have no natural light in our bathroom, and I don't want it to feel like a dark dungeon.

Upward by Sherwin Williams

Before I continue, I have to take a moment to stress how incredibly terrible the previous owners of this house were at painting. I like to call them the "One Coat Wonders" because they obviously felt  that one coat of paint was enough, no matter how it looked afterward. They also must really have had something against painting tape, which is fine if you can take your time (they didn't) and have a steady hand (they didn't). Needless to say, the trim in our entire house is covered in paint. They literally just slopped the stuff on the walls without regard to anything they might get paint on, the trim, the floor, the counters, whatever.

See, I told you it was bad.

So I'm going to be painting the trim in the entire house white (I've always had a thing for white trim)  and I might as well start with the bathroom, since I'll be painting in there anyway. And if I'm painting the trim white, then we'll need to get new doors that are white. So we decided to just replace the closet door and leave the entry door for the time being (until we decide to replace all the doors, which is on the list for the future). 

Then I mentioned to James how I thought a nice frame around the plain ol' builders grade mirror would look great, and he figured he could probably make one pretty easily. So we searched a bit and found a few good tutorials on how to do it.

 

Then I took a good look at the vanity, and I said to myself, "Self, this vanity needs new hardware STAT!" But you see, it has those pesky little plates attached to the doors/drawers under the handles that were oh so popular in the 70's. And for some crazy reason that I can't comprehend, the builders stained the cupboards after they put those plates on. So there is no stain under it. So if I want new hardware, I need to either try to match the stain, or paint it a different color. So I'm thinking I'll paint it a nice deep brown, and paint the mirror frame to match. Sounds like a "fun" little weekend project. (I really hope you can sense my sarcasm.) 

In my head, it looks something like this, only less black and more brown:

And that, my friends, is how a simple idea to paint the bathroom snowballs into this list:

• Paint the walls
• Paint the trim
• Paint the vanity
• Frame the mirror
• Change vanity hardware
• New door for linen closet

Wish me luck!

Houston, We Have A Patio!

You guys, I am SO pumped to be able to finally write this post!

First of all, I am going to apologize in advance for my overuse of caps and exclamation points.

Now, if you are friends with me on Facebook, then odds are you know that we were working on building our patio A LOT about a month ago. We are really stupid and cheap and decided to do all the work ourselves. And let me tell you, it SUUUUUCKED! James took a few days off of work, so we completed most of the work during that time. We had already done the digging prior to that, so we "only" had to fill it with gravel, tamp it, fill it with sand, screed and tamp it, then lay the pavers, tamp again, fill cracks with sand, tamp again, then fill the cracks with sand again. I don't know WHAT I was thinking when I thought we could do all that in only a few days. It was brutal. Thank goodness for my parents! My dad helped so much with the work and letting us borrow his pickup, and my mom was the designated babysitter so I could help with the patio. We wouldn't have been able to do it without them.

Anyway, at the end of James's third day off, the patio was complete. But we still had a giant pile of dirt in the back yard from what we had dug up, and we needed to level out the area between the pavers and the lawn with that dirt, so I didn't want to get all camera happy and post a picture until that was done.

Well my friends, as of today it's DONE! James just finished filling in the remaining empty space with dirt and leveling out the ground around it. He also tossed some grass seed on top and I watered it. I mean, we still have the giant pile of dirt, but we're working on getting rid of that. I'm hoping I'll find someone who wants it, who will just come a take it away. We'll see what happens. But at any rate, the patio is now picture worthy!

 

 

 

Now I just need some patio furniture, which I'm hoping to find on clearance sometime soon (did I mention I'm cheap?). We have some nice folding patio chairs, and a hand-me-down plastic table, but I think my beautiful patio deserves a matching set. :)

 

And here's the pile o' dirt I mentioned earlier.



 

 

You guys, I am SO happy to be done with this project. You have NO idea. Now, on to the mini bathroom makeover! (Be on the lookout for a post about that soon!)

 

 

Storage for Kids' School Projects

Well, It's almost that time. School time, that is. This summer has flown by, and now we find ourselves starting to think about things like school supplies and morning routines. This is actually the first year that I've had to join in the school supply madness, as Isaac is starting preschool at St. Michael's this fall, and I'm happy to report that our back-to-school shopping is DONE!

So I started thinking about what I'm going to do with all the cute little paintings and drawings and other school projects that the kids are going to start coming home with, as well as report cards and certificates and stuff, and decided that I needed some kind of storage solution to keep it all organized. I already have some little projects that have come home from daycare over the past few years, and they are anything but organized. I found this idea on Pinterest and decided to do something similar.

So here is what I spent my morning doing (all before 9:00 AM, go me!).

 

The kiddos saw me taking pictures and wanted to get in on the action. They're so darn cute, I just couldn't deny them. (And Alex is debuting his new haircut in this picture.)

 

I got the file storage cases at Target, and the hanging files and sticky foam letters at Walmart. This is not a terribly expensive project. I got everything I needed for this project for about $20.

 

Here's what the inside looks like:



 

I chose to use only one file for 0-3 years old because I don't have a whole lot of stuff to put in there for those ages. After that, I did one tab for every grade, preschool to 8th grade. I also put grades 9-12 in one tab titled "High School". I did this because it worked with the amount of file folders I had, and I'm not sure that parents save a lot of high school stuff anyway. But the beautiful thing is that I can always change it later.

 

And the thing that inspired me to start this project was Isaac's very first birthday interview! It's so cute, I had to share. I can't remember how I found it, but of course, I pinned it (link). I went to Office Max and had it laminated. I plan to do this interview for each of my kiddos every year on their birthday. (I took two pictures so I could zoom in more to make it easier to read.) My favorites are #9 and #20, lol!

Chicken Wild Rice Casserole

You guys, I have some terrible news. I have to go back to work in 3 weeks. I know, it's bad. I bet all you 9-5, 52-weeks-per-year readers feel really sorry for me. :P Anyway, in preparation of my impending return to work, I've been gettin' my cook on and socking away some freezer meals. And that is good news, because that means you can expect quite a few blog posts coming your way very, very soon.

First up, Wild Rice Chicken Casserole. I love wild rice, so this recipe immediately caught my attention. And it seemed super easy, and I'm super lazy, so that was nice. I found it here. I changed just a few things.

Here's what you'll need:
1 box wild rice (with the seasoning packet) 4.3 oz
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can water
1 small can of mushrooms, drained
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (the recipe said 6, but the ones I had were huge so I only used 3)

Ok, I have no idea why this picture is upside-down. I tried for almost 30 minutes to get the darn thing to upload right, but it just wouldn't work. So I'm afraid you'll have to settle for an upside-down picture. Deal with it. I just wanted to show you what kind of wild rice I used. So there it is. Upside-down.

First you mix the wild rice, seasoning packet, both cans of soup, and the can of water. When I say "can of water" I just mean take one of the soup cans and fill it with water.

Then stir in the can of mushrooms. You could also use fresh mushrooms. I prefer fresh, but I didn't have a lot of time since I was doing a lot of cooking, so I settled.

Then spread it into a casserole dish. I typically use those disposable foil ones (P.S. they're cheap), but I had this one in the pantry. It's like a hard paper type one. It's very sturdy and I prefer this kind, but they're more expensive.

Then take your chicken breasts (however many you decide to use)...

... and lovingly place them on top. That's right, lovingly. If you don't do it lovingly, it won't turn out right.

Cover it with foil and write the cooking instructions on top. It may also be a good idea to lable it by writing what it is, which, I just realized while looking at this picture, I did not do. Oops.

Thaw and bake uncovered for one hour until the chicken juices run clear and the rice is tender.

And there you have it. The prep literally takes 5 minutes, and you have a tasty (hopefully) meal you can just toss in the oven!

Grilled Cheese Hamburgers

In our family, we really like grilled cheese sandwiches. We also really like hamburgers. So when I saw this recipe, which is so incredibly easy, I had to try it.

It's summer, so we're grilling a lot. One day, when James suggested that we grill hamburgers, I remembered this recipe and said, "Ok!"

James grilled the burgers...

...while I spread a little butter on one side of a few slices of bread, placed it butter-side-down on a baking sheet, put a slice of american cheese on each piece, and baked it at 350 degrees in the oven for about 8 minutes.

And, well, that's it. You just flop one of those burgers between two of these slices of bread, and you have a grilled cheese hamburger. And it is gooooood. I will definitely do this again.

Drool.

DIY Wreath

This was actually one of my very first DIY projects! And you guys, it could NOT have been easier!

Here's what you need:

• a hot glue gun (and glue sticks for it, of course)
• a wreath - I got mine at Michaels for like four bucks
• some faux flowers of your choosing
• one of those wooden letters
• craft paint, if you want to paint the letter

You literally just glue everything on however you want. It's that easy. I chose to paint the "R" to match the yellow flower. Our house is blue, so I thought that contrast would look nice.

I am so happy with the way it turned out!

Birthday Madness!

Wow. Let me tell you, having your kids birthdays within days of each other is hectic! Fun, but hectic! I can NOT believe that I now have a one-year old and a three-year old! So here it is, the boys' birthdays in pictures.

Opening presents at the farm with the Richter crew

Isaac got a bike from Grandma and Grandpa R

You can never get Isaac to look at the camera if there's cake involved!

The boys birthday cake at the farm

Cake!

Cake!

The morning of Alex's birthday. We couldn't wait, so we let him open his presents right away.

"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you."

Hanging out with Grandma Cookie (my grandma, she makes lots of cookies).
Grandma LOVED all the snuggles!

Isaac's super awesome Spider Man cake made by Grandma Olson!

Alex's amazing monkey cake made by my good friend, Cat.

Yummy smash cake! Isaac seems to be enjoying his Spider Man cake in the background.

The boys chillin' in the chairs they got at their party with my mom's side of the family.

Breakfast on the morning of Isaac's 3rd birthday. No, it's not an M. It's a sideways 3. I couldn't change the orientation.

My mom has some serious cake making talent. Isaac was WAY excited about this one.

Playing with his super hero toys with Dad.

Yep. It was a long week.