Friday, May 31, 2013

Nursery Help Needed!

Recently, I've been trying to get our nursery finished. I've got bedding, clothing, blankets, bottles, diapers, pacis and gear, like our stroller, carseat, bouncy seat and swing.

Now I'm working on more of the little details. In case you missed my other post, here's the theme of our nursery:


It's hot pink, gray and a touch of yellow.

There are a few things I need help finding.

First, I came across THIS PIN on Pinterest. (I didn't post the image because it's not mine and I hadn't asked for permission, so if you click on the pin link you can see what I'm talking about). It's a cover for a glider chair. We have a similar chair and I'd love to find a cover for it but I checked Etsy and couldn't find any. I'd love to do it in a hot pink chevron. Have you seen these anywhere? Do you know someone who makes them?

Second, let's talk prints. You've probably seen these on Etsy and Pinterest, but you can click THIS link to an Etsy search to see what I mean. Have you purchased these before? If so, would you recommend the seller? I'm looking for some for the nursery, boys rooms and the playroom.

Last but not least, I love our Chicco high chair. It's served me well through my two boys. However, the seat has started to rip. Have you ever seen high chair covers? It seems like a waste to throw the whole thing out when it's still great, but I'd love to cover the chair part.

Leave me your links to your favorite sellers in the comments! 

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Last Day

Last Thursday was Brayden's last day of school! I can't believe how fast this year went. It seems like yesterday we were sending him off for his very first day!


Brayden's FIRST day of school...

And his last day!

His school put on a program for the last day, and Brody just couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed on stage with Brayden. He actually ran onto the stage after making a great escape from my Dad's arms at the end of the program, and then shared Brayden's chair until everything was over. Sweet brothers.


And the traditional pictures with the big boy...

 Mommy's turn!

Family pic:

I just can't believe his very first year of school is behind us! He attended school twice a week last year and will go three times a week next year. Today was the first day he "missed" and he doesn't understand why he isn't getting to go see all of his friends!

He learned so many things this year...letters and numbers, songs and Bible verses. We are so proud of him! He was the little sweetheart of his class who all the kids and teachers loved. Every time I picked him up from school, his friends would be sad to see him go and give him hugs. I loved seeing his self confidence soar! He can't wait for next year!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Quinoa Stir Fry!

I've been on this diet for almost 2 months now and every once in awhile I just crave something bad for me. Usually chocolate. But last week I wanted PF Changs. BADLY. So, from that craving, Quinoa Stir Fry was born. 

I don't mean to pat myself on the back here, but this is one of my best, dreamed up concoctions. It worked out exactly as I thought it would in my head. If you want a healthier take a stir fry, you've got to try it. 

Also, I have some optional ingredients listed. I don't eat eggs, so I left that out, and my snow peas had just gone bad (opps, forgot I had those). I marinated some chicken, which Chris grilled for me and he served his sliced (the pic below was his plate) and I diced mine and mixed it in. As a side, we had edamame, which I had to fight Brody for. We both have a slight addiction to that stuff. Yuuuum.


Quinoa Stir Fry!
Source: JennaBlogs.com
Serves: 4-6

2 cups quinoa, rinsed well
2 cups water
2 cups finely chopped and peeled carrots
3/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 Tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon grated ginger
5 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil, DIVIDED

OPTIONAL: Grilled chicken breast, eggs, snow peas etc.

Directions:

Rinse quinoa well. This removes that waxy, nutty taste. Add quinoa and water to a pot. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer. Cook about 15-20 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed and quinoa is cooked through. Fluff with a fork. Set aside.

Mix soy sauce and sriracha together and set aside.

Add 1 Tablespoon oil to a skillet or wok. Add your carrots. Salt and pepper them, and cook over medium-high heat stirring frequently. Cook about 4 minutes and then add ginger and garlic. Cook 1-2 more minutes. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Heat remaining 1T of oil in the skillet/wok. Add your quinoa. Stir fry the quinoa for about 3-4 minutes, then add your carrot mixture back in. Cook another couple of minutes and then add in your soy sauce mixture. Cook another 1-2 minutes.

Remove from heat, and place quinoa in a bowl. Stir in your cilantro and chives.

Serve warm.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Our Storm Shelter & Helping Heather

Before I get to the rest of this post, a twitter friend of mine named Heather and her husband and children lost everything to the tornado that hit Oklahoma. Thankfully, they are all physically okay and staying with her parents right now. If you feel led, some of the girls have put together a fund for Heather and her family. You can donate directly to them via the paypal link below.





Last night while all of the storms were rolling in, I tweeted a picture of our storm shelter. It's a bad iPhone pic and our power was out so all I had was the flash from my phone, but you can see it pretty well.

Anyway, so many of you tweeted me asking about it, so I thought I'd post more about it here.

This is the pic I'm referring to:

Before we built our new house, we decided to invest in a storm shelter. We saw these at a local home building show and loved that they are an above ground shelter. I'm not a rep for this company and they haven't asked me to write this post or anything, and hopefully I don't mess my facts up, but you can get all the accurate information by visiting THIS site.

From what I understand, our shelter is the only above ground FEMA certified storm shelter rated to withstand an F5 tornado. Most of the other ones are below ground shelters. We looked at those - you can have a portion of your garage dug up to hold one - but my concern was what if a car or something blew over top of it and locked you in? With our shelter, the door opens inward and overall, it feels safer and certainly less claustrophobic to me.

We actually unbolted it from the floor and moved it with us to our new home. By the way, this thing is heavy so it's not super easy to move, but it can be done. The shelter can support over 100,000 pounds stacked on top of it, and we feel really safe having it at our house.

They offer different sizes to accommodate what your family needs. Ours is a 4*6' unit. We keep water, flashlights, a first aid kit and other necessities in it. I had trouble getting a connection to my wifi and even to 4G while in it, but for whatever reason, I had just enough connection to be able to read twitter and know when it was safe to come out!

I realized that a lot of people didn't know about these shelters last night while we were tweeting during the storm, so I just wanted to mention them on here today. It's a great investment and it really offers our family peace of mind. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Home Reveal, Part 2!


I hope you all enjoyed my first post! Downstairs, the colors are all very neutral, cool blue/grays. Upstairs, where the kids' bedrooms are, we went a little wild! Using the Color Visualizer by Sherwin-Williams, I was able to easily select the colors I wanted. I ran to the store and picked up sample sizes of all the paint colors I was interested in. I decided to go back for some additional colors, and all I had to do was call them in and then pick them up at the store 30 minutes later! It was such a hassle-free experience.

First up, this is Brayden's room. He is waaaay into construction stuff, so we decided to do an accent wall in June Day because it looks similar to the CAT construction equipment color. We used Colonnade Gray on the other three walls. We hired a painter to come in and paint their logo in the corner. Brayden flipped out when he saw it. His room makes him SO happy!





Brody is a huge football fan. This scares me a little because he's only two and super into it. What will he be like as a teen?! Ha! Obviously, his favorite team would have to be the Razorbacks, so we painted his room in Colonnade Gray with an accent wall of Stolen Kiss.



Last, but definitely not least, if you've been following my blog, you know we are hoping to adopt a baby girl. If you missed that, you can find my first post about our decision here. We've slowly been putting our nursery together and I'm excited to show a glimpse of it to you!



I love these two Sherwin-Williams colors together. This is Colonnade Gray along with Impatient Pink. A lot of the nurseries I've seen take the stripes in a horizontal pattern, but I'm a rule breaker. Below is her dressing room. To the left of the picture is her closet and behind me is her bathroom. This is a great space for when she is older to store all of her clothing and jewelry. Right now I have my mom's old dresser that I refinished in there with baby bedding and stuff in it. It's just a cool space - I totally would have wanted this when I was younger!

Once her room is fully put together, I'll share more pictures.



This concludes my home tour! I hope you were inspired by my paint selections!


For a chance to win a $100 Sherwin-Williams gift card, share in the comments below what room you would like to makeover in your home?

No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
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  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/20/2013-6/10/2013.

Be sure to visit the Sherwin-Williams brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Turkey Taco Tostadas

If you're all about fast and delicious dishes, this one is GREAT! It took me less than thirty minutes to throw together the tostadas, beans and rice. If I left out the rice, dinner would have taken about 15 minutes!


Turkey Taco Tostadas
Source: JennaBlogs.com
Makes 4 Tostadas

1 lb lean ground turkey (all white meat)
2 Tablespoons taco seasoning (home made or store bought)
2/3 cup water
4 tostada shells
2 heads of romaine lettuce, chopped and washed

Toppings (pick whichever you like best):
Cheddar cheese
Monterey Jack cheese
Refried beans
Whole black beans
Salsa
Guacamole
Tomatoes
Sour Cream
Salad dressing

Preheat your oven to 350.

In a medium sized skillet, over medium heat, add your turkey. Break up while cooking. Once turkey is cooked all the way through, add in taco seasoning. Stir well. Add water. Continue to stir and cook until water is mostly gone. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, heat shells in the oven for about 5-10 minutes, until just starting to turn golden brown.

Add meat to the bottom of the shell, so it doesn't wilt the lettuce. Add lettuce and other desired toppings on top. Serve warm.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

My Diet Post - How I Lost 13 pounds in 7 weeks.

Well, then.

I don't really know how to start this post off. I should probably begin with a disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional, dietician, or personal trainer! This is just me sharing my experience and what I did. I'm not recommending it to anyone. Talk with your doctor before beginning any weight loss/diet/workout program.



I love chatting on twitter (if you don't already, follow me by clicking here! I'd love to talk to you!) and I oftentimes share things there that I don't blog about. A few weeks ago, on March 28 to be exact, I decided to change my health for the better. And in the past 7 weeks, I've lost 13lbs and gained lots of new muscle.

I mentioned a few things here and there and had people emailing me, DMing me and tweeting me asking about it. I replied but let me just say, it's impossible to have that kind of discussion in 140 characters or less!

Recently, Chris and I took the kids on a quick trip to Dallas. I was watching a morning show while getting ready one day and a man was on the show talking about a diet he developed for diabetics (I think...I'm pretty sure that was the target audience). Anyway, he was talking about how he recommended a diet of 500 calories twice a week. The other five days, you ate as normal.

I thought, "I can do that!" When I got home I did a little online research. I decided that 500 calories twice a week and changing nothing the other 5 days just wasn't the right way to go about this. Instead, I would lower my calories everyday by eating healthy, whole foods. I cut out a lot of the bread and sugar...I LOVE bread and I ADORE sweet tea. Just cutting those things out helped a lot! It seems the recommendation for the lowest amount of calories you can eat and still be healthy is around 1200. Sometimes I eat that and sometimes I eat fewer calories than that.

I've talked before about my recumbent bike, which I love. It's a low impact workout and it doesn't bore me to death, because I can read on my iPad while I'm working out. ;-) Recently, my parents gave me their elliptical and I put it in my office. So in addition to my new diet plan, I added a workout plan. I exercise on the elliptical 6 days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes (and up to an hour and a half). Everyday I try to go a little faster or up my resistance a bit. I watch old seasons of Pretty Little Liars on my laptop while I'm at it, which helps the time pass quickly! A few people asked me when I exercise. I'm NOT a morning person. I exercise every night after dinner. Chris plays with the boys while I get my exercise done. It's great "me" time!

I burn anywhere from 300 - 650 calories according to most sites. Beware of sites that say you're burning something crazy like 1000 calories in an hour. I'd rather be conservative with my calories burned and accurate with my calories consumed.

Now that the weather is nicer (we had snow in May for crying out loud!) we spend a lot of time outside. I chase my kids, we take family walks, the whole nine yards. That extra activity equals more calories burned while having fun with my family...a win-win situation!

The most popular question I've received is what do you eat?!

Well, protein is really important because I don't want to lose muscle mass. I eat a ton of grilled chicken. I marinate it in lots of different herbs, spices and even pre-made marinades from the store, so it doesn't feel like the same old thing. I also eat tons of fruits and vegetables. I love roasting sweet potatoes and onions using the marinade I make for this recipe. I also enjoy eating quinoa, edamame, turkey burgers etc. After the first week and a half I noticed a huge difference in what I wanted to eat. I no longer craved bread or chocolate but I eat edamame like it's candy. Also, I take a multivitamin every day, which I feel is very important.

Drink wise, I pretty much stick to water. I know some people hate drinking water, and while I'm not one of them, there are plenty of ways to jazz it up. Sometimes I add citrus to my water which is super refreshing. Recently I received some crystal light drink packets (in an auction item I won at a charity gala). I think there's 5 calories in each one. I've used the grape and lemonade ones and they were really good! I do treat myself with half and half tea when I'm at chick-fil-a.

You have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat, so all of this is a math game. I'm terrible at math, so I log everything into a free site that I've used since 2009 called Spark People. It's awesome and there is a ton of great info there. I keep track of my measurements, water intake, nutrition and exercise there.  Remember, if you're logging your food, you need to log everything! If you drink sweet tea, gatorade, snapple, etc., it has calories! Input them! If you use a salad dressing, enter it!

So from March 28 - May 11 (which is really 6.5 weeks) I lost 13 pounds following my own guidelines. Am I done? Nope. I'm going to continue with my plan until I reach my goal (I'm 5lbs away from my original goal. When I get there I'll decide if I'm good with that!) and then change things up a bit. I'll add it more calories and probably reduce down to 4-5 days of exercise to maintain my weight.

Wow, so that's a lot of information. Here's some bullet points:

- Do your research! Talk to professionals, read online, get advice from people you know who've embarked on a successful weight loss journey.

- Load up on recipes. Eating out isn't a great option when you're controlling your calories. Search online for great, low cal options. You'll find lots of things that work or can be modified to work!

- Find an exercise you love...or at least can commit to doing. It's great if you can find something that you can distract yourself with while doing the exercise (see my notes above).

- Calories are more important (in my opinion) than exercise when it comes to weight loss. Why? If you're eating junk, or a large amount of calories, you're hindering your potential loss. It's all a numbers game (remember, 3500 calories = 1lb of fat). Cutting calories is a good start, but make sure the calories you're taking in are from lean proteins, fresh fruits and veggies and other healthy choices.

- Be committed. You will fail if you aren't fully committed to this. It's like turning a switch on in your brain that repeats, "I want to be healthy!" over and over. When that switch flips, it's so much easier to make good choices.

- Find support and a place to help you keep track of your goals. I mentioned that I love Spark People - there are lots of great sites where you can keep track of your goals, achievements, calories, workouts, etc. They also have support forums which are awesome. You can find interesting workouts, answers to your questions etc there. I highly recommend it!

So, I hope that answers most of your questions. If I missed something, leave it in the comments and I'll be sure to reply!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

date Knight

 Once a year, the local Chick-fil-a's here host a Date Knight for moms and sons. Last year I took Brayden right after his accident. Since Brody is still a little young, I decided to have that one on one time with Brayden again this year. Brody is home with me on the two days a week that Brayden is in preschool, so he gets loads of alone time!

Brody did insist on a picture before we left:


 My big boy and I:

Both of my boys LOVE Chick-fil-a. It's our very favorite place. I may or may not be on a first name basis with almost everyone that works at my local CFA. I'm not admitting anything. ;-)

I do have a bone to pick with them. Recently they got rid of my southwest salad. This made me so sad. They replaced it with 2 salad that have fruit on them (I do not like fruit in my salads) and one covered in egg (I don't eat eggs). BUMMER.

Anyway, back to the story. My good friend Lindsey and her son Brayden joined us this year. I don't know how we managed to not get a pic of the Brayden's together. We were a little distracted by the slew of 3 year old boys wielding balloon swords at one another, I guess!

I did get a pic of Brayden and the CFA cow:

This year they had a chocolate fountain set up. YUM. Brayden throughly enjoyed it. 


We had an awesome time! Maybe next year Linds and I will take our younger boys! 

Monday, May 13, 2013

Mother's Day 2013 & An Adoption Update

Happy {belated} Mother's Day!


I hope everyone had a fun day celebrating you, your moms, your friends who are moms etc!

We started the day out at church, followed by lunch with my family and then we came home to r-e-l-a-x! I'm so lucky to have a husband who pampers me everyday and Mother's Day was no exception! He cleaned the house, emptied the dishwasher, fed and changed the kids...everything! I didn't lift a finger!

My awesome husband and kids got me a belt that I had really, really been wanting. Also, I kinda need it. In the last 7 weeks, I've lost 13lbs! No, this is not one of those infamous spam twitter ads. I really have lost 13lbs in 7 weeks. I've talked about it a bit on twitter and had request after request to blog about it, so I'll do that this week.

I've also been asked for an adoption update. If you follow me on twitter, I tweet updates pretty regularly (it's just easier to do that there). We came pretty close to being chosen recently and also got feedback on why we weren't chosen, which believe it or not, was nice to know. After being turned down 7 or 8 times now, without much feedback other than "you already have kids" it was nice to hear more detailed feedback. This time, it came down to the fact that we were too far away from the state the birth mom resides in, and she had hopes of being able to visit. We have decided to enlist the help of someone who reached out to me and in time, I will definitely be sharing much more about that.

Hopefully I'll have that weight loss post up for you on Wednesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Win A $100 Visa Gift Card & Learn Why I Love Fresh Direct


As a food blogger (well, half food blogger, half mom and all the other stuff I blog about, blogger) you might have guessed that my food is really, really important to me. More specifically, my ingredients are really, really important to me.

You might recall me talking about this a little bit last year, when I started my very first garden. I decided to grow a lot of my own herbs and vegetables. This year, I've expanded that garden which now includes fruit. Chris is building a green house for me so I have even more room.

Why?

Because I'm all about quality control. Little known fact about yours truly? I grew up in the food business. I'm a bit of a food snob, in fact. And I'm not a fan of not knowing where my food is coming from, or knowing when it was harvested.

Let me introduce you to an awesome company, FreshDirect. When I heard about them I was SO excited. They aren't in my area yet (visit their website to see if they service your town) but I'm hoping they will be here one day soon! FreshDirect offers a great solution to my aforementioned problem with produce, with their Star Rated Produce program.

The great people at FreshDirect know what's in season so you don't have to. They test all of the produce they buy every single day, and give it a rating based on their 5 Star Freshness scale. They even go as far as to offer you a satisfaction guarantee. Want more information about how they source their food? Check out their informative and entertaining videos on their YouTube page.


Even more awesome? Your orders are delivered how you want it, when you want it. You can order your prosciutto sliced extra thin with paper in between each slice, and that's how it will come. You can ask for your New York steaks to be cut extra thick, and you've got it. Want something tied up a certain way? No problem. You can customize all of your deli meats, cheeses, steaks and roasts just about any way you want. Check out this page for more information on customizing your order.

Did I mention you can buy in bulk? Their website has some great bulk packaged items that I would totally be taking advantage of! Oh, and if you're not a big cook, no worries. They offer freshly prepared meals from famous chefs!


FreshDirect is unlike any other grocer. Their dedication to knowing where the products come from, their quality and freshness, the treatment of their food, and their price really sets them apart. They also offer 24 hour customer service, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, have nearly perfect order fulfillment and one of the easiest websites to use. It's so easy!

Wow, I am so jealous of all of you who are able to get FreshDirect Deliveries! Try them out and let me know what you think!

What are your grocery shopping tricks and tips to finding the freshest, quality food? Leave me a comment with your name, email address and answer for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card! 



Visit FreshDirect.com
 to learn more about their star rated produce and reference their seasonal guide for fruit so that you know what is fresh and in season, the great lengths they go through to source the very best food, and how customizable your order can be from deli slices and dietary needs to how and when you want your delivery!





Sweepstakes Rules:
No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

  1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
  2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
  3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.


The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/6/13 -5/15/13.


Monday, May 6, 2013

S'mores Cupcakes

When I was planning out the food for my friends baby shower I knew I wanted to do something cute for dessert. I love cupcakes because it's easy for everyone to just grab one and move down the line. In fact, that was kind of my theme for her shower - everything was in individual servings, making it super easy to take what you want without having to dish it out. Easy and fast!

Anyway, I have a basic sour cream chocolate cupcake recipe I love, so I used that as my base. If you haven't checked out my Sour Cream Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting you should! That is my basic cupcake mix (I'll post it below as well).

*Note: If you're going to make this recipe with the melted marshmallow on top, you might want to just barely undercook your cupcake. Otherwise, the top will get really dried out from the broiler. 


S'mores Cupcakes
Source: JennaBlogs.com

Makes about 18 cupcakes

1 box Devil’s food cake mix
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
½ cup light sour cream
1 cup 2% milk
3 eggs
18 large marshmallows
18 rectangles of Hershey's chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk and sour cream, whisking until smooth. Drizzle in butter while continuing to whisk. Next, mix in the cake mix until just combined. Do not over mix!

Line muffin pans with liners. Using a ice cream scooper, fill each a little more than ¾ full. Bake until just done, about 16 minutes. Remove from the oven and top each with one marshmallow (lying down, not standing up). 

Crank your broiler up to 450. If you go any higher, the outside of the marshmallow will burn and the inside will still be hard. Watch them carefully and remove them just after they begin to get golden brown. Using a butter knife, gently press the marshmallow down so that it spreads out like a frosting. Let cool for a few minutes and then add your chocolate. 

*Note: Should you wish to use marshmallow fluff, grind up graham crackers and add a sprinkling of those on top of the fluff and under the chocolate square. I will say that using a marshmallow under the broiler is probably a lot easier than trying to use the fluff as icing.

Friday, May 3, 2013

A Natural {State} Baby Shower

This past Saturday I helped throw a shower for my good friend Lindsey. Her sweet friend Katie and I planned a very "natural" shower (as in the natural state - the food tags & decor were in the shape of Arkansas) for her and baby Tyler!

The hostesses and Linds:


My sweet friend Whitney was able to make it! She drove over an hour with her TWO WEEK OLD! She is amazing!

Can you guess what I was in charge of? Food, of course!

Chris made some awesome wood pedestals, and Katie's friend had a few that we borrowed as well. They went perfectly with our theme.



I made S'more's cupcakes (recipe coming):
 Individual crudités:

 Fruit Salad with Orange Mint Syrup:

 Little individual chip bags:

And three kinds of sandwiches. I did salami with provolone, honey ham with swiss and smoked turkey with sharp cheddar.

Oh, and spinach dip, of course! I make that for everything!

For drinks, we had sweet tea, citrus water and my friends punch recipe.

This shower gave me the perfect excuse to buy mason jars. I've been wanting them forever!

I went all out with the silverware too! I ordered wooden cutlery and little paper chevron bags. I added a napkin and some bakers twine and voila!

It was a great shower for a great friend! Lindsey and baby Tyler got lots of wonderful gifts. I can't wait to meet him!


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Home Reveal - Part One

It's finally here! The post in which I reveal our new house! Yay!

I'm going to break this post up into two parts. Today, I'll show you our family room, kitchen, hearth room, laundry room, office and entryway.

When we were building our home, there was one thing I was worried about more than anything else. PAINT! I'm a firm believer in having an overall plan for your home before you start the building process. I knew I wanted our new house to be open, airy and full of light.

Little known fact about me? My favorite color is gray. Go figure. Thankfully, gray is a HUGE trend right now and that made it easy for me not only to pick out some of our new furniture but to pick out my paint color scheme!

I have to tell you about a great color tool I used before I start showing you the paint colors. I will only ever use Sherwin-Williams paint - that was the brand of paint we used in our old house too. Their paint is just far superior to anything else on the market, in my humble opinion. Our builder agreed - she tells all of her clients to use their paint! Back to the tool - it's called Color Visualizer by Sherwin-Williams. It is SO helpful. You can browse colors by family (blues, yellows, gray) or collection (like HGTV Home Collection, kids rooms, historic colors, etc). It's ridiculously easy to use and such an awesome, helpful tool whether you're repainting a room in your current house and designing and entire home like I did.

So, on to the reveal!

First up, let's walk in the front door, shall we?

This is my entry way. I've always wanted a staircase that looks exactly like this. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one anywhere, so I printed out lots of pictures and pieced them together. The stair company recreated my design and voila! To compliment the lightness of the stairs I chose a beautiful color called Samovar Silver. It's a gorgeous color that depending on how the light hits it, can look both gray/silver and blueish.




Because my house is super open, I had to be very careful to choose colors that would look good right next to each other. For that reason, I painted my family room, hearth and kitchen all one color - they are practically one large room, but they are open to the hallway, stairs and entry. I decided on Gray Screen - I love how neutral it is while still being an actual color. I also picked it because like Samovar Silver, depending on the way the light shines on it, it can look both gray and blue.




I designed my laundry room as a dual purpose area. It's actually half laundry and half pantry! It's so convenient. My garage is right out the door so I can bring my groceries right in and set the on the island. I also have a sink here that I use for hand-washing delicate clothing as well as thawing out frozen meat.  This room gets a lot of direct sunlight and so I decided to paint it in the Samovar Silver as well. This picture was taken before I moved everything in, haha!



I hope you enjoyed the first part of my home reveal! I can't wait to show you the rest of the house next time!

Home Reveal - Part One And a Giveaway!!!


It's finally here! The post in which I reveal our new house! Yay!

I'm going to break this post up into two parts. Today, I'll show you our family room, kitchen, hearth room, laundry room, office and entryway.

When we were building our home, there was one thing I was worried about more than anything else: PAINT! I'm a firm believer in having an overall plan for your home before you start the building process. I knew I wanted our new house to be open, airy and full of light.

Little known fact about me? My favorite color is gray. Go figure. Thankfully, gray is a HUGE trend right now, and that made it easy for me not only to pick out some of our new furniture but to pick out my paint color scheme!

I have to tell you about a great color tool I used before I start showing you the paint colors. I will only ever use Sherwin-Williams paint - that was the brand of paint we used in our old house too. Their paint is just far superior to anything else on the market, in my humble opinion. Our builder agreed - she tells all of her clients to use their paint! Back to the tool - it's called the Sherwin-Williams Color Visualizer. It is SO helpful. You can browse colors by family (blues, yellows, gray) or collection (like HGTV® HOME by Sherwin-Williams, kids' rooms, historic colors, etc.). It's ridiculously easy to use and such an awesome, helpful tool whether you're repainting a room in your current house or designing an entire home like I did.

So, on to the reveal!

First up, let's walk in the front door, shall we?

This is my entryway. I've always wanted a staircase that looks exactly like this. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one anywhere, so I printed out lots of pictures and pieced them together. The stair company recreated my design and voila! To complement the lightness of the stairs, I chose a beautiful color called Samovar Silver. It's a gorgeous color that, depending on how the light hits it, can look both gray/silver and blueish.



Because my house is super open, I had to be very careful to choose colors that would look good right next to each other. For that reason, I painted my family room, hearth and kitchen all one color - they are practically one large room, but they are open to the hallway, stairs and entry. I decided on Gray Screen - I love how neutral it is while still being an actual color. I also picked it because, like Samovar Silver, depending on the way the light shines on it, it can look both gray and blue.




I designed my laundry room as a dual-purpose area. It's actually half laundry and half pantry! It's so convenient. My garage is right out the door, so I can bring my groceries right in and set them on the island. I also have a sink here that I use for handwashing delicate clothing as well as thawing out frozen meat.  This room gets a lot of direct sunlight, and so I decided to paint it in the Samovar Silver as well. This picture was taken before I moved everything in, haha!



I hope you enjoyed the first part of my home reveal! I can't wait to show you the rest of the house next time!


How do you find color inspiration for your home projects? Tell us in the comments below, and you just might win a $100 Sherwin-Williams gift card from BlogHer! 

Please be sure to leave your email address & name!

No duplicate comments.
You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
  1. Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
  2. Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: "#SweepstakesEntry"; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
  3. Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
  4. For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/1/2013-5/19/2013.

Be sure to visit the Sherwin-Williams brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!
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