Kitchen Re-Do (On a Budget)

Since nothing interesting has happened lately and we had a lazy weekend, besides going to Bass Pro Shop (I LOVE Bass Pro!), and Dexter, my son, pulling the coffee table into his face and onto my foot, I thought I would post our small scale but big impact kitchen renovation.

My poor baby!

Paint

Let me start by saying we got our house for a steal. The inspection came back with a clean bill of health, it had been newly painted and had quite the home-y feel. Plus, we're paying almost half of what we were paying when we were renting. Even though the house did have a home-y feel, it didn't really suit our taste. We decided that the kitchen was our least favorite part of the house and was the room that we would re-do first. We went to Home Depot and checked out some paint colors and decided we wanted a cool, minty green; thinking we were being super smart, we got a small sample can to try on the wall at home before we bought a gallon. Well, we took it home, rolled it on and loved it! The foolish part we didn't realize is that we had no lights on in the kitchen at the time so the paint was quite different when we went to paint the walls. Having paid for the paint, we decided to make the best of it and paint the rest of the room to see if the color would grow on us. My husband promised if I still hated it in a week, he'd go back and get a different color. I have to say the color has grown on me and I love how light the kitchen is now that it is a bright green rather than a dark blue. Especially since our house is on the smaller side, its nice to have bright, light colors rather than dark ones which make it look even smaller. Total cost: $75.

New bright green and counter tops.

Old blue paint and old blue and white counter tops

Counter Tops

After we painted the walls from deep blue to bright green, or maybe we did the counter tops first, my mind fails me often, the blue and white counter tops needed to go. We looked around at the pre-made ones but they were truly all very ugly; I felt that they were all trying to hard to look like granite but just looked like big messes (sorry counter top manufacturers.) We knew what we could afford and the installation and cost of many counter tops were just out of our price range. We looked into Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations and it really was a good option but still a little pricey and I didn't really like the speckled look that they all yielded. I remembered my uncle had re-done his counter tops with regular paint and sponged on another color so I called him to ask how durable it was and how exactly to do it. He said they have had them for over 10 years and they are still very durable and gave me exact instructions on how he painted and sealed his. We followed his directions to a 'T' and they turned out great! He used roll on paint and we decided to use Rust-Oleum spray paint for a more airbrushed look; my husband and I selected a hammered copper and a dark brown. First, we taped off the sink and walls and put protective plastic covering over everything that could possibly get paint on it. We didn't worry much about the floor because that was going to be our next project, this was kind of a bad idea because our feet stuck to the floor and got nasty film on them until we did re- do the floor. So, please, cover your floors. He sanded the original counter top down with 1000 fine grit sand paper just until it was roughed up enough to accept the new pain. Then, he alternated colors applying both until we got the desired look, I think it was about three coats of each. After we achieved the desired paint color, we applied SIX coats of polyurethane, letting it dry in between each coat. This part took a long time but was well worth it because we know our counter tops are nicely sealed and durable. Total cost: $50

Floors

We decided on getting flooring from Lumber Liquidators because of their unbeatable prices as compared to Home Depot and such. We ended up settling on a dark bordered wood laminate. The padding was included under the floor boards so we didn't have to worry about that and it cost about $1.79/sq foot. The only other expense we had for the floor were the siding boards and the water barrier that needed to be put underneath. We chose to install it ourselves because the installation cost was just more money we didn't have to spend. Someone had to watch my son while all of this flooring installation was going on and it most definitely wasn't my husband. I built a make shift barrier in between the living room and the kitchen so my son couldn't get through and my husband called me as he needed me to help click the floors in place. This lasted about 2.5 seconds before my 6'3" 220 pound husband was on the floor freaking out and sweating. He swore he could install it by himself, swore. He had helped his dad lay flooring in his childhood home and thought it would be just the same as that. My father-in-law is quite the handy man and I don't think my husband really knew what he would be in for when installing the floor by himself. Anyway, luckily my husband works with some really great people and two of his co-workers came over to save the day. I may or may not have told them about the mini break down my husband had before they had gotten there. :) Thank God for good people. Total cost: about $700.

Furnishings

Furnishing the new kitchen was my favorite part! Of course I hit up Goodwill and the dollar store to find great things to fill the kitchen with. The two things I splurged on were the clock above the fridge and the shadow box above the microwave. I saw the clock at Tuesday Morning and I thought it would be perfect so a had to get it. The shadow box and faux candles inside are from Hobby Lobby. Total cost: $28.

If I've forgotten any step or if you would like more information, please my all means, ask! 

XoXo

Sara

PS!!! Here is a picture of our old oven. We got a new one of those right away!

Can you say 70's?!?!

Corn Chowder

So far I've been two-for-two since I've started this blog. Two-for-two? Yes, the two meals that I have made for my husband have both been successes and in his words, "8 out of 10's." I need to keep this up but its is nearing the end of the pay period and I must find things around the house to cook with. 

My son is one and I've been stuffing him full of vegetables while I can, so we normally have lots of canned vegetables around the house. I knew we had at least two cans of corn in the pantry but you can't make a whole dinner around corn; alas! You can! (As a disclaimer, I'm sure there are millions of dinners you can make around corn, but with my minuscule cooking abilities, I didn't know any.) Corn chowder popped into my head and it did sound quite good and filling. I Googled some recipes and got a good idea of how I was going to make my own version. I find it so hard to copy recipes exactly from cookbooks or the internet because I cook for two and a lot of recipes are made for eight or ten or more. I have experimented with halving the ingredients then halving them again, in some cases, but the end product never comes out right, hence my awful record of being a cook. Below is the recipe. My husband, by the way, gave it a solid eight :D.

Corn Chowder

2 cans corn

3 strips bacon

1 garlic clove

1 cup buttermilk

1 onion

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp flour

2 cup chicken stock (I used bullion cubes)

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Shredded cheddar cheese to top, if you please :)

Heat a large soup pot on the stove over medium-high heat. add olive oil and allow to heat with the pan. In the meantime, slice bacon into small strips, dice onion into a small dice, and chop the garlic. Once the pan is heated thoroughly, add in the bacon, onion, garlic, and the stripped thyme leaves from the stems.

This is how it looks before cooking.

Cook, stirring ever so often, for about 10 minutes until the bacon is crispy, onion is soft and the mixture looks like this...

When your mixture gets to this stage, sprinkle in the flour and combine. Add in your chicken broth and bring to a boil. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the buttermilk, corn, salt and pepper. Scrape the bottom of the pan to bring up the crispy bits on the bottom. Simmer the soup on low heat for 10-15 minutes. Serve with cheese atop, if you prefer. I think the soup may have needed a slight kick. I would try adding heavy cream in place of the buttermilk or maybe a bit more thyme. Perhaps sauteing carrot along with the garlic and onion would also help. Who knows; if you do find something that works, please let me know! This would also be so good with some rotisserie chicken mixed in for added protein.

Don't eat that thyme sprig.
Just added it to make it
 look pretty for y'all!

Enjoy! And Happy Friday!

Slow Cooked BBQ Pulled Chicken

What a hectic day! This morning went smoothly, except for my son boycotting his nap, but that's nothing new so I'm used to that. My husband left early for work because he is currently working in two different departments, so I may or may not have slept in a little. 

The original HOSS.
 Don't mind my pose.
We were young and in love.
(Still are!)

I knew this evening would be quite different than the lazy day I had because, yesterday, my husband bought a new truck. When my husband and I met, he had a 2006 Dodge Ram and it was his baby. He bought it from a co-worker while he was in England and had it shipped to Georgia when he came back state-side. In September 2011, he decided the gas mileage wasn't cutting it during his city drive to and from work. He traded the HOSS, as he named it, in for a Chrysler Crossfire. My husband is 6'3'' and I swear I tried to talk him out of it, but it was his truck and he could do what he wanted with it. Anyway, after some time my husband

The new HOSS!

went through a good many cars- a Mustang, which we traded in because we found out I was pregnant; two Impalas, one of which I still have and is my main car; and a Volkswagen GTI. For a while now, my husband has been drooling over every Ram he saw and realized that ever since he had gotten rid of his truck, he had been trying to replace it and nothing would do the job. We tried for a while to get a Ram that was a good couple years old because we knew how upside down we would go on his GTI and thought that that was the only way we could afford one. Well come to find out, if we bought a newer or new one, we would be able to afford it without going too upside down on the GTI. Once my husband learned this, he was off to the races and bought one that very same day, yesterday. He needed a co-signer and I lovingly obliged. Since he bought it last night while I was at home with our son, I could not be there to sign the paperwork so we had to reschedule the signing to today.

Grandpa sent him cookies!
Yay! More sugar!

My son is a good boy; he's a good boy when he's entertained and full. However when we go out, he always gets bored and usually quite fussy, hey, he's one. I was dreading taking him to the car dealership because I knew how long it would take to get the paperwork around, sign, and complete the sale and I knew he would get antsy pretty quick because it was getting late in the day. Needless-to-say, the trip to the car dealership and the whole experience there was exactly what I had thought, a disaster. Luckily, and here is the actual point of the blog, haha, I had dinner cooking in the crock pot and it was ready for us when we got home.

Slow Cooked BBQ Pulled Chicken

2 chicken breasts (mine were frozen)

1/2 can of cherry soda

3/4 bottle of BBQ sauce

1 Tbsp Sriracha hot sauce

1 Tbsp vinegar

1 Tsp hot pepper flakes

Dump all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 2 1/2 or on low for 4 1/2 hours. Pull with two forks to shred the chicken; stir and serve in buns.

I served some homemade pasta salad with it; noodles, Italian dressing, frozen peas, mozzarella cheese, and tomatoes.

I took this photo after we had
already devoured most of the
chicken. Oops.

My husband LOVED it! Woo hoo!!! I commented that it tasted like the stuff you buy pre-made at the store and he said, and I quote, "Wayyy better, babe." :D

Hope everyone has an awesome evening! 

XOXO

Sara

In Search of the Perfect Nude Lip Color

Yesterday, July 9, was my two year wedding anniversary. I cannot believe how fast time flies; it seems as though nothing is changing during my day to day life but then I look back from where I am and everything has changed. It could be something as simple as my son getting a new tooth or learning to stack the stars on the star stack-er (and clapping after he stacks every one, of course) or it could be something massive like thinking I graduated college two years ago, two years, or thinking that I gradated high school SIX years ago. I know I'm not old and I'm not pretending to be, however I am beginning to realize that time does go by and it usually goes faster than we notice.

The other awesome pick

The Winner! 

Back to my story after that slight tangent. As I said in my previous blog, my husband and I don't have a lot of money to throw around but with our anniversary approaching, I wanted a new outfit to go out to dinner in. Although it rarely ever happens, I found two awesome dresses at Goodwill. I love Goodwill. I even browse Goodwill online when I am bored. I love looking for vintage-y things to add to my home or cheap clothes and toys for my son who grows like a weed and only wears something (or plays with something) for two weeks to a month. Anyway, I almost never buy anything for myself because I would rather buy something for my son or for the house, besides Goodwill clothes never seem to suit my taste. Nevertheless, I was blessed to find not only one but two cute dresses and they were in my size, score! I paired it with a belt that I also found at Goodwill, a peach pearl ring my husband got me for Christmas a few years back and some old heels I had laying around the house. Not to bad for a grand total of $8.00. Can I also add that I found some Sperry's for $3? I washed them, with advice from here, of course because I could never think of getting foot fungus or something worse from wearing someone else's shoes, but man I couldn't pass up $80+ dollar shoes for $3. They're a bit beat up but hey, I would beat up new ones if I got them as well.

The Perfect Nude Lipstick

Maybelline Color Whisper:
Bare to be Bold
My FAVORITE nude

Rimmel London: Nude Delight
(too brown)

Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer:
Champagne (too shiny)

elf: Nearly Nude
(too pink and extremely dry
I used lip gloss over this one
just to make it look presentable)

I have been trying so hard to get the nude lip look. I think its classic and never looks overdone or heavy. I don't know if it is because I am a redhead with fair skin and freckles, but I have bought several tubes of "nude" lipstick just to get home, try it on, and it be too shiny, too pink, too brown what-have-you. I know I could have probably spent the same amount of money on one tube of MAC lipstick and probably could have gotten what I wanted right off the bat, oh well. Thrilled that I finally found the perfect nude for my skin color, Maybelline Color Whisper in Bare to be Bold, I paired it with my dress for the night out. 

Dinner!

My flowers!

We got a babysitter! Yay!

We went to a local restaurant, The Rookery, for the first time and it was awesome! Seriously, if you live in the middle Georgia area, go visit them! Not only do they have awesome reviews on Yelp! but I am here to tell you it reminded me of pubs I visited in England only on a slightly bigger scale and along with the great food they have quite the selection of draught beer.

In the end, we had an awesome night and look forward to two more years and then two more and two more, an so on.

My husband steals my heart
yet again by quoting Harry Potter. I LOVE Harry Potter.

My First Post!

I have been thinking about making a blog for a long time now; the Pinterest Era, so to speak, has grabbed a hold of me as it has to so many others and I want to post things that could be helpful to others. 

A little bit about myself, I am a 2011 graduate of Michigan State University and was married that same year to my wonderful husband, Jonathon. After we were married, we re-located to Georgia per my husband's job and found out we were pregnant three months after we were married, yay!? After completing my Bachelor's Degree in the area of Education, MSU requires an additional year of an internship in a classroom in order to become certified. WELL, moving to Georgia and then finding out I was pregnant so soon after put finishing my certification on hold. I found a job at local pre-school and worked throughout my pregnancy; after having my son, my husband and I decided that we would be better off, financially, if I stayed home with him for a while rather than pay the daycare fees and work my $8.50/hour job.

I have babysat PLENTY in my teen years and lived on my for around four years prior to getting married which lead me to believe I would be well  suited for home-making. I was honestly looking forward to it, what could be better than staying home while my cooing little baby grew up? Baking pies, making crafts, having a sparkling clean home and a hot dinner on the table when my husband got home from work all seemed so---doable. Well, let's just say that while I do love my son unconditionally and absolutely adore watching him grow, it can get quite boring. Sitting around all day is definitely not my cup of tea and I need things to keep me busy. 

Besides the fact that I am a new homemaker, and even though my husband loves me dearly, he will be the first one to tell you that I cannot cook. I have a solid arsenal of recipes that I can make with my eyes closed but my husband telling me constantly that we eat the same things over and over has made me cheat on myself and go looking for recipes elsewhere. In turn, I usually try and fail a new recipe about 4 times a week. Once in a while I get one that squeaks by as edible; my husband eats silently and doesn't look at me and say, "Honey, I love you so much," which I know means, "This is crap but I am not going to come straight out and tell you." That takes me back to the drawing board and am constantly trying new things to make him simply eat silently and maybe say "yum" once in a while.

To make a long story short, I'm just a young momma and wife learning as I go. I hope that if you do read this and my subsequent posts, which will be about anything and everything, that you will be able to relate in some way and find them useful or at least entertaining as you laugh at my many blunders.

And now to the post. We are not well off in anyway, except for in love :), so I am always trying to make delicious dinners for a reasonable price. In Georgia, there is a restaurant called The Atlanta Bread Company and they have awesome creamy tomato basil soup. I wanted to try and make it at home so I looked up recipes on Google and Pinterest and realized that I had most of the ingredients on hand and got a good idea of how I was going to try and concoct my own recipe. Guess what?! This one wasn't too bad. 

Creamy Buttermilk Tomato Basil Soup with Cheddar Croutons

Soup

1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1 small onion, diced small
1 tbsp margarine or butter
5-6 basil leaves, julianned 
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
Fresh cracked pepper and salt to taste

Crutons

2-3 pieces of bread

Butter or margerine

Shredded cheddar cheese

Garlic powder

Over medium heat, melt the margarine or butter in a medium sized soup pot. Add the onion and saute until soft. Add in the can of tomatoes along with the salt, pepper, sugar, and basil leaves. Let simmer on low for 5 minutes. Add baking soda and stir, the mixture will foam a bit but this step is important so the buttermilk doesn't curdle when added to the hot mixture. Let cook for 30 seconds and stir in buttermilk. Let simmer on low heat for 5 minutes and either leave it the way it is and serve if you like your soup chunky, mash with a potato masher (what I did) for semi-chunky, or blend in a blender and heat a little more in the pan before serving for creamy, smooth soup.

For the croutons:

Pre-heat the oven to 375F, cube the bread, spread out on a baking sheet and dot with butter. Sprinkle very sparingly with cheddar cheese; you don't want cheesy bread, you want crunchy croutons so be sparingly with the cheese. Shake on garlic powder lightly and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until the cheese is browned and the croutons are crispy.

Top the soup with the croutons and ENJOY!

I hope this works out for you. This is my first post so if I have ruined your dinner, I apologize. However, the name of my blog is Not So Suzy Homemaker, just remember this, haha! I cannot wait to post again! Thank you so much for reading!

XOXO,

Sara