Criminal Minds is taking over our lives

We just can't get enough of this show!
Wednesday's @ 9 pm on CBS

What I'm dreaming about from Ikea

Two of these for the guest bedroom windows...

Lots of these for around the house...

One of these for next to the guest bed...

One (or maybe two) of these for above the desk...

One of these for the guest bed...

One of these for the laundry room...

One of these for the entryway (or maybe the kitchen)...

Lots of these for the many windows in the living room...

Two of these for the kitchen (painted black)...

Lots of these for the dining room (DIY project!)...

Lots of these for the hallway...

We Found It

This print will hang above our bed right after I make the trip to Ikea to get a frame for it. Woo Hoo! You can find these free downloadable prints at Feed Your Soul.

Inspired Spaces

My friend Hilary launched her blog this week...it's called Inspired Spaces and I'm so excited to see how it all unfolds. Her first post is about a chair makeover she did. The fabric she chose is fabulous! I love how she saw potential in a beat up, raggedy old chair and turned it into something spectacular!

Go check out her blog....Inspired Spaces

What I'm Admiring Right Now

Here's a look at some of the things that other creative people are doing, that I'm admiring right now:

This entryway decorated for Halloween is absolutely goregous! I'm already trying to convince John to let me do this is in our entryway :)

Life in the Fun Lane

Isn't this kitchen so cute! Can you find her refrigerator? It's that cabinet-looking thing on the far left. I love it! If we had a cottage, I would totally want this kitchen to go in it.

The Old Painted Cottage

This was the inspiration for our black cabinets. If you've never checked our Layla's blog "The Lettered Cottage" you should definitely go take a look! Her house is goregous.

The Lettered Cottage

This bedroom caught my eye because it reminds me of our bedroom! I love the grey walls!

Nestled In

I was simply amazed at this homemade sunburst mirror. She found a gold mirror at Home Goods and glued bamboo skewers onto the back, then spraypainted the entire thing black and then silver. I'm totally inspired!

Three Men & A Lady

Additions to the Entryway

It only took me 3 weeks to spray paint and hang this shelf on the wall right next to our front door. Maybe the desk that I'm painting will be done sometime in the next year :)

I've had this shelf for a few years but it was a medium oak color when I bought it. It went fine in my old bedroom, but oak doesn't really go with what we've got going on in our living room. So I spray painted it black and hung it by the door. Now it holds some fabulous trinkets from different travels of mine. The hooks underneath were $1.00 at IKEA and I spray painted them black to match. This holds Layla's leash and my purse when I get home from work. It's very functional and I love it. We're looking for a bench to put under it so we have a place to put on our shoes before we leave. But we're happy with it for now.

Fireplace Before and After

The other day we were hanging out in the living room watching Criminal Minds (our favorite show right now!) when John looked over and said, "can I paint the fireplace?" And I said, "Of course!" I couldn't believe my ears. He grabbed some brown paint that we have actually never used and started going at it.

Here's what our fireplace looked like on the day we bought our condo:

Here's an in-process shot:

And the finished look (as of right now):

(don't mind the yellow towel and paintbrushes that I forgot to move before taking this picture)

Pretty nice huh? We hung the clock from Bed, Bath and Beyond, moved the frames around a bit and dug the vase out of a box in the garage. I like what we have going on. It definitely sets the scene for the whole room.

New Around the House

Last weekend John and I spent some time at Old Time Pottery....a store I didn't know about until I moved to the Sunshine State. It can be very overwhelming at first, but I love imagining how we could incorporate all the little trinkets into our home. John and I found some fun items that came home with us and are now on display.

First up, a super cute "old world" mail holder that we put up near the front door. It was a $4 treasure. I want to get a table to go underneath this and maybe put a plant on it. :)

Next is some FABULOUS artwork that works great above our couch. We were in desperate need for something above the couch and I think this is a great addition. And for $8 each they were a steal!

It's a Fabulous Day

Today is my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday Sis! I hope you have a fabulous 17th birthday. Love you!

Healing Pup

We definitely love our precious Layla. She warms our heart every time we walk through the front door and she's there wagging her tail and jumping on us, telling us "I'm so happy you're home!" If you remember, Layla had surgery on her knee 4 weeks ago. Since it has offically been 1 month since Layla's surgery, I thought I should post pictures so you can see how she is healing. And she's doing fabulous, if I do say so myself. :)

Here's the almost-healed Layla (pictures in no particular order)...

Living Room Wish List

John really likes the chocolate brown, beige & red color scheme we've started in the living room/dining room. Instead of fighting it, I've decided to embrace it. We both love the "old world" meets modern feel so we're going to try and incorporate that into our living room.

Wish List

These storage ottomans are amazing because it's 2 for the price of 1. The square one will live in our living room (instead of a coffee table). The round one will live under our vanity for me to sit on and enjoy while I get ready in the morning. I'm really excited about that!

This world map is going to be hung above the couch. We are then going to make a frame to hang around it, and stain the wood a dark brown to match the couch. I got the inspiration for this project from A Soft Place to Land.

This rug will look great on the ground next to our dark brown sofa and new ottoman.

Very cool "old world" style clock that I just purchased from Bed, Bath and Beyond (with a gift card!). We're going to hang it above the fireplace. I've been trying to find something other than a mirror to hang there. It's not the best place for a mirror and we're going to putting a mirror in the dining room so it's all good. This clock is perfect!

This chair is a nice natural color to offset the dark brown couch.

And some decorative finishes from IKEA.

Feed Your Soul Artwork

Feed Your Soul has FREE artwork available for download. I just printed these prints out on regular white printer paper (nothin' fancy) and put them in two frames I had. I'm keeping my eyes open for one more FREE print to go with these two. They are going to live on the wall above our bed. I think they are very sweet and soothing, just what artwork in the bedroom should be.

Playing Around

with our precious Layla and the camera...

Yummy

I made this last night. We ate it today at work. It is fabulous. It's a cake without tasting cake-like. That's good news for me because I don't especially like cake.

Caramel Apple Cake
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla or French Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup water
3 eggs (as directed on cake box)
1/3 cup oil
3 green apples, peeled, coarsely chopped
20 KRAFT Caramels -or- Caramel Topping sauce in a jar
3 Tbsp. milk (not needed if you use caramel topping)

HEAT oven to 350ºF. GREASE and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan. Beat cake mix, dry pudding mix, water, eggs and oil in large bowl with mixer on low speed until blended. Beat on high speed 2 min. Stir in apples. Pour into prepared pan. BAKE 50 min. to 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 min. Loosen cake from side of pan; invert onto wire rack. Gently remove pan. Cool cake completely. Transfer to plate.

MICROWAVE caramels and milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1-1/2 min., stirring every 30 sec. until blended. Cool 10 min. or until slightly thickened. Drizzle over cake.
-OR-
MICROWAVE caramel topping in bowl, drizzle over cake immediately.

Makes 16 servings

Sweetness

Last week I came from an exhausting day at work and found this on our entryway mirror...

And then this...

My husband is truly the sweetest man I've known. He thinks of these things all on his own and surprises me at just the right time with them.

That night I had the most relaxing bubble bath while John did the dishes and the laundry. Hands off ladies, he's mine. :)

Grad School

Monday night was the first session of my first class at Grad School. It was so crazy to be back in a classroom. It seemed just like college, except all the students are "older" and more professional looking. I think I was one of the youngest in the room. I sat in the front row, because I actually want to learn...and it never hurts to be friendly with the teacher. (I taught my husband that.)
I'm taking Forensic Accounting. Very interesting. It's all about fraud and financial crimes. Forensic Accountants were used in cases such as Enron and Worldcomm, and more recently in the Bernie Madoff case.


And since I know this is really interesting to you too, here are some articles that highlight Forensic Accountants...


NJBiz


Business First


Planet JH



And just because, check out the FBI's most wanted terrorist. The reward is $25 million if you provide information that directly leads to his apprehension. Maybe I should quit my day job and try and find him. What do you think?

Kitchen Before and After

This is what our kitchen looked like BEFORE we moved in:


And here's what it looks like TODAY:

Paint on walls: Ralph Lauren "Cotswald Breeches"
Paint on cabinets: Behr "Black Silk" (I think)
Additional console: Ikea
Black & White outlet covers: Lowe's
Dog bowls: Petsmart
Kitchen Utensils: Bed, Bath & Beyond or Crate & Barrell