Monday, September 17, 2012

Make Ahead Party Dinner! (Enchilada Lasagna)

Happy Monday!
Hope you had a great weekend.  We've had a bit of a heat spell this last week and weekend, which has put a damper on some of the organizing projects I'd had planned.  Instead, we sweat through our soccer games and spent a lot of time indoors trying to stay cool! 

Friday was no exception...except that we've been planning a dinner party with a few couples from the neighborhood and their children.  Which meant that I had to cook something..which meant I had to turn on the oven or stove...or so I thought.  We have really great friends...so great, that when we have parties, everyone contributes and no one person is held totally responsible for all of the preparations.  I'd been planning on making an "enchilada lasagna" that I've adapted from multiple sources over the years, but the thought of turning the oven on made me want to cry just a little bit (we do not have air conditioning!)  So instead, I started a day early and then had the Teacher heat the "lasagna" on the barbecue the evening of.  This is what I did.  The recipe/method listed below will yield 2 full pans of "enchilada lasagna"...which was waaaay more than we needed for 8 adults...so I have a full one left in the fridge...its totally freezable too.

Thursday (day before the party):  I put 4 frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot and let them work all day.  I had the Teacher shred them while they were still hot (because I'm a wuss when it comes to hot things) and then I put it in the fridge overnight. 
Also Thursday:  I made the sauce on the stove (so technically yes, I did have to use the stove, but since I did it the night before, I didn't have to further heat my house the day/night of the party).  

Sauce:  
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (I use the bottled kind..because I'm lazy)
2 t olive oil
2 16 oz cans of diced tomatoes with chilis
16 oz of tomato sauce (from my freezer)
1/2 C diced green chilis (I used the canned ones)
2 t sugar
2 t cumin
1 t salt (I use less since I used some canned products)
2 t Italian herb blend

Saute onions and garlic in the olive oil until a little soft.  Add the rest of the above ingredients, bring to a boil and let simmer 20 minutes or so.  Turn off heat.

At this point, I refrigerated the sauce (in its pot) for use the next day.


Friday:  (day of party)...its Assembly Time!!  Be sure to place your pot of sauce as close to your 9 x 13 baking pan for assembly...otherwise you get a lot of this:



What else you need:

8 large flour tortillas
4 C pepper jack cheese, shredded (or more, because more is better when it comes to cheese, right??)
3 C sour cream (24 oz tub)

Dip 2 tortillas into the sauce (both sides) and line the bottom of your pan, like this:

 Then layer 1/2 of your shredded chicken (equivalent to 2 breasts), like this:

 Followed by 1/4 of your shredded cheese:

 Next, dip just one side of 2 more tortillas and place on top with the saucy side down, like this:

 Next, add the sour cream to your sauce and use your handy dandy immersion blender to blend it all together (if you don't have one of these, do yourself a favor and put it on your Christmas list....its AMAZING...so versatile!!)

 Pour half the sauce over each "lasagna" and then sprinkle with the remaining shredded cheese, like this:

 This is where you can put the whole thing in the fridge for later or bake.  Bake at 350 until heated through...about 45 minutes.  I did mine covered on the bbq, but the oven is what I usually use.  If you wanted to, you could use little corn tortillas and fill them with chicken and cheese, roll and place seam side down in your pan, covering with sauce at the end.  I've done this too...actually, its what I used to do before I had kids and had time...this fake out, however, tastes exactly the same and is actually less carbohydrates because it uses less tortilla.  

It was a hit!  One family brought salad, one brought the most delicious beans and rice I've EVER had and the last family brought dessert!  I made sure to have plenty of beer and white sangria in the fridge and we had a great night!  

Does anyone else have tips for easy entertaining???  As far as I'm concerned, the less that has to be done on the actual day, the better.  This was a winner in my book!

Have a great week!
~Bean







Monday, September 10, 2012

Whoa...Stop the Presses!

Hi Again!
Yes, it is still Monday and YES!  I'm posting TWICE.IN.ONE.DAY!  Just in case you missed me.  ;)
Mondays are the days I work from home...which of course means I waste a lot of time messing around since it means that in addition to my paperwork, it is also bathroom cleaning, laundry and basically-try-to-fit-a-week's-worth-of-chores-into-one day.  Unfortunately, I'm a little ADHD and tend to bounce around from one task to the next.  

Today, while cleaning the bathroom, I found an old baby wipes box.  Also today, I used the last of one of my favorite teas and was left with a cute little tin.  I'm a bit of a hoarder of reusable containers so I often put random containers (like the plastic wipes container and cute little tin) away for future use. 

Here are said containers:


Since I was supposed to be doing either: paperwork, laundry or bathroom chores, I was naturally reorganizing a pantry shelf (makes sense, right??)  While wrestling with boxes and boxes of ziploc baggies, opened bags of straws and other random pantry items, I had an epiphany!  ding ding ding! 

Rather than actually getting back to the work I SHOULD have been doing, I quickly pulled out my paper cutter, scrap paper and modge-podge.  And I made these:


Here they are in their new home:

 What do you think of my new straw holder and ziploc bag dispenser?  These are quart size in this box...you can be sure I'll be hitting up all my friends with babies for a couple more of these puppies....I need one for snack and sandwich sized bags!  By the way..that is a cardboard magazine holder holding the plastic wrap, tin foil etc.  

I'm a happy girl.  I just love finding new uses for old things.....but can you guess what I should ACTUALLY be doing right now??  (I'll give you a hint:  I did NOT originally open my computer to write another post....oops!!)

Hope your Monday was more productive than mine!  

~Bean



Little Man's Closet Re-Do

Happy Monday!
I'd usually post a menu for Monday, but this week, we are trying to use up whatever is in the fridge/pantry without doing a whole lot of shopping, so I'm afraid its not too exciting.  Instead, I'm going to share with you the project that we've been working on FOREVER!  
You might remember that earlier this year, we redid the Nugget's room for his 5th Birthday.  Baby stuff out, Big Boy stuff in.  Except for the closet.  I just didn't have it in me to get in there and go through it all and paint etc. etc.  We always knew we were going to put in a closet organizer since the rooms are small and we need to use every inch of space we have!

Anyway, here is what it looked like "before":  




Ouch.  Check out the green...which looked AWESOME in the baby room, but HORRID with the new blue/grey color scheme. 

Step 1:  Pull out EVERYTHING...and I mean EVERYTHING...crappy carpet and all.




Step 2:  Enlist the Nugget and start painting:




Yes, we sometimes paint in our undies around here ;)  Before long, we had a lovely clean slate:




Step 3:  Install organizer.  We used the ClosetMaid system (16') from Home Depot. 




Eventually, we will install mirrored sliding doors because, let's be real...this is about the tidiest it will ever be.  The middle shelf unit is offset from center so that we can access the drawers once the doors are on.  The Teacher reminded me to take a picture (almost) before I started filling it!

Here are some shots of the finished product.  What is CRAZY to me, is that almost EVERYTHING that was in the BEFORE shot, went BACK IN.  This is testament to how much more space you can make using an organizer!! 





Here's a quick comparison shot of BEFORE and AFTER:






     What do you think???

Has anyone else tackled an organization project lately??

Thanks for stopping by!

             ~Bean








Sunday, September 2, 2012

Big Boy Bedroom: An Organized Study Space

Happy Labor Day, Everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying some much needed fun-time with your families and friends.  Today I thought I'd share with you what we ended up with for the Diddle's desk area in his new big-boy bedroom.  Diddle is, after all, a 3rd grader now so this study space coincides nicely with Back to School!  

You might remember that so far, we've done:  new paint, new flooring, superawesome storage bed and bedside wall storage.  This is how we last left the study space beside his bed:


I really am sorry for the photo quality...I took this at night, which I know is a no-no, but honestly, I'm soo not a photographer...I really need to learn more about lighting and staging!  Ah well.  Ok, so with the addition of a shelf, a metal peg board that I ordered from Home Depot (you know, the kind that dudes use in their garages), a cute paperclip wall unit and a dry erase board, we now have THIS: 

The top shelf used to sit above his old desk holds extra art/school supplies (in the orange boxes that we also used in his old room), as well as his shell/coral collection (glass vase on the right) and his rock collection (bell jar on the left) plus a really fun oversized Gobstopper box..that did, indeed, hold Gobstoppers once upon a time.  He loves it and I love the pop of color, so we kept it.  

Rather than a traditional cork or white board, I ordered this metal pegboard from Home Depot.  It was the perfect size, adds a bit of an industrial/manly vibe that can grow with him and provides endless combinations for above desk storage options.  So far, we are using magnets and hooks.  I don't imagine that this will stay this empty for long.  The hanging clipboard will house homework that isn't due until the end of the week (since he now has a homework folder that goes back and forth from school every night)...it may find itself hanging beside the green dry erase board rather than on the peg board itself...we'll see.  Its a work in progress.  BTW, the cute little soccer ball?  Its a STAPLER!  How adorable and perfect for my little soccer playing monkey!

 These cups and rod came from, my favorite store, IKEA...btw, did you get your 2013 catalog in the mail yet??? Drooooool worthy!  I have one more cup available just in case (the rod holds up to 4 cups)...hey, at $1.00 apiece?  Better safe than sorry!  

 This cute paperclip picture holder came from Bed, Bath and Beyond...and was only $10.00 after my coupon!  I thought it would be a cute place for him to place invitations, pictures etc.  The dry erase board (with the coolest marker ever) came from Wal-Mart.  I'm saving the space to the left of the board for either, a cute calendar OR his green clip board.  The jury is still out. 

Oh!  I forgot to tell you about the desk...we got the desk from (of course) IKEA for $59.  We actually had the green of the shelf paint matched at Lowe's so the stripe on the wall matches the desk drawer (not to mention the doors of the storage unit we got to house his books and toys...more on that in a future post).  How awesome is that??  Amazing what technology can do these days!  

So next on my list is to line the drawer and organize it with some little cheap-o baskets I got at Staples...but I'm not quite there yet.  Diddle's room is getting there.  Left to do on our To Do list??

paint
floor
storage bed
bedside storage
study space
book/toy storage
closet organization
window/floor covering
art

Slowly but surely, we will get them all checked off.  

Here it is one last time:



The trouble I have is that even when we are working on one project, my mind is already planning future projects...my poor poor Teacher, good thing he's a good sport!

Happy Labor Day!!!!!
~Bean





Monday, August 27, 2012

First Day of School Thoughts

Happy Monday, Everyone!
The boys started back to school today.  There is something about the start of a new school year that makes life feel fresh and new and fraught with possibility.  Perhaps its because I WAS a student for so long and then worked IN schools for so long and because the Teacher is, well, a TEACHER.  I always think of the First Day of School as the REAL New Year (sorry, Jan 1st!) 

Anyway, this year the Diddle started 3rd grade and the Nugget started Kindergarten, which, in our district, is full day.  So, for the 1st time in 8.5 years, I have NO ONE at home....and I'm a little (ok,  a lot) sad.  

That being said, I love. love. LOVE school supply shopping and organizing (not so much the paying for it part, though.  Those lists keep getting longer and more specific!!)  This year, THIS was my favorite purchase:

 I saw these months ago at Vons (my regular grocery store), but at 8.99 apiece, I was going to wait until they went on sale.  Then, very randomly I was shopping at Old Navy this summer and, lo and behold...I found them THERE (weird right???)  and they were only 4.99...so I snagged 2 and put them away for this year's lunches.  They are BPA free plastic, bento boxes made in New Zealand (I'm not sure why that makes me feel better than Made in China but it does).  This is how they open:

I've been using little tupper-ware-esque containers from Ikea to create my own bentos for years, but I love THIS box because there are no lids!  Everything is attached so there is nothing to lose!!  I did buy some little silicone cupcake liners in case I need some extra separation, so I suppose those might get lost...we'll see!  I also saw that these are available at Bed, Bath and Beyond too for $4.99.  Cute, eh??

Food Challenge is going well, the slow cooker Cheeseburger Soup was a hit last week.  The Nugget informed me that it was even better than lentil soup (which is high praise from him!)  No one scoffed at the celery inside and I made it with ground turkey so it was high in the protein but low in the fat departments.  Here is the recipe in case you are interested!

Slow Cooker Cheeseburger Soup

In a large slow cooker, combine:  1 lb. ground turkey*, 1/4 t pepper, 1/4 t italian herb blend**, 1/4 t Mrs. Dash or other seasoned salt, 1 envelope dry onion soup mix, 3 C water, 8 oz tomato sauce***, 1 T soy sauce, 1 C sliced or diced carrots, 1 C sliced or diced celery.  Cook on high for 6-8 hours, periodically breaking up the turkey.  
Add 1 Cup raw noodles (I used whole wheat elbow macaroni).  Cook another 20 minutes or so (until noodles are tender). 
Serve topped with shredded cheese.

*I put my turkey in frozen and it was fine!  I just chopped the whole thing into quarters first.
**I buy this instead of "oregano, thyme etc." separately.  You can use whatever you have.
***I used the sauce I made in the slow cooker in the middle of the week! 


Hope you like it.  The Teacher requested it get put into our regular rotation since it made his "Top 5 soups that I make" list.  haha

I'll leave you with a picture of my kidlettes, acting silly on their way to school.  

~Bean

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Slowcooker Tomato Sauce (amongst other things)

Happy Tuesday!
I don't know about you guys but I'm wiped out already!  I had a LOT of cancellations at work today, which would make you think that my day was easy right??  Nope, when I have cancellations, I feel like I need to use every single second at the office to catch up on my never ending "To Do" list.  After soccer, I was sooo happy to get home to an almost-ready dinner.  I say almost-ready because the star of the show worked hard all day (just like me!) in the slowcooker (ok, maybe not JUST like me.  All I needed to do when I got home was throw some egg noodles in a pot and some broccoli in the microwave to steam, and VOILA!  Garlicky-Lemon Chicken over egg noodles and broccoli!  
Here's the recipe (adapted a little so it wasn't sooo lemony)

Combine in a crockpot:  4 Chicken breasts, 2 T butter, 1/4 C water, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 t oregano, t Mrs. Dash (to taste), 1 Chicken Bullion packet, and a couple of T of lemon juice.  Cover and cook until done.  Shred.  Serve over egg noodles and steamed broccoli.

FOOD CHALLENGE:  We are starting a food challenge at my house this week.  The boys are pretty picky eaters and we tend to fall into a rut in terms of what I make for them (how many combinations of cheese and starch can you come up with?  I've got a million).  More specifically, I'd like to expand their repertoire of protein and veggies and get OUT of the habit of making 2 meals (one adult and one kid) every night.  I know, I know, I know...I read those chapters in the parenting book too but STILL fell into it despite the best of intentions!!  Anyway, this recipe was a HIT!!!  My kids ate the chicken (EVEN with the NEW sauce) AND the broccoli (ok, they weren't stoked about it but they powered through it...I may have bribed them with the promise of dessert...or more accurately, the absence of dessert should they NOT choke down, consume the portions on their plate....sue me).  I got an "mmmm, this chicken is delicious!!" and an "I love eating trees" from the Nugget (he's the easy one for sure) and an "I'm not thrilled with the lemon on this chicken, Mom. but its ok" and a dramatic holding of the nose while the Diddle literally forced the broccoli down...whatever...THEY ATE IT, no one made gagging noises and I was met with VERY minimal resistance so I'm chalking it up as a WIN!

One more thing before I sign off for today, here is the slowcooker tomato sauce recipe...which, as I look back, was the name of this post...which is an accurate picture of my ability to stay on track in my every day life...HA!  Woops!  I'm leaving it....just keeping it real, folks.  

Yummy Yummy You Will Thank Yourself For Making a Big Batch of This Nearly Effortless and Keeping It In Your Freezer Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce:
Combine the following in a big slow cooker: 
1 Medium, finely chopped onion (which you hopefully pulled out of your freezer since this would be the only step that requires effort!!)
6 cloves minced garlic
7 Cups of diced fresh tomatoes (ok, this takes effort too) OR a 56 oz can of crushed tomatoes (yes, I buy the low sodium one and use this)
3 t Italian Herbs
1 t salt
1/2-1 t ground black pepper
1 T sugar

Cook overnight on low! I use this as a base for spaghetti, pizzas, soup...the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Woot Woot!

I just realized that I don't have any pictures for you!  Hmmmm, the Teacher and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary this last weekend so here is a picture of my honey and I before our date!





The Diddle took it.  Not too bad for an 8 year old!!

G'Night All!
~Bean


Monday, August 20, 2012

Hello, Friends!! A Bit of This a Bit of That!

Honey, I'm hoooome!!
We are back from vacation, I'm back at work, the Teacher is back to school and the kidlettes have one glorious week left of summer break.  I, for one, am NOT enjoying this hot and humid weather...hey Mother Nature!  I don't live back east or in the midwest for a reason...I just don't do well in the heat!  That said, we are keeping cool.  
Today was the Teacher's first day of actual classes so I had fully intended on getting the house back into order, organizing school stuff and just getting into the basic swing of things.  I was pretty productive. Before 9:00 I'd already made some lovely breakfast muffins that I found on pinterest:  My number one priority when selecting the recipe this morning was that it included bananas, since the number of frozen bananas in my freezer is getting out of control and my feet are attacked with frozen banana torpedoes every time I open the freezer door (anyone else have this problem??)  


They were a hit with the boys and at just 1/2 C of sugar and NO flour for the whole recipe, I'm sold!  I'd also fake-canned the sauce I had going in the slow cooker all night:


I'll share this recipe later this week.  I hate buying jarred tomato sauce for pizzas and pasta...do you know how much sugar goes into one jar?? You'd be amazed!  This way I know exactly what goes in, AND, its PENNIES a serving!!  BTW, if you don't have any of these little ball jars, they are AWESOME!! They remind me A LOT of the Avent jars that I used to use to freeze breast milk (too much info?? sorry!) but bigger.  They come in 2 different sizes (these are 16 oz) and I use them for everything from storing snacks to freezing!  LOVE. THEM. (You can find them near the canning supplies at most big box stores.)

Also by 9:00, I'd already completed 2 loads of laundry, had dinner working in the crock pot AND cleaned the kitchen.  At about this time I decided I was done and that the kids and I were going to sluff off the rest of the day.  We called some friends and went to see the new Wimpy Kid movie and then ran off some extra energy at the park.  My kids are now at their friend's house playing since, apparently, movie and the park was not enough time with their buds.  SCORE!  I get a couple of minutes to document my day AND provide you with this week's meal plan and grocery list.  I'm trying 2 new crock pot recipes this week so I'll let you know how they pan out.

Here ya go:
Monday:  Redneck Salad (yes, again...we love it and haven't made it all summer!!)
Tuesday:   Lemon Chicken and Brocolli over egg noodles
Wednesday:  Hamburger Soup

I'm only planning 3 meals a week now because we always have enough left overs for at least another day and that way nothing goes to waste if the plans change (and with 3 days worth of soccer practices now, that happens a LOT!)

What I had:                                           vs.       What I Needed:
chicken  (freezer stash)                                     Buffalo Wing Sauce
romaine                                                             baby carrots
Ranch dressing                                                 celery
brocolli                                                              2-3 onions
1 lb ground turkey (freezer stash)
egg noodles
8 oz tomato sauce (from supply that I just "canned")
whole wheat macaroni
parmesan
packet dry onion soup mix

Not too bad!

I thought I'd also share a picture of Victoria Winters (from Bird on a Line) and I on her recent trip.  Join me in wishing her luck on her new adventure as she started back to school this morning!! 

It was so fun to watch our kids play together and I'm so proud of her!!!

Anyway, Happy Monday!  Talk soon!!
~Bean



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Bon Voyage!

This will be my last post until we get back from our vacation....man, I NEED IT!!  Until then, I'll leave you with this little section of Diddle's room.  Since the bed pulls in and out, we decided against a night stand for his room.  Which left us needing a space for a bedside book, his kindle and his clock.  I'm not loving the clock location..I think it will be moved to whatever we decide on for storage, but he's tucked it here for now.  This is just a slim "picture" shelf with a towel bar mounted above to keep things from falling down.  Its the perfect size for a book and even a laptop (eventually).  
Coupled with the wall mounted reading light and some comfy pillows, it makes for the perfect spot for some before bed reading (and snuggling).

Talk soon...ALOHA!!!
~Bean

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Big Boy's Room 3: A Multifunctional Sleep Space!

Happy Sunday, Everyone!
I'm really, really excited about today's post...mostly because I'm really, really excited about the bed that we bought for Diddle's new room.  Our biggest issue with his room before was space.  It's not a very big room (10 x 10) and his bed, desk, dresser and bookcase configuration left little room for actual playing or even just relaxing.  Our secondary issue was that this was a room that could rarely, unless we had a lone visitor, be used for guests.  We have a LOT of visitors, so for just one person to come at a time, is rare.  Issue number 3 (and this is becoming a bigger issue as Diddle gets older), is that he loves to have sleep overs and the old room, just didn't work very well since there was BARELY room to SQUASH another twin mattress pad onto the floor space.  (1st World problem, right??  I know.)  
Our initial plan involved keeping his old bed and getting a trundle for it...problem here is that in order for the trundle to fit, we'd have to move/get rid of his night stand and dresser or desk..which of course meant getting rid of either 1) clothes storage or 2) study space or 3) "stuff" storage.  None of these were very good options.  We browsed through soo many catalogs and websites and decorating sites for MONTHS.  Then I saw a bed at (my BFF) IKEA.  It was a daybed and looked like it might be a little feminine but it had a drawer system underneath so we figured that would allow us to get rid of the dresser so was worth checking out.  OH MY GOODNESS.  That bed had a secret!!!!  Check this out.  Here's the bed in the new room:

Nice right?  I exchanged the pulls that came with it since they looked a little country and added to its original feminine flair...I think these chrome pulls look a little more masculine, don't you?  Here it is with the drawers pulled out...plenty of room for all of the clothes that were in the dresser:


BUT..here's its secret!  This WHOLE drawer unit pulls out so that this bed can go from twin all the way up to whatever is the size of 2 twin beds side by side (which is bigger than a standard King for sure).  Check it out:


So we ended up getting the best of both worlds.  Drawer space AND extra sleeping space.  We decided to take it for a test run and Diddle had his BFF over for a sleep over the other night.  They are just 2 small boys so we used our old futon mattress (which is the size of a Full bed).  Here it is all ready for the sleep over:


It was a success!  We are considering buying a thin either queen or king sized mattress to keep rolled up in the garage for when company comes over (we could seriously put up to 5 or 6 small kids on it when its all pulled out), but for now, we are out of money!  

Here's my happy boy on his new bed:


One more thing to cross off the list!  Next up: Study Space!

Have a great week, Everyone!!
~Bean

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

And the winner is...(aka Big Boy's Bedrom Part 2)

After careful consideration and a brief FB survey....the Diddle gets....

Wood!!!  A lovely handscraped laminate that we found on sale at Lumber Liquidators that, coincidentally, matches (nearly exactly) the existing hard wood in the rest of the house. Woot Woot!  First of all, laminate certainly has come a long way.  The Teacher and I installed laminate in our first place together (a really long time ago)....and let me tell you, the stuff that is available now is incredible!!  Handscraped??  You can hardly tell its laminate!! L.O.V.E!!!  

Incidentally, you know that thing where when you make one room look nice the other rooms in your home look comparably lousy??  Thank God we bought enough wood for both boy's rooms because now that we put in the new floor in the Diddle's room, the Nugget's room ..or at least his flooring (which has also been redecorated recently sans flooring) looks horrible!!  It's a slippery slope!!

Here are some shots of the finished floor:

Here's the TO DO list:

Paint
Flooring
New Bed with storage and extra sleeping space (wait till you see this!!)
Study Space
Book/Toy Storage
Night Stand/Beside the Bed Storage?
Closet
Artwork

Loving the transformations so far...and more importantly?? So is he!!

On a completely unrelated side note, I'm going to a Thai cooking class with a girlfriend on Thursday...and I'll totally share the recipes!!!  

Thanks for stopping by!
~Bean

Friday, July 13, 2012

Big Boy's Room 1

Hello There!
I promised a new post..and, well, better late than never right???  After many months of promises, we decided to take this summer to redo Diddle's room.  He's entering 3rd grade and needs a big kid space...or at least that's my excuse for redecorating (and I'm sticking to it).  Anyway, like I said, we've been promising for MONTHS without any action.  Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I came home from work the other day to find that the Teacher had completely stripped Diddle's room...and I mean STRIPPED it...bye bye old, stained, yucky carpet and 5 million Cars posters and clutter.  Unfortunately, since I didn't know he was going to get started, I didn't get a real "before" shot.  What I came home to looked like this:


Yahoo! I just love a clean slate!  So next was paint options.  Diddle loves green but the thought of a fully green room (especially if we didn't pick just the right shade) made me feel a little green in the gills.  Sooo, after much deliberation (ok, not too much...I'm actually kind of impulsive sometimes), we started covering up the lovely blue that we chose when he was born...sniff!  This is what we had:

A soft, lovely grey that keeps this little room bright!  (and I love love love that the name of it is "secret passage"..hello!)  Then we taped some stripe lines:


We went with the same pattern, only inverted, as the Nugget's room since they are side by side and this leads to a bit of continuity when both of their doors are open.  Then it got messy...I don't know why we didn't expect it since this has happened every single time we've painted in this house.  We have textured walls, which are lovely...except when you need a nice crisp line.  We get bleed through every single time no matter how much we press and seal that tape and are soooo careful.. We should expect it, and yet each time we are disappointed.  See what I mean?  Boo.
So up the ladder went my super sweet Teacher with a tiny little brush:

Time consuming? Yes.  Worth it???  Oh heck yes!! See the difference??

And so, the painting is complete.  Next up?? Floors!  I put a little survey up on Facebook:  Carpet or Wood??  And the verdict was??  

What?  The nugget needs me to wipe his bum??  Oh well, I guess I'll have to continue tomorrow!  ;)

~Bean