Nesting during pregnancy #3

Our basement playroom is finally finished, hooray! Well, at least the built of it. New walls were put up, insulation, carpet, doors, paint and the kids now finally have a chalk wall (my favorite feature of the room).  However, we're not ready for the reveal until  I get it organized which will hopefully mean throwing/donating half the toys. I really don't know how we managed to fill the entire basement full of stuff when we didn't have that extra space one year ago.

Anyway, I have been "nesting" a bit in other parts of the house. Very soon, we'll have to convert our office room into a nursery so I've been purging, organizing, shredding and scanning until we find a space for our office nook. Of course with decluttering, comes finding old treasures. One of the things I found was 2 yards of fabric that I purchased a while ago when I was in Pinterest mode and pinned a tutorial on DIY valances. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon so instead I decided to update our old pillows that I've been wanting to get rid of for quiet some time. Mainly because one was brown and the other lime green, what was I thinking?!?! Since I don't own a sew machine, I used this tutorial on how to create a no sew pillow cover. It was super easy to follow and only took me about 20 minutes to make two covers. After a week of trying out the pillow covers, our nanny offered to take them home and use her sewing machine for a "finished' look. 

No Sew version:

"Finished" look:

I love that fabric and it matches our accent chairs perfectly!

This isn't related to the nesting but I wanted to share a yummy and healthy sandwich recipe.  It is super easy and so tasty!

Grilled veggie sandwiches with creamy garlic spread (makes 4 sandwiches):

1/2 red onions, thick slices

1 red/yellow/orange bell pepper

1 package of pre-cut (or if you buy whole, just cut them thickly) portobello mushroom caps

olive oil, salt and pepper for seasoning

1 sliced avocado

3 tbsp mayo - for the spread ( i could seriously bathe in it so I made extra)

2 tsp minced garlic - for the spread

lemon juice - for the spread

sliced or shredded mozarella/provolone cheese

8 slices of thick sandwich bread, you can also use a baguette or focaccia buns

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degreees. Toss the onions, bell peppers and portabella mushrooms on a cookie sheet with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 10 minutes and take them out. While the veggies are in the oven, mix the mayo with minced garlic and a few drops of lemon juice, this will make the sauce no so bitter from the garlic. Remove the veggies and place them in a separate dish. On the same cookie sheet, arrange 4 pieces of bread and spread a little bit of the mayo mix. Then divide the veggies among the bread, top with avocado slices and cheese. You can use sliced provolone or mozzarella cheese. Shredded works too if that's all you have. Put this back in the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes or until cheese starts to melt.  Toast the other 4 pieces of bread and spread the remaining mayo sauce.  Take the sandwiches out of the oven and top with the remaining bread. Enjoy!

Updates, updates, updates!

I know it's been a while since I wrote anything in here, but believe me, I've been blogging in my head. One of the first things I want to share is the first renovation project that we tackled a couple of months after we moved in (it's been a year since we bought our home!). I didn't want to share the before and after pics before it was completely finished with all the details and decor but my husband and I are quickly finding out that there's always room for improvements.Let me tell you first why this was our first project.  After a week of showering, we discovered a few things that were very wrong: (1) my husband had to duck because the shower head was too low, (2) the tiles were falling off the walls, (3) you could only lather your hair with one hand because the other elbow wouldn't fit, (4) the soap dish tray fell off the wall taking down a couple of tiles which left a huge hole in the shower, which then ended our showers until the new one was rebuilt.
So here's the big before and after reveal:
Before:

 After:

my favorite feature of the new bathroom is the toiletries holder that you can't see until you walk in the shower because of the expansion.  And of course the new shower head.

The pink and white floors HAD to go and instead we laid marble. It's a bit cold but we love the look.  It's a little piece of luxury we get to have in our little bathroom.

We expanded the shower which took some space out of the adjoining closet in the smallest bedroom but it's worth the sacrifice. We used grey subway tile on the walls inside the shower and smaller tiles on the floor. We got a new toilet and kept the vanity and the mirror.  We may eventually change it out but for now it works for our tiny space. We opted for glass sliding doors instead of a shower curtain (yuck!) or a swinging door which I don't regret doing because the water doesn't drip on the floor and stays within the shower. We went with a light gray/blue color for the walls to complete the "spa" look we were going for. Some of the things we want to eventually add are: a towel rack above the toilet (like in hotels) and maybe a new vanity and mirror.

All the other work that's been done to the house is the stuff you won't really notice or is essential to living, boring! We had to remove 5 trees that could've easily fallen on our house since we had two big storms in the past year, electrical wiring in the whole house, recessed lighting in the living room and basement, new water heater, a shed in the back yard which required us getting a building license (painful process!), new carpet over hardwood floors in our bedrooms, new light fixtures in the dining room and kitchen and attic insulation for the cold winters ahead.  The next bit project we're currently working on is finishing the basement.  The first half is going to be the kid's playroom which needs most work. It's coming along nicely but we had to start from scratch, baseboard, insulation, drywall, trimming, new doors..basically the works.  Right now we just have to paint it and install new carpet so I can't wait to start decorating.

Renovations are taking a little longer than I expected and the process is grueling when you only have time to do things on the weekends but it'll be worth it in the end, at least that's what I keep telling myself. Oh and btw, I guess it's also been hard to put any time into remodeling and redecorating due to a little thing called, a 3rd pregnancy! Oops! Yes, we're expecting yet again..and yes...my last post was about Chloe's 100th day celebration. It's going to be a bumpy but joyful ride!

happy 100th day, chloe!

This past weekend we had the family over to celebrate Chloe's 100th day (baek-il), Easter and our new home.  Although our home is still a big project, we were happy to welcome the family to meet our baby girl who, in my opinion, is perfect the way God made her!

I wanted to do something special for Chloe's day (although I didn't do it for Ethan, shh...).  Here are some pics of the celebration:

Busy bee

I haven't posted in a while but I've definitely been keeping myself busy. I just realized that I have a little over a week until I go back to work and I haven't tackled half of the projects I wanted to do.  Just to give an update on the meal planning, I did stick to it last week but only took a picture of the Ma Po tofu.  Meatloaf night really wasn't that exciting.  I've never made Ma Po tofu and it turned out pretty good.  I made a mild version for my son and then added all the hot pepper later.  It was really spicy!

Earlier last week I tackled the linen closet. Its really embarassing and was a disaster. It's really deep so I was always looking all the way in the back and was too lazy to put it back neatly again.

My solution? Why baskets, of course. I also kept all the stuff that I don't use often behind the baskets and the first row of towels and linens. I brought in a stackable shelf to keep all the small loose things. Here's the linen closet two hours later...

The baskets are lined but I had to throw them in a wash and I am making tags for the baskets.  I also ordered a label maker and will be labeling everything as soon as I get it. Dork!

I didn't get to do much else because on Monday the contractors came in to work on our bedroom bathroom. It's taking a little while to complete but I'm so excited to have a more spacious shower! They completely gutted the bathroom and installed new plumbing, insulation and cut into our office closet to create more space. I'll show the before and after pics after it's complete.

I didn't get to do much over the weekend because Dave had to work and I was at home with the kids. Ethan and I made my favorite healthy snack, ants (red ants cuz all I had was dried cranberries) on apple.

Meal Planning

So I'm going to try this meal planning craze that I' ve attempted in the past but failed. Mainly because I got lazy or had a craving for something else. But now I really have to get my act together because the amount of food that I waste is ridiculous. I think to plan to cook everyday is a little presumptuous, especially once I go back to working full time, so I will try to have at least one day of take out or eating out.

Monday - chicken crescent roll casserole
Tuesday - meatloaf with mashed potatoes, green beans and apple sauce
Wednesday - ma po tofu
Thursday - birthday dinner (i ain't cooking!)
Friday - girl's night out birthday dinner (hooray, i get to cheat twice this week!)
Saturday - leftovers night
Sunday - frozen pizza night

Lazy Hump Day - tissue wreath project

So today I did absolutely nothing.  Well, I did absolutely nothing with my husband. He is currently studying for his doctorate in physical therapy and is in school full time. That's right, I'm his sugar mama. Well today he had the day off and we just hung out with the baby, napped and watched Ellen together.  This almost never happens so we both indulged in this rare occassion.  I highly recommend it to other parents no matter how many "projects" you may have.  The projects will always be there.

Anyway, I thougth I'd post this valentine's craft that I made yesterday, which inspired me to start up blogging again.  This is called a tissue paper wreath and I made it based on this image from Pinterest. Since I had limited supplies on hand, I improvised a bit.  I used a cardboard circle that I had left over from a Martha Stewart kit and glued 1 inch pink and red tissue squares with a glue stick.  I used the dull end of a pen to adhere the tissue paper to the wreath by placing it in the middle of the tissue square. I used two pieces of tissue paper to complete the entire wreath (that's all I had, anyway).  Then I used some red ribbon to hang it up on an entrance mirror. Ta da! Festive!





This proejct took a whopping 15 minutes to complete. So easy and your kids can help too but I was too anxious to wait on my 3 1/2 year old and just did it myself. I do have other projects in mind that involve his grubby little hands.

Rebirth of "Eternally Learning"

So after a long hiatus from blogging, I decided to start again to document our upcoming projects. So what have we been up to, you might ask? Well, to start off, we sold our townhouse and bought a single home all in 3 months. Praise God! We had both settlements on the same day and three days after, we were sleeping in our new home.  With that said, we have a lot of projects ahead of us and I've been a busy gal, checking out other blogs and obsessing over ideas on Pinterest. I'll start posting some of our before pictures at the house so you all can see the slow transformations.  Our first projects were boring and non-asthetic.  My husband was obsessed with recessed lighting so now we have them in our living room and basement and just about every light in the house has a dimmer and is controlled from multiple locations.

Oh....and I had a baby! I guess you would say that was our biggest project of all during my blog hiatus so we are happy to report that we had a healthy baby girl.  Her nursery is not yet what I envisioned it to be so be on the lookout for a before and after post.

So during my maternity leave, I hope to tackle as many projects around the house.  I hope to also do some crafting and diying since I have some time in between being a full time cow and a pooper scooper for my little girl.

Stay tuned for more....