There's Naan Left!!

I tried to think of a creative title:)  This weekend was pretty relaxing.  Since Thursday night we have watched 3 movies, and they were actually good!  Thursday night we watched "Lincoln Lawyer" which was about a defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln.  Saturday night we watched "The Adjustment Bureau" which I really liked!  It was about the path in life we are meant to be on and what happens when someone deviates from that path.  Then, today we saw "Captain America" in 3-D, which was cute.  I actually liked it much more than I expected!

Now on to the reason for my post title!  Last night we had Indian food, chicken tikka with rice and naan bread.  I was in charge of the naan bread, it was easy and it turned out well!  If I say something is easy to make, then trust me, it's easy to make!  I will admit David does most of the cooking in our house.  All I did was mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and vegetable oil.  Then I kneaded it for about 10 minutes and let it rise for an hour.

After I let it rise, I rolled it out with a rolling pin into 6 pieces of bread.  Then, before putting it in the oven I put cilantro on top and sprayed it with extra virgin olive oil.  The oven was set on broil and I had the pan in the oven heating up before I put the bread in the oven.  The bread only takes a minute in the oven.

 Here is a picture of our dinner.  David made the chicken and rice of course.  Dinner turned out well.  But, to be honest, the thing I hate about eating Indian at home is the smell.  Our kitchen still smells like dinner last night 24 hours later!

Tomorrow is my 30th birthday, I don't care what anyone says.....30 is NOT the new 20.  For some reason, birthdays seem to loose their charm when you get older and don't have a "fun" birthday party to look forward to like you do when you are a little kid.

2 Weeks, 2 Layers

Two weeks from today my summer will come to an end and I have to go back to work!   This summer as FLOWN by so fast!  I don't know where it has gone.  My goal was to do something productive every single day....I did really well the first two weeks.  I started with the half bathroom on our main floor, it isn't finished yet.  When I started stripping the wallpaper I realized THERE WAS ANOTHER LAYER OF WALLPAPER UNDERNEATH!  Here are a few before pictures (the room is small, it wasn't easy to get good pictures from the door where I was standing).

Aren't the curtains and wallpaper just lovely?  I enjoyed the matching pinks so much I was sad to see them go:)  (The plant you see in the window is in the addition which I call the "lanai")

After I removed the wallpaper it looked horrible!  There was no way I could not not rip some of the top drywall layer off, it just wasn't an option. 

Luckily when my dad was here, he was able to fix the walls.  It already looks MUCH better and there isn't even any pain in there yet!  All I need to do is prime and paint!

I know these pictures look awful, but it will look 110% better when I am finished!

It's Getting Hot in Here!

I heard that phrase many times over the past week.  My parents, sister Kara, and brother-n-law Kevin were visiting last week.  We had a great time, despite that fact that we keep our house about 10 degrees hotter than they keep their houses;)  We missed Jill and Frank though!

All week we were busy doing something.  There is a lot to see in the ATL, but in the summer heat makes it difficult!  We went to World of Coke, Martin Luther King, and a winery, and did lots of shopping and eating!  My dad did a lot around the house too, replaced door locks, fixed wood on the corner of the lanai, repaired the garage door, Kevin trimmed our bushes along the driveway, my mom cleaned, and Kara supervised;)  It's sad when company leaves, the house is so quiet now.

My summer is slowly coming to an end, it has gone by way too fast!  I keep telling myself May 19th, 2012 will be here before I know it (my last day of school next year:)).  Lots of good things are coming up this year, my sister is moving back, we are going to England for Christmas, and we our house is becoming a home!

P.S. I switched the name of my blog, so I copied over the old posts to the new blog.

Summer is Expensive!!

June 23, 2011

 

I spend way too much money during the summer!  I can't help it, I find good sales and cheap things for our house.  Today's project was a new wreath for the front door.  Our old wreath was faded and I wanted a change.  I couldn't find anything I loved, so I decided to make one.  I headed to Michael's and scored a great deal on the supplies.  The grapevine was only $2.99 and the 4 stems of flowers I used were only $2.99 each!  So, I only spent about $15!!  I would never have found a wreath for that amount already made! 

There was no method to my madness....I just wrapped the flowers and moved them around a bit.  The only thing I don't like is that we have a storm door and it smashes against the wreath.  But, I love having the front door open to let light it, so it is worth it.  Here is a finished picture of my wreath.



And, for the exciting news.....I will have my very first guest blogger soon!  I realize I haven't posted much yet myself, but I am excited to have a "guest"!  Be sure to check back for his post!

Missing Ohio........Really?!?!?

June 22, 2011

 Believe it or not, sometimes I do miss Ohio.  Well maybe it's not Ohio that I miss but the "known" and the "familiar" that make me miss it.  When we moved to Ohio we knew we wouldn't be there long, in fact the 5 years we were there seemed to be FOREVER!  Georgia is great, but in Ohio we had grown into our house, we both had good jobs, we had a "comfortable" life.  And that's just what it would have been....comfortable.  But we wanted more, we wanted a bigger city, we wanted to be able to fly to my husband's family in England on one flight without having to change planes.

Coupon Organizer

 

June 21, 2011

 

I started couponing a couple years ago, but when we moved I stopped for a while.  Since we moved into our house, I started couponing again.  It is a hobby for me, I enjoy it and love spending time looking for deals.  On Sunday mornings I like to have my paper, ads and coffee.  I use a lot of coupon websites as well.  I am by no means an extreme couponer, as I am still learning!  I was using a mini accoridian file for my coupons.  This system was good, BUT everytime I was in the grocery store and wanted to see if I had a coupon for something not on my list (because I always pull out my coupons for items on my list prior to going to the store), it took FOREVER to find.  Yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a baseball card holder.  It is a portfolio with plastic sleeves.  I organized my coupons in that and it is so much better!!

One thing I started focusing on this week that I have not done in the past is looking at the drugstore deals.  I have RiteAid, Walgreens, and CVS all within 2 miles of my house, and from what I have read you can get a lot of great deals at these stores.  I am hoping to score some free stuff this week! 

My Family Calls Me Cheap

June 19, 2011

 

They have a right to call me cheap, I am cheap.  It doesn't matter what I am buying, I refuse to pay full price! Now that we moved into our new house, I have kicked my "cheapness" level up a notch.  Not only do I like to coupon for groceries, I LOVE to find good deals on things for our house.  Goodwill has become one of my favorite stores.  Recently, I purchased two end tables at good will for only $20 each.   Attached is one of the tables after I refinished it.  I forgot to take a before picture!  I will get better at that now that I have this blog (hopefully)! 

Sorry for the poor quality.  We need a new memory card, so I had to take this on my phone.

I am writing this blog to keep track of my exciting deals and hopefully get new ideas.  I am also going to share projects that we are doing around the house.  Our "new" house was built in 1978, and we love it, even though we have loads of work to do, including plenty of wallpaper to strip off the walls.  My current project is the half bath on the main level.  I started stripping the wallpaper and realized there was ANOTHER layer of wallpaper underneath.  So, it has turned into a much longer project than I anticipated. 

Off to work on the backyard in the Georgia heat!