Improvements on the Guest Bathroom

Over the past year or so, my husband and I have been doing work on our spare bathroom. There was nothing really wrong with the bathroom, but the vanity was a cheaper material and style, there was a hard plastic glued half way up the walls (almost like wall paper), and it just didn't quite fit our style.

This all really started when they had a vanity that I fell in love with on sale at Lowe's (roughly 65% off). I couldn't pass it up. After some difficulty (the whole for the drain was in the bottom of the vanity, the actual drain went through the wall), we installed our vanity. Then I decided I would just peal the hard plastic off the wall. Simple, right? Unfortunately, I managed to get the plastic off, but the adhesive was so strong, some of the drywall came off with it. So my husband and I patched the spots and sanded and then painted with some leftover white paint. The wall ended up looking pretty rough. Then came the next part of the plan.

We had leftover paint from our light blue living room, and decided to save money on new paint, we would just paint the bathroom that color as well. Then, on another Lowe's visit, we found the solution to our rough walls. They sold a nice tongue and groove paneling for the wall. Slowly but surely, we cut all of the boards, painted them with leftover white ceiling paint, and put them up. To finish it off, we some left over gift cards from our wedding and my birthday, we got a new light fixture and a towel bars. To add a little pop of color, we added a picture that I took of our magnolia tree in a nice simple frame, and voila, a nice peaceful bathroom that we love.

Before:

After:

Angel Food Cupcakes

Last Thursday my husband and I were tasked with feeding the 20 or so person "small group" that we're a part of. So we made the Stuffed Shell Lasagna that I posted a recipe for earlier, and it was absolutely delicious. For dessert, we tried something a bit different - Angel Food Cupcakes. Here's how they turned out:

Recipe (ok, so they weren't quite homemade): makes roughly 30...

Ingredients:
A box of angel food cake mix (we used Giant Eagle brand because we're classy like that)
1 small tub (8 oz.) of cool whip (or store brand) - thawed
1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple (drained)
1 3.4 oz. box of instant vanilla pudding
Strawberries or fresh fruit for topping

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2.) Prepare angel food cake mix according to directions on box.
3.) Fill muffin papers approx 3/4 full with the batter.
4.) Bake cupcakes for roughly 16 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked.
5.) Let cupcakes cool.
6.) Mix together the cool whip, crushed pineapple, and pudding (don't prepare the pudding, just the powder that comes in the box), and then frost cupcakes with the resulting mixture.
7.) Top with fresh fruit.

The Growing Season

So, a few weeks ago, in the middle of March, our normally still quite cold weather decided to be 80 degrees and sunny for about a week straight. This meant for a delightful week of long after-work walks with my husband, early blooms of spring, and just the happy feeling that the first sunshine of spring provides.

And then....

It froze and everything died! Ok, well not everything. But all of our beautiful blooms lasted a few days and are now shriveled or gone. I did however get a few pictures of our beautiful tree out back before the cold spell.

In addition to the spring blooms, the warm weather prompted my husband and I (possibly somewhat prematurely) to plant some seeds inside that we can later plant in a garden outside. We did this last year with cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes and were quite successful. We might have to replant again before putting outside this year, but we already have some promising looking plants.

So far we've planted:
Squash
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Pickling Cucumber
Green Pepper
Broccoli
Watermelon
Canteloupe

I thinkk we're going to need to thin them out a bit, but I've never planted any sort of melon before so this should be an experience. I also bought seeds to plant chives, cilantro, spaghetti squash, and zucchini. I'm pretty excited. :)

Meatless Monday, Take Two

So, I didn't plan it as such, but this past Monday ended up being another meatless Monday. Pretty much the same scenario - I got home from work, didn't feel like pulling out anything to defrost for dinner, so voila, meatless goodness.

And our meal of choice ended up being: Spinach and Tomato Pizza

We used a Pilsbury bread mix to make the crust, although I'm pretty sure it was just flour and a few added ingredients and then the yeast (we followed the directions on the box for the crust, although I think next time I'll just make my own), added a can of plain tomato sauce (14.5 oz can) mixed with 1 tsp. of sugar and 1 Tbs. of what my spice rack calls pizza seasoning. We topped that off with an 8 oz. bag of mozzarella cheese, a few hand fulls of fresh flat leaf spinach, and some canned diced tomatoes (fresh would've been better but it's what we had). Then we melted some butter, added a bit of garlic and parmesean cheese and brushed it on the crust. Perhaps this step would have been better if I would have done it after it baked some or even at the very end, but even so, the end result was a very delicious pizza.

The Timeshare Bedroom

So, when I bought my house almost two years ago, my best friend made a claim on one of my downstairs bedrooms. It was dubbed 'Amanda's room' ever since. Seeing as I have a four bedroom house, and one is my bedroom, this left two for my parents to fight over. But since I don't have a huge amount of furniture, it ended up that my other downstairs bedroom had to be used for both sets of my parents (they're divorced). And thus it became the timeshare room. When I first moved in, this room had beige walls and bright red carpet. Over time I decided to paint the walls a green color to bring out the crown moulding in the room, which wasn't very noticable with the beige. Then, I decided to pull up the carpet to expose the hardwood underneath. I would have loved to keep the hardwood, but the floor wasn't completely finished and was just plywood in some areas, so finally, the room became carpetted. Below are some pictures of it's journey.

Sunset Cruise - York River

My husband and I got married roughly half a year ago, but were not exactly rich at the time, so decided to keep our honeymoon nice but not necessarily extravagant. My dad has a timeshare and had a location in Williamsburg, VA and with it being a relatively short drive from Pittsburgh, that ended up being our honeymoon location. I know, most people fly off to Hawaii or some beautiful island resort, but I have to say, I was quite pleased with our choice.

One of the experiences we had during our week in Virginia was a sunset sail on the York River. The tall ship that we were on was called the Alliance, and it was a perfect October evening for two newlyweds. We actually met a couple from Pittsburgh while we were on the boat, who were celebrating their anniversary. I've included some pictures below, but if you are in Williamsburg with your love, definitely give this a try. There was a family on our cruise too, so it would be a nice experience for families as well.

Meatless Monday, Written a Few Days Late

So I happened upon a delicious recipe when my husband and I were trying to find something for dinner, but didn't feel like dethawing meat. So, without further ado, introducing...

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas (taken from allrecipes.com)
I just used what I have, so I altered the recipe slightly

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies

1/4 cup picante sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 to 1.5 cups cooked white rice

8 (8 inch) flour tortillas, warmed

1 cup salsa

1.5 cups reduced fat shredded Colby jack cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large nonstick skillet, saute garlic in oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, and cumin; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through and mixture thickens. Add rice; cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through.
3. Put a heaping serving spoonful of the mixture into the center of each tortilla. Sprinkle some cheese inside the tortilla with the mixture. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon salsa over each tortilla. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.