Christmas Came Early...

... and right in time for Thanksgiving.

Neither one of us is big on surprises, so when it comes time for gift giving we usually just tell each other what we want or agree to get one big awesome thing we can both enjoy. We did the latter this year.

I had been stalking Amazon for a couple of weeks after I found this beauty on Rue La La for about $250 w/ shipping. I became obsessed.

KitchenAid Pro 500 Series Stand Mixer

After a little research I decided to skip the Pro 500 series and set my eyes on the Professional 600 series in Empire Red. I figured with the holidays nearing it was bound to go on sale so I carefully placed it in my Amazon shopping cart and continued to stalk Rue La La, Gilt Groupe, and One King's Lane on a daily basis. About a week later the clouds parted and the skies opened up. The stand mixer I wanted dropped from $380 to $275. I proceeded through the Amazon checkout process faster than you can say Amazon checkout process.

KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer, Empire Red

We've already used her twice! He used her to make zucchini bread (which is delicious by the way) and I used her to make garlic mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. She works like a beaut!

<3I'm in love<3

A quick note on Amazon stalking: In case you didn't already know this... you add an item to your shopping cart and just leave it there and each time you return to your shopping cart Amazon will tell you if the price has changed. It looks something like this:

Courtesy of GetElastic.com

 

I've been a bad girl!

Well, sort of. I've been a bad blogger, a bad housewife, a bad house remodeler, but a good nursing student. As my instructors keep saying... prioritize your actions!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we're hosting this year. And by hosting I mean 10+ people will be staying at our house for the week[end]. Let me paint you a picture of how ready we are to play host to a baker's dozen - we only have one fully functioning bathroom. Oh and the water temperature in the shower sucks so don't even think about showering after someone else.

On a related note, I got a pretty sweet deal on a bed for the basement bedroom! I don't know if you've heard of Groupon.... but Groupon is awesome! If you haven't joined the action yet, you can join by clicking this referral link (it's a deal-of-the-day website that offers special deals at select stores and restaurants in your area and at times they offer nationwide deals). One of the Washington DC area Groupons for this past weekend was $95 for $200 worth of Roomstore furniture. After conferring with Mr. Boss Man, I immediately hit BUY NOW!!!!

I hurriedly typed Roomstore in my browser and began scanning their mattress selection. I'm pretty sure the basement guestroom is too small for a queen bed so I made the executive decision to make our guests sleep on a full size bed. I also made the executive decision to buy a mattress without test driving it at the store because frankly, I ain't sleeping on it so I don't give a damn how uncomfortable it is. Maybe that makes me a bad house host, but whatever... I do what I want.

I settled on the cheapest better quality Hartwick mattress/boxspring set. We opted to pick up the mattress and boxpring ourselves to save us a cool $100 on delivery charges. Hm, hopefully I can add mattress to the list of things that fit in my Prius. I moseyed on over to Amazon and purchased this bed frame to go with the mattress set.

Are you ready for the grand total??

TOTAL COST

Mattress/Boxspring Set @ Roomstore     $349.99

Cost of Groupon    $95

 Picking it up ourselves     FREE

Bed Frame from Amazon (w/ free "Prime" shipping)     $52.99 

Minus the coupons ....

10% off coupon from Roomstore     -$35

Groupon Coupon       -$200

TOTAL = $269.88 (including tax)

Compared to the original full price of $475.93 (including mattress, boxspring, delivery, bed frame, 's and tax) I think I got a pretty sweet deal! 

I just checked and today's Baltimore Groupon is $99 for $300 worth of Ethan Allen furniture. I was sitting next to Mr. Boss Man as I checked out the deal, but before I could even finish saying "Ooooooh" he shot me down. Has anyone else had any sweet deals lately?

I Hit the Jackpot!!

At Target!

 

1 - large stoneware serving bowl for $4.24, regularly priced at $16.99!
2 - 4-piece stoneware dinner plates for $4.98 each, regularly priced at $19.99 each!

All for under $15!

The checkout girl couldn't believe it! :)

Still here!

Just swinging by in between study breaks to let you know that I'm still alive. I know it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, but since school started up again I haven't even had a chance to clean the bathroom. Yeah, I know... I'm disgusting. What.Ever.

I have clinicals every Saturday and Sunday until the second week of October, I also have exam after exam, care plan after care plan, and skills evaluation after skills evaluation. You stop studying for one thing and start for another. I should have been evaluated the day I applied for nursing school and then I should have been committed the day I accepted.

Every time I pass by an unfinished project (or one I haven't started, for that matter) I stare at it longingly. It's to the point that I would even finish the staircase if I had time.... and that is a project I've been putting off for months!

Enough of my rambling. I promise that I'll do something house related on Friday and maybe post about it by Sunday... or Monday. :)

When in Rome, Do as the Romans!

From the start I knew I hated didn't want blinds. We needed something functional and aesthetically pleasing that would:

1. Allow us to open/close the window with ease. (We like to fry food and frying makes the house way stinky).

2. Block out or limit the amount of sunlight that hits our kitchen window dead on from dawn to dusk, which makes the entire main floor of the house a cool 93 degrees (that's cool, right? RIGHT?!).

Without further ado, here you have my kitchen window!

I kid, I kid! The idea of putting something like this in my kitchen had me screaming H-E-double toothpicks NO!! while running around with a spoon trying to scoop out my eyes. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure these curtains would look just darling in a kitchen that does not belong to me.

I decided upon roman shades. The big box stores have a pretty measly decent selection of expensive roman shades in solid colors. None of which matched my bold style and I say my bold style because Mr. Partner in Crime for Life is a black-grey-brown-beige kind of guy. However, I do commend him for letting me do whatever the hell I please with the house :)

So I asked, why not sew them myself? Easy-peezy I thought. I did some research and found this absolutely wonderful tutorial and followed the instructions to the T (or is it tee?). No guts no glory, right?

 

COST BREAKDOWN

3 yards of fabric = $21

2 rope cleats = $3

2 cord condensers = $2

2 cord drops = $1

1x2 poplar boards = $6

screw eyes = $2

cord =$7

matching thread =  $4

lift rings = $2

1/16in wooden dowels = $12
1/2 yard muslin = $2
velcro = $6

TOTAL COST = $68

LINKED TO

Additional pictures, tips,, tricks, and more information about the fabric can be found after the jump.

Kitchen Pantry

So when we moved in to our brand spanking new house the pantry was pretty miserable. She was our very first project!

Two shelves were missing, and you can't really tell in this picture but none of the shelves were actually level.

We started by knocking out all the shelves, applying joint compound VERY liberally, sanding it down, and painting her bright white.

We headed to Lowe's and bought some shelves, brackets, and screws.

Then I bought some wire baskets from Ikea for a little extra storage. The depth of our pantry is about 12in, which for a pantry is nothing! The wire baskets were just over 12in so we had to take wire cutters and chop off the lip on the baskets so they would fit.

And this is my stocked and ridiculously crammed pantry.

Don't mind all the cereal and breakfast foods. My partner in crime for life swore Honey Nut Cherrios and Oatmeal were his favorite, but then we moved in together and I started buying my two favorites (Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch) in addition to his. Now he won't touch his Cherrios or Oatmeal, he just eats my cereal. And well, we just really like pancakes. No excuse for that one.

I wanted to give a cost breakdown for this little endeavor, but then I looked at the Lowe's receipt and realized I am wayyyyyy too embarrassed to divulge just how much we spent on this. I'm seriously ashamed. It definitely was not thrifty.

'Cause I'm back

Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm back
Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm back, back

Well I'm back in black
Yes, I'm back in black 

I returned to the states from Australia on Thursday, made a quick pit stop in Los Angeles to see my dad and siblings, then flew back to the east coast Saturday night. I slept alllllllll day Sunday, began my second year of nursing school on Monday, and got into a car accident on Tuesday. Yup, I've been busy.

But here are a few pictures of my trip for your viewing pleasure.

The Sydney Opera House

Wattle - Australian National Flower

Koala!!

Kangaroos!

No Emu's were hurt in the capturing of this photo.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

We spent double what we originally wanted to spend on the trip. Had we known that food over there is RIDICULOUSLY insanely CRAZY out of this world EXPENSIVE we would have seriously rethought the trip. With that being said, I will be focusing on finishing projects I've already started/bought supplies for. From this day forward I vow not to buy any house stuff until this trip is paid off. :)

Let's see how long it takes me to break that vow. Any bets??


Oh, and while I was gone I was featured thrice (first here, then here, and finally here). I also went from 2 followers to 30! Woot Woot!  I promise to respond to all comments by the end of the week. But first I need to get some studying done.

Brief Interruption of Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

Some of you may or may not recognize this place:

Sydney Opera House

Well, that's where I'll be for the next two weeks. My boyfriend is being sent there on a business trip and I was lucky enough to find an economy award ticket a week before departure. I <3 <3 <3 <3 frequent flyer miles!

So yeah, when I come back I promise to post everything that I have been up to lately and maybe even some kangaroo pictures!

See you soon! Oh, and don't let the Dingo eat yah baby.

Flowery Goodness

I couldn't sleep the night before last, so I made a pillow.

To create this pillow I followed this simple tutorial over at Design*Sponge which shows you how to sew a zipper onto a pillow. Once I had my pillow stuffed, I got to work on the felt flowers.

First, you want to cut circles out of your felt. One sheet of felt produced about 6 circles. I haphazardly cut out the circles, it doesn't matter if they aren't perfect.

Next, I folded each circle into fours creating a nice little scrunched petal and stitch the bottom to keep its shape.

Once you have all of your little scrunched petals you want to gather about 5-6 petals and stitched them all together to form a bunch. I then attached tiny safety pins to the back of the bunch.

Finally, just pin the flowers onto the pillow. Tah-Dah!

Cost Breakdown

1/2 yard of fabric = $7

16" zipper = $1.50

3 sheets of felt = $1

pillow form = $3

TOTAL COST = $12.50

 
The fabric is called Courtyard Pumpkin and was purchased at Jo-Ann Fabrics. Sorry, but I couldn't find it on their website.

Looking back at my receipt they charged me for a full yard of fabric instead of 1/2 yard. Clearly I need to pay more attention at the register because this isn't the first time they do this. Their entire fabric checkout system needs to be reworked. Bah!

FEATURED ON

 

LINKED TO

Twice in One Day!

I've been featured again! Oh My!

This time over at kara paslay designs.

I'm totally on cloud 9. This is so totally super awesomely exciting!

Check out her blog, she has some wonderful ideas. Many of which I plan on copying!