Home Plans: The Kitchen

Since I want to get back into regular cooking and baking I want a nice kitchen. The kitchen that is currently in our house is very rough. It has years of built up grease from my great-grandmother's daily tortillas and is in major need of a facelift.
I am happy to report that Luke got started yesterday and I can hopefully share pics within a couple weeks :)
But for now, I want to share with you all how we plan to remodel our kitchen for under $300. Yes that's right, $300! No, I am not missing any zeroes there. Remember we live on a super tiny budget and there's no way we could spend anymore than that per room. So here's how we are going to do it and where I am finding inspiration. And of course I will share a complete budget breakdown once we are done and all pennies have been counted...

So how are we going to do all that for just $300? Well for starters we are using what we already have!
Instead of buying all new cabinets, we are refinishing what we have with chalkboard paint we are mixing ourselves courtesy of Martha Stewart. The gritty texture will also help hide any imperfections and wear in the wood. Since my father-in-law, JD, is in construction, he was able to hook us up with all the brass door pulls we could ever need for FREE!
Moving down the wall, we are installing tin ceiling tiles for our backsplash. I've found a company online that actually makes them for backsplashes and we will do a nice clear coat of rustoleum over it to prevent any future rusting.
After much debate, we decided on white ceramic tiles for the countertop. This worked out nice since my dad had most of them and we just needed to pick up a couple extra and the trim tile.
The sink we had was a nice cast iron baby in a 70's avocado green color. I have decided to refinish it with Rustoleum's Tub & Tile Epoxy refinish kit. This will leave it with a nice glossy white finish. We are also looking into picking up a high arc faucet on ebay if JD doesn't find one sooner.
Plus we are getting a new to us fridge! My parents have just order a new one so they will be sending over their old one to us. Right now it is off-white, but a couple coats of appliance refinisher will help it match right in.
I can't wait to see it all done and together and share pics! What do you all think of our plans?
(sources: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.)

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard

Delacorte Books for Young Readers (March 13, 2012)

ISBN-10: 0385739370

ISBN-13: 978-0385739375

Age 14+

352 pages

Buy Here for $11.98

My Rating: 5/5

Welcome Home

So we have officially moved and have been working on settling in. Of course with my work and our pioneer schedule the remodeling plans and work has been slow going :-/ 

Craft, Inc. vs. Creative, Inc.

vs. 

As a small creative industry business owner, Craft, Inc. and Creative, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco were at the top of my "to read" lists. But my big question before buying each was whether they were different enough to merit reading/owning both books or if they were interchangeable.

Weekly Intentions: May 13

So we have finally moved! Now begins the process of settling in and the audacious journey of house remodeling. More details on that to come. Here is what I hope to accomplish this week:

• Have lunch with Sofi
• Have dinner with Lyzette
• Work on invitation suite orders fro Jaime, Christy, and Meaghan
• Begin refinishing kitchen cabinets (inspiration)

• Start organizing/decorating my office (inspiration)

• Design 2 new invitation suites for Spring/Summer 2013 collection
• Get back into routine of cooking dinners (inspiration)

• Look for a farm cat to adopt (inspiration)

Surviving Our Lack of Internet Connectivity

So I don't think it's any seceret that a large part of who I am and what I do is based online. And for the last 2 weeks we have not had internet access outside of a measily 200 mb for work emails and crucial business matters O_O
So please forgive the absense but it has truly been impossible to blog. I wanted to steal a moment though while I am mooching off my Aunt's wifi to check in. We are alive. We head south on Saturday. And my internet down time has provided a great opportunity to focus on work.
I have finalized my Business Plan for this year and have some pretty exciting things up my sleeve as regards that. I just have to finally settle into a schedule again so I can work out kinks, marketing, and preparitions, etc.
I also hope to check in next week with the full story on our move, house and before pics so you guys can follow along as we venture into home remodeling :)
Well that's all folks! Thanks for sticking around ;)

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral
Razorbill (February 2, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1595144358
ISBN-13: 978-1595144355
304 pages
Ages 14+
Buy Here for $13.59
My Rating: 2/5

Ideas to Expand my Business this Year

So one of my goals for this year is to expand my business in some way. The problem is there are so many things I want to try and do! Here is the preliminary list of ventures I could try and I plan to work my way through the pros and cons of each over the next month or so. Because after all without direction, my dream will never be a reality.

Home Palette Thursdays

{image source}

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Quirk Books; Book Club edition (June 7, 2011)
ISBN-10:1594744769
ISBN-13:978-1594744761
Age 14 +
352 pages
Buy Here for $12.23
My Rating: 5/5

Weekly Intentions: April 15

So this week is packing week and there is no way I will have time for personal projects. Therefore I have no intentions other than to have our trailer loaded and headed south on Thursday.
I was able to accomplish most of my intentions last week plus I made my own detergent and deodorant. I definitely want to post my reviews of each once the trial process is over :)

Yard Sale Fridays

So almost every Friday we like to visit the yard sales in the area. I of course am always on the look out for a great deal and I have scored some pretty sweet items over the past couple years. I thought a fun new feature would be to share what I find each trip.
Today was a big community wide sale and we were able to spend about 2.5 hours going from sale to sale. Here is what I was able to snatch up:

Men's Dress Shirt (for my dad/ NWT) = $1
2 Nicholas Sparks Books (for invitations) = $1
Baby Onesie & Hat (for shower) = $.50
Set of 18 Elle Headbands (NWT) = $1
Summer: A User's Guide (NWT) = $.25
Chopsticks (ARC) = $.25
Giggle Guide to Baby Gear (NWT) = $.25
Vintage Weddings (NWT) = $.25
Remake it Home (NWT) = $.25
A Big Pot (for detergent making) = $.25
Total = $5

Home Palette Thursdays

{image source}

Things I Love Tuesday: The Braid Edition

Since I have finally learned how to braid my hair, I wanted to share all the lovely braided hair styles that I can't wait to try! Of course I'll have to wait for longer hair for some of these :-/

• The Side Braid

Green Smoothie Day 1

So today I had my first green smoothie. I have been hearing about the benefits of them for the past few years from Sara at Feeding the Soil. So when Elsie at A Beautiful Mess posted about her 5 day green smoothie challenge with recipes I decided to finally give it a try.
For starters I am a big smoothie fan. The only reason I don't drink them more is because I hate cleaning out my blender after :-/ So I figured a smoothie with some greens wouldn't be so bad.
Well for my first one it wasn't awful but it also wasn't as delicious as some of the more fruity counterparts I've made :(
Tomorrow I am going to try one with peaches and oats so hopefully that will be yummier and less spinachy tasting...
Here's my recipe:
2 Handfuls Fresh Spinach
1 Can Crushed Pineapple
1 Small Banana
1 Tbs Honey
1 Cup Red Ruby Grapefruit Juice
Handful of Ice

Weekly Intentions: April 8

So last week I only accomplished 3 of my intentions :-/ But it was an insane week with work and my schedule got totally thrown off with the weather anomalies O_O I had only 9 hours of sleep combined over the 2 nights heading into the weekend. I had heartburn all week due to stress from work which is finally over. So despite my intention failure I am proud of my other non-listed accomplishments last week. I am rolling the other 4 over to this week because I do want to do them in addition to a few other things.

• Start on packing preparations for Mom
• Drink at least 3 green smoothies (inspiration)

• Get back to working on All You Need Is Love

• Prepare a new art journal (inspiration)

• Update our living growing family scrapbook (inspiration)

• Review a book (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children)

• Dye my own nylons (inspiration)

My First French Braid

After 22 years of life I have finally learned how to french braid my hair. At least inside out french braid it :)
Thanks to ...love Maegan and her beautiful how to video I was able to rock this 'do to the Memorial this year!

Home Palette Thursdays

{image source}

Windswept

Photo by Tina Lowry
East of Sulphur Springs off I-30

So if you haven't paid attention to the news today, the DFW Metroplex got slammed by as many as 12 tornadoes today. Now I don't check the weather everyday so when we left our house around noon, I had no clue anything was brewing.
We made our way to Rockwall to run errands and shortly after reaching our 2nd destination my friend's mom texts me about the tornado warning. I of course had no clue what she was talking about and figured we were far enough east that we were ok.

Weekly Intentions: April 1st

• Prepare a new art journal (inspiration)

• Update our living growing family scrapbook (inspiration)

• Review a book
• Make a pair of barefoot sandals (inspiration)

• Find a memorial outfit (inspiration)

• Spend time with family
• Dye my own nylons (inspiration)