Falling into November

I don't know where October went.  Halloween is tomorrow, which as a married adult with no children, isn't as much fun as I remember in years passed.  Not losing my love, is fall.  The holidays are right around the corner, the scenery is changing, and I tend to increase the baking.  Today I baked a Apple Walnut Pie... I hope it turned out, otherwise, I quit trying to make pie.

Also, today, the hubby assisted me in a shopping trip to Shoprite.  They had some pretty good deals this week, but nothing compared to my trip to Rite Aid.  I took a picture of what I bought, and planned on showing how I did it, but there were a lot of personal products purchased, so I will forgo the list.  I will tell you that I spent less than $30 and saved over $50.  I am getting the hang of this!

I decided to put up links for some awesome websites I found.  I think they are going to be an excellent resource with Christmas right around the corner.

Awesome websites for online shopping:
Shop at Home: Do your internet shopping through this site and get coupon codes and CASH BACK! (Totally worth signing up!)
No More Rack : has 8 deals a day, up to 100% off. (Yes, 100% off!)
One Sale A Day: has 5 deals a day, also up to 100% off!
One Kings Lane: Excellent clearance prices for household decorations, accessories, etc.

Most importantly, today my mommy had chest tubes put in to help with the fluid in her lungs.  She is in a lot of pain, and trying to rest, so I have been resisting the urge to text her and call her every five minutes.  Thank you for all your prayers.

I realize this all sounds frantic and sporadic, but this post pretty much reflects how my brain has been functioning lately.  I am scatter-brained, and for that, I am sorry.  Until next time, which is hopefully after a long night of deep sleep. :-)

Bedroom Reveal.. Finally!

So today's blog is more of a picture blog.  When we saw this house for the first time, the "master bedroom" looked like this:

Notice the room color, the 3x3 closet to the left of the bed, and if you look closely, you may see the wood paneling. 

When we moved in the empty room looked like this (different angle):

More wood paneling, old windows, beige carpet.

Now that the bedroom is done, this is what it looks like:

We got new windows installed about a year ago, but the rest just happened in the last month.  Wall color is dramatically different, which I think makes the room look larger.  It also is a good contrast to our darker furniture.  I used a storage bench that I bought in college for underneath our window. 

Mirror was purchased at Marshall's for twenty bucks, the vase in the corner was clearance at TJ Maxx for ten bucks, then got the branches 50% off at AC Moore.  The lamps were twenty-five dollars each at JC Pennys and the nightstands were part of a coffee table/ end table stand that my mom bought at a yard sale for ten bucks and I painted black.

Now, as my husband is trying to show you, my dad and I removed the old closet (it was where hubby is standing).  We then took the closet all the way back to the peak of the roof.  Instead of spending an arm and a leg on custom doors for the closet, I bought a sliding panel curtain system at Ikea for less than one hundred bucks:

I bought a freestanding Elfa closet system at the Container Store and put it on furniture sliders so it can be easily moved around... why do I want to move my closet you may be wondering... 

Behind the closet is our new storage area... it is much, much larger than the picture shows because it is actually L-shaped, so....

It is storage behind this wall too!

When we moved the walls, we had to replace the carpeting, so my new Berber carpet matches very well, not only the bedroom, but the carpet in the hallway:

After all the turmoil involved in the carpet resulting in dramatic money saving, the new carpet for the whole room was $422  (I saved nearly 50%!) and it was money that was left over from the wedding, so it technically didn't cost us anything... even better!

Total cost for the room renovation:  Dramatically cheaper than I expected! (The baseboard was the most expensive thing, I think.) 

Any questions, suggestions?

What's your name again?

Today I embarked on the extreme adventure of changing my last name (as far as the government paperwork is concerned).  As if having to sit at the DMV isn't enough of a test of any ones patience, I had to start at the Social Security office, then proceed to the DMV.  After a very pleasant woman there told me I needed my birth certificate, when indeed I did not, I just went to a different DMV; one that said woman was not at, and one that I did not need my birth certificate at. 

After spending most of my day changing who I am, I decided to get everything done while I was out and visit the grocery store.  Since last nights dinner of shrimp tacos with homemade guacamole was such a success (and really good! Let me know if you want the recipe), I decided to try something different.  . . . I spent nearly an hour standing in the middle of Acme trying to think of something "Weight Watcher friendly" that my husband would eat.  We are going all American tonight!  Mushroom and swiss turkey burgers with Mac & Cheese and a cucumber salad (ok, and guacamole again... love that stuff!)  Of course, as I sit here I am eating the equivalent of an entire watermelon, but it's zero points, so I'm diving in!

I came home to a wagging dog in a quite house, like I usually do.  I think if my dog could talk he would say, "Ah, I am so glad you are home!! And, now I am going to go lay back down."  I think he needs a girlfriend.

Determined to be super-productive, like a good at home wife should be (I'm being sarcastic), I decided to finish painting the guest room.  I don't know why we have a guest room... it's looking really nice... maybe we will have to have some guests over sometime.  Anyone? I get so excited to start new projects, or to change little details to make the house completely our design, but then as soon as the paint brush is in my hand and I have put just enough on the wall that there is no turning back, I think "this is never as much fun as I think it will be".  Yet, the end result is pretty awesome every time.  Sunday when I was painting, the scary thought went through my head "why am I painting over the blue... what if we have a boy in a few years, I don't want to paint this room again!"  I guess if that were to happen I could always use pregnancy as an excuse to get someone else to paint it.

Now, I am just waiting for the paint to dry.