Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Halloween (or any other holiday) Treats

I love to follow health and beauty "gurus" on youtube and one of these days I hope to start doing them myself!

But in the meantime... I thought I would share this recipe that I saw on one of the girls channels that I follow, they looks delish and once I get settled into the new house, you better believe I will be making these for the holidays!!

Below are healthy versions of three extremely popular candies... Almond Joy, PB Cup and Peppermint Patties!  

Also, check out her channel on YouTube, she is fun to watch!



Happy Halloween!! 

XOXO - B

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

MIA

So I have been a little MIA from blogging due to numerous things going on in my life... literally within two weeks...

We had a death in the family... and went to Boston on October 16 for the service for my uncles life partner, David.  Such a sad time for the family- as we hate to see my uncle in pain. Rest in Peace, you will be missed.





Then on October 17 (my grandmother, who has passed, birthday) we welcomed my beautiful nephew August into this world!  I have heard it said before, that when there is death, there is birth... this was a bittersweet moment, I felt kind of guilty to be so happy and excited, but he is my first nephew by blood and let me tell you, Melissa and Ben did a GOOD job!  He is such a beautiful baby!  I wanted to post a pic of them all, but my sister would not allow it. ;)






I then had a last minute wedding to do hair and makeup for October 19... these are just two of the five wonderful ladies I did hair and makeup for.  


I also did hair and makeup for a Halloween Ball... Poison Ivy...


I also got to do my own hair and makeup for a halloween party, which was fun dressing up for and spending time with my lady friends!  Me- Kat Von D, Liza- pirate wench, Jen- Amy Ferrah Fowler.



Then I celebrated my friend Dez's 30th Birthday.


Took some photos for my dear friend Liza, her mother, and their Canadian friend who was in town....




Then of course, we are still working on the house... the contractors are FINALLY done... an "8 day project" got turned into a month and a half...  but we are just glad it is done!! 


The ceiling is finally patched.  


We picked out these light fixtures for each of the rooms (thank you Sarah Reilly)! 


I FINALLY decided on a bathroom color and I love it!! It looks slate blue here, however, it is actually called Sage Gray and is suppose to have a green tint to it.  


We had our nephews final soccer game of the season to go to, where he scored like a champ! 


We cleaned our house like crazy to get it ready to move into, and set up the moving truck and friends to help us move November 2.


This was our first lunch/dinner, just the two of us, in our kitchen/dining room.  Notice, the table is plywood, and what you cannot see is the horses holding it.  

Then last night Marc and I spent our first night in our house for our One Year Wedding Anniversary.  I made a nice stew and brought it to the house for dinner, which I was going to heat in the over, however, we didn't have pot holders, I forgot a serving spoon and eating spoons and I forgot bowls.  So... pizza it was... Hawaiian! YUM!  We do not have internet or tv yet, so it was a nice night just the two of us.  We read our guestbook "rocks" and laughed a lot.  We drank wine and played games, and just enjoyed each others company.  


And we had a bite of our wedding cake... whoever's idea it was to save the cake top for a year in the freezer and eat it, not so hot!  I don't know about everyone else's but ours was NASTYYYYYYYY.  It was super dry and tasted freezer burned.  Although Marc said the frosting was still delish and wanted to put it back in the freezer for our next anniversaries together, which I DID NOT agree to.  HA! 





So now it is just a matter of packing up our apartment, moving in the house and then getting everything put together! 

I hope you enjoyed this quick life update and all the pictures!! 

XOXO- B

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Comment

Good evening friends!

Tonight is a quick post.  I am curious as to how many people I know are reading my blog.  If you are reading this, would you just take a moment to comment down below so I know you are reading it?  

Also, if you have any suggestions for things I should blog about beauty or health wise or whatever, please feel free to let me know.

Thanks!!

XOXO- B

Friday, October 11, 2013

Color Help PLEASEEEEEEEEEE??

Okay so for the most part picking out paint colors for the house has been fairly easy.  I knew what I was going for and I did not even buy a million samples like my mom always does (sorry mom!).  But for some reason, I am stumped on the last room that needs to be painted.  

This is where I need your input.  Below are pictures of the towels, light/vent, the vanity/sink and our tile we chose. Now it is a matter of picking a color.  



These are our towels that we got for our wedding and are in storage until we get into the house.  So I am def. going with gray towels.


This is the vanity we chose.  And it has a white sink.  We also chose a white tub and a white toilet.


This is our floor tile... it looks bluish here but it is not.  It has white, ivory, gray and brown tones in it.


This is the shower wall tile... ivory, white, browns and grays once again.


And we will have a border of this tile eye level to break up the big tiles a bit. Same color scheme.


For our light we went with a bronze tone to tie into the vanity a bit, however, our sink furnishing and any other handles/knobs are brushed nickel.

So now picking the wall color is what is throwing me off.  I feel like because we did such neutral colors for all the fixtures and tiles that I should paint the wall a color that stands out, pops a bit!  However, I am afraid I am going to get tired of it after a while and I really do not want to have to deal with painting it again.

I keep thinking either coral and gray, a soft orange and gray or like turquoise and gray... but I do not know.

So with walls, I was thinking neutral... and then I could accessorize with pops of colors... and then if I get sick of the colors I choose in a year or so and the shower curtain, I could easily change it out but not have to paint the walls. But is that a bad idea?  I do not want the bathroom to look flat if I do too many neutrals.  

Please give me your in put as to what color you think I should go.  Below are just a few of the neutrals that stood out to me.


Living Beach 



Living Caraway


Living Hickory


Living Natural Twine


Pumpkin Seed


Tobacco Leaf

Do you like any of these?  Or should I go with a bright wall??

Lastly, just to fill you in on the status of us getting into our house... the contractors possibly have a plumber lined up to come in next Tuesday. Once he is done and the plumbing inspector comes, they can start to put our bathroom back together again which could take them another 4-5 days potentially... so looks as if we probably will not be able to move into until the last week of October. Soooo.... yeah!  That is about it.  

Feel free to message me on fb the color you like, or leave a comment here.  

Thanks !  XOXO - B


Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Halfway there...??

Hello!

So it has been over a week since I posted about the house and I am guessing we are about halfway there (???)...

Last week the floors got done and they look amazingggggggg!  I was quite nervous about the stain we picked out, but I love it.


The above picture is the color we chose.  It is Golden Oak by Minwax.  Marc wanted natural and I wanted a bit darker, so we compromised and here is the before...


and here is the after... looks good, huh?


I also mentioned in previous posts that I had to pick out vinyl for the kitchen floor because the previous owners patched it with three different types of woods and we were told it wouldn't look so hot refinished. So until we can afford something nicer, vinyl=budget friendly.  

Here is is the one I went with and I LOVE it.  The colors really tie in the cabinet color I chose, the kitchen and dining room walls and it even looks nice next to the hardwood flooring (at least I think it does).


Here is a picture of the finished cabinets and the floor.  I still have to paint the paneling in the kitchen so disregard that gross looking stuff...


We had to have the chimney liner replaced... not very interesting but here is a picture of that.


We also had to have our side stairs fixed because there was rotting wood (yes I know the stairs are crooked... it was like that when we bought it)...


As well as replace the shutters and do it in a more efficient way so that the water would go elsewhere than on the house.


The contractors tore down the deck and stairs here (safety issue, as I believe I mentioned) and closed the upper deck with some of the wood from the lower deck, so now it is a balcony, until we can afford to rebuild it.



We also had to have some cracks filled as well in order to get the loan.  Looks attractive doesn't it??


My wonderful husband and father-in-law also went up this past weekend to seed and mow the lawn, as well as rip out the bush that was in the front of the house and overhanging into the driveway.  Soooo happy it is gone!


This is my view from the recliner, at 6:45am, in our garage while I was waiting on the HUD inspector to come out.  You get to see the beautiful fall foliage and the cute house across the street from us! 


And lastly, a shameless selfie of me... I was bored waiting for him and thought my outfit was cute so I figured I would try.  


So now it is just finishing some scraping and painting on the exterior, fixing a window, and getting us our bathroom so we can MOVEEEEEEEEEEE IN!!!!!   I hope to be in by Marc's and my 1 year Anniversary. And while I really want to be in sooner, I thought it might be nice for us to spend our first night there on our anniversary (10-28) if it takes longer than anticipated.

The next blog post I will be sharing my paint colors with you, and I will also need your help.  I cannot decide on a bathroom color, so I will be posting some options and please please please give me your vote!

XOXO- B