Meals for the week

 My husband and I have been planning our weekly menus for almost a year now (with a few weeks/month here and there that we didn't get it done).  I find it so much easier to make a meal when I know exactly what we're going to have, I have the ingredients on hand, and I'm not facing the four o' clock hour with no plan on hand.   4-5 pm around here is not a good time to have to scramble for ideas--with two little ones who are getting hungry and need a change of scenery, it can be loud and usually chaotic.

I had some time in the last few days to sit down and write out a menu for the next two weeks and I have to say, it brings such peace!  I know many people have much more sophisticated systems and are so much more organized, but for me this is a big thing.  My husband loves it because he knows ahead of time what to expect for supper--he even planned menus for a while which I LOVED because while I don't dislike planning out our meals, it is nice to have it just done and ready for the week ahead.  It was also fun because he looked around on the internet and found some recipes I normally would not have been drawn to but that we ended up really liking.

Yesterday I made these chicken enchiladas which are really quite good although I was originally skeptical.  Tonight I baked a squash and potatoes from our garden and made crusted venison steaks.  I'm not normally a wild game sort of person...I never really like that 'gamey' flavor, but these really tasted mostly like beef so I enjoyed them.  My husband's dad gives us a lot of duck/goose/venison every year so it is great to find a recipe that we all like that is easy! 
Tomorrow I'm trying a new recipe from the blog Tidy Mom called Honey and Soy Baked Chicken.  It looks so good!

via

I love reading cookbooks so I'm always finding new recipes...the trouble is I rarely write down where I found the recipe so I don't remember it when I need to! 

Do you plan a weekly menu?  If so, do tell!  I'm always looking for more ideas on how to do it more efficiently.

Blessings,
Elizabeth

Colors from nature

Colors from nature are so soothing!  A while back I found these templates on the Coffeeshop Blog and since my sweet husband got me Photoshop Elements, I was able to use them to get some color palettes from pictures I have taken of my flower garden.  I think it just makes it more interesting to bring the colors from right outside the house into the house.  Now, this would definitely not be as colorful at this time of the year, but maybe for a white/brown/neutral palette?  Hmm. 

Since I'm on a purple kick, I'll start with this one:

Then this:

 

More fall toned:

This one is not technically from outside the house--it is my sister's wedding bouquet:

The sky's the limit!  I tried to find some with more blue in them but I didn't have any on my computer.  Now I don't imagine all of these colors would necessarily look good on a wall, but it is definitely fun to play around with them!

I've been rather obsessed with color at the moment...can you tell?


Blessings,
Elizabeth

I love purple!!

via http://www.decodir.com/tag/beautiful-purple-dining-room/

If you haven't already guessed, the color purple is one of my absolute favorites.  I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but almost every shade is beautiful to me--at least in moderation.   It has been difficult to find pictures for inspiration though until the last couple of months.  It seems everyone but me was on a turquoise/orange/coral/grey kick (don't get me wrong, I really like those colors too!!!  And I do have them in my house.) and I couldn't find nice-looking purple rooms anywhere.  I am in the process of purple-ifying our living room and was really hitting a roadblock when it came to visualizing what I wanted.  Then today I went to the library and checked out the Oct. 2011 issue of House Beautiful.  And look what I found!!!

Purple goodness!!

via www.housebeautiful.com

via www.housebeautiful.com

via www.housebeautiful.com

They are just so springlike and fresh and modern yet traditional.  I want my living room to look like that (minus the modern artwork...not a big fan).  I'm excited to use these for some ideas. 

Blessings,
Elizabeth

PS:  to those who design for Joann fabrics, or really any fabric store:  please come up with some nice purple patterned home decor fabric!!  I haven't been able to find any that was within my budget for new curtains.  :( Thank you!

Free Printable Beatitudes

A while back I made this printable of the beatitudes to put up on our living room wall.  I've been trying to incorporate more scripture passages into our everyday surroundings so that the kids will be familiar with them as they grow older.  This is one of my favorites!

If you would like, you may download them for your personal use.  I made aqua-ish, purple, coral, and grey ones in the hopes that the colors will jive with some part of your decor!

I used the purple and it goes great with the color scheme I'm slowly working toward.  They print out to 11X14 at full size; I went to FedEx and got them printed there for around 1.50 apiece.   

Download links are below all the images. 

Aqua Beatitudes
Grey Beatitudes
Purple Beatitudes
Coral Beatitudes

If there are other colors that you would like to see, let me know!  

What I'm thinking of today...

As I look out my window at the dreary winter brown and white, I dream of this:

viabluehourstudio.blogspot.com

This:

via thisoldhouse.com

And this:

via gardenvisit.com

And I couldn't resist thinking of these fresh from the garden:

via yougrowgirl.com

It's getting to be that time of the year when seed catalogs arrive and dreams begin for a summer of color and flavor!  I'll be checking plant books out from the library and making flower bed plans in the next few weeks.  I'm excited!

Blessings,
Elizabeth

Our home

Meet our home.

(Last winter, before we removed most of the awnings)

Our house is a 1927 one-and-a-half story stucco with lots of charm--but also lots of things that need to be updated.  The previous owner, a lovely elderly lady by all accounts, did very little updating since the 70s (?) resulting in carpet in every. room. of. the. house., wood paneling (not the good kind!) almost everywhere, blue plastic tile on the bathroom walls, and an extremely ugly kitchen. 

Since we were married I have been on a mission to improve and we started right in by removing the carpet in the kitchen (!) and replacing it with ceramic tile, then turning that sea of awful dark wood paneling in there into a more clean looking white finish.  The half bath on the first floor (a very tiny room indeed) was the next to get a revamp...we also removed the carpet and tiled it in slate, tore out all the walls down to the studs, and sheet-rocked it.  We also had it re-wired so that there was an actual light switch on the wall (and a plug-in, what a luxury!) as before you had to turn a knob on the wall light to get some illumination.  It is so rewarding when a project turns out the way you want!  I still cringe at the thought of what it used to be. 

I won't go into detail now about the other projects we have undertaken on the house both inside and out, but suffice to say we have improved and updated it a lot although there is much left to do! 

One of the reasons I wanted to write a blog was to document all the improvements we did to the house so that I could look back and say, wow, we did do a lot!!  'Cause sometimes it doesn't seem like it gets done fast enough.  :)

I'm looking forward to sharing our house evolution with you!

Blessings,
Elizabeth