A few afters...

I posted a few before pics the other day of our home. So here are a few after pics or really, in progress pictures. Now I just want to explain that everything done was to pretty much get us in the house. The kitchen is not actually completed. We still need a toe kick for under the cabinets and one of the windows has not been re framed. I have also decided that I don't actually like the colors chosen for the kitchen. One other thing... I'm not Mrs. Hyper Homemaker. My house is clean, but is definitely lived in and often not spotless.

This above picture is of the kitchen. As you can see below I do not have much counter top space. The window in the picture below is the one that needs to be re framed. To the right of the sink there are a two cabinets up top and two below. The counter top area holds our microwave and there's just enough room for my dish drainer. My counter top... we went with Formica. We didn't see a reason to put something super nice since there is very little room to expand and as terrible as this sounds, we figure the next owners my just gut it, and perhaps expand out into the backyard. We personally don't have the $ or time to do such a thing so we didn't. Anyway... I am pleased with the counter top we did chose. I think it goes well with the cabinets. If only we could have stainless appliances!

This is the other side of the kitchen. We are currently using the table and benches Phillip's parents used when he was little. We aren't really sure what kind of table and chairs would best go here? Round? Square? The writing on the wall is from Uppercase Living. It was all one line and I didn't really know where to put it so I cut it into three sections and put it on the wall this way hoping it would fill the space. Like I said, I don't really like the colors I chose when we first got the house. Since we've been there almost two years, I've had the chance to really think about what I want. The Master bedroom. The writing on the wall is actually the vinyl decals from Uppercase Living. And I know...our curtains don't match. It's a long story, but I just had to make do with what I had. I got the duvet on the bed at Walmart for $20. I love it... I would like to change the wall colors to reflect it more, but not sure what I want. This is the chest at the end of our bed that holds all of our bedding. I bought this from a gal at work for $35. It's about 200 years old and came over from England. I love that we have this piece, even if it doesn't really go with anything. Ha ha. I lined it with some old sheets so we could store our extra pillows, covers, etc...This is in our room as well. It's my dressing area. I got the desk/vanity & chair for $65 at a place in town. It's black right now, but I plan on painting it a mocha brown. I'm also trying to find a mirror that I could attach to it. Right now I just use my full length mirror so I can do my hair.
This is our hobby room painted blue. Boy it's bright. The lime green was cute and I think we would have kept it, but the walls were so dirty! I must have really liked blue when we first bought the house.So that's all for now. We aren't really finished with these rooms yet, but I think they're much better than they were. We know that we can't afford huge reno's, but we're taking it as we can. I think the most difficult thing is finding out what our style is. I thought I knew, but I can't seem to make up my mind on a lot of things.

House Pics Before

So... I thought I would post some pics of our house BEFORE we touched it... Actually, these were taken with my FIL's camera phone while he and my husband (fiance at the time) were taking a look at it. Shortly after they toured the house, they bid on it without my knowing! So... I wouldn't have picked this house, but I can't complain! I am blessed to even be a co-homeowner with my darling husband and it gives us something to work on (Other than getting used to being married to someone. Ha!). So yeah... we've done some work on the house since these pics. Not a ton... but it's a process and part of our journey. ;o) Here are the pics:

Our House

This is before Phil pulled out the little fence around the front of the bushes. The posts were hammered about 3 feet into the ground. There are actually still a few posts that we can't get out, we're waiting for softer ground. We are thinking of either painting the awnings(Cheapo solution) or taking them off and putting up shutters. What do ya'll think?The Living Room with all of the previous owners furnitureThe Kitchen... is has been painted and my dad put in new cabinets, counter top, new sink, etc... Pictures to come.The kitchen from the doorway.Our Bathroom-The one and only. We haven't done much in here... YET! It's one of my goals to work on this year.This is the "Office" and it's really really small. I do believe it was meant to be a nursery. I suppose it will be perfect for that, when that time comes.The "Master" Bedroom, if you can call it that. Right now we have a Queen size bed in it and there's not much else you can put in there...

The Stairway-This leads up to two small bedrooms and a small cedar lined closet. Almost Narnia-ish. Haha...This is our Hobby room. Phil likes to refer to it as our "studio" Not much happens up here since we're trying to keep costs low and only heat the main floor. But this spring I'm sure I'll be up there zipping along on my sewing machine. Oh and this very bright neon green has been exchanged for a bright blue... didn't realize it would be so bright when looking at the paint chip. Oh well.

There is another room upstairs that I don't have a before picture for. But we haven't done a single thing in that room yet because, well... money is tight. Plus it has kind of become the room where we put all things that don't have a place yet.

This is the basement. It's a mess. Like I wish I never had to go down there mess. Most of the stuff you see in the picture has been removed. However now it holds all of the boxes from appliances, the cabinets, the fridge, microwave, small appliances etc... we really need to give it a good cleaning. I'm afraid this task is last on my list however. Does anyone have a power washer we can borrow? This poor basement has taken on about 60 years of filth. Ick!

That concludes the BEFORE of our home... The AFTERS are to come!

I ended up taking Wednesday off work. I was so very tired, and really didn't feel like being on the phone, staring at a computer screen under fluorescent lights for 8 hours... with a massive headache.
I'm feeling somewhat better. I haven't heard back from the Dr. yet and of course I remember to call when they take their 2 hour lunch break! 2 hours! I just don't understand that.
Anyway... Yesterday I went to Goodwill. I've been trying to frequent such stores in hopes of finding some good deals! And I like to think I found somewhat of a deal yesterday. Flannel sheets from Target-brand new-usually $19.99 and I got them for $8.50. Not too bad, right? I also found this awesome Orangey-Paisley card box. It has dividers for different occasions and an extra pocket for stamps, pens etc... for $2. It holds all of my cards and they're finally organized! Before I just kept them all in this box that was way too small and it was just a mess. Yay for organization. ;o) Along with the card talk, I'm going to the store on my lunch and I'm buying cards for every single occasion we have on our calendar so far. That seems ridiculous, I know, but the cards I already have are for special occasions like births, weddings, sympathy, and so on. So I'm buying cards for birthdays & a couple of anniversaries.
Tomorrow is the day I step foot in Bed, Bath, & Beyond for the very first time! Woo! I've only ever shopped online at that store and I'm really excited to actually go in the store. I have a lot of organizational needs that must be met and I think this store will suffice! I told Phillip to be prepared to hear the words, "I want it!" a lot. I know it's ridiculous to think I've never been there before, but my mother was always a Walmart gal-one stop shopping. We didn't even go to Target! I'd like to think I've done well transitioning into a shopper/bargain hunter... Other than my past, we don't really have a lot of great stores around here. We have to drive at least a half hour to find a store that doesn't say "Mart" at the end of it's name. We will also be going to Hobby Lobby... this store makes my heart skip a beat. AND I have a gift card. Woot woot! I'm going to pick up some yarn for a crocheting project I have in mind. I had told Phil that I couldn't' buy any more yarn, absolutely couldn't. But I am. ;o)
Sorry this was such a rambling post... it seems that's the only way my brain works anymore. I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!

CT Scan

I had the CT Scan tonight. I have been having headaches quite often lately. I had one yesterday and then during all of today I had one as well. It started getting worst and I had pressure behind my left eye again. I went through the scan which was not as bad as I was thinking. It went very quick and was almost relaxing. But it seemed that my headache was amplified afterwards. By the time I got home there was such a severe pressure behind my right eye I could barely take it and all I could see out of my left eye was blurriness. I rested on the couch, took some meds and fell asleep, only to wake up about a half hour later with an even more excruciating headache than before. I took more meds, drank hot tea, put a warm rag on my face and sat in the dark. I decided to take the hottest shower possible and boy has it helped. I am still sitting in near darkness other than our laptop screens emitting light. Never in my life have I had such pain in my head. I mean... I thought I was going to lose it. But as I said, I'm feeling better now. There's still a dull ache, but I will take some more meds as the doc suggested and I'll go to bed. I'm just praying this will stop soon and everything will be back to normal if not better. Please pray for me too!
Thank you!
Goodnight. ;o)

Random

So for some reason I took up a liking for butter dishes. Or at least, glass ones. Anyway... I went to our local antique/thrift shop and could not find one! I've looked at Goodwill (Which by the way, all you ladies out there who go to Goodwill all the time and find some awesome stuff are lucky!! Ours don't carry nothin'!) and obviously did not find anything. The only thing that caught my eye were some wedding invitations. Of course I don't need those... but I thought I could have possibly used them for my parent's 25th Wedding Anniversary. Then I thought how inappropriate it would be. I mean, you wouldn't be able to tell... but I digress.

So anyway... I am looking for something like this:

It doesn't seem that most department stores or places like Target or Walmart really carry these kinds of dishes anymore. And if a department store carries one, it's crystal and defnitely more than what I've budgeted for this small prize. Anyway... if any of you have any idea of where I could find one of these... please let me know! Especially if it's at a major retail store and it's under $10! ;o) I'm sure I just haven't looked enough. I'm very impatient when it comes to these things.

I did find one item I'm in love with! It was great to see that someone else collects animals: All Bower Power. I should post a picture of my find! I found a wooden giraffe for $4. It's definitely unique.

I went to the Dr. Friday. She gave me some antibiotic for an infection I have in my sinuses. She wasn't sure that the infection is what's causing the dizziness so I am having a CT scan tomorrow night. I'm praying that nothing is found and the antibiotic helps and I stop experiencing the dizziness. ;o) I will post about it when I find out anything.

My party went well! If anyone is interested in looking at the jewelry or buying something you can go here: http://mysilpada.com/lisa.troglio If you do buy, please mention me as the hostess...Yes so I can get closer to getting rewards! (Maybe that's selfish... but I'd do it for you. I promise! (o; ) They are somewhat expensive... okay, they are very expensive. I spend like $5 on earrings, I'm a cheapo. But there is one ring that I just love! I've tried finding something similar for almost a year and couldn't find anything. So I saved up my money and even if I don't get enough orders to get "reward jewelry" I will still be able to buy my ring. Mostly family came to the party and even though I only had one order from them... I had a blast spending time with them. I also have a clean house now, always a plus.

Otherwise the weekend has been great. Too short even though we had Monday off. I didn't do much today as I was feeling extra tired and dizzy with a headache... That's alright though. We all need days of relaxation. Well, It's late and I've got work again tomorrow. Oh how I hate sitting at a desk. Well, I better be off to bed. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Toodles!

So sad...

We are not going to be getting the chair I found on Overstock.com. ;o(
Phil and I talked about it and we really need to focus on just a couple of things at a time. I agree with him... I just really loved that chair! And I will admit I throw around so many ideas all the time. He gets kind of flustered with me. I guess I would too. Haha...
Oh and to clarify... on an earlier posting, people did not actually buy us furniture for our wedding. When we were engaged people gave us their couches that are nearly 15 years old, an entertainment center that's gotta be just as old, along with our kitchen table, bed, dressers, end tables, etc... The only thing new we got was from Phil's grandpa and he actually made us our bookcase. It's really pretty and he made sure it matched our hardwood floors.
Anyway... I guess the furniture shopping for our living room will have to wait. In the mean time we're still trying to organize & clean out as much as we can and we're also looking at making our bed frame, and saving up to buy a new mattress. I guess with all of the craziness in life, that's enough to think about. ;o)

Overstock dot com

So, I didn't crochet. I was shopping online and I found this chair on Overstock.com. It's $199.99! I am pretty sure this is a good deal... I really like this chair. Has anyone ever bought anything from Overstock like this before? Do you think this is a good deal? Do you think this chair will be of good quality? I'm always so nervous making purchases online...

The last few days have flown by so quickly! I haven't had much time to think, let alone blog. Over the weekend I did a lot of cleaning and organization. Of course I didn't think to take any pictures... but at least it's done! We went through all of our cd's and got rid of duplicates and alphabetized them. Then we went through all of our books and got rid of ones we'll never read or have already read and just want to give away. I had like 6 books from Graduation that I think I only ever read 10 pages of each, maybe? Is this terrible, but I might re gift?! We have a huge bag of books and cd's to give away.
It feels to great to get our living room in order. I'll have to take a picture of our uncluttered living room! I will say I think we may have too much furniture in that room. We had so much furniture given to us when we got married. So I guess next on the list of to do's for the living room would be get or make the new entertainment center & work on getting other new furniture (Something I actually like!). Part of the problem is that I don't know what my style is! I love all kinds of things, I just don't know how to put them together. That's why I read every one's blogs...to get inspiration! ;o) The other thing would be getting rid of what we have. Hmm...
This weekend I'm having a partay! Woo! Actually...it's a jewelry party-Silpada. I'm so excited though! A lot of ladies are coming and it's one of the first times I've really had anyone over outside of the family. I know, it's sad. That should be one of my goals for the year... to have people over more often! Sometimes Phil and I are very much hermit-like. We just love being at home together. ;o)
Anyway... off to crochet. I'm at reception today. We don't get a whole lotta incoming calls so it's kind of nice to have time for that. I'm currently working on a hat.

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday.
Toodles!

Dizziness

I have been experiencing dizziness since just before Christmas. At first I just thought it was from the sinus medication I was taking. So I stopped taking it. I've still been experiencing dizziness. I told my parents and they said it could be fluid in my ears. I know what that feels like and it doesn't seem like that's it either. I read something that said dizziness can be a symptom of the following: low blood sugar, high blood pressure, flu, blood loss, hypothyroidism, anemia, and pregnancy. I'm sure I'm not anemic or that I have hypo or hyperthyroidism because I just had a wellness check at work and they did blood work that showed everything was normal. I doubt I have the flu because nothing else is really taking place if you know what I mean. I also don't think it's low blood sugar because I've been trying to eat every 3 hours just to be sure of that and my blood pressure was taken on Sat. and it was excellent. So... there's like one option left other than blood loss which isn't happening either. I've also been extremely tired... as in I could doze off at any moment and it doesn't matter if I had a great night's sleep or not. There is the possibility that I could be pregnant. I don't think I am... The only symptoms I have are extreme fatigue and then dizziness. Has anyone else experienced this before? It's just really frustrating to feel like this all the time and I'm afraid it might happen while I'm driving or something.

Recent talk...

around the house has been about getting a new entertainment center & a new bed. Currently we have an entertainment center that provides a ton of storage. It's very sturdy and in very good shape. However, it's also bulky, is in a finish I'm not very fond of, and can only house a smaller box television. It was given to us by some family friends. So I'm thankful but I still have my eye on something like this:But there is no way that we could afford this. And we don't have a flat panel tv and probably won't for years. Especially since we just got a car payment and there are a few other things more important to us right now. But it's not like many stores are selling nice entertainments centers for the old style box tv's. We might just ask my Dad to build us something! The only downfall in that idea is that it will take him forever to complete it. He started making my mom a trash can last year for Christmas... has yet to finish it. Haha.

Our other situation is buying a new bed & a new mattress. Wow... I never knew how expensive either of those are! You have to spend at least $500 to get a bed frame that is solid wood and then make sure you get a head board with that too! That might be another $300. And mattresses! Again, Wow! We wanted to upgrade to a King (Not that our tiny bedroom could accommodate, but I might be okay with only having a small aisle to walk around to get out of the room if that means I get more room to sleep!) but it's just out of our league. So we are sticking with a Queen which really is fine. But I really want to make sure we get the bed frame we really like. This too is out of our price range... but Phil thinks we can try building something along these lines... I don't think we're DIY enough. We'll just see!

These pics are from the beloved Pottery Barn. I don't think we could ever make anything that looks close to this. Does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe we should just get a regular frame and save up for something like this... I'm just so impatient!

I'm a copy cat

Okay... So I'm copying off of Kim @ newlywoodwards.blogspot.com (I think again actually) and using her goal list for the new year. I NEVER make New Year's resolutions. I know I'll break them. I am one who doesn't have motivation. Like, at all. But I really like the way this Goal list was set up.
I want to learn: how to study the Bible better, how to be graceful in actions & words
I want to read: the Bible, at least 1 book a month (Very difficult for me, I'm not a reader.)
I want to make: more crocheted hats & scarves and afghans, sewn aprons, purses, and other pieces,At least one quilt and array of other crafts!
I want to visit: Phil's grandparents at least twice other than Christmas, Pennsylvania, and so many other places but I doubt I will in 2009.
I want to change: my outlook on life, Our unorganized life into an organized one, My weight but more importantly how I feel about myself besides the weight.
I want to be better at: living on our budget, Crocheting & Sewing, Cooking & Baking, Being a wife.
I want to do: a lot of purging of things uneeded in the home, a lot more fun stuff on the weekends instead of just sitting around watching tb.
Most of all, I want: Love for others, Hope for our future, Peace within.

Christmas

Christmas was lovely! Like I had mentioned, we spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family. Then we traveled to Grandma & Grandpa's for Christmas day. We left later than we had hoped, but we got there with plenty of time to open gifts before a late lunch. My MIL got me a lovely tea set (Will possibly post pics later) and of course we got Season 4 of The Office! There were a few other very nice gifts but my one of favorites was an ornament! It's of three reindeer, A Pappa reindeer, Mamma reindeer, and baby reindeer...With our names on it. It's too cute!
We stayed up at Gpa's & Gma's until Saturday (We went shopping the day after of course and I scored some great Christmas decorations for next year! We went out to lunch with Phil's other Gma too.)and then came home. On our way home we stopped by my parents for a few hours and opened gifts with that side of the fam (aunts, uncles, Gma & Gpa, etc...).
Unfortunately we found out later that Claire had gotten fleas from Phil's grandparent's cat! She only had a few on her. So we gave her a bath, a treatment, and washed everything she touched! Oh... I still feel kind of itchy thinking about it. Fortunately we keep our house pretty cool (To save money.) and we are hoping none "jumped" off of her. We've swept almost every day, 3 times a day almost since. I never thought I'd deal with a dog getting fleas in winter! When it was like... 15 degrees! Oh well.
Overall it was a very pleasant Christmas and we spent a lot of time with family. ;o)