1 Year Down, Forever to Go

Happy anniversary to me! Actually, our anniversary was yesterday, but I've decided I'm just going to use the month of June to celebrate. Because I can.

It's been a year full of ups and down. Sadly, a lot of downs. But we made it through. We persevered and actually had a wonderful anniversary celebration. Because I was unable to get the weekend of our anniversary off, we officially celebrated the first weekend in June. I asked for the entire weekend off of work (which never happens) and waited patiently for Matt to make plans like he swore to me he would. Fast forward to the Wednesday before we're supposed to leave and.... nothing. In all honesty, this didn't surprise me. The man hasn't booked a trip the entire 4 years we've been together. I've planned every single trip we've gone on, including the ones for my birthday. So when people asked what we were doing this weekend, I responded with "Nothing. Probably just hanging around the house, maybe rent a few movies" because that's what I anticipated doing. I wasn't really upset because it was something that I anticipated. He tends to forget about things like that and not make them a priority. I pretty much talking myself into believing that I would be okay with a lazy weekend around the house. With our roommate around. And all of Matt's friends. And the animals.

Well, surprise surprise! The Thursday before we were supposed to leave he comes into the house after work and states simply that we were going to the bay for the weekend. After a few questions I determine that he had booked a hotel in the Santa Cruz area for Saturday night and wanted to take me to the boardwalk. I haven't been in almost 10 years so I was thrilled! A day at the beach, with rides and terrible food. I couldn't ask for more. Especially since I hadn't seen the ocean in nearly a year!

And it was awesome. We left late-morning on Saturday and headed down to our hotel. The ride was traffic packed so we ended up arriving a bit later than we anticipated, so rather than spend a watered down day at the boardwalk we spent Saturday shopping, having an awesome dinner and... bonding at the hotel. If you haven't been to Gilroy, CA I highly recommend it. The entire town smells like garlic. It's pretty much heaven. They also have a fantastic outlet mall. Tons of shops! After a bit of shopping we went stopped at a random BBQ place for dinner called Famous Dave's. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I've never had so much food in my entire life. We ordered the platter for 2 and it was enough food to feed both of us for at least 2 days. Ribs, BBQ chicken, pulled pork, corn on the cob, corn bread muffins, baked beans and coleslaw. Surprisingly, we made a HUGE dent in the plate. Then we had to go pass out at the hotel and watch terrible HBO movies because we were stuffed!

This is what Matt does while we're having a wonderful conversation over breakfast.

We slept in a bit the next day and then headed to the boardwalk. We got an awesome deal from Costco where for $55 we got entrance to the boardwalk, 2 unlimited ride wristbands and 5 tickets to either get arcade coupons or to have an "experience" (mini golf, laser tag, haunted house, etc). We spent the first part of our day riding all of the rides. We got to check out a couple roller coasters (a wooden one that killed my neck), bumper cars, a terrible haunted house and, my favorite, the log ride. Even though I got kind of soaked. And I was wearing jeans.

One of my favorite photos of the day.  =)

We checked out a couple of the shops, then decided to do some mini golf. I haven't mini golfed in years so, obviously, I was terrible. It was a pretty great set up though. They had wheels at some of the holes that you spun to determine what your handicap would be that game. At one point Matt had to hit his first shot with the wrong end of the club, and then he got to stand in the middle of the green when I shot. Totally unfair. It was definitely a nice way to spice up the game. Also, half of the holes were glow in the dark, with black light. Kept things interesting!

On our way out we still had a couple tickets left so we found a couple of kids to give them to. They were pretty excited to get to play more video games. Glad we could help.  =)  We stopped for gas about a half hour North and decided to grab something to eat at this little Japanese restaurant. Yes, I got BBQ and Japanese food in matter of 24 hours. It was fantastic. We didn't get home until almost 11pm which was much later than we anticipated, but it was definitely worth it. It was the first weekend we've spent together since our honeymoon and it couldn't have been more needed!

To top it off, yesterday on our actual anniversary he came home with roses and a card. This is the 4th time in 4 years that he's given me flowers! He scored some major points the last couple weeks!

Now, I need to head off and check on my pot roast. And make some mashed potatoes of course. I will be back soon with, hopefully, a more productive entry! =)

Rainy Weather = Soup Weather!

Yesterday, it was raining. I HATE when it rains. Not only is it cold and windy outside, but I'm stuck in the house with 2 restless dogs desperate to go to the park. They just sit there and look at me all sad like. It's just pathetic. So, rather than sit there and stare down my dogs, I decided it was a good day for soup! I've had a massive craving for potato soup lately so I decided to cave and go for it. My initial inclination was to use my crock pot but because mine is ridiculously small, I had to upgrade and use my stock pot on the stove. Oh well, I can adapt!

Without further ado, I give you loaded baked potato soup. This is definitely tied for first place for my favorite soup of all time. It is SO filling and pretty much terrible for you, so be aware. lol

Ingredients:

• 7 or 8 medium sized potatoes, cubed in 1/2 pieces  (Ish.)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 5 cups of chicken broth   (I prefer the unsalted kind.)
• 4 Tbs. minced garlic
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter 
• 2 tsp. salt   (Add more to taste at the end of cooking.)
• 3 tsp. pepper 
• 1 1/ 2 cups of half & half
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped chives, or green onions if you're like me and every store you go to is out of chives   (REALLY!? I went to 3 stores!)
• 1 cup sour cream   (This is totally options, but totally recommended!)
• 8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
• Cheese and bacon bits for a topping, if desired

How To: 

Mid-cooking.

In a large stock pot combine the potatoes, onion, garlic, butter, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil then continue cooking on medium-low for 45 minutes to an hour, or until potatoes are soft. Stir in the cream, cheese, bacon, and chives. Simmer on low until the mixture is thickened. Serve topped with sour cream and (if you're terribly unhealthy like me) extra bacon bits, chives and cheese. Makes 12-15 cups.

And here's your end result!

 If you'd like to do this recipe in the crock pot you can follow the same instructions but, rather than a stock pot, you can slow cook everything on high for 4 hours or on low for 7 prior to adding the cream, bacon, cheese and chives. It's just as amazing, I'm just impatient!

Hope y'all enjoy!

Who loves picture frames? I love picture frames!

Hello there ladies! And gentlemen? I'm not sure guys would actually read my blog, so I will stick with ladies for now. Unless someone gets offended, then let me know and I'll change!

It's been a little bit since I've posted, mainly because I've been in the midst of projects and celebrating my 1 year anniversary with my husband. Yahoo, we actually made it a year! But, now that I'm back, I have several different things to share. Depending on how I'm feeling I may bust them all out today, or maybe I'll try to spread them out throughout the week. We shall find out!

First and foremost, about a week and a half ago set out to create a gallery wall. Actually, planning for this wall has been going on for months. This pretty much consisted of me collecting frames and other items to put on the wall, and finding the best places to get photos printed up. For frames, my top 3 recommendations are:

1. The Dollar Store - Really any dollar store but in particular I used the Dollar Tree. I was able to get 8"x10", 5"x7" and 4"x6" frames for (GASP!) a dollar each. Granted they are not the greatest quality in the world but they look decent once you put them on the wall. 
2. Wal-Mart - As much as my husband hates Wal-Mart I still find ways to make my way there and take advantage of some good deals. They have 8"x10", 5"x7" and 4"x6" frames for $2-3 a piece. There were several different designs and they were a lot better quality than the ones at the dollar store. One tip though, double check the back of the frame and make sure they have a wall hanger! I got several 5"x7" that I'm going to have to modify to hang!
3. Michael's - I love Michael's for so many reason, but their frames are definitely in my top 3. I got some amazing 12"x18" frames for $8 a piece. By the way 12"x18" is a very hard size to find affordable frames for!

As for getting the actually prints, there are always options like Walgreens and Costco and such, but I found the BEST deals were through a site called ArtsCow.com. When you sign up as a new member you get a huge amount of free prints; 4"x6" on up to 12"x18". All you have to do is pay for shipping. I got 63 prints for about $20, and they were amazing quality prints. I'm a bit of a picture quality snob and I was even impressed. By the way, if you need a stretched canvas print, they are awesome for those too.

This is what I had to work with, after all was said and done. Don't mind my pretty boy Morgan posing there in the background. He's so photogenic.  =)

My next challenge was choosing the location of my gallery wall. My initial thought was to put it down the back hallway in between our bedrooms because well, it's really empty there. But after some thought and input from friends and family I decided against it. Not only was the lighting terrible there, but people rarely venture down that hall and if I'm going to put that much work into something, people need to see it! So, I chose a wall in our family/game room. There are 2 large windows and a french door nearby which let in a ton of nature light, and it's in a really high traffic area. BINGO! Because the room has a vaulted ceiling I had to decide whether I wanted to go all the way up, or make the gallery even with the top of the doorway. I decided that being even with the doorway was a better bet because it would allow people to actually see the photos that were going to be displayed.

This is the wall I chose to use. The one between the doorway and the kitchen cabinets.

Now, there are a couple ways you can go about mapping out your wall and putting your photos up. You can randomly start hammering nails and hope that your gut instincts are right on, or you can use templates. I chose to begin with templates, mainly because my gut instincts generally are wrong. Like, really wrong. For the couple weeks prior to beginning my wall I started saving junk mail, flyers, magazine and advertisements. Luckily we tend to receive a ton in the mail so it didn't take me long to collect everything I needed. Just make sure to collect several different paper sizes depending on your frames. You can tape 2 pieces together if needed, but it's more of a pain. On each template I wrote what the object was, the size of the frame and whether the image was black & white or color. I also made sure to note whether it was a horizontal or vertical image which made things so much easier once I got to the mapping stage.

Here is an example of one of my templates. Pretty basic right?

Next, using a measuring tape and pencil I marked an "x" on the template to indicate where the nail was going to need to go. I measured across the template in several spots so that I was able to create a vertical line down the middle, and then I measured down the line to where my "x" needed to go. This seemed to be very effective seeing as how only 1 of my frames had to be adjusted after the fact.

Not the prettiest picture, but you get the idea!

Now comes the fun part, actually sticking everything to the wall! Using scotch tape or painter's tape (something that is easily removable) you can start mapping everything out without having to worry about making unnecessary holes in the wall. The best recommendations I can give you is to invest in a laser level. Oh man, BEST.INVENTION.EVER! Not the mention I found one on clearance at Lowe's for $4.99. Granted if you can't find one on clearance you can find decent Black & Decker ones for $15-20 and they work perfect for this purpose. I began my mapping by using my level to create a line parallel to the doorway of the room. From there, I just started putting pictures up. Mostly randomly, but I made sure to try and spread out black and white images and different sizes. The awesome thing about using the tape is that you can move the images around as much as you want and not have to worry about damaging anything. I must have pulled everything off of the wall a hundred times before I was satisfied with the final product.

Wall-O-Templates!

My second best recommendation is to not be in a hurry to start hammering. I had newspaper taped to my wall for DAYS prior to actually hanging my frames. I slept on it, looked it over several times, got the opinion of friends and family... the works. It was worth the wait to know that I was going to be happy with the final product. After some slight tweaking, I was ready to get down to the hard labor. Actually, it wasn't hard at all. After all the prep work is done, actually putting everything on the wall is pretty simple. For my 4"x6" and 5"x7" frames I used simple small picture nails whereas for the larger frames and heavier objects I used drywall screws. Using my heaviest piece I tested the strength of the drywall to determine whether or not to use anchors. If you don't know, anchors are plastic cone-shaped objects that are inserted into the drywall via a pre-drilled hole. They are designed to relieve some of the stress placed on the drywall and to keep the screw from becoming lose in the wall. Luckily, I didn't need these but I highly recommend double checking to be sure. It can save you a lot of grief in the future!

Using the "x's" that I drew, I started hammering/screwing in my hardware. After each nail/screw I temporarily hung the photo the make sure that it lined up with the template. It took maybe 10 minutes and I was ready to actually hang my photos. One-by-one I pulled the template off of the wall and hung up the corresponding photo; working from the top, down. Eventually I was left with this:

Don't mind the 3 pieces of newspaper still up. I'm working on figuring out a way to put up the frames I purchased that didn't have wall hangers. I've got to make a Home Depot run!

I'm very happy with the final product, and surprisingly so is my husband. I know he was weary about a wall of pictures at first but he's been complementing it since I finished. I'm still tweaking things here and there to make sure it's all level, but it's pretty much set. So there it is! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. This project was actually a lot of fun. I highly recommend it, especially if you're photo obsessed like I am!