Making potty room pretty

New look for the potty room

So, since we are planning on selling the house, we thought we should dress up the restroom a tad. We've had the towels for quite a while and the rug was looking very worn so it was about time. We went to Marshall's and found a lot of stuff that we liked. Photos to come....

Compost success!!

I'm not sure if I informed you, but I have been working on a lazy version of a compost. A while back, a coworker informed me of a simple and affordable way to start to compost. Instead of purchasing a $200 compost bin or figuring out power tools to construct an outdoor fenced in bin, I bought a plastic storage tub, drilled holes all over it and set it in my back yard. I started with some soil I had just to have something to start off with and then I added my kitchen scraps, coffee grinds, and some sawdust from my husband's ever growing pile in the garage. All of this, in the right measurement, breaks down and makes a material that your garden and flowers will love. It's not even hard work! The easy part about buying the bin (with the lid) is that you can just flip it over to turn it.... you don't even need to stick your hands in it!

Common misconceptions are that it stinks but I am here to tell you my sensitive nose did not turn away once I learned what NOT to put in and to always cover it with a layer of sawdust. What is it, you may ask, that I refused to stick in my pile of decomposing vegetables and fruit? Banana peels. I read that they take too long to break down and it ends up stinking up the pile. No good for me. The layer of sawdust that I mentioned helps ward away flies. It really works!

Anyways, there's my recent story I wanted to share. Now I need to figure out where I want to put the compost now that it's ready to throw in a garden or flowerbed.

I haven't given up!!

Well, I bet you were just thinking... "Celise has thrown in the towel... she's given up!" But I'm writing you today to say that I have not. Laziness has not won this battle.
Friends, I recently purchased a second-hand treadmill and it was the best purchase to date. Starting yesterday, I have woken up around 5am and hopped on for a morning walk. It's not easy but when I focus on the long term goal, it makes it a little better. They say after 21 days, habits are established if you keep it up.

Anyways... it's given me more energy lately. I hope I can keep it up.
I'm figuring out if I should start to document our building plans. Wouldn't that be neat?

Trixy being mean

I video taped Trixy being mean to Oreo. Watch as he comes up to Eric to give Eric the ball to toss for him. (Sigh) my dog can be such a meany.... a b-word comes to mind and it would be accurately used in this case, but I still won't say it. ;)

Chicken breasts with homemade tomato sauce

The past few days I had a recipe pop up in my head. It involved goat cheese, tomatoes, and basil over some chicken. So, since my brother just brought me roma tomatoes from his own garden, I went to the store to get the rest of the ingredients needed: fresh basil, herbs to season the chicken, chicken breast (mistakenly bought chicken tenderloins), fettucine noodles (or whatever noodle you desire), garlic, olive oil, white wine.

I put some olive oil on the chicken, then sprinkled herbs on them and salt. I let them sit there for a little bit while I got the water boiling for the noodles and prepared the sauce. I got a medium pan, put about 2 tbs of olive oil in it and then once it was warm, I added about 2 garlic pieces, diced up. Then added the roma tomatoes, sprinkled it with salt and added about 1/3 cup of white wine. Then after tomatoes got all saucy and mushy, I added the chopped up basil. I would say

about 1/3 cup of basil.

I put the chicken on a broiler pan to broil in an oven at 450 which might be too hot or I cooked the chicken too long because it was a tiny bit dry. After everything was ready, I placed noodles on the plate, fanned out the chicken tenderloins, covered it with the chunky sauce and placed little slices of goat cheese on top. Voila!!

New craft

I'm hooked!!! I needed a yellow necklace and while I was out on a search for something else not even closely related, I stumbled upon some beads at the craft store. My creative mind started thinking and I thought "how hard can it be to make a necklace?" So, I bought beads, called my mother in law who owns beading tools and made sure she would lend me the tools and stuff I needed. After work, I drove to her home and waited for her to arrive so I could pick up the tools and get a quick tutorial. Then I ran home, kissed the hubby, and spread out my new goodies. After trying a few bead combinations, I realized I should keep it simple and 1 color. Lo and behold!

It's not that hard to do it. You just need patience and a workspace that can be untouched by curious fingers.