My Living Room

This room.  This room has given me some fits. It's the very first thing you see when you come in my front door, so I want it to be welcoming, nice and lovely.  I've changed the paint color, I've tried different furniture arrangements, I've swapped furniture with other rooms.  I don't know...I'm just not loving it. 
But here's the before, before we took ownership:

That bright red wall.  I thought I loved it at first.  But when a friend saw it and the green carpet together, she said "It's just like Christmas!"  And then I came to my senses.  So I painted the big red wall.  I eventually painted the wall of built ins you can barely see on the right.  And I painted the shutters on the windows.  That's pretty much it.
Here's how the room looks now:

 I got the ok from the Mr. last night to replace these couches.  We've had them nine years.  They've been great and served their purpose.  But our daughter whose getting married could really use them, so on to a new home.  I've got my eye on some Ikea ones. No more puffy brown marshmallows :)

Our entry way:

Not a lot of room in the entry way.  You can either turn left to the living room or right to the office.
The living room is better than it was, and that's a good thing.
Thanks for stopping by!

Home Evolution: The Kitchen

Welcome back to how my home has changed over the three years we've lived here.  The kitchen is an extension of the family room, they are one big room.  They need to flow together and have a consistent style and feel.  The previous owner was doing that, but in her 80's style.  Here is what the kitchen looked like before: 

Holy Oak, Batman!  Where do the cabinets stop and the floor begins?  Is that an oak kitchen table and chairs floating there on the oak wood floor?  I kid.  It's not a disaster.  In fact they had recently updated and remodeled this kitchen shortly before we bought the home.  New appliances, new countertops, I'm not sure if the cabinets are new or were built with the house in 1987. Their photo is extra orangey for some reason.
Anyhoo, here's the kitchen today:

I tried to get the same shot they used, but it's kind of hard to see the details.

Hello bright white kitchen.  So nice to see you.

Looking at the other side of the kitchen:

 I don't know why this picture is crooked.  Just tilt your head a bit and it will look great!

I really love my kitchen.  Classic white cabinets, wood floors, plenty of cabinets and counter space.  It wasn't that bad painting the cabinets.  (Kind of like childbirth, enough time has gone by that it doesn't seem so bad anymore.)   The only thing I would change is to have white subway tile as the backsplash. 
Oh well, we can't everything.

Come back soon for another room.

My Home: How it's evolved

We bought our home three years ago.  At the time (before I started looking at blogs) I thought it was wonderful!   Yeah it was a little out of date, but the thought of the work that would have to be done to bring it up to speed was overwhelming to me.  But my sister convinced me that I just HAD to think about it.  So I did.  Slowly I've been chipping away at things.  Mostly painting and putting my own personal touch on it.
I found some pictures of the house taken by the previous owners when they still owned the house.  I thought it would be fun to compare their rooms to mine.  I'll be featuring one room at a time.  Let's start with the family room, shall we?

Here is what it looked like when we came to see the house for the first time:
Nothing too terrible about it.  Lots of oak and too much furniture making the space too crowded and cramped.  The wall color was soft so I didn't think we needed to change it right away.

Here's how the room looks now:

Basically the only thing I've done in here is paint the fireplace and add my own decorative detail. (Previous owner made his own decorative sun detail that he attached with Velcro so he could change it out for the winter one with trees and a deer.)
  I've painted the French doors also and of course added our own furniture.  And I updated the oak ceiling fan with spray paint.  We do have a monstrosity of a couch, but this is where we hang out and watch movies, and it works for us.  We tried two separate couches in here for a while and it just didn't work.
I'll be back later to show another before and after room.
Have a great weekend!

Creamy Caramel Sauce

I like to try things out on pinterest.  When I saw this easy caramel sauce, I wanted to see if it was actually delicious and easy.  I'm sure everyone already does this for their go to caramel sauce and I'm the last one on the train.  Oh well.
 It really couldn't be any easier.  A can of sweetened condensed milk.  This is the brand I had already in my pantry.  I wonder if different brands taste different?

Put it in your crock pot and cover it with water.  Put the lid on and turn it to low for three hours.

 

That. Is. It.

Then you put it into a cute little jar to store in your fridge.

Put it on ice cream with some heath toffee bits (see below),  or dip it with apple slices, I think a caramel apple pie would be yummy. 

 

It's rich and creamy, but oh so easy.