Meal Planning

Ok, so you all know I obviously find cooking fun and enjoyable with all the recipes I share... But I also love having my meals prepared and organized! I'm sure that's a big shocker to some. :) 
I cook about 4 nights out of the week (Mon.-Thurs.) and then Friday/Saturday are our nights out, and Sunday nights are just little things like frozen pizza, chicken fingers, etc.  Besides making a menu to keep me organized, it helps me stay less stressed every night coming home from work wondering what to cook, helps with saving money, and helps with not wasting food!

I like to make my list on Sundays {oh, how I love list-making}, go to the grocery if I need to {but we only go every 2 weeks, so some weeks get super creative with what I've got to work with in my organized pantry, ha!}, and post it up on the fridge.  Now, to most people a post-it note menu planner would be fine.  But come on, I can't have that!

So, I did a little searching on the internet and came up with little that I liked. :( I'm a paper-and-pencil kind of gal, so I can't have anything fancy like keeping it on my phone! For goodness sakes I still keep a large agenda book in my purse! 
So, I made a little planner, but then thought about what a pain it would be to print off every week...

Next I thought about using my Cricut letters and making a chart on the fridge. Hmm, still not sold just yet. But maybe. We'll see. :)  I'm thinking this might be my Saturday morning craft.
{I know, I'm such a nerd!}

I'd LOVE to do chalkboard paint over my pantry door. I even went to buy the chalkboard paint and was ready to go, until I realized my door is the type that has the 2 rectangle shapes cut into it on the outside instead of the one large rectangle.  Do you know what I'm talking about? Such a sad moment. ha!

Any cute ideas for me?!

Also, I'm starting to get my shelves put together. I'm not sold on the second shelf, but I love the top one.  How cute is the Lexington plate?! Brian's cousin, Kelley, bought that for us for Christmas! So perfect!

wedding champagne flutes, china platter, wedding sign, canister with removable pieces

How cute is this plate?! It has all the different local Lexington places on it.

My New Kitchen Walls!

I am SO excited to post these pictures! Not only because they look good, but because my wonderful husband did it!! Well, with the major help of his Dad, but I am still completely impressed! It was also so fun to have his Dad spending so much time with us. I know B really enjoyed that part of it.

We had always said we wanted to continue the beadboard throughout the breakfast area since it came under the breakfast bar. We were thinking it would be a next-year project since we had already done several things to our home since we both moved in and well, renos can get pricey! But, we found the materials on sale at Lowe's one day and B's Dad offered to help teach B how to do it, so it was actually not as expensive as we thought!

*I will warn you, I still need to get the shelves up beside the china hutch and I still need to find the perfect curtains to hang from the ceiling to the floor along the windows, but those will come. Even though it doesn't seem like it, I've been very patient to wait to buy things that fit perfectly with the house than just buying something I kind of like. I'm proud of that! ha!

{the beadboard that was already there from the builders}
{Before}
{AFTER! Still need the shelves!}
{AFTER! Still need curtains, but I love the way it frames the windows!}
{Before}
{After!}

{Brian and his Dad working!}


Hope you likey! :) This past week was absolutely busy/crazy. We worked on the kitchen every night till late, we had Life Group one night, Book club another, and a very busy weekend...which I can't wait to share in other posts! I think this coming week will be my catch-up week, I hope!

Amazing Product

I've been searching for this product for a few weeks after I saw 1 {yes, I've only seen it once} commercial for it. Considering my husband does not like to use sponges more than once {and refuses to wipe his hands on a dishtowel} I knew I had to get this.

It's a reusable sponge from 3M Scotch Brand that is made from recycleble products. After you use it, you can stick it in the dishwasher to disinfect! It's amazing!! Maybe you can do that to other sponges, but I've never heard of it. I LOVE this product. I clean a bathroom and then stick it in the dishwasher knowing I don't have to touch all that mess again the next time I use the sponge AND it saves money for us to not have to buy a new sponge everytime one is used!

I found this at Kroger - I'd been looking at Wal-Mart and hadn't found it, but maybe they have it now!

Have a great weekend! We're off to Asheville!

My New Kitchen Item...

You are going to L-O-V-E these!




My Jockey Silk Bar stools! So remember this post? Katharine and I tried over the summer to make these ourselves. We worked really, really hard...but just couldn't get the job done! So I asked the girl who painted my beautiful wine glasses my sister had gotten me for one of my wedding showers and she said she'd try it! I LOVE the way these turned out. It really makes my kitchen pull together with the whole horse/jockey theme.

{here are the wine glasses. i don't think i ever shared these with you?? they are in our bookshelf.super poor picture quality-they are from the blackberry}



If you'd like her name/contact info. just email me! She doesn't have a blog {although she should!!} so I can't link her up!

Hope you love them, too! :)