Living Room Refresh

I haven't changed too much about our living room since the day I moved in, except the rug and some things on the shelves.

(here's a phone pic from October 2010)

(and today June 2012)

These shelves have proven to be the most difficult thing to accessorize in the house. They are very shallow - only about 3 inches deep, so it's hard to find things that fit, both in depth and in height. I've had my eye on some Jonathan Adler pottery for some of the shelves, but it's so expensive that I only have one piece so far (my little weenie dog). I also have a random scattering of picture frames and clear vases, none of which really show up against the dark blue paint on the walls. 

The wall color on these got a little bleached out by the sunlight. It's really more like the second picture.

Something I really love in the room is my rug from West Elm, and the mirror over the fireplace has always been a favorite. Other than that, I've removed the brown sheers I had over the front window, removed one of the small black end tables and replaced it with the taller table that was originally in the corner by the fireplace, changed the pillows and changed the things on the shelves a million times. 

The front window is massive and lets in a ton of light. It also lets the neighbors see every move we make in the living room, especially at night. I'm at a loss with what to do with this - the brown sheers I originally hung allowed for a lot more privacy, but they also blocked a lot of light from the room. I don't think white or off-white would look right with the couch, so I've just left the window wide open for the time being.

The TV is just a huge black hole in the room. I'm married to a sports fan. The TV stays.

Other than that, I love the paint color in this room and the way it pops against the white trim. The color is Behr (from Home Depot) Underwater. The trim is just the standard Behr white semi gloss trim paint, and the ceiling is Behr Ceiling white (which doesn't cover as nicely as the other Behr paint). The blue was a paint and primer all in one, and it only took ONE coat to cover the beige that was there before. Awesome.

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house, and it's where we spend most of our time.

Chicken Orzo Salad

Recently I decided to start meal planning. I was tired of coming home from work and staring at my cupboards and fridge, trying to decide what on earth to make for dinner. Some nights I had my act together and had something going in the crock pot, or had ingredients on hand for a recipe, but more often than not I didn't and it frustrated me. Ted works crazy hours at the hospital, so every month I have him make me a calendar of which nights he will be home for dinner. 


One day I was looking at the calendar and it hit me - I needed to make a meal plan. Basically I just plan out two weeks at a time. I write the recipe I'm planning for each day, leaving built in "leftovers" days and date nights where we go out to eat. After that, I make a grocery list of the ingredients needed to complete all the recipes and stock up enough to last two weeks. We still have to make a run for milk and fresh produce occasionally, but for the most part I have everything ready to go. 


This has made life SO MUCH easier. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. We have a few standby favorites that Ted requests now and then, and I like to throw in new things to try a couple times a week too. One of our very favorite recipes is this one for chicken orzo salad.

Chicken Orzo Salad

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup uncooked orzo pasta
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
1 medium cucumber, chopped
1 pint cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
1 small red onion, chopped (we leave this out because it's quite strong, but it's personal preference)
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley (I use a few dashes of parsley flakes and it tastes fine)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese


Cook pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile in a large skillet coated with cooking spray, cook chicken over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until no longer pink.


In a large bowl, combine the cucumber, tomato, onion, parsley, and chicken. Drain pasta, stir into chicken mixture. In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper. Pour over chicken mixture, toss to coat. Serve warm or cold (we like it warm). Just before serving, sprinkle with cheese.
Yield: 4 Servings


We have eaten this as a main dish many times, but it could also be used as a side dish at a picnic or something. It's a great meal for the summer - nice and light and you can grill the chicken instead if you prefer. Yum!

(original recipe from Taste of Home magazine - we added tomatoes, which the original doesn't call for, but I really like the taste)

The Happiness Project

I recently read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and became interested in trying to follow some of the tips in the book. For those who don't know, the book is about a woman who tries to find simple ways to make herself happier in her daily life. There are dozens of reviews on Amazon, so I won't go into too much detail on that, but the basic premise is that each month of the year, the author focused on a specific area of her life that she wanted to change in order to make herself happier. 


These were the twelve things Rubin chose to work on strengthening each month. I went through and made some minor changes to fit my life and what each of these things means to me.

My Happiness Project

January 2013: Boost Energy (Vitality) - I want to move more, drink more water, go to sleep earlier, clear out clutter from my home and tackle a project I've been putting off (painting around the house)

February 2013: Remember Love (Marriage) - quit nagging, do more things for Ted to show my love

March 2013: Aim Higher (Work) - make better use of my blog, work more on personal marketing, create a brand image for myself, be more cheerful at my day job

April 2013: Lighten Up (Parenthood) - I'm not a parent, but I do have a dog. I need to be more attentive to her, play with her more, take her for longer walks, take her to the dog park

May 2013: Be Serious About Play (Leisure) - get back into scrapbooking, spend time outdoors, start a collection (white pottery and glassware), go new places (restaurants, stores, parks, etc.)

June 2013: Make Time for Friends (Friendship) - re-connect with a friend(s) from college, make more effort to call people, plan dinner dates with friends, have a game night at our house

July 2012: Buy Some Happiness (Money) - buy things that would solve nagging issues (like a rack for our pots and pans cupboard that I hate), splurge on something that I want (lens for my camera), give things away

August 2012: Contemplate the Heavens (Eternity) - read my daily Bible again, be more faithful about attending church, pray more

September 2012: Pursue a Passion (Books/Photography) - take a class on photography, read every library book possible on photography, make a books to read list and start checking them off

October 2012: Pay Attention (Mindfulness) - do things for other people that I know will make them happy (finally make Mom a wedding album!), be polite to everyone I encounter

November 2012: Keep a Contented Heart (Attitude) - be happier with what I have and where I am in life, find fun in the everyday, treat everything like an adventure, avoid complaining

December 2012: Boot Camp Perfect (Happiness) - follow all of my guidelines for every month in a sort of "happiness bootcamp" as described in the book. It's ok if it's not possible to perfectly complete every task, as long as I'm making a genuine effort. For this year, I won't have completed every month yet, since I'm starting part way through the year. I will just try to follow July through November at this point, and next July do a bootcamp month all over again.

The point of all this isn't that I'm an unhappy person. I think I'm generally pretty happy in my daily life, but I know there are things I could do to make my life even better. This is a push to get myself to pay more attention to how blessed I am and how I shouldn't take anything for granted.

One Year Anniversary

Today marks our one year wedding anniversary. This year has held a lot of emotions for both of us and we have definitely lived through some "for better or worse." I will always cherish the memories of our wedding day, which was truly the happiest day of my life. We have so many dreams, goals, hopes and plans for our future. I hope we have many, many more anniversaries to come honey :)

Northern Michigan Weekend Recap

Most of Ted's extended family lives in the Petoskey/Harbor Springs area of northern Michigan. It's about a three and a half hour drive from our house in Grand Rapids, so we don't get up there to visit as often as we'd like. Memorial Day weekend was the perfect opportunity, so we packed up Friday afternoon and headed up for barbecue and family fun.

If you've never been to the area, it's full of water and gorgeous panoramic views of the bay. And money too of course. It's fun to drive around and look at all the massive lakefront houses and the cool boats in the harbor. 

These pictures are from another trip a couple years ago, but are a good representation of downtown Harbor Springs. The pharmacy is owned by another branch of the Kelbel family, but it's cool to see our name on a sign.

On Saturday, we made a side trip down to Traverse City to visit my friend Emily from college. She works for a store called Nest and they have some really cool stuff.

The store is full of pretty decorative vases, lamps, furniture, art and everything home decor you can think of. 

We also went to this cool restaurant called Red Ginger for drinks and appetizers, and visited a store called Cherry Republic for wine tasting and all things cherry.

We ended up buying a bottle of Riesling and the hard cherry cider. We tasted practically everything on the menu and bought glasses of "cherry Palmer" and a cherry root beer to walk around outside with. Fun stuff. 

We also did a little shopping at a fun store called Sturgeon River Pottery. They have tons of the obvious pottery, but they also carry a lot of interesting outdoor decorations and garden items.

We got this cool weather vane for our backyard to honor Ted's MSU obsession. This is the best picture I could find online, so I will have to take one of it actually in use in our yard. 

Anyway, we had a nice relaxing weekend, and had the opportunity to go to the cemetery to see Ted's dad and grandpa's grave sites. We were glad to have time to spend with family and friends and each other.