Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Watermelon Smoothies and Grandma's Glassware

Last week we had one of those humid and 90's day(s).  It was so hot even food didn't sound good, but boy oh boy did liquids or iced drinks sound heavenly!  A friend of mine had posted on her blog a recipe for watermelon smoothies.  We had some watermelon that I had purposely saved (froze) from the 4th of July with the anticipation of making these.  We used the Vita-mix ALOT the past few weeks!

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups of watermelon, cubed and frozen
1 banana
3/4 cup water
juice of one lemon
1-2 Tablespoon of maple syrup, agave nectar or sugar *optional

Now the story behind the glassware...when my grandparents (my mom's parents) moved from their farmhouse my grandma gave each of us girls some dishes and vases.  I absolutely loved these glasses, but to be honest because of their unique shape I have never used them!  These were the perfect dainty thing for our "girly" beverage.  I also love the fact that they have history.  The box that they were in had this logo:
The Gilmore Brothers Department Store closed its doors in 1999 after 118 years of serving the Kalamazoo community.  To read more about this fascinating company and its origins click here.
  
~The girls enjoying their drinks~

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Closet Makeover

When we moved into our house a couple months ago the master bedroom closets had some cheapy racks in them.  Within the first month one of mine broke and when Eric's shirt rack came crashing down one afternoon we decided to make some changes.  I now understand why moving took us so long....
 And this was just half the clothes!  It really is amazing what accumulates when you start piling it out of closets and drawers.
Here is Eric's closet "before":
I really wish we had a picture from the rack of clothes that fell...that would have made it really dramatic. :)  Also by building our own shelves we were able to utilize the space much  more effectively.
 My ghastly closet before:
 After:
 
*Happy Sigh* Aren't the cubbyholes cute?!?!
This was ALL made possible due to my dear father-in-law.  He spent many hours cutting boards, measuring, cutting, measuring, measuring... ;)  We have been extremely blessed to have our parents spend the month of July with us, I think we'll adopt them.  We are currently getting the old shelving installed in our outdoor shed and I believe as I type this he is organizing our shed!!  I just woke up from a much needed "first trimester" nap while my mother-in-law watched the kids play in the pool.  We also had smoothies made for us for lunch!  Yes, adoption is a must. ;) 
Yes, that is my hubs with his dad and his dad is sporting his NRA hat while using his nail gun! lol

One LAST thing...I have not been good about doing the before/after of our crazy last few months of renovation, but think I will throw in a picture of our bedroom.  This picture is before we moved in:
Changes made: the dark, oak trim was taken off and replaced with white and the windows were re-cased.  Crown moulding.  Painted...twice (paint can be SO hard, it can look ok on the swatch and then horrible on the wall), new bedding and lamps from my beloved TJ Maxx. 
Still more work to be done, but definitely a breath fresher to us and  more our style!