Here's Lookin' At You

I love how these mummy cupcakes turned out for a Halloween get-together at my grandparents' house. They were so fun to make... especially since I have a kitchen with lots of counter space. Such a luxury! It's nice to get back into baking. I have so much decorating stuff to use, and I don't have to go down into a dark basement to retrieve it. 

In other weekend news, Randy and I decided to get out and explore a little. We went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum and wax museum. Totally fun. We enjoyed seeing the odd and outrageous. Plus, we were able to fit in a quick chat with some old friends...

And Randy found some other stuff to take pictures of....

(and because they're kinda Halloween-ish, I added them)

Happy Halloween! 

The mirror

Per request, here is the mirror on our mantel.

The Pictures

Here it is... done. (Just imagine beautiful hard wood floors... it'll be coming in the future)

Third Time's a Charm

For some reason, painting this new house has been a dilemma for me for a while now. Usually, I come into a new space and know exactly what I want to do... in what colors... and it's done before you know it.

Not this time. After three trips to Walmart, two different "neutrals," and many achy body parts later, the painting is done for now. We decided that our color scheme was going to be a fun green (the paint chip is called "katydid"), brown accents (like our couches, drapes, pillows, etc), and a neutral color for the other walls. Well, our first neutral turned out to look like yellow. Soon after getting that color up on the walls, we had a banana theme of brown, green, and yellow. No thank you. Hate bananas to eat... hate bananas on my walls. So, Randy (blesshisheart) ran to Walmart to get more of a brownish/taupe (Yorkshire tan). After slapping that up on the walls... our house now had a beautiful green and (as Randy called it) "soft serve" brown. It looked exactly like soft serve ice cream... only in an unappetizing way against the green. Yuck. We quickly discovered that green, in general, is really hard to pair with another color.

So, we ended up with hazelnut cream.... a very neutral, but very complimentary color to our green. And it's done. Hallelujah!!!

And if you're wondering what we did with all the paint rejects...no worries, no paint will be wasted in our house. The Yorkshire tan will look really good with our black furniture in our master bedroom. And, the yellowish-green ended up working well in our guest room. So, we ended up painting the guest room... so score one for us getting more done than originally planned. Of course, it's past 10 at night, and we started painting at 9:30am. Hm. It's time for bed. Pictures will come tomorrow.

(Almost) Settled

Time for another picture... slowly but surely, I'll have more up. This weekend, I spent some good time putting up pictures and getting rid of more boxes just piled up in our dining room.

Our large (even though it doesn't look so in this picture) great room. I need help with ideas for paint colors. 

QUESTION:

What should we do with the great room?

a) paint the walls a color (we were thinking light green)

b) paint the walls a neutral color

c) paint the walls neutral, but make the fireplace wall an accent color

d) none of the above... I'll write my opinion in the comments section

our mantel 

In terms of paint, we were thinking a green that would compliment our wreath

Our guest room... just waiting for guests :)

Even our Henry Hippo is waiting to be a good host.

Hearty Potato Chowder

Fall is my favorite season, no doubt. And, I love the food of fall, too. In hopes of creating a little more fall-like atmosphere in the 80-degree weather of Texas, I made a hearty potato chowder tonight. It was, if I do say so myself, delicious. So, I thought I'd share the wealth.

Hearty Potato Chowder

16 oz. frozen potatoes o'brien
1 c. fat-free evaporated milk, divided
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
3/4 c. skim milk
1/4 c. scallions, finely chopped (green part only)
6 oz. bacon bits (can be omitted for vegetarians)

1. Coat a large saucepan with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. Add potatoes and cook, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes. Add 1/2 c. of evaporated milk until well-blended. Remove from heat.

2. Remove half of potato mixture and puree in a blender. Add pureed potatoes back to saucepan with the other potatoes. Add remaining 1/2 c. of evaporated milk, salt, pepper, skim milk, scallion, & bacon. Stir well. Simmer for a few minutes to heat through and blend flavors. 

*Note: I, being the cheese-lover that I am, added a sprinkling of cheddar cheese to top it off. 

All in all, this recipe was super simple and quick. It's originally a weight watcher's recipe, so if you're in to that, it's 4 points for 1 cup. It makes about 4 cups. Enjoy!

Home.

After a day of buzzing around town doing house things, Randy and I had a choice to make: go to the state fair or go to dinner and a movie. Dinner and a movie won. I think we made a good choice. Our dinner was down by the harbor, so we got to enjoy the beautiful sunset. This is our new home.

One by one

I've slowly been decorating our new house. I started with the guest bath, because that just seemed less daunting to take on. So, here are the highly sought-after pics.... one room at a time.