Countdown to 2011

0 Days…23 Hours….1398 Minutes…83927 Seconds ‘till 2011.

Woohooo… I am so ready to embrace this New Year!

So many great things to look forward to, I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. And since we're so close to the New Year It’s the perfect timing to recap 2010 and start thinking of my New Years Resolutions. Only that I plan to stick to them this time around, unlike previous years.

Here’s a recap of some of the great happenings of 2010;

Jan -  Decided to no longer be tenants and made plans to become Homeowners.

Feb - Sacrificed 4 months of having our own space and moved in with our in-laws to safe money.

Mar. - Worked really hard and saved every penny for the down payment of our new home.

April  - Finally got the approval from our lender and started the First Time Home Buyer process.

May - The hunt for our new home began (Oh boy this was the difficult part of it all). Yet we found “Our home at first sight”.

Jun. - Finally got through the closing and received the keys to our new home (yayyyy, felt so good to call a house your own). We moved it right away to start cleaning and renovating.

Jul. - Moved in the rest of our furniture and re-arranged our bedroom.

Aug. - Started getting super busy with work and had to re-schedule some of the projects we planned in our home.

Sept. - Painted my stepson’s room.

Oct. - Worked on securing our backyard to bring our dog home (he stayed at our in-laws in the mean time). Purchased the new TV for our master bedroom.

Nov .- Purchased our reclining sectional  and had our first Thanksgiving celebration with both sides of our family (and what a great time we had). Also, we brought our sweet dog “Diesel” home and set up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving to welcome our favorite holiday.

Dec. - Decorated our home for Christmas and enjoyed the holiday spirit with the family.

Now to my New Year’s resolutions:

1. Declutter / Organize our home.

2. Make more home cooked meals (come up with a monthly menu) + Bake more often.

3. Adopt healthier eating habits (a lot less junk food, more protein, more veggies) + come up with a plan to stay fit.

4. Remodel the two living/rental units and finally get them rented out.

5. Pick a color scheme to paint the rest of our house (Exterior, Dining Room Columns, Kitchen, Office, Master Bedroom).

6. Organize our closets and install new shelving units.

7. Work on renovating our Laundry room which is now being used as a storage room.

8. Purchase and Install new lighting in our master bedroom, dining room, living room and hallway.

9. Dedicate more time to my blog and be more consistent with postings (post daily) + Practice photography in order to become better at it.

10. Re-do our kitchen (keeping my fingers crossed for this one).

I hope you had a great 2010 and wish you a New Year filled with many blessings, adventures, and creativity!

Kenia*

From my kitchen to yours - Maple Glazed Ham

With Christmas just around the corner, we are getting ready and making sure all the preparations are covered. We’re almost done with our gifts shopping and its now time to gather up some delicious recipes. And of course, the famous Maple Glazed Ham couldn’t be missing in action. Once again its on top of the requests from our family and friends. I cooked this ham for thanksgiving and let me tell ya…there was none left, none, not even the bone (our ham eating dog had the juiciest part). I’ll be making two of these hams for our holiday dinner.

This is a very simple recipe, so simple even a caveman I can do it. Ha!

So here’s the recipe for you…give it a shot – you’ll thank me later.

Ingredients:

• 1 spiral-sliced half ham (the one wrapped in foil)
• 1 can of pineapple slices in juice
• 2 tablespoons of yellow mustard
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of Maple Syrup (plain pancake syrup)
• 1 jar of maraschino cherries

Glaze:

In a medium bowl, mix the mustard, brown sugar, syrup and part of the pineapple juice reserved (set aside).

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cook ham for about 30 minutes as directed on the ham package. Once ham is cooked, removed from oven and brush glaze over ham until completely covered. Make sure to brush some of the glaze between the slices of the ham. Place ham back in the oven for 20 minutes.

Optional – you may decorate the ham by arranging the pineapple slices on top of the ham. Use cloves and toothpicks to secure the pineapples. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple and secure with toothpick.

Your family will love this deliciously juicy maple glazed ham.

Enjoy!

Kenia*


This post has been linked to the following Link Parties:

Glowing Mantles

With just five more days until Christmas, I sure wont have enough time to put up the white pottery barn shelves I scored at the Goodwill for $8.00  and decorate them like I would want to. So much going on at the very last minute to celebrate the season. But I’ll settle for admiring the beautifully decorated mantles found over at HGTV’s “15 Glowing Holiday Mantels”.

Oh baby is cold outside!

So lets stay indoors and enjoy this Beautiful Garland…

Simple white stockings…

Apothecary Jars filled with glowing ornaments…

 

Nutcrackers & Stars…

 

And so “We tend to Seek Happiness”

Throughout the Holiday Season!

Kenia*

Pretty Holidays Window Display

I went to the mall yesterday to finish our Christmas shopping and could not believe my eyes. I just had to stop and snap a quick picture at this pretty window display in the Ann Taylor store.

Something tells me that the inspiration for this beautifully well coordinated display came from blog-land.

(the wall filled with frames, decorated mantle)

Definitely screams “Blog Land” to me…

But never-the-less its so Pretty with all the sparkle, the string lights, the heels and champagne glass on the mantle!

Yup, look very closely….Its Heidi Klum the sexy VS angel.

She’s the new face for Ann Taylors holiday campaign ad.

All of the pretty window displays just make us want to shop more don’t it?

Happy Shopping everyone!

Kenia*

New Blog Header Design

 

STOP!!!….You’re in the right blog.

I'm sure you’ve noticed my new Blog Header by now. Isn't it Gorgeous?

Oh I’m soooo in LOVE!

If you haven't forgotten already, this was my old boring header…Ughhh I wont be going back to that!

Well I have Ashley Hitchens of  A {Blonde’s} DIY Life to Thank for this beauty. If you haven't already checked out her blog, go head and stop by to check out her creative space!

Paper Cutting for the Holidays…

For the past few weeks I have been wanting to take some time to make either a paper garland or individual paper snowflakes. So today I decided to search the web for a variety of patterns and came across this word...

 “Scherenschnitte” {pronounced Sharon-sh-net}.

 Little did I know this word meant the “Art of Paper Cutting” in German. And so I googled it and just look at all the wonderful designs that popped up.

I just had to print of these lovely designs to include in our Holiday décor. 

I chose these Angels and printed the picture on regular sized 8x10 paper.

I then carved out the inner white part of the picture with an x-acto knife.

Since my printer was very low on black ink and I was feeling a bit lazy to go buy another cartridge, It just seemed right to go over the design with a black sharpie (which worked out great, take a look). Then off to cut the outer white part of the paper.

And  here’s the result… So many endless possibilities in paper cutting.
I cant wait to cut a few more designs to place around the house.

Here it is hanging form a hurricane vase on my TV stand. It would look great transferred on the candle itself too.

And on a white plate…This is a great way to bring the holiday décor to the kitchen. I will be going out to buy some plate stands for this one.

Stay tuned for a pretty holiday garland…..I hope you’re feeling crafty too this holiday season.

Kenia*


This post is linked to these great holiday parties:

Goodwill Hunt

After reading several of the posts on Mr. Goodwill Hunting's blog last night,  I was left with an urge to run down to my local Goodwill to find some treasure. Only problem was that I was around 1:30am and of course at that time GW is closed. Ha!

Seems like Mr.GWH and I share a love for gorgeous lamps and tableware. If you havent visited his blog, take some time to check it out, you'll be amazed at his great GW finds.

So I  headed over to GW as soon as I left the office today. I must admit, it was late in the afternoon. Luckily the Super Goodwill store closes at 9pm M-F. Ohhh I was spotting the pretty elements through the glass walls as soon as I drove up to the building.

Here are my wonderful new treasures.

I scored the set of  Pottery Barn crown shelfs for $8.00

(Sold at PB for $49.99 and $59.99 each)

Cant wait to see how these will look once I put them up (here is the pic from PB of these shelves)

These gorgeous Crate & Barrel red beaded trees for $2 a pop.

(These will look fabulous on my TV stand)

I'd love to know who is the maker of these candle votives, they are so cute.

I couldnt help but bring them home, specially for $1 buck ea.

Oooooh these clear glass candle holders got my attention too. Specially since I can use them all year round. these were $2 ea.

Here they are again with some candles I had...Arent they lovely?

So I always wanted to make deviled eggs...

and never have just because I didnt own one of these Deviled Egg platter.

Well no more excuses now, deviled eggs it is. Paid $2 for this one.

I also grabbed this cute bowl, just because that lime green is my favorite color.

 I couldnt resist not taking it for $1.50

But the real steal of the day is just to come!

Ok, drum roll please... 

These authentic  Villeroy & Bock Audun Fleur plates are a beauty...

I found a set of 6 dinner plates just at $0.50 each.  Yup, you heard right.

These are originally $48.00/plate at Tablewareetc and Amazon. Which is $288 for the set of 6 plates.

Can you believe I paid only $3 for the set?

 The total bill came up to about $26.22 for all of this.

(Including the PB Shelves) 

Auhhhmazing!

Have you found any thrifty treasures lately?

Our Lovely Christmas Tree...

As a tradition, we usually set up our Christmas tree a few days before Thanksgiving in order to enjoy it alot longer for the holiday season...And just after I thought I was finished decorating it, I seemed to continue taking countless trips to Target, Walmart and Dollar Tree to find more inexpensive ornaments....and once again end up greeting my hubby at the door with "Hey hun, yes more ornaments"  LOL.

But each one of those trips were well worth it since I found gorgeous ornaments from $0.99 to $1.99 (not a penny more).

Not to mention, I got an unbelievable deal on our lovely faux tree a few months ago at a garage sale. I scored this amazing tree for just $10...Yes you heard right, Just $10 for this 7 1/2 ft tall faux beauty. And the previous owners were so organized that they had separated each branch by color, making it super easy for me to assemble. To our surprise, this tree ended up being alot bigger than we expected, but this has been the best bargain of all year for me.

Let me tell you...It took lots and lots of ornaments to fill this baby up. Uffff I lost count already. Good thing they were not expensive.

Where I did spent the BIG Bucks was in the net lights at $9.99 per set, which our tree took 3 sets of the nets. I had decided to buy the nets instead of the individual lights. It just seems so much easier to just throw the net on the tree and stretch it out until its completely covered, rather than keep going in circles over and over and over. Ugghhh I end  up feeling dizzy afterwards. Ok call me lazy!..No, seriously, I've been a bit lazy these past few weeks.

Enough with the lazyness...I better go clean up the mess of glitter from all over the floor.

Ok here she is, making her grand appearance.

All dressed up in her gorgeous lights gown and sparkling ornaments.

This picture above came out perfect...specially since these were taken with my camera phone - (

Sorry for the poor quality).  Here's a few more pics.

I plan to more the sofas out of the way to give it more room to shine and perhaps add a few more decorative touches around the house. Stay tuned for more coming soon.

I hope you're having fun decorating for the Holidays, after all its the season to be jolly...

Fa la la lala lala la la...

Welcoming the Holidays

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones. Our Thanksgiving dinner was a success and I made the most delicious Pineapple Glazed Ham {my favorite Recipe from Paula Deen}.  Not to mention, there was barely any left over.

Find Recipe here.

Its been such a busy time for me since I've been jugling work, school, and family all at once while trying to prepare for the holidays...I apologize for the lack of post these past two weeks, I am now catching  up with some of my projects and daily dose of blogs reading. Im so thrilled now that my favorite time of the year is here, time of festivities and gatherings.

Lost in the thought of color for our Dining Room.

Hello Lovelies....

After having a long exhausting week between work and family Im in the mood for a glass of wine and relaxation, but with the Thanksgiving holiday approaching seems like I better get my hands on the job if I need our house to be ready for the festivities.

For years our family has celebrated the Fall Feast at my sister or my mom's house. But since we finally got a big house of our own I have decided to gather the family in our new nest to give Thanks for all of our blessings. And of course, we have to hurry and get our living room ready for our holiday gathering.

Currently our dining room looks like this...

In need of beautiful wall color, a new chandelier and dining room furniture.

But we're taking it one step at a time and starting by selecting a range of colors we feel comfortable with

.

 

With a few more weeks to Thankgiving ahead of us Im in desperate need of inspiration, I headed over to Decor Pad to view some of the most gorgeous dining rooms.

Im really liking these brownish/beige taupe colors since it makes the dining room look warm and inviting yet not too dark.

 Option # 1

And the light grayish-beige walls on this makes the space looks so relaxing and fresh.

Option # 2

Now I just have to make up my mind and decide which one of these two beautiful colors will be dressing  up our dining room walls.

Or perhaps we should go with a color combination like this one, using the darker beige on the main wall as a focus and the lighter in the surrounding walls.

Option # 3

Ok now its beginning to hit me.

Should I go with option # 1, 2, or 3?

I'll sleep on this somewhat big decision and by tomorrow I shall have made up my mind...

Lowes, I hope you're ready cuz tomorrow we shall take over your paint isle!