Good Deals!

I love a good deal and I love to show them off even more!

I got these pillows on clearance at Target for $13 and $17 for the silk one. They look great on the dark brown couch. I love them!

I have had my eye on this wall hanging for our bedroom for a while. I found it at JC Penny for $140. I would NEVER pay that much for well anything. I saw it was one sale for half price last week but $70 is still too much for me. But then I see it is part of the early bird sale on Saturday morning. So my mom and I got up early and headed to the sale. I got the picture half off plus another 15% off PLUS I had a coupon for $15 off. I also got a bathroom rug so the price of the picture was $48. I am so proud of my bargain hunting skills! Mike hung it today and it looks awesome!

Kitchen

I realized a few days ago that I never posted pictures of the new kitchen appliances we bought right when we moved in. Mike's super nice parents sent us a generous house warming gift and we were about to get a dishwasher, microwave and range. The dishwasher that was in the house was broken already so we had to replace that but we found good deals on the microwave and range so we went for it! My dad helped Mike's install everything and everything looks great!

Dishwasher before:Dishwasher after:

Range before:

Range/microwave after:

Project: Garage

It seems like we shouldn't need to clean out our garage already but we do. The garage became a spot to throw things when we had our open house or Christmas party. It became full of ceiling fan boxes, old light fixtures, scrape wood and left overs from the previous owners.

We have always wanted to park in the garage so we took on the task of going to the dump twice and cleaning/organizing the garage. It was an entire Saturday of work but in the end was well worth it.

What we started with:

The wood thing on the right is a waste. It is unfinished cabinets. We took it out. It took about an hour and a lot of cursing but it is gone! Oh and there is the shiny new law mower! YAY

Here is the new and improved garage. Everything has a place now. All our camping gear is tucked away and together ready for spring. We also have our recycling cans all set up again.

Here is Gidget(Yes I name the car too) on the right and the Saturn (Mike didn't name his car anything festive blah!) It is great to get in the car in the cold morning and not have to freeze for half the drive to work and no de-icing the windows in the cold!

Thanks Peter!

Mike and I received a Christmas card from our friend Peter. Mike worked with Peter in LA. Peter included a gift, how thoughtful.

Ta-da! Oh you don't see it?

See there...the blue square. Let me get a little closer.Peter sent us a B for our collection. Good work Peter!

Happy Christmas!

Here are our Christmas decorations for our first Christmas in the new house. We didn't have much because last year we only decorated an apartment. Enjoy!

Snowflake on the front door

Our stockings and Sadie little stocking w/her catnip lobster

Our tree. My parents gave us this tree last year since they wanted a tree with clear lights. Oh and yes this tree is fake but have you seen the price of a real tree??? Also it is very green to have a fake tree so get with it! We also stuck all the Christmas cards we got in the tree too, turned out to be a good spot for them.
PS the big blue present on the right is mine...can't wait to see what it is!

I told Mike we wouldn't put lights on the outside of the house but I lied...sue me. Growing up my mom put together strands of lights with only red and green bulbs and I always loved them and knew I would put those on my house when I had one.
It took 4 people 2 days to find enough red and green bulbs to fill 3 strands but it looks awesome. It only took Mike 30 mins to get them up. He didn't complain...too much. I think our house is the best looking one on the block =]

My husband is so handy!

Seems like we haven't worked on the house is a while but that was not the case this weekend. Last weekend we out out Christmas tree up and put lights up outside, those pictures are coming soon. This weekend we went on a lighting rampage. Lighting is one of the less expensive ways to change the look of a room. We have no replaced all the lighting in the house to updated fixtures, yay us! I don't have before pictures, I know boo, but here is what we have been working on.

New hall lights. So much better than the old gold ones. We bought these in packs of 2 and put one in the laundry room and my walk in closet.

We replaced the entry way fixture a few weeks ago but I didn't get a picture until now. I love this light fixture. We put these ceiling fans in both the guest bedroom and craft room. I heart ceiling fans.We also hung some shelves. Mike hates these shelves. I must admit they are a pain in the butt to hang but they look awesome. We got them at Ikea when we lived in our apartment. Super cheap but nice looking at the same time. I need more dust collectors on the top shelve. I will find some soon I am sure.

My mom gave use this awesome candle/wall thingy. She feels it was meant to be on my fireplace instead of waiting for a place in her house. I love it so I gladly took it! I also got the cream colored B at TJ Maxx on clearance for $8, I love bargains. Those are our Christmas stockings and little Sadie's too.

Our house is famous!

Our local paper publishes recently sold houses on the front of Sunday's real estate section and they include one photo of a recently sold house. Well this past Sunday our house was in the list and also was the front page photo! I am so proud of our house. There are leaves all over the yard but I think it looks fally.



Here is the link (I hope it works):

http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/623175.html



I have not had pictures of our recent improvements because we have lost oh I mean mis-placed our camera. I think our cat stole it and hid it somewhere. I will hopefully find it soon.



We put up Christmas lights yesterday. They look awesome.