Newlywed Survival Kit

My brother-in-law is getting married in three weeks! So excited for him!

So I had the idea, to make him and his fiance a Newlywed Survival Kit, as wedding present. Basically a kit of things to get you through the first year of marriage.

So far I have...

A Dave Ramsey Book, because money is a major source of newlywed and marital conflict.


My two favorite cleaning products, Bar Keeper's Friend and Castile Soap, becauase we fought a lot about chores in the first year and these products make chores a lot easier!





And some dishtowels off their registry to go along with the cleaning products.





A couples' devotional book, Night Light, because reading and praying together can do wonders.


A Cookbook, because cooking together and cooking for each other is such a fun part of being a newlywed.



And I'm going to put it all in a cleaning bucket, because that's a great way to store cleaning supplies.



I want to add a couple more $5-$15 items, but I can't think of what else to add! What else would you add to a Newlywed Survival Kit?*

*Nothing to racy, ok? This is my husband's brother we're talking about here.

Green Cleaning Tips, Tricks, and "Recipes"

I used to be SUPER intimidated by green cleaning. I wasn't sure what I needed to clean green or how it would work. But I discovered it was SUPER easy.

All I need are these ingredients:

(Baking Soda, Castile Soap, Vinegar, Lemon, and empty spray bottles)

And some cloth rags and my house can be totally clean. And green!

I use bulk castile soap and bulk vinegar, cut them with water, and put them in spray bottles to make my main cleaning supplies. Here are my recipes...


Castile Soap Mix recipe:
- 1 empty spray bottle
- 1 teaspoon of castile soap
- Fill bottle with water
Note: You can buy Castile Soap at Trader Joe's.

How to use:
Spray on granite counters, wood furniture, and pretty much anything that needs cleaning and wipe down with a rag. I literally use this on walls, floors, cabinets, surfaces and furniture. Everything shines!

Here's more ways to use Castile Soap.


Vinegar spray recipe:
- 1 empty spray bottle
- Fill half with vinegar
- Fill half with water

How to use:
Spray in fridge to clean fridge shelves, spray inside microwave, pour into sink to deodorize, spray on mirrors in place of windex, spray in toilet and then scrub toilet.

Here's more ways to use vinegar.


Baking Soda recipe:
- Baking soda on a damp rag

How to use:
Scrub pots and pan, wipe down stainless steel, scrub shower walls and doors. Or use dry to deodorize carpets, closets, etc.

Here's more ways to use baking soda.


Lemon recipe:
- Cut lemon into slices

How to use:
Microwave a slice in the microwave for 1 minute and wipe down microwave afterwards, grind up lemon in garbage disposal to remove odor.

More green cleaning tips can be found on one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love.



Isn't that easy? Not only I am being green, but I'm being more healthy by avoiding toxic chemicals, and I'm saving money. I love it!

The only cleaning supplies I buy are dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent, because I have not been bold enough to make my own yet. Maybe that's next!

What are some of your favorite, easy ways to clean green?

Dream Home - Wine Room

The Mr. and I will occasionally talk about what we'd want in our hypothetical dream home.

He wants a lazy river around the house. (seriously, isn't he hilarious?)

And one of the main things I want (besides an insane walk-in closet) is a Wine Room. A temperature controlled room that is a wine cellar.

Something like this...


via

Or this...

via

Or it could be more modern and integrated into another room like this...


Or this...

via

I also like the idea of true wine cellar, like this amazing, modern, spiral wine cellar...

via

The possibilites are really endless. *Sigh*


What do you want in your dream home?

Cooking with Blogs - Tequila Chicken & Cake Pops

One great thing about blogging is finding all kinds of new recipes that bloggers have invented or tried.

As you know, I'm not a huge cook, but a couple of recipes have been getting some buzz lately, so this weekend I decided to try them out.

The first was Pioneer Woman's Tequila Lime Chicken. What really convinced me to give this one a shot was Rachel cooking it and raving about it.

Here's the evolution of my cooking of the PW Tequila Lime Chicken (PW has better pics than me!)


The Mr. and I marinated it, grilled it, baked it, and ate it! I also made Pioneer Woman's pico de gallo, which really made the dish extra delicious!

The Tequila Lime Chick was delicious and easy to make, even for a non-experienced cook like me. I highly recommend it!


The second recipe was Bakerella's Cake Pops. I was inspired by Beach Bum & Baby to try it because her pops look amazing!

I had less success with the Cake Pops than the chicken, but in the end they turned out OK.

Here's the evolution of the Cake Pops.


Notice how the whole "chocolate dipping" part is missing from these pictures? That's because that part was a giant disaster. I had a hard time getting chocolate consistency right, I kept losing cake pops in the chocolate during the dipping process, finished cake pops would fall apart, I spilled chocolate everyone. Ugh.

But in the end, I did get some good cake pops! Here they are in a flower pot for a small dinner party that I brought them too.


Was it worth the $27 and 5 hours I spent on this? Ummmm... maybe. I think next time I might just purchase my desserts and save time and money. :)


What recipes are you trying lately?

"We're" Repainting

When I was brand new 'lil baby homeowner two years ago I made a few small mistakes with regards to paint.

My first mistake was thinking that the Mr. and I were capable of paining our own home. We are not. We just don't have the painting gene. Or patience. Or any talent at all.

Seriously, we spent an entire weekend painting and all we had to show for it were two rooms with some seriously uneven paint and jagged trim. We then hired painters to fix our awful paint job and to complete the rest of the house. Outsourcing lesson learned. We. Do. Not. Paint.

My second mistake was thinking I could figure out what an entire wall or room would look like based on paint swatch. Wow those little paint swatches can be deceiving!

I've always loved the colors we chose for our bathrooms and master bedroom -- but the paint scheme in the other rooms just never quite did it for me. I blame the tiny swatches.

So as part of kitchen upgrade project "we're" repainting our entryway, kitchen, dining room/living room, and hallway. And just for fun, the office too. (note: click the links to see how they look currently)

And this time around we're doing it right...

First, we've hired painters. That why "we're" repainting is quotes.

Second, we bought little paint pot samples in several colors from Home Depot. Then we tested the paint on several giant pieces of poster board and taped the poster board to the walls to visualize the color better. It's SO much easier to tell how the color will look when it's covering a wall when it's on poster board!

And this weekend we decided on the following colors...

For the entryway, hallway, kitchen, and living room/dining we chose, "Sand Fossil" by Behr.


And as a small accent color for the living room we chose "Mojave Sunset" by Behr.


And finally for our beachy office we chose "Surfer" by Behr.


The painter is coming this week to give us the final estimate based on what's being painted and should get started painting next week. I can't wait!

Did you make any painting mistake as a new homeowner? How often do you repaint your home?

Closet Organization

One of my spring cleaning projects was to tackle my closet.

My dream is to have a big, beautiful walk-in closet like this:

(Originally posted by Blue-Eyed Bride here)

But this what our closets look like:


By no means ideal, but pretty good for an 1,100 sq ft. condo.

I'm a pretty organized person, but there were a few things bothering me about closet and I felt like my closet was constantly a mess. So I decided to do a bit of reorganizing.

Here a look at the before and after...

(click to enlarge)

So what did I do? Just three small things...

First, see the pile crap and a white board in the lower right-hand corner of the "before" photo. Those are my shoes on a small, dysfunctional shoe rack. So I knew the first thing I had to tackle were my shoes.

I purchased an "Over-the-Door Shoe Rack" at Bed Bath and Beyond. And got my shoes up off the floor. Check it out...


Much better! And room for more shoes. Yippee! (Oh and shout out to the Mr. for helping me install it!)


Second, I did a clothing purge. The kind where you try on all of your "iffy" outfits, ya know, the ones you never wear but think you will, and have an honest discussion with yourself about if you'll ever really wear it. The purge yielded a couple of bags of clothing to donate to Goodwill. (Yay tax write-off!)


Third, I purchased some cloth containers/bins at Bed Bath & Beyond to hold the sweaters and purses that I was storing on the top shelves that would always come tumbling down and hit me in the head.

By putting items in containers you give them a "home" that they can return to, it keeps them together, and makes them easy to find.


(Note: I actually still need to purchase a couple more bins to really contain everything)


So lets recap. Three small things got my closet in shape.
1. Functional shoe rack
2. Clothing purge
3. Containerize, containerize, containerize (everything needs a "home")

One more time just for kicks... the before and after...


What do you do to organize your closet and keep it organized?

Top 5 Cleaning Tips

One thing that newlyweds can frequently argue about are household chores and cleaning duties. At least that seems to be a topic of occasional disagreement in our household. We can't be the only ones, right? Right?

Although I do have a passion for home organizing (more on that next week), I really don't love cleaning. And neither does the Mr.



But cleaning is necessity of life (until that magical day when we get a cleaning lady) and we've found ways to split chores when we do our Saturday morning cleaning sprees. So in honor of spring cleaning and Kelly's Korner, I thought I'd share our Top 5 Cleaning Tips that have helped us to keep a happy, sane, clean home.


1. Use Bar Keepers Friend.

I've shared my love for Bar Keepers Friend before. I have no idea how we could deal with cleaning all of the modern stainless steel appliances in our condo without it.

We use it on stainless steel faucets/ sinks to get out water spots, on pots and pans to remove burn marks, on shower doors to remove residue, and (BEST of all) on our stainless steel fridge that always seems to get water marks and finger prints on it. Knowing how easy it is clean stainless steel with BKF has definitely helped us avoid fights. And the price (about $3) means we can use as much of this as we want.





2. Buy a Dyson vacuum.

We love our Dyson. It's so easy to use that it makes vacuuming fun. The attachments makes cleaning floors, ledges, couches, and more so easy. We don't even own a broom because of our Dyson. And emptying it is an absolute snap. We love our Dyson so much that on cleaning day we both want to vacuum. Ha!


3. Carry Tide Pens and keep Wine Away on hand

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I am a huge klutz. Mostly in the realm of spilling stuff on myself and others. It got so bad at one point that Mr. would make me stand/sit at least two feet away from him if I am drinking a colored liquid (such as wine).

That is why I always carry a Tide Pen in my purse and keep Wine Away on hand. They both do wonders for stains. With these I can nip a stain in the bud - which saves the Mr from yelling at me that moment and makes stain removal easier when we have do laundry.




4. Use a Magic Eraser to clean walls

This little foam pads really are magic. I guess the secret behind them material known as melamine foam. With just a little water, melamine foam can dig in and destroy stains that other products can't touch. Scuffs on the wall? Gone in seconds! No fighting about having to repaint. That is magic.


5. The easiest way to clean granite is with gentle dish soap and water.

We used to waste money buying expensive granite cleaner because you can't use harsh cleaners on granite. Then we found out that you can just use our regular gentle dish soap and water. It's inexpensive, easy, and actually makes the granite look great. That's one less product that we have to spend money on, which means more money left in our fun budget!





What are your "must have" Spring Cleaning products? What cleaning tips do you have?


Note: None of the products or companies that I shared about in the post provided me with any monetary or non-monitory compensation. I have no professional or personal ties to any of these companies or products. The products simply are my favorite products for keeping a clean and happy home.

Whatcha got cookin?

Long time readers of my blog may have noticed, that I'm not exaccctttlly the next Barefoot Contessa (see here).

I have a litany of excuses as to why I don't cook....

I travel too much. I work too late. I don't have time to go the grocery store. I never learned how. I'm not good at it. Blah blah blah.

It's a character flaw.

But recently I decided that the only way I'm going to become better cook is by actually cooking!

So last week I planned out all of my meals, went to three grocery stores to get everything (Whole Foods, Albertsons, and Costco), and then cooked up a storm!

Also, I've realized that I'm a visual learner, so when someone blogs a recipe and shows how to do each step, it really helps me out. So I took most of my recipes from a few of my favorite cooking blogs.

Here is a list of what I made, how it turned out, and what I learned.

Saturday: Homemade Pizza
Recipe from: My head (I just bought dough, sauce and toppings and baked it)
My cooking grade: B
What I learned: You need to pre-heat the crust when you bake on pizza stone.
Next time I make this I will: make my own dough (see recipe here) instead of using the processed Pillsbury dough for a tastier crust.

(Photo from Pioneer Woman)

Sunday: Chicken Spaghetti Casserole
Recipe from: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
My cooking grade: A
What I learned: Casseroles are delicious and great to make for later. I was able to bake half of the recipe in small dish for dinner immediately and freeze the other half in another small dish for a later time.
Next time I make this I will: add more chicken and veggies and less pasta for a healthier dish.

(Photo from Pioneer Woman)

Monday: Green Bean and Tofu Stir Fry
Recipe from: Made it up
My cooking grade: C+
What I learned: This dish is really bland unless you add a ton of sauce (which I ended up doing)
Next time I make this I will: Invest in rice cooker so I don't have nasty soggy rice that took over an hour to make.

(Photo by me)

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Recipe from: Finding Thyme to Cook
My cooking grade: A+
What I learned: It's actually really easy to make a delicious pot roast.
Next time I make this I will: Repeat the recipe exactly! The Mr and both LOVED this.

(Photo by me)

Wednesday: Blondies! (Well that and Pot Roast leftovers)
Recipe from: Finding Thyme to Cook
My cooking grade: A
What I learned: Blondies are a fun alternative to the typical brownies and are a lot easier than brownies to make from scratch.
Next time I make this I will: Add more pralines for a nuttier bar.

(Photo by me)

Thursday: Simple Lemon Chicken
Recipe from: Finding Thyme to Cook
My cooking grade: A-
What I learned: This recipe called for chicken cutlet, I used chicken breasts, which meant it took a lot longer to cook through. Broccoli tastes amazing with this dish.
Next time I make this I will: Make some basmati rice to go along with it.

(Photo by Finding Thyme to Cook)

Friday: Mediterranean Style Chicken in a Foil Pouch
Recipe from: Culinary Disaster
My cooking grade: A-
What I learned: This is a great way to make tender chicken breast that don't get dried out. Don't double wrap the chicken pouches in foil, it will take twice as long to cook. Also, these taste great with couscous.
Next time I make this I will: check to make sure that the onion I have at home isn't rotten so I can be sure my pouches have onion in them!

(Photo by Culinary Disaster)

A whole weeks worth of cooking! I never would have thought I could have done it! I'm so proud of myself!

What are your favorite every-day recipes? Favorite step-by-step cooking blogs?

Spring Flowers, Kitchen Upgrade, & Bloggy Friends

It's 78 degrees outside and I feel like Spring has sprung in Los Angeles!

My Mom was in town on Friday and she took me on shopping trip to The Home Depot to buy the us some spring flowers for our balcony patio in honor of spring time.

Don't they brighten the place up a lot?!


The Mr. even brought me small bouquet of flowers home from the grocery store. So sweet!



Also, I'm happy to inform you that we are proceeding along with our "Kitchen Upgrade Project".

After shopping for tile at three stores, and bringing home five tile samples, this is the tile for the backsplash that the Mr. and I decided on and ordered!


It matches our granite, tile, and cabinetry perfectly! I love it! Here's a closeup...


As part of our big "Kitchen Upgrade Project" we are also installing some new kitchen lighting and redoing our living room and entry-way paint. Lots more details to come soon!


Lastly, Danica from Chic Runner and I are both Long Beach girls and have been bloggy friends for a while. We've hung out several times but this time we FINALLY managed to get picture.

Here we are before heading out to dinner at George's Greek in downtown Long Beach.



And here is Danica with Judah. We can her Judah's "blogmother." I think he looks pretty happy about that.

Upgrade my Kitchen?

This is pretty much my dream kitchen...


And this is my actual kitchen..,


I have the beautiful stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. But I'd die for some espresso cabinets and a beautiful backsplash.

Since moving is out of the questions and I "can't be with the one I love", I've been thinking about "loving the one I'm with" and upgrading my kitchen.

Due to budgetary reasons, I'm not even thinking of replacing the basically new cabinets. But a new backsplash could really add a lot the kitchen (and after that maybe new paint in the rooms near the kitchen)

I did some searching around the interwebs for backsplashes paired with wood that looks like ours. Here is what I found:

Pretty huh?!

So I have a few questions:
1. How much do you think the purchase and installation of a small backsplash would cost?
2. Our granite is a blackish-green color and our floors are a beige marble. What color would you do for the backsplah? My gut says some combo of brown, beige, and green would be good.
3. Would I need to remove the the granite the comes up onto the wall or just add a backsplash above it?

Housewife for a Week

I have to take mandatory “paid time off” from work this week (which, for the record, I’m 100% fine with). The only unfortunate thing is that Mr. has to work this week. So you know what that means …

I’m a housewife for a week!



Considering that I will likely always be a working wife (and sometime in the future, Mom), this “housewife” stuff is rare and uncharted territory for me.

I started of this morning making a schedule of what I need to accomplish this week and what events I have planned for the week so that I don’t waste my entire week blogging, facebooking, and catching up on my DVR.

My main activities this week will be:

• House cleaning and organizing
• Taking down Christmas decorations
• Installing new software on my computer and doing some digital scrapbooking (The Mr. got me Photoshop Elements for Christmas!)
• Working out (ugh, those holiday lbs)
• Catching up on old emails
• Errands (Target, Costco, REI)
• Working on our wedding album (yes, I know I’m a year late on this)
• And maybe if the Mr. gets lucky, a little bit of cooking

I’m also having dinner with a bloggy friend and meeting my Mom in Orange County for some shopping! So it’s not all work.

I'll also definitely have some new blog posts this week, so stay tuned.


Is anyone else out there a housewife for a week?