A Confession

I am a dork.  No.  I am a dork with an advanced degree.  No.  More specifically I am a decorating dork with an advanced degree.   NOT to be confused with these dorks.    I am writing this to confess that I, a 31 year old female with a sound mind and body just learned how to properly hang curtains.  There.  I said it.

You see, I hope this does not sound apologetic (actually I do), but until this time in my life I really didn't pay too much attention to window coverings or decor in my house.  When we first bought the house five years ago, we bought the basics like the couches and the curtains (for the living room) and then slowly filled it up with junk decor and then we got busy with life and diagramming sentences and bills and we stopped.   Now that I am home with the baby, I spend quite a bit of time on those couches nursing and gazing around and growing tired of what I look at.  Not only that, but I also love to catch up on my blog reading while I do that.  So I read the Nester and her friends and they are having a very bad influence on me.  I am beginning to grow discontent of the stuff I have or maybe forming a more sophisticated view of the stuff one should have? They are the reason I am finally (after 7 years!) redecorating my bedroom.  The pillows above are new.  Aren't they purdy?

I am learning the basics like your living space should reflect who you are and its better to have fewer things but of value (buying things of value at resale stores count, by the way) than a house full of junk that you don't love but thought it would match and bought.  Unless you are Alyssa who gets away with hanging a curtain on a stick and having a $10 kitchen makeover. 

So yesterday was a big day for us.  We rehung our curtains. (please forgive the quality of these photos.  Don't laugh think EFFECT and be happy for us ;)

One of our bedroom windows BEFORE

We couldn't believe the difference in our living room.  Here is a really bad after picture.   We were convinced we now have about 40% more light in our living area because of the change.

Here is a decorating tip to myself:  Wanna free makeover?  Take a look at your curtains.  Hang them above the woodwork as high as the length of the curtains will let you and expand the rod to the sides.  That and rearrange your furniture.

Anyway, if you want better pictures and read people who actually have taste go Nester, LifeinGrace, and YoungHouseLove.  Yes, they do this for a living (lucky bunch) but their style and stuff is all eye candy to me.

I hear that creativity in not necessarily genetic.  Maybe there is hope for me?

Not So Ordinary Mac and Cheese

Unfortunately, our dinner table doesn't see as much seafood as we (meaning my husband and I) would like. The reason is twofold: sustainable seafood is too expensive and my kids hate fish. They do like shrimp though, nutritional value of which is debatable.

While searching through one of my now favorite food blogs ( I think I have one favorite one each week) I found this recipe for crab mac and cheese on the Closet Cooking website. No matter how delicious it looked, however, I wasn't going to pay $23 for a pound of crab and some more for fancy cheeses. This was mac and cheese after all, no adult I know would take it seriously even if it had crab in it. So I settled for provolone (which melts great) and bay shrimp which was about $3.50 a pound at Costco. It turned out delicious. Probably not as good as the original but this baby puts the Blue Box to shame both in value and taste!