My bedroom

The second part of my home tour is my bedroom.  My bedroom is not finished yet but like I stated in the last home tour post, I would rather update my blog when I make changes instead of waiting forever for my bedroom to be finished.

This first picture is taken from the doorway into my room.  You can see my bed that I refinished myself (I will post about that one day).  I have never in my life loved my bedroom the way that I do now.  Every time I walk into my room, I feel so complete.  I love the way my room has turned out and it is perfectly me! 

The duvet cover on my bed is from IKEA.  I bought it for $29 on sale and two weeks later I saw it on sale there for $19.  This is my favorite duvet by far and the cheapest one I have ever bought!

The flowers above my bed are from Target.  They came in a box with maybe twenty or so and in three different sizes.  The crown was bought at Kirkland.  My mamma gave it to me for my birthday :) The nightstands are two separate ones, one has been painted white but the other one is still the original color.  I am going to refinish that one....one day.  I need to take a picture of the lamp that is on in this picture, it is so cute and is different than the one that is not turned on. The open door on the right hand side of the picture is my master bathroom.

The curtains were bought at Family Dollar for $5 a panel but the mistake I made was only buying two of them....I need two more because the window is too big.  I would also like to repaint the curtain rod a white color....I am not a fan of black...dunno if you noticed that lol

The two shelves that are higher up, were bought at AC Moor many years ago and were a brownish stain and the lower, smaller shelf was bought at some thrift store years ago as well and was brown.  I decided to sand them down and refinish them and give them lots of charm by distressing them.  The three crocheted jars on the middle shelf are made by my sister, she has her very own blog that you can check out here. 

The chair in the corner by the window is one of my favorite pieces in my room.  My aunt Sharla gave it to me when I moved back to the states in 2011 and I love it!!  The chair is older than me by far (I don't remember exactly how old it is) and it is hand painted.  The details are beautiful and I will never refinish this chair because never in a million years could I make it look better than this!!!

Here is a close up of some of the details on the chair.  Does this make your heart flutter the way it does mine?  

Another close up of the chair showing you just how beautiful it is :)

This heart is on the wall above my dresser....I didn't take any pictures of my dresser because I haven't set up that area yet.  I will update pictures when I finish the area where my dresser is. 

I will end this post by putting another picture of my bedroom with me standing at the doorway.  My piece of heaven, my retreat from the world, my place to dream.....my bedroom!

What do you think about my room?  What was your favorite part?

Precious moments with the ones I love

I love fall, the colors of the leaves, the temperature dropping, the hoodies, boots, and leggings!!!  Oh, I love fall clothes and wish I could start each fall by going on a big shopping trip and buy all new clothes and boots.....I LOVE boots!!  I have a few (read A LOT) of boots, but I don't have enough and I need a pair in black.  Both flat boots and high heeled black boots.  Aaaahhhh

Oh my....I didn't mean to get so off track, I'm back from daydreaming about boots and clothes.

One of the things that I love about fall is when the weather starts to cool down and the boys and I get some hot chocolate.  I am not a coffee drinker, never have been.  I am not part of the pumpkin spice latte club, sorry ladies but you can have them all!  I do like caramel frappaccinos though....with half the amount of coffee in them lol

Being that I am not a coffee drinker, I have never really had a coffee maker.  This is never a problem except when my parents, sister or Aunt come and visit....that doesn't happen often because my parents and sister live in Iceland and my Aunt lives in Pennsylvania.  Every time I got company that drinks coffee, I would just get instant coffee for them to drink.  Then this summer, my parents came to visit and they decided to buy me a coffee maker so they could have good coffee at my house. Never in a million years did I expect them to buy me a GOOD coffee maker....they didn't buy me a good one, they bought the best one!!  

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They got me my very own Keurig!!!!

At first I was not really sure how to feel about it, I didn't know if it would ever get any use other than when I had family here.  Then my mamma started showing me all of the different kinds of drinks that can be made in the Keurig.  I can make tea, hot chocolate, coffee (of course), and iced tea.  Who woulda thunk it???  

Well, now that the weather is getting cooler, the boys and I decided to put the coffee maker to work by making some hot chocolate.

How cool is it that I can buy Swiss Miss for the Keurig :)

Can't believe I am actually using these cups.....they never get any use in this house lol

My little man loved his hot chocolate mixed with some milk to make sure it wasn't too hot for him.

My middle man loved the hot chocolate too!!

I love how the pumpkins are in this picture....finally there is something fallish around here :)

I love doing simple things like this with the ones I love mostest in the world.

What's your favorite thing about fall?

Baked Tacos

This morning I was scrolling through facebook reading status's from friends and family when all of a sudden this delicious looking taco meal slaps me in the face and makes my stomach growl like I hadn't eaten in a year.  This taco meal looked so good that I jumped out of bed and hurried to get ready so I could go to the grocery store and get all of the ingredients necessary to make this dish.

Since I have three boys, two of whom are teenagers, we eat A LOT and I always have to double every recipe. This recipe though, does not need to be doubled.  I didn't know this when starting so I doubled it and let me tell you, there is enough food here to feed an army.....or at least a few families.

Here is a list of what you need to make a single recipe of this scrumptious meal.

One can of refried beans...I bought refried black beans because I love black beans so much 

One can of tomato sauce

1lb of ground meat....I eat ground turkey

1 package of small flour tortillas 

1 package shredded cheese (I buy the Mexican blend)

In the picture above, you see that I bought double of everything and there is no meat in the picture because I had already started frying the meat on my pan and I forgot to put the shredded cheese in the picture.

Here is the mush in the pan.  Doesn't look all that good but it tasted great!!!

I have no clue how to rotate this picture lol

This is how I put the meat into the tortillas and got them to stand up in the casserole dish.

I was able to get eight across and then four on the side.

Then I ended up by putting some shredded cheese on top.

I was able to make 35 tacos by doubling this recipe, that's enough to feed a few families!!

Here is the finished product!  It was delicious and really easy and fast to make.  The boys loved it and so do I.  I served this with tater tots as per the boy's request but I would have liked this with some Spanish rice or something like that.

I couldn't find a link on facebook to post on here otherwise I would have done so.  A friend shared it and it had been shared so many times that there was no finding out the original post.

My Dining Room

Since starting this blog, I have moved to a different apartment.  Instead of living in apartment 201, I now live in the same building but in apartment 102.  I renamed the blog Apt 102 but decided to leave the url the same so my visitors still know where to find me.  

I have decided that I am going to do a tour of my home and post pictures of each room for the blog in its very own tab at the top.  The first room to get a tour is my dining room.   

Here is my dining room.

I love how it has turned out but it is not finished, there is still plenty to be done in this room. My dining room cabinet or hutch, whatever you want to call it, is on the left hand side and I need to write a post about that project.  I love it and can't wait to show you guys the final, finished project.

Here is my little Molly, she always has to be somewhere close by her mamma and as you can see in the picture above, she is next to the wall and then in the picture below she had come closer to me....you know, just in case she misses something!

The decals on the wall of the world were ordered at Amazon for $20 plus shipping and handling.  I was able to choose the color I wanted and I chose to go with brown to match my chairs.  The dining room table will be painted white.....on fine day, to match the rest of my furniture but until then it serves its purpose just fine in its current color.

I had to include the Family Rules canvas that I made a few years ago.  I love this canvas so much and am so glad I made it. I will have to post my post from my old blog on the making of this canvas. I was afraid I would end up bald or in a mental hospital from going crazy making this thing. But in the end...I love it and wouldn't change it or trade it for nothing!  Many people have asked me to make them one or sell them mine but I think this is a once in a lifetime project hahaha.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of my home tour.  I will eventually post each room as I finish them (I moved just a few weeks ago and with school and getting sick, I haven't been able to finish the apartment yet).  

I have to say, I never wanted to post pictures of my home until I had everything done but then I realized that our homes are never "done," there is always something that we change or add to so I am just going to post pictures and if I change something or add to it, then I will write another post with some pictures to show you guys.

I linked my blog to one of my favorite blogs.

Liz Marie Blog