Last night the husband and I had a cleaning/prep night for our first guests to our new home. We are so excited to have people over however I wish that we had more furniture so that things didn’t look so empty and that our style was displayed more. I honestly just wish that Young House Love pair would just stop on over and make everything look amazing. Until then here is a sneak peak of our “before” pictures- I hope that within the next 6 months I will bee able to show you the “after” photos. I am open to your ideas at inexpensive ways to improve our living space so let me know!
The LIving/DIning Area
Dining Area
Sitting Area
Entertainment Area (I know it's a mess)
My not so great attempt at putting both sides of the room together- no our home really isn't crooked
Office/Workout Room
Office/Workout Room
Guest Bathroom
Master Bathroom
Bedroom
Balcony
Not photographed: Laundry/Storage Room, Pantry, all of the closets, and entry way.
After all the organizing and cleaning/prepping for our guests I felt a lot like this:
So I decided it was time to make some dinner, enjoy a glass of wine and some chocolates.
For dinner I decided to keep things easy with a yummy veggie and tofu fried rice.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 head of kale ripped into small pieces
- 1 cup mung bean sprouts
- 1 corn cob of kernels
- 1 small onion minced
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- 1/2T sesame chili oil
- 1/4t white pepper
- 1/4t chili flakes
- 2T low sodium soy sauce
- 1T mushroom soy sauce
- 2 Cups of cooked rice
Directions:
In a wok heat the oil over high head and toss in all of the vegetables; cook for 1-2 minutes. Add in the remaining ingredients and toss together until heated and evenly coated. Top with baked tofu.
After spending a little time hitting the books the Hubz and I sat down with a glass of wine and some delicious chocolates. Again I whipped out the Ravi Wine Chiller and enjoyed a glass of vegan wine; a great suggestion from the wine shop in downtown Burlington.
Coco-Zen sent me a sample of their Truffles-To-Give: 2 Tier Chocolate Orange & Chai to try and the hubz and I are in love. These are the most decadent, creamy, delicious truffles I have ever tried. I am absolutely hooked and can’t wait to buy these as treats again and for gifts fro friends and families.
Don’t forget From now until August 16th you can save 25% of your total purchase when you use coupon code EXCITE25
I like your place! Do you love your balcony?
We love it! With that and the huge open windows, it’s great for sunset and thunderstorm watching! It’s also wonderful to wake up to a room full of natural light
Your place looks great. When you get a couple more chairs and can open your
table to the fullest that will take up move of the space in the dining room.Really looks good the way you have it.
Love you
You have so much space! You could pull the sofa off the wall and look for a used/inexpensive sofa table to put behind it. It would make the TV area more cozy. I would also pull the dining table off the wall to make a more formal space. You could look for a cheap bench to put by the window to start creating a separate seating area. Area rugs help with that too. With so much space you can designate the living/dining room into 3 zones: dining, lounging, TV.
My hubs and I are making a tufted headboard to save some major bucks. This site has a great how-to (and it’s very Young House, who I adore as well!) http://byov.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-make-tufted-upholstered.html
And we found sooo many quality furnishings on craigslist. We were diligent in searching, and it totally paid off.
Enjoy your company. Wish it was me back in VT already 😉 Got the hubs to commit to Burlington for our anniversary again next year, but the month thing may be a stretch. Thinking I’ll push for 2 weeks. Keep me posted if you come across possible lodgings that are pet friendly… and I’ll be sending you that little something later next week.
Ciao!
Jersey Renee