My friend who’s house I went to and cooked on that totally deluxe stove is an awesome decorator. Like, if she ever gives up her day job as an attorney, she should really look into becoming a decorator – she’s got that good of an eye.
Once I told her that I was on my way with the construction on my living room, she immediately asked if she could help me decorate. She said “just tell me your budget and I’ll take it from there!” We left it at that over the weekend, but yesterday she texted me and said “I kind of need to know what style I am working with so that I can start getting ideas.” Huh. I’ve told you before my decorating style is “early miscellaneous.” We have a purchased entertainment center from Ikea, our dining room set is our most expensive piece of furniture that cost $1500 several years ago, and well, my sectional couch with a queen size bed in it? Bought at a garage sale for $100 because the husband wasn’t informed of the purchase by his wife and it literally took up half of their basement.
So I jumped on Pinterest. I knew I didn’t want anything modern. Our house is a 1922 cottage, so that would be completely wrong. So I stumbled upon this:
Love. I love the light grey hardwood floors and just the comfy cozy feel of this room. So my friend replied back: “oh, you like the airy, driftwood, rustic style!” Um, okay? What do you guys think of that living room?
After Day 2 of construction all the rotten rafters have been removed and completely replaced. I cannot tell you how solid the front of the house feels right now. And I have two new electrical outlets!
I think windows are going in today, then I have Orkin coming to treat the wood before the drywall and insulation gets installed. That subfloor that Hannah is standing on is also going to be replaced. Goodbye ugly carpet, hello hardwood floors!
I was back on track with my eating yesterday – eating within 30 minutes of getting up. I was telling my sister that what is hard about that is we are both really slow eaters – like it could take us 30 – 40 minutes to finish a meal. I ended up making what I like to call breakfast pizza sammies – I toasted an Ezekiel english muffin, then put a tablespoon of pizza sauce on each one, then a slice of pepperoni, then scrambled egg whites with spinach on top, topped it with some mozzarella cheese and put it under the broiler until nice and bubbly, then topped it with some fresh basil from the farmers market. This was really very good – 354 calories, 8 fat, 47 carbs, 7 fiber and 27 protein.
My Meal #2 was a Chobani flip. I don’t think I’ve bought them before but when Chobani is 10/$10 I stock up!
After the first bite I wasn’t sure I could go on because it was SO sweet. I am so used to my plain Chobani. But I gave it a try, and well, I ate the whole thing. I loved the bits of chocolate and coconut in it. And it’s a perfect mini meal at 240 calories and 12 grams of protein.
Another gorgeous day in our neighborhood even though it’s going to be in the high 80s next week. I’ve enjoyed this little taste of autumnal weather. It was 68 degrees with puffy clouds again. Just so you know – during the first two miles I have to cross a busy street – but look at how speedy I was on my walk on the last mile!
I again took no insulin with the flip, and you’ll see my blood sugar dropped 170 points again at lunch. Today I am going to take less insulin at Meal #1 and see how that works out. Lunch was leftover buffalo chicken chili over 1/2 cup whole wheat pasta with some chopped red cabbage on top – it was the last of the cabbage and I didn’t want to throw it out.
I had Day 2 of my strength training and I have to say I am really getting into it. My new favorite machine? The Smith Machine. It is great for working by yourself because if you can’t handle something, you just walk away, the bar never moves forward or backwards. So my routine was below, doing 1 minute of intense cardio in between each set – this took me just under 40 minutes to complete – I was spent by the end!
My gym didn’t have a seated calf raise machine, so I just upped the pounds on the standing calf raise and did that twice. My 1 minute of cardio in between each set included box jumps, mountain climbers, jumping rope, step ups on the bench, and plank holds. I literally just got tired reading that!
With Hannah not liking meat, and Jacob and I love meat, it’s sometimes hard to come up with a meal that satisfies all of our tastes. But when I saw Jessica from How Sweet Eats made a skillet summer gnocchi, I knew it would be a winner. Potato gnocchi with sauteed mushrooms, corn and a quick cheese sauce of heavy cream and Parmesan cheese – how could you go wrong with that? I did end up making this 6 servings, reducing the oil and butter to 1 teaspoon each, adding in Italian sausage to make it more of a meal for Jacob and I and well, Hannah picked out the sausage. My 1/6 serving came in at 404 calories, 22 fat, 32 carbs, 8 fiber and 20 protein. Pure summer comfort food in a bowl!
I am just about to take out my breakfast muffins out of the oven – I rolled out sourdough bread for the base and put that in my muffin tin then put ham, spinach, egg whites and a bit of cheese and baked it for 20 minutes. If you want to check it out, it should be in Instagram now – are you following me? What, you aren’t? You don’t have Instagram? Just put the app on your phone and follow me: my bizzy kitchen!
Tonight is running club – I think 2 minutes walking and 6 minutes running – looking forward to it! I have watermelon and a protein bar for my pre-workout snack so I should be good to go.
Make it a great day!
I like the gray tones in the living room. It looks very calming.
I like Houzz.com for decorating ideas, too.
Thanks for the link – always looking for new places for ideas – thanks Katherine 😀
I am not a huge fan of the light fixture, but everything else in the room? LOVE.
The lighting has always been an issue in the living room – I’ve only had floor lamps and it’s never as bright as I would like it. We’ll see what my friend comes up with 😀