I didn’t intend to post this as a Mom Monday but I’m having a hard time making a grocery list today much less an inspiring blog post! So, since cooking is part of my “job” and I happened to make something really good recently here it is for you to enjoy.

I tried a new recipe and it turned out SO good I had to take pictures of it and blog about it! Usually when I try something different it turns out to be a major flop or I like and Bill doesn’t or Bill likes it I don’t. (Will likes everything!) But everybody thoroughly enjoyed this dinner as evidenced by cleaning their plates. So excited to have something new to add to the dinner rotation.

It’s Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwiches and I found the recipe on Bubblecrumb. The best part about it is that it’s a crockpot recipe – and you can’t really mess those up especially when there’s only 2 ingredients: pork roast and 12 oz. of root beer. (And it doesn’t taste like root beer at all! I promise, because I don’t particularly like root beer.) And the second best part is that it’s a very inexpensive meal, about $15 because I had to buy pork, buns, pickles, BBQ sauce, & potatoes. It made enough for 2 nights so $7.50 a dinner. Awesome!

You just put your pork roast and root beer in the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. When it is done, remove the pork roast from the crockpot and pull it apart with forks.

Pile your bun up with pulled pork and your favorite BBQ sauce. The recipe said to mix your pulled pork with BBQ sauce but we prefer to just put it on top of our individual sandwiches. And Will ate his dry with “dip” on the side.

A BBQ dinner isn’t complete without homemade potato chips and the world’s best pickles. (Pickles counted as our vegetable!)

Will ate his dinner with great gusto!

Thomas was upset that he didn’t get any BBQ so he tried to eat the high chair.

Have you tried anything new for dinner lately? Was is a major flop or did you love it? Leave your recipe as a comment or leave a link to your blog or the recipe online. I’m always looking for new things – much to the dismay of Bill

Here is one last “before” picture just for kicks. In a word, brown.

And our *new* kitchen……..

In a word, GORGEOUS.

What we did: painted cabinets, painted walls, installed tile back splash, and new light fixtures. And since we’re DIYers it all cost under $500! Winning. In an effort to avoid a snarky comment from Bill I should mention – I told Bill I had this great idea for a “weekend” project and I worked on it for about 1 weekend and then he worked on finishing it for weeks and weeks. He’s the greatest

We also updated the sink area by installing pullouts on the “fake” drawers under the sink. Perfect area to stash the bottle brush and sink plug.

The one decorated corner.

Another picture of the main kitchen area.

We also changed out the accessories in the “dining room”area. We use to have large fruit prints up and now we have some lovely white dishes.

A close up of the dish wall.

I am loving my *new* kitchen. I’m even inspired to keep it cleaner than I use to Of course, we are not completely finished! We want to add some “pops” of color, some DIY subway artwork, and “EAT” on one wall. And my goal is to sell our current dining room chairs and buy some new ones like these from West Elm (and I just noticed that the color scheme exactly matches our new kitchen!)

So, here is where we got our new stuff:

Cabinets: Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations in Pure White (no glaze)

Paint: Martha Stewart Cement Gray

Tile: American Olean (I think) Matte Gray 2X3

Pendant Light: Hampton Bay (Home Depot)

Track Lighting: Lowe’s or Home Depot

I am linking up to :

The House of Hepworth’s

Power of Paint Party

Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage

Flaunt it Friday

Our kitchen re-do happens to coincide with The Nester’s Take a Risk blog party. Her suggestion was to start small and take some kind of risk in your home. Well, we took the risk but we definitely didn’t start small! But I am so glad we did it as I already like my kitchen so much more than before.

Here is a really good “before” picture – taken by a friend who is a professional photographer. (I wish I had picture taking skills but I don’t, so this is the best photo in this post!)

We used the Cabinet Transformations kit and the first step was to apply the “deglosser.” This was the step that we questioned if it was really doing anything but we scrubbed it on believing that it was. When the “deglossed” doors were laying beside the doors we hadn’t done yet you could definitely see the difference in the finish.

Then it was time to start painting. Here is a shot of the cabinet after 1 coat. It looked HORRIBLE. It made us a little nervous but at this point there was no turning back! We did exchange a few looks like this:

We started the kitchen process on a Friday, did a whole days work on Saturday & Sunday and then painted after the boys went to bed the next week. A very long process! Rustoleum recommended 2 coats of paint on the cabinets but after putting on 2 coats we decided that ours needed 3. I think this was because we weren’t going to apply the decorative glaze and we were painting our cabinets “pure white.”

And now the cabinets are almost finished! We haven’t put on the drawer pulls yet because I would really like to change them out – hopefully I can find some at the outlets or IKEA this week

And while the boys and I are in Chattanooga for “spring break” Bill has started painting the rest of the kitchen. Love it! And we’re going to order gray tile (2X4) for the backsplash. So, that is a recap of our kitchen makeover – the HUGE risk we took this week!

At the end of Day 1 we had purchased our “Cabinet Transformations” kit and cut out the wood above the kitchen sink. Day 2 brought the tedious task of taking off the hardware, drawers & doors and washing them with soapy water. You would not believe the kool-aid, milk and chocolate pudding that was on the cabinets!

The ever helpful Will was right there beside me the whole time. (And I must mention that we also decided it would be a great time to potty train Will. But more on that tomorrow!)At one point in the taking off and cleaning I decided that I didn’t hate the color of my cabinets this much. Ha! I kid, I really don’t like them.

While I was taking off the doors, Bill was double checking how to cut and reattach the crown molding. Again, Will was making sure he did it right.

Bill reattached the crown molding and it looks SO GOOD! It will look even better when they are white. Also, do you notice my new pendant light? We took down the u-g-l-y fixture and put up a pendant light. Just “upgrading” the lighting made the room so much prettier.

And this is how Day 2 ended. Cabinets cleaned and doors removed. We are really glad we did all this before the “babysitters” (Papa & Didi) arrived because it took the better part of a day to get it done. Whew, what a project!

Before

Do you see that strip of “wood” that goes across the sink area and serves no real? Yeah, that. I didn’t like it and I knew that Bill could come up with a way to get rid of it. And it only took about 10 minutes to do.

Of course he had a little helper.

Bill sawed the piece in half above the sink. Then he took off the crown molding (sp?)  along the top of all the cabinets off. He will put the crown molding back on and use the part that was above the sink to finish off the sides of the now exposed cabinets.

After

The inspector gave us a big thumbs up on our work!

Next Up: Washing the cabinets & taking off doors and hardware

We decided on a “whim” to move to Nashville for an intership

We were looking forward to college graduation

We were so excited to rent a townhouse and be able to paint walls

We had no idea the adventures the next five years would hold

We thought we would have kids in 5 years

We had no idea how beneficial taking Dave’s Financial Peace University would be for our marriage

We had lots of big dreams (and now we’ve lived some of those dreams)

Here’s to the next five years!

I am linking up to The Gypsy Mama’s Five Minute Friday

I still love the white cabinets, gray back splash & gray paint. Also, my kitchen dreaming may become a reality soon! So excited. The biggest part of transforming our kitchen is painting the cabinets. Honestly, neither Bill or I are too eager to spend hours cleaning, sanding, painting and sealing cabinets. But this past weekend I learned about this new product from Rust-Oleum called Cabinet Transformations that allows you to refinish your cabinets without sanding! If we use this I think it would take a weekend to do the cabinets instead of a month. Now to find gray subway tile that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

And since we’re dreaming:

I would love to have a faucet like this one.

Drawer pulls like this,

And drawer pulls to keep my cabinets uber organized.

The sock monkey image was the free download of the week on the Silhouette website and they posted this idea for the sucker – so I can’t take any creative credit. I’m just a copy cat

Pink and red monkeys for the girls.

Teal and orange monkeys for the boys.

Thomas’ room is “airplane” themed with green and brown as the main colors. I really like how warm and cozy it feels. There are only a couple of small things left to do in there – hang the cross stitch that his Nonny has been making for him and find a star to hang in the blank spot above the dresser.

PepperAnn decided she needed to pose for a picture

A closer look at the artwork above the crib. I cut the airplanes out using my Silhouette machine.

The dresser/ changing table just waiting for Thomas to arrive. The bottom shelf has 4 baby food jars full of penny’s – that my great-grandfather Earl collected.

Will’s room is “car” themed with blue and brown as the main colors. He has plenty of room to play and he thinks it’s really fun when we have overnight guests and they sleep in “Will’s room.”

Artwork from Target.

Can you tell which corner Will decorated? The car stickers are from Target, Bill and I painted the black stripe with chalkboard paint and the white lines are vinyl cut with the Silhouette.

Easy artwork! Simply framed several of the stickers with white scrapbook paper.

Bookcase with essentials and family “treasures.”

I had seen this idea on several blogs and thought it would make a really cute birthday gift. I don’t have step-by-step pictures but it was super easy to put together. It’s a personalized post-it note holder – perfect for in the kitchen, lists, or beside the telephone.

Supplies Needed:

Clear, plastic 4X6 picture frame ($1 at Wal-Mart)

Post-It Notes (I got a 4 pack for $2 at Target)

Ribbon ($1 at Dollar Tree)

Scrapbook Paper

All you do is glue/stick the scrapbook paper in the frame where the picture would go. Then, tie a ribbon around the top to make it look pretty. I glued my ribbon to the back of the frame so it wouldn’t slip down. Glue/Tape the post-it note under the ribbon. Add embellishment. For Will’s teachers I added their names to a tag made out of scrapbook paper. Put it in a cute bag (or in my case a clear bag with a ribbon around the top) and you have a great gift!