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Materials needed

1 faux pine tree branch

floral wire

white velvet ribbon

3m hooks

Equipment needed

wire cutters

For the wreath

Take your pine tree branch and bend it to make a circle and the bottom branch extends to the somewhere on top of the branch where it can be connected. P.S. Choose faux trimming that has wire under the stems so that it is easy to bend and shape. I got this one faux tree branch in the floral center at Hobby Lobby.

Take the floral wire and wrap the bottom end of the branch onto another part of the branch so that the shape will stay. Use wire cutters to cut the floral after you have securely wrapped the branch into a circle shape. Move around the branches and reshape until you are satisfied. Wrap with floral wire anywhere you would like to keep certain branches in place and keep the shape you desire.

When you are finished with the wreath. Find a place where you want to hang the wreath. Use 3m hooks and attach it place as per instructions on the back of the package. When the hook is ready, hang wreath inside the clip of the hook. P.S. When choosing the branch or hook, be sure that the branch fits in the size of the hook.

For the ribbon

For the tail of the bow, hang and measure how long you want the tail of the bow to be. Cut one piece of ribbon to the length want. For the bow, fold ribbon to the width you want the bow to be, leaving about an inch overlap on each side. Cut another piece of ribbon for that width. Hold bow into place and at the center of the bow with floral wire. For bow center, tie a knot with ribbon leaving some slack that can wrap and tie around the bow, tail and floral wire. Cut that measured piece for the bow center. Cut floral wire that is long enough to wrap onto hook and secure bow into place. Wrap bow center knot around the bow, tail and some floral wire. Tie a know in tie back. Wrap the floral wire onto the hook and tuck under and behind ribbon.

The elf approves.

Updated picture (12/22/17): After I got some real tree trimmings. The faux wreath looks great with the real garland and center piece. 

xoxo,

 

 

Wonton soup

Ingredients for chicken broth

1 whole cut chicken (washed) 

1 sweet onion (whole, peeled) 

1/2 tbsp thin soy sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tbsp salt  

1/2 tbsp msg (monosodium glutamate)

1/2 tbsp sugar 

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 fresh ginger (peeled and cut)

1 handful of cilantro stems

1 handful of green onion stems

Ingredients for wontons

1 package wonton wraps

1 lb ground turkey

2 eggs

salt

pepper

garlic salt

Optional ingredients for toppings 

napa cabbage (chopped)

cilantro (chopped) 

green onions (chopped)

fried wonton strips

chilli garlic oil

fried onion 

fried garlic

Cooking instructions

Chicken broth

Use at least 8 quart pot. Fill up with water to 6 quarts or up to 3/4 full of the pot. Turn on high to bring water to a boil. 

Wash chicken and then add to the pot of water. After water boils turn down to medium and let boil for 10 about minutes. Skim foam and scum floating at top. 

Wash and cut cilantro and green onions. Cut off cilantro stems and green onion stems (cut off roots). Add cilantro stems and green onion stems to pot.

 Add salt, msg, sugar, fresh ginger, garlic powder, thin soy sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce.

Continue to let boil for an hour for best taste.

Prepare toppings

Wash, strain and chop napa cabbage, cilantro, green onions. Set aside. 

Prepare wontons

Mix ground turkey, garlic salt, pepper and 1 egg in a bowl.  Beat 1 egg in a small bowl and use to seal turkey inside wonton wraps. Add turkey mix (I use 1/2 tbsp measuring spoon) onto center of wonton wrap and wrap as per instructions on wonton wrap package. Repeat.

Boil water in a separate smaller pot. Add wontons and let boil until fully cooked (for about 10 minutes) 

Strain and transfer cooked wontons to a bowl. Add broth to bowl.  

Add napa cabbage, cilantro and green onions. You can also add fried onions and fried garlic and chilli garlic oil and fried wonton strips. 

Enjoy!

xoxo,

Hi again! For those of you that have been wondering about the progress of our kitchen renovation. I’m back with a recap and update.

Recap

The cabinets were painted white.

The middle wall was knocked down. We had bought a new  microwave (specifically, a countertop) to replace the microwave that was mounted in the middle wall.

The refrigerator went out so we went ahead and bought a new refrigerator and dishwasher. The dishwasher was going out at any day.

Update

The large wall is patched up and repainted.

We reused the upper cabinets that were hanging on the middle wall as lower cabinets on the other side of the wall. We had a built-in shelf added that extended to the edge of the wall. The had plywood added to cover the space below the bar top area and the side to the side of the shelf so that it looks seamless.

All the cabinets doors are back up. We added new hardware on the cabinets.

We cleared out one of the lower cabinets and added a shelf to store the new microwave.

We ordered the sink but it’s now sitting in the garage and we returned a faucet because we got the wrong one and there was not any more of the one we ordered.

What’s next and why is this renovation not finished yet?

We need countertops, after that we will able to add the sink, faucet and backsplash. Oh and obviously, we need still a new stove. We are at a stand still on the countertops. Because $$$$$… Let’s say it was way more than what we anticipated. Yes more than my “splurge” budget. Also, we need more material ( 3 slabs instead of 2 slabs) than expected. It’s because we knocked down the wall and I want the countertop to extend all the way over the new cabinets that we reused and mounted on the other side of the wall. We got a second price quote on what it would cost to use 2 slabs of material instead of 3 slabs. We would also have to remove the cabinets that we wanted to reuse and put it elsewhere. There is no other place where we could put these cabinets, but we wanted to keep the storage. We decided to keep our original plan and leave the cabinets where they are. I will also be looking for more options for countertops. We have no set time on when we need to finish the kitchen. It’s functional, at least. Here is what the kitchen currently looks like now. I hope to have report back to you soon.

Work in progress…

xoxo,

We knocked down the wall today! Yay! I’ve always wanted an open concept kitchen. In our 2 previous houses, that was not possible. Although, we will be losing a little bit of top storage. I’ve already planned how I can rearrange everything so that it will flow and still work for us.

We remounted the larger upper cabinets along the other side of the wall, at the same level as the lower cabinets. In the cabinets that we moved to other side of the wall, I plan on storing things that I don’t need on a daily basis. Such as wine glasses, champagne glasses and server platters that we use when we entertain.

As you can see we also lost the over the range microwave. We cleared out one of the lower cabinets and added a wider shelf to hold the a new microwave.

Here are some pictures of the process. What do you think about knocking down walls?Yay or Nay?

That was a good 1 day project for the weekend. We are scheduled to have some of our appliances delivered in a couple of days. We are also scheduled to have someone come look at what we have done so far and give us an estimate on our countertops. I will keep you updated. Thanks for visiting!

xoxo,

Well the refrigerator went out last night. Whomp whomp. My husband dropped off the kids at school this morning and then looked online for some possible choices and current deals. He found that Sears had the best prices still. We actually got our appliances from Sears for a kitchen renovation at our previous house, 3 years ago. We were happy with the experience and purchase. So it was an easy choice. I digress. So we headed to Sears. We picked out a refrigerator and went ahead and got a dishwasher. We know the dishwasher is on its’ last leg as well. We also purchased a mini fridge to use for the time being until our refrigerator is delivered. (4 days from today) We are in the middle of a kitchen renovation so my husband was looking around and window shopping anyway. Although, we were not planning on getting the appliances until further down the renovation process. We also spotted the type of stove we will need for the new kitchen online, but we will have to wait on purchasing the stove. I went ahead and included the stove that we are planning to get. We chose to get a stove with the downdraft vent so that we will not have to add a hood/air vent above the stove. So that was the splurge I had planned for to keep the kitchen space open. Also my husband found a microwave on sale while he was at Home Depot. Woo hoo!

Refridgerator

Dishwasher

Stove

Microwave

xoxo,

 

Today we went to look at kitchen countertops for our kitchen renovation. I think this will be my favorite thing about this kitchen, so I’m very excited. We were recommended to go to a local countertop store, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, called Celtic Marble and Granite. There was so much to choose from. I knew I wanted a white quartz countertops. I still love the look after all these years of dreaming of a kitchen renovation. I narrowed it down to these 4 and we were able to take the samples to see how they would look in our kitchen and against the white kitchen cabinets. So we will be looking at these throughout the day, over the weekend. Which one should I choose?

xoxo,

 

 

The kitchen cabinets doors and the frames are painted. I really love how they turned out. I chose to use Benjamin Moore Simply White in a satin finish for the cabinets. However, there was a mix up and somehow we got semi gloss finish on my doors. Luckily, it turned out just fine. I used the same color in semi gloss for all the doors and trim throughout the house, when we first moved in, about two years ago. I love how much brighter it is in here already and the doors aren’t even in yet. It does make all other stuff that I want to change stand out even more but I am loving this work in progress.