New and Improved Projects Page!

For the past few months weeks I’ve been hard at work behind the scenes improving the ol’ blog. Today I’m finally ready to introduce the new and improved Projects page! 

You’ll notice that it’s a lot more organized than the previous projects page. Here’s a shot of the previous projects page in case you forgot (or never saw it): 

Now everything is separated into categories: my favorites, furniture makeovers, art projects, crafts/DIY, sewing/fabric, home improvement, and even travel! I’m also planning on creating a decorating and a recipes section, but I haven’t completed those yet.

Hopefully you find this page easier to navigate than the previous version! Let me know if you come across any links that don’t work or lead you somewhere unexpected.

Pinterest Recipe Week #6

I’m back from England! I had a great trip, but I wish I would have had more time to explore…next time I’ll plan to stay an extra couple days on my own. Look for the travel recap next week!

Anyway, today I’m bringing back another one of my old series – Pinterest Recipe Week! Can you believe it’s been nine months since the last Pinterest Recipe Week? For those of you who are new, Pinterest Recipe Week is my plan to cook a week’s worth of dinners only from recipes I’ve pinned. You can read the previous five recaps here.

Every weekend I plan out our meals for the upcoming week. We usually eat out on Friday and Saturday, so I typically only make five meals each week. This week I’m even adding a breakfast recipe, an appetizer, and a dessert!

Today I’m sharing my meal plan and next Monday I’ll share my reviews. Let’s hope everything tastes as good as it looks!


Breakfast

Country Gravy Breakfast Casserole

(source via Pinterest)

Appetizer

Chicken Enchilada Verde Dip

(source via Pinterest)

Dinner

Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas with Cilantro Lime Riceand Pinto Beans

Broiled Salmon and Roasted Garlic Cream Noodles with Crispy Cauliflower + Toasted Pine Nuts

(source via Pinterest)

Steak Tips with Caramelized Onions and GrilledRed Potato Packets with Pesto Ranch Sauce

Thai Chicken Skewers with Peanut Sauce and Crunchy Asian Slaw

Stuffed Jalapeno Popper Bacon Cheeseburger with Waffle Fries

(source via Pinterest)

Dessert

Golden Oreo Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

(source via Pinterest)

Don’t forget to check back next Monday to see how everything turned out!

Insta-16: Take Nine

Sooooo, I’m in England right now! I’m here for the week on business, so I won’t get to do much exploring/sightseeing, but hopefully I’ll still have enough pictures and stories for a travel post or 2 in the coming weeks.

Because of my trip I didn’t have time to finish any projects over the long weekend, so I thought this would be a great time to share another round of Instagram pictures! You can see the previous eight recaps here

If you have an account, you can follow me at: SAMTJH22.  If not, this recap is for you! I’ve rounded up my last 16 Instagram pictures for you here today. This roundup includes 4th of July fireworks, pictures from Alaska, and lots of Ringo and Abby snuggles!

As usual, my plan is to share a pretty collage of all the pictures and then pick my top 5 in different categories: Abby, Ringo, Cutest Couple (Ringo and Abby), Yummy (Food or Drink), and Wildcard (Non-Food and Non-Puppy).

OK, enough talk! Here’s the ninth round of Instagram pictures:

And here are my favorites:
 

Abby

 

 

Abby loves rope toys…well, she loves stuffed animals more, but those don’t last very long in our house. My mom bought this one for Ringo and Abby a couple years ago and it’s one of the longest surviving toys we’ve had. Ringo loves to swing it around and Abby likes to take it from him. She also likes one of the rope toys that I bought them during after-Christmas clearance. It’s red and green and falling apart, but it’s one of her favorites. She drags that ratty thing all over the house. We have nice, expensive dog toys all over the house, but she like the 50 cent trashed rope.

Ringo

 

 

Like many other dogs, Ringo is scared of loud noises – especially thunder. He completely loses his mind when a storm rolls in. I bought this anxiety shirt hoping that it would help, but it only really worked the first couple of times. He was so pre-occupied with the shirt that he didn’t notice the storm outside. But now he’s used to it and it doesn’t seem to help much (although he really likes wearing the shirt). During the last storm I built him a little fort using a couple chairs, pillows and sheets and he seemed to like that. I think I’m going to make him one of those tents/teepees that are all over blogs and Pinterest. So far the best solution I’ve found are these K9 Calm biscuits. We got a sample of them in a BarkBox and they seem to help calm him down. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Cutest Couple

 

 

If you say swim, swimming, or pool around Ringo he goes insane. He’ll run to the bathroom and stare at my swimsuit hanging on the rack and then look back at me waiting for me to put it on. Then he’ll run to the pool gate and paw at it until I open it for him. If I take too long to get outside, he’ll run back in the house to see what’s taking so long. Abby just follows me around wagging her tail. She’s definitely more patient.

Yummy

 

 

A few months ago my boyfriend joined a Thursday-night bowling league. That meant I was on my own for dinner every Thursday night, so decided to spoil myself and cook lobster tails for dinner. I found this recipe for baking the tails and they turned out perfect every time. I usually just served them with an avocado or side salad. So delicious! The bowling season is over now, so it’s no longer Lobster Thursdays at my house, but maybe he’ll join another league or maybe I’ll stop being selfish and cook him lobster too…

Wildcard

 

 

This roundup includes all of the pictures from our Alaska trip, so it was hard to pick just one “Wildcard” favorite. I ended up choosing this picture of Holgate Glacier because the glaciers were so beautiful and this is one of my favorite pictures from our trip. I’m currently working on a travel gallery wall and this is one of the pictures that I framed. Anyway, if you want to see more glacier pictures (plus a glacier gif), you can read the travel post here.

OK, who else is on Instagram? Leave your username in the comments, so I can follow you.

Weekend Junk #18

It’s time for another round of thrift store finds! I’m rolling everything that I’ve bought since early July into one post…I don’t want anyone to think I found all of this in one weekend!

Let’s start with clothes! I recently cleaned out my closet and now share the space with my boyfriend, so I’m trying to be a little more selective with my purchases. 

Teal Sweatshirt – Goodwill - $3.99  

Striped LOFT Sweater – Savers - $6.99 $4.90

Black Sheer Blouse - Savers - $5.99 $3.00

Adidas Performance Long Sleeve Shirt – Savers – $6.99 $4.90   (I wore this fishing in Alaska!)

ANA Sheer Blouse – Goodwill - $4.99 $2.49

Gap Striped Shorts – Savers $5.99 $4.50

OK, let’s move onto home goods/wares. As usual, it’s mostly ironstone. I just can’t help myself…

Lemon Federalist Ironstone Tea Pot – YHS Thrift Shop - $12.00 $6.00 (50%-off coupon)

Marlborough Ironstone Tea Cups and Saucers (Set of 8) – Goodwill – $0.99 $0.49 each

Independence Ironstone Divided Platter – Savers - $2.99 $2.25
Blue Carnation Ironstone Sugar Jar – Savers - $2.99 $2.25

Federalist Ironstone Set of 2 – Savers - $14.00 for the set

Chintz Artwork – Goodwill - $3.99

What have you found lately? 

Flashback Friday: August at The Junk House

It’s August! That means it’s time for another edition of Flashback Friday! Today we’re looking back at some of my favorite August posts from years past. It seems like August has been a pretty productive month for me over the past few years, so I better moving if I’m going to keep up the trend!
 
OK, let’s kick this off with a flashback to August 2013 –
 
I made this Eiffel Tower wood shim art in celebration of our upcoming trip to Paris. Now that I’ve seen the Eiffel Tower in person, I love this project even more. I’ve always bought/made a lot of Paris décor, so I’m glad that it didn’t disappoint in real life.

Last August I added some much needed storage to the office by adding a pair of IKEA filing cabinets. All of the drawers are full now (last year I posted that a couple were still empty) and are still relatively organized. The filing cabinets have held up great and I’m still really happy this purchase. I still want to label all of the drawers – there are so many drawers it’s hard to remember what’s in each one. 

Let’s rewind another year and look at August 2012 –
 
These Instagram magnets have been one of my most popular projects on the blog. They were even featured in a Craft Foxes’ ‘How to Display Your Instagram Photos’ article. I’ve taken a lot more photos over the past two years, so I’ve made a couple more batches since this post. I love having them on the fridge, but I also added some to the metal filing cabinet in my cubicle at work.  

Two years ago we bought some furniture for our back patio off of Craigslist. We love the patio table and chairs, but I ended up selling the conversation set for $50. We just didn’t have enough room for it plus I didn’t want to spend money on cushions for the set. Outdoor cushions are expensive! I bought a set of red cushions for the dining chairs at Garden Ridge and I couldn’t believe how much I ended up spending!  Good thing we got a good deal on the table and chairs!  

Time to go WAY back to August2011 – my first year of blogging!
 
Three years ago I was working on my first room makeover – the guest bathroom. One of my favorite projects was painting the vanity. I still love the black and I’m impressed with how well the paint has held up. Although, I still want to replace the countertop. One of these days…

This trashcan was another guest bathroom project. We still use it and I still like it, but I’m thinking about replacing it with one that had a lid. Ringo likes to drop his ball in there and then hit it with his nose until you get it out for him. It’s really annoying. 

So that’s what I’ve been up to in August for the past three years. It’s been fun looking back at old projects and seeing how much I’ve accomplished in our house over the past few years.

Everett Foyer Table

Just a few short weeks ago I showed you the end table that I painted to match my navy console table. And now I’m showing you my new console table…yeah, I know… 

I really liked the navy console table, but it was a little too small for that large wall. I’d planned on flanking it with a couple tall plants, but Ringo vetoed that idea by destroying the fiddle leaf fig that I bought for that spot. Yep, it survived almost a month without even a hint of being touched by doggie lips. Then one day I came home from work and found whole thing completely destroyed (luckily he didn’t get sick). So, the large plant idea was out.  

I’ve been casually searching for a longer console table, but nothing in my price range really caught my eye. Until I spotted this picture on Pinterest last week (from Honey We’re Home):  

I instantly loved it and wanted it. As you can see, it’s from World Market (Everett Foyer Table) so it only took a quick search to find the table. And it was even on sale!

So the following day I took a trip to World Market to check out the table in person. I loved it and there was one in stock, so I bought it. My boyfriend wasn’t home at the time and I was too impatient to wait, so I ended up dragging the box inside and putting the table together all by myself. 

As you can see, it’s about two feet longer and an inch or so taller than the navy table. It fits the space SO much better. I love it!  

Because the table is bigger, I probably need to get a bigger lamp (maybe 2) and some different decorations. I also want to replace my abstract art with a gallery wall of our travel pictures. I’d also like to add a white bench near the front door. 

As for the navy end table, for now I’ll probably paint it white to go with the rest of my furniture. Yeah, it’s a bummer that I wasted time and money on a piece just to replace its mate a few weeks later, but oh well. I’ve been stuck on the direction of this room for awhile now (I didn’t love where it was heading), but now I’m motivated again and have a plan! Expect to see more living room projects soon!

Travel Tuesday: Kenai Fjords National Park

Today I’m taking you all along on a boat tour to see glaciers and wildlife in Kenai Fjords National Park!
 
Honestly, my only request for this trip to Alaska was to see a glacier. I promised I wouldn’t complain about spending my entire vacation fishing if I got to see a glacier. This cruise was our solution, so Thursday morning we made the two-hour drive to Seward to catch our Kenai Fjords National Park cruise. 

We chose the 7 ½ hour tour from Major Marine Tours. We ended up booking through Alaska Tour & Travel because they offer a deal that includes the all-you-can-eat salmon and prime rib lunch (normally an additional $19/person). The tour was really well organized and we also really enjoyed the food. Next time we’d probably only take the 6-hour tour because my boyfriend was getting pretty antsy by the end of the tour. That might be a better option if you are taking little kids too. Although, we had some kids on our boat and they seemed to really enjoy it…probably because we saw so many animals. Anyway… 

While we were walking along the dock my boyfriend spotted a jellyfish. It was just floating in one of the empty boat slips. It was the first wildlife we’d seen on our trip (not including salmon), so we thought it was pretty cool. 

Once we boarded the boat, we found our seats inside the cabin (Major Marine assigns everyone seats/tables inside the upper and lower cabins). We decided we’d rather sit outside while the weather was nice, so we grabbed one of the seats on the back deck (the seats outside are first come, first serve). I’m glad we decided to sit outside because right as we were pulling out of the harbor we saw a couple sea otters. So cute! 

Not long into the trip, I saw my first glacier! Actually, three glaciers – from left to right: Prospect, Spoon, and Porcupine glaciers! These glaciers are called alpine glaciers and they don’t extend to the valley or water’s edge like the ones we’ll see later. 

A few minutes later we saw a pair of humpback whales! I’d never seen a whale before, so I was pretty excited. We also saw some fin whales later on the tour!

Eventually we made our way into Aialik Bay to eat lunch and see Holgate Glacier.  

The captain turned off the engines while we were stopped in front of the glacier so we could hear the ice cracking and breaking off (called calving). It sounded like loud thunder. We saw a few chunks break off while we were there and I got some great action shots.  

While we were stopped, the crew pulled up a chunk of glacier that was floating in the water and made margaritas out of it! Of course I had to try one =)
 
Our next stop was Aialik Glacier, which is a tidewater glacier like Holgate Glacier. 

It’s always hard to tell how large something actually is in pictures, so I’ve circled a tour boat in the picture below. You can barely see it, but it’s a great way to show scale in this picture and show you how large this glacier actually is.  

Nearby we saw a large group of seals lounging on some ice chunks. We also saw a mama sea otter swimming her baby around on her stomach! It was definitely a great day for viewing wildlife!  

As we travelled out of Aialik Bay we saw a smack of jellyfish in the water. There were thousands of them in the water! 

We also had a couple Dall’s porpoises approach our boat. I’d never seen or heard of them before, but they kind of look like small killer whales. They were really cool and it was fun watching them play in the boat’s wake. 

And finally our last stop, the Chiswell Islands, is home to puffins and stellar sea lions! Now, I’m going to be completely honest and tell you that I don’t like birds (actually I’m kind of scared of them), but I love puffins! I think they are the cutest little things! The park ranger told us that sometimes puffins will eat so much food that they aren’t able to fly! We actually saw a couple struggling to get into the air. How can you not like little fatty birds?!

And on another island, a group of stellar sea lions were busy sunbathing on the rocks.  

Except for this guy – he’s king of the rock and had to keep an eye on things while everyone else rested.  

After we finished watching the sea lions, we headed back to the harbor (we did see more whales on the way) and then drove back to Soldotna. It was a long day, but it was a great way to see another part of Alaska and see some amazing wildlife!