12/30/2009

Thoughts?

Here's the rug at Pier 1. The camera on my phone isn't that great so the colors in the picture aren't as vibrant as they are in person, but it has the right colors in it. It has a similar green/blue as the curtains--just enough so it isn't matchy-matchy. What do we think??

And the couch is AWESOME!! It makes the room look so much bigger and is so comfy! I can't wait to have the room all done!

It's here...

The new couch arrived this morning!! I haven't seen it yet in person, but here is the picture Billy sent me on his iPhone after it was delivered...




As you can see, the new curtains are up. I was ironing for probably 2 hours last night! I hate ironing!! We have a huge "needs to be ironed" pile in the laundry room to prove it. And while I was ironing Billy mopped the floors so they would be all clean for the new couch. Yes, ladies, he mops!



Hopefully when I get home we can make a decision on the rug. There was another (cheaper!) one we found at Pier1, and now that I think about it, I think I like that one too. It has more color to it, which I think will brighten things up more.


Now comes the dilemma about the right lamp to use. On the left side of the couch is a floor lamp that will more than likely stay in there. I've had my eye on this lamp from CB2 that has a base that fits under the couch so it can go in that corner and hang over the couch. It really isn't the right finish that I want for the room, but I figure I can spray paint the base and get some linen fabric to wrap the shade to bring in some natural textures. Decisions, decisions!


By the way, that's Murphy on the couch. Billy says he loves the new couch because he can check out what's going on outside both windows without having to jump down and back up. That's really all that matters, right?

12/29/2009

Switcheroo

I get bored. Easily. Especially with decor. I'm always thinking of ways to switch things up or add a little something extra to a room.

Recently, BG and I decided that since we seem to have more visitors at one time than we normally expected, we could use more seating in the living room, and more sleeping space in the house in general.

So we bought a new couch! It has not arrived yet, but is supposed to be planted safely in our living room by 10:30am tomorrow morning. We know how these delivery "windows" work, so we'll see if it gets there on time. I hope to be able to post some before and after pics of the whole house this weekend.

Until then, here is a basic idea of what the living room will have in it:



Our wall color is Behr's Garden Wall. We have it throughout most of the house, and it seems to be just brown and just grey enough to go with pretty much anything. And it makes the house seem nice and cozy! We love it.


I scored some pretty blue curtains on clearance through JCPenny.com. They are Linden Street's Grommet Top curtains in Lake Mist. I got the 95" ones because I like them to go all the way to the floor.


This couch is the one we have been anxiously waiting on for a while. It's a Haverty's sectional in Vanilla. We don't have kids yet and our dog, Murphy, is pretty low maintanence in the cleanliness department, so we are taking our chances with a white couch! We chose the reversed layout because Billy made the excellent point that the room would flow better if the couch was under both the front and side windows. You'll see what I mean when I get pictures up here...


And lastly is the rug that I found on Overstock.com. I'm not 100% sure that's the one we're going to get yet, but it is the front-runner for all of the ones we've looked at.

Then we'll need to find some lamps and a few more accessories, but at least we'll have most of the room together when the couch arrives.

Tonight's project is ironing all 6 of those curtain panels...

12/22/2009

Rollin' and Whippin'

This past Saturday, my fabulous friend Catherine invited me and the girls over for Girls' Night In Potluck--a night of good company, good wine, and of course, good food! I immediately knew what I was going to make: Asparagus Roll-ups and Whipped Potatoes. The girls loved them SO much that I'll tell YOU how to make them too!

ASPARAGUS ROLL-UPS

Ingredients:
White Bread (1 slice of bread makes 2 roll-ups)
8 oz package of cream cheese (softened)
Asparagus
2-3 tbsp melted butter
Finely grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper
Herbs de Provence




First, decide how many roll-ups you want to make. Like I said earlier, 1 slice of white bread makes 2 roll-ups. I decided 4 per person was a good number, so I would need 8 slices of bread. It helps if the bread is not super-fresh.

Once you decide how many you want to make, get your bread out and start slicing off the crusts. Aim to end up with a square-shaped piece of bread, or something pretty close.



Now, get your rolling pin out. Roll each slice of bread out until it is about 1/4" in thickness. It may end up a little wonky-looking...



So get out your paring knife and slice off those crooked parts. Then slice all the slices of bread in half DIAGONALLY!



Next, prepare your asparagus. If you are using canned, make sure you drain it really well or else everything will end up soggy. I used frozen, and you just throw them into boiling water for a few minutes. Don't let them boil too long or they will be mushy! You can also grill your fresh aparagus or flash boil them and then shock them in ice-cold water to stop the cooking process and retain their color. Whatever floats your boat! Then cut them to about 2-inch-long pieces.



Now prepare your cream cheese. I usually add around a 1tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper (you can use freshly ground black pepper or white pepper), and about a tablespoon of Herbs de Provence. I like HDP because it has a great mix of a bunch of herbs like Rosemary and Thyme. If that's not enough, keep adding seasoning to taste.

Now GET ROLLIN'.

Smear each triangle of bread with your cream cheese mixture.

Place 3-4 pieces of asparagus on the cream cheese-coated bread in the middle. Fold over the left side of the bread.


Now fold over the right side. The cream cheese MAGICALLY makes the roll-up stay rolled!



After you have rolled all of your roll-ups, place them on a foil-lined baking sheet. Make sure your oven is pre-heated to around 400.

Brush a little bit of the melted butter onto each roll-up and then dust each one with the Parmesan cheese.

Bake those little suckers for about 20 minutes, or until the tops of the roll-ups are golden brown.
Enjoy! They are great!



WHIPPED POTATOES

There's only one small trick to these. I just started these potatoes like you normally do: peeled and chopped potatoes in salted, boiling water and boil until fork-tender.


Now BEFORE you drain your potatoes, combine about a cup of your cooking liquid with about 1/3 cup dry milk. Mix it really good. Drain your potatoes.


Put your potatoes back into the pot and gradually add the milk as you beat them with a hand mixer. Adding the mixture gradually helps avoid ending up with potato soup!

Now beat the potatoes with your mixer on the highest speed, until they look soft and light. Add salt, pepper, and a few tablespoons of butter and that's it!




Try them out, I hope you enjoy them!

Billy helped, too. Thanks babe!

Now off to go shopping with my mom and brother. Bye!

mg

12/18/2009

Hello there!

Hi!


Let me introduce myself. My name is Megan, and this little blog is about life with my new husband, Billy. My friends have hilariously dubbed him Billy Goat, hence the name of the blog! He even has a shirt that says "Billy Goat". I'll post a picture of it once I figure out how to do that!

This blog isn't about anything too terribly important, basically just about our little life, little projects we decide to tackle around our house (more pics of that later, too!), stuff I like to cook, our dog, our friends, stuff like that.

The short version of our story is that Billy and I work together, which is how we met. His boss decided that we would make a good couple, and the rest is basically history. We got married on October 10th of this year and have been living the happy newlywed life since, hopefully with many more happy years to come!

We moved into our little house in September of 2008, in what I like to call an "Urban Suburb" of Nashville. It was built in 1920, redone and added onto in 2004 (we think), and we landed there last year. We've had a great time personalizing it, although I tend to get bored quickly and easily, so I'm always dreaming up new design plans and playing the "What If We Did This" game. Poor Billy.

So anyway, this is our story. Please bear with me as I figure out and get used to this whole blogging thing!



Bye for now!

mrs g.