I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving! Mine was very relaxing and…..filling.
We follow the proper food-safety procedures in the Casagrande household.
And we start each Thanksgiving meal with some fiber (pumpkin spice hummus).
And even the men in the household eat the gluten-free stuffing (and I am getting married to a man who doesn’t like gravity, as is noted by Nick’s plate below.)
This was my plate. Half vegetables (Brussels sprouts smothered in oil and vinegar, topped with pancetta), sweet potato mash (with bananas and honey!) and random pieces of raw squash from the relish tray, one-fourth turkey (covered in gravy), and one-fourth grain (butter-loaded, and completely full of the stuff that I normally don’t eat, gluten free stuffing).
I did go back for seconds (and got more turkey) and I also had two desserts. the pecan pie had chocolate chips inside, and it was by far the best pecan pie I’ve ever had and my favorite part of yesterday’s meal. Sorry, I’m an awful blogger because I didn’t even take a picture. I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did, and it was gone before I knew it. Here is a picture from last year (it’s the best I could do!).
Let’s depart from food and nutrition for a second, because I think we’ve all had enough of that in the past day or so (or at least the food part). I’m thankful that Nick and I have finally made the time to start on some much-needed house updates!
When we bought our house a year ago last May, it was a blank canvas. There were a few small updates that had been done to the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, but other than that it had not been updated in a very long time, and all the walls were white. The area we moved to is known for its old houses, with lots of charm, but I failed to find the charm in our house for quite a long time. Thankfully that charm is slowly showing itself. We really wanted a house that we could make our own, and that we could work on for the next several years. Our goal was (and still is) to do small updates throughout the first couple of years, then after our wedding do some of the larger updates (like new windows). Here are some of the small things we have done in the last couple of months.
We took down these curtains…
I actually liked how much light we got once the curtains were down.
The problem was the curtains just sort of hung there, with no purpose whatsoever.
So we replaced them with these!
Ok, they are the same curtains, but my aunt sewed some fabric onto the top so we could move the rods up towards the ceiling. Joyce, our decorator, said this would add the illusion of more space in our living room, and open it up. She was right.
And then we added a simple decoration between the two rods. We stuck with our bronze color scheme.
Next, we took down this ugly dining room light.
And replaced it with this one. I love it.
Our next project is going to be tough, but in the end, it’s going to be worth all the hard work. See these AWFUL cabinets?!
They are not only ugly, but they don’t close properly. We are going to paint them and plane them (that’s what Nick says…I’m kind of scared). This is going to be a three-weekend project, but by the end, they will be a nicer color and I’ll be able to shut them with ease (I’m crossing my fingers).
We also plan on painting this workout room and adding a television to the wall that the elliptical faces (the current television that is in our living room). I need my TODAY show when I’m working out! I also want to be able to use Exercise TV upstairs, rather than in the basement where I currently do those workouts.
QUESTIONS: Do you enjoy decorating your house? What was the last update you made in your house, or your condo/apartment, or even your bedroom or dorm room?
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Have you ever had chocolate chips in your pecan pie?!
