Kitchen & Family Room

One thing I never thought I could get M to go for is white trim.
It took some convincing and a little Pinspiration, but he finally gave me the go-ahead.
I went to town, not leaving a trace of natural wood behind... except for the stair rails. I'm not sure what we're going to do with those yet.

We started with a blank, boring, natural slate.

If this picture doesn't scream "apartment", I don't know what does. After living in apartments for several years, the LAST thing we wanted was to feel like we were just temporarily in another rental.
Our first goal was to get color on the walls.
I wanted gray.
M wanted brown.
At the last second, we compromised on Dapper Brown, which is mostly brown, but slightly olive green.
I was devastated after the first coat. It looked like a blotchy mess. It was also VERY dark.
it made the natural wood look very orange, which is what I think actually sealed the deal for me getting white trim!

We let it dry and started on the other walls.
We went with Lighter Tan, which adds just a touch of warmth to the room.

After a full weekend of painting walls, it took nearly two weeks to paint every inch of trim on the first floor (foyer, living room, family room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen, and two hallways).
One coat of primer and two coats of paint later, I'm in love!
I hate to admit it, but M was right. Brown was the way to go for the accent wall.
So here you have it, our kitchen and family room before and after shots...

The curtains hanging in the family room are from Ikea- the last place on Earth I thought I'd find something of quality, that would fit our enormous windows, and come in a color I liked.
Not only does Ikea have tons of fabric to make your own curtains, they have unfinished curtains.
I bought these puppies at 98" in length, hung them at the height I wanted, and hemmed their unfinished edges so they just scraped the floor.
The unfinished curtains they sell actually come with Stitch Witchery. If you have ever hemmed anything, and don't know what that is, you are seriously making your life harder.

We have lots of work to do in the decorating department, but these two rooms are coming together.
Eventually we'd like to update the cabinets and countertops, refinish the wood floors and expand them throughout the carpeted rooms, replace the tile on the fireplace, figure out something to do with the stair rails, find a little eat-in-kitchen table, and purchase a nice entertainment center/DVD organizer.
We're also still looking for the right window treatments for all the naked windows.


We definitely have our work cut out for us!

The Outside

We've been working or working on our house every waking hour for the last 4 weeks.
Our hard work (and some from the neighbors) is finally paying off!
I didn't want to post any pictures until I had some before & after shots to show how far this house has come.
OUTSIDE
Paint the shutters
Paint the front door
Paint the trim around all the windows & top part of front door.
Garden (15-20% done).
Remove ugly bushes and crabapple tree.
Plant grass in bare areas.

This is what we started with.

We stripped off the shutters, painted them with a thick, black paint for vinyl.
After they dried, we searched everywhere for fasteners to put them back up.
As our luck would have it, everywhere was sold out.
We had a naked house for 2 weeks.

While we waited for the fasteners to come in, we gave our front door a couple coats of "Positive Red".

We are so excited to finish two huge things on our "Outside" list and continue with everything inside. More updates to come!

Kuma's

WARNING: Food porn ahead. Move along if you're not into pictures of delicious food.

One of my favorite things about Chicagoland is never having to eat at the same place twice. I can try a restaurant, and if I hate it, I have several hundred others to choose from.
On the other hand, if I try one and love it, I feel bad for going back and not exploring what else Chicago has to offer.
Right now I'm hooked on just one.

When I first moved out here, Nick mentioned a burger joint he saw on one of those Man vs. Food type shows.
I looked it up and it sounded deeeelicious.
I knew when he came to visit his favorite baby sister, we were taking a special trip to Kuma's.

After battling traffic (he insisted on driving) and peeking into the tiny little corner bar, we were told we'd have a 45 minute wait until our table was ready.
On a Friday at 2 in the afternoon, the place was packed. We crossed the street and hung out at Square Bar, where there was no wait, and only one other table of customers.
We had a few drinks while our bellies grumbled. When it was time for our name to be called, we hurried across the street and were sat in a very cramped dining room.
The tables were small and backed up to the bar and (super tiny, 6 x 16) kitchen.

We put in our burger orders and were told it would be another 45 minutes until our mounds of perfectly cooked meat would be ready.
Knowing our stomachs wouldn't wait that long, we put in for some fried pickles and jalapeño poppers.

They had a nice crispy breading, and the chipotle-mayo and raspberry dipping sauces added to the scrumptious-ness.
Before we knew it, my Metallica burger (1 & 2 pics below), Nick's Kaijo burger, and Matt's Iron Maiden burger (3 pics down) were set before us.
Nick dug into his before I could capture its beauty.

Ohhh my gawwwd. 
I was always my parent's "little eater". 
I'm not sure I've ever met a meal that I couldn't proudly finish off.
Somehow half of my burger was still sitting there, and I was completely stuffed.
Knowing we weren't heading home afterwards, it pained me to know I couldn't take my tasty treat to finish later.

If this isn't a satisfied customer, I don't know what is...

Kuma's is a bit pricy, and they have some playful rules you must follow, but I cannot say enough times how much I enjoyed the food and atmosphere.
If you visit and happen to mention wanting a tasty burger, I'll hurry you over to Kuma's so we can go into food comas together.

p.s. sorry vegetarians, the meals for herbivores don't look particularly good here. I recommend sitting this one out.
p.s.s. don't mind the picture quality. I wasn't in a DSLR-lugging mood.

Graduation!

I did it! After a billion years of school and excruciatingly painful boards, I am finally an RN!
I changed my major roughly 8 times, but I finally completed a useful program.
M & I ventured back to Michigan this past weekend so I could walk across the stage and get that paper.
Let me clear something up quickly. Each of the graduates only got 6 tickets. For me that meant Mom, Dad, Step-Mom, Husband, Grammy, and Grampy. I couldn't even invite my brother, so for all of my aunts, uncles, cousins, step-family, in-laws, and friends, I really am sorry, but it was out of my control.
Go on and trust me when I say I saved you, though. It was boring and sweaty, plus M took some pictures so you can see it all.
Sigh... those gowns are not flattering.

Look, there's me making a derpy face and waving to my family like I didn't expect to see them.
Here you can also see the girls that sat on either side of me. The one in front of me is about 8 months pregnant and extremely uncomfortable as it is, not to mention we sat on metal chairs for close to 2 hours in a very hot gymnasium. I helped fan her.
The girl behind me just woke up. It was 7 pm. She thought it was a good idea to do shots starting at 9 am.
She learned nothing during her years in college.

Another derpy face, and the girl behind me seems to have fallen asleep again.

I'm DONE! I passed the NCLEX and can begin work at any time.
It just takes one little call from the HR department at a hospital. So, you know, call me!

With Love From Paris

My Mom is the best... except for the whole not taking me to Paris with her thing ;-)

She recovered nicely by sending M and me some delicious and some not so edible souvenirs. 

Besides the postcard we received, my absolute favorite gift was the Mini Macarons.

To be more specific, the chocolat "Un parfum de gourmandise" macaron.

I'm certain Mother Bear is trying to fatten us up with the next couple gifts.

I had never heard of Kinder bueno candy bars until just this week when my favorite blogger, Rose, shared her homemade ice cream recipe. 

And then I got this in my "with love" package. I'm certain these won't last long enough to make any special desserts. They look perfect as is.

The next thing I pulled out was 70% cacao "chocolat noir". Does my Mom know me or what?

I was tempted to hide these from M, but I'll be nice.

Now for some French cuisine inspiration, she gifted us Paris kitchen decor.
Fingers crossed that I suddenly become Julia Child.

At last, a fab new Zara shirt! We're twinsies as she bought one for herself too.

Thanks for thinking of your favorite daughter, Mom. I love everything, and didn't expect to be spoiled from YOUR vacation. XO

Go Cubbies!

M & I are still alive!
My boards have been scheduled for later this month, and I have been studying like I've never studied before.
It's extremely stressful to have something so huge weighing on me 24/7, but M & I managed to get out of the house yesterday for a little fun in the sun.
Because he didn't give me birthday ideas, I came up with one that nearly gave me a panic attack after the purchase.
Two of the best tickets Wrigley Field has to offer.
Immediately after I clicked "purchase" I realized if the game gets rained-out, M will be left with no present from me at all, but there has been a lot of local chatter about moving the Cubs out of Wrigley and tearing it down, so I knew we had to get tickets this season if we wanted to be certain to watch them in one of the oldest stadiums in baseball history.

As it turns out, we had the best weather we've had since 2012. It was a perfectly warm and sunny day... unless you were in the shade.

We took a shuttle to Wrigleyville early in hopes of beating traffic and getting into a bar or restaurant before the game.
We ended up at Sluggers, which I highly recommend visiting if you're in that part of town.
It's a huge bar with delicious (not so nutritious) food and great service, even on game day. There was barely any standing room by the time we left, and we still had great waitstaff.

After fueling up, we walked to the field, both of us beyond excited.

I wanted to take pictures of everything to share with you, but I knew I would never be able to capture the magnitude and coolness of the history we were getting to see.
The stadium is remarkably small compared to those of other MLB teams. If you've ever been to a Mud Hens game, it was pretty much that size.

The high seats behind M are the bleachers that the local businesses installed on their rooftops, they're not technically a part of the stadium. It's like this surrounding the entire outfield!
There are large pillars every few aisles in the stadium, leaving some customers with completely obstructed views; however, that doesn't stop die-hard Cubs fans from purchasing those tickets at regular price.

The game began and the coolest concession people began roaming the aisles, making up songs, enticing us to buy "edible hand-warmers" (hot dogs) and Old Style beer.
These people, along with Carter, the guard over our section, were one of my favorite experiences of the day. You could tell that some of them had been there since they were old enough to work, and they truly love every second of Cubs baseball.

The game was fun, but when the sun went behind us and the 10th inning rolled around, M and I were freezing, and tired from a long, hard day of alcohol consuming ;-)

We stuck it out to watch our home team lose, but we both agreed that the best part of the day was being somewhere that so many baseball legends have played.

By the way, I believe Wrigley is the last field to not go to a jumbo-tron. They still have a person poking his head out of the holes in the scoreboard, and putting up numbers on the board when each team scores. It's pretty cool.

M had a smile from ear to ear all day... Mission accomplished.